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¶ To the Right Vertuous, most Excel∣lent and Noble Princesse, Queene ELIZABETH, our dread La∣dy, by the grace of God, Queene of England, Fraunce and Ireland, Defender of Christes Faith and Gospell, and principall Gouernour both of the Realme, and al∣so ouer the sayd Churche of England and Ireland, vnder Christ the Supreme head of the same▪ &c. Iohn Foxe her humble subiect wisheth daily increase of Gods holy spirite and Grace, with long raigne, perfect health, and ioyfull peace, to gouerne hys flocke committed to her charge, to the example of all good Princes, the comforte of his Churche, and glory of hys blessed name.
CHRIST the Prince of all Princes, who hath placed you in your throne of Maiestie, vnder him to gouerne the Church and Realme of England, geue your royall highnesse long to sit, and many yeares to raigne ouer vs, in all flourishing felicitie, to his gracious pleasure, and long lasting ioy of all your subiects. Amen.
When I first presented these ACTES and MONVMENTES vnto your Maiestie (most deare Soueraigne Queene ELIZA∣BETH, our peaceable SALOME) which your Maiesties rare clemencie receiued in such gentle part: I well hoped that these my trauailes in this kynd of writing had bene well at an ende, whereby I might haue re∣turned my studies agayne to other purpo∣ses after myne owne desire, more fitte then to write histories, especially in the English tong. But certaine euill disposed persons, of intemperant tongues, aduersaries to good procedings, would not suffer me so to rest, fuming and fretting, and raising vp such miserable exclamations at the first appearing of the booke, as was wonderfull to heare. A man would haue thought Christ to haue bene new borne agayne, and that Herode with all the Citie of Ierusalem had bene in an vprore. Such blustring and stirring was then against that poore booke thorough all quarters of England, euen to the gates of Louaine: so that no English Papist almost in all the Realme thoght himselfe a perfect Catholike, vnlesse he had cast out some word or other to geue that booke a blow.
Whereupon, considering with my selfe what should mooue them thus to rage, first I beganne with more circumspect diligence to ouerlooke agayne that I had done. In searching whereof, I found the fault both what it was, and where it lay: which was in deede, not so much in the Booke it selfe (to say the truth) as in an other certayne priuy mysterie and working of some: of whome Ioannes Auentinus shall tel vs in his own words, & shew vs who they be: Quibus, inquit, audiendi quae fecerint, pudor est: nullus faciendi, quae audire erubescunt. Illic vbi opus nihil verentur: hic vbi nihil opus est, ibi verentur. &c. Who beyng ashamed belike to heare their worthy stratagemes lyke to come to light, sought by what meanes they might, the stopping of the same. And because they could not worke it per brachium seculare, by publike authoritie (the Lord of heauen long preserue your noble Maiestie) they renewed again an old wonted practise of theirs: doyng in like sort here∣in as they did sometymes with the holy Bible in the dayes of your renowmed father of famous me∣mory king Henry the viij. who when they neither by manifest reason could gainstand the matter contained in the booke, nor yet abide the comming out thereof, then sought they by a subtile deui∣sed traine to depraue the translation, notes and Prologues thereof, bearing the king in hand and