The Practice of Prelates, Part 11
¶Howe they proue all theyr generall counsels.
WHen the Bysshoppes and Abbottes and other greate Prelates had forsaken Chryste and hys lyuinge, and were fallen downe before the beast the vycar of Sathan, to receaue their kyngdome of hym / then the pope called together diuerse counsels of such holy apostles, and there concluded and made of eueryevery opinion that semed proffitable / an artycle of ye fayth. If thou axe wher is the scriptur to proue it? They answere we be the church & can not erre, and therfore saye they,The churche cā not erre. what we conclude, though there be no scrypture to proue it / it is as true as the scriptur & of egall aucthoritie with the scrypture and must be beleued as well as the scryptur vnderunder payne of dampnation. For (say they) our truth dependeth not of the trueth of the scriptur that is, we be not true in our doynge because the Scrypture testifyeth vntounto vsus that we do truly: but contrary / the truth of the scripture (saye they) dependeth of vsus, that is, the scrypture is true because that we admyt it and tell the that it is true▪ For howe couldest thou knowe that it were the scrypture except we told ye so? & therfore we nede no witnesse of the scrypture for that we do, it is ynough that we so say of our owne head for we can not erre·
Which reason is lyke as though yong monkes newly professed,A similitude. shuld com by the rules of their order & ordinaunces of their olde founders and wolde go about to kepe them: & the old cankered mōkes shuld call them backe vntounto the corrupt and false maner that now is vsed, sayīg: ye er. Do only as we teach you / for your profession is to obey your Elders. According vntounto the rules of our order and ordinaunces of our founder shal they saye: We can teache you none other, shall the old monkes say / nor cā ly vntounto you, ye ought therfore to beleue vsus and to do as we byd you. The yong monkes shall answere, we se that you ly, cleane cōtrary vntounto all that is writē in our rules and ordinaunces. The old mōkes shal say ye can not vnderstande them except we expounde them vntounto you / nother yet know y• they be your rules / excepte that ye beleue y• we can not lye vntounto you. For how can ye knowe that these be your rules and ordynaūces / but as we your elders tell you so? Now whē we tell you that these be your rules ād ordinaunces howe can ye be sure vndoutedlye that it is so / excepte ye beleue vndoutedly that we can not lye? Wherfore if ye wylbe sure yt they be your rules & ordenaunces / then ye must first beleue that we can not lye. Leue such imaginations & disputations therfore and laye your rules and ordinaūces out of youre hādes and loke no more on thē, for they make you erre And come and do as we tell you / and captiuate youre wyttes and beleue that we can not lyr vntounto you, and that ye can not vnderstande your rules and ordynaunces. Euen so yf thou saye it is contrary to the scrypture: they āswere yt thou vnderstandeste it not / and that thou must captiue thy wytte ād beleue that though it seame neuer so cō trary, yet it is not contrarye: no if they determe yt christ is not risen agayn & though ye scripture testyfy y• he is rysen againe / yet (say they) they be not cōtrary, if they be wisely vnderstande. Thou must beleue / say they, y• there is some other meaning in the scripture & y• no mā vnderstādeth it: but y• we say / whether wtout scripture or agaīst it / that must thou beleue that it is true.
And thus because yt the scripture wolde not agre with them / they thrust it out of ye way fyrst, & shut vp the kingdome of heauen which is Christs gospel, with false… posicyons and with such sophistry & with false principles of naturall wisdom. And the abottes toke the scripture frō their mō kes lest some shuld ever barke against ye abottes lyuyng,the abottes kepe y• mō kes in ignoraunce, & ye bisshopes ye priestes and set vp suche longe seruyce and syngyng to werye them wyth all that they shulde hauehave no leasure to rede in the scripture but with their lippes, and made them good chere to fyll their bellyes ād to stop theyr mouthes. And the bysshops in lyke maner to occupy their priests with all, that they shulde not study the scripture for barkyng agaynste them, sett vp longe Seruyse wonderovse intricate / so that in xij. y…ares thou coudest scace learne to turne a ryght vntounto it: Long matēses, long Euen…onges, longe Masses / long Dyryges with vauntage yet to mitigate the tediousnes / quia leuis est labor cum lucro / for lucre (say they) maketh the laboure lyght: euer noselyng them in Ceremonies and in their oune cōstitucyons, decrees, ordinaū ces and lawes of holy church.
And the promises and testament which the sacrament of Christes body and bloud did preach daylye vntounto ye people, that they put out of knowlege ād say now that it is a sacryfyce for the soules of purgatorye, yt they myght the better sell their masse. And in the vniuersytes they hauehave ordened that no man shall loke on the scriyture vntyl he be noseled in heathē learning .viij. or nyne yere and armed with false principles,the cast of the vniuersities▪ with which he is clene shit out of the vnderstonding of the scripture. And at his fyrst cō mīg vntounto the vniuersitie, he is sworne that he shall not defame the vniuersytie what soeuer he seeth. And when he taketh fyrste degre / he is sworne that he shal hold none opinion cōdemned by ye church / but what such opiniōs be / yt he shall not know. And they when they be admitted to studye diuinitie, because the scripture is locked vp with such false exposicions and wyth false prīciples of naturall philosofye that they can not enter in, they go aboute the out syde and dspute all their lyues aboute wordes and vayne opinyons pertaynynge as muche vntounto the healyng of a mannes hele as helth of his soule.Prouiso Prouided yet alway / lest god geue his syngular grace vntounto any parson / that none may preach except he be admitted of the bisshopes. Thē cā Thomas de aquino & he made the pope a god with his sophystry,Saint thomas de Aquino. & the pope made him a saynct for his labour, and called him doctour sanctus, for whose holynes no man may deny what soeuer he sayth saue ī certayne places where amōg so many lyes he sayd now ād then true. And in like maner who so euer defendeth his tradicions, decrees and priuileges, him he made a sainct also for hys labour, were hys lyuyng neuer so cōtrary vntounto the scripture,Saintes. as Thomas of Canterbury with many other like whose life was like Thomas cardinalles but not Christs neyther is Thomas cardinalles life any thing saue coūtrefaytynge of sainct Thomas of canterbury. Thomas becket was first sene in marchaūdise temporall,Thomas of caunterbury. and then to learn spirituall marchaundyse, he gatt him to Theobald Archbisshop of Canterburye which sent him diuerse tymes to Rome about busines of holy church. And when Theobald had spied his actiuitie, he shore hī deacō lest he shuld go backe, & made him Archdeacon of Canterbury & vponupon yt, presented him to the kinge. And the king made him his chaūcelare in which office he passed the pompe & pryde of Thomas cardinall as farre as the ones shrine passeth the others tombe in glory & ryches. And after that, he was a mā of warre, & captayn ouer .v. or .vi. thousād men in full harnesse as bright as saīct George ād his speare in his hande ād encoū tred who soeuer cā against hī / & ouerthrew the iolyest rutter that was in al the hoste of Fraūce. And out of the feld hote frō bloud sheading was he made bisshop of Caunterburye and did put of hys helme and put on his mytre / put of his harnesse and on with his robes, and layde downe his speare and toke his crosse, yet his hādes were colde / & so cam wyth a lustye corrage of a man of warre, to fyght an other whyle against hi… prince for the pope. Where hys princes causes were with the law of God, & the popes cleane contrary. And the pōpe of hys consecratyon was after his old worldly fation. How be it yet he is made a saynte for his worshyppyng of the holy seate of sainct peter / not that seate of peter which is Christs gospell / but an other lyed to be peters, & is in dede cathedra pestilencie / a chayr of false doctrine. And because he could no skyll of oure lordes gospell he sayde of matens wt oure lady, saye they. If any mā vnderstād the laten, let hym reade his lyfe & compare it vntounto the scriptur, & thē he shal se such holynes, as were here to long to be rehersed. And eueryevery abbay & eueryevery cathedral church did shrine thē one God or other / & mingled the lyues of ye very saintes wyth starke lyes / to moue men to offre / which thyng they call deuocion.
And though in all their doinges they oppresse the tēporalty & their comē wealth, & be greuous vntounto ye rych, and paynfull to y• poore: yet they be so many & so exercised in wyles & so subtyl & so knit & sworne together yt they cōpasse ye tēporalty & make thē beare thē whether they wil or wyll not (as the euye doth the oke) partly with iugglinge, & besyde that with wordly polycy. For eueryevery abbot wyl make him yt may do most in the shyre or wyth the kynge / the stuarde of hys landes &, geue hym a fee yerely, and wyl lēd vntounto some, & feast other, yt by such meanes they do what they wyll. And lytle master parsō after the same maner, if he come into an house & the wife be snoutefaire he wil rote him self there by one craft or other: ether by vsīg such pastime as ye good man doth / or in beinge benefycyall by one waye or other, or he wyll lend hym / and so bryng hym into hys daunger, that he can not thruste hym oute when he wolde, but must be cōpelled to beare him ād to let hym be homely whether he wyll or not.