IV. BOOK ye be not onwilling in such knowlegis to be partaker; and thus present it to your correction and amendment, when your leyser can serve you. In the meane tyme I praye your Lordship to kepe it to your self. As I have made this author a juge of some of my small travels, wherof I send you this one bound, by my man. I am not mynded to suffer them abrode in this quarelous and envious world. I thinke the rather we both used this foresight to suppress our laubors in nonum annum, as Horace counsayleth, rather then to suffer an undigested and tumultuouse collection to be gazed on of many folkes. Indeede because neyther my helthe nor my quiet wold suffer me to be a common preacher, yet I thought it not onfyt for me to be otherwyse occupied in some poyntes of religion. For my meanyng was bi this my pore collection, thus caused to be prynted, (and yet reserved to my self,) to note at what tyme Augustyne, my first predecessour, cam into this land, what religion he brought in with hym, and how it contynued, how it was fortified and increased. Which by most of my predecessours may appeare, as I coud gather of such rare and wrytten authors that cam to my hondes; untyl the dayes of King Henry the VIIIth, when the religion began to grow better, and more agreable to the Gospel. You maye note many vanities in my doinges; but I thought it not agaynst my profession to express my tymes, and gyve som testimonyes to my fellowe-brothers, of such of my coat as were in place in her Majesties reigne, and when I was thus placed. And though ye maye rightly blame an ambitiouse fantasye for setting out our churches armes in colors, yet ye maye relinquyshe the leaffe, and cast it into the fier; as I have joyned it but lose in the boke for that purpose, yf you so thinke it mete, and as ye maye, yf it so please you, (without gret gryef to me,) cast the whole boke the same waye. Which boke I have not govyn to iiii men in the whole realme, and peraventure shal never com to sight abroade, though som men smelling of the prynting of it, seame to be very desirouse cravers of the same. I am content to referre it wholly to your jugement, to stond or to IV. fall. To kepe it by me I yet purpose whiles I lyve, to adde BOOK and to amend as occasion shal serve me, or utterly to suppress it, and to bren it. And thus making your Lordship pryvye to my folyes, and for that I have within my house in wagis, drawers and cutters, paynters, lymmers, wryters, and boke-bynders; I was the bolder to take myn occasion thus, equitare in arundine longa. So spending my wastful tyme within myn own wallys, tyl Almighti God shal cal me out of this tabernacle, which I pray God may be to his glory, and my soule helthe, I saye, ut obdormiam in Domino, et requiescam in pace, in spe resurrectionis cum Christo Servatore meo. Which I beseche Almighti God to send to her Majestie, after this transitory travel, post longitudinem dierum, as I wyshe the same to your Honor, as for my selfe. Hir Highnes is justly offended with this dissolute wryt-146 ing, and entendeth a reformation. Which, if it be not ernestly laubored on your parties, which be supreme jugis, long ago called on, I feare ye shal finde Muncer's commonwelthe attempted shortly, it must nedes followe, wherof Sleydan wryteth in his history. If the lawe of the land be Lib. 5. rejected, yf the Quenys Majesties injunctions, yf hir chapel, yf hir authorytie be so neglected; yf our boke of servyce be so abominable, and such paradoxes applauded too, God send us of his grace; I feare our wytts be infatuated. Deus in plenitudine temporis supplicium sumat. I have forgotten my self to wright thus long to your Honor. God kepe youe, this xiiiith of Maye. Your Honors in Christ, Matth. Cant. Yf these bokes had ben soner fynished, your Honor shuld have had them soner. Number XC. The life of Archbishop Parker, found in some few copies of the book De Antiquitate Britannicâ; intitled Matthæus. IN vulgus sine morâ enuntiata, per omnium ora, celeberrimè frequentissimeque volavit Reginæ Mariæ et Regi 147 BOOK naldi Poli eâdem pæne horâ congruens atque concurrens, IV. mors, quæ nono postea die Romam ipsam suâ celeritate pervenit; pontificiosque de se ac Romanâ superstitione, tam perplexos ac ancipites fecit, ut penitùs ignorarent, quibus crederent, quos caverent. Itaque in Angliâ, ne convenire quidem tutè poterant, sine suspicione et observatione populi. Hoc, Maria regnante, antè effecit, et pontificiorum in veros Christianos immanitas, et Christi martyrum per illos accensa atque flammata strages, quæ permultis ipsius Romanæ superstitionis cultoribus, nec pia, nec humana visa est. Eoque magis, quod in exilium actis, ac proscriptis, vel flamma de letis, Christianam fidem sequentibus, fide verò infirmis, similis pœnæ metu coërcitis, exterorum, seu Hispanorum, seu Belgarum incursio et dominatio, nuptiis inter Philippum et Mariam, (ut antè diximus) constitutis, annuentibus pontificiis, introducta esset. Deinde Regina Elizabetha, post Mariæ sororis suæ, non tamen uterinæ, mortem, omnium desideriis ad regnum administrandum expetita, pontificiorum diu antè vexata carceribus custodiaque publicâ, quasi rea, servata, jam tandem liberata, tantum periculum evasit. Bellumque, quod fractis quinque annorum induciis inter Hispanos et Gallos renovatum est, ob prædictas nuptias Angliam perturbavit, quæ, pontificiis suadentibus, sine causâ se immiscuit, et cum Hispanis contra Gallos se junxit. Unde et Caletum, pontificiorum seu ignaviâ, seu versutiâ amissum est. Sed cum pax satis æquis conditionibus esset ineunda, ac Philippus suas in bello amissas urbes pactionibus recuperâsset, Caletum restitutum non fuit. Tum verò grandis ad hoc infaustum bellum, à plebe accepta mutuo, pecunia reddita non fuit. Ob quas tam paucis annis illatas regno calamitates, pontificii, qui omnia sub Reginâ Maria gerebant malè administratæ, atque adeo expilatæ reip. tacito populi judicio, rei censebantur. Adhæc Paulus Quartus, Pontifex Romanus in hoc bello Gallicarum partium fuit, qui contra Hispanos et Reginaldum capitales diu inimicitias gessisset; Angliamque quæ forte Hispanorum potestati cesserat, sub Gallorum jugo, titulo Mariæ Stuart Scotorum Reginæ, redigere nitebatur. Itaque ne hunc ducem suum pontificii sibi fidum puta- BOOK bant. IV. In quorum rebus tam dubiis et incertis, Regina Elizabeth, summa providentiâ misericordiâque divinâ, à crudeli pontificiorum custodiâ soluta, ad Angliæ imperium evecta est. Huic tantâ pietate et perseverantiâ Reginæ, nihil fuit prius et antiquius, quàm de religione à Romanâ fæce perpurgandâ, et Christianæ integritati restituendâ, curare. Quam quidem ad rem celeberrimo regni concilio, Westmonasterii habito, imperium auspicata est. In quo, de exigendâ authoritate 148 pontificia, regiaque tam in ecclesiasticis quàm in civilibus causis potestate, lata lex, sanxit eos sacerdotiis mulctandos, qui Romani Pontificis, omnemque extraneam ecclesiasticam jurisdictionem juramento non detestarentur; eâque recusatâ, non agnoscerent regiam. Quod juramentum pontificii Sacerdotes et Episcopi, qui inveteratâ erroris sui consuetudine præfracti obduruerunt, præstare callido consilio abnuebant. Existimabant enim se amotis, non superesse ex reliquis setis magnum Clericorum numerum ad gerendas diœceses atque parochias. Itaque, se perseverantibus et conspirantibus, fieri nullo modo posse putabant, ut deferatur iis juramentum, aut eo delato atque recusato privarentur. In quo versuto consilio dum sibi sapere ac placere sibi visi sunt, quasi divino judicio ac vindictâ, decepti et infatuati fue runt. Multi enim perdocti atque pii viri, totâ illâ pontificiorum tyrannide, quæ (ut diximus) sex pænè annis duravit, aut in exilium abierunt, aut domi in latebris ita clam fuerunt, ut à pontificiis summâ sedulitate exquisiti, ne reperiri quidem potuerunt. Hi se tanquam divinitùs admoniti, toto illo exitioso et sævo Mariæ regno, in theologiæ studio contriverunt, et ad secunda feliciaque Elizabethæ tempora reservati, in maximis illis de religione à pontificiis motis controversiis, argumenta, quæ pontificii tam nodosa et inexplicabilia putabant, facillimè, tanquam divino Spiritu, difflaverunt. Qui, ex ærumnis et exilio prodeuntes, fuerunt contemptui pontificiis. Sed hominum, sine pontificiis ornamentis simplicium, et vitæ integritate, et morum gravitate, et animorum IV. BOOK magnitudine, et scripturarum, conciliorum, Patrum orthodoxorum, totiusque ecclesiasticæ antiquitatis tam diligenti per eos habita indagatione, perspecta, pontificii, cum rationum vi, scriptaque authoritate pares esse non poterant, calumniis nitebantur superare. Suas enim partes, non jure, sed more et præscriptione, tuebantur. Quod in jure divino, semper eodem et immutabili, fieri non posse, ex omni jure certissimum est. Sempiterna enim, ex more, consuetudine, desuetudine, usu, vel præscriptione quacunque mutationem nullam capiunt, quin sibi semper una eademque constant, atque contraria refellunt et abolent, solâ veritate sine humani juris adminiculis. Pontificii itaque hoc, quod stabile firmumque sibi putabant, fundamento sublato, in reliquâ disceptatione, neque ratione, neque oratione usi sunt, sed muti totam controversiam silentio prætermittebant. Quæ disputatio, quoniam typis divulgata est, in hac narratione præ tereatur. Amoti itaque ob juramenti præstandi recusationem, omnes Episcopi pontificii, in uno fœdere cohærentes, præter unum Antonium in Walliâ Landavensem Episcopum, fuerunt. Inferiores etiam Prælati atque Clerici, in eadem conspiratione conjuncti, multi ecclesiasticis dignitatibus et beneficiis abdicabantur. Sed eorum plerique ipsi, sibi valdè propitii, cum, præter expectationem et consilium initum, tam copiosam Evangelicorum multitudinem extare, ut optimus ac probatissimus ad gerendas Ecclesias delectus haberi possit, animadverterent, malebant a fide pontificiis confœderatis datâ recedere et Regiæ Majestati etiam in omnibus causis ecclesiasticis obedientiam juramento polliceri, omnemque aliam potestatem et authoritatem diffiteri, quàm de stationibus suis satis incautè decedentes, et amittere suas possessiones, et locum dare evangelicis. Hoc consultò et callidè factum fuit, ut multi evangelici ingressu multarum ecclesiarum prohiberentur, et pontificii, qui possessiones retinerent, inopiam illorum, qui jam depositi vel profugissent, vel domi delituissent, vel ob contumaciam sub custodia essent, suis facultatibus sublevarent. Multi enim pontificii Episcoporum factum improbabant, |