¶ The remorse of conscience. ¶ Here beginneth certain demonstrations by our lord to all sinful persons with the remorse of man's conscience to the regard of the bounty of our lord. Deus. Our gracious god most in magnificence His merciful eyen casteth from heaven on high saying his creatures in deadly violence Himself complaineth by pity full rutfully saying o man devoid of intelligence Open thine eeres unto my call and cry And tell me if I have done to the offence That thou forsakest my willingly Man such a love to the I died take This world in seven days when I it wrought Thou was the last thing that I did make Because I would thou wanted nought What thing the might help did not lake That at thy need if it were sought Fowl fish all thing for thy sake For thy comfort all was forth brought Moreover I gave the that dignity All beasts to bow the until I made the also like unto me And gave the cunning and free-will Me to serve that thou should see To choose the good and leave the ill I ask nothing again of the But love thy sovereign as it is skill But unto this takest thou none intent Thou turnest fro me full unkindly On loves unleeful thy love is lente Thy heart beholdeth not heaven so high For all the goods I have the sent The listeth not one's to say gramercy In time to come or thou repent Man make amends or that thou die Homo. A christian soul conceived in sin received in conscience thus complaining He fell down flat with delefull din And said lord mercy sovereign king A most unkind Wretch of man kin I know I am thy traitor untrue in my living This wicked life that I live in I may it nought hide from thy knowing I want words and also wit Of thy kindness to speak a cause That I have thou gave me it Of thy goodness withouten cause Though I have grieved the and do yet Thy benefits thou nought withdraws I have deserved to have hell pit So have I lived against thy laws But lord thou knowest man's feebleness How frail it is and hath been aye For though the soul have thy likeness Man is but fulsome earth and clay In sin conceived and wretchedness And to the soul rebel alway first a man groweth as doth gross And he wasteth after as flowers or have Sith man is than so frail a thing And thy power so great in kind This world is but a twinkling Thou mayst destroy the might of the find With thy right lord mercy ming And to my sore salve thou fiend Sore me repenteth of my misliving Mercy lord I will amend Deus. Man I gave the bodily hele That thou should it spend in my service Fairness also and features feel Man what dost thou with all these Thou with delights of the devil dost deal Which is to me a great despise Thou livest a lecherous life unlele From year to year thou list not rise Thou studiest after nice array And makest great cost on thy clothing To make the seemly as who should say Thou couldst amend my making Thou purposed the day by day To set my people in sinning Thy wretched will thou followest alway What end sin hath thou thinkest nothing In noah's time because of sin And for lechery in especial What vengeance came than to man's kin Save eight persons drowned were all On Sodom/ and Gomor/ and the men within How I made fire and brimstone fall From heaven on them that bode therein for sin were destroyed both great & small Man weenest thou my might be less Than it was then or that else I Thou hast no as much wyckdnesse As when I smote the most piteously But if thou will thy faults redress Thought I now spare for my mercy Man think on my rightwiseness And make amends or that thou die Homo. I wot well lord right full thou art And that sin must be punished need But one thing holdeth in hope my heart Thy mercy passeth my misdeed I know well that I may not start I have so done me aught to dread With beauty and with bodily quart To serve the I have taken no heed I have my spend my young age In sin and wantonness also To serve god slow/ and loved to rage's A glutton a lecher I was both two I am worth none other wage But for to dwell in endless woe Alas why have I been outrage And served the fiend that is my foo But lord in holy write read we That thou forsakest no wretched wight That leaveth his sin and turneth to the And to turn to the have I height Full proud and rebel have I been But now I take me to thy might From hens forward to be clean Against mine own flesh to fight My flesh to feeble I will fast My bones to travail and to tene And through thy grace I am not aghast What sore and sickness on me seen To suffer while my life may last For utterly I will attend To punish that I have trespassed Mercy jesus I will amend Deus. Man I have sent the silver and gold And all thy wealth within thy won To sustain the and thy household And also other many one Thou might have helped young and old That been diseased and woe begun My servants suffered both hunger & cold relief of the yet have they none If thou give for my love a farthing Thou dost it with an heavy heart In alms thou givest no thing For dread thou fall in poverty In fleshly lust and worldly liking What ever thou wastest merry thou art Of such I will have a reckoning At domes day thou shalt not astart Than shalt thou give a counts full strait How thou comest by thy good each deal Whether with troth or with deceit And how thou spend it ill or we'll None other grace thou after wait As thou hast wrought so shalt thou feel What shall than profit thy good in plate Or pounds that thou of the people peel A clean conscience shall that day More profit the and more set by Than all the goods or the money Than ever was under heaven or sky It will never help to plead nor pray For as rightwise than dame will I And therefore man whiles thou may Make amends or that thou die Homo. I wot well lord fro year to year Full greatly grieved I the have That I would nor they mercy were My mother's womb had be my grave For what profiteth my living here But afterward I should be save But Ihesu as thou bought me dear Leave not my soul in hell cave My waste expense I will withdraw For waste well called may it be For it was spended my boost to law My name to bear on land and see Well I wot me there not trow Though many a man of my country If they me met they did me not know Nor never yet heard speak of me Falsely I have wrought as wretch unwise I might have gotten me moche meed Had I it spent in god's service But brought they grace lord I am in dread As men that lieth and may not rise For have I am mine all our need With the remnant lord at thy devise The poor and naked with cloth and fere Seek men that lain in god's bands That have no silver for to spend And prisoners bound both feet and hands Oft to visit and them attend When I see them that in need stands Such as I have I shall them send Lord let these works less my band And mercy Ihesu I will amend Deus. Man if thou amends wilt make give thine alms of thine own goods And see thou work no man to wreck To venge any other men's modes If thou untruly from any take And therewith find forty their fodes Such sacrifice I forsake They be to me as sooner as wormewode The poor people thou do oppress With sleights and wiles many one Thou makest churches and do ling mess Thou mendest ways where men over gone And some men curse and some men bless Which shall I hereof these two If thou wilt have grace as I guess Let all falseness be fled the fro The moths that thy clothes eat And thou lettest poor men go bare Thy drink soureth and mouldeth thy mere Wherewith the poor man might well far The rust that thy silver doth frete Thy goods that evil gotten are They cry on the vengeance great The for to spill but yet I spare With holdest here against the right from thy servants upon the cry Man oftentimes thou hast me height Thou would amend and leave folly Thou speakest full fair both day and night Thou breakest my commandments continually Yet is me loath with the to fight But make amends or that thou die Homo. Sweet lord I may not against say I have not holden that I the height I grieve the greatly every day I do not as I had the plight I woide do well but wellaway with enemies I am ever beset when my soul fain would the pay My flesh is first that will me let And ever the farther that I it feed Ever the fresher it is my foo Yet bear it about I must need Full feeble it is it will me slow The world/ the fiend/ the flesh/ they bede Some with well and some with woe what may I do with a wicked weed To fight against three enemies so when I enforce me other whiles And think I will live a true live And forsake all battles and guiles The world biddeth me battle believe And but I will use wreaths and wiles The comen voice is I shall not thrive Some me scorneth and at me smiles And count me but a kind caitiff But now I think withstanding this To forfake falnesse withouten end And restore that I took amiss And pay my debts fair and hende And to reward each man his As reason is than will I spend And give mine alms there need is Mercy jesus I will amend Deus. Man I have sent the kindly sight And understanding skill and wit To rule thyself by reason right As rehearseth holy write That clearly showeth the godly light How thou should deadly sin forsake And on that manner thou please me might What aileth the thus fro me to shake World richesse royal repair In wealth and things of jollity fishes/ beasts/ and birds of the air These thinketh me seemly for to see That thing that peressheth and doth appear Unto the sight thus pleasing be Well mayst thou wit I am full fair Of whom each thing hath this beauty But man as thou wytlesse were Thou lookest aye downward as a be'st It behoveth the of me to here Fowl speaking is to the a feast I comfort the I make the cheer And thou inwardly lovest me least I call the unto me year by year Thou wilt not come at my request As fro thy foo thou fro me flees I follow the fast and on the cry Thou wrappest the with all vanities And think my speech to the but folly And a thing that nought is thou wyltelese My joy that lasteth endless Man yet vice leave and virtue cheese And make amends or that thou die Homo. Sweet jesus none answer I can But oft cry mercy with heart stable Alas for woe why is a man Worse than a be'st unreasonable All beasts sithen the world began In kindly working been durable Save only I of will wan That do full many deeds damnable I was made to know my maker And to love him over all thing And I a sleper and never waker To take kind knowing of my king To trifles have I been a great heed taker A song of sorrow may I sing For had I been of sin a forsaker Of christ should I have been some knowing My ghostly eyen been full of dust Cursed covetise hath blinded me They been blodeshotten with fleshly lust That heavenly king may I not see But lord though I have been unjust Through help of thy benignity I hope to rub away the rust With repentance and grace of the And where that I have afore this My will in worldly thing have spend From heus forward my purpose is Thy law to learn to my lives end Thy ten commandments truly iwis Them to keep I will me mend bend And there as I have done amiss Mercy Ihesu I will amend Deus. Man my mercy if it be in thy mind I have the it showed in many wise sithen the time thou first sinned Against my commandment in paradise In hell prison when thou were pinned For doing of the devils devise Out of thy tene to betwind Mercy and love thine help were these Mercy was thine advocate chief That I for the took flesh and blood Love made the to be so lief That I for the was rent on road I suffered death to change thy grief And unto hell than down I yode And brought the to bliss fro reprefe Man I have been thy friend full good I become poor the rich to make To make the white I was made reed My sorrow my sickness made thine to slake My hunger died bake thy blissful breed I bond myself my bonds I broke To get the life I suffered death What should I do more for thy sake To hele thy foot was hurt my heed Now if thou think I might more do For thy sake I am ready To die again if need were thereto Such love to the man had I I height the mirths and joys more But thou art most thine own enemy For ought I bid thou wilt do so Man make amends or thou die Homo. Lord when I on thy poverty advert And how wilful thou were and fain To suffer for my wounds smart To slay my sins thou were slain Harder than iron is my heart That hath no pity of thy pain Ever the kinder to me thou art The more unkynder I am again Why wouldest thou lord be slain for me That am thine enemy most unhende Sith no man hath more charity Than death to suffer for his friend By what skill should thou so slain be Sith I made me thrall to the fiend I trespasser lord why ne smote thou Now blessed be thou withouten end I see well lord that thou lovest us For our profit and not for thine For what were thou the worse jesus Though all we were in endless pine Alas why be we so bycyous And so unkindly from him decline That is our god so gracious And so loath man soul to pine But sweet lord as thou hast begun So let thy mercy forth extend Put thy cross and thy passion between my works worthy to be brende And thy doom that I may not shun That hounds of hell come me not hende Who but the father should help the sone Mercy jesus I will amend Deus. Man if thou wilt my mercy get Through my passion of most virtue Why ceasest thou not me for to beat Each day on the cross dost me new With deadly sin on morrow at meet As tormentors to me untrue And namely with thy oaths great To swear thou wilt nothing eschew No limb of me/ nor thou dearest Why sayest thou evil against good By my soul oft time thou swearest By my body and by my blood With thy tongue thou me all to terest When thou art wroth and almost wood Man with thine unkindness thou me dearest More than they rent me on the road Thou hast more pity of thy to If it be hurt and a little bleed And all that ever I did do I suffered it for thy misdeed When thou art taught that thou should do Of swearing but when it were need Thou scornest them that sayeth so Thou takest to my bidding no heed Loud losings on me thou makest Sometime to win an half penny When to witness thou me takest And yet thou forswerest the wilfully buying and selling thou not forsakest But vain and false to swear me by When thou dost thus thy bale thou takest Man make amends or that thou die Homo. Sweet jesus how should I again say But that I am a caitiff and more cursed That doth on the curse every day with great oaths and works worst And moche more the grieveth than they On Calvary that flew first For had they known the for god very To do the to death they had not durst But I knew the after my believe That thou art god omnipotent And I cease not the to grieve well worthy am I to be shent How mayst thou lord suffer to move Of the traitors that the torment Marvel it is I do not mischief Or am not killed/ drownet/ or brent The earth swallowed quick Satan and abyron for their sin And as I ween they were never so wick As most certyfefull mankynne In deadly sin men die now thick Disease full great now doth begin yet in my sin I stand and stick Evil custom is full hard to blin I would be wanton and do evil But I would none me reprehend But let me live after my will This was leeful sometime I wend But now I see that it is skill Such light lord thou haste me send But I leave sin it will me spill Mercy lord I will amend Deus. Man of thyself it shall be long If so be that thy soul be spilt forgive them that done the wrong And I shall forgive the thy guilt And if thou be of heart so strong That in nowise forgive thou wilt But venge thyself with heart and tongue As a traitor thou shalt be spilt Thou getteest no man the to save That no mercy on other hace How may thou of mercy crave And thou wilt grant no man thy grace Merciful man shall mercy have Fell folk I flee fro my face What example that I the gave When death I suffered no tent I race I prayed for them that me diseased Though I might a dampened them for ay And if thou be a little disposed Thou cursed & varyest both night & day For no teaching wilt thou be pleased To venge the is thy will alway Full foul should thou foos be failed If thou mightest as I on the may Without cause oft thou art wroth Unto thy friends unkyndfully When they theteche and counsel both To leave thy wrath and thine envy With words great and spiteful oath Thou defendest thy soul foully But the to lose I am full loath Man make amends or that thou vie Homo. Sweet jesus think thou made us all And how kind and proper it is to the On sinful men that to the call To have mercy and pity Though I have been bitter as gall For thy great pity have mercy on me For thy love that I never fall But kindly in me charity For I could the people ken And speak with angels tongues clear And thought I dealt among poor men My worldly goods all in fere And though I died my body burn For love of the that bought me dear yet all this profiteth me not then In charity but if I were And I wot lord it is more pleasing To the jesus my sovereign dear To love the lord over all thing And be in charity and accord here With all my neighbours by rightwise dealing Than for to fast through out the year And all the masses the priests sing But if I love I am no comfort near Alas why have I wrathful been That love of my heart was not hende I hated that never died me tene I loved not him that me good lend I cast me no more to be keen To love mine enemies I will attend Shall I him never curse I ween Mercy jesus I will amend Deus. Man if thou wilt of bats blynne And charity keep in every chance My mercy soon thou mayst win So that thou do thy true penance Look thine heart be contryre within And be sorry for thy misgovernance What profiteth to shrive the of thy sin But thou in heart have repentance Thou showest and penance dost none For thy sin but thine heart be sore For worldly loss thou makest moon Thou sinnest and sorrowest not therefore And if thou were woe begun What bitter medicine given the wore With joy thou wouldest take it anon To bodily health the to restore Thy soul with deadly sin is slain And without sorrow thy sin thou tells To do such penance thou art not fain As thy thrift father the counsels Ne thou wilt never restore again Falls gotten goods that thou with melles Man thou must alway suffer pain Here for thy sins or somewhere else It is impossible and may not be To pass fro joy to joy on high Take the cross and follow me If thou wilt to bliss up sty sickness and all adversity what and it come suffer it patiently Hate alway sin and fro it i'll And make amends or thou die Homo. Lord give me grace amends to make For of myself me faileth power All deadly sin now I forsake And would do deeds that in defull were In this world send me woe and wreck For all my sins done in fere Who hath no sorrow here may quake Them that thou lovest thou chastise here For my sake xxx year and more Great travail here in earth thou had Thy mother and thy apostles also In great disease their life they lad In adversity and moche woe Every good man should be glad Sith that darling that with the died dwell Had such adversity in her life That heart may think or tongue can tell The pain the anguish and the strife That dampened have in hell Than endless woe and sorrow be rife I will forsake my sins fell And to a discrete priest the shrive In true penance is mine intent From hens forward my time to spend And keep well thy commandment For else in hell fire I shall be brende Royal repair rich robes and rent What may they help me at my end But I the serve I shall be ●●ent Mercy jesus I will amend Deus. Man do penance while thou may least suddenly I take vengeance Bid I the not day by day For cause I would thou died penance Man I am more ready alway To forgive thy misgovernance When thou of all thy friends haste made assay Thou shalt find none like to me Thou wilt amend oft times thou said Again amends no man may be Do true penance and I am paid From endless pain to make the fire For thy love my life I laid What friend should have done so for the With sorrowful heart thy sin thou shrive And make amends to thine enemy If thou thus leave thy wicked live I will be thereof glad truly Think oftentimes of loathes wine And turn not to thy sin again Let no despair down the drive Think on Peter and Magdalayne Man wipe away thy wickedness And keep my bidding by and by And thou shalt have in my palesse Worship withouten villainy No poverty but all rychenesse Health/ strength/ and wisdom truly Thou shalt be full of all sweetness And than to live dnd nevermore die Homo. Grant mercy jesus crop and rote Of all friendship for in none fails Against the I will not mote But as oft as me evil ails I will fall down flat to thy foot To help me in ghostly battles Now wot I where I shall me hide When I am stired to any sin In the great wound of thy right side And be heartily hid therein As in a tour there may I abide For aught ye find can me imagine For all this world that is so wide Therein is sovereign medicine There may no wanhope make me care That have of they angels so good To keep me that I not misfare And thy mother mywest of mode Lord shend us thy wounds then And than of mercy we may not miss And than to help christian men Now jesus lord thou us wish That we with the may bide to bliss In joy and bliss withouten end That to thy people ordained is That leave sin and them amend AMEN. ¶ Thus endeth the communication between god and man. imprinted at London in Fleetstreet at the sign of the Son by me Wynkyn de word winkin de word