[21] English Guilds, 241, 249.
[22] For the contrast in this respect between the shire and the borough see Round’s Geoffrey de Mandeville, 356-7.
[23] Luchaire, Communes Françaises, 22-25. See Piers Ploughman, passus i. 139-146; ii. 90-99; ix. 19-76; x. 223-227.
[24] Piers Ploughman, passus xvi. 248-255.
“The Jews that were gentlemen, Jesus they despised,
Both his lore and his law, now are they low churls,
As wide as the world is woneth (dwelleth) there none
But under tribute and tallage as tikes and churls.
And those that become Christian by counsel of the Baptist
Are franklins and free....
And gentlemen with Jesus.”
(Piers Ploughman, ed. by W. Skeat for Early English Text Society, part iii.; pass. xxii. 34.) I have ventured to give quotations from mediæval writers in modern spelling, as I am here concerned neither with philology nor the history of literature: and there are many to whom the old methods of spelling only serve to obscure the sense.
[26] Stubbs, ii. 137-144, 239-244.
[27] Ibid. ii. 560, 671.
[28] Stubbs, ii. 332-4.