Friar John

“ How Friar John talks of rooting out the Furred Law-cats Virtue of the frock, quoth Friar John, what kind of voyage are we making? A shitten one, o' my word; the devil of anything we do but fizzling, farting, funking, squattering, dozing, raving, and doing nothing. ”

“ Give me thy advice freely, I beseech thee, Should I marry or no? Friar John very merrily, and with a sprightly cheerfulness, made this answer to him: Marry, in the devil’s name. Why not? What the devil else shouldst thou do but marry? Take thee a wife, and furbish her harness to some tune. Swinge her skin-coat as if thou wert beating on stock-fish; and let the repercussion of thy clapper from her resounding metal make a noise as if a double peal of chiming-bells were hung at the cremasters of thy ballocks. As I say marry, so do I understand that thou shouldst fall to work as speedily as may be ”

“ Little John he wist not what to do, When he saw the others come; So he twisted his quarter-staff between His fingers and his thumb. "There's some mistake, good Friar!" he said, "There's some mistake 'twixt thee and me I know thou art Prior of Copmanshurst, But not beneath the greenwood tree. "And if you will take some other name, You shall have ample leave to bide; With pasture also for your Bulls, And power to range the forest wide." "There's no mistake!" the Friar said; "I'll call myself just what I please. My doctrine is that chalk is chalk, And cheese is nothing else than cheese." ”

“ FRIAR. I prythee, Scarlet, let us two alone.
[Exit SCAR.
ELY. Friar, I see thou know'st me: let me go,
And many a good turn I to thee will owe.
FRIAR. My master's service bids me answer no,
Yet love of holy churchmen wills it so.
Well, good my lord, I will do what I may
To let your holiness escape away.
Enter ROBIN HOOD and LITTLE JOHN. [227]
Here comes my master: if he question you,
Answer him like a plain man, and you may pass.
ELY. Thanks, Friar.
FRIAR. O, my lord thinks me an ass.
ROB. H. Friar, what honest man is there with thee?
FRIAR. A silly man, good master. ”

“ ELY. I am sure, sir, I do you no hurt, do I?
SCAR. We shall have company, no doubt:
My fellow Much hath found one out.
FRIAR. A fox, a fox! as I am friar,
Much is well worthy of good hire.
LIT. JOHN. Say, Friar, soothly, know'st thou him!
FRIAR. It is a wolf in a sheep's skin.
Go, call our master, Little John;
A glad man will he be anon.
It's Ely, man, the chancellor. [Aside.]
LIT. JOHN. God's pity! look unto him, Friar. ”

“ Many of the questions discussed at vesperies, inceptions, and other disputations at Oxford at the end of the thirteenth century—probably in the convent of the Minorites—are preserved in a manuscript at Assisi [326] . The question on which Friar Hugh of Hertepol disputed at the vesperies of Friar John de Persole was: An Christus in primo instanti potuit mereri perfectione. Other questions of the same Friar Hugh were: An deus eadem ratione formali videatur trinus et unus, An incarnacio sit possibilis. ”

“ Methinks it is but the darkness in our minds that bringeth gloom to the world. For what sayeth that merry song thou singest, Little John? Is it not thus?
"Nay," said Friar Tuck piously, "ye do think of profane things and of nought else; yet, truly, there be better safeguards against care and woe than ale drinking and bright eyes, to wit, fasting and meditation. Look upon me, have I the likeness of a sorrowful man?"
At this a great shout of laughter went up from all around, for the night before the stout Friar had emptied twice as many canakins of ale as any one of all the merry men. ”

“ He devoted his energies to training up lecturers who should go to the Franciscan friaries in the chief towns in England and Wales and teach friars and clergy the art of popular preaching. Friar John of Wales was one of the chief inspirers of the “University Extension” movement of the Middle Ages. These popular preachers or lecturers did not do much for the advancement of sound learning, because they did not study any [Pg 122] science for its own sake, but only for the moral lessons they could find in it. ”

“ When he returned to the town, the good Friar preached to the folks at length and exhorted them to obey King Charles. "God is preparing his way," he said. "To accompany him and to lead him to his anointing God hath sent him a holy Maid, who, as I firmly believe, is as able to penetrate the mysteries of God as any saint in Paradise, save Saint John the Evangelist." ”

“ Now such a one is our good Friar John; therefore every man desireth to have him in his company. He is no bigot or hypocrite; he is not torn and divided betwixt reality and appearance; no wretch of a rugged and peevish disposition, but honest, jovial, resolute, and a good fellow. He travels, he labours, he defends the oppressed, comforts the afflicted, helps the needy, and keeps the close of the abbey. Nay, said the monk, I do a great deal more than that ”

“ FRIAR. It is a leasing, credit me.
How chance, sir, then you were not sworn?
JOHN. What mean this groom and lozel friar,
So strictly matters to inquire?
Had I a sword and buckler here,
You should aby these questions dear.
FRIAR. Say'st thou me so, lad? lend him thine,
For in this bush here lieth mine.
Now will I try this new-come guest.
SCATH. I am his first man, Friar Tuck,
And if I fail, and have no luck,
Then thou with him shalt have a pluck.
FRIAR. Be it so, Scathlock. Hold thee, lad,
No better weapons can be had:
The dew doth them a little rust ”

“ Well, quoth Friar John, as good sit still as rise up and fall; what cannot be cured must be endured. ”

“ We'll seek a place: the woods have many ears,
And some, methinks, are calling for the Friar. [263]
Enter LITTLE JOHN and SCATHLOCK, calling the
FRIAR, as before.
LIT. JOHN. The Friar! the Friar!
SCATH. Why, where's this Friar?
Enter FRIAR TUCK.
FRIAR. Here, sir: what is your desire?
Enter ROBIN HOOD and WARMAN. [264]
ROB. H. Why, Friar, what a murrain dost thou mean?
The king calls for thee; for a mighty stag
(That hath a copper-ring about his neck
With letters on it, which he would have read)
Hath Scarlet kill'd. I pray thee, go thy way. ”

“ Friar John Olliff, subdeacon; and Friars Symon Ludforth, Thomas Barly, William Cok, and John Cok, non infra sacros.
It is not often possible to trace the subsequent career of the friars when they had been turned adrift on the world. The monks as a rule received pensions, and the entries respecting the payment of these in the Ministers’ Accounts and other records, afford some clue to their fate. The Mendicants except in a few isolated cases received no pensions. Dr. London in his letter of the 8th of July [795] asked Cromwell
‘what reward euery freer shall have ... ”

“ Get both of you down straightway from off your horses, and we will kneel here in the middle of the crossroads and pray the blessed Saint Dunstan to send us some money to carry us on our journey."
"What sayest thou, thou limb of evil!" cried the lean Friar, fairly gnashing his teeth with rage. "Doss thou bid me, the high cellarer of Fountain Abbey, to get down from my horse and kneel in the dirty road to pray to some beggarly Saxon saint?"
"Now," quoth Little John, "I ha' a great part of a mind to crack thy head for thee for speaking thus of the good Saint Dunstan! ”

“ What a very handsome fellow John has grown! So tall, and broad, and strong, with that fine colour, and dark eyes as beautiful as his sister’s!”
“More beautiful, I should say,” returned Caroline; “there is so much more intellect in them—raising them out of the regular Kencroft comeliness. True, the great charm of the stalwart Friar, as we call him, is—what his father has in some degree—that quiet composed way that gives one a sense of protection. I think his patients will feel entire trust in his hands. They say at the hospital the poor people always are happy when they see one of the Mr. ”

“ Thomas Peyrson, elected Fellow of Merton College in 1520, is said to have entered the Order of Observant Friars while still a B.A. [1783] Perhaps he is confused with
‘Johannes Perse (or Person) electus et cursor theologie hujus loci (London) , qui obiit 18 die Mensis februarii 1527,’
who was buried at the Grey Friars, London, inter chorum et altaria [1784] . Thomas Peyrson was an Observant Friar at Lynn in 1534, probably as a prisoner: he was still there at the dissolution [1785] .
John Porrett or Parott obtained leave, on Nov. 19, 1511, to enter the University library [1786] . ”

“ I didn’t want to taunt him to hurt him—I’d rather been kicked by a hoss than to do this—but I did want to arouse him to a sense o’ the truth. “You have adjusted yourself to this locality purty well, Friar,” sez I; “but the’s still a lot you don’t quite savvy. Some cases must be settled by a man himself, but some must be left to the law. If this woman is the wife o’ Ty Jones, he has the law on his side.” ”

“ After putting on his crimson satin doublet and his long robe, without forgetting his coif of black silk, he bade his wife, who was still in bed, good-bye, promising that he would come every evening to sup with her, but that at dinner they must not wait for him. So he went away and left his wife, who esteemed herself the happiest woman alive to have found so excellent a match. And the young wedded Friar returned to the old father and brought him the five hundred ducats, as had been agreed between them when arranging the marriage. ”

“ On hearing this dream, the friars were frightened and behaved without very noticeable laughter [36] .’
Grostete said to a Friar Preacher, ‘Three things are necessary to temporal health—to eat, sleep, and be merry [37] .’ Excessive austerity was discountenanced by the authorities of the Oxford convent. Friar Albert of Pisa, who was himself ‘always cheerful and merry in the society of the brethren [38] ,’ compelled Friar Eustace de Merc, contrary to custom, to eat fish, saying that the Order lost many good persons through their indiscretion [39] . ”

“ The gentleman, being now convinced of the Friar’s wickedness, returned to his wife’s room, and said to her—
“Of a certainty, sweetheart, the man who lay with you and did such fine things was our Father Confessor.”
The lady, who all her life long had held her honour dear, was overwhelmed with despair, and laying aside all humanity and womanly nature, besought her husband on her knees to avenge this foul wrong; whereupon the gentleman immediately mounted his horse and went in pursuit of the Friar. ”

“ You talk about faith and takin’ no heed for the morrow, and such things; but you act as though you were riskin’ a man’s soul when you gave him a chance to be of some little use in the world.”
The Friar was purty well overcome at this; but figure on it the best we were able, we couldn’t see just how to get a man’s wife away from him without provin’ that he had abused her. It was a complication, any way we looked at it; so we all went to bed in the hope that one of us would have a lucky dream.
We didn’t have any more idees next mornin’ than we’d had the night before ”

“ And of the Friaries once flourishing in Hull nought remains but their mere names.
‘Even where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, even there shall the dogs lick thy blood also, O King.’ Such was the text which a certain Grey Friar used when he had occasion to preach before King Henry. A bold man he must 202have been thus to take his fate into his hands. What the fate of Friar Peto actually was is not recorded, but we know that the Grey Friars and the Carthusian Monks were treated with particular brutality. ”

“ When Jim came back he was a made-over man, and every one asked him if he had religion. “Hell, no,” sez Jim, tryin’ to be independent, “I ain’t got religion; but a feller catches somethin’ from the Friar the same as if he had the measles; and I don’t covet to be a bum no more.”
This gives ya the best idy of the Friar that I can think of; and I finally fell asleep there at Bill Duff’s, with my mind made up to bury my own heartache, keep the grave of it green, but live out my life as hard as the Friar was livin’ his. ”

“ To find the woman he loved in the hands of the man who hated him, after all the years he had been in suspense about her was enough to tip any one off his balance; and I also knew the Friar. He had trained himself for eternity so long that some of his earthly idees weren’t sound, and the surest way to bring him to himself was to let him bark his knees a time or two. Some imported hosses carry their gaze so high they can’t see their footin’ but after they’ve stepped into a few prairie-dog holes, they learn to take a little more interest in what they’re treadin’ on. ”

“ Why, Happy, you’re all worked up! You’ve lost your philosophy, you’ve become a frettish old woman. What you need is a right good scare to straighten you up again. This Olaf the Swede is part of Ty Jones’s outfit, isn’t he?”
“He is,” I replied, shakin’ my head in warnin’, “and the whole gang’ll back him up in this.”
“Good!” sez the Friar, smackin’ his hand. “I’ve wanted an openin’ wedge into that outfit ever since I came out here. Of a truth, the Lord doth move in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.” ”

“ Friar Nicholas had heard the Countess Runa’s message, which, indeed, had leaked through the army and been much discussed and canvassed round the camp fires. The friar had listened to all the talk, agreeing with every man in turn, nodding his head wisely, but holding his tongue closely. No man heard him utter any opinion whatsoever as to what Countess Runa meant—supposing her to mean anything save defiance pure and simple.
One night, when the King sat in his tent very moody and sore out of heart with his undertaking, the flap of the tent was lifted, and Friar Nicholas stood there. ”