The hunting & finding out of the romish fox which more than seven years hath been hid among the bishops of Englong after that the Kings Highness had commanded him to be driven out of his realm.  
Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests/ but the son of man hath not Where he may rest his heed in.  
Whosoever happeneth upon this book/ if he love god better than man/ et the Kings Highness better than the bishops falls hypocrisi/ let him give it to the King/ that he may read it before the bishops condemn it.  
M.D.XLIII.   

To the most excellent prince King Henry the eight King of England France & of Irland supreme governor in earth of thes his realms willm Wraghton Wisshethe health prosperity of both body & soul.  
ALL though sense the time thari was a child/ i have been more brought up in learning then in hunting/ & have therefore no great skill or experience in hunting/ yet the love that i bear unto my natural country compelleth me at this time (most excellent & victorious Prince) to be a hunter/ to hunt & find out a certain cruel best/ which both hath done et doth yet still mich harm in your reaml & kyilleth both young & old all that he can come by. This best hath lost his mame in england but never a Deal of his cruel conditiones. This self best have ye earnestly gone about ●n Word Writing & Working as much as one man is able to do to drive out of your realm. But the hundes that ye set to do this deed. Was and are/ of the same kind & lineage that the willed best is of therefore they bark at him for a face but they bite not. They make a praetence as they would worri him/ & yet when he is in jeopardy of taking they help to cover him with tame beasts skins/ that the proverb may have a place on dog will not eat of an other dogs flesh neither will one wolf eat of an other. Thes hounds love this best so well that if they can catch any other hound persewing him which is/ of an other kind than they be of/ that is to wit if he have not a payr of prick ears standing up/ on before & an other behind/ they will never rest till they see the other hounds heart blood. they tender this best so interly and would so fain have him unknown/ for fere that your Highness should kill him if he were known/ that they bear all men in hand that their is no such best in all your realm & punish them with many kinds of death that dare say that their is any such best in engloud. But if ye will of your Kingly liberality grant me licens to call all that the pope hath made/ ordained/ & decreed/ the pope's traditiones ordinances and decrees/ i shall so hunt out this best et discover him that all your hole realm may spy him and see him and know him what he is/ what is his name/ and where he lurketh This once brought to pass it shall be more easy for your highness to accomplish and bring to pass your godly purpose/ which is and ever hath been senc ye knew his conditiones/ to drive this beast out of all places of your dominion. I desire also your kingly highness that ye will not suffer this my doing to be condemned of the bishops/ till your oun learned discretion have tried it & examined it with the word of god & with the light of your reason and learning/ and than if my hunting be found contrari to the word of god/ so sound as ye find it so/ let my hunting be forbidden/ et not before i be seche you for the love of the king of heaven which/ save and keep you from all your enemies both bodily & ghostly Amen. From basil the first day of may. Anno domini 1543.   

THe common sort of foxes knowing that they cannot choose but be persewed for their murder/ that they daily do & intent to commit/ have holes either in the ground or in great rokkes where as they think they may bein sefegard/ & whereto they may fly for sukker when they that have the harm doen unto them & theyres do pursue after them. But this fox that i follow after/ & hunt/ at this time/ as he is of an other kind of foxes than the common sort be/ that is to wit a romish fox & a man killer/ for fear that he should be digged out of the ground if he hid himself in the commun fox holes/ now when certain scol ears of Camhrygd and of Oxford even straight way after that he had killed certain of their fellows/ followed him to have catched him/ ran with all the speed that he might/ in to the church/ and when the scolares' would have followed him in to the church the bishops and priests bet them out again/ and so came the scolares' back again with bloody pates/ and durst no more seek the fox in the church. For the bishops & the clergi set up straightly way on the church door a letter where in it was contened that from thence forth no man should seek the fox any more their & that no man should call that romish fox, a fox but the kings best. And yet the bishops had the advantage of the best/ as a certain scholar had of a fox in cambridge. The scolare had a rain fox in his Chambre where as he made him a hole behind a hollow bench/ the fox went out on the nyhgt & brought to the scolares' chamber hens/ dukkes & capones/ where with he & his fellows made oft times good cheer. And so do the bishops & priests make myrrh with it that this fox bringeth in to the church But in as much as the king is a 'bove all the bishops & i have axed him leave to hunt the fox where so ever i think that i can find him/ i will with the kings leave hunt this fox in the church for i gather by certain conjectures that he is their For as it is a good coniectur if a man be in a wood & see a great hole in the gronde to think that their hanuteth or hath hanuted a fox/ and if their be/ by this hole many pieces of lambs skins/ many lambs bones and geswynges and chekynges feathers, that at that present time there is a fox haunting that hole/ so i think that if i conjecture that their is a romish fox in the church/ i shall not conjecture amiss/ for i saw when i was in England in a certain church a great hole in the high aultare which i could not tell for what purpose the gentle men of the church have ordained it except it be to hide their father the fox in/ when he is persewed after/ and by this hole i saw a great sort of lambs bones about the altar. I saw certain priests that were almost laden with lamb skins/ & with tales and pieces of other beasts skines also/ I saw also much gold & silver about the fox hole. which thing made me marvel the les when i heard afterward that the priests so mantfully manteyned the fox Therefore i think verily that the fox is in that hole/ & i doubt not but that i shall either find him in the bishops mitres or elliss in this hole or perchance in both. After that i have found out this ravening and mankilling fox i trust (most victorios prince) that ye will follow king Solomon in ponysshynh of him/ king Solomon took joab a murderer the capitane of of his father's wars/ from the altar & put him to death & suffered not the sanctuary to save him. So i trust that if this fox be found even on the high altar under the chalice in as much as he is a murderer that ye will not suffer him to have any sanctuary or place of refuge and sukker their. But now let us begin this foresaid huntynge.  
Hoo ye lordly byschoppes & ye Clean fyngred gentle men of the clergi is not the fox of rome other wis called Papa among you? if ye say that their is none such among you/ where is the fox the pope which had wont to be among you/ ye cannot deny but that he was once among you/ tell me where is he now? If ye say that he is driven out of england/ i will not be leave you for i saw blood lately of his shedding in London streets/ I saw lately many pieces of skins about the high altar & in the quere/ I here daily both men and women complaining that by this bestis means their children and friends are put to death wherefore i reckon for all your saying/ that he is not driven out of the realm/ but that ye have deceived the King which commanded you to drive/ him out of the realm/ and that ye have changed and scraped out his name & so keep him still. If ye think that this be not true/ tell me what was that fox's name in English that ye banished/ was it the Pope? ye cannot deni but he that ye should have banished was called the pope. If i find not that same pope still among you/ that the King commanded you to banish out of england i shall give you leave to call me the falsest man that ever spoke with tongue. Frist to begin with all what was the pop that the king commanded vow to drive out of England? whether was it the Pope's person/ or the Pope's purse that had wout to receive our money in england/ or it was the Popis doctrine which beside all other devilish decrees holdeth the falsely usurped pour over all Kings & kygndomes? If ye say that the pope which the King commanded you to drive out of England was the pope's person/ his flesh blood and bones/ depositis mitris mi lords ye lie. For what needed the King to set men to drive that man's person out of his realm that never came in it? If ye say that the Pope that the King commanded you to drive out of England was the Pope's purse alone/ I think that ye have so banished the pope as certain undersherives and balives. take thieves & cast them in prison. Which if they catch a silly poor thief that hath but stolen an old nag not worth nineteen. pence cast him in prison & lad him with yrones & make him be hanged. But if they take a lusty thief & likely to bring them more prays/ with a budget or ij & with a good purse/ they take his purse away from him and his budgets and send him forth to steel again & do him no more harm but that they take his purse from him/ And if any men say to them where is the tall fellow that ye tok yisterday/ they auswerwe took him but of suspicion/ he is such a lords servant & there fore we durst hold him no louger/ Have ye not after this manner driven away the pope? tell me i pray you. If ye say that the pope's purse was the pope that the king commanded vow to drive out of england/ or his name alone/ ye sklandre the King and make him be evil spoken of in all other realms/ And if ye say thes words/ the pope that the king commanded us to preach against & to drive out of england is nothing elliss but his name alone & his bottumles begging bags/ all they that have red the kings acts will say tyat ye be false liars. Then the pope that the king commanded you to drive out of england/ was not the popis person which never came in to england/ neither his name alone/ neither his purse alone/ and the king commanded the pope to be driven out of england/ whether was it the pope's doctrine & learning or no/ that the king commanded you to drive out of england? If it be not his learning what other thing can it be? If ye say that it was not the pope's learning and ordinances ye run in danger of treason/ for in saying so/ ye say that the king would not have the pope's falsely usurped pour bannisshede out of the realm/ which a 'mong all other deulysh doctrine & ordinances of the pope/ is on pestilent popish ordinance. Ye be very loath to grant that the pope's doctrine and traditiones was the pope that the king commanded you to drive out of england Howbeit ye must either grant that/ or else say that the king commanded not at all the pope to be driven out of england. For what other thing is their left to be the pop that the king commauded you to drive out of england/ saving his doctrine? seeing it was not his person/ neither his name alone/ neither his purse alone. Then must needs the Pope/ that the King commanded you to drive out of England be the Pope's doctrine and traditiones. Ye need not to be ashamed to call the pope's doctrine the pope. For it is a received manner of speaking in thes days among scolares and hath been received of long time both of heathen and holy writers/ to call a man's doctrine or book by the name of him that made it. If ye axe a scolare of cambridge what is red in the Philosophi schools he will answer/ Aristotel. If ye axe what is red in the humanity schools he will answer and say Terence/ meaning by Aristotel and Terence the doctrine and books which Aristotel and Terenc made. The profane writers have a proverb he hath not torn Aesop. whereby they mean not Aesopes' body but his doctrine/ and his fables which he made/ Abraham in the xuj. of luk sayeth unto the rich glotten concerning his brethren/ they have Moses and the Prophets/ and in the i● of the acts luke sayeth that the gelded man/ red Esai the prophet/ In which places Moses and the prophets signify the doctrine that Moses and the Prophets taught. So then as Terence's book is lau fulli called Terence as Aristoteles doctrine is called Aristotel/ and Moses doctrine is called Moses/ & the prophets doctrine is lawfully called the Prophets/ so are the pope's traditiones et doctrine lawfully called the Pope even that Pop that the King commanded you to dryu out of his realm. Then have we gotten of you at length that the Pope that the King commanded you to drive out of his realm is the Pope's traditiones et doctrine/ This once granted i reason thus. Whoso ever holdet still & manteneth the Pope's doctrine & traditiones/ holdeth still et mantenethe the Pope/ but ye bishops hold still & maintain the pope's traditions and doctrine therefore ye hold still and mantene the Pope/ If ye deny that ye hold still the pope's doctrine and traditiones/ i will prove it after this manner her after following.  
1. Ye hold still the creeping of the cross/ the worshipping of the image of Christ called the crucifex. And the worschipping of images is pope Gregory's doctrine/ as fasciculus temporum sayeth in thes words. Concilium generale fit in urbe anno primo Gregorij tertij contra hereticos/ in quo imaginum sanctorum veneratio approbatur & contradictores excommunicantur. Their was a counsel in Rome the first year of Gregori the third where in the worshipping of saints imagines was allowed/ & the gain sayers was excommunicated and cast out of the church.  
2. Yehold still conjuring of water and salt to drive devils away to hele all sicknesses/ and to be helht of both body and soul to all them that receyne them. And this ordained Alexander the frist of that name.  
3. Ye hold still hallowing of churches et of vestments and that a priest may not say mes but in a hallowed Place with out a superaltar/ & this ordained felix the first Pope of that mane.  
4. Ye hold still that a pressed may receive the sacrament of Christ's body et blood for a lay-man and that the lay man's sins may be taken away by the priests receyning for him and that the priests receyning may help the souls departed and purches them forgiveness also of sins/ and that ordained pellagius.  
5 Ye hold still the receyning of the sacrament for kine that have the longsoght/ for horse that have the farci/ for sick calves/ for scabed schepe for meseld swine & for mad dogs/ for ye hold in your helli misal unput out and unpreacrhd against. Missam pro mortalitate animalium. A mes for death of beasts and cattle/ Then if the mess be the receyning of Christ's body & blood/ then for dogs that are sick for sick calnes and rotten sheep/ ye hold still the receyning of Christ's body and blood that thes beasts schuld not die/ If to receive the sacrament in the rnmembrance of scabbed schepe or messelled swine that Christ ordained to be received in the remembrance of his holy passion/ be not Antichristes' doctrine and there fore the pope's say ye whose doctrines is it & who put it in to your messal and why have ye not scraped that out as well as the pope's name.  
6. Ye hold still that the mes or the receyning of the sacrament is profitable for a kibed or a mould he'll/ for the french pox/ for the gout in the to/ & also for a winchester goose. for it is still in the missal unput out & unpreched against/ Missa Raphaelis Archangeli pro omnibus infirmitatibus/ A mes of Raphael the archangel/ for all diseases/ & sicknesses then saying that this is not put out of your books ye hold it still/ for the diseases a 'bove rehearsed. If this be not amisusing of the sacrament and the doctrine of the pope say ye whose doctrine is this? for it is none of Christ's neither his a postelles.  
7. Ye hold still that by the mess or receiving of the sacrament that ye can deliver damned souls out of hell and raise men from death to life. If ye think that i lie/ read wahe is written in Gregory's trentale/ in your mes book which ye say is better correct and hath fewer faults than the Bible/ in thes words/ Libera animam famuli tui de manibus daemonum. deliver thy servants soul from the hands of the devels/ justorum anime in manu dei sunt. The souls of ryhhtous men are in the hands of god/ and so ye go about to sing out of the devels hands damned souls for non after this lift are in the devels hands but damned souls. It is also written in your dirgimes that ye manteyn so earnestly with fire and faggot/ & it is song in every dirge mes after the gospel/ Somine jesus Christ etc. Faccas domine transire de morte ad vitam/ Lord jesus Christ make the souls to pass over from death to life/ these are the words of themes/ Now must life and death betoken either/ salvation and damnation/ or else Death must signify the tempolal death of the body and life the life of the body. If that death and life be taken as they stand with out a figure Than ye mean that ye can raise men from death to life/ (o cunning conjurers) If ye understand the words figuratly/ then/ ye mean that by the mesye can deliver souls from their death which is damnation/ to life that is to their salvation. This sing ye in every dirgi mess/ and either ye believe this that ye sing or ye believe it not/ If ye believe it not/ ye do evil to make men be slain for spekyg again it that ye believe not yourselves/ If ye believe it/ when ye make me anausuere/ tel me whether is it the death of the body or of the soul that ye desire God to deliver the saul's from/ and how many souls have ye delivered from the hands of the devil/ and how many have ye raised from death to life. If this doctrine be not Gregori the pope's doctrine say ye whose  it?  
8. Ye hold still that the mixture and mynging together of both the parts of the sacrament may deserve forgiveness of sins and purches health of body and soul/ For ye say in your mes daily thes words/ Hec sacrosancta commixtio corporis et sanguinis/ domini nostri Ie su Christi/ mihi omnibus que sumentibus sit salus mentis et corporis ad promerendam vitam aeternam/ That if to say/ this holy mingling together of the body & blood of our lord jesus christ/ be unto me & to all them that receive it/ hell the of body & soul to deserve everlasting life. If this were not impossible/ then needed no pressed nor bishop go to the devil/ though they were never so great murderers and hormongers. For anon after that they had done the mischief they might streyht way mix together both the parts of the sacrament & deserve theyrby forgiveness of yisternyghtes adultery and of this days murder. But for all thyr myxing and mengling if they break the commandment of god/ they must as well go to the devil as other/ For god regardeth not on man more than an other/ as the Pope doth/ which sayeth that all men that eat of that foresaid mixtur shall deserve forgiveness of sins and yet like a partial fellow suffereth this mixture which is of both the kinds of the sacrament only to begive unto/ priests/ for he will let lay-men have but the on half of it/ He caret he (belyk) not very much for lay-men that will not suffer them to come by this mean unto health of body & soul and to forgiveness of sin/ This is the doctrine of Antichrist and if the pope be Antiwriste it is the pope's doctrine.  
9 Ye hold still the collates of the mes which pop Gelasius made.  
01. Ye hold still the matines and hours & even song of the virgin Mari and that the psalms which were made only in the honour of the creator/ should be song and said in the honour of a creature that is the virgin Mary and this ordenede pope Urban the second.  
11. Ye hold still that from septuagesm to Ester that Aman may not praise god in Hebrew but in latin in the church/ for ye forbid that hallelujah should be sung that time/ but laus tibi domine and this ordained pope Alexander the second.  
12. Ye hold still the secrets of the mess which are open treason ahaynst god/ and this ordenede pope Gregori.  
13. Ye hold still the canon of the mess/ which ordained pope Gregori.  
14. Ye mix water and win together still and that ordained pope Alexander.  
15. Ye hold still this custom in Paul'S that lay men may not come in to the quere at mes time for fere belike/ that when the gluttens say/ accipite & comedite take ye & eat ye/ they should take it that is offered them/ & this ordained pope Leo this iiij. of that name. Now seeing that their are so namy ordinances & traditiones of the pope in the mess/ i report me unto you/ that he indifferent men/ and beno bishops sons/ or no bishops bondmen/ by finding of your children/ wether i have just occasion to seek the fox in the altar or no.  
16. Ye hold still the mes in latin and sing all service & christian and assoil in the old pope's mother tongue & that ordained joann. Portuensis.  
17. Ye take the on half of the sacrament from all them that are no priests and that ordained the Pope and his guard/ at constance.  
18. Ye hold still the hallowing of the font which is all full of abominable blasphemes contrary to the word of god & that ordained anthichrste  
19 Ye hold still that a pressed though he have the french pox or the cancre in his mouth must spit in to a young child's month or elliss that he cannot be baptised/ or christened/ the same.  
20. Ye hold still the embring daves which Vrbanus made assum writers hold/ and other writ that it was Pop Calixtus.  
21. Ye hold still lent & that made Telesphorus and Montanus the heretic which first taught tha Marriage should be undone.  
22. Ye hold still the fasting of the saturday & that made Innocentius the first pope of that name.  
23. Ie hold still that a priest cannot make an unlawful vow/ and that no other man can make an unaduisede vow after xxi. yet of his age and that no vow made after xxi. may be broken save the vow of obedience and of wilful poverty/ this made ye/ & ye & the pope are all on.  
24. Ye hold still stews that the devil may be worshipped their in & condemn marriage of priests with death/ this also is the pope's work  
25. Ye forbidden still all lay men to marry the hole half of the hole year save ij weeks/ and hold all the ministers of the church from marriage all their life time/ for ye will suffer no man to be a subdecon or a decon or a pressed except he forswear marriage first/ and so ye compel men to 〈◊〉 be votaries in as much as their must needs be ministers/ and ye receive none except ye make then forswear marriage/ This was ordained by Gregori the seventh and by the counsel holden at mence in germany.  
26. Ye hold still that it is a greater offence for a pressed or avotari to Mary then if the prester should have defiled all the men's wives in his parish/ or the notari should have deflowered all the virgins in the citi where he dwelleth. For that offence that ye think greater/ ye ponyshe with a greater ponishe meant/ But ye ponyshe the marriage of thes for said persons with death at the frist/ and hordom & adulter of the same but with lof of on part of their go des/ at the first time & with an other part are the second time & the third time with the los of the remnant of the goods and with perpetual prisonment. There for ye reckon that it is lessyn for a priest to lie three times with his negh bores wife or for a votari to lie thrice with his brother's daughter then to once Marry/ Where as it was first enacted that the hordome adultery & marriage of priests and votaries should be ponisshed all clike with death ye obteynet a moderation for the pronisshment of the hordom of priests decones & votaries/ that they should not be slain if they were taken in hordom or adultery/ But ye let marriage of priests stand still to be ponisshed with death/ and made no labour at all to obtain any relese or mitigation of the punishment/ for the marriage of votaries priests & decones. But that was not greatly to be meruelede at/ seeing that ye never in tended to mari as all they do that are lovers of hores cannot abid that wives should be given unto them. But if that ye had intended no more to be adulterers and door hunter's/ than ye purposed to be married priests/ ye would no more have sought a release for the punishment of wifeless horehunting priests than ye souht a remedi and a release for the punishment of chaste & mariede priests But ye laboured for no release at all for chaste mariede priests/ there fore ye never intended to be such/ But wanton wifeless and wandering bores/ bukkes & bulls/ or else it followeth that ye in tended more to be adulterers then to be married men/ To make the matter more clear i will put you an example. Their is in southfolk a gentleman that hath ij warrennes/ on of coneys/ & an other of hares/ & it is made feloni as weal to steal hares as coneys/ there is a young man which cometh unto the auner of both the warrens and sayeth unto him i know that it is feloni to steel a coney on the night/ i pray you that if i be taken in stealing of a coney that ye will not take me as a fellow but be content with the third part of all my goods for the harm that i have done/ The second time that i am taken/ let an other part of my goods satisfice for the fault/ If i be the third time taken/ take all the rest of my goods for a mends and put me in perpetual prison. This young man knoweth that if he be taken in stealing of an hare in the night out of this gentle man's warren that he shall behanged/ and yet he desireth no forgiveness if he be taken in stealing of an hare/ Now let in different men judge whether this man in tendeth more to steel hares or coneys. It is very likely that he intendeth to steel coneys & not hares. For if he had as much intended to steel hares as coneys he would as well have axed a reles for the punishment dew for stealing of hares as he axed a reles for the punishment of stealing of coneys. And so ye my lords god send ye grace/ either intended to be advouteres or else knew that ye could not choose but fall in to advoutre/ or else what needed you to seek a remedy a fore hand for a sickness that was to cum after ward that ye could avoid/ if ye had not intended of a set purpose to be siklye say that ye have all the gift of chastity there fore ye need not to be adulterers except ye will. Then seeing that all ye that are shaven in the crowns have the gift of chastity/ and need not to be adulterers except ye list/ & not with standing purches a relese a forhande for advoutre/ if followeth that either ye will or intend to be adulterers/ except ye say that ye have not the gift of chastity/ or that ye cannot choose but fall in to advoutre/ If ye have not the gift of castite & cannot choose but be adulterers with out matrimony/ what abominable tycamnes & devils are ye that comppelon an other to promis god it that ye know ye cannot perform? The sum of it that is said is this. No wise mane seeketh a forehand a remedy for himself for a death bringing disease except he think that he can no avoid or eschew the disease or intent to adventure to be sick in that deseas for the obtaining of sum thing that he loveth/ Ye gentle men of the clergi/ ye are wise men/ Therefore ye seek no remedy a forhand for a death bringing disease except either ye know that ye cannot avoid it/ or intend to adventure to be sick in it for the obtaining of sum thing that ye love. Aduoutre iiij. year ago if that ye should have fallen in to it should have been unto you a death bringing disease/ And ye praeparede a remedy a for hand for it (scilicet togyve the third part of your goods if ye had been taken with it) therefore ye either knew that ye could not avoid the sickness of adulter/ or intended to adventuture to be sick in the sickness of adulter for the obtaining of your fleshly pleasure which ye love better than honest matrimonial chastity. Answer to this reason when ye have leisure. To be short ye have brought the matter so to pass that it is death at the first foraman to say that a priest may marry & no death for a priest to commit & do adulter seven thou sand times/ If this be not the pope's doctrine say ye whose it is/ i know that it is none of Christ's neither his apostles.  
27. Ye holld still that their are more saviours & bringers to heaven then Christ alone for beside our oun works ye say that the merits of the virgin Mari & of saint petronil/ & of all saints may seve us and bring us to heaven on saint maries day ye sing sancte Marie merita perducant nos ad regna celestia/ The merits of saint marry bring us to the everlasting kynggon/ And on saint Petronilles' day ye say in your mes/ Per merita beatae Petronillae/ praesetis vitae subsidium/ et futurae felicitatem concede/ Grant us by the merits or deservings of saint Petronil the help of this present life and the felicity or happiness of the life for to cum/ ye sing on all hallows day. Sanctorum meritis mereamur gaudia lucis/ we pray god that we may win or deserve the joys of lypht by the deserving of all saints/ This doctrine is of Antichristes' making for it is contrari to the doctrine of Christ which sayeth i am the door/ and noman cometh unto the father but by me/ Then if it be true that the pope is Antichrist this is the popish doctrine.  
18. Ye hold still messes in the remembrance of saints/ And that made Gregori & felix.  
Ye hold still vestmentes and copes/ incens/ & altars/ organs and discant in the church which pop Steven/ pop Leo/ and pope Vitilianus made/ ye hold infinite other ordinances more of the pope's making which it were to long here to rehearse/ But if ye say that the pope's have not made thes ceremonies & constitutiones/ i will prove you liars by the authority of all thes. writers whose names follow her after. Albertus' magnus Blondus Beda/ Baptista Platina/ Marcus Antonius Sabellicus/ Raphael Volateranus/ & Polydorus Vergilius/ All thes say that pope's have ordained thes ordinannes and ceremonies/ Now i think ye can not deny but that ye hold ordinances/ constitutioces and ceremonies which the pope hath taught and made.  
29. Ye hold still the canon law which is called in latin ius pontificium/ that is to say the Pope's law/ Ye hold still the Clementines the pope's decres/ and his decretal epistelles'/ & by this canon law by thes popish decretals & decres/ all matters even unto this hour are determined and judged in your spiritual courts/ by thes laws men are judged to be heretics and votaries which are none by the word of god/ That thes decrees and laws are of the pope's making/ let the most unshamefaced of you deny it if he dare and let the best learned of you prove the contrari if he can Then will i go forward with mi argument/ They that hold still the pope's doctrine hold still the pope/ ye hold still the pope doctrine whiles ye hold still his ordinances and his law/ Therefore ye hold still the pope/ even that pope that the king commanded you to preach against and to drive out of england. Now i repart me unto you that are lords of the tempalti and to you burgesses of the parliament/ whether i have found out the fox in the church or no. If he be found out it is your deuti & all their deutes/ that love god and the king to follow after him to catch him and to drive him out of this realm. But lest ye should go by him & know him not from a tame best he is covered with thes ij tame beasts skins sum time with the law of the church/ and other whiles with the kings ceremonies (for so call the bishops of england/ the pope's canon law, & the ceremonies which the pope hath made I beseech you noble men that have been brought up in hunting and are non of the foxes fautores help at this time to catch this fox/ & i shall once let you have a sight of him & shall let you see how that they that wear the same mark in their crowns that he weareth/ do defend him and hold him still in the church.  
What say ye gentle men of the clargi/ to this for said argument/ Whosoever holdeth still the pope's doctrine holdeth still the pope. but ye hold still the pope's doctrine whiles ye hold still the pope's canon law the pope's decretals & decrees and the ordinances above rehearsed that the pope made/ Therefore ye hold still the Pope. What answer ye to this Whosoever holdeth still the pope's doctrine holdeth still the pope? If ye grant this/ what say ye to this/ But ye hold still the pope's doctrine whiles/ ye hold still his canon law/ and his ordinances/ If ye answer & say we hold not still the pope's canon law/ for we say that the law that ye call the pope's canon law/ is the law of the church/ and so we take it and use it/ if ye say then that the canon law is the law of the church (so did doctor glin call it in Cambridge) every man may well see how that ye cover the fox with a tame beasts skin. Then when ye say that the cannon law is the law of the church/ answer of what church is the cannon law/ the la of? Is it the law of the church of england? If ye say that it is the law of the church of england/ then this followeth of your saying. The pope's church of Rome is governed with the ordinances above rehearsed/ & the canon law is the law of the Popes church/ even at this hour then if the canon law be the law of the church of england/ the popis church and the English church are all on concerning their ceremonies and law/ and then in what thing do they differ? Then if the church of Rome be a popish/ church because it is ruled bithe pope's canon/ law and by his ordinances/ then must the church of england also be a popish church when as it is governed by the same selflawe and ordinances which make the church of Rome a popish church/ But the Pope is the heed of every popish church/ and by your saying the church of england is a popish church/ therefore the Pope by your saying is the heed of the church of england.  
Now seeing that thes in conveniences follow of saying that the canon law is the law of the church of england/ say no more that the canon law is the law of the church of england/ but of/ the church of rome/ for the law of Cristes' church, of which england is on part is the new testament & the old/ that is to wit the doctrine that the Prophets/ the apostles & Christ taught and not the canon lauw with the decrees and decretals & the ordinances which pope's of Rome have made. But if doctor glin commissari of Cimbridge with his other canonisticall canaanites will for all the inconveniences above rehearsed hold still stiffly that the canon law with the decrees & decretals are the law of the church of england/ let them answer to a question or ij that i will propound/ whether was the church beforthe law of the church/ or the law of the church/ before the church/ if ye say that the church was before the law of the church was/ then was their a time when the church was lawless/ But that is an unconvenient/ therefore ye cannot say so/ ye must their fore foe say that either the law of the church was made be fore the church/ or at the first time that the church was. It followeth then that when and wheresoever the most perfit church was/ that their was the most perfect law of the church. But in Christ's time and the apostles time and in the times of the holy martyrs was the most perfect church/ therefore then was the perfitest law of the church/ then the law of Christ's church/ was in the apostles time all ready made & so perfect that no man could make any thing more perfit/ But the canon law was not yet made in the apoststelles' time/ their for the canon law was not the law of Christ's church in the time of the apostles/ The word of god which is the law of the church lasteth for ever & is not changed/ so that the church of Crist at all times hath no other law but Christ's word. ye say that the canon law is the law of the church of england therefore ye say that the church of england is none of Christ's church/ in as much as ye say that the law of the church of england is an other law than was the law of the church of Christ & the apostles time which was the true Christian church. But if ye masters communemissaries/ will needs call still the canon law the law of the church/ what mean ye by the church? whether mean ye the congregation of all them that archosen to be saved or no? if ye mean so ye lie/ for many that are in heaven never knew the canon law/ if ye mean by the church the Prophets the apostles/ and the Evangelists/ ye lie for the canon law was never of their making/ if ye mean by the church the pope and them that are sworn unto him/ it is true that the canon law is the law of the church. Will ye now comunemissaries that the law of the church that is of the pope & his shavelings shall beholden still in england? if ye will so then i need to reason no more to prove that ye hold still the pope in england. If the church signify another sort of men than i have made mention of/ tell me in your answer to thes my questiones and tell me who made the canon law if the pope's of Rome have not made it. Then this solution will not serve/ that the canon law/ is the law of the church/ seeing that it cannot be the law of any church but of a popish church for it is of the pope's making. But if it were granted that the canon law were the law of the church/ yet ye can not deny but the traditiones ordinances and ceremonies before rehearsed are of the pope's making. Then this argument standeth unsoluted/ whosoever holdeth still the pope's doctrine holdeth still the pope/ But ye hold still the pope's doctrine/ ergo ye hold still the pope/ If ye answer we take them not as the pope's ceremonies & ordinances all though we know that the pope hath taught them and made them but as the kings ceremonies & ordinances/ for the king hath commanded in a certain proclamation that no man schuld from the time of that proclamation be so hardy as to call the ceremonies & ordinances that were in the church of england at that time/ the pope's ordinances and ceremonies but the kings ceremonies and ordininances all though it were out of all doubt that the pope had mad them & taught them/ But now ye gentle men of the clergi which was the cause of this proclamation/ answer me if it pleas you to a question or ij. If Francis the king of France should make a proclamation that all the noble acts and deeds of king Alexander the conqueror/ & all the acts of Sardanapali should be no more called and taken for alexander's and Sardanapali acts and deeds but for his deeds should all the acts and deeds of Alexander and Sardanapali be therefore the king of Frances deeds and acts? i think no. For if by proclamation men might make other men's deeds and acts their oun acts/ then might Sardanopalus have rob Alexander of his noble acts and made them his/ and so a very cowhert might have as many noble acts as the best warrior in all the world. If the king of Portugal should command in a proclamation that Aristotel & Plato's works should no mor be called Aristoteles works and Plato's but his works/ should Aristotel & Plato's works by thes means be cum his works? I think nay/ for if the king of Portugagal might take Aristotoles works from Aristotel then might Menius become Maro and the most unlearned in a country might have as noble works as the best leaned man in the world/ If the king of denmark should set out a proclamation that all the ceremonies of Moses law as offering up of calves and frankincens should no more be called & taken for Moses ceremonies but for his should not Moses ceremonies continued Moses ceremonies still for all the proclamation? I think so. Then is their no proclamation that can dispossess the the pope of his ceremonies and constitutiones but the ceremonies & ordinances which was his xii year ago shall be his ceremonies and ordinances still thoge a thousand proclamationes should command the contrary/ Ye must fyndde out an other hole to hide your father the fox in for here he can lurk no longer.  
Nevertheless like faithful foxy children ye have done the best that lay in you to cover him. For about seven year ago when men preached earnestly against the pope/ and he with all his ordinances was like to bedryven out of england/ a certain man to set him forward gathered together out of platina and such other writers/ what pope's had made all the ceremonies that are now in the church/ and to every ceremoni he assigned on pope or other/ which thing made the ceremonies begin to be less regarded than they were before/ Then ye fearing that they should be driven out of the realm with their father if they were taken for the pope's ordinances/ by your friends ye procured & brought to pass/ that the ceremonies which the pope made should no more be called the pope's ceremonies/ but the kings ceremonies. And this was set up and proclaned in every marketh town. In doing of which thing as much as lay in you ye made the king pope/ for if the pope's acts and the kings be all on/ then is the king the pope or else partner with the pope/ Whether say ye maketh the name of the pope/ the pope/ or the pope's acts and deeds. If ye say that the name of the pope maketh a pope then have ye many pope's in england for their are many that are called pope's in england which never the less hate the pope more than ye do/ The name of the Pope maketh not then the pop/ but the acts and deeds/ of the pope/ As not every man that is accused of theft and called a thief/ is a thief/ but he alone is a thief that doth the acts & deeds of a thief/ so it is not the name of the pope that maketh the pope but the pope's acts & deeds. Then it followeth well/ lykewys as he that layeth & assigneth to a true man the deeds and acts of a thief maketh a true man as much as lieth in him/ a thief/ so ye giving & laying to the king the acts & deeds of the pope/ as much as lay in you made the king the pope/ Call ye their for no more the pope's canon law/ the la of the church of england/ call no more from henceforward the pope's ordinances the kings ordinances for fere of it that followeth. It is plain then that ye hold still the pope's canon law and though ye have banished his name for a face/ that ye hold still his books and his ceremonies. Then answer me to a question/ Are their not many things in johan frithes books/ that are both good and godly and agreeing with the word of god? And then tell me why have ye condemned all his books for heresy and the readers of them and havers of them for heretics for not more than ij or three heresies even after your judgement/ seeing their are so many other godly things that are no heresy/ If ye say though there be many good things in his books what need Christian men to sek our good things out of an heretics book/ seeing their are books i now be side and therefore/ we burn the heretics books wih the heretics/ lest the heresy that the heretics taught should spread by the means of the books/ for as the voice of an heretic heard maketh heretics so the books of an heretic red make heretics/ & therefore we burn the on with the other/ answer me to this/ the pope is both an heretic and a traytore as their is none of you all that will deny/ then how happeneth it that when ye bamnisshed this heretic/ that ye burn not his books as well as other heretics books/ I know no other cause but that ye favoured them for your father's sake/ Well then as the books of a zwinglian heretic had and read make a zwinglian heretic/ so the books of a popish heretic/ had and read/ make a popish heretic/ But ally bishops of england that are canonists & all ye bishops commissaries have andrede the books of a popish heretic that is to wit the canon law that the heretic pope made/ ergo my lords ye and your commissaries are all heretics/ As ye judge other men so shall ye be judged/ moreover as heretics books are the seed that heretics come of/ so popish books are the seed that papistes cum of/ Then he that will not burn heretics books but will mantein them will that their shall be many heretics/ even so they that will not burn the pope's books but will maintain them will that their shall be many papists/ ye do so/ therefore ye would that their should be many papists/ as it is the most proper and peculiar work of a perfect best to engender another like in kind unto himself.  
What do ye gentle men of the clergi ye have not yet soluted this argument/ ye hold still the pope's doctrine ergo ye hold still the pope/ even him that the king would have driven out of england. If ye answer.  
The pope's doctrine that is contrari to the word of god is the pope that the king would have driven out of england/ but the ordinances above rehearsed are not contrari to the word of god therefore we hold not still the pope that the king would have driven out of england. To this answer/ i say that the kings highness going about to deliver his subjects from the bondage of the pope and inten ding to drive out of his realm/ abbots priores nuns monks and freris which occupied the most part of his realm and proposed to set right Christian men in their places/ as por men's sons/ to be afterward preachers of the word of god/ blind lame/ and other poor Christian folk/ intended such a thing as all mighty god did when he delivered the chyldere of Israel from the bondage of pharaoh/ and drove out the chanaanites of their land that the true Israelites might have that land and succeed them.  
But allmyghty god gave this commandment unto moses the guide & deliverer of the Israelites out of egypt/ & all the children of Israel thus/ After the coustom of the land of Egypt where as ye have duelt shall ye not do. And after the manner of the land of chanaan in to the which i shall bring you/ shall ye not do/ and in their most lawful ways shall ye not walk/ ye shall do my judgements/ and my command mentes shall ye keep iam the lord your god/ Do not those things that they have done which was be fore you/ seek in the xviij. of Leuitici and thes words shall ye find. So learned men whom the king appointed to deliver his subjects from the bondage of the Romish Pharaoh the pope/ aught to have sweped the church & driven quite out of it all that ever any pope had made/ and if that Christ's church could not have been ruled and ordered christianly inoghe by the doctrine of Christ where with the primative church was only governed then might you have gone abegging to your father the pope otherwys called Antichrist desiring him to let you have sum of his ceremonies to govern Chistes' church with all/ which with out them were not able to stand. The law of the gospel is a avc-d perfect law for the Christian then the law of Moses was for the jews. But the jews needed no other law nor ceremonies then the law of Moses/ then the Christian men need no other law (as touching their souls) but the law of the gospel. Therefore if the canon law and the ceremonies above rehearsed were all at the devil from whence they came the church of Christ might be a great deal better governed than it is now governed/ or else was the church in the apostles times but evil governed/ which knew not on of thes ceremonies that ye have in the church at this day.  
Now have we showed you by the example of the scripture/ that thoge the ordinances of the pope had been lawful/ that ye ought not to have holden them. Howbeit i shall prove the pope's ordinances which ye hold still/ are as much contrary to the scripture as is light to darkness and Christ to belial/ let us therefore examine the chief and most laudable ceremonies as ye take them/ with ye touch stone of the word of god./ Is the creeping of the cross agreeing with the word of god? whatsoever ye say/ i say nay/ & thus will i prove it. In creeping of the cross ye worship the cross but the worshipping of the cross is contrary to the word of god there for the creeping if the cross is contrary to the word of god. If ye say that in creeping of the cross that ye worship not the cross/ i shall prove you falls liars not only by the authority of the scripture/ but also by your oun words that i have written & by your oun confession. To worship/ as i will prove it by the authority of the word of god/ is to bow to any thing. to fall down before any thing/ to kuele/ or with reverent behaviour to kiss any thing/ for so betokeneth the latin word adoro/ & the grek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word signifieth to kiss/ Here Regum 3. cap. 19 Derelinquam mihi septem milia virorum in Israel quorum genua non sunt incuruata ante Baal & omne os quod non adoraverit eum osculans manum. I will leave unto me seven thousand men in Israel whose knees have not been bowed before baal/ and every mouth which hath not worshipped him kissing his hand. ye may see that to kneel or to bow be fore an image or Turrian idol is to worship it/ and that lykewis that to kiss Turrian image or an idol is to worship it for here the scripture showeth the manner of worshipping/ whereby we may know who worshippeth and who worshippeth not/ If ye require more scripture/ to prove that to fall down and to bow before a thing/ is to worship it/ here what is written in the x. chapter of the acts of the appostelles'/ when saint Peter came unto Cornelium Cornelius as sound as he saw him Procidens ad pedes adoravit eum/ falling down at his feet worshipped him. It is also writ in the 22. chapter of the revelation of johan. how that the angel would not suffer johan worship him/ in thes words/ And after that i had heard and seen/ i fell down before the feet of the angel to worship him which showed me thes things/ And he said unto me/ see that thou do not so/ for i am thy fellow servant etc. worship god. Now may ye evidently perceive that bythes places of scripture that to kiss an image reverently/ to bow to an image or before an image or to kneel to it or to any such thing is to worship it. But ye knel to the cross and before the cross/ ye bow to the cross and kiss the cross/ therefore ye worship the cross in creeping the cross as ye call it/ But sum of you peradventure/ possessed with the spirit of the devil/ which findeth out ever excuses and defence for his service idolatri/ will answer to me/ as the heathen answered the old Christian men/ when they blamed them for worshipping of gold and silver/ that ye worship not the image of the crucifix but Christ himself that the image representithe/ To this excuse i make this reason. To kiss the cross itself is to worship the cross itself but ye kiss the cross itself/ ergo ye worship the cross itself. But if this reason be not strong inoghe/ i shall prove with an other place of the scripture beside the iij. above rehearsed that/ to worship before anything is to worship the same.  
It is written luk the iiij. that the devil said unto Christ.  
All thes things shall be thine/ if thou falling down will worship before me/ And Matthew telling the same history say eth i will give the all thes things if thou will worship me/ Then if luke and Matthew write all on sense and differ not in rehearsing of the histori then is it all on thing to worship before a thing and to worship a thing. The grek word that is turned in to english before is more plain than the english is for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beside before/ betokeneth in a man's sight or before one's face/ well ye worship before the cross/ ergo ye worship the cross. Moreover if that worshipping before an image/ be not the worshipping of an image/ why have ye commanded that noman shall set any candle before any image save only before the crucifix/ when as the people might answer to them that accused them for worshipping of images/ when they set candles before images & kneeled before images/ we worship not the images we set candles in the honour of the saints that the images do repraesent & not in the honour of the images/ If this excuse be not allowable/ then is not your excuse allowable when ye say we worship be fore the cross but not the cross. Ye hold still that the saints in heaven are to be worshipped/ but ye hold that no images may be worshipped saving the image of christ crucified/ which commonly is either of gold or else of silver & gilded with gold/ What a driving away of idolatri is this to forbid the worshipping of images of tree & stone & to compel men in pain of death to worship images of silver & of gold? As though the scripture allowed golden images & silver images to be worshipped/ Nay the scripture reproveth even the golden images in thes words The images of the heathen are gold & silver the works of men's hands all they that make them/ be lyk them & all they that trust in them. I have proved now by sufficient witnesses of the scripture/ that to worship before an image is to worship it. ye worship before the image of the crucifix ergo ye worship the image of the crucifix/ If ye deny still that ye worship the cross or the image of the crucifix/ i will prove you liars by your own words which ye have both said/ & intent to say again/ Tell me what do ye sing and say on good friday when ye creep the cross and the people crepyth after you? Sing ye not/ Crucem tuam adoramus domine lord we worship thy cross. And that all false excuses should be holden out/ that ye say not/ that by the cross ye mean the passion of Christ/ it is written in your ordinari rubric/ Deportetur crux per medium chori a duobus sacerdotibus ubi a populo adoretur. Let the cross be born thorough the quere by ij priests/ that their it may be worshipped of the people/ Can ij priests cari the passion of Christ in their hands/ i trow nay. Seek thensum other shift for this will not serve. Bethys' time ye cannot deni but that ye both worship images and compel other men to worship them also which thing i shall evidently prove that it is as contrari to the scripture as antichrist is to Christ. And thus will i prove it. If it be not lawful to make an image and to have an image/ it is not lawful to worship an image bade an made. But the scripture forbiddeth to make images and to have images than much more it forbiddeth to worship them/ Here the places of the scripture which forbidden the making & having of images Exod. xx. Thou shall make the no graven image etc. Levinci xxuj. I am your lord god. ye shall not make you a similitude of a god/ or a graven image/ Deuteronomij iiij. ye have seen no likeness in that day that the lord spoke unto you in oreb from the mids of the fire/ lest ye perchanse deceived should make unto you a graven likeness/ or the image of a man or a woman or the likeness of beasts of the earth etc. Deuteronomii xxvij. Cursed be the man that maketh a graven or a casten image/ the abomination of the lord/ The wis man in the xiii. chapter curseth both the image and the image maker/ If this be the scripture and the word of god that i have rehearsed/ then must ye needs grant that it is not lawful to make an image/ or at lest that it is unlawful to make an image/ and after that at is made to worship it/ If that ye grant either of thes ij as ye must needs do/ that it is forbidden by gods holy word either to make images or to worship images that are made/ ye cannot deny but that ye be damnable doctores/ & earnest servants to the devil/ which both worship images yourselves as ye testify in your service/ & compel the poor people against their consciences to worship images & commit idolatri for your pleasure./ If ye say the scriptures before rehearsed forbidden to make the images of false gods as of jupiter & of Mercuri & such other/ & to worship them/ but they forbidden not to make the image of Christ & to worship it. This saying is as falls as god is true for god sayet deu. v. in the second commandment/ Thou shall make the no graven image neither the likeness of anythynges which are in heaven above & which are in the earth beneath/ & which are in the waters under the earth thou shalt neither bow to them nor worship them/ Now tell me whether Christ is in heaven or no/ if he be in heaven/ as ye cannot deny but he is then it is forbidden by the scripture to make any likeness of him and to worship it & to bow to it for the word of god sayetht thou shall make the no likeness of anything that is in heaven above neither shall thou worship it nor bow to it. But ye make the image of Christ which is in heaven/ & bow to it & worship it therefore ye do openly contrari to the open word of god/ Therefore either condemn & scrape out the second commandmend/ or else leave of the creeping of the cross & the worshipping of the crucifix in bow into it & in kneeling to it. For the creeping of the cross & the second commandment of god can no longer agree together.  
But i will conclude this matter with an argument not easi to assoil/ If it be vnlaw full to fall down to worship the better and worthier thing/ it is much more unlawful to bow to fall down to worship the worse thing and the unworthyer/ thing. Saint Peter saint Paul the angel that showed johan his revelation are better & mor worthy than the image of the crucifix that ye call the cross But if they we here all together it were not lawful to worship them Actorum x. & xiv. Apocalyp. xxij. ergo much mor is it unlawful to bow to fall down to worship the image of the crucifix/ And yet ye say that ye hold no popish ordinances contrari to the word of god.  
Is the conjuring of salt & water to drive devels a way/ & to he'll all sicknesses/ & to take away sins agreeing with the word of god? ye will answer me in english that ye make not your haly water for any such intent but only to be a remembrance of Christ's blood/ but on sunday ye will answer me in latin that ye make it to drive away devils/ to he'll all sicknesses and to purchase forgiveness of sins. Your answer is printed & it is said every sunday in every parish church of england/ in thes words/ Immensam tuam clementiam omnipotens aeterne deus humiliter imploramus etc. All mighty everlasting god/ we humbely beseech the that thou would witsafe with thy holinis/ to bliss and make holy/ this thy creature of salt/ which thou hast given to the use and profit of man kind/ that it may be to all them that receive/ it health of both body and soul/ And the cherm that ye say over the water every sunday is this O creature of water i conjure the in the name of allmyghty god the father and in the name of jesus Christ his son/ that thou may be conjured water to cast out devels & to put away sicknesses. etc. If ye say not thes words as oft as ye make haly water/ let me be hanged drawn and quateredras a traitor to all mighty god & to my even christian. How happeneth this ye gentle men of the clergi that ye say on thing in latin and an other in enhlishe? If any man speak against this your witched water/ ye defend it in the pulpit and say that ye make it to be a remembrance only of Christ's blood/ and not to drive devils away and to be health of both body and soul/ and on the sunday next following ye say in latin that the people should not perceive your cloaked lying that ye make it to drive devels a way & to be health of both the body and the soul/ Ye crafety canonists/ ye play with haly water/ pope Alexander's daughter/ as a certain canonist agentle man of the church did with an whore of his. He occupied his whore very long and sum began to spy her/ He them willing to hold his hore still/ cut her hare and made her a scolares' short gonws and so he went up and down in the town with her and noman suspect her/ never the lesshe was a very whore and her patron lay with her every night. So did ye long abuse this foresaid pope's daughter/ but as sound as your fornication was spoken against in the pulpit/ ye changed her apparel & put on her the signification of Christ's blood/ on the day/ that is to wit when learned men was by you & her/ & spoke against you/ & on the night when learned men were away/ in the presence of a few blind old wives ye abused her as ye had wont to do. O double adulterous generation/ both in the body & in the soul/ Now let us examine. your gentle woman & play the proctores of cambridge. till we have searched her out what she is. No man asketh any thing of god but it that he believeth possible & may well be/ ye axe of god that salt may be unto you & to all them that receive it salvation of body & soul/ ergo ye believe that it is possible and may well be/ that salt may be salvation to all them that receive it/ But salt is an other thing besides christ and ye believe that men may be saved by it/ ergo ye believe that their is or may be an other saviour or salvation beside christ/ I will not suffer you lightly to slip a way from with out an answer ye say to god allmyghty/ grant us that this salt may be salvation or health of body and soul to all them that receive it.  
Believe ye that it that ye are is possible or impossible/ If it be impossible/ ye be wise prayers/ If ye believe that it is possible that ye axe/ then believe ye that it is possible that salt may be salvation of both body and soul/ But seeing that their are no more parts of a man but his bodies and his soul/ & christ can do no more to aman but to hele both body and soul/ and ye say that it is possible that salt may hele both body and so l. then it followeth that ye believe that your conjured salt may do as much as christ.  
And if this be not an heresy/ to say that it is possible that salt may do as much as our redeemer and saviour JESUS CHRIST both god and man can do/ what is heresi? Now at lenghe thanks be unto god we have found out the right heretics. let them that have authority to punish heretics/ look upon them that hold this damnable opinion.  
Tell me ye bald shaven sheep/ which have the pope's mark in your crowns/ how happeneth it that ye be weary of Christ's salvation that ye pray the father of heaven to make you another saviour of salt/ Hath christ at any time disappointed any of you or any other man that trusted in him/ that ye desire the father to make an other saviour of salt?  
If he be a sufficient saviure alone & disappointed at no time them that trust in him/ what nedeye desire the father that salt may be health of body & soul? let them that under stand latin cum the next sunday to the church when the priest maketh haly water & they shall besur to hear the priest desyrnge the heavenly father that salt may be salvation and health of both body and soul to all them that/ receive it/ But lest ye should escape i will prove you open idolaters by this your prayer To whom soever ye give the properti of god/ the same ye make god/ as the childer of Israel made a god of the golden calf when they said that it brought them out of egypt/ for none but god could. deliver them thorough the red se from Pharaoh and the aegyptianes/ and so they gave to the calf that was dew to god. But ye give the property of god unto salt ergo ye make a god of salt/ I prove thus that ye give the property of god unto salt/ The peculiar and alonely property of god is to be health of both body and soul/ and that give ye unto salt/ ergo ye make a god of salt/ then are ye damnable idolaters. If ye excuse your conjuring of the devil out of salt/ water/ fire/ and wylow boves/ and say we are the successors of the apostles/ nay their apes/ the apostles kest out devels why may we not also cast out devels as the apostles did? I answer with this question/ The apostles anointed sick men & prayed over them & they restored them unto their health again. How happeneth that among a thousand that ye anoint/ that ye restore not on to his heltht again? It is to be thought that/ the devil setteth as much by your conjuring of him away/ as he set by the conjuring of the seven sons of the high pressed sceva/ which was conjures/ read what luke writeth of them Act. 19 chapter But certain of the run negate jews that were conjures/ tok in hand to call upon the name of the lord JESV over them that had evil sprites saying. We conjure you by JESUS that Paul preacheth. for they that did that were seven sons of sceua the high pressed. But the evil spret answered/ and said i know jesus & Paul also/ but who be you? And the man that had the evil spret rushed upon them/ and overcame them and had the higher hand over them/ so that they fled away out of the house naked & wounded/ Belike the devil setteth as much by your conjuring which are the seven sons of the high pressed of this time the pope/ that is to wit cardinals archbishops/ bishops/ priests/ monks freris and chanones/ as he set by the conjuring of the seven sons of sceva the high pressed of the jews for i never heard tell that thes thousand years that ye keste on devil out of any thing that ye conjured yet/ It is like also that the devil having the higher hand over you/ pulleth the hear of your crows as many as are conjures and are the hy priest the pope's sons/ as he rend the clothes of the other high priests children & wounded them well by this mark may we be sure to know a conjuror and on of the pope's sons that hath unlukely fought with the devil. To make an end of this matter ye say to salt sis salus mentis & corporis be thou health of body and soul & the scripture sayeth of Christ/ necest in alio quoquam salus their is health in no other/ Now can ye nor say but that ye hold more popish traditiones contrari to the word of god then on.  
Is the taking away of the on half of Christ's supper from the lay men agreeing with the word of god? i think it is not. For theft & sacrilege is contrari to the word of god/ And the taking away of the on half of the supper from the lay people is theft and sacrilege/ therefore the taking a way of the on half of Christ's supper from the lay people is contrari to the word of god. Thus prove i that the taking away of the half of Christ's supper is theft & sacrilege/ Theft is the taking away of it that belongeth to an other/ against the auners will/ Sacrilege is the taking a way of an holy thing from them that it is dew to/ against their wills. But ye take from the lay people against their wills/ the half of the sacrament which is dew unto them/ Therefore ye commit theft and sacrilege. If ye deny that the half of the supper that ye take from them is dew unto them/ by what authority claim ye the hole supper that is both the parts of the sacrament If ye say by the authority of the scripture which sayeth/ take & eat this is my body/ & drink you all of this/ was this spoken & commanded to you and the apostles alone/ or it was spoken and commanded unto all christian men If ye say that it was said and commanded to you alone/ and to the apostles then do ye the lay men great wrong which compel the lay men in pain of death to receive the half of the sacrament/ which were not commanded of christ to receive it/ If that thes words take and eat/ and drink ye all of a this cup/ were as well said unto lay men as to priests then tayk ye away from the lay men against their wills/ it that is dew unto them/  
But to do so is to play the thieves and church robbers/ their for to take away from the lay people the on half of Christ's supper is theft and church robberi. But theft and church robbery is contrari to the word of god therefore it is contrari to the word of god to take the on half of the sacrament from the lay people/ If this reason be not strong inoghe here an other/ Whoso ever putteth any thing to the ordinance and commandment of god or taketh anything from it/ sinneth deadly/ Deuteronomi iiij. Ye shall put nothing to the word that i speak unto you/ neither shall ye take any thing from it. If it be deadly sin to reprove & disannul a man's testament that is once approved/ or to take any thing from it/ much more is it deadly sin to take any thing away from the testament of jesus christ which the father of heaven hath allowed. Galat. iij. But ye taking away from the lay people bibite ex ho comnes drink ye all of this/ that is the sacrament of Christ's blood/ take sum thing from the word of god/ & mangle & minish the last will of our saviour jesus christ/ & scrape out apart of chirstes will which was that all men should drink of his blessed cup/ therefore in taking of the sacrament of Christ's blood from the lay people ye sin deadly. If a man had ij sons a pressed and a lay-man/ the pressed is with his father at the making of his testament/ and the lay-man is away/ the father departeth and commandeth both the lay man and the priest/ to do on thing & to receive on thing/ the testament is allowed/ now whether doth the priest the lay man wrong or no if he will not let him receive the hole thing that his father willed him to receive or no? Ye see by this similitude that seeing that ye priests are our brethren/ and not masters above us and are all elyk bound to keep Christ's hole will/ that ye have no authority to defraud us & tayk from us that our saviour christ hath commanded us to receive/ and would that we should take. Is it agreeing with the word of god that a priest may say mes and receive the sacrament for a lay man and to teach that the priests receiving of the sacrament deserveth forgiveness of sins or at lest is profitable for lay men and for the souls departed? I think nay. Have ye any text in all the hole scripture whereby ye can prove that a lay man may not as well receive the sacrament for a priest as the pressed may receive it for a lay-man/ If ye have any lay it out/ If on lay man can not receve the sacrament for an other lay man & their by. win him forgiveness of sins/ a pressed can not receive the sacrament for a lay man & theyrby deserve him forgiveness of sins.  
For as on christian man cannot be christened for an other/ on cannot be confirmed for another/ on cannot be confessed for an other on can not repent for an other/ on can not take orders for an other/ on cannot be anointed for an other/ on can not be married for an other/ so cannot a christian man receive the sacrament of Christ's body and blood for another/ than if the pressed be a christian man he cannot receive the sacrament for a lay man. If allay man laboured sore from xii of the clock to six/ and at six of the clok his supper were ready/ iax if the lay man were sore hungres and thirsty/ if the parish priest should eat the laymannes' supper from him and drink up all his drink from him wheter should this priests eating & drinking quench the lay man's hunger and thirst or no/ prove that list/ i think nay. So if the lay man have a great hunger and a thirst to be comforted and streyntghened in his faith by the receiving of the sacrament/ shall the priests receiving of the sacrament comfort the laymannes' soul and certifis his conscience that his sins are forgiven by the blood of christ/ I trow nay/ or else but a little/ If that the priests receiving of the sacrament comfort men's consciences more than if the lay-men should receive it theirselves/ what need sick men that are like to die to have the sacrament borough unto them when as the priests receiving of the sacrament/ in the church comforteth as well the lay man's soul after your opinion/ & calleth to his remembrance the passion of christ/ so well as though the lay man had received it in his house his oun self? Ye hold that the receiving of the sacrament of priest helpeth more the lay-men both deed & quik then their oun receiving let us ●ri thy which examples/ reason/ & scripture. As all mighty god ordained the passover of the jews & the eating of their caster lamb/ for a remembrance of their deliverance from the scourging angel/ and from the bondage of Pharaoh/ so christ the son of god both god & man ordained his supper to be received of all christian men that they should call to remembrance the passion of christ & the shedding of his most precius blood which hath delivered our souls out of the bondage of the spiritual pharaoh the devil. As the priests and the lay men of moses law were all elyk bound to keep the f●ste of their passover/ and to thank god for their deliverance from the scourging angel and from the bondage of Egypt/ and the priests could not by the law of godgyve but the half of the lamb to the lay people/ so among christian men the lay menar as well bound to keep their easter & to call to remembrance the death of christ/ & to give thanks for their deliverance from the devil/ as the elders of the new testament are/ seeing that they have received like profit of Christ's death and passion/ And so the elders can not by the word of god tayk the on half of the supper from the lay people. As god would not all we it that in the old testament/ a priest should eat the ester lamb for a lay jew/ so will not god allow it in the new testament that an elder that ye call a pressed shall take the sacrament for allay man/ As an C. ye are after that the childer of Israel was delivered from the scourging angel & from the bondage of Egypt/ a pressed of the jews could not deserve the deliverance of the lay-men by earring the ester lamb whice was delivered an C. year be fore/ so the elders of the new testament/ cannot deserve the deliverance of the lay-men of the new testament that is fore gyvenes of sins by their receiving of the sacrament of Christ's body and blood/ seeing above xv. hundred year ago all the lay men that be leave in christ was delivered from death the devil and damnation/ as paul to the Heb. in the x. chapter doth plainly testify in thes words/ with on ablation and nomo he made perfect for ever all them that are sanctified & ordained to be saved Then cannot the pressed by the receiving of the supper of christ deserve our forgiveness of sins and our deliverance seeing that our deliverance is so long ago past and christ ordained not his supper to deserve our deliverance from the devil/ but to be a remembrance of our deliverance from the devil and to give god thanks for our redemption and deliverance.  
If that ye hold stiffly still that the priests receiving of the sacrament deserveth for the lay men both alive & departed forgiveness of sins or any manner of help for them/ bring out on title of the scripture to prove it with all/ If ye can bring no scripture/ answer to this question/ Whether is it a commandment of god to all christian to receive the sacrament or no. Ether it is a commandment or no commandment/ if it be no commandment then are not lay-men once in the year bound to receive the sacrament/ neither are priests bound to say me●/ If that it be a commandment/ How can a priest deserve in doing that for a lay-man that he is bound to do for himself? If it be a common commandment to all men/ to receive the hole sacrament/ god will not allow it that on man shall keep the commandment for an other but will require the keeping of the commanmendt/ of every on of ourselves. For if god would allow the keeping of the commandment/ of on man/ for an other man/ than needed no rich men/ were they never so devilish go to the devil for not keeping the commandment of god/ for than if priests might keep the commandments for lay-men/ & deserve them forgymenes of sins/ they might hire priests to keep the commandmentes for them that they might live lyk devils and die like saints and have everlasting life/ But now let us see what the scripture sayeth concerning this/ that on man may receive the sacrament and keep the commandment of god for an other/ What soever a man soweth (sayeth the scripture) that shall he reap/ The self scripture sayeth he that soweth scarcely shal●… reap scarcely/ of the which places i gather/ that he that soweth nothing shall rep● nothing Then i reason thus/ when the priest sayeth mes & receiveth the sacrament/ the lay men that are alive and the souls departed sow nothing/ for the pressed/ soweth alone/ then shall neither the deed lay men/ nor the quik/ reap any thing/ that is, shall receive no reward of god for the priests saying of mes and receiving of the sacrament for them/ for if the dead and quik should have profit by the priests receiving of the sacrament/ when they received it not theirselves/ then should they that sowed nothing/ contrari to the scripture/ reap sum thing and have a reward for doing nothing More over as the five foolish virgins could get no part of the five wise virgins oil. when the brydegrom came so they that do no god works theirselves/ shall have no part of other men's good works/ Then if the mes and the receiving of the sacrament be a good work they that say not mes theirselves or receive not the sacrament their selves/ shall have no part nor profit by the saying of mes or receiving of the sacrament of other that say mes and receive the sacrament/ How say ye also to this reason It that a pressed cannot do for himself that cannot he do for an other.  
But by receiving of the sacrament he cannot deserve himself forgiveness of sins/ then can he not deserve forgiveness of sins by receiving of the sacrament for other/ as for lay-men & for the souls departed. That he cannot deserve forgiveness of sins for himself in receiving the sacrament/ thus i prove it, the priest that is ready to receive the sacrament before he take it/ is either a good man & the servant of god & hath his sins all forgiven/ or he is an evil man & the servant of the devil/ & hath not his sins forgiven If he be a good man before he receive the sacrament & be the servant of god and have his sins forgiven/ then his receiving of the sacrament/ deserveth not him the forgiveness of his sins/ for his sins was forgiven before or he received the sacrament. If the priest a little while before he receive the sacrament be an evil man and the servant of the devil and have not his sins forgynen/ and so receive the sacrament he deserveth by unworthy receiving of the sacrament/ the judgement & wrath of god & no forgynenes of sins but more punishment for his new sin.  
Then what is here to spare for the lay people & for the souls departed? If it be true that when a lay man giveth a pressed ij pence or a groat to say mes for him/ & to receive the sacrament for him all that the pressed deserveth for receiving of the sacrament is the laymamnes deserving/ when the pressed is a whoremonger & a deadly sinner/ as many on be/ then the priests deserving of the wrath of god for unworthily receiving of the sacrament for the lay-man/ must needs be the lay man's deserving/ and so buyeth he with his money the wrath of god/ Allmyghty god save me & all christian men from such merchandise. Will ye yir say still that ye hold no traditiones of the pope contrari to the word of god? Say ye that it is agreeing with the word of god/ or not contrary to the word of god/ that all the Psalms that are song in the church/ that all the Messes that are said in the church/ should be song and said in the old pope's mother tongue which the people of england doth not understand/ i will prove it contrary to the word of god though all they that hold on the pope's side would defend it to be god and lawful. It is a wondered thing to see how that ye blind bysshoppesr petend to hate the pope/ & yet love so well his works and his deeds that in all things ye follow him. as near as is possible on man to follow an other. The pope shaveth his heed brother than the common sort of priests do and hath a distinct kind of apparel from all other christian men also/ and will be reckoned higher than his other brethren that are ministers of the word of god as well as he is/ and that contrary to the word of god which maketh all the apostles of like authority and not on above an other and so do ye _____/ The pope forbiddeth to eat flesh many times in the year as in lent and on the fridays and yet selleth licens for money to eat all times/ and so do ye.  
The pope will that the canon law and the ceremonies be had in great reputation & not to be put forth of the church thoghe they hinder the preaching of god's word and the praying with heart and spret/ which are the true and right service of god/ and so do ye and lest the pope should have any peculiar & several ungodly properti to differ by from the apostles of Christ that ye should not have/ the pope willeth & commandeth in all places where he hath domination that all Psalms and all messes shall be said and sung in his old mother latin tongue thoge the people understand never on word of the latin tongue/ yet this doth he in a token that the people hearing the romish tongue which is latin should knowledge themselves to be under the se of Rome/ ye Christian in the pope's tongue and berry in the pope's mother tongue and sing all the Psalms that ●r song/ in the pope's mother tongue/ and command straightly that all the things above rehearsed shall be said song and done in no other tongue but in the pope's mother tongue which is the latin tongue/ in a token that ye serve not away from the pope of rome. The jews which would never knowledge the pope to be their heed sing their service and Psalms in hebru/ The greeks which have of long time departed from the pope sing their service in their oun mother greek tongue/ the bemers which fell long ago from the pope have forsaken the pope's mother tongue and sing all the service in their oun tongue/ The germans which of late left the pope left also the pope's tongue/ and now sing all service and Psalms in their oun duche tongue and so all countries which forsake the pope in very deed and earnestly/ forsake the pope's ordinances and the pope's romish tongue/ as touching singing Psalms and service therein. But ye bishops of england ye alone among all other nationes that forsake the pope/ hold still the pope's ordinances and the service in the latin tongue. Ye think belyk that ye are wiser than all other nationes/ How beit i shall prove that ye do clean contrari to the word of god in singing the service in a tongue that the people doth not understand Saint Paul in xiv chapter of the former epistle to the corinthianes doth a most no other thing then disallow your singing and saying in a strange tongue in the church that the people doth not understand. But if ye require sum testimonies out of that chapter/ here what Paul sayeth  
He that speaketh in a tongue (that is in a language that the common people understandeth not (speaketh not unto men but unto god for noman heareth him (that is understandeth him) but he speaketh secret privities in the spret But he that prophesieth (that is declareth and openeth the scripture) in atong that the people understandeth he speaketh unto men profit for their soul's exhortation and comforth/ He that speaketh in a tongue profiteth himself but he that prophetieth buildeth the congregation/ And a little farther in the same chapter. As oft as ye mere together/ every on of you hat this song his doctrine his tongue his revelation/ his interpretation/ and let all things be done to the profit of the congregation/ So far Paul/ What profit hath the unlearned man in hearing the gospel red in the latin tongue that he understandeth not be it never so trimly red or chanted? Even as much profit as a sick man hath of a phisitianes bill when the pothecary readeth it over the sick man's heed in latin and ministereth nothing to the sick man that is contained their in Paul sayeth more over whether any man speak in atong (that is in a speech that the comum sort understandeth not) let it be done by ij together at the uttermost iij and that by course and let on expound or tell what it meaneth But if their be none that will interpret or expound let him hold his peace and say nothing in the church/ but let him speak to himself and to god Thes are the words and commandment of god taught us by his holy apostle saint Paul/ whereby your latin messes and latin even souges are utterly condemned seeing they are said and songin a tongue that the church understandeth not/ and ye do not interpret and declare it that is said in a tongue that the people doth understand/ Ar their no more but three at the utter most in Paul'S spekyngin in tongues/ at once? If their be more than three when thee is the commandment of god given by saint Paul broken or no? I pray you what mean ye to say in latin to the lay people that ye know well understandeth no latin at all/ dns vobiscum/ orate pro me fratres/ & 〈◊〉 missa est Ether ye saythes words to god or to all the people/ if ye say them to god than ye bid god/ be with god/ & that is wisely doen/ wit ye well/ or if ye say them to the lay people either ye speak to them that they should know what ye mean/ if ye would that they should know what ye me an/ why do you speak latin to them that ye know can understand non/ if ye speak latin to them becaws they should not understand you/ hold your tongues & speak nothing at all & then have ye gotten your purpose/ for them they shall not wit what ye mean/ & if ye hold oyur tongues ye shall not spend in vain so much lib● labour as ye do. Answer me to this before ye call me heretic. & when ye have once made a reasonable answer & confuted and overcunned my reasons/ if i stand stiffly in my opiniones if & give not over to you them spare not but call me heretic as oft as ye will but if ye cannot overcome thes resones/ which if they were not of god might be easily overcummed and therefore will not answer grant by holding of your peace/ that ye are overcummed/ and give over your hold and say peccavimus cum patribus nostris/ we have done amiss with our father's Mor of thus shall ye hear here after/ How happeneth this that neither ye will read the scripture in the english tongue your selves/ to the lay people neither will suffer them that can read the scripture to read for it their souls helt/ and great comforth of other that hear it red? It is with our all strife and out of all doubt/ that ye love not Christ and would that all the lay men were blind and had no knowledge of scripture no more then they had xx year ago that ye might play your old practices/ and have no man to look on/ to correct you/ Even as a hore monger when he seeth a fair woman & would have his pleasure of her would that it were nigh and that all other men were blind till he had his pleasure/ When the new testaments came in first it was counted heresi to have a new testament and many have been cruelly handled for selling of new testaments in english/ which thing syger of cambrydg can testify if he will as not only a seeing but also a feeling witness.  
On noble canonist bought up half a print of new testaments/ and for the love that he had to the maker of the testament/ offered them up in a  sacrifice to pleas vulcanus & the pope with all who at those days sat deeply in his conscience/ This man left of burning of testaments and other began to burn men/ & as yet have not made an end. But after that the king of his goodness that god gave him had once granted that the new testament might be openly bought & sold and that every man might have the new testament and read it/ ye bishops for a great while durst say nothing their to. Ye said as little to the having of the hole bible in english / wiche the king an the spite of your teach brong in to the church/ that all men might know their duties/ reading of it/ till that ye had confirmed the pope's doctrine with act of parliament/ & had slain and murdered the chief manteners' of the bible next unto the king. Then ye being loath that your acts should be tried and examined with the bible/ went about & do so still to drive the bible out of the church again/ Ye have given commandment that no man shall read the bible that any man may hear him read/ afterwards ye commanded that no man should read the bible in service time/ And because men should learn to keep your commandment that is/ while ye red in the quere the pope's service and the devels service/ that no man should read the word of god/ ye of late mundered on porter in prison/ for no other cause but for reading of the bible/ that other men should not be to bold to read it/ Ye never put any man to death yet for advoutre/ or hordom/ therefore ye reckon it a greater offence to read the gospel I of saint johan in the service time & the words that Christ spoke/ then to lie with an whore/ And to read the words Omelie Gregorij Pape/ in the pope's tongue that all the church may hear them/ is reckoned to be god's service and to read the gospel of jesus Christ in the englis he tongue that seven or eight may hear/ is reckoned of you the devils service/ for ye forbidden nothing but it that/ ye reckon is the devels service/ It followeth then that ye reckon the pope god and Christ the devil/ for him reckon ye god whose words to read and keep ye reckon is god's service.  
And him reckon ye the devil or at lest the son of the devil/ whose words to read and to keep ye reckon the devils service and punish men for the reading of his words. Thes follow of your deeds/ and because every man cannot gather after this manner/ as oft as i see just occasion i shall let you and all england know of your heresies and damnable opiniones & devilish deeds that ye do and intend to do/ which thing i would not do if i knew you not for obstinate wrestlers against gods holy word. If ye say we would not utterly have the bible suppressed but we would have it better translated/ what time would ye have to correct it/ perchance so many years as the kings highness shall live/ & then after his death ye have a good hope with the help of them whose children ye find/ to hold it down till that the prince cum to perfect age and then to if ye can. For the bible is the breath of god's mouth wiche ye have red shall kill your father antichrist and you. If ye say we would not have the bible out of the church again but only we desire that god's service shall not be hindered by the laymennes reading/ well them what call ye goddess service/ ye will say iansuer that all that is song & said in the quere is God's service / as thoge it that were red said or sung in the body of the church were none of god's service/ This answer will i thus improve/ the more part of it that is red in the church is no scripture/ as are lying legends which are bigger than the bible/ sequences/ secrets/ colates coniurynges/ of water salt fyr & bows/ litanis responds & such other/ whose reading saying & singing cannot be god's soruice/ for christ sayeth/ Matt. xv. they worship me in vain that teach the commandments of men/ & the learning of men/ then seeing that the legends & the colates are made by men/ & the clerks in the quere in reading them teach them it followeth that they worship god in vain/ them is their service vain/ god's service is not vain service then the greater half of that which is red in the quere is non of god's service/ that is to wit the legends colates coniurynges/ secrets sequences & such other/ Now the other part of it that is read in the quere is pure scripture/ of whose hearing lay-men have as much profit as allay & unlearned man hath of the hearing of a latin play or comedi/ Howbeit i will prove that even the most part of that scripture saying that it is said and sung contrari to god's mind is none of god's service/ in all them & in all other that say the scripture with their lips & not with their hearts/ that is undstand not what they sing & say & life not their minds up to god/ as do all they that sing latin service & understand no latin/ as the most part of choristers singing men and soul priests & many body priests also/ commonly do/ god commanded that the scripture should not be song or said in a strange tongue except it were straight way exponded/ that is not done/ then is the scripture said & soug not after god's mind their for it is not god's service so song and said/ And that they that understand not latin worship not god nor serve god with singing of the scripture in latin thus i provit. johan 4. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth/ that is unfeignedly with heart and mind/ so do not they that sing they wots not what Christ also Matthew 15. reproveth such servers and worshippers which neither understand nor mark what they say in thes words/ this people draweth ner hand me with their mouth and worshippeth me with their lips but their heart is far from me/ Now have i proved that your service in the quere is not god's service/ but vain lip labour except it be song and said with heart and mind as they do not which understand not what they sing/ except also it be scripture and song & said after the ordinance of god/ If it be god's service to sing in the quere the Omelies of Pope's/ Legends of saints/ & such verses Sancte Maries merits bring us to heaven and all in the latin tongue/ then must it much more be god's service to read in the body of the church/ the text of the scripture which is better than the pope's gloss/ the acts of the apostles/ and such other texts of the scripture/ No man cometh to the father but thorough me/ i am tha way the truth & the life/ Then why forbid ye the better for the worse/ why for bid ye lay men to read the bible in your service time seeing the lay men may have much more profit of hearing of five words red in english that they understand/ then of v thousand words that they do not undstand/ be they never so fyvely chopped champed or chanted? Paul sayeth let all thing be done to the edification and profit of the church/ but your service song and said in the latin tongue/ is not for the profit of the church/ therefore it is contrari to the word of god that ye should sing the service or say it in the latin tongue/ If ye require the sum of all together in an argument take it unto you No man is edified by hearing it that he doth not understand/ and therefore hath the king commanded that all lay-men shall learn their Pater nostet in english/ but the lay-men understand not the service said and sung in the latin tongue/ therefore they are not edified or made any better by hearing it in the latin tongue.  
Is it agreeing with god's word that ye forbid all men both learned and lay the hole half year save 12. days/ to marry/ & will suffer no man to be a preacher of god's word/ or a minister of Christ's church except he for swear marriage first/ is it agreeing with god's word to say that apreste may not have a wife by the word of god? I say that this your doctrine is the doctrine of the devil/ for Christ alloweth marriage in all men and in all times/ Honourable is marriage among all men sayeth Paul/ and the same sayeth if they cannot for bear and have not the gift of chastity let them marry/ this commandeth god by Paul to be done/ at all tynes ye even in your holy lent time if a man have not the gift of chastity. Ye have boldly and wikkedly given sentence in your convocation house that a pressed may not have a wife by the law of god and vit can ye not show on letter in all the hole bible that forbiddeth priests to have wives/ ye say that they may have no wives by the word of god and yet they may have as i have proved by the bible/ therefore ye reckon their is sum thing the word of god beside the bible i think that ye take the canon law for the word of god/ or at  regard it as much as the word of god/ ye make men believe that ye have scripture to prove your purpose with all/ and yet the chief setter out of this article/ the noble waterer of the pope's gardin/ which of his deeds hath his name/ when he was required of Martin Bucer what scripture he had to prove that priests might not marry/ lyk a perfect canonist for lak of scripture made this reason/ The same authority hath the king over all the priests of his ream and his other subjects that a father hath over his childer/ But a father may forbid the priests of his realm to marry. Then if they marry when he forbiddeth them to marry they break the commandment of god/ which sayeth children obey your fathers & mothers. Now let us see what followeth of this gardeners argument/ First it followeth that the king hath authority to forbid all men in his realm both that have the gifft of chastity and ha' it not to marry as long as they live and so utterly may by gardeners judgement destroy matrimoni/ It followeth of this argument/ that once in time past that it was not unlawful for priests to marry that is to wit before the king forbade priests to marry/ If followeth of gardeners reason that the king forbade priests marriages before god forbade them and that the king made the marriage of priests sin before god/ and that it were no sin for a pressed to marry if that the king would not forbid priests to marry.  
Mark this well ye temporal lords and ye burgesses of the parliament how this lying limb of the the devil/ when he is in germany can find out no scripture to disprove priests marriages with all/ but only that the kings for bidding of priests Marriages maketh priests Marriages unlawful and no other thing/ and when the kings highness and ye put this matter to the elergy to be tried with the scripture whither priests might marry or no this with his fellows gave a plain answer that by the word of god priests might not marry/ can ye abide ye noble lords that thes lying limbs of antichrist shall mok you thus and lie of the king our master and say of him that he maketh sin that god never made sin?  
I trust ye will suffer them no longer for it is hy time to lok upon them. Then when as ye master gardener with your other fellows can bring further never on text of the scripture that this for said forbidding of marriage of priests/ and of the marriage of lay-men for the on half of the ye are/ that it is the doctrine of god i will prove you by a plain place of the scripture that i● is the plain doctrine of the devil/ Paul in the former epistle to Timothe/ in the forth chapter sayeth plainly that forbidding of Marriage is the doctrine of the devil/ therefore seeing that the pope and ye teach the same doctrine ye have gone to scool with the devil/ then when ye want scripture to prove your doctrine with all say that an old aucient doctor holdeth the same opinion that ye do/ and understand doctor the devil/ for other authority have non/ Doctor devil the bishops scoolmaster always from man's creation his deadly enemi/ seeking all the means that he could to pull man from god perceiving that man had an unsteable desire given him of god to in creas and multipli his kind/ and an unavoidable appetite (few except) there for to have natural company with his appointed companion/ laboured all that he could/ utterly to destroy marriage/ which thing if if he had brought to pass seeing that/ children must needs be gotten/ as many children as should have been borne so many bastards/ should their have been born. At the getting of every child if should have gone to the devil/ that is both the father and the mother/ for they should have been hormonger and whore/ the devels onn peculiar cattle and the child when it came to age and got a chilh it should have be comed also the servant of the devil/ and so should all hole mankind have becummed the devils due possession. But be cause if the devil should have gone about destruction of marriage in his oun person/ because he is haytful/ he should have sped the worse/ he came to a pope holy heretic called montanus/ and him he stirred up to writ against matrimoni/ and so he did/ and taught that marriage should be broken/ as eusebius writeth in the v. bok nf the Ecclesiastical stori & in the 15. chapter. But Appolonius a good Christian man overcame this heretic and his doctrine so that he lost all his credence and their with fit the devil a great nonbre of his true servants/ Satan seeing that he could not sped by the means of an 〈◊〉 heretic he came to ascertain doctor and moved him to write against marriage and that did he in a book which he wrote against vigilantium in thes words following Bonum est mulierem non tangere/ ergo/ malum est tangere/ Nihil enim contrariatur bono nisi malum/ Quam diu impleo mariti officium/ non impleo Christiani/ jubet Apostolus/  semper oremus/ Si semper orandum est nunquam coniugio seruiendum est/ The english/ of this doctoris words is this/ It is good not to touch a woman/ then it is evil to touch her/ for their is nothing contrari to good but evil/ So long as as i full fill the office of 〈◊〉 married man/ i full fill not the office of a Christian man/ The apostle biddeth us that we shall always pray/ if that we must always pray we must not give ourselves to marriage/ or to serve marriage/ So far hath the doctor spoken/ This doctoris name was jeronimus/ which in this point erred sore/ & gave many other occasion to ere after bym which believed men with our scripture/ Howbeit Augustin writing de bono coniugij/ and other doctores did sufficienty/ overthrow this error of jerom/ and so was the devil twice disypoynted 〈◊〉 he would not give over his matter so/ but ever sought new shifts/ and than he came to his vicar in earth the bishops from/ and him he stirred & moved to destroy matrimoni & to allow common stews/ that they that lift might come thither to worslip him/ promising him for his labour to be the richest man in the world & of greatest estimation/ The pope/ hearing thes promises straight way went about to destroy matrimoni/ and first he commanded all that were his ghostly children & had his mark in their crowns should forswear marriage/ and he made a law that no man should be allowed to be a preacher in Christ's church except he forswear marriage first/ and fain would he have forbidden all lay-men to have married to/ But when they would not forswear marriage for him yet he lokked up marriage even from all lay-men/ for the space/ of the on half of the year save xii days/ Whereby the devil and the world might well perceive his good will that he had utterli to destroy marriage at the lest to move all men to think that marriage was sin/ and that the state of marriage was a sinful state/ And by the help of this his breare/ the devil got many a pray/ 〈◊〉 the germans seeing that this forswearing of marriage was the high way to the devil wrote earnestly against this forbyddyg of marriage and against the foolish and ungodly vows/ and against the pope himself and his autorire and riches which the devil gave him/ and at the length utterly forsaked the pope and all his vows and forswearings of marriage wihtall other lyk traditiones.  
After the germans/ the king our master commanded you earnestly to drive out the pope out of all places of his dominion also and to preach earnestly against him/ then the devil perceiving that the king was a bout to drive out the pope of his ream/ was a feared that the king should drive out with the pope for swearing of marriage/ unlawful vows/ the stews and all other ordinances that the pope made as the germans did when they bannysshed away the pope/ And their fore he came to you whom the king had appointed to drive out the pope/ and desired you that ye would/ manteyn the stews and that ye would not drive out of england the forswearing of marriage/ but that all thing concerning marriage of priests should continue as it had continued sense the time of Gregori the seventh/ and he promised you so long as ye would do so that he would help you to hold still your temporal lands/ your great honour/ riches/ and dignity/ And so my lords for the upholding of your pompos state ye will not drive out of endlond the forbidding and forswearing of marriage/ for of that matter ye fear that your honour and estimation doth hang. When ye shall make me an answer to this book/ tell me what authority have ye beside the authority of doctor devil to forbid marriage or to compel any man to for swear marriage/ seeing saint Paul saycht in the j Epist. to the corinth. in the seven. chapter. I have no commandment of virgins/ that is i have no authority of god to bind any man or woman to live single with out marriage/ If that saint paul have no authority to compel any man or woman to live with out marriage/ the king hath no authority to for bid any man to mari/ for saint paul had as much authority as the king in spiritu all matters/ prove the contrari if ye can/ If the king whom ye grant to be heed of the church have not that authority/ of whom have ye that authority/ if ye say ye have any such authority than ye make yourselves above the king. In your answer tell me how it happeneth that this place of Paul unto Timothe maketh not for priests marriages.  
A Bishop must be the husband of on wife/ I say that ye must either let this place serve for priests marriages/ or else ye must lose all your temporal lands/ and have nothing where with all ye may keep hospitality/ which Paul requireth in a Bishop/ For thus reason ye with this text for your temporal lands/ A bisspop must be herberos/ but with out temporal lan●es that can he not be therefore must a Bisspop have temporal lands. This text of Paul is as free for me as for you/ A bishop must be the husband of on wife but with out a wife he cannot be the husband of on wife ergo he must have on wife. If ye expoud this place of Paul/ Oportet Episcopum esse unius uxoris maritum/ hoc est fuisse unius uxoris maritum/ a Bishop must be the husband of on wife/ that is a Bishop must have been the husband of on wife/ Ia● of you/ whether all thes things that paul speaket of here/ are requieed in a man that is to be chosen a Bishop/ or are they required all/ in him on lie/ that is chosen all ready/ or theyar required both in one that is to be chosen and in him that is all ready chosen/ If ye say that thes properties are required all/ in him alone that is chosen all ready/ then is he eligible and may be chosen to be a bishop/ which is a drunkard/ a murderer & hath ij wives so that after that he is chosen/ he benon of this sort. If ye say that thes proerties/ to be faultless/ to bethe hussband of on wife/ watching sober/ lowly/ herberus/ etc. be required in him on lie that is not yet chosen a bishop but standeth in the election to be chosen/ and not in him that is chosen all ready/ then may a Bishop after that he is chosen once and made Bishop be/ full of faults the husband of many wives a sleper a drunkard/ high minded/ and unherberos which thing/ to grant is an unconvenient/ Therefore ye must grant that thes properties are both required in him that standeth to be chosen/ and in him that is chosen all redi. Therefore both the man that standerh to be chosen and he that is now chosen all ready a Bishop must be faurles/ the husband of on wife modest herberous watching sober etc. Thorfore either grant that paul requiret in a Bishop that is chosen that he have nomo wives but on/ & that he may have on/ or grant that Paul requireth not in a bishop that is made all ready to be herberous For those things that Paul sheaket of in on mode/ on tense/ in on text/ all tegether/ he doth elike require at on time/ or else reprove in on time/ then seeing that he sayeth in on mode tense & text together a Bishop must be the hushande of on wife/ sober and herberous/ then doth he clyke require that a bishop should haven a wife or nomo wives but on as he requireth that he should be herberous & sober/ Then if having of a wife be long not to a bysthop then sobbrenes & keeping of hospitality be longeth not to him If he be not bound to keep hospitalite/ he must have no lands to keep hospitalite/ If ye say that oportet esse must signify oportet fuisse that is/ must be/ must be taken on  for must have been then it is not required by your gloze in a man that is a Bishop to be faultless/ to have but on wife/ to be watching/ sober/ modest/ herberous/ fit to teach/ no win drinker/ no smiter/ not given to filthy lucre/ but it is sufficient if he have been all thes/ He is sufficient Bishop by your exposition if he have been faultless/ though he be as full of open crimes/ as a leopard is full of spots/ It forceth not/ if he have iij wives & thirty hores so that he hath had no more wives but on/ It maket no matter if he be a sleeping and adom dog so that he hath been watching and diligent/ he need not to be sober when he is once made Bishop/ but he may occupi all manner of excess so that he hath be sober before he was bishop/ It skilleth not whether he be modest or no/ it is inoghe if he have been/ It is not required in him to be harberous/ fit to teach/ no win dryncker no smiter after that he is made a bishop so that when he was a scolar in cambridg or orford he hath been herberous fit to teach no smiter & no dronkerd lie may be then after that ye be once made bishops/ by your turning of esse in to futsse/ full of all sins/ the husbands of an C. wives sleeping dogs/ dronckerdes/ and murderer's/ And if a man say unto you Bysshopes/ Paul sayet ye may not be murderers ye may not/ be drunkards ye may have no more wives then on ye may by juggling of esse in to fuisse that is by juggling of be in to have been/ say yis. & that this is not the meaning of Paul/ for Paul requireth not now when we are once made bishops that we should be sober and have but on wife/ but that before we were bishops we should have been sober and the husbands/ of on wife etc. And so now we may be what we list/ wherefore i marvel the les that so many bishops which have been in canbrydge and exford before they were bishops/ watching and fit to teach/ are be comed sleeping dogs that dare not bark/ and more fit to flatter then to teach god's word poorly with out the leaven of the doctores seeing that they are discharged from all thing that Paul requireth of aright bishop by this gloes a bishop must be/ that is a bishop must have been. But according to their glos/ the honest common people speaketh of them/ after this wise/ how continueth doctor Ericeus in preaching gods word and in promoting the gospel/ an other answereth by and by/ qui fuit. But ye care as much for the common report as an whore careth to be called a hore/ ye be so far past all shame. But to conclude this matter.  
That doctrine that forbiddeth it that Christ ordained is contrari to Christ/ but your doctrine forbiddeth it that Christ ordained ergo your doctrine is contrari to the doctrine of Christ.  
Is it agreeing with the word of god that stews shall be allowed and maintained in a Christian kingdom? I reckon no. The stews is a place where as the devil may be openly served with out any pomishment/ but in a christian king done the devils service ought not to be suffered openly to be done with out pomishment/ therefore the stews ought not to be suffered in a Christian kingdom Where as the life is allowed the learning that teacheth the living is also allowed.  
Then if ye allow the cause ye must needs allow the effect/ ye allow the stews therefore ye allow hordom/ if ye allow hordom ye approve the doctrine that teachech hordom. But that is heresy therefore to allow stews is to allow heresy/ If th● at ye would suffer priests to mari in any place of engonld men might gather that ye allowed the books that teach that priests may be lawfully married but when ye punish priests that mari with death/ men may gather that ye allow not the books that teacheth that priests may marry/ So when ye pomish/ not hordom but appoint certain places for it/ if followeth that ye allow it and the books/ that teach that hordom is no sin.  
And this followeth of your allowing of the stews/ As he that giveth lodging to a right prophet/ as Christ sayeth shall have the reward of a right Prophet/ So as johan/ in his Epistle sayeth he that lodgeth a false Prophet is partaker of all his evil deeds/ Even so he that wittingly giveth lodging to hormongers & hores shall be partaker of all the hordom that they commit/ but ye granting hores and door mongers a place where as they may lie together & serve the devil/ grant them loging therefore ye are partakers of all the hordom that is done in the stews. But steven master stewerd of the stews/ priapus & keeper of the pope's gardin peraduentur will defend his tenants & say we up hold the stews for the avoiding of a farther inconvenience. If their were no stews in london seeing their are so many wifeless & wanton curtiers/ their/ their would great violence be offered unto men's wives/ & much more adulter should reign then raineth now. But this polytik answer will not serve for s. Paul sayeth rom. 3 chapter/ evil is not to be done that good may ensue their upon. If it be once granted to all men to marry/ & yet they that are married will commit advoutre/ & they that have liberti to mary will not marry but will be whore honters and wedlok breakers still/ it shall be as lawful by the law of god to hang such as to hang thieves ye and more lawful/ For that offence that is greater is worth greater pomishment. Solomon in the sixth chapter of the proverbs sayeth that adulter is the greater offence than is theft/ therefore if theft be wortly hanging/ adultery is worthy it and a greater punishment beside. s. Paul saith in the fift chapter of the epistle to the ephesianes/ let not hordom be so much as once named among Christian men/ it that is forbidden to be named is forbidden to be done/ but hordom is for bidden to be named then much more is it for bidden to be done and allowed/ Paul calleth hordome leaven/ and will/ that such as be advouters and whoremongers should be excommunicated and not suffered to come among other christian people till they were ashamed of their sins/ and in tended to commit that offence no more/ i. Corint. in the v. chap. Allmyghty god Deuteronomij twenty-three. forbiddeth that any hores & door mongers shall be suffered among his folk in thes words/ Of the doghters of Israel non shall be hores/ and of the sons of Israel non shall be whoremongers/ If english people be spirltual Israelites this commandment also pertaineth unto them/ then is it not lawful to suffer in england any hores or hormongers. Then down must the stews for their bodily fornication/ as the abbeys was put down both for their fornication both bodily & ghostly/ Now havei tried the chief of your popish ordinances and traditiones and i have found them contrari to the word of god/ Now is there nothing to let me but that i may conclude my for said argument with out any contradiction or gain saying/ who soever holdeth still the popis doctrine which is contrari to the word of god holdeth still the pope that the king would have driven out of england/ but i have proved sufficiently that ye hold still the popis doctrine which is contrari to the word of god/ Therefore i have proved that ye hold still the pope that the king would have driven out of england/ Bethys' time i trow that the fox is found out/ and they are known that manteyn him & hold him still in this realm after that the king hath commanded him to be utterly banished out of all places of his dominion/ If such a poor man as i should hold still in england the kings enemi that he commanded me to drive out his realm i should be taken as a traitor/ but ye hold still the kings enemi that he commanded you to drive out of his realm/ then whether may a man call you tratoures or no? If ye be no traytores prove in your answer that ye will send me that ye hold no doctrine of the pope contrari to the word of god/ If ye be traytores and heretics and unlearned asses and have no knowledge but in the canon law and in old gloss & fantases of men/ answer nothing to my arguments but forbid my book to be red/ and in holding your peace consent that all that is said of you in this book is true. If ye be learned men and have knowledge in the scripture & love learning answer me like learned men and be not like privy murderers which will not tell a man that they murder wherefore they kill him but/ suddenly with out any axing of any question slay him suddenly/ Tell me by the scripture where i have said amyss and if i recant not call me heretic and do to me as ye should do to am heathen man/ But if ye comdemn my book and cannot overcome it by the word of god i shall set a play of your mischievous tyranny in latin that all the learned men that are now alive & the age for to cum shall know you what ye be/ and what ye have been. Allmyghty god give you grace to amend. Amen.   

An addition to the reder.  
AFter that i had finished this book it was told me that the bishops had made an act that none but gentle men and gentle women might read the scripture & certain rychmen/ But i will axe the autores of that act whither they suffer the gentelles & the rich to read the scripture for their soul's health/ or for their pastime/ If they suffer them to read it for their souls health/  
Died not Christ as well for crafts men and poor men as for gentle men and rich men and would not christ that the poor labouring men should have where with they might cunforthe their souls as well as rich men and gentle men? If they let the gentles and the rich read the scripture for their pastime/ then they have our saviour christ in great estimation which tayke his testament for a geste to make pastime with/ Butler sum politic man perchance will say The rich men and the nobles are wiser than the poor people & can order it well & so can not the ignorant poor people well/ beside that their are more gentle fools than yemen fools number compared to number/ as the fond lard of this town and foud lard of that town and beside that this younger brother and that hath the lands because the elder is a fool do testifk (which thing chancethe by the punishment of god for their false coming to their lands) what so ever thou best that for any such caws drivest poor men from the scripture i say that thou art on of the pharisees fools which said/ Turba haec quae non novit legem execrabilis est/ this common sort of the people which understandeth not the law is accursed. I axe also the autores of this act uhome i take to be burning bishops/ whether the 4. evangelists wrote truly the deeds of Christ and his preachings and whether their is any thing in the acts of the apostles and in the 4 gospels beside Christ's preachings and deeds & the apostles preachings & deeds that can make a labouring man an heretic if he read it or no? jax whether a man may read Christ's preachings & the story of his life with out jeopardy of heresy? If ye say that a poor man may not red Christ's prechhynges and didst with out jeopardy of heresy i axe them whether amam may read bishop tunstalles sermon that he made with out jeopardy of heresy or no? if ye grant/ then ye reckon a man more wiser than god seeing that a bishop can make a sermon that poor men may read with out any jeopardy of heresy & that Christ could make none such but as the poor people if they were not forbidden to read them should fall in to many heresies by the reading their of to be short whosoever forbiddeth a man's sermon to be red of the comuu people/ the same would forbid the self people to he are the maker of the sermon to preach it as it is written/ but ye bishops forbidden the poor people to read Christ's sermons/ ergo if christ were in england and would preach the self same preachings as the Evangelists have written them ye would forbid that the people should to hear christ preach them/ If this argument be not good reprove it in your answer and solute it not with a fire or a rope as ye use commonly to do God send you his holy spirit. Amen   

The fawtes of this book.  
In the first side for & read and .3. side & 6. line read health and prosperity 10. side for is read was. line 9 that 14. side & 22. line red what. 16 side 26. line read their 18. side & 26. line mowth. 19 side lin. 1. that. lin. 19 put out lb. 30 lin. read where he. 20. side 30. line read sowght 22. side. 20. lin. read tyrants. 25. not. 26. disease 23. lin. of 24. side 10. line popis. 25. side lin. 19 report. 28. side lin. 16. leave out fo. 30. side 29. lin alexanders 33. f. 11. l. pope. 37. side lyn. 14. the 19 word 41. s. lin. 32. had. 43. so. 20. i. earnest. 46. side l. 29. she. 47. fro me. 50. side li. 25. sacrament 51. stryk out a. 53. whether 54. side l. 5. read of a pressed lin. 7. this 55. side oblation 56. forgiveness. 59 side song. l. 16. pretend. 26. hath. 63. side & 9 l. read or not know. lin. 16. your. 17. lip. 21. put forth rf. 32. read it for their. 64. side health. 65. s. l. 3 by. l. 4. parliament. 6. should. 68 s. l. song 69. no st●r. 72. side. l. 29. ye none 73. s. l. 18. about 76. lands 76. side line 1. watching. 12. fuisse. 16. sayeth. 29. oxford.   

Imprinted at Basyl the year of our lord 1543 the 14 of September.