St. Austen saith, the word doth come Unto the element;

And there is made, he saith, in summe, A perfect sacrament.

The element doth then remaine;
Or else must needes ensue→→→
St. Austens words be nothing plaine,
Nor cannot be found true.

For if the word, as he doth say,

Come to the element;
Then is not the element away,
But bides there verament.

Yet whoso eateth that lively foode,
And hath a perfect faith,
Receiveth Christes flesh and blood;-
For Christ himselfe so saith.

Not with our teeth his flesh to teare,

Nor take blood for our drinke;

Too great an absurdity it were
So grosly for to thinke.

For we must eat him spiritually,

If we be spirituall:

And whoso eates him carnally,
Thereby shall have a fall.

For he is now a spirituall meate,

And spiritually we must

That spirituall meat spiritually eat,

And leave our carnall lust.

Thus by the Spirit, I spiritually

Beleeve, say what men list; None other transubstantiation I Beleeve of the Eucharist:

But that there is both bread and wine
Which we see with our eye;
Yet Christ is there by power divine,
To those that spiritually

Do eate that bread and drink that cup,
Esteeming it but light

As Judas did, which eate that sop
Not judging it aright.

For I was taught, not long agone,
I should leane to the Spirit,
And let the carnall flesh alone,
For [that] it doth not profit.

God save him that teaching me taught,
For I thereby did winne

To put from me that carnall thought
That I before was in.

This doe I say, this have I said,

This saying say will I,

This saying, though I once denaid,

I will no more to die"."

Bishop Montague attests that king Edward wrote several epistles and orations, both in Greek and Latin, and a treatise,

"De Fide,"

addressed to the duke of Somerset. With great endowments, says Mr. Lodge, we find Edward mild, patient, beneficent, sincere, and affable; free from all the faults, and uniting all the perfections of the royal persons of his family who preceded or followed him: courageous and steady, but humane and just; bountiful without profusion; pious without bigotry; graced with a dignified simplicity of conduct in common affairs, which suited his rank as well as his years, and artlessly obeying the impulses of his perfect mind, in assuming, as occasions required, the majesty of the monarch, the gravity of the statesman, and the familiarity of the gentleman 2.

Fuller, in his Worthies of Middlesex, has treasured four letters by this prince which were addressed to Barnaby Fitzpatrick, a gentleman of his becdhamber,

Acts and Monuments, vol. iii. P. 1006. A note says, "This piece is worthy of perpetual memory to the immortal fame and glory of this young prince." For such critical commendation Mr. Ellis seems to have formed the most rational apology, in his brief view of the poetical annals of Edward VI. See Specimens of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 116.

• Pref. to the Works of James I.
• Accounts of the Holbein Portraits.

who had been brought up with him; and they evince no less sweetness of temper than excellence of understanding 3.

The following short epistles, addressed at an earlier period. to his step-mother, and sister, convey pleasing denotations of an amiable mind: the originals are preserved in Harl. MS. 6986.

"A la tres noble et tres excellente Roine.

"Je vous mercie, tres noble et tres excellente Roine, de voz lettres lesquelles vous m'envoiastes dernierement non seulement pour la beaute de voz lettres, mais aussy pour l'invention des mesmes lettres. Car quand je vous vostre belle escriture et l'excellence de vostre engin grandement precedant mon invention je nausois, vous escrire. Mais quand je pensois que votre nature estoit si bonne, que toute chose procedant d'un bon esprit et vouloir s[oit] acceptable, je vous ay escrit ceste lettre cy.

"De ma maison de Hampton-court.

" EDWARD."

"Charissimæ meæ Sorori Mariæ.

"Una hæc epistola ad duas res valet, charissima soror, tùm ad agendas tibi pro strena tua gratias, tùm ad explendum studium meum scribendi ad te. Strena tua talis est, ut mihi necessè sit eam plurimi facere ob dignitatem rei, et multùm probare ob donantis

amorem.

• These letters were reprinted at Strawberry Hill, in 1772. 4 • Voiois, MS.

"Studium meum ad te scribendi tantum est, ut quanquàm me te brevi visurum sperem, tamen cum mihi sit otium vix queam mihi ipsi satis facere nisi ad te scripseram 5. Non possum enim te non vehementer amare à qua sentio me plurimum diligi. Dominus Jesus te servet incolumem.

"Hartfordiæ, decimo Januarii.

"Amantissimus tui Frater

"EDOUARDUS Princeps."

Concerning the person of this prince, sir John Hayward informs us that he was in body beautiful; of a sweet aspect, and especially in his eyes, which seemed to have a starry liveliness, and lustre in them. This description, Mr. Lodge thinks, is fully justified by the sketch of his portrait in the Holbein collection.

"The

Baldwin, the original editor of the Mirror for Magistrates, closes his elegiac poem entitled Funeralles of King Edward VI." with the following "Death-playnt or Life-prayse of this most noble and vertuous Prince","

The noble hart which feare might never moove,
Wherin a minde with vertue fraught did rest,

A face, whose chere allured unto loove

All hartes, through tyes which pity whole possest:
The brayne, which wit and wisedome made their chest,
Fulfyld with all good giftes that man may have,
Rest with a princely carkas here in grave:

⚫ Scripsero, MS.

• Transcribed from a copy of this rare tract in the possession of my friend William Fillingham, Esq. of the Inner Temple..