William Roye'a Dialogue between a Christian Father and bis atubborn Sou. 423
thynge wheron to grounde theym selves agaynst vs, they were
nott aschamed faulcely to diffame theym, whiche longe before
that tyme were deed and rotten, as my father. Thynkinge that
defamynge of hym, they shnlde qwenche and dercken the cleare
and evident light of god. whyche they hate worsse then other
toade or addre, as a thynge agaynst their beilies moste noyous
and contrary, saynge, bis father wolde eate noo porke, what
frute can soche a tre brynge forthe. But knowynge that the
innocency, bothe of my father, and also of me, is not vnknowne
(in that behaulfe) vnto all the nobles of the realme, I lytell
regarde their heddy vndiscrecion. Yet it is vnto my herte a
coresaye 1 amonge all wother moste greveous, to se the pryce
of the precious bloudde of Christ so despitfully to be troden
vnder fote, by soche vncleane swyne. and the moste hol
[fol. 2 b ] som doctrine therof, to be forbidden, thorowe the
howlynge and barkynge of soche cruell, and infame dogges.
Whose cruell tyranny foxye cavillacion, and resistence, have
moare inflammed my hert, and couraged my mynde, to go
aboute the translacion of holy scripture. Insomoche that 1 liave.
allredy partly translated, certayne bokes of the olde testament,
the whiche, with the healpe of God, yerr longe shalbe brought
to lyght. Notwithstondynge in the meane season 1 castynge
in my mynde the meane peoples capacite, and the greate
supersticion, whiche so longe hathe rayned and hadde vpperhonde,
t.hought it very necessary to make some smale treatous,
wherby somwhat they myght be the better prepared, and taught
howe to demeane theym selues, in the profunde misteries and
greate iudgementes of God, conteyned in the old testament,
and prophetes. And whyles I thus ymagened, I happened on
a smale worcke, whiche after my iudgement, is a treatous very
excellent, late turned oute of douche into latten. Whiche in
the redynge of it, greatly, delited me, and that nott only
because of the due and naturall ordre of it, but rather
because I se there as I am (where this boke is comenly in
vse) [fol. 3 U ] bothe yonge and olde, practise in lyvynge, all
those thinges whyche the boke teacheth by wrytynge. Ye
i = corsey. Vgl. Nares, Glossary, ed. Halliwell & Wright. London, 1859.
Vol. I. p. 193.
28*
