But After my waking / it was wonder long

Ere I coulde kyndlie / knowe what was dowell

And so my wyt went and came / till I A foole was

And some Lackid my Lyfe / but fewe allowed it

And held me for a Lorell / and loth to reuerence

Lordes or Ladies / or Any many ellis

As persons in their furres / with pendauntes of syluer

To sergeauntes or to suche / said I not ones

God saue you Lordes / ne lowted faire

That folke held me a foole / and in that folie I raved

Till reason had ruthe on me / and rocked me aslepe

Tyll I se as it sorcery were / A subtile thing withall

One without tong and tethe / tolde me whether I shuld

And wherof he came and of what kynde / I coniured him at Last

Yf he were Christes creature / Anone me to tell

I am Christes creature quod he / and cristen in many a place

In Christes court I-knoweLG well / and of his kyn aparty / a party

Ys neither Peter the porter / nor paule with his fawchon

That will defende me the dore / dyng I neuer so Late

At mydnyght & at myddaye / my voice so it knoune

That eche a creature of his court / welcommeth me fayre

What Are ye called quod I / in that court / Among Christes people

When I quycken the corps / callid am I Anima

And when I will and wolde / Animus I hight

And for that I can and knowe / callid am I mens /

And when I make mone to god / memoria is my name

And when I deme domes / and do as trouth teacheth

Then is Racio my right name / Reason in englishe

And when I feele that folk telleth / my first name is Sensus

And that is wit and wisdome / the welle of all craftes

And when I chalaunge or chalaunge not / chepe or refuse

Than am I Conscience called / goddes clerke & his Notarye

And when I loue truly / our lorde and all other

Then is true loue my name / And in latyn Amor

And when I flee from the fleshe / and forsake the body

Then am I {spirit} spirite spechelesse / Spiritus then I hight

Augustyne And ysodorus / either of them bothe

Named me this name / now thou mayst chuse

How thou wilt call me / now þou knowest all my names

Ye be as A bishope quod I / all bourding that tyme

For byshops blissed / they haue many names

As Presul and pontifex / and Metropolitanus

And other names an heape / Episcopus and Pastor

That is sothe said he / now I se thy will

Thou woldest gladly knowe / the cause of their names

And of myne if thou mightest / me thinke by thy speche

Yea syr I said / so noman / no man were greved

All the sciences vnder sonne / and all the subtile craftes

I wolde I knewe and coulde / kyndly in myn hart

Then art þou inperfite quod he / and one of prides knyghtes

For such a lust and likyng / Lucifer fell from heauen

Yt were Against kynde quod he / & all manere reason

That any creature shulde knowe all / except Christe onlie

Against such Salomon speaketh / and dispiseth their wittes

And sayth Sicut qui mel comedit multum non est ei bonum

Sic qui scrutat{ur}orP est maiestatis dei , opprimitur a gloria /

To engysh men this is to mene / that may speake and here

The man that much hony eateth / his mawe it engleymethe

And the more that A man / of good matere heareth

Onlesse he dothe therafter / it dothe him double skathe

Beatus est saythe Seynt bernarde qui scriptura legit

Et verba vertit in opera / fully to his poure

Couetise to konne / and to knowe science

Put Adam out of paradise / and also Eue /

And euen as hony is euill to digest / & engleymeth the mawe

Right so he þat through reason / wolde the roote knowe

Of god and his great myghtes / his graces it letteth

For in the lyking lythe a pride / and bodely couetise

Against Christes counsell / and all clerkes teachinges

That is Non plus sapere quam sapere oportet /

Friers and many other maisters / þat to the lewde men preache

Moue maters inmesurable / to telle of the Trynytie

That ofte tymes the lewde people / of their beleue doubt

Better were many doctors / to leaueT such preaching

And telle men the . x . / tean commaundementes / & of the seauen synnes

And the braunches springing of them / & bringing men to helle

And how that folke in folies / mysspende their fyue wittes

As well preistes as others / Folishly speake

In housyng in hatering / and in-to high clergie shewing

More for pompe then pure Charitie / the people wot the sothe

That I lie not lo / For lordes they please

And reuerence the{m} riche / the rather for theyr syluer

Go t{h}o the glose of the verse / ye great clerkes

Yf I lye on you to my lewde wit / lede me to brennyng

For as it semeth ye forsake / nomannes / no mannes Allmes

Of vsurers of whoores / of couetouse chapmen

And lowt to thise lordes / that may giue you nobles

Against your rule and religion / I take recorde at IhusIesus

That said to his discyples / Ne sitis personarum acceptores

Of this matere I might make a long byble

But of Curatours of xpcristen people / as clerkes beare witnesse

I shall telle it for truthes sake / take hede who-so likethe /

As holynesse and honestie / {of} out of the chirche springeth

Through true lyuyng men / that goddes lawe teche

Euen so out of the churche / all euill spredethe

There inperfite preesthode is / preachours and teachours

I se it by exemple / in somer tyme on treis

There some bowes bene leaued / and some beareth none

There is A mischef in the grounde / of such manere trees

Right so of parsons & preestes / & preachers of the church

That are roote of the right feythe / to rule the people

And there the roote is rotten / Reason knoweth the truthe

Shall neuer flour nor frute / nor fair leaf be grene

Therfor wolde ye learned leaue / the lechery of clothing

And be kynde as clerkes shulde be / & curtise of Christes goodes

True of your tong / and of your tayle bothe

And hate to here harlotrie / and not to receyue

Tythes but of true thinges / tilled , bought , or solde

Lothe were lewde men / but they your teaching folowed

And Amende them that mysdoe / more for your exemples

Than for to preache and do it not / ypocrisy it semeth

For hypocrisye in latyne / is likened to A dounghill

That is all whight with snow without / And full of snakes within

TEuen so many preestes / preachours and prelates

Ye are garneshed without with fair speche / with {clo} clothes also

But your workes and your wordes / inwardly are nought

Saynt Iohan Crisostome / of clerkes speaketh and preestes

Yf lewd men wist / what this Latyn meneth

And who is the Author / much wonder me thinketh

But if many A preest beare / for their baselardes & broches

A pair beades in their handes / & a book vnder their Arme

Syr Iohan and syr Geffrey / hath A gyrdill of Syluer /

A baselarde or balocknyfe / with botons ouergilt

But A portas that shulde be his plough / placebo to saye

Hadd he neuer seruice to saue syluer {/}therto / saieth it with ill will

Allas ye lewd men / much lose ye on preestes

But the thing þat wickedly is wonne / and with false sleightes

Wold neuer wit of witty god / but wicked men it had

The which Are preestes inperfite / and preachours after syluer

Excecutors and Sodones / Somenours & their Lemmans

That which with gyle was gotton / vngraciously is spended

So harlottes and whoores / Are holpen with such goodes

And goddes folk for defaute therof / Forfare and spille

Curatoures of holy church / as clerkes þat be couetouse

Lightly that they leaue / losells it haue

Or he dieth intestate / and the bisshope entrethe

And make mery therwith / and his men bothe /

And say he was A niggard / þat no good myght spare

To freend nor to fremd / the feende haue his soule

For A wrechid house he kept / all his lyfe tyme

And that which {w}he spared / spende we in myrthe

By lerned and lewde / that lothe is to spende

Thus gothe theyr goodes / be they ones gone

But for good men god wot / great sorowe men make

And pray for good housekepers / and haue them in mynde

In prayers and penaunce / and in perfite charytie

What is charitie quod I then / A chyldish thing he said

Without any folie / A free liberall will

Where shulde men fynde such a freende / with so free an hart

I haue lyued in lond quod he / my name is long wille

Yet founde I neuer full charitie / before nor behinde

Men be merciable / to beggers and to poore

And will {gyue}lende where they thinke / truly to be {prayed for} payd agaynT

But that charite that paule prayseth / most plesant to our Sauyou[r]

Ys non inflatur , non ambiciosa , non querit que sua sunt

I se neuer such a man / so me god helpe

That wolde not require his oune / and sometyme coueyt

The thing that he nedid not / and haue it if he might

Clerkes knowe well / that Christ is in all places /

But I se him neuer sothelie / but as my-self in A myrrour

And so I trowe {I} truly / by that men tell of charitie

It is not Champions fyght / nor chaffare as I trowe

Charitie quod he chaffareth not / neither chalengeth nor craueth

As proude of A penny / as of a pounde of golde

And is as glad of A gowne / of A gray russett

As of A tunycle of tars / or of trie scarlet

He is glad with all glad / and good to all wicked

And trusteth and louethe all / that our lorde made

Cursethe he no creature / nor he can beare no wrathe

Nor no liking hathe to lye / nor laugh men to skorne

All that men saye he hold it true / and in solace taketh it

And manere myschef / myldlie he suffreth

He couetith non erthly good / but heuen riche blisse

Hathe he any rentes or {n} richesse / or any riche freendes

Of rentes or of richesse / recketh he neuer

For A freende that fynde hym / faylled him neuer at nede

Fiat voluntas tua / fyndeth hym euer-more

And if he suppe ete but A soppe / of Spera in deo /

He can purtrey well the pater noster / and peynt it with Aves

And sometyme is he wont / to go on pilgrimage

There poor men ly in presons / their pardon to haue

Though he beareth them no bread / he gyueth them sweter confort

And louethe them as the lord biddeth / and looketh howe they fare

And when he is wery of that worke / then will he somtyme

Labour in lauendry / well the length of A myle

And go vnto youth / them to enstruct /

Pride with his Apurtenaunces / he packeth togithers

And bowke them at his breast / and beat them clene

And lay on long / with Laboraui in gemitu meo

And with warme water at his eyen / wash them after

And he syngeth when he dothe so / and somtyme saith weping

Cor concritum et humiliatum deus non despicies /

By Christ I wold I knewe him quod I / no creature leuer

Without helpe of piers plowman quod he / his persone seest thou neuer

Do clerkes know him quod I / that kepe holy kyrk

Clerkes haue no knowing quod he / but by workes and by wordes

But pers the plowman / perceyueth more depper /

What is the will and wherfor / that many man suffreth

Et vidit deus cogitaciones eorum /

For there are there Are / [+] full proude harted men / pacient of tong

And buxome of bearing / to burgeis and to lordes

But to pouer people / haue peper in the nose

And as a leon he looketh / there men lacke his workes

For there Are beggers and bidders / bedemen as it were

Which looke euen as lambes / And seme lyfe-holy

But it is more to haue their meate / with such an easy manere

Then for penaunce of perfitenes / the peynes þat such take

Therfor by coloure nor by clergie / knowe shalt þou neuer

Neither through wordes nor workes / but through will only

And that knoweth no clerke / nor creature in erthe

But piers the plowman / Petrus id est Christus

For he is not in lollers / nor in londlepers heremytes

Nor at Ancres there A box hangeth / all such they faiten

Fy on Faitours / and in Fautores suos /

For charitie is goddes champion / and as a good childe hende

And the meriest of mouthe / at meate where he sittethe

The loue that lythe in his hart / maketh him light of speche

And is compaignable and confortatyf as Christ bid himself

Nolite fieri sicut hypocrite tristes &c /

For I haue sene him in sylke / and sometyme in Russet

Bothe in gray and grys / and in gilt harneys

And as gladly he it gaf / to them that neded

Edmonde and edwarde / either were kynges

And Sayntes sett / for charitie them folowed

I haue sene charitie also / both syng and rede

Ryde and renne / in ragged clothes

But begging as beggers / behelde I him neuer

But in riche robes / rathest he walketh

Callid and crymyled / and his croune shauen

And in a fryers frocke / he was founde ones

But it is long agone / in S . Fraunces tyme

In that sect sithens / to seld hath He be knoune

Richmen he recommendeth / and of their robes taketh

That without wyles / lede their lyues

Beatus est diues qui &c /

In kynges court he commeth ofte / there the counsell is true

But if couetise be of the counseill / he willnot / will not come there

In court Among Iapers / he commeth not but selden

For braulyng and backbyting / & bearing of false witnesse

In the Consistorie before the Comissarie / he commeth not full ofte /

For their lawe dureth ouer long / onlesse they cache siluer

And Matrimony for money / they make and vnmake

And that Christ and Conscience haue knyt fast

They vndoe it vworthely / v[n]worthely / those doctours of lawe

But I despraise noman / no man / but the lorde amende vs all

And gyue vs grace good god / charitie to folowe

For who-so might mete with him / such maners he hathe

Neither he blameth nor banneth / bosteth nor preyseth

TNeither craueth he nor coueteth / nor crieth after more

The greatest tresure that he setteth by / is loue in Christes passion

Neither he biddeth nor beggeth / nor boroweth to yelde

Misdothe he noman / no man / nor with his tong greueth

Among Christen men / this myldenesse shuld last

In all manere Angres / haue this at hart

That though they suffred all this / god suffred for vs more

In exemple we shuld do so / and take no vengeaunce

Of our foes that do vs harme / that is our faders will

for well may euery man wite / if god had wold himself

Shuld neuer Iudas nor Iewe / haue done IhuIesu on the rood

Nor haue martyred peter or paule / nor in prison hold

But he suffred in exemple / that we suffre also

And said to such as suffre wolde / þat Pacientes vincunt

Verbi gracia quod he / and very many ensamples

In legenda Sanctorum / the lyfe of holy sayntes

What penaunce and pouertie / and passion they suffred

In hunger in hete / & in all manere Angres

Antony and Egidie / and other holy fathers

That dwelt in wildernesse / Among wyld beastes

Monkes and fryers / men by them-self

In spekes and spelunkes / seld speake togiders

But neither Antony nor Egidie / nor heremyte þat tyme

Of Leons nor Leopardes / no lyuelode toke

But of foules that fleith / thus fynde men in bookes

Except that Egidie / After an hynde cried

And through the mylk of that mylde beast / þe man was susteined

And day by daye he had hir not / his Hunger for to slake

But selden and sundrie tymes / as sayth the book and techeth

Antonye a daies / aboute noone tyme

had a byrd that brought him bread / that he by lyued

And thoughe he had a gest / god founde them bothe

Paule primus heremita / had {pro} parroked himself

That noman / no man might Him se / for mosse and for leaues

Foules hym fedd / many wynters withall

Till he founded friers / of Augustines ordre

Paule after his preaching / panyers he made

And wanne with his handes / that his body neded

Peter fisshed for his food / and his felawe Andrue

Some they sold and some they sode / and so they lyued bothe

And also Mary magdalene / by mores lyued and dewes

But most through devocion / and mynde of god almyghtie

I shulde not thise seven daies / recken them all

That thus lyued for the lordes loue / many long yeres

But there was neither leon nor leoparde / þat on lond went

Neither bere nor bore / nor other wylde beast

But felle to their feet / and fawned with their tailes

And if they coulde haue spoken / by Christ as I thinke

They wold haue fed that folke / before wilde foules

But god sent them food by foules / and by no ferse beastes

In menyng that meke thing / mylde thing shuld fede

As who saith religious / righfull men shuld fynde

And lawfull men to lyfeholymen / lyfeholy men / lyfelode bring

And then wold lordes and ladies / be lothe to {A} offendeT

And to take of theyr tenauntz / more then truthe wold

Founde they that friers / wold forsake theyr Allmusses

And byd them beare it / there it was borowed

For we be goddes foules / and Abyde allwaye

Till byrdes bring vs / that we shuld lyue by

For had ye potage and bread ynough / and pennyale to drynk

And A mease therwith / of one manere kynde meat

Ye had euen ynoughe you religiouse / & so your {R} rule me told

Yf lewde men knewe this latyn / they wold looke whome they gyf

And avise them before / A fyue daies or syx

Ere they mortised to monkes / or Chanons their rentes

Allas lordes and ladies / leawde counseile haue ye

To gyue from your Heyres / þat your parentes you lefte

And gif to pray for you / to such as be riche

And be founded and feffed eke / to pray for other

Who performeth this prophecie / of the people þat nowe lyueth

Dispersit dedit pauperibus &c /

Yf any people performe that text / it is thise pouer friers

For þat they begg about / in buylding they spend it

And of them-self some / and such as be their laborers

And of them that haue / they take / and giueth them that haue not

But Clerkes and knightes / & Commoners that be riche

Many of you fare / as if I a forest had

That were full of faire trees / and I fonded & cast

how I might more therin / Among them sett

Right so ye riche / ye robbe that be poureT

And helpe them that helpe you / & gif þer no nede is

As who-so filled a tonne / of A fresh ryuer

And went forth with þat water / to eke with the Temmese

Euen so ye riche / ye robbe and fede

Them that haue as ye haue / them ye make at ease

But religiouse þat riche bene / shuld rather feast beggers

Than burgeises that be riche / as the booke teacheth

Therfor I counsaile all xpcristen / to conforme them to charitie

For Charitie without chalaunging / vnchargethe the soule

And many prisoner from peyneT / through his prayers he delyuereth

But there ys a faute in the folke / that the feyth kepe

Wherfor the people is the febler / and not fyrme of beleue

And euen as in lussheburghes is a luther alay / yet lokith he like a sterling

The marke of the money is good / but the metall is Feble

And so it fareth by some folke nowe / they haue A fair speche

Croune And xpcristendome / the kynges marke of heauen

But the metall that is mannes soule / with synne is foule alayd

Bothe letterd and lewde / be alayed now with synne

That noman / no man loueth other / nor our lorde as it semeth

For through werre and wicked workes / and wederes vnreasonable

Wederwise shipmen / and wittie clerckes also

Haue no beleue to the listT / nor to the lore of Philosophers

Astronomyers alday / in their art faile

That sometyme warned before / what shuld fall After

Shipmen and shepeherdes / þat with ship and shepe went

Wist {with} by the elementes what shuld betide

And of wethers and wyndes / they warned men ofte

Tillers that tilled the erthe / told their maisters

By the sede that they sewe / what they sell might

And what to leue and to lyue by / the lond was to trewe

Now faile the folke / and of the londe bothe

Shepeherdes and shipmen / also thise lond tillers

Neither they can nor knowe / won course before another

Astronomyens also / Are at their wittes ende

Of that was Calculed of the element / the contrary they fynde

Grammer the grounde of all / begyleth nowe the childerne

There is non of thise newe clerkes / who-so takethe hede

Not won Among an hundred / that an autor can construe

Nor rede a letter in Any langage / but in latyn or englishe

Go now to any degree / and but if gyle be maister

And flaterer his felawe / vnder him to fourme

Much wonder me thinketh / Among vs all

Doctors of decrees / and of diuinytie maisters

That shuld konne and knowe / all manere clergie

And Answere to argumentes / & also to Quodlibet

I dare not say it for shame / if such were opposed

They shuld faile of ther philosophie / and in phisick bothe

Wherfor I am afraid / of folke of holy kyrke /

Lest they ouerhippe as other do / in offices and houres

But if they do as I hope not / our beleue suffiseth

As clerkes in Corpus xicristi feast / Sing and rede

That Sola fides sufficit / to saue lewd people

And so may Sarazens be saued / Scribes and Iewes

Allas then but our loresmen / lyue as they lerne vs

And by their lyueng that lewd men be / the lother to offend god

For Sarazens haue somewhat / semyng to our beleue

For they loue and beleue / in one god allmighty

And we lerned and lewde / in won god beleue

And won Makometh a man / in misbeleue brought

Sarazens of Surrey / and se in what manere

This Makometh was a xpcristian / & for he might not be Pope

Into Surrey he sought / and through his subtill wittes

he tamed a dowe / and daie and night hir fedd

The corne that she ete / he put into his ere

And if he Among the people preched / or in places came

Then wold the culuer come / to this clerkes ere

Wonly for meat / thus Makometh hir enchaunted

And did folke then fall on knees / for he swore in his preching

That the Culuer that came so / cam from the god of heauen

As A messenger to Makometh / men for to teache

And thus through wiles of his wit / and A whight dowe

Makometh in misbeleue / men and women brought

That then lyued there / and yet they beleue on his lawes

And sith Oure Sauiour suffred / the Sarazens so begyld

Through A xpcristen clerk / cursed in his soule

For drede of the death / I dare not telle truthe

how english clerkes a culuer fed / that couetise hight

And be manered after Mahometh / þat noman / no man vseth truthe

Ancres And heremytes / Monkes and friers

Pere to Apostles / through their perfite lyuyng

Wold neuer the feythfull father / that his mynister shuld

Of tyrauntes þat troble true men / take any Allmusse

But do as Antony did / Domynick and Fraunces

Benet and barnarde / which first them taught

To lyue by littill and in lowe houses / by true mennes Almesse

Grace shuld growe and be grene / through their good lyuyng

And folke shulde fynde that be in diuerse siknesse

The better for their prayers / in body and soule

Their prayers and theyr penaunces / to peace shuld bring

All that be at debate / and bedemen were good

Salt saueth the catell / say these wyues

These heades of holy church / if they holie were

Christ calleth them salt / for xpcristen soules

For fresh fleshe or fyshe / what / wha[n] it salt faileth

It is vnsavery for sothe / either soden or bake /

So is mannes soule truly / that seeth no good ensample

Of them of holie churche / that the high waye shuld teache

And be guydes and go before / as a good baner

And make hardie that come After / and gyue them good euydence

Ellevene holy men / all the worlde turned

Into true beleue / the lightlier me thinketh

Shold all manere men / we haue so many maisters

Preestes and preachours / And A pope aboue all

That goddes salt shuld be / to saue mannes soule

All was Hethenesse sometyme / England and wales

Till Gregory caused clerkes / to cum here and preche

Augustine At Cantorburie / Cristened the king

And through myracles as men may rede / all þat march he turned

To Christ and to xpcristendome / And Crosse to honour

And baptysed fast / And the feyth taught

More through Myracles / then much preaching

As well with workes / and with holie wordes

And told them {that} what cristenyng / and feyth was to mene

Cloth that commeth from the weaving / is not comly to were

Till it be fulled vnderfote / or in fulling stockes

Well washed with water / & with tasells crached

Toucked and teynted / and vnder tailours hande

And it fareth by A childe / that borne is of A woman

Till it be cristened in Christes name / and confermed of the bisshop

Yt is hethen as to heauenwarde / and helples to the soule

hethen is to mene hethe / and vntilled grounde

As in wilde wildernesse / wexeth wylde beastes

Rude and vnreasonable / rennyng without cropers

Ye wot well how Mathue saith / that a man made A feaste

He fedd them with no venyson / nor fesauntes bake

But with foules that wold not from him / but folowed his whistelyng

Ecce altilia mea et omnia parata sunt /

And with calues fleshe he fedd / the folke þat he loued

The calf betokeneth clennesse / in them þat kepe lawes

for as the Cowe through kynde mylke / the calf norisheth to an Oxe

So loue and leautie / true men do susteyne

And maidens and mylde men / mercie desyre

Right as the Cowcalf / coueteth swete mylke

So do rightous men / mercie and truthe

But who be they þat excuseth them / þat are parsons and preestes

That heades of holy church bene / that haue theyr will here

Without trauaile the tythes / that true men sore laboreth for

They wilbe / will be {.}wrothe that I wright thus / but to witnesse I take

Bothe Mathewe and Marc / And Memento domine dauid /

What Pope or prelate nowe / performeth that Christe commaunded

Allas that men so long / on Makometh shulde beleue

So many prelates to preche / as the Pope makethe

Of Nazareth of Nynyve / of Neptalym and Damask

That theygo / they go not as Christe badd / Sithen they will haue name

To be pastours and preache / The passion of IhusIesus

And as himself said / so to lyue and die

And sithens thise Sarazens / Scribes and Iewes

Haue A lippe of our beleue / the lightlyer me thinketh

They shulde turne who-so trauailed / to teache them of the Trinyte

Yt is ruthe to rede / how rightouse men lyued

How they defouled theyr fleshe / forsoke ther oune will

Fer from kyth and kyn / euell clothed they went

Badlie beddid / no booke but Conscience

Nor no richesse but the Roode / to reioyce them in

And than was plentie and peace / Among poore and riche

And now is ruthe to rede / howe the redd noble

Ys reuerenced ere the roode / and receyued for the worthier

Than Christes cros that ouercame death and deadlie synne

And nowe is warre and woe / and who-so why axethe

For Couetise after crosse / the croune stand in gold

Bothe riche and religiouse / that roode they honoure

That in grotes is grauen / and in golde nobles

For couetise of that crosse / men of holy churche

Shall turne as templars did / the tyme approcheth fast

Wot ye not ye wisemen / howe those men honored

More treasure then truthe / I dare not telle the sothe

Reason and rightfull dome / the Religiouse demed

Euen so ye clerkes / for your couetise or long

Shall they deme dos ecclesie and your pride depose

Deposuit potentes de sede &c /

Yf knighthode and kyndwit / and the Commons by Conscience

Togithers loue trulie / beleue it well ye Bisshops

The lordshippes of londes / for euer shall ye lose

And lyue as Leuitici / as our lorde you techethe

When Constantyne of curtesy / the churche of RomeT endued

With londes and leades / lordshippes and rentes

An Aungell men herde / an highe at Rome crie

Dos ecclesie this daie hathe dronke poyson

And they that haue peters powre / are poysoned all

A medicyne must therto / that may Amende prelates

That shuld pray for the peace / possessions them lett

Take their londes ye lordes / and let them lyue by dymes

Yf possession be poyson / and inperfite them make

Good were to discharge them / for holy churches sake

And purge them of poison / ere more perill fall

Yf preesthode were perfite / the people shuld Amende

That contrarie Crystes lawe / and xpcristendome dispise

for all paynyms pray / and perfitelie beleue

In the holy great god / and his grace they aske

And make ther mone to Makomethe / their message to shewe

Thus in a feith lyue that folke / and in a false mene

And that is ruthe for rightouse men / that in the realme dwelle

And A perill to the pope / and prelates that he maketh

That beare bishopes names of bethelem and Babilone

That hippe about in Englande / to halowe mennes Alters

And crepe among curatours / confessing against the lawe

Nolite mittere falcem in messem alienam /

Many a man for Christes loue / was martyred in Romaigne

Ere any xpcristendome was knoune there / or any crosse honoured

Euery bisshop that beareth crosse / by that he is bounde

Through his province to passe / and to his peopleP to shewe him

To tell them and teche them / on the Trinitie to beleue

And fede them with gostlie foode / and gyue there it nedeth

Ozias saith for such / as sike be and fieble

But we xpcristen creatures / þat on Christ beleue

Are fyrme as in the feythe / goddes forbode elles

And haue clerkes to kepe vs therin / & them þat shall come after vs

And Iewes lyuen in true lawe / our lorde writ it himself

In stone for it steadfast was / and stonde shulde euer

Dilige deum et proximum / is perfite Iewes lawe

And toke it Moyses to teche men / tyll Messias came

And on that lawe they beleue yet / and holde it the beste

And yet knewe they Christe / þat xpcristendome taught

For A perfite prophete / that much people saued

Of sundrie and straunge diseases / they se it ofte

Bothe of myracles and merveiles / and howe he fed men

With too fishes and fyue looues / fyue thousand people

And by that same men might se / that Messye he semed

And when he raised Lazar / þat laid was in graue

Vnder stone and stanke / with styff voice him called

He did him rise and roome / euen before the Iewes

But they said and swore / with Sorcery he wrought

And studied to stroy him / and stroyed themself

And through his pacience their poure to nought he brought

Pacientes vincunt /

Danyell of ther vndoing / divined and said

And wene tho wreches / that he were pseudopropheta

And þat his lore be lesinges / and despise it all

And hope that he be to come / that shall them releue

Moyses , or Messye / their maisters yet dyvyne

But pharisees and Sarazens / Scribes and Grekes

Are folk of one feythe / God the father they honour

And sithens that the Sarazens / and also the Iewes

Knowe the fyrst clause of oure beleue / Credo in deum patrem

Prelates of xpcristen provinces / Shulde proue if they might

To lerne them by litill and litill / Et in Ihm xpm / Iesum cristum filium

Till they coulde spelle and speake / Et in spiritum sanctum /

And rede it and recorde it / with remissionem pecatorum /

Carnis resurreccionem et vitam eternam Amen /