66 66 "chief is come upon your said poor beadmen, by reason "that there is, in times of your noble predecessors passed, "craftily crept into this your realm, another sort, not of "impotent, but of strong and counterfeit holy and idle beggars and vagabonds, which since the time of their first entry, by all the craft and wiliness of Satan, are now "increased under your sight, not only into a great number, "but also into a kingdom. These are not the shepherds, but "numerous wolves going in sheep's clothing, devouring the "flock. Bishops, abbots, priors, deacons, and suffragans, "priests, monks, canons, friars, pardoners, and sumners. "And who is able to number these idle ravenous sort, which "setting all labour aside, have begged so importunately, "that they have gotten into their hands more than the third part of your realm! The goodliest lordships, manors, "lands, and territories are theirs; besides this, they have "the tenth part of all the corn, meadow, pasture, grass, "wood, colts, calves, lambs, pigs, geese, and chickens, over "and besides the tenth part of every servant's wages, the "tenth part of wool, milk, honey, wax, cheese, and butter; yea, and they look so narrowly upon their profits, that the poor wives must be accountable to them for every tenth egg, or else she getteth not her rights at Easter, and shall "be taken as an heretic. Hereto have they their four offering days. What money pull they not in by probates "of testaments, privy tithes, and by men's offerings to their pilgrimages, and at their first masses? Every man and "child that is buried must pay somewhat for masses and dirges to be sung for him, or else they will accuse their "friends and executors of heresy! What money get they 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 by mortuaries, by hearing of confessions, by hallowing of "churches, altars, superaltars, chapels, and bells, by cursing "of men, and absolving them again for money! What a "multitude of money gather the pardoners in a year? "How much money get the sumners by extortion in a year, "by citing the people to the commissary's court, and after"wards releasing them for money? Finally, the infinite "number of begging friars, what get they in a year? MR. SIMON FISH'S PAMPHLET FROM GRAY'S INN. 173 "Here, if it please your grace to mark, you shall see a thing "far out of joint. There are within your realm of England "52,000 parish churches, and this standing that there be "but ten households in every parish, yet are there 520,000 "households, and of every of these households, hath every "of the five orders of friars a penny a quarter for every "order; that is, for all the five orders, five pence a quarter "for every house, that is, for all the five orders, twenty "pence a year of every house, summa 520,000 quarters "of angels, that is, 260,000 half angels, summa 130,000 angels, summa totalis 43,333 pounds, six shillings, and eight pence sterling! Whereof not four hundred years "passed they had not one penny! 66 66 66 "O grievous and painful exaction, thus yearly to be paid, "for which the people of your noble predecessors, the Kings "of the Ancient Britons ever stood free. And this will they have, or else they will procure him that will not give "it to them, to be taken as an heretic. What tyrant ever "oppressed the people like this cruel and vengeable genera"tion? What subjects shall be able to help their prince, "that after this fashion be yearly polled?" (The King pricks up his ears.) "What good Christian people can be able to succour us poor lepers, blind, sore, and lame, that be thus yearly "oppressed. Is it any marvel that your people so complain "of poverty? What doth this greedy sort of sturdy, idle, holy thieves, with these yearly exactions that they take of "the people? Truly nothing but exempt themselves from "the obedience of your grace, nothing but translate all rule, power, lordship, obedience, and dignity from your grace "unto them." (I'll see about this, thinks the King.) 66 "Yea, and what do they more? Truly nothing but apply themselves by all the sleights they may, to have to "do with every man's wife, every man's daughter, and every "man's maid; that cuckoldry and bawdry should reign over "all amongst your subjects, so that no man might know his own child, that their bastards might inherit the possessions "of every man, to put the right begotten children clean 66 "besides their inheritance in subversion of all estates and "goodly order." (Scandalous, thinks the King.) "These be "they, that by abstaining from marriage do hinder the "generation of the people, whereby all the realm, at length "if it should be continued, shall be made a desert and unin"habited." (What! hinder the, what's his name? I must interfere here, says the King.) "What remedy? Make laws against them? If ye be "able, are they not stronger in your parliament house than "yourself? What a number of bishops, abbots, and friars "are lords of your parliament. So captive are your laws "unto them, that no man whom they list to excommunicate 66 may be admitted to any action in any of your courts. If any man in your sessions dare be so hardy to indict a priest, of any crime, he hath, ere the year be out, such a "yoke of heresy laid on his neck that it maketh him wish " he had done with it." 66 The memorial winds up with recommending His Majesty to make these idle begging priests work for their living. The King does interfere at last with a vengeance, but this reformation does not appear to have resulted in doing anything for the masses, nor yet the later resolution that expelled the Stuarts. Everything tends to add to the wealth and dignity of those already rich. In this year of our Lord 1859, no less than forty of the British aristocracy possess church patronage, and corresponding political influence, secured by its dispensation, to the amount of £170,000 sterling per annum! The following extract from the newspaper records of postdiluvian civilization conveys a tolerably accurate picture of Great Britain. The upper and middle classes alone appear Christianized, the lower orders are said to be a set of brutal savages. And whose fault is that? THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GREAT BRITAIN.-Of the glories of his country what loyal Briton can be insensible or unmindful? Our unrivalled empire; our secure and splendid monarchy; our magnificent aristocracy, peerless among the noblesse of Europe, not only on account of the refinement, accomplishment, and wealth for which it is pre CHARACTERISTICS OF GREAT BRITAIN." 175 eminent, but, most of all, because of the truly noble qualities which add lustre and envied distinction to many of its members; the freedom and the statesmanly discipline and spirit of our legislature; our wonderful free press, which wields a power so unparalleled, on the whole so wisely and so well; our unequalled commerce; our stupendous manufactures; our national self-government, self-reliance, and indomitable energy; the godly reverence and Christian principle which, to so considerable an extent, pervade our noble and upper classes; the Christian zeal of the British churches, and the manifold benevolence which, in a thousand forms of voluntary charity, distinguishes the nation; all these are characteristics which, in degree at least, if not in kind, are peculiar to Britain among European nations; and, taken collectively, they exhibit a summary of virtues and advantages of which a patriot spirit may perhaps be pardonably proud. Yet we are bound to say that our national pauperism, and the coarse and fierce animalism of our lower orders, are our opprobrium in the sight of Europe. We are the richest nation; and yet, at any rate within the limits of Northern and Western Europe, our common people are, beyond comparison, the most pauperized. There is amongst us more refinement, and more true and energetic Christianity, than in any European land; and yet, our operatives of the lower sort are indisputably more drunken, more coarsely vicious, more brutal in their manners, than are the lower orders of any other nation. How startling are these contrasts and anomalies!-The London Review, 1858. 176 CHAPTER VIII. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL. ALL sacerdotalists persist in immortalizing or deifying evil as an absolute power; and from the existence of this spectre of theological evil, so conjured up by the human mind itself, they attempt to establish the necessity for a future life, on the ground, that otherwise justice to man would be very onesided, since good is not properly rewarded, nor sin adequately punished, in the ephemeral life of three score years and ten. Theologians therefore stipulate for immortality beyond the grave, where a system of compensation is ready scheduled for legal adjustment of out-standing claims, where vindictive retribution and savage chastisement awaits the wrong-doers who contrive to escape vengeance before they die. This hypothesized power of evil leavens all theologies, not excepting even that broad phase of rationalism that unitarianism once assumed; for instance here is Dr. Channing: this distinguished essayist has written an essay upon "Immortality," taking for his text 2 Tim. i, 10. 66 He says "I allow that human nature abounds in crime, but this "does not destroy my conviction of its greatness and immortality. I say that I see in crime itself the proofs of "human greatness, and of an immortal nature. Consider "what is implied in crime, and in what it originates. It has its origin in the noblest principles that can belong to any being. "I mean in moral (theological?) freedom. There can be no |