To this period and to the disturbance caused by these proceedings are doubtless to be attributed several satirical pieces of verse describing the excitement occurring among the unfortunate clerks thus attacked in their tenderest spot. The opening lines of one of these poems indicate the novelty and unexpectedness of the new regulations:— Rumor novus Angliæ partes pergiravit, Clericos, presbyteros omnes excitavit, * * * * * Nascitur presbyteris hinc fera procella: Quisquis timet graviter pro sua puella. The author then describes a great council, attended by more than ten thousand ecclesiastics, assembled to deliberate on the course to be pursued in so delicate a conjuncture. An old priest commences— Pro nostris uxoribus sumus congregati; Videatis provide quod sitis parati, Ad mandatum domini papæ vel legati, Respondere graviter ne sitis dampnati.[707] Another poem of similar character describes a chapter held by all orders and grades to consider the same question. The various speakers declare their inability to obey the new rule, except two, whose age renders them indifferent. A learned doctor exclaims— Omnis debet clericus habere concubinam; Hoc dixit qui coronam gerit auro trinam: Hanc igitur retinere decet disciplinam. The general belief in the legality of the connection is shown by the remark of another— Surgens unus presbyter turba de totali ... “Unam” dixit “teneo amore legali, Quam nolo dimittere pro lege tali.” Another expects to escape by paying his “cullagium”— Duodecimus clamat magno cum clamore: “Non me pontifex terret minis et pavore: Sed ego nummos præbeam pro Dei amore, Ut in pace maneam cara cum uxore.” Another urges the indiscriminate immorality attending upon the attempt to enforce an impossible asceticism— Addidit ulterius: “Sitis memor horum, Si vetare præsul vult specialem torum, Cernet totum brevi plenum esse chorum Ordine sacrorum adulterorum.” And at length the discussion closes with the speech of a Dominican, who ends his remarks by predicting— Habebimus clerici duas concubinas: Monachi, canonici totidem vel trinas: Decani, prælati, quatuor vel quinas: Sic tandem leges implebimus divinas.[708]