Apart from the savage onslaughts in Piers Plowman, and
the yarns of Layton and Legh, now quite discredited, we
have the most credible evidence in Chaucer's gentle
satire:--
"A monk ther was, a fair for the maistrye,
An out-rydere, that lovede venerye; [hunting]
A manly man, to been an abbot able,
Ful many a deyntee hors hadde he in stable:
. . . . . . . .
He was a lord ful fat and in good point [well-equipped]
His eyen stepe, and rollinge in his heed." [eyes bright]
The friars, too, were sometimes "merye and wantoun," and
"knew the tavernes wel in every toun,
And everich hostiler or gay tappestere."
And an indictment of some force might be based on the
fact that the general chapter of the Benedictine order at
Coventry in 1516 found it necessary to make regulations
against immoderate and illicit eating and drinking, and
against hunting and hawking.[1]
[] Hist, et Cart. Mon. Glouc., iii. lxxiv.
No doubt also many a monk would argue with himself:--
"What sholde he studie, and make him-selven wood [mad]
Upon a book in cloistre alwey to poure
Or swinken with his handes, and laboure [toil]
As Austin bit?" [As St.
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