280 ANNALS OF SOGER DE nOVEDEN. A.D. 1166 of a friend are better than the kisses of an enemy, your highness ought diligently to advert thereto, and, seriously giving it your consideration, observe that as the clergy are distinguished in their lives and habits from the laity, so also are the tribunals of the clergy bound to be entirely different from the tribunals of the laity. Wherefore, if you confound the same in an unseemly manner, render subject to your power that which belongs to Jesus Christ, enact, at your own goodwill, new laws for the oppression of the churches and of the poor of Christ, and introduce customs which you style those of your grandfather, then, -without doubt, at the last judgment, which you will not be able to escape, you yourself will be judged in a similar manner; 'With the same measure with which you mete, it shall be measured to you again.'K But, lest our admonitions may appear in some measure tedious or harsh to the ears of your highness, recollect the words of the Scripture, that ' the son whom the father loveth he correcteth,'57 knowing this for certain, that the more ardently we love your person with all brotherly love in the Lord, and the more frequently and thoughtfully we recall to mind the marks of your most sincere attachment to us and to the Church of God, which you formerly so frequently and so bounteously showed, the more readily do we make these intimations to you, to whom, with all the yearnings of our heart, we wish spiritual and eternal welfare. But if the future judgment is in any way to deter you, or if a crown of glory, as a reward in your eternal rest, has any delights for you, then does it befit you to worship true justice, which is God ; to concede to every one his rights, and to leave to the ecclesiastics all ecclesiastical matters, and especially those of a criminal nature, which arise from breaches of faith or of oaths, and all cases relative to the property and possessions of churches. In fact, it would neither befit, nor, indeed, be expedient for your serene highness to confound the offices of king and priest. For, if the whole of the property of the Church, which by means of oppression of this nature has been converted to your use, were to be expended by you in the relief of the poor, or in other works of piety, you would therein be paying a mark of respect not more pleasing to God than if, after offering one alms-dish on the altar, you were to cover up another, or, 56 St. Matt. vii. 2. 57 Prov. iii. 12.