Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/163

Saints among lay folk Women and men alike, who ne’er
Aught else but worldly garments ware,
Yet none the less were canonized ;
Nay, ’twere the other way devised,
For many a saint to whom we pray,
Within the church or by the way,11600
Fair virgins chaste, or matrons mild,
Mothers of many an angel child,
Through life in worldly clothes did hide
Their bodies and within them died,
Yet saints were they, and aye shall be.
Was not that blessèd company
Of virgins who now tapers hold
Before the throne of God (all told
Eleven thousand) habited
In lay folks’ robes? yet honourèd11610
Are they in every church no less
Because they lacked of convent dress.
In holy heart wakes holy thought,
Through vesture ’tis nor marred nor wrought,
And worthy thought gives birth to deed
Of worth, for ’tis thereof the seed.

Thus of religion have I given
The pith, as ’tis ordained by heaven.

If in the fleece of Bellin ram
Sir Isegrym had made a sham11620
To clothe him, and had gone to feed
Among the sheep in that false weed,
Suppose you he would therefore keep
From greedy ravin of the sheep?