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.

OF THE DUTIES OF A SOUL'S FRIEND WHO TAKES UNTO HIM PENITENTS HERE.

45. If you be any body's soul's friend,
His soul thou shalt not sell;
Thou shalt not be a blind leading a blind,
Thou shalt not allow him to fall into neglect.

46. Let them give thee their confessions
Candidly and devoutly;
Receive not their alms
If they be not directed by thee.

47. Though you receive their offerings,
They [the offerings] abide not in thy love;
Let them be as if fire upon thy body,
Until you have distributed them in your might.

48. Of fasting and praying
Pay thou their price;
If you do not you shall pay
For the sins of the host.

49. Teach thou the ignorant,
That they bend to thy obedience;
Let them not come into sin
In imitation of thyself.

50. For sake of gifts be not false,
By denial, by penuriousness;
For thy soul to thee is more precious
By far than the gifts.

51. You will give them to the strangers,
Be they powerful, or be they weak;
You will give them to the poor people,
From whom you expect no reward.

52. You will give them to old people,
To widows--'tis no falsehood;
You will not give them to the sinners,
Who have already ample gifts.