Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/357

75* and with them those of the wicked burghers; and so the whole world and its wretchedness has entered Peter's net of faith with these evil hordes.

And the multitude of these wretched hordes arrogate to themselves pagan and worldly rule, every one of them endeavoring to have dominion over the others. They try to embrace as much of the earth as they are able, using every means and every ruse or violence to get hold of the territory of the weaker, sometimes by money and at other times by inheritance, but always desiring to rule and to extend their realm as far as they can. And in order to rule they divide: some are lords spiritual and some lords temporal. The spiritual lords are: the Pope who is the lord over lords; the lord cardinal; the lord legate; the lord archbishop; the lord patriarch; the lord pastor; the lord abbot; the lord provost (and there are as many abbots and provosts as there are monasteries and orders endowed with estates); the lord provincial; the lord prior, the lord magister universitatis. And the temporal lords are: the lord Emperor; the lord king; the lord prince; the lord magnates; the lord burgrave; the lord knight; the lord page; the lord judge; the lord councillors; the lord mayor; the burghers.

And all these lords draw power to themselves so strenuously that not only have they torn the net between them but