ABSTRACT

WHAT mischiefe hath ins urged in realmes by intestine devision, what depopulacion hath ensued in countries by civill discencion, what detestable murder hath been committed in citees by seperate faccions, and what calami tee hath ensued in famous regions by domes tical discord & unnaturall controversy: Rome hath felt, Italy can testifie, Fraunce can bere witnes, Beame can tell, Scotlande maie write, Denmarke can shewe, and especially this noble realme of Englande can apparantly declare and make demonstracion. For who abhorreth not to expresse the heynous factes comitted in Rome, by the civill war betweneJulius Cesar and hardy Pompey by whose discorde the bright glory of the triumphant Rome was eclipsed & shadowed? Who can reherce what mischefes and what plages the pleasant countree of Italy hath tasted and suffered by the sedicious faccions of the Guelphes and Gebelynes? Who can reporte the misery that daiely hath ensued in Fraunce, by the discorde of the houses of Burgoyne and Orliens: Or in Scotland betwene the brother and brother, the uncle and the nephew? Who can curiously endite the manifolde battailles that were fought in the realme of Beame, betwene the catholikes and the pestiferous sectes of the Adamites and others? What damage discencion hath dooen in Germany and Denmarke, all christians at this daie can well declare. And the Turke can bere good testimony, whiche by the discord of christen princes hath amplified greatly his seigniory and dominion. But what miserie, what murder, and what execrable plagues this famous region hath suffered by the devision and discencion of the renoumed houses of Lancastre and Yorke, my witte cannot comprehende nor my toung declare nether yet my penne fully set furthe.