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

Wherefore I know not what song one may sing unto them, but to rebuke them of that which Jesus Christ rebuked the Jewish people, and that which the little children, which played in the streets, rebuked their companions off: when ¹we did singe unto you sorrowful things, you have not wept, when we did singe unto you joyful things you have not danced. John Baptist came in great severity •austeritie, & have found him very sharp, & they say he hath ⟨p. 19⟩the Devil within him. Jesus Christ came with all humility and gentleness, and they said that he was a drunkard and a glutton, and a friend unto publicans and sinners. If one do speak unto them sharply, as their iniquity requireth, they say that one is furious and mad. If one do speak unto them pleasantly, they will call him fool or scoffer. To conclude, they will always find some thing to say, as we see it by experience in our time. Many men at the beginning have taken upon them to touch a little some abuses, yet of the most grosest & most apparent. These Hypocrites could not bear them, but they have persecuted them by sea and land. They cannot only suffer that one should touch a little with his finger their Idolatry & superstition, & that one should open his mouth for to speak one word for to reform their estate, but which is more, have declared themselves to be enemies unto all learned & wise men, which have travailed to abolish all barbarousness and sophistry for to set up again all good letters and other disciplines, & have accounted and condemned them for heretics, and have put them in great danger of their lives. Sith then that they cannot suffer those here, that they should go so pleasantly, not only of little dialogues, & familiar talk for little children, which do unto them yet more greater honour then they deserve and do flatter them more then is need, God hath raised up others, who have in such sort removed their filthiness, the which others have not done but a little tickled up, that they have in such sort made the filthiness and stink so to avoid, that all the world doth perceive and fool it, in such sort that one can no longer abide and suffer it.

Wherefore I knowe not what song one may sing vnto them, but to rebuke them of that which Iesus Christ rebuked the Iewishe people, and that which the little children, whiche played in the stréetes, rebuked their companions off: when