‘Littera dum Regis papales supplicat aures,
Simon et est medius, vngat vt ipse manus.’
210. provende, equivalent to prebend, and in fact ‘prebende’ is a var. reading here. Littré quotes from Wace,
‘Cil me dona et Diez li rende
À Baiex une provende,’
and from Rutebeuf,
‘Qui argent porte a Rome, assés tot provende a.’
212. ‘The authority of the Church’ (symbolized by the key) ‘did not then lie at the mercy of armed bands or depend upon the issue of battle.’ For ‘brigantaille,’ meaning bands of irregular troops, cp. Mir. 18675.
218. defence, ‘prohibition’: cp. iv. 1026, v. 1710, and Chaucer, Troil. iii. 138, ‘if that I breke your defence.’
220. ‘was then no charge of theirs,’ i.e. did not come under their authority: ‘baillie’ means the charge or government of a thing, as Trait. xi. 19, ‘Le duc q’ot lors Ravenne en sa baillie,’ hence a thing placed in a person’s charge.