A reply to an answer made of M. Doctor Whitgifte Against the admonition to…A replye to an ansvvere made of M. Doctor VVhitgifte Against the admonition to…

After you have all to be blacked and grimed with the ink of Anabaptism / Donatism / and Papism those whom you found clear from the least spot / or speck of any of them: you whet the sword / and blow the fire / and you will have the godly magistrate minister of your choler / and therefore in stead of fear of losing the multitude of your livings / forgoing your pomp and pride of men / and delicacy of fare / unlawful jurisdiction / which you have and hereafter look for / conscience / religion / and establishment of the common wealth / must be pretended. What / have you forgotten that which you said in the beginning / that you accused none / but suspected certain? would you have the sword to be drawn upon your suspicions? But now you see that they whom you have accused / are nothing like either Anabaptists / Donatists / or Papists / and your self most unlike unto him / that you proofs to be / and now you see / that all your slanders are quenched by the innocency (as it were by water) of those men / whom you so heinously accuse: you are to be put in mind / of the law of God / which decreeth / that he ¹which accuseth an other / if he prove it not / shall suffer the punishment which he should have done / against whom the accusation had ben justly proved. The Romans did nourish in Capitolio, certain dogs and geese / which by their barking and gaggling / should give warning in the night / of thieves that entered in: but if they cried in the day time / when there was no suspicion / and when men came in to worship / then their legs were broken / because they cried / when there was no cause. If therefore / he have accused justly / then he is worthy to have his diet allowed him of the common charges. But if otherwise / we desire not that his legs may be broken (as theirs were.) But this we humbly crave / that if this our answer do not sufficiently purge us / that we may be sifted and searched nearer / that if we nourish any such monstrous opinions / (as are surmised) we may have the reward of them: if we do not / then at the least / we may have the good abearing / against such slanderous tongues / seeing that God hath not only committed unto the magistrate / the safety of our goods and life / but also the preservation of our honest report.