serpentes, and would fayne in lyfe seeme innocent and
vnblameable. In profession of the one they boast very much: of
the other they walkyng very closely do iustifie themselues,
because fewe haue to finde fault with them, yet haue they their
lothsome spottes and ougly deformities, as in this booke to the
diligent reader playnely may appeare."

The "lothsome spottes" here intended are the 13th and 14th articles of
Wilkinson's indictment. They run as follows;--

(1.) "H.N. (i.e. Henry Nicholas) saith, It is lawfull for one of
his Familie to dissemble," (i.e., to conceal his religion when
questioned by the magistrate); and (2.) "H.N. maketh God the
Author of sinne, and the sinner guiltless," (but no proof is
alleged that this speculative impiety was carried out into
actual life).

The title of the second treatise to which I alluded is--

"A Confutation of monstrous and horrible Heresies, taught by
H.N., and embraced of a number who call themselves the Familie
of Love, by I. Knewstub. Imprinted in London, at the Three
Cranes in the Vinctree, by Thomas Dawson, for Richard Sergies.
1579."

He characterises the doctrine of the "Familists" as--

"A masse or packe of Poperie, Arianisme, Anabaptisme, and
Libertinisme. Respecting their morals we are told, that although
for their loosenesse of life, they are from the toppe to the toe