A Mystery of Iniquity Disclosed and Confuted, Part 22
A mysterye.
… But lyke a fole He vvas set at scole.
… By a dyuyne For to declyne.
3 This prono vvne hoc.
4 Hoc est corpus meum. Matth. 26.
¶The openinge. 1.
WOrshyplye doth this Poete bestowe his wyttes here / yf ye marke him wele / flatterynglye fawnynge vponupon some great pyller of his churche for a vaun…age / though it be not vponupon his good lorde of Wynchestre. A common custome is it of these vayne hypocrites and ydell wytted papistes / to cloyne with all craftye colours and ingyns possyble for to crepe into the fauer of those that the worlde lawheth vponupon. Wo be vntounto you false prophetes (sayth Ezechiel) that some pyllowes vndre mennys arme holes and bolsters vndre their heades / to catche sowles with all for lucre. Moche better (sayth Salomon) are the strypes of a louer / than the frawdelent kysses of a flatterer. More profyght is it to be chastened of a wyse manne / than to be deceyued by the lawhynge of foles. Soche a false flatterer wolde not Dauid regarde / but cōmaunded him strayght wayes to be slayne. By these flatterynge meters it is easye to perseyue what Pantolabus seketh here. A benefyce of my lorde to synge for butterflyes / that the profyghtes therof myght pamper him vp in all ydelnesse. And for that he hath magnyfyed his good lordeshyppe here with a lye / in reportynge him to proue Lambert a fole in the disputacion of their sacrament / and to sett him agayne to scole to declyne this pronowne hoc. But I feare me they will proue foles both / his good lorde and he / ere the matter be fullye ended.
2 The diuynite of this great diuyne of his / will scarselye apere good sophistrye or yet simple gramer after olde Alexanders rewles / be it ones tryed by the scripturs. I thynke it be no better than course legerdemayne / for all these gloriouse glauerynges. Diuinare is sumtyme to gesse at a venture / and thervpon (I suppose) he calleth him here a diuyne / and not for anye truthe he hath vttered therin / or in anye other godlye matter els as yet. Not onlye is this great pyller of holye churche thus regestred here of Pantolabus in this his genealogie of heresye / that he shulde be good lorde vntounto him in an other matter / as yf a benefyce fell that he myght be preferred for this his good zele / but also his good diuynite is putt in here with him. The nature of this dowtye diuynite is to stande moche in the declynynge of pronownes / as he hath here full poeticallye described it. This was in the olde tyme but boyes playe in the gramer scoles / and now it is taken vp for hygh diuynite in the consistorye scoles of the papistes / to proue Christ reallye and substanciallye present in their sacrament. Lyke is it to be no small matter for menne to be burned for / are they hauehave done with it / that hath so substancyall proues or argumentes. Necessarye is it to declyne a pronowne wele / for him that will knowe the mysterye therof after their meanynge. Now forsoth here is godlye Christen lernynge crept latelye into Englande for the mayntenaunce of their newe Christen beleue.
3 Sumwhat must these braggynge hypocrites hauehave alwayes to blynde with the eyes of the simple / which neuer seketh oute their wyles. So folyshe are they that they nothynge els beleue / but that they hauehave in falsehede taught them / as the blynde with the blynde so fallynge into the dytche. Here is it boasted of Pātolabꝰ that his good lorde of Wynchestre that greate diuyne proued lambert an heretyque with this pronowne hoc. The sentence that Christ spoke at his last supper amonge his disciples and bretherne / had neyther hic nor hoc / for it was in the Hebrue speche which hath neyther of both. Wherefore the declynynge of hoc maketh nothynge at all for the tryall of anye veryte therin. More to the purpose had the comparynge or conferrynge of that Latine pronowne with panis or with corpus bene / than the declyn…nge therof. That is yet all togither to folyshe. I put Wynchestre and Pantolabus the case / that the Hebrue hath not the newtre gendre / as it hath not in dede. How will they thā with their newe diuinite declyne their pronowne hoc? I thinke both their wittes wyll scarselye wele serue them / hauinge no better helpe thā themselues. Erasmꝰ saith also in his annotacions / that this verbe substantyue est / is not in the Greke nomore than it is in the Hebrue. I maruele how they wolde handle this matter also yf they shuld grāmaticallye declyne it. It is a worlde (they saye) to heare foles prate whan they be vponupon their alebenche.
4 Now cometh forth the text / that must make vp all their market / yf it be not all togither ageynst thē / which is to be feared. We fynde not in y• Gospell neyther of Matthew Marke / nor Luke / nor yet in Paule to the Corinthes / that Christ breathed vponupon y• bread whan he seyd / Hoc est corpus meum. For all they make mensyon that it was out of his handes and delyuered to his Apostles befor he spake those wordes. Therfor that breathinge of yowrs vponupon the breade / is but a newe sounde toye of yowr owne sorcerye / to make men beleue that ye are great doers by the vertu of yowr oylinges and shauinges. He gaue thankes in dede vntounto God his father but the wordes of his thankesgeuinge (which were the wordes of his consecraciō) he lest not here be hinde him / soryow to df yowr feates with. For he knewe yow subty…e worke menne. ye hauehave alwayes a craftye custome (for your occupaciō is nothinge els but crafte) to gelde yowr scriptures of so moche as ye thinke shuld discouer yow. Quod pro vobis tradetur / had as good place and was as wele allowed in Christes consecracion (as yow falselye take it) as had Hoc est corpus meū. And I thinke verely that y• one declareth the other after his meanyng / but not after your subtile meaning for your aduā tage. He called that his body that shuld be betrayed for thē / now construe you y• rest because yeare so cōning in construcciōs. By as clarkely diuinite as you do vse here / a māne might axe yow whether ye call that hoc of yowrs / this or that? As this is my bodye wt sitteth / or that is my bodye which ye hauehave eaten. For he badde them both take and eate / and paused sumwhat after / before he sayd This is my bodye which shall be betrayed for yow.