THE PERIL OF SLACKNESS.
Afterwards comes slackness, which comes of want of heart, and of evil habit, which so binds the man that with difficulty he gives himself to well-doing. Sometimes it comes of ignorance and of foolish heat, whereby the man so starves his heart and his body by fasts and by vigils and by other deeds, that he falls into feebleness and into such sickness that he cannot labour in God’s service, and perishes in the slackness because he has neither taste nor devotion for well-doing. Afterwards comes weariness, which makes the man become weary and worse from day to day, until he is quite defeated and overcome with weariness. And this is the sixth vice of the evil servant, that he fails ere he come to the end or to his term, and one can say, whoever serves and serves not fully, he loses his reward.
THE SIX POINTS OF SLOTH THAT BRING MAN TO HIS END.
And yet again there are six evil points whereby sloth brings man to his end. The first is disobedience, when the man will not do what one tells him in penance; or (when) one commands him something that seems to him hard, he excuses himself that he cannot do it; or if he receives it, he does it either little or naught. The second point is impatience; for as he can bear nothing in the way of obedience, he cannot endure in the way of patience, so that none dare speak to him of his good. The third is murmuring, for when one speaks to him for his good, he is angry and murmurs, and thinks that one despises him, and therefrom he falls into sorrow, which is the fourth vice. And the same sorrow overcomes him so much that all that one says to him, all that one does to him, all that he hears, all that he sees, it all annoys him, and so he falls into sorrow and into disinclination to live, so that he himself hastens and desires his death; and this is the fifth vice. After all these sorrowful points of sloth the devil gives him the deadly stroke, and brings him to despair. Therefore, he compasses his death and slays himself, as desperate and gives himself to all evils, and dreads not to do sin, whatever it be. To such an end sloth leads the man. These are eighteen points that the devil throws upon the slothful; it is no wonder though he lose the game.
THE FIFTH HEAD OF THE BEAST.
The fifth head of the beast before mentioned is the sin of avarice and of covetousness, which is the root of all evil, as says St. Paul. That is the mistress who has so large a school that all go therein to learn, as says the Scripture. For all manner of folk study in avarice, both great and small: kings, prelates, clerks, both lay and religious. Avarice is inordinate love, so inordinate it shows itself in three ways generally, in winning boldly, in withholding straitly, in spending niggardly. These are the three principal boughs which grow from this root.
But specially and properly from the root of avarice go out many small roots, which are very great, deadly sins. The first is usury, the second theft, the third robbery, the fourth false claim, the fifth sacrilege, the sixth simony, the seventh wickedness, the eighth is in chaffer, the ninth is wicked craft, the tenth is in evil folk, and each of these small roots divides in many ways.
Then the first root, which is usury, divides into seven outcastings. For there are seven kinds of usurers: lending, who lend silver for others, and, above the principal, take the profits, either in pence, or in horses, or in corn, or in wine, or in fruit of the ground, which they take in mortgage, without reckoning the fruit in payment, and what is worse, they will reckon twice or thrice (in) the year in order to make the usury increase, and will yet have gifts over and above for each term, and often make of the usury a principal debt. These are usurers evil and foul. But there is another lender, courteous, who lends without bargain-making, always for profit, either in pence, or in horses, or in cups of gold or of silver, or robes, or tuns with wine, or in fat swine, material services of horses, of carts, or food, to them or to their children, or in other things, and everywhere for usury, when one takes it by reason of the loan. The second kind of usury is in those that lend not to their parson, but what their fathers and the fathers of their wives or their elders have obtained by usury they withhold, and will not give it up. The third kind of usury is in them that have shame to lend with their own hand; but they cause their servants or other men to lend of their pence. These are the master usurers. Of the same sin the great men are not quit, who support and sustain Jews and the Saracens, who lend and destroy the country, and they take payments and great gifts, and sometimes the ransoms that are for the goods of the poor. The fourth kind is in them that lend of other men’s silver, or take in pledge at little cost in order to lend at greater cost. These are like usurers that learn such foul craft. The fifth kind is in unfair dealing: when one sells the thing, whatever it be, for more than it is worth at the time, and what is worse, the dishonest time-setter, when he sees the folk most necessitous, then will he sell twice as dear as the thing is worth. Such folk do too much evil. By means of their time-setting they destroy and make beggars the knights and the nobles that follow the tournaments, who assign their lands and their heritage in pledge of mortgage, which is not paid. Another sins in buying things, as corn or wine or other thing(s for) less by half than it is worth, for the pence which he pays at first, and then sells it them again twice or thrice as dear. Another buys things when they are worth least (and) very abundant (or a great bargain), corn in harvest, wine in vintage (vendage in Glossary), or wares, in order to sell again, (and keeps them) until they are most dear, and desires the dear time in order to sell the dearer. Another (buys) corn in grass, vines in bloom, when they are of fair appearance, by such a bargain that they may have, whatever chance befall, their property safe. The sixth kind is of those that take their pence to merchants, so that they may be partakers in the winning and not in the loss, or who entrust their beasts, as many as half, (to them,) so that they may be of high price; that is to say, that if they die in the meantime [they have to] put others in their stead worth as much. The seventh kind is in those that do [this] to their poor neighbours in their needs—(and) because they have lent them a little silver or corn, or done some kindness, (and) when they see them poor and needy, then make they a bargain with them to do their jobs, and the pence that they delivered before to the poor man, or lent him a little corn, they have three pennyworths of work for one penny.
THE SECOND BOUGH OF COVETOUSNESS.
The second bough of avarice is theft; that is, to take or withhold other men’s things wrongfully, and without the knowledge and will of the owner. And that one may do in four ways after the manner of thieves. For there is a thief open and a thief hidden, a thief privy and a fellow-thief.