With Respect To The Two Orders,
The Cluniac And The Cistercian, This May Be Relied Upon; Although
The Latter Are Possessed Of Fine Buildings, With Ample Revenues And
Estates, They Will Soon Be Reduced To Poverty And Destruction.
To
the former, on the contrary, you would allot a barren desert and a
solitary wood; yet in a few years you will find them in possession
of sumptuous churches and houses, and encircled with an extensive
property.
The difference of manners (as it appears to me) causes
this contrast. For as without meaning offence to either party, I
shall speak the truth, the one feels the benefits of sobriety,
parsimony, and prudence, whilst the other suffers from the bad
effects of gluttony and intemperance: the one, like bees, collect
their stores into a heap, and unanimously agree in the disposal of
one well-regulated purse; the others pillage and divert to improper
uses the largesses which have been collected by divine assistance,
and by the bounties of the faithful; and whilst each individual
consults solely his own interest, the welfare of the community
suffers; since, as Sallust observes, "Small things increase by
concord, and the greatest are wasted by discord." Besides, sooner
than lessen the number of one of the thirteen or fourteen dishes
which they claim by right of custom, or even in a time of scarcity
or famine recede in the smallest degree from their accustomed good
fare, they would suffer the richest lands and the best buildings of
the monastery to become a prey to usury, and the numerous poor to
perish before their gates.
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