ou will find them with books of the humanities in their
hands, and giving themselves up to the belief that they know how to lead
the souls of men aright by Virgil, Horace, and Cicero. Do you wish to
see the church guided by the hand of the astrologer? Ye will not find
either prelate or great lord who is not in confidential intercourse with
some astrologer, who predicts to him the hour when he must ride or
engage in some other affair. These same great lords do not dare to move
a step contrary to what their astrologer tells them. There are only two
things in that temple in which they find delight, and these are the
paintings, and the gilding with which it is covered.

It is thus that in our church there are many beautiful external
ceremonies in the solemnization of the holy offices, splendid vestments
and draperies, with gold and silver candlesticks, and many chalices, all
of which have a majestic effect. There you see great prelates, wearing
golden miters, set with precious stones, on their heads, and with silver
crosiers, standing before the altar with copes of brocade, slowly
intoning vespers and other masses with much ceremony, accompanied by an
organ and singers, until ye become quite stupefied; and these men appear
to you to be men of great gravity and holiness, and ye believe that they
are incapable of error, and they themselves believe that all they say
and do is commanded by the gospel to be observed.

Men feed upon those vanities, and rejoice in those ceremonies, and say
that the church of Christ was never in so flourishing a state, and that
divine worship was never so well conducted as in this day; and that the
first prelates were very contemptible preachers in comparison with those
of modern times. They certainly had not so many golden miters, nor so
many chalices; and they parted with those they had to relieve the
necessities of the poor; our prelates get their chalices by taking that
from the poor which is their support. But dost thou know what I would
say? In the primitive church there were wooden chalices and golden
prelates; but now the church has golden chalices and wooden prelates.
They have established amongst us the festivals of the devil, they
believe not in God, and make a mockery of the mysteries of our religion.

What doest thou, O Lord? Why slumberest thou? Arise and take the church
out of the hands of the devil, out of the hands of tyrants, out of the
hands of wicked prelates. Hast thou forgott