1. Trentals: The money given to the priests for performing thirty masses for the dead, either in succession or on the anniversaries of their death; also the masses themselves, which were very profitable to the clergy.
2. Possessioners: The regular religious orders, who had lands and fixed revenues; while the friars, by their vows, had to depend on voluntary contributions, though their need suggested many modes of evading the prescription.
3. In Chaucer’s day the most material notions about the tortures of hell prevailed, and were made the most of by the clergy, who preyed on the affection and fear of the survivors, through the ingenious doctrine of purgatory. Old paintings and illuminations represent the dead as torn by hooks, roasted in fires, boiled in pots, and subjected to many other physical torments.
4. Qui cum patre: “Who with the father”; the closing words of the final benediction pronounced at Mass.
5. Askaunce: The word now means sideways or asquint; here it means “as if;” and its force is probably to suggest that the second friar, with an ostentatious stealthiness, noted down the names of the liberal, to make them believe that they would be remembered in the holy beggars’ orisons.
6. A Godde’s kichel/halfpenny: a little cake/halfpenny, given for God’s sake.
7. Harlot: hired servant; from Anglo-Saxon, “hyran,” to hire; the word was commonly applied to males.
8. Potent: staff; French, “potence,” crutch, gibbet.
9. Je vous dis sans doute: French; “I tell you without doubt.”
10. Dortour: dormitory; French, “dortoir.”