Presently the story of what Simon had seen got all over the village, and he was forced to tell it again a round dozen of times, and the more it was told and heard the more true it seemed (for such as the learned Lollius saith is the strange character of truth). More especially was it believed because Sir John told it everywhere he came, and because the Bailey’s wife and the Miller’s were heartily hated of every one. So it came to pass that people openly jeered at these two wicked women in the way, and, whenever they went abroad for business or delight, the little boys would pursue them, crying after them, ‘Tutivillius hath it in his roll,’ or ‘Tutivillius listeneth,’ or some such like admonition, the very babes and sucklings thus crying shame upon them. Good Master Parson had been so much impressed by the humble piety and reverence of demeanour with which Simon had related his wonderful vision, that he marvelled much at his own lack of discernment in not earlier recognising that the young man’s wildness and seeming irregularity of behaviour had been nothing more nor less than the frothy turbulence of a saintly soul, secretly consumed with religious fervour, although not yet fully broken in to the yoke of the Lord. After due consideration, therefore, he went up to the Great House to Sir Geoffrey, and fully explained to that devout Lord how the Almighty had bestowed upon Simon the gift of Divine Vision, and craved his permission that the young man might be made a priest. Sir Geoffrey marvelled much at what he heard, and gave his consent gladly to all that the Parson proposed, giving thanks to God with tears in his eyes that such a saintly soul should be born in his village. But when Master Parson came to Simon and proposed to him that he should become a priest, Simon violently opposed himself thereto, crying at the top of his voice with surprising vehemence that he had no call to serve the Lord, that he was a mean, worthless, unlettered rascal and unfit for such an office; and further, moreover, that he would much rather succeed his father, Walter Thinshanks, in his holding. Then Sir John understood his deep humility, and thanked the Lord, that He had let him live to see and hear such religion. But he pleaded with him earnestly and went on to show him that if he took Holy Orders, Sir Geoffrey would entirely release him from his servility and would liberally provide for him in the future, exhorting him to beware by the example of Jonah from shrinking from the burden that the Lord had clearly laid upon his shoulders. So in the end this humble Christian man was compelled, as it were against his will, to serve God as a priest.