fulfilled in our Lenten fast,
unless we fast before that for these four days,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday,
even as it was appointed of old, though we tell it you but now.
On the Wednesday, throughout the whole world,
the priests bless, even as it is appointed,
clean ashes in church, and afterward lay them
upon men's heads, that they may have in mind
that they came from earth, and shall again return to dust,
even as the Almighty God spake to Adam,
after he had sinned against God's command;
In toil thou shalt live, and in sweat thou shalt eat
thy loaf on earth, until thou return again
to the same earth from which thou camest,
because thou art dust, and shalt to dust return.'
This is not said of men's souls,
but of men's bodies that moulder to dust,
and afterwards shall at doomsday, through our Lord's might,
all arise from the earth, that were ever alive,
like as all trees are always quickened in the Lenten time,
which before had been deadened by the winter's chill.
We read in the books, both in the old Law and in the new,
that the men who repented of their sins
bestrewed themselves with ashes,
and clothed their bodies with sackcloth.
Now let us do this little in the beginning of our Lent,
that we strew ashes upon our heads,
