But when it came to the giving of the
penance, the fox found that the most weighty sin in all his shrift
was gluttony. And therefore he discreetly gave him in penance that
he should never for greediness of his food do any other beast any
harm or hindrance. And then he should eat his food and worry no
more.
Now, as good Mother Maud told us, when the wolf came to Father
Reynard (that was, she said, the fox's name) to confession upon
Good Friday, his confessor shook his great pair of beads at him,
almost as big as bowling balls, and asked him wherefore he came so
late. "Forsooth, Father Reynard," quoth he, "I must needs tell you
the truth--I come, you know, for that. I dared not come sooner for
fear lest you would, for my gluttony, have given me in penance to
fast some part of this Lent." "Nay, nay," quoth Father Fox, "I am
not so unreasonable, for I fast none of it myself. For I may say
to thee, son, between us twain here in confession, it is no
commandment of God, this fasting, but an invention of man. The
priests make folk fast, and then put them to trouble about the
moonshine in the water, and do but make folk fools. But they shall
make me no such fool, I warrant thee, son, for I ate flesh all
this Lent, myself. Howbeit indeed, because I will not be occasion
of slander, I ate it secretly in my chamber, out of sight of all
such foolish brethren as for their weak scrupulous conscience
would wax offended by it.
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