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Friar Daw's Reply

FRIAR DAW'S REPLY: FOOTNOTES

1 But the oppression of estates is not taught on account of that

2 "The wheat withers together with the nourishment it affords, and we have no food" (PLH)

3 And through instruction of his teacher thus questions a friar

4 Who are better acquainted with their Fathers and their Bible in the dark

5 Than he who can read his gloss (troparius) by a long torch

6 For some are ignorant, some are cunning, and some are falsely thought [to be cunning]

7 But, Jack, by my truth (loyalty), you ignorantly lie

8 Less grace has grown among lords and prelates

9 Who won't give communion to his parishioners unless the penny is paid

10 Nor absolve them of their sin without confession money

11 And you value Christ's bitter Passion not [even] as much as a hawthorn berry

12 Jack, you speak in very serpentine terms, and call us soldiers

13 You receive your wisdom through torches quenched in your arse

14 By the same token your preaching, Jack, makes obstinate hearts

15 Who are greater Pharisees than [those] who divide souls

16 A third of the creatures have turned bitter from this

17 Fiercely burning as a firebrand, it was called Wormwood

18 He shed light for men through cunning at the beginning of his career

19 Maximinus or [the] Manichaeans never wreaked more havoc

20 And afterwards, rising to arrogance, disdaining all others

21 [Ready] to die for heresy through madness and foolhardiness

22 The breastplates that you wear are strategems and tricks

23 Poverty goes into the fray before Antichrist's coming

24 The perfect will not be hurt, the evil [have] been [hurt] already

25 Gluttony gathers sticks for the fire, and sloth undermines the walls

26 You don't know any more about patience, Jack, so help me God

27 None (of the three) greater in degree, no (one) more perfect than the others

28 Jack, you hastily enquire, and gladly would know

29 Overturning the woeful sins noted by the Apostle [John]

30 On these three, Jack, by my truth, is anchored all your establishment (college, teachings)

31 For some flee from the world and cloister themselves

32 [Composed] of such folk as those who are gathered together in convents

33 Who stay in cloisters to (avoid) worldly entanglements

34 And according as charity grows in them, the greater is their reward

35 And give them nothing in return although they are indigent

36 Which freely desires to be extended to kindred and strangers

37 And obediently [to] endure burdens that they lay upon us

38 And with both your understandings, despite God's grace, you will err very greatly

39 For they observe this teaching more strictly than the friars

40 And rightly do their duty according to [how] they have chosen

41 Jack, although Judas was a villain, how was Christ the worse for it?

42 Founded originally with charity before it was chased away

43 Such that the roof scarcely hangs on the cross-beams

44 And yet you think they are too fine; ill luck to you for that

45 "We rent," you say, "to limiters, to carve up all this realm"

46 An uncertain thing it is, truly, to farm out land

47 Jack, Christ paid no tribute out of obligation or debt

48 God knows there is no honor in begging from beggars

49 And you marvel that we get nothing from poor men and priests

50 We would like to persevere on behalf of poor men's prayers

51 Nor [do we] sell any prayers for the dead for so much a year

52 Whether the Carmelite friars may assert such an error of their copes

53 You believe you are creating a ditch for me, but you fall into it yourself!

54 But I don't blame you too much, although you accuse them with serious charges

55 Also you say we covet or desire no sacrament

56 Except confession and burials, which belong to the people

57 You half-wit, you chatterbox, how can these statements be reconciled?

58 Who doesn't even care if he is caught in a lie

59 And perform other charitable acts as they are needed

60 For each spring they claim the law against us

61 But, Jack, do what you usually do and don't stop lying

62 I respect your lying as much as your true statements

63 To imprison the venom which murders many souls

64 And draws outrageous conclusions from a little evidence

65 But turn their attentions to wealthier men and find their lodgings

66 What shall those persons say who hire out their churches

67 You also jabber and cry out against noise in our begging

68 Dear Jack Ignoramus, how do you observe the Gospel?

69 And we say we don't have anything of our own or in common

70 In what manner the Holy Ghost chose Barnabas and Paul

71 Or else he only knows despite what God knows

72 Diminishes my ability more than it increases it

73 And so you say that friars hinder Christ's Church from growing up to heaven

74 You accuse us of saying Christ's body is not there (in the bread)

75 Were it not for the harsh punishings of your founding fathers

76 Not at all obliterated, not at all divided, but only broken as a sign

77 And [Christ] is as much in one part as in the whole [wafer]

78 "Whatever remains in it is quintessential matter" (PLH)

79 Cloth-makers, nor cutlers, belt-makers, coffer-makers, nor shoemakers

80 "Unless the sacred mystery of priesthood should be planted in their souls"? (PLH)

81 Offering to administer a sacrament as if they were priests

82 All should go to ruin in the empty waters

83 Then the ignorant and the learned do not possess the same understanding

84 Scripture is dispersed in its secret places

85 To avenge our faults and amend us of our misdeeds

86 In which you don't need to look far for sorrow and sorcery

87 As in your ignorant tittle-tattle you have openly demonstrated

88 Who slyly wished to have slunk away and no man [would have] cared

89 And say to them that there is no need to hone our clerks' wits

FRIAR DAW'S REPLY: NOTES

1-2 Who shal graunten. Based on Jeremiah 9.1. The apocalyptic opening was commonplace in fraternal writings and complaint literature. A promendicant Latin poem begins with that scriptural passage, as does John Pecham's defense of the friars, Tractatus pauperis contra insipientem.

3 For charite is chasid. Apparently an allusion to the "cooling of charity" motif from Matt. 24.12, which was regularly understood as a sure sign of Doomsday's approach. Ironically, the cooling of charity was more often invoked against friars than, as here, against Lollards.

4 state. Estate or condition. John Gower often ascribed the lack of order in his times to decadent political conditions. See also JU note to line 6.

5-6 Now apperith the prophecie. Rev. 6.12-13 and Joel 2.28. This political use of prophecy derives from Latin tradition and specifically from "The Prophecies of Merlin" in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. See also "Political Prophecies" in Historical Poems of the XIVth and Xvth Centuries, ed. R. H. Robbins (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959), pp. 118-21.

11 twelve pointes. Twelve stars (Rev. 12.1).

15 ground of Goddis. PLH, after a manuscript corrector of D, reads grounding of þis, but the MS and Wr read ground in goddis. I emend to ground of Goddis. The phrasing comes from JU. See note to JU 79.

18 poverte that Crist hath approved. Luke 6.20: "Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." Daw refers to the general attacks on mendicancy in JU and other Lollard treatises.

21 Foxes frettid in fere. An allusion to the story of Samson and the Philistines (Judges 15.4-5). Samson loosed three hundred foxes, joined at the tails and carrying torches, into the Philistines' wheat; the flames also burned the vineyards and oliveyards. The allusion here is meant to convey general devastation.

23 Achan. Achan stole from Jericho and was stoned in the Vale of Achor (Joshua 7). D reads achor; but Wr and PLH emend to Achan. "Substitution of man for place is demanded by the sense" (PLH).

24 Lollardis. Lollards were often accused of substituting fables for Scripture, although they also attacked others for telling fables and stories. See the exchange between Host and Parson in The Parson's Prologue.

25-26 Datan and Abiron. Dathan, Abiram, and Korah, sons of Levi, aspired to the priesthood but God destroyed them, sending them down to Sheol (Numbers 16).

27 Baal preestes. An allusion to the priests of Baal who, at Elijah's instructions, ask their god to send fire for their sacrifice. When Baal fails but the Lord sends fire for Elijah's sacrifice, all the priests of Baal are killed (3 Kings 18.20-40).

31 On wounder wise. In his Notes to JU, Skeat observes that the author of FDR sometimes echoes Upland's phrasing, as in this phrase, "On wounder wise," which mocks JU's "and in a wondir wise" (57).

31-66 Reply to JU 56-63.

34 Wede, corn. The phrasing is from JU 60 (which, however, reads in the MSS either wode corn or corne wode). PLH emends to whete corn reading whete, corn; I emend JU to wede, corn based on this line (and 55); but the correct reading may be wede corn (= wheat-corn). Or perhaps wede means "weeds", in which case there could be an allusion in 31-35 to Matt. 13.25, 38-39 (the parable of the weeds).

41 leyen hem a water. An idiom for "overcome them" or "set them to rest." See PPC 782.

42 summe ben lewid, summe ben shrewid. A proverbial or formulaic expression that appears often in Middle English lyric poetry.

45 Frere Daw Topias. The name Daw may be explained as a completion of "Jackdaw," with "Jack" referring to Jack Upland, whose tract FDR answers. The name Topias seems to allude to Chaucer's Sir Thopas, anti-hero of Chaucer the pilgrim's first attempt at a Canterbury tale. Sir Thopas, a bumbling, comic knight, is a parody of the hero of tag-line romances, and his name, "topaz," a girl's name, suggests that gem's lapidarian perfection: purity. The point seems to be that Friar Daw Topias, like his romance namesake, undermines himself such that he becomes a figure of ridicule. It is odd that the narrator of this supposedly polemical work refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as "lewid as a leke."

46-51 D and Wr print these lines in the following order: 47, 49, 50, 46, 48, 51. PLH prints them in a different order: 47, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51.

49-51 That we ben not lege men . . . obeien to bishopes. See JU 58-59 and 145. Daw acknowledges that friars report immediately to their Provincial and then to the Pope; they obey bishops but "not so fer forth as seculeer preestes," who report to a more rigorous hierarchy than friars.

51-52 We obeien. Friars did not answer to bishops but rather directly to the Pope through their Provincial. The secular clergy often complained that friars circumvented the traditional ecclesiastical hierarchy through their own chain of command. See FitzRalph's Defensio curatorum, a widely disseminated work.

55-56 Wede, corn . . . ferme the dikes. Daw points out that friars, unlike commoners or "Jack Upland," do not perform manual labor. This replies to JU 59-60.

57-58 Although Poul. See especially 1 Thess. 2.9, where Paul mentions both working and preaching; and Acts 6 (division of labor between working and preaching).

66 But thi venym. Compare Chaucer's Pardoner, who says of his preaching: "Thus spitte I out my venym under hewe / Of hoolynesse, to semen hooly and trewe" (VI [C] 421-22).

67-74 Daw's reply to JU 64-65.

71 wickide worme - Wiclyf by name. Daw indicates that John Wyclif (d. 1384) and his followers, the Lollards, are the enemy. Later on, Daw refers to Upland's "sory secte" (119). Wyclif's attacks on the Church ranged far beyond criticism of mendicancy. Both the Franciscan friar William Woodford and the Benedictine monk Uthred of Boldon inter alia assailed Wyclif's writings. See also PPC 528 note.

72 cisme. Probably a reference to general divisions in the Church rather than to the Great Schism, which began in 1378 with the election of Urban VI (the Italian Pope) and the subsequent election of Gregory VII (the French Pope).

75 seven sacramentes. The rites of baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, penance, extreme unction, ordination, and matrimony.

75-83 Reply to JU 65-67.

84-85 fife ordres . . . foure. For the four orders (Franciscans, Dominicans, Austins, and Carmelites), see PPC. The fifth order might be the Crutched Friars (PLH), but Daw himself is confused as to the fifth order.

84-92 Reply to JU 68-69.

87 I preise not at a peese. See the note to PlT 1163.

88 Fiton. PLH shows that the Vulgate uses "pythones" for fiends speaking from the womb (Deut. 18.11 and Isaiah 19.3).

89 thi god is a-slepe. Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal, who could get no response from their god (3 Kings 18.27).

92 than Balames ass. The ass spoke to Balaam, but it was the Lord, rather than the ass, who actually spoke (Numbers 22.21-33). The story is a cautionary tale about obedience to the Lord.

93-104 Reply to JU 69-70.

102 forme . . . lowe chaier. Daw implies that the Lollard curriculum for "men's wives" involves "study" close to the floor.

103 in your lawe. PLH omits this phrase as hypermetrical, and comments: "in 3our lawe probably interpolated because the first half-line imputes a moral perfection that in the eyes of the orthodox no Lollard could lay claim to."

104 callen hem forth her. PLH emends to call on men for þer but the emendation is unnecessary. See Hudson, The Premature Reformation, p. 189 note 83. I adopt Hudson's emendation of rediþ for nediþ. Hudson glosses: "and ask for lessons for themselves, saying `Sister, read to me"' (p. 189).

105-11 Reply to JU 70.

106 Perhaps an allusion to Luke 2.49, where Jesus protests that in God's house he "must be about my Father's business."

112-28 Reply to JU 71.

114 a rewle. See Matt. 7.20: "Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them."

121 Who tythith. Matt. 23.23: "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: because you tithe mint, and anise, and cummin, and have left the weightier things of the law, judgment, and mercy, and faith."

122 Sterching your faces. Matt. 6.16: "And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast."

123 Blaunchid graves. Matt. 23.27: "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness."

126 Thourgh quenching of torches. PLH cites the Dominican coat of arms, whose Scottish version features a dog with a firebrand running behind St. Dominic.

130 seven trompes. See Rev. 8-11, esp. 11.15. Lines 129-209 paraphrase Revelations 8-11 and continue the apocalyptic theme broached in the poem's opening lines. Lines 129-224 reply to JU 28-72.

134-35 he noieth . . . myngid. PLH emends to noieþ . . . myngid because of the "clumsy" syntax. I have adopted myngid in line 135 but have retained MS he noieth in line 134 despite the somewhat awkward syntax.

138 sunderers. PLH's good emendation for MS hinderers. Sunderers completes the alliteration and makes sense of line 139: "`divisioun' ben callid."

140 love-daies. A time when disputes could be settled, including out of court settlements, treaties, and other public and private arrangements. Daw claims that Lollard teachings cause so much discord that disputing parties cannot be reconciled in seven years. Ironically, friars were criticized for involving themselves in litigation during lovedays. Chaucer's Friar Huberd meddled in legal arbitration: "In love-dayes ther koude he muchel help" (I 258).

144 ben bitter therof. In Rev. 8.9 the sea-creatures die after the mountain falls into the sea; but Daw speaks of figurative applications. Hence the Lollards send Satan into souls, and he causes people to become obstinate of heart and caustic (145-47). Compare Chaucer's Parson's Tale, on Envy: "Thanne cometh eek bitternesse of herte, thurgh which bitternesse every good dede of his neighebor semeth to hym bitter and unsavory" (X 510).

151 With men. PLH provides this reading, giving wiþinne? as the MS reading. Wr reads withinne. PLH comments: "Abbreviation mark misplaced, but the scribe probably intended wiþinne. It makes odd sense in the context; before a plural object wiþ can mean `among' (OED, with ii.11 = among A.6) which is preferable to `within' in any of its senses."

157 Maximine ne Maniche. Two unorthodox thinkers: Maximinus, an Arian heretic, who debated with St. Augustine on the Trinity in 427-28; and Mani or Manes, who lent his name to a dualistic strain of medieval Christian heresy (the Manichaeans). When Daw says Maniche he probably refers to later medieval dualism, which was broadly attributed to Mani. Lollardy and Manichaeism share an oppositional stance toward the established Church.

159 fourthe. The MS, PLH, and Wr read iiije in line 159 and iije ("thridde") in line 160.

162 westheth. Thus the MS. Wr reads wescheth and glosses "screameth?" PLH emends to scricheth, and comments: "The corruption results from misjoining of original ve scricheth. `Screech' (OED, scritch v.) is used from early ME. of the crying of birds." The general sense is clear from Rev. 8.13.

170 fift. MS and Wr read first, but PLH correctly emends to fift. See Rev. 9.1.

192 At the sixt. MS and Wr read In þe si3t of. I adopt PLH's emendation, which is based on Rev. 9.13.

194 thridde. MS and Wr read ferthe. PLH emends to thridde based on Rev. 9.15. The MS reading probably anticipates the four angels and four sins of line 195.

198 Poverte preamblis. MS, PLH, and Wr poerte. PLH emends presse to preisen and moves line 198 to before 202.

205 noise in heven was made. Thus MS and Wr. PLH emends to "voises in heuen seide" based on Rev. 11.15 and comments: "The generalized reading of the MS. is slightly uncomfortable with the following `that' clause."

208 Shulde for a short tyme. There seems to be a verb, such as "rule" or "govern," missing from this line.

210-15 thus to dubby with Scripture. Lines 210-15 = perhaps a reply to JU 73-81, or perhaps to the general tenor of JU. Daw's confessions of ignorance seem to go beyond "the convention of simulated ignorance" of PPC 845-47 alleged by PLH.

212-13 an a from the wynd mylne . . . bole foot. Daw professes to be virtually illiterate, although he comes close to saying he doesn't know a hack from a handsaw. The pose is apparently meant to be satirical in that he may not know his letters and yet he understands perfectly well that Upland is a heretic (214-16). See also 648-49: "Jak, I am not lettered but I am Frere Dawe, / And can telle wel a fyn what heresie amountith."

225 holilich. MS (margin) holilicch, correcting holy chirche. PLH emends to holily.

225-33 Reply to JU lines 79-81.

227 how Judicare cam in to Crede. A reference to the phrase inde venturus est iudicare vivos et mortuos of the Apostles' Creed. It seems to mean "how the section on Judgment came to be placed in the Creed." Utley comments: "To say that a man knows how Judicare comes in the Creed would mean in general that he knows his Creed, that he rightly performs his religious duties and realizes their significance, that he knows `how to die' and how to be prepared for the day when Christ will come to judge the quick and the dead." A frequent charge against friars was that they did not know the Apostles' Creed. See PPC 62-63 and note.

232-33 unkissid is unknowun . . . Robyn Hood. PLH directs to Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde 1.809 and 2.859-61 and Gower's Confessio Amantis 2.467. See also B. J. and W. H. Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), R156.

236-57 Reply to JU 82.

239-43 The Holy Ghost proceeds from both the Father and the Son. Daw seems to misunderstand Jack Upland's question about the fraternal orders since he responds generally about God's disposition and "ordering" of all things.

245 thre ierarchies, dividid in ordres nyne. The angelic orders were, in descending order, seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominations, principalities, powers, virtues, archangels, angels. The MS and PLH read iij jerarchies; Wr iij. ierarchies.

251 Of templeres, hospitalers. Both the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitalers were crusading orders: the Poor Knights of Christ and the Knights of St. John respectively. They became wealthy and powerful through their various military campaigns. Chaucer's pilgrim Knight may have been a Hospitaler. Canons, both regular and secular, were members of a religious order attached to a cathedral. They were frequent objects of satirical attack, as in Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale.

252-53 Seint Thomas bokes. Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican, defended canons, monks, and Knights Templar in Contra impugnantes Dei cultum et religionem. See PLH's note.

255 manniskynde (PLH's emendation). The MS reads cowde calkyn al manere kyndes perhaps anticipating, through homeoteleuton, how many kyndes of 256.

258-70 Reply to JU 83-90.

266 Lust of fleish . . . lyvynge. A reference to the three temptations of 1 John 2.16: "because all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." This passage was one of the chief texts for medieval contemptus mundi. By denying the devil three times, Christ is said to have "reversed" or resisted the three temptations.

271 Jacke boy. Boy = a term of contempt similar to sirrah; it translates roughly as "rascal" or "lout."

271-321 Reply to JU 91-96.

283-86 two perfit lyves. Mary and Martha, John and Peter, and Rachel and Leah were traditional pairs for exemplifying the contemplative and active ways of life. In the Epistle of James, the issue is between faith and works (e.g., chapter 2).

287-89 These lyves ben groundid. PLH translates: "These lives are founded on love by diverse classes of people, by men who, establishing separate orders as a consequence of their vows, and affording us a manifest example, may teach us the Christian life."

315-18 the epistle of James. See James 1.27 which, according to Daw, defines both the active and contemplative lives.

322-29 Reply to JU 95-96.

328-29 What we yeven. PLH translates: "it is unnecessary to tell you what we give to the poor, for an act of charity ought to be secret and since it [sc. the act of charity = what we give] will suffer severely at your hands [i.e., come into your possession]."

330-50 Reply to JU 99-108.

334-35 Maniches errours. Daw refers to the charge against the Manichaean dualists that they encouraged promiscuity because of the Manichaean strictures against marriage. Upland had attacked friars with being wedded to their orders more firmly than some husbands were wedded to their wives.

336 PLH suggests Prov. 7.19 as a possible source of this line: "For my husband is not at home, he is gone a very long journey." He also cites an antifraternal lyric ("Preste, ne monke, ne 3it chanoun") that contains lines to the effect that a friar will do "his will" with "oure dame" while the "gode man is fro hame" (HP XIV & XV, p. 158).

343 And so apostasie. PLH suggests: "And so we are able to commit apostasy in our souls, our religious habits notwithstanding."

349-50 These lines might be translated: "And, Jack, our habits no more make (us) monks and friars than your saddle makes your horse a mare."

351-57 Reply to JU 109-11.

358-81 Reply to JU 112-14.

360 tipet. A long, narrow strip of cloth attached to a hood. It was purely ornamental. Chaucer's Friar Huberd wears a tippet stuffed with gifts for wives (I 233-34).

360-67 What meeneth thi tipet. Daw's charges against a Lollard for extravagent clothing may seem inappropriate, since friars and not Lollards were proverbial for fancy dress. Yet there are records of fraternal censures against Lollards with respect to clothing. Hudson cites William Woodford, a fourteenth-century Minorite, who claimed that "the Lollards wore widefurred hoods, fine linen, silver buckles, and furred gowns to their feet" (The Premature Reformation, p. 146).

364 PLH deletes this line altogether. In the MS it follows line 363, but PLH observes it does not belong there since 363-64 form a unit of thought. PLH speculates: "It may be that this is a piece of Lollard marginalia induced by indignation at 360-66 (perhaps with original þi for þe), subsequently incorporated into the text." After this line, the line numbering of the present edition differs from PLH's.

369-70 My grete coope . . . to frende. Highly ironic, since antifraternal criticism alleged that the large copes signified the very opposite of charity. PLH emends frende to fremde, alien, stranger, but fremde was often spelled with an n. See PlT line 626.

371 cloith of Salomons table. 1 Sam. 2.7?

372 wedding garnement. Matt. 22.11-12.

383-86 Reply to JU 115.

384 moost greye clothis. The lower classes were supposed to wear drab colors such as gray and black. Hudson quotes Thomas Netter as observing that the Lollards wore uniform garments of gray; but she also points out that "russet" and "gray" were only "chance variations in the same dyeing process" (The Premature Reformation, p. 146 and note 176). See also Wendy Scase, Piers Plowman and the New Anticlericalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 168 and 219-20 note 18. The Franciscans, or Greyfriars, wore grey.

386 And withinne. Matt. 7.15, said of false prophets. This scriptural reference was often applied to friars rather than Lollards.

387-96 Reply to JU 115-17.

389-92 Here and elsewhere a conglomeration of biblical texts. Et iterum = and again. Est tacens. Ecclus. 20.6-7: "[There is one that holdeth his peace, because he knoweth not what to say: and] there is another that holdeth his peace, knowing the proper time. A wise man will hold his peace till he see opportunity: [but a babbler, and a fool will regard no time]." Tempus tacendi. Eccles. 3.7: "A time to keep silence, and a time to speak." Sicut urbs. Prov. 25.28: "As a city that lieth open and is not compassed with walls, so is a man that cannot refrain his own spirit in speaking."

396 And undur you. PLH emends to And blundir 3e, and translates: "and if, despite God's grace, you both misinterpret, you will go very badly astray." This emendation makes good sense of the line but is far away from the MS reading. Hudson accepts PLH's emendation, glossing blundir 3e bothe as "go blindly both of you" and marren as "perish" (Premature Reformation, p. 190).

397-406 Reply to JU 117-18.

403 But al is good ynowgh for thee. This line seems to allude to the Lollard custom of eating meat on fast-days. Aston has suggested that Lollards turned meat-eating "at forbidden seasons [almost] into a kind of secret rite" (Lollards and Reformers, p. 93).

406 this sermonie. Wr and PLH emend to serimonie on the basis of UR. Daw seems to undercut himself once again as he admits that monks observe the rule of eating in refectory better than friars.

407-21 Reply to JU lines 119-27.

408-09 I adopt PLH's emendation. The lines in the MS read: "Whi renne we to Rome to be assoilid of þe / Oþ þat we han maad & be popis freris." Compare Chaucer's description of the Parson, a parish priest, in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales: "He sette nat his benefice to hyre / And leet his sheep encombred in the myre / And ran to Londoun unto Seinte Poules / To seken hym a chaunterie for soules, / Or with a bretherhed to been withholde; / But dwelte at hoom, and kepte wel his folde" (I 507-12).

422-32 Reply to JU 128-31.

427-30 Quasi morientes. 2 Cor. 6.9: "As dying, and behold we live." The gloss, from the Glossa ordinaria, translates: "as dying, that is, from sin to sin, according to the opinion of certain people; and behold we live, that is, in good works according to truth itself."

433-51 Reply to JU 132-34.

436-38 transfigurid. Matt. 17.1-9.

440-41 Crist also took. Matt. 20.17-19.

449-50 To him. See Prov. 10.19: "In the multitude of words there shall not want sin: but he that refraineth his lips is most wise." See also Chaucer's Manciple's Tale: "The firste vertu, sone, if thou wolt leere, / Is to restreyne and kepe wel thy tonge; / Thus lerne children whan that they been yonge" (IX 332-34).

452-62 Reply to JU 135-38.

461 Take hede. I adopt PLH's emendation from a marginal corrector. PLH also emends is to I.

463-64 oure coveitise. PLH emends to coventis because of line 465. But see also line 475 and note.

463-77 Reply to JU 138-41.

472-73 To Wyndesore . . . Daw names the chief royal residences, noted for their splendor.

475 The MS reads couetise passiþ, but PLH emends to couentis passen (as in 463). Here, although Daw speaks of convents, he also is talking about the sin that lies behind the sumptuous convents: avarice.

478-86 Reply to JU 147-50.

482-83 pardonysters. Much to the resentment of friars, pardoners collected alms at the hospitals of St. Thomas of Acre, St. Anthony, and St. Mary Rouncesval (Charing Cross). Chaucer's Pardoner preached and collected money at Rouncesval.

486 hasilwode. Proverbial for futility, as in Chaucer's Troilus: "From haselwode, there joly Robyn pleyde, / Shal come al that that thow abidest heere" (5.1174-75).

487-506 Reply to JU lines 154-67.

488 Sith Crist paiede tribut. Matt. 22.21: "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God, the things that are God's." The meaning of this passage was much debated in the late Middle Ages.

494 To tax ne to taliage. "This alliterative formula is an example of one of a number of stylistic devices widely used in English wills, charters, writs, and other legal instruments from very early times" (PLH).

499 The prince of provynces. Lam. 1.1: "the princes of provinces made tributary."

500 comun lawe. "Probably the bull Clericis laicos of Boniface VIII, 1296 . . . asserting the complete immunity of the clergy from taxation by the state unless levied with papal permission, on threat of excommunication" (PLH).

503 persouns. MS perilous aftir. A corrector has inserted persouns in the margin, which PLH adopts as the best sense for the passage.

505 annuellers. Those who sing a mass each year ("annually") for a fee. An annuell was money for saying a yearly mass. See PPC line 414 and note. Of the new taxation PLH comments: "Convocation of Canterbury, 3 October 1419, levied a noble from chaplains of parochial chantries (annuellers) of seven marks annual value and upwards."

507 lettris of brothirhood. Fraternal orders extended letters of fraternization to those who donated to the convent. See PPC 327 (and note) and 417.

507-14 Reply to JU 151-53.

509 lettris. PLH's emendation. There is a gap in the MS after 3our.

511 if autentike thei weren. Official documents, and their seals, were often forged. Daw admits that his order authenticates letters and seals before taking action on them.

513 blake bedes. Either their thirteenth bead on their prayer beads or their wicked prayers.

515-23 Reply to JU 154-67.

516 suffragies. Prayers, esp. for the dead; from Lat. suffragia, pl. of suffragium, prayers. The OED cites pseudo-Wyclif: "No prelat may assoylle ne graunte hevenely suffragies."

518 satyllyn. The general sense of lines 515-18 seems to be that people, including friars, are human, hence fallible, and that prayers are efficacious only to a limited extent. They "settle" or "fall" on everyone in similar circumstances.

519 trentels. PLH emends to trentel. A trental was thirty masses for the dead.

524-37 Reply to JU 160-63.

533 me ne wote. The MS reads me wote, and a corrector has added ne. PLH emends to I ne wote.

534 helide a womman. Matt. 9.20-21. The woman hemorrhaged for twelve years. Daw omits Christ's important statement to the woman in verse 22: "Be of good heart, daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole."

538-54 Reply to JU 168-71.

542-44 Sayinge to the riche man. Matt. 19.21: "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me."

555-77 Reply to JU 172-76.

557 undirnym. MS and Wr read undermyn with possibly the idea that charity subverts false imprisonment. But PLH emends to undernym, which makes better sense with and so wynnen her brothir; moreover, JU in the corresponding passage reads vndirnyme hem in charite & so to wynne hem (PLH's text). See also 567: ben undirnomen.

561 Thou wenyst. PLH, observing that the thought is commonplace, directs to Psalm 7.16: "A lake he openede, and dalf it out; and fel in to the dich that he made."

564-67 The point of these lines is that civil administration and positive law collapses if Christ's injunctions in the Gospel were to be followed literally.

565 emperour. MS reads Empour. Wr and PLH emend to emperour.

566 ne haunte no domes. MS and Wr read no haunte no domes, which looks like dittography.

569 bothe. PLH; MS and Wr be.

576 goldsmythis. It is possible that the craft of goldsmiths was involved in Lollardy. See PLH's note to 575.

90 Reply to JU 177-78.

586 Thou jawdewyne. MED uncertain of exact signification or etymology, suggesting OF geude (etc.) "foot soldiers, band of foot soldiers" and OIt geldra "ragamuffin" as perhaps related words, and "a fool, jester" as the apparent signification. S.v. jaudewin. See also lines 760, 930 of FDR.

591-600 Reply to JU 178-87.

597 Omnis utriusque sexus. A decretal which stated that members of a parish must be confessed by their parish priest at least once a year. This decree angered friars, who derived considerable income from their powers of confession.

600 oonis suspect . . . half honged. Proverbial. See Whiting and Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases, S918, N20.

601-30 Reply to JU 188-96.

605 holdun to. PLH's emendation. MS and Wr omit to.

612-21 Quis, inquit. 1 Cor. 9.7: "Who serveth as a soldier at any time, at his own charges?" 1 Cor. 9.14: "So also the Lord ordained that they who preach the gospel, should live by the gospel." In quamcumque. Luke 10.5: "Into whatsoever house you enter, first say: Peace be to this house." (See also JU 194 note.) Luke 10.7: "And in the same house, remain, eating and drinking such things as they have: for the labourer is worthy of his hire." Rom. 15.26: "For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a contribution for the poor of the saints that are in Jerusalem."

624 Loke that every werke. In this line and in lines 626 and 631-36 Daw alludes to the tree and fruit metaphor of Matt. 3.10, quoted in lines 641-42.

631-45 Reply to JU 197-201.

641-44 Omnis, inquit. Matt. 3.10: "Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire." Qui non manserit. John 15.6: "If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth."

646-73 Reply to JU 202-06.

662 As Arrians. The Arian heretics maintained that Christ was not fully divine. The Sabellians denied the doctrine of the Trinity, holding that the three Persons are merely three aspects of the one God.

671 Hostiensis. Wr and PLH emend the scribal abbreviation (-er MS). Hostiensis was the common name for Henry of Susa (d. 1271), an expert on canon law and author of Summa aurea (Summa Hostiensis).

674-98 Reply to JU 207-11.

685 To selle no sacramentis. PLH conjectures that at least a line may have been omitted prior to this line, since there is no proper antecedent for thei, observing that lines 682-85 are not easily reconciled with lines 686-89.

690 Jak, suppose. So PLH; MS Iak I suppose.

699-727 Reply to JU 220-21.

703-04 Crist in His godhede. See, for example, Col. 2.9-10: "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead corporeally; And you are filled in him, who is the head of all principality and power."

705-08 As touching His manheed. Ps. 39.18: "But I am a beggar and poor: the Lord is careful for me."

709 And aftir Austin and Jerom. Jerome's gloss to Psalms 39.18 reads: "Egenus et pauper Christus" (Christ was needy and poor).

711-13 Crist aftir oo kynde . . . noon harborow. Daw distinguishes between Christ's divine and human natures. As divine, He had no need to beg; as human, He was poor and needy. FitzRalph condemned the argument that Christ begged unnecessarily: "Also 3if Crist beggide wilfulliche he was a verrey ypocrite, semyng a begger, & was no verrey begger, for Crist was neuer a verrey begger, for no man þat may haue y-now3 at his wille, is a verrey begger, þou3 he begge. But he is a verrey faytour (= deceiver), & he þat beggeþ wilfullich may haue y-nou3 at his wille; for elles he beggeþ nou3t willfulliche, but he is dryue to by nede, and Crist was neuer ypocrite. Þanne Crist beggide neuer wilfulliche, noþer as a faytour." Defensio curatorum, trans. Trevisa, p. 84.

715 Vulpes, inquit. Matt. 8.20: "And Jesus saith to him: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head."

718-22 Cave, inquit Jeronimus. Beware, says Jerome, lest by begging for your God you exalt another's riches. And Bernard: O Lord, how you conformed yourself to our poverty in all things, as if one in a crowd of poor men you begged alms from door to door.

726-27 a manciple at Mertoun Halle. A manciple was an officer charged with buying food and other provisions for a college, convent, etc. Daw claims he was a manciple at Merton, one of the oldest colleges at Oxford, and that he learned Latin by rote while supervising purchasing. Chaucer's pilgrim Manciple apparently purchased food for one of the Inns of Court and took considerable pride in outwitting the scholars. It is uncertain whether 726-27 are autobiographical or an aspect of Daw's "lewid" persona.

728-39 Reply to JU 222-26.

730-32 the blynde begger. Matt. 20.29-34.

733-35 the pore man. Acts 3.2-10.

736-38 the lazar. Luke 16.20-22.

739 Abrahams bosum. Luke 16.22: "And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." See also PP B 16.254. Thomas Aquinas explained "Abraham's bosom" as Limbo.

740-54 Reply to JU 227-28.

747 helpeth soulis. PLH's emendation. MS helpeþ þe soulis.

751 Esdras wroot a newe book. 2 Esdras (or Nehemiah) 8. "Ezra, though a scribe, did not write the book of the law; he carried it to Israel" (PLH).

752-54 To Seint Joon. Rev. 1.10-11: "and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying: What thou seest, write in a book."

755-56 so many maistris. Matt. 23.10: "Neither be ye called masters; for one is your master, Christ."

755-64 Reply to JU 237-39.

760 Jacke Jawdewyn. See 586 note.

761-64 the comoun glose. PLH cites from Nicholas Lyra on Matt. 23.7: "Desiderare enim scientiam et actum docendi non est malum, sed meritorium: sed desiderare nomen tanum, hoc est malum et superbiae peccatum." (To desire knowledge and the act of teaching is not wicked but meritorious. But to desire the name alone [of rabbi or teacher] - this is wicked and the sin of pride.)

765-71 Reply to JU 240-46.

768 the two and twentithe pope. PLH's emendation; MS foure and twentiþe. The correct pope is John XXII and not John XXIV. John XXII quarreled especially with the Spiritual Franciscans in the early fourteenth century.

772-89 Reply to JU 249-51.

776-82 Herdes thou nevere. Daw here tells stories of the apostles drawn from Acts 8, 15, and 16. Barnabas and Paul disagreed about circumcision, and they went their separate ways, Barnabas choosing Mark as his companion and Paul choosing Timothy.

784 the mysterie. Daw tries to establish the authority of friars traveling in pairs through other "twos" in Scripture: the two Mosaic tablets (Exod. 31.18); two cherubim in the temple (3 Kings 6.23); and two cherubim in the tabernacle (Exod. 25.18). The friars were criticized for this kind of allegorical exegesis.

785 Forto do. PLH's emendation; MS Forto bi, which makes no sense.

789 Crist seith. See Eccles. 4.10: "Woe to him that is alone, for when he falleth, he hath none to lift him up."

790-809 Reply to JU 271-76.

798 the Memento put falsly. PLH's emendation; MS fassy, Wr fally. The Memento refers perhaps to "the commemoration of the faithful departed in the mass: `Memento, Domine, famulorum, famularumque tuarum etc."' (PLH).

803-04 For noman, seith the Scripture. See 1 Cor. 8.2-3: "And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he hath not yet known as he ought to know. But if any man love God, the same is known by him."

804 PLH suggests: "Or else he only knows in spite of God himself."

808 sesse. PLH's emendation; MS se (dittography?).

810-38 Reply to JU 286-95.

818 God alle thingis. Wisd. 11.21: "but thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight." See JU lines 289-90, and PP B 20.254-69, where Conscience tells the friars that God has established everything, including the religious orders, according to measure and number; but, says Conscience to the friars, "ye wexen out of noumbre" (269). See also Szittya, The Antifraternal Tradition, pp. 224-27.

824 Jakke, if than. PLH's emendation; MS if thou[3]; Wr if thou3. The point is that the world might be better served with more friars, not more Lollards.

837 that that man nedith. MS þat nediþ; Wr that nedis. The sense requires "that which is needed."

838 Yit many hondis. Proverbial, as in Douce MS 52 (c. 1350): "Many hondys makyn lyghth worke" (quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs).

839-93 Reply to JU 316-25.

840-44 Of the solempne sacrament. Wyclif argued that the substance ("subject") of the bread and wine was not transubstantiated in the Eucharist, whereas the orthodox held that only the "accidents" - "roundnesse," "whitenesse" - remained after the Transubstantiation. The Lollards (and some orthodox thinkers) were especially concerned about sinful or "unclean" priests having the power to handle Christ's body and perform the sacrament of Transubstantiation.

866-68 carpenters ne sowters. "The Lollards drew most of their support from prosperous tradesmen and artisans. Those hanged on 13 January 1414 after the failure of Oldcastle's rising included a brewer, a carpenter, a dyer, a glover, `and other craftsmen of smaller repute"' (PLH).

878 rapyn. PLH's emendation; MS and Wr ratyn. PLH cites the phrase rape and rend.

885-86 Non, inquit Paulus. 1 Cor. 3.1: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal."

888 Multa habui vobis dicere. John 16.12: "I have yet many things to say to you: but you cannot bear them now."

890-91 Vobis datum est. Luke 8.10: "To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to the rest in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing may not understand."

893 Scripturis ben. So MS and Wr. PLH emends to scripture is, and comments: "If scripturis is a collective singular (cp. Mustanoja, p. 63, quoting CT I 1039) ben is difficult. Daw's argument is based on the secrecy he imputes to Christ in 435-41 and to the Bible in 210-15: `the secrets of the Bible have been dissipated and betrayed."'

894-923 Reply to JU 326-31.

899 your grace. Ironic.

900 Sathanas pistile = Epistola Luciferi or Epistola Sathanae ad Cleros. This was "an anti-clerical satire in the form of an open letter to popes and bishops sardonically commending their life and pleading only for a little more loyalty to Beelzebub. Very popular in the Middle Ages, it was current in a number of versions. . . . A Latin version in the Register of John Trefnant, Bishop of Hereford (1389-1404) . . . is translated in Foxe's Actes and Monumentes (1570), i, 599-600. Its close association with Lollardy is suggested by the appearance of an English version immediately following, and in the same hand as, the copy of Upland in C.U.L. MS Ff. vi. 2" (PLH). The Epistola Sathanae ad Cleros has been edited by Anne Hudson in English Wycliffite Writings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978).

901 sorcerie. I adopt PLH's emendation of MS and Wr snowcrie, which the OED records as a hapax legomenon.

909-11 The curse. Daw links the pope's excommunication with Old and New Testament curses: God's curse on Cain and his family (Gen. 4.11-15); God's curse on Korah and his family (Num. 16.24-33); and Christ's curse on the barren fig tree (Matt. 21.19). Daw imagines Upland and his ilk will become cursed wanderers like the descendants of Cain, damned to hell like Korah and his followers, and spiritually barren and ineffective like the cursed fig tree. I have adopted PLH's emendation figge for MS figre, which may be dittography after Figurid at the beginning of the line.

912 Gelboth hilles. The Philistines defeated the Israelites at Mount Gilboa, killing Saul and his sons, which occasioned much lamentation. 1 Kings 31; 2 Kings 1.

913 The sorowe of Sodome. See Gen. 19 and the Pearl-poet's Cleanness.

914 Deus laudem. A reference to Psalm 108, which begins: "O God, be not thou silent in my praise."

916 Moab and Ariel. Moab and the Moabites were ancient foes of Israel. See Gen. 19.37; Num. 24.17; Amos 2.1-3; etc. God curses Ariel, or Jerusalem, in Isaiah 29.1-2: "Woe to Ariel, Ariel the city which David took: year is added to year: the solemnities are at an end. And I will make a trench about Ariel, and it shall be in sorrow and mourning, and it shall be to me as Ariel."

917 The benysoun of Bethsaida. Matt. 11.21-22: "Woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee, Bethsaida: for if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the miracles that have been wrought in you, they had long ago done penance in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment, than for you."

918 the curse of Seint Franceis. Saint Francis, who wished his brothers only to pray and not to read, cursed a Friar Minor who founded a convent for study in Bologna. The friar fell ill and died when a ball of fire and sulphur struck him in his bed.

920-21 the malisoun. Deut. 27.15-26.

922 cattis tailis. The MED s.v. cat 3 (a) cites this phrase as "the great mullein (Verbascum thapsus)." But this seems to make no sense in the context of Satan's letter, sorcery (900-01), and Christ's curse. Kissing the buttocks of a cat was thought to be an aspect of Lucifer worship. Another (remote) possibility is the "cat o' nine tails," but the earliest recorded instance of this word dates from the seventeenth century (OED; not mentioned in MED).

924-33 Reply to JU 332-34.

933a Explicit. "Here ends the composition of Friar Daw Topias, / who at the last invokes John Walssingham / against Jack Upland's questions."
 
   
   
   
   
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Who shal graunten to myn eyen a strong streme of teres
To wailen and to wepyn the sorwyng of synne?
For charite is chasid and flemed out of londe,
And every state stakerth, unstable in him-silfe.
Now apperith the prophecie that Seint Joon seide
To joyne therto Johel in his soth sawis:
The moone is al blodi and dymme on to lokyn,
That signefieth lordship forslokend in synne;
The sterres ben on erthe throwun and fallen to the erthe,
And so is the comounte treuli oppressid.
The sunne is eclipsid with al his twelve pointes
By erroure and heresie that rengnith in the Chirche.
Now is oure bileve laft, and Lollardi growith,
Envie is enhaunsid and aproched to preestes
That shulden enforme her flok in ground of Goddis lawe,
To love her God sovereynli and sithen her brothir.
Bot not for thanne now is taught hindring of states, 1
And pursuynge of poverte that Crist hath approved.
Now is that seed of cisme sowen in the Chirche;
The whete fadith with the floure, our fode is forto feche, 2
Foxes frettid in fere wasten the cornes,
And Cristes vine is vanishid to the verray rote.
Now Achan spoilith Jerico and lyveth of the thefte,
And so lyven this Lollardis in her fals fablis.
Datan and Abiron and Chorees children
With newe senceres ensencen the auters of synne.
Baal preestes ben bolde sacrifice to make,
And mortel maladi crepith in as a canker;
And thus is Jak Uplond fodid with folie,
And thourgh formyng of his formerer thus freyneth a frere. 3
"On wounder wise," seith Jak, "freres ye ben growun,
Sowen in youre sectes of Anticristis hondes;
Unboxom to bishopis not lege men to kynges;
Wede, corn, ne gras wil ye not hewen,
Ne lyven with Jakke in labour, but al to your ese."
Jak, thi former is a fole that thus thee hath yfourmed
To make so lewid an argument ayens so many freres,
That better knowen lightles her Doctours and her Bible 4
Than he can rede his troper bi a long torche. 5
But, Jak, though thi questions semen to thee wyse,
Yit lightly a lewid man maye leyen hem a water.
For summe ben lewid, summe ben shrewid, summe falsly supposid, 6
And therfore shal no maistir ne no man of scole
Be vexid with thy maters but a lewid frere
That men callen Frere Daw Topias, as lewid as a leke.
The sotil witt of wyse men shulde tempte us wel soone
To medelin with thi malice as longe as thou wolt,
And fleme us from felowship and done us of dawe.
That we ben not lege men, Jak, lowde thou lyest,
For lenger than we lyven so, abide we not in londe.
We obeien to bishopes as boxomnesse askith,
Althowgh not so fer forth as seculer preestes;
For Holy Chirche hath us hent and happid with grace,
To were us from wederes of wynteres stormes.
Wede, corn, ne gras have we not to hewen,
Ne with Jakke Uplond ferme the dikes.
Although Poul in his pistele laborers preise,
Displesith him not the preestes that syngen her masses.
For right as in thi bodi, Jake, ben ordeyned thin hondis,
For thin heed, and for thi feet, and for thin eyen to wirken:
Right so the comoun peple God hath disposid
To laboren for Holi Chirche and lordshipis also.
A, forwrithen serpent, thi wyles ben aspied!
With a thousand wrynkels thou vexest many soules.
Thi malice is so michel thou maist not forhele,
But thi venym with vehemens thou spittist al at ones.
Thou seist we ben confounders of prelates and of lordes.
But, Jakke, bi my lewte, lowde thou lyest, 7
For telle me bi oure counseile: what lord hath ben confoundid,
Or what prelat of ony pepil put in ony peril?
But sith that wickide worme - Wiclyf be his name -
Began to sowe the seed of cisme in the erthe,
Sorowe and shendship hath awaked wyde,
In lordship and prelacie hath growe the lasse grace. 8
Jak, thou seist with symonye the seven sacramentes we sellen,
And preien for no men but yif thei wil paien.
God wote, Jakke, thou sparist here the sothe,
And er we departen us a-soundre, it shal wel be shewid.
But oon is the sacrament that we han to dispensen
Off penaunce to the peple whan nede askith.
I trowe it be thi paroche preest, Jacke, that thou meenest,
That nyl not hosel his parischens til the peny be paied, 9
Ne assoilen hem of her synne withouten schrift silver. 10
Jakke, of thi foli thou feynest fife ordres,
And yit ben ther but foure foundid in the lawe,
Falsly as thou seist, and soone shal be distroied.
Jakke, thi lewid prophecie I preise not at a peese;
Somme fantasie of Fiton hath marrid thi mynde.
Thou prophete of Baal, thi god is a-slepe,
The goodnesse of the Goost may not lighten upon thee.
Whi presumyst thou so proudli to prophecie these thingis,
And wost no more what thou blaberest than Balames asse?
Thou mayntenist in thi mater that matrimony thus we marren,
But this arowe shal turne ayen to him that it sent;
For thou and thi secte sothli ye schenden,
In as moche as ye may, the sacramentis seven;
And reles of synne, and grauntyng of grace,
And Cristis bitter passioun, ye sette not at an hawe. 11
Who marrith more matrimonie, ye or the freris?
With wrenchis and wiles wynnen mennes wyves,
And maken hem scolers of the newe scole,
And reden hem her forme in the lowe chaier;
To maken hem perfit in your lawe thei rede your rounde rollis,
And callen hem forth her lessouns with "Sister, me redith!"
Jak, thou seist that we bilden the castels of Caym.
It is Goddis hous, oold schrewe, that we ben aboute!
To mayntenen his servauntis to singe and to reden,
And bidden for the peple, as we ben beholden.
Clerkes sein that Salomon made a solempne temple,
And yit was it bot figure of oure newe chirche,
That ech holi hous that Crist Him-silf indwellith.
Jak, thou seist ful serpentli, and sowdiours us thou callist, 12
Sette for our sutilte in Anticristis vaunwarde.
Crist in the Gospel rehersith a rewle,
How ech man shal be knowun oonli bi his werkes;
And if we were founden on Anticristis side
Oure werkes shulden shewen, Jakke, ful soone.
The werkes of Anticrist persuen oure bileve,
So do the disciplis of your sory secte,
Shending the sacramentis, salve to oure soris;
Who tythith bot ye the anet and the mente,
Sterching your faces to be holden holi,
Blaunchid graves ful of dede bones,
Wandrynge wedercokkes with every wynd waginge?
The spiritis of the devel makyn youre tokenys!
Thourgh quenching of torches in your taylende ye resseyve your wisdom. 13
Youre preching is perilouse; it poiseneth sone;
As honyed venym it crepith in swot.
Jak, in the Apocalypse ful pertli ye be peintid,
Whan the seven angels blowun there seven trompes,
To warne Anticristis meyne of oure Lordes comyng:
With her sterne stormes astonye al the erthe,
Reve men of her rest, and ferli hem afese.
The first angel, with his blast, he noieth ful sore,
Hayl and fier myngid with blood he sendith to the erthe.
By the tokenyng that your preching, Jak, makith obstinat hertis, 14
Your daliaunce inducith ir and envie.
Who ben more Fariseis than sunderers of soulis, 15
The which in her interpretacion "divisioun" ben callid?
And your teching in an hour wil breke mo love-daies
Than ye mowe brynge to-gidere vii yere aftir!
The secounde aungel with his blast smytith with drede,
And an huge hill is sent adoun in to the salt water.
The thridde party of creaturis ben bitter therof, 16
For Sathanas by your sawes is sent in to soulis
That ben ful unsavery and salttid by synne:
The bitternesse of your bacbityng brewith many bales.
The thridde angel sent doun a sterre from heven,
Bremli brennynge as a bround - Wermode it was callid. 17
Wermode, Jak, moost verreli was Wiclif your maistir.
With men in his begynnynge litht lemed he by cunnynge, 18
But aftir, with wrong wrytyng, he wroughte mykil care,
And, presumynge perilously, foul fel from the chirche,
Missaverynge of the sacrament, infectyng many other.
Thus brenneth he yit as a bronde, consumyng many soulis,
That in her hard obstinacy growen schides of helle.
Maximine ne Maniche nevere wroughten more wrake; 19
Therfore from wele is he went, and woo mote him wryng.
The fourthe aungel with his blast smytith right smerte.
The thridde party of the sonne with dymmenes is dirked,
Off the moone and of the sterres and of the day also;
And the egle in the eyre thries `Ve!' westheth.
The sonne is Holy Chirche and lordship the moone,
The sterres ben the comuns, as I seid bifore,
And alle these ben alured to youre sory secte.
And summe of ech of these astates ben privyly apoisond,
Therfore thries `Ve!' is manassid upon you,
For three manere of synnes that comunly ye usen:
Ve for envye, ve for ypocrisie, and ve for your leccherie.
Whan the fift angel blew, ther was a pit opend,
Ther rose smotheryng smoke and breses therinne.
Alle thei weren lich horsis araied in to bataile,
Thei stongen as scorpioun, and hadden mannis face,
Tothed as a lioun with haburjouns of iren.
This pitte is the depnes, Jak, of your malice,
The smorthering smoke is your dymme doctrine,
That flieth out from the flawmes of the develis malice,
That troublith and blindith the iyen of mannis resoun.
The breses ben not ellis but Anticristis menye,
With short legges bifore and longe bihinde,
The which pretenden first mekenesse of herte,
And aftir rysyng to arrogaunce disdeynynge al other 20
That ye ben lyke scorpions signefieth not ellis
But that ye flateren aforn and venym casten bihinde.
Ye ben also lich horses redy in to bateil,
By woodnesse and foolhardinesse for heresie to dien. 21
Ye ben tothed as lioun by stynkyng detraccion.
Your haburjons that ye han upon ben cauteles and sleightes, 22
Ech intrikid in other to snarre symple soules;
But that thei ben of iren, obstinacie is schewid,
For the which with Farao in helle ye wil be dampned.
At the sixt aungels blast, foure aungels there were lousid,
The whiche were redye, bothe day and nyghte, men forto noien,
To sleen the thridde part of men with fiyr, smoke, and brymstone.
Foure angels singnefien foure general synnes,
Sett up bi Sir Adam, Jakke, among your maistris:
Cediciouns, supersticions, the glotouns, and the proude,
Poverte preamblis to presse aforne Anticristis comyng 23
To sleen the thridde party of men with thre deedly dartis
Off envie, pride, and leschry stynkynge.
For sum ben perfit, sum ben yvel, sum ben unstable,
The perfit wole not ben hirt, the yvel ben alredy, 24
But thei that ben unstable resseyven the strokes,
And thei ben clepid the thridde part of hem that ben dede.
The seventhe angel blew his trumpe and noise in heven was made,
That the kyngdom of this world shulde falle to Cristis hondis,
Betokenyng that though Anticrist with his myghti meyne
Shulde for a short tyme bi tirantrie intrusyve,
Yit shal God gader his flok to-gider and rengne without eende.
Jak, thus to dubby with Scripture me thinkith grete folie,
For as lewid am I as thou, God wote the sothe.
I know not an a from the wynd mylne
Ne a b from a bole foot - I trowe ne thi-silf nothir.
And yit, for al my lewidhed, I can wel undirstonde
That this privy processe perteneth to your secte,
And we as giltles therof as ye of Crisitis blessyng.
It ar ye that stonden bifore in Anticristis vanwarde,
And in the myddil, and in the rerewarde, ful bigly enbatailid.
The devel is your duke, and pride berith the baner,
Wraththe is youre gunner, envie is your archer,
Your coveitise castith fer, your leccherie brennith;
Glotony giderith stickes therto, and sleuthe myneth the wallis. 25
Malice is your men of armes, and trecherie is your aspie;
Thus semith that ye, more than we, be Anticristis frendis.
Jak, of perfit paciens holilich thou me prechist,
To kep it if I will sitte on Cristis owne side.
But good Jak, herdist thou evere how Judicare cam in to Crede?
No more skil thou canst of paciens, Jak, so God me spede; 26
For thi schreude herte and He ben as afere a-sundir
As Lucifer is from heven and Gabriel from helle -
The which, as many man suposis, shal nevere mete to-gider.
On old Englis it is seid "unkissid is unknowun,"
And many men speken of Robyn Hood and shotte nevere in his bowe.
Now, Jak, to thi questions nedis me moste answer,
Althowgh thei wanten sentence and god thrift bothe.
"Which is the moost perfit ordre," Jakke, thou askist,
And "how many ordres ther ben in erthe?"
"Off what ordre art thou, frere, and who made thin ordre?"
Iff thou wolt have the highest ordre, seke it in heven,
In the blessid Trinite that fourmed us alle,
Where flowith the Sunne from the Fadir, the Holigost from hem bothe,
Noon gretter in degre, no more perfite than other. 27
But the ordre that there is, is in her proceding,
And if we comen lower, there finde we holy angels,
Stablid in thre ierarchies, dividid in ordres nyne.
Seraphim he is the sovereynest, in charite he brennith,
And of al ordris in erthe I holde preesthood the highest,
That han the principal partis of men, and kingis han the bodies,
And this is the Popes decre in comoun lawe.
But paraunter, Jak, thou menest of religious ordre,
Of templeres, hospitalers, chanouns, monkes and freres.
Jak, in this mater, loke Seint Thomas bokes,
And thei shal thee techen and enfourme at the fulle.
How many ordris ther ben can I not telle,
But if I cowde calkyn al manniskynde
Forto loken how many kyndes oure Lord hath yfourmed,
But evermore betwene two and two, Jak, thou shalt fynden ordre.
Off what ordre I am, and who made myn ordre,
Jakke, fast thou fraynest, and fayn woldist wite. 28
I am of Cristis ordre, Jak, and Crist made myn ordre -
Ensaumple in the Gospel in many sondry place.
For who taughte obedience, chastite, and poverte?
Hopist thou not it was Crist, and fulfillid in Him-silf,
In which ech religion perfitly is groundid,
Reversynge the soorie synnes notid of the postle: 29
Lust of fleish, and lust of iye, and pride in oure lyvynge?
On this three, Jak, bi my lewte, is groundid al your colage. 30
Iff I breke myn ordre, I breke Goddis lawe,
And if I be punishid for that oon, I am ponishid for that other,
Bot the contrarie of this, Jak, thou falsly afermest.
Jacke boy, if ony religioun be more perfit than techith Seint Jame -
Either more appreved of God - fayne thou woldist witen.
Iff I seie yee, thou askist where it is foundid,
And if I nayt that thou seist, thus thou procedist.
Thou seist that I contrarie Cristis owne rewlis,
Bidinge yeve to the pore in peyne of dampnacion,
And we piken from the pore and riche al that we may geten.
Jak, thou shewist sikirli what scole thou hast ben inne:
Of sutiltee of arguyng me thinkith thi brayn ful thinne.
Go grees a sheep undir the taile - that semeth the beter
Than with sotil sillogismes to perbrake thi witt.
Jak, in James pistles al religioun is groundid,
For there is maad mencion of two perfit lyves
That actif and contemplatif comounli ben callid,
Fulli figurid bi Marie and Martha hir sistir,
By Peter and bi Joon, bi Rachel and bi Lya.
These lyves ben groundid in charite bi diverse degrees,
By men of professiouns makyng sundri religiouns
And evident ensaumple moun techen us the waye.
For sum fleen from the world and closen hem-silf in wallis 31
And steken hem in stones, and litil wole thei speken,
To fleen sich occasiouns as foly wole fynden,
And these we clepen "ancres" in the comoun speche.
Also in contemplacion there ben many other
That drawen hem to disert and drye myche peyne,
By eerbis, rootis, and fruyte lyven for her Goddis love;
And this manere of folk men callen "heremytes."
The thridde degree there is - not forto be dispisid -
Off sich as ben gaderid in coventis to-gidere, 32
Off the which men spekith David in his Psalmis.
"Se," he seith, "how merie it is to dwelle to-gider";
The which for worldly combraunce kepen in cloistris, 33
On hert and oon soule havyng with the apostlis,
And this clepe we "monasticale" that kendly is knowun.
Mo, Jak, in contemplacion there ben diverse degrees,
And aftir that charite growith in hem, the more is her mede. 34
Off actif lyf I shulde thee tellen, yf that I hadde tyme,
And shewen how men bi charite ben holden to helpe her bretheren -
Somm with paynymes forto fighte, oure feith to defende,
Somm forto make purvyaunce for seke and for pore,
Somme forto preche to the puple aftir her synne askith,
And somme in bothe lyves laboren full soore,
Liche unto the angels in Jacobis ladder.
See now, Jak, thi-silf, how these bothe lyves
Opinli ben expressid in the epistle of James:
"Cleen religioun it is," he seith, "to visite the widewis,
The fadirles and the modirles - lo! actif lyf expressid -
And undefoulid, us to kepen from al worldly werkes."
Byhold, of contemplacioun opinli he spekith,
So this may be resonably the conclusioun of my tale:
That no religion more is than techith Sent Jame.
Jak, thou seist we piken from the pore and from the riche,
And not yeven ayenward though that thei ben nedy. 35
That almes is pykyng I fynde it in thi boke,
And I herde it nevere aforn in no manere scripture.
But if alwey pikers, Jak, thou wolt us maken,
Ther we piken but seely pans, thi secte pikith poundis.
What we yeven to the pore, it nedith not thee to telle,
For almesdede shul be hid and sweten in thin hondis.
"Whi bi mannes mariage ye ben weddid to your abitis
Wele harder than worldly men ben weddid to her wyves,
Which thei mowe leeve and let go as longe as hem list?"
Jak, for siche manere scole ye cacchen Cristis curse,
So freli to mayntenen Maniches errours,
To make men breke her matrimonye and leeve her wyves,
And whan the goode man is oute, pleye thei god rode.
Jak, to oure abite be we not weddid
More than eny preest is weddid to his coroun
That is over-growun with heer, and he preest nevere the lesse,
Or ellis shulde every barbour make newe preestes.
Right so oure clothis maken us not men of religion,
But oonli oure profession byndith us to the stake,
And so apostasie mowe we maken in oure soule,
Liche men of religion abidinge in oure abitis.
If Sathanas were transfirgurid in to his forme fairnesse,
Trowist thou he were ought ellis but a dampned aungel?
And so not for the levynge of oure clothis we be not punishid,
But bicause it bitokeneth forsakyng of oure reule;
And, Jacke, no more than thi sadil makith thin hors a mere,
No more makith oure abitis monkes ne freris.
Jak, of oure presciouse clothis fast thou carpist,
The which ben so fyne that noman werith better.
Every man may perseyve apertli, Jakke, that thou liest;
Were we no sendal, ne satyn, ne goldun clothis,
And these passen in presciousitee many-foold ouris.
But if my cloth be over presciouse, Jakke, blame the werer,
For myn ordre hath ordeyned al in good mesure.
Thou axist me, Jacke, of my grete hood, what that it meeneth,
My scapelarie, and my wide cope, and the knottide girdil.
What meeneth thi tipet, Jakke, as longe as a stremer,
That hangith longe bihinde and kepith thee not hoot?
An hool cloith of scarlet may not make a gowne,
And the cloith of oo man myghte hele half a doseyne.
The pokes of purchace hangen to the erthe.
Why is thi gowne, Jakke, widder than thi cote?
And thi cloke al above as round as a belle,
Sith lasse myghte serve to kepe thee from coold?
Jak, answere thou to that oon, and I shal to that other.
My grete coope that is so wijd signefieth charite
That largeli longith to be sprad to sibbe and to frende, 36
Figurid in the faire cloith of Salomons table,
And bi wedding garnement that Crist hadde at His feeste.
My greet hood behynde, shapun as a sheeld,
Suffraunce in adversitee sothely hit scheweth,
Herbi to reseyve repreef for oure Goddis sake.
Or ellis bisynesse of oure feith it may wel bitokene,
Which that ye Lollardes constreyne you to distroie.
The scapelarie also that keverith the schuldris,
It bitokeneth boxumnesse dewe unto oure prelatis,
And boxomly bere birthuns that they wole leyen upon us. 37
Off the knottide girdil knowe I no mysterie;
Therfore what it meeneth, axe Frere Menours.
But Jacke, amonge oure chateryng yit wolde I wite
Whi that the Lollardis weren moost greye clothis.
I trowe to shewe the colour that signefieth symplenesse,
And withinne, seith Crist, ye ben ravenous wolves.
"Whi," seist thou, "holde we more scilence in oon hous than another,
Sith over-al a man is holden forto seie the goode?"
To thi lewide question Salomon thus answerith:
Est tacens sciens tempus apti temporis, et homo sapiens
tacet usque ad tempus. Tempus tacendi, tempus loquendi.
Et iterum. Sicut urbs patens absque murorum ambitu, ita
qui in loquendo non potest cohibere spiritum suum
.
Thus perfit scilens bi Scripture is approved.
Jakke, if thou undirstonde no Latyn, go to thi paroche prest,
And undur you bothe, with Goddis grace, marren ye wolen ful yvele. 38
Whi also ete we no fleish in every hous iliche,
But chesen therto an hous and leeven another?
Jak, if every hous were honest to ete fleish inne,
Than were it honest to ete in a gonge.
Whi is not thi table sett in thi cow stalle?
And whi etist thou not in thi shipun, as wele as in thin halle?
But al is good ynowgh for thee where that evere thou sittist.
Whi doith not thi cow make myry wedir in thi dish?
But, Jacke, in this mater appose thou the monkes,
For thei kepen this sermonie more streiter than freris. 39
More-over thou mevest, Jak, another mater:
If oure patrouns be perfit and oure reule also,
Whi renne we to Rome to be assoilid
Of the oth that we han maad, and be Popis freris?
Jak, summe rennen to Rome, but mo ther ben at hoom,
And dewli done her dever aftir that thei han chosen, 40
And that the Lollardis forthinken ful soore.
Ye wolden that there were as many freris as ther ben moones,
And though there were oon lesse, ye yave nevere tale,
That ye myghten have your reyke and prechen what you list,
And with your privy pestilence enpoisoun the peple.
Jak, that Judas was a shrewe, what was Crist the worse? 41
And so that summe ben exempt and rennen to your ritis,
And summe bi apostasie ben Sathanas servauntis,
Whi shulde oure patrouns be ever the lasse perfit?
Ferthermore, "Whi make ye you as men dede,
Sith in begginge ye ben as quic as ben ony other,
And unsemeli it is to see deed men begge?"
Jak, me thinkith thou lernedist nevere of Poulis pistlis,
Whiche in a fewe shorte wordes answerith to thi sentence:
Quasi morientes et ecce vivimus. Glossa: quasi
morientes, id est, de vicio in vicium secundum
opinionem aliquorum; et ecce vivimus, in bonis
operibus in rei veritate
.
So though we ben deed to the world, aftir thin opynyon,
Yit is oure soule in the bodi, and grace in the soule.
"Whi," seist thou, "suffre ye not your children to come in to your conseil,
If it be good and able and aftir Goddis lawe?"
A, Jak! mafey, me merveilith moche of thin lewidheed!
Herdist thou nevere how Crist was transfigurid in the hil
And ther to his privyte he chees but three apostlis,
Forbedinge hem to tell that conceil ony ferther?
And so were there nyne fro that conceil refusid.
Crist also took to Him alle his twelve apostlis,
And tretide of His passioun in right privy maner;
And the rude peple that folowiden knewe no thing therof.
Shal we, Jak, therfore seie his conceil was not able -
Suspect, and not good confourmed to Goddis lawe?
Another cause resonable, me thinkith I can telle,
For counceil owith to be kept and not to be clatrid,
And children ben ay clatringe, as thou wel knowest.
Another skil may be groundid of Salomons sawis:
"To him," he seith, "that is wijs, it longith to kepe conceil,
And children ful seldun ben foundun wijs."
Jak, wolt thou telle thi knave as myche as thi wyf?
Forthermore thou spekest of oure costly housis.
Thou seist it were more almes to helpen the nedy
Than to make siche housynge to men that ben deede,
To whiche longith but graves and mornynge housis.
Jak, is not a man beter than a rude best?
Yit makist thou to thi sheep a shepen, and to thi hors a stable,
And many a pore man ther is that hath noon hillyng.
But oonli heven is his hous; the bestes stond kevered.
Whi houses thou not pore men as wele as thi beestis?
Take hede to sumwhat that is seid biforen,
And thou answere to my question, answer to thin owne.
Thou carpist also of oure coveitise and sparist the sothe.
Thou seist we ben more ryal than ony lordis.
Coventis have we noon, Jacke, but cloistrers we ben callid,
Foundid afor with charite or that he were flemyd. 42
But sith entride envie and revyd hath oure houses,
That unnethes the hillinge hangith on the sparres. 43
And yit thou thinkist hem over good; yvel fare thou therfore! 44
Jak, where saw thou ever frere houses thourghout the rewme,
Lich in ony realte to the toure of Londoun,
To Wyndesore, to Wodestoke, to Wallingforde, to Shene,
To Herforde, to Eltham, to Westmynster, to Dover?
How maist thou for rebykyng lye so lowde,
To saye that oure coveitise passith the lordes?
But so longe, by my leute, thou hast lerned to lyen,
That thi tonge is letteroun of lyes, thou lettist for no shame.
"We leten," thou seist, "to lymytours, al this rewme to ferme," 45
As that we were welders and lordes of alle.
Unsikir thing, sothly, it were to sette to ferme, 46
And fooles were the fermeres to taken it to tax.
I trowe thou menys the pardonysters of Seint Thomas of Acres,
Of Antoun, or of Runcevale, that rennen so fast aboute.
For of the kynges rewme have we no more astate
Than thou hast of Paradis or of the blisse of heven,
For the which, I trowe, thou maist of hasilwode singe.
"Why," seist thou, "paye ye to no taliage to oure Cristen kynge,
Sith Crist paiede tribut to the hethene emperour?"
Jak, of no dewte ne of no dette paide Crist noo tribute, 47
But oonliche of mekenesse, performynge the lawe,
And forto fleen occasioun of aftirward apechinge;
Whan that afor Pilat He shulde be forjugid.
But aftir the Scripture preesthode shulde not paien
To tax ne to taliage with the comun peple;
For whan the folk of Israhel were putt undir servage,
Pharao suffride preestes in her former fredome
To be saved and susteyned of the comoun store.
But now is the compleynt of Jeremye trewe:
The prince of provynces sugette is undir tribute.
Not for thanne the comun lawe may wel suffren
That preesthode may paye bi assent of prelatis,
Freli of her owne wille, no thing constreynede.
And thus prelatis and persouns aftir her state,
Ben stended to paien what that nede askith,
But neithir freres ne annuellers save now late.
God woot it worchipeth not to beggen of beggers. 48
Off lettris of brothirhood also, Jak, thou spekist,
And wounders that we wynnen noon of pore men and of preestis, 49
And yit ye desiren that every man shulde have your lettris.
Of pore mennes preieris to be persevers we wolden, 50
And of her lettris, and of her sele, if autentike thei weren.
But of your preestis Pater Nosters we desiren noon,
For comunliche her blake bedes thei delen to freris,
But thei shal cleve unto thi chekes and Cristis curse also.
As wissely as we holden us not more perfit than ony other,
Ne no suffragies sellen for a certeyn bi yere, 51
Ne maken men more perfit than her blessid baptisme,
For praier may not satyllyn but oonliche on them alle.
And so that gilden trentels that thou spekist of,
That now is purchasid of preestis out of freris hondis,
Delyverith noo soule out of the peyne of helle,
Ne purgen may of purgatory but as it is deserved,
For charite is the mesure that demeth that meyne.
Also thou seist, Jak, that we men enformen,
That oure holy abite shulde helpen men fro helle,
And nameliche tho that ben beried therinne;
And Cristis clothis dide not so, ne noon of the apostlis.
Jak, that frere was over lewid that lernede the this lessoun.
Or on thi ficul fantasie thou faynyst this fable,
For Austyns ne Prechours proponen no siche pointis.
Whether the Carmes of her copes mowe mayntenen siche an errour, 52
Or whether Seint Fraunce hath geten to his habite
That vertu be his grace, witterly me ne wote,
But wel I wote that Cristis cloith helide a womman
From the longe fluxe of blood, as the Gospel tellith.
But His predestinacion may onlich save soulis,
And His privy presciens may dampne whom Him list.
Jak, ferthermore of felony thou felly us enpechest,
Of stelyng of children to drawe hem to oure sectis.
To tille folk to Godward I holde it no theft,
But if thou calle Crist a theef that dide the same,
Sayinge to the riche man, "Go, and selle thi goodis,
And gif hem to the pore, yif thou wole be perfit,
And aftirward folowe me and be my disciple."
And in the same Gospel se what he seith also:
"Who so forsake not his fadir and his modir,
His sone and his doughtir, his sistir and his brothir,
His lond and his tenementes, and him-selven also,
He nys not worthi to ben my folower."
And to His twelfe chosen, eftsoones He seide:
"Behold fro the world I have chosen you alle,
That ye gon and beren fruyte, and your fruyte may dwellyn."
And thus to reven the world and spoilen him of his persouns -
It ne is no robery but Criste appreved thefte.
Thou seist also ferthermore that "prestis shul not enprisoun,
For it nys not foundid in al Goddis lawe,
But undirnym bi charite and so wynnen her brothir,
And yif he wil not be so wonnen, have him as hethene";
And thus bi thin opynyon no man shulde be enprisound.
But, Jakke, in thi frensy thou fonnest more and more!
Thou wenyst to make to me a diche, thou fallist thi-silf therinne! 53
For if thou pursue thi purpos, thou assentist thi-silf in tresoun,
Menusynge the kyngis majeste, privyng him of his power.
For if we taken the Gospel aftir the menynge,
Nethir emperour ne kyng may honge ne drawe,
Heved, ne enprisoun, ne haunte no domes,
But al in fair manere shulen ben undirnomen;
And who wil not amenden him, yeve him the brydil,
And bothe robbers and revers, mansleeris and treytours,
And al maner mawfesours shulden ben unpounishid.
Jak, the Pope hath a prisoun, and yit he is a prest,
The bishop of Cantirbury and of Londoun also,
And many other bishopis bi leeve of her kyng.
Art thou hardy to seien it is not Goddis lawe?
But I blame thee not gretli, though thou bere hem hevy, 54
For goldsmythis of thi crafte ofte haveth hem haunted,
And yit thei shulen ofter, bi the helpe of heven.
Also, thou seist no sacrament we covetyn ne desiren, 55
But schrift and biryynge, that longeth to the peple. 56
Alas, Jak, for shame! Why art thou so fals
Forto reverse thi-silf in thin owne sawes?
Thou seidist in thi begynnynge, whan thou seidist of freres,
Thei sellen seven sacramentes with Symoundis eyris,
And now that we coveite noon but the sacrament of schrifte,
For beriynge is no sacrament but an almesdede.
Thou jawdewyne, thou jangeler, how stande this to-gider? 57
By verre contradiccion thou concludist thi-silf,
And bryngest thee to the mete there I wolde have thee.
Who wolde take entent to suche wreches wordes,
That nevere more yeveth tale to be take with a lesyng? 58
Whi, axist thou ferthermore, wil we not shryven
Ne birien the pore as wel as the riche,
And do other dedes of almes done at her nede? 59
But if we schryve not the pore, whi ben perssons so wrothe,
And paroche preestes also, for schryvynge of her parishens?
For every lenten us ayen thei aleggen the lawe 60
Off Omnis utriusque sexus, with the favourable glooses.
But, Jak, do thi won and lette not to lyene, 61
I have as leef thi leesing as thi soth saw, 62
For who is oonis suspect, he is half honged.
Thou seist that we prechen fallace and fables
And not Goddis Gospel to good undirstondinge,
And we ben more holdun therto than to alle other reulis,
For we wynnen more therwith than Crist and His apostlis.
What we ben holdun to I wil not forsake,
For moche of oure lyvynge is of the Gospel.
So dide Poul and other disciplis,
And lyvede of colectis made generali bi chirchis
For sustinance of prechours and also of the pore.
And if thou leve not me, loke Poulis pistlis,
And the glose therwith, and there thou shalt fynde it.
Quis, inquit, militat suis stipendijs unquam?
Et iterum, Dominus ordinavit hijs qui
evangelium annunciant, de evangelio vivere
.
And so to his prechours Crist also thus seide:
In quamcumque domum intraveritis, manete
in eadem edentes et bibentes etc.
Dignus est enim operarius mercede sua.
Et ad Romanos: Probaverunt Macedones
et Achaya colleccionem facere in pauperes
sanctorum qui sunt in Iherusalem
.
Ayens that thou saist, that we prechen but fallace and fables
And leve the Gospel that moste us al save:
Loke that every werke is knowen pleinli bi his eende;
And so the peple hath the pathes of feith and of bileve,
And, God woote, freres prechinge hath wrought to this ende.
But ye han cast cursidly Cristendome to distroye,
And of Cristis Gospel make Machometis lawe,
Ayens whom with opin mouth other while we romee,
And sumtyme brynge you til a bay, if God wil it graunte.
For this cause ye calle us "bastard branchis,"
Pursuyng preestes to prisoun, and to fire also.
But, Jak, thei ben bastard braunches that launchen from oure bileve,
And writhyn wrongli away from Holy Chirche techinge.
Siche beren yvel fruyte and soure to atasten,
Worthi to noon other good but in the fire to brenne.
And so forto pursue an heretike to fire or to prisoun;
I holde it more holsum than to halewe a chirche
In prisonynge of the poysen that mortherith many soulis, 63
Aftir Cristis doctrine in the holy Gospel:
Omnis, inquit, arbor quae non fert fructum
bonum excidetur et in ignem mittetur. Et iterum.
Qui non manserit in me, mittetur foras sicut palmes,
et arescet: et colligent, et in ignem mittetur -

Disseverynge you from the tree that is Crist Him-silfe.
But how shulden freres pursue heresie,
And many of hem wite not what heresie meneth?
Jak, I am not lettered but I am Frere Dawe,
And can telle wel a fyn what heresie amountith.
Heresie that is Grw is divisioun on Latyn,
The whiche in our langage meneth "sunderyng" and "partyng."
He thanne that sundrith him from Crist and His Chirche
And frely forgith sentences contrarious to oure feith,
Siche manere of forgers heretikes we callen,
And also her felowis taken the same name;
And her sory sentences ben clepid heresies -
But namely whan thei ben holdun of obstinat hertis,
And I shal this mater more largely declare.
Sixe maner of heretikes ben foundun in the lawe,
For he is callid an heretike that rasith oure bileve.
And he is callid an heretike that heresies sowith,
As Arrians, Wyclyfanes, Sabellyanes, and other.
And the corruptours of Scripturis heretikes ben holdun,
That other-wise undirstondin than the Holigoost techith.
Also we clepen hem heretikes that sacramentis sellyn,
Or ben from hem dividid bi cursynge of the Chirche.
He is also an heretike that doutith our bileve,
And with a litil evydence goith out of the waye. 64
And also an heretike him shulde we holde
That distrieth privyleges grauntid of the Pope.
This sixe maners put Hostiensis in his Summe,
And if this sentence be soth, I can noon other seien
But thou and thi secte ben heretikes alle.
Jak, thou spekist forthermore of messis and of preires
And askist what we sellen whan we seyen oure messe -
Whether the sacrament, our preieres, or our traveile;
And if ony of this we done, thou arguest a greet errour.
Jak, unto this questioun onwyse may be answerid,
Aftir that Seint Austyn spekith of the apostlis.
"The apostlis," a seith, "reseyved frely her breed,
Of hem that freely token her techinge."
And so, Jak, frely graunte we our masse to hem
That freely yeven us her almesse,
And synnen no wyse bi noon other vice,
To selle no sacramentis ne spiritual preier.
And thus among freres gete thei no logginge,
But bete hem to gretter men and geten her herbegage 65
Of patronis of chirchis, or privyly with preestes,
Which to fatte benefices wolde be promotid.
Jak, suppose that my labour I selle,
What wil thou seie therto? Do I ony symonye?
How than shal tho persons seye that setten her chirches to ferme, 66
That ben more spiritual than bodili traveile,
And these paroche preestes that ministren the sacramentis
For a certen sawd bi yeer of ten mark or of twelfe,
And al these annuellers that syngen for a tyme,
Takyng for her traveil as thei may acorde?
But thei can answere for hem-silf, and we shal for us.
Another mater ther is meved, that touchith begging thou seist,
That we falsly Crist Him-silf disclaundren, to seie that He beggid,
Sith He was Lord of al, and al in His demeyns.
But for this mater, Jacke, thou most undirstonde
That Crist in His godhede is Lord of alle thingis,
As testimonie of Scripture preveth in many places.
As touching His manheed, He was nedi and pore,
For of his nede spake David in his Psalmes:
Ego, inquit, mendicus sum et pauper;
et Dominus sollicitus est mei.
And aftir Austin and Jerom this word of Crist was seid,
So thanne these twey stonden wel to-gidere:
That Crist aftir oo kynde was Lord of alle,
And aftir that other nedide to begge.
For if Crist seie soth, Him-silf ne hadde noon harborow
To resten in His owne heed, and steken out the stormes -
Vulpes, inquit, etc., ubi caput suum reclinet.
And if we shulen yeve credence to doctours wordes,
Heere what seith Seint Jerom and Seint Bernard also:
Cave, inquit Jeronimus, ne mendicante Deo
tuo alienas divicias augeas. Et Bernardus.
Ut te, Domine, per omnia nostre paupertati
conformares, quasi unus in turba pauperum
stipem per hostia mendicabas.

Wherfore thou feynest fonnedli that oure Lord we sclaundre
Or ellis oure holy doctours diden not her dever.
Jak, have no merveyle that I speke Latyn,
For oones I was a manciple at Mertoun Halle,
And there I lernede Latyn bi roote of clerkes.
Of clamour us also begging thou chaterist and crijst, 67
And seist it is uttirli forbodun in Goddis lawe.
Jak, the blynde begger sat bi the weye
And lowde criede upon Crist, as the Gospel tellith,
But him was yovun iye-sight, for al his grete noise.
And also the pore man at the specious yate
Praiede to the apostlis to parten of her almes,
And ther the begger unreproved, of crokidnesse he was heelid.
I foryete not the lazar that beggide of the riche,
And criede lowde at his gate to cachen his almes.
Where redist thou that he was repreved of his begging?
I rede wel he was ful soone in Abrahams bosum.
Thou makist also more ado for writing in oure tablis
Of sich mennes names that yeven us her almes,
Wenynge that God were a fool not knowinge mennes dedes
But if he were mengid bi weie of your writyng.
Jak, writyng was ordeyned for slipernes of mynde,
Not of God but of us men, hirt in oure nature,
And bi bodili buystousnesse fallen to foryetynge.
Now special preier, as clerkes seien, moste helpeth soulis,
And that may not be done withouten special mynde.
Thanne for oure forgetfulnesse it nedith us to noten,
And this is cause whi we writun in oure tablis.
And Esdras wroot a newe book to have the lawe in mynde.
To Seint Joon in the Apocalips it was bodun also
That privy revelacion to writun in his book,
For unstabilnesse of mynde, seith the comoun glose.
"Whi also," thou axist, "make ye so many maistris,
Ayens Cristis bidding in the holi Gospel?"
Forsothe, Jak, among other, this is a lewid question.
Taking heed to thin astaate, thou art but a knave,
And yit thou lokist that thi knave shulde calle thee maistir.
Leve Jacke Jawdewyn, how kepist thou the Gospel? 68
Never the les, to thi question answerith the comoun glose:
That neithir the acte of teching, neithir the acte of maistir
Ben forbodun of Crist, but oonli ambicion
And the nyce appetite of worldly worship.
Thou askist also ferthermore whos ben alle oure jewels,
And we seyen we han right nought in propre ne in comoun, 69
But gederen the goodes of the rewme to make the Pope riche.
Jak, the two and twentithe pope, Joon, wroot ayens this mater,
And Frere Menours ayens him, as her actis shewen.
Examyne her actis and loke who hath the beter.
I knowe noon other ordre this perfitnesse approveth.
Thou grucchist also that we gon two of us to-gider
For of the perfit apostlis wenten but oone aloone.
Thou seist that we pretenden the perfeccioun of apostlis -
Parfay, Jak, in Scripture thou failist here ful foule!
Herdes thou nevere the processe of the Actis of the apostlis,
In what maner the Holigoost chees Bernabe and Poule 70
To gone bothe to-gidere and Cristis seed to sowun?
And aftirward whan Bernabas from Poul was departid,
Another felowe Tymothe toke Poul to his feere.
And yit thei weren perfit bi fastinge and bi preieris,
And resseyved hadde the Holigoost bi the apostlis hondis.
And thus we gon two to-gider folwinge her stappis,
But more for the mysterie includid in the noumbre,
Forto do workes of charite fulfilling the lawe.
And two tablis of Moises there the lawe was writun,
And two cherubyns in the temple, and two in the tabernacle.
It was not good to Adam forto be aloone,
And Crist seith "Woo" to sool in aventure that he falle.
Also for fraternite ful harde thou us holdist,
To graunt part of merit and also of messis,
Bicause that we witen not whether that we ben in grace or in synne,
And happili for we praien for suche that ben dampned in helle.
Jak, if this cause were good, al preier were reproved,
And thanne were set at nought bothe messe and matynes,
And holy bedis and orisons seid in Holi Chirche.
Thanne shulde we leve Cristis bede, the holy Pater Noster,
Thanne was the Memento put falsly in the masse,
And Hooli Chirche voidli or madli biddith preye,
And alle siche yonge impossibilitees folowen therof.
For who is that that knowith him-silf worthi forto preien,
But God bi revelacion speciali wolde it shewe?
For noman, seith the Scripture, woot whether he is worthi love,
Or ellis maugree but God it oonli knowith. 71
And who can telle, ferthermore, whiche shulde be dampned,
Sith Goddis privy domes man mai not comprehende?
And so shal noman preie for other, ne noman for him-silf.
Jak, se now thin errour and sumtyme sesse for shame,
For thou jangelist as a jay and woost not what thou meenest.
More over thou movest multipliyng of so many freris -
Whiche encresen combrouseli ayens Goddis wille
(Sith preestis with other religious myghte serve the peple) -
For twelve apostlis and fewe moo serveden al the world,
And mo fyngris on myn hond than foure and the thombe
Amenusith my worching more than it acresith. 72
And so thou seist that freris letten Cristis growinge in to heven. 73
Jacke, thou weenest thou wynne lond but thou concludist thi-silf.
Thou seist that God alle thingis hath maad in mesure, weighte, and noumbre,
And that every frere is sum thing thou maist not denye;
And thou seist freris ben maad ayens Goddis wille: -
Than hath God maad sum thing that He wolde not make,
And so His sovereyne goodnesse is contrarious to Him-silfe.
Lo, Jakke Jospinel! What folowith of thi sawis!
Jakke, if than a fewe moo myghte serven al the world,
Thanne myghte a fewe preestes serven a litil rewme.
Whi renne thanne these yonge clerkes so faste to the ordres
To encresen preestes above many hundridis?
And if freris ben combrouse, preestis ben wel more!
Or ellis telle a beter skil thanne thou hast begunne,
Whi the toon is chargeaunt more than the tother.
Also the ensaumple of thin hond is no thing to purpos,
For kynde hath determyned the noumbre of thi fyngris,
And if it passe noumbre it is clepid monstruosite.
But God and Holi Chirche determyned noo noumbre
Of preestis ne of freris to helpen mannis soule,
For the mo good ther ben the better is Cristis spouse,
And though fewer myghten done that that man nedith,
Yit many hondis to-gider maken light werk.
Another mater thou movest, Jak, moost to be chargid,
Of the solempne sacrament of Cristis owne bodye,
Conteyned in figure of breed, sacrifise for synne.
Thou drawist a thorn out of thin hele and puttist it in oure,
Thou berist us on honde that we seien there is not Cristis bodye, 74
But roundnesse and whitenesse, and accident withouten suget.
Jak, we seie with Holy Chirche that ther is Cristis bodi,
And not material breed with Wiclyf your maistir,
The whiche put ther but as a signe and not verre Cristis bodi,
Aftir a manere spekyng that Holy Chirche usith -
As we clepen Crist a stoon, a lomb, and a lioun,
And noon of these is Crist, but oonli in figure.
This heresie holde not we but ye his false folowers,
Privyly as ye doren and opinli ye wolden,
Ne were the sharp ponishinge of your former fadirs. 75
And now I wil thee telle the freris Confiteor
Touching to this sacrament how that thei bileven:
Thei seie breed is turned in to fleish, and wyne in to blood,
Thourgh the myght of oure God and vertue of His wordis.
The fleish is mete, the blood is drynke, and Crist dwellith,
No thing rasyd, no thing dividid, but oonli broken in signe, 76
And as moche is in oo partie as is al the hole. 77
Ther leeveth not of the breed but oonli the licnesse,
Which that abideth therinne noon substeyned substans. 78
It is deth to yvel, lyf to good, encresing of oure grace.
It wole not be confect but oonli of a preest
That lawfulli is ordeyned bi Holy Chirche keies.
And so carpenters ne sowters, card makers ne powchers,
Drapers ne cutellers, girdelers, coferers, ne corvysers, 79
Ne no manere of artificeris this sacrament mowe treten
But the privite of preesthode wer prickid in her soulis. 80
And yit your secte susteynes wommen to seie massis,
Shewyng to trete a sacrament as preestes that thei were, 81
Reversynge holy doctours and decree of Holy Chirche.
Allas! your brymme blastis awake the wilde wawis,
And scailen sely Petership and putt it in highe perile.
Ne were God the giour and kept the stern,
With the sterne stormes that reufulli ye reisen,
Al shulde wende to wrak in to the waast watris. 82
The releef of Cristis feeste ye renden and rapyn
That his almners the postlis gaderid to-gidere
And delith it to dogges and ravenouse beestes;
And the presciouse perlis ye strowun to hogges:
The sutil metis of Scripturis to cherlis stomakes,
And maken hem als comoun as the cart weye,
Ayens Poulis sentence and Poulis owne doctrine:
Non, inquit Paulus, potui vobis scribere
quasi spiritualibus, sed quasi carnalibus, etc.
Se also what Crist seith in the holy Gospel:
Multa habui vobis dicere: sed non etc.
Also in many other place thus spekith He to His perfit disciplis:
Vobis datum est noscere misterium, regni Dei.
Ceteris autem in parabolam etc.
Than the lewide and the lered aught not yliche; 83
The Scripturis ben scatrid in his privy pointes. 84
Jak, thou seist at the last that charite is chacid,
To vengyn our defautis and mende us of oure mysse, 85
Levynge oure rotyn ritis, folowinge Goddis lawe.
Jak, oure ritis ben nought rotyn, her rootis ben al freishe,
Plantid in the Gospel, as I seide biforen.
But, good Jak, your grace, where be ye foundid?
Not in Goddis Gospel but in Sathanas pistile,
Wher of sorowe and of sorcerie noon is to seken, 86
But al maner of dolosite to you is enditid,
As in thi lewid daliaunce apertli thou hast preved. 87
But moche mawgre mote thou have thus to frayn a frere
That slily wolde have slent aweye and noman have greved. 88
But for thi grete labour thi gardoun thou shalt gete:
Thou shalt have the Popis curse and al Holi Chirchis.
And if thou sett this at nought, God mowe sende thee more:
The curse that He hath yovun to Caym, and Choreis sone also;
Thou shalt also have the curse that Crist yaf to Phariseis,
Figurid in the figge tree that nevere bare fruyte aftir.
Thou shalt have the weleaway of Gelboth hilles,
The sorowe of Sodome and al sinful citeis.
Take for thi faire speche the preier of Deus laudem,
The greable gardoun for al opin sclaundris.
Thou shalt have the malisoun of Moab and Ariel,
The benysoun of Bethsaida shal make thy beddis heed.
And, Jakke, for thou apprisist not the curse of Seint Franceis,
But scornyst the malisoun of the foure ordris,
Take the malisoun that God yaf to brekers of His lawe,
In the book of Deutronomye, the seven and twenty chapitre.
But evere beware of Cristis curse and of cattis tailis,
The which, if thou have grace to cacchen, nevere shal thou thryve.
Now fare forthe to thi fourmures and, Jak, thou hem telle
The mater of oure talkynge, and loke how hem likith;
And if hem thinke not thi sawes sufficientli assoilid,
Lat hem senden ayen, it shal be amendid.
And sai hem that it nedith not to sharpen oure clerkes, 89
For Frere Dawe is scharpe ynowgh for al sich enditinge.
Fare wele, Jak Jawdewyne, I thee God bitake,
And nomore of freris I thee rede to preche.
To lower state than thei ben thou maist hem not dryve,
And if thei evere come to higher - the wers shal thou thryve!
Explicit dictamen Fratris Daw Topias,
quem in fine appellat Johannem Walssingham,
contra questiones Johannis Uplond.
allow for my eyes; (see note)
weep
banished; (see note)
estate staggers; itself; (see note)
(see note)
Joel; true maxims
to look upon
stifled
meteors
commonalty truly
(see note)
reigns
abandoned
strengthened; associated with
(see note)
   
   
persecuting; (see note)
schism
   
joined together destroy; (see note)
right to the root
off; (see note)
these; their; (see note)
(see note)
censers; altars
Priests of Baal are; (see note)
deadly sickness
fostered
   
are; (see note)
   
Disobedient; liege
Wheat; nor; harvest; (see note)
Nor
teacher; fool; taught
ignorant; against
   
   
seem wise to you
easily; ignorant; (see note)
(see note)
nor
an ignorant
stupid as a leek; (see note)
subtle wit; (see note)
To argue against
estrange; deprive; dawn
liege; greatly; (see note)
longer
obedience; (see note)
   
taken in; favored
To protect; ill weather
Wheat; cut down; (see note)
clean the ditches
(see note)
their
   
   
common people
   
twisting; are seen
wrinkles; vex
great; may not conceal [it]
poison; (see note)
(see note)
   
   
any people
since; (see note)
schism; (see note)
ruination; everywhere
   
(see note)
unless; pay
withhold the truth
before; demonstrated
   
when there is need
parish; mean
   
   
falsely allege five; (see note)
   
   
a pea; (see note)
Pythoness; addled; (see note)
(see note)
Holy Spirit
   
(see note)
argument; (see note)
barb; revert
truly you destroy
   
remission
   
harms matrimony more
tricks
   
their studies; chair; (see note)
(see note)
read to me; (see note)
build the castles of Cain; (see note)
are constructing; (see note)
   
pray; are obliged
say
a type
[And of] each; dwells in
(see note)
subtlety; vanguard
(see note)
   
   
   
persecute our faith
   
Ruining; injuries
anise; mint; (see note)
considered; (see note)
(see note)
weathervanes; wagging
signs
(see note)
   
sweetly
openly; depicted
their; trumpets; (see note)
troop of followers
their fierce; confound
Deprive; wondrously scatter them
causes grievous vexation; (see note)
mingled
   
idle talk; wrath
(see note)
   
(see note)
after seven years
strikes with fear
down
(see note)
teachings
   
causes many evils
third; star
   
assuredly
(see note)
incorrect; much
loathsomely fell
Misunderstanding
burns
planks
(see note)
has he gone; must
very hard; (see note)
darkened
[A third of] the moon
air thrice screams `Woe'; (see note)
   
   
attracted
secretly poisoned
thrice `Woe'; menaced
   
   
(see note)
gadflies
arrayed
   
Toothed; breastplates
   
smothering; feeble
flames
eyes
gadflies; followers
   
Which
   
means nothing else
flatter first
like
   
reproach
   
implicated in the other
   
Pharoah
loosed; (see note)
harass
(see note)
signify
masters
Seditions
(see note)
arrows
Of; foul lechery
   
   
receive
called
(see note)
   
army
oppressive tyranny; (see note)
reign
tamper; (see note)
knows; truth
windmill; (see note)
bull's foot; neither do you
ignorance
these hidden meanings
innocent
vanguard
heavily embattled
   
   
schemes widely; burns
   
spy
It seems that you
(see note)
   
(see note)
   
cursed; far apart
   
meet together
(see note)
who
   
lack meaning; good sense
(see note)
are there on earth?
Of
wish to have; (see note)
created
Son
   
   
   
Established; hierarchies; (see note)
chiefest; burns
   
   
   
perhaps
knights templars; (see note)
examine; (see note)
fully inform
   
Unless; calculate all mankind; (see note)
   
   
(see note)
   
   
Witness; different places
   
Don't you suppose
   
   
eye; (see note)
   
abandon
the one
maintain
any; (see note)
approved; gladly
   
And if I deny what you say
contradict
upon pain of
steal
clearly; school
weak
better befits you
addle your wit
epistle
(see note)
   
represented
John; Leah
estates (of people); (see note)
   
must
   
shut themselves away
flee from such
"anchorites"
   
desert; endure much
herbs
   
third; not to be
   
Of whom David speaks
See; together
   
One heart
"monasticism"
   
   
active life
are obliged
pagans
to provide for
as their sin requires
[active and contemplative]
Like
both these lives
(see note)
widows
   
undefiled
   
   
   
rob; (see note)
   
alms is thievery
any kind of writing
   
Where; steal mere pennies
(see note)
pleasing in your hands
fraternal habits; (see note)
More firmly
they wish
for such teachings
Manichaean; (see note)
   
away; hanky-panky; (see note)
habit
tonsure
[is a] priest
else; barber
Just so; clothes
   
apostasy may we; (see note)
Like
original
Do you think
   
signifies
saddle; mare; (see note)
   
zealously prate; (see note)
wears
plainly
We wear
surpass; many times ours
wearer
   
ask; (see note)
scapulary; cloak; belt
(see note)
   
   
comfort; dozen
bags full of spoils; (see note)
wider
   
Since less; keep
   
cloak; wide; (see note)
   
(see note)
garment; (see note)
fashioned; shield
represents
By this to receive rebuke
Or else activity
seek to destroy
covers the shoulders
obedience due
   
Concerning; knotted belt
consult the Minorites
I wish to know; (see note)
mostly; clothes; (see note)
think; humility
(see note)
silence; (see note)
obliged; say good things
(see note)
   
   
   
   
perfect silence
parish priest
(see note)
meat; alike; (see note)
choose; one
appropriate
decent; toilet
   
sheep-cote
enough; (see note)
urinate in your dish
you contradict
(see note)
introduce; (see note)
masters; (see note)
run; absolved
From the oath
run; more; are
   
regret very much
   
you'd never say
fling; wish
secret
   
run; rites
   
masters
dead men; (see note)
alive
   
from Paul's epistles
meaning
(see note)
   
   
   
   
   
(see note)
competent
upon my faith; stupidity
Have you never heard; (see note)
secrets; chose
Forbidding them
denied
(see note)
spoke of
   
say; competent
   
   
ought; broadcast
always chattering
reason; proverbs
(see note)
very seldom; wise
servant; much
(see note)
it requires more
such
To whom belong only
beast
sheep-pen
shelter
beasts remain sheltered
Why don't you house
Pay attention; something; (see note)
If
prate; suppress; (see note)
regal
   
   
entered; robbed
   
   
realm
Anything like the royalty
(see note)
   
   
surpasses; (see note)
loyalty; prevaricate
lectern; cease
(see note)
As though; possessors
   
   
(see note)
   
realm; claim
   
(see note)
tax; (see note)
paid tribute; heathen; (see note)
   
only out of
avoid; impeachment
before; judged to death
   
(see note)
in bondage
allowed
   
Jeremiah
is subject to tribute; (see note)
permit; (see note)
only by [the]
not at all compelled
parsons; (see note)
limited; what is required
except only recently; (see note)
   
Of; fraternization; (see note)
   
(see note)
   
Both; seal; authentic; (see note)
"Our Fathers"
beads; bestow on friars; (see note)
cling to your cheeks
certainly; (see note)
(see note)
   
settle; (see note)
gilt trental; (see note)
   
   
Nor may deliver from
determines that company
fashion men; (see note)
habit (dress)
those; buried in the habit
   
taught you
fickle; fabricate
advance; arguments
   
has acquired for
certainly I don't know; (see note)
know; healed; (see note)
Of her chronic blood ailment
   
secret foreknowledge
viciously; accuse; (see note)
stealing
entice; to God
Unless
Saying; (see note)
give; if
   
see
father; mother
   
himself
isn't worthy
soon again
   
go; remain
rob; despoil it
   
(see note)
isn't grounded
undertake; win over; (see note)
if; heathen
according to
frenzy; act foolishly
(see note)
   
Diminishing; depriving
according to its meaning; (see note)
draw and quarter; (see note)
Behead; nor rely on precedents; (see note)
undertaken
whoever; give; the control
pirates; murderers; (see note)
malefactors; unpunished
   
   
by permission
bold (enough)
   
(see note)
more often
(see note)
   
   
statements
   
Simon's offspring
confession
burial; charitable act
(see note)
true; refute
bring yourself; place
pay attention
   
you ask; confess; (see note)
Nor bury the poor
   
are parsons so angry
parish priests
   
interpretations; (see note)
   
   
once suspect; half hanged; (see note)
fallacies; (see note)
   
   
profit
(see note)
derives from
St. Paul
from collections
To sustain
don't believe me, consult
And its gloss
(see note)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
against what
abandon; must
its result; (see note)
   
acted
plotted
Mohammed's
roar
to bay
(see note)
   
deviate
swerve
taste
Worthy of nothing better than
heretic
consecrate
   
   
(see note)
   
   
   
Severing you
(see note)
   
literate
in the end
Greek means division in Latin
   
   
liberally concocts (forges)
   
confederates
miserable opinions; called
   
matter; explain
to be found
eradicates; belief
disseminates
Wycliffites; Sabellians; (see note)
are considered
   
sell
excommunication
questions our faith
   
   
by
Summa; (see note)
say nothing else
Except [that]
masses; (see note)
mass
labor
   
unwise
   
he says
received their instruction
   
their alms
not at all in
(see note)
   
   
covertly
lucrative; want to be preferred
(see note)
   
   
Which (i.e., churches)
administer
amount each year
annual mass-singers
deem appropriate
themselves
broached; (see note)
slander
territories
concerning; must
(see note)
attests
Concerning; (see note)
   
   
   
(see note)
two agree with one another
according to one nature (divine); (see note)
needed to beg
had no shelter
shut out
(see note)
shall give
   
(see note)
   
   
   
   
foolishly pretend
else; their duty
don't wonder that
once; food-buyer; (see note)
by clerical rote learning
(see note)
forbidden
(see note)
loudly
given his eyesight despite
poor; beautiful gate; (see note)
Prayed; share their
lameness
don't neglect; begged; (see note)
receive
have you read; rebuked for
in Paradise; (see note)
tablets; (see note)
such; who give
Supposing
Unless; reminded
established; frailty
by; impaired
corporal failings; forgetting
(see note)
considerations
   
(the) reason why
(see note)
commanded; (see note)
secret
instability; explanation
you ask; masters; (see note)
Against Christ's command
other [things]
estate; only; servant
make sure
(see note)
(see note)
   
Was forbidden by
foolish aspiration
(see note)
   
collect; realm
against; matter; (see note)
their records witness
better [arguments]
fraternal order; perfection
complain; walk; (see note)
   
   
err; most grievously
(see note)
Barnabas
To go; sow
   
took Paul as his companion
perfect; prayers
had received; from
go; their footsteps
symbolism; (see note)
(see note)
tablets of Moses on which
   
   
Woe; the solitary life; (see note)
(see note)
masses
don't know
such [people]
would be repudiated
mass
prayers
prayer
(see note)
vainly; commands to pray
immature
that [man] who
   
knows; (see note)
(see note)
which persons
God's secret judgments
   
for a while cease out of; (see note)
jay-bird
posit; (see note)
increase unmanageably
   
little more
   
   
   
think; contradict
(see note)
   
are created against
He didn't wish to make
contrary
sayings
(see note)
realm
run
   
burdensome; even more so
better argument
the one; more persuasive
example; not relevant
nature
exceeds; monstrosity
   
   
i.e., the Church
(see note)
(see note)
broached; credited; (see note)
(see note)
   
   
   
subject (substance)
   
   
truly
According to
   
figure of speech
   
dare; [as] you wish
   
Confession
   
flesh
Through; power; strength
remains
   
   
remains nothing; appearance
   
evil
created
keys
cobblers; pouch-makers; (see note)
   
craftsmen
   
   
   
   
fierce; waves
i.e., the papacy
guide (pilot)
stir up
   
succor; tear up and destroy; (see note)
disciples; apostles
give it out to
pearls; scatter
subtle food; churl's
as common; cart road
   
(see note)
   
   
(see note)
   
(see note)
   
   
(see note)
ousted; (see note)
   
corrupt rites
   
   
(see note)
(see note)
(see note)
anguish; written
   
spite; question
   
reward
   
count; nothing
(see note)
gave; Pharisees
   
sorrowing; Mount Gilboa; (see note)
cities; (see note)
(see note)
comforting reward; public slander
curse; (see note)
prayers more attentive; (see note)
didn't value; (see note)
malediction
curse; gave; (see note)
   
(see note)
   
teachers; (see note)
it pleases them
words adequately repudiated
Let them report again; dealt with
   
enough; such composing
commend you to God
I advise you
   
worse; prosper
(see note)

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