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128 of exemption from sentence which in the case of certain offences might be pleaded on his first conviction by any one who could read: cp. the use of neck verse; the ability to read, being originally merely the test of the "clergy," or clerical position, came at length to be in itself the ground of privilege, so that the phrase became = benefit of scholarship. (New English Dict. sub Clergy.)

27, 4.cp. Ezek. iii. 1-3.

27, 6.the panther, cp. Pliny's Natural History, viii. 23.

27, 11."O virtus infinita librorum"; virtus == a host.

28, 10.that biped beast; glossed in sundry old MSS. scilicet mulier, which in some editions occurs in the text (cp. Blades, "The Enemies of Books").

28, 13.the asp and the cocatrice, cp. Ps. xci. 13.

28, 22.furs; MSS. vary between furraturas, farraturas, folraturas, ferraturas, and foderaturas; probably merely stuffing or lining of any sort.

28, 25.Theophrastus; the reference is to a book against marriage attributed to Theophrastus by St. Jerome.

28, 25.Valerius; "Valerius ad Rufinum de uxore non ducenda," was one of the most popular of mediæval books; (cp. Chaucer's Wife of Bath, Prologue, for the whole of this passage).

29, 7.our soul is bowed down to the dust, "adhaesit pavimento anima nostra," from Ps. xliv. 25.

29, 8.our belly cleaveth unto the earth, Ps. xliv. 25.

29, 11.and there is no man who layeth it to heart, Jer. xii. II.

29, 15.jaundice, ictericia; so called because it was supposed to be cured by the sight of the icterus, a bird mentioned by Pliny.

29, 23.the two Lazaruses, cp. Luke xvi. 20; John xi. 14, the one Lazarus suffering the corruption of disease, the other that of death.

30, 6.cp. Job ii. 8.

30, 15.bondmen and bondwomen, cp. Deut. xxviii. 68.

30, 19.such terrors as might frighten even the brave;