The Vocation of John Bale to the Bishopric, Narrative account

The Vocation of John Bale to the Bishopric · Narrative account

p. 9¶ Of Iohan Bale tothe byshoprycke of Ossorye in Irelāde his harde chaūces therin / and finall delyueraunce.

IN the olde and newe testament is it not expressed / that any iust or faythfull man euer yet toke vponupon hym / Ministerie.the adminystracyon of the heauenly doctryne / in teachynge the true worshippynges of God / ād in persuadynge mē to repentaūce or amendement of their former lyfe / without the vocacion and speciall election of God. No truly / Balaam y^e notable sothsayer coulde neyther curse nor yet blesse / without Gods permission / as he apertly confessed / Nū. 22. And to begīne with the formest examples. Adam our first progenitour / Adam.whiche had receyued most helthsome īstructiōs of Gods eternall sōne in paradyse / and the fathers him succedīng in the righteous lyne befor y^e generall floude / neuer had taken that high office vpō them / had not he therūto both called thē / & alowed them. Noe Gods true seruaūt / Noe.at his most graciouse appoītemēt also / by the space of an C. yeares & xx. earnestly preached to the people of that age / exhortīg them to cease / from y^e abohminacions thā vsed / as thei wold auoide the vniuersall destrucciō w^c folowed. After y^e seyd floude / by vertue of the selfe same precepte and autoryte of God / Noe taught the people / than growne to ā increase againe / by longe continuaūce.Noe. So ded Melchisedech ī Salem, Iob in Arabia. Abraham in Chaldie, Iacob in Mesopotamy, and Ioseph in Aegypte, Helias with the other prophetes in Israel, Ionas in Ninyue, Daniel in Babylon, fathers.Zorobabel in Persie, and Iohan Baptist in Iewrye. Marke the opē places of y^e scripture / concernyng Vocacion & Election.

And as towchyng Christe in our māhode / he was called of God his eternall father / as was Aaron / to be our euerlasting preste / accordinge to the ordre of Melchisedech.Iesus. Hebre. 7. He was also by his owne godly mouthe / to y^e worlde declared / that wele beloued sōne of his / in whom he was most highly both pleased & pacifyed. Finally he was by hys most heauenly ordinaūce / constituted oure vniuersall doctour / and of him cōmaūded / as a most perfight maistre / of all mē to be most diligētly hearde & obeyed.A maystre. From the shippe / frō y^e costomehowse / & frō other homily ministerys / called he / not y^e stought / sturdye / & heady sort of mē / but y^e lowly harted / simple / & beggarly ydiotes. Them he elected most gracyously p. 10/ & they not him / to be the ministers of his holy Gospell / Iohā. 15. Them chose he out frō y^e world / to gyue knowlege of saluacion to hys people / for y^e remissiō of their synnes.apostles Mat. 10. Luce. 2. Those (sayth S. Paule) whom y^e Lorde appoīted before / those hath he also called / ād those whom he hath called / those hath he lykewise iustified / or made mete for that heauēly offyce. Rō. 8.Electiō. For how shuld they hauehave preached (sayth he) vnlesse they had ben sent. Rom. 10. Peter was to him ā elect apostle / affirmīge hys doctrine to be y^e wurdes of eternall lyfe / Ioā 6. Iohn was his derely beloued disciple / & became a most mightie thūderer out of the same. Act. 4.S Iohā Paul was a peculiar chosen vessel vntounto him / to manifest hys name before y^e Gentyles / Kynges and chyldren of Israel. Act. 9.

The Idolatour / the tyraunt / ād the whoremō gar / are no mete mynisters for hym / though they be neuer so gorgyously mytered / coped / and typpeted / or neuer so fynely forced / pylyoned / and scarletted.Papystes. The deceytfull prophetes (sayth y^e Lorde) made spedy haste / but I appoynted thē not. They rāne a great pace / but I sent thē not. They prophecyed fast / but not out of my spret. Hier. 23. To y^e wicked doar y^e Lorde hath spoken it (sayth Dauid) whie doest thu soDauid. vniusttly presume to talke of my righteousnesses / and with thy polluted mouthe / of my eternall testamēt / whie makest thu relacion? Psal. 50. After y^e Apostles immediatly succeded in y^e primatiue churche / Tymotheus, Ignatius, Policarpus, Doct.Irenus paphnutius, Athanasius, Lactantius, and other true ministers of the Gospell. These loytered not in the vineyearde of the lorde / as our ydell masmongers do / but faithfully they laboured in sekinge Gods glorie / and the sowles helthe of the people. But whan great Constantine the Emprour had gyuen peace to the Christen churche / Peace.that all persecucion ceased / thā came in ceremonie vpō ceremonie / & none ende was of thē. EueryEvery yeare entered one poyson or other / as mannes fyckle nature in this frayle lyfe / is neuer w^tout vice.

So that s. Augustine in his tyme very muche lamented / Throldom.that so many supersticions were thā crepte in / confessinge the seruitude of the Christen churche to be more greuouse ī those daies / than it was to the people vndre Moyses. And so muche the more he lamented the case / that beinge but one man / he coulde not reforme it / neither was he able in euerye pointe to resist that euill / beinge with heretykes so sore tossed on eueryevery syde. But what wolde he hauehave sayde p. 11if he had seane the abhominable ydolatries of our time w^tout nōbre?Augustine. specially the worshippinge of breade and of wyne / which are only the seruauntes of our bellies / and corrupt in the same / yea / whan they are at the best & holiest. For whan they hauehave done their office / Breadebeinge sacramentes of Christes bodie and bloude / that is to saye / preached the lordes deathe till he come / and declared vsus of manie members to be one misticall bodie in Christe / they ascende not into heauen / but beinge eaten and disgested / they are immediatly resolued into corruption. Yea / Christe sayth / Christe.that they descende downe into the bellie / & are cast out into the draught / Math. 15. which declareth them vnmete to be worshipped.

This write I / not in vnreuerencinge the sacrament / but in detestacion of the abhominable ydolatries / therin most bestially cōmitted.

And breuely to saye sumwhat of the Christen churche of our realme / in those dayes called Britaine / and now named Englande / Englādwhat originall it had and from whens / what continuaunce / what darkeninges / what decayes / what falle / and what rayse againe.

To fatche this thinge from the first foundaciō / for that lāde / lyke as for other landes. By the eternall sonne of God in Paradyse / Adam.receyued Adam the first ꝓmise of saluaciō in the womās sede. This acknowleged Abel in his first offerī ge vp of the firstlinges of his flocke & fatt of the same beinge so instructed by y^e religiouse father of his Gene. 4. By faithe ī his plētuouse sacrifice (saith s. Paule) obteined Abel / Abel.witnesse y^t he was righteouse / Heb. 11. This w^t the right inuocacion of the name of God taught by Seth and Enos / was cōtinued by the chosen of y^e line / to remayne styll in remembraūce to their posteritees / & was renued after the floude by righteouse Noe / Gene. 8. To S. Paule also in reuelacion / was this misterie shewed / that the Gentiles lykewyse were partakers of the promyse / Ephe. 3.the lābe Wherunto S. Iohan sayth / y^t the lā be was slayne frō the worldes begīninge / Apo. 13. y^t is to saye / in ꝓmise / in faithe / & in misterie of their sacrifices. Applied is it also to those Gē tiles / in the seyd Reuelaciō of S. Iohan (who now amōge other includeth our lande) y^t they frō y^t time hauehave cryed w^t a lowde voyce / seinge. Helthe be to him y^t sitteth vponupon the seate of our God / & vntounto the lābe.gētyls. Apo. 7. And therupō Gildas in Exeidio Britānie, cōcludeth / y^t the inhabitours of our realme / hauehave alwayes had knowlege of God / almost sens y^e worldes begīnīge.

p. 12This rule of sacrifice and inuocacion / helde Iapheth after the floude also / Iaphet.the father of Europa cōtaininge our lande amonge others / accordinge to the prayer of his righteouse father Noe / y^t he mighte dwelle in the tētes of Sem. Gene. 9. or in faithe of the promised sede w^c is Christe. Gala. 3.Melchisedech. So perfyght was Melchisedech or the forenamed Sem / a father than of y^e Gentiles / for that his kinrede (sayth Paule) is not reckened amōge the tribes / y^t he toke tithes of Abraham / & blessed him that had y^e promises. Hebre. 7. et Gene. 14. For so muche as God / (sayth Luther vpō Genesis) established y^e kingedomes of y^e Ilādes / whā they were diuided / by y^e chosen fathers / it semeth wele y^t they helde his true worshippīges / receiued a fore of thē. To these holy fathers in the Gentilite for that realme / by course succeded / as Berosus, Pliniꝰ, fathersStrabo, Caesar, & other authors writeth, the Samothees, Sarronites, Druydes, Bardes, Sybylles, Eubages or Vates, Flamines, & suche other / till the cōmīge of Iesus Gods sonne in y^e fleshe.Christe Which all acknowleged but one God / what though it were by the diuersite of rytes & doctrines. This hauehave I writtē here / to declare what churche was ī our lāde afore christes cōmī ge. I speake nothinge of thē w^c folowed straūge worshippynges or manifeste ydolatryes of the heathen / as the papistes do in thys age.papistes If it be reasoned / how they coulde heare? S. Paule ā swereth it out of Dauid / y^t the heauens preached to them / all the worlde hearyng it / if none had done it els / Rom. 10. et Psal. 19. besyde the lawe of nature / which was also their leader.

In the .63. yeare after Christes incarnacion / Ioseph.to resort to my purpose / was Ioseph an hebrue and disparsed disciple thydre sent with his companyons / by Philipp the apostle than preachynge in Fraunce / as Freculphus in y^e secōde part of hys Chronycle / & Isidorus also de vita & obitu sanctorū patrū, rehearseth. He published there amonge them / that Gospell of saluacion / whiche Christe first of all / & afterwardes hys Apostles had taught at Ierusalem / apostlesVntruly therfore are we reported of the Italyane writers / and of the subtylle deuysers of sāctes legendes / that we shulde hauehave our first faythe from Rome / and our christen doctryne / from their vnchristen byshoppes. From the schole of Christe hymselfe / hauehave we receyued the documentes of oure fayth.Hierusalem. From Ierusalem / & not from Rome / whom both Peter & also Christe hath called Babylō / for that she so aptely thervnto agreeth ī ministryng cōfusiō to the world. p. 13And this wele accordeth with the wurdes of y^e prophete / y^t the lawe of y^e Gospell shulde come frō Sion / & the wurde of God frō Hierusalem. Esa. 2. S. Paule also which had bene christenly familiar at Rome / s. Paule Claudia.with Claudia Rufina a Britayne borne / and with Aulus pudens her husbande / of whome he maketh mencion .2. Timoth. 4. shulde seme in his owne persone to hauehave preached in that nacion of ours / by this sainge of his in the same epistle and chaptre. The lorde assisted me and strengthened me at my first answeringe / that by me the preachinge shulde be fulfilled to the vttermost / and that all the Gētiles shulde heare. That clause / all the Gētiles / includeth sumwhat cōcernīge y^e Britaines / if they were thā Gētiles / & in y^e west part of y^e worlde / as we cā saye none other of thē.Gētiles

Bartholomeus Tridētinꝰ & Petrus Calo, reporteth in their bokes of y^e liues of sanctes / y^t Timothe S. Paules disciple / Timot.by his preachīge in Britaine / cōuerted kinge Lucius & him baptised / in cōfirmaciō of y^t is said afore. Nurrished / brought vp / & cōtinued was this Brittish churche in y^e doctrine of faithe / w^tout mēnes tradicions / by y^e wurthie doctours of y^t age / Eluanus, Britanes.Meduinus, Melaniuꝰ, Amphibalꝰ, & suche other like / till y^e time of Diocleciane y^e tirānouse Emproure. Which by his wicked ministers / made hauock of the Christen flocke there / as testifieth Gildas. Though the kinges of Britaine in y^t age / Aruiragus, Marius, Coillus, Lucius, Peace.and Seuerus, with others / were not all Christened / yet were they no cruell persecuters of Christes congregacion / y^t we reade of. In the generall quyetnesse prouided to y^e churche by the forenamed Constātine, Arrius, Pelagius, Heretykes.Leporius, and one Tymothe, partly by subtile allegories / and partly by open heresies greatly obscured the glory therof. Anon after there folowed a certē kinde of monkery / Mōkeswith an heape of ceremonies / but yet w^t out blasphemouse supersticions / till Antichrist had fashioned them to his execrable vse. In that age were Fastidius, Doct.Ninianus, Patritius, Bachiarius, Dubricius, Cōgellus, Kentigernus, Iltutus, Dauid, Daniel, Sampson, Eluodugus, Asaphus, Gildas, Beulanus, Elbodus, Dionotus, Samuel, Nennius, & a great sort more / by Christē doctrine the vpholders of the Brittish churche / Helpersy^e cyuyle gouernours for y^e time beinge dissolute & carelesse / as y^e forseyd Gildas very sharply, doth laie it to their charge.

Consequently whā the Barbarouse nacions had subdued the Christen regions of Europa / p. 14specially here ī this realme / Saxōs.y^e heathnish Saxōs the Christen Britaines / for not obeyenge and folowinge Gods wurde y^e time faithfully preached. Than entered in an other swarme of monkes / muche wurse thā the other. For they had their beginnīge of those solitary bretherne / which had fled to the wildernesse in the tyme of persecucion.locustes These lyke laysye locustes sprāge fourth of the pytt bottomlesse. They serued God in lyberte / and were fedde of their owne true labours. These serued Antichrist in bondage / and deuoured vp the labours of other. They were sumwhat ceremoniouse / but these altogyther suꝑsticiouse. Of this lattre swarme / after the first enteraunce of Augustine the Romish mōke, was Egbert, Egwine, Augustine.Boniface, Wilfride, Dūstane, Oswolde, Lāfranck, Anselme, & suche other w^tout nōbre / by whō y^e sincere faithe of the English churche decayed. These were bytter stīgars ī Antichristes cause / yea / terrible accusers & supressers of kinges & of other christē magistrates.accusers These caused y^e sūne / w^c is y^e clere verite of y^e lorde / to apere as sacke clothe made of heare / Apo. 6. placinge in the rowme therof / their owne fantastical doctrines / vaine tradicions / & supersticiouse ordinaūces.Obscurers. So that they made Gods heauenly wurde / to seme to the people / darke / rough / harde / & vnpleasaunt / for their ydle bellyes sake.

Yet denye I it not / but some godly men were amonge them in those dayes. As Beda, Iohan of Beuerle, Alcuinus, Neotus, Hucarius, Serlo, Achardus, Ealredus, Alexander Neckam, Doct.Nigellus, Seuallus, & suche other. Which though they thā erred ī many thinges / yet was not their errour of obstinacie and malice. Than folowed the schole doctours with the .iiij. ordres of frires / very wicked kindes of men / Fryres.and they with their sophisticall sorceryes / poysened vp altogyther / clerely ouerthrowīge the Christen churche / and settinge vp in her place the most filthye sinagoge of Sathan. In that malignaunt assemblye / were false wurshippinges commaūded for Gods holy seruice / and monstruouse buggery for a professed virginite / in our consecrate clergye admitted.Celibatus. Thus were y^e people nus…ed vp frō their yowth in callinge vponupon dead mē and ymages / the preastes and religiouse in the meane time occupied / in all beastly wurkes of y^e fleshe. I hauehave the registre of y^e visitaciōs of y^e cloysters of Englāde / & therfor I knowe it to their cōfusiō.Registr. The mō kes afore their time / ded nomore but mixte the Christē religion w^t the paganes supersticions / p. 15but these fowle lecherouse locustes hauehave bānished the Christen religion altogyther. They hauehave taken vponupon them a power by vertu of trā substanciacion / farre aboue Gods power / Miracles.as of corruptible creatures to make Goddes to be wurshipped / bearinge them a broade with Persicall pōpes as it were / in their gaddīge & gaglinge processions / fitt for wantō gossippes to shewe their selues in their holy daye apparelinges.

Yet were there alwayes some in that miste of palpable darkenesse / y^t smelled out their mischefes / & in part maintened the syncere doctrine / Good men.as Mathew parys / Oclyf / Wickleff / Thorpe / White / Purueye / Pateshulle / Paine / Gower / Chaucer / Gascoigne / Iue / & now in our time Williā Tindale / Iohā frith / Bilneye / Barnes Lambert / & a great sort more. Now truly in this lattre age and ende of the worlde God shewinge great mercy to his elected heritage / hath gathered them togyther from the parels of perdicion / by the voyce of his holye Gospell.Mercye Yea / lyke as by Hieremie the prophete before y^e exile into Babylon / by Iohan Baptist / Christe / & his Apostles before the destructiō of Hierusalē / Callīgeand by the Apostles folowers before the diuisiō and first ruyne and y^e Romish empire / he called his disparsed rēnaunt / so doth he now agayne before his generall comminge to iudgement / all togither his churche of true beleuers / by the godly preachers of thys age.k. Henrye. That wonderfull wurke of God / that noble prince Kynge Henrye the .8. within thys realme by hys royall power assysted / after that he had gyuen an ouerthrowe to the great Golias of Rome / oure most godly souerayne Kynge Edwarde the .6. for hys tyme perfourmyng the same.K. Edwarde.

The fyrst with noble Kynge Dauid / prepared thys buyldynge of the Lorde / but thys other with the wyse Kynge Salomon / to hys power made all thinges very perfyght. And though now after hys death / a Hieroboam parauenture is risen / which will sett vp the golden calues in Samaria / or mayntayne the popysh religyon agayne / in Ymages / Aulters / ydle ceremonyes / and blasphemouse supersticions.A good kynge. Yet doubt I it not / but a faytfull Asa / shall folowe / eyther els a Iosaphat / ā Ezechias / or a myghtye Iosias / which will dissolue those ydolatryes agayne. And as cōcernīg the fornamed Kynge Edwarde / I will recite here / what hys wurthinesse ded for me his most vnwurthie subiect / y^t I shuld amōg others be a collectour also a caller togyther of y^e christē flocke ī thys age.The autor.

VponUpon the .15. daye of August / in y^e yeare from p. 16Christes incarnacion .1552. beynge y^e first daye of my deliueraūce / as God wolde / from a mortall ague / which had holde me longe afore.recouer. In reioyce that hys Maiestie was come ī progresse to Southampton / whiche was .5. myle from my personage of Bysshoppes stocke / within the same coūtye. I toke my horse about .10 of y^e clocke / for very weaknesse scant able to sytt hym / & so came thydre.weake. Betwixt .2. & .3. of the clocke y^e same daye / I drewe towardes the place where as his Maiestie was / and stode in the open strete ryght against the gallerye. Anon my frinde / Iohan fylpot a gentylman / & one of hys preuie chambre / called vntounto him .2. more of his companyōs / which in mouing their heades towardes me / shewed me most frindely coūtenaūces.frendes By one of these .3. the Kynge hauynge informacion that I was there in y^e strete / he marueled therof / for so much as it had bene tolde hym a lytle afore / that I was bothe dead & buried.k. Edwarde. With y^t hys grace came to the wyndowe / and earnestly behelde me a poore weake creature / as though he had had vponupon me so symple a subiect / ā earnest regarde / or rather a very fatherly care.

In y^e same very īstaunt / The lordes.as I hauehave bene sens y^e tyme credibli īfourmed / hys Grace called vntounto hī / y^e lordes of his most honourable coūsell /

In the same very instaunt / as I hauehave bene sens that time credibly infourmed / his grace called vntounto him / Lordes.the lordes of his most honourable counsell / so manie as were than present / willinge them to appoint me to the bishoprick of Ossorie in Irelande. Wherunto they all agreably consentinge / commaunded the letters of my first callinge therunto / by and by to be writtē and sent me. The next daye folowinge / which was the xvj. daye of August / A lettrethe lettre beinge writtē by B. Hamptone / a clarke of the counsell / they very fauourably subscribed to y^e same / in maner as herafter foloweth.

¶The coppie of y^e seyd lettre.

To our very louinge frende / doctour Bale.

After our hartye cōmendacions. For as muche as the kinges maiestie is minded in cōsideratiō of your learninge / wysdome / and other vertuouse qualityes / to bestowe vponupon yow the bishoprick of Ossorie in Irelande / presently voyde / we hauehave thought mete / both to giuegive yow knowledge therof / and therwithall to lete yow vnderstāde / that his maiestie wolde ye made your repayre hyther to the courte / as sone as conueniently ye maye / to thende / that if ye be enclined to embrace this charge / his highnesse maye at your cōminge / gyue suche ordre for y^e farther p. 17procedinge w^t yow herin / as shalbe cōuenient. And thus we bid yow hartely farewell.

From Southāpton the xvj. daye of August. 1552. Your louinge frēdes.

W. Winchestre.

I. Bedford.

H. Suffolke.

W. Northāptō.

T. Darcy.

T. Cheine /

Iohan Gate.

W. Cecill.

And to cōclude / thus was I called / in a maner from deathe / to this office without my expectacion or yet knowlege therof. And thus hauehave ye my vocaciō to the bishoprick of Ossorie in Irelande.vocaciō. I passe ouer my earnest refusall therof / a monethmonth after that / in the kinges maiesties returne to Winchestre / where as I alleged (as I than thought) my lawfull impedimentes / of pouertie / age / and syckenesse / within the bishopes howse there / but they were not accepted.Impedimentes. Than resorted I to the court at London within .vj. wekes after / accordinge to the tenure of the forseyd lettre / and within vj. dayes had althinges perfourmed perteininge to my election and full confirmacion / frely without any maner of charges or expenses / wherof I muche marueled.

On the .xix. daye of decembre / Frelye.I toke my iourneye from Byshops Stoke with my bokes and stuffe towardes Bristowe / where as I tarryed. xxvj. dayes for passage / and diuerse times preached in that worshipfull cytie at the instaūt desyre of the cytiezens.passage. VponUpon the .xxj. daye of Ianuary / we entred into y^e shippe / I / my wyfe / & one seruaūt. And beinge but .ij. nyghtes and .ij. dayes vpō the sea / we arryued most prosperously at Waterforde / ī the coldest time of the yeare / so mercifull was the Lorde vntounto vsus.Waterforde.

In beholdynge the face and ordre of that cytie / I see many abhomynable ydolatryes maī teined by y^e Epicurysh prestes / for their wicked bellies sake. The Communion or Supper of the Lorde / was there altogyther vsed lyke a popysh masse / with the olde apysh toyes of Antichrist / in bowynges and beckynges / knelinges and knockinges / the Lordes deathe after. S. Paules doctrine / neyther preached nor yet spoken of.Idolatours. There wawled they ouer y^e dead / with prodigyouse howlynges and patterynges / as though their sowles had not bene quyeted in Christe and redemed by hys passion / but that they must come after and helpe at a pinche with Requiem Eternam / to delyuer them out of helle by their sorowfull sorceryes.Deceiuers. Whā I had beholden these heathnysh behauers / I seyd vntounto a Senatour of that cytie / that I wele perceyued / that Christe had there no Bishop / neyther yet the Kynges Maiestie of Englande / any p. 18faythful officer of y^e mayer / ī sufferīg so horryble blasphemies.y^e maier The next daye after / I rode towardes Dublyne / & rested y^e night folowīge in a towne called Knocktouer / in y^e howse of maister Adam walshe / my generall cōmissarye for the whole dyocese of Ossorie.

At supper the parish prest / called Syr Philypp / was very seruiceable and in familyar talke described vntounto me y^e howse of the white fryres which sūtyme was in that towne cōcludīge in the ende / A prestey^t the last prior therof called Wyllyam / was his naturall father. I axed him / if y^t were in mariage? He made me answere / No. For that was (he sayd) against his profession. Than counselled I hym / that he neuer shulde boast of it more.whoredome. Whie (sayth he) it is ā honour in this lande / to hauehave a spirituall man / as a byshop / ā Abbot / a Mōke / a Fryre / or a Prest to father. With y^t I greatly marueled / not so much of his vnshamefast talke / as I ded y^t adultery forbiddē of God / & of all honest men detested / shulde there hauehave both prayse & preferremēt / thīking ī processe / for my part / to refourme it. I came at y^e last to Dubline / dublinewher as I founde my cōpanyō maistre Hugh Goodaker y^e Archebishop of Armach elected / & mi olde frynde / M. Dauid Coper ꝑson of calā. Much of y^e people ded greatly reioyce of our cōmīge thidre / thinkī ge by our preachīges / y^e popes suꝑstiōs wolde diminish & the true Christē religiō increace.Idolatryes.

VponUpon the purificacion daye of our ladye / the lorde chancellour of Irelande / sir Thomas Cusake / Chauncellour.our speciall good lorde and earnest ayder in all our procedinges / appoynted vsus to be inuested or cōsecrated / as they call it / bi George the archebishop of Dublyne / Thomas the bisshop of Kyldare / & Vrbane y^e bishop of Duno assisinge him. I will not here describe at large the subtyle cōueyaūce of that greate Epicure y^e archebishop / G. Browne.how he went about to diffarre the daye of our consecracion / that he might by that meanes hauehave preuented me / in takinge vp the proxyes of my bishoprick to his owne glottonouse vse / and in so depriuinge me of more thā halfe my lyuynge for that yeare. As we were comminge fourth / to hauehave recciued the imposicion of handes / Lockwode.accordynge to the ceremonye / Thomas Lockwode (Blockheade he myght wel be called) the deane of the cathedrall churche there / desired the lord chaūcellour very instauntly / y^t he wolde in no wise permyt y^e obseruacion to be done after y^e boke of consecratinge bishoppes / w^c was last set fourth in Englāde by acte of parlement / A trait.alleginge y^t it wolde be both p. 19an occasiō of tumulte / and also that it was not as yet consented to by acte of their parlemēt in Irelande. For whie / he muche feared the newe changed ordre of the cōmunion therin / to hindre his kychin and bellye. The lorde chauncellour proponed this matter vntounto vsus. The archebisshop consented therunto / so ded the other .ij. bishoppes.A Beast Maistre Goodaker wolde gladly it might hauehave bene otherwise / but he wolde not at that time contende there with them.

Whan I see none other waye / I stepped fourth / and sayde.y^e autor If Englande and Irelande be vndre one kinge / they are both bounde to y^e obediēce of one lawe vndre him. And as for vsus / we came hyther as true subiectes of his / sworne to obeye that ordinaunce. It was but a bisshopprick (I sayde) that I came thydre to receiue that daye.An othe Which I coulde be better contented to treade vnderunder my fote there / than to breake frō that promise or othe y^t I had made. I bad them in the ende / sett all their hartes at rest / for came I ones to the churche of Ossorie / I wolde execute nothīge for my part there / page missing accordīge to y^e rules of y^e lattre boke. With page missing lorde chaūcellour right honourably cōmaū page missing y^e ceremonie to be done after y^e boke. Thā page missing asseheaded deane a waie more thā halfecōfpage missing Neyther folowed there any tumulte amonge the people / but eueryevery man sauinge the prestes / was wele contented.A loiterer. Than went the archebishop about that obseruacion / very vnsauerly and as one not muche exercised in that kinde of doynge / specially in the administracion of the lordes holy supper. In the ende the lorde chauncellour made to vsus and to our frendes / a most frendly diner / to saue vsus frō excedinge charges / which otherwise we had bene at that daye.

An agueWithin .ij. dayes after was I sycke agayn / so egerly / that no man thought I shulde hauehave lyued / which malladie helde me till after Eastre. Yet in the meane tyme / I founde a waye to be brought to kylkennie / where as I preached eueryevery sondaye & holy daye in lent / tyll the sondaye after Eastre was fully past / neuer felinge any maner of grefe of my syckenesse / for the tyme I was in the pulpet.Gods wurke. Wherat many men / and my selfe also greatly merualed. Neyther had I for all y^e tyme space / any minde to call for any tē porall profites / which was afterwardes to my no small hynderaunce. From that daye of our consecraciō / I traded w^t myselfe / by all possybylyte to set fourth that doctrine / doctrinewhich God charged his churche with / euer sens y^e beginninge. And thought therw^t in my minde also / A trait.y^t I had p. 20rather that Aethna ded swallowe me vp / thā to maīteine those wayes in religion / which might corrupte the same. For my daily desire is / in y^e euerlastīge schole / to beholde the eternall sonne of God / both here and after this lyfe. And not only to see the fathers / fathers.prophetes and Apostles therī / but also for louelove of y^e doctrine / to enioye their blessid feliship herafter. And so muche the rather I traded thus with myselfe / y^t I see than the kinges maiestie / y^e arhebishopp of Canterbury / and the honourable lordes of y^e counsell / so feruētly bēt y^e waye / as to seke y^e peoples helthe in y^e same.Helthe. I thought it therupō no lesse thā my bounde dewtie / to shewe my selfe faithfull / studiouse / & diligēt in y^t so chargefull a functiō.

My first ꝓcedinges in y^t doīge / were these. I earnestly exhorted y^e people to repētaūce for sinne / & required thē to giuegive credite to y^e Gospell of saluacion.ij. principles. To acknowledge & beleue y^t there was but one God / & him alone w^tout any other / sincerely to worship.One Christe To cōfesse one Christe for an ōly sauer & redemer / & to truste ī none other mānis praiers / merites / nor yet deseruīges / but in his alone / for saluaciō I treated at large both of y^e heauenly & politicall state of y^e christē churche / & helpars I foūde none amōge my prebēdaries & clergie / but aduersaries a great nōbre. I preached the Gospell of y^e knowledge & right inuocacion of God / I mayntened the politicall ordre by doctrine / obediēce& moued the cōmens alwayes to obeye their magistrates. But whā I ones sought to distroye the ydolatries / & dissolue the hypocrites yockes / than folowed angers / slaū ders / cōspiricyes / & in the ende the slaughter of men, Much a do I had with the prestes / for y^t I had sayd amonge other / Idoles.y^t the whyte Goddes of their makīge / such as they offered to the people to be worshipped / were no Goddes but ydoles / and that their prayers for the dead procured no redēpciō to the solwes departed / Redempcion of sowles beinge only in Christe / of Christe / & by Christe. I added y^t their office by Christes strayght commaūdement / Preachinge.was chifely to preache / and instruct the people in the doctryne and wayes of God / and not to occupie so muche of the tyme in chauntynge / pypynge / ād syngynge.

Muche were the prestes offēded also / for y^t I had ī my preachīges / Wyueswilled thē to hauehave wiues of their owne / & to leaue the vnshamefast occupienge / of other mēnes wyues / doughters / ād seruaūtes. But heare what āswere they made me alwayes / yea y^e most viciouse mē amōg thē. What shulde we marrie (sayd they) for halfe a p. 21yeare / & so loose our liuynges. Thinke ye not y^t these men were ghostly inspired?Deuylish. eyther yet had knowledge of some secrete mischefe wurkīge in Englāde? I for my part hauehave not a little sens y^t time marueled / whā it hath fallen to my remē braūce. Well y^e truthe is / I coulde neuer yet by any Godly or honest persuasion / bringe any of thē to mariage / Adulterers.neither yet cause them whiche were knowne for vnshamfast whorekepers / to leaue that fylthye & abhomynable occupyenge what though I most earnestly laboured it. But sens that tyme I hauehave consydered by the iugement of the scriptures / that the impenytent ydolatour must therwith be also a fylthie adulterer or most detestable sodomite.Sodomites. It is his iust plage. Rom. 1. We can not stoppe it. Lyke wyse the dissemblinge hipocrite / in cōtemning Gods truthe / must nedes folowe errours and lyes in the doctrine of deuyls. 1. Timot. 4. to hauehave in y^e ende the greatter confusion. Lete him y^t is wicked (sayth y^e Angell to S. Iohan) become more wicked / and he that is filthie / Wickedbecome more filthye / that hys damnacion maye be the depar / & his sorowes extremer. Apoca. 22.

The lord therfor of his merciemercy / sende discipline w^t doctrine / into his church.doctrine For doctrine w^t out discipline & restraint of vices / maketh dissolute hearers. And on the other syde / discipline without doctrine / maketh eyther hipocrites / or els desperate doars.Discipline. I hauehave not written this in disprayse of all y^e prestes of Kylkēnye or there about. For my hope is y^t some of them by thys tyme are fallen to repentaunce / though they be not manye. An other thinge was there / y^t muche had dyspleased the prebendaryes and other prestes.Prestes I had earnestly / euer sens my first comminge / requyred them to obserue and folowe y^e only boke of cōmen prayer / whych the kynge & hys coūsell had that yeare put fourth by acte of parlement. But that wolde they at no hāde obeye / Excusesallegynge for their vayne and ydle excuse / the lewde example of the archebysshop of dublyne / whych was alwayes flacke in thynges perteyninge to Gods glorie / allegīge also the wāt of bokes / and that their owne iustices and lawers had not yet cōsented therunto.Iustices As though it had bene lawfull for their iustices to hauehave denyed y^e same / or as though they had rather hauehave hanged vpō thē / than vponupon the kinges autorite and cōmaundement of his coūsell.

In the weke after Eastre / whan I had ones preached .xij. sermons amōge thē / and established the people / sermōs.as I thought / in the doctrine of repentaūce and necessarie beleue of the Gospell p. 22in the true worshyppynges of one God our eternall father & nomore / ād in y^e hope of one redemer Iesus Christe and nomore. I departed from Kylkēnie to ā other place of myne .v. myles of / called Holmes court / where as / I remained tyll the assension daye.Holmes Court. In the meane time came sorowfull newes vntounto me that M. Hugh Goodacker the Archebishop of Armach / that godly preacher and virtuouse learned mā / was poysened at Dubline / by procurement of certen prestes of his diocese / for preachinge Gods verite & rebukinge their cōmen vices.Poison. And letters by & by were directed vntounto me / by my speciall frindes from thens / to be ware of the like in my diocese of Ossorie / which made me parauēture more circūspect thā I shulde hauehave bene.Kilkennie. Vpō y^e assenciō daye I preached agaī at Kilkennie likewyse on Trinite sondaye / & on S. Peters daye at midsomer than folowinge.

On the xxv daye of Iuly / y^e prestes were as plesauntly disposed as might be / and went by heapes from tauerne to tauerne / to seke the best Rob dauie and aqua vite / which are their speciall drinkes there.A Ioie. Thei cawsed all their cuppes to be filled in / with Gaudeamus in dolio / the misterie therof ōly knowne to them / and at that time to none other els.

K. Edward.Which was that Kynge Edwarde was dead / and that they were ī hope to hauehave vp their maskynge masses againe. As we hauehave in S. Iohns Reuelaciō that they which dwell on the yearth (as do our earthly minded masmongers) shulde reioyce and be glad / whan Gods true witnesses were ones taken awaye / and shulde sende gyftes one to an other for gladnesse / Giftes.because they rebuked them of theyr wycked doynges / Apca. xj. For ye must consydre that the prestes are commēly the first that receiue suche newes. The next daye folowinge / a very wicked iustice called Thomas Hothe / with the lorde Moūtgarret / resorted to the Cathedrall churche / requyrynge to hauehave a Communiō / in the honour of S. Anne.Idolat. Marke the blasphemouse blyndenesse and wylfull obstinacie of thys beastly papyst. The prestes made hym answere / that I had forbydden them that celebracion / sauynge only vponupon the sondayes. As I had in dede / for the abhomynable ydolatries that I had seane therin.O Satā I discharge you (sayth he) of obedience to your Bishop in this point / & cōmaūde yow to do as ye hauehave done heretofore / which was to make of Christes holy cōmuniō an ydolatrouse masse / & to suffre it to serue for y^e dead / cleane contrarye to the Christen vse of the same.

p. 23Thus was the wicked iustice / not only a vyolatour of Christes institucion / A traitour.but also a contempner of his princes earnest commaūdement / and a prouoker of the people by his vngraciouse example to do the lyke. Thys coulde he do whith other mischefes more / by his longe beynge there by a whole monthes space / but for murthers / theftes / ydolatryes / and abhominable whoredomes / wherwith all that nacion habūdeth / for that time he sought no redresse neyther appointed any correction.Wicked The prestes thus reioycing y^t the Kinge was dead / & y^t they had bene that daye cōfirmed in their supersticiouse obstinacie / resorted to the forseyd false iustice the same night at supper / to gratifye him with Rob Dauye and Aqua vite / T. hothfor that he had bene so frendly vntounto them / & that he might styll cōtinue in the same. The next daye after was the Ladye Iane Gylforde proclamed their Quene / with solemnite of processions / bonefyres / and banquettes / the seyd iustice / as I was infourmed / Blamedsore blamynge me for my absence that daye / for in dede I muche doubted that matter.

So sone as it was there rumoured abrode y^t y^e Kynge was departed frō this lyfe / kearnesy^e ruffianes of y^e wilde nacyon / not only rebelled agaīst the English captaines / as their lewde custome in suche chaunges hath bene alwayes / chefely no English deputye beinge within the lande / but also they conspired into the very deathes of so many English men and women / as were left therin alyue.English Myndinge / as they than stoughtly boasted it / to hauehave set vp a kinge of their owne. And to cause their wilde people to beare y^e more hate to our naciō / very subtilly but yet falsely / they caused it to be noysed ouer all / that the yonge Earle of Ormonde / and Barnabe the barne of vpper Ossories sonne / were both slaine in the court at London.Rumours. VponUpon this wylye practise of myschefe / they raged without ordre in all places / and assaulted the English fortes eueryevery where.

And at one of them by a subtyle trayne / they gote out .ix. of our men and slewe them. On the .xiij. daye of August / mastres Kinge.a gentill woman / the wyfe of Mathew kinge / hauynge a castell not farre of / her husbande than beinge at London / fleddde with her familie and goodes in cartes towardes the forseid kilkennye / and in the hygh waye was spoyled of all / to her very petycote / by the kearnes & galoglasses of the forenamed barne of vpper Ossorie Mihell patricke and of y^e lorde Mountgarret / Tirauntes.which ought rather p. 24to hauehave defended her. In this outrage had she after longe cōflicte w^t those enemyes .iiij. of her cōpanie slain, besides other mischefes more.

On the .xx. daye of August / was the ladye marye with vsus at kylkennye proclamed Quene of Englande / Fraunce and Irelande / Marie.with the greatest solempnyte that there coulde be deuysed / of processions / musters and disgysinges / all the noble captaynes and gentilmē there about beinge present.Cōpulsion. What a do I had that daye with the prebendaryes and prestes abought wearinge the cope / croser / and myter in procession / it were to muche to write.

I tolde them earnestly / whan they wolde hauehave cōpelled me therunto / that I was not Moyses minister but Christes / Gods wurde.I desyred them that they wolde not cōpell me to his denyall / which is (S. Paule sayth) in y^e repetinge of Moyses sacramētes & ceremoniall sohaddowes Gal. v. w^t y^t I toke Christes testamēt in my hāde / & wēt to y^e market crosse / y^e people in great nōbre folowinge. There toke I the .xiij. chap. of S. Paule to y^e Roma. declarīge to thē breuely / what y^e autoritie was of y^e worldly powers & magistrates what reuerēce & obediēce were due to y^e same. In y^e meane tyme had the prelates goten .ij. disgysed prestes / one to beare the myter afore me / ij. maskers.and an other the croser / makinge .iij. procession pageauntes of one. The yonge men in the forenone played a Tragedye of Gods promises in the olde lawe at the market crosse / with organe plainges and songes very aptely. In the after none agayne they played a Commedie of sanct Iohan Baptistes preachinges / Comedies.of Christes baptisynge and of his tēptacion in the wildernesse / to the small contentacion of the prestes and other papistes there.

On y^e thursdaye next folowinge / which was S. Bartylmewes daye / I preached agayne amonge them / Last sermon.bycause the prebendaryes and other prestes there / had made their boastes / that I shulde be compelled to recante all that I had preached afore. And as I was entered into the pulpet / I toke this sainge of S. Paule for my thema. Non erubesco Euangelium. Virtus enim Dei est, in salutem omni credenti, &c. I am not ashamed of the Gospell.Gospell And whie? For it is the power of God into saluacion / to all them that beleue it. Rom. 1. Than declared I vntounto thē / all y^t I had taught there sens my first cōming thydre / the iustice bothe beīge present. As y^t our God was but one God / & ought alone to be be worshipped.Christe And y^t our Christe but was one Christe / & ought alone to be trusted to p. 25for redēpciō of sinne. I earnestly charged y^e people / to rest vponupon these ij. principles firmely / as vponupon the chefe stayes of their saluacion / as they wolde answere it at the dredefull daye / and not to suffre themselues to be led by a contrariouse doctrine of deceytfull teachers / into any other beleue from thēs fourth. Item concerninge y^e sacrament of Christes bodye and bloude / wherī they had bene most ꝓdigiously abused / through the vnsaciable couetousnesse of the prestes.Sacrament. I required them very reuerētly to take it / as a sacrament only of Christes deathe / wherby we are redemed and made innocent mēbres of hys misticall bodye / and not to worship it as their God / as they had done / to the vtter derogacion of his heauenly honour.No worship. And as I came in the Vsuall prayer / to remembraunce of the dead. I willed thē to gyue harty thankes to God / for their redempciō in Christe / largely declaringe y^t the sowles of y^e righteouse were in y^e hande of his mercye without cruell torment. Sap. 3. & y^t the prestes with all their masses & funerall exequies / coulde nothīge adde to their redēpciō / if they had bene otherwise bestowed.Funerals.

After the prayer / I toke y^e Gospell of y^e daye. Beati oculi qui vident quae vos videtis, &c. Luce. 10. Wherī I was occasioned to speake of certē degrees of mē / as of kinges / ꝓphetes / lawers / iusticiaryes / & so fourth. As y^t the kinges were desierouse to see Christe / the ꝓphetes to enbrace hī / y^e swellinge lawers to rise vp agaīst him and to tempte him / and the ambiciouse iusticiaries to toye with him and to mocke him. The wounded mā to hauehave nede of him / the woū ded mā.the preste to shewe no compassion / the leuite to ministre no mercye / and last of all the contēptuouse Samaritaine to exercise all the offices of pitye / louelove / beniuolence / and liberall mercye / vponupon the same wounded creature.

As to resort to him / fauourably to see hī / with layser to beholde him / to hauehave compassion on hym / to bynde vp hys woundes / to poure in oyle and wyne / Iesus.to sett him on his owne beaste / to brynge hym to a place of confort / finaly to socour him and to paye his whole charges. All these matters I declared there at large / which were now to muche to repete here againe. The same daye I dined w^t y^e mayer of y^e towne / whome they name their suffren / called Robert Shea / a man sober / wise / and godly / which is a rare thinge in that lande.R. shea.

In the ende of our dyner / certen prestes resorted / Disputacion.and began very hotely to dispute w^t me cōcerninge their purgatorye & suffrages for the p. 26dead. And as I had alleged y^e scriptures prouī ge Christes sufficiēcie for y^e sowles discharge afore God / w^tout their dirtie deseruinges. They brought fourth / as semed to them / cōtrary allegacions / y^t there shulde apere no truthe in those scriptures. As S. Paule prophecied of thē.s. Paule Rō. 1 That suche as they were / shulde seke to turne the veryte of God into a lye. And whan I had ones deprehended chem in that theuerie / and agreed both our alleged scriptures / to the mayntenaūce of my first princyple / to their manifest reproche. I demaūded of them / what a Christē mānys office was / whan suche a scripture was vttered / as neyther mā nor angell was able to denie any truthe therof?Offyce. But they made me none answere. Than sayde I vntounto them. Ye hauehave set me fourth a newe lesson / and taught me this daye / to knowe a good mā frō an hipocrite / & to discerne a true Christiane frō a wicked papist. The good man (sayd I) beleueth a truthe in y^e scriptures / y^e hipocrit denieth it / ij. sortesy^e christiā ēbraceth it / y^e papist doubteth & disputeth against it / as ded y^t deuill ī y^e wildernesse w^t Christe / whā he sought by one scripture to cōfoūde an other.

The next daye I departed frō thens & went home w^c my cūpanye to Holmes court agayne.Holmes court.

Where as I had knowledge the next daye folowinge / that the prestes of my diocese / specially one Sir Richarde Routhe / treasurer of the churche of Kylkēnie / and one Sir Iames Ioys a familiar chaplaine of mine / Barnabe Bolgar.by y^e helpe of one Barnabe Bolgar / my next neibour & my tenaūt at the seyd holmes court / had hired certen hearnes of the lorde Moūtgarret / and of the barne of vpper Ossorie / whom they knewe to be most desperate theues and murtherers / to slea me. And I am in full beleue / that this was not all without their knowleges also / for so muche as they were so desierouse of my landes in diuerse quarters / and coulde neyther obteine them by their owne importunate sutes / nor yet by the frendeshipp of others.tiraūtes As for the lorde Mountgarret / I suspect him by this.

An horse grome of his / withan other of his brechelesse gallauntes besides / came into my court one daye / ij. theues.and made a stought bragge amonge my seruauntes / that he wolde both steele my horses / as it is there reckened no great faulte to steele / and also that he wolde hauehave my heade if I came abroade.

I sent my seruaunt vntounto him / not as one desierouse to be reuenged / but to knowe what cause his grome had / to vttre so muche malice.Malice. Yea / I afterwarde complayned therof my selfe / to p. 27his owne persone / & had but a slendre answere / with no redresse at all. The Barne of vpper Ossorie / molested my pore tenaūtes in the quarter wher as he dwelte / most maliciously / & Barnabe Bolgar maryed his yonge doughter to one of those murtherers / A thefe.called Grace gracelesse / to helpe y^e matter forwarde. For he thought by that meanes to hauehave y^e full occupienge of Holmes court yet ones agayne.

On the thursdaye after / which was the last daye of August / I beinge absent / y^e clergie.the clergie of Kylkennie / by procurement of that wicked iustice hothe / blasphemously resumed agayne the whole papisme / or heape of supersticions of the bishop of Rome / to the vtter contempte of Christe and his holye wurde / of the kinge and counsell of Englande / and of all Ecclesiasticall and politike ordre / without eyther statute or yet proclamacion.Rebellions. They ronge all y^e belles in y^e cathedrall minstre and parrish churches / they flonge vp their cappes to the battlement of the great temple / with smylinges and laughinges most dissolutely / the iustice himselfe beinge therwith offended. They brought fourth their coopes / candelstickes / holy waterstocke / crosse and sensers.ꝓcessiō ▪ They mustered fourth in generall procession most gorgiously / all the towne ouer / with Sancta Maria ora pro nobis / & y^e reest of y^e latine Letanie. They chattered it / they chaunted it / with great noyse and deuocion. They banketted all y^e daie after / for y^t they were deliuered from the grace of God into a warme sunne. For they maye now from thens fourth / Deceyuers.againe deceiue the people as they ded afore tyme / with their Latine mōblīges / and make marchaundice of thē. 2. Petre. 2. They maye make y^e witlesse sort beleue / y^t they cā make eueryevery daye newe goddes of their lyttle whyte cakes / & y^t they cā fatche their frindes sowles frō flaminge purgatory / if nede be / w^t other great miracles els.sowles.

They maye now without checke / hauehave other mennes wiues in occupiēge / or kepe whores in their chambers / whoresor els playe the buggery knaues / as they hauehave done alwayes / and be at an vttre defiaunce with mariage / though it be the institucion of God / honourable / holye / righteouse / and perfight.

I wryte not this without a cause / for whie / there where some amonge thē / w^c boasted both of this and muche more / to vayne to be tolde.Shamelesse. And whan they were demaunded / how they wolde afore God / be discharged?

They made answere / that eare confession was able to burnish them agayne / and to make thē p. 28so white as snowe / though they thus offended neuer se oft. And one of them for example / was the dronken bishop of Galwaye / a bishopwhich besides these vncomly bragges / furiosly boasted in the howse of one Martine a faithfull Italiane ād seruaunt to the Earle of Ormonde / and in other howses more / that y^e bishop of Rome was the heade supreme of the christē churche in earthe / and shulde so be proclamed in Irelande / the seyd Martin as Gods true frinde rebukīge him for it.martin. The exercise of this beastly bishop / is none other but to gadde frō towne to towne ouer the English part / Confirmacion.confirminge yonge children for .ij. pens a pece / without examinacion of their Christē beleue / contrary to the christē ordinaunces of Englande / and at night to drinke all at Rob Dauye and Aqua vite / like a mā. To whome for a page missingke now of late / a Galoglasse of the lande brought hys dogge wrapped in a shete with .ij. pens about his necke / to hauehave him confirmed / amōge neybers children.a dogge confirmed. In this he noted this beastly bishop / more fitt to confirme dogges / thā christen mēnes childrē.

On the frydaye next folowinge / which was the eyt daye of Septembre .v. of my howsholde seruaūtes / Rytchard Foster a deacō / v, seruaunts.Rycharde Headley / Iohā Cage / an Irish horsegrome / and a yonge mayde of .xvj. yeares of age / wēt out to make haye abought halfe a myle of / betwixt .viij. & .ix. of the clocbe / after they had serued God accordīge to y^e daye. And as they were come to y^e enteraūce of that medowe / Al slainethe cruell murtherers / to y^e nombre of more than a score / leaped out of their lurkynge busshes with sweardes and with dartes / ād cowardly flewe thē all vnarmed & vnweaponed / without mercye. This ded they in their wicked furye / as it was reported / for y^t they had watched so lōg afore / yea / an whole month space they saye / and sped not of their purpose concernīge me.Theues They fellonously also robbed me of all my horses / and of all maistre Coopers horses / whiche that tyme soiourned with me for sauegarde of hys lyfe / to the nombre of vij. dryuynge them afore them. In the after none / abought .iij. of the clocke / the good Suffreu of Kylkennye hauinge knowledge therof / iiij. hondred.resorted to me with an hondred horsemē / & iij. hondred fotemen / ād so with great strengthe brought me that nyght to the towne / the yonge men syngynge psalmes and other godly songes all the waye / in reioyce of my deliueraunce.

Kilkennie.As we were come to the towne / the people in great nōbre stode on both sydes of the waye p. 29both within the gates and without / with candels lyght in their hādes / shoughting out prayses to God for deliuerynge me from the hādes of those murtherers. The prestes the next daye to colour their myschefe / caused it to be noysed all the contrary ouer / that it was by the hande of God that my seruaūtes were slayne / for that they had broken (they sayde) y^e great holye daye of our Ladyes natiuite.A colour But I wolde fayne knowe / what holy dayes those bloudthurstye hypocrites / and malyciouse murtherers kepte / which had hyred those cruel kearnes to do that myschefe? O abhomynable traytours / both to God and to all godly ordre.Hipocrites. Ye here cōmende murther / vndre a colour of false religyon / to hyde your owne myschefes to the eyes of the people / but the eyes of God ye can not deceyue. Youre horrible slaughter must now be Gods doinge / and yet was it the deuyll that sett ye a wurke. Ye prate here of y^e obseruaciō of y^e holi daye / which neuer yet kepte the holy daye as it shulde be kepte. For ye neuer yet preached the wurde of God truly / neither mynystred the sacramentes ryghtly / Deceyuers.neyther yet taught the people to honour God purely / and to kepe his cōmaundementes inuiolably / which are the only kepinges of the holy dayes.

But on those dayes more than on any other / ye pampre them vp in all supersticions / false worshippynges / and ydolatryes / to the vtter defilynge both of y^e dayes and of them.ydolatryes. Ye are much offended y^t a good wurke shulde be done on the sabboth daye / as were your forefathers y^e Pharisees / but with whoredome / ydolatrye / blasphemors.dronkēnesse / and slaughter of mē / ye are nothinge at all offended / but wyckedly ye do mainteine thē / as I am able to proue by a thousande of your lewde examples. The natiuite of our Ladye / was at that daye a feast abrogated / by autorite of a Christen Kynge and his whole parlement / and yet you saye / the holy daye is broken / Holy dayes.whan it is no holy daye at all / but as all other dayes are holye to them only whiche are holy through their true obediēce to Gods most holy wurde. Ye had kepte the daye much holyar in my oppinyon if ye had in the feare of God obeyd the cōmaundement of your christen Kynge. Where as in disobeynge the same / ye hauehave resisted the holy ordinaunce of God for a supersticyon / procuringe therby to your selues damnacion.christes natiuite Roma. 1. Christe our heauēly maistre and redemer / was wele contented that his most holy natiuite gaue place to an heathnysh Emprours obedience. Luc. 2. And yow disdaine p. 30that daye to obeye a most christen kynge / counsell / & parlement / & yet ye are not ashamed to boast it / y^t ye kepte the daie holye. O right Antichristes. On y^e daye next folowīge which was saturdaye / tresurerin the afternone y^e forseid treasurer a man vnlearned and therwith an outragiouse whorekepar / resorted to me with a nombre of prestes / to tempte me like as Sathā ded Christe in y^e wildernesse / sauing y^t Sathā to Christe offered stones / & that temptinge treasurer both apples & wyne. And as they had than cōpassed me in rounde about / temptacion.y^e seid treasurer proponed vntounto me / y^t they were all fully mīded to hauehave solempne exequies for kynge Edwarde lately departed / lyke as y^e quenes highnesse had had thē in Englāde. I axed them / how that was? They made me answere / with a Requiem masse & Dirige. Than axed I of them agayne / who shulde singe y^t masse?a masse. And they answered me / y^t it was my bounde dewtie to do it / beinge their byshop Than sayde I vntounto them. Massinge is an office appointed of that Antichriste the bishopp of Rome / to whome I owe no obediēce / neither will I owe him any so longe as shall lyue.To preache. But if ye wyll hauehave me there / to do that office / which Christe the sonne of God hath earnestly cōmaū ded / whych is to preache hys holy Gospell / I will do it with all my harte.

No sayde they / we will hauehave a solempne masse / for so had the Quene.Requiē. By my trouth sayde I / than must ye go seke out some other chaplayne. For truly of all generacions I am no massemongar. For of all occupacions me thinke / it is most folish.Massinge. For there standeth the preste disgysed / lyke one that wolde shewe some cōueyaūce or iuglyng playe. He turneth his back to y^e people / and telleth a tale to the walle in a forē language.Toyes. If he turne his face to thē / it is eyther to receiue the offering / eyther to desyre thē to giuegive him a good wurde / with Orate pro me fratres for he is a poore brother of theirs / eyther to byd them God spede / with Dominus vobiscū / for they get no part of his banket / eyther els to blesse them with the bottom of the cuppe / with Benedictio Dei / whā all the brekefast is done. And of these feates (sayd I) can I now lyttle skille.Blessinges. With that the Treasurer beynge in hys fustene fumes / stoughtely demaunded a determinate answere / as though he came not thydre without autorite. Than suspected I somwhat the wickednesse of iustice hothe and such other Notwithstandinge I axed hī ones again / what profyght he thought the Kynges sowle to hauehave of those funerall exequies?Iustice. Hothe. Than āswered one p. 31of the prestes / y^t God knewe wel inough what he had to do. Yet you must appoint hī? sayde I

If these youre suffrages be a waye for him to heauen / & that he can not go thydre w^tout thē / ye are muche to blame / that ye hauehave diffarred them so longe.To blame. Ye had (sayd I) a commaūdement the last saterdaye / of the iustice hothe / to hauehave solempnised them y^t nyght and the next daye after. But the deuyll which that daye daū sed at Thomas towne (for they had a processiō with pageaūtes) and the aqua vite & Kob Dauie withall / wolde not suffre ye than to do thē.ꝓcessō. I desire yow / considering that the last sondaye ye differred them to see the deuill daūce at Thomas towne / that ye will also this sondaie differre them / tyll suche tyme as I sende to y^e Quenes cōmissioners at Dublyne / to knowe how to be discharged of the othe which I made to y^e Kynge and hys counsell for abolyshement of that popish masse.Cōmissiones. For I am loth to incurre y^e daunger of periurie. With that after a fewe wurdes more / they semed content / and so departed. The next daye came thydre a proclamacion / that they which wolde heare masses / shulde be suffered so to do and they that wolde not / shulde not trerunto be compelled.Proclamacion.

Thus was that buyldynge clearly ouerthroowne / and that practyse of blasphemye wolde not take at that tyme / as God wolde

And as I had continued there certen dayes / I chaunced to heare of manye secrete mutteringes / that the prestes wolde not so leaue me / but were styll conspiringe my deathe.Mutteringes.

It was also noysed abroade / by the bishop of Galwaye and others / that the Antichrist of Rome / shulde be taken agayne for the supreme heade of the churche of Irelande.

a chāge.And to declare a contemptuouse chaunge from religion to supersticion againe / the prestes had sodainly set vp the aulters and ymages in the cathedrall churche. Beholdinge therfor so many inconueniences to ensewe / and so many daungers towarde / hauinge also (which was worst of all) no English deputie or gouernour within the lande to complaine to for remedie / deputieI shoke the dust of my fete against those wicked colligyners and prestes accordinge to Christes commaundement / Math. 10. that it might stande against them as a witnesse at the daye of iudgement. The next daye early in the morninge by helpe of frendes / I cōuayed my selfe awaye to the castell of Lechline / To Lechlin.and so fourth to the cytie of Dubline / where as I for a certen time amonge frendes remayned.

p. 32As the Epicurouse archebishop / had knowlege of my beīge there / olde George.he made boast vponupon his ale benche w^t the cuppe in his hāde / as I hearde the tale tolde / y^t I shulde for nomānis pleasure / preache in y^e cytie of his. But this neded not. For I thought nothinge lesse at y^t time / than to poure out y^e preciouse pearles of y^e Gospell afore so brockish a swine as he was / becōmīge thā of a dissēblīge ꝓselite / a very ꝑniciouse papist.a papist And as towchinge learnīge / wherof he muche boasted amōge his cuppes / I knowe none y^t he hath so perfightly exercised / as he hath y^e knowne practises of Sardinapalꝰ. For his preachinges twise in y^e yeare / of y^e plough mā in wīter / by Exit qui seminat / & of y^e shepeherde ī somer / ij. sermonsby Ego sū pastor bonꝰ / are now so wele knowne by rott of eueryevery gossipp ī Dubline y^t afore he cōmeth vp into y^e pulpet / they cā tell his sermō. And as for his wife / if y^e mariage of prestes endureth not / he hath already prouided his olde shifte of conueyaūce / by one of his seruaūtes.olde shifte. But I wolde wishe y^t amonge other studies / he remēbred olde debethes at Londō for surgerie. For ywys there is yet some moneie to be paied, and an Irish hobby also by promise.

About thre yeares ago / he made interpellacyon to the Kynge in hys lente sermon / for his daughter Irelande / but now he commaundeth her to go a whoringe aganie / and to folowe the same deuyll that she folowed afore.Daughter. For that he ded than / was but only to serue the time. He neded lyttle than / to hauehave accused sir Antony Sellenger of treason / Accusacion.if ye marke him wele now / but that he thought by suche cōueyaunce to winne estimacion / and to obtayne the hygh primacie of Irelande from the archebisshoprycke of Armach / as he ded in dede. Full wele bestowed. Suche dissemblinge gluttōs / and swynysh papistes / are a sore plage to that lande / which for their wicked bellyes / make the people beleue / that sower is swete and darkenesse lighte / w^t their aulters / masses / & ymages.Belligods. And y^t causeth me to write this to his shame. The salte (sayth Christe) that is become vnsauerie / is frō thens fourth good for nothinge / but to be cast out at the dores / and troden vndre mennes fete / Math. 5. After certen dayes / w^tin my hosteshowse / a yonge man of Estsexe called Thomas / was comminge and goynge / which for his maisters affayres into Scotlande / had hyred a small shippe / there called a pyckarde.Thomas. I reioyced at the chaūce / as one that had foūde great threasure / and thought it a thinge prouided of God / for my sauegarde and deliueraūce p. 33at that present.Couenaūt. Anō I couenaunted with him / to paye the halfe charges of that shippe / that I might passe thydre with him / and deliuered to him out of hande the more part therof.

I thought at all tymes by him / and by an other whome I there had also hearde of / hauīge their continuall occupyenges thydre / To knowe.to hauehave from tyme to tyme knowlege of the deputyes comminge ouer into Irelande / and so to resort againe to myne owne / in case all thinges were to my minde. As that the tirannouse bishop of Rome had not his primacye and olde doynges there againe / as it had bene boasted he shulde / and that the christen religion gaue not place to blasphemouse papistrie.Papistrie. And as he and I were togyther in the shippe / there tarrienge vpō the tyde for passage / ane Irishe pirate / yea / rather a cruell tiraunte of helle / called Walter / beinge Pylate as they call them / or loades man in a flemmish shippe of warre / made the couetouse Captaine therof to beleue that I was a frēche man / and that I had about me innumerable treasure.Captaine. The Captaine hearinge of this / with an excedīge fearcenesse inuaded our poore shippe / and remoued both the yonge man Thomas and me frō thēs into his great shippe of warre. Where as he searched vsus both to the very skinnes / and toke frō vsus al that we had in moneye / bokes / and apparell.roberie. He toke also from the maistre of our pickarde or lyttle shippe .v. pounde / which I and the seyd Thomas had giuen to him in part of payment / with all his beere and vitayles / notwithstandinge that he ꝑfightly knewe vsus to be English men / & no frenche men.

In the ende I loked fourth of the Captaines cabyne / a howseand behelde a fayre howse / as it had bene a mile from vsus / and axed of the yonge man / whose howse that was? He made me answere / that it was the howse of one maistre Parker / the searcher there. I instauntly desired of the Captayne to be deliuered to him / but in no wise wolde he graunt it. I required anon after / as I behelde a farre of / y^e citye of Dubline / dublineto be brought thydre for my honest tryall (for they had accused me of treason) but it might not be allowed. The next daye after / we came into the hauē of Waterforde / where as also for my tryall / I desired to go a lāde / but in no wyse wolde it be graunted.Halfe seas. After that we passed more than the halfe seas ouer / towardes Cornewale / and were driuen backe againe with so fearce and terrible a tempest / that y^e whole seas to our syght and felinge / went ouer vsus. And as we were come yet ones agayne into the hauen p. 34of Waterforde / I sayde vntounto the Captayne.Waterforde. God hath with violence brought vsus hyther agayne (I perceyue it) that I shulde trye my innocencye. I desyre yow (sayd I) as I hauehave done hertofore / to deliuer me into the cytie of Waterforde / where as I am wele knowne. He refused vtterly so to do / and after certen other talke / he desyred me to content myselfe / and I shulde (he sayde) in the shippe / hauehave althinges to my mynde.Frendeshippe. Whie (sayde I) ye go not my waye / neither is it fitt for me to seke for pryses and to go a roauinge as yow do / but to sattle my selfe sumwhere.

Sens ye came to our shyppe (sayde he) I hearde yow wishe yourselfe in Duchelande / & I promise yow / we will honestly brynge yow thydre / and not longe tarry by the waye.Duchelande. My chaunce was in dede / to fynde there amonge them / an Hollander / called Leonarde / which knewe me in Nortwyck / with maistre Iohan Sartorius. To him ī familiar talke / I had wished myselfe there at that present.A wishe But how will ye leade me (sayde I to the Captaine) as ye hauehave done hytherto / like a captyue prisoner / or lyke a free passenger? No / sayde he / I take ye now for no prisoner / but for a mā of worshipp / and for a most honest passenger / and so will I deliuer yow there. But all this time he had my moneie in his owne kepinge.moneye Within .ij. dayes after / we were driuē īto S. Iues ī Cornewale / by extremite of wether. Where as the forseid wicked pyrate Walter / get him a lande afore vsus / so fast as euer he coulde / & accused me there for an haynouse traitour / yea / for suche a one / as for that cause had fledde out of Irelande.Accusacion.

And to bringe his wicked purpose to passe / of winninge sumwhat by me / for he thought than to hauehave halfe my moneye which was in y^e Captaines handes / he fatched thidre one Downinges from .vij. myles of / downinges.by the coūsell of the mariners of that towne / which was noysed to be y^e most cruell termagaūt of y^t shire / yea / suche a one as had bene a begynnar of the last commociō there / both to examine me & apprehēde me.

And as I was commen to that examinacion before one of the baylyfes / Examined.the constables / and other officers / I desired the seyd balyfe / apearinge to me a very sober mā / as he was in dede / to axe of the seyd Walter / how longe he had knowne me / and what treason I had done sens that tyme of his knowlege?Walter He answered / that he neuer sawe me / neyther yet had hearde of me / afore I came into that shippe of warre a iiij. or .v. dayes afore. Than sayde the baylife. p. 35What treason hast thu knowne by this honest gentelman sens? For I promise the / he semeth to be an honest man. Marry sayde he / he wolde hauehave fledde into Scotlāde. Whie saith the baylyfe / and knowest thu any impediment / wherfor he ought not to hauehave gone into Scotlande?Scotlande. No / sayde the fellawe / but he was goinge toward Scotlande. If it be a treason (sayth the baylyfe) to go towardes Scotlande / a man hauinge businesse to do there / it is more than I knewe afore. And truly (sayth he) than are there manie traitours abroade in the worlde. Good fellawe (said he) take hede y^t thy groūde be good / in accusinge this man / els art thu wurthie to suffre due ponnishiment for it.y^e thrust of Iudas. For thu doest it els vponupon some other affection / than desire of right. With that he stode still / and was able to saye nothinge / for he was as dronke as an ape / in hope of a bone viage.

Than came in the Captaine and his purser / and reuiled the seyd Walter / reportinge him to be a very noughtye fellawe / and a commen drō karde / and that I was a very honest man.Walter a dronkarde. For they feared at that tyme / the discharge of my moneye out of their handes / I offeringe my selfe / for my tryall against him / to be brought to the sessions / which were than not farre of. Thā sayde the forseid Downinges in great displeasure.Downinges. Gods sowle / what do I here? This is but a dronken matter / by the masse. And so went his waye in a fume / and for anger wolde not ones drinke with vsus. So that I went clere awaye in this prodygiouse conflict. The next daye beinge sondaye / I resorted to the temple / to see the fashions there.y^e tēple. As the peales were all ended / they sange / mattens / houres / holy water makinge / & masse / all in Latine. Nothinge was there in English but the poore Letanie / which the preste / a stought sturdie lubber sayde with least deuocion of all / A chāgemuche of the people lamentinge to beholde so miserable a mutaciō / and saienge. A fore time might we hauehave learned sumwhat by our comminge to the churche / but now nothynge at all to our vnderstandynge. Alas / what shall become of vsus?

y^e presteAfter dyner / that preste resorted vntounto vsus / as bolde as great Hercules / & after a little talke / fell to flat raylinge of good Myles Couerdale their bishop after this sort. Where is that heretyke knaue now (sayth he) and other of his companions / vagabondes / apostataes / and rū negates? With other vncomly wurdes. And as I was bent to hauehave made him an answere / A godly man.a gentilman of the cōtraie therabout / rubbed me p. 36on the elbowe / and bad me in mine eare / to lete him alone / and I shulde heare wonders. And the seyde Gentilman brought him into an other talke of olde familiaritees. Wherī he cōfessed / that he had in one daye / bygettē .ij. mennis wyues / of that parishe with childe / to encreace the churches profyght in crisyms and offeringes / where as their husbādes were not able to do it.A good curate. Yea / mary sir / Iames sayth the Gentilman / & ye hauehave done more miracles than that. Went ye not one daye a fishinge? sayth he. Yes by y^e masse ded I / sayde the preste againe / and made the fyshes more holye than euer the whoresons were afore.A howsellar of fyshes. For I sent out my maker amonge them / whome I had that daye receyued at the aulter. By the masse (quoth he) I was able to holde him no longar. Sens that daye / I am sure (quoth he) that our fyshars hath had better lucke / than euer they had afore.

Thus whan he had raged / by the space of more than an houre / the last peale callinge him thens to euēsonge / y^e Gentilmā sayde vntounto me.A churchemā. These are the ghostly fathers / which now are permitted to be our spirituall gydes. Are not we (sayth he) wele apoynted thynke yow? The lorde be mercyfull to vsus / A plagefor it is sure a plage for our vnthanke fulnesse whyls we had the truthe. Suche lewde bawdye prestes as this is (sayd he) doth wonderfully now reioyce / not for any vertue they loke for / but in hope to be mainteined in liberte of all wickednesse / more than of late dayes.A most vyle knaue. Whan supper was done / certen of the mariners resorted to vsus / declaringe what an vncomly part the preste had played w^t their pypar / as that he had pyssed in his mouthe / beinge gapinge a slepe in the churche after euensonge. This is the bewteouse face of our Irishe and English churches at this present. The poore people are not taught / Mockers.but mocked of their mynysters / their seruauntes abused / their wiues and doughters defyled / and all christen ordre confounded.

As the wether waxed fayre / the Captayne went awaye with the shippe / Lyke himself.and was more thā ij. miles on his waie / mindinge (as it apeared) to hauehave gone awaye with all that I had / moneye / apparell / and bokes / if the winde had serued him wele. The costomers seruaunt / an Irishe man also / beinge admonished by his contreymā Walter / an other Iudas.of my moneye in y^e Captaines handes / came to my lodginge in the morninge / and tolde me therof / thinkinge as I had bene in possession therof / if I had come to lande agayne therwith / to hauehave raysed newe rumours p. 37vponupon me / and so to hauehave depriued me therof. For he shewed himselfe very seruisable in prouidinge me a boate / and in bringinge me to the shippe.Displeased. But whan he ones perceiued / that I wolde not demaunde my moneye of the Captaine / and returne agayne with him / though I gaue him a crowne for his boate and paynes / yet went he awaye in great displeasure / with no small reproches. And at that present / was the forseid Walter bannished the shippe / for his only troublīge of me / so beniuolouse that houre was the Captaine vntounto me.Walter

The next daye after / I demaunded my moneye of the Captaine / and it was very honestly deliuered me / all scysmes / as I thought / pacified.moneie. Howbeit that wretched Mammō / most strongely wrought in the vnquietouse harte of the Captaine / so that continually after that time / he threttened to sett vsus on lande / and maruele it was / that he threwe vsus not both ouer y^e borde. Alwayes were we wele contented / to hauehave gone to lande / Parell.but yet still he droue it of till we came into Douer roade / I not vnderstā dinge the misterie cōcerninge the seyd moneye / as that it was in my hande and not in the Captaines / which marred all the whole matter.roauers In the meane tyme they went a roauinge by a whole wekes space and more. And first they toke an Englishe shippe of Totnes / goīge towardes Britaine and loaden with tinne / and that they spoiled both of ware and moneye vnderunder y^e colour of Frenche mennis goodes. The next daye in the afternone / behelde they .ij. English shippes more / .ij. shippes.whome they chaced all y^e night lōge / and the next daye also till .x. of the clocke / & of them they toke one by reason y^t his topsaile brake / and that was a shippe of lynne. In this had they nothinge but apples / for he went for his loadinge.pirates. After y^t traced they the seas ouer / more than halfe a weke / and founde none there but their owne contray men / beinge men of warre and sea robbers as they were.

at douerAt the last they came to Douer roade / and there wolde the Captaine nedes to lande with his purser. My companion Thomas and I / takinge our selfes for free passengers / desyered to go a lande with them / but that might not be (he sayde) tyll he had bene there afore. Yes / sayth Thomas / I will go a lande / if any man go / for I hauehave nothinge to do here. Thu shalt not go (sayth the Captaine) but I will laye y^e fast by the fete / if thu prate any more.Stoughtly. With y^t one Cornelis stode fourth / and sayde. We are muche to blame / that we hauehave not dispatched p. 38him ere this / and throwne him ouer the borde.a pyrate Than doubted I some mischefe in workinge amonge them. For one Martin an English pyrate / but yet a frenche man borne / beinge sumtyme Tompsons mā and after that Stranguyshes mā / and now one and their vnthriftie nō bre / had made them beleue / that I was he / Shamelesse liesw^c not only had put downe the masse in Englāde / but also I had caused Doctour Gardiner / the bishopp of Winchestre to be kepte so longe in the tower / & y^t also I had poysened (whome I loued & reuerenced aboue all mortall men) the kinge with many other most prodigiouse lyes.

So went y^e Captaine & his purser w^t all these newes a lāde / hauinge also w^t thē my bishoppes seale / & .ij. Epistles sent me frō Conradus Gesnerus, and Alexander Alesius, .ij. Epistles.with commē dacions from Pellicanus, Pomeranus, Philippus Melancthō, Ioachimus Camerarius, Mathias Flacius, and other learned men / desierouse of the English churches Antiquytees and doctrines. Which letters I had receyued at Dubline / the daye afore I came to the shippe / and not yet answered them.No treason. These Epistles and seale / with an other letter sent to me from the counsell of Englande / concerninge my first callinge to that pastorall office / they had taken out of my male / vnknowinge to me. For that they had seane the kinges armes in my seale / as the maner is of byshoppes seales / they layde to my charge the coūterfettinge of the kinges seale / .iij. slaū ders.vponupon the .ij. Epistles / heresie / and vponupon the counsels letter / conspiricie against the Quene / so wele were they ouerseane in that malice for moneye. In Douer amonge all his cuppes / this captaine discouered these matters / as what a man he had gottē in the borders of Irelande / suspiciously passinge ouer from thens towardes Scotlande / with all the reest. And as he had perceiued some of the hearers desierouse of that praie / Craftie.he called a great pece of his tale backe againe / and sayde / that he had sett vsus a lāde at Southamptō / and so letten vsus go. His minde was to hauehave solde me / if any man wolde hauehave offered him a good somme of moneye.

After midnyght he returned agayne to the shippe / pratinge amonge his cumpany / what he had done a lande / and how he had almost lost all / by his busye talke.A great acte. But he had hearde of me (he sayde) muche more than he knewe afore / and he trusted that I shulde be to him and to all the shippe / a ꝓfitable prise. The next daye in y^e mornīge after his first slepe / he arose / and w^t stought coūtenaūce boasted / y^t he wolde p. 39strayght to London with his most daūgerouse carrryage / To London.which were we .ij. poore innocent sowles that had done yll to noman / sauinge that we coulde not beare with the blasphemies of the papistes against God & his Christe. Muche to and fro was amonge them about that passage. In the ende they all concluded / that better it was to tarry still there with y^e shippe / whyls one or .ij. of them went to the counsell of Englande / in massage and came againe / than thidre to trauaile with shippe and all..ij. massengers. To lāde goeth the pursar and an other besides / to hyer their horses towardes Londō / For moūtaines of golde wolde be gottē y^e wayes / they sayde.

As I behelde this madnesse / though I little thā cared for my life / yet saide I to y^e Captaine.Captaine. Maistre Captaine, what do yow meane by these straūge turmoilinges? Thinke ye there is no God? Neither yet a reckeninge to be made at y^e lattre daye / of these mad ꝓcedinges? The time hath bene sens our first metinge / that ye hauehave taken me for an honest passenger / and defended my innocencie against y^e cruell pyrate Walter. How standeth it with equite than / that ye now proclame me / so haynouse a traitour?Equite. I am sure that ye …nowe now nomore by me / than ye ded afore. Your allegacions / that I had put downe the masse / emprisoned Doctour Gardiner / & poysened the kinge / are most false / as all the worlde knoweth. My seale & my other letters are plaine argumentes of my truthe and honest estimacion / of truthand might be to your confusion / if I chaunced to hauehave righteouse hearers. I praie yow therfor in consciēce / that ye tell me / what euyll ye knowe els by me / that ye make here so terrible doynges? I can not see / sayth the Captaine / that ye will be ordered after anye good sort. My only misordre was than / that my moneye was in my purse / and not in his.moneye Wherunto I answered / w^t an hart full of dolour & heauinesse / to beholde mennis so dampnable practises of mischefe for fylthie lucres sake.

I am contented maistre Captaine (sayd I) to be ordered as ye will reasonably hauehave me.ordered. What will ye gyue than (sayde the Captaine) to be deliuered into Flaunders / and our purser to be called againe? I answered / that I wolde gyue / as his selfe wolde with reason and conscience require. If ye had tolde vsus so muche yester night (sayde he) this matter had bene at a point / & we by this tyme had bene in Zelāde.Zelāde. Than was all the rable of the shippe / bag / tag / and rag / called to the reckenīge / rushelinge togyther as they had bene the cookes of helle / p. 40with their great Cerberus / an whole hōdred pounde demaunded for my deliueraunce. In the ende it was concluded / that no lesse might aswage that Hungrye heate than fiftie pounde at y^e least / with this Prouiso / y^t all the moneie which I had in my purse / A ꝓuisowith part of my garmentes also / shulde be out of hande deuyded amōge them and the Captaine / which was .xxj. pounde in the whole. I instauntly desiered / that it might be receyued in part and payment of the other somme.A crye. They cred all with one voice / Naye / we will none of that. Than I besought them / that I might hauehave at the least / an honest porcion therof / for payment of my charges / whils I shulde be prouidinge / of so great a raunsome / as they had layde to me.

In fine they assented / that I shulde hauehave .vj. crownes of myne owne moneye allowed me / for my costes / tyll I had foūde out my frindes.Allowaunce. Than caused the Captaine a pece of ordinaūce to be fiered / and a gunne to be lete / to call backe the purser / and his companion. In whose returne there was muche to and fro. For some wolde nedes to London / thinkinge that waye to winne more / thā to bringe me into Flaunders.Lucre. And of them which wolde into Flaunders / some wolde to lāde for a barrell of drīke / for in the shippe at that time / was neither breade / befe / nor beere. Some feared the comminge of the mayre and Captayne of the castell / for searchinge their shippe. So that our Captaine commaunded them at the last / to hoyse vp the sayles and spedily to passe towardes Flaūders. In the meane tyme was I poore sowle compelled / Faunders.to set my hande to a false bylle of their deuisinge / as that I had hyred their shippe in Irelande for fyftie pounde / to bringe me without delaye or tarriaunce into Zelande. Which I neuer ded / as the almightie lorde wele knoweth / Cōpulsion.but came from thens with them against my will / and was tossed to and fro vponupon the seas / by the space of .xxiiij. dayes / in folowinge prises / as they call their roberies. And I was by y^t time / so full of lyce / as I coulde swarme.

As we came ones thydre / they brought me into the howse of one of the .iiij. owners of the shippe / Lābert.which was a man fearinge God / and his wyfe a woman of muche godlynesse also / which was to me carefull creature / a singular confort prouided of God. The next daye were all the .iiij. owners called to the reckeninge / & a Latyne interpretour wyth them / to knowe howe / where / and whā / this raunsome of fiftye pounde shulde be payde?paymēt. And more than .xxvj. p. 41dayes of layser for the payment therof / might not be graunted. I desiered to hauehave had liberte to go abroade / to seke my frīdes / but that coulde I not obtaine / though it were in my former couenaūt / whan the .vj. crownes were deliuered me. In y^e afternone was it noysed abroade, by the dronken mariners all ouer / Drōkardes.that they had brought suche a one with them out of Irelande / as payed halfe an hondred pounde for his passage / to the wonderinge of all y^e towne. So that my hoste / was fayne to kepe me close in his howse / and to saye both to the mariners and others / that I was gone to Andwerpe / the people there resorted so fast to see me.Resort. They reported there also in their dronkennesse / that I was he which had put downe the masse in Englande / and had throwne Doctour Gardyner into the tower / wytha great sort of lyes and slaunders more.

Thus continued I there / as a prisoner / by the space of .iij. wekes / sumtyme threttened to be throwne in their commen iayle / threttessumtyme to be brought afore the magistrates / sumtyme to be left to the examinaciō of the clergie / sumtyme to be sent to London / or els to be deliuered to the Quenes embassadours at Brucels / but alwayes by Gods prouysyon I had myne hoste and hostesse to fryndes. And beholde a most wondrefull wurke of God.A mōke The persone of the towne / a most cruell monke / a maistre of Louayne / and an inquisitour of heretykes / as they call those Rabyes / the next daye after my comminge / sore syckened / and neuer came out of his bedde so lōge as I was there / which was greatly marked of some of the inhabitauntes / beinge godly affected.Deliberacion. At the last / in deliberatinge the matter / that they requyred so muche moneye of me / and wolde not suffre me to go abroade to seke it / mine hoste bad the Captaine and mariners considre / how farre they had rō ne beyonde the limites of their commission / in mysusynge the English nacion / with whome they had no warre. It maye chaunce herafter (sayth he) depely to be layde to your charges. Therfor by my assent / ye shall agree with this good man for lesse moneye.A frēde. Than were they cō tented to receyue .xxx. pounde / as I shulde be able to paye it / and so to discharge me.

Thus hath my lorde God most miraculously deliuered me from all these daūgerouse parels / and from the gredye mouthes of deuourynge lions / Deliueraunce.into the wurthie lande of Germanye yet ones againe, I hope to y^e glorie of his most holie name / euerlastīge praise be to hī for it. Amē. p. 42Here hauehave ye dere fryndes / a most lyuely and wondrefull example of Gods chastenynges / & of his most gracyouse delyueraunces agayne.Gods wurke. For no chosen chylde receyueth he to enherytaunce / without muche correction. Hebre. 12. The mercyfull lorde throweth downe into helle / and bringeth from thens agayne. 1. Reg. 2. Though Sathan be suffred as whete to syfte vsus for a time / yet faileth not our faithe through Christes ayde / but that we are at all times readye / to confirme the faythe of our weake bretherne / Luce. 22.Faythe. I thought my selfe now of late / for the cares of this lyfe / wele satteled in the bishoprycke of Ossorye in Ireland / and also wele quieted in y^e peceable possessiō of y^e pleasaunt Euphrates / I confesse it. But the lorde of his mercye / wolde not there leaue me / …what though for the small tyme / I was in his vyneyearde / not all an ydell wurkemā / but he hath prouyded me (I perceyue it) to taste of a farre other cuppe.

By vyolence hath he yet ones agayne / as ye in this treatise hauehave redde here / driuen me out of that gloryouse Babylon / that I shulde not taste to muche of her wanton pleasures.Babilō. But with his most derely beloued disciples / to hauehave my inwarde reioyce in the crosse of his sonne Iesus Christe. The glorie of whose churche / I see it wele / standeth not in the harmoniouse sounde of belles and organes / nor yet in y^e glitterynge of miters and coopes / neither in y^e shyninge of gylte ymages and lyghtes / Waresas the blinde bludderinge papistes do iudge it / but in continuall labours and dayly afflyctions for his names sake. God at this present / in Englande hath his fanne in hande / and after his great haruest there / haruest.is now syftinge the corne from the chaffe / blessed shall they be / which perseuer in faythe to the ende. In case without doubt / is Englande now / as was Iewrye / after the heauenly doctryne was there plentuously sowne by Christe and by his Apostles / the true ministers of his wurde beinge partly enprisoned and partly dispersed / as they were.Preachers. God of his great mercye preserue it frō that plage of destructiō / which not only Hierusalē but also y^e whole lande tasted / for their wylfull contempte / of that massage of their saluacyon. Amen.