10. Item, if any shall chaūce to dye in the iourney, that are souldiours vnder the sayd standard of the crosse, or els before the quarell by some meanes be finished: shall fully and wholy receiue the sayd grace, and shall be partakers of the foresayd remission and indulgence.

11. Item, he hath power to excommunicate, suspend, and interdict what persons soeuer be rebellious or disturbers of him in the executiō of his power and authoritie committed vnto him: of what dignitie, state, degree, preheminēce, order, place, or condition soeuer they shall be: whether they shalbe either of regall, quenely, or imperiall dignitie, or of what dignitie els soeuer either ecclesiasticall or mundane.

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12. Item, he hath power and authoritie to compell and inforce what religious persons soeuer, to appoint them and send them ouer Sea, if it seme good to him: yea although they be professours of the Friers mēdicants, for the execution of the premisses.

BY the authoritie Apostolicall to me in this behalfe committed, we absolue thee A. B. from all thy sinnes confessed with thy mouth, and beyng contrite with thy hart, and whereof thou wouldst be cōfessed if they came vnto thy memory: MarginaliaChristes passiō hath here no place. and we graunt vnto thee, plenary remission of all maner of sinnes, and we promise vnto thee thy part of the reward of all iust men, and of euerlastyng saluation. And as many priuilegies as are graunted to them that go to fight for the holy land, we graunt vnto thee: & of all the prayers & benefites of the Church the vniuersall Synode, as also of the holy Catholicke Church, we make thee partaker of.

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This couragious  

or rather outragious Byshop, armed thus with the Popes authoritie, and prompt with his priuilegies, in the yeare aforesayd. 1383. about the time of Lēt, came to the Parliament, where great consultation and contention, & almost no lesse schisme was about þ^e viage of this Popish Byshop in the Parliament, then was betwene the Popes themselues. In the which Parliament many there were, which thought it not safe to cōmit the kyngs people & subiectes, vnto a rude and vnskilfull Priest. So great was the diuersitie of iudgementes in that behalfe, that the viage of the sayd Byshop was protracted vnto the Saterday afore Passion Sonday. In the which Sōday was song the solemne Antheme Ecce crucem Domini, fugite parts aduersæ. That is: Beholde the crosse of the Lorde: Fley away all you aduersaries. After which Sonday, the parties so agreed amongest themselues by common decree, that the byshop should set forward in his viage, hauyng to him geuen the fiften which was graunted to the kyng in the Parliament before. Which thynges thus concluded in the Parliament, this warlike Byshop preparyng before all thyngs in a readynes set forward in his Pope holy iourney. Who about the moneth of May, beyng come to Canterbury, and there tarying for the wynde, in the Monastery of S. Augustine, receiued a write from the kyng that he should returne to the kyng, & to know further of his pleasure   . The Byshop fearyng that if he turned agayne to the kyng, his iourney should be stayd, & so all his labour and preparaunce lost with great derision and shame vnto him: thought better to commit hymselfe to fortune with that litle army he had, thē by tarying to be made a ridicle to his aduersaries. Wherfore, he sent word backe agayne to the kyng, that he was now ready prepared, and well forward on his iourney. And that it was not expediēt now to protract the tyme, for any kynde of talke which peraduenture should be to no maner of purpose: and that it was more conuenient for him to hasten in his iourney to Gods glory, & also to the honour of the kyng. And thus he callyng his men vnto hym, entred forthwith the Seas, & went to Calys: where he wayting a few dayes for the rest of his army, after the receyt of them, tooke hys iourney first to the towne of Grauenydge which he besieged, so desperatly without any preparaunce of engines of warre or counsell, or of politick men skilful in such affaires: that he semed rather to flye vpon them, then to inuade them. At length through the superstitiō of our men, trustyng vpō the Popes absolution, he so harshly approched the walles and inuaded the enemyes, that a great nūber of them were pitiously slayne with shot & wild fire: till at the end (the inhabiters beyng oppressed & vanquished) our men entred the towne with their Byshop, where they at his commaundement destroyng both man, woman and child, left not one alyue of all them, which remained in the whole towne.MarginaliaO bloudines of Antichrist. Sicq̀; crucis beneficio factum, vt crucis hostes ita delerentur, quòd vnus ex eis non remansit: That is. And so it came to passe by the vertue of the crosse, that our men croysed so preuayled agaynst the enemyes of the crosse, that not one of them remayned alyue. Ex Chron. Mon. D. Albani. MarginaliaEx Chron. Mon. D. Albani in vita Richard. 2.

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From Grauenydg this warlike Byshop set forward to Dunkyrke, where not long after the Frenchmen meetyng with him, ioyned with them in battaile: in which battaile (if the story be true) xij. thousand of the Frenchmen were slayne in the chase, and of our men but seuen onely myssing. It would require a lōg tractatiō here to discourse all thyng done in these Popish warres. Also it would be no lesse ridiculous to vew & behold the glorious temeritie of this new vpstart captaine. But certes, lamētable it is to see the pityfull slaughter & murther of Christes people, by þ^e meanes of these pitylesse Popes, duryng these warres in Fraūce: As when the Byshop commyng from Dunkyrke to the siege of Ypres a great nomber of Englishemen there were lost, and much money consumed, and yet nothyng done in effect, to the great shame and ignominie of the Byshop. Agayne after the siege of Ypres (thus wyth shame broke vp) þ^e sayd Byshop proceedyng wyth a small power, to fight with the French kynges campe. contrary to the counsell of hys captaynes, which counted hym rash and vnskilfull in hys attempt, was fayne to breake company wyth them, wherby part of the army went vnto Burburgh, and the Byshop wyth hys part returned to Grauenidg, which both townes shortly after were besieged by the Freēch army, to the great losse both of the Englishe and French men. In fine, when the Byshop could kepe Grauenydg no longer, the sayd byshop wyth hys Crosies, crossing the seas, came home agayne as wise as he went, & thus makyng an end of thys Pontificall warre, we wyll returne agayne from whence we digressed, to the story and matter of Iohn Wickliffe.

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Which Iohn Wickliffe returnyng agayne  

within short space, either from hys banishemēt, or from some other place where he was secretly kept, repayred to hys parish of Lutterworth, wherof he was parson, there quietly departyng thys mortall lyfe, slept in peace in the Lord, in the beginning of the yeare 1384. vpon Siluesters day.

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Here is to be noted the great prouidence of the Lord in thys man, as in diuers other: whom the Lord so long preserued in such rages of so many enemies, from all their hādes, euen to hys olde age.MarginaliaWaldenus de Sacramentis. For so it appeareth by Thomas Walden, writyng agaynst him in hys tomes entituled: De Sacramentis contra Wicleuum, that hee was well aged before he departed: by that, which the foresayde Walden writeth of hym in the Epiloge, speaking of Wickliffe, in these wordes  

: Ita vt cano placeret, quod inueni complacebat, &c. That is: so that þ^e same thyng pleased him in his old age, which did please hym beyng young. Wherby it seemeth that Wickliffe lyued, till he was an olde man, by thys report. Such a Lord is God, that whom he will haue kept, nothing can hurte.

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Thys Wickliffe, had written diuers and sundry workes, the which in the yeare of our Lord 1410. were burnt at Oxford, the Abbot of Shrewsburye beyng then Commissary, and sent to ouersee that matter. And not onely in England, but in Boheme, lykewise the bookes of the sayd Wickliffe were set on fire  

, by one Subincus Archbyshop of Prage, who made diligent inquisition for the same, and burned them:MarginaliaThe number of Wickliffes bookes came to 200. volumes.
Eneas Syluius. The number of the volumes, which he is sayd to haue burned most excellently written, and richely adorned wiy bosses of golde, and rich coueringes (as Eneas Syluius wryteth) were aboue the number of two hundreth.MarginaliaThe bookes of Wickliffe.

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Ioannes Cocleus in hys booke De historia Hussitarum, speakyng of the bookes of Wickliffe, testifieth: that he wrot very many bookes, sermons, and tractacions. Moreouer, the sayd Cocleus speakyng of hymselfe, recordeth also: that there was a certayne Byshop in England which wrote vnto hym, declaryng, that he had yet remayning in hys custody two huge and myghty volumes of I. Wickliffes workes, which for the quantitie thereof might seeme to be equal wyth the workes of S. Augustine. Hæc Cocleus.

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Amōgst other of his treatises I my self also haue found out certayne  

, as de censu & veritate scripturæ. Itē De ecclesia. Itē, de Eucharistia confessio Wickleui, which I entend hereafter, the Lord so graunting, to publishe abroad.

As concernyng certayne answeres of Iohn Wickliffe which he wrote to kyng Richard the 2. touchyng the right and title of the kyng, and of the pope: because they are but short, I thought here to annexe them. The effect whereof here foloweth.