_An answere purgatorie of the sonne touching matters Inuectiue of the former Epistle._
Were it not sir that my presence might more offend you then I wish, or by anie action of mine owne, woulde willinglie deserue, I had (emboldened by the equitie and right of my cause) in all humble reuerence and dutie, tendered my self vnto you, but vnderstanding howe greatly the malice of mine auncient enemies haue preuailed towards mee, and that without the verie pietie of your selfe, and equall regarde had to the due information of my cause, there is no place of fauour left vnto me, I choose as the meetest to abandon for a while the yeelding vnto you (by my accesse) of anie such annoyance, and in the meane time, to frame these humble lines, pacifiers of your more then ordinarie discontentments, that as true aduertisers of the course of that wherwith I am charged, they may plead pardon of your protested mislike, and winne vnto me (as I hope) that intertainment againe, from which hitherto by the vndeserued proceedings of mine aduersaries, I haue iniuriouslie beene detained.
And albeit there is no reason whie, in the measure of all your actions, I shoulde or ought to deeme, that you doe, or enterprise anie thing vnaduisedlie: yet for so much as the secret sting of malice is such, as is able to penetrate the wisest, and that where much is feared, the least matter inducing thereunto is made occasion to question of, I doe in as lowlie manner as I maie, beseech that but with indifferencie you will see howe and in what sort I am wronged, and giuing credite to what hereby in mine owne defence alledged, you will censure the rest, as to the respect of your fatherlie pietie appertaineth.
The weight of that, for which as I vnderstande you are agreeued agaynst mee, is that heretofore you haue had suggested vnto you that I am verie vnthriftie, that I keepe lewde companie, that I consume all at dice, that I am a quarreller, and lastlie, that you surmize you were robbed by meane of mee, or by my assent, all which to confirme, mine aduersaries seeme to haue gathered vppon me great aduantage, in that notwithstanding, beeing often forewarned the contrarie, I sithence fell into companie, played at dice, brake a mans head, and that my man that robbed you, was the night before in my companie.