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John Bale (1495–1563) was a Carmelite friar who embraced the Protestant Reformation. Bale’s writings attacked the Roman Catholic Church in very crude terms, and this item was no exception.

There are only three surviving copies of this book in the world: one each in Marsh’s Library, the British Library, and the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

This book was first noted as missing in 1767. In October 1841, Professor J.H. Todd of Trinity College Dublin wrote to Marsh’s to say that he had bought this volume ‘some time ago at a bookseller’s in Dublin, & upon examining it afterwards I have reason to think from the Library marks that are but imperfectly erased, that it was once in Marsh’s Library. If this be so will you have the goodness to return it to its place.’

Citation:
7.  A Comedy concernynge thre lawes, of nature Moses, & Christ, corrupted by the Sodomytes, Pharysees and Papystes ([Wesel], 1538 [i.e. 1548?]).,
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed May 16, 2025,
https://web.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/409