¶ The life of priests.  
¶ This present treatise concerning thestate and life of Canons/ priests/ clerks/ and minystres of the church/ was first compiled in Latin by the reverend and devout father Dyonisius/ sometime one of the  in Ruremond/ and taken and exemplified with great diligence out of an original copy/ the which he wrote with his own hand/ and now again being diligently corrected/ is translated into the english tongue/ unto the honour of god/ and for the utility & soul health of Clerks/ & other students of the same.   

Preface of the Author.  
cursed is that man which doth the work of god necglygently. This is written in the xlviii chapter of the prophet Hieremye. God whose majesty is incomparable/ despiseth him that is undevout in his service/ he abhorryth the sluggard/ he defyeth the wicked and the necgligent/ moreover if the princes of this world look for to be served with due reverence & attendance/ how much more than doth the lord of all things (whose majesty surely is infinite) will/ command/ and require/ that we shall serve him with most principal diligence. The Apostle therefore giveth us monition saying in this wise. Let us serve god with fear & diligence. And in another place he exhortyth us in this wise. Labour for your salvation with fear/ awe/ and dread/ for surely those three things do cause diligence/ they induce us unto spiritual circumspection and destroy all necglygence according unto the saying of scripture: which is this. Let us always walk circumspectly before god evermore fearing. lest we in any wise do offend the presence of the almighty which beholdyth all things. And like as fear of body moveth man's mind for to eschew peril/ even so the fear of god causeth us to be circumspect in eschewing sin. Therefore as it is written in the book of Ecclesiasticus/ he that is without fear may not be justified. And Solomon saith. The fear of god is a well of life/ for to avoid the ruin of death/ which also saith in another place/ he that fea●yth god is negligent in nothing. undoubtedly this detestable negligence which deserveth malediction and everlasting damnation/ is most repugnant and contrary unto wholesome solicitude/ and virtuous diligence. Seeing therefore that the fear of god ingendryth diligence/ it must needs follow that a man fearing god shall in nothing be negligent/ it is not without cause therefore that David the maker of psalms said/ fear ye god all that be his saints/ for they that fear him shall want nothing which text is to be understanden of no bond or servile fear/ but of such fear as a child hath of his father. saying therefore that the fear of god is so m●ch necessary and wholesome/ we are well warned in all the holy scripture/ for to do all our works having before our eyen the fear of god/ in so much that our laudes whereby we praise him/ and our glory whereby we rejoiced in him/ aught to be joined and have a sent of this godly fear/ whereupon the holy prophet saith Serve ye the lord with fear/ & rejoice in him with dread. And certainly to serve god after this fashion is a special gift of his grace/ according unto the saying of job/ from the north cometh gold/ and from god cometh the timorous or fearful praising/ for sins that all our righteousness (as the prophet than witnesseth) is in the sight of god/ but a rag of a woman unpurified/ and sins that in all our other acts and doings there happen many distractions and defaults/ aught we not then to be always circumspect/ ware/ diligent/ and fearful/ lest even in doing our good works/ we offend our lord/ and be reproved of that ryghtuos and dreadful judge/ for like as the holy abbot Agathon said. If god should lay against our many sold necgligence & defaults/ that we happen to incur whilst we are praying/ undoubtidly we could not be saved. wherefore let us endeavour our seluꝭ with our hole power for to eschew this detestable necgligence in all our divine service/ whereupon friar Thomas in the liii question of his work affirmeth that necgligence is the leaving of due and convenient business/ and is directly repugnant and contrary unto spiritual and virtuous diligence. And likewise as diligence is a special point of wisdom/ even so is necgligence the chief point of foolishness/ for as saint Isodore saith. Negligens i non eligens And so is he that taketh none heed what is good nor what is evil/ therefore like as the taking heed & choosing of those things that are meet and necessary for a good purpose/ is an aid of a wise man/ so the leaving of and refusing of such things is very necgligence/ which is an act of a fool/ and cometh for lack of good advisement and discretion/ for if a man would inwardly consider the authority and worthiness of gods high commandment and his most dreadful and ryghtuos judgement/ and there with all his reward and joy of them that obey him/ and the torments and pains of them that disobey him/ he should forthwith begin to tremble/ to abhor negligence/ and finally to do the work of god with all diligence. notwithstanding S. Gregory writeth that security is the mother of negligence. But yet there is a good security which proceedeth from a good and a pure conscience whereof Solomon beareth witness in the xu chapter of his proverbs 
Prover. 15.  saying. An assured mind is as it were a continual feast. There is another manner of security that is perilous and cometh by reason of error and lack of advisement or consideration. And that is where a man taketh no heed of himself when he is in jeopardy/ nc remembryth how he walketh in the mids of the devils calthrop and snares nor that he offendyth god grievously many ways/ nor careth not whither he deserve love or hate/ whither he be predestinate and reproved/ whither he shall be saved or everlastingly condemned/ of the which most damnable and dangerous security it is mentioned in the seven. chapiter of Ecclesiastes 
esia. 7.  in this wise There be of the wicked sort that be as presumptuos as if they had wrought justly. So that this presumption and also negligence grow and spring out of one rote/ and so it maketh no great matter though one sin have his beginning of diverse. Let us therefore be verily wise/ diligent/ careful/ and circumspect/ as creatures having eyes on every side. And let us set our hearts upon our journey like as the prophet Aggeus monisheth us/ that we turn not into the way of sin/ lest we soon after fall into the torments of hell. And let us powder and and fulfil the saying of the scripture which is this: blessed is that man that is always farefull/ for I have feared god like as I would waves of the see raging upon me. Whereupon holy job saith these words. When I remember god I am stricken with fear And also I was timorous in all my works lord/ for I know that thou wilt spare/ when I offend/ for a wise man castyth the worst in all thing/ because he is uncertain and in doubt whither his acts do proceed of charity/ and whither he please god or not And for as much as it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living god/ the which is terrible in his judgements upon the sons of men whereof also we are uncertain and ignorant what he hath determined of us in the secrets of his prescience or knowledge/ and finally what shall become of us: let us then (all necgligence laid a part) study to serve him always with fear and reverence/ and so doing we may be sure to trust on the best/ but if we do our work negligently/ we shall perish with those of whom the prophet speaketh. They that serve from thy commandments shall perish. These things I have touched bresly of the fear of god/ and eschewing negligence because in this work following I do intend specially to entreat of certain mattiers concerning the good conversation and living of religious persons or regulars/ that is to wite of such as are bound to any rule or order certain/ the state of whom (alas the more pity) is fallen to great ruin and decay/ ye and in manner unto extreme misorder/ nevertheless among them there are many good men that with the dread of god are moved unto perfit living. Among whom also there are many that I love tenderly/ the which have oftentimes disclosed unto me the charity of their hearts/ for whose sakies I have written this book/ wherefore (by the grace and help of god) I shall touch this matter as groundly and as substantially as I can possible.   

¶ Here ensuyth a table of the articles contained in the treatise following.  

¶ Of the original institution & first begynnying of religious or regulars persons. The first article.  
A confirmation of things touched in the first article/ by the words of holy fathers & why ministers of the church are called clerks. And wherefore their livings be given them. And whither they may lawfully have property in goods or no. The ii article.  
¶ For what consideration all religious persons and clerks/ are principally bound to live virtuously/ giving good example in chastity and humility. The iii article.  
¶ Of such things as regulars or religious men/ and clerks are specially bounden to observe. The four article.  
¶ Why clerks and regulars ought to were no weapon neither to fight/ nor use to set or trim their here/ nor yet to be usurers. The .v. article.  
¶ For what cause regulars are bound especially to follow chastity of body/ and cleanness of mind/ & therefore they ought not to haunt the cloystres of nuns/ nor enter in to their houses. The vi article.  
¶ Of sobrynes to be observed of regulars and of all surfeit riot or drunkenness to be of them avoided. The vii article  
¶ How it is prohibit to all clerks & ministers of the church to occupy any merchandise/ or to exercise any temporal offices or chevyshaunce. The viii article.  
¶ For what cause clerks regulars and other constituti in holy ordres ought to refrain from minstrels/ jesters/ and dyssardes/ taverns/ and eke/ the play of cards and dice. The ix article.  
¶ An instruction of divers wholesome considerations/ whereby we may perceive that all christian people/ especially ministers of the church are bound to despise all vanity and superfluite of plays/ disports/ and o'th' vain delectations. The ten article.  
¶ Of convenient appayrell for ministers of the church/ especially of regulars and of their many fold excess in garments/ and of the desire thereof to be avoided. The xi article.  
¶ That in no wise women may dwell with regulars or mynystres of the church constitute in holy ordres/ except they be very old & near of kindred. The xii art.  
¶ That chastity of body and cleanness of heart do principally become priests and regulars. The xiii article.  
¶ Of the peril and inprovidence of priests and regulars dwelling with women/ gathered out of the sayings of many noble men. The xiiii article.  
¶ Of the same matter it appeareth in the revelations of S. Kateryne the virgin of Senys and also of the holy widow S. Brigide. The xu article.  
¶ That regulars & all men constitute in holy ordres are bound to be virtuous and holy gathered out of the saying of holy Dionysius. The xvi article.  
¶ Of the quality of regulars gathered out of the sayings of S. Bernard. The vii article.  
¶ Of the most straight and terrible judgement of god upon clerks had out of the words of glorious saint Bernard. The xviii article.  
¶ How they ought to pray/ sing/ and say the service of almighty god. The xix article.  
¶ Whether descant may be commendable in divine service/ & of certain things which ought to be eschewed in song The twenty article.  
¶ Against some that would be excused from the observance of such things as regulars are specially bound to do saying that the dignity of the church requireth none other fashion than hath been used in times passed. The xxi ar.  
¶ Of the daungere that is in plurality of benefices. The xxii article.  
¶ How priests and such as are of the clergy are bound to keep hospitality. The xxiii article.  
¶ Whither religious and spiritual persons that are able to find themselves of their own patrimony and substance/ may lawfully convert the goods of the church unto their own uses. The xxiiii article.  
¶ What manner of man a prelate/ dean/ or a head and ruler of religious folk/ aught to be. The xxv article.  
¶ Against pride & excess in building The xxvi article.  
¶ Of certain ancient laws for the adnulling of pluralitees of benefice/ in the which no dispensation is admittable as much as concernyth the natural law of them. The xxvii article.  
¶ An exhortation unto all clerks & religious men. The xxviii article.   
¶ Thus endeth the Table.   

¶ Of the original institution and first beginning of religious/ and regular persons. ¶ The first article.  
THe holy evangelist Luke in the foruth chaytre of the Acts of the Apostles declareth/ how in the first beginning of the church (the holy ghost being sent from above) the universal congregation of faithful people in Iherusalem did live in comen/ having no property in any thing. In those days substance was divided to every man according to their necessity the which life endured among them so long as the blessed Apostles were there and ruled them as faithful people/ yet truly when the Apostles with that devout james the less (at that time being precedent of the church) were from them departed/ yet notwithstanding that most devout and fervent living in comen for a certain space endured. But after what believers in Christ'S faith began to increase thorough out all jury/ galilee/ and Samarie/ & many thousands began to be regenerate in Christ/ than could not that life in common be well observed of all men. The great fervour also of their first devotion began to vanish away. And the hotness of the blood of our saviour Christ began in process of time to wax cold in the hearts of the more part of men. In so much that the most part of such faithful people that were converted of the jews as of the paynymies to obtain a property in goods to be contented to be obedient unto their rulers. But for all that many calling to their remembrance their first devotion and conversation/ being inflamed by the inspyrate operation of the holy ghost above/ with a great hot and fervent love of perfection and poverty/ took upon them again that indifferent life in comen. And ferther they did renew the institutions of the Apostles/ in the which to the intent they might the more freely and spedyely proceed/ they severed themself from the other faithful people of god/ and began to inhabit in suburbs and other secret and solitary places/ living not only in comen with their substance/ but also abstaining from marriage corporally forsaking their parents and kynsfolk/ leading their lives under holy obedience according to the ghostly counsel of our saviour Christ. After which fashion the religious life had his first beginning/ as Cassianus out of the words of a certain Abbot/ called Piamon in the second volume of collations showeth at large. And as the same man witnesseth in the second book of the rules of holy fathers how in Alexandria certain well-disposed regular persons were institute and ordained by the holy evangelist Mark/ which did not only live after the institutions of the Apostles in common/ but they added thereunto moche more and higher devotion as abstinence with other cold hard & painful life evermore given to prayer and contemplation. In so much that aswell the jews as paynymys did marvel thereat. They were also so incessantly given both night and day to reading and also to hand labour that scantly the second or third day the appetite of meat came in their remembrance. Furthermore that thing that holy Jerome in the book of noble men swewyth & agreeth with the same saying thus. The evangelist Mark the first preacher of the faith of Christ unto the people of Alexandria/ did institute and ordain a church there where so great learning and chastity of life was/ to the intent that he might provoke the universal followers of Christ to his example. And further he said that Philo the most eloquent of the jews which occupied himself in the praise and laud of our faithful people as it appeareth in the book that he wrote of the first church of the evangelist Mark at the city of Alexandria/ he affirmed also that such christian believers were not only there/ but also in many other provinces/ calling their houses and mansion places/ monasteries/ whereby it appeareth that such was the church of the first believers in Christ/ which we call now monks. And such as the holy evangelist Luke doth rehearse that were first believers in jerusalem. Also the same Philo made a certain book of the life contemplative/ wherein he saith/ that the first disciples of the evangelist Mark were ever given to contemplation & prayer. Furthermore of the truth of this matter/ ye shall have more certain. ●owlege of the instruction of holy Dionysius in his book de Ecclesiastica hierarchia/ For there the same holy man describeth how the manner and approved custom of consecration of monks in the time of the Apostles/ and first foundation of the church was very devout. Moreover such as severed themself from the company of faithful people that obtained property of goods been divided into two kinds. For some took upon them the profession of religious and solitary life. And some truly continued among secular men/ & did humble service unto to the congregation in the church/ living under the governance of holy bishops. For why the devout bishops that were at that time called and joined unto them devout faithful and learned people that were their household servants or such well disposed persons/ as were dwelling night to their houses/ & such as lad that holy life in common/ according to the institutions of the Apostles before rehearsed with many devout additions and observance/ which to them were showed by holy bishops/ whose clerks they were. And applied themself to the laudes of god as bishops did/ rising at midnight or soon after duly to celebrate their divine service/ that aught to be done in the night and eke in the morning. notwithstanding they did not make that solemn vows which be requisite to every religious as monks do now adays. For why they seem to be/ but the springs and beginner's of the life and calling of regulars which when it chanced that they could not all inhabit with holy bishops/ they were distributed into other devout places that be called colleges being under the governance of bishops/ and having a mean ruler called a dean/ which places also were named monasteries/ and had in them one fraytour/ and one dortour. They were at that time diligently given to divine observance and obedience/ utterly avoiding all points of uncleanness and incontinency. Whereupon Pope Clement in his fourth epistle wrote unto his well beloved brethren and unto his scholyfelowies of jerusalem dwelling together with his well-beloved brother and bishop after thi● manner following. Clement the bishop sendeth you greeting. etc. A life in common to all men/ and especially to clerks is very necessary. And principally to them that desire to be militaunt in the church of god without rebuke or shame. And such as do covet to follow the life of the Apostles and their disciples. And for this cause we command you to follow and obey their doctrine and example. Furthermore for this purpose saint Jerome said unto one Nepotian/ as hereafter followeth. A clerk he saith aught so to behave himself/ that god may both possess him. And that he may possess god. And in so much that it is written. God is my part/ he aught to possess nothing but god only. Wherefore if he possess any thing besides god he shall not have his part with god as for example. If a man possess gold silver/ possessions/ or other household stuff/ it behooveth not that our lord should be compared to such parts. Of this matter in like manner in the xii chapiter of the decrees more evidently it appeareth/ whereupon thereof writeth saint Jerome again/ saying thus. There be two kinds & manners of Christian people/ whereof one is that manner of people that be only set and applied to divine service and given to contemplation & prayer and such as think it most convenient to refrain from the trobylous encomberaunce of temporal and worldly things/ as clerks and other devout and dedicated people to god which being contented with a poor and simple living/ both of sustynance and also clothing having no property of goods among them/ but using all thing in comen.   

¶ Hereafter followeth the confirmation of the foresaid life in comen out of sayings of holy fathers and why they be called clerks. And wherefore they have stipends given to them to find them. And whether they may lawfully have properties of goods or no. The second article.  
THe holy doctor and prelate Isidorus in the seventh book of his Ethymologyes dyscussyth this word clerk in this manner of wise. I suppose that it is called clergy/ and that they be called clerks/ because S. Mathie (which was first ordained by the Apostles) came and was elected unto his dignity by casting of lots/ sins which time persons within holy ordres have by called Clerici/ in English clerks (and who saith) men called unto spiritual dignity by the lot of gods will/ for this word Cleros is as much to say in english as a lot of heritage. And therefore they are called clerici or clerks/ because they are of the lot & inheritance of god/ or else because they have god to their lot & inheritance or because god hath his lot & inheritance in them. But generally all such are called clerks that minister & do service in the church of Christ/ whose names & degrees be such. Benet/ colet/ subdecane/ decane/ pressed & bishop. And furthermore as Gratianus witnesseth the degrees of the higher and lower sort of priests in the new testament took his beginning immediately from Christ/ which first ordained the xii Apostles as chief & hyeghest priests. And the threescore and xii. disciples as lower priests. But he chose the blessed Peter to be his princicipal and head pressed. In so much as he delivered unto him the kays of the kingdom of heaven for all them & before all them. And Christ of himself being called Petra (which is a very stone or rock) gave unto him the name of Peter. The Apostles following the same fashion/ ●n every city ordained both priests & bishops. Also we read & find that the decanes were ordained by the Apostles. But other inferior orders as benet/ colet/ subdecane & other/ in process of time were institute by the church whereupon (as Raymundus/ joannes/ Vlricus/ and other do testify) temporal goods & possessions were therefore by the lay people given unto the church/ & that forbecause that secular men have no leisure to continued and evermore apply themself to prayer & divine service/ they being ministers & clerks of the church/ should supply the rhmes of the lay people in praying/ minystring/ & satisfying for them by whose almsdeed & reward they be found & upholden/ but now in conclusion as it did appear/ not only in the time of the first beginning of the church but also many years afterward/ that priests & regulars might in no wise have property of goods/ but used themselves to one fraytour & one dortour/ which afterward by dispensation or otherwise was changed after/ such time as the church fell to lay most lamentable greatly bewailing ruin & decay both in the heed and also in the members of the church. The which we have great need to pray to almighty god/ that he of his goods would vouchsafe to restore unto the old most laudable order and manner. For why/ how many manner of abominable vices do and daily will rise and spring by the reason of the lack of living in comen/ in one fraytour/ and one dortour/ it is more evidently showed by experience/ than any tongue can express.   

¶ For what cause regulars are bound to live very virtuously full of good example chaste and meek. The third article.  
LIke as the law of the gospel was to us delivered by the only begotten son of god/ the law of charity & virtue/ the law also of all perfection/ teaching us to despise and contemn all fleshly and worldly things & only to be affectionate & evermore desirous of spiritual/ godly/ and heavenly things/ incessantly given to the everlasting and immutable god with a pure and fervent heart and mind. even so all christian people especially about all other nations in the world ought to be charitable / merciful/ ghostly/ holy/ full of good example/ patient/ meek/ chaste/ sober and perfect/ and otherwise they are not worthy to be called the christian people of Christ. It is not sufficient for them to follow Christ by faith only/ but it is very necessary to the health & wholesome calling of a christian man to follow his lord god jesus christ/ by the due observance of his commandments by exercise of virtue/ and by such manner of life as shall please god. As our lord and saviour himself knowledgyth/ saying thus. Wherefore say ye unto me lord/ lord/ doing not that thing that I command you/ whereby it may be perceived that who so ever transgressyth the precepts of god/ vainly & unworthily namyth him lord. For the same purpose thus he sayeth again. Every man that sayeth unto me lord/ lord/ shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven/ but he that doth the will of my father that is in heaven. Also he saith again in this manner. They that be the people of Christ that is to say perteygning to Christ as his true servants and ministers have mortified and punished their flesh with abstinence from vice and concupiscence. Therefore christian men are bound to live af●●● the fashion of christ/ that is to wite/ to imitate and follow christ in all charity/ humility/ paciency/ sobrenes/ and chastity/ or else they be called christian men the more to their damnation. And for that cause the Apostle johan saith in this wise. Who so saith that he will remain in Christ/ him behooveth to walk as Christ walked. Besides this/ how utterly holy and purely a man ought to obey and serve god/ it is clearly expressed in the saying of the Apostle james showing thus/ who so ever hath fulfilled and performed all the law/ offending but in one point he is judged guilty in the hole. Behold therefore how narrow the way of health is/ when for one word we suffer eternal damnation. And as the truth witnesseth/ he that calleth his brother foul/ shallbe guilty of the pains of hell. In likewise he that s●laundryth one of these innocentes receiveth the horrible torments of hell/ the same lords opinion. And also he that offendyth one of the little ones that believen in men/ it is requisite that a millstone be hanged about his neck/ and so to be drowned in the bottom of the see. Moreover the maker of our law commanded all men that believen in him to do as he saith hereafter following. love your enemies/ do good unto them that hate you/ and pray for them that do persecute and sklander you. Those hard things truly and with many other like belongen to every faithful christian man. Furthermore the higher in estate and degree that a man be/ the more and greater rewards that his chance is to have so much the more is he bound to a vertuose life for this. The more to any man is given: the more of him is asked again. Therefore who so be a regular/ he is not only bound to the precepts of the law in the gospel before touched: but also to those things that are especially to regulars enjoined. And verily such as be not only regulars/ but constitute in any manner of holy order/ are bound besides the things afore rehearsed/ unto such things as is commanded to all them that be constitute in the same order/ wherefore if he be a prelate or a pastor/ that is to say a feather of christian people with ghostly food/ or that he hath taken upon him the cure and charge of souls/ than he is surely bound to many more higher things than before expressed.  
Now seeing therefore it is said that the ministers of the church and regulars be therefore called clerks/ for because they be especially the lot/ part/ or heritage of god/ as men only dedicated and deputed to divine service than it is open unto us/ that they are bound to live so excellently that their invisible adversaries may not obtain any right/ or dominion in them/ of the godly honour/ but that all times with a substantial & pure fidelity they may perteygne to god And again it is said that temporal rents were assigned by the lay people unto the clerks and regulars/ to the intent that they should not only minister unto almighty god for their own wealth & preservation/ but also in the place and stead of the lay people: there they should pray and minister/ and also pacify and reconcile that rightwise judge not only to themself/ but also to them by whose stipends they live. They are bound to reconcile themself & again to come in the favour of god/ if sometime they fortune ●o lose it. And also of right they ought to apply. And intenty fly give themself to the land of god in their prayer and service/ both for themself and also for their foundars and benefactors. Whereby it appeareth how purely and virtuously they are bound to live/ that by the reason of the fullness of their virtue and the abundance of their merit they may help & secure their friends and neighbours as well on life as ded. Therefore such regular & ordinary hours with other prayers/ laudes/ and psalmodyes'/ whereto they are bound aught of them to be done & performed with great diligence. And no dought but they ought to behave themself as worthy ministers/ and men contented to do the service of god/ pronouncing it distinctly solitarily and devoutly. Otherwise they have no right in any goods or substance of the churches/ neither in the heritage of Christ/ nor yet in the stipends or rewards of the soldiers of god. As the profunde learned doctor Guilhelmus Parisiensis witnesseth in many places. Vlricus also in his book named summa. Raymundus / Durandus/ joannes/ & other be of the same opinion.   

¶ Of such things as are specially enjoined to regulars. ¶ The four ar.  
LIke as Isidorus saith that clerks be named by this greek word clerk's/ which is in english a lot for because they be especially of the lot of god/ & god is their heritage. Right so these regulars be called of these greek word/ canon/ in Latin/ regula/ in English a rule. And as Gratiaunce saith it called a rule/ for that that it leadeth directly: nor at any time waveryth aside or as some men sayen/ it is called a rule for that that it rulyth or governeth. And showeth the very fashion of living directly: or else for because it ordryth & correctyth that thing that is evil disposed or out of the way. clerks therefore be named regulars for because they be bound to lead there life directly and in good rule/ avoiding all inclination to vice. And clearly passing by paths of virtue/ unto blyssydnes/ according unto the institutions of holy fathers to them before ordained. But although of 〈◊〉 ●ener●ll counsel/ by high bishops/ doctors/ and noble prelate's. A Jerome/ Augustine/ Gregory/ and Isidore many things were institute to be observed of the regulars which in the decree thereof made be touched and expressed/ yet notwithstanding these precepts (as many as be sufficient for our purpose) are compendiously gathered together in the beginning of the third book of decretals/ wherein amongs other it is this said and commanded. Clerks that bear weapon and be vsura●s/ let them be excommunicate. If any of the clerks do use to set their bushes or here/ let them be accursed. If any of the clerks do presumptuously haunt the monasteries of nuns without a manifest and reasonable occasion/ first he shallbe corrected by the bishop/ and if he will not cease/ he shall clearly be discharged of his office in the church. Ferther Innocentius the third in a general counsel said that. To the intent that both the acts and conditions of clerks may be better reformed. And that they all may live contynently and chastened/ especially such as been constitute in holy ordres utterly eschew ing vice and voluptuousness/ so that they may minister & serve in the sight of god with a pure heart and chaste body. And to the intent that hope of pardon shall not encourage them to offend/ we ordain/ that who some ever hereafter be founden or taken corrupted with the vice of incontinency (as he hath offended more or less) so shall he be punished according to the holy regular ordres/ which we command more effectuosly & streythly to be kept that such as the fear of god can not revoke from sin. At the least wise they may be compelled to forsake it by temporal punishment/ that is to suspend them from their offices/ and also to take from them their benefits of the church. Furthermore all clerks should diligently abstain from surfeits and drunkenness. Wherefore they should moderately use wine And no man should be provoked to drink for drunkenness banyshyth a man from his wit and discretion. And also encourageth a man to the pleasure of the body. Therefore we have decreed that such abusion must utterly be forsaken/ and that in all parts they should be bound to drink after a moderate fashion. And if any of them in these foresaid things be found culpable (except he being of his superior admonished willbe reconciled) he shallbe from his office and benefice suspended. And clerks shall not exercise worldly offices/ nor use merchandise/ especially such as be unhonest They shall not give audience to minstrels/ jesters/ & dyssardes. Let them chiefly avoid taverns/ except it be in case of necessity/ as a man purposed in a journey. They may not play at cards/ nor at dice/ nor use no such manner of games. Their crowns must be shaven accordingly. And also they must diligently exercise themself in all offices of the church with all other good & virtuous studies. Their upper garments ought to be close/ and not to long or to short. They ought also in nowise to were any read cloth/ or grieve weltyd sleeves/ or shewies/ bridles/ or sadels' guilt no laces/ nor lachettes garnished with silver or gold/ nor yet any rings/ except it be such as be allowed by dignity of their office. Also it is commanded/ that no press keep any women by whom he may be suspected. For if any pressed/ dean or subdeane being suspected of fornication with any woman/ be after the second or third warning/ found with her in communication/ or conversant with her in any manner of wise: immediately after let him be excommunicate/ for women be not permitted to dwell with clerks/ except they be such manner of persons/ in whom the law of nature will not suffer any default to be suspected. clerks may use no plays toys/ nor gamynges in the church. The goods of clerks should be forth in common/ they should eat in one house/ and sleep under one covering. Mark therefore/ how here it is manifest in what good order/ devotion/ and example the life of regulars sometime hath been. And how of right it ought now to be. Therefore let them be fearful/ and let them give no confidence to any unreasonable dispensation/ which is the very destruction of all virtuous living. And let them take no regard unto customed liberty/ for that is but a mean to corrupt a perfit life/ and truly very necessity/ or apparent profit is the mother or original beginning of dispensations/ by whom their vicious conversation is excu●y●/ a high and holy bishops/ ●●●o/ and ●elasius with many other principal doc●ours do a●terme/ but now consequently/ some of these things shallbe more especially declared.   

¶ Why clerks or regulars ought to bear no manner of weapon/ nor to fight/ nor use to set their here/ nor yet to be usurers. The .v. article.  
IT is convenient (as it appeareth) that all mynystres/ clerks/ or regulars of the church should themself apply to the service of god/ that is to say/ they should be given to prayer & contemplation. And to the land and praise of their maker. And to desire god to be merciful/ as well to them/ as to other their friends & neighbours/ by whose exhibition and stipends they are upholden and sustained. And saying that the exercise of war (wherein the inquietness & trouble of man's heart do especially remain) should be a great impediment against these good acts to be done/ therefore war is forbidden them aswell as merchandise/ for that cause they ought not to bear weapon/ lest they should be provoked to fight/ & lest they should show themself as men ready to fight & lest they should quarrel with other men. But for all that if they journey by any dangerous places/ than may they were necessary weapons to fere their enemies/ and themself moderately to defend with harmless defence/ moreover where as regulars are deputed to serve the altar/ wherein the passion of Christ is represented in the sacrament/ there is good cause why they are prohibited to shed blood/ but rather are bound to shed their own blood for the love of Christ and rightwiseness. Therefore this saying of the Apostle/ of them is to be observed strive ye not with words/ for it is to no purpose profitable/ but to the subversion of the herars. Also further he saith thus. If any man be supposed full of debate/ we and the church of god will have no such company. And therefore scripture saith. That man is to be commended/ that conveyeth himself from debate and strife. A●d furthermore they ought to be armed with spiritual defence / to prevail and resist against the e●●myes of their health. And to such defence they ought to induce the lay people by their example. Of this matter the holy father saint Ambrose/ in his book called de officus/ and also in other places wrote many things. In the decree also/ many things were induced to this purpose. For certainly it was institute at a general counsel/ that what clerk so ever had died in fighting scolding/ or other games of the gentiles/ should be prayed for/ neither in oblation/ neither in any orison/ or prayer/ but should fall into the hands of the judge/ yet notwithstanding he should be buried. Also it was ordained in the counsel of Tolytan/ that clerks bearing weapon riotously should lose the degree of their order/ and be banished for ever in to monasteries/ likewise it is red in the acts of the counsel of Melde. That none of the clergy should take upon them weapons of defence/ not her in any wise should go armed/ but the name of their profession they should perform both with religious manners/ & also with religious habit. The which thing if they despised/ they should be grievously corrected/ as first to lose their proper degrees/ and further to be taken as extreme despisers of the holy canons/ and also cursed corrupters of the authority of the church for they can not serve both god and the world. Furthermore they ought utterly to avoid all worldly glory/ and generally all thing that provoketh a man to incline to the pleasure of the body/ with all other vain curiosytes. Certain precepts agreeable with the same be especially enjoined by the Apostle/ saying thus. In no wise be ye conformable to this world/ but be you reformed with the spirit of discretion whereby he meaneth that they ought to abhor & avoid the setting of their bushes the comeliness of their locks the trimming of their here. And chiefly the roughness of their beards/ in so much that it is prohibit that women should be attired in here/ and as Albertus wrote upon job/ saying thus: Such things do provoke concupisbence/ for clerks are commanded to be garnished both inwardly and outwardly with a vestiment of virtue/ and also they should be inwardly resplendent and shining in good manners/ so that they might proceed honestly/ being governed in all their sight & senses/ Besides this usury is most straightly prohiby●● not only to them/ but also to the universal kind of faithful people/ in so much that as the philosopher grauntyth. Usury is a thing most principal against nature. And as the prophet david describeth a just man/ thus he saith: He lent not his money to usury. And as Clymatus showeth. A niggard is a mokker of the gospel/ much more an usurer/ & especially a clerk whom it behooveth to be more spiritual & virtuous than a lay man/ for as S. Jerome satyh/ it is the most vehement destruction of the church/ when lay men be better disposed then clerks. And usury truly with simony be two the most mischievous branches of avarice/ whereupon S. Isidore wrytyh in this manner of wise It is contained in the law of holy fathers that priests/ clerks/ or regulars should sever themself from all vulgar & secular life/ absteyning always from the voluptuous desires of the world & eke of the flesh/ they may in no wise give themself to usury/ they must hate & abhor the occasion of all such fowl lucre & fraud/ ye they must avoid & eschew the affection of money as though it were a kendling of all other vices.   

¶ For what cause regulars are bound especially to follow chastity of body and cleanness of mind/ & therefore they ought not to haunt the cloystres of nuns/ nor to enter into their houses. The vi article.  
THis thing hath been by many holy and high bishops/ many general counsels/ and many provincial constitutions most especially/ most strongly/ and most oftentimes/ enjoined and commanded unto ministers of the church/ to all regulars and men constitute and appointed to holy ordres that they should abstain from all uncleanness/ incontinence/ and detestable fornication. For in the sin of the flesh is the most great & manifest turpitude bestlynes/ dishonesty/ and filthiness. And also such manner of vices in the clergy/ be most vehemently rebuked of the people/ many great vices be to them annexed and ensuing of them. ●or first they acquyre the hate and disdain of god/ than they procure the ignorance of all spiritual things/ they engender also a painful sufferance of virtuous exercise/ they blind a man's mind/ and in conclusion they pluck a man clean away from the love and contemplation both of godly and heavenly things. Therefore (in so much that the holy mystery of the altar is most pure/ and the sacraments of the church be most clean and ghostly (especially the sacrament of the blessed body of our lord) it is most vicious and inconvenient that the ministers of the church and altar/ should so precious sacraments defile & corrupt/ with that most fowl filthy and abominable sin of the flesh and bestly concupiscence/ ye and to presume to serve. And to receive so deep a fountain of purity & cleanness/ with so fowl and corrupt a mouth. And furthermore sins the time of the blessed Apostles/ this most vile and abominable vices have been prohibit unto clerks and ministers of the church upon most straight & grievous pains. The which thing (to the intent it may be the better known) I will somewhat thereof declare. And although that straight and so litary life is now (the more pity greatly decayed) yet nevertheless I will touch a little of the statutes and rules of them that it may appear how vehemently holy fathers (in whom the inspiration of the holy ghost/ the zeal of justice/ & the love of virtue/ did excellently prevail) did prohibit the uncleanness of clerks regulars and priests. According verily to the rules of the Apostles/ every man constitute in holy ordres/ especially a pressed/ falling into the sin of uncleanness/ should be for ever more deposed/ which long time after was observed for the sin of adultery/ as concerning punishment/ whereof it is contained in the seventh synod holden at Aureliaunce. That if a clerk hath been convicted of adultery/ or had confessed it/ he should have been deposed from his office/ and so to have been committed unto a monastery during his life. And also the holy father Pope Clement (as it is red) made institutions after the same manner of perpetual deposing and punishment of priests doing fornication. But after that/ in the time of pope Silvester/ that extreme correction was somewhat mitygate/ as touching priests/ that were penitent and contrite of their own proper and free will/ and such as ceased their sinful living for in the counsel of Gangara and also in the decree/ the xxviii distinction it is read/ that if a pressed hath committed fornication/ although he ought by the rules of the Apostles/ to be deposed yet by the authority of that blessed pope Silvester/ if he did not continue in vice/ but refused it and rose again of his own free-will/ that then he should take repentance in this world for the space of ten years. And being removed from the other brethren by the space of three months/ he should be used with bred and water/ from evening to evening/ but in sundays & other principal feasts/ he should be fed with a little drink/ fish or rise/ without flesh or blood/ without eggs/ or else cheese/ dying on the ground night and day desiring the mercy of god. Than when three months were determined/ he should come forth/ but not abroad in to open places/ for fear least/ the multitude of good people might be offended by his evil example. And it is in no wise lawful for a pressed to be enjoined as a lay man to any open penance/ but after that he hath perused the space of a year and an half living with bred and water/ except in sundays & other principal feasts/ in whom he might use wine/ flesh/ blood/ eggs/ and cheese/ according unto their regular m●●●ure/ but the first year and an half being finished/ he might have the sacrament ministered to him to that intent that he should not despair in god/ and that he should come to peace/ that is to say/ he should be reconciled unto his brethren/ and sing psalms in the quere among them again/ yet should he not come to the end of the altar/ but according to the saying of blessed Clement/ he should minister inferior offices. Than unto the end of the seventh year/ at all times/ except the three Ester holy days/ he should fast breed & water three certain days in every week. But the space of seven years being fulfilled/ if the brethren among whom he repented/ do comende his penance as worthy and acceptable in the sight of god/ than the bishop according to the authority of blessed pope Calyxt/ may him revoke unto his pristine and former honour. And surely it is to be known/ that by singing one psalter/ in the second ferry/ or giving one penny to poor folk (if need be) he may be redeemed after seven years ended. Than unto the end of the tenth year there is no redemption/ but the sixth ferry must needs be observed with breed and water. But for all this in process of time this foresaid correction vanished. And was/ but meanly observed/ as in the third book of decretals is notified/ where amongs all other it is reported that pope Alexander the third wrote unto a certain bishop in manner following. you ought straightly by interdiction and suspension to correct clerks constitute in holy ordres/ that keep concubines/ that they may remove such manner of women out of their company/ because no sinystre and froward suspicion may be had of them. And if any of them resort to such women/ or presume to receive them/ that then they may be accursed with perpetual sentence of excommunication that other may refrain from like offences by example of them. Also the same pope wrote unto an archbishop of Canterbury on this fashion ensuing. We command you diligently to exhort the clerks of your jurisdictions that keep any harlots within their subdeanryes/ that they do them remove & in nowise to use them again. And if they refuse to forsake them/ than to be surceased from all benefices ●he church unto the time that they make convenient satisfaction. And if they being suspended/ will presume to keep & retain such manner of women/ then look that you remove them from all manner of benefices of the church for evermore. He speaketh again in another decretal on this wise. For because that clerks can not intent both to their pleasure and carnal desires/ and also to the divine service of the church/ therefore for their uncleanness they ought to be discharged of all the benefits of the church. Of this matter in many decretals of pope's as of Gregorius/ Siricius/ Lucius Innocentius/ and other it is evidently declared. Where also this is added. Prelates that presume to suffer such manner of clerks/ especially being intreated with money and other temporal commodity/ shall incur the same penalty. Here of an ordinance in the decree the fourscore and third distinction/ is rade on this fashion. If any bishop consent to the fornication of priests/ deans/ or clerks in his diocese: other for affection/ prayer/ or reward/ or else if he will not punish and correct offenders by the authority of his office: he shallbe from his office suspended. Of the which saying it is also concluded that a bishop that correctyth not the transgressions of such men: is more worthy to be called a sawltye dog than a bishop. I pray you: what meaneth this word: consent: Gratianus expoundyth it in this manner of wise. He that withstandyth not vice and error: consentyth thereto. Innocentius the pope to the same saith. Error that is not resisted is allowed: and truth that is not defended is oppressed: and that man is worthy to be suspected of secret maintenance: that will not withstand open sin. All which thing may be principally supposed of prelate's that are bound to resist vice: by very duty of their of fyce. But now seeing it standeth in such misorder/ how greatly ought we to bewail the abomination of the world that now is. How much is this miserable & deformed estate of the church to be lamented: in whom other no punishment at all: or else the punishment of the purse is extended upon wanton priests clerks and regulars: which daily are permitted to wallow in their mischievous living to ●●●●icious occasion and evil example of the lay people. The regular visitation of clerks is to none effect/ for many of them do so rejoice that they be so exempted/ that they may not be corrected neither of the dean/ nor yet of the bishop/ the which is even a like matter as though a monk should be exempted from the correction of his abbot or prior. O what manner of thing is such exemption/ when against an exemption (much less unreasonable than this) the most holy and illuminate father saint Bernard in his book de Consideracionibus wrote sharply and discreetly to pope Eugenius and the same exemption many manner of wise did reprove. And for the same exemption he greatly rebuked and controled the foresaid pope Eugenius saying thus. woe be to filthy & wretched sinners unpunished/ which had liefer to be reserved unto the most straight and terrible judgement of god/ and also to fall into power of god everlasting/ than in this present life to be duly corrected of their prelate's/ and to obey the rules and decrees of holy father's/ do not such men seem to be of the number of them that shall be reproved/ and most far from eternal bliss. Seem they not also to be the children of infernal torment/ whom god suffereth to live according to the desire of their hearts/ and trust in their own fantazyes. Furthermore for because regulars and all other constitute in holy ordres/ be consecrate to divine service/ me thinketh that their fornication is sacrilege. And it is called sacrilege/ for that it corruptyth holy order/ by unworthy handling and mischievous abusing that thing that to god is consecrate. Therefore they are especially prohibit to haunt the cloystres of nuns/ & that under the pain of excommunication they come not within their houses to the intent that all evil occasion of sacrilege and vicious meddeling with them should be avoided/ the which being committed should be double sacrilege/ and also a certain abominable and enorm adultery/ both with persons that have offered themself unto the heavenly spouse being professed and consecrate/ and also to induce them unto the transgression of so solemn a vow of chastity which they have promised unto almighty god to be continently observed and kept.   

¶ Of soberness to be observed b● regulars and of all surfeit riot and drunkenness to be of them avoided. The vii article.  
IT is even as our lord spoke/ by the prophet Ozeas. Wine/ drunkenness/ and women/ that is to say/ fornication taketh away the heart of men/ that is to wite/ it blyndyth their mind and maketh dark the judgement of man's reason. And seeing it is the best part of man/ to live according to the judgement of reason/ than it appeareth that surfeit and riot may engender in man many incomodytees. For it hurteth nature/ it shortenyth life/ it blyndyth understanding/ it procuryth many sickness infirmities and tediousness/ it engendryth the hatred of god/ it encreasyth envy/ it maketh a man ready to do injury to other men/ it inducyth slogardyse and necglygence/ it provokyth a man to unmeasurable tryfulles and babbling/ it disclosyth also utterly all secretness of heart compunction and fere. Therefore it is not only prohibit unto all regulars & spiritual persons/ but universally to all faithful christian people/ and christ himself saying thus. Take ye heed that your hearts be not oppressed with surfeit and drunkenness/ nor with any other regard of this world. For in conclusion like as gluttony doth corrupt the mind so it maketh the body to be difformed monstrous/ and depriveth a man from natural comeliness/ and also from a convenient quantity of body/ and that vile voluptuousness of taste is bought right dear. Thereupon saint bernard saith/ that the pleasure of the throat that nowadays is so much made of/ containeth scantly the breedeth of two fingers/ and yet for the delectation of so little a part how diligently/ how costly/ and with how great labour do we prepare/ but at length to our great pain. By this means the backs and shoulders of men are spread/ and made broad like monsters/ hereby the great belies are not only fatted/ but also puffed up like women with child. And while the bonds be not able to bear the flesh/ many divers diseases must needs engender.  
O with how great labour and exp●●●es is such dear and delicious pleasure prepared. gluttony and lechery do obey the pleasure of the flesh. Surfeit & drunkenness is the devils chaleys/ for when a man hath both replenished his mind and stomach Christ in such a riotous person can find no place. And like as fire and water can not be mingled both together/ Right so spiritual and corporal pleasures can not be suffered in one place. For where Christ perceiveth surfeit of a riotous person in his drinking he will not vouchsafe to reward him with his wines that are more sweet than sugar or honey/ And surely when that curious and delicate diversity of meats and drinks hath fully fed the stomachs of men/ there is no void pure nor clean place for heavenly food. Why love ye voluptuousness/ forsaking virtue and health. Truly for a fowl and brief sweetness and delectation/ ye do procure everlasting pain and bitterness/ so that at the last ye will desire/ as the rich glutton did/ one drop of water to quench the heat of the fire of hell/ & yet ye shall not obtain it. For again whom doth the fervent heat of the infernal hungres and devilish thirst and other most extreme punishment/ fume more than against glottones/ which do convert the necessary sustentation of poor people into their own pleasures. And plainly as S. Bernard witnesseth. The faults of the flesh/ the pleasure of the body/ the fullness of the womb will other leave a man before death/ or else forsake him at the point of death. Than this flesh of yours shortly afterwards shallbe deputed to worms/ the soul shallbe committed to infernal punishment/ where such be compaygnyons in pain as were together companions in vice. O thou delicate man that swymmyste in pleasure & riches/ yet in them being wrapped thou lokyst ever for thine own confusion/ death/ and damnation. ☞ Note what the Apostle saith. The kingdom of heaven/ is neither meet nor drink/ neither silk/ nor purple/ for the rich man abundant of these/ shall straight descend into hell. O ye delicate & voluptuous persons/ whose god is the belly/ which nourish your hearts and body with riot and lechery/ what say you to this? you do here that meet is ordained for the belly and the belly for meet/ yet god will destroy the one with the other/ and yet god shall destroy them both. Therefore let regulars that be almost utterly decayed for lack of obedience unto holy rules take heed and fear god which the right wise judge saith as here followeth. Woe be to you that be satisfied with food/ for ye shallbe a hungered. Woe be to you rich men whose only comfort is in your riches. Woe be to you that laugh for ye shall weep and morn/ did not judas the Apostle write of these things/ vomiting their own confusyons/ to whom an infernal storm of darkness is conserved and kept. Why sayeth the holy Apostle in this manner. They be not only corrupted & spotted in their feasts/ but also they be spots and corruption/ for that that in their feeding/ many fold sins fallen among them. And like as the Apostle wrote to certain of the gentiles that were converted saying thus. Some time ye were darkness/ for in eating or feeding they do not only exceed in quality or quantity of meats or drinks/ but also in vain superfluous and evil words/ I will not say in slanderous knanyshe and wanton/ in toys/ tryfulles/ plays/ mocks/ mows/ dissolutions/ loss of time/ and much more heelnes. The prophet johel crieth unto such manner of people/ saying: Awake ye drunkards/ and weep/ and all you that drink wine for pleasance and sweetness/ morn ye/ for it shall perish out of your mouths/ furthermore of gluttony that vicious mother/ followeth fowl lechery a armour vicious daughter. Now be not all faithful christian people bound to live straightly in penitent conversation and fearfully in respect of god above. And the higher that regulars be constitute in degree and spiritual estate/ so be the more virtuous/ sober/ and fearful than the lay people. Let no man deceive himself for god requireth of every man that he shall live according to the degree that he is called unto. Besides this the longer that an evil custom is used/ the more injust and incurable it is. And therefore from the first foundation of the church/ holy & blessed fathers have most straightly and vehemently prohibit the sin of th● fl●●he gluttony/ drunkenness/ and wantonness to the ministers of the church/ as of the same/ in the decree many things are declared. It is red also in the rules of the Apostles/ that a bishop/ pressed/ or dean/ given to riot or drunkenness/ must other forsake it/ or else be condemned and deposed. A subdeane reder or singer in the church doing the same/ must other cease or be expulsed from the communion. The same purpose it is brought in/ in the xxxv distinction/ that especially drunkenness should be avoided of clerks/ for of all other vices it is the norice & and cherysher. Also in the counsel of Agathon it was ordained/ that a clerk being drunk should be severed from the communion/ for the space of xxx days/ or else corporally to be punished. And the Apostle in like manner writeth to all faithful people and enjoineth them in this wise. That they live not in gluttony & drunkenness. etc. And also regard that they use not the desires of the flesh. And again/ we be debtors unto the flesh/ not to that intent that we should live after the flesh/ for if we live after the flesh/ we should die.  
Another thing there is whereof the most holy Peter the Apostle doth us advertise/ saying thus: well-beloved friends/ I beseech you abstain from carnal desire/ which maketh battle against the soul. Further S Paul sayet (It behooveth a bishop to be sober/ chaste/ and not drunken) pertaineth also to all men constitute in holy ordres/ as the holy father's Ambrosy & Augustine do witness besides all this/ it appeareth by the words of S. Jerome/ how hard & difficyle it is for him that keepeth not soberness/ to keep his chastity. The princes & ministers of the church/ which do wallow in delicious pleasure feigning at feasts that they keep chastity/ be (by the words of the prophet) worthy to be cast out from fair houses and delicate banquets/ into exterior darkness/ which Jerome saith further. The gluttony of the belly provoketh lechery/ and puttyth a part every good wroke and a belly boiling with wine soon falleth to pleasure of the body. For why the belly of man and the privy members be very near one to an other/ so that by the nearness of those membres ye may perceive the more ready inclination of vice. Furthermore as it is mentioned (Levitici primo) Our lord commanded the priests of the old law/ whose priesthood or profession was but carnal and figurative that they should drink no wine nor any thing that might make them drunk/ whose words are these/ wine and all that may make you drunk/ ye shall not drink what time ye enter in the tabernacle of the testament lest ye die so that ye may have knowledge to discern between the holy & unholy/ How moche more this carnalite/ drunkenness/ gluttony/ and voluptuousness/ to be avoided of priests & ministers of the church/ whose priesthood is all together spiritual/ and therefore should continually be occupied in divine service. Therefore lovingly he embraceth soberness/ which is the very secret keeper of mind/ sensys/ body/ and also members/ the defence of chastity/ the governor of shamefastness the very preseruor both of peace & friendship. For truly drunkenness in a pressed or regular is as heinous as sacrilege/ & also in any other man it is a great vice soberness prolongyth the natural life of man/ it noryshyth the life of grace/ it deserveth the life of joy/ it causyth the body of man to be well proportioned/ and valiant/ it maketh a quiet heart/ it maketh ready a man's mind to proceed in wisdom and virtue/ it maketh a man apt to apply divine service/ to laud god in hymns and psalms. And to be only given to holy meditation. Therefore regulars that are commanded to serve almighty god/ and to be continually given to the observance of him must evermore observe this virtue of soberness. And as the most high bishop hath straightly commanded/ that if wives be strong they must be tempered unto them/ nor in any wise that one provoke another to drinking/ but especially let them beware of such manner of drinking/ as men call brynkshing/ plegging/ & quaffing/ which verily be bestly/ & fowlyshe/ for that that may agree with the complexion of the one/ may fortune not to agree with the complexion of the other. And in conclusion to know how vicious and out of order it is to exceed in the vices foresaid/ it appeareth by that/ that the pope commanded all such offenders to be suspended from their offices and benefices/ except by warning they be r●ce●sylyd. For if a principal ruler or governor of regulars/ will not correer such evil doers/ other if he himself do personally offend (which god forbid) in any vice before touched. O how great and horrible damnation hangeth over his head/ and also over the heads o● such sinful regulars as do offend in the some/ not willing to receive any wholesome discipline or learning in this present life.   

¶ How it is prohibit to all clerks and ministers of the church to occupy any merchandise: or to excercise any temporal offices or chevisance. The viii article.  
According unto the effect of the end/ all mean things must be ordered/ for the end causyth things of necessity to be done: which be ordained for the end. And saying thestate of regulars was institute provided and granted (as is before expressed) to the intent that they should apply to the service of their maker/ with a free/ pure/ & quiet mind/ & seeing also that by their merits and prayers they should be reconciled and desire god to be merciful b●th● to themself and also to them: by whose alms/ charity/ & stypendies they are sustained: for that cause they are forbidden to use any worldly acts or occupations which should be a vehement let both unto the foresaid quietness of mind unto their pure profession of god/ & also unto their inward liberty to divine matters: whereby they should be discharged of all secular and worldly business/ And these be the same worldly business that be ordained for worldly lucre: that is to wite: worldly merchandise and secular offices by whom the heart of man is greatly disposed to outward things is greatly wraped in worldly things. And also with drawn from spiritual and ghostly things. To the contrary whereof the Apostle saith in this wise. None that serveth god ought to entangle himself in worldly business. Whereof the bishop Nicasius spoke in the acts of the counsel of Cartage on this fashion. I suppose that my suggestion doth right well please your holiness: & partly displease ye: w●ich is/ that such as serve god/ and annexed to the clergy/ should not meddle in worldly business / offices/ or stuardshypes of houses. The holy bishop Gratianus saith that this sentence before rehearsed was institute of the Apostles/ that is to say that/ no man ministering in the service of god may fold himself in worldly business. And therefore clerks may be no purchasers of houses and no purchasers of houses may occupy the offices of clerks. And further to prove these things/ it evidently appeareth in the xiiii question. As this/ it was established in the statutes of rules at the counsel of Tarracon/ that who so ever would be one of the clergy/ he must not use the study of buying good cheap and selling dear/ and if he did/ he should be corrected by the clergy. For that purpose also it was institute in the holy synod of Niceo/ that for because many clerks following the fowl lucre of avarice/ do forget the precepts and commandments of god/ therefore that holy counsel did ordain this/ that is to wite. If any man from henceforth were found taking any usury/ either following any fowl lucre by any such manner business/ or putting forth any manner of corn for advantage or going about any such matter of merchandise / for the only lucre & gains thereof/ he should then be expulsed from th● clergy: and another of the church degree to be had in his place. Thereof pope Gelasius speaketh in like manner saying thus. Clerks know right well: that they ought to abstain from such unworthy gains: and also to refrain from all craft and covetousness of any manner of marchaudyse. And of what degree so ever they be that will not cease to use such lucre: immediately they must be compelled to forsake their offices in the church. In the counsel also of pope Martin it was commanded in this wise If any of them forgetting the fear of god had done usury upon trust to win but the hundredth part thereof or looked for gaymes by any manner of merchandise: or hath taken increase: by buying or selling any wine: corn: or other thing: he should be cast down from his degree and another of the clergy should have supplied his stead & place. The saying of pope Melchiades herewith agreyth. The holy general counsel hath decreed: that hereafter no clerk shall hire any possessions or intermedel with any worldly business: except it be for the charge & maintenance of infants/ orphleyns/ and widows/ or except he were commanded by his bishop to take the chargis of any goods longing unto the church: for the offices spiritual and temporal are extercyse. But furthermore it appeareth about the end of the third book of decretals in the Lateran counsel: what business is prohibit unto clerks. And thus it is there said. There be many secular business of the which we shall touch part/ because unto them all carnal concupiscence appertaineth. And what so ever a man that coveteth more than is right: it is called fowl lucre/ it is forbidden unto them injustly to take or receive any rewards: to hire any man for any worldly gain or pray/ to love any contention debate or scolding to plead or dispute in secular pleas/ except it be for the defence of orphelyns/ or widows. They ought to be no doctoures or proctors of secular matters: to love no secular games/ or gifts of filthy acts or communication/ to delight in dice/ to desire unconvenient apparel for their estate: to live in delycyousnes: to wallow in gluttony and drunkenness: to haunt: or to hawk: or to be conversant in any vain or superfluous business. Behold how utterly we prohibit these things with all other like/ unto regulars and ministers of the altar of god. In the rules of the apostles it is ferther of this matter mentioned after this fashion. A bishop/ priest/ or decane aught in nowise to take upon them any secular cure or charge. Pope alexander the third did also forbid both regulars/ and other clerkis upon pain of cursing that they should make no merchandise for any worldly lucre. Saint Jerome also saith in this manner. Flee and avoid from the company of a clerk being a merchant. Avoid from poverty to riches/ from a mean man to a noble man/ as though it were from a plague of the Pestilemce. Therefore priests/ and clerks be forbidden/ to be brokers of any secular business. All this is confirmed by pope Nicolas in the xxii chapter of the decree in the third question saying this. It came to knowledge at a general counsel that certain of the clergy had taken upon them secular matters/ for the ●●●●le lucre of great possessions 〈…〉 by that holy council it was 〈…〉 from thenceforth no priest/ 〈…〉 ●lar should hire any poss●● 〈…〉 ●medle with any secular matters or procurations except such as be called by the law theronto for the defence of such as be within age orphellynes/ or the great necessities of widows/ or else if the Bishop hath committed the governance of the church goods unto them. And therefore/ oftentimes it is touched in the decree that some manner of business be unlawful to be done of all men and that be such as can not be done without time as usury & simony. And there be some that seldom or very hardly may be done without sin as the merchandise before rehearsed. But now to know wherefore clerks & other ministers of the church ought to abstain from all such worldly business/ saint Thomas in the lxxvii. question of his book compendiously touchyth saying thus. clerks ought not only to abstain from such things that be evil of themself/ but also from such things as have a savour or colour of evil as merchandise hath/ forby cause it is ordained for worldly lucre/ which clerks utterly aught to despise and contemn. Secondaryly for the great haunt of sin among merchauntꝭ. Thirdly because that by merchandise the mind of man is wrappid with warldly carks & utterly withdrawn/ from godly things To this the holy Martyr and bishop Ciprianus noting the occasion thereof addyth his mind saying. Such as be honored with holy priesthood or constistute in the service of clerks ought themself to apply to nothing/ but to the altar and sacrifice of god with holy and devout prayers/ & lections. Behold therefore to how virtuous/ quiet and spiritual life and good example regulars be bound which be commanded to abstain not only from evil and vice itself/ but also from all spice of evil and occasion of sin/ in like manner from all sensual affection/ from the pleasures of this world/ from all pomp and worldly garnishing/ meekly also and lowly from all vain and superfluous acts plays tryfulles/ or games. And furthermore they be commanded in no wise to give audience to mynystrelles/ gestours/ or dysardes/ to play at dice/ or cards/ or to be present at such games as shore plainly in the article following is declared.   

¶ For what cause Clerks/ Regulars/ and other constitute in holy ordres ought to refrain fro mynstrellis jesters and dysardes/ taverns/ & eke the play of Cards an dice. ☞ The ix article. ☜  
IT is convenient for ministers of the church (whom it behooveth to differ from the life & manners of secular men) to be ripe in good manners and disposition/ to give diligence unto contrition & to the fere of god/ in like manner to apply themself unto prayer/ psalmodyes' with other acts of penance in the sight of almighty god/ to the intent that lhey may please and satisfy god/ aswell for their own excess and sin/ as for the offences of their foundars and benefactors. Therefore they are commanded to beware of such things as will them dyscever from contrition remorse of conscience and devotion/ and such as will induce unperfit living and engender worldly conditions/ as these be/ that is to say/ famylyarite/ exercise/ games/ & dissportes of mynstrellis/ jesters/ & dyssardys'/ haunting of taverns feasts and banquets/ playing at dice and cardys'/ whereunto many enorm vices be annexed/ and so it proceedeth of the love and desire of money and concernyth avarcyte. But furdermor that it may be more deeply plainly an surely notyfied/ after what fashion it is lawful for regulars and mynystres of the church some time to play/ & what manner of disport is comely for them/ that is to be noted that saint Thomas writeth in his second destinctions. Durandus also in his book called summa. johan in his book called summa confessorum/ and other are of the same opinion saying thus. Like as a man needeth corporal refreshing/ rest/ & sleep/ forbecause he is not able to labour continually/ right so the soul hath need of recreation and comfort/ which must be done by some words or acts where nothing is intended or required but only spiritual delectation and pleasure. And these be called words or acts of pastime/ and dysport concerning whom/ three things are principally to be observed. The first is this. That no such delectation be required/ by words or acts inhonest filthy or hurtful to any man. The second is that the gravity and devotion of har●● may in nowise be resolved by any such game The third is that the game may agree both with the person/ time/ & place and also that then game be garnished with other circumstances of virtue. And truly that virtue wherewith a man may so conveniently behave himself/ in games or plays/ is (after the mind of the philosopher in the fourth book of Ethykꝭ) called. Furthermore if there be any fowl or filthy wanton hurtful/ or slanderous words/ or acts exersysed in such games/ or plays. It is a great sin & oftentimes a sin mortal/ although peradventure the play of itself/ be but a sin venial. Now here we may perceive/ with whom/ what time/ and after what fashion it is lawful for Regulars and other mynystres of the church to play. Such may play after the manner and fashion foresaid/ as do consyst in good exersyse both of spiritual and temporal things/ so that therewith they do not themself overmych defatigate and make weary. But the same liberty is not given unto them that be full of babbling and idleness/ which continually do move laughter and wildness which also do haunt banquets/ and in them exceed both in communication mocks gestis outragyousnes and intemperancy and also in all other immoderate conceits. Therefore the mynystres of the church do greatly offend/ and deserve intolerable punishment/ especially regulars and such as are constitute in holy ordres/ which should be every day very ready to do such things as perteigne to the service of god/ and speedily perform their hours and times of prayer/ hastily putting themself forward in divine service. But in the stead thereof they do diligently fulfil such things as may please the carnal carcase/ feeding it gorgeously and delicately delighting in many praty several toys. And furthermore when their belies be full or at other valiant times/ they apply themself other to gests and tryfulles or else to that/ that is more enorm and out of the way/ as to play at cardis and dice/ or being in presence where such games be used commoning/ talking/ and being in great favour or famylyarite with the players/ bearing many times half part  them/ in there winning or losing.  
Certainly these men have no reasonable cause to play but rather in such t●m● as they do play they ought to bewa●● their sin/ & the time that they have spent in all such vain recreations/ idleness/ tales/ fables/ laugh●●rs/ unfruitfully/ ye and to say the truth viciously/ & also to morn and make amends accordingly/ for all their necglygens and defaults which they have committed in not performing their divine service. But these manner of persons are only given to their games and disports/ & as for their devotion and perfectness of heart (if peradventure they had any before) it is altogether severed and corrupted.  
O god lord how perilous is the life of such men/ ye how wicked and damnable which (being bound after dinner & supper done/ to return to their chambers) or to go in to their studies or libraries/ there to be given (as Cipriane saith) to holy reading to wholesome doctrine & devout meditation) will utterly show themself unto outward things/ and stobburnly dispose themself to carnal & worldly pleasure/ diverse manner of wise losing and in spending that precious time/ that god hath granted unto them/ nothing regarding that thing that they are ●alled unto/ neither disclosing their conscience before god/ nor yet at any time duly and effectually pondering/ how great and manifold things they are bound unto. Of such person's saint Bernard the elect servant of god speaketh thus. The negligent slackness of clerks troblyth & molestyth the church of god throughout all the world/ surely they are enriched by other means labour/ they eat the fruits of the earth without money or charge & devour the labours of the poor a man's mind accustomed with delycyousnes/ and barreigne of learning must needs engender many vices. How many (I pray you) shall we see the which do not serve nor obey christ as their lord & god but their wombs as their lord & god/ and verily fornication raineth in many of them/ which ministering unto the maker and increaser of all cleanness and chastity/ with a filthy mouth and an unclean heart/ do not fere the angel of god standing near unto them/ which may destroy and cute them atwo in the myddyll. Furthermore as Duradus in his book called summa procidith saying. Every manner of play that is applied unto chance or fortune (as the play at dice is) may not be used for money/ except six things be aggreabble with the same. The first is/ covenyence of person/ for it is not lawful for clerks to play at dice/ wherefore let a common dicer/ or usurar be put back from obtaining spiritual dignity/ notwithstanding there be a custom to the contracy as appeareth in the title Extra de excess i Inter dilectos. yet never the less the benefice being obtained/ the bishop may owe him favour/ if he will be corrected/ otherwise of right be aught to be deposed/ for otherwise/ he aught by the law to be deposed as aperith in the xiiii question in the title. Siquis & caritas. The second is convenience of martyer or substance for some manner of wise they may play for meat/ or drink/ supposing their game always to be commendable as is before expressed/ so it it be not intended but as reasonable solace & no lucre. The third is the conclusion thereof/ that is to say/ that it be not exercised for covertyse or avarice but for recreation. The fourth is/ measure/ for no man may play above a shilling/ although the player be very rich as it appeareth in the beginning of the title/ de religiosis. The fyftyth is time conueniene so that the play be not done in time of morning penance or counsel. The vi is the convenience of the fashion and manner so that your play be without dys●eyte/ and no man do any thing against the law of the game/ nor one provoke another to play. clerks falling in to so great blindness wickedness/ & fransye may well note this/ that notwithstanding their holy rules & decrees/ they be bold & presumptuous to dice openly/ and for that fowl desire of lucre/ they play at cards and dice like as it were secular gansters/ where yet not withstanding they are bound to make restitution of their winning or else to convert it into some other charitable use otherwise they may not be saved nor yet absoluid by sacraments There be also so many & so heinous offences consisting in such manner of play/ which raymundus hostiensis johan & other doth rehearse/ & pauenture within this book somewhat towchid/ let them therefore repent them like wretched creaturis/ let them ponder their dreadful judgement & also the tormentꝭ of hell intolerable: which soon afterward they will incur without remedy/ except they do not only forsake their abomination/ but also do suffer condign penance.   

¶ An introduction of divers wholesome considerations whereby we may perceive that all faithful Christian people/ especially ministers of the church are bound to despise all vanity and superfluite of plays disports & other vain delectations. ☞ The ten article. ☜  
LIKE as the holy Apostle Saint Petre wyttnessythe. Our saviour Christ suffered for us/ leaving example to follow his steps. Therefore who so sayeth that he dwelleth in Christ he must walk as Christ walked. For members ought to be conformable unto their head. And forsooth it is radde that Christ in this present world/ did sigh morn weep and was troubled in spirit but he never played laughed nor made disport. For that cause we are bound (as moche as the fragility of human nature will permit and suffer us) to follow his perfectness gravity and diligence as by his own commandment appeareth in this wise. He that will be my servant let 'em follow me. And fordermore.  
¶ The first introduction to despise voluptuousness vanity as slackness is the consideratcyon of the life and conversation of Christ/ which said unto his disciples in this manner. I gave you example/ that as I did/ you should do/ holy saint Hierome affirm the same saying thus/ it is impossible to rejoice of this world/ and after to reign with Christ. To the same Solomon said in this wise. I reputed laughing as an error/ and say unto joy/ why art thou deceived in vain.  
¶ The second introduction is the consideration of the place of this present life For we be in this world as though we were in a great exile/ in a vale of lamentation in a cottage of calamity/ in a religion of the shadow of death in a feigned Kingdom in a pilgrimage in a worn way and in a prison.  
Therefore me think it against all wisdom in such a place to desire to swim in delycyousnes/ to be let slip among vanities/ to be refreshed with laughter and dysportꝭ/ ye & he that in this would covetythe to be prosperous in riches pleasure and honour showeth himself in so doing to be no pilgrim/ nothe● the lover of the heavenly country/ but a ●ys●syne and/ son of babylon/ a servant of imquite/ a man in the way of perdycyo●.  
Thereof speaketh the Prophet jeremy saying thus. O thou wand'ring and wicked daughter/ unto the time that thou be losed & dissolved from delycyousnes/ my soul refusyth all comfort. And also this of the prophet David woe is me that my dwelling place is prolonged.  
And the Apostle witnesseth of the holy Prophets of the old testament and of the law of nature in this manner/ that they confessed to be Pylgrymmes & strangers upon the Earth. Therefore from this present exile we should oftentimes very fervently sigh unto that most glorious country of blessed men/ & these worldly joys we should abhor/ as though they were the very carppis of everlasting death/ that we might say as the apostle said. God forbid that I should rejoice in any thing except in the cross of my lord jesus Christ by whom the world of me is persercuted/ and I of the world.  
The third is the consideration of daungere in whom we be put at large. For we do walk and be always conversant in the mids of gynnies/ & in a field every where fully compassed with a multitde of innumerable invisible most cruel & crafty enemies of this world whose power & furor very few do escape. And truly we be uncerteigne whether our conversation do please god or no/ or whether finally we shall be damned/ or whether our oftences shallbe forgiven. And also we know that grievously & many manner of wise we displease our most straight & fearful judge & that daily we offend being also very prove & ready to vice. All such things if we duly consider/ it shall please us better to morn and lament than to make dysportꝭ & plays. And also we shall say as Solomon said. Better it is to go to the house of lamentation than to the house of pleasure and solace. In the one house that is to say in the house of morning/ the end of all mortal men is noted/ & a man living should ponder what is to come.  
¶ The fourth is the consideration of all evil and myschyef as well of offence as of pain & punishment that every day is done in the world (that is to say) because so many great and mischievous acts be continually done in the world/ by cause our maker a mighty of his creatures at all time is had in small honour and reverence/ because continually so many soulis do eternally perish/ because so many and great tribulac●●●● calamities/ penury discomfort/ oppressions/ do incessantly chance our friends/ neighbours'/ & membris of Christ of whom (if we love them) we must have compassion/ as we would that thy should have compassion of us being in like case/ surely who so doth this duly ponder/ he will say as jeremy said.  
Who will give to my head/ water/ and to mine eyes a fountain of tears/ & I will weep evermore. And saying Samuel so long time and so sorrowful bewailed saul/ and Ieoronne the destruction of Jerusalem. Paul also some of the Corinthis/ how much more is our forsets mischief to be bewailed. Therefore let us have compassion of our neighbours being in great danger and dyscomfort.  
¶ The .v. is the multitude and greatness of harm and displeasure/ that such delectations bringeth unto man. For they spoil a man from all grace/ which delectations also brought Solomon in to great folly. And attempted Eve to the transgression of god's commandment/ they do vehemently blind the mind of man and harden and maintain him in mischief ye they procure everlasting damnation. For that thing wherein a man delytyth is but of short time his vexation and trouble therefore is perdurable.  
What man for the pleasure of one night/ will be glad ever after to lie in a brenning furnace. O wherefore presume we to commit mortal sin where for one sin mortal we must be ponyssed with the fervent infernal pains that evermore do endure. The sixth is vileness filthiness and bestly pleasure of the flesh/ for the which/ man is most despised of god and made unlike to angels/ and conformable to beasts/ whereupon the saying of the Prophet johel concerning carnal desire is expounded on this fashion. The herds of beasts did rot and consume in their own filthiness and dung.  
And as the Prophet David saith in like manner. A man that percevyth not when he is in honour/ may be compared unto brute and rude beasts/ furthermore much bitterness is mingled with the pleasure of the world and the flesh/ such pleasure also is oftentimes acquisyte/ and gotten both with great expenses and danger/ prepared with sore labour/ and yet they repent at length. Therefore Solomon sayeth youth and voluptuousness be but vany●c●s. And further ●his he said. I will go and swim in delight and wallow in riches/ & yet I perceived that all was but vany●e. Therefore in this present life grant to us to take repentance/ let us endeavour ourself unto the ac●es of penance/ let us also ever absteigne from wildness of heart vanity/ & obstinate liberty.   

¶ Of convenient apparel of mynystrꝭ of the church/ espcyally of regulars/ & of their manifold excess in garments & of the desire thereof to be avoided. ☞ The xi Article. ☜  
THE more virtuous that the mynystrꝭ of the church are bound to be in respect of the lay people/ the more simple meek & full of good example they ought to be in their apparel.  
They ought in like manner to observe the thing that is red in the book of Ecclesiasticus that is to say. Thou shall not rejoice at any time in thine apparel especially in such manner of apparel as may give evil occasion or pleasantly entice or move the eyes or hearts of women that behold it (that is to say) they be always bound to beware of curious arrayment & pompous apparel. And where also holy fathers as Jerome & chrysostom & other do not only testify this of them but also of every faithful creature saying thus. A man or a woman garnishing themselves/ & by their decking & trimming provoking the eyes of other upon them although thereof no mischief doth ensue yet he or she so doing shall suffer eternal ponysshement/ because they did put forth poison/ if there had be any man that would have drunk it that is to say they did shewforth temptation if any man would have be attempted. If this abomination be so detestable among the lay people/ it is much more mischievous among the ministers of the church/ which principally be bound to edify other creatures in virtue. Therefore (seeing they go so gorgeously) deckid as though it were a bride we may say as saint Bernard said behold how they go garnished like to a bride that were coming forth of her wedding chamber/ insomych that if ye see any such far from you/ ye would rather judge it to be the bride than the priest that should her mary. Surely according to the doctrine of holy fathers than be as well commanded to be contented with simple apparel/ as with simple fare. Thereof the holy Apostle saith thus. Be ye in no wise conformable unto this world/ but be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind Therefore a regular or a priest aught to beware of all curiosity/ pomp/ superfluity vanity/ and wantonness of all worldly garments/ as the holy Doctors and Prelates/ Basilius/ Isidorus & other/ have us informed. But now concerning this matter/ the rulies and statutes which sprang by the divine inspiration should be considered. For why it is red in the seventh synod/ and also in the xxi decree as here followeth. All bragging/ ruffling and garnishing is the thing that is most far from holy order/ and it behooveth such bishops and Clerks which dress themself in bright glorious & pleasant apparel/ to amend it/ for if they remain in wearing thereof they shall be put to penance. In semblable wise all such manner of men that use ointments such cursed people also which have them in derision that be clothed in poor and religious ornaments/ shallbe corrected by imprisonment. In the old time verily a holy man (that is to say) a man constitute in holy ordres did lead his life being covered with a very vile and mean garment. And truly every garment that is not taken for necessity/ but for comeliness (as Basilius sayeth) hath a spice of pride: moreover Pope zachary did institute this that followeth. bishops priests and Decanes may were no secular apparel/ but garments convenient for their order. They may not presume to walk in any city comyne way or street without their cowlies or coverings except it be in some long journey/ for like as a woman praying in the church bareheded/ according unto the saying of th'apostle doth dishonest her own head even so priests or regulars wand'ring abroad without their cowls or other upper garments dishonest their Presthod and religion/ wherefore it is ordained that if any of them do stobbornly presume to transgress the said institutes/ that he should be expulsed from the religious congregation/ unto the time that he had fulfilled such things that were ordained by the same statutes for the same purpose. Innocentius the second aggregeth with the same saying thus we command that as well bishop/ as priests and clerks shall themself endeavour to pacify god and man/ both in their spiritual estate & also in their corporal behaviour/ & not in superfluity cutting guarding or colour of garmentis/ neither they shall offend or hurt by their shaving the aspect of the beholders whose rule and example they ought to be/ but rather they should observe holiness which would much better be come them. Here also saith saint Bernard. That it is the sin of sacrilege/ where as the goods of poor people be not distribute/ unto them. For the ecclesiastical goods be the patrimony and heritage of the poor people. And what somever the mynystres of the church do take besides their simple and necessary food and apparel it is violently stolen from the poor people as cruel sacrilege And god ordained not that such as minister the gospel/ should thereby desire riches or apparel/ but that they should be contented to live with necessary food & apparel/ & not to seek provocation unto pleasure of the body/ not to receive such apparel wherewith they might be trimmed/ but such wherewith they might be covered. But now when a man may be contented with such a necessary living what creature in this world would enter in to religion to the intent that he would gather together keep and dyspend the srypendes of the clergy in to uses of pleasure curiosity and vanity. Hereof again speaketh that blessed saint Bernard saying thus. The naked and hungry do cry and complain on this fashion.  
What availeth unto us miserably vexed with hunger and cold/ the great change of garments that lie in pressies and are eaten of Mothis'. It is ours that ye consume and waste/ it is cruelly stolen from us/ that ye unprofitably and wyckidly dyspend. O ye curious and delectable persons ye have wherewith we might be refreshed/ and we poor people can not find wherewith we should be susteigned. And furthermore god moste rightwise and sapyent made all worldly goods common to every man having need/ and that every man should conveniently use them according to his estate/ so that as touching/ the use/ all temporal goods should be in common/ although that concerning the right and title of possessing & dyspensing of them/ some men have property in some goods.  
And as saint Thomas affirmyth in his book called Secunda second/ in this manner what soever any man superfluously converscyth to his own use/ or what so ever he reseruyth nygardly/ or getteth immoderately/ he stelyth it away from the poor people/ and incurryth the sin of thief or robbery/ ye and the daungere of other grievous cruelty as Wilhelmus parisiensis & Vlrichus doth the wyttnesse and declare. For this purpose also the blessed father Ambrose maketh protestation of that thing that is had in the decree in the xxvii. distinction/ in the chapiter beginning sicut hi/ in this manner of wise whether god be so just/ so inequalle to distribute the subsidies and sustenance of life (that is to say) that thou shouldest be rich and abundant & other very poor and needy? Or did he suffer it to be so/ to then sent that thou myghtꝭ have a proof of his liberality/ and to glorify another thorough the virtue of patience or sufferance/ but thou therefore receiving the gifts of god/ & bestowing them to thy noun use/ thynkyst thou dost nothing injustly/ if thou alone do obtain or reserve the substance of life of many creatures. O what creature can find in is heart to be so uncharitable and so covetous to dispend the nourishment of so many poor people/ not only to his own private use/ but also to his great abundance delight and pleasure. And truly it is no less sin to take away from him that hath/ than to deny the needy when a man is abundant and may give.  
That thou witholdyst/ is the food & bred of them that be hungry. Thine apparel that thou putyst up is the clothing of them that be naked. Thy money which thou hydyst in the earth/ and dyst enclose in thy coffer is the very redemption of men being in calamity misery & captivity. Therefore thou mayst know how thou walowyst in the goods of other men/ and how prosperous thou art in respect of them/ and yet wilt not leave or departed with them/ with this thing especially the saying of Basilius aggreith. If thou wilt confess that the temporal riches came to thy hands by the gift of god/ shall god therefore be reputed unjust/ for dystrybuting the goods unto us/ not indefferently/ by cause thou hast to much & another hath to little. Nay but to th'intent that thou shouldest obtain of a just dispensatour & that they neighbour should be rewarded for his patience it is the breed of the hungry that thou withholdyst the cote of the bare that thou keepest in privy chamber/ the shoe of the bare fore that rottyth in thy house/ the money of the needy that thou posse●●●t in the earth and coffers. Therefore thou dost great injury to so many poor people as thou art able to give or lend unto Let my masters the regulars and mynystres of the church to whom one benefice is not competent and sufficient/ mark well this. Let such note and consider the necessity of the poor people/ that have so many precious garments and furs lying in their chambers/ that make their gold and silver their god/ and treasure that voluptuosly and sumptuosly do aldayes of their life consume & waste it. Let them look how they can make account thereof unto the high judge of heaven/ whose members they daily suffer to perish by hungres/ thirst/ nakedness/ and cold to whom also they give neither harborough nor bedding. Thereof also it is spoken in the book called. S●mma virtutum et vitiorum in this wise. ministers of the church do greuou●ly and many manner of ways offend in their apparel.  
first in the exceeding precyousnes there of. Secondaryly in tenderness. Thirdly in curyousnes. Fourthly in superfluy●e thereof. For as blessed johan the baptist saith who so hath two cofes that is to say/ one that he hath no need of/ let him give it to one that hath none.  
Therefore trimming/ and decking/ apparel is to be avoided of regulars & mynystres of the church/ which before is towchid in the fourth chapiter that they should were close garmetes not over long nor short/ and also there it is prohibit that in no wise they may were red or green cloth except in their ornaments pertaining to divine service. Furthermore it is red among the miracles of glorious saint Jerome that a certain cardinal named Andreas being deed should have been eternaly condemned/ except saint Jerome by intercession had obtained the restoring again of the body unto the soul/ to do penance and satisfaction in this present life/ & especially forbecause he meruelowsly exceeded in his apparel yet notwithstanding otherwise he was a very chaste and clean man and also ended with many goods and commendable virtues.   

¶ That in no wise women may dwell with regulars or mynystrers of the church constitute in holy ordres except they be very old and near of kindred. ☞ The xii Article. ☜  
EXPERIENCE is the masters of truth. Therefore what needeth it manifoldly to prove that thing that experience showeth. For evidently it appeareth by good proof/ how many and enorm mischiefs how/ hurtful occasions how great ruin and dyfformyte (worthy to be lamented) have sprung by the reason of the cohabitation and dwelling of women with prestis and regular persons in somuch that now from the crown of the heed to the sole of the foot there is in a manner no health (that is to say) from the highest unto the lowyst in a manner no cleanness or chastity. But it is as the prophet Ozeas hath ꝓphesyed. That fornication and adultery hath swymmyd all about whereby it appeareth how dangerous such cohabytations is and worthy to avoid/ with how great reason also and discretion/ holy father's Popes/ bishops/ and other in many general councils have the same prohibited. And truly the more straightly and vehemently that it is prohybite unto high and noble prelate's the more disobedience contempt and negligence is in them if it be not avoided. Therefore certain decrees of the general councils of pope's/ bishops & other be very necessary to be touched and spoken of to declare how sagely/ holy and discrete fathers have abhorred/ prohibit and utterly excluded this for said cohabitation/ or dwelling with women. It is read that concerning this matter/ it was fully provided at the council of Maguntyne. That no priest or clerk should keep or retain any women whereby evil suspicion might be had between them/ nor yet such manner of women as their rules will grant them/ that is to say/ that mother/ aunt/ or sister/ for by the the instigation of the devil it hath be perceived that abominable offence hath be done with them/ or else with their waiting maidens. But the straightness of this decree was afterward somewhat losed as touching very old women & near kynnysfolke upon whom nature or age will not suffer any synnyster act to be suspected. hereupon Innocentius the third writing to a certain bishop saith. That ye ought not to suffer women to inhabit with clerkis except such (as before is said) in whom the law of nature will no evil suspect. Thereto also the blessed Pope Gregori saith in this wise/ we will and forbid that clerks priests or regulars be not conversant nor dwelling with women/ except with their mother/ sister/ or such other. It is red and also discussed in the register that blessed Augustyne did not agree that one should be in house with his own sister saying thus. Such as be with my sister be not my sisters. Therefore that understanding of so great a learned man ought to be an instruction unto us. Saint Gregori sayeth again that it is declared in the decree in the lxxxi distinction/ how it behooveth that priests (to whom the people of god be committed) do substantially attend upon their lords flock that it be not devoured of devils neither I aught to keep silence in th●● thing that I do show unto you with great lamentation and sadness. For I do perceive prestis inhabiting with women/ which is an abominable thing to be hard or spoken of & contrary to the statutes of their holy rules and ordinances For look where such cohabitation is/ there lackyth no provacatyon o● attempting of our enemy the devil. Therefore they ought to be severed let the tr●wde of the invisible enemy descry them ●o that (according to the words of the Apostle) our service may not be despised/ for he saith thus. We presses aught to be wait of all unlawful acts/ that we may life up clean hands unto almyghty god (which saith) be you holy for I am holy And truly if any man presumeth to do contrary/ let him be excluded from the honour of priesthood. Furthermore it is induced in the acts of the general council of Nice in this wise. Above all thing the general council forbiddeth that it is not lawful to any bishop/ priest/ decan or subdecon/ nor to any other in the clergy to have or keep any woman in his house (that is to say) to inhabit or dwell with any woman (as Eratianus expoundyth in the Rubrikes) except with the mother/ sister or aunt or with such persons as will avoid suspicion. The bewray same thing was commanded in the Council of Carthago for there Scirietus then Pope said. We will suffer no other women to be in the houses of clerks but such as the holy counsel of Nice hath suffered to inhabit with them/ for certain causes only of necessity. Moreover holy fathers did not only prohibit cohabitation with women/ but also suspectyous visitation a●d communication with them. This all ●●s contained in the sixth synod or council. It is convenient to be observed of all clerks/ that they never common and talk with a woman except at a covenyent time and place/ to the intent that all mischievous suspicion may be avoided. Surely no manner of religion may permit & suffer them to come together alone. This is also rehearsed in the sixth council Affrykan. Clerks or chaste men may in no wise resort to widows or virgins except by the commandment of bishops or priests/ and yet they shall not alone/ but they shall go with their clerkis or with other which the bishop or priest himself may not unto women alone resort for fere of suspection. Therefore pope Luttus saith. A clerk shall not go alone without his superiors commandment unto the house of a woman. And a priest and a woman may in no wise talk together alone. Nor the Archedecane may under the colour of humility or of his office/ oftentimes enter into the houses of women/ nor send any thing to the good wife privily by their scholars/ or howsehold servants. For if that be committed and known/ he shallbe deposed from his office. And she shallbe suspended from the graces of the church. Therefore because prestis are suffered to cohabyte and dwell with women that be of their kindred/ it is to be supposed that no other prohibited women ought to inhabit with their kynneswomen.  
And for that cause priests and regulars cohabyting with their mothers or kynneswomen must take heed that no estrange women dwell with their kynneswomen except they be very old and aged.  
saying also this cohabitation is so straightly prohibited/ that no pressed or clerk although he were chaste in deed ought such cohabitation to admit for any hope of temporal advantage which thing he will surely fulfil/ if he have any priest or person religious under him which he ought to oversee.  
And altough it vere sure/ that he should never be proved of the part of the women yet it ought to be searched/ lest the woman be proved of his part.   

¶ That chastity of body and cleanness of heart do principally become priests and regulars. ❧ The xiii Article. ❧  
SURE it is/ that no man may please God or obtain bliss/ without cleanness of heart insomych/ that our saviour saith. Blessybed they that be clean of heart for they shall see the face of god. Whereof also Solomon saith. He that loveth cleanness of heart shall have a king to his friend. Where of in like manner the Apostle said/ unto the king of worlds immortal and invisible on this fasyon. Every faithful Christian man is bound to chastity/ other virginal/ conjugal/ or vidual/ or to such chastity that is abstinence from all unlawful congressyon. Furthermore the mynystres of the church be many ways bound unto chastity.  
first because in their first consceration/ or promotion to holy ordres/ they have straightly by vow & promise bound themselves unto chastity. And as it is copiously declared in their decree. No man ought to be promoted unto priesthood/ nor yet to take upon him any holy ordres that be inferior unto priesthood/ except he do promise and vow chastity/ and that chastity is not only outwardly promised/ but also inwardly/ insomuch that they bind themself to observe all the holy rules and decrees of the same.  
For verily a vow doth more substantially bind/ than an oath/ as saint Thomas in his book called Secunda second. joannes Bartholomeus and other/ do wyttnesse/ and as Alexander/ Bonaventura and other/ that do write upon the fourth book of the sentence say. A vow by religious profession and taking of holy ordres/ is solemnyzed & made very solemn in effect which also strongly byndyth a man to the performing thereof & likewise unto spiritual conursacyon in somuch that it doth not only ꝓhibyt & let them to contract matrimony/ but also dissolveth and breakyth that matrimony that is already contracted/ for in such a solemn vow a man promiseth not only to do well and eschew evil/ but also he must fulfil his vow in severing himself from worldly and carnal things and also in applying divine & spiritual things. Therefore priests regulars & other in the taking of holy ordres they give and offer themself to god/ to the intent that they will do him faithful and diligent service/ and therefore they be consecrate to their maker/ and ordained to be his mynystres. The violent taking and usurping of other men's goods/ is theft/ if it happen to be done privily. And truly robbrye openly done and also the abusion of holy things is called sacrilege. Also robbing or spoiling of things consecrated unto god may be very well judged sacrilege. Therefore priests and mynystres of the church doing fornication do commit sacryledge/ sacrilege: ye sacryledge and high robbrye/ in withdrawing themself from the service of god/ from the acts of cleanness/ and shameful obeyeng and giving them self to all manner of fowl stinking and abominable vice & carnal desire. Wherefore if stealing or robbing of a chaleys be an horrible theft and sacrilege much more abominable is the spoiling or corrupting of a reasonable creature offered/ consecrate and given unto god/ as priests be. Secondaryly chastity principally belongeth unto mynystres of the church/ for this cause. For as holy Dionysius sayeth. The lowest of high order/ and the highest of the lower order ought to be agreeable and like/ now the lowest of the high hyerarchy or order is the company of holy angels. And the highest in the lower order of the church militant is the order of priests and clerks wherefore the prophet Malachi calleth a pressed by the name of angel/ for it is said. The lips of a pressed doth keep learning/ and the people: shall look for their law out of his mouth/ for he is the angel of the lord of hosts. priests therefore and Clerks are bound to live purely/ & chastened like angels/ but they against all rightwiseness do mordynatly sin/ leading their life in carnal filthy & bestly desire. Thirdly because they be in the place and stead of god/ & as the vicar's of god. Therefore they are straightly bound to live godly/ & not bestly & fylthylye/ or else they do grievously offend against the charity of god. Fourthly forby cause they be set in high dignity & had in greater honour for the love of god/ therefore they ought to be acceptable to god/ & to serve him in cleanness. fifthly forby cause they may please god reconcile other unto god/ and clence than that be unclean/ therefore they are bound to please god with chastity and cleanness. And where saint Bernard sayeth woe be to the children of the devil which not being reconciled themself/ hath take upon them the office to reconcile other/ as though it were people that had done rightwiseness. And also the apostle affirm the same saying thus. They that be in flesh (that is to say) they that live carnally can not please god In the book also of Ecclesiasticus thus it is said. Of an unclean thing what may be made clean. And in the xii chapter of the prophet Naun. It is written thus. The priests were cleansed & than they made clean the people. The sixth forby cause they do take/ handle/ & receive holy things/ ye that thing that is holy of all holy/ which sayeth himself. I am the living breed that descended from heaven. And furthermore if it were so straight ꝓhybyt in Moses law that no unclean person should ear offer or thouche any fleshly/ or bestly sacrifice/ how cursed & mischievous be they before the face of god/ which do take handle and put forth to other/ the very body/ & blood of our saviour Christ and only begotten son of god/ and yet they remain in their abomination living wickedly and filthily/ & giving evil occasion to other/ did not god by the mouth of Moses command that no priest should presume to minister unto god except he were sanctified. And also that a man being unclean should not offer bred unto god. And in another place a corrupt soul which had eaten of the sacrifice of good creatures should peryishe from among the people. And ferther in the first book of kings in the xxi chapter it is red that a bishop said unto David in this wise. I have no unhallowed bred/ but only holy bred/ and if the children and servants be clean (especially from women) let them eat it/ ye the priests of the old law in the time of their office/ and sacrifice were commanded to absteigne from their lawful wives.  
Therefore how great mischief cursedness and unshamefastness is among prestis and clerks which (wallowing in their fowl & abominable filthiness) do handle the most worthy and precious sacraments. Doth there not (think you) hang over their heeds an infinite & more than a painful punishment? God knoweth. The seventh is forbecause they be the eyes in the mystical body of the hole church and truly a little spot or offence is very hurtful to the eye. The eight forbecause they be the glass into whom the lay people should direct their eyes/ which glass ought to be very clean & bright. The ix is because the carnalyte of them is so abundant/ to the great injury/ and contempt of almighty god/ and giveth so evil occasion unto the people and also is more hurtful than can be supposed unto all such offenders/ for it blyndyth and hardenyth them in vice and in conclusion damneth them. It maketh also such vile and cursed creatures/ to be despised disdained and hated both of god & man. Furthermore after the meaning of Wilhelmus Parisiensis & other doctors/ such mynystres have no right to the goods of the church which be deputed to the members and sowdyars of Christ. And what soever they do usurp and spend of the patrimony of Christ it is very theft and robbrye. They be also straightly bound to restitution of all such goods as they dyspend among bores or harlots or other filthy persons/ behold therefore how sinful & dangerous the life of wanton and lecherous ministers is. Therefore let them refrain from the snares & gins of the devil/ let them also fear the great heap of peril and danger that hangeth over them or else we may say to them as it is said in scripture. The people be without counsel and wisdom/ would to god they would wax wise & understand/ that they might prepare to avoid danger in time o come.   

¶ Of the peril and improvydence of priests and regulars dwelling with women/ gathered out of the sayings of many holy men. ❧ The xiiii Article. ❧  
THEy do sin mortally (as saint Augustin saith) which put forth themself to strife or debate. And truly that man doth clean contrary to wisdom (whereunto we be bound as well as to charity and justice) which presumeth to pa●se nigh a bridge/ from the which scantly one among an hundredth hath escaped without falling in/ or drowning. In this case what man can say/ but he did bewray foolishly and was very barreigne of wisdom/ to put himself in so great jeopardy much rather may unshanfast priests or regulares be counted fools which contrary to their law will cohabyt and dwell with women from whom scantly one among a thousand shall escape without great peril and daungere. And if peradventure some do fortune to eschew the soul & filthy act itself very few can escape unclean imagination evil provocation unlawful consent and sensuality thereof. Wherefore they ought in nowise to choabyte/ or dwell with any women (except she be very aged/ or of their nigh kindred) nor continual to behold any woman/ nor to have any opportunity of time/ or place to comyt any evil act with her. How be it if he were such a one as were of singular goodness/ exercised and tried in the fear of god & all manner of virtue above the common sort of men/ it were not possible that he should by any mean exceed/ or be entangled with any such carnal desire/ or any wise be moved from the purpose of chastity. Is it not very dangerous for a man not yet excersysed nor estabylysshed in grace & virtue/ to inhabit/ or dwell with a woman that is prohibit. Let every priest and clerk therefore take heed that no woman seldom or never do once enter into their houses/ for who so ever vysytheth the walks/ or steps of women can not inhabit with god with a clean and hold heart. For a woman inflamyth the consciens of him with whom she dwelleth.  
Thou shalt never dispute/ or have communication of the beauty of women. But if thou perceive a woman in good conversation/ love her with spiritual affection and not with corporal visitation. Therefore it is commanded unto prestis & clerkis in the xxxiiii distynction that they should avoid overmuch familiarite with their kinsfolk inhabiting with them furthermore as saint Jerome saith. The sharper torments of hell be reserved unto priests and clerkis doing fornication/ & ferder this Woe be to the being a priest that hast kiss the daughter of venus with the same mouth with whom a little before thou dydyst receive the son of the virgin Mary. O cursed judas that with a kiss dost betray the son of man. Therefore also glorious saint Jerome being in the extremity of death in the presence of the blessed body if our lord/ spoke unto Christ saying thus. Woe be to them that receive the unworthily/ for truly they do crucify the again to their great condemnation and punishment. Alas good lord what shall I say/ forbecause priests do eat the in the altar/ as it were the flesh of birds or beasts on a table/ because also in the night they use filthy congressyon with women/ & early in the morning in their celebration they do receive thee/ and eat the. Than good lord where art thou hid dost thou sleep or wake?  
Is such service accepted of thee? Is that the sacrifice and oblation which thou desyryst. Behold the world is full of priests and yet there is scantly one among an houndreth that is good and well-disposed. There is in the world none so cruel a best as an evil and wanton pressed is for he dysdaynyth to be corrected & in no wise will suffer to here the troth. Therefore in the person of christ speaking saint Augustyne in this wise. O thou priest torment me no more with thine offences/ for the wound of thy sin hurteth me more (that is to say) dyspleasyth me more/ than the wound of my side.  
Thou dost sin more grievously which offendyst me raining in leaven with thy fornication/ and my body & blood unreverently handelyst/ giving evil occasion and example unto my people/ for whose health I did vouchsaffe to be crucified on a cross/ than they which also crucified me walking on the earth. Therefore o thou pressed here holy saint Bernard exhorting and informing thee/ saying thus. O thou pressed thy mouth is daily made the receiver/ and as ye would say the sepulture of the blessed body of Chryst. Therefore why doth that mouth ever lie/ why doth it ever speak lecherously why is that soul and mind of thine made vytious. Wherefore do thynyes behold vanities/ which every day on the altar hath before them/ christ himself the high & everlasting truth/ why puttyst thou forth thy hands unto things unlawful and unclean/ which do handle most precious and immaculate sacraments/ why swymmyst thou in the drunken streams of wine/ which drynkyst the blood of our saviour/ & ever oughtyst to be full of spiritual refreshing. Is it not a fowl and mischievous acre for them/ to handle the shameless bodies of harlots with such hands as be given/ and dedicate unto god ye consecrate also with holy anointment/ and with the same hands to touch the holy body of our lord jesus Chrste. O how wicked & presumptuous it is to handle the son of the virgin Mary/ ye the only begotten son of god the father/ and him to receive with so filthy a mouth which excellyth and over cummyth all understanding. What man would not be abashed to see the most precious treasure in the world to be cast in to a dounghyll. For truly a Lecherous priest is more filthy than any dirt/ or clay/ and more stinking and corrupt than any sink/ or draught furthermore as saint Jerome sayeth/ and as it is red in the decree/ no man ought for to eat of the easter lamb/ or to be received to the communion at such time as he knoweth his wife.  
¶ The cause whereof saint Thomas & other upon the fourth book of sentence/ have noted saying thus/ that unless the carnal act in wedlock may be done without sin/ yet by the pleasure and voluptuousness thereunto annexed/ it plockyth and withdrawith a man's mind from devotion. Therefore if it be not laful for married folk/ which may use the bodily occupation without sin/ to receive thyr maker/ where the night before they have carnally known each other. How abominable do these priests which committing fornication in the night/ presume to celebrate in the day. Surely it may be conceived by no understanding nor by any tongue it may be expressed how in ordinately such do offend which being polluted with so fowl vice/ do presume to handle and recyeve the most pure and heavenly mysteries of Christ/ and to pronounce the most holy words of the mass & canon thereof with so corrupt a mouth.  
Therefore of such things speaketh the high judge Christ himself by the mouth of the prophet Ozeas saying thus. I will correct them at my pleasure/ and thus be hold I will meet them as it were a bear & lions that had lost their whelps and will destroy the inward part of them & also will consume them as it were a lion. Than as the Prophet David this psalms saith. He will speak unto them in his anger/ and will vex and trouble them in his furor. He will thrust them in to a furnace of fire in time of his wrath & they shall have no rest in their misery.  
And as the Prophet ezechiel speaketh. Behold I have clapped my hands at their malice. Can your heart sustain or your hands prevail in the time of my punishment? And thus I will blow you and bren you in the fire of furor/ and you shallbe blown in the mids of a furnace & than I will cease/ of whom also god by the Prophet Amos god speaketh in this wise. Behold I will grate upon you/ as a wain will grate that is laden with hay. And now by the Prophet Malachias the word of god is spoken unto priests that pollute and corrupt his name in this wise. I will cast upon you the fyltes of your ceremonies/ and it shall take you with it (that is to say) I will impute unto you/ your own filthy & fleshly works/ & you shall fall together with your mischief into the deep flood of Acheon in hell. And the more intenty fly ye were given unto voluptuousness and carnal desire/ the more peynfully ye shall be burned in most hot and wild fire for evermore/ in like manner as I have spoken in the Apocalypsis/ that is to say.  
The more they have glorified themself in delight and pleasure/ give unto them so much the more pain and torment.   

¶ Of the same matter it appeareth in the revelations of saint Kateryne the virgin of zenis. And also of the holy widow saint brygyde. ❧ The xu Article. ❧  
IT is red in the book of the doctrine & revelations of saint Kateryne of zenis that the everlasting father spoke unto her in a vision in this wise. The soul of wretched and carnal priests/ taketh great corruption of vice by their sensuality. And further thus I have anointed and consecrate them to the intent that they should serve me in holiness & justice/ and minister sacraments unto believers and wottyst thou my well-beloved daughter how they reward me for my beneficial goodness? I will tell the how.  
They do daily persecute me with so many mischievous acts/ that it is impossible for thy tongue to express it. And if thou dydyst hear them all rehearsed/ thou wouldst die for very sorrow/ yet I will show the some of them that thou mayst have the more compassion.  
For verily they ought to stand at the fable of the most holy cross there incessantly being in meditation/ of the bitter passion of Christ/ and there themself to feed with the food of souls/ labouring continually for the health of them/ evermore rejoicing in the spiritual profit of them. But they go into taverns/ and there they swear/ and stare/ telling wanton tales/ serving gluttony/ and drunkenness/ forgetting their divine service/ but if they chance to say it/ their hearts notwithstanding be far from me. They be full of miserable vice/ as it were men blinded in sin/ ye their words and deeds standeth always of wantonness/ they be not ashamyd to offend openly/ they be very rybaldes'/ players/ and mockers. But after they have played away their soul's/ so that it pertaineth to the body of the devil/ than they play away the goods of the church/ and to expend the substance (which they take in the name and virtue of the blood of our saviour christ) in their own pleasures so that the poor people be nothing helped therewith.  
Nother the church hath necessary ornaments/ for they being the temple of the devil/ care not for my temple and such ornaments as they should make in the church/ they make in their own houses/ ye and do worse with it then that/ for look how the bride groom attyryth his bride/ right so these fleshly dyveles do attire their fleshly concubines and perramours. And when these unhappy dyvelꝭ (that is to say) wanton priests do pass unto the altar/ they be nothing abashed to see their concubines or harlots going with their children to do their oblation with other people. O ye devils and worse than dyvelles/ would to god your iniquity were more hid under foot/ for than i● should do less hurt unto the lay subyectes But now truly ye be the very occasion of abominable living. Is this the purity or cleanness that I desire in a pressed.  
Is this cleanness/ when he rysyth with an unchaste mind with a corruept & stynking body with whom all night he lay with his devil or leman. O tabernacle of Behebub/ where is they weldysposed watching in the night when continually thou shouldest be devout in prayer at which time also thou shouldest virtuously dispose they self to celebratyon on the morrow. Therefore of carnal delight it cometh/ that these sylthy prestis do neither seek mine honour/ the health of themself nor yet of their neighbours. They will not correct also such as they have cure & charge of/ but of their own proper and private affection wherewith they be inflamed/ they covet and desire worldly riches pleasure of the body with whom yet they must have temporal honours delicate feasts and banketties precious superfluous and well trimmed garments of these priests therefore this holy & innocent virgin saint Kateryne wrote many other things by the speech and revelation of god/ wiche be brought in/ in another place.  
¶ Moreover there be many things red of ●●ese priests in the book of the revelation of the blessed widow saint Brygyde where among other Christ in a visyone spoke unto her on this facyo/ was it not said by the prophet David how they that have eaten my b●●●d have magnified supplantation above m●●yeuē so now I say to you. Tha● 〈◊〉 ●●●cherous prestis which eat my br●e● 〈◊〉 ●he 〈◊〉/ be very traitors unto 〈◊〉. I 〈◊〉 the jews & paynims & I can ꝑceve ●●●●g them none worse than such p●e●●ꝭ. Therefore of the very zeal of justice/ I ●urse 〈◊〉. And cursed be all thing 〈◊〉 they ●a●e of the earth to their ꝓfter or ●●●●f●acyo●/ forbecause they be so vnkyn● to ge●●.  
cursed be their meat/ and drink● which feedeth their bodies to wor●es meat and their souls to hell (th●● is to ●ay) they keep the souls in their bodies to their damnations. cursed be the bodyꝭ of them/ which shall rise and burn in hell without end. cursed be the years in whom they so viciously have lyven. cursed be that hour that beginneth to them inhell/ & shall never have end cursed be the eyes of them with whom they have seen the light of the firmament. cursed be the ears of them that hath hard my words/ and not fulfilled them. cursed be the taste of them wherewith they have perceived my gifts. cursed be the touching of them/ that have touched me unworthily. cursed be the savour of them that have smelled things for their own delight/ and despised me/ that am most delecrable of all thing. Among these cursed priests there raineth covetise avarice slewth simony/ hatred/ obstinacy/ carnal pleasure/ the love of the world/ and yet with worldly things they are not satisfied. They preach my word and seem to do many good things/ but all is to their own honour and commodity. Holy sancte Brigitte rehearseth many more things like unto these which now for this purpose we have sufficiently touched because in the book of the life and rules of curates they be more largely declared.   

¶ That regulars & all men constitute in holy ordres are bound to be virtuous & holy gathered out of the saying of holy Dionysius. ❧ The xvi Article. ❧  
THe holy & most divine Dionysius/ saith. That no man ought to presume to be a leader in any divine office or service/ but such as be most like or very nigh fashioned unto god in virtue (that is to say) so wise and virtuous that of the plenteousness of them other may be cleansed lightened & with virtue replenished where upon saint Thomas upon the fourth book of sentence in the xxiiii dystynctyon concludyth & Albertus' affirmyth the same. That where every man in holy ordres/ is constitute a leader in other divine matters/ if he presume to take unworthily that order upon him/ he synnyth deadly. In like manner he that is constitute in holy ordres/ wether he be priest/ decane/ or subdecane/ as oftentime as he executyth any act of his holy order unworthily/ so oftentimes he sinnyth deadly/ as it were a man that had no charity nor yet grace. The same thing Durandus in his book called summa raymundus/ johannes Bonaventura and other agreeably do affirm. Therefore holiness of life is aswell required unto the taking of holy order/ as to the execution and demynystration of the same by cause of the commandment & not because of the sacrament/ herewith aggreyth the saying of that devout Dionysius in a certain epistle which he wrote ad demophilun saying thus. Any man not well-disposed nor virtuous/ unworthily executing things that be holy showeth him to be very presumptuous/ and a man supposing that god is ignorant of that/ that he knoweth (that is to say) he thinketh that god (whom like a liar he called father) doth dote or mistake his wretchedness or vice I will not say that such a on doth (like a Christian man) show forth prayers/ or orisons upon the holy syngnes that is to say the sacraments. Upon which words the doctors before rehearsed do conclude/ that such a priest/ decane/ or subdecane/ is taken as a blasphemer decevour & traitor unto Christ. Therefore (seeing regulars be in some holy order) it appeareth how virtuous and clean they ought to be/ and how obediently they ought to excecute their offices. Whereby also they be bound to give good example unto the people/ and that their neighbours should be parttakers of the abundance of their virtue and grace. etc.   

¶ Of the quality of regulars gathered out of the sayings of saint Bernard. ❧ The xvii Article. ❧  
THe holy and elect saint Bernard/ the lover of regular brethren/ a favourer of the public weal/ avoydour & assistour of the church/ oftentimes in his books descrybyth and lamentyth the great ruin/ & 〈◊〉 of the church. But among all other/ espe● 〈…〉 waylyeh the lapse and fall of 〈…〉 He sayeth also that Clerks 〈…〉 men) do princypally usurp and 〈…〉 that thing wherein is their 〈…〉 utterly avoid that thing that ●hu●de b● painful unto them. And no ●ought every kind of people hath some la●our/ & so●e pleasure but now adays ye may ꝑerue● m●ruayle at the ●uysion of Clerkis/ how by a new means they can dyscer●e ●he pleasure from the pain/ cho●syng & embracing all thing for their dely●e/ and utterly avoiding all thing that is grievous and painful. They compare with soudyars turner's of the world in p●y●●/ noble apparaunce/ tra●pynge of horses or mules/ hunting/ hawking/ dye●/●ardes/ ye thy begin to coun●er●e● wa●nē in wearing precious furs hanging done on their necks in sweet odours in glorious garments ye in all ma●er of tenderness. Full craftily they retrayne from wearing of harness/ from watching all night in pavilions/ from sodeygne/ skirmishes.  
¶ The husbandman swetyth the keeper of the vyneard dyggyth/ and deluyth And clerks which sit sluggysshly in idleness at the fruitful time of the year/ do command their barns to be stuffed their buttryes to be replenished before the husbandmen. They eat fine white bred. They drink pure wine/ they frank them with the fatness of corn/ they covet the savour of strange and sweet herbs. merchants do sail about the see ingrete labour/ both in danger of body & life gathering riches that by wrack or mysaucnture they may lose these are sore things. Our rich priests will beware of them/ for they will sleep in the mean space. I will not say they play the wantonness in their beds/ furthermore other craftsmen get their living with sore labour/ but idle clerks wallow & swim in riches & pleasure without labour/ or pain/ but at the last when all men shall arise every man in his order/ where (think ye) this generation shall be appointed. If they torn to kynyghtꝭ or sowdyars. They will beat them away in like manner husbandmen/ merchants/ and all other crafts men will drive them away from their parts/ because they have not laboured as they have done. But than what remaineth.  
Infayth that such (whom every order doth forsake and accuse) must be appointed unto a place where is no order/ But everlasting fere and trouble. Therefore saint Bernard showeth in his third book called (de consideracione) that clerks be out of all order/ saying thus. What meaneth it that clerks will be of one fashion/ and yet willbe counted to be of another/ for in their apparel they be sowdyars or ruflars in their gains or lucre they are very clerks/ but in deed they appear to be neither/ for they fight not as sowdyars/ & their teaching and conversation is not like clerks/ how may we know of what order they be/ when they will be of both ordres/ but truly they destroy and confund both. The blessed apostle said thus every man shall arise in his order. In which (think ye) shall these arise. Whether they that have offended without order shall perish without order. Or if it be supposed that the most true/ and rightwise God will forsake (from the highest unto the lowyste) all them that be out of order. I fear lest they shall be ordered in no other place but where everlasting horror/ fere/ & trouble doth inhabit Forsooth they be not friendly spouses which fear not to remain things assigned unto to church to their own private v●e and professet. And such as ought to prepare tabernacles in heaven both for themself and other/ thy procure herein the erch houses upon houses land upon land/ & contrary to the doctrine of Christ they muck up money & treasure in this world/ where as nature is contentid with a lyetyll. But they do not only seek a necessary living by the goods of the church which they may obtain with small perils/ but also they desire to be honoured they study to please man & not god/ to be proud & full of pleasure/ in every point to be conformable to this world. It is not charity/ but a covetousness that is strange to god/ which inducyth all men to get private honour/ or riches in substance/ or ordres of the church/ or else to seek pleasure of the body (that is to say) such things as be theirs/ & not such things as be Christis What mean they to be so fool hardy.  
How chaunsyth it that they be so mad/ where is the fear of god/ where is the remembrance of death/ where is the fear of the pains of hell/ where is the looking for the terrible day of judgement. The spouses crieth to the heavenly spouse in this manner. Take me with thee/ we will run in to the savour of thine olimentes. Now every man taketh his own pleasure/ and foloving the savour of foul lucre/ they suppose gains to be goodness/ the damnation of whom is rightwise.   

¶ Of the most straight and terrible judgement of god upon clerks had out of the words of glorious saint Bernard.  
HOly saint Bernard speaketh of this matter saying thus/ woe be to the being a clerk/ death is in thy cup death is in thy delight and pleasure/ forbecause thou eatest & drynkyst the sins of the people (that is to say) thou eatest/ & drinkest the goods of the church offered of the people to purge them from sin. Thou rekenyst to have the rewards of the church for god a mercy. Thou singyst for them/ but better it were for the to beg & labour except by thy just conversation in all thing/ thou do satisfy god for the offences of thy foundars and benefactors. Therefore be thou sad and circumspect to do fruits of penance to shed condign tears for their offences as though thou shouldest make account for them: or else thou knowyst that the synnies of the people (which now thou accountyst among thy plesuries/ nothing regarding them as though they belonged not unto thee) will be laid to thy charge. O the great deepness of the judgements of god/ O how terrible is god in his counsels to the children of men.  
O wretchis it willbe to late for you to say unto the hills. Fall ye upon us and cover us with downs. For ye shall come before the judicial bar of Christ/ and the grievous complaint of the people shallbe hard against you/ the sore accusation of them by whose alms and stipends ye were sustained and have not washed away the synnies of them to whom ye were very blind leders and deceitful mediators. O thou fool what pleasure fyndyst thou than in thy delycyousnes/ how do thy riches delight thine eyes wherewith thou hast bought the so terrible a judgement/ so intolerable and eternal ponysshment/ & hast bound thy self unto so straight an account/ for why all that thou hast unto the last farthing shallbe taken away from thee/ but now let regulars mark what the holy anointed saint Bernard (being taught by the holy ghost) wrote unto one Falco a well-disposed regular having no more but one benefice/ which Falco also afterward was made a bishop saying thus. Thou rysyst up at vigils/ thou geyst unto masses/ thou usyst the quere both in the houris of the night and eke of the day. This doing thou dost well and takyst not the prebends of the church for nothing/ for it is meet that he that serveth the altar do live by the altar. I will he should live by the altar/ but I will not that he should be proud/ lecherous/ nor rich/ nor by the goods of the clergy of a poor man to be made a rich man/ nor of a mean man to be made a glorious man. Of the goods of the church he may build him no great palayeꝭ no precious manners/ or dwelling houses. Curyously kerued/ painted/ or gilted/ he may gather no bags of money too gethere/ he may not destroy and expend the goods of the poor people in such vany●● or sup●erflu 〈◊〉/ he may no● exalte or ꝓmo●e his ne●●wes/ or ●ynsfolke with the goods of the church/ and I was about to say/ he shu●b not marry his sons, or daughters therewith/ but now let i● paly. It is grā●yd unto thee (your thou i●●ue th● altar) that thou shalt be sustained by the altar ●ut to the emend tha● thou should buy the ●●g ●●den bryl●●●s/ painted sidles/ silver 〈…〉 soi● and fy●e ●u●res or changeth 〈…〉/ to be se●uin rich apparel/ 〈…〉 about their necks & upon 〈…〉. Than we must conclude 〈…〉 soever thou retaynest of the 〈…〉 of the church/ except necessary 〈…〉 ap●●tayl●/ it is not thine/ but 〈…〉 ●t●nb●y and sacrilege. Alas 〈…〉 in the beginning o● the estal 〈…〉 word have thought that 〈…〉 ●old ●a●e tumb●yd down in to so 〈…〉 euyn●. But when a little and a ly● 〈◊〉 ●an began more grievously to ostend 〈…〉 boldness had hardened his na●e ●●ce without shame/ insomuch that he 〈◊〉 it not/ than this desperate/ vnhap●es began. For a wicked pressed when 〈◊〉 ●●mpth unto the bottom or sin/ settyth not a paint thereby/ nor fearyth to present himself to the face of god/ boldly entering into the church/ as if it were an household servant/ than he goeth into the quere/ he knylyth down and kyssyth the altar with a thevysshe mouth/ he thinketh that he doth craftily/ but how openly is his iniquity found to his great hatred in the sight of god/ so than some of them do fall from fornication/ to incest and adultery/ but would to god they had not fallen to the affections of ignominy/ and abominable living. Furthermore of these regulars holy saint Bernard wrote many other things of the ambytyon/ and desire of promotyon of clerks/ and how they be ashamed to be contented with a sufficient prebend but evermore they breathe to higher dignity/ till at the last/ they fall down as deep as the devil/ and no marvel that so cursed conversation is in the church among them constitute in holy ordres/ for they enter not into them by Christ but by simony/ & many other perverse intentions/ seeking god in pleasure and idleness/ living in vanity and worldly desire/ not serving god in sanctyte and justice/ or proceeding to god by a str●y●e or narrow way of health/ having more respect unto things temporal than spiritual/ furthermore as holy saint Bernard sayeth. Every where men run headlong in to holy ordres without any reverence or consideratyon/ and yet it is a mystery worthy to be honourably ministered of spiritual angelꝭ. But now adays they make men priests in whom avarice reigneth/ ambytyon governyth pride hath domination/ but iniquity and lechery beareth most rule. After this fashion they coveyle & run to the dignities and charges of the church/ as though they ought to live without charge/ when they come to their honours and charges. Truly they do not ponder the bourdone annexed unto the charge/ neither they do behold what judgement they stand in. whom verily (the more negligent they be in their account/ the more at liberty and pleasure that they live) the more intolerable shall their damnation approach unto them.   

¶ How they ought to pray/ sing/ and say the service of almighty god.  
FOr because it is the chief exercise of regular● (or else it ought to be) continually to be occupied in orisons & praise to god/ and in singing their divine hours. Therefore we shall briefly touch how god ought to be lauded and prayed unto. But in the mean time/ I purpose somewhat to declare how incessantly and fervently we have need to call upon god. first it appeareth of the part of the place wherein we do dwell. For ye know we inhabit in this wicked world as in a great exile/ in a vale of teries and morning in a field fully besieged with most cruel crafty and strong enemies/ by whom we be daily in great peril & daungere/ for our invisible adversaries do never sleep/ but evermore they lay await and go about to cast us down in great adversity & with them to wrap us in eternal damnation. And truly we be very brytyl and week to resist them. Therefore aswell of the part of the place as of the part of the danger & gins in whom we be daily set & conversant & also of the part of our ghostly enemies/ we have great need to i'll unto God/ with prayer/ and most affectuously to desire his help comfort and defence.  
Especially and forbecause we do daily & everywhere bring with us our domestical adversary (that is to say) our own body which grieveth our soul depressyth our understanding/ and besydys' that inducyth a thousand impediments of spiritual profit. Secondaryly it appeareth how fervently it behooveth to pray god for a great cause the which we have to do with him before hand. And this is the matter/ forbecause we have despised to take eternal damnation. Therefore of right we ought to serve god/ and thereby to obtain everlasting joy. And ferther if men so affectuously and lamentably de entreat/ for the conservation & defence of this short and present corporal life.  
if also people do so meekly and instantly desire god for worldly prosperity/ how much more meekly/ and fervently doth it become us to beseech the mercy of god for escaping perpetual damnation/ for virtue also to prevail against all temptatyons'/ for the obtaining of everlasting health/ for every gift of grace necessary to combye and deserve so great and infinite bliss. Thirdly it appeareth for that: that so oftentimes and so grievously we have offended god/ and daily do dishonour him. Therefore Climacus sayeth that by consideration of them that be guilty of death/ ye may learn how ye ought to pray unto god. For if thieves or murderers being taken by a prince/ or great man/ have any hope or trust to escape/ they will kneel down before him whom they have offended & with great humility and fervent affection desire pardon promising to amend and that ever after unto the time of death they will humble themself and be very diligent to do that prince or great man very faithful service/ much more we abominable wretchis/ which times innumerable have deserved eternal damnation/ aught after the same manner to call upon god everlasting/ which graunty●h hope to them that be penitent and promiseth pardon to them that he contrite. further more we may ponder a part by god himself and by his majesty/ how and after what fashion we ought to pray unto him. For first if we consider the infinite majesty/ dignity/ holiness/ and honour of god most blessed & glorious/ we ought to desire him of pardon with all reverence subjection/ and humility. For if the mynystres of kings & prelate's in this world do so meekly/ reverently/ & like subjects worship them/ much more we ought to do honour and reverence (and not without great humility & subjection) unto the everlasting/ and most incomparable king of heaven/ moreover considering the most favourable goodness of god beholding us/ we aught to call upon his grace with a diligent custody of heart/ with a very cyrcunspecte attendance to ponder the sense of our words/ thinking utterly to refrain from all unfruythfull digression. Considering also the infinite mercy and reward of god/ we aught to pray unto him with great hope and confidence. And ferther in consideration of godly justice we ought to pray unto him with fear & trembling/ moreover considering our own transgression & offences/ we aught to pray unto him/ with inward contrytion meekly knowledging our offences/ to our great ꝓffet. And truly considering our own necessity/ infirmity/ & readiness to vice & mischief/ we aught evermore with sore sighing & lamentation to desire his grace of mercy for as our saviour himself sayeth. It behooveth for to pray and never cease.  
Considering olso our own small deserving we ought lovingly & with great meekness to call upon god putting our only faith hope and trust in his mercy/ even as creatures of very small and week power. Of these considerations for the most part it appeareth/ how attentysly/ reverently/ distinctly/ affectuously/ plesauntly to god/ fearfully/ meekly/ purely/ & discreetly we ought to laud & honour god in singing. Therefore sayeth saint Bernard in this wise. Most well-beloved brethren/ always I exhort you/ that boldly ye appear in your divine service/ & that duly/ & reverently ye resort unto it/ not slowly hevily or slepingly not sparing your voices when ye should sing/ not ꝓnouncing half words & sometime eskypping the hole/ not swooning them softly as it were a woman that sang thorough the nose/ but to pronounce such holy & ghostly words with a manly breast & affection/ with so good disposition that ye should seem to imagine or think that thing that ye sang/ but alas there be many regulares now a days in that point found greatly in default/ for they sing to rashly not pausing in the middis/ neither reverently nor fearfully standing like good dyseyples before god/ but soon absenting themself from divine service coming tarde into the choir/ but yet will go out with the first.  
And how can they be intentysly given to the sense of such ghostly words/ when they pronunce them so hastily and indistyntly/ but would god that they would hearken to this that is said of them.  
cursed is that man/ that doth the work of god negligently. And also that which god spoke by the prophet isaiah and which Christ himself rehearsed in the gospel on this fashion. The people do honour me with their lyppis/ but the heart of them is far from me. What answer will these people make to the high judge/ which diligently have occupied such things as pertained to the flesh and so long time in them have remained/ which ring late to matins/ & fynyshe it so quikly yevyn as they do other hours They sit also much longer/ at their dinners/ suppers/ feasts/ banquets/ games/ plays/ and disports than nature necessity or reason would require. verily full soon they dispatch themself from all thing that is godly/ and concerning the wealth of souls and at all times lead their life perversely. Therefore let them repent and slake no more the due time of the divine service of their maker/ but such principal and ghostly words/ let them more principally diligently & timely execute. Furthermore there be some regulars that sing nothing at all/ notwithstanding they stand in the choir/ but they command and commit it to children and other syngers in the choir.  
But that custom seemeth to be a corruption of religion and no law/ and to proceed of no humility or devotion/ but rather of pride abusion or hatred/ where in time passed not only the canons of cathedral churches/ but also the prelate's themself were wont to sing with the choir. Therefore let them mark what the apostle sayeth. He that labouryth not shall not eat. Is not the benefice ordained for him that doth the office/ or duty/ for that cause the rents of the church is due to none/ but to such as do execute their offices and labour in divine service.   

¶ Whether descant may be commendable in the divine service/ and of certain things which ought to be eschewed in song ❧ The twenty Article. ❧  
LIke as it is declared in a certain book named/ summa virtutum et vitiorum/ it is greatly reprovid in singing the divine service to fain a voice to much quavering or warbeling either for pride/ vainglory/ or pleasure. For as saint Gregory saith. Whylste they feign warbling voices/ they let slip all good devotion/ likewise in singing divine service overmuch lowdenes and mounting of the voice is no● commendable nor likewise the rolling of it/ nor also to much swiftness or to drag overlong at the latterende/ & to skip over the rest or pausinge in the mids. And specially when the song is so swift that it is shaken all to nought. Moreover a question may be moved whither descant or breaking of the voice may lawdably be suffered in god's service/ upon that in the said notable book of summa it is written thus. Breaking of the voice or descant seemeth to be nothing commendable in the divine service/ whereupon it is red in the legend of saint Sebast. that person is to be esteemed no right christian/ which is in a manner wedded unto the barber/ which trimmeth his bush/ which sekith sweet savours/ & breakyth his voice/ for breaking of the voice seemeth to betoken a broken mind/ even as the turning in of the head is nothing commendable unto men/ nor the great rolls of playtes in the garments of womē●omore is descant unto syngers. And like as the wind is wont to raise up great plenty of waviss & surges/ even so the wind of vanity is the cause of all this quavers & surges in singing/ these things are contaynid in the foresaid book of summa/ whereby it is provided that they that use such manner of singing/ do utter it for nothing else but for their vainglory & wantonness of mind which ii things do consyst in their vice singing/ for if it were excusable or to be commended for any cause it should be only done for excyting & stirring the people unto devotion/ for some folks by reason of such melodyes'/ are greatly moved unto contemplation & devotion for which cause also organs are used in the church. Whereupon saint Augustine sayeth. As often as the song is more delectable unto me/ then the dite/ so often I knowledge that I do sin penally/ & then had I rather to here no song at all/ furthermor although that descant specially ꝓuokith some unto devotion & heavenly contemplation/ yet for all that it seemeth greatly to revoke & let some from the mind of their own prayers.  
For god from whom nothing unlawful don is hidden doth not ●oke after the plesauntnes of the voice/ but the purity of heart.   

¶ Against some that would be excused from the observance of such things that regulars/ are specially bound to do/ saying that the dignity of the church requireth none other fashion than hath been used in times passed.  
David the maker of Psalmis did not without cause pray this prayer unto god saying. Let not mine heart incline unto the words of malignyte/ for to invent excusis in sin.  
Surely this manner or excusing causyth many to be uncorrigible & unruly. Let none therefore excuse himself from the obseruamce or keeping of the things before specyfied/ saying we can not live now a days/ as our predecessors and elders have lives in times pa●syd (that is to wit. For to be c●●en●yd with necessary living/ single array/ and one benefice. But for the honesty/ and worthiness of the church/ we have need of many more things/ and we must keep hospitality/ and he clothed & said/ according to the dignity of our estate/ degree/ and order/ & to maintain good householders unto the which manner of excusis/ and such like cavillations/ and persuasions/ whereby many deceive themselves and other to/ this answer may be made. How it is convenient that religious persons/ and all other within holy orders/ should have their living/ their clothing/ their maintenance/ & keeping after an honest sort/ and according to the degree that they are called unto/ and as it is convenient for their degree/ estate order/ and dignity. But would god they would substaunciallye/ and evynlye consider/ what belongeth unto their very honesty/ and to their convenient apparel/ and furnishing. For whatsoever thing is contrary unto virtue/ the same is also contrary unto the true and commendable honesty. Forasmuch as goodness & honesty (according to the mind of philosophers and doctors) called so because of their own nature and property they do allure intyse/ & cause men to desire them for their own sake/ & for none other respect/ as wisdom/ science & virtue/ like as the philosopher writeth in his first book (de anima) hereupon saith Isodore/ that honesty is asmuch to say as th'estate of honour/ because honour is due unto wisdom and virtue/ & also unto dignity: which ought to be furnished with wisdom and virtue/ is to be whatsoever therefore is contrary unto/ wisdom and Virtue/ stemyde unhonest/ and contrary unto the perfyrenes of living. Wherefore the honesty of spiritual mynystres standeth in holy and perfit humility: great patience: mildness: obedience: charity: all chastyre: diligence/ sobreves/ & giving good example/ true justice/ mercy/ liberality and other like virtues/ gifts/ and graces of the holy ghost/ in the despising of earthly things/ in the desire and contemplation of heavenly things/ not 〈◊〉 the excess/ and superfluity/ costlynes/ ●●●posyte/ delycatnes/ and pleasure of appareyll/ in meet: in drink/ and in sumptuos houses/ not in royal housekeping in multeplyenge of riches/ and abundance of householdestuffe & other like. For in such manner of things the very dignity worship comeliness and honesty of ecclesiastics doth stand as the Apostle witnesseth writing unto Tymothee/ that woman should pray in convenient array: meek: simple: and devout not in costly: pompous: trymne: and rich apparel: for the most holy chieftain of th'apostles saith: be ye not clothed with rich apparel/ and perlies.  
In this point therefore consisteth the very honesty and dignity of religious persons and priests that (as much as is possible) they shall endeavour for to use themseluys according to the commandments/ decres/ rulies/ traditions/ and steps of Christ: th'apostles: and holy fathers. And so by giving good example/ diligence and/ Spiritual conversation they shall edify the Vnlernyd people & shallbe a good savour unto god/ and shall glorify god in perfit living and serving him with all chastity/ soberness/ and diligence in doing the divine service/ in simple & necessary clothing in charity/ devotion/ & the other virtues before touched. And in so doing they shall obey/ subdue/ and confirm themselves unto their prince/ their Lord/ their bishop/ their master/ their teacher and their judge that is jesus Christ/ for in every order & degree there is one thing which is chief and superior/ the which thing is a rule and a measure of things more lass & inferior/ so that the more that they be like & conformable to their head and superior/ they are somuch the more perfit in their proper nature & degree/ and the further that they vary and differ from it somuch the more unperfit they be. saying therefore that Christ is the first and chief head measure and rule of all faithful people that be of this congregation or church/ somuch the more are all christian people to be esteemed good virtuous/ holy/ and honest/ in that they follow christ their head in whom was all honesty/ virtue and goodness. Therefore the true honesty of spiritual mynystres consisteth in this point/ which is to follow Christ's humility/ charity/ justice/ good example/ mercy/ sobrenes/ cleanness/ according unto the rules/ and decrees of holy Father's/ not to feed their belies delycatelye/ whereby they are provoked unto bodily lust/ not to be arrayed in gorgeous appareyll. But that they should be somuch the more virtuous/ holy/ sober/ chaste/ and good/ in respect of the lay people/ as they are set in more high estate and dignity. Moreover it is proved by common experience & teachyth that such religious persons as are virtuous/ and chaste in their conversation/ of which there is almost (the more pity) as great plenty as is of whit crows/ are more set by/ more well-beloved/ much better regarded among the common people/ then are the other sort. But how straitly the superfluity of goods/ incontynence of living/ and sumptuosnes of appareyll/ is forbidden unto clerks/ is sufficiently declared in the xi article wherein among other things it is contained thus. All manner of staring and gorgeous appareyll/ should not be used among spiritual persons wherefore it is very meet that such bishops and clerks as clothe them seluys in trim costly appareyll should be refourmid. For in time past such as were of spiritual estate were contented with simple and mean array. Finally the holy Apostles followed the same perfit honesty of their Master Christ whereof mention is made before/ whose example holy bishops with their clerks did always follow not only duting the persecution of the church/ but also long sins both in the time of saint Gregory/ and also of saint Bernard what time holy church was in much higher/ and more glorious estate than it is now/ for the blessed fathers before named did most vehemently rebuke mynystres of the church for their excess/ superfluity/ curoisite/ avarice/ & vicious living/ affirming that they are specially bounden to be contented with simple far/ and simple clothing/ and other like virtues as are spoken of before. Therefore let them not excuse themselves from the observance of such things/ but rather apply themselves (as much as is possible) unto virtuous living which is perfit honesty according to the rule that is expressed in the beginning of the third book of decrees. And further as they are commanded in the canons of holy fathers and hyge bishops.   

¶ Of the danger that is in plurality of benefices.  
♣ We have now declared sufficiently/ how chaste/ how timorous/ and how sober/ all clerks/ religions/ and all that be within holy ordres/ aught for to be and in like manner how they are bounden to eschew all manner of pride/ excess and worldly pomp in their appareayl/ their stuff/ and their houses/ and to be contented with simple far/ and simple clothing. which order if they would observe/ undoubtedly they might live competently with a mean benefice/ but forbicause they observe not the things before specified but will have superfluity of all things/ as of riches/ of gorgeous appareyll/ of sumptuos fare/ and such like provisions like unto ruflers/ and rich men of the world/ no marvel therefore if they procure to have many benefices. But how perilous it is to have plurality of benefices/ the true catholic/ and famous doctors afore named that is to wite saint Thomas/ William of Paris/ Raymundus/ and the author of the book called Summa Virtutum & Vitiorum/ and many other have sufficiently declared/ out of whose works specially I have gathered this little treatise against plurality of benefices that now a days is every where used. But theffect of their minds consists in this point/ that such as have more benefices than one (except it be in certain cases hereafter to be touched) do rob god of his service/ do dismember the church in dymynyshing the just number of her ministers/ do spoil the poor and the needy of their alms/ the dead souls of their suffrages/ & finally deceive the good intent of their foundours and patrons. saying therefore that contrary to the wholesome counsel and doctrine of so many/ and solemn doctors and holy father's/ they have & covet to have pluralite of benefices/ they put themselves in great peril (and to be plain) so doing they commit deadly sin. Hereupon William of Paris writeth in this wise/ verily the having of spiritual possessions is very dangerous/ which ought not to be given/ but only to such as deserve them/ for the which cause good and holy men have been dangerous to receive them. And all that might be saved besides their necessary sustenance/ they used to distribute unto the poor/ to the intent they should supply their defaults in praying & doing good deeds/ whereupon the holy father saint Bernard sayeth/ that a clerk having sufficient above his necessary chargys'/ and coveting to get more/ is a church robber/ and sinneth damnably. Moreover the said holy father saint Bernard writing to a certain regular that had but one benefice how much so ever (saith he) that thou dost retain and keep of the goods of thy church besides a simple and a competent finding for thyself think it not thine own/ but rather that it is stolen and rob out of the church What thing can be spoken more plainly or more terryblye? Ought not he to be esteemed blind & past all grace that doth not regard/ ne fear the words of these holy fathers. Now if it be so meant/ for the having of one benefice/ with how many Thefties/ robberies/ Bryberyes and Sacrilege/ are they entangled/ the which being not content with one benefice or two/ will purchase unions/ pluralitees/ totquotes/ ye hole heaps of benefices. certainly if according to the mattiers before alleged/ all that be rudedly sin/ have no right to the goods of the church/ nor yet to the worst benefice that is/ then must it be granted that such as have more benefices than one/ are plain thiefs and church-robbers. And if they allege the dispensation of my lord the Pope/ we know well enough that his fatherhod can not dispense with covetise/ ambition/ pride/ and lechery/ except it be his pleasure to usurp upon the law of god/ for if it should be tried in the court of conscience/ or before god. I dare boldly say that his dispensation might not be allowed without it were some urgent cause/ that is/ if it were done either for very necessity/ or for manifest utility/ which excusyth no man for the keeping of many benefices/ nor may be lawfully admitted/ except it be in certain cases hereafter to be touched.  
moreover by the law of god we ought not to possess more thtemporal goods/ then are necessary for us/ having regard unto spiritual gifts of grace and to our salvation/ that is to live well/ and to obtain the life everlasting. He that hath one competent benefice/ I would know of him/ for what cause/ what purpose & to what intent he would retain/ or else go about to retain any more/ for either it must be to the intent for to have abundance of temporal goods (which is unlawful when one hath a suffyciet living) or else for to live more spiritually/ and to exercise charitable works and for to grow to further perfection/ which can not come that way/ for the goods that they get by having many benefices causeth them to be more unquiet/ and troubled in mind/ whereby they have great occasion to live more at pleasure and viciously. Besides this William of Paris/ and diverse other great clerks do prove divers ways that whosoever hath plurality of benefices (except it be in certain cases hereafter to be touched) is bounden to say as many pairs of mattynes as he hath benefices. And so he doth daily incur as many deadly sins/ as he leaveth payers of mattynes unsaid. The said Doctors also/ & many other affirm/ that whosoever is in deadly sin/ he sinneth deadly as he procurith to have spiritual goods which are appointed for none other but for such as deserve them/ how be it there are certain cases where it is leeful to have more benefices/ or prebendꝭ than one/ which after the minds of doctors are such as here follow.  
The first is/ where the benefice is not sufficient to find one pressed his competent sustenance and clothing. The second is/ where one benefice is annexed to another. The third is/ where there is default and lack of priests. The fourth is if the church be appendent to a prebend/ or such like dignity. The fift is/ if one have a just title to one benefice for a time/ and another in comendam until theffect of the cause do cease. Also there may be added the sixth cause/ which is/ if one be in service for the common profit of the church as to be a preachour/ or in like office. Wherefore according to the premisses/ it may be esteemed lightly how much is sufficient for the reasonable living of a clerk/ if it be remembered how they are bounden to live chastely/ soberly/ meekly moderately: and giving good example. Over this we may learn by experience that small revenues are sufficient/ for such as use the virtues before rehearsed/ howbeit we do grant that the greater that a clerk is in spiritual estate/ the greater benefice he ought to have. But pluralite of benefices (except it be in the cases be fore touched) is reproved of all good men/ as being most dangerous unto soul health/ and therefore (according to the council of the doctors before alleged) it ought to be eschewed of all persons that intend the Christian perfection.   

¶ How priests and such as are of the clergy/ are bounden to keep hospitality.  
Now again there be many of the clergy/ that excuse the having of many benefices with this pretence. It behooveth us (say they) to maintain good hospitality/ ye & to make provision for unbydden gests. Wherefore to avoid this coloured cavillation/ I will partly declare/ unto you what manner of hospitality they are bounden/ & that is none other but one of the works of mercy whereof Christ saith in his gospel that he will put us in remembrance at the day of judgement/ and will speak in this wise. I was a stranger/ & ye would not ●ake me in. The which he speaketh in the person of his members/ and creatures/ the poor & the needy/ and not in the person of the rich and the mighty. At this saying of our saviour aught all clerks & ministers of the church specially to tremble and quake which have not herboroved nor said the poor and needy beggars. What will they answer which have been so negligent of the poor that scarcely they can find in their hearts to reward them with the fragments of their meat/ or to afford them lodging in their barns. But yet they receive great astates/ rich men/ & officer's/ with much reverence: they entertain them with much solemnite/ they refresh them delicately/ and lodge them in soft bedding. Let them here/ and amend them seluys/ & endeavour to observe that which Christ commandeth in the gospel. When thou makyst a feast (saith he) do not call thereunto thy kinsfolk/ nor rich men/ or that be in authority lest they recompense the again for it in this world: but call the poor/ and the feeble/ the blind and the lame/ & so thou shalt be blessed/ for they have not to reward thee/ but thou shalt be rewarded/ at the resurrection of the right wise. Merke well this plain sentence/ an● most wholesome council. Notwithstanding these sayings are not so to be ●nderstāden but that spiritual possessio●ars may lawfully at some time upon a reasonable cause may keep convenient hospitality in making cheer to their kysfolke/ and bylyke reason to such as be rich & in authority/ so they use it but seldom/ & without excess & pomp/ and to a goodement. lest they do wrong to the poor: & palse measure: furtheemore as it hath been reperyd often here before/ the possessions of the church/ be the patrimony of Christ/ the alms of the poor/ the wages of the servants of god.  
Therefore they ought to be converted to such uses and to none ohter. For saint Hierom saith. It is Sacrilege to bestow the goods of the poor upon such as are not poor. And in another place.  
They do sin deadly that bestow their goods upon rich folk/ for they make oblation to the devil. And as it said before/ for to give the goods of the poor to such as are not poor/ is plain sacrilege/ for the possessions of the church are the patrimony of the poor/ & can not be detained from them but by theft/ which is when the mynistrꝭ of the church keep any more to themselves then their bare living. Therefore (as saint Hierom saith) that all such as misuse the goods of the church/ or that belongyth/ unto the church bestowing it in such things/ as make for their own voluptuousness & pleasure/ be like unto the scribes & pharisees. They therefore that muccor up the goods of the church/ and purchase lands therewith for to leave unto their friends and kyndeswomen (I was about to have said their sons & their daughters) or that bestow it upon vain and worldly hospitality/ in their so doing/ comytte deadly sin as to spend it upon rich men or their carnal companions/ for whom they make sumptuos provision/ and can never be merry without such gests/ or if they hap to be called by them will come in all the haste to solace with them. Albeit that such fashions are specially forbidden unto the clergy according unto the saying of Isodore which saith thus. clerks ought to eschew feastis not only commune but also secret/ and aught to far meanly in soberness/ for all such festing is perilous to Christian people for it both quenchyth devotion & destroyeth true contrition of heart/ & nourisheth lechery/ and draweth unto it/ idle words/ jesting/ railing/ wyldenes/ the forgetting of good works and much ungracious pastime. And so the fear of almighty god neglected and set a part/ the sinful men regard slenderly both their soul health. Therefore saint Iohan/ Chrysostom and such holy men would never be bidden unto feasts/ nor likewise would bid any other. In consideration whereof (O ye Christian priests/ and true ministers of the church) these great dangerous/ often/ and delycat feasties. Remember well/ that a certain prelate that was both rich and devout/ incuyd with remorse of consciense by inspiration of God said these words here following. I am made rich in goods/ and am a beggar in soul. I have won worldly honour and have lost god. I follow the courts of princes/ and am of counsel with great estates/ and thereby am banished the court of heaven. What should I speak of hospitality/ that rather ought to be called hostylite and most of all if it be done for vainglory/ & not rather for the love of Christ. For if they hap to send for men of riches or authority/ they receive them with great honour and reverence/ and spend on them right largely of the patrimony of the crucyfixe. This is the hospitalite of this world whereby rich men are fed sumptuoslye to the glory of the devil/ and christ which is perfit charity is afflicted with despisinges/ with hungres/ with stripes/ & with nakedness in his poor creatures/ for lo I little regarding the terrible judgements of god do sit among my guests as Balthasar/ misp●dyng the goods and the treasure of the poor in the despite of Christ. Under the colour of such false hospitality they make great feastis to men of authority/ & officers (I had all most said offenders) & then is all the cheer lost/ and great unkindness taken except one sit with them/ and keep company in drinking/ and quassing till some of them be as drunk as beasts. ¶ The judgement of such things shallbe committed unto him/ whose judgement is secret and therefore/ the more terrible inasmuche as the goods that they mysbestowe are not their own. But are the alms of the poor. Therefore as saint Hierom saith. It is great shame that the poor should be banished out of the houses of spiritual men/ and in the stead of them take r●fiers/ & waiting mynyons like unto temporal princes.  
¶ The oblations of good people/ for needy souls. The tithe of the poor/ and of the simple: and the exactions and oppressions of the poor/ which rather ought to get their bread with the sweat of their faces/ and not to have misspended the Labours of good people in such vicious pleasures/ as in su●fetiynge and drunkenness/ to devour that other sweat for. ¶ He that beholdith the deepness/ and sitteth above cherubin shall determine the causes of the Poor/ when they shall stand boldly before him/ against them that have wronged them and have consumed and myspent their goods in evil uses: and have bestowed upon the rich men/ wherefore they shall have as great meed: as if they had cast water into the see. How will they accomplish this saying of scripture. He hath distributed and given to the poor. But that prelate whom we alleged before understood this perfectly: for he said that huspytalyte which is a deed of charity ought to be showed and done: not for vainglory/ or any such carnal affection: but aught to proceed from a good mind and a virtuous intent. Wherefore to conclude according to the premisses: not only hospitalite but also all other charitable dediss & works of mercy aswell bodily as ghostly aught to be exercised of spiritual persons after their ability liberally/ lovingly: and devoutly/ but most of all they ought to govern their houses dyscretelye/ and to edify their household servants with good example giving both in word & deed/ and should rebuke such as offend sharply and charitably/ using themselves unto all men vertuoslye/ meekly/ soberly and justly.   

¶ Whither religious and men of the church that are able to find themselves of their own patrimony and substance may lawfully convert the goods of the church unto their own uses.  
According to the minds of saint Augustyne & saint Thomas/ not only the words of our Master Christ but also of other holy father's/ are of sufficient authority to bind us to the following of them wherefore we may much better/ and more surely give credence unto their sayings/ then the persuasions of certain school men that trust their own wits overmuch/ wresting the authorities of holy father's/ unto their own fantasy. And notwithstanding that some of them: in the question before purposed: allege that it may be lawfully done. yet I think it more wisdom to follow the authority of saint Hierom/ say't Bernard & other holy father's/ then them. Also Pope Damasus saith/ that a clerk which is founden with the goods of his friends/ if he take any of the church goods/ doth commit plain sacryledg. And so doing he eateth and drinketh his damnation. But if he nedyth/ & then taketh/ it is rather a gift then a taking/ but if he have no need & taketh/ he stelyth. Likewise Prosperus speaketh in this wise. I can not well express/ how great an offence they do commit/ which when they are able to have of their own/ do charge the church with their finding. And he saith further that holy men did possess the goods of the church not as possessioners but as procurators/ and therefore they percyving that the goods of the church were none other but the gifts of god/ oblations for sins/ & the inherytance of the poor they did not challenge them as their own/ but bestowed them as things bequeathed to the poorer. And did not regard the having of them/ but kept them not to themseluys/ but for other/ nor did not procure to have them with any covetous intent/ but upon a good zeal to help other. Lo with how great reason these holy fathers persuade us/ for such as are able to live of their own are not accounted/ in the number of the poor & needy/ for whom the goods of the church were provided. And therefore it is more wisdom to incline to the minds of these holy father's/ than to such dreamers that do not only teach the contrary/ but also do live contrary. But if they will object again/ that the goods of the church belong unto the ministers/ & that they ought to use them as in reward of their service. To this it may be answered/ that they are the goods of none other/ but of such as need them/ for if the mynystres of the church have sufficient of their own/ and for all that will empley them to their own uses/ it is damnable and therefore they should be spent upon the poor/ and the needy for inasmuche as temporal things ought to be used in chartable and ghostly works: they should not bestow temporal goods other wise then spiritually/ that is when they be consumed superfluosly/ where there is no need/ like as one that is hole of body and lusty hath no need of a Physician/ but rather such a one as is sick & evil at ease. Wherefore those clerks that be rich have no wrong/ though they lack the profits of their temporalties/ for thereby they merit the heavenly rewards and gifts of grace/ which are thousand times more to be desired then temporal things. And finally it appeareth by the authorities here alleged in how great peril they are/ which having sufficient of their proper goods will maintain themseluys with benefices of the church/ spending all upon their kinsfolk/ which after their degree are able to live well enough. And contrary wise they are in as great peril that consume both patrimony and benefices raptously/ and in carnal living. And consequently these two articles do agree with the saying of the famous Clerk master johan Browt.  
No goods of the church (saith he) can be spend in feasting and banquets to rich men/ but with deadly sin/ for they are appointed to the poor and are Christ's patrimony/ and purchased for us by the passion of Christ/ to our inheritance/ wherefore we can not lawfully give them to our own friends & kinsfolk/ unless they be poor and need/ and that must be done only for Christ'S sake.   

¶ What manner of man a prelate/ dean/ or any heed ruler of regulars ought to be.  
IT is universally known to be true/ as holy Dionysius teacheth. That in every estate/ degree & order the chief or heed/ aught to be at the time of his calling of so great perfection/ that with the abundance of his spiritual riches & virtue/ he might inflame/ clence/ & illumynate/ such as be under him & cause to live according to the order & estate that they be called unto. Therefore it appeareth that a dean/ or heed ruler/ aught especially to be fulfilled with all manner of virtuous exercise & obedience/ that (as it is said to appertain to regulars/ to the intent that he may be an example/ to all his regulars & other committed to his governance/ and that he may religiously exhort them/ leading them the right way to the effect of their order/ both openly and secretly informing them with virtue/ discreetly correcting such as would forsake their order/ & also that he may cause the service of god to be duly kept & performed in the choir/ and that all fables & wildness may be eschewed as well in the choir/ as thorough all the church in the time of divine service. Nether he shall suffer any that be under his obedicence to play the wantoness: or to speak any inconuenyent words. He must be full of good example at all times/ ye & at the table (as much as he can) must forbid the eaters to use any unlawful communication he must question with them of such things as will build them in virtue/ abhorring all words inordinate/ studying & precuring with all his diligences that their divine service be holy/ distinctly/ devoutly & reverently performed and ended/ giving them example in coming oftentimes before them to their regular hours or service. Furthermore (to his power) he must exquisytly procure/ keep and increase/ the wealth of his church especially in spiritual things/ evermore fervently praying unto almighty god for them that be committed unto him: to the intent that such thing as he can not fulfil or obtain by rebuke or correction he may obtain by prayer/ keeping always an honest mean both in his apparel & also in his fare let him gladly prepare himself continually to minister and celebrate But diligently let him beware that he give no evil occasion to any man by incontinency or sklaunder/ or any other manner of wise not only being chaste and sober/ but also the example of chastity and soberness/ and ferther the greater number that he must account for unto almighty god/ the more meek fearful & devout he ought to keep himself. And he that hath need of much grace & favour how m●ch necessary is it/ that he be full of meekness and humility: how incessantly ought the to embrace our saviour christ. And conveniently to show himself before god & man both in his words apparel goyeng living and all his acts/ pride/ ambition/ vain glory/ and avarice have used to statue our rulers & prelates of the church except they were well grounded & established in the fear of god & devout exercise.  
In like manner where prelatis were wont to be meek and gentle/ now adays they be commonly proud and malicious. And some of them for fere or favour of man or for some vice rolyd in them felse will nothing regard to fulfil the correctyons of thyr predecessors whereunto they be bound as well of charity as of dew justice but they look more for their own honour & private profit/ than for the honour of god or wel●h of man's soul where in if they once wallow/ they do neither regard the spiritual felicity of thyr subjects nor yet of themself but blinded with ambition and covetise they fall headlong into the deep dungynne of vice. Hereof saint Bernard in his ●oke de Consideracione writyth to pope Eugenius in this wise. Thou being a man shalt not desire to have domination over another man lest all unrightwiseness have domination over the. For no poison nor yet punishment ought to be more feared of the than the desire or pleasure/ or domynacon. Whereupon saint Gregory sayeth thus. The mind of man is proud enough of itself ye although it be encouraged with no power or pre-eminence/ than much rather a man will look aloft whampferrement is given him. For truly as oftentimes as any prelate delighteth to be a master & ruler over men so oft he falleth in to the sin of apostasy. And who so delighteth in this world to have pre-eminence/ he shall not delight to behold his judge Christ. This foolish pride a prelate might soon overcome/ if wisely profundly & oftentimes he would behold and ponder the terrible rigour of god's judgement/ especially concerning prelate's the extreme sharpness of infernal punishment/ & also the great negligence of their own life. So a prelate shall repute his dignity as it were a painful burden/ & not as it were a pride & honour/ & shallbe careful before god if he mark the words of the apostle/ which be these. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of god living/ remember therefore how enorm & damnable it is to get any temporal commodity or honours by prelateship & not to fulfil their dew offices/ nor yet to behave them like worthy vicars of god.   

¶ Against their pride in building  
saying (as Vlricus declareth in his book called Summa) that clerks do make treasure of such substance as remaineth besides their necessary ● competent living/ other expending it in unlawful uses/ as in making rich their frendis or kinsfolk/ or other filthy persons wasting & consuming their money in gorgeous & delicate fare/ getting the fame of the world by great expensis/ as giving liberal rewardis to gestours or mynstrelꝭ/ buying in the favour or friendship of rich & noble men increasing a superfluous household of servants which oftentimes must be renewid with costly apparel or framing great curious & sumptuous buyldyngꝭ/ or else in such other like uses do prodigally expend the patrimony of Christ: me think in so doing they do not only offend in the sin of prodigalite as every man doth that abusyth that thing to his own use/ which is committed to him with charge/ but also they make their offence more grievous forbecause they do steel away so expended from them that be the very owners thereof (that is to say) the poor people.  
Saint Hierom calleth this sin a robbery exceeding all cruelty of thefies: or else a sacrilege or church robbery/ furthermor saint Augustin calleth it plainly manslauther/ saying thus. Whosoever immoderately reseruiths to his own use goods by god dedicated unto the poor/ is guilty of the slaughter of so many men/ as have been poor & died in their houses for hunger. These regulars therefore are bound to restitution of all such things. Such also as unworthily have received any goods of the church are bound to restitution as whores harlattes & bawds & other filthy persons of evil demeanour. Of these things speak ulricus whose words in the treatise against pluralitees of benefices more plainly do appear. Moreover against pride in building certain things be rehearsed in his book called Summa virtutum et victorum/ in this manner. In building five things be not to be commended. The first is the multitude of houses/ and that agreeth with the saying of the prophet I say in the .v. chapiter saying thus. Woe may you be which join together house upon house Offenders be in the same case which follow not Christ saying thus. The son of man hath no place where he may put his head. The second thing not to be commended in building is the greatness sumptuousness and pleasantness thereof. The pleasantness truly is discerned in the colours and pictures thereof. Of this also it is spoken in the xxii chapter of the prophet jeremy. Fordermore saint Paul the first hermit being desired of the holy father Anthony/ asa●d a question whether christian men should follow the fashion of the gentiles in their sumptuous building or no● and he hard say that ye Than greatly he beway●yd that vanyle considering hi● was the part of a christian man to say on this fashion. We have no dwelling place in this world but we do look for a place in time to come Therefore whatsoever regulars or mynystetes of the church do immoderately expend in such sumptuous buildings it is cruel robbery and sacrilege as before is said and also they are bound to restitution which restitution is to be done unto poor people but for all that there be many now adays which out of all good order and fashion do exceed in such sumtuous and costly buildings.   

¶ Of certain ancient laws to avoid pluralytees of benefices upon whom no dispensation falleth/ as touching to that is in them of the law natural.  
By the means of large liberal & unreasonable dispensacions the church is brought to great confusion/ and surely in time past holy & fearful pope's & bysshopis did innowyse admit but evermore prohibit pluralitees of benefices which now adays everywhere be granted to one particular person/ ye & oftentimes to him that neither by his conversation or learning is worthy to have one Therefore pope Urban did institute that it should not be lawful to any man to be induct in to ii churches but every man to be regular & resident in one church only wherein he is induct. Another institution also is conteigned in the decretalꝭ/ and that is this. A clerk from this present time shall not be numbered in ii churches/ for that is but a commodity of merchandise: or foul lucre/ and the thing that is most far from the good order of the church whereupon the decree of pope Gregori is thus. We command that all benefices of the church be committed particularly to particular persons. Furthermore saint Bernard alleged as saint Thomas did saying thus One in person is not one/ but many in respect of benefices/ therefore they shallbe many in respect of their punishment for their offence is grievous. Moreover 
♣ thaut● of the bo●● bees say●.  as here followeth. I will that who/ so fortune to read this shall know that I (from the incarnation of our lord god. 1437.) was at Paris/ where the honourable William bishop there/ made a convocation of all the masters of the church/ where a question was put forth of plurality of benefices/ & by long & discrete disputation it was apꝓuyd/ that ii benefices whereof the one did amount unto the value of xu poundꝭ of paryse might not be kept to the wealth of man's soul/ & that this bishop of whom we speak before with many other doctors did finally determine. And this thing is more plainly rehearsed in the work made against pluralytees of benefices/ as touching this matter pope Gregori the ix being examined whether by his power he might dispense with pluralite of benefices or no/ he answered & said. I can dyspense for nothing of pluralites but only for the punishment of such as keep many benefices/ & therefore let no man rejoice that any man hath with him dispensid for it is but in vain/ but both the law of god & the law of nature is/ that no man ought to covet or procure any more temporal goods than is expedient to virtuous life or hath respect to spiritual commodity or very salvation. All these things which here I do briefly touch be more at large contained in the book against plurality of benefices. And verily we ought much rather to give credaunce unto holy fearful & famous doctors & to good religious and weldisposed people (whom before we have named for witnesses) than to such as have ii benefices or more/ how cunning so ever they seem to be. For in their own matters they may give an evil judgement/ as it appeareth by this proverb. Love and hatred subvertyth every judgement.   

¶ An exhortation unto clerks  
THe holy and most devout father saint Bernard sayeth as here followeth. Let clerks feet set masters & prelate's of the church fere/ which behave themself so wickedly in laudes of holy fathers wherein they dwell/ not being contented with a competent stipend or living that might suffice them but cruelly & thevysshly procuring & retaining superfluous possessions where with the poor people should be sustained/ and the same expending into their own carnal & vain use/ offending with double iniquity/ for they do both spoil other men of their goods/ and also abuse the holy and spiritual goods & substance in their filth and vanity. Favour I beseech ye/ favour your seluys/ ●auour the blood that was shed for your salvation. Beware of the horrible peril and danger of hell decline from the everlasting fire that is prepared for you. Morn & lament ye in the mids of Babylon that is to say in this wretched world/ and save your soul's/ flee to the cypress of spiritual refresshing that is/ to very religious cloystres that ye may do penance for your synnies past that ye may obtain grace in this present life. Be not stack to knowledge your sin/ for where is abundance of iniquity there hath grace need to be abundant. Let not the sharpness of penance grieve you/ for the penance of this world be not condygne or able to countervail our offences before committed. Therefore in conclusion S. Bernard saith. If regulars & other constitute in holy ordres be not ready to enter in to religion/ it shallbe sufficient for them duly to walk & be conversant according to the effect whereunto they be called/ or else after the form and order to them published expounded and commanded in the third book of decretals Let them also consider the uncertainty/ brevite & subtilte/ of this present life/ the detestable filthiness of sin/ the favour and mercy of god's majesty/ yep̄ciousnes of time that god to us hath enlarged/ & that it be not unfruitfully expended. Let us look also how fearful our judgement is/ ye and how sharp & intolerable the infernal punishment is for us/ if (as god forbid that we should so do) we lead our life in carnalyte and negligence. Therefore every day let them examine their consciences & remember the end/ that they may go by a narrow & straight way unto salvation: let them fearfully use the goods of the church/ being evermore conversant in chastity/ sobrenes/ devotion. And good example unto the time the charity of this present life be consumid/ & than by the mercy of god to be brought unto the most blessed fruition of everlasting felicity & joys of heaven to the great laud & praise of god omnipotent which is the most high & blessed above all things. Amen.   

¶ imprinted at London in the Fleetstreet/ by me Robert Redman: Cum privilegio.