cary them into the light hold them against the sunne trie them and iudge of them They haue ouercome true religion say your seducers false teachers Is there any alteration of Religion made so rashly as your rebellion or teacheth it so vngodly doings as you do execute or is it receyued from any other than from the word of God himselfe If you will haue any religion I truste you will haue Christes religion If you will haue the Religion of Christ I hope you will best beleue himselfe to tell you what it is If you will heare him selfe speke you may not destroy his worde Euen they that would deceiue ye most can not deny that the holy Bible is the worde of GOD what soeuer is taught therin is truth what soeuer is against it is heresie falshode How thinke you then doe they meane you wel that take Gods word from you that destroy the bible teare and tread vnder féete the Scripture of the worde of God forbidde you to heare or knowe that wherby only you should heare and knowe truth and learne to sée their falshode can they wish you to see that would take away your light can they wish you to fare well that would depriue you of your foode The blasphemie is haynous the offence dangerous this path is not the way to true religion but to error which they would not haue you see that persuade you to blindfill your selfs against the truth of gods gospel Besides your destroying of Gods boke can ye think that they meane to draw you to true catholike religion that persuade you to destroy the monuments of Christian Communion Read or heare the whole forme of that seruice iudge of euery word and sentence and then shall you sée what comforte your false deceyuers haue taken from you Compare what good you find in that and what edifying in the contrarie what swéetenesse it is to ioyne with Gods congregation in partaking of Christes body bloud by meane of his Sacramentes and what vanitie or rather sorrow it is to gaze vpon a théefe that robbeth you of that treasure pretendeth to take it al himselfe holdeth vp that which he calleth a Sacrament as it were in insultation and triumphe ouer your silly simplicitie Do but heare reade and knowe the thinges that ye yet despise I dout not Gods grace shall crepe into you for your comfort Where thirdly you haue raged against the mariage of Gods Ministers beholde your owne madnesse I hope you be not all popish Priestes Bastardes thus rebelliously to rise for the honor of your false Fathers Do you think al your popish priests to haue liued chast Knowe you not their olde incontinence commonly misnamed lustinesse and good fellowship Remember the examples your selues Is mariage worsse than horedom was it not by themselues taught to be a sacrament Is it not the holy ordinance of god Is the mariage of your selues and youre forefathers become vnclennesse or displeasing to God Thinke not so yll of your selues No no there is another matter You are begyled poore soules loke home to your own beds preserue the cleanenesse honestie of your houses This is a quarell wholly like the old rebelles cōplaint of enclosing of commons Many of your disordered and euill disposed wiues are muche agréeued that Priestes which were wont to be common be nowe made seuerall Hinc illae lacrimae there is the griefe in déede And truth it is and so shall you finde it fewe women storme againste the mariage of Priestes calling it vnlawfull and incensing men against it but suche as haue bene Priestes harlots or fayne would be Content youre wiues your selues and let Priestes haue their owne And for whole religion receiue it as GOD hath taught it reade his worde and for the deliuerie and explication of it it behoueth you being no better clerkes than you are to credite the whole Parliament the learned Clergie of the Realme and those that teache you by the boke of God learne it in such sorte places as it is to be taught Your Camp is no good schole of Diuinitie Your churches as they were reformed the worde of God red in such tong as you vnderstode it the Sacraments ministred to your comforte in suche sorte as you might féele the sense of them and be edicted by them the good examples of youre Ministers liuing in holy matrimonie with their owne wyues and abstayning from yours their teaching you obedience iustice charitie be the means to learne truth And yet if errors had ben taught this is not the way to come to amendement Know of those that complain of the ouerthrowing of that religiō that liketh them if euer they sought good meanes to defend it and were denied if euer they offred conference where it was méete and were refused if euer they maynteined it in place conuenient by the word of God and were not fully truly and charitably answered Think you hir maiestie the wisest of the realme haue no care of their owne soules that haue charge bothe of their owne and youres Thinke you they would haue entred into the troubles of changing religion vnlesse very truth conscience and zele for all our soules had enforced them God wote you are deceyued you are out of the way for true vnderstanding religion you are out of the way for true seking it and ye are very far out of the way in thinking that your captaynes haue any care of it They abuse you in this as in the rest They regarde no religion that goe so irreligiously to work All is but shewes and hipocrisie They haue frequented the seruice established by cōmon authority they haue receyued Goddes Communion with hys Churche they haue commended it which if they had had the contrarie religion to hart they would not nor might haue done vnlesse they woulde confesse them selues such as you ought not to beleue But the truth is they knowe that for want of sufficient preachyng and especially for want of grace to receyue the truth of God preached and partly also for that long settled errours euen in men otherwyse good and honest must haue theyr time of instruction and parsuasion by these meanes I say there be many yet within the realme not well taught the multitude of which simple men they hoped by this colour to draw to the felowship of their rebellion and that way to haue more helpe to shelde them selues from the power of Iustice and so to gyue an aduenture by more ayde to escape the due punishement for these their treasons that otherwise in peasable place of iustice they could not defend or auoyde So still this is but colour euen as is the same y t foloweth that her Maiesties Coūsell haue disordered the Realme Well they knowe it is not so and well they know that they nor their auncesters neuer knewe it so well ordered But if any would beléeue such sclander they hoped thereby to winne the moe
inestimable benefit a most gracious Quéene our most deare mother nurse and protectrice to draw vpon vs the yoke of a cursed and abhominable rule of most vile and cruell example odious to God and man to shake away a most peasible gouernment to pull vpon our owne heades by Gods iust plage most miserable calamitie flauerie and to be parteners of his iuste reuenge for the notorious euils of those whose yoke we should so séeke to enter And yet a change must be made by our wyse leaders greate discretions a noble change forsothe Some of you parhaps sée nothing but the outward shewe colour bicause you loke to nothing else which yet God wot is full il fauoured Your great Captains a likely matter pitying the foule dysorder of the realme of England so empouerished and decaied frō the maruelous welthy state wherin Quéen Marie lefte it so far indetted beyond the expenses of infinite treasure that King Philip brought and left in this land so subiected to strangers that had so small lykelyhode to haue oughte to doe here in Quéene Maries raigne so troubled with forrein warres and inuasions as we haue ben in the. xj yeares more of the Quéenes noble gouernment so defrauded of due excution of iustice that no subiect can haue his right by lawe wher in déed none wanteth his right but they and you that yet wante your due execution but may haue it time ynough and that most lamentable is those good deuout men as your holy Earle of Westmerlande and other in whome no kinde of lewdnesse lacked but rebellion which they haue now added to make vp their full heape of iniquitie y t they might be perfitly starke nought being gréeued forsoth to sée God yll serued in the common order of prayers preaching and administration of sacramentes and specially in this that the boke of God lieth open to the people and that god is serued after gods own teaching to remedie al those mischiefs these notably well chosen men like themselues haue called a noble Parlament Conuocation that is a route of vnlearned rude Rebelles forgetting all dutie to God Prince Countrey Neighbours and al that euer honest is and in this déep wise and godly assemblie by the inspiration of the Diuels spirit whome vnder false name of the holie Ghost they haue in abhominable sacrifice called vpon it is at length decréed enacted and proclaimed that your two Earles with the rest of their faction are the Quenes true and faithful subiectes that they haue a good meaning that nobilitie haue giuen their fayth to further it that disordered and euill disposed persons about the Quene seking their own aduancements haue ouerthrowne true religion disordred the realm and seke destruction of the nobilitie that these your good Gouernours wil with the help of God and good people redresse things amisse restore ancient customes liberties to the Church and Realme Finally they enforme of a great purpose of strangers to correcte and chasten vs to the hazard of the Realme which they wil auoyd by hazarding it themselues And after the ende they saye God saue the Quéene when in their doings and discourses before out of all course of dutie they haue plainly shewed it is not our quéene Quéene Elizabeth that they meane Blind men may iudge no colors A man in a darke place without light or he whose eies be blindefild or couered with any thing that he can not sée through or he that obstinately winketh is as vnapt to discerne colours as he that is stark blinde Wherfore if you will rightly iudge of these coloures and sée what they be in déed you must come out of that blinde corner of rebellion and errour where no truthe shyneth you muste shake of the veyle or couering of wrongfull affection and misunderstanding and you must leaue winking at your owne faultes and follies And principally you must pray to Almighty God to open your eies to giue you his grace to sée truthe and finde mercie at his handes And thus prepared I besech you descende to conferre these gaye colours in the broade light Your Earles say they are the Quéenes true subiects Suppose it for the time and for the questions sake as they would haue you but for the time and for their purposes sake to take it that they vnderstād or mean therby Quéene Elizabeth our most gracious soueraigne Ladie not any other that woulde bring vpon vs Mariana tempora the miserablest dayes that euer Rome or Englande felte Farre doth the proportion of dutie of Subiectes to the Prince exceede the dutie of Seruants to Maisters or Children to Parents yea or Wiues to their Husbands the very neerest conioyning in humaine fellowship euen so farre as a Realme excéedeth a priuate Familie But if one of your owne seruantes children or wiues should do that without your wil yea against your wil and expresse commaundement that your Captains and you haue attempted without and against the Quenes highnes plesure would you accompt them good seruaunts good children or good wiues If the seruant shall departe from his maisters seruice wythout leaue the childe from his fathers obedience the wife frō the society of her husband without hys contentement or pleasure knowen the case being supposed your owne you can not like it If they shall put on armoure and weapon and become terrible or threaten force to the Master Father Husband or the rest of the familie if the case I say were your owne you would more myslike it If they shall threaten to pull away to banish to destroy those frends or good seruantes or the rest of the children whom the maister father or husbande dearely estemeth by whose good trauayle cherishing and dutiful ministerie and attendance the maister father or husband is serued preserued mainteyneth the cōmodities of his contenāce this being your own case you would yet more disalowe it If they shall misentreate rob spoyle mayheme and murder some of the rest of those other seruauntes friendes children that the maister father or husband so dearly loueth for his benefite cōfortably vseth were it in your own case you wold now abhor it If by no warning prohibition request promise of recōciliation threatning or otherwayes they wil cesse off prosecuting their enterprise the case being your owne you would hiely stomack it If notwithstāding all these doings procedings continuings neglecting of threatnings reiecting of faire speache and promises these risers withstanders inuaders robbers murderers cōtemners without licence against the authoritie ageinst the open declaration of his own wil and meanes of pacification sought by the maister father or husbande will still saye and maintayn that they be true and faithfull seruantes humble and obedient children good and louing wiues if the cases were you owne you would not beleeue it The Quenes maiestie Quene Elizabeth is by al right the soueraigne Ladie Maistresse of vs al and of you too that must ye
complices and so to hide their owne daunger in the multitude Consider the truthe of this colour Wey the times conferre and examine them truly Let not false persuasions deceyue you Be not so wild and wanton with welth to forget whence your wealth commeth or not to sée that the Realme hath it Hadde Englande euer in our memorie so long so blissed peace bothe at home and abroad Had euer true Nobilitie more tender indulgence and honorable cherishing Had euer subiectes more true and frée administration of law and right Was England euer better ordered in all degrées from hye to lowe till your shamefull rebellion hath interrupted the great blessing of God Or hath all Christendome the like at this day your lewde tumult onely excepted Hath not her Maiestie with the aduise and ayde of her most honorable Counsell so ordered vs that we haue as it were standing on shore beholden the shipwrackes of other nations Liue we not dayly so our comfort with the fruites of this good gouernement It is suche that as the case standeth he is lyke to be vnhappy that shall ouerliue it Is this the thankes due to her Maiestie and her Counsell for their care and trauayle for your preseruation Suppose you that such kindnesse is the way to kepe GOD louing and beneficiall vnto vs Repent your error acknowledge with thankes the good order of the realme that you haue felt with profite forsake the disorderers of the coÌ„mon welth and yelde to suche good order as they that haue wel wisely iustly and mercifully ordered it can best dispose of you You sée these be stil but false colours to deceiue moe subiects to drawe moe adherentes to helpe to shroud your seducers in communitie of perill And of like sort falshode and impudencie is that they say of seeking to destroy Nobilitie Though some of them that so proclaime haue bene noble you must remember howe Nobilitie may rise and fal There is no traytor noble how notable soeuer he be or how noble soeuer his auncesters were The aduauncement for vertue to the most honorable order is no more due to good valiant and true Gentlemen than the defacing of the former ensignes of Nobilitie and solemne spurning them into a ditch is a due preiudice to desloyal and vntrue subiects the very stayne of whose companie presence or felloship in the tokens of honoure true Nobilitie can not beare Pitie it is that they haue so far forgotten the common wealth and their owh so to deserue But so deseruing good example and necessarie iustice it is that they beare their extremest infamie Neither yet hath the Quenes maiestie nor her Counsell soughte their destruction but they themselues haue now procured their owne and drawen you in with them Let themselues say of the benefites they haue receyued of her maiestie her good couÌ„tenance and supportation all her Counselles frendly and louing meanes to do them good then iudge ye what cause they haue so to saye As for the rest of the Nobilitie as they be moste déepely bound to her maiestie for her good and gracious tender loue and fauoure to them which they ceasse not to acknowledge and will do euen with the aduenture of their liues honours and possessions in her Maiesties defense against all rebels and traytoures and namely ageinst your Captaines and you so are they full slenderly beholden to your two good Erles for defaming them with the partenership of so fowle and abhominable treasons And for that the slaunder is generall without particular naming of any ye must loke for the more general reuenge of all nobilitie ageinst you no one shrinking or withdrawing but euery one moste forwardely pressing to purge himselfe by his good seruice from so great dishonoure and to shewe hys thankfulnesse the naturall propertie of honour to her maiestie for her great kindnesse and tender loue to that whole degrée Some of them to their great prayse you sée alredy haue shewed their truthe in repressing your attempts refusing your societies in readinesse to ouerthrow you Eche man is so likeliest to desire a newe estate as he hath most cause to be wery of the olde In what Princes dayes did euer Nobilitie liue or can they hope to liue in suche securitie in suche as it were nerenesse and conuenient familiarity with their prince so frée from vniust backbitings from vaine ielosies suspitions from dangers by enimies reports or false accusations from tumulte war and malice one against another yea from all vnsuerties and vnquietnesses as they haue done in her maiesties dayes It is maruellous and vnnaturally miraculous that there are founde such two I meane your two Erles to shew such vnkindnesse Thinke not then that any moe of nobilitie be so ill minded But be not deceyued take the thing as truth is this is but a color howbeit in dede a leud malicious suttle dangerous color partly to the intent to rayse mistrust betwene her Maiestie and her nobles if either were not so wel known to other as they be partly or rather chiefly to deceiue and deteine you with hope of that whiche is not in déede But as in the one they laboure in vayne so in the other learne you to be wiser to trust them the worse hereafter You finde it falleth not out so Hir maiestie hath euer cherished Nobilitie no one of that estate hath by her perished in all her time they know it and acknowledge it and you must féele it You sée that they come not to you for all the promises and faithes supposed in your proclamation It falleth not out as you are borne in hand they are al in readinesse with their power ageinst you to clere theÌ„selues to wreke the dishonor vpon you If this color deceiue you you winke hard or be maruelously blinded If any of nobilitie for any contempts or other causes haue ben stayed whereupon the likelyhode is that you are the more led to thinke this surmise true themselues acknowledge yet with what clemency they are vsed the world knoweth how sory hir maiestie is to haue any such occasion but howsoeuer it be they haue smal cause to thank you for agréeuing their case with greater suspitions and according to that you haue so ill deserued of them you must accompt that themselues so farre as their liberties and her Maiesties trust in them will permitte and all their friends for their benefite will with moste sharpe reuenge vpon you do what they can to persuade their innocence Neither I trust will her maiestie hir selfe so yet giue ouer the care of her owne preseruation as to contemne all aduertisements of attempts and not by good care and hed of hir counsel yea extirpation of the contrarie stand vpon her gard against all aduauncements â—of suche titles as you would preferre being dangerous to hir safetie and which haue alredy to their vttermost attempted her hiest perill or yet to leaue in danger to their malice hir good Subiects that be ielous
multitude they be furnished of all things necessarie with a princes store and so great store as neuer had any of her auncesters weapon armure shot pouder all sorts of munition vitail abundance ▪ choise of commodious being strong holds one knot of iust authoritie from which the power assembled can not start or seuer skilfull Captaynes wise Gouernours orderly proceding dayly freshe succoures at pleasure power to saue and kil by lawe a wyde and large realme gathered togither the country round about within hir obeysaunce a strong Nauie good sure frends euen in the next forein part vnto you the very grounds colours and fundations of your enterprise be in her Maiesties power in al necessities or misfortunes armie vpon armie to be newe repaired so as a few victories can not fuffise you finally all aduantages against you infinitely incomparable Trow you this match be wel made a corner against a Realme a handfull against hundreds of thousands want against plenty foly against policy nakednesse against armed force the succourlesse against abundance of ayde falfehode against truth one or two doltish mad heads against whole Nobilitie a few rebelles against all subiectes the wilde field against strong forts an vngodly weake foolish destitute misguided silly smal multitude against the wrath of God and power of a Prince Is it not time for you to be better aduised Sée you not your perill or is it not rather so déepe that you can not see the bottome Surely it is as déepe as Hell which though you can not throughly measure it you may iustly feare it Dreadfull he is that can send both body and soule into hell fire Beside all these bodily paynes the state wherein you stand is the state of damnation if you die in it there is no recouerie Remember your selues therefore betymes For Gods sake and for youre owne weale euerlastingly bethinke you of the infinite mercy of almightie God whereof there is no measure Repent you of your offending him embrace his true Religion heare his worde learne his will and follow it Againe call to mind how gracious and mercifull a Quéene he hath placed ouer vs think vppon the great examples of clemencie that she hath vsed the tender loue that she hath euer shewed to the Realme the care shée hathe for vs all the griefe she beareth to lose so many of you that might be better preserued flee to that refuge where is the only hope that is lefte you make suche amendes as you may yeld your captaines to iustice your selues to her mercy that if for necessarie importance of honour of president and of the safetie of her Maiesties person and realme you must be some examples of iustice you may recouer yet the possession of eternall life and if her Maiestie shall extende the excesse of hir clemencie to youre pardon you may acknowledge it in your truer seruice hereafter and whether way soeuer it shal please GOD and her highnesse to dispose you may in life and death teach true obedience and be examples to restrayne your selues and all other hereafter from so foule spot and danger of rebellion And to this ende God sende you his grace God saue our Queene Elizabeth and confound her enemies Imprinted at London by Henrie Bynneman for Lucas Harrison ANNO DOMINI 1569. Their cause and intent Magnae spes altera Rome Confederats An yll change Their colours Ironi◠Masse of the holy Ghost Their proclamation They meane not our Queene They are not true subiects Marius and Sylla Papistes teache to kepe no fayth Their meaning not good Nobilitie slandered The rule of three gouerners Greate wast in the melting The Quenes name forborn to sclander her Counsell The Counsell not disordered not ill disposed The rebels disorders and yll dispositions Religion Tearing the Bible Breaking the Communion table Crueltie to maried priestes Disordring the realme Destruction of nobilitie Helpe of God and good people The west Exeter Sir Ihon Chekes excellēt boke Custome Liberites Strangers Treasons of popish religion King Iohn Card. Poole Trolop A. B. C. President Scotlande Alua. K. Philip. The Rebels leaders described Omen placer Pretense of dutie Their doings The Quenes power Their match compared Their danger Gods mercie The Quenes clemencie Holsome counsell Example