Note 83 — CHAP. IX. Of the Beards of Priests.

William Major, a doctor of the Sorbone and canon of the church of Clermont, in a work intituled defence de feu M. Savaron, &c. maintains, against abbot Faydit, that this anecdote is a story of his invention. In order to free his old brethren from the imputation of having designed to shear their bishop, in the warmth of his zeal, he breaks out into invectives against his adversary; but he proves it least, in his long refutation, that the canons saw with grief a long beard on the chin of their bishop, and that when the latter wished to be present at some synod, he was obliged to ask permission of his chapter to come without being shaved. He quotes several resolutions of the chapter, by which he was granted this permission.