John Skelton Quote

Gentle Paul, laie doune thy sweard
For Peter of Westminster hath shaven thy beard.


A couplet circulated in 1522 in criticism of Cardinal Wolsey's dissolution of convocation at St Paul's Cathedral, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).


Gentle Paul, laie doune thy sweard For Peter of Westminster hath shaven thy beard.

Gentle Paul, laie doune thy sweard For Peter of Westminster hath shaven thy beard.

Gentle Paul, laie doune thy sweard For Peter of Westminster hath shaven thy beard.

Gentle Paul, laie doune thy sweard For Peter of Westminster hath shaven thy beard.