Piers Plowman - Maybe You Like It

15.342: Quia sacrilegium est res pauperum non pauperibus dare.
15.342: Item: peccatoribus dare est demonibus immolare.
15.342: Item: monache, si indiges et accipis, pocius das quam accipis;
15.342: Si autem non eges et accipis, rapis.
15.342: Porro non indiget monachus, si habeat quod nature sufficit.
15.343: " Forthi I counseille alle Cristene to conformen hem to charite —
15.344: For charite withouten chalangynge unchargeth the soule,
15.345: And many a prison fram purgatorie thorugh hise preieres he delivereth.
15.346: Ac ther is a defaute in the folk that the feith kepeth,
15.347: Wherfore folk is the febler, and noght ferm of bileve.
15.348: As in lussheburwes is a luther alay, and yet loketh he lik a
sterlyng:
15.349: The merk of that monee is good, ac the metal is feble.
15.350: And so it fareth by som folk now: thci han a fair speche,
15.351: Crowne and Cristendom, the kynges mark of hevene,
15.352: Ac the metal, that is mannes soule, with [many] synne is foule[d].
15.353: Bothe lettred and lewed beth alayed now with synne,
15.354: That no lif loveth oother, ne Oure Lord, as it semeth.
15.355: For what thorugh werre and wikkede werkes and wederes unresonable,
15.356: Wederwise shipmen and witty clerkes also
15.357: Have no bileve to the lifte, ne to the loore of philosophres.
15.358: "Astronomiens alday in hir art faillen
15.359: That whilom warned bifore what sholde falle after;
15.360: Shipmen and shepherdes, that with ship and sheep wenten,
15.361: Wisten by the walkne what sholde bitide,
15.362: Tilieris that tiled the erthe tolden hir maistres
15.363: By the seed that thei sewe whit thei selle myghte,
15.364: And what to leve and to lyve by, the lond was so trewe;
15.365: Now failleth the folk of the flood and of the lond bothe —
15.366: Shepherdes and shipmen, and so do thise tilieris:
15.367: Neither thei konneth ne knoweth oon cours bifore another.
15.368: "Astronomyens also aren at hir wittes ende:
15.369: Of that was calculed of the clem[a]t, the contrarie thei fynde.
15.370: Grammer, the ground of al, bigileth now children:
15.371: For is noon of thise newe clerkes — whoso nymeth hede —
15.372: That kan versifye faire ne formaliche enditen,
15.373: Ne naught oon among an hundred that an auctour kan
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