Answer to the Devilish Detection of the Bishop of Winchester, Treatise · Part 18
❧ To the biſhoppes.
IT maye well appeare what mindes you biſhoppes hauehave to the furtheraunce of the knowledge of God: by that you do with out cauſe, fynde faute with the diligent tranſlations of good men, cōdemnyng them by your counſayles, and yet wyl not trāſlate any parte thereof your ſelues. Yea all your life and labours do teach vsus plaine, that you woulde ſtop oure eyes and leade vsus capty…e in your blinde waies. Therfore if we ſhould folowe you beinge blinde guides, falſe prophetes and Idole paſtours: we ſhall be ſtyll ſcattered abrode in the blinde waies of ignoraunce, we ſhall be led with your lyes euen together with you into the blinde pit of darkneſſe. Thus hauehave you led our fathers before vsus, ſo many as would take you for their ſcho maiſters, and had none other ſecrete motion of the ſpirite, to lifte their hertes vp into the heauens, d…nge the ayde and healpe of al other …r…
And yet … can not content your ſelues with the kingdome that you hauehave vſurped in the conſciences of men (where none ought to reigne but God) more then theſe thouſande yeres: onleſſe you maye ſtyll hauehave the ſame authoritie in eſtabliſhinge your popetrie and Idolatrie, beating euermore into oure eares, that your Idolatrous and ſuperſtitious religion, hath continued theſe. M. D. yeres. Where as we partly hauehave declared, & might more at large declare (were it not to tedious) that it hath crept vp onelyonly with your wicked papacie and poſſeſſions of the churche, and hath continued onelyonly the tyme that Sathan hath bene loſe and ſent furth into the worlde to worke his wyll, when you his ſtoute ſouldiour dyd ſhit vp the kyngdome of God his worde, and neither woulde enter in your ſelues, nor ſuffre them that woulde entre. But now that the lambe hath vnlocked the boke: Sathan begynneth to roare for feare of the fal of his kingdome, and you biſhoppes (his Sathan beginneth to roare.champions) do rage and fight agaynſt God his worde, yea agaynſte eueryevery thinge that is God or godly. But we ſhal ouercome by the bloude of the lambe, and by the worde of his witneſſe. And therefore do we ieoperde oure ſoules vntounto death, not onelyonly againſt the Romiſhe Antichriſte: but the Mahumetaine alſo who is like to reigne ouer vsus as a worthy plage for ſlidynge from the worde of God, euē as he hath many yeres reigned ouer many chriſtian nations, whiche boeth in life and learning were as holy as we be now cōpted.
If thys thynge (I ſaye) ſhall come to paſſe (as no man knoweth Goddes ſecrete working but ſuche onelyonly as it ſhall pleaſe him to endue with this knowledge) we ſhall be redie, both to ſpeake and write, as we nowe do, for the glorie of God, againſt al Idolatours ſo far as God ſhal open our hertes and giuegive vsus ſtrength. For without his audacitie and boldneſſe of ſpirite poured into vsus: we ſhall ſtande in as gerate feare to perfourme thys, as we ſhoulde be to write againſt your abominations, knowing your crueltie towardes thē that hauehave hertofore moued your paciēce.
What other men hauehave written in the fauour of Mahumete I can not tell. But thys do I ſee with myne eyes, that you biſhoppes The biſhops open the waie for the turkes to enter.do opē a great dore for him to entre in at: by the Idolatrie that you do maynteyne, in ſettyng vp ſo weake a creature to be God. For what playner waye can ye hauehave to impunge the chriſtian religion: then to fynde it to be groūded vponupon ſo fonde a foundation as this weake Idol of yours?
And on the other ſide, by your wicked life and tirannouſe handlynge of the pore flocke of Chriſt: you miniſtre great occaſion for vsus to thyinke, that we ſhall lyue vnderunder the turckes, as quietly and ſafly as vnderunder you, both in auoydynge the Popiſhe Idolatrie, and alſo in eſcapynge of outragiouſe tiranny. Beware howe your malice leadeth you to miniſter ſuche occaſions. For though we abhorre (euē frō the bottomes of our hertes) the turrkeſhe Mahumete and his lawes, and are ready to wryte and ſpeake agaynſte them in the defence of our Chriſt and his religion, rather wiſhyng to dye, then to be ſubiect vntounto him: yet thys preſent neceſſitie and more greuous bondage that we ſuffre nowe vnderunder the byſhoppes the lymes of the Romiſhe Antichriſt are ſo intollerable, that we had rather proue any thynge, then longe to abyde it.
If they ouercome here, the victorie wyll Wincheſters wordes.hardly be ſtayed from conqueſt in the reſte.
Call backe your tiranny therefore aboute the worſhyppynge of thys Idoll. Surely it The anſwereis full tyme (as you ſaye) for you to ſtryue for your God, and to encourage your companions to ſticke to their taklynge, for if we maye once get the victorie herein, all the reſidue of your Poperie wyl hauehave a foule fall.
Note our ſimplicitie as much as you wil, and ſkoffe on ſtyll (wyth the Deuyll is ſimple iwys) we wyll neuer be aſhamed to call breade, breade, ſo longe as we hauehave Luke the Euangeliſt and Paule the Apoſtle of Chriſt to take our parte.
Come you in wyth your double gloſes, and put furth two faces in owne hoode in euerie thinge you go about, as longe as you luſte. But it is an high mattier to vnderſtand what breade meaneth and what the worlde ſignifieth you ſaye.
Go to, go to. And all the worlde (what ſo euer the worlde ſignifieth) wyll ſhortly deride you and thynke you worthy of your. ii. forcked myters, for your doubleneſſe.