h the. And furthermore
the aungell sayde: thou shall conceyue and bere a sonne, and thou shalt
call his name Jesum; and Elyzabeth thy swete cosyn, she shall conceyue
the swete Saynt John. And so [he] proceded styll in his sermon in suche
fonde ryme, that dyuers and many gentylmen of the court that were there
began to smyle and laughe. The frere that perceyuyng said thus:
Maysters, I pray you, harke; I shall tell you a narracyon. There was
ones a yonge preest, that was nat all the best clerke, sayd masse and
redde a colect thus: Deus qui vigenti filii tui &c. wherfore he shulde
haue said vnigeniti filii tui &c.; and after, whan masse was done, there
was suche a gentylman, as one of you are, nowe that had herde this
masse, came to the preest and sayde thus: syr, I pray you tell me how
many sonnes had God Almyghty? Quod the preest: why aske you that? Mary,
syr, quod the gentylman, I suppose he had xx sonnes: for ye sayd right
nowe: Deus qui viginti filii tui.[91] The preest, perceyuynge how that
he deryded hym, answered hym shortely and said thus: howe many sonnes so
euer God Almyghty had, I am sure that thou arte none of them: for thou
scornyst the worde of God. And so sayde the frere in the pulpet: no more
are ye none of the chyldren of God: for ye scorne and laughe at me nowe,
that preche to you the worde of God whiche

_3 lines wanting._

_By this ye may_[92] perceyue wel that the best, the wysyst and the most
holyest matter that is, by fond pronuncyacion and otterauns, may be
marryd nor shall not[93] edyfye to the audyence. Therfore euery proces
shold[94] be vtteryd wyth wordys and countenaunce conuenyent to the
matter.

Also yet by thys tale they that be vnlearnyd in the laten tonge may know
the sestence[95] of the Aue Maria.

FOOTNOTES:

[91] This portion of the tale is repeated in _Scoggin's or Scogin's
Jests_.

+ _Of the curat that prechyd the artycles of the Crede._ liv.

+ In a wyllage in Warwykshyre there was a parysh prest, al though he wer
no great clarke nor graduat of the vnyuersyte, yet he prechid to hys
paryshons vppon a Sonday, declaryng to them xii artycles of the Crede;
shewyng them that the furst artycle was to beleue in God the fader
almyghty maker of heuen and erth; the second, to beleue in Jesu Cryste
hys onely son our Lorde coequal wyth the fader in all thynges perteynyng
to the deyte; the thyrd, that he was conceyuyd of the holy goost, borne
of the vyrgyn Mary; the fourthe, tha