Aspects of Kentish Local History

saith onto all good religiouse men, Math, V. Vos estis lux mundi, yow that be my apostolles & all thois men that euer schall follow yowr holly & religiouse perfections, yow be the lanterns of ligth, not of oon cittie or ii, not of oon realme or ii, Sed estis lux mundi but yow be the very lanterns of clere ligth of all the world: Sic igitur luceat lux vestra, ut videant opera vestra bona & glorificent patrem vestrum qui in celis est. Therfor I straytly comawnd & charge yow, see that ye do so lyve, that all other men (wich hath not professyd them selfes to soch hyghe religyouse perfections, as ye have done) may be excitid & movyd to folowe virtue by your devoutie exhortations & holly examples of lyving; so that by this your occasion your fader of hevin God almyghtie may be worschiphed & honorde of imperfecte & onreligiouse persons. We see that theis children of israell --- theis religiouse persons, wiche war wonte to be howsys of greate riches be now constrayned by povertie to sell their plaite, and sume to sell parte of ther londes, yeh we see that maney of ther fayer monasteres be utterly destroyd & plukked down, so that the tyme is now cume wherin religiouse men may lament & morne with the prophite David saying¹ Poluerunt templum sanctum tuum, & posuerunt Jerusalem in pomorum custodiam. Ps. 78. Good lord what mean this, that thow doist suffre men to spoyle & diffile thy holy temples, yeh thow hast suffred them so much quod posuerunt Jerusalem &c. that they have madd a garden an orchard uppon thy goodly cittie Jerusalem & uppon all the fayer

temples that war in yt. In the hebrew it is not² in pomorum custodia, but it is in aceruis lapidum that is to sey they haue mad greate heppes of stones uppon Jerusalem & uppon all the goodly temples thereof. I pray yow, do not wee thus see now of days religiouse places plukked down & gardens & fermes made uppon them, & the stonys that they war byldyd with all kast upon greate heppes in hyghe ways & myary places, yeh and that within few myles of this monastery? But what is the cause think ye of this ther greate oppression? Trewly I fere that they that thus do punysh them, may lykewise excuse them onto us, as kyng pharo dyd excuse hym self onto his peple, seying onto them Ecce populus filiorum multus Yow that be good christien men take heyd & loke diligently upon religiouse men now of days & ye schall see that they encresce mervelously non in numero sed in vicio, not in numbre, but in viciouse & synfull lyving: venite igitur sapienter opprimamus eos, therfor layte us go wisly & oppresse them & put themowth of ther places & possessions, lese that they by ther viciouse & evile example of lyving, therby they schalbe cast owth & clerly banyshed de sancta Jerusalem, de terra viuentium, from the gloriouse cittie of hevin. For trewly theis men that thus destroye religiouse places, they sey they do it to this entent, that the possessions & londes of them myghth be applyd to better usys:
  ¹ Some scribbles here in the margin, possibly for Hebrew characters.
   ²  Scribbles, ? Hebrew.