Who hath now these many yeares cursed and excōmunicated vs, MarginaliaExperience of Gods blessing where the pope hath cursed.& yet notwithstanding, God and his gratious blessing hath bene our helpe. MarginaliaObiection.But peraduēture ye wil say, that though we see that bishops and priests be euill & wicked, yet we cānot lacke them: for who should baptise our children, who should heare confessions, & minister the holy sacraments? and then also we should be w^tin the excommunication of the pope & of his bishops. MarginaliaAunswere.Welbeloued, ye nede to take no care for these matters. The excōmunicating of the Pope hurteth you nothing. Feare ye the excommunicating of God, and the Lorde wil prouide for those things wel enough. If ye would banish euil bishops and priests, ye shuld haue good priestes which shuld baptise your children, heare cōfessions, and minister the holy mysteries, bicause when þ^e deuill is banished, then place is made for the holy ghost: So when yll bishops and priestes shall be banished, then place shal be made for good priestes & bishops Also, your bishops and priests say, that we are miscreants and hereticks, & that we beleue not on purgatory, vpō the virgine Mary, nor vpon the sayntes: 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, & vppon hys welbeloued saints, thē they can tell vs. Also they say, þ^t we wil not be obediēt vnto the P. Truly when he shalbe come holy and iust, then we know well that we ought to be obedient to him in al things and not before. They say also that we destroy Gods holy seruice, in that we destroy monasteries, banishing thence the wicked Monkes and Nunnes. MarginaliaThe popes false accusation answered.Truely we dyd it, thinking once that they were holy, that they did the reuerend seruice of god, but after that we well perceiued and considered their lyfe & works, then we perceiued that they were false lowly hipocrites, and wicked builders on high, and sellers of pardōs and masses for the dead, and such as deuoured in themselues the sinnes of the people. And where as they sayd that they rise at midnight when other men sleepe, and pray for the sins of the people: forasmuch as their selling of their praiers and masses for þ^e dead for gifts, is no better then hipocrisie and heresie: ther fore if we do speake agaynst 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 heretickes. And if ye knew them as we know them, ye would as diligently destroy them as we do. For Christ our Lord did not ordayn anysuch order, & therfore it must needs come to pas that shortly it shal be destroyd as our lord saith in the Gospel of S. Mathew the 15. chapter.MarginaliaMath. 15. Euery plant whiche my father hath not planted, shalbe rooted vp. We desire you also that ye woulde diligently consider the articleo here written, wherein your bishops and priestes are guilty.

The 1. article is, MarginaliaThe abuse of the popishe religion in making priests Cardian ls &c.that when your bishops will ordaine priests, they do it not, except he þ^t is to be made priest haue sufficient liuing, eyther inheritance left him of hys parents or of benefices: wheras notwithstanding, Christ wold that priestes should be poore, forasmuch as it is enough for the scholar to be as his maister is, and for the seruaunt to be as his Lord is: and the bishops wil that they should be rich v vpon earth, which is vniust before the Lord.

The 2. article is, that bishops take mony of such as are to be ordained, 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 actes.

The 3. article is, MarginaliaThe abuse of popishe religion, in taking orders.that they that come to be priestes enter into priesthoode, not for gods seruice sake, because they mean to preach and increase it among the Christiā 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 wel and that they may be honoured and reuerēced vpon earth For euery one wayteth vpon hys priest as a theefe and a robber, as Iohn writeth in his x. thap.

The 4. article is of excommunication,MarginaliaPopishe excommunication abused. which the Pope and all his priestes take to themselues, and therwith fetter & bind all Christian people as they will, and they thinke þ^t whosoeuer they excommunicate or curse, hee is accursed and excommunicate before God: And we wil proue by the holy Scripture, that they themselues are excommunicate & accursed before God, because they kepe not the commaundement of the loue of God, wherof the Apostle writeth in þ^e 1. to the Cor. the 16. chap.Marginalia1. Cor. 16. If any man loueth not our Lorde Iesus Christ, he is excommunicate in the day of the comming of the Lord. For they cannot excommunicate you, who are already bound and excommunicate before God & hys saintes: and therefore why feare ye their excommunication?

The 5, Article is, that they take gifts for to pray for the dead, and to say masse for theyr soules. This is a wickedues and heresie before the Lord, & all they that contributeto them to this end, do wickedly, for that hereby priests be come merchantes of prayers and of masses: and herewyth 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 thē thereto, forasmuch as they ought to take no giftes, neither little nor great. And euery one that taketh rewardes to this end, to redeeme soules out of purgatory, do therwithal cast their own soules down into hel. And they þ^t geue any thing to that end, doe altogether lose þ^t which they geue. And with such deuilishe subtlety, þ^e Pope with all his priestes hath deceiued, spoyled and disherited kinges, princes, Lordes and knights, & good housholders and many other, of their lawful inheritaunces, because their ancestors & progenitours gaue it to Colledges, monasteries & churches, þ^t they might make memorials of thē & to sing or say prayers or masses for their soules, that they might be redeemed out of Purgatorye.MarginaliaFeare of purgatory hath robbed almost all the whole world. And wyth such goodes, Byshops, Canons, and Monasteries haue made themselues so riche, that now they fall at variaunce with cities, & princes: & wheras they should procure peace betwixt cities and rules, there they are the first that begin warre: and as long as they haue such goodes, they wil ne uer cease to be at strife with Lordes and cities, neither wil they begin to teach you the true foundation of þ^e truth:MarginaliaSo long as priestes be rich, they will neuer be true teachers. For they do as a dogge, which as long as he holdeth a bone in his mouth and knaweth it: so long he holdeth his peace & cannot barcke. Euen so, as long as they haue this bone of pleasaunt riches, it wyl neuer be well in the world. Wherfore all kinges, princes and imperiall Citties should doe a great worke of godlines and mercy, if by them they were compelled to do this, as the dog is when the boane is takē from hym.

And therfore ye noble men, Kinges, princes, Lordes, imperiall Citties, and all the communaltie, both riche and poore, if ye haue bene a sleep yet now awake and opē your eyes and behold the subtiltie of the deuill,MarginaliaThe subtiltie of the deuill in making the church rich. how he hath blinded the Church of Rome, and take agayne that is youres, and not theirs. And if you wil make a good memoriall for your soules, then do as the wyse man saith, Eccle. 19:MarginaliaEccle. 19. Lay vp almes. &c.

The 6. article is, that they are full of pride and of high mynde, MarginaliaPopishe priests with their long & sumtuous gownes more like to the Pharises then Christ.which is manifestly knowne by their long, costlye and superfluous garmentes, wherein they walke very vnlike to Christ our Lord, who had a garmēt without a seam and to the welbeloued Iohn Baptist, who had a garment of Camels heare, and they wyl be honoured and worshyped, and they preach and say that the Priesthood ought to be honoured, and so it ought in deede to be, but there is none þ^t do so much sclander and abase it, as they themselues, with their euill works, gay apparell, and with their euil words wherein they passe all other men. Marginalia1. Tim. 3.Paul sayth the i. to Tim. the 3. chapter. Let the Elders that gouerne wel, be honoured with double honour, chiefly they that labour in þ^e word and doctrine of the Lord.MarginaliaHonor in well gouerning. Consider, that he sayth they that gouerne well.

The 7. article is, MarginaliaThe popes church poysoned with couetousnes.that they are couetous from þ^e highest to the lowest, and for couetousnes they preach many folish deedes & manifest lies, & sell the holy sacramentes, whiche is a great heresie: for God commaunded that they shoulde geue freely. Paule writeth in the first to Timothy:MarginaliaTim. 1. Couetousnesse is the roote of all mischief, wherunto many haue ben geuen, and therefore they are separated from the fayth and haue denyed the truth.

The viij. article is, MarginaliaThe popes church poysoned much with whoredome.that they commonly are called notorious whoremongers. This is manifestly seene in theyr concubines and children, which walke openly in all mens sight, and make many mens wiues whoores or corrupte their daughters being virgins, and make thē priests harlots and rybauldes.

The ix. Article is, MarginaliaThe Popes church and monasteries commonly poysoned with deuelishe enuie.that they are ful of deuilish enuy, and especially in al Monasteries they haue great enuy and hatred amongest themselues, because when any thing is geuen or disposed to one Monastery or Colledge, then there are others, that hate it, and enuy at it, and woulde more gladly haue it themselues: Like as among dogs when any thing is geuen to the one and not to the other, which the other seing, enuyeth hys fellow, & the other likewise wil rather deuour all himselfe then geue any part to his fellowe. Wherefore it were well that they were brought from that great sin of enuy in geuing nothing vnto thē: And it were better that their possessions were takē from them, and that they should do that which the Lord spake to hys disciples saying: Go ye and preach the Gospell to all men.

The x. article is, that they are idle, and chiefly the Byshops, Chanons, and other Prelates, which wil not labor dilligently in the holy Scripture, wherewith they might cure the miseries of Christendome, wherto they haue boūd