A right fruitful epistle/ devised by the most excellent clerk Erasmus/ in laud and praise of matrimony/ translated in to english/ by Richard Tavernour/ which translation he hath dedicated to the right honourable Master Thomas Cromwell most worthy Counseloure to our sovereign lord king Henry the eight.  
CUM PRIVILEGIO REGALI.   

To the right honourable Master Cromwell one of the kings most honourable counsel, his humble servant richard Cavernour sendeth greating.  
YOur daily orator (most honourable sir) pondering with himself your gratuyte bounty towards him, began busily to revolve in mind, how he, again on his part might somewhat declare his fervent zeal of heart towards you. Which he thus revolving/ loo suddenly (as god would) a certain epistle of Doctor Erasmus, devised in commendation of wedlock, offered itself unto his sight. Which so soon as he began to read, he thought it a thing full necessary and expedient, to translate it in to our vulgure tongue/ & so under your noble protection to communicate it to the people, namely when he considered the blind superstition of men and women/ which cease not day by day to profess & vow perpetual chastity before or they sufficiently know themselves & thinfirmity of their nature. Which thing (in my opinion) hath been and is yet unto this day the rote and very cause original of innumerable mischiefs. I pray our lord jesus of his infinite goodness to provide some speedy reformation, when it shallbe his pleasure. In the mean season, please it your goodness (right honourable sir) to accept this rude and simple translation of your servant/ and ye so doing shall not a little encourage him to greater things in time coming. And thus Christ have you always in his keeping.  
Amen.   

¶ An Epistle in praise of matrimony.  
ALthough sweet cousin ye be wise enough of yourself, nor need not other men's counsel, yet for the old petition continued from our chylhode betwixt us & also for your kindness towards me/ & finally because of the straight alliance betwixt us: I thought it my duty (if I would be the man whom ye always have take me for/ that is to say your friend and lover) of such things as I judged to belong most to the preservation and dignity of you and yours/ gladly and freely to avertyse you. Other men's profit sometime we espy better than our owen. I have oft followed your counsel, which I have found no less profitable than friendly. Now if ye again will follow mine I trust it shall repent neither me of my counseling/ nor you of 
The narration.  your following. Our friend Antony Bald supped with me the last night, one that is (as ye know well enough) your great friend and near kinsman. An heavy feast and full of tears. He showed me (which was a great sorrow to us both) that the good gentle woman your mother is departed, that your sister for sorrow and desire is entered in to a house of barren nuns/ that the hope of your stock is turned only unto you/ that your friends with hole assent have offered you a wife of great substance, of noble blood, of excellent beauty, of gentle manners , and finally which beareth great love towards you. That ye yet, this notwithstanding, for some immoderate sorrow, or else some superstitious holiness have so determined to live a chaste life, and never to mary, that neither for the care of your stock, nor love of issue, nor for any requests, prayers, or tears of your friends ye canbe plucked away from your purpose. But ye by mine advise shall change this mind, and leaving bachelershyp, a form of living both barren and unnatural, shall give yourself to most holy wedlock. In which matter I covet that neither the love of your friends which else ought to overcome your mind, nor mine authority any thing should aid my cause/ if I show not by clear reasons that this shall be for you both most honest, most profitable and most pleasant, yea what will ye say if (as this time require) also moste necessary?  
FOr first of all/ if then regard of honesty moveth you/ which with good men is highly considered, what thing is more honest than matrimony, whereunto Christ himself did great honour and worship, which vouch saved not only to be present with his mother at the marriages, but also consecrated the marriage feast with the first fruetz of his miracles? What is more holy than that which the creator of all things hath ordained, copeled, sanctified? which dame nature herself hath enacted? What is more laudable than it, which who reprehendeth/ is condemnable of heresy? So honourable is matrimony, as is the name of heretic slanderous. What is a thing of more equity, then to render that to the posterity/ which we ourselves received of our ancestry? What act on the con trarye side is done with less consideration, than under the zeal of holiness to flee that, as unholy & ungodly, which god the well and father of all holiness would have counted most holy? What thing is farther from all humanity/ than man to abhor from the laws of man's estate? What is a more unkind act than to deny that to your youngers, which if ye took not of your elders, ye could not be he that might deny? Now if we require the Author of matrimony, 
The Author of matrimony.  it was founded and ordained not of Lycurgus, not of Moses, not of Solon, but of the high & mighty worker of all things, of him it was also praised/ enhonested and consecrate. For at the 
〈…〉 Man first created/ forth with was copuled with a wife.  beginning when he had made man of the slime of the earth he thought that his life should be utterly miserable and unrepentant, if he joined not Eve a companion unto him. Wherefore he brought forth the wife not of the earth, as he did man, but out of the rib of Adam, whereby it is to be understand that nothing ought, to be more dear to us then the wife, nothing more conjoined/ nothing more fast glued unto us. The self same 
After ye flood of Noye.  god after the flood/ when he was at one again with mankind enacted (as we read in scripture) 
the law of matrimony renu ed.  this law first, not that we should love bachelorship/ but to crease/ to multiply/ to replenyshe the earth. But how could that be, unless men would give their labour to wedlock? And lest we should here find cavellations/ alleging the liberty of the old law of Moses, or the necessity of that season/ I pray you what meaneth that sentence repeated also in the new law of Christ/ ratified and confirmed by Christ'S own mouth? For this cause (saith he) shall man leave 
Math. nineteen.  father and mother and stick to his wife. What thing is more holy than the natural love of the child to his father? And yet the faith of wedlock is preferred above it By whose authority? by gods. At what time? when not only the old law flourished/ but also when the new law of Christ began to spring. The father is forsaken/ the mother is forsaken/ and the wife is sticked to. The son (in the Civil law) emancipate/ that is to say enfranchised & out of his father's bonds/ beginneth to be his own man & at liberty. The son, in the same law, abdicate/ that is to say forsaken and dysherited of his father/ ceaseth to be his son. But only death undo wed lock, if yet that death undo it. Now sir if the other sacraments of Christ's church be had in great veneration, who seeth not that much worship ought to be given to this, which was both ordained of god, & first of all other? And the other in earth, this in paradise/ the other for remedy/ this for solas/ the other were put to in help of nature, which was fallen, only this was given to nature at the first creation. If we count the laws holy which be institute of men, shall not the law of wedlock be most holy which we have received of him, of whom we have received life? and which began in manner even at one time with mankind? To be short/ because he would con farm this law by sum example/ when he was a young man/ and bidden (as said is) to the bridal, he came thither gladly with his mother, and not contended with so doing, did also great honour to the feast with his wonderful work/ making none other where the prosperous commencement and beginning of his miracles? Why 
A confutation.  than (ye will say) did Christ him self abstain from wedlock? As though there be not very many things in Christ/ which we ought rather to marvel at, than follow. He was borne without carnal father/ he proceeded without pain of his mother, he arose from death to live when the sepulchre was closed, what is not in him above nature? Let such things be appropriate to him. Let us (living within the law of nature) wonder & praise the things that be above nature/ but follow those works that be for our capacity. But he would be borne of a virgin. Truth it is, of a virgin/ but yet wedded. A virgin to his mother became him that was god, but that she was wedded, she signified unto us what we ought to do Uirginite be came her which (by the divine inspiration of the holy ghost) being pure & immaculate brought forth him which was most pure & unspotted/ but yet joseph was her husband, which thing setteth forth unto us the commendation of the laws of wedlock. How could he more commend wedlock, then when he willing to declare the privy & wonderful conjunction of the divine nature with the human body and soul, and willing to declare his ineffable & eternal love toward his church (that is to say, the company of Christian people) calleth himself the bridegroom and the church his spouse? great (saith Paul) is the mystery of matrimony: 
To the Ephesians the v. Cham  in Christ and in the chyche. If there had been any couple in earth more holy, if there had be any bond of love and concord more religiously to be kept, than wedlock/ undoubtedly he had fetched his similitude from thence. What like thing do ye ever read, in all scripture of bachelershyp? Honourable wedlock and the immaculate bride bed is spoken of. Bachelershype is not once named. Now 
The law of the Iwes  sir, Moses law abhorreth barren wedlock, and therefore we read that some were put out of the commonalty for the same cause. And why so? surely because they living unprofitably to the common weal, & for there own singular avail, did not multiply the people with any issue. If than the law damneth barren matrimony much more it damneth bachelors. If the infirmity of nature escapeth not punishment, certes the froward will shall not escape. If they were punished whose nature failed to there will/ what have they deserved/ which will not so much as put to their good will, that they be not barren? The laws of the hebrews gave this honour to matrimony/ that he that married a new wife, should not be compelled that year to go forth to the battle. The cite is in great jeopardy if there be not men of arms to defend it, but needs it must decay if there be not wedded men, by whom the youth continually failing may be supplied. Also the laws of the Romans punished 
The law of the mar●●●  them that were bachelars in removing them from all promotions of the city. But such as had increased with children the common weal/ to them they ordained a reward openly to be given, as it were for their well deserving. The law of the. iii. children is a sufficient prove for this matter. for I will not here rehearse all the rest. Lycurgus' made 
The law of the La cedemonians.  a law that they which married not wives, should in summer season be driven from the interludes & other sights, and in winter go about the market place all naked and curse themselves, saying they suffered just punishment, because they would not obey the laws. Now will ye know how much matrimony was set by in old time? Consider the punishment for the defoyling of it. The Greeks 
The battle of Troy.  once thought it expedient to revenge the breach of matrimony by continual wars enduring the space of. x. years. Furthermore by the laws not only of the Romans/ but also of the hebrews and other nations/ adulterers should lose their lives. The thief was delivered by paying. iiii. times so much as he 
The law of the ro man's  had stolen/ the sin of adultery was punished with the axe. Also among the hebrews he was stoned to death with the people's han 
The law of the Iwes.  des which desyled that, without which the people should not be. And the rigour of their laws not contented therewith/ suffered also that he which was found in advowtre should be put to death with out judgement/ with out laws/ giving that liberty to the grief of the wedded men, which uneath is granted to him that in jeopardy of life defendeth himself. Doubtless wedlock must needs seem a right holy thing which defiled can not be repurged without man's blood/ & the revenging where of/ is neither compelled to abide the laws nor the judge/ the which severity & rigour of law is neither in murder nor i treason. But what stand we alday in written laws? This is the law of nature/ not graven in tables of brass, but inwardly fixed i our hearts, which who will not obey, he is not so much as to be esteemed a man much less a good citizen. For if (as the stoics, men of sharp judgements 
The stoics  do dispute) to live well is nothing else, but to follow the guide of nature/ what thing is so agreeable to nature as matrimony? For nothing is so naturally given neither to man, nor yet to any other kind of brute beasts as that every one should preserve his kind from destruction & by propagation of posterity to make it as it were immortal, which without carnal copulation (as every man knoweth) can not be brought to pass. And it seemeth a foul shame dumb beasts to obey the laws of nature, & men (after the manner of giants) to bid battle against nature, whose work if we will behold with yees not dasselling, we shall perceive that her will is that there be in every kind of things a certain spice of wedlock. For I omit to speak of trees, in 
A certier Kind of wedlock i trees  whom yet by the authority of Pliny wedlock is found with so manifest diversity of the male & female, that if the male tree should not with his boughs lie upon the female trees that stand about him coveting as it were a meddling together, they should abide barren and fruitless. I hold my 
In precious stones.  peace of precious stones, i which the same author writeth (but not he alone) that there is found both male & female. I pray you hath not god so knit all things together with certain bonds, that one thing doth need an others help? What think ye to the heaven which turneth about with continual moving? I pray you while it maketh the earth laying underneath, which is mother of all/ with sundry kind of things fruitful, pouring seed (as it were) upon it/ doth it not th'office of an husband? But to run through each thing were over long. Now, to what purpose have we spoken this? surely, that ye may understand, by such natural commyxtions, every thing to have his being and continuance, without which all things to be dissolved/ to perish/ & to fall away. It is feigned 
A fabule & the exposition thereof.  by the old & wise poets (whose study was to cover the precepts of philosophy under mystical fabuls) that giants the sons of the earth, having feet like serpents, did cast mountains upon mountains that reached up to heaven, and so standing upon them warred against the gods. What signifieth this fable? surely that certain ungodly persons/ wild/ and of an ungentle nature did greatly abhor from matrimonyall concord/ and therefore they were cast down hedelonge with Jupiter's thunder bolt/ that is to say/ they utterly decayed and came to nought, sith they eschewed the thing, whereby mankind is only preserved. But the self same poets have feigned that Drpheus being a poet and a minstrel did move with the sweet note of his musical instru meant the hard rocks of stone. What meaned they hereby? Nothing else, but that a wise & an eloquent man did first prohybet the stony men/ and which lived after the manner of wild beasts/ from laying at large/ & brought them to the holy laws of matrimony. Wherefore it appeareth evidently that who so ever is not touched with desire of wedlock seemeth to be no man, but a stone/ a enemy to nature/ a rebel to god/ by his own folly seeking his decay and undoing. But go to, sith we be fallen into fabuls no thing fabulous nor vain/ the same Drpheus when he descended down to hellies and there moved Pluto lord of hell and the souls their abiding on such wise that he might easily lead away with him Eurydice his wife/ what other thing suppose we that the poets thought, than that they would commend unto us the love of wedlock, which also in hell is counted holy and religious? Hereunto also belongeth, that the antyquite made Jupiter lord of wedlock, and named him for the same purpose Gamelium/ & made Juno the lady of women in childbed, calling her pronubam and Lucinam, Superstityously erring (I grant well) in the names of the gods, but not erring in this that they judged matrimony a thing holy & worthy to be regarded of the gods. Surely there have been diverse laws/ ceremonies/ and usages among diverse peoples and nations. But there was never nation so barbarous/ so far from all humanity/ with whom the name of wedlock hath not be recounted holy/ hath not be recounted worshipful. This the Thracian this the Sarmate/ this the man of Ind, this the Greek/ this the Italion/ this the Brytan furthest of all the world, or if there be any further than they, have had in high reverence. And why so? For of necessity that thing must needs be comen, which the comen parent of all/ hath imprinted, and so inwardly imprinted, that the sense and feeling of it, hath not only pierced the turtyls/ and the doves/ but also the most cruel wild beasts. For the lions be gentle and meek to their lyonnesses. The tygrees fight for their whelps. The asses stick not to run through fierce laying in their way for the safeguard & defence of their fools. And this they call the law of nature which as it is most strong, so it is most large. Wherefore like as he is no 
A similitude.  diligent husband, which contented with the things present, tendeth full curiously the trees ready grown/ but hath little regard other of setting or of graffing/ because that of necessity within few years those orcheyardes (be they never so well kept) must decay and become desolate. So in like wise he is to be judged an undyligent citizen in the public weal, which contented with the company present, hath no respect nor consideration to supply new in place of the old. Noman therefore have been counted a noble and worthy citizen, which hath not bestowed his diligence in begetting children and bringing them virtuously up. Among the hebrews & persians he was most highly commended, that had most plenty of wives, as though the country were most bound to him, that with most children had enriched it. Do ye study to be more holy than was Abraham? He should never have been called Pater multarum gentium that is to say/ the Father of many people's/ and that of gods own mouth, if he had fled the company of his wife. Do ye labour to be reputed more religious than jacob? He sticked not to buy his wife Rachel with so long apprentyshode and bondage. Be ye wiser than Solomon? But what a flock of wives kept he at home? Be ye chaster than Socrates? Which suffered at home in his house Xantippe that wayward woman not only (as he was wont to geste himself) because he might learn patience at home, but because he would seem not to halt in th'office of nature. For he a man (whom the divine answer of Apollo only judged wise) understood full well, that under this law & condition he was begotten, to this he was borne/ this he did owe to nature. For if it have been well said of the old philosophers/ if it have been not without cause confirmed of our divines, if it have been rightly every where pronounced as a proverb, that god 
A proverb.  nor nature have made no thing frustrate nor in vain/ why (I pray you) hath god given us these membres? why these pricks and provocations? why hath he added the power of begetting, if bachelorship be taken for a praise? if one would give you a precious gift, as a bow/ a garment/ or answered, ye should seem unworthy the thing that ye have received, if other ye would not, or ye could not use it. Where as all other things be ordained by nature with most high reason, it is not likely that she slumbered & slept in making only this prive man bre. Nor I hear not him which 
A confutation.  will say unto me that/ that foul yching and pricks of carnal lust have come not of nature, but of sin. What is more onlyke the troth? As though matrimony (whose office can not be executed without these pricks) was not before sin. Moreover in other beasts I pray you from whence cometh those pricks and provocations? of nature, or of sin? wonder it is if not of nature. And as touching the foulness/ surely we make that by our imagination to be fowl, which of the self nature is fair and holy. Else, if we would weigh the thing, not by the opinion of the people, but by the very nature, how is it les fowl (after the manner of wild beasts) to eat/ to chaw/ to digest, empte the belly, than to use the law full & permitted pleasure of the body? But virtue (ye say) is to be obeyed rather than nature. As though/ that is to be called virtue which repugneth with nature, from whence if virtue have not his first beginning, certes it can not be it, which may with exercise and learning be made perfect. But the apostles life delighteth you, for they also followed bachelorship, and exhorted other to the same. Let thapostolical men follow th'apostles, which (because there office is to teach & instruct the people) can not both satisfy their flock & their wife's, if they should have any. How be it that thapostles also had wives, it is evidently clear. Let us grant bachelorship to the bishops. What do ye follow the appostes form of living, being so far from the office of an apostle, sith ye be a man both temporal and also without office? It is licensed them to be without wives, to the intent they may the better attend to beget the more children to Christ. Let this be the privilege of priests & religious men, which (as it appear) have succeeded the Essenes' form of living which damned holy matrimony. Your estate requireth otherwise. But Chryst himself (ye will say) have pronounced them blessed which 
Mat. 19  have gelded themselves for the kingdom of god. I reject not the authority, but I will expound Chri stes meaning. first of all, I think this saying of Chryst to appertain especially to those times when it was expedient to be most ready & lose from all worldly bussynesses. Then was the time that they should i'll & ren hither & thither through all lands, the pierce cutoure was at hand on every side. But now such is the state of things & times, that no where ye may find the pureness and perfection of manners less spotted and contaminate, than among wedded persons. Let the swarms of monks, friars, canons, & nuns advance their profession as much as them lust. Let them boast as much as they will, their ceremonies & disguised coats (where by they be chiefly known from the temporal) surely the most holy kind of life is wedlock poorly & chastened kept. furthermore not he only geldeth himself which liveth without a wife, but he which chastened & holily doth th'office of wedlock. And would god they were truly chaste, so many as cloak their vices under the glorious title of chastity and castra tyon, which under the shadow of chastity do more foully rage in filthy and beastly abomination. For I am ashamed, so help me god, here to reckon up, in to what shameful abhominatyons they oft times fall, which do thus repugn against nature. To be short, Christ never commanded bachelorship to none earthly person, but he openly forbiddeth divorcement. surely 
He thinketh it expedient for priests to have wives.  me think, he should be not the worst counsellor for the common weal (considering the fashions & manners of men) which would grant also the priests & religious persons licence to marry, namely sith there is every where so great a multitude of priests, of which (alas) how few live a chaste life? How much better were it to turn their concubyns into wives, so that those whom they have now with great infamy, and with an unquiet conscience, they might then have openly with an honest fame, and beget children whom they may love as truly legitimate, and bring them godly up, so that neither the father shall be ashamed of them, nor they of their father. And this (I trow) the officials of bishops should have procured long a go, but that greater gains arise by the concubyns, than should by the wives. But virginity (ye will 
A confutaryon.  say) is a divine thing, an angelical thing. truth it is, but, on the contrary side, wedlock is an human thing. I now speak to a man being myself a man. A commendable thing, certes, is virginity, but yet so that this praise be not transferred to over many, which commendation if every man commonly will begin to usurp, what can be said or thought more hurtful and more ꝑnycious than virginity? More over though in other men virginity should most of all deserve praise, yet surely i you it can not lack blame, in whom it now standeth to preserve your noble stock, worthy of an immortal continuance. Finally he is but a very little of, from the praise of virginity, which keepeth purely the law of wedlock, and which hath a wife to the cntent to beget children, and not to satisfy his wanton lust. If the brother, in the law of Moses, be commanded 
The sues law.  to raise the seed of his brother, which died without issue, will ye suffer the hope of your whole lineage to be utterly extynte, namely sith it is returned to you only? Nor I am not so ignorant but that I know welynoygh that the praises of virginity have been rehearsed, and celebrate with great volumes of sum of our old fathers. Among whom Hierome 
Hierome  so advanceth it, that in manner he despiseth wedlock & was provoked of the bishops that were of the true opinion to rechaunt & sing a new song. But let this heat be granted to those times. How I would wish those that thus every where without discretion do exhort the youth (not yet known to themselves) to bachelorship and virginity, to bestow their labour in describing the form of chaste & pure matrimony. But yet they which are so well pleased with virginity be not dysplea said with the wars against the Turks which pass us so far in numbered, whose judgement if it be right, it shall follow that it be chefcly thought right & holy, busily to beget children & supply youth sufficient for the use of the wars. Except perchance they think to prepare gonnes, weaponnies, ships to the warrrs, & think little need of men. The same do allow to slay with the sword the parents of infideles, to the in tent that their children might be baptized, yea unknowing also. If this be true, how gentler a deed were it to bring the same to effect with the office of intermaryinge, each with other. No nation is so cruel that abhorreth not the murder of infants. Laws of princes in manner with like rigour punish them that cause that, which is conceived in the woman to come forth deed, and them that make them barren with medicines. Why so? Further is small diversity betwixt him that murdereth that which begin to be borne, and him which procureth that nothing can be borne This that in your body either drieth up, or with the great danger of your health putryfyeth and corrupteth, which in your sleep falleth away, had been a man if ye were a man yourself. The old law of the jews curseth him which when he is commanded to lie with his brother's wife that is dead, casteth his seed on the earth that nothing should be engengred, and is judged unworthy life, which envieth life to the fruit that is to be borne. But how little from him differ they, which have enjoined themselves perpetual barrenness? Do they not seem to kill so many men, as should have been borne, if they had given their labour to the begetting of children? I pray you if a man have a piece of ground rank of nature, which untilled, he suffereth to be continually barren, is not this man punishable by the Civil law, because it is for the prophet of the commwe weal that every man tendeth well his own? If he be punished which neglecteth his ground which (be it never so well tiled) bring forth nothing else than wheat/ or beans/ or peses, what punishment is he worthy which refuseth to till that ground which tilled beareth men? And in tillage of the earth is required a long and painful labour, here the short tillage is also enticed with a pleasure/ as it were a reward prepared therefore. Wherefore if the sense of nature, if 
Aepiloge  honesty/ if natural affection/ if devotion/ if gentleness/ if virtue any thing move you, why abhor ye from that which god ordaineth, nature enacteth, reason enticeth/ the scriptures both of god and man praise/ the laws command, the whole consent of all nations approve/ to which the ensample of every good man pro voketh? That if the most part of things (yea which be also bitter) are of a good man to be desired for none other purpose, but because they be honest, matrimony doubtless is chiefly to be desired whereof a man may doubt whether it hath more honesty than pleasure For what thing is sweeter, then with her to live, with whom ye may be most straightly copuled, not only in the benevolence of the mind, but also in the conjunction of the body. If a great delectation of mind be taken of the benevolence of our other kinsmen, sith it is an especial sweetness to have one with whom ye may communicate the secret affections of your mind, with whom ye may speak even as it were with your own self, whom ye may safely trust, which supposeth your chances to be his, what felicity (think ye) have the conjunction of man and wife, than which no thing in the universal world may be found other greater or fermer? For with our other friends we be conjoined only with the benevolence of minds, with our wife we be copuled with most high love, with permyxtyon of bodies, with the confederate band of the sacrament, and finally with the felaweshyp of all chances. Furthermore in other friendships, how great simulation is there? how great falsity? Yea they, whom we judge over best friends, like as the swalous flee away, when summer is gone, so they forsake us, when fortune turneth her wheel. And sometime the frescher friend cast out the old. We here of few, whose fidelity endure till their lives end. The wives love is with no falsite corrupted, with no simulation obscured, with no chawce of things minished, finally with death only (nay not with death neither) with drawn. She, the love of her parents/ she, the love of her sisters/ she, the love of her brethren despiseth for the love of you, her only respect is to you, of you she hangeth/ with you she coveteth to die. Have ye riches? there is one that shall save it/ there is one that shall increase it. Have ye none? there is one that may seek it if ye have wealth/ your felicity is doubled/ if adversity, there shall be one which may comfort you, which may sit by your side, which may serve you/ which may covet your grief to be hers. Do ye judge any pleasure to be compared with this so great a conjunction? If ye tarry at home there is at hand which shall drive away the tediousness of solitary being. If from home/ ye have one that shall kiss you when ye depart/ long for you when ye be absent, receive you joyously when ye return. A sweet compaygnyon of youth/ a kind solas of age. By nature yea any fellowship is delectable to man, as whom nature hath created to benevolence and friendship. This fellowship then how shall it not be most sweet, in which every thing is commune to them both? And contrarily, if we see the savage beasts also abhor solitary living & delighted in fellowship, in my mind he is not once to be supposed a man, which abhorreth from this fe lawshyp most honest & pleasant of all. For what is more hateful than that man which (as though he were borne only to himself) liveth for himself, seeketh for himself/ for himself/ doth cost to himself, loveth no person, is loved of no person? Shall not such monster be adjudged worthy to be cast out of all men's company into the mid see with Cymon the Athenyense, which because he fled all men's compaygny, was called Misanthropus that is to say hateman? neither dare I here propound unto pou those pleasures which (where as they be naturally most sweet to man) yet (I can not tell how (of the great wits they be dissembled, rather than despised. Albe it, who can be borne with so rigorous a disposition (I will not say dumppyshe and dastardly) which may not be taken with such kind of pleasures, namely if he may attain them without the offence of god & man/ without the loss of his good name? Certes I would call him no man but a plain stone. Albeit, that pleasure of bodies is the lest part of the gods that wedlock hath. But imagine that ye can contemn this, as unworthy tor a man (how be it without these we deserve not once the name of a man) let it be put (if ye will) a 'mong the most base commodities of wedlock/ now sir what can be more amiable then chaste love/ nay what more holy & honest? There accresseth by the means a sweet flock of alyesses/ there is doubled the numbered of parents/ of brethren/ of cistern/ of nephews. For nature can give one only mother/ one only father. By wedlock, an other father/ a other mother is gotten, which (because they have committed their own flesh unto you) can not but love you most tenderly. Now sir, how highly will ye esteem this thing, when your fair wife shall make you a father with a fair child? When sum little young babe shall play in your hall which shall resemble you & your wife? Which with a mild lisping, or amiable stam- (mering shall call you dead. Now add, unto your wife's love, the bond more strong than any adamant, which not death himself can burst asunder.  
Oh how blessed (saith Flaccus) be they 
Horace.  whom ye fast knot of wedlock doth tey whose steadfast love by no pleit can start Till only death them twain do part. Ye have them that may delight your age/ that may close your eyes/ that may do th'office of the burials/ in whom ye may seem regenerate/ whom being a live, ye shallbe thought not to have died. Your goods which ye have gotten go not to strange heirs. Thus, when ye are passing out of the world, & have fully executed all together, yet not death himself can seem sharp nor bitter unto you. Age must creep upon us all/ whether we will or not. By this policy nature hath provided that in out children & nephews we may be renewed & flourish fresh again. For who can bear age heavily when in his son he beholdeth his own visage that he himself bore when he was young? Death is prepared for all. But by this only way the providence of nature assayeth (as it were) a certain immortality, while she thus maketh one thing to issue out of an other (like as a young plant which is cut of, from the tree sprigeth freshly up) nor he seemeth not to be utterly quenched, which dieth, leaving issue behind.  
BUt I know well enough 
The refutation of the incommodities of marriage.  what among these, ye murmur against me. A blessed thing is wedlock, if all prove according to the desire. But what if a wayward wife chanceth? What if an unchaste/ what if unnatural children? There will run in your mind th'examples of those whom wedlock have brought to utter destruction. Heap up as much as ye can, but yet these be the vices of men & not of wedlock. Believe me, an evil wife is not wont to chance, but to evil husbands. Put this unto it/ that it lieth in you to choose out a good one. But what if after the marriages she be marred? Of an evil husband (I will well) a good wife may be marred. but of a good/ the evil is wont to be reformed & mended. We blame wives falsely. No man (if ye give any credence to me) had ever a shrew to his wife, but through his own default. And of good parents commonly be borne like children. Howbeit the children also (how so ever they be borne) commonly do prove such, as they be form and fashioned in there bringing up. Now sir/ I see no cause why ye should fear ielowsye. This is the sickness of foolish lovers. The chaste & lawful love knoweth no ielowsye. What do the tragedes cum to your mind? This adulterous woman stroke in sunder her husband with an axe. This poisoned him. That woman with her hateful manners did drive her husband to death. Why rather do not Cornelia wife to Ciberius Graccus cum to your remembrance? Why do not Alcestis so good a wife of not so good an husband? Why do stat other julia wife of Pompeius or Portia the wife of Cato run in your mind? Why do not Artemisea worthy eternal memory? Why do not Hypsicratea wife to Mithridates' king of Pontus? Why come not into your mind that most gentle behaviour of Tertia Aemilia the wife of Scipio Africanus? Why do not the faithfulness of Turia? Why do not Lucretia and Lentula cum in mind? Why do not Arria so highly commended of Pliny? Why do not other innumerable, whose honest and chaste living/ and faithfulness toward their husbands could not be altered nor corrupted not by death? A rare bird in earth (ye say) is an honest woman. And imagine ye again yourself worthy to have a rare wife.  
A good woman (saith the wise man) is a great felicity. Be bold to hope one worthy for your manners. And very much (as touching this matter) lieth in the fashoning of her & in the behaving of yourself towards her whom ye chose. But sweeter (ye will say) is liberty. Who so ever taketh a wife, taketh a pair of fetters which nothing save only death can shake of. What can be sweet to a man alone? If liberty be sweet, it were best (by mine advise) to take a compaygnion with whom ye may part this so pleasant a thing. Howbeit, what is more free than this bondage, where either is so bond to other that neither would be enfranchised? Is not every man bound to his friend? Yet no man complaineth that his liberty is take away. But ye fear lest if 
Orbitas  death should take away your children ye should fall in to sorrow. If ye fear to be chylderneles, for this very cause ye ought to marry a wife which only may be the cause that ye be not chyldernles. But what search ye out so diligently (nay so narouly and curiously) all the incomodities of matrimony, as who should say the sengyll life had no incommodie at all? As who should say, there were any life of man that is not subject to all the chances of fortune. He must get him out of the world which will bear no incommodity. That if ye will have respect to the life in heaven, this life of man is to be said a death/ & no life. But if ye keep your mind within the bounds of man's estate/ nothing is neither sauffer, neither quieter, neither pleasaunter, neither amiablear, neither happier, than the wedded life. Mark the thing by the end. How many see ye, which have once assayed wedlock, that go not greedily to it again. Did not my friend Mauricius (whose excellent prudence is not unknown unto you) after the death of his wife whom he so singularly loved, mary the next month after a new wife? Nat so greatly for thimpatiency of his lust, but he thought his life no life without a wife, a sweet company on of all things. Doth not iovius our friend now woo his fourth wife? So he loved them when they lived that he seemed comfortless. So, when one died he hated to be a widower, as though he faintly had loved them. But what reason we of honesty & plesauntnes, when not only prophet entysethe but also necessity constraineth to wedlock? Take matrimony away, and within few years mankind shallbe utterly gone. Xerxes' king of Persia when he beheld out of an high tower the great multitude of men he could not refrain weeping, because that of so many thousands of men, within three score years none should be left a live. Why the thing that he understood of his army, do not we consider of all mankind? Wedlock taken away, who one, of so many regions, provinces, realms, cities, towns, within an hundredth years shallbe left alive? Go we now and advance bachelorship, which bringeth mankind to destruction. What pestilence, what plague, can be sent on man either from heaven or from hell more hurtful? What of any flood can be feared more dangerous? What can be looked for, more heavy and grievous, though that fire of Phaeton should come again when all the world was destroyed with fire, And yet (for all that) in such trobelous sesons many are wont to be left alive, but by bachelorship, surely, nothing can be left. We see what a rout of diseases, how many casualties, daily and nightly lie in weight upon the fewenes of men. How many do the pestilence take away? How many do the see swalo we up? How many do battle consume. For I will not speak of these quotydiane deaths. death flieth about every Where, he runneth, he carrieth, he hasteth toquenche mankind, and do we yet advance bachelorship & flee wedlock? Unless perchance the life of the Essens and Dupolitans (which do damn wedlock) do please us, whose pestilent sects be multiplied and increased with ungracious people never failing. Do we look that god will give us the same virtue that he hath given (as they say) to the bees, so that without the compaynie of woman we might be great with child, & gather with our mouths sedes of posterity out of the flowers? Do we require that like as the poets feign that Minerva issued out of Jupiter's brains, so in like manner children should leap out of our heads? Or (to be short) that according to the old fabuls, men should spring out of the earth, out of stones thrown forth, out of hard trunks of trees? Out of the lap of the earth many things do spring without our labour. little plants spring up oftentimes under the shadow of their mother. But unto man nature hath given one only way of deriving issue, which is, that by the mutual labour of man and woman mankind should be preserved, which if men would flee as ye do, truly these things which ye so highly advance should not be. Ye advance bachelorship, ye magnify virginity. But neither bachelars neither virgins should be if ye take away the use of wedlock. Why then is virginity preferred? Why is it in so high reputation, if it be the destruction of man? It was commended/ but for a time, and but in few, for it pleased god to she we to men a certain token, and as it were a representation of the heavenly life where they neither mary nor be given in marriage. 
Mat. 22.  But for an example a few be sufficient, a multitude is not profitable. For like as not all grounds 
A similitude.  (be they never so rank) be sown to the sustenance of man/ but part is let alone/ part dight to the pleasure and feeding of the eyes. For the very copy and plenty of the thing in so much arable ground suffereth sum part to be left barren and fruitless. But if none at all were sown, who seeth not but that we must return to the fruit of trees wherewith they lived in old time before the invention of tillage. So bachelorship in so great a multitude of men/ in a few (I grant) is commendable, in all, a thing greatly to be dispraised. But admyte that in other men virginity had the name of an high virtue, yet in you surely it should be vicious. For other men shall seem, to have intended a pureness of living/ ye shallbe judged a traitorous murderer of your lineage, which, when ye might have maintained by honest wedlock, ye have suffered to perish by foul bachelorship. Admit it lawful, out of a great numbered of children to offer one virgin to god. The uplandish men which dwell in the country offer to god the first of their fruit/ not their whole crop. But ye, must remember that ye only be left the last/ and the leavings of your stock. And I pray you what diversity is there whether ye slay or refuse to save him which may by you only be saved & easily saved? But the example of your sister 
A violation  provoketh you to chastity. Nay, for this very cause only, ye ought most chiefly to eschew bachelorship. For now ye understand that the hope (which before was commune to you both) of preserving your stock is revolved and cast whole upon your back. Let us pardon the frail kind of the woman/ let us pardon the undiscreet age. The maid overcomen with sorrow did a miss. through the entysmentes of foolish women and foolish friars she hath cast herself headlong. Ye being elder must needs remember that ye be a man. She would needs die with her ancestors, but your labour must be that they die not. Your sister hath withdrawn herself of her duty, remember now that ye ought to fulfil the parts of two. The doughtars of Loath sticked not to lie with their father, judging it better to maintain they? lineage by unlawful and abominable incest than to suffer it clean to fall away. And will not ye then by matrimony which is, honest, holy, chaste, without offence, with high pleasure main ta'en your stock, which shall else be utterly extinc?  
wherefore let us suffer them to follow the life of Hippolytus, 
The con clusiou.  let them (I say) embrace bachelorship, which either can be husbands but fathers can be none, or whose bare living is not able to bring up children/ or whose stock may be maintained by other, or surely is such, that better it were for the common weal to be quenched, than maintained. But ye when (witnessing the physician a man neither unlearned nor no liar) ye seem by your nature very apt to engender much posterity, when ye have great inheritance, coming also of a stock, so good, so noble, that without great sin and the great hurt of the common weal it can not be quenched, furthermore sith your age is †iusty† and flourishing, nor ye lack not the beauty of the body, and when there is offered you a wife, so lusty a maid, so well borne as may be, chaste, sober, demure, godly, having an angels face/ with fair lands, when your friends beseech you, your kindred weep, your affinity call on/ your native country requireth/ the very dead corpses of your ancestors rising out of their graves obtest the same of you, do ye yet tarry, do ye yet think upon bachelorship? If a thing scase honest should be required of you/ if an hard thing, yet either the requests of your friends, either the love of your stock ought to overcome your mind. How much then, more right and convenicnt is it, that the tears of your friends/ the affection of your country/ the natural love of your ancestors aught to obtain that of you, whereunto gods laws and man's  
exhort/ nature pricketh/ reason leadeth/ honesty allureth/ so many commodities provoke/ necessity also constreyneth? But now we have brought forth arguments abundantly enough. I trust long ago (through mine advertysment) ye have changed your purpose/ and applied your mind to wholesomer counsels. Far ye well.  
TELOS.   

Imprinted at London in Flestrete at the sign of the George by me Robert Redman. CUM PRIVILEGIO REGALI.