Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/400

 364 Readings in European History The retain- ers of the monastery required to demean themselves humbly. part of the fine exacted shall go to the advocate and two parts to our community. ... Among our men some owe service of this kind, namely: when the lord abbot, prior, provost, or others among the brethren would travel anywhither, these men with their horses, do accompany the brethren and minister unto them obediently. And in order that this service may be right- fully required of them they are granted certain benefices. They assuredly rejoice to be honored by this distinction because they have the right to have under them men we call clients, or ministeriales. Yet in spite of this, no man of ours has ever become so perverse or haughty that he presumed to ride with us in military array, or refused to carry the wallet of any of our monks upon his pack horse. The founders of our monastery did not intend to give us such men, and we have not consented to receive any one who might prove troublesome to us or to our successors. 144. The body of a burned here- tic turns into toads. (From Luke, bishop of Tuy, thirteenth century.) VI. TALES ILLUSTRATING THE MEDLEVAL ATTITUDE TOWARDS HERETICS The popular horror in which heresy was held in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is well shown in the following accounts. From the lips of the same brother Elias, a venerable man, I learned that when certain heretics were scattering the virulent seeds of error in parts of Burgundy, both the Preaching Friars and the Minorites drew the two-edged sword of God's word against these same heretics, opposing them valiantly, until they were finally taken by the magis- trate of the district. He sent them to the stake, as they merited, in order that these workers of iniquity should perish in their wickedness as a wholesome lesson to others. Quantities of wood having been supplied in plenty to feed the flames, suddenly a toad of wonderful size appeared, and without being driven, betook itself of its own accord