Blanquerna

According to his cuStom the Bishop Blanquerna com¬ manded that there should be a quodlibetal disputation, to the end that if a clerk or lay man saw any thing that might be bettered or made a cuStom, it should be propounded after the manner of questioning, that he might cause it to be done. It came to pass one day that while the Bishop was in chapter, having ordered a quodlibetal disputation, a lay man propounded this question : “ Whether the Bishop, after he has risen in the morning, should go to recreation before he hear Mass.” Many arguments were raised upon either side, but the Bishop resolved the question, saying that if lay men have the cuStom and rule to go firSt to Mass before they take recreation or do other business soever, how much more should clerks, who live by the patrimony of Holy Church, hear Mass or sing it before they do other business or go to take recreation I And if they do not this, then do they give to lay men bad example.

2. Many questions were propounded before the Bishop, and all of them he resolved and brought to an end ; and then there were put to him ten questions, which are as

It is a question if ChriStians are to blame for the ignorance of unbelievers who know not of the Holy Catholic Faith.

^ It is a question which have the greater power and opportunity: whether Catholics, who are in the way of truth, to convert unbelievers to the true way of life, or unbelievers, to drive Catholics from the truth and bring

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BLANQUERNA

It is a queflion if Chriflians are to blame because the Saracens hold the Holy Land beyond the sea, wherein Jesus Chrifl was conceived and born and crucified.

It is a question if the articles of the Christian Faith may be underflood through necessary reasons.

f It is a queflion whether the Faith is of less or greater worth if the articles may be underflood.

It is a queflion what is the chiefefl reason for the which man was created.

It is a queflion if visitation should be made to bishops and archbishops, to the end that they may be deprived of their sees if they use their office ill.

T[ It is a queflion which is the greater sin, that the bishop should give the possessions of Holy Church to his kinsfolk, or that a Chriflian who has been a Jew should retain his possessions.

It is a queflion if man should give the possessions of Holy Church to make peace between Chriflian princes and

\ It is a queflion which is the noblcfl work that man can undertake to honour God.

3. With great wonder did the Bishop marvel at the ten queflions aforesaid, for they were of very great profundity, and much was spoken thereof upon the one hand and upon the other. The Bishop desired not to determine these ten queflions, but went to the Court of Rome, that he might propound them before the Pope and the Cardinals and that they might determine and resolve them, and that the works should be done which accorded with the solution and determination thereof; and if it came to pass that they would not do this, that he should reprove and blame them before all men, fearing not to suffer trials or death.

4. The Bishop went to Rome to the Consiftory, and before the Pope and the Cardinals he propounded these ten queflions aforementioned, saying these words : “ Error is in the world. There is defedl of love and of devotion, 308

OF QUOD LI BETS and valour is exiled from us according as is recounted in the Book of Religion.1 Wherefore I ask that these ten questions be resolved and determined for me, and that in the solution and determination thereof satisfaftion be made to juft ice, to the end that truth may caft out error from the world and charity and devotion may be increased.” Greatly did the queftions please the Holy Apoftolic Father and the Cardinals and all the reft in the Court, and they enquired concerning the holy life of the Bishop whom they heard speaking many good words. While the Pope and the Cardinals made discussion concerning the manner wherein they should answer and determine the queftions, it came to pass by the will of God that the Pope died, and the solution of the queftions was deferred.

' See Chap. XLVIII, above.

ENDED IS THE THIRD BOOK

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BEGJNNETH THE FOURTH BOOK , WHICH IS OF THE APOSTOLIC ESTATE