168. _the pestilence tyme._ See further on, the note on l. 2497. The great
plague of 1349 and 1350 had carried off so much people, that hands were
wanting to cultivate the lands in many parishes, and the distress which
followed, with the failure of tithes which naturally accompanied it, drove
the parsons to plead poverty as an excuse for going to London and seeking
other occupations.
192. Whitaker's text inserts the following passage between this line and
the one following:--
Conscience cam and acusede hem,
And the commune herde hit,
And seide, "Ydolatrie ye soffren
In sondrye places menye,
And boxes ben y-set forth
Bounden with yren,
To undertake the tool
Of untrewe sacrifice,
In menynge of miracles
Muche wex hongeth there,
Al the worldle wot wel
Hit myghte nat be trywe.
Ac for it profitith yow to pors-warde,
Ye prelates soffren
That lewede men in mysbylyve
Leven and deien.
Ich lyve wel, by oure Lorde!
For love of youre covetyse,
That al the worlde be the wors;
As holy wryght telleth
What cheste and meschaunce
To children of Israel
Ful on hem that free were,
Thorwe two false preestes.
For the synne of Ophni
And of Finees hus brother,
Thei were disconfit in bataille,
And losten _Archa Dei_,
And fore hure syre sauh hem syngen,
And aoffred hem don ylle,
And noght chasted hem therof,
And wolde noght rebukie hem,
Anon as it was y-told hyme
That the children of Israel
Weren disconfit in bataille,
And _Archa Dei_ y-lore,
And hus sones slayen,
Anon he ful for sorwe
Fro hus chaire thare he sat,
And brak hus necke a-tweyne;
And al was for venjaunce
That he but noght hus children.
And for they were preestes,
And men of holy churche,
God was well wrother,
And toke the rather venjaunce.
For-thei ich seye, ye preestes,
And men of holy churche,
That soffren men do sacrifice
And worsheppen mawmettes,
And ye sholde be here fadres,
And techen hem betere;
God shal take venjaunce
In alle swiche preestes
Wel harder and grettere,
On suche shrewede faderes,
Than ever he dude on Ophni
And Finees, or in here fadere.
For youre shrewede suffraunce,
And youre owen synne,
Youre masse and youre matynes,
And meny of youre houres, etc.
225. This is the constitutional principle which was universally
acknowledged by our early political writers, and of which some strong
declarations will be found in my "Political Songs" (published by the Camden
Society). The doctrine of "right divine" was certainly not a prevalent one
in the middle ages.
291. This fable appears to be of middle-age formation, for it is not found
in any of the ancient collections. It does not occur in the fables of
Marie. It is however found in the old collection, in French verse of the
fourteenth century, entitled Ysopet; and M. Robert has also printed a Latin
metrical version of the story from a MS. of the same century. La Fontaine
has given it among his fables. It may be observed that the fable is nowhere
so well told as in Piers Ploughman. (See Robert, Fables Inédites, des
xii^e, xiii^e, et xiv^e siècles, i, pp. 98-101.) The readers of Scottish
history will remember the application of this fable in 1481, by the earl of
Angus (popularly named, from this circumstance, Archibald Bell-the-cat), in
the conspiracy against the royal favourites, which forms an excellent
illustration of our text.
381. _Væ terræ, etc._ Ecclesiastes, x, 16. "Væ tibi, terra, cujus rex puer
est, et cujus principes mane comedunt."