A Supplication for the Beggars

Who is consuming England’s wealth? Simon Fish points not to an invading army, but to “sturdy idle holy thieves” who, he says, take a tenth of the people’s produce, wages and profits.

Written in 1529, as religious and political tensions sharpened in England, this fierce pamphlet is addressed to King Henry VIII. Fish turns a ledger of tithes, fees and offerings into an accusation: the poor are being drained, while the clergy’s reach may threaten the king’s own authority. His challenge is blunt—what remedy can stand against those who seem stronger even in the king’s parliament? And what would become of the realm if its supposed spiritual guardians had to earn their living by honest labour? Could the king dare to make them do it?

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