Augustus had given him the example, by the advice of Maecenas, who recommended Virgil and Horace to him; whose praises help'd to make him popular while he was alive, and after his death have made him precious to posterity.

As for the religion of our poet, he seems to have some little bias towards the opinions of Wycliffe, after John of Ghant his patron; somewhat of which appears in the tale of Piers Plowman.[19] 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, deserv'd the lashes which he gave them, both in that and in most of his _Canterbury Tales_: neither has his contemporary Boccace spar'd them.

Yet both those poets liv'd 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 Canon, and his Friar, took not from the character of his Good Parson.

A satirical poet is the check of the laymen on bad priests.