Walter Scott

“ There was no little merit in the resolution thus piously and generously formed by Father Eustace. To men of any rank the esteem of their order is naturally most dear; but in the monastic establishment, cut off as the brethren are from other objects of ambition, as well as from all exterior friendship and relationship, the place which they hold in the opinion of each other is all in all. ”

“ These military retainers conducted themselves with great insolence towards the industrious part of the community, lived in a great measure by plunder, and were ready to execute any commands of their master, however unlawful. In adopting this mode of life, men resigned the quiet hopes and regular labours of industry for an unsettled, precarious, and dangerous trade, which yet had such charms for those once accustomed to it, that they became incapable of following any other. ”

“ The barons of Scotland are now turned masterful thieves and ruffians, oppressing the poor by violence, and wasting the church, by extorting free quarters from abbeys and priories, without either shame or reason. I fear me I shall be too late to counsel the abbot to make a stand against these daring sorners [2] —I must make haste.' He struck his mule with his riding wand accordingly; but, instead of mending her pace, the animal suddenly started from the path, and the rider's utmost efforts could not force her forward.
'Art thou, too, infected with the spirit of the times?' said the sub-prior ”

“ Thou hast laughed at and derided the inexperience of thy brethren; stoop thyself in turn to their derision; tell what they may not believe; affirm that which they will ascribe to idle fear or perhaps to idle falsehood; sustain the disgrace of a silly visionary or a wilful deceiver. ”

“ But the consciousness how much he should rejoice the abbot and most of the other monks of Saint Mary's, who were impatient of the unauthorized yet irresistible control which he was wont to exercise in the affairs of the convent, by a confession which would put him in a ludicrous or perhaps even in a criminal point of view, could not weigh with Father Eustace in comparison with the task which his belief enjoined. ”

“ I have left him in the upper cleugh, as he is somewhat kenspeckle, [1] and is marked both with cut and birn; the sooner the skin is off, and he is in saultfat, the less like you are to have trouble—you understand me? Let me have a peck of corn for my horse, and beef and beer for myself, for I must go on to the monastery—though I think this monk here might do mine errand.'
'Thine errand, rude man!' said the sub-prior, knitting his brows——
'For God's sake!' cried poor Dame Glendinning, terrified at the idea of a quarrel between them. 'O Christie! ”

“ I wonder where Halbert is?—listening to the bravading tales of gay Christie, I reckon! He is always wishing for fighting, and now he is out of the way.'
'Why, Edward, you would not fight with me, who am both a priest and an old man?'
'If you were as good a priest as the Pope,' said the boy, 'and as old as the hills to boot, you shall not carry away Mary's book without her leave. I will do battle for it.'
'But see you, my love,' said the monk, amused with the resolute friendship manifested by the boy, 'I do not take it; I only borrow it ”

“ The great chieftains oppressed the monasteries very much by exactions of this nature. The community of Aberbrothwick complained of an Earl of Angus, I think, who was in the regular habit of visiting them once a year, with a train of a thousand horse, and abiding till the whole winter provisions of the convent were exhausted. ”