I learned a new word today: “mendicant.”
Apparently, there is a seventeenth century English criminal case called Wright’s Case. In this case, it was held (according to the Supreme Court of Canada) that a man would:
be punished at law for procuring another to sever his hand – to assist his career as a mendicant – but the person effecting the task would also be liable to criminal sanction, irrespective of the other’s consent.
Apparently, mendicant “refers to begging or relying on charitable donations, and is most widely used for religious followers or ascetics who rely exclusively on charity to survive”. Also apparently, going for skills development training as a trainee mendicant entails making a very significant and permanent commitment to continuing employment in the field.
They say you learn something new every day. It’s only five to three in the afternoon; I guess I can be ignorant now until at least midnight.