symple men, þat been clepid eretikes, and enemyes to þe Chirch, for þei tellen Goddis lawe; for þei ben somynned and reprovyd many weies, and after put in prison, and brend [brent, E.] or kild as worse þan þeves [See note on p. 201.] . And maistris of þis pursuyng ben preestis more and less, and moost pryvy freris wiþ lesingis þat þei feynen, as Crist was pursued wiþ Caiphas and oþer preestis, but privyli wiþ Pharisees þat weren hise falsseste [falseest, E.] enemyes. And þis gospel is confort to alle þat ben þus pursued.
But certis as tradiciouns maid biside Goddis lawe, of preestis and of scribis and of Phariseis, blyndiden hem in Goddis lawe and made it dispisid, so it is now of Goddis lawe by newe mennis lawis, as decretals and decres. And þe Sixte, wiþ Clementyns [ The compilation of the Sixth Book of the Decretals was made by order of Boniface VIII, and promulgated by him in 1297. It is entitled Sextus, or the Sixth, as following and being supplementary to the five books of Decretals published by Gregory IX, in 1234, (on which see Milman's Latin Christianity, vi. 163):— Gregorii noni post libros quinque, vocatur Sextus; nomen habens ordinis a numero [These lines are in a fine copy of the Sextus in the Bodleian Library, edited by Giles Perrin, 1572.] . The Clementines were first pub|lished by Clement V at the Council of Vienne in 1312; they were after|wards given out in a fully digested form by John XXII in 1316. They treat of various points of canon law and church discipline, and are sup|plementary to the Sextus.
