re iesteth. Neuer the lesse this I wold were persuaded vn to you
(as it is true) that the bildynge of them & soch like /
thorow the false faith that we haue in them / is the decaye of
all the hauens in Englande & of all the cities / townes /
hie wayes & shortly of the hole comen wealth. For sens these false monstres crope vpp in to oure consciences & robbed vs of
the knowlege of oure sauioure Christe / makynge vs beleue in
soch pope holy
workes & to thynke that ther was no nother waye
vn to heuen /
we haue not ceased to bylde them abbayes /
cloysters / coleges / chauntrees and cathedrall churches with
hie steples / striuinge & enuienge one a nother / who shuld
do most. And as for the dedes / that
pertayne vn to oure neyboures and vn to the comen wealth / we haue not regarded at all / as thinges which semed no holy workes
or soch as god wold once loke vppon. And therfore
we left them vnseneto / vntyl they were past remedie or past our
power to remedie them / in as moch as our slowbelies with their
false blessynges had iugled a waye from vs / that wherwith they
might haue bene
holpen in dew season. So that that syly pore man /
though he had haply no wisdome to expresse his mynde / or that
he durst not / or that master More fascioneth his tale as he
doeth other mennes to iest
out the trouth / sawe that nether goodwin sandes
ner any other cause
alleged was the decaye of sandwich hauen / so moch
as that the people had no lust to maynetene the comen wealthe /
for blynde deuocion which they haue to popeholy workes.
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