Compare 1577 edition: 1 In déed such was his condition, that who soeuer would giue, might haue, & that oftentimes without respect, whether their sute was reasonable and allow|able or not, in somuch that it is said of him, that be|ing in Roan on a time, there came to him diuerse Iewes who inhabited that citie,Iewes. complaining to him, that diuerse of their nation had renounced their Iewish religion, and were become christians: wherefore they besought him, that for a certeine summe of monie which they offered to giue, it might please him to constreine them to abiure christianitie, and turne to the Iewish law againe. He was con|tented to satisfie their desires, and so receiuing the monie, called them before him, & what with threats, and putting them otherwise in feare, he compelled diuerse of them to forsake Christ, and returne to their old errors.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 There was about the same time a yoong man a Iew, who by a vision appearing vnto him (as is said) was conuerted to the christian faith, and being bapti|sed, was named Stephan, bicause S. Stephan was the man that had appeared to him in the vision, as by the same he was informed. The father of the yoong-man being sore troubled, for that his sonne was be|come a christian, and hearing what the king had doone in such like matters, presented to him 60. marks of siluer, conditionally that he should inforce his sonne to returne to his Iewish religion. Here|vpon was the yoong man brought before the king, vnto whom he said;

Sirra, thy father here complai|neth that without his licence thou art become a chri|stian: if this be true, I command thee to returne a|gaine to the religion of thy nation, without anie more adoo. To whom the yoongman answered, Your grace (as I gesse) dooth but iest. Wherwith the king being mooued said, What thou dunghill knaue, shuld I iest with thée? Get thee hence quicklie, and fulfill my commandement, or by S. Lukes face I shall cause thine eies to be plucked out of thine head. The yoongman nothing abashed hereat, with a constant voice answered, Trulie I will not doo it,An answer of a good Iew. but know for certeine, that if you were a good christian, you would neuer haue vttered anie such words, for it is the part of a christian to reduce them againe to Christ which be departed from him; & not to separate them from him, which are ioined to him by faith. The king herwith confounded, commanded the Iew to auant & get him out of his sight. But his father perceiuing that the king could not persuade his sonne to forsake the christian faith, required to haue his monie a|gaine. To whom the king said, he had doone so much as he promised to doo, that was, to persuade him so far as he might.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 Moreouer, to increase the suspicion which men had of his infidelitie, it is written,King William suspected of infidelitie. that he caused a dispu|tation to be kept betwixt the Iewes & the christians, promising that if the Iewes ouercame the christians in argument, he would be a Iew: but the Iewes be|ing ouercome, and receiuing the foile, would not confesse their errors, but alledged, that by factions (and not by reason) they were put to the worse. How|beit, what opinion soeuer he had of the Iewes faith, it appéereth by writers that he doubted in manie points of the religion then in credit. Eadmerus. For he sticked not to protest openlie, that he beléeued no saint could profit anie man in the Lords sight, and therefore neither would he nor anie other that was wise (as he affirmed) make intercession, either to Peter,Praieng to saincts. or to anie other for helpe.