[Page]FIrst they are not to be alowed that vnderstand this and soche other places of the prophetes / and wold have them only verefied vpon one person. For they are clene ignorante of the prophetes maner / which are wonte by one person to signifye the hole bodye of a realme. And therfore evyll they do applye this Antichriste (whō Paule do the calle the mā of sinne / i [...]. Thess. ij & the sonne of perdition) to one person / syth that he wolde that by Antichriste shuld be meanyde the hole bodye & multitude of wycked mē with all their succession and imperye / for so in the .viij. of Daniel a ramme dothe signifye the kingdome of the Perses. And a gote the kingdome of the Grecyans.Danie. vli [...] Where as he sayth that after the ende of foure kingdomes (of the which the laste is the Romayns myghtye with swerde) this kynge shall ryse / trewly he towchyth that / that the tyrannye of the Pope dyd begynne after that the imperye of Rome began to decay / yee of the imperye of Rome and in the imperye it is spronge. And is succedyd and entered / in the stede of the imperye / as it is evydent by all storyes / and this present experience doth also shew it vs / which also the apostle dyd prophecye before in the .ij. of the seconde pistle to the Tessalonyans saynge. Onlye he ye holdeth let hym now hold / [...]. Thess. ii vntyll it be taken out of the way / and then shall that wicked [Page xiiij] be vtteryd and so furthe. The name of the imperye of Rome was translated to the Germanes / when there was no imperye in dede / how be it this was an occasion by the which this man was elevatyd and set vp / above all kynges / above all Busshopes / above heven and erthe / and so fixed and stablisshed his kingdome in his awne hande and power / cownterfeytinge (to stablisshe this lye) a bull both false and folyssh which was of the gyfte of Constantine.Danie. viij
¶Trāgression & sinne invadinge & comīge apō thē / that is (as Sanct Hierō did say) whan iniquyte and vice do encrease / teachinge manyfestly that this is a kingdome of the furye of God / and shall come for sinne. And Paule for the same cawse bringith in the sonne of perdition / saynge they have not receavid the love of the trueth / that they might have bene saved.ij. Tess. ij▪ And therfore God shall send them stronge delusion that they shuld beleve lyes: that all they myght be damned / which beleved not the trueth but had pleasure in vnrightuousnes / the apostle doth sufficiently expresse in these wordes what maner of vnrightewesnes and offenses they are / which also Daniel in the hebrew doth call peschaim / Danie. viij which worde hath a notable propertye and secret signification / for it doth signifye a brekinge of the commaundement / an offence / & a departinge [Page] from the fayth / iiij. Reg. i as in the .j. of the fourth boke of kinges. Moab departyde from ye fayth of Israel.Esaie. j. And in the firste of Esai I have norysshid vp and exalted children / ād they have transgressed my commaundemēt As it is also sayd in the .v. Psalme,Psalm. v Accordinge to te multitude of their vngodlinesse / and vices / expell them.x. Thess. ii And Paule in this place copiously doth saye that they will not receave the love of trueth / and also that they will not beleve the trueth / but beleve lyes. Ever meaninge the vice of doctrines / opinions / and departinge from the fayth / as he sayd before / except there come a departinge first.j. Timoth. iiij And in the .iiij. to Timothe. The sprete speakyth evidently that in the latter tymys / some shall departe from the fayth / ād shall gyve hede to spretes of erroure / and agayne They shall turne theyr hearinge from the trueth. The trueth in this place (according vnto his maner) he callyth ye fayth of Christ which also the hebrew tounge doth / devydinge the trueth by contradiction from hypocrisy & faynid godlinesse / Ephesi. iiij. as in the .iiij. to the Ephesians let vs folow the trueth in love and in all thinges growe in him. And agayne / put on that newe man which after a goodly wyse is shapen in rightewesnes and true holynes: reprovinge the rightewesnes of vanyte and glorious superstition.
Danie. viijDaniel therfore callyth not this word / [Page xv] [...]eschaim any maner of sinne / but those speciall and cheff sinnes which resist / ād fight agaynst the trueth and the fayth / as are the trustyng in workes / superstitiousnes / & ceremonyse by the which we decay from the fayth / which alone doth truely iustifye & make holye / as Paule doth warne before in ye .iij. to the Collossians / ād in many other places.Collos. iij And sheweth that he prophesid before that they wold not receave the love of trueth that is to say / ii. Thess. ij they shall not love the trueth which is in fayth / Exodi. xvi Psalm. cv [...] but with the children of Israel they shall abhorre this light meate / and desire flessh / that is to say / they shall be tournyd to fables and mennes traditions / wherfore we can applye these iniquites to none of the olde heretikes. But only to the traditions of men / and wicked iustice for the old heretikes did contend and strive in the holye scripture. But this kynge shall regne with out scripture by his awne traditions ād doctrines.Danie. viij Therfore Daniel sayth that transgressions shall darken them. And all the hole scripture / chefly Paule / dothe impute this blindnes / darknes / and ignorancye / to nothinge els but to the vngodly and wicked presumption of oure awne iustice and workes as it is evident to them which reade his epistles.Ioannis. iii. And Christ for that cawse callyth him silf the light that the faith in him doth lighten and iustifie all men.
[Page]Therfore it is clere that this kinge shuld be after christ was preachid / & ageynst the lightenīg of the gospell / with the which the world was illuminate / for where he sayth that they shuld be darkened with trangressions / it is to be supposid that thy shuld be lightenyd before which can not be verefied in those kingdomes that were before Christ / for they coulde not be darkenid which were never lightened / nother coulde they decline from the ryght way which never walked in it. But it is meanid of those tymes in the which Christe also did prophesye abomination to come / in a maner with the same wordes / saynge.D [...] / xxiiii. Be cawse iniquite shall have the vpper hand / the love of many shall abate.ij. Cess. ij And Paul sayth / that all they might be damned which beleved not the trueth / But had pleasure in vnrightewesnes.ij. Petre ii And Petre in the .ij. of his seconde pistle doth reprove with most sharpe wordes the returninge agayn of them to theyr vomet which shall be in the last tymes. And almost he only of all the other dothe expounde and declare what iniquite it is that shall abounde / and with which men shall be darkenyd sayng. There were false prophetes amonge the people even as there shalbe false teachers amonge you which prevely shall bringe in damnable sectes / even deniynge the lorde that hath bought them / and bringe [Page xvi] on their [...]wne heddes swyfte damnatiō / and many shall folowe their damnable wayes / by which the waye of trueth shalbe evill spoken of / and thorow coveteousnes shall they with fained wordes make Merchandyse of you. Truely here Petre towchith the master shuppes / Bisshoprekes and (as they call it) the administratyon and offices of the chirche / and sheweth that this mischeff shall come by their ministeringe which sitte in the stede of God / and ought to ruel the people in his word. Therfore we have the prī ces and heddes of the chirch the authores of these evylles .
Trewly this is the plage of God to send operacyons of erroure / and false prophetes for it is the scourge of mercy to send pestilē ce / batell / hunger / and soch other bodely evilles. But to take away the word of helth / and to sende the venō of erroure / that is the most extreme and last token of the wrath of god.Danie. viii Daniel might seme to have spokē of ye Turke in whose impery / vice & iniquite have darkenyd ye people / ii. Pet. ij. except yt Peter had tawght vs to vnderstonde it of ye rule and lordshuppe which is exercised in the people of god / & of thē which sitte in the stede of doctores & bisshopes.Dani. ix As also Daniel doth she we afterwarde yt he speakyth of soch / as in the old people were the false Prophetes. [Page] These thinges do nothinge parteyne vnto ye Turke which despisinge baptime and the gospell is nother the people of god / nother yet cownted amonge thē / as they are which have Busshopes ruelinge amonge them / let this then be oure first supposition / that this kinge shall be as greatt / as other the kinge of the Perses / or of the Grecyans / or of the Romayns. And that the shall regne in teachinge men in the people of Christ contrary to the lighteninge of the gospell.
For oure enteringe in to this vision let vs cōsidere the wordes of Petre. And who seith not that these iniquites in every poynt do agre with the shepardes of the chirch of Rome?ij. Pet. ij. To whom shuld Peter speake but to his awne Romayns / of whō his bokes were receaved / and where his authorite was of most value? Did not Moses and the Prophetes speake vn to their awne people? As Saint Paule sayth in the third to the Romaynes / Roma. iij. we knowe that what so ever the lawe sayth / he sayth it to them which are vnder the lawe. And he sayth there shalbe amonge you / whom meanith he but thē which heare him and know him. Therfore these wordes touche vs / which are vnder the Babilon and captiuite of Rome / and in vs it muste be fulfillid that Daniel / Christ / Petre / Paule / Iudas / & Ioan in the Apocalipses did prophesye.
[Page xvij]Have we not now many yeares suffered false teachers / which suppressinge the gospell have thaught vs their awne traditions and learninges? All Bisshopes / Shepardes and Devines / are here noted which all are runne in to one madnes / to exalt the Decrees of the Pope and to teach them vn to men / with what a full and notable signification doth he speake these wordes / which prevely shall bringe in damnable sectes / ij. Petri. i [...] ye Greke word hath a greate misterie / for it signifiyth that vnder the doctrine of godlines (which they shall faine) they shall beinge in vngodlines / mingelinge by their secret deceites their awne traditions with the gospell / for they shall not denie the gospell but they shall so wrest it by their inventiōs glosses and additions / and bringe vp soch statutes / and constitutions / by a litle and a litle that it be not perceaved / that they shall clenelede the people out of the hygh waye of faith / in to sectes of workes with the which they shall destroy and corrupte the gospell / that at the length it shalbe clene vn profitable to teache the faith. So in tyme past the false Prophetes did not denie the name of the lorde / but rather did come in his name / whom Christ paintith in ye. xxiiij of Mathew on this maner.Dat. xxiiii. There shall ryse false Prophetes and false Christes / and shall deceave many. Many shall come in [Page] my name sainge. I am Christ. And agayn / if they say behold here is Christ or there beleve them not. What signifiyth here & there but sectes of perdition? What is this perdition / [...] the destruction of the faithe ād the gospell?Ephe. iiij. So also Paule in the .iiij. to ye Ephesians dothe call these sectes and doctryne of workes where by they laye a wayte for vs to deceave vs / as it were a deceitfull cominge to deceave / because that the wickede which go aboute to deceave come vn to the people with crafty and sotle sermones / by the worde of god other wrested into their porposse / or els darkenyd by their awne doctrines and sclawnders which are sette in the way / soch as the woman in the .ix. of the Proverbes doth figure sitting in the hige place of the citie.Proverbe. ix.
And Paule in the last to the Romayns saith.Roma. xvj Marke them which cawse division & geve occasions of evill covnterfettinge the doctrine which ye have learned: what are these divisions but those which Petre callith sectes.ij. Petri. ij Dat. xxiiii. And Christ him silf / behold here is Christ / Roma. xvj ij. Petri. i [...] Math. xxiiiij. Roma xvj ii. Pet. ij. behold there is Christ? What meanith this / evill occasions / but that which Petre callith perdition / & that Christ hī silf callith deceavinge & seductiō? what signifieth this coūtersettinge of doctrine but that which Peter callith ye prevely bringīge in of sectes. And Christ callith it ye comīge in his [Page xviii] name? Marke the proper & sure wordes of this prophecye cōcerninge ye abominatiō of these false speakers / he sai [...]h yt they take not awaye ye doctrine of Christe / Roma. xvj nother denie ye learninge of the gospell (if thou yt sider the outward face) but that they set to it evill occasions and dissentions with the wich in processe they everrunne ād distroy the hole waye and gospell of the lord reserving it only by name & title. So not we se all these thinges fulfillid? sith yt the chirch of Rome doth abound thorow all ye world with so many sectes of workes & relig [...]ōs which desever amō ge thē silf with extreme f [...]erye & madnes by the which is expelled and put oute the right way which bringith men to faith and charite? What faine they in these sectes but high & pure godlines? Do not we also prayse these wayes and avance thē vnto heven? Are we not here taught to sticke and put oure confidence in oure awne merites / & not in the pure faith of Christ? yee in so moch ye we have begon to selloure meretes to other? Is not the faith and gospell transgressid and in maner destroied? Therfore these ought not to be vndersidō of heretikes but of Busshoppes / Shepardes and religiouse wyth their infinite variete ād diversnes of sectes and workes / which deceave & destroye them silf and the people / with a false ād clokyd hope / teachinge nothīge lesse then faithe [Page] all stycking to their awne workes. And they (blind them silf) are the leaders of blind mē What meanith this yt he doth not say they shall deme the lord / but the lord which hath bought [...]. With out doute he prophesieth that Christ shall be denied of them as touchinge iustification / not because they shall plainly denie him (for then they shuld not be false doctores / nether prevely bringe in sectes of perdition / counterfettinge the doctrine of trueth) But (reservinge the titles & names) will go a boute to be saved by theire awne sectes / and not by the faith in Christ Iesu / for Christ bought vs with his awne bloude / that by the faith in him we might be iustified. But the infinite diversite of religions / workes / and sectes / goo aboute to persuade vs / that we must satisfie God with oure actes / and deserve the kingdome of heven. All these sectes the Pope makyth full of cloked hypocrisie / and verie noisome by his confirmation / while he doth stablish them as holy orders / and holsom rueles to live after / ād makith men to put confidence in them. And again that holye father of his best beloued childer full blessidly is strengthed and stablisshed in his tyrānie.Proverbe. And (as Mules do) in course one clawyth the other So though they confesse in wordes the lorde to be Christ yet they deme him in dedes. Of whom they make vnto vs a nother Moses [Page xix] for he bought vs not with shedīge his bloud / that onlie he might teach vs to live well But to thentent that he might live and raigne with in vs / and that he might be oure lorde workinge in vs all oure workes / and this is done by only faithe in him. But they which now teach vs the gospell make Christ oure master / as a servante which shuld tarie with our and teach vs good / and not rule with in vs and worke oure good dedes.
But it is well that they shall bringe apō thē selves swifte perdition / ii. Pet. ij. math. xxiiij. for those dayes shall be shortenid / or els no flessh shuld be saved / which shortly we trust shall be parformed. Many shall folow their pernicyouse doctrine. And fewe shall be saved from their perditions / wherfore Christ in the .xxiiij of Mathew doth councell that they flie to the montaynes / and returne not againe in to their howses.j. Iuno. i. And Paule calleth them parelous tymes for this clokid hypocrisye and famed holinesse. But they obiect / the statutes and ordinances are good / holye mē did make them / as Augustine / Benedicte / Barnarde / Francisce / Dominice / ād soch other To this I answer. That is evē it that christ and the apostles meane / that these workes shuld be lyke to those thīges which are taught in the gospell / for that they call counterfettinge of the doctrine / and prevelye banginge in. By cause they take only of the fathers [Page] exāples of workes / and leve the faith And so they rūne hedlīge with owt any iudgement into all those thinges which the fathers (sumtyme erringe) have made and ordened (and no mervell for it is prophesed that if it be possible ye very chosē shalbe brought in to erroure) and folowe even the vtter cloke and face of this errour / Math. xxiiij. for a good waye / and so are conveied away from the gospell and fayth by a sotle and insensible deccite. And chefly when the authorite of the Pope hath approved and alowed those wayes and hath cōfirmed and stablisshed that mē shuld put confidēce in them / yee and makith them necessary bondes / which the fathers did nother make nor kepe but with ye libertye of the sprete / binding no man pepetually to them / for if they did / with owt / doute they erred according to mannes fragilite.
ij. [...]th i [...]ij.By whome the waye of trueth shalbe blasphemed / which is the way of trueth? Is it not that which is cōtrary to the outward face / cloke / and hypocrisye of workes? Trewly the apostles did never institute and ordē any secte of religion / But tawght to every man the only comen waye of Christen faith The waye therfore of trveth is to beleve in Christ. Who are blasphemars? truely they which denie ye lord. And do not they which thorow the authorite of the Pope crake on their leving. Bost their sectes / and prayse [Page xx] theyr orders / as holy / right / and holsome / take awaye the prayse and glorye of ye waye of trueth / ād applye the same vnto their orders? hath not his blasphemye so prevayled that the only clargye / ād chefly the religiouse be counted for the christen? and the other are called openly seculare and wordly / and are counted for comen Iackes as they were clene out of ye way of helth. And he that enterith religion / is craked / and belevid to go clene out of the world / fynally it is persuaded comenly / that who so ever wil be saved ought to enteare religiō Is not this a playne blaspheminge of the way of truthe?Math. xxiiij. Is not this to teach that Christ is here and there? Is not here the way of faith despised & left and in his stede taken / the secte and superstition of workes? Is not this the waye that teacheth vs to forsake the faith in Christ ād to cleve and put confidēce in oure awne workes? Do not soch hypocrites so shine and here rule in the world / that the simple christen in the faith are counted (in comparison to them) but durte and filthe of the strete?
But let vs go a litle farther / yf any man wold rise and presume to reprehend these wayes chosen of men / or as the apostle callith them in the .ij. to the Collossyans / chosen holines / Col. ij. and wold teach that they were the pernicious wayes of sclawnder / confirmed of the Pope and avaunsed of them / [Page] to destroy the faith / to evacuate and sette at nought the gospell / to seducie and deceave the soules of the christen. And that the christen faith is only the waye of health / what thinke you they wold do to him? Shuld he not be called sexhondenth times hercrike / a thousande tymes Antichrist / Satan / Sevill / schismatike / and soch other? yees truly / there were no name of hate / punyshmentes and blasphemy / ynough for this mischevouse ennimye of the chirch / this folissh hardye despisare of the fathers / this pestilent deceaver of the people. And yet this is no nother but that Petre doth say / by whom the waye of trueth shalbe blasphemed. [...]. Petri. ij Wherfore?Psalm. ix For the way of their vanite is cō mended / as the .ix. Psalme doth saye. Bycause the weked is praysed in the desieres of his soull / and the vniust reioysinge in him silf hath blasphemed the lord. How effectuously doth this chirch of the Pope ful fill this prophesye now adays / which also accomplisshith all thinges that were writē in the prophetes / of sotle false / and lieinge prophetes / masters / shepardes / iustitiares / which have infinite other names. And these shuld have the cheffe ruell and imperye towardes the ende of the worlde.
ii. Petri. iiAnd thorow covetousnes shall they with fained wordes make marchandise of you. This is so evidently done / by bullys / Pardones [Page xxi] / Decrees / Prestes / and soch other / that this place neadith no glosse / what is now a dayes the office and administration of the hole clergye / But covetousnes? And yt with dissimulation. Not only pretendinge a cloke of godlines / but also defiling by abvsion the holy and pure wordes of God / for they do all abvse these wordes / God / Christ the Sprete / ye Chirch / Righteousnes / good workes and Merites. For they do not applye thē to fayth / but to their awne actyōs / so yt ye people vnd (er)stōdith thē fare otherwyse the ye scripture meanith. It is fained what so ever they preach / for they preache not faith / if they did preach faith / their sectes shuld sone decay and vanissh awaye. In the meane ceasone they have deceaved the people / and brought them clene out of their mindes by their clokyd illusions / and despoile them of all their goodes and possessions. And live them silf with full stuffed belies / idle / riche / mighty / full of honour / and verye gloriouse. And yet the holy name of god must serve these monstres / for they must be called holy & religious But let vs returne to Daniel / where we shall here moare of this abhominable kingdome / for this shall be sufficiēt for a prohemye. And truely he doth declare vs a mervelous and monstruous kingdome / which vtterly can be applied to none of the kingdomes that ever have bene in [Page] the world / nor shalbe. Bycawse that he prevailith with soch armure and strength / as hath not be hard of / goinge a boute new thī ges. And trewly all that he doth are new ād mervelouse.
¶Herome did trāslate it / vnshamefacyd but the hebrew doth say mightye in faces. A kinge shall stond / he meanyth not one parson but a hole kingdome / nother vnderstondith he a shorte ceason of that kingdome / But a great and longe succession of kinges / for Christ saith / Math. xxiiij when ye shall se abomination stonding in the holye place / that is to say / fixed / stablisshed / and strēgthyde by many adherentes. And Paule makith the sonne of perditiō not to goo / but to sytte in the temple of god.
Here is a mervelous power of this mō struous kinge / which is mighty not with hornes / nother nayles / nother swerd / nor armure. But with faces / fare vnlike all other kīges. Nother sayth he mighty with one face / but with many faces Wherfore this prophecye can not be applied to the Turke nother to any kingdome which is goten with strengthe and armure / for soch are figured by tethe / hornes and nailes. Nother is it ye kingdome of Christ / which (clene with outen outward face) cōsistith in ye sprete. And fig [...] [Page xxii] the with a spirituall home / which is ye word of god. So that this kingdome shall nether bespirituall nother seculare / nother goten by any soch providēce. Wherwith thē? [...]rewly with faces / yt is to say by outward clokinge / apperance / and pōpe / & to vse fewe wordes with superstitiōs / customes & ceremonies which are shewed ovtwardly. In clothinge meates / persones / houses / behaveours / and soch life. Amōge all these faces & apparences / superstitiō & hpocrisye (which is a cloke of godlines & a face of religiō) is most mighty & acceptable / & therfore it is most noysome / for ye wordly faces and buetes / whether they be of maides / yonge mē / riches / frēdes / playes / or what so ever they are / do not so drawe / take / & hold mē. But these their ceremones / by cause they coūterfet godly thīges & pretēd ovtward tokins / of thinges everlastinge / they take & deceave thē yt are most wyse / holy & mighty / yee & somtime the verye chosen children of god. There fore it is verye plaine & evidēt yt this kinge shal be Antichrist / yt is to say an adversarye to christ / & his kīgdome / for Christ is a kīge mighty in trueth / an extreme adversarye to faces & clokes / as we se in ye gospell. And this kinge is mighty in faces / an extreme adversary of ye trueth / therfore it is not with owt a greate cawse yt the apostles Petre & Paule / do so oftē remēbre vs of this worde / trueth / & feare vs frō ye faces for so Paule did prophesye in ye secōde pistleji. Timeth. iii [Page] to Timothe expounding this place. [...]i. Timoth. iij Men shall be lovers of their awne selves / it folowith havīge a similitude of good livīge / but have denied ye power there of.The firste face. Now let vs cō sider the kingdome of the Pope / and first ye face of the persones / tel me yf thou cā what impery ever had soch and so many clene decte ād appareld felowes / first loke on the Pope him silf so proude and glorious with his iii. crownes / with his mervelouse pompe & apparell / and noyse of his howsolde / then ye Cardinalles with their pompe and riches / which are not fare be hind ye other / for this most wretched kinde of mē makith him silf equalle with kinges. After them consider / the Patriarchas / Primates. Archbusshopes / suffragames / Provostes / Deanes / Canones / Vicares / Officialles / Scribes. And who is able to numbre that sower sortes ād orderes of the religious. And these are they in whom men boste that the state ād health of the chirch dothe consiste / here behold the most holye decrees of oure holy father ye Pope and wherof they entreate / do they not all entreat of this to stablissh their awne profite and kingdome? They say them self that they are so necessary that with out them the chirche cā not be rueled Neverthelesse Christ and his apostles did rule it with the trueth and that falwell. Nother se I any profytte yt cometh by thē other to ye chirch or to ye word [Page xxiiij] of god but rather moch hurte Vnd (er)stond you now what is this kinge mightye with faces? Thē vnd (er)stond you also. What is the abominatiō stōdinge in ye holye place / Danie. viij Math. xxiiiij. yf so be you cōpare together their clokinge & hypocrisye with the trueth and godlines of the apostles
And the Hebrew word that signifiyth myghty / doth properly meane a naturall strengthe / and not a violent and outwarde power by the which we defend our awne goodes or persequute other. But even as we speake of the strengthe ād power of herbes signifiyng his naturall might in operation. Even likewyse the naturall power of this kinge is nothinge els but a cloke / a face and a vicsar / which is multiplied and encreased by infinite meanes / of the which thinge Iudas ye apostle did prophesye on this maner They have men in greate reverence be cause of avantage. And Iames in the .ij.Iude. j. have not the faith of oure lord Iesus Christ in respecte of persons. And againe Iudas / Iacob. ij there are certayne craftely crepte in of which it was writen a fore tyme vnto soch iudgemēt / Iude. i they are vngodlye and turne ye grace of oure lorde god vnto wantannes / and denie god the onlye lord. And oure lord Iesus Christ. Nether here will I improve & forsake saint Hierōs trāslatiō which calleth him vnshamefaced / for there he plainly declarith ye presumption of these hypocrites / for scant any man can [Page] beleve / howe sure / bold / and presumptious this face and cloke of godlinesse doth make them / for they cownt them self / above all men most worthy heven and (as the prophete sayth) they set their neste amonge the sterres / Psal. lxxiij. finally they are come to soch vnshamefacednes that they have cōpassion of the other multitude / and (devoueringe their possessions and howsses) communicate and sell vn to them their merites. And some (as the Pharise did to the Publicane) do crake on them silf revilinge the poore people.Luce xviij. In this sence semede he to speake which translated the .xxj.Prouer. xxj of the proverbes on this maner. A weked man doth boldly and with oute shame stablissh his countenance / which in the Hebrew is thus. A weked man is mighty in his face / and a righteous man doth directe and order his way. As thowgh he shuld say the weked man is sure and pu [...]teth all his confidence in his outward face of godlines. But the rightuous man doth ever procede and go forward to that yt is be for him / as th [...]ppostle teacheth.Philip. iij. And his securite is well described in the x.Psal. x. Psalme where as it is saide. The weeked man sayd in his herte I shall not be moved frō one generatiō in to an other. I shalbe with oute evill. And againe. Thy iudgmē tes are takē away from his face / soch a saing hath Esaias in the .xxviij.Esaie xxviij and speakith it [Page xxiiij] on the wecked that were in his tyme which had made a bargane and a greament with death and hell.
Let vs now consider certayne other faces which stablissh the power of this kingdome.The seconde face. Here present them silf. Thenches of the chirch / the patrimony of Christ and spirituall goodes / for the power of this kingdome doth make temporall goodes spirituall / wordly goodes the tresures of the chirch. And bodely goodes hevenly / with these is their chirch endewed / garnisshed and glorified / in so moch that the greatist parte of their clokes and faces consiste in these / shew me what emperoure ever had soch aboundance of richese. Every man knowith that more then half the richesse of the world are possessed of the spiritualte / so many cytes / castelles / dukedomes / kingdoms & countres are incorporate to this kinge. The imperye of Rome did only take a tribute / & custome of his subiectes. But this king chalengith ye hole goodes & substans of thē which are subdewed vnder his magestye to be his private / & at his pleasure / which of the cō soulles that ever raigned in Rome may be cōpared / to one of these Cardinalles / or archbusshopes? Trewly there is no impery that hath so many punces / so many lordes / soch aboundāce of riches / soch superfluite & soch glorye / how be it they not satisfied not cōtēt [Page] with all this (which is as we have sayd the half of the christente) presume to claime the seculare riches / goinge aboute to despoyle them of their rucles / powers and offices / at their pleasure / and subdew to them selfe Countres / provinces / Cytes / Castelles ād townes / by their awne authorite / finally to rule in every place where it plesith thē / and if any men resist them / they wroppe them to gether in batelles and other trobles. Other with their awne sodyars / or els they sturre prīces and officers to distord against them / & will never leve them / vntyll they have had their plesures.
Nother yet is this kingdome of faces cō tent that he hath obteyned all the riches of the hole world to be his awne but bether he hath proceded that he hath brought to passe to claime all thinges iustly / how oftē & many tymes as he liste / for the Pope sucketh ye swete from the Busshopes. And the Busshopes serche the Curattes purses / pretendī ge infinite titles to robbe them / as institution and induction / the first fruetes / sinage / and proxsy with soch other. This can not they pay excepte they dispoyle the people / & by cause their thefte shall not be openly knowen / they cloke it vnder godes lawe. And say they must pay open tithes and prevey tithes / and sell them the sacramentes. And by cawse their falshod shuld not come to [Page xxv] light / they kepe them from lokinge on the scripture. So the Curattes ād the religious do swalow vpe the people that they mayfill the Busshopes and their selves. And this crafty thefte doth the Pope excercise by the which he hath stolen half the goodes that are in the chirche / the other parte hath he ravisshed with Pardons / Bulles / Confessionalles / Privileges / Dispensations / & who is able to numbre ye titles that he hath craftelye invented to delude and blind the people / that he might the more frely / dispoylle them. And all these thinges do these faces worke yee and be encreased continuallye / yt they may so worke from day to day. These are the holy / meake / and faythfull offices of Curattes and heedes of the chirch / with the which they shine as the lightes of the world be is holden a cursed which saith not that these are good and well done / and sufferethe them not to engrosse all thinges for to encrease / garnisshe / and strength their holy chirch / trewly these passe the superfluites of the Perses, The ryches of ye Romayns are nothinge / if thou consider these golden sees and floudes of silver. And I pray the what profite cometh on thē? Wherfore serve they? Are they distribueted amonge the poore and nedye? Nay treuly / but rather in to the vices of zodom and Gomorrha / and soch other abominable offenses / how be it why bringe I [Page] in soch light examples? for the thinge itself passithe all beleve / all sense / and all wordes.
And yet to stablissh & strength this kingdome of faces these helpe moch. Insomoch that it is a lighter offence to kille / to do advoutry / and to stelle / tut what for these trifulles? I say it is lighter to blaspheme the name of god / to be periured / to have denied ye faithe / all though these are coūted but games to thē) then (thorow the entisemēt of yt devill) to have hurte a clerke / or to have diminisshed his goodes to ye value of one / halfpeny / so holye are their abominable theftes it is opēly spokē with a terrible an ferfull noyse that many have sodaynly perisshed and chefly princes / & that no mā escapith with out sclawnder / which hath other touched any of their possessions / or els hath not honoured them accordingly. They vnderstond not that these are workes of erroure in the signes and false myracles of satā / sith that therfore evill chawnseth to them that touche these / not that they are holy / but rather by cause they are so cursed & venemouse which are goten by soch myschevous craftes & horrible theftes / that it is very noysome / yee deathe to a goodmā to touche thē / all tough they be prosperouse and greate solas / to thē that stele them / to them which consente to the thefte / to them which support this robbers / and to them that are partakers of this [Page xxvj] pillage / for they fare well / and live voluptuously. They are full gloricus. And after their death / they are bueryed with all solemnite and pompe / with graven signes and images / founding perpetuall memorials to obteyne heven with all which they hade no leysure to geate will they were a live / for the in greate besines in these their holy maters / ād so in the meane ceason against theire will are compelled to go to hell.
After these glories and honours of ye chirche / The thirde face. that is to say the faces which are prepared full religiously for the prayse of god there folowith an other face which is of houses / palaces / ād soch bildinge / for as the face of riches doth garnisshe the faces of the persones / with oute which ye persons shuld seme but vile. Even so the face of bildinge doth setfurthe the riches / for the riches are cownted of no reputation / except accordinge to them their places befaire / clene / and glorious. Tell me here also yf yow can What nacion is so proude so glorious / so hyghe minded / & so prodigall in bildinge / or who hath so many habitations / as this kingdome of faces? Is not the most fruerfull grounde theirs? Are not the best places / the strongest holdes / and most pleasante dwellinge houses in their hādes? What delicates or daintes / what shininge and clenlines in all the world may be compared [Page] to theirs? They bild / as thowgh they went aboute to prepare a perpetuall paradise for them selves in this world. Cōsider the palaces of the most reuerend Cardinalles which they possesse for the glorie of god / ād honour of the chirche. And thow shalt be a shamed to compare the palaces of kinges vn to them. And it is no mervell for they be the successours of the Apostles and the true chirch of god / & therfore they must be equall withe kinges / yee their superiors for the Apostles were fischers But let vs passe these thinges / and touch other that are not so holy / for these thre / apparellinge / riches / and palaces / are counted most holy thinges / for what a mvltitude of lawes be there concerninge dignites / prefermētes / prebendes / iugmētes / courtes / privileges and soch other / which aswell agre with the chirch / as Christ doth with belial.ij. Corin. vi
The fourth face.The fourth of these faces / is their vesture clothing and garmētes. By the which this weked abomination doth chefly of all defēd him silfe / for who is he / that this redde cape this .ij. horned myter / and purpull hatte / do not make proude / holy / ād worshupfull? how say yow to their mules trapped ī gold / theyr gownes sett and adorned with gēmes / and all precious thīges? And their variete in all pointes with which they have seperate thē self from the seculare and comen clothing of [Page xxvij] the christē as from a prophane and vnclene thinge? And it is the greateste offence that can be to touch their shaven hedde / & their handes which are cōsecrated with that blissed oyle / of their awne halowīge / happye is he that is found worthy to be admitted to kise them. And as for the habites of the religiouse thowgh they do stablissh this face greatly / yet they them self do in a maner abhorre them. Here maist thow se / if one offende in these habittes and vesturs what great sinnes spring of it / what scrupulosyte of cō science / and what cases reserved. What fornication thinkist thow may be compared to this transgression / if one of their shavelinges go not to the barbar / in a hole month? what murther / if he minister at ye altar / with oute a stole / with owt a phannen / or wāt any pece of the garment depueted to his office? O this is a worthy religion / and a mete honour / to soch sanctes. Here lawes / statutes maners and customs / dispensations / irregularites / and soch other abominatiōs (which wold cawse a man to cast his gorge in remembring them) have their full ruell and impery / here in / consisteth the godlines of the christen. These be the holy and pure chirch of god. Amonge them the sprite continueth we must beleve that these can not erre / & for no nother cawse but that they are shavē / ād so clothed / and caried aboute on mules and [Page] charettes / all thowgh thy be never so weked never so ignorant in scripture / yee thowgh they lacke their comen senses / and be moare rude thē asses of archadie. This face dothe so bolden them that they dare presume to do all thinges.
¶Ye se how the successors of thappostles / and the vicars of god in the erth / take their crosse vpon them / and folowe Christ.
The .v. faceThe fifte. This is a goodly craft to lese and consume mony / in bilding / settinge vp garnishing / and making riche Monasteryes / Chapelles / Tēples / Altares & soch other workes / for here the most holy lawes of ye Pope / Bulles / ād seales (not one way) graunt heven to them that put to theire helpinge handes / and to the foundars / here are ye taught to trust in youre workes. Here are in numerable tresures gadered to gether for ye house of god / here the greater / the more gorgeous / the richer / and better garnisshed houses they bild / the more christe they are. And they do better (as they saye) which geve their almes to that / thē they which distribute it to the poore and nedy. Nother bild they that it may be a mete place to here ye word of god. But that they may be sene of god and men. They bild a house for god which sith that ons he did denye by sanct Stephā in the .vij. of the Actes / Actes. vij. [...] [...]e. [...]i [...]i and longe before him by Natan and David to dwell in temples made with mannes hand / yet now (like an [Page xxviij] outlawe) he beggeth of vs houses for him silf and his sanctes. And oure most holy father the Pope with his Busshoppes doth not only confirme the vayne and folish mindes of the people with his halowinges / blissinges / fredoms and protections.j. Timot. iiij. But also pursueth / and condemned / with curses ād imprecations with threatninges / and great sentences them that violate / despise / and abvse these phātasyes / as it well decūmeth the godlines of these faces. Thus he moveth & entiseth men to it. Out of this springeth not a small part of his most holy lawe which vexeth the world with folish and scrupulous cōsciēces marked with an hort yerō In the meane ceason what is done concerninge the word of god and ye faith? Let god take hede to that in his kingdome of trueth As for this kinge must se his kingdome of faces well ordered / and see it a loft with all ye craftes and strēgth he may. Tell me what is worshuppīge of wodde & stones if this be not it? truely god cōmaūded not these superstitious ceremonyes / but rather these thīges that he commavnded by these are transgressed and destroyed.The .vj. face The sext is not one face but a hole foreste of faces / touchinge all ye holy workes that are done in the temples for lukere / and avātage. Here are matēs / prime / and houres / rored out and mumbeled vppe with greate labour / so that they are never prayed. How be it they are encreased dayly [Page] with other houres of the blessed virgin ād of the holy crosse / & with the noyse of those verses which god in ye prophete said he wold not heare.Amos. v There is no ende / & who cā reherse with how many lawes (that is to say authors of sinne) & scrupulosite of cōsciēce this one worke vexeth & is vexed? There are added voices & songes of infinite kind & variete. For ye organes & all īstrumētes of musike serve for this face. I will nat speke of chaleses images / ād vessels that they vse of gold silver wodde / then / vailes / copes and vestimentes and soch other ornamētes with out mesure and numbre. Lightes / lampes / and soch like.The sacramē tes are encreased. And to be shorte here have they encreased the sacramentes / Confirmation / Orders / Matrimonye / ād Anelinge / good lord / what a whorlepole have they made to devoure mony / & mēnes soules / who can bere in memorye the lawes which are made that these thinges may be exequuted religiously? And these thinges thinke they so expediente and nedefull to the Christen / that they will soner forgeve advoutrye then one of the offences which is committed against the leste of their holy lawes & faces. Yf oure most holy father hade left these and all ye other faces fre & accordīge to ye gospell had lefte vs all equal / we shuld have had none of these īnumerable sinnes / for where is [...]o lawe there is no trāsgression But now he [Page xxix] (abvsinge oure scrupulous consciēces) hath ordened and made infinite lawes / and thorow them infinite sinnes and condemnations / and this is the cawse that Paule calleth him the man of sinne / ij. Tess. ij. and sonne of perdition / that is to say a wilfull maker of lawes / and most vngodly in thinges that were made fre by Christ to all faithfull. Here shall I be condemned of the sodiars and company of this holy father and shall be called a fautor of Waldē and Wiglefe / how be it Daniel conforteth me which saith in the .xj. against Antichrist on this maner / Dani. xi he shall worshippe in his bildinge the God of Maozim / and the god whom his fathers did not know shall he honour with gold silver / precyous stones and other glorious riches. And he shall labour to stablish Maozim with the strāge god whom he knowith not / and he shal encrease glory / ād geve thē power on many thinges / and shall divied the erth frely. It is sufficient for me to know that all these thinges are fre and not necessary for my health / & therfore that they are nother necessary preceptes nother yet profitable / but only so fained by most cruell wekednes and tyrānie of Antichrist to thētent that sinnes and cōdēnations might be multiplied / they are but faces & not ye very body:
The seventhe face may be called the hole abvse of the masse wyth his solēnites / The .vii. face The abvse of the masse. with [Page] vigilles / with year mindes / foundatiōs / bu [...] rialles / and the hole besines that is done for the deade / for what is in it but a face ād cloke of godlīesse which deceaveth ye people ād swaloweth vp theyr mony? we have now adays no masse for thentent to be partakers of the altare and to heare the gospell / & yet this is the cheffe cause of the masse / but we vse thē as good workes rather for them that are departede then for the qwicke / reserved that qwicke prestes gett them a substāciall levinge by this office / finally we vse it as thowgh it pertayned no thinge to communion. They kepe the sacrament / after masse to ministre to the seake / and bere it a boute in mynion pixes as thowgh it were a thinge to wonder at. All these are the invētiōs of mā and were never commaūded of god / nother are they necessary / but rather weked ād forbed / chefly those that pertayne to the masse But this most holy fontayne of sinne / and perdition causeth them to be necessary. In so moch that he shalbe counted an heretike that will once qwinche against it.
The viij. face FastesThe .viij. face / is the choyse of meate and fastinge which are indifferent for ech day. But now a dayes men fast on ye maner not that ye flesch shuld be mortified / but bicawse it is a good worke to have fasted this day / & to have abstayned frō meate this day / & that day / so that they may deserve heven what [Page xxx] thinge is this but a weked face?Thimoth. iii. of whom Paul prophesied in the .iiij. of the first pistell to Timoth. cōmaunding to abstayne frō meates / which god hath created.Gala. iiij And in the .iiij to the Galathyās / ye observe ye dayes / and mōthes / & times / & yeares. I feare of you lest I have bestowed on you laboure in vayne
The .ix.The. ix face face I coūte this mischevous multiplication & encreasinge of these weked holy dayes / Holy dayes for now a dayes oure most holy father teachith men thorow idelnes to serve god / yt is to say as he expoūdeth it him self By intermission and ceasing frō all bodly workes. And yet all dayes of god are ordened fre both to laboure and cease frō labour indifferently. Amonge these / festes / some are principale / some duble and so forthe / as ye fest of corpus Christi / of ye Visitatiō / & Cō ceptiō / of oure lady & of ye apostles / & soch other / yf any presume to breke these / or els kepe thē with a grutchīge harte (thowgh they be in deade but folish / vnprofitable / & vaine preceptes) they wyll geve sentes & affirme boldly / yt they sinne grevously / & brīge their soules in to vtter destruction.
The tenth is the excellent (The .x. face [...]lowinge o [...] chast [...]esal thowgh it be fained) kepinge of virginite & chastite of ye religions / which trewly semeth in ye face a godly & hevēly thinge. But it is a develish of ye which it is spoken in ye .iiij. of the firste pistell to Timothe. forbiddinge to maryeij. Timot. iii [Page] where as againe oure most reuernde father / maketh that thinge necessarye that Christe wold have fre / wherof Daniel in the .xi. speketh he shalbe desirous of women. [...]anie. xj Here Daniel meanith that he shall refuse ād abstaine from mariage for a cloke of godlines / and not for love of chastite.
The xi. face.The .xj. is the worshuppinge of relickes / trewly this is a proper and most fruerfull cloke of avantage.Relickes Out of this were indented innumerable pilgrimages / Pilgrimages with the which the folissh ād vnlerned people might lese their labour / mony / and time / nothinge in the meane ceason regardinge their house / wiff / and children / contrary to the commaundmēt of god / or els might do moch better dedes to theire neighbueres / which is ye precepte. As for the worshuppinge or visitinge of relickes is nothinge but even the very minde and affectiō of mē. They wold make sanct Hierome / the beginner and author of this thinge / which writinge to vigilantius entē ded nothinge but that men shuld not rebuke and despise relickes. How be it they do so fare abyse his authorite / that they will have no mesure in worshuppinge them / they will have no worke prefared above this. They will have none compared vn to it. And it hath so prevailed / owe [...]. that it is come to vowes which can not be dispensed with not of ye Pope him silf (excepte thou have a bagge of mony) But [Page xxxj] what a folissh vowe is it that is thus made against the precepte of god. This paynted and be wtifull face doth so fare deceave men that it is not cownted an offense to leve the charge of his wiffe and children / but rather a great merite. O what a blindnes is this. In this face I may numbre the sectes of brotherheddes which were invented by the singulare provision of sathan to destroy the noble and cheffe brotherhed of faith & cherite / Brotherheddes. for these also are confirmed and stablisshed / vnder the names of sanctes / and in ye reverence and worshupe of relickes. Of their ab [...]se it is spoken in a nother place / and nede it were to make a hole boke apon this monster.The .xii. face
The .xij. and laste (for I will leve the residew to other mennes coniecturinge) is the very confused clowde and opened gate of hell / which hath a mervelous and pleasant face to loke apō. These be the vniversites in the which periury and the abose of the name of god are the enteringe in / Vniversitee. & afterward their conversation is most fre and at liberty vnto every mischeffe / yet vnder these sinnes ād perditions / there is promised science & wisdom / with titles and degrees prescribed vnto them in stede of a rewarde. And what performe they at the lengthe? First the most cleneste & quicke witted yonge mē of the christente here are defiled and defloured / & cast in [Page] to the wide throte of hell / so that I iudge yt this perdition was figured by ye idolle Moloch / to whome men were wont to do sacrifice with their deariste ād best beloved sonnes and doughters. After yt the most christē wittes are occupied / yee blinded and oppressed with Aristotle and other gentiles ād mēnes learninge.Aristotle. And for the word of god / the traditions of the Pope are taught and handeled. In so moch that vtterly to subverte and put downe the gospell Sathā cowld never have found a more sotle and craftye invention / nother yet of more power and value / then to bild vppe vniversites / where as vnder the title of christiane learninge is nothinge taught but that which is most repugnante and against the christen faithe / wherof we wold speake very many thinges if tyme and leysuer fauored vs▪ And oute of these caves and dennes are they called to be governers and curattes of chirches / when they seme to chouse the best. And treuly vnto me this last face and cloke doth appere most noysome of all / for this only hath ye title and name of the worde (and all the other have only the title of example) and plainly is the scole of hid of yt is to say of suttell disputations / of the which we will speake anone. And the most hurte and damnage consistithe vnder the title of the worde / and for to teach other thinges in his stede and name [Page xxxij] / for sith ye face of example is formed & stablisshed apō ye face of ye worde it wold sone decay if ye true word did purely raigne. Besides yt the face of exāples doth only deceave ye maners / but the cloke & face of ye worde doth overturne & destroy the faith. And if ye thorow the grace & provitiō of god / the vniversites shuld receave his word / good lord / how sone shuld the Popes imperye with all his faces decay & perissh / for this one cloke and face is the very vp holder / Bones / and hole power / of all this kingdonme of faces.
This visare and cloked face as I thinke was prophesed in the .ix.Aocalip. ix of the Apocalipses whose wordes are worthy to be rehearsed / and some deall to be interpreted / for he saith. And the firste angell blewe / & I sawe a starre fall frō hevē vn to the erth / & to him was gevē the kaye of the bottōlesse pytte here will I sumwhate take myn awne minde & expositiō. It is evident that angelles thorow all the apocalipses do signifye ye busshopes of the chirches as it apereth by the second and .iij. chapter / where it is writen to thāgell of Ephesus / & to the angell of Smirna / & to soch other.Apoca. ij Now ye other kinde of angelles that blowe the trompettes / which (as it is shewed in ye. viij. hath sevē heddes can be applied to none but to the Pope of Rome for it is not writen that any other do blowe trompettes / Apoca. viij for to blow a trompett (as the [Page] agreinge of the place / and the textes folowinge do specifie) can be nothinge els. But to make decrees / which thing no man hath taken apon him at any time / but the Pope of Rome / Nother is it writen with out a great cause that they prepared them selves to blow for these only Popes have ever hade an impatient furye / ād vnquiett tyrannye / to make lawes and subdew other vnder them. But let vs returne vnto oure fyfte Angell which is the first of the thre that shuld bring in .iij. wooes / apō the erth this is he which first did ordene and stablissh vniversites whom it is not easy for me to name / the stories do so differ and dissent. But who so ever he was let him be the starre that fell frō heven to the erth / whether he were Alexander of hales / or els (which I soner beleve) sanct Thomas / Saint Thomas de aquino. which after the vniversites approved and the trompett of this Angell other was the first / or els ye greatist author to bringe in philosophye amonge the christē / beinge a subtyle ād very craftye disputer (yee very Aristotel him silf) into whom as in to the erth he fell from Christ in heven / grounding him silf apon the authorite of the most vngodly and weked Angell which did approve soch maner of studye / he toke the kaye of the bottomlesse pitte / and opened it / & brought out vnto vs philosophye which a Collo. ii.litle before was deade and comdemned by [Page xxxiij] the apostles / and from thense did assend the smoke of this pitte that is to say very wordes and opinions of Aristotle and other philosophers as it hade bene the smoke of a greate fornace / Apocalx [...] for phylosophy so did prevaile that he made Aristotle equale with Christ as concerning authorite and faith / where with was darkened the bright sonne (of righteousnes and trueth Christ / for in the stede of the faith were brought in morall vertues / and for the trueth infinite opinions) & the ayer / by the reason of ye smoke of this pitte / that you myght vnderstond / that it was not an eclipse of the sone / but a darkenesse both of the sonne and of the ayre thorow the smoke that ascended from beneth / that is to say thorow mens traditions and learninge / Christ and his faith (which are the ayre and sprete) be oppressed and darkened. And there came out of the smoke locustes vpon the erth.Locustes. This is the people of the vniversite which is rootide and brought vpe in philosophye and are called with a propre name locustes / By cause they folowe the Angell of the bottomlesse pitte / which is ye Pope clene forsakinge their kinge (Christe) and flye on swarmes / as it is said in the .iij. of the Proverbes.Prouer. iij And then they despoile / and burne vpe all that is grene / in that parte where they sitte so that the gramarians suppose that they are called locustes a loco [Page] vsto which signifieth a burned and wethered place. So this people burneth and consumeth the hole grene springe of Christ / yt is to say / the fructe of faith, And to them is geven power / as the scorpions of the erth have power / that is to say to wond the conscience / for after that the grene and florisshinge frute of faith which healeth the cō cōscience is whethered and destroyed / the cōsciēce cānot but be hurte And it was said vnto them yt they shuld not hurte the grasse of the erth nother all the grene nether all the trees / that is to say the chosen / for they shal not hurte all men. Nother naturall locustes do hurte all grene / The seall of god. but some certaine place / like wisse here / but only (he saith) those men which have not the seale in their forheddes / that is some grasse / and thē which have not faith which is the seale of God that we beare in a pure conscience and fre conversation.
And to thē was commavnded that they shuld not kille them / Morall philosophye but that they shuld be vexed .v. monthes. And this as I suppose was spoken of morall philosophy / which syth it doth not teach the true knowlege of synne it doth not kille as the lawe of God doth / but only with vayne affections doth vexe and prike them.ij. Timo. iij Ever learninge & never attayninge the knowlege of trueth / for they that are killed with the lawe are quickened [Page xxxiiij] againe with the everlastinge sprete / and are not vexed .v. monthes / that is to say thorow all the time of their sensuall lyffe / in the which morall vertues rule. And we se all morall divines to have a parelous and weked conscience / full of scrupulosite / & never quiet which nother cā attaine good nor evill. Therfore it foloweth / and their paine was as the paine yt cometh of a scorpione when he hath stonge a man / be hold the prikinge of the cō science / he expoundeth that / which he spake of. That they are not holsomly kild / nether quickened spiritually. And in these dayes shall men seake death & shall not find it / they shall desyre to deye & death shall flye frō them / that is the death of sinne which raigneth & is over quicke / stikinge in the cōscience / and yet is it not knowen to the pointe as it ought to be / for if it were well knowen it shulde sone perissh and deye. But this is not the office of the Etikes of Aristotle / but of the lawe and sprete.
And the similitude of the locustes was like vnto horses prepared vnto batell / Batell▪ that is of sotle disputations and brawlinge scole maters / which in an allegory are called batell for they are ready to dispute on this side and that / with it & against it. And on their heddes were as it were crownes / like vnto gold / they be / names and titles of degrees. Oure noble master / humble and vnworthy [Page] professor of divinite ād so furthe. And their faces were as they had bene the faces of mē / Faces for their doctrine and liffe was not governed with the sprete of faith / but with the rightinge and information of their [...]e naturall reason. Aristotle the light of nature lighteninge them. And thy had heares as the heares of women. Phylosophy bringeth forth weke and effeminate prestes / Heare [...] which are all geven to pleasurs and superfluites / in whom raigneth nether sprete nor manlye wisdome in Christ / for heares do signifye prestes as in the .lxvij. Psalme / and in the iij. of Esai / and other places.Psalm. lxvij Esai [...] iij Nether is it lawfull to be a divine except he be soch a preste first. In so moch that devines are comenly evill spoken of among the comē people. And their teth were / as the teth of lyons.Tethe Consider duns men among all other devines whethere they be not bytars. Checkers / sclawnderers and devourars / of all these that speake against Aristotles divinite howe be hit it is no mervell / for the duns men / and sanct Thomas mē which are now adays wold them self devoure ech other / ād sharpen their teth as ferse as lyons. Nether is there any kind of men which wold fight moare cruelly & with moare hate / then these sectes of devines. In so moch that every one of them desiringe the others destruction wold faine raigne alone.
[Page xxxv]And they hade harbergions as it were harbergions of yeron.Harbergiōs. This is the pertinecyte / stiffnes / and sure presumption of every secte concerninge the stabilite / and trueth / of their awne opinions / with these their yeron brestplates they can not be overcome. And these are the principles in every sect. And the sounde of their winges was as the soundes of charectes when many horses rune to gether to batell.Winges The winges be the wordes of these brawlinge disputars with the which they fight and runne at ech other / violently / checkinglye / and with great noyse. As we se in the contentious brawlinge of these disputars both in wordes and writinge / where as none will geve place to the other / but remayne invincible stickinge still to his opinion be it right or wronge. This stubburne mind and affection in disputations is signified by the runninge to gedder of charactes and horses.Tayles And they had tayles lyke vn to scrorpions and there where stinges in their tayles. And their power was to hurte men .v. monthes. He expoundeth that which he spake of before / shewinge that the fructhe / ende / and effect of this divinite is nothinge els but to vexe evill consciences thorow all their sensuall liffe. But to them that are spirituall this divinite is abomination / for they are separate from these .v. monthes / in [Page] the sprete of libertye.
KingAnd they had a kinge over them which is thangell of the bottomlesse pitte whos name in the hebrew tonge is Abadon / but in the greke tonge Apollyon. Here let vs cō sider the most generall rulare of act vniversites. Not Christ / not the holy goste / not the angell of the lorde / but thangell of the bottomlesse pitte / and of them that are dead ād damned / whom meaneth he then? Truely the light of nature Aristotle (which well may be called Apollion that is to say a destroyer and corruptoure of the chirche) raigneth in the vniversites. Nother was he worthy in scripture to be named by his awne name, we said that this angell did signifye a doctor and teacher in the chirch. And it is evident that Aristotle dead and damned / is now a dayes the instructore of all vniversites / moare then Christ / for Aristotle commended by the authorite and diligence of sanct Thomas is sett a loffte and raigneth Raisinge againe and stablisshinge fre will / teachinge morall vertues / and naturall philosophye / and may be called thre hedded Cerberus / or rather Geryon with thre bodyes.Cerberus
Behold the first woo that the chirch hath receaved of the Pope of Rome thorow the helpe and meanes of sanct Thomas. It had bene their duetes most of all to have forbed [Page xxxvj] and suppressed these thinges / and they chefly have brought it vp and stablisshed it. Tell me christen reader. Are not these faces and clokes counted the hedde tayle / and all to gedder? Are not these the ground and substance of the Canon lawe?Canon law What do the weked canonistes learne. But the observation and fulfillinge of these clokes and faces / invented and ordened by vngodly men which partaineth nothinge to god or ye chirch? Tell me if thow find one good worke in them that God commaunded. Read over the hole Canon lawe / and shew me one place where the Pope or any Busshope is moved to the office of the Gospell. All is decreed of iurisdictions / and nothinge of the word of God / all thowgh there be nede of no other thinge in the chirche but of his word. But that is lefte to chappellayns and hegge prestes / and to them that are most rude and vnlearned. O wo be to the thow Pope: wo be to yow Cardinalles: wo be to yow Busshopes: wo be to yow prestes wo be to yow relligious persons / and to all the orders of Satans Sinagoge / who shall teach yow to flye from the vengeance which shall come and is now at hand?Math [...] iii. What shall yow answere / for the office of the word which yow have taken apon yow / and have not fulfilled it? Thinke yow that he will accepte yower .iij. crownes / hattes / myters / [Page] ringes / gold / purpull / and all yower clokes and faces? This sentence is sure and stable he loketh not vpō the face of men. Wherfore he that can / let him heare the counsell of christe where he teacheth in ye .xxiiij.Math. xxjiij. of Mathew to flye vn to ye montaynes ād not returne again in to oure houses. Let him forsake the world that may / let him go in to ye wildernes yt is fre. Desire not / desire not man who so ever thow arte / to have a B [...]sshoprike / a Canonrye / an Abbottes coulle or any orders of presthode / for there is synne and perdition in them all / as the forsaid faces do shew the. Or els if thow have a greate mind or be compelled to take orders / Orders. then despise these faces of Antichrist / ād do thy diligence purely to serve the gospell / other by thy self teachinge it / if thow have that gyfte / or els assistinge / helpinge / ād servinge them which have the grace to teach / as the Apostles did testifye them selves yt they had many By sides this desire god hartelye with pure prayer for then crease of the gospell. Beleve me / excepte thou do thus / thow takist thī orders to thy dānatiō / yee thowgh thow do miracles / and committe thy silf to the fire to be burned. There is but one specialle office yt pertayneth to thyne orders / and that is to preach ye word of god / yf thow do not this / thow art not anoynted inwardly with ye holy goste / but only vtwardly for a [Page xxxvij] cloke. But lord / how hath this most holy kī ge prevailed that he hath clene suppressed ye gospell? And why shall I not curse this cursed abominatiō-The lord Iesus Christ destroye these idolles of the world / yower Popedoms and Cardinalshuppes / with all yower clokes & faces / in to ye depth of hell for ever Amen. Now I thinke thow vnderstondist what it meaneth yt this kinge is mightye in faces. It foloweth.
¶Soch a kinge / soch a lawe.Danie. viij. Soch a lawe / soch people. Soch people / soch maners / soch maners soche studies & affectiōs.Sillogismus But ye kinge is a very cloke / face / & idolle Therfore his lawe must nedes be a starke lye & fātasye / as Petre did prophesye.ij. Petri. ij. There shalbe false teachers among you / which thorow covetuousnes with fained wordes shall make marchā dise of yow.ij. Timoth. iij And in the fourth of the first pistell to Timothe. which speake false thorow hypocrisye. And how can he teach the trueth which is nothing him self but a cloke and lye / for he that is endewed with that opiniō that he will counte these f [...]ces substantiall thinges in erneste / he will not only speake lyes / but he shall not be able to sustayne nor abyde the trueth: Is not this a notable / yee an abominable lye to teache ceremonyes for the faith of Christ / for the sprete / to ordē traditions [Page] and learninges of men? Doth not the Pope with his lawes avaunce and bost him silf yt he governeth & fedeth the chirch of god? doth he not commend as good deades those thinges which are done by fulfillinge his lawe? doth he not persequute and condemne those yt obey not him al thowgh they observe and kepe all the hole gospell? O this weked and cursed abomination. Here is the sainge of Paule fulfilled / which is an aduersarye and is exalted above all that is called god / ij. Thessa. ij. or that is worshupped / so that he shal sit in the tēple of god and shew him silf as god. Doth not he sitte in the temple of god which saith and professeth him self to be the master in the hole chirch? what is the temple of god? Is it stones ād wodde? doth not Paule say The temple of God is holy which temple are ye?j. Corint. iij. ij. Co. in. vj. Nether in the time of paule was there any house which was called the temple of god as we now call thē What meaneth this sittinge / but raigninge teachinge / and iudginge? Who sith the beginnīge of the chirche / durst presume to call him self the master of the hole chirch But only the Pope? None of the holy men / none of the heretikes / durst ever let scape them soch an horrible voice of pride. Paule bosted him selfe to be the master of the gentils in faith and trueth but not the master of the chirch / doth he not avaunce him selfe as he were [Page xxxviij] god while that for the wordes of Christ he teacheth his awne / ād for the rightuousnes of the faith he stablissheth his awne rightuousnes? May he naturally be exalted aboue god?ij. Thessa. ij. Nay truely / but above all that is called god saith the apostle / that is to say above the word of god preached / for he is called god when he is preached and beleved in how be it above this god the Pope a greate while hath bene exalted ād sitteth still / for in the faithfull hartes in ye stede of preachinge ād belevinge god / he preacheth him silf and his awne constitutiōs / and so is preferred (as ye greke worde doth signify which the Apostle reherseth) both above the honour and worshupe of god / and also above god which is worshupped. As thowgh he shuld say in ye harte of mā he shalbe preferred above god / yt is to say / his word shall more be feared then the worde of god / and they shall more obeye him and more worshup him / thē very god him silfe Doth this agre with any man but with the Pope? In every place the word and precept of God is despised / But every man feareth the word of ye Pope. Trewlye there is no god nether in heven nor erthe whose word is reccaved with soch obedience as is the Popes word which thinge experience doth so clerly shewe and derlare vnto vs / that he which [Page] lacketh halfe his witte can not denye it.
Forthermore who did ever say that he came in ye name of Christ / but only ye Pope / for he only & the first of all men doth boste him silf with intollerable blasphemye / The pope is the vicare of [...] on erthe and pride to be the vicare of Christ and the vicare of god in the erth. What signifieth the vicare of god. But to sitt in goddes stede? what is it to sitt in goddes stede. But to shew him silf as thowgh hewere god? Dowtest thow yet whether the prophesye of Paul be fulfilled sith these two are so like to be the vicar / of god / and to shew him silf as thowgh he were god? Therfore Christ did well prophesy / yt these Apostles of Antichrist shuld come in his name / for the other heretikes all thowgh they did coūterfet & dissemble the trueth / yet they never pretendid to do it vnder the name of Christ / but that was only reserved to Antichrist. Wherfore Christ in the xxiiij. of Mathew not content to have prophesied that they shuld come in his name / did adde and expownd him silf. Sainge that I am Christ / as thowgh he shuld say / They shall take myn awne name vpō them / Math xxiiij which is Christe. And say that they be Christ. And that they have obtayned / for of ye Pope and Christ with their chatteringe they have made one / sainge that they are so annexed & cō ioyned to gedder / yt Christ cā not be seperate frō ye Pope nether ye Pope frō him. O what [Page xxxix] a furyous & malicious blasphemye is this? A weked & wretched bawde / vsurare / theffe & cruell tyrāne / is mingled & ioyned with the lord Christ / & is made one with him. Come lord Iesu Christ ād perscribe some order / or els finishe and make an end of this horrible and blasphemous abomination.
Yet I pray you what doth this vicare of god settinge in ye stede of god? Doth he fulfill & teach the cōmavndmentes of his prince? Nay trewly / what doth he thē? Only teach his awne constitutions / & yet doth thē not him self. How be it if he did teach ye cō ma [...]ndmentes of god / yet shuld not he be ye vicare of god / for a vicare is there as ye prince and hedde is absent. Therfore / where / as his vicare raigneth / there is no god / for where god is present / there neadeth no vicare / but only ministers / as thapostles called not thēself ye vicars of god / but onely his ministres. Therfore is ye sainge of Paule fulfilled. Whe se the mā of synne & sonne of perdition / sittinge in the tēple of god / ij. Thessa ij shewinge him silf as thowgh he were god / beinge an adversary / & exalted above the word of god & all his worshupe. What is more cōtrary to the trueth of the gospell thē these faces and clokes & their doctrine? how be it / it is worshupped / feared & observed above all ye worde of god / & that vnder the name of him ād his learninge / but let vs retvrne vnto daniel [...]
[Page] Danie. viij.This word hidoth which Daniel doth put in the hebrew tōge doth signifye a probleme a ryed all / & a darke sētēce / which deceaveth ye sense if a mā loke but on the wordes. So in ye first of Iudicū.judicum. j. I will propound vn to yov a ryedell. [...]. xlviij. And in ye .xlviij. psalme I will opē in a songe my darke sentēce. Therfore he is called wittye in these sotle reasons ād rydels / which cā with darke wordes / deceave ye hearers / so yt they may heare one thinge & vnderstōd a nother. And it is not thus takē yt he shuld be wittye in ryedles for to vnderstōd that that other men shall speake / but that he is apte & mete to deceave other by his awne wordes. I will put an exāple. Whē this kīge of faces / The Chirche in his decrees doth use this worde the chirch for him silf and his adherēres (be they never so vngodly and weked) & goth aboute to persuade all men yt what so ever they cōstitute and ordene / it is done of the chirch (as they have now prevailed / yee and triumphe by the obtayning of this word) thikest thow that he hath not propoūded a proper rydle / syth that ye chirch doth not signifye / but the holye congregation of faithfull which live and are led with the sprete of god / which are the bodye and fulfillinge of Christ / as Paule saith.Colo. i [...] What lyes shall not this mā groūd and sett forth What obedience shall not he obtayne? what lawe shall not he stablisshe when he hath so [Page xl] fare prevailed that both the hearers and he that speaketh do vnderstond the Synagoge of Sathā for the chirch of god? Wh [...] to he that wold not obeye the church of god? we may perceave by this worde that this kīgdome of faces differith from the manerād condition of all other kingdoms by cawse he contendith not with armure / but with wordes. Not with plaine and simple wordes as the kingdome of Christ & the impery of this worlde is vsed and ministered / for the impery of this world in mannes lawes determe of temporall thinges with evidēte wordes / which of every mā sone are vnderstond. And the kingdome of Christ is rueled by the sure and playne worde of the gospell But this kingdom doth vndermine mē & deceave thē with darke & duble wordes which sounde one thinge and meane an other. Nether doth he teach (that a mā may perceave) other wordly thīges or spirituall / but he faineth to teach spirituall / & in very dede they are wordly & tēporall And in this crafte they are so wittye / sotle / and apte (thorow sathanes helpe) that they seduce and being in to errour (as Christ prophesied) ye very chosen nether cā they be iudged but of them which are spirituall.Danie. viij. Therfore Daniel calleth him sotle and wittye / and his lawes ryedles / by cause he shuld deceave all men / which sharply and wyth greate diligence do not marke [Page] and take hede of them. Make a proffe thy silf. Yf thow be taught to abstaine from / me ates / [...]thinges / places / persons / and certaine [...]ther thinges / and to vse soch or soch garmentes / behaveoure / meate / place & persons Beinge in this opinion / that by those meanes and labours / thow shalt do good workes & obtaine righteousnes / And after (whē thow comest to thy self and haste the true vnderstondinge) doste perceave that thow hast labored but in temporall thinges which make no more for righteousnes / then other occupations and labours of laye men / woldest thou not say that thou haddest bene properly begyled? And haddest thow not in very dede bene deceaved thorow faire wordes? And I pray the are not all that the Pope commaundeth even soch phantases? Doth he not in his decrees and statutes entreate / and de terme of places / meates / vesture / or persons? Where in consisteth no more iustes then if thow shuld go plowe a felde / or weve / or spinne. But who playeth the husbond mā thinkinge to be iustified if he do his worke / or to sinne if he do it not / all though it be a profitable and necessary worke? And thow arte commaunded to laboure in that worke which is nother necessary to the liffe nor yet profitable for any thinge (hopinge to find righteousnes in it / and to sinne if thow trāsgres) for what doth it profite other thy liffe [Page xlj] or substance to were a blacke or a russer cot [...] to cate milke or flesshe / to be shavē or [...]nshaven / to live in this place or in that? A [...] ye [...] in this trifelinge and vnprofitable thinge [...] thow arte commaūded to be iustified ād halowed / or els to sinne and offend. Are not here problemes / & ryedles propounded craftely to the? And truely all the world / is replenesshed with this false & deceitfull doctrine. These be the consciences marked with hotte yerons / i. Timo. iiij. for as all that they do be very clokes and faces / even so all that they teach be sotle reasons and fained ryedles / so that both in the thinges and in the wordes / are nothinge els but clokes and faces / and yet they make a fearfull and scrupelous conscience with oute any cause or authorite.
Observe and note with what sober and meke wordes the sprete doth handell these cruell and odious monstres / for he calleth ye abominable pompe and hypocrisye nothinge but faces / which thow canst sufficiently and worthely defame with no word. And he nameth this pestilent deceavinge of antichristes dottrine. And this mischevous foxy wylinesse to delude men / nothinge but rydles.Danie. viij. This clerly doth Daniel in the .vij. prophesye / where he writeth that after the terrible best that had ten hornes (which by the consent of all men is the imperye of Rome) he considered ād sawe an other litle horne sprīs [Page] ginge out of the middes of them (that is ye impery of the Pope which as we saide is spron [...]e in the middes of the imperye of Rome▪ [...]d behold there were eyes like mennes [...] this horne / and a mowth speakinge great ād mervelous thinges. These eyes be the rydles / and the sotle vnderstondinge of these ridles / is the wisdome of the flesshe / & the blasphemous mowthe against Christ.
Ephe. iiij.Paule in the .iiij. to the Ephesians doth moch more fersly entreate of these rydles sainge / let vs hence forth be no more children wavering and caried with every wind of doctrine by the wylynes of men and craftenes where by they lay away te for vs to deceave vs. But the two greke wordes which thapostle vseth have moch more mistery then here can be expressed / for the first signifieth not only wylines / but also castinge at dyse / and the second is both a craftenes / ād sotle illusion as it were of iuglers which with their sportes ād pastimes deceave mē nes senses. So these weked masters castinge the wordes of god as they were dyse accordinge to their awne minde and plesure / & with their trifeling ceremonies / deceave vs ād make vs vnstable / vndermininge vs with these sotle craftes to make vs fall and erre / this is their hole entent that they vse their wordes ād deceytfull ceremonies / to vndercrepe vs craftely / and prevely deceave vs or we be ware. So he monissheth vs in the .ij. [Page xlij] to the Collossians.Collo. ij. Be ware lest any man come and spoyle yow thorow philosophye [...] deceatfull vanyte / thorow the trad [...] [...] of men and ordinations after the [...] after Christ. And a litle after even [...]s pointinge with his finger to this hidoth and bely wisdome / doth say. After the cōmaundmentes and doctryns of men / which thenges have a similitude of wisdome in chosen holines and humblenes and in that they spare not the bodye / and do the flessh no worshupe vn to his nede. Marke howe their hydoth hath a similitude of wisdom and is but very superstition and hypocrisye.ii. Petri. jii And Peter in the .iij. of his second pistell saith. There shall come in ye last dayes deceatfull mockers which will walke after their awne lustes Doth he not here touch both the deceate and the illusion (by cause they deceave in wordes and mocke and illude in clokes and faces) imputinge the one to the doctrine / ād the other to the workes / even as Paule did meaninge no nether thinge by this deceate and illusion / Ephe. iiij but that which Daniel signifieth by this worde hydoth.
This also must be observed and noted yt this word / vnderstondinge / doth pertaine vnto the mind and affection / for Daniel in the xi. speakinge of the same monsire doth say.Danie. xi [...] And he shall have no vnderstōdinge) that is to say minde & affectiō) to ye god of his forefathers / nother to ye desire of wives / nother [Page] to any god / where it is evident that ye word [...] signifye affection / and regarde / for he sha [...] not be so ignorante / not to know what [...] is / what a woman is / what a wiff is / [...]hat it meaneth to desyre a womā or a wiff but he shall not regarde them / but make statutes contrary to god and matrimonye / takinge no thought how impossible it is to beare and suffer this bourden of matrimony / and wedlocke which is denied thē. Evē so Daniel when he calleth this kinge wittye / Danie. viij. and vnderstondinge rydles / vseth the same maner of speakinge and meaneth rather the affection and mind / then the vnderstondinge. And truely there was never thinge ordened in the worlde more folisshe and vnsaverye then the Popes lawes. In so moch yt they are gested at / yee and abhorred of the verye Canonistes which reade and professe them / Proverbe. for they have a proverbe amonge them silf yt a pure Canoniste is a greate Asse / forther more the world had never imperye whose princes were redyare ād maddere to make lawes then the Popes of Rome / so that in their decrees is as moch want of learninge as superfluite of folisshe hardenes / and both are above mesure. What doth the Pope in the chirche bu [...]daye by daye hepe vpe and accumulate moo newe lawes / which he stablisshith and cancelleth / confirmeth and disanunlleth / chaūgeth & rechaungeth / without [Page xliij] any cause with oute any reason / evē as it cometh to his wittes ende / be [...]e dronke or furious. And no doute vseth and [...]eth oure weke and wretched conscience. Evē as they were dyse / which (when he playeth) for his pure pleasure he casteth and turneth hether and thethere as he list him silf / yee somtime to his bawdes and herlottes. O this is a worthy reward for oure vnfindnes.ii. Thessa. ij. Be hold vs which wold not receave ye love of trueth that we might be saved / are worthely comitted in to the handes of this man of sinne / and sonne of perdinon which thorow trifeling / lawghinge / and gaminge hath layde sinnes and perditions vpon vs / with an incredible and malicious furye.
And to be shorte we may perceave copiously by the forsaide faces / these sotle ridles for sithe the hole Popes lawe doth nothinge els but order these clokes and faces And sithe in the faces is nothing but mockinge and deceavinge by the which the trueth of the faith in the gospell is suppressed it is evident ynough (which experience doth teache vs) that the Popes doctrine is mockinge and deceatfull / for he gothe not aboute to make vs serve / obaye / ād beleve in god But only to serve hem and to be subdewed vnder his iurisdiction. And truely it were impossible if he were of God / but that he shuld entreat / move / and entyse vs to the [Page] gospell with all his might and power. And teach vs plainly that all thinges are fre / ād that [...] can not synne in vsinge clothinge / meates / places / parsones / or any soch thinges / for synne cōsisteth not in the vse of thinges / but in the inordinatte desire or hate of thē / but the pope putteth synne & rightuousnes only in the vsinge / therfore he is the mā of synne & sonne of perditiō / filling ye world with these folisshe and vaine / sinnes & iustices. And yet (by cause he feareth ye cōsciēces vnder the title ād pretēce of Christes name) he maketh of those thīges which in thē self are no synnes / very grevous offences. For he that beleveth that he doth sinne / if he eat flesshe on the Apostles eve / or say not matens & prime in the morninge / or els leve vndone any of ye Popes preceptes. No doute he synneth. Not by cause the dede which he doth is synne / but by cause he beleveth it is sinne & against this folissh belefe & cōsciēce / offē deth / of the which folyssh cōscience only the Pope is hedde & author / for a nother doinge ye same dede / thinkinge yt he doth not sinne trvely offendeth not. And this is ye cause that ye sprete of Paule cōplaineth that manye shall departe from the faith.ij. Timo. iiij. And for this folissh conscience / mennes tradititions be pernicious and noysome / the snares of soules / hurtinge the faith / & the libertye of the gospell / if it were not for this cause they shuld [Page xliiij] do no hurte. Therfore the devill thorow the Pope abvseth these cōsciēces to stablissh ye lawes of his tyrannie / to suppresse [...]e with and libertye / and to replenisshe [...] worlde with errours / vngodlines / synnes and perditions.
And well doth Paule calle those cōsciences marked with an hotte yerō / by cause they are not so of their awne nature / nother yet of the sprete / but are marked against nature with the hotte yeron of mannes traditions and doctrines / Paule teacheth that there is nothinge to be refused.i. Timot. iiij. And the vicare of Christ saith / yes butyre / and whitmeates most be refused ever on certayne prescripte dayes. Christ in the .x. of luke said.Luc. x Latinge and drinkinge soch as they have. But his vicare saith / eare no flessh nor egges. Christ suffereth all maner of garmentes frely and indifferently. But his vicare commaundeth one maner of rayment to the laye men and taketh a nother maner to him silf and his adherentes / and that vnder deadly synne and precepte of the chirche And in all these thinges they make them selfe a scrupulous conscience as though they did well in kepinge them and synned deadly in transgressinge / though it be nothīge so Therfore truely soch consciēces are violently made / yet neverthelesse they be sore hurte (as we have said) in the transgression of these payne preceptes. [Page] for soch a kinge / soch a lawe. Soch a lawe / soch synne and merite and soch a consciēce also reserved that (as I said) of a folishe & vayne synne is made a true synne / thorow the erroure of the cōsciēce / & this is the hort yeron which doth marke him. It foloweth.
¶This third propertye of this mōstruous kingdome is also mervelous and vnlyke all other imperies / by cawse it shalbe strēghted & stablisshed with a strāge power. For who hath harde any soch thinge in all other kīgdoms? The imperye of Rome was gotten / encreased / & mayntened thorow his awne strength. The hole scripture doth rebuke the horses ād flessh of Aegipte and other kingdōs / in the which the Iewes did put their trust and confidence / forthermore the kingdome of Christ doth more consist in his awne powre then any of the other. For ye trueth of it silf is stronge ynowgh. And only this kīgdome is stablisshed with others strēgth Strength in this place doth signifye ye power / which oure philosophers do call ye power to worke vtwardly / which is not of the soule / iii. Reg. xix. Gene. xxxj. but of the mēbers So Ezechias in the xix. of the fourth boke of kinges. The childrē came to the birth / & the mother had no power [Page xlv] to deliver them. And in th [...] xxxj. of Genesis. I have served youre father it [...] all my power. And Iob. I counted f [...] hinge the power of their handes / thu [...] to say that they were able to do. In the Hebrew tonge it was called [...]uth / and the Apostle in the greke tōge calleth it energeran. And the interpreter called it in the latin tonge / efficaciam / and in the englissh tōge it must be called might and power as in the .ij. to the Galathians / he that was mighty in Peter in the apostleshippe over circunsition / the same was mighty in me amōge the gētils.Gala. ij.
Therfore the power of this kinge sith it stōdeth not in armure / nor in the gospell of Christ / must nedes be raysed vp by his awne doctrines and stablisshed by the power of other. Marke this goodly order / first are faces. And then lawes / and both are fained and clene alien at from the trueth. After thē cometh his power / which is not sta [...]lisshed by him silf. But with other strange powers and strenghtes / for truely a lye can not endure by his awne power. And so hath the kīgdome of Antichrist of Rome prospered / that even in the apostles time it began to lene & sticke to workes. Afterward the chirch (as they call it) was endewed ād garnisshed with certayne ceremonies. And at ye length the Pope patched thē all to gedder & made aswere sawce / and thorow them suppressed [Page] all liberty / turninge thē into most strayre & [...] lawes In so moch that it is with out [...] [...]re a greater offence to transgresse these lawes and ceremonyes / then the preceptes of god. So of these faces are sprōge lawes / of the lawes the strēgth / & of ye strēgth greate power & authoryte as it shall folow / for as maners make a lawe / so of the lawe ryeseth a strength to confirme the maners. And of the strengthe springeth powre and authoryte. Therfore let vs cōsidre with what power this king of perdition is strengthed and stablisshed.
ij. Thessa. ij.The Apostle in the .ij. of the second pistell to the Thessalonyās doth attribute & applye it vnto sathan sainge. Whose cominge shall be thorow ye operation of Sathan in lyeinge and mervelous signes / for evē as Christ did trulye stablissh the faith & his worde by signes & miracles thorow his awne vertue & power. Even so this counterfettinge Ape / and adversarye of Christ / shall stablissh his faces and lewde lawes / thorow lyeing signes of others (that is to say Sathans) power. The first operation of Sathan in his signes and illusions is this / that the chirch of Rome hath had perpetuall contention with the chirch of ye Greciās / & yet being weked and vniust hath ever prevailed (though it were defēded / with false causes & wrested scriptures) & so prevailed yt she hath exalted & cōfirmed [Page xlvi] her self to be the lady mestres of the faith & mother of all chirches. Besides [...] subderved all men with mervel [...] good chaunce ād prosperyte (were he next also greate / learned & holy) which ever hath resisted her lawes / statutes / iudgementes & glorious pleasurs. Who will not iudge yt these were mightye signes & mervelles / that no mā did ever attribute to any / but to god which did fight for ye holye chirch of Rome. As though god did not vtterly abhorre this abominable and pernicyous doctrines of men with ye arrogante pride of these faces.
Now to this pointe is it brought that kinges / princes / and Bisshopes / which other hurte the holy decrees / libertes or patrimonyes of the chirch of Rome or els do not honour and prefere them above the preceptes of god / shall perisshe by the stroke of the terrrible swerd of excommunication.Excōmunication. In so moch that ye hole world is in a greate feare to hurte the Pope or in any thing to contrarye his will. And of this springeth the fearfull lightninge which is ioyned & annexed to ye ende of everye bill. Yf any mā thorow folissh hardenes presume to contrarye or resist oure bull ād authorite. Let him knove that he shall runne in to the indignation of almightye God and of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paule. Nether hath oure saviour Iesu Christe in all his [Page] gospell worked soch signes or caused soche fear in the world as hathe the pope only in the ende of one of his bulles. What is it in the worlde that ye pope may not breake / chaunge / do / and obtayne / sith that with this power he may suppresse and put downe kinges and princes? paraventure these are the stīges of the locustes of the which it is writen in ye .ix. of the Apocalipses / Apoca. ix. Did he not set vp a new impery at Rome thorow the power of his lawes / bringinge it (as he saith him silf) from the Grecians to the Germanes? which among all the other workes of Antichrist was the principall ād most mervell / who thought not that these great signes and workes / had comen of god? & yet they were the most mighty and deceatfull tokens of Sathā. We have all seyn the signes and tokins / but no man toke hede of the counterfed lyes / for in these the chosen and holy have bene deceaved / all though it be clerer then the day that hey were never done for the gospell and faith / but to confirme the faces rydles and lawes of this kinge. And by this argument they might sone have bene knowen. There was never man which prospered / if he rebelled against the Pope as all the Italian stories make mētion / and trueth it is that they say (if thow consider the infelicite of this liffe / name / and losse of goodes) In so moch that ye martyrs so were [Page xlvij] vnhappye / yee and chefly Christ himself / But the Popes sprete (which is [...]) hath persuaded that these be the [...] [...]emē [...]es of damnatyon / and of the wrath of god although they rather were the signes and tokens of grace. So hath he prevailed with his lyeing merve [...]s ab [...]singe oure weake ād scrupulous consciences / lest any man shuld let and withstond the kingdom of these faces and rydles.
Read the stories / read the decretales / ād all which write on these thinges / and se if in any place the Pope and his adherentes complaine of kinges / princes / and bishopes by cause they have despised the faith and gospell or els have offended against god. There is but one complainte / by cause they have not defended the holy and Apostolike sete of Peter / or have offended it / or hurte it / in the hed / or in the mēbres / so that there is never question for any thinge but for their faces / lawes ād rydles. And they thē silf also do confesse (lyeinge with greate impudencye) that they did transpose the imperye to Rome for no nother cause / But that the emperoure of the Grecyans did to litle defende / the holy sete of Petre▪ And here may they be convicte thorow theyr awne testimony / because they desired not to be defended of Christ but of a man. Even thē beginninge to departe frō the faith / of yt which [Page] [...] [Page xlvij] [...] [Page] it is spoken.Psal. cxlv. Trust you not in princes / nor in the [...]es of men in whom is no health. And [...]ine.Psal. cxvii. It is better to trust in the lorde / thē to trust in princes / how be it the Pope vnto this day (forsakinge Christ and his tuition) doth Crowne the emperour to be the tutor and defender of the chirch▪ O what a wylye fox is this kinge of faces and rydles / he knew well ynough that his kingdome coulde not have continewed so longe (which is clene voyde vf the sprete and trueth) except it had bene defended by the hand ād power of man.
It greatly for thinketh me ād maketh me a shamed / yee and to lament for sorow / as often as I remembre what foles and lawghing stockes the Pope hath made him of the kinges / princes / and hole nation of inglonde. Good lord / how boldly and at his pleasure hath he mocked them / leding and tossinge them as though they had bene vnresonable and brute bestes / whom he might abvse to murther / extorsion / fraude and deceate / yee and to any thinge els / that Sathan wold entyse the Pope to move and exhorte them. Calling them in the meane ceason the defenders of the faith of Christ. And the beloved children of the chirche? O this is a worthy reward by the which they are persuaded to serve Sathan. And [Page xlvii] yet in all these signes and miracl [...] [...] than he hath so prevayled / that [...] thing which he entendeth to do / [...] be bold to execute it / yee and he bring [...] to [...] to passe prosperously / which he could neve [...] do with out he were holpen and so c [...]ured by the great workes and miracles of Sathan. But what is theyr entent and what seake they in all these thinges? Seake they the glorye of Christe? The health of soules? Or the Gospell and fayth? Nay forsouth But only faces and rydles. Only the holy chirch of Rome / and the Apostolyke seate. The patrimony of Christ crucified / and goodes of sanct Peter are the hole cause ād matter of all this troblesome besines. We feall these signes and tokens well ynoughe And yet thorow the so [...]le operation of Sathan we can not se and perceave the lye which is cloked vnder them / Antichriste hath so dymmed and blinded oure eyes / thorow the holy names of God / Christ / Peter / the chirch / and soch other / with the which a weake and vnlearned conference / yee and somtime the very chosen / are sone taken ād deceaved.
Who is able to numbre the monstruous mervels / only of them that are departed. Good lord / what a see of lyes hath envaded vs / of aperinges / coniur [...] [Page] [...] answeres of sprites by the whic [...] [...] brought to passe / that the Pope [...] the kinge of them that are dead an [...] [...]igneth in purgatorye / The pope raigneth in purgatorye. to the great disprofite of his prestes (if he continew) which have all their livinge / riches / ād pō pe [...] of purgatory / how be it they shuld have lesse / if they did so well reach the faith of them that live / as they do ridles of them that are dead. Nether was there sith the beginninge of the world any worke found of so litle labour and greate avantage / for truely to this purposse were gathered almost the possessions of all princes and rich men. And thorow these riches sprang vp all pleasures and idelnes / and of idelnes came very Babylon and Sodoma.The sacramēt of the altare. Sathan hated the sacrament of the aulter / and knew no waye how to suppresse / and disanull it. Therfore he found this crafte / that the sacrament (which Christ did only ordene to norissh and stablissh the faith of them that live) shuld be counted for a good worke and sacrifice / and bought and solde. And so faith is suppressed / and this holsome misterye is applied not to the quicke but vnto the deade / that is to say nother to the quicke / nother yet to the deade. O this incredible furye of god. Behold this was the purposse of those weked sprites which axed masses ād fained them selves to be redemed There are infinite [Page xlix] examples of this monstre / [...] th [...] which we that are the rude mul [...] [...] oute iudgemēt / with oute sprete / [...] [...] linge / as solissh bestes in to the snare. Nothinge considerīge these sotle lyes / all tough god have not vtterly forsaken vs / but in many places hath declared manifestly these illusions. How be it they serve to stablissh this kingdome of faces & rydles. And so suffereth he them to be of some strength.
And though some of a good zele do pray for the dead / yet that the Pope shuld raigne over them / and that the sacrament of the altare shuld be his laughinge stocke I vtterly defye it and abhorre it / and I wold to god I might ynough wepe at it. Nother are these signes / to thencrease of the faith and gospell (for they are rather against the faith ād gospell) But they are done to stablissh the tyrannye of these faces and rydles / and to set vp and confirme the trust in workes. How be it concerninge faith and the sacrament / we have spoken copiously in a nother place. Among these illusions / are those myracles to be reputed / which are shewed in visitations / pilgrimages / Myracles. and worshuppinges of sanctes / as there are plenty now adayes which the Pope confirmeth by his bulles / yee and somtime doth canonise the sanctes that the knoweth not. Now behold what is the operation of Sathan in lyes [Page] signes / and what this meaneth that the power and efficacite of these faces and rydles / are not stablisshed in their awne strength.
Be sides these lyeing signes that are wrought by Sathans awne administratiō There is also a nother power which favoreth and vpholdeth this curious kinge. And it may be devided in to two membres. The one is of the Clarkes / and the other of the laye people. The clarkes ministre vnto the Pope with their wittes and tonges to strē gthen his faces / ridles & lawes / for he blabbeth thē oute with oute any feare And ordereth his faces with hyghe presumptiō. Many tymes speaking thinges contrarye to hī silf to his greate dishoneste / yee and somtime (which is most weked) cōtrary to god / for nether he nor his adherentes do cast in their mindes what good and true thinges they shall speake. But onely to blabbe out what so ever cometh to their wittes ende / presuming [...]pon / and abvsing the folissh persuasion of men / which beleve that the Pope can not erre / and therfore somtime his decrees are lyke the dreames of dronke ād furious men / for he [...]reaketh clene with our fear and regard / and that with soch rechles confidence / and presumptuous pride / that this detestable and cursed abomination / doth sore vexe and burne meake hartes / [Page l] therfore they that are most learned / quickest of witte / and most religious being persuaded that this kinge of faces can not erre / do take the dregges / spitell / and abominable excrementes / of his rydles and lawes (and that with soch affection and honour that a man wold wounder at it) and though it be necessarye that a fole mvst speake folisshlye / yet do they committe them silf vnto a miserable payne and labour to glosse / order / make agre / defend / and to drawe this waye and that waye / what so ever he (with out any regarde or dronken) hathe belched out of his stomake. Therfore it was well said that he is not stablisshed with his awne power / for he beinge rude and vnlearned / can by no meanes defend his awne doctrine / with oute he had other wittes bound vn to him.
Therfore he taketh no tought. Nether nedeth he to be mightye thorow his awne power / let him but speake a thinge in his slepe / and by and by / we have an article of the faith confirmed thorow the hole chirch / by other mennes diligence. And there are soch abominable wordes / of his awne motion and science / and of the fulnes of his power and authorite / that we wretched christen are almost compelled to worshupe for Christes Gospell / & farte of this [Page] monstres bely.. So doth this power strēgthen and confirme the might and authorite of this coward / and sleuthfull idolle. Thow maist nether read nor heare any thīg of his doinge with iudgement but all with honour and obedience. And this persuasion with out doute is the worke of the devill / wich occupieth ād abvseth oure rude mindes that he might stablish thorowos (by his souteltye) the power of his idolle. For if they shuld be reade with iudgmēt / as somtime men have proved / they shuld not cōtinew one houre / sith in many places they are clene with out learninge / vngodly / & weked / which neuer can be able to sustayne the iudgemēt and lighte. This is the pointe that Sathan labored for in these most holye decrees / to bringe it to passe that no man shuld iudge on the Popes actes. And that it shuld only pertayne vn to him to enterprete the scripture / and declare the faith / lest that his wickednes & abomination shuld be revelated / if a nother begine to expound the faith and scripture.
Here of springeth the glorious titles / thankes / and Apostolike blissinge / on all them which defend the holye Apostolike sete / scakinge the good estate of the Pope / ād the privileges of the Chirch of Rome. And contrarye wisse he is so cruell against them that offend and resist / that his fersnes may be a manyfest argument / that he is led with [Page li] the sprete of Sathan / which feareth lest his councels shuld at any time be opened. A sprete hath nether flessh nether bones and therfore he cānot be fealt. And a lye hateth the light / fearing to be reproved. How beit / it is stablisshed in this kinge of faces / al though it be said of all other that the trueth is strongest of all thinges / and / that no fained thinge can longe cōtinew / for this monstre is the greatiste and last of all hydeous monstres.
The seculare power doth also serve to this might and authorite / The seculare arme and is called the secvlare arme. For the Pope exalted and set vpe above all princes / powers and imperyes Yf he can not appresse them that resist him with his faces / rydles / iudgmētes and curses (nether doth he contend / with reason / witte / or scriptures sith it is re most vnnaturall and rudest best geven all to the bely / and moch lesse with faith / pacience / prayer / which are the true Apostolike armure) thē will he commaund them to the seculare power. And somtime he sturreth kinges / princes / realmes / and nations to warre one against the other wropping the worlde in bloude and murther vntill he obtaine (not that the faith and gospell wold) but that his awne faces and clokes desier. And he prevaileth in these thīges so prosperously. Blissinge them that obey him with the Apostolike [Page] benedictiō / and cursinge them that rebelle with the apostolike malediction. I praye the how coulde this abomination prospere / excepte Sathans souttellye raigned in ye middes of it? Some have stablisshed kingdoms with witte and scripture. Some with ryches and strength / how be it this weake & wretched monstre / is mighty / nether with witte nor wepon / But only with faces with the which he so prevayleth that all mennes wittes / learninges / riches / and strength be subiect to his plesure with soch honour and obedience / that he may playe / mocke / and order them as he will. Nether yet doth he norysshe thē with his awne stipendes / nor feadeth them with the true doctrine / But onely kepeth them in bondage / by the false illusions of his faces / In so moch that they thike them silf to obey god / and the holy Chirche of God / Not perceavīge that they serve a wretched hogge / and the abomination of the hole erth.
Consider the affection and obedience of kinges and princes toward the Pope / Consider the mindes and dispositions of Bisshops / Colleges / and of the infinite blake cloude of them / that lyve in monasteryes / how that the princes are ready in armure / And the Bishopes with their companye [Page lij] bestow theyr labours and wittes for the Pope / Not for the faith and worde of God (for that is nothing spoken of) but onely to defende these faces / rydles / and lawes / lokinge for no nother reward / But that they thinke that they serve god / and please him in so doinge. Thē shalt thow perceave what it meaneth that the power of this wretched monstre / must be strengthed / by anothers power and not by his awne. And truely this abomination was not so mete for any time as for the ende of the world / for what is more abominable and mōstruous / then that soch a kingdome shuld be of most might / whose prince is most wretched / sleuthefull / and vnprofitable?
But this kinge is more vicious then Sardanopalus / more delicate then the Sybarites / Only borne to ryeate and idelnes Not mighty in warre policye / armure nor learninge. Nether in the gospell / fayth / prayer / nor maners (but rather abominable in theyr contraryes). And yet thorow one face and rydle rueleth imperyes / kingdoms / and all powers / havinge in his iurisdiction oure goodes / bodyes / and soules to vse and abvse / them to his wretched pleasure / Geving nothing againe / but thā kes / & the benedictiō of the apostolike feate / that is to say the smoke and vanite of all [Page] vanites and trifelles.
Forthermore (that any man wold mervell at) Other princes which raigne with warre and strength are beloved faithfully of theyr subiectes. Likwisse masters / and teachers which are excellēt in witte & learninge / are honoured of theyr disciples / but to this wretched ād most rude mōstre every man wissheth a mischeffe. There is no man but he abhorreth this his great powre There is no man / but he curseth his superfluite of ryches countinge them set in a weked place. And yet they are deceaved by the illusions of these faces and rydles / and are feared with signes and monstruous lyes / & so abstayne. There is no man / but he seith that the Pope and his adherentes refusinge the faith / gospell / pacyence / and other armure spitituall / lyve vnder superstitious faces / and deceatfull rydles / and that after ye most wordly maner and yet they perceavinge this / and fealinge evidently that Christ is farther from them / thē the west from ye est / dare not affirme and say that they thinke. For the religious persones and the other faces of the Pope / do obiect like bold champyons / that we ought to obey the imperye all though the prince be evill / as though we speake onely of the Popes person and not moch rather of the iniquite of the popedome and office it silf. It is a nother kind of [Page liij] impery that the Pope doth exercise / & farre vnlike the powers of this world which whether they be good or evill hurte nothinge if they be suffered / how be it the popedome is soch a powe [...] that it suppresseth the faith and gospell. Settinge vp in theyr stede faces and rydles / the faces in stede of faith / and rydles for the gospell. Therfore he is an adversarye to Christ / which is mightye in the sprete of faith / against clokes and faces. And in the word of trueth against deceatfull rydles. Therfore the malice and iniquite of the power and office is reproved and not of the prince / for the power is soch that it cā not be administred by a good prince / but by the adversarye of Christe which yaninge and routinge most observe his faces and ridles / against the faith and word of god.
And therfore it is called abomination that with out strēgth and with out learninge. Onely by the idell pompe and pride of faces / he oppresseth all mennes wittes. So that he may / and doth all thinges / which could not be brought to passe nether with the strēgth of any kingdome / nether yet with the diligence of any witte / yee soch thinges as Christ him silf never did / with his worde among men. Were it not a foull abomination / if that a sowe shuld rule the good man of the house / and all that are in the house. [Page] Doing nothinge els / but lye on the dunghill and deceave mennes sight by some illusion / Apperinge as he wer a noble man and did speake certeine thinges as men do / as we have read that idolles of wodde and stone / have done amonge the gentils? Even so the Pope vnder the pretence of the name of god (whose name every mannes cōscience doth feare / love / and honour) doth easely drawe men from the faith in to superstitious and most pestilent abominations / yee the greatest kinges / and best learned men. And yet he him self (even like a sowe) walowinge vp and downe in the filthy durte of his shamfull and wretched lyfe / is nether learned / nether mighty in armure / no not worth on hawe.
ij. Petri. ij.And in this matter let vs heare thapostle Peter speakinge most sharplye in the .ij. of the second epistle / where he painteth the popedom ād setteth it out with his colours to the vttermost pointe / for after that he had prophesyed that false masters shuld come which in covetuousnes with fained wordes shuld make marchaundise of the people of Christ / which shuld bringe in sectes of perdition. And drawe many after them / Evē deniyng Christ that hath bought thē / thē doth he feare them with .iij. notable examples. Of the Angelles. Of the floude that was in the time of Noe. And of the Zodomites. And [Page liiij] he saieth that all these were / punisshed of god / for thexample of the weked which shuld come / thē he prosequutinge his matter (as concerning these weked mastres) doth saye Namlye thē that walle after the flessh in the lust of vnclennes / and despise the ruelars / Presumptuous are they & stubborne / and fear not to speake evill of them that are in authorite / Peter speaketh not of them that do not obey Bisshoppes / but (as he began) of the weked mastres them silf / that is to say of Bisshopes / Cardinalles / & the Pope / for these are they that this epistle speaketh of. First who seyth not that the Popes secte above all other walketh after the flessh in the lust of vnclennes? For sith they are forbidden matrimonye / and abounde in riches and idelnes / what shuld they do but walke after the flesshe? They labour not / as other men do / therfore their iniquite springeth with their fatte / Nether canst thow assigne me any masters and ruelars of the people / which do thus / but onely the papistes. The clarkes are dayly encreased / and matrimonye forbidde (and both thorow the rule and authorite of the Pope) and every man may perceave what profite comethe vnto the chirch by it / for alas where as by matrimonye manye women might be good and please god livinge chastlye / they [Page] are now compelled to be harlottes / ād that for .ij. causes the one is ye misshevous entyesinge thorow giftes and fayre wordes that these venemous locustes vse. The other is yt their is soch scarsnes of clene men out of his orders that they are not sufficient to the hole nature of women. So that if this shuld long continew it wold be the destruction of the hole world.
Besides that / they despise rulars / who doth so but the Popedome / and the secte of papistes? What calleth he the ruelars and powers / but princes and worldly officers? For the Bisshopes and successours of thapostles have not rueles and powers / but services and administration. And are called the servantes of ye Chirch of Christe as Paule sayeth in the first to the Collosyās.Colo. [...]. Is not this the dispisinge of powers and rueles / to exempte hī silf by his awne authorite frō tribuetes / subiection / and all bourdens of ye comen welth? Paule commaundeth in the xiij. to the Romaynes to geve tribute / custome and honour to them / [...] Petri. ii. that it is dewe to. And Peter will that we be subiect vn to kī ges / and to all maner ordinaunces of man / how be it the Pope cōtrarye wisse doth exempte his awne person and possessions / yee and all his adherentes promulgatinge serse and cruell lawes / condemninge them (no [...] to one hell) that will heare the voice of Paule [Page lv] or Peter / and to bringe his shawelinges in to an order / requiringe and exactinge tribuete / honoure and their duetye. And now is he so far from honouringe of these powers / that he will tell skorne to admitte them to kisse his holye feate. forthermor he exalteth every prest and monke though they be as rude as stockes / and more weked thē any baude / above all the nobles and princes of the worlde / by cause he is marked with his worshupfull signe and character. Crakinge in his most weked rydles and lawes / of maiorite and obedience. That the Pope excelleth the emperour as the sonne doth the mone. Insomoch that of those most wretched dregges of men / which are avaunced by the Popes mageste / the powers are despised / yee and compelled to honour those idolles of whom they ought to be honoured them silf. And I praye you in what ruele and power raigne not these clowdes of abominable men?
It is a mervelous thinge how aptly Peter calleth them / ii. Petri. ii. presumptuous and stubborne for after they have obtained this yt they them silf only are called spirituall / and all the other seculare and temporall (as even now they abvse the wordes at their awne pleasure) there is nothinge but they dare behold to take it apō them vnder the name of this spirituall secte / forthermore if they have [Page] presumed to take any thinge on hand / how invincible / stiffe / ād harde harted they are / vntill they have prevailed so fare that they may with full authorite and with oute regarde blaspheme the gloryes and powers Doth not the pope being but a smalle worme of the erth (how be it enflamed with ye sprete of Sathan) Curse / excommunicate / & rebuke with all kindes of checkes the hyghest kinges and ruelars when he liste? All though he was ordened onely to blesse thē. Nether yet doth he that by cause the kinges resist the Gospell ād the faith. But because they can not suffer and mayntayne the superfluous riches of these shavelinges and holy chirch of Rome with their most weked maners and intollerable tyrānye / or els that they resist the Popes vngodlines and iniquite. And this meaneth ye Apostle whē he sayeth / they fear not to speake evill of thē that are in authorite.ii. Petri. ii. Nether is the Popedom counted in the name of power and mageste. Nether yet (if it were so counted) hath it suffered any soch thinge. Sith that no power hether to hath prevailed against him. But contrary he hath so prospered against the powers / that he may sporte and playe him not onely in the matters of inferior people / but also in the powers and magestes as is will lyeth / transposinge them. Puttinge in and out / ad Chaungeinge them as [Page lvj] often as he thinketh best. Do not the storyes of the kingdomes / of Fraunce / Grece / germanye / Neapoles / Sicilye and soch other imperyes thus resufye? Did not l [...] ye tenth (which of him silf was a good man) beinge deceaved by the councels and examples of his adherentes Assaute with this tyrannye the dukedōs of Italye / which was expulsed from vrbine / and often beseaged Ferraria? And the Cardinalles ād Busshopes do counterfete him full nobelye / for the Cardinalles are made superiores to kinges / & Bisshopes to prīces. O this most wretched kind of men / which is scante worthy to feade hogges / thus they honour ye powers / thus they blesse ye magestes / thus seake they other mē nes profittes displeasing them silves / thus put they away presumptuous boldnes / and walke in the fear of God / woo be to them.
Of these Iudas (folowing Peter) doth saye likewise these dremers (that is to say deluded by dremers) defile the flessh / Iude. i. despise ruelars & speake evill of thē yt are in authorite. And a litle before. There are certaine craftelye crepte in of which it was writē afore time vn to soch iudgemēt. They are vngodlye / & turne the grace of oure lord God vn to wantannes / and denie god the onely lord ād oure lord Iesus Christ. Accordinge [Page] to that which Peter sayeth. They shall craftely bring in their awne traditions / & sectes of perdition vnder the cloke of the gospell of Christh with the which the true faith of the gospell of Christe shalbe suppressed. And Christ (though they retaine his name) shall in verye dede be denied to be ye onely lord and kinge in righteousnes and trueth. And vnder his name shall they serve their belye pleasures / and wanton desyres / finally / ye pistle of Iude which somtime seamed to me vnprofitable. Now do I knowlege yt it was extracte out of the pistell of Peter / and onely writen to declare the Pope. And both of them shew / that they shall prevelye crepe in / that is to say. Bringe in their awne traditōis vnder the gospell / as Peter sayeth. They shall craftely bringe in sectes / openinge plainlye their sotle and deceatfull illusions / by the which (reservinge the name of the Gospell of Christ) they preach and stablissh their awne doctrines.
ij. Petri. ii.But let vs go furth with Peter sainge / when the angelles which are greater both in power and might / receave not of the lorde raylinge iudgement against them / but these as bruete bestes (for the papistes now adayes no doute beleve not that the soule is immortall and specially at Rome) naturally made to be taken and destroyed (O what a similitude is this) speake evill of that they [Page lvij] know not / that is to saye / condemning the doctrine of Christ / for their awne inventiōs likewise saith iudas. They blaspheme those thinges which they knowe not to their awne destruction. And also as Iudas sayeth.Iude. i [...] In tho thinges that they know naturallye (as bestes which are with out reason) they corrupte them selves. So shall they perissh receaving the reward of their vnrighteousnes (which they call hygh iustice / as obeyinge of the chirch. And observinge of religions) Reputinge it a great pleasure to vse for a day this delicious & deintye world (that is to say / they are bestes servinge the belye which count this thinge for the cheffe and best / yf they have aboundance in this shorte liffe / for there is in a maner nother Bisshope / prest / nor religious mā made / but to thentent that he may lyve well in idelnes and devoure (not labouring them silf) that which the poore get and yerne with moch swett ād labour.ii. Petri. ji [...] They are filthye spottes (for these men are nothinge but sclaunderous & weked spottes amonge the people of God / sith they are clene vnprofitable / fedde vp & fatted with delicious plesurs / and vices in the chirch / and so serve them silf and their belyes.ii. Petri. i [...] And of [...]oue they make a laughinge stocke / feastinge to gedder in their deceavable wayes. This place semeth some deall to be corrupte. for Iudas recieteth the same on [Page] this maner.Iude. i [...] These are spottes which of youre kindnes feast to gedder with out feare fedinge thē selves / for he describeth ye delicate liffe of bisshopes / prestes / & religious persons which spēd & poure out with all prodigalite ye substāce / yt hath be gevē & is encreassed daylye thorow the godlye devotion & charite of ye faithfull. Nether fearinge the sight of god nor man. Nether yet any thinge moved by gevinge evill occasion to the weake / nor fore the hate of good mē. They take curious hede to thē silf. And fede thē silf daintelye. And are nothinge els / but spottes filthines / sclaunder / & a burdē to the chirch where as they shuld be the highest and most beutefull garnisshīge / lightes & pillars. So not we se all these thinges verefied? Therfore the faing of Peter (Of you they make a mockinge stocke feastinge to gedder in their deceaveble wayes) must be vnderstond / that they feast with youre riches / ii. Petri. ij. or as Iudas sheweth / Iude. i with youre kindnes & charite / for they abose both you & youre goodes to their awne pōpe & wātānes / with out any feare. And as I thīke it is the faute of the prenter which did put it so / for ignorāce / because ye wordes & letters in the greke are so like.
ii. Petri. ii.It foloweth / havinge eyes full of advoutrie. Good lord / with what sharpe ād vehemēt wordes doth thapostle inveye against thē. He doth attribute vn to thē the eyes of [Page lviij] & comē womā / ye is to saye insatiable. And we se yt theire lust cā never be sa [...]at & fulfilled) And yt cā not cease to sinne (yt is to saye) whō no mā cā dissuade frō īiquites / for they will vexe & persequ [...]te thē with most weked & vnequall iudgemētes / which will cōplaine of the defilinge of their awne wises or doughters / for they ab [...]se by violence whom they lifte. Evē as we reade of the Gigantes in the .v. of Genesis before ye floude.Genesis. v. Nether is it lawfull to resist thē / nor to call them in to the courte / nether yet to speake against them / for they are spirituall and exempt) Begilinge vnstable soules (ij. Petri. ijfor thorow their pestilent example thye drawe many that are weake from the faith)ij. Petri. ij. Hertes they hare excersised with covetuousnes (Canst thou have any thinge more aperly spoken against the courte of Rome ād the clergye? Who is able to numbre the craftes that thorow their covetuousnes they have invented?ij. Petri. ij. They are now well excersised / and have a proper custom to despoile / deceave / and pluck awaye) They are cursed children / and have forsaken the right waye ād are gone astraye / folowī ge the waye of Balam the sonne of Bosor. (I am in doute whether this place be also corrupte / or els whether purposly Peter did call him the sonne of Bosor / whō Moses in the .xxij. of Numeri called ye sonne of be or except ye Balams father had .ij.Nume. xxij. names both [Page] Bosor and Beor / both of them encreasse thabominatiō of this misshevous example / for Bosor doth signifie the flessh. And Beor a fole. And where as Peter saith / that ye mad folisshnes of the prophete was rebuked of the Asse / he toucheth this word Beor but in that he loved the reward and luker / he noted bosor. And balaam (or as the trueth of the hebrewe hath Bileam) doth signifie the people of no reputation / or the payne people / or they that are not counted for people All these sainges are sharpe and ferse against the covetousnes / wantannes / and vngodlines of Bisshopes and prestes / which are made folissh and carnall / and are wexed grosse / forsakinge to be the people of god. Nother only for this cause doth he liken them to Balam / but also that they are cursed chldrē as he was / which geving councell to the Moabites / thorow the ydoll Beelphegor did greatly corrupt and destroy the Israelites.Nume. xxiiij Nume. xxv. And this hole storye here doth Peter applye vnto the bishoppes / which reysinge vp the idole of their awne doctrines & traditions. And havinge to do with the harelottes of ye Madianites (that is to saye with the delicious and voluptuous plesurs of this world) begile vnstable soules / and besides ye do speake evill (as it is sayed before) of ye waye of trueth and glorye. Evē as he went aboute / to curse the people of god.
[Page lix]Which loved the reward of vnrightewesnes.ij. Petri. ij. But was rebuked of his iniquite / the tame & dome beast speakinge with mā nes voice forbade the folishnes of the prophete (behold the covetousnes ād folishnes of bisshoppes which are geven so hedling to covetuousnes / that they are more insensible then brute bestes) These are welles with out water (by cause they have the shape and name of sheperdes with out the worke and office / as Zacharias in the .xi. sayeth. O thow sheperd and idole) And rackes caried aboute of a tēpest (Rackes are like cloudes / but they geve no raine. Even so these are caried vnder the title / and in the place of shepardes / and they teach nothinge / but rather are tossed thorow their wordly affections vnto every motion of sathās will) To whom the mist of darkenes is reserved for ever / good lord / how fearfull are these thinges? Who wold not feare to be counted among the numbre of these shave linges / against whom all these thinges are prophesied with a hole and full sprite?ii. Petri. ij.
For when they have sownded the swellinge wordes of vanite / they begile with wā tannes thorow the lustes of the flessh them yt were clene escaped. It is mervell if this place do not chefly pertaine to vniversites and studyes of the canon lawe / for we se with what pride Antichrist soūdeth in everye [Page] place of his decrees / where he sayeth / we Commaund / bedding and Commaunding yow straytlye / and soch other proude wordes he hath / with ye which he doth occupye all scholes. So ye Peter doth well call the not speakers / but sounders / for they are nothing but very voyces / & the teachers of most vaine vanite / And yet with these infections they have entised & seduced ye more noble parte of ye faithfull / which studcige this vaine & trifelinge doctrine / applye & folow their awne pleasure & desires. For who is in these uniuersites which studieth not for thērēt of luker & glorye / or yt afterward he maye live ye more idellye? yet will I not speake of yt / how manye soules do perishe by ye lascivious life / & licēs of these vniuersites. Breflye to cōclude. The canō lawe causeth ye people of Colleges & scholes to be geven onely to vanite / ryot / wātānes / idelnes / pō pe & pride. And yet with an incredible noise ye presumptuous pope with his Apostles doth bost & cōmēd in his decrees / their state / riches / & hypocrisye. So that Peter maye truely call ye cloke ād out ward face of godlines / religiō / & cōninge (wherewith this people is so greatlye bolne) ye swellinge wordes of vanite / for they are in very dede drenched & destroyde in voluptuous pleasurs. This sē ce doth Iudas helpe sainge / whose mouthes speake proude thinges wōderinge at faces / Iude. j. [Page lx] & having thē in reverēce be cause of avātage / here calleth he faces / the persones / clokes & pōpes which we spake of before / for this kinge of faces / displayeth his noble titles / privileges / libertes and soch other.ij. Petri. ij.
And he doth verye well adioyne / Them that were clene escaped / but now are wropped in errours. As I thinke thus it meaneth That what thinge so ever was clene delivered from synne thorow baptime and ye word of god / after it had growen and encreased a certaine ceason was drowned and suppressed vnder their lawes and doctrines. So that they are compelled to be wropped in errours (all though thorow Christ they have escaped clene) which is done while they runne hedelinge from faith in to ceremonyes / from the sprete in to persones / from grace in to workes / from the trueth in to cloked hypocrisye / and the hole pompe of faces / thorow the most weked decrees of their presumptuous vanite. They promise them libertie and are themselves the bond servantes of corruption. This doth both pertaine to pardons / and to all the deceatfull illusion by the which they commend their cloked faces and say they are good / Affirminge that who so ever walke in them / shuld be cownted to walke holelye and godly. For so are the orders of prestes / monkes / and of the hole clargye avaunced / that they [Page] only are counted to be in the state of helth / and all other are reputed wordly and seculare / forthermore / they fell their labours / merites / and masses / And promise forgevnes of synnes. How be it they are the bōd servantes of corruption / that is to saye they teach nothinge but vaine ād corruptible thinges (ād that he thoucheth in the .ij. to the Collosyans sainge)Col. ij. which all perish with ye vsinge of them / and are after the commaundmentes and doctrines of men. And yet be cause they teach men to put confidence in them / thorow that are they the authores of eternall corruption and damnation.
How be it the tenor and concordance of the scripture doth so lye / that it compelleth vs to take and vnderstond the bonde scroantes of corruption / for them that are the subtectes of synne. So that the sense is / syth they them selves with their weked hypocrisye and manifest vices do perishe then presume they to profite other and bringe them to helth cmmunicatinge vnto them their brotherheddes and pardons. And it folowith. For of whom so ever a man is overcō / vn to the same is he in bondage.ij. Petrij. ij So we not here dayly / that ye Pope (though he be a mischevous and weked man) doth presume to dispēce the merites of Christ & of his saincres & open hevē with his fayes to whō he wille? And the hole multitude of this clergye [Page lxi] folowe him. So a weked mand chalengeth ye treasure / of the chirch into his awne hand / And he him self being the bond servant of corruptiō goth abuote to delivere other.ij. Petri. ij. Therfore Peter doth conclude that the chirch of Rome with his Pope is returned to worse gentilite / then it was before / sainge / for if they (after they have escaped by fayth from the filthines of the world thorow the knowledge / Math. xij. of the lord and of the saviour Iesus Christ / are yet tangeled agayne therin / and overcome / then is the latter end worsse with thē / thē the beginninge / for it had bene better for them not to have knowen the waye of rightewesnes (that is to say of faith) then after they have knowne it / to returne from the holy commaundemēt geven vn to them (which is of faith in Christ) It is happened vnto them according to the true proverbe.Prover. xxvi The dogge is turned to his vomet agayne. And the sowe after she is wasshed is / returned to her wallowinge in the myre. Evē so do wese that in the Popes kingdome faith is extincte. And that we now are worse gentilles / then ever we were. And for this we may thanke the abominable rydles and lawes of this kinge of faces / which Peter & Iudas (as we se) have described and painted effectuouslye / with his saces and exterior powers. Now foloweth the frute and finall worke / of them.
¶This word / mervelous / in the hebrewe is called niphlaoth and in other places is trāslated / great / misticall / and secrete / as in the xj. of Daniel / Danie. xi. He shall speake greate wordes against the god of goddes / And this word / Gene. vj. corrupte / signifyeth here as it doth in the .vj. of Genesis where it is writē that ye erth was corrupte / ād that all flessh had corrupte / their waye / and that god wold corrupte / or destroy them with the erthe. So that paravēture we might saye better in this place /
And Daniel is indifferent to be taken .ij. wayes. Other to vnderstond those great ād mervelous thinges / which this kinge shall invade to corrupte them. Or els his workes that he doth / exercyse in corruptinge other thinges / signifiinge that his actes be mervelous and incredible / And this latter sense doth oure interpreter folowe / whom also we will folow / all though the first sense be even as true / for / no doute / they are greate and mervelous thinges which he doth corrupte / but they are onlye knowne and attayned by faith. Therfore the sense shalbe / He shall corrupte mervelouslye / ād shall be as a great [Page lxij] and incredible corruptor / he doth not describe what evill good thinges / shall suffer of him / But what great abominatiō he shuld worke against good thinges / shewinge his fortune and prosperite.
Therfore he speaketh not of violent corruption and destruction / as tyrantes spoile and destroye kingdoms and contres thorow warres ād violēce of armure / for soch a kinge as he is / soch a destroyer is he also / that is to say he shall do all thinges with faces and rydles / which shall not be strēghthed by armure / witte / nor learninge / but thorow a strange and outward power as the next verse doth specifye / which sayeth. And he shall prosper / and shall do / ād shall corrupte stronge men / and the people that are holye / and deceate shall prosper in his hād. It foloweth therfore that he destroyeth not Cytes and provinces / but rather those thinges which are wont to be suppressed of these faces / rydles / and deceates / and which are clene contrarye to them that is to say the trueth and word of trueth the sprete and playne symplenes / which is the faith in Christ / and kingdom of good consciences / and that Christ calleth the kingdom of God / the kingdom of heven and the kingdome of trueth. For so before pilate he confesseth and knowlegeth that [Page] his kingdom is the kingdom of trueth for he sayeth every man which is of the trueth heareth my voice.Ioan xviij. Wherfor this kīge which is the destroyer of the kingdome of heven / and corruptour of the simplicite which is in Christ Iesu (as it is said to the Corinthiās) is no nother but very Antichriste teaching in sted of the faith / workes / for the trueth / a cloked vysare / for secreat mysteryes / outward faces / for the gospell / lawes and rydles / for pure clennes sotle craftes / and for the word of god / their awne traditions and decrees / so destroing the consciences / and corruptinge the sprtte.
Let vs now iudge whether the pope fulfill this parte. First this is evidēt that thorow Christ all synnes wer so damned and taken awaye / i. Timo. j. that also the occasiō of synne (which is the lawe) did not remayne / but was supp [...]essed / for thorow the faith he made all thinges / fre. So that a christen shuld worke nothinge by the cōpulsion of the lawe / but all thorow the sprete of libertye / as Paule sayeth in the .j. of the first epistle to Timothe. The lawe is not geven to a righteous man / for what so ever is done by compulsion of the lawe is synne / for it is not done with a glad and willinge sprete / but with a contrarye will and rebellinge against the lawe / ād this truelye is synne.ij. Co. in. iij. Therfor in the .iiij. of the second epistle to the Corinthiās he calleth [Page lxiij] the preachers of the new testament the ministers of the sprete and not of the letter because they teach grace and not the lawe. Wherfore in the hole new testamēt are there no vrgent & grevous preceptes. But only exhortatiōs to observe those thinges which were verye necessarye to oure helth. Nether did Christ and his apostles at any time cō pell any man. And the holy goste was for that cawse called paracletus / that is to say an exhorter and cōforter. And here is theffecte of the hole matter / yt they are the people of Christ / which willingly do heare and folowe him / not for any feare of the lawe / but only entysed and led with a gracyous libertye ād faithfull love / Not doing any thinge be cause it is commaunded / but because it is pleasant and acceptable vnto them / though it were not commaunded / for they ye wold do otherwisse shuld be counted the people of the lawe / and synagoge / wherin the transgressers were killed. Wherfor in the .xix of Mathew / he speketh cōditionally / Math. [...]ix. if thow wilt entre kepe the commaundmentes. And in the .v. of Mathew he sayth not / Dat. v. I will that you be poore but he exhorteth them gē tyll ye sayinge / blessed are the poore in sprete / and so forth. And to be shorte in the new testament are all thinges declared which we ought to do and leve vndone / what reward is ordened for them that do and leve vndone. [Page] And of whom to seake / find and obtaine / helpe and conforte to do and leve vndone. But no mā is compelled (Every mā is suffered other to perissh or to be saved) but accordinhe to their awne will. Therfore in the .xviij.Math. xviij. of Mathew he theacheth that a rebellion shuld not be kilde / but avoided and put out of cumpanye / like a gentill.
So he hath not delivered vs from the lawe / but from the power and violence of the lawe / which is the very true losinge / gevinge all men libertye at their awne perill to do other good or evill. But for all that he hath not taken a waye from the powers and officers their righte / swerd / and authorite to punisshe the evill / for soch pertaine not to his kingdome vntyll they are made spirituall / and then frely and with a glade harte serve god. And sith these thinges are so in the preceptes of god (moch more they are of value in the ceremonies / which are clene vanisshed away) so that we can not offend against them / let vs thanke our father which hath plucked this yoke from our neckes. And desyre faith of him / which faith onlye is most sufficient vn to our iustification / but sith this kinge of faces the Pope doth nothing but commaund and compell in all his decrees / and that in the sted & name of God / it is evident ynough how that he is the adversarye of Christe / and the corruptor [Page lxiiij] of the new testament / yee and the Enimye of the Christen lybertye. Compellinge mē against their willes to do ye workes which he commaundeth them / thorow the which tyrannye he is the author of so many synnes be cause the workes are done of no glad minde / for while they thinke that they are boūd to his commaundemētes / they have a blotte in their scrupelous consciences if they omitte any thinge / and yet be cause they do it with an evyll will truely they offend in their hartes / where as they shuld not have offended / thorow their resistinge and hatī ge will of the lawe / if he had commaunded nothinge / but only exhorted and desyred. And contrary wisse to them that obey him / he is the author of false fayned rightuousnes / for while they beleve that they have done well / and repute their obedience for iustice / they are brought to this blindnes that they thinke they are good / not thorow the faith of Christ / but by these lawes and workes. And thus truely doth he corrupte the faithe ād trueth / both multiplye and encreasse evyll consciences / and make fayned good cōscieēes. And sith he doth so thorow all the world / it is evident what a corrupter and dispoylare he is / for even so many he corrupteth / as he hath subdewed and ledde vnder his lawes and imperye. And who is be in the world that is not subiect vnder [Page] him. Excepte they be infantes or paraventure some simple persons / which are reserved by the inscrutable councell and provision of god? O thow mā of synne. O thou sonne of perdition. O thow abomination. O thow corrupter. O thow author of evill consciences. O thow false master of good consciences. O thow ennimye of faith ād christen libertye / who is able for to reherse / yee or containe in his minde the infinite waves of this monstruous kinges evilles?
How be it the end of these mischevous evils are not yet come. Yf he had ordened these his lawes / in those workes of vertues that are commaunded in the .x. preceptes / or els in soch as the philosophers and naturall reason did describe / as are iustice / strength temperāce / Chastite / mildnes / trueth / goodnes / and soch other. Paraventure they shuld only have made a Sinagoge / or els have ordened in the world a certaine civile iustice / for thorow these also faith shuld have bene corrupted / as it was amōg the Iewes / how be it now he kepeth not him silf with in these bondes / but rvnneth ry [...]ot more at large raysinge infinite tempestes of mischeffe (yet are we compelled to saye he dothe no hurte) for he entyseth and driveth vs to cerimonyes ād his awne fayned traditions / as to places persons / clothinge / meattes and dayes / ād bindeth vs (like asses / and ignorant foles / [Page lxv] [...]ee and stockes) vn to them with an indissoluble bond enduringe our hole lives / so that it maketh me sorye and asham [...] of this pernitious abomination / and maketh me vtterly abhorre it vn to death / for Christ (as I have saide) takinge awaye all lawes to make vs fre ād at libertye / did most of all suppresse ād disanulle the ceremonyes which did consist in places / persones / garmē tes / meattes dayes and soch other / so that their vse shuld be to all men most fre and indifferent / nether addressinge the conscience to synne / nor yet to iustice which is obtayned thorow only faith in Christ. How be it the Pope not content / at the lest with those places / meates / clothinges / and dayes / which were prescribed in the lawe of moses. Doth werye corrupte / and destroy / the christē cō gregation with new observations / other invented by his awne pregnant witte / or [...]ls by the sotle imagination of his adherentes / which also he doth encreasse daylye and cō maunde after his awne lust / & that yow may perceave this the more evidently / we will vse certaine examples after the maner of an induction to rote and stablissh it in yow.
Christ takinge away the difference of all places will be worshupped in every place. Nether is ther in his kingdō one place holye / & an other prophane & with out holines But in everye place all thinges are indifferent. [Page] Nether canst thou more hartely & better / beleve trust / and love god in the temple qwire / altare / and chirch yerd / then in thy barne / vineard / kichen / and bed. And to be shorte the martyrs of Christ have honoured him in darke dongeons and presons. And sancte agnes. In the s [...]ues for gat not her redemer. But the Pope doth consecrat Churches gevinge greate pardon and privileges vn to the halowinge. Makinge straite lawes to condemne their consciences / ye other in sporte or els in ernest do violate the house that they have halowed / which shuld nothing offend if they had hurte their awne houses or any other mannes. Be sides that if thou obey the Popes commaundmentes / thow arte made a religious man / and an obedient and faithfull sonne of the chirche / thow hast found a conscience of a good ād rightuous weake Now compare Christ and the Pope to gedder. Christ sayeth. There is no synne cōmitted thorow the vsinge of any place except it be to the hurte of thy neghbour. The Pope sayeth. It is sinne if thow do any bodelye worke in the chirch. Or els if thow counte it not to be more holy then a comen house. Doth not the Pope here make synne in vsinge of those places / in ye which christ maketh none but dimitteth vs fre? Doth not ye Pope make a scrupelous cōscience / wher as Christ setteth vs at libertie? Doth not ye pope ordē thorow his doctrine / [Page lxvj] bōdage / feare / captivite / snares & ioperdeys where as christ settethe sure cōfidēce & fredō. Is not thē the Pope Antichrist / ye author of sinne and consciences / by his tryfelinge / folissh / vnprofitable / ād weked lawes? what nedeth any christē these lawes & observāces vnto iustice? O this deceauinge & childissh illusiō which is worthy to be laughed [...] & yet is it of soch strength & might that it causeth great sinne and perdition.
Christ teacheth ye iustice or his worshupe cōsisteth not in these places.Actuum. vii. Ioannis. iiij. But ye pope saieth ye it is iustice & worshupe of god to bild chirches / to halow thē / to preferre thē above comē houses for ye holines which is geven vnto thē. O what a worthy religion is this for this idolle? how mete & cōveniently did Christ provide / yt the cōsecratiō of chirches & belles shuld ōly pertaine to bisshopes? truely it is even a mervelous mete office for a bisshoppe.
For soch as the bisshopes are soch shuld also their workes be. And they are nothinge but idolles / and visars (while that they set aparte their office of preachinge) and are only Bisshoppes in titles & apparell. Therfore it was not conveniēt that they shuld sancrifie the faithfull soules (that is to saye the verye chirch of God) with their worde and prayer / but rather to anoynt and sprintell with holy water belles / wodde / and [Page] stones / in which myse / spiders / and birdes might dwell / & not Christ. So a stocke doth consecrate stockes / a stone stones / a blocke blockes / a painted visare / visars / and an ydolle idolles / and in all poyntes he him silf is like that he haloweth. And yet in reachinge / kepinge / ād garnisshinge these thī ges / good lord / what lawes and glosses are there / invēted / what scrupulosite of cōsciēce what cases reserved / what penance & satisfactions are there imagined for the trāsgression of thē. And our most reverēd father doth very hardly forgeve these fayned synnes. I tell you not with out monye / he will soner a great deall remitte advoutrye and the most mischivous offences that cā be against god / yee and rather then fayle mayntē you in thē. forthermore with what great pardons doth he reward these iustices. And it is verye well ordered / for soch sinners are worthye soch remissions. And soch rightuousmen ought to be crowned with soch rewardes so yt the indulgences and absolutions must be as true / as are the synnes and iustices. O this abominable abomination.
Likewisse. Christ did put no difference in mea [...]tes and dayes as the apostle teacheth in many places.Galath. iiij. Nether wold he that in the vse of any meate or any daye there shuld be synne / for in the gospell the vse of meate is not reproved / but only the concupiscence of [Page lxvij] meate. But this most holy adversarye of Christ / nothinge regardinge the concupiscence doth forbed thorow the authorite of god and vnder his name / the vse of flesshe / Milke / egges / butyre and soch other / thorow all the lente / and other certaine dayes which he hath prescribed to be fasted / makinge and ordeninge his folisshe faste not in refrayninge the concupiscence / but in forbeddinge the vse / i. Timo. iijj. as Paule in the .iiij. of ye first epistle to Timothe did prophesy vpon him sayenge. Forbigginge to mary / and cō maundinge to abstaine from meattes / which God hath created to be receaved with gevinge thankes. wherfore here also are sinnes made thorow the weked will of this mā of synne / where as of their nature they were fre and with out synne. And he bindeth to these thinges / mennes consciences / and vexeth them with folisshe lawes. In so moch ye the rude people now a dayes do abhorre nothinge so vehemently as the transgression of these fastinge dayes. And put their confidence so moch in no thinge as in this fast of the Pope / for they count it a thowsand times lesse faute / to kille to do adoutrye ād to stele / then for to have eaten egges / but [...] re / milke or flesshe in the lent ceason. Nether is this master of the chirches / the fontayne of lawes and rightuousnes / the shepard of the hole congregation / ād hed of the catholike [Page] chirch / moved any whitte to mercye ād cōpassiō / by cause the faith is thus suppressed / & weke cōsciēces thus wickidly brought in to errours / but rather reioyseth in this destruction of soules / and corruptinge of faith / yee and calleth vpon them ād constr [...]yneth thēto it Nether will he ever forgeve the transgression of one of his lawes vntill he be well moyned.
Sith thē the pope doth make synne / where Christ taketh it away / and ordeneth iustice where Christ sayeth is none. And doth bind and snare cōsciēces where Christ doth set thē fre. And doth all thinges clene cō trarye / puttinge synne in the stedde of grace and the lawe in sted of the faith / dost thou yet doute whether he be the very antichrist and abomination standinge where it ought not stond? Are not these contarye / Christ sayeth here is no sinne / the pope sayeth yes here is sinne. Christ sayeth here is no iustice / b [...]th the pope sayeth yes here is iustice. Yf he wold suffer them indifferent or els only wold exhorte men vn to them / he shuld not be antichrist / but now be cause [...]e commaundeth it in in the name of Christ (though he lye) and doth exacte it vnder the payne of dedly synne / he doth vtterly corrupte ye chirch / suppresse ye faith / avaunce synne & destroy the consciences of the christen.
Of this kind are all the worshuppinges [Page lxvi] of vesturs / vessels / & relikes / where of springe a fayer sorte of sinnes. Yf a nunne / [...]ouch the superaltare or the corpores / as they call it) there is a synne committed / to touch the chalice it is a great transgression / to saye masse with an vnhalowed chalice is a grevous offence / to do sacrifice in vestimentes which are not consecrated is a carefull crime / It is also reputed for a synne yf in ministeringe any sacrament / he lacke any ornamēt that pertayneth therevnto. Yf he call a child or speake in the wordes of the canon He offendeth also that doth stammer or stutte in the wordes of the canon / he synneth that toucheth the holy relikes of saintes / And he that toucheth the sacrament of the altare other with hād or singer though it be for necessite to plucke it from the rouffe of his mouthe cōmitteth soch vilonous iniquite / ye they will scrape ād shape of / the quicke flesshe of the parte which did touch it / so that very madnes it self can not be more out of order and resone / I think at the length they will flee the tonge / the rouffe of the mouth the throte / and the bely because they touch the sacrament. But to hurte thy neghbure / or prevelye to convay away any of his good / or not to helpe him in his nede / is in a maner nether counted for synne / nor yet regarded / But what nedeth me to reherse any [Page] of these abominations / sith the hole world is replenisshed with his iniquite? What mō struous abominatiōs doth not he with his adherentes bring to passe / which are not only superstitious / But also de [...]sye in the hed furious / and foles of extreme madnes.
Finally / thorow the authorite of the pope in a maner all the creatures of god and all the vse of them is made synne / for Christ wold that in none of these shuld be any synne nother yet iustice / the cause was paravē ture be cause he onlye was holy. How be it it was cōvenient for the most holye vicare of Christ / that he resistinge Christ shuld here multiplye and encreasse synnes ād iustices / and replenisshe the world (corruptinge the christen libertye and suppressinge the faith) with folisshe / fearfull / erromous and perisshinge cōsciences. Behold now who is the man of synne and sonne of perditiō. Nether yet have I enumbered the thicke swarme / and infinite hoste that depend on him / as cardinalles / bisshoppes / prestes / monkes / fryers / nunnes / decanes / subdecanes / and other shavelinges which bost thē silf fre frō the lawe. For these thorow their shavinges / vesturs / houres / and behaveours / abound with as many synnes / as the duns mē with relatiōs / or thomistes with their realites / & yet put they so manye of them in every thinge / as there are creatures in the world / and [Page lxix] consideracions in them. Good lord / All this wretched multitude of men is nothing but synne / for he is counted a very apostata and breker of his religion / which is not shaven / if he read not his prescribed houres / yf he be not clothed with a prestly colour / yf he were not a hode or a coule / yf he be not appareiled with purpull and silke / or els chaunge any of those thinges which are appointed him to do / who wold not iudge a religious man to be an apostata / if he went in a laye mānes aparell / or wold not be shaven in due time? But for to playe the apostata & departe from the faith is nothinge regarded / In trāsgressinge the hyghe decrees the popes awne dispensationis scant counted ynough / though it be redemed with never so moch monye (all though for a litle try full he will remitte any offence to wardes god / yee and somtime offer the remission for nought) So depe entereth the tyrannye of his lawe in to our wretched consciences Therfore Daniel doth verye well saye / that he shall corrupt mervelous thinges / for what is it that he leveth vncorrupte? yee ād so he dothe corrupte them that they can not be repayred / for the consciences are so weaked and brought into bondage. In so moch that I am in doute / if the pope wold abrogate all his lawes / whether yt by those meanes this scrupulosite might he weded out [Page] of mennes hartes / so that their consciēces might be heled / so cruell and incurable is this plage of the people / which is sowen among them (Yf I may vse Esaias wordes) of this kinge Assure. [...]e. x.
Here hast thow the fruete of these faces and rydles / which is the corruption / of the chirche / of the faith / of Christes libertie / of the sprete and trueth / and of all the goodnes which are geven vs of god / This is ye true Antiochus in ye .viij. of Daniel / which there was named to be a figure / of this kinges faces / Danie. vij. This is he which was exalted against the strength of heven / and did cast donne of the streght / and of the sterres / ād did trede them vnder his feate / & prevailed vntill he cam vnto the prince of strength / and toke of him a great sacrifice (that is to say faith) And caste doune his holye place (that is mēnes cōsciences) he hade strē ght gevē him against ye greate sacrifice because of synne / & ye trueth in the erth shalbe felled & cast doune / And he shall prosper & do. Doth not ye pope fulfill all these thinges avauncynge his faces & ridles against ye trueth & faithe? Marke well what sathan speaketh by their moutes / They saye that all thinges were not sette in a perfayte order of Christ but were lefte to the iudgement of the Chirch to be ordered / syth Christ ordened that there shuld be no synne but vnbeleffe and no iustice but faith. As he sayeth in the [Page lxx] xvj. of Ioan. he shall rebuke the world of synne / because they beleve not in me / And agayne. He that beleveth not shalbe cōdemned / All thinges that are with out a man do not defile man but are clene fre / except we offend against them with an evill concupiscence which cometh from with in. How be it the Pope defileth the hole world by these outward thinges / and is nothinge moved with the inward pollusiōs. Be hold how playne Christes wordes are / and yet we will not se this his adversary and corrupter of the faithe.
Besides thes maners of synnes & perditions / the pope hath ordened other trāsgressions. first ye false trust of soch workes / which is duble iniquite / for they which obey ye pope in his preceptes / & eschew soch thīges as ye pope cōmawndeth / do thinke with hyghe presumptiō (yee & also are counted of other) yt they have done well & des [...]roed hevē. And this is ye other pernicious instrumēt of corruptiō which rageth thorow ye hole world / Be cause ye with this trust & cōfidēce ye faith of Christ cā not cōsist / forthermore be cause they are so oppressed & lade with ye multitude of lawes / yt they fulfill them only with ye outward worke for their willes are clene cō trary & wold resist them / As we se by experiēce in ye trobleous besines / of vigilles / masses / ād houres which both must be sayd ād [Page] songe / In the which they labour with soche weryenes / that now adayes no laboure is more tedyous. Yet neverthelesse the heddes masters & cruell exactores of these most hard workes compell vs to worke soch thinges with out ceassinge / which before god are nothīge but grevous synnes / all though before men they be good workes / and counted for the service of god / here are invēted thentismentes of the senses thorow organes / musike / and diversite of songes / but these are nothinge to the sprete / which rather is extincte thorow these wātan trifels Ah Christe / with what violēce / with what hoste and power are they driven heddelinge to synne and perisshe / thorow [...]his abomible abomination / It is an [...]rible / tremblinge and feare to loke in [...]o these cruell whorlp oules of consciences / which perisshe with soch great paynes and labour.xi. Reg. xxi. O what light and childisshe offēces are these / wherin Manasses and other weked kinges synned by doing sacrifice with their awne children and progenye. Truely the cursed sacrifices of the most rude gentils / no not of the lestrigones / Ma [...]h. xij. may be compared vn to oures / The sayeinge of Christ may be verified in vs seven more weked spretes make the end worsse then the beginninge / for I saye that we gentiles are worsse seven times thē we were before we knew Christ.
[Page lxxj]And that we may be shorte concerninge this corruptiō / and that thow maiste perceave that there is nothing in ye pope but synne and perdition. Marke well / not only his lawes are synes / but also all the workes that folow them (and not those alone which are fained and done with werynes as I saide before) yee and the rewardes are the greatest synnes of all / So that the lesse sinnes are rewarded with the greater. Thow will axe me how? I will tell the. They are not contente to binde and destroy Iesus but also they let go Barrabas the theffe / that is to say / he doth exempte thorow his privileges the hole multitude of his clargye / from the burdēs and labours of all men / that they may lyve in idelnes and riches / regardinge nothinge to committe the abomination of Zodom & Gomorrha. Nether is it lawfull for any mā to reprove / accuse or correcte them whē they transgresse. But only the pope / which nether will do it / nether yet cā yf he wold. here sprīge out of fatte their iniquites. By these meanes abound / defloueringe of virgins / advoutrye / fornicatiō / vnclennes / covetuousnes / soreltye / deceate / and the hole cloude of wekednes / yee and not only abound / but also raigne vnpunisshed / with out feare of god or man. And if any mā rebuke or checke thē he is reputed a weked transgressor of ye popes privileges / and is giltye for hurtinge his [Page] mageste. To this pertaine the most holy lawes and decrees / de foro competenti. And all those in the which the clergye is exempte from the accusation / iudgement / and punishmēt of the laye men: yee and their possessions. finally / this most holye adversarye of Christ hath made vsurye / sotiltye / and rape / lawfull vn to them / while that he doth admitte to the encreasse of the honour and worshuppe of God / vniust restoringes vnlawfull bargaynes / and despenseth graciously with pety bryebrye / geving thapostles benediction to be pertaker with them. As for the abstayninge from matrimonye we have spoken of it bot / he how Sathan was the author that it was forbede / and what synnes and perditions are entered / yee ād daylye encreassed thorow the forbedinge of it.
Have we any ende of this bottomlesse pitte and hell? Were not only the othes where with he bindeth / bisshopes / prestes / mō kes / princes ād vniversites / sufficient to make him the man of synne and sonne of perdition? For who is able to recite the periuryes / syth there is in a maner no mā that swereth with his will / and yet is he compelled to swere / where as is no necessite of the faith or of his neghburs profite / wherfore thow takist the name of god in vayne / for that which is not done with the affect and mind [Page lxxij] of the harte / is done vaynly and with synne. So that this kingdome of faces hath not only prevayled to corrupte the fayth / but also to destroy good maners. In so moch that he hath lefte nothinge. But it is attaynted ād in a maner putrified. And yet hath he cloked and covered these cursed mōstres with soch a fyne ād beutyfull colour of faces / and hath so defended thē against every power both of vertue & wepon / that this kinge of faces was most mete to be the laste monstre in the end of the world / prepared against the great cominge of Christ / that Christ might shew his great vertue and power / in the greatnes of this monstre / here speake I nothinge of the infinite evilles by the which he transgresseth the .iiij.v.vij. and viij. commaundmentes / for he taketh awaye thobedience which the children owe to their parentes / sturringe vp and arminge the sonnes against the fathers as it is sene en Hē rie the .iiij. and manye other / Henry the iiij. emperoure. for he will that he be hard above / and afore all other Also that he replenissheth the world with bloude and murther / makinge debate at his awne plesure be twixte kinges and princes / beinge the occasion of great warres and cō tentions. So that a man may doute / whether sathan him silf (if he raigned presently among vs) might bring soch thinges to passe as the Pope doth. Now doth this mighty [Page] these invade ād subdew hole kingdōs and dukedoms. And devoreth bisshoprickes benefices / ād all the goodes movable & immovable in ye hole world / thorow subsidyes bulles / and other infinite craftes very sotle / craftye and lyeinge / knittinge / and vnbindinge all thīges / according to his pleasure. And this man of synne and sonne of perditiō / conveyeth his matters on that facyon / that he denieth them to be synnes / yee and affirmeth that it is synne if any man resist or laughe at them. And that so abominable synne that no hell is sufficient to punissh it. And he hath drawen vn to him in to this weked mind and sentence (all though not the hole world) yet truly at the lest the hole hepe of the clergye / and a great parte of the laye people / destroyng them that consente vnto him perpetuallye / so that not by one maner of waye / but by all wayes he corrupteth and destroyeth all thinges / and may well be called a corrupter of mervelous thinges.
The sacrament of the altare.But let vs procede to the greatest & most abominable mischeffe of all other / concerninge the sacrament of the altare and baptime or repentance. First he hath taken from the chirch the holy misterye of the masse. And so hath corrupte it concerning the laye people that he hath clene taken awaye the one parte from them / and not only takenie awaye / but also made it sinne / yee ād extreme [Page lxxiij] heresye if any man according to the ordenance of Christ vse both the kindes. O lyvinge & immortall god / what presumptuous boldnes hath this weked abominatiō? If Christ had forbeden any of the kindes / he had bene an heretike yt had receaved both but now sith he doth not forbed it / ād so ordeneth no sinne in the receavinge / but rather doth orden both partes to be receaved / his vica [...]e in a thinge not forbed / but lawfull and fre / yee ād ordened of Christ hīsilf / hath made not onlye synne but also hyghe heresye. Nether so is Antichrist knowē / but is yet worshupped / as the vicare of God. O the rowghnes of the wrath ād furye of god Playnly I thinke that the hole is takē away sith I se manifestly on parte gone (for the bred and the wine is but one sacramēt) the other is left only for a laughinge stocke / for he that in one parte offendeth against god is giltye in all / except paraventure god by his secreate iudgemēt hath reserved it in the faith / with out any outward receavinge of the sacramente. Therfore it were better to rece [...] ve nether of the partes then the one alone / for so we might the more suerly eschew the trāsgression of that which Christ did institute.
Yet he not satisfied with this his furye setting a most cruell and deadly snare to tangle the consciences / suffereth not the vse [Page] of this sacrament to be fre. But compelleth all to gedder on one certaine daye ons in the yeare to communicate. Here I pray the good Christē brother / how many dost thow thinke do excommunicate only by the compulsion of this precept which truely in their harte had lever not to communicate? And all these synne (for they do not communicate in sprete / that is to say nether in faith nor will / but by the compulsion of this letter and lawe) syth that this bred requireth a hungery harte / and not a full / ād moch lesse a disdayning and hatefull mind. And of all these synnes the Pope is author constrayning all men by his most cruell lawe to theyr awne destruction / where as he ought to leve this communion fre to every man / and only call and exhorte them vn to it / not cō pelle and dryve them to it. Consider well / whether by this occasion the world be not replenisshed with synnes vpe to hevē. And with this floude ynough destroyed. So he doth not only despoyle vs of oure sacramēt / but also that which he leveth vs / he ordereth on that maner / that thorow the occasion of it he fulfilleth the world with sinne / and so bringeth vs vnto destruction.
How be it he doth moch more mocke ād illude the prestes for fyrst he turneth the masse which is a sacrament and testament / to be reputed for a benefite and good work [Page lxxiiij] by the which prestes shuld make sacrifice for synnes / and shuld helpe the qwicke and deade in all tribulations. Chalenging vn to him filf by this fayned lye all ryches / glorye / and powers of the world. So that now the masse is clene vnprofitable vn to oure healthe / and is only of value for luker vnder this incredible perversite and vngodlinesse / forthermore they make a sacrifice of it / By the which they do well and geve thankes vnto God / as though he had nede of oure goodnesse / of whom we receave all thinges / playnly this weked perversite passeth all sense and wordes / and yet hath it beseaged / yee and oppressed the hole worlde. Thierdly / he maketh a private thinge of a comen / for the masse in both partes never ought to be suffered vn to one mā / sith that Christ wold have it comen / so that the prest executinge shuld communicate both partes vn to some congregation gadered vn to him. How be it now the prest celebratinge doth communicate only to him silf both partes. And yet in the meane ceason he doth communicate and applye spiritually, the fruere of the masse vn to whō so ever he will (that is to saye he dreameth yt he doth cōmunicate some thinge) as though it were a good worke & sacrifice. And so where it ought to be receaved comēlye / he only doth receave it / ād yet not as the gifte of god to [Page] possesse it / but as his awne gifte to offer it. O what profund sees of synnes / abound in this one sacrament. Good lorde / how fewe / or rather none are there which vse it lawfullye as Christ did orden it / and as his apostles kepte it.
Auriculare confession.The same and like madnes doth corrupte all thinges in the auriculare confession of oure sinnes / for first / sith this confession is a thinge verye holesume / it ought to be fre for oure new lawe (which is the gospell) will not suffer any lawe of compulsion / but only of councell and exhortation. But so many synnes doth the Pope make / and so many soules doth he condeme / as are confessed against their willes how oftē so ever it be / for when they confesse thorow the compulsion of the Popes lawe their mind resisteth his lawe. And so do they synne / belevinge in their weke and wretched conscience that they are bounde of necessite to confesse them selves / and yet confesse they against their willes / and knowlege their sinnes with their mouthes and not with their hartes / that is to say faynedly. And so offend grevouslye. Now consider substantiallye what surges and waues the Pope hath excitate in the world by this one lawe of compelled confession. How manye is there yt with a glad and fre harte confesse them selves? Yet no mā doth thinke yt this is sinne / in so moch ye [Page lxxv] all men perissh or they beware thorow this same sonne of perdition & abominable man of synne.
And to thentent that this profoundite of sinnes and perditions shuld be greatter / he compelleth also that the offenses which are cōmitted against his lawe shuld be confessed / yee and that chefly of all / with all the differences of synnes / kindes / natures / doughters / nesys / branches / circunstances / ād infinite other abominations / in so moch yt the most spirituall mā of all / shuld here begyne to synne ād perisshe / that is to say cō fesse against his will / for this sentence stō deth firme and stable / he that doth a thinge against his will doth it not. And againe. Cōpelled servises please not god. Sith thē the Pope hath no nede of these lawes / but only to stablissh and encreasse his tyrannye it is evident that he is the author of infinite synnes and infinite perditiōs / while that by his lawes / he geveth a greate occasion of evill to weake and froward cōsciences / which thinke them self to be bound vn to the fulfilling of his lawes / for if a man beleve yt he is bounde / and doth not fulfill that which he thinketh him silf bound to with harte ād mīde / he doth sinne with out c [...]asinge as Paule saieth in the .xiiij.Roma. xiiij. to the Romayns he that maketh conscience is damned if he eate / for what so ever is not of faith the same [Page] is synne. But this beleve ye pope requyreth in his lawes / ād yet cā he not geve the mind to do it. And truely so litle necessite and authorite hath he to exacte it / as he hath power to geve the mind to fulfill it. So that there is no e [...]use but even / his pure pleasure which replenischeth the world with these synnes and perditiōs / and devoreth ye Christen / ij. Petri. ii. as Peter doth saye / they which were clene escaped / of them are agayne wropped in erroures. therfor Christ wold not call him abominable / But the verye abominatiō it silf. And Paule entending to publish his mischeff called it not the synne of the man / and perdition of the sonne / ij. The. ij. but called him the very man of synne / & weked sonne of perditiō / signifyinge yt there was nothinge of value in him but all synne and perditiō. And truelye this we se fulfilled in the pope / Insomoch yt excepte Christe do shortē these dayes no flesshe shuld be faved / And who knoweth whether that these dayes which were spoken of to be shortened pertayne vnto the infantes which dye before the tyme / that they know this weked abomination?
Satisfaction.The lawes also of satisfactions (o Christ oure saviour) how many soules do they destroy. Who cā attayne to know these passyons / vexatiōs / & deathes of consciences? For first of all (in publisshīge his lawes) he doth not onlye take away our libertye in this thī ge [Page lxxvi] / but also maketh a conscience to every mā to make satisfaction / which thinge syth no mā doth it frely / he is cōpelled (thorow this weked lawe & erronious cōsciēce agreing in one) to synne with out ceasinge. Yet doth he not prescribe in his lawes / how moch the satisfaction shalbe / As he determeth of ye sacramēt of ye altare / & of confessiō, but even as his lyeing harte geveth him / ād as his vaine pleasure is / thow shalt satisfye / geve / & suffer so moch / as he & bis adherētes will / or lacke monye. And so sathā doth here spote & & playe him / in vexinge our cōsciēces / to accōplisshe all his malice Here doth he chalēge ye victories of martyrs / And fighteth with ye sede of thē which caste hī out of hevē / havinge a greate wrath / as we may se in ye apocalipsis. And so doth heswage & pacyfye his wrath / yt he sporteth & lawgheth in our perditiōs / as it were in a most vile thinge / & of no reputatiō / Oh we wretches that thus slepe & rought / out of ceason. Yf so be ye pope wold suffer all these thinges fre / not snaringe our cōsciēces / thē shuld he worke no synne & perditiō. How be it / it wold turne in to ye destructiō of his facye kingdome / therfore it wer better yt ye hole word shuld perissh / then his kingdome shuld decay / So thow maist se / how that Christ is the author of iustice / Never ordeninge / lawe synne and perdition / but rather callinge & deliveringe [Page] vs from the lawes and constitutions / And contrary how the pope is author of synne / in every thīge makinge lawes / corruptinge iustice and health / Drivinge and constrayninge all men to be subdewed vnder his lawes / he is not called holye / but most holye / Not the minister of Christ but his vicare. Not the equalle felow and companion / but prince of prelates / And hed of all shepardes / woo be to the. It foloweth.
¶That is thorow his faces ād rydles / syth there is nothinge of more efficacite & might to deceave and destroye then the cloke of godlines / chefly of all sith it is avaunsed vnder ye name of god / Nether yet so shuld he have profited except he had bene holpe with the operations of sathan / after that god for the aboundance of synne had forsaken the world. For what naturall reason doth not perceave what folyssh ād weked thinges the Pope many times doth commaund and do / yee with out any cloke. And yet these thinges have so prevayled / that hole grecye hath resisted him in vayne. How many times also have the emperours of germanye? how often have other kinges / how oftē have many bisshoppes? how often have many good and wel learned men resisted this monstre? how be it / they are all overcome / suppressed / [Page lxxvij] and extincte / The operation of errour hath prevayled / and they are so swollen with presumptuous pride / yt they may boldly bost that they are to be feared / as though Christ him silf did worke with thē defendinge his Chirch. These thinges are well knowē to thē that have reade the storyes / in the whiche they are so playnly perceaved / that the stories of italye / which corrupte al thinges to flatter and avaunce the popes highnes / could not cloke ād kepe secrete moch of his mischeffe / So ye tenore of his actes which were wropped & involved vnder so many colours & clokes of lyes / & covered by the disgysinge and flaterye of parasites / doth at ye lengthe put forth his abomination / & revelate their author / to his greate rebuke ād sclaunder (be these flaterers never so moch against it) Playnly declaringe that the popes have resisted ād fought against the gospell / Nether do these wretched parasites obtayne any thinge thorow their lyes / but that the pope for his chirch (which is his tyrannye) hath manfully / fought / despoyled ravisshed / kild / and replenisshed the world with murder / blod / & other miserye / And how these thinges differ from the gospell (how so ever they please the blondes / platines / & soch like) he is a verye stocke yt vnderstondeth not / be he never so rude. For peace ād the ministerye of peace / the care and regard [Page] of spirituall thinges and that with all affection and desire / pertayneth vnto the pope / Bvt thistoriographes of Italye prayse ye popes be cause they have vexed imperyes / kingdoms / bisshoprikes / and dukedoms / & have schratched them to them selves thorow violēce & deceate / as though they were due vn to them by right. Therfore he hath prevailed ād prospered in all his willes beinge a lewed adversary of god. And so hath done and fulfilled / that which he hath desyered all men resistinge him in vayne / both godly and vngodly / holy and prophane / rude and learned / and that is fulfilled which foloweth.
¶The same thinge doth Daniel in ye .viij. prophesye vpon Antiochus which was the figure of ye pope.Danie. viij. And he did caste doune the sterres of hevē & did trede thē vnder his feate. And Christ in ye .xxiiij. of Mathew doth prophesye / Mat. xxiiij. yt the verye chosen shalbe brought in to erroure. And Paule sayeth that there shall cume stronge delusion.ij. Thess. ij.
Truely if I shuld folow myn awne mind & take the hebrew wordes in that sence to expounde / for strōge men / strēgthes. And for the holy people / thapostles and euangelistes wherto the wordes do also incline / thē shuld [Page lxxviij] the sence be / that the pope shuld be soch one that shuld corrupte / destroy ond suppresse / ye holye scripturs (which are the only strength of the chirch) and the holye people that is to saye thappostles and evangelistes / be cause he wilbe taken and helden with no authorite of scripture / but wresteth / despoyleth / corrupteth / ād destroyeth (which is very true) all scriptures at his awne pleasure. Yf we take it / in this sence / thē foloweth the next verse mervelous accordingly ād to the purposse. For this is the cause that he will not be subdued vnderscripture / ād brought in to a good order / for he wold that all thinges shuld be done / sayed / taught / vnderstond / and expounded / after his awne wil ād mind This purposse to obtayne he corrupteth in a maner all thinges / vainlye and presumptuously expoundeth them / rather then he will geve place to a nother mannes iudgement (though it be truee) or els seme to have erred and done amysse. And this may be declared by many examples in his decrees where as in every place he doth corrupte the sainges of scripture / of Christ and his Apostles accordinge to that which now foloweth.
The hebrew sayeth / ve al sichlo / which signifieth. And after his awne mīd / vnderstō dinge [Page] the verbe shalbe / or shall do / or soch like. Here is the prerogative of ye popes kingdom touched / wherby the pope is elevated above all other / ād is declared to be subiecte to no mannes iudgemēt. For he will iudge every man / and will be iudged of no mā as the weked papistes do crake with a lowde and schrile voice / that the thrones and courtes of them that must geve iudgement / must of this sete receave their sētēce / Groū dinge him vpon this he runneth ryote in his decrees like a mad man that the inferior sete shall not iudge the superior. To this entēt pertayneth the chapter Cuncta per mundū nouit ecclesia / Where in it is determed that it is not lawfull to iudge of the sentence of the chirch of Rome. I pray the what may be spokē or harde more abominable / thē this blasphemous and wretched voice. This is it that Peter doth speake of in the .ij. of. ye .ij. epistle / ij. Petri. ij Presūptuous they are ād stondinge well in their awne conceate. Is not this an incredible presumption that one weked & wretched man / which is oppressed with all iniquite and mischeff / most rude ād vnlearned / shuld take vpon him to be iudged of no man / to erre in nothinge / to iudge all men? This is it that they meaned / when they did reach with most cursed blasphemye that the pope was above the coūcell. And that it belongeth only to him to expound the scripturs [Page lxxix] / and that his iudgement must be preferred above the hole congregation. Nether have they so moch brayne as to iudge that the congregation (yee and every faithfull in Christ) hath ye holy goste / to whose iudgemēt the very angells ought to obey / and moch more this weked and vnlearned mā / which is compased aboute and instructe only with soch as he is him silf.
And this is it that againe Peter doth prophesye of in the .iij. of the second epistle sayinge yt there shuld come certaine / i. Petri. iij. which shuld walk after theyr awne lustes / what signifieth that to walke after theyr awne lustes. But even as Daniel doth saye that all thinge shalbe done of this kinge after his awne sence / opinion and will? for sichel in the hebrew doth signifye the mind / sense / opinion will / and desire of the flesch / which in the greke tonge is called nous and pronoia / as in the .viij. to the Romayns. They that are carnall are carnally minded / and agayne / The desire of ye flesch is death. This desire this minde and opinion (as they call it) doth Daniel touch. Which we se so vehemēt in the pope that (despisinge scripture) he dare presume of his awne brayne / to pronounce and diffine / only puttinge his confidence in the greatnesse of his tyrannye / out of this springeth it / that he calleth him silf the chirch / and suffereth no iudgemēte. But [Page] to be laboreth ye master / teacher / & hed of all chirches / makinge hī silf the rule of ye faith being far from it and vnfaithfull him silf / and yet this weked man is praysed in his desyres. Behold now what it meaneth to do all thinges after his awne minde. Can there any thinge be thought more abominable / then that the chirch which liveth and is led with the holy gost / shuld geve place in expoundinge the sense of scripture to wretched / weked and vnlearned men / which presume only vpon the violence of theyr tyranny? And yet is this bosted now adayes for a hyghe article of the faith. Nether is there any heretike counted more pernyciouse / then he which but with a becke doth seame to doute in this one pointe. Trulye the kingdome of Sathā / is now come to an ende / for while this folish felowe goth aboute so curiously to confirme his impery and make men obey it. It chaunceth in the meane ceason by the hyghe provision of God / that he betrayeth him silf like a shrewd and vnfaithfull patrone. And thorow no nother meanes / but by his diligent labour ād curiosite while he setteth great hereses in trifelinge maters / and holdeth his peace paciently if a man wold deney god vtterly / or were endewed with all iniquite / as we may se in the bisshopes / for if they were led with the sprete of god / they wold first and most of all seake [Page lxxx] those thinges which partaine to God. Now because they seake their awne profite nothing regardinge that which pertaineth to god / it appereth playne ynough with what sprete they are caryed.
Wherfore it is necessary that Paule in the .xiiij. of the first epistle to the Corinthiās be suppressed and destroyed by this kinge of faces and rydles / which will do all thinges after his awne mind / and admitte nothinge to the iudgemēt of scripture / for he sayeth if eny revelation be made to a nother yt sitteth by let the first hold his peace / i. Corin. xiiii. and againe. Let the prophetes speak .ij. atonce or thre atonce / and let other iudge. What sayeth the Pope? There is nothinge (he sayeth) revelate to any that sitteth / but I alone shall speake first / let the other heare. And againe / let not the other iudge / but I will prophesye and other shalbe iudged. for I am the master / the prophete / and the vicare of God. It belongeth vnto vs to speak / or els as it is sayde in the .xj. Psalme. We shall exalt oure tonge / oure lippes be oure awne / Psalme. xj. who is oure lord? And so doth this weked / more presumptuous then prowde Pelagius / avaunce him silf in his decrees / sayenge. Where as is the maiorite / ther is the authorite of commaūdinge / as for the other of necessite must obey. Tel me if thow canste whether any of the kinges which ever have bene syth the [Page] beginninge of the world / have commaunded and exacted their lawes with soch pride swellinge / arrogancye / boldnes / stubbornes / standīge so well in their awne conecate / with soch imperious a voice / folisshe hardenes / and presumption / as only this one Pope? Truly god him silf did never exacte his preceptes with soch imperious mageste ād power. Is he not therfore a worthy successor of Peter which taught in the .v. of his first epistle.i. Petri. v. Submit youre selves every man / one to a nother / what meaneth that but to geve place one to the other / and not to be stubborne in his awne opinion? And Paule in the xij. to the Romayns sayeth. Make youre self equall to thē of the lower sorte / Roma. xij. be not wysse in youre awne opinions. And Solomon. Put a measure in thy wisdome. And againe sticke not to thine awne wisdome. And paule did write cheflye to the Romayns whē he exhorted them not to be wise in their awne opinions. Even as Peter did also when he prophesied yt there shuld come stubborne mē which shuld stond well in their awne cōceat and walke after their awne lustes.
Nether yet only in iudging doth he folow his awne opinion / but also in teachinge ād livinge / behold the hole face of the chirch / and shew me if thou canst / in what profession / secte or parte / they live accordinge to he preceptes of God / do they not teach y [...] [Page lxxxj] and live / Collo. ij. after chosen holines (as the apostle calleth it) Doinge soch thinges as they thinke them silf holy and right / as though there were no kinge in Israel / as it is said in the .xxj. of iudicum. And the Pope doth prayse and confirme all these thinges / Iudic. xxj [...] all be it the lawe in ye .xij.Deutero. xij. of the Deuteronomye doth instantly and sharply forbed those propre opinions. And in the .iiij. of Amos.Amos. iiij. Sacrifice yow of leven / prayse / and call vn to you / and shew youre wilfull oblations / for this hath bene your desire you children of Israel. And paule doth reprove ye inventors and finders of new thinges / how be it this detestable folisshe hardenes of oure / awne mind and opinion is vtterly condemned by the most godly example of Iosue / where as after the sprete had exhorted him ād faithfully promysed him that he shuld passe over Iordane / yet wold he not that he shuld be directed and ordered by his awn [...] opinion / but by the iudgement of scripture [...]aynge in the first chapter. Be of good comfort / ād verye stronge that thou maist kepe and do all my lawe / which Moses my servant cōmaunded the (not thine awne mind and opinion which no man hath commaunded the) Thou shalt not decline from it nether to the right hande / nether to the lefte hand (behold he doth clene suppresse / and put out his awne iudgemēt ād sense) that thow maist perceave [Page] all thinges that thou doste (and truly they can not be knowne what they are yf they be done after oure awne opinion with out ye lawe of god / for we know not whethere they pleace God or nay / we beat the ayer with our fiste / and labour with out certaynte / yee rather it is evident that they do not pleace God that are of this kind as it appereth by his inhibition.Iosue. i. Nether let the volume of this lawe depart from thy mouth / and thou shalt be be occupied in it day and nyght (O this necessary monition which is despised of antichrist. Marke I pray the the wordes of this lawe / which monissheth the / that the lawe departe not from thy mouthe / but that thou be occupied in it daye and nyght / that thou maist kepe and do all thinges which are writen in it (not other and strange thinges) Then shalt thou prospere in thy waye / and shalt be wyse / that is to say then thy opinion and mind shalbe hole / then shalt thou se the right / ād so shalt thou goo furth prosperously and prevaile. And contrary / if thou malke in thine awne opinion thou shalt have nothinge prosperous / be cause thou goist furth not accordinge to the lawe of God / but according to thine awne witte ād provision / but god doth approve the waye of iust men / and the iorney of the weked shall perish / Psal. i blissed is he therfore which hath not walked in the councell [Page lxxxij] of vngodly men.
How be it oure Pope doth so glorye ād reioyse in his awne opinions / despising the lawe of God / that he doth avaunce him silf to be the chirch / and incredible councell. Nether doth he consider that this Iosue had no lesse of the sprete of God then any Pope ever had. And yet will the sprete that nothinge shuld be done of him / which was not expresly rehersed in the scripture. In so moch that moch more the Chirch ought not to be of his awne opinion / but rather to sticke and lene to the iudgement of god and testimonyes of scripture. O thou Pope.
How be it the stubborne felow that stō deth over moch in his awne conceat / will mocke and thinke sone to dissolue this reasone / puttinge a differēce with a fained distinction and most craftye illusion to scape fre / betwext iurisdiction and charite / affirminge that the forsaide textes of scripture shuld be vnderstond of the office of charite / not of the tyrannye of iurisdiction (which is the hyghe hierarchye and impery of the chirch) clene ignorant that iurisdiction in the chirch is nothing els / but the administration of charite / seperatinge by weked / ād folissh hardenes / the office which is ministred in the chirch from charite / suffillinge that which foloweth.
¶For this cause cheflye do the purposses of Antichrist prosperously prevayle / be cause he him silf hath deceaved the chosen children of god. As Christ saith. There shall aryse false christen and false prophetes / Math. xxiiij and shall geve great signes & wonders. So greatly that if it were possible / even the chosen shuld be brought in to erroure. And here doth he monissh vs that the elect shall not be brought in to erroure (all though they be deceaved) that is to saye that errour shall not vtterly subdew them / and hold them perpeally / but that at the lest in death they shalbe redemed. Like as in the pater noster it is not the will of god that we shuld not be tempted with diverse temptations / but that we-shall not be brought in to temptations / that is to saye that we shuld not be overcome / and holden perpetually vnder temptation / for the righteous man falleth .vij. tymes / how be it he lyeth not still / but ryseth as often againe. Even so I doute not but that sanct Barnarde / Francisce / Dominike and many other holy men and women have erred as concerning the Pope not perceaving his kingdome of faces / and so approvinge many of his actes / or els they wold have resisted them with the worde of God / [Page lxxxiij] how be it his tyme was not then come. In this numbre I coūte also Bonavēture which passeth all other with out cōparison (in the vehemēcye of sprete) which have bene reserved of all vniversites. Among these may be numbred saint Thomas aquinas / if he be a sācte / for truly I doute of it greatly / because he savoreth nothīge of the sprete of god. I say all these holye men have ben deceaved / folowinge the abominatiō of the pope / how be it / it was with out pertinacite & stubbornesse / and were delivered frō it / at the lest in death. Therfore if he deceave & corrupte the chosen / all though he can not retaine thē in his pernicyous illusion / what shall we thī ke is done of the other which are not only deceaved / but also stobbornlye defend their errour for godlines? O what a weake argument is this which the papistes do gether of the dedes and workes of holy mē. Sotinge after their old maner / syth that Daniell doth prophesye that he shall corrupte stronge men / and the people which are holye / he speaketh not of fained sainctes / for Christ expoundinge him calleth thē the chosen. Therfore we must put confidence in no man vsinge an example of the holye mē / but only sticke to the suer testimony of scripture / and vn to the trueth / he hath destroyed Ioan husse / and Hierome / and I can not tell what other / but I know not whether I may refarre [Page] that vnto this place / be cause he destroyed only their bodyes ād not theyr soules / for I thinke he speaketh here of spirituall corruption.
And how shuld not painted visars / clokes faces / & other deceatfull illusions (as Paule sayeth) & hypocrisye of his awne traditiōs / rather prospere in his hāde then the trueth of ye gospell / sith he corruptinge the strēgth of ye scripture / & of all ye good authores of it / is only stablisshed by ye example of a fewe sanctes stōdinge on his side? what may not he prosperously bringe to passe / sith yt now not only his faces & rydles / ye is to saye his deceates / but also they whom thou knowledgest to be sanctes make for his purposse? who dare here once qwinch / against him / sith yt his lyeinge cloke is holpe with ye trueth / his hypocrisye with holines / his deceat with simplicite / And his iniquite with godlines? O this parilous times / most worthye for the last dayes / wher as to the reprobate parsons all thinges are turned in to evill / yee though they seame never so good As cōtrarye to the chosen all thinges worke for the best / though they seame never so evill / and this is done thorow the sprete of god / even as the first is done thorow ye spret of Sathan as the apostle prophesyed. Let him now go (that dare) ād live with out eny regard trustinge in the sainges and deades [Page lxxxiiij] of his forfathers / No doute / here Daniell meaneth Sathā / when he sayeth that deceate shall prospere in this kinges hand / for he is not mighty in his awne power / Nether shall his awne hand order and directe his deceate / but Sathan shall led his hande and so shall deceate be directed in his hand. How could he better have described the kingdome ād workes of the pope? which is nothinge but very deceate and yet prevaileth so prosperously / that even with open lyes and tryfels he blindeth and deceaveth the folissh worlde / as it is evident ynough though it wer but only in the pardons / for what so ever the Pope dare take vpon him / be it never so abominable a lye / it prospereth effectuously.
Therfor the deceate which is in his hād doth chefly pertayne vnto the corruptinge of the scripture / for here he hath cast doune the sterres of heven / and trode them vnder his feate / and in his deceate how fortune hath favored him / experience doth playnly bere wittnes. For what so ever he wold have / that spake he in expoundinge scripture. And what so ever he sayd in his exposition / that was counted for an oracle of god / and so is reputed vnto this day. In so moch that it is not lawfull nether with reasons / nether with scriptures / nother yet with manifest [Page] experiences to affirme eny thinge agaynst it / on till it have taken awaye the comen sense of mannes nature from all men / & hath attemted soch thinges / which if the gentils in ye old time shuld ever have done / mē wold have sayd that they had bene starke mad. Now after that all these thinges did prosper luckely with him / so that nether faith / nether the sprete / nether yet the authorite of the scripture might resist him thē what remayned but that which foloweth.
¶ For there is no man but now ye pope preferreth him silf above him / There is no mā but he dare be bold to commaund him all thinges / he will subdewe all thīges vnderneth him silf. Scāt admittīge hyghe emperours and kinges to the kysse of his blessed feate Nether is there eny mā whom he will have equal with him in the erthe be he never so holye ād well learned. Finally he beinge no apostle but a very bisshoppe (if he be that) fare vnder the dignite of the apostles / maketh him silf equal with sanct Peter. The prince of all men. The emperour in all spirituall (as they call them) and temporall thinges. The lord of the world. For in Peter he will that he hath receaved the right & authorite / of the erthly and hevenly emperye. [Page lxxxv] And that do his .iij. crownes / pride / ād wātonnesse / testifye which passe all the vayne presumptions in the world. Thus doth the vicare of poore Christ / and successor of Peter / present their parsons and images. For he depresseth and putteth doune / kinges / princes / and bisshoppes / and every power in the world / for his pure pleasure / more exalted / yee and made more wordly then the world it silf. And of this thinge we have spoken sufficiently a fore expoundinge the mind of Peter and Iudas which prophesyed that he shuld despise and speake evill of gloryes and powers / Snatchinge and subdueing vnto him silf the goodes and possessions / of all men. For if he wold be constrayned and holden by scripture / declininge some deall from his awne mind & opinion Not violatinge and corruptinge scripture by his deceatfull interpretatiō / he might some what be with drawē from the presūption and hyghe pride of his harte / And so myght be called agayne to the administration of the gospell / and to the tuition (as his duetye is) of the poore. How be it ye scripture must nedes be fulfilled that he shuld have rule of all / and shuld be exalted in his awne opinion above all the thinges of the world. It was not for nought that Daniel sayd / yt he shal be exalted in his awne harte / for he is not so elevated before god / or in [Page] the will of god. But in his awne harte / in his awne opinion / thorow his awne folissh hardenes / by deceates / faces / rydles / and other stronge illusions.
Nother yet is this weked abomination cōtēted to rule the hyghest of all and greatest in the erthe (as he is called ye hyghest & greatest Bisshope) but he hath begone also to extend his handes and power in to purgatorye. And hath also presumed to commaund angels / and to sitte and raigne in every mannes conscience. So that there shuld be nothinge / but that the great presumption of his hart shuld be bold to invade it. This incredible abomination playnly passeth all mennes capacite. It foloweth
¶He calleth this prosperite / the aboundā ce of all thinges. For after that the worde / the faith and the scripture are troden vnder his feate. And all mennnes possessiōs subdued vnto him / truely he must nedes aboūd with all thinges. For who hath soch aboundāce of ryches / soch pleasures / soch honours as the pope and his secte or adherētes? Are not all the cheffe and best thinges in the world theyrs? And do they not possesse thē most quietly? Do they not vse them most [Page lxxxvi] at their pleasure in to all pompe / wantonnes / pride? and what shall I say? If the hole world be compared to the popes imperye / it shuld seame but vile / and truly shuld not appere to be the world. For what shuld he do els (syth he is nother subiect to the word nother yet regardeth the scripture) but commaund and expound all thinges / after his awne pleasure and opinion? Who they are / yt this prosperite doth corrupte & destroy / I had lever committe it to other mennes iudgement / then to diffine it my silf. For the Cardinalles / bisshoppes / monkes / and hole multitude of prestes / what are they els / but the people of the pope which are destroyed / with idelnes / riches / bankettes / wātonnes / lust / and vncarefulnes. Corruptinge this bodely liff / withe out end / with out the word / with out scripture / with out labour / and with out eny care? These truely doth this noble king of faces norissh and encreasse in his orders / makinge them by his deceates and lyes / of spirituall and faithfull seven times carnall and wordly / which walke vnder the cloke of godlines and religion.
It foloweth.
[Page]¶This is the sūme of the hole / that he shal resist Christ / and suppresse his worde / exaltinge his awne worde in the stede of Christes / as thapostle doth say / he shall sit in the temple of god shewing him silf as though he were god. And agayne / which is an adversarye and is exalted above all that is called god or ye is worshupped. To this place pertayneth it that the pope did condempne the trueth of the word of god openly at constantie In Ioan husse / perseveringe vn to this present daye in the same stubbornnes / of contrarying and cōdempninge the word of Christ / for he can not withstōd / the person of Christ / but he shall withstond that is to saye diffine thinges conttarie to Christ / And this is his ende. For. when he hade suppressed the word / and corrupted ye faithe / despoilinge the scripture / ād the doctrine of the apostles / Exaltinge him silf above the angels and commaunding them. there was nothinge remayninge / but that he made grosse / and well stuffing his belye / shuld also ryse against his lord and god, and hyer he wold presume if there wer eny thinge hyer. But sith there is nothinge hyer thē god / It is necessary that this abomination here sticke and remayne still / that he may receave his end / as it foloweth.
[Page lxxxvij]¶So saith also thapostle / ij. Thess. whom the lord Iesus shall consume with the sprete of his mouth / and shal destroye with the apperance of his comminge. Therfore the laye people shall not destroy the pope and his kingdome / al though the wretches be fore a ferd of it (for they are vnworthy this mild stroke and punisshment) but they art reserved vnto the cominge of Christ whose extreme and cruell ennimyes they be and longe have continewed for so shuld he perissh which exalteth himsilf and ryseth agaynst all thinges / Noth wtth mannes hand / but with the contrarye sprete / so that one sprete may destroy an other / and that the trueth may revelate ye deceate / which revelation is a verye destruction. For the revelation of a lye doth vtterlye destroy it / Let vs therfore pray that god ād the father of oure lord Iesu Christ at the length may come againe and visitte vs in his glorious power and mageste / And that he maye shew the ioyfull daye / and comming in glory of his sonne whom he hath promised / so that this weked mā of synne / ād sonne of perditiō may be destroyed / that the operations of errours thorow Sathā may be finisshed / by the which (alas) every minette many thousand soules are corrupte ād cast hedlīge in to hell / onley thorow ye presumptuous powers of this abomination / and tyrannye of the sete of Rome. Let all men saye [Page] Amen. AMEN.
¶Here endeth the Revelation of Antichriste / which (although it be som deale ferse against the pope ād his adherentes) yet good christē brother read it cheritably. move not thy pacience. Overcome thē rather with thy good ād vertuous lyvīge thē with force & extert or power. So shall thou be the true sone of thy father which is in hevē / to whō only be all glorye. Amē.