It would seem that Gower read ‘Gebas’ (which has no meaning) for ‘Cepas’ and ‘preponunt,’ as in MS. Univ. Coll. 143, for ‘peponum,’ which is the true reading, meaning ‘melons’ or ‘pumpkins.’
115. Cp. Metam. xv. 173.
Cap. iii. Heading. Cp. Conf. Amantis, Prol. 288 (margin), where this is given as a quotation from Gregory.
141 f. Cp. Mirour de l’Omme, 18553.
167 f. From Aurora, f. 37.
175. gregis ex pietate mouetur, ‘is moved by pity for his flock.’
193 ff. With this passage compare Conf. Amantis, Prol. 407-413, and Mirour de l’Omme, 20161 ff. In all these places a distinct charge is brought against the clergy, to the effect that they encourage vice, in order to profit by it themselves in money and in influence: ‘the prostitute is more profitable to them than the nun,’ as our author significantly says in the Mirour (20149).
209 ff. Cp. Mirour de l’Omme, 20113 ff.
227 ff. For this attack on the ‘positive law’ of the Church cp. Conf. Amantis, Prol. 247, Mirour, 18469 ff. The ‘lex positiva’ is that which is enjoined not as of inherent moral obligation, but as imposed by Church discipline.
249 f. Cp. Mirour, 18997 ff. Apparently ‘nouo’ is an adverb, meaning ‘anew,’ ‘again’: cp. 284, 376.