> as lemmas

c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. v. l. 138 On limitoures and listres lesynges I ymped.

c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Wife of Bath's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 840 The grete charitee and prayeres Of lymytours and othere holy freres.

?c1430 (c1383) J. Wyclif Eng. Wks. (1880) 5 (MED) Þei ordeynen ydiotis to ben lymytours þat best kunnyn begge.

1516 Will of R. Peke of Wakefield in J. Raine Testamenta Eboracensia (1884) V. 74 To every lymytor of the iiij Orders of Freers..xxd.

1552 H. Latimer Serm. (1562) 94 A limitoure of the graye fryers, in the tyme of his limitation preached manye tymes and hadde but one Sermon.

1556 J. Heywood Spider & Flie ix. 1 There neuer was Fryer limiter, that duckt So low, where beggyng woon him twenty cheeses.

1591 E. Spenser Prosopopoia in Complaints 85 I meane me to disguize..like a Pilgrim, or a Lymiter.

1624 R. Montagu Gagg for New Gospell? To Rdr. Some of our Catholique Limitors, had beene roming..in the countrey, and brake into my pale secretly.

1665 R. Brathwait Comment Two Tales Chaucer 152 Limitors and holy Friers supply the Place of Fairies. Their Orizons, Anthems and Prayers have conjur'd down all Fayries.

1828 T. Russell Wks. Sc. & Eng. Reformers II. 537 It is not unlikely there were several..limiters in every convent, and that they were sent out in different directions, each having his prescribed limits for the performance of his office.

1888 Wesleyan-Methodist Mag. July 514 The poor priest took the blessing of Wyclif, and went out to travel...If he bore a wallet, it was not, like the limiter, to beg, but to carry books.

1950 in W. Frost Age of Chaucer Introd. 4 Some [sc. friars] were assigned a specific district in which to operate, and were hence known as ‘limiters’.

1991 Lit. & Theol. 5 335 Unbeneficed secular clergy..invited uneasy comparisons with landless lay labourers, with the limiters among the friars, and even with itinerant entertainers.