Page:The Way of a Virgin.djvu/243

Rh "Once on a time he was prebendary of Chartres, but he left his stall to marry a pretty lass, and the morning after the wedding, as they lay in bed, he said to her: 'Now, sweetheart, thou dost see how well I love thee, for I left my fair prebend that I might have thee.' She replied: 'Then thou wast a fool; thou shouldst have kept thy prebend, and had me also.'...It would appear that she knew that some canons are given to waggery."

"Such cloisterlings, who love not women, are always ready to fish up some ancient, stinking heresy under the pretence of discoursing against the Reformation, talking of vices they impute to others, the which are more tolerable than their own....It is better to keep a wench than to trouble the peace of Christendom, and to do the work is true godliness,...which is the reason why bishops are called fathers-in-God,...fathers-in-God sounds better han fathers-in-law. And they are certainly godly, that is happy; for happy, thrice happy is the father who hath not the trouble of feeding his children."

"He was as liberal as our bishop, who had rather give a crown to a wench than a groat to a poor man."

"Assuredly she is a strumpet. I saw her talking to the curate of St. Paul's, who had promised his rector to be discreet, and run no more after the wenches, or at least that he would abstain during and on Easter Monday he spoke to his woman, and the parson saw him. When they met he told him of it, saying: 'I saw thee speaking to a wench. Where is thy shame? Canst not refrain, at least during the holy season?' 'Pardon,' he replied, 'I