tur, igne passionis excoctum. Ita quippe sancti viri vel amandi vel laudandi sunt a nobis qui nos illis longe impares esse congnoscimus, vt ea, in quibus homines fuerunt, vel fuisse noscuntur, nequaquam vel amemus vel laudemus: sed ea tantū, in quibus eos sine scrupulo imitari debemus. Quis enim eos dicat in omnibus, quæ ab ipsis fiant, esse imitabiles? Non igitur in omnibus, quæ faciunt, sed sapienter & caute debent laudari, vt sua deo prærogatiua seruetur, in cuius vtique laudibus nemo potest esse nimius, quantumcunque laudare conetur &c. That is in English.

The letters which were sent before for the suspending of the Byshops, he pursued with burnyng zeale of iustice: but whether accordyng to knowledge, God knoweth. It is not for my rude and slender witte to iudge of the doinges of such a person. But yet this I suppose: that he did not behaue himselfe so circumspectly as he ought (considering the time) and that the concorde betwene him and the kyng, as yet was but soft and tender. Who for the consideration of the tyme, and for the recompense of peace: might haue forborne or dissembled such thinges, which without any perill of Christen Religion might be tolerate well inough according to the propheticall saying: A wise mā in his tyme will keepe silence, because the time will not serue him. Wherfore, as the doinges of that reuerend Prelate I iudge in that behalfe not to be commended: so neither do I presume to discommend them. But this I say, that if that holy man thorough immoderate violence of zeale, did excede in any part therin: the same was excocted agayn and purged by the fire of his suffering, which afterward ensued. And so farre, holy men are to be loued or praysed of vs which know our selues much inferiour to their vertues: that in such thyngs wherin they haue bene men and also knowen to be men: therein, we neither hold with them nor commēd them, but onely in such thynges wherein without all daunger or scruple we ought to imitate them. For who is able to say, that they are to be imitated in all that they do? And therfore, they are not to be estemed & praised in all thynges generally whatsoeuer they do: but consideratly and with aduisement, wherin they deserue prayse: so that the onely prerogatiue in this behalfe be reserued to God, in whose prayse no man can exceede how feruent soeuer he be in his praysing. &c.

And heare yet more what the sayd author writeth in the same cause of the kynges wrath & Beckets fault. Plusquam. 100. homicidia a clericis commissa sub Hen. ij. dicūtur. In quibus plectendis rex aliquanto vehementior. Sed huius immoderationis regiæ, nostri temporis Episcopos tātum respicit culpa, quantum ab eis processit & causa. Cum enim sacri præcipiunt canones, clericos non solum facinorosos & grauioribus irretios criminibus, verum etiam leuiorum criminū reos degradari, & tot millia talium tanquam innumeras inter pauca grana paleas Ecclesia Anglicana contineat, tamen quam paucos a multis retro annis clericos in Anglia contigit officio priuari. Nempe Episcopi dum defendēdis magis clericorum libertatibus vel dignitatibus quam eorum vicijs corrigendis resecandisque inuigilant, arbitrantur obsequium se præstare Deo & Ecclesiæ, si facinorosos clericos quos pro officij debito canonicæ vigore censuræ cohercere debeant, cōtra publicam tueantur disciplinam. Vnde clerici qui in sortem domini vocati, tanquam stellæ in firmamento cœli positæ, vita & verbo lucere deberent super terram, habētes pro impunitate, agendi quodcunque libuerit licentiā & libertatem neque Deum, cuius iudicium tardare videtur, neque homines potestatē habētes reuerentur, cum & Episcopalis circa eos sollicitudo sit lāguida, & seculari eos iurisdictioni sacri eximat ordinis prærogatiua. That is.

More then. 100. murders are sayd to be committed by the Clergy vnder kyng Henry. 2. In punishyng of whom, the kyng was somewhat to vehement: but the fault (sayth he) of this immoderate dealyng of the kyng resteth most in the Bishops of our time: for as much as the cause therof procedeth of them. For where it is decreed and cōmaunded by the Canon law (concerning the spirituall men of the clergy) that not onely such notorious, but such as be spotted with lighter crimes should be disgraded: wherof, haue we so many thousandes and hole swarmes of such now in England, as innumerable chaf among a litle good grayne? and yet how few do we see these many yeares in England depriued of their office? For why? the Byshops while they labour more to maintaine the liberties & dignities of church men, then to correct their vices: thinke they do God & the Church great seruice, if they rescue and defend the enormities of the Church men agaynst publike discipline, whom they ought rather to punish by the vertue of the censure ecclesiasticall. Wherupon, the Church men: such as be sorted peculiarly to the Lord, & ought like starres to shine in earth by word and example, taking licence and liberty to do what they lust: neither reuerence God, (whose iudgement semeth to tary) neither men set in autoritie: when as both the byshops are slake in their charge doing, and also the prerogatiue of their order exempteth them from the secular iurisdiction. &c. And thus much out of Nuburgensis.

To this matter also pertaine the wordes of Cesarius the Monke in his. 8 booke of Dialogues. cap. 69. about the. 48. yeare after the death of Thomas Becket, which was the yeare of the Lord. 1220. whose wordes in summe come to this effect. MarginaliaEx Cæsaro Monacho. lib. 8. dialo. cap. 69.Questio Parisiis inter magistros ventilat a fuit, MarginaliaWhether T. Becket be saued or damned.vtrū damnatus an saluatus esset ille Thomas. Dixerat Rogerius tunc Normānus, fuisse illū morte ac damnatione dignum, quod contumax esset in Dei ministrū regē Protulit econtra Petrus Cātor Parisiēsis quod signa saluationis, & magnæ sanctitatis essent eius miracula: & quod martyriū probasset Ecclesiæ causa pro qua mortā subierat. &c. In English.MarginaliaIf God in these latter dayes geueth no miracles to glorifie the glory of his owne sonne: much lesse will he geue myracles to glorifie Thomas Becket.

There was a questiō moued amōg the maisters of Paris, whether Thomas Becket were saued or damned. To this question aunswereth Roger a Norman: that he was worthy death and damnation, for that he was so obstinate agaynst Gods minister his kyng. Contrary, Peter Cantor a Parisiā disputed, saying and affirmyng that his miracles were great signes and tokens of saluation, and also of great holynes in that man: affirmyng moreouer that the cause of the Church did allow and confirme his martyrdome, for the which Church he dyed.

And thus haue ye the iudgement, and censure of the schole of Paris, touchyng this question, for the sancting of Thomas Becket. In which iudgement for somuch as the greatest argument resteth in the miracles wrought by him after his death: let vs therfore pause a little vpon the same, to try and examine these his miracles. In the tryall wherof we shall finde one of these two to be true, that either if they were true, they were wrought not by God, but by a cōtrary spirite: of whom Christ our Lord geueth vs warnyng in his Gospell, saying: whose comming shalbe with lyenge signes and wonders to deceaue, if it were possible, the elect. Math. 24 or els we shall finde that no such were euer wrought at all, but fayned and forged of idle Monkes and religious belyes for the exaltation of their Churches, & profit of their powches: which thyng in deede seemeth rather to be true. MarginaliaLiber de miraculis b. thomæ. autore monacho quodā Cāuar.And no lesse may appeare by the miracles themselues set forth by one of his owne monkes, and of his own tyme: who in fiue solemne bookes hath cōprehended all the reuelations, vertues, and miracles of this Archbishop: the which bookes (as yet remainyng in the handes of William Stephenson Citizen of London) I haue sene and perused: wherin is conteined the whole somme of all his miracles to the number of 270. beyng so farre of from all truth & reason, some ridiculous, some monstruous, vayne, absurde, some also blasphemous and some so impudēt that not onely they deserue no credit (altogether sauering of mere forgery) but also for very shame will abash an honest penne to write vpon them. MarginaliaMiracles of Becket considered.First, if miracles serue for necessitie and for infidels: what cause or necessity was there (in a Christian realme hauing the word of God, for God to worke such miracles after his death, who neuer wrought any in all his life? Then to consider the end of these miracles: whether do they tend, but onely to bring vp men to Canterbury, with their vowes and offrynges to enrich the couent?

Beside the nūber of the miracles, which be sayd so many, that they lose their own credit: What disease is there belonging to man or woman in the curing wherof, some miracle hath not been wrought by this xxx: as feuers, fistula, the goute, touthache, palsey, consumption, falling sicknesse, leprosie, headache, broken armes, maymed legges, swelling throtes, the raysing vp of the dead, which haue bene two dayes departed, with infinite other. And as all these haue healed (for the most part) by one kynde of salue (as a certaine panacea) which was, MarginaliaAqua Cantuariensis.with the water onely of Canterbury, like as a cunning smith which should open with one key all maner of lockes: so agayne in reading the story of these miracles, ye shall finde the matter so conueyed, that the power of this dead Saint, was neuer twise shewed vpō any one disease, but euery diuers disease to haue a diuers miracle.

To recite in order all these prodigious reuelations and phantasticall miracles, falsely imagined and ascribed to this archbishop: were nothing els, but to write a legende of lyes, and to occupy the people with trifles. Which, because it pertaineth rather to the idle profession of such dreaming mōkes and cloysteres that haue nothing els to maintaine that religion withall: I will not take their profession out of their handes. Wherfore, to omit all such vayne and lyeng apparitions and miracles, as how this angry saint (iij. dayes after his death) appeared by vision at the altar in his pontifical-