CRANE— MEDI/EVAL SERMON-BOOKS AND STORIES. 393 



and gave the Church only one. " But behold the dehghtful (iiicun- 

 dissijuum) judgment of Ilim who seeth all things!" On removing 

 the covering the woman found nine of the lambs dead and only the 

 Church's tenth still alive. Another story (No. i66) shows the 

 efficacy of indulgences. A man follows two friars on a preaching 

 tour in Ulster and buys all the indulgences he can afiford. He after- 

 wards sells these to the host with whom he has passed the night, for 

 what he paid and a pot of beer in addition. The purchaser applies 

 the indulgences to the relief of his dead son, who appears in a vision 

 to his father and tells him that he has freed him from punishment. 

 The foolish seller hearing of this tries in vain to get back his effica- 

 cious indulgences by refunding the money he had received for them, 

 A very interesting story (No. 142) of superstition in times of epi- 

 demics is told by the Bishop of Clonmacnois. "When T was a 

 preacher in the order (O. M.), I once came on a preaching tour to 

 Connaught, and found a dreadful pestilence raging in the bishopric 

 of Clonfort. For when men went ploughing or otherwise in the 

 fields, or walking in the woods, they used to see armies of devils 

 passing by, and sometimes fighting among themselves. All who saw 

 these devils fell sick and most of them died. So I got together a 

 great meeting, and said to the people : ' Do you know why these devils 

 have this power over you? Simply because you are afraid of them. 

 If you had faith in God and were convinced that He would protect 

 you, they would have no power over you at all. You know that we 

 — we friars — do more against the devils, and say more things about 

 them than any one else in the world. Here am I standing here 

 and abusing them as much as I know how. Do they harm me? 

 Let the devils come, let them all come ! Where are they ? Why 

 don't they come?' I^'rom that hcnir the devils disappeared and the 

 pestilence with them." 



Two other stories from this collection must receive brief notice. 

 One (No. 112) tells the story of a rich widow w^th many suitors. 

 She preferred a certain one but tells him frankly that his pov- 

 erty stands in the way of his acceptance. He goes out into the 

 highway and robs and murders a rich merchant. When he again 

 claims the lady's hand she demands an account of his wealth, 

 and after hearing his confession of its source, commands him to 



