Note 2. “These monks imagined that holiness was often proportioned to a saint’s filthiness—Saint Francis discovered, by certain experience, that the devils... were animated by clean clothing to tempt and seduce the wearers; and one of their heroes declares that the purest souls are in the dirtiest bodies... Brother Juniper was a gentleman perfectly pious, on this principle; indeed, so great was his merit in this species of mortification, that a brother declared he could always nose Brother Juniper when within a mile of the monastery, provided the wind were at the due point.”—Disraeli’s Curiosities of Literature, Volume One, page 92.
Note 3. All quotations from Scripture in this story are of course taken from the Vulgate, except those made by Jews.
Chapter Fourteen.
Evil Tidings.
“Too tired for rapture, scarce I reach and cling
To One that standeth by with outstretched hand;
Too tired to hold Him, if He hold not me:
Too tired to long but for one heavenly thing,—
Rest for the weary, in the Promised Land.”
Permission for Bruno to lay aside the habit of Saint Augustine reached Bury Castle very soon after his sermon. And with it came two other items of news,—the one, that Bishop Grosteste offered him a rich living in his diocese; the other, that the Bishop’s life had been attempted by poison. It was not to be wondered at in the least, since Grosteste had coolly declared the reigning Pope Innocent to be an exact counterpart of Anti-Christ (for which the head of the Church rewarded him by terming him a wicked old dotard), and his attachment to monachism in general was never allowed to stand in the way of the sternest rebuke to disorderly monks in particular. He also presumed to object to his clergy having constant recourse to Jewish money-lenders, and especially interfered with their favourite amusement of amateur theatricals, which he was so unreasonable as to think unbecoming the clerical office.
Bruno hastened to the Countess with the news, accompanying it by warm thanks for the shelter afforded to himself and his daughter, and informing her that he would no longer burden her with either. But she looked very grave.
“Father Bruno,” she said, “I have a boon to ask.”