He yaf nat of that text a pulled hen,
That seith that hunters ben nat hooly men,
Ne that a monk, whan he is recchelees,
Is likned to a fissh that is waterlees –
This is to seyn, a monk out of his cloystre.
But thilke text heeld he nat worth an oyster.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue. The Monk is a corrupt character. When he should be studying, praying or reading religious texts, he prefers to skip all that and go hunting instead. It is ironical that the spiritual practices referred to here, which he is meant to follow, he just denounces and dismisses. Chaucer uses the simile fish out of water to describe the Monk being shut away in a monastery.