Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/192

The new gospel The prime exemplar of a book
So vile that by the devil’s crook
It well were written, and about
’Twas set for clerks to copy out
And circulate when duly dight;
The everlasting Gospel hight12460
This trash and friars avouched its merit,
As writ by God’s most Holy Spirit.
Right worthy was it to be burned,
But many a crown the scholars earned
Before the Church of Notre Dame,
For men and women oiled the palm,
Of those who set themselves to write
Out fair, that vile misleading light.
Therein one finds all clearly done
This blasphemous comparison:12470
“E’en as before the sun doth fail
The moon, and show but faint and pale,
And as she nowise can compete
With him in brilliancy or heat,
And as a kernel to its shell
(Nay do not smile at what I tell,
For this have I seen writ, I swear)
So doth this wondrous book compare
With Christ’s Four Gospels, and surpass
Their value utterly.”—Alas!12480
I wish me dead, if even than these
You find not bolder similes.

The University till then
Had been asleep, but roused it when
This blasphemy assailed its ears,
Wakened at once by wrath and fears.