A14461:183
The Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Divided into three parts, dialogue wiseThe Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Deuided into three partes, dialogue wise
The Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Divided into three parts, dialogue wise: set out with such grace, that it cannot be, but that a man shall take great pleasure in the reading thereof. Translated out of French into English, by John Brooke of AsheThe Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Deuided into three partes, dialogue wise: set out with such grace, that it cannot be, but that a man shall take greate pleasure in the reading thereoff. Translated out of French into English, by Iohn Brooke of Ashe
London: printed by Thomas East, 1579
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.
Some brought the Water warm, in Cauldrons hot they set in flower1 The body cold they wash, a precious ointment on they pour. If the water could any thing profit the dead, it were better to make for them a great bath, & to plunge all their body, in a great tub of Water, and to wash them well for a good space, then to sprinkle them so little. For me seemeth that that manner of doing is more proper for to kindle the fire of Purgatory, if the Water doth descend thither, then for to quench it. And the same I will prove by authority and by example. I will first prove it by the authority of many good Physicians, which say that when a man is very dry for want of drink, it is better for him to drink a good draught at once then to sip often: For that same doth not quench the heat that is in the body, but kindleth it the more. And to the end that 2it do not seem that they speak that without reason, they do also allege the example of the Smiths, ⟨image 43⟩the which I will bring forth for my second argument, which is infallible, inasmuch as it is always confirmed by experience. For we see that when they would have their 3coals burn well, and to give great heat they sprinkle them with water, which they have always ready, with a little sprinkle or besom, as the Priests have them in their holy water stock. There is yet an other reason, for which I do find the manner of the Paynims better and more laudable, because that at the leastwise that shall serve for the dead, for to prove whether they be dead or not: For it 4chanceth oftentimes through some disease, that the spirit is so locked and enclosed in the body, that man loseth altogether his breath, in such sort that one can by no means perceive it, but judgeth him to be dead, and so he is deceived. By that means sometimes some have been buried quick: The which thing ought very much to be feared in all suffocations and chokings, and chiefly of the matrice 5of women, and also in the time of the pestilence or plague: wherein many times it hath been found that they