UPLAND'S REJOINDER: FOOTNOTES

1 [This is] a rejoinder to the treatise (FDR) that a friar has composed

2 Rebuking with blasphemy, chattering like choughs (see note to line 7)

3 Of whom you don't know their knowledge or their ways of speaking

4 But each man who has understanding, and chance of discernment

5 ``For wise men recognize that you are not loyal'' (PLH)

6 Unless your chiefs challenge you and don't ask permission of kings

7 And the best masses sung, not preventing their labor

8 For despite the fact that they often sin, as is well known

9 Which, because of their serious beliefs, must needs be destroyed

10 But [of the charge] that I once lied about you, I know I am not guilty

11 But I suppose your sect trusts so much in its customary practices

12 Daw, you call upon Solomon to justify your sumptuous houses

13 Let us take up Christ's Cross, he says, and reckon [worldly] delights as clay

14 Topias (i.e., Daw), you write about me as an illiterate man

15 But ignorant men don't preach, as thou realize unless you choose to lie

16 I marvel, Daw, that you dare to lie about such a great ecclesiastic (John Wyclif)

17 To understand a cleric as [he] should be, according to his meaning

18 Cleric is as much as to say a person of God

19 Daw dung, you prate much of orders of angels in heaven

20 Unless you interpret - as you usually do - this Gospel text backwards

21 Yet, Daw, I think you resort to your accustomed state

22 Although you accuse the Friars Minor, I don't need to do so

23 Nor [against] any of that sect of Christ which I call mine

24 But against a convent in moderation, Daw, I don't complain at all

25 That has more basis in God's law than all your Cain's castles

26 For they don't have any ground unless it is here (on earth)

27 For they (pardoners) are close to you apostates in deceiving the people

28 But it may not be denied that you farm out [territory] to limiters

29 And, as I believe, the Holy Ghost will approve neither your life nor that of your brethren

30 Because of the people's sin, when they (disciples) were in distress

31 Yet, Daw, you chop your ax high and frame your words piously

32 Why do you compare the writing [down] of names, which you do for money

33 From this it follows [that] Satan, not God, admitted you

UPLAND'S REJOINDER: NOTES

7 tame chowghe. The chough is a species of crow (Pyrrhocorax), but Upland here associates the chough with another crow-like bird, the daw or jackdaw (Corvus monedula), which could be tamed and taught to mimic the sounds of human voices. Upland portrays Daw's apocalyptic opening (FDR 1-30) as the chattering of birds, which was denounced in Deut. 18.10 as utterly worthless for purposes of divination.

13 Quia angelis suis. Matt. 4.6: ``That he hath given his angels charge over thee'' (from Psalm 90.11). This occurs in Satan's second temptation of Christ.

21 Loke how Sampson. See FDR 21 and note. The comparison of ``twey foxes'' and ``werkes of twye freres'' (18) together with Solomon's fable of the foxes bound two together alludes to the controversial issue of paired friars (FDR 772-89). Upland's point is that paired friars are doubly destructive. Lines 14-23 reply to FDR 21-24.

24-30 Reply to FDR 49-54.

31-36 Reply to FDR 55-62.

32 For Poule laborid. 1 Cor. 4.11: ``Even unto this hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no fixed abode; And we labour, working with our own hands.''

33 oure gentil Jesu. When people marvel at Christ's teachings, they ask: ``Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph, and Jude, and Simon?'' (Mark 6.3).

37-47 Reply to FDR 75-83.

43-44 the prophetes of Achab. Elijah, with the Lord's help, killed all of Achab's prophets, who worshipped Baal (3 Kings 18.20-40). Upland here responds to FDR 27: ``Baal preestes ben bolde sacrifice to make.''

47 ne thee for your. ``The pronominal variation is explicable if 3our is taken to refer both to priests who practise simony and to Daw who implicitly approves of it'' (PLH). Symonye was the selling of clerical preferment.

48-62 Reply to FDR 99-104.

52 her habites. Their practices, although there is word-play (paranomasia) on habites as gowns.

54-55 Fuerunt pseudoprophete. 2 Pet. 2.1: ``But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there shall be among you lying teachers, who shall bring in sects of perdition, and deny the Lord who brought them: bring upon themselves swift destruction.''

59 speke. PLH's emendation of MS spake, which is also Wr's reading. Here at the end of the line may be by a corrector, in which case ``Upland'' may refer to some previous instance of his not speaking about Daw's ``privey sodomye.'' Or the line may be an ironic occupatio.

63-75 Reply to FDR 105-11.

68 12a q 2a Gloria episcopi. A reference to Gratian's twelfth-century Decretum, the fundamental treatise for the academic study of canon law, which formed part 1 of the Corpus juris canonici. The decree reads: ``Nunc uero, cum paupertatem domus suae pauper Dominus dedicauit, portemus crucem, et delicias lutum putemus'' (in PLH). (Now then, since the indigent Lord dedicated His house [= Church] to poverty, let us take up the Cross, and let us consider delights [to be] clay.)

71 blynde leder. Matt. 23.16: ``Woe to you, blind guides.''

71-73 thowgh thou bigile. ``Though you may fool simple people with your (i.e. Daw's) persuasive gloss and your talk of rich buildings, you don't fool me into accepting your (i.e. friars') ill-founded convents'' (PLH).

74-75 Unde in Evangelio. Mark 11.17: [Whence in the Gospel]: ``But you have made it a den of thieves.''

76-84 Reply to FDR 114-28.

82 Surgent multi pseudoprophete. Matt 24.11: ``And many false prophets shall arise.''

84 ever the mo the werse. PLH's emendation; MS and Wr ever žo [tho] mo že [the] werse. PLH speculates that žo anticipates mo. ``Ever the more the worse'' was a common Middle English expression.


85-92 Reply to FDR 148-58.

88 blynde Bayarde. Bayard was more commonly the proverbial name of a horse than a dog. See Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale VIII (G) 1413-14; Troilus and Criseyde 1.218. But here Upland seems to refer to a dog's ``barking'' and ``baffing.''

92 Quia dignus est. Luke 10.7: ``for the labourer is worthy of his hire.'' ``A favourite text for those who attacked the friars. FitzRalph uses it three times in the Defensio'' (PLH).

93-103 Reply to FDR 159-69.

95 Ve vobis. Isaiah 5.20: ``Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil.''

102-04 Qui mihi ministrat. John 12.26: ``If any man minister to me, let him follow me''; Luke 12.1: ``Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy''; Prov. 6.12: ``A man that is an apostate, an unprofitable man, walketh with a perverse mouth.''

104-13 Reply to FDR 191.

107 Whe have leve. PLH suggests Matt 5.16: ``So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works''; and Matt. 7.20: ``Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.''

110-11 Noli ante tempus judicare. 1 Cor. 4.5: ``Therefore judge not before the time; until the Lord come.''

112 confusoures. A bon mot which combines ``confusion'' with ``confessors.''

113 Quia si cecus. Matt. 15.14: ``And if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit.''

114-19 Reply to FDR 210-16.

119 pointes. Wr reads partes. The MS is difficult to decipher here.

120-29 Reply to FDR 234-57.

124-25 as the prestes of Bel. The priests of Bel (Baal) asked the king to leave food and drink for the god under the altar and to seal it up with his ring; but they had constructed a secret entrance and consumed the food themselves together with their families. Daniel discovered the ruse, and the king slew the priests and their families. See Dan. 14.

130-46 Reply to FDR 260-81.

141 Initium omnis peccati. Ecclus. 10.14, 15: ``The beginning of the pride of man is to fall off from God . . . for pride is the beginning of all sin.''

146 Avaricia. See Col. 3.5: ``covetousness, which is the service of idols.''

147-65 Reply to FDR 282-313.

152 Non potest civitas. Matt. 5.14: ``A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid.''

154-55 Neque accendunt. Matt. 5.15: ``Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel.''

158 ranes. ``Probably an adaptation of Lat. rana `frog.' Cp. Rev. xvi. 13: `Et uidi . . . de ore pseudoprophetae spiritus tres immundos in modun ranarum' [``And I si3e thre vncleene spirites in to manere of froggis for to go out of the . . . mouth of the false prophet'']; see Augustine, Expositio in Apocalypsim, Hom. xiii (PL xxxv. 2446-7). The sense is perhaps `mucus''' (PLH).

159 Pacem relinquo vobis. John 14.27: ``Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.''

161-65 twey lyves. The two ``lives'' or ``ways'' of Martha, symbol of the active life, and of Mary, symbol of the contemplative life. See Luke 10.38-43. Upland criticizes Daw and friars generally for failing to live up to the ideals of the active life, which they abuse through begging and rich living, or of the contemplative life, which they evade while pursuing fraud.

166-69 Reply to FDR 322-29.

168-69 Panis egentium. Ecclus. 34.25: ``The bread of the needy, is the life of the poor: he that defraudeth them thereof, is a man of blood.''

170-72 Reply to FDR 330-36.

172 Quod Deus conjunxit. Matt. 19.6: ``What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.''

173-88 Reply to FDR 337-64.

174 tateris and tagges, fashionably tattered and dagged clothing. Chaucer's Parson denounces such fashion in his Tale: ``. . . ther is also costlewe furrynge in hir gownes, so muche pownsonynge [punching] of chisels to maken holes, so muche daggynge of sheres [cutouts with scissors].''

178 the coloure. Upland seems to identify Daw as a Dominican both here, with the reference to the ``coloure that signifieth sadnes,'' and at line 299: ``If thou callist, Dawe, your Dominikis reules.'' MS siginfiež; Wr, PLH signifiež.

185 misse-shapen shelde. This refers to Daw's hood; see FDR 373: ``My greet hood behynde, shapun as a sheeld.''

187-88 Genimina viperarum. Luke 3.7: ``Ye offspring of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come''; or Matt. 3.7: ``Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come.''

189-96 Reply to FDR 365-82.

192 Diabolus est mendax. See John 8.44: ``You are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father . . . for he is a liar, and the father thereof.''

197-203 Reply to FDR 387-406.

198-99 For Salomon spekith not of silence. Solomon refers to a time and season for everything, including silence, rather than to the official observance of silence in convents. See FDR 389-90 and note and 390 and note.

200 etyng of your fleshe. Eating meat on fast-days was a point of contention between the Lollards and the clergy. See FDR 397-406 and note to 403.

203 ``A horizontal stroke, probably an abbreviation mark, stands after dawe; the letter over which it was presumably placed lost in cropping'' (PLH). PLH punctuates ``Dawe <. . .> |''

204-16 Reply to FDR 407-21.

209-10 And yit shal tyde. 4 Kings 22, 23. Josiah repaired the temple, abolished idolatry, and renewed the law. He also threw out the vessels of Baal and put the soothsayers to death.

211 Jamnes and Mambres. See 2 Tim. 3.8: ``Now as Jannes and Mambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth, men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the faith.'' ``[I]t is generally assumed that the Egyptian sorcerers of Exod. vii. 11, 22 are meant. The names are traditional from the earliest Christian times'' (PLH).

213-14 Attendite a falsis prophetis. Matt. 7.15: ``Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep.''

217-29 Reply to FDR 452-77.

219-20 For bi this apis argument. Upland refers to Daw's argument, justifying wealthy fraternal convents, that man is better than a beast. See FDR 452-59.

223 Caymes castelles, i.e., fraternal houses. See PPC 486n and JU 56n.

227-29 Non habemus. Heb. 13.14: ``For we have not here a lasting city.'' Ve qui edificatis. Hab. 2.12: ``Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood.'' Et ve qui conjungitis. Isa. 5.8: ``Woe to you that join house to house.''

230 thou accusest pardoneres. See FDR 482-83 and note.

230-35 Reply to FDR 478-86.

236 paiyng of tribut. See FDR 488 and note.

236-52 Reply to FDR 487-506.

240-41 Qui non est mecum. Matt. 12.30: ``He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth''; or Luke 11.23.

242 I saide first. See lines 3-4.

244 Thi resones. An allusion to the weak but treacherous reed of Isaiah 36.6: ``Lo thou trustest upon this broken staff of a reed, upon Egypt: upon which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it.''

252 Benedicite. Romans 12.14: ``. . . bless, and curse not.''

253-56 Reply to FDR 524-37. The allusion to ``a b from a bole fote'' refers back to FDR 213.

254 the vertu. Luke 8.46.

257-65 Reply to FDR 538-54.

264-65 Ve vobis. Matt. 23.15: ``Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: because you go round about the sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, you make him the child of hell twofold more than yourselves.'' PLH suggests that Suple means something like ``namely'' or ``that is.''

266-77 Reply to FDR 555-77. Frentike am I not. See FDR 560.

269 when ye gode likith. PLH emends to ``when 3ou gode likiž.'' The MS reads 3e.

271-72 And the kyng . . . traytoures. Skeat thought these lines allude to the hanging of eight Franciscan friars at Tyburn, June, 1402, for their part in a plot against King Henry IV. PLH does not agree with Skeat's arguments.

276-77 Que conventio. 2 Cor. 6.15: ``And what concord hath Christ with Belial?'' Quid communicabit. Ecclus. 13.3: ``What agreement shall the earthen pot have with the kettle?''

278-92 Reply to FDR 601-30.

287-88 Bot the harlot . . . any rewarde. The meaning of these lines is not wholly clear, but the general point seems to be that the scoundrel will go to extraordinary lengths to do Antichrist's work.

290-92 Mordent dentibus. Micah 3.5: ``. . . that bite with their teeth, and preach peace: and if a man give not something into their mouth, they prepare war against him.''

293-310 Reply to FDR 631-45.

296 thou callist Holichirche. PLH's emendation; MS žou ?seyst. There are erasures and the interpolator inserts seyst. See PLH's note to this line.

303 Odivi ecclesiam malignantium. Psalm 25.5: ``I have hated the assembly of the malignant.''

308 Ye, callid Hym a blasfeme. See Matt. 9.3: ``And behold some of the scribes said within themselves: He blasphemeth.''

310 Et vos implete. Matt. 23.32: ``Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.''

311-29 Reply to FDR 646-98.

325 Ypocrita, eice primo. Matt. 7.5: ``Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thy own eye.''

327 For as God yaf Kyng Saule. Saul loved David, but a strange ``rapture'' or madness would come over him, especially when David won success on the battlefield. Upland compares Saul's madness in the pursuit of David to Daw's ``following'' of the Church.

329 Periculum in falsis fratribus. 2 Cor. 11.26: ``. . . in perils from false brethren.''

330-53 Reply to FDR 699-739. In lines 330-45 Upland outlines his position on mendicancy: namely, that begging is permissible provided the beggar be both poor and needy. Two Wycliffite conclusions condemned in Gregory XI's De haeretico comburendi (1401) were article 23: ``That friars should be required to gain their living by the labor of their hands and not by mendicancy''; and article 24: ``That a person giving alms to friars, or to a preaching friar, is ex-communicate; also the one receiving.'' See The World of Piers Plowman, ed. Jeanne Krochalis and Edward Peters (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1975), p. 127.

334 bolde beggeres. See Piers Plowman B 6.213. Langland condemns aggressive mendicancy by both lay and religious beggars.

339 Dawe, thou dotest allegyng. I adopt PLH's solution to the problem of ``allegyng,'' which seems to mean ``setting aside'' or ``annulling'' rather than ``citing.'' PLH thinks the water, ass, and inn (herberowe) refer to Christ's walking on the waters (or His rebuking of the sea and winds); His sending disciples to locate an ass for him to ride into Jerusalem; and His securing an inn for the Last Supper. Upland seems to be arguing that Daw conveniently omits or misconstrues evidence of Christ's divine powers.

341 thou mysse-takist Jerom. This line refers directly back to FDR 717-22.

343 likith. PLH's emendation. MS: likist.

344-45 evel mote he spede . . . more than is nede. See JU 224-25 note.

346 Mendax mendicus. ``A lying beggar is not the friend of truth.''

347 Nutantes transferantur. Psalm 108.10: ``Let his children be carried about vagabonds, and beg.''

349 After this line occurs the first of three interpolations in a different hand from the main text (the interpolator designated T by PLH). For the eight-line interpolation, see PLH's note to 349. T's other interpolations come after lines 374 and 393.

350 Dawe, thou hewist hye. PLH cites a proverb about receiving wood chips in the eye if one chops the tree too high.

351 likkith the chesefat. PLH cites statements concerning licking the fat from someone's beard as a way of depriving them of livelihood, or having one's beard smeared with fat (a sign of low-life indulgence).

352 pore wedowes porse . . . peny. Friars were often portrayed as so greedy that they would take a poor widow's last penny. See Chaucer's CT I 253-55.

353 Dawe Dotypolle. A term of contempt: ``fool, simpleton, blockhead'' (MED s.v. doti-pol). The Doty part refers to Daw's alleged foolishness (compare ``dote,'' ``dotard,'' ``doddering,'' ``dotty''), and polle to the head (LG polle, head). Answers Daw's abusive appellations Jakke Jospinel (823), and Jak Jawdewyne (760, 930).

354-56 Reply to FDR 740-54.

357-63 Reply to FDR 755-64.

357 glasen glose. ``A sophistical interpretation, presumably of a biblical text; cf. MED, glasen, 1b.'' Robert W. Hanning, ```I Shal Finde It in a Maner Glose': Versions of Textual Harassment in Medieval Literature,'' in Medieval Texts and Contemporary Readers, ed. Laurie A. Finke and Martin B. Shichtman (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1987), p. 32. Of UR 357-59 Hanning comments: ``In this accusation one kind of glossing leads naturally to the other: the tongue that twists language to justify clerical abuses easily becomes the tongue that flatters the rich to open their money bags'' (p. 32).

358 galpen. A blended word akin to gape, gulp, and yelp. MED relates the word to opening the mouth wide, yawning, gaping; to galpen after grace suggests a greedy eagerness to obtain.

362-63 Amant enim primos recubitus. Matt. 23.6-7: ``And they love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues, and salutations in the market place, and to be called by men, Rabbi.'' See also PPC 567, 761.

364-74 Reply to FDR 772-89.

364-65 Daw, thou herdist me not grucche. See lines 58-59.

371-72 Zambre with Corby. Zimri, an Israelite, took Cozbi, a Midianite, into his family in defiance of Moses. Phineas slew them both with a single spear thrust. See Numbers 25.6-8. For Jamnes and Mambres - traditional names of Pharoah's magicians in the time of Moses - see line 211 and note.

373-74 Hii sunt qui penetrant domos. 2 Tim. 3.6: ``For of these sort are they who creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins.'' Among the frequent charges against friars was that they infiltrated hearth and home. Langland allegorizes the type in his character Sire Penetrans domos (Piers Plowman B 20.340); and Chaucer represents a similar type in the unnamed friar of the Summoner's Tale, who overstays his welcome in Thomas's house. After line 374 there follows an eleven-line interpolation, which PLH prints in his note to line 374.

375-79 Reply to FDR 810-38.

380-81 Thou saist . . . Cristis body. The argument, not well stated in these lines, seems to concern substance and accidence in the Transubstantiation. Upland tries to articulate the orthodox position. PLH comments: ``Of UR's reply I can make nothing; but I feel safe in assuming confusion of thought rather than corruption of the text.'' Articles 1 and 2 of De haeretico comburendi concern Wycliffite conclusions about Transubstantiation: (1) ``That the material substance of bread and wine remains, after the consecration, in the sacrament of the altar''; (2) ``That the accidents do not remain without the subject, after the consecration, in the same sacrament.''

380-93 Reply to FDR 839-72.

378-89 Sathanas was unbounde. A reference to the controversial millennial doctrine mentioned in Rev. 20.7: ``And when the thousand years shall be finished, Satan shall be loosed out of prison, and shall go forth. . . .'' The Church Fathers (``holi doctoures'') debated the precise meaning of these lines and especially whether there would be a ``carnal millenium.'' Upland implies - as did Wyclif - that Satan has already been ``unbound'' and that he is loose in the Church.

393 Commutaverunt veritatem Dei. Rom. 1.25: ``Who changed the truth of God into a lie.''
After this quotation there follows a twenty-eight line interpolation, which PLH prints in his note to line 393.