A pistle to the Christen reader The revelation of Antichrist. Antithesis

And the similitude of the locusts was like unto horses prepared unto battle / ¹that is of subtle disputations and brawling school matters / which in an allegory are called battle for they are ready to dispute on this side and that / with it & against it. And on their heads were as it were crowns / like unto gold / they be / names and titles of degrees. Our noble master / humble and unworthy ⟨image 35⟩professor of divinity and so forth. And their faces were as they had been the faces of men / ²for their doctrine and life was not governed with the spirit of faith / but with the righting and information of their •••e natural reason. Aristotle the light of nature lightening them. And thy had hairs as the hairs of women. Philosophy bringeth forth weak and effeminate priests / ³which are all given to pleasures and superfluities / in whom reigneth nether spirit nor manly wisdom in Christ / for hairs do signify priests as in the .lxvij. Psalm / and in the iij. of Isaiah / and other places.⁴ Nether is it lawful to be a divine except he be such a priest first. In so much that divines are commonly evil spoken of among the common people. And their teeth were / as the teeth of lions.⁵ Consider duns men among all other divines whether they be not biters. Checkers / slanderers and devourers / of all these that speak against Aristotle's divinity how be hit it is no marvel / for the duns men / and sanct Thomas men which are now adays would them self devour each other / and sharpen their teeth as fierce as lions. Nether is there any kind of men which would fight more cruelly & with more hate / then these sects of divines. In so much that every one of them desiring the others destruction would fain reign alone.

And the similitude of the locustes was like vnto horses prepared vnto batell / ¹