ps unconsciously, offers. The number of the tales
(including two in prose) is twenty-four, and great additional value is
given to them by the short prologue introducing each of them.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAUCER, (CONTINUED.)--REFORMS IN RELIGION AND SOCIETY.

Historical Facts. Reform in Religion. The Clergy, Regular and Secular.
The Friar and the Sompnour. The Pardonere. The Poure Persone. John
Wiclif. The Translation of the Bible. The Ashes of Wiclif.

HISTORICAL FACTS.

Leaving the pilgrims' cavalcade for a more philosophical consideration of
the historical teachings of the subject, it may be clearly shown that the
work of Chaucer informs us of a wholesome reform in religion, or, in the
words of George Ellis,[16] "he was not only respected as the father of
English poetry, but revered as a champion of the Reformation."

Let us recur briefly to the history. With William the Conqueror a great
change had been introduced into England: under him and his immediate
successors--his son William Rufus, his nephew Henry I., the usurper
Stephen, and Henry II.,--the efforts of the "English kings of Norman race"
were directed to the establishment of their power on a strong foundation;
but they began, little by little, to see that the only foundation was that
of the unconquerable English people; so that popular rights soon began to
be considered, and the accession of Henry II., the first of the
Plantagenets, was specially grateful to the English, because he was the
first since the Conquest to represent the Saxon line, being the grandson
of Henry I., and son of _Matilda_, niece of Edgar Atheling. In the mean
time, as has been seen, the English language had been formed, the chief
element of which was Saxon. This was a strong instrument of political
rights, for community of language tended to an amalgamation of the Norman
and Saxon peoples. With regard to the Church in England, the insulation
from Rome had impaired the influence of the Papacy. The misdeeds and
arrogance of the clergy had arrayed both people and monarch against their
claims, as several of the satirical poems already mentioned have shown. As
a privileged class, who used their immunities to do evil and corrupt the
realm, the clergy became odious to the _nobles_, whose power they shared
and sometimes impaired, and to the _people_, who could now read their
faults and despise their comminations, and who were unwilling to pay
hard-earned wages to suppor