For The Place Is Made For Nothing Else,
But Only For His Disport.
From that country men come by the land of the great Chan also, that
I have spoken of before.
And ye shall understand, that of all these countries, and of all
these isles, and of all the diverse folk, that I have spoken of
before, and of diverse laws, and of diverse beliefs that they have,
yet is there none of them all but that they have some reason within
them and understanding, but if it be the fewer, and that have
certain articles of our faith and some good points of our belief,
and that they believe in God, that formed all things and made the
world, and clepe him God of Nature; after that the prophet saith,
ET METUENT EUM OMNES FINES TERRAE, and also in another place, OMNES
GENTES SERVIENT EI, that is to say, 'All folk shall serve him.'
But yet they cannot speak perfectly (for there is no man to teach
them), but only that they can devise by their natural wit. For
they have no knowledge of the Son, ne of the Holy Ghost. But they
can all speak of the Bible, and namely of Genesis, of the prophet's
saws and of the books of Moses. And they say well, that the
creatures that they worship ne be no gods; but they worship them
for the virtue that is in them, that may not be but only by the
grace of God. And of simulacres and of idols, they say, that there
be no folk, but that they have simulacres. And that they say, for
we Christian men have images, as of our Lady and of other saints
that we worship; not the images of tree or of stone, but the
saints, in whose name they be made after. For right as the books
and the scripture of them teach the clerks how and in what manner
they shall believe, right so the images and the paintings teach the
lewd folk to worship the saints and to have them in their mind, in
whose names that the images be made after. They say also, that the
angels of God speak to them in those idols, and that they do many
great miracles. And they say sooth, that there is an angel within
them. For there be two manner of angels, a good and an evil, as
the Greeks say, Cacho and Calo. This Cacho is the wicked angel,
and Calo is the good angel. But the tother is not the good angel,
but the wicked angel that is within the idols to deceive them and
for to maintain them in their error.
There be many other divers countries and many other marvels beyond,
that I have not seen. Wherefore, of them I cannot speak properly
to tell you the manner of them. And also in the countries where I
have been, be many more diversities of many wonderful things than I
make mention of; for it were too long thing to devise you the
manner.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 156 of 158
Words from 80350 to 80864
of 81655
