Part 109

8. tepente, ‘being lukewarm,’ that is, held in a lukewarm manner.

196 (margin). Roberti Gibbonensis, Robert of Geneva, elected pope in opposition to Urban VI, under the title of Clement VII.

198. the god, see note on l. 72.

204. Simon, i.e. Simon Magus, whence simony has its name: cp. 442 ff., Mirour, 18451 ff., and Vox Clamantis, iii. 249, 1217, &c.

207 ff. The reference is to Lombard bankers employed as intermediaries in obtaining Church preferment. The ‘letter’ referred to is the papal provision, or perhaps the letter of request addressed to the pope in favour of a particular person: cp. Vox Clam. iii. 1375 f.,

‘Littera dum Regis papales supplicat aures, Simon et est medius, vngat vt ipse manus.’

210. provende, equivalent to prebend, and in fact ‘prebende’ is a var. reading here. Littré quotes from Wace,

‘Cil me dona et Diez li rende À Baiex une provende,’

and from Rutebeuf,

‘Qui argent porte a Rome, assés tot provende a.’

212. ‘The authority of the Church’ (symbolized by the key) ‘did not then lie at the mercy of armed bands or depend upon the issue of battle.’ For ‘brigantaille,’ meaning bands of irregular troops, cp. Mir. 18675.

218. defence, ‘prohibition’: cp. iv. 1026, v. 1710, and Chaucer, Troil. iii. 138, ‘if that I breke your defence.’

220. ‘was then no charge of theirs,’ i.e. did not come under their authority: ‘baillie’ means the charge or government of a thing, as Trait. xi. 19, ‘Le duc q’ot lors Ravenne en sa baillie,’ hence a thing placed in a person’s charge.

221. The vein honour: the definite form is rather less regularly used by Gower in adjectives taken from French than in others, e.g. iii. 889, ‘For with here fals compassement’; but on the other hand, i. 864, ‘the pleine cas,’ ii. 412, ‘And thurgh his false tunge endited,’ and 824, ‘This false knyht upon delay.’

246. is went: cp. iii. 878 and Chaucer, Cant. Tales, E 1013, F 567.

247. here lawe positif: the ‘lex positiva’ is that which is not morally binding in itself, but only so because imposed by (ecclesiastical) authority: cp. Vox Clam. iii. 227 ff. This is naturally the sphere within which Church dispensations of all kinds take effect.

248. Hath set. Apparently ‘set’ is intransitive, ‘Since their positive law hath set itself to make,’ &c. There is no good authority for reading ‘hire.’.

252. There is hardly another instance of ‘but’ for ‘bot’ in F, and the form ‘right’ for ‘riht’ in the preceding line is very unusual.

260. the manhode, i.e. human nature: see note on l. 72. For ‘thenkth’ see note on 461.

263. withholde, ‘retained as her servant.’

268. in the point &c., i.e. so soon as it is collected. The allusion is to the circumstances of the campaign of the Bishop of Norwich in 1385; cp. Vox Clam. iii. 373 (margin), and see Froissart (ed. Lettenhove), vol. x. p. 207.

278. That scholde be &c., i.e. the papacy, which by reason of the schism has become a cause of war and strife.

289. Gregoire. The reference is to such passages as Regula Pastoralis, i. cap. 8, 9. The quotation in the margin at l. 298 is loosely taken from the Homilies on the Gospel (Migne, Patrol. vol. 76. p. 1128), ‘Mercenarius quippe est qui locum quidem pastoris tenet, sed lucra animarum non quaerit: terrenis commodis inhiat, honore praelationis gaudet, temporalibus lucris pascitur, impensa sibi ab hominibus reverentia laetatur.’ The idea expressed by ‘non vt prosint sed vt presint’ often occurs in Gregory’s writings, e.g. Reg. Past. ii. cap. 6, ‘nec praeesse se hominibus gaudent sed prodesse.’

299. manie: the final ‘e’ counts as a syllable and the preceding vowel is absorbed; see note on 323: but ‘many’ is also used as the plural.

305. Cp. Vox Clam. iii. 1271, ‘In cathedram Moysi nunc ascendunt Pharisei,’ and see Rom. de la Rose, 11809 ff. (ed. Méon), English version, 6889 ff.

311. is noght foryete, an impersonal use, ‘there is no forgetting’: cp. 338.

323. Here ‘studie’ is reduced by elision to the value of a monosyllable: see note on Mirour, 296. The rule applies to substantives like ‘accidie,’ ‘Mercurie,’ ‘chirie,’ adjectives like ‘manie’ (l. 299), and verbs like ‘studie,’ ‘carie,’ ‘tarie.’

329. If Ethna brenne &c. What is meant is the fire of Envy, which is often compared to that of Etna, ii. 20, 2337, &c.