indeed a gift of God, but is it to stop at mere words?"
(Disorder among the Bishops.)
10. Meanwhile, seeing that all these men have over them their elders (called bishops, archbishops, abbots, provosts, deans, superintendents, inspectors, and so forth) weighty and worthy men, to whom all rendered much honour, and I thought: "Why, then, do not these restrain those of inferior rank?" And wishing to discover the cause of this I follow one of them into his chamber; then a second, a third, a fourth one, and so forth. And I find them all so busy that they had no time to watch the others. Except some things that they had in common with the others, they seemed to be occupied with counting their revenues and their church treasures (as they called them). And I said: "By mistake, I think, they call these men spiritual[1] fathers; they should be called fathers who receive revenue." The interpreter answered: "Yet care must be taken that the Church loseth not what God grants her, and what the pious forefathers have given her." Meanwhile, one stepped up to us who had two keys hanging from his girdle (he was called Peter), and he said: "Men and brethren, it is not seemly that, neglecting the Word of God, we should labour at desks and chests. Let us then
- ↑ This pun is untranslatable. In Bohemian, "spiritual" is "duchovni," while "duchodni" signifies a collector of rents or revenues.
