which we had and have a store, while ye were
naked as a tablet to be painted on. For all the household of
philosophy are clothed with garments, that the nakedness and rawness of
the intellect may be covered. After this, providing you with the
fourfold wings of the quadrivials that ye might be winged like the
seraphs and so mount above the cherubim, we sent you to a friend at
whose door, if only ye importunately knocked, ye might borrow the three
loaves of the Knowledge of the Trinity, in which consists the final
felicity of every sojourner below. Nay, if ye deny that ye had these
privileges, we boldly declare that ye either lost them by your
carelessness, or that through your sloth ye spurned them when offered
to you. If these things seem but a light matter to you, we will add yet
greater things. Ye are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy
race, ye are a peculiar people chosen into the lot of God, ye are
priests and ministers of God, nay, ye are called the very Church of
God, as though the laity were not to be called churchmen. Ye, being
preferred to the laity, sing psalms and hymns in the chancel, and,
serving the altar and living by the altar, make the true body of
Christ, wherein God Himself has honoured you not only above the laity,
but even a little higher than the angels. For to whom of His angels
has He said at any time: Thou art a priest for ever after the order of
Melchisedech? Ye dispense the patrimony of the crucified one to the
poor, wherein it is required of stewards that a man be found faithful.
Ye are shepherds of the Lord's flock, as well in example of life as in
the word of doctrine, which is bound to repay you with milk and wool.

Who are the givers of all these things, O clerks? Is it not books? Do
ye remember therefore, we pray, how many and how great liberties and
privileges are bestowed upon the clergy through us? In truth, taught
by us who are the vessels of wisdom and intellect, ye ascend the
teacher's chair and are called of men Rabbi. By us ye become
marvellous in the eyes of the laity, like great lights in the world,
and possess the dignities of the Church according to your various
stations. By us, while ye still lack the first down upon your cheeks,
ye are established in your early years and bear the tonsure on your
heads, while the dread sentence of the Church is heard: Touch not mine
anointed and do my prophets no harm, and he who has rashly touched them
let him forthwith