Proverbs 20:25 [It is] a snare to the man [who] devoureth [that which is] holy, and after vows to make enquiry.
Ver. 25. It is a snare to a man who devoureth, &c.] He doeth as a fish that swallows the hook, as the eagle that stole the flesh from the altar with a coal sticking to it, that set the whole nest on fire, &c. What a sad end befell Cardinal Wolsey, while he sought more to please the king than God, as himself said! And what a revenging hand of God pursued his five chief agents that were most instrumental for him in that sacrilegious enterprise! One of them killed his fellow in a duel, and was hanged for it. A third drowned himself in a well. A fourth fell from a great estate to extreme beggary. Dr Allen (the last and chiefest of them) being archbishop of Dublin, was cruelly slain by his enemies. a Utinam his et similibus exemplis edocti discant homines res semel Deo consecratas timide attrectare! saith Scultetus, b who relates this story; I would men would take heed by these add the like examples how they meddle with things once consecrated to God. If divine justice so severely punished those that converted church goods (though not so well administered) to better uses (doubtless, because they did it out of selfish and sinful principles and intentions), what shall become of such as take all occasions to rob God, that they may enrich themselves? Spoliantur parochiae et scholae non aliter ac si fame necare nos velint, saith Luther; c Parishes and schools are polled and robbed of their maintenance, as if they meant to starve us all.
And after vows to make inquiry.] Viz., How he may devour that tit bit without vomiting, and not find it hard meat on his conscience. But a man may easily eat that on earth, that he shall have time enough to digest in hell. The fear of this made Queen Mary restore again all ecclesiastical livings assumed to the crown, saying, that she set more by the salvation of her own soul, than she did by ten kingdoms. d And upon the like motive, King Louis of France, about the year 1152, cast the Pope's bulls, whereby he required the fruits of vacancies of all cathedral churches of France, into the fire, saying, He had rather the Pope's bulls should roast in the fire, than his own soul should fry in hell. e
a Acts and Mon.
b Scult. Annul., tom. ii. p. 332.
c Luth. in Gen. xlvii.
d Speed's Chron., fol. 826.
e Ibid., 496.