We are able to form a rough estimate of the quantity of liquor kept in stock at this time, from a return which was made by order, on the occasion of the visit of the Emperor Charles V. to the king. The city authorities appear to have been afraid of being drunk dry by the swarming Flemings in the emperor’s train. To avoid such a calamity, a return was made of all the wine to be found at the eleven wine merchants and the twenty-eight principal taverns then in London; the sum total of which was 809 pipes.[92] The corruptions of court life were fearlessly exposed by a contemporary, John Skelton, in his _Bowge of Court_. Bowge (_bouche_, mouth) denoted the courtier’s right of eating at the king’s expense. The Bowge of Court was an allegorical ship with court vices on board. Ecclesiastics in high places were mercilessly satirised in his _Colin Clout_, _e.g._ (_a_) their hurry from the house of God to get drink-- But when they have once caught _Dominus vobiscum_ by the head, Then run they in every stead (place), God wot, with drunken nolls (heads), Yet take they cure of souls. (_b_) Their unconcern at the tragedy of the Saviour’s passion-- Christ by cruelty Was nailed upon a tree; He paid a bitter pension For manne’s redemption, He drank eysell and gall To redeem us withal. But sweet hippocras ye drink, With ‘Let the cat wink!’ (_c_) Their logomachies under the excitement of drink-- They make interpretation Of an awkward fashion, And of the prescience Of Divine essence, And what hypostasis Of Christe’s manhood is. Such logic men will chop, And in their fury hop When the good ale-sop Doth dance in their foretop. If Sir T. Elyot (1534) was correct in speaking of temperance as a new word, the virtue was old enough, even though the practice was rare. In the most corrupt times virtue has ever had its witnesses, even as the epoch of the dissolute Henry had its Sir David Lindsay, and its Earl of Surrey. The latter, amongst _the means to attain a happy life_, could name The mean diet, no delicate fare; True wisdom joined with simpleness; The night discharged of all care; Where wine the wit may not oppress.