The English works of Wyclif hitherto unprinted.Edited by F. D. Matthew.

Capitulum 15^m.

Þe feftenþe; þat þei haunten tauernes out of mesure & stiren lewid men to dronkenesse, ydelnesse & cursed swerynge and [page 129] chydynge & fiȝttynge; for þei wolen not traueilen faste in here gostly office after crist & his apostlis, ¹þat ful bisili haþ tauȝt hem¹; þerfore þei fallen to nyse pleies, at tables, chees & hasard, & beten þe stretis, & sitten at þe tauerne til þei han lost here witt, & þan chiden & stryuen & fiȝten sum|tyme, & sumtyme neiþer han eiȝe ne tonge ne hond ne foot to helpe hem self for dronkenesse, & be þis ensaumple þe lewed peple weneþ þat dronkenesse is no synne; but he þat wastiþ most pore mennys goodis at tauernes, makynge hym self & oþere men dronken, is most preised of nobleie & curtesie & goodnesse & largenesse & worþinesse ³of þe world.³ lord, hou wel ben þes dronken curatis disposid to serue god & mynystre sacramentis, & namely of confession in tyme of deþ, to here sugetis.

Notes

• 1_1 omitted X.
• added by a later hand in X.
• 3_3 These words, omitted in X, are added as a correction in AA.