owing his intentions, she tried to interpret them to her children's
advantage. And therein I hold her to have been very prudent."

"What!" said Geburon. "Do you not hold it a great wrong not to carry out
the last wishes of departed friends?"

"Assuredly I do," said Parlamente; "that is to say if the testator be in
his right mind, and not raving."

"Do you call it raving to give one's goods to the Church and the poor
Mendicants?"

"I do not call it raving," said Parlamente, "if a man distribute what
God has given into his hands among the poor; but to make alms of another
person's goods is, in my opinion, no great wisdom. You will commonly see
the greatest usurers build the handsomest and most magnificent chapels
imaginable, thinking they may appease God with ten thousand ducats'
worth of building for a hundred thousand ducats' worth of robbery, just
as though God did not know how to count."

"In sooth," said Oisille, "I have many a time wondered how they can
think to appease God for things which He Himself rebuked when He was on
earth, such as great buildings, gildings, pictures and paint. If they
really understood the passage in which God says to us that the only
offering He requires from us is a contrite and humble heart, (4) and
the other in which St. Paul says we are the temples of God wherein He
desires to dwell, (5) they would be at pains to adorn their consciences
while yet alive, and would not wait for the hour when man can do nothing
more, whether good or evil, nor (what is worse) charge those who remain
on earth to give their alms to folk upon whom, during their lifetime,
they did not deign to look. But He who knows the heart cannot be
deceived, and will judge them not according to their works, but
according to their faith and charity towards Himself."

4 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and
a contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise."--_Psalm_
li. 17.--Ed.

5 "For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath
said, I will dwell in them and walk in them," &c.--2
_Corinthians_ vi. 16.--Ed.

"Why is it, then," said Geburon, "that these Grey Friars and Mendicants
talk to us at our death of nothing but bestowing great benefits upon
their monasteries, assuring us that they will put us into Paradise
whether we will or not?"

"How now, Geburon?" said Hircan. "Have you forgotten the wickedness you
related to us of the Grey Friars, that you ask how su