Although they were dumb before enemies or suspected persons, these poor people did not keep silence in the presence of the humble: a glowing proselytism characterized them all. "Come to my house," said the pious Agnes Ashford to James Morden, "and I will teach you some verses of Scripture." Agnes was an educated woman; she could read; Morden came, and the poor woman's chamber was transformed into a school of theology. Agnes began: "Ye are the salt of the earth," and then recited the following verses.[426] Five times did Morden return to Agnes before he knew that beautiful discourse. "We are spread like salt over the various parts of the kingdom," said this Christian woman to the neophyte, "in order that we may check the progress of superstition by our doctrine and our life. But," added she in alarm, "keep this secret in your heart, as a man would keep a thief in prison."[427] [426] Matth. v. 13-16. [427] Foxe, Acts, iv, p. 225. [Sidenote: SARCASM.] As books were rare these pious Christians had established a kind of itinerant library, and one John Scrivener was continually engaged in carrying the precious volumes from one to another.[428] But at times, as he was proceeding along the banks of the river or through the forest glades, he observed that he was followed. He would quicken his pace and run into some barn where the friendly peasants promptly hid him beneath the straw, or, like the spies of Israel, under the stalks of flax.[429] The bloodhounds arrived, sought and found nothing; and more than once those who so generously harboured these evangelists cruelly expiated the crime of charity. [428] Carrying about books from one to another. Ibid. iv, p. 224. [429] Hiding others in their barns. Ibid. p. 243. The disappointed officers had scarcely retired from the neighbourhood when these friends of the word of God came out of their hiding-place, and profited by the moment of liberty to assemble the brethren. The persecutions they suffered irritated them against the priests. They worshipped God, read, and sang with a low voice; but when the conversation became general, they gave free course to their indignation. "Would you know the use of the pope's pardons?" said one of them; "they are to blind the eyes and empty the purse."--"True pilgrimages," said the tailor Geoffrey of Uxbridge, "consist in visiting the poor and sick--barefoot, if so it please you--for these are the little ones that are god's true image."--"Money spent in pilgrimages," added a third, "serves only to maintain thieves and harlots."[430] The women were often the most animated in the controversy. "What need is there to go to the _feet_," said Agnes Ward, who disbelieved in saints, "when we may go to the _head_?"[431]--"the clergy of the good old times," said the wife of David Lewis, "used to lead the people as a hen leadeth her chickens;[432] but now if our priests lead their flocks any where, it is to the devil assuredly." [430] Foxe, Acts, iv, p. 243.