aid and protection to Christianity. But by degrees, and as they were no
longer needed, they had become corrupt, because they had become idle. The
Cluniacs and Cistercians, branches of the Benedictines, are represented in
Chaucer's poem by the monk and prioress, as types of bodies which needed
reform.

The Grandmontines, a smaller branch, were widely known for their foppery:
the young monks painted their cheeks, and washed and covered their beards
at night. The cloisters became luxurious, and sheltered, and, what is
worse, sanctioned lewdness and debauchery.

There was a great difference indeed between the _regular_ clergy, or
those belonging to orders and monasteries, and the _secular_ clergy or
parish priests, who were far better; and there was a jealous feud between
them. There was a lamentable ignorance of the Scripture among the clergy,
and gross darkness over the people. The paraphrases of Caedmon, the
translations of Bede and Alfred, the rare manuscripts of the Latin Bible,
were all that cast a faint ray upon this gloom. The people could not read
Latin, even if they had books; and the Saxon versions were almost in a
foreign language. Thus, distrusting their religious teachers, thoughtful
men began to long for an English version of that Holy Book which contains
all the words of eternal life. And thus, while the people were becoming
more clamorous for instruction, and while Wiclif was meditating the great
boon of a translated Bible, which, like a noonday sun, should irradiate
the dark places and disclose the loathsome groups and filthy
manifestations of cell and cloister, Chaucer was administering the
wholesome medicine of satire and contempt. He displays the typical monk
given up to every luxury, the costly black dress with fine fur edgings,
the love-knot which fastens his hood, and his preference for pricking and
hunting the hare, over poring into a stupid book in a cloister.