fist And to your debters done oppression Your barts to meeke and humble ye resist Yet shame ye not to make profession Of sacrifice and of religion With solempne outward ceremony Hypocrisie and meere derision Where in the hart is not humility Shortly the humble lowe and contrite hart Sayth Dauid is to God most acceptable That wyll I offer sayth be for my part And Bullockes of my lippes lay on thy table Wherein almighty God vs graunt that we By his example and a number mo Enforsen vs such as he was to be Encreas and blesse all them that wyshen so That eche man seeking others not his owne In pacience and longanimitie Of lyfe may make his callyng to be knowen And wynne the weake to praysen God thereby Through stedfastnesse and trueth in woord déede Abhorring filthy gayne and all excesse Supportyng eche another in his néede Accompting godly liuing great richesse Shortly subduing lust and lewde desyre Of sport or speeche and fleshes foule delite May so put out of wickednesse the fyre And growe in fruites and graces of the spirite And thus much of this vertue haue I said Of duetie bound and eke most willingly The rather for pride hath her sore affraid And bosteth he will putten out her eye â–ª Which God of his pure grace sheild and defend And blesse his people and inheritance To him be laud and praise world without end And of all creatures obeyssance The Booke to the Reader â—F gentle Reader thou haue found in me Thing which thy stomake hardly can disgest Here is discribed an Epythyme â—arme it and lappe it close vnto thy brest 〈◊〉 was compounded with great diligence Of Symples by an Apothecary â—â—…th trustie and skilfull in that Science And from these iiii verses doth not vary The Epythyme â—ho purposeth to liuen vertuouse In fauour of our God let him take kéepe â—hat pride none office beare within his house For where he doth vertue is layde to sleepe A Prayer to almightie God. LOrd God through whose eternall ordinance Decréed is and set downe by statute That human life shall stand of sustenance And must for want thereof be resolute Into the matter whereout he was take Which was the earth and therfore hast him giue In token of thy loue and for his sake All necessary things wheron to liue Both for his pleasure and necessitie To number them and make diuision The first I may not for infinitie But to the last belongen thrée and one Which are apparel meat and drinke and sléepe Whereof the last thrée ben so necessary That who so lacketh them no life may kéepe The fourth to hide our shame thou will we cary These for our life we holden suffisaunt For these we make shift and prouision Forgetfull of the fourth and ignoraunt Which yet is chiefe of all and liefe allone Thy word O Lord by whom all these are led And through thée which they yelden norishment For else man liueth not onely by bred By meat or drinke or other accident Nor yet by sléepe to nature so friendable Though of all these we taken what we will Yea rather for wée béen vnmeasurable And vse them not for néede but to fulfill A foule delite and priden vs therein They been our snares and hasten our decay Thy iust reward O Lord allas for sinne When we by them are led forth of thy way Graunt vs therfore O Lord that we so vse Thy Creatures as may stand with thy will That for their sakes we do not thee refuse Nor turne thy giftes and goodnes to our ill But that aboue all other things we thirst Thy kingdome and of it the righteousnes Which thou hast bidden vs to séeken first So shall the rest not hurt vs through excesse In this life nor yet in the life to come Which graunt vs Lord for Iesus Christes sake And when in earth our part is playd and done Our soules and bodies to thy mercy take FINIS
ruffes were both of one So fyne that I might see his skinne them through Which is as much to say as he had none This was a husbandman a simple hinde Whome when I called had and bad come néere And of the matter told him all my minde He aunswered with milde and gentle chéere Syr quod he gladlye would I doon ye prowe If in this matter I had halfe the skyll That I haue in my harrow and my plowe I pray ye of my wordes to thinke none yll I bad him not doubt therof and told him more He should haue fellowship and assistence Lyke as ye had ne tell the knight before And of the matter certen euidence Then was he well contented therewithall Looke what is in my knowledge my might Helpe you quod he with all my hart I shall Then on my matter further I gan me dight To make them full then found I other me A Shoemaker a Weauer and a Smith A Haberdasher of smale wares also I now me thought to trie our matter with For I remember not the certaintie Of all the residue that weren there Their names their science and their facultie For haste also I nould of them enquere But these vnto my pannell dyd I wryte And read their names that euery man might here And not full fowre and twentie names recite For sure I was twelue of them would appere Then spake the parties vnto me and sayd Them thought that som of these were chalēgable Whereof aduantage either of them praid If any vpon cause they could disable Reason quod I that was agréed vpon before But who shall iudge and trye your challenges Your selfe quod they no sure quod I therfore Appoint some other to that busines Yea twoo or thrée thereto wyll scant suffice To iudge of them and theyr indifference For secréete cause of fauour maye arise Which must be searched which great aduertence By such as haue experience therein And of aduersitye haue had theyr part For who so beaten in the world hath bene No further néede he take degrée of art With that they were content and dyd agrée To chose them tryers as I had thought méef I asked them how many they sayde thrée In the name of God quod I so be it Nowe did there in the place alreadie stand A woman well nigh fiftye yeres of age A young boye and a young wench at her hand Thinne was their weede and light their cariage The woman and the wenche were clad in russet Both course and olde and worne so very neere That ye might see cleane through both sléeue gusset The naked skinne whereas it dyd appeere Their hosen and their shooes were all of one I meane both for the woorkmanshyp and leather To wyt their skinnes for other had they none And chapped were they sore with wind weather With homely clouts I knitt vpon their head Simple yet white as thing so course might be The boy much like them was apparelled For hose ne shoe vpon his foote had he With that I called them and they came nere And bad god spéede and saue the company Then I did aske them who and whence they were They answeared me of the North country In Comberland as farre hence as Kendall And Copie holders were of tenant right I wotte not howe the Lorship they dyd call But hold they dyd by seruice of a knight To serue the Prince at an howres warning And asken neither wages fée ne hyre Ne choise of time at midnight or at morning All were it raine or shine in durt and myre Nowe hath a churle quod they take it in leace To wytte the Lordshyp with the perquisite And for I we mought not pay our terme doth cease So our inheritaunce haue losten quite The company thought pitie this to héere Alas quod I this is great crueltye All gate I bad them all be of good cheere And praye to God to send you remedye And sith ye ben come hether at this time I wyll not let you stand in ydelnesse For ye shall haue the charge should haue ben mine And méete are ye that haue ben in distresse Which teacheth man to know the good from yll And eke to trye a true friend from a shrow Which vnto them that haue all thinges at wyll And liue in welth is verye hard to know With that I vp and told them all the case Whereof before they hadden hard the chiefe And that of no small credite was the place Of truth and vertue for to maken pryef They all alledged theyr simplicitie So dyd the veluet breches them disable And of their choyse misliked vtterlye As them that were too vyle and miserable To iudge in causes of such importaunce For howe can it be possible quod he But they ben lewd and of great iguoraunce And would in no case that it should so be The breche of clothe sayd that it was not so They were right méete the challenges to trye As symple folke were chosen long agoe To greater charge but if the byble lye And is reserred to the multitude Who aunswered they were not to refuse So therevppon we dydden all conclude Theyr seruice in this busines to vse WEll then widow quod I and fatherlesse Which both by god vnto vs are commended Haue good regard vnto this businesse Vntyll that with your helpe we haue it ended For you can speake of your experience That ye haue séene felte hard and vnderstood And of the passed gather consequence And iudge betwéene the euill and the good And if it fall in reason to decide Morall decrée or constitution My helpe and knowledge shall not be denide Vntill we haue them tried one by one And sithe we become this farre in the case As ye haue hard from present haue ye been And loked both the parties in the face That sharpe are set as ye haue hard and séene And specially the playntiue whom ye here his estymation how he doth hold And of him self how he accompteth deere So is his aduersarie partie bold And other wayes accompteth woorthynesse Besides alledgeth his antiquitie And that nought but his owne he would possesse Discended to him from his auncestrie And for this cause we are assembled here My selfe and all these others whom ye see To make this matter that is doubtfull cleere If God wyll therein wyl graunt vs facultie Therefore as I shal reade their names eche one If eyther party chalenge any man And shew cause ye are iudges therevpon Vnto that cause to speaken what ye can And it alowe for good or otherwyse To disalow it in your iudgement Wherin I redd you that ye be precise And for the trueth to doo your good intent They answeared with all their harts they would Protesting their vnablenes of skil I bad them doo no more but what they could For God requireth of a man but wyl With that I read their names for to appere And fyrst the knight ▪ the squire and gentleman Who at the first made answear
sayd here Then to the rest to passen I began Fyrst of the Taylours challeng made rehearsal And asked yf he were indifferent The tryors thought him not and so dyd al The rest and therfore from vs we him sent Then gan I for to call the vitayler He answeared and ready was at hand The Baker Bruer and the Vintener Come nere quoth I with your felowes stand Then to the Tanner and the Grasier Who answeared me both without delay The daunsing master and the Bricklayer I bad thinformer also come away The maister of the dysing house also The Smith the Weauer and the Husbandman And there I ceassed and dyd call no mo But for to count their number I began And found the number of them iust sixtéene Nowe masters to the parties then saide I Here is a Iury complet as I wéene Looke to your chalenges aduisedly And fyrst the knight I called to the booke Who had no sooner answeared thereto Then veluet bréeches to him chalenge tooke And said he would shew cause I bad hym doo THis knight was neuer fréend of mine quod he So plaine in his apparel and his port The godly be dooth more estéeme then me And spend his liuing on the poorer sort He lyueth very well content at home Nor to the Citie hath desyre to goe Ne vp and downe there in the stréetes to rome And for him selfe enquire at placebo His Tenaunts and his Fermars lyue at ease To whom he rayseth not a peny rent Which thyng dooth not a litle me displease As vnto pride a thing impertinent And I thinke to speake plainely at a woord He had a great deale rather for to see Then silke on backe good vitayles on his boord And spend his rent his hospitalitée Which sith it is a thyng agaynst my kind It must needes folowe that he hateth me And to my aduersarie is enclinde Therfore of this enquest ought not to be Then spake the wydow and the fatherlesse And sayd a méeter man then he was one Whose chalenge was his zeale to godlynesse If he be drawen quoth they we shal haue none Of all the chalenges that haue béen taken In all the dayes and place where we haue ben Ne hard wée man for vertue yet forsaken Such fauour hath she with the sonnes of men Or at the least she ought to haue of ryght That whom so both the parties would admit A man that in her had his whole delight There should no priuate chalenge to him syt To wyt of kynred or affinitie Indusing fauour as the Lawyers say And true but yet among the vngodly Who for their fréendes sake from the trueth wyl stray But of the godly other is thintent For they remember what their maister bad Thou shalt know no mans face in iudgement This earth to winne from trueth they nyl be lad For brotherhood ne yet for coossinage For hope nor feare loue ne alliaunce For faire or foule countenaunce or language Vnto them all for trueth they bid defiaunce As they that to no person bearen hate Ne wyshen euil vnto any wyght Or would him hinder for their fréend his sake Such loue haue they to God such zeale to ryght Yet are they often iudged of thunwyse To hate some persons for they doon hem blame Which is for they loue them and hate their vice And gladly would them bring to better frame Wherefore this knight as we haue sayd beforne We thinke right méete to leaden this enquest And our assent be shall haue to be sworne So passed we from him and vnto the rest Yea for the loue of God then answeared I And bad him lay his hand vpon the booke And as he was a knight of auncestry Bad him regard his trueth and oath he tooke Which is quoth I that ye shall say the trueth If that the bréeches of cloth haue doon disseison To him of veluet that here as plaintife sueth Or from hym hath bereaft his right or reason Throughout this land in any place or coast Namely in London and parties there about Where he him selfe complayneth wronged most And from fee and franke tenement put out And him shall repossesse yf ye it finde And cost and domage geue him for the wrong And this to doo your oth here dooth ye binde If not say so and therein be not long That doon I called next vnto the squyre To whom like chalenge as vnto the knight The veluet bréeches tooke but dyd retyre The gentleman also he let goe quite So three we had our Iury to begyn Now wyll we to the meaner sort quoth I And bad the Baker and Vitayler come in Also the Bruer who came as readely The veluet bréeche then chalenged all three And that he sayde his cause was principall I am in debt vnto them all quoth he And by my good wyll pay them nere shall And fourtie pound it is to whom is least Wherefore to tell you trueth I doo them hate And as myne enimies I them detest Ne shall they in that cause of myne debate The bréeche of cloth made answeare and defence And saide with pride this chalenge rightly stood To yéeld dispite and hate for recompence To such as in his néede had doon hym good And this is not of late ne yesterday For Iesus that was the sonne of Syrack Reade yf the very same he dooth not say Which of such matter and of others spake Wherefore he thought this chalenge could be none Though on his side were parcialitie That proued neither of them such an one As therefore beare to him inimitie We asked then the triours what they thought I meane the wydowe and the fatherlesse They answeared the chalenge seemed nought Yet asked myne aduise neuerthelesse For that the veluet bréeches further sayd That he had béen arrested at their sute Desiring that the matter might be wayd And further of the cause they would dispute And yf the common lawe dyd it alowe As he dyd thinke in reason well it ought Those three be vtterly would disauowe With that I answeared and sayd I thought The lawe would not ne could intend so ill If him that sueth for to haue his debt That he of malice or of euyll wyll Would séeke to be his hinderaunce or let Which were they ware his debtor to disable And bring him selfe to losse and hinderaunce Which is not to be thought nor intendable So thought the rest in finall concordaunce Wherefore they were itaken euery one So seuen of our Iury sworeu were Then called I the Bricklayer alone Who answeared but or he were come néere The bréeche of cloth to him this chalenge toke Of fourtie Chimneys that by him were built In one house there are scantly fiue that smoke So was there much good bricke and morter spilt So held he him vnfaithful in his hart That taketh wage and woorketh all in vaine Ne for his hyre dooth wyllyngly his part But only séeketh howe to rayse his gaine And so thereof he drew this consequent He that dooth