that onely such as be notorious, but such as be spotted with lighter crimes should be disgraded: whereof, haue we so many thousandes and hole swarmes of such now in England? as innumerable that among a litle good graine and yet how few do we see these many yeares in England depriued of their office? For why? the byshops while they labor more to maintain the liberties and dignities of churche men, then to correct their vices: thinke they do God and the churche great seruice, if they rescue and defend the enormities of the church men agaynst publike discipline, whom they ought rather to punish by þ^e vertue of þ^e censure ecclesiasticall. Wherupō, the church men: such as be sorted peculiarly to the Lord, and ought lyke starres to shine in earth by worde and example, takyng licence and liberty to do what they lust: neither reuerence God, (whose iudgement semeth to tary) neither men set in autority: when as both the byshopes are slake in their charge doyng, and also the prerogatiue of their order exempteth them from the secular iurisdiction. &c. And thus much out of Nuburgensis. To this matter also pertayne the wordes of Cesarius the Monke in his. 8 boke of Dialogues. cap. 69. about the. 48. yeare after the death of Thomas Becket, which was the yeare and count of the Lord. 1220. whose wordes in summe come to this effect. MarginaliaEx Cæsaro Monacho. lib. 8. dialo. cap. 69.Questio Parisiis inter magistros ventilat a fuit, MarginaliaWhether T. Becket be saued or damned.vtrum damnatus an saluatus esset ille Thomas. Dixerat Rogerius tunc Normanus, fuisse illum morte ac damnatione dignum, quod contumax esset in dei ministrum regē Protulit econtra Petrus Cātor Parisiensis quod signa saluationis, & magnæ sanctitatis essent eius miracula: & quod martyriū probasset ecclesiæ causa pro qua mortē subierat. &c. MarginaliaIf God in these latter dayes geueth no miracles to glorifie the glory of hys owne sōne: much lesse wil he geue miracles to glorifye Tho. Becket.þ^t is. There was a question moued amōg the maisters of Paris, whether Thomas Becket wer saued or damned. To this question aunswereth Roger a Norman: that he was worthy death and damnatiō, for that he was so obstinate agaynst Gods minister his kyng. Contrary, Peter a Cantor a Parisian disputed, saying and affirmyng that his miracles wer great signes and tokens of saluation, and also of great holynesse in that man: affirmyng moreouer that the cause of the churche did allow & confirme his martyrdome, for the which church he dyed. &c.

And thus haue ye the iudgement, and censure of the schole of Paris, touchyng this question, for the sancting of Thomas Becket. In whiche iudgement for somuch as the greatest argument resteth in þ^e miracles wrought by him after his death: let vs therfore pause a litle vpon the same, to trye and examine these his miracles. In the tryall wherof we shall finde one of these two to be true, that either if they were true, they were wrought not by God, but by a cōtrary spirit: of whō Christ our Lord geueth vs warnyng in hys Gospell, saying whose cōming shalbe w^t lyenges signes & wonders to deceaue, if it were possible, the elect. Mat. 24 or els we shall finde þ^t no such were euer wrought at al, but fained & forged of idle mōkes & religious belyes for þ^e exaltatiō of their churches, & profit of their powches: which thing in dede semeth rather to be true. MarginaliaLiber de miraculis b. thomæ. autore monacho quodā Cāuar.And no lesse maye appeare by þ^e miracles themselues set forth by one of his owne monkes, and of his own tyme: who in fiue solemne bookes hath comprehended all the reuelations, vertues, and miracles of this Archbyshop: the which bookes (as yet remaynyng in the hands of William Steuēson citizen of London) I haue sene and perused: wherin is cōteined the whole somme of all his miracles to the number of 270. beyng so farre of from all truth and reason, some ridiculous, some monstruous, vayne, absurde, some also blasphemous & some so impudent that not onely they deserue no credit (altogether sauerīg of mere forgery) but also for very shame wil abashe an honest penne to wryte vpon them. MarginaliaMiracles of Becket considered.First, if miracles serue for necessity and for infidels: what cause or necessity was there (in a Christian realme hauing the word of God, for God to worke such miracles after hysdeath, who neuer wrought any in all hys lyfe? Then to consider the end of these miracles: whether do they tend, but onely to bryng vp men to Canterbury, with theyr vowes and offrynges to enrich the couent?

Beside the nūber of the miracles, which be said so many, that they lose their own credit: What disease is ther belonging to mā or woman in the curing wherof, some miracle hath not been wrought by this xxx: as feuers, fistula, the goute, touthache, palsey, consumptiō, fallyng sicknes, leprosy, headache, broken armes, maymed legges, swelling throtes, the raysing vp of the dead, whiche haue bene ij. dayes departed, with infinite other. And as all these haue bene healed (for the most part) by one kynd of salue (as a certaine panacea) whiche was, MarginaliaAqua Cantuariensis.w^t the water only of Canterbury, like as a cunnyng smith which shuld opē w^t one key all maner of lockes: so again in readyng the story of these miracles, ye shall finde the matter so conueyed, that the power of this dead sainct, was neuer twise shewed vpon any one disease, but euery diuers disease to haue a diuers miracle.

To recite in order all these prodigious reuelations & phantastical miracles, falsely imagined and ascribed to this archbishop: were nothing els, but to write a legende of lyes, and to occupy the people with trifles. Which, because it pertayneth rather to the idle profession of such dreaming monkes & cloysteres that haue nothyng els to maintaine their religiō withall: I will not take their profession out of their handes. Wherfore, to omit all such vayne and lyeng apparitions and miracles, MarginaliaSinging at the masse forbiddē by T. Becket after hys death.as how this angrie sanct (iij. dayes after his death) appeared by vision at the altar in his pontificalibus, commaunding þ^e quere not to sing, but to say this office of his masse: Exurge, qua re obdormis Domine. &c? Whiche vision the autor hym selfe of the booke doth say he did see. To omit also the blasphemous lye, MarginaliaA blasphemous lye.how in an other vision the sayd Archb. shuld say: that his bloud did cry out of the earth to God, more then the bloud of iust Abell. Item, in an other visiō it was shewed to a monk of Lewes, how s. Thomas had hys place in heauen appointed with the Apostles: MarginaliaBecket aboue the Martirs in heauen.aboue Steuen, Laurence, Vincent, and all thother Martyrs. Wherof this cause is rēdred, for þ^t S. Steuē, Laurence, and such other, suffered only for their own cause. But thys Tho. suffered for the vniuersall churche. MarginaliaA place prepared in heauen for Becket xii yeares before his death.Item, how it was shewed to a certayne yong man (Ormus by name) xij. yeres before the death of this Becket: þ^t amōg the Apostles and Martyrs in heauen, there was a vacant place left, for a certayne priest, as he sayd, of England: whiche was crediblye supposed to be this Thomas Becket. Item, how a certeine knightes sonne beyng ij. dayes dead, was reuiued agayne so soone as he had the water of Cāterbury put in his mouth, & had by his parents iiij. peeces of siluer bended, to be offered at Canterbury in þ^e childes behalf. All these, I say, w^t such other like, to omit (þ^e nūber wherof cōmeth to an infinite variete) only this one story that foloweth shal suffice to expresse the vanitie and impudent forgery of all the rest.

MarginaliaAn impudent and a lyeng miracle.In the fourth booke of this fabulous autor, and in the iij. chap. MarginaliaEx historia monachi Cantuar. de miraculis bæhoma.a miracle is there conteyned of a certein countreyman of Bedforshyre in kynges weston, whose name was Eilwardus: whiche Eilwardus: in his dronkennes brustyng into an other mans house, whiche was hys debter, tooke out of his house a great whetstone, and a payre of hedgyng gloues. The other partie seyng this value not sufficient for his condemnation (by the counsail of the towne clerke) entred an actiō of felony agaynst hym for other thynges besydes, as for stelyng his wymble, hys axe, nette, & other clothes. Wherupon, Eilwardus being had to the Iale of Bedford, and afterward condemned for the same: was iudged to haue both hys eyes put out, and also those mēbers cut of, whiche nature with secret shame hath couered. Which punishmēt by the malice of his aduersary being executed vpō him, he leyng in great