WHEREAS I have come out of Germany and Bohemia, being sent by my superiors, and brought myself into this noble realm, my dear country, for the glory of God and the benefit of souls, I thought it likely enough that in this busy, watchful and suspicious world, that I would either sooner or later be intercepted and stopped from my course. Wherefore, providing for all events and uncertain what might happen to me, when God shall haply de­liver my body to suffering, I supposed that I needed to make this statement ready in writing since I desire your good Lordships to read it so you may know my cause. In doing this I trust I shall make your work somewhat eas­ier. For that which otherwise you must have sought for by intellectual labor I do now lay in your hands by a plain confession. So that the whole matter may be understood in order and be better understood and remembered, I therefore reduced it to these nine points or articles, thus directly, truly and resolutely laying open my full enterprise and purpose.

1. I confess that I am, although unworthy, a priest of the Catholic Church, and through the great mercy of God have taken vows eight years ago in the religious order of the Society of Jesus. Thereby I have taken on myself a special kind of warfare under the banner of obedience and have moreover resigned all my interest in or chance for wealth, honor, pleasure or worldly happiness.

2. At the voice of our Superior General, which is to me a warrant from heaven and the voice of Christ, I traveled from Prague to Rome (where our said Father General is always resident) and from Rome to England, as I might and would have done joyously to any pan of Christendom or any pagan country, had I been assigned there.

3. My assignment is to preach the gospel free of charge, to administer the sacraments, to instruct the unlearned, to reform sinners, to refute errors—in brief to sound a spiritual alarm against the foul vice and proud ignorance wherewith many of my dear countrymen are abused.

4, I never had in mind and am strictly forbidden by our Father [General] who sent me to deal in any respect with matters of state or policy of this realm since these things do not pertain to my vocation, and from them I gladly restrain and withdraw my thoughts.

5. I do ask for the glory of God and with all humility and at your discre­tion for three kinds of neutral and quiet audiences. The first is one before your Honors where I will discourse about religion insofar as it touches the good of the people and you noblemen. The second (which I value more highly) is before the doctors and masters and chosen men of both [Oxford and Cambridge] Universities; there I will undertake to defend the faith of our Catholic Church by innumerable proofs from Scripture, the Councils, the Fathers [of the Church], and natural and moral reasons. The third is before lawyers of civil and church law where I will justify the said faith by the common wisdom of the laws currently in force and practice.

6. I would be reluctant to speak anything that might sound like an inso­lent brag or challenge, especially since I am now like a man dead to this world and willing to put my head under every man’s foot and to kiss the ground they tread upon. Yet I have such courage in defending the majesty of Jesus my King and so much trust in his gracious favor and such assurance in my quarrel and because my evidence is so impregnable and because I know perfectly that no one Protestant nor all the living Protestants nor any sect of our adversaries (however much they face down men in the pulpit and over­rule us in their kingdom of grammarians and unlearned ears) can uphold their doctrine in a disputation. I ask most humbly and urgently to dispute with them, one and all, and the best leaders that can be found. I claim that in this trial the better prepared they are, the more welcome they shall be.

7. And because it has pleased God to enrich Queen [Elizabeth], my sovereign lady, with noble gifts of nature, learning and a princely education, I really do trust that—if her Highness would grant her royal person and good attention to such a conference as I have mentioned in the second part of my fifth article, or to a few sermons, which in her or your hearing I am to utter,—such clear and fair light may be cast upon those controversies by good method and plain dealing that possibly her zeal for truth and love of her people shall incline her noble Grace to disfavor some proceedings hurtful to the Realm and procure more fairness for us oppressed [Catholics].

8. Moreover I do not doubt that you, her Highness’ Council, being of such wisdom and discretion in very important cases, when you shall have heard these questions of religion opened faithfully, which many times our adversaries have jumbled up and confused, will see on what substantial grounds our Catholic Faith is built, how feeble is that side which by the fluctuation of time prevails against us, and so at last for your own souls and for many thousands souls that depend upon your government, you will re­ject error when it is disclosed and listen to those who would spend the best blood in their bodies for your salvation.

9. If these offers of mine are refused and my endeavors cannot take place, and I, having run thousands of miles to do you good, shall be rewarded with rigor, I have no more to say but to recommend your case and mine to almighty God, the searcher of hearts, that he send us his grace and bring us to agreement before the day of payment, to the end that we may at last be friends in heaven, when all injuries shall be forgotten.

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