Saynct Gregory say, _Qui scelera sua cogitat, & conversus fecerit, veniam sibi credat_, That is to say, Who so knowith his syn and turneth, he may beleve to have forgivenesse. And Sainct Gregory sayth thus, _Dominus potius mentem, quam verbum considerat_, That is to saye, Our Lord taketh more kepe[2] to thought, than to worde, and Sainct Hilarius sayth, _Longorum temporum crimina, ictu oculi pereunt, si cordis nata fuerit compunctio_, That is to say, Synnes that are done of olde tyme perysh in twinkling of an eye, if despising of them be born in a mans heart. And therefore say they, men shal shrive them onely to God, by these authorities, & this (_it_) was the Apostles, & popes that came sithen haue ordeyned, that men shall shrive them to priestes & men as they are, & the cause is this, for they saye that a man that hath a sicknesse, men may giue him no good medecines but they know y^t kinde of the sicknesse, also they say a man may give no covenable[3] penaunce but if he know y^e sin. For there is a maner of synne that is grevouser to one man than it is to another, and therefore it is nedefull that a man should know and understande the kinde of sinne. And there be also other men that men call Surryens and they hold halfe our faith, and halfe the faith of the Grekes and they have longe berdes as the Grekes have. [Illustration] [Illustration] And there ben[4] other that men call Georgiens, whome sainct George converted, and they doe more worship to halowes[5] of heaven than other doe, and they haue their crownes shaven, the clerkes haue rounde crowns, and the lewde[6] have crownes square, & they holde the Grekes lawe. And there be other that men call christen men of gyrding,[7] for as much as they were gyrdels underneth, some other men call Nestoryens, some Aryens, some Nubyens, some Gregours, and some Indiens that are of Prester Johns lande, and euery one of those haue some artycles of our belefe. But eche of them varye from other, and of their varyaunce it were to muche to declare.[8] [Illustration] [Footnote 1: Confess.] [Footnote 2: Heed.] [Footnote 3: Convenient.] [Footnote 4: Be.] [Footnote 5: Saints.] [Footnote 6: Common people.] [Footnote 7: This arose from a curious ordinance in A.D. 856 of the Khalif Motawakkel, who ordered both Jews & Christians to wear leather girdles; hence those Christians who lived in Syria were called "Christians of the girdle."] [Footnote 8: Tell.] CAP. XL. _For to turne on this syde of Galyle._