MarginaliaThe contrarieti betwē the pop and Christ.diseazen vs, and to pray for him: the popes law teacheth to curse them, and in their great sentence that thei vsen, they presume to damne hem to hell that they cursen. And this is a fowle heresie of blaspheme, there as Christs law byddes vs be paciēt, the popes law iustifies two swords, that wherwith he smiteth the shepe of the church. And he has made Lordes and kynges to sweare to defend hym and his churche. There as Christes law forbiddeth vs lechery, the popes law iustifies the abhominable hordome of common women, and the bishops in some place haue a great tribute or rent of hordom. There as Christs law bydes to minister spirituall thinges freely to the people: the pope with his law selles for money, after the quantitie of the gifte, as pardon, orders, blessyng, and Sacraments, and praiers, and benefices, and preachyng to the people, as it is known amonges them. There as Christs law teaches peace: the Pope w^t his law assoyles men for mony togader the people, priests, & other, to fight for his cause. There as christs law forbids swaring: The popes law iustifieth swearing, & compels mē therto. Wheras Christes law teacheth his priests to be poore, the pope w^t hys law, iustifies and maintaines priestes to be Lordes.

And yet the v. cause is, for the popes law that bishops demen men by, is the same vnrightfull law that Christ was demet by of the Bishops, with the scribes and with the pharises. For right as at þ^e tyme they gauē more credens to the two false witnesses þ^t witnessed ageinst christ then they deden to all the people that witnesseden to hys trew preachyng and his miraceles: so the Bishops of the popes law geuē more leauē by their law to two heretiks and apostatas, or two comen wymen that woulden witnesseden agayns a man in the cause of heresie, than to thousāds of people that weren trew and good. MarginaliaThe causes why Swinderby forsooke the popeAnd for þ^e pope is this antichrist & his law cōtrary to christes law, fullye I forsake this law & so I reed all christen mē. For thus by an other point of this law, thei mighten cōquere much of this world: For whan they can by this law present a man an heretike: his goods shulen be forfet from him: from his heires, and so might they lightly haue 2. or 3. false witnesses to recorde an heresie agayne what true mā so hem liked. Herefore me thinks, þ^t whatsoeuer þ^t I am a Christenman I may lawfully appeale from a false dome of þ^e law, to be righteously demet by þ^e trouth of gods law. And if this appeale wil not serue, I appeale openly to my Lorde Iesu Christe that shall deme all the worlde, for he I wot wel, will not spare for no man to deeme a trouth. And therfore I pray god almighty with Dauid in the Sauter booke Deus iudicium tuum regi da et iusticiam tuam filio regis. Iudicare populum tuum in iusticia et pauperes tuos in iudicio. That is. O God geue thy iudgement to the kyng, and thy iustice to the kyngs sonne: I iudge thy people in iustice, and thy poore ones in iudgement. &c.

MarginaliaA fruitfull letter to the lords and Burgesies of the parliament.IEsu that art both God and man helpe thy people that louen thy law, and make knowen through thy grace thy teaching to all christen men. Dere sirs, so as we seen by many tokens that thys world drawes to an end, and all that euer haue been forth brought of Adams kinde into thys worlde shulen come togeder at domesday riche & poore, ichone to geue accōpt & receyue after hys dedes, ioye or paynen for euermore: Therefore make we our werkes good, ye while that God of mercy abydes, and be ye stable and true to God, and ye shulen see hys helpe about you. Constātes estote & videbitis auxiliū domini super vos. Thys land is full of gostly cowardes, in gostly battaile fewe dare stand. But Christ the comforter of all that falleth (to þ^t his hart barst for our loue) against the fiend that doughtie duke conforteth vs thus: Estote fortes in bello, &c. Be ye strong in battail, he saies, andfight ye with the old adder. State in fide, viriliter agite, &c. Wake ye and pray ye, stond ye in beleue, do ye manly & be ye comfortet, & let all your thyngs be done with charitie: For Saint Poule biddes thus in hys epystle, þ^t saw the preueties of God in heauē: Euigilate iusti, &c. Awake ye that been righteous men, be ye stable and vnmoueable: Awake ye quickly and slepe nought, and stond now strongly for Gods law. For S. Iohn in the Apocalips sais, blesset be he that awakes: for noght to slepers but to wakers God has behite the crowne of life. For the hower is now as Paule sayth to vs, from slepe for to aryse, for he that earlye awakes to me, he shall fynde me sayth Christ hym seluen. Thys waking gostly is good liuing out of sin: this slepe betokens þ^t which cowardeth a mans harte from gostly conforte & to stand in þ^e same through a deceaueable slepe is this that lets a man of þ^e blisse of heauen the fende makes a man bolde in sin & ferd to do worship to God: death is a likening to a theefe that preuely steales vpon a man that now is riche, and full of wele, anon he makes hym a nedie wreche: therefore sayd God by Saint Iohn in the Apocalips in this wise: Be thou waking, for if thou wake nought, I shal come to thee as a thefe, and thou shalt not wytte what houre. And if the husbandman (sais Christ) wiste what houre the thefe shoulde come, he shoulde wake and suffer hym not to vnderminde hys house. S. Peter therfore warneth and sayth: wake and be ye ware, suffer ye no man (he sayes) as a thefe, but wilfully for Gods loue, for it is tyme (as Peter sais) that dome begynne from the house of God: Ye ben the body of Christ (sais Poule) þ^t nedes must suffer with þ^e head, or els your bodies ben but dead & departed frō Christ that is the head. And therfore curset be he (sais Poule) that loues not Iesu Christ. And who it is that loues hym, Christ himself tells in the gospell: he that has my hestes, and kepes them, he it is that loues me. Cursed be he therfore (sais Poule) that doth Christes workes deceaueably. Be ye not therfore (sais Poule) ashamed of the true witnes of Iesu Christ, for Christ our God sais in his gospell, he þ^t shames me, and my words, hym shall mans sonne asshame whē he shall come for to set in þ^e siege of hys maiestie. And eche man he saies, that knowes me & my words before mē in this sinfull generation & whoryshe, mans sonne shall knowledge him before my father sais Christ himself, whē he shall come with hys Angels in the glorye of hys father: Syth ye therfore ben christenmē, that is to say, Christes men, shewe in dede that ye ben such as ye daren shewe you the kinges men: for hit had ben, as Peter sayes, better not to haue knowen the way of truth, that after the knowinge thereof to be conuert backward there from. We knowē Christ, that is trought, we sayn all through our belefe if we turne from hym for dred, truely we denie the trothe: And therfore sythe our time is short, how short no man knowes but God, do we the good that we may to gods worship, whē we haue time: Be true (saies God) to the death and you shall haue the crowne of life: And thinke on Iudas Machabeus, that was Gods true knight, that comforted hartely Gods true people, to be the folowers of his law. And geue ye, he said, your liues for the Testamēt of your fathers. And ye shulen wynne he sayd, great ioye and a name for euermore. Was not Abraham, he said, in temptation founden true, and was Marginalia* reckened* arectet vnto hym euermore to righteousnes. Ioseph in tyme of hys anguishe he kept trulye Gods heste, he was made by Gods prouidēce lord of Egipt, for his trouthe. Phinees our fadure louing, he sayth, the zeale of God tooke the testament of euerlasting priesthoode. Iosue for he fulfillet the word of God was domes man in Israell. Caleph that witnessed in the church, he toke therfore the heritage, he sayth: Dauid in his mercy he gat the siege of the kingdome in worlds. Hely for þ^t he loued the zeale of Gods lawe, was takē vp into heauen. Ananie, Azarie,