was persecuted for his Christian profession in a towne of Galizia there was a germane Marchant that as the idole of the Masse was caried in the stréetes he neglected to kneele downe wherefore he was apprehended and put in prison and beinâ— there a Monke came vnto him to peruaâ—t him but coulde not the Monke askeâ— him if hâ—e coulde make a hundreth Duccates this Dutch Marchante answered that he coulde make so much why then sayd the Monke I wil warrant thee thy life without deniall of thy fayth but thou must doe as I will tell thee when thou comest before the Inquisitour whatsoeuer he demaundeth say I woulde gladly learne The Dutch marchant saide as I by you am instructed so will I doe but my faith I will neuer godwilling renounce The Monke went before the Inquisitour and told him that he had conferred with this Dutch marchant but with a verier foole he neuer talked Therfore said this Monke seing I gather by his words that hée is worth a hundreth Duccates take what he hath and let him goe to his countrey The In quisitour was contented to take the money and caused him to be sent for who when hee came was willed to say his pater noster I woulde gladly learne sayde the Dutch marchant did not I say the trueth quoth the Monke that this man is a very foole the Inquisitour bid him say his credo in Deum patrem I woulde gladly learne quoth the Dutch marchant the Inquisitour asked him why he knéeled not before the reuerende Sacrament of the altar then he sayde that cost mee a hundreth Duccates I perceiue now quoth the Inquisitour to the Monke that he is a very foole well goe with him into his shippe and receiue the money As the Monke the Dutch marchant passed by a Church the Monke stouped downe mouing his hoode and doing obeisaunce to the picture of Christ to the pictures of saint FraÌ„cis and saint Dominick the Dutch marchant neuer touched his bonet Wherefore the Monke rebuked him the Dutche marchaÌ„t asked to whoÌ„ he should vncouer his head said the moÌ„ke to the picture of christ and to the pictures of saint Francis and saint Dominicke Truly sayd the Dutch marchant I was to blame for not putting off my bonet there is Christ in déed for I heard tell that Christ was crucified betweene two theeues and I thinke that saint Frances saint Dominicke were those théeues this Dutch marchant paid to this Monke the hundreth Duccates and gaue the Monke a cloth gowne Graunt Lorde that none within this lande no one that draweth breath In heart disdaine to crie God saue our Queene Elizabeth I Youth when Fancie bare the sway Within my peeuishe braine And reasons lore by no meanes could my wanton will restraine My gadding minde did pricke me forth a Pilgrimes life to proue Whose golden shewes vaine delights my senses then did mone O mightie God which for vs men didst suffer on the crosse The painefull pangues of bitter death to saue our soules from losse I yéelde thée here most hearty thankes in that thou doest vouchsafe Of me most vile and sinfull wretch so great regarde to haue Alas none euer had more cause to magnifie thy name Then I to whome thy mercyes shewde do witnesse well the same So many brunts of fretting foes Who euer coulde withstand If thou hadst not protected me with thy most holy hand A thousand times in shamefull sort my sinfull life had ended If by thy gracious goodnes Lord I had not béene defended In stinking pooles of Poperie so déepely was I drownde That none there was but thee alone to set my foote on ground When as the fiende had led my soule euen to the gates of hell Thou caldst mée backe doest me choose in heauen with thee to dwell Let furies now fret on their fill let sathan rage and rore As long as thou art on my side What néede I care for more God saue our Quéene Elizabeth and graunt her many yéeres to raigne with health peace and prosperitie God defende her honourable Counsell and guide them with his holy spirite in all their actions the nobilitie Bishoppes Magistrates and commons their heartes good Lord incline to all goodnesse The complaint of a sinner LIke as the thiefe in prison cast with wofull wayling mones When hope of pardon cleane is past and sighes with dolelfull grones So I a slauâ— to sinne with sobs and many a teare As one without thy helpe forlorne before thy throne appeare O Lorde in rage of wanton youth my follies did abounde And eke since that I knewe thy trueth my life hath béene vnfound Alas I doe confesse I sée the perfect way Yet frailtie of my féeble flesh doth make me run astray Aye me when that some good desire woulde moue me to doe well Affections fond make me retire and cause me to rebell I wake yet am asléepe I sée yet still am blinde In ill I runne with headlong race In good I come behinde Loe thus in life I dayly die and dying shall not liue Vnlesse thy mercy spéedily some succour to me giue I die O Lord I die If thou doe mée forsake I shall be likened vnto those That fall into the lake Yet though my hard and stony heart be apt to run astray Yet let thy goodnesse mée conuert so shall I not decay Swéete God doe rule my plants And shéelde mée from annoy Then my poore soule this life once past shall rest with thée in ioy H. G. G. FINIS ¶ Imprinted at London at the three Cranes in the Vinetree by Thomas Dawson for Thomas Butter and Godfrey Isaac 1581.
selfe will the instruments of Sathan and men pleasers in iniquitie they that buy embrace bookes wherin consisteth matter of defence in true religion or a plaine discouery of the hypocrisie of the wicked or the manifestation of the corrupt liues of suche as fight against their own consciēce I meane Papists What Papiste is there of any knowledge learning or reading in diuinitie but he knoweth seeth and readeth the trueth D. Alen. D. Bristow D. Nicolson Parsonnes Campion others were sometimes Protestantes but nowe as Demas Crescens Titus and Alexander they are departed from vs because perhaps they woulde not nor coulde not anie longer abide with vs what shall I say of the Seminarie men the most part of them all forsooke their Countrey for want of liuings for want of maintenaunce there are fiftie Schollers in the English Seminarie at Rome that coulde not tell what shift to make for their liuing here in England therefore being loth to bee taken as vagrantes and burnt in the eare as Roges they thought it farre better for the auoyding of this infamie to hazarde their soules to keepe their eares whole and their necke bone vnbroken they feared maister Recorder of Londō very much they thought it good to proue the Popes liberalitie in renouncing the trueth which before they professed and in acknowledging him to be their Christ to be their Messias to be their Iesuah And for some succour sake they outwardly faine themselues to be Papistes but inwardly the most part of them doe see the trueth and confesse they are in a wrong way some of them oftentimes tolde me at Rome whose names I omitte to put in writing hoping their conuersion that the Romish faith was not the true faith Foure of these with mee determined very often secretly to forsake Rome and returne to our countrey But these foure Schollers by their familiar frindes and fellowe Schollers were with much a doe perswaded to remaine at Rome vntill by their Rectours they shoulde be sent to England But as for me what I once determined to do by the sufferāce of god that I thought to bring to passe perswasions coulde nothyng cause me to change my purpose I was perswaded by diuers both by the Iesuites and by the schollers to remaine at Rome but I woulde not nor coulde not vnlesse I had despaired of my saluation as I did during the time of my sicknesse for that in hypocrisie I liued as a Papist my conscience striued so mightily within me that I feared not in talke with my fellowes to speake against the Romishe religion insomuch that oftentimes I was at Rome called heritique I appeale vnto them for testimonie of this trueth that haue heard mee so speaking at Rome but what is this to the purpose greater was my sinne that for any temporall liuing I shoulde forsake my God wherefore very often troubled I am in conscience and grieued in mind that I committed such an horrible offence in the sight of God In deede I must needes confesse that I beleeued vnfaignedly a Monasticall life to haue beene allowable before God I graunted inuocation of Saintes and as for transubstantiation I doubted these two pointes of the Romish religion I did hold a little before my conuersion at the Towre to haue bene firme and agreeable to God his holy worde and as for the thirde point which was transubstantiation I could not tell what to thinke therof but nowe God be thanked I am resolued in these three points as a Christiā ought to bee this treatise is called the book of Pilgrimage for that in my perigrinatiō I haue seen with mine eies the most things which I haue written in this booke for your instructiō christian readers not for any profite of mine estimation fame or glorie to bee gotten thereby as the Papistes doe surmize I am briefer then I woulde bee and that because there are certaine bookes scattered against mee and against my workes whiche bookes if I may geat I meane God willing to pourge my selfe of the slaunders and false reportes of the aduersaries I take no great pleasure in writing greater pleasure would I take to applie my studies but seeing that the Papistes seeke to deface my sayings it is reason that I should defend mine owne cause as farre forth as I may if they flow in termes of Rhetorique and seeke to shadow the truth with their subtilitie I woulde be contented with a plain stile so that I were able to bring forth somewhat in defence of truth I craue the spirite of mildnesse and not the spirite of scoffing and taunting which spirite they neuer want Farewell louing readers God graunt you a perfect faith and to me likewise and also for my former sinnes and hypocrisie the fatherly visitation of God here in this worlde that I may once feele Gods loue towardes me a sinner an abiect and wormes meate God be mercifull vnto me and confirme my faith God forgiue me mine hypocrisie my wicked life and lewde behauiour God giue me grace neuer to commit the like trespasses against his diuine maiestie in word or deede Be thou fauourable O Lorde vnto Sion build vp the broken walles of Ierusalem forsake not thy Sanctuarie but saue thine elect from the pernitions customes of the wicke◠worlde so full of poyson so full of murther so full of whoredome so full of auarice so full of contempt and so full of securitie that alas euen with horrour it swelleth to the toppe of the vppermost heauens and it annoyeth the seate of the most highest Such as are gone astray God bring them home such as are conuerted God make them strong such as are and euer herevnto haue bene in the true faith of Christ God giue thē perseuerance vnto the ende and in the ende suche as are wicked God make them good God increase the number of his elect God make vs all his faithfull seruantes to raigne with him in glory and blisse in his kingdome of euerlasting ioy Amen I. N. If vertue faile as it doth beginne The people must quaile and die in their siune And if it decrease Gods curse is at hand To destroy vs our peace our soules and our lande Therefore let vs amende Gods plagues to preuent For when life is gone it is to late to repent Take heede then to preaching Gods worde to imbrace And learne to take warning least God you deface IN not well perusing my copie through my default Christian readers fiue or sixe grosse words haue escaped my hands to the print vncorrected but yet they are not so grosse and obscure but that others more learned then I am in a matter more graue haue writen the like wherefore let not these fiue or sixe words offend your modestie neither thinke the woorse of my booke if any other faultes bee escaped in the booke amēd them I pray you and construe them to the best A Lessandro imperatore diceua che il prencepe doueria sempre essere piu prōto presto in dare
Sbirri euen to Saint Peters Church they woulde hane killed him in the Vestiarie had not the shauen crownes holpen him and deliuered him from the danger then imminent Cardinall Como Cardinall Morono cardinall Sauello best fauourers of the English Seminarie at Rome are very proÌ„pt and readie to exhort the English Priests â—o seduce the simple people héere in England and to stirre vp dissention amongst â—he Gentrie But to warne the popes â—chollers to goe decently in apparrell to walke circumspectly in their calling to deale with all men simplie and iustly to liue vertuously they neuer intende it But what crastie counsell may be giuen to make hurly burly in this lande they giue it To speake a little of the Bishops I thinke it not amisse The Bishop of Versellis and the Bishop of Pauia were at great dissention for worldly dignitie as my brother reported vnto mée who was with them both and heard how the one backhited the other and the one maliciously slaundered the other The one dealt with my brother very liberally willed him to certifie the Bishop of Pauia what liberall giftes hée had receiued at his handes The other knowing of the Bishop of Versellis liberalitie gaue him more Iuels then other wise hee woulde haue doone and willed him to tell the other Bishops what hée had giuen But when they gaue him so much money for that the one woulde séeme more vertrous then the other I cannot tell buâ—â— surely because the one willed him to ceâ—tifie the other how much money hée hareceÌ„tued I thinke it hypocrisie The Bishop of Turym had the name in the town to be very much fleshly minded but whe ther hée was such a one or no I canno of certaintie tell how beit thus went thâ— report of him Though the Bishop oâ— Granoble hath vowed chastitie yet heâ— hath two or thrée base borne children and kéepeth a well complextioned gentlewomaÌ„ to serue him at bed at boord What liuers the Bishops are in Fraunce they that haue dayly trafficke in those countries may soone knowe and howe wickedly most Bishops I doe not say all leade their liues they that bée trauellers can easily shew I will not name all whom I haue knowne by the report of manie to haue liued very hypocritically naughtilie in germany where papistrie reigneth The Bishops in many places liue not spiritually but secularly as my brother hath séene with his eyes Let no man thinke that I reporte these thinges to thee of malice How the generation Papisticall Bishops haue liued from me to time histortes do declare Hee â—at was Bishop sometime of Cambray 〈◊〉 his booke de vitis Patrum de rebus estis Catholicorum writeth how that in â—raunce Germanie Italie Spaine and Engâ—ande also when the saying was Viuat Papa Romanus Bishops liued more after the example of Sodomites Tyrians Sydonists theÌ„ after the example of true vertuous Christians There was a Bishop saith this writer that was born in Germanie dwelt there when this Bishop was a boy hée was so dull of conceining any thing the was taught him by his maister that hée prouoked to himselfe more stripes then all the rest of the schollexs besides This lad being werie of suffering more stripes and beatinges made his prayer to our blessed Ladie Marie the mother of our Lorde Iesu Christe who being as it were ouercome with his often supplication asked him at the last what hee woulde haue then answered the boy the gift of learning For now through defect thereof I am beaten without compassion Our blessed Lady powred so much doctrine into his mouth thaâ— hée was readie to crye It is good Therâ— shée tolde him that after the decease oâ— the Bishop of his Diocesse hée should bâ— created a Bishop and bée his successour This man soone after excelled his maister in perfect knowledge of good Literature and after the discease of the Bishop hée became Bishop in his roome but afterwardes hée liued so sensually and so voluptuously that hée surpassed the beastes of the field in sensualitie and voluptuousnesse For hée tooke the Nunnes out of their Monasterie and made them his bedfellowes hée rauished his neighbours maidens and defiled his neighbors beds insomuche that vpon a time there came a voyce vnto him and saide Thou hast doone enough repent now but hée lightly regarding what the voyce had told him became worse worse Another time the voyce came and tolde him againe Thou hast doone enough nowe repent but the next night he tooke two Nunnes out of a Nunrie and stept with them both Then the spirite of illusion came as they were a bed in the forme of a man and willed â—e bishop tomake roome who asked him owe hée entered into the chamber the ore being lockt The spirite answered â—at hée opened the doore by his cunning Then hée asked him againe how he durst â—ée so bolde but the spirite making no â—nswere too this demaund bad the Biâ—hop make roome without asking any â—nore questions Then the Bishop asked whence he was he answered from Hell â—hen saide the Bishop what is it the thou wouldest haue then saide the Hellishe â—pirite come thy way thou hast liued too â—ong in pleasures and delights These wordes being saide hée tooke the Bishop and lifted him vp in the ayre and letting him fall bruised and mangled so piteousâ—y that it was horrible to be beholded As â—oone as the day light appeared the Bishops seruaÌ„ts being vp saw their master â—ying dead on the ground very deformed dissigured by the furious spirites of Hel. Hée writeth another historie in his booke of a certaine Bishop who had a temporall princely dignitie beside his reuerend spirituall function As this Bishop was on a day riding abrode there beheld him a farre of a poore husbande man whom when the Bishop sawe hée called vntâ— him and asked why hée behelde him 〈◊〉 gréedily Mary quoth the poore man was straunge in my sight to sée you princely attyre and your courtly rouâ— of valiant champions and noble Gentlâ—women Doest thou not know that am both a Secular Prince and a Spirâ—tuall Bishop Then answered the couâ—try man I knowe not so much but surâ—ly I thinke it is harde for a man to seruâ— God and the worlde to bée chaste and 〈◊〉 maintaine waiting gentlewomen Theâ— saide the Bishop thou saiest truth thaâ— beyng a Bishop I must liue as a bishop but whereas thou séest I am a temporaâ— prince beside I may flaunt in my brauery héere in this worlde and doe God gooâ— seruice I may kéepe as many men anâ— women as I liste What followeth iâ— the Historie thou maist reade my sonne at thy leasure Thou mayest see mâ— sonne many such pretie histories in thaâ— Byshop of Cambrays booke full of delectation I wyll tell thée my sonne of onâ— Bishop that gote a childe by his owne â—aughter hée dwelt in Bauaria and had â—is daughter to kéepe his house whom he â—iked so well that hée tryed the maisterie with her