What does the poet say? That the charlatan has ever fine things to show, that he knows how to dazzle the simple, that he has his bag full of parchments with awe-inspiring seals, maybe genuine, maybe not;[437] that the people look on and admire, and the parson gets angry but holds his tongue: “First I pronounce whennes that I come, And thanne my bulles schewe I alle and some; Oure liege lordes seal upon my patent That schewe I first, my body to warent, That no man be so hardy, prest ne clerk, Me to destourbe of Cristes holy werk. And after that than tel I forth my tales. Bulles of popes and of cardynales, Of patriarkes, and of bisshops, I schewe, And in Latyn speke I wordes fewe To savore with my predicacioun, And for to stere men to devocioun.” As for that “turpem et infamem quæstum” branded by the Pontiff, it is the ever-recurring burden of the unholy discourse: “Now good men, God foryeve yow your trespas, And ware yow fro the synne of avarice. Myn holy pardoun may you alle warice (redeem), So that ye offren noblis or starlinges, Or elles silver spones, broches, or rynges. Bowith your hedes under this holy bulle.” {319} [Illustration 60. READING IN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL OF A FABRICATED PAPAL BULL, A.D. 1399. (_From the MS. Harl. 1319._)] {321} The effect of solemn parchments and large seals displayed from the pulpit rarely failed upon the crowd, and in some circumstances of more importance than the retail selling of the merits of saints in heaven, recourse was had to such exhibitions. When Henry of Lancaster came to turn his cousin Richard II out of the English throne, the first thing he did, according to Créton, was to have a pretended papal bull, granting a plenary indulgence, read from the pulpit of Canterbury cathedral and commented by Archbishop Arundel (whose brother, the earl, King Richard had caused to be summarily executed). As Créton was not present when this scene, which he describes only on hearsay, took place, the speech he gives is the more interesting, for it may be considered an average speech, such a one as was usual and likely to have been pronounced on the occasion. “My good people,” the Archbishop is supposed to have said, “hearken all of you here: you well know how the king most wrongfully and without reason has banished your lord Henry; I have therefore obtained of the holy father who is our patron, that those who shall forthwith bring aid this day, shall every one of them have remission of all sins whereby from the hour of their baptism they have been defiled. Behold the sealed bull that the Pope of renowned Rome hath sent me, my good friends, in behalf of you all. Agree then to help him to subdue his enemies, and you shall for this be placed after death with those who are in Paradise.”