Abstract
Now followeth in course the convenient praise of thanksgiving unto God for righteously condemning the blasphemous church of antichrist and for graciously avenging the innocent blood of his true servants. Here are two manner of peoples to be considered, of whom the one is sorrowful, the other rejoiceth, and all about one matter. The fall of this malignant church is to the one sort a discomfort, to the other an heavenly comfort. The kings, the merchants, and the ship-governors of the earth most dolorously lamenteth the destruction of their mad vanities. The unregarded or forsaken number of those simple souls that faithfully believed in Christ are highly glad of it for his glory’s sake. About this one decay cryeth the one sort ‘Woe, woe, woe!’, the other sort singing joyfully in their hearts unto God so oft-times ‘Hallelujah!’ So much differeth the one from the other, the children of darkness from the children of light, they that seek their own glory from them that seek the glory of God. Not unlike is John unto Haggai, Zechariah, and other holy prophets which both showed afore of the people’s return from the miserable captivity of the Babylonians, and also the re-edifying again of their new Jerusalem—for here hath he first showed the destruction and fall of the damnable whore, the spiritual Babylon, which many years hath greviously vexed the people of God, and now in this chapter their peaceable time in the Lord. Now are the precious vessels of God like to be restored into the temple, the great Belshazzar of Rome once overthrown. Now shall the sweet peace grow, the plenteous quiet increase, the pastures of the Lord wax fat, and the mighty verity of his word flow like a sweet-running flood.
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Notes
- 1.
an] 1548; a 1570.
- 2.
of = by.
- 3.
rejoicing] 1548; reroysing 1570.
- 4.
is it] 1548; it is 1570.
- 5.
ought] 1548; ough 1570.
- 6.
of] 1548; om. 1570.
- 7.
in] 1570; at 1550; om. 1548.
- 8.
Christmas adds ‘and your Father’, which is suggested by the syntax of the sentence.
- 9.
unfeignedly] 1570; unfaynely 1548.
- 10.
granted] 1548; garnted 1570.
- 11.
or] 1570; for 1548.
- 12.
See Acts 11.27.
- 13.
Heb 11.33.
- 14.
her] 1548; the 1570.
- 15.
See Mt 25.
- 16.
fortunable = fortunate (OED a. 1).
- 17.
refection = the action of refreshing oneself or another, or the fact of being refreshed; refreshment with food or drink after hunger or fatigue; sustenance, nourishment (OED n. 1a).
- 18.
Ps 17.15.
- 19.
clipping = clasping, embracing (OED vbl. n. 1). Bale is imagining the purity of the embraces in heaven, as opposed to the perverted (sodomitical) embraces in the monasteries.
- 20.
Probably Tobias, son of Tobit in the apocryphal book of that name, who was assisted by the angel Raphael.
- 21.
ye] 1570; it 1548.
- 22.
See Acts 14.8–18.
- 23.
See Acts 10.25–6.
- 24.
Such depictions of the emperors serving the popes are featured in Foxe, e.g. the Emperor Frederick kissing the Pope’s feet.
- 25.
latria = a theological term for veneration due to God alone
dulia = veneration to the saints and icons
hyperdulia = veneration to the Virgin Mary.
- 26.
prevent = to act before or more quickly than (a person or agent); to anticipate in action; to act in advance of (OED v. 1a, obsolete).
- 27.
prosecute = to follow or treat with respect, dishonour, praise, insults, etc. (OED v. 6, obsolete). OED describes this as ‘A figurative use derived from the idea of literally following a person with shouts of acclamation, execration, etc.’ Bale also uses the word in this sense (‘prosecute with love’) in Three Laws (l. 1941).
- 28.
manners as] 1548; maneras 1570.
- 29.
as] 1548; om. 1570.
- 30.
knew] 1570; knowe 1548.
- 31.
been] 1570; be 1548.
- 32.
the] 1548; om. 1570.
- 33.
Hab 1.8, Lam 4.7.
- 34.
this] 1570; the 1548.
- 35.
judgeth] 1570; iuged 1548.
- 36.
calleth] 1570; called 1548.
- 37.
all] 1548; om. 1570.
- 38.
Ps 119.18.
- 39.
Jesus Jehozadak] 1548; Josedech 1570
Joshua, son of Johozadak; see Zech 6.11.
- 40.
gave] 1548 (geue); geueth 1570.
- 41.
create] 1548; creature 1550, 1570
create = something which is or has been created (OED adj.)
- 42.
knoweth] 1570; knowe 1548.
- 43.
himself] 1570; his selfe 1548.
- 44.
also] 1548; om. 1570.
- 45.
avengement = infliction of retributive punishment (OED).
- 46.
But…vesture = But I agree with those who have interpreted the garment to be Christ’s flesh, because he put it on as if it were clothing.
- 47.
See Isa 63.
- 48.
raiment] 1570; araiment 1548.
- 49.
stripes] 1548; strips 1570.
- 50.
lords] 1570; lorde 1548.
- 51.
Mount of Olives.
- 52.
See 2 Kings 6.11–23.
- 53.
See Song 1.
- 54.
damnation] 1570; damnacions 1548.
- 55.
power] 1570; pure 1548.
- 56.
heathenish] 1570; heytyshe 1548.
- 57.
Ps 7.12.
- 58.
This] 1570; That 1548.
- 59.
order] 1570; orders 1548.
- 60.
edge] 1550; edged 1548.
- 61.
magnificence] 1550, 1570; manifycence 1548.
- 62.
See Mt 1.1–17 and Lk 3.23–38.
- 63.
midst] 1548 (myddes), 1570 (middest)
midst = i.e., the middle region, under heaven.
- 64.
captains] 1570; captaine 1548.
- 65.
clouds] 1548; cloude 1570.
- 66.
fowl] 1570; foules 1548.
- 67.
cure = care, heed, concern (OED n. 1 1a).
- 68.
the] 1570; om. 1548.
- 69.
worthy = worthy of.
- 70.
of] 1570, Christmas; on 1548, 1550.
- 71.
delicates = delicacies.
- 72.
is] 1570; om. 1548.
- 73.
resort = go to.
- 74.
Tell] 1570; Tyl 1548.
- 75.
grand] 1570; gaund 1548.
- 76.
to] 1570, 1550(W); om. 1548, 1550.
- 77.
The metaphor of the ‘rank stoned horses’ suggests animals who have testicles (OED stoned 4a) and are sexually mature (OED rank 5)—in other words, sexually excited and lecherous. ‘Rank’ also carries a variety of other meanings, including haughty, arrogant, morally evil, and monstrous (as in Bale’s Apology).
- 78.
See Acts 10.9–16.
- 79.
Ezek 39.18.
- 80.
buskle = to hurry about; to be in agitation or commotion, to bustle (OED v. 1b, obsolete).
- 81.
See Acts 24.
- 82.
Trajan] 1570 (Traianus); Tratanus 1548, 1550. See 314n.
- 83.
Dan 7.7.
- 84.
accident = a property or quality not essential to our conception of a substance; an attribute. Applied especially in Scholastic Theology to the material qualities remaining in the sacramental bread and wine after transubstantiation (OED n. 6a).
- 85.
worshipped] 1570; worshippes 1548.
- 86.
‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’ and ‘Crucify, crucify him!’.
- 87.
attach = to seize, lay hold of (OED v. 3).
- 88.
detort = to turn aside from the purpose; to twist, wrest, pervert (OED v. 1, obsolete). OED lists the first instance of this word in 1555.
- 89.
third = i.e., the third cause for why they are called ‘quick’.
- 90.
is] 1570; om. 1548.
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Minton, G.E. (2013). The Nineteenth 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_23
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