•••••
“What! trowe ye, whiles that I may preche
And wynne gold and silver for I teche,
That I wil lyve in povert wilfully?
•••••
For I wol preche and begge in sondry londes,
I wil not do no labour with myn hondes . . .
I wol noon of thapostles counterfete,
I wol have money, wolle, chese, and whete.”
“Thus,” continues the Pope, “they proclaim to the faithful and simple people (“the lewed people,” says Chaucer’s man) the real or pretended authorizations which they have received; and irreverently abusing those which are real, in pursuit of infamous and hateful {318} gain, they carry further their impudence by mendaciously attributing to themselves false and pretended authorizations of this kind.”