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164 prudence; and their pouches, to make matters smoother, abstained not from bribery.

2. The man then led them forward, one by one, and pasted on their foreheads the words: "This is a master of the free arts; this a doctor of medicine; this a licentiate of both laws," and so forth; and he confirmed all this with his seal, ordering all present and not present, at the risk of the wrath of the goddess Pallas, not to address them otherwise than by this title when they met them. And then he dismissed them and the whole crowd. Then I said: "Will, then, nothing more happen?" "And is this, then, not sufficient for thee?" the interpreter said. "Dost thou not see how all give way to these men that have been crowned?" And freely the others made way for them.

3. But none the less, I, who ever wished to see what would then happen to these men, watched one of these masters of arts; then they asked him to count something together, but he knew not how to do so; they then told him to measure something, he knew not how to do so. They asked him to name the stars, he knew not how to do it; they asked him how to expound syllogisms, he knew not how to do it; they asked him to talk in strange tongues, he knew not how to do it; they asked him to speak in his own language, he knew not how to do it; at last they asked him to read and write, he knew not how to do it. "But what a sin is this," I said, "to call yourself a master of the seven arts, and then to know not one?" The interpreter answered: "If