_Of straunge maners and divers._
[Illustration]
AND in this countrey & in many other landes over the sea, it is a
maner when they have warre and cities or castels beseged so strongly
that they may send no messages to any lordes for socour then they
write their letters & binde them about the neckes of doves and let
them flie their wayes, bicause the dove is of that nature that he will
returne againe to the place where he is brought up, and thus they do
commonly in that countrey. And ye shal wete that among the Sarasins in
many places dwel christen men under tribute and they are of divers
maners, and divers maners of monkes, and they are all christened and
have divers lawes, but they all beleve well in our Lord God, the
father, the sonne, & in the Holy ghost, but yet they fayle in the
articles of our faith, and they are called Jacobyns. For sainct James
converted theym to the fayth, and sainct John baptised them, and they
say that men shall onely shryve[1] them unto God, & not unto man for
they saye that God bad not man shryve him unto another man. And
therefore saith David in the Psalter in this maner of wise,
_Confitebor tibi, domine in toto Corde meo, &c._ That is to saye, Lord
I shall shrive me unto thee in all my hart. And in another place he
saith thus, _Delictum meum tibi cognitum feci_. That is to saye, My
trespasse I have made knowne unto thee. And in another place, _Deus
meus es tu & confitebor tibi_. That is to saye, Thou art my god and I
shall be shriven to thee. And in another place _Quoniam cogitatio
hominis confitebitur tibi_, &c. That is to say, The thought of man
shal be shriven to thee, and they knowe well the Bible and Psalter but
they say it not in latin, but in their owne language, and they saye
that David and other prophetes have sayde it. But Sainct Austyn and
Saynct Gregory say, _Qui scelera sua cogitat, & conversus fecerit,
veniam sibi credat_, That is to say, Who so knowith his syn and
turneth, he may beleve to have forgivenesse. And Sainct Gregory sayth
thus, _Dominus potius mentem, quam verbum considerat_, That is to
saye, Our Lord taketh more kepe[2] to thought, than to worde, and
Sainct Hilarius sayth, _Longorum temporum crimina, ictu oculi pereunt,
si cordis nata fuerit compunctio_, That is to say, Synnes that are
done of olde tyme perysh in twinkling of an eye, if despising of them
be born in a mans heart. And therefore say they, men shal shrive them
onely to God, by these authorities, & this (_it_) was the Apostles, &
popes that came sithen haue ordeyned, that men shall shrive them to
priestes & men as they are, & the cause is this, for they saye that a
man that hath a sicknesse, men may giue him no good medecines but they
know y^t kinde of the sicknesse, also they say a man may give no
covenable[3] penaunce but if he know y^e sin. For there is a maner of
synne that is grevouser to one man than it is to another, and
therefore it is nedefull that a man should know and understande the
kinde of sinne. And there be also other men that men call Surryens and
they hold halfe our faith, and halfe the faith of the Grekes and they
have longe berdes as the Grekes have.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
And there ben[4] other that men call Georgiens, whome sainct George
converted, and they doe more worship to halowes[5] of heaven than
other doe, and they haue their crownes shaven, the clerkes haue rounde
crowns, and the lewde[6] have crownes square, & they holde the Grekes
lawe. And there be other that men call christen men of gyrding,[7]
for as much as they were gyrdels underneth, some other men call
Nestoryens, some Aryens, some Nubyens, some Gregours, and some Indiens
that are of Prester Johns lande, and euery one of those haue some
artycles of our belefe. But eche of them varye from other, and of
their varyaunce it were to muche to declare.[8]
[Illustration]
[Footnote 1: Confess.]
[Footnote 2: Heed.]
[Footnote 3: Convenient.]
[Footnote 4: Be.]
[Footnote 5: Saints.]
[Footnote 6: Common people.]
[Footnote 7: This arose from a curious ordinance in A.D. 856
of the Khalif Motawakkel, who ordered both Jews & Christians
to wear leather girdles; hence those Christians who lived in
Syria were called "Christians of the girdle."]
[Footnote 8: Tell.]