Note: There are no page numbers in the ‘Introduction’ to the original, just the page heading: ‘The Epistle to the terrible Priests’. The main part, headed ‘Hay any work for Cooper’, has page numbers.
Hay any worke for Cooper:
Or a briefe Pistle directed by Waye of an
hublication to the reverende Byshopps / counselling
them / if they will needs be barrelled vp / for feare of smelling
in the nostrels of her Maiestie & the State / that they would
vse the aduise of reuerend Martin / for the prouiding of their
Cooper. Because the reuerend T.C. (by which misticall
letters / is vnderstood / eyther the bounsing Par-
son of Eastmeane, or Tom Coakes his
Chaplaine) to bee an vnskil-
full and a beceytfull
tubtrimmer.
Wherein worthy Martin quits himselfe like a man
I warrant you / in the modest defence of his selfe and his
learned Pistles / and makes the Coopers hoopes
to flye off / and the Bishops Tubs to
leake out of all crye.
Penned and compiled by Martin the Metropolitane.
Printed in Europe / not farre from some
of the Bounsing Priestes.
A man of Worshipp / to the men of Wor-
ship / that is / Martin Marprelate gentleman /
Primate / & Metropolitane of all the Martins wher-
soeuer. To the Iohn of al the sir Iohns / and to the rest of
the terrible priests: faith haue among you once againe my
cleargie masters.
O Brethren / there is such a deal of loue growne of late I perceiue / betweene you and me / that although I would be negligent in sending my Pistles vnto you: yet I see you cannot forget me. I thought you to bee verye kinde when you sent your Purcivaunts about the countrie to seeke for me. But now that you your selues haue taken the paines to write / this is out of all crie. Why it passes to thinke what louing & carefull brethren I haue / who although I cannot be gotteu / to tell them where I am / because I loue not the ayre of the Clinke or Gatehouse in this colde time of Winter / and by reason of my busines in Pistlemaking / will notwithstanding make it knowne vnto the world / that they haue a moneths mind towards me. Now truly brethren / I finde you kinde / why ye do not know what a pleasure you haue done me. My worships books were vnknowne to many / before you allowed T.C. to admonishe the people of England to take heed / that if they loued you / they woulde make much of their prelates / and the chiefe of the cleargie. Now many seeke after my bookes / more then euer they did. Againe / some knew not that our brother Iohn of Fulham / was so good vnto the porter of his gate / as to make the poore blinde honest soule / to be a dum minister. Many did not know / eyther that Amen / is as much as by my fayth / & so that our Sauiour Christe euer sware by his fayth: or that bowling and eating of the Sabboth / are of the same nature: that Bb. may as lawfully make blinde guydes / as Dauid might eate of the Shew bread: or that father Thomas tubtrimmer of Winchester / good old student / is a master of Arts of 45. yeares standing. Many I say / (ii) were ignorant of these thinges / and many other prettie toyes / vntil you wrote this prettie booke. Besides whatsoeuer you ouerpasse in my writings / and did not gainsay / that I hope wilbe iudged to be true. And so Iohn a Bridges his treason out of the 448. page of his booke / you graunt to be true. Your selues you denie not to bee pettie popes. The B. of sir Dauids in Wales / you denie not to haue two wiues / with an hundred other thinges which you do not gainsay: so that the reader may iudge that I am true of my worde / and vse not to lye like Bb. And this hath greatly commended my worshipps good dealing. But in your confutation of my book / you haue shewed reuerende Martin to be truepenie in deede: For you haue confyrmed / rather then confuted him. So that brethren / the pleasure which you haue done vnto me / is out of all scotche and notche. And shoulde not I againe be as readie to pleasure you? Naye / then I shoulde be as vngrateful towards my good brethré / as Iohn of Cant. is to Thomas Cartwright. The which Iohn / although he hath bin greatly fauored by the said Thomas / in that Thomas hath now these many yeares let him alone and said nothing vnto him / for not answering his books / yet is not ashamed to make a secrete comparison / betweene himselfe and Thomas Cartwright. As who say / Iohn of Lambehith / were as learned as Thomas Cartwright. What say you old deane Iohn a Bridges / haue not you shewed your selfe thankfull vnto hir Maiestie / in ouerthrowing hir supremacie in the 448. page of your booke. I will lay on load on your skincoat for this geare anon.
And I will haue my penyworths of all of you brethré ere I haue done with you / for this pains which your T.C hath taken with me. This is the puritans craft / in procuring me to be confuted I knowe: Ile be euen with them to. A craftie whoresons brethren Bb. did you thinke / because ye puritans T.C. did set Iohn of Cant. at a non plus, (iii) and gaue him the ouerthrow / that therefore your T.C. alias Thomas Cooper bishop of Winchester / or Thomas Cooke his Chaplaine / could set me at a nonplus. Simple fellowes / me thinkes he should not.
I gesse your T.C. to be Thomas Cooper (but I do not peremptorily affirme it) because the modest olde student of 52. yeres standing / setteth Winchester after Lincolne & Rochester in the contents of his booke / which blasphemy / would not haue bin tollerated by them that saw and allowed the book / vnlesse mistres Coopers husband had bin the author of it.
Secondly / because this T.C. the author of this booke is a bishop / and therefore Thomas Cooper / he is a Bishop / because he reckoneth him selfe charged amongst others / with those crimes whereof non are accused but bishops alone / page 101. lin.26. Ha olde Martin yet I see thou hast it in thee / thou wilt enter into the bowels of the cause in hand I perceue. Nay if you wil commend me / I will giue you more reasons yet. The stile and the phrase is very like her husbands / yt was somtimes woont to write vnto doctor Day of Welles. You see I can do it in deed. Again / non would be so groshead as to gather / because my reuerence telleth Deane Iohn / that he shall haue twenty fists about his eares more then his owne (whereby I meant in deede / that manye would write against him / by reason of his bomination learning / which otherwise neuer ment to take pen hand) that I threatned him with blowes / and to deale by stafford law: Whereas that was far from my meaning / and could by no means be gathered out of my words / but only by him that pronounced Eulojin for Enlogeni in the pulpit: and by him whom a papist made to beleeue / that the greek word Enlogeni, that is to giue thanks / signifieth to make a crosse in the forhead: py hy hy hy. I cannot but laugh / py hy hy hy. I cannot but laugh / to thinke that an olde soaking (iv) student in this learned age / is not ashamed to be so impudent as to presume to deale with a papist / when he hath no grue in his pocked. But I promise you Sir / it is no shame to be a L.bishop if a man could / thogh he were as vnlerned as Iohn of Glocester or William of Liechfield. And I tel you true / our brother Westchester / had as liue playe twentie nobles in a night / at Priemeero on the cards / as trouble him selfe with any pulpit labor / and yet he thinks him self to be a sufficient bishop. What a bishop such a cardplaier? A bishop play 20. nobles in a night? Whie a round threpence serueth the turn to make good sport 3. or 4. nights amongst honest neighbours. And take heede of it brother Westchester: it is an vnlawfull game if you will beleeue me. Fore / in winter it is no matter to take a litle sport / for an od cast braces of 20. nobles when the wether is foule / that men cannot go abroad to boules / or to shoote? What would you haue men take no recreatiõ? Ye but it is an old said saw / inough is as good as a feast. And recreations must not be made a trade and an occupation / ka master Martin Marprelate. I tel you true brother mine / though I haue as good a gift in pistle making / as you haue at priemeero / and far more delight then you can haue at your cards / for the loue I beare to my brethren / yet I dare not vse this sport / but as a recreation / not making any trade therof. And cards I tel you though they bee without hornes / yet they are parlous beasts. Be they lawful or vnlawful take heed of them for al that. For you cannot vse them but you must needs say your brother T.C. his Amen / that is / sweare by your faith / many a time in the night / wel I will neuer stande argling the matter any more with you. If you will leaue your card playing so it is / if you wil not / trust to it it wil be the worse for you.
I must go simply and plainly to worke with my brethren / that haue published T.C. Whosoeuer haue (v) published that booke / they haue so hooped the bishops tubbs / that they haue made them to smel far more odious then euer they did / euen in the nostrels of all men. The booke is of 252. pages. The drift thereof is / to confute certaine printed and published libelles. You bestowe not ful 50. pages in the answeare of any thing that euer was published in print. The rest are bestowed to maintaine the belly / and to confute: what think you? Euen the slanderous inuentions of your owne braines for the most part. As yt it is not lawfull for her Maiestie to allot any lands vnto the maintenaunce of the minister / or the minister to liue vpõ lands for this purpose allotted vnto him / but is to content him selfe with a smal pention / & so small / as he haue nothing to leaue for his wife & childré after him (for whom he is not to be careful / but to rest on gods prouidence) and is to require no more but foode and raiment / that in pouerty he might be answerable vnto our Sauiour Christ and his apostles. In the confutation of these points / & the scriptures corruptly aplied to proue them / there is bestowed aboue an 100. pages of this book / that is / from the 149. vnto the end. Well T.C. whosoeuer thou art / & whosoeuer Martin is / neither thou / nor any man or woman in England shal know while you liue / suspect and trouble as many as you wil / and therefore saue your mony in seeking for him / for it may be he is neerer you then you are ware of. But whosoeuer thou art I say / thou shewest thy selfe to be a most notorious wicked slanderer / in fathering these things vppon those whome they call puritans / which neuer any enioying common sense would affirme. And bring me him / or set downe his name and his reasons that holdeth any of the former points confuted in thy book / and I wil proue him to be vtterly bereaued of his witts / and his confuter to be either stark mad / or a stark enemy to al religion / yea to her Maiestie & the state / of this kingdome. No no / T.C. (vi) puritans hold no such points. It were well for bishops / that their aduersaries were thus sottishe. They might then iustly insence her Maiestie and the state against them / if they were of this minde. These obiections / in the confutation whereof / thou hast bestowed so much time / are so farre from hauing any puritane to be their author / as whosoeuer readeth the book / were he as blockheaded as Thomas of Winchester himselfe / hee may easily knowe them to be obiections onely inuented by the authour of the booke himselfe. For although hee bee an impudent wretch / yet dareth he not set them downe / as writings of any other: for then he woulde haue described the author and the booke by some adient.
The puritans in deede / holde it vnlawfull for a minister to haue such temporall reuenews / as whereby tenne ministers might be well maintained / vnlesse the sayd reuenews come vnto him by inheritance.
They holde it also vnlawfull / for any state to bestowe the liuings of many ministers vpon one alone / especially when there is such want of ministers liuings.
They holde it vnlawfull for anye minister to be Lorde ouer his brethren. And they holde it vnlawfull for anye state to tollerate such vnder their gouernment. Because it is vnlawfull for states / to tollerate men in those places whereinto the word hath forbidden them to enter.
They affirme that our Sauiour Christe / hath forbidden all ministers to be Lords / Luke.22.25. And the Apostle Peter / sheweth them to be none of Gods ministers / which are Lords ouer Gods heritage / as you Bishopps are / and woulde bee accounted. These thinges T.C. you should haue confuted / and not troubled your selfe / to execute the fruites of your owne braines / as an enemie to the state. And in these points / I do challenge you T.C. and you Deane Iohn / and you Iohn Whitgift / and you doctor Coosins / and you doctor Capcase (Copcoat I think (vii) your name be) and as many else / as haue or dare write in the defence of the established church gouernment. If you cannot confute my former assertions / you do but in vain thinke to maintaine your selues by slaunders / in fathering vppon the puritanes / the ofspringes of your owne blockheads. And assure your selues / I wil so besoop you if you cãnot defend your selues in these points / as al the world shal cry shame vppon you / you think pretely to escape the point of your Antichristian calings / by giuing out that puritans hold it vnlawfull for her maiestie to leaue any lands for the vse of the ministers maintenance, I cannot but commend you / for I promise you / you can shift of an haynous accusation very pretily.
A true man bringeth vnanswerable witnesses against a robber by the high way side / & desireth the iudge / that the lawe may proceede against him. O no my Lord saith the thiefe / in any case let not me be dealt with. For these mine accusers haue giuen out / that you are a drunkard or they haue committed treason against the state: therefore I pray you beleeue my slander against thé / that they may be executed: so when I come to my trial / I shalbe sure to haue no accusers. A very prety way to escape / if a man could tel howe to bringe the matter about. Now brethren bishops / your manner of dealing / is euen the very same. The puritans say truly / that al Lord bishops are pety Antichristes / and therefore that the magistrates ought to thrust you out of the common welth. Nowe of all loues say the bishops / let not our places be called in question / but rather credit our slanders against the puritans / whereby / if men would beleeue vs when we lie / we would beare the world in hand / that these our accusers are Malcontents and sottish men / holding it vnlawful for the maiestrat to alott any lands for the ministers portion / and vnlawful for the minister to prouide for his family. And therefore you must not giue eare to the (viii) acusations of any such men against vs. And so we shal be sure to be acquited. But brethren doe you thinke to be thus cleared? why the puritans hold no such points as you lay to their charg. Though they did / as they do not / yet that were no sufficient reason / why you being pettye popes / shoulde be maintained in a christian commonwealth. Answeare the reasons that I brought against you: otherwise / Come off you bishops / leaue your thou-
sands / and content your selues with your hundreds / saith Iohn of London. So that you do plainly see /
that your Cooper T.C. is but a deceitful worke-man / and if you commit the hooping of your
bishopricks vnto him / they wil so leake in a short space / as they shalbe able to
keepe neuer a Lorde bishop in them. And this may serue for an auns-
were vnto the latter part of your booke / by way
of an Interim / vntil more worke for
Cooper be published.
[1.]
Hay any worke for Cooper.
ANd now reuerend T.C. I am come to your epistle to the reader / but first you & I must go out aloue into the plaine fields / and there we wil try it out / euen by plaine syllogismes / and that I know bishops cannot abide to heare of.
The reuerend T.C. to the reader. page 1.
I draw great danger vpon my selfe / in defending our bishops and others the chiefe of the clargy of the church of England. Their aduersaries are very eger: the saints in heauen haue felt of their tongs / for when they speake of Paule / Peter / Marye / &c. whome others iustly call saints: they in derision call them sir Peter / sir Paule / sir Marie.
Reuerend Martin.
Alas poore reuerende T.C. Be not afraid. Heere be non but frends man. I hope thou art a good fellow / and a true subiect / ye but I defend the bishops of the church of England saith he / then in deed I maruell not though thy conscience accuse thee / and thou art sure to be as wel fauoredly / thwacked for thy lalour / as euer thou wast in thy life. Thy conscience I say / must needs make thee feare in defending them. For they are petty popes / and petty Antichristes as I haue proued / because they are pastors of pastors / &c. thou hast not answered my reasons / and therefore swadled thou shalt be for thy paynes / and yet if thou wilt yeeld I will spare thee. Thou canst not be a good and a sound subiect and defend the hierarchy of Lorde bishopps to be lawful / as I will shewe anone. Concerning Sir Paul / I haue him not at all in my writings. And therefore the reader must know / that there is a canterbury trick once to patch vp an acusation with a lye or two.
Sir Peter was the ouersight of the printer / who omitted this Marginal note vz. He was not Saint Peter which had a lawfull superiour authority ouer the [2.] uniuersal body of the church. And therfore the priest wherof Deane Iohn speaketh was Sir Peter.
And good reuerend T.C. I pray thee tel me / what kin was Saint Mary Oueries / to Mary the Virgin. In my book learning / the one was some popish Trull / & the other the blessed virgine. But will you haue all those / who are saints in deed / called saints? Why then why doe you not call saint Abraham / saint Sara / saint Ieremie. If Iohn of Canterbury should marie / tell me good T.C. dost thou not thinke that he would not make choyse of a godly woman. I hope a would. And T.C. though you are learned / yet you go beyond your bookes if you saide the contrary: being a godly woman / then she were a sainte. And so by your rule / her name being Marie / you would haue her called sainte Marie Canterburie. But I promise thee / did his grace what he could / I would call her sir Marie Canterburie as long as he professed himselfe to be a priest / and this I might do lawfully. For he being sir Iohn / why should not his wife be sir Marie. And why not sir Marie Oueries / as well as sir Marie Canterburie? I hope Iohn of Canterburie whom I knowe / (though I know no great good in him) to be as honest a man as M.Oueries was / whom I did not know. Neither is there any reason why you T.C. should holde M.Oueries and his Marie / because they are within the diocesse of Winchester / to bee more honest then M.Canterburie and his wife. Naye there is more reason / why M.Canterburie and his wife dwelling at Lambehith / should be thought the honester of the two / then Oueries and his wife / because they dwel O the bankes side. But good Tom tubtrimmer / tell me what you meane by the chiefe of the cleargie in the Churche of England? Iohn Canterburie I am sure. Why good T.C. this speache is either blasphemous / or traiterous / or by your owne confession an euident proofe / that Iohn of Canterburie is [3.] Lord ouer his brethren. He that is chiefe of the cleargie / is chiefe of Gods heritage / and that is Iesus Christ only / & so to make the pope of Canterburie chiefe of Gods heritage / in this sence is blasphemous. If you meane by cleargie / as Deane Iohn doeth page 443. of his booke / both the people and ministers of the Churche of England: in this sence her Maiestie is chiefe of the cleargie in the Church of England / and so your speach is traiterous. Lastly / if by cleargie you mean the ministers of the Churche of England / none in this sense can be chiefe of the cleargie / but a pettie pope. For our Sauiour Christe flatly forbiddeth anye to be chiefe of the cleargie in this sence / Luke 22.26. And none euer claimed this vnto him selfe but a pettie pope. Therefore T.C. you are either by your owne speach / a blasphemer or a traitor / or els Iohn of Cant. is a pettie pope. Here is good spoonemeat for a Cooper. Take heede of writing against Martin / if you loue your case.
Reuerend T.C. page 2. Epistle.
But I feare them not / while I go about to maintain the dignitie of priests.
Reuerend Martin.
Well fare a good heart yet / stand to thy tackling / and get the high commission to send abroad the purciuants / and I warrant thee thou wilt do something. Alas good priests / that their dignitie is like to fall to the ground. It is pitie it should be so / they are such notable pulpit men. There is a neighbour of ours / an honest priest / who was sometimes (symple as he nowe standes) a vice in a playe for want of a better / his name is Gliberie of Hawsteade in Essex / he goes much to the pulpit. On a time / I think it was the last Maie / he went vp with a full resolution / to do his businesse with great commendations. But see the fortune of it. A boy in the Church / hearing either the sommer Lord with his Maie game / or Robin Hood with [4.] his Morrice daunce going by the Church / out goes the boye. Good Gliberie / though he were in the pulpit / yet had a minde to his olde companions abroad (a company of merrie grigs you must think them to be / as merrie as a vice on a stage) seeing ye boy going out / finished his matter presently with Iohn of Londons Amen, saying / ha / ye faith boie / are they there / then ha w' thee / & so came down & among them hee goes. Were it not then pittie / that the dignitie of such a priest should decaie. And I would gentle T.C. that you would take the paines to write a treatise against the boie with the red cap / which put this Gliberie out of his matter at another time. For Glibery being in the pulpit / so fastened his eyes vpon a boye with a red cap / that he was cleane dasht out of countenaunce / in so much that no note could be hard from him at that time / but this. Take away red cap there / take away red cappe there; it had bene better that he had neuer bin borne / he hath marred suche a sermon this day / as it is woonderfull to thinke. The Queene and the Counsell might well haue heard it for a good sermon / & so came down. An admonition to the people of England / to take heed of boies with red caps / which make them set light by the dignitie of their priests / would do good in this time / brother T.C. you know well.
Reuerend T.C.
The cause why wee are so spighted / is because we doe endeuor to maintaine the lawes which her Maiestie and the whole state of the Realme haue allowed / and doe not admit a new platforme of gouernment / deuised I know not by whom.1
Reuerend Martin.
Why T.C. saye Eulojin for Eulogein as often as you will / and I wil neuer spight you / or the Bishop of Winchester eyther for the matter. But doe you thinke our Churche gouernement / to be good and lawfull / because [5.] hir Maiestie and the state / who maintaine the reformed religion alloweth the same? Why the Lorde doth not allow it / therefore it cannot be lawfull. And it is the falt of such wretches as you bishops are / that her Maiestie and the state alloweth the same. For you should haue other / wise instructed them. They know you not yet so thorowly as I doe. So that if I can prooue / that the Lord disliketh our Church gouernement / your endeuors to maintaine the same / shew that thereby you cannot chuse / but be traytors to God and his worde / whatsoeuer you are to her Maiestie and the State. Nowe T.C. looke to your selfe / for I will presently make all the hoops of your bishoppricks flie assunder. Therefore
Our Churche gouernement, is an vnlawfull Churche gouernment,
and not allowed in the sight of God.
Because
That church gouernment is an vnlawful church gouernment / the offices and officers whereof / the ciuil maiestrate may lawfully abollish out of the church / marke my craft in reasoning brother T.C. I say the offices and officers for I grant that the maiestrate may thrust the officers of a lawful church gouerment out of the church if they be Diotripheses / Mar-elmes / Whitgifts / Simon Maugustes / Coopers / Pernes / Kenoldes / or any such like Iudases / (though the most of these must be packing offices and al) but their offices must stand / that the same may be supplied by honester men. But the offices of Archbishops and bishopps / and therefore the officers much more / may be lawfully abollished out of the church by her Maiestie and our State. And truely this were braue weather to turne them out: it is pitty to keepe them in any longer. And that would do me good at the hart, to see Iohn of London / and the rest of his brethren so discharged of his busines / as he might freely runn in his cassocke and hose after his bowle / or florish with his 2. [6.] hand sword. O tis a sweete trunchfiddle.
But the offices of Archbishops and bishops / may be lawfully abollished out of the church by her Maiestie / and the state. As I hope one day they shalbe. Therefore (marke now T.C. and cary me this conclusion to Iohn O Lambehith for his breakefast) our church gouerment by Arch. and bishops / is an vnlawful church gouerment. You see brother Cooper / that I am very courteous in my minor / for I desire therein no more offices to bee thrust out of the church at one time / but Archb. and Bishops. As for Deanes Archdeacons and Chancellors / I hope they wilbe so kind vnto my Lords grace / as not to stay / if his worship and the rest of the noble clergie Lords weare turned out to grasse. I wil presently proue both maior and minor of this sillogisme. And hold my cloake there sombody / that I may go roundly to worke. For ise so bumfeg the Cooper / as he had bin better to haue hooped halfe the tubbes in Winchester / then write against my worships pistles.
No ciuil maiestrat may lawfully either maime or deforme the body of Christ / which is the church / but whosoeuer doth abollish any lawful church officer / out of the church gouernment / he doth either maime or deforme the church. Therefore T.C. no ciuil magistrate / no prince / no state / may without sinn abollishe any lawfull officer / together with his office / out of the gouernement of the church / and per consequence, the offices of Archbishops and Lord bishops / which her Maiestie may without sinn lawfully abollish out of the church / are no lawful church officers / and therefore also / the church gouernment practised by Iohn Whitgift / Iohn Mar-elme / Richard Peterborow / William of Lincolne / Edmond of Worcestor / yea and by that olde stealecounter masse priest / Iohn O Glossester / with the rest of his brethren / is to be presently thrust out of the church. And me thinks this geare [7.] cottons in deed my masters. And I tould you T.C. that you should be thumped for defending bishops. Take heed of me while you liue. The minor of my last sillogisme / that whosoeuer doth abollish the office of any lawfull church officer out of the chnrch / he either maimeth or deformeth the church / I can proue with a wet finger. Because euery lawful Churche officer / euen by reason of his office / is a member of the bodye of Christe Iesus / whiche is the church / and being a member of the body / If the maiestrate doth displace him by abollishing his office / and leaueth the place thereof voide / then the maiestrate maimeth the body. If he put another office vnto an officer in stead thereof / he deformeth the same. Because the maiestrate hath neither the skil nor the commission / to make the members of the body of Christ. Because he cannot tel to what vse / the members of his making might serue in the church. Do you thinke T.C. that the maiestrat may make an eie for the visible body of the church. (For you must vnderstand / that wee al this while speake of the visible body) can he make a foote or a hand for that body? I pray you in what place of the body would you haue them placed? If our Sauiour Christ hath left behind him a perfect body: surely he hath left therein no place or / no vse for members of the maiestrates making & inuention: if an vnperfect and maimed body / I am wel assured that the maiestrate is not able to perfect that which he left vnfinished. But I hope T.C. that thou wilt not be so mad / and wicked / as to say that our Sauiour Christ / left behind him heere on earth an vnperfect and maimed body. If not / then where shal these offices / namely these members inuented by the maiestrate be placed therein.
Would you haue the naturall eies put out (as your brethren the bishops haue don in the church of England / euer since Iohn of Canterbury vrged his wretched subscription) and vnnatural squint gogled eies put in their [8.] steede: when the body cannot see with any eies / but with the natural eies thereof / displace them howsoeuer you may seme to help the matter / by putting other in their steed / yet the body shalbe stil blind and maimed. What say you T.C. may the Maiestrate cut of the true and natural legges / and handes of the body of Christe / vnder a pretence to put woodden in their steed. I hope you wil not say that he may. How then commeth it to passe T.C. that you hold Iohn of Canterbury his office / and Iohn Mar-elms to be true and natural members of the body / that is true officers of the church / and yet hold it laweful for her Maiestie to displace them out of the church. I cannot tel brother what you hold in this point. Me think I haue disturbed your sences. Do you thinke that the maiestrat may displace the true members of the body of Christ / and place woodden in their steed. Why this is to hold it lawful for the maiestrate to massacre the body. Do you thinke he may not? Then may not her maiestie displace Iohn of Canterburies office out of our church: if shee may not displace his office / then either he by vertue of his office / is a lawfull Pope aboue all ciuill magistrates / or els the Church gouernment is so prescribed in the word / as it is not lawfull for the magestrate to alter the same. But Iohn of Canterburie / as the puritans their selues confesse / is no Pope.2 Then either the church gouernment is so prescribed in the word as it may not be altred / or els the magestrat may abolish a lawful church gouernement / and place another in stead thereof. If the Church gouernment be so prescribed in the worde / as it cannot be altered / then either our gouernment is ye same which was therein prescribed / or our Church gouerment is a false Church gouerment. If ours be the same which is mentioned in the word: Then Paule and Peter were either no true Church gouernours / or els Paul and Peter / and the rest of Church gouernors in their time were [9.] Lordes / for all our Church gouernours are Lordes. But Paule and Peter / &c. were no Lords / and yet true church gouernours. Therefore our Church gouernment is not that which is prescribed in the word: and therfore a false and vnlawfull church gouernement. If you thinke that the magistrate may displace the lawful offices of the bodie / then as I said before / you hold it lawfull for the magistrate to maime or deforme the bodie. Because whatsoeuer he pulleth in the roome of the true and right members / must needs be a deformitie / and what place soeuer he leaueth vnfurnished of a member / must needes be a maime. And this is the onely and sole office of Christe onely / to place and displace the members of his bodie: to wit / the officers of his Church / he may lawfully do it / so cannot man. And therefore the sots (of which nomber you T.C. and you Iohn Whitgift / and you Deane Iohn / and you D.Coosins / and you D.Copcot / with the rest of the ignoraunt and wretched defendors of our corrupt church gouernement are to be accounted) which thinke that the offices of pastors / doctors / elders and deacons / or the most of them / may be aswell nowe wanting in the Church / as the offices of Apostles / prophets and Euangelists: do notably bewray their vile ignorance / but the cause they doe not hurt. For the beastes do not consider that the offices of Apostles / Euangelists and Prophets / were remoued out of the church / not by man / but by the Lord / because hee in his wisdome did not see any vse of such members in his body / after the time of the first planting of the Churche.3 I say they were remooued by the Lord himselfe and not by man: because / partly the giftes wherewith they were endued / partly the largenesse of their commission / with certaine other essentiall properties to them belonging / were by him abrogated and taken away / which no man could do. Againe / the Apostolicall / Euangelical and propheticall callings / were either [10.] lawfully or vnlawfully abolished out of the Churche / if lawfully / then they were abolished by the Lord: & therefore they are neither to be called backe vntill he sheweth it to be his pleasure that it shoulde be so / neither can the church be truely said to be maimed for want of them: because he which could best tell / what members were fitte for his Churche did abolishe them. If vnlawfully / then those callings may be lawfully called backe againe into the church / & the church without them is maimed / that is / wanteth some members. For if their callings were iniuriously abrogated / they are as iniuriuously kept out of the churche: & being members of the church / the church is maimed without / vnlesse the Lorde hath shewed / that the time of their seruice in the bodie is expired. But they are not iniuriuously kept out (for so her Maiestie shoulde be said to iniurie the church / vnlesse she would see Apostles / prophets and Euangelists / planted therein) neither can the church be saide to be maimed for want of them / because the Lorde by taking them away hath declared / that now there can be no vse of them in the bodie: therefore the Lorde abrogated them. Therefore also they may be wanting / & the churche neither maimed nor deformed thereby. Whereas the keeping out of eyther of the former offices of pastors / doctors / elders and deacons / is a maiming of the churche / the placing of others in their steed / a deforming. Now reuerend T.C. I beseech you entreat mistris Cooper / to write to M.D.Day / somtimes of magdalins / that he may procure D.Cooper / to know of him that was the last Thomas of Lincolne / whether the now B. of Winchester be not perswaded / that reuerend Martin hath suffiently prooued it to be vnlawful / for the ciuill magestrate / to abolishe any lawfull churche officer out of the church. Because it is vnlawfull for him to maime or deforme the bodie of Christe / by displacing the members thereof. But it may be / your Coopers [11.] noddle / profane T.C. doubteth / (for I knowe you to be as ignorant in these points / as Iohn Whitgift / or dean Iohn their selues.)
Whether a lawfull Church officer, in regard of his office, be a member of the bodie of Christ, which is the Church.
Therefore looke Rom.12. vers.4.5.&c. and there you shall see / that whosoeuer hath an office in the bodie / is a member of the bodie. There also you shall see / that he that teacheth / which is the Doctor: he yt exhorteth / which is the Pastor: he that ruleth / which is the Elder: he that distributeth / which is the Deacon (as for him that sheweth mercie that is there spoken off / he is but a church seruant / and no church officer) There I say / you shall also see / that these 4. offices / of Pastors / Doctors / Elders & Deacons / are members of the bodie: and 1.Cor.12.8.& 28. you shal see that God hath ordained them. Out of al / which hitherto I haue spoken T.C. I come vpon you / & your bishopprickes / with 4. or 5. (yea halfe a dozen and neede be) suche drie soopes / as Iohn of London with his two hand sword neuer gaue the like. For they aunswere your whole profane booke. First / that the platforme of gouernment / by Pastors / Doctors / Elders and deacons / which you say was deuised you knowe not by whom / is the inuention of our Sauiour Christ. For God ordained them / saith the apostle / 1.cor.12.8.28. And therefore vnlesse you will shew your selfe / either to be a blasphemer / by terming Iesus Christ / to be you cannot tell whom / or els to be ignorant who is Iesus Christ: you must needs acknowledge the platforme of gouernment / which you say / was inuented by you know not whõ / to haue Christ Iesus for the author thereof.
Secondly / that the word of God teacheth / that of necessitie / the gouernment by Pastors / doctors / elders / &c. ought to be in euery Churche / which is neither maimed nor deformed.4 Because that Church must needs be [12.] maimed which wanteth those mébers / which the Lorde hath appointed to be therein: vnlesse the Lord himselfe hath / by taking those members away / shewed that nowe his bodie is to haue no vse of them. But as hath bene sayde / God hath ordained pastors / doctors / elders and deacons to be in his Church / proued out of Rom.12.6.7.8. 1.cor 12.8.28. ephe.4.12. And he hath not taken these officers away out of his church / because the Church hath continuall need of them. As of Pastors to feed with the word of wisedome: of the Doctors / to feede with the worde of knowledge / and both to builde vp his bodie in the vnitie of fayth: of Elders / to watch and ouersee mens maners: of Deacons to looke vnto the poore / and church treasurie. Therefore / where these 4. officers are wanting / there the Church is imperfect in her regiment.
Thirdly that this gouernement cannot be inconuenient for any State or kingdom.5 For is it inconuenient for a State or king-dome / to haue the bodie of Christ perfect therein?
Fourthly that euery christian magestrate is bound to receue this gouernment / by Pastors / Doctors / Elders & deacons into the church / within his dominions / whatsoeuer inconuenience may be likely to follow the receuing of it. Because no likelyhood of inconuenience ought to induce the magistrate willingly to permit the church vnder his gouernment / to be maymed or deformed.
Fiftly that the gouerment of the church by Lord Archbishops and bishops / is a gouernment of deformed and vnshapen members / seruing for no good vse in the church of God. Because it is not the gouernment by pastors / doctors elders and deacons / which as I haue shewed are now the only true membes / that is the only true officers of the visible body.
Sixtly and lastly. That they who defend this false and bastardly gouermnent of Archbishops and bishops / and [13.] with-stand this true & natural gouernment of the church / by Pastors / Doctors / Elders and deacons / are likely in a while to become / Mar-prince / Mar-state / Mar-lawe / Mar-magestrate / Mar-common wealth. As for Mar-church / and Mar-religion / they haue long since proued them selues to be.
These six points doe necessarily follow / of that which before I haue set downe / namely that it is not lawfull for any to abollish or alter / the true and lawful gouernment of the church / because it is not lawfull for them to maime or deforme the body of the church.
And I chaleng you T.C. and you Deane Iohn / and you Iohn Whitgift / and you D.Coosins: and you D.Copcot / and al the rest that wil or dare defende our established Churche gouernement / to be tried with me in a iudgement of life and death / at any barre in England in this point. Namely /
That you must needs be, not onely traytors to God and
his word, but also enemies vnto hir Maiestie and
the land, in defending the established Church
gouernment to be lawfull.
You see the accusation which I lay to your charge / and here followeth the proofe of it. They that defend that the prince and state / may bid God to battel against them / they are not only traitors against God and his word / but also enemies to the Prince and state. I thinke Iohn of Glocester himselfe / wil not be so sensles as to deny this.
But our Archbishops and bishops / which hold it lawful for her maiestie and the state / to retain this estblished forme of gouernment / and to keepe out the gouernment by pastors / doctors / elders and deacons / which was appointed by Christ / whom you profane T.C. cal you know not whome / hold it lawful for her maiestie and the state to bid God to battel against them. Because they bid the Lord to battel against them which maime and deforme [14.] the body of Christ / vz. the church. And they as was declared maime & deforme the body of the church / which keep out the lawful offices / apointed by the Lord to be members thereof / & in their steed / place other woodden members of the inuenteon of man. Therefore you T.C. and you Deane Iohn / and you Iohn Whitgift / and you the rest of the beastly defendors of the corrupt church gouernment / are not only traytors to God and his word / but enemies to her maiestie and the state. Like you any of these Nuts Iohn Canter-bury. I am not disposed to iest in this serious matter. I am called Martin Marprelat. There be many that greatly dislike of my doinges. I may haue my wants I know. For I am a man. But my course I knowe to be ordinary and lawfull. I sawe the cause of Christs gouernment / and of the Bishops Antichristian dealing to be hidden. The most part of men could not be gotten to read any thing / written in the defence of the on and against the other. I bethought mee therefore / of a way whereby men might be drawne to do both / perceiuing the humors of men in these times (especialy of those that are in any place) to be giuen to mirth. I tooke that course. I might lawfully do it. I / for iesting is lawful by circumstances / euen in the greatest matters. The circumstances of time / place and persons vrged me thereunto. I neuer profaned the word in any iest. Other mirth I vsed as a couert / wherin I would bring the truth into light. The Lord being the authour both of mirth and grauitie / is it not lawfull in it selfe / for the trueth to vse eyther of these wayes / when the circumstances do make it lawful?
My purpose was and is to do good. I know I haue don no harme howsoeuer som may iudg Martin to mar al. They are very weake ons that so think. In that which I haue written I know vndoubtedly / that I haue done the Lord and the state of this kingdom great seruice. Because I haue in som sort / discouered the greatest enemies [15.] thereof. And by so much the most pestilent enemies / because they wound Gods relligion / and corrupt the state with Atheism and loosnes / and so cal for Gods vengance vppon vs all / euen vnder the coulor of relligion. I affirm them to be the greatest enemies that now our state hath / for if it were not for them / the trueth should haue more free passage herein / then now it hath. All states thereby would be amended: and so we should not be subiect vnto Gods displeasure / as now we are by reason of them.
Nowe let me deale with these that are in authority. I do make it knowne vnto them / that our bishops are the greatest enemies which we haue. For they do not only go about / but they haue long since / fully perswaded our state / that they may lawfully procure the Lord / to take the sword in hand against the state: if this be true / haue I not said truly / that they are the gretest enemies which our state hath. The papistes work no such effect / for they are not trusted. The Atheistes haue not infected our whol state / these haue. The attempts of our forraine enemies may be pernicious. But they are men as wee are. But that God / which when our bishops haue / and doe make our prince / and our gouernors to wadge war / who is able to stand against him?
Wel to the point / many haue put her maiestie / the parliament & counsell in minde / that the church officers now among vs / are not such as the Lord aloweth of: because they are not of his owne ordaininge. They haue shewed that this falt is to be amended / or the Lords hand to be looked for. The bishops on the otherside / haue cried out vpon them / that haue thus dutifully mooued the state. They with a loud voice gaue out / that the maiestrat may lawfully maintaine that church gouerment / which best fitteth our estate / as liuing in ye time of peace. What do they else herein / but say that the magestrat in time of peace / may maime and deforme the body of Christ his [16.] church. That Christ hath left the gouerment of his own house vnperfect / and left the same to the discretion of the magestrate / wheras Moses before whome in this point of gouernment / the Lord Christ is iustly preferred / Heb.3.6. made the gouernment of the legal politie so perfeet / as he left not any parte thereof / to the discretion of the magestrate. Can they deny church officers / to be members of the church. They are refuted by the expresse text. 1.Cor.12. will they affirme Christ to haue left behinde him an vnperfect body of his church / wanting members at the lest wise / hauing such members as were only permanent at the magestrates pleasure. Why Moses the seruant / otherwise gouerned the house in his time. And the sonne is commended in this point for wisdome / and faithfulnes before him. Heb 3.6. Either then / that commendation of the sonn before the seruant / is a false testimony / or the sonne ordained a permanent gouernment in his church. If permanent / not to be changed. What then / do they that hold it may be changed at the magestrates pleasure / but aduise the maiestrate by his positiue lawes / to proclaime that it is his will / that if there shalbe a church within his dominions / he will maime and deforme the same. He wil ordaine therein / what members he thinketh good. He will make it knowne / that Christ vnder his gouernment / shalbe made lesse faithfull then Moses was. That he hath left the placing of members in his body vnto the magestrate. O cursed beastes / that bring this guilt vppon our estate. Repent Caitifes while you haue time. You shal not haue it I feare when you wil. And looke you that are in authority vnto the equity of the controuersie / betwene our wicked bishops / and those who woulde haue the disorders of our Churche amended. Take heed you be not caried away with slaunders. Christs gouerment is neither Mar-prince / Mar-state / Mar-law nor Mar-magistrate. The liuing God [17.] whose cause is pleaded for / will bee reuenged of you / if you giue eare vnto this slander / contrary to so many testimonies as are brought out of his word / to prooue the contrary. He denounceth his wrath against all you / that thinke it lawfull for you / to maim or deform his church: he accounteth his Churche maimed / when those offices are therein placed / whiche hee hath not appointed to be members thereof: he also testifieth that there be no mébers of his appointment in the Churche / but such as he himselfe hath named in his word / and those that he hath named / man must not displace / for so he shoulde put the bodie out of ioynt. Nowe our bishops holding the contrary / and bearing you in hande / that you may practize the contrary / do they not driue you to prouoke the Lorde to anger against your owne soules? And are they not your enemies? They hold the contrary I say / for they say that her Maiestie may alter this gouernment now established / and thereby they shew either this gouerment to be vnlawfull / or that the magistrat may presume to place those members in Gods Church / which the Lord neuer mentioned in his word. And I beseech you marke howe the case standeth betweene these wretches / & those whom they call puritans.
1 The puritans (falsely so called) shew it to be vnlawfull for the magistrate / to goe about to make any members for the bodie of Christ.
2 They hold all officers of the Church / to be members of the bodie / Rom.12.6. 1.cor.12.8.28.
3 And therfore they hold the altering / or the abolishing of the offices of church gouernment / to be the altering & abolishing of the members of the Church.
4 The altering & abolishing of which members / they holde to be vnlawfull / because it must needs be a maime vnto the bodie.
5 They hold Christ Iesus to haue set downe as exact / [18.] and as vnchaungeable a churche gouernement / as euer Moses did. Heb.3.6.
These and such like are the points they holde / let their cause be tried / and if they hold any other points in effect but these / let them be hanged euery man of them.
Now I demand / whether they that hold the contrary in these pointes / and cause the State to practize the contrary / be not outragious wicked men / and dangerous enemies of the state / it cannot be denied but they are. Because the contrarie practize of any the former points / is a way to worke the ruine of the state.
Now our Bishopps holde the contrary vnto them al / saue the 3. and 2. points / whereunto it may be they will yeeld / & cause our estate to practize the contrary: whence at the length / our destruction is like to proceed. For
1 They denie Christ Iesus to haue set downe as exact / and as vnchangeable a forme of church gouernment as Moses did. For they say / that the magistrat may change the church gouernment established by Christ / so could he not do that / prescribed by Moses.
2 In holding all offices of the Church to be members of the bodie / (for if they be not members / what shoulde they do in the body) they hold it lawful for the magistrat to attempt the making of new members for that bodie.
3 The altering or abollishing of these members by the magistrates / they holde to be lawfull. And therefore the maiming or deforming.
Now you wretches (Archb. and L.Bishops I mean) you Mar-state / Mar-law / Mar-prince / Mar-maiestrat Mar-common-wealth / Mar-church / and Mar-religion Are you able for your liues / to aunswere any part of the former syllogisme / whereby you are concluded / to be the greatest enemies vnto her Maiestie and the State? You dare not attempt it I know. For you cannot denie / but they who holde it and defend it lawfull / (yea enforce the [19.] magistrate) to maime or deforme the bodie of Christ / are vtter enemies vnto that magistrat / and that state / wherin this disorder is practized. You cãnot denie your selues to do this / vnto our magistrate and State: because you beare them in hand / that a lawfull church gouernment / may consist of those offices / which the magistrate may abollishe out of the church without sinne: and so / that the magistrate may lawfully cut off the members of Christ from his body / and so may lawfully massacre the body. You are then the men by whome our estate is most likely to be over-throwne / you are those that shal answere for our blood which the Spaniards / or any other enemies are like to spil / without the Lords great mercy: you are the persecutors of your brethren / (if you may be accounted brethren) you & your hirelings are not only the wounde / but the very plague and pestilence of our church. You are those who maime / deforme / vex / persecute / greeue / & wound the church. Which keepe the same in captiuity & darknes / defend the blind leaders of the blind / slander / reuile and deforme Christes holy gouernment / that such broken and woodden members as you are / may be still maintayned / to haue the romes of the true and natural members of the body. Tel me I pray / whether the true and natural members of the body may be lawfully cut of by the magestrate. If you should say they may / I knowe no mã would abide the spech. What? May the maiestrat cutt of the true and naturall members / of the body of Christ? O impudency / not to be tollerated. But our magestrate / that is her maiestie / and our state / may lawfully by your owne confession / cut you of / that is displace you and your offices out of our church. Deny this if you dare Then in deed it shal appeare / that Iohn of Canterbury meaneth to be a Pope in deede / & to haue the soueraignty ouer the ciuill magestrate. Then will you shewe your selfe in deed / to be Mar-prince / Mar-law & Mar-state. [20.] Now if the magestrate may displace you as he may / then you are not the true members. Then you are (as in deed you ought) to be thrust out / vnlesse the magestrate would incur the wrath of God / for maiming and deforminge the body of the church / by ioyning vnnatural members thereunto.
Answere but this reason of mine / and then hang those that seeke reformation / if euer againe they speke of it / if you doe not / I wil giue you litle quiet. I feare you not. If the magestrate wil be so ouerseene as to beleeue / that because you which are the maim of the church are spoken against / therefore they / namely our prince & state / which are Gods lieftenaunts / shal be in like sort / dealt with / this credulity wil be the magestrates sinne. But I know their wisdome to be such as they wil not. For what reason is this / which you profane T.C. haue vsed. pag.103.
The sinful / the vnlawful / the broken / vnnatural / false and bastardly gouernors of the church / to wit archb. and bishops / which abuse euen their false offices / are spoken against. Therefore the true / natural and lawful / and iust gouernors of the common welth / shalbe likewise shortly misliked. Ah sencelesse and vndutifull beastes / that dare compare your selues with our true magestrates / which are the ordinaunces of God / with your selues / that is / with Archbishops and bishops / which as your selues confesse (I will by and by proue this) are the ordinances of the Diuell.
I knowe I am disliked of many which are your enemies that is of many which you cal puritans. It is their weaknes / I am threatened to be hanged by you. What though I were hanged / do you thinke your cause shalbe the better. For the day that you hange Martin / assure your selues / there wil 20. Martins spring in my place. I meane not now you grosse beastes / of any commotion as profane T.C. like a sensles wretch / not able to [21.] vnderstand an English phrase / hath giuen out vpon that which he calleth the threatning of fistes. Assure your selues / I wil proue Marprelat ere I haue don with you. I am alone. No man vnder heauen is priuy / or hath bin priuie vnto my writings against you / I vsed the aduise of non therein. You haue and do suspect diuers, as master Paggett / master Wiggington / master Udall / & master Penri / &c. to make Martin. If they cannot cleare their selues their sillinesse is pitifull / and they are worthy to beare Martins punishment. Well once againe answere my resons / both of your Antichristiau places in my first epistle vnto you / and these nowe vsed against you. Otherwise the wisdome of the magistrate must needs smel what you are. And cal you to a reckoning / for deceauing them soe long / making them to suffer the church of Christ vnder their gouernment to be maimed and deformed.
Your reasons for the defence of your hierarchie / and the keeping out of Christs gouernment / vsed by this profane T.C. are already answered. They shew what profane beastes you are. I wil heere repete them. But heere first the reader is to know what answere this T.C. maketh vnto the syllogismes / whereby I proue all L.bishops to be petty popes / and petty Antichristes. I assure you no other then this / he flattly denieth the coiclusion / wheras he might (if he had any learning in him / or had read any thing) know / that euery dunstical logician / giueth this for an inuiolable precept / that the conclusion is not to be denied. For that must needs be true / if the maior and minor be true / he in omitting the maior and minor / because he was not able to answere thereby / granteth the conclusion to be true. His answeare vnto the conclusion is / that al lord Gb. were not pety popes. Because pag.74. Cranmer / Ridly / Hooper / were not petty Popes. They were not pety popes / because they were not reprobates. As though you block you / euery petty pope and petty [22.] Antichrist were a reprobate. Why no man can deny Gregory the great / to be a pettye Pope / and a petty & petty Antichrst. For he was the next immediate pope before Boniface the first / that knowne Antichrist: and yet this Gregory left behind him / vndoubted testimonies of a chosen childe of God: so might they / & yet be petty Popes / in respecte of their office. Profane T.C. his 1. and 2. reason / for ye lawfulnes of our church gouerment. And what though good men gaue their consent vnto our church gouernement / or writing vnto bishops / gaue them their lordly titles? Are their offices therefore lawfull / then soe is the popes office. For Erasmus was a good man you cannot deny / and yet he both alowed of the popes office since his calling / and writing vnto him / gaue him his titles. So did Luther / since his calling also / for he dedicated his booke of christian liberty vnto pope Leo the tenth. The booke & his Epistle vnto the Pope / are both in Englishe. Here I would with the magistrat / to marke what good reasons you are able to afford for your hierarchie.
Thirdly / saith profane T.C. page 75. All Churches haue not the gouernment of Pastors and Doctors: but Saxoni and Denmake / haue L.bishops. You are a great State man vndoubtedly T.C. that vnderstand / the state of other Churches so well. But herein the impudencie of a proude foole appeareth egregiously. As though the testimonie of a siely Schoolemaster / being also as vnlearned / as a man of that trade and profession can be / with any honestie / would be belieued against knowne experience. Yea / but Saxonie and Denmarke haue Superintendents / what then? ergo L.Archb. and bishops? I deny it. Though other Churches had L.Archb. and Bb. this prooueth nothing els / but that other Churches are maimed and haue their imperfections. Your reason is this / other good Churches are deformed / therefore ours must needes be so to. The kings sonne is lame / therefore the [23.] children of no subiects must go upright. And these be all the good reasons which you can bring for the gouerment of Archb. and bishops / against the gouerment of Christ. You reson thus. It must not be admitted into this kingdome / because then Ciuillians shal not be able to liue / in that estimation / and welth / wherein they now do. Carnal and sensles beastes / whoe are not ashamed to prefer / the outward estate of men / before the glory of Christs kingdom. Here againe / let the magestrate and other readers consider / whether it be not time / that such brutish men / should be looked vnto. Which reason thus. The body of Christ which is the church / must needes be maimed and deformed in this commou welth / because otherwise ciuillians should not be able to liue. Why you enemies to the state / you traytors to God and his worde / you Mar-prince / Mar-law / Mar-magestrate / Mar-church / and Mar-common welth: do you not know that the worlde should rather go a begging / then that the glory of god by maiming his church / should be defaced? Who can abide this indignity. The prince and state / must procure god to wrath against them / by continuing the deformity of his church / and it may not be otherwise / because the ciuilians els must fall to decay. I wil tel you what / you monstrous & vngodly bishops / though I had no feare of God before mine eies / and had no hope of a better life / yet the loue that I owe / as a natural man / vnto her maiestie and the state would inforce me to write against you: her maiestie and this kingdome / (whome the Lord blesse / with his mighty hand / I vnfainedly beseech) must endanger them selues vnder the peril of Gods heauy wrath / rather then the maime of our church gouernment must be healed / for we had rather it should be so / say our bishops / then wee should be thrust out / for if we should be thrust out / the studie of the ciuil lawe / must needs goe to wrack. Well / if I had liued sometimes a citizen / in that olde and auncient [24.] (though heathenish) Rome / and had heard kinge Desotarus / Cesar / yea or Pompei himself giue out this spech / namely: that the citty and empire of Rome must needes be brought subiect vnto some danger / because otherwise / Catelin / Lentulus / Cethegus / with other of the nobilitie / could not tell how to liue / but must needs go a begging. I woulde surely / in the loue I ought to the safetie of that state / haue called him that had vsed such a speech / in judicium capitis, whosoeuer he had bin: and I woulde not haue doubted to haue giuen him the ouerthrow. And shal I being a christian English subiect / abide to heare a wicked crue of vngodly bishopps / with their hangones and parasites / affirme that our Queene / and our State / must needs be subiect vnto the greatest daunger that may be / vz. the wrath of God / for deforming his Church / and that Gods Church must needes be maimed and deformed among vs / because otherwise / a few Ciuillians shal not be able to liue. Shall I heare and see these thinges professed and published / and in the loue I owe vnto Gods religion and her Maiesty / say nothing. I cannot / I will not / I may not be silent at this speech: come what will come of it. The loue of a christian Church / prince and state / shal I trust / worke more in me / then the loue of a heathen Empire and state should do. Now iudge good reader / who is more tollerable in a commonwealth / Martin that would haue the enemies of her Maiesty remoued thence / or our bishops which would haue her life / and the whole kingdomes prosperitie hazarded / rather then a few Ciuillians should want maintenance. But I praye thee tell me T.C. why should the gouernment of Christ impouerish Ciuillians? Because saith he / pag. 77. the Canon law by which they liue / must be altered / if that were admitted. Yea but Ciuillians liue by the court of Amraltie / & other courts as well as by the Arches / vz. also the probatts of Testaments / the controuersies of tythes / matrimonie / and [25.] many other causes / which you bishops Mar-state / do vsurpingly take from the ciuill magistrate / would be a means of Ciuillians maintenance. But are not you ashamed / to professe your whole gouernment / to be a gouernment ruled by the Popes Canon lawes / which are bannished by statute out of this kingdome? This notably sheweth that you are Mar-prince and Mar-state. For howe dare you retaine these lawes / vnles by vertue of them / you meane eyther to enforce the supremacie of the prince to go again to Rome / or to come to Lambeth. It is treson by Statute / for any subiect in this land / to proceed doctor of the Canõ law / and dare you professe your church gouerment to be ruled by that law. As though one statute might not refer all matters of the Canon law / vnto the temporall & common law of this Realme: and is this all you can say / T.C.
2 Yes sayth he / the gouernment of Christe / would bring in the iudiciall law of Moses. As much as is morrall of that law / or of the equitie of it / would be brought in. And do you gainesay it. But you sodden headed Asse you / the most part of that law is abrogated. Some part thereof is in force among vs / as the punishment of a murtherer by
3 death / and presumptuous obstinate theft by death / &c. Hir Maiesties prerogatiue in ecclesiastical causes / should not be a whit diminished / but rather greatly strengthened by Christs gouernment. And no lawe should be altered / but such as were contrary to the lawe of God / & against the profit of the common wealth: and therefore there can be no danger in altering these.
4 The ministers maintenance by tythe / no puritane denieth to be vnlawfull. For Martin (good M. Parson) you must vnderstand / doth account no Brownist to be a puritane / nor yet a sottish Cooperist.
5 The inconuenience which you shew of the gouerment which is / that men would not be ruled by it / is answered afore. And I praye you / why should they not be better [26.] obedient vnto Gods law / if the same also were established by the lawe of the lande / then to the Popes lawe and his Canons. You think that all men are like your selues: that is / like bishops / such as cannot chuse but breake the laws and good orders of God and her Maiestie.
7 The lawes of Englande haue bene made / when there was neuer a bishop in the Parliament / as in the first yere of her Maiestie. And this reasou as al the rest / may serue to maintaine poperie / as well as the hierarchie of Bb.
8 The gouerment of the church of Christ / is no popular gouernement / but it is Monarchicall / in regarde of our head Christ / Aristocraticall in the Eldership / and Democraticall in the people. Such is the ciuill gouernement of our kingdome: Monarchicall in her Maiesties person: Aristocraticall in the higher house of Parliament / or rather in the Councell table: Democraticall in the bodie of the commons of the lower house of Parliament. Therefore profane T.C. this gouernment seeketh no popularity to be brought into the Church: much lesse entendeth the alteration of the ciuill state / that is but your slaunder / of which you make an occupation. And I will surely paye you for it. I must be brief now / but more warke for Cooper shall examine you slaunders. They are nothing else but prooffes / that as by your owne confessions you are bishops of the Diuell / so you are enemies vnto the state. For by these slaunders / you go about to blinde our state / that they may neuer see a perfect regiment of the Church in our dayes. I saye / that by your owne confession / you are bishops of the Diuell. I will prooue it thus. You confesse that your lordly gouernment / were not lawfull and tollerable in this cõmonwealth / if her Maiesty & the state of the land did disclaime the same. Tell me / doe you not confesse this. Denie it if you dare. For will you say / that you ought lawfully to be here in our commonwelth whether he Maiesty and the Counsell wil or no: Is this the [27.] thankes that her Maiestie shall haue / for tollerating you in her kingdome all this while / that nowe you will saye / that you and your places stand not in this kingdome by her curtesie / but you haue as good right vnto your places / as she hath vnto her kingdome. And by this meanes your offices stande not by her good liking / and the good liking of the state / as do the offices of our L. high Chancellor / high Treasurer / and high Steward of Englande. But your offices ought to stand & to be in force / in spight of her Maiestie / the Parliament / Counsell / and euerie man els / vnles they woulde doe you iniury. Soe that I know / I / you dare not deny but that your offices weare vnlawfull in our common wealth / if her Maiestie the Parliament / and the Counsell woulde haue them abollished. If you grant this / then you doe not hold your offices as from God / but as from man. Her maiestie she holdeth hir office / and her kingdome / as from God / and is beholding for the same / vnto no prince nor state vnder heuen. Your case is otherwise / for you hold your offices as from her Maiestie / & not from God. For otherwise / you needed not to be any more beholding vnto her Maiestie for the same in regarde of right / then she is bounde to be beholding vnto other states in regarde of her right: and so you in regarde of your Lordly superioritie / are not the bishops of god / but as Ierom sayth / the bishops of man. And this the most of you confes to be true / and you see how dangerous it woulde be for you / to affirme the contrary: namely / that you holde your offices as from god. Well sir / if you say that you are the bishops of man. Thé tell me whether you like of Dean Iohn his booke. O yes sayth T.C.6 For his grace did peruse that book / & we know the sufficiencie of it to be such / as the Puritans are not able to answere it. Well then / whatsoeuer is in this booke is anthenticall. It is so / saith T.C. otherwise / his grace would not haue alowed it. What say you then to the [28.] 140. page of that booke / where he saith / (answering the treatise of the bishop of God / the bishop of Man / and the bishop of the Diuell) that there is no bishopp of man at all / but euerie B. must be either the Bishopp of God / or the Bishop of the Diuel He also affirmeth / none to be the bishop of god / but h which hath warrant / both inclusiuely and also expresly in gods word. Now you Bishops of the Diuell / what say you now / are you spighted of the Puritans / because you like good subiects defend the lawes of her Maiestie / or els because like incarnate Diuells / you are bishops of the Diuells / as you your selues confesse.7
Here againe / let the Magistrate once more consider / what pestilent and daungerous beasts these wretches are vnto the ciuill state. For either by their owne confession / they are the Bishops of the Diuell (and so by that means will be the vndoing of the state / if they be continued therin) or else their places ought to be in this commonwealth whether her Maiestie and our state will or no: because they are not (as they say) the bishops of man / that is / they haue not their superioritie / and their Lordly callings ouer their brethren by humane constitution / as my L.L.Chancellor / Treasurer / and other honorable personages haue / but by diuine ordinance. Yea / & their callings / they holde (as you haue heard) not onely to be inclusiuely / but also expreslie in the word. What shifte will they vse to auoyde this point? Are they the Bishopps of men / that is / holde they their iurisdiction as frõ men. No saith Deane Gridges / no sayth Iohn of Canterburie and the rest of them / (for all of them allowe this booke of Iohn Bridges) for then we are the bishops of the deuill / we cannot auoid it: Are they then the bishops of God / that is / haue they such a calling as the Apostles / Euangelistes / &c. had: that is / such a calling as ought lawfully to be in a christian common wealth (vnlesse the magistrate woulde iniurie the Church / yea maime / deforme / and make a monster of the [29.] Church) whether the magistrate will or no. We haue say they. For our callings are not onely inclusiuely / but also expressely in the worde. So that by Deane Bridges his confession / and the approbation of Iohn Canterburie / either our bishops are bishops of the diuel / or their callings cannot be defended lawful / without flat and plaine treason / in ouerthrowing her Maiesties supremacie. And so Deane Bridges hath written / and Iohn Whitgift hath approoued and allowed / flat treason to be published.
Is Martin to be blamed for finding out and discouering traitors? Is he to be blamed for crying out against the Bb. of the Diuel. If he be / then in deed haue I offended in writing against bishops? If not / whether is the better subiect Martin or our bishops: whether I be fauored or no / I wil not cease / in the loue I owe to her Maiestie / to write against traitors / to write against the Diuels bishops. Our bishops are such by their owne confession. For they protest them selues to be bishopps of the Diuel. If they should holde the preheminence to be from man / If they hold it otherwise then from man / they are traytors. And vntil this beast Docter Gridges wrote this booke / they neuer as yet durst presume to claim their Lordships any otherwise lawful then from her maiestie / yea and D.Bridges about the 60. page saith the same. But they care not what contrariety they haue in their writings / what treason they hold / as long as they are perswaded that no man shalbe tollerated to write against them. I haue once already shewed treason to be in this booke of the Deane of Sarum / page.448. I shew the like now to be pag.340. Because Deane Bridges durst not answeare me. They haue turned vnto me in his stead / a beast whome by the length of his eares / I gesse to be his brother / yt is / an Asse of the same kinde. But I wil be answered of the Deane him selfe in this and the former point of treason / or else / his cloister shal smoake for it. And thus profane T.C. you [30.] perceue what a good subiect you are / in defending the established gouernment. Thus also I haue answered all your booke in the matters of the lawfulnes of the gouerment by Pastors / Doctors / Elders and Deacons / and the vnlawfulnes of our bastardly Church gouernment / by archbishops and bishops / where also the reader may see / that if euer there was a church rightly gouerned / that is a church without maime or deformity / the same was gouerned by Pastors / Doctors / elders and deacons.
whau / whau / but where haue I bin al this while. Ten to one among some of these puritans. Why Martin? Why Martin I say / hast tow forgotten thy selfe? Where hast ti bene / why man / cha bin a seeking for a Samons nest / and cha vound a whol crue / either of ecclesiasticall traitors / or of bishops of the Diuel / of broken and maimed members of the church: neuer winke on me good fellow / for I will speke the truth / lett the puritans doe what they can. I say then that they are broken members / and I say Iohn of Canterbury if he be a member of the church / I say he is a broken member / and that Thomas of Winchester is a Cholerick member. Yea and cha vound that profane T.C. is afraid lest her Maiestie shoulde giue Bishops liuings away from them. And therefore shutteth his booke with this position / vz. That it is not lawful to bestow such liuings vppon lay men / as are appointed by Gods law vppon ministers. But hereof more warke for Cooper shal learnedly dispute.
Reuerend T.C. Admonition page.1.2.3.
We vse the Ministers most vile nowe a dayes. God will punish vs for it / as hee did those which abused his prophets.
Reuerend Martin.
Look to it T.C. then. For out of thine own mouth shalt thou be iudged / thou vnrighteous seruant. Our bishops are they which abuse the ministers. Our bishopps were [31.] neuer good ministers as yet / and therefore they are not to be compared with the prophets.
Reuerend T.C. Page.4.
Some men will say / that I do great iniurie to the prophets and apostles / in comparing our Bishops vnto thé: But we may be happie if we may haue tollerable ministers in this perilous age.
Reuerend Martin.
I hope T.C. that thou dost not mean to serue the church with worse then we haue: what worse then Iohn of Canterburie? worse then Tom Tubtrimmer of Winchester? worse then the vickers of Hell / syr Iefferie Iones / the parson of Micklain / &c. I pray thee / rather thé we should haue a change from euil to worse / let vs haue the euil stil. But I care not if I abide ye venture of the change. Therfore get Iohn with his Canterburinesse / remooued / &c. (whome thou acknowledgest to be euill) and I doe not doubt / if worse come in their stead / but the diuell wil soon fetch them away / and so we shalbe quickly rid / both of euill and worse. But good T.C. is it possible to finde worse then we haue. I do not maruel though thou callest me libeller / when thou darest abuse the Prophets farre worse / then in calling thé libeliers: for I tel thee true / thou couldest not haue anye way so stayned their good names / as thou hast done / in comparing them to our bishopps. Call me libeller as often as thou wilt / I do not greatly care: but and thou louest me / neuer liken me to our bishops of the diuell. For I cannot abide to be compared vnto those. For by thine owne comparison / in the 9. page / they are iust Balaams vp and downe.
Reuerend T.C. page 8.9.10.
Though our bishops be as euil as Iudas / the false Apostles / and Balaam / yet because they haue sometimes brought vnto vs Gods messsage / wee must thinke no otherwise of them / then of Gods messengers. For God [32.] will not suffer diuellishe and Antichristian persons / to be the chiefe restorers of his gospell.
Reuerend Martin.
First T.C. I haue truly gathered thine argument / thogh thou namest neither Iudas nor the false apostles. Prooue it otherwise. Then hast thou reuerend Martin / prooued thy selfe a lyar. Now secondly then seeing it is so / I praye thee good honest T.C. desire our Iudasses (who was also one of the first Apostles) not to sell their master for money / & desire our false Apostles (who preached no false doctrine for the most part) not to insult ouer poore Paule / & desire our good Balaams / not to followe the wages of vnrighteousnes. The counsell is good. For Iudas / thogh one of the first publishers of the gospell (so were not our bishops in our time) yet hung himself. The false apostles had their reward / I doubt not. And Balaam / as soon as euer the Israelites tooke him / was iustly executed for his wickednes. The forced blessing wherewith he blessed thé saued him not.
Reuerend T.C. page 10.11.12.13.
Many coniecturall speeches are abroad of bishops / as that they are couetous / giue not to the poore / hinder reformation / Simoniacks / &c. but the chiefe gouernours ought to take heede / that they giue no credit to any suche things. I trust neuer any of them / commited idolatrie as Aharon did.
Reuerend Martin.
Yea / I beseeche you that are in authoritie in any case / not to beleeue any trueth against our bishops. For these puritans (although the bishops grant themselues / to bee as euill as Balaam) coulde neuer yet prooue the good fathers / to haue committed idolatrie as Aharon did. And as long as they bee no worse then Balaam was / there is no reason why they should be disliked. You know this is a troublesome worlde / men cannot come vnto any meare [33.] liuing without friendes. And it is no reason why a man should trouble his friende and giue him nothing / a hundred poundes and a gelding / is yet better then nothing. To bowle but seuen dayes in a weeke / is a very tollerable recreation. You must knowe / that Iohn of London / hath sometimes preached (as this profane T.C. hath giuen out to his no small commendations) thrise in a yeare at Paules crosse. A sore labor / it is reason that he should bestowe the rest of the yeare / in maintaining his health by recreation / and prouiding for his family: giue him leaue but to crepe out the gouernment of the Church / to swear like a swag / to persecute / and to take some small ten in the hundred: and truely he will be loath euer to commit idolatrie as Aharon did. I hope / though Iudas sold his master / yet that it cannot be prooued since his calling / that euer he committed idolatrie.
Reuerend T.C. page 16.17.
Though bishops should offende as Noah did in drunkennes / yet good childré should couer their fathers falts. For naturall children / though they suffer iniuries at their fathers hands / yet they take their griefes verie mildely.
Reuerend Martin.
Bishop Westphaling. But what then? Parson Grauat parson of sir Iohn Pulchres in London (one of dumbe Iohns bousing mates) will be drunke but once a weeke. But what then? good childré should take linkes in a cold morning / & light them at his nose / to see if by that means some part of the fire that hath so flashed his sweete face / might be taken away: this were their dutie / sayth T.C. & not to crie redde nose / redd nose. But T.C. what if a man shoulde finde him lying in the kenill / whether shoulde he take him vpp (all to be mired like a swine) in the sight of the people / and cary him home on his backe / or fling a couerled on him / and let him there take his rest / vntill his leggs woulde be aduised by him to carie him home. But [34.] me thinks brother T.C. you defend the bishops but euilfauoredly in these pointes. For you doe / as though a thiefe should saye to a true man / I must needs haue thy purse / thou must beare with me / it is my nature / I must needes playe the thiefe. But yet thou dealest vncharitably with me / if thou blasest it abroad: for though I make an occupation of theft / yet charitie would couer it. So saye you / though our bishops make a trade of persecuting and depriuing Gods ministers / though they make a trade of continuing in Antichristian callings / yet charitie woulde haue their faltes couered / & haue them mildely delt with. As though T.C. there were no difference / betwixt those that fall by infirmitie into some one sinne / not making it their trade / and not defending the same to be lawfull / and our bishops which continue in an Antichristian calling / and occupation / and defend they may do so. But wil they leaue think you / if they be mildly & gently delt with. Thé good Iohn of Canterbury / I praye thee leaue thy persecuting: good Iohn of Canterbury leaue thy Popedome: good father Iohn of London / be no more a bishop of the Diuell: be no more a traytor to God and his worde. And good sweet boyes / all of you / become honest men: maime & deform the church no longer: sweet fathers now / make not a trade of persecuting: gentle fathers keep the people in ignoraunce no longer: good fathers now / maintain the dumbe ministerie no longer. Be the destruction of the Church no longer / good sweete babes nowe: leaue your Nonresidencie / & your other sinnes / sweete Popes now: and suffer the trueth to haue free passage. Lo T.C. nowe I haue mildely delt with the good fathers / I will nowe expecte a while / to see whether they will amende by faire means / if not / let them not say but they haue bin warned.
Reuerend T.C. from the 20. to 30.
Though the bishops be faltie / yet they are not to be excused that finde falt with them for synister ends. And the prince and magistrates / is to take heed that by their [35.] suggestions / they be not brought to put downe L.bishops / to take away their liuings / and put them to their pensions. For the putting of them to their pensions / woulddiscourage young students from the study of diuinity
Reuerend Martin.
I thought you were a fraide to loose your liuings / by the courtier Martins meanes. But brethren feare it not. I woulde not haue any true minister in the land / want a sufficient liuing. But good soules / I commend you yet / that are not so bashful / but you will shew your griefes. Is it the treading vnder foote of the glory of God / that you feare good men. No no say they / we could resonably wel bear that losse. But we dye if you deminish the alowance of our Kitchin. Lett vs be assured of that / and our Lordly callings / and we do not greatly care / how other matters go. I will when more worke is published / helpe those good young students vnto a means to liue / though they haue none of your Bishopdomes / if they will be ruled by me.
Reuerend T.C. page.35 36.
There haue bene within these fewe weekes. 3. or 4. pamphlets published in print / against bishops. The author of them calleth him selfe Martin / &c.
R. Martin.
But good Tom Tubtrimmer / if there haue bin 3. or 4. published / why doth bishop Cooper name on only / why doth he not confute all? why doth he inuent obiections of his owne / seeing he had 3. books more to confute / or 2. at least then he hath touched / nay / why doth he not confute one of them thoroughly / seeing therein his Bishopdome was reasonably caperclawed. I haue onely published a Pistle / and a Pitomie / wherein also I graunt that I did reasonably Pistle them. Therefore T.C. you begin with a lye / in that you say that I haue published either 3. or 4. bookes. [36.]
Reuerend T.C. page.38.
His grace neuer felt blow as yet / &c. What is he past feeling / wilt thou tel me that T.C. he sleepeth belike in the top of ye roust. I would not be so wel thwacked for the popedome of Canter. as he hath borne poore man. He was neuer able to make good syllogisme since I am sure. Hee alowed D.Bridges his booke quoth T.C. I pray thee what got he by that / but a testimony against him selfe / that either he hath allowed treason / or confessed him selfe to be the bishop of the Diuell.
T.C. page.38. He that readeth his grace his answere / & M. Cartwrights reply / shal see which is the better lerned of the twoe. So he shal in deed T.C. and he were very simple which could not discerne that. And there is soe much answered already as thou saist / that his grace dare answere no more for shame. And T.C. you your selues grant T.Cartwright to be learned / so did I neuer think Iohn Whitgift to bee / what comparison cann you make betwene them? But Thomas Cartwright / shall I say / that thou madest this booke against me / because T.C. is sett to it wel take heed of it / if I find it to be thy doing / I will so besoop thee / as thou neuer bangedst Iohn Whitgift better in thy life. I see heere that they haue quarrelled with thee Walter Trauerse / Iohn Penri / Thomas Sparke / Giles Wiggington / Master Dauison / &c. Nay it is no matter / you are een wel serued / this wil teach you I trow to become my chaplaines. For if you were my chaplains once / I trowe Iohn Whitgift / nor any of his / durst not once say blacke to your eies. And if I had thy learning Thomas Cartwright / I would make them all to smoak. But though I were as verye an Assehead as Iohn Catercap is / yet I coulde deale well inough with cleargie man: yea with olde Winken de word D.Prime his selfe. And ile bepistle you D.Prime / when I am at more leasure / though in deede I tell you true / that as yet I doe [37.] disdaine to deale with a contemptible trencher chaplaine / such as you / D.Bankcroft / and Chaplaine Duport are. But ise be with you all three to bring one day / you shall neuer scape my fingers / if I take you but once in hande. You see how I haue delt with Deane Iohn / your entertainement shalbe alike. But Thomas Cartwright / thou art T.C. so is Tom Cooper too. The distinction then / betweene you both / shall be this: he shalbe profane T.C. because he calleth Christ Iesus / by whom the gouernment by Pastors / Doctors / Elders & Deacons was commanded / to be he knowes not whom: and thou shalt be simple T.C.
Concerning Mistresse Lawson / profane T.C. is it not lawfull for her to go to Lambeth by water / to accompanie a Concerning Mistress Lawson, profane T.C.. Is it not lawful for her to go to Lambeth by water, to accompany a preachers wife / going also (as commonly godly matrons in London do) with her man: No saith T.C. I doe not like this in women.8 Tushe man / Thomas Lawson is not Thomas Cooper / he has no suche cause to doubt of Dame Lawsons going without her husbande / as the bishop of Winchester hath had of dame Coopers gadding. But more worke for Cooper / will say more for Mistresse Lawson.
From whom soeuer Charde had his protection / his Face is glad of it / for otherwise he knoweth not how to get a printer / for the established gouernment / because the bookes will not sell.
Touching the Premunire9 / let the Libeller and his / doe what he dare. Why brethren / what wisedome is this in you to dare your betters? doe you not know that I can finde you my minde by a Pistle / and then prooue you to be pettie Popes / and enemies to the State. And how can you mend your selues. It is certaine you are in a premunire. If her Maiestie will giue me leaue to haue the law / I will be bound to bring 10000. poundes into her coffers vpon that bargain. And therefore foolish men / dare your [38.] betters no more. And here I pray thee mark how I haue made the bishops to pull in their hornes. For whereas in this place they had printed the word dare, they bethought themselues / yt they had to deale with my worship / which am fauoured at the Court / and being afraide of me / they pasted the word can vpon the word dare, and so / where before they bad me and mine doe what we durst: now they bid vs do what we can / hoping thereby to haue a frinde in a corner / whoe woulde not suffer vs to doe what wee ought and durst: and so our abilitie shoulde not be according vnto their demerit. Marke now / ye bishopps of the Diuell / whether you be not afraide of me: I will see you iolled with the Premunire one day
The like thing you shal finde in the 135. page. For there hauing said / that they wil not denie the discipline to haue bene in the Apostles time / they haue now pasted there vpon that / That is not yet proued. So that although their consciences do tell them / that the discipline was their / yet they will beare the world in hand / that that is not yet proued. Here you see that if this patch T.C. had not vsed two patches to couer his patcherie / the bishops woulde haue accounted him to be as very a patch as Deane Iohn.
A / but these knaue puritans are more vnmannerly before his grace / then the recusaunts are / and therefore the recusants / haue more fauor. I cannot blame them / for wee ought to haue no popes. The papists liketh the Archiepiscopall Pall / and therefore reuerenceth a petty Pope therein. And though the recusant come not to heare the sermons / yet he is an informer very often / vppon other mens information.
His grace denieth that euer he hard of any such matter / as that the Iesuit should say / he would becom a braue Cardinal / if popery should come againe. I knowe T.C. that long since he is past shame / and a notorious lyer / otherwise how durst he deny this / seeing Cliffe an honest [39.] and a godly cobler / divelling at Battell bridg / did iustifie this before his grace his teethe10 / yea and will iustifie the same againe if he be called. So will Atkinson too. Send for them if he dare. Ministers of the Gospel ought to be called priests / saith his grace11 / what say you by that? Then good sir Iohn O Cant. when wilt thou say Masse at our house. His grace is also perswaded / that there ought to be a Lordly superioritie among ministers. So was Iudas perswaded to sell his master. If you woulde haue these thinges prooued / profane T.C. referreth you to his grace his answer vnto simple T.C. and to doctor Bridges. That is / if you woulde learne any honestie / you must go to the stewes / or if you would haue a good sauour / you must go to the sincke for it. Why thou vnsavorly snuffe / dost tow thinke that men know not D.Bridges and Iohn Whitgift. Yea but his grace also firmely beleeueth / that Christ in soule descended into Hell. This is the 3. point of his catholike perswasion: but tell him from me / that he shal neuer be saued by this beliefe / and my finger in his mouth. Let him tell what our sauiour Christ should do / if he did not harrow Hell. Where thou saiest M.Yong had onely the dealing with Thackwel the popish printer / without his graces priuitie / thou liest in thy throat: M.Yong him selfe brought him to his grace / who ordered the matter as it is set downe in my Pistle. But did not I say truely of thee / yt thou canst cog / face & lye / as fast as a dog can trot / and that thou hast a right seasoned wainscoate face of ti nowne / chwarnt tee / ti vorehead zaze hard as horne.
Concerning Walde-graue / its no matter how you deal with him / heez a foolish fellow / to suffer you to spoyle his presse and letters: an a had bin my worships printer / ide a kept him from your clouches. And yet it is pitie to belye the diuell: and therefore you shall not belye / him and goe scotfree. As for the presse that Walde-graue solde / he did it by order / vz. He solde it to an allowed printer / I.C. one [40.] of his owne companie / with the knowledge of his Warden / Henry Denham / &c. And cal you this fauor / in releasing him after long imprisonment? But I will giue you a president of great fauour in deede / wherein you may see what an vngrateful fellow Walde-graue is to his grace / who hath bin so good vnto him from time time. There being a controuersie betweene another printer and Walde-graue (all matters of printing being committed by the L.L. of the Counsell to his grace) Walde-graue made one of his company his friende (who could do much with his grace) to deale for him / who brake the matter to his worship / being at Croydon in his Orcharde: so soone as the partie named Walde-graue / he sweetely aunswered him / saying: if it had bin any of the cõpany saue him / he would haue graunted the suite / but in no case to Walde-graue. Well Walde-graue / obtayned the R.H. Lord Treasurers letter in his behalfe to his grace / who when he had read it / said / I wil answer my L.Treasurer: with that Walde-graue intreated for his fauorable letter to the Wardens of his companie / which in the end through D.Coosins he obtained (though late) yet went home at night / thinking to deliuer it in the morning: but before he was readie / the Wardens were with him / and rested him with a Purciuant vpon his graces commandement / Walde-graue telling them there was a letter from his grace / which he receiued late the last night at Croidon: who answered / they knew it well inough / but this is his pleasure now: so they caried Walde-graue to prison / and in this / his grace was so good vnto him / as to help him with an hundred marks ouer the shulders12 If this be your fauour / God keepe me from you / ka M.Marprelate. Bishops haue iustly receiued according to their desertes / hauing found greater fauour at my worships hands thé euer they deserued / being notorious / disobedient & godlesse persons / vnthrifty spenders & consumers of the fruits / not of their own labors / [41.] (as you say Walde-graue was) but of the possessions of the church / persons that haue violated their faith to god / his church / hir maiesty / & this whol kingdom / & wittingly bring vs al without the great mercy of god to our vndoing: so that our wiues / children & seruants haue cause to curse al L.Bb. Lo T.C. you see that I haue a good gift in imitation / and me thinkes I haue brought your wordes into a marueilous good sense / wher as before in the cause of Walde-graue / they were ilfauoredly wrested: and as for his wife & children / they haue iust cause to curse Iohn of London / and Iohn of Canterburie / for their tyrannizing ouer him: by imprisoning and spoyling his goods / and vexing his poore wife and children / with continuall rifeling his house with their purciuants: who in Nouember last / violently rusht into his house / breaking through the maine wall thereof after midnight / taking away his goods / for some of the purciuants solde his books vp and downe the streats / to watchmen and others. Ah you Antichristian prelats / when will you make an ende of defending your tyrannie / by the blood and rapine of her maiesties subiectes? You haue bin the consumers of the fruits of Walde-graues labors: for haue you not sent him so often to prison / that it seemed you made a common occupation thereof? For assoon as any book is printed in the defence of Christs holy discipline / or for ye detecting of your Antichristian dealings / but your rauening purciuantes flye citie & countrie to seeke for Walde-graue / as though he were boúd by statute vnto you13 / either to make known who printed seditious books against my L.Face / or to go to prison himselfe / and threatned with the racke. And are you not ashamed to say / that he euer violated his fayth? you know wel inough / that he is neither Archb. nor L.B. The case thus stood / after he had remained a long time in prison / not that time when Hartwell his graces secretary wisht that his grace might neuer eat bit of bread after he [42.] released him. Nor at that time when you profane T.C. told him / that all puritans had traiterous hearts. Nor at that time Walde-graue tolde his grace / that he was worse thé Boner in regard of the time. Nor that time when he was straungely released by one the Lorde of good Londons Swans. Neither was it at yt time / when his grace (good conscionable noble man) violated his promise / in that he told the wardens of the staciouers / that if Walde-graue woulde come quietly to him / & cease printing of seditious bookes / he would pardon what was past / & the wardens promised his wife / that if he were committed / they would lye at his graces gate til he were released / and for al this / yet he was committed to the white Lyon / where he laye sixe weekes. Nor it was not at that time / when his grace allowed Watson the purciuant / to take of Walde-graue / a 3. s. 4. pence / for cariying of him to the white Lyon. But it was that time / when his grace kept him 20. weekes together in the white lyon / for printing the Complaint of the comminaltie / the Practize of prelats / A learned mans iudgment / &c. Means being vsed for his liberty / his frend who was bound for him told him / his liberty was obtained in maner following. You must be bounde saith he / in a 100. pounds / to print no more books herafter / but such as shalbe authorized by hir Maiesty or his grace / or such as were before lawfully authorized: wherunto he answered / that it was not possible for him to containe himselfe within the compasse of that bond / neither should his consent euer go to the same14 (the same wil D.Coosins witnes (that maidenly Doctor / who sits cheek by ioll with you) if he will speake a trueth / which words Walde-graue vttered to him / going in the old pallas at westminster with his keeper before he was released) yet he woulde gladly haue his libertie if he might lawfully. For saide he / I being a poore workeman to my companie / cannot possibly obserue it. For many bookes heretofore printed / had [43.] cum priuilegio, & yet were neuer authorized: & againe / that it were but a folly for him to sue to her Maiestie / the office were very base and vnfit for her. And he might be wel assured that Caiaphas of Cant. would neuer authorize any thing for his behoofe / and so it fell out. And thus Martin hath prooued you in this / as in all other things / to be lyars. And what is it that you Bb. & your hangones will not saye by Walde-graue / whom you would hang if you could. I will be briefe in the rest / but so / as reader may perceiue that T.C. was hired to lye by commission. I will stand to it / that his grace accounteth the preaching of the word / being the only ordinary meanes of saluation to be an heresie15 / & doth mortally persecute the same:16 his appellation to the obedient cleargie shall stand him in no steed / when more worke for Cooper / is published. And there I will pay thee for abusing M.Wiggington / and Master Dauison17 / whose good names can take no staine / from a bishops chopps. If his grace reiected Master Euans for want of conformity / why is the quare impedit gotten against the bishopp of Worcester / by the noble Earl of Warwick his patron. I hope he wil see both the quare impedit, and the premunire to / brought vppon the bones of father Edmond of Worcester. It is a common bragge18 with his grace his parasites / and with him selfe / that he is the second person in the land. More work shal pay his grace for commending the Apocripha a profane and lying storye in many places19 / to be vnseperably ioined with the holy word of God. You grant D.Spark to haue set his grace and your selfe T.C. at a non plus,20 for the septuaginta is contrary to the Hebrew / and therefore / you maintain contrary translations / and require men to aproue both. Martin hath marred Richard patriks market / for otherwise he was in good hope to haue a benefice at his grace his hand / & to be made a minstrell. Shamelesse and impudent wretches that dare deny Iohn of Cãt. [44.] to haue bin at any time vnder D.Perne / but as a fellowe of the house / where he was master / whereas all the world knoweth him to haue bin a poore scholler in that house / yea and his grace hath often confessed / that hee beinge there a poore scholler / was so poor as he had not a napkin to wipe his mouth / but when he hadd gotten some fatte meat of O the fellowes table / would go to the skrine / and first wipe his mouth on the on side and then O the other / because he wanted a napkin / iudge you whether this bee not a meaner state / then to cary a cloakbag / which is not spoken to vpbraide any mans pouerty / but to pull the pride of Gods enemy / an ase lower. Although wee cannot beleeue D.Perne in the pulpit / yet in this point wee will not refuse his testimony. I am gladd Iohn of London you will not deenie / but you haue the Diars cloth / make restitution then: thou madest the porter of thy gate a minister Iohn / and thou mightest do it lawfully.21 Why so I pray thee / why man / because he was almost blinde / and at Paddington being a small people / hee could not starue as many soules / as his master doth / which hath a great charge.22 I hope M.Madox will thinke scorne / to ask Iohn of London forgiuenesse. The substance of the tale is true. I told you that I had it at the second hand. Are you not ashamed / to deny the elmes to be cut downe at Fulham? Why her maiesties taker tooke them from Iohn of London. And simple fellowes / are you not able to discern between a plesant frump giuen you by a counsellor / and a spech vsed in good earnest. Alas poore Iohn O London / doest thou thinke / that M.Vicechamberlain spake as he thought. Then it is time to begg the for a swagg. And so it is if thou thinkest wee will beleeue the turncoate D.Perne speaking vnto vs in his own name / who like an Apostatae / hath out of the pulpit / tolde so many vntruthes. And as it is as lawfull to boule / O the Sabboth23 / as it is to eat / and for you to make dumbe [45.] ministers / as it was for Dauid to eat of the shew bread pag. 110. or for the Machabees to fight on the Sabboth / or for Moses to grant a bil of diuorcement? I perceiue these men will haue the good diuinity / if it be to be gotten for money.24 Yea and our Sauiour Christ / sware by his faith very often. How so good Iohn. I neuer hard that before / why saith T.C. he sayd Amen Amen very often / and Amen / is as much as by my faith / page. 62. horrible and blasphemous beastes / whither will your madnes growe in a while / if you be not restrained. M.Allen the Grocer25 is paid all saue 10. pound: for the vse of that / the executors haue Iohn O Londons blessing. And I thinke they are reasonably wel serued. If the tale of Benison26 be not true / why was Iohn of London alotted by the counsel / to pay him (I think) 40. pounds for his false imprisonment. Iohn of London is not dumb / because he preacheth somtimes thrise a yeare at Pauls crosse. Then we shall neuer make our money of it I see. But I pray thee T.C. howe canst thou excuse his blaspeemie / of Eli, Eli, lammasabackthani:27 there haue bin 2. outragious facts amongst others committed in the world / by those that professe true religion / the on was the betraying of our sauiour by Iudas an apostle / the other was the horrible mocking of his agonie and bitter passion / by Iohn Elmar a bishop in this speeche. If he had bene in some reformed Churches / the blaspheemer woulde haue hardly escaped with his life. And is it true sweete boy in deed? Hath Leicestorshiere so embraced the Gospell without contention / and that by Dumb Iohns meanes? Litle doest thou know what thou hast done nowe / howe if Martin be a Leycester shiere man / hast not thou then sett out the praise of thine owne bane? For martin I am sure / hath wroght your Caiaphas Chaire more wracke and misery / then all the whole land beside. And therefore thou seest / a man may be so madd somtimes / that he may praise he cannot tel what. The [46.] bishop of Rochester in presenting him selfe to a parsonage28 / did noe more then lawe allowed him. And do so againe good Iohn of Rochester / and it will be for thy credit. Fo/ these puritans woulde finde fault I thinke with Iohn of Cant. (if he beleeuing that Christe in soule went to Hell) should holde it vnlawfull for a man to pray vnto Christe being in hell. And sweet Iohn of Cant. if euer thou praisedst in thy life for any bodies souls / now pray for thy brother D.Sqire and Tarletons soules. They were honest fellows / though I think dean Iohns ears be longer. For why good sweet Iohn / may not your worship do this / as well as William of Lincolne might pray29 / that our soules should be with the soules of professed traiterous papists.
The good B. of Winchester did not protest / that at sir M.Oueries which was laid to his charge / but he spake som things that way. Wel brother Winchester / you confesse the most part30 / & we wil beleeue the rest for your sake without witnes. The B. of Winchester neuer said that it was an heresie / to holde that the preaching of the worde was the only ordinarie means to saluation31 / but inasmuch as Penri helde that the effect of saluation coulde not be wrought by the word read / he said that was not far from heresie: why brother Cooper / what is this els but open confession. For Iohn Penri as appeareth in his writings holdeth the word read / to be no ordinary means of saluation at al. This I know you wil accoút an heresie / otherwise your case is damnable / that cause the people to content themselues with reading / & hold that they may ordinarily be saued thereby. Yea but T. of Winchester disputed a M. of Art / 45. yeare ago in diuinitie.32 Here is an old lad once. I hope that disputation was very cholerickly performed. And he did once as prety a thing as that came to. For once preaching at Canter. he was disposed to note out T.C. I meane simple T.C. in his sermon / his part he plaid after this sort. He noted 4. great Hidraes of the [47.] gospell / in his sermon. 1. Carnall security. 2. Heathnish gentility. 3. Obstinat papistrie / 4. saith he / when I looke in his forehead / I finde T.C. written therein / which I cannot otherwise interpret / then thankles curiositie / thanklesse for the benefits already receiued / & more curious then needs in vain & needles questions. The old studét did not know himselfe to be T.C. when he thus spake / & this is yt thankles curiosity yt hath answered Martin. Yea & he saw martins picture drawn when he was a yong man. I perceiue then he was not blind / as the old porter of Paddington / whom Iohn of London bedeaconed & beminstrelled. Hecian of Winchester himselfe was the painter. Mydas of Cant. the iudge. The one of the 2. womé caled ignorance / was the goodwife of Bath / D.Culpable warden of new colledge / ye other called ielous suspicion / was yt for Iohn of Exetor. Thé came in Winkendeword / alias D.Prime callumniator. This Winken & his L. of Winchester / drew innocencie: to wit / Martin Marprelat gentleman by the haire of the head. Then followed Dolus fraus insidiæ. To wit / D.Perne / D.Kenold & D.Cosins. The treader was cankered malice / his eyes were fierie / his face thinn & withered / pined away with melancholi / & this was D.Copcoat. Then followed dolfull repentance / yt is / dean Iohn / repenting that euer he had writté in the Bb. behalfe / because his grace is not as good as his worde. T.C. consider this picture vntill we meet againe. Now my busines calleth me away / I am trauelling towards Banbury / for I here say that there hath bin old adoe. For bakers daughters wold haue knights whether they would or no. I wil learne the trueth hereof / & and so I will post to Solihill / & visiting som parts of Stafford / Warwick / & Northampton shires / I will make a iourney backe againe to Norfolke and suffolke: I haue a register at Burie / & by that time my visitors will be come out of Cornwall / Deuon & Hampshire. And now fare thee well good profane T.C. I [48.] cannot now meddle with the long period which thou hast in the 33.34. pag. of thy book / it is but 38. lines: thou art longer wided then Deane Iohn is I see / though he hath longer periods then that which I set downe. Whereas thou dost complaine that the liuings of our bishopps are so small / that some of their children are like to go a begging. There is a present remedy for that. For to what end els / is Iohn of Cant. vnmaried / but to prouide for the bishops children who shalbe poorly left. Though in deed / I neuer said in my life / that there was euer any great familiaritie (though I know there was some acquaintaunce) betweene mistris Toye and Iohn Whitgift. And ile befie em / ile befie em that will say so of me. And wherfore is Richard of Peterborowe vnmaried / but to prouide for other mens children. O now I remember me / he has also a charge to prouide for / his hostesse and cosin of Sibson. The peticoat which he bestowed vpon her / within this six moneths was not the best in England / the token was not vnmeete for hir state. Farewell / farewell / farewell olde Martin / and keepe thee out of their handes for all that. For thou art a shrewd fellowe / thou wilt one day ouerthrow them Amen. And then thou swearest by thy faith / quoth Iohn of London.
Martin the Metropolitane to Iohn the Metropolitane
sayth / Nemo confidat nimium secundis.
Martin to his troubled sonnes sayth /
Nemo desperet meliora lapsus.
Anglia Martinis disce favere tuis.
Falts escaped
Tytle line ten / read / Chaplaine hath shewed himselfe in his late Admonition to the
people of England to be / &c. Epistle page third / read Eulogein for Enlogeni.
Beare with the rest of the falts.
1 You may herby perceiue that T.C. is a bishop
2 Puritans confes Iohn Cant. to be no Pope.
3 The apostles chose non in sted of Iames being beheded as they did in steed of Iudas Act.1. which they would haue don if the apostolicall calling had bin permanent.
4 This T.Cooper gainsaieth pag. 2 of his Epistle
5
T.Cooper saith it to / pag. second / Epist.
6
T.C.38.
7 Deane Iohn, lib.4. page 340. line 7
8 Qui pergit quod vult dicere quæ non vult audiet.
9 T.C. pag.40.
10 page.41.
11 page 46. page.44.
12 A new reuenge for an old grudge.
13 O the greatnes of his graces fauor.
14 Whereby it may appeare he swore not to his friende.
15 page. 46.
16 page.47.
17 page.47.
18 page.48.49.
19 2:Esdras.14.21-37.&c.
20 page.50.
21 page.51.52. 53.54.
22 page.55.56.
23 page.57.58.
24 page.62.
25 page.58.
26 page.59,
27 page.6.61.62.
28 page.63.
29 page.63.64.
30 page.14.65. 66.&c.
31 page.71.
32 page.72.75.