muste thyn yre ouercome the/ After thys ought they to haue wylfull pouerte/ lyke as hit was in the auncyent prynces/ For they coueyted more to be riche in wytte and good maners than in moneye/ And that reherceth Valerius in his .viii. booke that scipion of Affryque was accused vnto the Senate that he shold haue grete tresour/ And he answerd certes whan I submysed affryque in to your poeste/ I helde no thynge to myself that I myght faye this is myn save only the surname of affryque/ Ner the affryquans haue not founden in me ner in my broder ony auarice/ ner y't we were so couetouse that we had ne had gretter enuye to be riche of name than of rychesses/ And therfore sayth seneque that the kynge Altagone vsid gladly in his hows vessels of erthe/ And some sayde he dyde hit for couetyse/ But he sayde that hit was better and more noble thynge to myne in good maners than in vayssell And whan some men demanded hym why and for what cause he dyde so/ he answerd I am now kynge of secylle/ and was sone of a potter/ and for as moche as I doubte fortune. For whan I yssued out of the hous of my fader and moder/ I was sodaynly made riche/ wherfore I beholde the natiuyte of me and of my lignage/ whiche is humble & meke/ And alle these thynges cometh of wilfull pouerte/ for he entended more to the comyn prouffyt than to his owen/ And of thys pouerte speketh saynt Augustyn in the booke of the cyte of god That they that entende to the comyn prouffyt. sorowe more that wilfull pouerte is lost in rome/ than the richesses of rome/ For by the wilfull pouerte was the renomee of good maners kept entierly/ thus by this richesse pouerte is not only corrupt in thyse dayes ner the cyte ner the maners/ but also the thoughtes of the men ben corrupt by thys couetyse and by felonnye that is worse. than ony other enemye And of the cruelte of the peple of rome speketh the good man of noble memorye Iohn the monke late cardynall of rome in the decretall the syxte in the chapitre gens sancta where he sayth/ that they ben felo[=u]s ayenst god. contrarye to holy thynges. traytres one to that other. enuyous to her neyghbours. proude vnto straungers. rebelle and vntrewe vnto theyr souerayns Not suffringe to them that ben of lower degree than they and nothinge shamfast to demande thinges discouenable and not to leue tyll they haue that they demande/ and not plesid but disagreable whan they haue resseyuyd the yeft They haue their tonges redy for to make grete boost/ and doo lityll/ They ben large in promysynges/ And smale gyuers/ they ben ryght fals deceyuours/ And ryght mordent and bitynge detractours/ For whiche thynge hit is a grete sorowe to see the humylite the pacyence And the good wisedom that was woute to be in this cyte of rome whiche is chief of alle the world is peruertid & torned in to maleheurte and thise euylles/ And me thynketh that in other partyes of crestiante they haue taken ensample of them to doo euyll/ They may saye