588 ANTIQUITIES 



cured an act to be passed by which the secular arm 

 was empowered to support the corrupt doctrines of the 

 church; but the first lollard was not burnt until the 

 year 1401. 



The wits also of those times did not spare the gross 

 morals of the clergy, but boldly ridiculed their igno- 

 rance and profligacy. The most remarkable of these 

 were Chaucer, and his contemporary, Robert Lange- 

 lande, better known by the name of Piers Plowman. 

 The laughable tales of the former are familiar to almost 

 every reader ; while the visions of the latter are but in 

 few hands. With a quotation from the Passus Decimus 

 of this writer 1 shall conclude my letter; not only on 

 account of the remarkable prediction therein contained, 

 which carries with it 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 subsist- 

 ing in any language, ancient or modern. 



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

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

 A pricker on a palfry 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 hemself 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 chauons, 

 And put hem to her penaunce ad pristinum statum ire" 



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 was foisted into the copies in the reign of king Henry VIII. 

 but it is in MSS. of this poem, older than the year 1400." 



" Again, foL Ixxxv. a. where he, Piers Plowman, alludes to the Knights 

 Templars, lately suppressed, he says, 



