PUT FORTH IN

THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII.

VIZ.

I. A GOODLY PRYMER, 1535.

II. THE MANUAL OF PRAYERS OR THE PRYMER IN

ENGLISH, 1539.

III. KING HENRY'S PRIMER, 1545.

SECOND EDITION.

OXFORD,

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

M.DCCC.XLVIII.

HE first Primer in this Collection, commonly

THE

known by the name of Marshall's Primer, is a reprint from the copy preserved in the Allestree library at Christ Church, and bearing in its colophon the date of 1535. In the various readings placed at the foot of the page, the letter A denotes an earlier edition, (probably of the year 1534,) a copy of which, the only one at present known, is in the Douce Collection in the Bodleian; B denotes the Allestree book; and C an edition

printed probably in the year 1538, a copy of which is also in the Bodleian. This Primer was put forth by a private individual, of whom nothing is certainly known beyond his name of Marshall, and was suppressed soon after its publication.

The second Primer, compiled by Hilsey, Bishop of Rochester, was published at the command of Crumwell in the year 1539, soon after the Bishop's death. The reprint is taken from a copy in the Bodleian, with this difference, that it has not

been thought necessary to give the Psalms, or the Te Deum, Benedicite, &c. at full length.

The last of the three Primers is known by the name of King Henry's Primer, having been "set forth by the King's Majesty and his clergy to be taught learned and read, and none other to be used throughout all his dominions." It was first printed in the year 1545 by Grafton and Whitchurch in Latin and English, both together, and each separately; was reprinted in the following year, and subsequently in the reign of King Edward VI. A copy of the 4to Whitchurch of 1545 in the Bodleian was employed for the present publication. The Preface which does not appear in the edition of Whitchurch is to be found in the earliest editions of Grafton, and was published by Wilkins in his Concilia, vol. III. p. 873.

AN

ADMONITION TO THE READER".

AMONG other innumerable pestilent and infectious books and learnings, with the which the Christian people have been piteously seduced and deceived, brought up in divers kinds of diffidence and false hope, I may judge chiefly those to be pernicious, on whom they have been wont commonly hitherto in every place superstitiously to pray, and have learned in the same with much foolish curiosity, and as great

a In the Primer of 1534 there is no "Admonition to the Reader:" but in that Primer The Preface unto the Reader," which follows the General Confession, contains part of the " Admonition." The former part of this

Preface is as follows:

"Among other innumerable pestilent infections of books and learnings, "with the which Christian people have been piteously seduced and deceived, (brought up in divers kinds of diffidence and false hope,) I may judge, and "that chiefly those to be pernicious, on whom they be wont in every place "to pray, and have also learned by heart, both curiously and with great scrupulosity, to make rehearsal of their sins. These books, (though they "abounded in every place with infinite errors, and taught prayers, made "with wicked foolishness, both to God and also to his saints,) yet because 4 they were garnished with glorious titles, and with red letters, promising "much grace and pardon, (though it were but vanity,) have sore deceived "the unlearned multitude. One is called the Garden of the Soul, another, "the Paradise of the Soul: and because I will be short, look thou thyself "what divers and glorious names be given unto them. Wherefore here "needeth sharp reformation; yea and many of them be worthy to be ut“terly destroyed. The same judgment and reformation is also to be had of "the books of passions and saints' lives, called legends: for in these are also many things added, whereof Satan is author. Howbeit since neither time “sufficient is given to one man, neither the burden of this reformation of one may be sustained, I thought it enough in this place only to have mo"nished you, trusting that God in time coming shall add to those things "both time convenient and also light."

K. H.'S PRIMER.