the Franciscans also the fourteenth century witnessed a change, which may
be described as a gradual loss of the qualities for which they had been
honourably distinguished; and in England, as elsewhere, the spirit of the
words which Dante puts into the mouth of St. Francis of Assisi was being
verified by his degenerate Children:--

So soft is flesh of mortals, that on earth
A good beginning doth no longer last
Than while an oak may bring its fruit to birth.

Outwardly, indeed, the Grey Friars might still often seem what their
predecessors had been, and might thus retain a powerful influence over the
unthinking crowd, and to sheer worldlings appear as heretofore to
represent a troublesome memento of unexciting religious obligations;
"Preach not," says Chaucer's "Host,"

"as friars do in Lent,
That they for our old sins may make us weep,
Nor in such wise thy tale make us to sleep."

But in general men were beginning to suspect the motives as well as to
deride the practices of the Friars, to accuse them of lying against St.
Francis, and to desiderate for them an actual abode of fire, resembling
that of which in their favourite religious shows they were wont to present
the mimic semblance to the multitude. It was they who became in England
as elsewhere the purveyors of charms and the organisers of pious frauds,
while the learning for which their Order had been famous was withering
away into the yellow leaf of scholasticism. The Friar in general became
the common butt of literary satire; and though the populace still remained
true to its favourite guides, a reaction was taking place in favour of the