Blanquerna

OF THE MANNER WHEREIN BLANQUERNA ORDERED HIS DIOCESE

The Bishop was in chapter together with all his canons, and he spake these words: “ It is your will, reverend sirs, that I be your paflor. As Abbot, I was in servitude, but now my servitude is greater, for with greater risk and peril does a paflor guard his well-fed sheep than his lean. Now since ye desire that I be your paflor, I beg of you aid and counsel, that ye may assifl me in my pafloral office and in the guarding of my sheep. Firfl of all I desire to know what is the income of the Cathedral Church, how many are the canons and the beneficcd clergy of the diocese, and in what manner the income of the Cathedral is divided. Let all these things be set forth in writing, to the end that I may take counsel with myself, and see if there is aught

H01V BLANQVERNA ORDERED HIS DIOCESE

4. The Archdeacon answered the Bishop, and said that dishonour would come to him and to all the clergy of the diocese, if he kept not in his house a large retinue, that he might have a great and honourable train, the which he could not keep with a third part of his income only. The Bishop answered that honour muft not be desired save with intention to the service of God, and that to give alms is to do greater honour to God than to have an excessive retinue whereby a man may have vainglory ; for the palace of a prelate is more honourable when at his gates there are many poor to whom alms arc given, than when upon his table are many silver cups, and many persons dine with him, and many beafls arc in his tables and many vefbnents in his wardrobes, and in his c hefts many pieces of gold.1

5. The Bishop desired also that division into three parts should be made in the number of the canons, and that one part should be set aside for the service of the eight Beati¬ tudes, the second for the fludy of theology and canon law, and the third for the service of the Cathedral Church; and he desired that all these four-and-twenty canons and he himself and all the reft should be made regular. After this he desired that the priefls who sang Mass and served the chaplaincies should, after Mass and the Hours, be set to fludy theology and law, and that they should take their food together in the refcflory and sleep in the dormitory, to the end that, after the deaths of the canons, others should be chosen from among them, and the care of the parish churches should be given to them ; and this ordinance he desired to be made for all time, and to be confirmed by the Pope, and likewise by the whole chapter.

6. Great was the flrifc that was between the Bishop and

of the good that he would perform. When the messengers had returned from the court, the Bishop Blanquerna made ordinance concerning his diocese as he had said ; and firft he made ordinance concerning ftudy, and afterward con¬ cerning the eight Beatitudes.