in 
and Art. 
Literature 
I67 
poemsfi the poet defcribes hirnfelf as carried up in a vifion to heaven, 
where the vices and diforders of the various claffes of the popifh clergy are 
fuccefiively revealed to him. The pope is a devouring lion ; in his eager- 
neis for pounds, he pawns books; at the fight of a mark of money, he 
treats Mark the Evangeliii with disdain 3 while he fails aloft, money alone 
is his anchoring-place. The original lines will ferve as a fpecimen of 
the (lyle of thefe curious compolitions, and of the love of punning which 
was fo characfterifiic of the literature of that age  
EB lea ponryZw_l3:mmu:, qui dc-wmr, 
Qui Iibraxjiriens, libros imlzignarat ; 
Marcam njficiet, Marcum dzdecora: ; 
In fummis na-vigans, in nummi: ancharat. 
The bifhop is in hafce to intrude himfelf into other people's paftures, and 
fills hirnfelf with other people's goods. The ravenous archdeacon is com- 
pared to an eagle, becaufe he has {harp eyes to fee his prey afar off, and 
is fwift to feize upon it. The dean is reprefented by an animal with a 
man's face, full of filent guile, who covers fraud with the form of juilice, 
and by the {how of fimplicity would make others believe him to be pious. 
In this fpirit the faults of the cl.ergy, of all degrees, are minutely criticifed 
through between four and five hundred lines; and it mull not be forgotten 
that it was the Englifh clergy whofe charatiter was thus expofed. 
Tu frribes etiam, _f?zrma_fed alia, 
Sept;-m ecclq[?i: quwfunt in Anglia. 
Others of thefe pieces are termed Sermons, and are addreifed, fome to 
the bifhops and dignitaries of the church, others to the pope, others to 
the monailic orders, and others to the clergy in general. The court of 
Rome, we are told, was infamous for its greedineis ; there all right and 
juftice were put up for fale, and no favour could be had without money. 
In this court money occupies everybody's thoughts ; its crois--i. e. the mark 
on 
 
" In my edition I have collated no less than sixteen copies which occur among 
the MSS. in the British Museuln, and in the libraries at Oxford and Cambridge, 
and there are, no doubt, many more.