FOUR SUPPLICATIONS:

XIII. p. vii at foot; p. xiv. Mr E. Arber has since found a titleless copy of Simon Fish's "Summe of the Scripture out of the Dutch," in a little wellknown volume of rare tracts in the British Museum. (See his Preface to his edition of Roy's Rede me & be not wroth, ed. 1871.) As this volume had been in the hands of most of our profest Bibliographers, the identification of Fish's treatise is no small credit to Mr Arber.

p. xvii. The mislaid Lambeth copy of the "Sheep-tract" after our print of it went to press.

was found soon

p. 111, col. 2.. Gnatonical: for "gnat-like" (copied unthinkingly by Mr Cowper from an edition of Foxe's Martyrs) read 'Deceitful in words; flattering; like a smellfeast or parasite.' Bullokar & Cockeram, in Todd's Johnson, p. 114, col. 2, line 7, for thimble read thurible

WHEN trying to get together some evidence on the Condition of England in Henry VIII's and Edward VI's reigns for the Introduction to the Ballad of Now a Dayes (? ab. 1520, A.D.) for my first volume for the Ballad Society, I was struck by the difficulty of finding out what tracts and books on the subject there were, and how few of them could be easily got at, much less bought at any reasonable price. But when I did get hold of some of them, I found them of such interest and value that I resolved to reprint such of them as I could, and one of the earliest1 is now before the reader.

The second in date, the celebrated Supplicacyon for the Beggers, is however the first in importance, from its influence on Henry VIII and the Reformation, and its calling forth an answer from Sir Thomas More, his Supplycacyon of Soulys (in Purgatory), which gave rise to his controversy with Tyndal. I therefore give Foxe's full account of the whole matter from the third edition of his Acts and Monuments, A.D. 1576, pp. 986-991.

1 Roy's Rede me and be not wroth is the earliest, and was in print by 1527 or -8, says Mr Arber. Mr Hazlitt dates Roy, 'Wormes 1526': but query. It is not in Foxe's list of Forbidden Books in 1526 (p. xii., below), though it is in that of 1531, printed in my Political, Religious, and Love Poems, 1866, p. 34: 7. The burying of the masse in English yn ryme.' Of Roy's other book in that list, 13. A Boke made by freer Roye ayenst the sevyn sacramentis,' I know of no copy. Bohn's edition of Lowndes says of the 'Rede me and be not wroth", "in the Roxburghe Sale Catalogue this piece stands entitled 'The Buryinge of the Mass, a Satire'." Can Foxe's 'M. Roo' on the next page be William Roy?

vi

FOXE'S STORY OF M. SYMON FISHE.

M. Simon Fyshe, author of the booke, called the Supplication of Beggars.

THE STORY OF M. SYMON FISHE.

Before the tyme of M. Bilney, and the fall of the Cardinall, I should haue placed the story of Symon Fish, with the booke called "the Supplication of Beggars," declaryng how and by what meanes it came to the kynges hand, and what effect therof followed after, in the reformation of many thynges, especially of the Clergy. But the missyng of a few yeares in this matter, breaketh no great square in our story, though it be now entred here [under the year 1531] which should haue come in sixe yeares before. The maner and circumstaunce of the matter is this:

viuoque testimo

coniugis.

After that the light of the Gospel, workyng mightely in Germanie, began to spread his beames here also in England, great styrre and alteration folowed in the harts of many: so that colored hypocrisie, and false doctrine, and painted holynes, began to be espyed more and more by the readyng of Gods word. The authoritie of the Bishop of Rome, and the glory of his Cardinals, was not so high, but such as had fresh wittes sparcled with Gods grace, began to espy Christ from Antichrist, that is, true sinceritie from counterfait religion. In the number of whom, was the sayd M. Symon Fish, a Gentleman of Grayes Inne. It happened the first yeare that this Gentleman came to London to dwell, which was about the yeare of our Lord .1525. that there was a certaine play or interlude made by one M. Roo of the same Inne, Gentleman, in which play partly was matter agaynst Ex certa relatione, the Cardinal Wolsey. And where none durst take nio propriæ ipsius vpon them to play that part, whiche touched the sayd Cardinall, this foresayd M. Fish tooke vpon him. to do it; wherupon great displeasure ensued agaynst him, vpon the Cardinals part: In so much as he, beyng pursued by the sayd Cardinall, the same night that this Tragedie was playd, was compelled of force to voyde his owne house, & so fled ouer the Sea vnto Tyndall: vpon occasion wherof, the next yeare folowyng this booke was made (beyng about the yeare .1527.) and so not long after, in the yeare (as I suppose) 1528. was sent ouer to the Lady Anne Bulleyne, who then lay at a place not farre from the Court. Which booke, her brother seyng in her hand, tooke it and read it, & gaue it her agayne, willyng her earnestly to giue it to the kyng, which thyng she so dyd. The booke of the This was (as I gather) about the yeare of our Lord .1528. The kyng, after he had receaued the booke, demaunded of her, who made it. Wherunto she answered and sayd, a certaine subiect of his, one Fish, who was fled out of the Realme for feare of the Cardinall. After the kyng had kept the booke in his bosome iij. or iiij. dayes, as is credibly reported, such knowledge was giuen by the kynges seruantes to the wife of ye sayd Symon Fishe, yt she might boldly send for her husband, without all

supplication of beggars geuen to the kyng.

was.

FOXE'S STORY OF M. SYMON FISHE.

vii

perill or daunger. Whereupon, she thereby beyng incouraged, came first, and made sute to the kyng for the safe returne of her husband. Who, vnderstandyng whose wife she was, shewed a maruelous gentle and chearefull countenaunce towardes her, askyng where her husband She aunswered, if it like your grace, not farre of. Then sayth he, fetch him, and he shall come and go safe without perill, and no man shal do him harme; saying moreouer that hee had much wrong that hee was from her so long: who had bene absent now the space of two yeares and a halfe. In the whiche meane tyme, the Cardinall was deposed, as is aforeshewed, and M. More set in his place of the Chauncellourshyp.

and gently enter

Thus Fishes wife, beyng emboldened by the kynges M. Fishe brought, wordes, went immediatly to her husband beyng lately tayned of the come ouer, and lying priuely within a myle of the kyng. Court, and brought him to the kyng: which appeareth to be about the yeare of our Lord .1530. . When the kyng saw him, and vnderstode he was the authour of the booke, he came and embraced him with louing countenaunce; who after long talke, for the space of iij. or iiij. houres, as they were ridyng together on huntyng, at length dimitted him and bad him take home his wife, for she had taken great paynes for him. Who aunswered the kyng agayne and sayd, he durst not so do, for feare of Syr Thomas More, then Chauncellour, & Stoksley, then Byshop, of London. This seemeth to be about the yeare of our Lord .1530.

The kyng, takyng his signet of his finger, willed hym M. Fishe rescued to haue him recommended to the Lord Chauncellour, by the kyng. chargyng him not to bee so hardy to worke him any harme. M. Fishe, receiuyng the kynges signet, went and declared hys message to the Lord Chauncellour, who tooke it as sufficient for his owne discharge, but he asked him if he had any thyng for the discharge of his wife; for she a litle before had by chaunce displeased the Friers, for not sufferyng them to say their Gospels in Latine in her house, as they did in others, vnlesse they would say it in English. Whereupon the Lord Chauncellour, though he had discharged the man, Syr Tho. More yet leauyng not his grudge towardes the wife, the next persecuteth M. mornyng sent his man for her to appeare before hym: who, had it not bene for her young daughter, which then lay sicke of the plague, had bene lyke to come to much trouble. Of the which plague her husband, the sayd M. Fish, deceasing M. Fishe dyeth within halfe a yeare, she afterward maryed to one M. of the plague, Iames Baynham, Syr Alexander Baynhams sonne, a worshypful knight of Glostershyre. The which foresaid M. Iames Baynham, not long after was burned, as incontinently after, in the processe of this story, shall appeare.

And thus much concernyng Symon Fishe, the author of the booke of beggars, who also translated a booke called the Summe of the Scripture, out of the Dutch.

Fishes wyfe.

The summe of the scripture

translated by M. Fishe.

viii

HOW THE SUPPLICACYON' GETS TO HENRY VIII.

Now commeth an other note of one Edmund Moddys, the kynges footeman, touchyng the same matter.

M. Moddys the

The booke of

This M. Moddys beyng with the kyng in talke of kynges footeman. religion, and of the new bookes that were come from beyond the seas, sayde, if it might please hys grace to pardon him, & such as he would bryng to his grace, hee should see such a booke as was maruell to heare of. The kyng demaunded what they were. He sayd, two of your Marchauntes, George Elyot & Beggars brought George Robinson. The kyng poynted a tyme to speake with them. When they came afore his presence in a priuye closet, he demaunded what they had to saye, or to shew him. One of them said yt there was a boke come to their hands, which they had there to shew his grace. When he saw it, hee demaunded if any of them could read it. Yea, sayd George Elyot, if it please your grace to heare it. I thought so, sayd the kyng, for if neede were, thou canst say it without booke.

to the kyng by George Elyot, & George Robynson.

The kynges aunswere vpon the booke of beggars.

The whole booke beyng read out, the kyng made a long pause, and then sayd, if a man should pull downe an old stone wall and begyn at the lower part, the vpper part thereof might chaunce to fall vpon his head: and then he tooke the booke, and put it into his deske, and commaunded them vppon their allegiance, that they should not tell to any man, that he had sene the booke. &c. The Copie of the foresayd booke, intituled of the Beggars, here ensueth.

The supplication of the soules of

by Syr Tho.

[The Boke of Beggars follows here in print.]

Agaynst this booke of the Beggers aboue prefixed, Purgatory, made beyng written in the tyme of the Cardinall, another conMore, agaynst the trary booke or supplication, was deuised and written booke of beggars. shortly upon the same by one sir Thomas More, knight, Chauncellour of the Duchy of Lancaster, vnder the name and title of the poore sely soules pewlyng out of Purgatory. In the which booke, after that the sayd M. More, writer therof, had first deuided the whole world into foure partes, that is, into heauen, hell, middle earth, and Purgatory: then he maketh the dead mens soules, by a Rhetoricall Prosopopca, to speake out of Purgatory pynfolde, sometymes lamentably complayning, sometymes pleasauntly dalying and scoffing, at the authour of the Beggers booke, sometymes scoldyng and rayling at hym, callyng hym foole, witlesse, frantike, an asse, a goose, a madde dogge, an hereticke, and all that naught is. And no meruel, if these sely soules of Purgatory seeme so fumish & testy. For heate (ye know) is testie, & soone inflameth choler; but yet those Purgatory soules must take good hede how they call a man a foole and heretike so often. For if the sentence of the Gospell doth

Math. 5. pronounce them guiltie of hell fire, which say, fatue, foole it may be douted lest those poore sely melancholy soules of