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108 NOTES TO NEW gEIR GIFT TO QUENE MARY (127).
had suffered much at the hands of the clergy of the ancient Church.
Cf. Douglas—
11 Quhay ar wirkaris of this weir, quha walkynaris of wa,
Bot incompetabill clergy that Cristyndome offendis?
Quha revis, quha ar riotus, quha rakles, bot tha?
Quha quellis the puyr commonis bot kyrkmen? weill kend is
Thar is na stait of thar stile that standis content;
Knycht, clerk, nor common,
Burges nor barroun,
All wald haue vp that is dovne,
Weltrit the went.”
— ‘Eneados’ viii., Prol., vol. iii. p. 146, 11. 1-9.
And Sir David Lyndsay says—
‘ ‘ How Prelats heichtis thair teinds it is weill knawin,
That husbandmen may not weill hald thair awin.”
—‘ Ane Satyre,’ 11. 2573, 2574.
But that the people were often more grievously oppressed by their
temporal masters than they had been by the prelates is clearly attested
by writers of the time. Sir Richard Maitland says—
“ Sum comounis, that hes bene weill stakit
Vnder kirkmen, ar now all wrakit,
Sen that the teynd and the kirk landis
Came in grit temporall mennis handis.
Thai gar the tennentis pay sic sowmes
As thai will ask ; or, quha ganestandis,
Thai will be put sone fra thair rowmes.”
—‘ Aganis Oppressioun of the Comounis,’ 11. 15-21.
Ruging and raifand = tearing and riving; ruthlessly impropriating.
Laing has raisand. But the phrase rug and rive is constantly met
with ; rug and raise never, so far as I know.
‘1 The ravin began rudely to rug and rive.”
—Lyndsay, ‘The Papyngo,’ 1. 1148.
127. To kis 'Wt Chauceris kuikis=\.o> compel to herd with knaves
and thieves ; to banish from decent society. To kis=\.o cause to kiss
or fraternise. Chauceris. Hailes, Laing, and Mackean read Chanteris.
But Chauceris Cuik was an expression used to designate a thief or
dishonourable person. Montgomerie applies it to Polwart in ‘The
Flyting ’—
“ Thy screws obscure are borrowed fra some buike;
Fra Lyndsay thou tooke ; thou’rt Chaucers cuike,
Ay lying like a ruike gif men wald not skar thee.”
—LI. 112-114.