people thy words, they turned thy words into songs & into tales, And so Lord men done now: they singin merilich thy words, and that singing they clepen  

thy seruice. But Lord I trow that the best singers he herieth   thee not most: But he that fulfilleth thy wordes he * Marginalia* Heryeth, that is, worshippeth.herieth   thee full well, though he wepe more than sing. MarginaliaSinging in churches falsly called Gods sernice.And I trow that weping for breaking of thy commandements, be more pleasing seruice to thee, than the singing of thy words. MarginaliaWeping for sinnes, better seruice then singing in church.And wold God that men would serue him in sorow for their sinnes, and that they shoulden afterward seruen thee in mirth. For Christ sayth, yblessed ben they that maken sorow, for they shoulden ben yconforted. And woe to them that ben merry and haue theyr comfort in this world. And Christ sayd that the world should ioyen, & hys seruāts shulden be sory, but their sorow shuld be turned into ioy.

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A Lord, he that clepeth  

himselfe thy vicar vpon earth, hath y ordained an order of priestes to doe thy seruice in church to fore thy lewd people in singing matens, euensong & masse. And therfore hee chargeth lewde men in paine of cursing, to bryng to hys priests tithyngs and offerings to finden his priests, and he clepeth that Gods part, & due to priests that seruen him in church.

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But Lord, in the olde law, the things of the lewde people ne were not due to priestes, but to that other childer of Leuie that serueden thee in the temple, and the preist haddē their part of sacrifices, and the first bygeten beastes and other things as the lawe telleth. And Lorde, S. Paul thy seruant sayth, that the order of the priesthode of Aaron ceased in Christes comming and the lawe of that priesthode. For Christ was end of sacrifices yoffered vpō the crosse to the father of heauen, to bring man out of sinne and become himself a priest of Melchisedeks order. For he was both king & priest without beginning and end, and both the priesthoode of Aaron, and also the law of that priesthode, ben ychaunged in the comming of Chirst. And S. Paul sayth it is reproued, for it broght no man to prefection. For bloude of gotes ne of other beastes ne might done away sinne, for to that Christ shad his bloud.

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MarginaliaThe order of priestes, not made to offer Christs bodie. A Lord Iesu, wether thou ordenest an order of priests to offrē in the auter thy flesh and thy bloude to bringen men out of sinne, and also out of peine? And whether thou geue them alonelych a power to eat thy flesh and thy bloud, and wether none other man may eate thy flesh and thy bloud with outen leue of priests? Lord, we beleeuen, that thy flesh is verey meate and thy bloude verey drinke, and who eateth thy flesh and drinketh thy bloud dwelleth in thee, and thou in him, and who that eateth this bread shall liue without end. But Lord thine disciples sayd, this is an hard worde, but thou answerest them and seidest: When yee seeth mans soone stiuen vp there hee was rather, the spirite is that maketh you liue, the wordes that yche haue spoken to you ben spirite & life Lord, yblessed mote thou be, for in this worde thou teachest vs that hee that kepeth thy wordes and doth after them, eateth thy fleshe and drinketh thy bloude, and hath an euerlasting life in thee. And for we shoulden haue minde of thys liuing, thou gauest vs the sacrament of thy flesh and bloud in forme of bred and wine at thy supper, before that thou shouldest suffer thy death, and tooke bread in thine hand, and saidest: take ye this, and eate it, for it is my body: and thou tookest wine, and blessedest it, and sayde: thys is the bloud of a new and an euerlasting testament, that shall be shed for many men in forgeueness of sinnes: as oft as ye haue done, doo ye this in minde of me.

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MarginaliaThe sacrament of the body of the Lord abused A Lord, thou ne bede not thine disciples makē this a sacrifice, to bring men out of paines, gif a priest offred thy body in the alter: but thou bede them go and * Marginalia* Fullen  

that is, baptise. fullen all the folke in the name of the father, & the sonne, and the holy ghost, in forgeuenes of their sinnes: and teache ye them to keepe those thynges that ych haue cōmanded you. MarginaliaPriests principally sent to preach, not to say masse, or to make the lords bodie.And Lord, thine disciples ne ordeined not priests principallich to make thy body in sacrament, but for to teach the people, and good husbandmen that well gouern their housholds, both wiues & children, & their meiny, they ordeined to be priests to teachen other men the law of Christ, both in worde, in dede, & they liuedein as true Christen men, euery day they eaten Christes body, and drinken his bloude, to the sustenance of liuing of theyr soules, and otherwhiles they tooken the sacrament of his body in forme of bread and wine, in mind of our Lord Iesu Christ.

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But all this is turned vpse downe: for now who so will liuen as thou taughtest, he shal ben holden a foole. And gif he speake thy teaching, he shal ben holden an heretick, & accursed. Lord yhaue no lenger wonder hereof, for so they seiden to thee whēn thou wer here some time. And therefore wee moten take in pacience theyr wordes of blasphemy as thou didest thy selfe, or els we weren to blame. And truelych Lord I trowe, that if thou were nowe in the world, and taughtest as thou diddest some time, thou shuldest ben done to death. MarginaliaHe that speaketh Gods teaching, is holden an heretike. For thy teaching is damned for heresy of wise men of the world, and then moten they nedes ben heretickes that teachen thy lore, and all they also that trauelen to liue thereafter.

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And therfore Lord, gif it be thy wil, helpe thine vnkunning & lewde seruaunts, that wolen by their power and their kunning, helpe to destroy sinne. Leue Lord, sithe thou madest woman in helpe of man, & in a more fraile degree then man is, to be gouerned by mans reason: What perfection of charity is in these priests and in men of religion, that haue forsaken spoushod  

that thou or-deinedst in Paradise betwixt man and woman, for perfection to forsaken traueile, and liuen and ease by other mens traueile? For they mow not do bodilich workes for defouling of their handes, with whom they touchen thy precious body in the aulter.

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Leue Lorde, gif good men forsaken the company of woman, and nedes they moten haue the gouernaile of man, then mote they ben ycoupled with shrewes, and therfore thy spoushode that thou madest in clennes from sinne, it is nowe ychaunged into liking of the flesh. MarginaliaWhat inconuenience by the vnmaried liues of priestes. And Lord, this is a great mischiefe vnto thy people. And young priestes and men of religion, for defaulte of wiues maken many women horen, and drawen through their euell ensample many other men to sinne, and the ease that they liuen in, and their welfare, is a great cause of this mischiefe. And Lord me thinketh, that these ben quaint orders of religion and none of thy sect, that wolen taken horen, whilke God forfendes, and forsaken wiues that God ne forfendeth not MarginaliaHe complaineth of the idlenes of priestes.And forsaKen trauail that God commaunds, and geuen their selfe to idlenes, that is the mother of all noughtines.

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And Lorde, Mary thy blessed mother and Ioseph, touched oftentimes thy body, and wroughten with their honds, and lieueden in as much clennes of soule, as our priestes done nowe, and touched thy body, and thou touchedest them in their soules. And Lorde our hope is, that thou goen not out of a poore mans soule that traueileth for his liuelode with his handes. For Lord, our beliefe is, that thine house is mans soul, MarginaliaWhat is the true church of Christ. that thou madest after thine owne likenes.

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But Lord God, men maketh nowe great stonen houses full of glasen windowes, and clepeth  

thilke thine houses and Churches. And they setten in these houses Mawmets   of stocks and stones, and * Marginalia* To fore, that is, before. to fore them they knelen priuilich & apert, and maken their prayers, and all this they sayen is thy woorship, and a great * Marginalia* Herying, that is worshipping.herieng to thee. A Lorde, thou forbiddest sometime to make suche Mawmetes, and who that had yworshipped such, had be woorthy to be deeade.

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Lorde in the Gospell thou sayst, that true * Marginalia* Heriers,  

worshippers. heriers of God ne herieth him not in that hil beside Samarie, ne in Hierusalem neyther, but true heriers of God herieth him in spirite and in trueth. And Lord God what herying   is it to bilden thee a church of dead stones, and robben thy quicke Churches of their bodyliche lyueloode? Lord God what heryeng is it, to cloth mawmets   of stockes and of stones in siluer and in golde, and in other good colours? MarginaliaHe complaineth of images in churches.And Lorde I see thine image gone in colde and in hete in clothes all to broken, without shone and hosen, an hungred and a thrust. Lorde what heryenge is it to teende tapers and torches before blinde mawmets   that mowen not I seyen: And hide thee that art our light and our lantern towarde heauen and put thee vnder a bushell that for darkenes we ne may not seene our way towarde blisse? Lorde what heryenge   is it to kneele tofore mawmetes   that mowe not yheren, and worshepen them with preyers, and maken thine quicke images knele before them, and asken of them absolutions and blessings, and worshupen them as gods, and putten thy quicke images in thraldom and in traueil euermore as bestes, in colde and in heate, and in feeble fare to finden them in liking of the world? Lord what herieng   is it to fetch deed mennes bones out of the ground there as they shulden kindelich   roten, and shrinen them in golde and in silver: And suffren thy quicke bones of thine images to rot in prison for default of clothingh? And suffren also thy quicke images to perish for default of sustenaunce, and rooten in the hoore house in abhominable lecherie? Some become theeues and robbers, and manquellers   that mighten ben y holpen with the golde and silver that hongeth about deed mens bones and other blind mawmetes of stockes and stones.

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¶ Lorde here ben great abhominations that thou shewdist to Ezechiel thy Prophet, that priests done in thy temple, & yet they clepen that thine heryenge.  

But leue Lorde, me thinketh that they louen thee litle that thus defoulen thy quick images, & worshippen blinde mawmetes.  

And Lord an other great mischiefe there is now in the world, an hunger that Amos thy Prophet speaketh of, that there shal comen an honger in the earth, not of bread ne thrust of drinke, but of hearing of Gods worde. MarginaliaHe cōplayneth of false pastors that liue by their flocke, but feedeth not them. And thy sheepe woulden be refreshed, but their shepheards taken of thy shepe their liuelode, as tythings. &c. and liuen them selfe thereby where them liketh.

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Of such shepheardes thou speaketh by Ezechiel thy Prophet, and seist: wo to the shepheards of Israel that feden them selfe, for the flockes of sheepe shoulden ben yfed of their shepheardes: but yee eaten the milke and clothen you with their wolle, and the fat sheepe ye slow, and my flocke ye ne fede not, the sicke shepe ye ne healed not, thilke that weren to broken yee ne knit not together, thilke that perished ye ne brought not againe: but ye ratled them with sternship and with power. And so the shepe be sprad abroad in deuouring of all the beasts of the feelde. And Ieremie the Prophet sayeth: wo to the shepehards that disparseth abroad and teareth the flocke of my * Marginalia* Lesew  

, that is, pasture. lesewe.

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¶ A Lorde, thou were a good shepheard, for thou puttest thy soul for thy sheep: but lord thou teldest  

that thilke that comē not in by the dore ben night theues & day theues, and a thefe as thou