A Student's History of England Volume I Part 16

4. =The Renewed War. 1369--1375.=--Edward, by the advice of Parliament, resumed the t.i.tle of King of France, and war broke out afresh in =1369=. The result of the first war had been owing to the blunders of the French in attacking the English archers with the feudal cavalry. Charles V. and his commander, Du Guesclin, resolved to fight no battles. Their troops hung about the English march, cut off stragglers, and captured exposed towns. The English marched hither and thither, plundering and burning, but their armies, powerful as they were when attacked in a defensive position, could not succeed in forcing a battle, and were worn out without accomplis.h.i.+ng anything worthy of their fame. The Black Prince, soured by failure and ill-health, having succeeded in =1370= in recapturing Limoges, ordered his men to spare no one in the town. "It was great pity," wrote the chronicler Froissart, "for men, women, and children threw themselves on their knees before the Prince, crying 'Mercy! mercy! gentle Sire!'"

The Prince, who had waited at table behind a captive king, hardened his heart. More than three thousand--men, women and children--were butchered on that day. Yet the spirit of chivalry was strong within him, and he spared three gentlemen who fought bravely merely in order to sell their lives dearly. In =1371= the Black Prince was back in England. His eldest surviving brother, John of Gaunt--or Ghent--Duke of Lancaster, continued the war in France. In =1372= the English lost town after town. In =1373= John of Gaunt set out from Calais. He could plunder, but he could not make the enemy fight. "Let them go," wrote Charles V. to his commanders; "by burning they will not become masters of your heritage. Though storms rage over a land, they disperse of themselves. So will it be with these English." When the English reached the hilly centre of France food failed them. The winter came, and horses and men died of cold and want. A rabble of half-starved fugitives was all that reached Bordeaux after a march of six hundred miles. Aquitaine, where the inhabitants were for the most part hostile to the English, and did everything in their power to a.s.sist the French, was before long all but wholly lost, and in =1375= a truce was made which put an end to hostilities for a time, leaving only Calais, Cherbourg, Brest, Bayonne, and Bordeaux in the hands of the English.

5. =Anti-Papal Legislation. 1351--1366.=--The antagonism between England and France necessarily led to an antagonism between England and the Papacy. Since =1305= the Popes had fixed their abode at Avignon, and though Avignon was not yet incorporated with France, it was near enough to be under the control of the king of France. During the time of this exile from Rome, known to ardent churchmen as the Babylonian captivity of the Church, the Popes were regarded in England as the tools of the French enemy. The Papal court, too, became distinguished for luxury and vice, and its vast expenditure called for supplies which England was increasingly loth to furnish. By a system of provisions, as they were called, the Pope provided--or appointed beforehand--his nominees to English benefices, and expected that his nominees would be allowed to hold the benefices to the exclusion of those of the patrons. In =1351= the Statute of Provisors[20] attempted to put an end to the system, but it was not immediately successful, and had to be re-enacted in later years. In =1353= a Statute of _Praemunire_[21] was pa.s.sed, in which, though the Pope's name was not mentioned, an attempt was made to stop suits being carried before foreign courts--in other words before the Papal court at Avignon.

Another claim of the Popes was to the 1,000 marks payable annually as a symbol of John's va.s.salage, a claim most distasteful to Englishmen as a sign of national humiliation. Since =1333=, the year in which Edward took the government into his own hands, the payment had not been made, and in =1366= Parliament utterly rejected a claim made by the Pope for its revival.

[Footnote 20: Provisors are the persons provided or appointed to a benefice.]

[Footnote 21: So called from the first words of the writs appointed to be issued under it, _Praemunire facias_; the first of these two words being a corruption of _Praemoneri_.]

6. =Predominance of the English Language.=--The national spirit which revealed itself in an armed struggle with the French and in a legal struggle with the Papacy showed itself in the increasing predominance of the English language. In =1362= it supplanted French in the law courts, and in the same year Parliament was opened with an English speech. French was still the language of the court, but it was becoming a foreign speech, p.r.o.nounced very differently from the 'French of Paris.'

7. =Piers the Plowman. 1362.=--Cruel as had been the direct results of the English victories in France, they had indirectly contributed to the overthrow of that feudalism which weighed heavily upon France and upon all Continental Europe. The success of the English had been the success of a nation strong in the union of cla.s.ses. The cessation of the war drove the thoughts of Englishmen back upon themselves. The old spiritual channels had been, to a great extent, choked up. Bishops were busy with the king's affairs; monks had long ceased to be specially an example to the world; and even the friars had fallen from their first estate, and had found out that, though they might personally possess nothing, their order might be wealthy. The men who won victories in France came home to spend their booty in show and luxury. Yet, for all the splendour around, there was a general feeling that the times were out of joint, and this feeling was strengthened by a fresh inroad of the Black Death in =1361=. To the prevalent yearning for a better life, a voice was given by William Langland, whose _Vision of Piers the Plowman_ appeared in its first shape in =1362=. In the opening of his poem he shows to his readers the supremacy of the Maiden Meed--bribery--over all sorts and conditions of men, lay and clerical. Then he turns to the purification of this wicked world. They who wish to eschew evil and to do good inquire their way to Truth--the eternal G.o.d--and find their only guide in 'Piers the Plowman.' The simple men of the plough, who do honest work and live upright lives, know how to find the way to Truth. That way lies not through the inventions of the official Church, the pardons and indulgences set up for sale. "They who have done good shall go into eternal life, but they who have done evil into eternal fire."

Langland's teaching, in short, is the same as that of the great Italian poet, Dante, who, earlier in the century, had cried aloud for the return of justice and true religion. He stands apart from Dante and from all others of his time in looking for help to the despised peasant. No doubt his peasant was idealised, as no one knew better than himself; but it was honesty of work in the place of dishonest idleness which he venerated. It was the glory of England to have produced such a thought far more than to have produced the men who, heavy with the plunder of unhappy peasants, stood boldly to their arms at Crecy and Poitiers. He is as yet hardly prepared to say what is the righteousness which leads to eternal life. It is not till he issues a second edition in =1377= that he can answer. To do well, he now tells us, is to act righteously to all in the fear of G.o.d. To do better is to walk in the way of love: "Behold how good a thing it is for brethren to dwell in unity." To do best is to live in fellows.h.i.+p with Christ and the Church, and in all humility to bring forth the fruits of the Divine communion.

8. =The Anti-Clerical Party. 1371.=--Langland wished to improve, not to overthrow, existing inst.i.tutions, but for all that his work was profoundly revolutionary. They who call on those who have left their first love to return to it are seldom obeyed, but their voice is often welcomed by the corrupt and self-seeking crowd which is eager, after the fas.h.i.+on of birds of prey, to tear the carcase from which life has departed. A large party was formed in England, especially amongst the greater barons, which was anxious to strip the clergy of their wealth and power, without any thought for the better fulfilment of their spiritual functions. In the Parliament of =1371= bishops were declared unfit to hold offices of state. Amongst others who were dismissed was William of Wykeham, the Bishop of Winchester. He was a great architect and administrator, and having been deprived of the Chancellors.h.i.+p used his wealth to found at Winchester the first great public school in England. By this time a Chancellor was no longer what he had been in earlier days (see p. 127), a secretary to the king. He was now beginning to exercise equitable jurisdiction--that is to say, the right of deciding suits according to equity, in cases in which the strict artificial rules of the ordinary courts stood in the way of justice.

[Ill.u.s.tration: William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, 1367-1404: from his tomb at Winchester.]

9. =The Duke of Lancaster. 1374--1376.=--In =1374=, as soon as the Duke of Lancaster returned from his disastrous campaign (see p. 257), he put himself at the head of the baronial and anti-clerical party. He was selfish and unprincipled, but he had enormous wealth, having secured the vast estates of the Lancaster family by his marriage with Blanche, the granddaughter of the brother of Thomas of Lancaster, the opponent of Edward II. Rich as he was he wished to be richer, and he saw his opportunity in an attack upon the higher clergy, which might end in depriving them not only of political power, but of much of their ecclesiastical property as well. His accession to the baronial party was of the greater importance because he was now practically the first man in the state. The king was suffering from softening of the brain, and had fallen under the influence of a greedy and unscrupulous mistress, Alice Perrers, whilst the Black Prince was disqualified by illness from taking part in the management of affairs. A bargain was struck between the Duke and Alice Perrers, who was able to obtain the consent of the helpless king to anything she pleased. She even sat on the bench with the judges, intimidating them into deciding in favour of the suitors who had bribed her most highly. It seemed as if Langland's Meed (see p. 259) had appeared in person. The king's patronage was shared between her and Lancaster.

10. =John Wycliffe. 1366--1376.=--If Lancaster's character had been higher, he might have secured a widespread popularity, as the feeling of the age was adverse to the continuance of a wealthy clergy. Even as things were, he had on his side John Wycliffe, the most able reasoner and devoted reformer of his age, who, like others before and after him, imagined that a high spiritual enterprise could be achieved with the help of low and worldly politicians. Wycliffe had distinguished himself at Oxford, and had attracted Lancaster's notice by the ability of his argument against the Pope's claim to levy John's tribute (see p. 258). In =1374= he had been sent to Bruges to argue with the representatives of the Pope on the question of the provisions, and by =1376= had either issued, or was preparing to issue, his work _On Civil Lords.h.i.+p_, in which, by a curious adaptation of feudal ideas, he declared that all men held their possessions direct from G.o.d, as a va.s.sal held his estate from his lord; and that as a va.s.sal was bound to pay certain military services, failing which he lost his estate, so everyone who fell into mortal sin failed to pay his service to G.o.d, and forfeited his right to his worldly possessions. In this way dominion, as he said, was founded on grace--that is to say, the continuance of man's right to his possessions depended on his remaining in a state of grace. It is true that Wycliffe qualified his argument by alleging that he was only announcing theoretical truth, and that no man had a right to rob another of his holding because he believed him to be living in sin. It is evident, however, that men like Lancaster would take no heed of this distinction, and would welcome Wycliffe as an ally in the work of despoiling the clergy for their own purposes.

11. =Lancaster and the Black Prince. 1376.=--Ordinary citizens, who cared nothing for theories which they did not understand, were roused against Lancaster by the unblus.h.i.+ng baseness of his rule. Nor was this all. The anti-clerical party was also a baronial party, and ever since the Knights Bachelors of England had turned to the future Edward I. to defend them against the barons who made the Provisions of Oxford (see p. 199), the country gentry and townsmen had learnt the lesson that they would be the first to suffer from the unchecked rule of the baronage. They now had the House of Commons to represent their wishes, but as yet the House of Commons was too weak to stand alone. At last it was rumoured that when the Black Prince died his young son Richard was to be set aside, and that Lancaster was to claim the inheritance of the crown, as an earlier John had claimed it in the place of the youthful Arthur. The Black Prince awoke from his lethargy, and stood forward as the leader of the Commons.

12. =The Good Parliament. 1376.=--A Parliament, known as the Good Parliament, met in =1376=, and, strong through the Black Prince's support, the Commons refused to grant supply till an account of the receipts and expenditure had been laid before them. "What," cried Lancaster, "do these base and ign.o.ble knights attempt? Do they think they be the kings and princes of the land? I think they know not what power I am of. I will therefore, early in the morning, appear unto them so glorious, and will show such power among them, and with such vigour I will terrify them that neither they nor theirs shall dare henceforth to provoke me to wrath." Lancaster soon found that his brother was stronger than he. The Commons obtained a new Council, in which Wykeham was included and from which Lancaster was shut out. They then proceeded to accuse before the House of Lords Richard Lyons and Lord Latimer of embezzling the king's revenue. Lyons, accustomed to the past ways of the court, packed 1,000_l._ in a barrel and sent it to the Black Prince. The Black Prince returned the barrel and the money, and the Lords condemned Lyons to imprisonment. Latimer was also sentenced to imprisonment, but he was allowed to give bail and regained his liberty. These two cases are the first instances of the exercise of the right of impeachment--that is to say, of the accusation of political offenders by the Commons before the Lords.

Alice Perrers was next driven from court.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tomb of Edward III. in Westminster Abbey.]

13. =The Last Year of Edward III. 1376--1377.=--Whilst Parliament was still sitting the Black Prince, worn out by his exertions, died. His son, young Richard, was at once recognised as heir to the throne.

Lancaster, however, regained his influence over his doting father.

Alice Perrers and Lord Latimer found their way back to court. The Speaker of the House of Commons was thrown into prison. Frivolous charges were brought against Wykeham, who was deprived of his temporalities and banished from the court. In =1377= a new Parliament, elected under Lancaster's influence, reversed all the proceedings of the Good Parliament, and showed how little sympathy the baronial party had with the people by imposing a poll tax of 4_d._ a head on all except beggars, thus making the payment of a labourer and a duke equal. The bishops, unable to strike at Lancaster, struck at Wycliffe, as his creature. Wycliffe was summoned to appear before an ecclesiastical court at St. Paul's, presided over by Courtenay, the Bishop of London. He came supported by Lancaster and a troop of Lancaster's followers. Hot words were exchanged between them and the Bishop. The London crowd took their Bishop's part and the Duke was compelled to flee for his life. In the summer of =1377= Edward III.

died, deserted by everyone, Alice Perrers making off, after robbing him of his finger-rings.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figures of Edward, the Black Prince, and Lionel, Duke of Clarence, from the tomb of Edward III.; ill.u.s.trating the ordinary costume of gentlemen at the end of the fourteenth century.]

14. =Ireland from the Reign of John to that of Edward II.=--When England was gradually losing its hold on France, what hold it had had on Ireland was gradually slipping away. Henry II. had been quite unable to effect in Ireland the kind of conquest which William the Conqueror had effected in England. William had succeeded because he had been able to secure order by placing himself at the head of the conquered nation. In Ireland, in the first place, the king was a perpetual absentee; and, in the second place, there was no Irish national organisation at the head of which he could have placed himself, even if he had from time to time visited the island. There were separate tribes, each one attached to its own chief and to its own laws and customs. They were unable to drive out their feudal conquerors; but in the outlying parts of the country, they were able to absorb them, just as the English in their own country absorbed their Norman conquerors. The difference was that in England the conquerors were absorbed into a nation: in Ireland they were absorbed into the several tribes. The few who retained the English laws and habits were, for the most part, confined to the part of Ireland in the neighbourhood of Dublin, which was specially accessible to English influences. In =1315= Edward Bruce, the brother of Robert Bruce, invaded Ireland, and, though he was ultimately defeated and slain, he did enough to shatter the power of the English n.o.bility; and it was mainly in consequence of his partial success that the authority of the English government was, for some time to come, limited to a certain district round Dublin, known about a century later as the English Pale, the extent of which varied from time to time.

15. =The Statute of Kilkenny. 1367.=--As long as the French wars lasted the attention of the English Government was diverted from Ireland. In =1361=, however, the year after the Treaty of Bretigni, the king's son, Lionel Duke of Clarence, was sent to extend English rule. In =1367= he gathered a Parliament of the English colonists.

This Parliament pa.s.sed the Statute of Kilkenny, by which the relations between the two races were defined. Within the Pale English laws and customs were to prevail, and even Irishmen living there were to be debarred from the use of their own language. Beyond the Pale the Irish were to be left to themselves, communication between the two peoples being cut off as much as possible. The idea of conquering Ireland was abandoned, and the idea of maintaining a colony on a definite part of Irish soil was subst.i.tuted for it. The Statute of Kilkenny was, in short, a counterpart of the Treaty of Bretigni. In both cases Edward III. preferred the full maintenance of his authority over a part of a country to its a.s.sertion over the whole.

16. =Weakness of the English Colony. 1367--1377.=--It takes two to make a bargain, and the Irish were not to be prevented from encroaching on the English because the English had resolved no longer to encroach upon them. The renewal of the war with France in =1369= made it impossible to send help from England, and during the latter part of the reign of Edward III. the Irish pillaged freely within the English territory, constantly winning ground from their antagonists.

_Genealogy of the more important Sons of Edward III._

EDWARD III.

d. 1377 | -------------------------------------------------- | | | | | Edward, Lionel, John of Gaunt, Edmund, Thomas, the Black Duke of Duke of Duke of Duke of Prince, Clarence, Lancaster, York, Gloucester, d. 1376 d. 1368 d. 1399 d. 1402 d. 1397

CHAPTER XVII.

RICHARD II. AND THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION.

1377--1381.

LEADING DATES

Reign of Richard II., 1377-1399

Accession of Richard II 1377 The peasants' revolt 1381

1. =The First Years of Richard II. 1377--1378.=--"Woe to the land,"

quoted Langland from Ecclesiastes, in the second edition of _Piers the Plowman_, "when the king is a child." Richard was but ten years of age when he was raised to the throne. The French plundered the coast, and the Scots plundered the Borders. In the presence of such dangers Lancaster and Wykeham forgot their differences, and as Lancaster was too generally distrusted to allow of his acting as regent, the council governed in the name of the young king. Lancaster, however, took the lead, and renewed the war with France with but little result beyond so great a waste of money as to stir up Parliament to claim a control over the expenditure of the Crown.

2. =Wycliffe and the Great Schism. 1378--1381.=--In =1378= began the Great Schism. For nearly half a century from that date there were two Popes, one at Avignon and one at Rome. Wycliffe had been gradually losing his reverence for a single Pope, and he had none left for two.

He was now busy with a translation of the Bible into English, and sent forth a band of "poor priests," to preach the simple gospel which he found in it. He was thus brought into collision with the pretensions of the priesthood, and was thereby led to question the doctrines on which their authority was based. In =1381= he declared his disbelief in the doctrine of transubstantiation, and thereby denied to priests that power "of making the body of Christ," which was held to mark them off from their fellow-men. In any case, so momentous an announcement would have cost Wycliffe the hearts of large numbers of his supporters. It was the more fatal to his influence as it was coincident with social disorders, the blame for which was certain, rightly or wrongly, to be laid at his door.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Richard II. and his first queen, Anne of Bohemia: from the gilt-latten effigies on their tomb in Westminster Abbey, made by Nicholas Broker and G.o.dfrey Prest, coppersmiths of London, in 1395.]

3. =The Poll-taxes. 1379--1381.=--The disastrous war with France made fresh taxation unavoidable. In =1379= a poll-tax was imposed by Parliament on a graduated scale, reaching from the 6_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._ required of a duke, to the groat or 4_d._, representing in those days at least the value of 4_s._ at the present day, required of the poorest peasant. A second poll-tax in =1380= exacted no less than three groats from every peasant, and from every one of his unmarried children above the age of fifteen. In =1381= a tiler of Dartford in Kent struck dead a collector who attempted to investigate his daughter's age in an indecent fas.h.i.+on. His neighbours took arms to protect him. In an incredibly short time the peasants of the east and south of England rose in insurrection.

4. =The Peasants' Grievances.=--The peasants had other grievances besides the weight of taxation thrown on them by a Parliament in which they had no representatives. The landlords, finding it impossible to compel the acceptance of the low wages provided for by the Statute of Labourers (see p. 248), had attempted to help themselves in another way. Before the Black Death the bodily service of villeins had been frequently commuted into a payment of money which had been its fair equivalent, but which, since the rise of wages consequent upon the Black Death, could not command anything like the amount of labour surrendered. The landlords in many places now declared the bargain to have been unfair, and compelled the villeins to render once more the old bodily service. The discontent which prevailed everywhere was fanned not merely by the attacks made by Wycliffe's poor priests upon the idle and inefficient clergy, but by itinerant preachers unconnected with Wycliffe, who denounced the propertied cla.s.ses in general. One of these, John Ball, a notorious a.s.sailant of the gentry, had been thrown into prison. His favourite question was--

When Adam delved and Eve span Who was then a gentleman?

5. =The Peasants' Revolt. 1381.=--From one end of England to another the revolt spread. The parks of the gentry were broken into, the deer killed, the fish-ponds emptied. The court-rolls which testified to the villeins' services were burnt, and lawyers and all others connected with the courts were put to death without mercy. From Kent and Ess.e.x 100,000 enraged peasants, headed by Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, released John Ball from gaol and poured along the roads to London. They hoped to place the young Richard at their head against their enemies the gentry. The boy was spirited enough, and in spite of his mother's entreaties insisted on leaving the Tower, and being rowed across the Thames to meet the insurgents on the Surrey sh.o.r.e. Those who were with him, however, refused to allow him to land. The peasants had sympathisers in London itself, who allowed them to break into the city. Lancaster's palace of the Savoy and the houses of lawyers and officials were sacked and burnt. All the lawyers who could be found were murdered, and others who were not lawyers shared their fate. The mob broke into the Tower, and beheaded Simon of Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had, as Chancellor, proposed the obnoxious taxes to Parliament.

6. =The Suppression of the Revolt.=--The boy-king met the mob at Mile-End, and promised to abolish villeinage in England. Charters of manumission were drawn out and sealed, and a great part of the insurgents returned contentedly home. About 30,000, however, remained behind. When Richard came amongst them at Smithfield, Wat Tyler threatened him, and Walworth, the Mayor of London, slew Wat Tyler with his dagger. A shout for vengeance was raised. With astonis.h.i.+ng presence of mind Richard rode forward. "I am your king," he said; "I will be your leader." His boldness inspired the insurgents with confidence, and caused them to desist from their threats and to return to their homes. In the country the gentry, encouraged by the failure of the insurgents in London, recovered their courage. The insurrection was everywhere vigorously suppressed. Richard ordered the payment of all services due, and revoked the charters he had granted. The judges on their circuits hanged the ringleaders without mercy. When Parliament met it directed that the charters of manumission should be cancelled. Lords and Commons alike stood up for the rich against the poor, and the boy-king was powerless to resist them, and it is possible that he did not wish to do so.

7. =Results of the Peasants' Revolt.=--The revolt of the peasants strengthened the conservative spirit in the country. The villeinage into which the peasants had been thrust back could not, indeed, endure long, because service unwillingly rendered is too expensive to be maintained. Men were, however, no longer in a mood to listen to reformers. Great n.o.blemen, whose right to the services of their villeins had been denied, now made common cause with the great churchmen. The propertied cla.s.ses, lay and clerical, instinctively saw that they must hang together. Wycliffe's attack on transubstantiation finding little response, he was obliged to retire to his parsonage at Lutterworth, where he laboured with his pen till his death in =1384=.

His followers, known by the nickname of Lollards,[22] were, however, for some time still popular amongst the poorer cla.s.ses.

[Footnote 22: The name is said to have been derived from a low German word, _lollen_, to sing, from their habit of singing, but their clerical opponents derived it from the Latin _lolium_ (tares), as if they were the tares in the midst of the wheat which remained constant to the Church.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer.]

8. =Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales.'=--A combination between the great n.o.bles and the higher clergy might, at the end of the fourteenth century, meet with temporary success; but English society was too diversified, and each separate portion of it was too closely linked to the other to make it possible for the higher cla.s.ses to tyrannise over the others for any long time. What that society was like is best seen in Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_. Chaucer was in many ways the exact opposite of Langland, and was the precursor of modern literature as Wycliffe was the precursor of modern religion. He was an inimitable story-teller, with an eye which nothing could escape. He was ready to take men as he found them, having no yearning for the purification of a sinful world. Heroic examples of manly constancy and of womanly purity and devotion, are mingled in his pages with coa.r.s.e and ribald tales; still, coa.r.s.e and ribald as some of his narratives are, Chaucer never attempts to make vice attractive. He takes it rather as a matter of course, calling, not for reproof, but for laughter, whenever those who are doing evil place themselves in ridiculous situations.

9. =The Prologue of the 'Canterbury Tales.'=--Whilst, however, there is not one of the _Canterbury Tales_ which fails to bring vividly before the reader one aspect or another of the life of Chaucer's day, it is in the prologue that is especially found evidence of the close connection which existed between different ranks of society. Men and women of various cla.s.ses are there represented as riding together on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury, and beguiling the way by telling stories to one another. No baron, indeed, takes part in the pilgrimage, and the villein cla.s.s is represented by the reeve, who was himself a person in authority, the mere cultivator of the soil being excluded. Yet, within these limits, the whole circle of society is admirably represented. The knight, just returned from deeds of chivalry, is on the best of terms with the rough-spoken miller and the reeve, whilst the clerk of Oxford, who would gladly learn and gladly teach, and who followed in his own life those precepts which he commended to his paris.h.i.+oners, has no irreconcilable quarrel with the begging friar or with the official of the ecclesiastical courts, whose only object is to make a gain of G.o.dliness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A gentleman riding out with his hawk: from the Luttrell Psalter.]

10. =Chaucer and the Clergy.=--In his representation of the clergy, Chaucer shows that, like Langland, he had no reverence for the merely official clergy. His "poor parson of a town," indeed, is a model for all helpers and teachers. The parson is regardless of his own comfort, ever ready to toil with mind and body for his paris.h.i.+oners, and, above all, resolved to set them an example, knowing