declaring vnto you the secrets of my hart in plain words (although rudely) so I desire to know your opinion, and craue your fatherly beneuolēce: that now your labor may be for my instruction and amendment, & not to accusation and condemnation. For like as in the beginninge I haue promised you, þ^t if any man of what state, sect, or condition soeuer he be, can shew me any errour in anye of my wrytings by the authoritie of holy scripture, or by any probable reason grounded in the scriptures: I will receiue hys information willingly and humbly.

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MarginaliaWalter Brute againe commaunded to appeare.After that all the foresaid  

thinges were exhibited & geuen by the foresayd Walter Brute, vnto the foresayd B. of Herford: he further appointed to the same Walter, þ^t third day of the month of October, at Herforde, with þ^e cōtinuance of the dayes followyng to heare hys opinion. Which third day now at thande, beinge Friday in the yeare of our Lord God 1393. the sayde Walter Brute, appeared before hym, sitting in Commission in the Cathedrall Churche of Hereford, at sixe a clocke or thereabout: MarginaliaByshops & Abbots, with 20. Bachelors of diuinitie, 10 monkes 2 Doctors of law sitting vppon Walter Brute. Nicholas Herford there also present.hauing for his assistentes in the same place, diuers Prelates and Abbotes, and xx. Bachelers of Diuinitie, wherof xij. were Monks, and two Doctors of the law. Amongst these was Nicholast Hereford, accōpanied with many other Prelates and worshypfull men & wyse Graduates in sundry faculties. Now was the foresayde Walter apposed of his wrytings aforesaid, & the cōtents therin. Earnest were they in pycking out of those writings, his heresies, & in shewing his schismes, sundry errours, and diuers other things. Now, after that they had cōtinued al that day and the two dayes following (that is Fryday, Saterday, & Sunday) in their informations & examinations agaynst the same Walter Brute. MarginaliaThe Writinges of Walter Brute examined.The same Walter Brute submitted him selfe to the determination of the church, & to the correction of the sayd Iohn Bishop, as it appeareth word for word in a scroule written in the English tong: The tenour of which scroul, is as followeth.

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MarginaliaThe tenor of the submission of Walter Brute.¶ I Walter Brute submit my selfe principally to the Euangely of Iesus Christ, and to the determination of holy kirke, and to the general Counsels of holye kirke. And to the sentence and determination of the foure Doctours of holye write, that is Austen, Ambrose, Ierome, and Gregory. And I meekely submit mee to your correction, as a subiect ought to his Byshop.

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MarginaliaThe submission of Walter Brute openly read at Herford.Which scroule as afore is recited in þ^e English tong, the foresayd Walter Brute read, with a lowde and intellible voice, at the Crosse in the churchyard on Monday, that is to say, the 6. day of the sayd month of October, before the sermon made vnto the people in presence of þ^e sayd byshop of Herford & other aboue written, as also other Barons, knights and noble men & cleargy, and also a great multytude of people. After which reading of the scroule, the foresaid Tho. Crawlay bacheler of diuinitie, made þ^e Sermon vnto the people, & toke for hys theame the words of þ^e Apostle to the Rom. the xj. chap. that is as foloweth. Be not ouer wise in your owne conceites but stand in feare &c.

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☞ Out of these declarations and wrytinges of Walter Brute, the Bistop with the Monkes and doctours aboue rehersed, did gather and draw out certaine articles, to the number of 37. which they sent to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge to be cōfuted  

, vnto two learned men. M. Colwill, & M. Newton, Bachelers of diuinitie. Which M. Colwil, & Newton did both labor in the matter, to the vttermost of their cunning, in replying aud aunswering to the said 37. articles.

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Besides them also W. Woodforde a Frier (who wrote likewise against the articles of Wickliff) labouring in the same cause, made a solemne & a long tractation  

, compiling the articles of the said Brute, to the nūber of 29. All which treatises, as I wish to come to the readers hande, that the slendernes of them myght be knowen: so it maye happen percase, þ^t the same being in my handes may hereafter bee further published, with other like tractations moe, as cōuenient time for the prolixitie therof may hereafter, better serue then now.

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What after this became to this Walter Brute, or what end he had, I find it not registred: but like it is, that he for this time escaped. Certainother  

writings I finde moreouer, which albeit they beare no name of this Walter, nor of any certaine author: yet because they are in þ^e same register adioined to þ^e history of him, I thoght therfore most fit here to be inserted. Of þ^e which þ^e one was a letter sēt to Nicholas Hereford a little aboue specified: who beinge at þ^e first a great folower of Iohn Wicklif, as appereth before pag. 438. was now in the number of thē which sate vpon thys Walter, as is in þ^e next page aboue recorded. The copy of this letter, bering no name of any special author, but onlyas sēt by a certain Lollard (as þ^e register doth terme him) is written in maner and forme as followeth.  

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FOr as much as no man that putteth hys hande to the plough and looketh backe, is meete for the kyngdome of God, as our Sauiour Christ sayth. What maruel is it, although maister Nicholas Herford, which at the first (by the visitatiō of the spirit of god peraduenture) put his hand, that is, gaue his diligence, vnto the plough, that is, to the sowing of the word of God and holy scripture, as well in preaching as in doyng good workes: is nowe so blynde and vnskilfull to expound the scripture, that he knoweth not what is vnderstoode by the kyngdome of heauen. Truely it is no maruayle, O thou that arte maister of the Nicholitanes, which like Nicholas the most false deacon, hast left or forsaken the infallible knowledge of the holy scripture. For the true know ledge of the Theologicall veritie is shutte vp as well from thee as from all the other MarginaliaNicolaitans.Nicholitanes following thy conditions, for as much as thou goest not in the by dore to expound the same Euāgelical veritie. Therfore whē thou didst recite this other day, first, the pharisaycal and hypocritical woe (nothing at all to any purpose) thou shouldest haue sayd iustly in this sort, both of thy self, and other thy followers and religious Antichristes: Wo be vnto vs Scribes and Pharises, which shut vp the kyngdome of heauen, that is to say, the true knowledge of the holy Scripture, before men by our false gloses and crooked similitudes: and neyther we our selues enter into the same kyngdome or knowledge, nor suffer other to enter into it. Wherefore, it seemeth vnto the faythfull sort, that wrongfully,. fasly, & without any reuerence, yee haue expounded that text of Gregorye. 1. q. 1. that is to saye. Quicunque studet.Marginalia1. q. 1. ca Quicunque studet. &c. For this is the true vnderstandinge of the same. Knowing first that there be some priests after the thing, and name onely, and doth shew that this is true: that whosoeuer studieth to receiue the holy order by geuing of money: He is not a priest, secundum rem. & nomē. But to say the truth, he desireth to be called a priest, that is to be a priest Secundum nomen tantuùm. And such a priest which is a priest in name onely, is no priest. No more then S. Mary paynted is S. Mary. Nor a false doctour a doctour, but no doctour: And a man painted is not a man, but no mā. And thus such a priest in name onely, is not a priest. Because that all faythfull mend do firmely beleue with S. Gregory that no man buying the holy orders, may then be called a priest as he sayth. 1. q. 1. They that buy or sell holy orders can be no priestes. Whereupon is written, Anathema dandi, & Anathema accipiendi. That is Simoniacall heresie. And it followeth, how therefore, if they be accursed and not blessed, can they make others blessed. And whē that they be not in the body of Christ, howe can they eyther receiue or deliuer the body of Christ? He that is accursed, how can he blesse? as though he would say. It is vnpossible. As Pope Vrbanus saith. 1. q. 1. Si qui a Simoniacis.Marginalia1. q. 1. Si quis a Simoniacis. &c. Where he saith thus. They that willingly know & suffer thēselues to be cōsecrated, nay rather execrated of those that are infected with Simony: wee iudge that their consecration is altogether voyde. Also Pope Leo in 2. q. 1.MarginaliaEx Leone Papæ. 2. q. 1. sayth in this wise. Grace, if it be not freely geuen or receyued, is not grace. Spiritual vsurers do not receiue freely: Therfore, they receiue not the spirituall grace, whych specially worketh in the ecclesiastical orders. If they receyue it not, they haue it not: if they haue it not freely, they cannot geue it freely. And by this it is more clearer then the light that they which know so much and receyue orders by spirituall vsury or simonye, are neither priests not deacōs, neither after the maner nor charecter. For if such carecter or marke were otherwise geuen in geuing orders, it were requisite alwayes that there shoulde bee a certayne grace imprinted in the man, but there is no suche grace geuen or imprinted as afore is manifest: Therefore there is no such Character to be fayned. Therefore, such Character or marke abydeth not in him, for as much as he neuer had nor hath the same. And yet furthermore in the same place. What then do the simonycall prelates geue? And he maketh aunswer truely euen that which they haue, as the spirit of lying. How proue we this? Because that if it be the spirite of veritie, as the same veritie doth testifie from whō it commeth, it is freely receaued. And it followeth for the whole purpose no doubt: It is conuicted to be the spirite of lying, which is not freely receyued.

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By this it appeareth manifestly to the faythfull sort, that those which weetingly and simonically are made priestes, for as much as they receyue not the Character of the Lorde but only the spirite of lying and the marke of Symon Magus, and of Iudas the traytor, that they be not priestes neyther according to the marke nor manners. Nor such do no more make the sacramentes of the Church, then other lay men may in the time of necessitie, nor yet so truely, during their hereticall naughtynesse. MarginaliaBrother in nature. In maners no brother.And yet in deede (brother myne,) vniuocè natura, but yet æquiuocè in moribus. I doe not wryte thus sharpely vnto you, through anger, or anye

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