Aspects of Kentish Local History

panes of hele schall lygth uppon all soch prowd religious persons. Firdermore it is not onknown that in many places of religion, oon religious man schall haue for hys pitance meet sufficient for viith or viiith persons, God gyve grace, that maney of them put not ther chef delite & felicite in fedyng ther bodes, mor lyke epicures than men wiche hathe professyd ther lyvys to greate abstinence & fasting. For theis soche apostataats that thus spend ther lyvys in glotteney & dronkennes God doith sore threeth in the said chapter of Amos wher yt thus folowithe ve vobis dico, qui comeditis agnum de grege & vitulos de medio armenti. Also thoys that entre into the howse of israell of religion & do put ther pleassures inordinatly in fedyng ther bodes with fate lambes of ther foldes, & with fate calfes of ther herdes & drovys, ve vobis dico, I sey agen (saith God) after this lif theuerlasting woo & sorow of the pannys of hele schall lygth uppon all soch, for thowghe it be so that canitis ad vocem psalterii, that soche religiouse men do dayly syng the holly psalmys of the psalter so solumly quod sicut David putatis vos habere vasa cantici that they thinke them selfes to haue lyke clene vessels, lyke pewer soles to practise theis holly songes as the holly prophite Dauyd hadd, whan ther belles be fillyd with deliciouse wyne, & with swanny cranes & faate venison pastes bibentes vinum in phiolis & optimo unguento delibuti, in excesse of metes & drinkes nihil compatiebantur super contristationem Joseph and whan that they that be such glotton or drenkars hath fyllyd ther owyn belles than

they haue not in the depe sestern of hunger & thorste, of syknes & deseese. For sume of them had rather feed howndes grewons¹ & dogges, with that met that they leve of ther seyd pitans than poore men; lyke as that prowd glotton Dives Epulo did. And in sume places sume of them do sell ther met that they do leue onto them that be howsholders. The rewar of all soche religiouse persons that thus abuse ther fowndations in defrawdyng poere peple after this lif schalbe ve vobis the euerlasting payne of hele. For this word ve in holly scripture do signifie payne euerlasting, after the mynd of that greate clerke Beede in thexposition of the xiiiith chapter of theuangeliste Marke. And God wilnot only thus punyshe religiouse men, that thus abuse ther fowndations in pryd & glottoney with payne euerlasting after this lif; but also he will sore punysh them here in this lyf, lyke as he gyvith them warning of by his said prophite Amos in the aforsaid chapter, wher it thus folowith, Dominus mandavit, & percutiet domum maiorem ruinis, & domum minorem scissionibus, Behold this thing, yow that be religiouse persons (saith the prophite Amos) how that dominus mandavit God hath straytly commawndyd thois that be the heedes & governowrs of his peple, that they schall stryke down domum maiorem yowr greate & fayer places ruinis onto the hard grownde, & also they schall stryke down domum
  ¹. grewhound, greyhound.