MarginaliaAn 1550. Church wherupon you make your foundation. The fables of false miracles and leude pilgrimages may somwhat teach you. Onely this we pray your grace to remember with your selfe: the two woordes that the father sayd of his sonne Iesus Christ. Ipsum audite. To the seconde point of the commoditie that may folow your obedience, wee hauyng by the kynges authoritye in this behalfe the gouernaunce of thys realme must herein be playne with your grace. And if oure speache offende the same, then must your grace thinke it is our charge and office to finde fault where it is, and our duty to amend it as we may. Most sory truly we bee, that your grace, whom we shoulde otherwise honor, for þ^e kynges maiesties sake, by your owne dedes shoulde prouoke vs to offende you, we do perceaue great discommoditie to the realm by your graces singularitye, (if it may be so named) in opinion: and in one respect, as you are syster to our soueraigne Lord and maister, wee most humbly beseche your grace to shew your affection cōtinually towardes him, as becōmeth a sister. And as your grace is a subiect, and we counsellors to his Maiesties estate, wee let you knowe, the example of your graces opiniō hindreth the good weale of this realm, whiche thing we think is not vnknownen vnto you: and if it be, we let your grace know, it is to true. For Gods sake, wee beseche your grace, let nature set before your eyes the young age of the Kyng your brother. Let reason tell you þ^e losenes of the people, how then can you without a wayling hart, thinke that ye shoulde be the cause of disturbance? if your grace se the kyng, beyng the ordinary ruler vnder God not onely of all others in the Realme, but of you also, call his people by ordinarye lawes one waye, with what hart can your grace stay your selfe without folowing: muche worse to stay other that woulde follow their soueraigne Lord? Can it be a loue in you to forsake him, his rule and lawe, & take a priuate way by your selfe? If it be not loue, it is muche lesse obedience. If your grace thinke the kinges maiestie to be ouer his people as the head in a mans body is ouer þ^e rest not onely in place but in dignity and science, how can you being a principall member in the same bodye kepe the norishment frō the head, we pray your grace most earnestly thinke this thinge so much greueth vs, as for our priuate affection and good willes vnto you (though we should dissemble) yet for our publike office, we can not but playnly enforme your grace, not doubtinge but þ^t your wisedome can iudge what our office is, and if it were not your owne cause, we knowe your grace by wisedome could charge vs, if we suffered the like in any other. Trulye euery one of vs a parte honoreth your grace for our maisters sake, but when we ioyne together in publike seruice, as in this writinge we do. We iudge it not tolerable, to knowe disorder, to se the cause, and leaue it vnamended. For though we would be negligent, þ^e world would iudge vs. And therfore we do altogether eftsones require your grace, in the kynges maiesties name, that if any of your two Chaplaines, Mallet, or Barcklet, be returned, or as soone as any of thē shall returne to your graces house the same may be by your graces commaundement or order, sent or deliuered to the sherif of Essex, who hath commandement from the kynges maiestie, by order of the law & of his crowne to attache them, or if that condition shall not lyke your grace, yet that then he may be warned from your graces house, and not kept there, to be as it were defended from the power of the lawe. Which thing we thinke surely neither your grace will meane, nor any of your counsel assent therto. And so to make an end of our letter, beyng long for the matter, and hitherto differred for other our great busines, we trust your grace fyrst seeth how the vsage of your Chaplaines differeth from the maner of our licence, and what good entent moued vs to wryte vnto you in former letters: lastly that the thinges whereunto the Kyng & the whole Realme hath consented, be not onely lawful and iust by the pollicie of the Realme, but also iuste and godlye by the lawes of God. So that if wee, which haue charge vnder þ^e kyng should willingly consent to the open breach of them, we coulde neyther discharge our selues to the kyng for our dueties, neither to God for our conscience. The consideratiō of all whiche thinges we pray almighty God, by his holye spirite, to laye in the bottome of your harte, and thereupon to builde such a profession in you, as both God may haue his true honor: the kyng his dewe obedience, the Realme concord, and we most comforte. For al the whiche we do hartly pray, & therwith, for the continuance of your graces helth to your harts desire, from Westminster þ^e xxv. of December.

MY Lords after my harty cōmendations to you, although both I haue ben and also am loth to trouble you with my letters, yet neuerthelesse the newes which I haue lately hard, touching my Chaplayne Doctor Mallet forceth mee thereunto, at this present, for I heare by credible report that you haue committed him to the tower, which newes seme to me very straunge: notwithstandyng I thought it good, by these to desire you to aduertise me what is the cause of his imprisonmēt, assuring you I would be sory that any of mine should deserue the lyke punishment, and there is no creature within the kynges maiesties Realme woulde more lamēt, that any belonging to them shoulde giue iust cause so to be vsed: then I woulde do: who woulde haue thought much frendshyp in you if you hadde geuen me knowledge, wherein my sayde Chaplein had offended, before you had ministred such punishment vnto him, eftsones requiring you to let me knowe by this bearer the truth of the matter. And thus thankyng you for the short dispatch of the poore marchaunte of Portingal I wish to you al no worse then to my selfe and so bid you farewell. From Beaulien the ii of May.

Your frende to my power, Marye.

AFter our humble commendations to your grace, we haue receiued your letters of the second of thys moneth, by þ^e which your grace semeth to take it straungely that Doctor Mallet is committed to prison, whereof we haue the more meruell, seing it hath bene heretofore signified vnto you that he hath offended the kynges maiesties lawes, and thereof condemned, your grace hath bene by our letters earnestly desired, that he mighte be deliuered to the Shrief of Essex, accordyng to the iust processe of the lawe, to the which all maner persons of this Realme be subiect, wherof how soeuer it semeth straunge at this time to your grace that he is imprisoned, it may seeme more strange to other that hee hath escaped it thus longe: and if the place beynge the Tower, moue your grace not to impute his imprisonment to his former offense, then we pray your grace to vnderstand that in dede it is for the very same, and the place of the imprisonmēt to be at the kynges maiesties pleasure, from whom, besides the charge of his lawes, we haue expresse commaundement to do that we do, And so we beseche your grace to thinke of vs, that neither in this case, nor in any other wee meane to do any other then minister and see, as much as in our power lieth, ministred iustice indifferently, to all persons, which doing then we thinke your grace should not thinke it any lack of frendship that we did not certifie you of þ^e offense of your Chaplayne, although in dede the cause hath alredy bene certifyed. And we trust your grace both of your naturall nearenes to the kyngs maiestie and your owne good wysdome will not mislyke our ministery in the execution of þ^e lawee of the realme and the pleasure of the kings maiesty. So we wishe to your grace from the bottom of our harte the grace of almighty God with the riches of his holy gyftes.

MY Lordes, it appeareth by your letters of the. vi. of this present which I haue receiued, that the imprisonment of Chaplaine doctor Mallet is, for saying of masse, and that he was condemned for the same. In dede I haue heard that he was endited, but neuer condemned: Neuerthelesse, I must nedes confesse and say, that he did it but by my commaundement, and I sayde vnto him that none of my Chaplaines shoulde bee in daunger of the lawe for saying Masse in my house. And therof to put him out of dout, the Emp. Embassador that dead is, declared vnto him before that time how & after what sort the and promise was made to his maiesty, whereby it appeareth that the man hath not in that willingly offended Wherfore I pray you to discharge him of emprisonment, and set him at liberty: if not, ye minister cause not onely to him, but to others to thinke that I haue declared more then was true, whiche I woulde not wittingly do, to gayne the whole world. And herein as I haue often sayd, the Emperours maiestie can be best iudge. And to be playne wyth you according to mine old custom, there is not one amongst the whole number of you all, that woulde be more loth to be found vntrue of their word then I. And wel I am assured that none of you haue found it in me. My Lordes, I praye you seeke not so much my dishonour as to disproue my word wherby it should appeare to plaine that you handel me not well. And if you haue cause to charge my Chaplaine for this matter, laye that to mee, and I will discharge it agayne, by your promyse made to the Emperours Maiestye, whiche you can not rightfully denye wishing, rather that you hadde refused it in the begynning