"This condition of affairs doth not only displease us, but as your Grace's wisdom most prudently doth foresee, for the quieting of this intestine dissension, a public Reformation, in religion as well as in temporal government was most necessary. To this task, as we are informed, ye have most gravely and most godly exhorted as well the clergy as the nobility, to employ their study, diligence, and care. We, therefore, of conscience, dare no longer dissemble in so weighty a matter which concerneth the glory of God and our salvation. Neither now dare we withdraw our presence, or conceal our petitions, lest the adversaries hereafter shall object to us that place was granted to reformation, and yet no man suited for the same; and so should our silence be prejudicial unto us in time to come. Therefore, knowing no other order placed in this realm, but your Grace, in your grave Council, set to amend, as well the disorder ecclesiastical, as the defaults in the temporal regiment, we most humbly prostrate ourselves before your feet, asking your justice, and your gracious help, against them that falsely traduce and accuse us, as if we were heretics and schismatics. Under that colour they seek our destruction; because we seek the amendment of their corrupted lives, and that Christ's religion be restored to its original purity. Further, we crave of your Grace to hear, with open and patient ears, these our subsequent requests; and, to the joy and satisfaction of our troubled consciences, mercifully to grant the same, unless by God's plain Word any be able to prove that justly they ought to be denied. "First, Humbly we ask that, as we have, by the laws of this realm, after long debate, obtained to read the holy books of the Old and New Testaments in our common tongue, as spiritual food to our souls, so from henceforth it may be lawful that we may convene publicly or privately to our Common Prayers, in our vulgar tongue; to the end that we may increase and grow in knowledge, and be induced, in fervent and oft prayer, to commend to God the Holy Church universal, the Queen our Sovereign, her honourable and gracious husband, the stability of their succession, your Grace Regent, the Nobility, and the whole Estate of this Realm. "Secondly, If it shall happen in our said conventions that any hard place of Scripture be read, from which no profit ariseth to the conveners, we ask that it shall be lawful to any person qualified in knowledge, being present, to interpret and open up the said hard places, to God's glory and to the profit of the hearers. If any think that this liberty would be occasion of confusion, debate, or heresy, we are content that it be provided that the said interpretation shall underlie the judgment of the most godly and most learned within the realm at this time.