Page:The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe Volume 3.djvu/136



a day and place for him meet and convenient, of his own choice and free will; that is to say, on the Friday, being the last of the same month of June next following, assigned to him, at the church of Bodenham of the same our diocese: which cases and articles were exhibited to us by many of Christ's faithful people, zealous followers of the catholic faith, who made information to our office; which cases and articles also were by us administered, as is before said, to the same William Swinderby; the tenor thereof followeth, and

Reverend father and high lord, lord John, by God's sufferance bishop of Hereford: it is lamentably declared unto your reverend fatherhood on the behalf of Christ's faithful people, your devout children of your diocese of Hereford, that notwithstanding the misbelief of very many Lollards, who have too long a time sprung up here in your diocese, there is newly come a certain child of of wickedness, named William Swinderby; who, by his horrible persuasions and their own mischievous endeavours, and also by his open preachings and private teachings, doth pervert, as much as in him is, the whole ecclesiastical state, and stirreth up, with all his possible power, schism between the clergy and the people. And that your reverend fatherhood may be the more fully informed, who and what manner of man the same William Swinderby is, there be proposed and exhibited hereafter to the same your fatherhood, on the behalf of the same faithful people of Christ, against the same William Swinderby, cases and articles; which if the same William shall deny, then shall the same cases and articles most evidently be proved against him by credible witness worthy of belief, and by other lawful proof and evidences, to the end that those being proved, the same fatherhood of yours may do and ordain therein, as to your pastoral office belongeth.

Imprimis, the same William Swinderby, pretending himself priest, was openly and publicly convicted of certain articles and conclusions being erroneous, schismatical, and heretical, preached by him at divers places and times, before a multitude of faithful christian people. And the same articles and conclusions did he by force of law revoke and abjure, some as heretical, and some as erroneous and false; avouching and believing them for such, as that from thenceforth he would never preach, teach, or affirm, openly or privily, any of the same conclusions: and if, by preaching or avouching, he should presume to do the contrary, that then he should be subject to the severity of the canons, accordingly as he did take a corporal oath, judicially, upon the holy gospels.

II. Also the conclusions, which by the same William were first openly taught and preached, and afterwards abjured and revoked, as is aforesaid, are contained before in the process of the bishop of Lincoln, even as they be there written Word by word. And for the cases and articles, they were consequently exhibited by the beforenamed faithful christian people against the said William Swinderby, together with the conclusions before said, and hereafter written; of which cases and articles the tenor here ensueth.

III. Item, The said William, contrary to the former revocation and abjuration, not converting to repentance, but perverted from ill to worse, and given up to a reprobate sense, came into your diocese; where, running about in simdry places, he hath presumed to preach, or rather to pervert and to teach, of his own rashness, many heretical, erroneous, blasphemous, and other slanderous things contrary and repugnant to the sacred canons, and the determination of the holy catholic church. What those things were, at what place and what time, shall hereafter more particularly be declared.

IV. Item, The same William, notwithstanding your commandments and admonitions sealed with your seal, and to all the curates of your diocese directed, containing amongst other things that no person of what state, degree, or condition soever he were, should presume to preach or to teach, or expound the holy Scripture to the people, either in hallowed or profane places within your diocese, without sufficient authority, by any manner or pretence that could be sought, as in the same your letters monitoiy and of inhibition, the tenor whereof hereafter ensueth, is more largely contained; which letters the same William did receive into his hands, and did read them word by word in the town of Mon-