Page 24 - THE DECAMERON: 100 Days on 100 Etchings by Petru Rusu
P. 24
“The Good Man and the Inquisitor“
There once was a Franciscan friar in Florence who was One morning, the good man goes to church and hears
supposed to be an inquisitor, but who was really in it for a phrase from the Gospel that he knows will serve him
the $$, not for the faith. Someone in the city tells the well: “For every one you shall receive a hundredfold.” So
friar that a wealthy man had gotten drunk in public and he memorizes it. When he checks in with the Friar that
had praised the quality of the wine he drank in a slightly morning, the clergyman asks him if he had anything to
blasphemous way. The friar’s delighted at this news. He say about the Mass that morning. The good man says
proceeds to charge the poor sot with some very serious yes, there was something that he heard that made him
offenses. When the wealthy man’s brought in, the friar feel sorry for all the friars. He’s been watching how the
makes sure that the man’s scared enough to believe that friars gave away surplus vegetable broth to the poor, in
he’ll burn at the stake for his offenses. So the wealthy huge quantities. If they were to get back a hundredfold for
man pays a great sum of money to the friar to overlook each one, says the good man, the friars would drown in
his offense, and the friar makes the man do penance by it in the afterlife. This enrages the friar because it points
wearing a large cross and attending church every morning. up how the lazy clergy did so little good in this life that
The good man does everything he’s supposed to, including they’ll only be getting back lots of soup for their efforts.
reporting every morning to the friar to “check in” and He dismisses the good man from him forever to avoid more
make sure that he’s obeying the rules of his “probation.” embarrassment.
“The Good Man and the Inquisitor” Retrieved from publicly source: shmoop
DECAMERON 24 <https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/decameron/summary/first-day-sixth-story>
