desperation; and yet the wicked man, sitting chief judge in the Star-chamber, to discomfort and to drive back all men from their salvation, which cometh by the true word of God, named it the doctrine of desperation, and the professors thereof desperate people ;) and the occasion of this ungodly and untrue talk was the doing of one Judge Hales, Sir James Hales, knight, that the same thirteenth day of April, being a prisoner in the Fleet, wounded himself in divers places of his body; and, saving the providence of God (that stopped the devil's malice that it came not to pass, and to so devilish an end as he intended), very like the man would have killed himself; but God provided his own servant to be sooner at hand with him than his master thought of, belike;-but now, forsomuch as upon this man's hurt my lord chancellor hath not only spoken uncharitably by the hurt man (whose learning, equity, and wisdom, all England honoureth), but also upon this man's fault he maketh faulty God's word and all the professors thereof; therefore, to certify the truth unto the world, how this man, Mr Judge Hales, came to this ungodly mind to destroy himself, (for that I do know the truth,) I can do no less of duty than to open it unto all the world; that men may beware how they wax weary of God in denying him in the time of trouble. And God I take to record, I will write no more than that I have perfectly learned, and leisurely searched the truth and prison where Judge Hales did this deed upon himself. And besides this, I will not write the truth of this matter for any hatred I bear to my lord chancellor, whose body and soul I wish to do as well as mine own body and soul; nor for any love that I bear in this respect to any that is of a contrary religion to my lord chancellor; but only for the love and zeal I bear unto God's word, which is slandered by my lord chancellor through this man's ungodly fact, which he much repenteth at this time, and I trust God will forgive him. The matter is this.

Mr Hales, as all men know, is imprisoned for the testimony of Jesus Christ, and persecuted because he will not conform himself to the false and most untrue religion set forth at this time by the bishops. And although the papistical sort seem not to care whether Mr Hales return to their part or no, yet all men may see by their crafty doings, that very gladly they would have men recant and conform themselves to their

false faith and doings. And to compare1 this matter, and to bring it to pass, Mr Hales was divers times exhorted by one Mr Forster, a gentleman of Hampshire, and also a prisoner in the Fleet, that he should give over his opinion, and conform himself to the proceedings now-a-days set forth and, as the same Forster hath reported to others that are prisoners with him, Mr Hales condescended unto his advice, and resolved himself to leave his former truth, and to cleave unto the error that was offered by this man's persuasion unto him, because the error was without danger that he should depart unto, and the truth full of peril that he should depart from. Thus the good man, Mr Hales, waxing faint and feeble in the truth, was increased more and more with anguish and anxiety of mind, his conscience rebuking him of his timorousness and fear. But as soon as it was known that Mr Hales was minded to relent from the truth, and to consent to falsehood, the twelfth of April in the morning came the bishop of Chichester into the Flect, where he had long talk with Mr Hales in the garden; the contents whereof I cannot learn: but, as many of the prisoners have said openly in the Fleet, the bishop had made up all together, and clean removed Mr Hales from his first faith, and established him in the latter opinions allowed now by the bishops. The same day at afternoon came there to the Fleet Judge Portman, a Somersetshire man, and had great talk and long with Mr Hales; after whose departure, supper-time being at hand, Mr Hales came into the parlour, and sat at the table very heavily, eating little or nothing, but full of cogitations, and heavy with pensiveness; and soon after supper gat him to bed, where as he had no rest, but watch with heaviness and sorrow till the next morrow towards six of the clock; at what time he commanded his servant to fetch him a cup of beer, who saw the butler as he was coming to the stair-head, and prayed him to bring up a cup of beer for his master to his chamber; and immediately he returned to his master, who in that short time (whiles his man was calling at the stair-head for a cup of beer) wrought to himself this displeasure in putting of himself in danger of his life, and gave occasion to my lord chancellor, and to the rest of the ungodly generation, to slander and deface the true word of God and the professors thereof.

[1 Compare: procure, or, perhaps, a misprint for compass.]

But now let all men judge indifferently how this man, Mr Hales, came to this desperation of mind, and then all men shall perceive it came into heart when he had surrendered himself to accomplish the commandment of man, For as long as he was constant in the truth, he endured, and strongly passed ever more cruel imprisonment. For he was first imprisoned in the King's Bench, and very christianly endured it: then was he for all the time of Lent in the Counter of Bread Street, and strongly endured it: at length he came to the Fleet, and bare it almost for the space of three weeks strongly; till at length by persuasion he waxed weary of the truth, and then denying Christ, that was made man of the substance of the blessed Virgin Mary, and crediting a false Christ, that was and is made (after the papistical opinion) of bread, was it any marvel though the devil entered into this No, doubtless; for his new-made Christ is not able to keep the devil away. For he cannot come out of the box, although he should rot there, and be burned, as it many times. happeneth. Therefore it is no marvel though such as trust in that false Christ fall into desperation. For Judas, although he chose not a new-made Christ when he betrayed the old, yet the devil entered into him, and he hanged himself for betraying his old master. It is no marvel therefore to sce men that forsake the truth of God to be vexed with evil spirits, and many times to kill themselves. But this we may see most evidently by Mr Hales, that until such times as he consented to forsake God's truth, which of long time he had most godly professed, he never fell into this danger and into this peril, to kill himself. So that the papistical doctrine, by this man's example, is a very worm, that biteth the conscience, and never leaveth till it have killed the man that forsaketh the truth, and turneth unto lies.

Wherefore my lord chancellor might rather of this horrible fault done by Mr Hales have learned to have detested and abhorred his own false and popish religion, that as soon as any of Christ's members fall from the truth into it, they either despair, or kill themselves most commonly, as evidently it was, as is proved by Mr Hales; for whose salvation all Christians most earnestly pray unto God. Further, my lord chancellor might learn by this man's deed, what horrible and devilish ways be used towards Christ's members by himself

380 A BRIEF TREATISE RESPECTING JUDGE HALES.

and others, that the like was never used among the Turks, by villainy and compulsion to drive men and compel men to such a religion as the word of God never knew of. In case it were true, as it is most false, when did ever the bishop of Winchester read in God's word that any outward law made by man could enforce faith, which is the only gift of God, and should be truly and charitably taught to all men by God's word? But all men may see that like as their doctrine they preach is none of God's, so may they perceive that they have none other arguments to defend it withal but the tyrannical sword and fire: for fear whereof many dissemble with God in outward obedience to idolatry, with so much striving and anguish of conscience as many, after that they had condescended for fear unto this wicked and condemned religion by God's word, the old doctors, and the laws of this realm, they never be merry in spirit afterward; and many times, for very desperation of God's mercy, kill themselves. If the bishop and his generation did not delight in blood, and pass for nothing but for their own kingdom of antichrist, they would learn by this man's hurting of himself to beware how they persuade men to do against their consciences.

But let all men pray to God for strength, and that he will of his mercy mitigate this bondage and servitude, more cruel than ever was the servitude in Egypt or Babylon. For then were the children of God in captivity in strange lands, and under strange kings; but we poor Englishmen be in captivity in our own land, and under our own countrymen, that make us commit more vile idolatry than ever did the Israelites in Egypt. From the which the Lord Almighty in the blood of Christ deliver us, and amend our persecutors, if it be his will. Let all good men say, Amen.

EPISTOLA

AD

EPISCOPOS, DECANOS, ARCHIDIACONOS, ET

CETEROS CLERI ORDINES

IN SYNODO LONDINENSI CONGREGATOS.

[THE Epistola ad Episcopos, Decanos &c, the Appellatio ad parlamentum, and the treatise De sacratissimæ cœnæ Domini vera doctrina et legitimo usu, are reprinted from Foxe's work entitled, "Rerum in ecclesia gestarum &c commentarii," which was published at Basle, 1559.

Foxe, in an address to the christian reader, at page 298 of the above work, states that Hooper, " præter ceteras privatim ad amicos non parvo numero epistolas, bina hæc insuper syntagmata elucubravit, alterum de re et veritate eucharistica, ad sublimem parlamenti curiam, alterum ad Vigornienses et Glocestrenses suos, de vero et falso discernendo cultu; utrumque opus Latine suaque manu scripsit." Yet notwithstanding this statement the latter treatise does not appear in his work.

Hooper designed the two treatises for presentation to parliament, and wrote letters1 to Cardinal Pole and Day, bishop of Chichester, begging them to undertake the charge of them: but, meeting with a refusal from both, he sent them to Bullinger2, requesting that he would have them printed at Zurich by Froschover; or, if Froschover were otherwise engaged, send them to Basle to Oporinus. Oporinus was Foxe's printer, and hence probably they came into that writer's hands 3.]

See Apology against the untrue and slanderous report &c.: also Letters, number XXXVII, and, further, Rerum in ecclesia gestarum &c. p. 393. Foxe says that Pole, in his reply, confessed that the request was not unfair, but that he was afraid to comply with it: Day altogether refused. Bale mentions Hooper's letters to Pole and Day, and quotes the commencement of each of them. See Script. Illustr. p. 680. Basil. 1559.

See Letters, number XXXVII.

3 The Editor is indebted for this suggestion to an article on "The Mar Exiles" in the Edinburgh Review, No. CLXXII, April, 1847.