LXIII
False-Seeming doth the case relate
Of mendicants and their estate.
What men may beg
I’ll next set forth each special case
Of all the mendicantine race:
And first of those poor cattle who
Too dull of wit are born to do12090
Aught for a living, they may go
And beg where’er they will, I trow,
Until some useful craft they learn
Whereby they meat and drink may earn
Lawful mendicancy
Without reproach of loselry,
How mean soe’er that craft may be.
Then some through sickness or old age,
Or tender years, may not engage
In labour, they no touch of shame
Need feel if alms or doles they claim.12100
And then again some men we see,
Who in their time too jollily
Have lived, and now beside the way
Must seek poor pittance day by day;
Such men are suffered graciously
To beg lest they of hunger die.
Or if a man should go about
To search some craft or science out,
But all his industry and skill
The work eludes, do what he will,12110
And no man doth employment give
Whereby he earns the means to live,
Then by mendicity may he
Contend with dire necessity.
Or some poor peasant carle, who drives
The plough, and bowed by labour strives,
His brow bedewed with sweat, to gain
Sufficiency, but all in vain,
Should not be blamed although he went
Begging around to supplement12120
His scanty wage.
Or those who spend
Their lives and fortunes to defend
The faith by force of arms, in heat
Or cold, or in the justice seat,
And then in old age find them poor,
’Tis well they be allowed to cure
Their misery dire by alms, till they
By handicraft their needs may stay.
But doing so they must not shirk
Hard labour, and seek ghostly work;12130
But I, by this, no figure mean,
But true hand work.
William St. Amour
And thus I ween
In these examples that I give,
With reason, men may beg to live,
But in rare other case, I wot,
If good Saint-Amour lieth not,
Who of the matter held dispute
With men, deep read, of wit acute,
At Paris, most profound divines;
God starve me of good meats and wines12140
Unless his book in accord be
With Paris University;
Yea, and with all the world beside,
Which hailed his preaching far and wide,
And ne’er shall any who refuse
His doctrine find with God excuse.
Let those who scoff at him scoff still,
And grumblers grumble as they will,
For my part, I shall ever hold
His name in honour, and with bold12150
Stout words support him, though thereby
I lose my life, or cruelly
Be cast in gaol like holy Paul,
Or else be banished far from all
My friends like William Saint-Amour,
Who was, not many years before
I write, by Dame Hypocrisy,
My dam, exiled, all envious she.
My mother drove him forth, forsooth,
Most foully, for that he the truth12160
Upheld, and showed, all bald and bare,
Hypocrisy, with subtle care
Within his latest book, and said,
’Twere well that I no longer sped
My life by begging, but should set
My hands to labour, would I get
My livelihood.
Labour hateful to some
He surely had
Deemed me for either drunk or mad,
For labour pleases me no whit,
Nor have I any need for it.
I find a more congenial way
Of life, to patter beads and pray,
And all my ribaldry to hide
Beneath my mother’s mantle wide.
The God of Love.
Thou devil! dar’st thou then display
Thy vileness thus in light of day?
False-Seeming.
What mean you ?
Love.
Scoundrel, hast thou got
No fear of God?
False-Seeming.
Most surely not.
No man to greatness can attain
In these days if he count not vain12180
God’s holy fear.
Miscreants thrive
If men eschew
All evil and uprightly do,
Nought will they win of worldly good,
But must eftsoons for livelihood
Beg alms of others and drink deep
Of sorrow their poor lives to keep:
Such lot do I in horror hold.
But see what goodly heaps of gold,
Have usurers in their treasuries
And other folk akin to these;12190
Base-coining knaves, and limitours,
Provosts, catchpoles, and gold-chained mayors,
Who fat on fraud and rapine grow,
While the poor people bend alow
Before them. They, like wolves, devour
And rob all folk beneath their power;
For each and all of these in turn
Despoil the poor of that they earn,
And most ingeniously contrive
To pluck their victims while alive.12200
The stronger rob the weaker ever,
And, ’neath my simple cloak, so clever
Am I, that cozeners by the dozen
Who cozen others do I cozen
Lightly, and robbers and robbed alike
I rob, yet none know when I strike.
By my chicanery I rake
Together treasure none can take
From out my hands, grand palaces,
I build that I my fantasies12210
May please, and gather friends around
My tables, where rich meats abound.
With jollity my heart grows warm
When gold and silver thickly swarm
Within my coffers, which ne’er fail;
Count ye my schemes of no avail?
To heap is ever my intent,
And much my gain exceeds my rent.
And though I beaten were or slain,
Fear not I’d soon look in again.12220
Love.
You seem a saintly one!
False-Seeming.
Privileges of friars
Quite true,
For dowered am I with orders due:
Curate to all the world am I,
And all men hail me joyfully,
For all their souls have I in cure,
And none without my aid endure.
Full oft I preach and counsel give,
Yet by no handicraft I live;
But from the Pope a bull I’ve got,
For he, good man, suspects me not.12230
With restless diligence I press,
And seek out chances to confess
An emperor, baron, count, or king,
But nought I love the houseling
Of needy folk; not my affair
Are they but on occasion rare.
Nought care I for their mean distresses:
But emperors and great princesses,
Profitable penitents
The wives of noble palatines,
Rich abbesses and sleek beguines,12240
Fat bailies’ spouses, knight-wed dames,
Spruce burgesses, whom nothing shames,
And nuns and highborn damsels fair,
Richly attired or mother-bare,
To me it matters not one pin.
Gladly I shrive their souls of sin.
Then diligently I inquire
Of lord and lady, maid and squire,
What goods they have, what lives they lead,
And, shriving them, I take good heed12250
To point out that their parish priest
Is dull and doltish as a beast
Compared with me and my confreres,
(A jovial crew that nothing scares),
To whom the secrets I reveal
Of all these geese, nor aught conceal,
And they likewise disclose to me
Whate’er they’ve learned, right merrily.
And that you may these rascals know,
Who go about deceiving so12260
The people, I may duly quote
The gospel holy Matthew wrote.
In chapter twenty-three we read:
In Moses’ chair now sit indeed
(The chair is by the glossing seen
The Ancient Testament to mean).
Blind scribes and stiff-necked Pharisees
(Cursed hypocrites our Lord called these)
Who say: Do that we preach to you,
But practise not the things we do.12270
Right ready are the knaves with speech,
But slow to follow that they teach;
Burdens on poor men’s backs will they
With cheery heart and lightsome lay,
But scorn to help them e’en so much
As might they with a finger’s touch.
Love.
Why not?
False-Seeming.
Friars like to Pharisees
Will lacks, and so they don’t.
They know that wretched folk are wont,
O’erburdened, oft to sink beneath
The load, and trouble shun like death;12280
And if some worthy work they do,
Be sure ’tis well within the view
Of others. Their phylacteries
And hems they broaden to men’s eyes,
And at the tables highest seats
They choose, anigh the choicest meats,
While in the synagogues with pride
They thrust poor humble men aside,
And dearly love in open street
Salutes to win from all they meet,12290
Nor are they anywise ashamed
To hear themselves as ‘Master’ named.
Yet these things Scripture hath forbid,
And suchlike ways and customs chid.
Behold another potent plan
We use against all those who ban
Friars hang together
Our order, and contemn our laws:
Against them make we common cause;
He whom one hates, with hate profound
We all detest, together bound12300
By equal ties, and if we see
The way by which successfully
Our foe hopes land or rent to gain,
And honourable state maintain,
We strive to know the means and mode
By which he travelleth the road
Thereto, and straightway set about
Scandals, which cause his friends to doubt
His honour and good faith, and thus
The steps whereby he climbs, by us12310
Are cut away, and he adrift
Is cast, as best he may to shift,
Alone and destitute of friends,
And thus do we attain our ends,
Yet nought our foe perceives by whom
It is that on him falls his doom.
For if he knew to whom he owed
His downfall, surely would it goad
Him on to his revenge and he
Would turn on us ferociously.12320
If one of us have done some good
We amplify its magnitude,
Although, pardee, ’tis oft but feigned;
Or if that one of us hath deigned
To vaunt some good he ne’er hath done
To this or that, as we were one
With him we cry aloud that we
Helped such good work right royally,
In hope the love and confidence
To gain of wealthy men. Pretence12320
We make and thereby parchments get
Wherein our virtues forth are set
In suchwise that the world will bless
And praise our names for holiness.
The direst poverty we feign,
But howsoever we complain,
We yet are those who, having nought,
Have more, forsooth, than poor men ought.
Friars are meddlesome
Then am I great at agencies,
Old feuds arrange, and marriages,12340
Executorships I take on me,
And further deeds of warrantry,
Inquests as pursuivant I make,
Whereat some honest men might quake.
’Tis pleasure, wherewith nought compares
To mix in other men’s affairs.
And lastly should you be concerned
In things to which my hand I’ve turned,
Speak forth—no sooner said than done,
With your commands my will shall run.12350
But who my chastisement should try,
Would find he’d done but foolishly;
For little I love the man who’d show
To me the path I’m bound to go,
And though to others I may give
Correction, none will I receive.
For forests have I little taste,
Or hermit’s huts, or deserts waste,
I leave Saint John, the Baptist hight,
His couches green, and sandhills white,12360
His dwelling was too far away,
In towns and burgs I liefer stay,
And build fair palaces and halls
And safely dwell behind strong walls.
I oft declare that I renounce
The world, yet would not lose an ounce
Thereof; good Lord! the world to me
Is, as to fish, the brimming sea.
Servant of Antichrist
Servant of Antichrist am I,
Of whom saith Scripture truthfully,12370
That, while of holiness he wears
The cloak, within his heart he bears
Iniquity. Like lambkins we
Appear outside, but inwardly
Are ravening wolves; we overrun
The earth, and under every sun
Bring strife, and fain would hold command
O’er lives of men in every land.
And if within a city wall
I find some wretch unnatural12380
(And ’tis reported that Milan
At one time lay beneath this ban),
Or one who as a usurer sits,
And sells long terms and post obits,
Fulfilled of all rapacity;
Or steeped in luxury one be,
Or prelate living jovial life,
Or priest who leman hath as wife;
Provost or officer in chief,
Who is but a disloyal thief,12390
Or some vile wretch who keeps a stew,
Or procuress, to hell-fire due,
Or ribald wretch, who, worn and spent
With vice, but waits due chastisement:
What friars love
Though all the saints he should invoke.
He nowise can forefend my stroke;
Except by some delicious dish,
Eel, salmon, pike, or other fish,
Tarts, custards, delicate cream cheese
(Which pleasantly our gullets grease),12400
Sweet apple, and soft melting pear,
Fat goose and sucking-pig’s rich fare;
Or other delicacies tasty
As highly savoured roebuck pasty,
Or capon fat, sweet dainty bit,
To please me, round his neck I’ll fit
A cord and drag him to the stake
E’en though his howls the city shake,
Or in deep cell will have him cast
To languish till his life be past.12410
Unless he deigns to feed us well,
We’ll make his life a very hell,
For if one earn our hate, his crimes
He overpays a hundred times.
But if he hath the wit on high
To build a castle speedily,
(No matter of what sort of stone,
Or if with square and compass done,
Or whether it be of turf or wood,
So that the walls are stout and good),12420
And plentifully garnish it
With wares that jolly life befit,
Doles and bribery
And on the battlement contrive
An engine formed to cast and drive
As well behind, as eke before,
Such precious stones from out his store
As thou heard at full related,
And pleasantly enumerated,
Good wines in barrels, casks and tuns,
And heavy bags, not scanty ones,12430
Stuffed well with bezants, crowns, and marks,
Then nought he need to heed our barks
Or fear our bites. But doth he not
Possess such stores ’twere well I wot
Their worth he gave us, nor with lies,
Excuses vain, or fallacies.
Attempt our cozening, or we’ll bring
Against him such a grievous string
Of crimes that if not burned alive,
He will but wretchedly survive,12440
Beneath a penance of a kind
That heavier tax than doles he’ll find.
It is not by external show
Of weed you may these traitors know,
But whoso from their toils would be
Preserved, must mark their jugglery;
For Christ’s most holy faith were marred
But for the careful watch and ward
Of Paris University,
E’en as I now relate to ye.12450
Twelve hundred years and fifty-five
Had fled since Christ stood forth alive
On earth for men, when first was seen
(None will naysay my words, I ween)
The new gospel
The prime exemplar of a book
So vile that by the devil’s crook
It well were written, and about
’Twas set for clerks to copy out
And circulate when duly dight;
The everlasting Gospel hight12460
This trash and friars avouched its merit,
As writ by God’s most Holy Spirit.
Right worthy was it to be burned,
But many a crown the scholars earned
Before the Church of Notre Dame,
For men and women oiled the palm,
Of those who set themselves to write
Out fair, that vile misleading light.
Therein one finds all clearly done
This blasphemous comparison:12470
“E’en as before the sun doth fail
The moon, and show but faint and pale,
And as she nowise can compete
With him in brilliancy or heat,
And as a kernel to its shell
(Nay do not smile at what I tell,
For this have I seen writ, I swear)
So doth this wondrous book compare
With Christ’s Four Gospels, and surpass
Their value utterly.”—Alas!12480
I wish me dead, if even than these
You find not bolder similes.
The University till then
Had been asleep, but roused it when
This blasphemy assailed its ears,
Wakened at once by wrath and fears.
Straightway, its arms and armour dight,
It sallied forth with will to fight
This hydra, and deliver o’er
The book to judgment; but before12490
It could with the dread monster close,
The knaves, from out whose brain it rose,
Secured and hid it suddenly,
For well they knew that ne’er could be
Sustained, the lies and follies writ
Therein. What since became of it
None know, for those of whom ’twas born
Have hid it until time be worn,
Hoping perchance, some future day,
Its blasphemies to gloze away.12500
Antichrist looked for
And now we Antichrist abide,
With will to range us on his side
Whene’er he comes, who do not so
Small chance of life will have I trow.
For soon shall we an army raise
Against them, by our devious ways,
And none who in their folly strive
To curb us shall be left alive,
Whether they by the sword are slain,
Or meet their death through worser pain.12510
And whither deem ye then must lead
These words which in this book we read?
“The while that Peter towers on high
It needs that John alow must lie.”
But this perceive ye is the husk,
Within, the sense lies, all a-dusk,
And thence will I the marrow draw
To show these men’s unholy law.
Peter and John
Peter, our holy Father is,
The Pope, and secular clerks, ywis,12520
Defenders of the law of Christ.
And John, the Friars, and those enticed
Within their toils, who boldly say,
The ‘Eternal Gospel’ is the way
By which men may ascend to heaven,
And by the Holy Ghost ’tis given.
The power of John these recreants teach
To be the gospel that they preach
To call back sinners gone astray
From out the path of God’s highway.12530
And many a wicked devilry
Straightly commanded may one see
Within this book of froth and foam,
Against the holy law of Rome;
For Antichrist doth dwell within
The covers of this book of sin.
Men are exhorted there to slay
All those who Peter’s rule obey;
But howsoever they assail
His law, hell gates shall not prevail12540
Against it, but it still shall stand,
A beacon unto every land,
And those who hold it fast shall be
God’s people everlastingly;
While their law, miscalled John’s, shall fall
Deserted and accurst of all.
But of this matter will I stay
My words—too much there is to say.
But if that book had taken root,
Most marvellously well ’twould suit12550
My practice, for in any case
With hosts of people find I grace.
The father of lies
My father, who as emperor
Rules all the world, is barrator
And prince of lies; the empress is
My mother; and through them, ywis,
Whate’er the Holy Ghost may do,
Our lineage all the earth doth strew.
And that is only as should be,
For ever at our will do we12560
So throughly cozen men that none
Perceive the way our tricks are done,
Or, e’en perceiving, dare not speak,
Lest we on them our vengeance wreak.
But those men God comes not anear
Who hold my brethren in more fear
Than Him; the Faith’s weak champions they
Who dare not such vile crimes naysay,
But, coward-like, the risks refuse,
When they foul treason might accuse.12570
God will not list their cry for grace,
But from them turn one day His face,
And lay on them sharp chastisement.
But nothing fear we to be shent,
Since we of men are so esteemed,
And of such worth and honour deemed,
That howsoe’er censorious
We be, no man dare censure us.
To whom but us should people pay
Honour, who never cease to pray12580
In sight of men conspicuously,
Whate’er our secret practice be?
But is this greater foolishness,
Esteem you, than that men should bless
High chivalry, and call those great
Who don fair weed and keep grand state?
But if it prove that well agreed
Is noble life with lordly weed,
Should it not greatly be deplored
That bodies fair, with virtue stored,12590
Belong not to the hypocrites?
A curse such fools right well befits!
Beloved of us, as light of bats!
Beguins described
But Beguins crowned with flapping hats,
O’er longdrawn bloodless faces blank,
And gowns unwashed to wrap their lank
Lean figures (to which vermin are
No strangers, for in truth from far
They’re odorous), while foul crumpled hose
Surmount their ugly sandalled shoes,12600
Which much resemble traps for quails;
Through such as these no wise prince fails
To govern, whether in war or peace,
Himself and land, and good increase
Of honour thence shall surely grow
To him and his. Right well I know
That neath such show they hide foul sin,
But none the less men’s reverence win.
Therefore with them I cast my lot
To lie, trick, swindle and what not.12610
Yet were it neither just nor wise
A wretched garment to despise,
Unless it be a cloak for pride.
Nor should our love be turned aside
False-Seeming concludes
From one whose dress is spoiled by flaws.
But God esteemeth not two straws
The word of one who saith that he
Hath left the world, yet luxury
Doth wallow in. The hypocrite
Who cries that he the world hath quit,12620
And yet indulgeth all he can
The flesh, like any world-wise man.
Nor aught of pleasure doth refuse;
Should we his cant and lies excuse?
Resembleth he the dog who fain
Unto his vomit turns again.
But unto you I dare not lie;
Though had I not unerringly
Perceived that you saw clearly through
My falsity, I straight should you12630
Have plied with cozenage, for I ne’er,
Seeing a chance, a victim spare.
I know my role, and this I tell,
A traitor am I, guard you well.
The Author.
The God bestowed on this strange tale
A smile, nor did the barons fail
To laugh, and cried: A subtle youth,
And one in whom to trust, forsooth!
The God of Love.
False-Seeming, then said Love, I pray,
Since thou so great apart shalt play12640
Within my court, for there shalt thou
Be king of ribalds, tell me now,
False-Seeming.
Yea, by the gods I swear to you,
That ne’er your ancestors nor sire
Had slave whose love was more entire.
Love.
Nay! That thy nature would deny.
False-Seeming.
E’en take your chance thereof and try;
And if some caution you demand.
No surer were you though your hand12650
Held warrant, written oath, or pledge.
With confidence I dare allege
That though a wolf you beat within
An inch of life, he still his skin
Retains, and therefrom issueth not.
And ’tis the same with me I wot:
Though ’neath a simple vestment I
Am hid, I practise treachery.
Suppose you I for virtue care
Because the outward guise looks fair12660
Neath which I do the devil’s work?
No crime, by God, I blink or shirk;
And if I coy and simple seem.
Have I then changed my life d’ye deem ?
Nay, thereto make I no pretence.
False-Seemings’s leman
My dear, Constrained-Abstinence,
Hath need of all my carefulness;
She had been long since dead, I guess.
Had I not been at hand to stay
Her weary steps on life’s hard way;12670
Love.
So be it, thy desire fulfil.
The Author.
And so the rascal held his place.
He had a very traitor’s face,
Without, pure white, within, black hell:
Before Love on his knees he fell
And worshipped him with plenteous thanks.
Cried Love then, looking round his ranks:
Forward at once! let every man
Arm him forthwith as best he can.12680
The host makes ready
Then made him ready for the fight
Each one, with arms and armour dight.
And forth they sallied one and all,
Loud shouting, towards the castle wall,
Right manfully resolved that they
Would dearly sell their lives that day,
Or from the battlements would cry
In token of glad victory.
Then in four battles they divide,
Of which each marcheth towards the side12690
To it assigned, and thus the gates
Assail they, though before each waits
A stalwart guard prepared to fight
Nor yield to aught save death’s dark night;
Not weakly, sick, or slothful they,
But strong, and eager for the fray.