University of Virginia Library

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THE OCCVRRENCES OF THE THIRTEENTH AGE,

From the yeere of our Lord 1200. untill the yeere 1300. At which Time King Edward the First raigned here in England.

In wofull Case remain'd the Church of Christ,
Through Bloudy Broiles, that how she could subsist
On Earth, while this Age lasted, it might dull
A Sparkling Muse, but that I learn'd at full

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The Cause of her Retire, the Difference
Betwixt her Wane, and her Lights excellence,
Her Catholick, and her Subordinate
Communion, which false Rome would faine perswade
That she alone doth owne without respect
Unto her Mates, or Betters growne by Grace,
Where none can see her Universall Face
Save God himselfe. The World is large, our skill
At stint: How then know we her Spatious Hill?
The Waldois and th' Albigians in our West,
The Abissines, and Others doe suggest,
That they partake her Influence, and her Head,
Ev'n Him that shall dispose of Quicke and Dead,
Peter and Paul we know. But who are yee,
Who Meere the Church of Nembrods proud degree?

Pope Innocent in the last puddled Age
By Canons strict, but neither wise nor sage,
Our English Clergy now did here so gore,
As Hildebrand and Lanfrank did before.

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That they without more Shifts, Delayes, Dispence,
Or hopes to calme Romes Spleen through bribing pēce
Must turne away their Plighted Mates to grasse,
Or be Accurst, and to refraine from Masse;
A heavy Doome, and not to be recall'd.
This made our Clergy winch, when they were gall'd,
And causelesly thus curb'd without remorce
Of that, which Christ condemned the Divorce.
Against this Flash Walter de Mapes wrot
Oxfords Archdeacon stout; he tax'd the Blot
And Scandall which the Romaine Church encurr'd,
He shew'd the Flames, which her poore Guard endur'd
By such unlawfull Acts, those very Flames,
Which Popes themselves not without branded Names
Could well avoid in their more youthfull Yeares,
Nor Cardinalls, nor any of their Peeres,
They did enjoyne for tolerable Paine.
This moved Mapes in Old Romaine Straine
To gird and nip the Popes usurp'd Decree,
And to prove Marriage for the Clergy free.

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But now my Muse more Bloudy Deedes must tell,
Which then the Church endur'd from Fiends of Hell.
About the Yeare Twelve Hundred Thirty One,
The Greek and Latine Church could not attone
Their Diff'rence new sprung up for Christian Rites,
But a sore Schisme then chanc't, for Romish Kites
Would rake ev'n to the bone all Churches else.
They would yoake to Romes Soveraignty excelse
The Easterne Church, and force investiture
Of all their Bishops, and their Ghostly Cure
Under the Keyes pretence to Romes proud Mace.
But they would not subject, nor so abase
Their Pastours Staffe, alleadging Old Decrees
Of Synods made for ordring of their Fleece
And Liberties in their prefixed Spheare,
At Chalcedon, at Nice, and other where:
That every Patriarch in their proper Charge,
Should onely deale, and their owne Place discharge,
Not medling with Anothers stinted Cure,
But watching still their owne Flocks to secure,

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Not striving for high Seates of Prelacie,
As Gregory then did for Primacie.
To this Effect Bizantiums Patriarch wrot
To Gregory the Ninth, that he could not
Consent to thrall his Church unto his Will,
Which, as a Tyrants Law, might spill or kill.
At which Resolve Romes Lofty Prelate frown'd,
And by his lowing Bulls accursed Sound
Anathemated him and all the East,
Because they would not bow to his behest,
And therewithall proclaim'd the Crosse to fight,
And to deprive them of Gods Blessings quite.
According to his Will false Christians went,
And Martyrs did with Cypriots Bloud augment.

Before this Rupture both the East and West
Till then agreed, on Union fixt their Rest,
And though for Clericks Wives, and Masses Rites
They varied, yet Romes Popes play'd not the Kites

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Till then on them, as in our Westerne Spheare,
From whence they rak'd much Treasure every yeare;
They Both agreed, acknowledging One Head,
One Christ, One Faith, One Iudge of Quick and Dead,
One Universall Church, One Bond of Love,
And that One Spirit ought them all to move:
All Patriarchs linkt in mutuall Amity,
Coequalls grac't with Honours Parity.
But through this Rent by Babels Whore begun,
A Bloudy Flag was for Both Churches spun.

This Schisme 'twixt East & West obscur'd the Crosse
And to them both fore-doom'd a two-fold Losse,
Of Worldly States to Greece in time to come;
But Losse of Ghostly Gifts to haughty Rome,
Together with the Losse of Both the Swords,
As Bernard to Eugenius well records;
When she shall see how many Potentates
Will flinch from her, and free themselves and States;

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When she shall heare One with a Dreadfull Tone
Proclaime the Fall of Whorish Babylon.

When Babel saw, that her Croisadoes mist
Ierusalem to win againe for Christ,
As she, but in Disguise, suggested then,
Now she proclaimes them against Christian Men;
The Waldois and Albigians feele her Spite,
For against them she is resolv'd to fight.
Some yeeld unto the Fiery Crosse. Some stay,
Some stray, recant, and Others fly away
With all their Kinne into Calabriaes Soile,
Where till of late they liv'd safe from Romes Broile.
Nor could that Age, nor yet the Ages since
Extirpe their Seed, nor cause their Faith to flinch.
Yee Darkned Ghosts of those inveagled Times,
Who merit well Damnation for your Crimes,
Doe what yee can, these New-sprung Waldois shall
With their good Mates Albigians you appall,

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And shall out-last your Cursing Thunder-blasts
Till Luther comes and gives you more distasts,
At which appointed Time with lowder Crack
Your Camerades shall tremble, or fall back
From Balaams League unto a Nobler Head,
Whose Spirit them will into Sion lead.

Well neere 300. Yeares the Popes have fought
With Emperours and Kings, their downefall sought,
Depos'd the Sire, and rais'd a Rebell Sonne
Unnaturall the Father to dethrone.
They poyson'd some, and Others by degrees
They forc'd to cry Peccavi on their knees;
And all for worldly Rule. Nay, Kings durst not
Curbe Homicides (such was the Clergies Lot)
In those Dayes, that if they to Rome appeal'd,
They were exempt, and had their Pardons seal'd.
While Rebell Becket for poore things withstood
His King, the Pope his Shield most firmely stood;

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And Others of his Ranke hal'd to their Nets,
Two English Kings of our Plantagenets.

When Milan rose against the Emperour,
With other Townes, though not to Babels Towre
Subject at all, yet did Pope Gregory,
Because the Rebels sought his Amity,
Accurse the Third Time Cæsars Majesty:
And though some pleaded then a Nullity,
Yet no submission served Frederick,
But he stands barr'd from the Church Catholick.
About the Yeare Two Hundred Thirty Eight
With the one Thousand past, for his owne Right
The Emperour was then compell'd to Fight,
The while the Pope all Cæsars League did smite
With Thundring Darts pretended from Saint Paul
And from Saint Peter to affright them all.
But seeing that such Blasts small terrour strooke,
He then proclaim'd the Crosse, and thereby shooke

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Th' Imperiall League, yet not so fatally,
But that his Gibellines stood really,
As with the Pope remain'd the Guelphian Side,
Which Two did long all Italy divide.

Heere ends not all this Centuries Complaint:
With farre more dismall Stirres the Pope did taint
Those Cloudy Times. The Father dead, he shootes
Upon the Sonne his Bolts. It little bootes
Him to submit. The Sonne alike must beare
His Fathers Curse, and so to Sway forbeare.
Conradus dead, he doth for Conradine
As much and more, for him he doth confine
Not onely from the Empire; But his Owne
Of Naples Realme with the Sicilian Crowne
He gives away for Prey to Charles of France,
Whose Banners there Pope Clement did advance,
And never left (such was his Chollers Flame
To Conradine for his dead Grandsires Fame)

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Till he and Austriaes Prince by a sly way
Were taken and beheaded in One day,
Judge, Readers, now, if Popes liv'd like to Christ,
Or whether they resembled Antichrist.

So Sly and Cautious were this Ages States,
That None for feare to have with Popes Debates
For Seventeene Yeares durst hazard on the Mace
Imperiall, but the same lay for that Space
Still vacant. For Alphonsus King of Spaine
Had flat refus'd the Cumbers to sustaine,
Least of an ancient Friend, his Ghostly Sire
Become his Foe, and so his Love expire;
He would not leave, he said, Astronomy
Which he then studied, for all Germany.
Th' Electours then chose Richard Cornewalls Duke,
The Romaines King, but he with some rebuke
Was since put off, because his Holidome
Expected more of Others for that Roome;

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And thereupon he Hasburgs Earle enthrones,
Since Austriaes Head, with him the Pope attones
In Old Lausannaes Towne; but could not get
Him once to Rome, lest that his footing set
In that unlucky Place, some Jealous Fit
Might nip the Popes rash Braine and crazed Wit,
That he from thence should never more returne,
But perish there, except he serv'd his turne,
As Cæsars were before his time to doe
Constrain'd, or else his Wrath to undergoe,
And to that end the prudent Emperour
Rehears'd the Tale, how to the Lions Bowre
Who fain'd him sicke, the Fox saw many Beasts
To enter in as Complementall Guests,
But not the steps of any comming back,
And that made him to Rome his Visit slacke.

Now at this Ages Period Celestine
The Romish Pope was cheated by a fine

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And Cunning Sleight, the Popedome to resigne
To Boniface, himselfe and to confine
Into an Hermites Cell, to end his Dayes
With Prayers, Fasts, and such Religious wayes.
This by a whispring Cane or hollow Reed
He acted, and his wish did so succeed.
Thus Boniface began. But as such Plots
Thrive seldome, so entangled in those knots,
Which he for others warp'd, he waged Warres
In Italy. In France he moved Jarres
Against the King, with Fulminating Darts
Against his Realme, till spite of all his Arts
His Holinesse Captiv'd, in Prison fast,
For very Griefe then he deceas'd at last,
With this Memoriall fixed on his Clog:
He came a Fox, Raign'd a Wolfe, di'd a Dog.
But to encrease Romes Superstitious store,
Before his Death he coin'd one Custome more,
The Jubilees great Yeare, wherein all such,
Who came to Rome, were eas'd of Sinne and Pouch:

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Eas'd of Sinnes Paine from Purgatories Flame,
Eas'd of their Gold as Ransome for the same.
This Pope decreed it first with Balaam's Fire,
When that One Hundred Yeares did full expire;
But since to Fifty Yeares Popes chang'd the Course,
That they might reap more Gaine by Gulls recourse,
And Pilgrim-Visits of the Lateran,
And other Sainted-Fanes late made profane,
Since Freedome was proclaim'd by Romish Sires
For many Thousand Yeares from Purging Fires.
So doth the Mystick Whore entangle Soules
To credit Dreames, which raise her Market Tolles.
And now likewise for her Gods Adoration
Popes first Decreed the Masses Elevation.
Thus I winde up this Popish Age, the while
I warne thy Wits to greet, O Patricks Ile,
Thy Prelate Fitz-Raphe, Primate Armachan,
Who 'gainst the Upstart Friers playd the Man,
And provd their Begging Orders Vaine and False
Before the Pope and all his Cardinalls.

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So shone that time this Learned Mans Renowne,
That when his Death was through Avinion knowne,
A Cardinall was heard of Him to say:
The Church hath lost a Pillar strong this day.

And yet for all such Good mens Prophesies,
Rome would not quit her Pedlers Marchandise,
Which to her use those Croaking Friers truckt,
But by their Lies she all our Honey suckt.
(Their Legends wrought such Superstitious Feare.)
They saw Our Lady here, Our Lady there,
At Mountserrat, Lorrette, Walsingham,
Whereby they got, as to th' Ephesian Dame,
To Isis, Baal, and Moloch Temples built,
And Images with Gold and Azure gilt,
By which false specious Showes, old Satans Mists,
Rich Offrings they procur'd to Romish Priests.
Then, Miracles were rife, of Wise men knowne
For Ghostly Wiles, now to a Proverbe growne;

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That to conclude Some for Notorious Liers,
It is enough to say, that they are Friers.