Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse

by Unknown

Archbishop. Then the Archbishop said to me, "Thou that shouldest be judged and ruled by Holy Church, presumptuously, thou deemest Holy Church to have erred in the ordinance of tithes and other duties to be paid to priests! It shall be long ere thou thrive, losell! that thou despisest thy ghostly Mother! How darest thou speak this, losell! among the people? Are not tithes given to priests for to live by?"

William. And I said, "Sir, Saint Paul saith that tithes were given in the Old Law to Levites and to Priests, that came of the lineage of Levi. But our priest, he saith, came not of the lineage of Levi, but of the lineage of Judah; to which Judah, no tithes were promised to be given. And therefore Paul saith, Since the priesthood is changed from the generation of Levi to the generation of Judah, it is necessary that changing also be made of the Law. So that priests live now without tithes and other duties that they now claim; following Christ and his Apostles in wilful poverty, as they have given them example. For since Christ lived all the time of His preaching by pure [the simple] alms of the people, and (by example of him) his Apostles lived in the same wise, or else by the travail of their hands, as it is said above; every priest, whose priesthood Christ approveth, knoweth well, and confesseth in word and in work that a disciple oweth [ought] not to be above his Master, but it sufficeth to a disciple to be as his Master, simple and pure, meek and patient: and by example specially of his Master Christ, every priest should rule him in all his living; and so, after his cunning and power, a priest should busy him to inform and to rule whomsoever he might charitably."

Archbishop. And the Archbishop said to me, with a great spirit, "GOD's curse have thou and thine for this teaching! for thou wouldest hereby make the Old Law more free and perfect than the New Law! For thou sayest it is lawful for Levites and to Priests to take tithes in the Old Law, and so to enjoy their privileges; but to us priests in the New Law, thou sayest it is not lawful to take tithes! And thus, thou givest the Levites of the Old Law more freedom, than to priests of the New Law!"

William. And I said, "Sir, I marvel, that ye understand this plain text of Paul thus! Ye wot well, that the Levites and Priests in the Old Law, that took tithes, were not so free nor so perfect as Christ and his Apostles that took no tithes! And, Sir, there is a Doctor, I think that it is Saint Jerome, that saith thus, The priests that challenge now in the New Law, tithes, say, in effect that Christ is not become Man, nor that he hath yet suffered death for man's love. Whereupon, this Doctor saith this sentence, Since tithes were the hires and wages limited to Levites and to Priests of the Old Law, for bearing about of the Tabernacle, and for slaying and flaying of beasts, and for burning of sacrifice, and for keeping of the Temple, and for trumping of battle before the host of Israel, and other divers observances that pertained to their office; those priests, that will challenge or take tithes, deny that Christ is comen in flesh, and do the Priest's office of the Old Law, for whom tithes were granted: for else, as the Doctor saith, priests take now tithes wrongfully."

"Heard ye ever losell speak thus!"

Archbishop. And the Archbishop said to his Clerks, "Heard ye ever losell speak thus! Certain, this is the learning of them all, that wheresoever they come, and they may be suffered, they enforce them to expugn the freedom of Holy Church!"

William. And I said, "Sir, why call you the taking of tithes and of such other duties that priests challenge now wrongfully 'the freedom of Holy Church'; since neither Christ nor his Apostles challenged nor took such duties? Herefore these takings of priests now, are not called justly 'the freedom of Holy Church': but all such giving and taking ought to be called and holden 'the slanderous covetousness of men of the Holy Church.'"

Archbishop. And the Archbishop said to me, "Why, losell! wilt not thou and others that are confedered [confederated] with thee, seek out of Holy Scripture and of the sentence of Doctors, all sharp authorities against Lords and Knights and Squires, and against other secular men, as thou dost against priests?"

Priests are the stomach of the people!

William. And I said, "Sir, whatsoever men or women, Lords or Ladies, or any others that are present in our preaching specially, or in our communing, after our cunning, we to tell to them their office and their charges: but, Sir, since Chrysostom saith the priests are the stomach of the people, it is needful in preaching and also in communing, to be most busy about this priesthood, since by the viciousness of priests, both Lords and Commons are most sinfully infected and led into the worst. And because that the covetousness of priests, and pride and the boast that they have and make, of their dignity and power, destroyeth not only the virtues of priesthood in priests themselves: but also, over this, it stirreth GOD to take great vengeance both upon Lords and Commons, which suffer these priests charitably."