AN ORDER OF PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING, FOR the preservation of the Queen's majesties life and salfetie: to be used of the Preachers and Ministers of the Diocese of Winchester.  
With a short extract of William Parries voluntary confession, written with his own hand.  
Imprinted at London by Ralph Newberie.   

The Direction how to use this Order  
FIRST, where any Preacher is, the next Sunday after the receiving of this order, he shall make a Sermon of the authority and Majesty of Princes, according to the word of God, and how straight duty of obedience is required of all good and Christian subjects, and what a grievous and heinous thing it is both before God and man traitorously to seek their destruction, and the shedding of their blood, which are the Anointed of God, set up by him to be the Ministers of his justice and mercy to his people. In the end of which Sermon, he shall set forth and declare the brief notes of the confession of the wicked purpose conceived of late by Doctor Parry, to have murdered the Queen's Majesty, animated thereunto by the Pope and his Cardinals, as you may see it set down here following. Last of all he shall say the prayer here prescribed for that purpose, and desire the people to lift up their hearts to God together with him. After the prayer, there shall be song or said the xxj. Psalm, or some other Psalm to the like effect.   

❧ A SHORT EXTRACT OF A VOLUNTARY CONfession, made by William Parrie, written with his own hand, the _____ of February. 1584.  
WILLIAM Parrie Doctor of Law, carrying an offensive mind against the state, by reason of his conviction, in a trial of life & death at Newgate, for the attempting of the murdering of one Hugh Hare, for the which notwithstanding he received her majesties most gracious pardon, and thereupon departing the Realm, in the year 1582. for that he conceived no hope of advancement here, because he was in his own opinion a pretended Catholic, and had not in 22. years received the Communion. At his being in the parts beyond the seas, having first reconciled himself to the Church of Rome at Paris, and then at Milan, conceaud with himself a mean (as he pretended) to relieve the Catholics of this Realm, which was by killing of the Queen's Majesty.  
And nothing stayed him in this concept, but only to be assured in conscience, that it was lawful and meritorious, and before the execution thereof to receive absolution from the Pope. For his assurance, or rather settling of his conscience herein, he received full satisfaction, first from an old jesuit in Venice: next from the Pope's Ambassador, resident there, then from other good fathers (as he termeth them) in Lions and Paris, and lastly was encouraged to proceed therein by the Nuntio to the Pope, resident at Paris, who promised him, after he assented to that wicked enterprise, to recommend him to the altar, and also to procure the like to be done generally through Paris, which was accordingly performed in general terms, by Recommending of one that had taken upon him to do some dangerous enterprise, tending greatly to the advancement of the Catholic religion. The said Nuntio did also convey the said Parries letters directed to the Pope, and to the Cardinal by the which he did signify to them his full resolution to proceed in his enterprise, & for his better success in the same, prayed his benediction Apostolical, whereunto answer was made by letters written in Rome by the Cardinal dated the last of januarie, which he received from him when the Court lay at Greenwich, in March last.  
The tenor of those letters was a commendation of his enterprise, an allowance thereof, an absolution in his holiness name of all his sins, and a request to go forward in it, in the name of God.  
Which letters confirmed his resolution to kill her Majesty, and made it clear in his conscience, that it was lawful and meritorious, as he setteth down in his said confession. Whereupon he insinuated himself into the Court, and by ways & means sought to win credit, etc. to the intent to bring his wicked purpose to pass. Which at sundry times he had done, had not the gracious providence of God, by strange means, interrupted his purpose.   

A Prayer for the Queen.  
O Eternal God and merciful Father, with humble hearts we confess that we are not able, either by tongue to utter, or in mind to conceive, the exceeding measure of thine infinite goodness and mercy towards us wretched sinners, and towards this our noble Realm and natural country. Not many years since, when for our unthankful receiving of the heavenly light and truth of thy Gospel, we were justly cast into thraldom and misery, and thrust again under the kingdom of darkness, so that our consciences lay groaning under the heavy burdens of error, superstition, and idolatry, even then, even then O Lord, thou diddest vouchsafe of thy great goodness, not only without our desert, but far beyond our hope & expectation, to preserve for us thy faithful servant our gracious prince and Sovereign Queen Elisabeth, and to save her from the jaws of the cruel Tigers, that then sought to suck her blood and to work to us perpetual tyranny, and bondage of conscience. This thou didst, O gracious Lord undoubtedly, that she might be to this thy church of England, a sweet and tender nurse, and that this realm under her happy government, might be a blessed Sanctuary, and place of refuge for thy poor afflicted Saints, in these dangerous days persecuted and troubled in many countries for the profession of thy Gospel: yea, and that this our benefit, and their comfort might be the more assured, thy divine providence from time to time hath many ways mightily and miraculously preserved and kept her from the craiftie, cruel and traitorous devices of her bloody adversaries, and the deadly enemies of thy Gospel, which with barbarous cruelty have sought to extinguish the light thereof, by shedding her majesties most innocent blood: but this thy gracious goodness & mighty providence, never so apparently showed itself, at any one time, as even within these few days, when a traitorous subject, never injured or grieved by her, but sundry times helped, relieved, and countenanced far above his state and worthiness had of long time retained a wicked and devilish purpose, and often sought occasion and opportunity to lay violent hands upon her royal person, and to have murdered her. But still the vigilant eye of thy blessed providence did either prevent him by some sudden interruption of his endeavour, or by the Majesty of her person and princely behaviour towards him, didst strike him so abashed: that he could not perform his conceived bloody purpose. And at the last this wretched villainy was by thy means disclosed, and his own tongue opened to confess his detestable and wicked intent. For this thy inestimable goodness towards us (O heavenly Father) with humble hearts and minds we thank thee: and bless thy name for ever and ever. For assuredly if thou hadst not been now on our side (as the Prophet David saith) the whole floods and waves of wickedness had overwhelmed us, and we had been sunk into the bottomless pit of infinite and unspeakable miseries. We beseech thee therefore (O Lord) that thou wilt bless us so with thy grace, that we may be rightly and truly thankful to thee: that is, not in word only, but in deed also, daily studying to frame our lives according to the direction of thy holy word, which thou hast sent among us: And that her Majesty thus feeling the mighty hand of thy providence fight for her salfetie, may more boldly and constantly with an heroical spirit stand in the protection & defence of thy blessed Church, which by thy word thou hast planted among us. And lastly that the cruel spirits of Antichrist that seek the subversion of the Gospel, may by the hand of thy justice, feel what it is to set to sale for money the innocent blood of thine anointed Princes, which thou hast prepared and set up, to be the nurse's and protector's of thy truth: Grant this O heavenly Father, for jesus Christ's sake thy only son our Saviour, to whom with thee and the holy Ghost, be given all honour and glory: world without end.