the opinions of Wickliff, after John of Gaunt his patron; somewhat of which appears in the tale of Piers Plowman:  yet I cannot blame him for inveighing so sharply against the vices of the clergy in his age:  their pride, their ambition, their pomp, their avarice, their worldly interest, deserved the lashes which he gave them, both in that, and in most of his Canterbury tales:  neither has his contemporary Boccace spared them.  Yet both those poets lived in much esteem with good and holy men in orders; for the scandal which is given by particular priests, reflects not on the sacred function.  Chaucer’s Monk, his Chanon, and his Fryer, took not from the character of his Good Parson.  A satirical poet is the check of the laymen on bad priests.  We are only to take care, that we involve not the innocent with the guilty in the same condemnation.  The good cannot be too much honoured, nor the bad too coarsely used; for the corruption of the best becomes the worst.  When a clergyman is whipped, his gown is first taken off, by which the dignity of his order is secured:  if he be wrongfully accused, he has his action of slander; and it is at the poet’s peril, if he transgress the law.  But they will tell us, that all kind of satire, though never so well deserved by particular priests, yet brings the whole order into contempt.  Is then the peerage of England anything dishonoured, when a peer suffers for his treason?  If he be libelled, or any way defamed, he has his Scandalum Magnatum to punish the offender.  They who use this kind of argument, seem to be conscious to themselves of somewhat which has deserved the poet’s lash; and are less concerned for their public capacity, than for their private; at least there is pride at the bottom of their reasoning.  If the faults of men in orders are only to be judged among themselves, they are all in some sort parties; for, since they say the honour of their order is concerned in every member of it, how can we be sure that they will be impartial judges?  How far I may be allowed to speak my opinion in this case, I know not; but I am sure a dispute of this nature caused mischief in abundance betwixt a king of England and an archbishop of Canterbury; one standing up for the laws of his land, and the other for the honour (as he called it) of God’s Church; which ended in the murder of the prelate, and in the whipping of his majesty from post to pillar for his penance.  The learned and ingenious Dr Drake has saved me the labour of inquiring into the esteem and reverence which the priests have, had of old; and I would rather extend than diminish any part of it; yet I must needs say, that when a priest provokes me without any occasion given him, I have no reason, unless it be the charity of a Christian, to forgive him. Prior laesit is justification sufficient in the civil law.  If I answer him in his own language, self-defence, I am sure, must be allowed me; and if I carry it farther, even to a sharp recrimination, somewhat may be indulged to human frailty.