Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

Thomas Ady, writing in 1655, knew an old Essex woman who had lived in Queen Mary’s time and learned many popish charms then. Every night as she lay down to sleep she blessed her bed with a rhyme to the four evangelists, repeating it three times. She trusted it because the churchmen had taught it to her when she was a girl. The rhyme lived on long after as a children’s bedtime prayer.