Of straunge maners and divers.

AND in this countrey & in many other landes over the sea, it is a maner when they have warre and cities or castels beseged so strongly that they may send no messages to any lordes for socour then they write their letters & binde them about the neckes of doves and let them flie their wayes, bicause the dove is of that nature that he will returne againe to the place where he is brought up, and thus they do commonly in that countrey. And ye shal wete that among the Sarasins in many places dwel christen men under tribute and they are of divers maners, and divers maners of monkes, and they are all christened and have divers lawes, but they all beleve well in our Lord God, the father, the sonne, & in the Holy ghost, but yet they fayle in the articles of our faith, and they are called Jacobyns. For sainct James converted theym to the fayth, and sainct John baptised them, and they say that men shall onely shryve¹ them unto God, & not unto man for they saye that God bad not man shryve him unto another man. And therefore saith David in the Psalter in this maner of wise, Confitebor tibi, domine in toto Corde meo, &c. That is to saye, Lord I shall shrive me unto thee in all my hart. And in another place he saith thus, Delictum meum tibi cognitum feci. That is to saye, My trespasse I have made knowne unto thee. And in another place, Deus meus es tu & confitebor tibi. That is to saye, Thou art my god and I shall be shriven to thee. And in another place Quoniam cogitatio hominis confitebitur tibi, &c. That is to say, The thought of man shal be shriven to thee, and they knowe well the Bible and Psalter but they say it not in latin, but in their owne language, and they saye that David and other prophetes have sayde it. But Sainct Austyn and Saynct Gregory say, Qui scelera sua cogitat, & conversus fecerit, veniam sibi credat, That is to say, Who so knowith his syn and turneth, he may beleve to have forgivenesse. And Sainct Gregory sayth thus, Dominus potius mentem, quam verbum considerat, That is to saye, Our Lord taketh more kepe² to thought, than to worde, and Sainct Hilarius sayth, Longorum temporum crimina, ictu oculi pereunt, si cordis nata fuerit compunctio, That is to say, Synnes that are done of olde tyme perysh in twinkling of an eye, if despising of them be born in a mans heart. And therefore say they, men shal shrive them onely to God, by these authorities, & this (it) was the Apostles, & popes that came sithen haue ordeyned, that men shall shrive them to priestes & men as they are, & the cause is this, for they saye that a man that hath a sicknesse, men may giue him no good medecines but they know y^t kinde of the sicknesse, also they say a man may give no covenable³ penaunce but if he know y^e sin. For there is a maner of synne that is grevouser to one man than it is to another, and therefore it is nedefull that a man should know and understande the kinde of sinne. And there be also other men that men call Surryens and they hold halfe our faith, and halfe the faith of the Grekes and they have longe berdes as the Grekes have.

And there ben⁴ other that men call Georgiens, whome sainct George converted, and they doe more worship to halowes⁵ of heaven than other doe, and they haue their crownes shaven, the clerkes haue rounde crowns, and the lewde⁶ have crownes square, & they holde the Grekes lawe. And there be other that men call christen men of gyrding,⁷ for as much as they were gyrdels underneth, some other men call Nestoryens, some Aryens, some Nubyens, some Gregours, and some Indiens that are of Prester Johns lande, and euery one of those haue some artycles of our belefe. But eche of them varye from other, and of their varyaunce it were to muche to declare.⁸

1: Confess.

2: Heed.

3: Convenient.

4: Be.

5: Saints.

6: Common people.

7: This arose from a curious ordinance in a.d. 856 of the Khalif Motawakkel, who ordered both Jews & Christians to wear leather girdles; hence those Christians who lived in Syria were called "Christians of the girdle."

8: Tell.