THUS  much  briefly  being  signified  by  the  way,  touching
these  who  have  been  forced  in  time  of  this  king2  to  open  abju-
ration, next  cometh  to  our  hands  the  worthy  history  of  Mas-
ter William  Thorpe,  a  warrior  valiant  under  the  triumphant
banner  of  Christ,  with  the  process  of  his  examinations  before
the  aforesaid  Thomas  Arundel,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,
written  by  the  said  Thorpe,  and  storied  by  his  own  pen,
at  the  request  of  his  friends,  as  by  his  own  words,  in  the
process  hereof,  may  appear;  in  whose  examination,  which
seemeth  first  to  begin  A.D. 1407,  thou  shalt  have,  good
reader,  both  to  learn  and  to  marvel :  to  learn,  in  that  thou
shalt  hear  truth  discoursed  and  discussed,  with  the  contrary
reasons  of  the  adversary  dissolved ;  to  marvel,  for  thou  shalt
behold  here  in  this  man  the  marvellous  force  and  strength  of
the  Lord's  might,  Spirit,  and  grace,  working  and  fighting  in
his  soldiers,  and  also  speaking  in  their  mouths,  according  to
•mis  history  the  word  of  his  promise,  Luke  xxi. To  the  text  of  the  story
and  c'omSted  we  have  neither  added  nor  diminished ;  but,  as  we  have  received
\\iiiiam  it  copied  out,  and  corrected  by  Master  William  Tyndale  (who
had  his  own  hand-writing),  so  we  have  here  sent  it,  and  set
it  out  abroad. Although,  for  the  more  credit  of  the  matter,
I  rather  wished  it  in  his  own  natural  speech,  wherein  it  was
first  written ;  notwithstanding,  to  put  away  all  doubt  and
scruple  herein,  this  I  thought  before  to  pre-monish  and  testify
to  the  reader,  touching  the  certainty  hereof,  that  they  be  yet
alive  who  have  seen  the  self-same  copy  in  its  own  old  English,
resembling  the  true  antiquity  both  of  the  speech  and  of  the
time,  the  name  of  whom,  as  for  record  of  the  same  to  avouch,
is  Master  Whitehead ;  who,  as  he  hath  seen  the  true  ancient
copy  in  the  hands  of  George  Constantino,  so  he  given  credible
relation  of  the  same,  both  to  the  printer  and  to  me. Further-
more, the  said  Master  Tyndale,  albeit  he  did  somewhat  alter
and  amend  the  English  thereof,  and  frame  it  after  our  man-

f1  This  short  preface,  introductory  to  Thorpe's  "own  preface,"  is
from  Foxe.]

[2  Henry  IV.]


EXAMINATION  OF  WILLIAM  THORPE. 