Will soldier now depart.
He shows, too, the change come over the thoughts of men by giving a dispute between a croisé and one who refuses to take the Cross, in which the latter advances the startling proposition, not heard since the time of Origen, that a man can very well get to heaven without “pilgrimising,” and without fighting for the Cross.[[79]]
[79].
“Je dis que cil est foux nayx,
Qui se mest en autrui servage
Quant Dieu peut gaaigner sayx
Et vivre de son heritage.”
But Rutebeuf is very urgent. He laments the decay of religious zeal.
O’ergrown with grass the long road lies,
Thick trodden once by eager feet,