Selected quad for the lemma: head_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	arm_n	foot_n	neck_n	4,690	5	11.2560	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36877	The monk's hood pull'd off, or, The Capvcin fryar described in two parts / translated out of French.; Capucin. English	Du Moulin, Pierre, 1568-1658.; Basile, de Rouen, d. 1648?	1671 (1671)	Wing D2592; ESTC R17147	60,217	212

his neck and falling on his knees he kisseth the feet of all the rest saying Brethren pray to God for a poor Toad He that hath too stately a gate is made to walk up and down whilst the rest are at dinner with his arms a Kembow a Basket on his head and a lath by his side made like a Sword saying to them all one after another Brother what dost thou think am I not very brave I have known a Superiour so uncivil as to command a young Novice who smelt to his bread to dine on the seat of a Privy And now we are speaking of Novices it is a rent which they pay every Friday before they sit down at Table to whip themselves whilst the 51 Psalm is sung and to speak to no body but on their knees nor to rise again before they have kiss'd the ground When these follies are ended and having all dined the Superiour gives a signal by striking with his knife on a goblet Whereupon they all rise and take away and having given thanks go to the Altar where every one says three Paters for those who gave them their Dinner after which they walk in the garden About Two of the Clock the Keeper of the Vestry or Sexton strikes sive times on the broken Pick-Axe this is called Silence at the sound whereof they all go to sleep for an hour and this is called the preparation for the mental prayer which in Summer they make at noon At Two of the Clock they sing Vespers at which time most commonly there are many vacant places for some are walking in the Garden others making visits in the Town others a begging and it is a great chance if some be not absent At Four a Clock they ring the Completorium after which they make about forty Prayers to the Virgin Mary and then they make again the mental prayer for an hour In the Winter they whip themselves as soon as this Prayer is ended instead of doing it in the night to avoid the severity of the cold One of the greatest Earls in France being once by chance in a Monastery and hearing the great noise they made thought the Heavens were falling and receiving withall a lash on the chaps with a whip cryed out for help which at that time put a stop to their exercise One of them being wont to whip himself too severely the Superiour caused his Discipline which is a kind of whip to be taken from him But this good Fryer loved whipping so well that he went and presented his buttocks to his companions and begging some lashes of them he said Brother do me the kindness c. They go out from thence merrily to Supper which is not interrupted with Penances as their dinner is and then they go to discourse by a good fire Some tell the news of the Town others read Gazetts and every man takes the liberty to talk except the Superiour from the occasion of a spark of fire falling on his foot commands them to say some Prayers for the Souls in Purgatory About Seven a Clock the devoutest of them go to examine their Consciences before the Altar after which the Superiour sings some Prayers which being ended they all stretch out their arms cross-wise and say Five Paters then one of them kissing his hand presenteth him with the brush dipt in Holy-water which he sprinkles on their heads to wash away their Venial sins After this every one kisseth the ground and says Benedicite and so they go to lye down until the Alarm calls them to Matines CHAP. II. Some particular Superstitions practised by the Capucins IT is a lamentable thing to observe whither Superstition leads these poor Souls that take not the precepts of the Gospel for the rule of their devotion There are some Capucins that think they do God very good service by whipping themselves every day as soon as they awake and that if they whip themselves before the Communion it is a good preparation thereunto I have read in the memorials of one of their Generals that a certain Capucin named Amboine Corse wore a Coat of Maile next his body and girt it so close that his flesh came thorow it insomuch that it was incorporated into his skin also that this same man did wear Drawers of Hogs-skin and that the length of them being half cut entred into his flesh and at last he came to such a degree of Superstition that he would eat but five raw Beans a day in Summer and five Chacenuts in Winter and drank nothing but Water His design says the General was to try how far humane nature could go in suffering he might have said in tempting God Some of them lye on the bare Boards with a Faggot for their Pillow and sleep with a Cross in their hand A certain Capucin that was wont to stretch out his arms Cross-wise two hours every day being sick and weak would not let fall his languishing arms and asking him to what purpose that Devotion served he answered me that he did it in imitation of Saint Paul who said That he was Crucified with Jesus Christ I have known some that would bow a hundred times every day before an Image of the Virgin Mary and at each time kiss the feet of the Image Some gather Flowers and make Nosegays wherein they put but five sorts of flowers in honour of the five letters of the name Maria. I have seen certain of them having a Nosegay of Gilliflowers in their hand present it to the nose of an Image of the Virgin Mary and kneeling down said I salute thee Mary and repeated it sixty three times in honour of the sixty three years which they say the Virgin Mary lived upon Earth I have known some go four Leagues fasting to present the Virgin Mary with a Crown of flowers which they put on the head of her Image Another pricking himself signed a vow to the Virgin Mary with his blood and as he turned about seeing a great gobbet of rotten flegm which some body had newly spit he lickt it up in honour of the said Virgin One of their Stewards were wont to present Fruit to the Fryars with sublime intentions viz. Sometimes he would present a slice of a Melon to each of them in honour of the Deity sometimes two in honour of the two Natures of Christ Sometimes three Apples in honour of the three Persons sometimes four Pears in honour of the four Evangelists seven Apricocks in despight to the seven mortal sins eight Figs in favour of the eight Beatitudes nine Apples in memory of the nine Choire of Angels ten Chasenuts in thinking on the ten Commandments and oftentimes twelve in memory of the twelve Apostles I have known some carry about with them their sins written in a skin of Parchment which they sowed to the inside of their cloths just against the heart and this they did in imitation of David who saith in the 51 Psalm My sin is ever

not subject to him In a word they were not at all like the Monks now adays The same Epiphanius in the same book condemns those that live an idle life and making a profession of beging get their bread at rich mens tables But to compleat their wickedness the mendicant Fryars make begging a work of supererogation that is better than what God commands in his Law and consequently better than to love God with all our hearts and our neighbour as our selves God commands us to serve him with all our strength so that the Monks serve God with more than all their strength which is impossible Abraham Isaac Jacob Samuel David c. never did works of supererogation The perfection of the Angels consists in obeying God and not in doing more than he commands Jesus Christ himself came into the world only to do the will of his Father and not to do more then his will Ask the most devout Capucin if he never commits sin and he will tell you that he is a poor linner How do these things agree they do not that which God commands and yet will do more then he commands They fail in necessary things and yet strive to do things unnecessary and which God requires not They do not what they ought and do what they ought not They are more holy than God would have them to be That man is crack-braind who exerciseth liberality when he hath not wherewith to pay his debts If this be so in reference to men how much more in reference to God It is an extream pride to endeavour to give God overplus and more then we owe him In a word I would know whether the Monks when they do works of supererogation do the will of God or their own will If they do the will of God they are obliged thereunto and do what they ought But if by doing better things then those which God commands they do their own will it follows that their will is better than the will of God Out of this same shop of pride come those superabundant satisfactions whereby the Monks would make us believe that they suffer more punishment and do more penance then their sins deserve and that the Pope gathers this overplus into his Treasury and distributes it by his Indulgences as payment for the sins of others The Monks believe that by whiping themselves by fasting and going bare-foot they expiate the sins of others Wherefore Bellarmine saith that the Saints are in some sense our Redeemers The Legends of Saint Antonine say that Saint Dominick a grand emulator of the holiness of St. Francis lasht himself three times a day with an iron chain viz. Once for his own sins which were very small once for the sins of the living and once for the sins of those Souls which are in Purgatory who no doubt received much ease thereby And it is this same Saint that once had mercy on the Devil For the Devil having transformed himself into a Sparrow and Saint Dominick catching him contented himself only with pulling off the feathers from his head whereas it was in his power to have wrung off his neck By these things God is blasphemed For such things are attributed to God which if a man should do he would be accounted either wicked or mad For what Judge would not be accounted unjust or out of his wits who should let a malefactor go because his neighbour hath whipt himself for him But things which are ridiculous in civil society are esteemed good in Religion as if a man must lose common sense to augment piety All this abuse proceeds from this viz. that men utterly destitute of the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures which are to them a book sealed and altogether unknown seek other satisfactions and other payments for sin then the death and passion of Jesus Christ For seeing Jesus Christ hath fully satisfied Gods justice to what purpose are other satisfactions presented to him Is not this to accuse God of injustice to pretend that he takes two payments for one debt when the first is sufficient Is it not to dishonour that most perfect satisfaction which Jesus Christ hath accomplished for us to joyn it with the whipings and austerities of Monks which is just as if a man should mingle coals and diamonds together For Pope Clement the VI. in his Extravagant Vnigenitus saith that the merits of the Virgin Mary and of the other Saints do help to compleat the treasure of the benefits of Jesus Christ giving us to understand that the benefits of Jesus Christ make but bare measure but that the addition of the Saints merits makes heaped measure and is an addition to the merits of Jesus Christ And for this reason the Priest in the Mass prays for salvation not only through the Saints intercession but also through their merits The Lord God take pity on so many poor people involved in so many abuses and discover the deceit of those who being themselves notorious sinners do yet by a proud humility think to expiate the sins of others CHAP. XXV Of the Fraternity of the Cord. An Extract of a Book entituled The Treasure of the Indulgencies of St. Francis's Cord Translated out of Italian into French And of the Canonization of St. Francis and Ignatius de Loyola THE Faaternity of St. Francis's Cord is a Society of superstitiously devout people both Men and Women and as well Clergy-men as Lay-men Into which Fraternity they who enter are obliged to certain Observations and for a Badge of the Fraternity wear a Cord in imitation of the Cord which St. Francis wore and do participate of all the Merits and Satisfactions of those of the said Fraternity They who have the least of merit do for all that as really partake of the merits of the others as if they were their own They lend their merits to each other and he that is asleep or at dinner participates of the merits of him that whips himself or of him that turns over the consecrated Beads of his Chaplet seven times The Fraternity of St. Francis's Cord hath great Priviledges and the Popes have granted it great Indulgences These priviledges have been set down in writing by divers but especially by Antonio Brugneto an Italian Observantin Monk whose very words in the 104. page are these The most glorious Father Francis a little before his death obtained of God the Creator three Priviledges as the defunct Pope Gregory reports them from St. Francis his own mouth viz. The first is That as the number of Monks should increase so should all things necessary be provided for them by the Divine Providence The second That whosoever shall wear the Habit of his Order shall not dye unfortunately The third That whosoever shall persecute the Religion of his Order his days shall be short and his end miserable Moreover the most glorious Father Francis a little before his death revealed to a certain Monk who is worthy of credit that he had