Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/85

 nightfall; and, knocking gently at the door, humbly begged for God's sake to be admitted, otherwise they should perish through hunger and cold. It was the porter to whom they made their request, who, guessing these two friers by their patched habits, the meanness of their aspect, and their broken language, to be some mimics, or disguised persons, carried the message to the prior, who was not displeased with it. He, hastening to the door with the sacrist, the cellarer, and two younger monks, freely invited them in, expecting to be entertained with some sleight of hand or diverting pastime. But the friers, with a composed and sedate countenance, affirming that they were mistaken, that they were no such vile men, but that they had chosen an apostolical course of life to serve God, the Benedictines, displeased to be so defrauded of their expected diversion, turned out the friers, after misusing, kicking and buffeting them." So they went out into the cold and rain again; but one of the young monks took pity on them, and smuggled them into the hayloft. And afterwards, in a dream, he beheld Christ making inquisition into the conduct of the wicked Benedictines, and condemning them, after their repudiation by St. Benedict as subverters of his rule, to be hanged on a convenient elm tree.

It is added that Ingeworth and Henry of Devon proceeded next morning to Oxford, and went to the house of the Dominicans in the Jewry, where they were entertained for eight days. Evidently the story is of Franciscan origin, and it bears witness not only to the opinions entertained of Benedictine