Note 961 — Chapter IX · THE CLERGY AND MONKS.

The description of a secular clerk given by the anonymous author of the Gesta Abbatum Fontanellensium, written in the ninth century, was probably not exaggerated. He says of Wido, a relative of Charles Martel, “Erat de saecularibus clericis, gladioque quem semispatium vocant semper accinctus, sagoque pro cappa utebatur, parumque aecclesiasticae disciplinae imperiis parebat. Nam copiam canum multiplicem semper habebat, cum qua venationi quotidie insistebat, sagittatorque praecipuus in arcubus ligneis ad aves feriendas erat, hisque operibus magis quam aecclesiasticae disciplinae studiis se exercebat.” It does not surprise us to learn that this prelate was also “ignarus litterarum.” Pertz, i. 284, 285.