laration of the true Religion professed or used in the same." The
book was prefaced by a letter, "To the right honorable learned and
vertuous Ladie, A. B." [Ann Bacon] "M. C. wisheth from God grace,
honoure, and felicitie," where M. C. signifies Matthew Cantuar, Matthew
Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, whom Lady Ann Bacon had made her judge,
and whose judgment, the letter says, her book had singularly pleased.

Lady Ann Bacon was the second daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, who was
tutor to King Edward VI. Sir Anthony gave to his five daughters a most
liberal education. His eldest daughter, Mildred, married Sir William
Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh, while Ann became the second wife of the
Lord Keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon. Their father had made Mildred and Ann
two of the most learned women in England.

John Jewel was forty years old when he wrote the "Apology." He was born
in Devonshire in 1522, on the 24th of May, at the village of Buden, near
Ilfracombe. He studied at Oxford, where he became tutor and preacher,
graduated as B.D. in 1551, and was presented to the rectory of
Sunningwell. At the accession of Queen Mary he bowed to the royal
authority, but he was a warm friend and disciple of Peter Martyr, who had
come to England in 1547, at the invitation of Edward VI., to take the
chair of Divinity at Oxford. On the accession of Queen Mary, Peter
Martyr (who was born at Florence in 1500, and whose family name was
Vermigli) returned to Strasburg, and went thence to Zurich, where he died
in 1562. Jewel, repenting of his assent to the new sovereign's authority
in matters of religion, followed his friend Peter Martyr across the
water, and became vice-master of a college at Strasburg. Upon the
accession of Elizabeth, in 1588, Jewel came back, and he was one of the
sixteen Protestants appointed by the Queen to dispute before her with a
like number of Catholics.

In 1559 John Jewel was appointed a commissioner for securing, in the West
of England, conformity with the newly-arranged Church service, and he had
to see that the Queen's orders were obeyed in the churches of his native
county. Before the end of the same year he was consecrated Bishop of
Salisbury. He was most zealous in performance of all duties of his
charge. To his good offices young Richard Hooker owed his opportunity of
training for the service of the Church. Among Jewel's writings, this
Apology or Defence of the Church of England was the most impor