before the Image of our Lady of Atocha for Gods sake Now this fellow is either their seruant and hath a daily weekly or a monthly pension of them for his maintenance or else he is one that paies them a yeerely rent for it I omit also to speake of what infinite summes of mony is sent vnto them daily hourely out of euery corner of Spaine to fay Masses before this Lady I thinke in my conscience that this goodly Image doth bring in yeerely one way or another aboue foure or fiue thousand pound sterling to this one Cloister of Dominican Friers which are most commonly one hundred and fifty To conclude there is neuer a Cloister of Friers as well of this Order as of other Orders but they haue one Image or other to deceiue the silly ignorant people of their money as I meane to shew God willing more fully hereafter for I doe purpose to speake more at large of their rotten Reliques and other popish trash in another Pamphlet These Dominican Friers doe get an infinite summe of money with the Fraternity of the Rosary for euery one of the Lay-people of either Sex that is of their Fraternity must pay them a good round summe for their first admittance and a certaine annuall summe to say Masses for themselues their friends and the soules in Purgatory and these fooles are to haue nothing for their money but to be partakers of the superabundant merits of these Friers which they call Supererogations that is to say Good workes that the Friers haue performed ouer and aboue that which they are obliged to merit the Kingdome of Heauen for themselues and the brethren and sisters of their Fraternity And withall they haue procured many Pardons Priuileges and Indulgences from seuerall Popes for themselues and for the Nuns that are of their Order and withall for all the brethren and sisters of their fraternity as may appeare by the Copies of the Popes Bulls which are fixed vpon Posts and Pillars in their Churches Yea for euery Masse that is said vpon any of their priuileged Altars they draw one silly soule by the heeles out of purgatory if all be true that they say I shewed you before how Dominick and his Mates were Murderers let vs now descend and suruey his ghostly children and how they haue behaued themselues all this while whom if you view well you shall finde not to be inferiour to their bloudy Patron but to haue exceeded him for he murdered but a company of poore silly people but his Friers haue not spared Emperours and Kings whereof I could bring you many examples but for breuity sake I will content me onely with two or three referring the Reader to the Histories of seuerall Nations written by men of their owne Religion and are extant to this day A Frier of this Order poisoned the Emperour Henry the seuenth in the Sacrament or their breaden god Another Frier of this same Order poisoned the Emperour Henry of Lutzenburgh likewise in the Sacrament at the command of Pope Clement the fifth The reason was as Baptista Ignatius and Sleidan affirme because the Emperour grew too strong in Italy But these Friers got not much by the bargaine for many of them were afterwards slaine by the Emperours Souldiers Iames Clement another Frier of this holy Order did most shamefully murder King Henry the third of France which fact was not onely ratified and allowed of at Rome but highly commended by the Popes sweet holinesse and others for Mariana one of their Writers saith That that young man meaning the said Frier Iames Clement being of a simple spirit and weake body but one in whom a greater vertue had confirmed strength and courage got himselfe no small renowne by killing that King accounting it a memorable act And hee accuseth them of barbarousnesse and cruelty Meaning the Suizers of the Kings Guard that comming gaue so many blowes to a man that was dead before And withall he assureth that in his face it might haue beene read how ioyfull and glad he was amidst all his blowes and wounds that with his bloud he had bought the liberty of his Country for he had learned saith he of Diuines Iesuites and Friers with whom he had consulted that the Tyrant meaning the King might iustly be killed Vide Mariana in 2. Regum lib. 1. cap. 6. pag. 53. 54. O infamous and peruerse wretched Writer doest thou commend that villanous Traitor that murdered his naturall Soueraigne O detestable crime and so horrible that there is not a name so cruell or abominable as may sufficiently expresse it Damnable Monks Friers and Iesuites doe you reade in the holy Scriptures that it is lawfull for any one to murder I say not only his King but euen the basest man on earth The Law of God forbiddeth vs to defile our hands in humane bloud And God also commandeth in the Booke of Deuteronomy to take the Homicide from the very Altar and to slay him but as for Kings he hath giuen a particular priuiledge as the Lord saith by the mouth of the Psalmist You shall not touch mine anointed much more you shall not kill him Dauid also forbare to lay hands vpon King Saul his enemie albeit he had him at aduantage Did the Apostle teach you to murder Kings when hee said Obedite praepofitis vestris etiam discolis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dare you thus tread vnder feet the Law of God to which in words you vaunt your selues though falsly to bee so zealously affectionate Shame fall vpon you mischieuous and traiterous Hypocrites are not your Monasteries and Churches Sanctuaries for Murderers Deny it if you can The very Pagans shall condemne you in the latter day for albeit they were ignorant and knew not God yet they carried such respect vnto the Princes of their lands as to tearme them in reuerence the liuing portraiture of the supreme Diuinity Hearken what one of their Poets said Rex est Imago animata Dei If they be wicked yet you ought to obserue this good aduertisement which one giueth Principes boni voto quidem expetendi quale cunque tolerandi sunt But leauing these Traitors to their wickednesse I returne now to the matter Frier Iohn de Roma another good religious man of this Order and one of the Inquisitors of Spaine did prosecute the poore Protestants of Mirandula and other places of Spaine that he caused Boots to be filled with scalding hot Oile and drew them on their legs both to bring them to confession and to confesse where their mony lay hid At Chalon in France there liued in a Couent of this Order two reuerend Fathers that were in outward shew like Angels of Heauen neuerthelesse they loued the female Sex so well that they made them a Caue in a Rocke not farre from the City to entertaine two young whores where they purposed to performe their Monasticall vow of Chastity But their often walking from their Cloister to this sanctified Caue
of the Mendicant Friers which the Romish Antichrist hath set forth as the last proppe and stay of his tottering and ruinous kingdome for he perceiuing that as Saint Paul hath foreshewed Christ hath begun to consume it with the breath of his mouth and abolish it with the brightnesse of his comming that is the preaching of the Gospell And seeing moreouer the world to grow to a disliking contempt of the ignorance sluggishnesse lewdnesse of the other Orders of Monks and Friers taken from men as Benet Dominick Francis and such like hath sent abroad into Christendom this new Sect hypocritically adorned with the name of Iesus and furnished with more shew of learning holinesse and godlinesse than their other Popish fraternities to the intent that Iesus Christ may be the sooner betrayed while these holy Iesuits giue him a Iudas salutation and kisse Because hee is in good hope that they are the men by whom he shall recouer againe that so large a circuit of ground which he hath lost in France England Germany Scotland Ireland Denmarke Swethland and other Countries of Christendome Furthermore he vseth this speciall policy to cause them by all meanes priuily to allure and entice the youths of the Vniuersities and Countries where the Gospell is preached to depart from the places where they are vnto his Colleges Seminaries and Cloisters to the end that being there for a time nuzled and trained vp vntill they bee hardened in hypocrisie obstinacie and malice against the truth and poisoned with the pestilent errours of the Romish Synagogue they may be sent out as new false Apostles into their owne countries or else thither where it is thought they may doe most harme Wherein they follow their forefathers the Scribes and Pharisees the like hypocrites who as Christ saith compassed both sea and land to make one Proselyte or of their profession and when he is made they make him two-fold more the childe of hell than they themselues Now to the intent my Country-men who as yet are not throughly acquainted with these Monks Friers and Iesuits or with their profession doctrine and purposes and therefore are in danger the sooner to be deceiued by them may be the better admonished yea armed and prouided against them I haue compiled this ensuing discourse or Treatise of their Genealogie Proceedings and present estate my purpose being at this time in some sort to vnmaske these monsters wherein I doe vse such modestie as the subiect can beare to reproue their errours the which the loue of the truth and vertue enforceth me and not to cauill or to slander any one of them which I detest and abhorre Moreouer I doe craue of the Readers that they bring with them to the reading hereof a loue and zeale of the truth ioyned with godlinesse and desire of their owne saluation Farewell Thine in the Lord LEWIS OWEN GEntle Reader I pray thee if thou seest some literall faults escaped in this Discourse correct them but especially I must admonish thee of these viz. Page 74. line 27. for vniuis reade viuis p. 93. l. 11. for 1504. r. 1540. codem p. l. 12. r. in stead of Paul the 5. Paul the 5. or Gregory the 15. p. 98. r. Catulos in some bookes for Catulo p. 160. l. 34. for you vnto r. vnto you THE VNMASKING OF ALL POPISH MONKS FRIERS AND IESVITES ALbeit that the Apostle Saint Paul saith Coloss 2.2.3.4 vnto the 22. verse That in Christ Iesus and in the knowledge of him all the treasure and wisdome of God lieth hidden so that the faithfull ought not to receiue any institution or doctrine of men Yet many hundred years after the Apostles decease the Church of Rome hath found out a wonderfull and vnspeakable hoord of wisdome and knowledge through which a man may come to perfect Iustification and to an Angelicall life and withall get a store and a heape of merits and good workes to helpe a good friend withall at a pinch and to release a dozen or twaine of silly soules out of Purgatory And these are they especially the holy Orders and full perfections of Monkes and Friers especially of Saint Francis Saint Bernard Saint Dominick Saint Ignatius and many more of the same stampe which the Apostles knew not of when men were satisfied with the pure and vnmingled milke of God Word Like new-borne children as Saint Peter saith 1 Pet. 2.2 Iohn 14.29 15. yea these rich treasures were not yet reuealed to Christ himselfe who taught nothing but that which he had receiued of his Father and the same did he fully and wholly deliuer to his Disciples and Apostles This is plainly written in the fifth booke of Sexti Decret in Bulla Nic. 4. beginning at Exit qui Sem. nec his 1. de Verb. sign And in their Legends and in the booke which Almas made in the Inspiration of Mary the Aegyptian Vid. Conformitat S. Francisci 83. and established with the Popes Bulles But this as it seemes was too daintie a dish for his mouth and therefore must be kept for the last course against the time that the holy Fathers Saint Francis Saint Dominicke and Saint Alane who sucked the blessed Virgins brest as well as Christ himselfe and walked about the towne with her as the Bridegroome with the Bride and many more of that rable should appeare I dare giue them a paire of siluer Eyes to be offered to the blacke woodden Lady of Loretto if they can finde in the Bible that either Christ or his Apostles did euer know or teach that whosoeuer should die in a Gray-friers habit should neuer come into Purgatory or that Saint Francis is placed in Lucifers seat in heauen aboue all Angels at the vpper end and that he did liue a more perfect life than Christ and that the Angels are not to be compared with him or what knew they that he that should die in a White-friers Scapularie should be saued as they say the blessed Virgin did declare to Frier Symon Stocke In hoc moriens saluabitur that is Who so dies in this shall be saued as in their Churches euery where is painted forth Or what knew they that Frier Alanus should make the Rosary of our Lady which must be esteemed as the Gospell as Tarthemius Leander and others their Diuines haue written and their famous great Champion Blindasinus in his book called Panopolie or his full furniture of Weapons and harnesse saith that Saint Francis his Vineyard the Golden Legend the booke of the Conformitie of Saint Francis and the Masse-booke must be as much esteemed in all respects as the holy Scripture yea in the booke of the Conformitie of Saint Francis made by Frier Bartholomew of Pisa Anno 1389. and allowed by the Chapter generall of Assyso is written that the same booke is better than the Gospell And therefore to maintaine these errors and blasphemies the Church of Rome and the Popes her holy Vicars haue at sundrie times erected seuerall
or originall c. neuerthelesse say they if they be hainous and notorious mortall sinnes the Confessor if he absolues the partie must by his owne superabundant merits that is to say his good workes which he hath in store ouer and aboue that which is sufficient and necessary to saue his owne soule satisfie Gods diuine Iustice and take vpon him to discharge his Penitents sinnes and to free and acquite him of all sins and the penalty and guilt for the same Oh horrible blasphemie Doe not these Impostors as much as in them is annihilate the Passion and Merits of Christ Doe they not animate and encourage men to perpetrate any villany or wickednesse whatsoeuer For if one bring them money all shall be forgiuen all the score shall be wiped cleane out of Gods bookes of accounts by these Ball-pates But let them trust to the Popes and his Shauelings pardons and absolutions that will I for my part will make my confession to God and desire his Diuine Maiestie for Christs sake to pardon and forgiue me all my sinnes and iniquities for I am assured hauing obtained this absolution I need not feare and as for the Pope and his Clergy mens pardon I doubt that it will not passe currant at that day when all men yea the Popes worship himselfe and all his Clergy must reddere rationem although Pardons are sold in Rome for Sodomy Incest Treasons Sacrilege Murders and all other abominable sinnes as ordinary as Hogs at Rumford yea oftner for at Rumford there is but one market day in the weeke and in Rome euery day in the yeere is a free Mart for these Pardons Absolutions and Indulgences Bishoppricks and Benefices nay Heauen and God himselfe are there to be bought and sold for money for the Popes Treasury or Shop like hell gate is alwaies open and the price of Pardons some to be granted to priuate persons others for whole Families Kingdomes and Nations are there registred and set downe by his sweet Holinesse in capitall Letters as by the bookes of Taxes printed many yeeres agoe by the Popes owne commandement and approbation may appeare O is not this a goodly Mart where all manner of spirituall wares are vendible as Baptista Mantuanus a Carmelite Frier long agoe witnesseth in this Distick Eglog 5. Templa Sacerdotes Altaria Sacra Coronae Ignis thus preces Coelum est venale Deusque Temples Priest-hood and Altars so holy Frankincense prayers heauen and its glory Yea holy Fryers nay God himselfe is sold By the Pope of Rome for siluer and gold Moreouer if any be sicke especially of the richer sort for the poore are none of their Clients these shauelings will speedily repaire thither to administer vnto them some spirituall but to say truth spightfull food for it is their ordinary custome to bring the sicke parties almost to desperation because they would gull them of their mony the only comfort or consolation that they will bestow is to tell them that there is no other way for them to expect but damnation vnlesse they will deale liberally and giue good store of money to good vses to whom I pray you in good sooth to them to pray for their soules when they be broyling in Purgatory and to sing Masses Ad requiem de profundis and such like popish prayers to free them from thence For this hot scalding furnace or Purgatory is the best possession that the Pope and his Monks Friers and other his Clergy men haue for it yeeldeth them more profit gaine rent and reuenues than all the other benefices whatsoeuer Neither is there any Realme Lordship Land or Heritage that yeeldeth more profit vnto their Lords and owners than Purgatory â—oth vnto them And therefore it is no maruell if they feare so much to lose it for if that should be taken away from them they were quite vndone and ouerthrowne horse and foot O all their care and chiefest study is to describe this famous Country vnto the common people Verily I thinke there is neuer a Geographer be he neuer so learned that can so well paint and describe the earth with all the parts thereof as these Mountebanks I meane Monks and Friers and popish Clergy men doe draw out these infernall Regions and those Low Countries but I wonder whether they speake by heare say or that they haue beene there in proper person for they can tell of euery little creeke or corner Howbeit we see that the best Cosmographers doe faile oft times in the descriptions of the earth and of many Countries and Regions which are most familiar and best knowne vnto vs. As for example there is not almost a Country better knowne than France and England neuerthelesse we often times see great errors in those Cards in which they are described And therefore we may coniecture that it may so chance in other Tables Maps or Cards containing the description of the Heauen Earth and many other Countries vnknowne But Monks and Friers haue the spirit to compose and make a Table or Map of these low infernall Regions yea better than the Painters haue painted them out in their Churches or the Printers in the Shepherds Callender And therefore I would aduise all that intend to trauell into the Kingdome of Purgatory to take a Monk a Frier or a popish Priest for their guide as Circes guided Vlysses to bring him to speake with Elpemenor and as Sybilla brought Aeneas to the speech of his father Anchises Homer Odyss 1. 11. Virgil. Aeneid lib. 6. Ouid. Met. l. 14. But would you know who was the first that found out this hot Region or Kingdome of Purgatory haue but patience and I will tell you Mine Author is Peter of Amiens who wrote in a booke of this discouery in the time of Pope Iohn the eight 1000. yeeres after the passion of our Sauiour Iesus Christ that one Odillus Abbot of the Monks of Cluny being in Sicilia and hearing oftentimes the noise cries and bewailings which were made continually about the hill Aetna which now is called in the Italian tongue Gibello monte did imagine that it came from the Deuils lamenting that the soules of the faithfull deceased were deliuered from torments through the Masses Vigiles Prayers Sacrifices and Offerings of the liuing Christians he presently declared the same to his Monks and they all decreed together that after they had offered their Offerings the first day of Nouember and celebrated the Feasts of All Saints in their honour they would in like manner the next day make prayers and supplications for the soules of all the faithfull deceased And afterwards in succession of time others receiued and allowed that manner of doing as good and holy The reason was as I thinke because the Poets and the foolish common people imagined that there was a place there to descend into hell and the place in which the soules of the wicked were tormented for their sinnes because that in the same Mountaine there is a perpetuall fire
blowes with his Musket rest and would haue broken her bones if another whore of his acquaintance had not come in hearing the old woman cry who pacified him and lay with Señor Laurencio for so was his name that night O the Religion and conscience of these Catholike Spaniards that tyrannize farre worse than the Turke wheresoeuer they get the vpper hand But now to returne againe to the Iesuites who are the only commanders of this City whose words are Lawes yea Oracles among the Spaniards They preach and catechise young children twise or thrise a weeke yea the Souldiers doe take protestants children by force and bring them to the Iesuites to be instructed in popery Alas if I should tell you all the wrongs and misdemeanours that the Iesuites haue committed in this City and elsewhere this Pamphlet would grow to be a great volume The next Summer after the death of the Emperour Matthias the Iesuites of Liege kept a great solemne funerall for him which was as neere as I can remember in this manner First a noble mans sonne that was one of their Schollers being very richly attired riding vpon a great horse with an imperiall Crown on his head hauing a Canopy carried ouer him borne by six men attended on with a great traine representing the person of the King of Spaine another in the same manner representing the King of France others the King of Bohemia that is now Emperour and all other Catholike Princes Euery one of them hauing a guard of Souldiers both horse and foot all being the Iesuites Schollers They were all drawne out in their diuisions Souldier-like hauing their Captaines and other Officers who were Iesuites to lead them on in a great market place which is by Saint Pauls Church from whence the counterfeit hearse was brought forth carried and accompanied with many Mourners with that state and Ceremonies as great Princes are wont to be brought to their last home After that followed these Kings and Princes seuerally accompanied with their traine and guard hauing their banners carried before each of them placed by Heralds Then came the Breaden god their Sacrament carried by a Iesuit vnder a Canopie borne by foure schollers in white Surplices singing after that followed the Image of the blessed Virgin Mary very curiously wrought wherein wanted neitheir cost nor art carried vpon mens shoulders accompanied with many Iesuites and singing men and last of all came Wickliffe Iohn Hus Ierome of Pragus Martin Luther Caluin Beza M. Bucer P. Martyr Oecolampadius Zuinglius Bullinger Melancton Fox and Master Perkins all bound with iron chaines and led and guarded with a squadron of Deuils who made the Monks Friers and other Clergy men to skip for ioy to see those men that had writ en against them to be led captiue by Lucifer and his Angels The Hearse being thus attended by so many Kings and Princes the Sacrament the blessed Virgin and the blacke guard marcht forward to the Iesuites College where they all entered and fell to their prayers here might you haue seene Hus Luther Beza Perkins and the rest yea the Deuils with their Beads in their hands say Paters and Aues for the Emperours soule Truly I maruelled much to see the Iesuites permit those whom they call and condemne for Heretikes to enter into their Church and to accompany the blessed Sacrament and the blessed Virgins Image yea in my opinion they abus'd those Catholike Kings and Princes who were then and there represented to intrude those men into their company whom they neuer affected or loued and that which is worse to place Deuils to bring vp the reare of their armie All these Souldiers were the Iesuites Schollers and taught and instructed in military Discipline by the Iesuites themselues who are euery where martiall men and giuen tam Martiquà m Mercurio for in euery Army Leaguer Garrison or Nauie that any Catholike King or Prince hath there the Iesuites will be as busie as an Atturney in Westminster Hall in the middest of a tearme Hij Palladi oratores noui Philosophi in Castris non in Claustris versantur They had rather to be stirring abroad and follow the Campe than bee confined within the circuit of a Cloister And therein they doe imitate their Father Ignatius of infamous memory for he was a Souldier and so are they yea in euery one of their Colleges they haue Armour and munition to furnish many thousand Souldiers and besides there is not any one of them but knowes how to vse his Armes as if he had beene a Souldier all the daies of his life To conclude this funerall or Obsequies did cost the Parents and friends of these young Iesuiticall Kings and Princes by report aboue two thousand pounds sterling What shall I say The Iesuites haue beene the vtter ruine and ouerthrow of Don Sebastian the last King of Portugall and Algarbes for through their policie and wicked counsell he lost his Crownes and Kingdomes and in the end his life They haue beene the chiefest cause of all the ciuill Warres Massacres and troubles in France since the death of Henry the third of France to this present time These seditious infernall Locusts haue beene the only occasion of those bloudy warres betweene the King of Poland and the great Duke of Moscouia or Russia and againe betweene Poland and Swethland Haue not the Iesuites beene the cause of the losse of Voltalin the vpper and lower Palatinate And haue they not beene the cause of all these Wars Bloudshed Commotions Dearth Famine Persecutions Rapine Miseries Calamities and Destructions that haue hapned in Italy France Germany Bohemia Netherlands the seuenteene Prouinces and other neighbouring Countries Cities Townes and Common wealths these forty or fifty yeeres and vpwards I omit to speake of their seuerall trecherous designes against Queene Elizabeth of famous memory or of the Gunpowder treason or how that they haue beene these twenty yeeres banished out of all the territories of the Signory of Venice for their impostures and lewd practises and for being common disturbers of the peace and tranquillity of the common wealth Neither how they haue incroached vpon the priuileges and liberties of most of the famous Schooles and Vniuersities of Italy Spaine Portugall France Netherland Germany Poland and other Catholike Countries But I will speake a word or two more of their Colleges Churches Schooles and manner or method of teaching and so conclude First of all I would haue you to vnderstand that they receiue none into their Society but such as are either descended of great parentage and good friends whose greatnesse may countenance their designes and procure others to bee beneficiall vnto them or such as are wealthy to inrich their Colleges or learned and witty Schollers who by their workes writings are like to aduance the credit and reputation of their society or some Trades-men to be their Lay-brethren and Officers of their Colleges or else some cunning fly knaue or crafty companion to bee their Porter vpon whose
and then you shall haue no more to eat or cloath your selues withall than we now haue To conclude all these shaueling Monks Friers and Iesuits are manifest hypocrites and woe and sorrow will be their rewards for they pretend chastitie and liue sodomitically they suffer themselues ouer easily to be snarled by the allurements of the flesh and yet they will be accounted holy fathers good liuers and the adopted children of Christ forsooth Indeed fathers they maybe well called for their bastards are almost innumerable as by these ensuing verses written many yeares agoe by one of their owne religion may appeare Non malèsunt Monachis grata indita nomina patrum Cum numerant natos hîc vbique suos The names of fathers becomes Monks full well For euery where their bastards they may tell But vnlesse they reforme their vicious manners and corrupt liues I cannot see how these men may rightly be called the children and seruants of God and the lawfull inheritors of the incorruptible crowne of eternall happinesse How can they excuse themselues in the sight of Christ our Sauiour that dissemble thus with the world Doe they perswade themselues to be Virgins and shall obtaine the incorruptible reward of virginitie or chastitie because the world doth iudge them chaste Let people imagine of them as they will hypocrisie may not nor shall not escape vnpunished at the day of Iudgement Doe they think that because they intrude themselues into Monasteries and Cloisters that they are able to keepe themselues pure and vndefiled and are able to keepe themselues chaste and spotlesse No surely experience teacheth vs and the eye-sight testifieth that Monks Friers Iesuits Priests and Nuns are no otherwise able to refraine the lust of the flesh than other men and women liuing in the world But these hypocrites say that they liue not in the world because that they are estranged and sequestred from the common assembly of the secular people I vse their own words but their deeds are contrary They say they despise the world but yet they will not forsake the things of the world as high titles good estimation great credi◠large possessions ample reuenues full purses crammed with gold and siluer faire buildings goodly orchards delightsome walks pleasant gardens and a thousand things more They say they are not of this world but yet the pompe pride and glory of the world the vanity wealth felicity brauery and iollity of this earth and earthly things with daliance pastime eating and drinking excessiuely and other sensuall delights and desires seruing to carnall appetite they highly esteeme and magnifie And albeit they sequester themselues from the secular people which is most vntrue for they are I meane the Monks and Friers and some Nuns gadding here and there all day long to beg and about other worldly affaires yet their liues are no more holy but to say the truth their conditions are farre worse they haue vowed chastity but who more vnchast than they They name themselues Virgins but who more defiled and incontinent than they How periuriously they haue violated their rash and vnaduised vowes of continencie their owne histories make mention The artificiall and secret places and vaults to keep their Whores and Concubines in many places of England doe plainly testifie to vs all that they were incontinent violatours of their professed vowes and abusers of the people in causing them to beleeue that they were the chaft and vndefiled members of the Holy Ghost But truly it had beene a happy thing that there had neuer beene either Monk Frier Iesuite or Nun in the world as by these Rithmes written by one of their owne sect appeareth Puto verò quod prodesset Si in mundo nullus esset Monachus vel Monialis Siue secta Beghinaelis I thinke the world had happy beene If neuer in it had beene seene These three a Mendicant Monk Nun Which haue well neare the Church vndone And withall Laurentius Agricola did heretofore very wittily describe their manners I mean the Mendicant Friers in these ensuing verses Qui velit immundum in mundo cognoscere mundum Exploret rasos vestales atque cucullos Bis tres immensis abigunt clamoribus horas Quod superest ventri temporis omne datur Quaeris tu quid agant * Comedunt sternunt potant que cacant que Ventris in his munus vertitur omne tribus That is to say He that a world of filth i' th world would know To shaueling Nuns and cowl'd Monks let him goe Six houres with open mouthes to Saints they prate But euer else they on their bellies wait As how thus They eat drinke and let fly out One of these three their bellies ay about And againe Nigellus Wircker an ancient Poet of whom I haue formerly made mention wrote of them these verses Qui duce Bernardo gradiuntur vel Benedicto Aut Augustini sub leuiore iugo Omnes sunt fures quocunque charactere Sancto Signati veniunt Magnificent que Deum Necredas verbis ne credas vestibus albis Vix etenim factis est adhibenda fides Quorum vox leuis vox Iacob creditur esse Caetera sunt Esau brachia cella manus Rursus in Aegyptum quam deseruere reuersi Dulce sibi reputant à Pharaone premi Carnis ad illecebras nullo ritente ruentes In foueam mortis carne trahente cadunt Which I reade thus Englished They that pretend to follow Saint Bernard Benet or Austen which is not so hard False theeues they are all seeme they neuer so good Nor yet so deuout in their cowle or their hood Beleeue not their words nor apparell right white For nothing they doe that before God is right As gentle as Iacob in words they appeare But all in their workes they are Esau cleare To Aegypt againe they are come to dwell Vnder great Pharaoh fearing no perill They follow the Flesh and seeke no restraint Which will at the last with hell them acquaint Of all this rabble of Monks and Friers a Poet wrote long agoe Nos numeri sumus fruges consumere nati c. We are a great number and belly-gods borne Deuourers of victuals consumers of corne What is their liues but Pharisaicall iniurious lasciuious lecherous and Sodomiticall They talke of heauen but they walke not to heauen They brag of Chastitie but they keepe Concubines or else doe much worse they defile themselues one with another They speak of Iustification by good works but they haue no good workes but vice as Sodomie adultery fornication fraud tyrannie ambition couetousnesse and all vncharitablenesse They talke of Christ but haue no experience of him nor any acquaintance with him They honour him with their lips but their hearts hunger not after him outwardly they professe him but inwaardly they passe not for him In the hearing of men they forsake the world but in the sight of men they embrace the world These fat bellied Monks Friers Iesuits and Nuns say that they forsake the world