2–3 Tho queth ure Louerd . . . sette the upon. For Christ’s words to the apostle Peter, see Matthew 16:18: “That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”↩back to note source

6 wurthsype. This word, repeated at line 24, bears a double meaning, one straightforwardly about the Church as the center of worship, and the other about Holy Church figured as a woman whose chastity is threatened or abused. See MEDworship(e) (n.), sense 1e, “a woman’s honor, perceived virtue, her reputation for chastity, modesty, etc.”; and the ecclesiastical meanings gathered under sense 2, for example, “(b) the veneration offered to that which is regarded as holy or sacred, devout reverence directed toward a deity, a person, an institution, object, etc.”↩back to note source

7 symonye. The wordplay is upon the Peter’s alternate name Simon; see John 1:42.↩back to note source

13 Clement. Saint Clement, Bishop of Rome (88–99), presumed to be the first or second successor to Peter, is regarded as the first Apostolic Father of the Church.↩back to note source

Gregorie. Saint Gregory the Great, Pope (590–604), instigated a large-scale mission from Rome to England to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. The author recounts a direct line of ecclesiastical authority from Christ to Peter, from Peter to Clement and Gregory, and then from Gregory to England via Saint Augustine of Canterbury. The Church’s divine authority is shown to have descended directly from Christ through the popes to the see of Canterbury.↩back to note source

14 ofte and ilome. “again and again.” For the idiom, see MED, oft(e) (adv.), sense 1d and ilome (adv.), sense 1b, and compare Poema Morale (art. 3), lines 48, 323.↩back to note source

15 myd some. “in accord.” Compare The Owl and the Nightingale (art. 2), line 180.↩back to note source

18–19 Nu me kasteth . . . heo to grunde. As the poem advances to these central lines, the solid “Ston” undergirding the Church suffers a figural pulverization — the Rock is now a multitude of simoniacal coins — and a sinister inversion — the Church herself is now being stoned (the biblical punishment for immoral women). The Old Norse verb casten combined with the preposition to denotes an action of throwing projectiles at and against “hire” (Holy Church). See MEDcasten (v.), sense 1a, “to throw (sth.) to a distance, fling, hurl,” and to (prep.), sense 24a, “against (sb. or sth., God), in opposition to.” Compare tocasten (v.), sense 1a, “to destroy (sth.),” a rare verb for which the only citation occurs in the Auchinleck manuscript. The verb of violent attack paints an image of both stoning and toppling. Operating as missiles, the silver and gold bruise and maim the vulnerable feminine body of Holy Church. Compare the affective imagining of Jesus’s maimed body at the center of An Orision to Our Lord (art. 25), lines 30–34.↩back to note source

20 Nis nu non that wile, for hire, tholie deth ne wunde. The argument expressed here is that no one — churchman or otherwise — is willing nowadays to suffer the pain of persecution or martyrdom in defense of Holy Church. Among the poems of Jesus 29, this argument is expressed most strongly in On Serving Christ (art. 18).↩back to note source

21 Seynt Thomas. Saint Thomas of Canterbury (ca. 1120–1170), archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He was rapidly canonized and popularly venerated as a defender of the Church against the Crown. He is celebrated elsewhere in Jesus 29 in The Antiphon of Saint Thomas the Martyr and On Serving Christ (arts. 17, 18).↩back to note source

22 The Archebisscop Stephne. Stephen Langton (1150–1228) was archbishop of Canterbury (1207–1228). A dispute between King John of England and Pope Innocent III over his election helped to lead to the Magna Carta in 1215. Historian C. H. Lawrence explains how “This episode inaugurated the most famous conflict between Church and monarchy in the history of medieval England. In the face of John’s stubborn refusal to yield, a papal interdict was laid upon the country and published in all the churches on 23 March 1208. It was not to be lifted until the summer of 1214. During these five years, no services were held in the churches, the bells were silent, and the laity were denied the sacraments saving only the baptism of infants and the confession and absolution of the dying” (Paris, The Life of St Edmund, trans. and ed. Lawrence, pp. 24–25). Stephen Langton remained politically active during Henry III’s early reign, sometimes speaking for the barons, sometimes allying with the king. In the 1220s he won concessions from Pope Honorius III that favored the English Church and exalted the see of Canterbury.↩back to note source

23 Seynt Admund. Saint Edmund Rich (ca. 1174–1240), also known as Edmund of Abingdon, was archbishop of Canterbury (1233–1240) in the early part of Henry III’s reign. Canonized a saint in 1246, he was known as a fervent defender of the Church. His devotional treatise, Speculum ecclesiae (Mirror of Holy Church), was translated into French and Middle English, and gained a popular following. For a discussion of his influence and a bibliography, see VLT, pp. 212–22. See, too, Matthew Paris’s Life of St. Edmund (trans. Lawrence, pp. 118–67).↩back to note source

24 wurschipe. See note to line 6, above.↩back to note source

25 uvele under honde. “under wicked governance.” The phrase under honde metaphorically complements the theme that the Church is “under foot.” Compare line 33. ↩back to note source

27–32 Bispes and clerekes . . . so swythe stronge. For other instances of estates satire in the Jesus 29 lyrics, compare The Saws of Saint Bede (art. 4), lines 91–174; Ten Abuses (art. 15), lines 2–11; and A Little Sooth Sermon (art. 16), lines 17–24. The trope frequently surfaces in venality complaint poems. On this aspect of Holy Church compared to The Simonie, see Fein, “When Holy Church Is Under Foot,” pp. 17–20. On The Simonie (preserved in the Auchinleck manuscript), see Wright, ed., Political Songs of England, pp. 323–45; Embree and Urquhart, eds., The Simonie; and Dean, ed., Medieval English Political Writings, pp. 193–212.↩back to note source

32 Heo let heom alle iwurthe that beoth so swythe stronge. “He lets powerful men do as they please.” See MED, iworthen (v.), sense 4a, “to let (sb.) do as he chooses.” The mastermind of simony, the pope himself, solicits money from powerful estates (bishops, clerks, knights, bondsmen, kings, and earls), and then looks the other way as they rapaciously abuse Holy Church. The verb iworthen extends the embodied feminine metaphor: the pope lets them do as they please, or, in ten Brink’s suggestive translation, “all do their will” (History of English Literature, trans. Kennedy, 1:317).↩back to note source

33 under vote! “under subjection, vanquished, overcome” (literally “under foot”). See MED, fot (n.), sense 14y, and under-fot (adv.), sense 1b.↩back to note source