The Confutation of the Misshapen Answer to a Wicked Ballad, Part 47 – Part 48
☞The confutacion
You seme to accōpte reasone enimie to faith and to thynke that the brute beastes which are not troubled wyth reasone: maye soonest apprehende the perfection of fayeth. You do but cōtend by reasōe to kepe fayth at a baye charg … men wyth that they do not de fende (with that you can not defēd, you shoulde hauehave said) but if we sayde (saye you) that the making did depend either vponupon the priest or of God, which we denie (whome we denie, you shoulde hauehave sayede) then had we some cause thus to spende our time. But for as muche as you neither beleue, that it dependeth of the priest nor of God but of y• diuel as it semeth for one of thē must (bear the stroke in the mattier) you can saye no more but so it is, Christ is there, How it is w… can not tell, nor are desirouse to knowe. Yet yernestly you exhort vsus to leaue y• we neuer vsed (sence it pleased god to open our eies for it is against your catholyke & true faith, you say, that Christe shoulde be created a newe. Here is neither heade nor taile, but onelye an heape of wordes to fil out the line & make the …ime. You hauehave saied before, y• the priest as a minister pronounceth the wordes, & god doth his creature transmut, And now ye deni it. It depēd…th you say of neither of them. Yea you conclude before y• our Lordes dodie is ther fleshe and fell, and in an other place you say bodie and soule & bisides y• god and mā: but here you say he is there, but how, you seke not to spie. But I cō iecte yet an other meaneinge in your wordes (though in dede they sowne no lesse thē I hauehave saied) you wil say perchaūce, y• in your saying that you seke not to espie how he is ther, you meane y• you seke not to know whether he bee ther passible or impassible, mortal or immortal whether he be ther in such sort y• the mose may eate him, the fire burne him, or the weat corrupt him. Thoughe you se al these thinges chaunce to the cake which you call consecrate & turned into the bodi of Christ, yet you▪ wil not seke to spie whether Christ suffer these thinges or not Well then, if a man shoulde demaunde of you whether the bodie of Christe dooe suffer these thinges eateinge of the mouse, burneinge an… corruptynge: what answer would you make? You will not go frō that you hauehave written I am sure you wil not seke to spie. I will beleue it, but I will not serche it. And I praye you what wil you beleue? That Christe is ther naturallie and reallye, & that ther remaneth nosubstaunce, but onelyonly the substaūce of Christe God & man.
Is ther none other su…staunce there? What is it then that filleth the mouses bealye, & burneth in the fire chaungeth colour and putrifieth? My Lorde of Winchester sayeth … dentes for substaunce he sayeth there is none but Christe, who can suffer none of all this, and you saye you wyll not seke to spye. Well then I leaue you as one vncertaine of his fayth not knowing what to beleue, nor willing to learne And as you exhorte vsus to leaue that is not in vsus because it is against your …aith: euē so I exhorte you to seke for that you hauehave not, that is the true vnderstāding of Christes sacramētes For it is a gayust our beleife (whych is the one onelyonly fayeth which is grounded vponupon the sure foundacion of the scripture) that Christ should be naturally and reallye presente in an…e other place then heauen, tyl he com to iudge y• world
¶The ballad
Hauinge no word, of consecracion
Wherof the Lord, hath mad relacion
Thou teachest abrode thine owne inuencion
Which is amise