DREI VOLKS WIRTHSCHAFTL. DENKSCHRIFTEN A.D. ZEIT HEINRICHS VIII. 53 



maynteners of stryffe and debate betwen members of the mysticall body 

 of this realme, and also merchauntes byers and sellers of the comodities 

 of this realme, which of plentye do make scarcitie and cawse members 

 to be in nede and in necessitie, also whether it may be thought or ima- 

 gined , that one member of a body can be more holyer than an other, 

 ye or nay I thynke not. Then owght there not one freare monke chanon 

 nor other clokyde ipocrit to be sufferde within the mysticall bodye of a 

 realme, for trueth it is, there is no trew member in a mystycall bodye 

 but hathe an office to laboure , which utturley they refuse to do , but 

 say: they owght only to pray, so that they take to them the office of 

 the mowth in the mysticall body, which office had an^) end, when owre 

 Savioure Christ came, for he saide: owre prayer must be in spirite and 

 truth^), which is in hart and mynde and not in the mowthes of men, as 

 was in the tyme of the olde law. For althoughe there is in a mysticall 

 body of a kyng thes degres : man, kyng and prest, yit is there no sectes 

 of such fayned holynes but such , which ar rebukyd in Mathew the 

 XXIII which are worthy to be cast owte of a mystycall bodye. And 

 that all true members of a mystycall bodye shulde worke and laboure 

 in degre and order , that they are called to , and none to be sufferde to 

 do any thyng, but only that, which myght be to the welthe of the whole 

 body and members of the same in order as here after shall folow. To 

 understande even , as God hath ordeynyd in the hedd of every man the 

 cownselers that is to saye : the iyes, the nose, mouth and eares to be 

 associate with the kyng, which is reason, and that they altogether shulde 

 Studie only for the profite of theire whole bodie, owte of which bodie 

 theire welth doth spryng , so owght the kynges maiestie with his most 

 honerable cownsell to studio the welth of the comens , theire bodie and 

 members, and that the armes of his mystycall body be strechyd fourth 

 in to all this realme, as is shewide in the office of the mynesters, to se 

 that the handes and fyngers of this mysticall body do worke those workes 



1) and, Handschrift. 



3) Evang Matth. 23, 13-17. 



2) Evang. Joh. 4, 24. 



