ther he sawe him caried on mennes shoulders, and the false named sacrament borne before him. Yet was there more reuerence geuen to hym, then to that which they counted to be their god. When Boner harde this, rising vp, and making as though he would haue torne his garmentes: Hast thou, he said, ben at Rome, and sene oure holi father the pope, & dost thou thus blaspheme him after ths sort? and with that flieng vpō him he plucked of a pece of his bearde: and after making spedie hast to his death, he burnt him half an houre before vi. of the clok in the morning, because the daie (belyke) should not be farre spent, before they had done a mischeiuous dede.

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MarginaliaReferre this to the page 1652.BOner in his Consistory speaking of Cutbert Simson, gaue this testimony of him there to the people, saing: ye see this man (saith he) what a personable man he is: and after he had thus cōmended his person, added moreouer: & furthermore concerning his pacience, I saye vnto you, that if he wer not an heretike, he is a man of the greatest pacience that yet euer came before me. For I tell you, he hathe ben thrise racked vpon one day in the Tower:also in my house he hath felte some sorow, and yet I neuer see his paciēce brokē &c. it is thought & said of som that that arrow which was grated betwixt his fågers, being tide together, was not in the Tower, but in the bishops house.

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MarginaliaPag. 1652THe day before the blessed deacon and Martir of God, Cutbert Simson, after his painefull rackyng should go to his condemnation before Boner to be burned, being in the bishops colehouse there in the stockes, had a certaine vision or apparition very straunge, if it be true, whiche he himself with his owne mouth declared to the godly learned man master Austen, to his wyfe, & Thomas Symson, and to other besydes, in the prison of Newgate, a litle before his death. the relation wherof I stande in no litle dout whether to report abrode or not, for reputing & considering with my self the great diuersitie of mēs iudgements in the reading of histories, and varietie of affections: some I see will not beleue it,some will deride the same, some also will be offended with setting forth thinges of that sort incerten, esteming all things to be incertain and incredible, what soeuer from the common order of naturall operation is estraunged: other wilbe perchaunce agreued, thinkyng with themselus, or els thus resoning with me, that although the matter were as is related, yet for somuch as the common error of beleuing rashe miracles, phantasied visiōs, dreames, and apparitions therby may be confirmed, more expediente it were the same to be vnsetforth. These and suche lyke wilbe, I know, the sayinges of manye. Whereunto brefely I aunswer, graunting first & admitting with the wordes of Basyll, οὐ πᾶν ὀνείαρ ἐστὶ προφητεία. 

That is, not euery dreame is streightway a prophecy. Againe neither am I ignorant that the papistes in their bokes & legends of saincts haue their prodigious visions and apparitions of angels, of our Ladi, of Christ, & other saincts: which as I wil not admit to be belued for true, so will they aske me againe, why should I then more require these to bee credited of them, then theires of vs? First I write not this, bynding any mā precisely to beleue the same, so as they do theirs but only report it as it hath ben harde of

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persons knowne, naming also the parties who wer the hearers therof, leauing the iudgemente therof notwithstanding free vnto the arbitrmēt of the reader. Albeit, it is no good argumente proceading from the singular or particular, to the vniuersall, to say that visions be not true in some, ergo, they be true in none. And if any shal muse or obiect again, why should such visions be geuen to him more then to all the rest, seyng the other were in the same cause and quarell, and dyed also martirs as well as he? to this I say, concerning the Lordes times and doings, I haue not to medle nor make, who may worke where and when it pleaseth him. And what if the Lord thought chefly aboue thother, with some singular consolation to respect him, who chefly aboue thother, and singularly did suffer most exquisite torments for his sake? what great meruell herein? but as I saide, of the Lordes secret times, I haue not to reason. This only which hathe oute of the mās owne mouth ben receaued. so as I receyued it of the parties, I thought here to cōmunicate to the reader, for him to iudge thereof, as God shall rule his minde. The matter is thys.

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The day before this Simson was condemned, he beyng in the stockes, Cloney his keaper commeth in with the keies, about ix. of the clocke at night (after his vsuall maner) to view his prisō, and see whether all were present, who when he espied he saide Cutbert to be there, departed again, locking the dores after him. within ii. houres after, aboue aleuen of the clock, toward mid night, the said Cutbert (whether being in a slumber or being awake I cannot say) hard one comming in. first opening the outward dore, thē the second, after the third dore, & so loking in to the sayde Cutbert, hauing no candell or torche that he could see, but geuing a brightnes, and lyghte most comfortable and ioyfull to his hart, saying Ha, vnto him, departed agayne. Who it was he could not tell, neither I dare define. This that he sawe he himself declared, fower of fyue times to the said master Austen & to other. At the sight wherof he receyued suche ioyfull comfort that he also expressed no litle solace in telling and declaring the same.

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MarginaliaA maid of Canter. brunt. MarginaliaReferre this to the Pag. 1673.THere was a mayde of Canterbury in queene Maries dayes was brought to be burnt, and being at the stake, she called for her Godfather and Godmothers. the Iustice hearing her, sent for them, but they durst not come: notwithstanding the Iustice willed the messenger to goo again. and to shew them, that they shoulde incur no daūger therfore. Thē they hearing that, came to knowe the matter of their sending for: which when the maid sawe them, she asked them what they had promised for her, & so she immediatly rehersed her faithe, and the commaundementes of God, & required of them, if there were any more that they had promised in her behalfe. And they sayde no. Then said she, I die a christian womā beare witnes of me, and so, cruelly in fyre was she consumed, and gaue ioifully her lyfe vp for the testimony of Christes Gospel to the terrour of the wicked, & comforte of the godly: the name of the Lorde the praysed therfore. Amen.

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MarginaliaRefer this to the Page 1703.A Certaine Balyf of a towne in Lincolnshire, which in the dayes of king Edward the. vi. had ben a great professor, and after in the time of Queene Mary, turned to be a terrible troubler