[69] _Summoner_: an officer employed by the ecclesiastical courts to summon any persons who broke the law to appear before the archdeacon, who imposed what penalty he thought fit. The Summoners found it to their interest to accept bribes not to report offences: therefore bad people who could afford to pay got off, whilst those who could not afford to pay were punished with rigour. Many Summoners extorted bribes by threatening to say people had transgressed the law who had _not_; and so they got to be detested by the masses, and Chaucer’s hideous picture gives the popular notion of a Summoner. [70] A face as red as the fiery cherubin: a rather profane simile! In many ancient pictures we find the cherubin painted wholly scarlet; and the term had become a proverb. ‘Sawceflem’ is from _salsum flegma_, a disease of the skin. [71] See note, p. 92, note 175. [72] _Pardoner_: Seller of the Pope’s indulgences. [73] A vernicle--diminutive of _Veronike_--was a small copy of the face of Christ, worn as a token that he had just returned from a pilgrimage to Rome. [74] The Pardoner’s eloquence and musical gifts account, perhaps, for the exquisite story he afterwards tells. [75] Mr. Wright says this place was situated at the second milestone on the old Canterbury road. [76] Tyrwhitt. Hyppolita, Smith’s Dic. [77] Feste in this place means rather festival than feast, as Theseus was only on his way to the city. [78] At this period, the personal pronoun _you_ was used only in the plural sense, or in formal address, as on the Continent now; whilst _thou_ implied familiarity. The Deity, or any superior, was therefore addressed as _you_: intimates and inferiors as _thou_. Throughout Chaucer the distinction is noticeable: but as the present mode reverses the order, I have in my lines adhered to no strict principle, but have used the singular or plural personal pronoun according as it seemed most forcible. [79] Thebes, in Greece. [80] A garment worn over the armour, on which the armorial bearings were usually embroidered, for the purpose of recognition. See _tabard_, p. 48.