The Pardoner's Prologue & Tale
Folio 136v
13 of 14 folios
¶ Heere folweth the Prologe / of the Pardoners tale
¶ Radix malorum est Cupiditas Ad Thimotheum .6o.
LOrdynges quod He / in chirches / whan I perche
I peyne me / to han an hauteyn speche
And rynge it out as round as gooth a belle
For I kan / al by rote that I telle
5
My theme is alwey oon / and euere was
Radix malorum est Cupiditas ~
First I pronounce // whennes þt I come
And thanne my bulles / shewe I alle & some
Oure lige lordes seel / on my patente
10
That shewe I first my body to warente
That no man be so boold / ne preest ne clerk
Me to destourbe / of Cristes hooly werk
And after that thanne telle I forth my tales
Bulles of popes and of Cardynales
15
Of Patriarkes / and bisshopes I shewe
And in latyn / I speke a wordes fewe
To saffron with my perdicacioū
And for to stire hem / to deuocioū
Thanne shewe I forth / my longe cistal stones
20
Ycrammed ful of cloutes and of bones
Relikes been they / as wenen they echoon
Thanne haue in latoū a sholder boon
Which that was / of an hooly Iewes sheepe
Goode men I seye / taak of my wordes keepe