[View a larger version]

people by force of their othe, to complain of their innocent and harmelesse neighbors, as here they doe by tormentes, let hym resort to our first booke, page. 1632.

MarginaliaA note of Cutbert Simson.NOw as touchyng this Cutbert Simson, this further is to be noted, that Boner in his Consistorie speakyng of Cutbert Simson, gaue this testimonie of him there to þ^e people, saiyng: ye see this man (saieth he) what a personable man he is: and after he had thus commended his persone, added moreouer: MarginaliaThe pacience of Cutbert Simson.And furthermore concernyng his pacience, I saie vnto you, that if he were not an hereticke, he is a man of the greatest paciēce that yet euer came before me. For I tell you, he hath been thrise racked vpō one daie in the Tower: Also in my house he hath felt some sorowe, and yet I neuer see his pacience broken. &c.

[Back to Top]

It is thought and saied of some, that that arrowe, whiche was grated betwixte his fingers, beyng tide together, was not in the tower, but in the bishops house.

The daie before the blessed Deacon and martyr of GOD Cutbert Simson, after his painefull rackyng should goe to his condemnation before Boner, to bee burned, being in the bishops colehouse there in the stockes, MarginaliaA visiō of Cutbert Simson.he had a certain vision or apparition very straūge, whiche he hymself with his owne mouth declared to the Godly learned man M. Austen, to his owne wife, and Thomas Simson,  

and to other besides, in the prison of Newgate a little before his death. The relation wherof I stande in no little doubt, whether to report abrode or not, consideryng with my self, the greate diuersitie of mennes iudgementes in the readyng of histories, and varietie of affections.   Some, I see, will not beleue it, some will deride the same, some also will bee offended with settyng forth thynges of that sort incertaine, estemyng all thynges to be incertain and incredible, whatsoeuer is straunge from the common order of Nature. Other wil be perchaunce agreued, thinkyng with them selues, or els thus reasoning with me, that although the matter were as is reported, yet for so muche as the cōmon error of beleuyng rashe miracles, phantasied vi-

[Back to Top]

sions, dreames, and apparitions thereby maie be cōfirmed, more expedient it were the same to be vnsetforthe.

These and suche like will be, I knowe, the saiynges of many. Whereunto briefly I aunswere, grauntyng firste, and admittyng with the woordes of Basill, οὐ πᾶν ὀνείαρ ἐστὶ πρωφητία. .  

That is, not euery dreame is straight waie a Prophecie. Againe, neither am I ignoraunt that the Papistes in their bookes and legēdes of sainctes haue their prodigious visions, and apparitions of Angels, of our ladie, of Christ, & other sainctes: whiche as I will not admit to bee beleued for true, so wil they aske me again, why should I thē more require these to be credited of them, then theirs of vs.

[Back to Top]

Firste I write not this, bindyng any man precisely to beleue the same, so as they doe theirs, but onely reporte it as it hath been heard of persones knowen, namyng also the parties, who were the hearers thereof, leauyng the iudgemente thereof notwithstandyng free vnto the arbitremēt of the reader. MarginaliaWhat credite is to be giuen to visions, and how farre.Albeit, it is no good argument procedyng from the singular or particular, to be vniuersal, to saie that visiōs be not true in some, ergo, they be true in none. And if any shall muse, or obiecte againe, why should suche visions be giuen to him, or a fewe other singular persones, more then to all the rest, seyng the other were in the same cause and quarell, and died also Martyrs as well as he? To this I saie, concernyng the Lordes tymes and doynges, I haue not to meddle nor make, who maie woorke where, and when it pleaseth hym. And what if the Lorde thought chiefly aboue the other, with some singular consolation to respecte hym, who chiefly aboue the other, and singularly did suffer moste exquisite tormentes for his sake? What greate maruell herein? but as I saied, of the Lordes secrete tymes I haue not to reason. This onely whiche hath out of the mannes owne mouth been receiued, so as I receiued it of the parties, I thoughte here to communicate to the Reader, for hym to iudge therof as God shal rule his mynde. The matter is this.

[Back to Top]

The daie before this Simson was condemned, he beyng in the stockes, Cloney his keper cōmeth in with the keies, about 9. of the clocke at night (after his vsual