Who were elect and chosen ones,
and who then were God's foes.
Therfore sure I will go forward,
my masse now for to say :
There shall but one thing in y e . world,
me onely cause to stay.
And that is this: I am in doubt,
I must say masse alone :
For in all England papistes now,
I know there is not one.
And yet there were not twelue monethes past,
yea thousandes here and there ;
But if a man will seeke thcun now,
he shall finde them no where.
For since thee rebells late did rise,
thus doth the Papist packe: *
To get the cloth of some stout man
to put vpon his backe.. . . .
But as for me I beare no rule,
but dayly will I pray,
That neuer proude olde Popishe priest,
may see his golden day,
Except it be as Boner doth,
which lieth deepe vnder grasse :
For whose good rest 1 will in hast,
now say my requiem masse.
In troiho ad altare dei
Thinking on Boner by the wei.
Confitcor deo, and to our good Lady,
Et omnibus Sa?ictis quiapeccaui,
In homicide and lechery,
In sacrilege and g'.otony,
* Papistes to maintayne their poperye, weare the liueryes of
lordes, gentelrae"' and lawyers.
vol. 11. u And
igo
And in all kinde of knauery,
Et Iddio precor beat a maria,
That thou wilt not thinke I cuer did Ha,
Nor that gods people I caused to fria,
Because that the truth they seemed to tria.
Mesereatur vestri let the Pope haue,
For he is starcke honest take away the knaue.
He vseth many times to forgeue sinne,
But y e . more he forgeueth the more you are in.
Absolutionem & remission? omnum peccatoru vestro-
So that all your life still be in reprobum. [ru,
Otherwise blessed father bath nothing to do,
For he himselfe wholy is inclined therunto.
Kiriekijson, Ckristecleyson, Kirieleyson, Paternoster %
For olde Sauage bloudy Boner the butcher.
Requiem eternam Lord let him haue,
For he was a great man, sage, and graue.
Te decet himnus in Sion,
Boner playde the ramping lion.
Therefore, sweet Lady, let him haue rest,
For he was a man of the Pope blest."
This writer gives, with some humour, traits of the
several Cardinals, but the alleged errors of the Catholic
clergy cannot be now repeated. The names of the
friends and favourites of Bonner are strung in rhime ; and
he is said to have maintained, in the reign of Mary,
" A wilde roge and a ruffeler,
A paylyard, and a proud pedler,
A tame roge and a tynker,
A Abraham man and a frater,
A Jackman and a patrico,
A whipiack and a kitchinco,
A dell and a antemorte,
A counterfait cranke & a dor[t]e.
A demaunder for glymar,
A baudy basket and a domerar,
A kitchinmort and a fresh mariner."
This tract bears the appearance of more labour in (he
composition than the preceding one, and, after " fmis r
quoth Petrus Pasqwinus," the author seems to have af-
fixed his initials, " R. W."
J. H.
An
2i)l
71 An information and Petition agaynst the oppres-
sors of the pore Commons of this Realtne, compiled
and Imprinted for this onely purpose that amongest
them that haue to doe in the Parliamente, some
godly e mynded men, may her eat take occacion to
speake more in the matter then the Authoureivas able
to write. Esaye Iviii. When you stiff re none op-
pression to bee amongest you, and leaue of youre idle
talke : then shal you cal vpon the Lord and he shal
hear you, you shal crie, and he shal say, Behold 1
am at hand. 11. d. * or printer's name. Sixteens. 14
leaves.
A spirited address to the Lords and Commons, from
Robert Crowley -\ the printer, against both clergy and
laity : requiring an examination and relief for the poor
from tenths and usury, peculation of lease-holders, and
other matters of oppression. As the author was after-
wards vicar of St. Giles, Cripplegate, and held other
benefices, it may be hoped he acted with more Christian
charity than appears in the following relation, which il-
lustrates the manner? of the clergy, on a subject noticed
in an antecedent article.;}:
" The Cleargie of the Citie of London, haue for theyr parle
* After 1545, probably about i547> and addressed to the first
parliament assembled temp. Edw. VI.
f- He is noticed as a preacher in the Commemoration, Sec. {a?itf
p. 287.) In the ninth lesson Bonner speaks :
'* One morne betime I loked forth,
as ofte as I did before ;
And did se a pulpit, in churches wise,
made by my prison dore.
A preacher there was, that Crozvij hight,
whiche preached in that place,
A meant; if God had loued nic,
to call me then to grace.
HoJie si 'vocetn, was his theme,
and harden not thyne liarte :
As did the fathers the rebelles old
that perished in desarte
Thus protestantes haue me slain
with the power or the worde :" &c.
\ Ante, p. 269.
u 2 optayned
29Z
optayned by Parliament authoritie to oucr tenthes euen after
the exem[ple] of the landlord-s and leasemongers, and maye
by the vertue of the acte requir for double rentes, double
tenthes. If the rent of any kynde of housyng or grou~de
wythin the Citie of Lo~don be raised (as ther is indeede veri
much) fro~ x'. to xx 3 . than may the persone whoe had before
but xvi d . ob.1 by the vertu of this act demaunde ii s . ix d . the
double. Bysydes this the exactions that they take of the pore
Comons, is to much beyonde al reason and conscience. No
couple can be maried, but these me must haue a dutie, as they
cal it. No woman may be purified, but they and theyr ydle
ministers must haue some duties of hir. None ca*" be buried,
but they wyl haue a flyese. Not thre monethes before y '. be-
ginnyng of this prese~t parliament, I had iust occacion to be at
the payme~t of this dutie for y-. buriyng of an honest pore man,
whose fre~des wer willyng to haue hys body reuere~dly layed in
the grounde, and accordyng to the custome, gaue warnynge to
the curate that they wouldc brynge the deade body to the
church: desyryng hym that he wolde do hys dutie and to be
ther to receye it, and, accordynge to the custome, to Iaye it in
the grounde But this rauen smellynge the carion, coulde not
but reueile it to the other carion byrdes of the same church,
and so woulde needes come all together in a rlocke to fetch
theyr praye, with crosse and holy water as they were wont to
do, notwythstandynge the Kynges Iniunctions and late visita-
cion. The frendes of the deade man refused all this and re-
quired to haue no mor but the commune coffen to put the bodye
in, agreynge to j.aye to the keper therof hys accustomed dutie,
and inlyke maner to the graue maker and the foure pore men to
eary the bodye, so that the whole charges lad ben but v if 1 .
But when the corps was buried, wythe out other crosse or holy
water sticke, dirige, or masse, with prayers of as small deuo-
tion, as any pore curate could saye, yet must we nedes pay
vn d . more. That is to saye, i' ; . to the curate, which he called
an heade pedye, and vi d . to ii clarkes that we had no nede of.
This was done in Sepulchres paryshe in the Citie of London.
And if it shall please any of this noble assemble to irye the
trueth of this, I will verifie it where so ever I shall be called,
euen in the presence of all the ydle ministers of the fame
church. This haue I written (most worth) - cou~say!oursi to
geue you occasion to set suche an ordre in this and suchi other
thynges, that eyther we may haue ministers founde vppon the
te""thes that we pay yerli to the churches : other els that it may
be leafull for vs to do such ministeries our selues, and not to
be thus ccTstrained to feede a sorte of carion crov/cs, whyehe
are
293
are neuer so mery as when we lament the losse of our
frendes." *
J. H.
% The confession of the faijth of the Siueserlddes.
Twelves. 15 leaves, n. d. or printer's name.
*' This eonfescion was fyrste wrytten and set out by the
ministers of the churche and congregacion of Sweuerland,
* .A too rigid demand of the burial fees raised a popular
outcry against the clergy. It is also noticed in another tract en-
titled : A supplication ofthepoore Commons. Prouerbes xxi. Chapiter.
Whoso stoppeth his eare at the criynge of tie pccre, he shall crye hytn
selfe and shall not be heard. W hereunto is added the Supplication of
Beggers. Col. Anno M. ccccc. xlvi. No printer's name. 161110.
J) .8. The writer for the poor Commons describes it customary
" to se me" begge for such dead corpses as haue nothinge to paje
the pristes diuitie. Yea it is not longe sence there was in your
highnes cytie of Londo~ a dead corps brought to the church to be
buryed, being so poore that it was naked, wythout any cloth to
couer it. But these charitable men whiche teache vs, that is one
ofthevvorkes of mercy to bury the dead, woulde not take the
paynes to bury the dead corps, onlesse they had theyr dutye, as
they call it. In fyne, they caused the dead corps to be caryed
into the strete agayne, and there to remayne tyll the poore people,
whych dwelled in the place where the poore creature dyed, had
begged so moch as the pristes call theyr dwe." This writer, ad-
dressing the king, tells him "a numbre is there of theym that
vnder the name of your chaplynes may dispend yerly by bene-
fices, some one C some CC some CCC some CCCC, some CCCCC.
yea, some M. markes and more. It is a comone saiyng among vs
your hyghnes pore comons (he continues) that one of your high-
nes chapplene not many yeres synce, vsed when he lu.sted to ride
a brode for hys repast, to cary wyth hym a scrowle, wb.erin wer
written the names of the parishes wherof he was parson. As it
fortuned, in hys iourney he aspied a churche standynge vpon a
fayre hyll pleasauntly beset with groues and playn feldes, the
goodly grene meadowes liyng beneth by the banks of a chrystal-
line ryuer garnished with willouse, poplers, pal me trees, and
alders, most beautiful to behold. This vigilant pastoure, taken
with the syg.hte of this terestial paradise, sayd vnto a seruaift of
his (the clerke of his signet no doubt it was, for he vsed to cary
his masters ryng in his mouth) Robin, sayu he, yonder benefice
standeth very pleasantly. I would it were myne. The seiuaunt
aunswered, Why, sir, quoth he, it is your owne benefice, and
named the parish. Is it so? quoth yourcbaplen: and with that
he pulled out his scroule to se lor certtntie whether it were r,o or
nut.'''
u 3. where
294
where all godlynes is receyued, and the worde hadde in moste
reuerenct, and from thence was sent vnto the Emperours
maiestie, then holdynge a gryat counsel! or parliame~t in the
yeare of our Lord God, M.v.C, xxxvn. in the rnoneth of
February. Translated out of Laten, by George Vsher, a Scotch-
man, who was burned in Scotland, the yeare of oure Lorde
M.v.C xl. VI Of holy matrimony. We judge manage,
which was instytute of God for all men apte & mete therfore,
whiche are not called from it by any other vocaticT, to repugne
to holynes of no ordre, the whiche mariage as the churche
auctoriseth it, and celebrates, and solempniseth it with orison
and prayer. And therfore we reiecte and refuse this monckely
chastite and all hole this slouthful and slouggishe sorte of lyfe
of supersticious men, as abominablye inuented and excogitat
thynge, and abandon it as a thinge repugnant bothe to the
comune weale and to the churche. And so confyrmeth and
stablissheth it, so it belogeth to the magistrate to se that it be
worthely bothe begonne and worshypped and not broken but
for iust cause It was our pleasure to vse these wordes at
this present tyme that we myght declare our opinion in our re-
ligio" and worshynenge of God. Finis. The truth wyl haue
the vpper ha~de."
* #
l| Newes concernynge the general coucell holden at
Trydent hy the Emperoure and the Germaynes wytk
all the nobles of Hungary e, Constavople and Home.
Translated oute of Gcrmuyne into Englysh by Ihon
Holibush. Anno 1548. Cum priuilegio ad Imprt-
mendum Solum. Sixteens. Ten leaves.
This tract commences at back of title, as an epistle,
though unaddressed. The following is the speech of the Em-
peror to the Turkish messengers soliciting peace. " Though
it becommeth not ourmaiestye, to make any appoyntme t with
the enemy of our religion", nother hath y*. godly maiesty euer
left vs aydelesse hetherto, but alway prospered) & helpeth vs
to vanquysh our enemyes : so that no man ther is, whych can
auaunce and say : 1 haue ouercome Charles in battayll. For
so much also as Almyghtye God hath endued vs wyth so greate
puyssance, ryches, men ofwarre & captaynes, so that we nede
not to be afrayed of any raa" in the world: yet for the tt~der
loue
Z9S
loue that we owe to our brother the king of the Romanes, Ho*-
gary, & Bemes we co~desce~de, alow & ratifye the tr,uce of-
fyue yeares but vpo~ that co~dicion, y l . the Turkysh Emperour
do sende vs hys letters & specificacyo concerning this peacCy
Wluf the Turkyshe messaungers had receaued thys coragious
answere of the emperiall maiestye, they are returned to theyr
Lorde, which continently seme ouer the foresayde letters, in
the whyche he calleth the Emperours maiesty a Lord of the
Christen worlde. These letters came here to Ausborowe the
xxi day of Nouember, whyche I haue both handeled and sene.
These be vvrytten wyth g eate and vnsemely letters, and on the
top sygned with the great Turkes armes of gold. I doubte
whether 1 euer haue seene any suche lyke, they be notber
Chalde nor Hebiue letters, the Lord Gerard Veltwick sayth
they be Arabyck letters. .... Farewell. Wry ten from August
the syxtdaye of December. Theyeare of our Lorde. M.D. Xlviii.
Imprinted at Londo", in Saynt Andrevyespaiyshe, in the ware
dropt, by Thomas llaynalde." * *
^[ A Thousand Natalie tilings of sundry sortes-
IVkerof some are wonderfully some straunge, some
pleasant, diners necessary, a great sort profitable and
many very precious.
This Boke lewrayes that some had rather hide,
which who so buyes their money is not lost:
For many a thing therin, if truely tride,
toil gaine much more, the twenty such, toil cost.
And diuers else great secretes will detect,
and other moe of rare or straunge effect.
li is not made to please some one degree,
no, no, nor yet to bring a gaine to few :
For each therby, how ritch or poore they bee,
may reape much good, & mischiefes great eschew.
The paines and trauell hethertoo is mine:
the gaine and pleasure henceforth will be thine.
Imprinted at London by Iohn C liar lewood, for Hughe
Spooner, dwelling in Lumbardslreete, at the signe of
the Cradle, qto. n. d. pp.302, without introduction.
Dedicated "to the Right Honourable, vertuous and affable
Lady Margaret, Couutesse of Darby," hoping for pardon in
u 4 the
zg6
the rashness, and beseeching her " to haue the first smell of
these sweete, pleasant, straung, beautifull and precious flowers;
not growing in one garden, but in sundry soyles ; not quickly
found, but long a gathering, and not all of one property, but
of diuerse qualities. " Subscribed " your Honorable L. most
humble to commaund, Thomas Lupton - " *
In the preface of the author to the reader, he declares his
book to contain " manye notable rare, pleasaunt, profitable
and precious thinges (meaning one with another) as neuer
were yet set forth in anye volume in our vulgar or English
tongue, nay, diueis of them were neuer hetherto printed, nor
written that euer I knew; but onely that I writ them at such
tymes as I hearde them credibly reported. Thinking them
such rare thinges as was worthy to be registred. Marry, I
must confesse, I haue selected and pycked a great sorte oute of
Latine writers, the authors or wryters whereof, I haue named
most commonly at the end of the same. And some notable and
precious thinges I gathered out of some old Englishe wrytten
bookes, and some also not long since printed, vnworthy to be
hyd, and great pittie but they should be knowne I haue
deuided this into ten bookes, euery one wherof, containes a
hundreth of the intituled Notable thinges: which are in all a
thousand."
These u rare things" are a collection of receipts of
various kinds, many of them medicinal, intermingled
with short stories, and somewhat marvellous. As a
sample ten will characterize the thousand.
" There is many do the thinges in their sleepe, that they
that be awake vse to do. For they wyl walke about the house
and chamber, and wyll go to other foikes beddes, and dare do
any thing without feare. Whereof there are many daylye
examples. Bat one among all the rest (which was credibly
told me) was maruelous straunge, and almost incredible.
Which was : that two men lying in bed together, the one of them
being fast a sleepe, tooke the ke) es and unlocked the doores
and the gate of the house, ar.d so tooke his bowe c arrowes,
* If Herbert's index is correct at this writer's name, the present
work is not any where noticed, though there was more than one
edition. In the Monthly Magczir.e for Nov. 1809, p. -,93, is a
short account of the book, stating the preface, &c. to be in Ro-
man or italic characters : in the subject of the present ai title it is
in black-letter, and it has not any table of contents as thee men-
tioned.
and
297
and went to a wood or chase aboue a myle from thence, anl
kylled a bucke or a doe, and then dyd couer and hvde the
same in the wood : and then came home againe vnlocking and
locking the gates and doores againe, and layde the keyes where
he had them, and so went to bed. The other man that Jay
with him being awake, folowed him and dyd see all th.it he
dyd. But he would not go to bed, but stayde a whyle in
another place, to see the ende thereof. And assoone as the
other was in his bedde, he tooke his dagger, stabbing and
thrusting therwith in the bedde, where the other man dyd lye,
and by and by after awaking, sayde: alas what haue I clone, I
haue kylled him. The other answered, nay, 1 am not kylled
yet, thankes be to God. Then sayde he : for I was a dreamed
that I kylled a bucke in such a place, & that thou d\d see me
where 1 dyd kyl him, and hyd him: and thinking thou would
bewray me, I thought to kyll thee, but I am glad, sayde he,
that it was but a dreame. Then the other sayde : if it were a
dreame, thy dreame is then true. For thou hast performed all
the dreame: except the kylling of me. Which he would not
beleeue vntyll the next day: when he that laye with him,
caryed him to the place where he hirnselfe t<Jde that he dyd
hyde the sayde bucke. V\ hereindeede they founde the bucke
kylled, as he before tolde in his dreame. A niaiuelous matter
if it were true.
" Many haue proued that a saphire tied to the Attyer, doth
put away the heat in an ague. And the same stone borne
acainst thy hart, doth preserue the bearer thereof from the
plague, and from venemous ihinges. llasis, et Albertus. And
other.
" If you marke where your right foote doth stand at ths
fyrst tymey'. you do hear i tie cuckoo: and then gratis or take
vp the eaith vndertiie same, whersoeuer the same is sprinckled
about: there wyll no tieas breede. Flyiue by Mizahius re-
port. And I knowe that it hath bene [ironed true.
" The eyes of young swallowes being in die nest, prickt
with an needle or a pynne, & so made bhude, within lowie or
tine da\ es after, tin y w\ 1 s. e again. Which is w ry tree, f.r
1 haue proued it. But ho;\cMhey it com T their syght 1 knowe
not : but ch ucr- wryte, ii their eve;- net hurt, ine ohie s\\ allowed
restores their bight againe v, iiii the im ce t-t C< h inliu.
" In the common place where the cons >is oi Venys syites,
there neuer e.ntt rs any rives. Gaudeur. Meruhi. And hi the
fleshe shambh of Toledo, a ehfe in Spaync, is not seetie but
one five in all the whole } rare. As Leo l'apli-t sayeth. And
in Westminster Hall, in the lynibcr workt theie, u not to ice
founde
2$8
founde one spyder, nor a spyder webbe. Because (as it is
thought) tbe tymber wherewith the rooffe is buylded, was
brought out of Irelande. and dyd growe there. In all which
countrey of Irelande, I haue not onely hearde it credibly tolde,
that there \3 neyther spyder, tode, nor any other venemous
thin^ : but also that some of the earth of that countrey hath
bene brought hether, wheron a tode being layd, she hath dyed
presently. Though this be maruelous & strange, yet it is true.
" A certaine wench was borne within sixteen miles of Lon-
don, who within a yeare and a halfe after her byrth, dyd begyn
to eate earth, stones, bricke, and grauell. And so continued
therin, (hauing all her delyght in eating of such baggage:)
also she dyd eate the woollen sleeues that were on her armes,
besydes that she dyd eat a gloue. And on a tyme as her mother
dyd feede her with mylke, there cbaunst to fall a great peece
of soote out of the chymney, into the sayd mylke : which soote,
the sayd chyld tooke out of y'-'. dysh with her fyngers, and dyd
eate it most greedily. She abhorred then bread & butter, and
other such natural food. Wlierby she was maruelously con-
sumed with afluxe, and she yetlyueth, hauing nothing on her
but skyn and bone. I sawe her in lune, 1577 She was
borne in Chayrsey, within two or thre myles of Stanes, at
which tyme she was full three yeares of age.
(t A tode being strucken of a spyder, or of a serpe~t, doth
helpe herselie by eating of planten. Plinius. For confyrma-
tion wh-reof, a tode being on the ground hard by a wall, a
spyder dyd suddenly strike the sayde tode on the backe : which
when the tode felt, begynning to swell, dyd eat of planten nye
vnto the place. Wherof being well, the spyder againe, dyd
poyson the tode, with her venome as before, which done, the
tode preserued her selfe with the sayde planten as before. But
one that chaunst to beholde the same, dyd then cutte vp the
sayde planten, and tooke it away from that place. Which tode
the thyrde tyme being strucken, or rather poysoned of tbe
spyder, as before : immediatly searching for the sayde planten,
(for as it shoulde seeme there was no more planten nye to that
place:) which when she coulde not fynde, dyd swell so sore,
that soone after she dyd burst wilhall. The party that dyd
take away the same planten, and dyd see thisstraunge & mar-
ualous matter, dyd tell me this for a verye trueth. Whose
credyte I knewe to be such, that I am bolde here to place the
same hauing such good occasion. And I hearde that a noble
man of this realme dyd see the lyke.
" Wryte what you wyl, on fay re whyte paper, with the
iuyce of a redde onion, well myxed and tempered with the
whyte
299
w'hyte of an egg-, which being drie, wyll appeare as though
it were onely playne paper, without any wryting. But if you
holde it against the fyre, you maye then easilye reade it, or
perceyue the letters.
" Whosoeuer shall, especially, the fyrst Fiydaye in May,
and euery other Frydaye in May, before the rising of the sunne,
graue vp two turfes of new growne grasse with the dew vpon
the same, & then doth tye the grasse sydes of them together,
and shall then laye the same in a water in the syde of a ponde,
or in some other water, so that the vehemencie of the water
dooth not remoue the sayde turfes from the place where they
be layde, & so letting them lye there vnremoued nyne or tenne
dayes : if at the ten dayes ende, he shall take vp the sayde
turfes, and vntye or loose y e . same, he shal finde a great sort
of young eeles within the same, although there be not one eele
in y J . same water at the laying there, of the sayde turfes.
And then if he tye the sayde turfes with the young eeles
together againe, & lay them againe in the same water, a great
encrease of eeles wyl after come therof. This was credibly
tolde me fer a very trueth, of one that dyd try the same. I
thinke they breede of the same dew.
" A partrych wyll crye alowde, and will teare or breake
the cage or coope where she is fedde, if ' therebe any deadly
medcyn or poyson prepared within the same house, which shee
dooth feele presentlye, and also hath knowledge thereof,
through a woonderfull speciall and rare gift of nature. Aetius
ex pisone."
J. II.
j] si Forest of Varieties. First part. Kon alicna. meo
prasi pede. F^ondon, printed by Richard Cotes.
1645. Folio, pp. 243.
Copious extracts from these miscellanies of Dudley,
third Lord North, have appeared in Sir Fgerton Brydges's
Memoirs of the English Peerage, and some further ac-
count of the volume was inserted by Air. Park in the
Royal and 'Noble Authors. Jn addition to these notices,
the present copy establishes an earlier appearance of the
work than hitherto supposed. A fly leat has the follow-
ing manuscript note; " This booke was written by y e .
Lord
3
Lord Northe, 8c giuen my [me] by himselfe, II th June,