PARDONER

¶Worshipful masters / you shall understand ¶That pope Leo the .x. hath granted with his hand ¶To all manner people / both quick and deed ¶Ten thousand years / & as many entes of pardon ¶When they are deed / their souls for to guardon ¶That will with their penny / or alms deed ¶Put to their hands / to the good speed ¶Of the holy chapel of sweet Saint Leonarde ¶Which late by fire / was destroyed and marred ¶Ay by the mass / one can not here ¶For the babbling / of yonder foolish frere ¶And also masters / as I was about to tell ¶Pope July y e .vi. hath grau ̄ ted fair & well ¶And does .xii. thousand years of pardon to the ̄ send ¶That ought / to this holy chapel lend ¶Pope Bonyface / the .ix. also ¶Pope July / pope Innocent / with dyuers popes more ¶Hath granted / to the sustaining of the same ¶v. thousand years of pardon ̄ / to every of you by name ¶And clean remission / also of their sin ¶As often times / as you put in ¶Any money / into the pardoners coffer ¶Or any money up unto it offer ¶Or he that offeryth / penny or groat ¶Or he that gyveth / the pardoner a new coat ¶Whereby this poor chapel may / fair the better ¶And God wot / it is a full gracious deed ¶For which God / shall quite you well your mede ¶Now help our poor chapel / if it be your will ¶And I say thou frere / hold thy tongue Still ¶Marry what standyst thou there / all day clatterrynge ¶Why despisest thou / the popes minister Masters / here I curse him openly And therewith warn / all this hold company By the popes / great authority That you leave him / and Harken unto me For till h be assoiled / his words take none effect For out of holy church / he is now clean reject ¶Masters this pardon / which I showed you before Is the greatest that ever was / sith God was boar Doubt not but God should gyve you retrybucyon But now further / it ought to be declared ¶Come to this pardon / if you will come to heaven ¶Come to this pardon if you will be in bliss ¶This is the pardon / which you can not miss ¶This is the pardon which shall men's souls win ¶This is the pardon / the rydder of your sin ¶This is the pardon / that purchases all grace This is a pardon for all manner of trespass ¶This is y e pardon ̄ / of which all mercy doth Spring ¶You it is like to be when I have done ¶Now thou haste spoken all sir daw I care nat for the / and old straw I had lever thou were hanged / up with a rope Than I that am come from the pope And thereby gods minister / while thou sta ̄ dest & prate Should be fain to knock without the gate Therefore preach hardly / thy belly full But I nevertheless / will declare the popes bull ¶Now my masters / as I have afore declared ¶That pardoners from you may not be spared ¶Now here after / shall follow and ensue ¶That followeth of pardons / the great virtue ¶We pardoners for your souls be as necessary As is the meat / for our bodies hungry For pardons is the thing that bringeth men to heaven ¶Pardons delivereth them from the sins seven ¶Pardons for every crime / may dyspens Pardon purchasyth grace for all offence ¶You though you had slain / both father and moth ¶And this pardon / is chief above all other ¶For who to it offeryth / groat or penny ¶Though sins / he had done never so many ¶And though that he had all his kindred slain ¶This pardon shall rid the ̄ from ever lasting pain ¶There is no sin / so abominable ¶Which to remit / this pardon is not able ¶As well declareth / the sentence of this letter ¶You can not therefore / bestow your money bet ¶Let us not here / stand idle all the day ¶Gyve us some money / or that we go our way ¶I will rede them now / what sayest thou thereto Hast thou any thing therewith to do Thinkest that I will stand / & tarry for thy leisure Am I bound to do so Much for thy pleasure ¶Let the word of God quoth a? nay let a horso ̄ dreuyll Prate here all day / with a foul evil And all thy sermon / goes on couetyce And byddest men beware of avarice And yet in thy sermon / dost thou none other thing But for alms stand all the day begging ¶Nay leave thou thy babbling / if thou be wise ¶No more will I / I do the well to wit Than ̄ speak on hardly if thou thynkyst it for thy ¶In faith I care nat / for I will speak also See which shall be better harden of us two ¶What should you spend on these flattering liars ¶As be these babbling monks / and these freres ¶Which do nought daily / but babble and lie ¶And tell you fables dear enough a fly ¶As doth this babbling frere / here to day ¶ 1 line ¶On us pardoners hardly do your cost ¶For why / your money never can be lost ¶For why / there is in our fraternity ¶For all brethren & sisteren that thereof be ¶Devoutly song every year ¶As he shall know well that comes there ¶At every of the five solemn feasts ¶A mass & dirige to pray for the good rest ¶Of the souls of the brethren & sisteren all ¶Of our fraternity in general ¶with a hearse there standing / well arrayed & dyght And torches & tapers about it brenning bright ¶And with the bells eke solemnly ringing ¶And priests & clerks devoutly singing ¶And furthermore / every night in the year ¶Twelve poor people are received there ¶And there have both harbour and food ¶That for them is convenient and good ¶And furthermore / if there be any other ¶That of our fraternity be sister or brother ¶ after happen to fallen in decay ¶And if he than chance to come that way ¶Nigh unto our foresaid holy place ¶You shall there tarry for amon these space ¶And be there found of the places cost ¶wherefore now in the name of the holy ghost ¶I advise you all that now here be ¶For to be of our fraternity ¶Fie on covetise / stick nat for a penny ¶For which you may have benefits so many ¶Master frere / I hold it best To keep your tongue while you be in rest ¶Nay one pull the frere down like a foal ¶By God I would thou durst presume to it ¶And I shrew thy Heart and thou spare ¶Marry that would I see quod blind hew ¶Begin & prove whither I will you or nay ¶Because some percase will think amiss of me ¶You shall now here / the popys authority I say some good body / lend me his hengar And I shall him teach by God almyght How he shall a neither time learn for to fight I shall make that bald crown of his to look rede I shall leave him but one ere / on his heed ¶You whoreson frere / Wilt thou so ¶Than the fight. Than take thou thy hands away from my heres Nay abide thou hor son I am not down yet I trust First to lie the at my feet You marry will I / as long as thou dost smite ¶The curate. ¶Why should I suffer the / more than thou me Master parson gave me licence before the And I would thou knewest it / I have relics here Other manner stuff / than thou dost bear I will edefy more / with the sight of it Than will all the prating of holy writ For that except that the preacher / him self live well His predycacyon will help never a dell And I know well / that thy living is nought Thou art and apostata / if it were well sought And homycyde thou art I know well enough For my self knew where thou slough A wench with thy dagger in a couch And yet as thou sayest in thy sermon ̄ y to no ma ̄ shall touch ¶Master prat I pray you me to spare For I am sorry / for that that is done Wherefore I pray you forgive me soon For that I have offended within your liberty And by my truth sir / you may trust me I will never come hither more while I live and God before ¶Nay master parson / for gods passion Entreat not me after that fashion For if you do it will not be for your honesty ¶God and Saint Leonarde send you all his grace As many as been assembled in this place ¶ devout people / that here do assemble I pray good / that you may all well resemble The image / after which you are wrought And that you save / that Christ in you bought ¶Devout Christen people / you shall all wit That I am come hither / you to vysytte Wherefore let us pray / thus or I Begin Our saviour preserve you / all from sin And enable you to receive / this blessed pardon Which is the greatest / under the son Granted by the pope / in his bulls under lede Which pardon you shall find / when you are deed That offereth / outher gro es or else pens To these holy relics / which or I go hens I shall here show / in open audience Exortynge you all / to do to them reverence ¶ But First you shall know well / y to I come from Room oh here my bulls / all and some Our liege lord seal / here on my patent I bear with me / my body to warrant That no man be so bo de / be he Priest or clarke Me to dysturbe / of Christ's holy work Nor have no disdain / nor yet scorn Of these holy relics / which saints have worn ¶First here I show you / of a holy Jews sheep A bone / I pray you take good keep To my words / and mark them well If any of your bests belies do swell Dyppe this bone in the water / that he doth take Into his body / and the swelling shall S ache And if any worm / have our beasts stonge Take of this water / and wash his tongue And it will be hold anon / and furthermore Of pocks and scabs / and every soar He shall be quite hold / that drinketh of the well That this bone is dipped in / it is truth that I tell And if any man that any best owes Ones in the week / or that the cock croweth Fasting will drink / of this well a draught As that holy Jew hath us taught His beasts and his store / shall multeply And masters all / it helpeth well Though a man be foul / in jealous rage Let a man with this water / make his potage And nevermore shall he / his wife mystryst Though he in sooth the faut by her wist Or had she be take with freres two or three ¶Here is a mytten eke / as you may see He that his hand will put in this myttayn He shall have / increase of his grain That he hath sown / be it weet or is So that he offer pens / or else grotes And another holy relyke / eke here see you may The blessed a me / of sweet Saint Sunday And who so ever is blessed / with this right hand Can not speed amiss / by see nor by land And if he offereth / eke with good devotion He shall not fail / to come to high promotion ¶And another holy relyke here may you see The great too / of the holy trinity And who so ever ones doth it in his mouth take Be shall never be dysseasyd / with the tothe ache Canker nor pockys shall there none breed This that I show you / is matter in deed ¶And here is of our lady / a relyke full good Her bongrace / which she beware with her french Hod When she went out / always for son borning Women with child / which be in mourning By virtue thereof / shall be soon eased And of their travail / full soon also released And if this bongrace / they do devoutly kys And offer thereto / as their devotion is ¶Here is another relyke / eke a precious one Hf all helowes / the blessed Jaw bone Which relyke / without any fail Against poison / chiefly doth prevail For whom so ever it touches / without doubt All manner venom / from him shall issue out So that it shall hurt / no manner wyghte Lo of this relyke / the great power and might Which preseruyth from poison every man Lo of Saint Myghell / eke the brain pan Which for the head ache / is a preseruatyfe To every man or best / that beareth life And further it shall stand him in better stead For his heed shall never ache when that he is deed Nor he shall feel / no manner grief nor pain Though with a sword / one cleve it than a twain But be as one that lay in a deed sleep Wherefore to these relics / now come crouch and creep But look that you offering to them make Or else can you no manner profit take But one thing you women all I warrant you If any wight / be in this place now That hath done sin / so horrible that she Dare nat for shame / thereof sheyuen be Or any woman / be she young or old That hath made her husband cockolde Such folk shall have / no power nor no grace To offer to my relics / in this place And who so fyndyth / her self out of such blame Come hither to me on christ's holy name ¶And because you Shall unto me G we credence at the full Mine authority Now shall you see Lo here the popes bull ¶Now shall the frere Begin his sermon / and even at the same time the pardoner beginneth also to show and speak of his bulls / and auctorytes come from Room. ¶Nay thou art a cursed / knave / and that shalt thou see And all such that to me / make interruption The pope sends them / excommunycacyon By his bulls / here ready to be red By bishops / and his cardinals confirmed And eke if thou / dysturbe me any thing Thou art also / a traitor to the King For here hath he granted me / under his broad seal That no man / if he love his he'll Should me dysturbe / or let in any wise And if thou dost / the kings commandment despise I shall make the be set / fast by the feet And where thou saydyst / that thou art more meet Among the people / here for to preach Because thou dost them / the very way teach owe to come / to heaven above Therein thou liest / and that shall I prove And by good reason / I shall make the bow And know that I / am met r than art thou ¶For thou / when thou hast taught them ones the way Thou e rest not / wheth r they come there you or nay But when that thou / hast done all together And taught them the way / for to come thither Yet all that thou canst ymagyn Is but to use virtue / and to abstain from sin And if they fallen ones / than thou canst no more Thou canst not gyve them / a salve for their soar But these my letters / be clean purgation All though never so many sins / they have done But when thou hast taught them the way and all Yet or they come there / they may have many a fallen In the way / or that they come thither For why the way / to heaven is very slydder But I will teach them after another raze For I shall bring them to heaven gate And be their guides / and conduct all things And lede them thither / by the purse strings So that they shall not fallen / though that they would ¶And by his bulls / confirmed under lede ¶Or take of me / out er image or letter ¶This is the pardon that to heaven shall you bring