PIERS THE PLOWMAN'S CREDE: FOOTNOTES

1 And through the special Spirit that sprang from the two of Them

2 But all my sorrow is coming, for I don't know my Creed (see note)

3 When I shall make known my confession, I must be ruined

4 Therefore, I would be gladdest to learn the faith ("belief")

5 Either unlettered or lettered, who lives in this way

6 Both to the learned and the ignorant, who say they believe

7 A Carmelite friar has agreed to teach me the Creed

8 How should they teach you about God, who don't know themselves?

9 They were not so bold [to] practice such wickedness

10 But whatever glutton of the men (mendicants) may seize any goods

11 Though his brothers lack goods, as far as he is concerned they can die

12 Their patience has vanished and [been] put out to pasture

13 And pride is in their poverty, [in which] there is little to praise

14 When lullabies for the Virgin are sung, to please the women

15 That the lace from Our Lady's shift delivers their children (by easing childbirth)

16 That must be drawn and painted and completely polished

17 And if you could enhance (i.e., enrich) us with your own money

18 With the understanding that I return, he commended me to Christ

19 How might you espy in your brother's eye a mere speck

20 And only afterwards regulate another man's eye

21 With secret postern gates, to come and go when it pleased them

22 Furnished with lookout cells to spy all around

23 The cost of a year's plow-land, of pennies so round, / could not adorn that pillar

24 And saw a dwelling, wonderfully well constructed

25 Of alabaster with coats of arms, decorated appropriately

26 It would not [be enough] to build half that house, I believe

27 With washbasins of brass beautifully fashioned

28 Wouldn't furnish that place, one part to the end

29 With wide tables [all] around, fully furnished with benches

30 A large and fierce peasant, grown [as large] as a barrel

31 His outer garment that covered him very neatly was folded

32 It had good enough soil (i.e., was dirty enough) to grow grain

33 For an Austin friar has recently egged me on urgently

34 Truly, some of those men have more goods themselves

35 If his servant is not ready [to take the penny], put out my eye

36 With martin's fur, or with fitchet's fur, or [with] fine beaver

37 Now they have buckled shoes for sores on their heels

38 But if men knew their trickery and their cunning words

39 A professed Dominican has pledged me his word

40 For they are confident men and more trustworthy

41 I would pay you as great a reward as I can

42 With arrogant hearts, how they hallow churches

43 They concern themselves with messages and weddings of magnates

44 They desire respect; but look to their deeds

45 And note how they live and believe what you see

46 Believe it well, dear man, if men observed properly

47 They are [as] proud as ditch water in which dogs feed

48 Providing you enhance our house with money or [something] else

49 "God forbid," said his companion, "except that she should die"

50 While she intends to leave her money to us

51 God let her live no longer [than my visit], for [there are] many such letters

52 And saw a poor man near me, [who] bent over the plow

53 With his lumpy shoes stuffed with rags

54 All covered with mud as he followed the plow

55 Two mittens, as poor [as the shoes], made all of rags

56 Wrapped in a winnowing-sheet to protect her from foul weather

57 From them I thought I would learn, but now I am at my wits' end

58 They covet [the right to hear] confessions to acquire some wages

59 And burials also, to get paid for singing masses

60 But where profit lies -- they look for nothing else

61 How shall I call you by the name your neighbors call you?

62 Through that trick of that story that is called The Apocalypse of Bishop Golias

63 And he contrives well beforehand, to destroy people

64 Concerning these two (the Pharisee and the friar), I consider them the same

65 Test them according to procedures, and pry into their order

66 Then have I lost all my power of taste, touch, and judgment

67 Criticize them a little bit, and condemn their way of living

68 And straightway call you "nothing," and your name disparage

69 Both with "you lie" and "you lie," in arrogance of soul

70 A lord would be more reluctant to give to a servant

71 They are sewn with white silk, and [with] intricate seams

72 He loves to be met in markets with greetings from poor people

73 God grant that it be a healthy sum of money, for health of the souls

74 And sumptuously as a chieftain stay in his apartment

75 And find for themselves lying stories (fables) which please the people

76 And makes sure that he leaves no house without getting something

77 They don't lack furred garments or a full wardrobe

78 Nor ordained in [an] order but live individually

79 They can pack up their gear in a tar bag (pouch)

80 Their prime of life in penance through works

81 "Or maimed by accident, or sick lepers" (Sk)

82 And their goods are gone, and they are sorry to have to beg

83 He might as well offend a powerful landlord

84 Even though he killed a handsome knight and premeditated his murder

85 Their hearts are as far removed from lofty meditation

86 [That] they should not judge on appearance (by the face) nor judge folk

87 To deal with loans and biddings, like townspeople

88 Now each cobbler's son may go to school

89 And each beggar's brat (child) learn from book(s)

90 Would you believe there could be so many liars?

91 And vegetables cooked without meat, and water to drink

92 And work and wear clothing with the wool toward the body, as we poor ones do

93 It is unlikely that even one in a hundred

94 And brought out our forefathers, and they were very glad

95 The more the matter is broached, the more rattled they become

96 Know Christ's hidden wisdom, who transcends the natural world?

PIERS THE PLOWMAN'S CREDE: NOTES

5 A and all myn A-B-C. The narrator explains that he knows his alphabet; he is not illiterate ("lewed"). In lines 6-7 he also says he knows his Pater Noster or Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6.9-13) and his Ave Maria or"Hail Mary" (Luke 1.28-33). These elementary texts are the foundation for his Christian beliefs, but he now wants to learn the Creed (see note to line 8 below).

8 Crede. The simple declaration of faith known as the Apostles' Creed. This begins, in English translation:"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible." The Apostles' Creed, whose exact origins are unknown, preceded and formed the basis for the Nicene Creed (A.D. 325), which in turn furnished the standard definition of the Trinity (three Persons, two Natures, one Will). For Piers's version of the Creed -- the Credo -- see lines 795-821.

11 The lengthe of a Lenten. The period from Ash Wednesday to Easter Eve, a traditional time of fasting, penitence, and austerity in the Christian Church. The forty week days commemorate Christ's forty days and nights in the wilderness and His resistance to the devil's three temptations. See Matt. 4. In lines 11-13 the narrator portrays himself as distraught about facing several meatless weeks and not knowing his Creed.

15 He that leeveth nought. See John 3.15, 18.

31 lok of beleve. The"lock of belief" or"faith" is ironic, since Christ explicitly entrusted Peter (the Church) with the keys of heaven (Matt. 16.19). See also the narrator's citing of this incident when he speaks with the Dominican: lines 276-79. Similarly, the"cofres of Cristendam" (line 30) reflect more on the friars' alleged wealth than their claims to be guardians of the Christian faith.

33 A Menoure. A Minorite or Friar Minor, so-called because the Franciscans -- the Friars Minor -- claimed to be the humble order. St. Francis of Assisi founded the Franciscan order in 1209. For the fraternal orders, see the note to line 153 below.

34 the graith. Wycliffites often testified that the truth was plain and simple, embedded in the Creed and yet sometimes hidden (hence that they and "trewe" Christians generally had the key to discovering it). The author of Vae octuplex says this about the simplicity of Christian belief: "Byleue is an hyd trewže žat God telluž in his lawe, and it is declared ynow [sufficiently] in comun crede of cristen men. And 3if žow wole examyne feiž, where hit be trowže of Cristus chirche, loke where žat it ys growndyt in ony article of že crede; 3if it be not growndet žere, take it not as byleue" (ed. Gradon, p. 377).

38 A Carm me hath ycovenaunt. The narrator may be disingenuous here, since he represents himself as speaking with Carmelites later on, beginning line 340. He seems to bait all the friars he meets by mentioning a rival fraternal order and its claims to priority or pretensions to learning.

57-58 They comen out of Carmeli. "The Carmelites, or White Friars, pretended to be of great antiquity, and were originally established at Mount Carmel, from whence they were driven by the Saracens about the year 1238" (Wright). They came to England in 1244.

62-63 And yif thei couthen her Crede. A poem "On the Minorites" alleges that the Franciscans do not know the Creed: "With an O & an I, Men wenen žat žai wede [go mad], / To carpe so of clergy žat can not žair crede" (HP XIV & XV, p. 163).

65 Freres of the Pye. Pied Friars or Fratres de Pica, with habits of black and white like a magpie.

72 "Robartes men, or Roberdsmen, were a set of lawless vagabonds, notorious for their outrages when Pierce Plowman was written. The statute of Edward the Third (an. reg. 5, c. xiv) specifies `divers manslaughters, felonies, and robberies, done by people that be called Roberdesmen, Wastours, and drawlatches"' (Skeat). See also Piers Plowman B Prologue 44:"And risen vp wiž ribaudie as Roberdes knaues"; and 5.461:"Roberd že Robbere on Reddite loked."

77-79 And at the lulling. The syntax seems defective or elliptical in these lines, with an understood "they" before "maken wymmen to wenen" (line 78). These lines might be translated: "And during lullabies of Our Lady, to please the women, and [at] miracle-plays [involving] midwives, they give women to believe that the lace of Our Lady's shift helps deliver their children." For a similar construction, see lines 108-17 (with"we" understood beginning line 110). In the N-Town cycle (Ludus Coventriae), midwives who doubt the Virgin Birth eventually come to be believers, although one receives a withered hand for her original disbelief.

84 quenes. The word quenes here can have the sense of "queans," or harlots, which certainly accords with the general sense of this passage (see line 83). But the MED cites this word in PPC as bearing the signification "crones" or old women.

89-94 Wepyng, I warne yow of walkers aboute. The allusion is to Philippians 3.18-19: "For many walk, of whom I have told you often (and now tell you weeping), that they are enemies of the cross of Christ; Whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things."

91 Swich slomerers in slepe. See Ephesians 5.14: "Rise thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead: and Christ shall enlighten thee." See also Romans 13.11: "it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep."

92-94 gloppyng of drynk. The emphasis of these lines -- a free translation of Philippians 3.19 (see above note to lines 89-94) -- resembles that of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century penitential lyrics on the relationship between drinking and death. See, for example, "Man may longe liwes [lives] wenen," lines 7-10 (EL XIII, p. 17), and "Whon Men beož muriest at heor Mele [are merriest at their meal]," lines 1-12 (from the Vernon MS: RL XIV, p. 143). See also Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale in which three tavern rioters go out to slay Death (the Black Plague) and end up killing one another instead. Chaucer likewise alludes to Philippians 3.18-19.

104 The pure Apostells life. The issue of the "apostolic life" was of paramount importance in antifraternal and anticlerical literature. The friars based their claims to distinctiveness and purity on their form of life, which they believed was modelled on that of Christ and the apostles (see, for example, Acts 2.45-47 and 4.32-35). Antifraternal writers responded that nowhere does Scripture witness that Christ or the apostles begged for their sustenance.

113 oure parteners. Fraternal orders sometimes invited lay brethren to participate in their activities on a limited basis. Often they charged a fee for services and issued letters of confraternity. For a prominent literary example, see the friar in Chaucer's Summoner's Tale, III 2126-28. See also line 327 and note, and line 417.

146-50 Coveitise . . . Chastete. Personified allegories of Covetousness, Charity (Christian love, as in Faith, Hope, Charity), and Chastity. Such personifications are common in PP but rare in PPC.

153 this foure ordirs. The fraternal orders were the Franciscans ("Menoures"), the Dominicans ("Prechoures" or Friars Preachers, here said to be the "first" order), the Augustinians ("Austens"), and the Carmelites ("Carmes" or"Karmes").

155 Ich. Trinity reads With, the Royal MS ytche; but the 1553 edition, Wright, and Skeat have Ich.

157-218 Swich a bild bold. It has been suggested that the architectural details for this long description of the Dominican convent derive from the London house of Blackfriars. St. Francis, on the other hand, advised Minorites to live in humble buildings of mud and wood.

165 With posternes in pryvytie. "These private posterns are frequently alluded to in the reports of the Commissioners for the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII" (Wright).

184-85 These lines are not in the Trinity MS; they are supplied from the Royal MS.

215 And othere. The Trinity MS reads to ožere, but the Royal MS, the 1553 edition, Wright, and Skeat have And ožere or And other.

227-28 Compare Chaucer's friar in GP:"Of double worstede was his semycope, / That rounded as a belle out of the presse" (I[A] 2623).

232 graith. See Piers Plowman C 10. 240:"Ac že gospel is a glose ther and huydeth že grayth treuthe."

233 Trinity MS reads willen, but the Royal MS, the 1553 edition, Wright, and Skeat have wissen, which is superior to willen.

261 And who is goer byforne, first schal he serven. An allusion to the vineyard parable (Matt. 20.1-16):"So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen" (v. 16).

262-63 And seyde, `He sawe Satan . . . ben yleyd.' See Luke 10.18:"And he said to them: I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven." See also Isaiah 14.12. The Trinity and Royal MSS read fullowe, the 1553 edition fullow. Wright and Skeat have ful low and ful lowe respectively.

274 fables. The Franciscans were noted storytellers who could illustrate their sermons and lectures with exempla, sometimes with fables. In an antifraternal lyric from the Vernon MS, "ye Mon žat luste to liuen in ese," the anonymous author writes: "Whon Gabriel schal blowe his horn, / His feble fables schul hym rewe" (RL XIV, lines 67-68, p. 154). By contrast, Chaucer's Parson replies to Harry Bailly, "Thou getest fable noon ytoold for me" (X.31) and, citing Paul, denounces "fables and swich wrecchednesse" (X.34).

295 With foyns, or with fitchewes. An antifraternal lyric of 1382 attacks the friars for their rich furs: "For somme vaire, & somme gryse, / For somme bugee, & for somme byse." (HP XIV & XV, p. 159)

308 Paul, primus heremite. St. Paul the Hermit, or St. Paul of Thebes (d. 342), wove baskets to guard against idleness. The Austin friars claimed him as their founder. See Piers Plowman B 15. 286-89.

327 clereliche ensealed. These lines refer to the practice of granting conventual letters of fraternization, kept at the convent to entitle the purchasers all the benefits of prayers, masses, and good works of the order. In Chaucer's Summoner's Tale, Thomas and his wife were lay confraternity members, who held such a letter (CT III [D] 2126-28). See also line 417.

328 oure Provinciall. The Provincial was the director of convents within a province.

338 Karmes. Carmelites or white friars. See above, note to lines 57-58.

340 Two frere Karmes. Friars usually traveled in pairs, according to Christ's instructions to disciples to go forth "two and two" (Luke 10.1). See also the note to line 415 below.

345 hestys. The Trinity MS, 1553 edition, and Wright read hetes, promises; but the Royal MS (=hestys) and Skeat (=hestes) is superior.

354 princes of pride. The popular late-medieval image of the Dominicans was of arrogant friars who wished to associate with fine lords, to own wealth, and to remove themselves from common humanity. See, for example, lines 370-75, and 380-81: "For ryght as Menoures most ypocricie useth, / Ryght so ben Prechers proude purlyche in herte." The image of the Orders Preacher contrasts with the popular idea of the Franciscans, who were generally considered to be more humble and democratic (but hence more susceptible to hypocrisy).

362 Herdforthe, an allusion to the priory of King's Langley in Hertfordshire, a wealthy convent that received lucrative grants from Richard II, Edmund de Langley, and Langley's wife, who were all buried there.

365 curry. This is Skeat's reading, a version of the Royal MS's currey. The Trinity MS reads carry; the 1553 edition and Wright have curreth. The sense of the passage is the Dominicans curry favor with the king and scratch (or "claw") his back, not that they carry the king on their backs.

372 and men ryght lokede. Skeat reads "& men ry3t-lokede" and glosses "righteous, just"; "Apparently corrupted from A.S. rihtlic." But see Williams, Modern Language Review, 4 (1909), 235.

375 digne as dich water. See Chaucer's Reeve's Tale I (A) 3964.

383 in Elyes tyme. The Carmelites claimed that their founders were Elijah and Elisha. See Chaucer's Summoner's Tale III (D) 2116.

411 It was a commonplace of antifraternal literature that friars tried to convince people to be buried by friars rather than at their parish church. FitzRalph says: "žei schul nou3t [shall not] counseil no man to swere nežer [nor] to make avowe [oath]; nožer to pli3t his truže [nor to pledge his troth], nožer to behote [require] in ožer manere wise [wise people] to chese [choose] buriyng place at her chirche; so žat 3if žei counseilež žerto eny maner wise, her chirche is entredited [interdicted], & her chirche heye. Ožer 3if žei counseilež hym, žat haž y-chose his buriels among hem, nou3t to chaunge his wille; & comynliche it is seide žat freres counseiliž so men; žanne a parischon may verreilich haue suspecioun žat her place is entredited" (Defensio curatorum, trans. John Trevisa, ed. A. J. Perry, EETS, OS 167 [London: Kegan Paul, 1925], p. 42).

414 anuell. An anuell was money for saying a yearly mass (an"annual"). An antifraternal lyric contains the following lines: "Suche annuels has made žes frers / so wely & so gay, / yat žer may no possessioners / mayntene žair array" ("Preste, ne monke, ne 3it chanoun," in HP XIV & XV, lines 141-44; p. 161). In that same poem see also lines 153-56, p. 162.

415 his. The Trinity MS alone reads this fellawe, which would mean that the same speaker continues his harangue. But the better reading, his, occurs in the Royal MS, the 1553 edition, Wright, and Skeat, thus including the otherwise mute second Carmelite friar mentioned in line 340.

417 letteres. See above, note to line 327.

422 cary was a coarse material. The MED cites Piers Plowman B 5.79, said of Envye: "And clothed in a kaurymaury."

428 Twey mytenes, as mete. Skeat glosses "as middling (or poor) as the shoes were. It is the A.S. mœte, middling, mean. It being a hard word, the scribe of MS. B [Royal MS] erased it, and the old printer misprinted it." But contrast Jones, Modern Language Notes, 67 (1952), 512-16.

430 fen. The Trinity MS reads fern, but the Royal MS and Skeat have fen. Fern and feen (1553 edition, Wright) seem slips for fen.

431 worthen. The Trinity MS reads worži, worthy, while the 1553 edition and Wright have worthi. The Royal MS reads worthe, but Skeat emends, properly, to woržen, become.

446 Go we. Skeat notes that the exclamation was a common colloquial invitation.

451 fonded. Trinity, Royal, and the 1553 edition read fondes, which makes no sense syntactically. Wright and Skeat emend to fonded.

456 of swich I you warne. See the references to false prophets and false Christs in Matt. 24.11, 23-25, etc.

458 In vestimentis ovium. See Matt. 7.15: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."

459 wilde wer-wolves. Lit. "man-wolves" but with the additional sense that the rapacious friars resemble those humans who were said to be able to transform themselves literally into wolves.

462 curates. Skeat: "parish-priests with a cure of souls. The friars were continually interfering with and opposing them. '--unnethe may prestes seculers / Gete any service, for thes frers,' &c. (Pol. Poems, i.267)." FitzRalph depicted the plight of the secular clergy in Defensio curatorum.

469 sepultures. The secular clergy violently objected to what they regarded as fraternal incursions into their privileges to hear confessions and bury the dead. John Gower, in Vox clamantis 4.17, writes of this problem: "For a friar demands that he himself bury the dead bodies of those to whom he attached himself as confessor, if they were dignitaries. But if it should be a poor [man's] body, he makes no claim at all, since his piety takes no cognizance of anything unless there is money in it." (Trans. Eric W. Stockton, The Major Latin Works of John Gower [Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1962). See also JU lines 151-56.

471 there as wynnynge lijth. Compare Chaucer's pilgrim Friar: "And over al, ther as profit sholde arise, / Curteis he was and lowely of servyse" (CT I [A] 249-50).

479 Thorughe that gleym of that gest that Golias is ycalde. "Gleym = bird-lime, and hence subtletly, craft, guile" (Skeat); see line 564 and note. The story called Golias refers to the Apocalypsis Goliae, a twelfth-century satire on the monastic orders. Trinity reads Trowe ye for Thorughe; the 1553 edition and Wright have Trow ye. Royal has Thoughe which is corrected to Thorughe; and this is Skeat's reading (= Žoru3).

486 Of the kynrede of Caym. The friars were often said to be from Cain's (Caym's) kin, i.e., from Augustine's city of man, founded by Cain. (See FDR 105.) Wyclif pointed out that the first letters of the friars' orders spelled the name of Cain: Carmelites, Austins, Iacobites (Dominicans), Minorites (Franciscans). A lyric poem of 1382 ("Preste, ne monke, ne 3it chanoun" [HP XIV & XV 65]) alludes to the same letters: "Žat frer carmes come of a k, / Že frer austynes come of a, / frer Iacobynes of i, / Of M comen že frer menours" (lines 110-13).

487 Farysens. The friars were often compared with the Pharisees whom Christ denounced as hypocrites in Matthew 15 and 23.

489 kynde ypocrites. See Matt. 23.28: "So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just; but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."

492 Wo worthe you. See Matt. 23.23: "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: because you tithe mint, and anise, and cummin, and have left the weightier things of the law, judgment, and mercy, and faith." See also Luke 11.46.

495 Youre faderes fordeden hem. Luke 11.47: "Woe to you who build the monuments of the prophets: and your fathers killed them."

498 ben 'Maysters' ycalled. Matt. 23.7, on the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees: ". . . and [they love] to be called by men, Rabbi." See also line 574.

515-16 But now . . . opon trewthe. The sense of these lines is that the friars have created (unleashed) unauthorized interpretations of Scripture, overlarding the text with self-serving commentaries.

520 Yblessed mote thei ben. Matt. 5.3: "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Piers often contrasts the friars with those whom Christ blessed in the Beatitudes (Matt. 5.3-11; Luke 6.20-22).

528 Wytnesse on Wycliff. The author shows himself to be in general sympathy with John Wyclif's views on clerical corruption. Wyclif, who died in 1384, was for most of his career regarded as an important Oxford theologian; but toward the end of his career he denounced the Pope and attacked the doctrine of Transubstantiation in so far as the Eucharist was understood to be "accident without substance" (having the appearance of bread but being something else in reality). The author of PPC does not deny the doctrine of Transubstantiation ("Fulliche His fleche and His blod," line 823). See also Jack Upland's accusation about the friars in JU line 280.

532 And overal lollede him. Friars and other clerics accused Wyclif of professing heretical doctrines, or chaff (compare Latin lolia: chaff). The term Lollard was applied both to the followers of Wyclif and to friars, whom Wyclif and the Wycliffites attacked.

542 Both with 'thou leyest,' and 'thou lext'. See Piers Plowman B 5.162-63: "Of wikkede wordes I, wraže, hire wortes made / Til 'žow lixt!' and 'žow lixt!' lopen out at ones." In Langland, these liars speak as if personified. See also C 6.137-38.

545 a beggere, the beste. Compare CT I.252: "He [the Friar] was the beste beggere in his hous."

546 beth. Trinity alone reads hež. Royal and the 1553 edition have beth; Wright Beth, Skeat bež.

551 And launceth heighe her hemmes. See Matt. 23.5: "For they make their phylacteries broad, and enlarge their fringes."

561 be. So Royal and Skeat; Trinity, the 1553 edition, and Wright have by.

564 lym-yerde. "Lime-yards" were used to lure and capture birds; they became proverbial for the devil's tricks for attracting humans to damnation.

567 He loveth in markettes ben met. "And [they love] salutations in the market place" (Matt. 23.7).

581 Masters of Dyvinitie. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries a remarkable number of masters of divinity were friars, including the Franciscan Roger Bacon, who taught at Oxford; the Franciscan general St. Bonaventure, who taught at Paris; the Dominican Thomas Aquinas, who taught at Paris; the Franciscan John Duns Scotus; and the Franciscan William of Ockham, who taught at Oxford.

587-90 God forbad . . . Gost of Himselve. The argument here concerns divine inspiration rather than human ingenuity and elaborate commentary (glosses) in the interpretation of Scripture. See Mark 13.11: "And when they shall lead you and deliver you up, be not thoughtful beforehand what you shall speak; but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye. For it is not you that speak, but the Holy Ghost." In line 589 Trinity alone reads some for same.

597 a lymitour. A limiter was a friar or monk who had a specific ("limited") territory in which to beg alms. Chaucer's pilgrim Friar was a "lymytour" (CT I [A] 209).

600 Bagges and beggyng. Christ never explicitly prohibited begging; but see His advice from the Sermon on the Mount, quoted in the note to line 602 below. Archbishop FitzRalph distinguished between civil dominion (established by humans) and natural dominion (Christ's lordship, which regained the lordship that the first Adam lost). Because civil dominion (and hence private property) arose through Adam's Fall, property should not be sought after and acquired through "bags and begging." Mendicancy was thought to be all the more sinful when able-bodied men and women engaged in it, as detailed in lines 603-10 or in PP B-passus 6 and 7. See also JU lines 224-25: "for if a man suffice to hym silf bi goodis or bi strengthe, he synneth for to begge."

602 And all that nedly nedeth. See Matt. 6.25: "Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment?"

612 That wepen for wykkednes. See Luke 6.21: "Blessed are ye that hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now, for you shall laugh." See also line 619.

614 And put all in pur clay, with pottes on her hedes. The meaning of this line is unclear, but the general sense seems to be that the friars, through their conduct, are virtual dead men, almost buried in clay. Skeat emends the Trinity MS's reading clay to clath, cloth, based on the 1553 edition.

618 terre powghe. The Glossary to the 1553 edition glosses "terre powghe" as "tar box."

626 his bed is ygreithed. The friar who fails to beg successfully will be slain.

629-30 blessed / That han mercy. See Matt. 5.7: "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy."

637 The clene hertes of Crist. See Matt. 5.8: "Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God."

645 the pesible blissed. See Matt. 5.9: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."

648-49 On the friar's volatile anger one is reminded of the outraged friar in Chaucer's Summoner's Tale, whose waspish wrath is, apart from his lechery, his dominant trait.

651 All the blissing. "They walk (i.e., live) without any of God's blessings." Beouten = OE butan, without, outside [of].

654 Thei han the benison of God. See Matt. 5.10: "Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

657 Wat Brut. Walter Brute, a Welsh esquire, who questioned Church doctrines and who defended certain people charged with heresy until 1393.

659 hym. Skeat's emendation of hem (Trinity, Royal, 1553 edition, Wright). The antecedent is "Wat Brut" (line 657), hence hym is correct.

663 thei chewen charitie. The pun (eschew; chew; show) occurs likewise in Piers Plowman B 1.193: "Chewen hire charite and chiden after moore."

669 forbade. Trinity reads forladde, all others forbad or forbadde.

670 never the folke demen. See Matt. 7 for the issue of judgment.

677 schenden. Trinity reads schenden ožer schenden (= dittography); all others have shamen or schamen.

681 possessioners were beneficed or endowed clergymen who were allowed to have possessions. Fraternal rules prohibited the owning of property.

691 ante tronum. See Apoc. 4.10: "the twenty-four elders will fall down before him who sits upon the throne."

695-96 undernethen whijt . . . Blak. This is the habit of the Dominicans, black over white.

703 Hyldegare. Hildegarde of Bingen (1098-1180), who predicted the corruptions of monastic orders. The pronoun in line 703 would more correctly be "ho" rather than "he," but there is no manuscript support for this emendation.

713-14 a pena . . . a culpa. "And completely absolved people both from punishment and blame." See Piers Plowman B 7.3: "And purchaced hym a pardoun a pena & a culpa."

719 Thei usen russet also. Franciscan friars, best known as the Greyfriars, also wore reddish-brown habits. See Piers Plowman B 15.167-68: "[Charite] . . . is as glad of a gowne of gray russet / As of a tunycle of tarse or of trie scarlet."

725 als. Trinity alone reads all for als.

726-28 And ryght as dranes. See the Summoner's Prologue, CT III (D) 1692-99, which compares friars to bees in a derogatory context.

729 furste-froyt. Chaucer's Summoner alludes to "firste fruyt" in an antifraternal context when the lord's squire explains that the friar, because of his pre-eminence, should first partake of the fart divided upon twelve. See CT III (D) 1271-86. Both here and in Chaucer the Pauline notion of "firstfruit" for God is perverted.

748-49 So of that begger's brol . . . prese to sitten. The issue of newly-advanced sons arises in Piers Plowman B, and in similar language. Lady Mede denounces Conscience by alluding to the hardships of the French wars: "I dorste haue leyd my lif and no lasse wedde / He sholde haue be lord of žat lond in lengže and in brede, / And ek kyng of žat kiž his kyn for to helpe, / The leeste brol of his blood a Barones piere" (B 3.202-05; cf. C 3.258-61). In his edition to Piers Plowman, Skeat directs to Promptorium parvulorum, s.v. "Breyel [for brežel?], Brollus, brolla, miserculus," i.e., little wretch, brat.

758 The word faytoures, meaning "deceivers" or "(false) beggars," appears several times coupled with freres in Piers Plowman B-text. See passus 10. 72: "Freres and faitours han founden vp swiche questions." See also John A. Alford, Piers Plowman: A Glossary of Legal Diction (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1988), s.v. Faitour.

773 But scheten. The idea here is that women should give careful consideration before inviting friars into their homes. See also Harry Bailly's admonition against bringing monks into your home: CT VII (B2) 442.

788 wolward gon. Wear wool clothing without benefit of linen to mitigate the rough fabric. See Piers Plowman B 18.1.

801 That. Trinity alone reads It.

808 And fet oute our formfaderes. A reference to Christ's Harrowing of Hell to save the virtuous pagans. The issue of the virtuous pagans was important in the late fourteenth century. See Piers Plowman B 11.140-66, 12.210-17, 18.261-423.

816 generall Holy Chirche. The Catholic, universal Church, as opposed to those aspects of the Church that require reform.

817-21 These lines are recorded only in the 1553 edition. Wright prints them (his lines 1629-38); and Skeat prints them in brackets and in italics, since he believed they were spurious.

822-23 sothfast God on is. The author here affirms the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist: that Christ is truly present, "fully" His flesh and blood.

827-28 Lat the losels alone . . . nede worthe. Lines 827 and 828 do not occur in the 1553 edition, which prints five lines that Skeat regarded as spurious. Skeat surmises that the editor of the 1553 edition deleted the reference to Christ's presence in the communion for doctrinal reasons, and inserted a penitential passage to cover up for the omission.

828-30 These lines are lacking in the 1553 edition and in Wright's edition.

833 of. Trinity alone reads or.

838 ben. Trinity reads žen, which makes no sense. The 1553 edition, Wright, and Skeat have ben, Royal bene.

839 no. Trinity alone reads on, which seems to be anticipation of on his pild pate.