Jacob 4.

MARSHALL, (GEORGE.) A compendious treatise in metre, de-
claring the firste originall of Sacrifice and of the buylding of
Aultares and Churches, and of the firste receauinge of the
Christen fayth here in Englande by G. M.

Jacob. 4.

Drawe nyghe to God, and he wil drawe nighe to you.

Anno Domini 1.5.5.4. 18. Decembris.

[Colophon]. Excusum Londini in ædibus Johannis Cawodi Typographi Regiæ Maiestatis. 4to, pp. 24, blk. lett.

Queen Mary began her reign on July 6, 1553, and this poem, written by a sincere admirer of hers, who belonged to the faith professed by that sovereign, was published December 18, 1554. It is a severe attack against the early Reformers, and against the Scriptures being read in the mother tongue, and is of the greatest rarity. The title is surrounded by a neat wood-cut architectural design, with the initials of the printer, I. C., in a shield at the bottom. On the reverse is "The Preface unto the Readers," in two eight line stanzas, containing an acrostic on the author's name, which may be allowed a place here:

Clense your

Spiritus ubi vult spirat.

Good readers pardon me I praye you more and lesse

Emptye of learning, furnished with rudenesse

Onlye my good will, accepte here in this place

Regarde here the stories, though they you apprehende

Grudge you not at the, but your faultes amend

Exaples there you shew, for to moue you to grace
Use me and amēd me, and I wil thanke you therfore
Saue me sure harmelesse, and I aske you no more.

Marke not my ryme, but regard well ye matter
As tyme shal serue you, reade it with leasure

Referring all faultes to your good discretion

Sythe I am bare of knowledge, and voyde of eloquence
Haue it not in despite, but pardon my insolence

Al thynges I wishe to come, to good ende and conclusion
Laude God and prayse him howe euer ye worlde turne
Loke wel to the marke yt all men muste runne.
handes

ye synners, and purge your hartes ye waueryng mynded.
"To the

The preface is followed by a dedication in prose, five pages,

right worshipful Mayster Richarde Whartun Esquier G. M. dothe wishe longe life with grace," in the course of which the writer dwells much on the duty of withholding the English version of the Scriptures from the people. "Who," says he, "happie good syr, is that man, that hath not entered into their wicked iudgement neyther yet hath walked in their peruerse wayes neyther yet hathe rested themselfes in theyr seate or pestilēt chayre. Yet doth these wicked byrdes chatter, and continuallye saye: that all the cause of our plages hathe bene for that we haue not receaued gods word, as thoughe Goddes woorde was neuer in this realme before, and that Gods worde can not be receaued, but in the Englishe tongue. But surelie, good syr, the rulers of the earth hath bene to blame for suffering so precious and holye a juell to be cast amonge swyne, sithe Christe himselfe hath warned us the contrarye. And so it is an olde sayinge, that to much familiaritie ingendreth contempte: yet will this wicked generation so stifflye stande in argument, that it is necessarye that al men shuld haue the Bibel and Testament in their mother tongue, as thoughe that all men being ordeyned to learne Gods worde, shoulde also bee teachers. But surelye, good syr, theyr opinion is verelye false, as you shall well perceaue." He then quotes the example of Uzzah being punished for touching the ark, and continues the argument with the erroneous view of supposing that every reader of God's word must necessarily be a preacher of it.

The poem itself, which commences on the following page, contains fiftyseven stanzas of eight lines each, and opens thus:

As I laye musing in my bedde alone

My pillowe remouinge: For slepe was gone
So troubled was my spirite by greuous agonye
Consideryng the state and staye of our beleue
The oft chaunging therof christen hartes doth greue
Which standeth in no staye, it is the more pitie
God geue us grace our lyues to amende
And true fayth in Englande agayne sende.

For lacke of grace we haue gone astraye
Ensuing the steppes of wickednes alwaye
Our soules and bodyes by synne is corrupted
The thinges that of olde to God was begonne
We fondely agayne haue them fordonne
The badde for the good unsemely placed
Experience hath taught us, it is well knowen

That euil men haue reped, that good men haue sowen.

The author then alludes to the institution of sacrifice from Scripture history, commencing with Adam; the sacrifice of Cain and Abel; Noah, who, after the flood,

Beganne fyrst to buylde to God an Aultare

Whereon he dyd offer swete incense and sacrifice,

the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham; the preaching of Jonah to the Ninevites; David's numbering the people; Solomon, and his magnificent temple, who made "aultare of Golde unto the Lorde"; Christ's coming, when twelve years old, with his parents to Jerusalem, and his public entry, before his death, into that city. The first introduction of Christianity into England is thus related:

Fiftene hundred yeares past we in writing find
Synce Lucy was Kyng of Englande by kynde
Whyche sent to the Pope called Eleutherius
That he woulde sende or els sone come

This Realme to cōuerte to holy Christendome
Which sent Damian with his fellow Forganus
Then was this Realme to Christ conuerted

Which we agayne hath falsely subuerted.

After mentioning the persecutions of Dioclesian ("that slewe saynt Albon "), Gayus Decius, Nero, Maximilian, and others, the following is his version of the well-known story of the origin of the later preaching of St. Augustine in this country:

Yet was not this realme fully conuerted
Which was before by infidelitie subuerted
Tyll Gregorye in Rome, Pope was there

He came into the markette, as it by chaunce fel
Where as he founde Englishe chylderne to sell
Demaūding of what coūtrie and nation they were
Aunswere was made of Englande they be

As Angles, sayde Gregorye, they seme to me.

Then sent to Augustine with good intent
Which dyd aryue at Tanette in Kent

The kynge and the subiectes he cōuerted there

Then fayth agayne began for to sprynge
Which then was receaued of subiectes and kynge
As in the Englishe Cronicles it doth appeare
Why should we at Rome now haue despyte
That chaunged our darkenesse agayne to light.

Ethelbertus was then kynge, as I haue redde
Berta hyte the Queene, that much desired
To here Augustine preache Gods worde deuine
Then dyd it chaunce and folowe by successe
That the people conuerted bothe more and lesse
To Christes fayth, and holy doctrine
Then began kynges Churches to buylde
Which were before with Idoles defyled.

Then came to raygnyng by succession in time
Noble kynge Edgar, Oswoulde, and Edwyne
That found and rebuylded mo then fortie abbeies
That were before by the Saxones destroyed
And eke by infideles, that the fayth denied
To counte some by name, as storie sayes
Whinchester, Wylton, Brought, and Ramsey,
Glastonbury, Abyngton, and also Thorney.

Edmund and Edward ful noble kinges thei were
Which buylded worthely, and for no cost did spare
To erecte such places to Gods honor and glorye

O Henry the seuenth a ful worthy king was he
Whose noble workes in Cambrydge you may se

And eke in Westminster both suptuouse and costlie

As the good tree by the fruite is euer tryed

So are good men by their workes espied.

Although slightly referring to the destruction of the monasteries, and the churches attached to them, yet whilst thus lavish in his praise of Henry VII., he is cautious enough, for fear of offence, not once to allude to the sovereign who was the destroyer of them (the father of the reigning queen), nor to her predecessor Edward VI., but the whole fury of his wrath and indignation is poured out upon the early reformers of Germany.

O cursed Germany, woo be unto the

That first nowe began to skowre the old heresie

of the Caphernites and Arians with other diuers mo
With the was harbored the cursed Luther,
Ecolampadius, Melancton, and Bullingere,
Carolstadious, Stalbrydge, and wicked Otho.
Marke to what ende their learning is come
By warre and sedition, their Realme undone.

These cursed men and wicked teachers
Were cleane contrarie to Gods holy preachers
That taught false libertie, deuout vertue to hide
Downe with the churche, ye Masse and the grayle,

See Tanner.

Prayer and fasting naught doth preuayle
That thing y' was good, they myght not abide

That good men of olde, study to maynetayne

Nowe Antichristes preachers hathe destroyed agayne.

So also of our own great reformer in England, he says:
All the old heresies that heretofore were
Were put in use by John Wyckeleffe here
And were confuted by William Wylford

He was a famous clarke, and an english man borne
Whose workes containe those heresies eche one
Which he dyd confute, as the bokes recorde
Hony and poyson of sweete floures are sucked

So truth and falshode on scripture is gathered.

The fall of Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, and his followers, after the hasty attempt to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne in the preceding year, is thus exultingly remembered by Marshall:

Yet is but in vayne herein to enterdyte

What care the befel y' at the church had despite
Wittenesseth well Cromwell as you wel know
Duddely the stoute with his fellowes aye

Their parte on the skaffolde full well did playe
That then were on hye, and nowe are full lowe
These men are to us example and warning

To serue our Lord GOD, and obey the Kynge.

And then, after setting up Queen Mary, "God's chosen vessell," above "the wydowe Judith and Quene Hester" of Scripture, and recording her zeal in restoring the ancient faith, the author concludes the whole with the following stanza:

God save the Quene.

Prayse be to God that a noble quene hath sent
Ouer us for to raygne if we canne be content
That wel hath begonne to call thinges agayne
The which were before by falsehead subuerted
Agayne to Gods glorie, she hath them couerted
Amonge us Christians euer to remayne

Sithe we were before deceaued with heresie

Let us nowe be faythful, and geue God the glorie.

Amen.

Cœlum et terra transibunt, uerba autem mea non præteribunt.
This poem was entirely unknown to Herbert or Dibdin.

Lowndes