With like facing bragges these Catholicke Phormiones thinke now to dash out all good bookes, and amonges other also these Monumentes of Martyrs. Whiche godly Martyrs as they coulde not abide being aliue: so neyther can they now suffer their memories to liue after their death, least the Actes of them beyng knowen, might bryng perhaps their wicked Actes and cruell murthers to detestation: And therfore spurne they so vehemently agaynst this booke of histories, withall kinde of contumelies, and vprors, rayling and wondering vppon it, much like as I haue heard of a company of theeues, who in Robbing a certayne true man by the high wayes side, when they had found a peece of gold or two about hym, more then he would be acknowen of, they cryed out of the falshode of the worlde, merueiling and complayning what litle truth was to be found in men.

Euen so these men deale also with me: for when they them selues altogether delight in vntruthes, and haue replenished the whole Church of Christ with fained fables, lying miracles, false visions, miserable errours contained in their missals, and Portuses, Breuiares, and Summaries, and almost no true tale in all their Saintes liues and Festiuals, as nowe also no great truthes in our Louanian Bookes. &c. Yet notwithstandyng as though they were a people of much truth, and that the worlde did not perceaue them, they pretend a face and Zeale of great veritie: And as though there were no histories els in all the worlde corrupted, but onely this story of Actes and Monumentes, with tragicall voyces they exclaime and wonder vpon it, sparing no cost of hyperbolicall phrases, to make it appeare as full of lyes as lines. &c. much after the like sort of impudencie as sophisters vse sometimes in their sophismes to do (and sometimes is vsed also in Rethorick) that when an Argument commeth agaynst them which they can not well resolue in dede, they haue a rule to shift of the matter with stout wordes and tragicall admiration, whereby to dashe the opponent out of countenaunce, bearing the hearers in hand, the same to be the weakest and slenderest argument that euer was heard not worthy to be aunswered, but vtterly to be hissed out of the Scholes.

With like sophistication these also fare with me: who when they neyther can abide to heare their own doynges declared, nor yet deny the same, which they heare, to be true, onely for iij. or foure eschapes in the booke committed (and yet some of them in the sayd booke amended) they neyther readyng the whole, nor rightly vnderstandyng that they read, inueigh and maligne so peruersly the setting out therof, as though neither any word in al that story were true, nor any other story false in all the worde besides. And yet in accusing these my accusers I do not so excuse my selfe, nor defend my booke, as though nothyng in it were to be sponged or amended. Therfore I haue taken these paynes, & reiterated my labors in trauailyng out the story agayn: doyng herein as Penelope did with her web, vntwisting that she had done before: or as builders do sometimes, whiche build and take downe agayne, eyther to transpose the fashion, or to make the foundation larger. so In recognising this history I haue employed a little more labour, partly to enlarge the argument which I tooke in hand: partly also to assay, whether by any paynes takyng I might pacifie the stomackes, or satisfie the iudgments of these importune quarrellers: which neuertheles I feare I shall not do, when I haue done all I can. For well I know that all the heades of this hissing hidra will neuer be cut of, though I were as strong as Hercules. And if Apelles the skilful Painter, when he had bestowed all his cunning vppon a peece of worke, which no good artificer would or could greatly reproue, yet was not without some controling Sutor, which tooke vpon hym Vltra crepidam, much more may I looke for the like in these controlling dayes.MarginaliaNo sutor vltra crepidam.

Neuertheles committyng the successe therof vnto the Lord, I haue aduentured agayne vpon this story of the Church, and haue spent not onely my paynes, but also almost my helth therein, to bring it to this. Which now beyng finished, like as before I did: so agayne I exhibite and present the same vnto your Princely Maiesty. blessing my Lord my God withal my hart: first for this libertie of peace and tyme, which through your peaceable gouernement he hath lent vnto vs for the gathering both of thys and other like bookes, tractations and monumentes requisit to the behofe of hys Churche, which hetherto by iniquitie of time, could not be contriued in any kinges raigne since the conquest, before these Alcyon dayes of yours.

Secondly, as we are all bound with publike voyces to magnifie our God for this happy preseruati-tion of your royall estate: so priuately for myne owne part, I also acknowledge my selfe bounde to my God and to my Sauiour, who so graciously in such weake health, hath lent me tyme, both to finish this worke, and also to offer the second dedication therof to your Maiestye: desiring the same to accept in worth the donation thereof, if not for the worthynes of the thyng geuen, yet as a testification of the bounden seruice and good will of one, whiche by thys he here presenteth, declareth what hee