Cayme's castles

Phrase used by John Wyclif (after 1382 and during his exile in Oxford) to describe the great churches of the Franciscan friars. Cayme is a medieval form of *Cain, son of Adam, killer of his brother, Abel. The reason for the hostile epithet is that the *mendicant orders, the wandering brothers, were supposedly founded by Cain, a fugitive on the earth after Abel's murder. An acrostic poem plays on an alternate spelling, CAIM, beginning succeeding lines with Carmelite, *Augustinian, */acobin, *Minorite. This association between Cain and the friars emerged during the later part of the 14c.

Cf. Cayme and Caymiticus