II. "to murder him, thus insulted and upbraided him: That CHAP. fellow always lived with the King, and was his Con"fessor, and did not reside in his diocese of Sarum with 66 coigne, us, nor keep any hospitality, therefore he shall not live." 10. As to provisions, or the Pope's providing of a Bishop before the incumbent was dead, (called also Mandamus de providendo, or gratia expectativa, because the Pope p. 26, 29. pretended by it to provide for the cure, or the persons to whom these bulls were granted, were to expect, or wait for Tho. Gasthe grace or favour they were to enjoy by them, until the Dict. Theol. incumbent died,) we are assured by the forementioned pars 2da. p. writer, that through the frequency of granting licences to Appropriaprocure and accept of the Pope's bulls of provision for va- tio; pars prima, p. cant benefices, the most unworthy were promoted, or that 20. v. Epiy very wicked and worthless men were by these means ad- scopus. vanced to the highest stations in the Church. He instances, particularly, 1st, in "William Buthe, who," he says, "he translated from Litchfield to York, and was nei"ther a good grammarian, nor knowing, nor reputed vir 66 tuous, nor a graduate in either University. 2. George "Nevil, who was provided by the Pope to the see of "Exeter, when he was but twenty-three years old. 3. "John Delabere, who was promoted to the see of St. Da"vid's by the Pope's bull of provision, dated Sept. 15, "1447, and who indulged his Clergy in their keeping ❝z concubines, receiving of every Priest who kept one, a "noble a year or more. 4. John Kemp, Archbishop of "York, who is represented as a non-resident, a dilapi"dator, and one who left his church, when he was trans"lated to the see of Canterbury, in great disorder and con 516, 55. v. y Novi nuper in Anglia homines pessime promotos, qui habuerunt licentiam a rege Henrico Sexto, ut laborarent Papæ Romano pro provisione, et qui illam acceptarent. Et sic per provisionem factam Romæ in diebus meis, facti sunt plures episcopi et abbates et decani sine electione quacunque, excepta electione Papæ, quæ vocatur provisio. Gasc. Dict. Theol. 2 Plerisque in diocesibus, rectores parochiarum, ex certo et conducto cum suis prælatis pretio, passim et publice concubinas tenant. Nicolaius de Clemangis de corrupto Ecclesiæ Statu, c. 15. Ibid. 516. CHAP. "fusion. In sum we are assured, that from the year 1403 II. "there were none preferred in the Church who knew how "in a due manner to do good to souls, or who could 66 or would do it: that at that time in England, the care Ibid. p. 55. "of souls was destroyed by appropriations, the non-resi"dence of Curates and Prelates, the promotion of worth"less men, pluralities of benefices, and the very worst "conferring of school degrees and granting graces to un"worthy, wicked, and vicious persons, in Oxford, and "other Universities." Ibid. pars prima, p. 419. v. Episcopus. 66 11. " Lastly, as to the payment of a annates or first"fruits to the Pope, the same writer observes, that it was a novel practice, and but lately introduced: that Thomas "Becket, and the Bishops in his time, paid no first-fruits "to the Pope, and, that they were not paid at any time "before; but, that afterwards, in the time of Pope John about 1317." XXII. they begun to be paid by an avaricious ordinance "of the said Pope's, and of those who adhered to him in "the court of Rome: and, that thus grew up a custom in "England, that the consent of the Pope of Rome and his "chamber, the consent of the King of England, and cer"tain thousands of money, make any one a Bishop. So Episcopus. elsewhere he observes, that three things make a man a p. 438. v. "Bishop in England, viz. the will of the King, the will of "the Pope, or court of Rome, and monies paid in abun"dance to the court of Rome, viz. several thousands of pounds of English money paid here in England to the * Bankers." *Lombards for exchange, which impoverishes the king"dom." about 1400. 66 12. Of these corruptions and intolerable grievances and exactions very great and many complaints had been made for almost an hundred years before. Dr. Wiclif shewed, that Prelates and Priests ordained of God- ben all a Annatarum usum beneficiis ecclesiasticis primus [Bonifacius IX.] imposuit, hac conditione, ut qui beneficium consequeretur dimidium annui proventus fisco apostolico persolveret-Hanc autem consuetudinem omnes admisere, præter Anglos, qui id de solis episcopatibus concessere, in cæteris beneficiis non adeo. Platina in Vita Bonifacii IX. II. MS. c. 19. bounden by Jesu Christ to preach the Gospel: that Pre- CHAP. lates ben more bounden to this preaching, for that is commandment of Christ before his death and eke after, than of Prelates, to seie Mattins, Mass, Even-song or Placebo, for that is 39. man's ordinance. He therefore complained, that they prechen not Christ's Gospel in word and dede by which Christen men should live holy life in charity-but they senden new hypocrites to preche fables and lesings, and to flattren men in sin, and to rob the poor people by false begging damned of God's law,-and pursuen and cursen if any poor Priest wole preache freely Christ's gospel, and deliver Christen souls out of the fends honds, and leaden them the right way to heaven. Elsewhere it is complained, Why poor that if Curates ben stirred to go learn God's law, and no benefice, teche their parishioners the Gospel, commonly they shullen MS. c. 2. get no leave of Bishops but for gold, and when they shullen most profit in their learning, then shullen they be clepid home at the Prelate's will. Priests have tence of 13. The ignorance of both the Bishops and inferior Clergy of this time is represented to have been generally so great, that they were incapacitated to perform this office of preaching. Dr. Wiclif assures us, that in his time there were many unable b Curates, that kunnen not the Great Senten commandments, ne read their sauter, ne understood a Curse exverse of it. Nay, that it was then notorious, that too many pounded, MS. c. iii. of even the Prelates were sinners in their being ignorant xvi. of God's law. This had long been a growing evil. The Dialog. lib. Friars seem to have taken advantage of this ignorance of the Clergy, to obtain the privilege of preaching and hearing confessions; for thus they represented the Parish Matth. Paris, Hist. Priests as a parcel of idiots, who never heard divinity, and Ang.p.694. were blind leaders of the blind. A writer nearer our Bi- See Abp. Peckham's shops time gives us the following representation of the Constit. b Suche that can nat ysay ther crede iv. 1279. Chaucer's Plowman's Tale. II. Nicol. de Clemangis de corrupto Statu, p. 8. coll. 1. CHAP. Clergy of that age, which he notes to be the consequence of those provisions, or expectative graces, which the Pope had now assumed to himself the grant of, viz. " that they "who were thus promoted, came not from the UniversiEcclesiæ "ties, or from school, but from the plough and servile coll. 2. p.16." arts; that they understood Latin no more than they did "Arabic, nay they could not read; and which is a shame "to relate, were not able to distinguish A from B." To the same purpose in another place; "what signifies it," says he," to say any thing of letters and learning, when "we see almost all Priests without any knowledge of ei"ther things or words, nay scarce able to read even by 66 spelling?" We need not therefore be surprised at what Dr. Wiclif's Dr. Wiclif tells us, that the Freres supplied for the BiLife, p. 41. shops the office of preaching, and, that the Bishops sent others to preach that tellen leasings, fables, and chronicles, and robben the people by false beggings, and dare not tell them their great sins and ©avoutrie, for fear of lesen winning or friendship. A specimen of the Friars preaching is given us by our poet Chaucer as follows: The Sompnour's Tale. And so bifell that on a day this Frere Not there as it is wastid and devourid: c Eche Christin Priest to prechin owe, Chaucer's Plowman's Tale. (He singith not but o messe in a day,) Full hard it is with fleshe-hoke, or with * oules Now spede you hastily for Cristis sake. And whan this Frere had said al his entent, Whan folk in chirche had geve him what hem lest, pincers. 14. Thus did the Friars supply for the Bishops the office of preaching, in so false and sophistical a manner, that the Church was deceived instead of being edified by it. Their business was, instead of instructing the people out of God's word, and exhorting them to yield obedience to it, to persuade them to give them their money to build fine and stately houses with, and to increase their wealth. For this purpose, they did all they could to put the people out of conceit with the other religious Orders, and the Bishops and Parish Priests, representing them as proud Pierres the and lazy, and no objects of their charity, because they had enough already; and on the contrary, magnifying themselves as the only ones who honoured divine service, and did not waste and devour what was given for the support of it, and who were so intent on doing their duty, that without any delay they sung the thirty masses for their friends souls, and thereby effectually delivered them from their pains and torments. Plowman's Creed. 15. Our Bishop by no means approved of this way of preaching; and is said therefore to have called those who preached in this manner pulpit-bawlers, in a letter which he wrote to one of these Friars. To this perhaps he refers, William when he explains the word preach to be used by him in Godharde. its most famous signification; as if his meaning was, that Bishops were not obliged to preach as the Friars preached, |