lishly seduced with their folish pardons, but tary at home in your houses with your wyues and children. And let þ^e Pope of Rome come to vs with all hys Cardinals and byshops, and with all his priestes, with hys owne person and power to warre with vs, and let themselues deserue the absolution of sinnes, grace, and pardon, which they preach to you (for they haue great nede of forgeuenes of sinnes, grace, and pardō) & by the grace of god we wil geue thē pardon enough, as they shall neede. MarginaliaThe popes pretensed excuse detected.But theyr subtile excuse is this: they say that it belongeth not to Priestes to fight with bodily weapōs, and true it is that it belongeth not to them: but it belongeth as little to them to stirre vp, to counsaile, and to fortefie others therto: MarginaliaRom. 1.
Galat. 6.For Paul sayth in the 1. to the Rom. and in the fift to the Galath. that al that do such things are worthy of euerlastyng death.

And if ye will not determine to do any other thyng then to fight agaynst vs, then will we take the Lord to our helpe, and his truth, and we will defend it to the death, and we wil not be afrayd for the excommunciation or curse of the Pope, or his Cardinals, or of the bishops, because we know that þ^e Pope is not God as he maketh hymselfe, that he can curse and excommunicate when he will, or blesse when he wyll: MarginaliaExperience of Gods blessing where the pope hath cursed.Who hath now these many yeares cursed and excommunicated vs, and yet notwithstanding, God and his gratious blessing hath bene our helpe. But peraduenture ye wyl say, that though we see that bishops and priestes be euillMarginaliaObiection.and wicked, yet we cannot lacke them: for who should baptise our children, who should heare confessions, and minister the holy sacraments? and then also we should be within the excommunication of the Pope and of hys bishops. MarginaliaAunswere.Welbeloued, ye nede to take no care for these matters. The excommunicatyng of the Pope hurteth you nothyng. Feare ye the excommunicatyng of God, and the Lord will prouide for those thinges well enough. If ye would banish euill bishops and priestes, ye should haue good priestes which should baptise your children, heare confessions, and minister the holy mysteries, because when the deuill is banished, then place is made for the holy ghost: So, when ill bishops and priestes shall be banished, then place shall be made for good priestes and byshops. Also, your bishops and priestes say, that we are miscreantes and heretikes, and that wee beleue not on purgatory, vpō the Virgin Mary, nor vpon the saintes: wherein they say ill, for we will proue by the holy scripture, that we know better by Gods grace, how we ought to beleue vpon purgatory, & vpon Mary the mother of our Lord, and vpon hys welbeloued saintes, then they can tel vs. Also, they say, that we wil not be obedient to the Pope. Truely, when he shall become holy and iust, then we know well that we ought to be obedient to hym in all things, and not before. They say also that we destroy Gods holy seruice, in that we destroy monasteries, banishyng thence the wicked Monkes and Nunnes. MarginaliaThe popes false accusations answered.Truely we did it, thinkyng once rhat they were holy, & that they did the reuerend seruice of God, but after that we wel perceiued and considered their lyfe and workes, thē we perceyued that they were false lowly hyyocrites, and wycked builders on high, and sellers of pardones, and masses for the dead, and such as deuoured in themselues the sinnes of the people. And, where as they say that they rise at middenight when other men slepe, and pray for the sinnes of the people: forasmuch as the selling of their prayers and masses for the dead, for gifts, is no better then hypocrisie and heresie: therfore, if we speake against them and destroy their monasteries, we do not therin destroy the seruice of God, but rather the seruice of the deuill, and the schooles of heretikes. And if ye knew them as we know thē, ye would as diligently destroy them as we doe. For Christ our Lord did not ordayne any such order, and therfore it must nedes come to passe þ^t shortly it shalbe destroyed, as our Lord saith in the gospell of S. Mathew the 15. chapter. Euery plant which my father hath not planted, shalbe rooted vp. MarginaliaMath. 15.We desire you also that ye would diligently consider the articles here written, wherin your bishops and priestes are guilty.MarginaliaThe abuse of popishe religion in making priestes. Cardinals, &c.

The 1. article is, that when your Bishops will ordayne priests, they do it not, except he that is to be made priest haue sufficient liuing, either inheritaunce left him of his parents, or of benefices: wheras notwithstāding, Christ would that priestes should be poore, for as much as it is enough for the scholer to be as his maister is, and for the seruaunt to be as his Lord is: and the bishops will that they should be rich vpon earth, which is vniust before the Lord.

The 2. article is, that bishops take mony of such as are to be ordeined, but S. Peter did therfore sharply rebuke Simon Magus, when he would haue geuen him mony, MarginaliaActes. 8.as it is written in the 8. of the Acts.

The 3. article is, that they that come to be priestes enter into priesthood, not for gods seruice sake, because they meanMarginaliaThe abuse of popishe religion, in taking orders.to preach and encrease it among the Christian people, so as the people may be edified and made better: but rather for an idle life, and that they may eate well and drinke well, & that they may be honoured and reuerenced vpon earth: For euery one waiteth vpon his priest as a thiefe and a robber, as Iohn writeth in his x. chap.

The 4. article is of excommunication, which the Pope and all his priestes take to themselues, and therwith fetter & bynd all Christian people as they will, and they thynke that whosoeuer they excommunicate or curse, MarginaliaPopishe excommunication abusedhe is accursed and excommunicate before God: And we will proue by the holy Scripture, that they themselues are excommunicate and accursed before God, because they keepe not the commaundement of the loue of God, wherof the Apostle writeth in the 1. to the Cor. the 16. chap.Marginalia1. Cor. 16.If any man loueth not our Lord Iesus Christ, he is excommunicate in the day of the commyng of the Lorde. For they can not excommunicate you, who are already bound and excommunicate before God and his Saintes: and therfore why feare ye theyr excommunication?

The 5. Article is, that they take giftes to pray for the dead, and to say masse for their soules. This is a wickednes and heresie before the Lord, and all they that contribute to them to this end, do wickedly, for that hereby priestes become merchantes of prayers and of Masses: and herewith is all the Church of Rome poysoned and defiled.MarginaliaThe popes church poysoned with buying and selling their praying and singing, and all their doing for money.For if they would pray for the dead and say masse for their soules, yet no man ought to hire them thereto, forasmuch as they ought to take no giftes, neither little nor great. And euery one that taketh rewardes to this ende, to redeeme soules out of purgatory, do therwithall cast their owne soules downe into hel. And they that geue any thyng to that end, do altogether lose that which they geue. And with such deuilish subtletie, the Pope with all his priestes hath deceyued, spoyled and disherited kinges, princes, Lordes and knightes, and good housholders and many other, of their lawfull inheritaunces, because their auncestours and progenitours gaue it to Colleges, Monasteries and churches, that they might make memorials of them, and to sing or say prayers or Masses for their soules, that they might be redeemed out of Purgatory.MarginaliaFeare of purgatory hath robbed almost all the whole world.And with such goodes, bishops, Canons, and Monasteries haue made themselues so rich, that now they fall at variaunce with cities and princes, & wheras they should procure peace betwixt cities and rulers, there they are the first that beginne warre: and as long as they haue such goods, they will neuer cease to be at strife with Lordes and cities, neither will they begin to teach you the true foundation of the truth: MarginaliaSo long as priestes be rich, they will neuer be true teachers.For they do as a dog, which as long as he holdeth a bone in his mouth and gnaweth it: so long he holdeth hys peace and cannot barke. Euen so, as long as they haue this bone of pleasaunt riches, it will neuer be wel in the world. Wherfore all kinges, princes and imperiall Cities should doe a great worke of godlines and mercy, if by them they were compelled to doe this, as the dogge is when the boane is taken from hym.

And therfore ye noble men, Kinges, Princes, Lordes, imperiall Cities, and all the Communaltie, both riche and poore, if ye haue been a sleep yet now awake and open your eyes and behold the subtiltye of the deuill,MarginaliaThe subtiltie of the deuill in making the church rich.
Eccle. 19.how he hath blinded the Churche of Rome, and take agayn that is youres, and not theires. And if you will make a good memorial for your soules, then do as the wise man sayth, Eccle. 19. Lay vp almes. &c.

The 6. Article is, that they are full of pride and of hygh mynde, MarginaliaPopishe priests with their long and sumtuous gownes more like to the Pharises thē Christ.whiche is manifestly knowen by their long, costly and superfluous garmentes, wherein they walke very vnlyke to Christ our Lord, who had a garment without a seame and to the welbeloued Iohn Baptist, who had a garment of Camels heare, and they will be honoured and worshipped, and they preach and say that the Priesthode ought to be honoured, and so it ought in deede to be, but there is none that do so much sclander and abase it, as they themselues, with their euill workes, gay apparell, and with their euill wordes wherein they passe all other men. Marginalia1. Tim. 3.Paule sayth the i. to Tim. the 3. chapter. Let the Elders that gouerne well, be honoured with double honour, chiefly they that labour in the word and doctrine of the Lord.MarginaliaHonor in well gouerning.Consider, that he sayth they that gouerne well.

The 7. article is, that they are couetous from þ^e highest to the lowest, and for couetousnes they preach many foolish deedes MarginaliaThe popes church poysoned with couetousnes.& manifest lyes, & sell the holy Sacramentes, which is a great heresie: for God commaunded that they should geue freely. Paule writeth in the first to Timothy:MarginaliaTim. 1.Couetousnesse is the roote of all mischief, whereunto many haue bene geuen, and therfore they are separated from the fayth and haue denyed the truth.