[46] "Clerici ribaldi, maxime qui vulgo dicuntur _de famila Goliæ_."--Concil. Sen. ap. Concil., tom. ix. p. 578. [47] See my "Poems of Walter Mapes," p. 70. Cæsarius of Heisterbach, who completed his book of the miracles of his time in the year 1222, tells us a curious anecdote of the character of the wandering clerk. In the year before he wrote, he tells us, "It happened at Bonn, in the diocese of Cologne, that a certain wandering clerk, named Nicholas, of the class they call archpoet, was grievously ill, and when he supposed that he was dying, he obtained from our abbot, through his own pleading, and the intercession of the canons of the same church, admission into the order. What more? He put on the tunic, as it appeared to us, with much contrition, but, when the danger was past, he took it off immediately, and, throwing it down with derision, took to flight." We learn best the character of the goliards from their own poetry, a considerable quantity of which is preserved. They wandered about from mansion to mansion, probably from monastery to monastery, just like the jougleurs, but they seem to have been especially welcome at the tables of the prelates of the church, and, like the jougleurs, besides being well feasted, they received gifts of clothing and other articles. In few instances only were they otherwise than welcome, as described in the rhyming epigram printed in my "Latin Poems attributed to Walter Mapes." "I come uninvited," says the goliard to the bishop, "ready for dinner; such is my fate, never to dine invited." The bishop replies, "I care not for vagabonds, who wander among the fields, and cottages, and villages; such guests are not for my table. I do not invite you, for I avoid such as you; yet without my will you may eat the bread you ask. Wash, wipe, sit, dine, drink, wipe, and depart." Goliardus. _Non invitatus venio prandere paratus; Sic sum fatatus, nunquam prandere vocatus._ Episcopus. _Non ego curo vagos, qui rura, mapalia, pagos Perlustrant, tales non vult mea mensa sodales. Te non invito, tibi consimiles ego vito; Me tamen invito potieris pane petito. Ablue, terge, sede, prande, bibe, terge, recede._