Notes and Queries, Number 58, December 7, 1850, page 29 by Various Authors
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reader of Piers Ploughman, I know not; but the following passage from that poem proves he was giving expression to a feeling which had long been popular in this country. I quote from Mr. Wright's edition, published by Pickering:
"I knew nevere Cardinal That he ne cam fra the Pope; And we clerkes, whan thei come, For hir comunes paieth, For hir pelure and hir palfreyes mete, And pilours that hem folweth.
"The comune clamat cotidie Ech a man til oother, The contree is the corseder That Cardinals comme inne; And ther thei ligge and lenge moost, Lecherie there regneth."
L. 13789--13800.
Mr. Wright observes in a note upon this passage, that "the contributions levied upon the clergy for the support of the Pope's messengers and agents was a frequent subject of complaint in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries."
THETAS.
Gloves not worn in the Presence of Royalty (Vol. i., p. 366.).--
"This week the Lord Coke, with his gloves on, touched and kissed the King's hand; but whether to be confirmed a counsellor, or cashiered, I cannot yet learn."--Letter in Court and Times of Charles I., dated April, 1625.
W. DN.
Nonjurors' Oratories in London (Vol. ii., p. 354.).--
"Nothing, my lord, appears so dreadful to me, as the account I have of the barefaced impudence of your Jacobite congregations in London. The marching of the King's forces to and fro through the most factious parts of the kingdom, must (in time) put an end to our little country squabbles; but your fifty churches of nonjurors could never be thus daring, were they not sure of the protection of some high ally."--Letter from Bishop Nicholson to Archbishop Wake, dated Rose, Sept. 20. 1716. in Ellis's Letters, Series iii.
W. DN.
"Filthy Gingran" (Vol. ii., p. 335).--I have found the following clue to the solution of my Query on