Great(i)
1 This is a true sayinge: If a man desyer the offyce of a Bysshoppe, he desyreth an honest worke.
2 A Bisshoppe therfore must be blameles, the husbande of one wyfe, dilygent, sober, discrete, a keper of hospitalite: apte to teach:
3 not geuen to ouer moch wyne, no fyghter, not gredy of fylthye lucre. but gentle, abhorryng fyghtynge, abhorrynge coueteousnes,
4 one that ruleth well his awne house, one that hath chyldren in subieccyon with all reuerence.
5 For yf a man cannot rule his awne house, howe shall he care for the congregacyon of God?
6 He maye not be a yonge scoler, lest he swell and fall into the iudgement of the euyll speaker.
7 He must also haue a good reporte of them whych are without, lest he fall into rebuke, and snare of the euyll speaker.
8 Lyke wyse must the mynisters be honest, not double tonged, not geuen vnto moch wyne, nether gredy of fylthy lucre:
9 but holdynge the mystery of the fayth with a pure conscience.
10 And let them fyrst be proued, and then let them mynister so, that no man be able to reproue them.
11 Euen so must theyr wyues be honest, not euyll speakers: but sober and faythfull in all thynges.
12 Let the Deacons be the husbandes of one wyfe, and such as rule theyr chyldren well, and their awne housholdes.
13 For they that mynister well, get them selues a good degre and greate lybertye in the fayth, whych is in Christ Iesu.
14 These thynges write I vnto the trustinge to come shortely vnto the:
15 but and yf I tarie longe, that then thou mayst yet haue knowledge, howe thou oughtest to behaue thy selfe in the house of God, whych is the congregacyon of the lyuynge God, the pyllar & grounde of trueth.
16 And without doute great is that mystery of godlynes: God was shewed in the flesshe, was iustifyed in the sprete, was sene amonge the Angels, was preached vnto the gentyls, was beleued on in the worlde, and receaued vp in glory.