Against a Rank Papist, Title page – Dedication

Against a Rank Papist · Title page – Dedication

The Apology of Iohan Bale agaynste a ranke Papyst, aunswering both hym and hys doctours, that neyther their vowes nor yet their priesthode are of the Gospell, but of Antichrist. Anno Do. M. CCCCC. L.

☞ A brefe exposycyon also vpō the .xxx Chaptre of Numeri, which was the first occasion of thys present varyaunce.

¶ Saue thy selfe, O Syon, thou that dwellest w^t the daughter of Babylon,

Zach.ii.

¶ Ye shall depart from Babylon, & escape the Caldeanes wyth a merye voyce, for the Lorde hath preserued hys seruaunte Iacob.

Esa.xlviii.

¶ Fleé awaye from Babylon, euerye man saue hys sowle. Lete no man holde hys tonge ouer her wyckednesse, for the tyme of the lordes vengeaūce is come.

Hier.li.

☞ Cum Priuilegio ad imprimendum solum.

To the moste vertuouse, myghtye, and excellente Prynce, Edwarde the.vi. by the grace of God King of England, Fraunce, & Ireland, defender of the faith, and in earth vndre Christ, of the Churches of the sayd England & Irelande y^e supreme head, his moste humble subiecte Iohn Bale wysheth all honour, helthe, and felycyte.

LONGE was it (moste worthy and excellēt Prynce) ere y^e diuine maieste wold fullie condescēde, y^t Israell shuld hauehave a KyngeA kinge. to raygne ouer thē, as had the foreyn nacions, consydering that he had bene of so longe time theyr hygh gouernour, leader, & defender.i. Regū.viii. But whē it was ones determinatly graunted them, what was more earnestly requyred of God in that magnifycent mynystracyon, then were the necessary affayres of relygion?Dauid. How diligent was kynge Dauid in nombrynge the Leuytes, in assygnyng their offyces, and in appoynting the sacryfysers, syngers, seruitours, porters, and other mynisters, in theyr places, lottes, and courses. i. Para.xxiii. How studiouse was kyng SalomonSalomon. in buildinge the house of the Lorde. iii. Reg.vi. and in disposyng the priestes, leuytes, queresters, & dore kepers, accordinge to the ordre that hys father Dauid had set.Abia. ii. Para….viii. Kynge Abia strongelye warred vponupon Israell whyche had than rebelled agaynst the Lorde, because they had reiected the priesthode of Aaron, for a wycked priesthode of the ydolatrouse nacions, to do them seruice in a counterfett and false relygyon, whyche were no goddes but ydolles.Asa. ii. Paralip.xiii. Kyng Asa folowed the pleasure of God. He ouerthrew the ydolatrouse aulters, destroyed false worshippinges, cut downe the yrgroues, brake in sondre theyr ymages, deposed hys own mother for ydolatry, abolyshed the stues of male children, and commaunded Iuda to seke the Lorde God of theyr fathers, and to do in all thynges accordynge to hys lawe and commaundementes.iii. Reg.xv.

Kynge Iosaphat hauynge an harte couragiouseIosaphat. in the wayes of the Lorde, bannisshed the hyll aulters and groue chapels out of Iuda, he sought out the word of God, he sent fourth faythfull preachers in the thirde p. iiiyeare of hys raygne, whych toke with them the boke of the lawe, and taught the people in all the cyties of the land.ii. Paralip.xvii. Kynge Iehu executed the reuengemente ofIehu. God, for the innocēt bloud of hys holy prophetes & seruan̄ts, that was cruelly shedde. He slewe the great tyraunts, Ioram, Ochosias, and quene Iesabell, wyth theyr chyldren & kyndredes, he destroyed all the false prophet…s▪ & priestes, consuming the ydolatours with theyr ydolatries, & made cōmen takes of theyr churches.iiii. Re.ix. & .x. King Ezechias did cleane to the Lorde, put awayEzechias. the hyl aulters, consumed y^• ymages, strake doun the groues, and all to brake the brasen serpent y^• Moyses had made.iii. Reg.xviii. He prepared the tēple, purified the sanctuary, pourged y^• Leuites, reformed y^• priestes, restored again the true religion of Iuda, pro uided for the ministers, & offred vp the lacri fyces to the Lord.ii. Par.xxix. Kyng IosiasIosias. in like case restored again y^• decaied religiō, brought y^• lawes of the Lord to lighte, commaūded the people diligētly to obserue thē, put doun the false religions which had done sacrifices to the hoste of heauen, brent theyr ymages, defaced their aulters, & stampte thē to pouder, brake doun y^• bugger… places in y^• Masmongers.house of y^• lord, slew al y^• ydolatrouse priests … brent their bones in places of their wicked sacryfyces, and he put oute of the waye all sothsaiers, sorcerers, inchaunters, witches, and remoued all other abhominaciōs of the vngodlye, reducynge the people to the true seruyce of God.iiii. Reg.xxiii.

Suffycient are these most worthy examples of y^• scripture, to declare what y^• dewty of a kyng is, concernynge the affaires of our Christen religion. Two thynges hauehaveii. euils, chiefely bene the cause of the vtter decaye & ful destruccion therof, continually frō time to time, both in the olde law and in the new, whyche are dysputed and improued in thys treatyse here folowynge. The one of them is a prodigyouse priesthode, in no poynt agreable to the prescrypcyous, ordinaunces, or determynate rules of God. The other isUowes. a straunge kynd of vowyng, neither taught of Christ nor yet persuaded of his Apostles, but expreslye condemned of them both, for an horryble hypocrysye and manyfeste doctryne of deuyls. In the Testament of Moy ses, is onelyonly the priesthode of Aaron, and in the Testament of Christ, the only priesthode of Melchisedech. The fyrste as a fygure was fynyshed in Christ, in the other he perpetually reygneth at the right hand of God the father. Let your learned Mayestie thenPriesthed cōsydre, what priesthod it is, that these wily, wilful, wicked, arrogaunt, & obstinate papistes p. iiiiof your Realme, extoll so mallopertly & boast so stoutlye, these two priesthodes taken clerelye from thys earthe? way also what the vowes are, y^t setteth it in force to worke all vngodlynes, and styll to vpholde the wretched worlde in the moste execrable vyces of ydolatrye and buggery, to remain the wycked mēbers of that great cytie whicheMēbers. the holy Ghost calleth Sodome and Egypte. Apocal.ii.

None authoryte hauehave these vowes and thys priesthod of the holy scrypturs, though they a thousande tymes allege for them: vouere & reddite. Psa.lxxv. for vouere in that place pertayneth nomore to their vnwining state, thā doth reddere there to the office of theyr massynge priesthode. Uowes in thatUowes. kynde, are not of fayth, but of supersticion, not of Christs doctrine, but of the Paganes fables. Marke the folyshnesse of them, whē they are of things impossible. Who can pro myse to do myracles & perfourme it at hys pleasure? who can vowe that hys hear shall not growe, nor his nayles increase, and fulfyll it in effecte? Nomore can they do to lyue chaste, onlesse the Lorde geue it, whyche he neuer doeth in causes vnnecessary. An office was thys practised priesthode, not of God,Of boeth. but of ydols, and that kynde of vowynge, an inuencion of the olde Paganes for theyr vestals and monials. So that an offycein ydolatrye is the priesthode, and the vowe y^t they cal of theyr chastyte, a seruyce of prodigiouse buggery, muche detested of sainctPrestes. Paule. Roma. i. In Christ we hauehave a priesthode, so many as beleue in hym and are regenerate. i. Petri. ii. & Apocal. v. why shuld that false priesthod of Antichrist, depryue vsus therof, for theyr oylynges and sha…ynges, & conuerte vsus into a layte, to geue place to that deuilrye?

Is darkenesse aboue lyght, vnryghteousnesse aboue ryghteousnesse, or Belial aboue Christ? Oh breake down these gates of Gaza and buyldinges of helle, lyke a myghtye stronge Samson, & from hens fourth sufferSamson. no suche fylthye orders to be geuen in your realme. In some places of the olde testamēt is thys vsurped presthode called the presthod of Baal. iii. Reg. xviiii. & Hier. xxiii and in some places the presthode of Bel, Daniel xiiii. Esai. xlvi. In the newe testamente, the massynge presthode, whych…is the synnefull synke and confuse Chaos of all ydolatrye▪ Chaos.was reared vppe by the Deuyls generall vycar, the bawdy byshop of Rome, and put in full strengthe, Sathan ones sett at large after hys thousande yeares inprisonment. Apocalip. xx. Marke the procedynges of pope helhounde or Hildebrande, p. votherwyse called Gregorie the. vii. whyche first deposed priestes that had wyues, and enacted in the general synode at Rome, that none shulde be admitted to that massing ordre, vnlesse he professed the lyfe sodomyticall vndre a contrary tytle of chastite, inProfessiō. the yeare of our Lorde a. M. lxxiiii. Neuer were they able afore that daye, of their lytle cakes to make thē pratye goddes by their transubstanciacions▪ nor yet to brynge the blynde people in a madnesse to worshypp them.

As it was wyth the presthode of the olde ydolatours, so was it in continuan̄ce wyth thys massynge presthode of Antichriste. For the Egypcyanes whyche were the first authoursEgypci… of the false religion, wold neuer admyt anye man to their presthode, that had not bene nousled vp from hys youth in the rules of that moste fylthie ydoll Priapus. Whych baudy custome is not onelyonly receyued of the Romysh church, but also wyth al dylygente loking on, both maynteyned & religiously obserued. None may be admytted to their whorysh orders, that hath not those instrumentes, whereby men are knowne to be men, no, not the great Priapus of RomePriapus. his own persō. Though they professed hipocritically a perpetual abstinēce frō lawfull generacion, yet were they not all wythoute theyr vnlawfull remedies, when the vnquē cheable heates came vponupon them. The bysshops had theyre dedicated ladyes and madames, the monkes theyr veyled mo…yals, the chanōs theyr professed nonnes, y^• frpresProuision theyr religiouse systers, the great cathedrall churches, mynsters, & colleges, had stues at theyr very gates, besydes all theyr other more then beastly occupyinges, not wyth a comely honeste to be named.

These. ii. horryble mōsters, the Romishe Popes priesthode, and the vowe of hys boryshe buggerye, whyche hath fylled all the whole world wyth so many ydolatries, sorceryes, aduoutries, lecheries, …odometries,Frutes. tyrannies, trayteries, sediciōs, cōspiracies, and innumerable treasons, hath not bene so noyouse and hurtefull to the christen cōmen welth, but it hath styll to thys day very earnest vpholders & mayntainers, not onelyonly of the clergye, but also of the laytie, not of the meaner sorte of men, but of them that wyll be cheche mate wyth the beste at home in theyr shyres or contrayes, as appeareth byProued. thys treatyse folowynge. I therfore exhorte your excellent maiestie in the bowels of Iesu Christ, as ye vndoubtedly intēd the glory of God and welth of your christē Realme, not only to remoue thys vow & thys priesthode, p. vihence, but also clerely to abolysh theyr names wyth the name of theyr fyrst founder the byshopp of Rome. Suffre not the tytleNopriests of a priest to remayne wythin your christen domynion, nor yet the note of that buggery vowe, but awaye wyth them both, as with the moste pestilente poysons that euer inhabyted here.

If holy S. Paul wylled fornycacion not ones to be spoken of among the Ephesians, Ephes. v. lette not these two, much greaterii. euils. euils, which hath bredde and brought forth so exceadyng manye myschyefes, dwell styl among your people to theyr deadly corruptynge. Sende them agayne to Rome, from whēce they came first of al, to theyr pōpose patryarke, and permytte them no longer to mayntayne hys cursed cattell here. Lete the one beare away the other, the blinde priesthodeCatell. the lame vowe, and lete them trudge hence apace, tyll they come to theyr maister of myschief. And lete theyr names be as ody ble to your maiesties liege people, as theyr frutes hath bene execrable and wicked, els are ye neuer lyke to hauehave quietnesse wythin youre owne lande. Accompte not hym forEnemy. your maiesties faythfull subiecte, that here a after shall support them or defende them by any kynde of false doctryne, for in the ende ye shall not fynde hym a faythfull subiecte.

The testament of Christ hath names sufficientNames. for the mynysters of hys congregacion, as preaching byshoppes, superintendentes, watche men, pastours, euāgelistes, instructours, elders, deacons, stewards of his misteries, and suche other lyke, though we horowe not these blasphemouse tytles of Antichriste.

Rote oute these temple chaplaynes and aulter prestes, from the multitude of youre people in the English and Irishe churches, for those prestes were neuer lyke the prestesBorowed of the Lord, thoughe they borowed of them both dysgyfinges and obseruacions in outward apearaunce, but lyke the false prestes of the pdolatrouse nacyons. The Lord hath promysed to dispatche the shauen Madya…ytes, Hiere. ix. and those priestes whom he vtterly forbad to shaue their crounes, Leui.…hauen. xix. & . xxi. Deuter. xiiii. & Ezech. xliiii. be you a faythful and earnest minister in executing that Godly offyce. Destroye the male stues (as is sayd afore) wythin your owne lande, as dyd noble kyng Asa. iii. Reg. xv. Breake downe the buggery places in the house of y^e …orde, as dyd good kynge Iosias. iiii. Reg.Iosias. xxiii. And dryue out of the tēple, the unlawfull byers and sellers, with Iesus the sonne of God, Luc. x. Delyuer youre people, lyke a valeaunte Moyses, from the manifolde p. viibondage of that Babylon and Egypte, that they may stede fastly stande and perseuer in the fredom, wherunto Christ hath most gracyously called thē. I bes…che the almightie God to preserue your excellēt maiestie, andPrayer. to gyde you alwayes in hys true feare and louelove, to prospere yow in longe lyfe to hys pleasure, and to sende yow euermore ouer his cruell enemies and yours, triumphaunt victory, to the glory of his holy name & confort of yont faythfull subiectes.

☞ So be it.