had lever dye then eate flesh: and as for the sobrenesse and
chastisinge of the membres will he not loke for / but will powre
in ale and bere of the strongest with out measure and heate them
with spices and so forth. And the holidaye will he kepe so strayte that if he mete a flee in his bed he dare not kill hir / and not once
regarde wherfore the holidaye was ordained to seke
for goddes worde / & so forth in al lawes. And in ceremonyes
& sacramentes / there he captiuateth his witte &
vnderstondinge to obey holye church with out askinge what they
meane or desiringe to knowe but onlye careth for the kepinge
and loketh ever with a payre of narow yies and with all his
spectacles vppon them / lest ought belefte out. For if the
preast shulde saye masse / baptize or heare confession with out
a stole aboute his necke / he wolde thinke all were marred and
doute whether he had power to consecrate / & thinke that the vertue of the masse were lost / & the childe not wel baptized or
not baptized at all / & that his absolucion were not worth
a myte. He had leuer
that the bisshope shuld wagge .ij. fingers ouer him /
then that a nother man shulde saye god saue him and so forth. Wherfore
beloved
reader in as moch as the holye gost rebuketh the worlde for lacke of iudgement / and in as moch also as their ignoraunce is
with out excuse before whose faces ynough is sette to iudge by
/ if they
wolde open their yies to se / and not captiuate their
vnderstondinge to beleue lyes: and in as moch as the spirituall
iudgeth all thinge / even the verye botome of goddes secretes /
that is to saye / the causes of the thinges which god
commaundeth / how moch more ought
we to iudge oure holye fathers secrettes and not to
be as an oxe
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