deuotion may be commended of the Lord, and of him. MarginaliaIs this good doctrine M. Cope, in the Popes canonisation.And also, that the humble intercession of the sayd Saint may profite them to their saluation.

Furthermore, for the more full canonising (canuising I had almost sayd) of this new made saint, the saide Pope Innocent writing to Gilbert aforesayd, adioyneth withall a collect of his owne making, which is this: MarginaliaThe blasphemous collect of the Popes making for S. Gilbert.Plenam in nobis æterne saluator tuæ vertutis operare medelam, vt qui præclara beati Gilberti confessoris tui merita veneramur, ipsius adiuti suffragijs a cunctis animarum nostrarum languoribus liberemur. Qui viuis & regnas. &c. That is: worke in vs O eternal sauior full remedy of thy vertue, that we which worship the worthy merites of blessed Gilbert thy confessour, being succoured by his suffrages, may be deliuered from all languors & diseases of our soules, who liuest and raignest. &c.

The cōsecration of this one Saint (who perhaps was not the worst) I thought here to cōmemorate, to the intent that the reader measruing by this one the Canonisation of al the rest, may iudge the better vpō this cōparison of master Cope,MarginaliaCopus pag. 119. lin 7. whether of vs doth vendicate more impudent authoritie, the Pope in his Callender, or I in mine: or to make the comparison more fit, whether is more impudent the pope in his Callendar, or els maister Cope in his Dialogues more doltishe.

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 thing here to be worshipped, 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 Calendar, my purpose in my Calendare, was neither to deface any old saint, or to solemnise any new. In my booke of Actes and Monuments entreating of matters passed in the churche, these latter fiue hundreth yeares, I did regulate out a Callendare, not for any Canon to constitute Saintes, but onely for a table of them which within the same time did suffer for the testimony of the word, whom I did and doe take to be good and godly men. If any haue other iudgement of them, I binde no man to my opinion, as the pope doth to his. The day will come which shall iudge both them and you. In the meane season it shall be best for you (M. Cope) in my iudgement to keepe a good thing in your head, MarginaliaCope counsailed to cease hys rayling.and to quiet your rayling mode. A hard thinge it is to iudge before the Lord. Mans iudgement may faile and is vncertayne, 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 whome ye rayle vpon: nor to your selfe, whiche rayleth: nor to the church of God that heareth you rayle. For them you can not hurt, they are gone. To your selfe, and thoughe your matters be true, yet little honesty it will bring, to be counted a rayler, and if it be vncertayne, your state is daungerous, and if be false, most miserable: And as to the Church what great edification can proceede of suche contentious brawling and barkinge one against an other, I doe not greatly see. And if the zeale of the bishop of Romes church haue so much swallowed you vp, that ye cannot but stamp and stare at traytours when ye see them put in Calenders: (first M. Cope) be ye sure first that they be traytours, wisdome would, whome you call traytours. And if ye can so proue thē (as ye haue not yet) then let your Irenæus or Critobulus tell me, why doth not this flagrant zeale of yours as hote as purgatory, burne out, and flame as wel against your owne traytors, hauing so many in your own 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 brest on such a pelting 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 wold think you played Hercules furens in Orchestra. On the other syde agayne ye are Oleo tranquillior. What indiffirencie (maister Cope) call you this? Or what zeale make you this to be? Albeit your zeale, I iudge not, as I know it not. Swifte 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 fruites 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 demo Pontificis. As I sayde I iudge you not. You haue your iudge to whome ye stand or fall. My counsayle is, that ye do not so zeale the Byshop of Rome, that for his sake ye lose your owne soule. Ye remember the olde vulgar voice it is not good Ludere cum sanctis, worse it is Illudere: worse of all it is Debacchari in immerentes: Because that Deus ipse vltionum Dominus Many times taketh theyr cause in handaccording as it is written: Opprobria opprobantium tibi ceciderūt in me. i. The rebukes of thy rebukers fell vpon me. And seldome haue I seene any suche blasphemous raylers agaynst the ende or punishment of Gods saintes and serauntes, without great repentaunce, to come to anye good end themselues.

And admit this (as graunted vnto you M. Cope) that these mē had bene traitors, which ye are not able to proue. Well, they had their punishment therefore, the worlde can go no further: & what would you haue more? who and if they repented, why may they not haue as good part in Christes kingdome as your selfe? Now forsomuch as the sayd persons also suffering a double punishement were so constant in the way of trueth, and most principally for the same were persecuted, and chiefly therfore brought to their death: that part of example, because I sawe, it pertayne to the profite of the church, why might I not insert it with other church storyes in my booke? Let the churche take that which belongeth to the churche. Let the worlde take that, which to the world pertaineth and go no further. And if ye thinke it much, that I would exemplifie these whome you call traytors in the booke of martyrs: first ye must vnderstand, that I wrote no suche booke bearing the title of the booke of Martyrs, I wrote a booke called the Actes and Monumentes, of thinges passed in the church. &c. Wherin many other matters be contayned beside the martyrs of Christ.MarginaliaThe name of Martyrs in the Calendare defended. But this peraduenture moueth your colar, that in the Callendar I name them for martyrs. And why may I not in my Calēdar cal them by the name of martyrs, MarginaliaWhat is a Martyr.which were faythfull witnesses of Christes truth and Testament for the which they were also chiefly brought vnto that end? Or why may I not call them holy sayntes, MarginaliaHoly saintes of Christ.whome Christ hath sanctified with hys blessed bloud? And what if I shold also call the theefe and murderer hanging on the right side of the Lord, by the name of an holy sainct, and confessour, for hys witnessing of the Lord, what can mayster Cope say agaynst it?

MarginaliaMartyrs in the Calēdar coloured with red.And as for colouring the names of certaine Martis in the sayd Calendare in read or scarlet letters (althoughe that pertayneth nothing to me, whiche was as pleased the Painter or PrinterMarginaliaThe painter coloureth with redde.) yet if that be it that so muche breaketh pacience, why rather doth he not expostulate in thys behalfe with the great saynt maker of rome, who hath readed them much more then euer did I. MarginaliaThe pope coloureth with bloud.For he did red and dyed them with theyr owne bloude, where as I did but onely colour them with redde letters. And thus for matter of my Calendar enough.

Proceeding now out of the Calendar vnto the booke, where hee chargeth me with so many lyes, impudencies, vanities, deprauations, and vntruthes, it remayneth likewise I cleare my self, answering first to those lyes and vntruthes, which to the story of sir Roger Acton, & sir Iohn Oldcastle do appertain. And after to other particulars, as in order of my booke doe follow. And first where he layeth against me whole heapes, and cartlodes, I cannot tel how many of lyes and falsities: MarginaliaThe authour cleareth himselfe of lyes and vntruthes laid against him.I here briefly answere maister Cope agayne (or what English Harpesfield els soeuer lieth couered vnder this English Cope) that if a lye be (after the definition of S. Augustine) whatsoeuer thing is pronoūced with the intent to deceaue an other: then I protest to you mayster Cope, and to all the world there is neuer a lie in all my booke. What the intent and custome is of the papistes to doe. I cannot tell: for mine owne, I will say, although many other vices I haue, yet frō thys one I haue alwayes of nature abhorred, wittingly to deceaue any mā or childe, so neare as I could, much lesse the church of God whom I with all my hart de reuerence, and with feare obey. And therefore among diuers causes, that haue wythdrawne my minde from the Papistes faction, almost there is none greater then thys, because I see them so little geuē to truth, so farre from all serious feeling and care of sincere religion, so full of false pretenced hipocrisie and dissimulation, so litle regarding the church of Christ in their inward hartes, which they so much haue in theyr mouthes: so, as vnder the title thereof they may hold vp theyr own estate. Otherwise so little reuerence they yeld to the true & honorable church of Iesus the sonne of God, that with 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 cōsciences, and more religious, and better disposed natures, onely of simple ignoraunce deceaued. But such commonly haue bene & be the chiefe guides and leaders of the Papistes Churche, that little true care and small zeale hath appeared in them,