17. “They have changed the Lord’s Supper into an offering for the living and the dead; they conjure the bread with five words,[176] and persuade the people, that the bread is changed into flesh, and the wine into blood.
18. “They withhold the wine from the laity, contrary to the command of Christ, who said: ‘Drink ye all of it.’
19. “They worship the bread, and say that it is their God; they enclose it in coffers and ciboria; they carry it through the streets; they burn torches and tapers before it, also at noon-day; they address and salute it; but it answers not.
20. “In their churches they have altars draped with linen, upon which burning tapers are placed at day-time, when mass is read.
21. “Mass is read by a mass-priest, who is hired to do it for money, or a yearly salary; he comes clothed in strange attire, after Jewish fashion, with a drinking cup of silver or gold in his hand, and accompanied by an attendant. He then says his confession before the altar, in Latin (though the attendant does not understand it), and invokes the assistance of the dead saints. Then, having kept up his mummery for a considerable time, having spoken loud and low, turning himself hither and thither, kissing and licking, he finally takes bread and wine, and forthwith offers the same to God, for the redemption of souls, for the hope of salvation, and the health of those present. Thus they reject thy sacrifice, O Christ Jesus, which thou once didst make for our salvation. O God, says the writer, how canst thou suffer this? He then calls the dead saints to the feasts, desiring to be aided by their merits. Over the bread he breathes these five words: Hoc est enim corpus meum, that is: For this is my body; supposing that thereby the bread will be changed into flesh. He then holds it above his head, for the people to worship it. So he does also with the cup. Then he prays for all those who sleep in Christ, that they may obtain a place of refreshing. Thereupon he prays to the Father, to accept his Son, whom they believe to have there, as graciously as he accepted the offering of Melchisedec and of Abel. Finally, he worships the bread, calling it the Lamb of God. Having worshiped the Lamb, he breaks it in pieces, and eats it up, also quaffing the wine, which he imagines to be the Lamb’s blood. This is the glorious mass of the papists, which, says our author, is a shameful corruption of the Supper of Christ, and has been reprehended by many godly men, who on this account had shed their blood.
22. “Such masses they read in honor of dead saints, of the sacrament, of the cross, the spear, and the nails.
23. “They sell the same as a remedy against all sickness, against storm, thunder, lightning, hail, tempests at sea, and every calamity. Every man is served according to his money; they who give little, have a dry mass, or a wet mass without singing; those who give much, get a half-sung mass, or one partly sung, according as to how much they give.
24. “They teach, that their invented sacrament of confirmation is of more importance than the sacrament of baptism, instituted by Christ; and that baptism is incomplete without confirmation.
25. “They dissolve marriage, in order that the husband or the wife may become spiritual, that is, a priest, monk, or nun, contrary to the command of Christ: What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.”
“Time would fail me,” writes this zealous man, “if I were to recount all the falsities of the papists, in life, doctrine, and sacraments; and still they can endure no admonition to reform, but persecute with fire and sword, those who admonish and reprove them.” Ex Author. Tempor., A. D. 1218, compared with the History of the Martyrs, by J. S., edition 1645, fol. 32, col. 1–3. Gerard de la Motte, deacon of the Christians called Albi-Waldenses, with some of his fellow-believers, burnt for the faith, at Borriens, A. D. 1227.