This book was prohibited by a proclamation dated June 13, 1555. (Foxe's Acts and Monuments, vol. 7, p. 127, ed. 1847.)

This book was written in support of the marriage and the claims of Lord Hertford's children by the Lady Catherine Grey. The Queen was so angry at its appearance that the author was committed to the Tower, and Bacon himself, the Lord Keeper, who was suspected of having had a hand in its appearance, fell considerably in his mistress's favour.

The authors of this tract were most probably the Puritan divines John Field and Thomas Wilcox. It was frequently reprinted, and in 1572 Field and Wilcox presented a copy to the House of Commons, and were immediately committed to Newgate. By a proclamation dated June 11th, 1573, the admonition itself, and "one other also in defence of the sayde admonition" were commanded to be delivered up on pain of imprisonment, "and her highness further displeasure."

This book gave great offence to the Queen and her ministers, for it invites the ladies about the Queen's person to imitate the example of Judith in ridding the world of Holofernes. Though printed in 1578 it was not till 1584 that measures were taken concerning it. A copy had been sent by Cardinal Allen to William Carter, the printer for a new edition. That very copy, wanting the title page, is now in the Bodleian. The impression was seized, and on January 10th, at a Sessions held in the Old Bailey, for the gaol delivery of Newgate, Carter himself was there indicted, arraigned, and condemned of high treason for printing this book, and was for the same, on the next day drawn from Newgate to Tyburn, and there hanged, bowelled, and quartered. (Holinshed.)

A book presenting a curious view of the habits and manners of the young men of family and fashion in the reign of Elizabeth. It is reprinted in the Miscellanea Antiqua Anglicana. Upon a motion made by Mr. Norton in the House of Commons on February 4th, 1580/81, stating that this book was "done and procured" by Mr. Arthur Hall, a member of that House: it was resolved that the Sergeant at Arms be forthwith sent to apprehend Mr. Hall, and the printer was also to be sent for; and accordingly on the 6th February Mr. Hall was brought to the bar and admitted the offence. On the 14th February it was resolved that he should be committed to the Tower for six months, and so much longer as until he should willingly make a retractation; that he be fined 500 marks, and be expelled the House of Commons. (Vide Commons' Journals, vol. 1, pp. 122, 124, 125, 126, 132, 136.)

According to Camden[1] the Queen was much incensed at this book, in which those of the Council who favoured the marriage are taxed as ungrateful to their Prince and Country; the Queen herself (in the midst of several flattering expressions) is glanced at as unlike herself; the Duke of Anjou slandered with unworthy reproaches; the French nation odiously defamed; and the marriage itself, in regard of the difference of religion, (as of the daughter of God with a son of Antichrist) with virulent words condemned, as profane, dangerous to the Church, and destructive to the Commonwealth; and this proved out of the Holy Scriptures, miserably wrested. Neither would the Queen be persuaded that the author of the book had any other intent but to procure the hatred of her subjects against her, (who had always no less regard of the love of her people than she had of her own authority, and as Princes use to do, made it her chief care to preserve her reputation) and privately to open a gap for some prodigious innovation; considering that the writer had not so much as mentioned the security of the Queen and realm, or prevention of dangers to either, and that the States of the Realm had before with all earnestness besought her to marry, as the most assured remedy against the threatening mischiefs. These things she declared by public proclamation,[2] wherein having condemned the author of the book as a publisher of sedition, she highly commended the Duke of Anjou's good affection towards her and the Protestant religion, and expressed her resentment that so great an injury should be offered to so noble a Prince, and one that had so well deserved, who had desired nothing to be altered either in the commonwealth or religion: and withal, she commended Simier, the Duke of Anjou's agent, for his wisdom and discretion, whom some had loaded with calumnies and slanders. She also advertised the people that the said book was nothing else but a fiction of some traitors, to raise envy abroad, and sedition at home; and commanded it to be burnt before the magistrate's face. From this time forward she began to be a little more incensed against the puritans, or innovators, from whom she easily believed these kind of things proceeded: and indeed, within a few days after, John Stubbs of Lincoln's Inn, a furious hot-headed professor of religion, (whose sister, Thomas Cartwright, a ringleader amongst the Puritans, had married) the author of this book, William Page, who dispersed the copies, and Singleton the printer, were apprehended; against whom sentence was given, that their right hands should be cut off, according to an Act of Philip and Mary, against the authors and publishers of seditious writings. Though some lawyers muttered that the sentence was erroneous and void by reason of the false noting of the time wherein the law was made; and that that Act was only temporary, and died with Queen Mary. Of this number was Dalton, who often bawled it out openly, and was committed to the Tower; and Monson, a judge in the Court of Common Pleas, was so sharply reprehended, that he resigned his place, forasmuch as Wray, Lord Chief Justice of England, made it appear that there was no mistake in noting the time; and proved by the words of the Act, that the Act was made against those who should abuse the King by seditious writings, and that the King of England never dieth; yea that that Act was renewed Anno primo Elizabethæ, to be in force during the life of her and