in their treasures vppon many waters, thine ende is come. And thirdly: Drouth shall fall vpon her waters, and they shall beginne to be drye, for it is a land of grauen imagies, and boasteth in her prodigious wonders: It shall neuer more be inhabited, neyther be builded vp in no age nor generation. Verely, euen as God hath subuerted Sodome and Gomorre with her calues.

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Pardon mee (I beseeche you) though I be not pleantiful in pleasaunt wordes: For if I should runne after the course of this wicked world, & should please mē, I should not be Christes seruant. And because I am a poore man, & neyther haue nor cā haue notaries hyred to testifie of these my writings: I call vpon Christ to be my witnes, which knoweth the inward secrets of my hart, that I am redy to declare the things that I haue writtē after my fashion, to þ^e profit of all Christen people, & to þ^e hurt of no mā liuing, and am ready to be reformed, if any mā will shew me where I haue erred: being redy also (miserable sinner though I be) to suffer for þ^e cōfession of þ^e name of Christ & of his doctrine, as much as shal please him by his grace & loue to assist me a miserable sinner. In witnes of al these things, I haue to this writing set þ^e seale of our Lord & sauior Iesus Christ, which I besech him to imprint vpon my forehed, & to take frō me al maner of marke of Antichrist. Amen.

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¶ These two suppositions (as they are termed in the scholes) written by Walter Brute, and exhibited vnto the Bishop, although they conteyned matter sufficient eyther to satisfie the bishop if he had ben disposed to learne, or els to haue prouoked him to replye agayne, if his knowledge therin had ben better thē his: yet could they worke neither of thē effect in him. But he receining & perusing the same when he neither could confute þ^t which was said, neyther would reply or aunswere by learning to that whych was truth, finding other by cauilations, said that this his writing was too short and obscure, and therfore required him, to write vpon the same againe more plainely and more at large. Whereupou the said Maister Walter (satisfying the Bishops request, and ready to geue to euery one an accōpt of his faith) in a more ample tractatiō renueth hys matter agayne before declared, writing to the Byshop in wordes and forme as followeth:  

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MarginaliaAn other declaration of the same matter before, after a more ample tractation, exhibited by Walterbrute to the B. REuerend father, forsomuch as it seemeth to you þ^t my motion in my two suppositions or cases, & in my two conclusions, is too short and somwhat darke: I wil gladly now satisfy your desire, according to my smal learning, by declaring the same conclusions. In opening wherof, it shall plainely appeare, what I do iudge in all matters, þ^t I am accused of to your reuerence, desiring you first of al, that your discretiō would not beleue that I do enterpryse of any presumption to handle the secretes of þ^e scriptures, which the holy and iust, & wise Doctours haue left vnexpounded. It is not vnknowen to many, that I am in all points farre inferiour to thē, whose holynes of life & profoundnes in knowledge, is manifold waies allowed. But as for mine ignorance, and multitude of sinnes, are to my selfe aud others sufficiently knowen: wherefore, I iudge not my selfe worthy to vnloose or to cary their shooes after them. Do you therefore no otherwise deeme of me, then I do of mine owne selfe. But if you shal finde any goodnesse in my writings, ascribe it to God only: who according to the multitude of his mercy, doth sometimes reueale those things to Idiotes and sinners, which are hidded from the holy and wise, according to this saying: I will prayse and confesse thee O father, for that, þ^u hast hidden these thinges from the wyse and prudent, and hast disclosed them to the litle ones. MarginaliaThey that so humblye iudge of themselues and do not so carelesly cōtinue, are of God.Euen so O father, because it hath thus pleased thee. And in an other place. I am come to iudgement into this world, that they which see not may see, and that they which see, may be made blinde. And Paule saith: that God hath chosen the weake things of the world, to cōfound the mighty, that no man shal boast in himselfe, but that al mē should geue the honour to God.

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It was commaunded to Esay, MarginaliaEsay 6. bearinge the type of Christ: Go and say to this people: Heare ye with your hearing, and do not vnderstand? Beholde ye the vision, and yet knowe ye not the thing that ye see? Make blinde the hart of this people, & make dull their eares, and shut their eyes, least that perchaunce with their eyes they should see, and with their eares they shoulde heare, and with their harts they should vnderstand and bee conuerted, and I should heale thē. And I sayd, how long Lord? And he sayd, vntill that the cities be made desolate without inhabitants, and the house without any person within it. Also in Esay MarginaliaEsay 29.thus it is written: And the multitude of all nations, which shall fight against Ariel, and all persons that haue warred, and besieged and preuailed against it, shall bee as a dreame that appeareth in the night, & as the hungry person dreameth that he eateth, but whēhe shall awake out of sleepe, hys soule is empty. And lyke as the hungry person dreameth that hee eateth, and yet after that hee shall awake, he is still wearye and thirstye, and hys soule voyde of nourishment: euen so shall it bee wyth the multitude of all nations that haue fought agaynst the mount Sion. Be you amased, and haue great wonder: reele ye to and fro, and staggre ye: be ye druncken, and not with wyne: staker, but not through drunckennes: for the Lorde hath myngled for you the spirite of drousines. He shall shut your eyes, he shall couer your Prophets and Prynces that see visions. And a vision shalbe to you all together, lyke the wordes of a sealed booke, which when hee shall geue to one that is learned, he shall say: Reade here, and he shall aunswere, I cannot, for it is sealed. And the booke shalbe geuen to one, that is vnlearned and knoweth not his letters, and it shal be sayd vnto him, Reade, And he shall aunswere, I knowe not the letters, I am vnlearned, Wherefore the lorde saith: For asmuche as this people draweth nigh me with their mouthes, and glorifyeth me with their lips, but their hart is farre from me, and they haue rather feared the commaundements of men, and haue cleaued to their doctrines: MarginaliaEsay 29.Beholde therefore I will ad besides, and bring such a muse and maruell vpon this people which shal make men amased with marueling. For wisedome shal perish from their wise men, and the vnderstanding of their prudent persons shalbe hidden. MarginaliaLibanus and Charmel, two hils, the one in Phoenicia, fruitfull & pleasant: the other in the borders of Iewry, barren & vnpleasant, which is Charmel.And soone after it followeth in the same place, yet a litle while and Libanus shalbe turned into Charmel, and Charmell counted for a cops or groaue, and in the same day shall the deafe folkes heare the worde of this booke, and the eyes of the blinde (changed from darkenes and blindnes) shall see.

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Nabuchodonoser enquiring of Danyel said. Thinkest thou that thou canst truely declare mee the dreame that I haue sene, and the meaning thereof. And Danyel sayd: MarginaliaDaniel. 2. As for the mistery whereof the king doth aske, neyther the wise men, magitiens, southsayers, nor enchaunters can declare to the king: But there is a God in heauen, that discloseth misteries, who will declare to thee (O king Nabuchodonosor) what things shal come to passe in the last times of all. To me also is this sacrament or misterie disclosed (not for any wisedome that is in mee more then in all men liuing) but to that the interpretatiō might be made manyfest to the king, & that thou shouldest know the cogitagions of thy minde.

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It was also sayd to Daniel, MarginaliaDaniel 12. And thou Daniel, shut vp the wordes, seale vp the booke, vntill the time appointed. Verely many people shall passe ouer, and manyfolde knoweldge shall there be: And Daniel sayde to the man that was clothed with lynnen garments, who stode vpon the waters of the floud: How lōg wil it be before the end shal come of these marueilous thinges? And I heard the man that was clothed in linnen apparel, who stode vpon the waters of the flouds, when he had lift vp his right hād and his left hand into heauen, and had sworne by him that liueth for euermore: that for a time, tymes, and a halfe tyme. And when the scattering abroad of the hand of the holye people shalbe accomplished,: then shal al these things be finished. And I heard and vnderstoode not, and I sayd: O my Lorde, what shall bee after these things, and he sayd: Go thy wayes Daniel, for this talke is shut & sealed vp, vntil the time that is before appointed.

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All these thinges haue I written to shew, that he that hath the key of Dauid, who openeth and no man shutteth, shutteth and no man openeth: doth (when and how lōg it pleaseth him) hide the mysteries, and the hid secrets of the Scriptures, from the wise, prudent, and righteous: and other whiles at his plesure, reuealeth the same to sinners and lay persons. & simple soules, that he may haue the honor & glory in all things. Wherefore as I haue beforesaid, if you shall finde any good thing in my wrytinges, ascribe the same to God alone: If you shal finde otherwise, think ye the same to be written of ignorance, and not of malice. And if any doubt or errour be shewed me in all my wrytynges, I wil humbly allow your information & fatherly correction.

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But why that such maner of matters are moued touching the disclosing of Antichrist in this kingdome, more then in other kingdomes, and in this time also more then in time past: the aunswere, as concerning the time of the motion is, that it is the last coniunction of Saturne and Iupiter in the signe of the * Marginalia* In Signo Gemini. Marke heere (good Reader) by this astronomicall coniunction of these two planets in Gemini, hee meaneth couertly the schisme betweene the two Popes which lasted 39. yeares, by the which coniunction, his meaning is, that God wold haue Antichrist to be disclosed and his church to be reformed. Twins, which is the house of Mercury, being the signifyer of þ^e Christian people: which coniunction seemeth to me to betoken the secōd comming of Christ  

, to reforme his Church, and to call men agayne by the disclosing of Antichrist, to the perfection of the Gospell, from their Hethenish rytes aud wayes of the Gentiles. By whom the holy citie was trampled vnder foote, for 42. monethes, euen as the coniunction of the sayd two planets being inclosed in the signe of the Virgine, which is also the house of Mercury: dyd betoken the first commyng of Christ, for the saluation of all people that were perished of the house of Israel, wherby to call thē through the same comming, to the full perfection of the Gospell.

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