Page:A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages-Volume I .pdf/76

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56
THE CHURCH.

’Twere hard, in full, their evil works to tell,
As when, for a few pence, they greedily sell
The tonsure to some mountebank or jester,
Whereby the temporal courts are wronged as well,
For then these tonsured rogues they cannot quell,
Howe'er their scampish doings may us pester,
While round the church still growing evils fester.

"Then as for all the priests and minor clerks,
There are, God knows, too many of them whose works
And daily life belie their daily preaching.
Scarce better are they than so many Turks,
Though they, no doubt, may be well taught—it irks
Me not to own the fulness of their teaching—
For, learned or ignorant, they're ever bent
To make a traffic of each sacrament.
The Mass's holy sacrifice included;
And when they shrive an honest penitent,
Who will not bribe, his penance they augment,
For honesty should never be obtruded—
But this, by sinners fair, is easily eluded.

’Tis true the monks and friars make ample show
Of rules austere which they all undergo,
But this the vainest is of all pretences.
In sooth, they live full twice as well, we know,
As e'er they did at home, despite their vow,
And all their mock parade of abstinences.
No jollier life than theirs can be, indeed;
And specially the begging friars exceed.
Whose frock grants license as abroad they wander.
These motives 'tis which to the Orders lead
So many worthless men, in sorest need
Of pelf, which on their vices they may squander,
And then, the frock protects them in their plunder."[1]

It was inevitable that such a religion should breed dissidence and such a priesthood provoke revolt.


  1. From "La Gesta de Fra Peyre Cardinal," Raynouard, Lexique Roman, I. 464. See also pp. 446, 451. Cardinal was of noble birth and high consideration at the courts of Aragon and Toulouse; he was born in 1206, and is said to have lived until 1306. He was no heretic, although "los fals clerques reprendia molt."—(Miquel de la Tor, Vie de Peire Cardinal, ap. Meyer, Anciens Textes p. 100.)—See also his Sirvente, "Un sirventes vuelh far dels autz glotos" (Raynouard, Lexique Roman, I. 447).