Then indeed shall men be changed from what they are now, and
they shall be sluggards, dolts, and cowards beyond all the earth hath
yet borne. Such are not the men I have known in my life-days, and that
now I love in my death."

"Nay," I said, "but the robbery shall they not see; for have I not told
thee that they shall hold themselves to be free men? And for why? I
will tell thee: but first tell me how it fares with men now; may the
labouring man become a lord?"

He said: "The thing hath been seen that churls have risen from the
dortoir of the monastery to the abbot's chair and the bishop's throne;
yet not often; and whiles hath a bold sergeant become a wise captain,
and they have made him squire and knight; and yet but very seldom. And
now I suppose thou wilt tell me that the Church will open her arms
wider to this poor people, and that many through her shall rise into
lordship. But what availeth that? Nought were it to me if the Abbot
of St. Alban's with his golden mitre sitting guarded by his knights and
sergeants, or the Prior of Merton with his hawks and his hounds, had
once been poor men, if they were now tyrants of poor men; nor would it
better the matter if there were ten times as many Houses of Religion in
the land as now are, and each with a churl's son for abbot or prior
over it."

I smiled and said: "Comfort thyself; for in those days shall there be
neither abbey nor priory in the land, nor monks nor friars, nor any
religious." (He started as I spoke.) "But thou hast told me that
hardly in these days may a poor man rise to be a lord: now I tell thee
that in the days to come poor men shall be able to become lords and
masters and do-nothings; and oft will it be seen that they shall do so;
and it shall be even for that cause that their eyes shall be blinded to
the robbing of themselves by others, because they shall hope in their
souls that they may each live to rob others: and this shall be the very
safeguard of all rule and law in those days."

"Now am I sorrier than thou hast yet made me," said he; "for when once
this is established, how then can it be changed? Strong shall be the
tyranny of the latter days. And now meseems, if thou sayest sooth,
this time of the conquest of the earth shall not bring heaven down to
the earth, as erst I deemed it would, but rather that it shall bring
hell up on to the earth. Woe's me, brother, for thy sad and weary
foretelling! And yet saidst thou that the men