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THE DEVIL A DILIGENT PREACHER.

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is an honest portion to be had gratis in one lordship of another man's sweat and labour), now is let for fifty or an hundred pound by year. Of this "too much" cometh this monstrous and portentous dearth made by man, notwithstanding God doth send us plentifully the fruits of the earth, mercifully, contrary unto our deserts: notwithstanding "too much," which these rich men have, causeth such dearth that poor men, which live of their labour, cannot with the sweat of their face have a living, all kinds of victuals is so dear; pigs, geese, capons, chickens, eggs, &c., these things with other are so unreasonably enhanced; and I think verily that if it thus continue, we shall at length be constrained to pay for a pig a pound.

My father was a yeoman, and had no lands of his own, only he had a farm of three or four pound by the year at the uttermost, and hereupon he tilled so much as kept half-a-dozen men. He had walk for a hundred sheep; and my mother milked thirty kine. He was able, and did find the king a harness, with himself and his horse, while he came to the place that he should receive the king's wages. I can remember that I buckled his harness when he went to Blackheath field. He kept me to school, or else I had not been able to have preached before the king's majesty now. He married my sisters with five pound, or twenty nobles, apiece; so that he brought them up in godliness and fear of God. He kept hospitality for his poor neighbours, and some alms he gave to the poor. And all this he did of the said farm, where he that now hath it payeth sixteen pound by year, or more, and is not able to do anything for his prince, for himself, nor for his children, or give a cup of drink to the poor.

3. THE DEVIL A DILIGENT PREACHER.

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(FROM THE SERMON OF THE PLOUGH, PREACHED IN THE SHROUDS, AT PAUL'S CHURCH, LONDON, JANUARY 18, 1548.)

I would ask a strange question: Who is the most diligentest bishop and prelate in all England, that passeth all the rest in doing his office? I can tell, for I know him, who it is; I know him well. But now I think I see you listening and hearkening that I should name him. There is one that passeth all the other, and is the most diligent prelate and preacher in all England. And will you know who it is? I will tell you; it is the devil. He is the most diligent preacher of all other; he is never out of his diocess; he is never from his cure; ye shall never find him unoccupied; he is ever in his parish; he keepeth residence at all times; ye shall never find him out of the way; call for him when you will, he is ever at home; the diligentest preacher in all the realm; he is ever at his

1 Where the Cornish rebels were defeated in 1497.

2 The sermons usually preached at St. Paul's Cross were, in bad weather, preached in a place called the Shrouds, which was, according to Stow, "at the side of the cathedral church, where was covering and shelter"

plough; no lording1 or loitering can hinder him; he is ever applying his business; ye shall never find him idle, I warrant you. And his office is to hinder religion, to maintain superstition, to set up idolatry, to teach all kind of popery. He is ready as he can be wished for to set forth his plough; to devise as many ways as can be to deface and obscure God's glory. Where the devil is resident, and hath his plough going, there away with books, and up with candles; away with bibles, and up with beads; away with the light of the gospel, and up with the light of candles, yea, at noon-days. Where the devil is resident, that he may prevail, up with all superstition and idolatry; censing, painting of images, candles, palms, ashes, holy water, and new service of men's inventing; as though man could invent a better way to honour God with than God himself hath appointed. Down with Christ's cross, up with purgatory pick-purse, up with him, the popish purgatory, I mean. Away with clothing the naked, the poor, and impotent; up with decking of images, and gay garnishings of stocks and stones: up with man's traditions and his laws, down with God's traditions and His most Holy Word. Down with the old honour due to God, and up with the new god's honour. Let all things be done in Latin: there must be nothing but Latin, not so much as Remember, man, that thou art ashes, and into ashes thou shalt return:" which be the words that the minister speaketh unto the ignorant people, when he giveth them ashes upon Ash-Wednesday; but it must be spoken in Latin: God's Word may in no wise be translated into English.

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Oh that our prelates would be as diligent to sow the corn of good doctrine, as Satan is to sow cockle and darnel! But here some man will say to me, What, sir, are ye so privy of the devil's counsel that ye know all this to be true? Truly I know him too well, and have obeyed him a little too much in condescending to some follies; and I know him as other men do, yea, that he is ever occupied, and ever busy in following his plough. I know by St Peter, which saith of him, "He goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." There never was such a preacher in England as he is. Who is able to tell his diligent preaching, which every day and every hour laboureth to sow cockle and darnel?

VI. ROGER ASCHAM,

AMONG the most strenuous promoters of the revival of classical learning in England was Roger Ascham. His high reputation as a scholar recommended him to the attention of Henry VIII., who signified his approbation of Ascham by appointing him preceptor of his daughter Elizabeth; and we perhaps owe in some measure to the wise instructions of her able tutor the singularly firm and manly character

1 i. e., acting as a lord, in an indolent, dignified way.

2 In the sense of plying or accomplishing.

OCCUPATIONS SHOULD BE SUITED TO MEN'S FACULTIES.

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of that accomplished princess. His works are distinguished by an almost total absence of pedantry, and by the good sense of his educational views, which are, indeed, so remarkable, that Dr Johnson commended them as containing the best advice that could be given on the subject. Still more recently, one of the most distinguished classical scholars of our day in England has reprinted great part of one of Ascham's educational tracts on the best method of learning Latin, and advocates a return to his system as better than any now practised. Ascham died in 1568, much regretted by his royal pupil. His educational views are contained in his "Schoolmaster." His "Toxophilus" is a dialogue in commendation of archery, and he has also written an account of affairs in Germany, a country which he visited as ambassador during the reign of Edward VI.

1. OCCUPATIONS SHOULD BE SUITED TO MEN'S FACULTIES.

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(FROM THE TOXOPHILUS.")

If men would go about matters which they should do and be fit for, and not such things which wilfully they desire, and yet be unfit for, verily greater matters in the commonwealth than shooting should be in better case than they be. This ignorance in men, which know not for what time and to what thing they be fit, causeth some wish to be rich, for whom it were better a great deal to be poor; other to be meddling in every man's matter, for whom it were more honesty to be quiet and still; some to desire to be in the Court, which be born and be fitter rather for the cart; some to be masters and rule other, which never yet began to rule themselves; some always to jangle and talk, which rather should hear and keep silence; some to teach, which rather should learn; some to be priests, which were fitter to be clerks. And this perverse judgment of the world, when men measure themselves amiss, bringeth much disorder and great unseemliness to the whole body of the commonwealth, as if a man should wear his hose on his head, or a woman go with a sword and a buckler, every man would take it as a great uncomeliness, although it be but a trifle in respect of the other.

This perverse judgment of men hindereth nothing so much as learning, because commonly those that be unfitted for learning be chiefly set to learning. As if a man now-a-days have two sons, the one impotent, weak, sickly, lisping, stuttering, and stammering, or having any mis-shape in his body, what doth the father of such one commonly say? This boy is fit for nothing else but to set to learning and make a priest of, as who would say, the outcasts of the world, having neither countenance, tongue, nor wit (for of a perverse body cometh commonly a perverse mind), be good enough to make those men of which shall be appointed to preach God's Holy Word, and minister His blessed sacraments, besides other most weighty matters in the commonwealth, put oft times and worthily to learned 1 That is, to be treated as criminals, who in capital cases were taken to the place of execution in a cart, and for minor offences were whipped through the town at the cart's tail.

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men's discretion and charge; when rather such an office so high in dignity, so goodly in administration, should be committed to no man which should not have a countenance full of comeliness to allure good men, a body full of manly authority to fear1 ill men, a wit2 apt for all learning, with tongue and voice able to persuade all men. And although few such men as these can be found in a commonwealth, yet surely a goodly-disposed man will both in his mind think fit, and with all his study labour to get such men as I speak of, or rather better, if better can be gotten, for such an high administration, which is most properly appointed to God's own matters and business. This perverse judgment of fathers, as concerning the fitness and unfitness of their children, causeth the commonwealth have many unfit ministers; and seeing that ministers be, as a man would say, instruments wherewith the commonwealth doth work all her matters withal, I marvel how it chanceth that a poor shoemaker hath so much wit, that he will prepare no instrument for his science, neither knife nor awl, nor nothing else, which is not very fit for him. The commonwealth can be content to take at a fond father's hand the riff-raff of the world, to make those instruments of wherewithal she would work the highest matters under heaven. And surely an awl of lead is not so unprofitable in a shoemaker's shop, as an unfit minister made of gross metal is unseemly in the commonwealth. Fathers in old time, among the noble Persians, might not do with their children as they thought good, but as the judgment of the commonwealth thought best. This fault of fathers bringeth many a blot with it, to the great deformity of the commonwealth. And here surely I can praise gentlewomen, which have always at hand their glasses, to see if anything be amiss, and so will amend it; yet the commonwealth, having the glass of knowledge in every man's hand, doth see such uncomeliness in it, and yet winketh at it. This fault, and many such like, might be soon wiped away, if fathers would bestow their children always on that thing whereunto nature hath ordained them most apt and fit. For if youth be grafted straight and not awry, the whole commonwealth will flourish thereafter. When this is done, then must every man begin to be more ready to amend himself than to check another, measuring their matters with that wise proverb of Apollo, Know thyself: that is to say, learn to know what thou art able, fit, and apt unto, and follow that.

2. ANECDOTE OF LADY JANE GREY.-(FROM "THE SCHOOLMASTER.")

One example, whether love or fear doth work more in a child for virtue and learning, I will gladly report, which may be heard with some pleasure, and followed with more profit. Before I went into Germany, I came to Broadgate, in Leicestershire, to take my leave of that noble lady Jane Grey, to whom I was exceeding much be1.e., to frighten. 2 ie, natural capacity.

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holden. Her parents, the Duke and the Duchess, with all the household, gentlemen and gentlewomen, were hunting in the park. I found her in her chamber reading Plato's "Phædo” in Greek, and that with as much delight as some gentlemen would read a merry tale in Bocace. After salutation and duty done, with some other talk, I asked her why she would lose such pastime in the park. Smiling, she answered me, "I wiss, all their sport in the park is but a shadow to that pleasure that I find in Plato. Alas! good folk, they never felt what true pleasure meant." "And how came you, madam," quoth I, "to this deep knowledge of pleasure? And what did chiefly allure you unto it, seeing not many women, but very few men, have obtained thereunto?" "I will tell you," quoth she, "and tell you a truth which, perchance, you will marvel at. One of the greatest benefits that ever God gave me is, that he sent me so sharp and severe parents and so gentle a schoolmaster. For when I am in presence either of father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go, eat, drink, be merry, or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it, as it were in such weight, measure, and number, even so perfectly as God made the world; or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea, sometimes with pinches, nips, and bobs, and other ways, which I will not name for the honour I bear them, so without measure misordered, that I think myself in hell, till time come that I must go to Mr Elmer, who teacheth me so gently, so pleasantly, with such fair allurements to learning, that I think all the time nothing whiles I am with him. And when I am called from him, I fall on weeping, because whatever I do else but learning is full of grief, trouble, fear, and whole misliking unto me. And thus my book hath been so much my pleasure, and bringeth daily to me more pleasure and more, that in respect of it, all other pleasures in very deed be but trifles and troubles unto me."

VII. JOHN KNOX.

JOHN KNOX, the Scottish Reformer, was born in 1505, in the village of Gifford in East Lothian, or, according to other authorities, in a suburb of the town of Haddington called Gifford-gate. His parents were respectable peasant-farmers, able to give their son a regular scholastic education, first at the Grammar School of Haddington, and afterwards at the University of Glasgow, which he entered in 1521. At the close of his university education he turned his thoughts to the church, and was regularly admitted into priestly orders. Of his career as a Roman Catholic priest little is known; but as the doctrines of the Reformers were gradually disseminated more and more widely over Scotland, his religious opinions changed, and in 1542 he professed himself a Protestant, and became the disciple and companion of 2 ie., Boccaccio.

1 Viz., of Suffolk.

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