tedious vnto you:  howbeit I will not faile but accomplish that which I haue vndertaken, and (according to your request) adde somewhat more concerning religion.  Whereas therefore the kingdome of China hath hitherto bene destitute of true religion, and now the first beginnings thereof are included in most narrow bounds, that nation being otherwise a people most ingenious, and of an extraordinory and high capacity, hath alwayes liued in great errours and ignorance of the trueth, being distracted into sundry opinions, and following manifolde sects. [Sidenote:  Three principall sectes among the Chinians.] And among these sects there are three more famous then the rest:  [Sidenote:  Confucius authour of the first sect.] the first is of them that professe the doctrine of one Confucius a notable philosopher.  This man (as it is reported in the history of his life) was one of most vpright and incorrupt maners, whereof he wrote sundry treatises very pithily and largely, which aboue all other books, are seriously read and perused by the Chinians.  The same doctrine do all Magistrates embrace, and others also that giue their mindes to the study of letters, a great part whereof Confucius is sayd to haue inuented:  and he is had in so great honour, that all his followers and clients, vpon the dayes of the new and full Moone, doe assemble themselues at the common Schoole, which I haue aboue mentioned, and before his image, which is worshipped with burning of incense and with tapers, they doe thrise bend their knees, and bow their heads downe to the ground; which not onely the common scholars, but the chiefe Magistrates do performe. [The summe of Confucius his doctrine.] The summe of the foresayd doctrine is, that men should follow the light of nature as their guide, and that they should diligently endeuour to attaine vnto the vertues by me before mentioned:  and lastly, that they should employ their labour about the orderly gouernment of their families and of the Common-wealth.  All these things are in very deed praise-worthy, if Confucius had made any mention of almighty God and of the life to come, and had not ascribed so much vnto the heauens, and vnto fatall necessity, nor yet had so curiously intreated of worshipping the images of their forefathers.  In which regard he can very hardly or not at all be excused from the crime of idolatry:  notwithstanding it is to be granted, that none other doctrine among the Chinians approacheth so neere vnto the trueth as this doeth. [Sidenote:  Xequiam author of the second sect, whose followers are called Cen or Bonzi.] The second sect is of them which followethe the instructions of Xaquam, or as the Chinians call him Xequiam, whose opinions, because they are well knowen amongst vs, it were bootlesse for me to repeat; especially sithens, in the Catechisme composed by our grave visitour, they are notably refuted.  This doctrine doe all they embrace, which are in China called Cen, but with vs at Iapon are named Bonzi. [Sidenote:  Note.]