DEDICATORY EPISTLE

...from whose assembly, in every monastery, one man more excellent than the rest in the knowledge of the scriptures was appointed as a schoolmaster Scholasticus: the head of a school or a teacher of theology. Thus far Trithemius.

But if you compare the manners and studies of these men with our own monks, you will stop wondering why such barbarism now reigns in the monasteries. For now, there is almost no one (or at least very few) in the monasteries who has even greeted sacred literature from the threshold, unless it is purged of the Antichrist's leaven, much less professes it. Indeed, if anyone intends to read the Bible or even thinks of putting it into use, they immediately proclaim him a heretic, a schismatic, disobedient, an apostate, and a Lutheran. They tear him apart with a thousand insults and force him through beatings and prisons toward impiety and laziness, or (as they call it) obedience. They burn good authors. They compel the ruder monks to read, instead of the Holy Bible, Sleep Securely, The Parasites (I meant to say The Ready Ones), The Disciples, and other obscure preachers who contain nothing but trifles. These titles—"Dormi securè," "Paratos," and "Discipulus"—refer to popular late medieval sermon collections that humanists mocked for their simple style and lack of scholarly depth. Indeed, they are so little ashamed of their ignorance that certain orders have now entirely forbidden the reading of all books to their "perverted" ones (I should have said "converts") for several centuries. They have decreed by public law that the canonical hours the set times of daily prayer must be performed by them with the Lord's Prayer and the HAIL MARY, as they call it. And in Italy, an Order of Ignorance was devised and confirmed, as if it were not already well known that they are ruder than rudeness itself.

They have so little knowledge of languages and liberal arts that you may find many who have spent many years in the monks' brothels and have clearly grown old there, yet can scarcely read Latin writings. Nor are these "pigs from the herd of Epicurus" original: "Epicuri de grege porcos." This is a quote from the Roman poet Horace, used to insult those who prefer physical gluttony and laziness over the life of the mind. ashamed to instill in the tender hearts of monks that they are more than learned enough if they only know how to murmur prayers they do not understand and loudly bellow Masses and other idolatrous songs. In this way, they excellently confirm their ignorance and laziness, toward which they are otherwise more than naturally inclined. This is why it happens that, when asked: "How many kinds of verbs are there?" they answer: "Three." When asked about the Book of Psalms, they say: "It is a Psaltery." The joke relies on the monk's inability to distinguish between the book of scripture and the musical instrument, or perhaps a basic grammatical error in Latin gender. I once heard a certain abbot who seemed miraculously learned to himself (because he had once been made a Bachelor at Leipzig) reciting a certain joke and, to show off his learning, adding: "In words, in herbs (note the elegance), and in stones there is great power." Many such little stories could be told, but what need is there, since their ignorance has now been detected alongside their impiety?

It is also clear from this author that monks were not formerly the perpetual slaves of Abbots because of that most impious vow of obedience, as they are now. For on almost every page, so to speak, this author indicates that monks were exempted from monasteries and raised to bishoprics, abbeys, and other dignities or prelacies in other places. If that were done now, good God, what imprecations and curses would be made against such a shameless apostate! What persecutions, chains, and