You were my counsellor and assistant in
all my schemes: you were the director of my conscience: to you I was
obedient in all things. When did you call for supplies, which I refused
you? Was my assistance ever wanting to the poor? Did I deny support and
establishments to the clergy and the convents? Did I not hearken to your
instructions, who told me that these charities were, of all others, the
most grateful to my Maker, and fixed a perpetual fund for the support
of religion? And are all our pious endeavors now frustrated by the
dissolute lives of the priests? Not that I throw any blame on you: you
have reasoned, besought, inculcated, inveighed; but it now behoves you
to use sharper and more vigorous remedies; and conjoining your spiritual
authority with the civil power, to purge effectually the temple of God
from thieves and intruders."[*]
[* Abbas Rieval. p. 360, 361. Spel. Concil. p.
476, 477, 478.]
It is easy to imagine that this harangue had the desired effect; and
that, when the king and prelates thus concurred with popular prejudices,
it was not long before the monks prevailed, and established their new
discipline in almost all the convents.
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