ter, lying in controuersie betwene vs, we are now forced to seke out the fountaine and bottom of the truth, where it is not enough to say, so it is, but the cause is to be shewed, why it is so affirmed. And what though Robert Fabian, Polydore Uergil, & Edw. Hall, should all together (as they do not) agree in the treason of Sir Iohn Oldcastle and of the rest, yet neyther is this any sufficient surety to prooue them traytours. MarginaliaWordes without probatiō are not sufficient, in story matters.Considering that writers of stories for most part followyng either blynd reporte: or els one taking of an other, vse commonly all to sound together after one tune, tanquam Dodonæi lebetes, so that as one sayth, all say, and if one erre, all do erre. Wherfore you see M. Cope, how it is not sufficient nor sure to stick only to the names and autorities of Chronographers, vnlesse the ground be found substauntiall wherupō they stand themselues. Which yet in none of these whom you haue produced, doth appeare.

MarginaliaChroniclers how farre and to what effect they serue.Secondly in alledging and writing of Chronicles is to be considered to what place and effect they serue. If ye wold shew out of them the order and course of tymes, what yeres were of dearth and of plenty, where kings kept their Christenmas, what condites were made, what Maiors and Shirifes were in London, what battailes were fought, what triumphes and great feastes were holden, when kinges began their raigne, and when they ended &c. In such vulgare and popular affaires, the narration of the Chronicler serueth to good purpose, and may haue his credite, wherein the matter forceth not much, whether it be true or false, or where any listeth to beleue them. But where as a thing is denied, and in cases of iudgement, & in controuersies doubtful, which are to be decided and boulted out by euidence of iust demonstratiō: I take thē neyther for Iudges of the Bench, nor for arbiters of the cause, nor as witnesses of themselues sufficient necessarily to be sticked vnto. Albeit I deny not but histories are taken many tymes, and so termed for witnesses of tymes, & glasses of antiquitie. &c. yet not such witnesses, as whose testimony beareth alwayes a necessary truth, and bindeth beliefe.

The two witnesses which came agaynst Susanna, beyng seniours both of auncient yeares, bare a great countenance of a most euident testimony, whereby they almost both deceyued the people, and oppressed the innocent: had not yōng Daniel by þ^e holy spirit of God, haue take them aside, & seuerally examinyng them one frō the other, found thē to be false lyers both, MarginaliaHistories not rashely to be beleued.leauyng to vs therby a lesson of wholesome circumspection, not rashly to beleue euery one that cōmeth: and also teachyng vs, how to try them out. Wherfore (Maister Cope) followyng here the lyke example of Daniell in trying these your recordes whom ye inferre agaynst these men, we will in lyke maner examine them, seuerally one from an other, and see how their testimony agreeth: first beginnyng with your Robert Fabian. MarginaliaThe testimony of Fabian agaynst the L. Cobham examined.Whiche Robert Fabian, beyng neither in the same age, nor at the dede doing, can of him self geue no credite herein, without due proofe, and euidēce conuenient. How thē doth Robert Fabian proue this matter of treason true? what probation doth he bryng? what autoritie doth he alleadge? And doth Robert Fabian thinke, if he were not disposed to conceyue of the Lord Cobham, and those mē a better opinion but to be traytours, that men are bound to beleue hym onely at his word, without any ground or cause declared, why they should so do, but only because he so saith, and pleased hym so to write? And if ye thinke (M. Cope) the word only of this witnesse sufficient to make autoritie, speaking agaynst the Lord Cobham, and prouing nothing which followed so many yeres after hym: MarginaliaThe testimony of Rich. Belward for the L. Cobhā.Why may not I as well and much rather take the worde and testimony of Richard Belward a Northfolke man, and of the towne of Erisam who liuing both in his time, and possible knowinge the party, & punished also for the like truth, is not reported, but recorded also in the registers of þ^e church of Norwich, MarginaliaEx Regist. Episc. Noruic.to geue this testimony among other his articles, for the foresayd L. Cobham, that is, that Sir Iohn Oldcastle was a true catholike man, and falsely condemned, and put to death without a reasonable cause. &c. Ex Regist. Noruic.

Against this man if you take exception and say, that one hereticke wil hold with an other: why may not I with the like exception reply to you againe, and say as well, one papist will hold with an other, and both coniure together, to make and say the worst against a true protestant.

Further, yet to examine this foresayd Fabian, witnes against Sir Iohn Oldcastle, as Daniell examined the witnesses against Susanna, I will not here aske vnder what tree these adherents of sir I. Oldcastle conspired agaynst the king, and subuersiō of þ^e land, but in what time, in what yeare and moneth this conspiracy was wrought? FabianMarginaliaWitnesses against the Lord Cobham agree not together. witnesseth that it was in the month of Ianuary. Contrary, Edward Hall, and other our Abridgmenters followyng hym, do affirme that they were condemned in the Guilde hall þ^e. xij. of Decēber, & that their execution vpon þ^e same was in Ianuary following, so þ^t by their sentence the facte was done either in the month of December, or els before, and so Fabianus mentitus est in caput suum, vt cum Daniele dicam: or if it were in the month of Ianuary, as Fabian saith, thē is Hall and his followers deceiued, testifieng the fact to be done in the month of December.

MarginaliaFabian conuict of a manifest vntruth in hys story of the L. Cobham.And yet to obiect moreouer agaynst the said Fabian, for so much as he is such a rash witnesse agaynst these burned persons, whom he calleth traytors: it would be demaunded further of him, or in his absence of Maister Cope, in what yeare this treason was conspired? If it were in the same yeare (as he confesseth hymselfe) in which yeare Iohn Claidon the Skinner, and Richard Turmine Baker were burned, then was it neither in the moneth of Ianuary, nor in the first yeare of king Henry the fift. MarginaliaFabian. part. 7. in vita. Henr. 5. pag. 390.For in the register of Canterbury it appeareth playne, that Iohn Claydon was condemned nether in the time of Thomas Arundell Archb. nor yet in the first nor second yeare of king Henry the fifth, but was condemned in the second yeare of the trāslation of Henry Chichesley, Archbishop of Canterburye, the. 17. day of August, which was the yeare of our Lorde. 1415. MarginaliaEx Regist. Archiep. Cant.So that if this conspiracye was in the same yeare (after the witnes of Fabian) in which yeare Iohn Cleydon was burned, then doth the testimony of Fabian nether accord with other witnesses, nor with him selfe, nor yet with truth. And thus concerning the witnes of Roberte Fabian.

MarginaliaThe testimony of Polydore examined.Let vs next procede to Polydore Uirgill, whose partiall and vntrue handling of our history in other places of his bookes, doth offer vnto vs sufficient exception, not to admit his credite in this. And yet because we will rather examine him, then exclude hym, let vs heare a little what he sayth, and how he fayleth, and in how many pointes, numbring þ^e same vpon my v. fingers. Marginalia5. vntruthes of Polydore noted in one story.
1. vntruth.First ending with the lyfe of king Henry. 4. he sayeth, that he raigned. xiiij. yeares and sixe monthes and. ij. dayes. Angl. hist lib. 21. which is an vntruth, worthy to be punished with a whole yeares banishment (to speake after the maner of Apuleius) when as truth is he raigned by the testimony of the story of S. Albones, of Fabian, of Hall, of our old English Chronicle, and of Scala mundi, but. 13. &. 6. monethes, lacking as some say. v. dayes, Hall sayth he raygned but. xij. yeares.

Marginalia2. vntruth.The second vntruth of Polydore is this, where as he speaking of this sedition of sir Iohn Oldcastle and his adherentes, affirmeth the same to be done after the burnyng of Iohn Hus, and of Hierome of Prage, which was saith he, an. 1415. in which yere (sayth he) Thomas Arundell dyed. His wordes be these: In eodem consilio damnata est Ioh. VVicliffi hæresis, ac Ioan. Hus, & Hieronymus Pragensis in ea vrbe combusti sunt Quod vbi reliquis consociis, qui etiā tunc in Anglia erant, patefit, tanquam furiis agitati primum coniurationes in omnes sacerdotes, deinde in regē. &c. In which words he not onely erreth, falsly assigning the cause and occasion of this sedition to the death of Iohn Hus, and of Hierome, but also misseth as much in the order and computation of the yeres. For neither was sir Roger Acton with hys foresayde fellowes alyue at the tyme of the Councell, neyther doth he agree therin wyth any of our Englishe writers, except onely with Hall, who also erreth therin as wyde as he.

Marginalia3. 4. vntruth.For the third and fourth vntruth I note this, where he addeth and sayth, that after this rebellion raysed against the Kyng, the sayde Sir Iohn Oldcastell beyng there present hymselfe, was taken and prisoned in the Tower, and afterward escaped out of the sayde Tower by night, wherin is conteyned a double vntruth. For neither was Sir Iohn Oldcastle there present himselfe, if we beleue Fabian and Cope, Dial. 6. pag 833 lin. 11. MarginaliaCopus pag. 833. lin. 11.neyther yet did he euer escape out of the Tower after that conspiracye, if euer any such conspiracy was.

Marginalia5. vntruth.His v. but not the last vntruth in Polydore is this, that he sayth, Tho. Arundell to haue dyed in the same yeare, notyng the yere to be an. 1415. where as by the true registers he dyed an. 1413.

MarginaliaAn other vntruth in Polydore noted.To this vntruth an other also may be ioyned, where he erryng in the computation of the yeares of the said Thomas Arundell Archbishop of Caunterbury, reporteth him to sit xxxiij. yeres. Who was there Archbishop but onely 18. yeres, as is to be sene in the recordes of Caunterbury. The wordes of Polydore be these: Thomas Arundellius Can