The mountains are full of herds and horses, the woods well stored
with swine and goats, the pastures with sheep, the plains with
cattle, the arable fields with ploughs; and although these things in
very deed are in great abundance, yet each of them, from the
insatiable nature of the mind, seems too narrow and scanty.
Therefore lands are seized, landmarks removed, boundaries invaded,
and the markets in consequence abound with merchandise, the courts
of justice with law-suits, and the senate with complaints.
Concerning such things, we read in Isaiah, "Woe unto them that join
house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place,
that they be placed alone in the midst of the earth."

If therefore, the prophet inveighs so much against those who proceed
to the boundaries, what would he say to those who go far beyond
them? From these and other causes, the true colour of religion was
so converted into the dye of falsehood, that manners internally
black assumed a fair exterior:


"Qui color albus erat, nunc est contrarius albo."


So that the scripture seems to be fulfilled concerning these men,
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they are ravenous wolves." But I am inclined to think this
avidity does not proceed from any bad intention. For the monks of
this Order (although themselves most abstemious) incessantly
exercise, more than any others, the acts of charity and beneficence
towards the poor and strangers; and because they do not live as
others upon fixed incomes, but depend only on their labour and