England to be Swallowed by Another French Marriage — John Stubbes

England to be Swallowed by Another French Marriage · John Stubbes

IN all delibrations of moste priuate actions, the very heathen are wont, first to consider honesty, and then profit. Some of thē also many times, not without some blind regard to a certain diuine nature which they vvorshipped before the altar of the vnknovven God. Oh the strange Christianity of some men in our age, vvho in their state consultations hauehave not so much respecte to Pietie as those first men had to honesty, nor so much regarde to honestie, as they had to profit: & are therfore iustly giuen vp of the Lord our God to seeke profit vvhere in deed it is not, and deceiued by theyr lusts to embrace a shewing & false Good in stead of that vvhichwhich is the good End of a vvise man. Yea, vvho neglecting the holy and sure vvisedome of God in his vvord, vvherein are the onelyonly honorable enstructions for polytyques, and honestest rules of gouering our houses and ovvne person, do beate their braines in other bookes of vvicked vile Atheistes and sette before them the example of Turkish and Italian practises, wherby the Lorde many times thrustes theyr hands into the neste of vvaspes and hornets vvhile they seek the hony of the svvete bee.

Thys sicknes of mynd hauehave the french dravven from those Easteern partes of the vvorld, as they did that other horrible disease of the body: and hauing alreadie too far VVestvvard, communicated the one contagion, doe novv seeke notably to infecte our minds vvith the other. And because this infection spreeds it selfe after an other maner from the first, they hauehave sent vsus hither not Satan in body of a serpent, but the old serpent in shape of a mā, vvhos sting is in his mouth, and vvho doth his endeuour to seduce our Eue, that shee and vve may lose this Englishe Paradise. VVho because she is also our Adam & soueraigne Lord or lordly Lady of this Land, it is so much the more daungerous & therfore he so much the more busily bestirres him.

Novv although the truth be that vppon further ripping vp of this serpentine attempt, vve shall find the Church notably vnderunder mined by the Pope: the verye foundations of our common vveall dangerously digged at by the french: & our deere Queene Elizabeth (I shake to speake) ledd blyndfold as a poore Lambe to the slaughter: yet should not my feare be so great, knovving her Maiesties vvisedome sufficient to teach her, in such a matter as this, neither to trovv a Frenche man nor once here speake a dayly hearer of masse (for she may knovv him by his hissing and lisping) but that some English mouthes professing Christ are also persvvaders of the same. And though this ship fraughte vvyth Englands bane, vvere already vndercrossed saile vvith the freshest gale of winde in her sterne that can blovv in the skye for our best port: yet had vve counter puffes and counterbuffes ynough to keepe him aloofe and to send him backe againe into the deepes, if he had none but onelyonly french maryners and onelyonly french tackle. But alas this ship of vnhappy loade hath emong vsus & of our selues (I vvould, not in Princes Court) those vvho with all theyr might and maine helpe to hale it in: and, as though the blustring vvindes of our enemies malice and the broade sayles of our sins were not sufficient to giuegive it a speedy passage hither, our ovvne men vvalke on thys shoare and lay to theyr shoulders with fastened lynes and cables to draw it in. This is our mischiefe, thys is the swallowing Gulfe of our bottomles destruction: els myght vve thinke our selues impregnable. It is not the feeble assault of this carpet squire that vvold make vsus come to the vvalles or once shut the gates against him.

Therefore albeit I wote vvell you vnderstand already in generall, what is that great calamitie thus imminent ouer our heades whereof I speake: and albeit the bare consideration of some fevv apparant circūstances of thys strange sought mariage by Fraunce vvith England, do suffyciently moue and affecte euerye Christian hart, in respect of the hurt to the Church of Christ: eueryevery English hart, in respect of the detriment to England: and eueryevery honest affectionate hart of anye her maiesties louing true seruant in regard of the greate daunger thereby comming to her royall Person: yet to thende our mindes may be the more earnestlye stirred vp, by more particularly vveighing the euills of this matter, vve vvill enter into the partes of thys practise and gage the verye bellye of this great horse of hidden mischiefes & falshoode meant to vsus. And according as those not halfe taughte Christians and halfe harted Englishmen vvhiche persvvade and sollicite thys french mariage, hauehave in theyr mouthes nothing but the churche and common weale, pretending hereby eyther against their own conscience or of some other humor that blindeth them, to bring greate aduauncement to religion and aduauntage to the state, vvith many smooth wordes of I wot vvhat, assurance to her maiesties person: I will likewise dravv al my reasons to those chiefe heads of Religion, and the Pollicie, shevving & prouing, I hope, that this is a counsaile against the Church of Christ, an endeuor of no vvell aduised Englishman, as vvell in regard of the commō state, as of her maiesties good estate. to eueryevery of which it is pernitious and capitall. In the ende I vvill aunsvvere such of theyre aduerse or peruerse reasons as shall be lefte vndisproued in thys my proofe.

And first if a man vvould here bring in the Church to speake The church.for her selfe, standing vponupon the doctrine of her Prophetes and Christ the Lord, leaning vponupon the piller of truth, vvhose crovvne and garlond is to suffer rather then to vse any vayne helpe of mā against Gods lavve: mild thoughe she be without all gale in her hart, and hauehave no vvords in her hony swete mouth but of a most louing mother: yet vvould she with sharpe reproofe take vp these goodly procurers of her vvelth as very practisers of her vvoe, she vvoulde call them to account vvhy they take her holy name in their mouthes, and she vvould scarce repute them for her chyldren vvho vvill nedes forsoth be her fathers. for (to reason vvith these Politiques in their ovvne professyon) can they thinke anye counsaile holesome to the state or becomming good counsailours, which can not be once deliberated of, much les put in execution, without both despising of the Prince and contemptuous breach of the country lavves? they must needes say noe, if they hauehave any sincerity or playne dealing left. at least they wyll saye nay for feare. And think they that any their vayneglorious deuise can proue to the lyfe or health of the church, which is offered her with shamefull dishonour to her spouse, vvith the separating her from her Lord God, and vvith the treading vnderunder foot of that precious lavve, vvhichwhich îs her holy rule for order, and souereigne preseruatife againste all headlong confusion? if they say yea, vve say nay, and proue it nay. Namely that this procuration of mariage, is a breach of Gods lawe, and not onelyonly for the sinne thereof is against the church because it hasteneth vengeaunce, but vve shevve by demonstratiue reasons that it goeth to the very gorge of the Church.

I trust, I shall not neede to proue to these mens consciences this Maior proposition or Maxime, that is to say, Syn prouoketh the wrath of God, and that greate sinnes call down great plages, and mighty sinners are mightily punished. This argument, The vvorld sinneth, such a citie sinneth, such a land sinneth, such a try be, such a kindred, such a family, such a soule sinneth, Ergo, the Sin draweth vengeance.vvorld, such a city, land, trybe, kindred, family, soule, shall feele the vengeance of that high lavvgeuer against vvhom they sinne: is a most necessary consequence.

This next though it be but the Minor in order and vvill not perhappes vvithout farther proofe be yelden vntounto by thys kynde This mariage is sin.of protestātes: yet is it as true as the former, that is, that it is a sin, a greate and a mightye sinne for England to geue one of Israels daughters to any of Hemors sonnes: to match a daughter of God vvith one of the sonnes of men: to couple a Christian Ladye, a member of Christ, to a Prince & good sonne of Rome that Antichristian mother citie. For the inuincible manifestastion therfore of this truth, let vsus first consider England as a region purged from Idolatry a kingdome of light, confessing Christ and seruing the liuing God: Contrariwise, Fraunce a den of Idolatrye a kingdome of darkenes, confessing Belial and seruing Baal. Then let vsus remember vvhat was the first institution of mariage, which Iustitution of mariage.is set before vsus, as a directory rule for vsus in our mariages for euer, and vvhereunto Christ teacheth vsus playnly in al cases and other incidentes of mariage, to looke back, vvhen, vponupon a case put of mariage, he aunsweres. IN THE BEGINNING IT VVAS NOT SO. The first mariages were betvvene payres in Religion, and in the feare of God. And the first vvritten commaundements that are giuen by Moses touching mariage, hauehave their regard to that first The first Lavves.institution, as it were to the oldest lavve. The vvhichwhich Moses rightly vnderstanding and according to the interpretation of al lawes vvhen they bid or forbid any thing, do therevvith forbid or bid the contrarye: He also in Denteronomie forbad those matches Deut. 7. 3.vvherein the sonnes of God vvere giuen to the daughters of mē, adding thys reason. for, saith he, such mariages wil make thy children to fal from me. And this place at once, may expound those other many places vvhere it is sayd, least they make thy children to commit Idolatry, to be added as a certaine punishment by the iudgement of God, and not for a doubtfull reason as some vvould fayn hauehave it, that seke to dravv the lavves of God to their lustes, who should rather rule theyr lustes by the lawes. VVhichWhich pure institution of mariage S. Paul also continues: when enlarging the holy vse thereof to all sortes of men, he yet hath this restraint, that it be in the Lord; that is to saye, in his feare, as it was from the beginning, and according to his former commaundements in his vvorde.

It is more then enough to breake the holy ordinaunce instituted of God, vvhichwhich ought to gouerne vsus without further enqui rye of reason or commodity. But as the holinesse of his lavves is The end of holy maria.holesome to vsus, euen in this life by obedience: so doth theyr trāsgression breede vsus infinite incommodities. For the ende of this holy kind of mariage is our mutuall helpe and vpholdiug one an other in the feare of God. vvhichwhich appeareth by the reason of forbidding those vnholy mariages, vvhichwhich is, least, sayth the spirit of God, their sonnes drawe your daughters or their daughters your sonnes from the Lord. Nowe as the one comes to passe vvhere The hurt of vnholy ma.thorder of God is kept: so the contrary effect must iustly followe vponupon neglect. especially if such a mariage be made in a gospellike land vvhere the lavv of God is preached, and contrarye to warning giuen out of Gods booke. Then vvithout peraduenture all blessing is taken awaye, and the plague follovveth. And to teach our politiques by reasonable argumentes, what other reasons hauehave the lavves of all lands to ioyne like to like in mariage, but for the norishing of peace and louelove betvvene man and vvife, and for the vvell bringing vp of the children in eueryevery familye, vvherby to make them profitable members in some seruiceable vocation: considering that families are the seedes of Realmes and petie partes of common vveales, where if there be good order, the vvhole land is vvell ordered: and contrary, as in anye instrument if eueryevery string or many strings be out of tune, the whole musick is marred, and who so vvill preserue any entier, must conserue eueryevery part: so if the families be distempered and out of tune, the vvhole land is disturbed.

Thinke you that the common vveal can hauehave this care for her lesse partes, and thus prouide for the vvell trayning vp of her chil dren, & that the church of England vvherin this holy lavv of religious matching & marying the faithful vvith the faythful is giuegive by Christ, to this end, that their children might be sanctified, and holily brought vp in christian religion: thinke you I say that the church wil easely depart vvith her deere daughter her daughter of hiest honor, Elizabeth the Queene of England, vvho is the tēple of the holy ghost: and vvill not hold her fast in her louing armes as being loath to giuegive her to a straunger, one that hath shevved no signes of regeneration, and her selfe vvant thassistaunce of a faythfull husband, and her children of her body, if any she hauehave, vvhichwhich receiue outvvard sanctification and entry into the bosom of the church thorough the promise of their faythfull parentes, be in danger to be profaned before they be borne, and to be corrupted after they are borne and thorovvout al their education?

S. Paul speaking of contrary couplings together, compareth them to the vneuen yoking of the cleane Oxe to the vncleane The disparagement of such mariages.Asse, a thing forbidden in the lawe. And here againe the lawes of men vvhieh medle but vvith the distribution of the things of this life, hauehave learned this equitie of the lavves of God, that it is a greate disparagement for health to be ioyned in mariage vvith any foule disease, for beuty vvith deformity, youth vvith decrepite age, or to tender a townes man daughter to a gentilman of birth. A citizen of Rome vvoulde hold foule scorne to mary a Barbariane. And the common vvealthes of England & Fraunce I dare say, vvould meruail if eyther our Queene or Monsieur being both great princes borne, and of high linage, should seeke or consent in mariage vvith any lovv borne or contemptible person. HaueHave the lavves of common vveales prouided thus vvel for men? the vvorld, standes it thus vppon her slippers of reputation, in obseruing what is comely in mariage and honourable for ech personage: and shall the lavves of God, trovv you, be of none effect? or shall it not be much more ougly before God and hys angels, vvhen an Hebrew shal mary a Cananite' there is no such inequalitie as that of religion: no such disparagement, as not to be faythfull no such dignity of Principality, as to be a good christian: and no such slauery, as to be a Barbarian from Christ Iesu.

Perhappes some man vvill defende these vneuen Irreligious mariages, by abusing that place of 1. Cor. 7. But vvithout any other helpe, that text it selfe is selfe sufficient to deliuer it self from that violence: and the lavv of God from the beginning & to the end all one, vvith the obedient practise of Gods children, and the plages vponupon the transgressors: do euidently shevv, that Paul there speaketh onelyonly for the continuance of such mariages as were first not vneuen, being made in time of infidelitie on both partes, and by the aftercalling of one party are become vneuen: for thè cō tinuance I say, of such mariages, and not vneuenly to yoke any Christian which is free to one not faithfull.

Novv as by reasons it appeares vnlavvfull, so by examples it Examples.may appeare hurtfull. Those good men of whom vve louelove to be esteemed the children and follovvers, Abraham and Isaac had Gene. 24 3. Gene. 28. 1.euen a religious care not to hauehave their sonnes matche vvith the Cananeans dwelling at theyr next doores, but sent further of for the daughters of God. VVhat a diameter of religion vvere it for vsus dvvelling emong Christians, to admit from ouer sea, the sons of men in mariage? The children of Iacob vvere so vvell taughte Gen. 34. 14.bytheir father in the religion of their grandfather & great granfather, that they could ansvver, vve may not giuegive our sister to the vncircumcised, that is to say, vve can not or vve may not lawfully: for that vve onelyonly may, vvhichwhich by the lawe of God vve may. Those ill men to vvhome vve vvoulde be ashamed to be resembled, made this maner of mariage. The old vvorlde vvhichwhich thus defiling it selfe was therefore vvashed in the vniuersall flood. And Esau, whose fault yet was in this poynt lesse then ours, for they wythout care of Religion tooke the fayrest and such as perhaps vvere next hand: vve should, in this match, send further of for our mariage and hauehave not so much respect as to the fayrest. being so far giuen ouer of God, as to forget euen that part whyche we would gladliest please. And emong those good men whome we set for holy examples, this maner of mariage vvas euer noted by the scripture emong theyr faults. As the Israelites which thus fel away from the seruice of God, and withal out of his protection. As Samson and Salomon whose vertues we must imitate Iudg. Psal. Salomon.and not these their sinnes.

VVhere Salomon might serue for all examples, and hym will I chiefely name and namely vrge (speaking novv of kingly mariages and courtly mariage makers) because he vvas a king, and also because, that godly Courtier Nehemiah doth notably apply it in a stronger case: vsing Salomons sin în this maner of vnholy Nehe. 13. 23mariages, as a reason to separate the Israelits frō their wiues vvhichwhich they had already maried, yea and by vvhome they had had children born to thē: thinking it an ilfauoured noise to heare theyr children gibber in the streetes halfe Hebrewe halfe Ashdod. I pray you marke then how much more force Salomons example hath to disswade a mariage that is yet but in parle & not concluded, to make no such fayre reckoning of a babe yet vnborne whose shape we see not, and how much more ilfauoured it vvere for vsus that in our churches speake the language of Canaan to ioyne vvith thē that in their masse mumble the straunge tongue of Rome. And if woman, that vveaker vessel, be strong enough to dravve man through thaduantage vvhiche the deuill hath vvithin our bosome, (I meane our naturall corruption and proonesse to Idolatry) hovv much more forcibly shall the stronger vessell pull vveake vvoman considering that vvith the inequalitie of strength there is ioyned, as great or more readinesse to Idolatrye and superstition. And if the husband vvhichwhich is the heade be dravven aside by his vvyfe ouer vvhome neuerthelesse he hath authoritye and rule: hovve muche more easely shall the vvife be peruerted by her husband to vvhome she is subīecte by the lavve of God, and ovveth both avve and obedience, hovve soeuer the lavves by prerogatif or her place by preeminēce may priuiledge her.

And here note this, that eueryevery vvhere it is set dovvne hovve the vvicked peruerted the good, but no vvhere that the better part conuerted the wicked. for euen the ill ralke or other conuersation of ill men, corruptes good maners. And sith Salomon a peereles king, beloued of God, as Nehemiah saith, so furnished in vvisedome and of vvhome there vvere such certaine demonstrations that he was the child of God, dyd yet thys foulye fal by ioyning himselfe in mariage vvith Idolatrons vvemē, in so much as diuers now thinke they find almost as many reasons to call in some doubt his saluation: I pray God it may seeme fearefull in the eyes of all other Princes and princesses, vvormes to him in wisedom, to do the like fault, for dread of the like sequele. VVherby it appeares how vaine that promise is of theirs, who say that Monsieure shall be instructed in our religion, and drawen frō his, by going with our Queene to hers: besides that we woulde be loath, with so certaine great peril to our Queene, who is emong men and vvomen the chiese to vsus: to attempt the vncertain winning of him who is emong all men the least to vsus. And if there were in him any hope of tollerable inclination to religion it wold rather shevve now in the time of his sute to our Queene, by that meanes perhaps thinking to be lesse lothsome to her and les abominable to her people. but we hauehave no cause to hope it. for he vseth no protestant in the matter of mariage, although for some other colour he hath seemed to make some reckoning of some in some respect. And if there were hope, yet in so vnaduised rashnes to venture against the word of God, we may well looke for Gods iudgement to come betwene, and punish our folehardines that he which loueth peril may abide and perish therein.

But these discoursers that vse the word of God with as little conscience as they doe Machiauel, pycking out of both indifferently what may serue theyr turnes, perhaps they will thinke to escape all hetherto sayd, by calling in question (for their mouthes are their owne to dispute of any thing without care of resolutiō) Papist.whether to mary with the Papist that worshippeth the Lord of Heauen and earth? be against those interdictions in the law which seeme to compas in no more but the Canaanites Iebusites &c. And mere pagan nations: and whether to mary with the papist Cananite. Pagan.who in generall termes protesteth Christ, be to mary in the lord.

To answere these men whose doubts procede euer of theyre lust, to giuegive themselues liberty, and not of a conscience affrayd to offend God, I might say, that if to confes the Lord of heauen and earth, be ynough to auoid those interdictions then might we entermary with Turks, Iewes, Moscouites, and diuers other painnimes: and, as far as I remēber, with some of the Cannibals. Looke the storyes of the new Indians. And albeit the Papist protest Christ in word, yet sith the vnity of the Church is noted to be herein that Christians be the houshold of faith, in the fundamental doctrine whereof, what it is, what is the vse, worthines, & working thereof, the papistes dissenting from vsus as farre as they that scatter wher we gather, it wil be hard to make them of one faithful houshold with vsus.

But to yeelde them a degree somevvhat nearer vsus then Canaanites, compare them with the Moabites and the Ammonites, who were cosens to Israell by the flesh and had Lot for theyr father: Moabite. Ammonite. Ishmalite. Edomite.or let them stand with Ishmael Abrahams bastards son, yea at once let them be in regard to vsus with Edome, Israels twinne brother, both which had the circumcision of flesh: yet vvas it not lavvful for the Isralites to mary with them: & in Salomon, namely, it is counted emong other his sinful mariages, that he maryed King. 1. 11.with those nations. But that we may yet giuegive somewhat more to these strayners for lustes sake at a gnat and swallowers of a Camel through conscience (for they are more precise to doe popery wrong, then to doe the gospell right) let vsus I say, suffer the popish churche to be made more of then she is worth, let vsus take her at the best and in as good accompt as any learned gospeller hetherto hath set her and let her hauehave the allowaunce of two or three graines to be massier then the Edomite and finer then the pagane, to hang in an euen ballance and to be of one assaie or touche with the Idolatrous and trayterous Israelits that fel from Idolatrous Israelites.God and were false to the house of Dauid theyr king: yet shal papistes be to light and to drossie to mary with vsus. For neither was it lawfull nor luckie for the Iewes to mary with those Ieroboamical Israelites, for al theyr ontward circumcision, and though they worshipped on the hill of the patriark fathers.

For this purpose reade well the storye of Iehoram king of Iehuda the son of good Iohosaphat that made a notable reformation in Gods house. and for all his fathers sake you shall see it obiected against him and rendred as a reason of his other great outragious sins, that he had maried in the house of Achab king of the Samaritane Israelites. The wickednes and sinne of vvhyche kinde of mariage, as it is euinced by the very word of God and punishment vponupon the person of Iehoram: so îs it proued by the horrible punishments following vponupon his generation. For Ahaziah or Ochoziah son of Iehoram, by reason of the Quene mother Athalia, fell in such a leag vvith the king of Israell that taking Athalia.his quarel, he fel with him vponupon the svvord of Iehu. After vvhose death the Queene mother and dovvagier Athalia, plaied Rex and slew al the princes of the blood and peeres of Iudah. All which murdures began, and are set downe to hauehave com for that mariage with the daughter of Achab, whose seede the Lord had sayd to purseu to the rote. VVherby it appeares that whoso matcheth with any vvicked race, doe make themselues and their sede partakers of the sinnes and plagues of that race and their auncesters. And because the match of fraunce with thitalian Athalia & hir furies in that lande, especiallye those at the mariage of her daughter Margeret, vvill of themselues applye them selues in eueryevery respect to agree vvith her of Iudea, and proue the sin and punishment of such vvicked vvilling matches betvvene Christian true Ievves and popish bastard Israelites: I onelyonly name it and leaue it to the trembling consideration of all, especially of suche as it neerest toucheth, vvhom I besech, in Gods name, to stand vveightily vponupon it.

These things do necessarily infer the third proposion, vvhichwhich is the conclusion or finall sentence of Gods punishment against Conclusiō againste England.this poore church, for this sinne if it be committed. Faire therefore is their pretext of peace to the Church, vvho seeke that thing that must be the cause of such a vvoefull effect.

So that if our mariage makers be not so spirituall, as that the sin vvhichwhich this mariage hath simply in it selfe and of it selfe, onelyonly for being against Gods lavv, can not make them yeld to confes the daunger it bringeth to the church: let vsus compel them to come in by looking at the tayle of sinnes and punishments that this venemous serpent of sin draggeth after it.

It is not in Gods church as in the Grecian host. there, delirant reges, plectuntur Achiui. but vvith vsus, Regis ad exemplum totus The Kings sin striketh the Land.componitur orbis. The sin of the Prince maketh the people to sin, vvhereby eueryevery one beareth his sin, and the Lord findes matter ynough in Prince and people to vvrap the one and the other in the same calamitye. In reasoning it is truely sayd, one absurditie begetteth an other. euen so hath sin a fruitfull generation. and as the vertues are sayd to be chained together, so is neuer one vice or sin alone.

But specially the breach of this lavve of God, in vvhom soeuer priuate person it lighteth, dravveth not onelyonly a certaine falling avvay to the goodman or goodvvife of the house so vngodly maryed, but a daunger also to children, seruants, and eueryevery reteiner of that houshold. much more manifold is the danger, vvhē the honorable dame and (as in humblenes I may say) the goodvvife of Englād shold be so (which God forbid) vneuēly matched It vvere more perilous to the ouerthrovv of Religion in thys faythful houshold of England, then if in one day vvere consummate the like mariages of a hundred thousand of other her subiects. for the straightest and roundest going Prince shall vvyth much a doe keepe his people vpright, especially in Religion. But let the Prince laake neuer so little, and the people vvil halt right dovvne. The Princes fal is like that of a mighty Oake, vvhichwhich beares dovvn vvith it many armes and braunches, therfore is it often recited in the scripture, that Ieroboam sell avvay frō God and all Israell vvith him. again, for the sins of Ieroboam vvhereby he caused all Israell to sinne against the Lord.

Novv if the French fautors of this mariage, vvhichwhich can enlarg theyr pollicy and mince the vvord of God as they list, vvill yet cast about an other croked by vvay to meete vvith this great inconueniences, that, forsooth, it shalbe capitulated, onelyonly lavvful Monsieurs masse no priuate mas.for Monsieur and a fevve of his nation to hauehave theyr miserable mas vvithout the admission of any Englishman: surely these mē neyrher measure this article at the standarde meatvvande of the Lord, nor vveigh the easines of performing it in a vvise mannes ballance. For, I pray you, doe but goe vponupon the Tamis and see vvhat companies goe to the french mas: enquire vvhat numbers flocked in at backfield gates to the portugale mas: hovv the Spanish massers had theyr customers more then ynough: and you shall easily see the loose reckoning of these men in matters of so great valeue. they vvill kepe better bookes of theyr crovvnes. do they see deputed Ambassadors, hable to break our highest lavves of Gods honor, in themselues and in so many of our nation: and can they think as they speake, that so great a prince, the husband (vvhichwhich God forhid) of our Queene, and perhaps (vvhichwhich God defend) honored vvith the name of our king for our Quueenes sake, shall not and vvill not giuegive him selfe hys ovvn conditions for his ovvne religion, to hym and his, and so many of ours as vvill seeke it at hys hands?

But vvether thys be their grosse ouersight, or vvhether they vvink vviles agaynst religion I vvil not novv dispute: this is more then vvonderful, that such as pretend outvvard profession of religion should make so irreligious accompt of Religion: Oh the vvickednes of our professors and the hypocrisie of our protestantes. Is not Idolatry the highest treason that can be agaynst the Lords ovvn person? doth it not go directly to the poynt he stands most on for his honor? do our lips say that vve are zelous of gods honour, and tender ouer hys church, & can our harts rest in quiet and not tel her maiestie hovv great a dishonor it ys to hauehave one mas, and vvhat a plague it menaceth to the church? vve doe not louelove her, whatsoeuer we say vvhē flatteryng hyr, perhaps, in other vanytyes, vve do not fall dovvn before hyr vvyth teares, bevvaylyng the vvrath of God kyndled agaynst hyr, yf by hyr aduised permyssion, and by meanes of hyr maryāge, God should be so hyghly dyshonored in thys kyngdome, vvhervvyth he hath honored her. Take not the vvord of God in your mouthes, you that breath suche lukevvarme counsayl. halt no more on both sides. If God be God let hym be so honored. If Baal be your god take you to hym altogether. honest men serue one mayster and hym vvholly, and our mayster vvyll be so serued or not at all.

Of all sinnes ingratytud ys odyous vvyth God and man: no vnthankfulnes lyke to ours, vvho hauyng bene thus long maynteyned in peace: and in the begynnyng hauyng all natyons our enemyes, hauehave novv many faythfull borderyng freendes, and are rych at home through our peace and by the blessing of God: wil novv svvarue from the Lord, and trust to our ovvn deuises, and make leage vvith them, and suffer theyr Idolatry in our land, that neuer lesse loued vsus then novv, vvhen they looke fayrest. Good Lord (if it be possible) make vsus vvyse vvythout experience of our soly. Thys vvere to set vp altar agaynst altar, and vvyth Antiochus to offer the foule svvine in the holy sanctuary, for this sin of Idolatry committed, great iudgements hauehave bene executed vponupon the transgressors. vvhereby all they that beleue the story of the scripture, and are not stark Atheistes, must confes that thys feare vvhych vve feare is no vayne feare.

The old vvorld vvas drovvned, the people of God often giuen Iudgemēts for Idolatry.vp into theyr enemies handes, and in the end, the tvvelue tribes of Salomons kingdome rent a sunder, and a perpetual translatiō often tvveluethes out of Salomons posterity for euer. Ieroboam vvhen he set vp alters in the land of Israel contrary to Gods law, he would hauehave bene loath that any man should hauehave sayd he cō mitted Idolatry or made the people Idolatrous: yet that sin follovved, and he throvven. out of Gods fauour, noted with a foule blot for a ringleader in sin often reputed in the scripture, his kingdom cam to naught, & the vvhole people suffered a transmigration irretornable in Affiria. The onelyonly feare of thys sin hath made the heares of many good mens heads stand right vp. Dauid durst not take the Idoles name in his mouth, he would then hauehave shaken to hauehave set vp an Idole to be worshipped.

The memory of Asa is with a holy prayse, for that his mother 1. Kin. 15. 13 2. Chr. 15. 16Maacha hauing set vp a woden Image in a groue, he would not suffer her to hauehave her vvicked religion to the dishonour of God, but vvithout reuerence of her superstitious request deposed her from her dignity vtterly, and brake downe her Idole, stamped it, and burnt it at the brooke Kidron. In which story I pray you obserue these two circumstances, king Asa the son, to his own mother, and the maner hovv he did it, euen with despight to Idolatry and zeale to God. The Lord send Queene Elizabeth the euerlasting commendation of Asa for many such notable actes. Elizeus protesteth by othe that he woulde not once talke with Ioram King of Israel had it not bene in the presence of Iosaphat. Priuate men are bidden to flye from Idolatry, & Princes beare the Lords sword to make it flee and to chace it far away. If therefore they vvill have his hand to hold vp theyr svvord, they muste let ther svvord serue him chieflie. But most notably the feare of thys sin euen before it was committed, and hovve ielous therefore they should be that are in authority, appeares in the ende of Iosue, where the children of Israell feared least the Lord vvould impute to them as all one faulte to commit Idolatrye in them selues and not to remoue it in their brethren. VVhichWhich made them vvhē the the tribes of Ruben, Gad and the halfe of Manasseh, after the cō quest of Canaan, at theyr departure home, ouer Iordan, had sette vp but one Alter, of a good meaning in deede and for a monument of theyr vnity in Religion vvith theyr brethren, but supposed of the reste of the trybes to be set vp to the dishonour of the Lord and contrary to his lavv, vvhych commaunded but one alter throughout the land: they the other ix trybes & a halfe whose lotts vvere fallen vvithin Iordane, assembled themselues, and, had not theyr rulers and princes that went Ambassadors ouer to Gilead, broughte a reasonable and a religious satisfaction by the Reubenites answere, vvere ready to fal out vvith theyr brethren vvhome othervvise they loued, rather then to vvincke at the dishonor of theyr heauenly father.

The reason of vvhichwhich theyr doing I beseech all gouernours to marke, vvhichwhich vvas, they feared least thorough that one Altar the anger of God should also hauehave consumed them. Novv if one Altar, set vp in the vttermost corner of that land, threatned destruction to the whole: and the offence of tvvo trybes and a halfe, made all the rest to feare: if these Israelites feared so much at the building of an Altar vvhych vvas meant to the honour of God, and onelyonly contrary to the outward shevv of the vvordes of the lavve: shall not vve tremble at thys Alter vvhichwhich all the charity in the vvorld can not conceiue vvell of, as that vvhichwhich hath none vse but to serue the deuil? good Nehemiah for one piece of thys our sin found in the people, feared the wrath of God & proclaymed publike fasting & prayer Let vsus folovv his example that the Lord may be still our God and remember vsus to do vsus good. Much more hauehave vve to shake, for that thys our turning frō God in straunge mariage and permitting strange Gods (vvhichwhich the liuing God turne from vsus) should be more foule and more grosse thenany of those former, vvhiche neuerthelesse deserued and had such plagues. For it cannot (I dare say) be shevved in all the holystory that those people of God, in the vvorst mariage emōg them, did yet euer make any precedent pact or articulat cōdition aforehand vvith the Idolaters that they should quietly agaynste the lavves of theyr holy land commit Idolatry, but rather at firste the Idolaters dissembling theyr ovvne or making semblant of the true religiō, fayre & foftly vvan by little & little through familiarity & mutuall conuersation of lyfe after mariage by a stealing insinuation or flattery and creping persvvasion (daungerous therefore to hauehave any sort of felovvship vvith the vvicked) an open exercise of theyr paganisme. But if any man perswade our Prince in vvhose handes the Lorde hath put and holden a soueraigne scepter of peace novv twenty yeeres and more, and by vvhose handes the Lord hath quite expelled Idolatrye (he make her and vsus thankfull for it) vppon cammunication of thys mariage to indent vvith man, hovv farre God should be honoured: vvhat is thys but to sinne more then the supposed sin of the Reubenites, & to excede the transgressions of Salomon or Iehoram euen to erecte an Idolatrous altar, not in a corner of the Realme but on the hyghest hyll of the land, in London vvhichwhich is our Ierusalem, and to make an open fault: not of infirmitye, but by addised composition agaynst the Lord and hys truth: not in tvvo shires and a halfe, but in the greatest part of the realme and head of the land, our prince. in so much as it should be safer to set vp a thousande hyll alters for hedgecreping Priestes other where rather then thys high Altar so neere the Court.

The sinne of Achan, though not in thys kind, proues that the sin of one man, and hym pryuate, doen in secrete and buried close vnderunder the ground, gaue forth such a stench in the Lords nostrels as was contagious to the vvhole host. and hys garmente brought the plague emong them. Much more shall the hygh sin of a highest magistrate doen and auoued in open son, kindle the vvrath of God and set fire on church and common weale.

And this fire if it fasten on our church, it is like wild fyre or fire from heauen that all the seas can not stoppe nor quench but the flakes thereof wyll flye ouer sea and keepe hauoke in the churches The hurt of this church hurts othersboth on thys side and beyoind seas. Our neighbour vvel builded church of Scotland must needes think hir selfe to hauehave some what in hand vvhen our wall is aburning. The infant churches in the lovv countryes shall loose a nource of vsus. The elder churches in Especially the french churches.Garmani a sister of strength.

And vvhen I remember the poore orphane churches in france I must needes giuegive the pryce of godlesse impudencie to those, vvhichwhich vvyll needes forsooth mayntaine thys mariage as a mean to assure religion in fraunce, and to preferue the professors there from more massacres. These men hauehave lyke vnkind mothers, put (as it vvere) theyr owne child. the church of England to be nour sed of a french enemy and friend to Rome, and novv very kindly they take in both armes the church of fraunce, and giuegive it a priuy deadly nipp, vnderunder colour of offering it their teates, vvherein is nought but vvind if not poyson. As therefore the ennemies to Gods truth seeke those churches ruin, throug hatred to religion: so should we, who are members of one body vvith them, hauehave a care of them as of our selues. The enemies think there kingdom of Antichrist can not stand, vnles Christ be put out of these churches: let vsus knovv, as those reformed Churches next vnderunder God and theyr owne forces, hauehave stoode by good neighbourhood, euen so that there standing is our necessary strength.

Certainly the Pope seeth vvell that one great staye vvhy neyther the French King in Fraunce, nor the Spanish king in the low countryes, can destroy religion, is the helpe and avve of other Princes confessing the gospell, emong which our Queene is in regard with the chiefe. A game he seeth as vvell, that next vnderunder God, one greate cause vvhy hys interdictions against vsus, take no place in England nor Ireland: and that those kings to whom hee hath giuen our land as it vvere to vvhom soeuer occupanti, can not come to take possession of vsus: is, because that they of the reformed religion in both those countryes are as a brazen doore, and an yron wall, agaynst our popish enemies. and therefore by thys match, he seekes to sunder them from vsus and vsus from them, and so by vnbarring our brazen doore and treading dovvne our vval, to lay open hys passage to vsus. I vvill not therefore vouchsafe this straunge suppositon of these persvvaders, the place of an obiection to be aunsvvered in the ende, but vvill vse it for an other mayn reason of proofe in thys part, that thys mariage is agaynst the church, because it is agaynst the churches of Fraunce. the vvhichwhich it must needes kill in the place, as they say, and vvithall giuegive our church a deathes wound.

Here is therefore an imp of the crovvne of Fraunce, to marye vvith the crovvned Nymphe of Englande. It is proued alreadye that his comming shakes the church in Englande, and hovv shall he stablish the religion in France. VVhat is France to the church France.of God, and to England for religions sake. Fraunce is a house of crueltie especially against Christians a principll prop of the tottering house of Antichriste, and vvithout vvhichwhich our VVesterne Antichriste had bene ere this sent to his brother Mahomet into Greece vvhether he long sence sent his maisters the Emperoures of Rome. The long and cruell persecutions in Fraunce, the exquisite torments, and infinite numbers there put to death, doe vvitnes hovv worthy that throne is, to be reckoned for one horn of that persecuting beast the primitiue Empire.

Thys man is a son of Henrye the second, vvhose familie euer since he maryed vvith Catherine of Italie, is fatal, as it vvere, to Valois. Medices.to resist the Gospell, and hauehave bene euer oney after other, as a domitian after Nero, as a Traian after domitian, and as Iulianus after Traian, VVhose manifest cruelties and detected trecheries against Gods church, hauehave bene seuerally sealed with his visible markes of vengeaunce, vvritten, not vponupon the vvall, but successiuely on theyr carcasses, vvith a heauēly fingar: not by torch light but at noone day in the eyes and eares of the vvorld. in so much as Baltazar the father had hys Maneh grauen in the apple of hys eye: and that in the eysight of Anne du Bourg vvhose death for Henry the. 2professing Christ he had voued to see. His first son had his Tekel told in his eare vvhych rotted hym vvhyle he was yet aliue. And Francise. 2 Charles. 9.his next sonn had his Phares marked in eueryevery vent of hys body: that as he had shed Christian blood vvith Iulianus, so he mighte take of hys owne blood in his hand and saye with Iulianus Vicisti Galiaeè. VVho vvould not tremble to come nere this kindred so vvrathfully marked of God? vvho vvould become one vvith thys generation so hatefull to men? let vsus bost in this Galilean and defie Iulian. let vsus vvith confidence glory in the crosse of Christ and Henry. 3.not vouchsafe to ioine vvith these apostate princes. This present king, besides the sinnes of his auncesters hauehave giuen the Lorde cause enowgh of personall actious by hys owne excesses. VVhichWhich though the Lord doe not yet bring in vppon hym thorough hys long suffering, yet assuredly there is a measure of hys wickednes measured out, and a tyme for his iudgements, vvhensoeuer the Saintes of God hauehave filled his bottle vvith teares. The plague common to the house he hath. That is, he vvants one of his loins to sit vponupon his seate. So that vve see by proofe in three brothers that the Lord wyll not leaue one of Ahabs house. An ill disposed body he hath, a suspitious and fearefull mynde euen of hys friendes.

Touching thys prynce novv offered to thys church in mariage, if he be behynd in mischiefes, remember he is younger in yeeres, Monsieur.and neuer came to that hability by myght of a kingdome to performe his inborne malice to the church. and the discredit of hys brethern hauehave notably hindred hym that vvay. Neuerthelesse, so farre as his place vvould suffer, he hath bene vsed to doe that seruice to Rome, and damage to the church, that he vvas fit for. At the mas sacring mariage he vvas not old ynough to execute any thing, but vvas set by hys mother to cry and vveepe at the cruelties: that so shevving some misliking of them, hys credit might be saued for such another desperate match. all the rest of the credites of the king then, and hys mother, brother, and sister being lyttle enough to colour that mischiefe. since that tyme he hath bene set a vvorke in Fraunce and Flaunders. diuers counterfeit fallings out betvveene hym and his brother, and suddein appeasings. VVhen he fled from the Court to Dreux, declaring hymselfe protector of common liberty, he quickly made first a truce, and then a peace, vvhereby to frustrate the gathering and keeping together of that great armie of protestants. If hys meaning had bene but indifferent to religion, he vvould not hauehave bene at that stately assembly and signed with them, the abolishing of religion in Fraunce. He vvas content to be vsed to pull townes out of the protestantes hands, and in warres agaynst them, namely La charite & Issoire. where, after hys reuolt, he committed such abominable cruelties and beastly disorders as if he novv meant neuer so good fayth & had neuer so honest a mynd in these matters: yet is it not lyke that this mans foule hands should lay one stone of Gods church Yea so farre is the Lord from blessing such a disloyall hand in his publicke seruice, to the saluation of others: that he curseth hym in publick and priuate, in towne and field, euen in hys ovvn soule and body to euerlasting death, vnlesse he make open acknovvledgement of so open and shamefull outrages, and perseuer in vvell doing. After thys he leapes ouer Paris vvalles as fleeing frō the Court: and tooke on hym the voyage into Flaunders vvyth shew of some tollerable mind to religion or at least to helpe the oppressed professors: vouing vvith diuers solemne othes and making others to sweare, that they vvould neuer come at the court againe and yet presently vponupon his retorne, he left his poore court all amased at Alencon, and vvith tvvo or three gentilmen onelyonly posted to yeeld himselfe into the kings hands vvith these words. Syr I yeeld my selfe to you to dye at your feete, in your seruice, assuring you that neuer vvill I be estranged from you: vvith moe lyke vvords, such as detect greatly the French lightnes and french falshood in hym, generall to all papistes of that nation. The king vvith many embrasings and caresses gaue hym the best vvelcome in the vvorlde. On vvhichwhich day also came to the Court the Duke Guise the great ennemy to the church of God vvith fiue or sixe hundred horses vvith vvhom vvhatsoeuer vnkindnesses he had seemed before to hauehave, he novv entered into a present familiariaritie and open kindnes.

VVhen vve speake therefore of Fraunce and of the practises there against the church: of their some time mitigated nature tovvards Queene.Religion or of dissentions in apparance: and bruites of ielousie, vvhichwhich the Queene mother puts as visarde vponupon her practises: vve must cast our eye wholly to her, as the very soule whereby the bodies of the king, of Mousieur, of theyr sister Marguerit, and of al the great ones in Fraunce do moue, as a hundred hands to effect hyr purposes. And vvhen we speake of Queene mother, vve muste straightvvayes present before vsus but a body or tronk Pope.vvherein the Pope moueth, as hyr soule, to deuise and hauehave executed vvhatsoeuer for the appetit of that sea. euen as Necromancers are sayde to cary about a dead body by the motion of some vncleane spirit. And thys soule of Fraunce, as it hath bene moste eager and obstinately bent against Christes church in all thinges vvherein she entermedled: so aboue the rest hath she bene a dā gerous practiser in mariages. For to begin vvith the mariage of her other daughter into Spayne, in the lyfe of her husband, vvhat France marieth vvith Spaine and Piemont.tyme a sister of hys vvas maryed into Piemont, & so three greate princes linked in a threefold cord (as it vvere) by that alliaunce: all the world knoweth, that the capital capitulation and article of inprimis (as I may say) in that threefold mariage, was, against God and his annoynted. which strong cord, though the Lorde vvhichwhich is in heauen laughed to scorne and turned to the strangling of the tvvisters thereof, insomuch as the father dyed presently, and the daughter liued but a shorte tyme after and with small ioy: yet hath not thys spyder left to twist once more.

And albeit in the mariage of the first daughter she spedde not Parisien mariage.so well, by reason there was no sin of the church in it (for they yoked themselues asses to asses) yet in ioyning thys latter sister vvith the king of Nauarre, she had better luck, because our sins ioyned with hers, in that we ioyned one of our Oxen to one of her shee asses. In thys tragedy she played her part naturally, and shewed howe she gouernes all Fraunce. Her daughter Margerit vvas the stale to lure and allure them that othervvise flewe hyghe houering a far of and could not be gotten. her son, then king, was in all the haste become a father to the Admirall and those of the religion. Monsieur that then was and now king, he played false semblant, as though he had bene merueylons angry at the mariage & at the grace which the Admiral and the rest of the religion found with the king. Monsieur that now is, he played the childes part or weeping part, reseruing hys credit as is a foresayd, til a riper age, all thys whyle the mother as setter forth of thys earnest game, stoode holding the booke (as it were) vppon the stage and told her children and eueryevery other player what he should say. the last acte was very lamentable. A king falsifyed hys sworne word: The mariage of a kings sister embrued with blood: A king murdered hys subiectes: many noble & honourable gentilmē shamefully vsed: valiant men surprysed by cowards in theyr beddes: Innocents put to death: vvemen and children without pitye tossed vponupon halberds and throvvne downe wyndowes and into Riuers: learned men killed by barbarous souldiers: the seyntes of God ledde to the shambles all the day long and all that weeke long, by vyle crochetors or porters: the church of Christ rased, the very nest egge broken, as farr as mens mischeeuous reasonable wit cold reach: and, that which was worst, those that liued, were compelled to forsweare theyr God: and little ones Christened before to Christ, were novv dipped agayne to Antichrist.

He therefore that loueth the church, can not think this mariage to promise any happynes to Gods church in Fraunce. Noe certenly as touching the church, it hath that mischeuous ende set vntounto it by them, which the former mariages had. God graunt we harken not in thys match to the present French king and his brother: least by abusing vsus also inmariage thorough our sinnes, vve thorough vnaduised policie fall in the same snare vvith our good brethren: and the king with hys brother for so abusing vsus, be gathered to theyr fathers and buried vvith them in the same graue or hel of infamie, by Gods manifest iudgements vponupon them. And which is all the good can come to the churches of Fraunce by thys mariage, the Queene mother, seeing novv all her foure sons after a sort to be kinges, fynd that delphick ansvver of her familiar spirites subtilly fulfilled: so as she may chalenge no longer life of the deuill, but that he to vvhom she hath giuen her selfe, muste rid that Realme and those poore churches of her.

A man vvould thynke that thys matter needed not to be anye vvhit set forth, but that the very name of the Parifien mariage should a fray any protestant of Eugland or Fraunce from euer loking for any good to come, by committing this il. yea the scourging rod vvhichwhich followed so hard at the heeles of that sinne, and vvhere iudgement began at Gods house, should as a thonderclap of Gods vvrath astonish all politiques. And if Thadmerall & the hundred thousand men vvemen and children, vvhose innocente blood solemnized that mariage, myght be sent to vsus againe frō the dead: they would, out of theyr heauenly louelove to Gods church heare on earth, lyuely and hottly diswade thys kind of mariage: they vvould lay forth the harmes of that mariage: with such reuiued afections as their wounds would bleede afresh and theyre headlesse bodies speake (as it were) before you. But vve hauehave Moses and the Prophets, vve hauehave Christ and his Apostels: if we beleeue not them, we shall be taught by late experience, and go the way of our Parisien brethern. Yea though thys mariage being made, should not hauehave, towards vsus, that malicious bloody effect vvhych is meant, and that it should but vveaken vsus, as that of Spayn did, alas neuertheles for the poore protestantes in france: there ruin were present. for we saw when, before the great murder, there vvas a new coloured freendship made with our Queen such as vvith other Princes (in respecte whereof both she & they vvere notably abused and vvronged by the massacer following:) that friendship serued first to bleare the eyes of the French protestants, and after to put them quite out. which single friendship vvith the Queene, if it made the french king the bolder to enterprise the murder, how far will he presume hauing a brother in the hart of our Court to refresh the remembrance of his alliaunce & to stay any contrary aydes from hence, vvhyle he seise vponupon hys protestants and vvorry them lyke sheepe.

And if Monsieur had any sinceare meaning to relieue the protestants, he would employ all that credit and familiarity vvhych he now hath, whyle he is present vvith the king, to the protestāts Feeble hope of Monsieurs change.good: euen now when as they seeme to hauehave some neede of him. He meanes nothing les: and that he means the contrary, may easely be gathered by the manye blasphemous speeches and cruell threatnings agaynst reformed religion, proceeding from suche as bene in the trayn of hys present legate a latere in England. hys ill vvyll also to helpe the protestants, may appeare, that wher as there hauehave bene since the last peace many violences, murders, & outrages, and iustice for those facts denyed, and establishment of churches, vvithstood, all against the edict: yet Monsieur, shevved neuer to hauehave any common compassion, such as some man wold hauehave vponupon beastes, when he saw them ouerburdened. In fraunce, he hantes the mas, and is hanted onelyonly of papistes. In Flaunders, he ioyned himselfe onelyonly with the Papistes, and strengthned that tumultuous parte of the VVallons from whence all the present disorder there, comes, and thaduantage to the Spaniard by mutuall discention. hys messenger here, though he be in continuall conuersation with the kings Ambassador, and at one table: yet can not one mas serue them, but they must hauehave three or four Priestes, that doe nothing but goe from the tauarn to mas and from mas to the tauarn. A miserable hope therefore of the maisters change to good.

And to conclude thys part, vulesse he had some extraordinary purpose and some Italian Quintessence of mischiefe meante to be compassed against the church of Christ, in vvhichwhich seruice the Pope will employ hys catholike and hys christien sonne and all his sonnes, and they like obedient fooles doe hys will. it could not be possible that hee woulde speake of comming hether with any meaning. For pope, mother, and brother, and all papistes vvould resist it. and he himselfe for his owne part, would cast with hymselfe, that, being next king of Fraunce, if he should be here at the death of hys brother, he might beholden for a noble hostage till they had restored vsus our manyfold wronges. and againe on the otherside, it might put hym in danger of hys French kingdome, being there but slendrly beloued for his famelie and for his person, and where other greate houses for valure in theyr persons, and perhapes title of theyr auncesters would be iudged by the vvise and by the multitud more worthy to reign ouer them. and so perhaps we might keepe a gage that they would not care to redeeme. The hazardes to himselfe and his state, muste needes tell vsus, that it is a commoditie by our extreeme incommoditye, vvhichwhich he seekes. especially to Gods Church agaynste whych all the kynd of them hauehave sworne enimitie.

For the Lords name sake therefore, Oh christian Queene ELIZABETH, take heede to your selfe and to the churche of Iesus Christ for vvhichwhich he shedde his blood, and vvhichwhich he hath shielded vnderunder your royall defence. shevv your selfe a zealous Prince for Gods gospell to the end. forefee, in a tender louelove to this people committed to your gouernment, the continuance of the truth emong them and theyr posterity. And for so much as in any great plague that can come to thys chutch your maiestie must hauehave your part being a chiefe member therein, as by being in the bosome thereof you receiue of the graces bestowed emong vsus: hauehave a care euen of your selfe and for your selfe also, we instantly beseeche you, to keepe thys sin far from you by admitting no counsail that may bring it neere you: and in that cō mon confession of sins vvith the shaking of thys rod driues vsus all to deny some of your delites also, & enter with the whole church into iudgement of our selues that we be not iudged of the Lord. And sith the Lord hath vsed you as a meane to spred and enlarge Christes kingdome in other churches, and to harbarough the persecuted Christians in your owne kingdome: stop your maiesties eares against these forcerers & theyr enchanting counsails, which seeke to stay thys happy course of yours, and to prouoke Gods anger agaynst you, pray agaynst these dangerous tempters and temptations, and know assuredly, to your comfort, that all the faythful of God pray for you, and whē you are in your secrete most separate closet of prayer, they ioyne with you in spirite.

The Lorde endue you with wisedome accordinge to that you hauehave neede of, at this speciall tyme. and considering the state of princes is, in this one point, more vnhappy then the poore mans degree: that they hauehave none ennemies that dare tell truth, and commonly such as bene theyr chiefe fauorites yea, too manye churchmen, vvhichwhich hauehave particular priuileges to speake truth (a cruell and impious betraying of a sacred prince) studie rather for smooth delicate wordes then for playn rough truth: so much the more I beseech the Lord of hys mercy to supplye theyr vvant of dutie vvith such extraordinarye store of counsail in your ovvne breast, and graunt you such a principall spirite to discerne spirites and to sift counsayles, that you may smell a flatterer from a loyall counseller, proue all and approue the best. And seeing the very place of a prince doth bring him some disaduantage through our old Adam, vvho when he is lift vp, will hardly yelde to the good poore aduice of them that speake truth in a bare simplicitie: the same Lord fill your royall hart vvith such a tractable and easie swetenes of a yelding nature, that you readely and humblye may hearken to all good counsayles sent you from God and such as feare God and louelove your Maiestie. Yea, that you may know, that it makes most for your safety, to encourage and make muche of playne honest speakers, and to put out of hart all flatterers. For true playne men are the best spyes of a prince, they watch when you sleepe, and wyll ryng a timely a larum in your eare, before the danger approche. flatterers neuer watch but when you wake and that they may be seene, they vvill lull you in securitye til the sin and punishment therof be heard at the doores. The Lord de liuer you from them euen as from Rauens and Dogs. And whosoeuer Two tryals of these persvvaders. The first.dooth moste hottlye follovve thys sute ot french mariage with your Maiestie, seeke to satisfie your selfe moste gracious Queene, vvith what fayth and louelove he can doe it. let thys be one fyre to trye him in, that vvhereas mariage is the moste important matter euen to the priuatest person that hee can doe all his life long, as that which makes most to an happy or vnhappy life here. and therefore euen the meanest body will not enter thys weighty consultation of mariage, vvithout speciall prayers to God for hys direction: if these men, vvhyle they deale in this high mariage so neerely concerning your owne person and so muche importing the vvhole church in these partes of the worlde and the state of England, hauehave perswaded not onelyonly your priuate praiers, but, according to your publike place, hauehave also proclaimed or wished to be proclaymed publik solemne prayer to God through the land, that he might send the best issue to thys counsayl: then hauehave they not neglected a great helpe in thys thyng and hauehave cō sidered of thys matter as the consequence thereof requires.

Againe, let this be a second tryall (for it vvere well done to trye The second tryall.them seuen times) if heretofore through out all your younger yeeres they hauehave continually bene thus earnest and taken euerye good occasion to persvvade you to mariage, hanging vponupon your skyrtes (as it vvere) and lying at your feete, for to vvin you to mariage, alleaging reasons for churh and common weale as they novv prrtend: then may you thinke they novve hauehave also a good meaning at least, and are but deceined but if hertofore they hauehave bene eyther domme or slovv speakers in this cause, whē all good men vvished it, and vvhole parliaments humbly besought it, whā they that be most religious prayed for it of God and prayed it at your hands aboue others, no appointing you to one as though there had bene but one husband in the vvorld, but leauing it to your godlie considerate choyce any vvhere: if in that meane vvhile, these present perswaders rather tended theyre owne enriching and aduauncement making no greate reckoning of thys matter, or if they hauehave not very vehemently and continually thorowe out your reigne enforced it vvith the same heate they novv doe: I can not see vvhat good thing can thus sodenly bring them about to thys earnest thought of mariage, and that vvyth this man pressing you vvith him as the onelyonly fit man, after so many yeeres of your raygne and at these yeeres of your life: but that they be very Balaams, perhaps not of malice but blynd, not seing vvhat harme they seeke euen to themselues, and are abused by some Balac, and that Romish archbaalam, vvho, by Gods mercy, hauing in vayne assayed all other engins to ouerthrovve this church of God, by excommunication, interdiction, absoluing our neyghbour kinges of any auncient leage or late oth of societie, and dissoluing the fealty and loyalty of subiects, and hauing don hys vvorst by all forcible meanes of that holy leage of hostility decreed in the last Tridentine session: doth novv remē ber an older Canon of constance vvhichwhich is that fayth may not be holden vvith such as he takes for heritikes. And therefore as one at his vvits end, resolueth vponupon thys conclusion, slily to styr vp one of hys honourable sonnes to ioyne, in mariage with our eldest daughter vvhichwhich before hand he meanes, though it be agaynst his ovvne savv, to dispence vvith. knovving assuredly by the experience of that old false prophet, that vvhē the Lords long suffering had passed by, many of the Israelites sins: yet so soone as they vvere won in, to mary vvith the Moabites, the vvrath of God vvould forthvvith breake out vponupon them. the Lord graunte vsus to bevvayle this sin, and to preuent this iudgement.

Hovv are vve blinded that since the Lord spared not the whole vvorld but couered it vvith vvaters from heauen, yet Englande thinkes to be somevvhat in Gods sight, a poore Ilande surrounded already vvyth the Occean seas, vvhichwhich can (if the Lorde doe but vvhistle) come tombling in and deuour vsus vp. he brake in vponupon his own people, vvhom he had hedged in vvith priuiledges: & yet vve that vvere, as other nations, presume to sin and hope to escape his hand. he found away, out of his gracious promises, in iustice to plague Salomon the king of his ovvne holy mountain, to vvhose person also he had so bound himselfe: and yet vve that are but maisters of a molehyll in the vvorlde excedinglye defiled thorough our many transgressiōs, think not to bear our own sins. Salomon for these very sins lost ten partes of his ovvne kingdom vvhichwhich he had in quiet possession and had lost the vvhole but in regard of the holy promises to Iudah: and vve leape at a kingdome yet in the hands of our enemies and thinke to gaine another kingdome to vsus or our heyres, by displeasing, vvith the selfe same sins, the same reuenging Lord. Noe noe, thys counsel is not of the Lord, because it is a vvisedom agaynst his church, and if he be against vsus who shall be for vsus?

Novv as this counsail, for so much of it as toucheth the church, can not proceede but out of the mouth of some hyred or at the least & at the best, some blinded Balaam: euen so, for those particulars thereof vvhichwhich concerne the comon vveale and our Queene, it might vvell enough come from rash Rehoboams …oung counsailors, vvhom there lustes vvill euer keepe young Common vveale.…hatsoeuer yeeres and experience they beare on theyr backs: … not from that remnant of Salomons sages, vvhom the feare of God makes vvisely old betimes. Hauing therefore thus farre sayd of the church:

Let vsus see vvhether theyr country louelove by not as little as their religious conscience, so as a man may not say, such sayth, suche A forraign match.fruites. The daunger therefore of a foraigne match, is not so apparant or so light, as it can be easily espied or prouided for by any assurances. And if vvisedome might foresee the many lurking perils, yet this may vve vvell looke for, that such a kinde of mariage being already proued to be a high breach of Gods lavv: the same Lord vvyl! iustly take avvay all vvisedome from our vvise men and courage from our valiant men. I humbly therefore besech the Queene and alher wise, valiaunt and good men, rather to keepe avvay the cause of this danger then to trouble themselues vvith prouision that in comming he should not hurt.

It is naturall to all men to abhor forreigne rule as a burden of Egypt, and to vsus of England if to any other nation vnderunder the son First, it agreeth not vvith thys state or frame of gouernment, to Forreigne againste kind. This state. Lawes of England.deliuer any trust of vnderunder gouernment to an alien, but is a poyson to it. when vve receiue any such for a gouernour. And that is euident by our lavves and auncient customs of the lande disabling any alien to inherite the highest gouernement of vsus. vponupon this reason, no doubt because a senceles and careles forreiner, cannot hauehave the naturall and brotherlike bovvels of tender louelove tovvardes this people vvhichwhich is required in a gouernor, & which is by birth bredd & dravven out from the teates of a mans ovvn mother country. according to the vvisedom of that high politic call lavv of God: Chuse a king from emong thyne ovvne brethren. and if thee vvant of an English hart doth disable any from ruling the ship of our Realm: shall a French hart be kindlike ynough to rule our Queene vvhichwhich is the sterne of our shyp? no, the place of an alien is far from such truste by the iudgement of our naturall lavves. vvhichwhich appeares in considering thē by the… seuerall degrees. First, for an alien vvhichwhich is an alian enemy, … lavve doth not so much as protect his lyfe (a thing other… Aliē enimy.highly and deerly regarded in our lawes, if in any other … but makes him all in one predicament vvith the case of premuniri. and though the lavv of armes bid him be raunsomed, yet our peacible lawes aske no subiects blood for arresting suche a prisoner and killing hym in cheapeside. And let thys alien be an alien friend, yet if he be not denized, the lavves can not abide him to be mayster of one foote of ground within the Realme. the reason Alien friendvvherof is, they are not inheritable to the lavves of our land or answerable or able to demaund by the lavves, any thyng from the meanest subiect. Yea vvhen they hauehave theyr best footing here and are accompted members vvith vsus of thys body by endenization or enfraunchisment, yet hauehave those our vvise forefathers that hauehave left vsus England to rule and dvvell in, had euer such a Aliē denizē.vvatchfull eye to straungers as they vvould not in theyr dayes of peaceable gouernements, and vve, according to theyr custome, doe not in these dayes suffer any straunger though denized to beare any office touching the peace and ordering of the lande. he is not trusted vvith a iustiship of peace or petie constableship. much lesse vvould they make hym Admirall of the nauie, Constable of the tower, or Gardian of any castel or peice of strength. In tyme of poperye vvhen the Romane prelate vsurped vponupon our prince for conferring benefices, Abbeis, and such liuings here, to Priors aliensItalians, French, and other alians at hys pleasure, yet vvould the kings of those blindest dayes suspect treachery in these holy Abbots and Priors whom othervvise they made theyr Goddes, & vvould vvithout feare of sacriledge, sequester theyr profites vntounto the kings cofers and seize the lande of those holye alians, leaste they might perhaps vvage foreigne soldiar vvith English pay, agaynst the king of England. vvhereof they gaue manifest experience to king Henrye the fift vvho hauing founded an Abbay vvherein he put French fryers, and in a visitation, as theyr founder fynding them negligent in theyr deuotions: he asked the good father of the house vvhat vvas the cause. vvho ansvvered flatlye that they could not naturally pray for him, that had bene enemy in himselfe and his auncesters to them and theyr forefathers and to theyr land vvhichwhich by kind they loued. so much nature remained in those of that vngracious spirit. Novve if a founder of a beggerly rable of fryers, could not hauehave theyr prayers, vvhichwhich at that tyme vvent a begging and vvere neuer so deere but a man might hauehave a long paternoster for a peny: hovv deinty vvoulde they be of theyre monye to Englishmen and hovve liberall in almes to ayde theyr ovvne countryes and countrymen? Likewise in the dayes of king Edvvard the first, certaine aliens richly beninificed, refused to ayde the king in hys vvars: for vvhichwhich obstinacie, albeit the Pope vvould not let him depriue them, yet vvas he so bould as to put them out of his protection, leauing theyr liues out of defence or reuenge by lavv. For these reasons, to thys daye it is expressed in the most large and most benificiall Legitimatiō made to any alien, that he shall not dvvell in Barvvick, Hampton or such maritime or other towne of trust. and all for feare leaste that theyr louelove towardes theyr own countryes, or hatred to ours bredde in theyr bones, should neuer out of the flesh. So that vve see no alien is made so legalis or ligeus to the crovvne of England but with some restraint to him in respect of the state, which can neuer so kindly matriculate him as the childe vvhichwhich she hath born in her owne vvombe

And we are the more loth to put our shoulders vnderunder this burden any more, because already vve hauehave felt the weight of the little finger and smarting whips of thys incommoditye. vvhichwhich vvould seeme yet so much the more irksome to vsus, if novve after moe then tvventy yeeres svveete fredome therefro, we shoulde be pressed dovvne vvith the heauy loynes of a vvorse people & beaten as vvith scorpions by a more vile nation. In vvhichwhich respecte it hath bene alwayes yelden vntounto her maiestie, for the chiefe and first benifite done to thys kingdome, that she redeemed it and yet, not she but the Lord by her, from a forraine king: according to the worthynes vvhereof, it hath bene from time to time notably set forth in monumentes of ecclesiasticall story, and ciuil cronicles, as a singular commendation to the happy beginning of her reigne: yea it made her subiectes in louelove with her the very first day, & hath encreased it mightely to thys houre. wherof it seemes they hauehave little regard vvho seeke to staine the entry of her second twenty yeeres and to blemish the prayse therof by the contrary of that vvhichwhich caused the first to be so highly extolled and by bringing vponupon her people a more daungerous forreiner and more to theyr discontentation, to leaue them in worse case then they vvere found.

For whereas all these kinds of aliances with realmes are contracted for mutuall support, thys aliance presently in talk, hath no such hope. These Frenchmen gaue such tryall of theyr loyall aliance and of theyr profitable neighbourhood to the Grecians, either vvhile they were yet in Galatia from vvhence their french Frenchmen.bragge is to come, eyther els in theyr vagabond time while they sought a place to set their foote on, that an Emperour of Greece burnt them vvith this caremarke vvhichwhich they cary till this day:

VVho vvill needes hold friendship with France, muste take heede of theyr alliance.

According to the vvhichwhich counsell of Greece, the true and naturall old English nation neuer esteemed nor loued the French: they hauehave it sonck so deepe and deepely layd vp in theyre hart, as the sauour wherewith theyr yong shels were seasoned to the son from graundfather to father, who in teaching thē to shoote wold hauehave them imagē a frenchman for theyr butt, that so in shooting they might learne to hate kindly, and in hating learne to shoote neearely. Out of thys inbred hatred it came, that Frenchmen aboue other aliens beare thys addition in some of our auncient chronicles, Charters, and, statuts to be the auncient ennemies of England. And can it be saufe that a straunger and Frenchman, should as owner possesse our Queene, the chiefe officer in England, our most precious rych treasure, our Elizabeth IONAH and ship of good speede, the royall ship of our ayde, the hyghest tovver, the strongest hold, and castle in the land?

It will not be receiued for aunswer to affirme barely, that thys feare is without ground of truth, because, forsooth, the Realme Alteration of gouernment.must still be gouerned as before. vve knovv that de iure it shoulde be so. But in matters of kingdomes, who can say that de facto it shalbe so? will any perswader of thys mariage offer himself a gage of lyfe and death, that it shall be so? If he and many moe vvoulde yet are they no counterpoise to the Queene and Realme, whose life and good estate comes here to be warranted. For if he marye her vvith that good louelove on both parts, which I wish with al my poore hart betweene her maiestie and her godly husband whensoeuer and whōsoeuer she shall marye: yet shall he beare a greate swaye vvith her, vvho beares all the swaye vvith vsus. and if he doe not louelove her (the Lord keepe her from prouing) then must shee feare hym. so as for feare or louelove, he will rule her and the whole land for her sake. And thys is done many times without taking on him supreme authority. for if he doe but eyther giuegive or sel, after the French manner our chiefe offices: he may rule thoughe not as head, yet by those his promoted creatures, as by so manye hands and feete. and though he be not president in the counsayl, nor once admitted to sit personally in the chamber: yet vvoulde it be no hard thing for him to thrust in at the doore such counsailors in whose mouth he may speake, and by them, as by hyred spialles, to know what is doen at that bourd: and as by knightes at his post to passe or repulse vvhat him pleaseth.

The example of the king of Spayne serues for me in this case, and not for those which woulde make vsus beleeue he stoode for a K. of Spayn.cypher in Algorisme. For how many great matters obteyned he? and it is knovven too well, what pensionars he had of that honorable company of counsailors, againe, at that time, the mariage with Spayne was not so dangerous nor offering such cause of suspition as nowe. for there was not yet come into the worlde out of the smokye pyt of hell any such holy leage as absolueth aforehand all conspiratif oathes giuen vsus. Fraunce and Spayn were then in wars: they are since allied by mariage of a French daughter, by whome Spayne hath a daughter: and the lest alliance in the vvorld bindes them together against religion. And thoughe I esteeme the king of Spayne for a loyall king of inuiolate fayth & vvhole honor in respect of the French king: yet am I so farre off from sound truste in eyther of them both, that considering howe Spayn doates vponupon that dronken harlot of Rome, I vvould be loath that eyther Frannce or Spayne shoulde hauehave such a Porter here to let them in at a posterne gate, as Monsieur is. Yea I do not onelyonly set thys popish French fayth behind the Spanishe honor of promise holding: but I affirme without doubting, that it is not so safe to contract this neere alliance with these French, as to make some other commun amitie with those Moores beyonde Spayn. whose barbarian religion and region, though it be farther from vsus then Fraunce: yet doe those mores hold more Fayth with straungers then these French doe vvith themselues.

A most illcome guest therefore to all sorts of men here. for to take thys vvhole land in a lump, and to make no difference of papist or protestant: I am sure the deuoutest papist that hath an Englysh hart left to knok vponupon in his breast, wyllbe afrayde to call Monsieur his mayster. But a most daungerous guest to thys quiet of the state must he needes be, that to the griefe of the greatest Contrary religion.part and chiefe strength of the lande, requires open exercise of a contrary religion, for him selfe and hys, giuing great hope therby to others of obteyning some indifferent Interim. Now to proue that any alteration in religion or expectation to hauehave religion altered, is a politique bile enflaming the peace of a setled and euen state: I might hauehave sufficient authority, to some men, out of macciauel. But I loath once to take vp hys best textes thoughe they were vvritten in golden letters of the fayrest text hand. Hereon vvill I onelyonly rest for thys poynt, that to alter our good religion, or to giuegive any premission to so wicked Idolatry as is hys, takes avvay Gods blessing from the state, whose prouidence it is wherby Rulers reigne and states doe stand. And let him, pardie, that holdes himselfe the best politique, hold thys with me for a corner stone and most luckie principle in policie: that, as to bring in and hold true religion, procureth Gods protection, and worketh subiects obedience of hart farre aboue all other lawes or feare of lawes: so, to put out Gods gospell and to bring in Idolatrye, or to enlarge Antichrist and streighten the passage of Christ, doth shut all bessing from heauen: so as the Lord shall curse our counsayle and cast vsus in our vvisedome of ouerweening. In vvhichwhich behalfe, we hauehave somewhat already felt of that iudgemēt for our fault of once deliberating so vngodly a thing. for wisemen in marieng of theyr children will most willingly seeke houses of auncient amitie, and carefully doe auoyd the seede of olde enemity, which is heriditarie, as other diseases are. and we are not so wise in mariage of our common vveale. for what house is more aunciently enemy to her maiesties royall auncestors and thys land, thē that of Valois? what king more out of leage or longe truce with thys Valois.state then he of Fraunce? as he who can not be content onelyonly to vsurpe a kingdom from vsus, but is impatient that our prince shold so much as beare the true title thereof. And if we vvere such ennemies when vve had but ciuill quarrelles and onelyonly, vter regnaret, hovv should not our hate be multiplyed, vvhen it is de aris et focis, and consequently, vter sit et viuat? And if entermariages emongst themselues in theyr ovvne family, can not stay this furye of theyrs, but that for religion onelyonly and none other quarel, their very pitie is cruelty euen vponupon theyr ovvne bovvels, murdering and massacring one another by thousands and ten thousandes: hovv shall any mariage make them friendes to vsus, vvhom they repute as olde enemies and hauehave yet bleeding in theyr chronicles the dishonors and vvounds heretofore giuen from hence to their kinges & aunceters? No no, vvell sayd that vvise Troyan Timeo Danaos vel dona ferentes: and vvell may a simple Englishman say, timeo gallos, namely Valesios, nuptias ambientes especiallye such mixt mariages, vvhichwhich vve knovv to be othervvise agaynste theyr ovvne conscience.

It vvere vvell vve learned that conscience of them, if not of conscience, at least by horror of those streames of french blood Examples modern.that vvas shedde throughe such a mariage in Paris: assuring our selues, that if they vvent vp to the knocles in french blood, they vvyll vp to the elboes in English blood. And that cruelty raged not onelyonly on the poore and selye ones, but it tooke the noble men and great princes by the throate. Yea the king of Nauarre hymselfe who vvas the spouse in that infamous mariage to the end of the world, had the deadly sword hanging ouer his head by a tvvine thred, and had felt the poynt thereof if he had not to hys dishonour (the Lord be honoured in his repentance) renied hys God. Frō these mē, that hauehave eaten the people of God as bread, hauehave bene fleshed in murdering of multitudes, & drunk the blod of noble men, vvhy should any good manner stay a good louing subiecte from fearing the same daungers and cruelties from the same men to our Queene? and soe, a vvretched confusion in this land, if for the sins thereof, she should come in theyr fingers to be a doleful bryde in theyr bloody brydchambers: vvhichwhich God for his Christes sake preuent Amen.

Beside thys late experience in our eyes of theyr daungerous dealings in mariages emong them selues, vve may learne, if vve Examples auncient.be so happy, by the auncient hurts that Englande hauehave receiued through royall intermariages vvith that nation: and by the rules vvhichwhich the vvise English counsellers of those times hauehave set down as a state vvisedome for their succeding counsellers. yea vve may see, that these mariages vvith Fraunce or vvith any other partes of that present dominion, before or sence it vvas united to that crovvne, hauehave alvvayes endamaged England, and sometime Fraunce to. so as, for most part, they might be reckoned emong those ill bargaynes that no bodye gaynes by, and therefore be Henry firstlyke cursed from aboue. Such vvere the mariages, vvhere Henrye the first gaue his daughter Mault the Empris, in second mariage, to the Earle of Angeovv, and hys sister Aelix (as some chronicles call her) to Steeuen Erle of Bloys. for thereof sprang the losse of a kingdome to Mault during her lvfe, by being so farre out of the land in another country, vvhen she should hauehave accepted it here: thereof sprang the periuries of Steuen king of England entised to a kingdome through the commoditie of hys neere place vvhych seemed to prouoke him and therefro came the ciuile miseries to the people, vvho through the incertaintye of a gouernor, were in field and armes one agaynste another. with lyke blessing dyd Henry. 2.Henry her son take to wyfe Eleonor daughter to the Erle of Aquitaine and Poictou, vvho through her ovvne vvickednes and the freendes she made on the otherside, entertained many yeares an vnnaturall warre betweene hir owne husbande and hys and her children, Henry, Rychard, and Iohn, And yet thys vnhappy Henry the father, must goe and take Marguerit the daughter of Lewis the eyght for a vvyfe to hys son Henry, and for his son Richard Prince H. Rychard. 1.tooke Aelix an other daughter of Fraunce, vvhichwhich alliances proued such assurances to Henry the second as his last fiue or sixe yeeres vvere nothing but an vnkinde stryfe with his ovvne sons and especially hys sonne Rychard made open vvarre against him and vvan from him a part of Normandie, by the helpe of his trustie friend Lewes the French king. After thys, vvhen Rychard him selfe was king, not vvithstanding all the French friendships and alliances: at vvhat tyme he vvas taken prisoner in hys returne from Ierusalem, the French king vvas not ashamed to excite Iohn the brother of England to seize himselfe of the crovvne. The sayd Iohn vvhen he vvas king marieng the daughter of the Earle of Engolesme in Fraunce, and his son Henry the third hauing maried R. Iohn. 1. Henry. 3.first a daughter of the Earle of prouence, and secondly french Marguerit sister to Phillip the fayer: found in the seueral dayes of theyr raignes, the French king to be no better then a pricke in theyr sides, taking part against them and prouoking theyr people to be, as it vvere thornes in theyr feete. Edvvard the second succeding Edvvard. 2his auncesters aswell in theyr vnhappy folly, as in theyre kingdome: vvill needes marry vvith Isabel daughter to the same Phillip. vvhichwhich proued such an assurance to hymselfe, as that hys French vvife vvas able to bereaue hym first of hys son carying him into Fraunce, and hauing there made a strong part, could returne and bereaue her husband of hys liberty and kingdome, and in the ende of hys lyfe to, after a vvretched captiuitie vnderunder hys owne son.

So that of old, the alliances of Fraunce dyd set husbande and vvife together by the eares as in Henry the second and Edvvarde the second: the father and son together, as they did Henry the second and hys three sons, Henry, Rycharde, and Iohn: brother against brother, as Rychard and Iohn: the king and hys people togither, as they did king Iohn and Henry the thyrd against the people: and as they did aftervvard in Rychard the second, & Henry the sixt. vvhichwhich the duke Thomas of Glocester in his tyme Richard. 2.vvell foresavv: and therefore vponupon treaty of the like mariage for Rychard the second, vvho hauing novv raigned. xix. yeeres, and being thyrtye yeeres olde, fell amourous most vnkindlye and vnkingly vvith a french girle but eyght yeeres of age, daughter to Charles the sixt, French king: he the same Thomas of Glocester vncle to the king stept vp and vvithstode that match: hauing belike in these former experiences obserued the truth of that general rule set dovvne vponupon the French, by that Greeke Emperor. And because I find the vvords of thys Duke set dovvne more expresly in a French chronicle then any vvhere els, I vvill vse theyr A vvitnes vvithour ecception.ovvne vvords as the fittest testimony in thys case. The alliance of Fraunce (sayth that Duke in that french story) hath bene the ruine of England, and this nevve frendship betvveene these kings (sayth the Duke) shall neuer make me loke for any assured peace attvvene thē, for (sayth he) ther vvas neuer yet any trust or religiō or truth in the vvord or promises of the French. VVhat an auncient & hereditary disease of disloyalty is this in the royall seate of Fraunce, especially since the Maiors of the housholde became kinges? And though thys Dukes voice in thys counsell vvere ouerruled by the multitude, or rather by the lust of the king: yet did the king and his people and their children feele hovve true it was in sequele. For first thys externe amitie with Fraunce, bred home enemitye in England. It cost vsus for an earnest penny the tovvne of Brest in Britanie, by meanes of the kings outlandish Queen. And poore king Richard vsing in priuate connsaise altogether the French companions, such as his vvyfe brought: began to disdeyne his ovvne naturall kinsmen and subiects, and finallye follovving ouermuch the cruell and riotous counsel of such minions, namely the Constable of Fraunce and Erle of S. Pol vvhō the French king sent of purpose to king Rycharde his son in lavve polling the people and putting to death such nobles as his french counsail put in hys head, in the end he vvas quite vnkinged by Henry of Lancaster, afterwardes Henry the fourth. vvho during the tyme that he platted thys enterprise, founde hospitalitye in Fraunce for all king Rychards alliance vnderunder his father in lavves nose. The French match it vvas vvhichwhich vvithin one yere brought the king to dishonorable captiuitie, death, and deposing. vvhichwhich appeares, for that in story it is rekoned, emong other thinges that alienated from him the louelove of hys subiects, so farre as when he vvas taken, hys enemy vvas fayne to saue hys lyfe by garde from hys ovvn people, and also it is obiected agaynst hym that he had made thys alliance vvith Fraunce, not calling to counsail the thre estates of England. Euen the last mariages vve made vvith France Henry. 5.vvere lyke vnhappy to the end. Henry the fift that noble king had the alliance of Katherin daughter to Charles the seauenth of Fraunce, and after had the possession of Fraunce, first by right of descent and mariage, then by conquest of sword, and lastly by couenant agreed with king Charles and his peeres. yet coulde he none othervvise hold theyr louelove, but hauing theyr necks vnderunder hys yoke. VVhych vnion of possession and right, to that realme, Henry. 6.vvas aftervvard fortified by crouning hys sonne Henry the sixt in Paris and by a nevv match betweene hym and Marguerit daughter of a French Charles, as most men saien, vvhichwhich cost hym first for a princely brybe, the dukedome of Angeow and Ereldome of Main, and after many miserable destructions of our English cheualry & people lost both the new cōquired title & ancient heriditarye dominions on that side, and finally vvrought an ignominious depriuation of Henry the sixt from this realme. I think, I might set dovvue all such matches, as vnhappy ones: and contrarivvise those matches nothing so vnhappy, but for the most parte prosperous, vvhichwhich were made eyther at home or in other places, as vveren al those mariages made since Henry the sixt as by Edvvarde Home mariges happy.the fourth her Maiesties greatgraundfather, and by her maiesties graundfather and by her father.

And if a sister or daughter, vvho had no or dinarye counsail allowed her out of France, could yet continually preuaile so much to the trobling of the state and deposing of the king here: vvhat peril is it to dravv hether a brother, vvho is to hauehave his ordinarye counsail, and some gard of force and continuall-intelligence with the French king, and is also to be a leader and executer of any deuise himselfe, vvhichwhich a French woman could not doe so vvell. the daunger therefore in thys match is encreased beyond that in the former matches. for there the party, for or by vvhom, the danger came, vvas a vvoman, and therefore vveaker: the party to vvhom the match fell out so hurtful, vvas a man, and therefore stronger: here the peril strenghtned for the party bringing the perill out of Fraunce is a man: and the partie endaungered is a vvoman These thinges deserue vvell the vveighing, and may not be passed ouer vponupon eueryevery lisping vvord and crouching curtesie of a French Ambassador or other flattering petie messenger. And if our wise and renoumed forefathers of England passed vvithout stombling ouer the threshold of suspecting the french aliance, euen then whā the french men professed & held the lavves of atmes vvyth theyr enemies as soldiers: let vsus not be nicely fearefull to passe the boūds of honorable modestie, in iudgeing of the present princes vvhichwhich professe to deceiue and break fayth vvith such as vve are, yea let vsus boldly & vvisely cast this doubt that they vvhose frendships vvhē they had not so il purposes, but thought it their honor to match with vsus, wrought vsus yet thys woemust nedes novv hurt vsus according to their hateful falshod in dealing with vsus, whō they esteme, according to their doctrin of Rome, no better then dogs.

Novve as there is daunger on the parte of the French for great troubles to follovve by thys mariage, as vvell for that they hauehave nevv fangled and stirring common wealth heads, lusting after Innouations, as also for the ielousie of tvvo so neere bordering kingdomes: euen so vvill it be harder then yron for Englishmen Englishmē. K. of Spayn.to digest with quiet stomake, the french insolencies and disdaynefull brauades. For if the Spaniard comming in vppon hys honor, and being an auncient friend, at that tyme of one religion, did neuertheles beare away harde intreadie for hys vnwonted pryde towards vsus: more danger vvill theyr be, least these needie spent Frenchmen of Monsieurs traine, being of contrary religion and who are the scome of the kings Court, which is the scomme of all France, vvhichwhich is the scomme of Europe, vvhen they seeke, like horseleaches, by sucking vponupon vsus to fill theyr beggerly purses to the satis fieng of theyr bottomlesse expence: the poore playne and rude Englishman firste giuegive him the elbovve in the strete, then the fist and so proceeding to farther bicquerings in pryuate quarrels, great troubles ryse of small beginnings. for as touchinge the humble, mild, persecuted, and religious Frenchmen, that we receiue him as a vvelbeloued brother, and that our old grudging nature against the french in this respect, is expelled, as it wer vvith a fork. that comes by the force of religion, the Lord hauing wrought it in our heartes. But against these irreligious, haughtye and faithlesse frenchmen, that bring in a religion contrarye to ours, & hauehave no cōscience nor louelove to vse vsus kindly, our English nature vvil return a main to his own course. which thinges also may euidtēly appeare to any mā, that wold but mark how sadly & heauily & with hovv sorovvful coūtenances all the multitude of English both nobilitie & comminaltye looke, casting vp theyr hands & eyes to heauen vvhen they doe but talke of the matter.

This stinging straunger of Fraunce muste vve keepe vvarme in our bosom at our ovvn intollerable charge, which is another reason not to be neglected, sith treasure is a principall sinevv of any A charge to the Realme.state: and therefore vvould not be wasted, much lesse therevvyth to buye our own harme. For they are ouer credulous to be beleeued, vvho vvith the emptie name of Monsieur, and of the French kings brother, wold promise such other fooles as list credit them, mountaines of golde and great gaine to thys royall state, by hys vvorshipfull reuenues forsooth bringing in king Phillip (vvho serues them in thys deuise for all in all) for theyr example. Fyrst vvho knowes not thys in generall that eueryevery prince, though neuer so rich, will hoard vp hys owne treasure, and spend of the straunge purse. and it is a notable policie for our french enemye, by this meanes to weaken the verye knees and hammes of our Realm. Novv, that vvhichwhich other princes do of worldly vvisedom: Monsieur must doe of meere necessitie. for let his receiptes be great for a subiect, yet shall they not be sufficient to maintain his mind in state of so great a priuce & companiō to our Queen. for euē alreadie his debtes & expences are sayd to be farther at odds with his reuenues, thē many yeres receipts can yeld the arerages.

But these perswaders, as men hauing theyr eyes daseled vvyth the golden sun, are ouer affectioned to thys match and can not see that Monsieur hath not moe countyes then king Phillip had archdukedomes: nor so many dukedoms as king Phillip had kingdomes: and that he is not able to dropp halfe testons for king Phillips pîstelas: nor vvith siluer to weighdowne his gold: as also that king Phillip for al those dominiōs & mines of treasures, was content to be pingling vvith our purses: made Queene Mary to aske moe extraordinary and frequent subsides and taskes, then had bene seene in so short a raigne: further causing her to borow more loanes of hundred powndes, forty pounds tvventy pounds, and ten poundes of her subiects, then vvere euer payd agayn by a great sort. thus gleaning the monie from the subiects, & by armefuls lading out of the eschequer, that both the land and the Eschequer was left as empty to the Queenes maiestie that novv is, as it vvas many a daye. The very bodyes of our men, vvere fayne to be employed in hys seruice and forraigne warres there to abide the formost force and to be as a vvall betvvene the honorable Spainard and the Canon. vvhichwhich vvars nothing in our ovvne quarrell, besides the present losse of noble men and good soldiars there at the place, cost vsus in a backe reckoning, the richest and strongest towne of vvar that the Queene then had. And yet must vve hauehave king Phillip broughte in for example of a gainefull mariage to England. In dede vve had great cause to thank the Lords mercy, vvho deliuered vsus from that king his power, as vve had to thank our sins that vve vvere giuen into hys hand. but vve may say vve scaped a scouring. for, but that he vvas newly setled in his owne kingdome, and could not tary to be warme in his bedd here, the end vvould hauehave ben vvorse then the beginning, he wold hauehave holdē hard, if not for the soile of the kingdom, yet for the nauie, for the ordinance, and other chiefe moueable treasures and reall Ievvels of the land. All vvhichwhich thinges come in a more daunger with thys Prince, because if he be king of fraunce, he shalbe neerer and readier by colorable polices to vvythdravv by little and little all thinges from hence in her Maiesties lysr, & by force to chalenge them, if (VVhichWhich God say nay to) she shoulde be hys vvife and dye before hym.

England to be Swallowed by Another French Marriage, Text (1 of 2)