Philip sets at
liberty much more than "imprisoned angels"--according to one account,
and that a monk's, imprisoned beings of quite another sort. "Faire
Alice, the nonne," having been discovered in the chest where the abbot's
wealth was supposed to be concealed, proposes to purchase pardon for the
offence by disclosing the secret hoard of a sister nun. Her offer being
accepted, a friar is ordered to force the box in which the treasure is
supposed to be secreted. On being questioned as to its contents, he
answers--
"Frier Laurence, my lord, now holy water help us!
Some witch or some divell is sent to delude us:
_Haud credo Laurentius_ that thou shouldst be pen'd thus
In the presse of a nun; we are all undone,
And brought to discredence, if thou be Frier Laurence."[2]
Unfortunately it proves indubitably to be that good man; and he is
ordered to execution, not, however, without some hope of redemption by
money payment; for times are hard, and cash in hand not to be despised.
[Footnote 1: See the story about Bishop Sylvanus.--Lecky, Rationalism in
Europe, i. 79.]
[Footnote 2: Hazlitt, Shakspere Library, part ii. vol. i. p. 264.]
It is amusing to notice, too, that when assuming the clerical garb, the
devil carefully considered the religious creed of the person to whom he
intended to make himself known. The Catholic accounts of him show him
generally assuming the form of a Protestant parson;[1] whilst to those
of the reformed creed he invariably appeared in the habit of a Catholic
priest.
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