IV. ing the infallibility of the Church, or of the Clergy, appears CHAP. exceeding partial on the Clergy's side, and sets the laity, against them, as being biassed and not indifferent judges in their own cause. And, therefore, says the Bishop, to allege the seid meene into eeris of the seid laymen is not expedient into her conversioun. After these preliminaries the Bishop proceeds to open his own purpose and design in these words. Wherfore y unworthiest and yongist and lougist of Prelatis- -entende and purpos in this present book for to mete agens suche unobediencers another way and in another maner, and bi meene which the lay-persoonys wole admit and graunte; which meene is this: That we *owen to bileeve and stond to sum seier or techer, * ought. which may faile, while it is not known, that thilk seyer or techer therynne fallith.-The second part of this treatise treateth of the rule of faith. In it the Bishop shews, that holy Writ is the chief and principal ground of all the faith which is contained in it, or the only rule or standard of revealed and supernatural truths. 12. The authority of the Church or Clergy, and infallibility of their determinations, had of late (since Dr. Wiclif's translating the holy Scripture into English, and contending that Christ's law sufficeth by itself to rule Christ's Church) been carried very high, and looked upon as the most successful engine against the prevailing growth of condemned heresy; insomuch that our Bishop assures us, in the first part of this treatise of his, that some divines argued from those words of St. Paul, if we, or an angel Gal. i. 8. from heaven, should teach any other doctrine than that which ye have received, let him be anathema, that if it should happen that the Church militant and the Church triumphant disagreed in an article of faith, the determination of the Church militant was rather to be followed. Of this opinion the Council of Constance seems to have been, which sat Session xxi. but a little before our Bishop's time, viz. 1416, in which was this remarkable decree passed: "That although Christ had instituted the Sacrament of "the Eucharist to be received in both kinds, and the primitive Church re"tained the same manner of administering it; yet notwithstanding the custom IV. Wharton, CHAP. Nay, his Lordship shews in the second part of this treatise, that it was maintained, that "holy Scripture is not, 66 nor was not the ground of faith to any persons believ"ing; but that the Clergy of holy Church is worthier, "mightier, and of greater authority, than is Scripture, or "at least, of even worthiness, power, might, and authority, "with holy Scripture of the New Testament." But such crude positions as these, though they might raise the wonder and admiration of fools, deserved the contempt and indignation of wiser men. Our Bishop therefore set himself to refute them in this part of his treatise, and to shew, that "holy Writ is such a ground and foundement of oure "Cristen general faith, that noon gretter or bettir or surer "to us ground or foundement is for our Cristen general "faith written in holy Writ." than. 13. At this time great were the follies, and very gross the superstitions, which had crept by degrees into religion, and at last so much prevailed as quite to supplant it, and establish themselves in its room; and what added to the mischief was, Christians being grown so very insensible of their danger, as on the brink of death to fancy themselves alive and well, and therefore, instead of seeking for a cure, to detest all remedies, and do all they could to continue and propagate the distemper. For this purpose was even the service or common prayers of the Church corrupted, by placing in the breviary uncertain stories, and legends of the saints m. Stories, if we may believe a Cardinal of the Roman Church, and our own eyes, that " were written "with so little care or choice, that they had neither authority nor gravity." In the same manner was their Pref. p. 36. preaching so far corrupted and abused, that all the greater and more necessary articles of faith, and all genuine and rational knowledge of Christianity, had gene Wharton, 66 "of the Church, according to which it was to be received by the laity under "the species of bread only, was to be observed." m Historiæ sanctorum quædam tam incultæ et tam sine delectu scriptæ habentur in eodem, ut nec auctoritatem habere videantur nec gravitatem. Quigstonii Breviarium Romanum recogn. Paris. 1548. IV. rally given place to fabulous legends and romantic sto- CHAP. ries; fables which in this respect only differed from those of the ancient heathen poets, that they were more incredible and less elegant. The preachers of those times, as has been observed before, were for the most part the Monks and Friars, who never scrupled lying for the honour of their saints and patrons; for which at length they were become so famous, that it was a proverb, among the better sort however, This man is a Frier, With these fables and romances they constantly stuffed their sermons, which by the credulous multitude were therefore the more admired, since they were now ignorant enough to believe any lie. Our Bishop too well saw the mischievous consequences of these false harangues, not to shew his dislike of them. He therefore arraigned them of error, heresy, and superstition, and did all he could to expose their folly, styling the preachers themselves pulpit- Clamitabawlers. tores in pul 14. Our Bishop's thus mincing the authority of the Clergy, by granting, though only for argument sake, the fallibility of their determinations; his candour and moderation towards the poor dissenting Lollards, in treating them with so much gentleness and goodness, as patiently to hear their objections and scruples, without either insulting or abusing them; his regard to the laity in affording them the means of better knowledge ", by writing in English, a language which they understood; and the contempt and dislike which he shewed of the pious fraud of legends; soon drew upon his Lordship the envy and ha n The people were so termed from the A. S. lepede, ignorant, as much as to say the ignorant ones. Hence our Bishop Bilson, "I call no man laie in " contempt or derogation either of his gifts, or of that state in which I know "the Church of God hath always had and hath many grave and worthy men, "fit for their wisdom and gravity to bear as great or greater charge than Cler"gymen." Perpetual Government, &c. p. 144. pitis. CHAP. tred of all those, who were engaged both by zeal and inIV. terest in the continuance of these evils and corruptions. Several of the Doctors therefore of the two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, especially of the latter, which at this time was very remarkable for supposed orthodoxy, opposed our Bishop in their sermons, lectures, and determinations. The following persons are particularly named. Hist. et An- 1. Gilbert Worthington. 2. William Littefield. 3. Peter tiq. Oxon. Beverly P, alias Hyrford, of the diocese of Lincoln. 4. William Myllyngton, a Yorkshireman, Master of Clare Hall and Provost of King's College in Cambridge, who in a sermon he preached at St. Paul's, the next course after our Bishop, is said to have openly declared, that the kingdom of England would never suffer those, who patronized or favoured our Bishop, to prosper. 5. Dr. Hugh Damlet, Master of Pembroke Hall, who is said to have pretended to prove our Bishop guilty of heresy out of his own writings. These were all Cambridge Doctors. 6. Thomas Eborall or Eyburhall, who succeeded the Bishop in the mastership of Whittington College, &c. 7. John Burbach. 8. 9 John Bury, an Augustine heremite monk, and John Milverton, all Oxford men; besides the Doctors of the Friars Mendicant, who, it seems, could not relish the Bishop's finding fault with their preaching, and instead of it recom • The preamble of King Henry VI.'s patent for the erection of King's College there, which his father designed to have built at Oxford, intimates as much." Ad errorum et heresium extirpationem, qui quasi totum resper66 guntur in orbem, et solennium regnorum ac Universitatum pacem pertur"bant, regnumque nostrum Anglie in aliquibus ejus suppositis violarunt. "Quorum ab inventionibus Universitas nostra predicta immaculatam se conti"nue observavit." E Collect. D. Tho. Baker, Coll. S. Johannis Cantab. P This man abjured Dr. Wiclif's opinions, or those which were condemned as his, in plena congregatione—coram reverendo viro magistro Eudone de la Zouche, LL.D. ejusdem Universitatis Cancellario, necnon coram venerabili cetu magistrorum regentium et non regentium—Feb. 22, A. D. 1412. Idem. So that he must be pretty old, when he opposed our Bishop. q See before. This man, Leland tells us, preached frequently at London, and particularly at St. Paul's, against the intolerable ambition and avarice of the Bishops. De Scriptor. Britan. p. 465. mending the preaching the sacred truths of holy Scrip- CHAP. ture: and several students of the University of Oxford. 15. Whether the Bishop ever wrote any reply to these his opposers, is very uncertain. In the imperfect account which we have of his Lordship's writings, there is nothing which has the appearance of any defence of himself, and the positions maintained by him; unless the tracts entitled, The Defender, The Follower of it, The Declaratory, and his letter to William Godharde, the Franciscan or begging Friar, were of this nature. However, it was not long before a more effectual course was taken to stop the mouth, and silence the arguments of our Bishop. 16. It has been observed before, that the Duke of York, taking advantage of the death of the Duke of Gloucester, and the general discontent and uneasiness on that account, and of the losses abroad and mismanagements at home, began secretly to engage his friends of the nobility and gentry, &c. and to declare to them his title and pretensions to the crown. This he now began to prosecute more effectually, by coming out of Ireland, and with the help of his friends raising a great army in the marches of Wales; though still, to conceal his true design, the intent of all this armament was given out to be the public wealth of the realm, and great profit of the commons, by redressing and reforming the public grievances, and removing the evil and disaffected counsellors, that were said to be about the King. 17. Amidst these domestic divisions and civil commotions, Gascoigne tells us, that our Bishop was about the feast of St. Martin's, A. D. 1457, by the King's command, expelled the House of Lords at London, and forbid the King's presence by the Archbishop of Canterbury; and that so much were all the temporal lords set against our Bishop, (for elsewhere he observes that the Bishops favoured him,) that they refused to enter on any business, so A. D. 1452, in quadragesima surrexit Richardus Dux Eboraci pro reformatione regni Anglie, ut dixit idem Dux. Gascoigne, Dict. Theol. MS. IV. |