_Whereunto I answer, that besides that CHRIST and his Apostles were compelled (for because of the furiousness of their fathers, the Bishops and Priests, which only, that time also, would be called Holy Church) oftentimes for to walk secretly, and absent themselves, and give place to their malice. Yet we have daily examples, of more than one or two, that have not spared nor feared for to speak, and also_ [_to_] _preach openly the Truth; which have been taken of them, prisoned, and brent: besides others that for fear of death, have abjured and carried faggots. Of whose_ Articles _and Examination there is no layman that can shew a word._ =DEATHS OF SEVEN AT COVENTRY, &c.= _Who can tell wherefore, not many years past, there were Seven burnt in Coventry on one day? Who can tell wherefore that good priest and holy martyr, Sir_ [the reverend] _THOMAS HITTON was brent, now this year, at Maidstone in Kent? I am sure, no man! For this is their cast_ [contrivance] _ever when they have put to death or punished any man: after their secret Examinations, to slander him of such things as he never thought; as they may do well enough, seeing there is no man to contrary them._ _Wherefore I exhort thee, good brother! whosoever thou be that readest this treatise, mark it well, and consider it seriously! and there thou shalt find, not only what the Church is, their doctrine of the Sacrament, the Worshipping of Images, Pilgrimage, Confession, Swearing, and Paying of Tithes: but also thou mayest see what strong and substantial arguments of Scripture and Doctors, and what clerkly reasons my Lord the head and Primate of the Holy Church in England (as he will be taken) bringeth against this poor, foolish, simple, and mad losell, knave, and heretic, as he calleth him. And also the very cause wherefore all their Examinations are made in darkness._ _And the Lord of all Light shall lighten thee with the candle of His grace, for to see the Truth! Amen._ ¶ _This I have corrected and put forth in the English that now is used in England, for our Southern men; nothing thereto adding, ne yet therefrom minishing. And I intend hereafter, with the help of GOD to put it forth in his own old English, which shall well serve, I doubt not, both for the Northern men and the faithful brethren of Scot- land._ [+William of Thorpe's Preface.+] =William of Thorpe. 1407.=