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The Church has always represented itself in a positive light,
and since it monopolised art and literature most of the historical
records this positive view. Whenever, exceptionally, other records
survive they rarely confirm such a positive view. For example,
in medieval times, troubadours writing in Occitan, the first
post-classical literary language in Christendom expressed a
very different view. Here is Peire Cardenal, describing the
clergy as self-interested, murderous, hypocritical, power-hungry,
lying, shysters, in Clergue fan pastor,
Clergue si fan pastor
E son aucizedor!
E par de gran sanctor
Qui los vei revestir,
E-m pren a sovenir
Que n'Ezengris, un dia,
Volc ad un parc venir:
Mas pels cans que temia
Pel de mouton vestic
Ab que los escarnic,
Puois manget e traic
Tot so que li-abelic. |
Clerics pretend to be shepherds,
But they are the killers;
The likeness of sanctity is on them
When you see them in their habit,
And it puts me in mind
That Master Ysengrim, one day,
Wanted to get into a sheepfold,
and because he feared the dogs
he put on the skin of a sheep
with which he tricked them all.
Then he gobbled and glutted
As much as he liked. |
Rei e emperador,
Duc, comte e comtor
E cavalier ab lor
Solon lo mon regir!
Ara vei possezir
A clers la seinhoria
Ab tolre e ab trair
E ab ypocrezia,
Ab forsa e ab prezic!
E tenon s'a fastic
Qui tot non lor o gic
E sera, quan que tric. |
Kings, emperors,
Dukes, counts, viscounts,
And knights, together,
Used to rule the world.
Now I see the power
In the hands of clerics
With stealing, betrayal,
Hypocrisy,
Violence, and sermons,
And they are highly offended
If you don't hand it all over to them,
And so it shall be, though it may take a while. |
Aissi can son major
Son ab mens de valor
Et ab mais de follor,
Et ab meins de ver dir
Et ab mais de mentir,
Et ab meins de paria
Et ab mais de faillir,
Et ab meins de clerzia.
Dels fals clergues o dic:
Que anc hom non auzic
A Dieu tant enemic
De sai lo tems antic. |
The greater they are
The less they are worth
And the greater their folly,
The less their truthtelling
And the greater their lying,
The less their friendship
And the greater their dereliction,
And the less they keep faith with their calling.
Of false clerics I say this:
I have never heard of any man
So great an enemy to God
Since the ancient of days. |
Can son en refreitor
No m'o tenc ad honor,
C'a la taula aussor
Vei los cussons assir
E premiers s'escaussir.
Aujas gran vilania:
Car i auzon venir
Et hom no los en tria.
Pero anc non lai vic
Paubre cusson mendic
Sezen laz cusson ric:
D'aitan los vos esdic. |
When I am in a refectory
It's no great honor to me,
Because up at the high table
I see those shysters sitting
And the first to serve themselves the soup.
Listen to this great villainy:
That such truck dare to come there
And no one picks them out.
On the other hand, I never saw
One poor begging shyster there
Sitting next to any well-established shyster:
Of that much, anyway, I exonerate them. |
Ja non aion paor
Alcais ni Almansor
Que abat ni prior
Los anon envazir
Ni lor terras sazir,
Que afans lor seria!
Mas sai son en cossir
Del mon consi lor sia
E com en Frederic
Gitesson de l'abric:
Pero tals l'aramic
Qui fort no s'en jauzic. |
Let the Arab chiefs
And sultans never fear
That abbots or priors
Might ever attack them
And take their lands,
For that would be hard work.
No, they stay home rapt in thought,
How the whole world might be theirs
And how they might have cast
Sir Frederick from his sanctuary.
But there was one who attacked him
And did not rejoice in it much. |
Clergue, qui vos chauzic
Ses fellon cor enic
En son comte faillic,
C'anc peior gent non vic. |
Clerics, whoever depicted you
Without a cruel and vicious heart
Erred in his account,
For a worse breed I never saw. |
Since reading and writing became widespread, such views have
been expressed wherever Church censorship has weakened. In particular,
the record of the Christian Churches on a wide range of social
issues is now widely recognised as being very different from
that presented by the Churches themselves. Here are a few striking
examples.
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