*** After this line all the MSS. (except Hl.) wrongly insert lines 1307, 1308 (on p. 359). Perhaps the poet himself introduced these lines here at first, and afterwards perceived how much better they came in after l. 1306. It is not an important matter.
1296. MS. Hl. has:—'Our host answerd and sayd the sompnour this'; which cannot be right.
The Freres Tale.
With respect to the source of this Tale, see vol. iii. p. 450.
1300. erchedeken. As to the duties of the archdeacon, here described, compare A. 655, 658. He enforced discipline by threats of excommunication, and inflicted fines for various offences. Compare Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 166.
1305. I. e. he punished church-reeves if they did ill, and all cases in which wills or contracts had been wantonly violated. 'Lakke of sacraments' refers, chiefly, to the neglect of the precept to communicate at Easter; also to neglect of baptism, and, possibly, of matrimony, as that was also a 'sacrament' in the church of our fathers.
1307-8. These two lines occur here in MS. Hl. only; see note to 1294 above.
1309. Usury was prohibited by the Canon Law; cf. P. Plowman, C. vii. 239.
1314. 'No fine could save the accused from punishment.'
1315. 'The neglect to pay tithes and Easter offerings came under the archdeacon's jurisdiction, as the bishop's diocesan officer. The friar does not scruple to make an invidious use of this subject at the expense of the parochial clergy, because, being obliged by his rule to gain his livelihood by begging, he had no interest in tithes.'—Bell.