A06509:79
The images of a very Christen bishop, and of a counterfeit bishopThe images of a verye Chrysten bysshop, and of a couterfayte bysshop
London : Imprinted by William Marshall i.e. Robert Wyer, 1536?London : Imprynted by Wyllyam Marshall i.e. Robert Wyer, 1536?
No title page in the transcription: set from the catalogue record.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
AS though he did say of those our bishops & priests In deed they do preach many things of the spiritual & ecclesiastical state, & they do marvellously praise & magnify chastity: but with those their fair & pleasant words they do beguile silly pore young men & women, & do lead them & all other in to the midst of the filthy stinking pump of lechery & unclean lusts, which a little before through baptism had truly escaped the power of sin and of the devil, and had begun well in the christen faith and in the gospel. 1For hereof it is that so many men do run so headlong & blindly in to these kinds of ⟨image 56⟩living: because they do suppose that baptism & the virtue thereof is lost through actual sin, and doth work nothing any longer in them. And hereof also it is that they do not regard but do despise faith, 2as a vain & a trifling thing without any fruit or profit (which for all that is the only thing that doth justify) and they do take upon them a more holy and a more pure manner of living, and (as it appeareth to them) also a more spiritual and a more high kind of living, that is to wit to live sole and chaste. And then this thing without faith & without the spirit is unpossible for them to do, and so they are cast down in to the midst of this deep dungeon of misery & wretchedness, for it is possible that the devil ⟨image 56⟩may for the space of one year or two, yea & also sometime of hole ten years suffer such manner men to be quiet (howbeit this happeneth very seldom) but yet for all ye the same men at length do not continue chaste, onles they do learn faith and Christ, or else do get some higher gift. For the devil hath that man, who soever he be, 3which is without faith, so surely & so fast boū den in the snares of lechery & unclean lusts: that he need not to lye in wait, or to use his devilish crafts about them, wherefore he doth so mock him, and doth suffer him for a certain season to live quietly, yea in so much that he beginneth also to have great delight and pleasure in chastity:
AS though he dyd say of those our bisshops & prestes In dede they do preache many thynges of ye spyrytuall & ecclesiastycal state, & they do meruaylously prayse & magnyfie chaslytie: but with those theyr fayre & pleasaūt wordes they do begyle sely pore yōge men & womē, & do leade thē & al other in to ye myddes of ye fylthy stynkyng pumpe of lechery & vncleane lustes, which a lytle before through baptysme had truly escaped ye power of synne and of the deuyll, and had begon well in the chrysten faythe and in the gospell.