That Auricular Confession seeing that it hath no promise of the Gospel truely it cannot be a Sacrament Of the Confession to be made to God there are many testimonies in Scripture as when David saith I thought that I would acknowledge mine iniquity against my self unto the Lord and he forgave the trespasses of my sins Here confessing signifieth the secret knowledge of our sins before God When I exhorted the people on this manner I reproved no manner of Confession And farther Saint Iames saith Acknowledge your sins one to another and so let you have peace among your selves Here the Apostle meaneth nothing of Auricular Confession but that we should acknowledge and confesse our selves to be sinners before our brethren and before the world and not to esteeme our selves as the Gray Friers do thinking themselves already purged When that he had said these words the horned Bishops and their complices cryed and gyrned with their teeth saying See ye not what colours he hath in his speech that he may beguile us and seduce us to his opinion The fifth Article Thou false heretick didst say openly That it was necessary for every man to know and understand his Baptisme which is contrary to Generall Councels and the Estates of holy Church The Answer My Lords I believe there be none so unwise here that will make Merchandise with any French-men or any other unknowne stranger except he know and understand first the condition or promise made by the French-man or stranger So likewise I would that we understood what thing we promise in the name of the Infant unto God in Baptisme Then said M. Peter Chaplin That he had the devill within him and the spirit of terrour Then answered him a childe saying The devil cannot speak such words as yonder man doth speake The sixth Article Thou false Hereticke Traytor and Thiefe thou said That the Sacrament of the Altar was but a piece of bread baken upon the ashes and no other thing else and all that is there done is but a superstitious Rite against the Commandment of God The Answer Oh Lord God! so manifest lyes and blasphemies the Scripture doth not teach you As concerning the Sacrament of the Altar my Lords I never taught any thing against the Scripture the which I shall by Gods grace make manifest this day I being ready therefore to suffer death The lawfull use of the Sacrament is most acceptable unto God But the great abuse of it is very detestable unto him But what occasion they have to say such words of me I shall shortly shew your Lordships I once chanced to meet with a Iew when I was sayling upon the water of Rhene I did enquire of him What was the cause of his pertinacie that he did not believe that the true Messias was come considering that they had seen all the Prophesies which were spoken of him to be fulfilled Moreover the Prophesies taken away and the Scepter of Iuda By many other testimonies of the Scripture I witnessed to him and proved that the Messias was come the which they called Iesus of Nazareth This Iew answered again unto me When Messias cometh he shall restore all things and he shall not abrogate the Law which was given unto our Fathers as ye do for why We see the poor almost perish through hunger amongst you yet you are not moved with pity towards them But amongst us Iewes though we be poor there are no beggers found Secondarily It is forbidden by the Law to fain any kinde of Imagery of things in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the Sea under the earth but one God onely to honour But your Sanctuaries and Churches are full of Idolls Thirdly a piece of bread baked upon the ashes ye adore and worship and say that it is your God I have rehearsed here but the sayings of a Iew which I never affirmed to be true Then the Bishops shook their heads and spitted on the ground and what he meaned in this matter further they would not hear The seventh Article Thou false hereticke didst say That extreme Unction was not a Sacrament The Answer My Lords forsooth I never taught of extreme Unction in my Doctrine whether it was a Sacrament or no. The eighth Article Thou false hereticke didst say That holy water is not so good as Wash and such like Thou contemnest conjuring and sayest That holy Churches cursing availeth not The Answer My Lords as for holy water what strength it is of I taught never in my Doctrine Conjurings and Exorcisms if they were conformable to the Word of God I would commend them but in as much as they are not conformable to the Commandment and Word of God I reprove them The ninth Article Thou false Hereticke and runagate hast said That every man is a Priest and likewise thou sayest That the Pope hath no more power then another man The Answer My Lords I taught nothing but the Word of God I remember that I have read in some places of S. Iohn and S. Peter of the which one saith He hath made us kings and priests The other saith He hath made us the kingly Priesthood Wherefore I have affirmed Any man understanding and perfit in the Word of God and the true faith of Jesus Christ to have his power given him from God and not by the power or violence of men but by the vertue of the Word of God the which word is called The power of God as witnesseth S. Paul evidently enough And againe I say Any unlearned man and not exercised in the Word of God nor yet constant in his Faith whatsoever estate or order he be of I say he hath no power to binde or to loose seeing he wanteth the instrument by the which he bindeth and looseth that is to say The Word of God After that he had said these words all the Bishops laughed and mocked him When that he beheld their laughing Laugh ye said he my Lords Though that these my sayings do seem scornfull and worthy of derision to your Lordships neverthelesse they are very weighty to me and of a great value because that they stand not onely upon my life but also upon the honour and glory of God In the meane time many godly men beholding the woodnesse and great cruelty of the Bishops and the invincible patience of the said M. George did greatly mourne and lament The tenth Article Thou false Hereticke saidst That a man had no free-will but is like to the Stoicks which say That it is not in mans will to do anything but that all desire and concupiscence cometh of God of whatsoever kinde it be of The Answer My Lords I said not so truely I say That as many as beleeve in Christ firmely unto them is given liberty conformable to the saying of S. Iohn If the Sonne make you free then shall you verily be free Of the contrary as many as beleeve not in Christ Jesus they are bond-servants of sin
some of the following Kings namely where there was any opposition feared of setling them in the Royall Throne for further Confirmation were anointed Read diligently the History of the Kings and you shall not finde that each one or every one of them was anoynted externally although they were all the Anoynted of the Lord. Next you shall note That the Oyl wherewith Samuel anoynted Saul and David and so the Oyl wherewith other Kings were anoynted was not an Oyl consecrated as that wherewith the High-Priest c. was anoynted but common Oyl The reason of the Scripture-phrase whereby all Princes are said to be anoynted is this Anoynting in first and most ancient times was a signe of setting apart of a man for the Office of a King Hence by progresse of time any man that was set aside by Gods providence to execute the Office of a King whether he came thereunto by Succession or by choice or by Conquest was called the Anoynted of the Lord because they had the thing signified by Gods appointment notwithstanding they wanted the signe to wit the Oyntment Further we shall observe here That not onely those whom God hath set aside to be Kings be called the Anoynted of the Lord but also the people whom he hath set aside or apart for a peculiar end So the Prophet speaking of the People of Israel in Gods Name useth this expression Touch not mine Anoynted For their sake I have reproved Kings Moreover note That as the people set aside by God are said to be his Anoynted so they are also called A Royall Priesthood Kings and Priests Not that every one of the people is a King or a Priest these being particular Callings no more then they were anoynted but because they are set aside by God as Priests to offer daily unto him the Sacrifice of Righteousnesse c. And as Kings were anoynted with Oyl to signifie their setting aside for their peculiar Office so every one of us being anoynted in Baptisme by the holy Spirit is set aside to do justice c. as a King in our severall station Thus much have I in few words spoken of Kings anoynting and how the people are said to be anoynted or to be Priests and Kings because in the beginning of the fifteenth Age sundry were condemned as hereticks for saying That every man is a Priest in some kinde and that the anoynting of Kings is now needlesse being an invention of Rome to subject Princes unto it Some yeers after the beginning of the twelfth Age King David beside the Bishopricks formerly erected did erect the Bishoprick of Rosse Breachen Dunkel and Dumblane This debonaire Prince was so profuse towards Church-men that he gave them a good part of the ancient Patrimony of the Crown So he and his Successors were necessitated to lay Taxes and Impost upon the people more then formerly to the harm of the Common-wealth In this also he wronged the Church for the Clergie being rich and powerfull left their Function and gave themselves over to all riot and idlenesse Till riches made Church-men lazie this distinction in discharging the Duty of a Pastor or of the souls per se aut per alium was unknown While riches did not so abound in the Church Church-men kept more conscience in the discharging of their places In this twelfth Age the Scots although they had Bishops ever since Palladius who for a long time did discharge the Function indifferently in every place where they came to And although they had of later times distinguished the limits of the bounds wherein they were to execute their Calling by Diocesses yet in that Age I say they were not come to that height to have Primates Metropolitans and Arch-bishops Wherefore their neighbour the Arch-bishop of Yorke having gained the consent of the Pope bestirred himself very earnestly by the assistance of his King to have the Scotish Bishops acknowledge him for the Metropolitane whereunto the stoutest of the Scotish Clergie would not consent but they would depend immediately upon the Pope and to this effect Legats were sent from Rome to Scotland who being come hither and seeing the resolution of the Scotish Bishops not to submit to the Archbishop of Yorke and finding their own benefit thereby they did exempt and free the Scots Clergie from the trouble of the Arch-bishop of Yorke There was one Gilbert Bishop of Catnes a great strugler for this businesse About the later end of this Age sundry Priests were put from their Office because they had taken Orders upon Sunday In that time there was a Synod in Perth of Divines such as they were who decreed That Sunday should be kept holy from all work from Saturday at mid-day or twelve of the clock till Munday morning In the thirteenth Age few yeers after the beginning thereof divers kindes of Monks came into Scotland formerly unknown to the Land as Dominicans Franciscans Iacobins and sundry other of that sort of Locusts In this Age these Vermine of Monks did so multiply every where that at a Councell at Lyons it was decreed That no more new Orders of Monks should be admitted or tolerated But how the Decree hath been kept we see in our dayes Next the Monks of severall kindes gave themselves so to Begging that the people were much eaten up by them and the poor his portion was withdrawn which occasioned a great murmure among the Commons Upon this there was a Decree made then That onely the Minorites Praedicants Carmelites and Hermits of S. Augustine should have liberty to beg Whence they are called The four Mendicants Les quatre Mendiants Towards the end of this thirteenth Age fell out that great desolation of the State of Scotland occasioned by the Controversie for the Succession of the Crown betwixt Baliol and Bruce Baliol being constrained by the States of Scotland to break the promise he had made to Edward of England To subject the Crown of Scotland unto him for judging the cause on his side After much trouble and misery of War the State of Scotland receives Robert Bruce come of the second Branch for King recalling all the subjection and Allegiance that they had given to Baliol because of his unworthinesse to Reign who beside unfitnesse to bear rule over a Military People had basely condescended to enslave that Nation to whom their Liberty hath been so dear to this day that for it and the purity of true Religion which both by Gods mercy they now enjoy they have willingly and cheerfully undergone all hazard of life and means judging That if they suffered these two twins Liberty and Religion either to be infringed or taken from them they had nothing left them whereby they might be called men The remarkable History of King Iames the first of Scotland fitteth this purpose very well The Passage is this King Iames the first going into France was taken by the English and kept prisoner by them for many yeers In that time the King of England goes
Gods just Judgement He was most oppressed for thâ— delation and false accusation of such as professed Christs Evangel as M. Thomas Mairioribanckes and M. Heus Rig then advocates did confesse to M. Henry Balnaves who from the said Thomas Scot came to him as he and M. Thomas Ballenden were sitting in Saint Giles Church and asked him forgivenesse of the said Thomas None of these terrible forewarnings could either change or alter the heart of the infortunate and misled Prince but still he did proceed in his accustomed wayes For in the midst of these evils he caused to put hands on that notable man M. George Buchanan to whom for his singular erudition and honest behaviour was committed the charge to instruct some of his naturall children But by the mercifull providence of God he escaped albeit with great difficulty the rage of those that sought his life and remaines alive to this day in the yeere of God 1566. to the glory of God to the great honour of this nation and to the comfort of those that delight in letters and vertue That singular Worke of Davids Psalms in Latin Meeter and Poesie besides many others can witnesse the rare graces of God given to that man which that Prince by instigation of the gray-Friers and of his other flatterers would altogether have devoured if God had not provided remedy to his servant by escaping the keepers being asleep he went out at the window This cruelty and persecution notwithstanding the monsters and hypocrites the gray-Friers day by day came farther in contempt for not onely did the learned espie and detest their abominable hypocrisie but also men in whom no such graces or gifts were thought to have been began plainly to paint the same forth to the people As this Ryme which here we have inserted for the same purpose made by Alexander Earle of Glevearne to this day 1566 alive can witnesse intituled An Epistle directed from the holy Hermite of Larites to his Brethren the gray-Friers I Thomas Hermite in Larite Saint Francis brother heartily greete Beseeching you with firme intent To be watchfull and diligent For thir Lutherans rissen of new Our ordour dayly doth pursew These smacks do set their whole intent To read this Engls ' new Testament And sayth we have them cleane desceivd Therefore in haste they must be stopped Our stately hypocrisie they pryse And do blaspheme us on this wise Saying that we are heretiks And false loud lying Matin tykes Cummerers and quellers of Christs Kyrk Such lasie scemlers that will not wirk But idlely our living winnes Devouring Wolfs into Sheepe-skinnes Hurkland with huids into our neck With Judas minde to Jowcke and Bek Seeking Gods people to devore The overthrowers of Gods glore Professors of hypocrisie Doctors in Idolatrie Fishears with the feynds nette The upclosers of heaven gate Cancard corrupters of the Creede Hemlock sowers among good seed To throw in brambles that do men twist The hye way kennand them from Christ Monsters with the Beasts marke Dogs that never stintes to barke Church men that are to Christ unkend A sect that Sathans selfe has send Lurking in holes lyke trator todes Maintainers of Idolles and false godes Fantastike fooles and frenzie flatterers To turne from the trueth the very teachers For to declare their whole sentence Would much cumber your conscience To say your fayth it is so stark Your cord and loosie cote and sark Ye lippin may you bring to salvation And quyte excludes Christ his passion I dread this doctrine and it last Shall either gar us worke or fast Therefore with speede we must provide And not our profit overslide I schaip my selfe within short while To curse our Ladie in Argyle And there some craftie wyse to worke Till that we builded have one Kyrk Since miracles made by your advice The kitterells thought they had but lyce The two parts to us they will bring But orderly to dresse this thing Aghaist I purpose for to cause gang By counsayll of Frear Walter Lang Which shall make certaine demonstrations To help us in our procurations Your holy ordor to decore That practise he provd once before Betwâ—xt Kyrkcadie and Kinggorne But Lymmers made thereat such skorne And to his fame made such digression Since syn he heard not the Kings confession Though at that time he came with speede I pray you take good will as deede And some among your selves receave As one worth many of the leave What I obtaine you through his art Reason wold ye had your part Your order handles no money But for other casualtie As beefe meale butter and cheese Or what else you have that you please Send your brethren and habete As now not els but valete Be Thomas your brother at command A Culrune kethed through many a land After God had given unto that mis-informed Prince sufficient documents that his warring against his blessed Gospel should not prosperously succeed He raised up against him Warres as he did of old against divers Princes that would not hear his voice in the which he lost himself as we shall hereafter heare The occasion of the Warre was this HENRY the eighth King of England had a great desire to have spoken with our King and in that point travelled so long till that he gat a full promise made to his Ambassadour Lord William Howard The place of meeting was appointed Yorke which the King of England kept with such solemnitie and preparations as never for such a purpose was seene in England before Great brute of that journey and some preparation for the same was made in Scotland But in the end by perswasion of the Cardinall David Beton and by others of his faction that journey was stayed and the Kings promise falsified Whereupon were sharp Letters of reproach sent unto the King and also unto his counsell King Henry frustrate returneth to London and after his indignation declared began to fortifie with men his frontiers toward Scotland There was sent to the borders Sir Robert Bowes the Earle of Angus and his brother Sir George Dowglas Upon what other trifling questions as for the debetable land and such the Warre brake up we omit to write The principall occasion was the falsifying of the promises before made Our King perceiving that Warre would rise asked the Prelats and Churchmen what support they would make to the sustaining of the same for rather would he yet satisfie the desire of his Uncle then he would hazard warre where he saw not his force able to resist They promised mountains of gold as Satan their father did to Christ Jesus if he would worship him for rather would they have gone to hell then he should have met with King Henry for then thought they Farewell our Kingdom of Abbots Monks c. And farewell thought the Cardinall his credit and glory in France In the end they promised fifty thousand crowns by yeere to be well paid so long as the Warre lasted and further That
our Countrey without our counsell knowledge and consent We dispute not so much whether the bringing in of moe French-men be violating of the appointment which the Queen and her faction cannot deny to be manifestly broken by them in moe causes then one as that we would know if that the heaping of strangers upon strangers above us without our counsell or consent be a thing that may stand with the Liberty of our Realme and with the profit of our Common-wealth It is not unknown to all men of judgement That the fruits of our Countrey in the most common yeers be no more then sufficient reasonable to nourish the born inhabitants of the same But now seeing we have been vexed with wars taken upon us at the pleasure of France by the which the most fruitfull portion of our Countrey in Corne hath been wasted What man is so blinde but that he may see That such bands of ungodly and idle Souldiers can be nothing else but an occasion to famish our poore brethren And in this point we refuse not which is the chiefe the judgement of all naturall Scottish-men The Queen Regent alleadged That although there was an hundred French-men for one that is in Scotland yet she is not minded to trouble any unjust possession Whereto we answer That we dispute not what she intended which neverthelesse by probable conjectures it is to be suspected but alwayes we affirm that such a multitude of French-men is a burden not onely unprofitable but also intolerable to this poor Realme especially being treated as they are by her and Monsieur Dosell For if their wages be paid out of France then are they both the Queen we say and Monsieur Dosell traytors to the King and Counsell for the poor Commons of this Realme have sustained them with the sweat of their brows since the contracting of the Peace and somewhat before What motherly affection she hath declared to this Realm and to the inhabitants of the same her works have evidently declared even since the first hour that she hath borne Authority And albeit men will not this day see what danger hangs over our heads yet fear we that ere it be long experience shall teach some that we have not feared without cause The cruell murther and oppression used by those whom now she fostereth is to us a sufficient argument what is to be looked for when her number is so multiplied that our force shall not be able to gainstand their tyranny Where she complaineth of our Preachers affirming that unreverently they speak of Princes in generall and of her in particular inducing the people thereby to defection from their duty c. And therefore that such a thing cannot be suffered Because this occasion is laid against Gods true Ministers we cannot but witnesse what course and order of Doctrine they have kept and yet keep in that point In publike prayers they recommend to God all Princes in generall and the Magistrates of this our native Realme in particular In open audience they declare the Authority of Princes and Magistrates to be of God and therefore they affirm that they ought to be honoured feared and obeyed even for conscience sake provided that they command nor require nothing expresly repugning to Gods Commandment and plain Will revealed in his holy Word Moreover they affirm That if wicked persons abusing the Authority established by God move Princes to command things manifestly wicked That such as can and do bridle those inordinate appetites of misled Princes cannot be accused as resistaries of the Authority which is Gods good Ordinance To bridle the rage and fury of misled Princes in free Kingdoms and Realms they affirm it appertaineth to the Nobility sworn and borne Councellors of the same and also to the Barons and people whose votes and consents are to be required in all great and weighty matters of the Common-wealth which if they do not they declare themselves criminall with their misled Princes and so subject to the same vengeance of God which they deserve for that they pollute the seat of Iustice and do as it were make God author of Iniquity They proclaim and cry That the same God who plagued Pharaoh repulsed Sennacherib struck Herod with worms and made the bellies of dogs the grave and sepulcher of the spitefull Jesabell will not spare misled Princes who authorize the murtherers of Christs members in this our time On this manner they speak of Princes in generall and of your Majesty in particular This onely we have heard one of our Preachers say rebuking the vain excuses of such as flatter themselves by reason of Authority Many now adayes said he will have no other Religion nor faith then the Queen and Authority had But is it not possible that the Queen be so far blinded that she will have no Religion nor no other faith then may content the Cardinall of Loraine And may it not likewise be true that the Cardinall is so corrupt that he will admit no Religion which doth not establish the Pope in his kingdome But plain it is That the Pope is Lieutenant to Sathan and enemy to Christ Iesus and to his perfect Religion Let men therefore consider what danger they stand in if their salvation shall depend upon the Queens faith and Religion Further we never heard any of our Preachers speak of the Queen Regent neither publikely nor privately Where her Majestie declareth It will not be suffered that our Prerchers meddle with Policy or speak of her or of other Princes but with reverence we answer That as we will justifie and defend nothing in our Preachers which we finde not God to have justified and allowed in his Messengers before them so we dare not forbid them openly to reprehend that which the Spirit of God speaking in the Prophets and Apostles hath reprehended before them Helias did personally reprove Achab and Jesabell of idolatry of avarice of murther and such like Esaias the Prophet called the Magistrates of Jerusalem in his time companions to thieves Princes of Sodome bribe-takers and murtherers he complained that their silver was turned into drosse That their wine was mingled with water and that Iustice was bought and sold. Jeremie saith That the bones of King Jehoiakim should wither with the Sun Christ Iesus called Herod a Fox and Paul calleth the high Priest a painted wall and prayeth unto God that he should strike him because that against justice he commanded him to be smitten Now if the like and greater corruptions be in the world this day Who dare enterprise to put to silence the Spirit of God which will not be subject to the appetites of misled Princes We have said before That the tenth of September was appointed for a convention to be holden at Sterlin to the which repaired the most part of the Lords of the Congregation At that same time arrived the Earle of Arran who after he had saluted his father came with the
Domesticks or to any that came from France to offend Gods Majestie and to violate the Laws of the Realme more then any other Subjects For Gods Law had pronounced death to the Idolater and the Lawes of the Realme had appointed punishment for sayers and hearers of the Masse which said he I here protest be Universally observed and that none be exempted untill such time as a Law also publikely made and also consonant to the Law of God have disannulled the former Hereupon he took Documents and Acts as the Tenour of this his Protestation witnesseth IN so far as by this Proclamation it is made understood to the Church of God and Members thereof That the Queen is minded that the true Religion and Worship of God already established proceed forward that it may daily encrease Unto the Parliament that order may be then for extirpation of all Idolatry out of this Realme We render most hearty thanks to the Lord our God for her Majesties good minde earnestly praying that it may be encreased in her Majesty To the Honour and Glory of his Name and Weal of his Church within this Realme And as touching the molestation of her Highnesse Servants we suppose that none dare be so bold as once to move their finger at them in doing of their lawfull businesse And as for us we have learned at our Master Christs Shoole To keep Peace with all men And therefore for our part we will promise that obedience unto her Majestie as is our dutie That none of her servants shall be troubled molested or once touched by the Church or any member thereof in doing their lawfull businesse But since that God hath said That the Idolater shall die the death We Protest solemnely in the presence of God and in the eares of all the people that heares this Proclamation and especially in the presence of you Lion Herauld and the rest of your Colleagues maker of this Proclamation That if any of her servants shall commit Idolatry especially say Masse participate therewith or take the defence thereof which we are loath should be in her Highnesse company in that case That this Proclamation is not extended to them in that behalf nor be not a safe-guard nor girth to them in that behalfe no more then if they commit slaughter or murther seeing the one is much more abominable and odious in the sight of God then is the other But that it may be lawfull to inflict upon them the paines contained in Gods Word against Idolaters where ever they may be apprehended without favour And this our Protestation we desire you to notifie unto her and give her the Copie hereof lest her Highnesse should suspect an uproare if we should all come and present the same At Edinburgh the day and yeere aforesaid This boldnesse did somewhat exasperate the Queene and such as favoured her in that point As the Lords then called of the Congregation repaired to the Towne at the first coming they shew themselves wonderfully offended That the Masse was permitted So that every man as he came accused them that were before him but after they had remained a certaine space they were as quiet as were the former Which thing perceived a zealous and godly man Robert Campbell of Kingzieclench said unto the Lord Uchiltrie My Lord now you are come and almost the last of all the rest and I perceive by your anger that the fire edge is not off you yet but I feare that after that the Holy-water of the Court be sprinkled upon you that you shall become as temperate as the rest For I have been heere now five dayes and at the first I heard every man say Let us hang the Priest But after that they had beene twice or thrice in the Abbey all that fervencie past I think there be some inchantment whereby men are bewitched And in very deed so it came to passe For the Queenes faire words upon the one part ever still crying Conscience Conscience It is a sore thing to constraine the Conscience And the subtill perswasions of her supposts we meane even of those who were judged most fervent amongst us upon the other part blinded all men and put them in opinion She will be content to heare the Preaching and so no doubt but she may be wonne And this of all it was concluded To suffer her for a time The next Sunday Iohn Knox inveighing against Idolatry shewed what terrible plagues God had taken upon Realmes and Nations for the same and added That one Masse there were no more suffered at first was more fearfull unto him then if ten thousand armed enemies were landed in any part of the Realme of purpose to suppresse the whole Religion for said he in our God there is strength to resist and confound multitudes if we unfainedly depend upon him whereof heretofore we have had experience But when we joyn hands with Idolatry it is no doubt but both Gods amiable presence and comfortable defence will leave us and what shall then become of us Alas I fear that experience will teach us to the grief of many At these words the guiders of the Court mocked and plainly spake That such fear was no point of their faith it was besides his Text and was a very untimely Admonition But we heard the same Iohn Knox in the audience of these same men recite the same words againe in the midst of troubles and in the audience of many asked God mercy that he was not more vehement and upright in the suppressing of that Idoll in the beginning For said he albeit I spake that which offended some which this day they see and feel to be true yet did I not that which I might have done for God hath not onely given unto me knowledge and tongue to make the impiety of that Idoll knowne unto the Realme but he had given me credit with many who would have put in execution Gods Judgements if I would onely have consented thereto But so carefull was I said he of that common Tranquility and so loth was I to have offended those of whom I had conceived a good opinion that in secret conference with dearest and zealous men I travelled rather to mitigate yea to slacken that fervency that God had kindled in others then to animate or encourage them to put their hands to the Lords Work wherein I unfainedly acknowledged my self to have done most wickedly and from the bottome of my heart do aske of my God grace and pardone for that I did not what in me lay to have suppressed that Idoll in the beginning These and many other words did many heare him speake in publike in the moneth of December 1565. when such as at the Queenes Arrivall onely maintained the Masse were exiled the Realme summoned upon Treason and decreit of forfeiture intended against them But to returne from whence we have digressed Whether it was by counsell of others or of the Queens