208. _Frere_, friar. The four orders of mendicant friars mentioned in l.
210 were:--(1) The Dominicans, or friars-preachers, who took up their abode
in Oxford in 1221, known as the Black Friars. (2) The Franciscans, founded
by St. Francis of Assisi in 1209, and known by the name of Grey Friars.
They made their first appearance in England in 1224. (3) The Carmelites, or
White Friars. (4) The Augustin (or Austin) Friars. The friar was popular
with the mercantile classes on account of his varied attainments and
experience. 'Who else so welcome at the houses of men to whom scientific
skill and information, scanty as they might be, were yet of no
inconsiderable service and attraction. He alone of learned and unlearned
possessed some knowledge of foreign countries and their productions; he
alone was acquainted with the composition and decomposition of bodies, with
the art of distillation, [25] with the construction of machinery, and with
the use of the laboratory.' See Professor Brewer's Preface to Monumenta
Franciscana, p. xlv; and, in particular, the poem called 'Pierce the
Ploughman's Crede,' and the satirical piece against the Friars entitled
Jack Upland, formerly printed with Chaucer's Works. Several pieces against
them will also be found in Political Poems, ed. Wright (Record Series); and
there are numerous outspoken attacks upon them in Wyclif's various works,
as, e.g. in the Select Eng. Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 366, and in his Works,
ed. Matthew, p. 47. See also the chapter on Friars in the E. translation of
Jusserand, Eng. Wayfaring Life; p. 293.
Many of the remarks concerning the Frere are ultimately due to Le Roman de
la Rose. See The Romaunt of the Rose, ll. 6161-7698; in vol. i. pp.
234-259.
_wantown_, sometimes written _wantowen_, literally signifies untrained, and
hence wild, brisk, lively. _wan-_ is a common M. E. prefix, equivalent to
our _un-_ or _dis-_, as in _wanhope_, despair; _towen_ or _town_ occurs in
M. E. writers for well-behaved, well-taught; from A. S. _togen_, pp. of
_t[=e]on_, to educate.
_merye_, pleasant; cf. M. E. _mery wether_, pleasant weather.
209. _limitour_ was a begging friar to whom was assigned a certain district
or _limit_, within which he was permitted to solicit alms; it was also his
business to solicit persons to purchase a partnership, or _brotherhood_, in
the merits of their conventual services. See Tyndale's Works, i. 212
(Parker Soc.); and note to P. Plowman, B. v. 138. Hence in later times the
verb _limit_ signifies to beg.
'Ther walketh now the _limitour_ himself,
In undermeles and in morweninges;
And seyth his matins and his holy thinges
As he goth in his _limitacioun_.'
Wife of Bath's Tale; D. 874.