A new book of spiritual physic for diverse diseases of the nobility and gentlemen of England, made by William Turner doctor of physic.  prover. 12. 
The way of the foolish man seemeth right in his own eyes, but he that is wise will hear counsel.  
Ad nobilem Britannum.  
Vivere fi cupias multos feliciter annos  
Et post hanc vitam regna videre Dei:  
Pharmaca quae grata Turnerus ment propinat  
In mentem penitus sum, quam tutus eris.  
Anno. 1555. 10. Calen. Martij.   

¶ To the right honourable Dukes & Earls, the Duke of Norfolk, the Duke of Suthfolke, the Earl of Arundale, the Earl of Derbi, the Earl of Shrosbery, the Earl of Huntyngton, the Earl of Combrelande, the Earl of Westmerlande, the Earl of Penbrook, and the Earl of warwick William Turner Physician wisheth perfit knowledge in God's holy word and grace to live according unto the same.  
Right mighty princes & honourable lords, this have I marked in divers places of Germani: that after that the burgesses and cytezenes' have builded them cities, and have made good and wholesome laws for the maintenance of all kind of good order there: have chosen unto them certain lords which they call in their tongue Schermheeren, that is, defending lords, to defend their cities, when as they are perfectly builded and set in good order: Knowing well by experience, that there is no city so strongly builded and well ordered, but it shall have enuyers and mortal enemies at one time or other.  
Even so I, after that I had made this little book, and set it in as good order as I could, fearing, nay rather precyslye knowing, that there shall many arise, which will either slander it, and blame it, or else will condemn it and burn it, as an heretical and seditius book: before they have cast and reproved it by any sufficient witnesses, either of scripture, or of reason, among all the hole nobility of England, I am compelled by great need to choose you, and desire you to be patrons, and defenders of this my little book only so far as it agreeth with natural reason, and with the written word of God. If that any wise and learned man can reprove and justly overcome any thing that I have written in this book, with reason and scripture, I will amend it that is amiss: and recant it which is written against the scripture. But if no such thing can be found in it: I beseech you as God's ministers, and officers under him, to defend it so long as it shallbe found reasonable and godly. But lest, I should put you, unto to much pain: I will answer aforehand to sum objections, which I reckon will be made against me. Some who would be loath that their sores should be touched: will say, why do ye not go about as well to heal the clergy, & the commons, as ye go about now to correct us? There is neither of both those orders, but it had as much need of Physic, as the nobility hath. I answer that if the clergy be sick, the nobility ought to be their phisicianes and healers.  
How can the nobility heal them: when they are sick themselves?  
How shall the commons be healed, when as their physicians in politic things, the noble men: and their physicianes in spiritual matters, the shepherds are both so sick, that they are not able to do their own duties? Therefore it is not possible to heal the other two orders, except the order of gentlemen be first healed. furthermore, when as I intend to entreat of diverse matters, after the order of physic: what a foolish Physician should I have been, if that I should beselye have gone about to heal the legs and the thighs, and not offered any remedy at all, unto the heart, the liver, and the heed? When as all physic would that the principal parts should be first looked to, and healed, because all the prosperity and health of the lower parts, hang upon the health and welfare of the over and principal parts, and the neither parts must needs be sick, as long as the over parts are not perfectly healed. This matter is proved to be true, not only by physic and natural reason, 
Eccl. 10.  but also by the scripture which sayeth. Eccle, 10. As the governor of the city is: so are also they that dwell in it. Then saying that these gentlemen will be the principal parts, and the heed of the common wealth: according unto reason and to nature, they must go before all the rest in the common wealth, which thing they can not do, if they be not healed before.  
Therefore it is necessary that the gentlemen be first healed. Where in, when I have done as much as I can do for my part: I will offer some physic both unto the clergy, and to the yemanry of this realm, lest I should seem to favour one kind of men more than an other. If any man think that I dishonour your lordships in dedicating my book unto you, and in speaking unto you and to other lords, in many places of the book: as though ye were only the sick men to whom I offer physic only to: I answer that therein, I dishonour you not, but honour you as much as lieth in me, whilse I make you the head of all the nobility in England under the Queen. For when as ye are the head of the body of the nobility, it were no wisdom for me to speak unto the sick belly feet and back, which for lack of ears can hear nothing at all. When a man hath the gout in his too, or the ciatica in his huckell bone, or the collik in his belly, no wise physician will speak unto the too, neither unto the hukkell bone, neither unto the belly, but he speaketh unto the head, which heareth and receiveth counsel, and physic also, for all the rest of the parts of the hole body, and though these above named parts be only vexed, and the heed be hole and sound, yet God and nature have ordained, that the heed shall both receive all manner of counsel, & medicines, be they never so bitter & ugly, for the vilest part of all the body. Therefore I dishonour not your lordships but honour you, as much as lieth in me when as I do none other wise unto you, than God and nature would that I should do. This in most humble wise I beseech your lordships for the love that ye own unto God, and to the common wealth of England that ye look well upon my physic, and try it to the uttermost, if ye find it lawful, then take it unto you, and into you, and dispose it, and send it to such parts of the body of the nobility as have most need of it, and I doubt not, but that many that are now sick shallbe well healed, to the glory of God, and to the profit of the common wealth. The Lord jesus the great Physiciane which is able to heal both body and soul: heal all them that are sick, and save you from all enemies, both bodily and ghostly. Amen.   

¶ If thou be minded, (gentle reder) to read this book here following with pleasure and profit: amend these faults following as I shall teach thee.  

Red in the first leaf and all thorough the book country & not country.  
In the third leaf read surname and Dikson.  
In the four leaf read curtesey.  
In the vi leaf and xxx line read for a, and  
In the vii leaf read building, and in the last line red fools and no fowls.  
In the viii leaf read straight and not straight.  
In the ix leaf read brute beasts and mules.  
In the xi read manteyneth & not maintaineth.  
In the xiiii read in the sight of God, clenged and altars and not cleansed and altars.  
In the xu read contained.  
In the xxiii leaf and xiiii line red wot for not, for man of law men of law.  
In the xxiiii leaf and xxxvi line read manifest in the last line of the same lief saving one, read bodies.  
In the xxvi leaf read for eglates aglates.  
In the .29. read for punish punished  
In the xxxi & xxxii line read where and not when, in the same side red give me and not my.  
In the xxvi leaf read Wolsey's house and not Wolsey his house.  
In the xlii in the iii line make for if sum: what if sum.  
In the xlvii leaf read betulle.  
In the xlix leaf read for bag beg.  
In the .50. leaf and .7. line read fathers.  
In the .51. leaf read field for field.  
In the .52. leaf read in the .30. line neither, in the second side read scelerum & rimatur.  
In the .53. read penny and more and not more.  
In the .57. leaf and in 20.21. and 23. lines put out this superfluus sentence, and he that knoweth not the cause of the disease how shall he take it away, for it twice together.  
In the .59. read chief.  
In the .62. read se iungere for se iunge.  
In the .75. leaf read betokening.  
In the .78. read Ezechiel rehearseth among the causes of the great etc.  
In the 79. leaf read springeth out of  
In the .80. leaf read for .3. iiii. either 3. iiii. or uncias four  
In the .85. and 31. line read any start upppes are.  
In the 86. read sterlynges.  
In the .90. leaf read episcopus for episcupos.  
In the last lief of all read, imprinted at Rome by the vatican church against Marcus Antonius constantius, otherwise called thraso or gloriosus Pape miles.    

The contents of this book.  
IN the first part of this book the auctor showeth who be noble and gentle men: and how many works and properties belong unto a noble or gentleman, and where in his office chiefly standeth: which he proveth is to maintain defend, and observe the written word of God, and the true worshipping of him according to the same, & showeth that neither fair builded and trimmed houses, nor yet rich apparel, dancing, luting, dicing nor carding, hawking nor hunting are the chief tokens, offices or duties of noble and gentlemen.  
In the second part he proveth great diseases to be in the true nobility and gentlemen, which letteth them to do their offices and duties.  
In the third part he nameth the diseases that are in the nobility to be these, the hole Palsy, the Dropsey, the romish pocks, and the Lepre: and showeth the nature of the diseases, the danger of them, and telleth the remedies for every of the diseases acordyngly And in the end of the book is added the prayer of Daniel contained in the ix Chapter of his prophesy.   

To the noble men and gentle men of England.  
THe love that I own unto my Lord God, to my neighbour, and my natural country, hath compelled me at this time, to offer unto you, my lords & masters, some part of such substance, as almighty God hath given unto me. Which thing, except I should have done, I might have been easily proved, neither to have loved God, nor my neighbour nor my country. He that hath the substance of this world, and seeth his brother wanting help, and shutteth up his bowels from him, how doth the love of God abide in him? How can he love god whom he seeth not, which loveth not his neighbour, whom he seeth? How loveth he his neighbour that when he may save & help him, will neither help him, nor offer any help to him at all? How loveth he his natural country, which suffereth the posts & pillars of his country (without the which his country must needs be destroyed) for lack of help to perish, when as he can help them if he will? Then when as almighty God hath endued me with the knowledge of spiritual Physic and see my brethren and country men, the noble and gentle men of England, sore sick and like to perish, except they have speedy remedy, would offer them no help, I might justly be judged neither to love God, my neighbour nor my country.  
Therefore for the declaration of my love unto all three I intend according unto my bond duty, to offer you some of my spiritual Physic, which God hath lent me, to heal such diseases as ye are sick in When as of late years I practised bodily physic in England, in my lord of Summersettes' house, divers sick beggars came unto me, & not knowing that I was a Physician, asked of me mine almose. To whom I offered to heal their diseases for God's sake. But they went by and by away from me, and would none of that▪ For they had much liefer be sick still with ease and idleness, then to be hole, & with great pain and labour, to earn honestly their living. It were great shame, if any noble man or gentle man, should be like unto a lyther beggar, as all they are doubtless (if there be any such) which had liefer be sick in a death bringing disease, that for a time they might have their ease & pleasure then to be healed and to do their office with labour and pain, where unto almighty God hath called them. Other that are sore sick will not knowledge that they have any sickness at all, and therefore will bid me bestow my physic upon them that need it. As for the former kind, I will offer them physic, if they will not receive it, I am discharged, and to their jeopardy be it. As for the other kind that say that they are not sick, and pretend that if they knew surely that they were sick, would both seek remedy for their diseases, and would thankfully receive such remedies, as are offered them: I will prove by good authority and reason that they are sick, although they do not, nor can not, perceive and see their own sickness.  
A sickness is a passion in a body, against nature, hurting & stopping the natural work of the same body. Then they whose natural work is hindered and stopped, by some passion against nature: are sick.  
But many noble men and gentle men in England do not their natural work, that belongeth unto their vocation. Therefore there are many noble men and gentle men sick in England. To prove that diverse gentle men and noble men in England do not their offices that belong unto them: it is required that I first tell, who is a noble man, or a gentle man, & what is the office of a gentleman, & how many works and properties belong unto a noble or gentleman, and wherein his office standeth. It is therefore necessary to show what is a nobleman or a gentleman, because in this book I make so oft mention of noble men and gentlemen, lest some should not know, to whom I ordain & prepare this physic: Nobilis in latin be tokeneth any gentleman what so ever degree he be of, so that he be above the common people, & not only a Duke or such gentlemen as are only above the degrees of a knight, as this word Noble, is commonly used in our english tongue now a days. Nobilis cometh of Notabilis, by taking away of ta. He is Notabilis which is well known and may be discerned from the common sort, by some excellent quality of body or mind. A gentleman hath his name of this word gens gentis, which may be called in english, a folk, a nation, or a family, so that it appeareth, that a gentleman is he, that is commed of some notable house, family or surname: for gentlemen, commonly have their surnames, other of their family or mansion houses, where as they were borne. The common sort of men which are no gentlemen, in many countries, have none other name of their folk or kin, but such as they received of their Godfathers, when they are baptized: As it is in low Germany, and in scotland: In low Germany where as I have been most, there is almost no man saving gentlemen, that have any surname, or name of their family or kindred. For the yeomen are either called by the towns that that they are borne in, as Herman van Vtrecht, jan van Munster, Henryk van der Busche: Or of their father's name, as johan Henricus Bernard Clause, or of their occupation, or of their father's occupation, as Bert luchtemaker, Hanse Dretler: The Scots in great plenty and some english men, which are yemen men, and of no famous family or kindred, have their syrnames, of their fathers christian names, and of their father's occupations, as john Wilyems, Thomas Diksen, Ralph Robson, Steven Gardiner, Thomas Turner, Laurence Taylor, and many such other, whose parents have been no gentlemen, but of the low, and base sort of the people.  
Hitherto have I only spoken of the etymologi of the name of a noble man and a gentle man. Now will I describe a gentleman as well as I can. A gentle or noble man is an excellent person either in qualities of body or mind, or one that is comed of noble parents & forefathers, ordained & promoted of God alone or of God and his governors under him in earth, to dignity and to govern, either all or some part of the common wealth, or church of Christ in matters pertaining, unto the outward government. And this description is grounded upon Scripture, Reason, & Philosophy, as I shall partly declare here after.   

¶ Of the office, works, learning and knowledge that belong unto a noble or gentleman.  
Now after that I have told you what a gentleman is, and that it is God that maketh & hath made all right gentlemen, let us see for what end & purpose he made them, and whether a gentleman serveth for any purpose in the common wealth or no, or he is but an idle superfluus and a dead part of the politic body or no.  
And if he be a part of the body, whether is he the belly, that wasteth all thing, that the rest of the body winneth: or he is an arm that defendeth the body with his strength or the head that saveth it, with wit and learning or no. The common sort of gentlemen believeth that God hath made them in vain, and that they are bound to do nothing at all for their living that they have, and that the proper office work and calling of a gentleman, is only to hawk and to hunt, to dice and to card, to swear and to brag, to pipe sing and dance, & to make fine curtsy, to banquet & to wear proud apparel, and to have gorgius houses: The Philosophers and wise men of the gentiles, which by the law of nature that was written in their hearts, knew partly the nature of god by his creatures: with one assent and agreement, hold that God made nothing in vain. The same thing may ye learn of the parts of a man's body, wherein no part is so little or small, but it serveth for one purpose or other. As ye may well learn of Galene the Phisiciane, in his book that he wrote, of the use and office of the parts of a man's body: Then when as the politic body of the common wealth ought to be like unto the natural body of man (which is called of some wise men the less world) there ought no part to be in the politic body without office: wherefore if ye be creatures of Gods making, & true members of the politic body, ye must needs have some work & office in it, or else ye must be unprofitable branches, which bring forth no fruit, and therefore worthy to be cut of, and to be cast into the fire. If ye require scripture to prove it that I have proved before by Philosophers and by reason, I will prove you by scripture that gentlemen ought to have some work and office in the common wealth, and that they are not ordained of God to be idle and to have no office, as many idle ruflers do believe at this time.  
Moses sayeth that God did see that all things that he made were very good. Then if gentlemen be of god's creation, they are very good for something. If they be made good, and that for some good thing, then are they not ordained for to be idle and unoccupied. When as almighty God said unto Adam, in the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eat thy bread, he granted no privilege unto gentlemen, that they should be exempted from all labour for they were at the time of that curse, as well in the loins of Adam, as the yeomen men were. Therefore they must also labour, & have some office, and do some service to God for their meat and drink, & for their other good turns, that they receive of their lord and master almighty God.  
Paul the Apostle in the second epistle unto the Thessalonians, cannot abide such idle fellows as will go up and down, & will do no good for their meat & drink. And the same Paul commandeth such as are warned to labour, and to fall to some kind of honest exercise profitable for the common wealth, and will not, should be excommunicated. The words of Paul. 
2. thes. 3  2. thes. 3. are these. Brethren we command you thorough the name of our Lord jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother which behaveth himself inordinately & not according unto the ordinance which he hath received of us. For ye know how ye ought to follow us. For we have not behaved ourselves inordinately amongst you. Nether have I received bread of any man for nothing, but with labour & sweat, working day and night, for this end, that I would not be thargeable unto any of you. Not because that it is not lawful for any of us, but that I might set myself out as an example unto you to follow. For when we were with you, this did we command you, that if any man would not labour, that the same should not eat. For we hear that there are some conversant among you & living inordinately, doing no work, but doing curiously. Them that are such, we command & beseech in the name of our Lord jesus Christ, that they working with quietness eat their own bread. Ye that are my brethren, be not weary of well doing. If there be any that obeyeth not our word, certify me of him by a letter, & have no fellowship with him, that he may be ashamed. Hitherto Paul: The Lord jesus, our king & master also compareth himself unto a man that goeth from home into a far country, & he compareth his disciples & Christian, unto such servants as have received their masters substance or power, & have every man their work and office appointed unto them. Our masters words are these. Marci. 13. As a man that goeth from home & leaveth his house, a hath given unto his servants power, or his substance, and to every man his work. etc. If gentle men, that is to say, Kings, Dukes, Earls, Lords, Knights & Squires, be Christ's servants, and he hath given unto them, any of his power or substance, then hath he given them also a work, for he hath appointed every one of his servants a work. If they have a work & a vocation, appointed unto them, than they are not without an office, then may they not think that they are bound to do nothing profitable for the rest of the congregation or politic body that they are of. When as Christ shall say in the day of judgement, or in the end of every man's life, give account of thy stewardship, shall the nobility make no account at all? If gentlemen may be idle, & have no work nor office appointed them, then shall they not need to make any account of their stewardship. But they shall give account of their stewardship, therefore they have some office and work appointed them, by the king of heaven their Lord and master. Saint Paul sayeth that we must all (out taking no man) be opened before the judgement seat of Christ, that every man may receive, according unto those things that he hath done in his body, whether it be good or evil. And Christ sayeth that in the day of judgement, they that have done good things shall go into everlasting life & they that have done evil things shall go into everlasting fire.  
Then they that are idle men and do no good, shall never enter into the kingdom of heaven, but God hath ordained heaven for gentlemen, for he would that all men should be saved, therefore they are ordained to do good unto the common wealth, and not to be idle. Some witty gentleman perchance will say, we shall not be taken out of the number of right gentlemen, for lack of labour and for idleness, labour we not, when we hunt and hawk? is it not labour to dance? he that hunteth long & followeth earnestly his game, and he that danceth long, laboureth I warrant you, and sweateth with labouring, he that dyceth and cardeth laboureth earnestly with his mind, thus do we. Therefore we are not all together idle. Ye are in deed when ye do these things, neither utterly idle, nor yet altogether well occupied your master which gave you your lands & goods, will not allow these your unthrifty pastimes for a right labour, because he commanded you never to occupy them, & therefore will he say unto you, that brag so much of gentleness & nobility, & do nothing that belongeth thereto, but hunt & hawk, & dice & card, who required these things of your hands. As ye have not done unto my congregation, so have ye not done unto me. But ye have done no good unto it, therefore ye have done no good unto me, therefore have I no place for you in my kingdom. Furthermore hawking and hunting, dicing & carding, swearing of great oaths, wearing of costly apparel, and building of costly houses, and trimming of them with costly hangings, are not the offices and labours properly and severally belonging unto a noble or gentleman. For Lions, Bears, and Wolves, hunt for Calves, Fowls and such like beasts, Kites, and Kestrels, hawk for chickens, goslings, and butterflies. As for dicing and carding, and abominable swearing, and fine luting and dancing, and making pretty courtesy, bawds and brothels, ruffianes, and rybaldes, pipers and players, can do all these things as well and do them as oft as any gentleman in England doth or can do They that think that costly apparel doth make a gentle or noble man, may be both merely mocked and strongly confuted by a tale which was told me of an honest man borne and brought up in Scotland. The tale was of one Ihoan of Low, the king of Scots fool. This simple man stood in a place where as many lords & other gentlemen came by, but the silly fool neither greeted nor put of his hood to any of all the lords that came by. The which thing a certain curtier of the kings house seeing, rebuked the fool sharply & bet him a little, and threatened him, that he would whip him, except he would  the next lords that he saw. Poor john said that he would gladly  the next lords that he saw, if the curtier would tell him, how that he might know a Lord from an other man For he said that he knew not a lord from an other man. Then quoth the curtier, thou shall know lords by these tokens. They wear velvet and have gold upon their caps, and about their necks. Well quoth the fool, I shall lexe token them as well as I kan. And upon the next day as soon as john came abroad he saw a great sort of bishops & other lords mules standing at the court gates, trapped with velvet & costly trimmed with gold, wherefore he remembering his lesson, that the curtier had taught him, straight way as soon as he saw them, he went unto them, and cried a great while, to every one after an other, gued day my lord, gued day my lord, even until the Curtier his schoolmaster, came out & saw him making courtesy, and greeting the mules. As soon as the fool saw his scoolmaister, he said unto him. Am I not a good sun now? Thou art mad, quoth the curtier, for these are mules & no lords. Why quoth the fool, but these wear velvet, and gold on their heads. The curtier bet, the fool, and bade him learn better to ken a lord or else he said he would whip him naked. And as they were talking, suddenly came riding toward them the sheriff of Murra all in velvet, having a cap all full of golden agglettes.  
The fool stepped forth to meet him, and as soon as he came near unto him he said, gued day my lord and ye be not a mule. Some man will say that the saying or doing of a fool, is but of small strength to over throw the opinion of many witty young men, which describe a lord, or a gentle man only by costly apparel. To whom I answer: Saepe etiam stultus fuit opportuna locutus.  
That is, a fool oft times hath spoken things to good purpose, or in season. Did not Balaams' Ass speak wisely at a certain time? Well if any man be grieved that his opinion should be confuted with the saying and doing of a fool, let him choose one of these two whether he will, the is, whether the fool in this his doing did wisely or foolishly. If he answer that he played the wysemans' part in taking and halsing the mules for lords: then must he also do so, and call all brute beasts mules that are trapped with velvet & trimmed with gold, lords: & give that name which belongeth unto honourable men, unto brute mules. If he played the right fool than is he a fool that taketh and greeteth him for a lord which not by learning and knowledge, but only by costly apparel differeth from an other man Well thus did the poor Scottish fool, were it not pity that many wise english men (as they are taken) should take and great mules for lords & gentlemen? Is it not possible that one mule may at this day carry an other? Master Latemer thought so when sir Martin mydas road to hear master miles preach, & said when the sermon was done, that his mule was as well absolved as he.  
And as for building of costly houses, and trimming of them with costly hangings and fair wainscot, many merchants use to do those things, better than many gentlemen do, and yet for all that, are no gentlemen. Therefore these things, are neither proper offices, nor works of gentlemen, neither the several tokens whereby a gentleman may be known from an other common man. Then seeing these are neither offices nor works, nor marks belonging properly unto a gentleman, I must seek out what is his proper office, & what tokens he hath and aught to have, whereby he may be known from the common people. The proper office and work of a right noble man, is, to set forth and defend the true religion of almighty God, to defend the innocentes & to punish the evil doers, and to show justice and judgement unto all men, that are under his government. That the setting forth of God's word & the maintenance of the same, & the destroying of all false doctrines contrary unto it, belongeth unto a noble man, both general commandments, and proper examples in the holy Bible, do plainly bear witness. almighty God giveth these commandments following unto all his people, and namely unto the nobility and judges, which are the chief workers of these commandments, and all such like as pertain unto judgement, and ponyshing of horrible trespasses, although the commons be bound in executing of them, 
Deute. 7.  to aid them, and help them: Overthrow sayeth almighty God, the altars of the heathen, break in pieces their images, and cut down their groves, Deuteronomi. seven. It is also written Deuterono. 
Deute. 18.  xviii. If there by any prophet made froward with arrogancy, that will speak those things in my name, which I commanded him not to speak, or will speak in the name of other gods: he shallbe slain.  
Who shall see these laws executed, but the nobles and gentlemen. Then belongeth it unto them, to destroy all false and conterfet religion, and to destroy all false teachers & preachers, and to maintain the true learning of almighty God, and the preachers of the same. We read in the books of the Kings and Paralipomenon, that all the most excellent and best kings, soon after that they began to reign did maintain gods true religion, in putting down of Groves, chapels & churches, wherein false religion was maintained, and did set forth the true religion, and maintained the preachers of the same. We read in the same books, that some of the Kings, beside that they destroyed idols and their temples, did also both read the scripture in the Temple their own selves, and sent out many preachers to preach the true word of God, which had been, before their days, in the time of their fathers hid and unknown unto the folk of God. 
3. Reg. 15.  Asa as it is written in the xu chapter of the third book of the kings, which did it that was right in the sight of the Lord as his father David did before him, took away the effeminate out of the land and scoured quite away, all the filth of the idols which his fathers had made. He removed also his mother Maachan, that she should not be the chief in the sacrifice of Priapus, and in that place that she had hallowed. He also overthrew her den, and broke the most filthy idol, & burnt it beside the broken Cedron. This did the good King Asa, and he did it that was right in the sight of god. But though these things, had been good of themselves, yet if they had not pertained unto his office, or had pertained unto an other vocation then to his: God would have punished him, for entering into an other man's office, as he punished the King Ozias with a perpetual Lepry, for entering into the office of the Sacrificers, when he offered up frankincense upon the frankincense altar. 
●. par. 26.  But the scripture maketh no mention of any punishment of God that came upon Asa for putting down of idols. But it sayeth expressly that Asa did it that was right in the sight of God. Therefore it was his office to put down idols temples, and to destroy idolatry. And it that is said of Asa, must have place also in other good Kings, which did such like things unto these that Asa did. josaphat as the xvii Chapter of the second book of Paralipomenon beareth witness: 
2. par. 17.  was a right good man, and the Lord was with him. This josaphat after that his heart had taken boldness, for the ways of the Lord, took also out of juda the high places and the groves. And in the third year of his reign, he sent out of his princes and rulers, Benail, Abdia, zacharias, Nathanael, and Micheas, to teach in the cities of juda, and with them levites, Semia, Nathonia, and zabadia with other & with them Belisima and joram sacrificers or priests. And they having the book of the law of the Lord, taught the people of juda, and they went about into every city of juda, and taught the people. The same josaphat as it is written in the xix Chapter of the forenamed book, went out unto the people (he sat not playing at dice and cards, nor dalyeng with his maids at home in his chamber, neither went he out only to hunting, or to se Bearbaytinge) but he went out unto his people from Barsabe unto mount Ephraim, and there he commanded them not to pay untolerable sums of money, neither to return unto the learning that they & their fathers were brought up in, from their tender years, and as their fathers found, taught & exercised. But he called them again unto the Lord God of their fathers And he ordained judges of the land in every walled city, thorough out all juda. This good king, this good noble and gentleman, thought that it was his office to destroy idolatry, and to send out preachers to preach the true word of God, and he disdained not to go abroad in visitation his own self, to call his people again unto the true God, from the which they had departed and fallen away. 
2. par. 29, and. 30,  Ezechias the noble king (whom the spirit of god so greatly commendeth,) reckoned it to be one of the principal parts of his kingly office, to destroy all idolatry, & to purge the church of God, and to set for the with all diligence the true word of God. And if this good and virtuous gentleman, take it to be one of the principal parts of his office, to destroy false religion, and to set forth the right and true religion, all that are right gentle men, and not idols and images of gentlemen will also reckon it the principal part of their office, as far as their commission will serve them, to destroy and to put down idolatry, and to set out, & to maintain the true religion of God and the ministers of the same. All ye then that are right gentlemen, hear what the holy scripture reporteth of this noble gentleman. Ezechias was xxv year old, when he entered into the kingdom of juda, & he did it that was pleasant in the sight of God. In the very first year and first month of his reign, he opened the doors of the lords house, and he repaired them. And he brought Levites and sacrificers, and he set them together in the Gast street. And he said unto them. Hear me o levites, and be you made holy, make clean the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and take away all uncleanness out of the holy sanctuary. He broke down the high places, & burned the images, and cut down the groves, and broke the brazen serpent which Moses made, because the children of Israel offered frankincense unto it. Ezechias also wrote epistles unto all Israel and juda, to Ephraim and Manasses, that they should come unto the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and to keep the solemn feast of the passover there. Certain speedy messengers, were sent forth into all Israel and juda, with the kings letters, at the commandment of the king and his nobility, proclaiming the contents thereof, according unto the kings commandment: The sum of his letters was this. O ye children of Israel, return unto the Lord God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Israel, and he will return unto the remnants, which have escaped out of the hands of the Assyrians. Be not ye like unto your fathers and brethren, which ran away from the Lord God of their fathers, which therefore brought them unto destruction as ye see. give your hands unto the Lord, and come unto his sanctuary which he hath hallowed for ever. Serve the Lord God of your fathers, and the wrath of his great indignation shallbe turned away from you. etc. Thus did the good king Ezechias think, that it was the chief part of his vocation, to destroy idolatry, and to set forth the true religion. The noble and virtuous gentleman king josias, who as the holy word of God beareth witness, did it that was right in sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David, and neither bowed to the right hand nor left hand, took it to be the most principal part of his office, to destroy idolatry, and to set forth, and to promote, the true religion and word of God. And therefore when as he was but a boy of xvi. years of age. As the xxxiii Chapter of the second book of Paralipomenon witnesseth, began to seek the God of his father David, and in the twelft year of his reign, that is, when he was but twenty year old (for he began to reign when he was but viii year old,) he cleansed juda & Jerusalem, from the high places and groves, from cast images and graved images. And they destroyed before him the altars of Baal, and they destroyed the images that was set above. He cut also down the graven images and the groves, and broke them in pieces, & he scattered and strewed the pieces, upon the graves of them that had wont to offer, And burned all the sacrificing priests bones upon the altars of the idols, & he made clean juda and Jerusalem. But also in the cities of Manasses, Ephraim, & Simeon unto Nepthalim, he destroyed all such things. And when he had broken down the altars & the groves, and had broken the graven images into pieces, and had pulled down all the temples of false gods in Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. And in the xviii year of his reign when as he was but xxvi year old, when as the land was clenged and the temple made clean, he sent certain of his servants to repair the house of the Lord his God. 
2. par. 34.  And whiles they were about that business, Helkias the high sacrificer or priest, found the book of the law, which was given by the hand of Moses in the house of the Lord, and he gave it unto Sapha the secretary, and the secretary brought it unto the King, and red it before them. After that the king had heard the words of the law: he rend his clothes and commanded Helkia and divers other, saying: go your ways & pray unto the Lord for me, and for the remnant of Israel and juda, for all the words of this book that is found. For the high displeasure and anger of almighty God, hath been poured upon us, for not keeping all the words that are contained in the book that is found. Then what blind madness is it to commend governors and rulers, which say that God hath poured his vengeance upon us, because we have not kept unwritten traditions of man. I must now my lords and masters are you a question, as it becometh the Physician to do with his patientes, and it is this. If it had not belonged unto the king, and had not been his office, to see the word of God set forth, that all the people might read it, & hear it. What needeth he to have rend his clothes, what should he have needed to desire the high priest or sacrificer with other, to pray for him, and to send to a prophetess to know the will of God in that matter? I think than ye will answer, that because he had reigned xviii years and had not looked for the holy scripture, in all that time neither set it out in his time, he thought himself guilty, and not to have done it that belonged unto his office. josias an honest man and a true man, said that God was angry with him, because the book of the Law was not sought for, and set forth by him, as it was his office to have done. If that be true, all Kings and governors as well as he, are bound to seek for the scripture, and to set it forth, or else the wrath of God shall come upon them. josias repented him very sore that the book was so long hid, and that he had not sought for it, and if he had not done so, as the scripture doth privily teach us, he should have been grievously punished for that the book was so long hid. Wherefore it is the office of all kings and governors, to seek for the word of God, and to see that it be brought forth into the light, that all men may read it, and learn of it, what they are bound to do unto their Lord God, and to their supperiors here in earth & to their neyghbores. Then they that other will have the same book, with other of like authority, to be laid up that no man shall read them, or will not suffer them to be read in a tongue that the people can understand, have an other spirit than josias had. josias whom all good kings and governors ought to follow, was so earnest in the setting out of the holy scripture, that he called unto the temple all the elders of juda, 
2. par. 34.  and all the people of Jerusalem, from the lowest unto the highest, and in the presence of them all hered his own self the book of the law, & not one piece of it alone as the text sayeth all the words of it. If that this had not been his office to set forth the scripture. God would have punished him for going beyond his office as he ponished Ozias. But God ponished him not, but allowed him in doing so. Therefore to set forth the word of God was his office, & not more than his office, nor beside his office, nor against his office. And it that was his office, was and is the office of all other kings & governors. Then it is the office, or one principal part of the office of every king, governor and noble man to see that idolatry be destroyed, and that the true word of God, which is contained in the holy scripture, be set forth & preached and known of all the people that are under their government. All ye that are under the dignity of a king, may not say that this only belongeth unto kings and not unto you, for this belongeth not only unto kings, but also to all that say sanctificetur nomen tuum, hallowed be thy name. For all they that would have gods name hallowed, must help to destroy such religion as is against the honour of God, and to maintain & set forth as much as lieth in them the true religion of God. If that every private man be thus bound to do, as far forth as his vocation and calling doth suffer him, much more are ye my lords and masters bound, which receive and have your lands and lyvelot, chiefly for this purpose of your Lord God, and are part of the kings body, that is to wet, his eyes, ears, and arms without the which he is not able alone in the common wealth to do his office & duty, I think that he were a very arrogant king, that would think himself better learned and wiser than the noble servant of God Duke Moses was, and yet he (as his father in law told him truly) thought himself not able to govern his people alone, and therefore he choosed out governors and judges over thousands, and some over hundreds, and some over fifty, and other some over ten. So when as no king is able to do all things alone that pertain unto his office, every king must have noble men under him, to help him to do his office, that belongeth unto him, and to be partakers with the king in labour and office, as they are partakers with him in honour and livelihood above the common people: To whom is it said I pray you? Vos dij estis? Ye are gods? is it said only to kings? or is it also said unto you? If it be said also unto you, then if you will take unto you such an honourable name with Kings, as to be called gods, that is judges and rulers here in god's stead, you must be content to take part of the office that belongeth unto that name.  
Therefore ye must also with the king destroy idolatry, & set out gods true religion, as the noble gentlemen that were under king Ezechias did. What other things belong unto the office of a noble man, and specially of a king, besides the maintaining of the true religion and the preachers of the same, the words of Samuel partly tell us, after this manner. Behold the Lord hath anointed the upon thy heritage, to be a prince, and thou shalt deliver his people from the hands of their enemies that are round about them. But there are other places clearer and plainer than this, which declare more plainly the office of a king and a noble man: 
2. par. 9  The, ix. Chapter of the second book of Paralipomenon teacheth us that it belongeth unto a king and a governor, to exercise justice and judgement. In the second book of the kings and in the viii Chap, where as David was praised for doing of his duty, it is rehearsed of him that he did judgement & justice unto all his people. Esay in the first chapter of his prophesy rebuking the princes for leaving of their office and duty and exhorting them again to do their office, speaketh these words unto them: Audite verbum Domini principes Sodomorum. etc.  
Querite ìudicium subvenite oppresso. etc.  
That is to say ye princes of Sodom, 
Esay. i.  hear the words of the Lord. Seek judgement, help him that is oppressed, let the fatherless child have judgement, defend the widow. And in the same chapter where as he reproveth them again for not doing of their duties, saith thus unto Jerusalem. Principes tui infideles. etc. Thy princes are unfaithful, thieves fellows, they love all rewards, & follow after bribes, they give no judgement unto the fatherless children, and the poor widows matter can not come in to you, where as you are. Moses also in the xviii of Exodus ordained certain princes and gentlemen, 
Exod. 18.  & choosed them out of the strongest of the people, and he appointed them this office, that they should judge the people under him, at all times, and not in the term time alone, as it is now the manner in England. If any man require authority out of the new testament to prove that it belongeth unto the Kings, Duke's Earls, Lords and other noble and gentlemen to exercise justice and judgement, 
Rom. 13.  and to defend the innocent, and to punish the evil: I will show two evident places to prove the same. Paul in the xiii of the epistle unto the Roma. declareth expressedly, that the office of princes, is to defend the innocent, & to punish the evil. His words are these. They that do well, need not to fear the princes, but such as do evil. Will thou not be afraid of the power? do it that is good, and thou shalt have praise of him. For he is god's servant or officer to thee unto good. But if thou do it that is evil, fear, for he beareth not the sword in invayne, for he is God's officer, and an angry avenger unto him that doth evil? Peter also in the second chapter of his former Epistle, teacheth us that it is not only the office of a king, to defend the good and to punish the evil, but that the same is also the office of other rulers and officers under him, as ye be. His words are these. Be you obedient unto every creature of man for the lords sake, whether it be the king as most execellent, or dukes or governors, which are appointed by him, for the punishment of the evil doers, and for the commendation of weldoers. These things are they, where in chief stand the office & duty of a right noble or gentleman, & all these things are all Emperores, Kings, Dukes, Earls, Barons, Knights, squires, and all other gentlemen bound to do. But these things can they not do without great learning and knowledge, and specially in the holy scripture. For how shall that noble man know, whether he be king, duke, or earl, how to destroy idolatry and fat's worshipping of God, and set out the true religion, which hath not learned what is idolatry, & what is true religion, and wherein the one standeth, and wherein the other standeth? He that knoweth not both the contraries, knoweth not parfytlye one of them. How shall he be able to judge and say this is right whit, which knoweth not black? How shall he know what is evil, that knoweth not what is good? How shall he judge which is white, and which is black, that is blind and can see no colour? How shall he judge after the civil law that never knew it? How shall he judge after the law of God or man, that never learned nor knew any of both? 
Aristotel.  Quae quisque no uit de ijs vere judicat, eorumque est aequus aestimator, Sayeth Aristotel, that is, every man judgeth those things truly that he knoweth. Therefore without great learning and namely in the word of God, no person can rightly exercise the office of king or governor, or of a noble or gentleman. When a man of the country, cometh to a gentleman that is his landlord, or to a justice of peace, or to a knight or to a lord, or an earl, or a duke, or a king, and accuseth his neighbour of blasphemy or heresy, for saying, it that was once bread, can not be made God. If the gentleman be ignorant in the scripture, to whom this accuser cometh, and wot not what is blasphemy, but only followeth that learning that he hath received of unlearned priests, & false prophets, & putteth in prison the man accused for this saying, and the poor man dieth in prison, in the mean season, which might have lived if he had been out of prison, what shall we say of this judge, is he not a murderer? Think ye that on the day of judgement, when god shall inquire why that gentleman killed, or cast in prison an innocent, think ye that if the gentleman answer: I knew no better, that God the great judge, which made allthing, and was never made: will allow this excuse? I trow not. Think ye that the gentlemen of Cambridgeshyre and the judges which keste john Warde painter into prison amongst thieves and murderers for saying that it was as lawful to set a candle before his hat, as before a painted image, shall scape unpunished if they did not repent them afterward? Will this excuse, I knew no better, be then allowed in such as were by the expressed commandment of God charged to have perfect knowledge of the law of God? I trow nay. Was it not a great shame that judges which with a few other of that profession will & are almost only called learned men should be so ignorant in scripture that they kest an innocent into prison? namely when as a painter told his matter so that no scripture learned judge would have condemned him to prison but rather would have commended him? That judges may learn hereafter to judge better and to avoid the shame that the foresaid judges had, and the punishment that abideth for them except they have repent themselves: I will rehearse the hole story. John ward about xx. years ago made a fair painted image of S. Christophor where unto he had joined a devout interpretation of saint Christophors life and he had set out the image very lively in a table, this set he before him in his pew in the church to learn to be a right Christophor. But with in a month that he had set up his table: certain supersticius people set were candles before the image that he had painted, trimmed & set up.  
Therefore he being offended with the superstition of the people: keste down all the candles and took away out of the church his image again and carried it home, and until he came again he left his hat in the place where his image was before. And when he came again to church, one axed him what he meant to set his hat in the place of his image, and he answered, to see whether any will be so mad to worship my hat as they were to worship my image. Think you quoth the Papist to Ward that any man will be so mad to worship your hat. Ward answered: they may as well worship my hat as my image, for the hatter is as holy a man as I am, and his handworke deserveth as well to have candles set up before it as mine doth. And for this his saying when as he was accused thereof and confessed it: he was judged worthy to have like imprisonment with thieves and murderers. Would not the knowledge of scripture have done good service unto these blind judges? yes a great deal more than ten queyres of peddlers french. But perchance the great men (I mean Kings, Dukes, Earls, Lords, Knights, and other gentlemen) will say there are lawyers & learned men enough, to do this business, what if it be our duty and office, to give judgement in such matters, when as we may do this part of our office and duty, by our servants or other, why should we be cumbered therewith? Do not ye know my lords and masters, that there is none of you all that is so simple in degree, or of so small living, but there cometh oft times some matters to be judged by you, when as neither learned servant neither any lawyer is at hand? who is so single a gentleman but he hath some tenants? who hath any tenants that are so quiet, but that at some time they fall out one with an other? There is no gentleman that hath so small a lordship but he must sometime be a judge in such matters as learning is to be required in. Can he at all times have his lawyer or other learned man by him? or will his lands, that is but a poor gentleman & hath many children, be able to find a lawyer, or learned man at hand at all times? who is so simple a gentle man but that he is sometime called to be a commissioner in one matter or other? Must a gentleman with shame, bring his learned man or lawyer with him, to the rest of the commissioners: when as the matter ought not to be disclosed to any but only to the commissioners alone? At Assizes & sessions both in matters of lands & good, and of life and death who are more commonly chosen (if the matter be any thing weighty) to be judges in such matters, them gentlemen? when as the gentleman is kept fast in a housewith his fellows, is it not to late then, to send for his learned man or his lawyer there? No kind of men ought so much to be of the kings counsel as gentlemen both aught to be and are also. Shall the gentleman being a counsellor be suffered to bring his learned man or lawyer into the counsel chamber with him? Gentlemen must oft times go to the parliament, and there they must entreat of matters, concerning the glory of God, and the common wealth, and sometime matters of heritage's and of lands and goods, are entreated there. Sometime men are appeached of heresy, & sometime of treason, so that they that are of the parliament, are both counsellors and judges. Shall the unlearned gentlemen, judges and counsellors in the parliament house, be suffered to bring in with them thither, their lawyers & learned men? But what if a King or a Duke, or any other gentleman had always a learned man by him, and might carry him, to all these places above named.  
How shall the unlearned King, duke, lord, or any other gentleman, if he be unlearned himself, be able to judge, whether he that he hireth for his learned man, be learned in all such things as he shallbe axed counsel of or no? or whether he be but a bragger of learning, or a learned man in deed? And though he be learned in deed, how can the unlearned gentleman know, whether his learned man, judged after his learning or no, and whether he giveth good counsel or ill, or giveth true judgement or false, when as he that is unlearned can not tell whether his learned man do after his knowledge or no, or for a bribe, or for his friends pleasure giveth evil counsel or false judgement? If a man were blind, and when he heareth men go by him, and inquired of them that go by, whether there be any man that will be his guide, for half of that which they two can get with begging or no. There cometh one to him & offereth himself to be his guide, and he taketh him. Now how can the blind man tell whether his guide be blind or no? And if he do know that his guide can see: how shall the blind man know whether his guide leadeth him the right way or no, or what not the blind man, when he biddeth his guide lead him into the church, whether he leadeth him unto the gallows or no? I ask one of the flattering Ciphers which call princes young lords and other young gentlemen from their books, to hawking and hunting, & such other idle pastimes, saying to their masters, what need ye to study, ye have lands and heritage enough, ye need not at all to study, except ye intent to be scolemaisters or a man of law, or priests. Master cipher, if your master commanded you to ride from London to Cambrige in the mids of winter, whether had ye liefer ride blyndefelde thorough bushes and briars, thorough thick & thin, following an other man which leadeth thy horse by the bridle, or thou had liefer ride bare faced and seeing, that thou might choose the way thyself? If thou had liefer choose thy way thyself, then to be led blyndefelde thorough a foul way, even by him that thou trustest best, and knoweth the way best in all thy masters house. What kin a dissembling & unkind best art thou which for fear only of falling in a pool, or renting of thy face a little, had rather see thy way thine own self, then to be led by a guide be he never so perfit, and yet will counsel thy master to go blyndfelde with uncertain and unknown guides, thorough such matters, as if he it not upon the right way, shallbe in jeopardy of losing both his body goods and heritage, yea and his soul to? Let all noble men beware of such naughty counsel, lest they fall into an hole palsy, that is, a waring of all moving & feeling which can not be helped with any man's physic if it be once old. The remedy to avoid this perillus & foul disease, is, whilse it is but yet in the beginning, for gentlemen to go earnestly unto their books, & to say to such talewaning talkers these words, avaunt idle and unlearned best, because thou art unlearned thyself, and art neither borne to bear rule in the common wealth, neither haste learning, nor wit to receive learning, thou would have me to be such an ass as thou art. If ye use this medicine I warrant you, that ye shall never come into the danger of the foresaid perilus disease. But of this disease I will speak more largely hereafter. This false opinion that a king or a noble man, need not to be learned his own self, so he that have learned officers, is contrary both unto the ordinance of nature, to the ancient philosopher's learning, to the holy scripture and to the examples & life, both of alwise heathen kings, and of godly and religious kings, which are commended by holy scripture. The same are also enemies unto the commonwealth, and the honour of the realm that they are of, as I shall prove at large here after.  
This can no man deny, but that nature hath ordained in all living beasts, birds and fishes, that part which governeth and ruleth all the rest of the body, should have most knowledge, and manifest wits & senses. Nature hath ordained that the head should govern and rule, all other parts of the body, & therefore, where as she hath given, unto all the rest of the body but one sense or wit, that is to were, touching or feeling, she hath given unto the King of the body, the head, even of brute beasts, all the .v. Wits, that is hearing, seeing, taisting, smelling, and feeling, and to the head of a man's body, beside all these reason and understanding. Then as so many wits or senses are needfully required in the head that hath the rule but of one body, how much wit, learning and knowledge is to be required in that head that hath the rule of an hundredth bodies, Is there not much more wit & knowledge required in the head that hath the government, & rule of ten thousand body? Where are now the false flatterers, and the enuius learned men that would have none learned but themselves, that say that a King or a Queen, or any other prince, which hath committed unto his cure and charge, two hundredth thousand men's bodies need not to have any more wit learning & knowledge, than a man that hath but one body to govern? who will be angry with the heel if it hear not? who will be displeased with the knee, because it can not see? who will be myscontent with the thigh, if it can not smell? who will chide with the breast, because it can not taste?  
But if any of these want in the head, then is all the hole body hurt thereby. Be the head never so fair and well favoured to look to if it have not such wit as is required in it, not only men will mock it and call it blockhead, but even the brute fox will say unto it as far as Aesop may be believed. O pulchrumsme cerebro caput. O what fair a brainless head art thou. Though the head of the common wealth be never so well trimmed and appointed with gold and precious stones, if he have no more wite than a poor fool of the country hath: what will all that costly apparel help the common wealth: doth costly apparel and gorgeous houses & great welfare help the common wealth? nothing at all. The head in a man's body giveth feeling and moving unto all the rest of the hole body that is sensible. If the head be witless and without sense, how can it give unto the body, it that it hath not itself. The bishop of Rome of late years taunted very properly such a painted witless head (as there are to many in England) after this manner. A bishop of Germany a Duke by his birth and a goodly man of person, came to Rome to show himself to his father the Pope, the Pope spoke latin to him and Italien, but he could speak nothing at all but Duyche. Therefore when the Duche bishop was gone forth, the Pope answered one that asked him how he liked the Duche bishop, after this manner, par la corpe de sancto Francisco e la bella bestia, that is by saint Frances body he is a trim fair or proper beast. What think you will wise men think, although they dare not say so much when they see a lusty rutterken with a hawk on his hand and dogs following him, & a golden chain dobbel about his neck, with a cap all full of egglates, and a bush of feathers in it as great as a capones tail, which can scantly writ his own name, and saving the shape, hath nothing else of a man? Will they not think of him as the fox spoke of the painted head? and it that the Pope spoke of the foresaid bishop? yes I warrant you, for all his brags, his swearing and staring, and proud looks. A certain Italien being demanded the question who was a gentleman, answered thus in latin meaning of an unlearned and witless gentleman, Est una bestia sedens super bestiam, portans bestiam super manum, habens bestias se sequentes & insequens bestias. That is, a witless and an unlearned gentleman, is a beast sitting upon a beast, bearing a beast upon his hand, having beasts following him, and he following beasts also. It is therefore against nature, that he that is a best in wit and learning, should be the head of reasonable men in a common wealth, or that the head of the common wealth should be a beast, that is, a man with out all wit and learning, differing nothing from a very best, saving in form and likeness. The noble philosophers also thought it meet that a king should be learned, and therefore said Plato, as I remember.  
Happy is that common wealth, whereas either philosophers are kings, or kings play the philosophers. Vigetius in his first book de re militari, & in the first chapter, requireth learning of rulers and governors in these words. It becometh no man to know better things and more things, than a prince, whose learning may be profitable to all his subjects. Therefore princes ought to give themselves unto the study of wisdom. Scipio the greater, when as he had any leisure from war and from civil business, gave himself as Plutarch writeth unto his book, and said, that when he was idle after that manner, he did then the greatest work and labour.  
julius Cesar one of the noblest governors that ever was or ever shall be, thought learning so necessary for a gentleman, and namely for an high magistrate, that whiles he was a warfaire, he had his spear in the one hand and his book in the other. King Alexander the conqueror as noble a man & as well borne as any noble man of this our time is, thought it so greatly belong unto a gentle man to excel in learning and knowledge, that when as he had herd tell that his master aristotel had set out his books of natural philosophy, wrote unto him after this manner following. Where as thou haste set forth abroad the books of Natural philosophy, thou hast not done well, for in what other thing shall we be able to excel other men in, if they be made common to all men which we have learned of thee, for it is my desire to excel all other men, rather in learning and knowledge, then in number of hosts and great riches, this far Alexander, which, I would have you mark well. Mithridates the king of Pontus and Bethinia, because he knew himself to be the head of all his subjects, and that it was his duty to give judgement in his own person in very many matters, took such pain to learn to do his duty, that he learned xxii divers tongues, even as many nations as he was king over, and answered every man perfectly in his own tongue. The same was so well learned in philosohhy & physic, that he made of his own wytre a sovereign remedy against poison and many grievous diseases of a man's body, called after his name unto this day Mithridatium.  
Alfonsus' the noble king of Arragon said that an unlearned king was like unto a crowned ass, and where as there was a King of Spain which said, that it was not seeming that a noble man should be learned, he said that his saying was the voice of an ox & not of a king. If that a noble man regard not the works of nature neither any good reason, neither any authority of Man, let him hear what almighty God sayeth by the mouth of his servant David in the second psalm Et nunc reges intellig●te & erudimini judices ierre, Bet you understanding o ye kings and be you learned o ye that judge the earth. Here have all kings a plain commandment to seek seek for learning and to be learned, and not only they but all other which by their calling are ordained of God to judge his people, or to give sentence between one man and an other. almighty God in the xvii 
Deute. 17.  of Deuteronomis, giveth an expressed and a plain commandment unto kings that they should diligently study the scripture, the words of God are these. After that the king sitteth in his seat of dignity or his kingdom, he shall writ out for himself, the Deuterono, of this law in a volume, and he shall take the copy of the offerers or priests of the tribe of Levi, and he shall have it with him, and shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear his lord God, and to keep his words and ceremonies. The same commandment was given unto the noble gentleman joshua, the judge and governor of the children of Israel in these words. Take a good heart unto thee, and be very stout, that thou may keep and fulfil all the law, which my servant Moses hath commanded the to keep. Thou shalt not turn from it neither to the right hand, neither to the left hand, that thou may understand all things that thou dost. Let not the volume of this book go away from thy mouth, but thou shalt be occupied in it day and night, that thou may keep and do all things written in it. It is a marvelous thing to see how that noble men & women are so busy to keep those things that the devil, the world & the flesh have found out and commanded, & how slack and slow they are to do it the God hath commanded so earnestly. The devil devised dicing and carding and wanton dancing, the world with the devil hath found out to costly proud light and tempting apparel, the flesh with the devil hath found out wanton ballads and books of love and lechery: whether are there more gentlemen in England that follow the counsel of their Lord God, which biddeth them study the scripture & be exercised therein, or of them that follow the counsel of the aforenamed enemies both to God and man? Will ye not now my lords and masters, take those phisicianes for murderers of your souls, which forbid you to eat of almighty god's treacle, that is, to read his word which he hath so earnestly commanded, for the saving both of your bodies and souls. Are they worthy to be of a kings counsel or of a queens counsel that have burned this book which God enjoineth you to read, and have punish the readers thereof as heretics, if they be of the same judgement still? Now let us see whether that the commandment of God concerning that princes should be learned, and the scripture to be red of all kings and rulers, was so understand of holy men even as it standeth, that is, that they should study and read the scripture in their own persons, or they must learn the scripture and read it and know it only by their chaplains, & other such like officers, as the most part of princes and noble men expound that commandment of God now a days. All blessed and happy and holy men read the scripture and are exercised in it night and day, their own selves in their own persons. Then they that will not read the scripture neither night nor day in their own persons, neither are exercised in it, are cursed unhappy and wicked, be they never so rich, noble & so holy in the sight of the blind world. David in the first psalm describing a blessed, happy and godly man, proveth it that I said now to be true. Blessed is the man (sayeth David) whose will is in the law of the Lord, and in his law is exercised in his mind, & thinketh upon it both day & night. And the cursed man or the wicked man, sitteth in the seat of scorners, that is to say, will neither be virtuously occupied in god's word themselves, nor will suffer other to read it, but mock the readers of it, as they do now a days, that for a spytfull mock, call the readers of God's law gospelers, & sometime heretics, & mock them that either in open preaching, or in privy admonition tell them of their faults, and exhort them to godliness and virtuous living. David in the .119. 
Psal. 119.  psalm, beareth also witness that the commandment of almighty God, concerning the scripture to be read and studied of kings judges and noble men, aught to be understand that they should read it, and be exercised in it in their own persons, & they that talk not with themselves of the scripture and are not exercised therein their own selves, are not blessed happy and godly, but cursed unhappy and ungodly, for he sayeth. Beati qui scrutantur testimonia eius, in mandatis tuis exercebor, & considerabo vias tuas, in iustificationibus tuis meditabor, non obliviscar sermones tuos. servus tuus exercebatur in iustificationibus tuis, nam testimonia tua, meditatio mea est & consilium meum iustificationes tuae. Ne auferas de ore meo verbum veritatis usquequaque. Confundantur superbi quia injust iniquitatem fecerunt in me, ego autem exercebor in mandatis tuis. Tribulatio & angustia invenerunt me, mandata tua meditatio mea est concupivi salutare tuum, & lex tua meditatio mea est. If it be true that the noble men which search and seek for the commandments of God, and study the law of God and are exercised therein, are good and blessed men, than are they evil cursed and unhappy men, which search not for the commandments of God, neither study the scripture, neither exercise themselves there in. The reason is good, for all the good kings whereof is mention made in the scripture, were diligent setters forth and readers of the scripture, and the wicked & ungodly kings cared not for it, read the books of the kings, and the books of the chronicles, and you shall find this that I say right true. 
4. Reg. 22.  In the xxii of of the four of the kings ye may see in the history of josias, how that all his forefathers that were evil kings cared not for the scripture, but let it lie many years buried & hid, so that they were not exercised therein according to the expressed commandment of God. If ye require one private example of one man, 
jere. 36.  read the .36. of Hieremie the prophet, and there shall ye find how that the wicked king joachim, cut in pieces the word of God, and burned it in the fire, and sought after and persecuted Hieremie, the author of the book and Baruch the writer of it, as certain gentlemen both of the laite and also of the clergy have entreated of late years the Translators and the printers of Christ's testament, and as the Bible is handled now in some churches in England and namely in westminster. I mark also that David in this psalm whereof I have made mention, sayeth viii times, that he was and would be in time to come, exercised in the law of God. If he were a true man and no liar, though he had said it but ones we ought to believe him. If we do believe him, ye may see that David the good king, which was so much exercised in the scripture, understandeth the commandment of reading and studying the scripture, to pertain to the kings and governors themselves, and to their own persons, and not only unto their servants and clergy. King Solomon as well borne and as noble a man as any is this day in Europa and as wise a man, and as well learned as any counsellor in England, or else where, and therefore knew the meaning of the commandment of the scripture to be read of princes, thought not scorn to sit in judgement in his own person, and because he knew that it was his office to give judgement unto his people, and that he could not do that of fire well except he had great learning and knowledge when as almighty God offered unto him to give him freely what so ever he did axe, answered God after this manner following. Thou haste showed great mercy to David my father, and hast ordained me king in his place:  
Now Lord God let thy word be done which thou promised unto my father David. For thou hast made me a king over a great number of thy people, which is as untellable as the dust of the earth. give my wisdom and understanding, that I may go in and out before thy people, for what man is able to judge worthily such a great number as is of this people? God answered & said unto him. Because this hath more pleased thy heart, and haste not axed riches and substance and honour, neither the lives of them that hate thee, neither long life. Thou hast axed wisdom & knowledge, that thou mayst judge my people, over the which I made the a king, wisdom and knowledge are given unto thee, & I will give the riches substance & honour also. David this noble gentleans father in .119. psal. desireth God xiiii times to teach him his witnesses & his commandments, but wherefore I pray you? that God should teach him to say the ten commandments, or to read them only in divers tongues? Nay, for he could say them by heart well enough. But for this end said he so oft, teach me thy commandments that it myghe please God to give him the true understanding of the scripture, that he might order his life according unto his commandments. Where upon saying that David so wise a man and so well learned, desired almighty God so earnestly, and so oft, to teach him the understanding of the scripture, and exercised him so much in it: it followeth that as the true understanding of God's word is necessary for a prince, so it can not be had without prayer, great pain, labour and exercise.  
Then when as God commandeth Kings and judges to be learned, and learning can not be had with out great study and labour, it appeareth very plain that the chief labour that a noble gentleman should be occupied in, all the days of his life, is the study of scripture, and such other writing, as help to the understanding of the scripture, and to the declaration of the same. Lucius the first christian king of our land, who sent to Rome for Baptisers & preachers, and received the baptism of Christ with all his, after that he had received the christian faith, caused many books of latin to be translated into his own natural tongue, he also parted and bestowed the day and night after this manner, he spent eight hours in study and in prayer viii hours in hearing of causes, and eight hours in sleeping, and in such necessary things as were necessary for his body Picus the noble earl of Mirandula, said a very notable saying, which I would all earls & noble men should mark and bear away, and it is this. Learning is unto a yeoman man in the stead of silver, to a gentleman in the stead of gold, and to earls & princes in the stead of precius stones. Now my lords and masters, whether is it more meet that we shall follow the counsel and examples of all wise philosophers and most noble kings, that were under the law of nature, and the commandment of holy scripture, and the example of all holy and noble kings under the law of Moses, and also the sayings and doings of the best kings that were under the law of the Gospel, which thought it necessary for kings and noble men to be learned, even their own selves: or to follow the counsel of a sort of unnatural and unlearned curtely crows, which say that a king or a noble man need not to be learned, but that it is sufficient for him, if that his chancellors or chaplains, & other officers belonging to him, be learned for him As far as I can perceive, ye that are noble men and gentlemen, and now, specially ye that are of the queens counsel, and are lords of the parliament: had never more need of learning, than ye now at this present time have. For the religion which hath been brought in again of late by the might of god's word, and hath been received throughout all this realm, saving of a few obstinate Papists, & hath been brought to this perfection that it is now at, not only with great labour & jeopardy, but with the deaths of many an honest and learned man, is now taken for heresy and false doctrine. And yet there is no small number of them, that will adventure, both life & goods, that it is the true religion that was exercised in king Edward's days, and that it, which beginneth now thorough out England to take place again, and was allowed in the time of the late kings, king Henry the vii & the viii. war right papistry, and false learning of men, only able to be defended, by long time, & the falsely pretended authority of Christ's Church, which will bring in and set forth none other doctrine than such as her husband Christ hath commanded & allowed. This contention is about no small matter, it is about god's service, and about the true doctrine religion and worshipping of God. The salvation and damnation of many a thousand, hangs upon these matters, therefore seeing that God hath made you governors under the Queen & judges in these matters ye had need to look well upon the word of God, that ye give not sentence against god's truth, to the destruction of your own souls, and many thousands more. The one part bringeth forth scripture and the written word of God, and the other part bringeth forth, long customs, fathers, and the authority of the romish church, which hath erred shamefully many hundredth years, and no man is able to defend the contrary. I do perceive that some of you are indifferent, and are not married unto one kind of men more than another, wherefore ye may in these controversies, be the more indifferent judges. But I hear say that there is an other sort of the nobility, that are so partial in these matters, that are now in controversy, that what so ever reason or scripture be brought of the other part that they favour not, they will not believe it, but yet without any reason or scripture or any other sufficient proof, or trial of their doctrine: embrace and gladly receive, all such doctrine and traditions as their chosen prophets teach them whom they favour and fantasy. The same affectionate people, which trust so in these men without any trial of their doctrine whether it be good or bad, are so tender over their own bodies, that they will neither ear any meat nor drink any drink, though their cooks and butler's be never found faulty in their offices in all their lives: except there be an assay taken of their meat and drink before. Yea I hear say that some dare not eat of the meat that is dressed of their common cooks in the common kytchens, be the cooks never so honest men and these will neither trust their cooks nor assayers and therefore eat no meat but such as is dressed of their maidens in their own presence, in their own secret chambers. Would to God these loved their souls so well, & the souls of all them that are under their government, as they do their own natural bodies. As the meat of the body if it be good, feedeth and nourisheth the body and saveth it from perishing, and if it be poisoned it killeth the body, even so the doctrine or preaching which is the food of the soul if it be good saveth the soul, so if it be naughty and false, it poisoneth and killeth the soul. Is it then godly wisdom to see and try it which goeth into their bodies with their own eyes to be good & wholesome before they receive it? and to receive of their old ghostly cooks what so ever they dress for them unseen, untasted, and unassayed? Though their bodily cooks have served them never so long, they will take nothing that is dressed of them, except they see it with their own eyes assayed, why trust they then their spiritual cooks so well that without any further assay or trial, receive into their souls, what so ever meat they dress for them & give them? Perchance they will say that seculare and married cooks, having wives and children, may easily for a bribe, be brought to poison their masters and maistresses, but spiritual and unmarried men are more to be trusted in their spiritual cookery, because they are wifeless and need not to be compelled unto poisoning for lack of livings because they have enough, and also by touching daily the body & blood of Christ, are holier than the worldly cooks are, and so hallowed with the holy oil wherewith they were anointed in the time of their consecration, that they can not kill us with poisoned meat, as the secular may easily do. And therefore what so ever our spiritual cooks send us, that is good and wholesome, that will we receive, without any further trial.  
We know them and trust them so well. To whom I answer that not only foreign stories, but also that our own chronicles bear witness, that these spiritual wifeless cooks for all their touching of their Christ's body daily, and for all their holy ointment, have even bodily poisoned not only kings and princes, but also divers other honest men, besides that I can prove, that spiritually they have poisoned many thousands. In the city of Berna, iiii. freres poisoned a tailor with the poisoned bread of the sacrament in our days, & the same were burnt for their labour. A spiritual & wifeless cook a black monk, well anointed, poisoned king john as our stories bear witness. We read in divers stories the monks & other wifeless anointed cooks, poisoned not only Emperors & kings, but also poisoned the sacramental bread which they took for their Lord & their God Then even wifeless spiritual cooks will poison kings & queens, when as they are not afeard to poison their God himself. Thus far have I spoken of bodily poison. But as touching spiritual poison, that is to say concerning marring of men's minds with false doctrine, the conningest & best betrusted cook that they have now at this time, who rueleth the roast alone, hath either served out poison unto king Henry the viii & to all Europa, or else Queen Mary is a bastard, if false doctrine be poison of the soul, & she be a bastard that is borne out of lawful matrimony. Steven Gardiner an under cook in the Cardinal Wolf Wolsey his house, and afterwards allowed of king Henry the eight, to be a master cook and his principal cook for a long time, r●led the roast in the kings house, as boldly & as saucily, as his master did before him, as the blow upon his cheek that my Lord of warwick gave him, may bear witness. But when as this cook should serve out a dish of obedience unto the king and unto all the West church, he powdered it with such poison, that he made the king an door master, our queens mother an whore, & our Queen Mary a bastard. Is it good trusting of such a wifeless anointed cook? Are not then wifeless cooks as much to be suspected of spiritual poison, as other cooks are to be suspected of bodily poison? Yea & a great deal more. For your bodily cooks were never taken with any such offece, for if they had been taken therewith, they should have been straightway hanged or scalded to death for their labour. This cook for all his poisoned service, is so trusted now, that he is made Chancellor of England, and precedent of all the counsel. But lest any man should deny that their master cook S. guard. did ever any such thing I will bring his own words, wherein he confesseth openly to all the world his deed, and as yet, I for my part, have never herd nor red, that he repented him of his so doing His words are these. The levitical commandments, of the forbidden and unnatural horyshe matrimonies, pertaining unto the chastity and clenenes of matrimony (wherein the hole fellowship of man's life is contained, and the beginning of increase of issue standeth) have always so been taken as first, to be given in deed unto the jews, because they were expounded to set clearly forth the law of nature and therefore should always pertain unto all kinds of men. Wherein doubtless both the voice of nature, & the commandment of God agreeing together, forbade it that was contrary unto the condition of both.  
But amongst these, when as the commandment of not marrying the brother's wife, is also contained, what other thing either ought, or could, the excellent majesty of the king of England do, then that he hath done, with the great consent of his people, and the judgement of his church, that is, that he divorced from unlawful bands or covenants, should enjoy lawful marriage, and that he obeying the commandment of God (as it was meet) should forsake her, whom neither law nor right would suffer him to hold still. In which matter, when as the sentence of God's word had been sufficient, (which all men are bound to obey) yet the most sacred kings majesty, disdained not to put unto it the voices of the most ancient & grave men, and the judgement and censures of the most famus universities of all the world. Thus far hath master Gardiner spoken the cook, whose cookery ye will not suspect, because he hath been always so honest and true. But let us see what manner of service he serveth, & sendeth unto all the world, & how honestly he thinketh of our sovereign lady Queen Mary, & Queen Katherine her mother. first he sayeth that the marrying of the brother's wife, is an unnatural, horyshe incestuus marriage, and he judgeth the matrimony between the queens father & mother to be such, & therefore he sayeth, the king did well, in breaking the unlawful bands of matrimony, whylse he put his unlawful wife away. Ye may see my lords and masters, that this man calleth and judgeth Queen Katherine, to be none of king Henry's lawful wife, which saying containeth in it, that King Henry the eight, was an incestuus horemaister, that Queen Katherine was an whore, and that Mary their daughter now Queen, is a bastard. For who so ever lieth with a woman, that is not his lawful wife, is an door master, and she that hath carnal copulation with a man, that is not her right husband, is an whore, & the child that is begotten & borne of these ii is a bastard. I pray you my lords (if ye dare) axe this cook, whether he will abide by this cokery or no. If he will not abide by it, them may wifeless cooks sometimes, send poison to their lords or ladies tables, as well as married cooks. If he will recant & deny this his saying, & say tongue the liest, then ye must not suffer him to have this new found glorius name of Constantius, 
Constantius  which he gave himself in his book of the sacrament, 
jactantius.  but let him be called iactantius, for that agreeth with this his condition, better than constantius doth. But if he will stand to his old saying, and defend that his meat had no poison in it, and that the marriage was unlawful between the queens father and mother, I marvel why that master Ridley of late bishop of London, and divers other, are punished as traitors for the same words, and that this man shallbe taken for the queens high friend. Gardiner was long at Rome, in labouring as I heard say to obtain of the Pope a licence of divorce for the king, and it is like that he purchased in the mean time a pardon of the Pope, that he might say what he list for his life time unpunished, which pardon belike some men (that think that the Pope's licence is still in full power & strength,) seeing the same pardon, suffer him to enjoy his pardon at his pleasure, and giveth him leave to do and say what he list. If he said nothing but the truth, in saying that the marriage between the queens father & mother was unlawful, yet there are other words of his own, that will condemn him to be a perilous cook, and a poisoning cook. In the very first leaf of his book, of his obedience, he confesseth, that he with many other grave and learned men, by a foolish and an old superstition for a season withstood the truth. If he withstood the truth for a season for the same time he held with falsehood (for to withstand the truth, is to hold with falsehood) & he that holdeth for a season with falsehood, and teacheth and preacheth the same, he serveth in the same time out poison, for wholesome meat, and therefore is more to be suspect in his spiritual cookery, them the bodily cook, is to be suspect in his cookery, which at no time was convicted either by word or deed, to have done any other thing, than became a christian man to do. In the same place he granted plainly, that he departed from the truth, & that he was a jealous follower, & an earnest defender of the law and the letter, and that he did never any thing more unwillingly, than to go away from those opinions that he once had taken, what so ever they were. He sayeth also, that he was not like unto Paul, which when as he was overthrown was so obedient to the voice of God, that he said, Lord what wilt thou have me do. If a man think that these sentences be not in his book, I will rehearse his own words in Latin as he wrote them. Neque vero dubito quin in hanc eandem, aut certe aut multo dissimilem cogitationem mecum multi, ijque docti graves ac boni viri inciderint, quibus inepta quadam, & inveterata superstitione impeditis veritatique aliquamdiu reluctantibus, eadem hec cogitatio omnes dubitationis scrupulos prorsus ademit, lucemque vere veritatis divina operant gratia attulit atque adduxit. Equidem autem ut de meipso ingenue confitear, cum legis & litterae, ut ita dicam, aemulator ac propugnator essem acerimus, nec quicquam illibentius unquam aut invitius facerem, quam ut a receptis qualiacunque essent discederetur, quo quidem longius mens in ear, judicium a veritate recessit, hoc certe vehementius, atque acrrius quiddam in veritate agnoscenda passus videbar, non aliter sane atque oculi tenebrarum caligine hebete; iam facti, ad subitum irradiantis luminis splendorem solent obstupescere. Mihi namque illud haud datum fuit, quod divo Paulo constat accidisse, qui simulatque a deo prostratus ceciderit, vocem obedientiae protinus emisit, dicens, domine quid vis me facere?  
Hoc enim electo illi vasi uberior Dei gratia contulerat, ut vocem corripientis Dei, & ab errore revocantis, confestim agnoscens totum se Deo committeret regendum, & ei in omni veritate statim obediret ac pareret in omnibus. etc.  
Now may ye see by his own words, that he was an enemy unto the truth, he that was once an enemy unto the truth, may now also be an enemy unto the same again, and whether he be a friend at this time or a foe unto the truth, how can they judge, that either want all judgement, or if they could judge, will not take the pain. I beseech you my lords for the love that ye bear to God, and the common wealth, axe him in what opinions he went from the truth; whether it were in defending holy water & holy bread, in the invocation of saints, in purgatory, in the justification of works, in the number of the Sacraments, in the ceremonies of the Church or in defending of the real presence of Christ's body in the Sacrament, or in what other articles he erred in? Because he did not tell in what points he erred in, it may chance that he is fallen into the same errores again, as we see certain of his sect, which had forsworn in the two last kings days divers errores, and had subscribed to the contrary, and now afresh are fallen into the same errores again. If that master Gardiner allow his doctrine still, of king Henry's marriage let him set forth the same doctrine in english at large, because the common people may learn some wholesome doctrine of it even as he, or at the lest some of his, have handled master Barlowe, which wrote a naughty and a false lying book, compelled by fear to do so. But if he will not set out his book in english both because he knoweth in his conscience that it is a false book, and an heretical book, and therefore will not knowledge it now to be his book, because he was compelled by fear to write against the open truth: he (or at the lest some of his popish prentices) is very uncharitable & unjust unto master Barlowe, which handleth him otherwise then he would or will be handled himself. If that men & women that are so married unto certain men, that they will not examine their doctrine but take it to be the veri truth what so ever they say, would stand to the judgement of the holy scripture, I should easily condemn them for their so doing, and prove that they did plain contrary unto the mind of the holy ghost. But because they care not for scripture, I will let them alone, and talk a little with you my lords and masters, that are indifferent men and have not sworn to hold with the words of any one school master. Saint john in the four chapter sayeth. 
1. Io. 4.  Ne cui vis spiritui credatis, sed probate spiritus an ex Deosint. Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God or no, but they believe all spirits, that hold with the mess, purgatory, holy water & holy bread, invocation of saints, and such like ordinances of man, and try not whether they be of God or no, and if they would try the sprites should they not try them with the word of God? Have they knowledge in the word of God? they confess they have none at all, but they say that it is enough for them, to try all doctrine, with their father's faith, and other of their old ancetores, & with the authority of the catholic church. What if some of their forefathers or else of their mothers, within these few hundredth years were heathen men, or heathen women, shall it be meet for them to judge all doctrines, by their father's faith?  
Which of their fathers or mothers was not a Papist? Shall men judge rightly matters of religion, by the faith of papists? What if their fathers have erred, shall we be compelled to follow their father's errors? that were great pity. What if some of their fathers builded abbeys to find a sort of idle monks in, and founded chantre priests to sing for souls in purgatory?  
What if some of their fathers put down abbeys and chantres, how shall they judge here who did better, and whom they and we ought to follow? If some of their fathers held this opinion, that it was lawful to put away their lawful wives, & to cleave to hores, as some of them can not deny, but that their fathers have both so believed and also so done? Was this a good believe, I think that they theirselves will say that the believe was nought.  
Shall it be then meet to examine all doctrines with their father's faith, and their ancetores believe? If any of the idle and unscripture learned traditioners (for so must we call them, because we may call no man now a Papist) do hold that it is not required, that a King or a Queen or any ruler should be well learned in the scripture because all matters and controversies of religion ought to be tried by the authority of the catholic church, meaning thereby the common consent of almost all the bishops prelate's, and universities in all the west part of Europa and the determinations of general counsels: I answer, if we should follow the judgement of this catholic church: then should we boldly pronounce that the marriage between king Henry the eight, and his first wife Queen Katherine, was not lawful. For the most principal part of the catholic church of our time as it is taken, that is the most part & most notable universities of this part of the world and the most part of learned men, and all the bishops of the church of England saving one, condemned the marriage between king Henry the eight and lady Katherine this queens mother. I have enough to bear me witness that it is true that I say, 
Cuthbert. Steven Samson  beside Cuthbert now bishop of Durram, Steven bishop of Wynchester, & Samson now bishop of coventry. But if these foresaid Universities and bishops of England had been corrupted for money, as scolares' are poor and sometime grant it that ought not to be granted for money, namely such where as that Pope beareth rule, and these iii forenamed bishops as some other lawyers do, as they be, had sold their tongues and handwrytynges for money and promotion and for their prince's favour: Yet the old Canon's and general counsels are not so to be suspected of corruption as peradventure some of these foresaid bishops be: hear therefore what the old Canon's and counsels judge of this matter.  
This that I will allege is written in the second part of the decrees, the xxvii cause & second question Cap. Si quis disponsauerit sibi aliquam, & praeveniente mortis articulo, eam cognoscere non potuerit: frater eius non potest eam ducere in uxorem. That is if any man be handfast or betrothed unto a woman, and he being prevented with death could not have carnal copulation with her: his brother may not marry her.  
Gregory the bishop of Rome also speaketh thus of this matter, in the same place as he is alleged.  
Nulli christiano licet de sua consanguinitate, vel quam cognatu, suus habuit in matrimonium assumere.  
It is not lawful for any christian man to marry any of his own kin or her that his kinsman hath had. The same Gregory sayeth also these words in the same place. Si quir uxorem desponsaverit. etc. If any man betrouthe or be handfast unto a wife, or give earnest unto her and he being taken away by death before & so can not marry her, none of this man's kin may take her afterwards to wife. julianus also bishop of Rome as he is alleged in the same place, hath the same sentence and almost the same words, saying that neither the brother that liveth nor any other of the kindred may marry her that was betrothed unto the brother or kinsman that is departed.  
Prince Arthur did not only betrouth the queens mother, but also marry her and lie with her, therefore by these men it was not lawful for his brother afterward to marry her.  
In the vii Chapter Concilij Aureliani this law was made by the church concerning the marrying of the brother's wife.  
Frater superstes ne thorum defuncti fratris ascendat. Let not the brother go up in to the bed of his brother that is departed.  
It is also written thus of the same matter in an other counsel called Concilium Neocaesariense in the second Chapter.  
Mulier si duobus fratribus nupserit, abijciatur usque ad mortem. If a woman be married unto two brethren, let her be cast away until her death.  
Now may ye see whether it be safe to leave the written word of God and to trust upon the traditioners catholic church or no, which if men would give credit to, then should they believe that king Henry the eyghtes marriage with Katherine the queens mother was unlawful and that our Queen were a a bastard.  
But ye that are right shapen gentlemen, and not vain bragger's of nobility, I trust will follow the right and true christian gentlemen, whereof Luke maketh mention in the xvii. Chapter of the Acts, in these words. Hi erant summo genere nati inter cos qui erant thessalonicae, qui receperunt sermo nem, cum omni animi promptitudine, quotidie scrutantes scripturas an hec ita se haberent.  
These were of a noble birth, or of the chiefest of the nobility, amongst them that were in Thessalonica, 
Act. 17.  which cheerfully, or with all readiness of mind, received the word and searched daily the scripture, whether these things were so or no, that is, whether Paul's doctrine and sayings were agreeing with the scripture or no. Now as many as will be in deed, it that they are called, that is right noble men and gentlemen, let them follow these right christian gentlemen, and take them for a patron to follow, and then shall they be able to give right judgement in matters of religion that are at this time in controversy. But if they will not follow these gentlemen, but will be wilfully blind, and suffer themselves to be led, whether so ever it shall please their blind guides to lead them, they may as well tarry at home, as come to the parliament house, to sit there, except they will other sleep, or else tell the cloak whylse learned men, dispute the matters that are in contention, as I have seen some gentlemen of the first head do, when I was a burgesie of late, of the lower house. If that it pertained not to gentleman, by the reason of his office to be learned yet it were expedient for the honour & honesty of the realm, that gentlemen should be learned. For when as either ambassadors being learned gentlemen come into England or english gentlemen go as ambassadors unto Emperors, kings, or other noble and learned gentlemen, into strange lands, if our noble men be learned, iit shall turn to the honour of the hole realm, but if they be unlearned, the strangers will reckon us all to be brute beasts, when as our heads are so brutish and unlearned. About xiii years ago, it chanced that I was in Calais, and whylse I was there, the prince of Salerne came thither out of Italy, with many noble gentlemen. At that time two english commissioners were sent thither, to scour the town of traitors. And no depute as yet appointed, nor being there: these two english commissioners must welcome the prince and his nobles that came with him, and when as the gentleman spoke first Italian unto our men, afterwards latin, and as far as I remember french to, our gentlemen could not speak one word again to them, in any of those iii tongues. The one was an Earl, and the other a knight. When as they should walk together, because our Earl would show the stranger a cast of english courtesy, when the stranger would have given the honour and higher hand unto him, he cried still (thinking that he behaved himself Erlely and gentlemanly) nothing else, but by god's body I will not, by god's body I will not, by god's body I will not, as though his gentlemanship had standen in great swearing. Was not this a great shame unto all England, that there was no better choice in England, but that such two must be sent forth, which were so unlearned, and namely unto such a place, as strangers of all nations, and of all degrees commonly resort unto?  
Now have I proved by man's learning gods holy word, and by natural reason, that it belongeth unto all princes, governores and noble men to be learned and by the holy scripture, that the office of a prince or of any other governor, is to set forth gods true religion, to destroy false and conterfet religion, to exercise justice and judgement, and to defend the innocent, and to punish the misdoers. But the most part, of the noble men and gentlemen in England, is not learned, and doth not this their office which God hath appointed them. Therefore it followeth that the most part, of the nobles and gentlemen of England is sick. For I have proved before, that he is sick that can not do his natural office or work, which nature hath appointed him to do or work. Let us now see what diseases they be that hinder the nobility to do their office and duty that they are called to.   

¶ Of the hole Palsy or numbness thorough all the body.  
SOme of the nobility as far as I can gather, are sick in the apoplexia, that is a disease, that maketh all the hole body numb and without feeling, & speaking. They that are sick in this disease, are also called taken, Some call this disease a Palsy, but a palsy is properly in the one side, when as this sickness is over all the body. It that is the numbness in a natural body, is unlearnedness in the politic body of the nobility.  
For as he that hath the hole palsy, can feel nothing, nor speak any thing himself, and can not go but where as he is carried of other, so an unlearned gentleman that hath no learning nor knowledge himself, but trusteth only to other men's learning, is carried of his counsel, be it good or bad, whether it shall please them, is sick in a spiritual Palsy. As there is no more miserable disease in a man's body, than a palsy is, for he that hath it, is as it were a living carrion, and maketh all his friends weary of him, and can do nothing that belongeth unto a man: so in the politic body of a gentleman unlearned, is an unprofitable burden of the earth, and is in no part able to do the office that belongeth unto a gentleman, & therefore hath no more of a gentleman than a painted image hath of a man. The palsy in a natural body, cometh of cold & tough humores, which are engendered in the head, by often drunkenness, and to much excess of meat & drink. If the age, the time of the year, and the strength of the patiented, will abide it, the letting of blood in the beginning is very good, for the healing of this disease, but if it be differred to long, them is the disease incurable. Even so the spiritual hole, palsy, ignorance, when as young gentlemen in their youth begin to loiter, & will not learn, but will run a hunting and hawking when as they should be at their book, they must be let blood oft times in the buttokes, for the noble spiritual physician. Solomon in the xxii of the proverbs, teacheth us this remedy, against the spiritual palsy, 
Pro. 22.  and the receipt of it is this. Stultitia colligata est in cord pueri, virga disciplinae fugabit came. foolishness or unlearnedness, is bound together in the heart of a boy, but the road of correction will drive it away. If that the disease be so great that neither words nor herbs be able to heal it, then we must according unto the greatness of the disease, use remedies made of greater things. Therefore this receit that I will appoint, will be very good, both to avoid the disease, and to drive it away, after that it hath been taken of a child. Recipe virgarum betulce aut salicis, manipulum unum, & quotidie pueri natibus, adhibeatur ad sanguinis usque effusionem, donec convaluerit. Plus millies me dicamentum hoc efficax esse probatum est. And Solomon in the .23. 
Pro. 23.  of his proverbs, sayeth plainly that this remedy, can not hurt any child. Noli sayeth he, subtrahere a puero disciplinam. etc. Take not away correction from a child, for if thou beat him with a road, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with a rod, & thou shalt deliver his soul from hell. The rod and correction give wisdom, but the child that is suffered to have his own will, shall shame his mother.  
Thus far Solomon, if this disease be ones healed in the nobility, it shall be the easier to heal all other diseases, which they have & are in danger of. They that are disposed unto this disease, or have it, must vomit out the opinion that the parasites hold, that gentlemen need not to be learned, & they must abstain from to much wine, and from all excess of meat and drink, and then by the grace of God they shallbe hole. If this physic had been well practised L. years ago, there had not been so many sick in this palsy as now are. And they that now for age, and by the oldness of the sickness, are incurable, might have been easily helped. But seeing the old palsy, can not be helped, by man's physic, let us carry with our prayers, all old ignorant men unto Christ, that he may make them feel his truth, and speak of his word, to the glory of God almighty.   

¶ Of the dropsy.  
I See so many tokens in many gentlemen in England, of the dropsy, that I must needs think, that there are many gentlemen sick in that sickness.  
The common tokens of all the iii dropsies, are these. To be swelled & puffed up, with wind and water, and to be exceeding thirsty. The first kind called, Anasarca, is almost of hole water. The second kind called, Ascitis, is of two parts water, and one part wind. The third part called, Timpanitis, is of two parts wind, & one of water, as some physicians hold. The nobility in my time have swelled so much, that neither their own clothes, which they had wont to wear, nor their father's clothes, which was as big men as these be, will not hold them, but they must have bigger clothes and more costly garments. Some swell so great, that they can not be content, with their father's houses, which were as great men as these be, for their father's house will not hold them, for they build wider houses, and more than their fathers did, for one or two will not hold them. And some swell so great, that all the houses, that their fathers and they have builded, will not hold them, but they must also have bishops houses, and deans houses, parson's houses; vicars houses, and poor beggars houses called hospitals. And yet they swell so great that all these will not hold them (except they amend their manners) until they come to hell. There is a place great enough, for such as can never get place enough for them, but either by craft, or by compulsion, or by fraing of their inferiors, or by unshamefast begging, get their places and houses from them. The other kind of common tokens that the watersyke have, is an exceeding great thirst, and so great that the more they drink, the more they desire to drink, & no drink is able to quench their thirst. Such a thirst have some of the nobility now, & such one hath some had of late: wherefore the nobility hath now & hath had the dropsy. Some having lands of their own to live on, have peltyngly gone about from court to court, buying fermes and bargains and overbydding all men, so that pere men can get no reasonable price of any farm, or bargain for them. Some are so thirsty of fermes, and namely of benefices, that they snatch up all the reversions that can be had in a country, though the farmers have yet xl or l years to come. There is one knight that hath ten benefices in one shear in his hands, and an other hath xxii as credible persons have told me. Some are so thirsty for the fermes of vicarages & parsonages, that they bag or buy the advowsons of them, of the patrons, & as soon as they fall, they will let none have the benefice, but such as will let them the benefice to farm, with house, and land, and tithes, with all that belongeth thereto.  
Other drink up the glebe land & let the rest alone. Some have by bribery, simony and other unlawful ways, rob many a poor parish in England, of their parsonages, and persons, and have drunken up quite the parsonages for them & their heirs, for ever, wherewith the church of Christ had wont to be fed, both bodily and ghostly. Some new gentlemen have drunken up, not only a great part of bishops lands, but also have drunken up divers churchyards, hospitals, chapels and chantries, to patch and clout up their livings with all, because their father left them never a foot of land. One of the nobility law of late years, a pretty church with a good large church yard, the same was lord of the town there, and he desired the parish that they would let him, have the church and churchyard promising them a new church & a new church yard, in an other place, the poor tenants durst not say him nay, because he was their lord. In the mean season, he lent the parish a foul evil favoured hole, an end of an old abbey, very straight & narrow, evil covered, and every day like, to fall upon the poor people's heads, and as for other church, the poor people can get none, unto this hour Where is there any good parsonage in England, but it is either bought, and drunken up of some gentlemen, or else is let to farm to some gentleman. As with great honesty and praise, the noble men's servants, had wont to come home to their masters houses, with hares, wild cats & foxes upon their backs, so with much shame, they come with tithe pigs by their tails, with tithe eggs, and tithe hemp and flax. Well, they that came from the donghyl must go thither again. Nature will out, although it be holden in with fork a while, as the dancing of the ape doth testify in Esopes' fables, which danced well, until the nuts were casten abroad in the flower. In deed I find this dropsy for the most part always in the crowish start uppes, 
Crowish start up.  and not so much in the right and old nobility. How be it, even some of the stock of the old nobility, have grown and gone out of kind, and are also sick in this common sickness. There was an earl within these few years, that had land & good enough, & could not quench his thirst therewith, until he had gotten one of the greatest deanryes in England, and so was made my Lord dean also. But he left to his successors, the lands undiminshed, and therefore did much better than he should have done, if he had taken the Deanerye quite away into his own hands for ever, for him and his heirs. Some have been so thirsti of late that they drank up not only hole comones, and great fills but also the very high ways, and the foul puddles in them. A certain fellow of mine, which had been long from his friends got leave to go to them, and went thitherward, but when he came within a little of his father's house, he could find no way a long time into his father's house, the thirsty gentleman had so drunk up all the high ways there. Some have drunk up of late, hole rivers and meres, and fens, which had wont to be common, and will not suffer a man to angle therein, neither any man to put a veast there, but let them to farm. Some when as they have drunken up as much of the commons of abbey lands, of bishops lands, of deans lands, of persons lands and of beggars lands (I mean of hospitals) as would serve four as honest and as honourable men as they be, yet for to spare their own drink at home, are not ashamed to beg drink of such poor men as I am. When as I had but .74. lib. to spend in the year, my first fruits yet unpaid. And yet they never gave me a cup of ale undeserved in all their lives. I have yet copies of their begging letters here in germany to be witnesses of their shameless begging. I would there were some act of parliament made against such valiant beggars, which vex poor men as I was, much worse than the lousy beggars do.  
Honest gentlemen that are not sick in the dropsy, when as they are very thirsty, and enter into a city, they do not light and drink in the first alehouse that they see in the city but for saving of their honesty, differ to drink, until they come into an honest in, & there they drink as much as they need but no more. He that is an honest gentleman, will liefer suffer great hunger and thirst at home, then to earn drink in the market with selling of coals, or bear, or of bullocks, of ploughs, of sheep or of sheeps dung, or of piss, or of such like vile things, as some have done, & do at this time, with shame enough if they were not past shame. Buth such gentlymen as the dropsy hath taken away their honesty & shamefacedness from them, that they care not how they get drink, whether it be with honour or shame, so that they may have it, while as some gentlemen, yea some Knights and lords do now in England not be ashamed to sell oxen, sheep, bear, corn, meal, malt, coals & things much viler than these be. Now it is evident, that there are many of the nobility of England, sick in the spiritual dropsy, let us see whether it is any perilus disease or no. This dropsy is a disease very hard to heal, and killeth many a man and woman and it bringeth not only death, of both body and soul, but in the life time mocketh men, and bringeth men into false opinions. The holy scripture sayeth, that the spiritual dropsy, bringeth death and everlasting damnation, as Paul i Corin vi 
1. Cor. 6  witnesseth in these words. Nether thieves, neither covetous men, neither drunkards, neither cursed speakers, where extortioners, or ravenous men, shall have the heritage of the kingdom of God. He that is sick in the dropsy, thinketh that plenty of drink shall help his disease, and that his drink, shallbe turned into blood, and that he shallbe nourished therewith. So is it also in the dropsy that our gentlemen are sick in.  
They think that in heaping together of much gold and silver, in getting of many fermes, in getting of many benefices, that their greedy appetite shall therewith be quenched, but they are deceived.  
For the noble poets in these verses following affirm the contrary.  
Crescit amor nummi, quamtum ipsa pecunia crescit. Quanto plura parasti, tanto plura cupis. Semper avarus eget, quare? quia competit usus. Tangere parta timet, cur? ne minuatur aceruus.  
At primum scelerem matrem quae semper habendo. Plus sitiens patulis, runatur faucibus aurum. Trudis avaritiam. Crescit indugeirs sibi dirus hydrops.  
Nec sitim pellit, nisi causa morbi.  
Fugerit venis, & aquosus albo corpore langor.  
The love of the penny groweth, as much as the pkny groweth. The more things that thou haste gotten the more thou desirest. A covetous man is ever needy, and why? the use requireth, he is afraid to touch that which he hath gotten, & why?  
because that his heap should not be minished or made less. But first thou thurstest down covettousnes the mother of mischief, which the more it hath, the more gold it gapeth for with open jaws, and is more thirsty. The cruel dropsy favouring itself to much: can not put away thirst except the cause of the sickness fly out of the veins & the wattery sickness leave the pale body. The preacher in the .v. 
Eccle. 5.  cha. confirmeth the same, that the poets have said. A covetous man, sayeth he, will never be filled with money. Furthermore as in the bodily dropsy, the great plenty of drink, is not turned into blood, neither into any good nourishment of the body, but is turned all into water and wind, and the body is never the better there by, but filled with ill moisture which engendereth a new thirst, so is it also in the spiritual water sickness, the gold and the silver, the lands, the houses, the fermes, the sheep & the bullocks, oft times do neither the covetous men themselves any good at length, neither their childer for whom they are so greedy, and so careful. For some dice away their sheep, some law away their bullocks, some banquet away their benefices and fermes, some piss all that they get against the walls, some wait their evil gotten goods upon hores and harlots. And though they keep their goods still for themselves and their childer, for a while as some do, them unthrifty son, will as unthryftelye spend, his father's evil gotten goods, as his father got them unlawfully, or uncharitably did hold them from the poor people, which ought to have part of them. Nature, philosophy, and holy scripture, and the common and daily experience do teach us, that the goods of the covetous men, for the most part, neither profit the covetus man himself, nor make his children rich, in such riches at the least, that will endure. For the common saying is that the third heir shall never enjoy goods or lands evil gotten. A covetus gentleman, is like a greedy gliede. A gliede otherwise called a pottock, or a kite, hath the form and fashion of an hawk, and a far of looketh very like an hawk, which is a noble bird, but if ye come near hand him, ye shall know him by his whinning, and lamentable pewing, as though he could never get enough, ye shall also see him do other things, than a right hawk doth, which for the most part, feedeth upon his own pray, that he hath gotten himself. The kite resteth but little, and is almost always flying, and ever he looketh downward to the earth after one pray or other. In the time that he buildeth his nest he carrieth all that he can catch and snatch, unto it, rags, clouts, napkins, kerches, boys caps, and sometime purses, as I have herd say. And all the hole year thorough, there is no prey the cometh amiss unto him, he eateth upon all kind of carrion, he thinketh no shame to eat worms, he cleketh away goslynges, ducklinges, chickens, & all kinds of young birds that can not fly, or otherwise provide for themselves. He is so bold some time in England, (I never saw it so neither in Italy, neither in any part of Germany, where as I have been) that he dare take butter & bread, out of boy's hands in that streets of towns cities & villages. He is more unshamefaced than ever any begging frere was. For he will without any asking or begging, take away tripes and puddings from wives, whylse they are in washing of them. And this doth he most eranestly and unshamefastly, when as he hath young. But what profit cometh unto him and all his, for his manifold robbery and ravine? very little. For he abideth still a foul kite, & his young ones, as I have seen it myself, are always slavering it out, that the father hath stolen and rob for them. Mark here how that nature teacheth us, how that it which is gotten with ravine and robbery, is as soon spent and wasted of the children, as the covertus fathers have gotten it. David in the .36, psalm speaketh thus of the covetus men, and of their heirs and children.  
The arms of the sinners shallbe broken: 
Psal. 36  but the Lord strengtheneth the righteous. The Lord knoweth the days of the undefiled, and their he ritage shallbe for ever. But the enemies of the Lord, anon after that they be set in honour, and be aloft, they shall fade as smoke vanish away. The unrighteous shallbe punished, and the send of the wicked men shall perish. Solomon also in the twenty 
Pro. 20  chapter of his proverbs, witnesseth that such heritage, as is gotten hastily and with covetousness, shall not endure. The heritage sayeth Solomon, whereto is great haste made in the beginning, shall not prosper at the length. Ecclesiasticus writing both of the right godly gentle, and of the ungodly and false gentlemen, sayeth these words, 
Ecc. 44  Ecclesiastici. 44. All these have gotten glory, in the generations of their kindred, and in their days they were praised. They that were borne of them, have left a name to tell the praises of them. And there are some whose memory are quite worn out. They have perished, as though they had never been, and they are borne, as not borne, and so are their children with them. But the other men are of mercy, who have not wanted god lines, and a good heritage continueth, & the seed of their childers children, hath stand in the testament, and their children for their sake, abide for ever. Their seed and their glory shall never decay. 
Eccle. 5.  Ecclesiastes in the .v. chap. hath a saying not unlike unto this. The covetous man (sayeth he) shall never be filled with money, & he that loveth riches shall not take any profit of them. Besides all these authorities, we learn by experience daily, that commonly the greatest & grediest gatherers, are not always the richest at the length, & that their children, for the which they use such catching and snatching, either are taken out of the world, or else become fools or unthrifts, so that the evil gotten, & uncharitably holden riches, prosper not, in the childer of the watersyck. Ye remember what gentlemen, sick in the dropsy, have of late years been taken away, from all their greedily, & uncharitably purchased lands, ye can name some childer, which have lost by their father's death all that they prepared for them. Ye know also one watersyck gentleman (if ye will give me leave to call such a carl a gentleman) which had drunken up almost an hole country, that his children might have drink enough, who is now chyldles, & hath not then for whom he had so greedily scraped and scratched so much riches together. Whether drank king Henry the seventh, or king Henry the viii more? I think that there is none of you all, but that ye will say, that king Henry the eight drank twenty tons more than his father did.  
For he drank up all the monkries, freries, and nunneries in England, he drank up the tenth part of all spiritual men's livings in all the hole realm. Yea and all the profits and first fruits of all benefices, that fell in his time, for the first year after that he fell in to the great dropsy, that is, sense the making of the devilish and abominable act of first fruits and tenths. If one man had seen both the kings, cut up after their deaths as it is not unlike but doctor Chambers did, perchance he should have seen as much blood in king Henry the seventes heart, as in king Henry the eyghtes, and perchance more. But I let that pass and will talk of it that is better known: Whether of these two died the richer? the greater drinker or the less? which of these two kings heirs was left richer, at the death of his father? ye will say I am sure, that the heir of the less drinker was left much richer. Or else what needed king Edward's counsellors and good husband's, so oft cry, the king is poor, the king is poor, and to get all the chantries in England unto him, and so oft to spoil the bishops lands, to enrich him therewith? ye see therefore, that in both the kinds of dropsy, that the exceeding plenty of drink, neither quencheth the thirst of the sick, neither helpeth the disease, neither increaseth any good blood. Therefore seeing that the spiritual dropsy (wherein divers gentlemen of England are sick in at this time) bringeth at length death of both body and soul, and maketh such a foolish opinion in them, that they believe, that it that most of all engendereth the sickness, helpeth it, & that it that most destroyeth both the blood & natural heat, engendereth both the same, it must needs be a perilous disease. Then where as it is so perilous a disease, they that are sick in it, had need of some remedy for it, which I intend to offer unto them. But before I show the remedy of this disease, it is meet that I show the causes of it, that I in healing of it, may show the practice more like a workman, than a fool, for he that knoweth not the cause of the disease, how shall he take the cause away of it? And he that knoweth not the cause of the disease, how shall he take it away, and he that taketh not the cause of that disease away how shall he take the disease away, when as the cause abiding still the effect must needs follow. It is also necessary for all my patientes, to know the cause of their diseases, that after that they are once healed, they may eschew the disease, by putting away, and avoiding the causes of it. It shallbe also necessary for them, that are not yet sick in that sickness, but are disposed naturally thereto, to know the causes of this disease, that by flying and eschewing the causes of it, they may avoid it. sicknesses come two ways, most commonly of a natural cause, and sometime, though it be but seldom, immediately of God, without any natural cause, for the revenging and punishing of some open sin or offence. As for an example. The lepry most commonly cometh of a melancholic humour, or of a salt burned humour, that is in a man's body. But we read that without any such natural cause, it cometh immediately of God, punishing some notable and open offence, 
4. Re. 5. Nu. 12. 2. pa. 26.  as it came unto Gehasi, to marry Moses sister, & to king Osias. The bodily dropsy commonly cometh of the stopping of the liver, and the stopping commonly cometh either of cold or of gross humores. Even so the spiritu all dropsy cometh of cold or gross humores. Under the name of cold humores, I understand such spiritual drink, as is not warmed with an earnest preacher, but is coldly served out, without any zeal or ferventness in spirit, after which manner, our newtralles and manpleasers of late, and now the latin sacrificers, serve the people in England. By gross humores, I understand fleshly and gross ceremonies, which were never tried with the fire of God's word. But as this is the common way, whereby men come to the dropsy, so is there also an other privy strange and seldom way, whereby I reckon that many of our gentlemen, have fallen into the spiritual dropsy. That is, by the punishment of almighty God, which suffered them to fall in to this sickness, for their open sins, as he brought the iii aforenamed persons, into the lepry. The noble & well borne, king Henry the viii by the counsel of certain of his scripture learned counsellors, took in hand to reform & heal some of his clergy, which was so sick in the dropsy, that they had almost drunken up a quarter of the hole realm, and according unto the word of God, and his bond duty, he began to drive out of his land, the seven kinds of people, whereof is motion made in the seventh chap. of Deuteronomi, that is, the hittites, the Bergelces, 
Deu. 7.  the Amores, the Canarees, the Pherisees, the Euees, and the jebusees. And in deed he healed the clergy after one manner, that phisicianes use, that is, per ablati onem, & he drove out after a manner the foresaid enemies of God, which had gotten them, by continuance of long time, seven new names. If any man will know their names, that he drove out, their names are these. jacobites and Minorites, Augustinianes & Carmelites, whit monks, black monks, and Chanones. etc. Because he could neither heal all the watersyke alone, neither could alone drive out so many enemies, he commanded his nobility to help him, and they not unwillingly took his part. But how healed they the dropsy, & how drove they away the seven heathen nations? Surely neither according unto the rules of bodily, nor of spiritual phisyck. What manner of phisiciane is he that cometh unto a house, where as there are some parson's sick, because they had to many humores, and others for lack of sufficient humores, & other are not sick, & he not only commandeth them all together both sick and hold to fast alike, for the space of an hole year, and to give him for his labour, all it that they should have eaten that year: but enjoineth them all alike, for all the time of their lives ever after, to depart with the tenth part of the meat, that they had wont to spend, and to give it unto him? Have not the noble physicians occupied the same physic, whylse they went about to heal the clergy? yes doubtless. For some of the clergy had to much, and some to little, & some no more than enough, and yet must every man have one kind of medicine, all must be purged, both the sick and the hole and all must fast and keep one diet, both the hole, and the two kinds of sick. Would these physicians be content, that doctor Wendy, or doctor Owen, doctor Wotton or doctor Huic, or I, should practise with them so, if we were called to their houses to heal certain sick persons there? Doubtless they would not. Wherefore when as they do otherwise unto their brethren, than they would be done to themselves, they have broken the rule of our master doctor jesus, the chief physician, and have committed an open sin, that all the world may see. For the which sin, God hath suffered them to fall into this foul dropsy, that they are sick in now, even as he ponished Gehasy with a lepry, for committing the same sin, that our gentlemen did. For as Gehasy sinned in covetousness, in taking of rewards, of the heathen man that his master healed, having no commandment so to do, so these when as they had no commandment of their master Christ to take the goods of the clergy, for the reforming of it: sinned in covetousness, & fell into the same sickness that the clergy had. And so is it now comed to pass, that the physicians which took in hand to heal other men, are fallen into the same sickness themselves, & have need of physicians to heal them. The same in driving out of the aforesaid seven nations, broke openly the commandment and rule of the great Phisiciane, which in these words Deuteronomi vii 
Deu. 7.  gave this commandment. When as the Lord thy God, shall bring thee into the land, wherinto thou shalt entre, and take possession of, shall drive away many nations of people in thy sight, the hittites, the Gergeze ets. etc. thou shalt burn in the fire their graven images. Thou shalt not desire the gold and the silver whereof they are made, neither shalt thou take unto thee any thing of them, lest thou stumble or do amiss, because it is the obomination of thy Lord God. Nether shalt thou bring any thing of the idols into thy house, lest thou be accursed, as it is. Thou shalt defy it as filthiness, and thou shalt loath it, as dirt and uncleanness, because it is accursed.  
This open commandment of God, hath our phisicianes, of our clergy openly broken. For they took unto themselves, not only all the lands of the heathen, & all their gold and their silver, but also all their images & their abominable idols, & carried them home into their houses, or at the lest into the kings house. That to put down idolatry for riches sake, and to take the idols to a man's own proper advantage, displeaseth God highly, ye may learn by the overthrow, that the children of Israel had, of the citizens of Hay, and by the death of Acham, who was put to death miserably with all his, for stealing of certain jewels and other ornaments pertaining unto idols. 
josu. 7.  joshua seven. and also by the death of the jews, that fought under the Maccabees, which after their death, were judged, of the church therefore, to have been slain of their enemies because they had taken privily unto themselves, of the offerings of the idols, ye may see that God took it for a great sin, to take the spoils of idols and idolaters, to a man's own self, because that he punished it twice with death. Wherefore it is a grievous sin, to destroy idols and idolatry, not for God's love, but for their spoils and riches sake. But how ponysheth God, these gold thirsty phesicians? Even with the same sickness, that they went about to take from their patientes. For God sayeth, thou shalt bring nothing of their idols, to thy house, 
Deu. 7.  Ne tu sias anathema sicus illud est: that is, lest thou be made accursed, and abominations as it is After now that the causes of this dropsy are know, it followeth next to be done, that I should ordain a preparative. When as the disease cometh of cold, and of the stopping the liver, our preparative must be made, of such herbs, as are hot & bitter, therefore as many as will be purged of this evil humour, that maketh the dropsy, must take this bitter preparative (for much use of sweet watery & cold meats, make the dropsy.) Go to the church and desire a learned man to make a bitter sermon against covetousness, of the which sermon, take one good draft fasting in the morning, & and other an hour before supper, with an ounce of repentance, at each time for the space of fourteen days, and then take vi drams of the purgation, which may well be called, hiera zachei, and it will scour them that have the dropsy so perfectly, that there shall not remain one pint, of that thirst making water, If that it can not be found ready made in the pothecaries shops, make it thus. 
Luk. 19  Dimidium bonorum tuorum, da pauperibus, si quem defraudaveris, red ei quadruplum, give the one half of all thy goods the poor, if thou hast taken any thing away from any man unjustly, restore four times as much to him again. If this purgation be to strong and to bitter, & would purge to sore, then take less of it, & make equal restitution, according unto the value of it that is taken away from any man. After that they be thus purged, because it is a strong purgation, and a bitter, & maketh the takers of it very weak, and after that a man is healed once of this disease, he may lightly fall into it again, I will ordain and make the water sick, a confortative, and immediately after also a preservative, to save them that they fall not again into their old disease. Their confortative, shall be this that followeth hereafter.  

Luk. 19 Math. 3. and. 11.  Venit filius hominis, quaerere & servare quod perierat. Non veni vocare justos, sed peccatores ad poenitentiam. Poenitentiam agite & appropinquabit regnum celorum. Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis & onerati estis, 
Math. 11  & ego refocillabo vos, Sic Deus dilexit mundum, 
joh. 3.  ut unigenitum filium suum daret, ut omnis qui credit in eum, non pereat, 
Ezech. 13  sed habeat vitam eternam. Nolo mortem peccatoris sed magis ut convertatur, & vivat.  
Now will I teach you a good treacle or preservative. The preservative is this.  
Non concupisces uxorem fratris tui, 
Exo. 20.  non domum, non agrum, non servum, non an cillam, non bovem, non asinum, & universa quae illius sunt. Non fitis solliciti quid esuri sitis, aut quid bibituri, aut quo induamini. 
Math. 6  Primum querite regnum Dei, & justiciam eius, 
Pro. 10.  & hec omnia adijcientur vobis. Non patietur Dominus ut anima justi fame laboret. Leunculi penuria & fame laborant qui autem do minun inquirunt nullo bono destituuntur. 
Deu. 17  Cum fueris rex constitutus, non multiplicabis tibi equos. Non habebis uxores plurimas, neque argenti & auri ingentia pondera. Rex justus erigit terram, vir avarus destruit came. 
Pro. 30.  Mendicitatem & divitias, ne dederis mihi, tribue victui meo necessaria, ne forte satiatus alliciar ad negandun & dicam. Quis est Dominus, aut egestate compulsus furer, & periurem nomen Dei mei: Seiunge ab hijs, qui questum putant esse pietatem. Est autem questus magnus pietas cum animo sua sort contento. Nihil enim intulimus in mundum, videlicet nec esser re quicquam possumus, 
2. tim. 6  sed habentes alimenta & quibus tegamur, his contenti erimus. Caeterum qui volunt ditescere, incidunt in temtationem & laqueum & in cupiditates multas, stultas ac noxias, quae demergunt homines in exitium & interitum, Siquidem radix omnium malorum, est avaritia. Vos qui divites estis in praesenti seculo, ne sitis elato animo, neque spem ponite, in divitijs incertis, sed in Deo vivente, qui praebet nobis omnia affatim, ad fruendum. Benefacite ut divites sitis bonis operibus. Estote faciles ad impertiendum, libenter communicantes, recondentes vobis ipsis fundamentum bonum in posterum, 
Psa. 39  ut apprehendatis vitam eternam. Spera in Domino & fac bonitatem, & inhabita terram, & pasceris in divitijs eius. Delectare in Domino, & dabit tibi petitionem tuam. Novit Dominus dies immaculatorum, & hereditas eorum in aeternum erit. Inimici vero Domini mox ut honorificati sunt & exaltati deficientes quemadmodum fumus deficient. junior fui, 
Psa. 36.  & senui, & non vidi justum derelictum, nec semen eius querens panem. 
Psa. 118  Iniusti puni entur, & semen impiorum peribit. Inclina cor meum in testimonia tua, & none in avaritiam.  
I have written this in latin for their sake, that had liefer read their confortative and diet in latin, then in english. But if I should leave this latin not turned into English I would be afeard that some unlearned persons should abuse this my writing, as the popish sacrificeing priests and the common popish sort of the unlearned people, abuse the physic of Christ written in latin. For when as Christ had made many noble medicines against divers diseases, and the Apostles and Evangelists had written the same in Greek, and learned men had turned them out of Greek into latin, some of the common people believing that Christ's medicines was very good, desired the priests to read unto them Christ's preparatives, purgations, confortatives and diet to their comfort, and for the same cause they came every sunday unto the church. But the popish priests read over the sick persons heads, Christ's above named medicines in latin, as though the bare reading of the physicians bill in a strange tongue, should help the sick men, when as they understand never one word thereof. And the same priests, neither taught the people, how they should use their preparative, neither their purgation, nor confortative, neither did they declare what diet the people should hold, but read the diet & other medicines in a strange tongue. I will therefore make my hole counsel and my other medicines in english for them that understand no latin, and yet I counself them that are sick in this disease, when as I counsel them that they daily read this confortative, and preservative, that they look for no help of the only reading of them, but that they should do those things that are written, & not only hear them, or see them, or say them, but also order their life according unto the comfortative & the foreappointed diet. The son of man came, to seek out and to save, that which was lost I came not to call the righteous, but sinners unto repentance.  
Repent you, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Come unto me all ye that labour and are laden, and I shall refresh you. So God loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that all which believe in him, should not perish, but have life everlasting. I will not the death of a sinner, but rather that he convert and live. The preservative. Thou shalt not desire thy brother's wife, nor his house, nor his land, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his. Be ye not careful, what ye shall eat, nor what ye shall drink, or wherewith ye shall be clothed. first seek the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof & all these things shallbe given you. The Lord shall not suffer the soul of the righteous to be grieved with hunger. The young Lions are greves with penury and hunger, but they that search out the Lord shall lake nothing that is good. When thou shalt be made a king, thou shalt not purchase unto thee many horses, thou shalt not have many wives, neither exceeding great weight of gold and silver. A righteous king setteth up the land, but a covetus man destroyeth it. Extreme poverty, nor great riches give not unto me, give me necessary things for my living, lest peradventure I being filled, shallbe enticed unto the denying of thee, and say, who is the Lord? or I being compelled with poverty, should steel, & forswear the name of my Lord God. i timo. vi. 
1. tim. 6  Separate thyself from those which think gains to be godliness, for godliness is great vantage, when a man is content in his own mind, for we brought nothing into the world, neither we can carry any thing out thereof, but having sufficient food and clothing, let us be content therewith, for those that will be rich, enter into many temptations and snares, and wicked desires foolish and hurtful, which drown men & cast them into death danger and destruction. For covetousness is the root of all evil. You that are rich in this present world, be not of an high mind, 
1. tim. 6  and put not your hope in uncertain riches, but in the living God, which shall give you all things plenteously to enjoy them. Do you well, that ye may be rich in good works. Be you easy to distribute, gladly giving part, laying up for yourselves, a good foundation against the time to come, that ye may take hold of everlasting life Psal. 37. 
Psal. 37  Trust in the Lord, and do good, and dwell upon the earth and thou shalt be fed in the riches of it. delight or trust in the Lord, and he shall give the thy desire. The Lord knoweth the days of the undefiled and their inheritance shallbe everlasting. But the enemies of the Lord straight way as they be honoured and set up, they fading away, do vanish as the smoke. I was young, and am old, and I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor their seed begging their bread. The ungodly shallbe punished, and the seed of the wicked shall perish. Move my heart unto thy witnesses, and not unto covetousness. So far the preservative. After that they be once perfitly healed, they must not only use this foresaid diet, but they must also exercise themselves, lest they by to much rest, fall into their sickness again. For this diet that I have prescribed after God's physic, will not help except they be exercised in some good works: for the spirit of God sayeth, 
Psal. 33.  declina a malo, & fac bonum. fly evil, & do good. But your chief exercise shall stand in going walking and running, 
Exercise  ye must run with David, 
Psal. 118  which said, viam manda torum tuorum, cucurri, I have run the way of thy commandments, ye must also walk as David sayeth, in lege Domini, in the law of the Lord, and ye must go as the same prophet said, a virtute in virtutem, from one virtue to another. Although there be many virtues wherein, a christian gentleman ought to be exercised: yet there is none that is more fyte to withstand this dropsy, nor more becoming a right gentleman, then is liberality, for it is not one of the unsurest tokens, where by a gentleman is known from an other man. Because the way of liberality is evil to find, and there are ii ways of each side of it, and every one of them is much broader, then the way that leadeth unto liberality is: I will tell you what liberality is, and wherein it standeth, and what vices be contrary unto it. 
liberality.  liberality is a virtue, which standeth in giving & in taking, but rather in giving. In giving, to whom it is meet to give, and to receive of them, of whom it is convenient to receive. Aristotle in the first book of his ethics confirmeth my saying thus. 
Aristotel.  Liberalis est dare, quibus dandum est, potius quam unde accipiendum est accipere. etc.  
That is, It belongeth rather unto a liberal man, to give to them to whom he ought to give, then to receive of whom he ought to receive. 
The end of liberality.  The end of liberality in philosophy is for honesties sake, in the scripture, for God's sake & our neighbours. A liberal man sayeth Aristotle, will give so much and in such time as is meet, and it that he doth, he doth gladly, and not unwillingly. But he that giveth unto them, to whom he ought not to give, and not for honesty nor for virtues sake, but for some other cause, he is not to be counted liberal. A liberal man, will never receive of them, of whom it is not lawful to receive. Nether is he much disposed to crave or beg, because he that giveth, receiveth not gladly. Yet shall he receive of them, of whom it is meet that he should receive. And yet he shall not give unto all men, that he may have store to give, at time convenient, and to whom it is mete. The most part of the prodigalles, receive of them, of whom they ought not to receive, and for that cause they become covetus. For when as by giving, they begin to want their selves, they are compelled to lay hands upon other men's goods. For they have a desire to give, but they care not whereof, nor how they give. covetousness standeth chiefly in giving of less than a man ought to give, and in passing measure in receiving. So that liberality is set between ii vices, that is, prodigality & covetousness. Thus far have I rehearsed unto you the mind of Aristotle whose learning in this matter, is not contrary, unto Christ's learning. Therefore we may be the bolder to follow it. 
The common opinion of divers gentlemen.  The common sort of gentlemen think themselves very liberal, if they bestow upon dogs. xx.li. in the year, & the rest of their goods upon gentlemen & other rich men, though they spend not iii farthings all their life up on one poor ma. The manner of noble men's houses, and gentlemen's houses (commonly) is this. If a gentleman come to the house, whether he be known or not known, yet either, for to receive such good cheer again of the stranger, or for good fame's sake, that he may be called a liberal gentleman, and a good house keeper, the master of the house will bid him welcome, and make him good cheer. But if any poor man, either an artificer, or a ploughman would have any meat or lodging at the gentleman's house except he be known and like to do some pleasure again it shallbe told him thus: This place is no Inn, nor alehouse, therefore get you hence. As for the ragged beggars, if the dogs have left any bones, & slavered bread and naughty drink, that is God's part and theirs, other shall they have none, though not in all gentlemen's houses, yet into many. This is also the manner in some great men's houses, that if any man come into the hall in a jerkin or a sleeveless cote, he may not sit down & dine there, with sleved men, and sleved beasts there. But the usher will command him to depart. And it is also marvel that any such poor man, may come in at the gate, so are they only hated, in the gentlemen's houses, to whom almost only, liberality ought to be showed. This commonly used liberality in England now, is no true liberality, but rather prodigality, for it is quite contrary both to the liberality that God describeth and appointeth, and also unto it that all wise natural men have written of, and have commanded their disciples to occupy. Almighty god in the lviii. cha. of Esay speaketh unto all Emperores, kings, dukes, earls, lords, knights, gentlemen and all other rich men Frange esurienti panem tuunt. etc. 
Esa. 58.  break thy bread unto him that is hungry, and bring into thy house poor & wandering men, or wayfaring men, or strangers that have no houses, into thy house, & when as thou shalt see a naked man cover him, and despise not thy flesh. This commandment of God, is commonly broken in occupying of liberality. For the poor men have not the bread broken, nor the herborles are lodged.  
Christ in the new Testament teacheth us, how that we should exercise & occupy liberality after this manner. 
Luce. 14  When as thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, neither thy brethren, neither thy kinsfolks neither thy rich neighbours, lest they also bid the again, and so be rewarded for thy good deed. Nay rather when as thou makest a self call poor, weak, lame, and blind, and thou shalt be blessed, because they can make no recompense unto the but thou shalt be recompensed, in the resurrection of the righteous.  
Now what manner of Christianes' are ye, that exercise your liberality for the most part, quite contrary unto the ordinance of God the father, and of his son jesus Christ? The prince of this world, for whose sake ye occupy your liberality, upon the rich that need not, will reward you after his fashion. But the king of heaven shall say unto you, that feed the fat and the rich only and despise the poor hungry. 
Mat. 25  I was hungry, and ye have given me no meat, I was herborles, & ye gave me no lodging etc. As ye have not done to these, so have ye not done unto me, go your ways ye cursed, into everlasting fire. For the avoiding of this hot and unsufferable fire, and that ye may also keep honest and honourable houses, according unto your states and vocations, this is my counsel. Make iii kinds of gesthouses, and iii dining places, let one be made for them that are unclenly or are suspect to have been in places infected, a little from your gates, other without or within, let certain standing messes of meat be daily prepared, according to the rents of your lands, for these poor folk, whether they come or no, this can not be lost, that ye bestow upon these, for ye bestow it upon Christ himself. Let there be one room for honest plowmen, artificers & other strangers, under the degree of gentleman, let some number of meses of meat, be also provided, acustomably, every day for these. If there come no strangers give this meat unto the poor neighbours and labourers in the village or town next by These ones done, ye may make your friends, and all manner of honest gentlemen such cheer as your conscience shall counsel you, & as your lands will. be able to bear such expenses. If that ye be disposed to keep right and christian hospitality, ye must keep it as I have told you, or else your liberality will not be allowed for liberality of almighty God. If that ye will be perfit in liberality, ye must have some to go before you to lead you the way, for we are all blind of nature, of whom ye may learn to go a good pace in the high way of liberality, that ye neither fall into the way of covetousness nor of prodigalite. 
3. guides  There are three guides which if ye will follow ye shall not miss but find the high way. Nature, good men both under the law of nature, and under the law of God, & God himself. Of the which cometh both the liberality that nature teacheth, and liberal men have exercised and do exercise. They that write of the nature of the right eagle, say, that when he hath gotten a good prey, and hath tasted a little of the best of it, he crieth and calleth other birds to him, and letteth them eat with him. After the same manner sparrows, goldfynches, lynettes and such small birds, that fly by flokkes together, if they find any sedes that like them, they call other of the same kind unto them, because they would not eat alone, but have company with them. The Emperor Titus used every day at the lest to do one good turn to some body, 
Titus doing.  & if at any time about night, he perceived that he had given no reward that day he was very sorry: Abraham and Lot, called into their houses all that they saw pass by, and made them good cheer, as the xviii 
Gen. 18 and .19.  of Genesis and the xix bear witness. Ezechias gave unto the people when they came unto jerusalem to worship God there and to keep their passover to the Lord, 
2. par. 30  a thousand oxen, and vii thousand sheep, and the noble men gave them a thousand oxen and ten thousand sheep. Here was a right scripture man, and an image breaker, and his gentlemen were also right scripture men. I would see when as any unlearned blind traditioner, that was unlearned in the scripture, did ever give his commons any such gifts, as this scripture learned king, and his gentlemen, gave unto his commons, because he and they would have the people continue in the law of God, and in his service which he appointed them. In my time one king at one parliament time to make men the sooner to embrace God's religion, which he took in hand to set forth, token away from the commons and from the gentlemen, much above the value of a thousand oxen, and vii thousand sheep, but I have not herd much of it that he gave at any time unto the commons, to make them embrace their new and true religion. All ye that are right gentlemen and true gospelers, follow these noble gentlemen, & though ye can not overtake them, follow them as near as ye can and not the greedy gripes, which having crooked claws, ever receive, and never give any thing. almighty God giveth all thing that all men and all living creatures in the world receive, and for all that he giveth: he receiveth nothing, saving a kind heart and a thankful. The nobler that any prince is, and the mightier and richer, the more near he ought to be a follower of almighty God. Who keepeth open household at all times, and as well provideth for flies, sparrows, pisemiers and young ravenes, as he doth for old goshawks, herones, bustardes, swans, eagles, and great oxen. As I have set you these iii God, nature, & good men, to be followed and to be your guides, because I would ye werfully exercised, I will appoint you whom ye ought to fly and run away from, for it belongeth unto him that will appoint a diet well, as diligently to tell, what things ought to be avoided, as what ought to be occupied. 
Fly the water birds.  Ye must fly from all kinds of waterbyrdes, which exercise both the water and the land, that is, from the covetus men, that are both lay men and spiritual men, as they are called, and from all such, as can not be content with one sufficient vocation or office, but will have many, to the hindrance of their brethren. Also ye must abstain from the horse leech, from the Tyk, from the Sow, and the Mould, & from the Heron. All these are to be eschewed above all other beasts and birds. 
Avoid the horse leech.  The Horseleche and the Tyk have mouths to receive blood, and they tarry still in one place until they be full, but they have no place to avoid it out again, and so keep it all to themselves. A sow is always among the dirt, and never doth good until she die. Then her puddings and bags go abroad, and every body of the house hath his part of her. For as long as the Sow liveth, men neither have milk of her, nor will. And for greediness some time she eateth and worrieth up her own pigs, as some gentlemen have done, which for money, have sold their daughters away, to pokky old carls, and their sons, to young evil favoured, meseld, & naughty horyshe and evil mannered wenches. 
The mole,  The Mole is ever in the earth, and there can he shift for himself well enough, he hath a long snout, and eyes to, but can see nothing at all. There are to many followers of this mole, which in earthly matters, can talk marvelous wittily, but take them once out of the earth, that is, out of world & earthly matters, them are they stark blind, & can see nothing at al. But in smelling profit & advantage, be it never so far of, they are nothing behind the mole, 
The Heron.  with his long snout. The Heron is ever about the water sides, & ever fishing, & yet is he ever lean, & as some doth say, the fish sometime goeth out, as fast at the one end as they are taken in at the other. The heron and his followers are to be eschewed of all right gentelemen, which as they greedily get riches so they unthryftlye spend them again, and yet neither they, nor theirs are the better thereby.  
Now have I told you the tokens of the dropsy, the causes, and incomodities, & jeopardies of the same, I have taught you likewise a preparative and a purgation or two, to heal it withal. I have also told you, a confortative, to comfort you, after your purgation, and what diet ye should keep, after ye are healed, how and what manner of exercise ye should occupy, what things and whom ye ought to follow, & whom and what things ye ought to fly and eschew. If that ye follow all this my hole counsel, I doubt not but ye shall, both be delivered, of this present dropsy that ye have now, and also as long as ye live, shall never fall into it again, by the help of almighty God, who have you always in his keeping.   

3 Of the romish Pox.  
THere is yet an other sore disease which hath reigned long, and yet reigneth amongst diverse noble and gentlemen, which may be called in latin, se●abies Romana, superstitio, fucata pictas, falsa religio in greke etholochriskia, in English the romish pocks, false religion papistry, and unwritten worshipping of God, father's fantasies.  
The romish pocks is a disease of the mind which maketh a man worship God not according unto his written word but after the tradition and ordinance of the bishop of Rome. This disease in many phintes, is like unto the french pocks A great outward sign of the french pocks, is when the nose of a man is almost all eaten away and the patiented sneveleth and speaketh evil favouredly. 
Signs of the pocks.  An other is, when as all the children that a man getteth, have the pocks. But of hid signs in spiritual diseases, we ought not to speak except they be declared, either by the patient himself, or else by other sure tokens which declare the inward sickness. Therefore I will not speak of the inward signs, except they burst out by themselves. But I do see daily, two. manifest tokens of the romish pocks, in the nobility of England. The first token is, that I see diverse gentlemen's spiritual noses, so quite eaten away, that they can speak nothing of God's word, and his written truth, but snevel always of will works, of pilgrimages, of images, of purgatory, of Messes, and of Diriges, and such like stuff, and if any man offer any other doctrines unto than, than these above named, because the romish pocks hath eaten away their noses and judgement, can smell nothing at all. I see diverse young men which never were in Rome which are shamefully overgone in the romish pocks, which doubtless received the disease of their fathers. They can abide nothing, but such as hath been allowed of them of Rome. So that there are both old and young gentlemen, that are sick in the romish pocks. As there are other signs and tokens of the french pocks than I have rehearsed, so are there other tokens of the romish pocks, how be it the tokens are not always true, but they are commonly true.  
Some that have the french pocks, want all the here of their beards, & the here falleth of some of their heads, either all or in part, which disease is called of some pilorella.  

A sign of the romish pox.  Which things are also no small nor unsure tokens, of the romish pocks. For there is not one gentle man of the clergy, that hath the romish pocks, in the hole realm of England, that hath his hole head covered with here, but one patch is bare. For the romish pocks is so sore in their heads, that it leaveth not one here in their crowns Look if ye can see any right Romanist priest in England, that hath his hole head covered and unpilled. Yea and the sorer that the disease hath taken any man, the less here hath he, and the balder is his crown. Whereby I gather that my lords the bishops, are sore sick in this romish pocks for they are almost all heerlesse, and bald even unto the ears which thing ye shall not greatly wonder at, after the I have showed you the beginning of this disease how it sprang first up, and how men are infected with it. Let me see if there be any right shapen papist, of the lay gentlemen, that hath any here upon his beard? If there be any, they are but few.  
They that are sore infected with the romish pox can not abide the sight of a beard, and therefore judge all them that have beards, to be heretics. But seeing that it is my duty, not only to heal them that are now sick in this disease, but also to teach other how to avoid the same: it is necessary that I tell, how this disease first sprung up & how men are infected and come by it.  
The french pocks began thus, as diverse good authores write. When as the French men came into Italy, a warfare, and were in Naples, there was there a noble whore, which had this abominable french pox with whom, because she was a noble whore, many noble men lay with her, and some unnoble. But as many as lay with her, caught the disease, afterward called the french pocks of her, & they infected once, infected other hores, and other heres, infected many other men of every sort, and because it began amongst the Frenchmen, it was called the french pocks. After the same manner also, sprung up the Romish pocks. There was a certain whore in Italy, which had a perillus disease called false religion, & she was so fine and fair speaking, and so beauteus to look to, that she called and enticed unto her, all the kings and nobility of the earth, and enticed them to lie with her, and they committed fornication with her, of whom they were all infected with her disease, and so caught the romish pocks. Some will think that I geste, and speak but fables, but if ye will read the .17. of the apocalypse and the preface of saint Hierom that he wrote before saint Marks gospel, ye shall find that I speak the truth in earnest. 
Apoca. 17  The words of S. John in the apocalypse are these. Come I shall show thee the damnation of the great whore, which sitteth over many waters, with whom have committed fornication, the kings of the earth, and they that dwell in the earth, have been made drunken with the wine of her whoredom. And the spirit took me away into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting upon a red beast, full of names and cursing, having vii heads and ten horns, and the woman was girded round about with purple and scarlate, & gilded with gold & with precius stones, & pearls, having in her hand a golden cup, full of the abominations and uncleanness of her lust, and in her brow was written a name, a mystery. Babylon the great mother of whoredom, and of the abominations of the earth. 
Jerome.  Saint Hierom in the preface before saint Marks gospel sayeth these words of Babylon. Papias bishop of Hierapolis maketh mention of this mark, and Peter under the name of Babylon, figuratively betokeneth Rome, maketh mention of him, saying: that church greeteth you, which is in Babylon, which is partaker of your election, and my son Marcus also. Now may ye see that Rome, is the hore of Babylon. But how that Rome, hath inferred all Europa, we may easily learn of the decrees and decretals, and of divers historiographers, wherein we find, that false religion, superstition, and idolatry, was found out by the romish whore, allowed, offered, yea and thrust into all kingdoms of Europa, by the same, and so earnestly commanded to be kept, that they that would either speak against the baggage of Rome, or would not receive it, were taken for heretics, & put to shameful & painful deaths. There is some 〈◊〉 amongst that learned men, who brought into this land, the Romish pocks. We read in old histories, that the Britamnes received the true and unleavened religion in the time of king Lucius, the king of the britains, and that it continued undefiled, unto that time of Gregory the great, who sent into England a monkish apostle of his, which brought with him the romish pox in to this land, that is to weet, crosses, copes, vestments, shaving of crowns, singing and ringing. etc. with an infinite sort of superstitius and abominable ordinances, ceremonies and learnings of men, where with the hole church of the Britamnes at length was infected and poisoned, and the live word of God choked, or at the lest shamefully minished, and these trifles received and occupied in the stead of it. Other hold that he brought not the romish pox, saying, that he brought the faith into England. The truth is (which can be easily proved by the church story of Bedes writing,) that the Brytannes had the faith many years, even. cccc. years and more before that Austen came into England, and that the same Austen, 
Austen.  although he brought in the faith to the english, yet brought he with him the romish pocks, which did not only infect the english, but also the Brytannes, if that the romish pox stand in crowns, cowls, vestments, crosses, singing of latin in the church, with such other romish trifles and ordinances, as it is easy to be proved both by reason & by scripture. But who in our days, restored and renewed the romish pocks in England, (when as it was almost taken away, partly by Luters books, and other new writers, and partly by preaching, and by the translation of the new Testament, 
Doctor Steven  and the reading of the same) it is not hard to give. Doctor Steven was long with the hore of Babylon, and as it doth appear, lay with her there, for he doubtless brought the romish pocks into England again, and infected many a christian soul therewith. The same hath so defended his lemanis whoredom here in England that all the other romish horemaisters, are nothing to be compared with him. For that intent that ye may save yourselves from the romish pocks, I must show you certain other tokens, where by they that are most infected with the disease, may be known, that ye may avoid them. What so ever man ye shall see, with a great bald plat in his crown having woman's clothes above man's clothes, and a messayer with all, take him for a pokky whore master of Rome, for the hore of Rome, giveth such garments, unto her chief pokke lovers, and requireth of them to were such garments as badges and tokens for her sake.  
And they to please their leman, do wear such womanly apparel, that they may please her, and continue still in her love and favour, as sardanapalus desired to please his lemannes, when as he put on woman's clothing, whylse he tarried at home, when all his counsellors and commons were fighting with the enemies of his realm. They are also syoke in the romish pocks very sore, and it is very leopardous to eat or drink with them that are not ashamed no more of their bare plat that is bared with the pokkes, but for their lemmannes' sake love it so well, that they bless it, & cross it, with the paten of the chalice, as a very holy holy thing. If any man would be free from the romish pocks, let him neither eat nor drink with these pokky merchants, neither suffer to breath upon him in their confession booths. They that love their children, let them take heed, that none of these pokky prelate's, put any of their pokky spattell in to their childers mouths, lest they be infected with this perilus & evil favoured disease thereby. But lest ye should think that this disease is not greatly to be cared for, as though it never brought death, I will prove you that it bringeth both death and damnation. 
Apoca. 18.  In the xviii of the apocalypse the voice which came from heaven, said to them that dwelled in Babylon. Go out of Babylon o my people left ye be partakers with her of her faults and lest ye receive not of her plagues. 
Apoca. 18  Then they that go not out of Babylon, but continue in Babylon, that is in the romish pox, must be damned with the hore of Babylon.  
Moreover the hore and the horemaysters, must be punished with like punishment, but the romish pokkye whore must be damned, therefore all her pokkye lovers must be damned also, I prove the same matter thus. All men that preach doctrines or learnings which are the commandments of men, worship God in vain. But all romish preachers, preach and teach doctrines and learnings, which are precepts of men, therefore all romish preachers worship God in vain. 
Mark the argument.  But all they that worship God in vain shallbe damned, and all romish preachers worship God in vain, therefore all romish preachers shallbe damned.  
If all romish preachers shallbe damned, then shall all they be dampened that believe romish preaching, for if one blind lead another, as Christ sayeth, they both fall into the dirhe. Then when as all doctrine, 
Matth. 15.  which is the commandment of man only and not of God, and the romish pocks are all one, all that have the romish pocks, except they be healed of them, shallbe damned with them, of whom they received them. Then when as the romish pocks, is such a perillus disease, it is very needful, that all they that are sick in that sickness, be healed thereof. To the healing of the romish pokkkes, a straight diet, many purgations, and a good confortative, afterwards are required. And such diet as the bodily physicians enjoin to them that are sick in the french pocks, must I also enjoin unto all them that are sick in the romish pocks. They that cure and heal them that are sick in the french pocks, enjoin their patientes to drink water, wherein is sodden the powder of guaiacum or lignum sanctum, and that they shall eat only twice baked bread called bisco and none else, and of it and of all other meats, but a small quantity, that is to wet, but iii ounces or iiii. at the most. Every fift day or sixth: they must be purged, and oft times must they sweat, that all the evil humores may go four ways out, by the pores, by the fundament, by the water vessels, and by the mouth. Even such like dyer must they keep, that are sick in the romish pocks, for they have gotten it, of spiritual fornication, but fornication cometh of to much drinking of wine, and to much eating of sweet meats, & to much nourishing of the body, as Terence sayeth, fine cerere & baccho friget Venus, without plenty of meat & drink, the lust of the body is cold. 
Ezech. 16.  And ezechiel rehearseth amongst the great and shameful lechery of Sodom and Gomor plenty of bread. Then when as the excess of the hore of Babylon's wine, and the eating of the great quantity of the leaven of the Pharisees, have brought these sick folk unto spiritual whoredom, and there of have gotten the romish pox, when as it that is gotten by to much, aught to be driven away by abstinence, and by evacuation or oursetting of it that is superfluus.  
My counsel is this therefore, that ye which are sick in this sickness, for the space of your life time forbear from the romish wine and from the leaven of the pharisees, 
Matth. 16  which is counterfeit holiness, and from all men's inventions. Ye shall eat no other bread, but such bisco, or twice baked bread, as Christ hath blessed, and the apostles have delivered unto you, beware of the sweet stolen bread. Whereof the scripture maketh mention. Eat of the bread of life, 
joh. 6.  whereof saint John maketh mention in the vi chapter. And ye shall drink no other drink for your life time, but the water of life, 
joh. 7.  which springeth of Christ's well. With the which water alone, our chief physician healed an whore of Samaria which had had six lovers, 
joan. 4.  one after an other. Because the matter of this disease is very gross, we must prepare it with bitter herbs as is repentance, and such other, as with their heat or bitterness will cut them in sunder, and will make them ready to go forth, with the purgations.  
Drink of this drink every day, two great draughts, and one upon the night, and read the composition of your preparative every day once at the lest, that when as it is once drunken up, ye may make it fresh again: your preparative, shall you make thus. Take a gallon of the water of repentance, and seethe in it all these herbs following.  

Psal. 118.  Erravi sicut ovis quaeperijt. Peccavimus cum patribus nostris, iniquitatem fecimus. 
Pro. 14.  Est via quae videtur hommi recta, novissima autem eius ducunt ad interitum. 
Esa. 53. Math. 15.  Nos omnes quasi ones erravi mus, quisque viam suam sectatus. Frustra me colunt docetes doctrinas & praecepta hominum. 
Deute. 12.  Non facietis singuli quod sibi rectum videtur, sed quod praecipio tibi, hoc tantum facito nec addas quiequam nec minuas. 
1. joh. 1.  Si quis venit ad vos, & hanc doctrinam non attulerit ne recipiatis illum in domum, neque dixeritis illi ave, qui dixerit illi ave, communicate eius operibus malis. Iniquitatem meam ego agnosco, & peccatum meum, 
Psal. 60.  contra me, est semper. Auerte faciem tuam a peccatis meis, & omnes iniquitates meas deal. Cor mundum crea in me Deus, & spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis.  
The english of your preparative.  
I have erred as a sheep that perisheth. We have sinned with our fathers, and we have done wickedly. There is a way the which seemeth right unto a man but the end of it, leadeth to destruction. We have all erred as sheep, every one following his own way. They worship me in vain, teaching doctrines that are the precepts of men. Ye shall not do every one of you that seemeth right in your own eyes, but that that I bid you, that only do, nor thou shalt not add any thing thereto, nor minish any thing. If any man come unto you and bringeth not this doctrine with him, see that ye receive him not into your house, nor ye shall not say unto him, god speed, for he that so saith unto him God speed, is partaker with him of his evil deeds. I do acknowledge mine in iquite & my sin is always against me. Turn away thy face from my sins & put away all my iniquities. O god create in me a new heart, & make now win me a right spirit. When as ye have drunken out this drink once or twice ye●euel humores are prepared, them take this purgation following.  
Recipe hierae magorum conversorun 3. vi. aquae vitae praedictae. 3. iiij. cale facito super carbones decretorum, decretalium clementinarum extravagantium, librorum sententiarum & omnium librorum papisticorum bene ustorum, & tunc totum ebibe.  
That is to say, take vi drams of the bitter medicines of that turned sorcerer's, and four ounces of the above named water of life, mingel them together and warm them upon the coals of the decrees the decretals, Clementines, extravagantes, of the master of the sentences, and of all other such popish books, well burnt into coals, and then when the drink is warm, drink it hole out If that this hiera be not made all ready let your apothecaries read the xix chapter of the second book of the christian physician Lucas Anthiochenus, 
Act. 19  and there they may find the description of this hiera. The noble physician Lucas, telleth how that there were a certain number of sorcerer's, which had gotten by reading of the books of Egypt the pocks of egypt, the same sorcerers when as they had heard the preaching of God's word, fell quite away from that whoredom, and lest they should be brought unto witchcraft again, they burned up all their books, which were judged to be worth at the lest a thousand pound. After that ye have drunken this purgation, then shall ye take an other, much like unto the former, and the purgation may be called in latin, Confectio Mosi and in english the confection of Moses, whereof vi days after the other purgation ye shall take an ounce, with iii ounces of aqua vitae above named, and drink all up. If that this drink be not found made ready in your pothecaries shops, your pothecaries may learn to make it, by the second book of Moses. When as the children of Israel, 
Exo. 〈…〉  had fallen into the hethnyshe pocks, and had committed spiritual fornication with the golden calf, he burned the calf into powder, and to heal them that were hurt with the calf he gave them the powder of the very same to drink with water. After the same manner shall ye make your purgation. Such things as ye have committed fornication with, must ye burn, and drink the powder of them with water. But ye have committed spiritual fornication with crosses, pixes, singing bredes, copes, vestments, images, altars, roodloftes, paxes, mesbokes, 
Instruments of spiritual fornication.  grails, antiphoners, processionalles, corpresses, chalices, patents, beads, banners, holy water stokes, super altars, & such like Therefore ye must burn all these, and cast the ashes of them into the water, and drink as much of them, as cometh unto your part, that is about the quantity, that I have prescribed afore. This call I the confection of Moses, because he begun first to heal men after this fashion.  
How be it lest any scripturescorner, which can abide nothing but man's learning should despise this manner of healing of sick folks, with the eating of such things destroyed as have hurt them before: ye shall know that the most excellent physicians, have made a very sovereign medicine against all venum & poison, even of the most poisoned beasts that is, even a Veper. For the venemus Veper with other certain medicines the head and tail cut of, eaten, & received both healeth them that are bitten of the Veper & of other venemus beasts, 
The vipers of England would be thus served.  & preserveth men from poisons that shallbe taken afterward. The Scorpion also, a deathbrynging best, killed, bruised, and laid to, healeth his own poisoned bytting. When he is roasted and eaten & taken into the poisoned man's body, he is a good remedy for the same poison. Diascorides, and Galenus witness this to be true that I have told you. Therefore despise not your medicine, because it is both agreeing unto the scripture, and philosophy. After that ye have drunk up this for said purgation, the next day after take as much as ye can, of the noble syrup, Letificantis Christi, use that every day once or twice, until ye be perfitly hole. The medicine called Letificans Christi, is this. The son of man is comed to save it that is lost. It is a true saying and worthy by all means to be received, 
Luce. 19 1. timo. 1.  jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. 
Mathe. 11.  Come unto me all ye that labour and are laden, and I shall refresh you. So hath God loved the world, that he hath given his only begotten son, that all that believe in him should not perish, 
joh. 3.  but have life everlasting. When ye are healed perfitly of this disease, lest ye catch it again, as a thousand in England did of late, which appeared unto all men, to be free from this disease, for the space of many years ye must avoid the company of all such, as are sick in that disease, (for it is an infective disease) and from the romish wine, 
Math. 16.  and from the leaven of the pharisees from Messes, Diriges, Litanies, Legends, and all other sacrifices and services devised by the hore of Rome. From the which except ye absent yourselves, ye can not choose but be infected again with the romish pocks, which will bring you from Christ, to everlasting death at length. Exercise your selves in reading of scripture, and in hearing of good sermons, and by the grace of God ye shall be delivered from this foul death bringing disease, and ye shall never fall into it again.   

4. Of the lepry.  
AFter that I have told remedies for the inward diseases of the nobility & gentlemen of this realm, I intend to show my counsel to them that have outward diseases, that they may be healed also. Among all outward diseases that I do perceive the nobility to be vexed withal there is none fouler, than the leper, or leprosy as some men call it. I perceive by many tokens, that very many are sick in this disease. The bodily lepre is taken divers ways, either by evil diet, or by eating or drinking, or keeping company with them, that have the bodily lepre. But the spiritual leper wherein our gentlemen are sick, is taken by accompanying with them that have the spiritual lepre. The signs of the bodily lepre, are taught in the scripture at length. Levi. 13. and also of divers noble physicians. 
Levi. 13.  But at this time I shall not need to write, any of the tokens of the lepre, that I intend to heal, for it is well enough known already. The leper that vexeth you of the nobility, is, the defamation and shame that cometh unto you by the receiving into your order, fellowship, apparel & leverye, such persons as shame you, & your hole order, and make you look as evil favoured in the sight of all wise men, as a bodily lepre defaceth and maketh evil favoured the countenance of him that hath that foul disease. There are two sorts of men, which bring this leper unto you, proud stertuppes, or self made gentlemen, 
two. kinds of stertuppes.  and lordly bishops. There are two kind of stertuppes, or self made gentlemen, neither promoted by God, nor the king, to the dignity that they take upon them. The former sort are crafty witted fellows, which have gotten under their masters much gold and silver, wherewith they have purchased much good land, and have spoiled many a good parsonage and vicarage.  
These although they have commed to their riches by deceiving of their masters, and by bribeing and poulling of their poor brethren unmercyfully, yet forgetting that they came late from the doughyl, will be taken for gentlemen, and will wear gentlemen's apparel, and such do ye allow and admyte into your company and fellowship as gentlemen, when as they are the pestilent plagues of the common wealth, and the defacers and shamers of all true nobility. The other sort of stertuppes, which are idle belly beasts, come from the dunghill as well as the other, but when as they can not otherwise come to their desired purpose, which is to be gentlemen, that is to go gaily, to do nothing, and to be had in regard, they steal & rob, dice and card, dance and sing, and flatter right gentlemen, and turn themselves into all fashions, to get wherewith, that they maintain the opinion of nobility, which they have taken upon them. These two kinds with the bastards that are neither borne to a foot of land, neither have any science nor honest occupations to get their livings with all, enter into the name fellowship, company, and clothing of gentlemen, & because the first kind, that is the rich stertuppes stealeth craftily, and the other two beggarly sorts, rob openly, and are oft times taken with robberies and are hanged, they shame and dishonour the hole nobility, and make men think that all gentlemen are nought, because there are so many that are called, and give themselves for gentlemen, and are taken for gentlemen, that are thieves robbers and ruffianes, and very pestelences of the common wealth. For the helping of this lepry that ye have taken by such: this is my counsel, that ye that are right getlemen in deed, if there be any poor bastards, of your kin, or name, if they be young, put them to the school. and hold them at it until they be either preachers, lawyers, or physicians, or if they be not fit for learning, than put them to occupations, to be merchant men, or of such like calling. If the beggarly stertuppes come to any place where as ye have any authority to examen them, inquire how they get their livings & if they can not show how they come by their  livings, them appoint them to labour, but if they will not labour, than set these with the old idle bastards, that live, upon spoiling and robbing, dicing and carding, in ships to the green land, or to other lands, not as yet well known. If they can win any thing there, let them either tarry there, or else come hime again with such riches as they have won, that they may live thereon like honest men. If they be drowned in the way, or be killed in the onsetting of any land, they shall neither shame you, nor cumber the common wealth any more. As for the ravenous rich stertuppes, me think it were best that ye followed the birds, which when they saw the vain glorious crow as Aesop telleth, bragging herself of her false nobility, 
Esop's Crow.  took each one their own feathers from her, and sent her to the dunghill again, from whence she came. When as Solomon biddeth men follow the Pisemire, and men ought therefore not to be ashamed to learn of the Pismire, 
prover. 6  so ought ye not to be ashamed to follow the birds. Nay if ye follow not the birds in some points, the birds shallbe witnesses against you in time to come. To apply this fable to the truth, ye should do well in my judgement, if ye obtained a commission of the high magistrates & went to every place of England, where as any stert●ppes and there should make a proclation, 
A proclamation  that if sir Matthew mukforke, had taken any lands or goods away from any poor man, or from any commonalty, either by subtlety, threatening or mastership, and of they could prove the same, that he should be restored unto his lands and goods again. This done, that is contained in this proclamation, we should see a great sort of bragger's, brought to shame, and confusion, and so should ye not be blamed, for the ravenous robrye of such covetous kites as will never be filled Or if this way seem to long, it were meet that ye obtained this licence of the parliament, that all dukes, earls, lords, barons, knights, and their right begotten sons, might have authority, when so ever they saw any stertup, which could not spend cc. 
●luck 〈◊〉 crow  pounds in the year, of his own truly gotten lands, wearing silk velvet or any golden chain, to carry the crow to the next market town, and there to pluck the crow, that is to cut his clothes all in pieces, and to take his chain from him, whereof the right gentleman should have the one half, and the poverty of the town the other. Elizabeth the countess of cast Freseland when she had learned surely, that a certain yomannes' wife had guarded her gown with a broad guard of velvet, she sent her officers unto the crow, and cut all her guards in pieces, and condemned her in a great sum of money, for her pride. Me think ye do very evil, to suffer every man that list to come into your livery, apparel, fellowship and order, and refuse no man what so ever he be. Sterling rooks, thoughes, and doves, with many other kinds of birds fly each kind together, and eat together, and can not well suffer that birds of other kinds, should be in their company, and either drive them away, or else fly from them. Sheep go together, swine go together, and goats go together, herrings swim together, haddokes swim together, and minds swim together, and so for the most part: all fishes birds and beasts, keep only company together with them of their own kind, & as much as lieth in them, either drive away, or fly the company of other kinds. Only the nobility of England suffer all kinds of men to come into their order, and livery, to their great shame, & sometime to the loss both of their estimation, and also of their lives and goods. The salters will receive none into their livery and company but salters, the gross, the haberdasshers, the mercers, and all other company do the like. In the Universities masters of art, and bachelors of art, will suffer none to wear the apparel belonging unto them, saving only such as are allowed, and admitted, unto those degrees & ordinances. If a man put a priests cap upon a sows head, and a tippet about her neck, and set her up against a stall in chep side, and set many round shyves of rapes before her, that she might eat them, would not all the hole order of sacrificers be angry with him that clothed the sow so? If that a man should shave an Ape in the crown, and set a mitre upon his head, and put a rached upon him, would not the bishops be miscontent with him that did so? And yet ye the noble men of England, nothing regarding in this behalf, the honesty and honour of your order, suffer hogs and dogs, crows, and kites, and all other kinds of wild beasts (as touching their conditions) to go in your apparel, and to be also continually in company with you. Do ye not suffer dicers and carders, and all kinds of unthrifts, not only to go in gentlemen's apparel, but also receive them into your houses, and there to dice and card, and to exercise such like pastimes with you? And hath not many a well borne gentleman, been brought both to shame, and to loss of his goods, and sometimes to a shameful end, by the means of such company? Ye suffer not only such vile beasts to shame your order, with their evil manners and naughty conditions and to infect you with their leper: but ye suffer a sort of false Apostles, to take your honour from you, and to be your lords, and masters, and to occupy your offices, which should belong only unto your order and dignity. Is not this as it were a certain kind of leper in your faces, to be thus defaced and shamed by these crafty foxes? There are two kinds of governores or rulers in the common wealth, or in the church of God, for in the common wealth of Christian, 
two. kinds of rulers  is the common & outward church. The one kind of governores is appointed of almighty God, to defend man's soul, from the assaults of the world of the flesh and the devil, with the preaching of God's word, to receive into the church by baptism, and to drive forth of the church by excommunication, to minister the sacraments according unto the ordinance of Christ, and to admit ministers and shepherds to their offices. These have their commission committed unto them in these words. Euntes docete omnes gentes, baptizantes eos in nomine Patris & filii & spiritui Sancti. Go and teach all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Ghost, 
Math. 28.  other commission have they none saving to excommunicate, to pray, & admit ministers to their offices whereof is mention made in divers places in the new testament. Because even in Christ's time ambition and desire of superiority, had crept into the very hearts of his apostles: and he knew that after his time, that the successores of his apostles, should also be earnestly pricked of the devil thereto: he gave an expressed commandment, that his apostles should neither be lords nor should leave the plough & look backward, to the world, & to worldly business, in these words. Vos scitis quod principes gentium dominentur eyes, 
Luce. 22.  vos autem non sic, ye know the princes of the heathen people be lords over them, and they that are great, exercise power over them but ye shall not be so. And Peter to put his masters commandment in mind, 
1. Pet. 5.  sayeth unto the Apostles and preachers thus. Ye shall not exercise lordship over the parishes, or as some texts have, against the parishes. Now these falsely named bishops (for so do I call them because they look not unto their flocks, leave their own office of preaching and ministering of the sacraments, and of sitting in judgement to see them excommunicate, that are open trespassers undone,) become ambassadors (for where is there any embassache, but a bishop must be one thereof most commonly) precedent of Wales, and of York, justices of peace, and some full lordly, sit at Sices and cessions among temporal judges, leaving their own courts, to some single sir john, or to some blind briber. Other are commed as I hear say now, to be counsellors, even in temporal matters, in great number, and one is now clom up so high, that beside that he is a knight of the garter, and a great lord, is also the high chancellor of England, and precedent of the counsel, and is above all the lords, both temporal and spiritual, of the hole counsel, and so lordly behaveth himself, that without the knowledge of the rest of the counsel he sendeth forth commissiones (as he did of late to Welles by doctor edgeworthe) and offereth pardon alone, 
Edgeworth. latimer  as he did to master Latimer, as though he were either king of England, or else had the queen and all the counsels hedes under his girdle. Ether there are gentlemen in England enough to be embassadores, presydentes of Wales and York, justices of peace, Counsellors, chancellors of England, and Presidents of the hole Counsel, or there are not. If there be not enough, it is exceeding shame for you, and for your hole order, that among so many as ye be, have not a few learned and wise men amongst you, which are able to do your duties belonging unto your dignity, but ye must, contrary to the will of God, and to the shame of the hole land, desire bishops to do your duties, and offices, to serve in temporal matters for you. If ye have enough wise and learned gentlemen, to do and execute all these above named offices, then is it shame for you to be so lither, as when ye are able to do your offices your own selves, either desire or suffer the bishops and clergy, to do your offices for you, whereby they take unto them selves, the honour and dignity dew unto the nobility & spoil you utterly of your name, same, and renown, which your fathers in times past, have with great labour, jeopardy, yea sometime with the loss of their lives, won for you. I Beware that ye spin not at home, whylse other go a warfare abroad, lest that chance unto you, that chanced unto Sardanapalus. We red both in josephus de bello judaico and also in aegisippo, that the gentlemen of the jews, were so lither and unlusty to do their offices belonging unto them, that the high priests took their offices in hand, and at last became both priests and kings, and had all the noiblitie under their girdelles, as these high priests of your time will handle you, if ye pluk them not back betime.  
The bishop of Rome after the coming of Christ, by to much suffering of the nobility at the beginning, hath so like an ivy, nay rather like a canker, crept upon the nobility, that he hath clom over all knights, lords, earls, dukes, kings, & emperores, and hath brought them in such subjection and slavery, that he maketh the best of them all kiss his feet.  
The bishops that ye have in England now, are not only of the same false opinions in religion, that the Pope is and was of, but of the same false, proud, lordly and ambitius order that the pope is of & eiusde Coruipulli, and birds of the same raven. For as the Pope contrary unto the ordinance of Christ, which was, 
Luce. 22. 1. Pet. 5.  that no one apostle should be head of the rest of his fellows, hath enhanced and set himself above all other elders and bishops. Even so have the bishops of England after the same manner, lifted up themselves above all the elders of this realm, which by the word of God have as much authority, as they have or aught to have. For the word of God in the new testament neither showeth nor maketh any difference, between an elder which is in latin, presbyter, and a bishop, which is called in latin episcopos. But your bishops, will have none to be called episcopos, but themselves, and other men will they have only to be called presbyteros. If ye saw them now how slavely and bondly they handle the rest of the clergy in their convocation house, ye would say that they were the Pope's right shapen sons. For where as there sitteth but seven or eight lyn in wearing bishops, at the table in the convocation house, if there be lx pastors and elders that are wolwerers, as long as they shall tarry in the bishops convocation house, so long must they stand there before their lords, though it be ii or iii hours, yea & that be the wether never so cold, or the men never so old or sikely, bare heeded. Is this pride to be suffered? Now may you see how they would handle you, if they could get the higher hand over you, which surely is like to come to pass, if you look not to yourselves betime.  
This is tried to be true in all ages, that where so ever the idle order of the unpreaching prelate's, can get power to their desire, they cast under them, and bring under their subjection all the nobles and all the hole layte. Beside the Pope the father of this proud order, other have subdued the layte and brought them into shameful subjection. The sacrificing priests, of the cathedral church of Mensae in Germany, won the city from the seculare magistrates, and brought all the hole city in to their subjection, as it dureth yet still unto this day. The bishop of Mensae, the bishop of Worms, and the bishop of Colen, came boldly unto Henryche the four Emperor of that name, and took his crown of his head in a castle a little from Mensae, and clearly deposed him, because as the bishops said, he had made abbots and bishops by simony, but the story telleth that this was the cause. He would not allow the Pope's doing, and therefore was thrice accursed of the Pope, and therefore the childer, could not suffer him to reign whom their father hated. The bishop canon's and prebendaries of Colon, upon a time assayed to bring all the hole city in to their bondage. For in the year of our Lord .1074. as the history sayeth. Episcopus aliquod sibi usurpavit, in urbe dominum, civium abutens officio. The bishop took unto him unlawfully certain government or lordship in the city and wrongfully occupied the office of the cytizenes', at which time it chanced that a certain citizen had a ship, which the bishop would have taken away by force, but he withstood the bishop and gathered the city on his side. The bishop perceiving that the citizens' would rise against him, made a long sermone unto the citizens, wherein he threatened gods curse, unto all those that took part with the foresaid citizen. The citizens being sore grieved with his vndiscre● sermone, at night after following altogether rose up against the bishop, and burst into the bishops palace, & slew divers there, but the bishop fled to Nuice, where as he gathered a great hood, and set suddenly upon the city, and suffered his soldiers to spoil the city, and as many as they could get, they either cut of their heads or put out their eyes, and so he brought the city into his bondage. But afterward the Coleners delivered themselves from that bondage. And in the year of our Lord .1260. the bishop went about once again to bring the city into bondage but the cytizes marked him well, and disappointed him. At length for all that two canon's had the borrow master to dinner, and when he came, the canon's bade him go into a fair chamber, 
Merke the canon's of Colons banquet.  wherein was a hungry Lion, and as soon as he was in, they clapped to the door, and let the lion do with the borrow master what he could. But the borrow master, put his left hand into the lions throat, and with the other hand, took out his dagger, and killed the lion, and within few days after he hanged, hard by the cathedral church, the two canon's. But after that rose such strife among them, and the bishop, that it could not be ended, until the citizens won their liberty with the sword. The bishop of Luke in the year of our Lord .1460. was so desirous of lordship over the city, that when he could not win the city himself, he procured Charles duke of Burgondye to besiege the city, and when the citizens saw, that they were not able to make their party good, they fell to entreat for peace, but the bishop would not hear them, & therefore suffered his cousin Charles to kill xl thousand men, and to drown xii thousand women, in the flood Mosa called the Maze. This practice hath been so common among the unpreaching prelate's of Germany, that the germans made this rhyme of their ambition and cruelness. 
The rhyme of the germans against the ambition of the clergy.  Monike nunnen und papen. Segen rotten und apen. Vliegen rupen und muse, horen cover und lose. Dardi crygen di overhandt, vorderuense stead und landt. That is, Monks, nuns and papes, goats rats & apes, flies, caterpillars, and mice, hores weveles and lice, where they get the overhand, they destroy both city and land. But what need I ferche examples far of out of strange countries, when as we have so many at home: read the practice of prelate's, and there shall ye find, what ambitius minds they bear, and how gladly they would reign over you. Call to your remembrance Thomas Wolsey the Cardinal and bishop of York, and his handling of the nobility in his time. Look now upon your lord of Winchester, your lord Chancellor, your lord Precedent of the counsel, is not he a chykken of the same cock? Let all noble me take heed of this lordly pape betime, lest some of them which can not abide his unbearable pride, have such a reward at his hands as the duke of bockinggam had, at his father wolves Wolsei his hand. The remedy against these lepers biles, scabs, scales, lumps, pocks and cancres, which disbeuty & disgrace the face of the hole nobility at this time, is to drive these idle ambitius bishops home to their bishoprics, & to cause them to preach God's word there truly, and to study your own selves night and day to get learning, and until you may be learned yourselves, to make good and honest civilianes and scripture learned common lawyers, and other learned me and no priests in the mean time to be knights and lords, counsellors, justices of peace, chancellors, and presidents of the marches, and to take your own of fices upon you, and do them, your selves. And after that ye be learned yourselves, ye may, not withstanding take as many as ye shall need unto you, of these foresaid lawyers, and learned men. But hold in no wise the bishops from their pulpits, lest the vengeance of God fall both upon you and them, Upon you, for holding of them from doing of their duty, upon them, for not doing of their duty. If ye drive these foresaid falsely named lords and gentlemen out of your order & company, and will do your offices and duties in your own persons, as almighty God would have you to do, then shall ye have just honour in this world, and in the world to come life everlasting.   

¶ The prayer of the prophet Daniel contained in the ix chapter of his book, very necessary for this troublesome time.  
We beseech the o Lord, thou great and fearful god, 
Baruch. 1.  that keepest covenant and mercy with them which love thee, & keep thy commandments. We have sinned, we have offended. We have been disobedient, & gone back: yea, we have departed from all thy precepts and judgements. We would never follow thy servants the prophets that spoke in thy name to our kings & princes, to our fathers and to all the people of the land. 
Thrano. 1.  O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee, unto us pertaineth nothing but open shame: as it is come to pass this day unto every man of juda, and to them that dwell at Jerusalem. Yea, unto all Israel, whether they be far or nigh, thorough out all lands, wherein thou strewed them, because of the offences that they had done against thee. Yea O Lord, unto us, to our kings & princes, 
Psal. 106  to our fathers, even unto us all, that have offended thee belongeth open shame. But unto thee, O Lord our God, pertaineth mercy & forgiveness. As for us, we are gone back from him, & have not obeyed the voice of the lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he laid before us, 
2. Pet. 1. Zacha. 6.  by his servants the prophets: yea all Israel have transgressed, and gone back from thy law, so that they have not hearkened unto thy voice. 
Deute. 27 Levi. 26. Baruch. 2  Wherefore the curse & oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God. (against whom we have offended) is powered upon us. And he hath performed his words which he spoke against us, & against our judges that judged us, to bring upon us such a great plague, as never was under heaven, like as it is now come to pass in Jerusalem. Yea, all this plague, as it is written in the law of Moses is come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn again from our wickedness, & to be learned in the verity. Therefore hath the Lord made haist to bring this plague upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doth: for why? 
Haruch. 2 Exo. 12.13.14.  we would not hearken unto his voice.  
And now, o Lord our God, thou that with a mighty hand haiste brought thy people out of egypt, to get thyself a name which remaineth this day: we have sinned (o Lord) & done wickedly against all thy righteousness: yet let thy wrathful displeasure be turned away (I beseech thee) from thy city of Jerusalem thy holy hill. And why? for our sins sake and for the wickedness of our fathers, is Jerusalem and thy people abhorred of all them that are about us. Now therefore, o our God, hear the prayer of thy servant and his intercession: O let thy face shine over thy sanctuary that lieth waste: for the lords sake. O my God incline thine ear and hearken (at the least for thine own sake.) Open thine eyes, behold how we be desolated. Yea, and the city also which is called after thy name, for we do not cast our prayers before the in our own righteousness, no: but only in thy great mercies: O Lord hear: O forgive Lord, O Lord consider, tarry not over long, but for thine own sake do it, O my God: for thy city and thy people is called after thy name. Amen.  
God send us peace and quietness in Christ, and destroy the works of Antechriste.   
All good people say. AMEN.  

¶ imprinted at Rome by the vatican church, by Marcus Antonius Constantius.  
Otherwise called, thraso miles gloriosus.