SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
33tf
To gire some idea of the merriments of our ancestors, we present the following extract from original auto grap hs in the British museum : —
"Cardinal Wolsey, who was prime minister to Henry VIII. in 1635, established a household for the princess Mary, she bein^ then the princess royal; and he also appointed the various officers and serrants of her establishment. The follow- mg document is a copy of one presented to Wolsey, for instructions now to proceed at the succeeding Christmas : —
" Please it youre Grace, for the great repaire of struungers, supposed unto the Pryncesae, honourable householde, this solempne fest of Christmas.
" We humbly beseeche the same to let us know youre gracious pleasure concemyng as well a i^ ofMver for the almes disshe requTsyte for fier nigh estate and spice plats, as also for trum- petts, and a rebek to be sent, and whether we shall appoynt any Lord of MytraU for the said honourable householde, provide for interluds, di^ysyngs, or pleyes in the sed fest, or for banket or twelf nyght. And in likewise whether the Princess shall sende any newe yeres gifts to the Kinge, the Qnene, your Grace, and the Frensshe Queue, & of the v^ue and devise of the same. Besechyng your Grace also to pardon our busy and importunate suts to the same in such behalie made. Thus our right ^yngler good Lord, we pray the holy Trynyte have you in his holy nre- servacion. At Teoxbury_ the xxvij day of No- vember, Youre humble Orators.
To the most reveiant father in God the Lord Caidinall, his good Grace.
John Exon, Jeiler Grevile, Peter Bumell, J. Salter, G. Bromley, Thomas Audeley."
Doubtless, his grace the cardinal allowed Uie recreations prayed for, and this specimen may serve for a mirror of that age, as it respects these revels and pastimes then practised.
1921. To counteract the inclination of his subjects to heretical sentiments, Henry VIII. entered the list against Martin Luther, by writ- ing and publishing a book, lie Sevtem Sacra- meiuu, ** Of the Seven Sacraments;' for writing this ImmIc, pope Leo X., on the 1 1th of October of this year, bestowed upon the royal contiover- solist, the title of Defender of the Faith* But neither the lustre of Henry's crown, nor the ac- clamations of the admirers of the royal perform- ance, intimidated the intrepid German, who re- plied to the treatise in terms of imbecoming severi^, followed by a letter, acknowledging the viiiilence of the terms employed. Luther s reply was succeeded by epistolary answers from the king, whose zeal had been inflamed by the honours he Cad received from the papal head of die church. These epistolary replies, originally written in Latin, were aflerwards translated, and printed by Richard Pynson, his Majesty's prin-
- The Mai of Uie bull cf pope aement VII. who succeed -
ed Leo X. amarmlnir the title of De/ender of Ike FaiUi, to Baaj VIIL to of aoUd gold and pnnerrcrt in the chiqitcr home, Westminster.
ter. — The king's answer begins thus: "Your lettrers wrytten the fyrst day of Septembre, we haue receyued the xx. day of March:" Ike. The time of receiving Luther's letter is not men- tioned in the Latin editions.
In the king's letter we have this remarkable assertion, " And although ye fayne your self to thynke my boke nat myne owne, but to my re- buke (as it lyketh you to afiyrme) put out by subtell sophisters : yet it is well knowen formyn, and J for myne auowe it :" &c.
1521. Here enmeth a gooitely Treatyte of the Panyon of our Lorde Jem Chrytt, vilh numy deuout Contemj^aeyotu Examplet and Extenciotu of the tame. £7tprbUed at London in Fletatrete at the tugru of the Sotme hy Wynkyn de Worde the vi. Daye of Oetobre. The yere ofoure Lorde mxeeecjcxi. Quarto.
Title over a large cut of the crucifixion, and on the reverse is the following poetical pro- logue: —
THB PKOUraHE OF ROBBRT COPLANDE.
The godly vie of prudent wytted men Cannot ebsteyne thejr anncrent exercjrie: Recorde of late how beiilv ulth hi* pen The translator of the nyd treatyte Hath him indeured, in moat goodly wise Bokes to translate, in volumes large and ftiyre From Frenche in prose, of goosUy examplayre.
As to tkeJUmn of OikUet nmmmmtUwunim,
A treatyse alto ailed Luepdarf,
With two other of tht mm taeramente$.
One of critten men the ordhuarft
The teconde the crt^fl to tjfue veil and to d^e.
With dyuert other to mannea lyfte pro^rtable,
A vertnoae vae and rygl^t commendable.
And now thto Boke of Chrittet Potqms Hie which before, in Language was to mde Seyng the matter to be of grete Compassyon Bsith besyed hym that Vyce for to exclude In Knglytthe dere, with grete Solydtnde Out of Fteniihe at Wynkyn de Wordet Inttanncc Dayly descryng of Veitues the Fortheraoncc.
The translator of the above work was Andrew Chertsey, gentlemail, the laborious assistant of Wynkyn de Worde and Robert Copland.
1521. On the authority of Maurice Johnson, Esq. Ames mentions a John Butler, or Boteler, who was a judge of the common pleas and a printer; but of whose press the on^ relic that remains is Paruularvm truft<tU>o ex Stanbrigiana eolleetione. Quarto. It consists of two sheets, and at the end is Imprinted at London in Fletettrete at the tygne of taynt John the euangely$t by me John Sitler. It was most probably that £rom Butler, Robert Wyer first adopted his sign or device, and he possibly might have been his typographical instructor.
1521. The earliest edition of the New Testa, ment printed in Sweden, is of this date, in folio, and executed at Stockholm.* In 1703, a splen- did edition of (he Swedish Bible was printed at the same place, by H. Keyser, in the praises of which Alnander is warm and eloquent — At
• In the royal library of Stockholm to preserved, as an interesting relic of the days of the Reformation, a copy of the Vu^ati Bitle, which was nted by Martin Luther; it to a folio edition, printed at Lyons in isil, and its margins and every void space are wholly covered with annotations in the band-writing of that refonncr.
VjOOQ IC
