Scarcely anyone observes
this devout rule of study after saying the prayers of the Church,
but to care for the things of this world and to look at the
plough that has been left is reckoned the highest wisdom. They
take up bow and quiver, embrace arms and shield, devote the
tribute of alms to dogs and not to the poor, become the slaves of
dice and draughts, and of all such things as we are wont to
forbid even to the secular clergy, so that we need not marvel if
they disdain to look upon us, whom they see so much opposed to
their mode of life.
Come then, reverend fathers, deign to recall your fathers and
devote yourselves more faithfully to the study of holy books,
without which all religion will stagger, without which the virtue
of devotion will dry up like a sherd, and without which ye can
afford no light to the world.
CHAPTER VI
THE COMPLAINT OF BOOKS AGAINST THE MENDICANTS
Poor in spirit, but most rich in faith, off-scourings of the
world and salt of the earth, despisers of the world and fishers
of men, how happy are ye, if suffering penury for Christ ye know
how to possess your souls in patience! For it is not want the
avenger of iniquity, nor the adverse fortune of your parents, nor
violent necessity that has thus oppressed you with beggary, but a
devout will and Christ-like election, by which ye have chosen
that life as the best, which God Almighty made man as well by
word as by example declared to be the best. In truth, ye are the
latest offspring of the ever-fruitful Church, of late divinely
substituted for the Fathers and the Prophets, that your sound may
go forth into all the earth, and that instructed by our healthful
doctrines ye may preach before all kings and nations the
invincible faith of Christ.
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