A faithful admonition of a certain true pastor and prophet sent unto the Germans…A faithful admonition of a certeyne true pastor and prophete sent vnto the Germanes…

For so suffereth god his arch enemies the Pope & his Cardinals to be blinded above other, that they can not be content only to offend with woman kind, but according to their well deserved reward, they defile them selves and their own bodies one with another most beastly, & are so deeply drowned in that horrible vice, & so blinded in their hardened harts, that they count that abomination for no sin at all, but make a jesting & a laughing matter of it, as though there were no more peril nor danger therein, than in a game at tables or cards. Go thy way now & defend & maintain with thy obedience these beasts past all shame & repentance, which make but a jest & a christmas game of such an horrible vice▪ And it is no lye that I write here in this matter, for such as have been at Rome do know ⟨image 33⟩well enough that more abomination is there used than any man can rehearse or believe. When the general council called consilium Lateranense was holden at Rome, in the time of Leo the .x. among other decrees that were there concluded upon & determined to have ben set forth,¹ this was one also which should have been set forth as a decree of that council, that men should believe the soul of man to be immortal. Whereby every man may judge, that they made than at Rome but a very sport and mock of everlasting life. For it is an evident testimony, that their common belief was there, that there was no everlasting life. And therefore they would teach them the contrary with a Bull, and decree of their council. And yet besides that, there was set another pretty decree also in the same bull, which was this: That from thence forth the Cardinals should not keep so many male stews as they used to do. But pope Leo commanded that to be stricken out, least all the world should suspect (as they might well do) and have ⟨image 33⟩knowledge how openly and without all shame the Pope and his cardinals did maintain Sodom, even at Rome. And there is no Pope, cardinal, bishop doctor, priest, nor religious man, that •uer went about to punish or reform this abomination, but colour it, yea laugh & jest it out: and moreover do bewitch, provoke and set on, kings, and princes, to defend and maintain them, to practise their filthy and devilish living still, freely without repentance or reformation.