"Unlearned men hard matters out can find,
When learned bishops princes eyes do blind."
[All the copies of this ballad are of late date, but Mr. Chappell says that the story upon which it is founded can be traced back to the fifteenth century, and Dr. Rimbault so traces it to the Adventures of Howleglas, printed in the Lower Saxon dialect in 1483. Wynkyn de Worde printed in 1511 a collection of riddles translated from the French, with the title Demaundes Joyous, which are like those propounded by King John to the Abbot. Prof. Child points out that by this link the ballad is connected with a tolerably large literature of wit combats of the middle ages. (See English and Scottish Ballads, vol. viii. p. 3.)
Copies of the puritan ballad referred to above are in the Pepys, Douce, and Roxburghe collections. It commences as follows—
"In Popish times, when bishops proud
In England did bear sway,
Their lordships did like princes live,
And kept all at obey."
The ballad entitled King John and Bishoppe, in the folio MS. to which Percy refers, is printed at the end of the following ballad.]
The following is chiefly printed from an ancient black-letter copy, to "The tune of Derry down."
