stance of his life, yet with all the gain he got thereby, being never wasteful spender thereof, he was not able, after the resignation of his office of Lord Chancellor, for the maintenance of himself and such as necessarily belonged unto him, sufficiently to find meat, drink, fuel, apparel, and such other necessary charges. [1]All the land that ever he purchased (which also he purchased before he was Lord Chancellor) was not, I am well assured, above the value of twenty marks by the year: and after his debts paid, he had not, I know, (his chain excepted) in gold and silver left him the worth of one hundred pounds.
And whereas upon the holydays, during his high chancellorship, one of his gentlemen, when service at the church was done, ordinarily used to come to my lady his wife's pew door, and say unto her, madam, my lord is gone; the next holiday after the surrender of his office and departure of his gentlemen, he came unto my
- ↑ As for al the landes and fees that I have in all Englande, besyde such landes and fees as I have of the gyfte of the Kinge's most noble Grace, is not at this day, nor shall bee whyle my mother in lawe liveth (whose life and good health I pray God longe keepe and continue) worthe yeerlie to my livinge the summe of full fiftye pounde.—More's English Works, p. 867, col. 1.
Animus est a sordido lucro alienissimus. ———cum advocationibus adhuc aleretur nulli non dedit amicum verumque consilium, magis illorum commodis prospiciens quam suis.— Erasmi Epist.
