to the
gate-keepers; and they said, What is this among so many? And
they cast him out before the doors; and he went out, and wept
bitterly, and might not be comforted. Then there came to the
court a certain rich clerk, great and fat and swollen, who in a
riot had slain a man. He gave first to the gate-keeper, secondly
to the chamberlain, thirdly to the cardinals; but they thought
among themselves that they should have received more. And when
our lord the pope heard that the cardinals and ministers had
received many gifts of the clerk, he became sick unto death. But
the rich man sent him a medicine of gold and silver, and
immediately he was cured. Then our lord the pope called to him
the cardinals and ministers, and said to them, Brethren, see
that no one seduce you with empty words; for I give you an
example, that as I myself receive, so receive ye.'

The corruptions of this era are equally well illustrated by a very amusing
anecdote of 'a handsome Italian friar, _teres atque rotundus_, about
thirty, and extremely bold and eloquent;' doubtless one of that class so
felicitously limned by THOMSON:

'A little round, fat, oily man of GOD
Was one I chiefly marked among the fry;
He had a roguish twinkle in his eye
And shone all glittering with ungodly dew,
If a tight damsel chanced to trippen by;
Which when observed he shrunk into his mew,
And straight would recollect his piety anew.'

One day at a remote confessional of the church he declared an unholy and
forbidden passion to a young and beautiful married lady, whom he had long
'followed with his eyes,' and begged permission to visit her at her
residence. Struck with surprise at this new revelation of his character,
she evaded reply, being secretly minded to inform her husband, when she
returned home, which she did, word for word. He told his wife to contrive
to let the friar come, alone and in secret, the next evening, which
chanced to be that of Saturday, and the night before the Sunday of Saint
Lazarus, on which occasion the friar was to preach. The appointment was
made; the friar came, true to the late hour which had been designated; was
received at the door, and shown into the lady's bed-room by a servant, who
informed him that she had desired him to request the good man to retire to
rest, and to say that 'she would be with him straight.' The friar prepared
to comply with the direction, and was