Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/163

Rh

Women and men alike, who ne’er

Aught else but worldly garments ware,

Yet none the less were canonized ;

Nay, ’twere the other way devised,

For many a saint to whom we pray,

Within the church or by the way,

Fair virgins chaste, or matrons mild,

Mothers of many an angel child,

Through life in worldly clothes did hide

Their bodies and within them died,

Yet saints were they, and aye shall be.

Was not that blessèd company

Of virgins who now tapers hold

Before the throne of God (all told

Eleven thousand) habited

In lay folks’ robes? yet honourèd

Are they in every church no less

Because they lacked of convent dress.

In holy heart wakes holy thought,

Through vesture ’tis nor marred nor wrought,

And worthy thought gives birth to deed

Of worth, for ’tis thereof the seed.

Thus of religion have I given

The pith, as ’tis ordained by heaven.

If in the fleece of Bellin ram

Sir Isegrym had made a sham

To clothe him, and had gone to feed

Among the sheep in that false weed,

Suppose you he would therefore keep

From greedy ravin of the sheep?