6571. _bilden_ is here used as a pt. tense; 'built.' In the next line, read
_leye_, lay, lodged. There is an allusion to the splendid houses built by
the friars.
6584. Not in the F. text.
6585. _writ_, writeth. Alluding to St. Augustine's work De Opere
Monachorum, shewing how monks ought to exercise manual labour. His
arguments are here made to suit the friars.
6615. '_De Mendicantibus validis_; Codex Justin. xi. 25. Justinian, whose
celebrated code (called the Pandects) forms the basis of the Civil and
Canon Law, was emperor of the Eastern Empire in 527.'--Bell.
6636. 'The allusion seems to be to Matt. xxiii. 14.'--Bell.
6645-52. Not in the F. text, ed. Méon; but found in some MSS.
6653. See Matt. xix. 21.
6665. Alluding, probably, to Eph. iv. 28.
6682. Alluding to Acts xx. 33-35.
6691. Alluding to St. Augustine's treatise De Opere Monachorum ad Aurelium
episc. Carthaginensem. Of course he does not mention the Templars, &c.;
these are only noticed by way of example.
6693. _templers_; 'the Knights Templars were founded in 1119 by Hugh de
Paganis. Their habit was a white garment with a red cross on the breast.
See Fuller, Holy Warre, ii. 16, v. 2.'--Bell. The Knights Hospitallers are
described in the same work, ii. 4. The Knights of Malta belonged to this
order.
6694. _chanouns regulers_, Canons living under a certain rule; see the
Chan. Yemannes Tale.
6695. 'The White Monks were Cistercians, a reformed order of Benedictines;
the Black, the unreformed.'--Bell.
6713. _I may abey_, 'I may suffer for it'; see Cant. Ta. C 100. The F. text
varies.
6749. 'In the rescue of our law (of faith)'; i. e. of Christianity.
6763. William of Saint-Amour, a doctor of the Sorbonne, and a canon of
Beauvais, about A.D. 1260, wrote a book against the friars, entitled De
Periculis nouissimorum Temporum. He was answered by St. Bonaventure and St.
Thomas Aquinas, his book was condemned by Pope Alexander IV, and he was
banished from France (see l. 6777). See the note in Méon's edition of Le
Roman.