In 1351, in a sermon no longer extant, but reported by the chronicler Jean de Venette, Pope Clement VI castigated the cardinals and other prelates and curial officials who had tried to get the Mendicant Orders condemned, or at least prevented from preaching.
“If the mendicants are silenced, what can you preach about? If on humility, you yourselves are the proudest, the most self-important and pompous in the whole world, if on poverty, you are the most covetous and greedy, if you preach about chastity–but on that we will say nothing–for God knows what each man does, and how many of you satisfy your lusts.”
Jean de Venette
Continuatio Chronici, pg 224
