A poor help. ¶ The buklar & defence Of mother holy kirk And weapon to drive hence All the against here wircke. Will none in all this land Step forth & take in hand These fellows to withstand In number like the sand That with the Gospel melles And will do nothing else But tratlinge tales tells Against our holy prelacy And holy church's dignity saying it is but papistry Yea feigned and Hypocrisy Erroneous and heresy And taketh their authority Out of the holy evangely All customs ceremonial And rites ecclesiastical Not grounded on scripture No longer to endure And thus ye may be sure The people they allure And draw them from your lore The which will grieve you sore Take heed I say therefore Your need was never more But sens ye be so slack It greu●th me a lack To here be hind your back How they will carp and crack And none of you that dare With one of them compare Yet some there be that are So bold to show there aware And is no priest nor deacon And yet will fire his be cone Against such fellows frail Make out with to the and nail And hoist up main sail And manfully to fight In holy prelate's right With pen and ink and paper And like no trifling Japer To touch these fellows in deed And I in deed am he That waiteth for to see Who dare so hardy be To encounter here with me I stand here in defence Of sum that be far hence And can both bliss and sense And also under take Right holy things to make Yea god within a cake And who so that forsake His bread shallbe dough bake I openly profess The holy blessed mass Of strength to be no less Than it was at the first But I would see who dourst Set that among the worst For he should be accursed With book and bell and candle And so I would him handle That he should right well know How to escape I trow So hardy on his head Deprave our holy bread or else to prate or patter Against our holy water This is a plain matter It needeth not to flatter They be such holy things As hath been used with kings And yet these lewd losels That brag upon their Gospels At ceremonies ' swells And at our christined bells And at your long gowns And at your shaven crowns And at your tipettes fine The Javelles will repine They say ye lead evil lives With other men's wives And will none of your own And so your seed is sown In other men's ground True wedlock to confound Thus do they rail and Rave Calling every priest knave That loveth mess to say And after idle all day They would not have you play To drive the time away But brabble on the bible Which is but unpossible To be learned in all your life Yet therein be they rife Which maketh all this strife And also the paraphrasies Much differeig from your porteises They would have daily used And porteise clean refused But they shallbe accused That have so far abused Their tongues against such holiness And holy church's business Made hundred years ago Great clearckes affirmeth so And other many more That searched to and fro In scripture for to find What they might leave behind For to be kept in mind Among the people blind As wavering as the wind And wrote thereof such books That who so on them looks Shall find them to be clerks As proveth by their warks And yet there be that bark And say they be but dark But hark ye loulars hark So well we shall you mark That if the world shall turn A sort of you shall burn Ye durst as well I say Within this tow years day As soon to run a way As such parts to play When sum did rule and reign And ancient things maintain Which now be counted vain And brought into disdain Such men I say they were As loved not this gear And kept you still in fear To burn or faggots bear Then durst ye not be blood (Against our learnings old Or images of gold Which now be bought and sold And were the lay man's book Whereon they ought to look) One word to speak a miss Can ye say nay to this? No no ye fools I wis A thing to plain it is. Then did these clerks divine Daily themselves incline To prove and to define That Christ's body above Which suffered for our love And died for our behove Is in the sacrament Flesh blood and bone present And bread and wine a way Assoon as they shall say The words of consecration In time of celebration So must it be in deed Though it be not in the crede And yet thes fellows new Will say it is not true Christ's body for to view With any bodily eye That do they plain deny And stifely stand thereby And enter prize to wright And also to indite Books both great and small Against these father's all And heresy it call That any man should teach Or to the people preach Such things without their reach And some there be that say That Christ cannot alday Be kept within a bor Nor yet set in the stokes Nor hidden like a fox Nor prisoner under locks Nor clothed with powdered armine Nor breedeth stinking vermin Nor dwelleth in an house Nor eatyn of a mouse Nor mould or he be spent Nor yet with fire be brent Nor can no more be slain Nor offered up again Blessed sacrament for thy passion Here and see our exclamation Against thes men of new fashion That strive against the holy nacio And Jest of them in plays In taverns and high ways And their good acts dispraise And martyrs would them make That brent were at a stake And sing pipe meri annot And play of will not cannot And as for cannot and will not Though they speak not of it it skill not For a noble clerk of late And worthy in estate Hath played with them check mate Their courage to abate And tells them such a tale As makes their bonnets vale And marreth clean the sale. Of all their whole pastime And all is done in rhyme Oh, what a man is this That if he could I wis Would mend that is amiss His meaning is in deed That if he might well speed And bear some rule again It should be to their pain I think they were but worthy Because they be so sturdy To rail against the wircke Of our mother holy kirk Yet some there be in fume And proudly do presume Unto this learned man To answer and they can And ween they had the grace His ballad to deface And trow ye that willbe? Nay nay believe ye me ☞ I take my mark amiss If once he did not miss A very narrow his well if you come again May happen twelve men Shall do as they did then Have you forgot the bar That ever there you war And stood to make and mar By god and by the country You had a narrow entry Take heed of coram nobis We will reckon with vobis If you come again We will know who pulled the hen For all your bold courage You may pay for the pottage And are you now so brag You may come to lag Your hap may be to wag Upon a wooden nag Or else a fair fire May hap to be your hire Take heed lest you tire And lie down in the mire Hold fast by the mane By the mass it is no game If my Lord ware not lame You will all be tame When you hear him next Mark well his text He hath been curstly vexed I fear me he waxed A popistant stout Surely all the rout That heres him shall doubt He willbe in and out Prowling round about To get forth the snout If prayer may do good All the whole brood scurvy, scabbed, and skald shaven, shorn, and bawl Poor priests of Baule We pray for him all Unto the god of bread For if he be dead We may go to bed Blyndefild and be led Without rag or shred But I am sore dreaded I see him look so red Yet I durst lay my head As doctor friar said He hath some what in store Well you shall know more hearken well therefore Some shall payé the score He hath been a pardoner And also a garddener He hath been a vitaylar A Lordly hospitelar Anoble teacher And so so a preacher Though Germin his man Were hanged what than? Say worse and you can Best let him alone For Peter James and John And apostles every one I give you plain warning Had never no such learning As hath this famous clerk He is learned be beyond the mark And also master huggarde Doth show himself no fluggard Nor yet no drunkin drunkard But sharpeth up his wit And frameth it so fit These younkers for to hit And will not them permit In error still to sit As it may well appear By his clerkly answer The which initled is Against what meaneth this A man of old sort And writeth not in sport But answereth earnestly Concluding heresy And yet as I trow Some bluster and blood And crack (as the crow) But nets will we lay To cache them if we may For if I begging I will bring them in And fetch in my cousins By the whole dosens And call them coram nobis And teach them dominus vobis With his et cum spiritutuo That holy be both duo. When they be said and song In holy latin tongue And solemn bells do ring But these babes be to young Perking upon their patins And fain would have the mats And evening song also In English to be do With marriage and baptising Burials and other thing In vulgar tongue to say and sing And so they do it newly In diverse places truly saying they do but duly maintaining it in any wise So should they do their service Alas who would not moon Or rather grount or groan To see such service gone Which saved many one From deadly sin and shame And many a spot of blame From purgatory pain And many shower of rain Well yet I say again Some honest men remain And keep there customs still And ever more will Wherefore in deed my read is To take you to your beads All men and women I say That useth so to pray That such good priests may Continue so alway Or eyes none other like But all lieth in the dyke And look ye do not faint But pray to some good saint That he may make restraint Of all these strange fashions And great abonamations Because I may not tarry I pray to sweet Sir Harry A man that will not vary And one that is no sculker But kna. knight of the sepulchre That he may stand fast And be not over cast Or eyes to be the last Of all them that do yield In city town or field For if he ●ike therein No doubt he shall not blind Till he come to eternity With all his whole fraternity A men therefore say ye That his partakers be Ye get no more of me ¶ Finis.