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THE THIRDE Booke.
¶Nowe ensueth the thirde sorte of Romaine bishops co∣ming from euill to worse: For as the former company in the seconde booke shewed, declining from pure Christianitie, and enclining to Antichriste, so now ap∣peareth in these, that the seede sowed by the forainer is growē vp, & Antichrist as it were appearing aboue the grounde: who grewe still forwarde frō grenenesse to ri∣penesse, as shall appeare by these that followe, and so from ripenesse to rottennesse, which is to be hoped for in that already he is wexed so mellowe, that if he be not plucked from the tree, if it please God to sende a smale blaste of winde, he will fall of him selfe. Note therfore diligently gentil Reader what fruite ensueth and springeth of the former grayne. Reade, conferre, and then iudge, whether these men shewe them selues to be the vicars of Christe, or deceitful and mischeuous Antechristes, for bye their fruites ye shall knowe them whether they are suche as they would be accompted.
Abadon or the Latin Antichriste.
IN the yeare of our Lorde sixe hundreth and foure, Phocas the tyrant, murthered his soueraigne lord Mauricius the Em∣peroure, with his wife, his brother, his children, and many nobles: From this yere adding to it two yeres to the begin∣ning of the Popedome, established by Phocas, are sixe hun∣dred sixty sixe yeares, from the cōsulship of M. T. Cicero,