three things that folk of the world have in this present life, that is to say, honours, delights, and riches. Over
against honours they have in Hell shame and confusion. For well you know that men call "honour" the
reverence that man gives to man; but in Hell is no honour or reverence. For indeed no more reverence shall
be done there to a king than to a knave. As to which God says, by the Prophet Jeremiah: "They that scorn me
shall be scorned." "Honour" is also called great lordship; but there no man shall serve another, save to his
harm and torment. "Honour," again, subsists in great dignity and rank; but in Hell all they shall be trodden
upon by devils. And God says: "The horrible devils shall go and come upon the heads of the damned." And
this is because the higher they were in this life, the lower shall they lie and be defiled in Hell. Against the
riches of this world shall they have the misery of poverty; and this poverty shall be of four kinds: lack of
treasure, whereof David says: "They that trust in their wealth, boast themselves in the multitude of their
riches, they shall sleep in the darkness of death, and nothing shall they find in their hands of all their
treasure." And, moreover, the misery of Hell shall consist of lack of food and drink. For God says thus,
through Moses: "They shall be wasted with hunger, and the birds of Hell shall devour them with bitter death,
and the gall of the dragon shall be their drink, and the venom of the dragon their morsels." And, furthermore,
their misery shall be for lack of clothing, for they shall be naked of body save for the fire wherein they burn,
and for other filth; and naked shall they be of soul, devoid of all virtues, which are the clothing of the soul.
Where shall be then the gay robes and the soft sheets and the soft shirts? Behold what God says by the
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prophet Isaiah: "Under them shall be strewed moths and their covering shall be of the worms of Hell." And
still further, their misery shall lie in lack of friends; for he is not poor who has good friends; but there no
friend; for neither God nor any other shall be friend to them, and each of them shall hate all others with a
deadly hatred. "The sons and the daughters shall rebel against father and mother, and kindred against kindred,
and each of them shall curse and despise the others," both day and night, as says God through the Prophet
Micah. And the loving people that once loved each other so passionately, each of them would eat the other if
he might. For how should they love in the torments of Hell who hated each other in the prosperity of this life?
For trust it well, their carnal love was deadly hate; as says the Prophet David: "Whoso loveth wickedness
hateth his own soul." And whoso hates his own soul, truly he may love no other, in any wise. And therefore,
in Hell is no solace nor any friendship, but ever the more fleshly relationships there are in Hell, the more
cursings and the more deadly hates there are among them. And, again, they shall lack every kind of pleasure;
for truly, pleasures are according to the appetites of the five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. But
in Hell their sight shall be full of darkness and of smoke, and therefore full of tears; and their hearing full of
wailing and the gnashing of teeth, as says Jesus Christ; their nostrils shall be full of a stinking smell. And, as
the Prophet Isaiah says, "their savouring shall be of bitter gall." And as for touch, all the body shall be
covered with "fire that never shall be quenched and with worms that never shall die," as God says by the
mouth of Isaiah. And for as much as they shall not think that they may die of pain, and by death thus flee
from pain, then may they understand the words of Job, who said, "There is the shadow of death." Certainly a
shadow has the likeness of that whereof it is the shadow, but the shadow is not the substance. Just so it is with
the pain of Hell; it is like unto death because of the horrible anguish. And why? Because it pains for ever, and
as if they should die at every moment; but indeed they shall not die. For as Saint Gregory says: "To these
wretched captives shall be given death without death, and end without end, and want without ceasing." And
thereupon says Saint John the Evangelist: "They shall seek for death and they shall not find it; and they shall
desire to die and death shall flee from them." And Job, also, says: "Death, without any order." And though it
be that God has created all things in right order, and nothing at all without order, but all things are ordered
and numbered; yet, nevertheless, they that are damned have no order, nor hold to any order. For the earth
shall bear them no fruit. For, as the Prophet David says: "God shall destroy the fruits of the earth from them."
No water shall give them moisture, nor the air refreshment, nor the fire a light. For, as Saint Basil says: "The
burning of the fire of this world shall God send into Hell unto the damned souls there, but the light and the
radiance thereof shall be given in Heaven unto His children"- just as the good man gives flesh to his children
and bones to his dogs. And since they shall have no hope of escape, Saint Job says at the last that horror and
grisly fear shall dwell there without end. Horror is always the fear of evil that is to come, and this fear shall
dwell for ever in the hearts of the damned. And therefore have they lost all their hope, and for seven causes.
First, because God their judge shall be without mercy to them; they may not please Him, nor may they please
any of His saints; they can give nothing for their ransom; they shall have no voice wherewith to speak to
Him; they cannot flee from pain; and they have no goodness within themselves which they might show to
deliver them out of pain. And therefore says Solomon: "The wicked man dieth; and when he is dead he shall
have no hope of escaping from pain." Whosoever, then, will well understand these pains, and bethink him
well that he has deserved these very pains for his sins, certainly he shall have more longing to sigh and weep
than ever to sing and play. For, as Solomon says: "Whoso shall have the wisdom to know the pains that have
been established and ordained for the punishment of pain, he will feel sorrow." "This same knowledge," says
Saint Augustine, "maketh a man to bewail within his heart."
The fourth point that ought to cause a man to feel contrition is the unhappy memory of the good that he has
left here on earth; also the good that he has lost. Truly, the good deeds that he has left are either those that he
wrought before he fell into mortal sin, or the good deeds he did while he lived in sin. Indeed the good deeds
he did before he fell into sin have been all deadened and stultified and rendered null and void by the repeated
sinning. The other good deeds, which he wrought while he lay in mortal sin, they are utterly dead as to the
effect they might have had on his life everlasting in Heaven. And then the same good deeds that have been
rendered null by repeated sinning, which good works he wrought while he stood in a state of grace, shall
never quicken again without an utter penitence. And thereof God says, by the mouth of Ezekiel: "If the
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righteous man shall turn again from his righteousness, and do wickedness, shall he live?" Nay, for all the
good works that he has wrought shall never be held in memory, for he shall die in his sin. And thereupon, as
to that same chapter, Saint Gregory says thus: "That we shall understand this principally: that when we do
mortal sin it is for naught that we tell of or draw from memory the good works that we have wrought before."
For, certainly, in the doing of mortal sin there is no trusting to the help of good that we have wrought before;
that is to say, as it affects the everlasting life in Heaven. But notwithstanding this, the good deeds quicken
again and return again, and help and are of avail in attaining the everlasting life in Heaven, when we have
contrition. But indeed the good deeds that men do while they are in deadly sin, because they are done in
deadly sin, shall never quicken again. For truly, that thing which never had life may never quicken;
nevertheless, albeit these deeds avail nothing as to the perdurable life, yet they help to lighten the pains of
Hell, or else to acquire temporal riches, or else, because of them, God will enlighten and illumine the heart of
the sinful man to be repentant; and also they avail in accustoming a man to the doing of good deeds, to the
end that the Fiend has less power over his soul. And thus the compassionate Lord Jesus Christ wills that no
good work be utterly lost; for in somewhat it shall avail. But for as much as the good deeds that men do while
they are in a state of grace are all stultified by sin ensuing; and, also, since all the good works that men do
while they are in mortal sin are utterly dead, in so far as the life everlasting is concerned, well may that man
who does no good work sing that new French song, J'ai tout perdu mon temps et mon labeur. For certainly,
sin bereaves a man of both goodness of nature and the goodness of grace. For indeed the grace of the Holy
Ghost is like fire, which cannot be idle; for fire fails anon as it forgoes its working, and even so does grace
fail immediately it forsakes its work. Then loses the sinful man the goodness of glory, which is promised only
to good men who suffer and toil. Well then may he sorrow, who owes all his life to God, as long as he has
lived and as long as he shall live, and who yet has no goodness wherewith to repay his debt to God. For trust
well, "he shall give account," as Saint Bernard says, "of all the good things that have been given him in this
present life, and of how he has used them; in so much that there shall not perish a hair of his head, nor shall a
moment of an hour perish of all his time, that he shall not be called upon to give a reckoning for."
The fifth thing that ought to move a man to contrition is remembrance of the passion that Our Lord Jesus
Christ suffered for our sins. For, as Saint Bernard says: "While I live I will keep in remembrance the travail
that Our Lord Christ suffered in preaching; His weariness in travail; His temptations when He fasted; His
long watchings when He prayed; His tears when He wept for pity of good people; the grievous and the
shameful and the filthy things that men said of Him; the foul sputum that men spat into His face; the foul
buffets that men gave Him; the foul grimaces and the chidings that men said; the nails wherewith He was
nailed to the cross; and all the rest of His passion, which he suffered for my sins and not for his own guilt."
And you shall understand that in man's sin is every order or ordinance turned upside-down. For it is true that
God and reason and sensuality and the body of man have been so ordained and established that, of these four
things, the next higher shall have lordship over the lower; as thus: God shall have lordship over reason, and
reason over sensuality, and sensuality over the body of man. But, indeed, when man sins, all of this order or
ordinance is turned upside-down. Therefore, then, for as much as the reason of man will not be subject to nor
obedient to God, Who is man's Lord by right, therefore it loses the lordship that it should hold over sensuality
and also over the body of man. And why? Because sensuality rebels then against reason; and in that way
reason loses the lordship over sensuality and over the body. For just as reason is rebel to God, just so is
sensuality rebel to reason, and the body also. And truly, this confusion and this rebellion Our Lord Jesus
Christ suffered upon His precious body, and paid full dearly thus, and hear you now in what wise. For as
much, then, as reason is rebel to God, therefore is man worthy to have sorrow and to die. This Our Lord Jesus
Christ suffered for mankind after He had been betrayed by His disciple, and secured and bound "so that the
blood burst out at every nail of His hands," as says Saint Augustine. Moreover, for as much as reason of man
will not subdue sensuality when it may, therefore man is worthy of shame; and this suffered Our Lord Jesus
Christ for man when they spat in His face. Furthermore, for as much, then, as the wretched body of man is
rebel both to reason and to sensuality" therefore is it worthy of death. And this Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered
for man upon the cross, where there was no part of His body free from great pain and bitter passion. And all
this Jesus Christ suffered, Who never did any wrong. And therefore it may be reasonably said of Jesus thus:
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"Too much am I tortured for things the punishment of which I do not deserve, and too much disgraced for
shame that belongs to man." And therefore may the sinful man well say, as says Saint Bernard: "Accursed be
the bitterness of my sin, for which there must be suffered so much bitterness." For truly, according to the
diverse discordances of our wickedness, was the passion of Jesus Christ ordained in divers ways, as thus.
Certainly sinful man's soul is betrayed unto the Devil by covetousness of temporal prosperity, and scorned by
deceit when he chooses carnal delights; and it is tormented by impatience under adversity, and spat upon by
servitude and subjection to sin; and at the last it is slain for ever. For this confusion by sinful man was Jesus
Christ first betrayed and afterwards bound, Who came to loose us from sin and pain. Then was He scorned,
Who should have been only honoured in all things. Then was His face, which all mankind ought to have
desired to look upon, since into that face angels desire to look, villainously spat upon. Then was He scourged,
Who had done nothing wrong; and finally, then was He crucified and slain. So was accomplished the word of
Isaiah: "He was wounded for our misdeeds and defiled for our felonies." Now, since Jesus Christ took upon
Himself the punishment for all our wickedness, much ought sinful man to weep and to bewail that for his sins
the Son of God in Heaven should endure all this pain.
The sixth thing that ought to move a man to contrition is the hope of three things; that is to say, forgiveness
of sin, and the gift of grace to do well, and the glory of Heaven, wherewith God shall reward a man for his
good deeds. And for as much as Jesus Christ gives us these gifts of His largess and of His sovereign bounty,
therefore is He called Iesus Nazarenus rex Iudeorum. Jesus means "saviour" or "salvation," in whom men
shall hope to have forgiveness of sins, which is, properly, salvation from sins. And therefore said the angel to
Joseph: "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, Who shall save His people from their sins." And thereof says Saint
Peter: "There is no other name under Heaven given to any man, whereby a man may be saved, save only
Jesus." Nazarenus is as much as to say "flourishing," wherein a man may hope that He Who gives him
remission of sins shall give him also the grace to do well. For in the flower is hope of fruit in time to come;
and in forgiveness of sins is hope of grace to do well. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock," says Jesus: "if
any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me."
That is to say, by the good works that he shall do, which good works are the food of God; "and he shall sup
with Me"- by the great joy that I shall give him. Thus may man hope, for his deeds of penitence, that God
shall allow him to enter His Kingdom, as is promised unto him in the gospel.
Now shall a man understand in what manner shall be his contrition. I say, that it shall be universal and total;
that is to say, a man shall be truly repentant for all the sins that he has done in delight of his thought; for
delight is very dangerous. For there are two ways of acquiescence; one is called acquiescence of the
affections, when a man is moved to do sin, and delights in long thinking thereon; and his reason well
perceives that it is sin against the law of God, and yet his reason restrains not his foul delight or appetite,
though he see well that it is opposed to the reverence that is due to God; although his reason consent not to do
that sin in very deed, yet some doctors say that dwelling long on such delight is full dangerous, be it ever so
little. And also a man should sorrow for all that he has ever desired against the law of God with perfect
acquiescence of his reason; for there is no doubt of it, there is mortal sin in acquiescence. For truly, there is
no mortal sin that was not first in man's thought, and after that in his delight, and so on unto acquiescence and
unto deed. Wherefore I say, that many men never repent for such thoughts and delights, and never confess
them, but only the actual performance of great sins. Wherefore I say that such wicked delights and wicked
thoughts are subtle beguilers of those that shall be damned. Moreover, a man ought to sorrow for his wicked
words as well as for his wicked deeds; for truly, the repentance for a single sin, unaccompanied by repentance
for all other sins, or else repentance for all other sins and not for a single sin, shall not avail. For certainly
God Almighty is all good; and therefore He forgives all or nothing. And thereupon says Saint Augustine: "I
know certainly that God is the enemy of every sinner." And how then? He that continues to do one sin, shall
he have forgiveness for the rest of his sins? No. Furthermore, contrition should be wondrous sorrowful and
full of suffering; and for that God gives fully His mercy; and therefore, when my soul was suffering within
me, I had remembrance of God, that my prayer might come unto Him. Moreover, contrition must be
continual, and a man must keep and hold a steadfast purpose to shrive himself and to amend his way of life.
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For truly, while contrition lasts, man may continue to have hope of forgiveness; and of this comes hatred of
sin, which destroys sin within himself and also in other folk, according to his ability. For which David says:
"Ye that love God hate wickedness." For trust this well, to love God is to love what He loves and to hate what
He hates.
The last thing that man shall understand about contrition is this: What does contrition avail him? I say, that at
times contrition delivers a man from sin; as to which David says: "I said I will confess my transgressions unto
the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." And just as contrition nothing avails without firm
purpose of shrift, if man have opportunity, just so shrift itself is of little worth without contrition. Moreover,
contrition destroys the prison of Hell and makes weak and feeble all the strength of all the devils, and restores
the gifts of the Holy Ghost and of all good virtues; and it cleanses the soul of sin, and delivers the soul from
the pain of Hell and from the company of the Devil, and from the servitude of sin, and restores it unto all
spiritual good and to the company and communion of Holy Church. And furthermore, it makes of him who
was formerly the son of anger to be the son of grace; and all these things are proved by holy writ. And
therefore he that would set his understanding to these things, he were full wise; for truly, he should not then,
in all his life, have desire to sin, but should give his body and all his heart to the service of Jesus Christ, and
do Him homage. For truly, Our sweet Lord Jesus Christ has spared us so graciously in our follies that, if He
had not pity on man's soul, a sorry song indeed might all of us sing.
Explicit prima pars penitentie;
Et sequitur secunda pars eiusdem
The second part of penitence is confession, which is the sign of contrition. Now shall you understand what
confession is, and whether it ought to be used or not, and which things are necessary to true confession.
First, you shall understand that confession is the true discovery of sins to the priest; I say "true," for a man
must confess all the circumstances and conditions of his sin, in so far as he can. All must be told, and nothing
excused or hidden, or covered up, and he must not vaunt his good deeds. And furthermore, it is necessary to
understand whence his sins come, and how they increase, and what they are.
Of the birth of sins, Saint Paul says thus: that "as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;...
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." And this man was Adam, by whom sin entered into
the world when he broke the commandment of God. And therefore, he that at first was so mighty that he
should never have died became such a one as must needs die, whether he would or no; and all his progeny in
this world, since they, in that man, sinned. Behold, in the state of innocence, when Adam and Eve were naked
in Paradise, and had no shame for their nakedness, how that the serpent, which was the wiliest of all the
beasts that God had made, said to the woman: "Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the
garden?" And the woman said unto the serpent: "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, 'Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye
touch it, lest ye die.'" And the serpent said unto the woman: "Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know, that
in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and delectable
in the sight, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat; and gave also unto her husband, and he did eat. And the
eyes of them both were opened. And when they knew that they were naked, they sewed fig-leaves together
into a kind of breeches to hide their members. There may you see that mortal sin had first suggestion from the
Fiend, who is here figured by the serpent; and afterward the delight of the flesh, as shown here by Eve; and
after that the acquiescence of reason, as is shown by Adam. For trust this well, though it were that the Fiend
tempted Eve, that is to say, the flesh, and the flesh delighted in the beauty of the forbidden fruit, certainly
until reason, that is, Adam, consented to the eating of the fruit, yet stood he in the state of innocence. From
that same Adam caught we all that original sin; for we are all descended from him in the flesh, engendered of
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vile and corrupt matter. And when the soul is put into a body, immediately is contracted original sin; and that
which was at first merely the penalty of concupiscence becomes afterwards both penalty and sin. And
therefore are we all born the sons of wrath and of everlasting damnation, were it not for the baptism we
receive, which washes away the culpability; but, forsooth, the penalty remains within us, as temptation, and
that penalty is called concupiscence. When it is wrongly disposed or established in man, it makes him desire,
by the lust of the flesh, fleshly sin; desire, by the sight of his eyes, earthly things; and desire high place, what
of the pride of his heart.
Now, to speak of the first desire, that is, concupiscence, according to the law for our sexual parts, which were
lawfully made and by rightful word of God; I say, for as much as man is not obedient to God, Who is his
Lord, therefore is the flesh disobedient to Him, through concupiscence, which is also called the nourishing of
and the reason for sin. Therefore all the while that a man has within himself the penalty of concupiscence, it
is impossible but that he will be sometimes tempted and moved in his flesh to do sin. And this shall not fail
so long as he lives; it may well grow feeble and remote by virtue of baptism and by the grace of God through
penitence; but it shall never be fully quenched so that he shall never be moved within himself, unless he be
cooled by sickness or my maleficence of sorcery or by opiates. For behold what Saint Paul says: "The flesh
lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary, the one to the other; so that ye
cannot do the things, that ye would." The same Saint Paul, after his great penance on water and on land (on
water by night and by day, in great peril and in great pain; on land in famine, in thirst, in cold, and naked, and
once stoned almost unto death), yet said he: "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body
of this death?" And Saint Jerome, when he had long lived in the desert, where he had no company but that of
wild beasts, where he had no food but herbs, with only water to drink, and no bed but the naked earth, for
which his flesh was black as an Ethiopian's with heat and well-nigh destroyed with cold, yet said he that the
heat of lechery boiled through all his body. Wherefore I know well and surely that they are deceived who say
that they are never tempted in the flesh. Witness Saint James the apostle, who says that everyone is tempted
in his own concupiscence. That is to say, each of us has cause and occasion to be tempted by the sin that is
nourished in the body. And thereupon says Saint John the Evangelist: "If we say that we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
Now shall you understand in what manner sin waxes or increases in man. The first thing to be considered is
this same nurturing of sin, whereof I spoke before, this same fleshly concupiscence. And after that comes the
subjection to the Devil, that is to say, the Devil's bellows, wherewith he blows into man the fire of
concupiscence. And after that a man bethinks himself whether he will do, or not, the thing to which he is
tempted. And then, if a man withstand and put aside the first enticement of his flesh and the Fiend, then it is
no sin; and if it be that he do not, he feels anon a flame of delight. And then it is well to be wary, and to guard
himself, else he will fall anon into acquiescence to sin; and then he will do it, if he have time and place. And
of this matter Moses says that the Devil says thus: "I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my
lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them." For certainly, just as a
sword may part a thing in two pieces, just so acquiescence separates God from man. "And then will I slay
him in his sinful deed." Thus says the Fiend. For truly, then is a man dead in soul. And thus is sin
accomplished by temptation and by acquiescence; and then is the sin called actual.
Forsooth, sin is of two kinds; it is either venial or mortal sin. Verily, when man loves any creature more than
he loves Jesus Christ our Creator, then is it mortal sin. And venial sin it is if a man love Jesus Christ less than
he ought. Forsooth the effect of this venial sin is very dangerous; for it diminishes more and more the love
that man should have for God. And therefore, if a man charge himself with many such venial sins, then
certainly, unless he discharge them occasionally by shriving, they may easily lessen in him all the love that he
has for Jesus Christ; and in this wise venial sin passes over into mortal sin. Therefore let us not be negligent
in ridding ourselves of venial sins. For the proverb has it: "Mony a mickle mak's a muckle." And hear this
example. A huge wave of the sea comes sometimes with so great violence that it sinks a ship. And the same
harm is caused sometimes by the small drops of water that enter through the little opening in the seam into
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the bilge of the ship, if men be so negligent that they do not discharge it in time. And therefore, though there
be a difference between these two ways of sinking, nevertheless the ship is sunk. Just so it is sometimes with
mortal sin, and with vexatious venial sins when they multiply in a man so greatly that the worldly things he
loves, for which he venially sins, have grown as great in his heart as the love for God, or greater. And
therefore, the love for everything that is not fixed or rooted in God, or done principally for than he love God's
sake, though a man love it less. God, yet is it venial sin; and it is mortal sin when the love for anything
weighs in the heart of man as much as the love for God, or more. "Mortal sin," as Saint Augustine says, "is
when a man turns his heart from God, Who, is the truly sovereign goodness and may not change, and gives
his heart unto things that may change and pass away." And true it is that if a man give his love, the which he
owes all to God, with all his heart, unto a creature, then certainly so much of his love as he gives unto the said
creature he takes away from God; and thereby does he sin. For he, who is debtor to God, yields not unto God
all of his debt, which is to say, all the love of his heart.
Now since man understands generally what venial sin is, it is fitting to tell especially of sins which many a
man perhaps holds not to be sins at all, and for which he shrives not himself; yet, nevertheless, they are sins.
Truly, as clerics write, every time a man eats or drinks more than suffices for the sustenance of his body, it is
certain that he thereby sins. And, too, when he speaks more than it is necessary it is sin. Also, when he hears
not benignly the complaint of the poor. Also, when he is in health of body and will not fast when other folk
fast, and that without a reasonable excuse. Also, when he sleeps more than he needs, or when he comes, for
that reason, too late to church, or to other places where works of charity are done. Also, when he enjoys his
wife without a sovereign desire to procreate children to the honour of God, or when he does it without
intention to yield to his wife the duty of his body. Also, when he will not visit the sick and the imprisoned, if
he may do so. Also, if he love wife or child or any other worldly thing more than reason requires. Also, if he
flatter or blandish more than, of necessity, he ought. Also, if he diminish or withdraw his alms to the poor.
Also, if he prepare his food more delicately than is needful, or eat it too hastily or too greedily. Also, if he
talk about vain and trifling matters in a church or at God's service, or if he be a user of idle words of folly or
of obscenity; for he shall yield up an accounting of it at the day of doom. Also, when he promises or assures
one that he will do what he cannot perform. Also, when he, through thoughtlessness or folly, slanders or
scorns his neighbour. Also, when he suspects a thing to be evil when he has no certain knowledge of it. These
things, and more without number, are sins, as Saint Augustine says.
Now shall men understand that while no earthly man may avoid all venial sins, yet may he keep them down
by the burning love that he has to Our Lord Jesus Christ, and by prayer and confession, and by other good
deeds. For, as Saint Augustine says: "If a man love God in such manner that all that he ever does is done in
the love of God, and truly for the love of God, because he burns with the love of God: behold, then, how
much a drop of water falling in a furnace harms or proves troublesome; and just so much vexes the venial sin
a man who is perfect in the love of Christ." Men may also keep down venial sins by receiving deservingly the
precious body of Jesus Christ; also by receiving holy water; by almsgiving; by general confession of
confiteor at mass and at compline; and by the blessings of bishops and of priests, and by other good works.
Explicit secunda pars penitentie
Sequitur de septem peccatis mortalibus
et eorum dependenciis
Circumstanciis et speciebus
Now it is a needful thing to tell which are the mortal sins, that is to say, the principal sins; they are all leashed
together, but are different in their ways. Now they are called principal sins because they are the chief sins and
the trunk from which branch all others. And the root of these seven sins is pride, which is the general root of
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all evils; for from this root spring certain branches, as anger, envy, acedia or sloth, avarice (or covetousness,
for vulgar understanding), gluttony, and lechery. And each of these principal sins has its branches and its
twigs, as shall be set forth and declared in the paragraphs following.
DE SUPERBIA
And though it be true that no man can absolutely tell the number of the twigs and of the evil branches that
spring from pride, yet will I show forth a number of them, as you shall understand. There are disobedience,
boasting, hypocrisy, scorn, arrogance, impudence, swelling of the heart, insolence, elation, impatience, strife,
contumacy, presumption, irreverence, obstinacy, vainglory; and many another twig that I cannot declare.
Disobedient is he that disobeys for spite the commandments of God, of his rulers, and of his spiritual father.
Braggart is he that boasts of the evil or the good that he has done. Hypocrite is he that hides his true self and
shows himself such as he is not. Scorner is he who has disdain for his neighbour, that is to say, for his fellow
Christian, or who scorns to do that which he ought to do. Arrogant is he who thinks he has within himself
those virtues which he has not, or who holds that he should so have them as his desert; or else he deems that
he is that which he is not. Impudent is he who, for his pride's sake, has no shame for his sins. Swelling of
heart is what a man has when he rejoices in evil that he has done. Insolent is he that despises in his judgments
all other folk in comparing theirs with his worth, and with his understanding, and with his conversation, and
with his bearing. Elated is he who will suffer neither a master nor a peer. Impatient is he who will not be
taught nor reproved for his vice, and who, by strife, knowingly wars on truth and defends his folly. Contumax
is he who, because of his indignation, is against all authority or power or those that are his rulers.
Presumption is when a man undertakes an enterprise that he ought not to attempt, or one which he cannot
accomplish; and that is called over-confidence. Irreverence is when men do not show honour where they
ought, and themselves wait to be reverenced. Obstinacy is when man defends his folly and trusts too much in
his own judgment. Vainglory is delight in pomp and temporal rank, and glorification in this worldly estate.
Chattering is when men speak too much before folk, clattering like a mill and taking no care of what they say.
And then there is a private species of pride that waits to be saluted before it will salute, albeit the one who has

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