214 THE ANTIQUITIES [LETT. 



somewhat of the air of a prophecy ; but also as it seems to have 

 been a striking picture of monastic insolence and dissipation ; 

 and a specimen of one of the keenest pieces of satire now perhaps 

 subsisting in any language, ancient or modern. 



" Now is religion a rider, a ronier by streate ; 

 A leader of love-days, and a loud begger ; 

 A pricker on a palfrey from maner to maner, 

 A heape of hounds at his arse, as he a lord were. 

 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, 1 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 in her penaunce ad pristinum statum ire." 



LETTEK XVIII. 



WILLIAM OF WAYNFLETE became Bishop of Winchester in 

 the year 1447, and seems to have pursued the generous 

 plan of Wykeham, in endeavouring to reform the priory of 

 Selborne. 



When Waynflete came to the see he found Prior Stype, 

 alias Stepe, still living, who had been elected as long ago as the 

 year 1411. 



1 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 Knight Templars, lately 

 suppressed, he says, 



" Men of holie kirk 



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



" This, I suppose, was a favourite doctrine in Wickliffe's discourses." 

 WARTON'S Hist, of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 282. 



