XIV. FREELY, FREELY.

A GRAVE divine in the West country, (familiarly known unto me,) conceiving himself over-taxed, repaired to one of the governors of the king’s garrisons for to move for some mitigation.

The governor perceiving the satin cap of this divine to be torn, Fie, fie, said he, that a man of your quality should wear such a cap; the rats have gnawed it. O no, sir, answered he, the rates have gnawed it.

The print or impression of the teeth of taxes is visible in the clothes of many men, yea, it hath corroded holes in many men’s estates. Yea, as Hatto, Archbishop of Mentz, is reported to have been eaten up by rats,³⁴³⁴Munster’s Cosmog. in German. so the vermin of taxes, if continuing, is likely to devour our nation.

However, let us not in the least degree now grudge the payment thereof. Let us now pay taxes that we may never pay taxes; for, as 200matters now stand, our freeness at the present may cause our freedom at the future, if once the arrears of the army and navy were discharged.

I care not how much I am let blood, so it be not by the adventure of an empiric, but advice of a physician, who I am sure will take no more ounces from me than may consist with my safety, and need doth require. Such the piety and policy of the present Parliament, they will impose no more payments than the necessity of the estate doth extort. The rather because they are persons (blessed be God) of the primest quality in the nation, and let us blood through their own veins, the greatest part of the payments they impose lighting first on their own estates.