Tarltons newes out of purgatorie Onely such a iest as his iigge, fit for gentlemen to laugh at an houre, &c. Published by an old companion of his, Robin Goodfellow.

¶ Tarltons description of Purgatorie.

AFter thy breath hath left thy body, and thy soule is set frée from this vile prison of earth, where it hath been long inclosed, then dooth it wander forward into a fa•• broade way, where at the tourning of a crosse there are thrée passages, one on the right hand, and that is very narrow and leadeth vnto heauen: The second on the left hand, is broad and faire, ouer a greene vale, and that conducteth vnto hell: now betwixt these is there a lane neither to broade nor to narrow, and that is the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 way to Purgatory: wherin after you haue wandered a while, you come to a bridge, framed all of Néedle points and ouer that must you passe bare footed, as the first penance for your formost offences. Then sir to haue a little ease after that sharpe absolution, shall you come into a faire medow, and that is all ouergrowne with Aue maries and creedes, this is to put you in remembrance of our Ladies P••alter, which if you can say a hundreth & fifty times ouer before you passe the meadow, you escape pas∣sing ouer a whole field of hot burning ploughshares, that

day and night lie glowing hot for such purposes: after these and a many moe of other miseries, which I am by the law forbidden to vtter, you come to purgatorie gate, where for an entring penny, you haue fortie lashes with a whip as ill as euer were giuen in Bridewell: then are you admitted entrance. At the first you shall come into a very sumptuous hall, richelie hanged with tapistrie, so fine and so curious, that the most cutthroate Broaker in England would take the worst of the hangings for a suf∣ficient pawne: In this hall shall you see an infinite num∣ber of seates, formed and seated like an Amphitheater: wherein are roially, nay more then roially placed all the Popes, except the first thirty after Christ, and they went presentlie to heauen: and the reason was, because Pur∣gatorie was then but a building, and not fully finished. In those seates I say the popes sit triumphantlie with their pontificalibus, and their triple crownes, but yet a∣biding paines of purgatorie, aswell as the meanest in all the house, equally proportioned according to the measure of their sinnes: some for false wresting the scriptures, o∣thers for ambition, some for couetousnesse, gluttonie, extortion, symonie, wrath, pride, enuie, many for sloth, and idlenesse: and some I can tell you haue come thither for wenching matters, thats counted in Rome but a ve∣••iall sinne, and therfore thrée dirges and two tapers of∣fered to the picture of old Pasquille, is sufficient to wipe away so small an offence. But amongst all the rest two of them made me to maruell at the strangnesse of the pu∣nishment: The first was Boniface the fourth, and he sat in this order.

He was richly attired in his pontificalibus, and som∣what more rich then the rest, but vpon his head, in stead of his triple crowne, he wore a dustie millers cap: and whereas other Popes held in their right hand the keyes of heauen, and in the left the sworde of Paule, he held be∣twéene both his hands a durtie malkin, such as Bakers

sweepe their Ouens withall, and right ouer his head was written this old adage in Latin:

Ne sutor vltra crepidam.

And because thou shalt know the reason why we was thus punished, marke this merry tale.