e war
partlie eschamed; and otheris war able to deny, that ever thei did
consent to any such purpose, yf any triall or questioun should be
tackin thareof, &c. Which letteris, when I had considdered, I
partlie was confounded, and partlye was persed with anguise and
sorrow. Confounded I was, that I had so far travelled in the mater,
moving the same to the most godly and the most learned that this
day we know to lyve in Europe, to the effect that I mycht have
thare judgements and grave counsalles, for assurance alsweall of
your consciences as of myne, in all interprises: And then that
nothing should succead so long consultatioun, can not but redound
eyther to your schame or myne; for eyther it shall appear; that I
was mervelouse vane, being so solist whare no necessitie requyred,
or ellis, that such as war my moveris thareto lacked the rypnes of
judgement in thare first vocatioun. To some it may appear ane small
and lycht mater, that I have cast of, and as it war abandoned,
alsweall my particulare care, as my publict office and charge,
leaving my house and poore familie destitut of all head, save God
only, and committing that small (but to Christ deirlie belovit)
flock, ower the which I was appointed one of the ministeris, to the
charge of ane other. This, I say, to worldly men may appear a small
mater, but to me it was, and yit is such, that more worldly
sustance then I will expresse, could not have caused me willinglie
behold the eies of so many grave men weape at ones for my caus, as
that I did, in tackin of my last good nycht frome thame. To whome,
yf it please God that I returne, and questioun be demanded, What
was the impediment of my purposed jorney? judge yow what I shall
answer. The caus of my dolour and sorrow (God is witnes) is for
nothing pertenyng eyther to my corporall contentment or worldly
displeasur; butt it is for the grevouse plagues and punishmentis of
God, which assuredly shall apprehend nott only yow, but everie
inhabitant of that miserable Realme and Ile, except that the power
of God, by the libertie of his Evangell, deliver yow from bondage.
[SN: THE MATRIMONIALL CROUN WAS GRANTED, AND FRENCHE BANDIS WAR
ARRYVED.] I meane not only that perpetuall fyre and torment,
prepared for the Devill, and for such as denying Christ Jesus and