A Mystery of Iniquity Disclosed and Confuted, Part 27
A mysterye.
1 But euermore By meane of ambycyon Ded so vve sedycyon.
2 He sayd certayne In vvordes playne.
3 It coude not be founde That vve vvere bounde.
4 To be obedient.
5 Vir apostara iurgia seminat. Sap. 6.
The openinge. 1.
YDyotyshe and folyshe are youre poesyes euermore and full of blasphemose lyes. Malyciouslye accuse ye here doctor Barnes of ambicion / which soughte nothynge lesse than ambiciouslye to regne after that maner of youre proude modye mustre. Where as Ambicion is in his most pryde / there fynde ye no fawte with him. But there ye worshyp him with cappe / legge / and knee / and wolde kysse his arse to please him. To currye fauell he shall be youre singular good lorde / and a prelate most wyse and pregnaūt / though he hauehave nomore godlye wytt than an ape. Thus at a tyme Ambicion shall be youre God / and yet to rebuke an other / ye can take him for a vyce. Oh vngodlye flatterer and false glosynge hypocrite. Lerne first to se that vyce / where it is most depelye regnyng / and correcte it in yours selfe whan ye playe soche an hypocrites part. For all youre crepynge and crowchyng to soche ydolouse shepeherdes / is for that swete Ambicion whom youre hart so sore coueteth. And as concernynge sedicions and scysmes. Not one hath bene in Christendome notable these D.CCC. yeares / but youre false generacion hath bene therin the chefe doers / as all the Chronicles mencioneth. What myschefe ye ded ones in the cyte of London in kynge Rychardes tyme the seconde abought an horse lofe / it is shame yet to reherse / besydes that ye hauehave wrought there & in other quarters of Englande euer sens that tyme.
2 He that doth speake the thynge that is true and certayne / & without false colours of cauteles doth vtter it in wordes playne / is moche better occupyed than euer were you yet. For that which you hauehave taught in the churche and yet do styll teache daylye / so but the verye doctryne of deuyls / so vncertayne and vntrue as they are. Nothynge els are youre histories of the Saintes but fables / lyes / and fantasyes taken out of Legenda aurea made by fryre Iames de voragine. The promyses that ye make to the people concernynge youre Masses / that some of them shuld be wholsom for the poxe / somme for the pestylence / somme for the ague / somme for the headake / somme for y• f…wle euyll and soche other / are false and abhominably practysed of you to deceyue the simple for moneye. And lyke wyse youre frydaye fastynges / ladyes psalters / and rosaryes / with bedes / primers / py…turs / candels / holye waxe & other wytcherye more. Neuer are the swete promyses of the Gospell made playne vntounto the people by you / but darkened euermore with youre hypocrites gloses. Neyther will ye entre into the kyngedome of God youreselues / nor yet suffre anye other that wolde gladlye entre. All youre stodye is to vpholde those mytred Mahometes the Bisshoppes to maynteyne you styll in the kyngedome of fleshlye ydelnesse. And for that ye care not how manye Christen sowles ye murther.
3 As connynge as ye make ye in fyndynge / ye shewe youre selfe here but a false and a deceytfull sercher. ye saye first to Barnes charge that he sowed sedicion. This is no newe thynge in you / but an olde vsed practyse in youre craftye generacion. Of sedicion was Christ accused by the hyghe Prestes / yet caused they Barrabas that was the sedicion worker and a murtherer also / by their instaunt labour to be saued. Paule was complayned of to the debyte Felix to be a commocion maker / not without the false counsell of the Bisshoppe Ananias / yet was he a manne most peceable and godlye. Happye is Robert Barnes therfore with them so to be noted of. the same selfe sort. Playne are his wordes good manne / in all the workes he hath made / cōcernynge obediēce dewe both to God and to his prince. In all his wrytynges can not I fynde one clause of disobediē ce to eyther of them. Manifestlye declared he his obedience towardes God / in that he for his truthes sake forsoke all worldlye estimacion that he myght …ele hauehave had / & at the latter ende gaue his lyfe for it also. And as touchynge the kynges mageste / his large supplycacion vntounto him directed / is a sufficient wtynesse therof towardes him / besydes y• boke which he wrote vntounto him in Latine cōcernynge the lyues of the Romishe Popes. But it will here after apete some other obedience that Pantolabꝰ complayneth of / than eyther of these be.
4 I perseyue by the circumstaunce of this matter / that the holye obediēce which Pantolabꝰ meaneth here / that coude not be founde out of Barnes / smelleth towardes Rome. For it is a spirituall obedience belongynge onlye to his mother holye churche / which is no congregacion of the lewde layte / but of spirituall prelates / as his holye father the Pope with all his college of carde makers / arche byteshepes / and byteshepes / dockers / presters / and currates. These are the hyghe powers that he speaketh of here after / to whom he wolde hauehave vsus so sore bounde to be obedient in peyne of deadlye synne / because that his honorable mastershyp myght be loked vponupon also as a ryght worshypfull curat… amonge them / concernynge his tythes & offerynges. For it is an yll worlde whan the people will not knowe their dewtye to h… lye churche. A great decaye is it to their holye mother that the cursynge sentence is gone. This was the obediēce that doctor Barnes coude neuer fynde in all the scripturs / & therfore meanes were sought out to hauehave him brent for an heretyque without examinacion of his articles. Where as yf he had acknowledged this / he had bene styll a lyue. Thus playe these Romishe gentylmenne / colle vndre the candelstick / cloynige vndre craftye colours to clought vp their false kingedom of deuyllishnesse ageyne yf it may be The subtilte of the serpent is not yet all dead / but lyeth styll lurkinge in their generacion / to worke all myschefes.
5 Scripturs hauehave we non of this wretched Papyst / but eyther they are wrasted / hacked / māgled / or els falselye alleged. Vir Apostata iurgia seminat / is here now brought in / whiche wanteth no lessethan .xvii. wordes of the whole sentence to serue his false purpose. And to amende the matter he noteth it the .vi. Chapter of Sapience / where is it is not so / but the .vi. Chapter of Salomons Prouerbes. His concordaunce there deceyued him. For that onlye he sought for this text and not the Byble. And thꝰ ly…th the text there. Homo apostata vir inuitlis graditur ore peruerso / annuit oculis / terit pede / digito loquitur / prauo corde machina turmalum / et omni tempore iurgia seminat. A dissemblynge persone / a manne myndinge no goodnesse / hath all these propyrte… with him. He carryeth a deceitfull mouthe / his eyes winketh wyles / his fete traceth toyes / he pointeth with his fingars / he is alwayes Imageninge euill / and in eueryevery place cōmonlye he soweth discorde. To this ende doth not Pantalabus bringe in this text here / but onlye to proue Barnes an apostata for leauinge his fryres cote with y• Popes obedience. And in this hath he shewed himselfe here in his owne right colours / a through Papyst in dede (I will not saye a rā ke traytour) to approue my coniecture afore. Easye is it to se what lyeth in the hartes of these pestilent poyseners of the people / whā the forsakinge of a pylde frytes cote is so wayghtye a matter with them yet styll. The sequele of that Chapter ded not Pantolabꝰ marke / for his owne amendement & others. For he found it not in his cōcordaunce. Sex sunt que odit Dominus / et septimum detestatue anima eius. Sex thinges are there which the lorde hateth / and the seuenth he abhorreth without remedye. A proude loke a dissemblinge tonge / handes shedinge innocent blood / an hart Imageninge euill / fete that are swyft to do myschefe / a false lyenge wytnesse / and he that soweth discorde amonge bretherne. In this clere myrrour he might hauehave seane himselfe in the hate of God / and a great sort more of his cumpany.