THE ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 275 



powered 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 ignorance 

 and profligacy. The most remarkable of these were 

 Chaucer, and his contemporary Robert Langelande, 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 I shall 

 conclude my letter ; not only on account of the remark- 

 able 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 subsisting in any language, ancient 

 or modern. 



" Now is religion a rider, a romer 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? 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 ad pristinum statum ire" 



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 Knights Templars, lately 

 suppressed, he says 



Menofholiekirk 



Shall turn as Templars did ; the tyme approacheth ncre" 



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

 Hist, of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 282. [G. W.] 



