A67926:5618
Acts and monuments of matters most special and memorable, happening in the Church. [vol.…Actes and monuments of matters most speciall and memorable, happenyng in the Church. [vol.…
Acts and monuments of matters most special and memorable, happening in the Church. [vol. 2, part 1] with an universal history of the same, wherein is set forth at large the whole race and course of the Church, from the primitive age to these latter times of ours, with the bloody times, horrible troubles, and great persecutions against the true martyrs of Christ, sought and wrought as well by heathen emperors, as now lately practised by Romish prelates, especially in this realm of England and Scotland. Newly revised and recognised, partly also augmented, and now the fourth time again published and recommended to the studious reader, by the author (through the help of Christ our Lord) John Fox, which desireth thee good reader to help him with thy prayer.Actes and monuments of matters most speciall and memorable, happenyng in the Church. [vol. 2, part 1] with an vniuersall history of the same, wherein is set forth at large the whole race and course of the Church, from the primitiue age to these latter tymes of ours, with the bloudy times, horrible troubles, and great persecutions agaynst the true martyrs of Christ, sought and wrought as well by heathen emperours, as nowe lately practised by Romish prelates, especially in this realme of England and Scotland. Newly reuised and recognised, partly also augmented, and now the fourth time agayne published and recommended to the studious reader, by the author (through the helpe of Christ our Lord) Iohn Foxe, which desireth thee good reader to helpe him with thy prayer.
London: printed by John Daye, 1583London: printed by Iohn Daye, 1583
No title page in the transcription: set from the catalogue record.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
as who being yet a child had the knowledge of divers tongs,1 first of the english his own natural tongue, of the latin also & of the french, neither was he ignorant (as I hear) of the greek, Italian, & spanish tongues, and of other languages peradventure moe. In his own, in the French & in the Latin tongue singularly perfect, and with the like facility apt to receive all other. Neither was he ignorant in logic, in the principles of natural Philosophy, or in Music. There was in him lacking neither humanity the Image of our mortality, a Princely gravity and majesty, nor any kind of towardness beseming a noble king. Briefly, it might seem a miracle of nature, to behold the excellent wit & forwardness that appeared in him being yet but a child. This I speak not rhetorically, to amplify things or to make them more then truth is, yea the truth is more then I do utter. Being▪ yet but 15. years of age he asked of me in Latin (in which tongue he uttered his mind no less readily and eloquently than I could do my self) what my books which I had dedicated to him, De varietate rerum, did contain? I said that in the first chapter was showed the cause of Comets,2 or blazing stars, which hath been long sought for, & yet hitherto scarce fully found. What cause (said he) is that: The concourse or meeting (said I) of the light of the wandering Planets and Stars. To this the king thus replied again: Forsomuch (said he) as the motion of the stars keepeth not one course but is divers and variable by continual alteration, how is it then that the cause of these Comets either doth not quickly vade & vanish, or that the Comet doth not keep one certain and uniform course & motion with the said Stars and Planets? Whereunto I answered that the Comet hath his course and moving, but much more swifter then they, because of the diversity of aspect, as we see in Crystal, and in the Sun when the form of the Rainbow reboundeth on the wall.3 For a little mutation maketh a great difference of place. Then said the king and how can that be, having no subject: For of the rainbow the wall is the subject? Like (said I) as in Lactea via, or in reflection of lights, as where many candles he lighted and set near together, in the middle they cause a certain bright and white lightsomeness to appear. &c. And so by this little trial a great guess may be given what was in this king.