=FRIAR MICHAEL EXAMINED.=
While Elizabeth was trying to kill the reformer, her husband, William of Arnex, as bigoted as herself, was pleading the cause of the monk. The mediators had ordered that Friar Michael should be put on his trial. He was taken to the castle in agitation and alarm, and the lords of Berne, bringing a criminal charge against him, said: 'You asserted that the poor in spirit are the monks.'
Friar Michael: 'I deny it.'
'You said that to resist the pope, the bishops, and other ecclesiastics is resisting the commandment of God.'
Friar. 'I deny saying it in those terms.'
'You said that few follow the new law, except a heap of lascivious monks.'
Friar. 'I deny having said it in that way, and I named nobody.'
'You said that when priests marry, the women they take are not their wives but their harlots, and that their children are bastards.'
Friar. 'I confess it.'