not the worst) I thought here to commemorate, MarginaliaCopus. pag. 819. lin. 7.to the intent that the Reader measuring by this one, the Canonisation of all the rest, may iudge the better vpon this comparison of maister Cope, whether of vs doth vendicate more impudent autoritie, the Pope in his Calendar, or I in myne: or to make the comparison more fit, whether is more impudent the Pope in his Calender, or els maister Cope in his Dialogues more doltish.

But briefly to make an end of this matter with you to canonise or to authorise any Saintes, for man it is presumptuous: to prescribe any thyng here to be worshypped, beside God alone, it is idolatrous: to set vp any mediatours but Christ onely, it is blasphemous. And whatsoeuer the pope doth or hath done in his Calendare, my purpose in my Calendare was neither to deface any old Saint, or to solēnise any new. In my booke of Actes and Monumentes entreating of matters passed in the Church, these latter five hundreth yeares, I did regulate out a Calendare, not for any Canon to constitute Saintes, but onely for a table of them, which within the same tyme did suffer for the testimonie of the word, whom I did and do take to be good & godly men. If any haue other iudgement of them, I bynde no man to my opinion, as the Pope doth to his. The day will come which shall iudge both them and you. MarginaliaCope counsailed to cease his rayling.In the meane season it shall be best for you (M. Cope) in my iudgement to keepe a good tongu in your head, and to quiet your raylyng mode. A hard thyng it is to iudge before the Lord. Mans iudgement may faile and is vncertaine, the iudgement of God is alwayes sure. Best is therfore either to be sure by the word and iudgement of God before, what you do say, or els to say the best. MarginaliaNo good commeth of rayling.Of such slaunderous, and intemperate rayling, can come no good, neither to them whom ye rayle vpon: nor to your selfe, whiche rayleth: nor to the Churche of God that heareth you rayle. For them you cā not hurt, they are gone. To your selfe, and though your matter be true, yet litle honesty it will bryng, to be counted a rayler, and if it be vncertaine, your state is daungerous, and if it be false, most miserable: And as to the Church, what great edification can procede of such contentious braulyng and barkyng one agaynst an other, I do not greatly see. And if the zeale of the byshop of Romes Church haue so much swallowed you vp, that ye can not but stampe and stare at traitours when ye see them put in Calendars: first (M. Cope) be ye sure first that they be traytours, wisedome would, whom you call traytours. And if ye can so proue thē (as ye haue not yet) then let your Ireneus, or Critobulus tell me, why doth not this flagrant zeale of yours, as hoate as Purgatory, burne out, & flame as well agaynst your owne traytours, hauing so many in your owne Calendare and Church at home?

MarginaliaThe zeale of M. Cope expended.And if there be such a Catholicke zeale in you, that hath set your gentle breast on such a peltyng chafe, why then is not this your Catholicke zeale equally indifferent? Why take ye on so fell on the one side agaynst sir Iohn Oldcastle, sir Roger Acton M. Browne. &c? A man would thinke, you played Hercules furens in Orchestra. On the other side againe ye are Oleo tranquillior. What indifferencie (maister Cope) call you this? Or what zeale make you this to be? Albeit your zeale, I iudge not, as I know it not. Swift iudgement shall not become me, which go about to correct the same in you. But this I exhorte you, to beware (maister Cope) that by your owne frutes and doinges euident, ye do not bewray this zeale in you to be Non secundum scientiam, nor such a zeale as fighteth Pro domo Dei, sed pro domo Pontificis. As I sayd I iudge you not. You haue your iudge to whom ye stande or fall. My counsaile is, that ye do not so zeale the Byshop of Rome, that for his sake, ye lose your owne soule. Ye remember the old vulgare voyce, it is not good Ludere cum sanctis, worse it is Illudere: worst of all it is Debacchari in immerentes: Because that Deus ipse vltionum Dominus many times taketh their cause in hand, accordyng as it is written: Opprobria opprobrantium tibi ceciderunt in me. i. The rebukes of thy rebukers fell vpon me. And seldome haue I sene any such blasphemous railers against the end or punishment of Gods Saintes & seruauntes, without great repentaunce, to come to any good end themselues.

And admit this (as graunted vnto you M. Cope) that these mē had bene traytours, whiche ye are not able to proue. Well, they had their punishment therfore, the world can go no farther: and what would you haue more? who & if they repented, why may they not haue as good part in Christes kyngdome as your selfe? Now for somuch as the sayd persons also suffering a double punishment were so constant in the way of truth, & most principally for the same were persecuted, and chiefly therfore brought to their death: that part of example, because I saw it to pertaine to the profite of the Churche, why might I not inserte it with other Churche stories in my booke? Let the Church take that, which belōgeth to the Churche. Let the worlde take that, which to the world pertaineth & go no farther. And if ye thinke it much, that I would exemplifie these, whō you cal traitours in the booke of Martyrs: first ye must vnderstand, that I wrote no such booke bearing the title of the booke of Martyrs. MarginaliaThe name of Martyrs in the Calēdare defended.I wrote a booke called the Actes & Monumentes, of thinges passed in the Church. &c. Wherin many other matters be contained beside the Martys of Christ. But this perauenture moueth your cholar, that in the Calendare I name them for Martyrs. MarginaliaWhat is a Martyr.And why may I not in my Calendare call them by the name of Martyrs, whiche were faithfull witnesses of Christes truth and testament, for the which they were also chiefly brought vnto their end? MarginaliaHoly saints of Christ.Or why may I not call them holy Saintes, whom Christ hath sanctified with his blessed bloud? And what if I should also call the theefe and murderer hanging on the right side of the Lord, by the name of an holy Saint, and Confessour, for his witnessing of the Lord, what can maister Cope say against it?

And as for colouryng the names of certaine Martyrs inMarginaliaMartyrs in the Calendar coloured with red.the sayd Calendare in red or scarlet letters (although that perteineth nothing to me, MarginaliaThe painter coloureth with redde.which was as pleased þ^e Painter or Printer) yet if that be it that so much breaketh his pacience, why rather doth not he expostulate in this behalfe with the greate Sainte maker of Rome, who hath readed them much more then euer did I. MarginaliaThe pope coloureth with bloud.For he did read and dyed them w^t their own bloud, where as I did but onely colour them with redde letters. And thus for matter of my Calendare enough.

Procedyng now out of the Calendare vnto the booke, where he chargeth me with so many lyes, impudencies, vanities, deprauations, and vntruthes, it remaineth likewise I cleare my selfe, aunswering first to those lyes and vntruthes, which to the story of sir Roger Actō, and sir Iohn Oldcastle do appertaine. And after to other particulars, as in order of my booke do follow. MarginaliaThe author cleareth him selfe of lies & vntruthes layd agaynst hym.And first where he layeth against me whole heapes, and cartlodes, I cannot tell how many of lyes and falsities: I here briefly aunswere maister Cope againe (or what Dutche body els soeuer lyeth couered vnder this English Cope) that if a lye be (after the definition of S. Augustine) whatsoeuer thing is pronounced with the intent to deceaue an other: thē I protest to you M. Cope, and to all the world, that there is neuer a lye in all my booke. What þ^e intēt and custome is of the papistes to do, I cānot tell: for myne owne, I wil say, although many other vices I haue, yet frō this one I haue alwayes of nature abhorred, wittingly to deceaue any man or child, so neare as I could, much lesse the church of God, whom I w^t all my hart do reuerēce, & with feare obey. And therefore among diuers other causes, that haue withdrawen my mynde frō the Papistes faction, almost there is none greater then this, because I see them so litle geuen to truth, so farre from all serious feeling and care of sincere Religion, so full of false pretenced hypocrisie and dissimulation, so litle regarding the Churche of Christ in their inward hartes, which they somuch haue in their mouthes: so, as vnder the title therof they may hold vp their owne estate. Otherwise so litle reuerence they yeld to the true & honorable Church of Iesus the sonne of God, that what vnworthy and rascall Ministers they take into it they passe not, what fictions, what lyes and fables, what false miracles and absurde forgeries they inuent to delude it, they care not. I speake not of all.

Some there be of that sect vnfayned in consciences, and more religious, and better disposed natures, onely of simple ignoraunce deceaued. But such commonly haue bene and be the chief guides and leaders of the Papistes Church, that litle true care and smal zeale hath appeared in them, toward the Church of Christ, not much regardyng what corruption increased therein, so that their commodities might not decrease. MarginaliaThe lyes & fictions innumerable in the popes church.Thus out of this foūtaine haue gushed out so many prodigious lyes in Church Legendes, in Saintes liues, in Monkish fictions, in fabulous miracles, in false and forged Reliques, as in peeces of the holy crosse, in the bloud of hales, in our Ladies milke, in the nayles of Christ, whiche they make to be a great number. Likewise in their false and blind errours, corrupt doctrines, absurde inuentiōs repugnant to the truth of the word. Itē, in their bastard bookes, forged Epistles, their Apocrypha, & Pseudepigrapha. Here commeth in their forged Canons, their foysting & coggyng in auncient Coūcels & decrees, as in ϖς απο εμου πετρου  

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John Wade, University of Sheffield

So from my rock