He did not have much to say to any of the party journeying with him except to one young man about his own age, who, after their first halt at a wayside tavern, became more cordial in his manner towards Miles when he found that he was an Oxford student.
He had been on a visit to some friends at Oxford it seemed, and as a great favour had been taken to hear some of the lectures of Master John Clark, who was just now attracting a great deal of notice in the university.
"But I don't like him or his teaching at all," said the young man, before Miles had time to utter a word of comment. "He teaches very dangerous doctrines, my uncle says, and he ought to know, for he is the best tallow chandler in the town."
Miles looked his surprise at the young man's words. "Most men are glad to hear such truths as Master Clark preaches," he said.
"Then they haven't got trades that this teaching will ruin," said the young man, frankly. "Now, my father is candlemaker to a good many of the churches in London, and, of course, we don't want the old state of things disturbed. What would become of the honest trade of candlemaking if people were to believe that there was no good in having candles and Masses for the dead? Why, we sell more candles for the dead than we do to give light to the living," said the young fellow, and he felt half-offended that Miles could not take precisely the same view of the matter that he did. "It is no better than robbery for a priest to stand up and tell people that they ought not to buy candles for the funerals and Masses. This new learning is like to prove a great curse to the world if it is suffered to get into the hands of the poor and unlearned," he added.
"But why should the Gospel be kept from the poor? Surely they need it even more than the rich," answered Miles.
His fellow traveller shrugged his shoulders. "I know it will be a bad day for us candlemakers when the poor hear such preaching as this of Master John Clark, for think you they will half starve themselves to buy a good stock of candles for mother or father if they think they can do just as well without them? I trow not; and it is not the rich so much as the poor who keep our business brisk."
Miles tried to make his new friend see that this was a very selfish policy, but the young man contended that without candles the world would not be a fit place to live in, and certainly no candlemaker could make a living at his trade if he did not have to supply the churches and funerals. And so the world would have to go without candles if ever the people were so foolish as to follow the counsel of men like Master Clark.
Miles laughed outright at this view of the matter, which half-offended his fellow traveller. But though he laughed, he thought of what he had heard, and began to see that not only the priests and monks would combine to uphold the present condition of things, but all who made a profit out of the people's ignorance would combine to keep them ignorant if they could.