For these priestes do comfort and geue them counsaill to do that thyng, which of greate payne, yea vnder the pain of gods curse, they should vtterly forbid them.MarginaliaThe true bookes and kalenders to know God. For certes sir, if the wōderfull working of God, and the holy liuing and teachyng of Christ, and of hys Apostles and Prophetes, were made knowen to the people by holy liuyng and true, and busie teachyng of Priestes: these thinges (sir) were sufficient bokes and Kalenders to know God by, and his Saintes, without any images made with mans hand. But certes, the vicious liuyng of priestes and their couetousnes, are chiefe cause of this errour, and all other viciousnes that raigneth among the people.

¶ Then the Archbish. sayd vnto me, I hold thee a vicious Priest and a curst, and all them that are of thy sect for all priestes of holy church, and all images that moue men to deuotion, thou and such other go about to destroy. Losel, were it a fayre thyng to come into a Church and see therein none Image?

MarginaliaA better sight my Lord, than to see blinde stocks therto to be worshipped.☞ And I sayd: sir, they that come to the church for to pray deuoutly to the Lord God, may in their inward wittes be the more feruent, that all their outward wits be closed fro all outward seing and hearing, and fro all distroublance & lettings. And since Christ blessed them that saw him not bodily, and haue beleued faithfully in him:MarginaliaThe righte seruice of a Christian. it suffiseth then to all men (thorough hearing and knowyng of gods word, and to do therafter) for to beleue in God, though they see neuer images made with mans hand after any person of the Trinitie, or of any other saint.

¶ And the Archb. said to me, with a feruent spirit: I say to thee losell that it is right well done to make and to haue an image of the Trinitie. Yea,MarginaliaMy Lord, your yea, wil not answere Gods nay. what saiest thou? is it not a stirring thyng to behold such an image?

☞ And I said: Sir, ye said right now that in the old law or Christ toke mākynd, no likenes of any person of the Trinity was shewed to men: wherfore sir, ye sayd it was not thē lefull to haue images, but now ye say, since Christ is becomen man, it is lefull to make & to haue an image of the Trinitie, and also of other saintes.MarginaliaNote this ye worshippers and mainteyners of Images. But sir, this thing would I learne of you: since the father of heauen, yea and euery person of the Trinity was without beginning God almighty, and many holy Prophets that were deadly men, were martyred violently in the old law, and also many men and women then dyed Confessors: Why was it not then as lefull and necessary, as now to haue made an Image of the father of heauen, and to haue made and had other images of Martyrs, Prophets, and holy Confessors, to haue bene Kalenders to aduise men and moue them to deuotion, as ye say that images now do?

¶ And the Archbi. sayd: The sinagoge of Iewes had not authoritie to approue these thingesMarginaliaThe Synagoge of Antichrist wyll haue authoritie. as the Church of Christ hath now.

☞ And I sayd: Sir, S. Gregory was a great man in the new law, and of great dignity, and as the common law witnesseth, he commended greatly a Bishop, in that he forbadde vtterly the Images made with mans hand should be worshipped.

¶ And the archb. sayd: Vngracious losell, thou sauorest no more truth than an hound. Since at the rood at the North doore at London, at our Lady at Walsingam, and many other dliuers places in England, are many great and praysable miracles done:MarginaliaGreat myracles done by images, but my Lord doth not tell by whose power. should not the images of such holy Saintes and places, at the reuerence of God and our lady & other saintes, be more worshipped then other places and images, where no such miracles are done?

☞ And I said: Sir, there is no such vertue in any imagery, that any images should herefore be worshipped.MarginaliaMyracles importing worship to be done to Images may well be suspected not to come of God. Wherfore I am certayne that there is no miracle done of God in any place in earth, because that any Images made with mans hand should be worshipped. And herefore sir, as I preached openly at Shrewsbury and other places, I say now here before you:MarginaliaA Christian man ought not to vow, seeke, nor bow, nor pray, nor offer not kisse an Image. That no body should trust that there were any vertue in imagery made with mans hande, and therefore no body should vow to them nor seke them, nor knele to them, nor bow to them, nor pray to them, nor offer any thyng to them, nor kisse them, nor ensence them. For lo the most worthy of such images, the brasen Serpent (by Moses made, at Gods biddyng) the good K. Ezechie destroied worthely & thankfully, and all because it was ensensed. Therfore sir, if men take good heede to the writyng and to the learnyng of S. Augustine, of saint Gregory, and of Saint Iohn Chrisostome, and of other Saintes and doctors, how they spake and and write of myracles, that shall be done now in the last end of the worlde:MarginaliaFor the vnfaithfulnes of men, the deuill may worke myracles. It is to dread, that for the vnfaythfulnesse of men and women, the Fiende hath great power, for to worke many of the myracles that now are done in suche places. For both men and women delighte nowe more for to heare and know myracles, then they do to knowe Gods word, or to heare it effectuously. Wherfore, to the great confusion of all them that thus do Christ sayth: The generation of adulterers requireth tokens, myracles, and wōders.MarginaliaThe word of God sufficeth vs to saluation, without myracles. Neuertheles as diuers saintes say, now when the faith of God is published in Christendome, the worde of God sufficeth to mans saluation, without such miracles: and thus also the worde of God sufficeth to all faithfull men and women, without any such images.MarginaliaThat which is of nature vnknowne, cannot be resembled by any visible creature knowne. But good sir, since the father of heauen that is God in his Godhead, is þ^e most vnknowen thing that may be, and the most wonderfull spirite, hauing in it no shape or likenes of any members of any deadly creature: in what likenes or what image may God the father be shewed or painted?

¶ And the archbishop said: as holy church hath suffered the images of the Trinitie, and all other images to be painted & shewed: it sufficeth to them that are mēbers of holy church.MarginaliaHoly Church of your owne building. But since thou art a rotten member, cut away from holy church: thou fauorest not the ordinaunce therof. But since the day passeth, leaue we this matter.

MarginaliaThe 3. article. ANd then he sayd to me: What sayest thou to the third point that is certified against thee, preaching openly in Shreusbury, that pilgrimage is not lefull.MarginaliaPilgrimage. And ouer thys, thou saydest that those men and women that go on pilgrimages to Canterbury, to Beuerley, to Karlingtō, to Walsingam, and to any such other places, are accursed and made foolishe, spending their goods in waste.

☞ And I sayd: Sir, by this certification I am accused to you that I should teach, that no pilgrimage is lefull. But I said neuer thus.MarginaliaTwo maner of Pilgrimage. For I knowe that there be true pilgrimages and lefull, and full pleasaunt to God: and therfore sir, howsoeuer mine enemies haue certified you of me, I tolde at Shreusbery of wo maner of pilgrimages

¶ and the Archbishop said to me, whom callest thou true pilgrimes?

MarginaliaThe true pilgrimage is to trauel in heaueanly thynges. ☞ And I saide: Sir, with my protestation, I call them true pilgrimes traueling toward the blisse of heauen, which in the state, degree, or order þ^t God calleth them to, do busie them faithfully for to occupie all their wits bodely & ghostly, to know truely, and to keepe faithfully the biddinges of God, hating and fleeyng all the seuen deadly sinnes, and euery braunch of them: Ruling them vertuously (as it is sayd before) withall their wits, doing discretely, wilfully, & gladly, all the workes of mercy, bodely & ghostly, after their cunning and power, abling them to þ^e giftes of the holy ghost, disposing them to receiue them in their soules, and to holde therin, the right blessinges of Christ: Busiyng them to know and to keepe, the. vij. principall vertues, and so then they shall obtaine here thorow grace, for to vse thankfully to God, all the conditions of charitie. And then, they shall be moued with the good spirite of God, for to examine oft and diligently their cōscience, that neither wilfully nor wittingly they erre in any article of beliefe, hauing continually (as frailtie will suffer) all their busines, to dread and to flee the offence of God, and to loue ouer all, and to seeke euer to do his pleasant will.MarginaliaEuery good worke is a good steppe to heauen. Of these pilgrimes I sayd, what soeuer good thought that they at any time thinke, what vertuous word that they speake, and what fruitfull work that they worke: Euery such thought, worde and worke is a steppe numbred of God, towarde hym into heauen. These foresayd pilgrimes of God, delight sore when they heare of Saintes or of vertuous men and women,MarginaliaThe maner and examples of saintes. how they forsooke wilfully the prosperitie of this life, how they withstoode the suggestion of the fiend, howe they restrayned their fleshly lustes, how discrete they were in their penance doing, how pacient they were in all their aduersities, how prudent they were in couselyng of men and women, mouing them to hate all sinne, and to flie them, and to shame euer greatly therof, and to loue all vertues, and to draw to them, imagining how Christ and his folowers by example of him, suffered scornes and sclaunders, and how paciently they abode & tooke the wrongfull manasing of tyrauntes: How homely they were and seruisable to poore men, to relieue and comfort them bodelye and ghostly, after their power and cunnng, and how deuoute they were in prayers, how feruent they were in heauenly desires, and how they absented them from spectacles of vayne sayinges and hearings, and how stable they were to let and to destroy all vices, and how laborious and ioyfull they were, to sowe and to plante vertues. These heauenly conditions and such other, haue pilgrimes, or endeuour them for to haue: whose pilgrimage God accepteth.

And agayne, I sayde, as their workes shewe, the most parte of men and women that goe now on pilgrimages, haue not these foresayde conditions, nor loueth to busy them faythfully for to haue. For as I well know,