But we will surceasse to aggranate this matter, sith the same is sufficientlie vrged in the verie course of the historie concerning his acts and déeds, conti|nued to the verie day of his death, and the verie time of his buriall, whereof I saie thus much, that whether it was his will to be interred, as is aforesaid, or whe|ther his corpse being at the disposing of the surui|uers, to elect the place as a conuenient storehouse for a princes bones, I leaue it as doubtfull, and therfore vndetermined, esteeming the lesse to labour therein, bicause the truth can hardlie by certeintie be win|nowed out, but by coniecturall supposals aimed and shot at. Notwithstanding, in my poore iudgement it is verie likelie (first in respect of the time which was superstitious and popish; secondlie by reason of the custome of funerall rites then commonlie vsed) that he was buried in the said place for order sake, & his bodie (if I may presume so farre by warrant of mine author) wrapped in a moonks cowle and so laid in his graue or toome. For the manner was at that time, in such sort to burie their Nobles and great men, who were induced by the imaginations of moonks and fond fansies of fréers to beleeue, that the said cowle was an amulet or defensitiue to their soules from hell and hellish hags, how or in what soeuer sort they died; either in sorrow and repentance for sinne, or in blasphemie, outrage, impatiencie, or desperation.

This forme of funerals was frequented in Wales, hauing béene first brewed and broched in England, from whence (if we may giue credit to our late Chro|nographers) as from a poisoned spring it spred it selfe into Wales. Humf. Lhloyd. Dauid Powell. For the first abbeie or frierie that is read to haue béene erected there, since the dissoluti|on of the noble house of Bangor, which sauoured not of Romish dregs, was the Twy Gwyn, which was builded in the yeare 1146. Afterwards these ver|mine swarmed like bées, or rather crawled like lice ouer all the land, and drew in with them their lowsie religion, tempered with I wot not how manie mil|lians of abhominations; hauing vtterlie forgotten the lesson which Ambrosius Telesinus had taught them [who writ in the yeare 540, when the right chri|stian faith (which Ioseph of Arimathia taught the Ile of Aualon) reigned in this land, before the proud and bloodthirstie moonke Augustine infected it with the poison of Romish errors] in a certeine ode, a part whereof are these few verses insuing,

Gwae'r offeiriad byd,

Nys angreifftia gwyd,

Ac ny phregetha:

Gwae ny cheidw ey gail,

Ac efyn vigail,

Ac nys areilia:

Gwae ny theidw ey dheuaid,

Rhae bleidhie Rhiefeniaid,

Ai ffon grewppa,

Wo be to that preest yborne, Thus in En|glish almost word for word.

That will not cleanelie weed his corne,

And preach his charge among:

Wo be to that shepheard (I saie)

That will not watch his fold alwaie,

As to his office dooth belong:

Wo be to him that dooth not keepe,

From rauening Romish wolues his sheepe,

With staffe and weapon strong.

This (as not impertinent to the purpose) I haue re|corded, partlie to shew the palpable blindnes of that age wherein king Iohn liued, as also the religion which they reposed in a rotten rag, estéeming it as a Scala coeli or ladder to life; but speciallie inferred to this end, that we may fetch some light from this cléere candle (though the same seeme to be duskish & dim) whereby we may be lead to conceiue in reason and common sense, that the interrement of the king was according to the custome then in vse and re|quest, and therefore by all likelihoods he was buried as the péeres and states of the land were woont to be in those daies, after the maner aboue mentioned.