OF SELBORNE. 
given. A total dlfregard to their refpe<flive rules and difcipline 
drew on the monks and canons a heavy load of popular odium. 
Some good men there were who endeavoured to oppofe the general 
delinquency ; but their efforts were too feeble to ftem the torrent 
of monaftic luxury. As far back as the year 138 1 Wkkliffeh prin- 
ciples and doftrines had made fome progrefs, were well received 
by men who wiflied for a reformation, and were defended and 
maintained by them as long as they dared ; till the bilhops and 
clergy began to be fo greatly alarmed, that they procured an ad 
to be paffed by which the fecular arm was empowered to fupport 
the corrupt dodrines of the church ; but the firft lollard was not 
burnt until the year 1401. 
The wits alfo of thofe times did not fpare the grofs morals of 
the clergy, but boldly ridiculed their ignorance and profligacy. 
The mod remarkable of thefe were Chaucer, and his contemporary 
Robert Langelande, better known by the name of Piers Plozvmau. 
The laughable tales of the former are familiar to almofl every 
reader ; while the vifms of the latter are but in few hands. With 
a quotation from the Fajfus Declmus of this writer I fliall conclude 
my letter ; not only on account of the remarkable predidion 
therein contained, which carries with it fomewhat of the air of 
a prophecy; but alfo as it feems to have been a ftriking pidure of 
monaftic infolence and diflipation ; and a fpecimen of one of the 
keeneft pieces of fatire now perhaps fubfifling in any language; 
ancient or modern. 
*' Now is religion a rider, a romer by flreate i 
" A leader of love-days, and a loud begger ; 
" A pricker on a palfrey from maner to maner, 
" A heape of hounds at his arfe, as he a lord were. 
And 
