Complications of this nature must have taken place about this time at the House at Charing. In the year 1283 a certain Brother Lupus appears upon the scene for the first time. His position in England seems to have been that of envoy coming from the Pope, but in the same record he is described as a priest, envoy and preceptor of the Houses in England and Ireland of the Prior and Convent of the Hospital of St. Mary Roncesvalles, and he no doubt had instructions to supervise the management of their estates. The arrival of Brother Lupus, “streight comen fro the court of Rome,” with indulgences for the remission of sins, is an interesting proof that even so early as the year 1283 the sale of indulgences was one of the special functions of the brethren of Roncesvalles, and was no doubt a source of considerable income to the Priory[8]. Chaucer, writing a hundred years later, alludes, in his characteristic ironical manner, to this side of the activities of the Canons of Roncesvalles;[9] and even so late as the year 1432, when the House in London had come under the influence of the English clergy, a special effort was made to preserve this source of profit. Footnote 8: An instructive example is afforded by the exploits of Ralph de “Runcevill,” who is stigmatized as a vagabond monk, but who was nevertheless strong enough to retain possession of the Priory of Goldcliff in the Marches of Wales (near Newport, Monmouthshire) in spite of the efforts of his superior, the Abbot of the very important Convent of Bec-Hellouin, in Normandy, of which the House at Goldcliff was a “Cell,” “Calend. Pat. Rolls,” 12-14, Ed. II, (1319-1321). Footnote 9: “A Somner was ther with us in that place, That had a fyr-reed cherubinnes face.” * * * * “With him ther rood a gentil Pardoner Of Rouncival, his freend and his compeer, That streight was comen fro the court of Rome. Ful loude he song ‘Com hider, love, to me.’ This somnour bar to him a stiff burdoun, Was never trompe of half so greet a soun.” —The Prologue to the “Canterbury Tales” (Dr. Skeat’s edition).