Number XXI. BOOK II. Cox, bishop of Ely, to the lord treasurer: upon the queen's leave to resign his bishopric. INCREDIBILIS ista tua humanitas, et benignitas, qua Epist. ep'al. veterem tuum amicum, licet jam tandem membrum invali- penes me. dum atque inutile, candide prosequeris, solidum mihi adfert gaudium. Probe autem intelligere te rationes meas omnes fere, quomodo tractatus fuerim in episcopatu meo hisce fere xxti. annis, tuam prudentiam non fugit. Somersamia aliquid negotii mihi facessivit. Jucundæ fuerunt nonnullis maneriorum meorum aucupationes. Nec te latet quanta pecuniæ summa mihi constiterit multiplex et frivola delatio illa ad regiam majestatem; cujus tua prudentia probe conscia est. Alia minutiora prudens prætereo. Tandem injustissima illa querela ex dni. Goodrici indentura, nihil minus sentiente, quam quod Richardus Bruchinus, magna aulicorum turba fultus, conatur invertere, vix dum in cancellaria finem obtinere potest. Nec unquam obtinebit, nisi ipsa majestas, sicut olim mandavit, ut in sua curia cancellariæ terminaretur, hoc negotium præceperit atque mandaverit: ita nunc pro æquitate et clementia sua, qua tantam litis materiam præbuerit, ut ipsa jubeat istam indenturam evacuari atque cancellari. Hoc enim postulat æquitas et bonitas. Atque hujus rei probe conscius est regius cancellarius. Quod vero regia majestas adeo candide acceperit literas meas qualescunque animi pii significationes, illius majestati me plurimum debere fateor: imo, alias, pro innumeris ipsius beneficiis. Maxime vero ingentem illam benevolentiam, nuper in me exhibitam ingenue agnosco, quod ætatis atque imbecillitatis memor, tanquam pia matrona, imo, indulgentissima mater, mei rationem habet, ut ab onere episcopali, longe quam olim ad id muneris ineptiorem, eximat, alterisque benigne concedat. Et quoniam facile credo illius animum non esse alienatum ab episcopo Norvicense; teque non alienum ab eo animum gerere; equidem, si ita ipsius majestati æquum esse videatur, non ipsum successorem recusavero. Quod ad petitiones meas attinet, eas omnes exaravi, tuæ BOOK que prudentiæ examinandas proposui: et per tabulam per II. filium meum tuæ celsitudini examinandas [misi.] Quicquid 132 autem regiæ sublimitati approbatum fuerit, mihique concessum, si ipsum, quicquid est significare mihi non dedigneris, imprimis curabo, ut consiliorum meorum prudentia in ordinem redigatur, et ipsius majestatis judicio submittatur. Deus Opt. Max. pietatem tuam utraque benedictione, hoc est, hujus vitæ et æternæ, beare dignetur, cum toto tuo famulitio. Ex ædibus meis Dodingtoniensibus, decimo sexto die Decembris, 1579. Tuus pro sua tenuitate fidiss. amicus, Richardus Eliens. [ Number XXI.] A list of papists imprisoned, anno 1579, in divers places in the realm. Their names, qualities, and ages. MSS. Foxii. In the Tower of London. D. Rich. archbishop of Ar- D.Thomas Methamus, priest, In the custody of the bishop D. Thomas Watson, bishop D. John Fecknam, late ab- In the Fleet, London. D. Robert Cook, priest; a- D. Windam, LL.D. 50. 50. Cotton, gent. In the Marshalsea, London. about 80. D. Leonard Bilson, priest; about 50. D. Thomas Cook, monk; about 70. D. Thomas Bluet, priest; about 40. D. Christopher Thomson, priest. D. William Allen, priest; about 70. D. William Basset, priest, Henry Benfeld, gent. 40. MSS. Burg. Number XXII. Prowde, parson of Burton upon Dunmore, to the lord treasurer: exciting him to speak freely to the queen in behalf of religion, (as professed by some,) discountenanced. THE peace of God is felt in a good conscience. The which I wish unto your honour more and more, unto the end and in the end. Amen. Your bringing up in true religion; things published by you to the comfort of the brethren; (that hath bewrayed the smaching that we have of the sight of sin, and wrath of God against sin;) hath made me ever to love and reverence you with my heart: and sometime when I could pray, to pray and to be thankful to God for you: desiring him so to bless and preserve you, that you might increase in all godliness for ever; to the most furtherance of his glory and your comfort in Christ Jesu. But afterwards the report was, that ye did openly revolt from your religion, and fell to go to idolatrus sarvys: and so, by your dead doings therein, consented to all the bloud of the prophets and martyrs that was shed unrighteously in Manasse's days. And now in Josia's days ye came not to God's persecuted church, that he builded, maintained, and defended from time to time, against the force of the wolf II. of the pro in exile. and the lion; which was not corrupted, nor polluted with BOOK idolatry; a wherein was the word of God purely preached, the sacraments godly ministred, and discipline without par- Meaning it tiality executed: and hearty prayer to God was made for fessors of God's afflicted church. By the which I persuade my self, the gospel and for the suffering of the just of that church, that both ye, and others now in great authority, and the whole land be- 134 side, fared the better. Ye came not I say, I say thither, [viz. to Frankford, Strasburgh, Zuric, Geneva, &c.] as others did, that were in your fault; confessing there your open falls and sinning in idolatry; axing mercy of God for it, and purposing, by his grace, never hereafter to fall into sin again. And so to have entered into a new league and covenant with him; purposing fully in your heart, by his grace, never to do so ill again. But being rid out of idolatrous bondage, it is said and reported, ye gave your consent to the building of God's house or church; that was not builded in all points so perfectly, as the other that he himself had builded, without any lawful or godly magistrate; and left in those days for an example, as I suppose, for you to have followed. Also, it is said, that ye were one of them that at the first maintained that, for the which many good men lost their livings: and by little and little the practice of the papists, as it is feared, hath grown to displace good justicers, to put down profitable exercises of the word, as also of prayer and fasting, sometime used: where tears were shed, not only for their own sins, but of those murnyng souls of Sion, for all the abominations of Jerusalem. Which a heathen king seeing his people given unto, was so far from forbidding of it, that he confirmed it by his writing and dede-doing. Which turned the wrath of God from them: as their desire was, that here used this exercise of prayer and fasting: foreseeing the evils now present, and more to be feared to be at hand. For I fear, they see not their practice that first set brother against brother herein. Also, it is said, that you from time to time, fearing to exasperate the prince, and to make her worse in religion, have spared your plainness, and have not dealt with her so plainly |