A Little Treatise Against Sedicious Persons

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¶A lytell treatyse agaynst sedicyous persons.

¶To trolle awaye or trolle in / let not trolle spare

If trolle truly trolle / trolle nedeth not to care.

OF late I perused / two purposes seuerall

In their kyndes clerkely handeled / the truth for to tell

Trolle_awaye and Trolle_in / men do them call

Treatyng vpon mater / concernyng the late Crumwell

The one vtterly myndyng / the other to repell

Trolle_away (the trouth is) moche touched the quycke

And Trolle_in (somwhat galled) began for to kycke.

¶Yet Trolle_away tolde trouth / it can not be denyed

Declaryng the offence / wherin Crumwell offended

Trolle_in beyng troubled / whan he it espyed

With trollynges to couer it / full subtelly contended

Some trollers there be / I wolde were amended

For who that craftely couereth / any others offence

Of lykelyhode / in his owne herte / hath the same pretence.

Truly to trolle / it is no maner of shame

And trollyng vntrue / is not to be mayntayned

As euery-thyng is / so to gyue it propre name

Amonges all true honest men / shulde not be disdayned

The scripture so techeth vs / it can not be fayned Ve qui dicitis bonum malum et malum bonum. Esa. quinto. =Isaias 5: 20 =Isaias 5: 20

Agaynst scripture who stryueth / he is none other lyke

Than a traytoure to his prince / and to god an heretyke.

I entende not to trolle / to take any parte

Diuisyon to encreace / it nedeth nothyng

But sorowfully syghyng / I trolle in my harte

With my-selfe in mynde / many tymes reuoluyng

How god to vs / hath ordayned the most noble kyng

Who vniformly to knyt vs / hath traueyled full sore

Yet many trifelyng trollers / care lytell therfore.

¶But as trollers troubelous / and full of enuy

At the lawes of god / and of our good kyng

In their trollynges do trust / yet that their olde heresy

All good ord[yr]s set a_parte / shall florisshe and sprynge ordyrs] ordrys 1540

Their prechers / no lesse conforte / in their sermons do brynge

Euen lately exhortyng them / auoydyng all drede

And persecution not regardyng / throughly to procede.

¶With many wordes more troublous / than now I wyll reherce

Not doutyng at all / but at length they shalbe knowen

Suche trollyng trecherous / my herte doth sore perce

Consyderyng howe sedicyously / amonges vs they be sowen

Of late I well trusted / they had ben ouer-blowen

But now I well parceyue / that neither fauour nor smarte

From the body can expell / that is rooted in the harte.

¶A trewe trollyng hert / wolde be loth to pretende

Any purpose to mayntayne / agaynst god or his kyng

The confessyon of an heretyke / that lately dyd offende

And amonges others / suffred for his deseruyng

Secretly they embrace / as a most precyous thyng

And yet playnly wyll I proue / by good lawe and reason

Contayned therin / both heresy and treason.

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In any wyse imprynted / they wyll not it shall be

The daungers therof in them-selues mystrustynge

Wherfore euery man may well perceyue and se

What hertes they do beare to god and our good kynge

Euery of them secretly must haue it in wrytynge

But Chryst sayeth verely there is n[o]thynge conceled nothynge] ndthynge 1540

But at length shalbe knowen / and openly reueled. Nihil est opertum quo[d] non reueletur. neque occultum quod non sciatur. Math, x, Vulgate, Matthew 10: 26: Nihil enim est opertum, quod non revelabitur: et occultum, quod non scietur. Vulgate, Matthew 10: 26: Nihil enim est opertum, quod non revelabitur: et occultum, quod non scietur.

¶Who against them trolleth / a Papyst they him name

They haue no other thing / themselues for to defende

I wolde that all Papystes / had an open shame

And that all heretykes / them-selues wolde amende

Than shuld we haue no cause / further to contende

But vniformly to lyue / the one with the other

And ioyfully to enhabyt / as brother with brother. Ecce quam bonum et quam iocundum habitare fratres in unum. psa, c,xxxij

Such shuld be our trollynges / Christ vs so teacheth

Commaunding euer peace / amonges vs for to be Mathei. x. Luce. ij. Io, xiiij.xv,

Untruly he trolleth / that otherwyse preacheth

Styreng to any sedicion / malyce or enuye

Where banisshed is discorde / and raygneth all charite

That realme in god resteth / and god is in it /

Being charite him-selfe / as sayth the holy writ. Deus charitas est et qui manet in caritate in deo manet et deus in eo i. Ioh. iij. Recte: 1John 4:16 Recte: 1John 4:16

Than towardes that charite / trolle we on a_pace

Auauncyng our-selues / with all conuenyent spede

A more acceptable pilgrimage / surely neuer was

For which god gaue to man / any meryte or mede

Our labour or gret burden / let vs nothing drede

Nor regarding the wylfulnes / of our body or flesshe

For at the iorneyes ende / Christ wyll vs refresshe. Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis et onorati estis, et ego reficiam uos Mathei. xv

And than as true trollers / togither let vs remayne

Parfectly fast knyt / in one peace / vnyte and loue

With glory vnto god / euermore glad and fayne

Our noble Prince truly to serue / as doth vs behoue

And all others to tendre / as duty doth vs moue Omnis anima po[testatibus] sub[limioribus]potestatibus sublimioribus] po sub. 1540 subdita sit. ro. 13. potestatibus sublimioribus] po sub. 1540

Usyng styll amonge vs / the selfe-same loue and concorde

Which is to vs commaunded / by Christ the eternall lorde. Hoc est mandatum meum u[t]ut] ur 1540 diligatis inuicem sicut Ioh. xv. ut] ur 1540

And nowe in that loue / let vs all with one voyce pray

For the preseruacion of Henry our most noble kyng

And Katheren our Quene / that they togither may

Prosperously contynue / to their hertes desyring

And Edward our Prince / that most angelyke thing

That they all togither may longe lyue and rest

And after with him to raygne / qui in celis est.

God saue the Kyng.

To Trolle away or Trolle in / let not Trolle spare

If Trolle truly Trolle / Trolle nedeth not to care.

Composed by Thomas_Smyth / seruaunt to the kynges royall maiestye.

And clerke of the Quenes graces counsell / though most vnworthy.

FINIS.