[   ¶ The Ninth Booke containing the Actes and thinges done in the Reigne of King EDWARD the sixt. ] ¶ The Ninth Booke containing the Actes and thinges done in the Reigne of King EDWARD the sixt.

Of whose excellente vertues & singuler graces wrought in him by the gift of God, although nothing canne be sayde enough to his commendation: yet because the renowmed fame of such a worthye prince shall not vtterlye passe our story without some gratefull remembraunce, I thought in few wordes to touch some litle portion of his prayse, taken out of great heapes of matter, which might be infer- red. For to stand vppon all that might be sayde of him, it would be to long: and yet to say nothing, it were to much vnkinde. If kinges and Princes which haue wisely and vertuously gouerned, haue foūd in all ages writers to solemnise and celebrate theyr Actes and memory, such as neuer knew them, nor were subiect vnto thē, how much thē are we English men bound not to forget our duety to K. Edward,

   

And here to vse the example of Plutarch in comparing kings and rulers, the Latines with the Greekes together if I should seek with whom to match this noble Edward, I finde not with whom to make my match more aptly, thē with good Iosias. For as the one began his raigne at eight yeares of his age, so the other beganne at 9. Neyther were their acts and zelous procedings in Gods cause much discrepant. For, as milde Iosias pluckt downe the hil altars,

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