MarginaliaAnno. 1550. And besides all this, I doo greatly marueile to see your writyng for hym, and the other two with suche extreme woordes of perill to ensue towardes them, in case they dyd not come, and specially for my Controller, whose charge is so great, that he can not sodainly be meete to take a iourney: whiche wordes in mine opinion needed not (vnlesse it were in some verye iuste and necessarye cause) to any of mine, who taketh my selfe subiect to none of you all: not doubting but if the kings maiestie my brother were of sufficient yeares to perceiue this matter, and knew what lacke and incommoditie the absence of my saide officer shoulde bee to my house, his grace woulde haue bene so good Lorde to me, as to haue suffered hym to remaine, where his charge is. Notwithstanding, I haue wylled hym at this time to repayre to you, commaunding him to returne forthwith for my very necessities sake, and I haue geuen the like leaue to my poore sicke priest also, whose life I thinke vndoubtedly shal be put in hasard by the wet & cold painfull trauaile of this iourney. But for my part I assure you al, that since the king my father, your late master & very good lord died, I neuer tooke you for other th? my fr?des: but in this it appeareth contrary. And sauing I thought verily that my former letters should haue discharged this matter, I would not haue troubled my self with writing the same, not douting but you do consider, that none of you all woulde haue bene contented to haue bene thus vsed at your inferiours hands, I meane to haue hadde your officer, or any of your seruauntes sent for by a force (as ye make it) knowing no iust cause why. Wherfore I do not a little marueile, that ye had not this remembraunce towardes me, who alwaies hath willed and wished you as wel to do as my selfe, and both haue and wyl praye for you all as hartily, as for myne owne soule to almighty God, whom I humbly beseech to illumine you al with his holy spirite, to whose mercy also I am at a full point to c?mit my self, what soeuer shal become of my body. And thus with my commendations I byd you al fare well. From my house at Kenninghal, the. 27. of Iune.

Your frend to my power, though you
geue me contravy cause, Mary.

RIght deare. &c. We haue seene by letters of our Counsaile, sent to you of late, & by your answeare thereunto, touching the cause of certaine your Chaplaines, hauing offended our lawes in saying of Masse, their good & conuenient aduises, and your fruitles & indirect mistaking of the same, whiche thing moueth vs to write at this tyme, that where good counsel from oure Co?saile hath not preuailed, yet the like from our selfe may haue due regard. The whole matter we perceiue resteth in this, that you being our next sister, in whom aboue al other our subiectes, nature shoulde place the most estimation of vs, would wittingly and purposely, not onely breake our lawes your selfe, but also haue others mainteined to do the same. Truely how soeuer the matter may haue other termes, other sense it hath not: and although by your letter it semeth you chalenge a promise made, that so you might do: yet surely we know the promise had no such meanyng, neither to mainteine, ne to continue your fault. You must know this sister, you were at the first time wh? the law was made, borne with al, not because you should disobey the law, but that by our lenitie & loue shewed you might learne to obey it. We made a difference of you fr? our other subiects, not for that al other should folow our lawes, & you only againstand them, but that you might be brought as far forward by loue, as others were by duetie. The errour wherin you would rest is double, & euery part so great, that neither for the loue of God, we can wel suffer it vnredressed. neither for the loue of you we can but wish it amended. First you retaine a fashion in honoring of God, who in deede therby is dishonored, & therin erre you in zeale for lacke of science, & hauyng science offered you, you refuse it, not because it is science (we trust, for th? should we dispayre of you) but because you thinke it is none. And surely in this we c? best repreh?d you, learning dayly in our schole, that therfore we learne things, because we know them not, and are not allowed to say we know not these things, or we thinke they be not good, & therefore we wyl not learne th?. Sister, you must thinke nothing can commende you more then reason, according to the which you haue bene hytherto vsed, & nowe for very loue we wyll offer you reason our selfe. If you are perswaded in conscience to the contrary, of our lawes, you or your perswaders shall freely be suffered to say what you or they can, so that you wil heare what shal be said againe.

In this point you see I pretermit my estate, & talke w^t you as your brother, rather then your supreme Lord and king. Thus should you, being as wel c?t?t to heare of your opinions, as you are content to hold them, in the end thank vs as muche for bringing you to light, as nowe before you learne, you are loth to see it. And if thus much reason with our natural loue shall not moue you, wherof we would be sorye, then must we consider the other part of your faulte, which is the offence of our lawes. For though hitherto it hath bene suffered in hope of amendement, yet nowe if hope be none, how shall there be sufferaunce? Our charge is to haue the same care ouer euery mans estate, that euery man ought to haue ouer his owne. And in your owne house, as you would be loth openly to suffer one of your seruaunts being nexte you, moste manifestly to breake your orders, so must you thinke in our state it shal miscontent vs to permit you so great a subiect, not to keepe oure lawes. Your nearnes to vs in bloud, your greatnesse in estate, the condition of this time maketh your fault the greater. The example is vnnatural, that our sister should do lesse for vs, then our other subiects. The case is sclaunderous for so great a personage to forsake our maiestie.

Finally, it is too daungerous in a troublesome common wealth, to make the people to mistrust a facti?. We be yong, you thinke in yeres to consider this. Truely sister it troubleth vs somwhat the more, for it may be, this euil suffered in you, is greater th? we can discerne, and so we be as much troubled, because we doubt whether we see the whole peril, as we be, for that we see. In deede we will presume no further th? our yeres geueth vs, that is, in doubtful things not to trust our own wits, but in euident things we thinke there is no differ?ce. If you should not do as other subiects do, were it not euident, that therin you should not be a good subiect? Were it not plaine in that case, that you should vse vs not as your soueraigne Lord? Againe, if you should be suffered to breake our lawes manifestly, were it not a comfort for others so to do? and if our lawes be broken, and c?temned, where is our estate? These thinges be so plaine, as we could almost haue iudged them sixe yeares past. And in deede it greeueth vs not a litle, that you which should be our most comfort in our young yeres, should alone geue vs occasion of discomfort. Thinke you not but it must needes trouble vs, and if you can so thinke, you ought sister to amend it. Our natural loue towardes you without doubt is great, & therfore diminish it not your self. If you wil be loued by vs, shewe some token of loue towardes vs, that we say not with the Psalm. Mala pro bonis mihi reddiderunt. If you wyl be beleued, when by writing you confesse vs to be your soueraigne Lord, heare that which in other thinges is often alleged: Ostende mihi fidem tuam ex factis tuis. In the answeare of your letter to our Counsaile, we rem?ber you sticke onely vpon one reason diuided into two partes. The first is, that in matters of religion, your faith is none other, but as all Christendome doth confesse. The next is, you wil assent to no alteration, but wish things to stand as they did at our fathers death. If you meane in the firste to rule your fayth, by that you call Christendome, and not by this Churche of England, wherein you are a member, you shal erre in many poynts, such as our father & yours would not haue suffered, what soeuer you say of the standing styll of thinges, as they were leaft by hym. The matter is too plaine to write, what may be gathered, & too perillous to be concluded against you. For the other part, if you like no alteration by our authoritie, of thinges not altered by oure father, you should do vs too great an iniurie. We take our self for the administration of this our common wealth, to haue the same authority which our father had diminished in no part, neither by example of scripture, nor by all vniuersall lawes. The stories of Scripture be so plenteous, as almost the best ordered Church of the Israelites was by kinges yonger than we be. Well sister, we wyl not in these thinges interprete your wrytinges to the worste: loue and charitie shal expound them. But yet you must not therby be bold to offend in that, whereunto you see your writinges might be wrested. To conclude, we exhort you to do your duetie, & if any impediment be therof, not of purpose, you shall finde a brotherly affection in vs to remedie the same. To teache you & instruct you, we wyll geue order, & so procure you to do your duetie willingly, that you shal perceiue you are not vsed meerly as a subiect, & only c?ma?ded, but as a daughter, a scholer, and a sister, taught, instructed, and perswaded. For the whiche cause, when you haue considered this our letter, we pray you that we may shortly heare from you.

MY duetie moste humbly remembred to your maiestie, please it the same to vnderstande that I haue receiued your letters by master Throgmorton this bearer. The contents wherof doth more trouble me, th? any bodily sicknes,