"Now ... I daresay," he writes, "that you are a very good Protestant;
and I am a monstrous good Protestant too. We cannot bear the Pope, nor
"they there priests that makes men confess there sins and go down upon
their marrow-bones before them." But let us give the devil his due; and
let us not act worse by these Roman Catholics (who by the by were our
forefathers) than we are willing to act by the devil himself. Now then
here were a set of monks. None of them could marry, of course none of
them could have wives and families. They could possess no private
property; they could bequeath nothing; they could own nothing but that
which they owned in common with the rest of their body. They could
hoard no money; they could save nothing. Whatever they received as rent
for their lands, they must necessarily spend upon the spot, for they
never could quit that spot. They did spend it all upon the spot; they
kept all the poor. Beaulieu and all round about Beaulieu saw no misery,
and had never heard the damned name of pauper pronounced as long as
those Monks continued.
"You and I are excellent Protestants; you and I have often assisted on
the 5th of November to burn Guy Fawkes, the Pope and the Devil.
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