of the whole order of the clergy, nor of the law
wholesomely by them made; our request and petition shall be with all
humility and reverence; that laws well made be not therefore called evil
because by all men and at all times they be not well executed; and that in
such defaults as shall appear such distribution may be used _ut unusquisque
onus suum portet_, and remedy be found to reform the offenders; unto the
which your Highness shall perceive as great towardness in your said orators
as can be required upon declaration of particulars. And other answer than
this cannot be made in the name of your whole clergy, for though _in multis
offendimus omnes_, as St. James saith, yet not 'in omnibus offendimus
omnes;' and the whole number can neither justify ne condemn particular acts
to them unknown but thus. He that calleth a man ex officio for correction
of sin, doeth well. He that calleth men for pleasure or vexation, doeth
evil. Summoners should be honest men. If they offend in their office, they
should be punished. To prove first [their faults] before men be called, is
not necessary. He that is called according to the laws ex officio or
otherwise, cannot complain. He that is otherwise ordered should have by
reason convenient recompence and so forth; that is well to be allowed, and
misdemeanour when it appeareth to be reproved.

"Item where they say in the same article that upon their appearance ex
officio at the only pleasure of the ordinaries, they be committed to prison
without bail or mainprize; and there they lie some half a year or more
before they come to their deliverance; to this we answer,--

"That we use no prison before conviction but for sure custody, and only of
such as be suspected of heresy, in which crime, thanked be God, there hath
fallen no such notable person in our time, or of such qualities as hath
given occasion of any sinister suspicion to be conceived of malice or
hatred to his person other than the heinousness of their crime deserveth.
_Truth it is that certain apostates, friars, monks, lewd priests, bankrupt
merchants, vagabonds, and lewd idle fellows of corrupt intent, have
embraced the abominable and erroneous opinions lately sprung in Germany_;
and by them some have been seduced in simplicity and ignorance. Against
these, if judgment has been exercised according to the laws of the church,
and conformably to the laws of this realm, we be without blame. If we have
been too remiss and slack, we sh