636 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters. 
vnto me this verse (E cclesix tu iudicia nihili fads'!) wheron you 
pray God I may thinke religiouslye, wisely , and fruitefullye , I 
hartely thanke you for it 1 . I trust I shall never despyse the iudg- 
ment of the Churche, wherof, I hope, I ame a member, and a 
sonne, thoughe an vntowarde on. for nexte beleevinge in, I most 
constantly beleeve sanctam Eccelsiam catholicam ; as beinge per- 
swaded, that he can not have God to his ffather, that refusethe 
the Churche for his mother. I weare very impudent, if I woulde 
take vpon me to advyse you; but yet lett me be bowlde to repeate 
some of thos wordes that Tullye dothe to Cato 2 3 ; Ego tuum con¬ 
silium propter singulare animi mei de tua virtute iudicium, vitu- 
perare non audeo; et ego te verissime dixerim, peccare nihil, neque 
ulla in re esse huiusmodi, vt corrigendus potius, quam lender in- 
flectendus esse videare; non quod tu vir melior esses, nee temperantior, 
nee iustior, (neque enim esse poles) sed paulo ad lenitatem propensior. 
which mynde in you, I ame so farr from dislikinge, that I admyre it; 
and muche the rather, because I ame fully perswaded, you are 
suche a one in deede, as Tullye saythe that M. Mlius Tubero was, 
vita seuerus, & congruens cum ea disciplina , quam colebatf 
And thus, have I also answered your wrytinge; not so muche to 
patronage Playes, which I can forbeare, and thinke of them as 
thay are (for what have I to doe with them, more then an other?) 
as to defende owre House, my selfe, and many honest towardely 
younge men my frendes, whom for good causes I hartely love, 
from open infamye. wherwith, it not a littell greevethe me, and 
them, that thay shoulde in pryvate, but muche more in publicke 
be charged, to the generall reproche of owre House, and to the 
particular contumelye of dyvers in their persons, with many, if 
so harde a censure shoulde be by men of note, enforced and per¬ 
swaded. <!p. 65 > ffor your care to approve your iudgment, and 
goodwill to me, as I humbly thanke you; so I ame very sorry that 
by any occasion of myne, you weare so farr trobled amydst your 
greate busines. your goodwill I doe and ever will most gladly 
embrace; and your iudgment toe, in this cause so farr, as you 
wryte in the generall agaynst Histriones; prayinge you to pardon 
me if, as I verely thinke, for good causes, I can not agree with 
1 But to them I say, with Paul, to the Philippians, If pee bee otherwise 
minded, God shall reveile euen the same to you, and I assure my selfe, they will 
take in good part, that I preferre before them the iudgement of the Church 
in so manie Councells, what Generall, what Provinciall, of Constantinople, 
Laodicea, Carthage, Arles, and Aquisgranum, to pertermitt the Fathers, of 
whom what one is otherwise minded? To your selfe I say farder, that in steed 
of your question proposed vnto us, Academise tu judicia nihili facis? I propose 
you an other vpon a surer ground, though in a verse like yours, and God 
graunt you may thinke religiouslie, wiselie, & fruitfullie thereof, Ecclesise tu 
iudicia nihili facis? [Overthrow , p. 26.] 
2 Gager’s side-note: Orat. pro Marc. 
3 Gager’s side-note: Cic. De cla. orato. 
