other adornments and array were not over foul ne over fair, but they were of sufficient, moderate and competent habit. And he said of himself: 'I am ashamed of precious clothing, and therefore when any is given to me I sell it; for clothing may not be common, the price is common.' He used always his table sparing; he used always pottage and wortes, but oftimes he had flesh for guests and sick people, and he loved better at his table lessons and disputations than feasting, and had these verses written at his table:
Quisquis amat dictis absentum rodere vitam, Hanc mensam vetitam noverit esse sibi:
that is to say: 'Whosoever loves to missay any creature that is absent, it may be said that this table is denied to him at all.' For, on a time, as a man had loosed his tongue to missay of a bishop familiar with him, he rebuked him cruelly, and said that, unless he should leave off he would or raze away these verses or go from the table.
He was of so great purity and humility, that the right little sins which we repute for none he confessed them to God (as it appeareth in the book of his Confessions) and accused himself meekly to our Lord. For he accused himself there, that when he was a child, how he played at the ball when he should go to school. Also of that he would not learn of his father and mother and of his masters, but by constraint. Also, when he was a child, of that he read gladly the fables of Æneas and complained Dido which died for love. Also of that he had stolen meat from the table out of the celyer of his
