Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

ButZ^O XXI. HUGH LATIMER.labour ? how then hath it happened //mt we haue had somanye hu;zdred yeares so many vnpreachinge prelates, lord-95 ing loyterers, and idle ministers ? Ye woulde haue me hereto make answere and to showe the cause thereof Nay,thys land is not for me to ploughe, it is to stonye, to thorni,to harde for me to plough. They haue so many thynges//lat make for them, so many things to laye for them-selues,loo that it is not for my weake teame to plough them. Theyhaue to lay for them-selues longe customes, Cerimonyes,and authoritie, placyng in parliamente, & many thyngesmore. And I feare me thys lande is not yet rype to beploughed. For as the saying is, it lacketh wethering, this105 geare^ lacketh wetheringe ; at leaste way it is not for me toploughe. For what shall I loke for amonge thornes butprickyng and scrachinge ? what among stones but stumblyng? What (I had almost sayed) among serpewttes butstingyng.'*thys muche I dare say, that sence lording1 10 and loytrying hath come vp, preaching hath come downe,contrarie to the Apostells times. For they preached andlorded not. And nowe they lorde & preache not.For they that be lordes wyll yll go to plough. It is nomete office for them. It is not semyng for their state. Thus115 came vp lordyng loytere[r]s. Thus crept in vnprechinge prelates,and so haue they longe continued.For howe many vnlearned prelates haue we now at thisday ? And no meruel. For if //le plough-men f/iat now bewere made lordes, they woulde cleane gyue ouer ploughinge,120 they woulde leaue of theyr labour & fall to lordyng outright,& let the plough stand. And then bothe ploughes notwalkyng, nothyng shoulde be in the co??imon weale buthonger. For euer sence the Prelates were made Loordes* Old text ' greare.'