The Pageant of Popes, Translator to the reader

The Pageant of Popes · Translator to the reader

The translatour to the Reader.

IT maye be (gentle Reader) that when thou shalt in this booke reade many monstrous & horrible histories rather to be suppressed thē put in print, thou wilt not thincke well of my trauayle. I graūt that here are manye thinges vttered odious to be heard: but yet if any thing offend thy chas…e eares, blame not me gentle Reader but y^e importunitye of y^e Papistes, who hath forced me thus to displaye their treachery. For wher as their doctrine is so on all sides wounded and foyled by the force of y^e Gospell, that they hauehave no shift to vphold their treachery as men euidētlye conuinced and condemned by lawe and iustice, now are they compelled to practise some pollicy, seing they are spoyled both of the word and the sword. And for want of better practise their onelye shifte is by spreading open other mens infirmities to couer their owne, by lifting vp the leude liues of the Protestants to the vewe of all men, to shadow the horrours of their Church, in somuch that their outcryes are growne so great, that these spitefull speaches are often and dayly heard vponupon euerye occasion: Lo these are oure Protestants: Such are oure Gospellers: to such miserye and wickednes is the worlde growne since this new doctrine came among vsus: ye maye see by their fruite what their Religion is. So outragious are the outcryes y^t they make against vsus to discredite not vsus but our Gospel, as though the defacing of vsus by our sinnefull liues, were a confutacion of oure doctrine, and an approuing of their innocencye, and a confirmation of theyr vnclenlye dregs to be pure and good. So vehement are their speaches, and y^t with such confidence on their partes, as if both theyr doctrine were on all sides true, and that the spirit of God had cleane forsakē this age, as if the like wickednes had neuer tainted any kind of men so haynously as it doth the professours of the Gospell, and as though sinne were but newe borne among men and latelye sprong vp wyth the Gospell: and as thoughe that the tree whereon their doctrine is grafted (the Church of Rome I meane) had neuer yelded any rotten fruite, had neuer any catterpillers breeding in it, neuer any cankar corrupting it, but had euer bin greene, fresh and flourishing, pure and perfite in euerye leafe, braunche and twig. Therefore concerning vsus and concerning them I will speake of both.

And first as concerning our selues (God be merciful vntounto vsus myserable sinners) we hauehave al runne astray, If we say we hauehave no sinne we deceyue our selues and the truth is not in vsus: There is not one y^t doth good no not one. And if any Papist, Turke or infidel charge vsus to be sinnefull men although we professe a pure Gospell, we will acknowledge it, and neuer like the worse of them for so sayinge, nor the better of our owne infirmityes. Nowe concerning the Papistes, if they speake of our sinnes for that they hate sinne in vsus, they do vsus no wronge, we accept it and thancke them for it: But if they laye the rebuke of our sinnes vponupon y^e glorious Gospel of Christ which we professe, & if they meane by defacing vsus to discredite it (as I hauehave sayde before) then do they offer great iniurye to the Maiesty of God, when as they say that by our deedes it appeareth, as by the fruite y^t the tree is not good, that the Gospell which we professe is not perfite. Wee cannot and may not suffer it that the perfitnes of the Lawe should be tryed and condemned by the offence of the giltye: that the truth of Christe should depend vponupon the workes of sinners, that eternall heauen should be valued by fading earth, that the most perfite iustice and equitye of the most glorious God, should be measured & esteemed by the frailtye of corruptible flesh & bloud. And therfore as we do not and dare not presume to confirme the certainty of our doctrine by our good deedes be they neuer so perfite, but rather confirme oure good deedes to be good by our doctrine: so should oure aduersaryes deale vprightly with vsus, not to condemne our doctrine by our euil deedes, but rather condemne our euill deedes by our doctrine, which beinge pure and perfite shal condemne both our wickednes and theyrs, together with theyr wicked and detestable doctrine.

God forbid that the tryall of true religion should lye eyther vponupon oure vprighte conuersation or theirs, least if it laye in mans perfection both the Iewe and the Turke mighte eyther of them soner boast of it thē eyther of vsus. The wysedome of God hath not so builded his Church vponupon sande. If it were founded vponupon the workes of man, then should his Church neuer stand neyther by them nor by vsus. We are but feeble and windshaken pillers vnable to vnderprop and beare such a waight, & therfore how so euer they build theyr Church, we build not ours on our selues, but we build both it and our selues vponupon that vnmoueable rocke Iesus Christe, and therefore how soeuer the winde and weather do shake vsus and ouerthrowe vsus throughe our owne weakenes, yet our foundation abydeth sure, and doth neyther fall nor flyt awaye but abydeth so for euer, y^t we may be still raysed and set vp on the same againe. Deceitfull therefore is theyr dealing, who to withdraw men from our Church, do vniustlye saye that when we fall, our foundation falleth also: but most iustlye maye wee ass…re men that theyr Babilonicall building must needes come to decaye, being founded on the sande of Tiber banckes, which is daylye washed and eaten awaye. How can that foundation stand which is made of earth and claye, dust and ashes, of fleshe, bloud and bones: of Popes miters, Cardinals hats, Monkes hoodes, Fryers cooles, Nonnes veales, shauen crownes, paxes, beades, tapers and crosses, annoyntings and greazings, blessings, kisshings, images of mettall, woode, glasse and stone, holye oyle, holye creame, albes, vestments, palls, coapes, rotchets, surplices, tippets, coyfes, chrismes, mantel & the ringe, sensinges, pilgrimages, offrings, creeping to crosses, Wenefreds nedle, the bloud of Hailes, fasting dayes, holye dayes, imber dayes, crogiers, polaxes, dirges, exorsims, coniurings, masses, trentals, holye water, Purgatorye saints relicks, S. Fraūcis breeches, Limbo patrū, s. Iohn shorns bootes, the roode of Chester, our Lady of Walsingam, rotten boones, shrines, and a thousande such apishe toyes, which daylye (as they themselues perceiue) do putrifye rotte and consume to nothing. Seing therefore this foundation wyll not last to vphold their Babilonicall buildinges against the assaultes of the Gospell, therefore now they will hauehave the tryall of doctrine to lye vponupon the honesty of men, and herein they make the world beleeue that they hauehave a great aduauntage ouer vsus.

Seing they will needes driue vsus to this plonge and seeke hereby to foyle vsus and vtterlye to ouerthrow our foundation, we wil be contente herein also to ioyne issue with them, not as hauinge affiaunce in oure owne iustice (the Lorde amende that which is amisse in vsus, and blessed be his name for those sparkes of his mercye that hauehave preserued vsus from beinge worse then we are) but because we hauehave such experience of their treacherye, and that we know none shalbe comparable to Antichriste in iniquitye. To set aside therefore all excusing of our selues in such matters as they do slaunder vsus, and graūt that we be as euill as they make vsus, yet I dare bouldlye auouche that there hath not hetherto nor euer shall (I trust) proceede from vsus such vnmeasurable aboundance of corrupt fruite, as hath done from those y^t are the best, the most pure and perfits on theyr side, euen in those who they saye cannot erre, that are the most holye vicars of Christe vponupon earth, namelye the holye fathers Popes & bishops of Rome. Whose notorious villanyes from time to time swelled to the full and perfite measure of iniquitye, and so farre runne beyond our haynous sinnes, that supposing they dyed as they liued, I may bouldly warrant them this preferment, that if an hundreth of the rankest helhounds that euer raigned vponupon the earth might be mustred out of hell, fourescore and nineteene of them should be Popes, perhaps for the last & hundred place, eyther VVolsey or some other Cardinall would scuffle in among them.

Whereof that thou mayest the better iudge (gentle Reader) I do here giuegive thee in this booke a little taste of theyr vnsauorye liues, I hauehave set them all forth here in one Pageante in such order as they played theyr Papall partes both Tragicall and Comicall for these Thousand yeares vponupon this worldly stage: wherein I hauehave chosen rather to translate them as they were gathered in Latin by maister Bale most faithfullye, then to follow the parcial and flattering storye of Platina. In some places also I hauehave added diuers thinges out of sondrye authors, not as thoughe I desired to make perfite in all pointes that which maister Bale omitted: but because in conferringe his alleaging of storyes, I found manye thinges that without anye combraunce might be added and were worth the mentioning, especiallye in y^e sixt booke of this historye out of one Theodoricus of Nyem Secretarye to Pope Vrban the sixt, and wrote that which he sawe of that myserable and longe sciesme that set all the world together by y^e cares the space of xxxix. yeares, betweene Vrban the sixte, Clement the seuenth, Boniface the ix, Benedict the xiii. otherwyse called Iohn Moone, and other: which booke I am sure maister Bale neuer saw, for he would neuer hauehave omitted such notable and straunge matters as are contayned in it, and are here partlye touched by mee.

Also for so much as these prelates do falsely colour al their prācks vnderunder the authoritye of S. Peters name, therfore I hauehave somwhat at large in the beginning shewed, how that thoughe they would hauehave him to play the first part in this Pageant, yet he is none of their cō pany. But because of the sodaine finishing of this worke in y^e printers hande, I am forced in this Preface to leaue out many matters which I thought to hauehave vttered, which I could neuer finde conueniente leasure to be setled in one certaine place, in suche wyse as I might apply my selfe to write that which I purposed since this was finished and came to the hande of the Printer. At this time therefore this onelye I hauehave to request of thee (gentle Reader) till God shal giuegive me better oportunitye to finishe that order which I purposed in publishing this booke, to marke as thou readest how the manner of these Prelates do agree to the description of Antichrist in the Reuelation, as I once purposed to hauehave noted vntounto thee. Marke whether we that at this daye do professe the Gospel, and are so much noted of their freinds to transgresse haynouslye in our conuersation, are to be compared with these holye Popes in anye kinde of enormitye. For what villanye is it whereof thou shalt not finde such monstrous examples among them, as the earth neuer els bread the like. It were tedious for mee here to drawe into tables the examples of their vnsaciable couetousnes, their bribery, polling & pilfringe, robbing and ryfling, vntollerable pride, equal with the ambition of Lucifer, their vaine and vnspeakable pompe, theyr whoredome and rauishinge of diuers, their incest with their owne sisters & doughters, their Sodomityes, treasōs practised against all Princes on y^e earth, the rebellions, seditions, bloudshed, warres, conspiracyes, murtherings, factions, sciesmes, braules, contentions amonge them selues, poysoninge Princes, & themselues one another, euen in mynistring the Sacramentes, theyr sorcerye, charmes, coniurings, familiaritye with deuils, and honouring of euill spirites: their abusing of Princes most slauishlye, theyr geuing, transporting, selling, setting vp and deposinge of all estates Empyres and kingdomes, theyr licensing of all villanye, as murthering, incest, Sodomitrye, periurye, blasphemye, and an hundred such like moste detestable enormityes, whereof thou shalt hauehave plenty euē to the loathing of thy stomacke. Which when thou seest, then iudge betweene oure fruites and theirs, then learne to discerne who is that whore of Babilon,Apoc. 17.Rev 17 the woman arayed in Purple and rose colour, and decked wyth gould, precious stones and pearles, hauing the cup of gould in her hand full of abhomination and filthines. Note what Citye is like to be that Babilō built on seuen hilles, & bearing rule ouer the Nations of the earth, What Citye is like to be that Babilon that is become the habitacion of deuils, the hole of all foule spirites, and a cage of all vncleane and hatefull byrdes. Note wyth whom the kinges of the earth hauehave cō mitted fornication, and with the aboundance of whose pleasures the marchauntes of the earth are become riche. Note who it is that hath bin dronken wyth the bloude of saintes, if by these thou finde y^t these tokens of Antichrist be in these bishops of Rome, then surelye saye, thoughe wee wretched sinners be as euill as they make vsus in deede (which they speake so much of) yet their holy fathers are farre worse, which the Papist wyll not confesse. Then saye that surelye Rome is Babilon, and the Pope Antichriste, and blame not mee for detectinge anye his loathsome villanyes, but obeye the voyce of the Lord against th…s Babilon saying:Apoc. 18.Rev 18 Come avvaye from her my people that yee be not partakers of her sinnes, and that ye receiue not of her plagues. &c. but revvard her as she hath revvarded you, And giuegive her double according to her vvorkes.

Apoc. 19.Rev 19Finallye let vsus all saye Alleluya: Saluation, Glorye, Honour and povver be ascribed vntounto the Lorde oure GOD, for true and righteous are his Iudgements, for he hath iudged the great vvhore vvhichwhich did corrupt the earth vvith her fornication. &c. Alleluya.

Farewell.