A Mystery of Iniquity Disclosed and Confuted, Part 11
A mysterye.
1 Next after this vvhelpe Came in to helpe.
2 One Oecolampadius / Vvith his brother zvinglius.
¶The openinge. 1.
KNowlege I thynke verye small hath Pantolabus of y• godlye lerned menne whom here he rayleth vponupon in his folysshe iest / and that apereth by the vndiscrete ordre therof. For here he reporteth Oecolampadius and zwinglius to come after Melanchton in the mayntenaunce of that doctryne. Where as they were auncyēt men whan Melanchton was but a chylde / & were promoters of the Lordes veryte whan he knewe nothynge of yt. And therfore the mā ne is wele ouerseane in the matters he taketh in hande. Before was Melanchton a lymme of Luther / and now he is become a whelpe / but we knowe not wherof. Dogges / cattes / and all will be lytle ynough ere we hauehave done I feare me / to make a wys… ende of oure genealogye. We fare syke him that putt to his cart both his bore and his sowe with pygges / whan he had not horse ynough to drawe home his haruest. Salomon calleth you the wylye whespes of the foxe which hath destroyd the vynes. Hieremye telleth you that ye hauehave broken downe the Lordes byne yarde / and troden vndre youre fete his pleas…unt possessyon / makynge his lande a wyldernesse. I maruele therfore ye regestre them not here for heretyques. Both Christ & Iohan Baptist doth call you adders whelpes and the fylthye frye of the serpent / yet hauehave you no grace to beleue yt.
2 Ioannes Decolampadius is the first of the two that ye here blaspheme / which was borne in the lande of Sueuia. This was a manne of incomparable lernynge / & a most pure professour of the Gospell. An excellent Oratour / Poete / Philosopher / Historiane / Lawer / and doctor of diuynite / throughlye expert in the Latyne / Greke / Hebrue / and Chaldie / whose innocēt lyfe no manne coude iustlye reproue. In Bononie / Hyltprunne / Heydelberge / Basyle / and Augusta was he both a common reader and also an open preacher / not without great name of his auditorye. He translated out of the Greke into the Latyne / manye workes of saynt Iohan Chrisostome / saynt Lyrillus / Athanasiꝰ / Damascenꝰ / Theophilactus / & other. More than lvi. volumes vponupon the scripturs with other treatyses compyled he / which are greatlye cōmended of them that be lerned. Moche a do he had with Iohan Faber a Suffragan and fryre / with Eckius / Empser / Cochleus Fysher of Rochestre / Latomus / Clichtoueꝰ / Pyrkeimerus / Pelargus / and diuerse other great warryours of Antichristes host / whom he answered by Apologyes / besydes his contynuall conflictes with the Anabaptistes / & other sectes. At the last he departed hence most godlye in the .liii. yeare of his age / and in the yeare from Christes incarnacyon a M. D. and .xxxi. euen the verye bewtye of Christen lernynge / whom Erasmus an other lyght of oure age / called a verye pure the…logyane.
3 Husdricus zwingliꝰ borne in the lande of Heluecia / was a manne also of moste syngular erudicyon & equall with y• other in all feates of lernynge. In all that he ded in his cōmon lecturs and preachynges / he stodyed to be brefe and playne. Neuer was ther anye that euer kynt vp more surelye / nor that sent agayne the aduersaryes dartes more sharpelye. He that shall rede his boke De prouidē cia D… / besydes his other .xxxvi. workes / shall saye yf he be lerned / that he is equall with the best that euer sett penne to paper. M…che labour he toke to extyrpe soche vyces as the p…ple of custome were geuen vntounto. For …he which at the last he suffred most cruell death in the .xlviii. yeare of his age / a M.D. and .xxxi. from Christes incarnacyon / the .xi daye of Octobre. Of them was he slayne / cutt in peces / and brent in defendynge the common welthe of his cyte / for whom he had afore taken wonderfull peynes to brynge them into the waye of ryghtuousnesse. …o these are the two bretherne that Pantolabus here rayleth vponupon in his rustycall …ymes without lernynge / wytt / and all godlynesse. Myght we not (thynke you) saye to him with Apelles? Come downe ser sowter / and holde ye styll to youre last. Be contented with youre homblye occupacyon / and meddle not with that which is beyonde youre compas.