[Footnote 52: These curious passages, so strikingly indicative of the
state of thought in the days of their authors, are worth clearly noting.
Pilate's challenge to the Saviour is completely in the taste of the
writer's day. He was Adam Davie, a poet of the fourteenth century, of
whom an account is preserved in _Warton's History of English Poetry_;
and the passage occurs in his poem of the _Battle of Jerusalem_, the
incidents of which are treated as Froissart would treat the siege of a
town happening in his own day.
The second passage above quoted occurs in the _Vision of Piers Plowman_,
a poem of the same era, where the Roman soldier--whose name, according
to legendary history, was Longinus, and who pierced the Saviour's
side--is described as if he had given the wound in a passage of arms, or
joust; and elsewhere in the same poem it is said that Christ,
"For mankyndes sake,
Justed in Jerusalem,
A joye to us all."
And in another part of the poem, speaking of the victory of Christ, it
is said--
"Jhesus justede well."]