number; then shall each man beare him bold of other, and seditiously flock togeather; then shall lawes be laughed to skorne; then shall: the servaunt contemne his maister, and subject not obey, but constrained. What then but robberie, adulterie, perjuries, and all iniquitie!"

And how trulie he spake, daylie experience, to the greefe of all good men, doth: certainlie, yea feelingly give testimonie to the worlde.

And to confirm that he had some insight in mat→ ters to come, mark this which now doth follow: On a tyme when his daughter Margaret resorted to him in the Tower, after he had a while questioned with her of his Wife and his Children, and the state of his house, at last he asked how Queen Anne did. "In faith Father," (quoth she) "never better." "Alas! Meg," (quoth he) it pitieth me to thinke in what miserie, poor soul, she shall come unto, and that very shortlie!". And before one yeare was ended, she dyed a violent death;- forshe was beheaded for heynous offences, (as is to be seen in Parliament acts.)

And at another tyme, when it was told him how Queen Anne delighted the Kinge mervellous much with her dancing, "Well may it fare with her," (quoth he). These sports will end in sorrow. Our heads for this dancing must pay for it; let hers stand fast, I charge her."

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Once as he was coming from the Court, he found all his children and nephews at their prayers. "This is well done" (quoth he). Use this exercise, as much as you may. Tyme will come, my Children, and you shall see it, that men will

Let hers stand fast.] Queen Anne Boleyn was beheaded the nineteenth of May, 1536; and the very next day the King was married to Lady Jane Seymour.

VOL. II.

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make

make no more account of prayer, than they do of their old shoes:" which long agoo we have seen fulfilled in this our countrie, by the means of that foule heresie that now infects the worlde with her poisoned doctrine of securitie of salvation.

At another time he said in this manner to his Children. "It is now no maisterie, my Children, to go to heaven; for everie bodie giveth you good counsele; and everie bodie good example. You see virtue rewarded, and vice punished; so that you are carried up to heaven even by the chins. But if you shall live, the tyme will come, when no man will give you good counsel, no man will give you good example; when you shall see vertue punished, and vice rewarded: if you will then stand fast, and sticke firmly to God, upon pain of thy life, though you be but half good, God will allow you for whole good. This tyme, my good children, will come, therefore be provided for it."

6. We will now speak somewhat of his learning and writings, whereby he hath consecrated his worthie name to immortall fame, till the worlds end. Somewhat we have spoken of this matter before; how in his youth in Oxforde he followed and profitted in the studies of Philosophy, Lawe, and Divinitie. For an Oration, he had few his fellowes; and for his verse he was little inferior. It happened in the fourteenth yeare of King Henry the eighth, that Charles the fifth, the Emperour, came into England, and was most magnificentlie receeved by the Cittee of London. At which tyme Sir Thomas More made a merveilous eloquent oration in the presence of the Emperour and King, in their praises and commendations, and of the great love and amity the one bare to the other, and how singular comfort and utilitie both the realms receaved thereby.

Whensoever

Whensover the Kinges Highness would make his progression to Oxforde and Cambridge, where by those Universities he was congratulated with most exquisite orations, his Grace would alwaies assign Sir Thomas as one prompt and readie ex, tempore to make answer: which to his great praise he would presentlie doe. Yea in poetry he was excellent good. His Epigrams were pleasant, wittie, not byting, nor contumelious; whereof some he translated out of Greeke, some he devised in Latin, some in English: for this he was liked of Beatus Rhenanus in Epiftola ad Billebaldum, where thus he saith; "Thomas More's verses run sweet and pleasant, not harsh nor strained, no lameness nor obscuritie therein. More is eloquent, wittie, pare, plaine; and all is so tempered in so sweet a measure, that no musieke can be found more pleasurable. I think the Muses have consulted to bestow upon him all their elegances, beauties, graces, all their wittie and pleasant conceits." This was also the opinion of Leodegarius a Quercu, a famous Poet of France; and others held him in the same account; yet never tooke he liking of them himself, as he writeth to Erasmus. Mea epigrammata nunquam placuerunt animo meo, id quod ipse mihi Erasme conscius es. My Epigrams never pleased my minde, as thou thyself Erasmus well knowest. His learning and skill in the Greek tongue was verie great: and what a learned man he was in our Common Lawes, his great offices bear witness: what in civill pollicies and government, what in historie and divinitie, he left testimonie to the world by his bookes and monuments. He wrote the Life of Picus Earle of Mirandula, and translated into English his twelve rules of a good life; and this in his younger age; at which tyme he wrote manie devout and sweet Epigrams. A little after he

wrote a Treatise De Quatuor novissimis, but left it unfinished. He wrote the Life of King Richard the third, both in Latin and English. He left them both unperfect, neither durst any to take upon them to finish the same, being by reason of the incomparable excellencie of the worke discouraged from that enterprise. He wrote also a booke of the historie of Henry the seventh: either the booke is smothered amongst his kinne, or lost by the injurie of this tyme. I doubt not but that it was like to the rest.

But the booke that carrieth the prize above all his other workes for eloquence, invention, and matter, is his Utopia; which he wrote about the thirty third yeare of his age. In it he painteth the patterne and platforme of a most perfect common weale, making it to be one of the new found lands. The invention was so wittiely contrived, that they thought there had been such a countrie indeed; and of their fervent zeale wished that some Divines might be sent thither to instruct them in the faith of Christ. This booke for the excellencie of it, is translated into the French, Flemish, and Italian tongues, with a good grace; but into English absurdly and lamely. After this he made another book, but in another kinde, against Luther. Of this we spake before. The matter was grave and substantial; the manner fit for the author of such filth as Luther in his book to the King shewed himself.

He wrote also a Treatise against the Epistle of John Pomerane, a great Piller of Protestancie. He wrote also an Exposition in Latin upon the Passion of our Lorde.

His bookes of controversie in English be these: The first is his Dialogues, commonly called, Quoth he and Quoth I. He wrote also a book against

the

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the Supplication of Beggers. Then wrote he against Tyndall, and Friar Barnes nine books. After this, in the deffence of the blessed Sacrament, he wrote against John Frith. After this his Apologie. And then anone after another booke intituled the Debellation of Salem and Bisance. After all this, being Prisoner in the Tower he wrote three bookes of Comfort in Tribulation, a booke not inferior to any of the rest. There is nothing in it but religion and piety; it is full of ghostlie and heavenlie coun saile. It is a work rather of an angel than of a man; for he was destitute of all bookes and human helps when he wrote it; he was close Prisoner, and had neither inke nor pen for the most part, but onlie a cole. Although his penn was blunt and dull, and but a blacke cole, yet he had another cole that inflamed his heart, such as toucht and purified the lips of Esay; and by the help of this sacred cole, that counsaile, which he gave to others in his bookes he practised himself in patient suffering the losse of his landes, goods, and life too, for the defence of justice. He wrote at this tyme a Treatise to receave the Blessed Sacrament: A Treatise of the Passion: manie godlie and devout prayers and instructions; and these most of them with a cole. And in effect theise be the works he made either in Latin or English, which, (considering his continuall business and employments in the great affairs of the Common Wealth, his house and family) were verie manie. It is great question whether is more to be mervailed, how in the worlde, having so manie occasions of lets and troubles he could write so much, or how afterwards, being destitute of bookes and other helps, he could write so cunninglie and exactlie of everie matter he handled.

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Sir

B.