There is an old German proverb to the same purpose, which Eiserlein heard once from the lips of an aged lay servitor of a monastery in the Black Forest: "Offend one monk, and the lappets of all cowls will flutter as far as Rome."[774]
What was good the friar never loved.
Popular opinion attributes to the clergy, both secular and regular, a lively regard for the good things of this life, and a determination to have their full share of them. "No priest ever died of hunger" is a remark made by the Livonians; and they add, "Give the priests all thou hast, and thou wilt have given them nearly enough." "A priest's pocket is hard to fill,"[775] at least in Denmark; and the Italians say, that "Priests, monks, nuns, and poultry never have enough."[776] "Abbot of Carzuela," cries the Spaniard, "you eat up the stew, and you ask for the stewpan."[777] The worst testimony against the monastic order comes from the countries in which they most abound: "Where friars swarm, keep your eyes open" (Spanish).[778] "Have neither a good monk for a friend, nor a bad one for an enemy" (Spanish).[779] "As for friars, live with them, eat with them, walk with them, and then sell them, for thus they do themselves" (Spanish).[780] The propensity of churchmen to identify their own personal interests with the welfare of the church are glanced at in the following:—"The monk that begs for God's sake begs for two" (Spanish, French).[781] "'Oh, what we must suffer for the church of God!' cried the abbot, when the roast fowl burned his fingers" (German).[782]
There's no mischief done in the world but there's a woman or a priest at the bottom of it.
FOOTNOTES:
[770] Man muss mit Pfaffen nicht anfangen, oder sie todtschlagen.
[771] Malum proverbium contra nos confinxerunt, dicentes, "Si offenderis clericum, interfice eum; alias nunquam habebis pacem cum illo."
[772] Was Pfaffen beissen und Wölfe ist schwer zu heilen.
[773] Pfaffen und Weiber vergessen nie.
[774] Beleidigestu einen Münch, so knappe alle Kuttenzipfel bis nach Rom.