390 CRANE— MEDIEVAL SERMON-BOOKS AND STORIES. 



tan summoned him and commanded him to remain in the city in the 

 future. As soon as he was forbidden to leave it he longed to go, 

 and gave the Sultan money to permit him to do so ; No. 96, a woman 

 of Acre knew excellent remedies for the eyes, so that even Saracens 

 came to her. One day she was in a hurry to liear mass and left the 

 case of a Saracen to her maid, telling her to put such and such 

 medicine in his eyes. The Christian maid determined to blind the 

 Saracen, so she put quicklime in his eye and told him not to open it 

 in three days. A week later, after great pain and copious tears, 

 he was cured, and returned with fee and gifts, greatly to the maid's 

 wonder. 



There is another group of stories, the scene of which is laid in 

 Paris in the time of Jacques de Vitry. Some of the most interest- 

 ing are these : Frenken, No. 80, while Jacques de Vitry was at Paris 

 three youths from Flanders came there and on their way told their 

 purposes: one wanted to be a Parisian theologian (magister), the 

 second a Cistercian, the third an "organizator, hystrio et joculator." 

 J. de V. saw later with his own eyes the realization of their desires ; 

 No. 82, I remember, he says, while at Paris that a certain scholar, 

 religious and abstinent, went on a Friday to visit friends near Paris 

 and ate wherever he stopped. His famulus at last whispers to him 

 that it is Friday and that he has eaten twice already. His master 

 replies that he had forgotten it. J. de V. remarks that some eat so 

 much that they cannot forget it, but have to say : " Ventrem meum 

 doleo." There are several stories of an ignorant Parisian priest 

 named Maugrinus. In one, Frenken, No. loi, he is called to hear 

 the confession of a certain scholar who speaks in Latin. Maugrinus 

 does not understand him, and calls the servants and tells them that 

 their master is in a frenzy and must be bound. When the scholar 

 recovers he complains to the bishop, who pretends to be ill and sends 

 for Maugrinus to confess him. He, too, speaks Latin, and at every 

 word he utters Maugrinus says, " May the Lord forgive you." At 

 last the bishop cannot restrain his laughter and says, " May the Lord 

 never forgive me, nor will I forgive you," and made him pay a hun- 

 dred livres or lose his parish. In another story. No. 103, Mau- 

 grinus's bishop is in pecuniary straits and feigning to have sore 

 eyes, asks Maugrinus to read certain letters. Maugrinus, who can- 



