and having learned in the highest school of the Holy Spirit, brings forth old and new things out of the treasures of the Lord,[237] writing these most useful and necessary books for everyone and all men of all estates.
And Peter writes about every one of the estates, revealing their corrupting evils. He begins with the highest estates:[238] the estates of the emperors, kings, dukes, lords, knights, burghers, and guilds, as well as those of the common people, not forgetting to rebuke even the peasants for their disorders. But he writes especially and above everything else against the so-called spiritual estates: the popes, the cardinals, the bishops, the archbishops, the abbots, and the orders of monks and mendicant friars, as well as the deacons and pastors, the chaplains, and all this debauched, ignoble, haughty, avaricious, lascivious, parsimonious, beery generation of clergy, stubbornly steeped in all mortal sins and heresies. He writes not, however, against honest, honorable, and faithful priests. But he courageously attacks and speaks against papal inventions, uncertain human prevarications, and all other insincerities, for all these above named people do not cease from continually tearing the apostolic net until almost nothing is left but rags and tatters and confused knots.
The first part of the book consists in disclosing the manner in which such a terrible confusion has come upon the Holy Church. It also shows that whoever would like to dig down to the real ground and true foundation, which is Jesus Christ, would have to remove and cart out to the edge of town a lot of debris consisting of prevarications wriggled into the Holy Church by men.
The second part of the book consists in revealing how the estates and castes[239] and all the multiform teachings and un-Christian religions have originated. All these estates and divisions are a great obstacle in the way to the knowledge of faith in Jesus the Lord, for they have put on the garb of the spirit of pride and haughtiness, resisting as much as they can our humble and poor Lord Jesus.
