The thieves in fellowship are those that share in the theft, either because of partnership, or by gift, or by buying, or in other ways; afterwards those that consent, or advise, or command to do it. And those that excuse the thieves, or support them in their wickedness, or receive them into their house, or into his land, with their theft; afterwards the wicked judges that suffer them, either through gifts, or through entreaties, or for other evil cause, and will not, or dare not, do right. THE THIRD BOUGH OF AVARICE. The third bough of avarice is robbery, which hath many small roots. The first is in evil executors of bequests. The second is in evil lords, be he knight or other, that fleece the poor men that they should protect, by tolls, by duties on corn and cattle (_read_ coruees), by loans, by evil customs, by lines, by threatenings, or by other customs that they seek or bethink how they may have of theirs. In this sin are the great princes or barons that by their power take cities, castles, lands, baronies, and the other rich men that rob their poor neighbours by force of lands, vines, or other things, and take on the right hand and on the left, so that nothing can escape them. The third is in robbers and evil innkeepers, that rob the pilgrims and the merchants and other wayfaring men. The fourth is in them that will not pay what they must, and that withhold wrongfully the wages of their servants, or of them that attend to their needs. The fifth is in these great prelates, that deprive and rob their underlings by too much procuring, or by some unlawful exactions, which they make in too many ways. Those are the wolves that devour the sheep. The sixth is in such reeves, provosts, beadles, or official men, whatever they may be, as commit great robberies and wrongs upon the poor, and buy great heritages. There are so many other kinds of robberies, which it would be a long business to tell, but some are continued above that that is (here) related. THE FOURTH BOUGH OF AVARICE.