¶ The dying creature. woodcut representing a man in bed looking up toward Jesus Christ on the cross surrounded by people and animals, and with a devil or demon below the bed; woodcut representing a man in bed looking up toward Jesus Christ on the cross surrounded by angels and saints with halos, and with six devils or demons below the bed; a smaller figure or soul is being taken from the man's head by four winged figures INRI Confusi sum Heu infame Furore consumor Animim amisimus Spes nobis nulla ALas that ever I sinned in my life to me is come this day the dreadful tidings that ever I heard/ here hath been with, me a sergeant of arms whose name is crewelte from the king of all kings/ lord of all lords/ and judge of all judges dying on me his mace of his office saying unto me I arrest you & warn you to make you ready and that ye fail not to be ready every hour when ye be called on/ ye shall not weet when. And call sadly to your remembrance your old and long continued offences/ the goodness of god how largely he hath departed with you the gifts of nature/ the gifts of fortune & the gifts of grace/ & how he hath departed with you largely and ordained you at your baptism three sad borrows that ye should safely and surely be kept in your tender age as well from vices as fro bodily peril & ordained you a good angel to keep you and to council you if ye have be counseled by him bethink you. And when ye come to the year of discretion he ordained you three sad counselors/ reason/ dread/ and conscience if ye have be ruled by their counsel call that to your remembrance. He ordained you also .v. wits/ servants that ye should be master of & rule them after your discretion/ that is to say your feeling/ your sight/ your hearing/ your speech/ and your taste How have ye ruled these that be under your obeysasaunce me thinketh ye have moche thing to answer for for the judge that shall sit upon you he will not be partial nor he will not be corrupt with good but he will minister to you justice & equity certainly as well as this There were certain things he forbade you and the things ye should flee in any wise/ that is to were the seven deadly sins/ and all things that should provoke move or steer you thereto he bad you flee/ have ye do so/ have ye kept his commandments ten And yet that is but little thing. ¶ The lamentation of the dying creature. ALas alas excuse me I can not/ and whom I might desire to speak for me I wot not/ the day and time is so dreadful/ the judge is so rightful mine enemies be cruel my kin my neighbours my friends my servants be not favourable to me/ and also I wot well they shall not be herd there. ¶ The complaint of the dying. creature to the good angel. O My good angel to whom our lord took me to keep where be ye now me thinketh ye should be here now and answer for me for the dread of death dystroubleth me so that I can not answer for myself here is my bad angel ready and is one of my chief accusers with legions of fiends with him and I have no creature to answer for me/ alas it is an heavy case. ¶ The answer of the good angel to the dying creature. S to your bad deeds I was never consenting. I saw your natural inclination more disposed to be ruled by your bad angel than by me how be it ye can not excuse you but when ye were purposed to the any thing that was contrary to to the commaandementes of god I failed not to remember you that it was not well and counseled you to flee the places of peril and the company that should steer or move you there to can ye say nay hereto/ how can ye think that I could answer for you. ¶ The complaint of the dying creature to reason dread and conscience. O Ye reason dread and conscience ye were assigned to be of my counsel now come I require you & help me to answer for me for my defaults be so many and so abominable in the sight of him that shall be my judge and my accusers be so many & so unfrendly that they leave not one default behind. Now come I require you & help to answer for me for it was never so great need. The fere and the dread that I am in dystroubleth me so that one word I can not speak for myself. Alas that ever I saw this day. ¶ The answer of reason. BE ye remembered that our lord ordained you a good angel and a bad angel/ & he ordained you reason & discretion to know the good from the ill & he commanded you to do good & leave the evil/ he put you in free choice whether ye would do well or evil ye ought to call to your remembrance how well god hath done for you & helped you in every danger & peril he would have been loved dread & served according to the manifold graces and kyndenesses that he hath showed unto you how to answer for you I wot not loath I am to accuse you/ and excuse you I can not. ¶ The complaint of the dying creature to dread saying thus. A dread where be ye is there no help and succour with you to speak for me when I shall come to my judgement. ¶ The answer of dread. NO certainly for when ye where set in pleasance & delectation of the world reason put put in your mind that ye died not well/ and I dread was with you at all times and in every place and failed not to speak unto you and to put you in mind of the same of this world and dread of damnation and of the peril that would follow as well here as else where rehearsing unto you the punishments that our lord ordained for sin saying unto you. See ye not how graciously our lord hath called you from sin & wretchedness if ye would understand it/ how hath he long kept you in worship estate and in prosperity and could not know the goodness of god/ how hath he chastised you and how oft by loss of your children/ loss of your kin and friends/ loss of your goods and loss of all though things that ye could not be pleased with and set you in the indignation of the great high and mighty prince and help you out of the dangers and perils that ye have been in at all times/ and yet have ye not loved him dread him and served him that in all these perils hath preserved and kept you and hath been so gracious and good lord to you who should speak for you. I/ nay certainly. ¶ The complaint of the dying creature to conscience saying thus. ALas conscience is there no help with you I have herd say long ago the world was to cursed/ but I would hope that conscience would have compassion of my distress and moche the more that I am friendless. ¶ The answer of conscience to the dying creature. I Am sorry to accuse you and excuse you I can not for conscience and dread have been but seldom from you and called upon you in every time & place of peril & bade you flee that occasions of sin ye might have fled at that time and would not/ now ye would fleedeth and can not/ we should speak for you & dare not & though we would it availeth not ye must sorrowfully and meekly suffer that judgements that ye have deserved ¶ The complaint of the dying creature, to the five wits. O Ye five that were ordained to be my servants & under mine obeisance & to have be ruled at all times as I would have you/ is there no good word that ye may afford to say for me and record my demeaning to you & report of me how I have ruled and governed you that were take me to keep rule & govern me thinketh ye should say for me now/ who might so well say for me as ye five/ ye have been with me continually ever sith that I was borne night and day and never at no time from me thinketh of your kindness ye should have compassion upon me and say the best that ye could say for me. I have been friendly to you and brought you in every place of pleasance and speak to faith and hope for me that they would charitably do my message unto the most glorious prince that ever was is or shallbe ¶ The answer of the five wits. Certainly we marvel that ye would desire us to speak for you understanding these worship full people have denied and refused to speak for you your good angel reason dread and conscience/ how should we be herd or what credence will be given unto us that have been your servants and under your obeisance and no thing at all times but as ye have commanded us to do call to your remembrance how ye have ruled us rive/ sight/ hearing/ feeling and thought ye have at all times brought us in places of pleasance & disport/ & though it were disport and pleasance/ for the time it is now sorrow weeping and wailing for your sake that we can not excuse you nor no thing say for you that might be to your weal or to your eel for we have been privy & partners to all that hath been misdone in any wise and in every place and your offentes in every thing is in your default for and ye had sadly ruled us and like a sovereign ye should have restrained in us every vice for we should have be ruled by you in every thing/ & other wise than ye would have us do we would not do therefore of necessity your defaults must be laid upon you for we have do as servants should do & obeyed you in every thing & disobeyed you in no thing/ wherefore of right the peril must be yours what credence will ye give to us than if we should say well of you the people would say, that we were false dissymulours & favourers of sin. ¶ The lamentation of the dying creature. ALas there is no creature that I can complain me to but utterly refuseth to say any thing that might be to my comfort. ¶ The complaint of the dying creature to faith & hope. O Holy faith & hope in you is all my trust for how grievously and how mischievously that ever I offended god you disposed I never. I have always believed as the chryche of christendom hath taught me and specially is of the most holy incarnation I was never in thought. I have believed in the blessed and most glorious trinity father son and holy ghost I have believed that the second person of the trinity descended in to the bosom of the most glorious and pure chaste meek virgin that ever was is or shall be and meddled his very godhead with her pure chaste virginity & maydenheed and in her bosom was perfectly very god and man conceived by the great mystery of the holy ghost without knowledge or company of any earthly man and she a pure chaste virgin flowering in virginity and by hearing of the holy archangel Gabryell which brought uncame to man kind. Now holy Faith take with you hope & ye twain of your perfit charity be my advocates in the high court/ and refuse me not nor disdain me not for mine horrible and abominable sins that I have done/ which asked vengeance in this world/ and damnation eternal without the mercies of him which is almighty/ what mean might I have thereto. I pray you counsel me for ye know well that my reason never discorded with the faith/ and as to you Hope I hope all ways that ye will say for me that I have always hoped to the mercies of god almighty and that I should be one of the children of salvation and one of though that should be redeemed by the precious and bitter painful passion as other sinners have be and certainly other plea nor resistance I can not make. But and ye twain would be a mean for me to that most glorious and pure chaste virgin that chosen was by one assent of all the hole glorious trinity to do the most glorious and worshipful act that ever was done for her chastity her pure virginity her meekness her virtue and her constance was cause that she was chosen by all the hole glorious trinity to be daughter mother and spouse to the most glorious trinity and that the should bear him that should redeem all mankind from damnation who may so well be advocatrice to the father the son and the holy ghost as she and ye will be mean to her son for me I hope she will not refuse me/ for I understand and know well that she hath holp many a sinner that hath right grievously offended and in the holy psalm that was made between her and her cousin saint Elyzabeth it was said that all generations should bliss her. I hope at the beginning of the world our lord put not me out of his number of though that should bliss his most holy mother and record her mercy pity and grace that she showed to sinners when they have none other succour ne help. She is mother of orphans/ and she is consolation of them that been desolate she is guide to all that be out of the way to set them in the right way. I am an orphan I am desolate. I am out of the way I wot not where to cry and call after succour and help but only to her that bore our redemptor who may so well be mean to the son as the mother. And ye twain Faith and Hope would be mean to the mother of mercy for me. Now gracious Faith and Hope do your part and disdain not my request though I desire you to this occupation/ so, and ye twain would deny to say for me I think I shall fall in despair for on whom to call after succour I wot not/ and to put myself in prees as a poor naked be'st unclothed of virtue and repleted with vices naked of grace and in mine own default and to come to the presence of the king of all kings and unpurveyed of all things that would accord with his most rial and Imperial estate I dare not take it upon me I should be in such dread and fere I should not con ne dare not speak for myself for I have prayed my good angel to speak for me and he hath denied it. I have called upon Reason dread and Conscyens and they have answered me full heavily that they be loath to accuse me and excuse me they can not/ and allegeth many a great reasonable cause why that I can not say nay to. I have called upon my servants which were take me to rule and govern as I would answer for them/ and they answer me right sorrowfully and say if they should say any good word for me they should not say troth of me and casteth to me that peril that no body would give credence unto them if they would say well on me but call them. flatterers falls dyssymulours and flatterers of sin. Alas alas I have heavily dispended my long life that in all this long time I have not purchased me one friend to speak for me. Had our lord of his most ample grace ordained me immediately after my christendom to have died forth with I might say I had be borne in a gracious hour. But would it please your goodness to speak for me and understand whether I shall have hardiness to make a bill to the blessed lady and most holy virgin that ever was and she that disdaineth not nor denieth not sinful sinners when they call after grace. notwithstanding her chastity and her pure virginity excelleth all other virgins. Now good go your way & let me weet how I shall speed for all this time I live in such dread and fere that me were better die anon than live any longer in the dread that I am in. And also I have so great dread and fere of the rightwiseness of almighty god that I am almost deed for fere. for reason dread and conscience said to me full shortly that the high judge should not be partial nor he would not be corrupt with good but he will minister to me justice certainly but and he attaineth to minister to me justice without favour I will appeal to his mercies certainly for other remedy is there none pard. Origene our blessed lady help Thyophyle & sir Emery how should they have done ne the mother of mercy had been and many another sinner that her grace hath holp. She is queen of heaven lady of the world and empress of hell/ and saying to her son christ jesus hath died and suffered so tourmentous a death and in her own sight to her great succour and motherly compassion I hope she would be loath that the eke precious passion should be lost in any creature that her blessed son suffered so patiently. ¶ The answer of faith & hope to the dying creature. Have ye none acquaintance with our brother charity we marvel that ye have not spoken of him in all this time/ for and ye were Joined with us twain your message should be the more acceptably heard manifold. ¶ The lamentable complaint of the dying creature to faith hope and charity. Certainly I have but little dealed with him I was never conversant with him & that me repenteth now for I feel by you twain that he may do moche in the high court I have more dealed with vengeance than I have with charity/ for I would have been avenged upon every man by my will when the people had slain my children my kin my friends & rob & spoiled myself certainly I would have been a wroke right fain and I had had power to my will but though my power were little certainly I have hated them and willed them to have been done to as they have done to me/ and well I wot that is not the order of charity But now I heartily cry god mercy our blessed lady & you holy charity of the that mine enemies here afore god our blessed lady & you three I forgive them all that they have done against me/ & will not be avenged though I might. And I pray you holy charity though it were long or I were aqueynted with you be not the loather to do for me I sore repent me that I have thus unreasonably & unwyttyngely absented me from you & heartily I cry you mercy/ & pray you of your charity to put out of your mind my presumptuous folly for certainly I shall never do so more again but in every thing that I have to do I shall desire your favour succour and your counsel and I utterly deny and desire vengeance and never to deal with him no more how somever I be done to but take it in patience and think as me ought of right that worse than I have been done to I have deserved to be done to/ but that is not the world/ for him have I served and pleased and disposed almighty god that is maker of all thing and his holy begotten son that conceived was of the holy ghost and borne was of a pure chaste virgin and died for our redemption when I have grievously offended and broken his commandments in all thing knowing that I died not well wherefore my peril is the more. Nor I have not called after yn blessed holy ghost grace's mercy succour and her help when I have been in places of peril of deadly sin. Nor I have not called upon that most holy pure chaste and most excellent virgin and I have be sought her of grace and she turned her visage from me not for lack of faith but for me though that her most excellent charity and chastity must of very right abhor my sins and all thing that I pleased the world with I know well that I disposed him that redeemed me with his precious passion. And this I wot well deserveth a great punysshemente than I have it suffered and there as me lacked suffycyaunce and boldness to come in the presence of them that I have so grievously offended/ will it please your goodness Faith Hope and charity chartable to go and steer and be mean for me to the mother of mercy and pity that she would go for me to the glorious trinity and take you three with her/ for weal I wot the glorious trinity will nothing deny that she desireth they understand her perfit charity such that every creature that calleth after grace she hath pity upon them have they never so grievously offended. I should fall in despair & I had not perfit trust in her grace mercy & pity. And so I have great cause for to have brought my jolly soul in to great bondage and in such adversity without remedy that it passeth my power to ease him or help him nor the great special trust that I have in that most blessed good lady and in you holy Faith Hope and charity. ¶ How the sorrowful soul complaineth him to the dying creature saying thus. HOw nigh haste thou done with thy master the world/ how nigh be ye twain departed understandest thou not how unsure he is/ and at thy most need will fail thee/ haste thou not sith afore this time in the times of thy great adversities and troubles/ what hath he eased or proufyted the. Certain but little or enough/ for and he have flattered or dissimuled with the one day or one hour he hath lowered and grudged with the more than an hole year therefore. Haste thou not understand him afore in all this time/ but hanged upon him all ways as long as thou mightest/ and yet more longer wouldst thou if that thou mightest/ but now the season and time is come that he will depart and go from thee/ and what distress that ever thou art in little will he favour succour or help thee/ such as thou thinkest be thy friends will show the a feigned favour till they know the certain of thy riches and if thou have good they will cherish and favour the for the season/ and complain and wail thy death. And yet they would full fain thou were ago & be right glad with thy death and when time thine eyen be closed/ thy hearing ago thy speech withdrawn & may not speak/ than shalt thou see what thy master the world will do for thee/ seek thy coffers he will & every corner by the way of likelihood that any good is in/ and little will they depart with to the than/ & little compassion will they have upon thy poor soul/ and they find little or nought in thy coffers what will they say/ thou thou than they will say thou were a fool a waster thou couldst not keep/ thou spendest more than thou hadst/ thus will they say by thee/ & though they find moche thou shalt have but little thereof & far but little the better/ and if they find but little they will grudge with the & say the never a good word/ think thereon by times & be thine own friend/ for and thou can not love thyself who will love thee/ canst thou love any creature better than thyself/ & if thou do so in faith thou art not wise/ remember what I say now/ for thou shalt find this true every word/ and though I speak thus grievously & straightly unto the marvel not for it. I am that shall abide suffer and endure the pains for thy defences. Alas that ever I was coupled with thee/ & so have I cause to say/ for I shall be punished without favour for thy deeds/ how hastily how soon I can not say. ¶ How unadvisedly and how unredyly thou purueyest for me I wot never how should any other creature have compassion upon me when thou haste not that sight that thou were first formed a creature I have always be with the and never from the and in the age of thine Inndcencye was keep full virtuously to my great comfort. And in thy middle age was kept full viciously and sinfully to my great sorrow/ and in thine old age little or nought remembered thy wretched living. Alas Alas Alas that ever thou & I were coupled together for the season hasteth fast that I must go to pains for thy misrule and endure pain whether it be eternal or for a long season I wot not what remedy thy worldly friends will find to ease me. I am in great dread I trow they will have but little compassion on me that am thy poor soul/ but give there attendance for to bury the richly and worshipfully and make thy houses cleanly and to make thy purse empty and little compassion or remembrance will they have upon the and me certainly but let me bren eternally but if the mercies of him that is almighty by the means of his most holy mother that pure chaste maiden that helpeth every sinner that calleth after grace when there is none other remedy. Now farewell body thou shalt to earth and lie and rot and worms shall eat the and I shall to pains long or else eternally mercy blessed lady that bare christ Ihesu our redemptor for in none other help I assure me. ¶ The lamentable lamentation of the dying body to the soul. ALas silly soul the torments and the pains of mynne offences shall ye suffer I am so sorry there can no tongue tell the sorrow that I endure that have brought you in such bondage peril danger & hduersyte without remedy nor the high and mighty mercies of almighty god whose mercies can not be had but by the means of his blessed holy mother and if she that is so chaste so pure and so holy would abhomyne the abomination of our sins what shall I do. I have desired faith hope & charity to be my advocates to her that bore our lord Ihesu christ. And when I am answered again such answer as I have I shall let you weet. ¶ How the dying creature complained him to faith hope and charity saying thus. O Ye holy faith hope & charity where have ye been so long I have lived in great dread how have ye sped have ye been with the queen of heaven lady of the world and empress of hell that most glorious pure and chaste virgin that bare the son of god that should redeem all mankind/ how will her chastity her pure virginity receive me that am a sinner and suffer me to come to her presence and put a supplication to her most glorious high and excellent prince that I have so grievously offended her blessed son & her/ will she not abhor ne disdain too look on me that am of all sinners the most horrible and abhomy most abundant grace find a mean how to make a sight/ but I have herd say of old antyqueyte that she is so merciable and so gracious so sinners when they call after grace and have helped so many sinners that of right must have perished ne her grace had be. But what comfort ye have of her most abundant grace I pray you let me were/ for certainly I live in great despair/ for here hath be with me sithen that ye went my soul & complained that he must perish eternally in my default and crieth and waileth the time that ever he was coupled with such an ungracious body that so hath ruled him/ & I can not give him no comfort without you three. ¶ The answer of faith hope and charity to the dying creature. ME seemeth faith hope & charity have done your message and fond that princes full graciously disposed and saith that she remembreth well how the glorious trinity chose of one assent to be medyatryx & mean between god and man and that her great worship and joy was caused for our redemption which she can not put in oblivion/ and also the great sorrows not one but many that she had at her sons passion and saw her blessed and best beloved child die so tourmentously for the redemption of sinners and he guiltless himself in every thing but of his great and most ample grace mercy and charity that he showed unto all sinners and so precious so glorious and so tender was never man as he was for he was the very pure/ and godhead meddled with her pure cast virginity and maidenhead and in her precious body made his holy habitation nine months and in her soul eternally. And when she understood the prophecy of her great meekness desired that she might be one of those and simplest servant to her that should bear the son of god and him that should redeem all mankind & her great meekness thought herself not worthy to that most holy occupation. And therefore be of good cheer for we faith hope and charity will bring you there and not leave you till ye be answered and sith ye have put your special trust in us to be your advocates and laid apart all temporal and wordly trust we three will not fail you/ and therefore put your soul in comfort/ and arm you with the armure of a sure and a hole confession with a sorrowful contrition purposing to do very satisfaction and out of doubt/ we hope ye shall speed right well if it be in your heart as ye speak with your mouth and else trust not to our friendship in no wise but go and labour your supplication as effectually as ye can devise and be out of all despair for we faith hope & charity will not leave you for the trust that ye have always had in us. ¶ How the dying creature calleth after the soul again. WHere be ye dear soul that was with me but late complaining that ye must to pain for a long while or else eternally and in my default and without remedy I have been in such dread sorrow trouble and fere for you that no thing could comfort me till Faith and Hope came to me and asked me if that I were not acquainted with charity. And I have answered them seemly that I was never acquainted ne conversant with him & that me repenceth sore/ now faith and hope have brought me with him and I have humbly and lowly submitted me to him and lowly cried him mercy of my presumpcyous folly promising that I will never offend him more denying all such as be his enemies and as he loveth not vengeance/ hatred/ and cruelty and promised him faithfully that I will never deal with them more and I hope he hath pardoned me/ and hath be in the company of Faith and hope to the mother of mercy for me & brought me a right gracious answer again. That she can not put in oblivion the great joy worship and comfort that she had of the son of god for the redemption of us sinners/ nor the maidenly and motherly compassion that she suffered for him in the times of his most precious painful and bitter passion and that I shall have hardiness to come to the presence of that most royal and imperial princes and put a supplication to her/ and therefore be of good cheer and suffer your pains patiently for though it be long I hope it shall not be eternally and good dear soul while ye and I be together or that we depart purvey in your wisdom some remedy what can be do to your ease and I will be right agreeable thereto/ for when we twain ones be divided and departed few or none would have compassion in your pain. See ye not how the world lowreth upon us now every day and is ready to depart from us every day for little thing or nought & less would they do for us and we twain were departed Therefore dear soul the remedies that may be found thorough your wisdom I pray you find them and I shall be right fain to execute them/ for I am at this hour as sorry as is possible any wretch to be that I have brought you in the peril of danger that ye be in and as fain would be to do that should ease you and gladder than ever I was to do any thing that hath hurt you. ¶ How the dying creature putteth his supplication to the mother of mercy Mary replete with grace princes of ruth/ mercy & pity to whom all sinners resorteth when they be succourless. meekly beseecheth and sorrowfully complaineth your dreadful supplyaunt that all my long life unto my eldest age have lived and not obeyed the commandments of almighty god in no thing but mysuesd my life in all the seven deadly sins/ and sinfully and simply have occupied my five wits and set aside all virtues and used and occupied all vices and served the devil the world and the flesh having very knowledge both of good and evil and know well that that peased them despised disposed almighty god. I spared not to displease god but I dread to displease them and now hath a sergeant of arms be with me and laid upon me the mace of his office cruelly and hath commanded me to make me ready every hour for I shall not weet when I shall be called to my judgement the certain of death he hath brought me in to the grievous infirmity that none earthly medicine can cure me mine enemies be so great in multitude and have overcome me & all my defaults brought with them. And I wot well they will accuse me my worldy friends hath for sake me I have cried and called after them to answer for me and they have answered me right straightly and unfrendly that they neither dare ne can ne will not answer for me nor excuse me And shortly they be departed away from my good angel first reason dread and conscience and my five wits hasteth them fast from me ward and leaveth me destitute and all one/ and where to have succour ne help I wot not but as it fortuneth me in good time may I say I met me with Faith Hope and charity and they have promised me that they will speak to your most excellent benign grace and mercy for me and so I trust they have/ for certain of your most pure chaste virginity and unwemmed maidenhead I was never in thought. And I have hoped & trusted to your mercies alway I have herd say that ye be mother of orphans and I iwis I am a very orphan fatherless and motherless/ ne be dyssolat comfort and succour to all though that be destitute desolate and soceurles I iwis lady that am I. for I have neither succour help nor comfort of no creature but only the trust that I have in your benign grace ye be guide unto them that be out of the way and seek the means for to come in to the right way. A blessed lady I have be so long out of the way that I fere and dread for too call to you for grace/ but as Faith Hope and charity have put me in comfort how loath ye be to see your blessed sons precious and bitter passion lost in my creature and they have given me hardiness for to call upon your most noble and benign grace. And so good blessed lady with humble dreadful & sorrowful heart & mind I beseech your most benign grace mercy and pity to set me in the tight way of salvation and make me one of the partners of your blessed sons precious passion & of your maidenly & motherly compassions & as ye became borrow for Mary Egyptyan to your blessed son. So good lady be my borrow that I shall never from hens forth wilfully offend your blessed son nor you but sore repent that ever I saw/ heard or died any things that hath disposed your blessed son or you being in will never to return to sin and wretchedness again but rather to die than wilfully to do any thing that should displease my lord christ Ihesu or you. Now princes excellent & excelling of might & worthiness all creatures as in dignity my heart lady my worldly chief goods pray your son to have mercy upon me sith in all my greatest mischief to your grace I flee I can no farther refute to find any consolation/ & sith my hope and trust is onnely set in you be ye my refuge now in this great tribulation cover my sinful soul with the mantle of your mercies and set your sons precious passion between me & eternal damnation. ¶ The supplication of our lady to our lord Ihesu her son for the seek creature. O Ihesu my lord my god most blessed son in whom is all plenty of grace & of unthoughted mercy to & for all sinners that in steadfast faith and assured hope devoutly call unto you for help and grace & humbly beseeching mercy & forgiveness of their myssawtes and offences to you I come as a solyciter and a besecher for this seek creature which with humble and sorrowful and a contrite heart sueth continually for your grace and pardon that it might like you to in clyne you of your unity pity to his requests and complaints and graciously to consider his needs and causes he is sore abashed and discomfited in himself & as who saith utterly confounded considering his grievous & deep sins by the which he hath provoked your wrath and indignation by the which also he is sore encumbered and standeth in great danger of his enemy & namely he feareth him of your dreadful judgement for well he woteth if ye do him justice he is but lost forever/ yet for all this he dyspayreth not of your mercy for he is in good opinion and trusteth to rejoice your pardon and to be reconciled to grace whereupon he sueth continually unto you as he may and dare/ for he knoweth himself so deeply charged in sin and so far elonged from grace by sin that he thinketh himself unworthy to approach to offer his own prayer/ therefore he sueth by means and specially by me to whom he calleth inportunely with piteous & wailing voice & seeketh not but continueth in sobbing & weeping so lamentably that my heart erneth to here/ and certes I can not me no longer contain but to instant his prayers and to put me in your grace for him for he calleth me the mother of mercy for encheason that I bore you which be the very fountains and wells of mercy and have it of unseverall property to be merciable to all sinners/ & for this he challengeth me in manner as though I should owe of duty to enterparte my labours and prayers in this behalf with him and for him/ and to sue for the hasty speed of his reconciliation and that he letteth not to put me in mind that I was ordained of god to be mean between him and man/ & certes I allow well his mind therein/ for true it is that I ought so to be that like wise that ye my dear lord and son descended from heaven to earth by me and become partner of man's nature by me. So all sinners that be not in estate of grace should be reconciled and restored to grace by me and be made partners of your joy by me. ¶ This is well signified in the figure of aarons road which bore a flower miraculously as scripture witnesseth. The which road signifieth me like as the flower betokeneth you/ for as a road groweth directly upward and is the straight mean between the road and the flower/ and he that will clyne together the flower must ascend by the road or else bow the road & cause the flower to stoop/ so he that willeth to rise from sin must rise by me/ and he that will acclyne your grace and rejoice your pardon must bow me by prayer that I may cause you to stoop that is to say too incline to here prayer and requests and to let descend your beams of grace to them. ¶ Lo thus my deer son and lord it is open and evident that I am ordained to reconcile man and that/ it is in manner my duty and office so to do/ wherefore sith this seek creature thus continually and unfatygably crieth to me with piteous and doleful complaint and requireth me so straightly that I can not seas to put me in endure for him and enterparte my labours with him for him/ and certes it is not only for his inportune suit and prayer but also for other considerations reasonable & chartable that moveth me to tender & instant his causes/ one is that he is allied to me right nigh by spiritual cognation for both we have one father that is god which is your father by creation and one mother the church which is our mother by regeneration thus is he my brother & I his sister and now my lord me seemeth right unfitting me being a queen to see my brother a prisoner I at liberty and he in thraldom. I in bliss and he in torment/ wherefore I am constrained as who saith by nature to sue for his delivering and reconciling and this is one of the considerations that reasonably moveth me to sue for his pardon. ¶ The second consideration. ANother is that sith it liked you of your great bounty and inestimable charity for the reconsiling of man to take of me your handmaiden flesh & blood and bone and the said flesh and blood to offer in sacrifice for redemption of me and this and all other whom it hath and shall like you to call to your faith me seemeth I ought not/ for as moche as in me lieth to see that thing myscarye which you have so preciously redeemed and bought as dearly as ye bought me & with the same flesh and blood that ye took of me your humble creature and handmaiden. ¶ The third consideration. ANother is this I and every your other creatures before your party bowed to sue means to honour to worship to glorify you in that we can or may/ but so it is that in justyfyenge of this sinner great honour and glory shall be to you and to your saints for your scripture saith. Gaudium est angelis dei super uno peccatore penitentiam agenti. That is to say joy and gladness is to your angels the conversion of one sinner contrite and penitent and in another place your scripture saith. Magis gaudium est super peccatore penitentiam agenti quam super nonaginta noven justis. ¶ That is to say and to signify that more joy and honour is to god in reconciling a sinner that is in full and assured purpose to persever in grace than in great multitude of other rightwise that never offended. ¶ Wherefore my lord as I am bound to honour and glorify you so am I bound in manner to make instance for reconciling of this your creature in the which thing ye shall be greatly honoured and glorified and these be the things that moveth me to instance and solycyte his causes and to submit me for him. ¶ The fourth consideration furthermore I see in him great ability and likelihood to see that creature that may serve you honour and glorify you for he entirely disposed with himself that he hath so grievously sinned and offended your grace and he is right heavy and contrite therefore and he remembreth him many scythes of his old sins not as delighting ne having pleasure in them but to his shame and great remorse and he hath them in perfit hatred in so much that he would not offend again in the least of them for all the world he hath fastened his intent and purpose to be here after all of other demeaning through your help and grace and he will gladly do penance for that he hath trespassed and he lowly submitteth himself to the correction of your church and wilfully assenteth to pay the finance and suffer the penance attaxed by your church and to do satisfaction as is for his frailty possible. And where as he saith himself not of ability ne power to do satisfaction as him oweth in that behalf he putteth himself holy in your grace and remitteth him to your great mercy and to the merit of your passion which countervaileth and prevaileth all the penance and satisfaction that might be possible for to be done by all the world from Adam till to the last creature that shall be borne. ¶ And he piteously crieth to me and beseecheth me to interpose my merits between your judgement and him and to offer in sacrifice for him the sobbing and sighings the sorrowful and lamentable tears that I wept for you in your tender age and childhood when simeon prophesied to me your passion/ and when I had lost you in Iherusalem and the sorrows that I suffered for you in time of your painful and grievous passion when the sword of sorrow perished my heart. And certes I am right well content and glad so to do. And I beseech you so to accept my merits for his/ as he goodly desireth and to set my sorrows and tears of pity in place of his penance and contrition. ¶ Forther more it might like you to consider the great labour and business of Faith Hope and charity and namely for charity which sueth for him continually and never is idle but busy to labour for him/ and she cleaveth and called for me for him incessantly to see the expection of his causes/ and she undertaketh for his aberinge and well ye wot that her desire & prayer may not be void ne frustrate but she must be graciously heard in all her goodly requests and desires. She hath also received faith and hope on her party for this seek creature and hath professed to keep your faith inviolably and hope hath put him in full assurance of your mercy/ for though it so be that he see not in himself whereof he may trust to rejoice your pardon/ yet she showeth him that in you is so great promptues of mercy and continual custom that you be wont and used alway to forgive and have of natural property for to be mercy able to all sinners that it maketh him bold to fasten the anchor of his hope in you and trusteth finally to make a viage in the port of your mercy. ¶ The conclusion of our ladies supplication. NOw my lord sith all the good abylytes and dispositions unto grace be in this creature by your sufferance/ there is no more to do but shalt ye let descend your grace to the vessel so disposed and that you vouchsafe to suffer him rejoice your pardon and reconcile him to your church and make him a member thereof the sooner and spedlyer for this my prayer and request. I you beseech my most dear lord and son who me it hath liked you all way to here graciously and never suffer to depart boteles of petition for which be to you and to your most honourable and dread father with the holy ghost your equal peer everlasling joyi honour and glory Amen. ¶ Her endeth a little treatise of the dying creature imprinted at London in Fleetstreet at the sign of the son by Wynkyn de word. Anno dni. M. CCCCC.xiiii. woodcut representing a man in bed looking up toward Jesus Christ on the cross surrounded by people and animals, and with a devil or demon below the bed; bordered printer's device of a shield with the mark of Robert Copland, suspended from a tree and supported by a stag and a hind (McKerrow 36) ¶ Melius est nomen bonum quam diuitie multe. Prou. xxii. ROBERT COPLAND