The actes of Englysh votaryes comprehendynge their vnchast practyses and examples by all ages, from the worldes begynnynge to thys present yeare, collected out of their owne legendes and chronycles by Iohan Bale. ...

¶Heresye in Brytayne aryseth of monkerye.

YEt came there in no vowynge of chastite all this tyme, neyther was vyrgynyte thought anye holyar amonge them than marryage. For one Seuerus beynge both a monke,* 1.1 prest, ād byshop, had a sonne there called leporius a monke also and a prest,* 1.2 which vexed the lande with that leruynge taught of hys father, in the yeare of our Lord. CCCC xxxij.* 1.3 as wytnessyth both Prosper Aquitan¦nus, and also Flores historiarum. Thys lepo¦rius made hys boast, that he was able to lyue purelye of hym selfe, and by force of hys owne fre wyll, without the assistēce of God, as reporteth of hym, Gennadi∣us Massiliensis,* 1.4 Honorius Augustudu∣nensis, & Ioannes Tritemius, in suis illustriū uirorum Catalogis, and now last of all, Cō∣radus Gesnerus in uniuersali bibliotheca.. Of

the same sort was there an other called Agricola,* 1.5 a prestes sonne also, which in the yeare of our Lorde .CCCC.xivi. tro¦bled the Brytaynes with the same doctri¦ne,* 1.6 as flores historiarum sheweth. The er∣rours of both these were at the same ty∣me confuted by Germanus and Lupus with other frenche doctours, which ca∣me thydre thā for the same purpose, spe∣cyallye of Saynt Augustine in Affrica.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Seuer{us}
• * 1.2

  Lepori{us}
• * 1.3

  432
• * 1.4

  Antors
• * 1.5

  Agrico¦la.
• * 1.6

  446.