And they say that the evilness of money hath made
all things dearer. And in this behalf I must speak to England. "Hear,
my country, England," as Paul said in his first epistle to the
Corinthians, the sixth chapter; for Paul was no sitting bishop, but a
walking and a preaching bishop. But when he went from them, he left
there behind him the plough going still; for he wrote unto them, and
rebuked them for going to law, and pleading their causes before heathen
judges: "Is there," said he, "utterly among you no wise man, to be an
arbitrator in matters of judgment? What, not one of all that can judge
between brother and brother; but one brother goeth to law with another,
and that under heathen judges? _Constituite contemptos qui sunt in
ecclesia_, &c. Appoint them judges that are most abject and vile in the
congregation." Which he speaketh in rebuking them; "For," saith he, _ad
erubescentiam vestram dico_--"I speak it to your shame." So, England, I
speak it to thy shame: is there never a nobleman to be a lord president,
but it must be a prelate? Is there never a wise man in the realm to be a
comptroller of the mint? I speak it to your shame. I speak it to your
shame. If there be never a wise man, make a water-bearer, a tinker, a
cobbler, a slave, a page, comptroller of the mint: make a mean gentleman,
a groom, a yeoman, or a poor beggar, lord president.
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