The.v. chapyter

The author sheweth ye parpetual inconstaunce of Luther / and hys cō traryete and repugnaunce agaynst hym selfe.

NOw as for hys cōstaunce appereth quod I by that I haue byfore rehersed of his contynuall chaūge ī his heresyes fro day to day / fro worse to worse / whych course he kept not onely in the maters aboue rehersed / but almoost in all the remanaunt. For as concerning purgatory / he wrote fyrste that all though it coulde not be proued by euydent scrypture as he affermed / yet was there no dowte but that there ys purgatory / and that thyng he sayd was of all crysten men fermely to be byleued. And than he wrote y• he wondred of the madnes of suche false and folyshe heretyques as were borne wtin one hundred yere passed / and are not ashamed to denye purgatory / whyche the hole chyrche of Cryst hath byleued thys fyftene hundred yere. Now what constaunce ys there in thys frere / that wrote thys of heretyques that denye purgatory / and wythin a whyle after denyeth yt hym selfe / sayng in the sermon that he wrote of the ryche man & Lazare / that all mennys sowlys lye styll and slepe tyll domys day.

Mary quod your frend thā hath som mā had a slepe of a fayre length. They wyll I wene whan they wake forgete some of theyr dremys. By my fayth quod I he that byleueth Luther yt hys soule shall slepe so long / shall whan he dyeth slepe in shrewd reste. I myche meruayle quod your frend what euyll ayled hym to fynd out thys fond foly. To thys opynyon quod I / or rather to the faynyng of thys opynyon (for I veryly thynke that hym selfe thynketh not as he wryteth) he fell for enuye & hatered that he bare to prestehode / by the malyce of whyche hys vngracyous mynde / he rather were cōtent that all the worlde lay in the fyre of purgatory tyll domys daye / than that there were one peny gyuen to a preste to praye for eny sowle. Thys ys quod your frend very lykely.

Lyke constaūce quod I hath he vsed in the mater of holy vowes. For in hys boke of the captyuyte of Babylon / he wryteth that neyther mā nor aungell ys able to dyspense wt the vowe made by mā to god. And sone after he wrote that no vowe cowlde bynde eny man / but that euery man may boldely breke theym of hys owne hed. But yt well appereth that he wrote the fyrst of angre and malyce towarde the pope / and than chaunged to the second of a lecherous lust to the nunne that he mynded to mary.