TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE, HENRIE EARLE OF PENBROOKE, LORD HARBERT OF CARDIFF, MARMION, AND S. QVINTINE, KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE Garter, and Lord President of WALES, Grace and peace, with encrease of Honor

If in this time of trouble, and disorderlie age of the world, it may not seeme, right Honorable, ouer-great boldnes in mee to presse your Honour with these my labours, who are already ouer-pressed with your owne, which with continual and vncessant care & watchfulnes you vndertake for the quiet & repose of this our Church & Countrie: I shal humbly craue of your Honor to lend a fauourable eie vnto this litle work, & to reach your hand of approbation vnto it, that so beeing fenced with your honourable protection & countenance, it may the more securely & freely put it self in the view, & beare the face & countenance of others. The reasons & causes which haue induced mee to presume thus farre, are such as I make no doubt, but vpon declaration of them to obtaine and finde your Honour most ready and easie in yeelding your assent. For, were it that your auncient fauour and good will manifoldly extended to my father, who long since departed this mortality, had not at all stretched to met his sonne, but had with him alone both liued & died: Yet might not I, without some skar of impiety, commit that euer the memory of that should die in mee, the profit & pleasure whereof I knew in him so long to liue. But seeing it hath further also, as I lately was giuen to vnderstand, so pleased your Honour, that this happy course of your fauor should not begin & end in one, but should continue & lineally run on; & that the force & vertue thereof, should passe continuately from the root vnto the brāches: much more blameable verily would be my silent forgetfulnesse, & double would the fault be, where dutie doublie is required. In which considerations, if I should haue made any distrust of your good acceptatiō, or should any way haue with-drawen this small present, by misdoubting the welcome it should receiue at your Honours handes: I might haue beene most iustly arraigned & condemned of an vndutiful & vngrateful cogitation, being without al either colour of excuse, or shadowe of pretence to free & acquite mee from it. And that especially, seeing the Author, whom I interprete, & the matter which hee conteineth, are both of that qualitie, as, if I stoode to waite & expect a fit time & a worthy person for them, no time might seeme fitter than this for which I should reserue them, no person worthier than your selfe to whom I might present them.

For this beeing the time, & these the euill daies, wherein Satan & the powers of darcknesse haue broken loose vpon the chosen of God, & the broode of Antichrist, hatched long agoe, but neuer flush vntill now, haue, by the cōmission of their Dam, taken their flight out of their nests, in which they roosted for a season, & are flowen in flocks abroade into all coasts & countries christian, to charm with sweet, but false notes of hereticall melodie the hearts of silly people, & the wits euen of the Gallants of this worlde: what greater opportunity & more fit occasion, in respect of these & the like occurrences, could haue offered it selfe vnto me, or I haue wished, for the bestowing of either my paines on this Booke, or this Booke on my deare Country? Which as it giueth place to no Realme nor Region of the earth in the constant loue & fast embracing of the booke of books the Volume of the highest, & the blessed trueth of God almighty: so is it not behind them in beeing assaulted & shaken euerie way, what by the casts & complots of forrainers, what by Diuelish practises, conspiracies, & proditions of Domesticals, that some-way at least it might be throwen down, clogged with a yoke of seruitude, & enthralled to the slauery of the man of sin.

For the better effectuating of which their purposes, & more cunning & currant bringing them to passe, how of late yeares, yea & daies, many fugitiue persons of this our Country, ordained & sacred by their Superiours to this good end, haue made their returne in swarmes vnto vs with outlandish minds & Doctrine, to inspire the people with heresie & rebellion: none so farre in any course of life remooued & estrainged from publicke action, whose eares haue not beene mooued, & his verie heart wounded with these tidings. No time or season which they haue omitted, no place, no creeke, no corner in this land which they haue not sought out, no person from almost the highest potentate to the lowest woorme, whom they haue not felt, &, except hee hath beene too sound, sounded & wagged & lifted at too, that they might plant & supplant, set & vnset, roote in & roote vp,¹ & all, as one of their old whining Prophets soothly & solemnly with teares full often telleth the Christian world, to bring vs home vnto the lap of our mother, holie Church, of which their Lorde the Pope is holy father. Well may hee be her father, but then such a father doubtlesse hath he beene vnto her, as is recounted by ancient Historie Aruntius a Romane to haue bin vnto his virgin daughter Medullina,² with whom in the darke, rapt with a pang of drunkennes, he committed incest. But were the Church of that remorse of conscience & resolute courage in reuenging herselfe for this spiritual villanie, as was that virgin for suffering that corporall force & rauishment: Shee would burne within her inflamed with a fiery zeale of holie indignation, & drawing out this incestuous Romane, who hath defiled her in the darknes of Idolatrie, himselfe drunken with the cup of fornication, would bring him vnto the altar, euen that altar of the Lord, which hee hath made a witnesse of so many his hateful pollutions & incests, & there slay him before God, for the appeasing of his ire & wrath towards her, & for the washing away of this so grieuous a blot & high reproch of her Virginity.

The which that the poore seduced people of our land, may bee the better enabled, & more throughlie animated to take in hande & put in execution, who nowe as shaken & shattered reedes are carried and blowen awaie with euery puffe & blast, euery breath & winde of Iesuiticall mouthes: I haue, in charitable regard & commiseration of their cases most miserable, taken into my handes this learned Abridgement comprising in no great roome the very full bodie & course of all Diuinity & Christianity, & opened the hidden treasures thereof vnto them in their mother-speech, that nowe no longer, (after they are once brought to the light & knowledge of their whole duty, what to God, what to their Soueraigne, what to euerie man & their natiue Country they must performe) they suffer themselues to be slocked away, by wily merchants, from Christ their Master; neither stand in a mammering, as men rent in sunder, a part here, & a part there, a part with Belial, & a part with Christ, a part with Spaine, & a part with England, a part with the Pope, & a part with Queen Elizabeth: but all may in an vnanimity of cōsent striue one way, folowe one Christ, liue loially in their own Country, vnder their owne blessed Liege & Lady, with all prosperity.

Whose person then, in a woorke of so great moment and so good importance, might I haue preferred before, or matched in equall ballance with your Honor, to whose fauour & patronage I should commend it: of whose zeale, wisedome & industry most constantlie shewed in this cause of God, her Maiesty, the Church & publike weale of this kingdome, thousands of those, who are nowe liuing in those Prouinces, ouer which you are placed, cannot but yeelde their testimonie to that, the fruit & benefit whereof they liue & ioy in, and which deserueth not onelie a present remembrance, but a perpetuall registring & recommendation to all succeeding ages.

In which most worthy and noble endeuours, as it hath pleased God to make and appoint you a chiefe and principall instrument for the continuance of his Gospel, and for the eternising of his name & glorie here amongest vs: So beseech I him, that it will please him so to make and appoint you still, & with an enlarged bountie & liberalitie so to encrease the riches of his graces & gifts in you, that you may with strength go forward, continue, and neuer giue ouer in this holie & honourable race of your life, & in the glorious quarell of Christ & his spouse; vntill when in the end without end you may reigne with him in glorie.

Your Honors most humble at commaund, HENRY PARRIE.

Footnotes

1. D. Allen, in his Apologie of their two Seminaries; and in other his treatises of like tragedie. ↩

2. Plutar. in Parallel. ↩