"The last and end appertained unto him. Whom he comforted and encouraged to take his death well, by many places of Scripture. And with these, and such, bidding him nothing mistrust but he should incontinently receive at the thief did: To whom Christ said, Hodie mecum eris in Paradiso. And out of St. Paul armed him against the terrors of the fire, by this; Dominus fidelis est: Non sinet vos tentari ultra quam ferre potestis: By the example of the three children; to whom God made the flame seem like a pleasant dew. He added hereunto the rejoicing of St. Andrew in his cross; the patience of St. Laurence on the fire: ascertaining him, that God, if he called on him, and to such as die in his faith, either will abate the fury of the flame, or give him strength to abide it. He glorified God much in his conversion; because it appeared only to be his work: declaring what travel and conference had been used with him to convert him, and all prevailed not, until it pleased God of his mercy to reclaim him, and call him home. In discoursing of which place, he much commended Cranmer, and qualified his former doing.

“And I had almost forgotten to tell you, that Mr. Cole promised him, that he should be prayed for in every church in Oxford, and should have mass and Dirige sung for him; and spake to all the priests present to say mass for his soul.

"When he had ended his Sermon, he desired all the people to pray for him: Mr. Cranmer kneeling down with them, and praying for himself. I think there was never such a number so earnestly praying together. For they, that hated him before, now loved him for his conversion, and hope of continuance. They that loved him before could not suddenly hate him, having hope of his confession again of his fall. So love and hope encreased devotion on every side.

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"O Father of heaven; O Son of God 'redeemer of the world; O Holy Ghost, proceeding from them both, three persons and one God, have mercy upon me most wretch-` 'ed caitiff, and miserable sinner. I who have offended both heaven and earth, and more grievously than any tongue can express, whither then may I go, or whither should I fly 'for succour? To heaven I may be ashamed to lift up mine eyes; and in earth I find no re'fuge. What shall I then do? shall I despair? "God forbid. O good God, thou art merciful, and refuseth none that come unto thee for succour. To thee therefore do I run. To thee do I humble myself: saying, O Lord God, my sins be great, but yet have mercy upon me for thy great mercy. O God the Son, thou wast not made man, this great mys tery was not wrought, for few or small of'fences. Nor thou didst not give thy Son ' unto death, O God the Father, for our little and small sins only, but for all the greatest 'sins of the world: so that the sinner return 'unto thee with a penitent heart; as I do here at this present. Wherefore have mercy upon me, O Lord, whose property is always to have mercy. For although my sins be great, yet thy mercy is greater. I crave nothing, O Lord, for mine own merits, but for thy name's 'sake, that it may be glorified thereby: And for thy dear Son Jesus Christ's sake. And now therefore, Our Father, which art in 'heaven, &c.'

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"Then rising, he said, 'Every man desireth, good people, at the time of their death, to give some good exhortation, that other may remember after their deaths, and be the better thereby. So I beseech God grant me grace, that I may speak something at this my departing, whereby God may be glorified, and you edi

this false world, and so careful for it, that or

:

"When praying was done, he stood up, and having leave to speak, said, Good people, I had intended indeed to desire you to pray for me; which because Mr. Doctor hath desired, and you have done already, I thank you most heartily for it. And now will I pray for my

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the love of God, or the love of the world to come, they seem to care very little or nothing 'therefore. This shall be my first exhortation. That you set not over-much by this false glossing world, but upon God and the world to come. And learn to know what this lesson meaneth, which St. John teacheth, That the love of this world is hatred against God.' --The second exhortation is, That next unto God, you obey your king and queen, willingly and gladly, without murmur or grudging: And 'not for fear of them only, but much more for the fear of God: knowing, that they be God's 'ministers, appointed by God to rule and govern you. And therefore whoso resisteth them, re'sisteth God's ordinance.-The third Exhortation is, That you love altogether like brethren,

got up, he was very soon dead, never stirring or crying all the while.

His patience in the torment, his courage in dying, if it had been taken either for the glory of God, the wealth of his country, or the testimony of truth, as it was for a pernicious error, and subversion of true religion, I could worthily have commended the example, and matched it with the fame of any father of antient time: But seeing that not the death, but the cause and quarrel thereof, commendeth the sufferer, I cannot but much dispraise his obstinate stubbornness and sturdiness in dying, and specially in so evil a cause. Surely his death much grieved every man, but not after one sort.

Some pitied to see his body so tormented with the fire raging upon the silly carcass, that counted not of the folly. Other that passed not much of the body, lamented to see him spill his soul wretchedly without redemption, to be plagued for ever. His friends sorrowed for love: his enemies for pity: 'strangers for a common kind of humanity, whereby we are bound one to another. Thus I have enforced myself, for your sake to discourse this heavy narration, contrary to my mind: And being more than half weary I make a short end, wishing you a quiet life, with less honour; and easier death, with more praise. The 23d of March. Yours, J. A."

THOU art indicted, sir Thomas Wyat, knight, for that thou, on the 14th day of February, didst, at Brentford in the county of Middlesex, levy war against our sovereign lady and queen, her crown and dignity: How sayest thou? art thou Guilty, or no?

Wyat. My lords, if I should plead Guilty, should I not be then excluded afterwards to use certain things that I have to say?

Court. You shall, Mr. Wyat, have leave to say and be heard what you can.

Wyat. Then my lords, must I confess Guilty, as, in the end, truth must enforce me to say: I must acknowledge this to be a just plague for my sins, which I most grievously have committed against God, who hath suffered me to fall into this beastly brutishness, and horrible offence of Treason. And lo in me the like, and as such, who attempted like enterprise from the beginning: for peruse the Chronicles through, and you shall read, that never Rebellion against their natural prince and country, from the beginning, prospered Henry the 4th was but a rebel, for so must I call him; he continued not long, but at the end definite, it fell into the right line again: and the usurpation revenged in his blood; for the love of God, all you gentlemen that be here, remember, and be taught by examples past, as also by this my present infelicity, and most heinous offence. O most miserable, mischievous, and beastly, furious imagination of mine: for I thought, that by the marriage of the prince of Spain, the second person of this realin should have been in danger. And I who have lived a freeman born, should together with my country have been brought to bondage and servitude by aliens and strangers; which brutish beastliness then seemed reason, and wrought so far, and to such effect, as it led me to the use and practice of this my

me,

committed Treason: but now, understanding the great commodity, honour, and surety, which this realm shall receive by this marriage, if it shall please the queen to be merciful unto there is no man living that shall more trustily and more faithfully serve her highness, whatsoever the quarrel be: I served the queen's highness against the duke of Northumberland, as my lord of Arundel can witness: my grandfather was upon the rack for her majesty's grandfather: my father served king Henry 8th and I served him likewise; as also her grace's brother, and in witness of my blood lost, in the field, I carry a maim. I alledge not all this, either to merit or advance, for by this beastly brutishness, to which most miserably I am fallen unto, I have not only procured my own death, but overthrown my house and name, and defaced all my father's well-doings, if ever there were any.—I will not justify myself in any thing, neither can I alledge any excuse of my offences, but most humbly submit myself to the queen's majesty's mercy and pity; desiring you, my lord of Sussex, and you Mr. Hastings, with all the rest, to be a mean to the queen's highness for mercy; for pity is the greatest treasure that ever God gave to man, and it is that which he specially hath chosen to himself, which if her highness will vouchsafe on me. her mercy to bestow it on him who shall be most glad to serve her highness, and readiest to die in her grace's cause: for I protest before the Judge of all Judges, I never meant hurt against her highness person.

The Queen's Attorney. Mr. Wyat, you have great cause to be sorry and repentant for the fault whereby you have not only undone yourself, but also numbers of other gentlemen, who being true men, might have served their country: yet, if you had gone no further, it might the better have been borne withal: not so

contented, you procured the duke of Suffolk, a man soon trained to your purpose, and his two brothers also, by which, without the queen's mercy, you have overthrown the noble house: yet not so staid, you attempted the second person of this realm, who should have been all our comforts, whereby her honour is brought into question; or what end it will come unto, God knoweth, and this are you the author of. Wyat. Good Mr. Attorney, as I will not in any thing justify myself, so being in decay to much, overcharge me not with more mischief, and make or shew to be that I was not: I am loath to touch any man openly, but that for mine own discharge, I am driven for to do; and as I have given in Confession, so I affirm, that my lord of Devonshire sent sir Edward Rogers for me to come to his house, and when I came, he break the whole Treason unto me; he said, that he himself would go, and I cannot tell, but he said he would do many things: this proves I was not the first.

The Queen's Solicitor. As Mr. Attorney hath moved you, that is, to repent your offence, so I for my part, wish you the same: but what meant you first, when you rose, to write to my lady Elizabeth's grace, that she should remove further from the queen, and after that my lord of Norfolk's men fled from him at Rochester bridge to you, as a joyful news you sent to my lady Elizabeth of your good success, and she again sent you thanks: is not this true?

Wyet. What I have written, I confess, and it is true.

to utter it he durst not, and therefore be bold to beat him; thus my man carried the cudgel three days, to have beaten him by this it may appear, how much I abhorred that practice.

Then was the Letter shewed which he wrote to the duke of Suffolk, Mr. Wyat being then in Southwark, that he should meet him at Kingston-Bridge, and so to go to London with him, although he came with the fewer company. Wyat at the first remembered no such letter; but when it was shewed him, he confessed his hand.-It was demanded of him, what he meant to write to my lady Elizabeth: and after his Pardon offered, to refuse also the bountifulness of the queen to my lady Elizabeth's grace, among other things besides recited.

Wyat. My lords, as my fault is most vile and heinous, for the which I ask God mercy, and next him my sovereign lady and queen, whom I most grievously have offended, appealing wholly to her mercy, without which I cannot challenge any thing sithence my offence committed. I have served her highness in such sort and degree as I either could or am able; for I have uttered what I know in all things, whereby I might deliver her highness from such after peril as the concealment of traitors or treason might prejudice or hurt: I have done this for her highness security, as I am bounden thereunto by duty and truth, which truly I have declared; for I think and certainly believe, she is as careful over this realm as of that her chiefest jewel: I must confess that of all the services I have been in, there was never a more desperate journey taken in hand, and to the end continued most desperately. And whereas it was asked why I refused the queen's highness's Pardon offered, unhappy man what shall I say?-When I was once entered in that

Solicitor. This shall be ever called Wyat's Rebellion, as the Rebellion of Wat Tiler was called Wat Tiler's.

Attorney. Mr. Wyat, were you not privy how the queen should have been slain, as she did waik? I do not burden you to consent to this: for thus much must I say, you disliked

it.

Wyat. Mr. Attorney, I first opened this, coming to my remembrance when I heard William Thomas would have slain himself, for it was his devise; and he brake in this wise to sir Nicholas Arnold, if the queen were killed, quoth he, all were well, and there is not so fit a man to do it as John Fitzwilliams. Sir Nicholas Arnold told it sir James Croftes, and he told it John Fitzwilliams, and John Fitzwilliams told it me, and thus at the 4th hand I heard it. Then made I a cudgel with a whole brent in it, with a whole iron and half a yard ofin it, and sought John Fitzwilliams a whole day, and could not find him. The next day, I sent the cudgel by my man, and bade him bob him well, for the knave is but a spy, and

to wade through with it that I had taken in hand; for I thought others had been as forward as I myself; and following the enterprise, used all possible means that might endure the same, as writing to my lady Elizabeth, and making the Proclamation in Southwark. Well, there resteth now in the queen's highness, either of justice by death, which justly I have deserved with Wat Tiler, to make me an open example to the world's end: or else of her mercy to save me, and use my service in such sort as her highness thinks me meet and able to do: and albeit that her grace hath this my request in writing, yet I most humbly beseech you to be a means to the queen's highness for her mercy and pity, which is my last hope and only refuge; and I beseech God that the queen may be so merciful unto me, as I mean to serve her majesty faithfully and truly. God's will be done on me. If there be but two true men, I will be the one to die at her grace's feet:-And so ended. The Lords promised to be a means for him: his countenance was doleful, and tears gushed out continually.-He was afterwards executed.

Account of Wyat's Rebellion. THE following concise Account of sir Tho

mas Wyat's Conspiracy is extracted from Rapin, vol. vii. p. 129.

"After the treaty of the queen's marriage with Philip was made public, complaints and murmurs were every where heard. The protestants in particular believed themselves lost, and feared to see erected in England a Spanish inquisition. But they were not the only murmurers. Independently of religion, the greatest part of the nation was not free from the fears of king Philip's introducing the Spanish tyranny into England, of which the Indies, the Low-Countries, the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, and the dutchy of Milan, afforded recent instances. In a word, few persons could believe that the emperor had agreed to the articles stipulated in the treaty, with any design to observe them. At last, these murmurs grew into a conspiracy against the queen, of which the marriage was either the cause or pretence. The duke of Suffolk, sir Thomas Wyat (a), sir Peter Carew, formed the design of a general insurrection. Carew was to act in Cornwall, Wyat in Kent, and the duke of Suffolk in Warwickshire, which is in the center of the kingdom. Carew managed so ill, that his plot was discovered (b), and one of his complices arrested before he had concerted his affairs. This sent him into France, and Wyat, upon his flight, hastened the execution of his enterprize, though it was the design of the conspirators to wait the arrival of Philip for a more plausible colour to their insurrection. Wyat therefore resolving to push his point, though he was yet unprepared, went to Maidstone with a few followers, and gave out he took up arms to prevent England from being invaded. Afterwards he marched to Rochester, from whence he writ to the sheriff to desire his assistance. But the sheriff, instead of espousing his cause, required him to lay down his arms, and assembled forces to oppose him.-This rebellion alarmed the court (c), where nothing was ready to allay it, the queen having dismissed her forces, when she thought herself out of danger. Wherefore she sent a herald to Wyat with a full pardon, if he would lay down his arms in 24 hours. But he refused the offer of pardon. Mean time, the court was so unprepared, that the duke of Norfolk was sent with only 600 of the city trained-bands (d), commanded by an officer named Bret. Whilst this was doing, the sheriff of Kent, (e) as he was going to join the duke of Norfolk, met and defeated Knevet, who with some troops, was marching to join

(a) This sir Thomas Wyat had been oft employed in embassies, particularly in Spain; where he had made such observations on the cruelty and subtilty of the Spaniards, that he could not look, without a just concern, on the miseries his country was like to fall under. Burnet, tom. iii. p. 224.

(b) It seems he was too hasty in raising men and making other preparations. Godw. p. 340. (c) The news of it came to London, January 25. Idem. p. 341. Stow, p. 618.

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Wyat, and killed sixty of his men. This ill success so alarmed Wyat, that he had now resolved to consult his own safety (f), when an unexpected accident inspired him with fresh courage. Sir George Harper, one of Wyat's adherents, pretending to desert him, went to the duke of Norfolk, and so artfully managed the trained-bands, that they took part with the rebels, and quitting the duke, joined Wyat (g).

With this reinforcement and his other troops, making together a body of 4,000 men, Wyat marched towards London. He met near Deptford two messengers from the queen, who in her name asked what would content him. He demanded the Tower and the queen's person to be put into his hands, and the council to be changed as he should think proper. This demand being rejected, the queen repaired to Guildhall, and acquainted the magistrates with Wyat's answer. She then spoke of her marriage, and told them she had done nothing in it but by the advice of her council. And, to give them a proof of the confidence she reposed in them, she resolved to stay in the city, though many advised her to withdraw to the Tower.Wyat in the mean time continued his march, and reached the borough of Southwark the 3d of February, expecting to enter the city without any difficulty. But the bridge being strongly barricaded and guarded, he was obliged to march along the Thames to Kingston, ten miles from London. Here he found the bridge broken, and spent some hours in repairing it. He then passed to the other side with his army, increased now to near 6,000 men. After that, he continued his march to London, and after some time lost in repairing one of his broken carriages, reached Hyde-Park about nine in the morning, the 7th of February. The time unseasonably spent in repairing the carriage, rendered his undertaking abortive. For in that interval Harper, who had been so serviceable in bringing over the trained-bands, deserted, and posting to court, discovered his intentions to march through Westminster, and enter the city by Ludgate. This advice came seasonably to the earl of Pembroke and lord Clinton, who, at the head of some troops, had resolved to engage him as he entered the city. But, observing he was entangling himself in the streets where he could not extend his troops, they thought it better to let him pass, after orders given to shut the gate through which he designed to enter.-Wyat still prepossesed that

(d) Five hundred, says Godwin, together with the queen's guards. Ibid.

(e) Sir Rob. Southwell, Hollinsh. p. 1094. (f) He was seen to weep, and called for a coat which he stuffed with money, designing to escape. Burnet, p. 285.

(g) Thereupon the duke of Norfolk fled, together with the earl of Arundel, and sir Henry Jernegan, captain of the guard. But Wyat, coming up that moment with a party of horse, intercepted the rest; and seized eight brass guns, and all Norfolk's baggage. Godwin, p. 341.

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