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How Friar Juniper kept silence for six months
FRIAR JUNIPER once resolved to keep silence for six months after this manner. The first day for love of the Heavenly Father. The second day for love of Jesus Christ His Son. The third for love of the Holy Ghost. The fourth day for reverence of the most holy Virgin Mary; and so each day, in succession, for love of some saint, he observed the six months without speaking.
Ensample against the temptations of the flesh
ONCE, when Friar Giles and Friar Simon of Assisi and Friar Ruffino and Friar Juniper were met together to talk of God and of the soul, Friar Giles said to the other friars: “How do ye deal with temptations to carnal sin?” Said Friar Simon: “I consider the baseness and infamy of carnal sin, and therefrom follows a great abhorrence, and so I escape”. Said Friar Ruffino: “I fling myself flat upon the ground and continue in prayer, beseeching the mercy of God and of the Mother of Jesus Christ until I feel myself wholly freed therefrom”. Made answer Friar Juniper: “When I feel the turmoil of the diabolical carnal suggestion, I forthwith run and shut fast the door of my heart; and, for the safety of the fortress of my heart, I occupy myself in holy meditations and holy desires, so that, when the carnal suggestion [ p. 213 ] cometh or knocketh at the door of my heart, I answer it, as if from within: ‘Begone; for this lodging is already taken, and here no more folk may enter’; and on this wise never do I allow the carnal thought to enter into my heart; whereupon, seeing itself conquered, it departeth from me as one discomfited, and not from me alone but from all the neighbourhood”. Friar Giles made answer: “Friar Juniper, I hold with thee, because no man may contend better with the fleshly enemy than by flight; for within the traitor carnal desire and without the senses of the body make themselves felt as enemies so great and so strong, that, if we flee not, we cannot conquer them. Therefore, he who would fight in any other way, for the toil of battle rarely has the victory. Flee vice then, and thou wilt be victorious.”
How Friar Juniper abased himself for the glory of God
ONCE Friar Juniper, desiring to utterly abase himself, stripped himself stark naked save for his breeches, and, having made as it were a bundle of his habit, put his clothes upon his head, and thus naked entered Viterbo, and gat him to the public piazza to be jeered at. As he stood there naked, the children and youths, deeming him out of his senses, treated him with great despite, casting much mud upon him, and pelting him with stones, and pushing him about, now this way and now that, with words of great derision; and thus tormented and derided he stayed there the greater part of the day, and afterward, all naked as he was, he betook himself to the convent. And seeing [ p. 214 ] him in such case the friars were very wrath with him. And especially because he had come thus naked through all the city with his bundle on his head, they rebuked him very harshly, and threatened him with grievous penalties. And one said: “Let us put him in prison”; and another said: “Let us hang him; no punishment could be too great for such an ill example as he hath set this day, both touching himself and all the Order”. And Friar Juniper replied joyfully and with all humility: “Ye speak well and truly, for I am worthy of all these punishments and of many more”.
How Friar Juniper, to abase himself, played at see-saw
ONCE when Friar Juniper was going to Rome, where the fame of his sanctity was already noised abroad, many Romans, for their great devotion, went forth to meet him? and, seeing so many folk coming, Friar Juniper bethought him to turn their devotion to scorn and derision. There were there two little boys who were playing at see-saw, that is to say they had laid one log across another log, and each of them sat at his end, and thus they went up and down. Friar Juniper went and lifted one of those boys off the log and got up there himself, and began to see-saw. Meanwhile the people came up and marvelled to see Friar Juniper playing at see-saw; nevertheless, they saluted him with great devotion and waited until he should have finished his game of see-saw, to the end that they might thereafter attend him honourably to the convent. And Friar Juniper cared but little either for their salutation and reverence or for their waiting, [ p. 215 ] but took great pains with his see-sawing. And, after they had thus waited a long time, some of them began to grow weary and to say: “What fool is this?” Some, knowing the ways of the man, increased in devotion toward him; nevertheless, in the end, they all went away and left Friar Juniper on the see-saw, and, when they were all gone, Friar Juniper remained full of consolation because he had seen some who made a mock of him. So he gat him up and entered Rome with all meekness and humility, and came to the convent of the minor friars.
How Friar Juniper once cooked for the friars food enough for fifteen days
ONCE when Friar Juniper was in a very little Place of friars, for a certain good reason all the friars had to go forth, and only Friar Juniper remained in the house. The Guardian said: “Friar Juniper, we are all going out, and therefore look thou to it that when we return thou hast cooked a little food for the refreshment of the friars”. Friar Juniper made answer: “Very gladly will I do so; leave it to me”. And, when all the friars were gone forth, as hath been told, Friar Juniper said: “What unnecessary labour is this that a friar should be lost in the kitchen and kept away from all prayer? In sooth, now that I am left behind to cook, I will prepare so much that all the friars, even if there were more of them than there are, shall have enough for fifteen days.” So he went to the town in haste and begged divers great cooking-pots and got fresh meat and salt, and fowls, and eggs, [ p. 216 ] and herbs; and he begged firewood enough, and put everything on the fire, to wit the fowls with their feathers on, the eggs in their shells, and all the other things in like fashion. When the friars returned to the Place, one who well knew the simplicity of Friar Juniper went into the kitchen and saw all those great pots standing on a roaring fire; and he sat him down and looked on with amazement and said nothing, watching with what diligence Friar Juniper did this cooking. Because the fire was exceeding great, and he could not very easily approach his pots to skim them, he took a plank and tied it tightly to his body with his cord, and thereafter kept jumping from one pot to another, so that it was a joy to see him. And, when he had observed all this, to his very great amusement, that friar went out of the kitchen and, having found the other friars, said: “I can tell you that Friar Juniper is preparing a wedding feast”. The friars took that saying as a jest. Then Friar Juniper lifted those pots from off the fire, and caused the bell to be rung for dinner, and the friars came to the table; and he gat him to the refectory with the food which he had cooked, all ruddy with his exertions and with the heat of the fire, and said to the friars: “Eat well; and afterward let us all go to prayer. And let no one think any more of cooking for a while, for I have made so great a banquet to-day that I shall have enough for much more than two weeks”; and he sec this poultice of his upon the table before the friars; and there is no pig in all the city of Rome so famished that he would have eaten it. Friar Juniper belauded the viands he had cooked like a shopman puffing his wares, for he saw already that the other friars were not eating, and he said: “Now these fowls are excellent to invigorate the brain; and this broth will [ p. 217 ] keep you the body moist, so good is it”. And while the friars were yet marvelling at the devotion and simplicity of Friar Juniper; the Guardian, full of wrath at such folly and at the loss of so much good food, rebuked Friar Juniper with great severity. Thereupon Friar Juniper forthwith flung himself upon the ground and kneeled before the Guardian and humbly confessed his fault to him and all the friars saying: “I am the worst of men; such an one committed such a sin, for the which his eyes were torn out, but I was much more guilty than he; such an one was hanged for his crimes, but much more do I deserve it for my wicked deeds; and now I have wasted the good things of God and of the Order”; and thus bitterly lamenting he went forth, and all that day never showed himself where any friar was. And then the Guardian said: “Most dear friars of mine, I would that every day, even as now, this friar wasted an equal quantity of good things, if we had them, if only he might be edified thereby; for out of great simplicity and charity hath he done this”.