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1213 [1212]

K. Henry. 8. Persecution in Windsore. Testwood, Filmer, Person, Marbecke, Bennet.

shall seeme good vnto you. Say what thou wilt, quoth the Byshops. I do maruaile greatly wherefore I should be so much examined for this booke, and whether I haue committed any offence in doing of it or no? If I haue, then were I loth any other to be molested or punished for my fault. Therfore to cleare all men in this matter, this is my request, þt ye will try me in the rest of the booke that is vndone. Ye see þt I am yet but in þe letter. L. Begynning now at M. & take out what word ye will of that letter, and so in euery letter folowyng, and geue me the wordes in a peece of paper, and set me in a place alone where it shall please you, with ynke and paper, the English Bible, and the Latin Concordance: and if I bryng you not these wordes written in the same order & forme that the rest before is, then it was not I that did it, but some other.

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By my trouth Marbecke, quoth the Byshop of Ely, that is honestly spoken and then shalt thou bryng many out of suspicion. That he shall, quoth they all. Then they bad Doct. Okyng draw out such wordes as he thought best in a peece of paper and so rose vp: and in the meane tyme fell into other familiar talke with Marbecke (for the Byshop of Ely and Harford both, were acquainted with him afore, & his frendes, so farre as they durst)  

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Thomas Goodrich, bishop of Ely and John Skip, bishop of Hereford, were both allies of Thomas Cranmer.

who perceiuing the Bishops so pleasauntly disposed, besought them to tell him in what daunger he stode.MarginaliaThe bishops of salisburye and Harford, lyke well the case of Marbecke. Shall I tell the Marbecke, quoth the Byshop of Sarum? Thou art in better case then any of thy felowes, of whom there be some would geue xl. l. to be in no worse case then thou art, whose sayinges the other affirmed. Thē came Doct. Okyng with the wordes he had written, and while the Byshops were perusing them ouer, Doctour Okyng sayd to Marbecke (very frendly) on this wise: Good M. Marbecke make hast, for the sooner ye haue done, the sooner ye shalbe deliuered. And as the Byshops were goyng away the Bishop of Harford tooke Marbecke a litle a side  
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John Skip's advice to Marbeck may have been simply an act of kindness or sympathy; more cynically, it can be read as an exhortation for Marbeck not to inform on others.

, and enformed him of a worde which D. Okyng had written false, and also to comfort him sayd:MarginaliaD. Skippes comfortable wordes to Marbecke. Feare not, there can no law condemne you, for any thyng that ye haue done, for if ye had written a thousād heresies, so lōg as they be not your sayinges nor your opinions, the law cannot hurt you. And so went they all with the Byshop of Sarum to dyner, takyng the poore man with them, who dyned in the Haull at the Stewardes borde: and beside that, had wyne and meate sent downe from the Byshops table.

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When dyner was done, the Bishop of Sarum came downe into the Hall, commaundyng ynke and paper to be geuē o Marbecke, & the two bookes to one of his men to go with him, at whose goyng hee demaunded of the Byshop, what tyme his Lordshyp would appoint him to do it in. Agaynst to morow this tyme, quoth the Byshop, which was about two of the clocke, and so departed.

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Marbecke now beyng in his prison chamber, fell to his busines, and so applied the thing, that by the next day whē the Bishop sent for him agayne, he had written so much, in the same order and forme he had done the rest before, as conteined iij. sheetes of paper and more. The which, when he had deliuered to the Byshop of Sarum (Doct. Okyng stādyng by) he merueiled and sayd: Well Marbecke, thou hast now put me out of all doubt.MarginaliaA false dissēbling bishop. I assure thee, quoth he (putting vp the paper into his bosome) the kyng shall see this or I be 24. houres elder: but he dissembled euery word, and thought nothyng lesse then so. For afterward, the matter beyng come to light, and knowen to his grace what a booke the poore man had begō, which the Bishops would not suffer him to finish: the kyng sayd he was better occupied then they that tooke it from him. So Marbecke departed from the Byshop of Sarum to prison agayne, and heard no more of hys booke.

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¶ The 5. examination of Marbecke, before D. Okyng and M. Knight Secretary to the Byshop of Wynchester, in S. Mary Ouers Church.

MarginaliaThe 5. examination of Marbecke. VPon Whitsonday folowyng, at after noone, was Marbecke sent for once agayne to S. Mary Ouers, where he found D. Okyng wyth an other gentleman in a gowne of Damaske, wyth a chayne of gold about his necke (no mo in all the Church but they two) sitting togethers in one of the stalles, their backes toward the Church doore, looking vpon an Epistle of M. Iohn Caluines, which Marbecke had written out  

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Very probably this was a translation of Calvin's De fugiendis impiorum illicitis sacris (1537).

. And when they sawe the prisoner come, they rose and had hym vp to a side alter, leauyng his keeper in the body of the Church alone. Now as soone as Marbecke saw the face of the gentleman (which before he knew not by reason of his apparell) he saw it was the same person that first examined hym in the Marshalsey, and did also cause hym to write in the Byshops gallery, but neuer knew his name, till now he heard Doct. Okyng call hym M. Knight. This M. Knight held forth the paper to MarginaliaThys gentleman of Winchesters was M. Knight. Marbecke and sayd: Looke vpon this, and tell me whose hand it is. When Marbecke had taken the paper, and sene what it was, he confessed it to be all hys hand sauing þe first leafe, and the notes in the margent. Thē I perceiue, quoth Knight, thou wilt not goe from thine own hand. No Syr, quoth he, I will deny nothyng that I haue done. Thou doest well in that, quoth Knight, for if thou shouldest, we haue testimonyes enough besides, to trye out thy hand by: but I pray thee tell me, whose hand is the last leafe? That I cannot tell you, quoth Marbecke. Thē how camest thou by it, quoth Knight? Forsoth I will tell you, quoth he. There was a Prieste dwelling with vs vpon a v. or vi. yeares ago, called Marshall, who  
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This may have been William Marshall (fl. 1535), an anti-Catholic polemicist and agent of Cromwell, best known for his translation of Marsilius of Padua into English.

sent it vnto me with the first leafe written, desiryng me to write it out wyth speede, because the coppie could not be spared paste an houre or twaine: and so I wrote it out, and sent hym both the copye and it agayne.

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And how came thys hand in the margent, quoth he, which is a contrary hand to both the other? That I wyll tell you, quoth Marbecke. When I wrote it out at the first, I made so much hast of it, that I vnderstoode not the matter: wherefore I was desirous to see it agayne, and to read it with more deliberation, and beyng sent to me the second tyme, it was thus coted in the margent as ye see. And shortly after thys, it was hys chaunce to go beyond þe seas (where he lyued not long) by reasō whereof the Epistle remayneth wyth me: but whether the first leafe, or the notes in the margent were hys hand, or whose hand els, that I cannot tell. Tushe, quoth D. Okyng to M. Knight, he knoweth well enough, that the notes be Heynes own hand.MarginaliaSurmise agaynst D. Haynes. If you know so much quoth Marbecke, ye know more thē I do, for I tell you truely I know it not. By my fayth Marbecke, quoth Knyght, if thou wylt not tell by fayre meanes, those fingers of thyne shall be made to tell  

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This was a particularly serious threat to a professional organist.

. By my trouth Syr, quoth Marbecke, if ye do teare the whole body in peeces (I trust in God) ye shall neuer make me accuse man wrongfully. If thou be so stubburne, quoth D. Okyng, thou wilt dye for it. Dye M. Okyng, quoth he? Wherfore should I dye?MarginaliaInconstancy and litle truth in Papistes. You tolde me the last day before the Byshops, that as soone as I had made an ende of the peece of Concordance they tooke me, I should be deliuered, and shall I now dye? This is a sodayne mutation. You seemed then to be my frend: but I know the cause, ye haue read the ballet I made of Moses chayre  
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This is now lost, but it was presumably a ballad sympathetic to the Reformed cause.

, and that hath set you agaynst me, but when soeuer ye shall put me to death, I doubt not to dye Gods true man and the kynges. How so, quoth Knight? how cāst thou die a true mā vnto the kyng, when thou hast offended hys lawes? Is not this Epistle and most of thy notes thou hast writtē, directly agaynst the vj. Articles? No Syr, quoth Marbecke: I haue not offended the kynges lawes therein: for since the first tyme I began wyth the Concordance (which is almost vj. yeares ago) I haue bene occupyed in nothyng els:MarginaliaThe kinges generall pardon claymed. So that both this Epistle and all the notes I haue gathered, were written a great while before the vj. Articles came forth, & are clearely remitted by the kyngs generall parden.  
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Henry VIII pardoned all of those who were arrested for offences against the Act of Six Articles before it was passed in July 1540. Marbeck is claiming that he wrote the documents in question before July 1540 and is thus covered by the pardon.

Trust not to that, quoth Knight, for it wil not helpe thee. No I warrant hym, quoth Doct. Okyng, and so going downe to the body of the Church, they committed him to his keeper, who had him away to prison agayne.

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The sute of Filmers wyfe to the Byshops which sat in commission, for her husband.

MarginaliaFilmers wyfe laboureth for her hnsband. IN like maner  

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These three words suggest that in Marbeck's account, this section followed the suit Marbeck's wife made on behalf of her husband and that Foxe re-arranged the narrative to put events in chronological order.

, the wife of Filmer knowing her husbands trouble to be onely procured of malice by Simons his olde enemy, made great sute and labour vnto the Byshoppes which were Commissioners, desiring no more of them, but that it woulde please their goodnes to examine her husband before them, and to heare hym make his purgation. This was her onely request to euery of the Byshops from day to day, whersoeuer shee coulde finde them. In so much that two of the Byshops (Ely and Harford) were very sorye (considering the importune and reasonable sute of the woman) that it lay not in them to helpe her. Thus trauaylyng long vp and downe from one to an other, to haue her husband examyned, it was her chaunce at the last to finde the Byshops all three together in the Byshop of Ely hys place, vnto whom shee sayd:MarginaliaThe wordes of Filmers wyfe to the Byshops. O good my Lords for the loue of God, let now my poore husbande be brought forth before you, whyle ye be here all togethers. For truely my Lordes, there can nothyng be iustly layde agaynst hym, but that of malicious enuie and spite, Simons hath wrought hym this trouble. And you my Lord of Salisbury quoth the poore woman, can testifie (if it would please your lordship to say the truth) what malice Simōs bare to my husband when they were both before you at Salisbury (litle more then a yeare agoe) for the Vicar of Wyndsors

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