Abstract
Unto John was delivered, after that he had thus devoured the book, a reed not unlike to the metewand of six cubits long and a span which was given unto Ezekiel, nor very far different from the measuring line in Zechariah. And what is this else but that the administration of God’s heavenly verity is secretly of him committed unto them which hath afore received it and in faith digested it, that they should therewith rightly measure, discern, and judge all things? None other is it to prophesy again in this sixth age but thus to mete the temple, the altar, and the worshippers therein, and to prove them in length, breadth, height, and depth.
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- 1.
metewand = measuring rod.
- 2.
choir] quere 1545, 1548, quier 1550(W), Quire 1570. All of these spellings are variations of the same word, which is rendered ‘outer court’ in most biblical translations. It refers to the section of the church reserved for the choir (i.e. the chancel), though Bale also makes it sound like the collective group of people.
- 3.
The Paraphrase] 1548; om. 1545.
- 4.
corn = wheat.
- 5.
both they = both of them (in the following sentence as well).
- 6.
box = monstrance (i.e., the box in which Catholics keep the host).
- 7.
‘Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God’ (Ps 87.3). This verse was the inspiration for Augustine’s title, The City of God.
- 8.
moten = measured (OED mete v.1 1).
- 9.
‘For alredy the mistery of iniquity worketh. Only he that holdeth, let him now hold, until it be taken out of the way’ (2 Thess 2.7, Tyndale). This verse inspired Bale’s Mystery of Iniquity (1545).
- 10.
rutter = a cavalry soldier employed in the wars of the 16th century; used with allusion to the dress or manner of such persons, hence a gay cavalier, a dashing gallant (OED rutter1).
- 11.
tippet = a band of silk or other material worn around the neck (OED 1c).
- 12.
sack-friar = a member of a mendicant order of the 13th and early 14th century, clothed in sackcloth (OED).
- 13.
rochet = a vestment of linen, usually worn by bishops and abbots (OED rochet1 2)
scapular = a short cloak covering the shoulders; worn by Benedictine monks when engaged in manual labour (OED n. 1).
- 14.
crosier = the pastoral staff or crook of a bishop or abbot (OED 3).
- 15.
Mk 16.16.
- 16.
moisture = spiritual inspiration, refreshment (OED 2).
- 17.
that = the thing which.
- 18.
cloyne = to act deceitfully or fraudulently, to cheat, deceive (OED 1; the first usage of this word is from Bale’s Three Laws [l. 443]; ‘cloyners’ is used in King Johan [l. 1814]).
- 19.
that came] 1550, 1550(W), 1570; h at came 1545.
- 20.
The 1545 text skips number 6, printing 7 here and 8 for the last textual number. Subsequent texts correct the numbers in the biblical text, but still follow the numbering of paraphrase passages, which goes to 8 (and thus does not match the biblical text). The paraphrase numbers (5–7) have been slightly changed in the present edition in order to parallel the biblical text.
- 21.
degrade] 1545 & 1548 (dysgrade); disgarde 1570.
- 22.
6 begins here in the other texts.
- 23.
7 begins here in the other texts.
- 24.
8 in the other texts.
- 25.
that = the efficacy of mass.
- 26.
Ave rex Judeorum = ‘Hail, King of the Jews’ (the taunting of Jesus by the Roman soldiers). See Matt 27.29, Mk 15.18, and Jn 19.3.
- 27.
The following list is, as Bale suggests, English martyrs from the 16th century (with the exception of the Scotsman Hamilton); all of them are included in Foxe’s Acts and Monuments. Bale’s lists in Part 1 are more general and European, but he often turns here in Part 2 to local matters. For more details on these martyrs, see Appendix 3.
- 28.
James] this edn; George 1545, 1550, etc.
This name is printed as George Bainham in the 16th-century texts, but the person intended is undoubtedly James Bainham, a lawyer and Protestant martyr (Foxe 1576, 1001). Bale also lists Bainham below, 191, and calls him George Bainham again on 376.
- 29.
Robert Barnes, William Jerome, and Thomas Garret (spelled ‘Garade’ in the 16th-century texts) were burned together at Smithfield in 1540. See Foxe 1563, 668.
- 30.
The next list is the English Lollard martyrs (late 14th and early 15th centuries). This interest in Lollard martyrs is something that Bale passed on to Foxe, who also includes these names.
- 31.
White] this edn; With 1545, 1548, etc. The person intended is undoubtedly Richard White, who is mentioned in Foxe alongside Thorpe and Peacock (Foxe 1570, 573).
- 32.
Formosus was pope from 891–6. He was tried posthumously by Stephen VI in the ‘Cadaver Synod’. As Bale suggests here, Formosus’ corpse was indeed disinterred and clad in papal vestments for the trial, and when he was proven to have been unworthy of the pontificate he was dressed in layman’s clothes, had two fingers cut off, and was buried as a secular person (this is all recorded in detail in Bartolomeo’s Lives of the Popes). Bartolomeo also records that Sergius III (904–11) reportedly had the body re-exhumed once more, beheaded, and thrown into the Tiber.
- 33.
Pope Boniface VIII, who, Bartolomeo reports, ‘caused the body of one Hermanius, that had been worshipped at Ferrara as a Saint for twenty years, to be taken out of the ground and burnt, because he had made a strict inquiry into his Heretical Opinions’ (297).
Eighth] 1550; ryhht 1545; right 1548.
- 34.
Thomas Netter, a 15th-century English theologian and confessor to Henry V, was born at Saffron Waldon, Essex, and is thus commonly called Thomas Waldensis. Like Bale, Netter was a Carmelite, but he was a vehement opponent of the Lollards (he was involved in the trial of Oldcastle). De Sacramentalibus is actually the third part of a work entitled Doctrinale antiquitatum fidei ecclesiae catholicae.
- 35.
William Tracy’s body was exhumed and he was burned as a heretic (Foxe 1563, 514). Foxe reports that Richard Hun was imprisoned in 1515 and then found hanged, which was a case of murder (Foxe 1563, 442ff).
- 36.
In the late 1490s John Colet—humanist, friend of Erasmus and More, and later Dean of St. Paul’s—was lecturing on the epistles of St. Paul at Oxford, emphasizing the new learning and moving away from scholasticism. He was later accused of unorthodox opinions, though these charges were dismissed. Although Colet was never a Reformer as such, Bale and others pointed to Colet’s disapproval of auricular confession and clerical celibacy. The accusations against Colet are outlined in Foxe 1570, 964ff.
- 37.
This verbal form of ‘common’, which is now obsolete, here likely means to have intercourse with (OED 4b).
- 38.
plover = a small to medium-sized, short-billed, gregarious bird (OED 1).
- 39.
Smell-smock = ‘one given to low women’ (Christmas, citing Halliwell). See also ‘smell-smock’ as a licentious man in the OED. ‘Saunder’, which is related to Alexander, seems to be a generic term for a male name (the equivalent to the modern ‘Joe’).
- 40.
malt = barley or other grain prepared for brewing, distilling, or vinegar-making (OED n.1 1a).
- 41.
since = since that time.
- 42.
Thomas Godsalve was the registrar of the Norwich consistory court.
- 43.
Richard Wharton, Bailiff of Bungay (Suffolk).
- 44.
Sir John Baker (Chancellor of the Exchequer), Sir Christopher Hales (Master of the Rolls), and Sir Thomas Moyles are also grouped together by Foxe (1570, 2082), who lists them as recipients of complaints about Richard Turner, a Protestant preacher and Cranmer’s secretary.
- 45.
auri sacra fames = ‘accursed lust for gold’ (Aeneid 3.56).
- 46.
were] 1570; om. 1545.
- 47.
i.e., the names of 7000 men who were slain.
- 48.
feared = afraid.
- 49.
Although Bale’s biblical text finishes the eleventh chapter of Revelation here (verse 14), most versions continue through chapter 19 (these five verses are part of Chapter 12 for Bale).
- 50.
Wis 5.1–2.
- 51.
with a possible pun on ‘wrapped’.
- 52.
Rhedonensis] 1545 (rhedonensis); Thedonensis 1548, 1550, 1570, Christmas.
- 53.
Berengar of Tours (see above, 113) was influenced by the opinion of John Scotus Eriugena (a 9th-century Irish theologian and Neoplatonic philosopher) that the Eucharist is merely symbolic, which is no doubt why Bale begins this list of ‘God’s servants’ with them. He then moves on to the proto-Reformers Wycliffe, Hus, and Jerome of Prague. Thomas Rhedonensis refers to Thomas Connecte, who was a 15th-century Carmelite friar from Brittany who preached invectives against the priesthood and was burned at the stake in Rome. All texts after the 1545 erroneously print ‘Thedonensis’, but this was a misreading of ‘Rhedonesis’, i.e. from Rennes. Hieronymus Savonarola (mentioned above, 142) was a 15th-century Italian preacher and reformer of the Dominican Order. His reforms aimed to correct the corruptions of the Catholic church, and he is best known for the ‘bonfire of the vanities’, in which he burned pagan writings and material (such as jewelry and art) associated with worldly excess.
- 54.
These six men—Thomas Bilney, James Bainham, Richard Bayfield, John Frith, William Tyndale, and Robert Barnes—were Henrician martyrs who were executed between 1531 and 1540.
- 55.
they = the earthly minded hypocrites.
- 56.
fell = hot, angry, enraged, virulent (OED a. 3, obsolete).
- 57.
that = that which.
- 58.
with a pun on ‘idol’.
- 59.
Bale is undoubtedly thinking of himself as an example.
- 60.
of = by (in both places in the sentence).
- 61.
retail = to recount or tell over again; to relate in detail; to repeat to others (OED v. 2, which lists Richard III 3.1.77 as the first usage in this sense).
- 62.
beggar = to make a beggar of, impoverish (OED v. 1a).
- 63.
finish] 1545, 1548, etc.; signify Christmas.
- 64.
that = what.
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Minton, G.E. (2013). The Eleventh Chapter. In: Minton, G. (eds) John Bale’s 'The Image of Both Churches'. Studies in Early Modern Religious Tradition, Culture and Society, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7296-0_14
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