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Confeffor.

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Quia fecundum poe

tarum fabulas in hui

How fuche goddes come aplace,
Ye mighten mochel thank purchace,
For I fhall be wel taught withall.

My fone, it is thus overall

With hem, that ftonden misbeleved,
That fuche goddes ben beleved
In fondry place, fondry wife
Amonges hem, which be unwife,
There is betaken of credence,
Wherof that I the difference
In the maner as it is write
Shall do the pleinly for to wite.

Gentibus illufis fignantur templa deorum,
Unde deos cecos nacio ceca colit.
Nulla creatori racio facit effe creatum

Equiparans, quoad huc jura pagana fovent.

Er Crift was bore among us here

ufmodi libelli locis Of the beleves, that tho were,

quampluribus nomi- In four formes thus it was. na et geftus deorum

falforum intitulantur, They of Caldee, as in this cas,

quorum infidelitas ut

Criftianis clarius in- Had a beleve by hem felve,

notefcat, intendit de

ipforum origine fe- Which stood upon the fignes twelve,

cundum varias paga

norum fectas fcribere, Forth eke with the planetes seven,

confequenteret primo

defecta Caldeorum Whiche as they fighen upon the heven Of fondry conftellacion

tractare proponit.

In her ymaginacion

With fondry kerfe and portreture
They made of goddes the figure.
In thelementes and eke also

They hadden a beleve tho.

And all was that unrefonable,
For thelementes ben fervicable
To man. And ofte of accidence,
As men may fe thexperience,
They ben corrupt by fondry way,
So may no mannes reson say,
That they ben god in any wife.
And eke if men hem wel avise,
The fonne and mone eclipfen both,
That be hem lef or be hem loth
They fuffre, and what thing is paffible
To ben a god is inpoffible.

These elements ben creatures,
So ben these hevenly figures,
Wherof may wel be justified,

That they may nought ben deified.
And who that taketh away thonour,
Which due is to the creatour,
And yiveth it to the creature,
He doth to great a forfeiture.
But of Caldee netheles
Upon this feith though it be leffe
They holde affermed the creaunce,
So that of helle the penaunce
As folk, which stant out of beleve,
They shall receive, as we beleve.

Of the Caldeus fo in this wife
Stant the beleve out of affife.
But in Egipte worst of alle

The feith is fals, how fo it falle,

Et nota, quod Nembroth quartus a Noe ignem tamquam deum in Caldea primus adorari decrevit.

De fecta Egipcio

rum.

For they diverse bestes there

Honour, as though they goddes were.
And nethelesse yet forth withall
Thre goddes most in speciall
They have forth with a goddeffe,
In whome is all her fikerneffe.
Tho goddes be yet cleped thus
Orus, Tiphon and Ifirus.
They were brethren alle thre
And the goddeffe in her degre
Her fufter was and Yfis hight,
Whom Ifirus forlay by night
And helde her after as his wife.
So it befell, that upon ftrife
Tiphon hath Ifre his brother flain,
Which had a child to fone Orain,
And he his faders deth to herte
So toke, that it may nought afterte,
That he Tiphon after ne flough,
Whan he was ripe of age inough.
But yet thegipciens trowe

For all this errour, which they knowe,
That these brethern ben of might
To fette and kepe Egipt upright
And overthrowe, if that hem like.
But Yfis, as faith the cronique,
Fro Grece into Egipte cam
And the than upon honde nam
To teche hem for to fowe and ere,
Which no man knew to-fore there.

And whanne thegipciens figh
The feldes full afore her eye,

And that the lond began to greine,
Which whilom hadde be bareine,
For therthe bare after the kinde
His due charge, this I finde,
That the of berthe the goddeffe
Is cleped, fo that in diftreffe
The women therupon childing
To her clepe and her offring
They beren, whan that they ben light.
Lo, howe Egipt all out of fight
Fro refon ftant in misbeleve
For lacke of lore as I beleve.

Among the Grekes out of the wey
As they that refon put awey
There was, as the cronique faith,
Of misbeleve an other feith,
That they her goddes and goddeffes
As who faith token all to geffes
Of fuche as weren full of vice,
To whom they made facrifice.

The highe god, fo as they faide,
To whom they mofte worship laide,
Saturnus hight and king of Crete
He hadde be. But of his fete
He was put down as he, which stood
In frenefy and was fo wode,
That fro his wife, which Rea hight,
His owne children he to plight

De fecta Greco

rum.

Nota, qualiter Saturnus deorum fummus appella

tur.

Jupiter deus deli

ciarum.

And ete hem of his comune wone.
But Jupiter, which was his fone
And of full age, his fader bonde
And kut of with his owne honde
His genitals, whiche also faste
Into the depe fee he cafte,

Wherof the Grekes afferme and fay
Thus, whan they were caft awey,
Came Venus forth by wey of kinde.
And of Saturne alfo I finde,
Howe afterwarde into an ile

This Jupiter him didde exile,
Where that he stood in

mifchefe.

great
Lo, what a god they maden chefe.
And fithen that fuche one was he,
Which stood most high in his degre
Among the goddes, thou might know
These other, that ben more low,
Ben litel worth, as it is founde.

For Jupiter was the fecounde,
Whiche Juno had unto his wife.
And yet a lechour all his life
He was and in avouterie
He wrought many a trecherie.
And for he was fo full of vices,
They cleped him god of delices,
Of whom if thou wolt more wite
Ovide the poete hath write.

But

yet her fterres bothe two Saturne and Jupiter also

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