nprofitable, never ceased
to practise disturbance till it was quite abolished. But to proceed with
my purpose.

Such as are idle beggars[167] through their own default are of two sorts,
and continue their estates either by casual or mere voluntary means: those
that are such by casual means are in the beginning justly to be referred
either to the first or second sort of poor aforementioned, but,
degenerating into the thriftless sort, they do what they can to continue
their misery, and, with such impediments as they have, to stray and wander
about, as creatures abhorring all labour and every honest exercise. Certes
I call these casual means, not in the respect of the original of all
poverty, but of the continuance of the same, from whence they will not be
delivered, such is their own ungracious lewdness and froward disposition.
The voluntary means proceed from outward causes, as by making of
corrosives, and applying the same to the more fleshy parts of their
bodies, and also laying of ratsbane, spearwort, crowfoot, and such like
unto their whole members, thereby to raise pitiful and odious sores, and
move the hearts of the goers-by such places where they lie, to yearn at
their misery, and thereupon bestow large alms upon them. How artificially
they beg, what forcible speech, and how they select and choose out words
of vehemence, whereby they do in manner conjure or adjure the goer-by to
pity their cases, I pass over to remember, as judging the name of God and
Christ to be more conversant in the mouths of none and yet the presence of
the Heavenly Majesty further off from no men than from this ungracious
company. Which maketh me to think that punishment is far meeter for them
than liberality or alms, and sith Christ willeth us chiefly to have a
regard to Himself and his poor members.

Unto this nest is another sort to be referred, more sturdy than the rest,
which, having sound and perfect limbs, do yet notwithstanding sometime
counterfeit the possession of all sorts of diseases. Divers times in their
apparel also they will be like serving men or labourers: oftentimes they
can play the mariners, and seek for ships which they never lost. But in
fine they are all thieves and caterpillars in the commonwealth, and by the
Word of God not permitted to eat, sith they do but lick the sweat from the
true labourers' brows, and bereave the godly poor of that which is due
unto them, to maintain their excess, consuming the charity of
we