Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/415

 Heresy and the Friars 379 procured. The rule of silence was not properly observed: we commanded that it should be. We admonished them to go to confession every month. We enjoined that they should not keep dogs, birds, or squirrels, and should send away those that they had. Each nun has a chest of her own. We ordered the abbess to see what these contained, and that she should have them opened, and that the iron fasten- ings should be removed. When they receive new gowns they do not return the old ones. We ordered that no nun should dare to give away her old gown without the permis- sion of the abbess. Frequently, however, the nuns were accused of far more grievous sins than keeping squirrels and having each a locked chest, and the reports of the condition of the parish priests are as bad as those which relate to the monks and canons. One of the functions of the bishop was to determine whether the candidates presented to livings by the feudal patrons were proper persons for the position, whether they knew Latin enough to read the service, and whether they could chant. The same day, namely the Tuesday before Pentecost, we examined Godfrey, a clerk who had been presented to the church of St. Richard of Herecourt, on the passage, Omnia autem aperta et nuda sunt ems oculis [" All things are naked and open unto the eyes of him "]. Asked what part of speech aperta was, he replied " a noun." Asked whether it could be any other part, he replied, " Yes, a participle." Asked from what word it was derived, he answered, " From the verb aperio, aperis, aperii, aperire, aperior, aperieris" etc. .. . Asked what pateo meant, he said " to open " or " to suffer." Asked what part of speech absque was, he said it was a conjunction ; asked of what kind, he said causal. Examined in singing, it proved that he could not sing with- out notes and even then discordantly. We therefore, both