Treatise on the Morals and Discipline of Human Conduct

Those making a game for the sake of display original: "pompa" by frequently consuming good food, driven by the end goal that they might be at the altar so that they might be entertained there; or so that it may be seen that their wives or other women are seen there; or so that he may make an offering; or so that it flows secretly for the sake of pomp—all this is evil and vicious.

However, there are some, namely the Tartars A medieval term used to refer to the Mongols or other Central Asian peoples, often cited in moral treatises as examples of people with inverted moral priorities., who consider vicious acts or great sins as nothing. But they weight light and ridiculous things heavily: such as pulling meat out of a cauldron with a knife, or splitting wood and [tending] the fire with axes, or touching arrows with a fan, or taking bold young birds from a nest, or putting a horse with its bridle in a place where it might run, or spilling milk voluntarily. Yet the aforementioned Tartars did not consider it terrible how much blood they shed, or how they filled their bellies with drink, or how they seized the goods of others and held them by violence. For in this same way, within a game, many are deceived who weigh some light things heavily.

Because, however, in the end they permit others—or rightly consider by what criteria they judge a game—according to whether it is light or heavy struck through in red...to whom it pleases.... And let these things said concerning the second chapter suffice.

In the third place: It will be declared that these games are of value for the relief and rest of laborers.

For we see with our own eyes how daily experience teaches it to be so. ff A scribal mark often used to denote a new paragraph or a reference to legal digests, here marking a key point of argument. Laborers working in this world cannot labor continuously, especially since there is so much weight upon them. Therefore, it is natural for laborers to have rest at intervals interpolatim Meaning "intermittently" or "at breaks." The author argues that human nature requires periodic pauses rather than constant toil., which indeed the Author of the world also had—not that He had any need—but when He created the whole universe, on the seventh day He completed His work which He had made, and rested from all the work He had performed. Genesis 2. Because ff mark struck through we, who are weak in this time, need to have rest or solace at intervals among our labors...