THE DISPLAYING of the Popish Masse wherein thou shalt see what a wicked Idoll the Masse is and what great difference there is between the Lords Supper and the Popes Masse Againe what Popes brought in every part of the Masse and counted it together in such monstrous sort as it is now used in the Popes Kingdome Written by THOMAS BECON and published in the dayes of Queene MARY Psalme 73. They that forsake thee O Lord shall perish and all them that commit whoredome against thee thou shalt utterly destroy Ier. 15. Fly away from Babylon let every man save his life that yee be not rooted out with her wickednesse For the time of the Lords vengeance is come Apocalyps 18. I heard a voice from heaven saying Come away c. Matth. 15. Every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be plucked up by the roots LONDON Printed by A. G. for the Company of Stationers 1637. Cum privilegio R. P. D. D. IOANNES PARKHURSTUS Episcopus Noruvicensis ad Thomam Baeconum Vidi perlegi doctos Baecone libellos Quo tua nonpridem sancta Minerva dedito Dispercam siquid legi unquam sanctius aut si Quid potuit populo tradier ut liu◠Auspice perge Deo tales vulgare libellos Variloquax sed nec lingua timenda tibi est Sic Christum possis avido iaculare popello Sic possis nomen condecorare tuum The displaying of the Popish Masse IF I were not led O yee MASSING Priests with a naturall and fervent affection toward this our common country which as a most tender mother hath tenderly brought me forth and as a most loving nurse hath hitherto sweetly embraced kindly fostered and carefully kept me up whose destruction and utter desolation if provision betimes be not made I see unfainedly to be at hand againe if I were not moved with very pitie and tender compassion towards you my country-men greatly lamenting and even from the very heart bewailing the miserable and wretched state wherein at this present yee stand perceiving also your dreadfull damnation besides the corporall plagues which with other ye shall suffer not to be farre off except yee shortly repent turne unto the Lord our God and leave your abominable Idoll service I would chuse rather quietly to goe forth in giving my minde to the studie of the holy Scriptures according to my profession and in calling on the Name of God by fervent prayer for the redresse of the great abominations which now of late dayes as most fierce outragious flouds have violently burst in overflowed and utterly deformed the Christian Common-weale of this our Realme of England than breaking off my present studies to take upon me at this time to write unto you and especially of such a matter as some brainsicke persons straightwayes will condemne as hereticall but all wil judge it superfluous seeing the matter whereof I entend to write doth but a little agree with the common opinion of religion yea rather superstition that is now received among us against the which to strive who will not count it a thing of great folly being so defenced not onely with Lawes and Statutes but also with the power of the head rulers with the wily subtilties of the fleshly hypocrites and with the consent of the grosse multitude as I may speake nothing of the untowardnesse yea rather frowardnesse and malicious madnesse of a number of you Masse-mongers to whom these my Letters bee directed which have been so rooted from the beginning of your greasie Priest-hood in this wicked kinde of massing taking it for most perfect pure true sound godly and Christian Religion and have found so great ease quietnesse lucre gaine and advantage in it that it shall be more easie except God setteth to his helping hand to make a man of Inde white than to plucke many of you from your old accustomed and cankered trade so hard a thing is it to use an old dogge to the reine or to cure that disease that is bred in the bone But notwithstanding having a good opinion although not of all yet of some of you which sinne not of obstinate malice against the truth but of simplicitie ignorance and blindnesse offend for lacke of better knowledge whom also peradventure God hitherto hath suffered to remaine in errour that he now at the last thorow the riches of his mercy might bring you into the glorious light of his blessed Gospell and make you of Sauls Pauls of ravening wolves faithfull Shepheards of cruell persecutors Christian Preachers of abominable Idolaters true worshippers of God that by this meanes ye may beleeve and be saved I will attempt even for your sakes even to the uttermost of my power as time shall serve to declare unto you my minde concerning the great abuse yea the abominable Idolatry which ye commit in the most wicked and Divellish Masse while yee take upon you contrary to the Word of God to defile the blessed Sacrament of Christs body and bloud to minister it in your Masses unto your selfe alone contrary to Christs institution to offer it for a sacrifice unto God for the sinnes of the quicke and dead to avouch it to bee of no lesse excellencie price dignitie efficacie might vertue and power than the sacrifice which our Saviour Christ offered on the altar of the Crosse and to make a shew of it to the people that they may fall downe and worshippe it as a god yea God himselfe Creator and maker of all things that yee having the knowledge of these your errors may from henceforth cease to offend the Lord our God give over your Idolatrous massing repent you of your former life and become godly Ministers in the Church of Christ unto the glory of God and the profit of his holy Congregation And that wee may the better discerne the truth from the falsehood and the prophanation of the Sacrament from the true ministration thereof I will compare Christs doing in this behalfe and yours together that when ye shall perceive how farre ye dissent and swarve from the truth ye may forsake your errour and follow no more the trifling traditions of Antichrist the Bishop of Rome and of his adherents but rather embrace that Godly and faithfull order which our Saviour Christ hath set and appointed in his holy Word for the due Ministration of his blessed Communion It is not unknowne to you that the Lord Iesus after he had eatē the Paschall Lambe with his Disciples according to the Law of Moses that same night wherein hee was betrayed knowing that the time appointed of his heavenly Father frō everlasting wherein he should offer himselfe a sweet smelling sacrifice to God for the sinnes of the world was at hand and willing to leave behinde him a memoriall of his glorious Passion and precious death to his holy Congregation that the fruits commodities and benefits which the faithfull penitent sinners have by the offering up of his blessed bodie should not be forgotten
the Epistle the Graduall the Allelujah the Tract or the Sequence and all in Latine because such as are there present should keepe counsell and not bewray your subtill secrets yee remove as men soone weary of a place from the one end of the Altar to the other and like prettie fellowes you take up the Masse-booke in your hands making the people beleeve that now yee will speake somewhat whereby they shall greatly be edified and well grounded in the knowledge of Christ. And because like politicke and wise men ye will not stumble in your doings but the better see what ye shal speake ye have a candle lighted though the day bee never so faire and the Sunne shine never so bright Besides this that yee may bee in the better readinesse to doe some great nothing yee pray to God or I know not to whom in this manner I 〈◊〉 Domine benedicere O Lord command me to speak well A prayer very necessary for your selves which very seldome speake well but nothing meet for the purpose that you goe about For ye intend to speake nothing to the people whereby they shal take any profit Neither purpose yee for all your bragging any more to preach to your Masse-hunters than yee intend with your bird bolt to shoot downe the weather-cocke of Pauls steeple And because God is not at hand but far enough from vour elbow and very sâ—ldom commeth at such mens callings ye your selves take the paines to answer on this manner Dominus sit in corde meo in â—re meo ad annunciandum populo sanctum Evangelium Deâ— That is to say the Lord might be in my heart and in my mouth to set forth preach and declare to the people the holy Gospell of God Oh most vaine prayer O wicked dissemblers both with God and man Ye wished that the Lord God might be both in your heart and in your mouth to set forth preach and declare to the people the holy Gospell of God and yee intend nothing lesse For as God is neither in your heart nor in your mouth so doe ye not preach the holy Gospell of God to the people but onely yee rehearse a few Latine sentences out of the Gospel which neither ye your selves for the most part nor yet the simple people understand And notwithstanding the silly sheepish simple soules solemnely stand up and give good eare as though they should heare some notable thing and goe home the better instructed but all in vaine For they learne nothing Onely when yee rehearse the Name of Iesus they learne to make solemne courtesie and so a peece of the Gospell being once read they stroke themselves on the head and kisse the naile of their right thumbe and sit down againe as wife as they were afore And yee your selves in the steâ—d of your Petronilla kisse the book and turne yee to the people and say Dominus vobiscum God be with you as though you could tarry no longer but had some great journey to goe and yet doe vee tarry there still till all good people be weary both of you and of your popish Masse Here is all your preaching Here is the whole summe of your exhortations Are not the people well taught Have yee not played the good Schoole-masters Have ye not wel deserved your Dirge groat and your dinner Have ye not followed Christ aright Tell mee of goodfellowship whose disciples are ye masse-mongers Christs that preached or Antichrists that preach not Looke whose order yee follow his disciples are yee But Christs order follow yee not therefore are ye not the disciples of Christ but the vile slaves of Antichrist Here see yee then one foule fault which you Masse-mongers commit in your wicked Masses The best part ye utterly leave out I meane the preaching of the Gospell which our Saviour Christ his Apostles and all true Ministers in all ages chiefly practised at the ministration of the holy Communion And in this behalfe yee agree not with Christ neither is your Masse any thing like the LORDS Supper After the Sermon Christ came to the Table where he ministred the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud to his Disciples Now compare your doings with Christs Christ came to a Table to minister his holy Supper You come to an Altar for to say your popish and Idolatrous Masse Christ tabled the matter and yee alter it Oh how well-favouredly ye agree even as Christ and Belial God and the Divell light and darkenesse or as the use to say Like Haroe and Harrow Christ ministred his Supper at a Table and so did it continue certaine hundred yeares after in the Church of Christ who used no Altar at all but at a Table at the ministration of the Lords Supper following the example of Christ which is the selfe truth and example giver of all perfection and righteousnesse But if you following the example of Antichrist like bloudie sacrificers fall in hand with Altars as though ye had sheepe and oxen to kil Christ willing to declare that all bloudie offerings and sacrifices were come to an end which were but signes figures and shadowes of him being the true and alone acceptable sacrifice for the sinnes of the world came not unto an Altar but unto a Table and there ordained ministed his holy Supper shewing thereby that not onely the bloudie sacrifices but also all Altars which were built for bloudie sacrifices sake doe now cease and are utterly abolished But yee whose desire alwayes is to come as neere unto Christ or unto his holy ordinance as the Hare covets to come nigh unto a Tabret refuse Christs order and dispise the table spitefully calling it an Oyster-board and like heathenish and Iewish Priests yee build Altars and upon them you offer your vile and stinking sacrifice not unto God but unto the Divell and unto Antichrist Christ and his Apostles with all the holy Bishops and reverend Fathers of the Primitive Church ministred the Lords Supper at a Table and dare ye O yee Massemongers contrarie to Christs order whose example in this behalf is as it were a commandement and contrary to the practise of Christs Apostles and of the Primative Church minister it at an Altar The holy Scripture makes mention of eating the Lords Supper at the Lords Table but at an Altar to have it ministred not one word Wee have none Altar but one which is Iesus Christ the Lord and he is in heaven onely concerning his humamanitie and not here in earth as the idle brained Papists dreame upon whom and by whom we doe offer sacrifice of praise alwayes to God that is to say the fruit of those lips which confesse his Name For he is our alone Intercessour our alone Mediatour and our alone Advocate Besides this Altar CHRIST the faithfull congregation knoweth none neither in heaven nor in earth All other Altars therefore which ye have in your Churches Chappels and Oratories are Idolatrous and
but ye give it to your selves But as Christ gave the bread to his Disciples willing them to eat it in remembrance of his passion and death so ought yee to doe to the faithfull congregation that are present and not like swinish beasts to eate and drinke up all alone your selves and afterward to blesse the people wiâ—h an empty cup as ye doe at your high and solemne feasts But this doe yee not therefore are ye plaine Antichrists Take this bread saith our Saviour Christ. Take it in your hands Hand off say yee Papists Gape and wee will put it in your mouths and feed yee as children use to feed their Iack-dawes Handle so pretious a relique Marry Sir God forbidde The woman peradventure hath lien with her husband all night or the husband with the wife and shall such touch the pretious body of our Lord with their handes Marry Sir God forbid That were a piteous case But yee abominable Whoremasters ye filthy fornicators yee stinking Sodomites ye deceitfull Deflowrers of mayds yee devillish defilers of mens wives yee cankred corrupters of widowes and yee lecherous locusts may lie with your whores and harlots all night and the next day after goe to Masse consecrate make touch handle breake and devoure your God and yet ye defile the Sacrament nothing at all O abominable Whorehunters O monstrous Massmongers Honest Matrimonie after your corrupt judgements defileth the Sacrament of Christs body and bloud but filthy fornication abominable adultery wicked whoredome and stinking Sodomitrie advanceth the dignity thereof O right Chaplins of that filthy Idoll Priapus But come off I pray you what hath the hand more offended than the mouth that it may not touch the Sacrament Are they not both the good creatures of God are they not made both of one substance and to say the truth there commeth not so much evil from the hand as there doth out of the mouth For out of the mouth come Blasphemies cursed speakings evil reportes bannings slanders lies malicious words filthy tales idle talke singing of bawdy ballads c. But from the hand commeth vertuous occupation honest labour painefull travaile getting of thy living helping of our neighbors and almes-giving to the poore But yee are alwayes like your selves that is to say very Antichrists For yee are evermore contrary to Christ. Christ delivered the Sacrament into his Disciples hands and you put it into the Communicants mouths as though the people were not so wise as to put a morsel of bread in their owne mouthes The people are much bound to you that have so good opinion of them Ye make them momes indeed asses louts and your very riding fools God once open their eyes that they may perceive your jugling Ye are well worthy to have your tithes and offerings truely payd yee doe your duty so well Verily they that give ought to find you Masse-mongers withall and to maintaine you in your abominable massing doe nothing else but offend God dishonor Christ tread under foote the pretious bloud of Christ make Christs death of no price maintaine Idolatrie defie the holy Communion destroy the Christian common-weale uphold Antichrists brood cherish Satans Chaplains pamper Priapus pildepates make fat Venus stout stallions enrich Bacchus Sacrificers and nourish such monsters as doe nothing else than murther kill and slay the soules of so many as follow your damnable Doctrine and hant your Idolatrous Masses Let the Christians therefore beware how and upon whom they bestow their goods lest by giving to Massing priests they get to themselves everlasting damnation The doer and maintainer shall receive like punishment He that readeth the practises of the ancient Church shall evidently see that the manner of the godly Ministers at that time was not to put the Sacramentall bread into the peoples mouths as yee doe at this present but to give it them into their hands For it was not then taken and honored for a God as it is now but it was reverently used and taken as an holy and worthy Sacrament of Christ. But what marvaile is it though yee will not suffer the people to handle the Sacramentall bread seeing yee will not suffer the coÌ„municants to touch your Popes holy chalice wherein notwithstanding is not the Sacrament of Christs bloud but only meere wine dedicated and appointed to no godly use Ye are contrary to Christ in all things God amend you Take eat saith our Saviour Christ. Nay say ye Masse-mongers neither take yee nor eat but come heare Masse devoutly see us take and eat up altogether and it is enough for you Fall down kneele worship your Maker that wee shew unto you Honor your God that is hanged up in the pixe over the Altar and so shall yee be good Catholickes and deare children of our mother holy Church If yee come at Easter according to P. Zepherinus commandemeÌ„t and then receive your maker devoutly it is enough for you At all other times we wil receive the Sacrament for you and it shall do you as much good as though you had eaten it your selfe O false and subtile hypocrits O wicked corrupters of the Lords blessed Testament If other men shold eat up your dinners and suppers in your stead as ye eat up the SacrameÌ„t from the people ye should not have so fat panches as yee have nor yet so frie in your grease as you doe Christ delivered the Sacramental bread to his Disciples and bade them eate but yee eat up all your selves and will give no man part with you O cankred carles O churlish chuffes And here may we note by the way to what end the Sacramental bread is ordained not that it should be kneeled to nor honored as a God nor gazed on nor carried about in popish pompous processions nor offered up for a sacrifice for the sins of the quick the dead nor yet to reserve it to hang it up in the pixe over the Altar as yee Papists doe but that it should be received and eaten of the faithfull Communicants at the Lords Supper in remembrance of CHRISTS death Take eat saith our Saviour Christ. Hitherto have wee heard that your peevish popish private pedlary pelting masse agreeth with the Lords blessed Supper and holy Communion nothing at all Let us now see how well ye behave your selves in the words of Consecration as yee call them wherein after your opinion hangeth all the matter Christ said This is my bodie which is betrayed for you Doe this in the remembrance of me Now let us behold your consecration Taking the little Cake in your hands yee say these words The day before hee suffered hee tooke bread into his holy and worshipfull hands and lifting up his eyes unto heaven to the God his Father Almightie and giving the thanks he blessed brake and gave to his Disciples saying Take and eat of this all ye For this is my body The Author of these words as
taken away from thee and the stinking dung of the Pope most miserable cast upon thee Lament thy sinnes O England lament lament Returne to the Lord thy God and most humbly beseech him once againe to looke upon thee with his mercifull countenance to take away these popish dregs to restore unto thee his lively Word and to blesse thee again with the true ministration of his holy Sacraments that thou maist serve the L O R D thy God in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of thy life This doctrine that the Sacrament of the Altar as you terme it is the true naturall reall carnall corporal and substantiall bodie of Christ is the dream of Antichrist the Bishop of Rome and was never received in the Church till Pope Leo Pope Nicholas Pope Innocent Pope Honorius and Pope Vrban through their tyranny brought it in and compelled the Christians with fire and fagot as the manner of the tyrannicall Papists is to receive their abomihable doctrine and yet in all ages God stored up some to confesse the true doctrine of the Sacrament against Antichrist even unto the death Neither is this popish doctrine so ancient as the Papists bragge For it is not much more than five hundred yeares since their gâ—osse opinion of the Saâ—rament began first to be attempted And although Pope Nicholas the second diâ— much in the matter yet was it not thorowly received nor agreed upon untill Pope Innocent the third came which about the yeare of our Lord 1215. kept a Councell at Rome called Latronense I would say Lateranense concilium where were gathered together a swarme of Papists about the number of thirteen hundred pild pates of the which number eight hundred and odde were Monkes Canons and Fryers chickens of the Popes owne brood Last of all came Pope Vrban the Monke in the yeare of our Lord 1264. and he made up all the market For he ordained a Feast called Corpus Christi in the honour of the Sacrament so that ever after that time the Sacrament was no more taken for a signe figure and token of Christs bodie but for Christ himselfe God and man and therefore was it reverenced worshipped censed and kneeled unto as yee teach the people to doe at your unsacred Sakerings and so are yee their schoolmasters to learn them to commit Idolatrie against their Lord God but let us goe foorth with our matter After our Saviour CHRIST had delivered the Sacramentall bread to his Disciples for to eat hee tooke the Cuppe and thanked and gave it them saying Drinke yee all of this For this is my bloud which is of the new Testament that is shed for many for the remission of sinnes This doe as oft as yee drinke it in the remembrance of mee Here CHRIST delivered to his Disciples holy wine I call it holy because it was dedicated and appointed to an holy use which hee made the Sacrament of his bloud And they all dranke of it And here is to bee marked by the way that our Saviour CHRIST afore seeing that there should arise false annointed that would take away from the people the Sacrament of his bloud bade them all drinke of it All all without exception even so many as beleeve on him spirituall or temporall as they call them Are not yee Popish shavelings these false annointed Have you not taken away the Cup of the LORDS bloud from the Lay people and reserved it to your selves alone Doe not ye minister the Sacrament of Christs bodie and bloud to the Lay people under one kinde onely cleane contrary to Christs institution O GOD-robbers O spoilers of Christian mens soules Neither can ye abide that the people should touch your Pope-holy Chalice when they drinke the wine but ye your selves holding the chalice in your own hands give them drinke as though they were babes of three dayes old and could not put the Cuppe to their mouth O tender and jealous nurses In the primative Church and many hundred yeares after as we may see in the monuments of learned men the Sacrament according to Christs institution was received of the people under both kindes untill Antichrist the Biship of Rome by his divellish decree determined the contrary at the Councell of Constance not much more than an hundred years past Pope Gelasius made a godly Decree that those people that would not receive the Sacrament under both kindes should receive none at all but be put away from the Lords Table The Greekes and Bohemes with all that be not under the tyranny of the Pope of Rome and of his wicked Lawes receive the Sacrament under both kinds at this day according to Christs institution Where the contrary is used there reigneth the Devill and the Pope and not Christ and his holy Word But now let us behold your doings After that yee have committed Idolatrie with the sacramentall bread if it be worthy of that name ye fall in hand to consecrate I use still your owne termes the wine with these words In like manner after Supper was done hee tooke this noble chalice that is a lye for Christ never handled that chalice into his holy and worshipful hands and after hee had given thankes to the Father he blessed here fall ye to crossing againe and gave it to his Disciples saying Take yee and drinke yee all of this For this is the cup of my bloud a new and everlasting Testament a mystery of faith w ch shall be shed for you and for many for the remission of sinnes So oft as yee shall doe these things yee shall doe them in the remembrance of me How many words have ye put in here of your owne braine ye shall easily perceive if yee compare them with the words which our Saviour CHRIST spake But for as much as they do not greatly disagree froÌ„ the truth of Gods word I will not strive with you in this behalfe though I would wish you once to deale faithfully and truely in all your doings but specially wheÌ„ you have to doe with God seeing it is written Put nothing to the words of God lest hee reprove thee and thou bee found a lyar After the aforesaid words spoken in hocker mocker yee breathe and blow and shake your head over the Chalice and then yee kneele downe lift up your hands and honour it like most abhominable Idolaters After that yee stand up againe like pretty fellowes and well appointed and taking the Chalice in your hands yee hold it up with heave howe above your heathenish heads that the people also may worship it and bee fellow Idolaters with you and fall into the like danger of everlasting damnation This done yee set the Chalice downe againe upon the Altar and yee cover it with your Corporasse cloath for catching of cold Then once againe kneele ye downe and up againe like dive doppers and kisse the Altar and spread your armes abroad as though