302 Elbert N. S. Thompson 
example of the woman who went from town to town to hear the 
itinerant preacher, and whom the Lord miraculously fed by a hare 
sent from heaven.t There were stories in abundance on temptation, 
on good manners and bad habits, on the power of the Virgin, and 
on moral virtues. Some stories sought even to enforce doctrine, 
by showing that the active life is not to be altogether despised, 
or that the excommunicated person is abhorrent even to the lower 
animals.2, Occasionally the stories end with a specific statement 
of the moral; one on anger, for example, in the A/phabet of Tales, 
closes with the words, “for whar per is labur & felashup commonhe 
per is paciens & goddis helpe.”* Usually, however, in the ex- 
emplum proper, as distinguished from the moralized tale, the en- 
forcement is left to the preacher, who would see the obvious pur- 
port of the tale—whether encouragement, warning, or ridicule—and 
use it accordingly. 
Here, though, lurked the danger. Insist as they might that the 
exemplum rust always have a didactic value, the higher clergy 
could not prevent its misuse by their irresponsible brethren. The 
line of demarcation between instruction and amusement, propriety 
and indecency, was often lost sight of by preachers who were 
above all else anxious to please. Such speakers developed the 
story at the expense of the sermon, and did not scruple to use 
ribald tales and scurrilous jests. Without exaggeration Dante could 
protest *: 
Now men go forth with jests and drolleries 
To preach, and if but well the people laugh, 
The hood puffs out, and nothing more is asked. 
The abuse inevitably called forth from ecclesiastical councils re- 
strictive legislation; yet, since the proper use of exempla was not 
forbidden, their improper use could not be prevented. A more 
salutary remedy was found in collections of sacred stories, which 
were devised to offer all the attractions of the secular collections, 
with none of their objectionable features. The Brbla Pauperum, 
or the Virtutum Vitiorumque Exempla, long attributed to Bona- 
ventura, was intended to supply preachers who had few books or 
little leisure with suitable illustrative matter from the Old and New 
Testaments. The compiler admitted the efficacy of anecdote only 

1 Etienne de Bourbon, Nos. 213, 77, 78. 
2 Etienne de Bourbon, Pt. 5, and Bozon’s collection. 
3 Alphabet of Tales, No. 404. 
4 Crane, Ixviii_lxix. far. 29. 115-17. 
Se 
