503. 'Gamelyn sprinkles holy water with an oaken sprig.' Said jocosely;
Gamelyn flourishes his staff like one who sprinkles holy water. A _spire_
is properly a springing shoot, hence a sprig or sapling. Cf. Troil. ii.
1335. See the Glossary.
509. Mr. Jephson here remarks as follows:--'The hatred of churchmen, of
holy water, and of everything connected with the church, observable in all
the ballads of this class, is probably owing to the fact, that William the
Conqueror and his immediate successors systematically removed the Saxon
bishops and abbots, and intruded Normans in their stead into all the
valuable preferments in England. But there were also other grounds for the
odium in which these foreign prelates were held. Sharing in the duties of
the common law judges, they participated in the aversion with which the
functionaries of the law were naturally regarded by outlaws and robbers,'
&c. He also quotes, from the Lytel Geste of Robin Hood, the following:--
'These bysshopes and these archebysshoppes,
Ye shall them beete and bynde;
The high sheryfe of Notynghame,
Hym holde ye in your mynde.'
[486] It may be added that Lodge entirely omits here all mention of abbot,
prior, monk, or canon. Times had changed.