This word "omnes," signifieth the most part, and so there be some good, I doubt not of it, in England. But yet we be far worse than those stiff-necked Jews. For we read of none of them that winced nor kicked against Isaiah's preaching, or said that he was a seditious fellow. It behoveth the magistrates to be in credit, and therefore it might seem that Isaiah was to blame to speak openly against the magistrates. It is very sure that they that be good, will bear, and not spurn at the preachers they that be faulty, they must amend, and neither spurn, nor wince, nor whine. He that findeth himself touched or galled, he declareth himself not to be upright. Wo worth these gifts! they subvert justice every where. "Sequuntur retributiones," They follow bribes. Somewhat was given to them before, and they must needs give somewhat again for Giffe-gaffe* was a good fellow, this Giffe-gaffe led them clean from justice. They follow gifts.

A good fellow on a time bade another of his friends to a breakfast, and said, If you will come, you shall be welcome; but I tell you aforehand, you shall have but slender fare, one

*An old jingle word for bribery, a gift for gift; or one good turn for another.

dish, and that is all. What is that, said he? A pudding, and nothing else. Marry, said he, you cannot please me better; of all meats, that is for mine own tooth; you may draw me round about the town with a pudding. These bribing magistrates and judges follow gifts faster than the fellow would follow the pudding.

I am content to bear the title of sedition with Isaiah: thanks be to God, I am not alone, I am in no singularity. This same man that laid sedition thus to my charge, was asked another time whether he were at the sermon at Paul's cross. He answered that he was there: and being asked, What news there? Marry, quoth he, wonderful news, we were there clean absolved, my mule and all had full absolution. Ye may see by this, that he was such a one as rode on a mule, and that he was a gentleman. Indeed his mule was wiser than he; for I dare say the mule never slandered the preacher. what an unhappy chance had this mule, to carry such an ass upon his back! I was there at the sermon myself. In the end of his sermon he gave a general absolution, and as far as I remember, these or such other like words he spake, but at the least I am sure this was his meaning; As many as do acknowledge yourselves to be sinners, and confess the same, and

stand not in defence of it, and heartily abhorreth it; and will believe in the death of Christ, and be conformable thereunto, "Ego absolvo vos," quoth he. Now saith this gentleman, his mule was absolved. The preacher absolved but such as were sorry and did repent. Belike then she did repent her stumbling; his mule was wiser than he a great deal. I speak not of worldly wisdom, for therein he is too wise; yea, he is so wise, that wise men marvel, how he came truly by the tenth part of that he had. But in wisdom which consisteth "in rebus Dei, in rebus salutis," in godly matters, and appertaining to our salvation, in this wisdom he is as blind as a beetle. "Tanquam equus et mulus, in quibus non est intellectus," Like horses and mules, that have no understanding. If it were true that the mule repented her of her stumbling, I think she was better absolved than he. I pray God stop his mouth, or else to open it to speak better, and more to his glory.

Another man, quickened with a word I spake, (as he said,) opprobriously against the nobility, that their children did not set forth God's word, but were unpreaching prelates, was offended with me. I did not mean so, but that some noblemen's children had set forth God's word; howbeit the poor men's sons have done it al

ways, for the most part. "Johannes Alasco* was here, a great learned man, and as they say, a nobleman in his country, and is gone his way again." If it be for lack of entertainment, the more pity.

I would wish such men as he to be in the realm, for the realm should prosper in receiving of them. "Qui vos recipit, me recipit," Who receiveth you, receiveth me, saith Christ; and it should be for the king's honor to receive them and keep them. I heard say Master Me

*John Alasco, the Polish reformer, was born of a noble family, many of whom filled high offices in church and state. He received a very liberal education, after which he travelled into Germany, where he embraced the reformed doctrines. At Basil he contracted an intimacy with Erasmus, who recommended him to Cardinal Pole. In 1542 he undertook the ministerial office at Embden, but in 1548 accepted an invitation from archbishop Cranmer, by whose interest he obtained the dissolved convent of the Augustine friars in London, where he gathered a German congregation. On the accession of Mary, he was ordered out of the kingdom; and returned to Embden, from whence he removed to Frankfort on the Maine. Being a Zuinglian, he incurred the enmity of the rigid Lutherans, in consequence of which he went to Poland, and for some time was employed in public affairs; but the machinations of the Romish clergy obliged him to return to Frankfort, where he died, January 13, 1560.

lanethon,* that great clerk, should come hither. I would wish him, and such as he is, to have two hundred pound a year. The king should never want it in his coffers at the year's end. There is yet among us two great learned men, Peter Martyr, and Ber

* Philip Melancthon, the most learned and moderate of all the reformers, was invited to England, in 1534, by Henry the Eighth, and he would then have complied, agreeably to the advice of the elector of Saxony and Luther, had it not been for the tragical end of Anne Boleyne, the news of which altered his resolution. Henry repeated the invitation in 1538, with some flattering compliments to the great learning and sound judgment of Melancthon; but the German divine still declined the honor, and even in the next reign, when he could have no reasonable objections to a settlement in England, he hesitated till the death of that excellent young monarch put an end to the design altogether, though the divinity. professorship at Cambridge had been kept vacant on purpose for him.

+ Peter Martyr, or Vermilius, was born of a distinguished family at Florence, in 1500. He became an Augustine monk, and was so celebrated as a preacher, that he obtained the abbey of Spoletto, from whence he removed to Naples, where the writings of Zuinglius and Bucer effected a change in his religious sentiments. He had the courage to preach against the errors of popery even at Rome, but was soon obliged to quit Italy for Germany, from whence he came to England, and in 1549 was made professor of divinity at Oxford. On the accession of Mary, he went to Strasburg, next to Geneva, and afterwards to Zurich, where he died in 1562.