38. If you be a priest, you will be laborious;
You must not speak but truth;
Noble is the order which you have taken,
To offer up the body of THE KING.
39. It is better for you that you be not unwise;
Let your learning be correct:
Be mindful, be well informed
In rule and in law.
40. Let thy baptism be lawful--
Such does a precious act require;
Noble is thy cooperative man,
The Holy Spirit from heaven.
41. If you go to give communion
At the awful point of death,
You must receive confession
Without shame, without reserve.
42. Let him receive your Sacrament,
If his body bewails:
The penitence is not worthy
Which turns not from evil.
43. If you will assume the order--
For it is a great deed--
Thy good will shall be to all men
In word and in deed.
44. Excepting unrighteous people,
Who love their evil ways;
To these thou shalt never offer it
Until the day of thy death.