Thoresby, The Lay Folks' Catechism (York; Middle English, modernised) (1357)

Prologue: Why God Made Us, and Why This Teaching Is Given

As a great clerk shows in his books, of all the creatures that God made in heaven and in earth, in water or in air or in anything else, the sovereign cause and the reason why he made them was his own good will and his goodness. Through which goodness, as he is all good, he would that some creatures of those that he made should be sharers of that bliss that evermore lasts. And because no creature might come to that same bliss without knowing God, as that clerk teaches, he made reasonable creatures, angel and man, of wit and of wisdom to know God Almighty, and through their knowing to love him and serve him, and so come to that bliss that they were made for.

This manner of knowing had our forefathers in the state of innocence that they were made in; and so should we have had, if they had not sinned: not so much as holy souls have now in heaven, but much more than man has now on earth. For our forefathers sinned, says the prophet, and we bear the wickedness of their misdeed (Lamentations 5).

For the knowledge that they had of God Almighty, they had it of God's gift at their beginning, without travail or trouble or passing of time; and all the knowledge that we have in this world of him is by hearing and learning and teaching of others, of the law and the lore that belong to holy Church, which all creatures that love God Almighty ought to know and to learn, and lead their life after it, and so come to that bliss that never ends.

And because many folk now in this world are not well enough taught to know God Almighty, nor love him nor serve him as they should do, as their deeds often openly show, in great peril of them both in life and in soul, and perhaps through the default of those that have their souls to keep and should teach them, as prelates, parsons, vicars and priests, that are bound by duty to teach them: our father the Archbishop, whom God Almighty save, who wills, as Saint Paul says of Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2), that all men be saved and know God Almighty, and namely those under him that belong to him, has treated and ordained for the common profit, through the counsel of his clergy, that each one that under him has keeping of souls shall openly, in English, upon Sundays, teach and preach to them that they have cure of the law and the lore to know God Almighty.

This may principally be shown in these six things: in the fourteen points that belong to the faith; in the ten commandments that God has given us; in the seven sacraments that are in holy Church; in seven works of mercy towards our fellow Christians; in the seven virtues that each man shall use; and in the seven deadly sins that man shall refuse.

And he commands and bids, in all that he may, that all that have keeping or cure under him enjoin their parishioners and their subjects that they hear and learn these same six things, and often rehearse them till they know them, and then teach them to their children, if they have any, whenever they are of age to learn them; and that parsons and vicars and all parish priests inquire diligently of their subjects in the Lenten time, when they come to shrift, whether they know these six things; and if it be found that they know them not, that they enjoin them on his behalf, and on pain of penance, to learn them. And so that none shall excuse themselves through ignorance from learning them, our father the Archbishop of his goodness has ordained and bidden that they be shown openly in English among the folk.

The First Thing: The Fourteen Articles of the Faith

Wherefore, as for the first of these six things, that is, to know the articles that belong to the faith: as great clerks teach and show in their books, there belong to the faith fourteen points, of which seven belong to God's Godhead, and the other seven belong to Christ's manhood.

The first point that we shall believe of the Godhead is to believe steadfastly in one true God, and that there is none other to believe in.

The second is that the high Father of heaven is steadfast and true God Almighty.

The third is that Jesus Christ, God's Son of heaven, is truly God, equal to his Father.

The fourth point is that the Holy Ghost, who comes jointly from both the Father and the Son, is truly God, and equal to them both. And yet the Father and the Son are not two gods, nor the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost three gods, but three several persons and but one God.

The fifth point is that the Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Ghost, three persons and one God, is maker of heaven and of earth and of all things.

The sixth point is that holy Church our mother is holy and one throughout the world, that is, the communion and fellowship of all Christian folk, that commune together in the sacraments and in other holy things that belong to holy Church, in forgiveness of sins and health of their souls; for without holy Church there is no soul's health.

The seventh article that we ought to believe is the rising again of the flesh and life without end. For when death has sundered our bodies and our souls for a certain time, as our nature requires, until the time when God shall judge the quick and the dead, then our souls shall turn again to our bodies, and we, the same, and none other than we are now, shall truly rise up in body and in soul, never more to be sundered from that time forth; but together, if we do well while we are here, go with God to that bliss that evermore lasts, and likewise, if we do ill, to endless pain.

There are other seven points of Christ's manhood that are needful to be believed by all that are Christian.

The first is that Jesus Christ, God's Son of heaven, was truly conceived of the maiden Mary, and took flesh and blood and became man, through the might and strength of the Holy Ghost, without any marring of her motherhood, without any lessening of her maidenhood.

The second point that we shall believe is that he, God and man both in one person, was truly born of that blessed maiden: God, begotten of his Father before any time, and man, born of his mother and brought forth in time.

The third point that we shall believe is Christ's passion, that he suffered bodily for sinful mankind: how he was betrayed by his disciple, and taken by the Jews, beaten with scourges till no skin held, nailed on the rood, and crowned with thorns, and many other hard pains, and died at the last.

The fourth article is that when he was dead, and his body taken down, and wound, and buried, yet while his body lay in the grave the soul with the Godhead went into hell, and harrowed it, and took out those that were his, as Adam and Eve and other forefathers, whom he in his foreknowledge willed should be saved.

The fifth point is that on the third day after he died he rose from death to life, true God and man in body and in soul; for as he died in the weakness of our manhood, so he rose through the strength of his Godhead, and so destroyed our death through his dying, and quickened us to life through his rising.

The sixth point is that we shall believe that the fortieth day after he rose, through strength of himself he ascended into heaven, where our nature is now in his blessed person, not only equal or matched to his angels, but higher, crowned King above all angels, that before was less than the nature of angels.

The seventh point is that, right as he died, and afterward rose and ascended into heaven, right so shall he come upon the last day, to judge both the quick and the dead; where all the folk that ever were, or are, or shall be, shall truly be shown and seen before him, and each man answer for his own deeds, and be damned or saved as he deserves. For as his righteousness is now mingled with mercy, so shall it then be without mercy.

The Second Thing: The Ten Commandments

The second thing of the six, to know God Almighty, is the ten commandments that he has given us. Of these ten, the three that are first we ought wholly to keep towards our God, and the seven that come after towards our fellow Christians.

The first commandment charges and teaches us that we believe in and bow to no false gods. And in this commandment are forbidden us all kinds of misbelief and all idolatries, all false enchantments and all sorceries, all false charms and all witchcrafts, all false conjurations and all wicked crafts that men of misbelief trust in, or hope for any help in, apart from God Almighty.

The second commandment bids us not take in idleness nor in vain the name of our God: so that we believe not in his name but what is steadfast, that we swear not by his name but when it behoves, and that we name not his name but worshipfully.

The third is that we shall keep and hallow our holy day, the Sunday, and all others that fall in the year that are ordained to be hallowed through holy Church; on which days all folk, learned and lay, ought to give themselves goodly to God's service, to hear it and say it as their state is, in worship of God Almighty and of his good saints; not then to attend to or tarry with the world, nor live in liking nor lust that the flesh yearns for, but gladly to serve God in cleanness of life.

The fourth bids us to do worship to father and to mother: not only to the fleshly father and mother that beget and foster us forth in this world, but to our ghostly fathers that have charge of us and teach us how to live to the health of our souls; and to our ghostly mother, that is holy Church, to be obedient to it and to save its right, for it is mother to all that live as Christians; and also to each man that is worshipful, to do worship as is due to him.

The fifth bids us that we slay no man, that is to say, neither bodily nor ghostly. For as many we slay, so far as in us lies, as we slander or backbite or falsely defame, or try to confound those that deserve it not, or withdraw livelihood from them that have need, if we be of means to help them.

The sixth commandment forbids us to sin or to commit folly fleshly with any woman, whether kin or stranger, wedded or unwedded, or to have any fleshly knowing or deed with any, other than the sacrament of matrimony excuses, and as the law and the lore of holy Church teach.

The seventh commandment bids us not steal; in which is forbidden robbing and reaving, all wrongful taking or withholding, or hiding or concealing of other men's goods against their knowledge and their will that have right to them.

The eighth bids that we shall bear no false witness against our fellow Christian; in which is forbidden all manner of lying, false conspiracy and forswearing, whereby our fellow Christian may lose his chattels, faith, favour or fame, or anything else, whether it be in ghostly or bodily goods.

The ninth is that we covet not our neighbour's house; in which is forbidden all wrongful covetousness of land or of tenement, or of anything else that may not be lifted nor raised from the ground, as a thing that is steadfast and may not be stirred.

The tenth and the last is that we covet not the wife of our neighbour, nor of our fellow Christian, nor his maid, nor his servant, his ox nor his ass; in which is forbidden us to covet or to take anything that may be moved of other men's goods, as robes or riches or other chattels that we have no good title nor right to.

For whatever thing we get or take otherwise, we may not be absolved of the trespass unless we make amends, so far as we may, to those that we harmed in withholding their goods. And in case we have, through false oaths, as in assizes or other inquests, knowingly and wilfully caused our fellow Christian to lose his patrimony or his heritage, or to be falsely disseised of land or tenement, or a false divorce to be made, or any man condemned: though we do all that we may for the party, yet may we not be absolved of our false oath except by our bishop, or him that has his power, for such a case is strictly reserved to himself.

These ten commandments that I have now reckoned are enclosed in two of the Gospel (Luke 10): the one is that we love God over all things; the other, that we love our fellow Christian as we do ourselves. For God ought we to love wholly with heart, with all our might, with all our thought, with word and with deed; our fellow Christian also ought we to love unto that same good that we love ourselves, that is, that they fare well in body and in soul, and come to that same bliss that we hope for. Whoever does these two fulfils the others.

The Third Thing: The Seven Sacraments

The third thing of the six that I first touched is the seven sacraments that holy Church gives through prelates and other priests that have the power. Of these seven, the first five each Christian man ought lawfully to take, once he is of age; and two lie in the will of those that receive them.

The first sacrament of seven is our baptism, which we take the first time that we become Christian; in which both the first sin that we are born with, and every other sin that we are defiled with before we take it, is washed away; and the faith of holy Church is taken therein, without which no sinful man's soul may be saved. And to this sacrament belong four things, if it shall rightly be taken as holy Church teaches. One is the right saying and form of the words that he ought to say that gives this sacrament, which are these: I baptize thee in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Another is that it be done only in water, for no other liquid is lawful for it. The third is that he that gives this sacrament be in mind and in will to give it. And the fourth is that he that takes it be not baptized before, whether by clerk or by lay person. For if the priest be in doubt of him that shall take it, whether he be baptized or not, then shall he say the words in this wise: If thou be not baptized, I baptize thee in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.

The second sacrament is confirmation, that the bishop gives to those that are baptized, which gives through his power to those that take it the grace and the gifts of the Holy Ghost, to make them more stalwart than they were before to stand against the fiend and deadly sin; which none has power to do but a bishop alone, that has the state and the place of Christ's apostles.

The third sacrament is called penance, that is, true repentance that we have for our sin, without will or thought to turn again to it. And this must have three things if it be steadfast: one is sorrow of our heart that we have sinned; another is open shrift of our mouth, how we have sinned; and the third is righteous amends-making for that we have sinned. These three, with good will to forsake our sin, cleanse us and wash us of all kinds of sins.

The fourth is the sacrament of the altar, Christ's own body in likeness of bread, as whole as he took it of that blessed maiden; which each man and woman that is of age ought to receive once in the year, that is to say, at Easter, as holy Church uses, when they are cleansed of sin through penance, on pain of being put out of holy Church, unless they forbear it for a reasonable cause, which ought to be known to those that shall give it. For he that takes it worthily takes his salvation, and whoever takes it unworthily, his damnation.

The fifth sacrament is the last anointing, with oil that is hallowed and handled by a priest, given to those that he knows are of reasonable age and that he sees surely in peril of death, in lightening and relief of their sickness, if God will that they turn again to health; and also in forgiveness of venial sins, and in lessening of pain if they pass hence.

The sixth sacrament of holy Church is Order, which gives power to those that rightly take it to serve in holy Church as their state is; and to those that take the order of priest, to serve and to minister the sacraments of holy Church that belong to them, according to the state that they have and their degree requires.

The seventh sacrament is matrimony, that is, a lawful fastening between man and woman, at the assent of them both, to live together without any loosing while their life lasts, in remedy of sin and getting of grace, if it be taken in good intent and cleanness of life.

The Fourth Thing: The Works of Mercy

The fourth thing of the six, to know God Almighty, which we must fulfil in all that we may, is the seven works of mercy towards our fellow Christians, which God shall rehearse to us upon the day of doom, and know how we have done them here in this life, as Saint Matthew makes mention in his Gospel (chapter 25).

Of which the first is to feed those that are hungry; the second, to give drink to those that are thirsty; the third, to clothe those that are clothless; the fourth is to harbour those that are houseless; the fifth, to visit those that lie in sickness; the sixth is to help those that are in prison; the seventh, to bury dead men that have need. These are the seven bodily works of mercy that each man ought to do that is able.

There are of mercy also seven ghostly works that we ought to do to those that have need of us: one is to counsel and guide those that are astray; another is to withdraw those that would work ill; the third is to solace those that are sorrowful; the fourth is to pray for those that are sinful; the fifth is to be patient when men wrong us; the sixth, gladly to forgive when men have grieved us; the seventh, when men ask us to teach them, if we know more than they, to teach them.

These are full needful to our neighbours, and wondrously meritorious to those that do them; for he shall find mercy that merciful is, and the man without mercy shall miss of mercy.

The Fifth Thing: The Seven Virtues

The fifth thing of the six, to know God Almighty, is the seven virtues that holy writ teaches. Of which seven, the three first, that are chief virtues, teach us how to bear ourselves towards God Almighty; and the four teach us so to live, both as regards ourselves and our fellow Christians, that it be pleasing both to God and to man.

The first virtue is faith, whereby we believe only in one God that made all things, with all the other articles I touched before. And this is needful to all that live as Christians, for faith is the beginning of all good works; for neither is faith worth anything without good works, nor any work without faith may please God Almighty.

The second good virtue is hope, that is, a sure abiding of ghostly good through God's goodness and our good deeds, to come to that bliss that never ceases: not only in trust of God's goodness, nor only in trust of our good deeds, but in trust of them when they are both together. For neither shall we fall so far into despair that we shall not trust to have bliss if we do well; nor shall we come so far into our hope that we trust so much in God's goodness that we hope to have bliss without good deeds.

The third virtue is charity, which is a dear love that we ought to have unto God Almighty and all our fellow Christians: unto God Almighty all for himself, and all our fellow Christians for God Almighty. For the one may not be loved without the other; for, as Saint John says in his epistle (chapter 4), this commandment, he says, we have of God Almighty, that whoever loves God loves his fellow Christian; for he that loves not his brother, whom he may see, how should he love God Almighty, whom he sees not?

The fourth virtue is righteousness, that is, to yield to all men what we owe them: to do to each man what we ought to do, to worship those that are worthy, to help the poor that are needy, to do guile nor wrong unto no man, but to do what is right unto every man.

The fifth virtue is wisdom or prudence, which teaches us to be wary of the dangers of the world; for it teaches us to know the good from the evil, and also to separate the one from the other, and to leave what is evil and take to the good, and of two good things to choose the better.

The sixth virtue is strength or stalwartness, not only of body but of heart and of will, evenly to suffer the weal and the woe, wealth or adversity, whichever betides; and that our heart be not too high for any welfare, nor overmuch cast down for any ill fare, but safely to stand against our foes, whether they be bodily or ghostly, so that no foul temptation make us fall or be false in our faith towards God Almighty.

The seventh virtue and the last is measure or temperance, which keeps us from excess and holds us in evenness, checks the likings and lusts of the flesh, guards us from yearnings for worldly goods, and keeps us in cleanness of body and of soul. For measure is the rule and the mete of all that we do, if we live reasonably as the law teaches.

The Sixth Thing: The Seven Deadly Sins

The sixth thing and the last of those I first touched is the seven chief sins or deadly sins, that each man ought to know, to flee and forgo; for man may not flee them unless he know them: pride, envy, wrath and gluttony, covetousness and sloth, and lechery. And therefore they are called seven chief sins, because all others come of them; and therefore they are called deadly sins, because they ghostly slay every man's soul that is caught in all or in any of them. Wherefore the wise man bids in his book (Ecclesiasticus 21): as from the face of the adder, try to flee sin; for as the venom of the adder slays man's body, so the venom of sin slays man's soul.

The first of these seven sins is pride, that is, a pleasing highness of a man's heart for office, or high state, or other nobility that he has either of nature or of grace, or that he thinks he has more than another. And of this sin come many several kinds: boasting and vaunting and disobedience, despite and hypocrisy and shamelessness, and others that are often seen among proud men.

The second deadly sin is called envy, that is, a sorrow and grief at the welfare, and joy at the ill fortune, of our fellow Christian; of which sin many kinds spring and spread. One is hatred to speak or hear anything spoken that may sound to good for those that we hate; another is false judging or doom of their deeds, and ever turning to evil what they do for good; the third is backbiting, to say behind them what we will not avow nor say before them; where not only he that speaks the evil, but he that hears it spoken, is to blame: for were there no hearer, there were no backbiter.

The third deadly sin or chief sin is wrath, that is, a wicked stirring or swelling of heart whereby a man desires to take vengeance, or wickedly to avenge himself upon his fellow Christian. And of this sin come striving and chiding, with many false and many foul words; slander, to destroy a man's good name; fighting and felony and often manslaughter, and many more than now need to be named.

The fourth deadly sin is gluttony, that is, an unreasonable liking or love in tasting or taking of meat and of drink; and this trespass men commit in several ways. One is too early or too late, or too often, to eat or to drink, unless need require it; another is to live too delicately; the third is to eat or drink too much; the fourth is to eat or drink too hastily; the fifth is to contrive in what way we may get delicious meats and drinks to fill the likings and lusts of the flesh, beyond what we may well lead our life with.

The fifth deadly sin is covetousness, that is, a wrongful desire or yearning to have any kind of good that we ought not; and this is principally done in two ways. One is wrongfully to get anything that our liking or our love lights upon, as by sacrilege or by simony, theft, falsehood or usury, or other guile, which these worldly men are wont to use, that so cast their cunning upon covetousness that they reck not whether it be by right or by wrong, so long as they may get what their heart yearns for. The other is wrongfully to hold what is gotten, that is, when we will not do for God Almighty, nor for holy Church, nor for our fellow Christian, what we ought to do by duty and by law, but only hold what we have for the ease of ourselves; where not only he that wrongfully gets, but he that wrongfully holds, falls into the sin.

The sixth deadly sin is sloth or slowness, that is, a heartfelt irksomeness or weariness to us of any ghostly good that we should do. And of this sin come several kinds. One is tardiness, or slowness to set about any good deed that we should do that may turn us to help or health of our souls; another is a dullness or heaviness of heart that hinders us from loving our Lord God Almighty, or having any liking in his service; the third is idleness, that is overmuch haunted, that makes men loath to begin any good deeds, and lightly makes us leave off when anything is begun. And whereas we are by nature born to toil, as the bird is by nature born to fly (Job 5), it holds us evermore in ease against our nature; for idleness is enemy to the Christian man's soul, stepmother and stumbling-block to good virtues, and sure guide and way to all kinds of vices.

The seventh deadly sin is lechery, that is, a foul liking or lust of the flesh; and of this sin come many several kinds. One is fornication, a fleshly sin between a single man and a single woman, which, because it is against the law and the leave and the lore that holy Church holds, is deadly sin to those that do it. Another is adultery, that is, spouse-breaking, whether it be bodily or ghostly, which is more grievous and greater than the other. The third is incest, that is, when a man sins fleshly with any of his kin, or any other that is of his affinity, ghostly or bodily, whichever it be. Many other kinds spring of this sin, that are overmuch known and familiar in the world among those that lead their lives as their flesh yearns.

Conclusion and Pardon

These are the six things that I have spoken of, that the law of holy Church lies most in, that ye are all bound to know and to learn, if ye shall know God Almighty and come unto his bliss. And to give you the better will to learn them, our father the Archbishop grants of his grace forty days of pardon to all that learn them, or do their good diligence to learn them, and ratifies also what other men give; so much does he desire the health of your souls. For if ye knowingly know these same six things, through them shall ye come to know God Almighty, whom, as Saint John says in his Gospel, rightly to know, such as he is, is endless life and lasting bliss. To which bliss may he bring us that bought us. Amen.