" DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 245 



NOTE. 



An authoritative contemporary historian, Matthew 

 Paris, writes thus of the Minorite, or Franciscan, 

 Friars in England in 1235, just nine years after the 

 death of Francis of Assisi : 



" At this time some of the Minorite brethren, as 

 well as some of the Order of Preachers, unmindful of 

 their profession and the restrictions of their order, 

 impudently entered the territories of some noble 

 monasteries, under pretence of fulfilling their duties 

 of preaching, as if intending to depart after preaching 

 the next day. Under pretence of sickness, or on 

 some other pretext, however, they remained, and, 

 constructing an altar of wood, they placed on it a 

 consecrated stone altar, which they had brought with 

 them, and clandestinely and in a low voice performed 

 mass, and even received the confessions of many of 

 the parishioners, to the prejudice of the priests. . . . 

 And if by chance they were not satisfied with this, 

 they broke forth in insults and threats, reviling every 

 other order except their own, and asserting that all 

 the rest were doomed to damnation, and that they 

 would not spare the soles of their feet till they had 

 exhausted the wealth of their opposers, however great 

 it might be. The religious men, therefore, gave way 

 to them in many points, yielding to avoid scandal, 

 and offending those in power. For they were the 

 councillors and messengers of the nobles, and even 

 secretaries of the Pope, and therefore obtained mucl; 



