_Many,_ he says--not all--were illiterate, save that
they knew how to read their missals and go through the services
though unintelligently, they hardly understood what they read. Were
they, therefore, the worst of the new parsons? Men bowed down by a
great sorrow, bewildered by a bereavement for which there is none but
a make-shift remedy, men whose "life is read all backwards and the
charm of life undone," are not they whose sorrow usually makes them
void of sympathy for the distressed. Nay! their own sadness makes
them responsive to the cry of the needy, the lonely, and the fallen.
Experience proves to us every day that among such men you may find,
not the worst parish priests, but the best.
* * * * * * *
I wonder whether John Bonington, steward of the manor of Waltham, was
one of those whom Knighton alludes to.
Sometime during the year 1343 there had been a disastrous fire in the
house of one Roger Andrew; the dwelling, with all that it contained,
was burnt to the ground. Poor Roger lost all his household stuff and
furniture and much else besides; worse than all, he lost all his
title deeds, the evidences and charters whereby he held his little
estate. As for Roger himself, he either perished in the flames or his
heart broke and he died very shortly afterwards.
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