Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/423

1528.] rich priest, glad to be quit of his evil tongue, gave kiru somewhat, and so he departed; for he understood nothing of religion.'

Tetzel carried on a trade in pardons. The Scotch bishops sold bills of excommunication—more innocent, if not more effective. A friar entering an alehouse on a Sunday, at Dunfermline, found a number of peasants drinking. He proposed to join them. 'Yea, father,' said one, 'ye shall drink, but ye mun first resolve a doubt which has risen among us—to wit, what servant will serve a man best on least expenses?' 'The good angel,' said the friar, 'who is man's keeper, who makes great service without expense.' 'Tush,' said the peasant, 'we mean no such high matters. 'What honest man will do greatest service for least expense?' While the friar was musing, the peasant said again, 'I see, father, the greatest clerks are not the wisest men. Know ye not how the bishops and their officials serve us husbandmen? Will they not give us a letter of cursing for a plack to last for a year to look over our dyke? And that keeps our corn better nor the sleeping boy that will have three shillings of fee, a sark, and a pair of shoon by the year.'

In these scenes, and the scenes which they suggested and from which they arose, lay the secret of Scotland's second life, and it was swiftly growing. Whatever the truth of God might be, it was not in the doctrines of these priests; nor could any human soul,