Chapter I: Introduction: vii-xviii

_A Supplicacyon for the Beggers_ 1

1. _The yearly exactions from the people taken by this greedy
sort of sturdy idle holy thieves_ 3

They have a Tenth part of all produce, wages and profits 4

What money pull they in by probates of testaments, privy
tithes, men's offerings to their pilgrimages and at their
first masses; by masses and _diriges_, by mortuaries, hearing
of confessions (yet keeping thereof no secrecy), hallowing of
churches, by cursing of men and absolving them for money; by
extortion &c.; and by the quarterage from every household to
each of the Five Orders of begging Friars, which equals
L43,333 6s. 8d. [= _over L500,000 in present value_] a year 4

400 years ago, of all this they had not a penny 4

These locusts own also one Third of the land 5

Or in all more than half of the substance of the realm 5

Yet they are not in number, one to every hundred men, or one
in every four hundred men women and children 5

Neither could the Danes or Saxons haue conquered this land, if
they had left such a sort [_company_] of idle gluttons behind
them; nor noble King ARTHUR have resisted the Emperor LUCIUS,
if such yearly exactions had been taken of his people; nor the
Greeks so long continued the siege of Troy, if they had had to
find for such an idle sort of cormorants at home; nor the
Romans conquered the world, if their people had been thus
yearly oppressed; nor the Turk haue now so gained on
Christendom, if he had in his empire such locusts to devour
his substance 5

2. _What do they with these exactions?_ 6

Nothing but to translate all rule, power &c. from your Grace
to themselves, and to incite to disobedience and rebellion 6

3. _Yea, and what do they more?_ 7

Truly nothing but to have to do with every man's wife, every
man's daughter &c. 7

4. _Yea, who is able to number the great and broad bottomless
ocean sea full of evils, that this mischievous and sinful
generation is able to bring upon us? unpunished!_ 7

5. _What remedy? Make laws against them?_ I am in doubt whether
ye are able. Are they not stronger in your own parliament
house than yourself 8

So captive are your laws unto them, that no man that they
list to excommunicate may be admitted to sue any action in
any of your Courts 9

Neither have they any coulour [_pretence_] to gather these
yearly exactions but they say they pray to GOD to deliver
our souls from purgatory. If that were true we should give
a hundred times as much. But many men of great literature
say there is no purgatory: and that if there were and that
the Pope may deliver one soul for money, he may deliver him
as well without money; if one, a thousand; if a thousand,
all; and so destroy purgatory. 10

6. _But what remedy? To make many hospitals for the relief of
the poor people?_ Nay, truly! The more the worse. For ever
the fat of the whole foundation hangeth on the priests'
beards 12

7. Set these sturdy loobies abroad in the world to get
themselves wives, to get their living with their labour
in the sweat of their faces, according to the commandment
of GOD 13

_BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SIMON FISH'S WORKS._

A Supplication for the Beggers.

ISSUES IN HIS LIFETIME.

A. _As a separate publication._

1. [1529. Printed abroad.] 8vo. See title at _p._ 1. Wholly printed in a clear italic type.

2. 1529. [Printed abroad.] 4to. Klagbrieff oder supplication der armen duerfftigen in Engenlandt | an den Konig daselb gestellet | widder die reychen geystlichen bettler. [A Letter of Complaint or Supplication of the necessitous poor in England shewn to the King thereof against the rich spiritual beggars] M.D.XXIX. [with a preface by SEBASTIAN FRANCK.] Black letter.

3. 1530. [Printed abroad.] 8vo. Supplicatorius Libellus pauperum, et egentium nomine, Henricho VIII. Serenissimo Angliae regi etc. oblatus, contra quotidianas religiosorum ibidem iniurias et impiam auariciam. Ex Anglico in latinum versus. M.D.XXX.

In the same type and style as No. 1. and with an engraved framework on the title page that may eventually lead to a knowledge of the foreign printer of both the editions.

B. _With other Works._

None known.

ISSUES SINCE HIS DEATH.

A. _As a separate publication._

4. 1546. [London] Fol. A supplication of the poore Commons. Prov. 21 Chap. ** Whereunto is added the Supplication of Beggers, [In the same style and type as No. 3. below, and therefore printed by WILLIAM HYLL.] In the heading the "Supplicacyon of Beggers" is assigned to 1524, which is wrong by five years.

5. 1845. London. 8vo. A Supplicacyon for the Beggers. [100 copies only printed.]

6. 1860. Fol. See Woods _Ath. Oxon._ i. 59. Ed. 1813.

7. 15. Aug. 1878 Southgate, London, N. 8vo. The present impression.

B. _With other Works._

8a 1563. London. Fol. This tract is reprinted, with notes by JOHN FOX in his _Actes and Monumentes etc._

8b. 1570. London. Fol.}

8c. 1576. London. Fol.} And so in all later editions of the _Book of
Martyrs._

8d. 1583. London. Fol.}

9. 1871. London. 8vo. _Early English Text Society. Extra Series. No. 13_, 1871. "Four Supplications. 1529-1553 A.D." The first of these is "A Supplicacyon for the Beggers written about the year 1529, by SIMON FISH. Now re-edited by FREDERICK J. FURNIVALL."

The Summe of the Scripture.

ISSUES IN HIS LIFETIME.

A. _As a separate publication._

1. [Winter of 1529-1530. Printed abroad.] 8vo. The only copy at present known is in the British Museum. C. 37. 2/2. The title page is torn off, apparently for the safety of the first possessors.

B. _With other Works._

None known.

ISSUES SINCE HIS DEATH.

A. _As a separate publication._

2. 1547. London, W. HERBERT, _Typ. Amt._ i. 616, _Ed._ 1785, quotes an edition by JOHN DAY.

3. 11. Dec. 1548. [London.] 8vo. The summe of the holy Scripture, and ordinarye of the Chrystian teachyng, the true christian fayth, by the whiche we be all iustified. And of the vertu of Baptisme, after the teachynge of the Gospell and of the Apostles, With an information howe all estattes should lyue according to the Gospell very necessary for all Christian people to knowe. ** Anno. M.d.xlviii.

[COLOPHON]: Imprynted at London, at the signe of the Hyll, at the west dore of Paules. By Wyllyam Hill. And there to be sold. Anno 1548. The 11 of Decembre. _Cum Gratia et Privilegio ad Imprimendum solum._ The press mark of the British Museum copy is 4401. b. 2.

B. _With Other Works._

None known.