thinke, and call for your accusers, as thoughe you were afrayde to vtter your mynde to me. But I woulde haue you not to bee afrayde to talke with me. for I meane no more hurte to you then I doe to my selfe, I take God to my recorde.

wood. I can not tell. It is harde trusting of faire wordes, when a man can not truste hys father, nor brother, nor other. that hath beene his familiar frēdes, but that they deceiue him. A man maye lawfulye followe the example of Christe, to them that he neuer see before, saying: be as wyse as serpentes, and as innocent as doues: beware of men, for they goe about to betraye you: and it maketh mee suspect you muche, because you blame me for aunswering with the scriptures. It maketh me to doubte that you woulde take vauntages of mee, if I should speake myne owne wordes. Wherfore I will take as good hede as I can, because I haue been deceiued already by them I trusted moste. wherfore blame me not though I aunswere circumspectly. It shall not bee sayde by Gods helpe, that I wyll runne wylfullye into myne enemies handes: and yet I prayse God my lyfe is not dere to my selfe, but it is dere with God. Wherfore I wyll doe the vttermost that I can to kepe it.

Lang. You be afrayde where no feare is. for I was desyred of maister Sherife and his brother, and of other of your frēdes, to talke with you, and they tolde me that you were desyrous to talke with me, and nowe ye make the matter as though you hadde nothing to doe with me, and as though were were sent to pryson for nothynge: for you call for youre accusers, as though there were no manne to accuse you. But if there were no man to accuse you, your owne hande wrytyng did accuse you enough, that you sette vpon the churche doore, (if you be remembred) and other letters that you lette fall abroade, some at one place, and some at an other. wherfore you nede not call for your accusers. your own hand wil accuse you enough. I warrant you, it is kept safe enough. I wold not for two hundred pound ther were so much against me.

wood. I wyll not denye myne owne hand by Gods helpe. for it can not lightlye be counterfeited. I doe not denie but I wrote a letter to the priest and other of the parishe, declarynge to them their follie and presumption, to come into my house without my loue or leaue, and fet out my childe, and vse it at their pleasure, which moued me to wryte my mynde to thē: and because I could not tell howe to conuey it to them, I set it on the churche doore, whiche letter my Lorde of Chichester hath. for he shewed it me when I was before hym, wherein is contayned nothyng but the very scriptures,

to their reproches. Lette it be layde before mee when you or he will, I will aunswere to it by helpe of God, to all their shames that I wrote it to: and as for any other letters, I wrote none as you saye I did, neyther hadde I wrote that, if they hadde done like honest neighbours. Wherfore if they be offēded with me, for that I will aunswere them with Christes wordes, in the xviii. of Mathewe: wo vnto them selues because they geue me the occasion. And where as you sayde I was desyrous to speake with you, and that maister Sherife and his brother, and other of my frendes, willed mee to talke with you, and that I fare nowe as though I hadde nothynge to doe with you, & as though I were sent to pryson for nothing, the truthe is, I knowe no more wherfore I am sent to prison then the least childe in this towne knoweth. And as for me, I desired not maister Sherife to speake with you. But in deede he desyred me that I would speake with you, and to vtter my faithe to you. For he supposed that I did not beleue well: and he reported you to bee learned. But I refused to talke with you at the first. For I remembred not that you were the Parson of Buxted: wherefore I sayde to him, I woulde not vtter my faythe to anye but to the Byshoppe. I saide, he is myne Ordinarie. wherefore I appele vnto him. I am commaunded by saint Peter in the first Epistle, the thirde chapter, to render accompte of my hope that I haue in God, to him that hath authoritie. wherfore I will talke with none in that matter but with him. wherfore sende me to him if you will, or els there shall no man knowe my faithe, I tell you plainly.

These woordes made him angrie, and he went his waye: and when he was gone from me, I remembred that it was that he woulde haue me talke with, and then I remembred that I made a promise to my father, and goodman Daie of Vcfield, not past a fourtenight before I was taken, that whensoeuer he came into the countire, I would speake with him by Gods helpe, because they praised him so muche, that he was learned, and they would faine here vs talke.

So all these thinges called to remembraūce, I desired my keper that he woulde shewe his maister that I woulde fayne speake with him. for I had remembred thinges that were not in my mynde when I spake to him: so he went to his maister, and shewed hym the matter, and he came to me: and then I tolde him my mind, and what promyse I hadde made, and he sayde he woulde sende for you on the morrowe, as he dyd, and the messenger brought worde you could not come. you preached before the quene, he said. wherupō the Sherife came vp him self & spake to þ^e bishop þ^t he shold come down. but