"smartly thrown in their teeth;" and in particular, "the nobility, those of the Queen's Council, and the rest," to whom, according to Strype, the author of Antichrist "directed his book especially," do not like to be publicly told, that if they do not mind what they are about, the people will rise and crush them. They positively dislike it, even though it be put in the form of a prayer, that the oppressed commons may not do anything so very improper. If the Queen's Council could have had a moment's doubt as to the threat conveyed in the following passage, of this book which (if Strype is right) Thomas Greene was circulating, there were but too many helps to the clear understanding of it almost daily issuing from the foreign, or the secret, press :—

"To what truth and what religion may the subjects of this realm hereafter cleave, and assuredly, without wavering follow; which do perceive that your lordships, contrary to your own commandment heretofore, made and directed to them, do fly and retire from the doctrine and true use of the sacraments, that you, in so little time past, did most worthily approve to be most godly and necessary to be taught and followed? God grant that the Commons of this realm, that now murmur and grudge at this inconstancy, and other your evil doings, do not hereafter burden you with the same; and especially for your flying from the true religion, which you did before all men approve to be most godly: from the which ye be now fled, to the great dishonour of God. Wherefore God, by his prophet, threateneth you to bring you to dishonour, saying, 'I will give them honour that honoureth me, and they that dishonour me, will I bring to dishonour.' Thus," adds Strype, "this fickleness in the gentry and nobility of those times was smartly thrown in their teeth by the best sort."-Eccl. Mem. III. i. 444.

There was certainly something smart in this. The sound was no more uncertain than the blast of Knox's trumpet. Probably there was more, and worse, of the same kind in the book, the contents of which I know only by Strype's extracts. Our business with it at present, however, arises from its being the book which Thomas Greene, the prentice, was charged with circulating, and it is hoped that the reader will understand his notable "simplicitie" the better, from my having given him what Strype would have called "a taste of it."

On being asked where he got the book, Thomas Greene told Dr. Story that he had it of a Frenchman, and that he "would tell him no more and could not." The doctor explained to him, at once, that it was no matter of religion

for which he was called in question-" he said, It was no heresy but treason; and that I should be hanged, drawn, and quartered "--but as he found him resolved to make no disclosure, he sent him to Lollard's Tower. Before he had been there two hours, however, the keeper came and removed him to the coal-house; and when there, said to his prisoner, "Tell me the truth, and I will be your friend." "And I said," adds Greene, "I had told the truth, and could tell no other." In the coal-house, Thomas Greene remained six days. "Then," he adds, "Dr. Story sent for me, and asked whether 'I would tell the truth where I had the book. I said, I had 'told him, of a Frenchman. He asked me where I came 'acquainted with the Frenchman, where he dwelt, and where 'he delivered me the book. I said I came acquainted with 'him in Newgate, I coming to my friends which were put 'in for God's word and truth's sake, and the Frenchman 'coming to his friends also, there we did talk together, and 'became acquainted one with another, and did eat and drink 'together there with our friends in the fear of God." The doctor asked whether he got the book in Newgate, and Greene replied that he did not; but that he met the Frenchman in the street, who showed him the book, and he expressed a wish to have it. Story said it was a great book, and asked whether he bought it; and on Greene's replying that he did, he charged him with having robbed his master for the purpose. Greene replied, that a little money served, for he only gave him fourpence, and a promise of twelvepence more when they should next meet.

Dr. Story proposed that he should find two sureties, and watch for this Frenchman, with a promise that he should himself be kept harmless; but Greene replied that he could not find sureties, and the doctor observing "This is but a lie," called for the keeper of the coal-house, and went away, telling his prisoner that next time he came he would make him tell a different story.

Ten days more elapsed, and then Dr. Story sent for him again, and asked if he would tell the truth? "I said," says Greene, "I could tell him no other truth than I had, nor would; so he was returned to his place of imprisonment.

2 That is, to the Bishop of London's prison at St. Paul's. I mention this because the name has been (only I believe in recent times, and quite improperly) applied to one of the towers of Lambeth Palace.

After fourteen days more, he was again sent for by Dr. Story, who had with him my lord of Windsor's chaplain, and two other gentlemen, to whom he told the story. They took Greene aside, and entreated him very gently, saying, "Tell us where you had the book, and of whom, and 'we will save you harmless. I made them answer that I 'had told all I could to Dr. Story: and began to tell them again, but they said they knew that already."

After some conversation on his faith, Thomas Greene was remanded to the coal-house, and while imprisoned there, Bishop Bonner "coming down a pair of stairs," (which must, I suppose, have come down by the side of the coal-house,) "looked in at the grate, and asked why, and by whom, he had been put there. "I made him answer," he says, “that 'I was put in for a book called Antichrist' by Dr. Story. 'And he said, 'you are not ashamed to declare wherefore you were put in,' and said it was a very wicked book, and 'bade me confess the truth to Story. I said I had told him the truth already; and desired him to be good to me, and 'help me out of prison, for they had kept me there long. 'And he said he could not meddle with it; Story hath begun it and he must end it."

Now, if what I have here related were all that we knew of the matter, it would be very unjust, and uncharitable, to suppose that Thomas Greene had said anything else than truth; but the fact is, that he seems most anxious to have it known and believed that what he had been saying was false:-"Whilst I lay yet in the Lollard's Tower, the woman 'which brought the books over being taken, and her books, 'was put in the Clink in Southwark, by Hussey, one of the 'Arches; and I, Thomas Greene, testify before God, now, 'that I neither descryed the man nor the woman the which 'I had the books of."

This Hussey sent for him; but could get nothing but what he had told Dr. Story before. "Then he was very

'angry, and said, 'I love thee well, and therefore I sent for 'thee;' and looked for a further truth, but I would tell 'him no other; whereupon he sent me again to Lollard's 'Tower. At my going away, he called me back again, and said that Dixon gave me the books, being an old man 'dwelling in Birchin-lane; and I said, he knew the matter 'better than I. So he sent me away to the Lollard's Tower,

'where I remained seven days and more. Then Master 'Hussey sent for me again, and required of me to tell him 'the truth. I told him I could tell him no other truth than 'what I had told Dr. Story before. Then he began to tell 'me of Dixon, of whom I had the books, the which had 'made the matter manifest afore; and he told me of all 'things touching Dixon and the books, more than I could 'myself; insomuch that he told me how many I had, and 'that he had a sackfull of the books in his house, and knew 'where the woman lay better than I myself. Then I saw 'the matter so open and manifest before my face that it profited 'not me to stand in the matter."

The reader might perhaps imagine that Greene was now going to tell the truth. But no such thing; it was only that the old lie being found unprofitable, a new one must be substituted.

"He asked me where I had done the books; and I told 'him I had but one, and that Dr. Story had. He said I 'lied, for I had three at one time, and he required me to 'tell him of one. Then I told him of one that John Beane 'had of me being prentice with Master Tottle."

Now, if after all this, and a good deal more, obstinate perseverance in lying, when the information which they wanted to get from Thomas Greene had been obtained from other sources, and the treasonable business in which he had been a petty agent had come to be fully known-if, after all this, his blood-thirsty persecutors, instead of putting him in the hands of the hangman, turned him over to the beadle, it seems to me that he got off rather better than he might have expected; and that he might think himself very lucky that his notable "simplicitie" had led him into no worse scrape, and that he was able to say, "when they had done whipping of me, they bade me pay my fees, and go my ways."

But much as we may admire the simplicity of Thomas Greene, it is surely somewhat strange to find this account of it in "The story of certain scourged for religion,"-a story after which Fox observes: "Besides these above named 'divers others also suffered the like scourgings and whippings in their bodies, for their faithful standing in the truth; of 'which it may be said, as it is written of the Apostles in the 'Acts, 'Which departed from the council rejoicing that they

were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus."" The distinction which Fox must have made in his own mind, and expected to be made by his readers, between truth and the truth, must be kept in mind during this inquiry; and it may be feared that it was not peculiar to him, or to his times, but that it characterized the party to which he belonged, and survived the age in which he lived.

But let us turn from the "scourging of Thomas Greene, prentice," who is not a very dignified representative of his party (though Fox's admiration of his "simplicity" gives his story great importance), to the account of a person much more distinguished; one whom Strype describes as an "eminent martyr":" and let us see if we can account for his practice on any other ground than that of some such distinction, leading to an idea that the truth was sometimes to be maintained or promoted by falsehood,- —I mean, John Careless, whose letters have been published by Fox, republished by Coverdale, and, within these ten years, again republished as the "Letters of that faithful man of God, John Careless," and as part of a 'precious relic of the founders of our established Church"."

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The reader must understand, that "there were now," according to Strype, who is speaking of the year 1556, "abundance of sects and dangerous doctrines: whose main'tainers shrouded themselves under the professors of the gospel. Some denied the godhead of Christ; some denied 'his manhood; others denied the godhead of the Holy Ghost, original sin, the doctrine of predestination and 'free election, the descent of Christ into hell, (which the

3 Mem. of Cran. vol. ii. P. 504.

4 These words are quoted from Mr. Bickersteth's dedication prefixed to the edition of "the Letters of the Martyrs," published in the year 1837. This work professes to be a reprint of the volume collected and published by Bishop Coverdale, in the year 1564. Three other letters of John Careless were afterwards annexed to "A Pitvovs Lamentation of the miserable estate of the chvrche," by Bishop Ridley. "Imprinted at London by William Powell, dwelling in Flete Strete, at the sign of the George, nere to Sainct Dunston's Church." They are intituled, "Certeyne godly and comfortable letters of the constant wytnes of Christ, John Careles, written in the time of his imprisonment, and now fyrste set forth in printe. Anno Domini, 1566." They were not, therefore, in the first edition of Fox; and I believe only one of them has been in any edition of the Martyrology, or reprinted anywhere. They are all addressed to the same female, K. E., who, in the edition of Fox, 1596, p. 1752, and