The whole thing was a prearranged comedy, in which, however,
the principal with his assistant made so much money that he was able to
buy a bishopric from a Cardinal, on which the two confederates lived
comfortably to the end of their days. Masuccio makes no great
distinction between Franciscans and Dominicans, finding the one worth
as much as the other. 'And yet the foolish people lets itself be drawn
into their hatreds and divisions, and quarrels about them in public
places, and calls itself "franceschino" or "domenichino." ' The nuns
are the exclusive property of the monks. Those of the former who have
anything to do with the laity, are prosecuted and put in prison, while
others are wedded in due form to the monks, with the accompaniments of
mass, a marriage-contract, and a liberal indulgence in food and wine.
'I myself,' says the author, 'have been there not once, but several
times, and seen it all with my own eyes. The nuns afterwards bring
forth pretty little monks or else use means to hinder that result. And
if anyone charges me with falsehood, let him search the nunneries well,
and he will find there as many little bores as in Bethlehem at Herod's
time.' These things, and the like, are among the secrets of monastic
life. The monks are by no means too strict with one another in the
confessional, and impose a Paternoster in cases where they would refuse
all absolution to a layman as if he were a heretic.
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