ADVICE ABOUT THE CHARTERHOUSE. 375 



habitation, for an hospital, is all one as if one should 

 give in alms a rich embroidered cloak to a beggar. 

 And certainly a man may see, &quot; tanquam quae oculis 

 &quot; cernuntur,&quot; that if such an edifice, with six thou 

 sand pounds revenue, be erected into one hospital, it 

 will in small time degenerate to be made a prefer 

 ment of some great person to be master, and he to 

 take all the sweet, and the poor to be stinted, and 

 take but the crumbs; as it comes to pass in divers 

 hospitals of this realm, which have but the names of 

 hospitals, and are only wealthy benefices in respect 

 of the mastership ; but the poor, which is the 

 &quot; propter quid,&quot; little relieved. And the like hath 

 been the fortune of much of the alms of the Roman 

 religion in their great foundations, which being 

 begun in vain-glory and ostentation, have had their 

 judgment upon them, to end in corruption and 

 abuse. This meditation hath made me presume to 

 write these few lines to your majesty ; being no 

 better than good wishes, which your majesty s great 

 wisdom may make something or nothing of. 



Wherein I desire to be thus understood, that if 

 this foundation, such as it is, be perfect and good in 

 law, then I am too well acquainted with your 

 majesty s disposition, to advise any course of power 

 or profit that is not grounded upon a right : nay 

 farther, if the defects be such as a court of equity 

 may remedy and cure, then I wish that as St. Peter s 

 shadow did cure diseases, so the very shadow of a 

 good intention may cure defects of that nature. But 

 if there be a right, and birth-right planted in the 



