stand now in the way of saluation: if I should for the learnyng and readyng of their beleue, publishe them therfore vp to Byshops or to their vnpiteous ministers, I know some deale by experiēce, that they should be so distroubled and diseased with persecution or otherwise, that many of them (I thinke) would rather chose to forsake the way of truth thē to be traueled, skorned, sclaundered, or punished, as byshops and their ministers now vse for to constraine men and women to consent to them.

But I finde in no place in holy Scripture, that this office that ye would now enfeaffe me with, accordeth to any Priest of Christes sect, nor to any other Christē man.MarginaliaNo maruell why: for Christ and Antichrist how can they agree. And therefore to do this, were to me a full noyous bonde to be boūdē with, & ouer greuous charge. For I suppose, that if I thus did, many men and women would, ye Syr, might iustly vnto my confusion say to me, that I were a traytour to God and to them: since (as I thinke in myne harte) many men & women trust so mekell in this case, that I would not for sauyng of my life, do thus to them. For if I thus should do, ful many men and women would (as they might full truly) say, that I had falsly and cowardly forsaken the truth, and sclaundred shamefully the word of God. For if I consented to you to do here, after your will, for bonchefe or mischief that may befall to me in this life: I deme in my cōscience, that I were worthy herefore to be cursed of God and also of all his Saintes: fro which inconuenience, keepe me and all Christen people, almighty God now and euer for his holy name. And thē the Archbyshop sayd vnto me. Oh, thyne hart is full hard indurate as was the hart of Pharao,MarginaliaIt is prety whan Pharao iudgeth Moses hard harted. and the deuill hath ouercomen thee and peruerted thee, and he hath so blinded thee in all thy wittes, that thou hast no grace to know the truth nor the measure of mercy that I haue profered to thee. Therfore, as I perceiue now by thy foolish a?swere, thou hast no will to leaue thine old errours.MarginaliaWhere learned you my Lord to call your brother Racha.

But I say to thee leude losell, other quickly c?sent thou to myne ordinaunce and submit thee to stand to my decrees: or by S. Thomas, thou shalt be disgraded, and folow thy felow in Smithfield. And at this saying, I stode still and spake not, but I thought in myne hart that God did to me great grace, if he would of his great mercy bryng me to such an end.MarginaliaHe meaneth Gods Martyr Williā Sautrey. And in myne harte I was nothyng afrayde with this menasing of þ^e Archbyshop. And I cōsidered there two thynges in him. One, that he was not yet sorowfull for that he had made William Sautre wrongfully to be burnt: and as I cūsidered, that the Archbyshop thirsted yet after more sheding out of innocent bloud. And fast therfore I was moued in all my wittes, for to hold the Archbyshop neither for Prelate nor for Priest of God. And for that myne inward man was thus altogether departed from the Archbyshop, me thought I should not haue any dread of him. But I was right heauy and sorowfull, for that there was no audience of secular men by: but in my hart I prayed the lord God, for to comfort me and strength me agaynst them that there ware agaynst the sothfastnesse. And I purposed to speake no more to the Archbyshop and his clerkes then me neede behoued: and all thus I prayed God for his goodnes to geue me then and alway grace to speake, with a meke & an easie spirit: and whatsoeuer thing that I should speake, that I might thereto haue true authorities of Scriptures or open reason. And for that I stode thus still and nothyng spake, one of the Archbishops Clerkes sayd vnto me. What thyng musist thou? Do thou as my Lord hath now commaunded to thee here.

And yet I stode still and aunswered him not: And then soone after the Archbyshop sayd to me: Art thou not yet bethought, whether thou wilt do as I haue sayd to thee?MarginaliaThe order and maner of hys bringing vp. And I sayd then to him: Syr, my father and my mother, on whose soules God haue mercy (if it be his will) spent mikle money in diuers places about my learnyng, for the intent to haue made me a Priest to God. But whē I came to yeares of discretion, I had no will to be Priest, and therfore my frendes were right heauy to me, and then me thought their grudgyng agaynst me was so painfull to me, that I purposed therfore to haue left their company. And when they perceiued this in me, they spake sometime full fayre & pleasaunt wordes to me: But for that they might not make me to consent of good hart to be a Priest, they spake to me full often tymes very greuous wordes, and manassed me in diuers maners, shewyng to me full heauy chere. And thus one whyle in fayre maner, an other while in greuous, they were long time (as me thought) full busie about me, or I consented to them to be a Priest.

But at the last, when in this matter they would no longer suffer mine excusations, but either I should consent to them, or I should euer beare their indignation, yea, their curse (as they sayd.) Then I seyng this, prayed them that they would geue me licence for to go to them that were named wise Priestes, and of vertuous conuersation to haue their counsell, and to know of them the office and the charge of Priesthode. And here to, my father and my mother cōsented full gladly, & gaue me their blessing and good leaue to go, and also money to spend in this iourney. And so that I wēt to those Priestes whom I heard to be of best name, and of most holy liuing, and best learned, and most wise of heauenly wisedome: and so I communed with them vnto the tyme that I perceiued by their vertuous and continuall occupations, that their honest and charitable workes passed their fame which I heard before of them.

Wherfore Syr, by the example of the doctrine of them, and specially for the godly and innocent workes which I perceiued then of them, and in them: After my cunnyng and power, I haue exercised me then and in this tyme, to know perfectly Gods law, hauing a will and a desire to liue thereafter, which willeth that all men and women should exercise themselues faythfully there about. If than Syr, either for pleasure of them that are neither so wise nor of so vertuous conuersation to my knowledge, nor by common fame to any other mans knowledge in this land, as these men were of whom I tooke my counsaile and informatiō: I should now forsake thus sodenly and shortly, and vnwarned, all the learnyng that I haue exercised my selfe in this xxx. Winter and more, my conscience should euer be herewith out of measure vnquieted: and as Syr I know well, that many mē & women should be there through greatly troubled and sclaundered: And as I sayd sir, to you before, for myne vntruth and false cowardnes, many a one should be put into full great reprofe, yea sir, I dread that many a one (as they might then iustly) would curse me full bitterly: and sir I feare not, but the curse of God, which I should deserue herein, would bryng me to a full euill end, if I continued thus. And if thorough remorse of conscience I repented me any time, returnyng into the way, which you do your diligence to cōstraine me now to forsake: yea sir, all the Byshops of this lād, with full many other Priestes, would defame me, and pursue me as a relapse: and they þ^t now haue (though I be vnworthy) some confidence in me, hereafter would neuer trust to me, though I could teach & liue neuer so vertuously, more thē I can or may. For if after your counsel I left vtterly all my learnyng, I should hereby first wound and defile mine own soule, and also I should here through, geue occasion to many men and women of full sore hurtyng, yea sir as it is likely to me, if I cōsented to your will: I should herein by mine euill example in it, as farre as in me were, slea many folke ghostly, þ^t I should neuer deserue for to haue grace of God, to the edifieng of his church, neither of my selfe, nor of none other mans life, and vndone both before God and man.

But sir, by exāple chiefly of some whose names I will not now rehearse, of H. of I. P. and B. and also by the present doyng of Philip Rampenton,MarginaliaPhil. Repingt? made bish. and a persecutour. that is now become B. of Lincolne: I am nowe learned (as many mo hereafter through Gods grace shalbe learned) to hate and to flee all such sclaūder that these foresayd men chiefly haue defiled, principally themselues with. And in it that in them is, they haue enuenemed all the Church of God, for the sclaūderous reuoking at the crosse of Paules, of H. P. and of B. and how now Philip Rampenton pursueth Christes people. And the fayning that these men dissemble by worldly prudence, keeping them cowardly in their preachyng and communyng within the bondes and termes (which without blame may be spoken and shewed out to the most worldly liuers) will not be vnpunished of God. For to the point of truth þ^t these mē shewed out sometime, they wil not now stretch forth their liues. But by example, ech one of them as their wordes and their workes shew, busie them thorow their fayning, for to sclāder and to pursue Christ in his members, rather then they will be pursued.

¶ And the Archbishop sayd to me: These men the whiche thou speakest of now, were fooles and heretickes, whē they were counted wise men of thee and other such losels. But now they are wise men, though thou and such other deeme them vnwise. Neuerthelesse I wist neuer none that right sayd, that any while were enuenemed with your cōtagiousnes, that is, contaminated and spotted doctrine.

MarginaliaHappy be they that cōtinue to the ende.☞ And I sayd to the Archbishop: Syr, I thinke wel that these men & such other are now wise as to this world: But as their wordes sounded sometime, and their workes shewed outwardly, it was like to moue me that they had earnest of the wisedome of God, and that they shuld haue deserued mikle grace of God, to haue saued their own soules and many other mens, if they had continued faithfully in wilful pouerty, and in other simple vertuous liuing: and specially, if they had with these foresayd vertues continued in their bu-