E si est maumise, nus veum cument.

Ele gent e plure,

n'a ad nul ke sucure

De sun marement.

Jà fu cleregie

franche e à desus,

Amée e cherie,

nule ren pot plus.

Ore est enservie,

E trop envilie,

e abatu jus;

Par iceus est hunie,

Dunt dut aver aïe;

jo n'os dire plus.

Li rois ne l'apostoile ne pensent altrement,
Mès coment au clers tolent lur or e lur argent.

Co est tute la summe,

ke la pape de Rume

Al rei trop consent,

pur aider sa curune

la dime de clers li dune, De ço en fet sun talent.

graced and all put to sale;-and truly is she in ill case, we see how.-She laments and weeps,-there is none who helps her-out of her desolation.

Formerly clergy was-free and uppermost,-loved and cherished,—nothing could be more so.-Now it is enslaved,-and too much debased, and trodden down. By those is it disgraced,-from whom it ought to have help ;-I dare not say more.

The king and the pope think of nothing else, but how they may take from the clergy their gold and their silver. This is the whole affair,-that the pope of Rome-yields too much to the king,-to help his crown,-the tenth of the clergy's goods he gives him,—and with that he does his will.

Jo ne quid pas ke li rois face sagement,
Ke il vit de roberie ke il de la clergie prent.

Jà ne fra bone prise,

pur rober seinte eglise ;

Il la say verament.

Ke vot aver semblance,

regarde le rois de France

E sun achevement.

I do not think that the King acts wisely,-that he lives of robbery which he commits upon the clergy.-He will never be a gainer,-by robbing holy church; he knows it truly.-He who seeks an example,-let him regard the King of France and his achievement.

The next Song, directed against the avarice of the Bishops, appears to be of about the same date. In the manuscript it is written, like the foregoing, as prose.

A SONG AGAINST THE BISHOPS.
[From the same folio of the same MS.]

LICET æger cum ægrotis,
Et ignotus cum ignotis,
Fungar tamen vice totis,
Jus usurpans sacerdotis ;
flete, Syon filiæ,
præsides ecclesiæ

imitantur hodie

Christum a remotis.

Jacet ordo clericalis

In respectu laicalis,

Sponsa Christi fit venalis,

Generosa generalis;

veneunt altaria,

venit eucharistia,

cum sit nugatoria

Gratia venalis.

Donum Dei non donatur

Nisi gratis conferatur ;

Quod qui vendit vel mercatur,

Lepra Syri vulneratur;

quem sic ambit ambitus,

ydolorum servitus

templo sancti spiritus

Non compaginatur.

In diebus juventutis

Timent annos senectutis,

Ne fortuna destitutis

The clerical order is debased in respect of the laity; the spouse of Christ is made venal, she that is noble, common; the altars are for sale; the eucharist is for sale, although venal grace is vain and frivolous.

God's gift is not given if it be not conferred gratis; and he who sells and makes merchandise of it, is, in so doing, struck with the leprosy of Syrus; the service of idols, at which his ambition thus aims, may not be engrafted on the temple of the Holy Spirit.

In their days of youth, they look forwards to old age with fear, lest, deserted by fortune, they possess no longer their sleek skin. But while they

Desit eis splendor cutis.

Sed dum quærunt medium,
vertunt in contrarium,

fallit enim vitium

Specie virtutis.

Tu qui tenes hunc tenorem,
Frustra dicis te pastorem ;
Nec te regis ut rectorem,

Rerum mersus in ardorem :
Hæc est alia

sanguisugæ filia,

quam venalis curia

Duxit in uxorem.

seek the mean, they turn into the contrary extreme; for vice deceives them in the guise of virtue.

Thou who holdest this course, vainly thou callest thyself a pastor; neither doest thou govern thyself like a ruler, immersed in the heat of temporary affairs; she is another-daughter of the leech, whom the venal court has taken to wife.

The following is another bitter satire on the vices of the great, during the reign of Henry III. Who were the four brothers against whom the song is more particularly directed, would not be easily ascertained without other particulars besides those here furnished.

A SONG ON THE TIMES.

[MS. Harl. No. 978. fol. 123, vo. of the 13th cent.] MUNDI libet vitia cunctis exarare;

Nam in mundo video multos nunc errare,

TRANSLATION.-Everybody has a right to satirize the world's vices; for now I see many in the world err, despise what is good, love what is bad, and

Spernere quod bonum est, quod malum est amare,
Et ad mala sæpius sponte declinare.

Mundus quia malus est, male scit nocere ;
Mala novit facere, nescit pœnitere ;

Caro quicquid appetit pro posse vult habere,
Sed quod Deus præcipit nequit adimplere.
Jam nil valet aliquis ni sciat litigare,
Nisi sciat cautius causis cavillare,
Nisi sciat simplices dolis impugnare,
Nisi sciat plenius nummos adunare.
Mundi status hodie multum variatur,
Semper in deterius misere mutatur;
Nam qui parcit nemini, quique plus lucratur,
Ille plus dilectus est et plus commendatur.

Rex et regni proceres satis sunt amari;
Omnes fere divites nimis sunt avari;
Pauper pauca possidens debet depilari,
Et ut ditet divitem rebus spoliari,

Bona per superflua dives excæcatur;
Circa temporalia tota mens versatur :

most frequently turning off spontaneously to evil.-Because the world is depraved, it knows how to do injury; it knows how to act ill, but not how to repent; the flesh will do all it can to possess whatever it desires, but is unable to fulfill God's commandments.-Now nobody is esteemed unless he knows how to litigate; unless he can cavil cunningly in law-suits; unless he can overreach the simple; unless he know how to amass abundance of money.-The state of the world is at the present day constantly changing; it is always becoming miserably worse; for he who spares nobody, and who is bent most on gain, is most beloved and most commended.-The King and his nobles are sufficiently bitter; almost all the rich men are too avaricious; the poor man, who possesses little, must be robbed and spoiled of his property to enrich the wealthy.— The rich man is blinded by superfluous wealth; his whole mind is occupied with temporal matters; and, since he is too much pleased with vanities, he