The.x. chapyter

NOw passing ouer this poynt / I come to this […] good brothern say, that they lyste not to rede my bokes / for I am suspecte in these maters, and parcyall […]o warde the spyrytualty.

As for suspecte / yf I be now suspecte the world waxeth all of a new kynde. For men were wont to call those folke suspecte, y• were suspect of heresy. And thys is now a new kind of suspect[…], if mē be now suspected of y• catholyke fayth. How be it ī that suspycyon am I glad to be fallen, & purpose neuer to purge it.

Now as towchynge parcyalyte vpō my parte toward the spyry[…]ualtye / I meruayle wherof they gather it. My self am perde a tēporall man / and by twyse weddynge am come in the case that I can neuer be preste. And for as all y• landes & fees that I haue in all England, bysyde suche landes and fees as I haue of the gyfte of the kynges most noble grace is not at this day nor shalbe whyle my mother in lawe lyueth (whose lyfe & good helth I praye god long kepe and continue) wurth yerely to my lyuyng the somme of full fyfty poūde. And therof haue I some by my wyfe, & some by my father (whose soule our lorde assoyle) and some haue I also purchaced my selfe / and some fees haue I of some tēporall men. And then maye euery man well gesse, y• I haue no very great parte of my lyuynge by the clergy, to make me very parcyall to them.

And ouer that this shall I trewly saye, that of all the yerely lyuynge that I haue of the kynges gracyouse gyfte / I haue not one grote by the menes of any spyritual man / but far aboue my deseruynge haue hadde yt, onely by hys owne syngulare bountye and goodnes, and specyal fauour towarde me.

And veryly of any such yerely fees as I haue to my lyuīg at this of any other / I haue not had one grote graunted me syth I fyrst wrote, or went about to write my dialoge / and that was ye wote wel the fyrst worke that I wrote in these maters.

But then say the brethern as theyr holy father writeth, and telleth also dyuerse whom he talketh wyth, that I haue taken great rewardes in redy money of dyuers of theclergy for makynge of my bokes.

In good fayth I wyll not saye nay, but that some good and honorable men of theym, wolde in rewarde of my good wy[…]l and my labour agaynste these heretyques, haue geuen me myche more then euer I dyd, or could deserue. But I dare take god and theym also to recorde, that all they coulde neuer feffe me wyth one peny thereof / but (as I playnly tolde them) I wolde rather haue caste theyre money into the Temys. thenne take yt. For al be it they were as in dede there were, bothe good men and honorable / yet loke I for my thanke of god that is theyr better, and for whose sake I take the labour and not for theyrs.

And yf any of the brethern byleuyng theyr holy fathers, thynke as some of them saye, that I haue more auauntage or these maters then I make for / and that I sette not so lytle by money as to refuse yt when yt were offered: I wyll not myche dispute wyth them lenger vppon the mater. But let theym byleue as they lyst / yet this wyll I be bold to say for my selfe, all though they shold call me pharysye for the boste and pelagiane for my labour to, that how bad so euer they reken me, I am not yet fully so vertulesse, but that of myne owne naturall dysposycyon wythout any specyall peculyare helpe of grace therto, I am […]othe ouer prowde and ouer slouthfull also, to be hyred for money to take half the labour and besynesse in wrytynge, that I haue taken in thys gere synnys I began.

And therfore cause of parcyal fauour to the prestes persons haue I none, more then hath euery good crysten man and woman / whych is of dewty bounden to geue honour & reuerence vnto that holy sacrament of order, wyth whyche the clergye is specyally cō secrate & dedycate vnto god.

But where as the brethern say that I am not indyfferent in the mater / therin do they the thynge that they seldome do that is to wit say y• trewth. For yf they call the mater eyther the vyce or vertue of the persones, whyche I take not for y• mater: yet therin am I not indifferēt in dede bytwene a temporall man and a spyrytuall. For as for vyce, I hold yt myche more dampnable in a spyrytuall person then in a temporall man. And as for vertue / egall vertue I holde yt yet myche more yf yt happen in the temporall man thē in the spyrytuall / bycause though the thynge be egall, they be not both egally bound therto. And therfore yf they take this for y• mater / in this wyse I am not indyfferent.

Nowe yf they take for the mater the thynge that I take for the mater, that is to wytte y• trew fayth & false heresyes / then▪ am I mych lesse indyfferent. For god kepe me from beynge indyfferent betwene those two sortes. For euery good man is boūden betrwene trewth and falshed, the catholyque chyrche and heretykes, betwene god and the deuyll, to be parcyall / and playnely to declare hym selfe to be full and whole vpon the tone syde and clere agaynste the tother.

But ellys as for any parcyal fauour that I bere to the clergye, wherby do these brethern proue yt? I neuer sayde that they were all fauteles, nor I neuer excused theyre fautes. And yf euer I dyd / let the[…] reherse of my wrytynge some one place at the leste, let them tell where I cō mende pompe & pryde, where I prayse auaryce, where lechery, or suche other thynge.

Those that be spyrytuall persones by professyon, and are therwyth carnall and wreched in theyr condicyon, haue neuer ben fauoured by me.

when I was fyrste of the kynges counsayle, and after his vnder treasorer, and in y• tyme whyle I was chaūceller of his duchye, of Lancaster, & when I was his chaūcellour of this realme / yt was metely well knowen what maner of fauoure I bare towarde the clergy / and that as I loued & honored the good, so was not remysse nor slacke in prouydynge for the correccyon of those that were nought, noyouse to good peple, and slaunderouse to theyr owne order. whyche sorte of prestes and religyouse runnynge oute of relygyon and fallynge to thefte and murder, had at my hand so litle fauour, that there was no man that any medling had wyth theym, into whose handes they were more lo[…]he to come.

And in this poynt found I theyr ordinaryes so well mynded to theyr amendemēt & correccyon / y• they gaue me gret thankes therfore.

And I foūde those prestes rather content to remayne in the kynges prysōs a mon[…]th, then in the bishoppes a weke / sauynge for hope of delyueraunce by the comen course of theyr purgacyon.

And yet as farre as my pore wyt could geue me, sauynge that the daunger of escapes is to the ordinary so chargeable, that y• fere therof maketh theym fayne of theyre delyueraunce / elles were they lykely to be waxen better ere they gate thense, or elles to tarye there as longe as euer they lyued.

But I perceyue well that these good brethern loke that I sholde rebuke the clergy, & seke out theyr fawtes, & laye them to theyr facys, & wryte some wurke to theyr shame / or ellys they can not call me but parcyall to the prestes.

How be it by this reason they maye call me parcyall to the lay men to. For I neuer vsed that waye neyther towarde the tone nor y• tother. I fynde not yet suche plenty and store of vertue in my selfe, as to thynke it a metely parte and conuenyent for me to play, to rebuke as abomynable vycyouse folke, any one honest cō panye eyther spyrytuall or temporall / & mych lesse mete to rebuke & reproche eyther the whole spyrytualtye or tē poraltye, bycause of suche as are very starke noughte in bothe.

I dare be bolde to say tha[…] prowde folke be nought, that couetouse folke be nought, y• lecherouse folke be noughte / and to speke agaynste open knowen theuys, open knowē murderers, open knowen per […]ured persons, open knowen apostatase, open knowen professed or cōuycted heretykes. But surely my guise is not to lay the fawtes of y• noughty, to the charge of any whole cō pany / and rayle vppon merchauntes and call them vsurers / nor to rayle vpon francēs & call thē false iurrours / nor to rayle vpon shyryffes & call them rauenours / nor to rayle vppon eschetours & call them extorcioners / nor vpon all officers and call them […]rybours / nor vpon gentyl[…]men and call theym oppressours / nor so forth vp hygher, to call euery degre by suche odyouse names as men myghte fynde some of that sorte.

And of all degrees specyally for my part, I haue euer accompted my dewty to forbere all such maner of vnmanerly byhauour toward those two moste emynent orders, that god hath here ordayned in erth / the two great orders I mene of speciall consecrate personys, the sacred prynces and prestes. Agaynste any of whyche two reuerent orders, who so be so lewde vnreuerentely to speke, & malapertly to ieste and rayle, shall playe that parte alone for me. And rather wyll I that these bretherne call me parcyall, than for suche yll fasshyon indyfferent.

And ouer thys I can not se what nede there were that I shold rayle vpō the clergy, & reken vp all theyr fawtes.

For that parte hath Tyndall played, and frere Barns both al[…]redy / & lefte no thynge for me to saye therin, not though my minde were sore set therō.

They haue wyth treuth & lyes togyther, layed y• lyuing of badde, to badde and good bothe, in suche a vyle vy[…]anouse fasshyon, that it wolde make a good stomake to vomyte to here they[…]e rybauldouse raylynge. And yet not agaynste the sacred persons onely, but agaynst the blessed sacramentes also.

And now wolde theyr dyscyples that I shold not speke agaynste theyr execrable heresyes, and theyr dispyghtful dealynge / but yf I sholde by the waye do as they do, and helpe them forth in the same.

And▪ herein fare they mych lyke, as yf there were a sorte of vilayne wreched heretikes that metynge the prestes and […] relygyouse and other […] wyth baners, copys, crosses, and sencers, and the […] borne about with […] vppon a corpus chrysty daye, wo[…]d pyke quareilys to them, and fyrste call them all that coulde come in theyr vyllayne mouthes, and happely saye trewe by some / and than […]ache them all by the heddys, and throw them in the myre, surplyces, copys▪ sensers, crosses, relyques, sacrament and all. And than yf any man rebuked theyr vilanouse dealynge, and wolde steppe vnto the prestes, and puile theym vppe and helpe to wype the copys, and reuerētly take vp the crosses, the relykes, and the blessed sacrament: were it not now well and wysely spoken yf one wold▪ reproue hym that thus dyd, & saye he shold not medle hym self in the mater hote nor co[…]lde, but yf he wold be indyfferēt & do some what on bothe the sydes / and therfore he shold to shew hym selfe indy[…]erēt, eyther reuyle and rebuke the prestes, or at the leste wyse some of them / & sowse theym somwhat in the myre for the pleasure of them that so serued them / or ellys go by aboute hys other busynes, and let the mater alone / and neyther take vppe good man out of the myre, nor surplyce, cope, nor sencer, nor rel[…]ke / but lette them lay the sacrament in the dyrt agayne. were not thys a goodly way? Surely for my parte I am not so ambycyouse of suche folkes prayse, as to be called indyfferent, wyll in wrytyng agaynst theyr heresyes helpe them forth in theyr raylynge.