Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm.
Ver. 30. Strive not with a man without cause.] If men's hurts were not bigger than their suits, there would not be half so many. It is a fault to go lightly to law, but especially with such as have done thee no harm. Zuinglius renders this text thus: Ne temere litem cum quoquam suscipias, quominus superior factus, malum tibi retribuat; others, sim mendax, nisi rependat tibi malum. How Cardinal Wolsey, when he became Lord Chancellor, paid home Sir James Paulet, for setting him by the heels, when as yet he was but a poor schoolmaster, is well known. a How much better Archbishop Cranmer, of whom the proverb passed, "Do my Lord of Canterbury a shrewd turn, and you shall have him your friend for ever after." And Robert Holgat, Archbishop of York, of whom it is recorded b that in the year 1541 he obtained a benefice in a place where one Sir Francis Askew of Lincolnshire dwelt, by whom he was much troubled and molested in law. Upon occasion of these suits, he was fain to repair to London, where being, he found means to become the king's chaplain, and by him was made Archbishop of York, and President of the King's Council for the North. The knight before mentioned happened to have a suit before the council there, and doubted much of hard measure from the Archbishop, whose adversary he had been. But he, remembering the rule of the gospel, to do good for evil, yielded him all favour that with justice he might, saying afterwards merrily to his friends, he was much beholden to Sir Francis Askew, for that had not he been, he must have lived a hedge priest c the days of his life. d
a Life of Card. Wolsey.
b Acts and Mon.
c An illiterate or uneducated priest of inferior status. (contemptuous.)
d Godwin's Catalog., 625.