Also 6–7 bon-, bonehome. [Fr.; = good man.]
† 1. A member of an order of begging friars who came over to England in the 13th c.
c. 1526. Pysson (title), The Extirpacion of Ignorancy. By Sir Paule Bussle preest and Bonhome of Edyndon.
1530. Palsgr., 199/2. Bonhom a religious man, bonhomme.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 244. William de Edindon … erected a Colledge Bonis hominibus, Bon-homes, as they called them, that is for good men.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., VI. III. 278.
a. 1697. Aubrey, Wilts Coll., in Sat. Rev. (1864), XVIII. 462/1. This Country was very full of Religious Howses; a man could not have travelled but he must have mett Monkes, Fryars, Bonhommes … in their severall habits.
† b. A member of a reformed order of Franciscan friars, said by Littré to owe their name to the appellation Bonhomme given by Louis XI. to St. Francis de Paule, their founder; a friar minim.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Bonhomes, a religious order of Fryers entituled by Saint Francis de Paulo.
1678. Phillips, Bonhommes … were also called Fryer Minims, or Minorites.
† 2. A name given to the Albigenses. Obs.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Albigenses, They were also known by various other names; as … Bons-hommes, Passagers, etc.
ǁ 3. A peasant. Jacques Bonhomme: the French peasant.
1851. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng. (1864), III. 2. The bon-homme Sperling … and house-folk, and the Duke and his circle each kept themselves to themselves.
