work begins, "Wretch that I am, comfortless and forsaken of all men, which have offended both heaven and earth," &c. Then follow in conclusion other things, as 'Of Faith-The power of FaithThe Work of Faith-Good Works-The Prayer of the Prophet Daniel.' Before we proceed any further in the Memoirs of this truly excellent person, we shall present our readers with a pious prayer of hers composed in short ejaculations, suited to her condition, which may serve as a specimen of the devout exercises of her soul. "Most benign Lord Jesu, grant me thy grace, that it may alway work in me, and persevere with me unto the end! "Grant me that I may ever desire and will that which is most pleasant and acceptable unto thee! "Thy will be my will, and my will to follow always thy will! "Let there be alway in me one will, and one desire with thee, and that I have no desire to will or not to will, but as thou wilt! "Lord, Thou knowest what thing is most profitable, and most expedient for me: "Give me therefore what thou wilt, as much as thou wilt, and when thou wilt! "Do with me what thou wilt, as it shall please thee, and as shall be most to thine honor! "Put me where thou wilt, and freely do with me in all things after thy will! "Thy creature I am, and in thy hands. Lead me, and turn me where thou wilt! "Lo! I am thy servant, ready to do all things that thou commandest; for I desire not to live to myself, but to thee. "Lord Jesu! I pray thee grant me thy grace, that I never set my heart on the things of this world, but that all carnal and worldly affections may utterly die, and be mortified in me! "Grant me, above all things, that I may rest in thee and fully pacify and quiet my heart in thee! "For thou, Lord, art the very true peace of heart and the perfect rest of the soul, and without thee all things be grievous and unquiet. “My Lord Jesu, I beseech thee, be with me in every place, and at all times; and let it be to me a special solace gladly for to love to lack all worldly solace! "And if thou withdraw thy comfort from me at any time, keep me, O Lord, from separation (desperation) and make me patiently to bear thy will and ordinance! "O Lord Jesu, thy judgments be righteous, and thy providence is much better for me than all that I can imagine or devise! "Wherefore do with me in all things as it shall please thee! "For it may not be but well, all that thou dost. If thou wilt that I be in light, be thou blessed; if thou wilt that I be in darkness, be thou also blessed! "If thou vouchsafe to comfort me, be thou highly blessed; and if thou wilt I lie in trouble, and without comfort, be thou likewise ever blessed! "Lord, give me grace gladly to suffer whatsoever thou wilt shall fall upon me, and patiently to take at thy hand good and evil, bitter and sweet, joy and sorrow; and for all things that shall befall unto me heartily to thank thee! "Keep me, Lord, from sin, and I shall then dread neither death nor hell! "Oh! what thanks shall I give unto thee, which hast suffered the grievous death of the cross to deliver me from my sins, and to obtain everlasting life for me? "Thou gavest us a most perfect example of patience, fulfilling and obeying the will of thy Father, even unto death. "Make me, wretched sinner, obediently to use myself after thy will in all things, and patiently to bear the burden of this corrupt life! "For though this life be tedious, and as an heavy burthen to my soul, yet, nevertheless, through thy grace, and by example of thee, it is now made much more easy and comfortable than it was before thy incarnation and passion. "Thy holy life is our way to thee, and by following that, we walk to thee that art our head and Savior: and except thou hadst gone before, and shewed us the way to everlasting life, who would endeavor himself to follow thee, seeing we be yet so slow and dull, having the light of thy blessed example and holy doctrine to lead and direct us? "O Lord Jesu, make that possible by grace that is impossible by nature! "Thou knowest well that I may little suffer, and that I am soon cast down, and overthrown with a little adversity: wherefore, I beseech thee, O Lord, to strengthen me with thy Spirit, that I may willingly suffer for thy sake all manner of troubles and afflictions! "Lord, I will acknowledge unto thee all mine unrighteousness, and I will confess to thee all the unstableness of my heart. "Oftentimes a very little thing troubleth me sore, and maketh me dull and slow to serve thee: "And sometimes I purpose to stand strongly, but when a little trouble cometh it is to me great anguish and grief, and of a right little thing riseth a grievous temptation to me; "Yea, when I think myself to be sure and strong, as it seemeth I have the upper hand, suddenly I feel myself ready to fall with a little blast of temptation. "Behold therefore, good Lord, my weakness and consider my frailness best known to thee! "Have mercy on me and deliver me from all iniquity and sin, that I be not entangled therewith! "Oftentimes it grieveth me sore, and in a manner confoundeth me that I am so unstable, so weak and so frail in resisting sinful motions; "Which, although they draw me not away to consent, yet nevertheless their assaults be very grievous unto me; "And it is tedious to me to live in such battle, albeit I perceive that such battle is not unprofitable unto me, for thereby I know myself, and mine own infirmities, and that I must seek help only at thine hands. "It is to me an unpleasant burthen, what pleasure soever the world offereth me here. "I desire to have inward fruition in thee, but I cannot attain thereto." The number as well as piety of these compositions sufficiently show how much of her time and thoughts, amidst all the business and ceremonies of her exalted station, were employed in order to secure her everlasting happiness, and sow the seeds of piety and virtue in the minds of her people. And as she very well knew how far good learning was subservient to these great ends, so she used her utmost endeavors for its establishment and increase. A remarkable proof of which we have in the following authentic piece of history. When the act was made, that all colleges, chantries, and free chapels, should be in the king's disposal, the University of Cambridge were filled with terrible apprehensions; but well knowing the queen's great regard to learning, they addressed letters to her by Dr. Smith, afterwards Sir Thomas Smith, the learned secretary of state to King Edward, in which they intreated her majesty to intercede with the king for their colleges, which accordingly she effectually did, and wrote to them in answer, "That she had attempted the king's majesty for the stay of their possessions, and that, notwithstanding his majesty's property and interest to them by virtue of that act of parliament, he was, she said, such a patron to good learning, that he would rather advance and erect new occasions thereof, than confound those their colleges; so that learning might hereafter ascribe her very original, whole conservation, and sure stay to him; adding, that the prosperous state of which long to preserve she doubted not but every one would with daily invocation call upon Him, who alone and only can dispose all to every creature." In the same letter she tells them, "That forasmuch as she well understood that all kinds of learning flourished among them as it did among the Greeks at Athens long ago, she desired and required them all not so to hunger for the exquisite knowledge of profane learning, that it might be thought that the Greek University was but transported, or now in England again revived, forgetting our Christianity, since the excellency of Greeks only attained to moral and natural things, but that she rather gently exhorted them to study and apply those doctrines (the variety of human learning) as means and apt degrees to the attaining and setting forth the better, Christ's revered and most sacred doctrine, that it might not be laid against them in evidence at the tribunal seat of God, how they were ashamed of Christ's doctrine; for this Latin lesson, she goes on, I am taught to say of St. Paul; "Non me pudet evangelii," and then adds, to the sincere setting forth whereof I trust universally in all your vocations and ministries you will apply and conform your sundry gifts, arts, and studies to such end and sort, that Cambridge may be accounted rather an university of divine philosophy than of natural or moral, as Athens was." This so satisfactory an answer to the petition of the University of Cambridge, shows as well the great influence she had over the king, as the good use she made of it; nor can the reader fail of observing from her letter how well she deserved his majesty's favor. Indeed she merited every instance of it she could desire; for, next to the studies of the Holy Scriptures, and the performance of the duties enjoined by them, she seems to have made it her principal care to be obsequious to his will. And as that part of his life which it fell to her lot to share with him was attended with almost continual indispositions, so his ill health joined such a fierceness of manners to his former untractable disposition, as rendered it a task extremely difficult even for his prime favorites to make themselves agreeable to him, and preserve his esteem; yet, such were the amiable qualities of the queen, that by a most obliging tenderness, and charming turn of conversation, she not only secured his affection under all his pain and sickness, but greatly contributed to the alleviation of them; which so cemented the king's affections, and grounded her so firmly in his good graces, that after the Bishop of Winchester was known to have been disappointed in his scheme for her ruin, none of her adversaries durst make any attempts against her. As a confirmation of what we have said concerning this lady's extraordinary virtues, and the true sense which the king had of them, we shall here exhibit the last testimony of his affection to her from his will, which bears date December the 30th, 1546, but one month before his decease, which is as follows: "And for the great love, obedience, chasteness of life, and wisdom being in our aforesaid wife and queen, we bequeath unto her for her proper use, and as it shall please her to order it, three thousand pounds in plate, jewels, and stuff of household, besides such apparel as it shall please her to take, as she hath already; and further we give unto her one thousand pounds in money, with the enjoying her dowry and jointure, according to our grant by act of parliament." Her great zeal for the Reformation, and earnest desire to have the Scriptures understood by the common people, put her upon the procuring several learned persons to translate Erasmus's paraphrase on * I am not ashamed of the Gospel. the New Testament into the English language for the service of the public. And this she did at her own great expense. She engaged Lady Mary, afterwards Queen Mary, in translating the paraphrase on the Gospel of St. John; upon which occasion she sent the following epistle in Latin to that princess: "Cum multa sint, nobilissima ac amantissima Domina, quæ me facilè invitant hoc tempore ad scribendum, nihil tamen perinde me movit atque cura valetudinis tuæ, quem, ut spero, esse optimam, ita de eadem certiorem fieri, magnoperè cupio. Quare mitto hunc nuntium quem judico fere tibi gratissimum, tum propter artem illam musicæ, quæ te simul ac me oppido oblectari non ignoro; tum quod à me profectus tibi certissimè referre possit de omni statû ac valetudine meâ. Atque sanè in animo fuit ante hunc diem iter ad te fecisse, atque coram salutasse, verùm voluntati meæ non omnia responderunt. Nunc spero hâc hyeme, idque propediem propius nos esse congressuras. Quo sane mihi nihil erit jucundum magis, aut magis volupte. "Cum autem, ut accepi, summa jam manus imposita sit per Maletum operi Erasmico in Johannem, quod ad tralationem spectat, neque quicquam nunc restet, nisi ut justa quædam diligentia ac cura adhibeatur in eodem corrigendo te obsecro, ut opus hoc pulcherrimum atque utilissimum jam emendatum per Maletum aut aliquem tuorum, ad me transmitti cures, quo suo tempore prelo dari possit; atque porro significes an tuo nomine in lucem felicissime exire velis, an potius incerto autore. Cui operæ meâ sanè opinione injuriam facere videberis si tui nominis autoritate etiam posteris commendatuin iri recusaveres in quo accuratissimè transferendo tanto labores summo reipublicæ bono suscepisti, pluresque, ut satis notuin est, susceptura, si valetudo corporis permisisset. Cum ergo in hâc re abs te laboriosè admodum sudatum fuisse nemo non intelligat cur quam omnes tibi meritò deferant laudem rejicias, non video. Attamen ego hanc rem omnem ita relinquo prudentiæ tuæ, ut quamcunque velis rationem inire eam ego maximè approbandam censuero. "Pro crumenâ quam ad me dono misisti ingentes tibi gratias ago. Deum opt. max. precor ut verâ ac intaminatâ felicitate perpetuò te beare dignetur: in quo etiam diutissimè valeas." Ex Hanworthia, 20 Septembris. Tui studiosissima ac amantissima, KATHARINA Regina K. P. IN ENGLISH. Though there are several considerations, my most noble and beloved lady, which readily invite me at this juncture to write to you, yet there is none that equally induces me with that of my solicitude for your health, which, as I hope it is perfectly enjoyed by you, so I feel myself most earnestly desirous to receive assurance concerning it. It is for this reason that I have dispatched this messenger to who I doubt not will be most welcome, both on account of his you, |