Page:A Supplication for the Beggars.djvu/37

S. Fish. 1529. 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 passed.

¶ wherfore if ye will eschewe the ruyne of yourcrowne 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 prysonthat 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