But as one by trasing the foote steppes of the truth, as by all coniectures huntyng out in this matter, what is most lyke, would but onely say my mynde sine strepitu (as lawyers say) & sine figura iudicij.

Now consequently it foloweth, that we descend to the speciall pointes and particulars of the foresayd preamble: to consider what therof may be collected, or necessarily is to be iudged, either for profe or disprofe, of this foresayd Syr Iohn Oldcastle and his felowes.

Marginalia(A)
Rumors.
Cōgregations.
Insurrections.¶ (A) And first, where the prohem of this statute beginneth w^t rumours, cōgregations, and insurrections. &c: As it is not like, þ^t if these men had intended any forcible entrees or rebellion agaynst þ^e kyng, they would haue made any rumours thereof before the deede done: so is it more credibly to be supposed, all these florishes of words to be but words of course, or of office, & to sauer rather of the ranknes of þ^e inditers penne, who disposed either per amplificationem rhetoricā to shew his copy, or els per malitiam Papisticā, to aggrauat þ^e crime. And to make mountaines of mollhilles, first of rumours maketh congregatiōs, & frō cōgregations riseth vp to insurrections: where as in all these rumors, congregations, and insurrectiōs, yet neuer a blow was geuē, neuer a stroke was strokē, no bloud spilt, no furniture nor instruments of warre, no signe of bataile, yea no expres significatiō either of any rebellious word, or malitious facte described, neither in recordes, nor yet in any chronicle. Agayn, if these rumours wer words spokē against þ^e king, as calling hym a tyrant, an vsurper of þ^e crowne, þ^e prince of priests. &c. why then be none of these wordes expressed in their inditementes or left in recordes? Doth maister Cope thinke for a man to be called a traitour, to be enough, to make him a traitour, vnles some euident profe be brought for him to be so in dede, as he is called? Rumours (sayth he) cōgregations, and insurrections were made. Rumours are vncertaine: Congregations haue ben and may be among Christen men in daungerous tymes for good purposes, and no treason agaynst their princes ment. The terme of insurrectiōs may be added xxx by practise, or surmise of the prelates & pennemen, who to bring them the more in hatred of the kyng, might adde this rather of their own gētlenes, then of the others deseruyng. Certayne it is and vndoubted, that the prelates in those dayes beyng so myghtely inflamed agaynst these Lollardes, were not altogether behynd for their partes, nor vtterly idle in this matter, but practised agaynst them what they could, first to bryng them into hatred, and thē to death. Examples of whiche kynd of practise among þ^e popishe clergy, haue not lacked neither before, nor since. Moreouer, if these mē had made such a rebellious insurrection against the kyng, as is pretended in the preamble before this statute, which were a matter of hygh treasō: How chaunseth then, that the whole body of the statute folowyng after the sayd preface or preamble, runneth in all the partes and braunches therof both in maner of arrest, of inditement, information, request, alowaunce of officers, cognisance of ordinaries, of the forefact, &c. vpō cases of heresie and not of treason, as by particular tractation shall be (Christ willyng) declared.

MarginaliaInsurrection of the Lollards against the kyng not likely.And for somuch as these men bee so greuously accused of Alanus Copus, for cōgregating and rising against their kyng & the whole realme, if I had so much laysure to defend, as he hath pleasure to diffame: Here might be demaunded of him, to kepe hym some further pley (touchyng this mightye insurrection where as they came in nūber of xx. M. agaynst þ^e kyng) in what order of bataile ray they marched, what captaines, vnder captaines, & pety captaines they had to guide the wyngs, and to lead the army? whether they were horsemen, or foote men. If they were horsemen (as is pretensed) what ment they thē to resorte to the Thicketes nere to S. Gyles field, which was no mete place for horses to stirre? If they were footemen: how standeth that with the autor which reporteth thē to be horsemen? Moreouer is to be demaunded, what insignes or flagges, what shot, what pouder, what armour, weapons, and other furniture of warre: also what treasure of money to wage so many, to the nūber of xx. thousand, what trumpettes, drommes, and other noyse necessary for that purpose they had. All these preparations for such an enterprise is requisite and necessary to be had. And peraduenture, if truth were well sought, it would be found at length, that in stede of armes & weapon, they were commyng onely with their bookes, and with Beuerlay their preacher into those Thickets. But as I was not there present at the fact (as is before said) so haue neither I certeinely to define vpon their case, nor yet maister Cope to exclaime agaynst them, vnles peraduenture he takyng an occasion of the tyme, will thus argue agaynst them: That because it was þ^e hoate moneth of Ianuary, the second day after þ^e Epiphanie, therfore it is like, that Syr Iohn Oldcastle with xx. thousād Lollardes camped together in the fieldes in all the heate of the wether, to destroy the kyng and all the nobles, and to make him selfe regent of England, seyng all the nobles should haue been destroyed, and hee onely left alone to reigne by hym selfe?

Marginalia(B)¶ It followeth more in the preamble of the foresayde statute (B) to adnull, destroy, and subuert the Christen fayth, and the law of God, and holy church. &c. MarginaliaA slaūder of the Lord Cobhā, that he intended to destroy Christē fayth.He that was the foreger & inuenter of this reporte, (as it appeareth to procede from the prelates) seemeth no cunnyng Dædalus, nor halfe hys craftes maister in lyeng for the whetstone. Better he might haue learned of Sinon in Virgill, more artificially to haue framed and conueyed hys narration. Whych although in no case could sound lyke any truth, yet some coulour of probabilitie shoulde haue bene set vpon it, to geue it some countenance of a lyke tale. As if he had first declared þ^e L. Cobhā to haue bene before in secrete confederacie w^t the great Turke, or if he had made hym some Termagant or Mahounde out of Babilonia, or some Herod out of Iudea, or some Antichrist out of Roma, or some graundpanch Epicure of thys world: and had shewed, that he had receyued letters from the great Souldan, to fight agaynst the faith of Christ and lawe of God: then had it appeared somewhat more credible, that the sayd syr Iohn Oldcastell wyth hys sect of heresie, went about to adnull, destroye, and subuert the Christen fayth, and lawe of God wythin the realme of England. &c. But nowe, where will eyther he or maister Cope finde men so mad to beleue, or so ingenious that can imagine this to be true: that the Lord Cobham (being a Christian) and so faythfull a Christian, woulde or did euer cogitate in hys mynde to destroye and adnull the fayth of Christ in the realme of Englande? What soeuer the reporte of this pursuant or preface sayth, I reporte me vnto the indifferent Reader, how standeth this with anye facte of truth? That he whych before through the reading of Wickliffes workes, had bene so earnestlye conuerted to the law of God, who had also approued him selfe suche a faythfull seruant of Christ, that for the fayth of Christ he being examined & tried before the Prelats. pag. 671. not onely ventred hys lyfe: but stoode constant vnto the sentence of death, defined against hym: being a condemned & a dead mā by law, et qui, quantū ad eius deuotionē pertinet et timorem, passus sit, quicquid pati potuit, MarginaliaCyprian lib. 4. Epist. 2.who had as much as to deuotion & feare apperteined, suffered already what he might or coulde suffer, as Ciprian sayd by Cornelius. That he (I say) which a litle before in the moneth of Septēber, stoode so constant in defence of Christes fayth, would now in the month of Ianuary rise to destroy, adnull, and subuert Christes fayth, & the law of God, & holy church within the realm of Englād?