Here beginneth a goodly treatise/ and it is called a notable lesson/ otherwise it is called the golden pistle. Imprinted in the year of our lord god. M. CCCCC. xxxi.  
 altered printer's device of Robert Wyer (1529-60) with his name, the eagle, and part of the foreground cut away, perhaps to represent St. Bernard, the supposed author of the Golden Pistle, composing that letter (instead of St. John writing the Book of Revelation on Patmos)   

¶ The Prologue.  
A Good/ wholesome lesson and profitable unto all chrystianes/ ascribed unto saint bernard/ and put among his work (I think) by some good man that would it should thereby have the more authority/ and the rather be red and better be borne away. For doubtless it is a good matter: & edificatyve unto all them that have a zeal/ and cure unto soul health and desire of salvation. It is called in the title. Notabile documentum: that is to say/ a notable lesson. And some do call it the golden pistle It followeth immediately after a little work called Formula honest vite. The form and manner of an honest life/ or of honest living.   

Vf you intend to please god/ & would obtain grace to fulfil the same/ two things been unto you very necessary. The first. You must withdraw your mind from all worldly and transitory things/ in such manner/ as though you cared not whether any such things were in this world or no. The second is that you give and apply yourself so wholly to god/ and have yourself in such a wait/ that you never do/ say/ nethynke/ that you know suppose/ or believe should offend or displease god/ for by this mean/ you may soonest and most readily obtain/ and win his favour & grace. In all things esteem and account yourself most vile/ and most simple/ & as very nought in respect/ and regard of virtue and think/ suppose/ and believe that all persons been good/ and better than you be/ for so shall you much please our lord. What so ever youse/ or seem to perceive/ in any person/ or yet here of any Christian/ take you none occasion therein/ but rather ascribe/ and apply you all unto the best/ and think or suppose/ all is done or said for a good intent/ or purpose/ though it seem contrary. For man's suspicions and light iudgemetes been soon/ & lightly deceived/ or beguiled. Displease no person willingly. He ever speak evil of any person/ though it were never so true that you say. For it is not lawful to she we in confession the vice/ or default of any person/ except ye might other wise she we & declare your own offence. Speke little or nought unto your proper/ and self laud/ or praise though it were true/ & unto your familiar fellow/ or faithful friend. But study to keep secret/ and pryney your virtue/ rather than your vice. Yet were it a cruel deed for any persons to defame themself. Be more glad to give your ear/ & hearing unto the praise/ rather than unto the dispraise of any pson. And ever beware as well of hearing/ as speaking of detraction. And when you speak take good delyberacton/ & have few words/ and set those be true and good? sadly set & wisely ordered. If any words be spoken unto you of vice/ or vanity (as soon as you may) break of and leave that talk/ or communication. And ever return/ & apply yourself unto some appointed good and godly occupation/ bodily or ghostly. If any sudden chance fall or hap unto you/ or unto any of yours/ lie not to lightly there unto/ ne care moche therefore. If it be of prosperity/ rejoice not much there in/ ne be over glad thereof. If it be adversity/ be not overcast/ or overthrown therewith/ ne brought to sorrow/ or sadness/ thank god of all/ and set little thereby. Repute all things transitory: as of little price or valour. give ever most thought and care unto those things/ that may profit and promote the soul. flee/ and avoid the persons and places of moche speech: for better is to keep silence than to speak. Keep the times and places of silence precisely/ so that you speak not without reasonable and unfeigned cause. The times of silence in religion been these. From collation unto mass be ended after the hour of terce. From the first grace in the fraytour/ unto the end of the latter grace. And from the beginning of even song/ unto grace be ended after souper/ or else Bnndicite/ after the common beaver. The places of silence been the church and the cloister/ the fraytour and the dortour. If you be slandered/ and do take occasion at that fault/ or offence of any person/ than look well upon yourself/ whether you be in the same default sometime yourself/ and than have compassion upon your brother/ or sister. If there be none such default in you/ think verily and believe there may be/ and than do as (in like) you would be done unto. And thus as in a glass/ ye may see and behold yourself. Grudge not ne complain upon any person for any manner cause/ except you see and perceive by large conjecture that you may profit and edify thereby. Nother deny nor affirm your mind or opinion stiffly or extremely/ but that your affirmation/ denegation/ or doubt/ be ever powdered with salt/ that is to say/ wisdom/ discretion/ and patience. Dse not in any wise to mock/ check or scorn/ ne yet to laugh or smile but right seldom. And that always to she we reverence or loving manner/ light countenance/ or loud behaviour becometh not a sad person. Let your communication be short and with few persons/ al●●●… of virtue/ learning or good and christians edysycation/ and ever with such wareness that no person in things doubtful may take any authority of your words/ or sentence.  
Let all your pastime be spended in bodily labours good and profitable/ or ellyes godly in study/ or that passeth all/ in holy and devout prayer. So that the heart and mind be occup●●d with the same you speak. And when you p●●ye for any certain persons/ remember their de●ire/ state and condition. For a form and o●dre of your prayer/ this may be a good and ready way. To follow the order of the vi grammatical cases. The nominative/ the genitive/ the dative/ the accusative/ the vocative/ & ablative. The nominative/ that is first to pray foryour self that you may have ghostly strength & constancy/ that you not fall in to any deadly offence by frailty. And the ii that you may have right knowledge of god by faith and of yourself/ by due consideration of your estate/ and condition/ and of the laws of god/ for your conyte and contynuatice. And thirdly that you may have grace and good will according unto the same strength/ and knowledge/ and that having unto god a reverend dread you never offend him in thought word/ nor deed: but that you may ever love him for himself and all his creatures in ove order for him and in him. The second is the genitive case. Then must you pray for your genytoures/ your progenytoures/ & parent's/ that is to say/ your father's/ your mother's spiritual and carnal: as your ghostly father's/ or spiritual sovereigns: your god father/ your godmothers. Your natural father and mother. Your grandfathers and graundmothers. your brethers and sisters/ and all your kin.  
In the third please is the dative case. There must you pray for benefactors/ good doers/ of whom you have received any manner of gifts spiritual or temporal unto the wealth of your soul and body. In the four place is the accusative case/ where you should pray for your enemies/ such persons as by any means have noyed/ hurt or grieved you either ghostly or bodily: that is to say/ in your soul/ or manners by any suggestion/ enticing/ evil counsel/ or evil example. In your fame/ or good name/ by detraction/ back biting/ or slandering/ or yet by familiar company. For a person commonly is reputed/ and supposed to be of such condition as they been with whom he hath conversation and company. And for them that have hurt your body either by strokes/ or by any other accasyon/ have hindered the state/ and health thereof. And like wise of your worldly gooded/ or possessions. For all these manner of enemies must you pray/ that o●r lord god would forgive them as you do/ and as you forgiven would be/ and that they may come to right charity and peace. The .v. 〈◊〉 is called the vocative: that is to say the c●llyng case/ where you conveniently may call/ 〈◊〉/ and pray unto our lord for all manner of people that been out of the state of grace/ ●her by infidelyte as turks/ Saracens and 〈◊〉 other. Or else by error as all manner of 〈◊〉 heretics/ or else by any deadly sin or offence to god. Pray foral these manner of persons that they may come to the right way of their salvation. In the vi and last place/ is the ablative case. where you must pray for all them that be taken out of this life/ & that died or passed the same life in charity/ & that now have need of prayer. In the which you may keep a form of the same order that is before/ that is to say. In stead of the nominative where you prayed for yourself: you may now pray for all those that do bide in pain for any default or offence done by your example or occasion. And for the genitive in the second place/ for your parent's/ and all your kin departed this life. And in the iii place/ for the dative: pray for your benefactors passed. And for the accusative in the four place/ you may pray for them that live in pain for any occasion/ or any example that they gave unto you. And in the .v. place/ for the vocative. Pray for all them that have greatest pains in purgatory and least help here by the suffrage of prayers. And for the ablative in the vi and last place. Pray you for all souls in general. And that you may be the more apt to pray/ call three things oft times unto remembrance/ that is to say. what you have been/ what you be/ and what you shallbe. first by Rotable les. reason of your body: you were conceived of the most filthy abominable matter of man/ shameful to be spoken/ fetre more vile than the sluche/ or slime of the earth/ and after borne in a sinful soul/ and purged only by grace. And now (as unto the body) you been a mukhepe or dunghill/ more vile than any upon earth. if you remember what doth issue daily & come forth/ out of the meats of your body. And your soul is daily in some sin: or (at the least) full like to be. what you shallbe as unto your body: you may see in experyece: worms meat and earth again. And what shall become of your soul: no man in this world can assure you. To remember than the joys of heaven/ & pains of hell & that both been insimte endless/ and without rebate/ but both ever increasing and never seizing/ never have ease nor rest/ but ever continue and ever lasting. To remember than: I say/ these things/ may greatly move you to have yourself in good a wait/ and study how ye may avoid the one and obtain the other. Remembering spectally how great a loss it is to lose heaven/ and how uncomfortable gains to win hell/ and how soon/ and how lightly either of them may be gotten or lost. when any thing than of adversity/ hurt/ or displeasure fortune/ or fall unto you: think than or imagine that if you were in hell/ you should have the same displeasure and many worse. And so to avoid those: you shall here (the better) suffer/ and for our lord the more patiently bear all these that now be present or may come here after. And in like manner/ if any good prosperity or/ pleasure hap or come unto you: think then that if you were in heaven/ you should have that pleasure/ and many more excellentioyes. And so for the fervent desire of those joys: you shall set little by any worldly comfort or pleasure. A good contemplation therefore may it be unto you in feasts of holy saints (you may in the english Martyloge briefly see the lives of many saints for every day in the year) to think and record how great pains they suffered here for the love of out lord/ and how short these were/ & how soon passed/ and then again/ how marvelous reward they had therefore in joy & bliss everlasting. So the troubles and torments of good persons: been soon/ and shortly gone & ended. And the joys and pleasures of sinful persons done soon fade and i'll for ever. The good psones/ for their troubles suffered here upon earth: done get & win eterne and everlasting glory/ which the evil persons done lose. And contrary these evil and sinful persons/ for their joy and pleasures here/ done reign by exchange eterne & everlasting shame/ and rebuke with pain/ and woe unspeakable. when so ever than you been disposed to slugysnes/ or to be drowsy/ remiss in prayer or dull in devotion: than take this little work/ or some other good treaty/ and read thetin/ and ever note well the contents there of/ and also what is meant thereby. And if you be not thereby delivered or eased thereof/ than shift unto some other work/ or occupation/ so that ever ye avoid idleness/ and all vain pastimes/ which in deed been losetyme. And than remember that those that now bide in pain/ either in hell/ or yet in purgatory for such times so passed or lost/ had liefer than all the world/ have such time to redeem their pains by/ as you may have if you will. Time than unto all persons well occupied is very precious and dear. Beware well therefore: how you spend it/ or pass it. For you can never revoke it/ nor call it back. if the time pass you by trouble/ and vexation/ think they been happy/ and gracious that been past thee wretched life/ and now in bliss/ for they shall never have any such misery. And when you feel a comfort or consolation spiritual/ thank god thereof/ and think the dampened souls shall never have any such pleasure. And thue let this be for your exercise in the dative. At night when you go to rest/ first make a count with yourself/ and remember how you have spend/ or passed that day and time/ that was given you to be used in virtue/ and how that you have bestowed your thoughts/ your words/ and your works.  
And if you find no great thing amiss/ give the whole laud and praise unto our ford god. And if you perceive contrary/ that you have mysspended any part thereof/ be sorry therefore/ and beseech our lord of mercy & forgiveness/ and promise and verily purpose to make amends the next day. And if you have portunyte there upon it/ shallbe full convenient for you to be confessed on the next morrow. And specially if the matter done/ said or thought by deliberate consent/ do grievously weigh and work with a grudge in your conscience: than would jaduyse you never to eat nor drink/ till you be discharged thereof/ if you may conveniently get a ghostly father. Now for a conclusion of this work/ put before you/ as by case or imagination ii large cities/ one full of trouble/ turmoil/ and misery/ and let that be hall. The other city full of joy/ gladness/ comfort/ and pleasure/ and set that be heaven. Look well on them both/ for in both be many dwellers/ & great company. Then cast and think within yourself what thige here might so please you that you should choose the worse city/ or what thing should dusplease you on the other part/ whereby you should withdra we yourself from that virtue that might counay and bring you unto the other city. And when you have studied well here upon and can no thing find/ I dare well assure you if you keep well the precepts and counsels of this little lesson/ you shall find the right way/ for the holy ghost will instruct and teach you where you be not sufficient of yourself/ so you endeavour and give dyfygence/ to bear a way and to follow that here is taught. Reed it every week once or twice/ or oftener if you will. And where you profit give thanks/ laud/ and praise unto our lord god/ and most sweet saviour Ihesu christ/ who send you his mercy and grace/ that alway liveth god. In secula seculorum. Amen.   
¶ Finis.  

¶ This was brought unto me in english of an old translation/ rughe/ and rude/ and required to amend it. I thought less labour to write new the whole/ and I have done unto the sentence not very near the letter/ and in divers places added some things following upon the same to make the matter more sentencyove/ and full. I beseech you take all unto the best/ and pray for the old wretched brother of Zion richard whytforde.   

¶ Imprinted by me Robert wire/ dwelling at the sing of saint johan evangelist/ in saint martyn's parish in the field beside Charing cross in the bishop of Norwytche rents.  
 printer's device of Robert Wyer (1529-60) with his name and mark, depicting St. John writing the Book of Revelation on the island of Patmos with an eagle on his right holding an inkhorn 
ROBERT  merchant's mark wire.