and oppressed. The pride of them that hate his liberty, riseth vp euer: neyther is there any that doth good, no not one. Would God (brethren beloued) there were in you any mind or affection to defend the liberty of the Church: for she is builded vpon a sure rocke, that although she be shaken, yet she can not be ouerthrown.MarginaliaThe Church of Christ can not be ouer throwen. Ergo Becket ought not to be resisted.And why then seeke ye to confound me? Nay rather, your selues in me, then me in you: A man which haue taken vpon me all the perill, haue sustained all the rebukes, haue sustained all the iniuries, haue suffered also for you all, to the very banishment.

MarginaliaSeruitude & libertie of the Church wrongfully defined. The wordes of holi scripture clarkely applyed.And so it was expedient one to suffer for that Church that thereby it might be released out of seruitude. These things discusse you simplly with your selues and waigh the matter. Attende I say diligently in your myndes for your parts: that God for hys part remouyng from your eyes all maiesty of rule and of impery (as he is no accepter of person) may take from your hartes the veile, that ye may vnderstād and see what ye haue done, what ye entend to do, & what ye ought to do. Tell me, which of you all cā say that I haue takē frō him since Ţ^e tyme of my promotiō either oxe, or asse: if I haue defrauded him of any peny: if I haue misiudged þ^e cause of any mā wrōgfully: Or if by þ^e detrimēt of any person I haue sought my owne gayne, let hym complaine & I will restore hym fourefold. And if I haue not offfended you, what then is the cause that ye thus leaue and forsake mein the cause of God?

Why bend ye so your selues agaynst me in such a cause, that there is none more speciall belonging to the church?

MarginaliaTourne to thee? Nay turne thou to the Lord and thou shalt be saued.Brethren, seeke not to confounde your selues and the Church of God (so much as in you is) but turne to me and you shalbe safe.

For the Lord sayth, I will not the death of a sinner but rather he should conuert and liue. Stand with me māfully in the warre, take your armor and your shield, to defend me. Take the sword of the word of the mighty God, þ^t we all together may withstand more valiantly the malignant enemies, such as go about to take away the soule of the church: which is her liberty: MarginaliaThe soule of the Church is the libertie of the Church wyth Becket.without which liberty, she hath no power against them that seeke to incroche to their inheritaūce, the possession of Gods sanctuary. If ye will heare and follow me, know ye that the Lord will be with you, & with vs all in the defēce of the liberty of his church. Otherwise if ye will not, the Lord iudge betwixt me & you, and require the confusion of hys Church at your handes: which Church (whether the worlde will or no) standeth firmely in the word of the Lord wherupon she is builded, and euer shall till the houre come that she shall passe from this world to the father. For the Lord euer doth supporte her with his hand.

Wherfore, to returne to the matter: brethren remember well with your selues (which thing ye ought not to forget) what daunger I was brought vnto, and the church of God also while I was in England: MarginaliaVnbesemynge wordes of high presumption.at my departing out of England: and after my departure from thence: also in what danger it standeth in at this present day: But especially at that tyme, when as at Northampton Christ was iudged againe in my person, MarginaliaChrist is not iudged in the persons of any traytor.before the iudgement seat of þ^e high president. Who euer hearde the Archb. of Cant. (beyng troubled for iniuries done to him and to his Church, & appealing to the pope of Rome) to be iudged, condemned, appealed, and put to hys sureties, and that of his owne suffraganes. Where is this law sene, or the autoritie (nay rather peruersitie) of this Canon heard of? And why yet shame ye not at this your enormity? Why are ye not confounded? Or why doth not this confusion worke in you repentaunce, and repentance driue you to due satisfaction before God & men. For these and such other iniuries done to God and to hys Church, and to me for gods cause (which with a good conscience I ought to suffer, MarginaliaConscience made where is none.because that without danger of soule I ought not to dissemble them) I chose rather to absent my selfe for a season, and to dwel quietly in the house of my Lord, then in the tabernacle of sinners: vntill þ^e tyme that (their iniquitie being complete) the hartes of the wicked, and the cogitations of the same should be opened. And these iniuries were the cause both of my appeale from the kyng: and of my departure from thence, which ye terme to be sodden. But if ye will speake þ^t truth which ye know, it ought no lesse then to be sodeine: lest (beyng foreknown) it might haue bene preuented and stopped. And as God turned the matter it happened for the best: both for the honor of the king, and better safetie of thē, which (seking my harme) should haue brought slaunder to the king. If such troubles followed vpon my departing as ye say, let that be imputed to him which gaue the cause: the fault is in the worker, not in the departer: in him that pursueth, not in him that auoydeth iniuries: what would ye more? I presented my self to MarginaliaBut he leuieth out here the manner of his commyng to the court and the sturdines of his behauiour.the court, declaring both the causes of my comming, and of my appeale: declaring also the wronges & iniuries done to me and to my Church, and yet could haue no answere: neyther was there any that layd any thing against me, before we came to the kyng. Thus, while we stoode wayting in the court, whether any would come agaynst me or not, they sent to my officials: charging them not to obeye me in my temporalities, nor to owe any seruice to me, or to any of mine. After my appellation made in the Court: my Church was spoyled: we (and they about vs) depriued of our goods: outlawed both of the Clergye and of the layitie, men, women, and infantes: the goods of the Church (that is, the patrimony of the crucifix) confiscate: and part of the money turned to the kinges vse, part to your owne cofers. Brother byshop of London, if this be true that we heare of you: and that to the vse of your owne Church ye conuert this money: we charge you and require you forthwith by vertue of obedience: that within fourty dayes after the sight of these letters (all delay and excuse set aside) ye restore againe within the time aforesaid: all such goods and parcels as you haue taken away. For it is vnmeete & contrary to all law, one church to be enriched with þ^e spoyle of another church. If ye stand vpon the autoritie that set you a worke: you must vnderstand, that (in matters concerning the church goods) he cā geue no lawfull autoritie, which committeth violent iniury. &c.

MarginaliaBecket seemeth here more skillfull of his masse booke than of the booke of holy scripture other els he might see it no new thing in the old law for kinges to depriue priests, and to place whom they would.What autoritie, and what scripture geueth this prerogatiue to Princes vpon Church goods, which you would attribute to them? What, will they lay for them the remedy of appeale? God forbid. It were euill with þ^e church of God, if when the sacrilegious extorcioner hath violētly inuaded other mens goods (especially the goods of ē^e church) he should after defend him with the title of appeale. &c.

Doe not brethren, so confound altogether the right of the Church and of the temporall regiment: For these two are much different, one borowing his autoritie of the other. Reade the scriptures, and ye shall finde what & how many kinges haue perished for taking vpon them the priestly office. MarginaliaKings in the old law did not intermedle with the Priestes office in some thinges that were forbidden: But yet kinges were officers ouer priestes to correct them when they did amisse.Therfore, let your discretion prouide: least for thys your doing, Gods punishment light vpon you: which if it come, it will be hard for you very easely to escape. Prouide also and see to your king, whose fauour ye prefer before the wealth and profit of the Church: least it happen (which God forbid) that he doth perishe with all his house, after the example of them, which for the like crime were plauged. MarginaliaIf ye meane of Achaz, & Oze in the old testamēt, thē we denye your Minor.And if ye cease not of from that ye begin: with what conscience can I dissemble or forbeare, but must needes punish you: let him dissemble with you who list (hauyng autoritie so to doe, truely I will not) there shall be no dissimulation found in me. And where you write in your letters, concerning my promotion, that it was against the voyce of the whole realme, & that the church did reclaime agaynst it: What should I say to you, but that ye know right well: the lye which the mouth doth willingly speak, killeth the soule: but especially the wordes of a Priestes mouth ought euer to goe with veritie. As touchyng thys matter, I appeale to your own conscience, whether the forme of my election stoode not fully with the consent of them all to whom the election belonged: hauing also the assent of the prince by hys sonne, and of them which were sent thereto. And if there were some þ^t repugned the same, he that was toubled, and is gilty, let him speake.

Ye say moreouer, that I was exalted and promoted frō a base & low degree, to this dignitie by him. I graūt that I came of no royall nor kingly bloud: yet notwithstādyng, I had rather be in the number of them whom the vertue of the mynde, then of birth maketh noble. Parauenture I was borne in a poore cotage: of poore parentage, & yet through Gods clemency, which knoweth how to worke mercy with his seruantes, and which cherisheth the humble and low thinges, to confound the hie and mightye: in this my poore and low estate, before I came to the kinges seruice, I had aboundantly and wealthely to liue withall (as ye knowe) amongest my neighbours and frendes. And Dauid euen from the shepefold, was taken vp and made a king. Peter of a fisher was made prince of the Church: who for his bloud being shed for the name of Christ, deserued to haue in heauen a crowne, and in earth name and renoume: would to God we could do the like. We be the successors of Peter, and not of kings and Emperours.MarginaliaThey be the successours & sonnes of sainctes not that holde the places of sainets, but that doe the workes of sainctes. Hierom.

And where ye seeme to charge me (by insinuatiō) with the blot of ingratitude: This I answere: there is no offēce capitall or infamous, vnlesse it proceede from the hart and intencion. As if a man commit a murther vnwillingly (although he be called a murtherer) yet he is not therby punishable: And so, although I owe my dutie & seruice wyth