468 OBSERVATIONS ON A LIBEL* 



which inoveth me to give the reader a taste of their 

 untruths, such as are written, and are not merely 

 gross and palpable ; desiring him out of their own 

 writings, when any shall fall into his hands, to in 

 crease the roll at least in his own memory. 



We retain in our calendars no other holydays 

 but such as have their memorials in the Scriptures ; 

 and therefore in the honour of the blessed Virgin, 

 we only receive the feasts of the annunciation and 

 the purification ; omitting the other of the concep 

 tion and the nativity ; which nativity was used to 

 be celebrated upon the eighth of September, the 

 vigil whereof happened to be the nativity of our 

 queen : which though we keep not holy, yet we use 

 therein certain civil customs of joy and gratulation, 

 as ringing of bells, bonfires, and such like : and 

 likewise make a memorial of the same day in our 

 calendar : whereupon they have published, that we 

 have expunged the nativity of the blessed Virgin, 

 and put instead thereof the nativity of our queen : 

 and farther, that we sing certain hymns unto her, 

 used to be sung unto our Lady. 



It happened that, upon some bloodshed in the 

 church of Paul s, according to the canon law, yet 

 with us in force, the said church was interdicted, 

 and so the gates shut up for some few days ; where 

 upon they published, that, because the same church 

 is a place where people use to meet to walk and 

 confer, the queen s majesty, after the manner of the 

 ancient tyrants, had forbidden all assemblies and 



