Glebe and church

Falsehood. But at last, and more freshly, the people argue that the glebegleba: glebe and the churchecclesia: church are so joined that they cannot be separated from one another, just as neither can a substance and its attributesubiectum / passio: subject / attribute, or the accident that philosophers call inseparable.¹ Let him who holds this opinionopinio: opinion, therefore, give up offerings and tithesdecime; pars decima: tithes; the tenth part, or else accept along with them 74endoweddotacio: endowment churches, as the holy men before us accepted them according to the laws of the church; for one who murmurs against this, since he must perfectly restore what he held unjustly, must render the value of his whole glebe to the lordsdominus; dominari: lord; to exercise lordship / to lord it, because otherwise, by his own fiction, he would be condemned for a debt unjustly held.² Why then could it not be said that every private ecclesiastical person is a proctorprocurator; procuratrix: proctor and not a secular lord, but that the whole church militantecclesia militans / triumphans / dormiens: the church militant / triumphant / sleeping itself, our mothermater nostra: our mother, exercises lordshipdominus; dominari: lord; to exercise lordship / to lord it over all the goods conferred on the church?³ Such are many sophismssophisma: sophism of Antichrist, by which he throws many simple priestssacerdos / presbiter: priest / presbyter into confusion.⁴

Truth. But here the faithful man says steadfastly, according to the doctrinedoctrina: doctrine that Christ taught in deed as well as in word, that the clergyclerus; clericus: the clergy; cleric ought altogether to live a poor and propertylessexproprietarii: the propertyless life, as heir of the heavenly kingdomregnum: kingdom, near to the life of innocence, as Christ [was]. For by this, that the clergy so lives of the Lord's portion, it differs perceptiblysensibilis: perceptible from a secular lord.⁵ And as to the first objectioninstancia; objectum: objection, it is clear that, whether we call "church" the building itself, or the faithful who frequent it on feast days, or the rule of the rector governing the people, the church and the glebe differ perceptibly enough. Nor has Antichrist the power so to join these to one another that the one cannot be separated from the other, since Christ and his apostles bore the cure more excellently than our superiorsprepositi: superiors, although they lacked such a glebe. Therefore this saying is a manifest lie of Antichrist, where he wants to put the glebe forward as the more perfect subjectsubiectum / passio: subject / attribute, and to put the spiritual cure after it as an imperfect accident;⁶ since it is known to the faithful man, who is not besottedphilocaptus: besotted with worldly greed, that both the church building itself and the spiritual cure of souls such as 75Christ had with his own differ notoriously from the glebe, whether it be understood as the temporal thing so possessed or as the very exercise of lordshipdominacio: exercise of lordship over it. Therefore what worldly men stammer on this point is a crude and unbelievinginfidelis: unbeliever; with a dative, faithless (to) saying; yet it forecasts something, namely that the spiritual cure of which the Lord gave the pattern is put after, and that, according to Antichrist's ordinanceordinacio; ordinancia: ordinance; of the sacrament, ordination, affection for temporal goodstemporalia: temporal goods goes before. As to the second objection, it has been said that a curatecuratus: curate who culpably keeps back this glebe must make restitution to God by contrition, since God is the chief lordcapitalis dominus; tenere de: chief lord; to hold of; and, when opportunity arises, he must make satisfaction to the needy subjects whom he defrauded before. Yet I do not see that by any law he must restore this to the patronpatronus: patron, the secular lord, since by divine law such patronage cannot be founded, and by human law such a patron conferred the glebe itself on that curate. And if the curate has received the fruit of this glebe, rejecting worldly exercise of lordship in his mind, faithful ministration can excuse him before God and men. Yet this seems [true]: that a faithful curate, when he has the opportunity, ought to renounce this secular lordshipdominium: lordship. For so blessed Possidius tells of his master, blessed Augustine, that he asked the citizens of Hippo to take back the estates which they had given him before, so that he could live purely on almselemosina: alms, as Christ and his apostles lived, or on tithes and offerings, as the priests and Levites of the old testament lived.⁷ And although the citizens themselves refused this, yet it is likely that Augustine did not here act like "a dog returning to his former vomit",⁸ but that, living purely on alms and ministering these estates to the poor, he was content with a poor life of alms. Therefore this way is not new, unfoundable in scripture, since it is founded in the law of the Lord. Hence let those who stammer so say, if they know, what possession or glebe 76these patrons of these recent orders had: Augustine, Benedict, Dominic, or Francis. But as the Christian sectreligio privata; secta: private religion; sect abandoned the poverty of its patron Christ, which these patrons are said to have revived, though culpably and unlearnedly, so the followers of these patrons have accepted the glebe of temporal goods the more greedily.⁹ And so in these patrons, and in the law of the eternal ordinance of "the ancient of days", this renunciation has been made ancient;¹⁰ and not only in these patrons and in the friarsfrater: friar (of the mendicants) / brother, although it was practised sophistically all along, but many rectors have had by God's prompting a hidden synderesissinderisis: synderesis, as those who read either law of the Lord have conceived [it] from that law, more openly or more obscurely.¹¹ But the manner of so possessing temporal goods, in a secular way and as if by inheritance, is more culpable than the use of them; and so a man can virtuously accept offerings and tithes in measure, provided that he minister faithfully to the church in its need. Faithfully, I say, altogether, in spiritual things and in temporal, whenever occasion arises of so ministering. Nor let the curate mutter about where he will lie down, or where he will put his tithes, if he has no house of his own as though by inheritance; for let him lie "in the midday" of the fervour of charitycaritas: charity, following Christ, who so slept, as it fell out and unknown, among his apostles; and let him cast away all his care, having his manner of lifeconversacio: manner of life in heavenly things, for the gaining of blessedness and about the means of serving God and the church and of following Christ.¹² And let him not be anxious about offerings or bodily tithes; for Christ in his highest wisdom ordained that his curates should lack certainty or inheritance of these temporal goods, so that they might pant the more after heavenly things. But Antichrist has changed this divine order. As to the third objection, it is clear that the church militant, as to its second part and its individual members, exercises lordship; and so the whole church, according to that part and to that extent, is imperfect, [falling short] of heavenly things, and 77removed from the state of innocence.¹³ But assigning the church militant to Christ's clergy, who are pilgrimspars peregrinans; peregrinari: the pilgrim part; to be a pilgrim in this world, it is clear that secular exercise of lordship is fittingly forbidden to it, as its head, Christ, taught by the example of his manner of life as well as by spoken doctrine.¹⁴ Hence a clergy living contrariwise seems to be of the devil's lot, under Antichrist as captain.¹⁵ And he is by name the secular chief lord, and those living under his banner seem to be proctors of the prince of darkness; who have this as their property, that these worldly goods are not common to them, since they are not divided to every one "according as he had need", as the mendicant friars and the other [kind], the possessionerspossessionati: the possessioners, bear witness; but these goods have been parted most unjustly, to the great contention of that clergy.¹⁶ Therefore, no doubt, this sophism of the devil, like many similar ones, teaches how they are divided from the Lord's portion: hence let the faithful man note the cloisterersclaustrales: cloisterers, not only of different orders, nor only of the same order but of different houses, but of the same order and house [and yet] of different manners, and he will see how their temporal goods are most unjustly parcelled out; all of which are figured by Iscariot, who, although he had the fountain of grace as his captain and such gracious companions, yet out of avarice and his other sins offended so greatly against the Lord. Therefore the apostles, after the sending of the Holy Spirit, did not dare to enter such a confederation of religion, since the church ought to be content with the threefold bond of love.¹⁷ Let the faithful man therefore see what is taught in the faith of scripture, and hold that securely, and whatever remains, let him leave it aside. Therefore certain faithful men religiously maintain that no human tradition is to be accepted, whether papal, or imperial, or other provincial, except in so far as it is founded in the law of the Lord. It is clear from this that the law of Christlex dei / lex Christi / lex evangelica: God's law / the law of Christ / the gospel law is of the greatest weight, 78because, being God's, it is the most sufficient and most complete director of every man. Therefore the clergy, which ought to know that law, degenerates too far, that clergy which attends to human traditions or customsconsuetudo: custom not founded in God's laws.¹⁸ Or if they are founded implicitly in God's laws, a clergy that does not degenerate ought to take the spring water of that wisdom from that altogether fitter source, and put the stagnant human water after it. And were that praiseworthy manner kept, God's lawlex dei / lex Christi / lex evangelica: God's law / the law of Christ / the gospel law would be purified and the church purged of these errors brought in by the devil.¹⁹