The English Moral Plays 363 
as an example of the antithesis between good and evil the struggle 
of King John against the Papacy, exalting the ill-starred king, for 
the enemies he made, into the champion of right, and typifying in 
the Pope all the political and religious corruption of his own time. 
In harmony with this historical setting, real characters take part in 
the action, and the allegorical personages represent less moral than 
political concepts. Sedition, Dissimulation, Usurped Power, and 
Treason, are the emissaries of the Satanic pope, who corrupt Clergy, 
set Nobility against his sovereign, and weaken Civil Order and 
Commonalty. Against the wrongs suffered at the hands of Clergy 
and Nobility, the widow England protests, and wins from the King 
a promise of assistance, which only the influence of Sedition and 
Dissimulation over his rebellious nobles renders him impotent to 
fulfill. He is forced to see his subjects led further into crime, and 
in the end, opposed by Stephen Langton and the Papal legates, 
he is excommunicated for his resistance of evil, forced to abdicate, 
and finally poisoned. 
As an exponent of Puritan dogma the play, of course, could not 
remain true to its historical setting; Bale simply set back the schism 
of his own day into those troublous times, where he could find 
suitable types, without modifying at all the character of the Pro- 
testant revolt. John brands the church a “hepe of adders of Ante- 
christs generacyon,” and exposes boldly the evils that it breeds: 
Than for Englondes cawse I wyll be sumewhat playne. 
Yt is yow, Clargy, that hathe her in dysdayne: 
With yowr Latyne howrs, serymonyes, and popetly playes, 
In her more and more Gods holy worde decayes; 
And them to maynteyn, unresonable ys the spoyle 
Of her londs, her goods, and of her pore chylders toyle. 
(413-18) 
All this Dissimulation corroborates : 
To wynne the peple, I appoynt yche man his place: 
Sum to syng Latyn, and sum to ducke at grace; 
Sum to go mummyng, and sum to beare the crosse; 
Sum to stowpe downeward as ther heades ware stopt with mosse; 
Sum rede the epystle and gospell at hygh masse ; 
Sum syng at the lectorne with long eares lyke an asse. 
Of owr suttell dryftes many more poyntes are behynde; 
Yf I tolde you all, we shuld never have an ende. 
(697—720) 
