ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 295 



And but if his knave kneel, that shall his cope bring, 

 He loureth at him, and asketh him who taught him curtesie, 

 Little had lords to done, to give lands from her heirs, 

 To religious that have no ruth if it rain on her altars. 

 In many places ther they persons be, by himself at ease : 

 Of the poor have they no pity, and that is her charitie ; 

 And they letten hem as lords, her lands lie so broad. 

 And there shal come a king, 4 and confess you religious ; 

 And beate you, as the bible telleth, for breaking your rule, 

 And amend monials, and monks, and chanons, 

 And put hem to her penaunce adpristinum statum ire. n 



NOTES 



1 Pope Martin V., chosen about 1417. He attempted to reform the 

 church, but died in 1431, just as he had summoned the Council of Basil. 



G. W. 



2 Should have been no doubt Southwick, a priory under Portsdown. 



G. W. 



8 Mr. Barrington is of opinion that anciently the English vinea was in 

 almost every instance an orchard ; not perhaps always of apples merely, 

 but of other fruits ; as cherries, plums, and currants. We still say a plum 

 or cherry orchard. See Archceologia, Vol. III. 



In the instance above, the pope's secretary might insert vineas merely 

 because they were a species of cultivation familiar to him in Italy. G. W. 



4 F. 1. a. " This prediction, although a probable conclusion concerning 

 a king who after a time would suppress the religious houses, is remarkable. 

 I imagined it might have been foisted into the copies in the reign of King 

 Henry VIII., but it is to be found in MSS. of this poem, older than the 

 year 1400." fol. 1. a. b. 



"Again, where he, Piers Plowman, alludes to the Knights Templars, 

 lately suppressed, he says, 



. . . "'Menofholiekirk 

 Shall turn as Templars did ; the tyme approacheth nere.' 



"This, I suppose, was a favorite doctrine in WycliPs discourses." 

 WARTON'S Hist of English Poetry, Vol. I., p. 282. G. W. 



LETTER XVIII 



WILLIAM of Waynflete became bishop of Winchester in the 

 year 1447, and seems to have pursued the generous plan of 

 Wykeham in endeavoring to reform the Priory of Selborne. 



When Waynflete came to the see he found Prior Stype, alias 



