And thus far, as I say, I have proved truth in
very deed.
But now the incommodities that you repeat again--those, I say, that
are proper to the imprisonment of its own nature; that is, to have
less room to walk and to have the door shut upon us--these are,
methinketh, so very slender and slight that in so great a cause as
to suffer for God's sake we might be sore ashamed so much as once
to think upon them.
Many a good man there is, you know, who, without any force at all,
or any necessity wherefor he should do so, suffereth these two
things willingly of his own choice, with much other hardness more.
Holy monks, I mean, of the Charterhouse order, such as never pass
their cells save only to the church, which is set fast by their
cells, and thence to their cells again. And St. Brigit's order, and
St. Clare's much alike, and in a manner all enclosed religious
houses. And yet anchorites and anchoresses most especially, all
whose whole room is less than a good large chamber. And yet are
they there as well content many long years together as are other
men--and better, too--who walk about the world. And therefore you
may see that the lothness of less room and the door shut upon us,
since so many folk are so well content with them and will for God's
love choose to live so, is but a horror enhanced of our own fancy.
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