1. Tales of the murder of children by Jews were frequent in the
Middle Ages, being probably designed to keep up the bitter
feeling of the Christians against the Jews. Not a few children
were canonised on this account; and the scene of the misdeeds
was laid anywhere and everywhere, so that Chaucer could be at
no loss for material.
2. This is from Psalm viii. 1, “Domine, dominus noster,quam
admirabile est nomen tuum in universa terra.”
3. “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast Thou
ordained strength.” — Psalms viii. 2.
4. The ghost that in thee light: the spirit that on thee alighted;
the Holy Ghost through whose power Christ was conceived.
5. Jewery: A quarter which the Jews were permitted to inhabit;
the Old Jewry in London got its name in this way.
6. St. Nicholas, even in his swaddling clothes — so says the
“Breviarium Romanum” —gave promise of extraordinary virtue
and holiness; for, though he sucked freely on other days, on
Wednesdays and Fridays he applied to the breast only once, and
that not until the evening.
7. “O Alma Redemptoris Mater,” (“O soul mother of the
Redeemer”) — the beginning of a hymn to the Virgin.
8. Antiphonere: A book of anthems, or psalms, chanted in the
choir by alternate verses.