God seyth hymself, as wryten we fynde, That whenne the blynde ledeth the blynde, Into the dyche they fallen boo, For they ne sen whare by to go. So faren prestes now by dawe, They beth blynde in Goddes lawe, etc. _MS. Cotton. Claud._ A. II.
It had previously been applied in the same manner to the parish priests by the author of a long French poem (apparently written in England in the fourteenth century) entitled _Le Miroir de l'Ome_ (Speculum Hominis), as follows:--
Dieus dist, et c'est tout verité, Qe si l'un voegle soit mené D'un autre voegle, tresbucher Falt ambedeux en la fossée. C'est un essample comparé As fols curetz, qui sanz curer Ne voient pas le droit sentier, Dont font les autres forsvoier, Qui sont après leur trace alé. Car fol errant ne puet quider, Ne cil comment nous puet saner, Qui mesmes est au mort naufré. _MS. in the possession of Mr. J. Russell Smith._
The following picture of the corrupt manners of the parish priests at this time is extracted from a much longer and more minute censure in the same poem:--
Des fols curetz auci y a, Qui sur sa cure demourra Non pour curer, mais q'il sa vie Endroit le corps plus easera. Car lors ou il bargaignera Du seculiere marchandie, Dont sa richesce multeplie; Ou il se donne à leccherie, Du quoy son corps delitera; Ou il se prent à venerie, Qant duist chanter sa letanie, Au bois le goupil huera.
7802. Psal. xv, 5. We might be led to suppose that this was the "neck verse" in the time of Piers Ploughman. In later times the text which was given to read to those who claimed the benefit of clergy is said to have been the beginning of Psal. lv, _Miserere mei, &c._
7846. _Trojanus._ See the note on line 6859.
7854. Matth. xvi, 27. Filius enim hominis venturus est in gloria Patris sui cum angelis suis: et tunc reddet unicuique secundum opera ejus.
7915. _his flessh is foul flessh._ Yet in spite of the "foulness" of its flesh, the peacock was a very celebrated dish at table. For an account of the use made of the peacock in feasts, see Le Grand d'Aussy, Histoire de la Vie privée des Français, tom. i, pp. 299-301, and 361. In the Romance of Mahomet, 13th century, it is said of Dives--
Et dou Riche qui _tant poon Englouti_ et tant bon poisson, Tante piéche de venison, Et but bon vin par grant delit, &c. _Roman de Mahommet_, l. 301.