whose thigh Christ did write, King of kings, and Lord of lords of whose power to dispute it is sacrilegious; to whom no man may say, Why do you so? though he overturn, tear in sunder, and overthrow all states, possessions, and dominions, temporal and ecclesiastical. Let me be reputed a liar," saith he, "if these things be not found written by them that are wise in their own eyes; and if they be not found to have been believed by some popes." He addeth, notum est illud satyrici1:

Nihil est, quod credere de se,

Non possit, cum laudatur diis æqua potestas. That is, according to that known saying of the satirical poet: What should not he persuade himself of himself that is magnified as equal to God in power? For that of the comical poet is true of the flatterer, that "he maketh fools to be stark mad." These are the sayings of Gerson, which I have laid down at large, that the reader may judge whether I have depraved the intention of Gerson, or not, and whether Higgons had any cause to traduce me in such sort as he doth. It scemeth the poor fellow was hired to say something against me, or else he would never have adventured to vent such fooleries yet the last accusation against me is not to be passed over. Gerson saith, the popes will be adored as God; and I fear not to add, that the English reader may understand me, that they will be adored and worshipped as God. Out of these premises he maketh an excellent conclusion, comparing Gerson to David2, that commanded Joab to save the life of Absalom; and Luther to Joab, that had no pity on traitorous Absalom, in that the one would have the pope well dealt withal, though he disliked his faults, and the other sought to tread him under his feet. But let the reader know, that as Gerson, so Luther was willing to give all due honour to the pope, contenting himself with that which of right pertaineth to him; but if he dishonour God, wrong the Church, suffocate and kill her children, and heretically refuse to be subject to the Church and council; if he challenge infallibility of judgment, from which no man may appeal, Gerson will tread him under feet, and reject him as an heretic, as well as Luther. 2 Pag. 30.

1 [Juv. IV. 70.]

In the fourth part of this chapter, Master Higgons undertaketh to prove that I have abused the name and authority of Grosthead, to justify the Lutheran reformation; which he performeth full wisely in this sort: Grosthead' was judged a catholic, and a good man, by some cardinals in Rome; therefore he could not desire that reformation of things amiss that now is wrought. If the consequence of this argument be denied, he knoweth not how to prove it; but willeth his reader to demand of me, whether these cardinals, which judged Grosthead to be a catholic, and of the same religion with themselves, were not "real members of the antichristian synagogue?" "proud Romanists?" "factious papists?" &c.; which question is soon answered. For I have distinguished, as he knoweth right well, the Church in which the pope tyrannized, and the faction of papists that flattered him, and applied themselves to set forward his proud and unjust claims, till they lifted him up into the throne and seat of antichrist; the members of the Church and of the faction; and though both these lived for a time in the same outward communion, as did the right believers and they that denied the resurrection of the dead amongst the Corinthians, yet did they differ as much in judgment as we do from the papists at this day: so that these cardinals that opposed themselves against the furious purposes of the pope, intending to proceed against Grosthead for resisting his tyrannical usurpations, and justified Grosthead as a good man, and the things he stood upon as right and just, and told the pope of a departure from him, which he must look for, and by these ill courses intended by him he might hasten, may be thought not to have been members of the antichristian faction, but of the poor Church oppressed and wronged by the same; as Grosthead also was. Neither is it so strange that cardinals, who are so near the pope, should be averse from his antichristian courses. For Cameracensis, than whom that age had not a worthier man, either for life or learning, and Cusanus no way inferior to him, howsoever they were not free from all errors of papism, yet wholly condemned the papacy, as we do at this day; denying the pope's universality of jurisdiction, uncontrollable power, infallible judg1 Pag. 32. 2 Pag. 33.

ment, and right to meddle with princes' states; making him nothing but the first bishop in order and honour amongst the bishops of the Christian Church. And Contarenus', as all men know, condemned sundry errors of the papism, and seemed no less to dislike the papists' wilful and obstinate maintaining of gross errors, abuses, and confusions, than the temerity of those that disorderedly, as he thought, sought to have an alteration. Thus is Master Higgons his great demand easily answered: only one great and unexcusable fault I have committed, in that I say, "these cardinals opposed themselves against the pope," when he intended to proceed violently against bishop Grosthead; whereas I "should have said, they interposed themselves?." The poor man, it seemeth, is very weak in his conceit, and therefore saith he knoweth not what for did not the interposing of themselves, in such sort as they did, imply a contrariety of judgment in them, opposite to that of the pope? and was not their hindering, crossing, and stopping of him by all the means it was fit for them to use, an opposing against his rash purpose and resolution? Surely Master Higgons, in this passage, sheweth himself as very a babe as ever sucked a bottle. For all men know, that one may oppose himself unto another, as well by way of persuasion and entreaty, as of authority or violence.

But to leave these trifling fooleries, and to come to matter of substance, because he saith3, I express not the matters of quarrel and differences between the pope and bishop Grosthead particularly enough, and that I conceal the correspondence he held with the Roman Church in matters of faith, I will relate the whole story at large, of such things as fell out between the pope and this worthy bishop, whereby I doubt not but it will appear, that if Grosthead were now alive he would detest such smattering companions as Higgons is, that labour so carefully to reconcile him to that antichrist, with whom he had war both while he lived, and after he was dead.

The popes, in the time wherein Grosthead lived, not contenting themselves with the pre-eminence of being patriarchs of the West, which stood in confirming metropolitans by imposition of hands, or by mission of the pall, and in calling patriarchical synods, in certain cases, to hear and determine 1 De Prædestinatione. 2 Pag. 34. 3 Pag. 33.

matters of greater consequence than could be ended in provincial synods; but taking upon them as if the fulness of all ecclesiastical jurisdiction had rested in them alone, admitted appeals out of all parts of the West, not of bishops only, but of presbyters, inferior clergymen, and laymen also; reserved a great number of cases to their own cognizance, debarring the bishops and metropolitans from meddling with them; exempted whom they pleased from the ordinary jurisdiction of their bishops, and challenged the right to confer all kind of dignities ecclesiastical, whether presentative or elective, not only when they were void, but before: whence came their expectative graces and provisions; and, which much offended and grieved all good men, bestowed the dignities of the churches abroad, in England, and other places, upon strangers, that never came to those churches they were entitled to; so that at one time, a survey being taken, it was found that strangers carried yearly more than threescore thousand marks out of England; which was more than the bare revenue of the crown at that time. Amongst others, bishop Grosthead received the pope's letters for the placing of certain strangers in his church of Lincoln1; which he refused to do, and wrote back to the pope to let him know he was opposite to Christ, a murtherer of souls, and an heretic in these his courses. Upon the receipt of which letters the pope was half mad with anger; and calling his cardinals together, sware by Peter and Paul, that, if it were not that he were overcome by the goodness of his nature, he would cast down this bishop into the pit of all confusion; which thing he said he could easily do, for that the king of England was his vassal and slave; and he could command him, under pain of his high displeasure, to cast him into prison, or otherwise to proceed against him; but that howsoever he would make him an example to all such as should dare in like sort to disobey his mandates. Some of the cardinals, more advised than the pope, sought to pacify him what they could, and to stop these his intended violent courses, telling him, bishop Grosthead was in faith a catholic, in life a most holy man, of great learning, and every where much respected; that the things he stood upon were just and right; and that therefore it was not safe for him to proceed against him, lest some tumult 1 Math. Paris. in Henrico III. [A.D. 1253. Tom. II. p. 870.] 25 [FIELD, IV.]

should follow which they besought him the rather to think of, for that there must be a departure from the Church of Rome, which they would not have him to hasten by this means. These persuasions prevailed so far, that Grosthead was not accursed, nor deposed, but died bishop of Lincoln; yet after his death (it being easier to insult upon a dead lion than a living dog) the pope took heart, and was resolved to accurse him, and to command his dead body to be taken up, and to be buried in a dunghill. But the night before this vile act should have been done, bishop Grosthead did appear unto him with his crosier staff in his hand, and so rebuked the wicked pope for favouring the wicked, and persecuting the righteous, and besides struck him in such sort with his crosier staff, that he never enjoyed his papal dignity after it. This apparition happily was nothing else but the apprehension of his guilty conscience, representing to him the person of him whom he intended to wrong, and terrify him even unto the death. Howsoever, it appeareth by Matthew Paris, that this worthy bishop (for so will I call him, notwithstanding anything prating Higgons can say to the contrary) finding that the pope sought to overthrow the order of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, to encroach upon all bishops and guides of the Church, and to usurp such an illimited, universal, and absolute authority, as no way pertained to him, feared not to call him antichrist; to compare him and his courtiers to that Behemoth. that putteth his mouth to the river of Jordan, thinking he can drink it up; to pronounce that it is most true, that before his time was said of him, and his execrable court:

Ejus avaritiæ totus non sufficit orbis:

Ejus luxuriæ meretrix non sufficit omnis.

That the Church was holden in Babylonical captivity by this antichrist; and that her deliverance would never be wrought but by the edge of the sword, that must be bathed in blood.

This is the true report concerning Grosthead; in all which there are neither fictions nor exaggerations, as Higgons pretendeth, by which it is evident that there was as little communion between him and the pope, challenging as he did then, and doth now, infallibility of judgment, universality of illimited and uncontrollable power, and right to dispose the kingdoms of the world, as there is between light and darkness, the temple of God and idols, Christ and antichrist. So