Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/107

 nothing else all day; and everyone knows that a jay can speak what he has been taught, as well as the Pope himself; but let anyone try him a little farther, and he would find his philosophy quite spent. ‘Questio quid juris?’ would then be his answer. He was, however, a kind fellow in his way, and would, for a quart of wine or so, wink at his neighbours' delinquencies. But if he found one with a good warm purse, he would tell him he need not care for the Archdeacon's malediction just as if a man's soul were in his purse; for in purse he should be punished. 'The purse,' would he say, 'is the Archdeacon's hell:' in all which I pronounce him to be an arch deceiver; since the guilty man should ever stand in awe of a curse, which will destroy the soul, as absolution will preserve it. Of the 'significavit' also, let him beware.

He contrived to make himself acquainted with all the cabals and little arrangements of the young folks in the diocese, and kept them upon their good behaviour. He had