58 as a fruit of my obedience, I SPEAK FOR THE GLORY OF GOD. supplycacyon to the beste /, as a frute of my obedyence, wheryn I haue not dyssembled, but haue opened fully vnto your Grace the grounde and very bottome of my hart; / not of any grudge, euyll wyll, or and not of malice malyce that I beare to any spirytuall shepherde (God I to any spiritual shepherd. ¶ A Supplica tion of the Poore Commons. T Prouerbes .xxi. Chapiter. ¶ Who so stoppeth his eare at the criynge of the poore, he shall crye hym selfe, and shall not be heard. Prynce Henry the viii. by the Grace of God P of the Realme of En gland, wysh lyfe Ituously complaineth the pore commons of this The commons complain of their miserable especially of their condition, extreme poverty. some years ago your Maiesties realme, greatly lamentyng their owne miserable pouertie; and yet muche more the most lamentable and more then wretched estate of their chyldren and posterite. Whose myserie, forsene and throughly considered, is and ought of very nature, to be more dolorous and sorowful vnto euerye naturall hert then that which we our selues feale and sustayne. Not many yeres tofore, your Highnes poore subiectes, the lame, and impotente creatures of this realme, presented your Highnes with a piteful and presented a lamentable complaint, imputyng the head and chiefe cause of their penury and lacke of reliefe, vnto the great & infinite nombre of valiant and sturdy beggers which had, by their subtyll and crafty demaner in begging, gotten into their handes more then the third the poor, lame, and impotent petition against valiant beggars, and sturdy who had got into their hands more than a third of 62 the yearly revenues. Your Majesty weeded out the who, under the disguise of contempt of this world, wallowed in riches; and removed many gilded beggars, whose holiness was held in such esteem that we nunnes. THE MONASTERIES WERE part of the yearely reuenewse and possessions of this your Highnes realme. Wher vpon (as it semed) your Hyglines (sekynge a redresse and reformation of thys greate and intollerable enormitie, as a merciful father ouer this your natural country; moued wyth pitie towardes the miserable and pittiful nombre of blind, lame, lazar, & other the impotent creatures of this your realme) hath, wyth most ernest diligence, supplanted, and, as it were, weeded out, a greate numbre of valiaunt monks and nuns, and sturdye monckes, fryers, chanons, heremites, and Which disguised ypocrites, vnder the name of the contempt of this world, wallowed in the sea in the worldes wealth. And to the entent your louing & obedient subiectes might the better be able to releue the neadie & impotent creatures, you toke from them the greate numbre of gilted beggers, whose holines was so fast roted in the hertes of vs your pore commons, reverenced them through the false dilusions of the forsayd sturdy & valiant beggers, that we wold not stick to go an .C. myles on our bare fete to seke one of them, that we might not only bestow our almes vpon them, but also do them reuerence and honour none other wise then if they had bene very gods. Yea, when your Hyghnes had ordeyned that al these forsayd beggers shulde be vtterly abolished, neuer to deceyue vs of our almes anye more, we, like men alwaies brought vp in folish supersticion of these false Phariseis & flateryng hypocrites, knewe not the obedience that we owe to you, our natural and most rightful Prince, but in-continent fel in an vprore criyng, “Our holi dayes, abbayes & pylas the Ephesians grimages!" None o[t]her wise than the Ephesians dyd agaynst the elect vessell of God, Sancte Paule, whan he sayd, "They are not godes, which be made with handes," and as the Iewse did against holy Steuen, whan he sayd that "God dwelleth not in an house made with hands. made with mans hand." Yea, had not God wrought as gods. When they were abolished, like children, we fell into an uproar, and, forgetting our obedience to the king, we behaved did to S. Paul, and the Jews to Stephen, when he said God dwelt not in temples |