DREI VOLKSWIRTHSCHAFTL. DENKSCHRIFTEN A.D. ZEIT HEINRICHS VIII. 23 



lyvyng as in wildernes wanderyng by beggyng and stelyng or otherwise 

 to gete ther mete, wher they can. And the curats of all such villages 

 and townes not consederyng the worde of God, how all peple shulde werke 

 to receyve ther levyngs of Godds gift in right order, as Adam was first 

 putt into paradise , that he shuld werke. And Poule saith : who will 

 not werke, that he ete not^). And he saith : every man shuld werke in 

 pece to ete bis own mete^), that no man shuld ete awey his neighbours 

 mete, but werk to deserve his own mete, before he ete it^), and that no 

 man for his mete shuld distroy the werks of Godd*). Alle theis texts 

 of Goddes wordes the curats never oons serchid nor remembrid nor never 

 ledd ther peple to such eure , but for their tyme wer contentid to take 

 of the lorde of the soile as moch yerly, as he was able to reise clerly 

 over all charges of his offis mynestrid in his eure to putt that in his 

 persone and bere a hawk on his fist and a spaynyall teyd to his taile 

 or a little biche to hunt the walP), and lett alle his shepe rönne astray 

 and seke ther lyvyng, wher they lustid, to ete up every maus corne, what 

 so ever myschief shuld chaunce theym carid not, Now see, what myschief 

 all such pasturers of shepe wrought to encrease more staple wolle than 

 God ordenyd, what dewlish'') wisdome rotid in theym, they wrought 

 ageynst Goddes ordinaunce in that his worde saithe : anima plus quam 

 corpus et corpus plus quam vestimentum^). For the lesse profite they dis- 

 troyd the more for singler lucre , by encresyng wolle for clothyng they 

 distroyd bodily levyng , and by distroyng the lyvyng of the body causid 

 the peple of necessite to sete theyr lyvyng to the distruccion of ther solles, 

 and what other examples are to see , how they have wrought to distroy 

 the ordinaunce of Godde and his werkes , for oon thyng hath distroyed 

 another. 



1) Thessal. H, 3. 10. 2) Ibid. v. 12. 3) Ibid. v. 8. 



4) Rom. 14. 20 Noll propter escam destruere opus Dei. 



5) Schon 1390 untersagte ein Parlamentsstatut den Priestern und Klerikern 

 unter 10 Pfund Jahreseinkommen einen Hund zu halten, „leverer, n'autre chien". 

 13 Ric. II. c. 13, Stubbs, Constitutional History of England HI, 538. 



6) devilish. 7) Matth. 6, 25. 



