1. Small tithers: people who did not pay their full tithes. Mr
Wright remarks that “the sermons of the friars in the fourteenth
century were most frequently designed to impress the ahsolute
duty of paying full tithes and offerings”.
2. There might astert them no pecunial pain: they got off with
no mere pecuniary punishment. (Transcriber’s note: “Astert”
means “escape”. An alternative reading of this line is “there
might astert him no pecunial pain” i.e. no fine ever escaped him
(the archdeacon))
3. A dog for the bow: a dog attending a huntsman with bow
and arrow.
4. Ribibe: the name of a musical instrument; applied to an old
woman because of the shrillness of her voice.