[241] "Conseil" (in Appendix to Ducange's "Joinville"), chap. xxi., art. 8. The writer insists strongly, at the same time, on the lord's responsibility to God for his treatment of a creature so helpless.
[242] C., iii., 177. For the Reeve's duties, see Smyth, "Berkeleys," vol. ii., pp. 5, 22.
[243] "Those who demand such mortuaries are like worms preying on a corpse" (Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, quoted in Lecoy de La Marche, "Chaire Française," p. 388). Having already, in my "Medieval Studies" and my "Priests and People," dealt more fully with this and several points occurring in the succeeding chapters, I can often dispense with further references here.
[244] This is admirably discussed by Mr. Corbett in chap. vii. of "Social England."
[245] Froissart, Buchon, ii., 150. Leadam, "Star Chamber" (Selden Soc.), p. cxxviii. Trevelyan, _l. c._, p. 185.
[246] Vitry, "Exempla," pp. 62, 64; "P. P.," A., iv., 34 (cf. Lecoy., _l. c._, 387); Jusserand, "Epopée Mystique," 114; and "Vie Nomade," 81, 261, 269.
[247] Walsingham, an. 1381; cf. the record in Powell, "Rising in East Anglia," p. 130. The rioters compelled the constable of the hundred of Hoxne to contribute ten conscripted archers to their party.
[248] It must be remembered that the loyal soldiers also had shown in this matter a pusillanimity which contrasted remarkably with their behaviour in the French wars; Walsingham notes this with great astonishment. The quotations are from the "Chronicle of St. Mary's, York," in Oman, Appendix V., pp. 188-200.
[249] An. 1381; cf. "Eulog. Hist.," iii., 353. The original of both these descriptions seems to be Gower, "Vox Clam." i., 853 ff.
[251] The first general Sanitation Act for England was that of the Parliament held at Cambridge in 1388, and is generally ascribed to the filth of that ancient borough.
[252] "Chronicles of London" (4to., 1827), p. 65. "Eulog. Hist." iii., 353.
[253] C., ix., 304; B., v., 549. It will be noted how nearly this diet accords with that of the widow and her daughter in Chaucer's "Nuns' Priest's Tale"; cf. Langlois, "La Vie en France au M-A.," p. 122.
[256] _L. c._, C., x., 71 ff. "Papelots" = porridge; "ruel" = bedside; "woneth" = dwell; "witterly" = surely; "and fele to fong," etc. = "and many [children] to clutch at the few pence they earn; under those circumstances, bread and small beer is held an unusual luxury." "Pittance" is a monastic word, meaning extra food beyond the daily fare.