IV. 66 CHAP. "it may please God, who is the comforter of all in adver66 sity, and does not despise those who trust in him, to pre"serve the universal Church of England, the King, and kingdom." His Grace concludes this his mandate with a grant of an indulgence of forty days, and a request to his suffragans, that they would bestow the like; which grant, he says, he concedes, that he might rouse the minds of the faithful to repentance and prayer. 46. Of the execution of this mandate we have the certificate of William Grey, Bishop of Ely, who certified, that he had by the authority of the abovesaid letters caused an inquisition to be made in his city and diocese of Ely, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the sixth, seventh, and A. D. 1458. eighth days of the month of April, concerning all and singular the things contained in the said letters; and on the Sunday following had caused a public and general monition to be made in his cathedral church, and every other church of his city and diocese, to all and singular who had such books, to deliver them up within fifteen days after this monition, &c. but that he could find no one in his city and diocese who had such books, or any book of this sort, or who did relish such things, or hold, teach, or preach these sorts of errors or heresies. 47. His Lordship likewise in his mandate to Master Roger Ratclif, LL.D. his official to execute the Archbishop's letters, grants forty days of indulgence, as the Archbishop had desired him to do, to all those who are present at and devoutly preach up the processions before mentioned. 48. The University of Oxford was more forward, since we are told that Novem. 17, 1457, above a fortnight be suffrage being on this occasion by the Archbishop's order inserted in the common Litany, shews the weakness of the insinuation, that before the Reformation there were no prayers composed suitable to the particular occasions of a fast or thanksgiving. i Adscripta erant nomina episcoporum a suffragiis, qui lac illud invisentibus non absque munusculo tantum impartierunt relaxationis, quantum ex suo dimenso largiri possunt. ME. Quantum id est? OG. Dierum quadraginta. Erasmi colloquium cui titulus, Peregrinatio religionis ergo. IV. fore the Bishop's books, &c. were burnt at Paul's Cross, CHAP. as many copies of them as could be found at Oxford were burnt at the cross-way commonly called Quatervoix, or Carfax, Master Tho. Chandlerk the Chancellor, and all the scholars of the University, going thither in a solemn procession. In this they seem to have outstripped the zeal of even the Archbishop himself. And yet it is said, that in less than a month after, the Chancellor, &c. certified the Archbishop by their letters of what they had done; at the same time declaring their abhorrence of the Bishop's opinions, and begging his Grace's pardon for their being so long silent about them. 49. The Archbishop likewise, in imitation of Archbishop Arundel, who ordered Wodford to defend the condemnation of the Conclusions taken out of Dr. Wiclif's Trialogus, commanded John Bury', a provincial Friar of the Order of the Friars Heremites of St. Augustine, in the province of Canterbury, to write against the Conclusions maintained by the Bishop in one of his books, called the Repressour, &c. though it does not appear to me that they were judicially condemned. And so zealous was the King, or those about him, that, by way of appendix, a clause was added to the statutes of King's College, founded by his Majesty about fourteen years before, in the following term. "Item statuimus, ordinamus, et volumus, quod 66 quilibet scholaris in admissione sua in collegium no"strum regale predictum, post annos probationis juret, "quod non favebit opinionibus damnatis, erroribus, aut "heresibus Johannis Wiclyfe, Reginaldi Pecock, neque "alicujus alterius heretici, quamdiu vixerit in hoc mundo, "sub pena perjurii et expulsionis ipso facto." And yet so it happened, that this college was one of the heretical colleges, notwithstanding all this caution. k Warden of New College, and afterwards Dean of the King's chapel and of the church of Hereford. 1 Inter quos et me pusillulum vestra dominatio irritandum duxit- -Intuens ergo librum ejus, quem Repressorem vocat, non singulas hereses discutere, non errorum que in conjuncta sunt annotare vestigia cupiam; sed ad totius, ut arbitror, sui mali radicem. Bury, Epist. ad Archiep. MS. CHAP. IV. 286, c. 2. 293, c. 1. 50. As to the Bishop himself, he had not yet received his final sentence, but was mordered to be carried to Maidstone in Kent, where the Archbishop then was at his palace in that town, there to wait for and expect it. How long he continued here, before this sentence was pronounced, I do not find. But by the Archbishop's letters for inquiring after the Bishop's books, &c. which have been before recited, it appears that he was acknowledged Bishop of Chichester almost four months after his abjuration at Lambeth and Paul's Cross. However at length his definitive sentence was given, which was, that he Lyndwood, should be deprived of his bishopric. This was a part of Provin. p. the punishment of one condemned of heresy, or of being a fautor of it, that he should be incapable of holding any ecclesiastical benefice. But, it seems, such was the Bishop's interest at the court of Rome, that he had from thence bulls of restitution, by which the Archbishop was required to put him again in possession of his bishopric, of which he had now deprived him. The constitutions, on which the Bishop seems to have been tried, allow of persons being absolved from the greater excommunication on their publicly owning their fault; nay, do not require the sentence to be denounced in case they repent and abjure in the accustomed form of the Church. Now to this the Bishop had submitted. He had revoked his books and errors, and publicly abjured them, not only before the Archbishop sitting in court, but in a more public manner at Paul's Cross. It seems therefore to have been a stretch of the canonical sanctions to inflict the penalty of them on the Bishop, and deprive him of his bishopric, notwithstanding he had receded from his errors, and made a public abjuration of them. 51. But be this as it will, on the Bishop's procuring these bulls of the Pope to be restored to his bishopric, application was made by the Archbishop to the King, to whom it was represented as follows: That Reynold Pe m Postea Archiepiscopus Cantuar. Thomas Bourcher mandavit eum ad Maidston judicium expectaturum. Gascoigne, Dict. Theol. MS. IV. retici Pe e coll. R. R. Ep. Petro Stat. 6. cock, Minister of the see of Chichester, had been detected CHAP. and convicted of certain errors and heresies, and had abjured and taken his penance; that yet nevertheless he had Certificat. surreptitiously purchased and obtained from our holy Fa-supermandato regio ther the Pope certain bulls for his declaration and restitu- in causa hetion, contrary to the laws and statutes provisors, and to cock, MS. the great contempt and dérogation of his Majesty's prerogative and estate royal. By these statutes it was recited, burg. that the Bishop of Rome did accroach to himself the seig- 25 Edw. III. niory of the possessions and benefices assigned to Archbishops, Bishops, &c. (in offence and destruction of the laws and rights of the realm, and to the great damage of the King's people, and in subversion of all the estate of his said realm,) and gave and granted them, as if he was the patron or advowee of them; when as the kings, earls, barons, and other nobles, as lords and advowees, have had and ought to have the collation of such benefices. It was therefore enacted, that the said oppressions, &c. should not be suffered in any manner, and that in case of disturbance to patrons by provisions, the provisors, &c. shall be attached, and make fine and ransom to the King at his will, and before that they be delivered make full renunciation of all the words in the Pope's bull which are contrary or prejudicial to the King and to his crown, and find sufficient surety that they shall not attempt such things in time to come; and that they who have obtained, or shall obtain in the court of Rome, dignities, offices, chapels, or benefices of holy Church, pertaining to the gift, &c. of the King, or of other lay-patron of his realm, shall be arrested, and being convicted shall be punished as aforesaid. But now, to shew the partiality of this representation, it so happens, that not only the Archbishop, but two however of his assessors, viz. Kempe and Lowe, were all promoted by Papal provision. But this was no way reflected on as being to the great contempt and derogation of his Majesty's prerogative, &c. 52. On this representation made to him of the conduct Petrobur. CHAP. of our Bishop, his Majesty issued out his royal mandate IV. to the Bishop of St. Asaph, and to Robert Stillington ", E Collect. Clerk," to put them in their devoire to know and underWhite, Ep.❝stand the effect and contents of the said bulls, and to "call to them such and as many most famous Doc"tors in Theology and Law, as they should think most ne66 cessary, and have this matter communed among them; "and thereupon to certify his Majesty by writing, articu"larly subscribed with their own names and signs ma"nual, of such direction maintainable by law, as he ought "to use, take, and write farther, &c." Which mandate is A. D. 1458. dated at St. Albans, the 17th day of September. : 53. In obedience to this mandate the Bishop and Doctor called in to their assistance twenty Doctors of Divinity and Law, who all subscribed the certificate required, in which they certify his Majesty, that "it is considered and "thought by them all, that his Highness might take and use lawfully, godly, and meritoriously in this matter or “affair such directions, ways, and means, as be comprised "in the articles underwritten, viz. 54. "I. That his Highness should send an ambassador "to the Pope, who should represent to him the Bishop's "pernicious heresies, and the dangers accruing to the "Church from them; and should desire, that he would "cassate his bull of restitution, and appoint to the see a "pious and learned Bishop to be nominated by the King. "II. That since by the process and recantation of Pe"cock, they think he was infected with heresy long be"fore he was translated to the see of Chichester, that "translation was ipso facto null; and so it was lawful for n He was LL.D. and Fellow of All Souls College in Oxford; admitted Canon of Wells, August 2, 1445; Chancellor of Wells, June 6, 1447; Archdeacon of Taunton, April 20, 1450; Canon of York, 1451; Dean of the free royal chapel of St. Martin le Grand, London, 1460; Keeper of the Privy Seal, 1461; Archdeacon of Colchester, 1462; was elected Bishop of Bath and Wells, and consecrated by George Nevil, Archbishop of York, in the chapel of his palace of Whitehall near Westminster, 1465; and was Lord Chancellor of England, 1468. |