What does the poet say? That the charlatan has ever fine things to show, that he knows how to dazzle the simple, that he has his bag full of parchments with awe-inspiring seals, maybe genuine, maybe not;[437] that the people look on and admire, and the parson gets angry but holds his tongue:
“First I pronounce whennes that I come,
And thanne my bulles schewe I alle and some;
Oure liege lordes seal upon my patent
That schewe I first, my body to warent,
That no man be so hardy, prest ne clerk,
Me to destourbe of Cristes holy werk.
And after that than tel I forth my tales.
Bulles of popes and of cardynales,
Of patriarkes, and of bisshops, I schewe,