A Supplication for the Beggars Part 2

-- whate remedy: make lawes ageynst theim. I am yn doubt whether ye be able: Are they not stronger in your owne parliament house then your silfe?

whate a nombre of Bisshopes, abbotes, and priours are lordes of your parliament? are not all the lerned men in your realme in fee with theim to speake yn your parliament house for theim ageinst your crowne, dignitie, and comon welth of your realme a fewe of youre owne lerned counsell onely excepted? whate lawe can be made ageinst theim that may be aduaylable? who is he (though he be greued never so sore) for the murdre of his auncestre rauisshement of his wyfe, of his doughter, robbery, trespas, maiheme, dette, or eny other offence dare ley it theyre charge by any wey of accion, and if he do then is he by and by by theyre wilynesse accused of heresie. ye[a] they will so handle him or he pa.s.se that except he will bere a f.a.got for theyre pleasure he shal be excommunicate and then be all his accions da.s.shed. So captyue are your lawes vnto theym that no man that they lyst to excommunicat may be admitted to sue any accion in any of your courtes. If eny man yn your sessions dare be so hardy to endyte a prest of eny suche cryme he hath or the yere [_ere he_] go out suche a yoke of heresye leyd in his necke that it maketh him wisshe that he had not done it. Your grace may se whate a worke there is in London, howe the bisshoppe rageth for endyting of certayn curates of extorcion and incontinency the last yere in the warmoll quest. Had not Richard hunne commenced accyon of premunire ageinst a prest he had bin yet a lyue and none heretik at all but an honest man.

-- Dyd not dyuers of your n.o.ble progenitours seynge theyre crowne and dignite runne ynto ruyne and to be thus craftely translated ynto the hondes of this myscheuous generacyon make dyuers statutes for the reformacyon therof, emong whiche the statute of mortmayne was one? to the intent that after that tyme they shulde haue no more gyuen vnto theim. But whate avayled it? haue they not gotten ynto theyre hondes more londes sins then eny duke in ynglond hath, the statute notwithstonding? Ye[a] haue they not for all that translated ynto theyre hondes from your grace half your kyngdome thoroughly? The hole name as reason is for the auncientie of your kingdome whiche was bifore theyrs and out of the whiche theyrs is growen onely abiding with your grace? and of one kyngdome made tweyne: the spirituall kyngdome (as they call it) for they wyll be named first, And your temporall kingdome, And whiche of these, ij. kingdomes suppose ye is like to ouergrowe the other, ye[a] to put the other clere out of memory?

Truely the kingdome of the bloudsuppers for to theym is giuen daily out of your kingdome. And that that is ones gyuen theim comith neuer from theim agein. Suche lawes haue they that none of theim may nether gyue nor sell nothing.

-- whate lawe can be made so stronge ageinst theim that they other with money or elles with other policy will not breake and set at nought? whate kingdome can endure that euer gyuith thus from him and receyueth nothing agein? O howe all the substaunce of your Realme forthwith your swerde, power, crowne, dignite, and obedience of your people, rynneth hedlong ynto the insaciabill whyrlepole of these gredi goulafres to be swalowed and devoured.

-- Nether haue they eny other coloure to gather these yerely exaccions ynto theyre hondes but that they sey they pray for vs to G.o.d to delyuer our soules out of the paynes of purgatori without whose prayer they sey or at lest without the popes pardon we coude neuer be deliuered thens whiche if it be true then is it good reason that we gyue theim all these thinges all were it C times as moche, But there be many men of greate litterature and iudgement that for the love they haue vnto the trouth and vnto the comen welth haue not feared to put theim silf ynto the greatest infamie that may be, in abiection of all the world, ye[a] in perill of deth to declare theyre oppinion in this mather whiche is that there is no purgatory but that it is a thing inuented by the couitousnesse of the spiritualtie onely to translate all kingdomes from other princes vnto theim and that there is not one word spoken of hit is al holy scripture. They sey also that if there were a purgatory And also if that the pope with his pardons for money may deliuer one soule thens: he may deliuer him aswel without money, if he may deliuer one, he may deliuer a thousand: yf he may deliuer a thousand he may deliuer theim all, and so destroy purgatory. And then is he a cruell tyraunt without all charite if he kepe theim there in pryson and in paine till men will giue him money.

-- Lyke wyse saie they of all the hole sort of the spiritueltie that if they will not pray for no man but for theim that gyue theim money they are tyrauntes and lakke charite, and suffer those soules to be punisshed and payned vncheritably for lacke of theyre prayers. These sort of folkes they call heretikes, these they burne, these they rage ageinst, put to open shame and make theim bere f.a.gottes. But whether they be heretikes or no, well I wote that this purgatory and the Popes pardons is all the cause of translacion of your kingdome so fast into their hondes wherfore it is manifest it can not be of christ, for he gaue more to the temporall kingdome, he hym silfe paid tribute to Cesar he toke nothing from hym but taught that the highe powers shulde be alweys obei[e]d ye[a] he him silf (although he were most fre lorde of all and innocent) was obedient vnto the highe powers vnto deth. This is the great scabbe why they will not let the newe testament go a brode yn your moder tong lest men shulde espie that they by theyre cloked ypochrisi do translate thus fast your kingdome into theyre hondes, that they are not obedient vnto your highe power, that they are cruell, vnclene, vnmerciful, and ypochrites, that thei seke not the honour of Christ but their owne, that remission of sinnes are not giuen by the popes pardon, but by Christ, for the sure feith and trust that we haue in him. Here may your grace well perceyue that except ye suffer theyre ypocrisie to be disclosed all is like to runne ynto theire hondes and as long as it is couered so long shall it seme to euery man to be a greate ympiete not to gyue theim. For this I am sure your grace thinketh (as the truth is) I am as good as my father, whye may I not aswell gyue theim as moche as my father did. And of this mynd I am sure are all the loordes knightes squir[e]s gentilmen and ye[o]men in englond ye[a] and vntill it be disclosed all your peoole [_people_] will thinke that your statute of mortmayne was neuer made with no good conscience seing that it taketh awey the liberte of your people in that they may not as laufully b[u]y theire soules out of purgatory by gyuing to the spiritualte as their predecessours did in tymes pa.s.sed.

-- wherfore if ye will eschewe the ruyne of your crowne and dignitie let their ypocrisye be vttered and that shalbe more spedfull in this mater then all the lawes that may be made be they never so stronge. For to make a lawe for to punisshe eny offender except it were more fit to giue other men an ensample to beware to committe suche like offence, whate shuld yt auayle. Did not doctour Alyn most presumptuously nowe yn your tyme ageynst all this allegiaunce all that ever he coude to pull from you the knowledge of suche plees as [be]long vnto your hyghe courtes vnto an other court in derogacion of your crowne and dignite? Did not also doctor Horsey and his complices most heynously as all the world knoweth murdre in pryson that honest marchaunt Richard hunne? For that he sued your writ of premunire against a prest that wrongfully held him in ple[a] in a spirituall court for a mater wherof the knowlege belonged vnto your hyghe courtes. And whate punisshement was there done that eny man may take example of to be ware of lyke offence? truely none but that the one payd fiue hundreth poundes (as it is said to the b[u]ildinge of your sterre chamber) and when that payment was ones pa.s.sed the capteyns of his kingdome (because he faught so manfully ageynst your crowne and dignitie) haue heped to him benefice vpon benefice so that he is rewarded tenne tymes as moche. The other as it is seid payde sixe hundreth poundes for him and his complices whiche forbicause that he had lyke wyse faught so manfully ageynst your crowne and dignite was ymmediatly (as he had opteyned your most gracyous pardon) promoted by the capiteynes of his kingdome with benefice vpon benefice to the value of. iiij. tymes as moche. who can take example of this punisshement to be ware of suche like offence? who is he of theyre kingdome that will not rather take courage to committe lyke offence seying the promocions that fill [_fell_] to this [_these_] men for theyre so offending. So weke and blunt is your swerde to strike at one of the offenders of this cro[o]ked and peruers generacyon.

-- And this is by the reason that the chief instrument of youre lawe ye[a]

the chief of your counsell and he whiche hath youre swerde in his hond to whome also all the other instrumentes are obedient is alweys a spirituell man whiche hath euer suche an inordinate loue vnto his owne kingdome that he will mainteyn that, though all the temporall kingdoms and comonwelth[s]

of the worlde shulde therfore vtterly be vndone, Here leue we out the gretest mater of all lest that we declaring suche an horrible carayn of euyll ageinst the ministres of iniquite shulde seme to declare the one onely faute or rather the ignoraunce of oure best beloued ministre of rightousnesse whiche is to be hid till he may be lerned by these small enormitees that we haue spoken of to knowe it pleynly him silf. But whate remedy to releue vs your poore sike lame and sore bedemen? To make many hospitals for the relief of the poore people? Nay truely. The moo the worse, for euer the fatte of the hole foundacion hangeth on the prestes berdes. Dyuers of your n.o.ble predecessours kinges of this realme haue gyuen londes to monasteries to giue a certein somme of money yerely to the poore people wherof for the aunciente of the tyme they giue neuer one peny, They haue lyke wyse giuen to them to haue a certeyn ma.s.ses said daily for theim wherof they sey neuer one. If the Abbot of westminster shulde sing euery day as many ma.s.ses for his founders as he is bounde to do by his foundacion. M, monkes were to[o] fewe. wherfore if your grace will bilde a sure hospitall that neuer shall faile to releue vs all your poore bedemen, so take from theim all these thynges. Set these st.u.r.dy lobies a brode in the world to get theim wiues of theire owne, to get theire liuing with their laboure in the swete of theire faces according to the commaundement of G.o.d. Gene. iij. to gyue other idell people by theire example occasion to go to laboure. Tye these holy idell theues to the cartes to be whipped naked about euery market towne til they will fall to laboure that they by theyre importunate begging take not awey the almesse that the good christen people wolde giue vnto vs sore impotent miserable people your bedemen. Then shall aswell the nombre of oure forsaid monstruous sort as of the baudes, h.o.r.es, theues, and idell people decreace. Then shall these great yerely exaccions cease. Then shall not youre swerde, power, crowne, dignite, and obedience of your people, be translated from you. Then shall you haue full obedience of your people.

Then shall the idell people be set to worke. Then shall matrimony be moche better kept. Then shal the generation of your people be encreased, Then shall your comons encrease in richnesse. Then shall the gospell be preached. Then shall none begge oure almesse from vs. Then shal we haue ynough and more then shall suffice vs, whiche shall be the best hospitall that euer was founded for vs, Then shall we daily pray to G.o.d for your most n.o.ble estate long to endure.

Domine saluum fac regem.

UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, CHILWORTH AND LONDON.