good quiet people of Sydborough/being troubled for certaine yeares with the sayde Wiggington / and many of them being infected by him with the true knowledge of the gospell/ by the worde preached (which is an heresie / that his grace doth mortally abhorre and persecute) at length grew in disliking with their pastor / because the severe man did urge nothing but obedience unto the gospell. Well / they came to his grace to finde a remedie hereof: desiring him that Wiggington might be deprived. His grace could find no law to deprive him/ no although the pastor defied the Archb. to his face / and would give him no better title then John Whitgift/such buggs words/being in these daies accounted no lesse then high treason against a Paltripolitan : Though since that time / I think his grace hath bin well enured to beare the name of Pope of Lambeth/John Cant. the prelate of Lambeth / with divers other titles agreeable to his function. Well Sidborogh men proceeded against their pastor/his grace woulde not deprive him/ because he could finde no law to warrant him therein / and he will do little contrary to law / for feare of a premunire / unles it be at a dead lift / to deprive a puritan preacher. Then in deed he will do against lawe / against God / and against his owne conscience / rather then the heresie of preaching should prevail. One man of Sidborough / whose name is Atkinson / was very eger among the rest / to have his pastor deprived; and because his grace woulde not heare them but departed away / this Atkinson desired his grace to resolve him and his neighbours of one poynt which something troubled them and that was / whether his grace or Wiggington were of the devil. For quoth he/ you are so contrary the one from the other / that both of you cannot possibly be of God. If he be of God / it is certaine you are of the devill/ and so cannot long stand; for he will be your overthrowe. Amen. If you are of God / then he is of the divell as wee thinke him to be / and so he being of the devill/ will you not deprive him? why shoulde you suffer such a one to trouble the Church. Now if he be of God / why is your course so contrary to his? and rather / why do not you follow him/ that we may do so to? Truely / if you do not deprive him / we will thinke him to be of God / and go home with him / with gentler good will towardes him / then we came hyther with hatred / and looke you for a fall. His grace hearing this northen logicke / was mooved on the sodaine you must thinke/promised to deprive Wiggington and so he did. This

Atkinson this winter 1587 [i.e. 1587-8] came up to London/ being as it seemed afflicted in conscience for this fact / desired Wiggington to pardone him and offred to kneel before her Majestie / that Wiggington might bee restored againe to his place/ and to stande to the trueth hereof / to his graces teeth. The man is yet alive / he may be sent for /if you thinke that M. Martin hath reported an untrueth. No I warrant you/you shall not take mee to have fraught my booke with lyes and slaunders / as John Whitgift/ and the Deane of Sarum did theirs. I speak not of things by heresay as of reports / but I bring my witnesses to proove my matters.

May it please you to yeeld unto a suite that I have to your worships. I pray you send Wiggington home unto his charge againe /I can tell you it was a foule oversight in his grace / to send for him out of the North to London / that he might outface him at his owne doore. He woulde do his Canterburines lesse hurt if he were at his charge/then now he doth. Let the Templars have M. Travers their preacher restored againe unto them/hee is now at leysure to worke your priesthood a woe I hope. If suche another booke as the Ecclesiast. Discipline was/drop[t] out of his budget/it were as good for the Bb. to lie a day and a night in little ease in the Counter. He is an od fellowe in folowing an argument / and you know he hath a smooth tong/ either in Latine or English. And if my L. of Winchester understood/eyther greeke or Hebrew/as they say he hath no great skill in neyther: I woulde praye your priestdomes to tell me which is the better scholler / Walter Travers / or Thomas Cooper. Will you not send M. Wyborne to Northampton / that he may see some fruits of the seed he sowed there 16. or 18. yeares ago. That old man Wiborne / hath more good learning in him/ and more fit gifts for the ministery in his little toe/then many braces of our Lord Bb. Restore him to preaching againe for shame. M. Paget Except persecuting shalbe welcome to Devonshire/he is more fit to teach Greenefielde men then boyes. I marveile with what face a man that had done so much good in the Churche as he did among a rude people / could be deprived.

Briefely / may it please you to let the Gospell have a free course / and restore unto their former libertie in preaching/all the preachers that you have put to silence: and this far is my first suit.

Our Bb. are afraid that any thing should be published

abrod/whereby the common people should learne / that the only way to salvation /is by the worde preached. There was the last sommer a little catechisme / made by M. Davison and printed by Walde-grave: but before he coulde print it/it must be authorized by the Bb. either Cante. or London/he went to Cant. to have it licensed/his grace committed it to doctor Neverbegood [Wood], he read it over in half a yeare/ the booke is a great one of two sheets of paper. In one place of the booke the meanes of salvation was attributed to the worde preached: and what did he thinke you? he blotted out so the word [preached] and would not have that word printed/ ascribing the way to work mens salvation to the worde read. Thus they doe to suppresse the trueth/and to keep men in ignorance. John Cant. was the first father of this horrible error in our Church / for he hath defended it in print / and now as you have heard/accounteth the contrary to be heresie. . . .

May it please your Priestdomes to understand / that doctor Cottington Archdeacon of Surrey/being belike bankerout in his owne countrie / cometh to Kingstone upon Thames of meere good will that he beareth to the towne (I should say / to userer Harvies good chear and money bags) being out at the heeles with all other userers/ and knowing him to be a professed adversary to M. Udall / (a notable preacher of the Gospell/ and vehement reprover of sinne) taketh the advantage of their controversie / and hoping to borow some of the userers money: setteth himself most vehemently against M. Udall / to do whatsoever Harvie the userer will have him and taketh the helpe of his journiman doctor Hone/the veriest coxecombe that ever wore velvet cap/ and an ancient foe to M. Udall / because (in deed) he is a popish dolt / and (to make up a messe) Steven Chatfield / the vicker of kingston / as very a bankerout and duns as Doc. Cottington (although he have consumed all the money he gathered to build a Colledge at Kingstone) must come and be resident there / that M. Udall may have his mouth stopped/ and why? forsooth because your friend M. Harvie woulde have it so; for sayth Harvie/he rayleth in his sermons/is that true? Doth he rail / when he reproveth thee (and such notorious varlets as thou art) for thy usery / for thy oppressing of the poore / for buying the houses over their heads that love the gospell/ and the Lord his faythfull minister? (M. Udall) And art not thou a monstrous atheist / a belly God/a carnall wicked wretch / and what not. M. Chatfield you thinke I see not your knavery? is us [iwis?] do I / you can

not daunce so cunningly in a net but I can spie you out? Shal I tel you why you sow pillowes under Harvies elbowes? Why man/it is because you would borow an 100. pound of him? Go to you Asse / and take in M. Udall againe (for Harvie I can tell / is as craftie a knave as you /he will not lend his money to such bankerouts / as Duns Cottington and you are) and you do not restore M. Udall againe to preach / I will so lay open your vilenes / yat I wil make the very stoones in Kingstone streets shall smell of your knaveries. Nowe if a man aske M. Cottington why M. Udall is put to silence? forsoth saith he/ for not favoring the Churche government present. Doc. Hone (Cottingtons journiman / a popish D. of the baudy court) saith by his troth / for making such variance in the town. M. Chatfield seemeth to be sorie for it/ &c. But what cause was alleaged why M. Udall must preach no longer? surely this onely? that he had not my L. of Winchesters licence under seale to shew and because this was thought not to be sufficient to satisfie the people: Hone the baudie Doctor/ charged him to be a sectarie / a schismatike/yea he affirmed plainly that the gospell out of his mouth was blasphemie. Popish Hone/do you say so? do ye? you are a knave I tel you? by ye same token your friend Chatfield spent thirteene score pounds in distributing briefes / for a gathering towards the erecting of a Colledge at kingstone upon Thames.

Wohohow/ brother London / do you remember Thomas Allen and Richard Alworth/marchants of London / being executors to George Allen somtimes your grocer / but now deceased; who came unto you on easter wednesday last being at your masterdoms pallace in London / having bene often to speake with you before and could not / yet now they met with you who tolde you they were executors vnto one George Allen (somtimes) your grocer / and among other his debts / we finde you indebted unto him / in the some of 19. pound and upward/ desiring to let them have the money / for that they were to dispose of it according to that trust he reposed in them. You answered them sweetly (after you had pawsed a while) in this maner: You are raskals / you are villaines / you are arraunt knaves/I owe you nought/I have a generall quittance to shew. Sir (sayd they) shew us your discharge/and wee are satisfied. No (quoth-he) I will shew you none / go sue me / go sue me. Then sayd one of the merchants/doe you thus use us for asking our due?

Can B. face cog lie and

cozen or no

thinke you?

Wee would you should know / we are no suche vile persons. Don John of London (hearing their answere) cried out / saying: Hence away / Citizens? nay you are raskkals/ you are worse then wicked mammon (so lifting up both his Dumbe John hands and flinging them downe againe / said) You of Londons are theeves/you are Coseners: take that for a bishops blessing. blessing/ and so get you hence. But when they would have aunswered / his men thrust them out of the dores. But shortly after he perceived they went about to bring the matter to farther tryial: he sent a messenger unto them confessing the debt / but they cannot get their money to this day. What reason is it they should have their mony? hath he not bestowed his liberallitie alreadie on them? Can they not be satisfied with the blessing of this brave bounsing priest? But brethren bishops/ I pray you tell me? hath not you brother London / a notable brazen face to use these men so for their owne? I told you / Martin will be proved no lyar / in that he saith that Bb. are cogging and cosening knaves. This priest went to buffets with his sonne in law / for a bloodie nose / well fare all good tokens. The last lent there came a commaundement from his grace into Paules Churchyard / that no Byble should be bounde without the Apocripha. Monstrous and ungodly wretches/ that to maintaine their owne outragious proceedings / thus mingle heaven and earth together / and woulde make the spirite of God / to be the author of prophane bookes. I am hardly drawn to a merie vaine from such waightie matters.

But you see my worshipfull priestes of this crue to whom I write/what a perilous fellow M. Marprelate is: he understands of all your knaverie / and it may be he keepes a register of them: unlesse you amend / they shall al come into the light one day. And you brethren bishops / take this warning from me. If you doe not leeve your persecuting of godly christians and good subjectes / that seeke to live uprightly in the feare of God / and the obedience of her Majestie / all your dealing shalbe made knowen unto the world. And ise be sure to make you an example to all posterities. You see I have taken some paynes with you alreadie / and I will owe you a better turne / and pay it you with advauntage / at the least thirteene to the dozen/ unles you observe these conditions of peace which I drawe betweene me and you. For I assure you I make not your doings known for anie mallice that I beare unto you / but the hurt that you doe unto Gods Churche / leave you your wickednesse/ and ile leave the revealing of your knaveries.