Supplication of Beggars

Supplication of Beggars is a book which appeared mysteriously in London about A.D. 1527, setting forth the rapacity and licentiousness of the clergy. It eventually came into the hands of Henry VIII, who, after hearing it read, said, "If a man should pull down an old stone-wall, and begin at the lower part, the upper part might chance to fall upon his head," thus broadly intimating that the clergy were the foundations of the rotten old Church; and should an attempt be made to reform them, the whole structure would tumble down. See Burchard, Hist. of Congregationalism, 1, 26.