Exiit edictum a Cesare Augusto.—LUC. ii. [I.]
ÞIS dai men singen þree massis in worship of þe Trinite; but þe þridde and þe moste is of þe manhede of Crist, þe which is boþe God and man for þe love of mankynde. Þe gospil of þe firste masse, and of þe secounde also, tellen what þingis bifellen in þe birþe of þis child. Þe Emperour of Rome was þanne in his flouris, and in pees on ech side, as þis autour of pees ordeynede. Men seien þat þis emperour was clepid Octavian; and in þe two and fourtiþe ȝeer, whanne he was in moost pees, was Crist born, God and man, in þe lond undir þis emperour. Men seien also, þat þis Cesare was moost in generalte and larges, and pees of his lordship; for more generali þan oþer hadde he lordship of þis world. Of Julius he took þis name to be clepid Cesare; and August he was clepid, for he alargide ['Augustus,' as if from augeo.] þe empire. Þis emperour sente a co|mandement to al þe peple of his empire, to discryve alle his londis, þat was wel nyȝ al þis world. And he bigan at Sirie, for it was myddil of his empire. And so Syryne [Siryne, E.] [In the authorized version, 'Cyrenius governor of Syria.'] , þat was þere cheef undur þe emperour, bigan to make þis discripcion, and gaderide tribute to þe emperour. And þus myȝte þe emperour wite what peple he hadde in his empire, and what þei myȝten helpe him in tyme of nede, in men and moneie. And þus he devidide þis rewme in þree partis, þat men shulden come in nyne ȝeer to Rome, and bringe tribute for her lond. But al þis is passid now; for þe pope and his covent haþ [ban, E.] so put doun þe em|perour [This is an interesting allusion to the enfeebled condition of the 'Holy Roman Empire' since the fall of the Hohenstanfen dynasty, which was truly brought about, as the writer says, by the popes and their adherents. The emperor at this time reigning, Wenzel or Wen|ceslas, whose sister, Anne of Bo|hemia, was married to our Richard II, was so utterly weak both in character and resources that the princes of the empire deposed him a few years later, and elected in his room his brother Sigismund.] ,
