A Mystery of Iniquity Disclosed and Confuted, Part 19
A mysterye.
1 Next of this secte That vvas suspecte.
2 Vvas one Lamberte A manne peruerte.
3 And almost vvood.
4 Probauerunt habere Deum in notitia, tradidit illos Deus in reprobum sensum. Rom. 1.
¶The openinge. 1.
SEryouslye hath Pantolabus sought his wyttes here / to clowte vp his Genealogie with sumwhat. But I maruele moche that for .v. years space betwixt the burnynges of Iohan Frith and Iohan Lambert / he coude fynde out non els for his purpose. His bloodye generacyon of mytred mahoundes and their shauen sergeaūtes / were not wonte to be so longe vnoccupyed. His holye mother (whom saynt Iohan reporteth to be droncke in the blood of martyrs) was not wonte to fast so longe from that drynke / but wolde coole her hote thirst ere that tyme / hauynge so fyerye a stomake / wele I wote that manye than suffred at London / Colchestre / Hadleye / Ippeswyck / Norwyche / Lynne / and in other more places of Englande. Good Wyllyā Tyndale was done to death also at Vylforde in Braban within the same years / by the procurement of youre craftye Cayphases / in the yeare of oure Lorde a M. V. and .xxxv. in the monethmonth of Septembre And therfore I wondre they escaped youre hande. This maketh vsus to thynke that ye entended of these onlye with those that here foloweth to iest at youre pleasure / vponupon soche malyce as ye had agaynst them conceyued. Sure are you to be of soche a secte / as will worke lyttle goodnesse. Lete menne suspect of you what they will / but these popyshe poesyes of yours smell knauyshlye / whan ye can fynde out non other heretyques but these alone / of so manye Popes / poyseners / trayters / sorcerers / Sodomites / scysmatyques / and pestylent papistes as hath bene / and are yet styll to this daye.
2 Because ye are here in hande with Lambert / I will saye sumwhat for him / for I knewe his cōuersacyon. The truthe of it is / he was sumtyme a prest of youre generacyon / called syr Iohan Nycols / and was borne in the cyte of Norwyche. After that he had in Cambryge geuen himselfe to good letters / and became sumwhat expert both in the Latyne and the Greke / at the preachynges of the good menne Arthure and Bylneye / he toke repentaunce of his former lyfe. And after that the kynge by his lawfull offycers had taken of him an othe to renounce the Pope as a false vsurper / he threwe from him that Antichristes yoke with his lyuerye and marke to shewe himselfe throughlye obediēt Than leauyng papistycall customes / he enbraced the Gospell for his lyfes direccyon / & lyued otherafter a vertuouse Christen lyfe / which you iudge here a lyfe peruert / soche is youre owne Englyshe terme. This wolde I not wryte so manyfestlye / yf I knewe it not for a certente. Where as he was before an ydell Massemonger and an hater of the scripturs / he became than a fauorer and folower of them. yea / he taught them vntounto other and lyued his selfe accordynge to the same. Manye Christen instruccyons wrote he to his bretherne / & brought vp their chyldren in all vertu. Dyuerse workes of Erasm…s / and of other good authors more / translated he into the vulgar Englyshe tonge to the Christen commodyte of other.
3 And whereas Pantolabus wryteth him here to be a manne almost woode / for that he was not in fayth and opinyon to his folyshe mynde agreable. He declareth himselfe to be of lyke iudgement with those relygyouse curates of the Iewes Synagoge / which reported Iohan Baptist to be a madde manne for his abstinence / and Christ to be a dronckarde for his good felyship kepyng. But lete him not thynke easlye to auoyde this slaunderouse report before the eternall iudge / vnlesse he repent in tyme. What so euer thu art (sayth saynt Paule) that iudgest an other / this shalt thu be sure of forthyne owne part / to condemne thyselfe / perfourmynge the same selfe thynges that thu condemnest him of. Moche more than / yf it be left in wrytynge / as this outragyouse slaundre is / that he was a manne peruert and almost wood. Though I and soche other which hauehave redde ouer Pantolabus iest here / ded not iudge him a fellawe of a peruerse opinyon and doctryne / and a Bedlem beast more than madde / the seyd iest it selfe wolde do it for vsus. Therfore lete him not saye that we iudge him agayne here / for his owne fylthye frutes declareth him. How abhomynably the scripturs are here peruerted for a trayterouse popyshe purpose / to vpholde the fylthye kyngedome of Antichrist / it will be euydent to him that shall serche the places.
4 Now cometh here one in / borowed of y• first chapter of saynt Paule to the Romanes Marke the good workemanlye handelynge (I praye ye) therof. Sicut non probauerunt (sayth he) hab ere Deum in notitia / tradidit …llos Deus in reprobrum sensum. As they hauehave not regarded to knowe their lord god / so hath he geuen them ouer into a lewde mynde. And what is this text to the purpose to proue that Iohan Lambert was a manne peruert and almost wood? This is there a conclusyon of an olde stynkynge matter of yours goynge but a lyttle afore / and therfore lete it not be left so cowardlye behynde you. Relicto naturali vsu femine / exarserunt in desyderiis suis in inuicem / masculi in masculos turpitudinem operātes. They which hauehave vnrightouslye with holden the truthe of the lorde in vnrightousnesse / leauinge y• naturall vse of women / hauehave burned in lustes amonge themselues / workinge menne with menne vnspekable fylthynesse. Be ashamed wretches / be ashamed / and bestowe ones the scripturs whereas they shuld be bestowed. Lerne to amende yowr abhominable lyuinge / and leaue to blaspheme the poore innocētes by them. For yf ye can no rightlyar bestowe them / trulye yf yowr wrytinges come to owr handes / we shall teache yow the right waye / bycause yowr own shepeherdes are slacke.