Hic Ioannem subleuat Iesus, ac eius baptismo se submittit. I baptyse the (Lorde) by soch autoryte As thy grace hath geuen to my poore symplenesse, In terram procumbens Iesus, tunc dicit, Deo gratias. Thys offyce father, which I in thys mortall nature, And that thu wytsaue, by thy most fatherly poure, Descendit tunc super Christum spiritus sanctus in columbæ specie, & uox patris de cælo audietur hoc modo: Pater cælestis. Thys is myne owne sone, and only hartes delyght, For hys only sake, with man am I now content, I charge ye, to hym, geue dylygent attendaunce, Tunc cœlum inspiciens Ioannes, incuruat genua. O tyme most ioyfull, daye most splendiferus ; Lete vs synge therfor, togyther with one accorde, Glorye be to the Trynyte, The father, the sonne and sprete lyuynge, BALEUS PROLOCUTOR. Thys vysyble sygne, do here to yow declare, What thynge pleaseth God, and what offendeth hys goodnesse. Marke in thys Gospell, with the eyes of symplenesse. Adam, by hys pryde, ded Paradyse vp speare, Christ hath opened heauen, by hys great mckenesse heare. Iohan was a preacher, Note wele what he ded teache, The waye that Iohan taught, was not to weare harde clothynge, To saye longe prayers, nor to wandre in the desart, Or to eate wylde locusts. No, he neuer taught such thynge. If ус do penaunce, do soch as Iohan doth counsell, A worke without fayth, an outwarde vayne gloryc. Whom lohan compared to vnfruteful wythered trees. Geue eare unto Christ, lete mennys vayne fantasyes go, Thus endeth thys brefe Comedy or Enterlude of Iohan Baptystes preachynge in the wyldernesse, openynge the craftye assaultes of the hypocrytes, with the gloryouse Baptyme of Iesus Christ. Composed by Johan Bale, Anno M.D.XXXVIII. THE VERY BEGGARS PETITION AGAINST POPERY; Wherein they lamentably complain ΤΟ KING HENRY THE EIGHTH OF THE CLERGY. 1. Of their abominable covetousness and oppression, in several particulars, from § 3, to § 13. 2. Of their insatiable lechery, being devils at women; and how they apply themselves, by all sleights they may, to have to do with every man's wife, daughter, and maid (as well ladies, as meaner persons, when they come in their way) from § 13, to § 17. 3. They brought in theft with them, and nourished it under them, § 17. 4. That they baffled all laws, that none could take hold of them, though they ravished men's wives and daughters (whieh that cursed crew would be at again, tho' not in that seeming holy method, but now in an open, odious, debauched way, like infernal incubusses, who now have naturalised succubusses for their turn, &c.) for the law was too weak to hold them; they making such as begin with them quickly to cease prosecuting them, § 18. 5. An example hereof, see in the Bishop of London, § 19. 6. Tho' the statute of mortmain was made to prevent giving them any more, yet still they got more than any duke, § 20 and 21. 7. Their yearly exactions came by cursed pretensions of praying people's souls out of purgatory, &c. § 22. 8. This doctrine of purgatory was always opposed by godly, learned men, § 23 and 24. 9. Their hellish policy, in not suffering the New Testament to be translated in the mother-tongue, lest their hypocrisy and cheating should be discovered, § 25, 26. 10. The impudence of Dr. Allen, and Dr. Horsey, fined to the King, but afterwards therefore amply rewarded by the clergy, § 27. 11. The reason of this was, because the Chancellor was one of them, viz. a clergyman § 28. 12. That of giving lands, or money, to the church for 13. They petition to turn these bloodthe poor, or masses, § 30. suckers out to labour and get them wives of their own, § 1, 32. These arguments, and the like, prevailed with this King to cast off the Pope's authority, and why any should be so foolishly wicked as to think to return us to it, I know not; most certainly they will find themselves deceived, with a vengeance, &c. Presented to King Henry the Eighth, in the twenty-ninth year of his reign, anno dom. 1538, eight years before his death, and now printed, verbatim, from a very old copy, only mending the auto graphy, for the ease of the reader, marking the several sections, and collecting the foregoing contents. Worth perusing by both Papist and Protestant, for the one to see how his forefathers and he have been, and are, gulled; and the other to see how he is like to be eternally abused, if he either through fear of death, or otherwise, embrace Popery, Folio, containing six pages, with a wooden cut in the title, representing King Henry the Eighth on his throne, and a Committee of Beggars presenting their petition. To the KING our Sovereign Lord, OST lamentably complaineth, their woful misery unto your Highness, your poor daily bede-men, the wretched, hideous monsters (on whom scarcely for horror any eye dare look) the foul, unhappy sort of lepers, and other sore people, needy, impotent, blind, lame, and sick, that live only by alms; how that their number is daily so sore increased, that all the alms of the well disposed people of this your realm is not half enough to sustain them; but that, for very constraint, they die for hunger. 2. And this most pestilent mischief is come upon your said poor bede-men, by the reason that there is (in the times of your noble predecessors passed) craftily crept into this your realm another soitt (not of impotent but) of strong, puissant, and counterfeit-holy, and idle beggars, and vagabonds, which, since the time of their first entry, by all the craft and wiliness of Satan, are now increased under your sight, not only into a great number, but also into a kingdom. 3. These are not the herds (or sheep) but the ravenous wolves, going in herds-clothing, devouring the flock; the bishops, abbots, priors, deacons, archdeacons, suffragans, priests, monks, canons, friars, pardoners and somners: and who is able to number this ide, ravenous sort, which (setting all labour aside) have begged so importunately that they have gotten into their hands more than the third part of all your realm: the goodliest lordships, manors, lands, and territories are theirs. Besides this, they have the tenth part of all the corn, meadow, pasture, grass, wool, colts, calves, lambs, pigs, geese, and chickens. Over and besides the tenth part of every servant's wages, the tenth part of the wool, milk, honey, wax, cheese, and butter. Yea, and they look so narrowly upon their profits, that the poor wives must be accountable to them for every tenth egg, or else she getteth not her rights at Easter, shall be taken as an heretick; hereto have they their four offering-days. 4. What money pull they in by probates of testaments, privy tithes, and by men's offerings to their pilgrimages, and at their first masses. Every man and child that is buried must pay somewhat for masses and dirges to be sung for him, or else they will accuse the dead's friends This is an ancient word, signifying a poor alms-man, who pray daily for their benefactors, derived from the Saxon word bidden, to pray. + See them described in the second §. The dead office in the church of Rome, which begins with dirige me, Domine, &c. and executors of heresy. What money get they by mortuaries*, by hearing of confessions (and yet they will keep thereof no counsel) by hallowing of churches, altars, super-altars †, chapels, and bells, by cursing of men, and absolving them again for money. 5. What multitude of money gather the pardoners in a year? How much money get the somners (i. e. parators) by extortion in a year? By citing the people to the commissaries court, and afterwards releasing the appearance for money. Finally, the infinite number of beggars friars, what get they in a year? 6. Here, if it please your Grace to mark, ye shall see a thing far out of joint; there are within your realm of England fifty-two thousand parish-churches; and this standing, that there be but ten households in every parish, yet are there five hundred thousand, and twenty thousand households; and of every of these households hath every of the five orders of friars a penny a quarter for every order, that is, for all the five orders five pence a quarter for every house; that is, for all the five orders twenty pence a year for every house: summa, five-hundred thousand, and twenty-thousand quarters of angels; that is, two hundred and sixty thousand half angels; summa, one hundred and thirty thousand angels; summa totalis, forty-four thousand pounds, and three-hundred and thirty-three pounds, six shillings, and eightpence sterling: whereof, not four hundred years passed, they had not one penny. Oh grievous and painful exactions! thus yearly to be paid, from the which the people of your noble predecessors, the kings of the ancient Britons||, ever stood free. 7. And this will they have, or else they will procure him that will not give it them to be taken as an heretick. What tyrant ever oppressed the people like this cruel and vengeable generation? What subjects shall be able to help their prince, that be after this fashion yearly polled? What good Christian people can be able to succour us poor lepers, blind, sore, and lame, that be thus yearly oppressed? Is it any marvel that your people so complain of poverty? Is it any marvel that the taxes, fifteenths, and subsidies, that your Grace, most tenderly of great compassion, hath taken among your people, to defend them from the threatened ruin of their common-wealth, have been so slothfully, yea painfully, levied? Seeing that almost the uttermost penny that might have been levied, hath been gathered before, verily by this ravenous, cruel, and insatiable generation. 8. The Danes, neither the Saxons, in the time of the ancient Britons, should never have been able to have brought their armies, from so far, hither unto your land to have conquered it, if they had at that time such a sort of idle gluttons to find at home. The noble King Arthur had never been able to have carried his army to the foot of the A mortuary was a gift left by a man, at his death, to his parish-church, for the recompence of his personal tythes, and offerings, not duly paid in his life-time. + These are square stones, to be removed at the priest's pleasure, to say mass upon; by some called portable altars. Those employed by the Pope to grant indulgences. Before the Conquest: for William the Conqueror, having engaged the Pope to countenance his unjust invasion upon this isle, in return, oppressed the subjects in this manner, to gratify the Pope. |