The vocacyon of Iohā Bale to the bishoprick of Ossorie in Irelāde his persecuciōs in ye same / & finall delyueraunce.
The preface.
¶ Iohan Bale to ye folowers of Christes Gospell.
FOr thre consyderacyons chefely (dere bretherne) haue I put fourth thys treatyse of my vocacyon to the churche of Ossorye in Irelāde / of my harde chaūces therin / and of my fynall deliueraunce by the great goodnesse of God.Ossorie The first of them is / for that mē shulde wele knowe / that the office of a Christen byshop / is not to loyter in blasphemouse papistrie / but purely to preache ye Gospell of God / to his christened flocke.ye flocke The secōde is / that they shulde also vnderstande / that contynuall persecucyons / and no bodyly welthe / doeth folowe the same most godly office / in them which truly executeth it. The thirde is / that they myght beholde how gracyously our most mercyfull God wyth hys power wayteth vpon them / and fynally delyuereth them in most depe daungers.Deliueraunce.
These .3. thynges notable / concerninge the electe membres of Gods congregacyon in thys life / comprehendeth muche matter in the scriptures of both testamentes / with abundaunce of examples from Abel the first to Iohan the euā gelyst [Page] / which was the last lyuer in the same. The examples also therof are both lyuely and innumerable / Exāples in the first propagacion and longe contynuaunce of the christen churche from hys tyme to thys our tyme / as the chronycles & hystoryes most abundauntly specifieth.
First / as concernynge the examples of holye scripture.Iesus. Adam. Iesus the eternall sonne of the euerlastynge father / in the Godhede preached to Adam in paradyse terrestre / and constytute hym so wele an instructour as a father ouer hys posteryte. He proued him also after he had sinned / by dyuerse afflyctyons / and fynally promysed both to hym and to hys / deliueraūce in the sede of the woman / which at the lattre in hys owne persone he louingly ꝑfourmed.Christe Christe ye seyde sonne of God contynually still taught / by the mouthes of the fathers and prophetes / tyll suche tyme as he hymselfe came in the fleshe. Than was he aboue all others / of hys heauēly father appoynted / a vniuersall doctor ouer all the worlde / and commaunded to be hearde / Math. iij.Adoctor He folowed hys vocacyō in most ample wyse / very cruelly was he of the clergie thā persecuted / and gloriously delyuered in hys resurrectyon from deathe. The members of hys true churche / the prophetes and Apostles / were [Page 3] in case like as he their head was / first called / than afflicted / and gracyously alwayes in the ende delyuered.Fathers He that shall marke the laboriouse procedinges of Abraham / Ioseph / & Moyses / of Dauid / Helyas / and Daniel / with the other olde fathers and prophetes / shall fynde it no lesse. He lyke wyse that shall dyscretely searche the doynges of Peter / Iames and Iohan / with the other of the Apostles and dysciples / shall wele perceyue the same.
Hieremye for the olde lawe / Paule for the newe lawe / and Iohan Baptyst betwixt them both / were called from their mothers wombe to that heauenly offyce of preachynge. Hier. j.Called. Luce. j. Gala. j. yea / they suffered extreme persecucyons vndre tyrauntes / and fynally were deliuered / in this lyfe from parelouse daūgers▪ and in deathe / frō synne / helle / and dāpnacyō. To rehearce the exāples of the primatyue churche / and of the ages folowynge / Ages. concernynge these matters / it wolde requyre muche tyme / they are so manye / and therfor at thys present I omit thē. Thus ā I not alone in these 3. matters of vocaciō / persecucion / & deliueraūce / but haue on my syde an infinyte nōbre of exāples. Which maketh me the more a great dele to reioyce / like as I wishe them to do / The author. which haue [Page] in these troublouse dayes the lyke. Neyther am I ashamed to tell my bretherne / what God hath most graciously done for me / nomor thā s. Paule was for hymselfe in hys owne Epistles / and Luke in ye actes for saint Peter / though I be farre vnlyke them.s. Peter For I fare lyke the byrde which is deliuered from the snare of the catcher. He flyeth to a bough / and reioyceth in his delyueraunce / and euen so do I. In the which reioyce / I make not only my selfe merye / but also all my louinge frindes. And as for my cruel enemyes the papistes / papistes if I make them sorye in the rehearsal of my delyueraunce / I am not yll apayde therof. For it is better (they saye in Northfolke) that yonge lyddernes wepe / than olde men. I call them yonge and not olde / for God is oldar than Sathan / if age maye be attributed to his eternyte / Daniel as Daniel sayeth it maye / and Christe oldar than the deuyls vycar at Rome / their vngracyouse father.
As we are in most thinges contrarie to these papistes / so haue we reioyces cōtrary to theirs.papistes They reioyce in helthe / prosperite / riches and worldly pleasures for their bellies sake.
We in our infirmytees / afflictions / losses / and sorowfull crostes / for Christes veritees sake. And thus maye we wele do / and boast of it also [Page 4] without offence / for so ded the forenamed S. Paule.s. Paule 2. Cor. 11. and earnestly willed vs to be his folowers. Phil. 3. first he boasted of his vocacion / and sayde. God sorted me out and appoī ted me from my mothers wombe / and also he called me by his grace / to preache his liuely gospell amonge the heathē / Gal. 1. what if I shoulde in like case boaste / yt he by his grace had also called me in this age / to preache the same Gospel to the Irishe heathens / wc neuer hearde of it afore / to knowledge?Irishe. I shulde not do other wise than the truthe is. For I was put to it against my wille / by a most christen kynge / and of his owne mere mocion only / without sute of fryndes / mede / labour / expensis / or any other sinistre meane els. By his Regall power and authorite / which both were of God / Edward Ro. 13. was I both allowed and confirmed / and not all vnioyfully receiued of ye people / which causeth me in conscience to iudge my vocaciō iust. Yet was not my reioyce so muche in ye dignite therof / as in doinge for the time / the office therūto belonginge.Office. But now is it most of all in the leauinge of that bishopricke / the Gospell beinge so vnthankefully of the prestes receiued / I so terribly of them persecuted / and my seruauntes so cruelly slayne.
[Page] S. Paule.Moreouer saint Paule boasted muche of his persecucions / & described them at large / concludinge thus in ye ēde / Very gladly (saith he) will I reioyce of my weakenesse / yt the strength of Christe maye dwell in me. Therfor haue I dilectaciō in infirmitees / in rebukes / in nedes / in persecucion / and anguyshes / for Christes sake.The Author. 2. Cor. 12. If I haue lyke wyse / felte a great meanie of the same afflictions / as I haue done in dede / maye not I also with him reioyce in them? Maye I not be glad / that I am in sorowes for the Gospell / lyke fashioned to him / & not pranked vp in pōpe & pleasures / lyke ye wantō babes of this worlde? As at this daye is lecherouse Weston / weston. which is more practised in the arte of breche burninge / than all ye whores of the stues / to the great infamye of his virginall ordre. The truthe of it is / that sens I toke that wayghtie office in hande / I haue bene sycke to the very deathe / I haue bene greued with the vntowardnesse of ministers.
Troubles.I haue bene in iournayes and labours / in iniuryes and losses / in peines and in penuries. I haue bene in strifes and contencions / in rebukynges and slaunderynges / and in great daunger of poyseninges and killinges.
I haue bene in parell of the heathen / in parell [Page 5] of wicked prestes / in parell of false iustyces / in parell of trayterouse tenauntes / in parell of cursed tyrauntes / in parell of cruell kearnes and galloglasses.Tyrauntes.
I haue bene in parell of the sea / in parell of shypwrack / in parell of throwynge ouer the boorde / in parell of false bretherne / in parell of curiouse searchers / in parell of pirates / robbers and murtherers / and a great sort more.
Sanct Paule also reioyced / that God had so miraculously delyuered him from so manye daungerouse ieopardyes / Parels. and spareth not so to report them. 2. Cor. 11. et. 12. Whie shulde I than shrinke or be ashamed to do the lyke / hauinge at Gods hande the lyke miraculouse deliueraunce? Are they not left to vs for example / that we shulde do the lyke whan we fele the lyke?Writtē. Whatsoeuer thinges are writtē afore tyme (sayth he) they are written for our learninge / that we through pacyence and confort of the scriptures might haue hope▪ Rom. xv. He in the cytie of Damascon / beīge layde waite for / by ye liefe tenaūt of Kinge Aretha / was lete downe at a windowe in a basket / & so escaped his handes. Act. ix.dubline. I ī ye cytie of Dubline / beīge assaulted of papistes / was cōuayed awaye in ye nyght in mariners apparell / & so escaped ye daunger by [Page] Gods helpe. Whan Paules death was sought by certayn Iewes at Ierusalem / the vpper captaine there / cōmaūded ij. vnder captaines / ī the nyght to conveye hī to Cesarea with 200. souldyers .70. horsmen / Cesarea and 200. spearemē / and so to to delyuer him. Actes. 23. In lycke case / whā the prestes whith Barnabe Bolgar and other had sought my death at Holmes court / and had slayne .v. of my howsholde seruauntes by their hyred kearnes / Kilkennye. the good suffren of kylkennie with ā hūdred horsemē / ād 300. fotemē brought me thyder in the night and so deliuered me that tyme.
As Paule against his wylle / was put into a shippe of Adramitiū / coupled with other prisoners of Iewrie / cōuaied fourh into Italie / and there safely deliuered.Italie. Act. 27. and 28. So was I & my companyō Thomas against our willes taken īto a shippe of Zelāde / coupled with frenche prisoners / cōuayed furth īto flanders / and so at the lattre / safely there deliuered. As their shippe was caught betwixt Candia and Melita / and coulde not resyste the wyndes / ye winde so was ours betwixt Mylforde hauen / and Waterforde. As they had an excedynge tempeste vpon the sea / so had we lykewyse. As they were withoute hope of sauegarde / so were we also.
[Page 6]As they feared Syrtes or daungerouse sandy places and rockes / so ded we. As they were almost famyshed and drowned / so were we.Cōfort. As God conforted them / so ded he vs. As they were in conclusion cast into an ylande / so were we into S. Iues in Cornewale. As the people shewed thē kyndnesse at Melita / so ded they vs at the seyd S. Iues. As Paule gaue thankes and brake breade amonge them / so ded we also. As the captayne Iulius courteously intreated hym and gaue hym lyberte to go vnto hys fryndes at Sydon / and to refreshe hym / Iulius. so ded our captayne Cornelis vse vs very gētilly with all fauour and lyberte / what though he had so currishely and cruelly intreated vs afore. As Paule was stonge of a bytyng vyper ād not hurte / so was I of that viperous Walter being most vniustly accused of treason afore ye iustices ther / Walter and yet through Gods deliueraūce / not hurte. As he appealed to Cesar / so ded I to the trone of God.
As great dyspycyōs were amōg the Iewes at Rome concernīg Paule / Rome. so were there afterwarde amonge the shyppers in our returne to their shippe concerning vs. As the souldyers gaue counsell to kylle the prisoners / so were there some of our men that gaue counsell to haue drowned vs for our moneye / and of some to [Page] haue delyuered vs vp to the counsayll of Englande / in hope of great rewardes.Publiꝰ. As Publius gentilly receiued Paule / and by hym was healed of all hys dyseases / so ded myne hoste Lambert receyue me also gentylly / and by me was delyuered from hys vayne beleue of purgatorye / and of other Popysh peltryes. As the people reported Paule to be a murtherer / and after changed their myndes / and sayde he was a God / A God. so our wycked maryners reported me to be a most haynous traytour / and yet afterwarde in my delyueraunce called me the seruaūt of God. As he was for the hope of Israel ledde īto captiuite / ād at last deliuered / so was I also for the same captiued / and in fyne delyuered into Germanie.Bretherne. As the bretherne met Paule with reioyce at Appij forum / so ded they me in diuerse partes of Duchelande / and lawded God for my so miraculouse deliueraunce. As he sayde that he had committed nothyng against the lawe of his fathers / so saye I also that I haue in this acte cōmitted nothyng against the Apostels ād Prophetes doctryne / I thāke my Lord God therof.The author. Thus had I in my troublous iournaye from Irelande into Germanye all those chaūces ī a maner that S. Paul had in his iournaie of no lesse trouble / frō Ierusalē to Rome / [Page 7] sauing that we lost not our shippe by the waye·
If Helias / that wetherdryuen rūnegate / remayne now in a foren lāde in penurie with the Sareptysh wydowe whyls Baals chatteringe chaplaynes and sorcerouse sacrifiers do dwell styl at home florissing in prosperouse welth / Prestes lecherouse ydelnesse / and lordely dignite / maruele not of it / for so hath he done afore. I speake not thys for myne owne part only / nether vtterly exclude I my selfe / but I vttre it also for my exyled bretherne / of whom a great nombre is at this tyme in Germanie / Denmarcke / and Geneua.For others. The true churche of God had neuer sumptuouse hospitalles any lōge tyme together but very simple cottages ād caues / if ye marke the sacred hystoryes and aūcyent cronicles. The plesaūt possession / Possessions. and gorgious dwelling places / haue euermor remained to ye glorious Epicures / ye very enemyes alwayes of Christes gospel. We are not now to lerne how to take these our present afflictiōs in good part / for we knowe them afore hande / and haue had them long tyme / as it were in an exercise.Exercise Nether are we all barayne of frindely receptacles / for the heauenly doctrynes sake / though our aduersaryes in Englande with violence throwe stones at vs[?] / and seke vtterly to destroye vs. They are [Page] truly muche deceiued which thinketh the Christen churche to be a politicall commen welthe / churche as of Rome and Constantinople / mayntayned by humayne polyces / and not by the only wurde of God. Suche are they which now haue the doynges in these present controuersyes / and oppresse the most manifest verite. God amende it.
I write not this rude treatise / for that I woulde receyue praise therof / but that I wolde God to haue all the prayse / which hath bene a moste wonderfull wurker therī.Prayse. For I am but a clodde of coruption / felinge in my self as of my self / nothinge els but sinne and wickednesse. I haue done it also / to declare my most earnest reioice ī the same God / which by grace hath called me by persecucion hath tried me / ād of fauour / beniuolence and mercye / hath most wonderfully deliuered me.Gods wurke▪ Lete hym that reioyceth (saith S. Paule) reioyce in the Lorde. For he that prayseth him selfe / is not allowed / but he whō the Lorde prayseth 2. Corint. 10. Moreouer I haue done it / Bretherne. for that my persecuted bretherne might in lyke maner haue their reioyce in that heauē ly Lorde / whiche mightelye hath wrought in them their saluacion / by his graciouse callinge of them from wicked Papisme to true christianyte [Page 8] / and now tryeth their paciences by contynuall afflictions / and finally will delyuer thē / Delyueraunce. eyther from tyrannouse molestacions / as he hath done me / eyther els into martirdome for his truthes sake. For god wil be knowne by none other doctryne / than he hath sent hyther by hys sonne / whom he so earnestly commaū ded to be heard. He will also be worshipped by those rules ōly / whom he hath to hys church proponed by hys prophetes and apostles.Prayer. I besiche that euerlastyng God for hys dere sōnes sake / ī the holy Ghost to rule vs / and alwayes to augmēt and preserue hys true churche cōfessing his only name. Amen.
I called vppon the Lorde in my trouble / and the Lorde hearde me at large. The Lorde is my helper / I wyll not feare what man doeth vnto me. Psal. 118.
¶ Of Iohan Bale tothe byshoprycke of Ossorye in Irelāde his harde chaūces therin / and finall delyueraunce.
IN the olde and newe testament is it not expressed / that any iust or faythfull man euer yet toke vpon hym / Ministerie. the adminystracyon of the heauenly doctryne / in teachynge the true worshippynges of God / ād in persuadynge mē to repentaūce or amendement of their former lyfe / without the vocacion and speciall election of God. No truly / Balaam ye notable sothsayer coulde neyther curse nor yet blesse / without Gods permission / as he apertly confessed / Nū. 22. And to begīne with the formest examples. Adam our first progenitour / Adam. whiche had receyued most helthsome īstructiōs of Gods eternall sōne in paradyse / and the fathers him succedīng in the righteous lyne befor ye generall floude / neuer had taken that high office vpō them / had not he therūto both called thē / & alowed them. Noe Gods true seruaūt / Noe. at his most graciouse appoītemēt also / by the space of an C. yeares & xx. earnestly preached to the people of that age / exhortīg them to cease / from ye abohminacions [Page] thā vsed / as thei wold auoide the vniuersall destrucciō wc folowed. After ye seyd floude / by vertue of the selfe same precepte and autoryte of God / Noe taught the people / than growne to ā increase againe / by longe continuaūce.Noe. So ded Melchisedech ī Salem, Iob in Arabia. Abraham in Chaldie, Iacob in Mesopotamy, and Ioseph in Aegypte, Helias with the other prophetes in Israel, Ionas in Ninyue, Daniel in Babylon, fathers. Zorobabel in Persie, and Iohan Baptist in Iewrye. Marke the opē places of ye scripture / concernyng Vocacion & Election.
And as towchyng Christe in our māhode / he was called of God his eternall father / as was Aaron / to be our euerlasting preste / accordinge to the ordre of Melchisedech.Iesus. Hebre. 7. He was also by his owne godly mouthe / to ye worlde declared / that wele beloued sōne of his / in whom he was most highly both pleased & pacifyed. Finally he was by hys most heauenly ordinaūce / constituted oure vniuersall doctour / and of him cōmaūded / as a most perfight maistre / of all mē to be most diligētly hearde & obeyed.A maystre. From the shippe / frō ye costomehowse / & frō other homily ministerys / called he / not ye stought / sturdye / & heady sort of mē / but ye lowly harted / simple / & beggarly ydiotes. Them he elected most gracyously [Page 10] / & they not him / to be the ministers of his holy Gospell / Iohā. 15. Them chose he out frō ye world / to gyue knowlege of saluacion to hys people / for ye remissiō of their synnes.apostles Mat. 10. Luce. 2. Those (sayth S. Paule) whom ye Lorde appoīted before / those hath he also called / ād those whom he hath called / those hath he lykewise iustified / or made mete for that heauēly offyce. Rō. 8.Electiō. For how shuld they haue preached (sayth he) vnlesse they had ben sent. Rom. 10. Peter was to him ā elect apostle / affirmīge hys doctrine to be ye wurdes of eternall lyfe / Ioā 6. Iohn was his derely beloued disciple / & became a most mightie thūderer out of the same. Act. 4.S Iohā Paul was a peculiar chosen vessel vnto him / to manifest hys name before ye Gentyles / Kynges and chyldren of Israel. Act. 9.
The Idolatour / the tyraunt / ād the whoremō gar / are no mete mynisters for hym / though they be neuer so gorgyously mytered / coped / and typpeted / or neuer so fynely forced / pylyoned / and scarletted.Papystes. The deceytfull prophetes (sayth ye Lorde) made spedy haste / but I appoynted thē not. They rāne a great pace / but I sent thē not. They prophecyed fast / but not out of my spret. Hier. 23. To ye wicked doar ye Lorde hath spoken it (sayth Dauid) whie doest thu soDauid. [Page] vniusttly presume to talke of my righteousnesses / and with thy polluted mouthe / of my eternall testamēt / whie makest thu relacion? Psal. 50. After ye Apostles immediatly succeded in ye primatiue churche / Tymotheus, Ignatius, Policarpus, Doct. Irenus paphnutius, Athanasius, Lactantius, and other true ministers of the Gospell. These loytered not in the vineyearde of the lorde / as our ydell masmongers do / but faithfully they laboured in sekinge Gods glorie / and the sowles helthe of the people. But whan great Constantine the Emprour had gyuen peace to the Christen churche / Peace. that all persecucion ceased / thā came in ceremonie vpō ceremonie / & none ende was of thē. Euery yeare entered one poyson or other / as mannes fyckle nature in this frayle lyfe / is neuer wtout vice.
So that s. Augustine in his tyme very muche lamented / Throldom. that so many supersticions were thā crepte in / confessinge the seruitude of the Christen churche to be more greuouse ī those daies / than it was to the people vndre Moyses. And so muche the more he lamented the case / that beinge but one man / he coulde not reforme it / neither was he able in euerye pointe to resist that euill / beinge with heretykes so sore tossed on euery syde. But what wolde he haue sayde [Page 11] if he had seane the abhominable ydolatries of our time wtout nōbre?Augustine. specially the worshippinge of breade and of wyne / which are only the seruauntes of our bellies / and corrupt in the same / yea / whan they are at the best & holiest. For whan they haue done their office / Breade beinge sacramentes of Christes bodie and bloude / that is to saye / preached the lordes deathe till he come / and declared vs of manie members to be one misticall bodie in Christe / they ascende not into heauen / but beinge eaten and disgested / they are immediatly resolued into corruption. Yea / Christe sayth / Christe. that they descende downe into the bellie / & are cast out into the draught / Math. 15. which declareth them vnmete to be worshipped.
This write I / not in vnreuerencinge the sacrament / but in detestacion of the abhominable ydolatries / therin most bestially cōmitted.
And breuely to saye sumwhat of the Christen churche of our realme / in those dayes called Britaine / and now named Englande / Englād what originall it had and from whens / what continuaunce / what darkeninges / what decayes / what falle / and what rayse againe.
To fatche this thinge from the first foundaciō / for that lāde / lyke as for other landes. By the [Page] eternall sonne of God in Paradyse / Adam. receyued Adam the first ꝓmise of saluaciō in the womās sede. This acknowleged Abel in his first offerī ge vp of the firstlinges of his flocke & fatt of the same beinge so instructed by ye religiouse father of his Gene. 4. By faithe ī his plētuouse sacrifice (saith s. Paule) obteined Abel / Abel. witnesse yt he was righteouse / Heb. 11. This wt the right inuocacion of the name of God taught by Seth and Enos / was cōtinued by the chosen of ye line / to remayne styll in remembraūce to their posteritees / & was renued after the floude by righteouse Noe / Gene. 8. To S. Paule also in reuelacion / was this misterie shewed / that the Gentiles lykewyse were partakers of the promyse / Ephe. 3.the lābe Wherunto S. Iohan sayth / yt the lā be was slayne frō the worldes begīninge / Apo. 13. yt is to saye / in ꝓmise / in faithe / & in misterie of their sacrifices. Applied is it also to those Gē tiles / in the seyd Reuelaciō of S. Iohan (who now amōge other includeth our lande) yt they frō yt time haue cryed wt a lowde voyce / seinge. Helthe be to him yt sitteth vpon the seate of our God / & vnto the lābe.gētyls. Apo. 7. And therupō Gildas in Exeidio Britānie, cōcludeth / yt the inhabitours of our realme / haue alwayes had knowlege of God / almost sens ye worldes begīnīge.
[Page 12]This rule of sacrifice and inuocacion / helde Iapheth after the floude also / Iaphet. the father of Europa cōtaininge our lande amonge others / accordinge to the prayer of his righteouse father Noe / yt he mighte dwelle in the tētes of Sem. Gene. 9. or in faithe of the promised sede wc is Christe. Gala. 3.Melchisedech. So perfyght was Melchisedech or the forenamed Sem / a father than of ye Gentiles / for that his kinrede (sayth Paule) is not reckened amōge the tribes / yt he toke tithes of Abraham / & blessed him that had ye promises. Hebre. 7. et Gene. 14. For so muche as God / (sayth Luther vpō Genesis) established ye kingedomes of ye Ilādes / whā they were diuided / by ye chosen fathers / it semeth wele yt they helde his true worshippīges / receiued a fore of thē. To these holy fathers in the Gentilite for that realme / by course succeded / as Berosus, Pliniꝰ, fathers Strabo, Caesar, & other authors writeth, the Samothees, Sarronites, Druydes, Bardes, Sybylles, Eubages or Vates, Flamines, & suche other / till the cōmīge of Iesus Gods sonne in ye fleshe.Christe Which all acknowleged but one God / what though it were by the diuersite of rytes & doctrines. This haue I writtē here / to declare what churche was ī our lāde afore christes cōmī ge. I speake nothinge of thē wc folowed straūge [Page] worshippynges or manifeste ydolatryes of the heathen / as the papistes do in thys age.papistes If it be reasoned / how they coulde heare? S. Paule ā swereth it out of Dauid / yt the heauens preached to them / all the worlde hearyng it / if none had done it els / Rom. 10. et Psal. 19. besyde the lawe of nature / which was also their leader.
In the .63. yeare after Christes incarnacion / Ioseph. to resort to my purpose / was Ioseph an hebrue and disparsed disciple thydre sent with his companyons / by Philipp the apostle than preachynge in Fraunce / as Freculphus in ye secōde part of hys Chronycle / & Isidorus also de vita & obitu sanctorū patrū, rehearseth. He published there amonge them / that Gospell of saluacion / whiche Christe first of all / & afterwardes hys Apostles had taught at Ierusalem / apostles Vntruly therfore are we reported of the Italyane writers / and of the subtylle deuysers of sāctes legendes / that we shulde haue our first faythe from Rome / and our christen doctryne / from their vnchristen byshoppes. From the schole of Christe hymselfe / haue we receyued the documentes of oure fayth.Hierusalem. From Ierusalem / & not from Rome / whom both Peter & also Christe hath called Babylō / for that she so aptely thervnto agreeth ī ministryng cōfusiō to the world. [Page 13] And this wele accordeth with the wurdes of ye prophete / yt the lawe of ye Gospell shulde come frō Sion / & the wurde of God frō Hierusalem. Esa. 2. S. Paule also which had bene christenly familiar at Rome / s. Paule Claudia. with Claudia Rufina a Britayne borne / and with Aulus pudens her husbande / of whome he maketh mencion .2. Timoth. 4. shulde seme in his owne persone to haue preached in that nacion of ours / by this sainge of his in the same epistle and chaptre. The lorde assisted me and strengthened me at my first answeringe / that by me the preachinge shulde be fulfilled to the vttermost / and that all the Gētiles shulde heare. That clause / all the Gētiles / includeth sumwhat cōcernīge ye Britaines / if they were thā Gētiles / & in ye west part of ye worlde / as we cā saye none other of thē.Gētiles
Bartholomeus Tridētinꝰ & Petrus Calo, reporteth in their bokes of ye liues of sanctes / yt Timothe S. Paules disciple / Timot. by his preachīge in Britaine / cōuerted kinge Lucius & him baptised / in cōfirmaciō of yt is said afore. Nurrished / brought vp / & cōtinued was this Brittish churche in ye doctrine of faithe / wtout mēnes tradicions / by ye wurthie doctours of yt age / Eluanus, Britanes. Meduinus, Melaniuꝰ, Amphibalꝰ, & suche other like / till ye time of Diocleciane ye tirānouse [Page] Emproure. Which by his wicked ministers / made hauock of the Christen flocke there / as testifieth Gildas. Though the kinges of Britaine in yt age / Aruiragus, Marius, Coillus, Lucius, Peace. and Seuerus, with others / were not all Christened / yet were they no cruell persecuters of Christes congregacion / yt we reade of. In the generall quyetnesse prouided to ye churche by the forenamed Constātine, Arrius, Pelagius, Heretykes. Leporius, and one Tymothe, partly by subtile allegories / and partly by open heresies greatly obscured the glory therof. Anon after there folowed a certē kinde of monkery / Mōkes with an heape of ceremonies / but yet wt out blasphemouse supersticions / till Antichrist had fashioned them to his execrable vse. In that age were Fastidius, Doct. Ninianus, Patritius, Bachiarius, Dubricius, Cōgellus, Kentigernus, Iltutus, Dauid, Daniel, Sampson, Eluodugus, Asaphus, Gildas, Beulanus, Elbodus, Dionotus, Samuel, Nennius, & a great sort more / by Christē doctrine the vpholders of the Brittish churche / Helpers ye cyuyle gouernours for ye time beinge dissolute & carelesse / as ye forseyd Gildas very sharply, doth laie it to their charge.
Consequently whā the Barbarouse nacions had subdued the Christen regions of Europa / [Page 14] specially here ī this realme / Saxōs. ye heathnish Saxōs the Christen Britaines / for not obeyenge and folowinge Gods wurde ye time faithfully preached. Than entered in an other swarme of monkes / muche wurse thā the other. For they had their beginnīge of those solitary bretherne / which had fled to the wildernesse in the tyme of persecucion.locustes These lyke laysye locustes sprāge fourth of the pytt bottomlesse. They serued God in lyberte / and were fedde of their owne true labours. These serued Antichrist in bondage / and deuoured vp the labours of other. They were sumwhat ceremoniouse / but these altogyther suꝑsticiouse. Of this lattre swarme / after the first enteraunce of Augustine the Romish mōke, was Egbert, Egwine, Augustine. Boniface, Wilfride, Dūstane, Oswolde, Lāfranck, Anselme, & suche other wtout nōbre / by whō ye sincere faithe of the English churche decayed. These were bytter stīgars ī Antichristes cause / yea / terrible accusers & supressers of kinges & of other christē magistrates.accusers These caused ye sūne / wc is ye clere verite of ye lorde / to apere as sacke clothe made of heare / Apo. 6. placinge in the rowme therof / their owne fantastical doctrines / vaine tradicions / & supersticiouse ordinaūces.Obscurers. So that they made Gods heauenly wurde / to [Page] seme to the people / darke / rough / harde / & vnpleasaunt / for their ydle bellyes sake.
Yet denye I it not / but some godly men were amonge them in those dayes. As Beda, Iohan of Beuerle, Alcuinus, Neotus, Hucarius, Serlo, Achardus, Ealredus, Alexander Neckam, Doct. Nigellus, Seuallus, & suche other. Which though they thā erred ī many thinges / yet was not their errour of obstinacie and malice. Than folowed the schole doctours with the .iiij. ordres of frires / very wicked kindes of men / Fryres. and they with their sophisticall sorceryes / poysened vp altogyther / clerely ouerthrowīge the Christen churche / and settinge vp in her place the most filthye sinagoge of Sathan. In that malignaunt assemblye / were false wurshippinges commaūded for Gods holy seruice / and monstruouse buggery for a professed virginite / in our consecrate clergye admitted.Celibatus. Thus were ye people nus [...]ed vp frō their yowth in callinge vpon dead mē and ymages / the preastes and religiouse in the meane time occupied / in all beastly wurkes of ye fleshe. I haue the registre of ye visitaciōs of ye cloysters of Englāde / & therfor I knowe it to their cōfusiō.Registr. The mō kes afore their time / ded nomore but mixte the Christē religion wt the paganes supersticions / [Page 15] but these fowle lecherouse locustes haue bānished the Christen religion altogyther. They haue taken vpon them a power by vertu of trā substanciacion / farre aboue Gods power / Miracles. as of corruptible creatures to make Goddes to be wurshipped / bearinge them a broade with Persicall pōpes as it were / in their gaddīge & gaglinge processions / fitt for wantō gossippes to shewe their selues in their holy daye apparelinges.
Yet were there alwayes some in that miste of palpable darkenesse / yt smelled out their mischefes / & in part maintened the syncere doctrine / Good men. as Mathew parys / Oclyf / Wickleff / Thorpe / White / Purueye / Pateshulle / Paine / Gower / Chaucer / Gascoigne / Iue / & now in our time Williā Tindale / Iohā frith / Bilneye / Barnes Lambert / & a great sort more. Now truly in this lattre age and ende of the worlde God shewinge great mercy to his elected heritage / hath gathered them togyther from the parels of perdicion / by the voyce of his holye Gospell.Mercye Yea / lyke as by Hieremie the prophete before ye exile into Babylon / by Iohan Baptist / Christe / & his Apostles before the destructiō of Hierusalē / Callīge and by the Apostles folowers before the diuisiō and first ruyne and ye Romish empire / he called his disparsed rēnaunt / so doth he now agayne [Page] before his generall comminge to iudgement / all togither his churche of true beleuers / by the godly preachers of thys age.k. Henrye. That wonderfull wurke of God / that noble prince Kynge Henrye the .8. within thys realme by hys royall power assysted / after that he had gyuen an ouerthrowe to the great Golias of Rome / oure most godly souerayne Kynge Edwarde the .6. for hys tyme perfourmyng the same.K. Edwarde.
The fyrst with noble Kynge Dauid / prepared thys buyldynge of the Lorde / but thys other with the wyse Kynge Salomon / to hys power made all thinges very perfyght. And though now after hys death / a Hieroboam parauenture is risen / which will sett vp the golden calues in Samaria / or mayntayne the popysh religyon agayne / in Ymages / Aulters / ydle ceremonyes / and blasphemouse supersticions.A good kynge. Yet doubt I it not / but a faytfull Asa / shall folowe / eyther els a Iosaphat / ā Ezechias / or a myghtye Iosias / which will dissolue those ydolatryes agayne. And as cōcernīg the fornamed Kynge Edwarde / I will recite here / what hys wurthinesse ded for me his most vnwurthie subiect / yt I shuld amōg others be a collectour also a caller togyther of ye christē flocke ī thys age.The autor.
Vpon the .15. daye of August / in ye yeare from [Page 16] Christes incarnacion .1552. beynge ye first daye of my deliueraūce / as God wolde / from a mortall ague / which had holde me longe afore.recouer. In reioyce that hys Maiestie was come ī progresse to Southampton / whiche was .5. myle from my personage of Bysshoppes stocke / within the same coūtye. I toke my horse about .10 of ye clocke / for very weaknesse scant able to sytt hym / & so came thydre.weake. Betwixt .2. & .3. of the clocke ye same daye / I drewe towardes the place where as his Maiestie was / and stode in the open strete ryght against the gallerye. Anon my frinde / Iohan fylpot a gentylman / & one of hys preuie chambre / called vnto him .2. more of his companyōs / which in mouing their heades towardes me / shewed me most frindely coūtenaūces.frendes By one of these .3. the Kynge hauynge informacion that I was there in ye strete / he marueled therof / for so much as it had bene tolde hym a lytle afore / that I was bothe dead & buried.k. Edwarde. With yt hys grace came to the wyndowe / and earnestly behelde me a poore weake creature / as though he had had vpon me so symple a subiect / ā earnest regarde / or rather a very fatherly care.
In ye same very īstaunt / The lordes. as I haue bene sens ye tyme credibli īfourmed / hys Grace called vnto hī / ye lordes of his most honourable coūsell /
[Page]In the same very instaunt / as I haue bene sens that time credibly infourmed / his grace called vnto him / Lordes. the lordes of his most honourable counsell / so manie as were than present / willinge them to appoint me to the bishoprick of Ossorie in Irelande. Wherunto they all agreably consentinge / commaunded the letters of my first callinge therunto / by and by to be writtē and sent me. The next daye folowinge / which was the xvj. daye of August / A lettre the lettre beinge writtē by B. Hamptone / a clarke of the counsell / they very fauourably subscribed to ye same / in maner as herafter foloweth.
¶The coppie of ye seyd lettre.
After our hartye cōmendacions. For as muche as the kinges maiestie is minded in cōsideratiō of your learninge / wysdome / and other vertuouse qualityes / to bestowe vpon yow the bishoprick of Ossorie in Irelande / presently voyde / we haue thought mete / both to giue yow knowledge therof / and therwithall to lete yow vnderstāde / that his maiestie wolde ye made your repayre hyther to the courte / as sone as conueniently ye maye / to thende / that if ye be enclined to embrace this charge / his highnesse maye at your cōminge / gyue suche ordre for ye farther [Page 17] procedinge wt yow herin / as shalbe cōuenient. And thus we bid yow hartely farewell.
- W. Winchestre.
- I. Bedford.
- H. Suffolke.
- W. Northāptō.
- T. Darcy.
- T. Cheine /
- Iohan Gate.
- W. Cecill.
And to cōclude / thus was I called / in a maner from deathe / to this office without my expectacion or yet knowlege therof. And thus haue ye my vocaciō to the bishoprick of Ossorie in Irelande.vocaciō. I passe ouer my earnest refusall therof / a moneth after that / in the kinges maiesties returne to Winchestre / where as I alleged (as I than thought) my lawfull impedimentes / of pouertie / age / and syckenesse / within the bishopes howse there / but they were not accepted.Impedimentes. Than resorted I to the court at London within .vj. wekes after / accordinge to the tenure of the forseyd lettre / and within vj. dayes had althinges perfourmed perteininge to my election and full confirmacion / frely without any maner of charges or expenses / wherof I muche marueled.
On the .xix. daye of decembre / Frelye. I toke my iourneye from Byshops Stoke with my bokes and stuffe towardes Bristowe / where as I tarryed. xxvj. dayes for passage / and diuerse times preached [Page] in that worshipfull cytie at the instaūt desyre of the cytiezens.passage. Vpon the .xxj. daye of Ianuary / we entred into ye shippe / I / my wyfe / & one seruaūt. And beinge but .ij. nyghtes and .ij. dayes vpō the sea / we arryued most prosperously at Waterforde / ī the coldest time of the yeare / so mercifull was the Lorde vnto vs.Waterforde.
In beholdynge the face and ordre of that cytie / I see many abhomynable ydolatryes maī teined by ye Epicurysh prestes / for their wicked bellies sake. The Communion or Supper of the Lorde / was there altogyther vsed lyke a popysh masse / with the olde apysh toyes of Antichrist / in bowynges and beckynges / knelinges and knockinges / the Lordes deathe after. S. Paules doctrine / neyther preached nor yet spoken of.Idolatours. There wawled they ouer ye dead / with prodigyouse howlynges and patterynges / as though their sowles had not bene quyeted in Christe and redemed by hys passion / but that they must come after and helpe at a pinche with Requiem Eternam / to delyuer them out of helle by their sorowfull sorceryes.Deceiuers. Whā I had beholden these heathnysh behauers / I seyd vnto a Senatour of that cytie / that I wele perceyued / that Christe had there no Bishop / neyther yet the Kynges Maiestie of Englande / any [Page 18] faythful officer of ye mayer / ī sufferīg so horryble blasphemies.ye maier The next daye after / I rode towardes Dublyne / & rested ye night folowīge in a towne called Knocktouer / in ye howse of maister Adam walshe / my generall cōmissarye for the whole dyocese of Ossorie.
At supper the parish prest / called Syr Philypp / was very seruiceable and in familyar talke described vnto me ye howse of the white fryres which sūtyme was in that towne cōcludīge in the ende / A preste yt the last prior therof called Wyllyam / was his naturall father. I axed him / if yt were in mariage? He made me answere / No. For that was (he sayd) against his profession. Than counselled I hym / that he neuer shulde boast of it more.whoredome. Whie (sayth he) it is ā honour in this lande / to haue a spirituall man / as a byshop / ā Abbot / a Mōke / a Fryre / or a Prest to father. With yt I greatly marueled / not so much of his vnshamefast talke / as I ded yt adultery forbiddē of God / & of all honest men detested / shulde there haue both prayse & preferremēt / thīking ī processe / for my part / to refourme it. I came at ye last to Dubline / dubline wher as I founde my cōpanyō maistre Hugh Goodaker ye Archebishop of Armach elected / & mi olde frynde / M. Dauid Coper ꝑson of calā. Much of ye people [Page] ded greatly reioyce of our cōmīge thidre / thinkī ge by our preachīges / ye popes suꝑstiōs wolde diminish & the true Christē religiō increace.Idolatryes.
Vpon the purificacion daye of our ladye / the lorde chancellour of Irelande / sir Thomas Cusake / Chauncellour. our speciall good lorde and earnest ayder in all our procedinges / appoynted vs to be inuested or cōsecrated / as they call it / bi George the archebishop of Dublyne / Thomas the bisshop of Kyldare / & Vrbane ye bishop of Duno assisinge him. I will not here describe at large the subtyle cōueyaūce of that greate Epicure ye archebishop / G. Browne. how he went about to diffarre the daye of our consecracion / that he might by that meanes haue preuented me / in takinge vp the proxyes of my bishoprick to his owne glottonouse vse / and in so depriuinge me of more thā halfe my lyuynge for that yeare. As we were comminge fourth / to haue recciued the imposicion of handes / Lockwode. accordynge to the ceremonye / Thomas Lockwode (Blockheade he myght wel be called) the deane of the cathedrall churche there / desired the lord chaūcellour very instauntly / yt he wolde in no wise permyt ye obseruacion to be done after ye boke of consecratinge bishoppes / wc was last set fourth in Englāde by acte of parlement / A trait. alleginge yt it wolde be both [Page 19] an occasiō of tumulte / and also that it was not as yet consented to by acte of their parlemēt in Irelande. For whie / he muche feared the newe changed ordre of the cōmunion therin / to hindre his kychin and bellye. The lorde chauncellour proponed this matter vnto vs. The archebisshop consented therunto / so ded the other .ij. bishoppes.A Beast Maistre Goodaker wolde gladly it might haue bene otherwise / but he wolde not at that time contende there with them.
Whan I see none other waye / I stepped fourth / and sayde.ye autor If Englande and Irelande be vndre one kinge / they are both bounde to ye obediēce of one lawe vndre him. And as for vs / we came hyther as true subiectes of his / sworne to obeye that ordinaunce. It was but a bisshopprick (I sayde) that I came thydre to receiue that daye.An othe Which I coulde be better contented to treade vnder my fote there / than to breake frō that promise or othe yt I had made. I bad them in the ende / sett all their hartes at rest / for came I ones to the churche of Ossorie / I wolde execute nothīge for my part there / [...] accordīge to ye rules of ye lattre boke. With [...] lorde chaūcellour right honourably cōmaū [...] ye ceremonie to be done after ye boke. Thā [...] asseheaded deane a waie more thā halfecōf [...] [Page] Neyther folowed there any tumulte amonge the people / but euery man sauinge the prestes / was wele contented.A loiterer. Than went the archebishop about that obseruacion / very vnsauerly and as one not muche exercised in that kinde of doynge / specially in the administracion of the lordes holy supper. In the ende the lorde chauncellour made to vs and to our frendes / a most frendly diner / to saue vs frō excedinge charges / which otherwise we had bene at that daye.
An agueWithin .ij. dayes after was I sycke agayn / so egerly / that no man thought I shulde haue lyued / which malladie helde me till after Eastre. Yet in the meane tyme / I founde a waye to be brought to kylkennie / where as I preached euery sondaye & holy daye in lent / tyll the sondaye after Eastre was fully past / neuer felinge any maner of grefe of my syckenesse / for the tyme I was in the pulpet.Gods wurke. Wherat many men / and my selfe also greatly merualed. Neyther had I for all ye tyme space / any minde to call for any tē porall profites / which was afterwardes to my no small hynderaunce. From that daye of our consecraciō / I traded wt myselfe / by all possybylyte to set fourth that doctrine / doctrine which God charged his churche with / euer sens ye beginninge. And thought therwt in my minde also / A trait. yt I had [Page 20] rather that Aethna ded swallowe me vp / thā to maīteine those wayes in religion / which might corrupte the same. For my daily desire is / in ye euerlastīge schole / to beholde the eternall sonne of God / both here and after this lyfe. And not only to see the fathers / fathers. prophetes and Apostles therī / but also for loue of ye doctrine / to enioye their blessid feliship herafter. And so muche the rather I traded thus with myselfe / yt I see than the kinges maiestie / ye arhebishopp of Canterbury / and the honourable lordes of ye counsell / so feruētly bēt ye waye / as to seke ye peoples helthe in ye same.Helthe. I thought it therupō no lesse thā my bounde dewtie / to shewe my selfe faithfull / studiouse / & diligēt in yt so chargefull a functiō.
My first ꝓcedinges in yt doīge / were these. I earnestly exhorted ye people to repētaūce for sinne / & required thē to giue credite to ye Gospell of saluacion.ij. principles. To acknowledge & beleue yt there was but one God / & him alone wtout any other / sincerely to worship.One Christe To cōfesse one Christe for an ōly sauer & redemer / & to truste ī none other mānis praiers / merites / nor yet deseruīges / but in his alone / for saluaciō I treated at large both of ye heauenly & politicall state of ye christē churche / & helpars I foūde none amōge my prebēdaries & clergie / but aduersaries a great nōbre. [Page] I preached the Gospell of ye knowledge & right inuocacion of God / I mayntened the politicall ordre by doctrine / obediēce & moued the cōmens alwayes to obeye their magistrates. But whā I ones sought to distroye the ydolatries / & dissolue the hypocrites yockes / than folowed angers / slaū ders / cōspiricyes / & in the ende the slaughter of men, Much a do I had with the prestes / for yt I had sayd amonge other / Idoles. yt the whyte Goddes of their makīge / such as they offered to the people to be worshipped / were no Goddes but ydoles / and that their prayers for the dead procured no redēpciō to the solwes departed / Redempcion of sowles beinge only in Christe / of Christe / & by Christe. I added yt their office by Christes strayght commaūdement / Preachinge. was chifely to preache / and instruct the people in the doctryne and wayes of God / and not to occupie so muche of the tyme in chauntynge / pypynge / ād syngynge.
Muche were the prestes offēded also / for yt I had ī my preachīges / Wyues willed thē to haue wiues of their owne / & to leaue the vnshamefast occupienge / of other mēnes wyues / doughters / ād seruaūtes. But heare what āswere they made me alwayes / yea ye most viciouse mē amōg thē. What shulde we marrie (sayd they) for halfe a [Page 21] yeare / & so loose our liuynges. Thinke ye not yt these men were ghostly inspired?Deuylish. eyther yet had knowledge of some secrete mischefe wurkīge in Englāde? I for my part haue not a little sens yt time marueled / whā it hath fallen to my remē braūce. Well ye truthe is / I coulde neuer yet by any Godly or honest persuasion / bringe any of thē to mariage / Adulterers. neither yet cause them whiche were knowne for vnshamfast whorekepers / to leaue that fylthye & abhomynable occupyenge what though I most earnestly laboured it. But sens that tyme I haue consydered by the iugement of the scriptures / that the impenytent ydolatour must therwith be also a fylthie adulterer or most detestable sodomite.Sodomites. It is his iust plage. Rom. 1. We can not stoppe it. Lyke wyse the dissemblinge hipocrite / in cōtemning Gods truthe / must nedes folowe errours and lyes in the doctrine of deuyls. 1. Timot. 4. to haue in ye ende the greatter confusion. Lete him yt is wicked (sayth ye Angell to S. Iohan) become more wicked / and he that is filthie / Wicked become more filthye / that hys damnacion maye be the depar / & his sorowes extremer. Apoca. 22.
The lord therfor of his mercie / sende discipline wt doctrine / into his church.doctrine For doctrine wt out discipline & restraint of vices / maketh dissolute [Page] hearers. And on the other syde / discipline without doctrine / maketh eyther hipocrites / or els desperate doars.Discipline. I haue not written this in disprayse of all ye prestes of Kylkēnye or there about. For my hope is yt some of them by thys tyme are fallen to repentaunce / though they be not manye. An other thinge was there / yt muche had dyspleased the prebendaryes and other prestes.Prestes I had earnestly / euer sens my first comminge / requyred them to obserue and folowe ye only boke of cōmen prayer / whych the kynge & hys coūsell had that yeare put fourth by acte of parlement. But that wolde they at no hāde obeye / Excuses allegynge for their vayne and ydle excuse / the lewde example of the archebysshop of dublyne / whych was alwayes flacke in thynges perteyninge to Gods glorie / allegīge also the wāt of bokes / and that their owne iustices and lawers had not yet cōsented therunto.Iustices As though it had bene lawfull for their iustices to haue denyed ye same / or as though they had rather haue hanged vpō thē / than vpon the kinges autorite and cōmaundement of his coūsell.
In the weke after Eastre / whan I had ones preached .xij. sermons amōge thē / and established the people / sermōs. as I thought / in the doctrine of repentaūce and necessarie beleue of the Gospell [Page 22] in the true worshyppynges of one God our eternall father & nomore / ād in ye hope of one redemer Iesus Christe and nomore. I departed from Kylkēnie to ā other place of myne .v. myles of / called Holmes court / where as / I remained tyll the assension daye.Holmes Court. In the meane time came sorowfull newes vnto me that M. Hugh Goodacker the Archebishop of Armach / that godly preacher and virtuouse learned mā / was poysened at Dubline / by procurement of certen prestes of his diocese / for preachinge Gods verite & rebukinge their cōmen vices.Poison. And letters by & by were directed vnto me / by my speciall frindes from thens / to be ware of the like in my diocese of Ossorie / which made me parauēture more circūspect thā I shulde haue bene.Kilkennie. Vpō ye assenciō daye I preached agaī at Kilkennie likewyse on Trinite sondaye / & on S. Peters daye at midsomer than folowinge.
On the xxv daye of Iuly / ye prestes were as plesauntly disposed as might be / and went by heapes from tauerne to tauerne / to seke the best Rob dauie and aqua vite / which are their speciall drinkes there.A Ioie. Thei cawsed all their cuppes to be filled in / with Gaudeamus in dolio / the misterie therof ōly knowne to them / and at that time to none other els.
[Page] K. Edward.Which was that Kynge Edwarde was dead / and that they were ī hope to haue vp their maskynge masses againe. As we haue in S. Iohns Reuelaciō that they which dwell on the yearth (as do our earthly minded masmongers) shulde reioyce and be glad / whan Gods true witnesses were ones taken awaye / and shulde sende gyftes one to an other for gladnesse / Giftes. because they rebuked them of theyr wycked doynges / Apca. xj. For ye must consydre that the prestes are commēly the first that receiue suche newes. The next daye folowinge / a very wicked iustice called Thomas Hothe / with the lorde Moūtgarret / resorted to the Cathedrall churche / requyrynge to haue a Communiō / in the honour of S. Anne.Idolat. Marke the blasphemouse blyndenesse and wylfull obstinacie of thys beastly papyst. The prestes made hym answere / that I had forbydden them that celebracion / sauynge only vpon the sondayes. As I had in dede / for the abhomynable ydolatries that I had seane therin.O Satā I discharge you (sayth he) of obedience to your Bishop in this point / & cōmaūde yow to do as ye haue done heretofore / which was to make of Christes holy cōmuniō an ydolatrouse masse / & to suffre it to serue for ye dead / cleane contrarye to the Christen vse of the same.
[Page 23]Thus was the wicked iustice / not only a vyolatour of Christes institucion / A traitour. but also a contempner of his princes earnest commaūdement / and a prouoker of the people by his vngraciouse example to do the lyke. Thys coulde he do whith other mischefes more / by his longe beynge there by a whole monthes space / but for murthers / theftes / ydolatryes / and abhominable whoredomes / wherwith all that nacion habūdeth / for that time he sought no redresse neyther appointed any correction.Wicked The prestes thus reioycing yt the Kinge was dead / & yt they had bene that daye cōfirmed in their supersticiouse obstinacie / resorted to the forseyd false iustice the same night at supper / to gratifye him with Rob Dauye and Aqua vite / T. hoth for that he had bene so frendly vnto them / & that he might styll cōtinue in the same. The next daye after was the Ladye Iane Gylforde proclamed their Quene / with solemnite of processions / bonefyres / and banquettes / the seyd iustice / as I was infourmed / Blamed sore blamynge me for my absence that daye / for in dede I muche doubted that matter.
So sone as it was there rumoured abrode yt ye Kynge was departed frō this lyfe / kearnes ye ruffianes of ye wilde nacyon / not only rebelled agaīst [Page] the English captaines / as their lewde custome in suche chaunges hath bene alwayes / chefely no English deputye beinge within the lande / but also they conspired into the very deathes of so many English men and women / as were left therin alyue.English Myndinge / as they than stoughtly boasted it / to haue set vp a kinge of their owne. And to cause their wilde people to beare ye more hate to our naciō / very subtilly but yet falsely / they caused it to be noysed ouer all / that the yonge Earle of Ormonde / and Barnabe the barne of vpper Ossories sonne / were both slaine in the court at London.Rumours. Vpon this wylye practise of myschefe / they raged without ordre in all places / and assaulted the English fortes euery where.
And at one of them by a subtyle trayne / they gote out .ix. of our men and slewe them. On the .xiij. daye of August / mastres Kinge. a gentill woman / the wyfe of Mathew kinge / hauynge a castell not farre of / her husbande than beinge at London / fleddde with her familie and goodes in cartes towardes the forseid kilkennye / and in the hygh waye was spoyled of all / to her very petycote / by the kearnes & galoglasses of the forenamed barne of vpper Ossorie Mihell patricke and of ye lorde Mountgarret / Tirauntes. which ought rather [Page 24] to haue defended her. In this outrage had she after longe cōflicte wt those enemyes .iiij. of her cōpanie slain, besides other mischefes more.
On the .xx. daye of August / was the ladye marye with vs at kylkennye proclamed Quene of Englande / Fraunce and Irelande / Marie. with the greatest solempnyte that there coulde be deuysed / of processions / musters and disgysinges / all the noble captaynes and gentilmē there about beinge present.Cōpulsion. What a do I had that daye with the prebendaryes and prestes abought wearinge the cope / croser / and myter in procession / it were to muche to write.
I tolde them earnestly / whan they wolde haue cōpelled me therunto / that I was not Moyses minister but Christes / Gods wurde. I desyred them that they wolde not cōpell me to his denyall / which is (S. Paule sayth) in ye repetinge of Moyses sacramētes & ceremoniall sohaddowes Gal. v. wt yt I toke Christes testamēt in my hāde / & wēt to ye market crosse / ye people in great nōbre folowinge. There toke I the .xiij. chap. of S. Paule to ye Roma. declarīge to thē breuely / what ye autoritie was of ye worldly powers & magistrates what reuerēce & obediēce were due to ye same. In ye meane tyme had the prelates goten .ij. disgysed prestes / one to beare the myter afore me / ij. maskers. [Page] and an other the croser / makinge .iij. procession pageauntes of one. The yonge men in the forenone played a Tragedye of Gods promises in the olde lawe at the market crosse / with organe plainges and songes very aptely. In the after none agayne they played a Commedie of sanct Iohan Baptistes preachinges / Comedies. of Christes baptisynge and of his tēptacion in the wildernesse / to the small contentacion of the prestes and other papistes there.
On ye thursdaye next folowinge / which was S. Bartylmewes daye / I preached agayne amonge them / Last sermon. bycause the prebendaryes and other prestes there / had made their boastes / that I shulde be compelled to recante all that I had preached afore. And as I was entered into the pulpet / I toke this sainge of S. Paule for my thema. Non erubesco Euangelium. Virtus enim Dei est, in salutem omni credenti, &c. I am not ashamed of the Gospell.Gospell And whie? For it is the power of God into saluacion / to all them that beleue it. Rom. 1. Than declared I vnto thē / all yt I had taught there sens my first cōming thydre / the iustice bothe beīge present. As yt our God was but one God / & ought alone to be be worshipped.Christe And yt our Christe but was one Christe / & ought alone to be trusted to [Page 25] for redēpciō of sinne. I earnestly charged ye people / to rest vpon these ij. principles firmely / as vpon the chefe stayes of their saluacion / as they wolde answere it at the dredefull daye / and not to suffre themselues to be led by a contrariouse doctrine of deceytfull teachers / into any other beleue from thēs fourth. Item concerninge ye sacrament of Christes bodye and bloude / wherī they had bene most ꝓdigiously abused / through the vnsaciable couetousnesse of the prestes.Sacrament. I required them very reuerētly to take it / as a sacrament only of Christes deathe / wherby we are redemed and made innocent mēbres of hys misticall bodye / and not to worship it as their God / as they had done / to the vtter derogacion of his heauenly honour.No worship. And as I came in the Vsuall prayer / to remembraunce of the dead. I willed thē to gyue harty thankes to God / for their redempciō in Christe / largely declaringe yt the sowles of ye righteouse were in ye hande of his mercye without cruell torment. Sap. 3. & yt the prestes with all their masses & funerall exequies / coulde nothīge adde to their redēpciō / if they had bene otherwise bestowed.Funerals.
After the prayer / I toke ye Gospell of ye daye. Beati oculi qui vident quae vos videtis, &c. Luce. 10. Wherī I was occasioned to speake of [Page] certē degrees of mē / as of kinges / ꝓphetes / lawers / iusticiaryes / & so fourth. As yt the kinges were desierouse to see Christe / the ꝓphetes to enbrace hī / ye swellinge lawers to rise vp agaīst him and to tempte him / and the ambiciouse iusticiaries to toye with him and to mocke him. The wounded mā to haue nede of him / the woū ded mā. the preste to shewe no compassion / the leuite to ministre no mercye / and last of all the contēptuouse Samaritaine to exercise all the offices of pitye / loue / beniuolence / and liberall mercye / vpon the same wounded creature.
As to resort to him / fauourably to see hī / with layser to beholde him / to haue compassion on hym / to bynde vp hys woundes / to poure in oyle and wyne / Iesus. to sett him on his owne beaste / to brynge hym to a place of confort / finaly to socour him and to paye his whole charges. All these matters I declared there at large / which were now to muche to repete here againe. The same daye I dined wt ye mayer of ye towne / whome they name their suffren / called Robert Shea / a man sober / wise / and godly / which is a rare thinge in that lande.R. shea.
In the ende of our dyner / certen prestes resorted / Disputacion. and began very hotely to dispute wt me cōcerninge their purgatorye & suffrages for the [Page 26] dead. And as I had alleged ye scriptures prouī ge Christes sufficiēcie for ye sowles discharge afore God / wtout their dirtie deseruinges. They brought fourth / as semed to them / cōtrary allegacions / yt there shulde apere no truthe in those scriptures. As S. Paule prophecied of thē.s. Paule Rō. 1 That suche as they were / shulde seke to turne the veryte of God into a lye. And whan I had ones deprehended chem in that theuerie / and agreed both our alleged scriptures / to the mayntenaūce of my first princyple / to their manifest reproche. I demaūded of them / what a Christē mānys office was / whan suche a scripture was vttered / as neyther mā nor angell was able to denie any truthe therof?Offyce. But they made me none answere. Than sayde I vnto them. Ye haue set me fourth a newe lesson / and taught me this daye / to knowe a good mā frō an hipocrite / & to discerne a true Christiane frō a wicked papist. The good man (sayd I) beleueth a truthe in ye scriptures / ye hipocrit denieth it / ij. sortes ye christiā ēbraceth it / ye papist doubteth & disputeth against it / as ded yt deuill ī ye wildernesse wt Christe / whā he sought by one scripture to cōfoūde an other.
The next daye I departed frō thens & went home wc my cūpanye to Holmes court agayne.Holmes court.
Where as I had knowledge the next daye [Page] folowinge / that the prestes of my diocese / specially one Sir Richarde Routhe / treasurer of the churche of Kylkēnie / and one Sir Iames Ioys a familiar chaplaine of mine / Barnabe Bolgar. by ye helpe of one Barnabe Bolgar / my next neibour & my tenaūt at the seyd holmes court / had hired certen hearnes of the lorde Moūtgarret / and of the barne of vpper Ossorie / whom they knewe to be most desperate theues and murtherers / to slea me. And I am in full beleue / that this was not all without their knowleges also / for so muche as they were so desierouse of my landes in diuerse quarters / and coulde neyther obteine them by their owne importunate sutes / nor yet by the frendeshipp of others.tiraūtes As for the lorde Mountgarret / I suspect him by this.
An horse grome of his / withan other of his brechelesse gallauntes besides / came into my court one daye / ij. theues. and made a stought bragge amonge my seruauntes / that he wolde both steele my horses / as it is there reckened no great faulte to steele / and also that he wolde haue my heade if I came abroade.
I sent my seruaunt vnto him / not as one desierouse to be reuenged / but to knowe what cause his grome had / to vttre so muche malice.Malice. Yea / I afterwarde complayned therof my selfe / to [Page 27] his owne persone / & had but a slendre answere / with no redresse at all. The Barne of vpper Ossorie / molested my pore tenaūtes in the quarter wher as he dwelte / most maliciously / & Barnabe Bolgar maryed his yonge doughter to one of those murtherers / A thefe. called Grace gracelesse / to helpe ye matter forwarde. For he thought by that meanes to haue ye full occupienge of Holmes court yet ones agayne.
On the thursdaye after / which was the last daye of August / I beinge absent / ye clergie. the clergie of Kylkennie / by procurement of that wicked iustice hothe / blasphemously resumed agayne the whole papisme / or heape of supersticions of the bishop of Rome / to the vtter contempte of Christe and his holye wurde / of the kinge and counsell of Englande / and of all Ecclesiasticall and politike ordre / without eyther statute or yet proclamacion.Rebellions. They ronge all ye belles in ye cathedrall minstre and parrish churches / they flonge vp their cappes to the battlement of the great temple / with smylinges and laughinges most dissolutely / the iustice himselfe beinge therwith offended. They brought fourth their coopes / candelstickes / holy waterstocke / crosse and sensers.ꝓcessiō ▪ They mustered fourth in generall procession most gorgiously / all the towne ouer / with [Page] Sancta Maria ora pro nobis / & ye reest of ye latine Letanie. They chattered it / they chaunted it / with great noyse and deuocion. They banketted all ye daie after / for yt they were deliuered from the grace of God into a warme sunne. For they maye now from thens fourth / Deceyuers. againe deceiue the people as they ded afore tyme / with their Latine mōblīges / and make marchaundice of thē. 2. Petre. 2. They maye make ye witlesse sort beleue / yt they cā make euery daye newe goddes of their lyttle whyte cakes / & yt they cā fatche their frindes sowles frō flaminge purgatory / if nede be / wt other great miracles els.sowles.
They maye now without checke / haue other mennes wiues in occupiēge / or kepe whores in their chambers / whores or els playe the buggery knaues / as they haue done alwayes / and be at an vttre defiaunce with mariage / though it be the institucion of God / honourable / holye / righteouse / and perfight.
I wryte not this without a cause / for whie / there where some amonge thē / wc boasted both of this and muche more / to vayne to be tolde.Shamelesse. And whan they were demaunded / how they wolde afore God / be discharged?
They made answere / that eare confession was able to burnish them agayne / and to make thē [Page 28] so white as snowe / though they thus offended neuer se oft. And one of them for example / was the dronken bishop of Galwaye / a bishop which besides these vncomly bragges / furiosly boasted in the howse of one Martine a faithfull Italiane ād seruaunt to the Earle of Ormonde / and in other howses more / that ye bishop of Rome was the heade supreme of the christē churche in earthe / and shulde so be proclamed in Irelande / the seyd Martin as Gods true frinde rebukīge him for it.martin. The exercise of this beastly bishop / is none other but to gadde frō towne to towne ouer the English part / Confirmacion. confirminge yonge children for .ij. pens a pece / without examinacion of their Christē beleue / contrary to the christē ordinaunces of Englande / and at night to drinke all at Rob Dauye and Aqua vite / like a mā. To whome for a [...]ke now of late / a Galoglasse of the lande brought hys dogge wrapped in a shete with .ij. pens about his necke / to haue him confirmed / amōge neybers children.a dogge confirmed. In this he noted this beastly bishop / more fitt to confirme dogges / thā christen mēnes childrē.
On the frydaye next folowinge / which was the eyt daye of Septembre .v. of my howsholde seruaūtes / Rytchard Foster a deacō / v, seruaunts. Rycharde Headley / Iohā Cage / an Irish horsegrome / [Page] and a yonge mayde of .xvj. yeares of age / wēt out to make haye abought halfe a myle of / betwixt .viij. & .ix. of the clocbe / after they had serued God accordīge to ye daye. And as they were come to ye enteraūce of that medowe / Al slaine the cruell murtherers / to ye nombre of more than a score / leaped out of their lurkynge busshes with sweardes and with dartes / ād cowardly flewe thē all vnarmed & vnweaponed / without mercye. This ded they in their wicked furye / as it was reported / for yt they had watched so lōg afore / yea / an whole month space they saye / and sped not of their purpose concernīge me.Theues They fellonously also robbed me of all my horses / and of all maistre Coopers horses / whiche that tyme soiourned with me for sauegarde of hys lyfe / to the nombre of vij. dryuynge them afore them. In the after none / abought .iij. of the clocke / the good Suffreu of Kylkennye hauinge knowledge therof / iiij. hondred. resorted to me with an hondred horsemē / & iij. hondred fotemen / ād so with great strengthe brought me that nyght to the towne / the yonge men syngynge psalmes and other godly songes all the waye / in reioyce of my deliueraunce.
Kilkennie.As we were come to the towne / the people in great nōbre stode on both sydes of the waye [Page 29] both within the gates and without / with candels lyght in their hādes / shoughting out prayses to God for deliuerynge me from the hādes of those murtherers. The prestes the next daye to colour their myschefe / caused it to be noysed all the contrary ouer / that it was by the hande of God that my seruaūtes were slayne / for that they had broken (they sayde) ye great holye daye of our Ladyes natiuite.A colour But I wolde fayne knowe / what holy dayes those bloudthurstye hypocrites / and malyciouse murtherers kepte / which had hyred those cruel kearnes to do that myschefe? O abhomynable traytours / both to God and to all godly ordre.Hipocrites. Ye here cōmende murther / vndre a colour of false religyon / to hyde your owne myschefes to the eyes of the people / but the eyes of God ye can not deceyue. Youre horrible slaughter must now be Gods doinge / and yet was it the deuyll that sett ye a wurke. Ye prate here of ye obseruaciō of ye holi daye / which neuer yet kepte the holy daye as it shulde be kepte. For ye neuer yet preached the wurde of God truly / neither mynystred the sacramentes ryghtly / Deceyuers. neyther yet taught the people to honour God purely / and to kepe his cōmaundementes inuiolably / which are the only kepinges of the holy dayes.
[Page]But on those dayes more than on any other / ye pampre them vp in all supersticions / false worshippynges / and ydolatryes / to the vtter defilynge both of ye dayes and of them.ydolatryes. Ye are much offended yt a good wurke shulde be done on the sabboth daye / as were your forefathers ye Pharisees / but with whoredome / ydolatrye / blasphemors. dronkēnesse / and slaughter of mē / ye are nothinge at all offended / but wyckedly ye do mainteine thē / as I am able to proue by a thousande of your lewde examples. The natiuite of our Ladye / was at that daye a feast abrogated / by autorite of a Christen Kynge and his whole parlement / and yet you saye / the holy daye is broken / Holy dayes. whan it is no holy daye at all / but as all other dayes are holye to them only whiche are holy through their true obediēce to Gods most holy wurde. Ye had kepte the daye much holyar in my oppinyon if ye had in the feare of God obeyd the cōmaundement of your christen Kynge. Where as in disobeynge the same / ye haue resisted the holy ordinaunce of God for a supersticyon / procuringe therby to your selues damnacion.christes natiuite Roma. 1. Christe our heauēly maistre and redemer / was wele contented that his most holy natiuite gaue place to an heathnysh Emprours obedience. Luc. 2. And yow disdaine [Page 30] that daye to obeye a most christen kynge / counsell / & parlement / & yet ye are not ashamed to boast it / yt ye kepte the daie holye. O right Antichristes. On ye daye next folowīge which was saturdaye / tresurer in the afternone ye forseid treasurer a man vnlearned and therwith an outragiouse whorekepar / resorted to me with a nombre of prestes / to tempte me like as Sathā ded Christe in ye wildernesse / sauing yt Sathā to Christe offered stones / & that temptinge treasurer both apples & wyne. And as they had than cōpassed me in rounde about / temptacion. ye seid treasurer proponed vnto me / yt they were all fully mīded to haue solempne exequies for kynge Edwarde lately departed / lyke as ye quenes highnesse had had thē in Englāde. I axed them / how that was? They made me answere / with a Requiem masse & Dirige. Than axed I of them agayne / who shulde singe yt masse?a masse. And they answered me / yt it was my bounde dewtie to do it / beinge their byshop Than sayde I vnto them. Massinge is an office appointed of that Antichriste the bishopp of Rome / to whome I owe no obediēce / neither will I owe him any so longe as shall lyue.To preache. But if ye wyll haue me there / to do that office / which Christe the sonne of God hath earnestly cōmaū ded / whych is to preache hys holy Gospell / [Page] I will do it with all my harte.
No sayde they / we will haue a solempne masse / for so had the Quene.Requiē. By my trouth sayde I / than must ye go seke out some other chaplayne. For truly of all generacions I am no massemongar. For of all occupacions me thinke / it is most folish.Massinge. For there standeth the preste disgysed / lyke one that wolde shewe some cōueyaūce or iuglyng playe. He turneth his back to ye people / and telleth a tale to the walle in a forē language.Toyes. If he turne his face to thē / it is eyther to receiue the offering / eyther to desyre thē to giue him a good wurde / with Orate pro me fratres for he is a poore brother of theirs / eyther to byd them God spede / with Dominus vobiscū / for they get no part of his banket / eyther els to blesse them with the bottom of the cuppe / with Benedictio Dei / whā all the brekefast is done. And of these feates (sayd I) can I now lyttle skille.Blessinges. With that the Treasurer beynge in hys fustene fumes / stoughtely demaunded a determinate answere / as though he came not thydre without autorite. Than suspected I somwhat the wickednesse of iustice hothe and such other Notwithstandinge I axed hī ones again / what profyght he thought the Kynges sowle to haue of those funerall exequies?Iustice. Hothe. Than āswered one [Page 31] of the prestes / yt God knewe wel inough what he had to do. Yet you must appoint hī? sayde I
If these youre suffrages be a waye for him to heauen / & that he can not go thydre wtout thē / ye are muche to blame / that ye haue diffarred them so longe.To blame. Ye had (sayd I) a commaūdement the last saterdaye / of the iustice hothe / to haue solempnised them yt nyght and the next daye after. But the deuyll which that daye daū sed at Thomas towne (for they had a processiō with pageaūtes) and the aqua vite & Kob Dauie withall / wolde not suffre ye than to do thē.ꝓcessō. I desire yow / considering that the last sondaye ye differred them to see the deuill daūce at Thomas towne / that ye will also this sondaie differre them / tyll suche tyme as I sende to ye Quenes cōmissioners at Dublyne / to knowe how to be discharged of the othe which I made to ye Kynge and hys counsell for abolyshement of that popish masse.Cōmissiones. For I am loth to incurre ye daunger of periurie. With that after a fewe wurdes more / they semed content / and so departed. The next daye came thydre a proclamacion / that they which wolde heare masses / shulde be suffered so to do and they that wolde not / shulde not trerunto be compelled.Proclamacion.
Thus was that buyldynge clearly ouerthroowne [Page] / and that practyse of blasphemye wolde not take at that tyme / as God wolde
And as I had continued there certen dayes / I chaunced to heare of manye secrete mutteringes / that the prestes wolde not so leaue me / but were styll conspiringe my deathe.Mutteringes.
It was also noysed abroade / by the bishop of Galwaye and others / that the Antichrist of Rome / shulde be taken agayne for the supreme heade of the churche of Irelande.
a chāge.And to declare a contemptuouse chaunge from religion to supersticion againe / the prestes had sodainly set vp the aulters and ymages in the cathedrall churche. Beholdinge therfor so many inconueniences to ensewe / and so many daungers towarde / hauinge also (which was worst of all) no English deputie or gouernour within the lande to complaine to for remedie / deputie I shoke the dust of my fete against those wicked colligyners and prestes accordinge to Christes commaundement / Math. 10. that it might stande against them as a witnesse at the daye of iudgement. The next daye early in the morninge by helpe of frendes / I cōuayed my selfe awaye to the castell of Lechline / To Lechlin. and so fourth to the cytie of Dubline / where as I for a certen time amonge frendes remayned.
[Page 32]As the Epicurouse archebishop / had knowlege of my beīge there / olde George. he made boast vpon his ale benche wt the cuppe in his hāde / as I hearde the tale tolde / yt I shulde for nomānis pleasure / preache in ye cytie of his. But this neded not. For I thought nothinge lesse at yt time / than to poure out ye preciouse pearles of ye Gospell afore so brockish a swine as he was / becōmīge thā of a dissēblīge ꝓselite / a very ꝑniciouse papist.a papist And as towchinge learnīge / wherof he muche boasted amōge his cuppes / I knowe none yt he hath so perfightly exercised / as he hath ye knowne practises of Sardinapalꝰ. For his preachinges twise in ye yeare / of ye plough mā in wīter / by Exit qui seminat / & of ye shepeherde ī somer / ij. sermons by Ego sū pastor bonꝰ / are now so wele knowne by rott of euery gossipp ī Dubline yt afore he cōmeth vp into ye pulpet / they cā tell his sermō. And as for his wife / if ye mariage of prestes endureth not / he hath already prouided his olde shifte of conueyaūce / by one of his seruaūtes.olde shifte. But I wolde wishe yt amonge other studies / he remēbred olde debethes at Londō for surgerie. For ywys there is yet some moneie to be paied, and an Irish hobby also by promise.
About thre yeares ago / he made interpellacyon to the Kynge in hys lente sermon / [Page] for his daughter Irelande / but now he commaundeth her to go a whoringe aganie / and to folowe the same deuyll that she folowed afore.Daughter. For that he ded than / was but only to serue the time. He neded lyttle than / to haue accused sir Antony Sellenger of treason / Accusacion. if ye marke him wele now / but that he thought by suche cōueyaunce to winne estimacion / and to obtayne the hygh primacie of Irelande from the archebisshoprycke of Armach / as he ded in dede. Full wele bestowed. Suche dissemblinge gluttōs / and swynysh papistes / are a sore plage to that lande / which for their wicked bellyes / make the people beleue / that sower is swete and darkenesse lighte / wt their aulters / masses / & ymages.Belligods. And yt causeth me to write this to his shame. The salte (sayth Christe) that is become vnsauerie / is frō thens fourth good for nothinge / but to be cast out at the dores / and troden vndre mennes fete / Math. 5. After certen dayes / wtin my hosteshowse / a yonge man of Estsexe called Thomas / was comminge and goynge / which for his maisters affayres into Scotlande / had hyred a small shippe / there called a pyckarde.Thomas. I reioyced at the chaūce / as one that had foūde great threasure / and thought it a thinge prouided of God / for my sauegarde and deliueraūce [Page 33] at that present.Couenaūt. Anō I couenaunted with him / to paye the halfe charges of that shippe / that I might passe thydre with him / and deliuered to him out of hande the more part therof.
I thought at all tymes by him / and by an other whome I there had also hearde of / hauīge their continuall occupyenges thydre / To knowe. to haue from tyme to tyme knowlege of the deputyes comminge ouer into Irelande / and so to resort againe to myne owne / in case all thinges were to my minde. As that the tirannouse bishop of Rome had not his primacye and olde doynges there againe / as it had bene boasted he shulde / and that the christen religion gaue not place to blasphemouse papistrie.Papistrie. And as he and I were togyther in the shippe / there tarrienge vpō the tyde for passage / ane Irishe pirate / yea / rather a cruell tiraunte of helle / called Walter / beinge Pylate as they call them / or loades man in a flemmish shippe of warre / made the couetouse Captaine therof to beleue that I was a frēche man / and that I had about me innumerable treasure.Captaine. The Captaine hearinge of this / with an excedīge fearcenesse inuaded our poore shippe / and remoued both the yonge man Thomas and me frō thēs into his great shippe of warre. Where as he searched vs both to the very skinnes [Page] / and toke frō vs al that we had in moneye / bokes / and apparell.roberie. He toke also from the maistre of our pickarde or lyttle shippe .v. pounde / which I and the seyd Thomas had giuen to him in part of payment / with all his beere and vitayles / notwithstandinge that he ꝑfightly knewe vs to be English men / & no frenche men.
In the ende I loked fourth of the Captaines cabyne / a howse and behelde a fayre howse / as it had bene a mile from vs / and axed of the yonge man / whose howse that was? He made me answere / that it was the howse of one maistre Parker / the searcher there. I instauntly desired of the Captayne to be deliuered to him / but in no wise wolde he graunt it. I required anon after / as I behelde a farre of / ye citye of Dubline / dubline to be brought thydre for my honest tryall (for they had accused me of treason) but it might not be allowed. The next daye after / we came into the hauē of Waterforde / where as also for my tryall / I desired to go a lāde / but in no wyse wolde it be graunted.Halfe seas. After that we passed more than the halfe seas ouer / towardes Cornewale / and were driuen backe againe with so fearce and terrible a tempest / that ye whole seas to our syght and felinge / went ouer vs. And as we were come yet ones agayne into the hauen [Page 34] of Waterforde / I sayde vnto the Captayne.Waterforde. God hath with violence brought vs hyther agayne (I perceyue it) that I shulde trye my innocencye. I desyre yow (sayd I) as I haue done hertofore / to deliuer me into the cytie of Waterforde / where as I am wele knowne. He refused vtterly so to do / and after certen other talke / he desyred me to content myselfe / and I shulde (he sayde) in the shippe / haue althinges to my mynde.Frendeshippe. Whie (sayde I) ye go not my waye / neither is it fitt for me to seke for pryses and to go a roauinge as yow do / but to sattle my selfe sumwhere.
Sens ye came to our shyppe (sayde he) I hearde yow wishe yourselfe in Duchelande / & I promise yow / we will honestly brynge yow thydre / and not longe tarry by the waye.Duchelande. My chaunce was in dede / to fynde there amonge them / an Hollander / called Leonarde / which knewe me in Nortwyck / with maistre Iohan Sartorius. To him ī familiar talke / I had wished myselfe there at that present.A wishe But how will ye leade me (sayde I to the Captaine) as ye haue done hytherto / like a captyue prisoner / or lyke a free passenger? No / sayde he / I take ye now for no prisoner / but for a mā of worshipp / and for a most honest passenger / and so will I [Page] deliuer yow there. But all this time he had my moneie in his owne kepinge.moneye Within .ij. dayes after / we were driuē īto S. Iues ī Cornewale / by extremite of wether. Where as the forseid wicked pyrate Walter / get him a lande afore vs / so fast as euer he coulde / & accused me there for an haynouse traitour / yea / for suche a one / as for that cause had fledde out of Irelande.Accusacion.
And to bringe his wicked purpose to passe / of winninge sumwhat by me / for he thought than to haue halfe my moneye which was in ye Captaines handes / he fatched thidre one Downinges from .vij. myles of / downinges. by the coūsell of the mariners of that towne / which was noysed to be ye most cruell termagaūt of yt shire / yea / suche a one as had bene a begynnar of the last commociō there / both to examine me & apprehēde me.
And as I was commen to that examinacion before one of the baylyfes / Examined. the constables / and other officers / I desired the seyd balyfe / apearinge to me a very sober mā / as he was in dede / to axe of the seyd Walter / how longe he had knowne me / and what treason I had done sens that tyme of his knowlege?Walter He answered / that he neuer sawe me / neyther yet had hearde of me / afore I came into that shippe of warre a iiij. or .v. dayes afore. Than sayde the baylife. [Page 35] What treason hast thu knowne by this honest gentelman sens? For I promise the / he semeth to be an honest man. Marry sayde he / he wolde haue fledde into Scotlāde. Whie saith the baylyfe / and knowest thu any impediment / wherfor he ought not to haue gone into Scotlande?Scotlande. No / sayde the fellawe / but he was goinge toward Scotlande. If it be a treason (sayth the baylyfe) to go towardes Scotlande / a man hauinge businesse to do there / it is more than I knewe afore. And truly (sayth he) than are there manie traitours abroade in the worlde. Good fellawe (said he) take hede yt thy groūde be good / in accusinge this man / els art thu wurthie to suffre due ponnishiment for it.ye thrust of Iudas. For thu doest it els vpon some other affection / than desire of right. With that he stode still / and was able to saye nothinge / for he was as dronke as an ape / in hope of a bone viage.
Than came in the Captaine and his purser / and reuiled the seyd Walter / reportinge him to be a very noughtye fellawe / and a commen drō karde / and that I was a very honest man.Walter a dronkarde. For they feared at that tyme / the discharge of my moneye out of their handes / I offeringe my selfe / for my tryall against him / to be brought to the sessions / which were than not farre of. [Page] Thā sayde the forseid Downinges in great displeasure.Downinges. Gods sowle / what do I here? This is but a dronken matter / by the masse. And so went his waye in a fume / and for anger wolde not ones drinke with vs. So that I went clere awaye in this prodygiouse conflict. The next daye beinge sondaye / I resorted to the temple / to see the fashions there.ye tēple. As the peales were all ended / they sange / mattens / houres / holy water makinge / & masse / all in Latine. Nothinge was there in English but the poore Letanie / which the preste / a stought sturdie lubber sayde with least deuocion of all / A chāge muche of the people lamentinge to beholde so miserable a mutaciō / and saienge. A fore time might we haue learned sumwhat by our comminge to the churche / but now nothynge at all to our vnderstandynge. Alas / what shall become of vs?
ye presteAfter dyner / that preste resorted vnto vs / as bolde as great Hercules / & after a little talke / fell to flat raylinge of good Myles Couerdale their bishop after this sort. Where is that heretyke knaue now (sayth he) and other of his companions / vagabondes / apostataes / and rū negates? With other vncomly wurdes. And as I was bent to haue made him an answere / A godly man. a gentilman of the cōtraie therabout / rubbed me [Page 36] on the elbowe / and bad me in mine eare / to lete him alone / and I shulde heare wonders. And the seyde Gentilman brought him into an other talke of olde familiaritees. Wherī he cōfessed / that he had in one daye / bygettē .ij. mennis wyues / of that parishe with childe / to encreace the churches profyght in crisyms and offeringes / where as their husbādes were not able to do it.A good curate. Yea / mary sir / Iames sayth the Gentilman / & ye haue done more miracles than that. Went ye not one daye a fishinge? sayth he. Yes by ye masse ded I / sayde the preste againe / and made the fyshes more holye than euer the whoresons were afore.A howsellar of fyshes. For I sent out my maker amonge them / whome I had that daye receyued at the aulter. By the masse (quoth he) I was able to holde him no longar. Sens that daye / I am sure (quoth he) that our fyshars hath had better lucke / than euer they had afore.
Thus whan he had raged / by the space of more than an houre / the last peale callinge him thens to euēsonge / ye Gentilmā sayde vnto me.A churchemā. These are the ghostly fathers / which now are permitted to be our spirituall gydes. Are not we (sayth he) wele apoynted thynke yow? The lorde be mercyfull to vs / A plage for it is sure a plage for our vnthanke fulnesse whyls we had the [Page] truthe. Suche lewde bawdye prestes as this is (sayd he) doth wonderfully now reioyce / not for any vertue they loke for / but in hope to be mainteined in liberte of all wickednesse / more than of late dayes.A most vyle knaue. Whan supper was done / certen of the mariners resorted to vs / declaringe what an vncomly part the preste had played wt their pypar / as that he had pyssed in his mouthe / beinge gapinge a slepe in the churche after euensonge. This is the bewteouse face of our Irishe and English churches at this present. The poore people are not taught / Mockers. but mocked of their mynysters / their seruauntes abused / their wiues and doughters defyled / and all christen ordre confounded.
As the wether waxed fayre / the Captayne went awaye with the shippe / Lyke himself. and was more thā ij. miles on his waie / mindinge (as it apeared) to haue gone awaye with all that I had / moneye / apparell / and bokes / if the winde had serued him wele. The costomers seruaunt / an Irishe man also / beinge admonished by his contreymā Walter / an other Iudas. of my moneye in ye Captaines handes / came to my lodginge in the morninge / and tolde me therof / thinkinge as I had bene in possession therof / if I had come to lande agayne therwith / to haue raysed newe rumours [Page 37] vpon me / and so to haue depriued me therof. For he shewed himselfe very seruisable in prouidinge me a boate / and in bringinge me to the shippe.Displeased. But whan he ones perceiued / that I wolde not demaunde my moneye of the Captaine / and returne agayne with him / though I gaue him a crowne for his boate and paynes / yet went he awaye in great displeasure / with no small reproches. And at that present / was the forseid Walter bannished the shippe / for his only troublīge of me / so beniuolouse that houre was the Captaine vnto me.Walter
The next daye after / I demaunded my moneye of the Captaine / and it was very honestly deliuered me / all scysmes / as I thought / pacified.moneie. Howbeit that wretched Mammō / most strongely wrought in the vnquietouse harte of the Captaine / so that continually after that time / he threttened to sett vs on lande / and maruele it was / that he threwe vs not both ouer ye borde. Alwayes were we wele contented / to haue gone to lande / Parell. but yet still he droue it of till we came into Douer roade / I not vnderstā dinge the misterie cōcerninge the seyd moneye / as that it was in my hande and not in the Captaines / which marred all the whole matter.roauers In the meane tyme they went a roauinge by a [Page] whole wekes space and more. And first they toke an Englishe shippe of Totnes / goīge towardes Britaine and loaden with tinne / and that they spoiled both of ware and moneye vnder ye colour of Frenche mennis goodes. The next daye in the afternone / behelde they .ij. English shippes more / .ij. shippes. whome they chaced all ye night lōge / and the next daye also till .x. of the clocke / & of them they toke one by reason yt his topsaile brake / and that was a shippe of lynne. In this had they nothinge but apples / for he went for his loadinge.pirates. After yt traced they the seas ouer / more than halfe a weke / and founde none there but their owne contray men / beinge men of warre and sea robbers as they were.
at douerAt the last they came to Douer roade / and there wolde the Captaine nedes to lande with his purser. My companion Thomas and I / takinge our selfes for free passengers / desyered to go a lande with them / but that might not be (he sayde) tyll he had bene there afore. Yes / sayth Thomas / I will go a lande / if any man go / for I haue nothinge to do here. Thu shalt not go (sayth the Captaine) but I will laye ye fast by the fete / if thu prate any more.Stoughtly. With yt one Cornelis stode fourth / and sayde. We are muche to blame / that we haue not dispatched [Page 38] him ere this / and throwne him ouer the borde.a pyrate Than doubted I some mischefe in workinge amonge them. For one Martin an English pyrate / but yet a frenche man borne / beinge sumtyme Tompsons mā and after that Stranguyshes mā / and now one and their vnthriftie nō bre / had made them beleue / that I was he / Shamelesse lies wc not only had put downe the masse in Englāde / but also I had caused Doctour Gardiner / the bishopp of Winchestre to be kepte so longe in the tower / & yt also I had poysened (whome I loued & reuerenced aboue all mortall men) the kinge with many other most prodigiouse lyes.
So went ye Captaine & his purser wt all these newes a lāde / hauinge also wt thē my bishoppes seale / & .ij. Epistles sent me frō Conradus Gesnerus, and Alexander Alesius, .ij. Epistles. with commē dacions from Pellicanus, Pomeranus, Philippus Melancthō, Ioachimus Camerarius, Mathias Flacius, and other learned men / desierouse of the English churches Antiquytees and doctrines. Which letters I had receyued at Dubline / the daye afore I came to the shippe / and not yet answered them.No treason. These Epistles and seale / with an other letter sent to me from the counsell of Englande / concerninge my first callinge to that pastorall office / they had taken out [Page] of my male / vnknowinge to me. For that they had seane the kinges armes in my seale / as the maner is of byshoppes seales / they layde to my charge the coūterfettinge of the kinges seale / .iij. slaū ders. vpon the .ij. Epistles / heresie / and vpon the counsels letter / conspiricie against the Quene / so wele were they ouerseane in that malice for moneye. In Douer amonge all his cuppes / this captaine discouered these matters / as what a man he had gottē in the borders of Irelande / suspiciously passinge ouer from thens towardes Scotlande / with all the reest. And as he had perceiued some of the hearers desierouse of that praie / Craftie. he called a great pece of his tale backe againe / and sayde / that he had sett vs a lāde at Southamptō / and so letten vs go. His minde was to haue solde me / if any man wolde haue offered him a good somme of moneye.
After midnyght he returned agayne to the shippe / pratinge amonge his cumpany / what he had done a lande / and how he had almost lost all / by his busye talke.A great acte. But he had hearde of me (he sayde) muche more than he knewe afore / and he trusted that I shulde be to him and to all the shippe / a ꝓfitable prise. The next daye in ye mornīge after his first slepe / he arose / and wt stought coūtenaūce boasted / yt he wolde [Page 39] strayght to London with his most daūgerouse carrryage / To London. which were we .ij. poore innocent sowles that had done yll to noman / sauinge that we coulde not beare with the blasphemies of the papistes against God & his Christe. Muche to and fro was amonge them about that passage. In the ende they all concluded / that better it was to tarry still there with ye shippe / whyls one or .ij. of them went to the counsell of Englande / in massage and came againe / than thidre to trauaile with shippe and all..ij. massengers. To lāde goeth the pursar and an other besides / to hyer their horses towardes Londō / For moūtaines of golde wolde be gottē ye wayes / they sayde.
As I behelde this madnesse / though I little thā cared for my life / yet saide I to ye Captaine.Captaine. Maistre Captaine, what do yow meane by these straūge turmoilinges? Thinke ye there is no God? Neither yet a reckeninge to be made at ye lattre daye / of these mad ꝓcedinges? The time hath bene sens our first metinge / that ye haue taken me for an honest passenger / and defended my innocencie against ye cruell pyrate Walter. How standeth it with equite than / that ye now proclame me / so haynouse a traitour?Equite. I am sure that ye [...]nowe now nomore by me / than ye ded afore. Your allegacions / that I had put downe [Page] the masse / emprisoned Doctour Gardiner / & poysened the kinge / are most false / as all the worlde knoweth. My seale & my other letters are plaine argumentes of my truthe and honest estimacion / of truth and might be to your confusion / if I chaunced to haue righteouse hearers. I praie yow therfor in consciēce / that ye tell me / what euyll ye knowe els by me / that ye make here so terrible doynges? I can not see / sayth the Captaine / that ye will be ordered after anye good sort. My only misordre was than / that my moneye was in my purse / and not in his.moneye Wherunto I answered / wt an hart full of dolour & heauinesse / to beholde mennis so dampnable practises of mischefe for fylthie lucres sake.
I am contented maistre Captaine (sayd I) to be ordered as ye will reasonably haue me.ordered. What will ye gyue than (sayde the Captaine) to be deliuered into Flaunders / and our purser to be called againe? I answered / that I wolde gyue / as his selfe wolde with reason and conscience require. If ye had tolde vs so muche yester night (sayde he) this matter had bene at a point / & we by this tyme had bene in Zelāde.Zelāde. Than was all the rable of the shippe / bag / tag / and rag / called to the reckenīge / rushelinge togyther as they had bene the cookes of helle / [Page 40] with their great Cerberus / an whole hōdred pounde demaunded for my deliueraunce. In the ende it was concluded / that no lesse might aswage that Hungrye heate than fiftie pounde at ye least / with this Prouiso / yt all the moneie which I had in my purse / A ꝓuiso with part of my garmentes also / shulde be out of hande deuyded amōge them and the Captaine / which was .xxj. pounde in the whole. I instauntly desiered / that it might be receyued in part and payment of the other somme.A crye. They cred all with one voice / Naye / we will none of that. Than I besought them / that I might haue at the least / an honest porcion therof / for payment of my charges / whils I shulde be prouidinge / of so great a raunsome / as they had layde to me.
In fine they assented / that I shulde haue .vj. crownes of myne owne moneye allowed me / for my costes / tyll I had foūde out my frindes.Allowaunce. Than caused the Captaine a pece of ordinaūce to be fiered / and a gunne to be lete / to call backe the purser / and his companion. In whose returne there was muche to and fro. For some wolde nedes to London / thinkinge that waye to winne more / thā to bringe me into Flaunders.Lucre. And of them which wolde into Flaunders / some wolde to lāde for a barrell of drīke / [Page] for in the shippe at that time / was neither breade / befe / nor beere. Some feared the comminge of the mayre and Captayne of the castell / for searchinge their shippe. So that our Captaine commaunded them at the last / to hoyse vp[?] the sayles and spedily to passe towardes Flaūders. In the meane tyme was I poore sowle compelled / Faunders. to set my hande to a false bylle of their deuisinge / as that I had hyred their shippe in Irelande for fyftie pounde / to bringe me without delaye or tarriaunce into Zelande. Which I neuer ded / as the almightie lorde wele knoweth / Cōpulsion. but came from thens with them against my will / and was tossed to and fro vpon the seas / by the space of .xxiiij. dayes / in folowinge prises / as they call their roberies. And I was by yt time / so full of lyce / as I coulde swarme.
As we came ones thydre / they brought me into the howse of one of the .iiij. owners of the shippe / Lābert. which was a man fearinge God / and his wyfe a woman of muche godlynesse also / which was to me carefull creature / a singular confort prouided of God. The next daye were all the .iiij. owners called to the reckeninge / & a Latyne interpretour wyth them / to knowe howe / where / and whā / this raunsome of fiftye pounde shulde be payde?paymēt. And more than .xxvj. [Page 41] dayes of layser for the payment therof / might not be graunted. I desiered to haue had liberte to go abroade / to seke my frīdes / but that coulde I not obtaine / though it were in my former couenaūt / whan the .vj. crownes were deliuered me. In ye afternone was it noysed abroade, by the dronken mariners all ouer / Drōkardes. that they had brought suche a one with them out of Irelande / as payed halfe an hondred pounde for his passage / to the wonderinge of all ye towne. So that my hoste / was fayne to kepe me close in his howse / and to saye both to the mariners and others / that I was gone to Andwerpe / the people there resorted so fast to see me.Resort. They reported there also in their dronkennesse / that I was he which had put downe the masse in Englande / and had throwne Doctour Gardyner into the tower / wytha great sort of lyes and slaunders more.
Thus continued I there / as a prisoner / by the space of .iij. wekes / sumtyme threttened to be throwne in their commen iayle / threttes sumtyme to be brought afore the magistrates / sumtyme to be left to the examinaciō of the clergie / sumtyme to be sent to London / or els to be deliuered to the Quenes embassadours at Brucels / but alwayes by Gods prouysyon I had myne [Page] hoste and hostesse to fryndes. And beholde a most wondrefull wurke of God.A mōke The persone of the towne / a most cruell monke / a maistre of Louayne / and an inquisitour of heretykes / as they call those Rabyes / the next daye after my comminge / sore syckened / and neuer came out of his bedde so lōge as I was there / which was greatly marked of some of the inhabitauntes / beinge godly affected.Deliberacion. At the last / in deliberatinge the matter / that they requyred so muche moneye of me / and wolde not suffre me to go abroade to seke it / mine hoste bad the Captaine and mariners considre / how farre they had rō ne beyonde the limites of their commission / in mysusynge the English nacion / with whome they had no warre. It maye chaunce herafter (sayth he) depely to be layde to your charges. Therfor by my assent / ye shall agree with this good man for lesse moneye.A frēde. Than were they cō tented to receyue .xxx. pounde / as I shulde be able to paye it / and so to discharge me.
Thus hath my lorde God most miraculously deliuered me from all these daūgerouse parels / and from the gredye mouthes of deuourynge lions / Deliueraunce. into the wurthie lande of Germanye yet ones againe, I hope to ye glorie of his most holie name / euerlastīge praise be to hī for it. Amē. [Page 42] Here haue ye dere fryndes / a most lyuely and wondrefull example of Gods chastenynges / & of his most gracyouse delyueraunces agayne.Gods wurke. For no chosen chylde receyueth he to enherytaunce / without muche correction. Hebre. 12. The mercyfull lorde throweth downe into helle / and bringeth from thens agayne. 1. Reg. 2. Though Sathan be suffred as whete to syfte vs for a time / yet faileth not our faithe through Christes ayde / but that we are at all times readye / to confirme the faythe of our weake bretherne / Luce. 22.Faythe. I thought my selfe now of late / for the cares of this lyfe / wele satteled in the bishoprycke of Ossorye in Ireland / and also wele quieted in ye peceable possessiō of ye pleasaunt Euphrates / I confesse it. But the lorde of his mercye / wolde not there leaue me / [...] what though for the small tyme / I was in his vyneyearde / not all an ydell wurkemā / but he hath prouyded me (I perceyue it) to taste of a farre other cuppe.
By vyolence hath he yet ones agayne / as ye in this treatise haue redde here / driuen me out of that gloryouse Babylon / that I shulde not taste to muche of her wanton pleasures.Babilō. But with his most derely beloued disciples / to haue my inwarde reioyce in the crosse of his sonne [Page] Iesus Christe. The glorie of whose churche / I see it wele / standeth not in the harmoniouse sounde of belles and organes / nor yet in ye glitterynge of miters and coopes / neither in ye shyninge of gylte ymages and lyghtes / Wares as the blinde bludderinge papistes do iudge it / but in continuall labours and dayly afflyctions for his names sake. God at this present / in Englande hath his fanne in hande / and after his great haruest there / haruest. is now syftinge the corne from the chaffe / blessed shall they be / which perseuer in faythe to the ende. In case without doubt / is Englande now / as was Iewrye / after the heauenly doctryne was there plentuously sowne by Christe and by his Apostles / the true ministers of his wurde beinge partly enprisoned and partly dispersed / as they were.Preachers. God of his great mercye preserue it frō that plage of destructiō / which not only Hierusalē but also ye whole lande tasted / for their wylfull contempte / of that massage of their saluacyon. Amen.
The conclusion.
I Wryte this vnto the / thu sorowfull churche of Englāde / yt in ye middes of thy afflictions thu shuldest not despayre. Beholde how gracyously / yea / if I maye so speake it / how miraculously and gloriously / ye autor. the heauenly lorde hath deliuered me / his most vnworthie seruaunt of all men / and an excedinge great sinner. He called me of grace to that office in his vyneyarde / by sore persecuciōs he proued me of loue / and at the lattre of mercye & goodnesse he preserued me from the deadly furye of most fearce enemies.Of mercye. Thy callinge to the Gospell is not vnknowne to the / thu carefull congregacion. Now suffrest thu persecucions diuersly / for not regardinge the time of thy visitaciō. Repent yet in the ende / and doubtlesse thu shalt haue a most prosperouse delyueraunce. They are no noble men / yt do vexe the at this present. They are but pilde peltinge prestes / knightes of the dongehill / though they be sir Swepestretes / maistre doctours / and lorde bishoppes.Repent. Loke vpon their faces / though thu measure not them by their frutes / & thu shalt sone knowe their vertues. They are fierye / hawtie / and lecherouse as gootes / the chastest amōge them. But that shall other mennis wyues knowe / & not thu.prestes. A wele papped Pygion of Paules / is [Page] wholsome (they saye) for a tippetted gentilmā of the popes spialte / ī a darke euenīge / to coole the contagiouse heates of a coltish confessour.
No noble men are they / which trouble the in this age / as I tolde the afore. For true nobylite neuer yet hated ye truthe of God / but hath aduaunced it by all ages.noiblite Examples we haue in Adam, Noe, Abraham, Moyses, Dauid, Iosias, Nycodeme, Ioseph, Kynge Lucius, Constantine, Iustinyane, Theodosius, kinge Arthour, AlPhrede, Ethelstane, Henry the seconde, Edwarde the thirde, and now last of all ye virgine Kynge Edwarde the .vj. which neuer was defyled with the popes ydolatryes.K. Edward. Immortall fame and note of renowme / remayneth yet to them for it. Suche men (sayth the lorde) as worshipp me / will I make worshipfull / and they that despise me / shall become ignoble or wretched .j. Reg. 2. These will not take awaye the keye of knowledge from Gods people / as do the hypocrites / Math. 23. and as the wicked lawers do also / Luce. 11. wo to them for it.Noble men. But as the noble Dauid requireth / they will opē ye gates yt ye kinge of glorie maie entre. Open the gates (sayth he) O ye noble men / lete the euerlastinge dores be opened / that the kinge of glorie maye come in / Psalm. 24. [Page 44] If any be wicked in this behalfe / which beare ye name of noble men and women.opē / opē Lete thē wele weygh with themselues / how Pharo / Antiochus / Herode / and suche other / whome God by princely autorite had made noble / by only tirannie against his manifest truthe / are now become more vile, thā any kichine slaue or yet lazar.Tirānie Foelix (sayth Horace) quem faciunt aliena pericula cautū. Happie is he / whome an other mannis misfortune maketh wyse.
Ouer the now triumpheth the bishoppes / the pharisees / the prestes / and the couetouse lawers. At thy late soden fall / reioyceth the hypocrites / the epicures / the ydolatours / and the wicked papistes. What shall I saye more?Lawers Iohā Baptist, is now derided in the prison. Iesus the sonne of God is grenned at vpon the crosse. Paule now in Athens is hyssed at. The poore Apostles are sliely laughed to scorne. Naye / shall I yet saye more. Mycheas is smittē on the face / whils Sedechias plaieth ye false harlot. 2. Parali. 18. Helias is driuē into ye wildernesse / whils Baals chaplaines are banketinge amōge ladies.Preachers. 3. Reg. 18. Esaye is contēpned / whils the prestes are giuen to ydolatrie and dronkēnesse / Esa. 28. Hieremie is sore afflicted / whils▪ Semeias peruerteth the truthe of the lorde / Hiere. [Page] .29. Daniel is throwne into the lyons dēne / whils mischefes are in wurkinge amonge the wicked / Dan. 6.Peruerters. Peter is accused of the bishoppes wenche / whils Cayphas sitteth in consistorie, condēpninge ye innocent / Math. 26. Steuen is called to a reckenninge / whils the prestes and wicked lawers are bannishinge the Gospell / Acto. 6. Antipas (they saye) is now slaine at Pergamos, prestes. whils Simō Magus triūpheth in Samaria / Apo. 2. And Iohan Zebede is sent into Pathmos, whils Cerinthus, Menander, and Hebion playe the heretike knaues at home / Apo. 1. well / lete them plye it a pace. It maye chaunce to cost theyr poluted Hierusalem a fowle ouerthrowe / for so persecutynge ye seruaūtes of God / in her whoredome / Esa. 1. yea / seruaūtes I saye,Spiritualte. for they serued faithfully in the paynefull office of the Gospell.
Those ydell mercenaries / not only loyter in ye vineyarde / but also like cruell wolues they rauishe and destroye / Ioan. 10. Of that which God hath expressely forbidden / wolues they make now a solempne religion / both in the refusall of marryage / and in the prodygyouse veneracyon of ymages / sainge yea to his naye / and naye to his yea. God sayth / it is not good for man to be alone / without an helpe / which is a wife in marriage [Page 45] / Gene. 2. They saye contrariously / that it is more than good / for it is holye / religiouse / A wyfe. and prestlike / to haue no wiues of their owne / what so euer they haue of other mennis / besides buggery boyes. I trowe Doctour Weston will saye none other at this daye / what though not lōge a go he brēt a beggar in S. Botolphes parishe wtout bishops gate,weston. geuīge her no wurse thā he had receiued afore of ye religiouse occupienge. The same Westō ꝓponed to an other womā of his parrish / which was a mannis wife / yt her husbande beinge a slepe / she might lawfully occupie with him / by vertue of this texte / Mulier dormiente viro, a lege soluta est. Occupienge. 1. Cor. .7. If this scripture were not religiously applyed / lete them tell me which knowe the right handelinge of them. Whils this priapustick prelate / is prolocutour in the conuocacion howse / I trust we shall lacke no good lawes for religiō, the man is so religiouse. O abhominacion. Though they now are busily spisinge and paintinge of a toorde (their ydolatrouse masse) yet will a toorde be but a stinkinge toorde / priapus both in smelle and syght / pepper him and bawme him / garnish him and gilde him as wele as they can / all the packe of them. To conclude. Now are their most filthie buggeries in the darke / with [Page] their other prodigiouse whoredomes, holden a most pure state of liuinge,Celibatus. holy marriage disgraced / contempned / and bannished.
God sayth. Thu shalt make no grauen ymage to worshipp. They saye / ye shalt not only make ymages / but ye shall also gylde them / sense them / worshipp them / and axe helpe of them / for whie they are ye laye mēnis Gospell.ymages In dede Porphirius ye blasphemouse heretike / and troubler of the Christen churche / as Eusebius reporteth him / was the first that called thē the laye mennis Calender. And though S. Gregorie the great / comminge after / confirmed ye same Calender / yet shall it remaine an horrible blasphemie / bycause God hath in paine of dāpnacion forbidden it.Gregorie. Epiphanius that worthie father of the churche / nombreth the worshippinge of our ladyes ymage amonge heresies. If we be of his opinion / we must iudge yow no lesse than most perniciouse heretikes. Moreouer it is now become a religion agayne in Englande / to call vpon dead men / with Sancte Petre ora pro nobis.Heretykes. This also is fatched from ye olde paganes sorceries, for holde hath it none of the scriptures canonicall. How howlinge and iabberinge in a foren language shulde become Gods seruice, yt cā I not tell. But wele I wote yt [Page 46] S. Paules doctrine doth vtterly cōdempne it / as supersticiouse beggerie / bycause it is but an ydell noise & nothinge to edificaciō. 1. Cor. 14.In Latine.
Some men perauenture will maruele / that I vtteringe matters of Irelande / shulde omitt in this treatise / to write of Coyne and lyuerie. Which are so cruell pillages & oppressions of ye poore commens there / as are no where els in this whole earthe / Coyne & liuerie neither vndre wicked Saracene nor yet cruell Turke / besides all prodigiouse kindes of lecherie and other abhominacions therin committed. Thre causes there are / which hath moued me not to expresse thē here. One is / for so muche as they perteine nothinge to the tyttle of this boke / which all concerneth religion. An other is for that the matter is so large / as requireth a muche larger volume.3. causes The thirde cause is / for that I haue knowne .ij. worthie men / whome I will not now name / to haue done that thinge so exactly / as noman / (I suppose) therin can amende thē. But this will I vtter breuely / that the Irishe lordes and their vndrecaptaines / supportīge the same / are not only companions with theues / ij. bokes as the prophete reporteth / Esa. 1. but also they are their wicked maisters and mainteners. So that they both coupled togyther / the murtherer with his [Page] maistre / and the thefe with his maintener / leaue nothinge vndeuoured behinde them in that fertile regiō / nomore than ded the deuouringe locustes of Egypte.ij. sortes Exo. 10. Anon after their haruestes are ended there / the Kearnes, the Galloglasses / and the other brechelesse souldiers / with horses and their horsegromes / sumtyme. .iij. waitinge vpon one iade / enter into the villages with muche crueltie and fearcenesse / they continue there in great rauine and spoyle / and whan they go thens / they leaue nothīge els behinde them for payment / but lice / lecherye / and intollerable penurie for all the yeare after.villages Yet set the rulers therupon a very fayre colour / yt it is for defence of the Englishe pale. I besiche God to sende suche protection a shorte ende / & their lordes & Captaines also / if they see it not sone amended.An ende For it is the vtter confusyon of ye lande / and a mayntenaunce to all vices.
Thre peoples are in Irelāde in these dayes / prestes / lawers / and kearnes / which will not suffre faythe / truthe / and honestye to dwelle there. And all these haue but one God their Bellye / and glorie in that wicked feate to their shame / whose ende is dampnacion / Phil. 3.ij. threes I speake only of those which are bredde and borne there / and yet not of them all. These for the [Page 47] more part / are sworne bretherne togyther in mischefe / one to maītaine an others maliciouse cause / by murther preuily procured. And to bringe their conceyued wickednesse to passe / they cā do great miracles in this age / by vertue of trāsubstanciacion belyke / for therin are they very conninge.preuily. For they can very wittely make / of a tame Irishe a wilde Irishe for nede / so that they shall serue their turne / so wele as though they were of the wilde Irishe in dede. Lyke as they ded properly and fynely / in the most shamefull and cruell slaughter of my .v. seruauntes / by ye lorde Mountgarrettes kearnes / and the Barne of vpper Ossoryes farye knightes.practyse By suche fyne conueniaunce of accusinge the wilde Irishe / and colour of the holy daye broken / as is writtten afore / they can alwayes apere to haue fayre white handes / and to be innocent maydes / what murther so euer is by thē committed. But I axe of the prestes / chefely of Richarde Routhe ye treasurer and of sir Iames Ioys his companion / Finely. what they ment by their so oft rydinge to that Barne of vpper Ossorie / whan I was dwellīge at Holmes court? Whome they neuerthelesse to me reported / to be the most errande thefe and mercilesse murtherer of all the lande. And what they haue ment also / [Page] to be so familyar with the furiouse famelye of Mountgarrett?doublenesse. Commenly resortinge in the endes of all those iournayes / to the howse of Barnabe Bolgar. As I suspected the matter thā / so haue I sens yt time proued it effectually true. Moreouer I myght axe of the lawers / whie they seke to haue so many theues & murtherers perdoned / specially whā they haue slaine English mē and done their robberies within the English pale?Lawers But at this time I leaue thē / and returne againe to my purpose.
Now must I saye sumwhat to the / thu carefull churche of Englande / cōcerninge thy misbehauer against thy most louinge Creatour. God chose the for his elect vyneyarde / yea / he plenteously pourged and prepared the.A churche. But whan thu shuldest haue brought hym fourth frute / for grapes thu gauest him thornes / Esa. 7. He loked to haue had at thy handes after the Gospell preachinge there / faythe / knowledge / feare / loue / repentaunce / obedience / true inuocacion / & hartie thankes for his manifolde giftes, with suthe other wholsome frutes of lyfe.Grapes And in stede of them / thu hast brought fourth / ydolatrie / blindenesse / impenitencie / frowardnesse / crueltie / pride / fornicacion / vnclennesse / couetousnesse / ingratefull cōtempte of the truthe [Page 48] / and hate of the faithfull preachers therof / with other sower crabbes of dampnacion. Thu woldest faine be like the Malignaūt churche of the papistes / thornes prosperouse and welthye in worldly affaires / and therwith sumwhat gloriouse. But thy eternall father in heauen / will not so haue the / but by persecucions transfourmeth the into the very similitude of his derely beloued sōne / to whome he hath espowsed the / to reigne wt him at the lattre in eternall glorie.Lyke Christe
God hath sufficiently declared in the scriptures / what his churche is in this worlde. As yt it is an afflicted and sorowfull congregacion / forsaken in a maner / and destitute of all humaine confort in this lyfe. It maye right wele be compared to a flocke of orphanes / ye churche. which beinge destitute of father and mother / are in this worlde subiect to manye sorowfull calamitees & miseryes. But because that poore churche shulde not vtterly discourage in her extreme aduersitees / the sonne of God hath taken her to his spowse / and hath promised her protectiō / helpe and confort / in all her afflictions and parels. So that she maye at all tymes confort herselfe with this verse of Dauid / Though my father and mother hath left me / yet hath the lorde takē me vp / for his / Psalm. 26.Helpe. In the first promyse [Page] was she taken to grace after transgressio [...] assured of delyueraunce from synne / deathe / helle / and the deuill.Cōfort. For if God had not most wonderfully collected her togyther / preserued her / saued her / and defended her / it had not bene possible for her to haue escaped ī so horrible daungers / as were in the vniuersal [...]ude / in the burninge of Sodome and Gomer / and the tirānie of Pharao / defence. in the iourneie through the reade sea / in the captiuite of Babylon / and destruction of Ierusalem / and in so manye woderfull alteracyons and terryble ruyth [...] of th [...] Romane Empyre / so manye Deuyls / Paganes / Mahumetes / Turkes / Iewes / Epicures / heretykes / popes / byshoppes / monkes / prestes / and tyrauntes reigninge.
EmpireA perpetuall and vnplacable enemye is [...] than / and euermore hath bene / to that poore congregaciō / sekinge not only to disfigure her / but also to spoyle her and destroye her vtterly. Like as it is saied, Gen. 3. yt he shulde treade christe on the hele. This excedinge great benefigh [...] of the goodnesse of God / Sathan ought to be remēbred / yt he after ye sinne of our first parētes / not only receiued this churche to grace / but also hath [...]uer sēs / both preserued & defended it. But [...] great is yt vntowardnesse & muche is yt h [...] nesse [Page 49] / of manis harte / yt he neglecteth so high a benefight / as is also ye patefaction of Christe in ye Gospell / by whome we are redemed / & so remayne vnthankefull for ye same. A most swete voyce is it vnto vs / frō ye sonne of God Iesus Christe / yt he will not leaue vs as orphanes / or fa [...]erlesse & motherlesse childrē without cōfort, but will come vnto vs / Ioā. 14. That is / Like a gētill & mercifull lorde / he will cōtinually stāde by his churche / assistinge / helpinge / & socourīge it alwai [...] . I will be wt yow (saith he) to ye ende of ye worlde / Math. 28. Lete this be thy cōfort yu sorowfull churche of Englāde, & staie thy selfe ī hī wc was incarnate / lyued / wrought / taught / & dyed for thy sinne / yea / he arose frō ye deathe & ascended to heauē for thy iustificaciō / Rom. 4. Cleaue thu fast to him / repēt thy folyes past / & take heede to thy doīges frō hensfourth. Praye & fast busily / for this frantyck kinde of Deuyls is neuer taken awaye / but in prayer & fastīge Math. 17. So shalt yu be restored plēteously / & florish in vertues herafter frutefully / to the prayse of one God eternall. Which liueth and reigneth worlde without ende. Amen.
The table of this boke.
- ABel the first electe / fol / 2.
- Abel acknowlegeth saluaciō in Christe / by sacrifice .11.
- Abhominacions aduaunced in Englande .45.
- Adam constituted a preacher .2. & 9.
- Adam called / persecuted / and deliuered .2.
- Adultery mainteined in Irelande .18.21.23.
- Antiquitees of Englande desiered .38.
- Antony Sellenger / knight / accused .32.
- Apostles / called / persecuted / & deliuered .3.10.
- Articles / maliciously practised .38.39.41.
- Augustine complained of Ceremonies .10.
- Authour fauoured of the kinge .4.16.
- BAylfye of S. Iuüs .34.
- Balaam the sothsayer .9.
- Barnabe Bolgar, a maintainer of theues .5.26.27.47.
- Bishopp of Galwaye .28.31.
- Bishopp of Rome / noysed heade of ye churche .28.31.33.
- Bishoppes .iij. at inuestinge .18.
- Boke / whie it was written .7.
- Boke of commen prayer resisted .19.21.
- Breade & wyne worshipped .11.15.20.22.25.27.
- Bretherne / called / afflicted and deliuered .7.
- Britaines beleue afore Christes tyme .12.
- Britaines / subdued by the Saxons .14.
- [Page]Brytish churche / first instituted .12.
- Buggerie / a professed virginite .14.27.
- CAptaine of the shippe / taketh 33. excuseth .35. fleeth .36. thretteneth .37. and robbeth .40.
- Celibatus / a cloke of buggerie .14.36.45.
- Ceremonies of the churche .10.
- Christe preached in paradyse .2.11. a vniuersall doctour appoynted .2.9. called / persecuted and delyuered .2.9. obeyeth an heathen Emperour. 29.
- Churche of Christe / what it is .7.48. preserued. 48.
- Churche of ye Britaines instituted .12.
- Churche of Englande / described .11. afflicted. .42.43.48.
- Claudia / a Britaine / taught of S. Paule .13.
- Coyne and lyuery tirannouse .46.
- Commission / of the mariners abused .41.
- Commissioners at Dubline .31.
- Communion / for S. Anne .22.
- Confirmacion for moneye .28.
- Consecracion / or inuestinge at dublyne .18.
- Constantine the Emprour .10.13.
- Contencion about trifles .24.26.
- Contrarie are we to the papistes .3.45.
- Cornelius and Iulius Captaines .6.
- [Page]Cornelis / a cruell pyrate .37.
- DAyes / hallowed and vnhallowed. 29.
- Dauid Couper / person of Calan .18.28.
- Degrees of men receiuinge Christe .25.
- Deliueraūce of the authour .28.34.35.40.41.
- Deputie / none in Irelande .23.31.33.
- Discipline in the churche / with doctrine .21.
- Doctours in the primatiue churche .10.
- Doctours in the British churche .13.
- Doctours in the Britysh monkerye .13.
- Doctours of the English monkerie .14.
- Doctours / smellinge out their mischefes .15.
- Doctrines ī Britaine, afore Christes birthe .12.
- Doctrine / of God commaunded .19.
- Doctrine in the churche / with discipline .21.
- Dogge / brought to be confirmed .28.
- Douer roade .37. muche doubted .40.
- Downinges / a cruell commocioner .34.
- Dubline / head cytie of Irelande .18.31.33.
- Duste / shaken in witnesse .31.
- EAre confession / a salue for all sores .27.
- Election & vocatiō of God .9.
- Epicurish papistes / enemies to Christe .7.
- Epistles .ij. from learned men .38.
- [Page]English Saxons subdue the Britaines .14.
- English churche described .11. afflicted .42.48.
- English Antiquitees desiered .38.
- English shippes robbed .37.
- Example of Gods chasteninges .42.
- Examples of vocacion .2. of true nobilite .43.
- Examples notable / for afflicted preachers .44.
- Exercise of an Irishe bishopp .28.
- Exequyes for the kinge .30.31.
- FAlse prophetes / are the papistes. 21.
- False rumours of the Irishe men .23.
- Fathers called / persecuted / and deliuered .3.9.
- Fathers / in darkenesse faithfull .14.15.
- Fyshes / are howseled of a preste .36.
- Fryres and sophisters .14.
- From Hierusalem / and not from Rome .12.
- GEntyles / acknowlegynge Christe .11.
- Gentiles / partakers of the promise .11.
- Gentilman of Cornewale .35.
- George / archebishopp of Dubline / wicked .18. slacke .21. an Epycure .18.32. seketh the prymacie. 32.
- Gildas for the Britaines faithe .11.13.
- [Page]God calleth / tryeth / and deliuereth .7.
- God now gathereth his churche .15.
- God mocked of the papistes .45.
- Good men from hypocrites are knowne .26.
- Gospell of the wounded man .25.
- Gossippes at Dubline .32. in procession .15.
- Grapes and thornes / what they are .47.48.
- Gregorius and Porphirius .45.
- HElias ād Baals chaplaines .7
- Heretykes in Britaine .13.
- Hierusalem / and not Rome / gyueth faythe to Englande .13.
- Hierusalem of the papistes will falle .44.
- Hipocrites & Idolatours with their plages .21. they dyfferre from good men .26. take awaye the keye of knowlege .43.
- Holy daye / obserued in murther .29.
- Holmes court / a mansion .22.26.
- Horsegrome of lorde Mountgarret .26.
- Hugh Goodaker / archebishopp of Armach .18. poysened .22.
- IAmes Ioys / a maliciouse Iudas. 26.29.47.
- Iames parish preste of S. Iues .36.
- Iane Gilforde proclamed Quene .23.
- [Page]Iapheth the father of Europa .12.
- Idolatour / what he is els .21.
- Idolatours no apte ministers .10.
- Idolatours & hipocrites wt their plages .21.26.
- Idolatryes of our tyme .11.
- Idolatryes of Waterforde in Irelande .17.
- Idolatryes and hypocresies rebuked .21▪
- Iesus Christe called / persecuted / deliuered .2.9.
- Ilandes established in faythe .12.
- Images of our ladye hereticall .45.
- Images / the laye mennis Calender .45.
- Impedimentes of the authour .17.
- Iohan Baptist / Hieremy / and Paule .3.9.
- Iohan Euangelist .2▪ called .10. exyled .44.
- Iohan / Peter / and Paule elected .10.
- Iohan Zebide bannished .44.
- Iohan Beuerle / a man of God .14.
- Iohan Bale / called / afflicted / and delyuered. .3.4.43. triumpheth in afflictions .4.7. reioyceth in delyueraunce .3.4.41.43. defendeth ye kīges boke .19. is sought to be slayne .28.31. receyued at kylkennye .29. temted of prestes. .30. he fleeth .31. is taken of pirates .33. accused and examined .34.38. slaundered .38. spoyled of all .40.41. and deliuered .41.43.
- Ioseph an Hebrue / preacheth in Britaine .12.
- Irelād / a bishops doughter, & so brought vp .32.
- [Page]Irish kearnes / conspire and rebelle .23.28.
- Iudgement of popish gouernours .7.
- Iulius and Cornelius Captaines .6.
- Iustices are wicked in Irelande .22.30.
- KEarnes / Irishe theues and murtherers .23.28.46.47.
- Kilkēnie a ciuile towne in Irelāde .19.24.27.
- Kinge Henry ye .viij. assisteth ye Gospell .15.
- Kīge Edward ye .6. fauoureth ye authour .4.16. Expelleth papystrye .15. hys deathe .14. hys exequyes .30. they helpe not .31. vndefyled with papistrye .43.
- Kinge Lucius / conuerted of Tymothe .13.
- Kinge and counsell contempned .18.21.29.
- Kinges of Britaine / no persecuters .13.
- LAdy Marye / proclamed Quene. 24.30.
- Lambe slaine from the beginninge .11.
- Lambert / abrenounceth papistrye .6.41.
- Latine seruice, of Antichriste .45.
- Lawers and prestes in Irelande .46.47.
- Learned men saluteth the authour .38.
- Lecherie of prestes .18.21.27.
- Leonard / an Hollander .34.
- Lettre of the authours admission .16.38.
- [Page]Letters to be ware of poyseninge .22.
- Lordes and Captaines cruell .46.
- Lucius / a kinge / conuerted of Tymothe .13.
- MAistres kīge was robbed .23.
- Marryage wyckedly contempned of prestes .21.27.32.45.
- Martyne / a faythfull Neapolytane .28.
- Martine an English pirate .38.
- Masse brought in agayne .22.27.30.35. what toyes it hath .30. abolyshed .31. a torde newly paynted .45.
- Melchisedech and other fathers .9. a father of the Gentyles .12.
- Mercenaryes loyter and rauish .44.
- Mihel patrick / maistre of theues .23.27.47.
- Myles Couerdale / rayled on .35.
- Myracles of delyueraunce .28.32.35.40.41.
- Moneye / ye cause of mischefe .34.36.37.38.40.
- Monkerye amonge the Britaines .13.
- Monkes amonge the Saxons .14.
- Moūtgarret, maīteineth murtherers .23.26.46
- Murthers done of Irishe men .23.24.28.
- Murther kepeth holy daye .29.
- NAtiuite of Christe .29.
- Natiuite of mary abrogated .29.
- [Page]Nobilite hateth not the truthe .43.
- Noble mē / taketh not awaye the keye of knowlege .43. how noble mē become ignoble .44.
- Noe preached afore ye floude & after .9.12.
- Noyses & rumours of mischefe .23.29.41.
- OBedience to magistrates .20.24.29.
- Office of a Christē bishopp .2.
- Office of prestes .20.
- Office of Christianes .26.
- Ordre politicall and ecclesiasticall .20.27.
- Ossorie / a bishoprick in Irelande .2.16.42.
- Othe against papistrie .31.
- Owners .iiij. of the shippe .40.
- PApistes / yonge lyddernes .3.
- Papistes haue contrarye reioyces .3.22.24.27.36.
- Papisme / resumed at kilkēnie .27.
- Parels escaped of ye authour .5.6.32.35.37.40.
- Paule boasteth of his vocacion .4. He is elected. 10. He reioyceth in persecucyons and delyueraunce. 3.4. He infourmeth Claudia / and semeth to haue preached in Britaine .13.
- Paules parels & the authours cōferred .4.5.6.
- People reioyceth .4.18.28.29. Lamenteth the change in religyon .35.
- Peoples .iij. in Irelande .46.
- [Page]Persone / a monke and inquisitour .41.
- Peter / Iohan / and Paule / elected .10.
- Philipp / ye Apostle preacheth in Fraunce .12.
- Philipp ye parish preste of knocktouer .18.
- Porphirius and S. Gregorie .45.
- Practise / for the masse .23.30.
- Prayer of Noe / for Iapheth .12.
- Prayer for the dead .17.20.25.30.
- Preachers of Englāde now troubled .42.44.
- Prestes are persecuters and murtherers .4.5.26.28.29.31. offended with Gods wurde .20. .26. no redemers of sowles .17.20.25.30. will not marrye .20.27. prophecie with the deuyll▪ .21. disobedyent to the kinge .18.21.27.29. reioyceth in kinge Edwardes deathe .22.27.44. dispute for purgatory .25. peruerteth the scriptures .26. resumeth papistryes .27. defendeth murther .29. kepe holy dayes .29. compared to Sathan .30. ledde by a daunsynge deuyll .31. setteth vp ymages .31. afflicteth the Englysh churche .43. are lecherouse as gotes .43. and saye yea & naye to God .44.45.
- Prestes in procession .ij. disguysed .24.
- Preste increaceth crysoms .36. howfeleth fishes .36.
- Preste at masse .30. turneth thryse .30.
- Primacye of Irelāde / ambicyously sought .32.
- Pryour of knoctouer W. had children .18.
- [Page]Procession generall of prestes .24.27.
- Proclamacion for both partyes .31.
- REcantacyon of the authour / loked for .24.
- Redēpciō is only of Christe / not of prestes .20.25.26.
- Refusall / wt .iij. impedimentes .17.
- Registre of visitacions of Englande .14.
- Religion now in Englande .44.45.
- Richarde Routhe / a lecherouse Iudas .26.30.47.
- Robert Shea / suffren of kilkennie .5.25.28.
- Rome called Babylō / of Christe & of Peter .12.
- Ruffianes in Irelande / rebellinge .23.24.28.
- Rumours and noyses .23.29.41.
- SAcrament preacheth .ij. thinges. 11.25.
- Saint Iues in Cornewale .34.
- Samaritane / and his offices .25.
- Samothees / and other teachers .12.
- Sathan / alwayes an enemye .28.48.
- Saxons subdued the Britaines .14.
- Scriptures ꝑuerted of Sathā & ye papistes .26.
- Seale of office / iudged treason .38.39.
- Sermons of the authour .21. last sermon .24.
- Sermons .ij. of the B. of Dublyne .32.
- Seruauntes .v. were slayne .28.47.
- [Page]Seruaunt to the customer .36.
- Seruice boke / resisted .18.21.
- Seth / Enos / and other fathers .11.
- Syckenesse molesteth the authour .16.19.
- Sowle of ye kinge, not holpen by funeralles .31.
- Sowles haue not helpe of ye prestes .17.20.25.27.
- States heauenly & politicall .20.27.
- Suffrages for the kinge .31.
- Sūme of ye authours doctrine .20.21.24.25.
- TEachers in Brytayne / afore Christe .12.
- Tempest of the sea .33.
- Thankes to God / for the dead .25.
- Thomas Cusake / lorde chaūcellour of Irelan [...]
- Thomas Hothe / a wicked iustice .22.24.27.30.
- Thomas lockwode / deane of Dubline .18.
- Thomas / a yonge man of Estsexe .32.37.
- Thornes & grapes / what they are .47.48.
- Thre causes of omittinge matters .46.
- Thre consideracions & chaunces .2.
- Thre peoples of Irelande .46.
- Thre turnes at masse .30.
- Thretteninges against the authour .41.
- Tymothe / conuerteth kinge Lucius .13.
- Tyrauntes hate the verite of God .27.44.
- Transubstanciacion / or God makinge .15.
- [Page]Treason forged / to excuse theuerie .34.38.
- UAriaunce about shaddowes. 24.
- Viciose mē, no fitt ministers .10.
- Vyllages tirannously oppressed .46.
- Vnthākefulnesse to God, plaged .36.42.43.49.
- Vocacion of the Authour / iust .4.16.
- Vocacion and election of God .9.
- WAlter / an Irish pirate / betrayeth .6.33. Accuseth .34. is bannished .37.
- Waterforde an ydolatrouse citye .17.33.34.
- Weston / a lecherouse papist .4.45. interpreteth scripture .45.
- William / priour of knocktouer had childrē .18.
- Whoredome / boasted of a preste .36.
- Whoremongers / no apte ministers .10.
- Wyfe of a byshopp / prouided for .32.
- Wyues persuaded to prestes .20.
- Wounded man / restored .25.
- Writters, ij. against Coyne and lyuerye .4.6.
- Zele and studye of the authour .19.29.30.31
¶ Correctyons / where as faultes hath escaped in the pryntynge.
Fol. 6. pag. 1. li. 7. at Melita. li. 27. drowned. pag. ij. 14. at the last. fol. 8. pag. ij. li. 1. domini. fol. 9. pag. 1. li. 26. abhominacions. pag. ij. li. 24. customehowse. Itē homely. fol. 10. pag. ij. li. 6. Irenaeus. fo. 13. pag. 1. li. 26. Melanius. fol. 15. pag. ij. li. ij. call togyther. li. 26. or a caller. fo. 16. pag. 1. li. 6. Stoke. Itē do out the .iij. last lines. fo. 24. pa. ij. li. 24. iustice Hothe. Itē li. 26. Our Christe was but one Christe. fol. 28. pag. ij. li. 3. the clocke. fol. 29. pag. ij. li. 27. disdayned. fol. 33. pag. 1. li. 17. an Irishe pirate. fo. 40. pag. 1. li. 10. in part of paymēt. fo. 45. pag. ij. li. 5. ye shall.
¶ Imprinted in Rome / before the castell of S. Angell / at ye signe of S. Peter / in Decembre / Anno D· 1553.
O lorde thu God of truthe.
I haue hated them yt holde of supersticiouse [...] nitees / & my trust hath bene in the.
I will be glad and reioyce in thy mercye / f [...] thu hast considered my trouble / & hast knowne my sowle in aduersitees.
Thu hast not shut me vp into the hande of t [...] enemie / but hast set my fete in a large rowm [...]