THE ARCHBISHOP IN BED. 119 



least an hour and a half. Having retired, he was to sleep 

 with his hand upon his stomach; for, added Jerome, 

 whose words I now quote, " that helps much to good 

 digestion; let the sleep be for from seven hours to ten, 

 and let the reverend lord believe that there is nothing 

 better than a stretch of sleep; let him, therefore, take 

 time from his business and give it to his bed; or, if that 

 be impossible, let him subtract it from his studies: for 

 that should be the chief care of his life, without which 

 happy life is quite impossible 1 ." 



Upon rising, if his body chanced to be irregular in action, 

 it was advised that his grace should take a compound of 

 conserve of peaches and sugar of violets, waiting after- 

 wards five hours for breakfast, and then breakfasting 

 lightly. He was to avoid purgatives, since they hurt 

 all people who have any tendency towards consumption, 

 and by disordering the stomach, injure the digestive 

 power. Instead of them, if necessary, he was directed 

 to drink from two to four pints of new ass's milk in the 

 morning, at one dose, or in several doses, but the whole 

 quantity taken never was to be divided into draughts 

 with intervals of more than an hour between them. That, 



1 Cons. Med. p. 135, -where the reverend prelate is also admonished 

 " de venere, ubi contingat necessitas debet uti ea inter duos somnos, 

 scilicet post mediam noctem, et melius est exercere earn ter in sex 

 diebus, pro exemplo ita ut singulis duobus diebus semel, quam bis in 

 una die." 



