Volume 1
The poetical works of Geoffrey Chaucer / with a memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas.
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- Date:
- 1866
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The poetical works of Geoffrey Chaucer / with a memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas. Source: Wellcome Collection.
258/392 page 246
![I schal him telle which a gret honour Is to ben a fals flateryng ]}mytour. so And his offis I schal him telle i-wis.’ Our host answerde, ‘Pees, no more of this.’ And after this he sayd unto the Frere, ‘ Telleth forth your tale^ my leve maister deere.’ THE FRERES TALE. 10 ^HILOM there was dwellyng in my coun trd An erchedeken, a man of gret degre, That holdely did execucioun, In punyschyng of fornicacioun, Of wicchecraft, and eek of hauderye, Of diffamacioun, and avoutrie, Of chirche-reves, and of testamentes, Of contractes, and of lak of sacraments, And eek of many another maner cryme, Which needith not to reherse at this tyme; Of usur, and of symony also; But certes lecchours did he grettest woo; Thay schulde synge, if that they were hent; And smale tythers thay were fouly schent, If eny persoun wold upon hem pleyne, Ther might astert him no pecunial peyne. For smale tythes and for smal offrynge, He made the poeple pitously to synge. For or the bisschop caught hem in his hook, They weren in the archedeknes book: And hadde thurgh his jurediccioun 20](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24876033_0001_0258.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
