If the clergy lived impure lives, so did the laity.

Probably the standard of the {21} church (save in special circumstances) was no worse than that of civil life, and in some respects it was rather more decent.

Finally, there is some reason to suspect of exaggeration the charges preferred by the innovators.

Like all reformers they made the most of their enemy's faults.

Invective like theirs is common to every generation and to all spheres of life.