re. 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.

Thus I speak, not that I would have it so; but "to your shame," if there
be never a gentleman meet nor able to be lord president. For why are not
the noblemen and young gentlemen of England so brought up in knowledge of
God, and in learning, that they may be able to execute offices in the
commonweal? The king hath a great many of wards, and I trow there is a
Court of Wards: why is there not a school for the wards, as well as there
is a Court for their lands? Why are they not set in schools where they
may learn? Or why are they not sent to the universities, that they may
be able to serve the king when they come to age? If the wards and young
gentlemen were well brought up in learning, and in the knowledge of God,
they would not when they come to age so much give themselves to other
vanities. And if the nobility be well trained in godly learning, the
people would follow the same train. For truly, such as the noblemen be,
such will the people be. And now, the only cause why noblemen be not
made lord presidents, is because they have not been brought up in