The clerical order is debased in respect of the laity; the spouse of Christ is made venal,—she that is noble, common; the altars are for sale; the eucharist is for sale, although venal grace is vain and frivolous.
God’s gift is not given if it be not conferred gratis; and he who sells and makes merchandise of it, is, in so doing, struck with the leprosy of Syrus; the service of idols, at which his ambition thus aims, may not be engrafted on the temple of the Holy Spirit.
In their days of youth, they look forwards to old age with fear, lest, deserted by fortune, they possess no longer their sleek skin. But while they seek the mean, they turn into the contrary extreme; for vice deceives them in the guise of virtue.
Thou who holdest this course, vainly thou callest thyself a pastor; neither doest thou govern thyself like a ruler, immersed in the heat of temporary affairs; she is another—daughter of the leech, whom the venal court has taken to wife.
The following is another bitter satire on the vices of the great, during the reign of Henry III. Who were the four brothers against whom the song is more particularly directed, would not be easily ascertained without other particulars besides those here furnished.
A SONG ON THE TIMES.
[MS. Harl. No. 978. fol. 123, vo. of the 13th cent.]
Mundi libet vitia cunctis exarare;
Nam in mundo video multos nunc errare,