1883. | 69 (Crane, 
hair—an incident that occurs more than once in Etienne’s pages. One 
Palm Sunday, while the procession was passing the window of a wealthy 
clerk, a pet monkey descended by its chain, and snatched off the wig of 
an old woman, and then climbed back displaying his trophy in great glee, 
Etienne happening to be in the procession when this occurred (No. 274).* 
Painting the face was likewise common and liable also to shameful detec- 
tion, as where a mountebank filled his mouth with water and blew it into 
the painted face of a woman with a result that can easily be imagined (No, 
279). A more delicate trick was that of a magnate who made a hole in a 
cushion, and blew the feathers in the face of a lady sitting near him ; when 
She discovered the feathers sticking to her face she tried to rub them off, 
but only made matters worse, until at last she looked like an image that 
had undergone repairs, ‘ad modum imaginis reparate’’ (No. 280). The 
pointed shoes of this period, as well as the women’s long trains, were 
favorite resorts of the devil. A woman who had been dancing for some 
time could not move her feet for several days, at last they cut off the points 
of her shoes, and out came the devil with a noise, and the woman re- 
Covered (No. 281). Etienne repeats (No. 282) a story of J. de Vitry’s, 
Who says a certain holy man once saw the devil laughing, and asked him 
the reason. He was told that one of the devil’s companions was accus- 
tomed to ride about on a lady’s train, and when she lifted her dress at a 
muddy spot the devil fell off into the mire.t The costliness and weight 
of women’s girdles or belts also called for reproof. They were made of 
iron, silk, silver or gold, and adorned with precious stones ; some were or- 
hamented with the figures of lions and dragons, and birds wrought in gold 
and silver, the workmanship of which was more costly than the material. 
They were so heavy that the wearers would refuse to carry in penance 
about their waists an equal weight in lead or iron. } 
Our space will not permit us to examine at equal length the class of his- 
torical anecdotes or those related by Etienne as an eye-witness. A. very 
Complete and vivid picture of society might be drawn from this work : the 
Schools, the streets of Paris, the open-air preaching, the crusade against 
the Albigenses, Saint Louis and his crusade, in short, the civil, ecclesias- 
tical, and military life of the day are unrolled before us, while the 
theologian or church historian will find valuable materials in Etienne’s de- 
tailed account, of the heresies of that time (pp. 290-314). 
hl Bourgain, La Ohaire frangaise, p. 12, n. 4, cites the following passage from 
Hugues de Saint-Victor, which will illustrate the above exemplum: ‘(Simiam) 
due licet villissimum et turpissimum et horrendum sit animal, tamen heu! 
Maxime clerici in suis domibus hane habere et in suis fenestris ponere solent, 
Ut, apud stultos qui pertranseunt, per ejus aspectum gloriam suarum divitiarum. 
Jactitent,”? 
sar of Heisterbach, Dial. Mirac. v, 7, says that an honest citizen of Mainz 
Saw a multitude of devils on the train of a lady of that city. “ They were small 
as mice, black as Hthiopians, laughing and clapping their hands and jumping 
About like fish in a net.” 
| For further details of this kind see L, de la Marche, La Ohaire franeaise, pp. 
404, 412, 
