IV. "the King, and expedient for the Church, that the pos- CHAP. "sessions of the see, which they call temporalities, "should immediately be seized by the King, and detained "by him until a catholic successor be appointed." 55. This advice was, it seems, well taken; the King returned the deputies thanks for their labour and diligence, and commanded them to meet again, to certify him of the principal points of heresies, blasphemies, and detestable doctrines, that the said Reginold Pecock was convicted of; but what their return was, I have not yet found. 66 56. His Majesty likewise commissioned P John Derby and Gilbert Haydock, S. T. P. to repair to our Bishop, and tell him how " he had been addressed by many Prelates “and Doctors of the Church, to send ambassadors to the Pope to remove him from the see of Chichester, as be66 ing of late detected and convicted of certain great and ❝ detestable crimes of heresy, the which intendeth to the "final subversion of the faith of Christ's Church, and to "the great infamy and jeopardy of the realm, without "that he be put from the said see, or else renounce his "present title that he hath in the said see, &c. and to no66 tify to him in the King's name, that if he would resign, "the King would grant to him a competent pension; but "that if he forced his Majesty to send ambassadors to the "Pope, he would inflict on him the punishment imposed on him with the utmost rigour." 57. Whether the Bishop, finding it not practicable to keep his bishopric, chose to resign, and to enjoy the benefit of the King's offer to allow him a competent pension, does not appear; but the Bishop's being sent to a monastery, and there put under a very strict confinement to do penance for his offences, with only an allowance of eleven, or, as some say, forty pounds to the abbey, for fitting up his apartment, and providing him a maintenance, looks • Temporalia vocant prædia illa et possessiones, quæ ex principum aliorumque liberalitate obvenerunt. Duareni de Benef. lib. ii. cap. 2. P He was prebendary of Hoxton, in St. Paul's church. N IV. CHAP. as if he persisted in his claim, and forced the King to send to Rome to get his bull of restitution revoked and cassated. However this be, John Arundel, M. D. was promoted to this see a few months after this, the temporalities being restored to him March 26, 1459. Le Neve's Thorney densitatem 58. Our Bishop being thus deprived of his bishopric, was sent to the abbey of Thorney, in the isle of Thorney in Cambridgeshire, with the following instructions from dumorum the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Abbot, how he should Malmsbu- be there treated; viz. 1. That he have a secret closed ry, lib. iv. chamber, with a chimney and an house of easement, and vocata. W. that he pass or go not out of the said chamber. 2. That he have but one person, that is serious and well-disposed, to make his bed and fire, as he shall have occasion; and that no one else speak to him without leave, and in the presence of the Abbot, unless the King or Archbishop send to the abbey any man with writing specially in that behalf. 3. That he have no books to look on, or to read in, but only a mass-book, a psalter, a legend, and a Bible. 4. That he have neither pen, ink, nor paper. 5. That he have competent fuel or firing according to his age. 6. That the first quarter after his coming into the abbey, he be contented to fare no better than a brother or Monk doth, only of the freytour, or to have the same commons as the Monks have in their common hall; but afterwards that he be served daily of meat and drink, as one of the Friars or Monks when he is excused from the freytour 9; and somewhat better afterwards, as his disposition, &c. shall require. For all which, and for fitting up this close apartment for the Bishop, the Abbot is ordered to have The freytour was that part of the abbey where the Monks or Friars used to eat and drink. Thus is it described in Pierce the Plowman's Creed: Thanne fer'd I into fraytoure, and fond there another, An hall for an hygh kynge an houshold to halden, With brode bordes abouten y benched well clene, With wyndowes of glass wrought as a chirche. Our Bishop was, after the first quarter, to eat as a sick or aged Monk used to be allowed, who was indulged eating in his cell or chamber, and not obliged to come into the common hall. IV. eleven pounds. How long the Bishop continued in this CHAP. melancholy state of confinement, we have no account; but it is not improbable that the rigour of it soon put an end to the life of one of the Bishop's advanced age; though very different accounts are given of his death. 59. Thus fell this great and learned Prelate a sacrifice to the doctrine of the infallible authority of the Church or Clergy; a doctrine but newly invented to oppose the reasons and arguments of condemned heretics, since heresy' began to be punished with death; but, however, now esteemed the great bulwark of the Church against the Dissenters. For to so great a length was this authority now extended, as to make whatever was determined by it of equal importance with the articles of the Christian faith; insomuch that whosoever impugned any of these determinations, or even supposed them fallible or mistaken, was reckoned as much an heretic, as if he had opposed any necessary article of faith. Thus we see a part of our Bishop's crime was, that he affirmed it was not necessary to salvation to believe that Christ descended into hell, or to believe in the holy catholic Church, or that these additions, made by the Clergy to the common Creed So it is in the copy of these instructions, communicated to me by the R. R. the Bishop of Peterburgh; but in another copy, which was sent me by the learned Mr. Thomas Baker, transcribed by John Anstis, Esq. from Mr. Wharton's collect. Y. E. 32. e libro formularum temp. H. VI. penes El. Ashmole, or rather at the end of it, it is said, that forty pounds were assigned to the said abbey for his finding. This is not so likely as eleven, since according to the value of money then, eleven pounds are equal to one hundred and ten pounds now. The instructions indeed suppose, that all the money allowed would not be expended about the Bishop, and therefore order, that what was left of it should be disposed of for the common benefit of the abbey. But it is scarce consistent with the frugality of this age to suppose an allowance of forty pounds, which is equal to four hundred pounds now. That the ancient Doctors of the Church never proceeded so far, as to desire the assistance of the civil magistrate to take away life, or shed blood for mere error, or what they condemned as heresy, has been attempted to be proved, Origines Ecclesiast. vol. vii. cap. 2. §. 4. particularly he observes, that St. Chrysostom declared, that if heretics were to be put to death, there would be nothing but eternal war in the world. An observation which the event has sufficiently shewn to be too well grounded. Preface, &c. p. 25. CHAP. in the latter ages of the Church, were of the same importIV. ance with the other articles of it which were from the beWharton's ginning. Our Bishop was one who had obtained a very great reputation for his uncommon eloquence and singular learning, particularly his study of the law of nature and of nations. Both these are evident, not only in what we have left of his writings, which, if put into modern English, would appear to the meanest capacity both rational and elegant, but also from many other plain and manifest indications. His Lordship had read the works of the Fathers with no small care and diligence, and, as it should seem from what he says upon the article of Christ's descent into hell, had made critical observations on them, far beyond the genius and vulgar learning of that age. He was acquainted with the genuine epistles of Ignatius, and in the first part of his Treatise of Faith citeth the Acts of his Martyrdom, written by his cotemporary Philo, and published in the last age by the learned Archbishop Usher. Our Bishop likewise well understood the school divinity, and the philosophy then in vogue, and was perfectly skilled in the subtilties and niceties of those sciences. Of these, as has been already observed, the first part of his Treatise of Faith is full, and upon that account very obscure; so that his demand of the Archbishop was not unreasonable, that such might examine his books as had studied the school divinity and philosophy, as he had done. 60. As to the particular articles which our Bishop was forced to retract and abjure, it has been observed, that they were taught and believed by the greatest divines of the Church at that time; which shews that our Bishop knew the doctrine of the Church far better than his judges, and although he was condemned by them as guilty of the great and detestable crimes of heresy, blasphemy, and holding detestable doctrines, was yet no less orthodox than they. The first article was indeed otherTreatise of wise taught by the subtle Doctor Scotus, who, as the Bishop himself tells us, said that this article, Christ in his death of bodie descended into hell, is an article of neces Faith, p. 41. Pearson on sary faith; in which conceit, the Bishop very truly ob- CHAP. serves, the Doctor was beguiled. For this reflection his IV. Lordship gave this reason, that in St. Austin's time, above See Bp. three hundred years after the Apostles' time, the common the Creed. Creed had not in it this article. The same, we have seen, Critical was owned by the Archbishop to be true of the Nicene the Apoand Athanasian Creeds, that they had neither of them stles' Creed. these words. 61. Of the second article, that it is not necessary to salvation to believe in the Holy Ghost, I do not find the least hint in any of the Bishop's writings which are left. But it seems not unreasonable to suppose, that they, who through ignorance or zeal concluded, that because in the common Creed we profess to believe in the Holy Ghost, therefore we are obliged to believe in the holy catholic Church, and in the communion of saints, condemned the Bishop as holding it not necessary to believe in the Holy Ghost, because he affirmed that there was no necessity of believing in the holy catholic Church. History of and neces sary Doc 1555. 62. The third article or conclusion, that it is not necessary to salvation to believe in, or, as the Bishop himself expressed it, to the catholic or universal Church, was generally maintained by others who were reputed orthodox. St. Augustine, as he is quoted by Bishop Bonner, observed, quod Ecclesiam credere, non tamen in Ecclesiam A profitable credere debemus quia Ecclesia non Deus, sed domus Dei est. Accordingly, the Bishop himself thus explains this trine, &c. article of the Creed; This maner of belief, that is to saye, I beleve in, we ought to have onelye in God, and not in any other creature of God elss, be it never so excellent; and therfore in the Crede, that said maner of speaking (I beleve in) is used only in the three articles which concerne the three persons in Trinitie.-Concernynge the catholike Churche we must beleve it, geve credit to it, but not beleve in it, for to beleve in it were to make it God. To the same purpose Erasmus intimates, that he dreaded to say, Inquisitio I believe in the holy Church; because St. Cyprian had ter collotaught him, that we ought to believe in God only, in quia. de Fide in |