One night two rogues went to an inn, and sat down and drank merrily, offering the pot to those of the company they fancied. Amongst others, a priest was there, and when he had gone they began to make inquiries of the hostess concerning him, saying they were nephews of a priest in this neighbourhood and had not seen him since they were six years old. She, suspecting no harm, gave them all the information they wanted; told them the parson kept little company and had but one woman and a boy in the house. The thieves departed with the intention of robbing so defenceless a prey, but they found that his house was built of stone and his windows and doors well fastened. They thought force would avail little, and therefore tried fraud. One of the rogues, with piteous moans, asked for relief, and the parson, being moved by his distress, put his arm out of window to give him twopence. The rascal seized, not the twopence, but the priest's hand, and his companion secured his wrist also, so that their victim could not liberate himself at all. The rogues demanded three pounds and succeeded in obtaining four marks which was all the poor man had in the house. They bound him, therefore, also to drink twelve pence next day at the inn and to thank the good wife for the cheer they had had. The unfortunate parson could only use "contentacion for his remedy," but he kept his promise, and the hostess persuaded him to say no more of it "lest when they shal understand of it in the parish they wyll but laugh you to skorne[30]." [30] Harman's _Caueat_ (E. E. T. S., Extra Series, No. ix.). [Sidenote: (2) Vagrants on the Continent.] This plague of vagrants was not, however, peculiar to England, but arose about the same time in all the countries of Western Europe. A book that somewhat resembled Harman's appeared in Germany as early as 1514[31]; this contained both an account of the different orders of vagabonds and also a "Canting Dictionary." Martin Luther often discussed the subject of beggars, and in 1528, wrote a preface to this very book[32]. In Germany, therefore, the increase in the number of beggars seems to be even earlier than in England. In Scotland and the towns of the Netherlands the statutes and town ordinances show us that the same trouble assailed them about the same time, and France in 1516 was already troubled by large numbers of discharged or wandering soldiers[33]. [31] _Liber Vagatorum._ Luther thought that begging ought to be prohibited altogether and the poor provided for by the inhabitants or from ecclesiastical revenues. See his manifesto "To the Christian nobility of the German nation," 1520, and the "Regulation of a Common Chest" quoted by Ashley, _Economic History_, II. p. 342. [32] Preface to Harman's _Caueat_, E. E. T. S., p. 1. [33] More's _Utopia_, p. 36, Pitt Press ed. "Yet Fraunce ... is troubled and infected with a much sorer plage. The whole royalme is fylled and besieged with hiered souldiers in peace tyme."