Piers Plowman - Maybe You Like It

15.552: Togideres love leelly, leveth it wel, ye bisshopes —
15.553: The lordshipe of londes [lese ye shul for evere],
15.554: And lyven as Levitici, as Oure Lord yow techeth:
15.554: Per primicias et decimas &c.
15.555: "Whan Costantyn of curteisie Holy Kirke dowed
15.556: With londes and ledes, lordshipes and rentes,
15.557: An aungel men herden an heigh at Rome crye,
15.558: " Dos ecclesie this day hath ydronke venym,
15.559: And tho that han Petres power arn apoisoned alle!'
15.560: A medicyne moot therto that may amende prelates,
15.561: That sholden preie for the pees; possession hem letteth.
15.562: Taketh hire landes, ye lordes, and leteth hem lyve by dymes;
15.563: If possession be poison, and inparfite hem make,
15.564: Good were to deschargen hem for Holy Chirehes sake,
15.565: And purgen hem of poison, er moore peril falle.
15.566: If preesthode were parfit, the peple sholde amende,
15.567: That contrarien Cristes lawe, and Cristendom dispise.
15.568: "Every bisshop that bereth cros, by that he is holden
15.569: Thorugh his province to passe, and to his peple to shewe hym,
15.570: Tellen hem and techen hem on the Trinite to bileve,
15.571: And feden hem with goostly foode, and nedy folk to fynden.
15.572: Ac Ysaie of yow speketh and Osias bothe,
15.573: That no man sholde be bisshop but if he hadde bothe
15.574: Bodily foode and goostly foode to gyve there it nedeth:
15.575: In domo mea non est panis neque vestimentum, et ideo nolite constituere
me regem
15.575: Osias seith for swiche that sike ben and feble,
15.575: Inferte omnes decimas in orreum meum, ut sit cibus in domo mea.
15.576: "Ac we Cristene creatures, that on the cros bileven,
15.577: Arn ferme as in the feith-Goddes forbode ellis! —
15.578: And han clerkes to kepen us therinne, and hem that shul come
after us.
15.580: And Jewes lyven in lele lawe-Oure Lord wroot it hymselve
15.581: In stoon, for it stedefast was, and stonde sholde evere —
15.582: Dilige Deum et proximum, is parfit Jewen lawe —
15.583: And teok it Moyses to teche men, til Messie coom
15.584: And on that lawe thei leve, and leten it for the beste.
15.585: And yit knewe thei Crist, that Cristendom taughte,
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