Page:The Lady Poverty - a XIII. century allegory (IA ladypovertyxiiic00giovrich).pdf/145

 Flesh-pots of Egypt which they had left behind, and ignobly to seek what with noble Heart they had abandoned. They fretted at having to walk in the Ways of God's Commandments, and followed His Injunctions with a barren Heart. They grew

sought in the past, and desired, I fear, by certain historians, but scarcely existing outside the cruel inventions of interested despoilers. And lest any be amazed that the Religious life should ever have fallen even half as low as is here portrayed, let them remember that the higher the ideal, the further the fall when it comes, and that the Lady Poverty has ever punished her betrayers by the completest degradation.]
 * [Footnote: unchaste is one of those rarities of history