Transcriber’s Note: Biblical references in the sidenotes are not alwayspossible to make out, due to the quality of the print. Where this is thecase it has been noted with [unclear] or [unreadable], as appropriate.
A Godly Medytacyon
of the christen sowle, concerninge
a loue towardes God and hys
Christe, compyled in frenche by lady
Margarete quene of Nauerre, and aptely
translated into Englysh by the
ryght vertuouse lady Elyzabeth
doughter to our late souerayne
Kynge Henri the .viij.
Inclita filia, serenissimi olim Anglorum
Regis Henrici octaui Elizabeta, tam Græcæ
quam latine fœliciter in Christo
erudita.
To the ryght vertuouse
and christenly lerned yonge
lady Elizabeth, the noble doughter of
our late souerayne Kynge Henry the
.viij. Iohan Bale wysheth helth
with dayly increace of Godly
knowledge.
Diuerse and many (mostgracyouse lady) haue theopynyons bene amongethe prophane philosophersand christen dyuynes,concernynge ryghtNobylyte, and no fewar stryues and contencyonsfor the same. Some autours hauevaynely boasted it to take orygynall ofthe olde Goddes of the Gentyles, as euerylāde hath had hys peculyar Saturne,Iupiter, & Hercules, yea our Englādehere and all. Some hath fatt it fromthe foure generall monarchyes of the Assyrianes,Perseanes, Grekes, and Romanes.Some haue attrybuted it, to the boldebattayles and bloudshedynges, in Ninusof Babylon the first inuētour of polycyesin warre, in our great Albion theChamesene, whych first in thys regyonsuppressed the posterite of Iaphet, vsurpyngetherin the first monarchy, in Brutethat more than six hondred yeares afterdefaced of hym the tyrannouse yssue, inEbrāck and Dunwallo, in Brenne andBelyne, in great Constantyne, Artoure,Cadwalader, Engist, Egbert, Alphredewyllyam cōquerour & soch other, for lykecōquestes of the Romanes, Grekes, Galles,pyctes, Brytaynes, Saxons, Danes,Iryshens and Englyshens.
The hawty Romanes set not yet alyttle by themselues, that they haue rysēof Aeneas & Romulus, of whom the onemost shamefully betrayed hys owne natyuekyndred and contraye, and the othermost vnnaturally slewe hys owne brotherfor worldly domynyō. Lyke as our walshemenhere in Englande, aduaūcynge theirsuccessyon or progeny aboue the Englyshwyll nedes come of Sardanus & Bute, afoūdacyō not all vnlyke to the other. Thesegloryouse champyons for thys farre fatchedgroūde of their Nobylyte, accoūte allother nacyons and peoples, ignoble, profane,and barbarouse, as is to be seane inthe monumētes of their writers. But inthe meaneseason, they are not aware that[fol. 3]they wndyscretely prefarre cursed Chamto blessed I