The Practice of Prelates, Part 3 – Part 4
¶What officers y• apostles ordeyned ī christes church, & what their offices wer to do.
Wherfore ye apostles folow…g & obeīg ye rule, doctrine & cōmaūdmēt of our sauiour Iesus Christ their master / ordeyned in hys kyngdome ād congregaciō two officers: One called after ye greke worde byshop, in english an ouersear: which same was called preast after ye greke, elder in ēglysh because of his age, discreciō & sadnes for he was as nygh as coulde be all waye ā elderly man: as thou seist both in the new & olde testament also, how the officers of the Iewes be called the Elders of the People / because (as thou mayst wel thynke) they were ouer old men▪ as nygh as could be. For vntounto age do men naturally obeye, and vntounto age doth god commaunde to geue honoure / sayenge: Levi. xix. Ryse vp before the horehead, and reuerence the face of the old mā And also experience of thynges and couldnesse (without which it is hard to rule wel) is more in age then in youth. And thys ouersea… dyd put hys hādes vntounto the plow of goddes worde, and fed Chrystes flocke / and tended them only without lokyng vntounto any other busynesse in the worlde.
An other officer they chose, and called hym Deacon after the greke, amynystre in english, to mynystre the almesse of the people vntounto the pore and neadye. For in the congregation of christ, louelove maketh eueryevery mās gifte and goodes comune vntounto the necessyte of hys neyghboure. Wherfore the louelove of god beyng yet hore in the hartes of men, the rych that had the substance of thys worldes goodes / brought of theyr aboundaunce grete plentye vntounto the sustentation of the poore, and delyuered it vntounto the Handes of the Deacons. And vntounto the helpe of the Deacons were wydowes of .lx. yeare olde, holy, vertuous / and destitute of frendes, chosen to tende and wayte vppon the sycke and to washe the sayntes fete that came from one Congregacion vntounto an other / whether for any busynes or for feare of Persecucyon. And these commune goodes of the churche offered for the succour of the poore, grewe in all churches so Exceadyngly / that in some cōgreg…cion it was so much that it was sufficyente to Mayntayne an hoste of men In so muche that tyrants dyd oft tymes ꝑsecute the christen for those commune goodes / as thou seist in the lyfe of. S. Laurence the deacon of Rome.
And moreouer the couetuousnes of the prelates was the decaye of chrystendome ād the encresyng of the kyngdome of Mahomette For by the first springing of the empyre of, Mahomete, the Emperoures, Kinges, and greate lordes of christendome had geuen their treasure so myghtely vntounto the church, what after great victoryes, & what at theyr deathes, that their successours were not able to mainteyne battell against the Saracenes and Turkes (for the woorlde was not yet in such captiuitie yt they coulde make theyr subiects swere on bokes what they were worth & rayse vp taxes at theyr pleasur) so that a certein wrytter of stories sayth: The prelates gaped when the laye men wolde take the warre vponupon thē agaīst the Turkes, and yt lay men loked when ye prelates wolde laye out their money to make the warre with all, and not to spend it in worse vse, as ye most part of thē were wōt to do / spendynge the moneye that was goten with almesse and bloude of marters vppon goodly place and greate vessels of golde and syluer, without care of things to come, despising God whome they worshypped for their belyes sake onelyonly and also mā. Moreouer it was the custome euen then / (sayth ye auctor) to axe what the bishopryke was worth, ye and to leaue a worse for a better or to kepe both with a vniō. And at ye same time Isacius the debitie of the Emperour, came to Rome to confirme the Pope in his se, wt the Emperours aucthoritie, for the electiō of ye pope was thē nothynge worth, except it had bene cōfirmed by ye emperour, and he founde so great treasure in the church of saynt Ihon Lateran, y• for dysdayne which he had yt they shulde hauehave such treasure in s…ore & not to helpe the emperour in his warres agaīst the Turckes seing his souldyers / lacked wages, he toke it away with violence agaīst the wyll of ye prelates, of which he exy…ed some / and payde his owne men of warre with one part & toke an other part vntounto him self, & sent the thyrde parte vntounto the Emperoure: whiche must nedes hauehave bene a great treasure in one church.
¶By what meanes the prelates fell from Chryst
THe office of a Bysshop was a roume at the begynnynge, that no man coueted and that no man durste take vppō him, saue he only which loued christ better then hys owne lyfe. For as Christ sayeth that no man myght be hys disciple, excepte that he were ready to forsake lyfe and all: euē so myght that officer be sure that it wolde coste hym hys lyfe at one tyme or an other forbearīg record vntounto the truth. But after that the multitude of the chrysten were encreased, and many great men had receau…d the fayth, than both landes and rentes aswell as the other goodes, were geuen vntounto the maintenaunce as well of the clergye as of the poore: because they gaue then no tythes to the priestes, nor yet nowe do saue in certeyne coūtreys: For it is to much to geue almesse / offeringes / landes and tythes also. And then the bysshops made thē whych they call pryest / and kepe the name bisshop vntounto them selues.
But out of the deacons sprange all the myschefe. For thorow their handes wente all thynge: they ministred vntounto the clergye, they ministred vntounto the poore / they were in fauoure with great & small. And when the bisshops office begā to hauehave rest & to be honorable / then the deacons through fauoure and gyftes clam vp thervnto, as lyghtlye he yt hath the old Abbots treasure, succedeth with vsus. And by the meanes of their practise & accointaūce in the world, they were more subtile and woorldly wyse then the olde bysshops, and lesse learned in Goddes worde, as oure prelates are / when they come frō studentshyppe in Gentlemens houses, and from surueing of greate mens landes, lordes secrets, Kynges counsels, ambasadourshyp / from warre and ministring all worldly matters / yea, worldlye mischefe: and yet nowe they come not thence / but receaue all and byde there styll,The prelates must b… de styll in the courte. yea they hauehave enacted by playne parlyament that they must byde in the courte styll or els they may not hauehave pluralytie of benefyces. And then by lytle and lytle they inhaunsed them selues and turned all to them selues minysshynge the poore peoples parte and encreasing theyrs, and ioynīng accoyntaunce with greate mē, and with their power clam vp and entitled thē wich the chosing and confyrming of the Pope and all bisshoppes, to flatter and purchase fauoure and defenders: trustynge more vntounto their worldly wysdom then vntounto ye doctryne of Chryst, whych is the wysdom of God and vntounto the defence of mā, then of God. Then whyle they yt had the plowe by the tayle, loked …acke, the plow went a wrye▪ Faythe waxed feble and faint / louelove waxed cold, the scriptur waxed darke, Chryst was no more sene: he was in the mounte wyth Moses, & therfore the bysshops wolde hauehave a god vponupon the earth whom they might se, and thervpon they began…e to dyspute who shulde be greatest.