not sufficed with men, conceiued inordinate, vnnaturall, and therewith vntemperable lust to engender with a bull. Neither regard of vertue, honor, kindnesse, nature, or shame, in respect of God, her husband, her countrey, her selfe, or the whole world, could restrayne her violent rage of vncleane affection: yet wist she neither how to wooe the bull, nor how to apply her selfe vuto him. A meane, at length; was found to make thys vnkindly coupling.

There liued then a cunning craftesman Dedalus, the selfe same Dædalus, of whom it is famous how he made hym winges, wherewith, by cunning guiding hym selfe, he passed seas and countries at hys pleasure. And winges he made also for Icarus hys sonne to fly with hym; but, the vncunning Icarus climbing to neare the sonnes heate, bys winges, melting, fell into the water, and gave name to the sea.

Thys fine Daedalus, to satisfie the wicked queenes feruor of lust, and to match her and the bull in abhominable copulation, framed a cowe, and so made couered and vsed it with leud deuises, and therein so inclosed and placed the good, innocent, and vertuous lady, that, of the bull, she conceived the abhomination of the world, and, in time, brought forth the monster Minotaurus, halfe a bull and halfe a man, fierce, brutish, mischieuous, cruell, deformed, and odious.

To shroud thys monster from common wonder, and yet therewithall to deliuer hym the foode and contentment of hys crueltie, the destruction of men, a labyrinth, or maze, was builded by the same cunning Dædalus, wherein Minotaurus, the man bull, or bull man lurked, and men passing in thether to hym, by entanglement of the maze, and vncertayne error of wayes, were brought to a miserable end; till at length valiant Theseus, furnished with the policy of wise Ariadne, receaued of her a clew of thred, by which, leauing the one end at the entrie, he was continually guyded and preserued from the deceauing maze, and hauing slayne the monster, by conduct of the same thred, safely returned,

The appliance hereof to the experience of our times bath an apt resemblance, not to proue, but to shew them the image of some doinges at these dayes, and therewith, by conference, not onely to sharpen an intentiue sight of that which we winck at, but also to rayse a iust lothing of that, whereof, by some hurtfull impedimentes, we haue not discerned, or rather not marked the horror.

Lecherous Pasiphae may well be applyed to treason in hye estates addicted to papistrie, forsaking gods ordinance of humane royall gouernement; which when so euer it happeneth (for happe it may, and hath oft so chaunced) such treason destroyeth good and naturall affection; it kindleth vile and beastly desires, and, among all other, none comparable in filthinesse to the lust of yelding them selues to beare the engendring of the great bull of Basan, or rather of Babylon, the oppression, incumbence, and tiranny of Rome, the vsurpation of the Romaine siege, the siege of all abhomination. Thys principall traitorous lust, that throweth downe the person vnder this vncleane desire, throweth away vertue and respect of God; for Romaine pride hath climbed into the seate of God, and shooued to shoulder hym out, and banished vertue by open dispensing with vice. It expelleth remem

brance of honor and kindnesse in regard of husband, for fayth of wedlocke hath no place in adulterers; and, by Romaine practises, neither doth superstition permit the soule to keepe her chastitie from idolatries, and from forsaking Gods rules of religion; nor the wife her due fayth from wandering lust, nor the husband hys safetie from traitorous violence. It driueth out naturall loue of countrey; for it prostituteth all dominions to the common adulterer, vnderminer, and forcer of kingdomes, the bull of Rome. It banisheth shame; for it boasteth her filthinesse to the worldes sight, soliciteth it publikely, practiseth it openly, defendeth it impudently, and carieth in glorious pompe and triumph, not, as Io, ryding on a bulles backe through the water, but, as it were, carnally wallowing with a beast on the toppe of Traianes piller. And, surely, no more sodomiticall is, in nature, the vnnaturall mixture of a bull and a woman, than is sodomiticall, in policie and religion, the intermedling of the popish vsurpation of Rome with a temporall prince, yelding hys or her realme to popish iurisdiction; or with the spouse of Christ, the vniuersall church, rauished by that bulles force, or defyled by hys abuses: but, as in Pasiphae, so, where such rage of traitorous and superstitious desire entreth, Gods grace forsaketh, honest feare departeth, shame flyeth, and the lust is vntemperable.

The Dædalus, that must bryng the enioycng of thys horrible lust to effect, is the treason of popish clergie, full of cunning workmanshyp, as the world hath long had great experience; euen the same popish clergie, that hath framed to hym selfe wynges, not naturally by Gods ordinance growyng to the body therof, but made of fethers pulled from temporall princes, and from byshops in theyr owne dioceses, by vsurpation; fastened together by art of symonie, and ioyned to theyr bodyes with the glew of superstitious credulitie. With these haue they passed landes, and seas, clymbyng and flyeng in ayre, that is, vpon no stedfast groun, aboue mountaines, trees, and countries, that is, aboue emperours, kings, iust prelates, and common weales,

The sonne of this Dædalus, that is, of treason of popish clergie, is Icarus, that is, aspiring treason of subiectes; which following his father and guide, popish treason, but not so well guiding hymselfe, for lacke of experience, and desiring to sodenly to climbe to nere the sunne, or, perhappes, mounting with more hast than good speede, before his winges were well fastened, or while hymselfe could but yet flutter with them, and not perfectly flic, as God would, his glew melting, and his winges dropping away, fell downe in his climbing, and, no doubt, will geue name to the place where he lighteth, for perpetuall memorie of his vndue presumption, surely yet piteously bewayled of papistes, as Icarus was of Dædalys his father.

This cunning Daedalus, popish treason, to bryng thys copulation to contentment of the vnchast Pasiphae, encloseth her in a counterfait cow; that is, such princes, or great estates, as desire to lie vnder the bull of Rome, popish clergie turneth into brutish shape, to serue brutish lust; maketh them beastly, forsakyng the dignitie of man and womans shape, whom God made vpright, to looke to God and Gods seate the heauen; and it maketh them cowishly stoupe to earthward, without

THE GREAT BULL, &c.

regard of the nature of man, the dignitie of kyngdomes, the reuerent aspect to diuinitie, or any other manly and reasonable consideration, without any more vigor, agilitie of soule, and industrie to do noblely, than is in a cowe: a beast, in deede, profitable for worldly foode, as papistrie is, but (as most part of beastes be) redy to promiscuous and vnchosen copulations, and specially meete for a bull; and, among other prety qualities, hauyng one speciall grace (as one of theyr owne popish doctours preached) to swynge away flyes with her tayle wett in the water, as foolish papistes swynge away sinnes and temptations with a holy water sprinkle.

In thys beastly likenesse, degenerating from manly forme, and maicstie of gouernance, by Dædalus workmanship, that is, by popish clergies traitorous practise, ensued the copulation of a bull and a queene, in a cowishe shape, that is, sodomiticall and vnnaturall mixture of popish vsurpation with, and vpon, royall gouernance, in brutish and reasonlesse forme,

Of this ingendring is begotten Minotaurus, a compounded monster, halfe a bull, and halfe a man, a beastly cruell bodie, roaring out with the voyce or sound of a bull, and wordes of a man, the sense of a deuill. The selfe same monster bull is he that lately roared out at the Byshops palace gate, in the greatest citie of England, horrible blasphemies agaynst God, and villanous dishonors agaynst the noblest queene in the world, Elizabeth, the lawful Queene of England; he stamped and scraped on the ground, flong dust of spitefull speches and vaine curses about hym, pushed with hys hornes at her noble counsellers, and true subiectes, and, for pure anger, all to berayed the place where he stoode; and all thys stirre he kept, to make a proofe of hys horned armye of calues would, or durst, come flyngyng about hym toward Midsommer moone.

But he looked so beastly, and he raged so vaynely, that, though the whole wood rang of hys noyse, yet hys syre, the great bull, hys damme, the prostitute cowe, and hys children, the foolish calues, were more ashamed of hym, than the noble lion was afraide of him; and, therefore, the bull, hys sire, the cowe, hys damme, and the wysest of hys calues, fled once agayne to Dædalus, the treason of popish clergie, for succour and good counsell, by whose good workmanship thys myngled monster is closed vp in a maze, that is, in vncertainetie of vayne and false reportes, and (as it happeneth in a maze) by wayes leadyng to other places than they seme to tend vnto, by crokednesse of deuises, by spredyng into sondry creekes of rumors, to hyde whence the bull came, or where he lurketh, euen as in the maze of Dædalus it happened; so it commeth to passe, that the Minotaure is not found out, and such as enter into the maze, that is, into followyng of popish reports and deuises, entangle them selues so, that, wanderyng vncertainely, at length they may hap to perish in Dædalus engyne. And iudgement they lacke (the euident proufes considered, that are in that behalfe to be ministred) that beleue the report to be true, of transferring that bull to protestantes deuises. But I feare a worse thing; for, if they haue no wisedome that say so, wise great persons can not beleue them,

I i 4

and, if they lacke not witte, then can not them selues beleue it; and so is their truth to the Prince to be perillously suspected.

The remedie resteth, that some Theseus, some noble and valiant counseller, or rather one bodie, and consent of all true and good nobilitie and counsellers, follow the good guiding thred, that is, godly policie, deliuered them by the virgine whom they serue, and, conducted thereby, not onely may passe, without error, through the maze, and finde out the monster, Minotaure, that roared so rudely, but also destroy hym, and settle theyr prince and them selues in safetie; so as (Pasiphae dueley and deseruedly ordered, Daedalus vnwynged and banished, hys fethers ryghtly restored, Icarus fayre drowned, the cowe transformed, the maze dissolued and razed, the monster destroyed, the calues, after the cowe perished, sent, with Walthams calfe, to sucke theyr bull) Theseus may be victorious, the virgine ladie most honorable, the land quyet, the subiectes safe, and Gods prouidence euer iustly praysed, not vaynely tempted; hys kyndnesse thankfully embraced, his name louyngly magnified, hys policies wisely followed, and hys religion zelously mainteyned.

But, till these noble enterprises be acchieued, it is not good to be hedelesse; the monster may be let out of the maze, when it pleaseth Pasiphae and Dædalus.

It is good to be awake. Some men be wakened with tickelyng, and some with pinchyng, or pullyng by the eare; that is, some with mery resemblances, and some with earnest admonitions. Some be raysed out of sleepe with noyse, as by the speech, or calling of men, or by brute voyces, as the roaring of bulles, and noyse of beastes; that is, either by aduises of them that warne with reason, or with the bragges and threateninges of the enemies, or inklinges slipped out of uncircumspect aduersaries mouthes. Some be wakened with very whisperinges, as with secret rumors and intelligences, Some agayne are so vigilant and carefull, that the very weight of the cause, and pensiue thinking of it, wil scarcely let them sleepe at all. But most miserable is theyr drowsinesse, or, rather, fatall semeth their sleepinesse, that, for all the meanes aforesayd, and specially so leude and loued roaring of so rude and terrible a bull, can not be wakened, or made to arme and bestirre them, till the tumult and alarme in the campe, the clinking of armour, the sounde of shotte and strokes, the tumbling downe of tentes round about them, the groning of wounded men dying on euery side of them, treason, force, and hostilitie triumphing in theyr lustiest rage, and Sinon, that perswaded the safetie of the traitorous horse, insulting among them, yea, till the very enemies weapon in theyr body awake them. Such may happe so to sleepe, as they may neuer wake.

Let vs all wake in prayer to God. Let vs cry louder, in sinceritie and deuotion, than the bull is able to roare in treason and blasphemie, Let vs pray God to arme our queene and counsell with all wisedome and fortitude, and our selues with all fidelitie and manhoode, and to repose our selues vpon confidence of theyr most blessed gouernance, and redy, with our lives and all that we haue, to follow and serue

them.

Let vs dayly and nightly pray God to send a curst cow and a curst bull short hornes, or to be well capped, or well sawed of, that they budde no more; for els it were better to take away head and all to be sure, least honester than these calues be made \calues, or knocked on the head, as though they were calues. Surely, as of a body, there is but one head that can not be spared, so, in a body, may be many heads that must needes be spared, as, perhappes twenty byles, and euery one hath a head, in which case there is no perill, but least they goe into the body agayne, and then, perchance, infect the hart bloud, and put the body in danger; and the onely perill of driuing them in agayne, you wote, is colde, and colde handling. Some of our botches be runne already, of some theyr heads be broken, some ryping, and, I trust, shall be well launced, or cleane drawne out in time. In the meane time beware cold, and God send and main❤ tayne the warmth of his grace. Amen.

THE

EXECUTION OF IUSTICE IN ENGLAND,

FOR MAINTENAUNCE OF

PUBLIQUE AND CHRISTIAN PEACE,

AGAINST

CERTEINE STIRRERS OF SEDITION,

And Adherents to the Traytours and Enemies of the Realme,

Without any Persecution of them for Questions of Religion*,

As is falsely reported and published by the Fautors and Fosterers of their Trea sons; xvii December, 1583.

Imprinted at London, 1583, quarto, containing 5 sheets, black letter, the first edition; though, as it appears from some manuscript additions and alterations on the title, and in other parts of the book, prepared a second time for the press, by the Author, on the 14th of January, 1583.

After the Pope and his party had tried all means to soften Queen Elisabeth, and draw her council into their snare, to submit the church of Eugland, as in times past, to the church of Rome, and had even condescended so far as to offer to reverse the sentence pronounced against the legality of her mother's marriage; to consent to the Common-Prayer-Book's being used in English; and that the laity might receive the communion in both kinds; for the treating about which, Pope Pius had sent a nuncio as far as Flanders: but perceiving that these were insufficient baits to allure a Queen, who, in her minority, had postponed her

See the letter to Don Bernardia Mendoza, to begin vol. II, of this Miscellany.