Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar earlier version, Robin Hood good-humoredly refuses further combat; in both earlier and later versions Robin invites him to join the band. Howard Pyle used this tale in his "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" as part of the tale of Alan-a-Dale: Robin needed a priest who would perform the wedding ceremony in defiance of authority, and Will Scarlet proposed Friar Tuck. The Percy Folio version of the ballad begins with the stanza: Robert Graves in his "English and Scottish Ballads" used this stanza to support his argument for pagan survivals in the Robin Hood legend, and for the popular survival
Bishop of Hereford (Robin Hood) to Robin that the latter's father admitted to being a devil-worshiper. Bishop of Hereford (Robin Hood) The Bishop of Hereford is a character in the Robin Hood legend. He is typically portrayed as a wealthy and greedy clergyman who is robbed by Robin and his Merry Men. The character first appears by this name in the ballad "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford". The earliest surviving text is in the Forresters manuscript (British Library Additional MS 71158), which dates to the 1670s. Relying on later printed versions, Francis James Child collected the work as Child Ballad 144. In the