by the company. It is the story which Chaucer had heard from Petrarch while in Italy-the story of patient Griseldaand is so beautiful that I fain would tell it here were it not so long. But you may read it for yourselves one day, as it has been written specially for you young folk by Mrs. Haweis in easier language than Chaucer's English.

19. The knight began the stories, the lot having fallen to him. Many are very beautiful; others, such as those told by the cook and the tradesmen, are funny, but are too coarse for the more refined taste of the present day. None, as I have already said, is more charming than that of the Clerk of Oxenford, in which Chaucer teaches us to bear with patient faith the trials and losses God may send, believing always that God does not send them on us willingly, for He "tempteth no man."

CHAPTER VI.

THREE OF "GOD'S ENGLISHMEN."

1. Though Chaucer gives us pictures of the English people of his time, he tells us little about the dark clouds hovering over the England in which they lived. Those dark clouds were the evil state of the Church, and the misery of the poor. You know that at that time England was a Roman Catholic country, and that the Pope, as head of the Church, interfered greatly with the English Church, demanded large sums of money, and gave the best livings in the Church to Italians, who took the money, but never came near their work. The country was overrun with begging friars and pardoners, and except a few clergy like Chaucer's poor parson, they thought more of power and money than of helping their people. The religious houses became the abodes of idle monks and beggars, and there seemed no help for the poor people, who knew that something was wrong, but had not the Bible to tell them what the wrong was.

2. Matters soon became worse, for in 1348 a terrible plague, called the Black Death, broke out in England, and carried off

nearly a third of the English people. For many years afterwards, farmers could not find labourers to till their fields, or found them only at such high wages that it was impossible to hire them. Food became very scarce, and famine was added to the other distresses. At last a law was made forcing labourers to work for the same wages as they had before the plague, which was very hard, as food was now so much dearer; and, harder still, they were forbidden to leave their own parish to seek work. The poor starved for a time, but at last, headed by Wat Tyler, they rebelled against being taxed while they were perishing of cold and hunger, and while rich people had more food and clothing than they could use. Was there no one to speak out strongly on the side of the poor, and tell their wrongs? Yes, there were three; and their names were Gower, Wiclif, and Langland.

3. The first JOHN GOWER-was a country gentleman of Kent, the very heart of the rebel peasants, the home of Wat Tyler. Before Wat's rising, he had written a few short poems and had translated from the French, like his friend Chaucer; but after Wat Tyler's rebellion he wrote a greater work, a Latin poem— The Voice of One Crying. It described a dream, in which the poet saw the evil passions of the people transformed into raging beasts. He showed that the troubles of the time must have some evil at their root, and he proceeded through all classes of society seeking the evil. Everywhere he finds unfaithfulness to duty. The Church has left off teaching Christ; the soldier-knight no longer fights for God, but for vainglory; merchants cheat; lawyers are unjust and take bribes; servants are greedy, and work for gain only; the peasants know not God, but live like beasts in misery and discontent. So all through: God's good world is made a bad world by neglect of God's laws, and can only be mended by each man returning to his duty.

4. The second prophet (for they were like prophets, those brave Englishmen, who called the people to repentance) was good JOHN WICLIF (or Wycliffe), a Yorkshireman, born a few years before Chaucer. We lose sight of him until, when he was nearly forty, we find him master of one of the Oxford colleges. He afterwards became Professor of Divinity

at Oxford.

But from 1376 until his death in 1384 he laboured as the parish priest of Lutterworth in Leicestershire so faithfully and patiently, that he is sometimes thought to be the parish priest described by Chaucer, who probably knew Wiclif. Through his whole life, whether lecturing to his students, writing for the English nation, or preaching to his people in Leicestershire, Wiclif showed himself ever the same-fearless and outspoken against the abuses of the Church and the evil lives of the clergy. When the Pope demanded tribute from the English people, Wiclif spoke up boldly, saying that God only, and not the Pope, had power over men's consciences, and that the wealth of England belonged to God and the people, to be used in the service of God and the English nation.

5. Of course Wiclif suffered for his boldness, and was summoned before the Bishop of London; but he was never tried, being protected by Prince John of Gaunt. Soon, however, even John of Gaunt could no longer support the bold priest; and when

the Archbishop of Canterbury summoned Wiclif, he was this time condemned and deprived of his professorship. But his work at Oxford had not been in vain, for year after year he had taught his students the simple earnest truths which he himself believed, and sent them out to teach the English people.

6. Wiclif's great life-work, however, was the translation of the Bible into English. In 1384 the Pope summoned him to Rome, to answer the charges brought against him. Despite his old age and his weak health, Wiclif was as bold as ever, and sent back a fearless answer to the Pope. It was his last challenge, and his last act of defiance. In the Christmas week that year, during a communion service in the church, he was struck down with paralysis, and died on New-Year's eve.

7. We know very little of the life of Wiclif's fellow-worker, the poet WILLIAM LANGLAND. As a boy, he seems to have lived near the Malvern Hills; perhaps he was a scholar at the Priory school there. We gain sight of him first in London as a singer in the churches.

8. Wherever his life was spent, Langland must have lived among the people; for in his poem, The Vision of Piers Plowman, he shows how well he understood the poor, their faults, their temptations, and their misery. His poem, too, was written for the people, in language they all could understand; and he took up again the old fashion of what is called alliteration— using several words beginning with the same letter in one line or in consecutive lines.

9. The poem tells of two dreams or visions of the poet which came to him while he slept on the Malvern Hills. In the first he tells of a "faire field full of folk." That field was the world; bounded on the east by the Tower of Truth, on the west by the deep Dale of Death. The folk, "working and wandering as the world asketh "-courtiers, priests, singers, traders, labourers —are all alike seeking their own interest, not the fulfilment of duty. There are misery, and famine, and revolt in the land, all the outcome of indolence, injustice, and greed.

10. Into this world of wealth and woe steps a lady from the Tower of Truth. She tells the poet she is Holy Church, and

bids him teach the people truth and true love-that is, to love the Lord best of all, to die rather than do any deadly sin, and to let love, not self-interest, be the rule of their lives.

11. On the poet's left hand appear a pair who are to be married next day-Falsehood and Meed-the latter a lady in a rich gown, with a crown and many rings.. She is earthly gain, and is to fall into the hands of Falsehood. But Theology or religious teaching appears in time to prevent the marriage; a dispute arises at the court as to who is to have Meed; and seeing the king side with Conscience and Reason, Falsehood flees to the friars.

12. In the second dream the poet shows how the evils of Church and court and people may be reformed. Reason and Conscience begin to preach to the people; Repentance goes about among them; the sins of daily life begin to be seen in all their ugliness-pride, envy, greed, and sloth. Repentance

prays for the people, and Hope sounds his horn. The people cry aloud for Truth; but no one can find the way to Truth, until a ploughman speaks up and says he has followed Truth for forty years, and praises him as the best master a poor man could have.

13. All eagerly ask the way; but when the ploughman points out the first step, many stop short, unwilling to go through Meekness to their lord Conscience, whom the ploughman bids them love, and fear to disobey. Then they are to follow the brook to the ford "Honour your fathers;" and passing the stocks "Steal not" and "Swear not," are to climb the hill "Bear no false witness;" to find their way through the Forest of Florins without touching one, on to the Castle of Truth, with its moat Mercy, its battlements Christendom, its roof of Love and Loyalty, its bridge "Pray well and the better speed;" and the porter Grace and his man Amend-all will open the gate to the seekers of Truth.

14. When they hear of the difficulties of the road, many, like the men in the parable, begin to make excuses. Some offer to pray for Piers. Of those still willing to undertake the journey, only a few accomplish the task which Piers sets them as a test the faithful ploughing and sowing of half an acre by the (853) 3