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ENGLAND 

IN  THE 

AGE    OF    WYCLIFFE 


ENGLAND 


IN    THE 


AGE    OE    WYCLIEEE 


BY 

GEOEGE  MAGAULAY  TEEVELYAN 

FELLOW   OP   TEINITY   COLLEGE,    CAMBRIDGE 


NEW  YOEK 
LONGMANS,    GEEEN,     AND     CO. 

LONDON  AND  BOMBAY 
1899 


29896 


y  ; 


h 


.  \ 


PEEFACB 


The  book,  which  is  here  presented  to  the  public,  was  origin- 
ally composed  as  a  dissertation  sent  in  to  compete  for  a  fellow- 
ship at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  Its  object  is  to  give  a 
general  picture  of  English  society,  politics,  and  religion  at 
a  certain  stage  in  their  progress,  and  to  recount  the  leading 
and  characteristic  events  of  a  brief  period  in  our  country's 
history.  That  period,  which  represents,  as  far  as  England 
is  concerned,  the  meeting  point  of  the  mediaeval  and  the 
modern,  is  of  peculiar  interest  and  importance.  As  the  book 
is  now  addressed  to  the  general  reader,  and  not  to  students 
alone,  I  have  felt  obliged  to  omit  here  and  there  the  discussion 
of  historical  problems  which,  though  of  interest  to  students, 
throw  little  or  no  light  on  the  period  as  a  whole.  For  a 
similar  reason  I  have  given  my  quotations  from  '  Piers  Plow- 
man '  and  Wycliffe  in  modern  English  ;  though  I  have  not 
ventured  to  take  the  same  liberty  with  Chaucer,  whose  very 
spelling  is  sacred  to  literature.  The  Notes  and  Appendices 
are  not  intended  to  contain  information  of  importance  to  the 
general  reader,  but  are  adduced  as  proofs  of  statements  in  the 
text,  and  are  intended  for  the  historical  critic.  For,  notwith- 
standing its  wider  and  more  popular  aim,  I  venture  to  hope 
that  the  book  may  claim  to  be  a  serious  contribution  to 
history.  ■  It  is  based  on  original  authorities,  and  many  of 
these  authorities  have  been  now  for  the  first  time  unearthed 
in  the  Public  Eecord  Office  and  British  Museum. 

While  this  volume  was  in  course  of  prepa-ration  for  the 


vi  PREFACE 

press,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  reading  the  new  and  important 
work  on  the  Peasants'  Eising  by  M.  Andre  Eeville  and  the  suc- 
cessor of  his  labours,  M.  Petit-Dutaillis.  It  is  needless  for 
me  to  say  how  greatly  I  admire  the  work  of  one  whose 
premature  death  has  inflicted  a  blow  on  two  nations,  and  with 
what  interest  I  read  the  introduction  by  M.  Petit-Dutaillis, 
so  full  of  matter  and  so  full  of  thought.  I  have  adopted 
several  new  facts  from  their  work  ;  in  all  such  cases  I  have 
acknowledged  the  debt  by  a  reference  in  the  Notes.  But  I  was 
already  acquainted  with  the  bulk  of  the  valuable  documents 
published  in  their  Appendix.  The  events  of  the  rebels'  admis- 
sion into  London,  the  risings  in  Yorkshire  and  the  West,  had 
been  already  described  in  my  book  while  it  was  still  a  college 
dissertation,  before  M.  Eeville's  work  appeared.  In  such 
cases  I  have  left  the  text  as  it  stood,  and  have  also  left  my  old 
references  to  the  documents  in  the  Eecord  Office,  but  have 
added  in  brackets  the  page  of  M.  Eeville's  book  where  they 
can  be  found  by  the  student ;  thus — C.E.E.,  488,  Eex.  6  (Eev. 
190).  In  absolutely  every  case  where  I  have  altered  or 
added  to  the  text  in  consequence  of  M.  Eeville's  book,  I 
have  put  a  reference  in  the  Notes,  not  in  brackets.  Thus — 
Eev.,  251. 

I  acknowledge  my  debt  to  the  Wyclif  Society,  to  Professor 
Skeat,  Mr.  Matthew,  Bishop  Stubbs,  and  (however  much,  we 
may  differ)  to  Dr.  Gasquet.  There  is  besides  a  whole  army 
of  able  scholars  and  editors  whose  publications  have  made  it 
possible  to  attempt  a  history  of  the  Age  of  Wycliffe.  Although 
I  have  not  in  quite  every  case  adopted  the  advice  given,  I  wish 
to  thank  my  friends  Dr.  Cunningham,  Mr  Stanley  Leathes, 
and  Dr.  Verrall  of  Trinity  and  Mr.  Whitney  of  King's  College, 
Cambridge,  for  many  valuable  suggestions  and  corrections. 

Last,  but  not  least,  I  must  thank  Mr.  Edgar  Powell,  It 
is  not  only  that  I  used  his  '  Eising  in  East  Anglia  '  without 
any  need  to  consult  the  original  manuscripts  on  which  his 
story  rested.     It  is  he,  the  person  best  fitted  to  do  so  by  his 


PEEFACE  VU 

experience  in  the  documents  of  the  Peasants'  Rising,  who 
hunted  out  and  transcribed  for  me  at  the  Eecord  Office  that 
considerable  mass  of  unprinted  matter  on  which  much  of  the 
present  work  is  based.  It  is  my  hope  that  in  the  course  of  the 
next  year  we  shall  publish  a  small  volume  of  these  materials. 
It  would  contain  trials  of  the  rebels  of  1381  passed  over  by 
M.  Eeville,  the  trial  of  John  of  Northampton,  documents 
relating  to  the  early  Lollards,  and  various  matters  that  will,  I 
believe,  be  of  permanent  value  to  historians  ;  the  references  to 
these  original  documents  in  the  Public  Eecord  Office  will  be 
found  in  the  footnotes  and  appendices  to  the  present  volume. 
Finally,  I  must  say  a  word  as  to  the  period  covered  by  the 
book,  for  the  '  Age  of  Wycliffe '  is  a  vague  term.  I  have 
restricted  the  political  history  to  the  years  1376  to  1385, 
because  they  form  a  separate  epoch  in  secular  affairs.  On  the 
other  hand,  I  have  found  it  impossible  to  make  any  break  in 
the  history  of  the  Lollards  until  Eichard's  death  (end  of 
Chapter  VIIL).  I  have  besides  added  an  additional  Chapter 
(Chapter  IX.),  briefly  relating  their  fortunes  down  to  the  year 
1520.  Without  this  continuation  the  Age  of  Wycliffe  would 
lose  half  its  meaning,  and  remarks  occurring  in  various  parts 
of  the  book  would  remain  unjustified. 


G.  M.   TEEVELYAN. 


Teinity  College,  Cambkidge 
February,  1899. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

WAR  AND   GOVEKNMBNT,    1368-1376 

PAGE 

Decay  of  Mediaeval  Institutions 1 

Eenewal  of  the  war,  1369 2 

Fall  of  the  Episcopal  Ministry,  1371 4 

Loss  of  our  possessions  in  France,  1372-6 7 

Abuse  of  power  by  John  of  Gaunt 's  party 9-12 

CHAPTER  II 
POLITICS,    1376-1377  '" 

The  Good  Parliament  assembles,  April  1376 13 

The  House  of  Commons •  14 

The  House  of  Lords 16 

Proceedings  of  the  Good  Parliament 20 

Death  and  Character  of  the  Black  Prince 26 

Alice  Perrers 28 

John  of  Gaunt  undoes  the  work  of  the  Good  Parliament      .        .     .  30 

The  Packed  Parliament,  Jan.  1377 36 

John  of  Gaimt,  Wycliffe  and  Church  property 38 

Wycliffe's  trial  at  St.  Paul's,  Feb.  1377 43^. 

The  Londoners  riot  against  John  of  traunt 46 

Last  days  of  his  supremacy 49 

Edward  the  Third  dies,  June  1377 51 


CHAPTER   III 
SOCIETY  AND   POLITICS,    1377-1381 

England's"  Mediaeval  Sea-power  ;  its  decline 62 

ijawlessness  throughout  the  coimtry  ;  lords  and  retainers    .         .     .  57 

Social  position  and  political  policy  of  the  gentry        .         .         .         .  66 

Accession  of  Richard  the  Second ;  John  of  Gaunt  retires     .        .     .  69 


/ 


X  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Policy  of  the  Good  Parliament  renewed,  Oct.  1377    .         ,         .         .73 
John  of  Gaunt  partially  recovers  power,  Feb.  1378       .         .         .     .       75 

Degradation  of  the  Papacy ;  Avignon 75 

Wycliffe's  popularity  in  1377 80 

Failure  of  the  Papal  attack  on  WycHfife,  March  1378         ...       85 

Outrage  in  Westminster  Abbey,  1378 87 

Question  of  Sanctuary ;  Wycliffe  and  the  Parliament  of  Gloucester, 

Oct.  1378 92 

Maladministration  and  discontent  1379-80 98-103 


CHAPTEE   IV 

RELIGION 

The  Church  in  the  Age  of  Wycliffe 104 

The  Bishops 106 

Ecclesiastical  Courts ;  their  corruption 112, 

Foreigners  in  English  benefices  ;  simony 117 

Appropriation  and  non-residence 121 

Parsons  and  their  grievances 123 

The  Pulpit  and  the  Bible  in  the  Fourteenth  Century         .         ,         .  127 

f  Medifeval  ideas  of  pardon  for  sin 131 

•Pilgrimage          .         . 133 

Sale  of  pardons  and  charms  ;  the  Pope  and  Bishops  responsible  .     .  135 

Corruption  of  the  Confessional 139 

'Wyclifi"e's  new  theory  of  absolution 141-2 


CHAPTER  V 

RELIGION  (continued) 

The  friars  ;  their  influence 143 

The  unbeneficed  clergy ;  their  employments         .         .         .         .     .  153 

"The  monks ;  their  isolation 156 

Antagonism  of  the  towns  to  religious  bodies          .         .         .         .     .  163 

The  way  prepared  for  Henry  the  Eighth 164 

Danger  of  the  ecclesiastical  power  to  society         .         ....  167 

Wycliffe  and  his  new  religion 169-82 


CHAPTEE  VI 

THE    peasants'    RISING   OF    1381 

The  history  of  labour 183 

The  Manorial  system  ;  its  decay 184 

The  Black  Death  and  the  Statutes  of  Labourers 187 


CONTENTS 


XI 


FACB 

The  labourers'  illegal  struggle  for  higher  wages        ....  188 

The  serfs'  illegal  struggle  for  freedom 191 

Eeligious  influences  foster  rebellion 195 

Eelation  of  Wycliffe  to  social  problems 198 

The  organisers  of  the  rebellion  .         ,         .         .         .         .         .         ,  202 

The  Poll  Tax 204 

Outbreak  of  the  rebellion,  May-June 207 

The  authorities  offer  no  resistance 213 

*-  Characteristics  of  the  rebellion  ;  its  area 214 

'  The  Eebels  outside  London,  June  12 223 

The  Eebels  inside  London,  June  13-15 229 

The  Tower  and  Mile  End,  June  13-14 233 

"-  Smithfield.     London  recovered  from  the  Eebels,  June  15         .         .  239 

"  Bishop  Spencer  puts  down  the  Eising  in  East  Anglia,  June  17-21    .  245 

"-The  King  puts  down  the  Eising  in  the  Home  Counties,  June-Aug.  .  246 

'.John  of  Gaunt  and  Percy,  June ^  249 

■  The  rebelhon  revives  in  places,  September 250 

-  Eesults  of  the  Eising 252-5 


CHAPTEE  VII 
GENERAL   HISTORY,    1381-1385 

Politics  after  the  Peasants'  Eising 

Anne  of  Bohemia,  1381-2      ...... 

Flanders  and  Philip  van  Artevelde,  1382  . 

England  fails  to  support  Philip  ;  Eosbec 

Papal  Crusade  to  Flanders  preached  in  England 

Parliament  patronises  the  Crusade  ;  its  failure,  1383    , 

Eichard  the  Second  forms  a  party,  1383-5 

Violence  of  parties  at  Salisbury,  1384  .... 

London  politics ;  Mayoralty  of  John  of  Northampton 
Violent  conduct  of  Eichard  ^'.         .....         . 

The  invasion  of  Scotland,  1385 ;  scenes  in  the  English  camp 
Eichard  alienates  the  Commons    .        .        .        . 


.  256 

.  260 

.  262 

.  266 

.  268 

.  270 

.  273 

.  276 

.  278 

.  283 

.  284 
287-90 


CHAPTEE  VIII 

THE   EARLY   HISTORY   OF   THE   LOLLARDS,    1382-1399 

Eeaction  against  Wycliffe  in  high  quarters,  1382          .        .        .     ,  291 

The  '  Council  of  the  Earthquake,'  May  1382 293 

Oxford  in  the  Middle  Ages 295 

Character  of  the  Undergraduates 296 

Quarrels  of  Seculars  and  Eegulars 297 

Wycliffe's  alliance  with  the  Seculars,  1381        .....  299 


/ 


xii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The  Primate  interferes ;  Oxford  resists,  June  1382       ,        .        .     .  301 

The  King  supports  the  Primate 304 

Triumphal  entry  of  the  Bishops  into  Oxford,  Nov.  1882        .         .     .  307 

The  House  of  Commons  saves  LoUardry  in  the  country  districts      .  310 

Material  on  which  the  Lollards  worked 312 

Wychffe  at  Lutterworth,  1382-4 313 

The  Lollards  of  Leicestershire 314 

The  LoUards  of  the  Western  Counties 322 

The  Lollards  of  the  Capital 327 

Proceedings  of  the  Lollards  in  Parliament,  1395        ....  327 

Eichard  rescues  the  Church 329 

The  Age  of  Wycliffe  ;  temporary  failure 331-2 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE   LATER   HISTORY   OF   THE    LOLLARDS,    1400-1520 

The  struggle  embittered  under  Henry  the  Fourth         .         .         .     .  333 

The  first  martyrs.     Purvey  and  Badby  at  the  stake  ....  334 

Oldcastle  and  his  rebellion,  1414 336 

Patronage  of  the  gentry  withdrawn 389 

Persecution  and  martyrdom;    LoUardry  spreads  to  new  districts, 

1420-60 341 

Bishop  Pecock ;  obscurantist  policy  of  the  Church  authorities  .         .  344 

Increase  of  martyrdoms  under  Henry  the  Seventh       .         .         .     .  347 

LoUardry  becomes  Lutheranism,  1520 349 

Service  done  to  England  by  Wycliffe  and  the  Lollards         .         .     .  350 

Freedom  of  thought  in  England 352 

Note 353-4 

Appendix 355-70 

Index 371 


MAPS. 

Map  to  illustrate  the  events  of  June  12-15,  1881      .        .  to  face  p.  228 

Area  of  the  Risings  of  1381 ,,254 

LoUardry  in  England  and  Scotland „        352 


PEINCIPAL    ABBREVIATIONS 
IN   THE   FOOTNOTES 


Ap.    .        .        .        .  =  Appendix. 

K.  S =  Rolls  Series. 

Wals.         .        .        .  =  Thomas  Walsingham,  Historia  Anglicana,  E.  S. 

Knighton  .         .         .  =  Chronieon  Henrici  Knighton,  E.  S. 

Chron.  Ang.       .        .  =  Chronieon  Anglia3,  E.  S. 

Fasc.  Z.     .        .        .  =  Fasciculi  Zizaniorum,  E.  S. 

Pol.  Poems         .        .  =  Wright's  Political  Songs  and  Poems,  E.  S. 

Cont.  Eulog.      .        .  =  Eulogium    Historiarum,   vol.   iii.,   the    '  Continuatio 

Eulogii,'  E.  S. 
Higden      .        .        .  =  Polychronicon  Eanulphi  Higden,  E.  S.     Vol.  ix.  is  a 

continuation. 
Franciscana       .        .  =  Monumenta  Franciseana,  Brewer's  volume,  E.  S. 

Lechler      .         .        .  =  Lechler'sWycliffe  and  his  Precursors,  Englished.,  1878. 

De  Bias.     .        .         .  =  De  Blasphemi4,  Wyclif  Society  Publications. 

De  Ecc.      .        .         .  =  De  Ecclesi^  „  „  „ 

Pol.  Works        .        .  =  Polemical  Works     ,,  „  „ 

Sermones  .         .         .  =  Sermones  ,,  „  „ 

S.  E.  W.    .        .        .  =  Select  English  Works  of  WycUf,  by  Thomas  Arnold, 

Oxford,  1869-71. 
Matt,  .        .        .  =  The  English  Works   of   Wyclif  hitherto   unprinted, 

edited  by  F.  D.  Matthew,  1880,  for  the  E.  E.  T.  S. 

E.  E.  T.  S.        .  .  =  Early  English  Text  Society. 

Wilkin      .        .  .  =  Wilkin's  ConciHa,  ed.  1737°. 

Gibson      .        .  .  -  Gibson's  Codex,  ed.  1713. 

Hist.  Ang.  Ecc.  .  =  Historia  Anglicana  Ecclesiastica,  Harpsfield,  ed.  1622. 

Lyndwood         .  .  =  Lyndwood's  Provinciale,  ed.  1679. 

Foxe  .         .  .  =  Foxe's  Acts  and  Monuments,  ed.  1837,  Catley. 

0.  E.  B,    .         .  .  =  Old  English  Bible,  Dr.  Gasquet,  1897. 

C.  of  B.  .  .  =  Child  of  Bristow  (from  Harleian  MS.)  printed  in  Eetro- 

spective  Eeview,  1854,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  198-208. 

Cutts'        :        .  .  =  Cutts'  Scenes  and  Characters  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Test.  Vet.  .  .  =  Testamenta  Vetusta,  Nicolas. 

P.  PI.         .        .  .  =  Piers  Plowman.    Eeferences  to  Piers  Plowman  always 
refer  to  Professor  Skeat's  three  Parallel  texts,A,B,or  C. 

Erasmus   .        .  .  =  Erasmus'  and  Melancthon's  Letters,  ed.  1642. 


xiv    PRINCIPAL  ABBREVIATIONS  IN  THE  FOOTNOTES 


Mon.  Eve. 


Stubbs  or  St. 

Eot.  Pari. . 
Feed. 

Cunningham 

Ashley 
Gross 
Bl.  B. 

Eamsay  . 
Dugdale  . 
Chron.  of  London 

Vox  Clam. 
Conf.  Am. 
Froiss. 


:  Vita  Eicardi  II.  by  an  Evesham  monk.  It  is  always 
referred  to  as  '  Mon.  Eve.  '  in  Bishop  Stubbs'  foot- 
notes, so  I  have  kept  this  abbreviation. 

Bishop  Stubbs'  Constitutional  History  of  England, 
edition  of  1891. 

EoUs  of  Parliament ;  Eotuli  Parliamentarii. 

Eymer's  Foedera,  vol.  iii.  =  vol.  iii.,  part  2,  ed.  1830  ; 
vol.  iv.  =  vol.  iv.,  ed.  1869. 

Dr.  Cunningham's  Growth  of  English  Industry  and 
Commerce,  Early  and  Middle  Ages,  ed.  1890. 

Professor  Ashley's  Economic  History. 

Gross'  Select  Coroners'  EoUs,  Selden  Soc. 

Blue  Book  of  1878,  Eeturn  of  Members  of  Parliament, 
part  i.  1213-1702. 

Lancaster  and  York,  Sir  James  Eamsay. 

Dugdale's  Baronage,  ed.  1675. 

Chronicle  of  London,  1089-1483,  15th  century 
chronicle,  printed  1837. 

Gower's  Vox  Clamantis,  ed.  Coxe.     1850. 

Gower's  Confessio  Amantis,  ed.  1857,  Eeinhold  Pauli. 

Froissart,  English  translation  by  Thomas  Johnes, 
ed.  1804. 


P.  E.  0.     .        .        .  =  Public  Eecord  Office. 

C.  E.  E.    .        .         .  =  Coram  Eege  Eolls,  P.  E.  0. 

Anc.  Ind.  .        .        .  =  Ancient  Indictments,  P.  E.  0. 

H.  E.         .         .        .  =  Historical    Eeview,    English,    vol.   xiii.,   pp.   609-22, 

July  1898.    A  chronicle  relating  to  the   Peasants' 

Eising. 
E6v =  Le  Soul^vement  des  Travailleurs  d'Angleterre  en  1381. 

Andre  Eeville,  1898. 
Arch.  Kent.       .        .  =  Proceedings   of    the   Kent  Archeological   Society,   or 

Archeologia  Kantiana. 
Page  .         .         .  =  Die   Umwandlung    der    Frohndienste   in    Geldrenten. 

Thomas  Walker  Page.     (Inaugural  Dissertation  zur 

Erlangung  der  Doctorwiirde  an  der  Universitat  zu 

Leipzig.) 
Cambridge  Manor      .  =  Professor   Maitland's    Article   on    the   History   of    a 

Cambridge  Manor,  English  Historical  Eeview,  vol.  ix. 
Powell       .        .        .  -  Eising  in  East  Anglia,  E.  Powell,  Cambridge,  1896. 
Eogers       .        .        .  =  History  of  Agriculture  and  Prices  in  England,  Thorold 

Eogers. 


ENGLAND 

IN   THE 

AGE    OF    WYCLIFFB 


CHAPTER  I 

WAB  AND    GOVERNMENT,   1368-1376 

THE    LOSS    OF   OUE   FRENCH    POSSESSIONS.      JOHN    OF    GAUNT 
AND   HIS    FRIENDS 

The  reader  who  has  turned  to  a  history  of  Chaucer's  times 
in  hope  of  finding  record  of  the  healthy  national  life  sug- 
gested by  the  picture  of  the  jolly  poet's  companions  on  the 
Canterbury  pilgrimage,  will  be  disappointed  that  no  aspect  of 
politics  or  of  society  reproduces  the  cheerful  impression  he 
had  received.  But  if  his  zeal  for  letters  or  antiquity  has 
carried  him  through  some  cantos  of  Piers  Plowman's  gloomy 
and  powerful  utterances  against  the  same  generation,  he  will 
be  less  surprised  to  find  that  the  chief  feature  is  the  decay 
of  those  institutions  and  ideas  that  had  governed  mediaeval 
England  throughout  the  Plantagenet  epoch,  and  the  collapse 
of  the  old  methods,  industrial,  social,  military,  governmental 
and  religious.  Yet  the  gloom  of  the  period  is  not  unrelieved  ; 
historical  dulness  does  not  brood , over  it  as  it  often  broods 
over  periods  of  national  decline.  [The  personalities  of  Wycliffe 
and  Chaucer  adorn  and  humanise  the  story.  .  The  most  spon- 
taneous and  general  uprising  of  the  working  classes  that 
ever  took  place  in  England,  gives  to  the  labour-question  that 
picturesqueness  and  reality,  which  are  too  often  lacking  in 
the  most  important  chapters  of  national  development.     Above 


2  WAE  AND  GOVEENMENT  1368-76 

all,  efforts  are  made  towards  new  possibilities,  social  political 
and  religious.  Though  Medisevalism  is  sick  almost  to  death, 
the  ideas  of  the  modern  world  are  forming  in  the  greatest 
minds  of  the  day. 

In  spite,  however,  of  the  general  decay,  in  spii'  of  these 
attempts  at  change  and  reconstruction,  the  succeediii :  century 
saw  mediaeval  institutions  bolstered  up  and  the  oeation  of 
modern  England  postponed.  The  diseases  that  wer*'  destroy- 
ing England  in  the  reign  of  Eichard  the  Second  /ere  still 
eating  at  her  heart  in  the  reign  of  Eichard  tloo  Third. 
The  problems  that  beset  her  were  but  laid  aside  i  utler  the 
Lancastrians,  to  be  solved  under  the  Tudors.  Oolv  in  the 
light  of  later  history  do  we  perceive  in  full  th<it.  ihe  age 
of  Wycliffe  holds  a  great  place  in  the  progress  of  oii  country, 
that  its  efforts  were  not  futile  and  that  its  great  infn  did  not 
live  in  vain. 

The  first  sign  of  general  decadence  was  the  down '  '11,  in  the 
later  years  of  Edward  the  Third,  of  the  military  and  ii.  vsl  power 
that  had  been  erected  in  the  great  days  of  Crecy  .id  Sluys. 
When  in  the  year  1360  the  Treaty  of  Bretigny  m;',  ;8  over  to 
the  English  Crown  a  third  of  the  country  which  wf^  ow  know 
as  France,  English  seamanship  was  as  supreme  ir,  Western 
waters  as  English  arms  on  the  Western  contint )  .  From 
Corunna  to  Eotterdam  no  harbour-master  dared  r  pilfer  or 
annoy  the  traders  who  brought  the  English  wool,  o  foreign 
craft  dared  board  the  vessels  that  sailed  beneath  the  cross 
of  St.  George.  From  the  border  where  Christendo  i  lay  en- 
camped against  Islam  in  the  shadow  of  the  Sierra  r  evada,  to 
the  utmost  Bohemian  forests,  there  had  been  found  r  o  chivalry 
able  to  contend  with  the  archers  of  England.  Our  i  obles  and 
gentlemen  were  the  governors  of  Southern  France,  he  cruel 
taskmasters  of  broad  and  fertile  provinces.  'I  r  itnessed,' 
says  Froissart,  '  the  haughtiness  of  the  English  who  are 
affable  to  no  other  nation  than  their  own  ;  no  gentlemen  of 
Gascony  or  Aquitaine  .  .  .  could  obtain  office  or  ap- ointment 
in  their  own  country  ;  for  the  English  said  they  w(  e  neither 
on  a  level  with  them  nor  worthy  of  their  socif  /,  which 
made  the  Gascons  very  indignant.'     Had  such  high  mounding 


1369  EENEWAL  OF  WAE  3 

phrases  then  been  in  fashion,  the  Continental  peoples  had 
reason  enough  to  talk  of  *  the  supremacy  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons.'  This  supremacy,  which  had  sprung  up  in  twenty 
years,  was  destined  to  perish  with  even  greater  rapidity. 

The  affairs  of  Spain  were  the  immediate  cause  of  Conti- 
nental revolt  against  our  domination.     In  1369  King  Henry  of 
Castile,  having  been  restored  to  his  throne  by  French  arms 
in  the  face  of  English  opposition,  entered  into  a  naval  alliance 
with  France,  which  secured  to  the  confederates   ihe  mastery 
of  the  Bay  of  Biscay  and  the  Channel.      Our  importance  in 
the  councils  of  Europe,  the  prosperity  of  our  commerce  and  our 
military  hold  over  France,  depended  on  our  naval  superiority, 
and  that  superiority  was  a  thing  of  the  past  when  the  fleets  of 
Castile  and  France  together  were  in  active  hostility  against  us.^ 
Our  position  in  Aquitaine  was  at  the  same  moment  being  under- 
mined, although  the  veteran  Black  Prince  himself  was  the 
governor.     Even  among  his  English  soldiers,  whose  organisa- 
tion and  obedience  on  the  field  of  battle  left  nothing  to  be 
desired,  the  state  of  perpetual  discipline  proper  to  an  army  of 
occupation  was  altogether  wanting.     The  regiments,  or  '  com- 
panies '  as  they  were  called,  were  many  of  them  officered  by 
soldiers  of  fortune  whose  patriotism  was  the  patriotism  of  Sir 
Dugald  Dalgetty  ;  men  who  had  not  scrupled,  when  active 
employment  was  wanting  in  the  English  service,  to  follow  Du 
Guesclin  over  the  Pyrenees  and  help  the  French  to  turn  the 
ally  of  England  off  the  throne  of  Castile.     The  only  means  by 
which  Prince  Edward  could  have  held  these  men  in  hand,  was 
pay  more  regular  than  the  treasury  of  Aquitaine  could  afford. 
In  order  to  satisfy  his  soldiers,  he  oppressed  his  subjects  with 
heavy  taxes,  the  method  most  effectual  to  remind  them  of  their 
French  nationality,  and  to  prepare  the  way  for  Charles  the 
Fifth  as  Liberator.     When  at  last  the  '  companies,'  to  obtain 
compensation  for  their  arrears,  began  to  make  unauthorised 
raids  into  the  territory  of  the  French  King,  the  opportunity 
most    desired   by    that   wily   monarch    had    arrived.       He 
had  now  justification   for  opening  the   war.     In  the   spring 
of  1369  his  armies  invaded  the  isolated  English  possession 
of  Ponthieu  in  the  north  of  France,  and  acquired  it  almost 

1  Feed.,  iii.  869. 

B  2 


4  WAE  AND  GOVEENMBNT  1368-76 

without  striking  a  blow.  The  loss  of  the  province  must  be 
laid  to  the  account  of  the  ministers  who  had  failed  to  garri- 
son it  during  the  winter.  They  had  been  guilty  of  acting 
with  similar  ignorance  and  over-confidence  in  the  affairs  of 
Aquitaine.  Instead  of  sending  out  money  to  Prince  Edward 
that  would  have  enabled  him  to  keep  his  army  in  hand,  they 
had  insisted  on  fining  his  high-spirited  captains  for  irregu- 
larities that  would  have  been  better  checked  by  the  payment 
of  arrears.  The  enemies  of  the  ministry  ascribed  the  un- 
authorised violations  of  French  territory  that  had  brought  on 
the  war,  to  the  mutinous  spirit  engendered  among  the  English 
'companies'  by  these  acts  of  petty  persecution.^  For  two 
years  after  the  seizure  of  Ponthieu,  the  war  continued  without 
any  other  striking  event. 

The  Parliament  of  February  1371,  which  called  the  incompe- 
tent ministers  to  account,  marks  the  commencement  of  those 
political  movements  and  party  combinations  which  continued 
throughout  the  next  fifteen  years.     As  long  as  Edward  the 
Third  had  been  in  the  vigour  of  life,  he  had  himself  carried  on 
the  administration  and  decided  questions  of  policy,  while  his 
son  acted  as  generalissimo  abroad.    But  now  that  the  King  had 
fallen  into  dotage,  and  the  Black  Prince  had  returned  from 
Gascony  sick  of  an  incurable  disease  which  did  not  permit 
him  to  take  a  large  part  in  public  affairs,  a  fierce  competition 
arose  among  the  great  nobles  to  secure  a  larger  share  in  the 
government   than  any   had  previously  enjoyed.       Although 
the  Duke  of  Lancaster  and  the  Earls  of  Pembroke  and  Cam- 
bridge had  been  since  the  outbreak  of  the  war  entrusted  with  the 
command  of  various  armies  in  France,  the  ministry  at  West- 
minster was  still  composed,  as  it  had  been  from  time  imme- 
morial, of  Bishops  who  were  dependent  solely  on  the  King, 
and  who  were  bound  to  the  great  lords  by  no  ties  of  interest 
or  party.     William  of  Wykeham,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  was 
Chancellor,  and  Thomas  Brantingham,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  was 
Treasurer  of  England.      The  Duke  and  the  Earls  were  often 
consulted   by   the   King   on   matters   of   policy,  so  that  the 
Chancellor  and  Treasurer  had  not  that  monopoly  of  the  royal 
confidence  enjoyed  by  cabinet  ministers  of  to-day.     But  the 

'  Chron.  Aug.,  Ixxv-vi. 


1371  EALL  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  MINISTEY  5 

persons  who  held  these  offices  excluded  the  great  lords  not 
only  from  the  ordinary  administration,  but  from  most  of  the 
patronage  of  the  country,  and  it  was  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
these  offices  for  their  own  adherents  that  a  coterie  of  lords 
made  use  of  Parliament  in  1371.  As  Lancaster  was  in  France, 
the  Earl  of  Pembroke,  a  young  nobleman  of  twenty-three,  led 
the  opposition  in  the  Upper  Chamber.^ 

The  House  of  Commons  that  met  in  1371  was  no  less 
hostile  to  the  bishop  ministers,  though  for  different  and  less 
personal  reasons.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  rightly  considered 
that  the  opening  of  hostilities  had  been  mismanaged,  that 
there  had  been  no  counterbalancing  success  in  the  last  two 
years,  and  that  the  Bishops  had  not  the  knowledge  and  energy 
requisite  for  the  successful  conduct  of  a  war.  They  were  in 
fact  regarded  much  as  Lord  Aberdeen's  Ministry  was  regarded 
in  1855.  Their  unpopularity  was  increased  by  the  dislike 
of  the  Church  and  its  privileges  and  consequent  distrust  of 
all  its  members,  deeply  rooted  in  the  lay  mind.  This  feeling 
found  expression  in  the  request  presented  by  Lords  and  Com- 
mons together  to  the  King,  demanding  the  total  exclusion  of 
all  clergy  from  the  civil  service.  This  would  have  indeed  been 
a  sweeping  reform,  for  at  that  time  most '  clerks  '  were  '  clergy.' 
The  King  rejected  the  petition,  as  he  did  not  feel  called  upon 
to  remodel  the  whole  public  service  in  its  lower  as  well  as  its 
higher  branches.  But  since  the  dislike  of  the  present  clerical 
ministry  to  which  this  demand  had  given  voice  could  not  be 
completely  ignored,  the  Bishops  holding  the  higher  offices  were 
removed,  and  were  succeeded  in  their  posts  by  law  officers 
of  the  crown  and  laymen  distinguished  for  public  service. 
Some  at  least  of  these  new  ministers  were  honest  and 
capable  men,  destined  to  win  the  admiration  even  of  the 
bitterest  partisans  of  the  Church  party.^  But  they  had  no 
independent  prestige  and  position  of  their  own  on  which  to 
withstand  the  malpractices  that  the  great  nobles  soon  intro- 
duced into  the  public  service.  They  were  but  the  nominees  of 
those  lords  who  had  plotted  the  overthrow  of  the  Bishops.^ 
The  House  of  Commons,  carried  away  by  just  resentment  at 
the  misconduct  of  the  war  by  the  episcopal  ministry,  had  en- 

'  Wals.,  i.  314.  2  jii^_  ii.  68,  on  Scrope.  ^  See  Ap. 


6  WAE  AND  GOVBENMENT  1368-76 

trusted  the  government  to  persons  even  less  capable  of  guarding 
the  interests  of  the  country.  WilHam  of  Wykeham  had  been, 
it  was  afterwards  asserted,  corrupt  in  an  underhand  way, 
but  he  was  certainly  not  ©penly  oppressive  and  extortionate. 
It  was  no  improvement  to  give  the  nation  over  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster. 

Besides  the  change  of  ministry,  attacks  were  made  in  this 
Parliament  on  the  enormous  Church  endowments  which  paid 
so  little  towards  the  heavy  expenses  of  the  war,  and  the 
budget  of  the  year  was  drawn  up  so  as  to  fall  heavily  on 
ecclesiastical  property.  A  sum  of  50,000Z.  was  required.  It  was 
assumed  that  there  were  forty  thousand  parishes  in  England, 
and  that  if  each  should  pay  on  the  average  22s.  8d.,  the 
requisite  amount  would  be  raised.  Towards  this  tax  all  lands 
that  had  passed  into  Mortmain  since  Edward  the  First  were 
now  forced  to  contribute,  and  at  the  same  time  the  tax  voted 
by  the  clergy  in  convocation  was  extorted  from  small  livings 
hitherto  exempted.  In  these  proceedings  we  see  the  begin- 
ning of  that  organised  political  movement  for  disendowment 
of  the  Church  and  abolition  of  her  privileges  which  was  the 
one  point  of  sympathy  between  the  House  of  Commons  and 
the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  and  formed  the  chief  connection  of 
Wycliffe  with  political  parties.^  , 

The  Parliament  broke  up,  and  the  lay  ministers  took 
over  the  government.  The  hopes  of  the  nation  were  soon 
damped.  In  the  first  place,  the  budget  had  been  hopelessly 
miscalculated.  There  were  not  forty  thousand,  but  only  nine 
thousand  parishes  in  England.  The  ludicrousness  of  the 
mistake  throws  a  lurid  light  on  statistical  knowledge  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  That  the  assembled  Estates  of  a  great  country 
should  agree  in  solemn  conclave  that  there  were  forty  thousand 
parishes  in  the  realm  when  there  were  only  nine  thousand, 
would  scarcely  command  our  belief  if  it  were  not  written  in 
the  Book  of  the  Eolls  of  Parliament.  Probably  the  outgoing 
ministers,  since  each  knew  approximately  the  number  of 
parishes  in  his  diocese,  had  some  suspicion  of  the  truth,  but 
did  not  feel  bound  to  communicate  their  knowledge  to  rivals 

'  Bot.  Pari.,  ii.  303-4  ;  Wals.,  i.  312-5  ;  Fasc.  Z.,  Introd.  xxi. 


1372  DISASTBE  7 

who  claimed  to  be  introducing  a  new  era  of  intelligence 
and  reform.  When  the  mistake  was  found  out,  part  of  the 
members  of  the  late  Parliament  were  hastily  summoned 
together  in  June,  to  raise  the  average  quota  of  the  villages 
from  22>.  Sd.  to  116s.^ 

As  to  the  conduct  of  the  war,  men's  hopes  were  even  more 
bitterly  disappointed.  Catastrophe  followed  catastrophe  in 
bewildering  succession.  In  1372,  the  young  Earl  of  Pem- 
broke, who  had  led  the  proceedings  of  the  Parliament  the 
year  before,  was  sent  out  as  governor  of  Aquitaine  with  a  great 
army  and  a  rich  treasure  to  carry  on  the  war.  His  fleet  was 
surrounded  off  Rochelle  by  a  greatly  superior  force  of  French 
and  Spanish,  and  after  two  days  of  hand-to-hand  fighting, 
the  English  were  overpowered  by  numbers  and  captured  to  a 
man.^  The  clerical  party  saw  in  it  the  hand  of  God  against 
the  despoilers  of  His  Church,^  but  the  nation  saw  in  it  the 
death-blow  of  its  sea-power,  .and  of  its  dominion  in  France. 
In  1373  Poitou  was  lost,  and  a  splendid*  English  army  under 
the  Duke  of  Lancaster  was  almost  destroyed  by  a  march 
through  France,  which  can  be  compared  in  character  to 
Napoleon's  Eussian  campaign.  Exhaustion,  not  defeat  in 
the  field,  sapped  our  resistance.  In  1374  John  of  Gaunt 
returned  to  England  to  raise  troops  and  supplies,  but  finding 
the  country  unable  to  furnish  any  more,  left  our  garrisons  in 
Aquitaine  unsuccoured.  By  the  end  of  the  year  they  had 
nearly  all  surrendered  to  the  French  general.*  After  the  loss 
of  Aquitaine  the  character  of  the  war  was  entirely  changed. 
As  we  no  longer  had  large  tracts  of  territory  to  defend,  it  was 
no  longer  necessary  to  keep  great  armies  permanently  in  the 
field.  Our  operations  were  confined  to  garrisoning  Calais, 
Brest,  Bordeaux,  and  a  few  smaller  fortresses  on  the  coast, 
which  were  useful  bases  for  fitful  incursions  into  French 
territory — '  noble  ports  and  entries  whence  to  grieve  the 
adversary.'-^  The  Duke  of  Brittany's  strongholds  were  also 
garrisoned  by  our  troops,  and  his  struggle  against  his  feudal 

»  Rot.  Pari.,  ii.  304 ;  Bl.  B.  1878,  p.  185. 

'^  Proiss.,  vol.  ii.  chaps,  xxxiv-vi.  *  Wals.,  i.  314. 

*  Longman's  Ed.  III.,  ii.  233-4  ;  Mr.  Oman,  in  Social  England,  ii,  178. 

*  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  34,  36. 


8  WAE  AND  GOVEENMBNT  1368-76 

superior  the  French  King  was  kept  aHve  by  our  aid.  These 
very  limited  operations,  though  less  absurdly  out  of  proportion 
to  our  resources  than  the  attempt  to  hold  a  third  of  France, 
were  still  a  strain  on  our  finances  which  proved  unendurable 
to  the  taxpayer  and  prevented  the  revival  of  prosperity. 
Further,  the  command  of  the  sea  being  lost,  the  Spanish 
and  French  fleets  made  continual  descents  on  the  English 
coast  towns,  with  results  fatal  to  our  shipping  and  commerce. 
This  miserable  state  of  things  continued  for  ten  years  more, 
before  we  could  learn  to  swallow  our  pride  and  submit  to 
treat  with  the  enemy.  The  decline  in  trade,  the  heavy  war 
taxation,  the  failure  and  disgrace  of  the  English  arms  and 
policy,  are  conditions  which  continue  without  relief  throughout 
the  period  covered  by  the  ensuing  chapters.  Such  conditions 
add  bitterness  to  party  strife,  and  lie  underneath  much  of 
the  political,  social  and  religious  agitation.  Hard  times  and 
national  disgrace  have  often  aided  men  to  reconsider  an 
unthinking  acceptance  of  the  institutions  of  their  country 
and  the  intellectual  beliefs  of  their  age. 

Probably  the  new  ministers  were  not  more  to  blame  for 
these  disasters  than  the  Bishops  whom  they  had  succeeded. 
England  had  undertaken  a  task  beyond  her  strength.  The 
loss  of  the  land  was  inevitable  from  exhaustion  of  men  and 
money  and  from  the  loss  of  the  sea.  The  loss  of  the  sea 
appears  to  have  been  the  result  not  of  mismanagement  only, 
but  of  real  inferiority  in  maritime  power.  At  the  battle  of 
Eochelle  (1372),  a  defeat  almost  as  signal  as  the  victory  of 
Sluys  thirty  years  before,  the  capture  of  Pembroke's  ships 
was  only  the  assertion  of  a  superiority  already  recognised. 
The  House  of  Commons  had  already  called  attention  to 
the  decay  of  the  mercantile  marine  from  economic  causes 
prior  to  the  war,^  and  as  the  fighting  fleet  was  at  that  time 
composed  of  merchant  ships  seized  for  the  King's  service, 
the  decline  of  the  marine  was  tantamount  to  the  decline 
of  the  navy. 

But  although  the  faults  of  the  ministers  were  not  the  sole 
cause  of  the  disasters  that  befel  their  country,  there  was  gross 

»  Bot.  Pari.,  ii.  306,  sec.  31 ;  ii.  311  and  iii.  5,  sec.  17. 


1371-76  THE   DUKE  9 

corruption  in  the  military  and  civil  services,  which  hastened  the 
downfall.  Prince  Edward  lay  slowly  dying,  unable  to  administer 
a^lfairs.  Next  to  him,  his  brother  John  of  Gaunt  was  far  the 
greatest  subject  in  the  land.  By  a  fortunate  accumulation  of 
titles  and  estates,  he  stood  in  rank  and  wealth  far  above  the 
other  nobles.  His  superiority  over  them  all  was  recognised 
by  the  title  of  Duke,  then  borne  by  no  other  Englishman  save 
the  Prince  of  Wales.  But  the  personal  influence  of  John  of 
Oaunt  over  the  King  was  the  chief  reason  of  his  complete 
supremacy  in  England,  a  supremacy  which  as  long  as  Edward 
lived  was  only  broken  during  the  session  of  the  Good  Par- 
liament. The  King,  as  a  patriotic  statesman  complained, 
was  governed  '  by  the  counsel  of  one  man  only.'  ^  He  was 
dotingly  submissive  to  his  favourite  son,  and  even  consented 
to  be  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  such  dependents  of  the 
House  of  Lancaster  as  Lord  Latimer  and  Sir  Kichard  Stury.^ 
A  more  disreputable  influence  was  exercised  over  the  once 
glorious  dictator  of  Europe,  who  now  in  dishonourable  old 
age  practised  the  vice  which  puts  princes  most  easily  into  the 
hands  of  intriguing  politicians.  Alice  Perrers,  the  King's 
mistress,  was  in  close  league  with  John  of  Gaunt. 

As  long  as  Edward  lived,  the  only  danger  against  which 
the  Duke  had  to  guard  came  at  the  season  of  year  which 
brought  together  to  Westminster  the  representatives  of  a 
people  easily  incensed  by  bad  government,  and  those  nobles 
who  were  his  natural  rivals  or  personal  enemies.  The 
Parliament  of  1373,  however,  passed  off  very  successfully  for 
those  in  power ;  partly  because  they  succeeded  in  putting  an 
■entirely  false  colour  on  the  military  events  of  the  year.  While 
the  remnants  of  the  splendid  army  which  the  Duke  had  led 
across  France  were  perishing  of  cold  and  hunger  in  the 
Auvergne,  the  Chancellor  had  the  face  to  declare  that,  '  by 
their  good  and  noble  government  and  deeds  of  arms,'  our 
generals  had  '  done  great  damage  and  destruction  to  the  enemy 
over  there.'  ^  His  demand  for  money  was  generously  answered 
by  a  grant  of  taxes  for  the  next  two  years."*     Although  grants 

1  O.  E.  B.,  p.  78. 

2  Wals.,  i.  320 ;  Chron.  Ang.,  76,  87,  102-3  ;  Eot.  Pari,  ii.  823,  '  privez 
-entour  le  roi.' 

»  Bot.  Pari,  ii.  313.  "  Ibid.  ii.  317. 


10  WAE  AND  GOVEENMBNT  1368-76 

had  often  before  been  made  to  cover  as  long  a  period,  the  use 
made  of  this  hberahty  by  the  ministers  was  unusual.  It  had 
always  been  understood  that  the  Houses  should  be  called  to- 
gether every  year,  or  every  two  years  at  utmost ;  but  Parlia- 
ment was  now  left  in  abeyance  till  1376.^  Thus  released  from 
criticism,  John  of  Gaunt's  friends  were  for  two  years  and  a 
half  absolute  masters  of  England.  His  return  to  England  in 
April  1374  facilitated  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  official 
robbery,  carried  on  for  the  benefit,  not  of  a  class  or  a  party, 
but  of  a  clique  of  his  personal  adherents. 

The  Duke  was  at  the  head  of  a  small,  but  well-organised 
hierarchy  of  knaves,  who  made  a  science  of  extorting  money 
from  the  public  by  a  variety  of  ingenious  methods.  The 
three  most  active  members  of  the  Eoyal  Council  at  this  time 
were  Lord  Latimer,  the  confidant  of  the  Duke  and  the  King ; 
Lord  Neville,  Latimer's  son-in-law  and  heir,  bound  also  by 
indenture  to  serve  John  of  Gaunt  in  peace  and  war  with  a 
regiment  of  retainers ;  ^  and  Eichard  Lyons,  one  of  the 
wealthiest  London  merchants,  the  financier  of  the  unscrupu- 
lous gang.  The  Duke,  who  would,  in  the  language  of  another 
age  and  another  hemisphere,  have  been  known  as  the  '  political 
boss,'  secured  to  them  complete  control  of  the  Privy  Council 
board,  where,  accordingly,  most  of  the  '  big  deals  '  were  made. 
The  commerce  of  the  country  centred  on  the  depot  at  Calais^ 
through  which  all  the  wool  and  cloth  exported  had  to  pass, 
to  be  there  taxed  by  the  home  government  before  it  left 
the  English  lines.  Eichard  Lyons  got  leave  from  Lord 
Latimer  and  his  other  confederates  on  the  Privy  Council 
to  carry  his  own  wool  direct  to  other  ports  on  the  Con- 
tinent ;  he  also  obtained  similar  licenses  to  avoid  the  taxation 
and  competition  of  the  Calais  mart,  for  a  number  of  other 
merchants  who  presumably  bought  them  from  him  at  a  hand- 
some figure.  At  another  time,  when  his  friends  appointed 
him  farmer  of  the  customs  of  Calais,  he  took  the  opportunity 
to  levy  a  higher  duty  than  that  authorised  by  Parliament. 
When  called  to  account  for  thus  robbing  the  merchants  of 

'  SeeAp. 

"^  Nicolas,  Historic   Peerage,  Nevill;  Test.    Vet.,  108;    Chron.  Aug.,   80; 
Dugdale,  296. 


1371-76  THE  DUKE'S  FEIENDS  11 

England,  he  openly  pleaded  that,  although  it  was  true  he  had 
taken  some  of  the  surplus  for  himself,  he  had  had  the  '  com- 
mand of  the  King  and  his  counsel  to  do  so.'  Both  Lyons 
and  Lord  Neville  found  a  very  profitable  form  of  investment 
in  the  government  debts.  Taking  advantage  of  the  state  of 
national  credit,  they  bought  up  some  of  the  King's  debts  from 
his  despairing  creditors  at  an  immense  discount.  They  then 
took  advantage  of  their  position  on  the  council  board  to  pay 
themselves  out  of  the  impoverished  exchequer  to  the  full 
amount  of  the  original  liability.  Public  sentiment  was  scarcely 
less  shocked  by  another  commercial  transaction  in  which 
Lyons  and  Lord  Latimer  embarked  their  fortunes.  To  make 
a  '  corner '  in  any  kind  of  merchandise,  especially  victuals, 
was,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  not  only  immoral  but  illegal. 
Nevertheless  the  regulations  against  enhanced  prices  were 
grossly  violated  by  the  great  merchant  and  the  great  lord,  who 
were  accused  of  '  buying  up  all  the  merchandise  that  came 
into  England  and  setting  prices  at  their  own  pleasure,  where- 
upon they  made  such  a  scarcity  in  this  land  of  things  saleable 
that  the  common  sort  of  people  could  scantily  live.'  ^ 

Besides  these  arch-thieves,  there  were  sharks  and  depen- 
dents who  received  or  bought  concessions  and  privileges  from 
the  King's  councillors,  and  abused  them  to  the  full.  One  man 
was  made  Mayor  of  Calais,  another  controller  of  customs 
at  Yarmouth  ;  both  imitated  those  to  whom  they  owed  their 
nomination,  by  exacting  illegal  dues.  A  London  merchant 
obtained  through  the  agency  of  Richard  Lyons  a  monopoly 
in  the  sale  of  wine  in  the  capital,  and,  in  the  absence  of  all 
competition,  raised  the  prices  beyond  the  limit  set  by  the 
regulations  of  the  city.^  Prom  top  to  bottom  the  system  was 
all  one  structure,  of  which  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  was  the  key- 
stone. All  depended  on  his  supremacy  at  head-quarters.  In 
return  he  exacted  requisitions  from  Latimer,  Lyons  and  the 
rest,  who  were,  in  fact,  little  more  than  his  sponges.-^  The 
Chancellor  and  Treasurer  appear  to  have  had  no  hand  in  these 
transactions.     In  the  autumn  of  1375  Lord  Scrope  resigned 

'  Rot.  Pari.,  ii.  323-5  ;  Chron.  Ang.,  79. 

2  Eot.  Pari.,  ii.  330,  sec.  47  ;  ii.  327-8,  sees.  31  and  33. 

'  Chron.  Aug.,  79. 


12  WAE  AND  GOVEENMENT  1368-76 

the  Treasurership  in  disgust  at  what  he  saw  going  on  around 
him.^  His  successor  in  the  Treasurership  was  Sir  Eobert  Aston  ; 
Knyvet  had  succeeded  Thorpe  as  Chancellor,  in  1372.  But 
as,  in  the  day  of  vengeance,  neither  the  new  Treasurer  nor 
the  new  Chancellor  was  removed  from  office  or  otherwise 
called  to  account  by  the  indignant  Commons,  it  seems  clear 
that  John  of  Gaunt  and  his  clique  had  overborne  the  regular 
ministers  rather  than  acted  with  their  concurrence. 

*  For  date  of  his  resignation,  see  Charter  Roll  Signatures,   MS.  Record 
Office  ;  for  reason,  see  Bot.  Pari.,  ii.  323,  sec.  17,  and  326,  sec.  27. 


13 


CHAPTEE   II 

POLITICS,  1376-1377 

THE  GOOD  PARLIAMENT.  THE  RECOVERY  OP  POWER  BY  JOHN 
OF  GAUNT.  THE  TRIAL  OP  WYCLIFPB.  THE  DEATH  OP 
EDWARD   THE    THIRD 

During  the  reigns  of  the  later  Plantagenets,  one  principle  of 
the  Constitution  was  more  fully  appreciated  and  more 
rigorously  obeyed  than  in  the  days  of  the  Tudor  and  Stuart 
dynasties.  Not  Eichard  the  Second  in  the  wildest  fit  of  his  in- 
solence, or  John  of  Gaunt  in  the  haughtiest  pride  of  his  power, 
ever  dared  to  impose  unauthorised  taxes  on  the  subject  without 
the  consent  of  the  Estates  of  the  Eealm.  In  the  early 
summer  of  1376  an  empty  exchequer  at  length  compelled  the 
Privy  Council  to  summon  the  Good  Parliament,  with  mis- 
givings akin  to  those  with  which  the  ministers  of  Charles 
the  First,  under  the  same  compulsion,  summoned  together  a 
greater  assembly,  and  called  down  on  themselves  a  more 
terrible  retribution.  During  the  last  week  of  April,  London 
and  Westminster  were  alive  with  preparations.  In  the 
Abbey  the  monks  prepared  their  Chapter-house  for  the  use 
of  the  Commons ;  in  the  streets  of  the  city  long  trains  of 
retainers  and  gentlemen  clattered  past  admiring  throngs,  up 
to  the  doors  of  private  mansions  where  the  great  nobles 
held  their  courts.  The  knights  of  the  shires  took  up 
their  quarters  with  friends,  or  in  the  public  inns  that  even 
then  were  famous  for  their  comfort,  while  the  representatives 
of  a  hundred  cities  of  England  were  entertained  and  awed  by 
the  unrivalled  hospitality  of  the  burghers  of  London.  Hosts 
and  guests.  Lords  and  Commons,  were  during  these  days  busily 
engaged  in  plotting  a  combined  attack  of  all  classes  on  the 


14  POLITICS  1376-7 

clique  who  had  mismanaged  the  affairs  of  the  nation 
without  regard  to  the  interest  of  the  few  or  the  many,  of  the 
high  or  the  low.  It  may  be  well  to  pause  here  and  examine 
who  were  the  parties  concerned  in  the  most  famous  of 
mediaeval  Parliaments. 

The  protagonists  of  the  scene  that  was  opening  were  the 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons.  Thirty-seven  counties  of 
England  sent  up  two  members  each,  and  about  one  hundred 
cities  and  towns  enjoyed  the  same  privilege.     But  because 
there  were  two  hundred  borough-members  and  only  seventy- 
four  knights  of  the  shires,  it  did  not  follow  that  the  will   of 
the  former  preponderated  in  the   assembly.      The  necessity 
of  proportional  representation  never  occurred  to  the  makers 
of  the  English  Parliamentary  system,  and  it  was  only  in  the 
days    of  the  Stuarts,  when   decisions  came  to  lie  with  the 
actual  majority,  that  the  numerical  weakness  of  the  country 
members   became    a   real    grievance.       In     unsophisticated 
early   times,   when   power    went    rather   by   the     handling 
of  sword-hilts  than  by  the  counting  of  heads,  the    knights 
stood    for   more   in   the   political   world  than   the   peaceful 
burghers.     The    towns  of  England,    though   important   and 
respected,  were  not  the  armed  and  aggressive  communes  of 
France,  or  the  free  cities  of  the  Empire.     Few  would  have 
been  willing  to  fight  for  any  political  object  except  their  own 
privileges  and  commerce,  as  they  showed  in  the  Wars  of  the 
Eoses.     The  towns  were  not  only  less  military,  but  less  rich 
in  men  and  resources  than  the  country.     The  population  of 
rural  England  was  still  several  times  as  great  as  that  of  all 
the  towns  together.     It  is  not  therefore  surprising  to  find  that 
for  all  purely  political  purposes  the  seventy-four  knights  of 
the  shire  were  the  real  House  of  Commons.     The  borough 
members    sent  up  petitions   which  influenced   the   economic 
policy  of  the  Government  in  questions  of  finance,  commerce 
and  taxation,  and  in  all  matters  which  directly  concerned  the 
towns ;  but   they  considered    State  affairs   as   outside   their 
province.     The  overturning  and  setting  up  of  ministries,  the 
hattles  with  the  Court  or  the  Lords,  were  almost  entirely  the 
work  of  the  county  representatives.     The  chroniclers  of  the 
time,  when  describing  any  political  move  of  the  Lower  House, 


1376-7  THE  HOUSE  OP  COMMONS  15 

spoke  only  of  the  '  knights,'  and  when  ministers  wished  to  pack 
a  parhament,  their  only  care  was  to  manage  the  returns  from 
the  counties.' 

But  there  was  one  marked  exception  to  the  political  insig- 
nificance of  the  towns.  The  merchant  princes  of  London 
were  among  the  greatest  men  of  the  land.  Eichard  Lyons 
and  John  of  Northampton,  Walworth,  Brembre  and  Philpot 
were  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  parties  to  which  they 
respectively  adhered.  Their  wealth  made  them  indispensable 
to  an  almost  bankrupt  government,  and,  as  rulers  of  London, 
they  had  at  their  command  a  force  formidable  in  itself,  and 
still  more  formidable  on  account  of  its  location.  What  the 
national  guard  and  the  mob  of  Paris  were  to  Versailles  in 
1789,  that  the  militia  of  the  wards  and  the  apprentices  of 
London  were  to  Westminster  in  1376.  More  than  once  in 
this  period  the  government  was  obliged  to  modify  its  policy, 
because  it  had  no  regular  army  round  the  Court  to  enforce  its 
will  on  the  city.  During  the  Good  Parliament,  the  House  of 
Commons  sat  protected  from  John  of  Gaunt  by  the  armed 
force  of  London,  just  as  two  and  a  half  centuries  later  it  was 
similarly  protected  from  Charles  the  First.  If  the  knights  had 
been  roughly  handled,  a  formidable  array  would  have  poured 
out  of  London  Gates  into  the  precincts  of  Westminster,  and 
it  was  thought  at  the  time  that  this  consideration  withheld 
the  Duke  from  using  violence.^ 

The  House  of  Commons  was  not  at  this  time  a  battle- 
ground of  parties ;  it  was  itself  a  party.^  There  were  many 
good  reasons  why  the  members  should  be  of  one  mind.  The 
upper  middle  classes  who  sent  them  to  Westminster  were 
at  this  time  struggling  for  existence  against  economic  distress, 
which  they  attributed  partly  to  oppression  and  misgovern- 
ment  by  the  nobles,  partly  to  the  rebellious  attitude  of  the 
peasants,  partly  to  the  privilege  and  extortion  of  an  over- 
grown Church.  The  key  to  their  political  action  during  the 
period  may  be  found  in  the  petitions,  mostly  refused,  that 
are  appended  in  long  lists  to  the  proceedings  of  every 
Parliament  recounted  in  the  Eolls.  From  these,  several 
distinct   motives   for   the   policy   of    the   Commons   can   be 

'  See  Ap.  2  chron.  Aug.,  74-5.  3  See  Ap. 


16  POLITICS  1376-7 

made  out.  First  tliey  desired  that  the  central  Government 
should  cease  to  be  corrupt,  and  that  the  money  wrung  from 
the  public  at  a  time  of  general  distress  should  be  honestly 
spent  for  public  purposes,  and  not  appropriated  by  a  small 
clique.  Secondly,  they  desired  that  local  order  should  be 
kept,  especially  in  the  country  districts,  where  the  anarchical 
elements  that  got  the  upper  hand  in  the  next  century  during 
the  Wars  of  the  KoseF,  were  already  at  work.  The  lawless 
retainers  of  the  nobles  and  the  bands  of  discontented 
peasants  on  strike  were  equally  offensive  to  the  small  gentry 
and  yeomen.  Next  the  Commons  required  that  the  war 
should  be  efficiently  conducted  to  an  honourable,  if  not  a  suc- 
cessful, end.  They  asked  not  for  peace  but  for  better  conduct 
of  the  war.  In  spite  of  the  losses  inflicted  by  the  enemy's 
fleet  on  the  coast  districts,  in  spite  of  the  pressure  of  taxation 
on  the  inland  counties,  we  never  find  a  petition  of  the  Lower 
House  for  peace.  In  this  matter  the  nation  showed  more 
spirit  than  good  sense.  If  the  hopeless  war  had  been  brought 
to  a  close  before  Edward  the  Third's  death,  instead  of  ten  years 
later,  the  country  would  have  been  spared  much  misery  ;  but 
it  was  not  unnatural  that  the  memory  of  Crecy  and  Poitiers 
should  induce  the  Commons  to  attribute  the  disasters  of  the 
war  to  no  other  cause  than  the  undoubted  corruption  and  in- 
efficiency of  the  ministers.  Although  these  considerations 
united  to  throw  the  Commons  into  strong  opposition  to  John 
of  Gaunt  and  his  friends,  there  was  one  question  on  which 
they  sympathised  to  some  degree  with  his  policy.  The  desire 
to  reform  and  tax  the  Church  was  shared  by  laymen  of  both 
parties.  Even  the  Commons  of  the  Good  Parliament,  after 
acting  with  the  Bishops  against  the  Duke  for  two  months 
of  session,  sent  up  a  score  of  petitions  against  ecclesiastical 
abuses.^ 

The  House  of  Lords,  unlike  the  House  of  Commons,  was 
not  a  party  in  the  State,  but  a  battleground  of  parties,  and 
still  more  of  personal  interests  and  ambitions.  It  is  im- 
possible to  say  how  far  affairs  in  the  Upper  House  were 
decided  by  taking  the  opinion  of  the  hundred  and  odd  lesser 
peers,  how  far  by  agreement  between  the  leaders  alone.    There 

>  Eot  Pari,  ii.  333,  pet.  xv.,  pp.  337-340,  pets,  xliv-lvi.,  p.  342,  pet.  lix. 


1376-7  THE   LOEDS  17 

were  a  dozen  great  men,  all  of  whom  were  either  earls  by 
birth  or  destined  shortly  to  become   so   by  creation ;  their 
mutual  hostilities  and  friendships  were  an  important  factor 
in  the  history  of  these  years.     At  the  assembly  of   the  Good 
Parliament  the  question  which  each  of   these   men  had  to 
decide,  was  whether  he  would  support  the   friends   or   the 
enemies  of  the  House  of  Lancaster.     Now  it  so  happened  that 
the  Duke  had  temporarily  alienated  all  the  great  nobles  by  the 
policy  he  had  lately  pursued  of  excluding  them  all  from  the 
councils  of  the  King.     Lord  Latimer  was  by  no  means  one  of 
the  higher  peers,  yet  he  was  the  highest  in  rank  and  power 
who  had  lately  been  permitted  to  share  the  profits  of  office 
and  corruption.     The  complaint  ran  that  '  nobles  and  prelates 
who  come  to  the  Court  for   necessary   business  '    were   not 
allowed  an  audience,  but  were  '  forced  to  remain  outside  in 
the  courtyard  among  the  poor,'  and  be  '  catechised  by  people 
not  really  sent  them  by  the  King.'  ^     It  was  for  reasons  such 
as  these  that  the  Earls  of  Warwick,  Arundel  and  Stafford,  and 
Henry  Percy,  afterwards  Earl  of  Northumberland,  joined  the 
Commons  against  John  of  Gaunt.     They  were  not  opposed  to' 
him  on  any  ground  of  principle,  for  he  afterwards  succeeded  ' 
in  securing  their  adhesion  or  neutrality  by  the  coarsest  bribes. 
But  in  April  1376  he  stood  alone  on  his  defence,  because  he 
had  sought  to  stand  alone  in  his  power.    The  Duke  had  besides 
mortal  enemies  whom  no  concession  would  have  conciliated. 
The  whole  Courtenay  family,  the  Earl  of  Devon  and  all  his 
sons,  of  whom  the  chief  was  the  Bishop  of  London,  were  special 
objects  of  his  hatred.     The  Earl  of  March  was  another  con- 
sistent and  life-long  enemy.     The  Prince  of  Wales  was  known 
to  be  dying,  and  his  boy  Eichard  might  die  or  might,  it  was 
darkly  whispered,  be  set  aside.     It  was  considered  possible 
that  the  Duke  might  play  the  part  of  King  John  to  Eichard's 
Prince  Arthur."^     But  supposing  Eichard  out  of  the  way,  the 

'  O.  E.  B.,  77. 

^  Bot.  Pari.,  ii.  330,  sec.  50,  and  iii.  5,  sees.  13-14. 


• 

Edwabd  III. 

1 

Edward,  Black  Prince 

1 

1 

Lionel  of  Clarence 

1 

John  of  Gaunt 
1 

1 
Bichard  II. 

1 
Philippa  =  Earl  of  March 

Henry  IV. 
C 

18  POLITICS  1376-7 

Earl  of  March  was  still  the  rightful  heir,  so  that  the  hostility 
of  the  Earl  and  Duke  was  accentuated  by  the  thought  of  future 
possibilities  of  which  no  one  liked  to  talk  above  his  breath. 
It  was  the  fear  that  John  of  Gaunt  might  become  King  of 
England  that  made  the  timid  among  his  enemies  afraid  to 
incense  him,  and-  the  bold  ten  times  more  eager  to  cripple 
a  power  that  might  some  day  attempt  to  seize  the  throne. 

These  rumours  made  the  Black  Prince  the  most  anxious 
of  all  to  disarm  the  man  who  might  hinder  his  son's 
succession.  He  had,  indeed,  every  motive  for  hostility  to  the 
Duke.  On  the  bed  of  sickness  where  he  had  been  stretched 
since  his  return  from  France  in  1370,  his  mental  sufferings 
must  have  been  as  acute  as  his  physical.  Accustomed  to  lead 
his  countrymen  to  victory,  he  lay  there  helpless,  and  heard 
month  after  month  how  our  armies  were  allowed  to  waste 
away,  how  our  fortresses  were  lost — sold,  men  said — by  the 
Duke  and  his  subordinates.  Stories  of  their  corruption 
and  extortion  at  home  reached  him  daily.  He  knew 
how  they  led  his  father  as  they  wished,  and  degraded 
that  foolish  and  sensual  old  man  in  the  eyes  of  the  nation. 
One  week  of  health,  and  he  could  have  resumed  his  old 
ascendency  over  the  King  and  the  government  of  the  land  ; 
but  he  was  doomed  to  lie  still  and  pine  away.  Last  of  all, 
there  was  this  whisper  of  a  conspiracy  against  his  child's  suc- 
cession. All  his  feelings  as  a  patriot,  as  a  son,  as  a  father, 
combined  to  produce  an  intense  feeling  of  hatred  against  John 
of  Gaunt.  When  the  Good  Parliament  met,  he  was  unable  to 
take  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Lords,  but  from  his  sick  bed  at 
Kennington  Palace,  near  Lambeth,  he  could  exert  influence 
over  the  political  crisis.  He  was  still  the  heir-apparent ; 
he  might  still,  if  only  for  a  short  while,  outlive  his  father  ;  he 
was  still  the  greatest  general  of  the  age ;  he  was  still  the 
darling  of  the  nation.  The  friendly  feeling  he  expressed 
towards  the  action  of  the  Commons  in  the  Good  Parliament 
was  a  strong  inducement  to  John  of  Gamit  to  bow  to  the 
storm. 

The  Bishops  were  always  an  important  element  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  the  more  so  as  their  action  there  was  con- 
sistently directed  towards  definite  objects.     One  of  these  was 


1376-7  THE   BISHOPS  19 

to  keep  all  that  the  Church  had  got,  and  to  get  as  much  more 
as  should  be  from  time  to  time  possible.  It  was  an  age  in 
which  to  defend  the  Church  was  becoming  necessary,  and  to 
apologise  for  her  difficult ;  so  the  Bishops  braced  themselves  for 
the  task,  and  stood  by  each  other  shoulder  to  shoulder,  stoutly 
resisting  every  proposal  of  reform.  Secondly,  as  they  had 
long  been  accustomed  to  fill  the  great  offices  of  state,  they 
could  not  see  themselves  deprived  of  administrative  power^' 
without  an  effort  to  regain  it.  Both  as  Church  defenders  and 
as  seekers  after  secular  office,  they  were  forced  to  be  the 
enemies  of  the  Duke  of  Lancaster.  William  of  Wykeham  was 
the  chief  representative  of  the  office-holding  Bishops  whom 
the  Duke  and  his  partisans  ha(^,ejected  in  1371.  His  career 
had  been  typical  of  that  union  of  Church  and  State  in  the 
persons  of  the  Bishops,  which  men  had  now  begun  to  call  in 
question.  His  parents  had  been  poor,  and  he  had  depended 
on  charity  for  his  education,^  but  in  reward  for  his  services  to 
the  King  as  overseer  and  diplomatist,  he  had  climbed  from 
place  to  place  in  the  Church,  the  one  institution  in  the  land 
where  the  poor  could  be  raised  high  without  causing  jealousy 
or  surprise.  It  was  this  democratic  aspect  of  the  Church 
which  rendered  her  a  comparatively  good  element  in  politics. 
Only  three  out  of  the  whole  bench  were  at  this  time  men 
of  great  family.  The  Bishops  who  became  ministers  of  the 
Crown  felt  their  responsibility  more  than  they  would  have 
done  if  they  had  been  younger  sons  of  great  lords. 

The  three  Bishops  who  were  of  noble  birth  rose  rapidly, 
and  possessed  an  influence  strong  out  of  all  proportion  to 
their  numbers.  Neville  had  lately  been  made  Archbishop 
of  York  ;  Courtenay  of  London,  and  Arundel  of  Ely  were 
destined  in  turn  to  fill  the  throne  of  Canterbury.  Courtenay, 
already  as  Bishop  of  London  the  second  man  in  the  Church, 
was  a  younger  son  of  the  Earl  of  Devon,  and  possessed  in 
full  the  violent  temper  and  overbearing  manners  of  a  great 
noble.  Fierce  opposition  to  John  of  Gaunt  and  hatred  of 
all  heretics  were  his  two  leading  motives  in  politics  and 
religion. 

The  Primate,  Simon  Sudbury,  was  a  man  of  very  different 

'  Lowth's  Life  of  Wykeham,  pp.  9-10  and  13,  ed.  1758. 

c2 


20  POLITICS  1376-7 

character.  He  was  no  aristocrat,  but  a  humble  and  peaceable 
servant  of  the  Church,  who  yet  had  the  rare  sense  to  know 
that  she  was  open  to  criticism.  He  never  would  take  the 
lead  in  the  persecution  of  heresy.  Similarly  in  politics,  if 
Courtenay  wanted  any  steps  taken  against  the  Duke  of 
Lancaster,  he  had  to  force  the  hand  of  his  kindly  and  lethargic 
chief.  Another  leader  of  the  Bishops  in  their  opposition  to 
the  existing  ministry  was  Brunton  of  Eochester,  a  man  who 
differed  as  much  from  Sudbury  as  from  Courtenay.  A  fire  of 
moral  indignation  burnt  in  his  heart,  which  blazed  out  in  his 
sermons  when  he  attacked  the  social  abuses  of  his  age  with 
an  impetuosity  and  courage  worthy  of  Hugh  Latimer.  Even 
when  these  abuses  took  a  political  form,  he  spared  not  his 
voice  for  fear  of  any  man,  and  his  pulpit  eloquence  was  now 
directed  against  the  adherents  of  John  of  Gaunt.  '  Our 
modern  rulers,'  he  cried,  '  those  overthrowers  of  truth  and 
justice,  wishing  to  raise  their  lords  to  the  altars  ^  as  they  know 
how,  have  proclaimed  the  coward  a  hero,  the  weak  man  strong, 
the  fool  a  wise  man,  the  adulterer  and  pursuer  of  luxury  a 
man  chaste  and  holy.  And  in  order  to  turn  all  interests  to 
their  advantage,  they  encourage  their  King  in  notorious 
crimes,  whilst,  so  as  to  be  seen  by  all  coming  to  Court,  they 
set  up  the  idol  of  worldly  fear  in  order  to  prevent  anyone,  of 
whatsoever  rank  or  condition  he  may  be,  from  daring  to  stand 
up  against,  or  castigate,  the  evil  doers.'  ^  Some  of  the  lesser 
Bishops,  however,  were  not  so  violently  hostile  to  the  Duke. 
Ealph  Erghum  of  Salisbury  served  him  in  the  administration 
of  his  Duchy  of  Lancaster  and  adhered  to  his  party  in  the 
State ;  several  others  afterwards  fell  under  suspicion  of  lend- 
ing him  temporary  support,  where  the  interests  of  the  Church 
were  not  directly  threatened. 

The  Abbots  who  were  summoned  to  Parliament  took  no 
more  part  in  politics  than  the  isolated  institutions  over  which 
they  presided  took  in  the  life  of  the  country  in  general. 


On   April   29,    the   Chancellor    Knyvet    addressed    both 
Houses  assembled  in  the  Painted  Chamber,  and  asked  for  a 

'  Viz.  '  to  be  worshipped.'  "  0.  E.  B.,  72. 


April  1376  LOED   PEECY  21 

grant  of  taxes,  in  the  manner  customary,  whereupon  the 
Commons  retired  as  usual  to  the  Chapter  House  of  the  Abbey 
to  consider  the  demand.  They  were  determined  to  withhold 
supplies  until  they  had  called  the  Privy  Council  to  account, 
but  they  knew  that  in  order  to  do  this  they  must  associate 
strong  protectors  with  their  action.  Making  use  of  a  pre- 
cedent set  in  the  last  Parliament,  they  asked  that  certain 
lords  should  sit  in  the  Chapter  House  with  them,  and  take 
part  in  their  consultations.  The  request  was  granted,  and 
they  proceeded  to  choose  for  themselves  four  Bishops,  four 
Lords,  and  four  Earls.  Among  the  Bishops  whom  they  chose 
were  Courtenay  of  London  and  Spencer  of  Norwich,  fearless 
and  violent,  alike  as  champions  of  the  Church  and  as  enemies 
of  the  Duke ;  Spencer  had  lately  been  robbed  of  an  advowson 
by  the  King's  favourites.^  The  chief  among  the  four  lords 
whom  they  chose  was  Lord  Henry  Percy,  the  hereditary  vice- 
roy of  the  wild  borderlands  of  the  kingdom,  destined  to  be 
known  to  posterity  as  the  hero  of  Chevy  Chase,  the  Earl  of 
Northumberland  in  Shakespeare's  '  Henry  IV.,'  and  the  father 
of  Harry  Hotspur.  In  reality,  he  much  more  closely  resembled 
the  calculating  politician  of  the  play,  who  takes  care  to  be 
absent  from  Shrewsbury  Field,  than  the  romantic  hero  of  the 
ballad  in  the  famous  Cheviot  fight,  at  which,  indeed,  as  a 
matter  of  historical  fact,  he  was  not  present.^  Like  the  Earls 
of  Argyle  in  the  seventeenth  century,  he  lived  a  double  life, 
one  of  warfare  among  his  wild  retainers  and  enemies  at  home, 
another  of  party  intrigue  at  the  capital,  where  his  feudal 
power  in  the  North  helped  to  win  him  a  high  place  in  the 
councils  of  the  State.  Throughout  his  life  the  part  he  played 
at  Westminster  was  that  of  a  proud  but  calculating  and  am- 
bitious man,  determined  to  make  his  power  felt  and  to  have 
his  family  recognised  as  one  of  the  greatest  in  England.  In 
the  spring  of  1376  it  was  his  cue  to  bring  John  of  Gaunt  to 
terms  by  showing  how  formidable  an  antagonist  he  could  be. 

>  Bot.'Parl.,  ii.  330,  sec.  48. 

^  He  is  the  '  Earl  Percy '  of  the  '  more  mocTern  ballad  of  Chevy  Chase '  in 
Percy's  Beligues.  The  ancient  ballad  of  '  Chevy  Chase  '  speaks  of  '  Lord  Percy,' 
which  might  mean  either  Hotspur  or  his  father.  The  ballad  of  the  '  Battle  of 
Otterburne  '  agrees  with  Froissart  and  the  truth,  that  it  was  Hotspur  and  not 
his  father,  the  Earl,  who  fought  the  Scotch  at  Otterburne. 


22  POLITICS  1376-7 

The  Commons  also  asked  for  four  Earls — Suffolk,  a  man 
usually  of  little  importance  in  politics ;  March,  the  Duke's 
most  powerful  and  constant  enemy ;  lastly,  Warwick  and 
Stafford,  who  succeeded,  like  several  other  noblemen  on  this 
occasion,  in  running  with  the  hare  and  hunting  with  the 
hounds.  But  however  equivocal  the  conduct  of  one  or  two 
members  of  the  committee  afterwards  proved  to  be,  all  the 
Bishops,  Earls  and  Lords  when  first  appointed  pledged  them- 
selves to  support  the  Commons  and  were  all  regarded  as 
champions  of  the  cause.  '  The  knights,'  says  the  chronicler, 
'  made  them  swear  to  be  of  their  counsels  ;  nor  was  it  difficult 
to  extort  this  oath  from  them,  since  each  and  every  one  of 
them  loved  most  ardently  the  honour  of  the  King,  the  weal 
of  the  realm,  and  the  peace  of  the  people.'  ^ 

Even  when  thus  strengthened  by  the  patronage  of  the 
great,  it  was  with  no  light  heart  that  the  Commons  entered 
upon  the  task  of  impeaching  the  Privy  Councillors.^  It  was 
not  hard  to  guess  that  they  were  taking  the  responsibility 
on  to  their  own  shoulders  ;  that  when  the  tide  began  to  turn, 
half  their  noble  supporters  would  desert  them  and  the  other 
half  retire  to  the  country,  leaving  the  leaders  of  the  Commons 
to  the  vengeance  of  the  Court.  They  were  aware  that  their 
course  was  new,  hazardous,  and  doubtful.  The  prerogative  of 
the  Commons  to  impeach  great  offenders  at  the  bar  of  the 
Lords,  afterwards  so  often  and  so  famously  employed,  was 
devised  as  a  new  thing  by  this  Good  Parliament.  Hitherto 
the  Lower  House  had  fought  with  the  King  for  the  right 
of  granting  and  withholding  taxes.  That  right  had  now 
been  admitted,  and  it  was  accordingly  employed  as  the 
means  of  overhauling  the  administration  and  government 
of  the  country,  and  of  calling  the  servants  of  the  Crown  to 
account. 

As  the  Commons  had  a  policy  and  a  purpose  of  their  own 
independent  of  their  patrons,  it  was  only  natural  that  their 
leader  should  be,  not  Percy  or  March,  but  one  of  their  own 
number.  Such  a  man  was  found  in  Peter  de  la  Mare,  one  of 
the  two  knights  who  represented  the  county  of  Hereford.     He 

>  Chro",i.  Ang.,  68-70 ;  Bot.  Pari,  ii.  322.  -  Chron.  Aug.,  70-2. 


Apeil  1376  THE   SPEAKEE  23 

was  seneschal  to  the  Earl  of  March/  a  connection  which 
intensified  the  animosity  of  his  relations  to  the  House  of 
Lancaster  without  serving  to  protect  him  from  the  Duke's 
vengeance.  He  was  a  man  fearless  of  consequences  in  an 
age  of  violence,  one  whose  spirit  imprisonment  could  not 
bend  nor  threats  overpower,  and  who  long  continued  in 
faithful  service  to  the  Commons.  He  was  now  for  the  first 
time  elected  to  the  honourable  and  dangerous  ofiice  of  Speaker. 
As  in  those  days  the  communications  with  the  King  and 
Lords  were  the  most  important  and  arduous  part  of  the 
business  of  the  Lower  House,  the  Speaker  who  '  spoke '  for 
his  brother  members  before  the  princes  of  the  land  had 
need  to  be  the  foremost  and  best  politician  among  the 
knights.  He  was  not  merely  an  officer  of  highest  dignity 
and  an  honoured  judge  between  contending  parties,  for  he 
was  himself  the  leader  of  the  party  of  the  Commons. 
Peter  de  la  Mare  fulfilled  the  combined  functions  of  Pym 
and  Lenthall. 

As  a  result  of  debates  in  the  Chapter  House  among  them- 
selves and  the  Lords  whom  they  had  associated  with  their 
counsels,  the  Commons  determined  to  display  the  standard  of 
revolt,  and  fixed  on  a  method  of  attack.  When  they  appeared 
in  full  Parliament  with  the  Speaker  at  their  head,  the  plan 
they  had  formed  in  secret  was  unfolded  in  public.  Peter  de  la 
Mare's  first  duty  was  to  answer  the  demand  for  money  made 
by  the  Chancellor.  To  have  made  the  grant  would  have  been 
to  invite  instant  dissolution,  but  the  Speaker  not  only  refused 
the  money  until  the  grievances  of  the  nation  were  satisfied, 
but  took  the  financial  position  as  the  text  for  a  sermon 
on  the  required  reforms.  He  declared  that  the  reason 
why  the  King  was  impoverished  was  because  his  advisers 
absorbed  his  income  themselves ;  that  if  it  were  not  for  the 
'  privy  friends  of  the  King,'  the  treasury  would  still  be  full,  and 
that  therefore  to  grant  further  taxes  until  the  administration 
had  been  reformed  would  do  no  good  either  to  King  or  kingdom. 
He  proceeded  to  enumerate  the  principal  ways  by  which  the 
nation  had  been  robbed,  and  requested  the  King  to  fix  a  time 
to  hear  these  charges  brought  home  against  the  guilty.    Such 

'  Chron.  Aug.,  108. 


24  POLITICS  1376-7 

was  the  request  of  Peter  de  la  Mare  before  the  Estates  of  the 
Eealm,^  and,  for  the  time,  there  was  no  one  to  gainsay  him. 
That  night,  according  to  the  report  of  his  enemies,  the  Duke 
of  Lancaster  held  consultation  with  his  friends  and  deter- 
mined to  bow  to  the  storm.  Hoping  to  save  himself  by  a 
temporary  desertion  of  his  subordinates,  whom  it  was  proposed 
to  impeach,  he  next  morning  appeared  among  the  members  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  addressed  them  personally  with  en- 
couraging and  friendly  words,  and  declared  himself  ready  to 
correct  whatever  abuses  they  pointed  out.^ 

The  impeachment  was  commenced.  Kichard  Lyons,  the 
great  London  merchant  who  had  turned  his  place  on  the 
Privy  Council  to  such  advantage,  was  accused  by  the  Commons' 
Speaker,  and  found  guilty  by  the  Lords,  of  the  various 
financial  and  commercial  frauds  which  he  had  committed. 
He  endeavoured  to  save  himself  by  a  judicious  distribution  of 
the  masses  of  wealth  which  by  these  malpractices  he  had 
accumulated.  A  barrel  filled  with  gold  was  sent  across  the 
Thames  to  the  Palace  of  Kennington,  where  the  Black  Prince 
lay  dying,  but  the  bribe  was  refused  with  contumely.  In 
other  quarters,  it  was  said,  his  offers  were  better  received,  and 
this  was  the  only  reason  why  he  escaped  the  capital  punish- 
ment for  which  the  public  voice  clamoured.  He  was  con- 
demned to  a  heavy  fine,  deprived  of  the  franchise  of  London, 
and  committed  to  prison  at  the  King's  pleasure.^ 

But  the  central  interest  of  Parliament,  the  real  test  of 
the  strength  of  parties,  was  the  trial  of  Lord  Latimer,  the 
biggest  game  at  which  the  Commons  dared  to  fly.  Besides 
the  financial  peculations  of  which  he  had  been  guilty  at 
home,  he  was  charged  by  Peter  de  la  Mare  with  the  more 
serious  treachery  of  receiving  money  from  the  national  enemy 
in  return  for  the  betrayal  of  two  strongholds  in  the  north 
of  France,  named  St.  Sauveur  and  Becherel.  As  sufficient 
evidence  could  not  be  produced  to  secure  judgment  on  the 
question,  the  sale  of  these  fortresses  must  remain  for  ever  one 
of  the  unsolved  mysteries  of  the  past.  The  circumstances  of 
the  trial,  as  related  by  a  chronicler  hostile  to  the  accused,  are 

'  Rot.  Pari.,  ii.  323.  2  Qhron.  Aug.,   74-6. 

3  Ibid.  79,  392,  and  Ixx  ;  Wals.,  i.  321 ;  Rot.  Pari.,  ii.  323-4. 


1376  A   DAEK   STOEY  25 

these.  A  messenger  from  Kochelle  arrived  in  London  with 
letters  for  the  King,  which,  it  was  supposed,  contained  proofs 
of  Latimer's  understanding  with  the  French.  They  were 
seized  before  they  reached  their  destination,  and  the  bearer 
was  hidden  away  in  prison.  News  of  this  reached  Lord  Percy, 
who  at  once  laid  a  statement  before  Parliament ;  but  when  the 
messenger  was  ordered  to  appear  at  the  bar,  he  could  not  be 
found.  It  was  whispered  that  he  had  been  murdered,  and 
men  recalled  the  fate  of  the  King  of  Navarre's  messenger, 
who  had  a  few  years  before  been  found  strangled  in  prison, 
when  in  the  custody  of  Lord  Latimer.  Such  reports,  whether 
true  or  not,  got  wind,  and  roused  the  populace  to  such  acts  of 
violence  as  throughout  this  period  play  the  part  of  our  modern 
indignation  meetings.  In  wild  suspicion  of  all  the  great  men, 
many  of  whom  they  rightly  thought  to  be  playing  a  double 
part,  the  City  mob  threatened  to  burn  to  the  ground  the 
palaces  of  all  the  Earls  that  lay  in  and  about  London,  unless 
the  man  was  forthcoming.  As  usual  the  effervescence  of 
the  prentices  acted  as  a  wholesome  tonic  to  the  politicians. 
The  messenger  was  at  once  produced.  When,  however,  he 
appeared  at  the  bar  of  the  Lords,  he  had  nothing  to  say 
against  the  accused  peer.  Thomas  de  Katrington,  the 
governor  of  St.  Sauveur,  who  had  surrendered  the  fortress  at 
the  orders  of  Lord  Latimer,  and  was  the  other  chief  witness 
on  whom  the  prosecution  depended,  disappointed  the  Com- 
mons by  similar  silence.  It  was  loudly  declared  that  they 
had  both  been  bribed,  and  certainly,  if  the  messenger  from 
Eochelle  had  really  been  in  Lord  Latimer's  hands  some  days, 
there  were  a  thousand  ways  in  which  he  could  have  been 
silenced.  It  is,  on  the  other  hand,  impossible  to  condemn 
even  Lord  Latimer  solely  on  the  hearsay  of  his  enemies 
reported  by  a  prejudiced  chronicler.^  Only  this  is  certain : 
that  he  was  condemned,  not  on  these  charges  of  treason,  but 
on  the  ground  of  his  financial  peculations,  of  which  no  doubt 
could  exist. ^  The  Duke  thought  it  necessary,  in  view  of  the 
popular  feeling,  to  pronounce  sentence  himself  against  the 
man  who  had  trusted  to  him  in  committing  the  frauds ;  he 
was  condemned  by  the  Lords  to  prison,  he  was  deprived  of 

'  Chron.  Aug.,  81-6.  ^  Eot.  Pari,  ii.  326,  sec.  28. 


26  POLITICS  1376-7 

all  his  perquisites  and  offices  at  the  petition  of  the  Commons 
to  the  King,  and  his  name  was  struck  off  the  Privy  Council. 
But  it  was  rather  a  political  disgrace  than  a  judicial  sentence 
of  great  severity ;  for  his  goods  were  not  confiscated,  and  his 
imprisonment  was  relaxed  for  bail. 

The  sentences  on  Lyons  and  Lord  Latimer  were  followed 
by  the  impeachment  and  condemnation  of  their  subordinates. 
Lord  Neville  was  removed  from  the  Privy  Council  Board,  Sir 
Eichard  Stury  was  dismissed  from  about  the  King's  person, 
and  the  merchants  Elj^s,  Peachy  and  Bury  were  forced  to 
disgorge  the  results  of  those  speculations  on  which  they  had 
entered  under  the  patronage  of  Lyons  and  at  the  expense 
of  the  public.^  It  was  while  these  finishing  touches  were 
being  given  to  the  work  of  punishment,  that  the  great 
supporter  of  the  Commons  was  removed.  The  Prince  of 
Wales,  who  had  for  six  years  been  stretched  on  a  bed  of  agony 
and  weakness,  had  suffered  a  further  relapse  that  spring,  had 
sunk  fast  during  the  time  of  the  impeachments,  and  was  at 
length  released  from  his  misery  in  the  early  days  of  July. 
The  prospect  of  deliverance  from  physical  pain  did  not 
take  away  from  him  the  bitterness  of  death.  If  ever  a  man 
died  disappointed,  it  was  the  Black  Prince.  After  tasting  in 
early  youth  all  the  joys  that  fame,  victory  and  power  can 
bestow,  he  had  seen  the  world  slip  from  under  his  hand  as  he 
came  to  manhood,  and  was  now  dying  at  the  prime  of 
life  with  all  his  hopes  unattained  and  all  the  work  of 
his  early  triumphs  undone.  The  memories  of  Crecy  and 
Poitiers  were  like  a  dream  or  a  legend  in  the  face  of  the  sordid 
realities  of  the  present.  It  was  now  thirty  years  since,  as  a 
boy  of  sixteen,  he  had  fought  and  won  under  his  father's  eye 
the  great  victory  that  first  established  the  supremacy  of  the 
English  arms.  It  was  twenty  years  since,  brought  to  bay 
behind  the  vineyards  of  Poitiers  with  a  handful  of  English 
gentlemen  and  archers,  he  had  destroyed  the  chivalry  of 
France  and  led  her  King  a  captive  to  London,  In  those 
days  there  was  no  future  that  seemed  too  brilliant  for  him, 
the  expectancy  and   rose  of  the  fair  State.'     Yet  since  those 

1  Bot.  Pari,  ii.  327-30 ;  Chron.  Ang.,  80,  87,  392  ;  Wals.,  i.  321. 


Jflt  1376         DEATH   OF  THE   BLACK  PEINCE  27 

glorious  days  life  had  been  nothing  to  him  but  labour  and 
sorrow.  Now  that  he  was  leaving  it  himself,  he  had  not  even 
the  satisfaction  of  hoping  that  his  country  and  his  son  would 
see  better  times,  for  he  knew  the  character  of  the  men  ta 
whose  tender  mercies  they  would  be  committed.  It  is  not, 
therefore,  surprising  to  find  that  he  lay  in  fierce  humour  on 
his  deathbed,  refusing  all  pretence  of  forgiveness  to  his 
enemies  of  the  Lancastrian  faction.  When  on  the  last  day 
the  doors  of  the  chamber  were  left  open  for  all  to  enter  and 
see  him  dying,  Sir  Eichard  Stury,  it  was  said,  came  to  make 
his  peace.  But  the  sight  of  him  only  roused  in  the  Prince  a 
sense  of  the  injustice  of  the  Fates.  '  Come,  Eichard,'  he  said, 
*  come  and  look  on  what  you  have  long  desired  to  see.'  '  God. 
pay  you  according  to  your  deserts,'  he  replied  to  the  man's 
protestations  ;  '  leave  me,  and  let  me  see  your  face  no  more.'  A 
few  hours  later  he  made  a  more  Christian  ending.^  As  there 
was  no  room  on  the  mound  where  his  ancestors  were  buried 
in  Westminster  Abbey  for  any  other  tomb  save  that  of  his 
father,  his  body  was  carried  to  Canterbury,  as  he  had  himself 
requested.^  There  he  lies,  as  it  were  in  sullen  exile  and  mute 
protestation  against  the  degeneracy  of  his  house,  far  from  the 
father  whose  folly  he  had  vainly  tried  to  correct,  and  the  son 
whose  doom  he  might  foresee,  but  could  not  avert. 

It  was  not  without  meaning  that  a  cry  of  lamentation  rose 
throughout  the  country  on  the  news  of  his  death.^  We  must 
not  indeed  attribute  to  him  virtues  he  did  not  possess.  He 
had  in  the  French  wars  committed  acts  of  violence  and  cruelty 
that  shocked  even  his  own  generation.  But  the  massacre 
at  Limoges  seems  to  have  been  a  spasmodic  outbreak  of 
wickedness  not  akin  to  his  general  character.  Bishop 
Brunton  of  Eochester,  a  man  as  critical  of  his  contemporaries 
as  Langland  or  Wycliffe,  speaks  in  high  praise,  not  only 
of  his  wisdom,  but  of  his  goodness  ;  not  only  of  his  courtesy 
to  the  great,  but  of  his  kindness  to  the  poor  as  landlord  and 
master.  But  whatever  his  character  as  a  man,  he  could 
prol)ably,  as  a  King,  have  saved  England  from  the  violence  of 


'  Chron.  Aug.,  88-92.  ^  Stanley's  Westminster  Abbey  (2nd  ed.),  146-8. 

=*  Chron.  Aug.,   91,  92  ;    Wals.,  i.  321 ;   Wycliffe,  Pol.   Works,   ii.  417-8  ; 
Bishop  Brunton,  0.  E.  B.,  98-100. 


28  POLITICS  1376-7 

political  parties  and  from  the  civil  wars  with  which  the  cen- 
tury closed,  for  these  troubles  came  to  a  head  only  because 
Eichard  the  Second  was  but  a  boy  at  the  beginning  and  a  fool 
at  the  end  of  his  reign.  Such  evils  could  have  been  averted  by 
an  experienced  and  popular  monarch.  But  the  Black  Prince, 
although  he  might  have  given  an  appearance  of  peace  to  the 
political  world,  could  not  have  cut  off  the  evils  of  society  at 
their  root,  by  destroying  the  power  of  the  nobles  and  breaking 
up  their  private  armies  of  retainers.  He  might,  like  Henry 
the  Fifth,  have  given  a  superficial  appearance  of  prosperity 
for  a  time ;  but  the  deluge  which  passed  over  England  in 
the  next  century  could  only  have  been  postponed,  not 
averted. 

Although  the  death  of  the  Black  Prince  removed  a  security 
for  the  permanence  of  the  work  of  the  Good  Parliament  after 
the  session  was  over,  the  Commons,  as  long  as  they  remained 
assembled  at  Westminster,  were  able  to  continue  their  under- 
taking and  defy  the  Duke.  They  instantly  took  steps  to 
ensure  the  succession  of  Eichard,  whom  they  compelled  the 
King  to  produce  in  Parliament  and  to  acknowledge  as  heir.' 
The  Duke,  determined  at  least  to  obtain  the  reversion  of  the 
Crown  in  case  of  his  nephew's  early  death,  appeared  in  the 
Chapter  House  among  the  assembled  Commons,  and  boldly 
asked  them  to  provide  for  such  a  case  by  passing  a  Salic 
law  which  would  have  excluded  the  Earl  of  March. ^ 
As  the  latter  was  sitting  with  the  Commons  as  one  of  the 
associated  Lords,  he  was  presumably  present  when  the  request 
was  made ;  there  is  small  wonder  that  it  was  refused.  The 
relations  of  the  Duke  and  the  Earl  were  henceforth  of  no 
friendly  character.  The  succession  of  one  would  have  been 
the  death-warrant  of  the  other.  Civil  war  was  a  practical 
certainty  if  Eichard  the  Second  died  young. 

The  last  prosecution  was  that  of  Alice  Perrers.  Very  little 
is  known  of  this  lady.  She  appears  to  have  been  of  gentle 
birth,  although  her  enemies  tried  to  prove  the  opposite. 
Ever  since  1366  she  had  been  receiving  grants  of  land  and 
money  from  her  royal  lover,  till  at  last  in  1373  the  King  gave 
her  his  own  and  his  late  wife's  jewels,  to  the  general  scandal 

'  Rot.  Pari,  ii.  330,  sec.  50.  ^  Chron.  Ang.,  92. 


1376  ALICE   PEEEBES  29 

of  decent  people.  Her  influence  was  used  with  Edward  in 
favour  of  his  younger  son  the  Duke,  and  against  the  Black 
Prince.  She  was  in  the  habit  of  attending  the  law  courts  to 
support  her  friends  and  overawe  the  judges  like  any  other 
great  n6ble,  and  she  possessed  herself  of  money  and  lands 
by  fair  means  or  foul.^  She  had  turned  the  Abbot  of 
St.  Alban's  out  of  a  manor,  and  so  won  for  herself  the 
undying  hostility  of  the  principal  chronicles  of  the  time 
which  emanated  from  that  monastery.  She  had  better 
have  had  one  estate  less  and  kept  their  good  report.^ 
An  order  was  now  passed  in  the  Good  Parliament  forbid- 
ding women,  in  particular  Alice,  to  appear  in  court  in 
support  of  causes.  She  was  also  accused  to  the  King,  probably 
with  truth,  of  being  already  married.^  The  King  affected  to 
be  greatly  shocked  at  the  discovery,  but  would  allow  no 
extreme  measures  to  be  taken.  The  further  proceedings 
against  her  were  of  a  nature  suited  to  the  superstition  of  the 
age.  As  it  was  supposed  she  was  in  league  with  a  wizard, 
who  by  magic  arts  kept  up  the  old  man's  infatuation  for  her, 
John  Kentwood,  member  for  Berks,  and  John  de  la  Mare, 
member  for  Wiltshire,  introduced  themselves  into  the 
magician's  house  in  disguise,  and  effected  his  arrest.  The 
Duke  was  forced  by  public  opinion  to  take  measures  against 
Alice.  He  called  her  before  the  Lords,  where  she  was  made 
to  swear  not  to  approach  the  King  again,  under  penalty  of 
banishment  and  confiscation  of  goods.  The  Bishops  had 
orders  to  excommunicate  her  if  she  broke  this  oath ;  but  she 
was  allowed  to  remain  in  England  and  in  possession  of  her 
ill-gotten  wealth.* 

It  was  now  time  to  provide  some  better  government  for 
the  ensuing  year.  It  had  not  been  found  possible  to  attack 
John  of  Gaunt  directly.  He  had  acted  as  the  spokesman  of 
the  Lords  throughout  the  Parliament,  he  had  himself  con- 
demned Lord  Latimer,  and  summoned  Alice  Perrers  to  the 
bar.  He  was  still  the  greatest  man  in  England,  and  would, 
unless  strong  measures  were  taken  beforehand,  recover  the 

1  Diet,  of  Nat.  Biog. ;  Feed.,  iii.  989  ;  Rot.  Pari.,  ii.  329  ;  Ghron.  Ana.,  96. 

2  Qesta  Abhatum  St.  Alb.  (E.S.),  iii-  229-30. 

3  Chron.  Aug.,  97  ;  Diet,  of  Nat.  Biog.  *  See  Ap. 


30  POLITICS  137G-7 

King's  ear  and  the  government  of  the  country  as  soon  as 
Parliament  was  dissolved.  Indeed,  since  the  Prince's  death, 
he  had  already  begun  to  show  something  of  his  wonted 
insolence.  The  knights  of  the  shire  justly  complained  that 
Lyons  and  Lord  Latimer  were  living  in  luxury  at  home, 
feasting  their  partisans,  as  if  they  were  victorious  generals 
rather  than  convicted  criminals  awaiting  further  trial  for 
other  offences.  But  all  that  the  Duke  would  consent  to  do 
was  to  remove  the  musicians  from  their  feasts.^  At  these 
wassailings  there  is  little  doubt  the  favourites  told  each  other 
across  the  table,  that  a  good  time  was  coming  for  all  who 
served  the  House  of  Lancaster,  when  the  sour-faced  knights 
had  gone  home  to  look  after  their  granges  and  fishponds.  A 
scheme  was  therefore  drawn  up  and  passed  by  the  Good 
Parliament  before  the  close  of  the  session,  to  supplant  the  Duke 
in  the  government  of  the  King  and  kingdom.  Councillors  were 
chosen  for  Edward,  by  whose  advice  he  was  to  act.  Several 
of  them  were  always  to  be  with  him,  and  all  communica- 
tions with  the  King  on  matters  of  policy  were  to  be  made 
by  two  or  more  of  their  body.  The  members  were  chosen 
by  the  Commons ;  none  of  them  were  friends  of  the  late 
favourites,  some  were  the  Duke's  worst  enemies,  and  most 
had  taken  an  active  part  in  the  impeachments.  The  principal 
persons  on  the  Council  were  the  Earl  of  March,  Lord  Percy, 
the  Primate  Sudbury,  Courtenay  Bishop  of  London,  and 
William  of  Wykeham,  the  leader  of  the  Bishops'  Ministry 
turned  out  in  1371.  If  these  men  could  have  maintained  the 
position  assigned  them  by  Parliament,  John  of  Gaunt's  power 
would  have  come  to  an  end.^ 

But  it  was  not  destined  to  die  yet.  The  last  proceeding 
of  the  members  of  the  Good  Parliament,  after  voting  in  July 
the  money-grant  which  they  had  refused  in  April,  was  to 
attend  on  the  King  where  he  lay  sick  in  his  manor  of  Eltham 
on  the  borders  of  Kent.  The  object  of  this  attendance  was  to 
hear  the  royal  answers  vouchsafed  to  the  mass  of  petitions 
sent  up  in  the  course  of  the  session.  The  Commons  heard  with 
disgust  that  the  great  majority  had  been  refused  or  left  without 

'   Chron.  Aug.,  93-4. 
2  Rot.  Pari.,  ii.  322  ;  Chron.  Aug.,  Ixviii.     See  Ap. 


1876  THE  TUEN  OF  THE  TIDE  31 

reply,  among  others  those  specially  directed  against  John  of 
Gaunt  and  the  corrupt  practices  of  the  late  Privy  Council. 
It  appears  from  the  tone  of  these  replies  to  the  Commons' 
petitions  that,  in  spite  of  the  newly  appointed  body  of  King's 
advisers,  the  Duke  had  always  kept  or  already  recovered  the 
royal  confidence.  The  Commons  asked  that  none  of  the 
impeached  should  be  pardoned ;  the  King  replied  that  '  he 
would  do  his  will  as  seemed  good  to  him.'  They  asked  that 
those  who  had  been  found  guilty  of  peculation  should  not  be 
employed  again  in  the  public  service  ;  they  were  put  aside  by 
a  bare  promise  that  such  cases  should  be  tried  by  the  King 
and  his  Council.  After  hearing  these  unsatisfactory  replies, 
nothing  remained  for  the  members  but  to  ride  home  each  to 
his  shire  or  borough,  with  mixed  feelings  of  joy  over  the  good 
work  done  and  forebodings  as  to  its  permanence.^ 

Even  if  John  of  Gaunt  did  not  inspire  these  replies 
to  the  petitions,  as  there  is  good  reason  to  suspect  he  did, 
he  was  soon  completely  reinstated  at  Court  and  in  power. 
He  induced  the  King  to  recall  Lord  Latimer  as  a  first 
step.  This  was  in  itself  a  defiance  of  the  late  Parliament, 
but  it  was  followed  by  an  act  still  more  decided.  The 
Council  appointed  by  the  Commons  to  govern  the  King 
and  kingdom  was  without  further  ceremony  dissolved.^ 
This  very  questionable  exercise  of  royal  prerogative  by  an 
old  man  stretched  on  his  sick-bed  could  not  have  been 
carried  through  if  all  the  members  of  the  Council  had 
stood  together  ;  for  they  included  the  most  powerful  Bishops 
and  barons  in  the  kingdom,  and  were  supported  by  public 
feeling.  John  of  Gaant,  however,  had  undermined  the 
loyalty  of  several  to  their  colleagues  and  to  the  nation. 
Lord  Percy,  the  chief  of  the  opposition  in  the  late  Parliament, 
and  next  to  March  the  greatest  peer  on  the  Council,  was 
brought  over  to  the  Lancastrian  side,  became  the  confidant  of 
the  Duke,  and  obtained  the  chief  share  of  the  spoils.  It  is 
probable  that  the  Earls  of  Arundel  and  Stafford  also 
acquiesced  in  the  Duke's  usurpation  of  the  power  delegated  to 
them  in  Parliament,  for  they  did  not  scruple  to  appear  six 

'  Rot.  Pari.,  ii.  322,  sec.  9,  333  pet.  xiv.,  355  pet.  cxxx,  356  pet.  cxxxiii. 
*  Chron.  Aug.,  102-3  ;  Wals.,  i.  322. 


32  POLITICS  1376-7 

months  later  as  his  supporters.  The  Duke  had  been  isolated 
from  all  the  great  lords  before  the  Good  Parliament.  He 
took  care  not  to  be  so  again. 

But  there  were  some  members  of  the  late  Council  who 
were  too  honest  or  too  implacable  to  be  conciliated.  One  of 
these  was  the  Earl  of  March.  The  Duke  ordered  him  to  cross 
the  sea  to  Calais  in  pursuance  of  of&cial  duties.  The  Earl, 
fearing  that  treachery  and  assassination  would  be  devised 
against  him  when  on  the  high  seas  or  shut  up  in  the  little 
station  of  Calais,  refused  to  go.  He  preferred  to  resign  his 
post  as  Marshal  of  England,  which  was  handed  over,  as 
an  earnest  of  further  promotion,  to  the  renegade  Lord 
Percy.^ 

The  Earl's  Seneschal,  Peter  de  la  Mare,  the  hero  of  the 
Commons,  was  seized  by  those  whom  he  had  brought  to 
justice,  and  flung  into  prison,  without  trial,  at  Nottingham 
Castle.  It  was  even  reported  that  the  Duke  would  have 
taken  his  life,  had  not  his  new  ally.  Lord  Percy,  inter- 
vened.^ Percy's  influence  was  no  doubt  of  a  moderating 
character.  He  could  not  for  very  shame  consent  to  butcher 
in  the  autumn  the  colleagues  with  whom  he  had  worked 
in  the  summer.  The  shrewd  Northerner  knew  well  enough 
that  his  interest  might  soon  require  him  to  desert  the 
cause  of  Lancaster,  as  he  had  deserted  the  cause  of 
England,  and  he  shrank  from  incurring  unnecessary  odium 
with  the  popular  party  whom  he  might  once  more  wish  to 
lead.  It  is  not  therefore  surprising  to  find  that,  unblushing 
as  was  the  violence  used  against  the  constitution  and  the 
expressed  will  of  the  Commons,  no  blood  was  shed  during 
these  months  of  reaction. 

Another  chronicler,  less  prejudiced  against  John  of  Gaunt, 
though  generally  less  well  informed,  asserts  that  it  was  the 
Duke  himself  who  saved  De  la  Mare  from  the  death  meditated 
against  him  by  Alice  Perrers.^  The  flimsy  nature  of  the 
securities  against  this  woman's  return  had  already  become 
evident.  She  had  not  been  sent  out  of  the  country,  but 
she  had  sworn  to  keep  away  from  Court.  As  soon  as 
her   friends  returned   to   power,  she   resumed  her  place   by 

»  Ckron.  Aug.,  108.  ^  Ihid.  105.  ^  j^^^_  392-3. 


1376  EEACTION  IN  FULL  FLOOD  33 

the  King.  The  Bishops,  who  had  undertaken  in  Parliament 
to  excommunicate  her  if  she  broke  her  oath,  allowed  her  to 
return  uncensured.  Sudbury,  whose  special  duty  it  was  to 
denounce  her,  was  not  the  man  to  take  so  bold  a  step  of  his 
own  initiative ;  while  Courtenay,  whose  conduct  was  never 
tinged  with  cowardice  or  irresolution,  had  probably  not  yet 
discovered  how  necessary  it  was  to  force  the  hand  of  his 
superior,  if  the  Church  was  to  take  decided  action.  Sir 
Eichard  Stury,  who  had  had  the  remarkable  interview  with 
the  dying  Prince,  also  returned  to  the  King.  Under  such 
influences  Edward  declared  the  Good  Parliament  to  be  no 
Parliament.^  As  all  its  acts  were  cancelled,  the  Statute-book 
bears  no  trace  of  the  greatest  assembly  of  the  period.  These 
events  demonstrate  how  powerless  the  Commons  were  to 
provide  for  the  government  of  England,  except  during  those 
months  of  each  year  in  which  they  were  actually  sitting. 
It  was  necessary  for  them,  if  they  were  to  impress  their 
policy  permanently  on  the  administration,  to  be  in  alliance 
either  with  the  King  or  with  a  combination  of  the  greater 
lords.  In  the  Black  Prince  they  might  have  found  such  a 
King ;  in  Henry  the  Fourth  and  his  son  their  ideal  was 
realised,  and  an  understanding  between  Crown  and  Commons 
effected.  But  an  unselfish  and  patriotic  group  of  nobles, 
on  whom  they  could  rely,  they  never  found.  The  Earls 
had  gone  with  the  tide  of  the  Good  Parliament,  but  now 
March  alone  stood  firm  in  the  day  of  trouble.  Percy,  Arundel, 
Stafford,  all  proved  false  or  timid.  It  was  the  want  of 
political  principle  on  the  part  of  the  nobility  that  destroyed 
mediaeval  Parliamentary  government,  and  plunged  England 
into  the  Wars  of  the  Eoses,  where  the  power  of  the  nobles 
perished  as  it  deserved. 


Although  the  Duke's  friends  were  again  in  power,  they 
still  stood  publicly  convicted  of  corruption  and  misgovern- 
ment.  As  it  was  impossible  to  clear  themselves  of  this 
charge,  they  not  unnaturally  sought  to  convict  their  enemies 
of  similar  misconduct,  and  so  divide  the  opprobrium.     It  was 

>  Ckro7i.  Aug.,  103-5  ;  Wals.,  i.  322. 

D 


34  POLITICS  1376-7 

always  John  of  Gaunt's  object  to  accentuate  the  ever-existing 
quarrel  between  the  Commons  and  the  Church,  who  were  now 
in  temporary  alliance  against  him.     If  he  could  show  that  the 
Episcopal  ministers  who  had  been  turned  out  by  the  Parlia- 
ment of  1371  had  been  as  corrupt  as  their  successors,  Lord 
Latimer  and  Eichard  Lyons,  he  would  at  once  raise  the  feeling 
of  the  laity  against  the  Church  and  cover  his  own  faults 
behind   those  of   his   adversaries.     A  great  Council   sat   in 
October  and  November   1376,  before  which   the   Bishop  of 
Winchester   was  tried  on  charges   of   corruption   and   mis- 
management during  his  Chancellorship  ten  years  back.     The 
Bishop,  who  had  taken  a  chief  part  in  the  prosecution  of  Lord 
Latimer,^  and  had  been  one  of  the  Council  of   State  elected 
by  the  Commons   to  supersede   the   Duke,  was  particularly 
obnoxious  to  those  in  power,  and  proportionately  popular  in 
the  country.     Detailed  charges  were  now  brought  against  him 
of  peculation  and  public  robbery,  which,  if  they  had  been 
proved,  would  have  put  him  on  a  level  of  rascality  with  the 
worst  victims  of  the  Good  Parliament.     The  evidence  that  we 
possess  about  the  conduct  and  result  of  the  trial  is  so  dubious 
and  obscure  that  the  question  of  his  guilt  must  remain  unde- 
cided.    By  standing  on  his  episcopal  privileges  he  prevented 
judgment  against  his  person,  but  as  '  many  points  had  been 
proved  against  him  which  he  could  not  deny,  the  lords  of  the 
Council,  with  the  King's  assent,  seized   and   took  away  his 
temporalities  to  the  King's  pleasure.     And  they  hunted  the 
said  Bishop  from  place  to  place  both  by  letters  and  by  writs, 
so  that  no  man  could  succour  him  throughout  his  diocese, 
neither  could  he,  neither  durst  he  rest  in  any  place  ;  and 
therefore  he  then  brake  up  his  household  and  scattered  his 
men  and  dismissed  them,  for  he  could  no  longer  govern  and 
maintain  them,  sending  also  to  Oxford,  where  upon  alms  and 
for   God's  sake   he   found  sixty  scholars,  that  they  should 
depart  and  remove  every  one  to  their  friends,  for  he  could 
no   longer   help   or   find   them ;    and   so   they   all   departed 
in  great  sorrow  and   discomfort,   weeping   and   with  simple 
cheer.'  ^ 

'  Chron.  Aug.,  Ixxii. 
2  Ibid.  Ixxiv-lxxx  ;  Fosd.,  iv.  12-15  ;  Chron.  Ang.,  p.  106. 


1376  UNPOPULAEITY  OP  EDWAED  III.  35 

Whatever  things  were  or  were  not  proved  against  William 
of  Wykeham,  his  enemies  did  not  succeed  in  turning  public 
opinion  against  him.  Whatever  he  had  done  had  been  done 
nearly  ten  years  back,  and  the  Lancastrian  party  only  now 
revived  the  past  in  order  to  divert  attention  from  their  own 
later  misdeeds.  Popular  sympathy  coupled  together,  as 
martyrs  of  the  popular  cause,  Wykeham,  wandering  homeless 
through  his  bishopric  like  Lear  through  his  kingdom,  and  the 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  fast  in  the  dungeons 
of  Nottingham  Castle.^  The  Bishops,  during  the  next  few 
months,  rose  to  a  height  of  popularity  with  the  Londoners 
which  they  never  attained  again.  Church  questions  were  tem- 
porarily forgotten  in  political  agitation  against  the  tyranny 
and  injustice  of  the  Duke.  The  old  King  took  his  full  share 
in  the  unpopularity  of  his  ambitious  son.  Edward  the  Third 
had  dismissed  the  Council  elected  by  Parliament  and  destroyed 
the  work  of  the  Commons.  His  disreputable  connection  with 
Alice  Perrers  had  become  odious  by  the  political'use  that  lady 
made  of  her  influence.  The  feelings  of  anger  and  dislike  with 
which  his  subjects  iregarded  their  once  glorious  and  popular 
monarch  are  recorded  in  a  contemporary  work  of  great  in- 
terest. William  Langland,  the  Malvern  poet,  had  in  1362 
brought  out  the  first  edition  of  '  Piers  Plowman.'  The  success 
of  that  extraordinary  and  fascinating  work,  and  the  wide 
diffusion  of  its  ideas  and  imagery  among  the  lower  and  middle 
classes,  may  be  compared  to  the  success  of  another  work 
very  similar  in  spirit,  '  The  Pilgrim's  Progress '  of  Bunyan. 
Langland  spent  the  rest  of  his  life  in  bringing  out  one  edition 
after  another,  with  many  new  cantos  and  fresh  passages. 
Among  other  incidents  added  about  1377,  we  find  a  fable, 
comparing  the  Commons  to  an  assembly  of  mice  and  rats  who 
are  consulting  how  to  bell  the  cat,  the  old  King  Edward,  who 
is  at  perpetual  war  with  them.  But  the  poet  warns  the 
Commons  that  even  worse  times  will  come  when  the  old  cat 
dies,  and  the  kitten,  Eichard  the  Second,  is  King  ;  for  there 
will  then  be  no  one  to  keep  order,  and  the  horrors  of  anarchy 
will  be  let  loose  on  the  land.^ 

Before  leaving  London  for   Christmas  festivities  in  the 

1  Chron.  Aug.,  126.  "-  P.  PI.,  B,  Prol.,  145-207. 

D  2 


^ 


36  y  POLITICS  1376-7 

/ 

country,  the  Duke  and  his  new  ally,  Lord  Percy,  had  held 

deep  consultations  over  the  plan  of  action  to  be  adopted.^ 
The  meagre  grant  of  the  Commons  had  been  duly  collected  in 
September,  and  money  had  again  to  be  demanded  of  a  fresh 
Parliament.  They  determined  on  making  certain  concessions 
to  public  opinion,  in  view  of  the  necessity  of  holding  a  Parlia- 
ment in  January.  In  the  first  place,  the  Treasury  and  Chan- 
cery were  put  into  the  hands  of  two  Bishops.^  The  mere  fact 
of  bringing  churchmen  into  the  ministry  at  all,  was  a  sign  of 
weakness,  a  reversal  of  the  principle  laid  down  in  1371,  a 
peace  offering  to  Convocation,  which  assembled  at  St.  Paul's 
a  few  weeks  later.  An  attempt  was  also  made  to  eradi- 
cate from  the  popular  mind  the  impression  that  those  in 
power  were  disloyal  to  the  young  Prince  Eichard.  The  con- 
fiscated temporalities  of  the  Bishopric  of  Winchester  were 
made  over  to  him,  and  the  King  was  induced  to  allow  his 
grandson  and  heir  to  open  the  Parliament,  which  he  himself 
was  too  ill  to  attend.^ 

Besides  a  few  cheap  concessions,  the  ministers  took  more 
effectual  measures  to  prevent  a  repetition  of  the  scenes 
of  last  summer.  The  knights  and  gentry  of  the  counties 
were  the  class  of  whom  the  present  Government  had  most 
cause  to  be  afraid.  But  the  Crown  had  always  a  check  on 
their  action.  The  sheriff  of  each  shire  was  an  officer 
appointed  by  the  ministers  at  Westminster.  Now  the  lack  of 
any  clearly  defined  statute  law  about  the  election  and  return 
of  members  of  the  Commons  enabled  the  sheriff  either  to 
summon  only  such  electors  as  he  thought  fit,  or  to  return  his 
own  nominee  as  duly  elected  when  no  election  had  taken 
place.'*  In  January  1377,  John  of  Gaunt  and  his  allies  suc- 
ceeded in  tampering  with  the  returns  so  effectually  that  a 
House  of  Commons  was  sent  up  of  a  very  different  political 
complexion  from  the  last.  The  statement  of  the  chronicler, 
which  reflects  the  general  opinion  of  the  time  and  is  more 
than  confirmed  by  other  evidence,  runs  as  follows :  '  The 
Duke  had  obtained  knights  of  the  counties  of  his  own  choosing. 

'   Gliron.  Aug.,  109.  "'  Feed.,  iii.  1069. 

3  Ibid.  iii.  1070,  1075  ;  Bot.  Pari,  ii.  361. 
*  St.,  iii.  427-37  ;  Bot.  Pari.,  ii.  355. 


Jan.  1377  THE   PACKED  PAELIAMENT  37 

For  all  who  in  the  last  Parliament  had  played  the  man  for 
the  common  weal,  he  procured,  so  far  as  he  could,  to  be 
removed,  so  that  there  were  not  of  them  in  this  Parliament 
more  than  twelve,  whom  the  Duke  was  not  able  to  remove 
because  the  counties  for  which  they  were  elected  refused  to 
choose  others.'  ^ 

On  January  27  this  packed  Parliament  met.  The  tone  of 
the  majority  was  soon  tested  by  the  question  of  choosing 
a  Speaker.  Sir  Thomas  Hungerford,  the  new  member  for 
Wiltshire,  the  Duke's  seneschal,  was  elected.  This  proceeding 
seems  to  have  aroused  in  the  minds  of  the  few  veterans  of 
the  last  assembly  the  thought  of  their  old  chief,  Peter  de  la 
Mare,  now  lying  in  Nottingham  Castle.  They  challenged  his 
illegal  imprisonment,  and  demanded  his  trial ;  but  their  voices 
were  overborne  by  the  majority,  and  they  were  forced  to  be 
silent.  Alarmed,  possibly,  by  this  attempted  revolt,  the 
Duke  determined  to  crush  all  further  murmurs  on  the  part  of 
the  minority  by  associating  with  the  sessions  of  the  Commons 
a  committee  of  Lords  from  his  own  party.  He  thus  turned 
against  the  independence  of  the  Lower  House  the  very  means 
which  it  had  used  so  successfully  for  its  own  protection  the 
year  before.  Percy,  Warwick  and  Stafford  had  shared  the 
counsels  of  the  Commons  in  the  Good  Parliament  as  asso- 
ciated Lords  ;  they  now  were  not  ashamed  to  appear  in 
the  Chapter  House,  in  the  same  capacity,  but  in  the  opposite 
interest.^ 

On  February  3,  about  a  week  after  the  opening  of  Parlia- 
ment at  Westminster,  Convocation  had  met  at  St.  Paul's  in 
London.  The  Bishops  had  seats  in  this  assembly  in  their 
spiritual  capacity,  as  well  as  in  the  House  of  Lords,  where 
they  sat  in  virtue  of  the  baronies  attached  to  their  bishoprics. 
Yet  here,  where  they  stood  on  their  own  ground  and  among 
their  own  people,  they  showed  less  political  energy  than 
in  the  House  of  Lords.  Convocation  always  voted  the 
money  demanded  of  it  with  little  remonstrance  or  delay  ; 
unlike  the  Commons,  the  clergy  seldom  withheld  the  grant  in 

*  Chron.  Aug.,  112.  There  were  really  only  eight  knights  of  the  last 
Parliament  re-elected.    Bl.  B.,  193-7. 

■^  Chron.  Ang.,  112-3  ;  BoL  Pari,  ii.  363-4. 


38  POLITICS  1376-7 

order  to  bring  forward  grievances.  They  knew  that  the 
Church  was  so  unpopular  and  her  riches  so  envied,  that  they 
must  consent  to  heavy  taxation  as  the  only  alternative  to 
wholesale  confiscation.  But  in  this  one  Parliament  of 
February  1377,  the  popular  sympathy  was  so  strongly  with 
them  in  their  resistance  to  the  common  enemy,  John  of 
Gaunt,  that  they  took  the  unusual  step  of  refusing  supplies 
till  grievances  were  redressed.  The  grievance  that  especially 
concerned  the  Church  was  the  persecution  of  William  of 
Wykeham.  The  Bishops  positively  refused  to  proceed  with 
business  till  he  appeared  among  them.  Although  he  had 
received  a  summons  to  Convocation,  he  had  been  prohibited 
by  the  King  from  coming  to  London,  an  injunction  which  he 
could  not  venture  to  disobey  without  special  orders  from  the 
Primate.  To  issue  such  a  mandate  in  the  face  of  the  royal 
authority  and  the  displeasure  of  the  Lancastrian  party  was 
the  last  thing  that  Sudbury  would  have  done  if  left  to  himself, 
but  such  pressure  was  put  upon  him  by  Courtenay,  backed 
by  the  other  Bishops,  that  he  finally  consented  to  summon 
Wykeham,  in  order  that  the  proceedings  might  begin.  The 
late  comer  was  received  among  his  colleagues  with  ever}^  sign 
of  respect  and  rejoicing,  and  a  petition  was  sent  ujj  by  Convo- 
cation remonstrating  against  the  usage  he  had  received.  The 
cry  of  the  populace  was  still  that  he  had  not  had  a  full  trial, 
a  complaint  which  was  partly  admitted  by  his  adversaries 
when  the  King  promised  him  a  day  in  the  Hilary  term 
on  which  his  case  should  be  again  heard.^  Unfortunately 
the  promise  was  never  kept,  and  a  curtain  of  doubt  must 
hang  for  ever  round  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  this  famous 
man. 

Encouraged  by  this  success,  the  Bishops  took  another  step, 
which  amounted  in  its  political  aspect  to  a  defiance  of  John  of 
Gaunt.  They  summoned  John  WyclifTe  to  appear  before  them 
at  St.  Paul's  to  answer  the  charge  of  heresy. 

The  Pope  had  no  hand  in  this  first  attack  on  his  great 
enemy .^  The  English  Bishops  were  acting  entirely  on  their 
own  initiative,  to  defend  the  Church  in  England  against  a 

>  St.,  ii.   458,  note   5 ;   Foed.,  iii,  1069  ;    Chron.   Aug.,   114 ;    Rot.  Pari., 
ii.  373,  sec.  85.  -  See  Ap. 


1377  PEOPOSALS  FOE  DISENDOWMENT  39 

political  movement  to  confiscate  her  property.  This  movement, 
in  its  primary  stage  of  discontent  at  the  wealth  and  abuses  of 
the  Church,  may  be  traced  farther  back  in  the  history  of  the 
century,  but  it  had  been  for  the  first  time  brought  into  the 
region  of  practical  politics  by  the  support  of  John  of  Gaunt 
and  his  party.     In  1371  the  lines  on  which  the  struggle  was 
to  be  fought  had  been  laid  down.     The  Bishops  had  been  then 
turned  out  of  lay  office  on  the  ground  that  they  were  church- 
men, the  Church  had  been  heavily  taxed,  and  bold  words  had 
passed  among  the  Lords,  declaring  the  right  of  those  whose 
ancestors  had  enriched  her  to  take  back  their  charity  when 
she  abused  it.^     The  nobility  and  gentry  had  a  certain  natural 
right  to  the  endowments  if  any  scheme  of  confiscation  was 
carried  out.      The  enormous  wealth  of  religious  bodies  at  this 
period  was  the  result  of  a  custom  which  had  been  in  use  for 
many  centuries,  and  was    still  in  vogue   in   Wycliffe's  day, 
of  bequeathing  land  or  money  to  monasteries,  churches,  and 
chapels,  to  secure  the  repetition  of  masses  for  the  soul  of  the 
donor.      The  wills  of  the  period  ^  show  that  numbers  of  lords 
and   gentlemen,    even  at  the  height  of   the   Lollard   move- 
ment,   died   leaving   something   to   the   clergy  for  the  good 
of   their  souls.      Not   only,  therefore,   was   the   memory   of 
many  grants  to  the  Church  quite  fresh,  but  the  process  of  en- 
dowment was  still  going  on  actively.    In  case  of  disendowment, 
an  Earl  or  a  Knight  would  of  course  put  in  his  claim  for  lands 
or  money  of  which  he  had  been  deprived  by  his  grandfather's 
piety  or  his  father's  fears  of  purgatory.     Even  to  the  most 
democratic  supporters  of  secularisation,  this  scheme  was  the 
only  one  that  suggested  itself  as  possible.     '  Take  their  lands, 
ye  lords,'  wrote  the  high-souled  and  visionary  author  of  '  Piers 
Plowman.'  ^     Wycliffe  himself  saw  no  other  plan  except  the 
restitution  of  the  endowments  to  the  classes  that  had  enriched 
the  Church,  but  he  hoped  that  such  a  restitution  would  relieve 
the  pressure  of  taxation  on  the  poor.^     The  idea  of  using  the 
original  endowments  immediately  for  public  objects,  such  as 

*  Fasc.  Z.,  xxi. 

^  Test.   Vet. ;    Test.   Ebor.   (Camden) ;    Inquisitiones   ad    quod  damnum, 
Calendar.  •''  P.  PI,  C,  xviii.  227. 

*  Fasc.  Z.,  268  ;  Trialogus,  iv.  cap.  xix ;  De  Bias.,  56,  198-9,  270-1. 


40  POLITICS  1376-7 

education,  occurred  to  no  one  at  this  period.  In  all  the 
literature  on  this  great  subject  it  is  impossible  to  find  a  pro- 
posal to  endow  schools  or  colleges  out  of  the  property  of  the 
Church.  Even  two  centuries  later,  John  Knox  was  told  by  the 
Eegent  Murray  that  such  a  scheme  was  a  '  devout  imagination,' 
and  if  John  Wycliffe  had  made  the  suggestion  to  the  Duke  of 
Lancaster,  it  would  have  seemed  still  more  absurd  to  him. 
But,  although  there  was  no  proposal  to  devote  the  money 
directly  to  public  ends,  the  Eeformers  argued  that  the 
State  would  be  as  much  benefited  as  the  Church,  if  some  of 
the  vast  wealth  of  the  ecclesiastics  passed  into  the  hands 
of  lay  proprietors.  '  Secular  lordships,  that  clerks  have  full 
falsely  against  God's  law  and  spend  them  so  wickedly,  shulden 
be  given  by  the  King  and  witty  (wise)  lords  to  poor  gentlemen, 
that  wolden  justly  govern  the  people,  and  maintain  the  land 
against  enemies.  And  then  might  our  land  be  stronger  by 
many  thousand  men  of  arms  than  it  is  now,  without  any  new 
cost  of  lords,  or  tallage  of  the  poor  commons,  and  be  discharged 
of  great  heavy  rent,  and  wicked  customs  brought  up  by 
covetous  clerks,  and  of  many  talliages  and  extorsions,  by 
which  they  be  now  cruelly  pilled  and  robbed.'  ^ 

There  was  much  truth  in  this  argument.  The  clergy  had 
an  undue  quantity  of  the  wealth  and  land  of  the  country  in 
their  hands.  It  was  difficult  to  tax  any  of  it  fully  ;  for  the 
Papal  Court  was  carrying  on  a  rival  system  of  taxation  on 
Church  lands,  which  made  it  impossible  that  they  should 
pay  their  full  duty  to  the  State.  The  wealth  of  the  friars 
might  not  be  taxed  at  all.  Meanwhile  the  spiritual  courts,  by 
extorting  money  from  the  laity,  rendered  still  poorer  the  only 
part  of  the  population  that  was  fully  taxable.  It  is  not,  there- 
fore to  be  wondered  at,  that  when  bad  times  and  war-taxation 
began  to  bring  general  distress  on  all  classes,  the  grievances 
of  the  State  against  the  Church  should  come  to  the  front. 

But  there  is  a  weakness  in  Wycliffe's  proposal.  If,  as  he 
suggests,  the  '  King  and  witty  lords  '  were  to  distribute  ecclesi- 
astical property  among  lay  proprietors,  '  witty  lords,'  such  as 
John  of  Gaunt  and  Lord  Percy,  would  be  far  more  likely  to  keep 
the  monastic  and  episcopal  estates  for  themselves  than  to  give 

'  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  216-7. 


1377  PEOPOSALS  EOE   DISENDOWMENT  41 

them  to  '  poor  gentlemen.'  If  there  had  been  any  secmity 
that  the  class  of  '  poor  gentlemen  '  and  knights  would  have 
been  endowed  and  strengthened  by  the  scheme,  nothing  could 
have  been  better  for  English  society  as  it  then  was.  But  un- 
fortunately the  political  machinery  at  Westminster  made  it 
almost  certain  that  the  nobles,  who  alone  were  strong  enough 
to  touch  the  Church,  were  strong  enough  also  to  take  the  lion's 
share  of  the  spoils.  The  estates  of  the  House  of  Lancaster 
and  those  of  a  dozen  other  great  princes  and  nobles  would 
have  been  doubled,  and  the  troubles  through  which  England 
passed  with  such  difficulty  in  the  next  century  would  have 
been  proportionately  increased.  If  there  was  any  evil  that 
was  as  great  a  danger  to  England  as  the  preponderating  power 
of  the  clergy,  it  was  the  preponderating  power  of  the  nobility. 
If  either  had  been  much  increased,  even  at  the  expense  of  the 
other,  the  Tudors  might  have  found  it  impossible  to  save  the 
Commons  from  the  social  bondage  under  which  they  laboured 
in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries. 

Although  it  is  not  likely  that  all  these  arguments  occurred 
to  men's  minds  at  the  time,  it  was  clearly  a  suspicious  cir- 
cumstance that  John  of  Gaunt  had  made  the  scheme  of 
disendowment  peculiarly  his  own.  It  appears  to  have  been 
his  design,  in  these  last  months  of  Edward  the  Third's  reign,  to 
establish  his  party  firmly  at  Westminster  by  methods  however 
violent  and  unpopular,  and  then  to  regain  popular  esteem  as 
the  champion  of  the  laity  against  the  clergy.^  The  distribu- 
tion of  even  a  small  fraction  of  the  Church  lands  would  have 
bound  many  to  his  party,  and  the  mere  prospect  of  it  had 
probably  had  some  effect  already.  Such,  it  appears,  was  his 
ambition  ;  the  plan  was  never  actually  put  forward  in  the 
shape  of  bills  before  Parliament,  but  it  has  come  down  to  us 
through  the  evidence  of  the  monastic  chroniclers  on  one  side 
and  Wycliffe  on  the  other.  The  policy  is  not  unlike  that 
attributed  by  their  enemies  to  the  great  Whig  lords  at  the 
close  of  the  Stuart  period,  when  they  were  accused  of  the 
attempt  to  erect  their  personal  supremacy  on  the  ruins  of 
the  Established  Church. 

Lord  Percy  had  fully  entered  into  this  part  of  the  Duke's 

'  Ghron.  Aug.,  115.     '  Interea  non  ....  laboravit.' 


42  POLITICS  1376-7 

f 

plan.  These  two  men  were  now  the  rulers  of  England,  and, 
durmg  the  months  of  their  supremacy,  they  lent  their  patron- 
age to  Wycliffe.  From  its  purely  political  aspect,  the  alliance 
was  much  like  that  of  Oxford  and  Bolingbroke  with  Swift.  In 
each  case  a  pair  of  ambitious  politicians  wished  to  persuade 
the  nation  that  a  certain  policy  was  desirable,  and  in  each 
case  they  used  for  this  purpose  a  man  supreme  in  the  arts  of 
persuasion  and  debate.  In  the  days  of  Edward  the  Third  theo- 
logical argument  in  Latin  and  popular  preaching  in  English 
were  weapons  as  uniquely  formidable  as  pamphleteering  in  the 
days  of  Queen  Anne.  If  Swift  carried  the  art  of  pamphleteer- 
ing to  perfection, IWycliffe  was  at  once  the  greatest  schoolman 
and  the  greatest  English  preacher  of  his  day.  By  the  subtle 
but  wearisome  methods  of  late  mediaeval  dialectic,  he  was  able 
to  recommend  to  the  Oxford  students  new  views  on  religion 
and  society,  which  must  in  reality  have  grown  up  in  his 
mind  by  a  process  more  like  intuition  ;  nor  was  he  less  for- 
midable when  in  the  pulpit  he  preached  to  all  classes  the 
doctrines  which  he  had  first  put  into  shape  for  the  learned. 
Such,  viewed  as  a  political  force,  was  John  Wycliffe,  and 
as  such  he  was,  for  a  few  years,  patronised  by  these  states- 
men, who  had  approached  some  of  his  conclusions  from  a 
very  different  standpoint  and  with  far  less  disinterested 
motives^^ 

Wycliffe  had  some  years  before  published  in  his  '  De 
Dominio  Civili '  an  elaborate  scholastic  argument  for  the 
secularisation  of  Church  property.  His  light  was  not  hid 
under  a  bushel,  for  he  was  aclmowledged  to  be  the  greatest 
theological  scholar  and  thinker  in  a  centre  of  learning  and 
thought  which  has  no  parallel  in  importance  to-day.  Men 
went  to  and  from  Oxford  and  carried  with  them  from  the 
lecture-room  to  the  country  the  ideas  which  moulded  religion, 
politics,  and  society.  There  were  indeed  two  Universities,  but 
there  was  only  one  Oxford ;  and  at  this  time  Wycliffe  reigned 
there  supreme.  From  there  his  opinions  had  emanated  over 
the  country,  and  from  there  John  of  Gaunt  and  Lord  Percy 
invited  him  up  to  London  to  preach  for  the  cause  of  disen- 
dowment  in  the  churches  of  the  City.^ 

'  Chron.  Aug.,  116-7. 


Feb.  1377  WYGLIFFE'S  FIEST   TEIAL  43 

Wycliffe  made  the  best  use  of  this  opportunity.  He 
formed  a  body  of  su^jporters  among  the  citizens  of  the  capital, 
and  among  the  nobility  of  the  Court  he  found  ready  listeners.^ 
He  passed  from  church  to  church  in  London  and  the  neigh- 
bourhood, preaching  everywhere  what  laymen  had  long  been 
thinking,  but  had  never  yet  heard  proclaimed  with  such 
boldness,  or  defended  with  such  learning  and  subtlety.  It 
was  impossible  for  the  Bishops  and  clergy  of  all  England, 
assembled  in  the  city  for  Convocation,  to  allow  their  authority 
to  be  defied  with  such  publicity,  while  they  sat  still  and 
debated  of  other  matters.  Least  of  all  was  it  possible  for  so 
proud  and  fierce  a  man  as  Courtenay  to  hear  himself  and  his 
order  attacked  in  his  own  diocese,  and  in  his  own  churches, 
by  an  unauthorised  priest  from  Oxford.  Again  Archbishop 
Sudbury  attempted  to  avoid  action ;  again  his  hand  was 
forced  by  his  subordinates.^  He  reluctantly  consented  to 
summon  Wycliffe  before  him  at  St.  Paul's. 

On  February  19  the  Bishops  assembled  in  the  Lady 
Chapel  behind  the  altar  and  waited  for  the  accused  to  appear. 
The  London  mob  crowded  the  whole  length  of  the  aisle,  up 
which  the  prisoner  had  to  pass  from  the  main  entrance. 
The  personal  feelings  of  the  Londoners  towards  Wycliffe  were 
not  those  of  aversion,  and  a  year  later,  they  broke  in  on 
such  another  tribunal  to  rescue  him  from  the  Bishops.  But 
London  was  now  thinking  not  of  Wycliffe,  but  of  John  of 
Gaunt.  The  political  existence  of  the  great  city  was  that 
week  in  fearful  danger.  The  ministers  had,  in  the  name  of 
the  King,  introduced  into  Parliament  then  sitting  at  West- 
minster a  bill  framed  to  take  the  government  of  London 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  Mayor  and  put  it  into  the  hands  of 
the  King's  Marshal,  who  was  at  present  represented  by  Lord 
Percy.  The  measure  was  in  the  hands  of  Percy  himself,  and 
of  Thomas  of  Woodstock,  the  younger  brother  and  friend  of 
John  of  Gaunt,  who  had  just  come  of  age,  and  now,  for  the 
-first  time,  appeared  in  the  political  arena .^  If  the  bill  had 
been  passed,  if,  which  was  far  more  difficult,  it  had  been 
enforced,  the  lives  and  liberties  of  the  citizens  would  have 
been  at  the  mercy  of  the  ministers,  the  support  of  London 
'  Chron.  Aug.,  116.  ^  Ibid.  117.  '  Ibid.  120-1. 


44  POLITICS  1376-7 

would  have  been  removed  for  ever  from  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  the  dread  of  London  from  the  evildoers  at  the 
Court  of  Westminster.  It  may  be  presumed  that  citizens  that 
day  were  thinking  of  matters  that  concerned  them  more 
nearly  than  the  merits  of  the  prisoner  and  his  judges. 

Wycliffe  arrived  at  the  door  of  the  great  Cathedral  and 
moved  slowly  up  the  crowded  aisle  which  boasted  to  be  the 
longest  in  Christendom.  Four  friars  from  Oxford,  each  re- 
presenting one  of  their  four  orders,  came  with  him  to  defend 
his  doctrines.  But  the  prisoner  was  not  supported  by  logic 
and  learning  alone.  By  his  side  walked  the  great  Duke ;  in 
front  strode  the  King's  Marshal,  the  Northern  lord  who 
proposed  to  administer  border-law  in  the  streets  of  London. 
With  all  the  pride  of  a  Percy,  he  pushed  the  merchants  and 
prentices  to  right  and  left,  to  make  room  for  his  patron  and 
his  strange  friend.  Considering  the  circumstances  of  the 
case,  and  the  violence  which  the  Londoners  so  often  displayed, 
it  is  more  wonderful  that  the  noblemen  returned  to  West- 
minster alive,  than  that  the  mob  forgot  for  the  time  their 
favour  to  Wycliffe  and  his  doctrine.  Courtenay,  Bishop  of 
London,  who  appears  to  have  been  in  the  aisle  as  the  proces- 
sion moved  up  it,  angrily  rebuked  Lord  Percy  for  mishand- 
ling his  flock,  declaring  that  he  would  never  have  admitted 
them  into  the  church  if  he  had  known  that  they  were 
going  to  behave  in  this  manner.  The  Duke  answered  that 
they  would  do  as  they  pleased,  whether  the  Bishop  liked  it 
or  not. 

They  had  now  reached  the  Lady  Chapel  where  the  con- 
clave was  sitting.  The  Duke  and  Lord  took  chairs  for  them- 
selves, and  Percy  bade  Wycliffe  be  seated  :  '  Since  you  have 
much  to  reply,  you  will  need  all  the  softer  seat.'  Courtenay, 
whose  hot  blood  had  been  already  stirred  by  the  insolence  the 
men  had  shown  at  their  entry,  cried  out  that  the  suggestion 
was  impertinent,  and  that  the  accused  should  stand  to  give 
his  answers.  The  two  nobles  swore  that  he  should  sit ; 
Courtenay,  taking  the  proceedings  out  of  the  hands  of  Arch- 
bishop Sudbury,  who  was  glad  enough  to  sit  quiet,  insisted 
that  the  prisoner  should  stand.  The  Duke,  finding  he  could 
not  carry  the  point,  broke  out  into  abuse  and  threats.     He 


Feb.  1377  EIOT  IN   ST.   PAUL'S  45 

would  bring  down  the  pride  of  all  the  Bishops  of  England ; 
Courtenay  need  not  trust  in  his  parents  the  Earl  and  Countess 
of  Devon,  for  they  would  have  enough  to  do  to  take  care  of 
themselves.  The  Bishop  made  the  obvious  answer  that  he 
trusted  in  God  and  not  in  his  high  connections.  The  Duke,  it 
was  afterwards  asserted,  muttered  to  his  attendants  some 
threat  of  dragging  him  out  by  the  hair  of  his  head.  The 
next  moment  the  Londoners  had  broken  in  on  the  proceedings 
with  wild  cries  of  vengeance,  and  a  general  melee  ensued 
between  the  citizens  and  the  Duke's  guard.  The  assembly 
broke  up  in  confusion,  and  the  prisoner  was  carried  off  by  his 
supporters,  whether  in  triumph  or  in  retreat  it  was  hard  to 
tell.  Of  Wycliffe's  share  in  the  proceedings  it  can  only  be  ^ 
asserted  that  he  made  no  noticeable  interference,  and  that  he  ,' 
lost  no  popularity  in  London  on  account  of  the  events  of  that 
day.  What  he  thought  of  it  all  we  can  never  even  guess. 
Whether  he  had  wished  the  Duke  to  accompany  him  must 
remain  a  mystery.  He  does  not  mention  the  scene  in  any  of 
his  works,  though  he  speaks  much  of  his  later  persecutions. 
In  the  roaring  crowd  of  infuriated  lords,  bishops  and  citizens, 
he  stood  silent,  and  stands  silent  still, ^ 

The  next  day  the  principal  Londoners  met  together  to 
consider  their  position.  It  was  necessary  to  decide  on  some 
course  of  action,  for  the  quarrel  between  Court  and  City  had 
been  accentuated  by  the  disgraceful  scene  in  St.  Paul's,  and 
the  bill  for  the  destruction  of  their  liberties  was  being  rapidly 
pushed  through  the  subservient  Houses  of  Parliament. 
Suddenly  Lord  Bryan  and  Lord  Fitzwalter,  the  latter  one  of 
the  Duke's  supporters  among  the  lesser  peers,  intruded  them- 
selves into  the  conclave  of  anxious  citizens.  So  high  did 
feeling  run  that  the  mob,  watching  the  proceedings  of  the 
Council,  could  scarcely  be  restrained  from  tearing  the  new 
comers  to  pieces.  It  soon  appeared,  however,  that  the  two  Lords 
had  come  on  a  friendly  mission.  They  were  themselves 
citizens  of  London  holding  large  property  within  its  liberties, 
and  Fitzwalter  was  unwilling  to  see  his  rights  trampled  under 
foot,  even  by  his  own  leader,  John  of  Gaunt.  They  had  come 
to  warn  the  meeting  that  Lord  Percy,  without  waiting  for  the 

'  Chron.  Aug.,  118-21. 


46  POLITICS  1376-7 

passage  of  the  bill,  had  already  assumed  the  functions  of 
magistrate  in  London  by  imprisoning  a  man  in  the  official 
residence  of  the  Marshal.  The  principal  citizens,  snatching 
up  their  arms,  rushed  to  the  house,  broke  in  the  doors,  released 
the  prisoner,  flung  the  stocks  in  which  he  had  been  fastened 
into  the  middle  of  the  streets,  and  made  them  into  a  bonfire. 
Lord  Percy  was  sought  under  every  bed,  and  in  every  corner 
and  closet  in  his  house.  If  he  had  been  found  he  would  never 
have  lived  to  be  made  immortal  by  Border  poetry,  but 
would  have  perished  miserably  at  the  hands  of  mechanics  and 
retailers. 

Fortunately  he  was  dining  with  the  Duke  in  another  house 
in  the  city.  A  messenger,  wild  with  fear  and  haste,  burst  in  on 
the  feasters  and  told  them  to  fly  for  their  lives.  As  they  leapt  up, 
John  of  Gaunt  struck  his  knee  severely  against  the  table.  They 
hurried  down  to  the  river,  took  boat  and  crossed  to  Kenning- 
ton  Palace,  where  the  Black  Prince  had  died,  and  where  his 
widow  still  kept  house.  She  received  them  as  refugees,  as 
indeed  they  were.  Nothing  but  fear  of  death  could  have 
driven  the  Duke  to  take  shelter  with  the  widow  of  the  Black 
Prince. 

They  had  done  well  to  cross  the  river ;  no  place  on  the 
north  bank  was  safe.  The  mob,  now  quite  beyond  the  re- 
straint of  the  principal  citizens  who  had  begun  the  riot,  but 
who  repudiated  its  later  developments,  swept  out  of  the  city 
gates  to  the  Savoy.  This  residence,  the  most  magnificent 
belonging  to  any  subject  in  the  land,  had  been  enlarged  and 
beautified  by  successive  generations  of  the  Earls  and  Dukes  of 
Lancaster.  It  stood  amid  green  lawns  running  down  to  the 
banks  of  the  Thames,  and  pleasure-gardens  then  famous  for 
their  roses,  and  still  remembered  because  Chaucer  loved  them 
and  drew  from  them  soft  inspiration.  If  it  could  have  sur- 
vived the  hand  of  violence,  this  beautiful  palace  might  to-day 
be  one  of  the  finest  monuments  of  the  life  and  art  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Unfortunately  it  was  situated  half-way  between 
Westminster  and  London,  in  a  position  peculiarly  exposed  to 
.attack  from  the  city.  Here  the  rioters,  not  knowing  that  he 
had  escaped  across  the  river,  hoped  to  find  and  kill  John  of 
<Taunt  and  to  burn  his  mansion  over  him.     Meeting  on  their 


Feb.  1377  MOEE   EIOTING  47 

way  a  priest  who  was  foolish  enough  to  revile  Peter  de  la 
Mare  as  a  traitor,  they  beat  the  unfortunate  man  to  death. 
News  of  the  uproar  was  brought  to  the  Bishop  of  London,  who 
instantly  rose  from  dinner  and  hastened  after  them.  He 
overtook  them  in  time,  and  induced  them  to  relinquish  their 
purpose,  so  giving  to  the  Savoy  another  four  years  of  pre- 
carious existence,  till  a  more  famous  riot  finally  levelled  it  to 
the  ground.  The  mob  contented  itself  with  parading  the 
streets  of  London,  insulting  those  of  the  Duke's  supporters 
whom  they  met,  and  reversing  his  arms  which  were  hung  up 
over  a  shop  in  Cheapside.  His  retainers,  who  had  formerly 
been  seen  swaggering  and  hectoring  about  the  streets  under 
the  protection  of  his  badge,  now  plucked  the  dangerous  symbol 
from  their  necks  and  hid  it  in  their  sleeves.^  _,_ 

A  riot,  before  the  days  of  mass  meetings  and  resolutions, 
was  a  useful,  almost  a  legitimate,  mode  of  expressing  public 
feeling.  The  chronicler,  who  is  distinctly  a  partisan  of  the 
popular  cause,  sees  nothing  abnormal  or  even  censurable  in 
the  violence  of  the  mob,  and  considers  it  quite  a  matter  of 
course  that  they  intended  to  kill  the  Duke  and  Lord  Percy  if 
they  had  been  fortunate  enough  to  lay  hands  on  them.  The 
Londoners  had  thus  successfully  proclaimed  their  determina- 
tion to  protect  their  liberties,  and  had  shown  the  force  at  the;-^' 
command.  The  Government  had  none  on  the  spot  to  set 
against  them.  There  was  no  standing  army,  and  the  police, 
such  as  it  was,  was  municipal.  The  Duke  for  a  week  or  two 
had  to  submit.  The  obnoxious  bill  before  Parliament  was 
never  heard  of  again,  and  a  deputation  sent  by  the  citizens 
was  politely  received  by  the  King.  When  introduced  into  the 
royal  presence,  they  complained  bitterly  of  the  attack  on 
their  liberties,  and  asserted  that  as  no  serious  injury  had 
been  actually  done  by  the  rioters  to  any  of  the  Duke's  per- 
sonal attendants,  he  had  no  just  ground  of  complaint.  No 
one  on  either  side  mentioned  the  case  of  the  priest  who 
had  been  beaten  to  death.  As  he  had  not  been  wearing  the 
Duke's  livery  and  had  no  patron  to  maintain  his  quarrel,  his 
fate  was  a  matter  of  small  concern.  The  King  promised  that 
the  liberties  of  the  city  should  henceforth  be  respected,  and 

'  Loftie's  Memorials  of  the  Savoy  ;  Chron.  Aug.,  121-6  and  397. 


48  POLITICS  1376-7 

the  deputies  withdrew  in  high  good  humoar  from  the  presence. 
In  the  ante-chamber  they  met  John  of  Gaunt,  with  whom 
they  exchanged  some  courteous  words. 

Peeling,  however,  still  ran  high  on  both  sides.  Lampoons 
and  verses  against  the  Duke  were  posted  about  the  city.  He 
requested  the  Bishops  still  assembled  for  Convocation  to 
excommunicate  the  authors.  The  prelates  hesitated,  fearing 
that  the  Londoners  might  use  the  same  violence  against  them 
as  they  had  shown  against  the  nobles.  The  more  respectable 
citizens,  however,  desirous  to  appease  authority  and  to  dis- 
sociate themselves  from  the  acts  of  the  mob,  encouraged 
them  to  issue  the  excommunications,  which  did  the  anony- 
mous authors  small  harm.  This  incident  showed  how  little 
John  of  Gaunt  gave  heed  to  the  essence  of  Wycliffe's  teaching, 
for  one  of  the  points  of  doctrine  on  which  the  reformer  at  this 
time  laid  most  stress  was  the  wickedness  and  the  spiritual 
inefl&cacy  of  excommunication  when  used  for  political  pur- 
poses.    But  the  Duke  cared  for  none  of  these  things.^ 

At  the  end  of  February,  the  remaining  business  of 
Parliament,  which  had  been  adjourned  during  these  events, 
was  rapidly  wound  up.  The  Houses  were  dissolved,  and  a 
few  days  later  Convocation  separated.  During  the  next 
month  the  Lancastrian  Government  recovered  itself,  and  so 
far  re-established  its  position  against  the  Londoners  that  the 
King  again  summoned  the  Mayor  and  Sheriffs  before  him  to 
answer  for  the  late  disturbances.  The  Archbishop,  the  Duke 
and  many  other  lords  were  in  the  presence-chamber  where 
the  accused  were  heard.  Sir  Kobert  Aston,  lately  Treasurer, 
and  now  Chamberlain,  spoke  on  behalf  of  his  master,  the 
Duke,  and  upbraided  the  citizens  for  the  riot.  Their  reply 
throws  an  interesting  light  on  the  London  of  the  time.  They 
pleaded  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  check  the  excesses 
of  the  mob,  as  the  common  people,  having  no  money  or 
houses  of  their  own  to  forfeit,  were  easily  stirred  to  riot  as 
they  had  nothing  to  lose.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  this 
refers  to  the  apprentices,  whose  social  and  legal  status  answers 
perfectly  to  this  description.  In  the  more  violent  and  tragical 
riots  four  years  later,  we  are  told  expressly  by  a  contemporary 

>  Chron.  Ang.,  127-130. 


Feb.  1377  THE   COUNTY   PALATINE  49^X^ 

chronicler  that  the  apprentices  took  no  small  part  in  the 
disturbance.'  On  this  occasion,  however,  the  responsible 
governors  of  the  city  had  been  less  opposed  to  the  rioting 
than  they  proved  in  1381.  They  had  themselves  led  the 
attack  on  Lord  Percy's  house  to  release  the  prisoner,  in  itself 
a  perfectly  justifiable  action,  but  the  beginning  of  all  the  more 
questionable  proceedings  of  the  mob  that  day.  It  was  not, 
therefore,  without  reason  that  their  plea  of  innocence  was 
considered  insufficient.  The  Mayor  and  Sheriffs  were  deprived 
of  their  posts,  but  the  city  was  allowed  at  once  to  elect  new 
officers  in  their  place.  The  protest  of  the  London  mob  had 
so  far  succeeded  that  the  ministers  did  not  again  attempt  to 
deprive  the  city  of  the  right  to  elect  its  own  rulers.  The 
new  Mayor  whom  they  chose  was  Sir  Nicolas  Brembre,  a 
strong  opponent  of  John  of  Gaunt.  The  Duke  further  re- 
quired, by  way  of  reparation  for  the  reversal  of  his  arms  in 
Cheapside,  that  a  pillar  to  support  them  should  be  erected 
there  in  marble  '  well  and  comely  metalled  to  continue  for  all 
time.'  To  this  the  citizens  would  not  agree,  but  the  new 
officers  consented  to  organise,  in  honour  of  the  Duke,  a  pro- 
cession to  St.  Paul's  bearing  tapers  of  wax.  The  commonalty, 
however,  made  no  offering  towards  the  candles  and  took  no 
part  in  the  solemnity.  The  Duke  was  angry  at  the  paltriness 
of  the  proceedings,  which,  there  is  reason  to  suspect,  the 
Londoners  made  purposely  ridiculous.  Here  the  quarrel 
rested  till  the  death  of  the  King.^ 

The  spring  months  of  '77  passed  away  without  any 
stirring  events.  The  supremacy  of  the  Duke  and  those  who  , 
now  belonged  to  his  party  was  secure,  but  secure  only  so  long- 
as  the  King  lived.  John  of  Gaunt  made  the  most  of  his 
opportunity  while  it  lasted.  In  February  he  induced  his 
father  to  revive  for  his  benefit  the  Jura  Eegalia  of  the  County 
Palatine  of  Lancaster,  which  had  lapsed  to  the  Crown  on  the 
death  of  the  last  Duke.  The  King's  Council  had  long  ago 
declared  that  these  great  privileges  and  revenues  could  not 
be  held  by  a  subject  without  '  great  loss  and  disinheritance 
of  the  King.'  Yet  Edward  now  gave  them  back  to  the  X 
powerful  rival  whose  greatness  endangered  young  Eichard's     \ 

'  Knighton,  ii.  135-6.  ^  Chron.  Ang.,  131-4,  Ixviii-lxix.  i 


50/  POLITICS  1376-7 

.  V' 
f^uccession.'  Indeed,  there  was  never  more  to  be  quiet  in  the 
land  till  the  great  House  of  Lancaster  had  finally  overthrown 
the  elder  branch  of  the  Plantagenet  dynasty  (1399).  The 
infatuated  fondness  of  Edward  the  Third  for  John  of  Gaunt, 
the  revenues  and  powers  that  he  willingly  surrendered  to 
him,  served  to  hasten  the  event. 

In  June  the  old  man  sank  at  last.  Two  days  before  his 
death,  the  temporalities  of  the  see  of  Winchester  were  restored 
to  William  of  Wykeham,  a  sign  of  the  change  of  political 
atmosphere  now  so  imminent.^  On  the  21st  Edward  the 
Third  died.  He  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey  on  the 
Confessor's  mound,  among  the  tombs  of  the  Plantagenet  Kings. 
^During  the  first  half  of  his  long  reign  there  had  been 
a  period  of  national  glory  and  prosperity,  to  which  we  are 
accustomed  to  look  back  with  pride  as  the  first  appearance 
of  a  homogeneous  English  people  on  the  stage  of  Continental 
history.  In  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life  it  became 
apparent  that  England  was  not  strong  enough  in  men  and 
money  to  occupy  permanently  the  first  place  in  Europe.  Her 
fleets  and  commerce  were  driven  off  the  seas,  her  armies  no 
longer  attempted  to  maintain  her  continental  empire.  If  it 
is  not  just  to  put  all  the  blame  for  the  catastrophes  of  his 
later  years  on  Edward's  head,  neither  is  it  just  to  the  English 
people  to  attribute  all  the  earlier  successes  solely  to  his 
vigorous  personality.  His  policy,  in  so  far  as  it  recognised 
the  importance  of  sea-power  and  commerce,  had  been  good  ; 
in  so  far  as  it  revived  the  dream  of  a  continental  empire,  it 
was  fraught  with  terrible  and  far-reaching  disaster.  It  may  be 
doubted  how  much  the  individuality  of  Edward  the  Third 
had  been  responsible  for  either  the  one  side  of  his  policy  or 
the  other.  Both  were  inevitable  in  the  stage  of  experience 
Englishmen  had  then  reached,  and  the  nation  approved 
equally  of  the  war  by  sea  and  of  the  war  by  land.'*-*^ 

The  student  of  his  later  years  must  admit  that  Edward  was 
weak  and  foolish  in  allowing  himself  to  become  the  tool  of  a 
set  of  politicians  who  stand  convicted  of  more  corruption  than 
was,  even  at  that  time,  customary  or  tolerable  in  public  life. 

'  Charters  of  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  Hardy,  32-4   and   62-70  ;    Thirtieth 
Report  of  Deputy  Keeper  of  Public  Records,  p.  iv.  ^  See  Ap. 


JraB  1377  '  LE  EOI  EST  MOET '  51 

He  became  an  instrument  of  bad  men  rather  than  an  active 
instigator  of  evil.     '  If  the  truth  were  once  told  the  King,' 
said  the  blunt  Bishop  of  Eochester,  '  he  is  so  yielding  and 
easily  led  that  he  would  by  no  means  suffer  such  things  to  go 
unchecked  in  the  realm.'  ^     When  he  died  he  had  lost  his 
people's  love.     There  was  no  outburst  of  grief  throughout  the       . 
country  when  men  heard  that  his  long  and  famous  reign  had      I 
closed  at  last.     There  was  only  sullen  fear  for  the  future  of  a       | 
land  where  a  boy  was  king. 

'  O.E.  B.,  73. 


e2 


52  SOCIETY  AND  POLITICS  1377-81 


CHAPTEE   III 

SOCIETY  AND   POLITICS,   1377-1381 

STATE  AND  GRIEVANCES  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  THE  STRUGGLE  OF 
THE  COMMONS  TO  OBTAIN  GOOD  GOVERNMENT.  EXPERIMENTS 
AND    FAILURE.      WYCLIFFE    AS   A   POLITICIAN 

The  period  that  is  ushered  in  by  the  accession  of  Richard  the 
Second,  and  that  culminates  in  the  portentous  disaster  of  the 
Peasants'  Eising,  is  one  of  great  activity  on  the  part  of 
the  Lower  House.  Before  entering  on  a  detailed  account  of 
the  history  of  these  years,  it  will  be  well  to  consider  more 
particularly  than  in  the  last  chapter  what  were  the  aims  and 
what  the  difficulties  of  the  Commons.  They  were  engaged  in 
seeking  a  remedy  for  certain  social  evils  closely  connected 
with  the  political  miscarriage.  Government  could  not  be 
reformed  until  society  had  been  remodelled.  The  Commons 
failed  to  amend  either  the  one  or  the  other.  Both  the  local 
and  central  machinery  of  mediaeval  England  fell  into  the 
weltering  ruin  of  the  Wars  of  the  Eoses,  whence  a  new 
society  emerged  under  the  Tudor  Kings. 

One  of  the  chief  subjects  of  complaint  and  petition  by  the 
Commons  at  this  period  is  the  state  of  the  navy  and  the 
mercantile  marine. 

In  the  days  of  the  early  Plantagenets  the  shipping  of 
these  islands  consisted  of  little  more  than  coasting  vessels 
and  fishing-boats.  The  trade  with  the  Continent  was  carried 
on  in  foreign  bottoms,  and  the  English  were  known  to  the 
merchants  of  Italy,  Flanders,  and  North  Germany  as  an 
agricultural  and  pastoral  people  whose  wool  and  other  raw 
material  were  well  worth  the  fetching.^     In  the  early  years  of 

'  Cunningham,  181 


ENGLAND'S  MEDIEVAL  SEA  POWEE  53 

Edward  the  Third  an  economic  change  that  had  no  doubt  been 
long  in  process,  was  brought  to  notice  by  political  and  military 
events.  Much  of  the  wool  that  had  been  previously  exported 
in  a  raw  state  to  feed  the  looms  of  Bruges  and  Ghent,  was 
now  worked  into  cloth  on  this  side  of  the  Channel,  and 
carried  across  in  vessels  owned  by  enterprising  merchants  of 
London  and  Bristol  and  manned  by  English-speaking  crews. 
To  support  this  new  and  promising  development  of  national 
undertaking,  Edward  the  Third  and  his  Parliaments  entered  on 
a  deliberate  course  of  economic  legislation,  backed  by  military 
and  diplomatic  activity.  The  French  wars  and  Flemish 
alliances  were  conceived  by  the  government  and  approved  by 
the  nation  largely  for  industrial  and  commercial  ends.  In 
1340  this  policy  triumphed  at  Sluys,  when  the  English  mer- 
chant navy  sank  a  rival  flotilla  from  the  French  ports.  It 
triumphed  again  at  Crecy  and  Poitiers  (1346-1356),  for  these 
battles  enabled  Edward  to  realise  his  dream  of  erecting  a 
great  empire,  held  together  by  trade  across  the  Channel 
and  the  Bay  of  Biscay.^  It  is  idle  to  speak  of  Alfred  as  the 
founder  of  the  British  navy.  He  lost  the  whole  east  coast- 
line of  England  to  the  Danes,  and  it  was  only  these  Danes, 
against  whom  he  was  constantly  fighting,  who  introduced  a 
little  maritime  enterprise  among  his  lethargic  Saxon  subjects. 
For  hundreds  of  years  after  Alfred  the  English  were  the 
landlubbers  of  Europe.  It  was  not  till  the  reign  of  Edward 
the  Third  that  we  seriously  took  to  the  sea,  and  made  a  national 
effort  to  establish  our  commercial  and  naval  position  in  the 
teeth  of  rivals.  Thenceforward,  although  times  of  depression 
and  defeat  alternated  with  periods  of  success,  we  never  ceased 
to  be  a  sea-going  people,  to  have  a  parliamentary  commercial 
policy,  and  to  be  known  and  feared  on  the  Continent  as  trade 
rivals  in  all  the  Northern  seas. 

But  although  Edward  the  Third  had  a  naval  policy,  he  had 
not  a  royal  navy.  For  our  generation,  which  sometimes  spends 
on  its  war-ships  in  a  year  of  peace  two  hundred  times  as  many 
pounds  as  then  covered  all  royal  expenditure  in  a  year  of 
war,  it  may  be  hard  to  realise  that  there  was  then  practically 
no  such  thing  as  a  navy  distinct  from  a  mercantile  marine. 

'  Cunningham,  245-50. 


54  SOCIETY  AND  POLITICS  1377-81 

When  hostilities  hroke  out  two  admirals  were  appointed,  one 
to  guard  the  North  Sea  and  one  the  Channel,  with  commis- 
sions enabling  them  to  press  into  their  service  all  the  ships 
and  men  they  required.  Each  admiral  went  down  to  the 
coast  assigned  to  him,  laid  an  embargo  on  all  vessels  in  the 
parts  under  his  command,  and  proceeded  to  select  the  best 
merchant  ships  and  the  likeliest  seamen  for  the  formation  of 
an  improvised  fleet.  While  this  mobilisation,  often  a  slow 
and  mismanaged  process,  was  going  forward,  no  ship  might 
leave  port.  Trade  was  at  a  standstill.  Ships  ready  for  some 
adventure  to  Flanders  or  Iceland,  rotted  in  dock  for  six  months 
together,  and  the  most  seaworthy  vessels  were  sure  to  pay  the 
penalty  of  their  fitness  by  being  seized  to  fight  the  King's 
battles.  At  last  a  motley  crowd  of  several  hundred  barques 
of  all  sizes  and  shapes  would  be  got  together  at  Portsmouth 
or  Gravesend,  and  sail  out  with  the  admiral's  flag  trailing 
from  the  tallest  merchantman,  in  quest  of  the  Spanish 
galleys  off  the  Cornish  coast  or  the  Scotch  pirates  off  Hull.^ 

Clumsy  as  this  method  was,  it  answered  after  a  fashion. 
The  navies  of  other  lands  were  enlisted  on  much  the  same 
terms,  and  the  material  from  which  our  admirals  selected  their 
ships  and  men  was  warlike  enough,  though  without  discipline 
or  organisation.  The  merchant- sailor  of  those  days  was  a 
man  of  blood  from  his  youth  up.  There  was  little  or  no  law 
on  the  sea  save  that  of  the  strongest.  Every  vessel  was  liable 
to  become  a  pirate  if  she  met  with  craft  that  sailed  under  some 
foreign  flag,  or  perhaps  only  hailed  from  some  rival  English 
port.  While  the  primitive  cannon  carried  by  the  larger  ships 
were  not  formidable,  the  crew  of  the  smallest  were  armed  with 
swords  and  axes,  so  that  by  dash  and  pluck  any  skipper 
might  do  great  things  for  himself  and  his  town.  Questions  of 
right  of  trade  were  sometimes  made  the  subjects  of  inter- 
national treaty,  but  as  often  left  to  settle  themselves  by  ruder 
means.  To  keep  the  '  open  door  '  at  some  exclusive  port  of 
Scandinavia  or  the  Hanse  League,  it  was  necessary  to  send 
two  or  three  good  merchant  ships  armed  to  the  teeth  and 
determined  to  get  their  cargoes  landed  and  sold  at  whatever 
cost  of  lives.     On  such  terms  as  these  the  sea  was  a  school  of 

'  SeeAp. 


ENGLAND'S  MEDIEVAL  SEA  POWBE  55 

hardihood  and  daring,  though  scarcely  of  nice  morality.  In 
this  lawless  state  of  society,  English  seamanship  and  commerce 
continued  to  struggle  for  the  next  two  centuries,  learning  by 
deeds  of  valour  and  ferocity,  now  all  long  forgotten,  those 
qualities  which  immortalised  the  splendid  pirates  who,  in  the 
days  of  Hawkins  and  Drake,  founded  modern  England  on  the 
sea.^ 

Chaucer's  Shipman  from  Devonshire  is  a  good  apprentice 
of  this  school. 

Of  nice  conscience  took  he  no  kepe. 

If  that  he  faught  and  had  the  higher  hand, 

By  water  he  sent  hem  home  to  every  land.^ 

But  of  his  craft  to  reken  well  his  tides, 

His  stremes  and  his  strandes  him  besides. 

His  herberwe,  his  mone  and  his  lodemanage.^ 

Ther  was  non  swiche,  from  Hull  unto  Carthage. 

Hardy  he  was  and  wise  I  undertake : 

With  many  a  tempest  hadde  his  herd  be  shake. 

He  knew  wel  alle  the  havens,  as  they  were, 

Fro  Gotland,  to  the  Cape  de  finistere, 

And  every  creke  in  Bretagne  and  in  Spaine. 

With  such  sturdy  customers  to  man  them,  the  fleets  hastily 
impressed  by  the  admirals  for  more  regular  warfare  had  won 
the  day  at  Sluys,  and  held  the  Channel  and  the  Bay  of  Biscay 
until  the  Treaty  of  Bretigny  (1340-1360).  The  system  was  bad, 
but  as  long  as  it  was  successful  it  was  endured.  When,  how- 
ever, the  war  was  renewed  in  1366,  our  naval  supremacy 
could  no  longer  be  maintained  against  the  formidable  alliance 
of  the  French  and  Spanish  seamen.  It  was  then  that  the 
hardships  of  the  system  of  impressment  were  fully  felt,  and 
that  the  bitter  complaint  of  the  maritime  population  was 
heard  in  the  petitions  of  Parliament.  While  the  incompetent 
admirals  kept  every  ship  in  port  for  months  together  in  their 
bungling  efforts  to  get  together  a  fleet,  the  enemy's  ships  were 
sweeping  the  sea,  burning  the  fishing  villages  and  port-towns, 
and  slaughtering  the  inhabitants  of  the  seaboard.  The  con- 
sequent decay  of  the  marine  was  obvious  and  undeniable. 
•  There  used,'  said  Speaker  de  la  Mare  with  some  exaggeration, 

'  Cunningham,  passim  ;  Social  England,  ii.  42-7  and  182-94. 

^  Viz.  he  drowned  them.  ^  His  harbourage,  his  moon  and  his  pilotage. 


56  SOCIETY  AND  POLITICS  1377-81 

'  to  be  more  ships  in  one  port  than  now  are  in  the  whole 
kingdom.'  The  sea-going  population  who  lived  along  the 
Cornish  creeks  complained  in  Parliament  that,  as  their  able- 
bodied  men  had  been  carried  off  to  serve  in  the  navy,  resis- 
tance could  no  longer  be  made  to  the  raids  of  a  cruel  and 
destructive  enemy.  They  requested  that,  in  return  for  the 
men  taken  by  the  government,  a  force  should  be  sent  down 
to  protect  Cornwall.^ 

This  call  on  the  central  authorities  to  defend  the  coast  was 
unusual  and  ominous.  In  ordinary  times  local  resources  had 
proved  quite  sujfficient  to  repel  the  incursions  of  the  enemy. 
Whenever  the  French  fleet  was  seen  from  the  cliffs,  beacon- 
fires,  lighted  on  the  neighbouring  hill-tops,  soon  called  to- 
gether a  sufficient  company  of  peasantry  and  gentlemen  to 
prevent  the  foreigner  doing  any  serious  mischief  by  a  landing. 
The  only  protection  for  the  Thames  itself  was  a  stringent 
order  to  the  inhabitants  of  Kent  and  Essex,  when  they  saw 
the  beacons  lighted,  to  run  down  with  '  their  best  array  of 
arms  to  the  said  river  to  save  both  the  towns  and  the  navy 
in  the  ports.'  ^  The  most  highly  organised  forces  used  for 
coast  defence  were  the  military  retainers  of  great  lords  or 
churchmen  whose  estates  lay  near  the  sea.  The  Abbot  of 
Battle  more  than  once  headed  the  resistance  of  the  men  of 
Sussex  to  foreign  invasion  ;  and  the  Commons  petitioned  that, 
for  the  safety  of  the  people  in  those  parts,  the  lords  should  be 
compelled  to  dwell  on  their  estates  by  the  sea.^  In  this  way 
almost  the  whole  burden  of  coast  defence  was  thrown  on  those 
unfortunate  districts  which  suffered  from  the  raids  of  the 
enemy,  just  as  the  burden  of  naval  warfare  was  thrown  on  the 
merchant  service.  It  is  not  surprising  that  the  maritime  towns 
and  ports,  bearing  the  whole  brunt  and  expense  of  the  war  by 
sea  and  land,  failed  to  endure  the  strain  in  bad  times.  In  the 
early  years  of  Eichard  the  Second,  not  only  the  Channel,  but 
many  of  the  ports  along  the  south  coast,  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  French  and  Spaniards.  The  Commons,  in  great  alarm, 
petitioned  the  government  to  take  extraordinary  measures  for 
the  defence  of  the  sea-board  by  central  authority,  voted  taxes 

'  Rot.  Pari.,   ii.    307,   311,   320,  and   iii.  5,    42,    46,    86,    138,    146,    162 ; 
Foed.,  iv.  16 ;  Wals.,  i.  370  ;  Mon.  Eve.,  6. 

2  Feed.,  iv.  3-4,  17.     ^  Wals.,  i.  341,  439  ;  Mon.  Eve.,  p.  2  ;  Rot.  Pari.,  ii.  334. 


FAILUEE  OP  GOVEENMENT  BY  SHEEIEFS        57 

for  this  purpose,  and  complained  when  the  money  was  em- 
ployed in  garrisoning  our  few  remaining  castles  in  France.^ 

The  series  of  petitions  presented  in  Parliament,  from  which 
this  gloomy  picture  of  naval  and  commercial  decline  has  been 
drawn,  emanated  from  the  borough  members.  While  leaving 
affairs  of  State  to  the  knights  of  the  shire,  they  were  loud 
enough  in  complaints  that  concerned  the  immediate  interests 
of  their  class,  and  they  had  long  been  accustomed  to  influence 
and  sometimes  to  dictate  the  economic  legislation  of  the 
government.  The  petitions  that  concern  rural  life  and  insti- 
tutions may,  on  the  other  hand,  be  supposed  to  represent  the 
feelings  of  the  knights  of  the  shires. 

One  of  the  questions  that  most  vexed  the  smaller  land- 
owners, was  the  appointment  of  the  sheriff  of  the  county.  This 
officer,  chosen  by  the  Crown  from  among  the  gentry  of  the 
district,  was  the  link  between  Westminster  and  the  country- 
side. He  had  once  carried  on  almost  all  the  King's  business 
in  the  shire,  and  though  many  of  his  powers  had  since  been 
delegated  to  the  Justices  of  the  Peace  or  to  the  King's 
Judges  on  circuit,  he  still  remained  the  most  important 
local  officer.  In  the  Good  Parliament,  and  during  the  suc- 
ceeding decade,  the  Commons  again  and  again  petitioned 
that  all  sheriffs  might  be  removed  at  the  end  of  every  year. 
The  objection  of  the  knights  of  the  shire  to  the  long  tenure 
of  office  by  the  same  man  was  double.  In  the  first  place,  as 
the  sheriffdom  was  expensive  and  ruinous  to  men  of  small 
means,  the  knights  felt  sorry  for  persons  of  their  own  rank 
and  class  who  were  burdened  with  it  several  years  together. 
Secondly,  prolonged  power  tempted  sheriffs  of  small  estate, 
who  had  much  to  gain  and  little  to  forfeit,  to  practise  extortion 
on  their  neighbours,  to  the  '  great  disease  and  oppression  of  the 
counties.'  ^  Eeal  as  was  the  grievance,  the  remedy  proposed 
by  the  Commons  was  crude.  To  force  the  King  to  find  an 
entirely  new  set  of  sheriffs  every  year  would  have  been,  as  the 
Chancellor  said  in  reply  to  the  petition,  inconvenient.  The 
solution  of  the  difficulty  came  rather  by  the  delegation  of  the 
sheriff's  powers  to  the  Justices  of  the  Peace,  a  process  already 
begun  and  gradually  completed  in  the  course  of  the  next  two 

1  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  34.  ^  jj,^,^,  ii_  334-5,  357,  iii.  62,  96,  174,  201. 


58   X  SOCIETY  AND  POLITICS  1377-81 

centuries,  to  the  great  increase  of  the  comfort  and  power  of 
the  country  gentlemen.  Under  the  Tudors,  the  Crown  learnt 
to  repose  entire  confidence  in  this  class,  of  which,  in  Plan- 
tagenet  times,  it  was  alwaj^s  suspicious  and  distrustful.  Nor 
was  this  confidence  misplaced,  for  when,  instead  of  a  sherifi" 
acting  as  factotum,  a  bench  of  Justices  of  the  Peace  represented 
and  upheld  the  power  of  the  Crown,  the  knights  and  gentry 
served  Elizabeth  and  her  unfortunate  successors  with  a  pas- 
sionate loyalty  that  they  had  never  felt  before. 

In  days  long  gone  by,  under  the  Norman  Kings  and  Henry 
the  Second,  the  sheriffs  had  been  powerful  barons  and  prelates, 
by  whose  help  the  Crown  kept  the  more  turbulent  members  of 
their  own  class  in  order.  It  was  through  their  agency  that 
England  had  been  saved  from  feudal  anarchy,  and  the  King's 
peace  established.  In  the  reign  of  Eichard  the  Second  England 
was  again  drifting  towards  anarchy,  but  there  was  no  longer  any 
such  class  of  great  barons  who  could  be  trusted  to  serve  the 
government  faithfully  as  sheriffs.  The  office  was  now  usually 
filled  by  a  man  of  small  wealth  and  of  social  position  scarcely 
above  the  middle  class,  who  often  made  himself  an  object  of 
suspicion  to  the  gentry,  who  should  have  been  his  chief  sup- 
porters against  the  forces  of  anarchy.  Such  a  man  could 
not  be  expected  to  keep  the  King's  peace  effectively,  or  to 
take  active  measures  against  the  great  lords.  But  while  the 
old  government  by  sheriffs,  which  had  sufficed  to  suppress 
feudalism,  was  fast  becoming  ineffective,  a  new  evil,  the 
'  maintenance '  of  retainers,  demanded  new  remedies. 

The  practice  was  not  strictly  feudal.  The  retainer  was 
bound  to  his  lord  by  contract  for  wages,  and  not  by  services 
implied  in  his  tenure  of  land.  The  basis  was  no  longer  old 
feudal  loyalty,  but  the  cash  nexus.  During  the  closing  years 
of  the  fourteenth  and  the  whole  of  the  fifteenth  century,  it  was 
the  custom  of  all  great  lords,  and  even  of  some  prelates  of  the 
Church,  to  maintain  their  importance  in  society  by  hiring 
little  armies  of  retainers,  who  lived  at  the  expense,  wore  the 
livery,  and  fought  the  battles  of  their  employer.  The  prac- 
tice was  in  close  connection  with  the  military  system  of  the 
government.  The  King,  having  no  regular  army,  hired 
regiments   for   his   wars   from  the   nobles,   who  themselves 


LOEDS  AND  EETAINEES  59' 

enlisted  and  maintained  the  soldiers  under  their  private 
banners.^  In  intervals  of  peace,  or  in  years  when  there  was 
no  invasion  of  France,  these  military  brokers  did  not  always 
discharge  their  forces,  but  engaged  them  on  more  questionable 
private  quarrels  at  home.  It  would  be  wrong  to  suppose  that 
all  retainers  were  bravoes  and  swashbucklers.  Many  of  them 
were  professional  soldiers  who  fought  our  battles  in  France. 
The  heroes  of  Crecy  and  of  Agincourt,  the  '  stout  yeomen 
whose  limbs  were  made  in  England,'  were  most  of  them 
'  retainers  '  employed  by  great  lords  who  were  paid  by  the 
King  to  bring  them  into  the  field.  Chaucer's  'very  parfit, 
gentle  knight,'  who  adorns  the  first  page  of  the  '  Canterbury 
Tales,'  has  returned  from  letting  out  his  services  abroad,  and 
is  the  sort  of  person  to  enter  into  a  similar  contract  with  some 
noble  at  home.  Although  many  of  his  calling  had  a  worse 
reputation,  Chaucer's  selection  of  him  to  represent  the  profes- 
sion shows  that  there  were  many  respectable  members  of  society 
in  the  ranks  of  these  soldiers  of  fortune.  The  evil  of  the  system, 
was  the  use  to  which  they  were  too  often  put  by  their  employers, 
when  not  engaged  in  fighting  the  battles  of  their  country. 

Although  seignorial  justice  administered  by  barons  in  their 
private  courts  now  played  a  very  small  part  in  the  judicial 
system  of  the  country,  the  judges,  sheriffs  and  juries  of  the 
royal  tribunals  were  often  so  effectively  terrorised  by  the 
hired  retainers  of  some  local  magnate  that  the  result  was  very 
much  the  same  as  in  the  bad  old  feudal  days  of  King  Stephen. 
'  Maintenance '  was  the  act  of  maintaining  the  cause  of  a 
dependent  in  the  King's  Court  by  a  display  of  force  calculated 
to  influence  the  decision.  Any  fellow  wearing  the  livery  and 
receiving  the  pay  of  a  nobleman  such  as  the  Earl  of  Warwick, 
could,  with  comparative  safety,  rob  the  barns  and  stables  of  a 
neighbouring  manor-house  or  appropriate  a  farm  belonging  to 
a  citizen  of  Stratford-on-Avon,  for  he  would  be  supported  at 
the  assizes  by  two  hundred  stout  fellows  wearing  the  bear-and- 
ragged-staff  in  their  caps.  But  he  would  look  in  vain  for  the 
maintenance  of  his  lord  if  he  ventured  to  carry  off  corn  from 
the  miller  of  Kenilworth ;  for  the  miller  was  a  tenant  of 
the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  one  of  the  few  noblemen  who  kept  a 

'  SeeAp. 


60  SOCIETY  AND   POLITICS  1377-81 

greater  establishment  than  even  the  Earl  of  Warwick  could 
afford.  The  practice  of  maintenance  had  come  in  at  least  thirty 
years  before  the  reign  of  Eichard  the  Second,  when  great  armies 
of  retainers  were  enlisted  for  the  French  war.^  It  had  been 
growing  ever  since,  and  continued  to  grow,  until  in  the 
fifteenth  century  it  was  said  to  be  impossible  to  get  justice  at 
all  without  the  support  of  a  lord  and  his  following.^ 

Sometimes,  indeed,  the  retainers  were  little  better  than 
professed  banditti,  and  preferred  to  defy  rather  than  to 
pervert  the  course  of  law.  In  Cheshire,  Lancashire  and 
other  franchised  places  where  special  local  privilege  rendered 
the  course  of  royal  justice  even  more  difficult  than  in  the  rest 
of  England,  gentlemen  robbers  lived  in  safety,  and  issued 
forth  at  the  head  of  squadrons  of  cavalry  to  rob  and  plunder 
the  midland  counties.  They  murdered  men  or  held  them 
to  ransom.  They  carried  off  girls  to  the  counties  where  no 
constable  could  follow,  married  them  there  by  force,  and 
extorted  extravagant  dowries  from  the  unfortunate  parents. 
But  it  was  not  always  necessary  for  violent  men  to  retire 
with  their  spoil  to  a  distant  asylum.  They  often  turned 
their  next-door  neighbours  out  of  house  and  lands,  settled 
there  themselves,  and  gave  their  victims  to  understand 
that  if  they  sued  in  court  they  would  have  their  throats  cut. 
Such  constant  assaults  on  life  and  property  would  have  passed 
without  remark  in  Northumberland,  where  peace  and  security 
had  never  been  known  ;  but  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  midlands 
it  was  a  new  and  shocking  change  for  the  worse,  of  which  they 
complained  bitterly  but  ineffectually  through  the  mouths  of 
their  parliamentary  representatives.  The  Good  Parliament 
spoke  of  such  disorders  as  having  lately  risen  anew.  It 
was  not  unnatural  that  in  the  later  days  of  the  war,  when 
nearly  all  our  fighting  men  had  been  driven  back  into 
England,  there  should  be  worse  breaches  of  the  peace  than 
any  known  when  plunder  and  license  could  be  more  easily 
obtained  across  the  Channel.^ 

The   originators   of   these   mischiefs,  whether   lords  and 

'   Stats,  of  Realm,  20  Ed.  III.,  4,  5. 

2  Eot.  Pari.,  hi.  42 ;  P.  PL,  A,  iv.  41-2  ;  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  322. 

^  Bot  Pari,  ii.  351,  iii.  42,  81,  201. 


LOEDS  AND  THEIE  CASTLES  61 


^: 


earls  honoured  in  court  and  council-chamber,  or  broken  men 
whom  the  sheriff's  officers  would  have  hanged  on  the  nearest 
tree,  sheltered  their  armies  of   retainers  in   strongholds   of 
size  and  splendour  varying  in  proportion  to  their  wealth  or 
respectability.     The   feudal  donjons,  behind  whose  massive 
walls  the  Bohuns  and  Bigods  had   bidden   defiance  to  the 
Norman  Kings,  had  long  since  been  levelled  to  the  ground  or 
converted  into  royal  castles  ;  it  was  even  illegal  to  build  a 
private  fortification.     But  there  were  numerous  ways  in  which 
this  inconvenient  law  could  be  evaded.      The  most  usual  was 
to  obtain  a  license  from  the  King  to  castellate  an  existing 
manor-house,  a  permission  which  was  sometimes  construed 
into  leave  to  build  an  entirely  new  castle.     It  was  by  a  liberal 
interpretation  of  a  grant  of  this  nature  from  Eichard  the  Second, 
that  Sir  Edward  Dalyngruge,  who  had  made  his  fortune  as  a 
captain  in  the  French  wars,  built  in  1386  the  splendid  castle 
of  Bodiham  out  of  the  spoils  he  had  acquired  in  Brittany  and 
Aquitaine.     It  still  stands  in  almost  complete  preservation  in 
a  beautiful  valley  on  the  borders  of  Kent  and  Sussex,  bearing 
witness   to   the   high   state   of   perfection  to  which  military 
architecture  had  been  brought  in  that  age.     Few  who  look  up 
at  its  sheer  walls,  loopholed  bastions,  and  overhanging  battle- 
ments, among   which  there   is   no  gable,    or   other  sign  of 
domestic  architecture,  would  guess  that  it   was  a  residence 
built  by  an  English  country  gentleman  on  his  retirement  from 
service   in  the  wars.     Similar  places  were  erected  by  other 
captains  out  of  the  plunder  of  French  cities  and  chateaux,  and 
on   the   model  of   strongholds   taken   and   lost   in   France.^ 
Even  gentlemen  of  more   peaceable   habits  and  disposition, 
who  did  not   obtain  leave  to  castellate  their  manor-houses, 
built  them  four-square  and  surrounded  them  by  a  moat,  as 
secluded  halls  in  the  bye-ways  of  England  still  testify.      This 
precaution  was  rather  proof  that  those  who  built  them  lived  ^ 
in  dangerous  times  than  that  they  necessarily  meditated  evil 
against  their  neighbours. 

But  the  great  nobles  built  on  a  more  generous  scale.     John 
of  Gaunt's  own  castle  of  Kenilworth,  the  ancestral  stronghold , 

>  Bodiham  Castle,   by  F.   Graham   Ticehurst,   pp.   14-17 ;    Scrope    and 
Grosvenor  Roll,  ii.  22-24. 


62  SOCIETY   AND   POLITICS  1377-81 

-of  Simon  de  Montfort,  to  whose  estates  and  influence  the  Dukes 
of  Lancaster  had  succeeded,  had  in  the  days  of  the  Barons' 
War  consisted  of  a  single  square  Norman  keep.  Its  splendid 
mass  still  towers  above  all  the  buildings  of  later  ages  that  stand 
around.  Once  it  had  resisted  the  victors  of  Evesham  during 
a  six  months'  siege,  but  it  was  no  longer  defensible  against 
the  artillery  of  a  later  age ;  cannon  could  not  be  properly 
mounted  on  its  walls.  Nor  was  its  barbarous  grandeur 
adapted  for  the  civilised  palace  of  so  great  a  man  as  John  of 
Gaunt.  The  Duke  erected  a  new  suite  of  buildings,  contain- 
ing a  banqueting  hall  which  is  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  and 
delicate  piece  of  domestic  architecture  in  England,  but  took 
care  to  protect  it  at  each  end  by  a  strong  projecting  tower 
suitable  to  carry  cannon.  Besides  Kenilworth,  he  possessed 
more  than  a  score  of  other  castles,  including  such  famous 
holds  as  Pontefract,  Dunstanborough,  Leicester,  Pevensey, 
Monmouth,  and  Lancaster  itself.  The  rest  bear  less  famous 
names,  but  the  ruins  of  such  a  one  as  Tickhill  show  that  they 
were  strong  fortifications,  enclosing  large  areas.  No  other 
private  person  besides  the  Duke  possessed  so  many  strong- 
holds. His  rival,  the  Earl  of  March,  had  about  ten,  the  Earls 
of  Warwick  and  Stafford  only  two  or  three  apiece.^  Lord 
Percy  occupied  many  royal  castles  along  the  Border,  in  his 
■capacity  as  King's  lieutenant  against  the  Scotch. 

In  such  places  as  these,  the  lords  kept  up  their  great 
establishments.  When  they  travelled  they  often  moved  their 
miniature  court  and  army  with  them.  A  nobleman's  suite  ^ 
was  a  better  school  of  manners  than  of  morals.  Wycliffe, 
though  he  directed  most  of  his  energy  towards  attacking  the 
Church,  and  never  openly  sought  a  breach  with  the  secular 
lords,  could  not  refrain  from  rebuking  the  trains  which  they 
carried  with]  them.  They  are  'Proud  Lucifer's  children, 
extortioners,  robbers  and  rievers.'  '  They  destroy  their  poor 
neighbours,  and  make  their  house  a  den  of  thieves.'  The 
reformer  thought  these  establishments  had  a  bad  influence  on 
other  classes  by  setting  the  fashion.  '  Now  cometh  example 
of  pride,   gluttony  and   harlotry   from   lords'  courts  to  the 

'  Calendar,  Inquisitiones  post  mortein,  sub  Lancaster,  March,  WarwicL", 
Stafford  ;  Hardy's  Charters  of  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  26-8. 


LUXUEY  AND  CIVILISATION  63 

commons.'  ^     This  was  probably  true,  but  their  influence  may 
also  have  had  another  and  a  better  side  to  it.     The  households 
of   the   noblemen  were   the   chief   means   by  which   foreign 
inventions,  luxuries  and  polish  were  taught  to  the  knights  and 
country  gentlemen  of  old  England.      We  know  how  bucolic 
were  those  country  squires  of  the  seventeenth  century  who 
had  no  connection  with  the  great  world,  and  we  can  thereby 
distantly   conjecture   what   the   corresponding    class   in   the 
fourteenth    century   resembled.      Chivalry   perhaps    gave   a 
superficial  polish  lacking  to  seventeenth-century  society,  but 
the   rules   and   manners   of  chivalry  were   only  taught  and 
practised  in  the  trains  of  the  great  lords.     The  domestic  life 
of  an  independent  country  gentleman  in  his  moated  manor- 
house  was   more   simple   than   elegant.     When,  however,    a 
knight  retired  from  the  service  of  a  lord,  he  imitated  in  his 
own  establishment  the  habits  he  had  learned  in  higher  circles. 
Eichard  the  Second's  reign  thus  became  the  period  of  introducing 
luxury  in  dress  and  food ;  it  was  the  age  of  '  sleeves  that  slod 
upon  the  earth,'  of  toe-points  so  long  that  the  wearer  could 
not  kneel  to  say  his  prayers,  and  now,  for  the  first  time  in 
our  country,  gentlemen's  families  retired  from  the  great  hall 
where  they  used  to  feed  in  patriarchal  community  with  their 
household,  to  eat  their  more  fashionable  meals  in  private.^ 
The  tribute  and  plunder  of   France  that   were   poured   into 
England   during   the   successful   part  of   the  hundred  years 
war,  revolutionised  the  primitive  economy  of  the  feudal  house- 
hold, just  as  the   tribute  and  plunder  of  the  Mediterranean 
overturned    among   the   Eomans    the   austere   simplicity   of 
Camillus  and  Cato.     Luxury  is  not  an  unmixed  evil.     Com- 
merce  grows,  refinement  spreads  by  the  very  means  most 
regretted  and  abhorred  by  moralists.     The  merchants  of  the 
towns  rejoiced   to  supply  the  lords'  courts  with  every  new 
fashion  and  requirement.      By  their  very  magnificence  and 
outlay  the  nobles  were  helping  the  rise  of  the  commercial 
democracy  -jv^hich  was  to  take  their  place. 

It  may  well  be  asked  on  what  basis  of  law  this  system  of 
retainers,  with  its  multifarious  effects  on  society,  was  per- 

1  Matt.  243  and  207. 
2  Eic.  Redeless,  iii.  153  and  234 ;  P.  PL,  B,  x.  92-100. 


64  SOCIETY   AND   POLITICS  1377-81 

mitted  to  exist.  It  appears  that  the  practice  of  keeping  re- 
tainers was  perfectly  legal.  Even  those  '  statutes  of  liveries  ' 
which  were  directed  against  its  abuse,  especially  against 
private  war  and  maintenance  of  causes  in  courts,  recognised 
the  right  of  a  lord  to  enlist  men  '  for  peace  and  for  war  by 
indenture.'  The  new  laws  attempted  to  prevent  prelates  and 
esquires  from  enlisting  retainers,  but  this  only  amounted  to 
creating  a  monopoly  in  favour  of  lords  and  knights.^  In 
spite  of  all  legislation,  robbery,  maintenance  and  the  other 
evils  of  the  system  continued  unchecked.  It  was  in  vain 
that  the  Commons  induced  the  King  to  promise  that  no  man 
should  ride  fully  armed  through  the  country,  but  that  '  lances 
be  taken  away  and  broken.'  ^  Lord  Neville  rode  at  the  head 
of  twenty  men-at-arms  and  twenty  mounted  archers  arrayed 
in  the  Duke  of  Lancaster's  livery.^  He  would  have  been  a 
bold  sheriff  who  offered  to  '  take  away  their  lances  and  break 
them.' 

The  reason  of  the  helplessness  of  the  government  to 
enforce  the  law  is  not  far  to  seek.  The  King  was  powerless 
to  act  against  the  great  nobles,  because  his  only  military 
resources  were  the  resources  commanded  by  the  nobles  them- 
selves. His  army  consisted,  not  of  Life  Guards  and  regi- 
ments of  the  Line,  but  of  numerous  small  bodies  of  archers 
and  men-at-arms  belonging  to  earls,  dukes,  knights,  and 
professional  soldiers  of  fortune,  hired  by  the  government  for 
a  greater  or  less  time.  Such  troops  might  do  well  for  the 
French  war,  and  might  rally  round  the  throne  on  an  occasion 
like  the  Peasants'  Eising,  when  all  the  upper  classes  were 
threatened  by  a  common  danger.  But  they  could  scarcely  be 
^sed  to  suppress  themselves,  or  to  hang  the  employers  whose 
badges  they  wore  on  their  coats,  and  whose  pay  jingled  in 
their  pockets.  Once  indeed,  in  1378,  the  Commons  insisted 
on  a  special  commission  being  sent  into  the  country  to 
restore  order.  The  commission  had  of  course  to  consist  of 
great  lords  and  their  retainers.  The  country  found  their 
yoke  heavier  than  the  law-breakers  they  were  sent  to  suppress, 
and  the  Commons  next  year  asked  that  the  commissioners 

>  Stats,  of  Realm,  13  E.  II.  3,  and  1  E.  11.  4,  7.         -  Rot.  Pari,  iii.  164. 
»  Dugdale,  p.  296. 


THE  LORDS  AS  EOYAL  OFEICEES       65 

might  be  recalled,  as  the  King's  subjects  were  being  brought 
into  '  serfage  to  the  said  Seigneurs  and  commissioners  and 
their  retinues.'  ^ 

A  very  similar  story  is  told  in  '  Piers  Plowman,'  where 
'  Peace '  comes  to  Parliament  with  a  petition  against  '  Wrong,' 
who,  in  his  capacity  of  King's  officer,  has  broken  into  the 
farm,  ravished  the  women,  carried  off  the  horses,  taken  the 
wheat  from  the  granary,  and  left  in  payment  a  tally  on  the 
King's  exchequer.  '  Peace '  complains  that  he  has  been 
unable  to  get  the  law  of  him,  for  '  he  maintaineth  his  men 
to  murder  mine  own.' "  Such  were  the  King's  officers  as 
known  in  the  country  districts.  They  were  really  ambitious 
lords  using  the  King's  name  to  acquire  wealth  for  themselves. 
These  evils  were  partly  the  result  of  the  bankruptcy  of  the 
government.  The  King  could  not  change  the  military 
system,  because  he  could  not  hire  men  to  take  the  place  of 
the  nobles'  retainers.  He  had  to  accept  the  aid  of  his  lords 
for  the  French  wars  very  much  on  their  own  terms.  Some- 
times he  could  not  pay  them  the  full  price  of  the  services 
of  the  men  they  brought  into  the  field,  and  could  not  there- 
fore venture  to  offend  them.-^  In  the  bankrupt  state  of  the 
exchequer,  an  understanding  between  the  nobility  and  the 
government  was  necessary  if  the  war  was  to  be  carried  on  at 
all.  This  at  once  prevented  any  serious  effort  to  break  up  the 
bands  of  retainers  throughout  the  country,  and  enabled  the 
great  lords  to  claim  as  their  natural  right  a  large  share  in 
the  general  administration.  An  apologist  for  Eichard  the 
Second  might  claim  with  some  show  of  truth  that  he  fought 
and  fell  in  the  effort  to  free  the  King's  counsels  from  the  thral- 
dom of  this  intrusive  and  domineering  aristocracy.  But  in 
the  period  with  which  this  chapter  deals,  Eichard  was  but  a  boy. 
The  nobles  would  during  his  minority  have  conducted  the 
government  of  the  country  exactly  as  they  pleased  but  for  two 
checks  :  they  were  divided  among  themselves  by  the  quarrels 
and  rival  interests  of  the  great  families,  and  they  met  with 
staunch  resistance  from  the  members  of  the  House  of 
Commons. 

'  Rot.  Pari,  iii.  42,  65  ;  Stats,  of  Realm,  2  E.  II.  6. 

2  P.  PL,  A,  iv.  34-48.  ^  E.g.  Rot.  Pari,  iii.  122,  sec.  3. 


66  SOCIETY  AND  POLITICS  1377-81 

It  is  impossible  to  understand  the  political  relations  of  the 
two  Houses  of  Parliament  apart  from  the  social  relations  of 
the  country  gentlemen  to  the  nobles.  It  may  be  asked  why 
the  Commons,  being  many  of  them  knights  trained  to  arms, 
never  tried  their  military  strength  against  the  retainers,  in 
an  attempt  to  break  up  these  bands  of  petty  tyrants.  The 
reason  is  plain.  A  country  gentleman  was  frequently 
bound  by  ties  of  affection  or  interest  to  some  noble,  fought 
under  his  banner,  lived  in  his  castle,  and  often  commanded 
companies  of  his  men.  Even  Peter  de  la  Mare  was  attached 
to  the  household  of  the  Earl  of  March  as  his  lordship's 
seneschal.  Military  training  was  only  obtainable  in  the 
service  of  private  persons.  There  was  no  efficient  system  of 
county  militia.  The  more  independent  a  man  was,  the  less 
military  he  became.  A  large  part  of  the  class  represented  by 
the  knights  of  the  shire  in  the  House  of  Commons  consisted 
of  gentlemen  free  indeed  from  the  patronage  of  any  noble, 
but  wholly  ignorant  of  the  use  of  arms.  The  Franklin  of 
Chaucer's  '  Canterbury  Pilgrimage  '  is  a  small  but  independent 
landowner,  not,  like  his  companion  the  Knight,  trained  to  war, 
but  essentially  a  man  of  peace.  His  larder  is  well  stocked, 
and  his  hospitality  is  profuse  : — 

Withouten  bake  mete  never  was  his  hous, 
Of  fish  and  flesh  and  that  so  plenteous 
It  snowed  in  his  hous  of  mete  and  drihke. 
Ful  many  a  fat  partich  hadde  he  in  mewe 
And  many  a  breme  and  many  kice  in  stewe.^ 

He  is  a  hearty  liver,  almost  a  sot.  His  education  is  a  negli- 
gible quantity,  for  he  has  not  been  brought  up  either  in  the 
school  of  chivalry  or  in  the  school  of  the  Church.  '  But 
sires,'  he  says  when  his  turn  comes  round  to  tell  a  tale. 

At  my  beginning  first  I  you  beseche 

Have  me  excused  of  my  rude  speche. 

I  learned  never  rhetoric  certain; 

Thing  that  I  speke,  it  mote  be  bare  and  plain. 

He  nevertheless  takes  an  important  part  in  affairs  : — 

At  sessions  ther  was  he  lord  and  sire. 
A  sheriffe  had  he  been  and  a  countour, 


Pike  in  fish-pond. 


NEW  POLICY  OP  THE   COMMONS  67 

and  he  has  represented  the  county  at  Westminster  '  ful  often 
time '  as  '  Knight  of  the  Shire.'  It  was  probably  such  men, 
even  more  than  the  knights  trained  to  arms,  who  felt  that  the 
interest  of  the  Commons  was  opposed  to  that  of  the  Lords. 
The  Knight  and  the  Franklin  are  the  two  principal  types 
of  men  representing  the  counties  in  the  Lower  House.  As 
the  yeomen  also  took  part  in  the  elections,  their  wishes 
probably  influenced  the  policy  of  the  members  elected.  The 
interests  of  the  yeomen  must  have  been  in  some  cases  those 
of  the  peasantry,  in  others  those  of  the  gentlemen,  but  in 
none  those  of  the  Lords. 

During  the  minority  of  Eichard  the  Second,  the  knights 
of  the  shire  entered  on  a  consistent  policy  of  interference  with 
the  administration.  Almost  every  Parliament  they  turned 
out  ministers  or  elected  fresh  councils  of  state.  Sometimes, 
as  soon  as  they  had  gone  home,  their  wise  reforms  were  rudely 
set  aside  by  John  of  Gaunt  or  other  nobles ;  sometimes  the 
persons  they  themselves  had  chosen  proved  untrustworthy  or 
incapable.  But  they  insisted.  Parliament  after  Parliament, 
on  taking  the  affairs  of  the  nation  into  their  own  hands  and 
arranging  for  the  next  year's  government.  This  resolute  line 
of  policy  was  a  new  development.  Isolated  instances  of  such 
interference  by  the  Commons  had  occurred  in  1341  and  1371, 
but  the  action  had  not  been  followed  up,  and  Edward  the 
Third  had  generally  chosen  his  own  ministers  without  ques- 
tion. In  the  Eolls  of  Parliament  for  the  'fifties  and  'sixties, 
there  is  no  mention  of  proceedings  for  the  appointment  and 
reappointment  of  councils  and  officers  of  state,  such  as  occur 
so  very  frequently  between  1377  and  1381.  The  new  policy 
probably  originated  from  a  sense  of  power  discovered  by  the 
striking  events  of  the  Good  Parliament,  which  appear  to 
have  greatly  impressed  contemporaries.  It  was  also  due  to 
the  opportunity  offered  by  the  King's  minority.  If  Eichard' s 
youth  was  the  opening  for  the  ambition  of  the  Lords,  it  was 
also  the  opening  for  the  claims  of  the  Commons.  In  later 
years,  when  Eichard,  having  come  of  age,  more  and  more  took 
power  into  his  own  hands,  the  Commons  interfered  less  and 
less  in  the  choice  of  his  ministers.  A  third  and  no  less 
important  cause  is  to  be  found  in  the  ill-success  of  the  war, 

F   2 


68      '  SOCIETY   AND   POLITICS  1377-81 

and  the  constant  demand  for  money  made  on  the  people.  As  the 
country  paid  heavily  every  year,  and  no  proportionate  results 
were  forthcoming,  the  taxpayer  claimed  a  right  to  inquire 
into  and  direct  the  expenditure.  To  this  claim  the  govern- 
ment had  to  give  way,  for  it  depended  on  the  Lower  House 
for  its  supplies.  The  parliamentary  grant  averaged  30,000L  a 
year,  out  of  a  total  receipt  of  100,000/.^ 

This  new  policy  developed  by  the  Commons  in  Eichard 
the  Second's  early  years  was  established  on  an  apparently 
firm  basis  in  the  reigns  of  the  Lancastrian  Kings  (1400-45). 
It  then  broke  down  altogether,  owing  to  the  action  of  the 
"nobility  in  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  (1445-85).  The  system  of 
retainers  proved  to  be  the  ultimate  fact  in  politics  as  well  as 
society  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries.  The  real 
fighting  power  should  reside  in  a  class  or  classes  large  enough 
to  represent  approximately  the  interests  of  the  nation,  or  else 
in  a  central  government  that  has  the  interests  of  the  nation 
at  heart.  But  in  these  centuries,  it  resided,  as  we  have 
shown,  in  a  number  of  irresponsible  individuals. 

Nevertheless  the  effort  of  the  Commons  at  the  close  of 
the  Middle  Ages  to  take  measures  for  the  government  of  the 
country  was  not  a  meaningless  failure.  They  at  least  pre- 
vented systematic  corruption.  We  hear  no  more  in  Richard  the 
Second's  time  of  such  organised  public  robbery  as  that  for  which 
the  ministers  had  been  brought  to  book  in  the  Good  Parliament. 
Above  all,  the  idea  of  government  hj  the  representatives  of 
the  Common^  was  so  strongly,  impressed  on  the  mind  of  the 
nation  iij  these  unfortunate  and  weary  years,  that  the  recollec- 
tion was  never  forgotten,  the  idea  was  never  abandoned. 
The  establishment  of  the  liberties  of  England  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  was  largely  the  result  of  precedent.  The 
traditions  and  aspirations  of  the  Lower  Hou'fee  were  now 
growing  up  in  a  very  different  state  of  society  from  that  in 
which  they  ultimately  triumphed. 


The  death  of  Edward  the  Tliird  ended  the  tyranny  of  John  of 
Gaunt.    He  could  no  longer  be  so  completely  master  of  England 

'  Sir  J.  Eamsay,  Antiqiiary,  iv.  208. 


Jtjsb  1377  '  VIVE   LE   EOI '  69 

as  he  had  been  during  the  last  few  months  of  his  father's 
reign.  His  aims  and  ambitions  do  not  appear  to  have 
changed,  but  he  had  henceforth  to  adopt  different  means  to 
obtain  them.  His  place  in  the  counsels  of  the  new  King 
would  no  longer  be  determined  by  the  personal  friendship  of 
the  monarch.  For  his  position  in  the  new  state  of  things  he 
had  to  trust  to  the  need  the  government  would  feel,  in  a  time 
of  bankruptcy  and  invasion,  for  the  support  of  the  most 
powerful  man  in  England,  and  to  the  distant  possibility  of 
his  some  day  succeeding  to  the  throne.  As  this  was  ground 
less  secure  than  the  complete  confidence  of  the  King,  he  had  s 
henceforward  to  treat  the  political  forces  in  the  country  with 
greater  respect.  He  could  no  longer  fly  openly  in  the  face  of 
general  opinion,  persecute  popular  champions,  tamper  with 
the  privileges  of  London,  or  repeal  with  contumely  the  Acts 
of  Parliament.  But  his  action  in  the  last  year  of  King 
Edward  had  already  impressed  men  with  suspicions  that  time 
could  never  efface. 

"When  on  June  21  Edward  died  at  his  manor  of  Shene, 
John  of  Gaunt  lent  his  loyal  support  to  the  proceedings  that 
ensured  the  succession  of  his  nephew.  Until  Eichard  was 
firmly  seated,  no  one  was  strong  enough  to  retaliate  on  the 
Duke,  and  his  aid  was  readily  accepted  until  after  the  coro- 
nation. The  policy  natural  to  that  moment  of  crisis  was  the 
reconciliation  of  all  parties  under  the  new  King.  No  time 
was  lost  in  accomplishing  this.  The  boy  ruler  began  work  at 
Shene  on  the  day  after  his  grandfather's  death.  The  Earl  of 
March  and  William  of  Wykeham  had  already  returned  to 
Court,  and  were  present  with  John  of^  Gaunt  at  the  ceremony 
of  the  surrender  of  the  Seals. ^  The  same  day  a  deputation 
from  the  city  arrived  at  the  manor.  The  King,  standing  by 
his  grandfather's  body,  acted  the  part  of  peacemaker  between 
the  greatest  city  and  the  greatest  lord  in  the  dominions 
over  which  he  had  been  so  prematurely  called  to  reign.  At 
his  instance  John  of  Gaunt  stepped  up  and  embraced  the 
members  of  the  deputation  one  after  another.  A  similar 
reconciliation  took  place  between  the  Duke  and  William  of 
Wykeham,  prior  to  the  formal  issue  of  pardons  for  the  benefit 

'  Feed.,  iv.  1. 


70  SOCIETY  AND  POLITICS  1377-81 

of  the  Bishop.^  Peter  de  la  Mare  was  at  once  released  from 
Nottingham  Castle.  His  journey  to  London  through  the 
towns  and  villages  on  the  road  was  a  triumphal  procession, 
which  the  chronicler  compares  to  the  return  of  Thomas  a 
Becket  from  exile.  In  London  the  citizens  honoured  him 
with  costly  presents,  which  it  was  their  custom  to  offer  to 
distinguished  strangers,  much  as  people  now  offer  the  freedom 
of  a  city.^ 

Although  the  King  had  meanwhile  come  to  Westminster, 
it  was  not  for  some  weeks  that  the  mourning  for  his  grand- 
father was  ended,  and  the  coronation  ceremonies  begun.  At 
last,  on  July  15,  the  King  made  his  triumphal  entry  into  the 
city,  where  the  Londoners  welcomed  with  enthusiasm  the 
return  of  royal  favour  in  his  person.  The  modesty  and 
affability  of  the  Duke  and  Lord  Percy,  as  they  rode  in  front  of 
the  King  through  the  streets,  were  remarked  by  all,  in  contrast 
to  their  conduct  at  St.  Paul's  a  few  months  back.  Nothing 
could  be  more  courteous  than  the  way  in  which  they  requested 
the  crowd  to  make  way.  Times  were  changed,  and  manners 
with  them.^ 

Next  morning  the  long  rites  and  ceremonies  of  coronation 
took  place  in  the  Abbey,  and  were  followed  by  a  great  banquet 
in  "Westminster  Hall,  to  which  all  the  bishops,  earls,  and 
barons  were  invited.  The  crowd  of  onlookers  was  so  great 
that  the  Duke  as  Seneschal  and  Lord  Percy  as  Marshal  had 
to  ride  up  and  down  the  Hall  on  great  horses  to  make  room 
for  the  servants  bearing  the  dishes.  A  fountain  running 
with  wine  played  in  the  Palace  grounds,  and  the  King's  subjects 
of  all  classes  were  invited  to  come  and  drink  there  undis- 
turbed.'* In  the  evening  Richard  created  four  new  earls. 
The  new  Earl  of  Nottingham  was  a  mere  boy,  the  new  Earl 
of  Huntingdon  was  a  Poitevin  lord,  rewarded  by  this  barren 
title  for  his  loyalty  to  our  waning  power  in  France.  The 
other  two  creations  were  of  much  greater  importance.  The 
King's  uncle,  Thomas  of  Woodstock,  the  supporter  of  his 
brother,  John  of  Gaunt,  was  made  Earl  of  Buckingham,  and 

'  Wals.,  i.  330-1 ;  Chron.  Ang.,  148-50  ;  Fcad.,  iv.  14. 

'■^  Chron.  Ang.,  150-1 ;  Wals.,  ii.  44,  line  5. 

'^  Wals.,  i.  331.  *  Chron.  Aug.,  153-62. 


Av&.  1377     ECLIPSE   OF  THE   DUKE'S  PAETY  71 

Lord  Percy  was  raised  to  the  earldom  of  Northumberland.^ 
From  a  purely  selfish  point  of  view,  Percy  had  played  his 
game  well  during  the  last  year.  He  had  forced  politicians  at 
Westminster  to  recognise  his  importance,  and  he  this  day 
realised  a  great  part  of  his  ambition.  His  brief  alliance  with 
John  of  Gaunt  seems  to  have  come  to  an  end  at  this  point  or 
soon  after.  Except  when  his  interest  pointed  in  that  direc- 
tion, he  felt  no  more  loyalty  to  the  Duke  than  he  did  to  the 
Commons,  and  the  Lancastrian  alliance  was  ceasing  to  be  a 
profitable  investment. 

These  promotions  were  the  last  act  of  concession  that  the 
King  and  his  advisers  found  it  necessary  to  make  to  the 
Duke's  party  for  some  time  to  come.  As  the  boy  was  now 
firm  on  the  throne,  it  was  safe  to  dispense  with  his  uncle's 
assistance.  Four  days  after  his  coronation,  a  Council  was 
chosen  from  which  John  of  Gaunt  and  the  new  Earls  of 
Buckingham  and  Northumberland  were  excluded.  Two  of 
their  supporters,  Lord  Latimer  and  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury, 
were  put  on  as  a  concession  ;  but,  judging  from  the  actions  of 
the  government,  the  real  power  on  the  Council  must  have 
lain  with  the  Earl  of  March  and  Bishop  Courtenay,  backed 
by  the  influence  of  the  Queen-mother  over  her  son.  The 
Duke,  finding  the  position  untenable,  retired  into  private  life 
at  Kenilworth,  leaving  his  rivals  to  learn  by  time  and  ex- 
perience how  hard  it  was  to  defend  the  country  against  the 
enemy,  if  his  powerful  assistance  was  alienated.  Before  he 
left  London  he  told  the  King  that  in  case  of  need  he  could 
bring  into  the  field  a  greater  army  than  any  other  lord  in  the 
kingdom  ;  but  he  was  careful  to  withhold  all  help  till  he  could 
get  his  own  terms.  At  present  the  government  had  no  need 
of  his  services,  and  felt  no  fear  of  his  displeasure.  A 
humiliation  was  inflicted  on  him  which  showed  that  the  late 
policy  of  heaping  gifts  on  the  House  of  Lancaster  had  come 
to  an  end.  The  castle  of  Hertford,  which  he  had  been 
fortifying  and  enlarging  with  a  view,  it  is  said,  to  making  it 
his  principal  residence,  was  resumed  by  the  new  King,  much 
to  the  delight  of  the  monks  of  the  neighbourhood,  who  were 

'  Feed.,  iv.  9  ;  Wals.,  i.  338  ;  Froissart,  ii.  chap.  Iviii. 


72  SOCIETY   AND   POLITICS  1377-81 

being  forced  to  supply  the  workmen  with  timber  from  their 
estates.  About  the  same  time  Earl  Percy  resigned  the  Lord 
Marshal's  staff,  which  he  had  obtained  as  the  price  of  treachery 
to  the  popular  cause.  His  affairs  in  the  North  gave  him 
convenient  reason  or  excuse  for  withdrawing  temporarily  from 
the  centre  of  politics.  He  retired  to  hibernate  like  the  snake, 
and  did  not  again  appear  until  he  had  once  more  changed  his 
coat  to  suit  the  season.^ 

—  The  difficulties  that  beset  the  new  government  were  of  an 
unusually  pressing  and  formidable  nature.  It  seemed  not 
unlikely  that  the  fire  and  sword  which  we  had  so  long  carried 
through  France  were  coming  back  across  the  Channel  to 
familiarise  the  cities  and  hamlets  of  England  with  the  horrors 
of  invasion.  The  combined  French  and  Spanish  fleets  were 
cruising  in  the  Channel  unopposed.  Rye,  Dartmouth,  Ply- 
mouth and  other  towns  were  taken  and  sacked.  The  Isle  of 
Wight  was  occupied,  and  an  army  landed  in  Sussex  which 
made  itself  master  of  several  places  and  castles  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood. The  force  was  so  large  that  it  was  expected  they 
would  march  into  the  heart  of  the  country ;  but  fortunately 
they  preferred  to  remain  within  touch  of  their  fleet.  Their 
operations  were  of  the  nature  of  an  occupation  rather  than  of 
a  raid,  for  they  only  retired  before  the  winter  storms,  not 
because  any  force  was  sent  against  them.  The  capture  of  the 
Isle  of  Wight,  the  destruction  of  so  many  important  and 
flourishing  towns,  and  the  long  stay  of  a  French  force  on  the 
mainland  of  Sussex,  were  not  events  that  could  be  lightly 
passed  over.  Such  a  disgrace  had  not  been  known  for  more 
than  a  generation.  It  was  a  decided  failure  on  the  part  of 
the  new  government,  and  unless  it  could  be  retrieved,  there 
was  no  doubt  that  those  around  the  King  would  again  be 
forced  to  call  in  John  of  Gaunt  to  their  aid.  During  all  these 
national  calamities,  instead  of  heading  our  fleet  and  our 
armies,  he  was  ostentatiously  employing  himself  in  hunting 
and  country  sports  at  Kenilworth.  Men  shook  their  heads 
over  the  story  of  a  French  prisoner  who  declared  that  if  the 
English  had  made  John  their  King,  the  late  invasion  of  our 
shores  could  not  have  taken  place.     His  policy  of  sulking  was 

'  Wals.,  i.  339-40  ;  Chron.  Ang.,  163-5  ;  Fmd.,  iv.  10,  the  Council. 


Oct.  3377        'OLD   PAELIAMBNTAEY  HANDS'  73 

already  beginning  to  tell,  and  he  could  await  the  result  with 
confidence,^ 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Estates  in  the  autumn  of  1377  the 
Commons  were  in  a  strong  position,  owing  to  the  disasters 
and  bankruptcy  to  which  the  Government  had  to  confess. 
The  members  came  up  to  Westminster  prepared  to  revive  the 
aggressive  policy  of  the  Good  Parliament.  It  was  at  this 
time  the  unfortunate  custom  of  the  electors  to  send  up  new 
men  almost  every  year.  Nothing  could  have  so  broken  the 
continuity  of  parliamentary  effort  as  this  change  of  personnel. 
The  election  of  persons  experienced  in  ways  and  means  at 
Westminster  was  particularly  necessary  during  this  period, 
for  each  fresh  House  of  Commons,  after  its  election,  sat  for  a 
few  weeks  and  was  then  dissolved,  so  that  no  man  could  learn 
his  trade  in  the  brief  course  of  one  Parliament.  It  was  all 
the  more  desirable  that  the  same  person  should  be  returned 
year  after  year.  Yet,  as  the  facts  show,^  this  was  very  far 
from  being  generally  the  case.  The  county  members  in  the 
fourteenth  century  were  knights  or  franklins  who  regarded 
parliamentary  duties  as  a  burden.  If  they  consented  to  take 
their  turn  once  and  again  at  doing  the  business  of  the  country 
at  Westminster  some  spring  or  autumn,  they  insisted  on  going 
back  to  spend  the  rest  of  their  lives  in  war  abroad  or  local 
affairs  at  home.  For  this  reason  there  did  not  exist  a  class 
of  leaders  of  the  Commons  such  as  grew  up  in  the  days  of  the 
Stuarts,  when  the  same  Parliament  sat  for  years  together,  and 
a  member  became  a  public  man  by  profession.  Peter  de  la 
Mare  himself  never  served  in  more  than  three  successive 
assemblies,  and  was  returned  only  for  half  the  Parlia- 
ments of  the  years  1376  to  1384.  It  is  necessary  to  bear 
in  mind  this  difference  between  the  medieval  and  modern 
House  of  Commons.  Yet  in  October  1377,  so  great  was  the 
eagerness  of  the  country  to  renew  the  policy  of  the  Good  Par- 
liament, that,  out  of  seventy-four  knights  of  the  shire  elected, 
as  many  as  twenty-three  were  veterans  of  that  body.^^ 
Their  old  Speaker,  Peter  de  la  Mare,  who,  during  the  servile 

1  Mon.  Eve.,  3 ;  Ghron.  Aug.,  151,  168-9  ;  Wals.,  i.  340,  345  ;  Nicolas, 
Hist,  of  Navy,  ii.  262;  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  70;  Feed.,  iv.  11,  16-17;  Froissart, 
ii.  chap,  lix.  2  Bl.  B.  »  Bl.  B. ;  Wals.,  i.  343. 


74  SOCIETY  AND   POLITICS  1377-81 

Parliament  of  January,  had  been  suffered  to  lie  in  Notting- 
ham Castle,  was  again  in  his  seat  as  member  for  Hereford- 
shire. He  was  once  more  chosen  to  fill  his  old  office  and  the 
part  that  he  had  so  manfully  played  eighteen  months  before. 

The  claims  put  forward  in  the  Good  Parliament  were  de- 
liberately and  successfully  revived.  At  the  instance  of  the 
Commons  a  scheme  of  reform  was  carried  out.  A  new  Coun- 
cil was  elected  in  Parliament.  The  list  was  based  on  the 
Council  as  it  had  been  formed  on  Eichard's  accession,  but 
Lord  Latimer's  name  was  this  time  conspicuously  absent.  It 
was  further  conceded  at  the  request  of  the  Commons  that  the 
Chancellor  and  Treasurer  should  be  chosen  in  Parliament, 
and  for  some  years  this  promise  was  actually  kept.  Not  content 
to  leave  the  expenditure  of  the  war  taxes  to  councillors  whom 
they  had  themselves  helped  to  choose,  the  Commons  insisted 
on  the  nomination  of  two  responsible  receivers  of  the  taxes 
they  were  about  to  vote.  The  King  appointed  William 
Walworth  and  John  Philpot,  two  well-known  London  mer- 
chants and  enemies  of  John  of  Gaunt.  At  the  request  of  the 
Lower  House  the  Lords  confiscated  the  property  of  Alice 
Perrers,  thereby  admitting  an  ordinance  of  the  Good  Parlia- 
ment to  be  valid  in  her  case.  Before  the  Houses  broke  up, 
the  majesty  of  the  Commons  had  been  vindicated  and  their 
power  re-established.^ 

The  winter  closed  down  in  gloom,  and  spring  returned 
bringing  fresh  anxiety.  The  government  seems  to  have  re- 
garded its  prospects  for  the  approaching  year  with  a  feeling 
akin  to  panic.  In  February  it  sent  orders  to  the  Mayor  of 
Oxford  to  repair  the  walls  and  towers  of  the  town  '  in  case  our 
enemies  the  French  invade  the  kingdom  of  England,  which 
God  avert,  as  has  rarely  happened.'  ^  Probably  the  alarm 
was  exaggerated,  and  such  a  precaution  unnecessary.  The 
occupation  of  part  of  Sussex  in  the  preceding  autumn  had 
cost  the  French  a  greater  effort  than  they  were  able  easily  to 
repeat.  The  expedition  had  been  carried  by  a  fleet  of  war 
galleys,  and  several  '  cogs,'  the  first-class  vessels  of  the  period, 
which,  it  was  rumoured,  had  cost  fabulous  sums  to  maintain.^ 

'  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.   5,  7,  sec.  26;   iii.  16,  pets.  viii.  and  ix. ;  iii.   13-15,  and 
Wals.,  i.  343. 

-  Feed.,  iv.  30.  ^  Nicolas,  Boyal  Navy,  ii.  161 ;  Wals.,  i.  345. 


Feb.  1378  THE   DUKE   INDISPENSABLE  75- 

If  England  was  bankrupt,  France  was  not  rolling  in  wealth, 
in  the  middle  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War.  Though  the  re- 
covery of  the  sea  by  the  English  was  impossible  in  the  face  of 
the  allied  French  and  Spanish  fleets,  and  though  the  coasts 
were  at  the  mercy  of  the  enemy,  there  was  probably  no 
serious  danger  that  hostile  armies  would  force  their  way  into 
the  heart  of  the  country.  The  furthest  place  inland  which 
they  ever  reached  was  Lewes. 

Within  a  fortnight  of  their  issuing  this  order  to  the 
Mayor  of  Oxford,  the  governors  of  England  had  come  to 
terms  with  John  of  Gaunt.  It  was  a  great  confession  of 
weakness  and  a  great  triumph  for  the  Duke.  A  Council, 
elected  and  supported  by  Parliament,  and  presided  over  by 
his  bitterest  enemies,  was  obliged  to  allow  that  it  could  not 
carry  on  the  war  without  him.  He  was  not  a  great  general ; 
he  was  not  playing  Marlborough  to  their  Harley  and  St.  John. 
But  he  commanded  such  resources  in  men  and  money  that  his 
aid  was  indispensable  to  the  kingdom  in  time  of  war,  in  spite 
of  his  unpopularity  and  his  many  powerful  enemies.  Before 
the  end  of  February  the  Council  had  selected  him  to  command 
an  expedition  to  St.  Malo.  He  accepted  the  post,  but  on  his 
own  conditions.^  So  passed  away  another  phase  in  political 
history.  The  attempt  made  by  the  rivals  of  the  great  Duke 
to  govern  the  country  without  his  participation  had  ended  in 
failure,  and  he  recovered,  if  not  his  old  supremacy,  at  least 
some  share  of  power.  But  during  these  first  six  months  of 
Eichard's  reign  another  and  a  more  interesting  series  of 
events  had  been  taking  place.  Church  and  State  had  again 
come  into  conflict. 


The  position  and  prestige  of  the  Papacy  when  it  first  came 
across  the  path  of  Wycliffe  in  the  summer  and  autumn  of 
1877  were  of  a  very  peculiar  kind,  arising  from  events  that 
had  astonished  Europe  between  seventy  and  eighty  years  back. 
Philip  the  Fair,  the  most  powerful  of  the  mediaeval  kings  of 
France,  who  ruled  in  glory  before  the  English  came  to  divide 
and  impoverish  the  kingdom,  had  entered  into  conflict  with 

1  Wals.,  i.  367. 


76  SOCIETY  AND  POLITICS  1377-81 

Boniface  the  Eighth,  the  most  powerful  of  those  medigeval 
Popes  who  attempted  to  set  the  yoke  of  the  Papacy  on  the 
necks  of  kings  and  princes  (1300-1307).  The  weapons  used 
in  the  mighty  struggle  that  decided  the  fate  of  Europe  were 
chicane,  slander,  bribery  and  assassination.  After  degrading 
itself  and  its  adversary  in  the  eyes  of  that  and  every  succeed- 
ing age,  the  secular  power  emerged  triumphant,  to  the 
undoubted  advantage  of  mankind.  Boniface  the  Eighth  died 
from  the  effects  of  three  days'  captivity  in  the  hands  of  the 
nobles  of  the  Eoman  Campagna  in  the  pay  of  the  King  of 
France ;  his  successor  perished  suddenly  after  eating  a 
questionable  dish  of  figs.  The  choice  of  the  next  man  to  fill 
the  hazardous  situation  took  the  Cardinals  eleven  months. 
The  affair  was  finally  arranged  by  a  bargain  between  Philip 
and  one  of  the  candidates  standing  in  the  interest  opposed  to 
France.  The  King  offered  this  man  the  votes  of  the  French 
Cardinals  to  secure  his  election,  on  condition  that  he  would 
reverse  the  policy  of  his  predecessors  and  bring  the  Papacy 
into  serfage  to  the  French  Crown.  The  mean  and  ambitious 
wretch  consented,  and  the  King  wisely  took  his  nephews  as 
hostages.  The  election  was  carried,  and  Clement  the  Fifth 
came  to  live  in  France.  Philip,  who  the  year  before  had 
been  to  the  Court  of  Eome  what  the  King  of  Italy  is  to-day, 
an  impious  and  unpardonable  foe,  went  about  in  the  odour 
of  sanctity.  He  had  devised  and  executed  the  grandiose 
plan,  afterwards  revived  by  Buonaparte  and  carried  on  by 
Napoleon  the  Third,  of  'exploiting  the  infallibility,' ^  of  en- 
listing the  forces  of  the  spiritual  world  in  the  service  of 
French  politicians.  For  the  next  seventy  years  of  '  Babylonish 
captivity '  at  Avignon,  the  degradation  of  the  Papacy  was 
complete.  Clement  the  Fifth  was  forced  to  preside  over  a 
trial  in  which  charges  of  hideous  infamy  were  heaped  on 
the  memory  of  Boniface.  But  the  living  Popes  and 
Cardinals  of  Avignon  soon  attained  a  reputation  for  de- 
bauchery and  avarice  as  black  as  that  of  the  dead  pontiff. 
At  their  iniquitous  Court,  benefices  in  every  country  of  Catho- 
lic Europe  were  put  up  for  sale,  and  the  income  spent  in 
licentious   splendour.     In   the   year   in  which   Clement   the 

'  '  Exploiter  I'mfaillibilite.'     Michelet,  ed.  1861,  iii.  98. 


THE   '  SINFUL  CITY  OF  AVENON  '  77 

Sixth  ascended  the  throne  it  was  said  that  a  hundred  thou- 
sand clergy  came  to  Avignon  to  trafl&c  in  simony.^  Petrarch, 
who  grew  up  like  a  fair  flower  amid  the  fungus  growth  that 
surrounded  the  rotting  trunk  of  the  Papacy,  learnt  to  speak  of 
that  Court  with  horror  and  shame,  and  retired  to  the  pursuit 
of  classical  scholarship  in  Italy.  The  indignation  felt  by  all 
honest  men  at  such  a  state  of  things  was  accentuated  in 
England  by  national  jealousy,  and  the  perception  that  the 
French  had  over-reached  us  and  that  the  laugh  was  on  their 
side.  The  Commons  of  the  Good  Parliament,  in  language 
which  seems  more  suited  to  their  successors  in  the  days  of  the 
Gunpowder  Plot  than  to  pious  Catholics,  spoke  in  their  petitions 
of  the  '  sinful  city  of  Avenon.'^ 

For  long  the  Popes  seemed  indifferent  alike  to  the  scandals 
of  their  Court  and  the  ignominy  of  their  servitude.  John  the 
Twenty-second,  who  dabbled  in  theology,  favoured  the  world 
with  some  views  of  his  own  on  the  Beatific  Vision.  This  sign 
of  returning  independence  was  promptly  suppressed  by  the 
Paris  theologians,  and  he  was  forced  to  recant.^  But  as  the 
century  went  on,  his  successors  began  to  remember  the  ancient 
prestige  and  power  of  the  office  they  held.  They  carried  on 
diplomacy  and  war  on  their  own  account,  restored  their 
temporal  power  over  the  Eomagna  and  assailed  Tuscany  by 
the  arms  of  Breton  and  English  mercenaries.  These  devas- 
tating wars  only  served  to  alienate  still  further  the  hearts  of 
the  Italians,  who  began  to  regard  the  Pope  as  a  cruel  foreign 
conqueror.  It  became  clear  that,  unless  Italy  was  to  be  lost 
to  Papal  influence,  the  Pope  must  again  become  an  Italian, 
and  Eome  must  once  more  be  made  the  emporium  of  the 
traffic  in  simony  and  superstition.  In  the  winter  of  1376-77 
Gregory  the  Eleventh  set  sail  from  Marseilles,  landed  near 
Civita  Vecchia,  and  proceeded  to  the  Eternal  City.  He  found 
it  a  mass  of  ruins,  in  whose  midst  he  once  more  pitched  the 
camp  of  the  Church.  The  Lateran  Palace  and  the  quarter 
round  it,  where  his  mighty  predecessors  had  ruled  the  earth, 
were  sunk  in  hopeless  decay.  That  part  of  the  city  was  left 
to  shelter  the  murderous  banditti  that  prowled  like  ghouls 

•  Miclielet,  iii.  415.  '•'  Rot.  Pari.,  ii.  336-9,  pets,  xl-xlviii. 

*  Sismondi,  tome  x.  80-8,  Hist,  des  Frangais,  ed.  1821-44. 


/^ 


78  SOCIETY  AND   POLITICS  1377-81 

through  the  gigantic  monuments  of  ancient  Eome.  The 
Vatican  district  round  St.  Peter's,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
river,  hitherto  an  occasional  residence  only,  was  chosen  as  the 
permanent  seat  of  the  Papacy,  partly  on  account  of  its  prox- 
imity in  time  of  danger  to  the  vast  Mausoleum  of  the  Emperor 
Hadrian,  then  known  and  used  as  the  fortress  of  St.  Angelo. 
Opposite  his  new  quarters,  Gregory  the  Eleventh  could  still 
see  across  the  Tiber  the  Campus  Martins  of  antiquity,  studded 
with  the  ruins  of  theatre  and  circus,  destined  too  soon  to 
be  buried  for  ever  by  the  squalid  alleys  of  the  Papal  town. 
Before  he  had  been  many  months  in  these  strange  sur- 
roundings, so  different  from  Avignon,  so  different  from  any 
other  spot  on  earth,  Gregory  was  induced  to  interest  himself 
in  the  danger  to  which  the  Church  was  exposed  in  England, 
and  to  issue  bulls  in  condemnation  of  the  teaching  of  John 
Wycliffe.^ 

Although  the  English  Church  had  never  repudiated  the 
authority  of  Eome,  she  had  in  the  days  of  Henry  the 
Third  ventured  to  complain  of  Papal  abuses,  and,  above  all,  of 
Papal  taxation.^  As  long  as  she  was  popular  and  respected 
in  England  she  could  afford  to  air  her  grievances  against  the 
Pope.  But  now  that  times  had  changed,  danger  drove  the 
English  prelates  to  shelter  themselves  behind  the  Papacy,  in 
which,  even  in  those  days  of  its  utter  degradation,  they  found 
a  strong  moral  support.  England  was  not  sufficiently  strong 
and  self-conj&dent  to  stand  alone  in  completely  repudiating 
the  most  fundamental  idea  of  mediasval  thought — the  Euro- 
pean Catholicity  of  the  Church.  Of  this  idea  the  Vicar  of 
Christ  was  the  outward  and  visible  sign.  Behind  him  and 
his  authority  the  English  Bishops  sought  refuge  in  the  day 
of  trouble.  Bishop  Courtenay,  the  great  defender  of  the 
Church  at  home,  was  also  the  great  champion  of  the  Papal 
claims.  He  knew,  whether  by  reason  or  by  instinct,  that  the 
place  occupied  by  the  Church  of  England  in  mediaeval  life, 
long  unpopular  and  now  denounced  by  Wycliffe  and  threatened 
by  politicians,  must  stand  or  fall  with  the  power  of  the  Pope. 

'  For  this  account  of  the  residence  at  Avignon,  see  Sismondi's  Hist,  des 
Franqais,  tomes  ix.  x.  xi ;  Sismondi's  Hist,  des  Repub.  Italiennes,  chaps.  48-9  ; 
Michelet,  tome  iii.  ed.  1861. 

^  Maitland,  Ganmi  Law,  passim,  e.g.  pp.  72-3. 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  PAPACY  79 

Nor  was  Wycliffe  himself  slower  than  Courtenay  to  recognise 
that  fear  of  the  anathemas  of  Eome  was  the  chief  sup- 
port of  the  ecclesiastical  system  as  it  then  was.  The  Pope's 
ban  did  not  imply  spiritual  censure  only.  He  could  still 
raise  crusading  armies  to  fight  for  his  cause.  England  was 
already  at  war  with  the  three  principal  nations  of  Western 
Europe,  and  was  being  worsted  in  the  struggle.  If  the 
English  government  had  at  this  crisis  declared  against  the 
mediaeval  Church  system,  seized  part  of  the  wealth  of  the 
English  clergy,  and  deprived  them  of  their  most  obnoxious 
privileges,  the  Pope  could  have  stimulated  the  ardour  of  our 
enemies  by  preaching  a  crusade  against  a  nation  of  heretics. 
Wycliffe  foresaw  that  he  would  not  only  bring  into  the 
alliance  other  princes  and  commonwealths,^  but  that  he 
would  encourage  the  clergy  in  England  to  resist  the  en- 
croachments of  the  State.^  If  blessed  by  Eome,  the  Bishops 
and  prelates  were  likely  in  such  an  emergency  to  prefer  their 
Church  to  their  country.  All  the  difficulties  and  dangers 
which  encountered  Henry  the  Eighth  from  within  and  from 
without,  when  he  effected  the  destruction  of  the  old  ecclesi- 
astical system,  would  have  encountered  Eichard  the  Second 
in  a  far  more  aggravated  form.  Alone,  an  unpopular  Church 
might  have  been  unable  to  resist  the  State ;  supported  by 
the  Pope  and  Catholic  Europe,  she  had  little  to  fear  from  a 
government  already  so  embarrassed. 

In  1376  Bishop  Courtenay  had  come  into  contact  with  the 
government,  in  his  support  of  the  Papal  claims.  Pope  Gregory 
the  Eleventh,  being  at  that  time  at  war  with  Florence  for  his 
own  private  ends,  had  issued  a  bull  of  interdict  against  all 
Florentines  the  world  over.  The  King  of  England,  who  had 
considerable  dealings  with  their  merchants,  ventured  to  take 
those  in  his  dominions  under  his  special  protection  ;  but  in 
defiance  of  the  royal  mandate  the  Bishop  of  London  published 
the  Pope's  bull  at  St.  Paul's  Cross  and  excommunicated  all 
Florentines  in  the  country.  The  King's  Chancellor  sum- 
moned Courtenay  before  him,  and  inquired  why  he  had  pub- 
lished the  bull  without  the  knowledge  of  the  King  and 
Council.  '  Because  the  Pope  ordered  it,'  replied  the  Bishop. 
'  Fasc.  Z.,  264.  ■'  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  276, 


1/^ 


80  SOCIETY  AND  POLITICS  1877-81 

'  Then  choose,'  answered  the  Chancellor,  '  between  suffering 
confiscation  of  your  temporalities  and  recalling  your  words 
with  your  own  mouth.'  Finally,  although  the  Bishop  was 
spared  this  indignity,  he  was  forced  to  recall  the  interdict  by 
proxy.^  The  story  illustrates  the  relations  of  the  English 
government  to  the  Papacy.  If  either  party  had  acted  on 
his  theory,  if  the  King  had  invariably  enforced  the  prohibition 
of  Papal  bulls,  or  if  the  Pope  had  objected  to  its  occasional 
enforcement,  the  breach  with  Eome  would  have  been  brought 
on  at  this  period.  But  it  was  not  the  habit  in  the  Middle 
Ages  to  carry  theory  so  far  as  to  put  it  into  practice. 

Such  was  the  hostile  attitude  of  the  English  government, 
and  such  the  friendly  attitude  of  the  English  Bishops  towards 
the  Papal  claims,  when  Gregory  returned  from  Avignon  to 
Bome  and  commenced  operations  against  Wycliffe.  The 
attack  on  the  reformer  in  February  1377,  which  culminated 
in  the  extraordinary  scene  in  St.  Paul's,  had  been  set  on  foot 
by  Courtenay  and  his  colleagues  without  instigation  or  help 
from  the  Pope.  It  was  probably  the  news  of  their  failure, 
reaching  the  Vatican  early  in  the  spring,  that  induced  Gregory 
to  issue,  in  the  latter  part  of  May,  a  series  of  bulls  to  various 
authorities  in  England,  ordering  the  arrest  of  Wycliffe.  The 
heresies  which  the  Pope  imputed  to  the  reformer  were  not  so 
important  from  their  doctrinal  as  from  their  political  aspect.  \/^ 
Although  abstruse  points  of  doctrine  were  involved,  the  interest 
of  the  accusation  and  defence  was  chiefly  political.  ''The 
heretic  was  standing  for  England  against  Eome,  for  the  State 
against  the  Church.-^/The  bull  asserted  that  he  had  declared 
against  the  power  of  the  Pope  to  bind  and  loose,  and  had 
maintained  that  excommunication  when  unjust  had  no  real 
effect.  He  had  pronounced  it  the  duty  of  the  State  to  secularise 
the  property  of  the  Church  when  she  grew  too  rich,  in  order 
to  purify  her.  He  had  said  that  any  ordained  priest  had 
power  to  administer  any  of  the  Sacraments,  several  of  which 
the  Eoman  Catholic  Church  reserves  to  Bishops  alone.  This 
doctrine  was  the  point  from  which  he  started  in  his  attack  on 
the  prelatic  system.  It  contained  the  germ  of  Presbyterianism. 
The  bulls  at  the  same  time  cleverly  attempted  to  render  him 

'  Cont.  Eulog.,  335  ;  CJiron.  Aug.,  109-11. 


Oct.  1377  WYCLIFEE'S   POPULAEITY  81 

odious  to  his  lay  advocates  by  accusing  him  of  doctrines  sub- 
versive of  State  as  well  as  Church.  He  was  charged  with 
declaring  that  the  '  Saints  are  in  actual  possession  of  all 
things.'  It  was  on  this  speculative  basis  that  he  had,  in  his 
earlier  works,  propounded  a  theory  of  communism,  but  he  had 
always  qualified  it  by  admitting  that  it  was  impracticable,  and 
had  since  let  it  drop  as  he  became  more  engrossed  by  Church 
reform.^ 

Such  were  the  opinions  for  which  he  was  arraigned  by  the 
Pope,  and  which  he  maintained  during  several  months  of  con- 
troversy. The  government  and  people  of  England  were  both 
on  his  side.  He  was  never  in  his  life  so  strong  as  he  was  in 
this  year,  when  he  stood  as  the  national  champion  against 
the  Papacy,  and  spoke  the  national  feeling  against  the  abuses 
of  the  Church  at  home.  Men  had  not  had  time  to  see  how 
far  he  was  leading  them,  and  were  content  with  the  general 
direction.  In  later  years,  when  he  expounded  one  by  one  the 
doctrines  peculiar  to  later  Protestantism,  he  formed  a  powerful 
sect,  but  he  ceased  to  lead  the  nation  or  to  enjoy  the  patronage 
of  the  government.  The  story  of  his  year  of  triumph  is 
quickly  told.  The  bulls  ordering  his  arrest  arrived  about  the 
time  of  Edward's  death.  The  early  months  of  Eichard's  reign 
were  not  a  time  for  further  troubling  the  waters,  and  it  is 
probable  that  the  unsettled  state  of  the  kingdom  and  the 
danger  of  invasion  were  causes  why  the  Bishops  refrained 
from  acting  on  their  orders  when  first  received.  But  they 
soon  had  still  better  reasons  for  postponing  action.  The 
Commons  who  met  in  October  1377  to  renew  the  policy  of  the 
Good  Parliament,  were  furiously  anti-papal.  As  the  House 
was  in  this  temper,  Wycliffe  appeared  in  person  and  presented 
to  the  members  a  defence  of  his  heresies  so  technical,  that  it 
must  have  puzzled  any  honest  knight  of  the  shire  who  tried  to 
understand  it.^  The  Bishops  still  maintained  a  masterl}:' 
inactivity.  They  did  well  to  hesitate  before  beginning  the 
prosecution,  for  the  governors  of  the  kingdom,  as  well  as  the 
Commons,  were  on  Wycliffe's  side.  The  disasters  and  diffi- 
culties of  the  year  had  brought  prominently  before  all  the 

■  Wals.,  i.  353-5.     For  Wycliffe's  eommunism,  see  below,  chap.  vi. 
2  Fasc.  Z.,  245. 


82  SOCIETY  AND   POLITICS  1377-81 

evils  of  Papal  taxation.  As  Parliament  had  pointed  out, 
the  French  ecclesiastics  holding  benefices  in  England  used 
their  endowments  against  the  English  arms  in  France.^  But 
there  was  another  scheme  of  national  robbery  more  extensive 
still.  The  Pope  claimed  and  exercised  the  power  of  taxing  the 
Church  in  his  own  right.  However  great  the  distress  of  the 
country,  the  Papal  collectors  were  always  at  work  gathering 
great  sums  of  money  from  the  monastic  and  secular  clergy. 
In  this  way  the  produce  of  English  land  was  sent  over- sea  to 
pay  for  Gregory's  wars  in  Tuscany  and  the  Eomagna,  while 
the  English  exchequer  was  necessitous,  and  the  English  shores 
undefended. 

Under  these  circumstances  young  Eichard's  advisers 
seriously  considered  the  policy  of  stopping  the  export  of  money 
to  Eome.  Wycliffe,  though  actually  under  the  ban  of  the 
Pope's  bulls,  was  requested  by  the  King  to  draw  up  an  answer 
to  the  question  '  Whether  the  Eealm  of  England  can  legiti- 
mately, when  the  necessity  of  repelling  invasion  is  imminent, 
withhold  the  treasure  of  the  Eealm  that  it  be  not  sent  to  foreign 
parts,  although  the  Pope  demand  it  under  pain  of  censure 
and  in  virtue  of  obedience  due  to  him.'  Wycliffe  used  the 
opportunity  to  draw  up  a  telling  pamphlet  in  which  he 
answered  other  questions  beside  the  one  asked.  '  The  Pope,' 
he  said,  '  cannot  demand  this  treasure  except  by  way  of  alms 
and  by  the  rule  of  charity.  But  this  claim  of  alms  and  all 
demand  for  the  treasure  of  the  realm  ought  to  cease  in  this 
case  of  our  present  need.  Since  all  charity  begins  at  home, 
it  would  not  be  the  work  of  charity,  but  of  fatuity,  to  direct  the 
alms  of  the  realm  abroad,  when  the  realm  itself  lies  in  need  of 
them.'  The  Pope's  claim  rested  on  the  fact  that  the  English 
Church  was  a  part  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Against  this, 
Wycliffe  urged  the  unity  and  self-dependence  of  England,  lay 
and  clerical,  as  one  Commonwealth.  '  The  Eealm  of  England, 
in  the  words  of  Scripture,  ought  to  be  one  body,  and  Clergy, 
Lords,  and  Commonalty  members  of  that  body,'  holding  from 
God  the  power  of  self-defence,  and  therefore  the  power  to 
refuse  Papal  taxation  if  they  thought  right.  Wycliffe  goes  on 
to  strengthen  his  case  by  an  argument  which  he  would  not 

'  Rot.  Pari.,  iii.  19,  22,  23. 


1377      THE  GOVEENMBNT  CONSULTS  WYCLIFPE       83 

have  used  a  few  years  later,  when  all  his  heresies  were  full 
blown.  The  rulers  of  England,  he  says,  ought  to  consider 
that  they  injure  their  fathers  in  purgatory  if  they  allow  the 
money  spent  on  masses  for  the  dead  to  be  sent  to  the  Pope  by 
way  of  taxation.  The  money  ought  either  to  be  used  for 
masses,  or  restored  to  the  heirs  of  the  donors,  who  would  not 
then  be  defrauded.  He  cannot  refrain  from  dragging  into 
the  question  his  proposals  for  disendowment.  There  may,  he 
admits,  be  some  danger  that  the  Church  of  England  will  be 
corrupted  by  riches  when  the  Papal  collectors  are  no  longer 
allowed  to  prey  on  her,  but  '  it  is  clear  that  for  this  there 
remains  the  remedy  that  the  goods  of  the  Church  be  prudently 
distributed  to  the  glory  of  God,  putting  aside  the  avarice  of 
Prelates  and  Princes.'  Such  was  Wycliife's  state-paper.  A 
line  at  the  end  of  the  document  records  that '  here  silence  was 
imposed  on  him  by  our  Lord  the  King  with  the  Council  of  the 
Kingdom  on  these  questions.'  But  the  fact  that  while  under 
the  ban  of  the  Pope's  bulls  he  should  have  been  consulted  at 
all,  shows  how  popular  his  doctrines  had  become  with  the 
heads  of  the  nation.^ 

During  all  these  months,  in  which  the  Bishops  still 
delayed  his  prosecution,  Wycliife  was  busy  defending  himself. 
He  issued  two  papers,  each  containing  a  scholastic  defence 
of  the  nineteen  heresies  condemned  by  the  bulls.^  He  also 
published  anonymously  ^  a  general  attack  on  the  right  of  the 
Pope  to  condemn  men  at  his  pleasure ;  he  argued  that 
such  condemnations  might  be  erroneous,  and  that  in  case 
of  error  the  edicts  had  no  binding  power.  He  appealed  to 
political  common  sense  against  any  other  construction  of  the 
Papal  authority.  '  If  it  were  agreed,'  he  wrote,  '  that  whenever 
the  Pope  or  his  vicar  pretends  to  bind  or  loose,  he  really  binds 
or  looses,  how  does  the  world  stand  ?  For  then  if  the  Pope 
pretends  that  he  binds  by  pains  of  eternal  damnation  whoever 
resists  him  in  acquisition  of  goods  moveable  and  immoveable, 
that  man  is  so  bound.  And  consequently  it  will  be  very  easy 
for  the  Pope  to  acquire  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world.''* 
Wycliffe  had  not  yet  declared  for  throwing  off  the  authority  of 

'  Fasc.  Z.,  258-71.  -  Ihid.  245-57  ;  Wals.,  i.  357-63. 

3  Fasc.  Z.,  481,  note  1.  '  Ibid.  489. 

G  2 


84  SOCIETY   AND   POLITICS  1377-81 

Eome  altogether.  He  only  wished  to  repudiate  it  when  it 
was  wrong.  But  he  had  already  thrown  over  all  respect  for 
a  bad  Pope,  such  as  he  believed  Gregory  to  be,  or  for  Papal 
decrees  which  he  considered  fallacious.  Next  year,  in  ac- 
cordance with  these  views,  he  submitted  his  case  to  the  new 
Pope,  Urban  the  Sixth,  in  the  hopes  that  a  change  for  the 
better  had  come  over  the  Papacy.^  It  was  some  years  yet 
before  he  denied  that  the  Pope  ever  rightly  had,  or  could  have, 
power  of  any  sort  over  the  Church. 

It  was  not  till  close  on  Christmas  that  Sudbury  and 
Courtenay  ventured  to  act  on  their  orders  from  Eome.  On 
December  18  they  began  by  calling  on  the  Oxford  authorities 
to  produce  the  man  whom  the  last  few  months  had  made  so 
famous  and  formidable.  The  Oxonians  were  in  a  great  strait. 
The  bull  that  they  had  received  from  the  Vatican  some 
months  back  bade  them  arrest  Wycliffe  under  pain  of  losing 
all  privileges  held  from  the  Pope.  Now  there  was  not  only  a 
strong  party  on  the  reformer's  side  in  the  schools,  but  it  was 
flatly  against  the  common  law  of  England  to  arrest  a  King's 
subject  in  obedience  to  a  Papal  bull.  A  chronicle  of  the  time 
tells  us  how  the  University  met  the  difficulty.  '  So  the 
friends  of  the  said  John  Wycliffe,  and  John  himself,  took 
counsel  in  the  Congregation  of  Eegents  and  non-Eegents,  that 
they  should  not  imprison  a  man  of  the  King  of  England  at 
the  command  of  the  Pope,  lest  they  should  seem  to  give  the 
Pope  lordship  and  regal  power  in  England ;  and  since  it  was 
necessary  to  do  something  at  the  Pope's  orders,  as  it  seemed 
to  the  University  on  taking  counsel,  the  Vice-Chancellor,  a 
certain  monk,  asked  Wycliffe  and  ordered  him  to  stay  in 
Black  Hall  and  not  go  out,  because  he  wished  no  one  else  to 
arrest  him.  Wycliffe  agreed  to  do  so,  as  he  had  sworn  to 
the  University  to  preserve  its  privileges.'  ^  By  this  collusive 
imprisonment  the  Oxford  authorities  hoped  to  satisfy  the 
incompatible  claims  of  the  Pope  and  the  English  government 
alike,  to  maintain  their  own  dignity  and  to  display  their 
friendship  to  the  accused.  This  year  was  the  high-water 
mark  of  his  general  popularity  with  the  various  parties  in 

'  Fasc.  Z,,  490 ;  De  Ecc,  cap.  xv.  352 ;  Fasc.  Z.,  xxxiii.  note  2. 
2  Qont.  Eulog.  (E.  S.),  348. 


Jait.-March  1378     WYCLIFFE'S   SECOND  TEIAL  85 

Oxford,  as  well  as  in  England.  The  Chancellor,  we  are 
told,  having  taken  the  opinions  of  all  the  masters  in  theology, 
*  for  all  and  by  the  assent  of  all,'  declared  publicly  in  the 
schools  that  Wyclijffe's  condemned  propositions  'were  true, 
though  they  sounded  badly  to  the  ear,'  ^ 

Early  in  the  year  1378,  Wycliffe,  encouraged  by  the 
courteous  and  sympathetic  attitude  of  the  University,  appeared 
at  Lambeth  before  Sudbury  and  Courtenay,  sitting  as  Papal 
commissioners.  Although  he  came  into  court  this  time  with- 
out John  of  Gaunt  at  his  side  to  '  maintain '  his  case,  his 
position  was  stronger  than  at  the  time  of  his  riotous  trial  in 
St.  Paul's  the  year  before.  Then  the  English  Bishops  had 
been  acting  within  the  acknowledged  rights  of  the  Church 
Courts  within  this  country.  Now  the  arrival  of  the  bulls  had 
raised  a  grave  claim  of  Papal  jurisdiction  in  England,  which 
no  one  except  the  Bishops  and  their  followers  was  willing 
to  admit.  Since  last  year  the  King's  councillors  had  asked 
Wycliffe' s  advice  and  constituted  him  their  champion  against 
the  Pope ;  they  could  not  now  for  very  shame  abandon  him 
to  the  enemy.  Just  before  the  trial  began.  Sir  Lewis  Clifford 
arrived  at  Lambeth  with  a  message  from  the  Queen-mother 
to  the  Bishops,  forbidding  them  to  take  any  decided  measures 
against  the  prisoner.  It  was  not  John  of  Gaunt,  but  the 
widow  of  his  rival  the  Black  Prince,  who  thus  interfered.  Her 
late  husband,  whose  memory  made  her  so  dear  and  honourable, 
Wycliffe  regarded  as  a  possible  friend  to  Church  reforms, 
had  he  but  lived.^  Her  message  struck  a  damp  into  the 
hearts  of  the  Papal  commissioners.  They  were  not  absolutely 
forbidden  to  proceed  with  the  examination,  but  they  were 
absolutely  forbidden  to  act  on  its  results.  Although  the 
formalities  of  a  trial  were  begun,  there  was  no  longer  question 
of  really  sending  Wycliffe  to  Eome.  The  monastic  chronicler 
abuses  the  Bishops  as  time-servers  and  poltroons.  What 
were  the  Queen's  orders  compared  to  those  of  the  Vicar  of 
Christ  ?  But  although  it  was  easy  for  the  monks  to  chatter 
in  the  safe  seclusion  of  the  writing-room  at  St.  Albans,  in  the 
real  world  outside  even  the  valiant  Courtenay  shrank  from 
fighting  the   Pope's   battle   against   all   England.     Nothing, 

>  Cont.  Eulog.,  348.  -  Pol.  Works,  ii.  417-8. 


86  SOCIETY  AND  POLITICS  1377-81 

indeed,  was  wanting  to  complete  Wycliffe's  triumph  except  a 
popular  demonstration  in  his  favour,  and  that  was  soon  forth- 
coming. At  an  early  stage  of  the  trial  a  mob  from  the  city 
broke  into  the  Archbishop's  chapel  at  Lambeth,  where  the 
session  was  being  held,  and  interrupted  the  business  with 
characteristic  violence.  '  In  this  way,'  says  the  enraged 
chronicler,  '  that  slippery  John  WycliiTe  deluded  his  inquisitors, 
mocked  the  Bishops,  and  escaped  them  by  the  favour  and  care 
of  the  Londoners,  although  all  his  propositions  are  clearly 
heretical  and  depraved.'  ^ 

The  government  did  not  let  the  matter  rest  here.  Although 
Wycliffe's  imprisonment  at  Oxford  had  been  merely  nominal 
and  collusive,  the  Vice-Chancellor  had  technically  laid  himself 
open  to  the  charge  of  incarcerating  one  of  the  King's  subjects 
at  the  orders  of  the  Pope.  Being  already  in  bad  odour  with 
the  government  for  other  reasons,  he  was  arrested  and  thrown 
into  prison  on  this  ground,^  Henceforth  there  could  be  no 
question  of  the  nullity  of  the  Pope's  inquisitorial  powers  in 
England.  Though  Wycliffe's  popularity  in  high  quarters  soon 
begaii  to  wane,  the  events  of  his  trial  at  Lambeth  had  settled 
this  question  for  good.  When  Church  and  State  in  the  next 
generation  suppressed  heresy,  they  used  the  ecclesiastical 
Courts  and  the  Statute  law  of  the  land  together,  but  not  the 
authority  of  Piome.  The  distinction  may  seem  to  some  nice 
and  unimportant.  It  may  be  said,  persecution  is  persecution, 
by  whatever  tribunals  it  is  inflicted.  Nevertheless  it  was  no 
small  advantage  for  England  that  we  succeeded  in  keeping 
out  the  Pope's  Inquisitors,  though  we  could  not  keep  out  his 
collectors  and  his  pardon-mongers.  The  Papal  Inquisition 
was  not  a  mere  name,  but  a  terrible  and  active  instrument  of 
evil.  It  had  destroyed  the  numerous  and  formidable  rebellions 
of  European  intellect  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  was  at  that 
moment  engaged  in  its  work  of  blood  and  cruelty  among  the 
Waldenses,^  who  continued,  down  to  the  time  when  Milton 
immortalised  their  sufferings  in  a  sonnet,  to  occupy  in 
Christendom  the  position  of  the  Armenians  in  Turkey.  If 
Papal  Inquisition  had  been  permitted  in  England,  the  first 

1  Wals.,  i.  356.  -  Ccmt.  Eiilog.,  349. 

*  Sismondi,    Hist,  des  Frangais,  tome   xi.  212-18,  sub.   ann.    1875,   ed. 
1821-44. 


THE   SPANISH  PEISONEE  87.. 

result  would  have  been  the  suppression  of  Wycliffism  before  it 
had  taken  root.  But  by  excluding  foreign  jurisdiction  over 
heresy,  the  English  took  their  fate  as  a  nation  into  their  own 
hands.  Though  in  the  course  of  years  we  made  many  mis- 
takes in  the  treatment  of  religious  opinion,  we  have  succeeded 
better  by  a  vacillating  course  than  if  we  had  submitted 
ourselves  to  a  merciless  outside  power  whose  policy  of 
repression  knew  not  change.  With  this  one  solid  gain, 
Wycliffe's  year  of  triumph  ended. 


During  the  Spanish  campaign  of  1367,  conducted  by  the 
Black  Prince  on  behalf  of  Pedro  the  Cruel,  there  had  been 
serving  among  the  English  troops  two  knights  named  Shakell 
and  Haule.  These  gentlemen  had  the  good  fortune  to  make 
prisoner  a  Spanish  grandee  named  the  Count  of  Denia.  By 
the  law  of  arms  then  recognised  in  camps  of  chivalry,  the 
Valuable  prize  belonged  to  the  captors  themselves  and  not  to 
the  King  whom  they  served.  The  knights  brought  the  Count 
home  to  England,  but  eventually  allowed  him  to  return  to  his 
country  to  raise  his  ransom,  and  took  his  little  son  in  his  stead 
as  their  guest  and  hostage.  The  redemption  of  prisoners  of 
high  rank  was  then  a  very  important  and  expensive  affair.  A 
few  years  before,  the  English  Government  had  paid  away  a 
tenth  of  the  Parliamentary  grant  of  taxes  for  the  ransom  of 
one  man  ;  ^  the  extortion  of  the  money  requisite  to  redeem 
the  nobles  captured  at  Poitiers  had  goaded  the  French  pea- 
santry to  the  terrible  outbreaks  of  the  Jacquerie.  The  Count 
appears  to  have  found  great  difficulty  in  raising  the  money 
from  his  estates  in  Spain,  for  when  ten  years  had  passed  his 
son  still  remained  unredeemed  in  the  hands  of  the  English 
knights.  At  the  time  of  Richard's  accession  to  the  throne, 
some  negotiations  were  set  on  foot  between  this  country  and 
Castile,  which  made  the  possession  of  the  hostage  of  great 
importance  to  the  English  diplomats.  An  embassy  was 
invited  to  England  to  negotiate  his  redemption  or  exchange.^ 
The   government    sent  for  the  boy,  but  Shakell  and  Haule 

•  Sir  Hugh  de  Chatillon,  4,500Z.     See  Antiquary,  i.  159. 
2  Feed.,  iv.  15 ;  Co7tt.  Eulog.,  342  ;  De  Ecc,  vii.  142. 


88  SOCIETY  AND  POLITICS  1377-81 

refused  to  give  him  up,  and  hid  him  from  the  King's  officers, 
pleading  their  private  right  to  the  ransom.  It  is  hard  not  to 
sympathise  with  them,  for  they  had  lived  long  years  in  the 
expectation  of  making  their  fortunes  by  the  hostage,  who 
by  the  irony  of  fate  was  to  prove  the  cause  of  their  undoing. 
On  their  refusal  to  surrender  him,  Lord  Latimer  and  Sir 
Ealph  Ferrers  lodged  in  the  Marshal's  Court  a  claim  on  the 
prisoner  in  their  own  right.^  It  seems  highly  probable  that 
they  were  men  of  straw  put  up  by  the  government,  or  by 
John  of  Gaunt,  who  was  personally  interested  in  the  success  of 
the  war  against  Castile,  to  whose  throne  he  laid  claim  by 
right  of  marriage.  Believing  their  plea  to  be  a  mere  ruse  to 
take  the  prisoner  from  them,  Haule  and  Shakell  would  not 
bring  him  into  court.  The  Parliament  of  October  1377  took 
up  the  case  and  ordered  them  to  produce  him.  In  the  face  of 
the  assembled  Houses  the  two  knights  positively  refused  to 
obey,  and  were  committed  to  the  Tower  in  consequence  by 
order  of  the  whole  Parliament.^ 

It  is  at  this  point  in  the  story  that  an  impartial  judgment 
as  to  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  the  case  may  be  best  formed. 
The  events  that  followed  threw  such  a  flood  of  religious  and 
party  prejudice  into  the  eyes  of  contemporaries,  that  to  one 
part  of  the  nation  Shakell  and  Haule  ever  afterwards  appeared 
as  contumacious  rebels  against  the  Crown,  to  the  other  part  as 
victims  of  the  ambition  and  cruelty  of  John  of  Gaunt.  The 
unbiassed  historian  will  perceive  that,  though  they  had  a  con- 
siderable grievance,  the  wrong  had  been  done  them  by  the 
State  as  a  whole  and  not  by  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  alone.  It 
was  his  enemies  who  began  the  persecution  of  the  knights. 
The  King's  counsellors,  who  laid  claim  to  the  prisoner  in 
August  1377,^  in  the  same  month  drove  the  Duke  into  retire- 
ment from  public  life.  The  Lords  and  Commons  who  im- 
prisoned the  knights  in  the  following  October  were  opposed  to 
the  House  of  Lancaster,  and  succeeded  in  reviving  the  policy  of 
the  Good  Parliament.  It  was,  no  doubt,  intended  to  use  the 
hostage  for  the  benefit  of  the  Duke's  claim  on  the  throne  of 

1  Rot.  Pari.,  iii.  10  ;  English  Chronicle  (Camden,  1855),  1. 

2  Rot.  Pari.,  iii.  10  and  386. 

=*  The  document  'Super  Financia  Comitis  de  Dene,'  Fc&d.,  iv.  15,  is  dated 
August  4,  1377. 


Aug.  1378  OUTEAGB   IN   THE   ABBEY  89 

Castile.  But  that  claim  had  become  a  national  quarrel,  a  war 
between  England  and  Spain.  It  was  undoubtedly  an  unwise 
war,  but  as  the  State  chose  to  support  it,  Shakell  and  Haule 
could  not  plead  that  their  prisoner  was  going  to  be  used  solely 
to  further  the  private  schemes  of  John  of  Gaunt.  His 
surrender  was  demanded  by  the  government  for  a  national 
purpose.  On  their  moral  right  to  disobey  the  order,  consider- 
ing the  provocation  they  had  received,  different  opinions  may 
be  formed,  but  at  the  time  of  their  committal  to  the  Tower, 
Parliament  regarded  them  not  as  patriots,  but  as  contumacious 
persons. 

They  lay  in  the  Tower  for  nearly  a  year,  resolutely  con- 
cealing from  the  authorities  the  whereabouts  of  their  young 
hostage,  who  for  his  part  remained  faithfully  hidden  out  of 
loyalty  to  their  cause.  At  last  they  abandoned  all  hope  of 
obtaining  justice  from  the  government,  and  broke  prison  with 
violence,  knocking  down  the  gaoler  in  their  escape.^  They 
fled  straight  to  the  refuge  then  open  to  every  one  demanded 
by  the  law — the  Sanctuary  of  Holy  Church — were  received  into 
Westminster  Abbey,  and  lived  there  among  the  monks,  waiting 
for  times  to  change,  or,  as  their  enemies  declared,  planning  to 
escape  abroad  and  take  the  young  Spaniard  with  them.  On 
August  11,  1378,  the  Governor  of  the  Tower,  Sir  Alan  Buxhall, 
came  to  recover  his  prisoners  in  the  teeth  of  Church  privileges. 
He  was  accompanied  by  Lord  Latimer  and  Sir  Ealph  Ferrers, 
the  claimants  in  the  Marshal's  Court  for  the  disputed  right 
over  the  Spanish  hostage.  The  party  that  went  to  make  the 
arrest  included,  therefore,  both  officials  from  the  Tower  in  per- 
formance of  their  duty,  and  private  persons  from  the  Court 
acting  with  the  knowledge  and  support  of  the  Duke.'^  They 
succeeded  in  arresting  Shakell,  after  some  parley,  without  any 
serious  scandal.^  The  rest  of  their  task  was  less  easy.  Haule 
was  in  the  Abbey  Church  itself,  attending  the  mass  which  the 
monks  were  engaged  in  singing.  The  soldiers  entered  the 
nave  and  laid  hands  on  him  to  drag  him  out  of  Sanctuary. 
He,  being  a  courageous  and  hot-headed  man,  drew  his  sword 

»  Cont.  Eulocj.,  342  ;  De  Ecc,  cap.  vii.  142. 

2  English  Chron.  (Camden),  1 ;  Wals.,  i.  377,  379  ;  Chron.  of  London,  72. 

3  Wals.,  i.  377,  '  astu.' 


90  SOCIETY  AND   POLITICS  1377-81 

on  them,  beat  them  back,  and  making  use  of  their  recoil  to 
escape,  turned  and  fled  for  his  Hfe.  His  pursuers  were  close 
upon  him,  and  after  chasing  him  twice  round  the  choir, 
headed  him  off  and  stabbed  him  to  death  on  the  spot.  Per- 
haps the  worst  part  of  the  bad  story  was  that  one  of  the 
attendants  of  the  church,  interfering  to  save  him,  was  killed 
in  the  scuffle.  The  officers  dragged  the  knight's  body  down 
the  aisle  and  flung  it  out  at  the  door.^  The  grave  to  which 
the  monks  carried  him  may  still  be  seen  on  the  floor  of  Poet's 
Corner.  The  outrage  seems  to  have  aroused  Sudbury,  for 
once  in  his  life,  to  bold  and  resolute  action.  He  excommuni- 
cated the  Governor  of  the  Tower  and  all  his  aiders  and 
abettors  in  the  deed,  adding  a  special  clause  to  except  the 
King,  his  mother  and  the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  a  suggestive 
implication  that  tended  rather  to  incriminate  than  to  clear 
them.  The  government  stood  by  their  officers  as  firmly  as 
the  Primate  by  his  clergy.  The  King  ordered  the  reading 
of  the  excommunication  to  be  stopped,  and  the  church  to  be 
reconsecrated.  The  Abbot  of  Westminster,  however,  backed 
by  the  Bishops,  refused  to  allow  the  place  to  be  hallowed, 
and  the  monks'  services  ceased  for  a  while.  The  King 
ordered  the  Abbot  to  appear  before  him,  but  he  refused  to 
come.  Neither  was  Bishop  Courtenay  a  man  to  remain  in  the 
background  in  such  an  emergency.  Every  holy  day,  in  spite 
of  the  royal  orders,  he  read  the  excommunication  afresh  at 
St.  Paul's  Cross,  and  did  his  best  to  stir  up  feeling  against  the 
Duke  in  London.^  The  affair  at  Westminster  had  given  rise 
to  an  open  quarrel  between  Church  and  State  which  continued 
till  the  Parliament  met  in  October,  when  the  whole  question 
of  Sanctuary  was  brought  up  in  all  its  issues  before  that 
assembly. 

The  Parliament  was  held  at  Gloucester  instead  of  London. 
The  monastic  chronicler  declares  that  those  who  meditated 
an  attack  on  Church  privileges  dared  not  hold  this  session 
in  London,  for  fear  that  the  citizens  would  rise  to  protect  the 
Bishops  and  their  cause.^  It  may  be  well  doubted  whether 
the  Londoners  would  have  risen  to  defend  any  ecclesiastical 

1  Wals.,  i.  377-8 ;  De  Ecc,  vii.  150 ;  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  37,  sec.  27. 

2  Wals.,  i.  379  ;  Cont.  Eulog.,  342.  ^  Wals.,  i.  380. 


Oct.  L378  CHUECH    VEBSUS  STATE  91 

privilege,  especially  that  of  Sanctuary,  on  which  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  Parliament  were  to  turn.  Past  events  had  already 
shown,  and  coming  events  were  soon  to  show  again,  that 
there  was  a  strong  Wycliffite  and  reforming  party  in  the 
capital ;  and  it  was  to  the  recognised  interest  of  all  commer- 
cial men  that  the  protection  of  fraudulent  debtors  in  churches 
should  cease.  The  real  reason  why  Parliament  could  not  be 
held  at  Westminster  is  clear  enough.  The  Abbey  was  still 
unconsecrated.  The  Abbot  and  monks  still  defied  the  govern- 
ment. It  would  scarcely  have  been  possible  or  decent  to 
ask  their  leave  to  use  the  Chapter  House  for  Parliamentary 
purposes.  The  position  at  Westminster  would  have  been 
strained,  though  there  would  have  been  little  to  fear  from 
London.  Lords  and  Commons  accordingly  met  at  Gloucester 
in  the  Abbey  of  St.  Peter's,  to  which  was  attached  the  mag- 
nificent edifice  afterwards  converted  into  the  Cathedral  by 
Henry  the  Eighth.  It  was  felt  that  a  great  Parliamentary 
battle  was  impending  between  Church  and  State.  Before  the 
Houses  had  been  sitting  many  days,  Adam  Houghton,  Bishop 
of  St.  David's,  resigned  the  Chancellorship.  It  was  impossible 
for  so  stout  a  churchman  to  remain  in  office  when  the  coun- 
sellors of  the  King  were  about  to  inaugurate  a  direct  attack 
on  Church  privileges.^  He  was  succeeded  by  Lord  Richard 
Scrope,  an  able  and  respected  public  servant.  Scrope's  duty 
was  to  appease  the  anger  of  the  Commons  at  the  unvarying 
ill-success  that  attended  the  war,  in  spite  of  the  continued 
sacrifices  of  the  taxpayer.  He  was  able  to  point  out  that  all 
last  year's  taxes  had  duly  passed  through  the  hands  of  Philpot 
and  Walworth ,  as  the  House  had  ordained.  The  Commons 
demanded  to  be  shown  the  accounts.  The  King  ordered 
Walworth  and  Philpot  to  produce  their  papers,  and  publicly 
explain  the  items  of  expenditure.  No  serious  exposure 
resulted  from  the  inquiry — the  money  had  been  honestly,  if 
not  wisely,  spent.  The  active  inquisition  of  the  Commons 
during  these  years  prevented  any  such  corruption  as  that 
which  had  prevailed  before  the  Good  Parliament.^ 

But  the  business  which  lends  such  particular  interest  to 
the  proceedings  at  Gloucester  was  the  discussion  on  the  Eight 

*  See  Ap.  2  jiQf^  Pari.,  iii.  35  ;  Antiquary,  iv.  204. 


92  SOCIETY  AND  POLITICS  1377-81 

of  Sanctuary.  It  had  been  raised  by  the  violent  sacrilege 
and  murder  in  Westminster  Abbey,  which  seemed  to  put  the 
Church  in  the  right  and  the  State  in  the  wrong.  But  the 
partisans  of  the  State  felt  so  strongly  on  the  general  question 
that  they  did  not  hesitate  to  raise  it  on  the  particular  issue 
of  the  case  of  Shakell  and  Haule.  While  repudiating  the 
homicide,  the  government  maintained  the  right  of  the  King's 
officers  to  make  the  arrest  in  church.  The  reason  of  the 
firm  attitude  adopted  was  that  the  right  of  Sanctuary  had 
become  a  public  nuisance  that  called  aloud  for  remedy.  Any 
criminal  escaping  from  royal  justice  for  felony  or  murder 
had  only  to  reach  the  nearest  church  and  he  was  perfectly 
safe.  The  King's  officers  could  not  touch  him.  The  coroner 
might  come  as  far  as  the  door  and  bargain  with  him.  If  he 
confessed  the  crime,  he  was  then  entitled  to  '  abjure  the 
realm ' — that  is,  to  swear  to  go  into  perpetual  banishment. 
If  he  refused  to  '  abjure,'  the  constables  were  forced  to  besiege 
him  by  sitting  round  the  churchyard  to  cut  off  supplies,  and 
so  starve  him  out.  Sometimes  the  criminal  glided  through 
their  lines  at  night  and  so  made  good  his  escape.^  Sometimes 
he  was  reduced  by  siege  to  come  to  terms  of  '  abjuration  '  with 
his  pursuers.  In  that  case  he  was  dressed  in  a  penitent's  garb, 
a  cross  was  placed  in  his  hand,  and  thus  attired  he  was  let 
loose  on  the  high  road,  under  oath  to  go  straight  to  the  nearest 
port  and  take  the  next  ship  outward-bound.  That  was  the 
most  that  the  officers  of  justice  could  do  to  the  vilest  criminal 
when  once  he  had  taken  Sanctuary.  There  was  not  even 
security  that  he  would  fulfil  his  oath  and  take  himself  out  of 
the  country.  A  clever  thief  would  not  find  it  hard  to  lose 
himself  in  the  crowded  alleys  of  the  seaport  to  which  he  was 
sent,  and  there  continue  his  trade.  Even  if  he  did  go  abroad, 
he  would  run  little  risk  in  returning  to  some  other  part  of 
England  where  he  could  not  be  recognised.^  In  the  Middle 
Ages  there  was  no  detective  system  by  which  a  thief  once 
convicted  would  always  be  known  again  wherever  he  appeared. 
If  he  was  caught  he  was  hanged.  Such  was  the  simple 
theory  of  justice  at  that  time.  There  was  more  to  be  said  for 
it  in  the  days  when  police  supervision  was  impossible  than  in 

'  Liber  Alius,  p.  82  ;  Gross,  86-7.  "  See  Ap. 


SANCTUAEY  93 

the  comparatively  civilised  times  when  Bentham  pleaded  for 
milder  punishments.  It  certainly  was  no  corrective  to  the 
barbarity  of  the  system  to  enable  a  felon  to  escape  by  taking 
Sanctuary.  A  practised  thief  or  murderer  premeditating  a 
crime  could  calculate  on  the  certainty  of  reaching  some 
church  before  arrest,  on  the  probability  of  breaking  through 
the  watch  of  the  King's  officers  and  so  making  his  escape  ;  at 
the  worst,  his  safety  from  the  gallows  was  assured  on  the 
condition  of  carrying  his  trade  to  some  other  part  of  Christen- 
dom. Nothing  more  encouraged  crime  than  this  facility  for 
escaping  the  law,  and  nothing  could  have  more  whetted  the 
cruelty  of  the  judges  against  the  few  victims  whom  they 
succeeded  in  securing.  Bishop  Brunton  of  Rochester,  a  wise 
and  good  man  and  a  true  social  reformer,  actually  made  it  his 
complaint  that  too  few  people  were  executed.  '  Tell  me,'  he 
says, '  why  in  England  so  many  robberies  remain  unpunished, 
when  in  other  countries  murderers  and  thieves  are  commonly 
hanged.  In  England  the  land  is  inundated  by  homicides,  so 
that  the  feet  of  men  are  swift  to  the  shedding  of  blood.'  ^ 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  right  of  Sanctuary  was 
continued  for  so  many  centuries  because  it  was  found  to  be  a 
useful  means  of  getting  criminals  transported  out  of  the 
country.  But  it  could  have  worked  in  this  way  only  in 
cases  of  persons  of  sufficient  position  in  England  to  be  re- 
cognised wherever  they  reappeared.  A  man  of  noble  family, 
guilty  of  crime,  might  prefer  to  stop  abroad  as  a  gentleman 
adventurer,  rather  than  to  walk  in  thievish  ways  in  his  own 
country,  without  name,  property,  or  position.  But  the  ordi- 
nary criminal  of  the  lowest  class,  whom  it  is  most  necessary 
for  society  to  supervise  or  to  put  down,  w^as  only  '  moved 
on  '  by  this  process  to  some  other  part  of  the  island ;  for 
there  was  nothing  to  make  him  keep  the  oath  of  abjuration.^ 
The  enraged  populace  used  sometimes  to  lynch  these  men  as 
soon  as  they  left  the  church  and  appeared  on  the  high  road  with 
the  cross  and  garb  of  the  penitent.^  The  practice  of  Sanctuary 
survived  not  because  it  was  popular  or  useful,  but  because  it 
was  an  old-established  custom  in  an  age  when  reform  was  the 

'  O.  E.  B.,  86  ;  Rot.  Pari.,  iii.  62,  sec.  35.  ^  Gross,  37. 

^  Ibid.  9  ;  Stats,  of  Realm,  9  Ed.  II.  10. 


94  SOCIETY  AND  POLITICS  1377-81 

exception,  and  the  maintenance  of  rights  was  the  rule.  Also 
it  was  a  privilege  of  the  Church,  as  dear  to  her  as  were  her 
other  possessions.  Until  the  power  of  that  great  institution 
was  struck  down  once  for  all,  nothing  was  to  be  won  from  her, 
for  she  would  surrender  nothing  of  her  own  accord.^ 

There  was  another  abuse  connected  with  Sanctuary.  The 
Church  protected  not  only  criminals  but  fraudulent  debtors. 
Men  escaped  with  their  money  and  goods  to  sacred  ground 
and  lived  there  till  they  had  tired  out  their  creditors'  patience 
or  found  opportunity  to  escape.  In  the  neighbourhood  of 
London,  men  who  had  borrowed  large  sums  of  money  from 
city  merchants  made  a  collusive  donation  of  all  their  pro- 
perty to  their  friends,  and  '  fled  to  Westminster,  St.  Martin's 
or  other  such  privileged  places,  and  there  lived  till  their 
creditors  were  forced  to  accept  a  small  part  of  their  debt  only 
and  remit  the  rest.'  ^  The  precincts  of  the  Abbey,  says  Dean 
Stanley,  were  '  a  vast  cave  of  Adullam,  for  all  the  distressed 
and  discontented  in  the  Metropolis,  who  desired,  according  to 
the  phrase  of  the  time,  to  "  take  Westminster." '  ^ 

The  imprisonment  of  genuinely  bankrupt  debtors  has  been 
abandoned  by  the  State  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  its  folly 
was  recognised  by  a  few  reformers  in  the  fourteenth.  Among 
the  extravagances  for  which  the  Lollards  were  denounced  was 
their  proposal  to  abolish  imprisonment  for  debt.^  But  in  the 
case  of  fraudulent  debtors  who  had  money  to  pay,  it  would  have 
been  well  rigorously  to  enforce  the  law,  for  imprisonment  at 
least  forced  them  to  pay  their  debts.  Such  persons  were 
enticed  by  the  immunities  of  Sanctuary  to  deliberately  defraud 
their  creditors. 

""^  As  was  only  too  usual  at  that  time,  such  grievances  were 
'often  remedied  by  violence.  Haule's  death  at  Westminster 
was  a  notorious  but  not  an  exceptional  case.  In  country 
parishes,  too,  refugees  had  their  throats  cut  in  the  church.^ 
The  lawlessness  of  all  kinds  produced  by  the  privilege 
demanded  immediate  remedy.  John  of  Gaunt  intended 
beforehand  to  bring  it  up  in  the  Parliament  at  Gloucester,^ 

'  See  Ap.  -  Rot.  Pari.,  ii.  369,  iii.  37. 

s  Westminster  Abbey  (2nd  ed.).  p.  390 ;  P.  PL,  B,  xx.  282. 
*  Matt.,  211,  214 ;  Fasc.  Z.,  337.  =  Wilkin,  iii.  122. 

6  Wals.,  i.  380     De  Ecc,  266. 


Oct.  1378     THE  PAELIAMENT  OF  GLOUCESTEE  95 

but  the  Archbishop  forestalled  him  b}^  complaining  on  behalf 
of  the  Church.  He  claimed  protection  for  the  Abbey,  and 
recounted  the  story  of  its  late  violation  and  of  the  horrible 
death  of  Haule.  '  Certain  of  the  Lords  '  in  answer  raised  the 
general  question  of  the  privilege  of  Sanctuary,  and  exposed 
the  injury  it  caused  to  the  general  weal.  They  hoped 
'  that  nothing  would  be  seized  nor  encroached  on  by  the  said 
clergy.'  While  admitting  the  right  of  the  Church  to  protect 
crime,  they  called  in  question  the  legal  warrant  by  which 
certain  sanctuaries  claimed  also  to  protect  debt  and  trespass. 
'  And  on  this  there  came  into  Parliament  doctors  of  Theology, 
and  Civil  law,  and  other  clerks  on  behalf  of  the  King,  who  in 
the  presence  of  the  Lords  and  all  the  Commons  made  argu- 
ment and  proof  against  the  prelates  on  the  matter  aforesaid 
by  many  colourable  and  strong  reasons.'  ^  One  of  these 
disputants  was  John  Wycliffe.  The  paper  he  then  read  before 
the  Estates  has  been  fortunately  preserved.'-^  It  shows  the 
lines  on  which  the  controversy  ran  in  these  discussions,  and 
proves  beyond  doubt  that  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  headed  this 
attack  on  ecclesiastical  privilege.  Speaking  for  his  patron 
and  his  party,  Wycliffe  declared  that  he  would  not  attempt  to 
defend  the  abominable  slaughter  of  Haule,  although  he 
pointed  out  that  the  knight  himself  had  been  the  first  to  draw 
sword  in  the  church.^  What  he  undertook  to  defend,  was  the 
action  of  the  officers  in  entering  the  precincts  to  make  the 
arrest.  He  tried  to  show  that  the  privilege  of  Sanctuary  was 
illegal,  though  it  was  probably  as  legal  as  long  custom  could 
make  it.^ 

It  is  far  more  interesting  to  consider  Wycliffe' s  general 
arguments  against  the  righteousness  and  expediency  of 
Sanctuary.  As  is  usual  with  him,  he  begins  from  the  Bible. 
God  established  the  cities  of  refuge  for  accidental  homicide, 
not  for  wilful  crime.  Exodus  xxi.  14 :  '  If  a  man  come 
presumptuously  upon  his  neighbour  to  slay  him  with  guile, 
thou  shalt  take  him  from  mine  altar  that  he  may  die.' ''  The 
right  of  Sanctuary  was  a  flagrant  defiance  of  justice  ;  without 
justice  the  State  could  not  stand.     The  argument  of  '  mercy  ' 

»  Rot.  Pari,  iii.  37,  sees.  27-8.  ^  Chaps,  vii.-xvi.  of  De  Ecc. 

»  De  Ecc,  150,  252,  266.  *  Ibid.  220-7,  229-31.  «  Ibid.  143. 


96  SOCIETY  AND  POLITICS  1377-81 

pleaded  by  the  religious  was  hypocritical.  It  was  not  mercy 
to  rob  a  creditor  of  his  due.^  The  clergy  did  not  forgive  men 
debts  due  to  them."^  '  False  piety  and  unjust  pity  are  to  be 
condemned.'^  He  devotes  much  of  his  pamphlet  to  the 
consideration  of  the  privilege  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
Church  herself.  Such  rights  as  these,  and  the  perpetual 
struggle  for  them,  only  served  to  make  the  clergy  forgetful 
of  the  true  service  of  God.  It  was  his  theory  that  they  would 
be  improved  and  spiritualised  by  the  loss  of  their  worldly 
goods.  In  the  same  way,  he  maintained,  loss  of  worldly 
privileges  would  be  no  less  beneficial.  The  experiment  was 
tried  at  the  time  of  the  Eeformation,  not  wholly  without 
success. 

In  vain  Wycliffe  argued,  in  vain  the  Commons  petitioned 
and  the  Lords  hectored.  From  all  the  mountains  of  talk  in  the 
discussions  at  Gloucester  there  came  forth  the  most  absurd 
legislative  mouse,  in  the  shape  of  a  statute  passed  at  West- 
minster by  the  next  Parliament  in  the  spring  of  1379.  By 
this  act  the  fraudulent  debtor  taking  Sanctuary  was  to  be 
summoned  at  the  door  of  the  church  once  a  week  for  thirty- 
one  days.  If  at  the  end  of  that  time  he  refused  to  appear, 
judgment  was  to  go  against  him  by  default,  and  his  goods, 
even  if  they  had  been  given  away  by  collusion,  might  be 
seized  for  his  creditors.*  This  mild  measure,  which  was 
scarcely  an  interference  with  the  right  of  Sanctuary  itself, 
was  accepted  even  by  the  staunchest  adherents  of  the  Church.'"' 
It  only  took  effect  in  cases  of  fraudulent  debtors,  and  even 
against  them  it  proved  but  a  partial  and  clumsy  remedy.  In 
1393  the  burghers  of  Colchester  complained  that  their  Abbey 
still  afforded  protection  to  such  persons,*^  and  Westminster 
long  remained  the  notorious  asylum  of  men  who  brought  with 
them  their  creditors'  goods.^  As  to  Sanctuary  for"  crime  and 
trespass,  the  statute  of  1379  left  the  law  as  it  had  been.  Yet 
this  compromise,  if  such  it  can  be  called,  appears  to  have 
allayed  agitation  against  the  privilege  on  the  part  of  the  King 
and  Lords.     It  was  not  till  Henry  the  Eighth's  reign  that 

»  De  Ecc,  232.  ^  Ibid.  214-5.  ^  Ibid.  261. 

*  Stats,  of  Realm,  2  E.  II.  2 ;  Rot.  Pari.,  iii.  62.  «  Wals.,  i.  391. 

«  Cutts'  Colchester,  150.  '  Stanley's  West.  Abbey  2nd  ed.),  391. 


1379  WYCLIFFE'S  EEASTIANISM  97 

Sanctuary  was  abolished  in  cases  of  murder,  rape,  and  robbery 
with  violence  or  on  the  highway.  This  was  in  1540.^  In 
1623  it  was  abolished  altogether,^  though  for  many  years 
longer  the  privilege  survived  as  an  anomaly  in  the  slums  of 
Alsatia,  its  last  and  vilest  stronghold. 

The  original  question  of  the  hostage  was  compromised  by 
the  surrender  of  the  young  Spaniard  to  the  King,  and  the 
release  of  the  surviving  knight,  Shakell,  who  was  given  500 
marks  down  and  100  marks  a  year  for  life.^  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  poor  fellow  long  lived  to  enjoy  his  pension  and  to 
abuse  John  of  Gaunt. 

Wycliffe  was  far  from  contented  with  the  miserably  inade- 
quate statute  of  1379,  and  was  disgusted  to  find  that  it  had 
been  made  the  basis  of  a  reconciliation  between  Church  and 
State.  He  brought  out  a  pamphlet,  known  as  '  De  Officio 
Regis,'  in  reference  to  the  general  issues  raised  by  the  late 
events.  The  Church,  he  said,  should  be  under  the  supervision 
of  the  secular  power.  She  had  proved  incapable  of  reform- 
ing herself.  Her  spiritual  heads,  the  Bishops,  Cardinals  and 
Popes,  refused  to  amend  crying  evils.  Therefore,  to  save  the 
efficiency  of  the  Church,  the  State  must  be  called  in  to  act  as 
guardian.  The  King  should  compel  the  Bishops  to  look  to  the 
state  of  the  clergy  in  their  diocese,  and  remove  notoriously 
immoral  and  inefficient  pastors.  The  King  should  enforce 
residence  in  all  parishes,  in  this  case  also  through  the  agency 
of  the  Bishops.  The  King  should  prevent  the  appointment 
of  ignorant  priests,  and  compel  all  clerks  to  study.'*  This 
proposal  is  particularly  interesting,  because  it  foreshadows  the 
peculiarity  of  the  English  Reformation  under  the  Tudor s  and 
Stuarts,  which  was  carried  out  by  the  Crown,  acting  through 
its  servants  and  nominees,  the  Bishops.  Wycliffe  no  doubt 
had  at  one  moment  entertained  hopes  that  such  interference 
by  the  King's  Council  would  follow  the  loud  talk  against  eccle- 
siastical privilege  at  the  Parliament  of  Gloucester.  But  as 
this  feeling  of  animosity  died  down  at  Court,  as  Church  and 
State  became  once  more  friends  and  allies,  especially  after 
the  Peasants'  Rising  of  1381,  he  was  forced  to  abandon  this 

>  Stats,  of  Realm,  32  H.  VIII.  12.     ^  ibid.  21  Jac.  I.  286. 

3  Wals.,i.  411.    1  mark  =  13s.  4dZ.       *  De  Officio  Regis,  cap.  vii.  and  jpassim. 

H 


98  SOCIETY   AND   POLITICS  1877-81 

hope  of  immediate  success.  Yet  he  continued  through  life  to 
preach  the  Erastian  doctrine  he  had  expounded.  This  im- 
plied a  breach  with  the  central  idea  of  political  science  at  the 
time,  that  Church  and  State  were  co-ordinate,  and  that  neither 
could  interfere  with  the  internal  affairs  of  the  other.  Such 
interference  as  there  had  actually  been,  was  rather  that  of 
Church  with  State  than  of  State  with  Church.  The  opposite" 
notion,  that  ordinances  of  the  King's  Council  or  Acts  of 
Parliament  should  be  ultimate  sovereign  authorities  in 
spiritual  affairs,  was  blasphemy  to  a  mediaeval  churchman. 
Another  belief  of  his  contemporaries  to  which  Wycliffe  did 
equal  violence  was  that  the  ecclesiastical  organisation  should 
be  international.  It  was  no  anomaly  that  a  large  pro- 
portion of  holders  of  benefices  in  England  should  be  Italians 
and  French,  although  it  had  long  been  an  application  of  logic 
distasteful  to  English  clergy  as  well  as  laymen.  Wycliffe's 
daring  proposal  in  the  '  De  Officio  Regis  '  was  for  an  English 
Church  governed  by  the  King  and  co-extensive  with  the 
State. 

The  years  1379  and  1380  passed  away  without  any  striking 
event.  They  were  years  of  germination,  not  of  action. 
Wycliffe  for  a  short  while  ceased  to  be  either  the  centre  of 
/politics  or  the  object  of  persecution.  During  two  quiet  years 
of  retirement  at  Oxford  he  thought  out  in  his  study,  and 
began  to  teach  in  his  lecture-room,  the  denial  of  the  doctrine 
of  Transubstantiation.  So  was  brought  into  the  world  the 
greatest  theological  controversy  that  ever  divided  mankind. 
During  these  same  two  years  nothing  remarkable  occurred  in 
war  or  politics.  As  the  military  and  naval  power  and  the 
finances  of  England  sank  steadily  year  by  year,  each  new 
Parliament  with  its  remedies  marked  a  stage  of  decline. 
Taxation  ground  down  the  people,  and  it  seemed  as  if  things 
might  go  on  so  for  ever.  But  underneath,  among  the  ignorant 
and  unconsidered  peasantry  of  the  villages,  was  spreading 
the  spirit  of  revolt. 

The  Parliament  which  passed  the  Act  modifying  the  right 
of  Sanctuary  for  fraudulent  debtors,  met  at  Westminster  in 
April  1379.  It  had  important  financial  business  to  transact. 
The  Chancellor,  Scrope,  confessed  that  the  deficit  was  very 


1377,  79,  '80     TAXATION  OP  THE  PEASANTEY  99 

serious.  Money  must  be  had,  at  all  costs  to  the  taxpayer. 
But  the  existing  burdens  were  already  beginning  to  be  felt 
heavily,  and  the  ordinary  financial  expedients  were  exhausted. 
The  weight  of  taxation  on  exported  wool,  and  on  the  particular 
lands  and  tenements  subject  to  the  usual  tax  known  as  the 
'fifteenth  and  tenth,'  could  not  be  fairly  increased.  Some 
more  complete  assessment  of  income  or  property  was  called 
for  by  the  state  of  the  finances.  In  1377  there  had  been  a 
poll-tax  of  fourpence  a  head.  It  was  now  suggested  that 
another  poll-tax,  on  this  occasion  graduated  according  to  the 
wealth  of  each  individual,  should  be  levied.  All  persons  and 
classes  who  escaped  the  usual  system  of  taxation  would  then 
give  their  share.  The  clergy  would  at  last  be  made  to  pay  in 
proportion  to  their  real  possessions.  The  unknown  wealth  of 
the  monasteries  would  be  tapped  by  assessing  each  monk  at  a 
high  figure.^  A  poll-tax  was  popular  with  the  upper  classes, 
because  the  peasantry,  who  usually  escaped  direct  payments 
to  the  State,  would  be  made  to  help  their  richer  neighbours. 
'  The  wealth  of  the  kingdom  is  in  the  hands  of  the  workmen 
and  labourers  '  was  a  saying  that  took  the  fancy  of  the  lords, 
knights  and  burghers  of  Parliament.^  There  was  much  justice 
in  this  plea  for  a  new  method  of  taxation  to  fall  more  gene- 
rally on  all  wealth.  A  poll-tax  raised  from  all  classes  really 
capable  of  paying  might  have  been  a  useful  way  out  of 
England's  difficulties.  But,  unfortunately,  the  Parliament 
taxed  not  only  wealth,  but  poverty.  The  rulers  of  the  country 
were,  as  usual,  taking  a  leap  in  the  dark.  They  had  no 
statistics,  they  had  no  knowledge  of  the  lower  classes.  They 
did  not  distinguish  between  those  of  the  peasantry  who  could 
bear  some  slight  taxes  and  those  who  could  bear  none  at  all. 
Although  the  richer  were  made  to  pay  in  proportion  to  their 
wealth,  even  the  poorest  was  assessed  at  a  groat.  Labour 
disputes  had  for  a  generation  disorganised  the  country,  social 
discontent  was  rife,  the  government  was  unpopular,  and  the 
war  a  disgraceful  failure.  It  was  unwise  to  choose  such  a 
time  as  this  to  bring  all  the  lower  orders  under  direct  taxation 
by  the  State.     Whatever  other  causes  helped  to  produce  the 

'  Wals.,  i.  392.  -  Cont.  Eulog.,  345. 

H  2 


100  SOCIETY   AND   POLITICS  1377-81 

Peasants'  Eising,  the  poll-tax  policy  was  one ;  and  whatever 
other  effects  the  rising  had,  it  certainly  put  a  stop  to  this  new 
financial  expedient.^ 

Our  ally  the  Duke  of  Brittany  had  been  at  Westminster 
for  some  time,  keeping  high  festival  Math  King  Eichard. 
Meanwhile  the  armies  of  his  suzerain  Charles  the  Fifth,  led 
by  Du  Guesclin,  the  most  famous  warrior  of  the  day,  were 
tearing  the  unfortunate  province  of  Brittany  to  pieces  with  a 
devastating  war.  At  last,  shamed  by  the  repeated  representa- 
tions and  reproaches  of  his  loyal  subjects,  he  consented  to 
return  to  his  post.  He  left  his  pleasanter  quarters  in  England 
on  the  distinct  promise  of  Eichard  and  his  Council  that  an 
expedition  should  be  immediately  sent  to  help  him  drive 
Du  Guesclin  out  of  Brittany.'-  The  money  levied  by  the  poll- 
tax  was  applied  to  the  purpose  :  50,000/.,  it  had  been  calcu- 
lated, would  be  raised  by  this  expedient,  and  a  sum  at  least  as 
great  as  that  would  be  required  to  raise  an  efficient  army. 
But  again,  it  appeared,  a  fatal  and  ridiculous  miscalculation 
had  been  made,  such  as  had  rendered  the  budget  of  1371  use- 
less. The  actual  proceeds  of  the  poll-tax  amounted  to  22,000/., 
less  than  half  the  sum  on  which  they  had  reckoned.  Such  a 
force  as  could  be  raised  with  this  money  was  put  on  board 
the  fleet  at  Southampton,  but  not  before  one  regiment  had 
distinguished  itself  by  violating  a  nunnery  and  harrying 
the  countryside.  It  was  December  when  the  fleet  sailed.  A 
furious  storm  arose  which  drove  back  the  greater  part  of  it, 
and  wrecked  the  remainder  on  the  coast  of  Ireland.  It  is 
satisfactory  to  learn  that  the  offending  regiment  and  their 
brutal  captain,  Sir  John  Arundel,  perished  on  the  rocks.  The 
remnant  of  the  expedition  got  safely  back  to  port,  but  was  not 
sent  out  again.  The  Duke  of  Brittany  never  saw  a  single  man 
of  the  promised  reinforcement.'  Meanwhile  the  King's  advisers, 
as  yet  ignorant  of  the  fate  of  this  expedition,  had  summoned 
a  new  Parliament.  In  January  1380  the  Houses  met  at 
Westminster.  The  season  of  the  year,  unusual  and  incon- 
venient for  such  an  assembly,  marked  the  critical  circum- 
stances that  necessitated  it.     Chancellor  Scrope  confessed  the 

'  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  57-8.  ^  Froiss.,  ii.  chaps,  xciv.  cv. 

3  Ibid.  ii.  cv. ;  Wals.,  i.  418-25. 


1380  LOSS  OF  THE  BEETON  ALLIANCE  101 

miscalculation  that  had  been  made  about  the  poll-tax.'  All 
the  money  that  had  accrued  from  it  had  been  sunk  in  the 
expedition  to  Brittany,  and  not  a  groat  remained  for  other 
necessary  expenses.  The  Commons  alone  could  open  the 
purse-strings  of  the  taxpayers  and  save  the  kingdom  from 
calamity.  A  few  days  later  the  news  must  have  reached 
Westminster  that  the  expedition  for  which  all  else  had  been 
sacrificed  had  returned  shattered  to  Southampton,  unable  to 
face  the  winter  gales.  The  Lower  House  at  once'  proceeded, 
in  a  most  businesslike  manner,  to  put  an  entirely  new  set  of 
advisers  and  ministers  around  the  King.  At  the  dictation  of 
the  Speaker  the  Council  of  Eegency  was  broken  up,  while  Lord 
Scrope,  unable  to  retain  the  Chancellorship  in  which  he  had 
been  so  continually  unsuccessful,  was  succeeded  by  Archbishop 
Sudbury.^ 

The  Commons  had  won  a  great  triumph.  They  had  made 
a  new  government  according  to  their  fancy.  Unfortunately  it 
was  no  more  successful  than  its  predecessors  in  stemming  the 
tide  of  disaster.  The  King's  uncle,  the  Earl  of  Buckingham, 
was  sent  over  to  aid  the  Duke  of  Brittany  with  a  large  army. 
He  landed  at  Calais  and  took  a  long  march  through  France  as 
far  as  Troyes  before  turning  back  to  succour  our  ally.  The 
reception  of  the  English  when  they  at  last  appeared  at  their 
destination  was  cold.  They  had  come  late,  and  the  Bretons 
had  suffered  by  their  delay.  Charles  the  Fifth  of  France  had 
just  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Charles  the  Sixth.  '  Those 
who  hated  the  father,'  said  the  Duke  of  Brittany  when  he 
heard  it,  '  may  love  the  son.'  The  English  alliance,  he  saw, 
was  a  broken  reed,  and  he  at  once  took  measures  to  get  rid  of 
our  countrymen  from  his  duchy.^  When  this  was  finally 
accomplished,  two  years  later,*  our  last  alliance  in  France  was 
gone.  But  we  still  held  our  forts  on  the  coast,  and  intrigued  arid 
fought  in  Flanders,  where  the  rise  of  Philip  van  Artevelde 
afforded  a  chance  of  making  the  Flemish  towns  a  basis  of 
operations.  For  six  years  more,  although  the  war  taxation 
was  so  severe  as  to  produce  at  one  moment  a  grave  social 
crisis,  we  refused  to  make  terms.    It  was  not  the  stupid  blind- 

»  Rot.  Pari.,  iii.  73.  -  Ibid.  iii.  73 ;  Feed.,  iv.  75. 

^  Froiss.,  ii.  cxi.,  cxii.,  cxvi.,  cxx  ;  Wals.,  i.  440-4,  *  Wals.,  ii.  47. 


102  SOCIETY  AND  POLITICS  1377-81 

iiess  of  a  court  or  dynasty  refusing  to  abandon  claims  in  the 
face  of  facts.  The  whole  nation  was  equally  infatuated.  The 
Commons  would  not  ask  for  peace.  If  it  is  good  that  English- 
men should  '  never  know  when  they  are  beaten,'  that  blissful 
state  of  ignorance  has  been  sometimes  attended  by  disadvan- 
tages of  a  serious  character. 

In  November  a  Parliament  was  again  summoned,  this  time 
to  Northampton  instead  of  Westminster.  The  floods  were  out 
and  the  '  perilous  roads  '  belated  the  lords  and  the  great 
trains  of  attendants  that  they  brought  with  them.  It  was 
some  days  before  enough  had  straggled  in  to  allow  the  com- 
mencement of  business.  The  Chancellor,  Archbishop  Sudbury, 
who  had  been  chosen  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  to  put  our 
lame  finances  on  their  feet,  had  to  tell  as  sad  a  tale  as  ever.^ 
The  wages  of  the  King's  garrisons  on  the  French  coast  were  in 
arrear,  and  the  troops  on  the  point  of  deserting  in  consequence. 
The  King  was  '  outrageously  indebted,'  his  jewels  were  in 
pawn,  and  on  the  point  of  being  forfeited.  It  was,  in  fact,  a 
wet,  miserable  Parliament.  The  members  grumbled  at  their 
uncomfortable  and  ill-provisioned  quarters  in  the  strange 
midland  town,^  and  gave  vent  to  their  temper  in  their  policy. 
The  Speaker  declared  for  them  that  they  wanted  to  know  the 
exact  sum  necessary,  and  that  it  was  to  be  reduced  as  far  as 
possible,  because  the  people  were  '  very  poor  and  of  feeble 
estate  to  bear  any  more  burdens.'  The  King's  ministers 
replied  that  160,000/.  would  be  needed.  The  Commons 
declared  the  sum  to  be  outrageous  and  intolerable.  After  long 
deliberation  they  agreed  that  if  the  clergy  would  undertake  to 
bear  a  third  part  of  the  charge,  100,000/.  should  be  raised  by 
a  poll-tax.  But  two-thirds  of  that  sum  only  should  fall  on 
the  laity,  for  the  clergy,  they  asserted,  held  a  third  part  of 
the  land  of  England.'^  The  feeling  against  the  Church  ran 
high.  The  Commons  petitioned  that  all  the  foreign  monasteries 
should  be  instantly  dissolved,  and  all  foreign  monks  expelled.'* 
This  request  was  refused,  but  the  poll-tax  was  accepted,  and  a 
promise  was  made  by  the  Bishops  that  Convocation  would  do 
its  duty  in  that  matter.     The  clergy,  in  fact,  soon  after  voted 

'  Rot.  Pari.,  iii.  88.  ^  Wals.,  i.  449. 

"  Bot.  Pari,  iii.  89-90.  *  Ibid.  iii.  96,  pet.  20. 


1380-1  THE  EVE  OF  EEBELLION  103 

their  share.^  The  Parliament-men  dispersed  in  mid-winter, 
and  the  roads  in  every  direction  around  Northampton  were 
once  more  blocked  with  long  cavalcades,  slowly  wending  home 
to  every  corner  of  England.  It  is  to  be  wondered  whether  any 
observant  lord  or  knight,  as  he  passed  through  the  squalid 
villages  that  lined  the  highway,  noticed  an  unusual  insolence 
in  the  manners  of  the  peasantry,  saw  crowds  gathered  around 
orators,  or  heard  catchwords  of  revolt.  The  spirit  of  economic 
agitation  had  been  remarked  in  England  for  the  last  thirty 
years  and  more,  and  it  was  now  allied  to  the  spirit  of 
political  rebellion.  Whether  they  suspected  it  or  not,  the 
Parliament-men  had  fired  a  mine  by  the  poll-tax  which  they 
had  voted  for  the  King's  necessities.  The  country  was  on 
the  eve  of  the  Peasants'  Rising. 

'  Wilkin,  iii.  150. 


104  EELIGION 


CHAPTEE  IV 

BELIGION 

THE    SOCIAL   POSITION   AND   SPIRITUAL   INFLUENCE    OF   THE    CHURCH 
IN    ENGLAND.        WYCLIFFE's   ATTACK 

It  is  impossible  to  write  a  history  of  any  mediaeval  period 
without  dealing  at  considerable  length  with  ecclesiastical 
affairs.  The  State  in  modern  times  covers  much  more  of  the 
nation's  history  than  once  it  did.  In  the  Middle  Ages  the 
Church  administered  whole  sides  of  life  which  have  since  been 
put  into  the  hands  of  the  secular  government,  or  left  to  the 
discretion  of  the  individual.  Every  Englishman  has  now  to 
subject  himself  to  the  laws  of  the  State  on  certain  matters ; 
in  everything  else  he  is  his  own  master,  unless  he  chooses 
also  to  bind  himself  voluntarily  by  the  decisions  of  other 
societies.  In  the  Middle  Ages  he  was  not  only  subjected  to 
the  laws  of  the  State  in  its  sphere,  but  to  the  laws  of  the 
Church  in  her  sphere.  He  became  as  much  an  outlaw  by 
disobedience  to  the  one  as  by  disobedience  to  the  other.  Until 
the  latter  part  of  the  fourteenth  century,  this  division  of 
the  national  life  had  caused  but  little  difficulty  in  England. 
In  questions  of  marriage  and  testamentary  succession,  in  the 
punishment  of  sins  not  cognisable  by  the  law  of  the  land,  the 
Church  had  enforced  standards  of  morality  consonant  with 
the  ideas  of  the  time,  with  such  strictness  or  laxity  as  was 
acceptable  to  the  conscience  of  the  nation.  Neither  in 
intellectual  matters  had  any  one  seriously  questioned  her 
teaching.  Heresy  was  practically  unknown  in  our  island. 
But  in  the  later  years  of  the  fourteenth  century  two  move- 
ments came  to  the  front,  both  tending  in  the  same  direction. 
One   attack   is   directed   against   the  temporal  and  political 


WYCLIPFE  AND  THE  CHUECH  105 

power  of  the  clergy  and  tlie  enforcement  of  moral  discipline 
by  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts.  The  other  is  directed  against 
intellectual  beliefs  which  the  Church  taught.  These  two 
currents  of  opinion,  temporarily  driven  underground  by 
coercive  power,  have  since  arisen  and  triumphed.  They  have 
in  the  course  of  time  set  the  individual  entirely  free  from  any 
compulsory  obedience  to  priests. 

There  are  therefore  two  reasons,  one  general  and  the  other 
special,  for  treating  ecclesiastical  affairs  at  some  length.  In 
any  mediseval  period  the  Church  is  almost  as  important  as 
the  State.  In  this  particular  period  the  revolt  began  which 
has  since  become  an  accomplished  revolution.  The  spirit  of 
this  revolt  is  written  large  on  the  literature  of  the  period,  and 
is  found  in  the  growing  hostility  of  the  laity  to  the  clergy. 
But  it  would  not  perhaps  attract  so  much  attention  from  the 
modern  historian,  if  it  had  not  been  formulated  by  the 
vigorous  intellect  of  Wycliffe  in  a  body  of  Protestant  doctrine. 
He  was  a  man  suited  for  such  a  task.  He  was  not  a  careful 
statesman,  fit  to  gain  some  slow  step  of  reform  by  repudiating 
all  ideas  not  immediately  acceptable  to  men.  He  had  an 
eager  hatred  of  what  was  wicked,  and  could  never  be  kept 
from  denouncing  what  he  regarded  as  such.  Similarly,  in 
matters  of  belief  he  invariably  exposed  what  he  thought  was 
false.  These  characteristics  of  the  chief  no  doubt  ensured 
the  temporary  failure  of  the  party.  Yet  it  may  well  be 
questioned  whether  they  did  not  in  the  long  run  further  the 
cause  of  resistance  to  Catholic  orthodoxy.  But  although  we 
can  only  estimate  the  real  importance  of  the  Wycliffite  move- 
ment by  considering  it  in  relation  to  later  events,  we  must 
examine  the  particular  conditions  that  gave  rise  to  its  first 
appearance.  It  is  indispensable  to  know  the  state  of  the 
Church  in  the  fourteenth  century  and  the  character  of  the  reli- 
gious instruction  which  she  at  that  time  gave  to  the  nation, 
in  order  to  understand  Wycliffe  and  his  doctrines. 

The  Medigeval  Church  ^  was  divided  into  two  parts,  the 

'  In  the  attempt  that  I  have  made  in  this  chapter  to  give  some  representa- 
tion of  the  state  and  influence  of  the  Church  at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  I  have  relied  very  much,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  authorities  quoted,  on 
the  consensus  of  opinion  of  satirists  and  other  writers  of  the  period.  I  have 
indeed   as   far  as  possible   trusted   to   the   documents   of  more   official  and 


106  EELIGION 

t-' regular,  and  the  secular  clergy.  The  regular  clergy  were  those 
living  under  a  rule,  as  canons,  monks,  and  friars.  The 
secular  clergy  consisted,  not  only  of  the  higher  and  lower 
grades  of  priests  and  prelates  with  cure  of  souls,  but  of  a  vast 
army  of  '  clerks,'  engaged  in  every  manner  of  employment. 
But  the  division  was  not  exclusive,  for  the  regular  clergy 
could  hold  rectories  and  other  places  usually  belonging  to 
seculars,  and  secular  prelates  could  hold  canonries.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  secular  clergy  were  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  Bishops  ;  while  the  regular  clergy  were  not.  The  friars 
were  entirely  exempt  from  all  authority  save  the  Pope's,  and 
were  a  continual  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  secular  clergy.  The 
monasteries,  too,  were  many  of  them  free  from  the  visitation  of 
the  Bishops,  and  all  of  them  had  their  own  organisation  and 
officers  independent  of  the  rest  of  the  Church.  Like  the  friars, 
they  looked  to  Eome  for  support,  and  the  Pope  was  politic 
enough  never  to  grant  the  episcopacy  much  power  over 
monastic  affairs ;  thus  the  Papacy  could  safely  rely  on  the 
support  of  the  regular  clergy.  The  Bishops  were,  in  fact, 
responsible  for  the  seculars  only,  but  over  them  their  power 
was  nearly  absolute,  and  their  influence  great,  for  good  or  for 
evil. 

It  was  the  characteristic  of  these  Bishops  that  they  were 
men  of  the  world.  With  the  exception  of  Brunton  of 
Eochester,  an  enthusiast  who  abused  his  colleagues  so  fiercely 
that  we  must  suppose  he  differed  from  most  of  them,  the 
bench  was  composed  of  shrewd  men  of  business,  taking  the 
institutions  of  Church  and  State  as  they  found  them,  and 
carrying   on   the   affairs   of    both   on    the   traditional   lines. 

-     Wykeham,  Courtenay,  Spencer  and  Sudbury  were  four  very 

responsible  persons,  but  it  is  impossible  to  get  much  idea  of  the  actual 
influence  of  an  institution  from  official  documents,  for  they  only  represent 
what  the  institution  is  meant  to  be  and  not  what  it  is.  As  to  the  satirists, 
Mark  Pattison  has  said  a  wise  word  about  this  kind  of  historical  evidence. 
'  Satire  to  be  popular  must  exaggerate,  but  it  must  be  an  exaggeration  of 
known  and  recognised  facts.  .  .  .  Satire  does  not  create  the  sentiment  to 
which  it  appeals.'  P.  104,  Essays,  vol.  ii.  (Nettleship's  edition), '  Popular  View 
of  the  Clergy.'  Mark  Pattison  has  also  made  a  perfectly  just  remark  about  the 
satirists  of  this  particular  period  in  saying  that  they  were  '  not  indiscriminate  ' 
in  their  attacks,  but  singled  out  particular  points  in  Church  practice  and 
government  (p.  105).  It  is  on  the  consensus  of  this  discriminating  opinion, 
including  persons  so  different  as  Chaucer,  Gower,  Langland,  Wycliffe,  Bishops 
Brunton  and  FitzEalph,  that  I  in  part  rely. 


THE  BISHOPS  107 

different  men,  but  this  description  applies  to  them  all.  The 
other  Bishops  are  only  names  to  us  ;  but  we  know  the  secular 
offices  which  they  held,  and  we  have  the  opinion  of  contem- 
poraries that  worldliness  was  their  characteristic,  and  avarice 
their  vice.  They  are  not  accused,  even  by  those  whom  they 
persecuted,  of  atrocious  crime  or  of  sinful  life.  Eespectability 
compassed  them  about.  They  were  many  of  them  hard- 
working men,  but  they  worked  hard,  not  at  the  visitation  of 
their  dioceses  and  the  supervision  of  their  spiritual  courts, 
but  at  the  administration  of  the  country  and  at  the  royal 
finance  and  diplomacy. 

The  method  of  appointment  by  the  King  rendered  these 
characteristics  inevitable.  If  the  chapters  of  the  cathedrals 
had  been  really  free  to  elect  whom  they  wished,  the  Bishops 
might  have  numbered  among  them  men  without  experience  or 
interests  bej'^ond  the  sphere  of  the  Church.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  Pope  had  been  able  to  appoint  his  candidates,  he 
would  have  filled  the  English  Episcopate  with  Cardinals  from 
the  churches  of  Eome  and  Avignon.  He  was,  indeed,  able  to 
thrust  his  foreigners  into  the  next  greatest  places  in  the 
Church.  But  the  King  would  not  allow  him  to  denationalise 
the  episcopal  bench  itself.  Not  a  single  Bishop  of  the  period 
bears  a  foreign  name.  But,  although  the  Pope  could  not 
appoint  whom  he  liked,  no  Bishop  could  be  appointed  without 
his  consent  and  co-operation.  Of  those  who  filled  English 
sees  in  1381,  all  had  either  been  chosen  in  accordance  with 
Papal  provision  or  bull,  or  had  been  afterwards  confirmed  by 
the  Pope,^  a  process  which  was  apparently  considered  essen- 
tial to  the  validity  of  an  election.^ 

This  practice  was  in  contradiction  to  the  law  of  England. 
The  Statute  of  Provisors  had  forbidden  the  interference  of  the 
Pope  in  the  elections.  But  although  the  nation  that  wel- 
comed the  Act  and  the  Parliament  that  passed  it  intended  it 
to  come  into  force,  the  King  who  consented  to  it  had  no  such 
intention.  Edward  the  Third,  and  Eichard  after  him,  found 
that  the  easiest  way  to  obtain  the  high  places  of  the  Church 
for   their   servants  and  friends  was  to  act  in  alliance  with 

'  I  have  test'id  every  case. 
2  E.g.  Moberly's  Life  of  Wykeham,  ed.  1893,  pp.  61-72. 


108  EELIGION 

Eome  in  this  one  matter.  The  Pope  sent  his  bull  to  support 
the  royal  candidates  for  benefices  or  bishoprics.  In  return 
the  King  allowed  the  Pope  to  appoint  his  Cardinals  to  other 
places  in  the  English  Church.  Neither  party  felt  strong 
enough  to  act  without  the  other.  If  the  King  had  enforced 
the  statute  against  provisions,  the  Pope  would  have  lost  his 
hold  on  the  patronage.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  Pope's 
support  had  been  withdrawn  from  the  royal  nominees,  the 
Church  in  England  might  have  ventured  to  reject  them.  In 
1360  the  Black  Prince  and  his  father  obtained  a  bishopric  for 
a  man  unable  even  to  read  his  letters,  by  persuading  the  Pope 
to  approve  the  appointment,  against  his  own  better  judgment 
and  the  will  of  the  English  Primate.^ 

The  King's  candidates  were  generally  selected  from  his 
staff  of  civil  servants,  the  '  clerks  '  who  had  carried  on  the 
business  of  the  country  with  success  and  honesty,  and  risen 
at  Westminster  by  their  talents  and  diligence.  Hence,  though 
the  Bishops  were  likely  to  be  neither  fools  nor  knaves,  they 
were  still  less  likely  to  be  saints.  William  of  Wykeham, 
though  perhaps  above  the  average  of  his  brother  Bishops,  is 
thoroughly  typical  of  them.  He  rose  by  Court  favour  on 
account  of  his  abilities  and  his  public  services.  As  his 
usefulness  to  the  King  increased,  he  was  promoted  from  one 
benefice  to  another.^  His  work  was  not  to  preach  in  the  one 
rectory  or  sing  in  the  many  stalls  that  he  held,  but  to  build 
the  King's  castle  at  Windsor  and  to  sum  his  accounts  in  the 
chambers  of  the  Palace.  Finally,  he  crowned  his  double 
career  by  becoming  Chancellor  of  England  and  Bishop  of 
Winchester  in  the  course  of  one  month.  A  diligent  inquiry 
shows  that,  out  of  twenty-five  persons  who  were  Bishops  in 
England  or  Wales  between  1376  and  1386,  as  many  as 
thirteen  held  high  secular  offices  under  the  Crown,  and  several 
others  played  an  important  part  in  politics.  Sometimes  they 
were  sent  abroad  as  ambassadors  to  foreign  Powers.^  Others 
had  risen  by  favour,  not  of  the  King,  but  of  one  of  his  sons. 
The  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells  had  been  private  chaplain  to 

'  Diet,  of  Nat.  Biog.,  under  Stretton. 
-  Moberly's  Life  of  Wykeham ;  Neve's  Fasti,  passim.        ^  Higden,  ix.  24. 


THE  BISHOPS  109 

the  Black  Prince,  and  had  served  him  as  Chancellor  of 
Gascony.^  The  Bishop  of  Salisbury  was  similarly  attached 
to  John  of  Gaunt,  and  served  him  as  Chancellor  of  Lan- 
caster.^ 

It  was  for  services  such  as  these  that  many  of  the  English 
Bishops  had  risen  to  the  bench,  by  the  nomination  of  the 
King,  but  with  the  consent  of  the  Pope.  In  a  few  cases, 
however,  the  Supreme  Pontiff  still  ventured  to  assert  his 
authority  by  nominating  his  own  friends.  He  never  thrust 
foreigners  into  the  bishoprics  ;  there  were  many  Englishmen 
at  Avignon  high  in  his  favour  whom  their  country  could 
accept,  but  whom  he  could  still  trust  to  remember  their 
patron.  Archbishop  Sudbury  himself,  the  son  of  a  poor 
Suffolk  gentleman,  had  been  sent  abroad  as  a  boy  to  work  his 
way  up  the  Church.  Employed  first  as  a  household  chaplain 
to  Innocent  the  Sixth,  he  had  become  one  of  the  Auditors  of 
the  Council,  at  Avignon.  His  great  patron  had  then  sent  him 
back  to  England  as  Chancellor  of  Salisbury  diocese.  In  1361 
he  had  been  made  an  English  Bishop ;  in  1375  Gregory  the 
Thirteenth  raised  him  to  the  Primacy.^  If  the  Pope  had 
always  used  his  patronage  so  harmlessly  as  in  this  case,  his 
interference  would  have  been  less  disliked.  But  his  appoint- 
ments were  sometimes  more  open  to  criticism.  In  1370  the 
rich  bishopric  of  Norwich  became  vacant.  At  the  request  of 
a  soldier  of  fortune  in  his  Italian  army,  he  gave  the  see  to 
the  captain's  brother,  Henry  Spencer,  who  had  himself  served 
in  the  wars  of  Italy.  The  new  Bishop  was  consecrated  on  the 
spot  and  sent  back  to  England  to  take  charge  of  the  diocese.'* 
It  seems  as  if  Spencer  would  have  had  a  fairer  field  for  his 
talents  if  he  had  confined  himself  to  the  profession  of  arms. 
In  the  Peasants'  Eising  of  1381  his  brief  and  effective  cam- 
paign in  the  Eastern  Counties  broke  the  back  of  the  rebellion ; 
two  years  later  he  headed  the  English  armies  in  Flanders. 
He  always  remained  a  strong  partisan  of  the  Papacy,  as  his 
patron  had  no  doubt  expected  when  he  gave  him  the  bishopric. 
But  even  Papal  nominees,  like  Sudbury  and  Spencer,  soon 

'  Nicolas,  Hist.  Peerage,  sub  Bps.  of  Bath.  ^  jg;ist,  Ecc.  Ang.,  555. 

^  MS.  Calendar  of  Lambeth  Register,  first  pages  of  vol.  Sudbury,  1375-81. 
*  Godwin's  Catalogue ;  Hist.  Ang.  Ecc.,  546  ;  Froiss.,  ii.  cap.  19i. 


110  EELIGION 

became  connected  with  English  politics  and  held  office  under 
the  English  Crown. 

The  close  connection  between  the  bench  of  Bishops  and  the 
royal  ministry  was  not  a  new  corruption  that  had  lately  crept 
into  the  Church.  It  was  a  tradition  from  the  days  of  the 
Norman  kings,  when  the  first  Williams  and  Henries  trained 
and  organised  an  effective  bureaucracy.  It  had  been  of  un- 
doubted service  to  the  country  for  long  generations,  and  in  the 
fourteenth  century  the  leaders  of  the  clergy  were  still  on  a  level 
with  laymen  as  administrators  and  politicians,  for  they  had 
been  selected  as  Bishops  on  account  of  the  qualities  they  dis- 
played in  these  secular  capacities.  But,  although  the  system 
was  valuable  as  a  means  of  rewarding  services  to  the  State, 
it  was  a  more  questionable  boon  to  the  Church.  The  Bishops 
could  not  and  did  not  give  that  attention  to  the  state  of 
their  dioceses,  and  the  conduct  and  teaching  of  their  priests,' 
which  was  at  this  time  so  loudly  called  for.  Those  who  were 
interested  in  the  efficiency  of  the  Church  for  the  performance 
of  her  spiritual  duties  could  not  be  blind  to  her  shortcomings, 
and  could  not  but  be  shocked  at  the  very  small  extent  to 
which  these  shortcomings  troubled  the  Bishops.  Wrapped  up 
in  their  secular  business,  they  were  quite  contented  if  all 
things  proceeded  on  traditional  and  authorised  lines.  If  the 
Pope  approved  indulgences,  they  were  a  legitimate  piece  of 
business.  If  rectories  were  empty,  or  filled  with  underpaid 
vicars,  it  had  always  been  so.  But  to  a  man  like  Wycliffe,  to 
whom  the  practice  and  teaching  of  religion  were  questions  of 
life  and  death,  such  an  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  prelacy 
seemed  treason.  He  ascribed  their  indifference  to  their  wealth, 
and  to  their  secular  employments.  It  was  his  object  to  spiritual- 
ise the  Church  by  severing  her  connection  with  the  State. 
'  Caesarean  clergy,'  as  he  called  all  those  who  held  secular 
dominion,  were  and  must  always  be  worldly  men.  As  years 
went  on,  and  he  found  that  the  prelates  clung  closer  to  their 
secular  offices  and  their  worldly  schemes  for  money  and 
power,  he  came  to  regard  prelacy  as  too  closely  connected  with 
these  evils  ever  to  be  dissociated  from  them.  His  other  specu- 
lations were  already  driving  him  towards  Presbyterianism, 
and  he  came  finally  to  the  conclusion  that  the  higher  orders 


'C^SAEBAN  CLERGY'  111 

of  prelates,  to  whicli  the  '  Csesarean  clergy '  belonged,  were 
both  unnecessary  and  mjurious  to  the  Church.  But  even 
before  he  had  arrived  at  his  later  Presbyterian  position,  he 
always  regarded  with  particular  horror  a  clergyman  holding 
secular  office.  It  was  one  of  his  earliest  doctrines,  but  as  he 
grew  older  he  only  held  it  more  and  more  strongly.  When 
Archbishop  Sudbury  was  murdered  by  the  mob,  in  his  double 
capacity  of  Primate  and  Chancellor,  Wycliffe,  much  as  he 
deprecated  the  act,  could  not  refrain  from  remarking  that  the 
Archbishop  died  in  sin,  holding  the  most  secular  post  in  the 
kingdom.^  The  violence  of  Wycliffe's  language  against  the 
worldliness  of  the  prelates  was  equalled  by  similar  complaints 
of  Bishop  Brunton,  as  orthodox  a  Catholic  as  ever  wore  the 
mitre,^  The  poet  Gower,  who  wished  for  ecclesiastical  reform 
on  old  Catholic  lines,  raised  the  same  complaint  that  the 
Bishops  served  two  masters,  God  and  the  world.^ 

While  reformers  of  such  very  different  types  saw  in  the 
worldly  avocations  of  churchmen  a  grave  injury  to  religion, 
the  system  was  being  criticised  by  the  laity  from  the  layman's 
point  of  view.  The  monopolisation  of  all  secretarial  work  by 
the  clergy,  and  of  the  principal  offices  of  State  by  the  Bishops, 
necessary  as  it  once  was,  would  have  become  a  serious  check 
to  progress  if  it  had  been  perpetuated.  The  time  was  now 
come  for  some  protest  to  be  made.  There  were  ready  to 
hand  intelligent  and  highly  trained  lawyers,  like  Knyvet, 
and  gentlemen,  like  Serope,  well  capable  of  conducting  the 
business  of  the  country.  It  was  by  the  help  of  this  class  of 
public  servant  that  England  afterwards  rose  to  greatness,  and 
by  this  class  her  affairs  are  still  honourably  conducted.  The 
petition  of  the  Commons  against  the  tenure  of  office  by  the 
clergy  was  therefore  not  altogether  a  mistake.  It  was  a  step 
in  the  right  direction,  although  it  was  found  undesirable  to 
sever  the  connection  of  the  clergy  with  the  public  offices  at 
one  blow.  The  result  of  the  petition  of  1371  was  that  for 
some  time  laity  alternated  with  clergy.  Now  a  lav^^yer,  now  a 
bishop,  now  a  knight  held  the  Chancellor's  Seal  or  the  Trea- 
surer's staff. 

'  De  Officio  Regis  (1379),  27-9  ;  Pol.  Works,  i.  243-4,  273-81 ;  DeBlas.,  194. 
2  O.  E.  B.,  79-81.  ^   Vox  Clam.,  bk.  iii. ;   Conf.  Am.,  Prologue,  32. 


112  EELIGION 

One  spiritual  duty  which  the  Bishops  conspicuously 
neglected,  with  important  consequences  to  the  nation,  was  to 
administer  justice  in  their  Courts  Christian.  As  might  be 
expected,  they  themselves  had  not  time  to  preside  in  person, 
but  committed  their  powers  to  delegates.  Before  these  tri- 
bunals came  cases  of  marriage  and  divorce,  clerical  suits  for 
arrears  of  tithe  and  other  ecclesiastical  dues,  probate  of  wills 
and  prosecution  for  sins  punishable  by  the  Church.  There 
was  apparently  little  complaint  made  of  their  jurisdiction  in 
marriage  and  divorce.  But  the  probate  of  wills,  on  the 
other  hand,  of  which  the  ecclesiastics  had  the  monopoly,  was 
made  a  means  of  extortion  on  a  large  scale.  The  laity,  in  self- 
defence,  attempted  to  secure  fair  terms  for  themselves  by  acts 
of  Parliament  and  injunctions  from  the  lay  courts,  but  always 
in  vain.  The  complaint  continued  loud  until  the  grievance 
received  drastic  remedy  at  the  hands  of  Henry  the  Eighth.^ 

The  suits  of  clergy  against  laity  for  payment  of  arrears  of 
tithe  and  other  dues  were  all  decided  before  Church  tribunals. 
It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  in  such  cases  a  clerical  judge 
would  be  more  impartial  than  the  officials  of  the  Administra- 
tive Courts  of  France  and  Germany,  who  to-day  decide  cases 
between  government  employes  and  ordinary  citizens.  Chaucer's 
energetic  Archdeacon  inflicts  severe  punishment  in  his  court 
for  refusal  of  tithe  : — 

For  smale  tythes  and  for  smal  offringe, 
He  made  the  peple  pitously  to  singe. 

In  bad  times  the  strict  demand  for  tithe  pressed  hard  on 
the  poor,  and  the  odium  of  enforcing  it  in  cases  where  it  was 
a  real  hardship  fell  on  these  courts.^  But  the  feeling  was 
often  embittered  on  both  sides  by  the  objection  that  the  laity 
often  felt  towards  making  payments  to  non-resident  rectors,  or 
to  monasteries  and  Bishops  who  had  appropriated  the  tithe 
of  a  parish.  The  movement  for  refusal  of  such  dues  was 
at  this  period  a  marked  thing.  It  was  a  means  of  giving  ex- 
pression to  general  discontent  with  the  Church.  The  clergy 
complained  that  the  King's  Courts  often  supported  the  illegal 

'  Bot.  Pari.,  ii.  335,  iii.  25  ;  Pol.  Poems,  i.  323  ;  Stats,  of  Realm,  15  Ed. 
III.,  i.  6  ;  4  H.  V.  8 ;  21  H.  VIII.  5.  ^  j^jatt.,  151. 


LAW  AND  LAWYEES  113 

refusal  of  the  laity  to  pay  tithe,  by  placing  injunctions  and 
other  hindrances  in  the  way  of  its  recover3%^ 

In  all  these  cases  of  marriage,  testament  and  ecclesiastical 
dues,  the  Church  courts  were  acting  simply  as  law  courts.  As 
such,  they  do  not  appear  to  have  been  more  corrupt  than  the 
secular  tribunals.  Contemporaries  divide  their  abuse  equally 
between  the  two.  It  would  have  been  Wycliffe's  part  to  praise 
the  lay  lawyers  and  the  lay  courts  at  the  expense  of  their 
traditional  enemies  and  rivals,  but  he  was  too  true  a  reformer 
to  equivocate  in  this  manner.  He  unsparingly  denounced  all 
lawyers  and  their  procedure.  Like  the  other  writers  of  his 
day,  he  bore  witness  to  their  corruptions  and  extortions.  They 
were,  he  said,  the  instrument  of  any  villainy  which  great  men 
wished  to  perpetrate.  They  helped  them  to  oppress  the  poor, 
of  whom  Wycliffe  was  always  a  champion,  sometimes  to  his 
cost."^     In  '  Piers  Plowman  '  the  lawyers  fare  no  better  : — 

Thou  had  bet  meet  a  mist  on  Malvern  Hills, 

Than  get  a  mom  of  their  mouth  till  money  be  them  shewed. 

Langland's  bitterest  description  of  the  evils  of  his  time  and 
the  triumph  of  corruption  is  that  '  law  is  grown  lord.'  The 
jurymen  of  the  lay  courts,  or  '  sisours  '  as  they  were  called, 
and  the  officers  of  the  Church  tribunals,  he  condemns  together 
as '  sisours  and  summoners,'  the  bond  servants  of  '  Lady  Meed,' 
the  enchantress.^  The  lawyers  and  jurymen  seem  to  have 
been  notable  for  corruption  in  a  corrupt  age.  The  Commons 
stated  that  felons  kept  jurors  to  maintain  them  against  honest 
men,  much  as  a  modern  swindler  is  said  in  some  countries  to 
*  keep '  a  judge.  Lollard  writers  declared  that  jurors  would 
often  forswear  themselves  '  for  their  dinner  and  a  noble.'  '* 

The  Church  courts,  as  law  courts,  were  therefore  no  worse 
than  the  royal  tribunals.  They  could  have  been  reformed 
at  least  as  easily  as  the  Chancery  Court.  Indeed,  after  the 
Eef  ormation  there  is  no  reason  to  think  they  were  particularly 
corrupt ;  the  acts  for  regulating  their  extravagant  fees  were 
really  enforced  when  once  the  independent  status  of  the  Church 
had  been  broken  by  the  Tudors.     Until  the  nineteenth  century 

'  Stats,  of  Realm,  1  E.  II.  13.  ^  Matt.,  234-7. 

»  P.  PL,  C,  i.  163-4  ;  A,  iii.  279  ;  C,  xxii.  372. 
*  Bot.  Pari,  iii.  140  ;  Matt.,  183  ;  C.  of  B.,  199. 


114  EELIGION 

tlieir  services  in  probate  and  divorce  were  retained  as  part  of 
the  machinery  of  the  law. 

The  inquisitorial  power  of  the  Church  courts  over  morals 
was  another  matter.  In  this  capacity  they  appear,  not  solely 
as  tribunals  to  administer  the  law,  but  as  the  spiritual 
guides  of  the  individual  conscience.  Their  jurisdiction  was 
connected  with  the  doctrine  of  Absolution.  Every  Christian 
was  expected  to  repent,  to  confess  his  sin  to  the  priest, 
and  to  perform  such  penance  as  his  confessor  directed.  By 
these  three  acts  he  became  purged  of  his  sins.  But  many 
men,  whether  they  repented  or  not,  neither  confessed  to 
priests  nor  submitted  to  punishment.  Such  sinners  were 
summoned  before  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts,  convicted  of  their 
sin  by  witness,  and  condemned  to  the  penance  proper  to  the 
case.  In  this  capacity  the  tribunal  was  acting  its  part  in  the 
system  of  Absolution.  The  sins  over  which  the  courts  had 
jurisdiction  had  therefore  originally  been  punished  by  corporal 
penance,  and  in  the  thirteenth  century  the  Church  had  for- 
bidden the  courts  to  receive  money  in  commutation.  In  the 
fourteenth  century  this  rule,  if  it  had  ever  been  regularly 
enforced,  was  relaxed,  and  even  the  theory  of  those  in  authority 
was  altered.^     Fines  for  sin  were  allowed. 

The  change  was  a  proof  that  the  Church  jurisdiction  over 
sin  was  beginning  to  be  out  of  place.  Such  jurisdiction  had 
meaning  and  use  in  ages  when  the  priest  was  the  real  moral 
authority.  When  the  proudest  of  the  Kings  of  England  sub- 
mitted to  be  flogged  by  the  monks  of  Canterbury  before  the 
tomb  of  Becket,  his  subjects  might  be  expected  to  submit  to 
the  infliction  of  penance  by  Bishops'  courts.  Now  times 
had  changed.  He  would  have  been  a  bold  priest  who  proposed 
to  scourge  John  of  Gaunt  for  the  murder  of  the  knight  in 
"Westminster  Abbey.  Laymen  such  as  those  depicted  in  the 
'  Canterbury  Pilgrimage  '  would  be  less  willing  than  their 
ancestors  to  humiliate  themselves  at  the  sentence  of  ecclesias- 
tics whom  they  were  accustomed  to  despise.  Hence  commu- 
tation of  penance  for  fine  may  have  arisen  as  much  from  the 
pride  or  self-respect  of  the  laity  as  from  the  avarice  of  the 
clergy.     However  this  may  be,  the  change  tended  still  further 

'  SeeAp. 


LANGLAND,  WYOLIFFE  AND  CHAUCEE  115 

to  reduce  the  real  spiritual  authority  of  the  courts  in  their 
interference  with  private  life.  Such  interference  became  an 
absurdity  when  the  officers  of  the  Church  treated  sin  as  a 
means  of  filling  her  coffers,  instead  of  regarding  it  as  the  great 
enemy  with  which  she  had  for  ever  to  contend.  The  Con- 
fessional was  similarly  corrupted.  The  friars  more  especially, 
treated  their  powers  of  confession  and  absolution  as  a  means 
of  getting  money.  The  two  instruments  of  the  sacrament  of 
penance — the  courts  and  the  confessional — being  notoriously 
corrupt,  became  at  this  period  the  centre  of  much  discussion 
and  more  abuse.  Langland  exposed  and  derided  the  practices 
of  Summoners,  Pardoners,  and  friar  Confessors ;  but  he  believed 
in  penance  and  absolution,  he  wished  to  recall  the  Church  to 
her  old  path  of  duty,  and  so  to  bring  the  laity  back  to  the 
pious  obedience  of  ages  that  had  gone  by  for  ever.^  Wycliffe 
was  not  content  with  Langland's  proposal  to  return,  which  he 
saw  to  be  impossible  ;  he  disbelieved  the  theory  of  absolution 
by  penance,  and  he  disliked  Church  jurisdiction  over  sin. 
Chaucer,  untroubled  by  speculation,  recorded  what  he  saw, 
and  what  the  man  in  the  street  said  ;  so  he  gibbeted  the 
Summoner,  who  hangs  in  the  sight  of  all  to  this  day. 

The  father  of  English  poetry  had  an  eye  for  what  was 
humorous.  He  describes  an  energetic  Archdeacon  in  charge 
of  a  court : — 

Whilom  ther  was  dwelling  in  my  conntree 

An  Erchdeken,  a  man  of  heigh  degree, 

That  boldely  dide  execucioun, 

In  punishing  of  fornicacion, 

Of  wicchecraft,  and  eek  of  bauderye. 

Of  diffamacioun  (slander)  and  avoutrye  (adultery), 

Of  chirche-reves  and  of  testaments, 

Of  contractes,  and  of  lakke  of  sacraments, 

And  eek  of  many  another  maner  cryme, 

Which  nedeth  nat  rehersen  at  this  tyme ;  , 

Ofusure,  and  of  symone  also. 

But  certes,  lechours  did  he  grettest  wo. 

There  were  not  wanting  officials  to  bring  up  offenders. 
The  vilest  of  mankind  made  fortunes  by  preying  on  the  vices 
they  were  supposed  to  correct.     The  Summoner  corresponded 

*  P.  PI.,  C,  passtos,  viii-ix  ;  C,  xvii.  28-42. 

I  2 


116  EELIGION 

to  the  blackmailer  of  to-day,  wlio  lives  on  the  scandalous 
secrets  he  has  discovered,  except  that  the  blackmailer  carries 
on  his  private  enterprises  under  the  ban  of  the  law,  while  the 
Summoner  was  a  Church  official.     Chaucer's  Archdeacon 

'  hadde  a  Sumnour  redy  to  his  hond, 
A  slyer  boy  was  noon  in  Englelond ; 

si't  of  spies 

For  snbtilty  he  hadde  his  espiallie, 

That  taught  him,  where  that  him  mighte  availle. 

He  coude  spare  of  lechours  oon  or  two 

To  techen  him  to  foure  and  twenty  uio. 

This  false  theef,  this  Sompnour,'  quod  the  Frere, 

'  Had  alwey  baudes  redy  to  his  hond, 

As  any  hatik  to  lure  in  Englelond, 

That  told  him  al  the  secree  that  they  knewe  ; 

His  master  laiew  not  always  what  he  wan. 
Withouten  mandement,  a  lewed  man 

summon  excommiuiucaiioii 

He  coude  somne  on  peyne  of  Cristescurs. 
And  they  were  gladde  for  to  fiUe  his  purs, 

at  the  ale-!iouse 

And  make  him  grete  festes  atte  nale.  ■* 

And  right  as  Judas  hadde  purses  smale, 
And  was  a  theef,  right  swiche  a  theef  was  he ; 
His  maister  hadde  but  half  his  duetee.'  ^ 

The  end  of  the  story  is  that  the  devil  carries  off  the 
Summoner  while  he  is  trying  to  blackmail  an  old  woman 
for  12(?.2 

The  officers  who  presided  over  the  Bishops'  courts, 
whether  prelates  or  inferior  clergy,  were  scarcely  better  than 
their  satellites.  |  It  was  an  age  of  very  widely  spread  im- 
morality in  all  classes,  so  contemporaries  said.  Nobles  and 
gentlemen  were  not  ready  to  endure  the  annoyance  and 
humiliation  of  doing  penance  for  their  sins,  but  were  quite 
prepared  to  compound  for  them  handsomely.  The  prelates 
were  on  their  side  ready  to  receive  money  for  their  courts. 
The  convenience  was  equally  great  for  the  clergy ;  many  of 
them  were  unwilling  to  give  up  partners  whom  the  rule  of 
celibacy  deprived  of  their  legal  status.     To  be  able  to  buy  off 

1  Friar's  Tale.  2  ]2,id. ;  see  Ap. 


LAY  SINNEES  AND   CLEEICAL  JUDGES  117 

inquisition  was  particularly  convenient  for  them.^  The  lower 
classes,  too,  appear  to  have  often  preferred  to  incur  fines 
rather  than  to  discontinue  their  habits.^  But,  as  we  should 
expect,  penance  was  more  frequently  inflicted  on  the  poor, 
who  were  not  too  proud  to  submit  to  it,  and  could  less  afford 
to  be  perpetually  buying  exemption.^  The  wealthy  not  only 
paid  fines  instead  of  penance,  but  sometimes  gave  ailnually  a 
lump  sum  to  the  more  corrupt  courts,  to  prevent  inquiry. 
Through  such  depths  was  religion  dragged  in  the  transition 
from  mediaeval  to  modern  institutions.  It  was  a  despicable 
makeshift  to  avoid  the  enforcement  of  an  outworn  theory 
of  Church  jurisdiction,  which  was  ceasing  to  have  any  basis 
in  reality.* 

Between  the  Bishops  and  the  parish  priests  stood  the 
Archdeacon,  Deans  and  Cathedral  clergy.  It  was  in  the 
distribution  of  these  places  that  there  was  the  openest  field 
for  the  pluralist,  and  the  busiest  work  for  the  political  jobber. 
It  was  out  of  this  class  of  benefices  that  the  Pope  was 
rewarded  for  his  complaisance  in  the  matter  of  bishoprics. 
The  foreigners  he  appointed  were  nearly  all  of  them  Cardinals. 
They  never  came  near  England,  except  when  their  master 
sent  them  over  as  his  ambassadors  or  legates.  They  were 
many  of  them  French,  or  had  connections  and  interests  in 
France,  for  the  Papal  Court  did  not  leave  Avignon  until  1377. 
It  was  probably  true  that  much  of  the  money  collected  from 
their  property  in  England  was  used  over  there  against  the 
English  arms.  This  struck  the  imagination  of  Parliament 
as  a  reductio  ad  ahsurdtom.^  An  attempt  to  restrain  such 
appointments  had  been  made  during  the  first  war  by  the  Acts  of 
Provisors.  The  Pope  was  thereby  forbidden  to  make  appoint- 
ments in  England.  The  King,  for  reasons  already  alluded 
to,  never  enforced  the  statutes,  and  the  money  still  streamed 
abroad  to  the  Cardinals  year  by  year.  The  Commons  of  the 
Good  Parliament  sent  up  a  sheaf  of  angry  petitions  with  the 
same  unceasing  but  vain  complaint.     The  King  answered  them 

1  Bot.  Pari.,  ii.  313-4 ;  P.  PI,  A,  iii.  45-7. 

2  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  166.  ^  0.  E.  B.,  90. 

*  Bot.  Pari,  ii.  313-4,  iii.  25 ;  Chaucer,  Prologue  and  Friar^s  Tale ; 
DeBlas.,  172-3  ;  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  166 ;  Matt.,  85,  72,  249  ;  Sermoms,  ii.  151 ;  Pol. 
Poems,  i.  324.  ^  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  19,  pet.  xxvii. 


118  EBLIGION 

with  the  usual  promises,  but  nothing  was  done  till  1379,  when 
an  Act  was  passed  forbidding  aliens  to  hold  benefices  in 
England,  and  punishing  all  who  should  farm  for  them  the  rent 
of  their  ecclesiastical  estates.  A  second  statute  to  the  same 
effect  was  passed  in  1383.^  But  Eichard  the  Second  and  his 
council  had  no  more  intention  of  executing  these  Acts  than 
his  grandfather  had  of  executing  the  Statutes  of  Provisors. 
He  not  only  permitted  the  Pope  to  continue  his  appoint- 
ments of  Cardinals,  but  sometimes  confirmed  them  by  royal 
licence.^ 

At  the  price  of  these  unpatriotic  concessions  the  King 
secured  the  Papal  acquiescence  in  his  own  nominations  to 
bishoprics  and  benefices.  He  had  besides  another  motive  for 
keeping  on  good  terms  with  the  Court  of  Avignon.  That 
Court  was  a  centre  not  only  of  religion  but  of  diplomacy.  The 
support  of  the  Pope  was  a  high  card  in  the  game  for  the 
'-  French  Crown  played  between  the  Houses  of  Plantagenet  and 
Valois.  Edward  had  vainly  negotiated  for  it  when  he  first 
brought  forward  his  famous  claim.^  Throughout  the  peace, 
and  during  the  second  and  more  disastrous  war,  the  goodwill 
or  neutrality  of  Avignon  was  still  of  great  importance  to  Eng- 
land. The  Pope  had  much  power  in  the  districts  which  we 
ruled  in  the  South  of  France.  Their  submission  depended  to 
some  degree  on  his  attitude.^  When  in  1377  Gregory  the 
Eleventh  removed  his  Court  to  Eome,  an  opportunity  was 
i--"  created  for  restoring  English  influence  in  the  Curia.  But  the 
i^  French  Cardinals  were  not  slow  to  elect  a  rival  Pope.  Europe 
was  split  into  two  diplomatic  camps.  The  allies  of  France, 
including  Spain,  Naples  and  Scotland,  recognised  Clement  the 
Seventh ;  England,  Portugal  and  the  Northern  nations  re- 
cognised Urban  the  Sixth. 

Our  footing  at  Piome  or  Avignon,  on  which  such  high  value 
was  set  at  Westminster,  could  only  be  preserved  by  forming 
an  English  party  among  the  Cardinals,  who  had  the  ear  of  the 
Pope  at  home  and  acted  as  his  ambassadors  abroad.  Such  a 
party  was  maintained  out  of  English  benefices,  which  were 
the  cheapest  and   most  convenient  bribes  for   the   English 

'  stats,  of  Bealm.  3  E.  II.  3,  7  E.  II.  11.  ^  See  Ap. 

3  Wals.,  i.  201-15.  '  Calendar  of  Papal  Registers,  iv.  13Q2-70,  passim. 


ALIENS  IN  ENGLISH  BENEFICES  119 

government  to  bestow.'  But  it  is  not  possible  to  account  in 
this  way  for  all  the  Cardinals  beneficed  over  here.  The  Pope 
had  inserted  many  who  were  enemies  of  the  King  and  king- 
dom. 

Among  the  Archdeacons  in  English  dioceses,  the  proportion 
of  aliens  to  natives  was  one  to  three.  Of  the  high  Cathedral 
clergy,  such  as  Deans,  Chancellors  and  Treasurers  of  Cathedrals, 
we  have  a  less  complete  record  ;  but,  as  far  as  our  knowledge 
extends,  the  proportion  is  the  same.  Of  the  prebendal  stalls, 
a  very  much  smaller  proportion  was  held  by  foreigners,  pro- 
bably not  one  in  sixteen.^ 

Nearly  all  these  foreign  Archdeacons  and  Cathedral  clergy 
were  Cardinals.  But  a  large  number  of  rectories  and  cures  of 
souls  throughout  the  country  were  held  by  another  class  of 
foreigners,  less  exalted  in  rank  ;  for  the  Cardinals,  by  virtue  of 
the  higher  places  they  held  themselves  in  England,  had  con- 
siderable patronage  in  their  hand,  which  they  bestowed  on  their 
fellow-countrymen.  Still  more  frequently  a  foreigner  became 
rector  of  a  parish  by  virtue  of  being  abbot  or  prior  of  the 
monastery  to  which  the  rectory  belonged,  for  the  proportion 
of  aliens  among  the  priors  and  abbots  was  very  great.  In 
some  dioceses  the  number  of  rectories  in  foreign  hands  was 
considerable,  while  in  the  West  of  England  there  were  very 
few.^ 

Such  a  system  of  absenteeism  was  a  striking  example  of 
neglect  of  duty  in  favour  of  avarice,  openly  set  by  the  heads 
of  the  Christian  world.  It  was  only  too  well  followed  by 
English  churchmen.  The  Bishops,  as  Brunton  of  Rochester 
confessed,  were  '  only  seeking  for  higher  preferment,  and 
aspiring  to  be  translated  to  higher  sees.'  ^  Beneficed  clergy  of 
all  ranks  intrigued  and  struggled  to  increase  their  incomes  by 
plurality.  It  was  allowable  to  hold  several  benefices,  provided 
that  only  one  was  a  cure  of  souls.  But  leave  to  hold  plurality 
of  cures  could,  like  everything  else,  be  bought  at  Eome.-* 
There,  an  enormous  traffic  went  on  all  the  year  round  in 
English   livings.''     Perhaps   the   worst   result   of   the   Papal 

'  Foicl.,  ii.  pt.  1,  p.  97,  ed.  1818  ;  Wals.,  i.  260,  lines  13-7  ;  Stats,  of  Realm, 
7  E.  II.  cap.  12,  proviso  for  Card,  of  Naples. 

2  Lists  in  Neve's  Fasti.  ^  See  Ap.  *  0.  E.  B.,  73. 

*  Gibson,  ii.  51-2,  appendix.  ''  Calendar  of  Papal  Register,  Petitions. 


120  EELIGION 

power  of  '  providing '  to  benefices  was  the  encouragement  it 
gave  to  Simony  among  the  clergy  of  the  national  churches. 
'  Lady  Meed  '  (bribery),  as  Langland  says,  '  is  privy  with  the 
Pope  ;  provisors  it  knowen  ;  Sir  Simonie  and  herself  assealen 
the  bulls. '^  Orders  and  places  in  the  English  Church  could 
be  obtained  at  Eome  by  persons  quite  unfit  to  fill  them, 
persons  who  would  have  been  refused  in  England.^ 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  throughout  the  fourteenth 
century,  in  spite  of  the  degradation  of  the  Captivity  at  Avignon, 
the  Pope  succeeded  in  keeping  English  patronage  in  his  hand. 
If  the  King  and  the  Church  had  united  to  wrest  it  from  him 
they  must  have  succeeded  ;  for  the  laity,  as  represented  by 
Parliament,  were  continually  urging  them  to  take  strong 
measures.  But  the  King  preferred  the  short-sighted  policy  of 
securing  his  immediate  ends  by  alliance  with  the  Pope,  and 
the  Church  was  growing  cold  to  all  demands  for  reform.  She 
was  no  longer  led  by  such  fiery  saints  as  Grossetete  and  Hugh 
of  Lincoln.  Her  modern  Bishops  had  risen  to  the  bench 
by  the  diligent  accumulation  of  offices  in  Church  and  State. 
They  were  tolerant  of  all  the  ways  and  means  by  which  they 
themselves  had  risen.  They  regarded  the  sale  of  benefices  by 
the  Pope,  with  the  same  affection  with  which  guardsmen  who 
had  bought  their  way  up  the  army  regarded  the  Purchase 
system  when  it  was  first  attacked.  Who  could  expect  the 
Primate  or  Spencer  of  Norwich  to  forget  that  they  had 
obtained  their  promotion  by  personal  suit  at  the  Papal 
Palace  ?  Not  only  the  Bishops,  but  most  of  the  higher 
prelates  and  even  the  well-to-do  rectors,  who  had  risen  by  the 
methods  of  Simony  then  recognised,  and  might  hope  thereby 
to  rise  further,  were  naturally  indifferent  or  opposed  to  any 
attack  on  the  established  system.  It  is  not  surprising  that 
the  reform  movement  found  support  only  in  the  ranks  of 
under-paid  vicars  or  poor  priests  who  had  no  benefices.  The 
scapegoats  of  the  system  alone  were  hearty  in  its  condemna- 
tion. The  attack  on  Papal  usurpations  came  from  the  laity 
headed  by  a  few  malcontents  of  the  lower  clergy.  The 
officials  only  moved  to  suppress  rebellion,  and  did  nothing  to 

'  p.  PL,  A,  iii.  142-3,  and  C,  iii.  243  ;  Vox  Clam.,  bk.  iii.  caps.  12,  14. 
-  Wilkin,  iii.  364,  sees.  xxix.  and  xxxvii. 


APPEOPEIATION  AND  NON-EESIDENGE  121 

redress  grievances.  Such  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  ajUthori- 
ties  extinguished  the  last  chance  of  internal  reform,  and 
rendered  inevitable  the  revolution  that  took  place  under  the 
Tudor  s. 


The  most  vital  part  of  Church  affairs  must  always  be  the 
relation  of  the  individual  parish  clergyman  to  his  flock.  The 
higher  ecclesiastical  organisation  is  chiefly  important  for  its 
effect  on  the  ordinary  priest.  At  this  time  it  appeared  to 
many  observers  that  the  influence  of  the  Pope,  the  prelates, 
and  the  monasteries  on  parish  work  was  extremely  bad. 
Wycliffe  came  to  hold  this  opinion  so  strongly  that  he  desired 
to  sweep  away  the  Papacy,  the  whole  hierarchy  and  the  mon- 
astic establishments,  and  to  leave  the  parish  priest  as  little 
fettered  by  clerical  superiors  as  he  is  in  Scotland  to-day.  One 
of  the  points  of  the  Wycliffite  movement,  which  we  have  to 
consider  in  relation  to  the  actualities  of  the  time,  is  this 
objection  to  the  other  Church  institutions  as  detrimental  to  the 
work  of  the  pastors  who  taught  the  people.  The  question  falls 
under  two  heads — the  material  damage  done  to  the  position  of 
the  parish  clergy  by  the  other  foundations,  and  the  spiritual 
influences  and  religious  beliefs  which  the  Papacy  and  the 
hierarchy  encouraged. 

The  material  interests  and  social  position  of  the  parish 
clergy  of  England  at  this  time  suffered  severely  from  the  form 
of  bondage  known  as  '  appropriation.'  By  this  word  was 
meant  that  not  the  advowson  only,  but  the  parsonage  itself, 
with  its  tithes  and  Church  dues,  belonged  to  a  bishopric  or 
other  high  benefice,  or,  more  commonly  still,  to  a  monastery. 
The  historical  origin  of  '  appropriation '  takes  us  far  back  in 
history.  The  Anglo-Saxon  lord  of  the  manor  seems  to  have 
had  the  right  in  early  times  of  paying  the  tithe  of  the  parish 
to  whomsoever  he  pleased.  Sometimes  he  paid  it  to  the 
Bishop  of  the  diocese,  more  often  to  the  priest  he  was  sup- 
porting in  his  parish.^  Soon  after  the  Norman  conquest,  a 
great   revival   took  place   in   the  monastic  world,  and  was 

'  Earl  Selborne's  Defence  of  the  Church  of  England,  ed.  1888,  133-6. 


122  EELIGION 

rewarded  by  a  generous  enthusiasm  for  the  foundation  and 
endowment  of  monasteries.  Men  seemed  to  think  that  all  that 
was  good  in  the  Catholic  Church  would  henceforth  come,  like 
Lanfranc  and  Anselm,  from  the  cloister.  The  Norman  barons 
and  knights,  who  had  stepped  into  the  land  and  property  of  the 
Saxon  thanes,  were  carried  away  by  the  contagious  enthusiasm, 
or  followed  the  prevailing  fashion.  As  the  race  which  they 
were  succeeding  had  supplied  the  land  with  parish  priests,  so 
they  supplied  it  with  monks.  It  seemed  that  they  exj)ected 
the  monk  to  take  the  place  of  the  priest.  They  found  a  special 
delight  in  '  appropriating  '  to  the  monasteries  the  tithes  with 
which  their  predecessors  had  endowed  the  parish  clergyman. 
It  was  not  till  the  enthusiasm  of  the  movement  was  over  that 
it  was  seen  how  fatal  had  been  the  policy.  The  monasteries 
proved  to  be  only  of  temporary  value  in  the  religious  life  of  the 
nation.  But  in  the  ardour  of  those  early  years  the  interest 
of  the  priest  had  been  sacrificed  to  that  of  the  monk.  In  many 
cases  the  monastery  itself  was  rector  now,  and  held  all  the 
tithe  and  church  dues,  merely  allowing  some  small  stipend  to 
support  a  vicar.  In  other  cases  it  had  a  greater  or  less  part 
of  the  tithes,  the  rest  belonging  of  right  to  the  incumbent. 
The  result  was  that  the  resident  parish  clergy  were  nearly 
always  miserably  poor ;  the  monks  appointed  such  unedu- 
cated and  inefficient  men  as  would  perform  the  duties  for  next 
to  nothing ;  not  infrequentl}^  the  livings  were  left  actually 
vacant.^ 

But  it  was  only  in  the  fourteenth  century  that  men  rea- 
lised what  mischief  had  been  done.  Then,  at  last  the  evil 
effects  became  fully  apparent  even  to  the  Bishops  ;  to  everyone, 
in  fact,  except  the  monasteries.  But  they  had  the  tithe  safe 
in  their  possession,  and  neither  State  nor  Church  could  get  it 
from  them.  The  Bishops,  as  the  champions  of  the  '  secular ' 
clergy,  complained  continually  of  the  selfish  conduct  of  the 
'  regulars  '  in  letting  so  much  parish  work  go  to  ruin  in  order 
to  swell  the  revenues  of  the  cloister.^  But,  loudly  as  they 
sometimes  spoke  out,  the  Bishops,  with  a  short-sightedness 

'  Ecclesiastica  Taxafio,  ed.  1804  ;  MSS.  Clerical  Subsidies,  Eecord  Office  ; 
Register  of  Worcester  Priory  (Camden  Soc.) ;  Stats,  of  Realm,  15  E.  II.  6 ; 
"Wilkin,  iii.  240-1,  arts.  5  and  18. 

2  Gibson,  ii.  33-5,  appendix,  ii.  748-9,  ii.  755  ;   Lyndwood,  Const.  Prov.,  50. 


APPSOPEIATION  AND  NON-EESIDENCE  123 

typical  of  the  officialism  of  that  period,  continued  to  make 
'  appropriations  '  of  rectories  to  any  religious  house  which  they 
wished  to  endow. ^  They  had  indeed  little  interest  in  attack- 
ing the  system,  for  many  parish  churches  were  appropriated 
to  cathedral  clergy,  especially  to  prebendal  stalls.  But  to 
Wycliffe,  always  the  friend  of  the  parson  as  against  either 
prelate  or  monk,  the  system  seemed  abomination ;  so  the 
Lollards  took  up  the  cause.  '  They  have  parish  churches 
apropered  to  worldly  rich  bishops  and  abbots  that  have  many 

thousand  marks  more  than  enow And   yet   they   do 

not  the  office  of  curates,  neither  in  teaching  or  preaching  or 
giving  of  sacraments,  nor  of  receiving  of  poor  men  in  the 
parish :  but  set  (ten)  an  idiot  for  vicar  or  parish  priest,  that 
can  not  and  may  not  do  the  office  of  a  good  curate,  and  yet 
the  poor  parish  findeih  him.'  ^ 

The  inadequate  stipends  of  many  parsons,  reduced  by 
'  appropriations  '  and  by  bad  times,  caused  many  of  the  less 
faithful  to  desert  their  ill-paid  duties.  '  It  has  come  to  our 
ears,'  wrote  Archbishop  Sudbury,  '  that  rectors  of  our  diocese 
scorn  to  keep  due  residence  in  their  churches,  and  go  to  dwell 
in  distant  and  perhaps  unhonest  places,  without  our  license, 
and  let  their  churches  out  to  farm  to  persons  less  fitted.  Lay 
persons  with  their  wives  and  children  sometimes  dwell  in  their 
rectories,  frequently  keeping  taverns  and  other  foul  and  un- 
honest things  in  them.'  ^  Although  the  Primate  complained 
when  this  was  done  without  his  license,  such  licenses  to  let 
out  the  rectory  to  farm  were  easily  obtained  from  the  Bishops.^ 
To  regard  the  cure  of  souls  as  a  source  of  income  only,  was 
then  recognised  and  even  authorised.  Many  parsons,  without 
leaving  a  vicar  in  charge,  deserted  their  dull  round  of  duties 
among  an  ignorant  and  half-savage  peasantry,  to  live  in  the 
great  cities  or  the  mansions  of  the  nobility.  Here  it  was 
not  hard  for  them  to  get  employment  as  chantry  priests  to 
sing  private  masses ;  with  the  money  earned  for  such  easier 
tasks  they  eked  out  the  pittance  received  for  parish  duties 
which  they  were  neglecting.     As  Langland  wrote  : — 

'  See  Ap.  -  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  215  ;  Matt.,  97,  116,  190,  223,  236. 

=*  Wilkin,  iii.  120. 

*  MS.  Calendar  of  Lambeth  Register,  Lambeth  Library,  passivi. 


124  EBLIGION 

Parsons  and  parish  priests  complained  to  the  Bishop 

That  their  parishioners  had  been  poor  since  the  pestilence  time, 

To  have  licence  and  leave  in  London  to  dwell, 

And  sing  there  for  simony,  for  silver  is  sweet.^ 

As  the  tithe  and  dues  were  partially  or  wholly  alienated, 
the  parish  priest  was  in  great  need  of  a  good  stipend  from  the 
patron  of  the  living.  But  Bishops  and  Parliaments  combined 
to  keep  these  stipends  down  by  ordinances  and  statutes  com- 
parable to  the  Statutes  of  Labourers.  In  1354  Archbishop 
Islip  limited  these  fees  to  seven  marks  a  year  as  a  maximum.^ 
Eight  years  later  Parliament  set  a  limit  of  six  marks.  The 
Black  Death  had  made  parish  priests  scarce,  and  like  the 
labourers  they  took  advantage  of  the  scarcity  to  try  to 
improve  their  social  position.^  How  low  that  position  was  is 
illustrated  by  the  chronicler's  remark  that  these  limitations 
of  their  stipends  '  forced  many  to  steal.'  *  One  is  glad  to  find 
that  the  Act  was  no  more  successful  than  the  Acts  for  keep- 
ing down  other  wages,  since  a  statute  of  Henry  the  Fifth's 
reign  complained  that  parsons  refused  to  serve  for  less  than 
ten,  eleven,  or  even  twelve  marks.  At  this  stage  of  the 
question  Archbishop  Chicheley  supported  them,  declaring  that 
no  vicar  ought  to  be  allowed  less  than  such  a  sum.''  Certainly 
his  policy  was  wiser  than  that  of  his  predecessors  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  the  Third,  who  strained  at  the  gnat  of  poor  par- 
sons' stipends,  while  they  swallowed  the  camel  of  monastic  and 
prelatic  incomes. 

Such  being  the  condition  of  the  parish  priest,  it  is  not 
surprising  to  find  him  taking  part  in  popular  tumults  and 
risings.  When  the  serfs  of  the  neighbouring  villages  stormed 
the  monastery  of  St.  Edmundsbury  in  1327,  in  protest 
against  the  privileges  and  extortions  by  which  it  oppressed 
its  neighbours,  thirty-two  parish  priests  were  among  the 
ringleaders  who  were  convicted  of  a  part  in  the  riot.*"'  Nothing 
could  have  more  contributed  to  the  convulsion  of  1381  than 
the    social   status  of   those  clergy  with  whom  the  peasantry 

»  P.  PI,  C,  i.  82-5.  2  Wilkin,  iii.  30.     1  mark  =  13s.  id. 

^  36  Ed.  III.  i.  cap.  8,  Stats,  of  Realm,  see  Preamble.  ^  Wals.,  i.  297. 

^  2  H.  v.  ii.  2,  Stats,  of  Reahn ;  Gibson's  Codex,  ii.  755. 

"  Green's  History  of  the  Etiglish  People,  book  iv.  chap.  iii. 


APPEOPEIATION  AND  NON-EESIDENCB  125 

came  into  daily  contact.  Many  of  them  had  just  such  grievances 
against  society  as  the  men  over  whom  they  had  influence. 
'  The  world  was  not  their  friend,  nor  the  world's  law.'  The 
levelling  principles,  encouraged  by  some  of  the  leading  ideas  of 
Christianity,  appealed  to  many  of  them  with  terrible  directness 
and  with  consequences  still  more  terrible. 

Certainly  the  wealth  of  the  Church  was  very  badly  dis- 
tributed. If  everywhere  the  rector,  instead  of  being  an  abbot, 
a  prelate,  or  an  absentee  represented  by  a  vicar,  had  been  the 
resident  parish  priest,  then  the  tithe,  the  salary  from  his 
patron,  the  dues  and  land  belonging  to  his  church,  would  in 
most  cases  have  been  amply  sufficient  to  support  him  in  very 
good  circumstances.  As  it  was,  these  endowments  were  used 
to  swell  the  revenues  of  monasteries,  chapters,  bishops,  and 
foreign  churchmen,  '  who  had  many  thousand  marks  more 
than  enow.'  If  the  Church  of  England  complains  that  at  the 
time  of  the  Pieformation  her  livings  were  reduced  in  value, 
that  her  poor  parsons  were  robbed  by  a  greedy  nobility 
and  an  unscrupulous  Court,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
this  was  scarcely  the  aspect  that  then  presented  itself.  The 
wealth  of  these  livings,  when  they  were  great  and  valuable 
possessions,  had  been  made  the  prizes  of  the  most  insatiable 
and  the  most  useless  members  of  society,  while  the  vicars  and 
curates  were  at  least  as  ill-used,  as  ill-educated,  and  as  ill-paid 
as  they  were  after  the  Eeformation.  When  the  State  in  the 
sixteenth  century  robbed  the  rich  possessioners  and  appropri- 
ators,  there  was  nothing  in  past  history  to  encourage  the 
idea  that  the  money  would  ever  be  applied  by  the  Church 
to  its  proper  purpose  of  supporting  the  more  useful  and  humble 
servants  of  the  community.  If  an  institution  grows  corrupt, 
it  must  expect  to  suffer. 

The  laity  were  often  unwilling  to  pay  their  Church  dues  to 
an  absentee.  The  refusal  of  tithe  and  the  intimidation  of 
the  courts  where  such  cases  were  tried,  had  been  a  feature  of 
the  whole  fourteenth  century.^  Wycliffe  gave  the  movement 
a  fresh  impulse.  Tithe  and  all  payments  demanded  from 
the  parishioner  were,  he  said,  alms  that  might  be  withheld. 

'  Gibson's   Codex,   ii.  718  ;   Lyndwood,  p.  42  of   Const  Prov. ;   Stats,  of 
Realm,  1  R.  II.  13,  14. 


126  EELIGION 

When  there  was  a  real  consensus  of  all  the  parishioners  to- 
gether, payment,  he  said,  might  be  refused.  He  did  not  wish 
that  '  each  parishioner  should,  whenever  he  would,  hold  from 
his  parson  by  his  own  judgment,'  but  he  considered  that  the 
combination  of  a  whole  neighbourhood  was  a  useful  protest 
against  a  bad  priest  or  the  evils  of  appropriation.^  In  this 
question,  and  this  question  only,  Wycliffe  definitely  lays  him- 
self open  to  the  charge  of  instigating  men  to  lawless  action. 
There  must  sometimes  have  been  unfortunate  applications  of 
this  crude  remedy.  All  will  feel  sympathy  for  Chaucer's 
poor  parson,  who  thinks  that  it  is  not  for  him  to  '  cursen  for 
his  tithe,'  and  so  prefers  to  go  without  it.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  sometimes  happened  that  the  agitation  to  refuse  payment 
was  stirred  up  by  the  parson  himself,  who  saw  his  pittance 
being  swallowed  by  some  absentee  incumbent  or  some  neigh- 
bouring monastery.  During  the  riots  of  1381  several  cases 
occurred  of  parsons  heading  their  parishioners'  onslaught 
against  those  who  had  appropriated  the  tithe  of  the  parish.^ 

One  cause  of  frequent  reproach  against  the  parish  clergy 
was  the  result  of  the  bad  laws  framed  for  them  by  their 
superiors,  rather  than  of  their  own  peculiar  wickedness.  In 
the  earlier  middle  ages  the  secular  clergy  had  had  wives. 
The  Saxon  priests  had  known  no  rule  of  celibacy.  About  the 
time  of  the  Conquest,  Hildebrand's  dreaded  decree  began  to 
find  its  way  into  England,  and  by  the  fourteenth  century  it 
had  been  a  long-established  rule  that  no  priest  should  marry. 
But  the  old  custom  had  never  died  out  completely  among  the 
parish  clergy,  although  their  partners  were  now  in  the  eye  of 
the  law  mere  concubines.  The  Church  authorities  were  often 
bribed  to  neglect  visitatiori  and  inquiry  into  such  cases,  and 
priests  brought  up  their  children  without  fear,  if  not  without 
reproach.^  Sometimes,  indeed,  the  law  of  celibacy  drove  the 
clergy  into  more  irregular  and  less  permanent  unions  ;  *  but 
in  this  age  of  vice  and  coarseness,  when  all  writers  agree  that 
incontinence  was  the  prevailing  sin  of  the  laity,  it  was  the 

'  S.  E.  W.,ui.  177  ;  Matt.,  132  ;  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  309  ;  Wilkin,  iii.  241,  art.  25. 

2  Eeville,  Ap.  ii.  docs.  150-1,  200,  203 ;  Gibson's  Codex,  ii.  936-7. 

3  Bot.  Pari.,  ii.  313-4;    S.  E.  W.,  iii.  163;   P.  PL,  A,  iii.  145-9;   Lynd- 
wood,  92,  Constitutiones  Othobon. 

'  Chaucer's  Parson's  Tale,  629-30,  Skeat ;  P.  PI,  C,  vii.  366-7. 


THE   PULPIT  127 

friars,  and  not  the  parish  priests,  who  were  singled  out  as 
having  a  lower  standard  than  even  laymen. 


Any  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  Church  in  England  at 
this  period  must  be  largely  determined  by  an  appreciation 
of  the  religious  ideas  and  beliefs  which  she  actually  pro- 
pagated. If  it  appears  that  the  friars  and  prelates  both  used 
their  influence  to  increase  rather  than  diminish  superstition, 
the  radically  Presbyterian  attitude  which  the  reformer  and  his 
followers  adopted  in  the  matter  of  Church  organisation  will 
not  be  hard  to  understand.  Men  do  not  construct  theories  of 
ecclesiastical  government  for  their  amusement,  but  arrive  at 
them  by  a  process  of  observation  and  practical  experience. 

The  character  and  quantity  of  religious  instruction  given 
by  a  parish  priest  to  his  flock  must  have  depended  to  a  very 
great  degree  on  the  priest  himself,  and  in  consequence  varied 
greatly  in  different  cases.  He  was  expected  to  study  the 
Latin  Bible  diligently  himself,  but  to  instruct  the  people  in 
Church  doctrine  as  exemplified  by  the  Creed,  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, the  Ave  Maria,  the  Pater  Noster ;  the  six  works 
of  mercy,  the  seven  virtues  and  the  seven  deadly  sins  were 
also  usual  texts  for  the  preacher.  This  was  the  curriculum 
laid  down  by  the  episcopal  authority.  In  the  next  generation, 
when  the  Wycliffite  movement  was  at  death-grips  with  the 
Catholic  Church,  the  Primate  actually  forbade  discourses  on 
any  other  text  or  subject.^  But  it  must  be  remembered  that 
these  topics  were  capable  of  almost  indefinite  expansion  by 
the  preacher.  The  art  of  getting  from  one  subject  to  another 
completely  different  was  highly  developed  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
Within  the  pale  of  the  Catholic  Church  the  pulpit  gave  the 
greatest  opportunity  for  the  development  of  individual  ideas, 
not  to  say  heresies.  It  was  because  it  was  at  once  the  freest, 
and,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the  Confessional,  the 
most  potent  religious  influence,  that  Wycliffe  chose  the  pulpit 
as  the  natural  weapon  of  reformation,  and  laid  such  great 
stress  on  the  necessity  for  more  preaching,  and  again  more 

>  Wilkin,  iii.  59  ;  Gibson,  i.  382-4 ;  E.  E.  T.  S.,  Beligious  Pieces,  Dan 
Gaytryge's  Sermon. 


128  EELIGION 

preaching.  It  was  his  avowed  object  to  make  people  attach 
more  importance  to  the  pulpit  than  to  the  Sacraments.'  The 
Church,  on  the  other  hand,  both  theoretically  and  for  practical 
purposes  of  self-defence,  laid  more  stress  on  the  Sacraments 
which  she  administered ;  she  regarded  preaching  with  more 
and  more  coolness  as  it  became  the  special  weapon  of  the 
reformer.  These  rival  theories  appeared  in  exactly  the  same 
form  in  the  religious  controversies  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  for  exactly  the  same  reasons.  The  pulpit  was  the  battery 
of  the  reformers,  the  Sacraments  were  the  rock  of  the  Church, 
in  the  time  of  Hugh  Latimer  as  in  the  time  of  Wycliffe.  But, 
although  the  reformers  of  the  fourteenth  century  called  for 
more  preaching,  they  never  stated,  as  has  been  sometimes 
supposed,  that  there  was  no  preaching  in  the  Church  at  the 
time.  Wycliffe's  only  complaint  was  that  the  prelates  diid 
not  encourage  it.  Most  parsons,  within  the  limits  set  by 
individual  ability  and  energy,  preached  to  the  people. 

Although  their  discourses  were  generally  on  the  points 
and  formulas  of  Church  doctrine  mentioned  above,  a  well- 
instructed  priest  explained  and  enlarged  his  text  by  quotations 
from  the  Bible  and  the  Fathers.  Those  sermons  which  have 
come  down  to  us  give  proof  of  the  preacher's  great  familiarity 
with  the  Bible,  a  familiarity  not  limited  to  the  New  Testament 
or  to  a  few  of  the  books  of  the  Old,  but  extending  all  through 
the  Scriptures.^  But  this  knowledge  was  the  knowledge  of 
the  Latin,  not  of  the  English  Bible — it  was  the  knowledge 
of  the  priest  who  preached,  not  of  the  people  who  listened. 
The  importance  of  this  special  training  given  to  the 
better-educated  priests  of  the  later  Middle  Ages  must  not  be 
under-estimated.  It  was  their  familiar  knowledge  of  the  Latin 
Vulgate  that  made  it  natural  and  possible  for  Wycliffe  to 
claim  for  the  Bible  pre-eminence  as  a  spiritual  authority. 
The  Lollard  acceptance  of  this  new  criterion  of  truth  was 
followed  by  the  later  Protestant  reformers.  The  influence  of 
the  Bible  on  modern  religion  has  been  even  greater  than  the 
influence  of  Greece  on  modern  art ;  but  while  Greece  was  re- 
discovered at  the  Eenaissance  as  a  thing  new   even  to  the 

'  Opus  Evangelicum,  i.  375 ;  Pol.  Works,  i.  261. 

-  Neal's  MedicBval  Sermons,  1856  ;  Chaucer's  Parson's  Tale. 


BIBLE   STOEIES  MIXED  WITH  FABLES        129 

learned,  there  was  no  such  re-discovery  of  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures. Although  a  sealed  book  to  the  masses,  they  had 
always  been  one  of  the  principal  text-books  of  the  clergy  and 
of  the  few  scholars  among  the  laity.  In  the  mediaeval  sermon 
equal  reverence  is  shown  for  the  Vulgate  and  for  the  Fathers. 
No  point  is  held  to  be  proved  until  it  has  been  supported  by 
quotations  from  both.  In  this  traditional  practice  Wycliffe 
and  his  followers  were  contented  to  rest.^  They  backed  their 
arguments  with  passages  from  the  Bible  and  the  Fathers, 
with  this  important  difference,  that  they  regarded  the  former 
as  the  ultimate  authority  with  which  all  Church  tradition 
must  agree,  or  else  be  of  no  value  whatever. 

The  priests'  quotations  and  commentaries  in  the  pulpit  were 
not  quite  all  the  instruction  in  the  Bible  that  the  ordinary 
layman  received.  The  history  there  recorded  was  taught,  not 
out  of  the  original,  but  in  the  form  of  separate  tales,  mixed 
up  with  later  traditions  and  popular  fables.  Probably  there 
was  no  distinction  in  the  mind  of  the  laymen  between  what 
we  call  '  Bible  stories '  and  much  other  matter.  A  literature 
of  this  sort  existed  in  the  vernacular  both  in  prose  and  verse, 
but  these  manuals  were  of  very  little  value  as  intellectual  or 
spiritual  training,  compared  to  the  original  from  which  they 
were  supposed  to  be  drawn.  An  example  from  the  '  Metrical 
Paraphrase  of  Genesis  and  Exodus  '  will  illustrate  the  charac- 
ter of  this  class  of  popular  instruction.  When  Thermutis 
brought  Moses  before  Pharaoh, 

this  King  became  to  him  in  heart  mild, 
So  very  fair  was  this  child ; 
And  he  took  him  on  son's  stead, 
And  his  crown  on  his  head  he  did, 
And  let  it  stand  a  stound ; 
The  child  it  threw  down  to  the  ground, 
Hamon's  likeness  was  thereon  ; 
This  crown  is  broken,  this  is  misdone. 

The  Bishop  of  Heliopolis,  angry  at  the  insult  to  the  god, 
wants  to  kill  Moses,  but  the  King  saves  him,  and  gives  him 
two  burning  coals,  which  he  puts  in  his  mouth.^ 

'  W.'s  works,  passMW ;  Apology  for  the  Lollards,  Camden  See. 
2  E.  E.  T.  S.,  Genesis  and  Exodus ;    O.  E.  B.,  110 ;  E.  E.  T.  S.  publica- 
tions, passim. 


130  EELIGION 

There  were,  however,  parts  of  the  Scriptures  actually 
translated.  The  Psalms  at  least  had  been  rendered  into 
English.  But  hitherto  no  English  translation  of  the  whole 
Bible  had  been  made.  The  Anglo-Saxon  version,  of  which 
copies  were  transcribed  as  late  as  the  twelfth  century,  was  of 
small  use  in  the  fourteenth,  when  there  were  probably  fewer 
people  who  understood  the  language  of  Alfred  and  Dunstan 
than  there  are  to-day.  French  Bibles,  however,  were  at  the 
service  of  those  of  the  upper  class  who  could  read  them,  and 
Wycliffe  spoke  with  envy  of  such  greater  enlightenment. 
'  Also  the  worthy  realm  of  France,  notwithstanding  all  let- 
tings,  hath  translated  the  Bible  and  the  Gospels  with  other 
true  sentences  of  doctors  out  of  Latin  into  French.  Why 
shoulden  not  Englishmen  do  so  ?  As  lords  in  England  have 
the  Bible  in  French,  so  it  were  not  against  reason,  that  they 
hadden  the  same  sentence  in  English.'  These  words  were 
written  some  time  in  the  later  seventies.^  Before  many  years 
had  gone  by  an  English  translation  of  the  whole  Bible  was  in 
existence.  It  is  generally  known  as  the  Wycliffite  Bible,  and 
has  been  till  quite  lately  universally  attributed  to  the  Ee- 
former.  Whether  he  or  another  man  was  the  author  of  that 
particular  translation,  he  certainly  translated  some  parts 
of  the  Scriptures,  and  used  every  means  in  his  power 
to  bring  about  the  study  of  the  Bible  in  English  by  all 
Englishmen.  In  this  effort  the  friars  were  his  continual 
opponents.  The  sort  of  religious  influence  that  they  exerted 
over  the  people,  was  more  consonant  with  old  Church  tradi- 
tions than  with  the  new  religion  based  on  each  individual's 
interpretation  of  Scripture.  They  were,  besides,  the  rivals  of 
Wycliffe' s  itinerant  priests  in  every  village  and  market  town 
throughout  the  Midlands.  As  their  enemies  attempted  to 
spread  Scripture  knowledge,  the  friars  naturally  attempted  to 
suppress  it.  The  Bishops,  on  the  other  hand,  sometimes  gave 
license  to  possess  English  Bibles.  Yet,  if  the  Bible  was 
meant  for  everybody,  why  was  leave  to  possess  it  required  ? 
Even  nuns  might  not  have  English  versions,  unless  they  '  had 
license  thereto.'  ^  Some  rich  and  powerful  men  possessed 
translations  of  the  Scriptures  with  the  goodwill  of  the  Church 

'  Matt.,  429-30.  ^  g^e  Ap. 


MEDIEVAL  IDEAS  OP  PAEDON  FOE  SIN        131 

authorities.  But  it  was  otherwise  with  the  poor  and  the 
heretical.  We  have  positive  proof  that  the  Bishops  denounced 
the  dissemination  of  the  English  Bible  among  classes  and 
persons  prone  to  heresy,  burnt  copies  of  it,  and  cruelly  perse- 
cuted Lollards  on  the  charge  of  reading  it.^  The  high  price  of 
a  large  manuscript  work,  and  the  difficulty  experienced  by 
many  laymen  in  reading,  were  also  found  to  be  very  grave 
hindrances  to  the  propagation  of  the  book.  These  practical 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  spreading  a  knowledge  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, of  which  the  opposition  of  the  Church  was  only  one, 
were  no  doubt  a  serious  check  to  the  success  of  Wycliffe's 
movement.  He  wished,  as  he  and  his  followers  continually 
repeated,  to  base  religion  on  the  Bible  instead  of  on  Catholic 
tradition.^  Until  the  Scriptures  could  be  more  generally 
studied.  Catholic  tradition  was  certain  to  maintain  its  place 
for  want  of  a  rival. 

If  one  thing  in  particular  can  be  said  to  have  prompted 
Wyclifte's  violent  denunciation  of  the  Church  authorities, 
Italian  and  English  alike,  it  is  the  hatred  he  felt  for  the 
practices  they  encouraged  in  connection  with  their  doctrine  of 
the  forgiveness  of  sins.  Perhaps  the  most  real  change  which 
has  taken  place  in  the  ordinary  Englishman's  view  of  life  is 
the  complete  abandonment  of  mediaeval  ideas  as  to  the  pardon 
of  sin.  The  pardon  of  sin  was  thought  to  turn  on  certain 
specific  acts,  which  it  was  the  duty  and  interest  of  the  priest- 
hood to  see  performed.  These  acts  can  be  roughly  grouped 
under  four  heads  :  corporal  penance ;  pilgrimage,  which  in 
one  aspect  was  a  form  of  penance ;  purchase,  which  was  the 
commutation  of  penance ;  and  lastly,  special  masses  for  the 
dead,  which  differed  from  the  other  methods  in  being  vicarious 
and  post-mortem.  Penance,  as  we  have  seen,  was  already  at 
this  time  yielding  to  purchase,  the  sincere  to  the  less  sincere, 
a  fact  ominous  of  the  decay  of  the  whole  system.  But  pil- 
grimages and  masses  for  the  dead  were  still  fashionable  and 
flourishing.  Wycliffe's  attack  on  them  was  made  against  a 
widely  spread  and  popular  system. 

>  See  below,  p.  342. 

2  Matt.,  255-62  ;  S.E.  W.,ni.3&2  ;  Matt.,  284-5;  Polemical  Works,\i.M)o; 
Matt.,  33,  70,  266, 89,  and  94  ;  Opus  EvangeMcicm,passi?n,  e.g.  i.  79, 368.  '  God's 
Law '  =  the  Bible,  e.g.  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  234,  line  24. 

K  2 


■) 


132  EELIGION 

The   most   usual   way   of   endowing   the  Church  at  this 
period  was  to   establish   a   chantry   or   chapel,  with  priests 
specially  attached  to  it  to  sing  masses  and  say  private  prayers 
for   the   souls   of   deceased   persons   named   in  the  bequest. 
Prayers  for  the  dead  were  no  new  thing,  but  in  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  centuries  the  foundation  of  monastic  houses  ab- 
sorbed most  fresh  endowments.     The  monks  then  undertook 
to  say  masses  for  the  souls  of  their  benefactors,  and  parish 
priests  used  to  be  similarly  employed.     But  the   movement 
for  the  endowment  of  monasteries  was  now  on  the  wane,  and 
the  Church  authorities  had  interfered  with  this  employment 
of  parsons,  on  the  ground  that  it  caused  them  to  neglect  their 
parochial  duties.^     It  thus  became  necessary  to  found  special 
chantries  and  endow  a  separate  class  of  priests  for  this  pur- 
pose alone.     All  through  the  fourteenth   century   this   new 
form  of  foundation  grew  apace,  and  after  Wycliffe's  day  it 
increased  rather  than  diminished.     The  chantries  sometimes 
stood  by  themselves   as  separate   colleges,   sometimes   they 
were  inserted  as  chapels  round  the  choir  or  in  the  walls  of 
existing  churches.     These  delicately  carved  relics  of  the  last 
age  of  Catholicism  may  sometimes  still  be  found  adorning  the 
ruder  magnificence  of  a  Norman  or  Early  English  cathedral, 
though   shrines  and   chapels  have  disappeared  wholesale  in 
the  stormy  ages  that  loved  Protestantism  more  than  archi- 
tecture.    Besides  the  regular  chantry  priests,  great  numbers 
of  needy  clerics  lived  by  obtaining  occasional  employment  to 
pray  for  souls.     Gentlemen  and  merchants  bequeathed  money 
in  their  wills  to  buy  prayers  for  their  own  future  welfare,  and 
the  pious  made  presents  for  the  benefit  of  dead  relations.     Even 
if  these  practices  were  made  general  by  a  desire  to  accord  with 
the  fashion,  they  sprang — at  least  in  many  cases — from  the 
genuine  belief  of  the  day  that  dead  friends  and  parents  could 
be  released  from  torture  by  money  so  spent  on  their  behalf.^ 

Pilgrimage  had,  no  doubt,  several  different  attractions. 
We  see  it  in  Chaucer  as  a  pleasant  holiday  excursion  into  the 
neighbouring  county  for  tradespeople  and  professional  men. 
The  desire  to  travel  afield  and  to  see  strange  lands  may  well 

•  Gibson,  i.  549-50. 

2  C.  of  B. ;  Test.  Vet. ;  Test.  Ebor. ;  Memorials  of  Bipon,  i.  153-96. 


PILGEIMAGB  133 

have  been  strong  with  many  of  our  forefathers.  Such  a  wish 
was  gratified  by  pilgrimage  to  the  shrines  of  Italy  and  the 
East.  The  pilgrim's  mission  gave  a  claim  to  hospitality,  and 
perhaps  afforded  some  little  sanctity  against  violence,  in  days 
when  the  robber  was  better  known  on  the  road  than  the  hotel- 
keeper.  Many  were  the  Englishmen  who  slept  with  the  monks 
of  St.  Bernard  on  their  route  to  the  cities  of  the  South.  Even  the 
Wife  of  Bath,  in  Chaucer's  Prologue  to  the  '  Tales,'  had  thrice 

ben  at  Jerusalem, 
She  hadde  passed  many  a  strange  streme  ; 
At  Eome  she  had  been  and  at  Boloine, 
In  Galice  at  St.  James,  and  at  Coloine. 

Another  motive  for  pilgrimage,  as  perennial  as  the  craving 
for  travel,  is  the  desire  to  see  the  home  of  a  great  man  that 
is  dead,  in  default  of  seeing  his  face  and  hearing  his  voice. 
But  the  motive  on  which  the  priesthood,  and  in  particular 
the  guardians  of  the  relics,  laid  stress,  was  the  absolution 
and  other  spiritual  graces  obtainable  by  virtue  of  pilgrimage 
to  particular  shrines.  Pilgrimage  was  often  ordered  by  the 
priest  as  a  form  of  penance  to  obtain  absolution,  and  pardon 
for  sins  was  granted  by  Papal  bull  to  persons  who  should 
visit  certain  specified  places.^  But  it  was  to  his  own  city 
that  the  Pope  sought  chiefly  to  attract  visitors.  In  1300 
Boniface  the  Eighth  had  held  his  famous  jubilee,  offering 
plenary  indulgence  to  all  who  should  that  year  make  the 
pilgrimage  to  Eome.-  The  shrines  of  the  Holy  City  after 
that  never  ceased  to  attract  sinners,  or  those  who  desired 
license  to  sin.  More  than  a  generation  after  Wycliffe  died, 
a  remarkable  advertisement  was  issued  to  attract  pilgrims 
from  our  island.  It  is  in  the  form  of  an  English  poem, 
entitled  the  '  Stations  of  Eome.'  It  calls  attention  to  the 
Eoman  pilgrimage  as  equal  in  value  to  the  longer  journeys 
to  Jerusalem  and  Santiago,  which  alone  rivalled  it  in  the 
estimation  of  the  pious.     The  preface  runs  as  follows : — 

He  that  will  his  soul  leech 

List  to  me,  and  I  will  you  teach. 

Pardon  is  the  soul's  boot, 

At  great  Eome  there  is  the  root. 


Cutts,  162 ;  Memorials  of  Ri;pon,  i.  114.  «  Qutts,  168. 


134  EELIGION 

The  poem  goes  through  every  principal  church  and  shrine  at 
Eome  with  the  regularity  of  Baedeker,  but  instead  of  men- 
tioning the  sights  of  historical  and  artistic  interest,  it  states 
the  number  of  years'  ^Dardon  obtainable  at  each  place.  Thus 
St.  Peter's  has  twenty-nine  steps.  When  you  go  up  or  down, 
if  you  say  a  prayer  you  shall  have  seven  years'  pardon  for 
every  step.  Inside  there  are  seven  principal  altars — the 
Veronica,  Our  Lady's,  St.  Simon's,  St.  Andrew's,  St.  Gregory's, 
Pope  Leo's,  and  that  of  the  Holy  Cross.  At  each  of  these  the 
visitor  can  obtain  seven  years'  pardon  and  seven  Lents.  At 
the  high  altar  pardon  is  given  for  twenty  years.  If,  how- 
ever, the  traveller  times  his  visit  to  the  Holy  City  between 
Holy  Thursday  and  Lammas,  he  obtains  fourteen  thousand 
years'  pardon,  but  on  the  Day  of  Assumption  of  the  Virgin 
only  one  thousand.  The  other  shrines  of  the  city  are  treated 
one  by  one  with  the  same  mathematical  preciseness.^ 

Pilgrimage  was  often  made  vicariously.  Money  was  left 
by  dying  persons  in  their  wills,  to  pay  pilgrims  to  go  for  them 
to  the  Holy  Places  in  Italy  and  the  East,  or  even  to  the  local 
shrines  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  testator.^  In  Norfolk 
alone  there  were  at  least  eight  such  places.  Walsingham  and 
Canterbury  were  the  two  principal  centres  in  England,  but 
Glastonbury,  Durham,  York,  Norwich,  St.  Edmund sbury, 
and  Westminster  were  well  known  to  the  pious.  At  these 
places  went  on  the  sale  of  relics  to  pilgrims,  which  Erasmus 
a  hundred  years  later  held  up  to  the  scorn  of  the  world. 
Bound  some  of  them,  old  pagan  superstitions  still  lingered 
under  a  very  thin  veil.  The  '  good  sword  of  Winfarthing ' 
was  a  precious  relic  that  helped  to  recover  stolen  horses  and 
to  shorten  the  lives  of  refractory  husbands.  Some  holy  wells 
purified  from  unchastity,  others  granted  the  wishes  of  the 
drinker,  after  a  suitable  gift  had  been  made  to  the  priest  in 
charge.  Gifts  laid  on  the  shrines  of  St.  Petronel  saved  from 
fever.  The  ratcatcher  propitiated  St.  Gertrude ;  St.  Appol- 
lonia  cured  the  toothache.-^ 

It  is  not  wonderful  that  so  pious  a  Catholic  as  Langland 

•  See  Ap.  -  Retrospective  Bevieio,  18'28,  ii.  311. 

*  Cutis,  157-94 ;  Jusserand's  Vie  Nomade,  Text  and  Appendix,  on 
Pilgrimages  ;  Retrospective  Review,  1828,  ii.  301-14  ;  Fuller's  Church  History, 
331,  ed.  1656. 


PAPAL  PAEDONS  135 

had  small  respect  for  pilgrims  and  pilgrimages.  Just  before 
the  first  appearance  of  '  Piers  Plowman '  in  the  Vision  that  bears 
his  name,  the  poet  and  his  company  meet  a  palmer  loaded 
with  the  customary  symbols  and  relics  from  half  the  shrines 
of  Christendom.  '  Knowest  thou  ought  a  saint  men  call 
Saint  Truth  ?  Canst  thou  wissen  us  the  way  where  that  he 
dwelleth  ?  '  asks  Langland.  *  Nay,'  replies  the  pilgrim,  '  so 
God  glade  me !  '  Truth  is  not  the  sort  of  saint  that  palmers 
go  to  seek.^ 

Even  for  the  most  superstitious  and  degraded  of  those  who 
travelled  to  Eome  on  these  errands  there  was  some  element  of 
real  penance  in  the  act  of  pilgrimage.  But  in  the  mere  hawk- 
ing and  sale  of  pardons  for  sin  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities 
to  those  who  sat  at  home,  we  reach  the  lowest  depth  to  which 
religion  can  be  dragged.  The  Papal  Court  was  the  centre 
whence  pardons  and  indulgences  were  sent  out.  But  the 
English  Episcopate  must  share  the  blame  with  the  Pope. 
Instead  of  withstanding  and  denouncing  his  emissaries  when 
they  came  on  such  missions,  instead  of  warning  the  people 
against  Pardoners  and  their  wares,  they  encouraged  the  sale, 
and  made  what  profit  they  could  out  of  it  themselves.  It 
cannot  be  pleaded  in  their  excuse  that  every  one  then  believed 
in  the  pardons.  Enough  believers  were  found  to  make  the 
sale  go  merrily,  but  the  representatives  of  what  was  best  in 
that  age  saw  through  the  absurdity  with  as  clear  an  eye  as 
Luther.  Not  only  did  Wycliffe  wage  war  upon  it,  but  Chaucer 
the  worldly-wise  man,  and  Langland  the  Catholic  enthusiast, 
hated  the  sale  of  indulgences  with  all  the  force  of  intellectual 
scorn  and  moral  indignation.  What  some  of  the  middle 
classes  thought  of  it,  may  be  seen  by  mine  Host's  unprintable 
reply  to  the  Pardoner  of  the  '  Canterbury  Tales,'  when  he 
offers  to  sell  his  wares  to  his  fellow-pilgrims.  But  the  Bishops 
and  the  Church  authorities,  instead  of  leading  the  nation,  held 
it  back.  It  was  left  to  the  heretic  priest  and  the  layman  to 
point  out  the  spiritual  road  on  which  the  nation  was  destined 
to  travel. 

A  Pardoner  was  a  Papal  agent  who  travelled  through 
England   selling   indulgences   and   relics   on   behalf    of    his 

'  P.  PL,  A,  vi.  23 ;  also  C,  i.  47-55. 


136  EELIGION 

master.     With   the    Summoner   in  the  Canterbury  Pilgrim- 

"  '  rode 

ther  rood  a  gentil  Pardoner 
Of  Kouncival,  his  freend  and  his  compeer, 
That  streight  was  comen  fro  the  Court  of  Eome  ; 

His  walet  lay  biform  him  in  his  lappe, 
brim-ful  hot 

Bret-ful  of  pardotm  come  from  Rome  al  hoot. 

goat 
A  voys  he  hadde  as  smal  as  hath  a  goot. 

But  of  his  craft,  fro  Berwick  into  Ware, 
Ne  was  ther  swich  another  pardoner. 

hag  pillow-case 

For  in  his  male  he  hadde  a  pilwe-beer 

Our  Lady's  veil 
Which  that,  he  seyde,  was  our  lady  veyle ; 

cross  tnade  of  latten  set  with  jewels 
He  hadde  a  croys  of  latoun  ful  of  stones 

pig's 
And  in  a  glas  he  hadde  pigges  bones. 

these  found 

But  with  thise  relikes,  whail  that  he  fond 

A  poor  parson  living  up-country 
A  porre  person  dwelling  up-on  lond, 

one 
Up-on  a  day  he  gat  him  more  moneye 
Than  that  the  person  gat  in  monthes  twey, 
And  thus  with  feigned  flatterye  and  japes 
He  made  the  person  and  the  peple  apes. 

So  speaks  Chaucer.^  Langland  has  left  a  very  similar 
description  of  a  Pardoner  at  work  in  a  village  : — 

There  preached  a  pardoner  as  if  he  a  priest  were, 
And  brought  forth  a  bull  with  a  bishop's  seals. 
And  said  that  he  could  absolve  them  all 
Of  breaking  their  fasts  and  of  breaking  their  vows. 
Ignorant  men  loved  him  well  and  liked  his  words. 
Came  and  kneeled  to  kiss  his  bulls. 

Were  the  bishop  blessed  or  worth  both  his  ears 
His  seal  should  not  be  sent  to  deceive  the  people. 

In  another  passage  Langland  breaks  out  against  the 
prelacy  for  abuse  of  its  spiritual  power  in  the  following 
spirited  lines : — 

'  Prologue  to  Canterbury  Tales, 


THE  BISHOPS  ENCOUEAGB  SUPEESTITION      137 

Idolatry  ye  suffer  in  sundry  places  many, 

And  boxes  are  set  forth  bounden  with  iron, 

To  receive  the  ToU  paid  through  untrue  sacrifice. 

In  remembrance  of  miracles  much  wax  is  hung  on  the  shrines. 

All  the  world  wot  well  this  could  not  be  true. 

But  because  it  is  profitable  to  you  purseward,  you  prelates 

suffer 
Ignorant  men  in  misbelief  to  live  and  to  die.' 

The  English  prelates  as  well  as  the  Pope  found  it  to  their 
interest  to  encourage  these  '  misbeliefs.'  St.  Peter's  was  not 
the  first  nor  the  only  church  built  by  the  proceeds  of  indul- 
gences. In  1396,  for  instance,  the  Chapter  of  York,  needing 
money  to  complete  their  cathedral,  obtained  from  the  Pope 
indulgences  which  they  sold  in  their  diocese  ;  the  proceeds  of 
the  sale  were  to  be  applied  to  the  building.  We  have  their 
letter  to  the  provincial  clergy  of  the  Archdeaconry  of  Kich- 
mond.  They  write  that  they  are  sending  down  from  York  their 
beloved  friend  John  Beryngton,  '  of  whose  faithfulness  and  in- 
dustry we  have  full  confidence  in  the  Lord,  to  publish  and  ex- 
plain the  said  indulgences  and  others,  conceded  by  other 
prelates  in  this  part.'     Such  cases  were  common  at  this  period.^ 

The  Pardoner  who  came  down  with  letters  from  the  Church 
authorities  often  used  the  position  thus  obtained  to  earn  a 
penny  for  himself  as  dealer  in  magic  and  spells.  Chaucer's 
Pardoner  describes  how 

First  I  pronounce  whennes  that  I  come. 
And  than  my  bulles  shewe  I,  alle  and  somme. 
That  no  man  be  so  bold,  ne  preest  ne  clerk, 
Me  to  destourbe  of  Criste's  holy  werk. 
And  after  that  than  telle  I  forth  my  tales, 
Bulles  of  Popes  and  of  Cardinales, 
Of  Patriarkes  and  bishoppes  I  shewe ; 

latten  a  shoulder  hone 
Than  have  I  in  latoun  a  sholder  boon 
which  belonged  to  the  sheep  of  a  holy  Jew 
Which  that  was  of  an  holy  Jewe's  shepe. 


'  Good  men,'  seye  I, '  tak  of  my  wordes  kepe  ; 
If  that  this  boon  be  wasshe  in  any  welle. 
If  cow,  or  calf,  or  sheep,  or  oxe  sweUe, 


'  P.  PI,  C,  i.  lines  66-77,  and  96-102 ;  also  B,  vii.  649,  and  A,  viii.  170 
et  seq.  2  ggg  Ap. 


138  EBLIGION 

Tak  water  of  that  well,  and  wash  his  tonge, 

whole 
And  it  is  hoole  anon. 
Heer  is  a  initeyn  eek,  that  ye  raay  see. 
He  that  his  hond  will  putte  in  this  miteyu, 
He  shal  have  multiplying  of  his  greyn, 
Whan  he  hath  sowen,  be  it  whete  or  otes, 
Provided  that  he  give  vne 'pence  or  groats 
So  that  he  offre  pens  or  elles  grotes.'  ' 

The  Pope  and  the  prelates  were  not  perhaps  responsible 
for  the  worst  tricks  that  the  Pardoners  played  on  the  people, 
any  more  than  they  were  responsible  for  all  that  the  Sum- 
moners  did  in  summoning  to  the  Church  Courts.  But  in  both 
cases  they  were  responsible  for  the  system,  and  for  the  en- 
couragement of  beliefs  on  which  it  was  based.  The}'-  could  not 
have  made  a  more  cruel  misuse  of  power  than  they  did,  by 
thus  sending  vile  quacks  with  official  letters  of  introduction 
round  the  up-country  villages,  to  deceive  a  simple  and  ignorant 
peasantry,  who  knew  no  reason  for  rejecting  anything  that 
came  to  them  from  the  great  world  beyond  their  ken.  The 
coarsest  superstitions,  that  were  rejected  in  the  towns  with 
rude  laughter,  were  palmed  off  on  the  unfortunate  rustic  by 
the  agents  of  the  Pope  and  the  Bishops. 

The  pardon  of  sins  for  money,  which  we  have  seen  going 
^on  under  one  form  in  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts,  and  under 
another  in  the  sale  of  indulgences,^  was  not  unknown  in  the 
confessional.  It  was  only  another  phase  of  the  decline  of  real 
belief  in  absolution  by  confession  and  penance.  The  laity  had 
not  yet  abandoned  the  form,  although  they  had  ceased  to  feel 
the  spirit  of  that  Sacrament.  The  husk  was  still  left,  the 
kernel  was  gone.  The  system  had  become,  in  fact,  a  super- 
stition. Men  kept  and  paid  confessors  to  assoil  them  of 
whatever  sins  they  chose  to  commit.  The  demand  for  such 
accommodation  was  supplied  by  the  friars,  who  met  the  lay- 
men half  way.  They  successfully  competed  with  the  parish 
priests,  who  were  more  conscientious,  or  at  any  rate  less  for- 
ward to  advertise  their  venality.  The  secular  clergy  main- 
tained that  the  parish  priest  was  the  proper  confessor  for 
every  man,  but  the  friars  who  perambulated  the  country  had 

'  Chaucer,  Pardoner's  Prologue.  -  See  Ap. 


COEEUPTION   OF  THE   CONFESSIONAL  139 

the  Pope's  leave  to  hear  confessions  and  give  absolution. 
The  friar  had  a  certain  district  allotted  to  him  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  his  convent ;  he  was  licensed,  like  the  later  Scotch 
'  gaberlunzie,'  to  go  the  rounds  of  this  district,  and  there 
to  make  what  money  he  could.  He  had  many  advantages 
over  the  parson — sometimes  greater  learning,  usually  brighter 
wit,  always  later  news  and  more  general  knowledge  of  the 
world  outside  the  parish.  But  among  the  baser  means  which 
he  used  to  attract  the  poor  man's  congregation  to  himself  and 
to  pocket  the  Church  fees,  was  the  readiness  with  which  he 
sold  absolution. 

He  was  an  esy  man  to  yeve  penaunce, 

Ther  as  he  wist  to  have  a  good  pittaimce  ; 

For  unto  a  poore  order  for  to  yive 

Is  signe  that  a  man  is  wel  y-shrive^ 

When  people  dare  not  confess  to  their  priest, 

shame  maketh  them  wend, 
And  flee  to  the  friars  as  false  folk  to  Westmynster  ; " 

they  fly  to  the  friars'  confessional  for  refuge  from  their  sins, 
as  fraudulent  debtors  take  sanctuary  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

Twenty  years  before  Wycliffe's  attack  was  made,  Fitz- 
Ealph  Bishop  of  Armagh  had  laid  a  famous  indictment 
of  the  four  orders  before  the  Pope  at  Avignon.  It  made  a 
great  stir  at  the  time,  but  came  to  nothing,  for  the  friars 
were  under  the  Pope's  special  protection.  The  Bishop 
chiefly  complained  of  their  competition  with  his  secular 
clergy  in  the  matter  of  confession  and  absolution.  He 
brought  forward  some  curious  statistics,  which,  even  if 
exaggerated,  give  a  curious  picture  of  life  in  Ireland  in  the 
fourteenth  century.  '  I  have,'  he  said,  '  in  my  diocese  of 
Armagh  two  thousand  persons  a  year  (as  I  think)  who  are 
excommunicated  for  wilful  homicide,  public  robbery,  arson 
and  similar  acts  ;  of  whom  scarcely  forty  in  a  year  come  to 
me  or  my  parish  priests  for  confession.'^  On  this  side 
St.  George's  Channel  the  state  of  society  was  somewhat  less 
turbulent,   but  a  like   demand   existed   for   the   friars'  easy 

'  Chaucer,  Prologue  to  Cant.  Tales. 

2  P.  PL,  B,  XX.  281 ;  A,  iii.  36-50,  B  ;  xi.  53-4  ;  Pol.  Poems,  ii.  46. 

"  Brown's  Fasciculus,  ii.  468. 


140  EELIGION 

terms  of  absolution.  '  For  commonly,  if  there  be  any  cursed 
swearer,  extortioner  or  adulterer,  he  will  not  be  shriven  at 
his  own  curate,  but  go  to  a  flattering  friar,  that  will  assoil 
him  falsely  for  a  little  money  by  year.'  ^ 

The  friars  also  undertook  to  share  the  merits  of  their 
order  with  sinners  who  could  be  persuaded  to  buy  '  letters  of 
fraternity.'  They  even  gave  out  that  any  man  or  woman 
who  put  on  a  friar's  dress  at  the  hour  of  death  could  not  be 
damned.  Special  prayers  for  souls  said  in  a  convent  of 
mendicants  were  valued  highly  and  bought  at  a  price  cor- 
respondingly high.^ 

Wycliffe  developed,  as  to  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  a  theory 
entirely  different  from  that  held  by  the  Church.  He  did  not 
believe  that  either  penance  or  confession  was  necessary. 
Confession,  however,  he  held  to  be  good  and  useful,  provided 
it  was  voluntary  and  made  to  a  suitable  person  ;  best  of  all, 
it  might  be  made  in  public  as  a  sign  of  genuine  repentance. 
But  compulsory  confession  to  a  priest,  who  might  be  the 
most  unsuitable  of  persons,  he  considered  bad.  It  was  no 
.-.-Irue  Sacrament,  and  was  quite  unnecessary  to  absolution. 
Compulsory  confession  he  declared  to  have  been  introduced 
into  the  Church  by  the  Pope  in  later  and  more  corrupt  ages. 
He  could  find  only  voluntary  confession  among  the  acts 
of  the  Apostles.  '  And  this  shrift  thus  brought  in,'  he  writes, 
'  seemeth  to  mar  the  church  in  belief.  .  .  .  Such  many 
blasphemies  against  the  belief  are  sown  of  Antichrist  in  this 
matter,  for  God  that  giveth  grace  and  is  in  the  soul  assoileth 
and  doth  away  sin.  ...  A  priest  should  not  say  "  I  assoil," 
when  he  wot  not  if  God  assoil.'  ^ 

Wycliffe  fully  realised  how  the  confessional  subjected 
men  to  the  priesthood,  and  although  he  wished  for  efficient 
and  influential  Church  ministers,  he  had  clearly  grasped 
the  necessity  for  the  emancipation  of  the  lay  conscience 
and  intellect.     He  declared  that  in  ordering  compulsory  eon- 

'  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  394  ;  Matt.,  181 ;  P.  PVs  Creed,  E.  E.  T.  S.,  lines  132-6  ; 

2  S.   E.  v.,   iii.   377,   420 ;  Pol.    Works,  i.  35  ;   De  Bias.,  209-10 ;   Pol. 
Poems,  i.  256-7,  ii.  21,  29  ;  P.  PI,  C,  viii.  27,  C,  xxiii.  366-7,  C,  xiii.  9-10.     ' 

3  Matt.,  333,  328-9,  340-1 ;    S.  E.  W.,  iii.  255 ;   De  Bias.,  caps.  ix.  x.  xi. ; 
Sermones,  iii.  67,  iv.  56-7. 


WYGLIFFE  AND  LUTHEE  141 

fession,  *  Antichrist  hath  cast  his  cast  to  make  all  men 
subject  to  the  Pope,  and  lead  them  after  that  him  liketh. 
Lord,  where  is  freedom  of  Christ,  when  men  are  casten  in 
such  bondage?  Christ  made  his  servants  free,  but  Anti- 
christ hath  made  them  bond  again.'  ^  / 
In  the  Pope's  power  to  bind  and  loose  he  absolutely 
disbelieved.  Indeed  he  converted  the  words  on  which  rests 
the  theory  of  the  '  power  of  the  keys  '  into  a  statement  of  the 
responsibility  of  the  individual  for  his  own  soul.  ' "  What 
thing  that  Peter  bindeth  upon  earth  shall  be  bound  in 
heaven,  and  what  thing  he  unbindeth  upon  earth  shall  be 
unbounden  in  heaven."  And  these  words  were  not  only  said 
unto  Peter  but  commonly  to  the  Apostles,  as  the  gospel 
telleth  after,  and  in  persons  of  the  Apostles  were  they  said  to 
priests,  and,  as  many  men  thinken,  to  all  Christian  men. 
For  if  man  have  mercy  on  his  soul  and  unbind  it,  or  bind  it, 
God  by  his  judgment  in  heaven  judgeth  the  soul  such.  For 
each  man  that  shall  be  damned  shall  be  damned  by  his  own 
guilt,  and  each  man  that  is  saved  shall  be  saved  by  his  own 
merit.'  ^  By  '  merit '  Wycliffe  meant  a  man's  actions  as  the 
result  of  the  state  of  his  soul ;  he  did  not  mean  some  particular 
belief  without  which  there  was  no  salvation.^  He  made  no 
narrow  formula  to  exclude  his  enemies  from-  heaven,  or  to 
include  his  friends.  He  said  that  no  man  knew  whether 
he  or  any  other  was  saved  or  damned.  He  believed  that, 
strictly  speaking,  every  man  was  predestined  to  salvation  or 
damnation,  but  he  held  that  actions  and  not  dogma  were  in 
this  life  the  only  test  of  his  state.^  It  is  hard  to  say  whether 
Luther  and  Wycliffe  would  have  differed  had  they  met.  They 
both  sought  to  replace  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church  of  Eome  ; 
but  while  one  laid  more  stress  on  works  that  should  prove 
faith,  the  other  emphasised  the  necessity  of  a  living  faith  which 
naturally  implied  works.  Wycliffe  would  never  have  said 
that  St.  James's  Epistle  was  of  straw.  His  view  of  salvation 
is  more  large  and  charitable  than  that  of  many  prophets, 
churches,  and  sects  who  have  since  taken  part  in  the  contro- 
versies that  he  foreshadowed. 

'  Matt.,  329.  2  s.  E.  W.,  i.  350.  ^  Matt.,  349. 

^  De  Ecc,  caps.  i.  v.  vi. 


142  EBLIGION 

A  point  where  he  differed  from  later  reformers  was 
the  belief  in  purgatory,  which  he  retained  to  the  end  of 
his  life.^  It  was  in  no  way  inconsistent  with  his  repudiation 
of  masses  for  the  dead,  indulgences,  and  the  '  merits  of  the 
Saints.'  The  latter  doctrine  he  declared  to  be  a  '  blasphemy 
blabbered  without  ground.'  -  Although  he  attacked  many 
superstitions  connected  with  the  conception  of  purgatory, 
that  conception  itself  never  appeared  to  him  as  anything  but 
rational. 

It  is  impossible  to  understand  fully  Wycliffe's  position 
about  pardons,  sin-rents,  and  the  abuse  of  the  confessional,  if 
we  regard  him  as  an  intellectual  leader  only.  His  strong 
moral  feeling  made  him  one  of  the  reprovers  of  the  bad  age  in 
which  he  lived.  He  saw  all  classes  of  the  laity  indulging  in 
every  form  of  violence  and  vice.  He  thought  that  the  sale  of 
pardons  and  the  venality  of  the  friar  confessors  were  actual 
encouragements  of  sin,  and  stood  in  the  way  of  true  re- 
pentance. In  this  opinion  he  was  supported  by  Langland, 
the  Jonah  who  was  perpetually  denouncing  the  sins  of  that 
generation : — 

For  comfort  of  his  confessor  Contrition  he  left, 
That  is  sovereign  salve  for  all  kinds  of  sins.^ 

But  Wycliffe's  objections  were  the  more  deeply  rooted  of 
the  two.  He  quarrelled  with  the  very  theory,  not  merely  with 
the  abuse,  of  the  mediaeval  religion.  Deeds  of  a  ceremonial 
nature  seemed  to  him  unsatisfactory  and  nugatory.  No  sacra- 
ment or  ceremony  could  for  him  be  the  basis  of  the  relations 
between  the  moral  being  and  God.  His  attitude  was  not 
purely  negative,  and  was  furthest  removed  of  all  from  that  of 
the  mere  scoffer.  He  was  the  herald  of  the  Puritan  move- 
ment, not  only  in  its  repudiation  of  ceremonies,  but  in  the 
stern  individual  morality  which  it  substituted.  Judging  from 
the  history  of  the  early  Lollards,  he  failed  in  instilling  this 
spirit  into  his  first  disciples  ;  but  his  own  works  breathe  of  it, 
and  his  life  bears  witness  to  the  dauntless  courage  of  a  man 
who  believes  in  his  own  immediate  relation  to  God. 

'  S.  E.  W.,  i.  101  and  333,  ii.  100,  ill.  339  ;  Sermoms,  iv.  21 ;  De  Bias.,  119. 
2  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  262.  '  P.  PI.,  C,  xxiii.  371-2. 


143 


CHAPTER   V 

BELIGION  {continued) 

FEIARS.       CLERGY    IN    LOWER    ORDERS.       MONKS.      CHURCH   AS    A 
WHOLE.        WYCLIFFE   AND    HIS   NEW   RELIGION 

For  the  spread  of  religious  instruction  and  the  creation  of 
religious  enthusiasm,  the  four  orders  of  friars  were  at  this  time 
the  most  active  part  of  the  Catholic  Church.  It  was  now 
a  century  and  a  half  since  the  new  foundations  of  St.  Francis 
and  St.  Dominic  had  created  the  greatest  revival  that  ever 
stirred  the  mediasval  world.  The  first  ardour  of  those  great 
days  had  long  since  cooled.  Wealth  and  power  had  produced 
in  the  mendicant  orders  some  of  their  usual  consequences.  In 
true  spiritual  zeal,  in  purity  of  ideal,  there  had  been  a  great 
falling  off  among  the  friars  ;  but  there  had  been  less  decline  in 
their  activity,  and  in  influence  they  were  perhaps  as  strong 
as  ever.  Compared  to  the  other  parts  of  the  Church,  the 
mendicants  still  held  their  own  in  the  competition  for  the 
patronage  of  the  laity,  though  their  motives  in  competing 
were  less  pure,  and  the  means  they  employed  more  open  to 
criticism  than  of  old.  The  furious  and  bitter  attacks  directed 
against  them  by  satirists  and  poets,  Lollards  and  Bishops 
alike,  all  breathe  fear  and  hatred,  not  contempt.  Langland, 
Chaucer,  Wycliffe,  FitzEalph,  were  all  for  different  reasons 
jealous  of  the  influence  exercised  by  the  friars  over  their 
fellow-countrymen.  Langland  saw  them  corrupt  the  Catholic 
religion  ;  Chaucer  saw  them  play  on  the  folly  and  weakness  of 
human  nature  ;  Wycliffe  saw  them  resist  reformation  with  the 
ardour  and  success  which  the  Jesuits  afterwards  displayed  in 
the  same  cause ;  FitzEalph  saw  his  episcopal  authority  defied, 
and  his  parish  churches  emptied  by  a  rival  ministration  as 


144  EBLIGION 

formidable  as  that  of  Wesley  and  Whitefield.  All  raised  one 
fierce  war-cry  against  the  friars.  All  reiterated  the  same 
charges,  and  these  charges  were  repeated  by  every  anonymous 
satirist  who  has  left  us  a  verse  on  the  subject.  The  portrait  of 
the  friar  that  has  thus  come  down  to  us  from  so  many  sources, 
though  a  caricature,  is  uniform  and  consistent.  Of  one  thing  he 
is  never  accused :  he  is  never  taunted  with  living  at  home  in 
his  cloister  and  allowing  souls  to  perish  for  want  of  food.  The 
complaint  is  that  he  stuffs  them  only  too  effectually  with 
garbage.  The  monk  was  despised  by  the  reformer  ;  the  friar 
was  hated. 

The  causes  of  this  continued  success  are  not  far  to  seek. 
The  mendicant  orders  were,  in  the  mediaeval  world,  the  insti- 
tution best  fitted  for  propagandism.  In  the  early  Church  the 
monk  and  the  parish  priest  were  the  only  religious  influences. 
The  monk  had  the  advantage  of  learning,  of  learned  society, 
and  of  perpetual  contact  with  his  superiors  and  equals.  But  he 
could  not  come  into  touch  with  the  people  as  long  as  he  con- 
tinued the  life  of  the  cloister.  He  was  best  fitted  to  deal  with 
mankind,  but  from  mankind  he  was  rigidly  excluded.  The 
parish  priest,  on  the  other  hand,  was  continually  in  contact 
with  his  flock ;  but  he  was  too  often  ignorant,  and  he  was 
generally  impoverished.  Being  in  many  cases  a  child  of  the 
soil  like  his  parishioners,  he  knew  of  no  other  life  save  the 
life  of  the  peasant,  and  of  no  other  learning  or  religion  save 
the  traditional  piet}'-  of  the  countryside.  The  terrible  isolation 
of  rural  life  in  the  Middle  Ages  was  one  of  the  chief  evils 
which  the  Church  had  to  combat,  but  neither  the  monk  nor 
the  parish  priest  was  perfectly  fitted  to  cope  with  it. 

The  orders  of  St.  Dominic  and  St.  Francis  brought  to  the 
aid  of  civilisation  not  only  the  zeal  they  had  from  the 
beginning  and  the  learning  which  they  soon  acquired,  but  an 
organisation  which  united  the  advantages  of  the  monastic 
and  secular  clergy.  The  friar  was  brought  up  in  the  cloister, 
where  he  learned  such  wisdom  as  books  and  educated  society 
can  give.  He  lived  the  life  of  a  cleric  among  clerics,  gene- 
rally in  or  near  some  large  city,  where  the  newest  ideas  and 
latest  reports  circulated.^     From  this  centre  he  was  sent  out 

'  Franciscana,  Appendix  viii. 


THE  PEIAES  145 

on  beat  to  certain  specified  villages  and  towns ;  these  he  con- 
tinually visited  and  re-visited,  returning  ever  and  again  to 
his  convent  with  the  winnings  of  his  tour,  which  went  to  the 
common  purse.     Thus  it  happened  that  when  the  monasteries 
had  ceased  to  play  an  important  part  in  the  national  life, 
when  the  parish  priests  were  too  often  on  a  level  with  the 
peasantry  to  whom  they  ministered,  the  friars  remained  the 
chief  religious  influence  throughout  England.     This  influence 
they  used,   so  their   many  enemies  declared,  chiefly  to   get 
money  for  the  splendour  of  their  banquets,  the  adornment  of 
their  convents,  and  the  enrichment  of  their  treasuries.      The 
begging  friar  was   loyal   at   least   to   his   order.     By   every 
means  arising  from  the  credulity  and  superstition  of  those  to 
whom  he  ministered,  he  collected  alms  and  donations  not  for 
himself,  but  for  the  corporation  of  which  he  was  a  member. 
His  energy  was  further  stimulated  by  the  rivalry  of  the  four 
great  orders  among  themselves.     They  all  competed  with  each 
other  on  the  same  ground  and  with  the  same  weapons.     The 
dislike  of  the  Franciscan  for  the  Dominican,  of  the  Dominican 
for  the  Augustinian,  of  the  Augustinian  for  the  Carmelite,  was 
only  equalled  by  the  dislike  of  the  parish  priest  for  all  four 
together.^     Although  the  chiefs  might  have  a  common  policy 
in   high  quarters  at  London  or  Oxford,  the  rivalry  of  their 
subordinates  on  the  scene   of  their  missionary  labours  was 
inevitable.      The  friars,  therefore,  even  after  they  had    esta- 
blished  their    reputation,   continued   their    ministry    under 
all  the  stimulus  which  the  voluntary  system  and  severe  com- 
petition can  give. 

To  suppose  that  during  the  last  centuries  of  Catholicism 
in  England  the  people  were  left  by  the  Church  without 
spiritual  leadership,  and  with  insufficient  ministration,  is  to 
leave  the  mendicant  orders  out  of  account.  To  attribute  the 
popularity  of  the  Lollard  sermons  to  the  insufficient  number 
of  orthodox  preachers,  is  to  neglect  Wycliffe's  own  statement 
that  the  friars  understood  and  practised  the  art  of  popular 
preaching  only  too  well.^     They  knew  how  to  make  a  dis- 

>  P.  PL's  Creed,  E.  E.  T.  S. 

*  Sermones,  i.  xvii,  ii.  57-9  ;    S.  E.  W.,  ii.  166  ;   Polemical  Worlcs,  i.  97 
Trialogus,  365  ;  Matt.,  8,  16,  105. 

L 


146  EELIGION 

course  on  the  seven  deadly  sins  attractive,  by  telling  a  long 
story  of  a  miser  carried  off  by  the  devil,  or  a  murderer 
detected  in  the  act.  The  arts  of  sensationalism  were  their 
stock-in-trade.  They  were  clever  at  organising  those  wax- 
work groups  which  still  form  in  Southern  Europe  a  side  of 
Catholicism  so  attractive  to  the  vulgar.^  Protected  by  the 
authority  and  license  of  the  Pope,  they  carried  off  the  con- 
gregations wholesale  from  the  local  clergy.  They  preached 
everywhere,  they  gathered  money  for  the  adornment  of  their 
own  churches,  they  gave  absolution  in  their  own  confes- 
sionals, they  buried  the  dead  in  their  own  graveyards.  Fees 
and  pious  offerings  were  lost  to  the  curate  and  went  to  the 
friars.^ 

But  the  main  attraction  that  they  had  for  the  baser 
sort  of  men  was  the  cheap  price  at  which  they  granted 
j^--  absolution.  A  window  erected  in  a  Carmelite  convent  could 
secure  easy  shrift  for  the  crimes  of  the  great,  a  pair  of  old 
shoes  and  a  dinner  given  to  the  Franciscan  on  his  rounds 
could  obtain  heaven's  pardon  for  the  peasant.  This  was  the 
charge  repeated  against  them  most  frequently  and  with  the 
strongest  emphasis  by  all  their  critics. 

By  such  arts,  often  combined  with  qualities  more  admirable, 
the  friars  became  the  spiritual  guides  and  the  actual  masters 
of  many  households.  As  might  be  expected,  it  was  with 
women  that  their  influence  was  paramount.  In  female  life 
piety  plays  a  larger  part.  The  proportion  of  women  to  men 
among  those  who  attend  church  will  always  be  the  pride  and 
sorrow  of  the  clergy.  Where  the  personal  influence  of  the 
priest  is  strong,  it  is  strongest  of  all  with  women.  So  it  was 
in  the  case  of  the  friars.  What  Mr.  Stiggins  was  to  Mrs. 
Weller,  that  the  friar  was  to  the  Wife  of  Chaucer's  tale,  and 
the  part  of  Mr.  Weller  senior  was  often  not  wanted  to  complete 
the  tragi-comedy.^  The  father  of  English  narrative  poetry 
has   left   us   an  exquisite  dialogue    between    the    friar    and 

'  Franciscana,  606-7. 

2  Ibid.  605  ;  Brown's  Fasciculus,  ii.  468  et  seq. ;  Langland,  P.  PL,  B, 
text,  xi.  53-80,  and  B,  v.  136-52,  C,  vii.  118  et  seq. ;  Wycliffe,  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  874 
and  380 ;  Pol.  Poems  (R.  S.),  ii.  22-3,  33,  46. 

^  Brown's  Fasciculus,  ii.  479  ;  Franciscana,  602-4 ;  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  199 ; 
Matt.,  10  ;  Pol.  Works,  i.  36  ;  P.  PI,  C,  iv.  38  et  seq. ;  Knighton,  ii.  198  ;  Pol. 
Poems,  ii.  48-9. 


THE   FEIAES 


147 


the  wife  in  his  Summoner's  Tale.     Thomas,  the  husband,  is 
lying  ill  in  the  room  where  the  conversation  takes  place. 

Wife.     '  Ey  maister,  welcome  be  ye  by  Seint  John,' 
Sayde  this  wif,  '  how  fare  ye  hertily  ?  ' 
This  frere  arisetb  up  ful  curtisly, 
And  hire  embraceth  in  his  armes  narwe, 

cliirpeth  like  a  sparrow 
And  kisseth  hire  swete,  and  chirketh  as  a  sparwe 
Friar.     "With  his  lippes  :  '  Dame,'  quod  he,  '  right  well 

part 
As  he  that  is  your  servant  every  del. 

time 
I  wol  with  Thomas  speke  a  litel  throw, 
These  curates  ben  so  negligent  and  slow 
To  gropen  tenderly  a  conscience.' 

Wife.     '  Now  by  your  faith,  o  dere  sire,'  quod  she, 
chide 
Chideth  him  wel  for  Seint  Charitee. 
He  is  ay  angry  as  is  a  pissemire, 
Though  that  he  have  all  that  he  can  desire 

Friar.     '  O  Thomas,  je  vous  die,  Thomas,  Thomas, 

This  maketh  the  fiend,  this  must  ben  amended, 

forbidden 

Ire  is  a  thing  that  high  God  hath  defended, 

And  thereof  wol  I  speke  a  word  or  two.' 
Wife.     '  Now  maister,'  quod  the  wife,  '  er  that  I  go 

What  wol  ye  dine  ?     I  wol  go  thereabout.' 
Friar.     '  Now  dame,'  quod  he,  '  je  vous  die  sans  dotite, 

Have  I  nat  of  a  capon  but  the  liver. 

And  of  your  white  bread  nat  but  a  shiver. 

And  after  that  a  roasted  pigges  hed, — 

But  I  ne  wold  for  me  no  beest  were  ded, — 

Than  had  I  with  you  homely  suflSsance. 

I  am  a  man  of  littel  sustenance.' 


Wife.     '  Now  sire,'  quod  she,  '  but  o  wo^d  ere  I  go, 
My  child  is  ded  within  thise  weekes  two. 
Soon  after  that  ye  went  out  of  this  toun.' 
Friar.     '  His  deth  saw  I  by  revelation,' 

at  the  convent  in  our  dormitory 
Sayde  this  frere,  '  at  home  in  our  dortour, 
I  dare  wel  sain  that  er  than  half  an  hour 
After  his  deth  I  saw  him  borne  to  blisse 


i2 


M8  EELIGION 

my  vision 
In  min  avision,  so  God  me  wisse. 
So  did  our  sextein  and  our  fermerere, 
.  That  han  ben  true  freres  fifty  yere, 
And  up  I  rose,  and  all  our  convent,  eke. 
With  many  a  tere  trilling  on  our  cheke, 
Withouten  noise  and  clattering  of  belles, 
Te  Deum  was  our  songe,  and  nothing  else, 
Save  that  to  Crist  I  made  an  orison, 
Thanking  hini  of  my  revelation. 

trust 
For,  sire  and  dame,  trusteth  me  right  wel, 
Our  orisons  ben  more  effectuel, 
And  more  we  seen  of  Criste's  secree  thinges 

lay 
Than  borel  folk  although  that  they  be  Kinges.' 

It  turns  out  in  the  sequel  of  the  story  that  the  husband  is 
only  biding  his  time  to  take  vengeance  on  the  intruder.^ 

The  friars  were  as  much  in  the  confidence  of  great  ladies  • 
as  of  common  people's  wives.-^  Those  among  the  laymen  who 
were  not  themselves  in  the  hands  of  these  insinuating  visitors, 
hated  them  with  the  hatred  of  righteous  jealousy.  It  was  in- 
evitable in  the  Middle  Ages,  when  such  an  enormous  propor- 
tion of  the  people  was  bound  by  religious  vows  of  celibacy, 
and  had  at  the  same  time  the  professional  right  of  entry  to 
families,  that  the  peace  of  households  should  be  frequently 
disturbed.  Not  only  do  Lollard  writers  concur  with  other 
satirists  in  charging  the  clergy  with  such  offences,  but  the 
hero  of  a  story  of  gallantry  is  generally  a  churchman,  as, 
for  instance,  in  the  '  Canterbury  Tales.'  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that  his  experience  in  this  matter  helped  to  release  the 
layman  from  a  servile  attitude  of  mind,  towards  the  clergy  in 
general  and  the  friars  in  particular.  The  Eeformation,  by 
reducing  the  number  of  clerics,  abolishing  compulsory  celibacy, 
and  removing  opportunities  of  private  intercourse  afforded  by 
the  confessional,  has  completely  removed  a  difficulty  which 
was  the  perpetual  curse  of  domestic  life  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

Macaulay,  in  a  well-known  passage  in  his  essay  on  Eanke's 
'  Popes,'  has  noticed   the   great   tactical  superiority   of   the 

'  Summoner's  Tale. 

2  Matt.,  10,  224 ;  Pol.  Works,  i.  35,  '  dominarum  ; '  P.  PI,  B,  v.  139-40  ; 
Pol.  Poems,  ii.  22,  84. 


THE  FEIAES  149 

Eoman  over  the  Anglican  Church,  in  making  use  of  enthusiasm 
instead  of  driving  it  into  dissent.     The  difference  is  in  part 
due  to  a  difference  of  organisation.     The  English  Primate, 
being  only  the   head   of   the   episcopal   system,  is  not  in  a 
position  to  create  a  rival  to  it.     The  Pope,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  so  far  above  the  other  Bishops  that  he  can  afford  to  govern 
and  use  a  parallel  organisation,   such  as  that  of  the  Jesuits. 
In  the  Middle  Ages  he  did  the  same  with  the  friars.     In  the 
eyes  of  the  English  Bishops  they  were  sucecssful  dissenters : 
they  emptied  the  churches,  they  formed  rival  congregations. 
But  in  the  eyes  of  the  Italian  Cardinals  they  were  the  Pope's 
own  regiment   of   missionaries :    they  upheld   his   authority 
against  Anglican  murmurings,  and  they  protected  the  Catholic 
faith  against  heretics.     If  the  authority  of  Piome  was  thrown 
off  by   the   English   Church,  the   friars,  being   outside   the 
episcopal  jurisdiction,  would  become  dissenters,  and  so  would 
at  once  be  suppressed.     It   could  not  be   expected  that  the 
Bishops  would  allow  the  continued  existence  of  such  danger- 
ous rivals  to  the  secular  clergy.     Nor  was  there  anything  to 
hope  from  the  goodwill  of  the  State,  if  the  Pope's  protection 
was  rendered  void.      The  friars  were  obnoxious  to  the  secular 
government  also,  because  one  of  the  privileges  which  they  held 
most  tenaciously  was  that  of  complete  exemption  from  taxes. 
They  were  not  liegemen  of  the  King,  and  their  property,  being 
by  a  fiction  supposed  to  belong  to  the  Pope,  could  not  be 
touched  by  England.^     They  knew  that  if  the  movement  for 
separation  from  Eome  took  effect,  there  was  an  end,  to  their 
privileges,  perhaps  to  their  very  existence,  and  their  enemies 
already  considered  the  abolition  of  "the  four  orders  a  possibility 
of  the  near  future.^ 

Attached  in  this  way  to  the  power  of  the  Pope  by  every 
interest  and  tradition,  they  were  his  most  active  agents  in 
England.  They  sold  his  indulgences,  privileges,  and  livings. 
They  advertised  themselves  as  '  better  cheap  than  other  pro- 
curators '  on  account  of  their  high  favour  at  the  Papal  Court.^ 
When,  therefore,  Wycliffe  advanced  from  criticism  of  the 
Papal  action  to  denunciation  of  the  Papal  power,  they  felt 

»  Wals.,  i.  323-4  ;  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  384  ;  Matt.,  50. 

2  Franciscana,  605.  =*  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  400. 


150  EELIGION 

their  owii  posifcion  in  England  attacked  by  the  most  formidable 
antagonist  that  Oxford,  that  Europe,  could  supply.  The 
chiefs  of  the  Four  Orders  rallied  to  the  defence  of  all  Church 
institutions  by  Canon  law  established. 

It  was  a  rally  ;  it  was  to  some  degree  a  change  of  policy. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  friars  had  been  the  early  allies 
and  friends  of  Wycliffe.  Still  in  fiction,  as  formerly  in  fact, 
they  were  beggars,  who  were  to  hold  no  property ;  they 
were  to  depend  on  the  voluntary  system  in  its  most  ex- 
aggerated form ;  they  were  to  live  on  the  food  which  from 
day  to  day  was  given  them  by  pious  friends.  Francis 
of  Assisi  had  actually  obeyed  that  hardest  of  all  com- 
mands, '  Sell  all  that  thou  hast  and  give  to  the  poor.'  His 
early  disciples  obeyed  it  as  readily  as  their  founder.  But 
times  had  changed.  The  friars  now  lived  in  great  palaces 
where  treasure  lay  stored,  yet  even  in  those  magnificent  halls 
the  old  idea  that  to  be  poor  was  blessed  still  held  its  place 
in  theory.  Evangelical  poverty,  the  poverty  that  was  recom- 
mended in  the  Gospel  and  practised  by  Christ  and  His 
Apostles,  was  the  basis  on  which  the  friars  still  presumed  to 
condemn  the  wealth  of  the  Bishops  and  monks.  Great  contro- 
versies had  raged  round  the  question  within  the  pale  of  the  four 
orders.  One  section,  known  as  the  '  Spiritual '  Franciscans, 
had  been  persecuted  by  order  of  the  Pope  for  holding  the 
theory.  These  men,  as  a  Wycliffite  writer  declared,  were  still 
in  existence,  and  still  subjected  to  persecution  by  their  more 
worldly  brethren.^  It  is  certain  that  a  tendency  to  the  theory 
of  evangelical  poverty  existed  among  the  orders,  if  it  did  not 
prevail  there.  Their  attitude  upon  the  question  was  still 
debated  at  their  councils,  but  the  decisions  were  indefinite 
and  confusing.^  They  still  declared,  it  seems,  that  what  they 
took  from  the  pious  was  only  by  way  of  alms,  and  that  all 
which  they  thus  accumulated  belonged  not  to  themselves, 
but  to  the  Pope.  Money,  the  accursed  thing,  they  would 
only  touch  with  gloves  on  their  hands.^  Such  affectations 
made  no  difference  to  their  real  wealth,  which  daily  increased 
in   proportion   to   their   influence.     But  it  enabled  them  to 

»  Matt.,  51,  line  10.  2  j)g  Apostasid,  23. 

*  Matt.,  49  ;  Pol.  Poems,  ii.  28  ;  Pecock's  Repressor,  ii.  543. 


THE  FEIAES  151 

criticise  the  acknowledged  possessions  held  by  the  rest  of  the 
Church.  Their  rivalry  to  Bishops  and  priests  made  them 
very  willing  to  find  any  stone  to  fling  at  the  secular  clergy. 
There  can,  moreover,  be  little  doubt  that  the  orders  still 
contained  many  enthusiasts  who  sincerely  believed  in  the 
doctrine  of  evangelical  poverty  and  who  considered,  like 
Wycliffe,  that  the  Church  had  been  poisoned  by  her 
wealth,^ 

In  the  early  seventies,  Wycliffe's  main  contention  was  for 
partial  or  complete  disendowment  of  the  English  Church.  His 
doctrinal  heresies,  his  attack  on  the  Papal  power,  had  not 
then  been  developed.  At  his  extraordinary  trial  at  St. 
Paul's,  when  John  of  Gaunt  and  Percy  appeared  in  court  to 
support  him,  the  presence  of  a  representative  from  each  of 
the  four  mendicant  orders  was  scarcely  less  remarkable. 
They  came  to  defend  the  ground  which  they  held  in  common 
with  the  accused,  the  doctrine  of  evangelical  poverty  and  its 
application  in  the  disendowment  of  the  '  possessionate  '  clergy. 
It  was  the  peculiar  doctrine  of  the  friars,  exploited  and 
brought  into  practical  politics  by  Wycliffe.  Probably  no  one 
expected,  perhaps  not  even  the  reformer  himself,  that  the 
Church  would  be  deprived  of  all  her  possessions  and  reduced 
to  rely  altogether  on  alms  and  voluntary  donation.  It  was 
characteristic  of  those  times  for  partisans  to  ask  far  more 
than  they  expected  to  get ;  to  lay  claim,  on  the  ground  of 
some  theory,  to  infinite  space  when  a  nutshell  was  the  real 
end  in  view.  But  undoubtedly  some  very  considerable  con- 
fiscation of  ecclesiastical  wealth  was  hourly  looked  for  in  1377, 
and  the  doctrine  of  evangelical  poverty  was  the  theoretic 
basis  for  the  proposal. 

Three  years  later  the  face  of  things  had  undergone  a  con- 
siderable change.  John  of  Gaunt's  supremacy  was  over,  the 
attack  on  the  property  and  privileges  of  the  English  Church 
had  proved  a  fiasco.  The  weak  and  half-hearted  character 
of  the  forces  of  attack,  and  the  strength  of  the  forces  of  resis- 
tance, had  been  made  so  apparent  by  the  skirmish  over  the 
question  of  Sanctuary,  that  politicians  altogether  shrank  from 
the  larger  question  of  disendowment.    The  position  of  Wycliffe 

'  See  Ap. 


152  EELIGION 

was  similarly  altered.  From  a  Church  politician  he  was 
rapidly  becoming  a  theological  reformer.  The  Pope  had 
issued  bulls  against  him  as  a  heretic,  and  had  brought  him 
to  a  second  trial  at  Lambeth.  Embittered  by  this  assault,  he 
had  conceived  an  almost  personal  hatred  for  Gregory  the 
Eleventh,  and  had  commenced  a  series  of  violent  counter- 
attacks. His  quarrel  with  the  Papacy  was  accompanied  by 
u  dangerous  novelties.  The  friars  naturally  became  alarmed.  The 
cause  of  their  late  union  with  Wycliffe,  the  temporary  pro- 
minence of  the  question  of  evangelical  poverty,  was  gone. 
They  found  that  their  ally  had  incurred  the  censures  of  their 
master,  and  that  he  had  replied  to  those  censures  with 
defiance  and  contumely.  He  was  bringing  into  the  world 
heresies  without  number,  while  the  friars  were  the  militia  of 
orthodoxy.  He  was  urging  his  friends  to  translate  the  Bible, 
and  his  fellow-countrymen  to  read  it  in  English,  while  the 
friars  had  set  their  face  against  the  propagation  of  biblical 
knowledge  among  the  vulgar.  Wandering  preachers  had 
begun  to  appear  in  the  villages  with  versions  of  Wycliffe' s 
doctrines  and  to  compete  with  the  local  influence  of  their 
enemies.  The  exact  stages  by  which  the  quarrel  pro- 
ceeded are  unknown  to  us,  but  it  was  about  1379  that  Wycliffe 
openly  attacked  the  ideal  of  the  mendicant's  life  as  a  false 
ideal,  declared  the  taking  of  religious  vows  in  a  special  order 
to  be  without  basis  in  Scripture,  and  invited  all  monks  and 
friars  to  return  to  the  simple  '  sect  of  Christ.'  All  these 
sources  of  quarrel  had  arisen  before  his  heresy  on  the  question 
of  Transubstantiation  gave  his  enemies  a  further  handle  against 
him.^  The  reformer's  friends  within  the  pale  of  the  four 
orders  were  persecuted ;  some  fled  from  their  captivity,  re- 
nounced the  garb  and  became  its  most  bitter  opponents.^ 
The  main  body  of  the  friars,  eager  to  stamp  out  Lollardry 
wherever  it  appeared,  were  forced  to  prosecute  their  enemies 
before  episcopal  tribunals,  and  for  this  reason,  if  for  none 
other,  had  to  behave  with  more  consideration  to  bishops. 
Wycliffe  himself  noticed  that  one  effect  of  his  attack  was  to 
heal  the  standing  quarrel  between  the  friars  and  the  secular 
clergy.     '  Our  Bishops  are  said  once  to  have  hated  the  false 

'  See  Ap.  -  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  368  ;  Mon.  Eve.,  80-1 ;  Fraiwiscana,  591. 


UNBENEFICED  CLEEGY  153 

friars  like  devils,  when  in  the  days  of  my  Lord  Bishop  of 
Armagh  (FitzKalph)  they  paid  his  costs  in  his  suit  against 
them.  But  now  Herod .  and  Pilate,  who  before  were  enemies, 
have  become  friends.'  ^ 

The  beneficed  clergy  and  the  friars  by  no  means  composed 
the  whole  force  of  the  Church.  The  clerks  in  minor  orders 
were  an  important  item.  Their  name  was  legion  and  their 
occupations  were  many.  Part  of  them  were  engaged  as 
teachers  in  the  numerous  grammar  schools  of  the  country. 
So  little  do  we  know  of  the  educational  world  in  which  they 
lived,  that  the  very  existence  of  the  mediaeval  grammar 
school  until  quite  lately  escaped  the  notice  of  historians. 
The  clerical  influence  was  still  so  great  among  those  who 
made  their  living  by  the  pen,  that  the  clerks  employed  by 
landowners  and  merchants  were  most  of  them  '  clerks '  in  the 
original  sense  of  the  word  ;  they  were  generally  in  holy  orders. 
Their  shaven  crown  marked  them  off  from  the  laity,  and  the 
legal  privileges  which  the  priest  enjoyed  were  theirs  too.  It 
is  probable  that  this  circumstance  gave  the  Church,  during 
the  religious  struggles,  at  least  one  supporter  in  every  large 
household  of  the  upper  and  middle  classes.  The  '  clerk ' 
has  gained  by  the  secularisation  of  his  employment,  but  at 
the  time  he  must  have  felt  that  the  Eeformation  deprived  him 
of  certain  immunities  and  of  a  particular  status. 

Another  large  class  of  unbeneficed  clergy  were  engaged  in 
employments  more  akin  to  their  sacred  character.  Lords, 
knights  and  ladies  had  their  private  chaplains,  and  there  was 
a  daily  increasing  demand  for  chantry  priests  to  say  masses 
for  souls.  A  separate  chapel  or  altar  was  usually  assigned  to 
them  for  their  use,  but  they  were  often  expected  to  assist  in 
the  choir-service  of  the  whole  church  where  their  private 
employment  lay.^  But  the  life  must  nevertheless  have  been 
easy,  and,  in  proportion  to  the  duties  required,  the  profession 
was  at  least  as  well  paid  as  that  of  the  village  clergyman. 
According  to  the  statutes  that  attempted  to  regulate  clerical 
wages,  the  yearly  stipend  of  the  chantry  priest  was  only  a 
little  below  that  of  his  brother  in  charge  of  the  parish,  nor 
was  there   anything  to  prevent  the  '  annueller,'  as  he  was 

'  Fasc.  Z.,  284.  -  Lyndwood,  70  ;  Cutts,  206. 


154  EELIGION 

called,  from  taking  more  than  one  such  employment  for  the 
same  year.  A  good  place  in  a  chantry  was  considered  prefer- 
able to  heavy  parish  work.^ 

Besides  those  regularly  engaged,  clergy  in  minor  orders 
could  always  be  found  about  the  great  towns,  waiting  for 
employment  of  any  sort.  Without  wife  or  child  to  work  for, 
without  rule  or  superior  to  obey,  they  contracted  all  the  vices 
of  the  loafer.  The  shaven  crown  of  the  cleric  protected  their 
misdeeds  from  the  severe  laws  of  their  country.  '  The  abuses 
of  monastic  life,  great  as  they  may  occasionally  have  been,' 
says  Bishop  Stubbs,  speaking  of  this  state  of  things,  '  sink 
into  insignificance  by  the  side  of  this  evil,  as  an  occasional 
crime  tells  against  the  moral  condition  of  a  nation  less  fatally 
than  the  prevalence  of  a  low  morality.  The  records  of  the 
spiritual  court  of  the  Middle  Ages  remain  in  such  quantity 
and  in  such  concord  of  testimony  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  the 
facts.'  '^ 

Langland,  himself  a  churchman  of  this  class,  but  one  who 
made  a  noble  use  of  his  life  of  leisure,  is  accused  of  laziness 
by  the  spiritual  personages  of  his  Vision,  and  in  reply  gives 
the  following  description  and  defence  of  the  unemployed  life 
and  undeserved  privileges  of  the  lower  clergy.  The  apology 
is  perhaps  ironical,  for  it  is  to  be  observed  that  '  Conscience ' 
remains  unconvinced  at  the  end  : — 

'  I  live  in  London,  and  on  London  both, 

The  tools  I  labour  with  and  earn  my  livelihood 

Are  Pater  Noster  and  my  primer,  Placebo  and  Dirige 

And  my  psalter  sometimes  and  my  seven  psalms. 

Thus  I  sing  for  the  souls  of  such  as  me  help 

And  they  that  find  me  food  promise,  I  trow, 

That  I  shall  be  welcome  when  I  come  now  and  then  in  a  month, 

Sometimes  with  him,  sometimes  with  her,  and  thus  I  beg 

Without  bag  or  bottle  except  my  belly. 

And  also  moreover,  methinketh,  sir  Reason 

Men  should  constrain  no  clerk  to  do  serving-men's  work  ; 

For  by  law  of  Leviticus  that  our  Lord  ordained, 

Clerks  that  are  tonsured,  of  natural  wisdom, 

Should  neither  toil  nor  sweat  nor  serve  on  inquests 

Nor  fight  in  any  vanguard  nor  grieve  their  foe, 

»  36  Ed.  III.,  cap.  8,  Stats,  of  Realm ;  Wilkin,  iii.  30  ;  Cutts,  206. 
2  Stubbs,  iii.  385,  and  378-9  ;  Vox  Clam.,  bk.  iii.  cap.  22. 


UNBENEFICED  CLEEGY  155 

For  they  are  heirs  of  heaven  all  that  are  tonsured. 
And  in  choir  and  in  churches,  Christ's  own  ministers. 
It  becometh  clerks  Christ  for  to  serve, 
And  knaves  unshorn  to  cart  and  to  work. 

Therefore  rebuke  me  not,  Eeason,  I  you  pray ; 

For  in  my  conscience  I  know  what  Christ  wold  that  I  wrought. 

Prayers  of  perfect  man  and  penance  discreet 

Is  the  dearest  labour  that  pleases  our  Lord.' 

Quoth  Conscience  '  by  Christ  I  can  not  see  this  holds ; 
It  seems  not  perfectness  in  cities  for  to  beg.' ' 

Wycliffe,  though  he  did  not  attack  this  class  with  so  much 
direct  personal  censure  as  he  bestowed  on  the  friars  and  pre- 
lates, argued  with  ever-increasing  vehemence  against  the 
ideas  that  kept  such  large  numbers  of  clerics  afloat  on  society. 
The  employment  of  clergy  in  secular  business  seemed  to  him 
an  abomination.  That  a  deacon  should  be  paid  to  keep  the 
accounts  of  a  rich  subject  seemed  to  him  as  grave  a  scandal' 
as  that  a  Bishop  should  be  paid  for  the  same  purpose  by  the 
King.^  He  wished  to  spiritualise  the  minds  and  lives  of  the 
ministers  of  religion,  and  he  rightly  judged  that  their  present 
employments  were  not  calculated  to  have  that  effect.  The 
Catholic  Church  in  the  days  of  Hildebrand  had  aimed  at  a 
similar  mark,  and  had,  in  pursuit  of  an  ideal  standard,  cut 
them  off  from  the  duties  and  joys  of  family  life  by  the  law  of 
celibacy.  That  law  remained,  with  a  train  of  attendant  evils, 
but  the  worldliness  of  the  clergy  remained  none  the  less, 
encouraged  by  secular  employments  ten  times  more  than  it 
would  have  been  by  family  life.  Wycliffe  saw  the  double 
mistake.  He  had  always  protested  against  the  engagement  of 
God's  servants  in  mundane  affairs ;  towards  the  end  of  his  life 
he  came  to  approve  of  their  marriage,  and  his  followers 
pressed  on  with  fresh  vigour  the  attack  on  celibacy  which 
he  began.^ 

While  deprecating  the  employment  of  tonsured  clerks  in 
governmental  departments  and  houses  of  business,  the  re- 
former struck  another  equally  serious  blow  at  minor  orders 
of  clergy,  by  attacking  the  Catholic  ideal  of  a  pious  life.     To 

1  P.  PI.,  C,  vi.  44-91.  2  Matt.,  242.  ^  ggg  Ap. 


156  EELIGION 

him,  as  to  the  Protestant  nations  of  to-day,  the  entire  devotion 
of  a  man's  best  years  to  acts  of  prayer  and  praise  seemed  a 
fatal  misuse  of  the  talents  given  by  God.  He  waged  open  war 
with  the  central  idea  of  that  mediaeval  piety  which  had 
fomided  the  monasteries,  and  was  in  his  day  founding  the 
chantries.  That  idea  we  have  heard  expressed  by  Langiand 
in  the  words,  '  Prayers  of  a  perfect  man  and  penance  discreet, 
is  the  dearest  labour  that  pleases  our  lord.'  Wycliffe  held 
that  there  were  many  labours  dearer  to  God.  His  assertion 
of  the  superiority  of  an  active  over  a  devotional  life  was 
in  that  age  a  daring  rebellion.  It  startled  and  scandalised 
churchmen  ;  for  half  the  Church  institutions  were  based  on 
the  assumption  that  prayer  and  praise  were  better  than  work 
in  the  world.  It  would  not  be  hard  to  trace  almost  all  his 
heresies  to  their  root  in  this  attitude  of  mind  towards  the  acts 
of  conventional  piety,  which  formed  the  principal  part  of 
religion  in  his  day.  When  another  generation  had  passed, 
when  men  had  had  time  to  see  what  were  the  new  ideas  which 
Lollardry  had  brought  into  the  world,  then  the  indifference  of 
the  reformers  to  devotions  hitherto  considered  all-important, 
was  recognised  by  orthodox  writers  as  the  new  monster  with 
which  the  Church  had  to  wage  internecine  war.^  The  final 
victory  of  that  monster  brought  with  it  the  inevitable  dis- 
appearance of  the  monks,  of  the  chantry-priests  and  the 
armies  of  clergy  without  cure  of  souls.  The  fact  that  there 
has  been  no  serious  movement  to  re-establish  them  in 
England  is  a  standing  proof  that  the  old  idea  has  never  re- 
covered ground  to  any  considerable  extent. 

Of  one  section  of  the  Church  we  have  as  yet  said  little. 
The  monasteries  were,  indeed,  in  no  close  contact,  either  of 
subordination,  hostility,  or  alliance,  with  the  rest  of  the  religious 
world.  The  days  of  their  greatness  and  popularity  had  gone 
by.  The  Princes  of  the  earth  no  longer  rode  up  to  the  Abbey 
door  to  beg  an  interview  with  some  brother,  renowned  through 
Europe  for  his  wisdom  or  his  virtue.  The  King  of  England 
no  longer  sent  for  some  saintly  abbot,  to  implore  him  to  take 
pity  on  the  land  and  exchange  the  government  of  his  House 
for   the   government   of   a   great   diocese.      The   cloister   of 

'  Waldensis,  passim. 


THE  MONKS  157 

Canterbury  no  longer  rivalled  the  University  of  Paris  in 
scholarship  and  in  philosophy.  The  monks  no  longer,  as  in 
the  days  of  the  Barons'  War,  played  a  patriotic  and  formidable 
part  in  the  politics  of  the  country.  The  life  of  the  monastery 
was  cut  off  from  the  life  of  the  nation.  Narrowness  of  sym- 
pathy was  the  most  serious  fault  of  the  monk.  He  had  little 
interest  in  what  went  on  outside  the  abbey  close.  He  had 
nothing  to  care  for  or  to  work  for,  except  the  maintenance  of 
the  wealth  and  position  of  his  House,  His  whole  life  was 
spent  in  its  corridors  and  gardens,  except  when  he  was  sent 
out  in  company  with  another  brother  to  gather  the  rents  of  its 
distant  estates,  or  to  accompany  the  abbot  on  his  occasional 
visit  to  London.  He  spent  all  his  waking  hours  in  company 
with  several  score  of  other  men,  as  singly  devoted  as  he  was 
himself  to  the  interests  of  the  place,  with  nothing  else  to  talk 
of  but  the  superiority  of  their  choir- singing  to  that  of  the 
neighbouring  abbey,  and  with  nothing  else  to  wish  but  that 
their  new  chancel  might  be,  when  it  was  finished,  the  finest 
in  the  country-side.  It  is  not  wonderful  that  he  was  ready 
to  fight  to  the  death  for  the  claims  of  his  House  against 
the  demands  of  townspeople  or  peasants,  to  whom  the  old 
privileges  of  the  monastery  had,  under  changed  conditions, 
become  galling  and  vexatious.  It  is  not  wonderful  that  he 
developed  a  narrowness  of  mind  which  made  him,  in  questions 
of  local  or  national  interest,  a  dead  weight  on  society. 

But  there  was  another  side  to  the  monk's  life.  He  had 
leisure,  he  had  been  taught  to  read  and  write,  he  had  at  hand 
a  library,  compiled  by  the  patient  labour  of  long  generations 
of  copyists  now  sleeping  under  the  flag- stones  of  the  cloister. 
On  one  side  of  that  cloister,  screened  off  from  disturbers,  he 
spent  many  hours  transcribing  books,  or  teaching  boys  to  read 
off  well-thumbed  manuscripts  set  apart  for  beginners.  This 
was  the  most  useful  work  of  the  later  monasteries  ;  but  it  may ' 
be  questioned  whether  the  educational  and  literary  product  of 
the  last  two  centuries  of  their  existence  was  in  any  proportion 
to  the  great,  sums  of  money  and  the  thousands  of  able  hands 
which  they  withdrew  from  a  nation  that  was  sorely  deficient 
in  money,  and  still  more  sorely  deficient  in  population.  The 
instruction  of  boys,  intended  for  the  Church,  in  the  art  of 


158  EELIGION 

reading,  was  no  doubt  of  value  to  society,  and  laid  on  those 
who  afterwards  broke  up  the  abbeys  the  moral  duty  of 
founding  new  educational  establishments  on  a  more  liberal 
basis,  a  duty  which  was  notoriously  ill  fulfilled.  But  as  the 
latest  researches  have  shown,  these  monastic  schools  were,  at 
most,  an  extremely  small  part  of  the  educational  system  of  the 
country,  even  as  regards  elementary  teaching,^ 

The  copying  of  manuscripts  was  also  of  great  service  to 
future  generations.  The  invention  of  printing  had  not  yet 
removed  this  demand.  In  the  reign  of  Eichard  the  Second, 
large  numbers  of  penmen  were  undoubtedly  necessary,  but 
transcriptions  were  not  at  this  period  made  in  monasteries 
alone.  The  monks  had,  indeed,  originally  developed,  if  not 
invented,  the  beautiful  art  of  illumination ;  but  in  the  later 
fourteenth  century,  a  very  large  proportion  of  copies  were 
not  made  in  the  cloister.  The  exact  amount  of  service 
rendered  by  the  monasteries  in  this  way  could  only  be  deter- 
mined by  an  extremely  difficult  investigation  into  the  origin 
of  all  extant  manuscripts.  The  question  would  have  to  be 
raised,  what  class  of  books  did  the  monks  of  this  period  pre- 
serve for  us  ?  Do  we  owe  the  works  of  chief  interest,  such  as 
Chaucer,  '  Piers  Plowman '  and  Froissart,  to  their  well-spent 
leisure,  or  to  professional  transcribers  ? 

In  original  work  the  monks  of  this  age  were  certainly 
sterile.  It  might  be  expected,  if  we  did  not  consider  the 
narrowing  influence  of  the  life  they  led,  that  so  many  thousand 
persons,  enjoying  such  full  opportunities  for  literature,  would 
among  them  produce  some  one  work  of  real  value.  But  the 
great  names  in  that  first  age  of  English  authorship  are  none 
'  of  them  those  of  monks. ,,  Chaucer  was  a  layman,  Langland  a 
clerk  in  minor  orders,  Wycliffe  an  Oxford  man  ;  even  the 
theological  opponents  who  arose  against  him  were  friars.  The 
only  native  production  of  the  monasteries  were  the  Chronicles. 
These  carried  on  the  tradition  of  former  centuries,  that  a 
great  abbey  should  have  a  historiographer  to  note  down,  as 
they  occurred,  the  affairs  of  the  nation,  and  more  particularly 

'  See  Mr.  A.  F.  Leach's  English  Schools  at  the  Reformation,  15-9  ;  and 
article  on  Grammar  Schools,  by  Eev.  Hastings  Eashdall,  p.  12,  lines  14-23, 
Harrow  School. 


THE  MONKS  159 

the  affairs  of  the  House.  But  no  improvement  was  made  on 
the  chronicles  of  previous  ages,  although  in  the  outside  world 
Froissart  was  setting  up  a  new  and  better  standard.  Wal- 
singham  is  no  improvement  on  Matthew  of  Paris,  and  his  view 
of  the  affairs  of  Church  and  State  is  far  less  interesting.  The 
monastic  chronicler  had  no  ability  to  grasp  the  relative  im- 
portance of  events  ;  what  is  insignificant  is  told  in  detail,  what 
is  all-important  is  casually  mentioned.  To  this  rule  there  is 
indeed  occasionally  an  exception  ;  to  the  absence  of  literary 
merit  there  is  none. 

The  monk  was  not  habitually  or  even  frequently  a  man  of 
vicious  life.  The  literature  of  the  day  has  not  more  to  say 
against  him  than  against  every  one  else.  Although,  when  he 
was  allowed  outside  the  cloister  wall  on  business  or  pleasure, 
he  had  not  a  good  reputation,  contemporaries  supposed  that 
the  inner  life  of  the  monastery  was  respectable.'  A  certain 
relaxation  of  the  very  strict  rules  under  which  the  inhabitants 
were  nominally  living  was  of  course  very  general,  and  probably 
prevented  more  violent  outbreaks.  There  was  no  strong 
ascetic  movement  going  forward  to  fill  the  abbeys  with  furious 
self-torturing  devotees  such  as  had  founded  the  harsh 
Carthusian  order,  such  as  were  again  to  astonish  Europe  in 
the  age  of  Ignatius  Loyola.  That  the  ordinary  prior  was  fond 
of  field  sports,  that  the  ordinary  monk  was  fond  of  good  food, 
is  probably  a  safe  generalisation.^  But  few  men  are  averse 
to  these  indulgences,  although  few,  perhaps,  had  then  such 
opportunities  for  enjoying  them  in  return  for  so  little  exertion 
on  their  part.  It  was  the  uselessness,  not  the  wickedness,  of 
the  monk's  life  that  angered  other  men.  Langland  seems  to 
have  thought  little  positive  harm  of  monastic  society,  but  he 
looked  forward  with  approval  and  certainty  to  the  day  when 
'  the  Abbot  of  Abingdon  and  all  his  issue  for  ever,  shall  have 
a  knock  of  a  King  and  incurable  the  wound.'  ^  Neither  was 
Wycliffe's  attack  on  the  monks  so  bitter,  nor  so  loaded  with 
charges  of  wickedness,  as  his  attack  on  the  friars.  But  he 
declared  life  in  the  world  to  be  better  than  life  in  the  cloister, 

»  Compare  P.  PI.,  C,  vii.  151-63  to  P.  PL,  C,  vi.  157-72  ;  see  Chaucer's 
Shipmavb's  Tale  for  the  monk  abroad  ;  Cutts,  90. 

2  Monk  in  Chaucer's  Cant.  Tales ;  P.  PI.,  B,  x.  305-12,  and  C,  vi.  157-70 ; 
Vox  Clam.,  bk.  iv.  cap.  2.  ^  P.  PI.,  B,  x.  321-9. 


160  EELIGION 

and  more  conformable  to  Christ's  commands  as  recorded  in 
the  Gospel.  He  laid  great  stress  on  the  enormous  wealth 
locked  up  in  the  hands  of  the  abbots,  useless  to  the  State  and 
to  society.  Merchants  and  warriors,  he  said,  sometimes 
cause  great  loss  to  the  commonwealth,  but  they  are  also  a 
source  of  great  gain,  whereas  monks  are  a  continual  loss.^ 

If  Henry  the  Eighth,  instead  of  sedulously  raking  up 
dirty  stories  by  royal  commissions  appointed  for  the  pur- 
pose, had  based  his  action  solely  on  the  general  arguments 
that  Wycliffe  had  long  ago  advanced,  the  dissolution  of 
the  monasteries  would  have  stood  for  all  time  as  a  great  act 
of  national  justice  and  common  sense.  If  a  King  intends 
to  disfrock  all  the  monks  of  his  kingdom,  he  must  find 
reasons  that  will  apply  to  all.  The  charge  of  vice  could 
never,  we  will  be  ready  to  believe  for  the  sake  of  human 
nature,  be  true  of  all  or  nearly  all.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  charges  which  Wycliffe  advanced  were  universal  in 
their  application,  for  they  were  objections  to  the  monastic 
system,  as  useless  in  the  state  of  society  to  which  England 
had  attained. 

Notwithstanding  their  isolation,  there  were  several  ways 
in  which  the  monasteries  were  brought  into  contact  with  the 
outside  world.  Their  endowments  were  burdened  with  duties 
towards  the  poor,  which,  in  the  absence  of  all  contradictory 
evidence  in  an  age  of  satire,  we  may  assume  to  have  been 
performed  in  accordance  with  legal  and  traditional  require- 
ments. Charity  was  then  a  religious  duty,  not  a  social 
science.  This  conception  of  it  can  still  be  found  surviving 
in  an  Elizabethan  play,  where  the  heroine  appeals  to  the 
groundlings  with  the  cheap  sentiment :  '  It  takes  away  the 
holy  use  of  charity  to  examine  wants.'  ^  The  perform- 
ance of  this  well-meaning  but  harmful  injunction  of  the 
Catholic  Church  was  specially  confided  to  the  monasteries. 
Those  endowments,  which  maintained  labourers  in  need  of 
old  age  pensions  as  bedesmen,  were  indeed  most  beneficial  to 
the  community.  But  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  the 
promiscuous  doles,  which  attracted  a  daily  crowd  to  the 
abbey,  were  the  very  worst  remedy  for  a  society  so  disorgan- 

»  De  Bias.,  188-9  ;  Pol.  Works,  i.  244-7.      ^  Fletcher's  Pilgrim,  act  i.  scene  i. 


THE   MONKS  161 

ised  as  was  England  at  that  time,  when  a  labour  war  had 
been  in  process  for  a  generation,  and  the  strikers  were  going 
round  from  village  to  village,  plotting  and  preparing  the  great 
rebellion  of  1381. 

But   it   is   false   to   suppose   that,   because  the  religious 
houses  were  bound   to  distribute  alms  liberally,  they  were 
popular   with   their  neighbours  and  tenants.      Monasteries, 
being   corporate   bodies,   were   more   conservative  and  more 
tenacious   of   old   rights   than  ordinary   landlords,    lay   and 
clerical.     The  old  manor  system,  based  on  villenage  and  the 
servitude  of  the  tenants,  generally  lasted  longer  on  estates 
belonging   to   the   religious   houses  than  on  those  managed 
by  private  persons.     In  the  Peasants'  Eising,  great  abbeys 
like   Chester,  Bury,  and   Peterborough   were   attacked   with 
the  fiercest  hatred  by   their   serfs.      The   chronicler   of   St. 
Albans  himself  tells   what   happened   to   his   monastery   in 
1381.     The  '  slaves '  and  '  villeins  '    of   the   abbey — that   is 
to  say,  the  inhabitants  of   the   town  that  lay  at   its  feet- 
formed  the  iniquitous   design   of   becoming  'burghers'  and 
'  citizens.'     The  news  of  the  success  of  the  rebels  in  London 
gave  them  courage  to  make  the  attempt.     Their  friends  in 
the  capital  extorted  from  the  King,  who  was  still  in  great 
terror  of  Wat  Tyler's  bands,  a  letter  to  the  Abbot  ordering 
him  to  grant  the  requisite  charters  to  the  '  burgesses  and 
good  men  '  of  St.  Albans.     Armed  with  this  letter  they  burst 
into  the  monastery.     After  long  hesitation  and  many  shifts, 
the  Abbot  was  forced  by  the  rioters  to  grant  them  what  they 
asked ;     the    obnoxious    rights    and    monopolies    were    all 
surrendered;    the   townsfolk   broke   up    and    carried   off  in 
triumph  the  millstones  which  had  been  placed  in  the  cloister 
to  witness  that  none  might  grind  his  corn  save  at  the  abbey 
mill.     But  the  despair  of  the  monks  and  the  joy   of  their 
neighbours  were  soon  reversed.     The  Kentish  rebels  evacuated 
London,  and  the  King  went  round  with  his  army  and  his  chief 
justice  on  a  bloody  assize.     He  came  to  the  monastery  in 
person,  and  judged  the  quarrel  on  the  spot.     All  the  old  privi- 
leges were  restored  to  the  monks;   their   tenants,   freeman 
and  serf,  were  compelled  to  render  their  services  as  before  ; 
fifteen  of  those  who  had  striven  not  wisely  but  too  well  to 

M 


162  EBLIGION 

raise  St.  Albans  into  a  town  of  free  citizens,  were  hanged  in 
the  sight  of  those  whom  they  had  sought  to  liberate.  One 
night  their  friends  removed  their  bodies  and  buried  them  in 
a  distant  spot.  Such  were  the  feelings  of  vengeance  breathed 
by  the  upper  classes  in  the  reign  of  terror  that  followed  the 
Eising,  that  a  savage  order  came  from  the  King,  bidding  the 
townspeople  to  replace  the  bodies  with  their  own  hands.  If 
anything  could  elicit  pity  from  a  hard  heart,  it  would  be  the 
sight  of  friends  and  relations  hanging  up  again  on  the  gibbet 
the  rotting  bodies  of  those  who  had  died  in  the  common 
cause.  But  in  the  monastery  the  incident  caused  pious 
satisfaction.  '  This,'  says  the  monk,  '  was  deservedly  the  foul 
office  of  men  who  usurped  the  name  of  "  citizens  "  less  justly 
than  that  of  "  hangmen,"  as  they  were  called  and  became, 
by  this  deed  incurring  eternal  ignominy.'  The  monks  of  St. 
Albans,  judged  out  of  their  own  mouth,  knew  nothing  of 
Christian  love,  or  even  of  common  humanity,  towards  their 
neighbours.^ 

The  history  of  the  great  Abbey  of  Bury  St.  Edmunds  is 
just  the  same.  In  1327  events  occurred  which  show  that 
the  Eising  of  1381  was  not  without  precedent.  A  local 
'jacquerie'  took  place  on  all  the  estates  of  the  monastery. 
The  merchants  and  townsfolk  who  lived  under  the  abbey 
walls,  uniting  with  the  peasantry  of  the  neighbouring  villages 
headed  by  their  parish  priests,  succeeded  in  effecting  a  social 
revolution.  The  town  secured  for  itself  the  freedom  and 
status  of  a  gild,  the  peasantry  were  released  from  serfage. 
This  state  of  things  seems  to  have  lasted  for  six  months 
or  more.  Finally,  on  another  outbreak  of  violence  and 
rapine,  the  tardy  vengeance  of  the  central  government  de- 
scended on  the  rebels,  several  batches  of  ringleaders  were 
executed,  and  the  old  rights  of  the  House  were  restored.  In 
1381,  with  slight  modifications,  the  same  series  of  events  was 
repeated.^ 

In  the  cases  of  St.  Albans  and  St.  Edmundsbury,  we 
find  the  Church  resisting  efforts  of  the  rural  serfs  to  secure 
personal   freedom,  and   repressing   the  ambition  of   a   large 

'  Wals.,  i.  470-84,  ii.  15-31,  35-41. 
Ibid.  ii.  3-4  ;  Green's  History  of  the  English  People. 


THE   CHUECH  AND  THE  TOWNS  163 

market-town  to  become  a  city.     But  there  were  other  con- 
tests going  on  at  the  same  time,  between  similar  ecclesiastical 
bodies  and  other  cities  in  a  higher  state  of  development.     The 
great  town  of  Exeter  had  already  begun  its  quarrel  with  the 
Cathedral,  which  developed  sixty  years  later  into  one  of  the 
most  famous  law-suits  of  a  litigious  generation.     The  quarrel 
seems  to  have  arisen  from  the  dislike  felt  by  the  municipal 
magistrates  of   a   rival  jurisdiction  within  their  walls,  and 
the   resulting   inconveniences,  rather  than  from  any  grave 
oppression  of  the  citizens  by  the  Cathedral.     At  Lynn  and 
at  Beading,  however,  the   cause  of  quarrel  was  the  Abbot's 
claim    to   appoint    the    municipal   officers.       Such   a   claim 
was  a  definite  attempt  to  keep  back  the  independent  growth 
of    these    cities    and    to    subject   the    mercantile    class   to 
the  feudal  rule  of  churchmen.^     It  was  a  fortunate  circum- 
stance that  most  towns  in  England  belonged  to  the  Crown. 
The  Norman  Kings  had  not  been  long  in  discovering  that  it 
was  their  interest  to  foster  the  growth  of  wealthy  communities, 
and  gain  the  sympathy  of  their  rulers.      They  had  handed 
on  to  the  Plantagenets  the  tradition  that  when  a  town  on 
royal  domain  asked  for  a  charter  of  new  privileges,  the  gift 
should  be  granted  or  sold.     The  quiet  growth  of  the  English 
boroughs,  independent  in  local  affairs,  but  loyal  to  the  Crown 
and  the  central  government,  had  been  the  result  of  this  wise 
policy.     There  were  no  '  free  cities '  like  those  which  defied 
the  German  Emperor,  no  armed  communes  like  those  which 
Philip  van  Artevelde  was  then  leading  in  rebellion  against 
the  Count  of  Flanders.     Yet  the  prosperity  and  independence 
of  English  town-life  was  rapidly  and  freely  maturing.     On 
the   other   hand,   those  centres  of   commerce   and  industry, 
which   had  grown  up  round  the  walls  of   great  abbeys  and 
cathedrals,  found  that,  though  the  Church  was  ready  to  nurse 
the  child,  she  was  not  prepared  to  allow  freedom  to  the  man. 
It  was  not  to  the  interest  of  the  Abbot,  as  it  had  been  to  the 
interest  of  the  King,  to  grant  charters  to  towns  that  belonged 
to  him.     If  the  King  granted  the  right  of  electing  a  mayor,  he 

>  Mrs.  Green's  Town  Life  m  Fifteenth  Cent,  i.  301,  351-63,  368-81 ; 
Kitchin's  Winchester  (Historic  Towns  series) ;  for  Canterbury  see  Eot.  Pari., 
iii.  53,  pet.  11,  and  Cont.  Eulog.,  342. 

M  2 


164  EELIGION 

secured  a  loyal  corporation ;  but  if  tlie  Abbot  granted  a 
similar  privilege,  he  only  raised  a  more  formidable  rival  at 
his  doors.  Tenacity  of  privilege  was  the  marked  feature  of 
all  sections  of  the  Church  in  all  matters,  and  this  case  formed 
no  exception. 

There  were  three  possible  remedies  for  towns  thus 
stunted  in  their  growth — violence,  law-suit,  and  legislation. 
Violence  seems  to  have  been  the  favourite  expedient ;  but 
it  was  of  little  use,  because  the  party  attacked  could  always 
call  in  the  royal  power.  By  law-suits,  again,  nothing 
could  be  done.  Though  law  can  serve  to  protect  what  has 
been  already  conceded,  it  cannot  be  used  to  obtain  new 
privilege.  However  much  the  secular  courts  disliked  the 
Church,  they  could  not  dispute  the  legality  of  her  ancient  and 
undoubted  rights.  The  one  remaining  way  by  which  remedy 
could  be  sought  was  to  obtain  new  laws.  But  Parliament 
was  not  at  that  time  an  effective  instrument  for  reform.  To 
alter  by  legislation  established  rights  of  individuals  and 
public  bodies  was  no  less  unusual  in  the  time  of  Eichard 
the  Second  than  under  the  regime  that  was  ended  by  the 
first  Keform  Bill  and  the  Municipal  Corporation  Act.  There 
were  besides  special  difficulties  in  touching  ecclesiastical 
property. 

So  it  came  about  that  those  towns  which  suffered  from 
subjection  to  the  Church  were  forced  to  wait.  Instead  of 
evolution  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  there  was 
revolution  in  the  sixteenth.  Then,  '  when  temple  and  tower 
went  to  the  ground,'  it  was  a  day  of  vengeance  for  the  wrongs 
of  ancestors,  the  settling  of  scores  generations  old.  The  un- 
necessary destruction  of  so  many  monastic  buildings,  the  ruin 
of  so  many  abbey-churches  not  inferior  in  size  and  splendour 
to  cathedrals,  though  originated  by  the  royal  order,  must  in 
many  cases  have  been  a  work  of  delight  to  the  burghers. 
To-day  the  people  of  St.  Edmundsbury  stroll  at  evening 
through  the  town  gardens  which  were  once  those  of  the 
abbey,  and  point  with  just  pride  to  the  beautiful  towers  that 
overshadow  them.  Little  do  they  dream  of  the  loathing, 
the  rage,  the  despair,  with  which  their  ancestors  looked  up  at 
those  towers,  the  blind  fury  with  which  they  stormed  into 


THE  YOEKSHIEE  ABBEYS  165 

those  gardens,  on  more  than  one  day  of  mad  riot,  the  joy  with 
which  at  last  they  possessed  the  gate  of  their  enemies. 

Of  the  monasteries  in  the  North  of  England,  it  is 
probable  that  most  of  this  would  be  untrue.  In  the  soli- 
tary vales  of  Yorkshire,  the  popularity  of  the  great  sheep- 
farming  abbeys  was  natural  and  right.  No  town  stood 
under  the  walls  of  Bolton  or  Kivaulx,  and  the  peasantry 
seem  to  have  liked  the  monks  well,  judging  from  the 
revolt  that  broke  out  when  they  were  abolished  by  Henry 
the  Eighth.  But  we  know  little  or  nothing  of  the  North 
Country  in  Chaucer's  day,  except  that  the  devil  was  sup- 
posed by  Southerners  to  come  from  that  part  of  the  world.'"^ 
It  may  well  be  that  in  districts  where  society  still  recalled 
certain  aspects  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  monasteries  still 
resembled  the  monasteries  of  that  bygone  period  in  their 
serviceableness  to  man.  But  the  manner  in  which  the 
Southern  counties  rallied  to  the  defence  of  the  government 
that  dissolved  the  abbeys,  was  no  less  remarkable  than  the 
rising  of  Lincolnshire  and  the  North  to  overthrow  it.  Henry 
the  Eighth  had  no  regular  army.  He  was  saved  by  the  willing 
help  of  the  richer  and  more  advanced  part  of  his  subjects. 

We  have  now  completed  a  brief  sketch  of  the  principal 
sections  of  English  churchmen.  Formidable  separately,  the 
prestige  that  each  derived  from  membership  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  the  support  that  in  the  hour  of  real  danger  they 
afforded  one  another,  rendered  it  impossible  to  reduce  the 
power  of  any  of  these  sections,  until  the  laity  were  in  a 
position  to  assert  their  mastery  over  all.  The  weapon  of  the 
clergy  in  every  quarrel  was  excommunication.  They  used  it 
freely  to  defend  their  privileges.  It  was  a  recognised  law 
that  invaders  of  the  goods  and  liberties  of  the  Church  were  to 
be  cursed.^  Wycliffe,  with  his  exalted  notions  of  the  purely 
spiritual  position  that  the  clergy  ought  to  occupy,  thought  it 
wrong  in  them  to  call  down  the  solemn  curse  of  God  for  such 
mundane  purposes.^     But  many  may  think  that  it  was  a  fair 

'  Friar's  Tale,  Chaucer,  lines  113-4. 

2  Gibson,  ii.  1099-1100 ;  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  268. 

3  De  Dom.  Civ.,  277-8  ;  Fasc.  Z.,  251-2  ;  De  Ecc,  156. 


166  EELIGION 

measure  of  defence,  on  the  part  of  an  unarmed  organisation, 
against  those  frequent  acts  of  violence  which  bore  crude 
testimony  at  this  period  to  the  feehngs  that  were  arising 
against  churchmen.  In  modern  society,  when  everyone, 
clergy  and  layman  alike,  is  protected  by  the  State  with 
impartiality  and  vigour,  it  would  be  as  unnecessary  as  it 
would  be  futile  for  any  spiritual  body  to  attempt  to  defend 
itself  by  spiritual  weapons  of  its  own  forging.  But  in  days 
when  the  police  system  was  tardy  and  inefficient,  when  every 
corporation  was  expected  to  defend  its  own  rights,  and  every 
individual  his  own  head,  when  the  curses  of  the  Church 
still  affected  the  lives  and  disturbed  the  imaginations  of  men, 
it  was  at  once  necessary  and  possible  for  the  clergy  to  act 
in  their  own  defence.  The  real  grievance  was  this,  that 
the  Church  defended  all  her  privileges  and  all  her  posses- 
sions with  equal  ardour,  irrespective  of  their  justice  or  utility. 
She  took  advantage  of  a  strong  position  to  refuse  every 
demand  for  redress ;  she  adopted,  towards  all  proposals 
of  concession,  the  attitude  of  the  French  noblesse  before  the 
Eevolution.  Whether  it  was  the  villeins  of  Bury  or  St. 
Albans,  the  citizens  of  Beading  or  Ljmn,  demanding  a  new 
status  at  the  hands  of  the  monks,  whether  it  was  the  King's 
Courts  attempting  to  have  clerics  and  Sanctuary  men  punished 
for  their  crimes,  whether  it  was  the  laity  complaining  against 
the  ruinous  fees  and  heavy  extortions  of  the  spiritual  courts, 
the  Church  was  equally  deaf  in  all  questions  where  her  own 
interests  and  her  own  income  were  concerned. 

One  privilege,  typical  of  many  others,  illustrates  the 
relations  of  clerics  to  other  Englishmen.  It  is  that  which 
is  known  as  the  '  benefit  of  clergy.'  It  had  been  wrung  from 
the  great  founder  of  the  Plantagenet  monarchy,  during  that 
brief  but  all-important  revulsion  of  feeling  which  was  caused 
by  the  murder  of  Becket.  In  that  moment  of  triumph  and 
enthusiasm,  when  everything  that  the  murdered  man  had 
requested  was  claimed  as  by  Divine  right,  the  Church  secured 
for  herself  this  famous  privilege,  which  many  of  her  sons  had 
in  Becket' s  lifetime  regarded  as  outrageous.  Since  that  fatal 
day,  long  custom  had  made  it  an  absolute  right  of  every  cleric 
to  be  exempted  in  cases  of  felony  from  the  criminal  law  of  the 


ECCLESIASTICAL  PEIVILEGE  167 

land.  *  Criminous  clerks  '  were  withdrawn  from  the  King's 
Courts  by  the  Bishops'  officers,  and  tried  before  the  spiritual 
tribunals.  In  that  friendly  territory  their  fate  was  seldom 
severe.  Acquittal  was  easy,  but  even  condemnation  only 
brought  light  penance  or  brief  imprisonment.  The  inadequate 
punishment  of  crimes  committed  by  this  section  of  the  com- 
munity rendered  the  members  of  it  more  criminal  than  they 
would  have  been,  if  they  had  always  suffered  for  their  mis- 
deeds. It  must  be  remembered  that  not  only  those  whom 
we  should  now  call  '  ministers  of  religion '  enjoyed  this 
invidious  privilege,  but  all  the  monks  and  all  the  friars,  and 
that  great  army  of  hungry  clerks,  employed  and  unemployed, 
whose  manner  of  life  was  often  so  questionable. 

Privileges  such  as  these  attracted  great  numbers  into 
the  Church,  and  bound  all  together  with  a  corporate  feeling 
which  was  a  kind  of  patriotism.  These  privileges  were  de- 
fended and  this  spirit  intensified  by  constitutional  machinery 
parallel  to  that  of  the  secular  kingdom.  The  clergy  had 
in  Convocation  a  parliament  of  their  own,  where  their 
right  to  grant  taxes  on  ecclesiastical  property,  to  present 
petitions  and  to  air  grievances,  was  never  questioned.  They 
had  a  set  of  spiritual  courts,  with  their  own  officials  and  their 
own  code  of  Canon  law,  as  complete  and  independent  as  the 
secular  tribunals,  and  with  a  province  scarcely  less  wide  and 
important. 

Although  this  independent  constitutional  position,  and  the 
peculiar  privileges  of  the  clergy,  were  based  on  the  theory  of  a 
separate  spiritual  state,  the  Church,  however  illogically,  was 
further  strengthened  by  the  secular  employments  of  her 
members.  She  had  a  numerical  majority  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  the  large  proportion  of  clergy  among  the  King's 
ministers  secured  her  position  in  a  most  effective  manner. 
But  as  a  power  in  the  land,  her  endowments  made  her  still 
more  formidable.^  The  accumulation  of  wealth  by  the  Church 
had  not  yet  reached  its  zenith.  New  endowments  still  flowed 
in  with  unceasing  regularity.  It  had  then  scarcely  occurred 
to  the  minds  of  the  charitable  and  the  public-spirited  that 
they   could   find   a   vehicle  for  their  beneficence  in  private 

'  See  Ip. 


168  EELIGION 

institutions,  or  even  in  the  State.  The  Church  was  almost 
invariably  the  medium  of  public  benefaction,  as  well  as  the 
recipient  of  gifts  and  endowments  for  religious  purposes. 
While  she  thus  continued  to  draw  in  wealth,  she  never  gave 
it  out  again.  Her  authorities  had  forbidden  ecclesiastical 
persons  to  alienate  Church  property.^  Even  when  the 
Templars  had  forfeited  their  possessions,  this  principle  had 
been  strictly  adhered  to,  and  other  religious  bodies  alone  had 
gained  by  the  spoliation.^  If  the  process  of  endowment  went 
on  much  longer  at  the  same  pace  in  a  country  so  impover- 
ished as  England,  the  power  of  the  priesthood  might  become 
a  serious  danger  to  the  community.  So  at  least  thought 
some  men  at  this  period,  especially  those  under  Wy cliff e's 
influence.  One  of  them  expresses  his  fears  of  the  clergy  who 
openly  declare  '  that  they  should  get  out  of  the  secular  hands 
all  the  temporal  lordship  that  they  may,  and  in  no  case 
deliver  none  again.  And  therefore  a  gentleman  asked  a 
great  Bishop  of  this  land,  "  In  case  the  clergy  had  all  the 
temporal  possessions,  as  they  have  now  the  more  part,  how 
shall  the  secular  lords  and  knights  live,  and  wherewith  ? " 
....  And  then  he  answered  and  said  that  "  they  should  be 
clerks'  soldiers  and  live  by  their  wages."  And  certes  this  law 
of  getting  in  of  these  temporalities  and  these  other  words  of 
this  Bishop  ought  to  be  taken  heed  to,  for  since  they  have 
now  the  more  part  of  the  temporal  lordships  and  with  that 
the  spiritualities  and  the  great  movable  treasures  of  the 
realm,  they  may  lightly  make  a  conquest.'^  Such  language  is 
exaggerated,  but  it  is  not  merely  the  wild  talk  of  a  partisan. 
The  poet  Gower,  much  as  he  disliked  the  Lollards,  was  gravely 
alarmed  at  the  voraciousness  of  the  Church  and  the  inalien- 
able character  of  the  wealth  that  she  daily  acquired.''  When, 
seventy  years  before,  the  French  King  had  violated  the 
person  of  Boniface  the  Eighth,  and  set  up  his  successor  in 
Avignon,  the  imminent  danger  with  which  the  Papacy  had 
threatened  the  Crowns  of  Europe  had  come  to  an  end.  The 
temporal  power  of  Eome  had  been  struck  down.  But  no  such 
blow  had  been  dealt  to  the  temporal  power  of  the  clergy  as  a 

'  Gibson,  ii.  685  et  seq.  ^  Stats,  of  Realm,  17  Ed.  II.,  stat.  ii. 

3  Matt.,  368-9.  *  Gower,  Vox  Clam.,  bk.  iii.,  cap.  11,  line  993  ct  seq. 


THE   CHUECH  A  DANGEE  TO  SOCIETY  169 

whole.  In  our  island  the  danger  that  she  would  become  too 
strong  for  the  State  had  not  been  removed  by  the  partial 
decline  of  the  Papal  power.  To  the  tradition  of  spiritual 
domination,  going  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
world,  the  Church  had  now  added  wealth  which  was  daily 
growing,  political  influence,  and  social  privilege.  The  attacks 
made  on  her  at  this  period  seemed  only  to  show  the  weakness 
of  her  assailants.  The  danger  to  the  State  was  not  imaginary 
but  real.  The  fate  which  Wycliffe  feared  for  his  country 
actually  overtook  in  later  years  Italy,  Spain,  and  to  some 
degree  France,  where  the  clergy  seized  the  helm  of  govern- 
ment and  crushed  underfoot  political  life  and  individual 
liberty. 

Yet  we  may  observe  on  the  face  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  features  which  show  that  the  spiritual  domina- 
tion of  the  clergy  was  weaker  than  of  old,  however  strong 
their  political  and  social  status  had  become.  We  have 
already  noticed  that  the  interference  of  the  spiritual  courts 
in  domestic  life  had  ceased  to  be  a  vital  reality  and  was 
rapidly  becoming  a  contemptible  farce,  probably  more  on 
account  of  the  altered  mental  attitude  of  the  laity  than  for 
any  other  reason.  We  have  seen  a  no  less  significant  pro- 
test raised  against  the  monopoly  of  State  offices  by  church- 
men. Above  all,  we  have  seen  in  the  Wycliffite  movement 
a  direct  attack  on  Church  privileges  and  wealth,  and  a  still 
more  important  attack  on  the  doctrines  which  she  taught  and 
the  religious  usages  which  she  inculcated.  Her  intellectual 
supremacy,  now  for  the  first  time  in  our  country  seriously 
challenged,  was  the  key  to  the  position  on  which  her  worldly 
privileges  depended.  Wyclil^,_inu-^ite  of  some  crudity  of 
thought  and  utterance,  was  the  only  man  of  his  age  who  saw 
deeply  into  the  needs  of  the  present  and  the  possibilities  of 
the  future,  arid  his  life  lias  had  ah  incalculable  effect  on 
the  religion  of  England,  and  through  religion  on  politics  and 
society.  We  may  take  this  opportunity  to  give  a  brief  outline 
of  his  career. 

He  was  of  North  English  parentage,  and  was  born  about 
1320  in  the  Eichmond  district  of  Yorkshire.  He  was  sent 
to  Oxford,  but  when  and  how  is  unknown  ;  the  attractions  of 


170  EBLIGION 

an  intellectual  life  kept  him  at  the  University,  where  he 
passed  through  many  grades  and  offices,  and  took  his  share 
both  in  the  teaching  and  administration  of  the  place.  He 
was  once  Master  of  Balliol ;  he  was  perhaps  Warden  of 
Canterbury  HalL  His  reputation  as  a  theologian  increased 
gradually,  but  until  he  was  some  fifty  years  of  age  it  was 
an  Oxford  reputation  only.  It  is  impossible  to  say  whether 
he  resided  all  the  year  round,  or  all  years  together,  at  the 
University.  From  1363  onwards  he  held  livings  in  the 
country,  though  never  more  than  one  at  a  time.^  ^  In  1374  he 
finally  received  from  the  Crown  the  rectory  of  Lutterworth, 
with  which  his  name  is  for  ever  connected.  There  he  lived 
continuously  after  his  expulsion  from  Oxford  in  1382,  there 
he  wrote  his  later  works  and  collected  his  friends  and  mission- 
aries. The  Leicestershire  village  became  the  centre  of  a 
religious  movement.  Owing  to  the  difficulty  of  ascertaining  the 
exact  dates  of  his  different  books  and  pamphlets,  it  would  be 
hard  to  distinguish  between  those  of  his  theories  which  issued 
from  Oxford  and  thpse  which  first  appeared  at  Lutterworth. 
There  is  no  need  in  a  general  history  of  the  times  to  attempt 
the  difficult  task  of  exact  chronological  division,  such  as 
would  be  necessary  in  a  biography  of  Wycliffe.  It  is  enough 
to  know  that  his  demand  for  disendowment  preceded  his 
purely  doctrinal  heresies,  that  his  quarrel  with  the  friars  came 
to  a  head  just  before  his  denial  of  Transubstantiation  in  1380, 
while  his  attack  on  the  whole  organisation  and  the  most 
prominent  doctrines  of  the  Mediaeval  Church  is  found  in 
its  fulness  only  in  his  later  works. 

The  method  by  which  he  arrived  at  his  conclusions  was 
in  appearance  the  scholastic  method  then  recognised.  With- 
out such  a  basis  his  theories  would  have  been  treated  with 
ridicule  by  all  theologians,  and  he  would  have  been  as  much 
out  of  place  at  Oxford  as  Voltaire  in  the  Sorbonne.  The  system 
of  argument,  which  makes  his  Latin  writings  unreadable  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  made  them  formidable  in  the  four- 
teenth. Yet  he  was  not,  in  the  deepest  sense,  an  academician. 
Instinct  and  feeling  were  the  true  guides  of  his  mind,  not  the 

'  Fasc.  Z.,  p.  xxxviii-ix. 


WYCLIFFE  171 

close  reasoning  by  which  he  conceived  that  he  was  irresisti- 
bly led  to  inevitable  conclusions.  The  doctrines  of  Protes- 
tantism, and  the  conception  of  a  new  relation  between  Church 
and  State,  were  not  really  the  deductions  of  any  cut-and-dried 
dialectic.  The  one  important  inclination  that  he  derive"cr 
from  scholasticism  was  the  tendency,  shared  with  all  mediaeval 
thinkers,  to  carry  his  theories  to  their  furthest  logical  point. 
Hence  he  was  rather  a  radical  than  a  moderatei  reformer. 
This  uncompromising  attitude  of  mind  assigned  to  him  his 
true  function.  He  was  not  the  leader  of  a  political  party 
trying  to  carry  through  the  modicum  of  reform  practical  at 
the  moment,  but  a  private  individual  trying  to  spread  new 
ideas  and  to  begin  a  movement  of  thought  which  should  bear 
fruit  in  ages  to  come.  His  later  writings  show  that  he  had 
ceased  to  regard  himself  as  a  '  serious  politician  ; '  perhaps 
he  was  dimly  av^are  that  he  was  something  greater.  He  did 
well,  both  for  himself  and  the  world,  to  throw  aside  all  hopes 
of  immediate  success  and  speak  out  the  truth  that  was  in 
him  without  counting  the  cost.  But  his  greatest  admirers 
must  admit  that  in  some  cases  his  logic  drove  him  to  give 
unwise  and  impossible  advice.  Some  will  think  his  recom- 
mendatroh"'  of  complete  disendowment  and  the  voluntary 
system  to  be  little  better,  and  all  will  probably  agree  that 
his  proposal  to  include  the  Universities  in  this  scheme  was 
unnecessary.  But  as  they  were  then  part  of  the  Church,  he 
did  not  see  how  it  was  consistent  with  his  logic  that  they 
should  continue  to  hold  endowments  of  land  and  appropriated 
tithes.^  In  the  same  way,  he  carried  to  an  equally  extrava- 
gant length  his  theory  that  the  life  of  the  priest  should  be 
purely  spiritual.  To  spiritualise  the  occupations  of  the 
clergy  was  a  very  desirable  reform  at  this  time,  but  there  was 
no  need  that  Wycliffe  should  therefore  wish  to  restrict  their 
studies  to  theology.  His  objection  to  the  attendance  of  clergy 
at  lectures  on  law  and  physical  science  was,  beyond  doubt, 
a  step  in  the  wrong  direction.^  He  was  confirmed  in  this  _ 
error  by  his  belief  in  the  all-sufficiency  of  the  Bible.  '  This  , 
lore  that  Christ  taught  us  is  enough  for  this  life,'  he  says, 
*  and  other  lore,  and  more,  over  this,  would  Christ  that  were 
1  Matt.,  427  ;  De  Off.  Past.  ^  De  Officio  Regis,  ch.  vii.  176-8. 


172  EELIGION 

suspended '  ^  Learned  as  he  was  himself,  he  affected  to 
depreciate  earthly  learning.  But  while  such  extravagances 
detract  somewhat  from  his  greatness,  as  they  certainly 
detracted  from  his  usefulness,  they  cannot  be  held,  as  his 
enemies  hold  them,  to  be  the  principal  part  of  his  legacy 
to  mankind.  True  genius  nearly  always  pays  the  price  of 
originality  and  inventive  pov/er,  in  mistakes  proportionately 
great. 

In  his  political  ideas  regarding  the  Church,  Wycliffe  was 
one  of  a  school.  Continental  and  English  writers  had  already 
for  a  century  been  theorising  against  the  secular  power  of  eccle- 
siastics. The  Papal  Bull  of  1377  had  likened  Wycliffe's  early 
heresies  to  the  '  perverse  opinions  and  unlearned  learning  of 
Marsiglio  of  Padua  of  damned  memory,'  ^  who  had  demanded 
that  the  Church  should  be  confined  to  her  spiritual  province, 
and  had  attacked  the  '  Caesarean  clergy.'  Wycliffe  himself 
recognised  Occam  as  his  master,^  for  his  great  fellow-country- 
man had  more  than  fifty  years  back  declared  it  the  duty  of 
priests  to  live  in  poverty,  and  had  maintained  with  his  pen 
the  power  of  the  secular  State  against  the  Pope.  It  was  by 
the  Spiritual  Franciscans,  '  those  evangelical  men,'  as  Wycliffe 
called  them,  '  very  dear  to  God,'  that  the  poverty  ordered  by 
the  Gospel  had  been  chiefly  practised  and  preached  as  an 
example  for  the  whole  Church.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  to 
their  enemy  FitzEalph,  Bishop  of  Armagh,  that  he  owed  his 
doctrine  of  '  Dominion.'  •*  Grossetete,  the  reforming  Bishop 
of  Lincoln,  had  in  his  day  attacked  pluralities  and  opposed  the 
abuses  of  Papal  power  in  England.  Wyclifi'e  not  only  spoke 
of  him  with  respect  and  admiration,  but  again  and  again 
quoted  his  words  and  advanced  his  opinions  as  authoritative.*' 
But  while  these  predecessors  had  dealt  with  one  or  two  points 
only,  Wycliffe  dealt  with  religion  as  a  whole.  Besides  the 
political  proposals  of  Occam  and  Marsiglio,  he  sketched  out  a 
new  religion  which  included  their  proposed  changes  as  part 

'  S.  E.  W.,  i.  310.  "-  Fasc.  Z.,  243. 

^  '  Ineeptor.'     De  Veritate  Sanctce,  Scriptures,  cap.  xiv.,  in  Lechler,  ii.  372. 

*  See  Matt.,  pp.  xxxiii-  iv  ;  Brown's  Fasciculus,  i.  237 ;  Mr.  Poole  in  Social 
England,  ii.  163. 

^  De  Givili  Dominio,  385-94  ;  De  Officio  Regis,  85  ;  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  469,  489  ; 
O-pus  Evangeliciim,  i.  17. 


WYCLIFFE  173 

only  of   the   new   ideas   respecting  the  relations  of   man  to 
God. 

In  this  field  of  doctrine  and  religion  he  was  himself  the 
originator  of  a  school.  His  authorities,  his  teachers,  were  not 
the  thinkers  of  his  own  century,  but  the  fathers  of  the  early 
Church.  Few,  perhaps,  oj  his  ideas  were  new  in  the  sense 
that  they  had  never  before  been  conceived  by  man.  Butmany. 
were  absolutely  new  to  his  age.  In  those  days  there  was  no 
scientific  knowledge  of  the  past,  and  mere  tradition  can  be 
soon  altered.  If  the  Catholic  faith  of  the  tenth  century 
had  been  modified,  no  one  in  the  fourteenth  would  have 
known  that  any  such  change  had  taken  place.  Even  the 
memory  of  the  Albigenses  and  their  terrible  fate  seems  to  have 
vanished,  or  to  have  survived  only  as  a  tale  that  is  told. 
They  are  not  mentioned  in  Wycliffe's  writings.  He  did  not 
borrow  his  heresies  from  them,  as  the  Hussites  borrowed  from 
him.  Wycliffe's  re-statements,  if  such  they  were,  were  there- 
fore to  airmtents  and  purposes  discoveries.  The  doctrine  of 
Transubstantiation  had  not  always  been  held  by  the  Church, 
but  it  had  been  held  for  many  generations  when  it  was  denied 
by  Wycliffe.  His  declaration  that  his  own  view  had  been  the 
orthodox  fa,ith  for  '  the  thousand  years  that  Satan  was  bound,'  ^ 
was  of  little  meaning  to  the  unlearned  and  the  unimaginative. 

He  developed  this  famous  heresy  in  1379  and  1380,  during 
the  latter  part  of  his  residence  at  Oxford.  He  had  previously 
believed  in  the  great  miracle,^  but  was  led  into  his  new 
position,  he  declares,  by  the  metaphysical  consideration  of  the 
impossibility  of  accidents  existing  without  substance.  This 
may  well  be  true  ;  the  terms  are  a  philosophical  way  of  stating 
the  plain  man's  difficulties.  But  there  were  many  other  con- 
siderations, besides  metaphysical  arguments,  which  influenced 
his  judgment.  Transubstantiation  was  unsuited  to  the 
general  character  of  his  mind,  which  always  found  difficulty 
in  attributing  very  high  sacredness  to  particles  of  matter. 
Thus  he  complained  that  the  orthodox  view  of  the  Eucharist 
was  a  cause  of  idolatry,  that  the  people  made  the  host  their 
God.^   Ever  since  his  day,  the  question  has  been  the  shibboleth 

'  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  408.  ^  j)^  Eucharistd,  Introd.  p.  iv. 

»  Ibid.  14,  315-8,  142-3  ;  De  Blaspliemid,  31. 


174  EELIGION 

dividing  off  those  who  revolt  against  materialised  objects  of 
reverence  and  worship,  from  those  to  whomithe  materialisation 
gives  no  offence.  Neither  was  Wycliffe  blind  to  the  use  made 
of  the  theory  of  Transubstantiation  by  the  priests,  and  still 
more  by  the  friars,  to  secure  the  veneration  and  obedience  of 
those  to  whom  they  ministered.^  He  declared  that  nothing 
was  more  horrible  to  him  than  the  idea  that  every  celebrating 
priest  made  the  body  of  Christ ;  ^  the  Mass  was  a  false  miracle 
invented  for  mundane  purposes.^  It  is  now  acknowledged 
that  the  power  of  the  clergy  is  strongest  with  those  peoples 
who  believe  in  Transubstantiation.  Even  in  the  fourteenth 
century  the  Church  recognised  that  her  position  depended  on 
the  doctrine. 

Whether  Wycliffe  knew  what  a  storm  he  was  about  to 
raise,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  At  any  rate  the  storm  arose  at 
once,  and  he  never  for  an  instant  shrank  from  its  fury.  John 
of  Gaunt  hurried  down  in  person  to  Oxford,  and  ordered  him 
to  be  silent  on  the  question.*  Such  vigorous  action  shows  not 
only  what  importance  the  Duke  attached  to  his  ally,  but  the 
alarm  with  which  he  regarded  heresy  about  the  Mass.  The 
way  was  now  divided  before  Wycliffe,  and  he  had  to  make  his 
choice.  By  a  sacrifice  of  principle  he  would  have  become  the 
bond-slave  of  a  discredited  political  party,  but  he  would  have 
remained  at  Oxford  safe  from  all  annoyance  by  the  Church, 
under  the  patronage  and  occasionally  in  the  employment  of 
the  State ;  by  doing  the  duty  which  lay  before  him  without 
consideration  of  consequence,  he  sacrificed  the  Lancastrian 
alliance,  he  threw  away  the  protection  of  the  government,  he 
put  himself  at  the  mercy  of  the  Bishops,  he  was  driven  from 
Oxford  ;  he  ceased  to  have  an  honoured  position  in  high 
circles,  to  be  spoken  of  with  respect  by  great  friends,  and 
recognition  by  great  enemies.  The  hopes  and  schemes  of  the 
last  ten  years  vanished.  By  his  refusal  to  obey  the  Duke  he 
entered  finally  on  the  new  life  into  which  he  had  been 
gradually  drifting  for  some  time  past,  the  life  of  the  enthusiast 
who  builds  for  the  future  and  not  for  the  present,  with  the 
arm  of  the  spirit  and  not  with  the  arm  of  the  flesh.     Such  a 

'  Opus  Evangelicum,  i.  102.  '^  De  Eucharistd,  15,  16. 

3  De  Blasphemia,  26.  *  Fasc.  Z.,  114. 


WYCLIFFE  175 

choice  was  not  so  hard  for  Wycliffe  as  it  has  often  proved  for 
others.  He  was  no  sensitive  Erasmus.  Proud  and  ascetic, 
he  had  ever  despised  the  things  of  this  world.  A  man  of  war 
from  his  youth  up,  the  truth  was  always  more  to  him  than 
peace.  He  refused  to  be  silent  on  the  dangerous  subject, 
and  John  of  Gaunt  retired  from  Oxford  baffled.  It  would  be 
interesting  to  know  what  thoughts  were  uppermost  in  the 
Duke's  mind  as  he  rode  out  of  the  town  after  this  memorable 
interview. 

Although,  in  arguing  against  the  orthodox  view  of  the 
Eeal  Presence,  Wycliffe  put  forward  forcibly  and  even  crudely 
the  evidence  of  the  senses,  and  laid  stress  on  the  absurdity  of 
a  useless  miracle  performed  many  times  a  day,  often  by  the 
lowest  type  of  priest,^  he  never  went  farther  in  his  deprecia- 
tion of  the  Sacrament  than  the  position  generally  known  as 
Consubstantiation.  The  Eucharist  always  presented  to  him  a 
mystery.  He  believed  the  body  was  in  some  manner  present, 
though  how  he  did  not  clearly  know  ;  he  was  only  certain 
that  bread  was  present  also.^ 

With  regard  to  the  other  Sacraments,  Wycliffe  depreciated 
the  importance  then  attached  to  them,  though  he  made  an 
exception  in  favour  of  Matrimony.  He  himself  did  not 
propose  to  reduce  their  number,  although  the  change  effected 
by  the  Protestants  of  a  later  age  was  in  perfect  accord  with 
his  principles.  It  is  unnecessary  again  to  point  out  how 
very  different  was  his  view  of  Penance,  Extreme  Unction  and 
Holy  Orders  from  that  of  the  Catholic  Church.  We  find, 
in  Waldensis'  confutation  of  Lollardry,  that,  as  we  should 
suppose  from  a  perusal  of  Wycliffe's  own  works,  the  dis- 
tinguishing feature  of  the  sect  was  a  depreciation  of  the 
miraculous  power  of  the  Church  Sacraments,  and  the  pecu- 
liar saving  qualities  of  ceremonies,  prayers,  and  pardons. 
Wycliffe  pointed  out  that  there  was  another  road  to  salvation^. 
— a  godly  life.  He  thought  the  religious  world  had  been  led 
astray,  and  in  pursuit  of  formulas  was  forgetting  the  essence 
of  Christianity.     The  direct  relation  of  the  individual  to  God 

'  S.   E.    W.,   iii.   405;     Trialogus,   iv.  5;    De    Blasphemid,   26-30;     De 
Eitcharistd  et  Poenitentia,  p.  329  of  the  De  EucTiaristd. 
2  De  Eticharistd,  passim,  and  Introduction. 


176  EELIGION 

without  these  interventions,  was  the  positive  result  of  his 
negative  criticism.  This  idea  seems  to  form  the  basis  of  all 
his  objections  and  of  all  his  scepticism.  This  was  the  centre 
of  a  rather  unsystematised  crowd  of  thoughts  which  he  threw 
out  on  the  world,  which  have  sometimes  been  regarded  as 
detached  and  chaotic. 

The  same  principle  appears  in  his  attitude  towards  Church 
services.  The  degree  to  which  a  rite  increased  the  real 
devotion  of  the  people  was,  he  declared,  the  test  of  its 
propriety.^  He  found  that  intoning  and  elaborate  singing 
took  the  mind  off  the  meaning  of  the  prayer.^  He  quoted 
St.  Augustme's  dictum  '  as  oft  as  the  song  delighteth  me 
more  than  that  is  songen,  so  oft  I  acknowledge  I  trespass 
grievously.'  This  became  a  favourite  text  with  his  followers.^ 
By  the  same  standard,  he  judged  that  the  splendid  building 
and  gaudy  decoration  of  churches  drew  away  the  minds 
of  the  worshippers.^  In  that  age,  whatever  deterioration 
there  might  be  in  other  spheres  of  ecclesiastical  activity, 
the  unbroken  but  progressive  tradition  of  Gothic  archi- 
tecture still  continued  to  fill  the  country  with  achievements 
as  noble  as  any  that  the  art  of  man  has  accomplished.  The 
simple  magnificence  of  the  Early  English  style  was  being 
gradually  modified,  so  as  to  exhibit  larger  quantities  of 
delicate  tracery.  At  the  same  time  the  Church  services,  in 
the  hands  of  armies  of  choristers  and  chantry  priests,  were 
being  adorned  by  music  more  difficult  and  by  intoning  more 
elaborate  than  the  old  Gregorian  chants. '^ 

But  what  were  these  new  beauties  to  the  class  of  men 
who  find  no  reality  of  worship  under  such  forms,  and  who 
require  something  altogether  different  by  way  of  religion  ? 
To  their  needs  and  thoughts  Wycliffe  gave  expression  in 
language  which,  compared  to  his  language  on  some  other  sub- 
jects, is  extremely  moderate.  But  his  demand  was  distinct, 
and  it  was  founded  on  a  want  deeply  felt  by  many  of  his 
countrymen.  We  are  not  surprised  to  find  that  the  Lollards 
in  the  next  generation  found  no  comfort  in  the  services  of  the 

•  De  Ecclesid,  cap.  ii.  45-6  ;  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  203-28. 

2  Opus  Evangelicum,  i.  261.  ^  Matt.,  191 ;  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  228,  480. 

■»  Opus  Evangelicum,  i.  263. 

s  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  203-28 ;  Matt.  76-7  and  169. 


WYCLIPPE  177 

Church,  and  for  lack  of  conventicles  'met  in  caves  and 
woods.'  ^  A  distinctive  character  was  thus  given  to  the 
worship  of  the  new  English  heretics ;  it  was  a  worship 
essentially  Protestant,  and  did  not  depend  for  its  performance 
on  priest  or  Church.  Although  we  have  no  account  of  the 
meetings  of  these  first  nonconformists,  their  character  can 
be  gathered  from  the  writings  of  Wycliffe  and  his  followers, 
who  again  and  again  insist  on  the  greater  importance  of 
preaching  and  the  smaller  importance  of  ceremonies.  Preach- 
ing, they  declared,  was  the  first  duty  of  clergymen,  and  of 
more  benefit  to  the  laity  than  any  Sacrament.  The  sermon 
was  the  special  weapon  of  the  early  reformers ;  it  was  the 
distinguishing  mark  of  Wycliffe's  Poor  Priests.  Their  chief 
rivals  in  this  art,  as  in  everything  else,  were  the  friars,  of 
whose  sermons  there  were  always  enough  and  to  spare.  But 
Wycliffe  accused  the  friars  of  preaching  to  amuse  men  and 
to  win  their  money,  making  up  for  want  of  real  earnestness 
by  telling  stories  more  popular  than  edifying.  He  wanted  an 
entirely  different  class  of  preacher,  one  who  should  call  people 
to  repentance,  and  make  the  sermon  the  great  instrument 
for  reformation  of  life  and  manners.  To  Wycliffe  preaching 
seemed  the  most  effectual  means  by  which  to  arouse  men 
to  a  sense  of  their  personal  relation  to  God,  and  of  the  con- 
sequent importance  of  their  every  action.  Absolution,  masses, 
pardons,  and  penance  commuted  for  money  were  so  many 
ways  of  keeping  all  real  feeling  of  responsibility  out  of  the 
mind.  '  To  preach  to  edifying '  became  the  care  of  the 
Lollards,  in  the  place  of  ceremonies  and  rituals.^ 

On  the  important  questions  of  image  worship  and  the 
cultus  of  saints,  too  indissolubly  connected  by  the  practice  of 
the  time  to  be  considered  separately,  Wycliffe  led  the  way 
with  a  caution  and  respect  for  usage  akin  to  his  moderation 
in  the  questions  of  confession  and  penance.  Having  been  a 
devotedly  religious  man  all  his  life,  and  having  for  the  first 
forty  years  of  it  lived  within  the  pale  of  orthodoxy,  it  was 
impossible  that  he  should  be  altogether  without  sympathy  for 

>  Waldensis,  caps.  143-7  ;  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  486. 

2  Opus  Evangelicum,  i.  375  ;    S.  E.  W.,  iii.  202,  376  ;  Matt.,  57,  110  ;  Pol 
Works,  i.  261. 

N 


178  EELIGION 

the  forms  of  worship  and  the  objects  of  adoration  amongst 
which  he  had  been  brought  up.  He  himself  never  looked 
forward  to  an  iconoclastic  crusade,  such  as  naturally  marked 
the  final  triumph  of  his  principles  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
He  never. positively  demanded  the  removal  of  images.  He 
said  they  were  there  to  increase  devotion  to  God,  and  were 
bad  only  in  so  far  as  they  stood  in  the  way  of  direct  worship. 
They  were  a  sign,  and  to  be  adored  as  such.  In  the  same 
way,  he  never  denounced  prayers  to  Saints  as  necessarily 
wrong.  If  such  v/orship  increased  true  devotion,  it  was 
good.  But  he  exposed  the  errors  and  the  idolatry  that 
actually  resulted  from  Saint-worship  and  from  the  presence 
of  images  in  church.  He  went  so  far  as  to  pronounce  it 
better  to  put  a  general  trust  in  the  prayers  of  Saints,  than  to 
pay  individual  honours  to  any  of  them.^  One  of  his  chief 
quarrels  with  the  orthodox  was  this  depreciation  of  the  value 
of  '  special  prayers.'  ^  As  to  the  personality  of  the  Saints 
themselves,  he  refused  to  believe  that  canonisation  at  Rome 
either  made  or  marred  Sainthood.  It  was  a  ceremony  of  no 
account  in  God's  eyes.  A  man  was  judged  in  heaven  by  his 
life  and  not  by  the  opinion  of  the  Pope  or  Cardinals.  Many 
current  legends  and  lives  of  the  Saints  were  mere  fables.^ 

He  regarded  the  Virgin  Mary  in  a  spirit  half  way  between 
the  Mariolatry  of  his  contemporaries  and  the  fierce  anger 
with  which  Knox  threw  her  image  into  the  waters  as  a 
'  painted  bred.'  He  has  left  us  an  interesting  treatise 
entitled  '  Ave  Maria,'  *  in  which  he  holds  up  her  life  as  an 
example  to  all,  and  especially  to  women,  in  language  full  of 
sympathy  and  beauty.  But  he  does  not  advise  people  to 
pray  to  her.  He  does  not  speak  either  in  praise  or  con- 
demnation of  the  images  of  the  Virgin,  which  then  looked 
down  from  every  church  in  the  land. 

Although  he  did  not  generally  indulge  in  tirades  against 
idolatry,  he  mentions  the  mistaken  worship  of  images  as 
part  of  other  superstitious  practices  attaching  to  the  popular 

^  De  Eucharistd,  317-8 ;  De  Ecc,  45-6 ;  Ibid.  46 ;  Trialogus,  235  ; 
Dialogus,  27-8. 

^  See  Waldensis,  chaps,  i.-xxvii. 

8  De  Ecc,  44 ;  S.  E.  W.,  i.  332 ;  Matt.,  469 ;  Dialogus,  20  and  28. 

'  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  111-5. 


WYCLIFFE  179 

cultus  of  Saints  ;  he  put  it  on  the  same  footing  as  the  foolish 
adoration  of  relics,  the  costly  decoration  of  shrines,  and  the 
other  ways  in  which  pilgrims  wasted  their  time  and  money. 
Wycliffe  was  not  the  first  or  only  man  of  his  time  in  England 
to  be  shocked  by  these  practices.  Langland,  whose  '  Piers 
Plowman '  was  generally  read  among  all  classes  ten  or 
twenty  years  before  the  rise  of  Lollardry,  had  in  that  great 
work  spoken  even  more  severely  of  the  popular  religion,  and 
used  the  word  '  idolatry '  more  freely  than  Wycliffe.  Chaucer's 
gorge  rose  at  the  Pardoner  and  his  relics  of  '  pigge's  bones.' 
The  impulse  that  Wycliffe  gave  was  therefore  welcome  to 
many,  and  was  eagerly  followed  by  the  Lollards,  who  soon 
became  more  distinctly  iconoclastic  than  their  founder,  and 
regarded  Saints,  Saints'  days  and  Saint-worship  with  a  horror 
which  he  never  expressed.  But  his  other  doctrines  of  the 
relations  of  man  to  God  and  of  man  to  the  Church,  his  new 
ideas  of  pardon  and  absolution,  were  the  only  effective  engine 
for  the  destruction  of  those  abuses  and  vulgarities,  which 
Langland  and  Chaucer  vainly  deprecated. 

Against  the  persons  and  classes  who  lived  by  encouraging 
superstition,  Wycliffe  waged  implacable  war.  He  recognised 
that  as  long  as  the  orders  of  friars  existed  in  England,  it 
would  always  be  hard  to  fight  against  the  practices  and  beliefs 
which  they  taught.  His  views  on  monks  and  on  Bishops  re- 
spectively were  much  the  same.  His  objections  to  them  all 
were  founded  on  the  belief  that  they  were  the  real  props  of  all 
he  sought  to  destroy,  the  sworn  enemies  of  all  he  sought  to 
introduce.  After  his  quarrel  with  the  friars,  he  put  these 
thoughts  into  a  definite  formula.  All  men,  he  declared, 
belonged,  or  ought  to  belong,  to  the  '  sect  of  Christ,'  and  to 
that  alone.  The  distinguishing  mark  of  the  members  was  the 
practice  of  Christian  virtues  in  ordinary  life,  whether  by 
priest  or  laymen.  The  body  had  therefore  its  rule,  the  Chris- 
tian code  of  morality.  He  found,  he  said,  no  warrant  in 
Scripture  to  justify  any  man  in  binding  himself  by  another 
code  of  religious  rules,  or  becoming  a  member  of  any  new 
sect.  Yet  that,  he  said,  was  what  the  monks  and  friars 
had  done.  They  claimed  to  be  '  the  religious,'  more  dear  to 
God  than  other  men.     But  their  rule  was  of  earthly  making, 


180  EELIGION 

the  work  of  Benedict  or  Francis,  not  of  Christ ;  there  was 
really  only  one  rule  of  life,  and  that  was  binding  on  all 
Christians  equally.  Eeligion  did  not  consist  in  peculiar  rites 
distinguishing  some  men  from  others.^  Wycliffe  affected  also 
to  regard  the  worldly  prelates  and  clergy,  who  held  secular 
office  and  secular  property,  as  another  '  sect.'  ^  The  preten- 
sions and  self-interest  of  the  Church,  and  the  intense  party 
spirit  actuating  the  authorities,  gave  a  certain  meaning  to  the 
word.  A  powerful  and  jealous  organisation,  dangerous  to  the 
State  as  well  as  fatal  to  individual  freedom  of  religious  prac- 
tice, was  very  far  from  that  idea  of  the  Church  which  Wycliffe 
thought  he  found  in  the  histories  of  the  early  Christian  com- 
munity. 

His  views  on  ordination  and  apostolic  succession  were,  it 
is  needless  to  say,  heretical.  He  taught  people  to  look  to  the 
real  worth  of  a  man,  not  to  his  position  in  the  Church.  '  For 
crown  and  cloth  make  no  priest,  nor  the  emperor's  bishop  with 
his  words,  but  power  that  Christ  giveth,  and  thus  by  life  are 
priests  known.  And  thus,'  he  adds  in  encouragement  to  his 
followers,  '  Christenmen  should  not  cease,  for  the  dread  of  the 
fiend  and  for  the  power  of  his  clerks,  to  sue  and  hold  Christ's 
law.  And  well  I  wot  that  Church  hath  been  many  day  ui 
growing,  and  some  call  it  not  Christ's  Church  but  the  Church 
of  wicked  spirits.  And  man  may  no  better  know  antichrist's 
clerk  than  by  this,  that  he  loveth  this  church  and  hateth 
the  Church  of  Christ.'  ^  Such  violence  of  language,  if  used 
against  the  pretensions  of  a  religious  organisation  in  modern 
theological  controversy,  would  be  condemned  for  bitterness  and 
extravagance.  But  in  the  mouth  of  the  proto-martyrs  of  free 
thought,  raising  the  standard  against  a  persecuting  organisa- 
tion with  the  whole  power  of  the  world  behind  it,  violence  of 
language  seems  natural  if  not  justifiable.  The  Church,  in 
her  anathemas,  called  them  '  sons  of  eternal  perdition,'  and 
sought  to  take  their  lives.  It  is  doubtful  if  a  perfectly  calm 
and  dispassionate  temper  would  have  afforded  any  man  the 
courage  to  head  a  forlorn  hope  against  the  Mediaeval  Church. 
Wycliffe  realised  what  he  was  doing,  and  did  it  as  a  duty,  not 

'  Pol.  Works,  passim  ;  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  431. 
2  Pol.  Works,  i.  242-3  ;  8.  E.  W.,  iii.  184.  ^  Matt.,  467. 


WYCLIFFE  181 

( 

as  an  intellectual  pastime.    ^-There  i^Z  he.  says,  \  yery  peace 

and  false  peace,  and  they  be  full  diverse.  Very  peace  is 
grounded  in  God,  .  .  .  false  peace  is  grounded  in  rest  with  our 
enemies,  when  we  assent  to  them  without  again-standing. 
And  sword  against  such  peace  came  Christ  to  send,'  ^  True 
wisdom  does  not  always,  and  certainly  did  not  then,  consist  in 
universal  sympathy  and  tolerance.  The  world  is  moved  in  the 
first  instance  by  those  who  see  one  side  of  a  question  only, 
although  the  services  of  those  who  see  both  are  indispensable 
for  effecting  a  settlement. 

The  Pope  had  no  place  in  Wycliffe's  free  Church  of  all 
Christian  men.  '  If  thou  say  that  Christ's  Church  must  have 
a  head  here  in  earth,  sooth  it  is,  for  Christ  is  head,  that  must 
be  here  with  his  Church  unto  the  day  of  doom.'  ^  This  com- 
plete repudiation  of  Papal  authority  was  the  last  stage  of  a 
long  process.  Until  the  time  of  the  schism  he  had  done  no 
more  than  state  the  fallibility  of  the  Pope,  and  expose  Papal 
deviations  from  the  '  law  of  God.'  ^  When  in  1378  his  enemy 
and  persecutor  Gregory  the  Eleventh  died,  he  welcomed  the 
accession  of  Urban  the  Sixth,  and  hoped  to  see  in  him  a 
reforming  head  of  Christendom.*  He  was  soon  disappointed. 
The  anti-Pope  Clement  was  set  up  at  Avignon,  and  gods  and 
men  were  edified  by  the  spectacle  of  the  two  successors  of  St. 
Peter  issuing  excommunications  and  raising  armies  against 
each  other.  Then,  and  not  till  then,  Wycliffe  denied  all  Papal 
power  over  the  Church. 

The  positive  basis  which  Wycliffe  set  up,  in  place  of 
absolute  Church  authority,  was  the  JBible.  We  find  exactly 
the  same  devotion  to  the  literal  text  in  Wycliffe  and  his  fol- 
lowers, as  among  the  later  Puritans.  He  even  declared  that 
it  was  our  only  ground  for  belief  in  Christ.^  Without  this 
positive  basis,  the  struggle  against  Eomanism  could  never 
have  met  with  the  partial  success  that  eventually  attended  it. 

As  for  a  new  scheme  of  Church  government,  Wycliffe 
cannot  be  said  to  have  put  one  forward.  He  pleaded  for 
greater  simplicity  of  organisation,  greater  freedom  of  the 
individual,  and  less  crushing  authority.     As  his  object  was  to 

»  S.  E.  W.,  i.  321.  2  j^4^.  iii.  342.  s  j^jatt.,  xv. 

*  De  Ecc,  352,  358.  ^  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  862,     I  disagree  with  note  a. 


182  EELIGION 

free  those  laymen  and  parsons  who  were  of  his  way  of  think- 
ing from  the  control  of  the  Pope  and  Bishops,  he  proposed 
to  abolish  the  existing  forms  of  Church  government.  But 
he  never  devised  any  other  machinery,  such  as  a  presbytery, 
to  take  their  place.  The  time  had  not  come  for  definite 
schemes,  such  as  were  possible  and  necessary  in  the  days  of 
Luther,  Calvin  and  Cranmer,  for  success  was  not  even 
distantly  in  sight.  The  position  of  the  Lollards  was  anoma- 
lous, standing  half  inside  and  half  outside  the  Church. 

Such  were  the  principal  questions  that  Wycliffe,  during 
the  last  few  years  of  his  life,  forced  on  to  the  consideration 
of  his  countrymen,  who  had  hitherto  been  famous  among 
Europeans  for  their  ready  fidelity  to  all  that  the  established 
authorities  bade  them  believe.  It  must  be  said  of  Wycliffe,  as 
he  said  of  the  Bishops,  '  by  his  works  must  we  know  him,'  for 
there  is  no  other  record  of  him  left,  except  strings  of  abusive 
epithets  from  his  enemies.  Fortunately  his  written  works, 
long  preserved  among  the  Hiissites  of  Bohemia  after  Church 
inquisition  had  destroyed  them  in  England,  have  lately  been 
edited  by  zealous  and  careful  scholars,  who  have  now  set 
before  us  nearly  as  much  knowledge  of  Wycliffe  as  we  can 
ever  hope  to  obtain.  The  want  of  any  clear  picture  of  his 
personality  goes  far  to  account  for  the  small  interest  taken  in 
a  man  of  such  extraordinary  powers  of  mind,  who  has  exerted 
so  great  an  influence  on  the  history  of  our  country.  It  is 
probable  that  few  will  ever  study  his  writings.  The  interest 
and  meaning  of  his  Latin  books  are  obscured  to  the  modern 
reader  by  the  jargon  of  the  mediaeval  schools.  His  English 
pamphlets,  written  in  the  simple  and  vigorous  language  of 
that  day,  well  repay  study.  But  even  these  have  a  certain 
want  of  attractiveness,  owing  to  the  predominance  of  hard 
intellectual  and  moral  qualities  over  the  emotions.  But 
although  his  writings  tell  us  little  about  himself,  we  can  read 
in  their  every  line  the  severity  which  appeared  also  in  his 
actions,  and  was  certainly  the  characteristic  of  the  man. 


183 


CHAPTEE   VI 

THE  PEASANTS'  BISING   OF  1381 

The  continuous  history  of  political  and  religious  development 
in  England  is  at  this  point  broken  short  by  a  great  incident ; 
for  such  is  the  Peasants'  Eising  in  its  relation  to  the  train  of 
events  and  the  growth  and  decay  of  institutions  which  we 
have  traced  in  the  preceding  chapters.  Its  effect  on  ad- 
ministrative and  parliamentary  affairs  was  almost  nothing, 
its  effect  on  religion  was  only  the  casual  reaction  of  events 
really  extraneous  to  the  quarrels  of  Bishop  and  reformer. 
But  the  Peasants'  Eising,  though  only  incidental  to  the  rest  of 
English  affairs,  is  an  organic  part  of  the  history  of  labour, 
and  throws  more  light  on  the  aspirations  and  qualities  of 
the  working  class  than  any  other  record  of  mediaeval  times. 
The  work  of  trained  scholars  has  of  late  years  opened  out  new 
fields  of  inquiry  into  the  past,  has  shown  us  from  Manor 
Eolls  and  bailiffs'  accounts  the  actual  conditions  under  which 
the  emancipation  of  the  feudal  serf  took  place — a  story  of 
profound  importance  and  interest,  but,  taken  by  itself,  not 
specially  enlivening  or  attractive.  The  story  of  this  great 
process  in  English  civilisation  is  completed  by  the  startling 
events  of  1381,  which  give  a  human  and  spiritual  interest  to 
the  economic  facts  of  the  period,  showing  the  peasant  as  a 
man,  half  beast  and  half  angel,  not  a  mere  item  in  the 
bailiffs'  books.  To  all  who  have  read  the  story  of  this 
terrible  summer,  a  manorial  roll  of  the  fourteenth  century 
becomes  a  record  of  real  and  stirring  life,  in  which  hope  and 
despair,  defiance  and  servile  submission,  surged  up  and 
sank  and  rose  again  during  that  long  century  of  labour  war. 
The  dramatic  interest  of  the  Eising  itself  has  always  been 


184  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

recognised  by  historians.  But  it  would  need  a  poet  to 
bring  out  its  true  depth  of  colour.  The  glamour  and  glare, 
so  characteristic  of  the  mightier  French  Eevolution,  is  set 
off  against  a  dark  background  of  mediaeval  English  gloom. 

When  the  fourteenth  century  opened,  the  agricultural 
system,  which  William  the  Conqueror's  great  census  had 
found  established  throughout  the  country,  was  still  in  work- 
ing order,  though  its  decay  had  already  begun.  The  '  Mano- 
rial '  system,  as  it  is  generally  called,  was  based  on  serfdom. 
The  lord  of  the  manor  kept  part  of  the  tillage  land  to  be 
worked  by  his  bailiff  for  the  supply  of  his  own  granaries, 
while  the  other  part  was  cultivated  in  small  patches  by  the 
peasants  of  the  village.  These  men  held  their  fields  on  a 
tenure  which  was,  by  custom  if  not  by  law,  independent  of 
the  landlord's  caprice  ;  they  did  not  suffer  from  evictions.^ 
But  their  tenure,  though  safe,  was  heavily  burdened ;  they 
were  not  freemen  of  the  land,  but  villeins  or  serfs  ;  they  might 
not  leave  the  estate  ;  they  were  bound  to  the  soil ;  they  not 
only  owed  many  feudal  dues  of  various  kinds  to  the  lord,  but 
were  obliged  to  do  service  so  many  days  in  the  year  on  the 
*  demesne,'  the  land  worked  by  the  lord's  bailiff.  It  was  on 
these  fixed  services  that  the  lord  relied  almost  entirely  for  the 
cultivation  of  this  demesne.  On  those  days  that  were  not 
claimed  by  the  bailiff,  the  serf  could  work  on  his  own  patch 
of  ground,  out  of  which  he  had  to  support  his  family  and  pay 
the  few  money  rents  due  to  the  lord. 

Such,  in  brief,  was  the  basis  on  which  society  stood,  such 
were  the  means  by  which  the  ground  was  tilled,  during  the 
feudal  ages.  The  relation  of  the  villein  to  the  lord  of 
the  manor  corresponded  in  idea  to  the  feudal  relation  of 
the  knight  to  the  baron.  The  same  personal  dependence,  the 
same  debt  of  personal  service  as  the  condition  of  land-tenure, 
formed  the  basis  of  both.  For  many  centuries  it  served  England 
well.  It  was  an  organised  system  which  prevented  anarchy 
and  perpetual  social  war.  If  it  gave  the  lord  rights,  it  gave 
the  villein  rights  too.  V  He  owed  only  certain  fixed  services; 
he  was  not  a  slave  to  do  the  lord's  bidding  at  all  hours  and 

'  Ashley,  i.  1,  39. 


GEADUAL  DECAY  OF  THE  MANOEIAL  SYSTEM    185 

for  any  purpose.  The  system  stood  in  the  place  of  cultivation 
by  slaves,  the  '  latifundia  '  that  ruined  ancient  Italy,  even  if 
it  also  stood  in  the  place  of  free  labour. 

In  the  later  Middle  Ages  it  gradually  broke  up,  by  a  pro- 
cess that  we  can  trace  step  by  step.  It  broke  up  under  the 
force  of  new  economic  conditions  and  under  the  force  of  new 
ideas,  themselves  partly  produced  by,  partly  producing  these 
conditions.  The  Eising  of  1381  sets  it  beyond  doubt  that  the 
peasant  had  grasped  the  conception  of  complete  personal 
liberty,  that  he  held  it  degrading  to  perform  forced  labour, 
and  that  he  considered  freedom  to  be  his  right. 

It  appears,  however,  from  the  Manor  EoUs,  that  the  com- 
mutation of  the  forced  services  of  the  villein  for  money  rents 
paid  to  the  lord,  had  begun  more  than  a  century  before  the 
Eising,  probably  long  before  there  was  among  the  peasants 
any  widespread  feeling  of  the  hardship  of  serfdom.  Economic 
pressure  and  purely  financial  considerations  induced  the 
landlords,  in  many  cases,  to  work  their  demesne  land  by  hired 
labour,  instead  of  by  the  compulsory  services  of  the  villein. 
The  change  came  slowly,  in  one  department  after  another 
of  agricultural  life.  Before  the  fourteenth  century  opened, 
the  bailiffs  had  been  forced  to  hire  shepherds  for  the  sheep, 
and  wards  for  the  pigs  and  cattle.  The  bond-slaves,  who  at 
the  time  of  the  Conquest  had  driven  the  swine  to  their  pan- 
nage in  the  acorn  forests,  had,  partly  from  the  influence  of 
Christian  ideas  on  their  masters,  partly  from  their  own  in- 
tense desire  to  be  free  from  the  collar  of  abject  slavery,  been 
emancipated  within  about  a  hundred  years  of  Hastings.^ 
But  it  was  difficult  to  use  the  villein  in  place  of  Gurth  the 
swineherd,  who  had  been  forced  to  guard  his  master's  pro- 
perty all  the  year  round  ;  for  the  villein  owed  services  only 
on  certain  days  of  the  week  and  the  year,  and  during  the  days 
which  were  his  own  the  lord's  animals  would  be  unguarded. 
So,  first,  the  offices  of  herdsmen  became  regularly  filled  by 
hired  labour.^  As  time  went  on,  the  bailiffs  began  more  and 
more  to  find  that  it  was  advantageous  to  have  the  ploughing 
done   in   the   same   way.     The   serf    who    was   required   to 

'  Ashley,  i.  1,  18  ;  Archceologia,  xxx.  218-23.  ^  Page,  22. 


186  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

plough  the  demesne  as  his  service  due,  was  generally  ex- 
pected to  work  with  his  own  team  of  cattle  and  horses.  These 
animals  were  often  good  enough  for  his  own  little  patch,  but 
did  not  meet  the  bailiff's  requirements.  Ploughing,  besides, 
required  more  skill  and  energy  than  most  other  agricultural 
operations.  Unwilling  workmen,  working  neither  for  love  nor 
money,  with  their  light  ploughs  and  scanty  teams  of  weak- 
kneed  oxen,  required  the  constant  superintendence  of  the 
bailiff,  lest  they  should  drive  the  furrow  crooked  or  rest  at 
every  turn.  They  became  a  bad  financial  speculation  for  the 
landlord.  Between  1300  and  1348  the  movement,  already 
begun  in  the  previous  century,  went  on  apace,  and  the  ser- 
vices of  ploughing  on  the  demesne  were  constantly  commuted 
for  money-rent  paid  in  quittance  to  the  lord.^  More  slowly, 
but  always  steadily,  the  less  skilled  services  of  reaping, 
ditching  and  threshing  were  similarly  commuted  for  cash- 
payments.^  With  this  money  the  bailiff  hired  labourers  -  to 
plough  and  till  the  demesne.  These  workmen  were  of  two 
classes.  First,  the  villein  whose  forced  services  had  been 
wholly  or  partially  commuted,  but  who  still  remained  a  serf, 
unfree  and  bound  to  the  soil  of  the  manor  by  the  law  of  the 
land ;  secondly,  the  free  labourer  whose  legal  position,  as 
regards  personal  liberty,  .corresponded  to  the  farm  servant  of 
to-day.  This  class  had  greatly  increased  since  the  Conquest. 
Many  villeins  had  worked  their  little  holdings  to  such  advan- 
tage that  they  had  been  able  to  purchase  their  freedom,  while 
others  had  fled  from  servitude  to  outlawry  in  the  wastes  and 
woods  that  then  divided  district  from  district,  whence  in  a 
new  part  of  England  they  had  emerged  into  a  new  career  as 
free  men.^ 
/  On  a  society  thus  slowly  changing  its  character  from  one 
I  of  feudal  relation  to  one  of  free  contract,  fell,  in  the  middle  of 
I  Edward  the  Third's  reign,  the  gigantic  calamity  of  the  Black 
*"i,  Death.  The  number  of  those  who  perished  in  the  unimagin- 
':  able  horrors  of  that  year  has  been  sometimes  estimated  at  a 
third,  sometimes  at  a  half,  of  the  whole  population.  Precise 
calculations  are  impossible,  but  it  is  clear  that  when  in  the 

'   See  Ap.  -  Ashley,  i.  1,  29  ;  Page,  24-8  ;  Cambridge  Manor. 

^  Ashley,  i.  1,  chap.  i. ;  Page,  16-8. 


ATTEMPTS  TO  EBSTEAIN  CHANGE  187 

winter  of  1349  the  plague  at  last  was  stayed,  and  men  set 
about  to  repair  the  damage,  they  found   the   conditions  of 
society  materially  altered   by  the  reduced  numbers   of   the 
population.     In  nearly  every  manor  throughout  the  country 
— for  the  most  marked  characteristic  of  the  plague  had  been 
its  ubiquity — the  ranks  of  hired  labour  and  of  the  villeins 
owing  personal  service  had  been  alike  mowed  down.     The 
landlord  and  his  bailiff  were  reduced  to  offering  double  and 
sometimes  treble  wages  to  procure  hands  for  the  demesne- 
farm,  which  would  otherwise  have  fallen  completely  to  waste. 
For  the  peasant  was  fully  alive  to  his  advantage  ;  he  had  not 
even  waited  till  the  national  calamity  was  over,  before  pushing 
his  claim  ;  in  the  autumn  of  1349,  while  the  destruction  still 
walked  by  noonday,  wages  had  risen  in  full  proportion  to  the 
increased  market   value  of  a  day's  work.^     The   King   had 
issued  an  ordinance  to  meet  the  emergency,  ordering  the  price 
of  labour  to  remain  as  before.     Canute's  proverbial  ordinance 
was  scarcely  more  futile.     Next  year  Parliament  was  able  to 
meet,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  convert  the  Eoyal  command  into 
a  permanent  statute — the  famous  Statute  of  Labourers.     It 
was,  undoubtedly,  a  '  class  '  measure,  passed  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  lords  of  the  manors,  who  led  both  Houses  of  : 
Legislature,  passed   also   by  the   merchants  who   employed   \ 
labour  in  the  towns,  and  whose  attitude  was  all-important  in    ) 
the  Lower  House  on  industrial  questions  that  concerned  them. 
But  it  was  scarcely  so  iniquitous  as  (for  example)  the  Corn 
Law  of  1815,  for  while  it  attempted  to  keep  down  the  price  of 
wages  to  the  traditional  standard,  it  attempted  at  the  same 
time  to  check  the  rise  in  the  price  of  provisions.    It  was  an  at-    - 
tempt  to  restrain  change,  to  stop  the  break-up  of  the  old  system,      | 
to  prevent  the  peasant  from  receiving  more  for  his  labour 
than  of  old,  or  paying  more  for  his  food.     It  was  a  grand    ; 
experiment,   whose    full    trial    and    complete    failure    were     I 
perhaps  a  necessary  step  in  teaching  mankind  the  laws  of      \ 
political  economy.     It  was  fully  tried,  for  the  statute  remained 
unaltered,  except  in  detail,  down  to  the  Eising  of  1381,  and 
even   beyond   it ;    punishment   was   to   be   inflicted    on   the 
labourer  who  received,  fine  on  the  employer  who  gave  more 

1  Eogers,  i.  306,  312  ;  Knighton,  ii.  62. 


188  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

than  a  penny  for  a  day's  hay-making,  more  than  twopence 
or  threepence  for  a  day's  reaping.  It  completely  failed,  for 
wages  rose  abnormally  and  never  came  down  again.^  It  was 
impossible  to  enforce  the  Act  except  through  the  agency  of 
the  landlord  class  itself,  and  the  landlord  was  often  in  no 
position  to  bargain  with  his  men  or  to  threaten  them  with 
the  terrors  of  the  law.  If  he  offered  them  the  bare  legal 
wage,  the  free  labom'-ers  would  offer  themselves  to  some 
neighbouring  bailiff,  who,  when  his  harvests  were  rotting  on 
the  ground,  would  be  ready  enough  to  give  them  what  they 
asked.  It  is  true  that  they  would  thus  subject  themselves  to 
the  penalties  of  the  statute  for  refusing  the  legal  wage  when 
proffered  by  their  landlord ;  but  while  he  was  setting  the 
machinery  of  the  law  in  motion  against  them,  the  harvest 
season  would  be  over.  Men  in  prison  cannot  reap  a  field. 
Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  the  absence  of  any  federated  resis- 
tance on  the  part  of  the  masters,  in  spite  of  the  continued  rise 
of  wages  by  competition,  the  attempt  to  enforce  the  statute 
continued.  Though  it  could  not  keep  wages  down,  its  penal- 
ties were  inflicted  to  such  an  extent  that  the  fines  were 
considered  as  a  regular  and  important  source  of  income.^ 
Leaders  of  local  unions  and  their  followers  were  had  up 
before  the  justices.  A  few  of  these  old  indictments  are  still 
to  be  found  in  the  Eecord  Office.  We  read  how,  in  a  Suffolk 
village,  Walter  Halderby  '  took  of  divers  persons  at  reaping- 
time  sixpence  or  eightpence  a  day,  and  very  often  at  the  same 
time  made  various  congregations  of  labourers  in  different 
places  and  counselled  them  not  to  take  less  than  sixpence  or 
eightpence.'  ^  The  statute,  with  peculiar  folly,  had  fixed  the 
legal  wage  for  reaping  at  twopence  or  threepence,  regardless 
of  the  higher  price  that  had  in  many  cases  been  paid  for  this 
work  even  before  the  Black  Death.  Labour  troubles  and  the 
mutual  antagonism  of  classes  were  inevitable  accompani- 
ments of  the  social  changes  that  took  place  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  but  they  were  unnecessarily  embittered  by  the 
enforcement   of   an   Act   which   so   crudely  disregarded  the 

'  25  Ed.  III.  2  ;  Eogers,  i.  265-71. 

2  Stats,  of  Realm,  31  Ed.  III.  1,  cap.  6  ;  36  Ed.  III.  1,  cap.  14. 
^  Anc.  Ind.,  no.  92  ;  Ibid.  Essex,  no.  19,  1-13  E.  II. ;  Ibid.  Norfolk,  no.  65, 
46  Ed.  III.-2  E.  II. 


MEDIEVAL  STEIKES  189 

state  of  the  market.  The  unfortunate  law  became  the 
favourite  child  of  Parliament.  Through  a  period  of  two 
generations,  its  penalties  were  continually  increased,  and 
new  measures  for  its  enforcement  enacted,  while  its  un- 
reasonably low  tariff  remained  unaltered.  The  effect  of 
these  statutes  was  to  teach  the  free  labourer  lawlessness  and 
the  nomadic  habits  which  increase  it ;  constituted  authority 
became  his  enemy ;  he  was  driven  to  the  life  of  the  outlaw. 
While  the  villein  was  bound  by  the  sentiment  of  the  Irish 
peasant,  as  well  as  by  the  law  of  the  land,  to  the  plot  of 
ground  which  his  fathers  had  tilled  for  generations,  the  free 
labourer  knew  of  no  such  ties.  Although  his  family  must 
often  have  rendered  it  difficult  for  him  to  flit,  many  of 
his  class  took  to  a  roaming  life,  and  passed  from  district  to 
district,  working  when  they  could  get  wages  that  pleased 
them,  and  often  robbing  when  they  could  not.  The  Commons 
of  the  Good  Parliament  complained  in  words  which  show  how 
close  was  the  causal  relation  between  the  Statute  of  Labourers 
and  the  break-down  of  law  and  order  in  1381  : — 

'  If  their  masters  reprove  them  for  bad  service,  or  offer  to 
pay  them  for  the  said  service  according  to  the  form  of  the 
said  statutes,  they  fly  and  run  suddenly  away  out  of  their 
services  and  out  of  their  own  country,  from  County  to  County 
and  town  to  town,  in  strange  places  unknown  to  their  said 
masters.  And  many  of  them  become  staff-strikers  and  live 
also  wicked  lives,  and  rob  the  poor  in  simple  villages,  in 
bodies  of  two  or  three  together.  And  the  greater  part  of  the 
said  servants  increase  their  robberies  and  felonies  from  day 
to  day.'  ^ 

In  the  previous  decade  it  had,  with  reckless  severity,  been 
ordained  that  if  the  sheriff  failed  to  catch  a  workman  con- 
demned under  the  statute,  he  should  declare  him  an  outlaw, 
whom  every  man  might  slay  at  sight.  ^  -^ 

But  there  was  another  characteristic  of  the  labourer  who     ' 
had  no  land,  which  tended,  almost  as  much  as  these  nomadic 
habits,  to  make  him  fit  to  rise  against  oppression.    He  became, 
in  good  seasons,  rich  and  important  with  a  prosperity  pre- 
viously unknown  to  the  English  rustic,  and  still  at  that  time 

'  Rot.  Pari.,  ii.  340.  ^  34  gd.  III.,  cap.  10, 


.^ 


190  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

quite  unknown  to  Jacques  Bonhomme  over  the  water.  Lang- 
land  thus  describes  him  : — 

Labourers  that  have  no  land  to  live  on  but  their  hands 
Deigned  not  to  dine  a-day  on  worts  a  night  old. 
Penny  ale  will  not  do  nor  a  piece  of  bacon, 
But  if  it  be  fresh  flesh  or  fish  fried  or  baked, 
And  that  hot-and-hot  for  the  chill  of  their  maw. 

In  such  seasons,  nothing  would  satisfy  him — 

And  unless  he  be  highly  paid  he  will  chide 
Aud  bewail  the  time  he  was  made  a  workman. 

He  grieves  against  God  and  murmurs  against  reason 
And  then  curses  he  the  King,  and  all  his  counsel  after. 
For  making  such  laws,  labourers  to  grieve. 

It  is  in  the  days  of  his  good  fortune  that  the  satirist  repre- 
sents him  as  most  seditious  and  most  infuriated  against 
the  Statute  of  Labourers.  But  this  prosperity,  Langland 
proceeds  to  show,  was  subject  to  sudden  mutations.  Good'' 
times  were  succeeded  by  bad,  and  bad  again  by  good ;  the 
labourer  was  thriftless  in  good  fortune,  and  helpless  when 
the  wheel  turned. 

But  whilst  hunger  was  their  master  there  would  none  of  them  chide, 

Nor  strive  against  the  statute  however  sternly  he  looked. 

But  I  warn  you,  workmen,  win  money  while  you  may, 

For  hunger  hitherward  hasteth  him  fast ; 

He  shall  awake  with  the  water  floods  to  chastise  the  wasteful.' 

I  But  the  decade  which  preceded  the  Peasants'  Eising  was,  on 
/ '  the  average,  one  of  high  wages  and  low  prices.^  No  doubt 
'  the  war  taxation  that  culminated  in  the  poll-taxes  pressed 
heavily  on  all,  and  very  likely  caused  real  distress  in  the 
opening  years  of  Eichard's  reign  ;  but  the  labourers  who  rose 
in  1381  were  men  accustomed  to  very  fair  conditions  of 
existence,  and  had  therefore  a  very  good  opinion  of  themselves 
and  of  what  was  due  to  them.  This  status  they  had  won  in 
the  teeth  of  constituted  authority,  in  defiance  of  Parliaments, 
landlords,  justices  of  the  peace,  and  sheriffs.  It  was  the 
result  in  many  cases  of  a  nomad  life,  in  others  of  illegal 

»  P.  PL,  B,  vi.  309-24.  ^  Rogers,  i.  270. 


EUNAWAY  VILLEINS  '  191 

unions  and  strikes.     Could  any  stuff  be  more  inflammable 
material  for  the  agitator  than  such  a  class  ? 

But  the  Black  Death  had  accelerated  other  important 
revolutions  besides  that  of  raising  the  free  labourer's  wage 
and  status.  We  have  already  noticed  that  the  commutation 
of  the  villeins'  feudal  services  for  money  had  gone  some  way 
before  1348.  The  reduction  of  population  by  the  plague 
hastened  the  process.  It  hastened  it,  no  doubt,  against  the 
landlords'  wishes ;  for  when  labour  was  dearer  than  before, 
labour  services  due  from  tenants  were  worth  more  than  ever. 
But  the  landlord  was  no  longer  in  a  position  to  do  what  he 
liked  even  with  his  own  villeins,  to  such  a  pass  had  things 
come.  It  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  hands  could  be 
kept  on  an  estate  at  all.  Like  the  free  labourer,  the  villein- 
had  now  the  whiphand  of  his  master.  If  the  lord  refused  to 
commute  his  services  for  money  rent,  and  still  continued  to 
exact  the  day  labour  which  had  now  become  so  far  more 
valuable  than  of  old,  the  villein,  like  the  free  labourer,  could 
'  flee.'  To  retire  off  the  estate  to  another  part  of  the  country 
was  forbidden  to  the  free  labourer  only  by  the  Statute  of 
1350  ;  but  in  the  case  of  the  villein  '  bound  to  the  soil,'  it 
was  a  breach  of  immemorial  custom  and  the  ancient  law  of 
the  land.  Yet  the  '  flights  '  of  villeins  form  as  marked  a 
feature  in  the  later  fourteenth  century,  as  the  '  flights '  of 
negroes  from  the  slave  States  of  America  in  the  early  nine- 
teenth. The  one  was  as  definitely  illegal  as  the  other,  and 
in  both  cases  the  frequency  of  the  flights  marked  the  thorough 
determination  of  the  class  to  set  itself  free  and  to  revolutionise 
the  old  state  of  things.  But  instead  of  finding  the  whole 
country  against  him,  the  fugitive  villein,  whether  he  escaped 
to  city  or  village,  was  sure  of  a  welcome  from  merchants  and 
bailiffs  whose  business,  in  consequence  of  the  Black  Death, 
was  being  ruined  by  lack  of  hands.  The  master  from  whom 
he  had  fled  would  learn  too  late  that  it  was  impossible  to 
replace  his  lost  services,  or  to  fill  his  deserted  toft.  It  is  not 
therefore  surprising  that  the  lords  were  compelled  to  make 
eYGTj  concession  in  order  to  retain  their  serfs  on  their 
.estates.  So  far  from  trying  to  revive  obligations  that  had 
been    previously    commuted,    we   find    them    parting    with 


192  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

the  villein's  services  more  largely  than  ever  after  the  Black 
Death,  and  often  for  a  rent  by  no  means  equivalent.^ 

Whatever  the  labourer  and  the  serf  gained  as  the  result 
of    the    plague,   was    so    much   loss   to   the   landlord.     He 
suffered    terribly   during   the    break   up   of   the   old   feudal 
agriculture,  however  advantageous  the  change  was  destined 
to  prove  to  him  in  the   long   run.     "Whatever  sacrifices  he 
made    to    retain   hands   for   the   demesne,   however   highly 
he    paid    free    labour,    however    frequently    he    commuted 
villein-services,    it    was    impossible    to    work    all    the    old 
land   with  half  the  old  population.     Chronic   recurrence   of 
the  plague   kept   down  the  numbers.     It  became   necessary 
to  abandon   the   attempt   to   cultivate   the   whole   demesne. 
Part  was  let  out  to  villeins  or  labourers,  who  would  accept 
it    only    as    free   farmers,    and    not    on   the   old   terms   of 
villein  tenure.^     Part  was  converted  into  pasturage.     English 
fleeces   were   driving   all    other    wool    out   of   the  Flemish 
market,  while   our  cloth   manufacture  at  home   was   begin- 
ning   to    create    serious    jealousy    among  the   weavers    of 
Ghent  and  Bruges.    The  landlord  found  that  a  few  shepherds 
could  render  a  large  part   of  his  demesne   land   profitable, 
which  otherwise  would  have  lain  fallow  for  want  of  hands. ^ 
The  same  plan  may  have  occurred  to  the  growing  class  of 
farmers  who  were  taking  over  other  parts  of  the  land  thrown 
upon  the  market  in  large  quantities  ;  but  they  have  left  no 
manor-rolls   to   reveal   the   policy   adopted.     Though    these 
expedients  might  temper  a  little  the  wind  of  adversity  and 
lay  the  foundations  of  a  better  agricultural  system  for  the 
distant  future,  the  landlord  had  for  the  present  fallen  from 
his  old  standard  of  prosperity.     His  demesne-farming  was  on 
a  smaller  scale — in  many  cases  only  half  the  old  land  was 
under  the  plough  * — he  was  paying  double  prices  for  labour, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  villeins  were  compelling  him  to 
commute   their   services.     The   landlord's    grievances    fully 
account  for  the  dogged  persistence  of  Parliament  in  regard 
to  the  Statute  of  Labourers.     Neither  is  it  surprising  to  find 

1  Page,  32,  35-8  ;  Ashley,  i.  2,  p.  265  ;  Knighton,  ii.  65  ;  Cambridge  Manor 
"^  Page,  30-1.  ^  See  Ap.  *  Page,  40,  lines  4-7. 


STEUGGLE  OP  THE   SEEFS  FOE  FEEEDOM       193 

that   the   lords    struggled    hard    to    retain    the   villeins   in 

bondage,  and,  in  all  cases  where  they  dared,  continued  to  \ 

exact  such  of  the  old  services  as  were  not  yet  commuted,    i 

Hence  arose  a  war,  corresponding  to  the  war  over  the  statute,    | 

the  contest  being  in  this  case  for  freedom   instead   of   for  J 

h 
higher  wages.     As  the  century  wore  on,  the  struggle  became/ 

more  embittered.     The  '  flights  '  of  the  villeins  were  not  the 

only  form  it  took.     The  '  flight '  was  essentially  the  act  of 

an  enterprising  person,  ready  to  sacrifice  his  status  and  slink 

away  through  the  woods  in  search  of  a  new  life.     A  whole 

community  of  land  tenants  would  never  take    such  a  step, 

and  if  they  did  it  would  be  impossible  for  them  to  conceal 

their  escape  and  prevent  recapture.     And  so,  as  we  should 

expect,  we  find  from  the  manor  rolls  that  '  flights,'  though 

frequent,    were   acts   of    isolated    individuals.^      When    the 

demand  for   freedom   became  universal   among  the  villeins 

of  a  manor,  they  formed  a  union,  stirred  to  do  so  perhaps 

by  the  attractive  example  of  the  free  labourers,  and  openly 

refused  to  do  their  old  services  for  the  bailiff  unless  they 

were   paid   wages.      This   bold   stroke   for   liberty,   however 

illegal,  cannot  but  elicit  the  full  sympathy  of  their  descendants, 

born  to  freedom.     The  villeins  appear  to  have  shown  such  an 

ugly  temper  and  such   a   determination   to  resist,  that  the 

bailiffs  and  their  masters  had  to  appeal  to  Parliament  for   ) 

force  to  support  their  rights.     In  1377  a  statute  was  passed,   ; 

the  preamble  of  which  perhaps   throws   more  light  on  the  j.' 

causes  of  the  Peasants'  Eising  than  any  other  single  passage./^ 

Complaint  has  been  made  by  the  lords  of  manors,  '  as  well 

men  of  Holy  Church  as  other,'  that  the  villeins  on  their 

estates  '  affirm  them  to  be  quite  and  utterly  discharged  of  all 

manner  of  serfage,  due  as  well  of  their  body  as  of  their  tenures, 

and  will  not  suffer  any  distress  or  other  justice  to  be  made 

upon  them  ;  but  do  menace  the  ministers  of  their  lords  of 

life   and   member,   and,   which   more   is,  gather  themselves 

together  in  great  routs  and  agree  by  such  confederacy  that 

every  one  shall  aid  other  to  resist  their  lords  with  strong 

hand  :  and  much  other  harm  they  do  in  sundry  manner  to 

the  great  damage  of  their  said  lords  and  evil  example  to 

'  T.  W.  Page,  3  5-8  ;  Cambridge  Manor. 

O 


194  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

others  to  begin  such  riots,  so  that,  if  due  remedy  be  not 
the  rather  provided  upon  the  same  rebels,  greater  mischief, 
which  God  prohibit,  may  thereof  spring  through  the 
Eealm.'  ^ 

Due  remedy  was  not  provided,  and  God  did  not  prohibit 
greater  mischief.  The  statute,  to  which  this  was  the  pre- 
amble, ordered  special  commissions  of  Justices  of  the  Peace 
to  hear  the  case  of  those  lords  who  felt  themselves  aggrieved, 
and  to  imprison  the  said  villeins,  '  rebels,'  as  indeed  they  had 
already  become,  till  they  should  pay  fine  and  submit  to 
their  lords.  Of  the  action  or  inaction  of  these  special  com- 
missioners we  know  nothing.  The  next  thing  we  hear  of  the 
quarrel,  is  the  rebellion  of  1381  itself. 

It  will  be  seen  that  when  that  event  took  place  the  process 
of  commuting  villein  services  for  money  rents  was  going  on 
fast,  but  not  quite  so  fast  as  the  serfs  themselves  wished,  now 
that  they  were  possessed  by  the  idea  of  man's  right  to  freedom.^ 
But  the  release  from  forced  service  was  not  the  only  question 
at  issue  between  lords  and  villeins,  nor  did  the  latter  consider 
themselves  wholly  free  when  such  services  had  been  commuted. 
The  lord  possessed  other  rights  over  the  person  of  the  villein 
and  his  family,  rights  varying  in  different  counties  and 
different  manors,  varying  even  from  farm  to  farm  on  the 
same  manor,  rights  that  were  often  petty,  but  so  multitudinous 
as  to  be  exasperating,  and  so  humiliating  that  they  were  in- 
compatible with  the  new  ideal.  One  villein  must  pay  a  fine 
to  the  lord  when  he  gave  his  daughter  in  marriage,  another 
must  have  his  corn  ground  at  the  lord's  mill  only,  and  pay 
a  high  price  to  the  monopolist  miller.  It  was  little  griev- 
ances like  these,  which  in  old  France  mounted  up  to  such 
a  sum  of  wrong  that  the  great  Eevolution  was  the  result.  It 
was  not  service  on  the  lord's  demesne,  but  the  enormous  mul- 
tiplication of  small  seignorial  dues  and  taxes  that  caused  the 
'  culbute  generale  '  in  1789.  In  England  they  had  always  been 
a  less  prominent  feature,  and  in  the  course  of  the  fifteenth 
century  they  disappeared,  or  survived  only  in  the  '  innocuous 
curiosities  of  copyhold.'  But  in  the  fourteenth  century  they 
were  an  additional  goad  in  the  side  of  the  vexed  peasant. 

'  Stats,  of  Realm,  1  E.  II.,  cap.  6.  ^  See  Ap. 


THE  IDEAS  OF  '81  195 

Two  principal  marks  of  serfdom  were  specially  grievous. 
The    villein    might    not    plead  in  court  against    his  lord  ; 
he  had  therefore  no  protection  from  the  justice  of  his  country     h 
against  the  man  with  whom  he  had  most  dealings.     Above 
all,  the  villein  could  not   sell   his  land   or  leave  his  farm 
without   permission.      In   these   days   of    dear    labour,   his 
lord  was  unusually  anxious  to  keep  him  on  the  manor,  while 
he  himself  was  often  willing  to  desert  his  unprofitable  farm 
and  better  himself  elsewhere  as  a  landless  labourer  ;  but  even 
if  his  services  on  the  demesne  had  been  commuted,  he  was 
still  a  serf  '  bound  to  the  soil.'     The  economic  condition  of 
affairs  must  have  lent  special  bitterness  to  this  incident  of 
serfdom.     The  social  questions  of  the  period  cannot  be  under-    | 
stood,  unless  we  remember  that  in  1381  more  than  half  the     | 
people  of  England  did  not  possess  the  privileges  which  Magna     4/ 
Charta  secured  to  every  '  freeman.'  ^  d 

All  great  revolutions  in  the  affairs  of  mankind  have 
in  them  a  mystical  element.  Neither  the  philosopher  nor 
the  historian  can  fully  explain  the  inspiration  which  sud- 
denly moves  a  nation  or  a  class,  long  sunk  in  mediocrity 
or  servitude,  to  flash  out  for  a  space  before  the  eyes  of 
the  world  in  all  the  splendour  of  human  energy.  The 
wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth.  No  one  can  account  for  the 
age  of  Pericles  or  for  the  age  of  Elizabeth,  for  the  Jesuits, 
for  Calvinism,  for  the  French  Eevolution.  We  can  tell  their 
occasion,  but  not  their  cause.  Sometimes  a  crisis  calls  for 
movement,  and  no  movement  comes.  Why  on  some  occasions 
there  is  an  outburst  of  energy,  why  on  other  occasions  there  is 
no  such  outburst,  is  in  each  case  a  mystery.  It  is  the  modest 
task  of  the  historian  to  relate  the  circumstances  under  which 
a  movement  occurred,  and  to  describe  the  speculative  or 
religious  forms  in  which  the  ideas  of  the  movement  were  pre- 
sented.    More  he  cannot  do. 

We  have  already  set  out  the  economic  and  social  conditions 
of  the  Rising.  It  remains  to  indicate  the  ideas  by  which  it 
was  inspired.  In  that  age  revolutionary  theories  were  as 
naturally  religious  as  in  the  eighteenth  century  they  were 
naturally  irreligious.     And  so,  in  fact,  we  find.     The  idea  of 

'  ArcJiceologia,  xxx.  235,  note  a,  '  Thraldom.' 

o  2 


196  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

personal  freedom  was  brought  forcibly  before  the  peasant 
by  the  rapid  commutation  of  prsedial  service  for  economic 
reasons  ;  and  but  for  this  occurrence  it  might,  for  all  we  can 
tell,  have  slumbered  yet  another  century.  But  this  idea,  once 
awakened,  was  at  once  discovered  to  be  in  accordance  with 
the  teaching  of  Christianity.  Complete  slavery  had  long 
been  opposed  by  the  Church,  but  the  Abbots  and  Bishops 
who  held  manors  all  over  the  country  had  not  yet  seen  any 
incompatibility  between  Christian  brotherhood  and  the  status 
of  the  villein.  But  the  peasantry  and  their  humbler  religious 
pastors  saw  it  for  themselves.  Besides  the  levelling  and 
democratic  tendencies  of  the  Christian  spirit,  the  belief  in  a 
common  origin  from  Adam  and  Eve,  not  then  shaken  or 
allegorised  by  scientific  criticism,  was  a  very  real  and  valid 
argument  against  hereditary  serfdom.  Indeed  it  is  hard  to 
see  how  the  lords,  basing  their  claims  on  inheritance  only, 
and  not  on  general  utility,  could  logically  escape  the  difficulty. 
At  any  rate  the  famous  catchword, 

When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span 
Who  was  then  a  gentleman  ? 

seems  to  have  corresponded  in  importance  and  popularity  to 
'  Liberte,  Egalite,  Fraternite.' 

Those  who  stirred  up  these  Christian  aspirations  towards 
an  ideal  of  more  perfect  freedom  and  equality,  were  the 
religious  persons  who  were  most  directly  in  touch  with  the 
labouring  classes.  Like  some  parish  priests  at  the  beginning 
of  the  French  Eevolution,  many  of  the  poorer  English  clergy 
were  instigators  of  rebellion.  John  Ball,  the  principal  agi- 
tator, was  a  chaplain,  and  a  religious  zealot.  In  the  character 
of  prophet  he  had  for  twenty  years  been  going  round  the 
country.  Church  and  State  he  alike  attacked,  but  laid  most 
stress  on  the  iniquity  of  serfage.  He  had  begun  his  career  as 
a  radical  long  before  John  Wycliffe  was  of  any  great  impor- 
tance in  the  world  of  politics  and  religion.  In  so  far  as  he 
had  any  connection  with  the  reformer,  it  was  not  as  follower 
but  as  precursor.  It  was  said  that  he  adopted,  in  the  last  year 
of  his  life,  Wycliffe's  new  heresy  on  the  Eucharist.  Otherwise 
he  is  himself  responsible  for  the  good  and  evil  he  did.     He 


THE  IDEAS  OF  '81  197 

had  once  been  a  priest  somewhere  in  the  North,  but  finally 
became  an  agitator  in  London  and  its  neighbourhood,  where 
Sudbury,  first  as  Bishop  of  London,  and  then  as  Metropolitan, 
had  repeatedly  to  adopt  repressive  measures  against  him.^ 

'  He  was  accustomed,'  says  Froissart,  '  every  Sunday  after 
Mass,  as  the  people  were  coming  out  of  the  church,  to  preach 
to  them  in  the  market-place  and  assemble  a  crowd  around 
him,  to  whom  he  would  say,  "  My  good  friends,  things  cannot 
go  well  in  England,  nor  ever  will  until  everything  shall  be  in 
common ;  when  there  shall  be  neither  vassal  nor  lord  and  all 
distinctions  levelled,  when  the  lords  shall  be  no  more  masters 
than  ourselves.  How  ill  have  they  used  us  ?  And  for  what 
reason  do  they  thus  hold  us  in  bondage  ?  Are  we  not  all 
descended  from  the  same  parents,  Adam  and  Eve  ?  And 
what  can  they  show  or  what  reasons  give,  why  they  should  be 
more  masters  than  ourselves  ?  except  perhaps  in  making  us 
labour  and  work  for  them  to  spend.  They  are  clothed  in 
velvets  and  rich  stuffs,  ornamented  with  ermine  and  other 
furs,  while  we  are  forced  to  wear  poor  cloth.  They  have 
handsome  seats  and  manors,  when  we  must  brave  the  wind 
and  rain  in  our  labours  in  the  field ;  but  it  is  from  our  labour 
they  have  wherewith  to  support  their  pomp.  We  are  called 
slaves,  and  if  we  do  not  perform  our  services  we  are  beaten."  '  ^ 
Such,  in  spirit,  was  John  Ball's  agitation.  But  the  report  is 
that  of  a  prejudiced  person  in  full  sympathy  with  the  upper 
classes,  and  shocked  by  the  startling  horrors  of  the  Eising. 
It  may  be  questioned  how  much  stress  was  really  laid  by  the 
agitators  on  the  project  of  '  having  all  things  in  common.' 
When  the  Eising  took  place,  no  such  request  was  put  forward. 
Personal  freedom,  and  the  commutation  of  all  services  for  a 
rent  of  M.  an  acre,  were  the  very  practical  demands  then  made. 
When  this  had  been  granted,  most  of  the  rebels  went  home  ; 
even  those  who  stayed,  produced  no  scheme  of  speculative 
communism,  but  confined  themselves  to  practical  illustrations 
of  the  theory  by  carrying  off  everything  on  which  they  could 
lay  their  hands.  The  attempt  to  picture  the  Eising  as  a 
communistic  movement  ignores  the  plainest  facts.  It  was,  as 
far  as  the  bulk  of  the  peasantry  was  concerned,  a  rising  to 

*  Mi>.  Lambeth  Register,  Sudbury,  30  b.  '^  Froissart,  ii.  chap.  135. 


198  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OE  1381 

secure  freedom  from  the  various  degrees  and  forms  of  servi- 
tude that  still  oppressed  them  severally.  Whenever  there  is 
a  labour  movement,  a  few  will  always  be  communists,  and  the 
conservative  classes  will  always  give  unfair  prominence  to  the 
extreme  idea. 

The  itinerant  friars,  with  their  direct  and  powerful  influence 
on  both  poor  and  rich,  were  thought  to  have  an  active  share 
in  the  fermentation  that  led  to  the  risings.  They  were  loudly 
accused  by  the  Lollards  of  setting  class  against  class.^  Pro- 
bably the  friar  on  his  rounds  was  urged  by  self-interest  to 
keep  up  his  popularity,  and  often  by  genuine  feelings  to 
protest  against  oppression  and  serfdom.  He  had  imbibed 
in  his  convent  a  theoretical  prejudice  against  property. 
Langland  declares  that  the  friars  preached  communism  to  the 
vulgar,  with  arguments  drawn  from  the  proverbial  learning  of 
their  order. 

They  preach  men  of  Plato  and  prove  it  by  Seneca, 

That  all  things  under  Heaven  ought  to  be  in  common  ; 

And  yet  he  lieth,  as  I  live,  that  to  the  unlearned  so  preacheth.^ 

Besides  the  friars,  there  was  another  body  of  friends  of  the 
people  who  at  the  time  of  the  Eising  were  just  coming  into 
prominence.  Wycliffe's  Poor  Priests  cannot  at  this  time  have 
been,  and  probably  never  were,  at  work  all  over  England. 
Neither  had  this  missionary  movement  yet  been  organised  as 
regularly  as  it  afterwards  was.  But  it  seems  clear  that  men, 
drawing  some  of  their  doctrines  from  the  great  Oxford 
reformer,  were  already  perambulating  the  country.  It  would, 
indeed,  be  remarkable  if  at  a  period  of  such  fierce  social 
agitation,  and  such  desperate  religious  controversy,  the 
theories  of  the  most  famous  thinker  of  the  time  had  not 
been  carried  far  and  wide  in  the  mouths  of  enthusiasts, 
and  more  or  less  travestied  in  the  process.  What  these 
theories  were  on  religion,  and  on  Church  property,  we  have 
already  seen.  But  it  is  the  doctrine  of  Wycliffe  with 
regard  to  secular  property,  that  specially  concerns  the 
story  of  the  Peasants'  Eising.  Ten  years  before  that  event 
\/fi^'  he  had  expounded  his  famous  theory  of  '  dcaaginign.'  All 
things,  he  said,  belonged  to  God,  and  all  men  held  of  him 

'  Fasc.  Z.,  292-4.  "^  Piers  Plowman,  B,  xx.  273-5. 


.<-/ 


WYGLIPFE  AND  THE  EBBELS  199 

directly.  Only  the  good  could  hold  property  of  him  truly, 
and  every  good  man  possessed  all  things.  The  bad  possessed 
nothing,  although  they  seemed  to  possess.  Hence  he  argued 
in  favour  of  communism.  All  things  must  be  held  in 
common  by  the  righteous,  for  all  the  righteous  possess  all. 
After  this  curious  metaphysical  juggle,  he  makes  a  right  about 
face,  and  states  that  in  practical  life  the  good  must  leave  the 
bad  in  possession,  that  a  wicked  master  must  be  obeyed, 
and  that  resistance  and  revolution  are  justified  by  God  only 
under  certain  strictly  limited  conditions.^  The  practical 
application  of  his  theory,  as  regards  secular  society,  was 
quite  conservative,  for  he  did  not  apply  it  at  all.  But  the 
mere  fact  that  the  great  schoolman  had  given  his  blessing  to 
the  theory  of  communism  was  welcome  news  to  agitators 
throughout  the  country.  To  Oxford,  men  of  all  sorts  and  all 
classes  congregated,  and  from  Oxford  they  spread  over 
England,  each  with  his  own  version  of  intellectual  discoveries 
made  there.  Such  was  the  Clarendon  Press  of  the  period, 
and  it  is  impossible  to  tell  how  many  different  versions  or 
travesties  of  the  '  De  Dominio  Civili '  it  supplied. 

Meanwhile  Wycliffe  himself  went  on  his  way,  became  more 
and  more  interested  in  Church  affairs,  lost  all  interest  in  his 
old  theories  about  possession,  and  as  he  became  more  revolu- 
tionary in  religion,  became  more  conservative  in  social  and 
political  questions.  He  exalted  the  power  of  the  King  and 
the  temporal  lords,  in  order  to  forge  a  weapon  with,  which  to 
strike  down  the  Church.  His  theory,  as  he  stated  it  over  and 
over  again  both  before  and  after  the  Eising,  was  that  temporal 
lords  had  a  right  to  their  property,  but  that  Churchmen  had 
no  right  to  theirs,  because  they  ought  to  live  in  evangelical 
poverty  on  the  alms  of  the  faithful.^  This  strict  contrast 
between  clerical  and  lay  property  is  the  most  marked 
feature  of  his  writings  from  1377  onwards.  Of  communism 
we  hear  not  another  word.  If  before  1381  he  himself  sent  out 
any  Poor  Priests,  he  sent  them  to  preach  this  doctrine,  and 
not  communism,  or  revolt  of  any  sort  against  lay  lordship. 

'  SeeAp. 

2  Matt.,  230,  412,  451,  471,  475-6,  480 ;  De  Off.  Reg. ;    Diahgus,  cap.  ii. 
3-4. 


200  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

But,  as  was  only  natural,  popular  missionaries,  drawn  from 
the  people,  speaking  to  the  people  and  depending  on  the 
people  for  alms,  were  influenced  by  popular  ideas.  They  failed 
to  make  Wycliffe's  distinction  between  secular  and  clerical 
property.  He  meant  them  to  preach  against  the  payment 
of  tithes,  and  they  condemned  the  performance  of  villein 
services  as  well ;  he  meant  them  to  denounce  the  riches  of  a 
corrupt  Church,  and  they  introduced  into  their  anathemas  the 
riches  of  a  corrupt  aristocracy.  A  hostile  satirist  thus  speaks 
of  their  double  influence — 

All  stipends  they  forbid  to  give 
And  tithes  whereon  poor  curates  live. 
From  sinful  lords  their  dues  they  take  ; 
Bid  serfs  their  services  forsake.' 

Such  men  were  firebrands,  and  they  set  light  to  one  stack 
more  than  Wycliffe  wished.  But  they  were  most  of  them 
not  the  real  Wyclif&te  missionaries.  The  Lollards  who 
were  brought  to  trial  by  the  Church  for  spreading  his  heretical 
doctrines,  were  in  no  single  cases  accused  of  having  had  hand 
or  part  in  the  Peasants'  Eising.  Similarly  the  indictments  of 
the  rebels  contain  no  hint  of  heresy.  The  rebellion  was  not 
a  Lollard  movement,  although  some  of  the  agitators  were  in- 
fluenced by  some  of  Wycliffe's  ideas.^  This  alone  is  certain  ; 
but  it  is  not  unlikely  also  that  some  of  his  own  Poor  Priests 
entered  with  more  zeal  than  wisdom  into  the  movement  for 
abolishing  serfage.^ 

Wycliffe's  own  view  of  the  proper  relations  between  master 
and  servant  he  expressed  so  clearly  that  no  doubt  whatever 
can  remain  on  the  subject.  He  continually  emphasised  the 
rights  of  property  and  the  duty  of  performing  services  even 
to  sinful  lords.  It  was  part  of  his  regular  moral  teach- 
ing to  exhort  all  Christians  to  render  legal  dues  without 
question  of  their  equity.''  His  own  theory  of  Dominion,  so 
dangerous  to  the  proprietary  rights  of  the  wicked,  remained 
still-born  in  the  '  De  Dominio  Civili,'  and  made  no  appearance 
in  his  later  Latin  works,  or  in  any  of  his  English  tracts. 

1  Pol.  Poems,  i.  236.     '  Vetant  dari,'  &c 

'■'  Rot.  Pari.,  iii.  124-5  ;  Fasc.  Z.,  273-4:,  is  -worthless  as  evidence. 

«  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  147,  174,  207.  "  Matt.,  227-8. 


WYCLIFFE  AND  THE  EEBELS  201 

Popular  preachers  were  exhorting  the  villeins  to  withdraw 
their  services  from  their  masters  because  of  the  wickedness  of 
the  upper  classes.  This  plea  of  moral  reprobation,  which  can 
be  traced  in  the  speeches  and  messages  that  fomented  the 
Eising,  was  in  accordance  with  the  general  tenor  of  Wycliffe's 
old  theory.  But,  now  that  it  had  become  a  practical  question, 
he  denounced  it  unmistakably,  together  with  any  crude  and 
levelling  inferences  from  the  notion  of  Christian  brotherhood. 

*  The  fiend,'  he  says,  '  moveth  some  men  to  say  that 
Christen  men  should  not  be  servants  or  thralls  to  heathen 
lords,  sith  they  ben  false  to  God  and  less  worthy  than 
Christen  men ;  neither  to  Christen  lords,  for  they  ben 
brethren  in  kind,  and  Jesu  Christ  bought  Christen  men  on 
the  Cross  and  made  them  free.  But  against  this  heresy  Paul 
writeth  in  God's  law.'  '  But  yet,'  he  goes  on,  '  some  men  that 
ben  out  of  charity,  slander  Poor  Priests  with  this  error,  that 
servants  or  tenants  may  lawfully  withhold  rents  or  services 
from  their  lords,  when  lords  ben  openly  wicked  in  their 
living.'  ^ 

But  while  Wycliffe  thus  made  his  position  clear  as  to 
violent  and  illegal  remedies,  and  did  at  least  something  to 
counteract  any  effect  which  his  early  academical  speculations 
might  have  had  on  society,  he  was  not  afraid  to  avow  his 
sympathy  with  the  serfs'  demand  for  freedom,  and  his  anger 
at  their  oppression  by  the  upper  class  : — 

'  Strifes,  contests  and  debates  ben  used  in  our  land,  for  lords 
striven  with  their  tenants  to  bring  them  in  thraldom  more 
than  they  shoulden  by  reason  and  charity.  Also  lords  many 
times  do  wrongs  to  poor  men  by  extortions  and  unreasonable 
amercements  and  unreasonable  taxes,  and  take  poor  men's 
goods  and  payen  not  therefore  but  with  sticks  (tallies),  and 
despisen  them  and  menace  and  sometime  beat  them  when 
they  ask  their  pay.  And  thus  lords  devour  poor  men's  goods 
in  gluttony  and  waste  and  pride,  and  they  perish  for  mischief 
and  hunger  and  thirst  and  cold,  and  their  children  also. 
And  if  their  rent  be  not  readily  paid  their  beasts  ben  distressed, 
and  they  pursued  without  mercy,  though  they  ben  never  so  poor 
and  needy And  so  in  a  manner  they  eat  and  drink  poor 

'  Matt.,  227-9  ;  De  Sex  Jugis,  Lechler,  ii.  600-1. 


202  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OE  1381 

men's  flesh  and  blood,  and  ben  man-quellers,  as  God  com- 
plaineth  by  his  prophets.'  ^  Wycliffe  was  one  of  the  very  few 
men  who  could  see  both  the  rights  of  the  lords  and  the  wrongs 
of  the  peasants.  This  large  view  of  the  social  problems  of  the 
day  enabled  him,  immediately  after  the  rising  was  over,  to 
speak  of  that  astounding  event  with  great  moderation  and 
breadth  of  view.  At  a  time  when  all  the  upper  classes  thought 
of  nothing  but  revenge,  he  had  the  courage  to  make  the 
characteristic  proposal  that  the  Church  property  should  be 
given  to  the  secular  lords,  in  order  to  enable  them  at  once  to 
relieve  the  poor  of  the  burdens  that  had  caused  the  out- 
break.^ 

The  general  tone  of  the  rising  was  that  of  Christian 
Democracy.  The  chief  agitator  who  had  spread  discontent  and 
formulated  the  theories  of  rebellion  was  a  priest,  and  friars 
and  Lollards  alike  were  accused,  with  more  or  less  truth,  of 
carrying  on  Ball's  work.  In  the  Eising  itself,  several  parsons 
of  poor  parishes  put  themselves  at  the  head  of  their  congrega- 
tions and  revenged  on  society  the  wrongs  that  they  had  endured. 
But  the  vast  majority  of  the  actual  leaders  were  not  men  of 
the  Church.  Those  who  called  out  their  neighbours  in  the 
villages  and  towns  of  England,  when  the  Eising  was  well  on 
foot,  were  generally  laymen.  So  were  those  who,  during  the 
early  summer  of  '81,  went  round  from  county  to  county  pre- 
paring the  rebellion.^ 

The  plans  and  methods  of  these  organisers  are  still  obscure, 
but  the  general  type  is  clear.  There  is  no  reason  to  find,  as 
some  have  found,  cause  for  wonder  in  the  simultaneous  revolt 
of  so  many  districts.  The  rising  was  not,  in  fact,  everywhere 
simultaneous  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  had  been  planned  long 
before.  The  leaders  were  in  the  habit  of  meeting  in  London, 
where  they  were  in  touch  with  the  proletariat  of  the  great 
city.  Some  of  the  aldermen  and  better  sort  of  citizens  were 
also  in  their  counsels.^  Trusting  to  the  strength  of  these 
forces  to  open  the  gates  of  the  capital,  they  determined  to 
summon  the  men  of  the  home  counties  from  north  and  south 

,      '  Matt.,  233-4.  ^  De  Bias.,  cap.  xiii.  199. 

3  Powell,  passim ;  C.  B.  B.,  Anc.  Ind.,  passim. 
*  Froiss.,  ii.  461 ;  Knighton,  ii.  132,  line  20  ;  G.  B.  B.,  488,  Eex.  vi.  (E6v.  190). 


THE  GEEAT  SOCIETY  203 

to  march  on  London  and  form  a  junction  within  the  walls. 
At  the  same  time  East  Anglia  and  other  more  distant  parts 
of  the  country  were  to  rise ;  whether  partly  to  assist  in 
the  march  on  London,  or  solely  to  create  local  diversions 
and  to  obtain  local  ends,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  Messengers 
were  sent  all  over  these  districts  in  the  summer  of  1381,  to 
prepare  the  country  for  the  event.  They  were  men  of  various 
counties,  and  they  did  not  always  visit  the  localities  of  which 
they  were  respectively  natives.^  Such  agitators  had  long  been 
at  work  in  the  villages  and  towns  of  England,  but  they  now 
came  bearing,  not  general  exhortations,  but  a  particular 
command  from  the  '  Great  Society,'  as  they  called  the  union 
of  the  lower  classes  which  they  were  attempting  to  form. 
Some  of  these  messages  have  been,  fortunately,  preserved  for 
us  in  the  original  words.  They  bear  the  stamp  of  genuineness 
on  their  face,  unlike  the  confessions  and  dying  speeches  of  the 
leaders,  which  were  probably  composed  by  the  chroniclers  from 
the  exaggerated  rumours  of  the  time  of  reaction.  But  no 
monk  could  have  invented  John  Ball's  famous  message.  It 
breathes  the  deep  and  gallant  feeling  that  led  the  noblest 
among  the  rebels  to  defy  gallows  and  quartering  block  in  the 
cause  of  freedom : — 

'  John  Schep,  some  time  Saint  Mary's  priest  of  York,  and 
now  of  Colchester,  greeteth  well  John  Nameless  and  John  the 
Miller  and  John  Carter,  and  biddeth  them  that  they  beware 
of  guile  in  borough,  and  stand  together  in  God's  name,  and 
biddeth  Piers  Plowman  go  to  his  work,  and  chastise  well  Hob 
the  Eobber,  and  take  with  you  John  Trueman  and  all  his 
fellows  and  no  mo  ;  and  look  sharp  you  to  one-head  (union) 
and  no  mo. 

John  the  Miller  hath  yground  small,  small,  small. 

The  King's  son  of  heaven  shall  pay  for  all. 

Be  ware  or  ye  be  wo  (worse). 

Know  your  friend  from.your  foe. 

Have  enough  and  say  "  ho  "  !  (stop) 

And  do  well  and  better  and  flee  sin, 

And  seek  peace  and  hold  therein. 

And  so  bid  John  Trueman  and  all  his  fellows ,'  ^ 

'  Powell,  27,  41,  43,  49,  57,  127  ;    C.  R.  B.,  488,  Eex.  vi.  (E6v.  196),  Welle 
and  Harry.  ^  Wals.,  ii.  33-4. 


204  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OP  1381 

This  mysterious  allegorical  style  seems  to  have  been  the 
favourite  of  the  lower  classes  of  the  day.  The  popularity  of 
Langland's  '  Piers  Plowman,'  to  which  the  reference  in  this 
rebel  song  bears  further  testimony,  proves  the  general  ap- 
preciation of  this  sort  of  writing.  '  Piers  Plowman '  may  perhaps 
be  only  one  characteristic  fragment  of  a  mediaeval  folk-lore  of 
allegory,  which  expressed  for  generations  the  faith  and  aspira- 
tions of  the  English  peasant,  but  of  which  Langland's  great 
poem  alone  has  survived.  Another  of  these  rebel  catchwords 
purposes  to  come  from  '  Jack  the  Miller.' 

'  Jack  Milner  asketh  help  to  turn  his  milne  aright.  He 
hath  grounden  small,  small.  The  King's  son  of  heaven  he 
shall  pay  for  all.  Look  thy  milne  go  aright,  with  the  four 
sails,  and  the  post  stand  in  steadfastness.  With  right  and 
with  might,  with  skill  and  with  will,  let  might  help  right  and 
skill  go  before  will  and  right  before  might,  then  goeth  our 
milne  aright.  And  if  might  go  before  right,  then  is  our  milne 
misadight.'  In  another  piece :  '  Jack  Trueman  doth  you  to 
understand  that  falseness  and  guile  have  reigned  too  long.' 
Lastly,  '  John  Ball  greeteth  you  well  all  and  doth  you  to 
understand  that  he  hath  rungen  your  bell.'  ^ 

The  bell  was  rung  at  a  moment  specially  propitious  for 

revolt.     It  seems  that  riotous  resistance  to  the  poll-tax  col- 

;  lectors  broke  out  spontaneously  in  some  localities,  and  was 

/  then  used  by  the  plotters,  who  made  it  the  occasion  for  the 

;    intended  Eising  and  great  march  on  London.     Heavy  taxation 

■    had  for  same  years  been  a  general  grievance  of  all  classes,  as 

clearly  appears  from  the  complaints  of  the  Commons  on  the 

\     part  of  the  laity,  and  counter-complaints  of  the  chroniclers  on 

\^   the  part  of  the  clergy.     The  complete  collapse  of  the  English 

arms  by  land  and  sea  made  the  pressure  of  taxation  heavier  for 

good  patriots  to  bear  with  patience.     If  the  battle  of  the  Nile 

had  been  lost  instead  of  won,  we  should  probably  have  heard 

more  about  Pitt's  income-tax.     If  John  of  Gaunt  had  returned 

from  France,  the  victor  of  a  second  Poitiers,  with  Du  Guesclin 

riding  by  him  up  Cheapside  an  honoured  but  humbled  guest, 

we   might   have   heard  less  about    the   poll-tax.     This   new 

financial   expedient   was   used   partly   in   order   to   tap   the 

'  Knighton,  ii.  139. 


/ 


THE  POLL-TAX  205 

Church  revenues,  but  still  more  in  order  to  tax  the  lower 
classes.     '  The  wealth  of  the  kingdom,'  it  was  said,  '  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  workmen  and  labourers,'  and  the  object  of  the 
House  of  Commons  was  to  get  it  out  of  those  hands  into  the 
coffers  of  the  State,    The  workmen  and  labourers  were  already, 
for  other  reasons,  in  no  holiday  humour,  and  the  pressure  of  1 
this  new  burden  was  the  last  straw.     Three  times  within  four    f 
years  a  poll-tax  was  taken.     The  third  time  its  levy  proved  / 
the  signal  for  the  Eising. 

The  Parliament  that  met  at  Northampton  in  the  winter  of 
1380  voted  a  poll-tax  of  a  shilling  a  head.  Each  town  and 
village  was  to  be  assessed  on  that  basis  according  to  its  popu- 
lation, but  '  the  rich  were  to  aid  the  poor '  in  the  actual  pay- 
ment. The  very  richest  were  to  pay  not  more  than  one 
pound,  the  very  poorest  married  couple  not  less  than  four- 
pence  between  them.^  In  the  actual  levy,  this  plan  was 
carried  out.  The  labouring  classes  paid  sums  varying  be- 
tween fourpence  and  a  shilling  on  each  family.^  This  tax 
was  not  levied  all  at  once.  During  the  winter,  a  commission 
had  gathered  a  part,  on  the  basis  of  a  return  of  population 
which  it  drew  up  in  the  localities.  This  report  showed  a 
decrease  in  numbers  since  the  poll-tax  census  of  1377,  a 
decrease  so  remarkable  that  it  is  difficult  to  suppose  that 
the  second  return  of  inhabitants  was  really  as  complete 
as  the  first  had  been.^  The  King's  council  took  the  same 
view.  On  March  16  it  declared  that  the  collectors  had  been 
guilty  of  gross  negligence  and  favouritism,  and  commissioned 
a  new  staff  '  armed  with  large  authority  and  powers  of 
imprisonment,  to  travel  from  place  to  place,  scrutinising 
carefully  the  lists  of  inhabitants,  and  forcibly  compelling 
payment  from  those  who  had  evaded  it  before.^  The  un- 
popularity of  this  second  set  of  commissioners  was  the 
immediate  occasion  of  the  outbreak.  Everything  was  againsl  . 
the  success  of  their  enterprise.  They  were  regarded  as  having  fl 
come  down  from  London  to  levy  an  entirely  new  poll-tax,  :  | 
.not  yet  voted  by  Parliament.'^  Even  those  who  understood  f 
that  they  had  only  come  to  complete  the  collection  of  the  grant 

'  Bot.  Pari,  iii.  90.  -  Powell,  Ap.  I.  ^  jj^^_  4_7_  4  jfj^^i  ^ 

5  Cont.  Eulog.,  351,  line  36. 


206  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

imperfectly  levied  in  tke  winter,  were  little  better  pleased. 
Heavy  burdens  incurred  for  an  unsuccessful  war  render  the 
taxpayer  suspicious  and  quarrelsome.  The  King  had  found 
reason  to  doubt  the  honesty  of  the  first  board  of  collectors, 
and  the  nation  thought  no  better  of  the  second.  With  or 
without  ground,  rumours  were  afloat  that  the  new  tax  was  a 
private  job  allowed  for  the  benefit  of  the  new  commissioners. 
The  chief  of  these,  John  Leg,  was  said  to  have  bribed  the 
King's  council  to  give  the  obnoxious  powers  to  himself  and 
his  friends.^  The  feeling  against  them  was  general,  and  not 
confined  to  the  classes  that  revolted.  Some  even  held  them 
responsible  for  the  outbreak. 

Tax  has  troubled  us  all, 

Probat  hoc  mors  tot  validorum. 

The  King  thereof  had  small, 
Fuit  in  manibus  cupidorum.~ 

Another  cause  that  contributed  to  the  ill-success  of  the  com- 
mission was  the  general  habit  of  disobedience  to  the  King's 
petty  officers,  to  his  sheriffs,  escheaters  and  tax-collectors, 
a  habit  now  common  to  all  classes  alike,  as  much  to  the 
noble  and  his  armed  retainers,  as  to  the  serf  and  free  labourer 
banded  in  their  unions  and  growing  daily  in  self-confidence 
and  strength.  To  this  universal  contempt  for  the  royal 
authority  and  for  all  its  agents,  the  Chancellor  attributed  the 
Eising,  when  he  lectured  the  Houses  of  Parliament  on  the 
subject  two  years  later.  These  bad  habits,  he  said,  neither 
began  nor  ended  in  the  summer  of  '81.^ 

:  Apart  from  the  questions  of  serfdom  and  the  regulation  of 

wages,  which  were  the  principal  causes  of  the  rebellion,  the 
catastrophe  may  be  regarded  as  the  proper  punishment  of 

■    the  governing  class  for  the  follies  and  crimes  of  many  years. 

\  They  had  murdered  the  peace  and  progress  of  France  in  a  fit 
of  blind  and  boyish  patriotism,  so  naive  and  exuberant  that  it 
can  scarcely  be  judged  as  a  rational  choice.     They  had  long 

/   drained  the  joyous  cup  of  military  glory,  plunder  and  tribute. 

i    They  were  now  to  learn  that  war  had  its  dangers  as  well  as 

:    its  delights.     Our  trading  vessels  were  swept  off  the  seas,  our 

'  Knighton,  ii,  130  ;  Cont.  Eulog.,  351 ;  Man.  Eve.,  23. 
2  Pol.  Poems,  i.  224.  ^  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  150. 


THE  EEBBLLION  BEGINS  IN  ESSEX  207 

coast  towns  were  burnt.     Military  habits  made  the  nobles  bad 
citizens,  and  the  contagion  of  disobedience,  violence  and  rob- 
bery had  spread  through  classes  that  had  never  seen  the  fields 
of  France.     It  was  necessary  for  the  governors  to  crush  the 
country  with  taxation,  for  borrowing  on  a  large  scale  was  no 
longer  possible  to  their  shattered  credit.     The  country,  eager 
as  it  was  for  military  success,  would  not  bear  this  burden,  and 
made  the  collectors'   task   dangerous  and  impossible.     The 
collectors  themselves  were  corrupt,   and  dishonest.     So  was 
a  large  part  of  the  public  service.     The  Good  Parliament  had 
done  something  to  put  a  better  face  on  things,  and  to  intro- 
duce a  certain  responsibility  among  the  ministers.     But  the 
same  inefficiency,  stupidity  and  corruption  which  had  helped  to 
ruin  our  affairs  in  France  before  1376,  still  continued  in  a 
lesser  degree  during  the  early  years  of  Eichard.     The  country  ) 
felt  a  deep  distrust  of  the   government,    and   one  object  of  l^,-. 
the  rebels  in  '81  was  to  protest  against  the  King's  principal  j 
advisers,    as   well   as   against    the    corrupt   and    oppressive 
officials  of   lower  rank,  who  came  into   direct  contact  with 
the  people.      The  government  in   its  purely  administrative 
aspect  had  done  much  to  hasten  and  aggravate  the  Eising, 
though  it  was  primarily  the  result  of  social  and  economic  / 
troubles. 

In  Kent  and  Essex  the  insurrections  were  similar.  Both  j 
arose  in  the  first  instance  from  the  action  of  the  poll-tax  com-  t^ 
missions.  It  appears  that  the  disturbances  began  in  Essex.  ; 
It  was  about  the  last  week  of  May  that  Thomas  Bampton 
came  down  to  Brentwood,  a  small  town  eighteen  miles 
north-east  of  London.  Sitting  there  at  the  receipt  of  custom, 
he  summoned  before  him  the  inhabitants  of  Fobbing,  Cor- 
ringhani,  and  Stanford-le-Hope,  a  group  of  villages  lying  ten 
miles  further  south,  on  the  lower  Thames,  not  far  from 
Tilbury.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  men  of  Fobbing  pleaded  a 
quittance  received  from  the  commissioners  who  had  levied 
the  tax  during  the  winter.  Bampton  was  inexorable.  He  in- 
sisted on  a  second  inquiry  into  their  population  and  taxable 
resources.  He  threatened  them  with  penalties  for  their  con- 
tumacy, and  seemed  disposed  to  rely  on  the  support  of  the 
two   soldiers   who   had    attended   him    from    London.      On 


208  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

this  provocation  a  small  but  angry  crowd  from  the  three 
villages  was  soon  collected.  They  told  the  commissioner 
flatly  that  he  would  not  get  a  penny  out  of  them,  and  that 
the  conference  must  end.  Bampton  ordered  his  men-at-arms 
to  make  arrests.  But  the  blood  of  the  fishermen  was  now  up, 
and  they  chased  soldiers  and  commissioner  together  out  of 
Brentwood.  Bampton  galloped  off  to  London  to  complain  to 
his  masters.  The  men  of  Fobbing,  Corringham  and  Stan- 
ford, fearing  the  speedy  vengeance  of  the  government  (for  they 
were  within  half  a  day's  ride  of  London),  took  to  the  woods, 
and  passed  from  village  to  village  exciting  the  people  of  Essex 
to  revolt.^  Other  bands  of  outlaws  were  afoot.  The  ob- 
noxious statutes  regulating  wages  had  driven  many  free 
labourers  to  take  to  the  woods,  and  the  runaway  villeins  pre- 
ferred a  roving  life  to  the  servitude  from  which  they  had  fled. 
It  has  been  suggested  that  the  stern  realities  of  this  epoch  in 
social  history  gave  fresh  meaning  and  renewed  popularity  to 
those  ancient  ballads,  which  told  how  Eobin  Hood  and  his 
merry  men  robbed  the  rich  and  loved  the  poor,  in  the  depth 
of  the  free  green  forest.^  For  many  years  before  and  many 
years  after  the  rebellion,  the  waste  places  and  pleasant  wood- 
lands were  the  haunt  of  desperate  men,  whose  numbers  were  a 
shame  to  government  and  a  danger  to  society.  They  prowled 
along  the  borders  of  civilisation,  ever  ready  to  swoop  down 
when  occasion  offered.  This  year  they  poured  in  hundreds 
into  field  and  town,  for  England  lay  at  their  mercy. 

Meanwhile  Bampton  had  arrived  at  Westminster  with  his 
story.  The  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench  was  at  once 
sent  down  into  Essex  with  a  commission  of  '  trailbaston ' 
;  to  restore  order.  He  was  treated  with  as  little  ceremony 
]  as  the  tax-collector,  and  driven  back  no  less  speedily  to 
London.  The  inhabitants  of  the  revolted  fishing  villages 
had  roused  the  country.  The  rebellion  was  well  afoot,  and 
its  ugliest  aspect — massacre — was  not  wanting.  The  judge 
was  spared,  but  the  jurors  were  beheaded.  Three  unfortunate 
clerks  who  had  been  serving  Bampton  on  his  late  commission 
were  also  caught  and  decapitated.     Their  heads  were  placed 

»  H.  B.,  509-10;  Higden,  ix.  6  ;  Knighton,  ii.  131 ;  Co7it.  Eulog.,  351-2. 

^  Eev.,  Ix. 


June  3-5  THE   EEBELLION  IN   KENT  209 

on  pikes  and  accompanied  the  march  of  the  rebels  from  day 
to  day.  These  first  acts  were  done  against  the  King's  officers  ; 
but  henceforward  the  Eising  was  principally  directed  against 
the  social  grievances  from  which  villeins  and  labourers  suffered. 
It  was,  as  Walsingham  described  it,  a  Eising  of  '  the  rustics 
whom  we  call  serfs  or  bondsmen,  together  with  the  other 
rural  inhabitants  of  Essex,  who  began  to  riot  for  their  liberty 
and  to  be  peers  of  their  lords,  and  to  be  held  in  servitude  to 
no  man.'  ^ 

In  Kent  the  insurrection  began  a  few  days  later.  The 
men  of  Essex  had  sent  messengers  there  to  invite  support, 
in  accordance  with  the  plan  of  co-operation  framed  by  the 
'  Great  Society.'  Whether  the  message  arrived  or  did  not 
arrive  before  the  Kentish  Eising  had  begun,  whether  it  had 
any  effect  or  none  in  hastening  the  outbreak  there,  the 
rebellion  along  the  south  shore  of  the  lower  Thames  was  as 
rapid  and  spontaneous  as  on  the  north.  It  was  on  June  3 
that  Simon  de  Burley,  a  knight  of  the  King's  household, 
rode  into  Gravesend  with  two  of  the  King's  soldiers  at  his 
heels.  Unlike  Bampton,  he  came  on  private  business  ;  there 
was  a  runaway  serf  of  his  settled  in  the  town.  The  men  of 
Gravesend  came  together  to  hear  him,  and  admitted  that  his 
claim  could  not  be  disputed.  Wishing  to  save  their  neighbour 
from  a  return  to  bondage,  they  proposed  to  compound  for  his 
freedom.  Burley  refused  to  take  less  than  the  ruinous  sum 
of  300Z.,  which  of  course  could  not  be  raised.  After  sharp 
words  had  passed,  he  succeeded  in  carrying  the  man  off  to 
prison  in  Eochester  Castle,  further  down  the  river ;  but  the 
country  began  to  rise  behind  his  back.^ 

This  incident  was  only  one  of  many  stimulants  now  at 
work  in  Kent.  The  poll-tax  commissioners  were  busy  there. 
When  they  urged  that  the  collection  made  in  the  winter  was 
obviously  imperfect,  if  compared  with  the  amount  of  previous 
poll-taxes,  they  were  met  by  the  reply  that  there  had  been  a 
great  mortality  in  Kent  during  the  last  two  years.^  Eegarding 
this  answer  as  insufficient  if  not  false,  they  proceeded  with 
their   duty.     John   Leg   himself   had   come  down,    and  was 

'  Wals.,  i.  454.  2  jj-_  ^_^  511,  3  (j^^^^  Eulog.,  351. 

P 


210  THE  PEASANTS'   EISING  OE  13S1 

accompanied,  like  the  tax-collectors  in  Essex,  by  a  judge  with 
a  special  commission  of  '  Trailbaston,'  for  the  King  was  well 
aware  that  both  comities  were  in  a  disturbed  state.    The  collec- 
tors were  forcibly  prevented  from  entering  Canterbury,  and  on 
June  5  the  rebels  began  to  gather  from  all  parts  of  the  county 
at  Dartf ord.^  It  was  afterwards  believed  by  some  that  there  had 
been  indecent  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  commissioners  in  the 
course  of  their  duty,  but  the  one  contemporary  who  brings 
this  charge  ^  is  strongly  prejudiced  against  Leg  and  his  com- 
mission.    Similar  charges  lately  made  by  the  native  press  of 
India,  with  regard  to  an  unpopular  house-to-house  visitation, 
proved  on  investigation  quite   unfounded.     Small  as   is  the 
reason   for  believing  the  general  charge  of  indecency  made 
against  the  collectors,  there  is  less  for  believing  the  story  that 
/  Wat  Tyler  began  the  rebellion  by  avenging  an  insult  offered 
to  his  daughter.     It  belongs  to  a  well-known  class  of  fable,  of 
which  the  tales  of  Lucretia  and  Virginia  are  famous  examples. 
The  '  motif '  is  popular  and  fascinating,  and   for  that  very 
reason  suspicious.     There  is  no  mention  of  the  incident  in 
any  contemporary  authority.     It  is  based  on  the  statement  of 
Stow,  the  Elizabethan  annalist,  and  he  only  tells  it  in  connec- 
tion with  a  certain  John  Tyler .^     The  story  of  Wat  Tyler's 
blow  has  been  consecrated  by  tradition,  but  it  must  go  the 
way  of  William  Tell's  shot. 

Whatever  were  the  exact  incidents  that  brought  about  the 
disturbance,  the  revolt  of  Dartford  soon  spread  far  and  wide. 
Various  bodies  of  men  were  moving  through  the  district,  and 
to  distinguish  the  identity  of  each  band  is  impossible.  A 
,  contingent  from  the  rebellious  villages  of  Essex  had  crossed 
'  the  Thames  at  Erith,  just  below  Woolwich,  and  were  busied 
in  calling  the  southern  counties  to  support  the  movement 
set  afoot  on  the  north  of  the  river.^  On  the  7th,  Maidstone 
was  in  a  state  of  anarchy.  Houses  were  broken  open  and 
property  taken  by  the  mob.-^  Another  band  containing  men 
from  Gravesend  attacked  Eochester  Castle,  eager  to  release 
their   comrade   whom   Burley   had   carried   off  as   his  serf. 

>  H.  R.,  511;  Arch.  Kent,  iii.  90.  2  Knighton,  ii.  130. 

=•  See  Stow's  Chrmiicle.  "  Cont.  Eulog.,  352. 

^  Anc.  Ind.,  85,  skins  7  and  12. 


June  10  THE   SEBELS   IN   CANTEEBUEY  211 

After  defending  it  for  half  a  day,  the  garrison  was  frightened 
into  surrender,  and  the  governor,  Sir  John  Newton,  became  a 
hostage  in  the  hands  of  the  insurgents.  It  was  an  important 
success,  not  so  much  strategically  as  morally.  It  showed  that 
panic  had  seized  the  authorities,  and  that  the  half-armed  mob 
was  for  the  present  irresistible.  Eochester  Castle  fell  like  the 
Bastille  at  the  shout  of  the  people,  and  the  news  of  its  fall 
gave  confidence  to  rebellion  and  caused  the  hands  of  the 
governors  to  tremble.^ 

On  the  10th  a  body  of  revolutionists  entered  Canterbury 
and  were  heartily  welcomed  by  the  inhabitants,  who  had 
previously  shut  out  the  collectors.  The  mob  broke  into  the 
Cathedral  during  Mass,  and  interrupted  the  singing  of  the 
monks  by  calling  on  them  to  elect  a  new  Archbishop,  for  Sud- 
bury, they  cried,  was  a  traitor  and  would  soon  die  a  traitor's 
death.  They  rushed  back  into  the  streets  and  forced  the 
Mayor  and  bailiffs  to  take  an  oath  of  fealty  to  '  King  Eichard 
and  the  Commons.'  The  bulk  of  the  rebels  then  hastened  off 
to  London,  the  centre  on  which  all  bodies  were  now  converging, 
though  they  took  care  to  leave  a  guard  in  the  capital  of  Kent. 
For  the  next  month  it  was  the  stronghold  of  the  rebellion. 
The  Mayor  and  bailiffs  were  so  far  faithful  to  their  strange 
oath  that  they  continued  in  office  under  the  altered  con- 
ditions ;  the  old  authorities  presided  during  the  whole  period 
of  mob-rule,  until  three  weeks  later,  when  the  justices  at 
last  came  down  from  London  to  restore  order.  During  this 
reign  of  terror  in  Canterbury,  old  grudges  were  paid  off  by 
the  citizens  on  unpopular  characters.  Many  houses  were 
sacked,  many  burglaries  took  place,  but  there  were  not  more 
than  two  or  three  murders.^  A  similar  state  of  anarchy  and 
private  feud,  but  not  of  total  ruin  and  indiscriminate  massacre, 
seems  to  have  prevailed  in  many  of  the  larger  English  towns 
during  the  '  hurling  times,'  as  they  were  called.^  It  is  often 
hard  to  distinguish,  in  the  records  of  the  trials,  between  the  act 
of  the  mob  incensed  against  a  supposed  oppressor  of  the  poor, 
and  the  work  of  a  few  scoundrels  hired  by  a  private  person  to 
iiilish  off  an  old  quarrel  under  cover  of  the  general  disorder. 

»  H.  B.,  511-2.         2  Kent  Arch.,  iii.  73  et  seq. ;  H.  B.,  512. 
^  See  Ap. ;  hurling  =  shouting. 

p2 


212  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OE  1381 

Vulgar  burglary  by  ordinary  robbers  was  safe  and  easy  during 
this  summer.  Men  who  saw  the  year  of  mutiny  in  India 
declare  that,  as  fast  as  the  news  of  the  outbreak  at  Meerut 
flashed  along  the  great  trunk  road,  thousands  swarmed  out 
against  their  neighbours,  not  to  overturn  the  British  rule,  but 
to  plunder  and  amass  wealth  during  the  abeyance  of  authority. 
^So  it  was  in  England  in  1381. 

By  June  10  the  home  counties  were  ablaze  from  end  to  end 
and  the  peasants  were  marching  on  London.  A  few  days 
',  later  the  villagers  and  townsfolk  throughout  East  Anglia  had 
overturned  law  and  order  in  those  parts.^  Day  after  day  riot 
spread  as  the  news  travelled.  It  broke  out  in  Somerset- 
shire on  the  19th,  and  in  Yorkshire  on  the  23rd,  though 
by  that  time  the  rebellion  at  the  centre  had  spent  its  main 
force  and  was  fast  being  put  down  ;  ^  so  far  was  the  Eising 
/  from  being  everywhere  simultaneous.  That  no  resistance  was 
/  made  to  the  first  outbreak  of  rebellion,  was  the  more  discredit- 
'  able  to  those  in  authority,  since  the  disturbed  state  of  the 
country  had  been  long  recognised.  The  reason,  however,  is 
not  far  to  seek.  There  was  no  force  specially  trained  and 
reserved  for  police  duty.  Neither  was  there  a  standing  army. 
An  expedition  equipped  for  France  was  lying  at  Plymouth 
embarked.  The  leaders  did  not  perceive  the  importance  of 
the  crisis.  It  would  perhaps  have  been  hard  to  expect  them 
to  disembark  on  their  own  initiative.  '  Fearful  lest  their 
voyage  should  be  prevented,  or  that  the  populace,  as  they  had 
done  at  Southampton,  Winchelsea,  and  Arundel,  should  attack 
them,  they  heaved  their  anchor  and  with  some  difficulty  left 
the  harbour,  for  the  wind  was  against  them,  and  put  to  sea, 
when  they  cast  anchor  to  wait  for  a  wind.'  ^ 

Thus  deprived  of  the  only  organised  force  then  ready, 
except  Percy's  Border-riders  in  the  distant  North,  the 
government  had  no  means  to  put  down  the  rebels,  until  there 
had  been  time  to  call  out  the  nobles  and  gentlemen  with  their 
retainers,  who  were  at  present  peacefully  scattered  through  the 
land  in  their  manors  and  castles.     This  the  King's  council 

1  Powell. 

2  C.  B.  R.,  503,  Bex.  12  (Eev.  283) ;  C.  R.  B.,  500,  Eex.  13  (E6v.  253). 

^  Froiss.,  ii.  466. 


THE  AUTHOEITIBS  PAEALYSED  213 

had  not  the  wit  to  do  until  it  was  too  late.  '  The  lords,'  says  , 
Walsingham,  '  remained  quietly  at  home  as  though  they  were 
asleep,  while  the  men  of  Kent  and  Essex  swelled  the  ranks  of 
their  army.'  The  country  towns  and  trading  cities,  where 
resistance  might  have  been  organised,  were  generally  favour- 
able to  the  rising.  Often  the  Mayor  and  corporation,  nearly 
always  the  lower  class  of  citizens,  used  the  opportunity  of  the 
rural  rebellion  to  push  claims  of  their  own.^  Without  rally- 
ing-point,  without  leader,  without  plans,  the  landlord  class 
looked  helplessly  on.  The  armed  and  disciplined  forces  of  the 
population  were  isolated  and  cut  off  in  detail,  at  the  mercy  of 
the  unarmed  but  united  rustics.  The  absurdity  of  the  situaj- 
tion  was  the  greater  because  the  rebels  were  so  ill  prepared  foir 
warlike  operations.  The  impression  left,  when  the  Eising  was  ; 
over,  was  that  they  had  been  seen  going  about  '  with  sticks,  . 
rusty  swords,  battle-axes,  bows  coloured  by  smoke  and  age, 
with  one  arrow  apiece,  and  often  only  one  wing  to  the  arrow. 
Among  a  thousand  of  such  persons  it  was  hard  to  find  one  • 
armed  man.'  ^  Probably  some  were  better  equipped  than  the 
chronicler  allows.  The  lower  peasant  classes,  as  well  as  the 
yeomanry,  were  intended  by  the  legislators  of  the  period  to 
possess  the  long  bow,  and  to  practise  it  '  on  Sundays  and 
holidays  and  leave  all  playing  of  tennis  and  football.'  ^  It  was 
only  by  encouraging  and  enforcing  habitual  exercise  in  archery, 
that  the  recruiting  ground  for  our  armies  in  France  could  be 
maintained  in  its  excellence.  Many  of  the  rebels  must  there- 
fore have  been  practised  shots.  But  the  English  bowman, 
unless  he  was  an  old  soldier,  would  be  useless  without  dis- 
cipline or  leaders,  especially  if  one  among  a  vast  mob  of 
other  rustics  less  well  equipped  than  himself.  At  any  rate, 
when  real  resistance  began,  the  rioters  gave  way  at  the  first 
shock  of  the  men-at-arms. 

It  was  not  possible  for  all  gentlemen,  during  this  reign  of 
terror,  to  watch  for  the  abating  of  the  waters  safe  in  the  seclusion 
of  their  homes.  In  the  second  week  of  June,  manor-houses 
were  broken  open  and  sacked  by  mobs,  on  whose  merest  whim 

'  Leicester  excepted,  Knighton,  ii.  142-3. 

2  Wals.,  i.  454  ;  Froiss.,  ii.  469 ;  Cont.  Eulog.,  353 ;  Mon.  Eve.,  24 ;  Vo3} 
Clam.,  bk.  i.,  cap.  xii. 

s  Stats,  of  Bealm,  12  E.  II.  cap.  6. 


214  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OP  1381 

hung  the  life  of  the  inmates.  Many  of  the  gentry  took  to  the 
woods,  whose  friendly  shelter  was  in  those  days  near  at  hand 
for  all  in  danger  and  distress.  Where  the  villein  and  the  out- 
law had  wandered  in  May,  the  seigneur  hid  in  June.  The 
poet  Gower  has  illuminated  his  long  and  wearisome  Latin 
epic  on  the  Peasants'  Eising  by  a  single  passage  of  intense 
interest.  He  describes,  in  the  first  person,  the  sufferings  of 
those  who  had  to  hide  from  the  rebels  in  the  woods  and 
wastes.  In  the  seclusion  of  the  forest  his  poetical  nature  is 
unmoved  by  the  beauties  of  glade  and  dell ;  he  feels  only  the 
weary  horror  of  the  wet  woods,  the  fear  of  death  that  dogs 
his  failing  footsteps  through  the  brake,  the  hunger  that 
drives  him  to  gnaw  the  acorns  with  the  herds  of  swine  and 
deer.^  But  although  the  upper  classes  did  well  to  fly  for  their 
lives,  death  was  not  the  certain  fate  of  those  who  were  taken. 
There  was  no  attempt  to  annihilate  a  caste,  no  indiscriminate 
massacre  of  landlords  or  gentlemen.  Some,  if  personally 
unpopular,  were  murdered  on  the  spot,  and  their  heads  carried 
round  on  poles  in  ferocious  triumph.  But  many  were  spared 
on  condition  of  surrendering  obnoxious  charters  and  docu- 
ments, or  of  supplying  food  and  money.  Some  were  forced 
by  the  rebels  to  march  with  them,  or  even  to  assume  apparent 
command,  so  as  to  take  away  from  the  rebellion  the  character, 
too  obvious  in  the  rural  districts,  of  a  rising  of  the  lower 
classes.  In  East  Anglia  several  gentlemen  were  of  their  own 
free  will  among  the  rebels,  and  some  even  seem  to  have  been 
among  the  original  instigators  and  leaders.^  Imagination 
alone  can  at  this  distance  of  time  supply  the  reasons  of  their 
sympathy  with  the  insurgents. 

The  rising  stands  in  these  respects  in  strong  contrast  to 
the  Jacquerie  that  devastated  France  after  the  battle  of 
Poitiers.  Goaded  to  madness  by  the  miseries  of  the  English 
war,  starved,  trodden  under  foot  by  their  own  seigneurs, 
pillaged  and  harried  by  the  chivalry  of  the  two  nations,  the 
French  peasantry  turned  savagely  on  the  classes  at  whose 
hands  they  had  suffered  such  intolerable  wrongs.  *  Wherever 
they  went,'  says  Froissart,  ' ...  all  of  their  rank  of  life 
followed  them,  whilst  every  one  else  fled,  carrying  off  with 

'   Vox  Clam.,  bk.  i.  cap.  xvi.  -  Powell. 


1366,  1381.     CONTEAST  WITH  THE  JACQUEEIE  215 

them  their  ladies,  damsels  and  children  ten  or  twenty  leagues 
distant,  where  they  thought  they  could  place  them  in 
security.  .  .  .  These  wicked  people,  without  leader  and  with-  ( 
out  arms,  plundered  and  burnt  all  the  houses  they  came  to, 
murdered  every  gentleman,  and  violated  every  lady  and 
damsel  they  could  j&nd.  He  who  committed  the  most  atrocious 
actions,  and  such  as  no  human  creature  would  have  imagined, 
was  the  most  applauded.  ...  I  dare  not  write  the  horrible 
and  inconceivable  atrocities  they  did.'  ^  Although  the 
knightly  author,  when  he  comes  to  describe  the  Peasants'  Eising 
of  1381,  is  stUl  the  same  man,  filled  with  all  the  prejudices 
of  the  upper  military  class,  although  he  very  rightly  regards 
the  English  rebellion  as  a  design  against  the  privileges  of  that 
class,  he  mentions  no  such  abominable  outrages,  no  systematic 
massacre  of  the  lords  of  the  soil.  His  silence  only  bears  out 
the  mass  of  evidence  now  unearthed  from  the  indictments  and 
trials  of  that  year.  The  difference  corresponds  to  a  difference 
in  the  circumstances  that  gave  rise  to  the  two  outbreaks.  The 
French  peasantry  found  their  miserable  condition  made  still 
more  unendurable  by  the  war ;  they  were  made  to  live  the  life 
of  beasts,  and,  like  beasts,  they  turned  to  bay.  The  lot  of  the  ^ 
English  peasant,  on  the  other  hand,  was  improving  under  the 
influence  of  economic  and  social  change.  It  was  only  the 
friction  caused  by  that  process,  the  disappointment  that  it  did 
not  go  on  still  faster,  the  aggravation  caused  by  the  attempts 
of  the  upper  classes  to  delay  it,  that  caused  the  rebellion. 
When,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Sixth,  a  new  change 
in  economic  conditions  brought  in  new  causes  of  discon- 
tent, and  resulted  in  another  Peasants'  Eising  restricted  to 
the  area  of  Norfolk  and  Suifolk,  murder  and  lynch-law  were 
on  that  occasion  conspicuously  absent  from  Ket's  rebel  camp.^ 
If  the  violence  of  revolutionists  is  a  test  of  their  condition 
previous  to  the  outbreak,  the  rebels  of  '81  stood  half  way,  in 
point  of  civilisation  and  well  being,  between  their  descend- 
ants of  the  Tudor  period  and  the  Jacques  in  the  age  of 
Poitiers. 

But,  although  there  was  no  general  proscription  of  the 
upper  classes,  murder  was  a  most  prominent  part  of  the  mob- 

'  Froiss.,  i.  caps,  clxxix-clxxxii.  ^  Froude,  vol.  iv.  chap.  26. 


216  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OE  1381 

law.  Very  unpopular  landlords,  or  persons  who  had  become 
marked  men  by  some  quarrel  with  the  country-side,  were 
slaughtered  with  brutal  glee.  When  the  rebels  entered  Can- 
terbury they  asked  their  sympathisers  among  the  citizens 
whether  there  were  any  traitors  there.  Two  or  three  were 
named,  drawn  out  and  beheaded.^  But  there  was  no  general 
massacre.  A  typical  case,  though  only  one  out  of  many,  was 
that  of  the  Prior  of  Bury  St.  Edmunds.  He  had  been  noted 
for  enforcing  the  rights  and  privileges  of  his  abbey,  and  it  was 
at  the  hands  of  the  serfs  of  the  abbey  that  he  met  his  death. 
When  Bury  was  seized  by  the  rebels,  he  fled  under  the  cover 
of  darkness,  and  lay  concealed  in  a  wood  near  Newmarket. 
Someone  betrayed  his  hiding-place  to  the  mob  at  Mildenhall, 
a  town  eight  miles  to  the  north.  The  same  mob  had  spared 
the  lives  of  the  other  Bury  monks,  but  such  was  their  animosity 
against  the  Prior  that  they  instantly  marched  off  to  New- 
market, to  beat  the  wood  where  he  lay.  They  caught  him, 
and  after  leading  him  about  with  them  in  cruel  mockery  for 
some  hours,  finally  struck  off  his  head.  ^ 

But  personal  hatred  against  the  victims  themselves  was  not 
the  sole  motive  of  murder.  Connection  with  John  of  Gaunt 
seems  to  have  been  in  itself  dangerous.  His  property  was 
destroyed  with  great  vindictiveness,  and  his  servants  killed, 
not  only  at  the  Savoy,  but  throughout  Kent  and  East  Anglia ; 
special  malice  was  shown  against  his  valet,  Thomas  Haselden 
'  for  envy  they  had  of  the  said  Duke  ; '  in  Yorkshire  the 
Duchess  fled  for  her  life  ;  in  Leicester  the  Mayor  called  out 
the  guard  to  preserve  the  Duke's  property.  To  be  connected 
with  the  law  was  no  less  dangerous  than  to  be  connected  with 
the  House  of  Lancaster.  The  '  men  of  the  law '  seem  to  have 
been  massacred,  sometimes  for  no  better  reason  than  for 
belonging  to  that  unpopular  profession.  Their  services  to 
society  are  never  in  any  age  very  obvious  to  the  vulgar,  while 
the  injuries  they  inflict  are  patent  enough ;  as  instruments  of 
oppression,  they  stand  in  the  place  of  the  tyrants  who  employ 
them  and  the  legislators  whose  laws  they  enforce.     But  in 

'  H.  R.,  512.  2  wals.,  ii.  2  ;  Powell,  17-20. 

^  Wals.,  i.  462 ;    Mo7i.   Eve.,   24  ;    Knighton,   ii.  142-4 ;   Froiss.,  ii.  471 ; 
Powell,  31,  35,  44  ;  H.  B.,  512. 


VENGEANCE  FOE  BAD  LAWS  217 

that  age  more  than  any  other  they  were  accused  of  corrup- 
tion, and  the  '  sisour/  or  juryman,  was  the  special  butt  of  the 
morahst.  The  juries  were  often  the  creatures  of  powerful 
and  unscrupulous  men.  At  best  they  were  unpopular  as  the 
instruments  of  convictions  under  the  Statute  of  Labourers, 
and  it  is  probable  that  their  connection  with  this  law  was  one 
cause  of  the  peculiar  odium  in  which  many  who  had  acted 
on  juries  were  held  at  the  time  of  the  Eising.  Wycliffe,  in 
attacking  the  oppressive  thraldom  under  which  some  lords 
held  their  servants,  describes  how  they  '  will  not  meekly  hear 
a  poor  man's  cause  and  help  him  in  his  right,  but  suffer 
jurymen  of  the  country  to  destroy  them,  and  rather  withhold 
poor  men  their  hire,  for  which  they  spended  their  flesh  and 
blood.'  ^  The  words  imply  a  connection  between  juries  and 
the  question  of  a  fair  wage,  which  the  Statute  of  Labourers 
supplies. 

The  horrible  fate  of  the  Chief  Justice  of  England,  Sir 
John  Cavendish,  is  typical  of  the  relation  of  the  rebels  to  the 
law-courts.  He  was  a  marked  man,  not  only  as  the  head  of 
his  profession,  but  as  holding  a  special  commission  to  enforce 
the  Statute  of  Labourers  in  Essex  and  Suffolk,  Being  on 
circuit  at  the  time  of  the  rebellion  in  a  fen  district  of  the 
latter  county,  he  was  overtaken  by  rioters  near  a  small  village 
called  Lakenheath.  He  fled  hard  to  the  nearest  river,  on 
which  lay  a  boat,  his  only  chance  of  safety.  He  was  almost 
within  reach  of  the  bank,  when  his  hopes  were  frustrated 
by  a  woman  who  happened  to  be  standing  there.  The 
prejudice  of  her  class  overcame  the  merciful  instincts  of  her 
sex,  and  she  pushed  the  boat  into  the  middle  of  the  stream. 
The  pursuers  came  up  and  Cavendish  was  killed.  His  bloody 
head  was  exhibited  in  Bury  market-place  on  the  top  of  the 
pillory.  The  head  of  the  Prior  of  Bury  was  borne  in  by  the 
mob  from  Newmarket,  and  placed  by  that  of  the  justice.  In 
mockery  of  the  friendship  that  had  existed  between  the  man 
of  the  law  and  the  man  of  the  Church,  their  lifeless  lips  were 
put  together,^ 

Lawyers  were  unpopular  with  the  peasantry,  not  only  be- 
cause they  enforced  the  Statute  of  Labourers,  but  because  they 

1  Matt.,  234.  2  Powell,  13-4  ;  Wals.,  ii.  2-3. 


218  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OP  1381 

upheld  in  their  courts  the  charters  and  the  recorded  privileges 
of  the  lords.  It  is  a  picturesque  and  forcible  appeal  to  the 
rude  sense  of  justice  in  the  uneducated,  to  complain  '  that 
parchment  being  scribbled  o'er  should  undo  a  man,'  and  the 
destruction  of  charters  and  manor-rolls  was  perhaps  the  most 
universal  feature  of  the  Eising.  But  a  feature  scarcely  less 
marked  was  the  demand  for  new  charters  confirming  privileges 
won  by  the  destruction  of  the  old.  The  rebels  did  not  set 
themselves,  as  one  of  the  chroniclers  declares  they  did,  to 
root  out  the  arts  of  reading  and  writing,  and  .to  kill  all  who 
practised  or  taught  them.  Such  an  exaggeration,  natural  to 
persons  incensed  at  the  destruction  of  many  valuable  docu- 
ments, is  quite  out  of  keeping  with  the  recorded  aims  and 
actions  of  the  rioters.  Lawyers  and  official'  clerks  were 
special  objects  of  animosity,  but  not  clerks  and  learned  men 
as  such.  Besides,  the  attempt  of  the  rebels  to  secure  by 
written  charters  all  that  was  conceded,  and  their  childish 
confidence  in  the  certain  validity  of  these  new  documents, 
would  alone  show  that  they  had  no  wish  to  create  a  Utopia 
of  illiterates.  In  the  same  way,  although  speculations  on 
communism  had  been  rife"  for  many  years,  and  may  have 
helped  the  spirit  of  rebellion,  no  formal  demand  for  any  such 
reorganisation  of  society  was  anywhere  advanced  in  the 
summer  of  '81.  It  is  the  same  with  this  charge  as  with  that 
of  designs  to  murder  the  whole  upper  class.  These  diabolical 
intentions  are  based  on  supposed  confessions,  which  might 
easily  be  extorted  from  individuals,  or  still  more  easily  put  in 
their  mouths  by  irresponsible  annalists.'^  Even  supposing 
that  one  or  two  leaders  had  such  ideas  in  their  heads,  they 
certainly  did  not  get  support  from  their  followers. 

The  Rising  in  the  country  districts  had,  for  its  foremost 
object,  to  secure  complete  economic  and  personal  freedom. 
With  this  end  manor-rolls  were  burnt,  and  larger  or  smaller 
bodies  of  men  sent  up  to  London  to  obtain  charters  of  libera- 
tion from  the  King.  The  St.  Albans  villeins  not  only  got 
from  London  a  special  royal  charter  for  themselves  as  well  as 
the  general  charter  of  liberation,  but  even  forced  the  Abbot  to 
write  another  for  them  himself,  sealed  with  the  seal  of  the 

'  Wals.,  ii.  10. 


IN  THE   KING'S  NAME  219 

abbey. ^  Word  was  sent. through  the  disturbed  districts  that 
no  one  on  pain  of  death  was  to  do  custom  or  service  to  his 
lord,  without  further  orders  from  the  '  Great  Society.'^  The 
scheme  of  final  settlement  put  forward,  was  that  of  commuting 
all  old  dues  and  services  for  a  rent  of  fourpence  an  acre.^ 
Although  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  every  rebel 
knew  of  and  consented  to  this  scheme,  it  was  the  demand  of 
their  representatives  in  London,  and  there  is  no  other  pro- 
posal of  which  any  record  has  come  down  to  us.  There  is 
no  evidence  of  any  desire  to  take  the  land  from  the  lords  and 
establish  peasant  proprietorship.  v 

For  the  rest,  the  peasants  sought  to  create  among  the  I 
upper  classes  a  wholesome  respect  for  the  '  majesty  of  the  Y 
people.'     The  outbreak  was  certainly  calculated  to  do  this ;  \ 
the  murder  of  those  specially  connected  with  the  Statute  of '' 
Labourers  was  a  protest  and  a  threat. 

But,  besides  the  social  ends,  there  were  distinct  political 
objects  in  view.  The  rebels  rose  to  protest  against  the  bad 
government  of  many  years,"*  for  which  they  regarded  John  of 
Gaunt  as  specially  responsible.  They  dealt  out  summary 
punishment  to  any  of  the  King's  ministers  who  came  into  their 
hands,  but  above  all  were  they  incensed  with  the  Duke. 
This  animosity  against  him  was  universal  in  this  June, 
and  equally  universal  was  the  loyalty  to  young  Eichard. 
The  two  feelings  naturally  went  together,  for  suspicion 
of  the  Duke's  designs  against  his  nephew,  though  publicly 
denied  by  the  Parliament  of  1377,  had  never  been  quite  set  at 
rest.  The  boy  King,  who  could  not  be  held  responsible  for 
any  act  that  had  hitherto  been  done  in  his  name,  became  the 
idol,  and  his  wicked  uncle  the  bugbear,  of  the  populace.  They 
imagined  that,  if  they  could  get  Eichard  into  their  hands,  they 
could  make  him  do  what  they  wished ;  and  they  no  doubt 
fancied  that  the  generous  youth  would  sympathise  with  his 
subjects'  aspirations  for  liberty.^  How  far  the  leaders  had 
definite  designs  with  regard  to  the  settlement  of  the  admini- 
stration is  a  question  that  will  arise  in  connection  with  their 

>  Vv^als.,  i.  473  and  482.  ^  Powell,  49  ;  Kent  Arch.,  iii.  71-2. 

3  Calendar  of  Pat.  Bolls,  27  ;  Mon.  Eve.,  28  ;  H.  B.,  517. 
*  Froiss.,  ii.  465  ;  H.  B.,  512.  *  See  Ap. 


220  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

action  in  London.  It  is,  at  any  rate,  certain  that  the  vast 
majority  of  their  followers  had  no  such  designs.  When  they 
had  got  their  charters  of  freedom,  the  majority  went  home. 
Loyalty  to  good  King  Eichard  and  death  to  his  wicked  coun- 
sellors began  and  ended  their  simple  politics.  Their  watchword 
was  '  With  King  Eichard  and  the  true  Commons.'  It  was  in 
the  King's  name  that  they  were  roused  by  the  local  agitators,  it 
was  the  King's  banner  that  they  unfurled  on  Blackheath,  it  was 
the  King  whom  they  chose  for  leader  when  his  servants  had 
struck  down  Wat  Tyler.^  It  is  probable  that  there  is  some 
truth  in  what  Froissart  says  of  the  rebels  who  marched  on 
London,  that  full  two-thirds  of  them  knew  not  what  they 
wanted,  but  followed  each  other  in  that  spirit  of  ignorant  faith 
in  which  the  lower  orders,  three  centuries  back,  had  followed 
Peter  the  Hermit  to  the  Holy  Land.^ 

If  the  rebellion  emphasised  the  want  of  popular  reverence 
for  the  government  and  for  the  representatives,  small  and 
great,  of  the  secular  power,  it  emphasised  no  less  the  want  of 
reverence  for  the  recognised  ecclesiastical  authorities.  We  have 
already  pointed  out  the  decadence  of  the  ideal  of  the  Mediaeval 
Church,  the  weakening  of  the  control  exercised  over  laymen 
by  penance,  confession  and  obedience  to  the  clergy.  It  is  not 
therefore  surprising  to  find  that  the  rebels,  though  religious, 
were  by  no  means  attached  to  that  mediaeval  religion,  which 
consisted  largely  in  reverence  for  churchmen.  It  was  reported 
that  the  leaders  in  London  demanded,  among  their  other 
revolutionary  proposals,  complete  disendowment  of  the  Church 
and  the  abolition  of  the  hierarchy  ;  John  Ball,  it  was  said, 
was  to  be  made  the  sole  spiritual  ruler  of  England.^  This  is 
probably  exaggeration,  like  so  much  else  that  was  reported  of 
their  designs  ;  but  if  euch  reports  got  about,  a  strong  leaven  of 
anti-ecclesiastical  feeling  must  have  existed  among  many  of  the 
leaders,  as  it  certainly  did  in  the  case  of  John  Ball.    It  is  safe 

( to  say  that  in  the  Eising  the   clergy  were  treated  just  as 
laymen.      They  were  not  promiscuously  massacred,  but  a  bad 

;  minister  was  to  these  men  no  less  a  bad  minister  because'  he 


I. 


>  Powell,  42,  45,  47,  53,  58,   137;   Wals.,  i.   455,   458;    Froiss.,   ii.   472; 
H.  B.,  512-3.  ■'  Froiss.,  ii.  462.  ^  H.  B.,  512,  519;  Wals.,  ii.  10. 


ANIMOSITY  AGAINST  CHUECHMEN  221 

was  an  Archbishop,  a  bad  landlord  was  no  less  a  bad  landlord 
because  he  was  an  Abbot.  Eeligious  houses  were  attacked  all 
over  England,  just  as  the  lords'  mansions  were  attacked,  by 
serfs  demanding  their  freedom.  The  number  of  assaults 
made  on  monasteries  might  surprise  us,  if  we  did  not  remember 
that  these  places,  being  corporate  bodies,  had  moved  more 
slowly  in  the  direction  of  emancipating  their  serfs  than  had 
the  ordinary  lord  of  the  manor.  The  townsmen,  too,  gave 
vent  to  their  hatred  of  the  monastic  privileges  which  ham- 
pered the  growth  of  their  boroughs. 

There  had  been  a  great  change  of  English  feeling  towards 
the  Church  in  the  course  of  two  centuries.  Formerly  Becket, 
slain  by  four  bravoes,  had  become  the  idol  of  the  populace  and 
the  favourite  Saint  in  the  Calendar ;  now  Sudbury,  torn  to 
pieces  by  the  rebels,  won  no  posthumous  honours  from  any 
repentance  of  the  lower  orders  for  their  mad  act  of  cruelty. 
No  doubt  the  Eising  was  a  rising  against  landlords,  and  the 
Church,  being  a  great  landlord,  had  to  suffer  with  the  class. 
But  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  murder  of  priors  and  the 
breaking  open  of  monasteries  would  have  been  carried  on 
with  such  gusto  in  the  twelfth  century.  Eichard  the  Second's 
reign  was  not  an  '  age  of  faith  '  in  either  State  or  Church. 

The  causes  of  the  Eising  were  manifold,  and  the  districts 
in  which  rebellion  or  riot  prevailed  were  in  some  cases  far 
distant  from  each  other.  But  it  is  impossible  to  assign  one 
cause  to  Somerset,  another  to  Chester,  a  third  to  the  home 
counties,  a  fourth  to  East  Anglia.  It  is  more  true  to  say  that 
within  the  area  of  each  county,  men  rose  for  objects  differing 
according  to  the  particular  status  and  grievance  of  the 
individual  rebels.  Each  manor,  each  city,  had  its  own 
arrangements,  and  the  inhabitants  their  own  -peculiar  rights 
and  wrongs.  There  was  less  homogeneity  of  law  and  custom 
throughout  England  in  the  fourteenth  century  than  there  is 
to-day.  This  was  especially  the  case  in  the  towns.  The 
popular  grievance  was  sometimes,  as  at  Northampton,  against 
the  Mayor  ;  sometimes,  as  at  Bury,  against  a  neighbouring 
•religious  house  ;  sometimes,  as  at  Cambridge,  against  the 
University;  sometimes,  as  at  Oxford,  Mayor  and  citizens 
joined  to  exact  a  grant  from  the  King.      Sometimes  under 


222  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF,  1381 

compulsion,  sometimes  willingly,  the  governing  bodies  of 
the  towns  took  part  with  the  mob.  At  Leicester  they 
organised  the  forces  of  law  and  order.  To  know  the  causes 
of  the  Kising  in  the  towns  would  be  to  know  the  history  of  a 
hundred  different  municipalities,  their  law-suits  and  their 
quarrels,  long  buried  in  dust.  In  the  country  districts  there 
was  perhaps  as  much  differentiation  between  manor  and 
manor.  But  we  have  already  shown  the  heads  under  which 
the  grievances  of  the  peasants  can  be  summed  up.  '  As  in 
the  East  of  England,  so  in  the  Wirral  of  Cheshire,  we  find  the 
serfs  rising  against  their  landlord,  in  this  case  the  Abbey 
of  Chester.^  In  Somerset  the  serfs  were,  in  like  manner, 
striving  for  their  freedom.  At  Bridgewater  they  burnt  title- 
deeds  and  court-rolls,  marched  under  the  royal  standard,  and 
exposed  the  heads  of  their  enemies  in  public  places.  It  is  also 
at  Bridgewater  that  we  find  an  interesting  case  of  a  religious 
house  forced  by  the  parishioners  to  surrender  its  dues  for 
the  more  useful  purpose  of  supporting  the  vicar.  The  vicar 
appears  to  have  been  a  man  of  the  name  of  Frompton,  who 
was  in  London  when  the  Eising  broke  out.  He  at  once  left  the 
capital  and  started  for  the  West  to  see  what  could  be  done 
there.  He  arrived  in  Bridgewater  in  time  to  lead  his  parish- 
ioners on  June  19  against  the  House  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem.'-^ 
The  same  grievance  of  paying  tithe  to  a  distant  religious 
house  drove  the  men  of  Eothley  and  Wartnaby,  in  North 
Leicestershire,  to  join  the  rebellion  under  the  leadership  of  the 
curate  from  a  neighbouring  village.^ 

In  Kent  the  type  of  man  was  perhaps  by  nature  more  in- 
dependent and  more  riotous.  But  the  grievances  of  Kent  did 
not  differ  so  entirely  from  those  in  other  counties  as  has  some- 
times been  supposed.  Every  man  in  Kent  was,  theoretically, 
a  freeman  in  the  eye  of  the  law.  He  could  sell  his  land,  he 
could  plead  in  court,  he  was  free  from  many  humiliating  and 
servile  dues  that  were  customary  in  other  shires.  But, 
though  a  freeman,  he  still  owed,  in  many  cases,  labour 
service  on  his  lord's  demesne,^  and  it  was  to  get  rid  of  these 

1  Chester  Indictment  Bolls  (P.  E,  0.),  no.  8,  M,  57. 

2  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  105-6;  G.  B.  B.,  503,  Eex.  12  (E6v.  283-4).        ^  -^^^_  252. 
*  Vinogradoff's   Villainage   in    England,   205-8 ;    Gonsuetudines    GanticB 

(Sandys),  89  and  93. 


AEEA  OP  EEBELLION  223 

services  that  he  rose  in  1381.  In  the  Isle  of  Thanet  *  they 
raised  a  cry  that  no  one  should  do  service  or  custom  to  the 
lordships  '  on  pain  of  death.^  The  abolition  of  this  prsedial 
service  was  one  object  of  the  rebels  in  Kent.  But  it  appears  that 
they  were  specially  interested  in  political  questions  and  the 
reform  of  government,  more  so  than  the  men  of  other  shires. 
In  Scarborough  there  were  riots  against  the  King's  officers, 
and  against  unpopular  persons  in  the  town.  The  rioters 
there,  like  the  mobs  of  Ghent  and  Paris  at  the  same  period, 
had  for  their  uniform  a  hood,  presumably  of  some  special 
colour.  In  Beverley  and  York  there  were  also  disturbances  ; 
the  Duchess  of  Lancaster  was  refused  admittance  into  her 
lord's  castle  of  Pomfret,  so  greatly  did  those  in  authority 
fear  the  vengeance  of  the  rebels.  But,  though  breaches  of 
the  peace  were  very  general  in  the  south  of  Yorkshire,  it 
cannot  be  said  with  certainty  that  there  was  a  rebellion 
in  each  of  the  Eidings.  The  Midland  counties  appear  to 
have  been  practically  undisturbed.  But  this  was  not  the  case 
with  the  South-west.  Besides  the  acts  of  rebellion  in 
Somerset,  there  was  an  unusual  number  of  murders,  robberies 
and  unlawful  assemblies  in  Cornwall,  Dorset  and  Devon, 
though  the  upheaval  was  not  so  complete  as  in  the  East  and 
South.^     (See  map  at  end  of  Chapter.) 

The  story  of  the  local  risings  is  interesting,  but  the  fate 
of  the  rebellion  was  decided  at  London  between  June  12 
and  15.  It  was  there  that  the  representatives  of  the  rebels 
met  their  rulers  and  stated  their  demands  ;  it  was  there  that 
for  four  days  a  drama  was  played  out,  second  to  none  in  the 
history  of  England  for  appalling  situations,  horrible  possibili- 
ties, and  memorable  actions. 

On  Wednesday,  June  12,  Blackheath  was  crowded  with 
the  most  remarkable  gathering  that  ever  met  on  that  Champ 
de  Mars  of  old  London.  The  rebel  leaders  had  planted  on 
the  moor  two  great  banners  of  St.  George,  around  which  they 
assembled  their  forces.  The  men  of  the  Surrey  shore  came 
,up  in  fresh  troops  all  day  long.  The  towns  on  the  lower 
Thames  had  put  themselves  in  the  forefront  of  the  rebellion  ; 

>  Kent  Arch.,  iii.  71-2  ;  E6v.  222,  doc.  75.  2  gee  Ap. 


224  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

their  men  came  boasting  of  the  rout  of  the  tax-gatherers  and 
the  capture  of  Eochester  Castle.  From  the  villages  hidden 
deep  in  the  forests  of  the  Weald,  from  the  vales  of  Surrey 
and  Sussex,  determined  bands  were  moving  to  the  place 
of  muster.  Many  of  the  Essex  rebels  had  come  across  the 
Thames  to  swell  the  tale,  while  others  were  known  to  be 
guarding  the  northern  approaches  of  London.  Canterbury 
had  been  revolutionised  only  on  the  Monday,  but  those  who 
had  seized  the  Cathedral  city  may  have  reached  Blackheath 
on  the  evening  of  Wednesday.  John  Ball,  too,  was  in  the 
camp.  He  had  been  released  by  the  rebels  from  the  Arch- 
bishop's prison  in  Maidstone,  where  he  was  undergoing,  not 
for  the  first  time,  the  discipline  of  the  Church  for  his  railings 
against  the  ecclesiastical  establishment.  His  release  may 
have  taken  place  on  Friday  the  7th,  when  the  rioting  in 
Maidstone  began,  or  on  the  11th,  when  the  King's  gaol  also 
was  broken  open.^  Whenever  it  was  that  he  joined  the  rebel 
army,  he  became  at  once  the  principal  figure  in  their  camp. 
He  delivered  to  the  multitude  on  Blackheath  a  sermon  which 
struck  the  imagination  of  all  contemporaries,  for  it  was  the 
last  word  spoken,  before  the  people  met  their  rulers  face  to 
face.  He  took  for  his  text,  it  was  afterwards  said,  the  famous 
couplet  about  Adam  and  Eve.  All  men  had  been  created 
equal  by  nature  ;  villenage  was  the  work  of  sinful  men,  and 
ought  to  be  abolished.  It  was  believed  by  his  enemies  that 
he  ended  by  exhorting  the  mob  to  slay  the  King's  ministers 
and  the  men  of  law.^  Considering  the  events  of  the  next  few 
days,  it  is  quite  likely  that  his  exhortation  was  at  least  as 
violent  as  this.  If  John  Ball  was  opposed  to  the  murders 
done,  his  influence  over  the  mob  must  have  been  so  slight 
as  scarcely  to  warrant  his  great  place  in  the  histories  of  the 
time.  However,  he  was  far  the  most  interesting  of  the  rebel 
leaders.  The  rest,  even  Wat  Tyler,  are  to  us  mere  shadows, 
their  past  history  unknown,  their  identity  often  in  doubt. 
John  Ball,  after  a  life  of  persistent  agitation,  persecuted, 
imprisoned  again  and  again,  but  never  flinching  from  his  task, 
had  won  the  hearts  of  the  classes  he  had  long  loved  and 

*  Knighton,  ii.  131-  2  ;  Anc.  Ind.,  35,  skins  7,  12  ;  Ke7it  Arch.,  iii.  74,  81. 
2  Wals.,  ii.  83. 


Wed.  June  12         THE   EULEES   TEAPPBD  225 

served,  and  now  at  the  end  his  foot  was  planted  for  a  few 
brief  and  terrible  days  on  the  neck  of  landlord  and  bailiff, 
sheriff  and  summoner.  Bishop  and  King. 

Wednesday  was  an  anxious  day  for  parties  on  both  shores 
of  the  Thames.  The  leaders  on  Blackheath  knew  well  enough 
that,  unless  they  could  enter  London  at  once,  their  plans  were 
ruined.  The  vast  and  undisciplined  multitude  could  not  be 
fed  in  the  wilderness.  London  alone  could  supply  their 
needs.  Another  twenty-four  hours  and  their  hungry  followers 
would  begin  to  slink  away ;  in  a  few  days  they  would  pro- 
bably be  left  with  a  small  band  of  enthusiasts  incapable  of 
facing  a  single  squadron  of  men-at-arms.  In  numbers  their 
whole  strength  lay,  in  numbers  and  in  the  sudden  blow 
delivered  before  the  upper  classes  had  recovered  from  the 
first  panic.  The  men  of  Essex,  blockading  London  on  the 
North,  would  be  in  a  similar  strait,  if  they  were  any  longer 
kept  outside  the  gates. 

To  the  rulers  in  the  city  the  prospect  was  even  less  cheer- 
ing. They  had  been  aware  at  Court  that  a  great  scheme 
of  rebellion  was  in  preparation,^  and  for  some  weeks  they 
had  known  of  actual  disturbances  in  Essex  and  Kent.  But 
the  boy  King,  ill-advised  by  counsellors  who  showed  their 
usual  want  of  sense,  had  given  the  difficult  task  of  suppression 
to  justices  with  a  special  commission  of  '  trailbaston,'  but  with 
no  proper  force  to'  support  it.  A  large  body  of  men  ought  to 
have  been  sent  into  the  disturbed  districts  ten  days  before. 
The  time  for  action  had  now  passed ;  the  government  could 
only  wait  on  events,  for  it  was  locked  up  in  London.  The 
King,  the  Court,  the  officers  who  might  have  been  calling  out 
the  gentry  in  the  shires,  and  crushing  the  rebellion  wherever 
it  appeared,  were  trapped  in  their  own  capital.  The  rebels  all 
over  the  country  were  using  Eichard's  name,  and  spreading 
the  belief  that  the  Eising  had  the  royal  sanction.  An 
official  proclamation  denying  this  report  would  have  had  a 
great  effect  in  encouraging  the  resistance  of  the  authorities  ; 
but  the  ministers  was  cut  off  from  all  communication  with  the 
country.  The  rebels  outside  the  walls  had  become  for  the 
moment  the  focus  of  the  kingdom,  whence  disaffection  and  riot 

'  Froiss.,  ii.  462. 

Q 


226  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OP  1381 

spread  from  shire  to  shire,  till  half  England  was  up  in  arms. 
The  Court  did  not  even  know  what  was  happening  beyond  the 
rebel  lines.  Every  road  was  blocked,'  The  Queen-mother,  who 
arrived  that  evening  among  her  anxious  friends  in  London, 
was  only  let  in  by  the  courtesy  of  the  peasants,  who  throughout 
the  rebellion  kept  their  hands  off  women  and  spared  the 
King's  household.  Having  been  on  a  pilgrimage  to  the  shrines 
of  Kent,  perhaps  to  mourn  over  her  husband's  tomb  at 
Canterbury,  she  was  driving  back  as  fast  as  the  horses  could 
go,  when  the  Kentish  rebels  stopped  her  waggon.  She 
and  her  ladies  were  terribly  frightened,  but  were  allowed  to 
pass  unharmed  by  chivalrous  captors,  who  might  have  used 
her  as  a  hostage.^ 

Both  parties  were  ready  for  a  conference.     The  men  of 
Kent   despatched   a   message  to  the   King  by   prisoners   in 
their  camp.     They  invited  him  to  cross  the  river  and  confer 
with  them  on  Blackheath.     He  was  rowed  across  in  a  barge, 
accompanied  by  his  principal  nobles.     At  Eotherhithe  a  depu- 
tation from  the  camp  on  the  moor  above  was  waiting  on  the 
bank  to  receive  them.    At  the  last  moment  prudence  prevailed, 
and  Eichard  was  persuaded  not  to  trust  himself  on  shore. 
Very  likely  the  councillors  who  gave  this  cautious  advice,  con- 
sidered that  the  '  divinity '  that  '  doth  hedge  a  King  '  would  be 
little  protection  to  his  servants,  and  if  such  were  their  fears, 
they  were  well  grounded.     The  rebels,  shouting  their  demands 
across  from  the  shore,  professed  their  loyalty  to  Eichard,  but 
required  the  heads  of  John  of  Gaunt,  Sudbury,  Hales  and 
several  other  ministers,  some  of  whom  were  at  that  moment 
in  the  boat.     The  royal  barge  put  back  to  the  Tower,  and 
events  were  allowed  to  take  their  course. ^ 
/  It  now  became  a  primary  object  for  the  rebels  to  enter 

I  London.  Hunger  was  already  besieging  the  camp  on  Black- 
heath.^  Not  only  could  they  not  maintain  their  present 
position;  they  could  not  even  join  the  Essex  rebels  on  the 
northern  shore,  unless  the  London  road  was  opened  to  them. 
There  was  no  other  bridge  over  the  Thames  within  miles, 
i      and  they  seem  not  to  have  had  shipping  sufficient  to  attempt 

>  Froiss.,  ii.  462.  ^  ^_  ^__  513  .  proiss.,  ii.  465  ;  Cont.  Eulog.,  iii.  352. 

3  Froiss.,  ii.  466. 


Wed.  Jxjnb  12  LONDON   BEIDGE  227 

anything  on  the  river.  London  Bridge  was  at  that  time  one 
of  the  wonders  of  the  world.  Its  two  parapets  were  rows  of 
houses.  It  was  a  street  containing  a  fine  church.  The  thir- 
teenth opening  from  the  northern  shore  was  a  drawbridge  that 
could  be  raised  to  let  ships  pass  below,  and  to  stop  thorough- 
fare above.  This  gap  was  further  commanded  by  a  strong 
tower,  on  the  top  of  which  traitors'  heads  were  exposed  on 
pikes.  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  and  his  army  were,  in  Queen 
Mary's  reign,  kept  by  this  simple  device  on  the  Surrey  side, 
and  there  might  Wat  Tyler  have  been  kept  in  1381.  The  fate 
of  the  nation  hung  on  the  hinges  of  that  drawbridge.  If  it 
could  be  held  up  for  a  few  days  longer,  the  head  of  the  rebel- 
lion would  be  broken,  the  Court  free,  the  government  again  in 
communication  with  the  country.^ 

The  Mayor,  Walworth,  and  the  Corporation  were  strongly 
on  the  side  of  law  and  order.  Indeed,  as  the  King  and 
ministers  were  now  lodging  at  the  Tower,  the  municipal 
officers  were  under  the  eye  of  government.  It  would  have 
been  impossible  for  them  to  plead,  like  the  governing  bodies 
of  other  towns,  that  they  supposed  the  King  to  be  on  the  side 
of  the  rebels.  Walworth  decided  to  guard  the  bridge  and  to 
send  to  the  peasants  bidding  them,  in  the  names  of  the  King 
and  the  city  together,  come  no  nearer  to  London.  A  com- 
mittee of  three  aldermen  rode  out  to  Blackheath  to  deliver  the 
message.  Two  of  them,  Adam  Carlyll  and  John  Fresh,  faith- 
fully performed  their  mission.  But  the  third  alderman, 
named  John  Horn,  separated  himself  from  his  two  colleagues, 
conferred  apart  with  the  rebel  leaders,  and  exhorted  them  to 
march  on  London  at  once,  for  they  would  be  received  with 
acclamations  into  the  city.  Such  was  the  strength  of  the 
rebel  party  within  the  walls,  that  even  after  this  treachery 
Horn  did  not  fear  to  return.  Indeed  he  brought  in  with  him 
several  of  the  peasants,  and  lodged  them  that  night  in  his 
house ;  he  even  went  so  far  as  to  visit  Walworth  and  advise 
him  to  admit  the  mob.  He  would  himself,  he  said,  be  surety 
for  its  good  behaviour. 

Meanwhile,  encouraged  by  Horn's  advice,  and  disgusted  at 
the  failure  of  the  conference  at  Eotherhithe,  the  rebels  the 

1  H.  B.,  514  ;  Jusserand's  Vie  iwmade,  W^"^^  siicle,  20. 

Q  2 


228  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OP  1381 

same  evening  advanced  off  Blackheath  into  Southwark,  and 
gave  out  that  they  would  burn  down  the  suburb  if  they  were 
excluded  from  the  city.  The  threat  was  emphasised  by  the 
destruction  of  Marshalsea  prison  before  the  eyes  of  the  citizen- 
guard  on  London  Bridge.^  Other  rioters  gutted  Lambeth 
Palace,  with  cries  of  '  A  revell !  a  revell ! '  as  an  earnest  of 
their  intentions  against  the  Primate-Chancellor.^  Some  began 
to  pull  down  the  private  houses  of  official  persons  and  jury- 
men on  the  Surrey  side.^  The  danger  of  Southwark  was  not 
the  only  pressure  brought  to  bear  on  the  authorities.  The 
lower  orders  in  the  city  itself  were  for  the  rebels.  The  stal- 
wart prentices,  trained  in  many  a  street  fight,  were  attracted 
by  the  prospect  of  a  riot  on  a  gigantic  scale.  The  sacred 
right  of  insurrection  was  well  known  to  them  ;  it  had  become 
almost  a  light  thing  in  their  eyes.  This  would  be  a  rare 
opportunity  to  pay  off  old  scores  against  John  of  Gaunt, 
against  the  Flemings  of  the  river- side  and  the  lawyers  of  the 
Temple.  Besides  the  apprentices,  there  was  a  vast  floating 
population  of  labourers  in  and  out  of  employment,  of  men  of 
all  sorts  who  had  come  to  make  their  fortunes  in  London,  of 
runaway  villeins,  and  plotters  who  had  come  there  on  purpose 
to  be  at  hand  at  this  critical  moment. 

Nothing  was  done  that  night,  but  on  Thursday  morning 
Alderman  Horn  rode  out  again  to  harangue  the  peasants.  He 
took  with  him  the  royal  standard,  which  he  had  obtained  from 
the  town  clerk,  so  as  to  figure  as  an  authorised  messenger.  On 
his  way  out  he  was  met  by  a  man  really  commissioned  by  the 
King  to  speak  with  the  rebels,  and  the  two  bandied  words. 
Horn  rode  on  to  Tyler  and  his  confederates,  and  urged  them 
to  advance  on  the  bridge,  over  which  he  said  they  would  be 
admitted  as  friends.  Such,  in  fact,  was  now  the  case.  The 
bridge  had  that  morning  been  duly  occupied  by  Walter 
Sybyle,  '  the  Alderman  of  Bridge,'  so  called  because  that  im- 
portant ingress  lay  in  the  ward  for  which  he  was  responsible. 
Several  magnates  of  the  city  came  to  help  him  hold  it,  but  he 
refused  their  services  in  the  most  positive  manner,  and  insisted 

1  C.  R.  R.,  488,  Eex.  vi.  (Eev.  190-1) ;  H.  R.,  514  ;  Froiss.,  ii.  468  ; 
Knighton,  ii.  132. 

2  H.  R.,  514  ;  Higden,  ix.  1-2.  ^  ^^  ^_^  514^ 


Thtjes.  June  13      THE   EEBELS   ENTEE  LONDON  229 

on  his  undoubted  privilege.  No  one,  he  said,  should  have 
anything  to  do  with  the  watch  except  his  own  men.  It  is 
hard  to  say  whether  it  was  known,  at  the  time  when  Sybyle 
seized  the  bridge,  that  he  would  play  into  the  hands  of  the 
rebels.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  Walworth  suspected  him  from 
the  first,  but  did  not  dare  to  interpose  for  fear  of  the  lower 
classes.  The  opening  of  the  bridge  was  afterwards  attributed 
to  popular  feeling,  in  which  Sybyle's  real  strength  lay  far 
more  than  in  his  official  right  to  guard  the  bridge.  Once  in 
possession,  he  did  not  long  conceal  his  friendliness  towards 
the  peasants,  and  made  it  clear  to  the  city  authorities  that 
he  would  soon  let  down  the  drawbridge,  whether  they  con- 
sented or  not.  Determining  to  make  the  best  of  a  bad  situa- 
tion, the  Mayor  came  to  terms  with  Wat  Tyler.  He  gave 
leave  of  entry  to  the  rebels  on  condition  that  they  would  pay 
for  everything  they  took,  and  do  no  damage  to  the  city.  The 
same  day,  and  perhaps  about  the  same  hour,  that  the  Kentish 
rebels  came  pouring  over  London  Bridge,  a  friend  on  the  north 
side  of  the  river  opened  Aldgate  to  the  men  of  Essex.  Walworth 
had  closed  it  against  them  the  day  before,  and  it  was  now 
unbarred  in  spite  of  his  orders.^  '  They  entered  in  troops  of 
one  or  two  hundred,'  says  Froissart,  '  by  twenties  or  thirties, 
according  to  the  populousness  of  the  towns  they  came  from, 
and  as  they  came  into  London  they  lodged  themselves.'  The 
supplies  of  the  city  were  put  at  their  service.  Friend  and  foe 
alike,  for  fear  or  favour,  made  them  welcome.  Great  merchants 
broached  the  Burgundy  in  their  cellars  for  throats  accustomed 
to  the  upland  ale  of  the  village  breweries.^  Hobb  and  Straw, 
Piers  and  Gamelyn,  stared  at  sights  which  neither  they  nor 
their  fathers  nor  grandfathers  before  them  had  beheld,  the 
mighty  city  of  red-tiled  roofs,  the  endless  labyrinths  of  narrow 
lanes  and  winding  alleys,  the  innumerable  churches,  the 
wharves  where  strange  seafaring  folk  spoke  tongues  they  had 
never  heard  and  used  gestures  they  had  never  seen. 

During  three  days,  while  the  mob  was  in  possession 
of  London,  fresh  detachments  came  straggling  in  hour  by 
hour  from  counties  near  and  far.^     But  there  were  from  the 

»  C.  R.  R.,  488,  Eex.  vi.  (E6v.  190-9) ;  Loftie's  London,    197. 
^  Wals.,  i.  457  ;  Froiss.,  ii.  468.  ^  See  Ap. 


230  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

beginning  enough  to  overawe  the  authorities  and  to  prevent 
any  attempt  at  resistance.  The  great  majority  came  from  the 
counties  adjacent  to  the  city,  but  representatives  from  the 
East  AngKan  peasantry  now  in  arms,  from  the  corporation  of 
Oxford,  and  from  many  of  the  other  counties  and  towns  then 
in  a  state  of  rebellion,  were  present  to  support  the  leaders 
and  to  push  their  claims  on  the  captive  Court. 

Thursday  was  a  busy  day  for  the  new  masters  of  London. 
The  first  wish  of  the  city  prentices  was  to  be  revenged  on 
John  of  Gaunt.  The  old  quarrel  between  the  city  and  the 
Duke,  which  had  broken  out  four  years  back  on  the  remark- 
able occasion  of  Wycliffe's  trial  at  St.  Paul's,  was  not  likely 
to  be  forgotten.  The  Savoy  had  then  been  spared  at  the 
instance  of  Bishop  Courtenay,  though  the  mob  that  rushed  to 
burn  it  had  got  half  way  down  the  Strand  on  the  road  to  riot. 
The  proud  city  had  been  forced  to  humble  itself  before  the 
Duke  for  that  breach  of  the  peace.  Now  the  whole  country 
was  up  in  arms,  and  the  rebels  all  over  the  kingdom,  in  York- 
shire, Leicestershire,  and  the  home  counties  alike,  were  at 
open  war  against  John  of  Gaunt,  destroying  his  property  and 
.seeking  the  lives  of  his  servants.  The  Kentish  men  had  sworn 
that  they  would  take  '  no  King  called  John.'  Their  first  cry 
as  they  poured  into  the  city  was  '  To  the  Savoy,  to  the  Savoy  ! ' 
The  men  of  London  appear  to  have  begun  the  attack,  but 
the  bands  of  Kent  and  Essex  soon  joined  them  in  the  work 
of  destruction.  Peasants  and  prentices  rushed  out  by  the 
western  gates,  swept  along  the  river-bank,  burst  into  the 
Palace,  and  threw  the  rich  furniture  and  treasures  out  of  doors 
and  windows.  In  the  street  men  with  axes  hacked  the  furni- 
ture to  pieces  as  fast  as  it  was  thrown  out  to  them,  while 
others  seized  and  threw  it  into  the  river.  The  noticeable 
circumstance,  distinguishing  this  act  of  destruction  from  almost 
all  others  that  took  place  this  summer,  was  the  prohibition 
of  plundering.  The  place  was  accursed ;  everything  that 
belonged  to  the  Duke  was  to  be  destroyed.  As  it  was  the  first 
outrage  after  the  entry  into  London,  the  rebels  were  perhaps 
still  under  the  influence  of  the  promise  given  to  Walworth  at 
the  time  of  their  admission  that  they  would  steal  nothing. 
*  We  are  no  thieves,'  they  cried  as  they  broke  everything  to 


Thtjes.  June  13  THE   MOB   IN   THE   STEEETS  231 

pieces.  But  this  self-sacrificing  ideal  did  not  retain  its  hold 
over  them  beyond  the  first  day.  Indeed  the  sin  of  Achan 
was  common  enough  even  on  this  occasion ;  convictions  for 
theft  done  at  the  destruction  of  the  Savoy,  afterwards  showed 
how  incompletely  the  mob  had  fulfilled  its  laudable  intention.^ 
Flames  were  finally  applied  to  the  wrecked  palace.  The  ruins 
of  Kenilworth  still  bear  witness  to  the  taste  and  magnificence 
of  the  Duke,  but  the  residence  that  was  justly  his  favourite 
perished  from  the  face  of  the  earth. ^ 

Meanwhile  a  similar  vengeance  was  being  wreaked  on 
another  great  offender,  Eobert  Hales,  the  Treasurer  of  England, 
by  the  destruction  of  his  magnificent  manor-house  at  High- 
bury. He,  next  to  the  Duke  and  the  Primate- Chancellor, 
represented  to  the  minds  of  the  rebels  the  bad  government  of 
the  last  few  years  ;  and  he  had  besides  a  personal  enemy 
named  Thomas  Frandon,  who  made  it  his  chief  object  feo  stir 
up  the  rioters  against  the  Treasurer's  property  and  life.  It  so 
happened  that  Hales  was  also  Master  of  the  Order  of  St.  John 
of  Jerusalem  in  England.  The  buildings  and  priories  of  that 
society  were  destroyed,  apparently  out  of  spite  to  the  Treasurer. 
Three  days  before,  the  Priory  at  Crossing  in  Essex  had  been 
attacked,  and  the  central  hospital  of  the  order  at  Clerkenwell 
now  went  up  in  flames,  and  was  kept  burning  by  the  mob  for 
several  days.^  Fleet  and  Westminster  prisons  were  broken 
open,  as  the  Marshalsea  and  King's  Bench  had  been  the  day 
before.  Their  contents  swelled  the  rising  floods  of  rascality. 
But  the  building  most  obvious  to  attack  was  the  Temple,  the 
heart  of  the  iniquitous  system  of  law  which  strangled  the 
rights  of  man.  The  Inns  of  Court,  the  dens  of  the  vile  race, 
were  levelled  with  the  ground  ;  all  the  rolls  and  records  that 
could  be  found  in  the  Temple  were  carried  to  '  the  great 
chimney  '  and  burnt  together,  while  a  proclamation  was  issued 
that  all  lawyers  were  to  be  beheaded.*  The  royal  account- 
books  at  the  ofiices  in  Milk  Street  soon  afterwards  suffered  the 
same  fate  as  the  legal  records,  probably  on  account  of  their 

»  Anc.  Ind.,  no.  35,  skin  10  ;  C.  E.  B.,  487,  Eex.  19  d. ;  C.  B.  B.,  842, 
*Eex.  39(E6v.  p.  199). 

2  H.  B.,  514-5  ;  C.  B.  B.,  488,  Eex.  vi.  (E6v.  195)  ;  Wals.,  i.  457  ;  Cont. 
Eulog.,  352 ;  Higden,  ix.  2  ;  Knighton,  ii.  134. 

»  Wals.,  i.  457;  H.  i?.,514,  516;  C.  B.  B.,  483,  Eex.  23;  484,  Eex.  3 ;  486, 
Eex.  10;   488,  Eex.  6  (Eev.  194-5,  202).  *  Wals.,  i.  457  ;  H.  B.,  515-6. 


t^ 


232         ^^ffi^EASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

connection  with  the  taxes.^  The  reign  of  terror  had  begun. 
The  victims  were  usually  dragged  from  the  place  of  their 
arrest  to  a  block  in  Cheapside,  where  their  heads  were  in- 
stantly struck  off. 

There  was  but  one  ark  of  safety,  where  many  whose  blood 
was  sought  had  already  taken  refuge.  Gower  compares  the 
Tower  of  London  during  this  terrible  crisis  to  a  ship  into 
which  all  those  had  climbed  who  could  not  live  in  the  raging 
sea.  It  had  been  the  King's  head-quarters  for  the  last  two 
days.  It  was  from  the  Tower  steps  that  he  had  been  rowed 
across  to  the  conference  at  Eotherhithe.  His  mother  was 
with  him  in  the  famous  fortress,  as  were  Treasurer  Hales  and 
Chancellor  Sudbury,  for  whose  heads  the  rebels  clamoured  ; 
his  uncle  Buckingham  and  his  young  cousin  Henry,  who  was 
destined  to  depose  him ;  the  Earls  of  Kent,  Suffolk,  and 
Warwick  ;  Leg,  the  author  of  the  poll-tax  commission,  now 
trembling  for  his  life,  and,  last  but  not  least,  the  Mayor 
Walworth.^  But  the  noblest  among  them  all  was  the  tried 
and  faithful  servant  of  Edward  the  Third,  the  Ead  of  Salis- 
bury. A  soldier  who  had  shared  in  the  early  glories  of  the 
Black  Prince,  a  diplomatist  who  had  dictated  the  terms  of 
Bretigny  to  the  Court  of  France,  he  seems  to  have  held  aloof 
in  his  old  age  from  the  intrigues  of  home  politics  ;  but  in  the 
imminent  danger  that  now  threatened  his  country  he  acted  a 
part  not  unworthy  of  the  title  he  bore.  One  man  was  absent 
from  this  assembly  of  notables,  who,  if  he  had  been  present, 
would  assuredly  never  have  left  the  Tower  alive.  John  of 
Gaunt  had  good  cause  to  be  thankful  that,  during  the  month 
when  England  was  in  the  hands  of  those  who  sought  his  life, 
he  was  across  the  border  arranging  a  truce  with  the  Scots. 

By  the  evening  of  Thursday,  a  great  mob  was  encamped 
on  St.  Catherine's  Hill,  over  against  the  Tower,  clamouring 
for  the  death  of  the  ministers  who  had  there  taken  refuge. 
Sudbury  was  the  principal  victim  whom  they  demanded. 
The  most  horrible  of  all  sounds,  the  roar  of  a  mob  howling 
for  blood,  ever  and  again  penetrated  into  the  chambers  of  the 
Tower  where  prelates  and  nobles  *  sat  still  with  awful  eye.'  ^ 

»  C.  B.  B.,  482,  Eex.  43.  ^  Proiss.,  ii.  469-71  ;  Knighton,  ii.  132-3. 

^  Froiss.,  ii.  469. 


Thues.  Jotb  13  THE  NOBLES  IN  THE  TOWEE  233 

The  young  King,  from  a  high  turret  window,  watched  the 
conflagrations  reddening  the  heavens.^  In  all  parts  of  the 
city  and  its  suburbs  the  flames  shot  up  from  the  mansions  of 
those  who  had  displeased  the  people.  Far  away  to  the  West, 
beyond  the  burning  Savoy,  fire  ascended  from  mansions  in 
Westminster ;  ^  away  to  the  North  blazed  the  Treasurer's 
manor  at  Highbury.  Close  beneath  him  lay  the  rebel  camp, 
whence  ominous  noises  now  and  again  rose.  Eeturning 
pensive  and  sad  from  these  unwonted  sights  and  sounds, 
the  boy  held  counsel  with  the  wisest  of  his  kingdom  shut  up 
within  the  same  walls.    (See  map,  p.  228.) 

It  was  not  likely  that  the  rebels  could  execute  their  threat 
of  storming  the  Tower,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  city,  the 
whole  kingdom,  lay  in  their  hands  as  a  hostage.  Some- 
thing had  to  be  done,  and  done  quickly.  Walworth  and  the 
bolder  spirits  were  for  sallying  out  at  midnight  with  all 
their  forces.  A  fierce  and  sudden  onslaught  would  break  up 
the  camp  on  St.  Catherine's  Hill,  and  then  the  peasants 
could  be  '  killed  like  flies  '  throughout  the  streets  of  London. 
There  was  a  strong  regiment  of  men-at-arms  in  the  Tower 
and  Sir  Eobert  KnoUes  would  be  certain  to  co-operate  from 
the  city ;  disdaining  to  hide  in  the  fortress,  he  was  holding 
his  own  house  with  the  retainers  who  had  made  his  name  a 
terror  in  France.  The  plan  was  calculated  to  warm  the 
heart  of  that  brave  but  brutal  soldier.  Many  of  the  better 
sort  of  citizens  had  armed  themselves  and  their  body-servants 
and  could  be  relied  on  to  join  in  the  massacre.  But  wiser 
and  milder  counsels  prevailed.  No  one  could  accuse  Salis- 
bury of  cowardice,  for  he  had  '  fought  like  a  lion  '  before  his 
division  at  Poitiers  and  in  a  hundred  onslaughts  since.  It  was 
he  who  now  declared  against  this  rash  plan  of  attack.  '  Sire,' 
he  said  to  the  King, '  if  you  can  appease  them  by  fair  words  and 
grant  them  what  they  wish,  it  will  be  so  much  the  better ; 
for  should  we  begin  what  we  cannot  go  through,  we  shall  never 
be  able  to  recover  it.  It  will  be  all  over  with  us  and  our  heirs, 
and  England  will  be  a  desert. '  ^  The  policy  of  graceful 
concession  was  adopted  by  the  Council  as  the  most  expedient 

»  H.  B.,  516.     2  zbid.  516,  line  7,  and  515,  lines  30-1,  Butterwyke's  house. 
'  Froiss.,  ii,  469-70. 


234  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

for  the  hour.  A  plan  was  accordingly  arranged  by  which 
they  hoped  to  come  to  terms  with  the  rebels,  and  at  the  same 
time  afford  the  threatened  ministers  an  opportunity  of  escape. 
The  rebels  were  invited  to  meet  the  King  next  day  at  Mile 
End,  outside  the  city.  If  all  the  mob  moved  off  there, 
London  would  be  left  in  the  hands  of  the  well-mean- 
ing citizens  for  at  least  some  hours,  and  Sudbury  and 
Hales  could  get  away.^  The  Archbishop,  conscious  that 
he  was  supposed  to  stand  between  the  good  King  and 
his  subjects,  had  resigned  the  Great  Seal  into  Kichard's 
hands  the  day  before,  when  the  rebels  entered  Southwark  ;  ^ 
but  his  resignation  had  done  nothing  to  appease  the  mob. 
In  the  early  hours  of  Friday  morning  he  attempted  to  escape 
by  water  from  the  Tower  stairs,  but  was  observed  by  the 
watch  on  St.  Catherine's  Hill  and  forced  to  abandon  the 
attempt.^  His  only  chance  lay  in  the  plan  contrived  to  draw 
away  the  besiegers. 

As  the  day  broke  the  multitude  in  front  of  the  Tower 
renewed  their  discordant  clamour.  They  were  pacified  by  the 
order  to  meet  the  King  at  Mile  End,  but  only  a  part  of  the 
rebel  army  moved  off  thither.  Enough  remained  to  command 
the  exits  of  the  fortress  and  to  continue  the  work  of  destruc- 
tion in  the  city.*  It  was  still  early  in  the  day  when  the  King, 
with  a  cavalcade  of  the  highest  nobles  of  the  realm,  rode  out 
of  the  Tower  Gates  to  meet  the  rebels  at  the  rendezvous. 
Sudbury  and  Hales  were  left  behind.  They  understood  that 
they  would  probably  be  sacrificed  and  were  preparing  for 
death.  The  King's  half  brothers,  the  Earl  of  Kent  and  Sir 
John  Holland,  ventured  to  ride  out  in  the  royal  train,  but  as 
soon  as  they  got  into  the  country  galloped  off  across  the 
fields  to  find  some  safer  place  than  Mile  End.  Most  of  the 
nobility,  however,  showed  their  loyalty  to  the  King,  if  not 
their  trust  in  the  good  faith  of  his  subjects,  by  appearing 
with  him  at  the  place  of  conference.  This  place  was  a 
meadow  which  the  Londoners  used  for  their  sports  in 
summer-time ;  it  can  scarcely  have  been  two  miles  distant 
from  the  Tower  by  road,  but  it  was  then  well  out  of  the 

>  H.  B.,  516,  line  17.  -  Feed.,  iv.  123.  =•  H.  E.,  517. 

*  Wals.,  i.  458  ;  Froiss.,  ii.  470. 


Fei.  June  14     CONCESSIONS  AT  MILE  END  235 

town ;  the  fields  through  which  the  King  and  his  rebellious 
people  passed  have  long  been  the  site  of  the  notorious  slums 
of  Whitechapel.  The  King  conceded  all.  Nothing  less  than 
complete  abolition  of  serfage  throughout  the  land  could  satisfy 
the  bulk  of  the  rebels.  The  commutation  of  all  servile  dues 
for  a  rent  of  fourpence  an  acre  put  the  reform  on  a  practical 
basis.  So  small  a  rent  might  perhaps  have  ruined  the  land- 
lords and  proved  in  the  long  run  disastrous,  but  the  scheme 
at  least  had  pretensions  to  common-sense.  It  was  not 
communism,  or  even  confiscation.  But  it  is  improbable  that 
the  King's  advisers  considered  it  seriously  as  a  settlement. 
If  they  had,  they  would  have  haggled  more  over  the  terms. 
They  regarded  it  only  as  a  means  of  freeing  themselves  from 
the  present  situation,  as  John  regarded  Magna  Charta,  as 
Charles  the  First  regarded  the  Petition  of  Eight.  Another 
concession,  made  in  a  similar  spirit,  was  a  general  pardon  to 
all  concerned  in  the  rebellion.  As  a  further  proof  of  his 
protection,  Eichard  gave  to  the  representatives  of  each  county 
present  a  royal  banner,  under  which  they  could  henceforth 
march  with  the  law  on  their  side.  Thirty  clerks  were  at 
once  set  to  work  to  draw  up  the  charters  of  liberation  and 
pardon  in  the  proper  legal  form  for  every  village  and  manor, 
as  well  as  more  generally  for  every  shire.  The  exulting 
peasants  then  poured  back  into  town  through  Aldgate,  their 
King  whom  they  had  conquered  in  the  midst.  Freedom  was 
theirs,  and  the  dream  of  prosperity  and  good  government. 
But  there  were  many  among  them  who  understood  the  value 
of  promises  of  State,  and  knew  that  all  was  still  to  win.^ 

The  last  hope  of  real  understanding  and  peace  between 
the  classes,  if  ever  there  had  been  any,  was  now  extinguished 
by  a  tragic  event.  The  rebels  broke  into  the  Tower. 
Authorities  differ  as  to  the  exact  moment,  some  place  it  during 
and  some  after  the  conference  at  Mile  End.  But  it  is  unfor- 
tunately certain  that  no  resistance  was  made  by  the  very  for- 
midable body  of  well-armed  soldiers,  who  might  have  defended 
such  a  stronghold  for  many  days  even  against  a  picked  army. 
These  troops  were  ordered,  or  at  least  permitted,  by  the  King 
to  let  in  the  mob.     It  appears  that  part  of  the  agreement  with 

'  Mon.  Eve.,  27-8 ;  Froiss.,  ii.  471-2  ;  Higden,  ix.  3  ;  H.  B.,  517. 


236  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OP  1381 

the  rebels  was  that  the  Tower  and  the  refugees  it  contained 
were  to  be  delivered  over  to  their  wrath.^  The  dark  passages 
and  inmost  chambers  of  that  ancient  fortress  were  choked 
with  the  throng  of  ruffians,  while  the  soldiers  stood  back  along 
the  walls  to  let  them  pass,  and  looked  on  helplessly  at  the 
outrages  that  followed.  Murderers  broke  into  strong  room 
and  bower ;  even  the  King's  bed  was  torn  up,  lest  some  one 
should  be  lurking  in  it.  The  unfortunate  Leg,  the  farmer 
of  the  poll-tax,  paid  with  his  life-blood  for  that  unprofit- 
able speculation.  A  learned  friar,  the  friend  and  adviser 
of  John  of  Gaunt,  was  torn  to  pieces  as  a  substitute  for  his 
patron.  Though  the  hunt  roared  through  every  chamber,  it 
was  in  the  chapel  that  the  noblest  hart  lay  harboured. 
Archbishop  Sudbury  had  realised  that  he  was  to  be  sacrificed. 
He  had  been  engaged,  since  the  King  started  for  Mile  End,  in 
preparing  the  Treasurer  and  himself  for  death.  He  had  con- 
fessed Hales,  and  both  had  taken  the  Sacrament.  He  was 
still  performing  the  service  of  the  Mass,  when  the  mob  burst 
into  the  chapel,  seized  him  at  the  altar,  and  hurried  him 
across  the  moat  to  Tower  Hill,  where  a  vast  multitude  of 
those  who  had  been  unable  to  press  into  the  fortress  greeted 
his  appearance  with  a  savage  yell.  His  head  was  struck  off 
on  the  spot  where  so  many  famous  men  have  since  perished 
with  more  seemly  circumstance.  The  Treasurer  Hales  suffered 
with  him,  and  their  two  heads,  mounted  over  London  Bridge, 
grinned  down  on  the  bands  of  peasants  who  were  still  flocking 
into  the  capital  from  far  distant  parts. ^ 

The  Archbishop's  death  was  greeted  with  shouts  of  accla- 
mation by  a  vast  concourse  of  people.  Such  a  scene  demon- 
strates the  hopeless  failure  of  the  governing  classes  in  Church 
and  State  to  keep  in  touch  with  their  subjects.  When 
brought  face  to  face,  these  were  the  real  relations  between 
them.  The  mob  slew  Sudbury,  not  so  much  because  he  was 
Archbishop,  though  that  did  not  deter  them,  as  because  he 
was  the  Chancellor  who  had  misgoverned  the  country  and 
introduced  the  poll-tax.^     The  one  exercise  of  his  episcopal 

'  Wals.,  i.  458,  lines  34-43  ;  H.  B.,  517,  line  32. 

2  Froiss.,  ii.  470 ;  Higden,  ix.  3  ;  H.  R.,  517  ;   Wals.,  i.  458-62  ;  Anc.  Ind., 
no.  35,  skin  17.  ^  Froiss.,  ii.  463. 


Fkt.  Jttnb  14  MUEDEE  OF  THE  AECHBISHOP  237 

authority,  which  counted  againt  him,  had  been  his  imprison- 
ment of  John  Ball.  He  had  exerted  his  power  against  that 
disturber  of  society  only  in  a  half-hearted  manner,  but  it  had 
been  better  for  him  that  day  if  he  had  burned  John  Wycliffe 
alive ;  for  Ball  had  created  the  spirit  of  the  rebellion,  and  an 
insult  to  the  preacher  was  an  insult  to  the  thousands  who 
hung  on  his  lips.  Everything  we  know  of  Sudbury's  life  is 
to  his  credit  as  a  kind  and  good  man,  and  in  his  last  hour  he 
showed  a  fearless  dignity,  which  rivals  Becket's  determina- 
tion to  be  struck  down  at  his  post.  He  won  less  respect 
from  the  Church  than  his  manner  of  life  and  death  deserved, 
for  he  had  shown  himself  cool  in  defending  overgrown  eccle- 
siastical privilege,  and  had  neglected  or  refused  to  persecute 
heretics.  If  he  had  lived,  the  gentle  Sudbury  would  have 
had  the  will,  though  not  the  strength,  to  keep  the  Church 
off  the  fatal  course  of  pride  and  persecution  into  which  she 
was  hurrying. 

After  these  horrors  the  Tower  was  no  fit  place  for  the 
royal  residence.  The  Queen-mother  had  been  treated  with 
insolence  and  vulgarity  by  the  mob  that  burst  into  her 
apartments,  but  had  been  suffered  to  escape  by  boat.  She 
was  rowed  up  the  river  to  Barnard  Castle  ward,  where  she 
landed  and  took  up  her  residence  at  the  Garde  Eobe,  in  Carter 
Lane,  near  St.  Paul's.  Here  she  was  joined  by  her  son  on  his 
return  from  Mile  End.^  The  rest  of  the  day  was  a  busy  one. 
The  manumissions  and  pardons  were  being  copied  out,  and 
distributed  to  the  rebels  with  advice  to  return  home  as 
fast  as  possible.  The  bulk  of  the  insurgents  left  London  with 
the  charters  in  their  hands,  on  Friday  evening  and  Saturday 
morning,  but  to  the  horror  of  the  authorities  a  large  body 
remained.  Meanwhile  murder  went  on  faster  than  ever. 
The  apprentices  and  men  of  London  were  engaged  in  slaughter- 
ing the  Flemings,  who  lived  in  a  quarter  of  their  own  by  the 
river-side,  and  were,  like  most  foreigners  who  had  settled 
down  in  England  for  purposes  of  trade  and  industry,  hateful 
to  the  native  born.  Men  from  the  Kentish  villages  joined 
their  city  friends  in  the  work,  and  the  cries  of  slayers  and 
slain  went  on  long  after  sunset,  making  night  hideous.   Before 

1  Eroiss.,  ii.  471 ;  Stubbs,  ii.  480,  note  4  ;  Fc&d.,  iv.  123. 


238  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

morning  several  hundreds  of  these  unfortunate  foreigners  had 
been  massacred.^  As  so  often  happens  in  popular  uprisings, 
the  worse  elements  rose  to  the  top  and  took  the  lead  as  the 
revolt  continued.  The  opening  of  the  gaols  had  not  improved 
the  personnel  of  the  crowd.  While  many  an  honest  peasant 
was  trudging  home  with  his  charter  of  liberty  which  he  had 
won  at  the  risk  of  his  neck,  the  vilest  of  mankind  were 
murdering,  burning  and  robbing,  not  only  in  London,  but  in  all 
parts  of  the  country.  But  the  massacre  of  the  Flemings  stands 
marked  out  by  its  peculiar  atrocity.  There  is  but  one  reference 
to  the  Eising  in  Chaucer's  '  Canterbury  Tales.'  In  the  '  Nun's 
Priest's  '  tale  he  describes  the  farm  servants  chasing  a  fox  : — 

Certes  Jack  Straw  and  his  meinie 
Ne  maden  never  shoutes  half  so  shrille 
f  Whan  that  they  wolden  any  Fleming  kiUe, 

As  thilke  day  was  made  upon  the  fox. 

For  one  victim  of  the  mob  we  can  feel  little  pity.  John 
Lyons,  who  had  on  the  Duke's  return  to  power  escaped  all  the 
forfeitures  inflicted  by  the  Good  Parliament,  at  last  paid  the 
penalty  of  his  frauds  and  public  robberies.  He  was  dragged 
from  his  own  house  and  beheaded.^  The  other  great  London 
citizens,  who  were  not  notorious  for  inflicting  injuries  on  the 
community  at  large,  were  spared.  One  of  them,  the  ex-mayor 
Brembre,  was  riding  by  the  King's  side  on  Friday,  when 
his  bridle  was  seized  by  a  brewer  called  William  Trueman, 
to  whom  he  had  done  some  injury  during  his  period  of  office 
three  years  back.  The  fellow  upbraided  him  in  the  King's 
presence,  and  no  one  dared  reply.  Later  on  the  brewer  came 
to  Brembre's  house  in  the  city,  '  with  a  captain  of  the  mob, 
and  by  the  power  of  the  said  captain  frightened  him  and  much 
disquieted  all  his  family.'  Trueman  was  finally  appeased  by 
a  present  of  3L  10s.  The  power  of  the  mob  was  on  several 
similar  occasions  used  by  intriguers  to  settle  private  disputes.^ 

Night  closed  down  on  scenes  such  as  these,  and  on  Saturday 
morning  it  was  too  clear  that  the  authorities  had  succeeded 
in  appeasing  only  a  part  of  the  rebels.     Many  thousands  were 

'  Wals.,  i.  462;   H.  B.,  518;   Anc.  Ind.,  no.  35,  skin   19;    Coji^t.  Eulog., 
p.  353  ;  Froiss.,  ii.  472. 

2  Knighton,  ii.  136  ;  Calendar  of  Pat.  Rolls,  Eic.  II.,  ii.  26. 

=*  C.  R.  R.,  482,  Eex.  39  (Eev.  p.  207) ;  C.  B.  R.  and  Anc.  Ind.,  passim. 


1 

Sat.  June  15       '  TO  FINISH   THE   TEEEOE  '  239 

leaving  London,  but  many  thousands  still  remained.  Some 
of  these  were  only  waiting  to  receive  their  charters  of  liberty, 
which  had  not  all  been  drawn  up  on  Friday.'  But  a  large 
section,  especially  the  men  of  Kent,  declared  that  they  were 
not  yet  satisfied.  Many  of  them  were  wise  enough  to  per- 
ceive that  there  would  be  no  security  for  what  had  been 
gained,  unless  the  King  and  government  were  kept  under  the 
pressure  which  had  extorted  the  concessions.  It  is  hard  to 
say  what  form  of  political  settlement  they  contemplated. 
They  had  probably  many  different  views  on  the  question,  all 
more  or  less  confused.  The  absurd  accusations  of  intending 
to  kill  the  King  and  restore  the  Heptarchy  were  sufficiently 
refuted  by  the  action  of  the  mob  at  Smithfield,  where  their 
patient  loyalty  to  Eichard  was  even  pathetic.  It  is  possible 
that  the  leader  who  was  now  at  the  head  of  the  rebels  re- 
maining in  London,  had  some  design  of  securing  for  himself 
a  permanent  share  in  the  government  of  the  country,  pro- 
bably by  directing  the  counsels  of  the  King.  But  even  Wat 
Tyler's  designs  met  with  only  half  support  from  his  followers, 
if  we  may  judge  from  the  acquiescent  manner  in  which  they 
accepted  his  death  at  the  hands  of  Walworth.  There  were 
some  social  grievances  which  they  wished  to  redress.  The 
men  of  Kent,  it  is  said,  wanted  the  game  laws  abolished.^  No 
doubt,  too,  Froissart  is  right  in  saying  that  many  of  those  who 
stayed  on  in  London  only  stayed  to  loot.  The  last  hours  of 
the  occupation  were  worse  than  the  first.  The  rule  professed 
by  the  destroyers  of  the  Savoy  had  long  given  way  to  the 
desire  for  pillage  and  the  instinct  of  murder. 

The  authorities  were  still  face  to  face  with  the  same 
problem  that  had  baffled  them  the  day  before ;  they  had  still 
to  get  rid  of  the  mob.  They  were  determined  to  make  an  end 
of  the  situation  cost  what  it  might.  They  expected  to  come 
to  blows  by  one  way  or  another  in  the  course  of  the  day.  In 
a  proper  spirit  of  sober  resolution,  the  King  and  his  nobles 
first  went  to  prepare  themselves  for  the  terrible  issue. 
Leaving  the  Queen-mother  to  watch  and  pray  for  their  safe 
return,  they  rode  out  from  the  Garde  Eobe  through  Lud- 
gate  and   Temple   Bar,    passed   along  the   Strand,   by   the 

1  Wals.,  i.  463-7.  ^  Knighton,  ii.  137. 


240  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OP  1381 

smouldering  ruins  of  the  Savoy,  to  where  the  Abbey  of 
the  Kings  rose  above  the  roofs  of  Westminster.  They  were 
met  outside  the  doors  by  a  sorrowful  procession.  The  monks 
came  in  penitential  garb  bearing  the  cross  before  them. 
They  had  been  disturbed  and  frightened  by  another  violation 
of  their  sanctuary,  similar  to  the  murder  of  Haule  in  '78. 
Eichard  Imworth,  warden  of  the  Marshalsea  prison,  had  fled 
for  refuge  to  the  abbey.  He  was  known  to  all  the  gaol-birds 
of  the  neighbourhood  as  a  '  pitiless  tormentor '  of  the  convicts 
entrusted  to  his  charge.  His  prison  had  been  destroyed  when 
the  mob  occupied  Southwark,  and  he  himself  now  sought 
safety  at  the  most  sacred  spot  in  England,  the  shrine  of 
Edward  the  Confessor.  He  had  fallen  down  to  clasp  the 
short  marble  pillars  that  then  supported  it,  as  they  still 
support  what  is  left  of  it  to-day,  and  hoped  that  there,  be- 
tween the  tombs  of  three  Plantagenets,  he  might  be  left 
in  peace.  But  the  mob,  headed  by  a  parson  from  a  distant 
Kentish  village,  burst  into  the  abbey  in  full  chase.  The  shrine, 
not  then  hidden  by  a  screen,  was  visible  from  the  bottom  of 
the  aisle.  They  mounted  the  steps  with  a  rush,  tore  Imworth 
away  from  the  pillars  by  main  force,  carried  him  back  to  the 
city,  and  struck  off  his  head  on  the  block  in  Cheapside.^  After 
this  experience  of  mob-rule  the  monks  of  Westminster  came 
out  with  prayers  and  benedictions  to  welcome  the  representa- 
tives of  order. 

The  King  dismounted  and  kissed  the  cross  they  carried. 
The  nobles,  courtiers,  and  men-at-arms  who  were  with  him, 
overwrought  by  the  sights  and  emotions  of  three  days'  hide- 
and-seek  with  death,  burst  into  tears,  which  a  week  before  or 
a  week  after  they  would  have  scorned  to  shed  in  public.  Enter- 
ing the  church,  they  performed  with  unusual  fervour  the 
acts  of  piety  which  at  such  a  moment  appealed  to  them.  The 
highest  nobles  of  the  land  could  be  seen  striving  with  knights 
and  men-at-arms  who  should  kneel  closest  to  the  shrines, 
who  should  first  be  allowed  to  kiss  the  relics  which  the 
Abbey  contained.  Eichard  himself,  after  praying  at  the 
shrine  whence  Imworth  had  so  lately  been  torn,  confessed  his 
boyish  sins  to  one  of  the  fathers,  and  then  rode  off  to  perform 

1  Higden,  ix.  4 ;  H.  R.,  518  ;  C.  B.  B.,  483,  Eex.  9  ;  484,  Eex.  6  (E6v.  212). 


Sat.  Jitne  15      WAT  TYLBE  AT   SMITHFIELD  241 

the  act  of  sober  courage  which,  in  spite  of  all  the  follies  of  his 
manhood,  half  redeems  his  memory.  He  was  followed  by  his 
troop,  whose  confidence,  whether  by  means  of  these  pious 
emotions  or  by  the  fierce  excitement  of  the  game  which  they 
had  to  play,  was  now  fully  restored  and  ready  for  all  that  might 
follow.  It  had  been  determined  to  meet  the  rebels  once  again, 
at  Smithfield.  Another  alternative  was  to  ride  off  from  West- 
minster into  the  country  and  rouse  the  loyalists  of  England 
against  London.  Such  a  course  might  have  been  safer  for 
the  royal  party  personally,  but  would  have  been  more 
dangerous  to  the  commonwealth.  To  leave  London  and  its 
citizens  in  the  hands  of  exasperated  rebels  would  have  been 
to  court  a  terrible  revenge.  Besides,  the  country  itself  was 
still  in  the  hands  of  rioters,  who  would  have  to  be  subdued. 
The  King's  counsellors  undoubtedly  chose  the  right  course  in 
first  securing  London  as  a  basis.^ 

The  famous  meeting  took  place  in  Smithfield,  a  market 
square,  more  or  less  completely  enclosed  by  houses,  lying 
outside  the  walls  of  London  not  far  from  New  Gate.  It  was 
even  then  infamous  for  the  '  great  and  horrible  smells  and 
mortal  abominations,'  ^  which  sullied  its  fair  fame  as  a  cattle 
market  down  to  the  latter  half  of  the  present  century.  The 
rebels,  who  had  assembled  there  in  obedience  to  the  King's 
proclamation,  were  mustered  under  the  royal  banners  granted 
to  them  at  Mile  End ;  they  were  headed  by  a  man  who  was 
afterwards  generally  known  as  Wat  Tyler.  So  many  Tylers 
appear  in  the  records  of  these  troubles  that  it  is  impossible 
to  trace  his  identity  or  his  previous  performances.^  It  is  clear 
that  he  was  a  man  of  the  people,  and  not  one  of  those  gentlenien 
who  in  some  places  consented  to  lead  the  rebels.  He  may  have 
gained  his  position  either  by  really  superior  talents  as  an 
organiser,  or,  as  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  French  Eevolution 
gained  theirs,  solely  by  a  sufficient  display  of  audacity.  One  of 
theKing's  attendants  declared  that  he  recognised  him  at  Smith- 
field  as  one  of  the  most  notorious  rogues  and  robbers  in  Kent. 
He  appears  to  have  been  not  wanting  in  insolence,  and  it  is 
quite  likely  that  his  head  had  been  a  little  turned  by  success. 
He  rode  forward  from  the  ranks  of  his  followers  who  were 

1  Higden,  ix.  4-5  ;  H.  B.,  518.  ^  jej^^,  p^rl,  iii.  87.         *  See  Ap. 

R 


242  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

lined  up  on  one  side  of  the  market,  and  joined  the  group  of 
horsemen  that  surrounded  the  King's  person. 

Precisely  what  passed  during  the  next  two  minutes  seems 
to  have  been  afterwards  forgotten  or  differently  reported  by 
the  actors  in  the  scene.     When  the  story   came  to  be  put 
down,  every  chronicler  obtained  different  details.^    It  appears, 
whatever  his  demands  were,  that  he  treated  the  King  with 
familiarity  and  his    attendants   with   contempt.     The   lords 
and  citizens  were  no  longer  in  the  humour  to  cringe  to  the 
peasants,  and  answered  him  back   roundly.     The   King   at 
first    tried    to    act    as    peace-maker,    but    the   next   minute 
Walworth,  who  like  the  rest  of  the  company  was  wearing 
armour  under  his  official  robes,  struck  Tyler  from  his  horse. 
The  others  leaped  to  the  ground  and  stabbed  him  to  death 
where  he  lay.     It  was  practically  the  first   blow  struck  in 
defence  of  authority  since  the  rebels  had  appeared  on  Black- 
heath.     Its  moral  effect  was  a  complete  success,  for  it  was 
struck   at   exactly  the   right  moment.     The   day  before,  at 
Mile  End,  it  would  probably  have  only  led  to  disaster,  but 
now  the  panic  of  the  upper  classes  was  over,  and  they  were 
ready  to  obey  the  first  signal  for  a  rally  ;  while  the  rebels, 
having  got  most  of  what  they  wanted,  were  half-hearted  in 
support   of   leaders    whom    they   perhaps    regarded   as   too 
forward.     Yet  it  was,  in  the  circumstances,  an  act  of  great 
rashness.      The   multitude    could    not   at   first   see   clearly, 
from  the  other  side  of  the  market-place,  what  was  going  on. 
Some    said,    '  They   are   making   him   a  knight.'     The  next 
moment  the  real  nature  of  the  scuffle  was  evident,  and  a 
thousand  bows  were  bent  in  the  direction  of  the  King  and  his 
party.     The  danger  was  awful.     If  one  man  had  drawn  his 
bow  at  a  venture,  it  would  probably  have  been  the  signal  for 
a  general  discharge.     We  can  suppose  that  the  market-place 
swam  round  before  the  eyes  of  Walworth,  when  he  looked 
'  up  and  saw  what  he  had  done.     But  the'  boy  on  whom  all 
depended  never  lost  his  head  for  a  moment.     With  the  cool- 
ness of  an  old  general  quelling  a  mutiny,  he  rode  alone  across 
the   square,   leaving   his   followers   huddled   together   round 
Tyler's  body.     '  I  am  your  leader,'  he   said   to   the  rebels. 

'  Froiss.,  ii.  476-7 ;  Wals.,  i.  464-5 ;   Knighton,  ii.  137 ;   Cont.  Eulog.,  iii. 
353-4  ;  Higden,  ix.  5-6  ;  H.  R.,  518-20. 


Sat.  June  15       THE   EEBBLS'   NEW   LEADEE  243 

The  sight  of  the  beautiful  child,  whose  good  intentions 
towards  them  they  had  not  yet  learnt  to  distrust,  riding  up 
to  them  with  quiet  confidence,  at  once  disarmed  the  mob, 
which  had  neither  leader  nor  plan.  Eichard  then  rode  back 
to  his  advisers,  and  it  was  arranged  that  he  should  himself 
lead  the  rebels  out  into  the  country,  while  his  followers  went 
back  into  the  city  to  raise  forces.  To  trust  himself  away 
from  his  friends  for  an  indefinite  period,  in  the  midst  of 
lawless  men  whose  whim  might  at  any  moment  be  changed 
by  discovering  that  they  were  tricked,  was  an  act  of  courage 
at  least  as  great  as  that  which  he  had  just  performed.  But 
Eichard  went  through  his  part  to  perfection,  and  led  the 
clamorous  band  out  into  the  meadow  where  the  ruins  of  St. 
John's  Hospital  of  Clerkenwell  still  smouldered  ^  {map,  p.  228). 
Meanwhile  the  Mayor  had  ridden  post-haste  back  into 
the  city,  and  arrayed  the  fighting  force  of  the  wards  with 
all  possible  speed.  Many  loyal  citizens  had  for  days  been 
ready  armed,^  but  no  opportunity  had  yet  been  afforded 
to  mobilise  them  on  account  of  the  presence  of  the  mob 
in  the  streets.  Now  all  opposition  in  the  city  itself  was 
overcome.  The  two  rebel  aldermen,  Sybyle  and  Horn,  at- 
tempted to  persuade  the  citizens  to  man  the  walls  instead  of 
marching  to  the  relief  of  the  King.  They  stated  that  he  had 
already  been  slain  and  that  succour  would  be  too  late.  But 
they  were  nowhere  believed,  and  their  attempt  to  close 
Aldersgate,  and  so  cut  off  the  communication  of  the  city  with 
Smithfield,  completely  failed.^  The  burghers  marched  out 
by  the  north-west  gates  under  the  command  of  Sir  Eobert 
Knolles,  who  had  also  his  own  private  regiment  of  soldiers. 
The  rebels  in  Clerkenwell  fields  were  skilfully  and  rapidly 
surrounded.  They  made  no  attempt  to  protect  themselves 
or  even  to  use  the  King  as  a  hostage,  but  surrendered  at 
discretion  to  the  authorities.  Some  hot-heads  wished  to 
begin  to  massacre  them  on  the  spot,  but  Salisbury  and  the 
King  interfered  to  prevent  such  folly.  The  rest  of  the 
country  was  still  in  open  rebellion,  and  mild  measures  were 
necessary  for  a  day  or  two  more.'*     The  men  of  Kent  were 

'  H.  B.,  520.      2  Froiss.,  ii.  469.      ^  C.  R.  B.,  488,  Eex.  6  (E6v.  194,  197). 
*  Wals.,  i.  466,  ii.  13-4  ;  Froiss.,  ii.  479  ;  Cont.  Eulog.,  354. 

E  2 


244  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OP  1381 

peaceably  dismissed  to  their  homes  across  London  Bridge, 
being  conducted  through  the  city  to  that  point  by  knights 
commissioned  for  the  purpose.  A  band  of  the  more  desperate 
spirits  made  off  northwards  to  continue  the  work  of  rebellion 
elsewhere.^  Eichard  and  Walworth  joyfully  returned  to  the 
city  that  they  had  saved.  At  the  Garde  Eobe  the  Queen- 
mother  rejoiced  over  her  son,  whom  she  had  scarcely  hoped 
to  see  again ;  for  when  the  wards  were  being  called  out,  the 
cry  in  the  city  had  been  '  They  are  killing  the  King !  They 
are  killing  the  King ! '  Leaving  mother  and  son  together  for 
the  rest  of  the  day,^  the  Mayor  went  to  look  for  the  body  of 
the  man  he  had  slain,  and  was  surprised  to  find  that  it  was 
no  longer  lying  on  Smithfield  place.  Tyler  had  been  carried 
into  St.  Bartholomew's  close  by,  either  dead  or  dying,  but 
Walworth  dragged  him  out  into  the  cattle-market  once  more, 
executed  him  there,  and  ordered  the  Primate's  head  over 
London  Bridge  to  be  replaced  by  that  of  the  arch-rebel.^ 

It  now  remained  to  reduce  the  provinces.  With  London 
for  a  basis,  this  could  only  be  a  question  of  time,  but  it  was 
several  months  before  the  country  was  thoroughly  pacified. 
The  rioters  who  had  been  dismissed  from  Clerkenwell  fields  did 
not  all  go  quietly  to  their  homes.  Many  of  them  scattered 
over  the  country  to  organise  resistance  to  the  invasion  which 
they  might  now  expect.  On  the  16th  a  large  number  of  the  men 
of  Essex  entered  Guildford  in  Surrey,  boasting  of  their  deeds 
in  London,  and  inciting  to  renewed  disorder,  while  another 
body  penetrated  northwards  as  far  as  Ramsey  Abbey,  in  the 
fen  district,  where  they  were  massacred  by  a  body  of  loyalists 
i  from  Huntingdon.  The  rebels  of  Kent  returned  to  Canterbury, 
\  to  issue  fresh  proclamations  and  stir  up  fresh  riot.  Men 
i  from  all  parts  of  England  were  roaming  the  country  to  keep 
the  rebellion  alive.  In  Somerset,  Cheshire  and  Yorkshire  the 
Eising  had  hardly  yet  begun  .^ 

A  few  days  were  spent  by  the  King  in  preparation  before 
any  expedition  was  actually  set  on  foot.  But  the  time  was 
not  wasted,  for  Eichard  summoned  the  loyal  gentry  and  nobles 

^  H.  B.,  520-1.  -  Froiss.,  ii.  478-9  ;  H.  R.,  521. 

3  H  B.,  520 ;  Froiss.,  ii.  480  ;  Pol.  Poems,  i.  227-8. 

••  H.  B.,  521 ;    Cont.  Eulog.,  354 ;   G.  B.  B.,  503,  Eex,  12 ;  500,  Eex.  13 
(Rev.  253,  283)  ;  Gliester  Indictment  Bolls,  no.  8,  m.  57. 


Jtjne  17-20  THE  FIGHTING  BISHOP  245 

of  the  country  to  ride  into  London  with  all  the  retainers  that 
they  could  muster.  He  set  up  his  standard  on  Blackheath, 
where  the  rebel  camp  had  so  lately  been,  but  where  now  a  large 
and  well-equipped  army  was  rapidly  collected.^  Many  lords 
and  gentlemen  who  had  been  hiding  in  the  woods,  or  who  had 
succeeded  in  fortifying  themselves  behind  the  moats  of  their 
manor-houses,  were  glad  to  obey  the  first  signal  of  authority. 
On  June  20  the  forces  collected  were  already  so  strong  that  a 
plan  of  operations  for  the  reduction  of  the  South  of  England 
was  drawn  up.  Special  powers  were  given  to  the  sheriffs  of 
Kent  and  Hampshire  in  their  respective  counties,  while  the 
Earl  of  Buckingham  and  Eobert  Tressilian  received  similar 
powers  for  all  England.^  The  King  himself  was  to  go  with 
these  two  into  Essex,  while  the  Earl  of  Kent  supported  the 
sheriff's  on  the  south  of  the  Thames.  It  was  not  for  another 
fortnight  that  the  Earl  of  Salisbury  received  his  commission 
to  put  down  the  Eising  in  Dorset  and  Somerset.^ 

But  before  any  of  these  operations  in  the  South  actually 
began,  the  rising  in  East  Angiia  had  been  subdued  by  the 
vigorous  initiative  of  Henry  Spencer,  the  fighting  Bishop  of 
Norwich.  He  was  enjoying  a  holiday  in  tiis  manor  at  Burley, 
in  Eutlandshire,  when  news  came  that  the  men  of  his  diocese 
were  in  revolt.  Without  waiting  for  the  instructions  or  assist- 
ance of  the  London  executive,  he  at  once  dashed  down  out  of  the 
Midlands  into  East  Angiia,  followed  by  a  small  but  determined 
band  of  men-at-arms.  He  appeared  at  Peterborough  just  in 
time  to  save  the  monks  of  the  abbey  from  falling  into  the 
hands  of  their  own  serfs.  As  the  chronicler  remarks,  these 
rebels  had  come  to  destroy  the  Church,  and  by  the  arm  of  the 
Church  they  were  destroyed.  The  Bishop  spared  none.  His 
blood  was  up,  and  he  showed  the  spirit  of  his  brother, 
the  captain  of  Italian  condottieri.  The  champion  of  the 
Church  militant  swept  on  eastwards  through  Huntingdon  and 
Cambridge  counties,  the  loyalists  gathering  round  him  as  he 
went-  His  presence  there  was  so  far  effective  that  rioting  ceased 
from  that  time  forward.  He  hurried  on  into  Norfolk,  the  terri- 
tory of  his  own  see.     In  crossing  the  corner  of  Suffolk  that  lies 

'  Wals.,  ii.  14.  ^  Calendar  of  Patent  Bolls.  1381,  pp.  20-3. 

*  Boyle's  Official  Baronage,  sub.  Salisbury,  Commission  dated  July  3. 


246  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OP  1381. 

between  Cambridge  and  Thetford,  he  met,  at  Icklingham,  Lord 
Thomas  Morley  with  three  captive  rebels.  Morley  did  not 
dare  on  his  own  responsibility  to  execute  the  rioters  without 
special  command  from  the  King.  The  Bishop,  who  had  no 
such  fears,  took  over  the  prisoners,  and  when  he  reached 
Wymondham,  had  them  hanged  on  his  own  authority  (see 
map,-p.  254).  The  effect  was  most  salutary,  'In  the  same 
place  many  malefactors  remained,  who,  terrified  by  dread  of 
death,  did  not  dare  to  proceed  further  in  the  insurrection.' 
The  incident  illustrates  the  helplessness  displayed  by  the 
aristocracy  in  the  provinces,  and  points  to  the  need  of  some 
royal  proclamation  directed  against  the  rebellion.  The  Bishop 
seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  very  few  who  dared  to  act 
before  such  authority  came  down  from  London,  and  who  had 
not  been  deceived  by  the  rumour,  which  the  rioters  assiduously 
fostered,  that  the  King  countenanced  the  Eising.  Bishop 
Spencer  pushed  on  to  Norwich,  entered  it  and  re-established 
order  in  the  city.  He  then  called  out  the  forces  of  the  place, 
marched  on  to  North  Walsham,  where  the  rebels  were  collected, 
and  broke  up  their  assembly.  The  resistance  proved  half- 
hearted and  the  victory  complete.  The  Eising  in  East  Anglia, 
which  had  been  very  general  and  quite  unopposed,  began 
about  June  15,  and  collapsed  after  little  more  than  a  week, 
under  the  first  blows  struck  by  an  unflinching  hand.^ 

Meanwhile  the  King  had  begun  his  Bloody  Assize  in  Essex. 
Tressilian,  appointed  Chief  Justice  in  place  of  the  murdered 
Cavendish,  was  the  Jeffreys  of  the  occasion,  and  Buckingham 
the  Kirke.  The  Earl  went  in  advance  to  break  the  resistance' 
of  those  bands  of  rebels  which  held  together,  and  the  Judge 
tried  all  who  were  brought  into  the  King's  headquarters. 
At  Walsham  the  King  had  an  interview  with  a  deputation 
of  peasants,  at  which  he  finally  threw  off  the  mask.  '  Serfs 
you  are,  and  serfs  you  will  remain,'  was  his  answer,  when 
they  pleaded  the  charters  of  liberation  from  bondage  which  he 
himself  had  granted.  The  messengers  retired  to  their  main 
body,  but  the  Earl  of  Buckingham  followed  hard  upon  them, 
broke  up  the  camp  at  Billericay  with  great  slaughter,  and 
pushed   on   to   Colchester.     A   division  of   lances   was   sent 

»  Powell,  38-40  ;  Wals.,  ii.  6-8  ;  Knighton,  ii.  140-1. 


.Ttjne-Jt7ly  gibbet  AND  COED  247 

on  to  reduce  Suffolk,  entered  Bury  St.  Edmunds  on  the 
23rd  with  little  opposition,  and  at  once  held  assizes  in  the 
town.^  This  opened  the  line  of  communication  between 
Bishop  Spencer  in  Norfolk  and  the  King  in  Essex.  The 
royal  head-quarters  were  moved  up  in  the  train  of  the  armies, 
on  June  26  to  the  palace  at  Havering-atte-Bower,  and  on  July  2 
to  Chelmsford,  where  he  issued  a  charter  revoking  the  manu- 
mission made  at  Mile  End.  During  these  weeks  the  sword 
and  the  rope  were  busy  at  work.  Many  were  stabbed  by  the 
soldiers  in  the  brakes  and  thickets,  and  left  lying  where  they 
fell.  Chief  Justice  Tressilian's  severities  won  him  an  unen- 
viable fame,  not  only  with  the  peasantry,  but  with  some  of 
the  more  discriminating  among  the  friends  of  order.  It  was 
said  that  he  spared  none  who  came  before  him  for  trial.  He 
seemed  to  feel  that  he  was  revenging  his  profession  and  his 
murdered  predecessor  for  all  they  had  suffered  in  the  rebellion. 
Hanging,  quartering,  disembowelling,  went  on  apace.  As  good 
an  opportunity  was  afforded  to  private  vengeance  and  malice 
by  the  license  of  the  informer  and  the  credulity  of  the  courts, 
as  had  been  lately  supplied  by  the  disorder  of  the  country. 
The  impolicy  of  this  indiscriminate  slaughter,  which  after- 
wards did  not  escape  comment,  caused  fresh  risings,  only  to 
be  suppressed  with  fresh  cruelties.^ 

It  may  be  plausibly  argued  that  the  country  needed  a 
lesson  in  the  penalties  of  riot  and  rebellion,  which  had  so 
long  been  in  abeyance.  But  the  State  erred  on  the  side 
of  severity,  and  this  mistake  was  the  more  unpardonable, 
because  it  exposed  the  rulers  to  the  odious  charge  of  bad 
faith.  They  had  persuaded  the  peasants  to  leave  London  by 
charters  not  only  of  manumission  but  of  pardon.  Such  pro- 
fessions may  possibly  have  been  the  only  way  of  saving  the 
State.     Princes  have  often  thought  so. 

Have  we  not  lingers  to  write, 
Lips  to  swear  at  a  need  ? 
Then,  when  danger  decamps, 
Bury  the  word  with  the  deed.^ 


'  Powell,  25. 

"-  Knighton,  ii.  150  ;  Higden,  ix.  6-9  ;  Cavibridge  University  Library  MS8., 
Ee.  iv.  32,  2,  p.  176.  *  Swinburne,  A  Watch  in  the  Night. 


248  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

But  however  lenient  a  view  be  taken  of  this  type  of 
treachery,  the  circumstance  at  all  events  laid  the  King  and  his 
Council  under  an  obligation  to  deal  as  gently  as  possible  with 
those  whom  they  had  deceived.  The  pardons  delivered  at 
Mile  End  ought  at  least  to  have  turned  the  scale  on  the 
side  of  mercy. 

Some  of  the  rioters  are  less  to  be  pitied  than  others. 
Those  who  had  seized  the  opportunity  to  massacre  the 
Flemings  deserved  severe  treatment.  But  even  in  London 
revenge  outran  decency.  A  block  was  set  up  in  Cheapside  by 
the  authorities,  on  the  site  which  had  a  few  days  before  been 
used  by  the  rebels  as  their  Place  de  la  Eevolution,  and  on  it 
scores  of  victims  were  offered  up  to  the  manes  of  those  who 
had  there  perished.  The  friends  of  the  murdered  Flemings, 
some  say  even  their  widows,  were  allowed  the  brutal  satisfac- 
tion of  themselves  cutting  off  the  heads  of  the  murderers  whom 
they  identified.  The  Mayor  caused  all  peasants  whom  he  found 
in  London  to  be  executed,  besides  rioters  falling  under  his 
proper  jurisdiction.^ 

Meanwhile  the  King,  turning  westward  from  Chelmsford 
and  Havering,  arrived  at  St.  Albans  to  do  justice  between  the 
abbey  and  its  rebellious  serfs.  Since  no  murder  had  here 
been  committed  by  those  who  had  risen  for  their  liberty, 
justice  might  well  have  been  tempered  with  mercy.  Yet  a 
revenge  was  taken  so  horrible  that  it  might  disgust  anyone, 
except  the  monk  who  gleefully  tells  the  story.  Tressilian 
hanged  fifteen  of  those  who  had  attempted  to  break  the  yoke  of 
servitude.  The  Assize  at  St.  Albans  was  further  distinguished 
by  the  sentence  and  execution  of  John  Ball  himself ;  he  had 
been  caught  at  Coventry  in  attempting  to  escape  westward, 
and  sent  to  meet  his  fate  at  the  hands  of  the  Lord  Chief 
Justice.^  On  the  22nd  the  royal  party  went  on  to  Berkhamp- 
stead,  and  thence  by  King's  Langley  and  Henley  to  Beading 
and  Easthampstead  in  Berkshire.  Here,  in  all  probability, 
the  work  of  vengeance  was  continued,  but  we  have  unfor- 
tunately no  records  of  the  business  done  in  these  parts.  At 
Beading  John  of  Gaunt  joined  his  nephew.^ 

'  Wals.,  ii.  14  ;  Higden,  ix.  8. 
^  Wals.,  ii.  31-41 ;  Higden,  ix.  7;  Knighton,  ii.  150.  »  See  Ap. 


Jtoe-Jttlt    a  TEICK  played  ON  THE  DUKE  249 

The  Duke  had  during  the  last  two  months  undergone  a 
ludicrous  and  humiliating  adventure,  very  different  from 
the  tragedy  which  might  have  occurred  if  he  had  been  in 
England.  When  the  rebellion  broke  out  he  was  engaged  in 
negotiating  a  peace  with  the  Scotch  ambassadors  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Melrose.  He  had  come  down  with  a  com- 
mission over-riding  the  local  authority  of  Percy.  The  jealous 
Earl,  who  wished  to  keep  the  business  of  the  Border  in  his  own 
hands,  always  resented  such  commissions  from  Westminster, 
especially  those  who  came  to  make  peace,  for  the  petty  wars 
gave  him  glory  and  power.  The  enemy  had  made  the 
last  successful  raid,  and  he  was  burning  for  revenge.^  He 
had,  besides,  a  grudge  against  the  Duke  in  person.  The  union 
of  the  two  to  quash  the  work  of  the  Good  Parliament  had 
come  to  an  end  when  Eichard  succeeded  to  the  throne. 
Being  the  two  greatest  men  in  the  kingdom,  they  were 
natural  rivals.  The  day  was  soon  to  come  when  the  House 
of  Northumberland,  having  rashly  placed  the  House  of 
Lanc&.ster  on  the  throne,  too  late  attempted  to  undo  the  deed, 
and' fell  for  ever  on  the  field  of  Shrewsbury. 

Percy  saw  his  chance  in  the  Peasants'  Eising.  The  whole 
country  was  up  against  the  Duke,  and  there  was  at  first  no 
certain  knowledge  that  the  King  did  not,  in  hostility  to  his 
uncle,  sympathise  with  the  rebels.  The  cards  might  so  turn 
up  that  John  of  Gaunt  would  be  ruined,  and  the  Earl  deter- 
mined to  do  his  best  to  bring  about  this  consummation.  As  he 
held  the  gates  of  England,  he  determined  to  close  them  in  his 
rival's  face.  When  the  latter,  having  hurriedly  completed 
his  treaty  with  the  Scots,  hastened  South  to  secure  his  im- 
perilled position,  the  Warden  of  Berwick  refused  to  admit  him. ' 
He  was  forced  to  throw  himself  on  the  hospitality  of  the 
national  enemies,  and  was  entertained  at  Edinburgh  by 
Douglas  and  the  Scotch  nobility.  But  his  position  in  Eng- 
land was  not  really  as  bad  as  he  feared,  or  as  Percy  hoped. 
The  rebellion  made  it  temporarily  proper  for  the  King  to 
befriend  him.  The  rioters  had  connected  their  pretended 
loyalty  with  the  pretended  treason  of  John  of  Gaunt,  and  if 
one  was  to  be  denied,  the  other  must  be  denied  too.     The 

^  Eidpath's  Border  History ;  Speed's  Chronicle,  ed.  1623,  p.  732. 


250  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

King  was  forced  to  exculpate  his  uncle  as  a  measure  calculated 

to  discourage  the  rebels.     Salisbury  and  the  other  nobles  who 

were  with  him  at  the  time  counselled   him  to  adopt   this 

i  course.     On  Jul}^  3  he  issued  a  letter  clearing  the  Duke  of 

\  all    charges    of    disloyalty,   and    two    days    later    another 

I  ordering   Percy  to   conduct   him   safely   home   through  the 

\  kingdom.      When    these    missives   reached    the   North,   the 

Duke's  joy  and   the  Earl's   chagrin  can  well   be  imagined. 

fX  Guarded  by  a  strong  force  of  cavalry,  John  of  Gaunt  passed 

through  the  Midlands  and  appeared  early  in  August  in  his 

nephew's  presence  at  Beading,  where  he  received  a  commission 

to  put  down  the  Eising  in  Yorkshire  and  to  keep  the  peace  in 

all  the  Northern  shires.^ 

Eichard  now  moved  towards  Kent,  where  he  visited 
Wrotham  and  Leeds.  The  county  was  still  in  a  very  dis- 
turbed state.  It  had  been  reduced  once  by  the  Earl  of  Kent, 
who  had  held  hanging  assizes  at  Maidstone,  but  the  work  had 
gone  on  but  slowly,  and  there  had  been  continued  local  resis- 
tance.^ On  July  10  the  forces  of  order  were  still  garrisoning 
fortresses  in  a  hostile  country.^  When  the  King  came  from 
Eeading  at  the  end  of  August,  the  rebellion  in  Kent  had  been 
beaten  down  ;  but  it  was  not  yet  stamped  out,  for  a  month  later 
/it  revived.  On  September  29,  a  body  of  desperate  men  recap- 
''  tured  Maidstone,  slew  some  gentlemen,  including  the  Sheriff  of 
the  county,  and  marched  on  the  capital.  They  reached  Deptford, 
at  the  foot  of  Blackheath,  but  could  make  no  further  progress. 
One  of  their  number,  John  Cote,  afterwards  turned  approver 
and  gave  an  account  of  the  objects  and  intentions  of  this 
second  rebellion,  which  are  exactly  such  as  we  should  expect. 
These  later  rebels  demanded  all  the  liberties  and  pardons  that 
had  been  granted  in  June,  and  intended,  if  they  could  not  get 
these  confirmed,  to  kill  the  King  and  his  Council.  It  is  small 
wonder  that  the  feeling  of  the  rebels  towards  Eichard  had 
changed  in  three  months  from  love  to  hatred.  The  boy  had 
been  all  gentleness  and  sympathy  in  London.  He  had  told 
them  he  was  their  leader,  he  had  accepted  their  loyal  adherence. 

'  Knighton,  ii.  145-9  ;  Eev.,  290,  note  1 ;  Froiss.,  ii.  481-4  ;  Fosd.,  iv.  126-8, 
130. 

^  A?ic.  Incl.,  no.  35,  passim.         ^  Calendar  of  Patent  Bolls,  1381,  p.  28. 


Sept.         THE   REBELLION  EEVIVES   LOCALLY  251 

But  he  had  since  accompanied  his  ferocious  Judge  from  place 
to  place  and  associated  himself  with  all  the  horrors  of  the  re- 
action. It  is  to  be  hoped  that  he  felt  some  shame  in  acting 
the  part  which  fate  and  his  councillors  thrust  upon  him,  as 
trapper  and  butcher  of  his  confiding  subjects.  What  wonder 
that  the  men  whom  he  had  deceived  desperately  sought  to 
slay  him  ?  If  the  feeling  about  Eichard  had  veered  round, 
the  feeling  about  his  uncle  had  undergone  a  change  equally 
complete.  John  of  Gaunt  had  taken  no  part  in  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  rising  in  the  South.  He  had  been  in  Scotland 
during  the  horrors  of  July.  He  was  the  natural  rival  of  his 
nephew,  and  the  principal  candidate  for  the  Throne.  The 
rebels  of  this  forlorn  hope~  in  September  announced  that  they 
would  make  the  Duke  King  of  England.  This  change  of 
feeling  was  accelerated  by  rumours  from  the  North  that  John 
of  Gaunt  had  freed  all  the  serfs  on  his  vast  estates.^  The 
report  perhaps  had  some  basis  in  fact,  for  commutation  of 
prsedial  service  may  have  been  almost  complete  on  the  lands 
of  the  House  of  Lancaster. 

This  was  not  the  only  disturbance  of  the  peace  that  took 
place  in  September.  The  rebellion  still  simmered,  and  in  places 
broke  out  with  violence.  On  September  5,  armed  peasantry 
from  the  neighbouring  villages  seized  Salisbury  market-place  in 
conjunction  with  rioters  from  among  the  townsfolk.^  The 
unrest  was  largely  due  to  the  severities  of  those  in  authority. 
Desperation  drove  thousands  into  fresh  rebellion,  and  fear 
prevented  thousands  from  returning  to  peaceful  avocations. 
The  country  could  not  resume  its  normal  condition,  for  men 
would  not  return  to  their  homes  as  long  as  death  waited 
for  them  on  the  threshold.  The  Parliament  that  met  at 
Westminster  in  November  took  measures  to  end  this  state 
of  things.  It  passed  an  act  of  pardon  to  all  rebels,  with 
certain  important  exceptions.  Grace  was  not  extended 
to  any  who  had  killed  the  late  Chancellor,  Treasurer,  and 
Chief  Justice,  nor  to  the  inhabitants  of  Canterbury,  Beverley, 
Scarborough,  Cambridge,  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  and  Bridge- 
water.      A   further   list   of   two   hundred   and   eighty-seven 

'  C.  E.  B.,  no.  482,  Kent,  Eex.  1,  printed  in  vol.  iv.  Arch.  Kent. 
^  C.B.  E.,  492  Eex.  13  (Eev.  280,*note  3). 


252  THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OE  1381 

persons  excepted  from  pardon  was  drawn  up,  including  one 
hundred  and  fifty-one  Londoners.  Presumably  most  of  these 
were  outlaws  still  in  hiding.  Some  of  them  were  caught  and 
brought  to  justice  in  the  ensuing  months,  and  it  is  satisfactory 
to  find  that  they  were  acquitted  by  juries  sick  of  bloodshed. 
As  after  Eobespierre's  reign  of  terror,  the  whole  nation '  resolved 
itself  into  a  committee  of  mercy.'  Even  the  two  aldermen 
who  had  let  the  rebels  into  London  (and  richly  deserved 
hanging)  escaped  punishment,  though  their  crime  was  never 
disputed.  Writs  against  some  of  the  principal  leaders 
remained  out  for  many  years,  but  the  work  of  blood  was 
over.^ 


This  extraordinary  event  made  a  very  great  impression  on 
the  minds  of  contemporaries.  It  could  not  be  without  influ- 
ence on  the  life  of  the  succeeding  generation. 

Its  effect  on  John  of  Gaunt  and  his  ambitions  was  two- 
fold. Its  immediate  result  was  to  force  King  and  Parliament 
to  protect  and  favour  the  victim  of  the  late  rebellion.  Eichard 
compelled  Percy  to  treat  his  uncle  with  respect  and  loyalty. 
The  House  of  Commons  in  November  asked  for  his  assistance 
at  their  counsels  as  one  of  the  '  associated  lords,'  and  he  was 
appointed  in  the  same  Parliament  to  a  commission  for  the 
reform  of  the  household.^  But  this  courtesy  towards  the 
Duke  was  in  truth  only  a  proof  of  his  weakness.  It  was  but 
a  protest  against  the  extreme  violence  towards  him  which 
the  rebels  had  shown.  The  real  effect  of  the  Eising  had  been 
to  curb  his  ambition,  by  demonstrating  his  unpopularity. 
When  King  and  Parliament  renewed  their  natural  hostility, 
the  great  noble  was  in  a  few  years  driven  from  the  arena  of 
politics. 

The  power  of  the  central  government  to  keep  order  in  the 
country  was  not  permanently  strengthened  by  the  reaction 
that  followed  the  revolt.  Disturbances  of  all  kinds  went  on 
as  before.  Town  mobs  still  rioted  periodically,  retainers  still 
hectored  and  robbed,  serfs  still  fought  with  bailiffs  for  their 

'  Rot.  Pari.,  iii.  103,  111-3  ;  G.  R.  R.,  488,  Bex.  6 ;  C.  R.  R.,  482,  Rex.  39  ; 
R6v.  cxxv.  ''  Rot.  Pari ,  iii.  100,  101. 


EBSULTS  OF  THE  EISTNG 

freedom.  But  whereas  the  riotous  insolence  -^i-  the  upper 
military  class  went  on  increasing  till  it  ended  in'  the  Wars  of 
the  Eoses,  the  labour  troubles  of  the  fourteenth  century  were 
in  the  succeeding  age  brought  to  an  end  by  gradual  conces- 
sions. 

The  first  step  towards  reform  was  taken  in  1890,  when  the 
Statute  of  Labourers  underwent  considerable  modification. 
The  standard  at  which  wages  were  fixed  was  abolished,  and  the 
assessment  left  in  the  hands  of  the  Justices  of  the  Peace.^ 
A  sliding  scale,  to  be  settled  locally,  was  made  the  rule.  The 
Act  thus  remodelled  may  have  still  been  used  for  oppression, 
but  it  is  probable  that  the  Eising  had  taught  authorities 
to  respect  the  power  of  the  labourers  and  to  desist  from 
annoying  a  formidable  class  by  continual  prosecutions. 

The  demand  for  personal  freedom,  which  had  been  the 
chief  cause  of  revolt,  was  for  the  moment  crushed.  The 
Parliament  of  November  gratefully  confirmed  the  King's 
repeal  of  the  liberating  charters.  A  unanimious  vote  of 
county  and  town  members  together  contradicted:  all  rumours 
that  the  emancipation  of  the  serfs  was  seriously  considered 
by  Parliament.^  The  Eising  had  failed.  But  the  process 
of  manumission,  wKfch  had  been  going  on  for  so  long, 
continued  steadily  during  succeeding  generations.  Under 
the  Tudors  the  last  remains  of  serfage  were  swept  away,  and 
in  James  the  First's  reign  it  became  a  legal  maxim  that 
every  Englishman  was  free.  It  must  remain  a  matter  of 
opinion  whether  this  process  was  accelerated  or '  retarded  by 
the  Peasants'  Eising ;  it  is  impossible  to  apply  hard  facts  to 
the  solution  of  such  a  problem.  i 

One  effect  of  the  rebellion  was  to  put  an  end  to  all 
chance  of  philanthropic  legisla^tion  in  the  direction  of  emanci- 
pating the  serfs.  Such  proposals  had  been  previously  made 
in  Parliament,-^  though  probably  with  little  hope  of  success. 
They  were  never  made  there  again.  The  ideal  of  freedom 
once  had  charms  for  a  few  of  the  upper  classes,  such  as 
Wycliffe,  who  objected  to  hereditary  bondage.^     This  feeling 

1  Stats,  of  Realm,  13  E.  II.  1,  cap.  8.  ^  Rot.i^arl.,  iii.  100. 

'  Stats,  of  Realm,  1  R.  II.,  cap.  6  ;  Rot.  Pari.,  iii.  99  6,'Uaes  57-8. 

*  De  Dam.  Civ.,  240-8.   ;  •  J  ^  ^ 


THE  PEASANTS'  EISING  OF  1381 

might  have  .jpread  among  landlords  enough  to  hasten  the  rate 
of  manumission,  and  might  even  have  come  to  predominate  in 
Parliament.  But  all  acceptance  of  such  theories  was  doomed 
by  the  events  of  this  year. 

So  far,  the  Eising  may  be  said  to  have  retarded  liberty. 
But  the  memory  of  this  terrible  year  must  certainly  have 
acted  in  another  way  besides.  The  landlord  had  learned  to 
fear  his  serf,  and  fear  is  no  less  powerful  a  motive  for  con- 
cession than  love.  The  peasantry  were  not  tamed  by  the 
terrors  of  royal  justice.  Unions  of  villeins  continued  to 
assert  their  freedom  as  before.  We  find  them  still  banding 
together  to  make  forcible  resistance  to  the  lord's  claims  in 
Somerset,  in  Lincoln,  in  Shropshire,  in  Cornwall  and  in 
Suffolk.  From  1383  to  1385  continuously  the  tenants  of 
Littlehaw,  near  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  withheld  their  services 
from  the  lord  of  the  manor,  and  were  supported  by  the  parson 
of  the  parish.  One  item  only,  the  money  rent  of  fourpence 
an  acre,  they  duly  paid,  in  accordance  with  the  terms  granted 
by  the  King  at  Mile  End.  In  1398  the  villeins  of  Wellington, 
a  Somerset  estate  of  the  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells,  withheld 
the  services  of  carting  and  carrying  which  they  owed  him, 
and  formed  a  union  with  considerable  funds.  The  Bishop 
took  proceedings  in  court,-  but  dropped  them  at  the  moment 
of  legal  victory,  preferring  to  come  to  some  arrangement  of 
which  we  are  ignorant.^  This  attitude  of  resistance  was  an 
important  factor  in  the  economic  causes  which  drove  the 
landlord  to  m.anumit  his  serfs  :  if  they  worked  unwillingly  and 
rebelliously  st  their  forced  labour,  the  forced  labour  must  soon 
be  changed  for  paid  service.  Opposition  to  the  other  acci- 
dents of  the  servile  condition  would  similarly  bring  about 
alteration  in  the  form  of  tenure.  This  resistance  may  have 
been  in  some  cases  fostered,  in  others  crushed  by  the 
events  of  '81.  But  in  any  case  the  Eising  was  the 
(result  of  the  spirit  that  hastened  liberation,  for  it  was  caused 
by  the  desire  to  be  free,  and  the  will  to  defy  death  rather  than 
jbear  slavery. 

Eioting  of  all  sorts  frequently  recurred  both  in  town  and 
country   in   the    years   that   followed    the    great   upheaval. 

>  Powell,  64-5  ;  Anc.  Ind,,  P.  E.  0.  Assize  Roll,  774  (7) ;  Eev.,  cxxxi. 


f. 


s^o 


1  Longitude  AKTest  0  LongLtnde  East  1 


■».*»— Muw.^»Ujjr 


ENGLISH  FEEEDOM  255 

There  were  continual  revolts  in  South  Yorkshire,  both  at  Don- 
caster  and  Beverley.  In  Oxfordshire  a  body  of  rebels  issued 
the  following  remarkable  proclamation :    '  Arise  all  men  and 

go  with  us,  or  else  truly  and  by  God  ye  shall  be  d .'  ^     It 

was  better  that  rebellion  should  show  its  head  in  an  age  when 
so  much  was  wrong,  than  that  all  complaint  should  be  stifled. 
Since  Parliament  only  vented  the  grievances  of  the  middle 
class,  the  labourers  needed  to  make  themselves  heard  by 
rioting.  The  government  was  bad,  the  social  system  was 
decaying,  the  time  was  out  of  joint.  A  strong  expression  of 
discontent  was  natural  and  right. 

No  one  can  be  sorry  that  the  Eising  was  put  down. 
Though  as  a  protest  it  was  perhaps  useful,  as  a  revolution 
it  could  only  have  led  to  anarchy.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  would  be  rash  to  regret  that  it  took  place.  It  was  a 
sign  of  national  energy,  it  was  a  sign  of  independence  and 
self-respect  in  the  mediaeval  peasants,  from  whom  three- 
quarters  of  our  race,  of  all  classes  and  in  every  continent, 
are  descended.  This  independent  spirit  was  not  lacking 
in  France  in  the  fourteenth  century,  but  it  died  out  by  the 
end  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War  ;  stupid  resignation  then 
took  hold  of  burghers  and  peasantry  alike,  from  the  days 
when  Machiavelli  observed  their  torpor,^  down  to  the  eve 
of  the  Eevolution.  The  ancien  regime  was  permitted  to  grow 
up.  But  in  England  there  has  been  a  continuous  spirit 
of  resistance  and  independence,  so  that  wherever  our  country- 
men or  our  kinsmen  have  gone,  they  have  taken  with  them  the 
undying  tradition  of  the  best  and  surest  freedom,  which 
'  slowly  broadens  down  from  precedent  to  precedent.' 

>  Anc.  Ind.,  P.E.O.  no.  116,  Yorks  ;  80  Oxon,  21  E.  11. 

*  See  Maehiavelli's  State  of  France.    Early  sixteenth  cent. 


256  GENEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 


CHAPTER  VII 

GENEBAL  HISTORY,   1381-1385 

PHILIP  VAN    AETEVELDE.      THE  CRUSADE.      DECLINE  OF    THE    DUKE's 
POWEE.       LONDON.      PERSONAL    GOVERNMENT    BY   EICHAED   II. 

Aftee  the  catastrophe  of  the  Peasants'  Eising,  after  so  strik- 
ing an  exposure  of  governmental  incapacity,  after  such  an 
expression  of  the  political  no  less  than  the  social  discontent 
of  the  nation,  a  good  patriot  might  well  have  hoped  for  some 
change  in  the  aims  and  methods  of  the  politicians  who  had 
brought  the  country  to  such  a  pass.  It  might  have  been 
expected  that  the  great  families  would  be  shamed  out  of  their 
feuds  and  bickerings,  that  they  would  desist  from  the  ignoble 
scramble  for  place  and  power,  and  unite  to  assist  the  young 
King  and  the  Commons  in  rallying  a  disgraced,  impoverished, 
and  disorganised  people.  It  might  have  been  expected  that 
Richard,  who  had  shown  in  Smithfield  the  courage  of  the 
race  of  Cceur  de  Lion  tempered  by  a  self-possession  more 
rare  in  the  House  of  Plantagenet,  would  by  his  firmness  and 
wisdom  lead  the  nation  out  of  this  period  of  panic  into  years 
of  settled  government.  But  no  change  took  place.  The 
warning  fell  unheeded  on  the  ears  of  the  selfish  nobility,  and 
the  King  proved  to  have  grave  faults  as  well  as  fine  virtues. 
The  history  of  the  four  years  succeeding  the  Peasants'  Revolt 
is  not  the  history  of  any  conscious  effort  at  national  recovery. 
The  moral  tone  of  the  political  world  remains  as  low,  the 
aims  of  intriguers  like  John  of  Gaunt  remain  as  personal  and 
as  short-sighted  as  ever,  while  even  those  few  ministers  who, 
like  Scrope  on  one  side,  and  Michael  de  la  Pole  on  the  other, 
were  honest  public  servants,  proved  incapable  of  suggesting 


1382-5  EICHARD  FOEMS  A  PAETY  257 

or  carrying  through  any  definite  plan  of  retrenchment  and 
reform.  One  obvious  remedy  that  should  have  been  applied 
was  peace.  Yet  the  war,  with  its  annual  burden  of  heavy 
taxes,  was  allowed  to  continue.  Neither  did  the  Commons 
distinguish  themselves  by  any  memorable  action,  such  as  that 
of  the  Good  Parliament.  All  that  they  did  was  to  keep  up  a 
running  comment  of  complaint  against  everything  that  hap- 
pened, like  the  chorus  in  a  Greek  play.  There  is  little  that 
is  heroic  or  admirable  to  record  in  these  four  years.  Yet 
they  cannot  be  passed  over  in  silence  by  the  historian  who 
demonstrates  the  sequence  of  events  in  Eichard's  reign,  for 
they  are  marked  by  the  transformation  of  one  set  of  political 
parties  and  problems  into  another. 

Hitherto  the  contests  for  power  have  raged  round  the 
central  figure  of  John  of  Gaunt,  while  the  King  has  taken 
little  part  in  the  government  of  his  realm.  After  the  Peasants' 
Eising  both  these  conditions  were  altered.  The  power  of  the 
Duke,  declining  ever  since  his  nephew's  accession,  had  re- 
ceived a  fatal  blow  from  the  demonstrations  of  popular  feeling 
made  against  him  throughout  the  country.  The  one  thing 
more  that  was  needed  to  drive  him  from  politics  was  the 
determined  hostility  of  the  Crown.  This  was  now  forthcoming. 
Eichard  formed  a  royal  party,  and  put  the  management  of 
affairs  into  the  hands  of  his  friends.  With  the  King's  newly 
acquired  power  grew  his  hatred  for  John  of  Gaunt,  and  for 
all  others  who  wished  to  keep  him  in  the  tutelage  of  coun- 
cillors whom  he  had  not  chosen.  He  did  not  yet  govern  by 
himself,  but  he  governed  through  Michael  de  la  Pole  and  the 
Veres.  The  bulk  of  the  nobility  found  themselves  excluded 
from  power  by  a  small  clique  of  their  own  order.  The 
Commons  found  that  the  administration  was  no  better  under 
the  new  regime  than  it  had  been  before,  and  that  the 
King's  favourites  were  even  less  accountable  to  Parliament 
than  the  ministers  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign.  "When 
the  year  1385  drew  to  a  close,  the  King  and  a  small  group 
of  his  nobles  were  standing  opposed  to  the  peerage  and 
the  nation.  But  John  of  Gaunt  was  no  longer  in  a  position 
to  lead  the  attack  on  his  nephew.  In  the  spring  of  1386  he 
withdrew  from  English  politics  and  crossed  the  sea  to  capture 


258  GENEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

castles  in  Spain.     It  remains  for  us  to  trace  these  changes 
through  the  course  of  public  events. 

The  Parliament  of  November  1381  met  while  thousands 
of  rebels  were  hiding  in  the  woods  and  wastes,  while  judge 
and  hangman  were  at  work  in  provincial  towns  under  the 
protection  of  armed  escorts,  while  the  ruins  of  the  Savoy 
and  many  noble  manor-houses  lay  as  they  had  fallen,  at- 
testing the  fury  of  the  storm  that  had  wrought  their  over- 
throw. Under  such  sorrowful  circumstances,  it  would  have 
become  the  nobility  to  assemble  in  a  mood  of  mutual  forbear- 
ance ;  their  responsibility  for  the  past  and  for  the  future 
demanded  combined  effort,  and  the  suspension  of  personal 
feuds.  Nevertheless  there  was  an  unusually  indecent  ex- 
hibition of  pride  and  lawlessness.  Earl  Percy  rode  into 
London  with  an  army  of  moss-troopers  powerful  enough  to 
have  held  the  Cheviot  passes  against  the  Scotch  King,  but 
not  powerful  enough  to  overawe  the  regiments  of  men-at- 
arms  who  followed  John  of  Gaunt  to  the  doors  of  Westminster. 
The  two  great  rivals  had  been  at  death-feud  since  the  events 
of  the  summer,  and  came  to  Parliament  armed  to  the  teeth. 
A  collision  between  their  retainers  was  daily  expected  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  capital.  Fortunately  only  one 
of  the  two  parties  had  been  admitted  within  the  walls. 
The  Londoners  closed  their  gates  against  the  Duke,  while 
the  Northumbrian  Earl  was  welcomed  and  feted.  John  of 
Gaunt's  old  quarrel  with  the  city  had  never  been  healed,  and 
it  was  not  unlikely  that  he  would  attempt  to  exact  reparation 
for  the  destruction  of  his  property  by  the  apprentices  during 
the  late  riots.  In  that  case  the  Earl's  forces  might  prove 
useful.  At  Westminster  the  commanders  of  the  two  rival 
armies  met  in  the  presence  of  Eichard,  who  succeeded  in 
averting  a  breach  of  the  peace  ;  but  he  was  in  no  position  to 
reprimand  them  or  to  bid  them  dismiss  their  followers.  The 
situation  was  humiliating  enough  to  a  sensitive  boy.  Perhaps 
he  had  his  own  thoughts  on  the  insolence  of  the  baronage, 
and  promised  himself  that  when  he  was  a  man  he  would 
teach  the  haughtiest  nobles  that  they  had  a  king.^ 

The  chief  work  of  the  Parliament  was  to  restore  in  some 

1  Wals.,  ii.  45  ;  Higden,  ix.  10,  11  ;  Rot.  Pari.,  iii.  98. 


THE  EOYAL  OFPICBES  259 

measure  the  peace  of  the  disturbed  country  by  a  general 
pardon  of  rebels,  and  at  the  same  time  to  reassure  the 
proprietary  classes  by  strongly  repudiating  any  measure  for 
the  liberation  of  serfs.  But  the  Commons  did  not  con- 
sider that  they  had  by  so  doing  dealt  with  the  Eising  in  all  its 
aspects.  They  regarded  the  riots  as  having  been  caused,  not 
merely  by  quarrels  of  serf  and  lord,  but  also  by  inefficient  and 
oppressive  administration.  The  knights  of  the  shire  disliked 
the  rebels  as  social  reformers,  but  almost  approved  of  them 
as  political  agitators.  It  was  clear,  the  Commons  said,  that 
there  were  many  faults  in  the  government,  especially  in  the 
King's  Household,  where  an  outrageous  number  of  needy  and 
greedy  parasites  were  maintained.  These  men,  together  with 
the  officers  of  the  Law  Courts  and  the  Exchequer,  grievously 
oppressed  the  country  districts  by  seizing  men's  goods  in  the 
King's  name  under  pretence  of  Purveyance,  by  raising  the 
taxes  exorbitantly,  and  by  every  form  of  semi-legal  robberj^ 
The  petition  does  not  attempt  to  make  any  distinction  be- 
tween these  extortioners  from  Westminster  and  the  local 
'  embracers  of  quarrels  and  maintainers  who  are  like  kings 
in  the  country-side.'  The  nation  could  no  longer  endure  the 
'  oppressions  done  to  them  by  divers  servants  of  the  King 
and  of  other  seigneurs  of  the  kingdom,  and  especially  by 
the  said  maintainers.'  It  was  to  these  grievances  that  the 
Commons  attributed  the  late  revolt.^ 

The  country  was  indeed  in  an  unfortunate  condition,  when 
the  royal  officers  who  should  have  defended  the  subject 
from  the  lords'  retainers,  were  themselves  a  thorn  in  the 
side  of  honest  men.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  when 
Eichard  attempted  to  set  up  a  strong  personal  govern- 
ment and  to  crush  the  power  of  the  nobles,  he  obtained  no 
support  from  the  Commons.  The  small  country-gentleman 
had  learnt  by  constant  and  bitter  experience  to  dread  the 
arrival  of  royal  commissioners  in  his  neighbourhood,  no  whit 
less  than  he  dreaded  the  retainers  and  bailiffs  of  the  local 
baron.  He  was  too  wise  to  make  himself  a  party  to  the 
establishment  of  a  despotism  which  only  made  the  flights  of 
greedy   locusts   from    the   Court  more   frequent    and   more 

»  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  100. 

s  2 


250  GENEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

desolating.  It  is  in  this  light  that  the  history  of  Richard's 
reign  must  be  read. 

The  Commons'  complaint,  in  so  far  as  it  reflected  on  the 
state  of  the  King's  Household,  was  taken  up  by  the  lords  and 
made  the  basis  of  a  settlement  of  the  usual  character.  A 
Commission  for  the  reform  of  the  Court  expenditure  was 
appointed,  and  Archbishop  Courtenay,  who  had  been  made 
Chancellor  after  the  murder  of  Sudbury,  surrendered  the 
Great  Seal  to  Lord  Scrope,  whose  efficiency  and  honesty 
made  him  a  general  favourite.^  These  arrangements  for 
better  administration  were  effected  by  the  united  action  of 
the  two  Houses.  But  the  Commons  must  have  been  painfully 
aware  that  Parliamentary  settlements  and  Household  Com- 
missions were  too  often  cancelled  or  rendered  futile  by  in- 
trigues among  the  nobles  before  many  months  had  gone  by. 
Besides,  there  was  one  party  to  the  settlement  who  had  not 
been  considered  or  consulted  at  all — namely,  the  King  him- 
self. It  was  Eichard  who  was  destined  to  overturn  all  these 
elaborate  precautions. 

This  Parliament  differed  from  all  others  of  the  period  by 
being  divided  into  two  sessions.  A  Christmas  recess,  lasting 
till  February,  was  occupied  by  the  marriage  of  the  King.  He 
was  now  sixteen  years  old,  and  his  ministers  had  been  looking 
for  a  suitable  match  ever  since  he  came  to  the  throne.  They 
had  at  last  achieved  what  they  regarded  as  a  great  diplomatic 
success.  The  traditional  policy  of  the  House  of  Bohemia 
had  been  alliance  with  France  against  England.  The  present 
King's  blind  grandfather  had  shown  his  devotion  to  that 
unfortunate  cause  by  the  memorable  manner  of  his  death 
on  the  field  of  Crecy,  when  the  Bohemian  plumes  had  been 
adopted  by  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  commemorate  the  immortal 
victory.  The  reigning  monarch,  Wenceslaus,  was  also  King 
of  the  Eomans — that  is,  heir  to  the  German  Empire.  Charles 
the  Fifth  of  France  sought  to  ratify  the  old  alliance  by  marrj^- 
ing  Wenceslaus'  sister  Anne  to  his  own  son,  but  he  was  fore- 
stalled by  English  diplomacy,  and  the  lady  and  the  alliance 
were  secured  for  Richard  the  Second.  This  result  was  due 
partly  to  the  action  of  the  Pope.     Christendom  had  just  been 

>  See  Ap. 


Jan.  1382  ANNE   OP  BOHEMIA  261 

divided  into  two  Churches,  the  one  of  Avignon,  the  other  of 
Eome.  Bohemia  remained  faithful  to  the  Koman  Pontiff,  who 
used  ail  the  spiritual  and  diplomatic  influence  he  possessed  at 
Prague  to  induce  Wenceslaus  to  break  off  his  dealings  with 
the  schismatic  King  of  France,  and  ally  himself  with  the 
faithful  English.  These  arguments  were  backed  by  the 
promise  of  15,000L  ready  money  from  the  government  of 
Westminster.  The  German  Princes  were  always  poor, 
especially  those  of  the  Imperial  House.  Wesceslaus  took  the 
advice  of  the  Pope  and  the  money  of  the  English,  and  sent 
over  his  sister  Anne  to  become  Eichard's  Queen.  The  lady 
travelled  in  great  state  through  Germany,  and  spent  a  month 
with  her  relations  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Brabant  in  their 
town  of  Brussels.  Such  was  the  condition  of  the  English 
navy  that  no  safe  escort  across  the  Channel  could  be  pro- 
vided for  her,  as  long  as  a  fleet  of  twenty  Norman  vessels 
commissioned  to  seize  her  and  carry  her  off  to  France  hung 
off'  the  Flemish  coast.  A  safe-conduct  was  finally  procured 
for  her  from  the  French  King  by  the  good  offices  of  her 
uncle.  Then,  and  not  till  then,  was  it  safe  to  go  further. 
She  passed  down  to  the  sea  through  Ghent,  where  the  new 
rebel  captain,  Philip  van  Artevelde,  showed  her  every 
honour,  and  through  Bruges,  where  his  liege  lord,  the  Earl  of 
Flanders,  displayed  equal  courtesy.  As  she  travelled  through 
this  country  she  must  have  seen  in  desolated  fields,  ruined 
chateaux,  and  deserted  villages  the  traces  of  the  duel  lately 
begun  between  her  hosts  of  Ghent  and  her  hosts  of  Bruges  ; 
which  in  three  terrible  and  famous  years  of  war  did  to  the 
rich  and  fertile  Flanders  of  the  fourteenth  century  what 
the  Thirty  Years'  War  did  to  Germany.  At  Calais  she  was 
received  by  the  Earls  of  Salisbury  and  Devon.  She  landed 
safely  at  Dover  on  December  18.  On  January  14,  1382 
she  was  married  to  the  King  in  the  Chapel  of  Westminster 
Palace. 

Of  the  many  purposes  for  which  this  match  had  been 
designed  not  one  was  fulfilled.  No  heir  was  born  to  settle  the 
succession  to  the  English  Crown  ;  the  active  participation  of 
Bohemia  in  the  war  never  took  place  ;  still  less  was  Wences- 
laus either  able  or  willing  to  direct  against  France  the  whole 


262  GENEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

power  of  the  German  Empire.  The  English  diplomatists  got 
little  in  return  for  their  15,000/.,  except  the  discontent  of 
the  taxpayer  at  so  bad  a  bargain,  while  Pope  Urban  never 
succeeded  in  stirring  up  his  German  crusade  against  the 
French  schismatics.  By  the  irony  of  chance,  this  marriage 
was  the  means  of  bringing  about  another  schism  even 
more  formidable  to  the  Papacy  than  that  of  Avignon.  The 
Bohemians  who  passed  to  and  fro  between  Prague  and 
London  after  the  alliance  of  the  two  Courts,  carried  to  their 
home  manuscripts  of  Wycliffe's  theological  works,  and  diffused 
there  the  spirit  of  the  reformer.  In  the  University  of  Prague 
and  the  villages  of  Bohemia  this  seed  soon  ripened  into 
harvest.  The  Hussite  movement  was  Wycliffism  pure  and 
simple.  A  generation  later,  persecution  and  racial  animosity 
converted  it  into  Wycliffism  armed  and  triumphant,  a  strange 
spectacle  for  the  fifteenth  century.  At  the  hands  of  Ziska 
the  Catholic  Church  had  a  foretaste  of  the  great  revolt.  It  is 
these  events,  so  little  foreseen  by  the  statesmen  who  planned 
the  match,  which  make  Anne's  coming  to  England  worthy  of 
notice.^ 

The  years  '82  and  '83  are  marked  by  the  last  episode  of 
the  French  war,  the  revolt  of  Flanders.  As  far  as  England 
is  concerned,  the  affair  shows  how  halting  and  half-hearted 
our  war-policy  had  become,  how  unfit  were  the  resources  of 
the  country  to  carry  on  the  struggle  ;  it  also  throws  an  in- 
teresting light  on  the  degrees  of  influence  exerted  on  foreign 
and  military  questions  by  the  various  parties  within  the  State. 

The  fourteenth  century  had  been  a  comparatively  peaceful 
and  a  very  prosperous  period  in  the  history  of  the  Low 
Countries.  On  their  rich  and  well- watered  soil  a  thriving 
agricultural  population  multiplied  in  the  hamlets  that  stood 
around  the  chateaux  of  the  nobility,  while  the  inhabitants  of 
the  great  cities  vied  with  those  of  Italy  in  trade,  in  the  arts 
of  manufacture,  and  in  the  desire  for  independence  and 
self-government.  But  while  in  Italy  the  burghers  had  been 
able  to  gratify  all  these  aspirations,  while  the  towns  of  the 

'  Rot.  Parl.,\ii.  113-4  ;  Froiss.,  ii.  chap.  148  ;  Wals.,ii.  46  ;  Higden,  ix.  12  ; 
Diet,  of  Nat.  Biog.,  sub  Anne  of  Bohemia  and  Kichard  II. 


THE  FLEMISH  CITIES  263 

Lombard  League  had  driven  the  Emperor  beyond  the  Alps 
and  subjected  the  neighbouring  barons  to  their  rule,  the 
Flemish  cities  were  less  successful  in  their  political  than  in 
their  mercantile  ambitions.  Their  geographical  situation  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Ehine,  and  at  the  point  of  juncture  of 
France,  England,  and  Germany,  made  them  indeed  the 
emporium  of  Northern  Europe,  but  rendered  it  difficult  for 
them  to  gratify  their  desire  for  independence  of  the  feudal 
system.  No  such  barrier  as  the  Alps,  no  such  distance  as 
that  which  divides  Milan  from  Paris  and  Vienna,  protected 
Ghent  and  Ypres  from  the  great  feudal  powers.  It  was 
certain  that,  in  the  last  resort,  the  Flemish  Earl  would  invite 
the  nobles  of  France  to  crush  a  league  of  his  rebellious  towns, 
before  they  could  establish  their  sovereignty.  This  inevitable 
struggle  was  now  brought  to  a  rapid  issue.  Froissart  has 
told  the  story  with  no  less  art,  and  with  more  science  and 
insight,  than  he  displays  in  the  other  parts  of  his  work. 

The  affair  began  by  a  quarrel  between  the  two  chief  cities. 
Bruges  had  won  the  favour  of  the  Earl,  who  usually  resided 
within  its  walls  ;  Ghent  had  incurred  his  jealousy  by  the 
wealth  and  pride  of  its  citizens,  so  dangerous  to  his  suzerainty 
in  Flanders.  Bruges  was  no  less  jealous  of  her  great  neigh- 
bour, for  Ghent  stood  on  the  junction  of  the  Lys  and  the 
Scheldt,  along  whose  broad  and  famous  streams  the  trade  of 
half  Europe  was  carried  to  its  quays.  Bruges  possessed  no 
such  waterway,  but  it  had  always  been  the  ambition  of  her 
citizens  to  divert  the  Lys  from  its  present  course  and  to 
turn  it  into  the  sea  near  Ostend  for  their  own  benefit.  Their 
rivals  had  hitherto  prevented  them  from  carrying  out 
this  design,  but  the  Earl  now  undertook  the  work  on 
behalf  of  his  favourite  city.  The  canal,  if  made,  would 
reverse  the  position.  Ghent  would  be  ruined,  Bruges 
would  step  into  its  place.  The  digging  was  forcibly  inter- 
rupted, and  a  war  began  between  Ghent  and  other  allied 
towns  on  one  side,  and  Bruges  with  the  Earl  and  nobility  of 
Flanders  on  the  other.  It  became  a  war  of  extermination 
between  town  and  country,  between  the  feudal  and  civic  poli- 
ties that  had  so  long  lived  side  by  side  with  feelings  of 
mutual  hatred  and   rivalry.     Two   conditions   were  against 


264  GBNEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

the  towns — first,  that  many  of  their  own  number,  such  as 
Bruges  and  Oudenarde,  were  on  the  side  of  the  enemy,  and, 
secondly,  that  they  had  no  central  authority  to  hold  them 
together  except  the  hegemony  of  Ghent.  At  first,  indeed,  the 
great  city  fought  almost  single-handed.  In  this  early  stage 
of  the  war,  which  lasted  for  about  a  year,  the  slain  were 
reckoned  at  hundreds  of  thousands,  and  the  country  was 
turned  into  a  desert.  The  Earl  had  given  his  nobles  carte 
blanche  in  Flanders  until  the  war  was  over,  and  their 
cruelties  were  only  equalled  by  the  savagery  of  the  military 
dictators  into  whose  hands  the  wealthy  citizens  of  Ghent 
had  surrendered  the  government  of  their  town.  At  last  the 
extravagances  of  these  ruffians  drove  the  burghers  to  elect 
as  their  captain  a  man  more  worthy  of  such  a  post  in  such 
a  crisis.  Philip  van  Artevelde  was  the  son  of  Jacob  van 
Artevelde,  who  had  made  Ghent  a  power  in  Europe.  Philip 
had  no  credentials  except  his  father's  name  and  memory. 
He  himself  had  lived  '  reserved  and  austere,'  and  little  was 
known  of  him  when  he  was  chosen  captain.  But  he  had 
inherited  the  genius  of  his  family.  After  a  brief  period  of 
disaster,  he  entirely  altered  the  complexion  of  the  war  by  a 
bold  and  lucky  rush  for  Bruges.  In  May  1382  he  took  the 
place  by  a  coup  de  main  :  the  Earl  fled  for  his  life,  the 
other  towns  opened  their  gates,  the  nobles  emigrated,  and 
the  country  districts  submitted.  Philip  was  master  of  all 
Elanders. 

While  every  nation  in  Europe  contemplated  with  amaze- 
ment this  remarkable  revolution,  and  the  equally  remarkable 
man  who,  without  experience  of  public  life,  was  guiding  the 
helm  of  the  strange  State,  France  and  England  had  a  particular 
interest  in  the  event.  Flanders  was  part  of  France,  though 
the  Earl  had  been  practically  independent.  His  son-in-law 
and  heir,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  was  uncle  and  guardian  of 
the  young  King,  Charles  the  Sixth  ;  if  the  power  of  the  Earl 
in  Flanders  was  now  overthrown,  the  Duke  would  lose  his 
inheritance ;  to  secure  his  future  patrimony  he  brought  the 
power  of  his  nephew  to  crush  the  new  republic.  But  the 
King  of  France  had  real  interests  of  his  own  in  Flanders, 
not  merely  because  the  earldom  was  nominally  part  of  his 


1382  PHILIP  VAN  ARTEVELDB  265 

kingdom,  but  because  Paris  and  other  of  his  towns  had  long 
been  so  mutinous  and  insolent  that  the  integrity  of  his 
feudal  realm  was  seriously  threatened  by  burgher  democracy. 
Men  feared  that  if  Artevelde  were  allowed  to  develop  his 
newfangled  schemes,  '  all  noblesse  would  perish.'  The 
immediate  pretext  for  war  between  France  and  Flanders  was 
that  the  Flemings  had  burnt  villages  on  the  French  King's 
side  of  the  frontier.  Philip  does  not  seem  to  have  been  as 
able  and  fortunate  in  his  relations  with  foreign  Powers  as  in 
his  internal  policy.  He  did  not  do  his  best  to  postpone  the 
war  with  France,  and  did  not  make  all  the  efforts  that  he 
might  to  gain  the  immediate  alliance  of  England. 

This  country  was  the  natural  ally  of  the  new  republic. 
The  dictator's  father,  Jacob  van  Artevelde,  had  been  the  friend 
of  Edward  the  Third.  The  son  had  now  unexpectedly  given 
England  a  last  chance  of  gaining  a  footing  on  the  Continent. 
A  new  State  with  strong  anti-French  proclivities  had  suddenly 
sprung  into  existence.  Since  we  did  not  intend  to  make 
peace  with  France  at  once,  it  was  our  true  policy  to  protect 
Flanders,  as  Elizabeth  under  very  similar  circumstances 
protected  rebellious  Holland.  The  danger  of  French  invasion 
must  always  have  kept  Artevelde  so  subservient  to  our  wishes 
that  we  could  have  dictated  terms  of  economic  and  political 
alliance,  and  become  '  the  most  favoured  nation '  in  trade 
and  war ;  the  English  and  Flemish  shipping  together  could 
have  held  the  Channel  against  all  comers.  Alliance  was 
plainly  for  the  interest  of  both  parties. 

It  was  known  that  Philip  would  be  attacked  by  the  whole 
power  of  France  before  the  year  was  out.  A  few  hundred 
trained  English  soldiers,  hastily  equipped  and  sent  over,  would 
make  a  great  difference  in  the  coming  struggle,  for  though 
Artevelde  had  at  his  command  great  resources  and  great 
numbers,  neither  he  nor  his  subjects  had  military  capacity 
or  experience.  The  Flemish  ambassadors  had  an  interview 
at  Westminster  with  the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  the  Earl  of 
Salisbury,  and  the  Earl  of  Buckingham,  at  which  they  asked 
for  alliance  and  for  English  troops  ;  but  coupled  the  request 
with  a  demand  for  two  hundred  thousand  crowns,  an  out- 
standing  debt  owed  by  England   to   Jacob   van   Artevelde, 


266  GBNBEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

dating  back  to  the  time  of  Crecy.  The  revival  of  this  claim 
was  very  ill-timed,  and  showed  that  Philip's  great  natural 
capacities  needed  that  training  in  diplomacy  which  a  few 
years'  experience  would  probably  have  supplied.  The 
English  lords,  vexed  at  the  importunity  of  the  upstart,  and 
failing  to  see  the  importance  of  the  crisis,  sent  away  the 
ambassadors  without  any  definite  answer. 

When  Parliament  met  in  autumn,  the  Chancellor  declared 
the  kingdom  to  be  in  great  danger  of  conquest  by  its  enemies, 
and  demanded  money  for  two  expeditions,  which  would 
secure  our  shores  from  attack.  One  of  them,  the  relief  of 
the  good  towns  of  Flanders,  was  certainly  calculated  to  raise 
the  prestige  of  England  and  to  secure  the  Channel  against 
the  enemy's  fleets.  But  the  proposed  invasion  of  the  Spanish 
Peninsula  would  merely  throw  away  men  in  a  distant  country 
in  the  vain  hope  of  gratifying  the  ambition  of  John  of  Gaunt. 
Parliament  would  have  done  well  to  reject  the  latter  proposal 
and  vote  a  large  sum  of  money  for  the  Flemish  war.  But 
the  Duke  of  Lancaster's  influence  was  still  strong;  he 
pressed  hard  to  be  put  in  command  of  a  Peninsular  army, 
and  even  offered  to  repay  the  nation  for  its  outfit  when  he 
had  conquered  Castile.  Finally,  the  Commons  settled  to  do 
nothing.  They  voted  a  tenth  and  fifteenth  for  the  defence 
of  the  kingdom,  and  left  it  to  the  King's  Council  to  decide 
how  it  was  to  be  spent.  They  signified  their  own  preference 
that  the  Flemish  towns  should  receive  instant  aid,  but  they 
did  not  make  it  a  condition  of  supply.^  In  the  end,  neither 
campaign  was  undertaken  that  winter.  Parliament  was 
dissolved,  and  a  month  later  the  Flemish  Eepublic  perished 
on  the  field  of  Eosbec. 

While  these  tardy  palaverings  were  going  on  at  West- 
minster, Philip  lay  before  Oudenarde  in  hourly  expectation  of 
the  arrival  of  troops  from  England.  '  I  am  surprised,'  he 
said,  '  how  they  can  so  long  delay,  when  they  know  they  have 
free  entrance  into  this  country.'  At  last  the  English  herald 
came,  bringing  a  scheme  of  future  alliance,  but  no  troops. 
'  The  succours  will  come  too  late,'  cried  Artevelde  bitterly,  and 
rode  off  in  moody  silence  to  Ghent  to  call  out  the  levee-en- 

'  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  133-4,  136-7,  and  140. 


Not.  27,  1382  EOSBEC  267 

masse.  He  had  decided  to  give  the  French  battle,  for  they 
were  reducing  place  after  place.  There  was  a  French  faction 
in  every  town,  who  were  sometimes  able,  as  at  Ypres,  to  open 
the  gates.  The  enemy  could  not  have  captured  Ghent  before 
winter  drove  them  home,  but  the  Eegent  was  anxious  to  save 
South  Flanders.  This  was  why  he  gave  battle,  though 
according  to  Froissart  it  was  a  grave  military  blunder.  The 
war  was  decided  at  Eosbec,  near  the  shores  of  the  Lys.  The 
dense  phalanxes  of  burgher  spearmen,  unprotected  by  archers 
or  cavalry,  were  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  the  French  knight- 
hood and  massacred  where  they  stood.  Those  in  the  centre  of 
the  columns  were  pressed  to  death  by  thousands.  Artevelde 
was  smothered  in  a  ditch  by  the  fugitives  of  his  own  army. 
His  brief  and  splendid  career,  scarcely  twelve  months  long, 
resembles  the  course  of  a  meteor  across  the  sky,  more  closely 
than  many  longer  lives  to  which  that  figure  has  been  applied. 
He  appeared  for  so  short  a  time  before  the  world  that  it  is 
hard  to  estimate  his  true  greatness.  Though  he  still  lacks  a 
historian,  he  no  longer  '  lacks  a  sacred  bard  ; '  for  Taylor  has, 
in  our  own  century,  made  him  the  hero  of  a  fine  historical 
play. 

Eosbec  ended  the  dream  of  a  united  and  independent 
Flanders,  but  Ghent  still  held  out  two  years  more.  The  war 
in  1383  was  again  a  war  between  Ghent  single-handed  and 
ths  rest  of  Flanders  under  the  Earl.  Needless  to  say  the 
English,  now  that  their  chance  had  gone  by,  attempted  to 
undo  what  their  dilatoriness  had  done,  and  flung  themselves 
into  the  conflict  with  belated  energy.  Froissart  suggests  that 
jealousy  of  the  democratic  character  of  Artevelde's  republic 
had  made  the  English  nobles  half-hearted  in  his  cause.^  It 
is  difficult  to  say  whether  this  was  so  ;  the  movement  of  the 
city  communes  in  Flanders  had  little  in  common  with  the 
Peasants'  Eising  in  England.  No  such  tendency  on  the  part 
of  the  English  municipalities  can  be  detected ;  they  were 
riotous  but  not  revolutionary.  Be  this  as  it  may,  now  that 
Eosbec  had  reassured  the  noblesse  and  the  landed  interest  of 
•all  countries,  the  English  lords  became  anxious  to  support  the 
last  struggles  of  Ghent  against  the  French,  whose  reputation 

'  Froiss.,  ii.  chap.  189. 


268  GBNEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

as  soldiers  had  been  much  repaired  by  their  success  against 
Philip.  Froissart  tells  us  how  the  English  knights  went 
about  crying  to  each  other  :  '  Ha,  by  holy  Mary  !  how  proud 
will  the  French  be  now,  for  the  heap  of  peasants  they  have 
slain !  I  wish  to  God  Philip  van  Artevelde  had  had  two 
thousand  of  our  lances  and  six  thousand  of  our  archers  ;  then 
not  one  Frenchman  would  have  escaped  death  or  capture.' 
The  commonalty  were  no  less  eager  for  the  reconquest  of 
Flanders,  for  the  Earl  on  his  restoration  had  shown  himself 
more  unfavourable  than  the  dictator  to  English  merchants 
and  English  trade. 

Even  the  Church  had  her  own  reasons  for  lending  active 
support  to  a  campaign  in  the  Low  Countries.  The  absurd 
division  of  Christendom  between  Urban  of  Eome  and  Clement 
of  Avignon  affected  the  destiny  of  the  Flemings.  Ghent 
and  her  allies  obeyed  the  Eoman  Pope.  The  King  of  France 
had  marched  against  them  with  the  blessing  of  the  chair 
of  Avignon,  and  had  displayed  on  the  field  of  Piosbec  the 
sacred  oriflamme,  which  might  be  unfolded  only  against 
heretics.  The  Vatican  had  been  less  slow  than  the  Court  of 
Westminster  to  perceive  that  its  interests  were  bound  up  with 
the  cause  of  civic  independence  in  Flanders.  Urban  had  sent 
over  a  commission  to  Spencer,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  to  raise  and 
conduct  an  English  crusade  against  the  French  Clementists. 
Spencer  was  the  Bishop  in  whom  he  justly  placed  the  most 
confidence  for  such  a  purpose  ;  for  he  was  pre-eminently  a 
Papal  Bishop,  and  pre-eminently  a  fighting  man.  His  recent 
campaign  against  the  peasants  of  East  Anglia  was  the  talk  of 
the  day.  He  set  about  the  task  committed  him  with  charac- 
teristic energy.  During  the  summer  of  1382  all  England,  but 
especially  the  Eastern  Counties,  resounded  with  preparations 
for  a  crusade.  The  trumpet  of  the  Church  militant  was 
heard  in  the  land.  The  friars,  who  were  as  much  the  special 
servants  of  the  Papacy  as  Spencer  himself,  used  all  their  arts 
and  all  their  influence  to  rouse  enthusiasm  and  to  raise 
money.  The  bulk  of  the  nation  looked  on  with  quiet 
approval,  for  the  quarrel  of  Urban  against  Clement  was  also 
that  of  England  against  France.  The  Leicester  monk, 
Knighton,  thus  describes  the  proceedings : — '  The  Bishop  col- 


1382  A   CEUSADE  PEEACHBD  269 

lected  an  incredible  sum  of  money,  gold  and  silver,  jewels 
and  necklaces,  mugs,  spoons,  and  other  ornaments,  especially 
from  ladies  and  other  women.  One  lady  alone  contributed  a 
hundred  pounds,  and  others,  some  more  some  less  ;  many 
gave,  it  was  believed,  beyond  their  real  means,  in  order  to 
obtain  the  benefit  of  absolution  for  themselves  and  their 
friends.  Thus  the  secret  treasure  of  the  realm,  which  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  women,  was  drawn  out.  Men  and  women, 
rich  and  poor,  gave  according  to  their  estate  and  beyond  it, 
that  both  their  dead  friends  and  themselves  also  might  be 
absolved  from  their  sins.  For  absolution  was  refused  unless 
they  gave  according  to  their  ability  and  estate.  And  many 
found  men-at-arms  and  archers  at  their  own  expense, 
or  went  themselves  on  the  crusade.  For  the  Bishop  had 
wonderful  indulgences,  with  absolution  from  punishment  and 
guilt,  conceded  to  him  for  the  crusade  by  Pope  Urban  the 
Sixth,  by  whose  authority  the  Bishop  in  his  own  person  or  by 
his  commissioners  absolved  both  the  dead  and  the  living  on 
whose  behalf  sufficient  contribution  was  made.'  ^ 

The  amount  collected  was  a  great  triumph  for  supersti- 
tion. It  displayed  the  strength  of  the  friars,  and  the  rooted 
belief  among  many  of  Wycliffe's  countrymen  in  those  ideas 
of  absolution  against  which  he  was  so  boldly  lifting  his  voice. 
These  ideas  were,  as  they  must  ever  be,  the  basis  of  the  extra- 
ordinary power  of  the  Eoman  clergy ;  in  the  fourteenth  no 
less  than  in  the  sixteenth  century  the  question  of  absolution 
was  fiercely  contested.  Wycliffe's  bitterest  and  most  pro- 
longed attacks  on  the  Church  were  made  against  her  conduct 
in  this  crusade,  and  if  he  ever  had  a  right  to  be  bitter,  it 
was  on  this  occasion.  There  were  two  fathers  of  Christen- 
dom, each  urging  his  children  of  France  and  England  to 
continue  a  desolating  war  which  had  long  exhausted  and 
wearied  both  parties,  each  intriguing  to  bring  other  forces 
and  other  nations  into  the  struggle,  and  each  using  every 
spiritual  weapon  to  bring  about  a  general  Armageddon.  Yet 
if  there  was  an  anti-Eoman  party  among  the  English  Church 
authorities,  they  held  their  peace  and  left  the  heretic  to 
denounce  the  iniquities  of  the  Papacy.^ 

'  Knighton,  ii.  198-9 ;  Wals.  ii.  71-80. 

2  Pol.  Works,  i.  19-20,  ii.  579-632 ;  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  242-7,  349. 


270  GENEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

When  Parliament  met  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  year  a 
contest  arose  between  the  party  of  the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  who 
iavoured  the  proposed  expedition  to  Spain,  and  the  party  of 
Eishop  Spencer,  who  wished  to  support  the  crusade  in  Flanders 
with  the  parliamentary  taxes.  Both  sides  were  partly  in  the 
right.  On  the  one  hand,  the  invasion  of  the  Peninsula  was  a 
useless  waste  of  blood  and  treasure,  and  left  our  coasts  un- 
defended. Flanders  was  the  right  point  of  attack.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  would  be  a  disgraceful  hypocrisy  on  the  part  of 
Parliament  to  pretend  to  vote  the  national  money  for  a  crusade, 
yfhen  the  real  motive  for  sending  the  national  troops  to 
Flanders  was  the  lust  of  worldly  conquest,  and  it  would  be 
indecorous  to  commit  the  national  army  to  the  command  of 
an  ecclesiastic.  The  Lords  mostly  favoured  the  Duke  of 
Lancaster  and  his  scheme.  They  were  beginning  to  transfer 
their  jealousy  from  him  to  Eichard.  The  Commons,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  strong  for  Flanders  and  the  Bishop.  They 
still  feared  and  hated  the  Duke,  they  saw  how  useless  the 
Spanish  expedition  must  prove,  and  they  regarded  Bishop 
Spencer  as  something  of  a  hero.  His  fiery  and  successful  raid 
on  the  Eastern  Counties  had  given  rise  to  the  belief  that  he 
was  a  good  general,  while  John  of  Gaunt  had  again  and  again 
proved  himself  the  reverse.  The  knights  of  the  shires  were 
not  influenced  by  Wycliffe's  protests  against  the  crusade  ;  on 
the  other  hand,  the  majority  were  probably  not  fanatical 
Churchmen  or  Papists,  for  the  last  House  of  Commons  had  in- 
sisted on  the  withdrawal  of  an  ordinance  against  the  Wycliffites. 
The  House  considered  it  a  practical  and  patriotic  plan  to  make 
use  of  the  money  raised  by  the  sale  of  pardons,  for  the  recovery 
of  Flanders.  They  accordingly  voted  that  the  taxes  should  be 
applied  to  fitting  out  an  expedition  '  for  the  succour  and 
comfort  of  Ghent ; '  that  this  body  should  be  joined  to  the 
crusading  army  levied  by  the  Pope's  bulls,  and  the  whole 
put  under  the  command  of  the  Bishop  of  Norwich.  They 
insisted  that  he  should  not  be  accompanied  by  any  of 
the  King's  uncles.  The  last  condition  was  the  subject  of  a 
bitter  and  prolonged  controversy  between  the  two  Houses. 
The  Commons  were  determined  that  the  taxes  and  the  army 
should  not  be  entrusted  to  John  of  Gaunt,  while  the  secular 


1383  THE   CEUSADE  271 

lords  were  jealous  of  a  Bishop's  military  authority,  and  re- 
garded the  Duke's  cause  as  the  cause  of  their  own  class.  If 
he  was  not  to  go  to  Spain,  they  claimed  that  he  should  at 
least  be  sent  in  command  of  the  Flemish  crusade.  Party 
feeling  ran  high,  and  threats  of  violence  were  used  on  both 
sides.  Finally,  the  Commons  and  the  Church  had  their  way 
against  the  will  of  the  majority  of  the  lay  peerage,  the  Bishop 
assumed  the  cross  at  St.  Paul's  with  great  ceremony,  and  soon 
after  left  England  in  sole  command  of  a  formidable  array.^ 

When  the  crusaders  arrived  at  Calais,  the  question  arose 
whether   they  should  attack  France  or  Flanders,     Spencer 
was   in   a   curious   position.      He  had    been   commissioned 
by    Pope    Urban    to    slay    Clementists,   and    a    great    part 
of  his  army  consisted  of  devotees  who  had  come  abroad  to 
win  salvation  by  that  Christian  exercise.     Now  the  men  of 
Flanders   were   Urbanists,  and   even   their  Earl,  though  so 
lately  restored  by  Clementist  arms,  professed  himself  faithful 
to  the  Vatican.     As  crusaders,  the  English  had  no  longer  any 
right  to  attack  the  Flemings.     But  the  Bishop  had  received  a 
parliamentary  grant  '  for  the  succour  and  comfort  of  Ghent.'  - 
As  general  of  the  English  army,  he  was  therefore  bound  to 
attempt   the   reconquest   of   Flanders   in   alliance   with   the 
remnant  of  Artevelde's  faction,  who  still  held  the  great  city. 
He  finally  succeeded  in  reconciling  his  incongruous  duties  by 
attacking  the  Earl  of  Flanders  as  a  heretic,  on  the  ground 
that  he  was  supported  on  his  throne  by  the  Clementist  French. 
He  marched  first  against  the  Flemish  coast  towns,  displaying 
the  Papal  banner  of  St.  Peter's  keys,  under  which  ensign  he 
slew  several  thousand  faithful  subjects  of  the  Vatican.     He 
took  possession  of  Gravelines,  Dunkirk,  Nieuport,  Furnes,  and 
all  the  coast  as  far  as  Sluys.     He  then  turned  inland,  and, 
with  the  help  of  the  men  of  Ghent,  laid  siege  to  Ypres,  the 
key  of   South   Flanders.      Here   his   career  of  victory  was 
checked  by  the  appearance  of  the  French  army,  hastening  to 
the  relief  of  the  Earl.     In  the  face  of  any  serious  opposition, 
Spencer  could  not  long  conceal  his  inability  to  fill  the  post 
to  which  he  had  been  chosen  with  such  acclamation.     Though 

'  Rot  Pari.,  iii.  144-6  ;  Higden,  ix.  17-8  ;  Wals.,  ii.  84  ;  Cont.  Eulog.,  356. 
2  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  145-6  ;  Froissart,  ii.  chaps.  194-6. 


272  GENEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

capable  of  leading  a  handful  of  soldiers  against  hordes  of 
half-armed  peasantry  of  whom  everyone  else  was  foolishly 
afraid,  he  was  quite  unable  to  direct  one  great  army  against 
another.  He  was  outmanoeuvred  and  driven  back  to  the  coast, 
where  he  lost  town  after  town  almost  without  a  struggle.  He 
returned  home,  leaving  a  part  of  his  army  under  a  few  officers 
to  defend  Bourbourg,  the  only  relic  of  his  conquests.  It 
was  soon  afterwards  surrendered,  and  our  last  foothold  in 
Flanders  was  gone. 

The  Bishop  had  a  heavy  reckoning  to  pay  to  Parliament 
that  autumn.  The  Commons  had  been  deceived  in  him,  and, 
as  usually  happens  in  such  cases,  considered  that  they  had 
been  deceived  by  him.  The  Lords  were  able  to  boast  that 
they  had  foreseen  the  event,  and  joined  heartily  in  the  con- 
genial task  of  crushing  their  enemy.  He  was  impeached  by 
the  Commons  for  misconduct  of  the  war,  found  guilty  by  the 
Lords  and  condemned  to  lose  the  temporalities  of  his  see.^ 
Under  this  ignominious  eclipse,  his  figure  disappears  from 
English  history,  and  the  Mediaeval  Church  militant  along 
with  him.  No  sham  crusade  was  ever  again  organised  in  our 
island. 

The  result  of  this  last  campaign  was  to  bring  the  inter- 
ference of  England  in  Flanders  to  an  end,  and  to  set  us  within 
measurable  distance  of  peace  with  France.  Long  years  had 
been  ineffectually  wasted  in  fitful  attempts  to  get  better  terms 
than  those  which  should  have  been  accepted  as  inevitable  in 
'76.  The  result  of  the  crusade  at  last  opened  the  eyes  of 
all  to  the  real  situation.  Men  began  to  desire  peace,^  but 
even  now  were  unwilling  to  confess  that  they  had  been  beaten. 
It  was  still  considered  beneath  the  dignity  of  England  to 
acknowledge  facts.  The  Commons  recommended  peace,  but 
added  a  hope  that  the  King  would  not  accept  the  terms 
offered  by  the  French.^  All  that  any  government  dared  do 
was  to  make  and  prolong  truces.  The  first  of  these,  made  in 
January  1384,  lasted  more  than  a  year.  Then  there  was 
again,  for  a  short  while,  a  fitful  warfare,  almost  entirely 
confined,  however,  to  the  struggle  for  supremacy  in  Spain. 

'  Bot.  Pari,  iii.  152-8.  ^  Wals.,  ii.  110,  117,  last  line,  '  inutilis.' 

=>  Bot.  Pari,  iii.  170. 


EICHAED'S  UNCEETAIN  CHAEACTEE  273 

In  1389  a  second  truce  was  made,  and  this  was  prolonged  till 
the  accession  of  Henry  the  Fifth  opened  the  second  period  of 
the  Hundred  Years'  War.  England  thus  obtained  an  oppor- 
tunity, in  the  latter  part  of  Eichard  the  Second's  reign, 
to  recover  from  her  terrible  exhaustion  and  anarchy.  She 
recovered  from  the  exhaustion,  but  the  anarchy  continued. 
The  sieeds  of  evil,  which  the  long  war  had  sown,  were  never 
eradicated  till  the  time  of  the  Tudors. 

Ghent,  deserted  by  England  in  January  '84,  made  terms 
at  the  end  of  the  next  year.  The  city  secured  the  status  quo 
ante  helium,  with  all  old  privileges  and  liberties,  but  accepted 
again  the  suzerainty  of  the  Earl  of  Flanders.  The  Duke  of 
Burgundy  had  now  succeeded  to  that  title.  On  this  basis  of 
mutual  recognition  of  rights,  Flanders  and  its  lord  prospered 
for  the  next  hundred  years,  gradually  effaced  the  traces  of  the 
havoc  wrought  by  their  quarrel,  and  built  up  the  power  of  the 
House  of  Burgundy,  which,  under  Charles  the  Bold,  for  a 
while  overshadowed  all  Europe,  defied  France  and  Germany 
together,  and  perished  at  the  hands  of  the  Swiss  on  the  field 
of  Nancy. 


While  the  war  was  passing  through  its  latter  stages,  an 
important  change  took  place  in  home  politics.  Eichard  the 
Second,  by  assuming  to  himself  the  direction  of  the  govern- 
ment, drove  into  opposition  all  who  had  during  his  minority 
grown  accustomed  to  share  in  the  control  of  the  nation.  Lords 
and  Commons  alike.  The  policy,  ability,  and  character 
of  Eichard  the  Second  are  no  fixed  and  certain  quantities.  j/" 
During  the  twenty  years  of  his  public  career,  he  displays 
alternately  strength  and  weakness,  self-sufficiency  and  de- 
pendence, vindictiveness  and  clemency;  now  he  quells  all 
men  by  his  kingly  bearing,  now  he  exhibits  that  lethargic 
melancholy  into  which  Shakespeare  has  correctly  pictured  him 
declining  when  his  subjects  went  over  to  Bolingbroke.  His 
policy  was,  in  his  later  years  at  least,  subject  to  sudden  muta- 
tions. But  between  1382  and  1386  it  is  on  the  whole  uniform, 
although  his  character  and  ability  seem  to  vary  on  different 
occasions.     His  object  in  these  early  years  was  to  be  rid  of 

T 


274  GENEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

all  tutors  selected  for  him  by  his  uncles  or  by  either  House  of 
Parliament,  and  to  rule  according  to  his  own  will,  by  the 
advice  and  agency  of  those  whom  he  chose  as  his  ministers. 
His  principal  choice  does  credit  to  his  judgment.  Michael  de 
la  Pole  was  a  Yorkshireman,  who  had  many  years  before  risen 
from  the  ranks  of  the  gentry  to  those  of  the  peerage,  by  his 
services  to  Edward  the  Third  in  the  French  wars.  He  was  well 
over  fifty  years  of  age  when,  leaving  the  party  of  the  Duke  of 
Lancaster  to  which  he  had  been  attached,  he  became  Eichard's 
confidant.  He  was  as  much  the  superior  of  Piers  Gaveston 
as  his  young  master  was  the  superior  of  Edward  the  Second. 
Of  Eobert  Vere,  Earl  of  Oxford,  little  is  certain  either  for 
good  or  bad.  In  choosing  him  for  a  favourite,  Eichard  did 
not  raise  him  from  obscurity,  for  his  ancestors  had  been 
Earls  of  Oxford  since  the  reign  of  Stephen  ;  it  is  perhaps  a 
presumption  against  his  wisdom  as  a  counsellor  that  he  was 
under  twenty-five  years  of  age.  It  is  equally  difficult  to  esti- 
mate the  character  of  Tressilian,  who  as  Chief  Justice  became 
Eichard's  instrument,  and  of  Brembre,  who  headed  the  King's 
friends  among  the  citizens  of  London.  But  besides  these 
distinguished  and  perhaps  honourable  recipients  of  the  royal 
favour,  there  appear  to  have  been  a  number  of  more  insigni- 
ficant and  needy  gentlemen  attached  to  the  Court,  favourites 
in  the  worst  sense  of  the  word,  who,  after  making  what  they 
could  out  of  a  generous  and  foolish  master,  finally  brought 
him  to  ruin.^  There  were  many  in  England  who  would  have 
welcomed  a  revival  of  absolutism  if  it  had  meant  good  govern- 
ment in  the  interest  of  the  middle  classes.  In  favour  of  such 
an  administration,  the  House  of  Commons  itself  would  have 
foregone  its  right  of  interference.  But  the  King,  even  while 
he  was  still  in  the  process  of  attaining  power,  showed  that 
he  cared  for  royal  privilege  more  than  for  the  interests  of 
the  nation.  A  spendthrift  Court,  fed  on  the  national  money, 
characterised  the  reign  of  Eichard  no  less  than  of  Charles  the 
Second.  This  waste  was  from  the  outset  a  cause  of  quarrel 
between  the  Crown  and  the  Commons.^ 

The  affair  began  ominously  in  July  1382.     The  Chancellor 
appointed  by  the  last  Parliament  was  Lord  Scrope,  a  man  of 

'  See  Ap.  ^  See  Ap. 


Mae.  1383    MICHAEL  DE  LA  POLE  CHANCELLOE      275 

such  ability  and  integrity  that,  although  a  friend  to  John  of 
Gaunt,  he  had  obtained  the  confidence  of  the  whole  nation. 
He  now  did  his  duty  by  protesting  against  the  lavish  grants 
that  the  King  was  making  to  his  courtiers.  It  was  the 
old  question,  whether  Crown  land  might  be  alienated,  or 
whether  it  should  be  regarded  as  sacred  to  the  public  service. 
The  young  courtiers  who  surrounded  Eichard  eagerly  per- 
suaded him  that  the  Crown  property  was  his  property,  that  so 
it  might  the  sooner  become  theirs.  When  the  Chancellor 
expostulated,  they  induced  the  King  to  get  rid  of  his  best 
servant.  Scrope's  sudden  dismissal,  for  such  a  reason  as 
this,  spread  alarm  and  sorrow  throughout  the  country.^ 
Eichard,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  had  himself  overthrown  the 
settlement  of  the  kingdom  made  by  Parliament,  and  had  done 
so  in  order  to  plunge  more  freely  into  a  policy  of  extravagant 
expenditure  on  his  household. 

The  King  took  no  part  in  the  quarrel  waged,  in  the  follow- 
ing February,  between  Lords  and  Commons  as  to  the  desti- 
nation and  command  of  the  crusade.  Possibly  this  dispute 
alone  prevented  the  two  Houses  from  acting  in  concert  to 
protest  against  the  removal  of  Scrope.  As  it  was,  the 
Commons  presented  a  petition  praying  the  King  that  the 
principal  officers  of  State  should  not  in  future  be  removed 
without  due  cause.  So  little  heed  did  the  King  pay  to  this 
request,  that  on  the  very  day  on  which  Parliament  was  dis- 
solved, he  took  the  Great  Seal  from  Bishop  Braybrook, 
Scrope's  successor,  in  order  to  give  it  to  Michael  de  la  Pole.^ 
The  new  Chancellor  was  sufficiently  experienced  in  public 
affairs  to  know  that  his  position  was  perilous,  that  it  was 
opposed  to  the  spirit  of  constitutional  government  which 
had  grown  up  during  Eichard's  tutelage,  and  that  he  must 
be  ready  to  encounter  storms.  At  the  next  Parliament,  in 
October  1383,  he  attempted  to  disarm  criticism  by  an  apology 
for  appearing  in  the  office  of  Chancellor.  He  knew,  he  said, 
that  he  was  unworthy,  but  the  King  had  appointed  him  and 
he  had  no  choice  but  to  obey.^  Lords  and  Commons  were  on 
this  occasion  acting  in  unison,  but  fortunately  for  Pole  their 

»  Wals.,  ii.  68-70  ;  Fmd.,  iv.  150.         "  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  147 ;  Feed.,  iv.  162. 
3  Bot.  Pari,  iii.  149. 

T  2 


276  GENEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

wrath  was  turned  in  another  direction,  against  the  Bishop  of 
Norwich,  just  returned  from  his  unlucky  crusade.  Although 
no  regular  impeachment  was  yet  aimed  at  the  King's  favour- 
ites, the  peers  exchanged  angry  words  with  their  sovereign. 
They  complained  that  he  had  thrown  over  their  counsel, 
deprived  them  of  their  constitutional  position  as  the  heredi- 
tary advisers  of  the  throne,  and  governed  after  his  own 
headstrong  way.  Eichard  answered  with  no  less  heat  that  he 
intended  to  save  the  kingdom  from  the  bad  government  of  the 
nobility.^  The  issues  had  now  become  clear.  The  King's 
uncles  found  that  their  young  charge  had  escaped  from  their 
hands  and  dispensed  with  their  services.  The  other  great 
nobles,  except  the  few  who  were  the  King's  favourites,  found 
their  influence  at  Court  similarly  declining.  A  new  friend- 
liness grew  up  between  John  of  Gaunt  and  many  of  his  old 
opponents.  His  bitter  enemy,  the  Earl  of  March,  had  lately 
died,  and  the  other  lords  found  they  had  less  reason  to  be 
jealous  of  him  than  of  his  nephew. 

The  feelings  of  both  parties  broke  out  at  the  Parliament 
of  April  '84,  which  was  held  at  Salisbury.  The  Earl  of 
Arundel,  who  had  become  one  of  the  principal  leaders  in 
opposition  to  the  King,  spoke  very  plainly  before  both  Houses 
on  the  bad  government  of  the  realm.  Eichard,  who  was 
presiding  from  his  throne  over  the  opening  of  the  Parliament, 
leapt  to  his  feet,  white  with  anger,  and  shouted  at  the  Earl : 
'  If  you  impute  bad  government  to  me,  you  lie  in  your  throat ; 
go  to  the  Devil ! '  John  of  Gaunt  rose  to  intervene,  and 
explain  away  Arundel's  words,  but  the  scene  was  not  one 
which  could  be  forgotten.^  Shortly  afterwards,  while  the 
Court  was  still  at  Salisbury,  a  friar  came  to  the  King  secretly, 
to  reveal  a  plot  formed  against  his  life  and  throne  by  his 
uncle  of  Lancaster.  Eichard  was  inclined  to  believe  it,  and 
would  even,  it  was  said,  have  put  the  Duke  to  death  without 
further  inquiry,  had  not  the  other  great  nobles  prevented 
him.  He  accepted  their  advice,  but  as  soon  as  they  had  left 
his  presence,  burst  into  hysterical  fury,  threw  his  cap  and 
slippers  out  of  the  window,  and  flung  himself  about  the  room 
like  a  madman.     Meanwhile  the  friar  had  been  arrested  by 

1  Higden,  ix.  26.  '  Ibid.  ix.  33. 


Apeil  1384  A  FOUL  DEED  277 

the  King's  sergeants,  who  had  orders  to  take  him  to  prison  in 
Salisbury  Castle.  But  before  they  had  left  the  doors  of  the 
palace,  a  party  of  knights,  headed  by  Sir  John  Holland, 
took  over  the  charge  of  the  prisoner,  led  him  on  to  the  castle, 
and  carried  him  down  into  one  of  its  ancient  dungeons. 
There  the  miserable  man  was  tortured  with  all  the  ingenuity 
of  human  wickedness.  Such  a  scene  would  have  passed  with 
little  comment  in  the  days  of  Front  de  Boeuf,  but  it  shocked 
the  contemporaries  of  Chaucer.  It  was  said  that  no  servant 
or  page  would  set  his  hands  to  the  work,  and  that  the  foul 
deed  was  done  by  the  gentlemen  themselves,  one  of  whom 
was  of  royal  blood.  Although  the  victim  was  at  last  handed 
over  to  the  governor  of  the  castle,  who  treated  what  was  left 
of  him  with  humanity,  he  died  within  a  few  hours.  When 
word  was  brought  to  Eichard,  he  sobbed  for  vexation  and 
pity.  Though  in  the  heat  of  anger  he  could  order  deeds  of 
blood,  such  diabolical  and  calculating  cruelty  as  this  was 
revolting  to  his  nature.  Besides,  the  death  of  the  friar 
deprived  him  of  all  chance  of  discovering  his  uncle's  plot. 
The  horrible  fate  that  awaited  any  man  who  should  accuse 
John  of  Gaunt  of  treason,  so  appalled  the  other  witness  in  the 
case  that  he  was  glad  to  deny  all  knowledge  of  the  facts. 
The  forcible  suppression  of  the  friar's  evidence  would  perhaps 
be  some  reason  for  suspecting  that  his  story  was  true  ;  but  the 
remarkable  circumstance  is  that  those  who  tortured  him  to 
death  were  not  enemies  of  the  King  or  friends  of  the  Duke. 
The  chief  of  them  was  Eichard's  half-brother,  Holland.  One 
of  the  chronicles  even  states  that  Holland  took  charge  of  the 
prisoner  by  royal  command,  although  none  accuse  Eichard  of 
knowing  that  he  would  be  tortured.  It  cannot  therefore  be 
said  with  certainty  that  John  of  Gaunt  and  the  nobles  opposed 
to  the  Crown  sent  the  knights  to  make  away  with  the  friar. 
The  whole  incident  must  remain  an  inscrutable  mystery.^ 

The  King  openly  showed  that  he  still  suspected  the 
Duke's  guilt.  This  led  to  another  scene.  His  second  uncle, 
Thomas  Woodstock,  Earl  of  Buckingham,  burst  into  his 
presence,  upbraided  him  for  his  suspicions,  and  threatened 
him  in  the  most  violent  terms.     The  bitterness  of  the  quarrel 

*  See  Ap. 


278  GENEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

between  Eichard  and  his  nobles,  the  uncontrolled  passions 
,  ybt  the  whole  royal  family,  were  signs  that  the  Commons  read 
<•/  with  a  heavy  heart,  for  it  was  not  hard  to  see  that  the  ship 
of  State  was  fast  drifting  towards  the  breakers.  The  Lower 
House  took  no  action  about  the  friar.  The  knights  and 
burgesses  feared  to  come  '  between  the  pass  and  fell-incensed 
points  of  mighty  opposites.'  Their  only  important  step  was 
to  lodge  complaints  of  the  anarchy  of  the  country,  the  violence 
of  great  men  and  the  perversion  of  justice  by  maintenance. 
The  Duke  of  Lancaster  took  upon  himself  to  reply  in  the 
name  of  the  nobility  that  '  the  lords  were  powerful  enough  to 
punish  their  retainers  for  committing  such  excesses.'  The 
Commons  had  nothing  by  this  answer.  If  the  nobility  were 
powerful  enough  to  keep  their  men  in  order,  why  did  they 
not  do  so  ?  Being  unable  to  get  support  from  the  King  or 
satisfaction  from  the  lords,  the  knights  held  their  peace. 
When  this  most  unsatisfactory  of  Parliaments  came  to  an 
end,  all  parties  left  Salisbury  with  feelings  of  mutual  suspicion 
and  hatred.^ 

The  next  trial  of  strength  between  the  King  and  his  uncle 
took  place  in  August,  when  John  of  Northampton,  late  Mayor 
of  London,  was  brought  to  justice  before  the  King  at  Beading. 
In  order  to  understand  this  event  it  is  necessary  to  go 
back  a  little  in  the  history  of  the  great  city.  Ever  since  the 
Peasants'  Bevolt,  London  had  been  the  battle-ground  of  rival 
factions,  among  whom  the  King  and  the  Duke  each  had 
supporters.  Bichard's  friends  were  found  among  the  great 
merchants  of  the  victualling  trades,  especially  among  the 
fishmongers  and  the  grocers.  The  latter  body,  founded  in 
1345  by  a  union  of  the  spicers  and  pepperers,  had  not  been 
long  in  arousing  by  their  success  the  jealousy  of  their  fellow- 
citizens.  One  year  sixteen  of  the  twenty-five  aldermen  were 
grocers.^  The  fishmongers  were  a  scarcely  less  powerful  body. 
Their  chief  was  "Walworth,  and  the  chief  of  the  grocers  was 
Nicholas  Brembre.  These  two  men,  ever  since  the  occupation 
of  London  by  the  rebels,  had  been  the  friends  of  Bichard, 
whose  throne  and  life  they  had  done  so  much  to  preserve 

I  Wals.,  ii.  114-5 ;  Higden,  ix.  40-1 ;  Rot.  Pari,  iii.  166  et  seg. 
^  Cunningham,  341. 


1381-3  PAETIES  IN  LONDON  279 

during  those  three  perilous  days.  It  may  well  be  that  the 
common  fear  of  death,  when  they  rode  side  by  side  through 
the  fierce  crowds  that  lined  the  streets,  the  plans  for  common 
safety  that  they  formed  in  the  Tower  while  the  mob  outside 
shouted  for  blood,  had  bound  Eichard  to  Walworth  and 
Brembre  by  closer  ties  than  those  of  political  interest.  The 
leaders  of  the  victualling  trades  were  essentially  King's  men. 

Their  greatest  rivals  were  the  clothing  trades,  and  the 
head  of  these  was  John  of  Northampton,  draper.  In  Novem- 
ber 1381,  this  man  was  elected  Mayor  in  the  room  of 
Walworth.  As  his  enemies  relied  on  the  King,  so  he  relied 
on  the  Duke.  Yet,  unpopular  as  his  patron  was  in  London, 
Northampton  himself  played  chiefly  for  popular  support.  He 
had  not  long  held  office  before  he  began  a  policy  of  aggression 
directed  against  the  victualling  interest.  As  the  Fishmongers' 
Guild  used  their  privileges  to  raise  the  price  of  fish  in  the 
city  to  an  exorbitant  figure,  the  new  Mayor  issued  ordinances 
calculated  to  put  a  stop  to  such  dealings.  The  price  of  fish 
went  down,  and  there  was  general  rejoicing.  When  the  Mayor 
passed  through  the  streets,  he  was  received  with  signs  of 
popular  good-will.  But  if  he  had  ventured  to  show  his  face 
in  Billingsgate,  he  would  have  been  greeted  in  suitable 
language,  for  he  had  ruined  the  fishmongers.^  Following  up 
this  blow,  he  passed  a  decree  forbidding  victuallers  of  all 
sorts  to  hold  office  in  the  city.  By  this  means  his  chief 
opponents  were  excluded  from  all  share  in  the  government, 
and  the  great  trades  they  represented  were  practically  dis- 
franchised. Not  contented  with  this,  the  Mayor  and  his 
friends  attacked  John  Philpot,  a  friend  of  Walworth  and 
of  the  King.  In  spite  of  his  great  services  to  the  city  and 
realm,  his  munificence  in  fitting  out  fleets  for  the  defence  of 
English  trade,  and  his  long-established  position,  he  was 
forced  to  resign  the  office  of  alderman.  Having  turned  all 
his  enemies  ofl'  the  governing  body,  John  of  Northampton 
governed  London  through  a  clique  drawn  chiefly  from  the 
clothing  trades.^ 

Though  his  rule  was  an  oligarchy,  his  sympathies  were 

»  C.  B.  E.,  507,  Eex.  39  (trial  of  Northampton) ;  Wals.,  ii.  65-6. 
2  C.  B.  B.,  507,  Eex.  39  ;  Wals.  ii.  71. 


280  GENEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

democratic.  The  two  aldermen,  Carlyll  and  Sybyle,  who 
had  admitted  the  rebels  into  London  by  the  drawbridge 
in  June  1381,  were  now  brought  up  for  trial,  but  through 
the  favour  of  the  Mayor  and  his  circle  escaped  the  halter 
that  they  so  richly  deserved.  Probably  their  acquittal  was 
designed  to  please  the  mob.^  But  a  still  more  remarkable 
bid  for  popular  favour  was  made  by  the  rulers  of  the  city. 
The  sympathy  with  Wycliffe  and  the  dislike  of  the  clergy, 
which  were  strong  in  London,  broke  out  in  a  somewhat 
absurd  and  even  odious  form.  Jurisdiction  in  matters  of 
sexual  morality  belonged,  as  we  have  already  seen,  to  the 
Ecclesiastical  Courts.  The  Church  was  in  an  anomalous  and 
hypocritical  position,  for  while  it  was  her  duty  to  punish  all 
cases  of  immorality,  in  practice  she  left  them  alone  or  did 
worse,  by  exacting  money  instead  of  penance.  On  the  in- 
decent hypocrisy  of  the  '  Summoner  '  and  his  master,  Wycliffe 
poured  out  the  vials  of  his  wrath,  and  Chaucer  of  his  scorn. 
In  London  the  position  was  rendered  still  more  ludicrous  by 
the  fact  that  the  '  stews '  of  Southwark  belonged  in  part  to 
the  Bishop  of  Winchester,  Wykeham  drew  a  handsome  rent 
from  these  ill-famed  lodging-houses.  The  rest  belonged  to 
Walworth.^  One  day  a  dense  mob,  headed  by  the  Mayor 
himself,  marched  across  London  Bridge,  raided  the  stews 
and  pilloried  a  number  of  the  unhappy  occupants.  As  an 
act  of  justice  it  was  little  to  be  praised,  and  it  was  per- 
formed in  no  serious  spirit.  The  real  motive,  as  churchmen 
complained,  was  to  protest  against  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction 
by  an  open  usurpation  of  the  Bishop's  privileges.^  Perhaps 
the  Mayor  was  also  aiming  a  blow  at  Walworth  by  exposing 
his  discreditable  property. 

In  the  autumn  of  '82,  John  of  Northampton  was  once 
more  elected,  and  for  another  year  London  endured  his 
extraordinary  rule.  He  aroused  ever-increasing  hostility 
among  the  victualling  trades  by  attempting  to  reduce  the 
prices  of  all,  as  he  had  reduced  those  of  the  fishmongers.^ 
Nevertheless  he  would  have  been  returned  again  in  November 

'  C.  R.  B.,  507,  Eex.  39,  top  of  second  side  of  MS. 

^  History  of  Kent,  Hundred  of  Blackheath,  p.  263,  note. 

=  Wals.,  ii.  65,  *  Higden,  ix,  29. 


AT7S.  1384  TEIAL  OF  NOETHAMPTON  281 

'83  as  the  champion  of  cheap  food,  if  the  King  had  not 
carried  the  election  of  Brembre  by  force.  Many  of  the  late 
Mayor's  supporters  were  slain,  imprisoned,  or  forced  to  fly 
the  city.^  The  grocer,  thus  installed  by  royal  interference, 
reversed  his  predecessor's  policy,  and  restored  all  privileges 
to  the  injured  trades.  The  ex-Mayor  soon  gave  his  enemies 
a  handle  against  him.  His  friends  complained  of  the  violence 
by  which  the  elections  had  been  carried,  demanded  a  writ  for 
a  new  poll,  and  entered  into  negotiations  with  John  of  Gaunt.^ 
Eiotous  meetings  against  the  existing  government  of  the  city 
took  place  in  many  quarters  of  London.  John  of  Northamp- 
ton was  arrested  when  returning  from  one  of  these  demonstra- 
tions at  Whitefriars.^  Both  Mayors  had  been  guilty  of  ques- 
tionable proceedings,  but  the  party  in  power  had  always  the 
law  at  its  service.  The  King  determined  to  get  rid  of  the  Duke's 
partisan.  He  was  still  brooding  over  the  suspicion,  which  the 
friar  had  poured  into  his  ear  at  Salisbury,  that  his  uncle 
was  plotting  with  '  certain  citizens  of  London  '  against  his 
life.^  John  of  Northampton  was  tried  at  Beading  before  a 
Council  of  Lords,  over  which  Eichard  presided.  As  the  Duke 
of  Lancaster  was  absent  in  the  North,  the  prisoner  imprudently 
demanded  the  postponement  of  his  sentence  till  his  patron 
should  return  to  take  part  in  the  proceedings.  The  King's 
face  changed  with  passion.  '  I  will  teach  you,'  he  cried, 
'  that  I  am  your  judge,  whether  my  uncle  is  absent  or  not.' 
In  the  heat  of  his  anger  he  ordered  the  man  to  be  carried  off 
to  execution,  but  when  his  fit  of  passion  was  over  he  revoked 
the  sentence.  After  a  brief  imprisonment,  the  condemned  man 
was  brought  up  for  a  fresh  trial  before  Chief  Justice  Tressilian 
in  the  Tower  of  London.  Tressilian,  fearing  future  reprisals, 
attempted  to  avoid  trying  the  case,  on  the  ground  that  it  was 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  city.  But  as  the  King  insisted 
that  he  should  proceed,  he  was  forced  to  sentence  the  ex- 
Mayor  and  his  two  principal  supporters.  They  were  imprisoned 
in  different  castles.     The  leader  himself  was  carried  off  to 


1  Rot.  Pari,  iii.  225  ;  Higden,  ix.  30. 

=2  C.  R.  R.,  507,  Kex.  39  (second  side). 

=•  C.  R.  R.,  507,  Eex.  39  ;  Higden,  ix.  30  ;  Wals.,  ii.  110-11. 

*  Mon.  Eve.,  50, 


282  GENEEAL  EISTOEY  1381-85 

Tintagel,  to  listen  on  its  lonely  rock  to  the  booming  tides  and 
screaming  gulls,  and  to  pine  for  the  green  banks  of  Thames.^ 

It  was  a  triumph  for  the  King  and  a  further  insult  to  the 
Duke,  who,  it  was  clear,  could  no  longer  maintain  the  quarrel 
of  his  partisans,  as  he  had  once  done  when  Wycliffe  was 
brought  before  the  Bishops.  The  next  election  for  the 
mayoralty  came  on  in  the  autumn,  and  Brembre  stood  again. 
He  was  opposed  by  Twyford,  and  would  probably  have  been 
beaten  had  he  not  again  resorted  to  force.  He  hid  armed 
men  behind  the  arras  in  the  Guildhall.  The  other  party 
came  up  in  full  confidence  of  victory,  shouting  '  Twyford, 
Twyford  !  '  but  as  soon  as  the  voting  began  the  soldiers 
rushed  out  and  drove  them  from  the  chamber.  Brembre's 
followers  remained  and  carried  the  election.  As  the  King 
supported  this  act  of  violence  with  his  sanction,^  Brembre 
continued  in  office  and  was  re-elected  every  year  until  the 
nobles  overthrew  Eichard's  power  and  punished  his  favourites. 
The  revolution  in  the  State  was  the  signal  for  a  similar 
revolution  in  the  city.  John  of  Northampton  was  released 
from  Tintagel  and  restored  to  his  property,  while  Brembre 
was  brought  before  the  bar  of  the  Lords,  and,  after  a  trial  by 
prejudiced  and  inflamed  judges,  condemned  to  death  and  exe- 
cuted (Feb.  1388).  The  crafts  of  London  who  petitioned  for 
his  punishment  were  the  mercers,  cordwainers,  and  eight 
other  guilds  who  were  of  the  faction  opposed  to  the  victualling 
trades.^  This  close  connection  between  the  struggle  of  crafts 
within  the  city  and  the  struggle  of  political  powers  without, 
is  worthy  of  remark.  Each  of  the  parties  in  the  State  had 
its  own  friends  in  London,  who  were  raised  to  the  govern- 
ment of  the  city  when  the  party  itself  obtained  predominance. 
Neither  side  was  hostile  to  London  as  a  whole ;  neither  King 
nor  Lords  wished  to  reduce  its  privileges.  The  attack  on  its 
municipal  rights,  made  by  John  of  Gaunt  in  1377,  was  a 
folly  peculiar  to  that  arrogant  politician,  which  even  he  had 
learned  to  regret. 

After  Northampton's   trial,   nothing  of   any   importance 

'  Higden,  ix.  45-9  ;  Wals.,  ii.  116. 

2  Eot.  Pari,  iii.  225  ;  Higden,  ix.  50-1. 

^  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  225-7 ;  Higden,  ix.  93  and  166-9. 


1385  EICHAED  ALIENATES  COUETENAY  288 

occurred  in  1384.  In  the  following  February  the  King's 
hatred  of  his  uncle  took  a  most  ominous  form.  The  Duke 
had  lately  adopted  an  insolent  tone  at  the  Council  Board. 
He  had  advised  an  expedition  into  France  ;  but  the  King's 
confidants  had  insisted  on  an  invasion  of  Scotland.  Irritated 
at  this  proof  of  his  declining  power,  he  declared  that  he  would 
in  no  way  assist  the  campaign.  The  King  and  his  favourite 
lords,  of  whom  the  Earl  of  Oxford  was  the  chief,  conspired  to 
strike  a  blow  at  the  powerful  man  who  thus  defied  them. 
The  details  of  the  plot  are  narrated  so  differently  by  diffe- 
rent chroniclers,  that  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether  Eichard 
intended  to  have  his  uncle  condemned  by  Tressilian  for  high 
treason,  or  put  to  death  without  the  formality  of  a  trial. 
These  contradictory  reports  as  to  the  exact  nature  of  the 
scheme  are  due  to  the  fact  that  it  was  never  executed.  The 
Duke,  forewarned,  took  measures  for  his  own  safety,  and 
refused  to  appear  before  the  King  without  armed  attendants. 
At  length  some  sort  of  reconciliation  was  effected  by  the 
Queen-mother.^ 

By  this  time  Eichard's  high-handed  actions  were  causing  i^ 
widespread  alarm.  He  had  surrounded  himself  with  a  small 
circle  of  friends,  and  no  one  else  was  interested  in  his  success. 
Proceedings  like  these  against  the  greatest  nobles  of  the 
land  would  soon  drag  the  country  into  civil  war.  Such  was 
the  remonstrance  that  Archbishop  Courtenay  addressed  to 
Eichard,  after  his  plot  against  the  Duke.  The  protest  was 
the  more  weighty  because  it  came  from  one  who  for  both 
public  and  private  reasons  had  long  been  John  of  Gaunt's 
enemy.  After  a  stormy  interview  with  the  Primate,  the  King 
dined  with  Brembre,  and  then  went  out  in  his  barge  to  take 
the  air  on  the  Thames.  Between  Westminster  and  Lambeth 
they  met  the  Archbishop  in  a  boat  with  the  Earl  of  Bucking- 
ham. A  conference  took  place  on  the  water,  in  which 
Courtenay  repeated  all  he  had  said  before  dinner.  The  King 
drew  his  sword  and  would  have  struck  him,  had  not  he  been 
restrained  by  Buckingham.  His  vindictive  passion  was  fully 
aroused.  He  wished  to  deprive  the  Primate  of  his  temporali- 
ties, but  Michael  de  la  Pole  had  the  good  sense  to  prevent 

'  Wals.,  ii.  126  ;  Mon.  Eve.,  57  ;  Higden,  ix.  55-8. 


284  GENEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

such  insanity.^     Courtenay  became  a  firm  adherent   of  the 
opposition. 

In  July  Eichard  put  himself  at  the  head  of  his  first 
military  expedition,  and  marched  to  invade  Scotland.  As  the 
result  of  an  invasion  of  France  might  prove  disastrous  and 
humiliating,  a  military  promenade  across  the  Border  was 
considered  the  best  way  to  initiate  the  King  in  warfare.  On 
such  an  occasion  all  men  of  note  accompanied  the  army,  and 
vied  with  each  other  in  the  splendour  of  their  suites  and 
the  efficiency  of  their  soldiers.  Even  the  Duke  of  Lancaster, 
notwithstanding  his  threat  of  abstention,  was  with  the  van- 
guard in  person.  At  the  beginning  of  August  the  main  body 
had  reached  Beverley  in  South  Yorkshire,  where  they  lay 
encamped  for  some  days.  Here  a  quarrel  arose  between  the 
retainers  of  Sir  John  Holland,  the  King's  half-brother,  and 
of  Sir  Ealph  Stafford,  son  and  heir  of  the  Earl  of  Stafford. 
Sir  Ealph's  man  had  slain  the  other,  in  self-defence  as  he 
averred.  There  was  no  chance  that  real  justice  would  be  done 
in  such  a  case.  It  became,  as  a  matter  of  course,  a  personal 
quarrel  between  their  two  masters.  The  question  was  only 
which  nobleman  had  most  power  and  most  insolence.  Sir 
Ealph  Stafford,  having  told  his  man  to  run  away  until  he  had 
made  good  the  case,  rode  out  to  find  and  appease  Sir  John 
Holland.  Meanwhile  Sir  John,  in  a  towering  passion,  was 
riding  about  the  camp  like  a  madman.  The  two  happened  to 
meet  in  a  narrow  lane  after  nightfall.  '  Your  servants  have 
murdered  my  favourite  squire,'  cried  Sir  John,  and  without 
more  words  he  drew  his  sword  and  struck  Stafford  dead  from 
his  horse.  It  was  a  wicked  and  unprovoked  murder,  but  Sir 
John  took  it  very  lightly.  '  I  had  rather  have  killed  him  than 
one  of  less  rank,'  he  said,  '  for  I  have  the  better  revenged  the 
loss  of  my  squire.'  He  supposed  that  his  close  relationship 
to  the  King  would  prevent  all  trouble.  Indeed,  if  the  slain 
had  been  a  common  man,  little  more  would  have  been  heard 
about  it.  But  Sir  Ealph's  father,  being  an  Earl,  went  straight 
to  the  King  and  threatened  to  revenge  himself,  at  whatever 
cost   to   the  kingdom,   unless  he   got  justice.     Eichard  was 

'  Higden,  ix.  58-9  ;  Mon.  Eve.,  57-8  ;  Wals.,  ii.  128. 


Aug.  1385       '  THE  HONOUE  OF  THE   AEMY  '  285 

forced  temporarily  to  banish  Sir  John,  and  to  confiscate  his 
goods.^  The  incident,  like  the  torture  of  the  friar  in  the  year 
before,  shows  the  uncivilised  manners  of  the  Court,  the  violent 
passions  which  the  young  men  of  the  time  affected,  and  the 
total  abeyance  of  ordinary  law  in  cases  where  great  men  had 
interest.  All  these  evils  were  directly  connected  with  the 
practice  of  keeping  retainers.  The  military  spirit  which  is 
still  so  disastrous  to  the  nations  of  the  Continent,  at  that  time 
existed  among  the  English  nobles  in  the  worst  possible  form. 
It  was  not  even  the  national  army  whose  *  honour '  each 
wished  to  defend  at  the  expense  of  justice,  but  the  '  honour  ' 
of  the  little  army  attached  to  his  own  household  and  wearing 
his  own  badge.  It  was  difficult  for  a  man  of  position  to  avoid 
having  such  a  force,  for  on  it  his  social  and  political  status 
depended.  If  the  Earl  of  Stafford  had  not  had  retainers,  he 
would  not  have  been  able  to  use  high  language  to  the  King, 
and  his  son's  death  would  have  gone  unrevenged. 

Saddened  by  this  tragedy,  the  army  moved  on  towards 
Scotland.  They  crossed  the  Border  at  Berwick  and  began 
to  ravage  the  country.  The  Scotch  were  aided  by  a  few 
hundred  French  men-at-arms  under  some  officers  of  experience, 
but  it  would  have  been  madness  to  give  battle  to  the  whole 
force  of  England,  which  had  on  this  occasion  been  brought 
against  them.  The  English  advanced  up  the  Tweed  valley, 
destroying  as  they  went,  until  they  came  to  the  famous  Abbey 
of  Melrose.  The  '  halidome,'  as  its  estates  were  called,  had 
hitherto  been  spared  by  the  moss-troopers  who  rode  the 
Border  districts.  But  the  royal  army  signalised  the  impor- 
tance of  the  occasion  by  reducing  the  abbey  to  a  ruin.  Turn- 
ing North,  they  arrived,  in  a  few  days,  at  Edinburgh,  which 
they  destroyed,  as  they  had  destroyed  everything  on  the  road. 
The  castle  alone  held  out.  Meanwhile  the  Scotch  army, 
unable  to  hinder  the  progress  of  this  overwhelming  force,  had 
made  a  bold  dash  for  England.  There  are  two  routes  between 
the  kingdoms,  roughly  corresponding  to  the  modern  railway 
lines  by  Berwick  and  Carlisle  respectively.  One  is  the  plain 
between  the  east  end  of  the  Cheviots  and  the  sea,  a  flat  and 
fertile  country,  by  which  the  great  English  army  had  marched. 

»  Proiss.,  iii.  chap.  13  ;  Wals.,  ii.  129-30. 


286  GENEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

The  other  lies  over  the  western  spurs  of  the  Cheviots,  the  vast 
land  of  bleak  and  pathless  moors  over  which  Bertram  was 
walking  when  he  fell  in  with  Dandie  Dinmont.  It  was  by  this 
route  that  the  small  and  handy  Scotch  force  dashed  down. 
They  ravaged  Cumberland  and  Westmoreland,  and  laid  siege 
to  Carlisle.  When  the  news  was  brought  to  the  English  near 
Edinburgh,  the  question  arose  whether  they  should  pursue. 
The  Duke  of  Lancaster  and  most  of  the  army  wished  to  follow 
the  Scotch,  to  cut  off  their  retreat,  and  to  overwhelm  them  by 
superior  numbers.  After  this  plan  had  been  accepted  in 
Council,  Michael  de  la  Pole  had  a  private  interview  with  his 
master,  in  which  he  exposed  the  dangers  of  the  undertak- 
ing. The  long  dry  days  had  gone  by,  and  in  the  autumnal 
mists  so  great  an  army  would  perish  for  want  of  food  and 
shelter  in  the  bogs  and  wastes  of  Bewcastle.  The  Scotch 
had  passed  that  way  because  they  were  few,  and  could  move 
without  more  baggage  than  a  sack  of  oatmeal  at  the  saddle- 
bow, but  it  would  be  necessary  for  Eichard  to  return,  as  he 
•came,  by  the  east  coast,  obtaining  provisions  by  road  and  sea. 
The  King  was  convinced.  The  next  day,  as  the  army  was 
about  to  break  up  and  march  for  Carlisle,  he  jauntily  told  the 
Duke  that  he  had  changed  his  plan,  and  would  return  by 
Berwick.  Hot  words  again  passed  between  them.  Eichard 
remarked  that  his  uncle  invariably  lost  the  forces  entrusted 
to  his  care,  and  that  if  this  army  crossed  the  moors,  it  would 
perish  as  John  of  Gaunt's  army  had  perished  when  crossing 
France  in  '73.  He  even  hinted  that  some  design  against  his 
royal  person  underlay  the  dangerous  advice  to  follow  the 
enemy.  The  army  returned  to  England  by  the  beaten  track, 
inglorious  and  discontented.'^ 

The  Scotch  wars  of  this  period  have  little  influence  on 
English  history,  far  less  than  the  French  wars.  The  reason 
is  simple.  Between  the  fertile  and  civilised  part  of  England 
and  the  march  of  Scotland,  lay  the  hundred  miles  of  barren 
and  thinly  peopled  country  constituting  the  Border  shires. 
This  country,  Scotch  invasion  incessantly  harried,  keeping  it 
barbarous,  but  never  reaching  Lincolnshire  or  Cheshire.  The 
Scotch  themselves  were  less  fortunate.      Their  barren  high- 

1  SeeAp. 


OcT.-Nov.  1385  EICHAED  ALIENATES  THE  COMMONS  287 

lands  lay  far  away,  but  the  centre  of  their  civilisation  was 
exposed  to  every  attack.  From  the  top  of  the  Cheviot  ridge 
the  moss-troopers  could  descry  three  of  the  richest  shires  of 
Scotland  stretched  below  them  a  helpless  prey,  while  south- 
ward they  could  see  nothing  but  desolate  moors.  The  fertile 
Lothians  and  the  Tweed  valley  could  be  raided  by  Percy,  but 
the  English  midlands  could  not  be  touched  by  Douglas.  It 
was  but  seldom  that  an  army  from  Southern  counties  invaded 
Scotland ;  for  Percy,  as  we  have  seen,  did  his  best  to  keep 
Border  affairs  in  his  own  hands.  England  was,  therefore,  less 
affected  by  Scotland  than  by  France  or  Flanders.  The  reader 
of  Chaucer's  '  Canterbury  Tales  '  may  remark  the  number  of 
references  to  Ghent,  Brittany,  and  the  continental  countries. 
He  will  scarcely  find  a  single  mention  of  Scotland  or  of 
Ireland.  This  would  not  be  the  case  in  a  collection  of  stories 
of  the  Tudor  or  the  Stuart  times.  How  little  the  ordinary 
Englishman  of  this  age  knew  of  the  sister-kingdom,  is  shown 
by  passages  in  which  the  chroniclers  gravely  inform  us  that 
the  name  of  the  Scotch  capital  is  Edinburgh.^ 

When  the  army  had  returned  in  the  late  autumn,  Parlia- 
ment was  at  once  held.  The  nation  was  angry,  and  the  Com- 
mons this  time  spoke  out.  They  granted  money  for  the 
defence  of  the  kingdom,  but  they  granted  it  for  particular 
purposes  only,  and  appointed  special  '  Treasurers  of  War '  to 
see  that  these  conditions  were  kept.  They  sent  up  two  peti- 
tions to  the  King ;  ®ne  praying  that  his  household  accounts 
should  be  overhaviled  once  a  year  by  the  principal  officers 
of  the  realm,  the  other  that  he  would  announce  who  were 
to  be  his  ministers  for  the  ensuing  year.  Both  requests 
were  modest.  They  by  no  means  amounted  to  a  settlement 
of  the  government,  such  as  previous  Parliaments  had  made. 
The  Commons  recognised  that  the  King  was  no  longer  a  boy, 
and  that  he  would  choose  his  own  servants.  They  desired 
only  to  make  these  servants  responsible.  But  Eichard, 
instead  of  meeting  the  Commons  half  way,  refused  their 
requests  in  terms  of  insult.  As  to  the  affairs  of  his  house- 
hold, he  would  do  as  he  pleased.  As  to  the  names  of  his 
ministers,  there  were  good  and  sufficient  men  in  office  at  present, 

*  Moil.  Eve.,  62  ;  Higden,  ix.  64. 


288  GENEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

and  he  would  change  them  whenever  he  wished.^  These 
answers  marked  the  isolated  position  which  the  King  and  his 
friends  had  chosen.  Not  only  would  they  defy  the  lords,  but 
they  would  treat  the  Commons  with  contempt.  The  knights 
of  the  shires  had  only  one  course  open  to  them.  If  they  were 
to  recover  the  right  of  criticising  the  government,  and  the 
share  in  appointing  councils  which  they  had  lately  enjoyed, 
they  must  unite  with  the  nobles  to  reduce  the  pretensions  of 
the  Crown.  This  union  was  maintained  until  its  final  triumph 
over  Eichard  in  the  last  year  of  the  century,  when  a  con- 
stitutional government  by  King,  Lords  and  Commons  was 
established  as  the  basis  of  the  Lancastrian  settlement.  We 
have  no  intention  of  relating  the  events  of  that  struggle  and 
of  that  revolution,  for  they  form  a  separate  chapter  of  Eng- 
lish history,  beginning  with  the  revolt  of  Parliament  against 
Eichard  in  1386,  and  ending  with  his  resignation  in  1399. 
We  have  traced  the  course  of  politics  from  the  time  of  the 
Good  Parliament  up  to  the  end  of  the  year  1385.  We  have 
cleared  the  stage  and  said  the  prologue  for  the  '  Tragedy 
of  King  Eichard  the  Second.' 

There  is  more  than  one  reason  why  a  break  in  political 
history  can  be  made  here  with  advantage.  We  have  traced 
the  career  of  John  of  Gaunt  practically  to  its  close.  In  the 
spring  of  1386  he  sailed  for  the  Peninsula  with  an  armament 
great  enough  to  prolong  the  war  there  against  the  King  of 
Castile  and  his  French  allies,  but  quite  insufficient  to  conquer 
Spain.  While  he  warred  beyond  the  seas,  the  revolt  of  the 
country  against  Eichard  began  under  better  auspices  than  his. 
The  cause  was  taken  up  by  his  brother  Buckingham,  now  made 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  and  his  son,  Henry  Bolingbroke ;  but  he 
himself,  even  when  he  returned  to  England  in  1389,  took  no 
contentious  part  in  affairs.  It  was  left  to  his  wiser  and  more 
popular  son  to  carry  through  the  ambitious  designs  which  he 
had  formed  for  the  aggrandisement  of  the  House  of  Lan- 
caster. He  must  have  turned  in  his  grave  for  joy  when 
Henry  was  proclaimed  King  of  England  in  place  of  Eichard 
the  Second,  but  he  himself,  in  spite  of  his  great  power  and 
position,  had  been  uniformly  unsuccessful.     He  had  failed  in 

'  Rot  Pari.,  iii.  204,  213,  sees.  32,  38, 


THE  KING'S  OWN  EETAINEES  289 

his  attack  on  the  endowments  of  the  Church,  in  his  attack  on 
the  privileges  of  London,  in  his  design  on  the  throne  of  Spain, 
in  his  design  on  the  throne  of  England,  even  in  his  attempt 
to  govern  the  country  through  his  nephew.  His  military 
undertakings  had  been  a  series  of  disasters.  Eeviewing  the 
causes  of  his  failure,  it  must  be  said  that  he  failed  because  he 
was  unwise  and  headstrong.  Some  of  his  ends,  such  as  the 
attempt  to  conquer  Spain  and  to  crush  the  liberties  of  London, 
were  impossible  from  the  first,  while  the  means  by  which  he 
attempted  to  carry  out  his  more  practicable  designs  were  ill 
chosen.  He  never  learnt  the  necessity  of  conciliation  nor  could 
he  calculate  justly  the  relative  value  of  political  forces. 

As  to  principle,  no  one  ever  connected  the  word  with 
John  of  Gaunt.  He  was  but  a  type  of  the  ambitious  and 
selfish  noble  of  the  period,  armed  and  tempted  to  wrongdoing 
by  the  retainers  at  his  back.  That  the  Commons  were 
driven  by  Eichard's  folly  to  ally  themselves  with  such  forces 
against  the  Crown,  was  a  great  disaster.  The  members  of 
the  Lower  House  would  have  done  much  to  avoid  such  a 
union,  as  their  action  in  several  parliaments  had  shown. 
It  is  possible  that  they  would  even  have  been  ready  to 
sacrifice  their  constitutional  position  to  the  royal  claims,  if 
Eichard's  despotism  had  been  paternal.  But,  instead  of 
establishing  trustworthy  officers  to  restore  order,  to  keep 
down  the  retainers,  and  to  enforce  justice,  he  surrounded 
himself  more  and  more  as  the  years  went  on  with  retainers 
of  his  own,  who  trampled  on  the  rights  of  the  citizen  and 
considered  themselves  above  the  law  because  they  wore  the 
King's  livery.  Langland  saw  nothing  to  choose  between  the 
retainers  of  the  nobles  and  Eichard's  own  men,  who  were 
distinguished  by  the  badge  of  the  white  '  hart.'  The  King's 
servants 

swarmed  so  thick 
Thronghotit  his  land  in  length  and  in  breadth, 
That  who  so  had  walked  through  woods  and  towns, 
Or  passed  the  paths  where  the  Prince  dwelt, 
Of '  harts  '  or  '  hinds  '  on  henchmen's  breasts, 
Or  some  lord's  livery  that  was  against  the  law. 
He  should  have  met  more  than  enough. 
For  they  cumbered  the  country  and  many  a  curse  earned, 

u 


290  GENEEAL  HISTOEY  1381-85 

And  carped  at  the  Commons  with  the  King's  mouth 
Or  with  the  Lords'.  .  .  . 

They  plucked  the  plumage  from  the  skins  of  the  poor, 
And  showed  their  badges  that  men  should  dread 
To  ask  any  amends  for  their  misdeeds.^ 

These  mournful  words  sum  up  the  failure  of  politicians 
to  find  a  remedy  for  the  most  deep-rooted  disease  of  society. 
One  gain  only  had  been  made.  During  the  dotage  of 
Edward  and  the  boyhood  of  Eichard,  the  Commons  had 
asserted  their  right  to  interfere  in  the  government,  and  had 
taken  on  to  their  own  shoulders  business  of  a  purely  political 
nature  which  had  formerly  been  left  to  the  King  and  the 
Lords.  The  balance  of  power  established  under  the  Lan- 
castrian constitution  of  the  next  century,  itself  the  root  of 
the  Hanoverian  constitution,  would  have  been  impossible 
but  for  the  action  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  sad  years 
whose  history  we  have  related. 

'  Richard  Redeless,  passiis,  ii.  lines  20-34. 


291 


CHAPTBE  VIII 

TUB  EABLY  HI8T0BY  OF   THE  LOLLABDS,  1382-1399 
OXFORD.      LBICBSTBRSHIRE.      THE   WEST.       LONDON 

It  is  pleasant  to  turn  from  dreary  annals  of  political  contest 
to  a  thing  more  vital,  the  rise  among  the  English  of  an 
indigenous  Protestantism.  We  have  already  sketched  the 
state  of  the  Church  and  of  religion  in  England,  and  the  doc- 
trines which  Wycliffe  promulgated  as  a  protest  against  what 
he  found.  We  have  given  some  account  of  the  reception 
awarded  to  him  personally,  especially  in  the  political  world. 
But  we  have  had  little  opportunity  to  notice  the  effect  of  his 
doctrinal  heresies,  or  to  calculate  the  degree  to  which  he 
actually  changed  the  religious  beliefs  of  the  country.  We 
have  little  or  no  knowledge  of  his  followers  before  1382,  the 
year  in  which  persecution  began.  With  persecution  begins 
our  knowledge  of  the  persecuted.  It  is  possible  to  collect  a 
considerable  number  of  facts  about  the  Lollards  of  Eichard 
the  Second's  reign,  to  trace  the  methods  and  the  area  of 
their  labours,  and  to  estimate  the  degree  to  which  the  doc- 
trines of  the  early  Wycliifites  differed  from  those  of  their 
master.  This  story  is  not,  like  the  Peasants'  Eising,  of 
great  dramatic  interest ;  for  in  this  first  generation  Lollardry, 
though  fertile  in  missionaries,  was  unproductive  of  martyrs. 
But  in  historical  importance  it  stands  first,  for  it  had  more 
lasting  effects  than  the  rebellion,  which  only  emphasised, 
without  materially  hastening,  a  process  already  at  work  in 
society. 

Although  Wycliffe' s  famous  heresy  respecting  the  Eucha- 
rist had  been  promulgated  in  1380,  if  not  before,  and 
although  preachers  of  his  school,  if  not  actually  with  his 

D    2 


292      THE  BAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

commission,  had  been  for  some  time  perambulating  the 
country,  no  action  was  taken  against  his  followers  in  the 
year  1381.  It  was  thought,  indeed,  by  orthodox  clergy  that 
the  Archbishop  ought  to  institute  proceedings  against  those 
who  publicly  impugned  the  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation ; 
but  Sudbury,  to  whom  vigorous  action  of  any  sort  was  dis- 
tasteful, and  persecution  abhorrent,  had  neglected  or  refused 
to  move  in  the  matter.  By  the  next  generation,  which  saw 
the  spread  of  Lollardry,  he  was  bitterly  blamed  for  not 
seizing  the  occasion  to  nip  heresy  in  the  bud.  Even  his 
death  at  the  hands  of  the  Kentish  rebels  had  not  atoned  for 
this  gentle  fault.^  His  successor  Courtenay  was  a  man  cast 
in  a  very  different  mould.  The  new  Primate  had,  as  Bishop 
of  London,  taken  the  principal  part  in  Wycliffe's  trial  at  St. 
Paul's,  and  had  again  and  again  forced  Sudbury  to  throw 
off  his  lethargy  and  stand  up  for  the  rights  of  the  Church. 
He  was  a  born  persecutor,  and  he  came  into  office  at  a  time 
favourable  to  his  genius.  The  Parliament,  which  sat  from 
November  '81  to  the  following  February,  had  been  too  busy 
with  the  work  of  pacificating  the  country  to  listen  to  him  ; 
but  when  the  next  assembled  in  May  he  appealed  to  it  for 
help.  The  season  was  opportune,  for  the  Peasants'  Eevolt 
had  frightened  the  ruling  classes  out  of  all  designs  against 
ecclesiastical  property,  and  the  blood  of  Sudbury  the  Primate- 
Chancellor  had  sealed  a  Holy  Alliance  between  Church  and 
State,  between  the  King  and  the  Lords  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
Bishops  on  the  other.  John  of  Gaunt's  policy  of  aggression 
towards  clerical  wealth  and  privilege,  though  mildly  supported 
by  Court  and  nobility,  had  been  moribund  ever  since  the 
Parliament  of  Gloucester  in  1378.  The  Peasants'  Eevolt 
killed  it  altogether.  The  design  of  confiscation  was  some- 
times taken  up  by  the  House  of  Commons,  but  King  and 
Lords  henceforth  befriended  the  Church  until  the  age  of  the 
Tudors.  Courtenay  was  able  to  rely  on  the  secular  arm  in 
his  attack  on  heresy.  The  power  of  the  Crown,  which  had 
successfully  defended  Wycliffe  on  two  former  occasions,  now 
lent  its  aid  to  crush  his  followers. 

Although  this  change  of  policy  was  largely  due  to  the 

»  Wals.,  ii.  11-2. 


Mat  1382  CHUECH  COUNCIL  AT  BLACKFEIAES  293 

Peasants'  Eising,  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the 
persecution  of  1382  and  the  following  years  was  not 
essentially  religious.  It  was  conducted  in  the  Church  Courts, 
the  charges  were  charges  of  doctrinal  heresy,  the  accused 
were  religious  missionaries,  not  agitators  such  as  John  Ball, 
and  the  principal  question  at  issue  was  the  right  of  the 
heretics  to  hold  their  new  doctrine  of  Consubstantiation. 
This  heresy  of  Wycliffe's  instantly  absorbed  public  attention 
and  became  the  centre  of  the  controversy.  It  shocked  the 
great  supporters  who  had  stood  by  him  when  he  merely 
attacked  Church  privilege.  John  of  Gaunt  repudiated  such 
a  wicked  and  blasphemous  conception  of  the  Eucharist  in 
language  which  probably  was  sincere.  This  doctrine,  com- 
bined with  the  general  suspicion  of  revolutionary  tendencies, 
alienated  the  nobles  and  the  Court.  The  LoUardry  of  the 
eighties,  unlike  the  Wycliffism  of  the  seventies,  was  not  a 
political  attack  on  clerical  privilege  with  a  chance  of  immediate 
success,  but  a  new  religion  that  could  be  tested  only  in  the 
slow  crucible  of  time. 

In  May  1382  Courtenay's  campaign  began.  He  summoned 
to  the  Blackfriars'  convent  in  London  a  Council  of  the  province 
of  Canterbury,  before  which  he  brought  up  Wycliffe's  opinions 
for  judgment.  First  in  the  list  of  heresies  came  the  doctrine 
of  Consubstantiation  ;  next  the  propositions  that  a  priest  in 
mortal  sin  could  not  administer  the  Sacraments,  and  that 
Christ  did  not  ordain  the  ceremonies  of  the  Mass.  Two  other 
heresies  are  of  equal  note  :  '  that  if  a  man  be  contrite,  all  ex- 
terior confession  is  superfluous  or  useless,'  and  *  that  after 
Urban  the  Sixth  no  one  ought  to  be  received  as  Pope,  but 
men  should  live,  after  the  manner  of  the  Greek  Church,  under 
their  own  laws.'  Wycliffe's  views  on  the  temporalities  of  the 
clergy,  and  the  uselessness  of  the  regular  orders,  were  also 
condemned.  Lollardry  was  for  the  first  time  put  definitely 
under  the  ban  of  the  Church,  and  war  was  formally  declared 
by  the  Bishops  against  the  itinerant  preachers.^ 

The  council  at  Blackfriars  was  spoken  of  throughout 
England  as  a  new  and  important  move  in  the  game.  A 
curious   accident   enabled  Wycliffe's   friends  to   boast  that, 

>  Fasc.  Z.,  277-82. 


294     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

though  their  master  had  been  condemned  by  the  Bishops,  the 
Bishops  had  been  condemned  by  God.  It  was  on  May  19  that 
the  theses  were  pronounced  to  be  '  heresies  and  errors.'  About 
two  o'clock  that  afternoon,  while  the  churchmen  were  sitting 
round  the  table  at  the  pious  work,  the  house  was  shaken  by 
a  terrible  earthquake  that  struck  with  panic  all  present  except 
the  stern  and  zealous  Courtenay.  He  insisted  that  his  sub- 
ordinates should  resume  their  seats  and  go  on  with  the 
business,  although  the  shock  appears  to  have  been  more 
violent  than  is  usual  in  our  country,  casting  down  pinnacles 
and  steeples,  and  shaking  stones  out  of  castle  walls.  It  took 
away  from  this  solemn  act  of  censure  some  at  least  of  the 
effect  on  which  the  Bishops  had  calculated,  and  Wycliffe  did 
not  let  pass  the  opportunity  to  point  the  moral.  Such  an 
omen  was  no  light  thing  in  such  an  age.^ 

Strengthened  by  this  decision  of  the  Church  against  his 
enemies,  Courtenay  appealed  to  the  secular  power.  He  had 
learnt  by  bitter  experience  four  years  back  that,  unless  the 
King's  arm  is  stretched  against  the  heretic,  the  Bishop  curses 
but  in  vain.  The  prelates  had  agreed  to  root  out  heresy  in 
Oxford,  but  if  the  University  authorities  should  defy  them, 
they  had  no  force  of  their  own  sufficient  to  compel  the  students 
to  obey.  They  had  decided  that  each  Bishop  was  to  arrest 
unlicensed  preachers  in  his  own  diocese,  but  such  arrests 
would  be  few  and  hazardous,  unless  the  sheriff's  men  supported 
the  Summoner.  Courtenay's  appeal  for  help  was  readily 
answered.  A  short  Parliament  had  sat  from  May  7  to  22,  and 
during  the  last  few  days  of  its  session  an  ordinance  was 
framed  by  King  and  Lords,  after  the  departure,  or  at  least 
during  the  absence,  of  the  Commons,  j  It  was  ordained  that  for 
the  future,  if  complaint  against  some  heretic  was  lodged  by  the 
Bishops  in  the  Court  of  Chancery,  orders  should  be  sent 
to  the  King's  officers  and  sheriffs  to  arrest  him  on  behalf 
of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities.^    | 

Before  the  prolonged  and  doubtful  contest  between  the 
Church  and  the  new  missionaries  began  in  country  districts, 
a  sudden  and  successful  blow  was  struck  at  the  head-quarters 

»  Fasc.  Z.,  272 ;  Pol.  Poems,  i.  251  and  254  ;  Higden,  ix.  13-4. 
2  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  124-5. 


MEDIAEVAL  OXPOED  295 

of  Lollardry.     The  schools  of  Oxford,  the  intellectual  centre  of 
England,  were  captured  by  the  orthodox  party. 

The  great  University  at  this  time  occupied  an  independent 
place  in  English  life  and  thought.  It  was  not,  as  it  became 
in  the  following  century,  an  instrument  used  by  the  Church 
to  force  her  own  beliefs  on  the  national  intellect.  It  was  not, 
as  it  became  for  a  while  under  the  Stuarts,  a  subservient  body, 
willing  to  confirm  the  decrees  of  the  Crown  by  its  approval, 
and  to  defend  the  theory  of  tyranny  in  its  schools.  Oxford 
was  at  this  time  an  intellectual  world  by  itself,  influencing  the 
world  outside,  but  jealous  of  outside  interference.  If  it  had 
not  that  liberty  of  thought  in  matters  political  and  religious 
which  the  Universities  enjoy  to-day,  it  possessed  more  than 
other  corporate  bodies  of  the  time.  Owing  half  its  privileges 
to  the  Pope  and  half  to  the  Crown,  it  was  not  entirely  in  the 
hands  of  either  power.  Geographically,  its  site  was  well  chosen 
to  secure  independence ;  it  was  not,  like  the  University  of 
Paris,  seated  under  the  very  walls  of  the  royal  palace ;  it  was 
far  from  Canterbury,  it  was  very  far  from  Eome,  and  there  was 
no  Bishop  of  Oxford ;  even  Lincoln,  the  see  to  which  it 
appertained,  was  more  than  a  hundred  miles  distant.  This 
independence  was  further  strengthened  by  the  prestige 
naturally  belonging  to  a  University  which  had  admittedly  no 
equal  save  Paris,  and  had  surpassed  even  Paris  in  the  produc- 
tion of  men  who  gave  the  law  to  the  learned  throughout  Europe. 
It  is  difficult  for  us  to  appreciate  its  singular  importance  as 
a  national  institution.  The  monastic  schools  where,  in  the 
days  of  Becket,  the  learning  of  the  country  had  been  centred, 
had  sunk  to  be  places  of  merely  primary  education  in  so 
far  as  they  were  educational  at  all.  The  grammar  schools 
thickly  scattered  over  the  country  only  undertook  to  prepare 
boys  for  the  University,  so  that  the  higher  studies  were 
monopolised  by  Oxford  and  Cambridge.^  Of  these  one  was 
so  far  inferior  that  it  would  be  hard  to  find  before  the  six- 
teenth century  a  single  Cambridge  man  of  any  academical 
fame.  Mediaeval  Oxford,  pre-eminent,  proud  and  free,  dared 
to    admire   and  follow    Wycliffe,    the   latest   but    not   the 

'  Mr.  A.  F.  Leach's  English  Schools  at  the  Reformation,  103-8. 


296     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

least  of  the  great  men  whom  she  had  produced.  She 
quickened  the  intellectual  life  of  England  by  an  Oxford 
movement.  For  this  noble  treason  against  obscurantist  ideals, 
she  was  now  struck  down  by  a  conspiracy  of  Church  and  King, 
her  noble  liberty  was  taken  from  her,  and  till  the  new  age 
came,  the  history  of  the  schools  was  '  bound  in  shallows  and 
in  miseries.' 

If  the  University  had  been  united  within  itself,  thisinvasion 
would  not  have  been  easy.  But  it  was  split  into  two  parties.  The 
'  seculars,'  who  regarded  themselves  as  the  University  proper, 
consisted   of   secular   clergy  for  the  most  part,  priests  like 
Wycliffe,  or  deacons  and  clerks  in  lower  orders.     These  men 
were  academicians  first  and  churchmen  second.     They  were  as 
jealous  of  Papal  and  episcopal  interference,  as  of  royal  man- 
dates, or  of  the  power  and  privileges  of  the  town.     Their  rights 
were  protected  against  all  aggression  by  the  countless  hosts 
of  turbulent  undergraduates  herding  in  the  squalid  lodging- 
houses  of  the  city,  who,  when  occasion  called,  poured  forth  to 
threaten  the  life  of  the  Bishop's  messenger,  to  hoot  the  King's 
officials,  or  to  bludgeon  and  stab  the  mob  that  maintained  the 
Mayor  against  the  Chancellor.     The  mediaeval  student,   al- 
though miserably  poor  and  enthusiastically  eager  for  learning, 
was  riotous  and  lawless  to  a  degree  that  would  have  shocked 
the  silliest  and  wealthiest  set  that  ever  made  a  modern  college 
uncomfortable.     The  ordinary  undergraduate,  as  well  as  the 
ordinary  townsman,  possessed  a  sword,  which  he  girded  on  for 
his  protection  on  a  journey  or  for  any  other  special  cause, 
so  that  the  riots  in  the  streets  of  Oxford  were  affairs  of  life  and 
death,  and  the  feud  of  '  town  and  gown  '  a  blood-feud.     Many 
of  the  students  were  laymen,  but  the  majority  were  in  training 
to  be  clerks ;  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  lawless  habits 
contracted  at  the  University  account  in  part  for  the  violent  and 
scandalous  life  of  the  innumerable   clergy  in   lower  orders. 
The  college  system  had  already  arisen  to  meet  this  evil,  but 
it  was  not  till  the  fifteenth  century  that  any  very  large  pro- 
portion of  the  '  secular '  students  were  brought  under  college 
discipline.      Heresy  could  more  easily  spread  in  the  inns  and 
lodging-houses  where  the  students  then  lived,  than  in  colleges 


SECULAES   VEBSUS  EEGULAES  297 

which  could  be  supervised  by  orthodox  masters  and  visited  by 
inquisitorial  Bishops.^ 

Side  by  side  with  the  '  secular '  University  lived  the 
*  regulars.'  The  monks  and  friars  had  long  played  an  im- 
portant part  in  Oxford  life.  Outside  the  walls  stood  the 
colleges  of  Gloucester  and  Durham,  where  Benedictine  monks 
lived  under  their  own  rule  and  at  the  same  time  enjoyed 
the  education  of  the  place.  Within  the  city  itself,  over 
against  Oriel,  rose  Canterbury  College,  lately  converted  into  a 
house  for  the  education  of  the  monks  of  Canterbury  by  the 
ejection  of  the  secular  clerks  and  their  warden.  But  the 
great  strength  of  the  Oxford  regular  clergy  lay  in  the  friars. 
They  had  four  convents  outside  the  walls,  one  belonging  to 
each  order.  In  the  thirteenth  century  they  had  raised  the 
fame  of  the  University  to  the  height  where  it  still  rested,  by 
producing  Grossetete,  Eoger  Bacon  and  Duns  Scotus.  But 
though  the  friars  had  once  been  respected,  they  had  never 
been  loved  by  their  brother  academicians,  for  they  attempted 
to  take  advantage  of  the  University  without  conforming  to 
its  rules.  They  wished  to  become  masters  and  doctors  in 
theology  without  studying  the  prescribed  course  of  '  arts.' 
Being  themselves  great  theologians,  they  wished  to  make 
Oxford  more  theological.  The  seculars,  on  the  other  hand, 
were  more  secular  in  spirit  as  well  as  in  name,  and  struggled 
to  preserve,  as  an  indispensable  part  of  the  University  course, 
and  as  the  principal  factor  in  University  education,  those 
mediaeval  '  arts '  which,  narrow  as  they  might  seem  to  us 
now,  were  then  the  only  studies  by  which  learning  was  saved 
from  being  confined  to  theology  and  law.  Disputes  and 
jealousies  had  gone  on  for  over  a  hundred  years,  and  with 
special  bitterness  since  1300. 

One  of  the  chief  causes  of  quarrel  in  the  time  of  Wycliffe 
was  the  assiduity  with  which  the  friars  proselytised  among  the 
secular  students.  Many  undergraduates  came  up  to  Oxford 
at  twelve  or  fourteen,  and  were  set  down  moneyless,  friend- 
less, without  experience  and  far  from  home,  in  the  midst  of 
that  extraordinary  pandemonium.  The  insinuating  friar 
kiiew  well  how  to  win  these  poor  boys  to  join  the  cheerful  and 

'  SeeAp. 


298     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OP  THE  LOLLAEDS 

ordered  life  of  the  Franciscan  or  Dominican  convent  outside 
the  city  walls.  Once  he  had  taken  the  vows,  the  novice  was 
caught,  and  a  temporary  convenience  became  a  life-long  bond. 
The  seculars  regarded  this  practice  as  poaching,  the  more  so 
as  it  brought  Oxford  into  such  discredit  with  parents  who  did 
not  wish  their  sons  to  become  friars,  that  the  number  of  under- 
graduates was  said  to  fall  off  in  consequence.  The  hatred 
of  the  two  sections  was  further  increased  by  professional 
jealousy,  which  was  augmented  when  the  spiritual  Franciscans 
declared  for  evangelical  poverty  and  denounced  the  possessions 
of  the  Church.  This  jealousy  was  as  strong  in  Oxford  as  in  the 
rest  of  England.  The  monks  and  friars  detested  each  other 
only  one  degree  less  than  they  both  detested  the  seculars.^ 

Into  this  embroilment  of  old  hatreds  and  rivalries 
Wycliffe's  doctrines  were  thrown  as  a  fresh  element  of  dis- 
cord. At  first,  as  we  have  seen,  his  attack  on  Church 
property  brought  him  into  alliance  with  at  least  a  section  of 
the  Oxford  friars.  By  attacking  the  prelates  and  the 
Church  generally,  he  seems  to  have  won  the  favour  of  all 
parties  at  Oxford,  especially  at  the  time  of  his  trial  in  1378. 
But  in  the  next  two  or  three  years  his  quarrel  with  the 
regular  orders  came  to  a  head.  When  his  doctrine  on  the 
Eucharist  appeared,  the  friars  and  monks,  the  orthodox 
theologians  of  the  place,  united  with  the  Chancellor  Berton 
and  a  few  seculars  to  condemn  the  thesis.  A  University 
officer  was  sent  into  Wycliffe's  lecture-room  to  enjoin  silence 
upon  him.  There  he  was  found,  propounding  to  his  audience 
the  impossibility  of  accidents  without  substance,  and  of  the 
other  metaphysical  absurdities  which  he  alleged  against  Tran- 
substantiation.  He  appeared  to  be  a  little  taken  aback  at  the 
decree,  but  replied  that  it  could  not  shake  his  opinion.^ 

He  was  equally  firm  when  John  of  Gaunt  hurried  down  to 
Oxford  to  prevent  him  from  ruining  a  fine  political  career  by 
an  insane  love  of  truth.  As  he  did  not  wear  the  livery  of  the 
House  of  Lancaster,  and  had  quite  other  plans  in  his  head 
than  were  dreamt  of  by  his  patron,  he  refused  to  be  silent  on 
the  forbidden  topic.^  The  alliance  of  the  two  men  came  to  an 
end  after  this  critical  interview,  for  the  Duke  was  as  orthodox 

>  See  Ap.  "-  Fasc.  Z.,  110-3.  ^  Ibid.  114. 


Mat  1381       WYCLIFPE'S  POSITION  SEGUEED  299 

in  purely  doctrinal  matters  as  Henry  the  Eighth  himself. 
Henceforth  he  had  no  dealings  with  Wycliffe.  It  may  be 
that  he  still  used  his  influence  to  prevent  the  arrest  of  his  old 
ally,  and  on  one  occasion  he  induced  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  to 
commute  a  sentence  of  death,  pronounced  upon  a  Lollard  who 
had  not  gone  so  far  as  to  deny  Tran substantiation  ;  ^  but  when 
two  of  Wycliffe's  Oxford  friends  appealed  to  the  Duke  for  pro- 
tection, he  not  only  refused  to  grant  it,  but  '  when  he  had 
heard  their  detestable  opinion  on  the  Sacrament  of  the  altar 
he  thenceforth  held  them  in  hatred.'  ■^  While  John  of  Gaunt 
never  again  approached  Wycliffe  to  obtain  his  assistance  in 
politics,  the  reformer,  for  his  part,  went  on  to  work  for  the 
salvation  of  England  by  his  own  methods,  no  longer  tram- 
melled by  an  uncongenial  alliance. 

Wycliffe's  position  at  Oxford  was  not  really  so  weak 
as  these  repudiations  made  it  appear.  The  Chancellor's 
decisions  against  him  did  not  represent  the  feeling  of  the 
seculars.  In  the  last  day  of  May  1381,  while  bands  of 
outlaws  were  already  assembling  in  the  woods  of  Kent  and 
Essex  to  begin  the  great  revolt,  the  University  of  Oxford  was 
engaged  in  electing  a  new  Chancellor  for  the  two  coming 
years.^  The  man  of  their  choice  was  one  Eobert  Eygge,  who 
represented  all  the  feelings  and  prejudices  of  the  University 
proper,  and  was  therefore  more  favourable  to  Wycliffe  than 
his  predecessor  had  been.  During  his  term  of  office 
Wycliffism  became  the  shibboleth  by  which  the  secular 
party  was  distinguished  from  the  friars  and  monks.  The 
Chancellor's  own  position  towards  the  question  was  thoroughly 
Oxonian.  Jealousy  of  the  friars,  jealousy  of  episcopal  inter- 
ference with  the  schools,  made  him  regard  Wycliffe  as  a 
champion  whom  Oxford  was  bound  in  honour  to  defend.  But 
he  was  not  a  Lollard,  and  had  the  year  before  joined  in  his 
predecessor's  condemnation  of  the  theses  on  the  Eucharist. 
Now,  however,  that  he  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Univer- 
sity, he  allowed  these  doctrines  to  be  preached  in  the  churches 
and  debated  in  the  lecture-rooms  over  which  he  had  control, 

'  Knighton,  ii.  193  ;  Fasc.  Z.,  334-40.  ^  Fasc.  Z.,  318. 

^  Munimenta  Academica    Oxon    (R.    S.),   106;     Mr.    Matthew's    article, 
Eng.  Hist.  Bev.,  Ap.,  1890. 


300     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

regarding  the  heretics  with  interest  and  reserved  approval. 
He  intended  to  protect  liberty  of  thought  in  the  schools, 
since  the  innovators  were  the  bitterest  enemies  of  the  monks 
and  friars. 

During  the  winter  of  1381-2  feeling  between  the  parties 
rose  higher  and  higher.  The  subject  of  the  Peasants'  Eising 
was  in  all  men's  mouths.  The  seculars,  far  from  admitting 
any  responsibility  in  Wycliffe,  accused  the  friars  of  having 
stirred  up  the  poor  against  the  rich  by  an  unscrupulous  use 
of  their  religious  influence.^  A  Wycliffite  named  Nicolas 
Hereford,  a  man  of  considerable  position  in  the  schools, 
preached  against  the  mendicant  orders  on  every  occasion, 
demanded  the  total  abolition  of  them,  and  carried  with  him 
the  mass  of  the  University.  In  February  the  friars  felt  his 
attacks  to  be  so  dangerous  that  they  wrote  to  John  of  Gaunt 
requesting  his  protection,  and  denying  that  they  had  had  any 
hand  in  the  rebellion  which  had  done  such  injury  to  his 
power  and  property.^  But  the  Duke  remained  neutral  both 
then  and  during  the  events  which,  in  the  next  twelve  months, 
decided  the  fate  of  Oxford. 

A  few  days  after  this  letter  had  been  sent,  Hereford 
preached  a  Latin  sermon  at  St.  Mary's  before  the  learned 
of  the  University,  in  which  he  exhorted  the  authorities  to 
exclude  friars  and  monks  from  all  degrees  and  honours. 
The  regulars  complained  to  the  Chancellor  Eygge,  but  he 
refused  to  reprimand  the  preacher.  Indeed  his  two  proctors 
had  been  present  at  the  sermon  and  applauded  it.^  It  seemed 
that  the  seculars,  under  the  new  stimulus  of  Wycliffism,  were 
about  to  make  a  supreme  effort  to  rid  the  schools  of  their 
rivals.  The  feeling  shown  by  the  rest  of  the  University  so  much 
alarmed  the  regulars  that  they  decided  without  more  delay  to 
call  in  an  outside  power.  A  deputation  of  monks  and  friars 
was  sent  up  to  London  to  appeal  to  Archbishop  Courtenay. 

The  council  which  sat  at  Blackfriars  during  the  latter 
half  of  May  1382  and  condemned  the  principal  tenets  of 
Lollardry,  the  famous  '  council  of  the  earthquake,'  included 
ten  bishops,  and  no  less  than  sixteen  doctors  and  bachelors 
of  theology  of  the  mendicant  orders.     It  was  a  signal  reunion 

»  Fasc.  Z.,  293-4.  ^  Ibid.  292-5.  ^  Ibid.  305. 


Max-Jtwb  1382      THE  PEIMATE  INTEEPBRES  301 

of  the  friars  with  their  old  enemies  the  English  prelates.^ 
We  have  already  mentioned  the  action  of  this  council  against 
Wycliffism  in  general ;  but  it  also  dealt  with  the  University 
in  particular.  The  Bishops  readily  adopted  the  view  of  the 
Oxford  regulars,  and  warmly  accepted  the  offer  of  their  ^ 
assistance  to  win  back  the  seat  of  learning  to  orthodoxy.  On 
May  30  Courtenay  sent  off  an  injunction  to  the  Chancellor 
Eygge,  reproving  him  for  having  supported  Hereford,  and 
bidding  him  henceforth  act  in  conjunction  with  Stokes,  an 
Oxford  friar  of  hot  temper  and  strong  prejudice.  This  man, 
the  Archbishop's  accredited  agent  and  representative  in  the 
University,  received  letters  condemnatory  of  Wycliffe's 
opinions  with  orders  to  publish  them  in  the  schools.  Eygge 
was  enjoined  to  assist  him  in  this  act  with  all  his  authority 
as  Chancellor.^ 

A  clear  issue  had  been  raised.  The  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  had  interfered  with  Oxford,  and  had  interfered 
on  the  side  of  the  friars.  The  Chancellor  and  those  of 
the  seculars  who  sympathised  only  a  little  with  Wycliffe, 
but  cared  first  and  foremost  for  the  liberties  of  their  Univer- 
sity, were  converted  into  ardent  Wycliffites.  No  Bishop,  '"^ 
they  angrily  declared,  had  any  power  over  them  even  in 
cases  of  heresy.  Stokes  had  delivered  his  credentials  to  the 
Chancellor  on  the  evening  of  June  4.  The  next  morning 
the  whole  city  was  in  an  uproar.  The  students  poured  out 
from  the  halls  and  inns  that  lined  Schydyard  Street  and 
High  Street,  armed  and  eager  for  riot.  They  were  joined 
by  the  town  militia  under  the  Mayor's  orders.  Wycliffe  had 
brought  about  not  only  the  strange  alliance  of  friars  and 
Bishops  against  him,  but  the  no  less  strange  alliance  of  town 
and  gown  in  his  favour.  It  was  Corpus  Christi  day,  and  a 
great  sermon  was  to  be  preached  in  St.  Frideswyde's.  The 
Wycliffite  Eepyngton  was  announced  as  the  preacher.  Eygge 
and  his  proctors  came  to  church  in  company  with  the  Mayor, 
all  in  the  highest  spirits.  Many  of  the  students  and  citizens  y 
came  with  arms  under  their  gowns.  The  friars  were  com- 
pletely overawed.  After  the  sermon,  which  was  an  outspoken 
defence  of   Lollardry  and  denunciation  of   the  Church,  the 

1  Fasc.  Z.,  286-8  and  284.  -  Ibid.  298-9 ;  Pol.  Poems,  i.  261. 


302     THE  BAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

Chancellor  waited  for  the  preacher  at  the  porch  and  walked 
home  with  him,  laughing  and  congratulating  him  on  his 
success.  Meanwhile  Stokes  sat  cowering  in  the  church, 
where  he  had  just  heard  himself  insulted  and  reviled,  not 
daring  for  his  life  to  show  his  head  outside  the  door.  The 
whole  town  was  in  high  excitement  and  jubilation.  Next  day 
Eygge  consented  to  publish  the  condemnation  of  Wycliffe's 
theses  in  the  schools,  but  the  opinions  of  the  Blackfriars 
Council  were  treated  as  a  joke  by  the  University,  which  had 
learned  from  Wycliffe  himself  to  regard  the  curses  of  the 
Church  with  contempt.  In  the  evening,  Stokes  wrote  to 
Courtenay  a  letter  which  vividly  paints  his  terror.  *I  do 
not  know,'  he  says,  'what  will  happen  further.  But  one 
thing  I  must  please  make  clear  to  you,  venerable  father ; 
that  in  this  matter  I  dare  go  no  further  for  fear  of  death.  I 
therefore  implore  you  with  tears  to  help  me,  lest  I  or  my 
fellows  suffer  loss  of  life  or  limb.'  The  Archbishop  was  not 
long  in  answering  this  appeal.  On  the  9th  he  sent  off  a 
letter  to  the  faithful  friar,  bidding  him  come  up  to  London 
with  all  speed  to  explain  the  situation  and  consult  for  the 
future.^  Before  receiving  this  summons,  Stokes  was  so  rash 
as  to  show  his  hated  face  in  the  lecture-room ;  but,  warned 
by  the  glitter  of  arms  under  the  cloaks  of  some  of  his 
audience,  he  gave  way  to  the  instinct  of  self-preservation 
and  fled  from  the  pulpit  as  precipitately  as  Dominie  Sampson. 
On  the  12th  he  went  to  London  in  obedience  to  the  welcome 
invitation  of  the  Primate.  Leaving  Oxford  in  the  morning, 
he  reached  his  destination  at  night.  Considering  the 
snail's  pace  at  which  journeys  were  then  commonly  taken, 
the  ride  does  credit  to  the  state  of  the  highway .^ 

When  Stokes  arrived  at  the  capital,  he  found  affairs 
already  improved.  The  Chancellor  Eygge,  though  he  had 
practically  defied  the  Church  authorities  on  the  5th,  did 
not  venture  to  shut  himself  up  in  Oxford  and  abide  the 
consequences,  but  went  up  to  explain  his  conduct  and 
secure  his  position.  He  appeared  before  the  Bishops  on 
the  12th,  while  his  opponent  was  on  the  road.  The 
charge   brought  against   the  Chancellor    and    two    proctors 

1  Fasc.  Z.,  296-304.  -  Ibid.  302-4. 


June  1382  THE   UNIVEESITY   EESISTS  303 

was   that   they  had  favoured   the  Lollards.     Their   various 
acts  of  contumacy  during  the  last  few  weeks  were  recounted 
in  detail.     Bygge  had  been  heard  to  applaud  strong  words 
against   the  Catholic   doctrine   of   the    Sacrament.     Yet   al- 
though he  had  gone  great  lengths  in  the  safe  and  congenial 
atmosphere  of  Oxford,  his  courage  oozed  rapidly  away  when 
he  stood  before  the  Bishops.     His  disbelief  in  Transubstan- 
tiation  was  not  long-lived.     He  had  joined  in  repudiating 
Wycliffe's  thesis  on  the  Eucharist  when  it  first  appeared,  and 
he  now  again  and  finally  rejected  such  errors.     His  Lollardry 
was  as  the  seed  that  fell  upon  stony  places ;    it  sprang  up 
quickly  in  a  shallow  soil  and  withered  in  a  moment  before 
the  sun  of  authority.     He  asked  pardon  on  his  knees,  and 
was  forgiven  at  the  special  request  of  William  of  Wykeham. 
He  was  sent  back  to  Oxford  with  a  new  mandate.     Wycliffe, 
Hereford,  Eepyngton  and  others  were  to  be  suspended  from 
all  teaching  and  preaching.     Eygge   hinted  that   he   might 
find  it  difficult  to  enforce  such  a  decree.     '  Then  the  Univer- 
sity is  the  favourer  of  heresy,'  sternly  replied  Courtenay,  '  if 
it  does  not  permit  Catholic  truths  to  be  published.'     It  must 
be  added  that  the  Chancellor  found  State  as  well  as  Church 
arrayed  against  him.     On  the  13th  he  had  been  summoned 
before  the  King's  Council  and  solemnly  enjoined  to  obey  the 
episcopal  decrees.^ 

Unwillingly  did  he  return  to  Oxford  on  this  hard  mission. 
No  sooner  was  his  foot  on  the  High  Street  than  courage 
returned.  The  seculars  were  mad  with  rage  at  the  orders  he 
brought,  and  'only  the  regulars  took  the  side  of  the  Church.' 
So  far  from  imposing  silence  on  the  Lollards,  the  Chancellor 
suspended  one  of  their  chief  enemies,  a  monk  called  Henry 
Crumpe,  from  teaching  in  the  schools.  But  this  resistance 
was  destined  to  prove  futile,  for  the  Church  was  armed  with 
the  power  of  the  State.  The  University  authorities  had  now 
bitter  reason  to  regret  that  they  had  not,  of  late  years,  culti- 
vated the  friendship  of  the  Crown.  So  far  from  caring  to 
maintain  the  independent  position  of  Oxford,  the  rulers  of 
the  country  looked  on  it  with  suspicion.  Five  years  before, 
so'me  undergraduates  had  sung  lampoons  under  the  lodging 

1  Fasc.  Z.,  304-11. 


304     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE   LOLLAEDS 

where  the  King's  messenger  lay,  and  shot  arrows  through 
his  window.  The  protection  afforded  to  the  delinquents  by 
the  Chancellor  had  lent  a  serious  aspect  to  the  silly  quarrel, 
and  had  so  embittered  the  Court  against  the  University  ^  that 
now,  in  their  hour  of  need,  the  academicians  stood  without  a 
friend.  Moreover,  the  Court  was  swayed  by  strong  disapproval 
of  Wycliffe's  later  doctrines.  There  is  no  greater  mistake 
than  to  supppose  that  Eichard  and  his  counsellors  were  at 
this  time  strongly  infected  with  heresy.  They  were  faithful 
sons  of  the  Church,  and  did  her  yeoman's  service  ;  for  if  they 
had  chosen  to  stand  aside,  the  Bishops,  unaided,  could  never 
have  purged  Oxford.  But  on  July  13,  the  King  sent  down  to 
Eygge  two  peremptory  mandates.  One  ordered  him  to  restore 
Crumpe  to  his  place  in  the  schools,  the  other  to  banish 
Wycliffe,  Hereford,  Kepyngton  and  John  Aston  from  the 
University  and  town  of  Oxford  within  seven  days.  Contumacy 
would  only  lead  to  the  forfeiture  of  all  privileges  held  from 
the  Crown.     There  was  nothing  left  but  to  obey,^ 

Meanwhile,  in  London,  the  council  of  churchmen  con- 
tinued its  sessions  in  the  Blackfriars'  convent.  Having  dealt 
with  the  Chancellor,  they  proceeded  to  deal  with  the  principal 
heretics  of  Oxford,  always  excepting  Wycliffe  himself.  John 
Aston,  the  most  contumacious  of  all,  was  brought  up  for 
trial.  He  was  destined  to  become  one  of  the  chief  Lollard 
missionaries,  and  already  enjoyed  great  popularity.  The 
citizens  of  London  broke  into  the  convent  during  the  trial, 
and  the  interruptions  of  the  audience  lent  courage  to  the 
prisoner.  Aston  refused  to  subscribe  to  the  doctrine  of  Tran- 
substantiation,  declaring  that  the  matter  passed  his  under- 
standing, although  his  desire  was  to  believe  what  Scripture 
and  the  Church  taught.  These  words,  though  apparently 
innocent,  were  well  enough  understood  by  the  hearers ;  for 
Wycliffe  argued,  not  only  that  Scripture  was  on  his  side,  but 
that  the  Church  had,  for  more  than  a  thousand  years,  believed 
as  he  did  on  the  question  of  the  Eucharist.  Courtenay  told 
Aston  to  speak  in  Latin,  but  he  only  went  on  louder  than 
before  in  English,  for  he  was  appealing  to  the  London  citizens 
rather  than  to  the  Bishops.     He  addressed  his  judges  with 

'  Cont.  Eiclog.  (E.  S.),  348-9  ;  Wilkin,  iii.  137.  ^  Fasc.  Z.,  311-7. 


Jtjije  1382  THE  LONDONEES  AND  THE  NEW  HEEESY  305 

scant  courtesy.  They  condemned  his  opinions,  but  were 
afraid  to  touch  his  person.  A  few  days  later,  a  broadsheet 
in  Latin  and  English,  in  which  he  explained  his  views  on 
Transubstantiation,  was  widely  circulated  in  the  city,  and 
posted  in  the  squares  and  streets.^  Real  interest  was  at  this 
time  felt  by  the  London  citizens  in  the  controversy  about 
the  Sacramental  elements.  And,  indeed,  much  more  hung  on 
the  question  than  appeared  in  the  obscure  and  unattractive 
technicalities.  The  Mediaeval  Church  and  her  opponents 
seem  to  have  been  aware  from  the  first,  that  with  the  miracle 
of  the  Mass  was  closely  connected  the  predominance  of 
the  clergy  over  the  lay  world.  The  cases  of  Aston's 
brother  Oxonians,  Hereford  and  Repyngton,  turned  on  the 
same  question.  They  sent  in  a  paper  repudiating  most  of  , 
Wycliffe's  twenty-four  condemned  theses,  but  reserving  their 
opinion  on  the  mendicancy  of  the  friars,  and  above  all  on  the 
Eucharist.  These  two  schoolmen  were  genuinely  antagonistic 
to  the  regular  orders,  and  had  qualms  as  to  the  metaphysical 
soundness  of  Transubstantiation,  but  they  were  probably  never 
real  Lollards.  They  both  lived  to  be  reconciled  to  the  Church 
and  to  persecute  the  heretics  of  the  next  generation.  But 
at  this  juncture  they  did  great  service  to  Wycliffe  by  lending 
the  weight  of  University  opinion  to  his  views  on  the  Sacra- 
ment. Their  answers  were  considered  unsatisfactory,  and  on 
July  1  they  were  excommunicated  by  Courtenay.^ 

After  the  King's  mandate  of  July  13,  it  was  impossible 
for  the  condemned  theologians  to  return  to  Oxford.  Hereford, 
genuinely  convinced  that  he  was  on  the  track  of  truth,  and 
that  the  authorities  could  be  brought  to  see  it,  set  off  to  Rome 
to  appeal  against  Transubstantiation.  He  was  not  the  first  or 
last  to  imagine  that,  if  only  he  could  get  a  hearing  from  the 
Pope,  he  could  move  the  Catholic  Church  out  of  old  tradition 
into  new  paths.  Aston  and  Repyngton  lay  low  for  some 
months.  Wycliffe,  who  had  taken  little  or  no  part  in  the 
late  controversies  at  Oxford,  was  probably  at  Lutterworth 
writing ;  he  was  busy  with  his  pen  this  and  every  other  year 
till  his  death.     By  the  King's  mandate,  the  University  town, 

'  Fasc.  Z.,  289-90,  and  329-30 ;  Wilkin,  iii.  164  ;  Wals.,  ii.  65-6. 
2  Fasc.  Z.,  290  and  318-28. 


306     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

where  he  had  lived  and  moved  and  had  his  being  almost  since 
childhood,  was  closed  against  him  for  ever.  But  so  engrossed 
was  he  in  a  new  work  that  he  wasted  no  sigh  of  regret  over 
his  expulsion.  Of  late  years  he  had  ceased  to  care  much  for 
the  University,  as  his  call  to  a  larger  field  of  operations  became 
more  clear.  He  was  beginning  to  think  more  about  the  powers 
of  his  disciples  as  missionaries,  and  less  about  their  scholar- 
ship. *  If,'  he  wrote,  '  divinity  were  learned  on  that  manner 
that  apostles  did,  it  should  profit  much  more  than  it  doth  now 
by  state  of  school,  as  priests  now  without  such  state  (of  scholar- 
ship) profit  much  more  than  men  of  such  state And 

thus  men  of  school  travail  vainly  for  to  get  new  subtleties, 
....  and  the  profit  of  Holy  Church  by  this  way  is  put  aback.' 
The  bad  reception  given  to  his  doctrine  on  the  Eucharist  at 
its  first  appearance  in  the  schools  seems  to  have  disgusted 
him.  About  that  time  he  wrote :  '  An  unlearned  man  with 
God's  grace  does  more  for  the  Church  than  many  graduates.' 
Scholastic  studies,  he  said,  rather  breed  than  destroy  heresies, 
as  may  be  seen  in  the  acceptance  given  to  Transubstantiation 
by  Oxford  theologians.^  This  attitude  of  mind  was  both  good 
and  bad  for  Wycliffe.  It  was  good  in  so  far  as  it  detached 
him  from  nice  speculations,  and  fitted  him  for  his  work  as  a 
popular  reformer.  His  great  merit  was  this,  that  he  appealed 
from  the  Latin-reading  classes  to  the  English-speaking  public, 
from  thoughtless  learning  to  common  sense.  Yet  this  system 
of  propaganda  had  the  defects  of  its  qualities.  The  Poor 
Priests  whom  he  trained  up  were  some  of  them  too  ignorant 
and  simple.  This  was  partly  because  he  had  connected  his 
religion  with  the  absolute  ideal  of  apostolic  poverty.  The 
well-to-do,  who  are  generally  the  best  educated,  were  practically 
debarred  from  becoming  his  missionaries ;  few  rich  young 
men  were  found  willing  to  sell  all  they  had  and  give  to  the 
poor.  The  Lollard  preachers  were  drawn  more  and  more, 
as  time  went  on,  from  the  lower  and  uneducated  classes  who 
had  little  to  lose  by  renouncing  possessions.  To  connect 
blessedness  with  the  states  of  poverty  and  ignorance  was  an 
error  which  should  have  died  with  St.  Francis  of  Assisi.  Un- 
fortunately Wycliffe,  himself  a  learned  man  and  thoroughly 

*  Matt.,  428 ;  Dialogus,  53-4. 


JtJLT-Nov.  1382  SPECULATION  CEUSHED  AT  OXPOED   307 

impregnated  in  other  respects  with  progressive  notions,  went 
back  in  some  measure  to  this  mistake.  The  loss  of  Oxford  was 
a  most  serious  blow  to  his  cause,  yet  he  took  no  part  in  the 
struggle  for  the  independence  of  the  University,  which  was 
fought  largely  on  his  behalf. 

The  end  of  that  struggle  was  at  hand.  The  royal  mandates 
of  July  had  already  crushed  open  resistance.  In  November, 
Courtenay  summoned  a  Convocation  of  the  province  of  Canter- 
bury to  meet  at  Oxford  '  for  the  suppression  of  heresy.'  The 
Bishops  made  a  triumphant  entry  into  the  conquered  city. 
Wycliffe  remained  at  Lutterworth,^  but  his  Oxford  disciples 
came  in  to  make  their  submission.  Eygge  consented  to  be  a 
tool  in  the  hands  of  the  inquisitors.  Eepyngton,  unwilling 
to  sacrifice  his  career  in  Church  and  University  to  his  dislike 
of  the  friars  and  his  doubts  on  Transubstantiation,  had  re- 
canted a  month  before,  and  had  been  at  once  restored  by  the 
Archbishop  to  his  place  as  an  orthodox  teacher  in  the  schools. 
He  now  once  more  publicly  abjured  his  heresies  before  the 
Convocation  in  Oxford.  He  died  a  Cardinal,  after  having  as 
Bishop  of  Lincoln  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Fourth  perse- 
cuted the  Lollards  with  the  utmost  severity.  Such  conduct 
is  not  admirable,  but  it  was  probably  honest.  Eenegades  are 
not  necessarily  hypocrites.  He  may  have  found  that  the 
Lollard  reforms  would  be  more  democratic  and  more  thorough 
than  he  liked,  and  he  may  have  shrunk  from  defying  Church 
authority  when  once  he  found  it  irrevocably  set  against  his 
views.*^ 

A  more  remarkable  case  of  submission  than  those  of  Eygge 
and  Eepyngton  was  that  of  John  Aston.  In  June  he  had 
bandied  words  with  the  Bishops  at  his  trial,  and  had  appealed 
to  the  support  of  the  Londoners  ;  in  September  he  had  preached 
Lollardry  at  Gloucester,  and  he  was  still  destined  to  be  one  of 
Wycliife's  most  ardent  missionaries.  He  used  to  travel  on 
foot  through  England,  preaching  with  the  zeal  of  an  apostle. 
Yet  he  now  made  before  the  Bishops  at  Oxford  a  recantation 
which  can  only  be  regarded  as  designed,  like  that  of  Cranmer, 
to  gain  time.  Being  brought  up  before  Convocation,  he 
pleaded   ignorance   on   the   test   question  of   the  Eucharist. 

'  See  Ap.      ^  Wilkin's  Concilia,  169,  172 ;  Diet,  of  Nat.  Biog.  Eepyngton. 


308     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

Courtenay  ordered  him  to  consult  with  Eygge  and  any  other 
doctors  of  the  University  whom  he  might  himself  choose  as 
his  confidants.  Aston,  after  dining  with  these  counsellors, 
professed  himself  convinced,  and  went  to  find  the  Bishops. 
They  were  still  in  the  dining  hall  of  St.  Frideswyde's  monas- 
tery, being  unable  to  reach  the  Chapter  House  on  account  of 
the  great  crush  of  undergraduates  who  crowded  in  the  pas- 
sages to  see  what  was  going  forward.  John  Aston  read  his 
recantation  before  the  Bishops,  denied  the  '  presence  of  bread,' 
and  apologised  for  his  rudeness  at  Blackfriars.  Three  days 
later  he  was  readmitted  by  Courtenay  to  all  his  functions  at 
Oxford. 

The  seculars  had  looked  on  helpless  at  the  defeat  of  their 
party.  The  victory  of  the  regulars  was  wormwood  to  them. 
No  longer  daring  to  maintain  Wycliffism  themselves,  they  at- 
tempted to  mar  their  enemies'  triumph  by  accusing  the  friars 
of  heresy  in  other  questions.  This  was  always  easy,  and  was 
done  in  due  form  by  Eygge.  But  the  Bishops  could  no  longer 
afford  to  listen  to  charges  against  the  mendicant  orders,  how- 
ever welcome  they  would  have  been  a  few  years  back.  Cour- 
tenay readily  accepted  the  friars'  plea  that  they  '  had  not 
asserted  these  propositions,  but  had  only  maintained  them  for 
the  sake  of  argument.'  '  Then  the  reverend  father,  perceiving 
that  a  great  discord  had  arisen  between  the  University  and 
the  regulars,  restored  harmony  between  them,  though  with 
difficulty,  by  adjourning  Convocation  till  the  next  day.'  ^ 

These  proceedings  finally  established  the  Bishops' 
authority  over  Oxford.  The  regulars  and  the  orthodox  party 
had  only  to  complain  at  Lambeth  and  Westminster,  if  Lol- 
lardry  showed  its  head  again.  Two  years  later  the  Chap- 
lain of  Exeter  College  was  removed  by  Courtenay  for  his 
Wycliffism,  and  in  1395  King  Eichard,  strenuous  as  ever  in 
defence  of  the  faith,  forced  the  Chancellor  of  the  University  to 
proclaim  Wycliffe's  errors,  to  condemn  his  '  Trialogus,'  which 
was  in  great  demand  among  the  students,  and  to  banish  cer- 
tain Lollards.^      Heresy  was  kept  under  by  force ;  otherwise, 

>  Courtenay's  Eegister,  MS.  Lambeth  Libr.,  f.  34  b,  35  a ;  Wilkin's  repro- 
duction is  incomplete. 

^  Oxford  Hist.  Series,  Boase's  Exeter  Coll.,  p.  20  ;  Aylifife's  University  of 
Oxford,  appendix,  pp.  xxvi-xxviii. 


THE  CHUECH  EUINS  THE  UNIVEESITY        309 

judging  from  the  events  of  1382,  the  seculars  would  at  least 
have  protected  free  discussion,  and  perhaps  have  made  Oxford 
the  centre  of  an  educated  and  cultivated  Lollardry.  It  would 
be  hard  to  over-rate  the  importance  of  such  a  movement  in 
a  town  where  a  large  proportion  both  of  the  parish  priests 
and  of  the  unbeneficed  clerks  were  trained.  So  many  of  the 
English  clergy  were  from  Oxford  that  the  revolt  of  the  seculars 
there  in  1382  gravely  threatened  clerical  orthodoxy  throughout 
England.  Oxford  had  all  the  advantages  which  Cambridge 
possessed,  when  Cambridge  became  the  focus  of  Protestant 
thought  in  the  sixteenth  century.  But  the  action  of  the 
King  and  Bishops  closed  the  University  against  Wycliffe  and 
consigned  him  to  his  parish.  We  have  shown  reason  for 
suspecting  that  he  himself  did  not  greatly  regret  the  change, 
and  that  his  interest  in  the  place  of  learning  was  not,  at  the 
critical  moment,  as  deep  as  it  should  have  been. 

It  would,  however,  be  wrong  to  suppose  that  Oxford  became 
at  once  a  Catholic  seminary.  Up  to  the  end  of  Henry  the 
Fourth's  reign,  at  least,  certain  dangers  attended  the  edu- 
cation of  the  faithful  there.  About  1409  a  revival  of  free 
thought  led  to  a  sharp  struggle,  in  which  the  University 
was  again  worsted.  Among  other  measures  taken  to  gag 
opinion,  the  publication  of  books  was  subjected  to  severe 
censorship,  the  establishment  of  which  '  proved  an  effectual 
check  on  the  literary  productiveness  of  Oxford  for  several 
generations.'  ^  The  continued  growth  of  the  collegiate  system 
throughout  the  fifteenth  century  further  strengthened  the  hold 
of  the  Church  on  the  young  men.  Although  in  many  local 
centres  Lollardry  survived  until  the  later  Reformation,  we 
.  hear  no  more  of  it  at  Oxford,  and  even  in  the  sixteenth  century 
it  was  Cambridge  that  led  the  way. 


Though  the  interests  of  Wycliffism  proved  in  the  long  run 
to  have  been  materially  injured  by  the  events  we  have  just 
recorded,  the  growth  of  the  new  doctrines  throughout  the 
country  was  at  first  rather  stimulated  than  checked  by  the 

»  Sir  H.  C.  Maxwell  Lyte's  History  of  Oxford,  278-85  ;  and  Wilkin,  iii. 
323  and  339. 


310     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

disaster.  The  heretics  of  the  University,  driven  out  and 
scattered  through  the  shires  of  England,  were  forced  to 
become  missionaries  instead  of  academicians.  Aston,  un- 
affected by  his  late  recantation,  went  where  he  could  speak 
unmuzzled.  Other  Oxonians  soon  followed  him,  Hereford 
was  at  that  time  on  his  way  to  Eome,  bent  on  proving  to  the 
Holy  Father  the  unsoundness  of  the  doctrine  of  Transub- 
stantiation.  Like  many  other  appellants,  he  found  that  he 
had  to  deal  not  so  much  with  the  Pope  as  with  the  Cardinals, 
the  most  conservative  body  in  Christendom.  He  was  soon 
lying,  under  a  sentence  of  imprisonment  for  life,  in  the  dun- 
geons of  the  '  Pope's  prison,'  probably  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo. 
Two  years  later,  in  the  absence  of  Urban  the  Sixth  at  Naples, 
there  took  place  in  the  streets  of  Eome  one  of  those  frequent 
insurrections  by  which  the  populace  of  that  strange  dead  city 
kept  alive  the  memory  of  their  ancient  liberties  and  of  their 
modern  tribune  Cola  di  Eienzi.  The  English  heretic  was  re- 
leased in  this  accidental  way,  together  with  all  prisoners 
whom  the  mob  found  in  the  dungeons.  He  returned  as  fast 
as  he  could  to  his  native  land,  but  not  to  his  University. 
He  joined  Aston  in  the  Western  shires,  where  they  caused 
the  Bishop  of  Worcester  many  a  sleepless  night. ^  Several 
more  Lollard  preachers  were  Oxford  men,^  and  it  is  likely 
that  others,  besides  those  of  whom  we  know,  left  the 
University  when  it  ceased  to  be  a  place  for  free  discussion, 
and  hastened  to  take  their  marching  orders  from  the  Eector 
of  Lutterworth. 

This  propagandist  movement  received  great  encourage- 
ment from  the  Parliament  of  October  1382.  The  ordinance 
that  had  been  passed  in  May  by  King  and  Lords  had 
put  the  sheriffs  and  state  officers  at  the  service  of  the 
Church,  to  facilitate  the  arrest  of  unlicensed  preachers.  In 
July,  Eichard  had  sent  out  a  special  writ  to  every  Bishop, 
with  orders  to  arrest  all  Lollards,  as  he  wished  to  have  no 
heresy  in  his  kingdom.^  But  the  Commons  felt  otherwise. 
In  October  they  insisted  on  the  withdrawal  of  the  ordinance 

*  Knighton,  ii.  172-6 ;  Courtenay's  Kegister,  Lambeth  Library,  f .  65  b  and 
69  a ;  Wilkin,  iii.  202-3. 

2  Foxe,iii.l31  (Brute) ;  MSS.  Gott.  Cleopatra,  E,ii.201,P.E.  0.  (Compeworth). 
5  Wilkin,  iii.  156. 


Oct.  1382      THE   COMMONS   SAVE   THE    LOLLAEDS      311 

of  May,  in  which  they  had  not  concurred.  '  It  was  never,' 
so  they  complained,  '  assented  to  or  granted  by  the  Com- 
mons, but  whatever  was  said  about  it  has  been  without 
their  consent.  Let  it  now  be  annulled,  for  it  was  not  the 
intention  of  the  Commons,  to  be  tried  for  heresy,  nor  to  bind 
over  themselves  or  their  descendants  to  the  prelates  more 
than  their  ancestors  had  been  in  time  past.'  ^ 

The  English  were  not  accustomed  to  religious  persecution. 
Although  in  the  Continental  countries  the  Inquisition  had  for 
more  than  a   century  been  working   for  the  suppression  of 
thought   with  the  same  remorseless   and   successful  cruelty 
which  it  afterwards  opposed  to  the  Eeformation,  the  heretic 
at  the  stake  was  a  thing  scarcely  known  in  mediaeval  England. 
There  had  hitherto  been  no  recognised  heresy  in  our  country. 
A  few  foreign  refugees,  and  a  deacon  who  had  turned  Jevf  for 
love  of  a  Jewess,  are  almost  the  only  victims  on  record.     But 
now  that  heresy  had  become  rife,  it  was  no  longer  so  easy  as  it 
might  once  have  been  to  introduce  an  inquisition.    The  Church 
was  growing  unpopular,  and  the  power  of  the  priest  over  the 
lay  conscience  and  intellect  was  being  loosened.    The  enforce- 
ment of  penance  was  becoming  more  difficult  and  rare ;   its 
commutation  for   money  was    an   absurd    farce ;    and    the 
Church   authorities   were   associated   in    many   minds   with 
avarice,  blackmail,  and  superstitious  cults,  which  the  better 
sort  of  laymen  openly  derided.     This  tone  of  scorn  pervades 
the  lay  literature  of  the  period.     A  hundred  years  before  it 
would  have  been  easy  for  the  Bishops  to  obtain  the  services 
of  the  sheriffs  for  the  suppression  of  errors,  but  the  Commons 
were'  now  in  a  less  reverential  mood,  and  not  inclined,  as  they 
confessed,  '  to  bind  over  themselves  or  their  descendants  to 
the  prelates.'     While  the  King  and  the  nobility  were  eager  to 
trample  out  heresy,  the  Knights  of  the  Shires  were  chiefly 
desirous  of  securing  the  layman's  liberty  from  clerical  inter- 
ference.    They  had  no  wish  to  be  priest-ridden. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  whether,  apart  from  a  dislike  of  the 
clergy,  many  members  of  the  Lower  House  were  at  this  time 
actually  heretical.  Heresy  certainly  spread  among  country 
gentlemen  and  merchants  in  the  next  few  years,  and  already 

*  Rot.  Pari.,  iii.  141. 


312     THE  BAELY  HISTOEY  OP  THE  LOLLAEDS 

a  spirit  of  independent  inquiry  existed  among  some  at  least 
of  the  priest-hating  squires  and  knights.  Langland  com- 
plained, some  years  before  Wycliffe  rose  to  fame,  that  the 
upper  classes  were  in  the  habit  of  discussing  the  mysteries  of 
religion  among  themselves  '  as  if  they  were  clergy.' 

At  meat  in  their  mirths,  when  minstrels  are  still, 
Then  tell  they  of  the  Trinity  a  tale  or  two, 
And  bring  forth  a  bald  reason  and  quote  St.  Bernard, 
And  put  forth  a  presumption  to  prove  the  sooth. 
Thus  they  drivel  at  their  dais  the  deity  to  know. 
And  gnaw  God  with  the  gorge  when  their  gut  is  full. 

He  describes  how  they  call  in  question  the  justice  of  con- 
demning all  mankind  for  the  fault  of  Adam,  and  how  they 
'  carp  against  clerks  crabbed  words.'  ^ 

This  evidence  as  to  the  attitude  of  the  upper  classes,  helps 
to  account  for  a  curious  act  of  profanity  committed  by  a  knight 
of  Wiltshire  in  1381.  When  he  had  received  the  consecrated 
wafer  into  his  hand,  he  jumped  up  and  ran  out  of  church, 
locked  himself  in  his  house,  and  ate  the  Host  with  his  dinner. 
This  was  not  the  spirit  of  Wycliffe  and  his  first  disciples,  who 
one  and  all  believed  in  Consubstantiation  and  reverenced, 
though  they  did  not  worship,  the  Sacrament.  No  one  sym- 
pathised with  the  man's  profanity  ;  it  was  an  isolated  exception. 
But  the  incident  could  scarcely  have  taken  place  if  the  knight 
had  lived  in  a  highly  devotional  society.  No  one  suggested 
that  he  was  mad.^  It  is  safe  to  say  that  among  the  upper 
and  middle  classes,  among  such  types  of  men  as  rode  with 
Chaucer  on  the  Canterbury  pilgrimage,  the  Lollards  were  able 
to  reckon  on  a  very  general  dislike  of  clerical  pretensions, 
and  in  many  cases  there  was  a  tendency  to  independent 
opinion  and  free  thought.  As  regards  the  lower  classes 
the  evidence  is  more  scanty.  But  the  sack  of  monasteries, 
and  the  murder  of  the  Primate  and  other  clergy,  point  to 
the  same  dislike  of  the  Church,  the  same  irreverence  that  we 
find  in  higher  grades  of  society. 

Against  this  tendency  must  be  set  the  great  influence  of 
the  friars  ;  their  command  of  the  confessional  and  the  con- 
sciences of  so  many  ;  the  still  prevalent  belief  in  the  value  of 

>  P.  PI,  B,  X.  52-7,  101-16.  2  Wals.,  i.  450-1. 


1382-4  LUTTEEWOETH  313 

masses  for  souls  ;  the  increasing  establishment  of  chantries 
for  that  purpose ;  the  attachment  of  the  vast  majority  of 
Englishmen  to  the  ceremonial  of  the  only  existing  religion. 
The  competition  of  rival  beliefs  is  so  obvious  a  factor  in 
modern  Christianity  that  it  is  hard  for  us  to  picture  the  mind 
of  a  person  who  had  never  heard  of  alternative  religions.  It 
is  unlikely  that  one  Englishman  in  ten  thousand  had  any 
definite  impression  of  what  the  Albigenses  had  been.  No  one 
had  any  real  conception  of  the  pre-Christian  ages,  and  since 
the  Templars  had  been  suppressed,  Englishmen  were  no 
longer  in  contact  with  Mahomedan  '  heathenesse.'  Eeligion 
meant  nothing  but  the  Catholic  faith,  the  religion  of  the  Pope 
and  Bishops.  To  such  a  mind  the  idea  of  '  dissent '  would  be 
intolerable  and  appalling.  If  we  can  imagine  these  conditions 
of  thought,  we  may  realise  what  a  dead  weight  the  Lollards 
had  to  move.  Yet,  as  we  have  seen,  the  mass  had  already 
begun  to  stir  a  little  even  before  they  touched  it. 

The  withdrawal,  at  the  request  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, of  the  ordinance  for  the  arrest  of  heretics  gave  the 
missionaries  a  comparatively  free  hand  for  several  years. 
Occasionally  the  King,  occasionally  one  of  the  Bishops,  set  on 
foot  a  persecution  of  an  individual  preacher.  But  the  de- 
nounced often  escaped  capture,  for  the  local  authorities  did 
not  help  the  Church  to  effect  arrests,  and  public  opinion  did 
not  allow  of  extreme  measures.  During  this  important  period 
there  were  three  cradles  of  Lollardry — the  neighbourhood  of 
Leicester,  the  West  of  England,  and  the  capital. 

It  is  easy  to  see  why  Leicester  fell  under  this  influence. 
Twelve  miles  outside  the  southern  gate,  on  the  high  road  to 
Eugby,  lay  the  flourishing  village  of  Lutterworth.  Its  fine 
parish-church  has  been  enlarged  but  little  altered  since  that 
day.  From  the  arch  over  the  entrance  to  the  choir  still  looks 
down  a  quaint  and  dismal  fresco  of  the  Judgment,  in  which 
the  figures  of  emaciated  ghosts  are  rising  from  the  clay  at 
the  sound  of  the  last  trumpet.  The  scene  is  not  one  of  joyful 
resurrection,  it  is  but  a  gathering  of  the  pale  and  ghastly  dead. 
Beneath  this  sad  ensign  Wycliffe  ministered,  and  sometimes, 
perhaps,  chose  it  to  point  his  moral  or  to  furnish  his  text.  It 
is  impossible  to  say  what  he  did  with  his  church,  whether  he 


314     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OP  THE  LOLLAEDS 

removed  the  images,  how  he  celebrated  the  Mass,  in  what 
tongue  he  conducted  the  service.  Until  1381  he  had  con- 
tinually passed  to  and  fro  between  Lutterworth  and  Oxford, 
but  during  the  last  years  of  his  life  he  lived  continuously  in 
his  parish.  His  occupations  were  sedentary.  He  did  not 
even  go  round  the  neighbouring  towns  and  villages  where  his 
Poor  Priests  were  at  work.  The  Leicester  chronicler  gives  a 
detailed  account  of  Lollard  missions  in  the  neighbourhood, 
but  does  not  mention  Wycliffe  as  taking  part  in  them.  This 
inactivity  may  have  been  dictated  partly  by  his  age  and 
increasing  infirmity,  partly  by  a  desire  not  to  provoke 
measures  against  his  own  person.  Above  all,  he  could  do 
better  work  in  the  study  at  Lutterworth.  He  sent  out  a  long 
succession  of  English  pamphlets  and  Latin  treatises,  which 
show  not  only  his  extraordinary  productiveness,  but  the  con- 
stant progress  of  his  thought.  He  was  also  engaged  on 
translating  the  Scriptures  into  English  for  the  laity — scat- 
tering pearls  before  swine,  as  the  monks  elegantly  said.^ 
'  The  first  Lollard  who  made  any  considerable  impression 
/on  the  people  of  Leicester  was  a  priest  named  "William  Sv/yn- 
derby.  Before  attaching  himself  to  the  heretics  he  had 
played  the  local  prophet  on  his  own  account,  reproved  the 
merry  wives  of  Leicester  for  their  gaiety,  and  even  set  up  as  a 
hermit.  At  last  he  joined  some  of  Wycliffe' s  followers.  They 
lived  together  in  a  little  deserted  chapel  outside  the  walls 
of  the  city,  where  no  one  was  likely  to  interfere  with  them. 
Here  they  encouraged  each  other  in  their  strange  opinions, 
and  debated  the  new  doctrines.  Swynderby,  who  preached 
in  all  the  churches  and  churchyards  for  miles  round,  was  well 
known  in  Melton  Mowbray,  Market  Harboro',  and  Lough- 
borough. But  in  Leicester  itself  he  had  the  greatest  following 
of  all.  He  preached  not  only  in  the  Lollards'  Chapel,  but  in 
the  great  churches  of  the  city,  for  the  parish  priests  were  un- 
willing or  unable  to  interfere.  When  at  last  the  Bishop  of 
Lincoln  sent  down  to  prohibit  him  from  using  sacred  ground, 
he  preached  from  a  mill.  The  crowds  that  came  out  to  hear 
him  were  greater  than  ever.  He  denounced  the  clergy, 
employing  Wycliffe' s   arguments   against  the  wealth   of  the 

'  See  Ap. 


1382-4  THE  LOLLAEDS  OF  LEICESTEE  315 

prelates  and  unjust  excommunication ;  he  called  on  the 
people  to  withhold  their  tithes  from  wicked  churchmen,  and 
exhorted  husbands  and  fathers  to  beware  of  the  priest's 
intimacy  with  the  family  ;  but  he  taught  no  communism  or 
other  doctrines  generally  subversive  of  order.  In  July  1382, 
while  the  attack  on  Oxford  was  being  conducted  by  the 
Primate,  he  was  arrested  and  brought  up  before  the  Bishop  of 
Lincoln,  at  the  capital  of  his  diocese.  The  friars,  who  had 
felt  their  influence  waning  before  the  new  popular  hero,  pre- 
sented a  list  of  his  heresies,  slightly  overstating  what  he  had 
really  said.  It  was  to  no  purpose  that  the  Mayor  and  best 
citizens  of  Leicester  sent  in  a  document  affirming  that  Swyn- 
derby  had  not  used  the  language  imputed  to  him.  He  was  con- 
demned to  the  stake.  Faggots,  it  is  said,  were  actually  being 
collected,  when  he  was  saved  by  the  intercession  of  John  of 
Gaunt,  who  happened  to  be  in  Lincoln.  By  recanting  all  his 
imputed  heresies  Swynderby  obtained  his  freedom.  This 
surrender  did  him  such  injury  in  the  eyes  of  his  supporters 
that  he  was  forced  to  leave  the  neighbourhood  of  Leicester. 
He  preached  at  Coventry  for  nearly  a  year  and  made  many 
converts,  until  at  last  the  clergy  of  the  place  forced  him  to 
move  on,  only  to  continue  his  mission  in  the  far  West.^ 

His  work  at  Leicester  was  carried  on  by  his  friends  and 
by  fresh  helpers  from  Oxford.  John  Aston,  who  was  journey- 
ing staff  in  hand  through  all  the  towns  of  England,  paid  a 
flying  visit,  during  which  he  preached  against  Transubstantia- 
tion,  and  declared  that  the  substance  of  bread  and  wine 
remained  in  the  Sacrament.  Swynderby  had  not  ventured 
to  go  beyond  covert  references  to  the  nature  of  the  Host,  but 
the  new  doctrine  now  became  the  accepted  creed  among  the 
Lollards  of  the  neighbourhood.  Aston  vanished  as  quickly 
as  he  had  come.^ 

John  Purvey  had  a  more  permanent  local  influence,  for  \/^ 
it    was    he  who  lodged    with  Wycliffe  in  the   rectory,  con- 
stantly attended  his  master  till  the  end,  helped  him  in  his 
literary  labours,   and  was  looked    up   to  by  the  inmates  of 
the  Lollard  chapel  as  one  specially  versed  in  their  leader's 

•  Knighton,  ii.  189-98  ;  Fasc.  Z.,  334-40  ;  Foxe,  iii.  113-6. 

-  Knighton,  ii.  176-7  ;  Wals.,  ii.  53-4  is  the  same  and  refers  to  Aston. 


316     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

writings  and  opinions.^  On  December  28,  1384,  Wyclifte 
was  struck  with  paralysis  in  Lutterworth  church.  They 
carried  him  out,  and  the  pictured  Judgment  he  never  again 
beheld.  On  the  last  day  of  the  year  he  died.  They  buried 
him  in  the  churchyard,  where  for  nearly  half  a  century  he  was 
suffered  to  lie.  Then  his  body,  like  Cromwell's,  was  dug  up  by 
his  enemies,  and  his  bones  thrown  into  the  stream  that  flows 
below  the  village.^  It  seems  a  fit  ending  for  the  indefatigable 
man,  who  never  wished  for  peace  with  the  wicked,  nor  sighed 
for  '  deep  and  liquid  rest,  forgetful  of  all  ill.'  The  historian 
has  no  temptation  to  linger  over  his  death,  for  it  was  but  an 
incident  in  the  contest  that  he  had  set  on  foot.  He  had  so 
well  laid  down  the  lines  on  which  his  disciples  were  to 
advance,  that  his  removal  affected  them  little.  A  criticism 
of  his  work  will  be  best  supplied  by  recounting  the  success 
and  the  failure  of  Lollardry,  and  by  considering  how  far 
these  can  be  attributed  to  the  merits  and  the  faults  of  his 
system. 

After  his  death  his  friend  and  companion,  Purvey,  went 
off  to  the  West  of  England.^  The  occupants  of  the  chapel 
outside  Leicester  walls  could  no  longer  look  for  assistance 
and  direction  to  Lutterworth.  But  they  had  already  formed 
among  themselves  a  staunch  and  vigorous  community. 
They  were  essentially  popular  preachers,  and  in  their  hands 
the  subtlety  and  scholasticism  of  Wycliffe's  doctrines  were 
abandoned  in  favour  of  that  direct  appeal  to  common  sense 
which  had  been  their  master's  best  weapon.  While  he  had 
rather  deprecated  than  attacked  the  worship  of  images,  while 
he  had  defined  its  use  and  its  abuse,  his  followers  were 
thorough  iconoclasts.  They  did  not  attempt  to  teach  dis- 
tinctions seldom  understood  by  ordinary  people.  They  took 
the  readiest  and  most  effective  means  of  stopping  idolatry  by 
denouncing  the  cult  of  images  altogether.  A  figure  of  St. 
Catharine  still  stood  in  the  deserted  sanctuary  where  the 
reformers  had  taken  up  their  abode.  One  evening  in  the 
year  1382,  finding  themselves  short  of  fuel,  they  pulled  it 

»  Knighton,  ii.  178-9. 

■■^  Wals.,  ii.  119 ;  Eaynaldi  Annates,  sub  1427;  Lyndwood,  284. 

»  Knighton,  ii.  179  ;  Wilkin,  iii.  202,  Perney  =  Purvey  ? 


THEY  DENOUNCE  LOCAL  IDOLATEY  317 

down  and  split  it  for  firewood.  The  incident  created  con- 
siderable sensation  in  Leicester,  for  it  marked  the  set  of  the 
Lollard  stream.  The  heretics  became  more  and  more  out- 
spoken in  their  attacks  on  the  common  objects  of  superstition. 
The  Leicester  monk  tells  us  with  horror  how  they  called 
images  '  idols,'  and  how  '  St.  Mary  of  Lincoln  '  became  in 
their  language  '  the  witch  of  Lincoln.'  '  When  all  our  fathers 
worshipped  stocks  and  stones,'  the  cult  of  polytheism  centred 
on  particular  shrines.  As  the  Switzer  of  the  forest  cantons 
regards  the  Black  Virgin  of  Einsiedeln,  as  the  Neapolitan 
regards  the  Blood  of  St.  Januarius,  so  the  Englishman 
regarded  the  Virgin  of  Walsingham  and  the  bones  of  St. 
Thomas  of  Canterbury.  The  Lollards  denied  the  sanctity 
of  such  places,  and  attempted  to  arouse  scorn  against  the 
local  '  Maries.'  The  Church  vigorously  defended  her  strong- 
holds. As  time  went  on,  the  chief  matter  in  dispute,  next 
to  the  nature  of  the  Host,  was  the  value  to  popular  religion 
of  saints,  images,  and  shrines.^ 

The  new  party  held  firmly  together.  Individual  eccen- 
tricity had  little  place  among  the  preachers,  who  could  be 
easily  recognised  by  their  long  russet-coloured  gowns  with 
deep  pockets,  their  peculiar  speech  interlarded  with  phrases 
of  Scripture,  the  sanctity  of  their  demeanour,  their  habit  of 
basing  every  argument  on  some  injunction  found  in  *  God's 
Law,'  and  their  abhorrence  of  the  common  oaths  of  the 
day,  for  which  they  substituted  '  I  am  sure,'  *  It  is  sooth," 
'  Without  doubt  it  is  so.'  The  monks  of  Leicester  Abbey 
noted  with  alarm  how  they  resembled  each  other  in  manners, 
language  and  doctrine,  and  how  with  unity  came  strength. 
They  preached  no  doctrines  subversive  of  order  or  hostile  to 
lay  property ;  on  the  contrary,  they  cultivated  the  friendship 
not  only  of  the  wealthy  citizens,  but  of  the  knights  and 
gentry.  Sir  Thomas  Latimer,  a  powerful  local  magnate, 
could  welcome  them  to  a  score  of  manor-houses  scattered 
over  Northamptonshire  and  Leicestershire.  Smaller  land- 
holders, such  as  John  Trussel,  who  possessed  only  the  single 
manor  of  Gayton,  gave  them  countenance  when  they  came 
on    their    rounds.       This    patronage    was    of    the    utmost 

'  Knighton,  ii.  182-3,  313. 


-318     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

importance  to  them ;  for  when  the  unauthorised  preacher 
walked  into  a  new  village,  his  russet  gown  at  once  betrayed 
his  errand,  and  if  both  the  landlord  and  the  parson  were 
against  him,  his  chance  of  getting  a  hearing  was  small. 
But  on  friendly  ground  his  reception  was  very  different. 
The  Poor  Priest,  however  much  a  'man  of  the  people'  he 
might  be,  found  his  natural  radicalism  grow  cool  when,  after 
-a  long  day's  walk  through  a  hostile  country,  he  was  welcomed 
at  nightfall  to  the  kitchen  fire  of  the  moat-house,  well  fed  by 
the  retainers  with  sack  and  venison,  saved  from  the  Bishop's 
Summoner  at  the  door,  and  next  morning  requested  to  speak 
his  mind  to  the  people  in  the  churchyard,  with  the  knight 
standing  by  him  armed  for  greater  security.  In  those 
hamlets  where  the  advowson  belonged  to  one  of  these 
Lollard  gentlemen,  the  parson  probably  thought  it  best  to  leave 
the  church-door  open  to  the  intruder  and  his  hearers.  The 
protection  and  assistance  afforded  by  so  many  landlords  in 
the  latter  years  of  the  fourteenth  century  was  enough  to 
instil  into  the  minds  of  the  preachers  the  distinction  that 
Wycliffe  had  made  between  clerical  and  lay  property.^ 

The  relation  of  the  Lollards  to  the  ruling  classes  in  the 
towns  was  of  the  same  friendly  character.  A  London 
prentice  of  the  name  of  Colleyn,  who  had  run  away  from  his 
master  to  become  a  preacher  of  the  Word,  brought  the  new 
doctrine  to  Northampton.  The  Mayor,  John  Fox,  lodged 
him  in  his  own  house  together  with  a  Poor  Priest  of  the 
neighbourhood,  and  sent  to  Oxford  to  ask  that  a  supply  of 
theologians  should  be  sent  to  Northampton  to  give  an 
authoritative  exposition  of  Wycliffism.  The  Lollards  who 
came  to  meet  this  demand  were  denounced  by  their  enemies, 
some  as  men  who  assumed  Oxford  degrees  that  they  had 
never  really  taken,  others  as  notorious  for  simony  and  dis- 
honest dealing.  However  this  may  have  been,  they  suc- 
ceeded, with  the  help  of  Fox  the  Mayor,  in  completely 
dominating  the  place,  occupying  the  pulpits  against  the  will 
of   the   incumbents   and   taking  forcible   possession   of    the 

'  Knighton,  ii.  174-98,  262  ;  Inquisitiones  post  inortem.  Calendar,  iii.  275, 
•281,  iv.  201,  213,  for  Latimer's  and  Trussel's  property ;  Rot.  Claus.,  12  E.  II., 
m.  9. 


1382-99  THEY  LACK  THE   SPIEIT  OF  MAETYEDOM  319 

churches  at  the  head  of  riotous  mobs.  The  Bishop  of 
Lincoln's  officers  dared  not  enter  the  gates.  Northampton 
had  chosen  a  religion  of  its  own.  It  would  be  interesting  to 
know  whether  Fox  was  ancestor  of  the  martyrologist  or  the 
Quaker.^ 

Under  such  auspices  in  village  and  town,  these  preachers, 
whose  enthusiasm  and  energy  even  their  foes  did  not  deny, 
produced  an  extraordinary  effect.  According  to  the  Leicester 
monk,  every  second  man  in  those  parts  was  a  Lollard.  This 
must  not  be  treated  as  a  statistical  fact,  but  only  as  a  strong 
expression.  Half  the  population  had  perhaps  been  impressed 
more  or  less  favourably  by  some  of  Wycliffe's  doctrines,  but 
as  was  proved  when  the  Archbishop  visited  the  diocese,  few 
were  ready  to  break  definitely  with  the  Church  authorities. 
There  are  many  shades  of  opinion  and  degrees  of  persuasion, 
and  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  in  any  countryside  half  the 
inhabitants  were  pledged  to  LoUardry, 

The  heretics  had  done  well  to  gain  for  themselves  so 
good  a  position,  but  they  still  lacked  one  quality  without 
which  such  a  cause  as  theirs  could  never  triumph.  They 
were  not  ready  to  be  martyrs.  The  good  impression  they 
had  made  on  the  public  mind  would  at  this  point  have  been 
greatly  strengthened,  if  they  had  shown  that  unbending 
spirit,  that  joyful  defiance  of  death,  that  power  almost  super- 
human of  enduring  torture,  by  which  their  successors  in  the 
end  won  the  battle  against  authority.  But  it  was  not  till  the 
second  generation  of  Lollards  that  Sawtrey  showed  the  way 
for  Protestants  to  die.  Wycliffe's  immediate  followers,  though 
able  and  zealous  missionaries,  were  not  perhaps  such  fine 
men  as  their  master  or  as  their  successors.  But  physical 
fear  was  not  the  sole  reason  of  their  submission  to  the  epis- 
copal tribunals.  It  may  well  be  that  they  dreaded  to  appear 
as  avowed  heretics  before  God.  No  schism  had  taken  place, 
they  were  not  a  '  dissenting  body.'  Wycliffe,  though  he  was 
fighting  the  Church,  liked  to  think  that  he  was  only  con- 
verting it,  and  his  followers  scarcely  knew  where  they  stood. 
One  of  them,  Hereford,  after  preaching  LoUardry  for  several 

1  Ant.  Petitions,  7099,  P  B.  0.  Translation  in  MSS.  Cott.  Cleopatra, 
E,  ii.  201. 


320     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OP  THE  LOLLAEDS 

years,  fled  back  to  the  paths  of  orthodoxy  and  rose  to  high 
preferment.  His  case  is  not  typical,  but  it  is  significant. 
The  idea  of  Church  authority  must  at  this  period  have  lain 
on  men  '  with  a  weight  heavy  as  frost  and  deep  almost  as 
life.'  In  spite  of  highly  trained  logical  acumen,  the  mediaeval 
mind  was  so  oddly  inconsistent  that  a  desire  to  be  included 
in  the  fold  of  the  Church  might  coincide  with  utter  contempt 
for  her  ministers  and  disbelief  in  her  dogmas.  But  as  time 
went  on  the  Lollards  became  more  accustomed  to  the  position 
of  heretics,  more  ready  to  stake  their  souls  on  the  hazard,  and 
to  sacrifice  their  bodies  in  the  cause. 

In  October  1389  Archbishop  Courtenay  visited  the  diocese 
of  Lincoln.  He  came  down  to  Leicester,  the  hot-bed  of 
heresy,  and  lodged  with  the  monks,  who  readily  supplied  him 
with  information  as  to  the  names  of  the  principal  offenders. 
He  wisely  desisted  from  molesting  Sir  Thomas  Latimer,  John 
Trussel  and  the  other  Lollard  gentlemen,  but  he  summoned 
before  him  the  hot-gospellers  of  meaner  station.  Only  one 
out  of  the  nine  persons  indicated  was  a  priest.  Most  of  the 
others  appear,  from  their  names — Smith,  Scryvener,  Tailor, 
Goldsmith — to  have  been  tradesmen  of  the  town.  The 
Primate  made  an  impressive  display  of  the  wrath  and  majesty 
of  the  Church.  Appearing  in  full  pontificals,  '  he  fulminated 
a  sentence  of  excommunication  with  cross  erected,  candles  lit 
and  bells  beating.'  The  town  was  put  under  an  interdict 
till  the  accused  were  forthcoming.  Nevertheless  five  out  of 
the  nine  succeeded  in  lying  hid.  The  other  four  gave  way, 
recanted,  and  were  reconciled.  William  Smith,  who  had  used 
the  image  of  St.  Catharine  as  firewood,  was  forced  to  do  pen- 
ance with  a  crucifix  in  one  hand  and  an  image  of  the  insulted 
Saint  in  the  other,  and  to  surrender  the  books  which  he 
had  written  in  the  mother-tongue  on  the  New  Testament  and 
the  Fathers.  Although  a  tradesman  by  birth  and  no  Oxford 
scholar,  Smith  had  taught  himself  to  read  and  write,  and 
had  even  advanced  to  the  study  of  theology.  He  is  a  most 
interesting  person,  and  it  is  a  pity  that  he  had  not  the  crown- 
ing courage  to  endure  martyrdom. 

The  submission  of  Smith  and  his  friends  was  a  blow  to  the 
prestige  of  the  party.     According  to  the  Leicester  monks,  the 


BISHOPS  ENPOECE  IMAGE-WOESHIP  321 

heretics  thenceforth  carried  on  their  work  with  greater 
privacy.  Like  the  more  serious  persecutions  of  the  next 
century,  Courtenay's  action  had  the  effect  of  driving  Lollardry 
underground,  and  thereby  gave  it  the  reputation,  and  to  some 
degree  the  real  character,  of  a  conspiracy.  Left  to  themselves 
the  Leicestershire  Lollards  would  have  had  no  dealings  with 
revolutionary  politicians.  As  long  as  their  proceedings  were 
allowed  to  go  on  in  the  light  of  day,  they  had  shown  no 
such  inclination.^ 

Before  the  Archbishop's  visitation  of  Leicester,  Lollardry 
had  spread  thence  to  Nottingham  lying  twenty  miles  to  the 
North.^  Towards  the  close  of  his  reign,  Richard  the  Second, 
indefatigable  in  the  pursuit  of  heresy,  had  four  tradesmen  of 
Nottingham  brought  up  to  London  and  examined  in  the 
King's  Court  of  Chancery,  in  the  presence  of  the  Archbishop 
of  York,  to  whose  diocese  their  town  belonged.  Each  of  them 
was  forced  to  repeat  an  oath  renouncing  the  '  teaching  of  the 
Lollards.'  '  I,  William  Dynot,'  runs  this  remarkable  docu- 
ment, '  before  you,  worshipful  father  and  Archbishop  of  York 
and  your  clergy, .  .  .  swear  to  God  .  .  .  that  fro  this  day  forth- 
ward  I  shall  worship  images,  with  praying  and  offering  unto 
them  in  the  worship  of  the  Saints  that  they  be  made  after,  and 
also  I  shall  no  more  despise  pilgrimage.'  This  is  a  clear 
statement  of  one  chief  question  at  issue.  To  simple  minds  it 
may  appear  no  other  than  this — whether  to  practise  or  not  to 
practise  idolatry.^     {See  map,  p.  352.) 


Leicestershire  and  the  neighbouring  counties  were  not  the 
only  districts  where  the  new  doctrines  spread  during  the  reign 
of  Richard  the  Second.  The  principal  Wycliffites  drifted  one 
by  one  to  the  West  of  England,  which  seemed  to  hold  out 
some  special  attraction.  Perhaps  when  once  Aston  had  gone 
there,  Hereford,  Purvey  and  Swynderby  followed  him  merely 

'  Wilkin,   iii.   210-2 ;     Courtenay's  Register,  Lambeth   Libr.,   f.  144   b. ; 
Knighton,  ii.  212-3,  180-1. 

.    2  Wilkin,  iii.  204  ;  Rot.  Pat.,  11  Eic.  II.,  pt.  2,  m.  20  ;  Rot.  Claus.,  12  E.  II. 
(236),  m.  38. 

3  Wilkin,  iii.  225. 

y 


322     THE  BAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

to  keep  company  and  to  act  together.  Perhaps  the  Bishops 
of  Salisbury,  Hereford,  Worcester  and  Bath  were  known  to  be 
more  lax  or  more  kindly  than  their  brothers  of  Canterbury 
and  Norwich,  who  were  famous  for  their  antagonism  to 
heretics.  Perhaps  the  distance  from  Westminster  and  Can- 
terbury, the  proximity  of  the  Welsh  mountains  for  a  refuge, 
the  deep  forests  and  dells  of  Hereford  and  Monmouth, 
the  trackless  moors  round  Stonehenge  and  the  miry  lanes 
of  Somerset,  gave  the  pedestrian  better  chances  of  avoid- 
ing the  Bishop's  mounted  messenger  than  could  be  found 
in  the  more  highly  civilised  shires  of  Eastern  and  central 
England. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  when  the  first  Wycliffite  preacher 
appeared  in  the  West.  Wycliffe  had  been  regarded  as  a  force 
in  the  country  before  the  Eising  of  1381,  and  although  there 
is  no  proof  that  he  himself  sanctioned  or  commissioned  any 
'  Poor  Priests  '  at  that  early  date,  there  were  even  then  popular 
preachers,  who  carried  about  versions  of  his  doctrines,  together 
with  their  own  views  on  Church  or  State.  Such  persons  in 
all  probability  had  set  floating  in  the  West  reports  of  the  new 
movement  in  Oxford.  But  the  first  missionary  in  those  parts 
of  whom  we  have  any  certain  knowledge  is  that  typical 
Wycliffite,  John  Aston,  who  walked  into  Gloucester,  staff  in 
hand,  one  day  in  September  1382.  The  churchmen  were 
beating  the  religious  drum  round  the  country  to  raise  men 
and  money  for  Bishop  Spencer's  Flemish  crusade,  while 
Wycliffe  in  reply  was  carrying  on  a  vigorous  pamphlet  con- 
troversy. The  crusaders  were  strongest  in  the  Eastern 
Counties,  but  even  in  Gloucester  Aston  found  the  recruiting 
and  the  trade  in  Papal  pardons  going  on  briskly.  They  fur- 
nished him  with  a  text.  He  declared  that  those  who  were 
working  for  the  crusade  were  inducing  Christians  to  endow 
murder,  that  the  religious  war-cry  was  of  all  things  the  most 
wicked,  that  the  Bishops,  who  were  selling  pardons  for  this 
pious  purpose,  were  sons  of  the  devil.  Five  years  later  he  was 
still  at  work  in  the  same  diocese.^ 

But  he   was   not   all   that    time   alone    or    confined   to 

»  Knighton,  ii.  178 ;  Wilkin,  iii.  202-3. 


1382-99  LOLLAEDEY  IN   THE   WEST  323 

the  society  of  local  enthusiasts.  After  Wycliffe's  death, 
Purvey  left  Lutterworth  and  appeared  in  Bristol,  bringing 
his  master's  last  message  to  the  world.  A  priest  ought  sooner 
to  omit  matins  and  vespers  than  the  preaching  of  the  Word 
of  God.  The  celebration  of  the  Mass  as  then  performed, 
Purvey  called  a  human  tradition,  not  evangelical  or  founded 
on  Christ's  commands.  In  Leicestershire,  whence  he  had 
come,  his  friends  cared  so  little  to  '  hear  the  blessed  mutter 
of  the  Mass,  and  see  God  made  and  eaten  all  day  long,'  that 
they  called  these  prolonged  ceremonies  '  blabbering  with  the 
lips.'i 

In  1386  Nicolas  Hereford  landed  in  England,  returning  a 
sadder  and  a  wiser  man  from  his  attempt  to  convert  the  Pope. 
He  at  once  began  to  preach  his  condemned  doctrines,  at  first 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Canterbury,  where  he  escaped  Courte- 
nay's  attempts  to  capture  him.  But  when  in  January  1387  the 
King  was  called  in  to  effect  his  arrest,  he  moved  westwards 
to  join  Purvey  and  Aston.^  Six  months  later  the  Bishop  of 
Worcester  issued  a  mandate  against  the  Lollard  leaders  in  his 
diocese,  from  which  it  appears  that  the  conditions  of  the  mis- 
sionary work  were  at  least  as  favourable  as  in  the  Leicester 
district.  He  complains  that  Hereford,  Aston,  Purvey  and 
John  Parker  are  traversing  his  diocese,  '  under  a  great  cloak 
of  sanctity,'  that  they  preach  in  public,  and  also  secretly  in 
halls,  chambers,  parks  and  gardens,  and  that  the  parish 
churches  and  churchyards  are  often  put  at  their  service.^  It 
is  important  to  remember  that  this  Bishopric  of  Worcester 
then  ran  down  to  the  seaboard  and  included  the  great  port 
towns  of  Bristol  and  Gloucester,  where  Lollardry  had  a  strong 
footing. 

William  Swynderby,  driven  first  from  Leicester  and  then 
from  Coventry,  carried  on  the  mission  in  the  diocese  of  Here- 
ford. Before  his  arrival  a  number  of  Lollards  already 
existed  there  under  the  mild  sway  of  Bishop  John  Gilbert, 
who  was  translated  in  1389.  The  first  action  of  Gilbert's 
successor,  John  Trevenant,  was  to  issue   mandates   against 

»  Knighton,  ii.  179-80  and  174. 

'^  Courtenay's  Register,  Lambeth  Library,  f.  65  b,  and  f.  69  a. 

3  Wilkin,  iii.  202-3. 

T  2 


324     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

them.  Next  year  Swynderby  had  appeared  both  in  Mon- 
mouth town  on  the  banks  of  the  Lower  Wye,  and  in 
Whitney  on  the  extreme  west  border  of  Hereford  and  of  Eng- 
land. Although  he  was  often  forced  by  his  pursuers  to  keep 
to  the  more  outlying  districts,  he  easily  succeeded  in  avoiding 
capture,  for  the  country  west  of  Malvern  rises  up  in  range 
beyond  range  of  hills  to  this  day  largely  clothed  in  forests, 
and  interseeted  by  steep  lanes  and  bridle-paths  which  must  in 
those  days  have  been  mere  tracks.  Swynderby  used  to  hide 
in  a  '  certain  desert  wood  called  Derwoldswood.'  Again  and 
again  Trevenant  summoned  him,  but  to  no  purpose.  Once 
only,  under  a  safe-conduct  from  the  Bishop,  he  appeared,  and 
read  before  his  judges  and  a  large  crowd  of  spectators  a 
document  answering  one  by  one  the  charges  made  against 
him.  He  denied  that  he  had  preached  the  invalidity  of 
Sacraments  administered  by  a  sinful  priest ;  what  he  had 
really  said  was  that  '  There  is  no  man,  Pope  nor  Bishop, 
prelate  nor  curate,  that  binds  soothly  verily  and  ghostly,'  but 
inasmuch  as  his  decisions  are  God's  decisions  also.  He  had 
been  falsely  accused  of  denying  the  Eeal  Presence,  for  he 
had  affirmed  that  body  and  bread  were  present  together.  He 
agreed  with  Wycliffe  that  confession  might  be  useful  but 
never  necessary.  He  mocked  at  indulgences  in  good  set 
terms.  '  Lightly  they  might  be  lost,  drenched  or  brent,  or  a 
rat  might  eat  them,  his  indulgence  then  were  lost.  Therefore, 
sire,  have  me  excused,  I  know  not  these  terms ;  teach  me 
these  terms  by  God's  law  and  truly  I  will  learn  them.'  He 
denied  the  Pope's  power  of  remitting  sin  or  deserved  punish- 
ment, he  attacked  the  friars  and  denounced  the  worship  of 
images.  Having  thus  defended  himself  in  English  before  the 
people  and  the  Bishop,  he  disappeared  as  mysteriously  as  he 
had  come.  Trevenant  was  as  good  as  his  word,  and  did  not 
attempt  to  arrest  him  before  he  made  his  escape ;  the  days  of 
the  Council  of  Constance  and  '  nd  faith  with  heretics '  had 
not  yet  come.  As  he  refused  to  appear  again  without  such 
another  safe-conduct,  he  was  condemned  in  his  absence,  on 
the  ground  of  the  answer  he  had  put  in.  He  appealed  to  the 
King's  Council  at  Westminster  against  this  condemnation, 
declaring  that  he  had  asked  the  Bishop  to  confute  him  out  of 


1382-99        LOLLAEDEY  IN  HEEEFOEDSHIEE  325 

the  Bible,  and  that  the  Bishop  had  only  answered  by  excom- 
munication. He  breaks  out  at  the  end  of  the  letter  into 
unfavourable  statements  about  the  Bishops  and  the  Pope. 
'  As  Christ's  law  teaches  us  to  bless  them  that  injure  us,  the 
Pope's  law  teaches  us  to  curse  them,  and  in  their  great 
sentence  that  they  use  they  presume  to  damn  the  men  to  hell 
that  they  curse.  ...  As  Christ's  law  bids  to  minister  things 
freely  to  the  people,  the  Pope  with  his  law  sells  for  money, 
after  the  quantity  of  the  gift,  pardons,  ordination,  blessing 
and  sacraments  and  prayers  and  benefices  and  preaching  to 
the  people.  As  Christ's  law  teaches  peace,  the  Pope  with  his 
law  absolves  men  for  money,  to  gather  the  people,  priests  and 
others,  to  fight  for  his  cause.'  He  also  sent  a  petition  to  the 
Houses  of  Parliament,  which  consisted  chiefly  of  quotations 
from  the  Scriptures.^ 

Another  Lollard  of  this  neighbourhood  was  a  man  named 
Walter  Brute,  of  Welsh  parentage  but  educated  at  Oxford, 
where  he  had  written  theological  works  in  support  of  Wycliffe.^ 
He  was  Swynderby's  friend  and  companion,  and  adhered  to 
all  his  teaching.  Like  Swynderby,  he  hid  from  the  ecclesias- 
tical officers,  and  sent  a  manuscript  into  Court  as  his  only 
answer  to  the  Bishop's  summons.  This  strange  piece  has 
been  fortunately  preserved  for  us  at  length.  It  is  full  of 
Scripture  phrases,  applied  in  the  strained  and  mystical  sense 
which  we  associate  with  later  Puritanism,  though  it  really 
derives  its  origin  from  the  style  of  theological  controversies 
older  far  than  the  Lollards  themselves.  Eome  is  the 
'  daughter  of  Babylon,'  '  the  great  whore  sitting  upon  many 
waters  with  whom  the  Kings  of  the  earth  have  committed 
fornication.'  'With  her  enchantments,  witchcrafts  and 
Simon  Magus'  merchandise  the  whole  world  is  infected  and 
seduced.'  Brute  prophesies  her  fall  in  the  language  of  the 
Eevelation.  The  Pope  is  '  the  beast  ascending  out  of  the 
earth  having  two  horns  like  unto  a  lamb,'  who  compels  '  small 
and  great,  rich  and  poor,  to  worship  the  beast  and  to  take  his 
mark  in  their  forehead  and  on  their  hands.'  It  is  easy  to 
perceive,   after   reading   such   phrases,  one  reason  why  the 

»  Foxe,  iii.  107-31.        ^  Bale's  Scriptores.     Basle  edition,  1557-9,  p.  503. 


326     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

Bishops  objected  to  the  study  of  the  Bible  by  the  common 
people.  While  Brute  and  his  friends  were  beginning  to 
realise  the  full  horror  of  the  Mediaeval  Church  system,  their 
imaginations  on  the  subject  were  easily  inflamed  by  the 
mysterious  and  powerful  language  of  the  book  in  which,  as 
they  believed,  they  could  find  all  truth.  Brute  proved  to 
his  own  satisfaction  that  the  Pope  had  the  number  of  the 
Beast.^  He  regarded  the  Papacy  as  the  centre  whence  most 
evils  emanated.  The  sale  of  pardons  he  traced  chiefly  to  this 
source ;  the  encouragement  of  war  to  serve  the  interests  of 
Eome  shocked  him  scarcely  less.  Like  Swynderby,  he  was 
accused  of  denying  the  Eeal  Presence,  and  like  Swynderby 
he  explained  his  actual  heresy  to  be  that  of  Consubstantia- 
tion.  He  was  fully  alive  to  the  dangers  of  priestcraft  in 
all  its  aspects,  including  auricular  confession  and  the  pre- 
vailing doctrine  of  absolution.  After  many  escapes,  he  was 
captured  in  1393,  brought  before  Bishop  Trevenant  at  Here- 
ford, and  forced  to  read  a  submission.  But  the  words  were 
so  general  that  they  scarcely  amounted  to  a  recantation 
and  might  mean  one  thing  to  the  judges  and  another  to  the 
prisoner.^ 

Lollardry  continued  to  flourish  in  those  parts,  though 
Nicolas  Hereford  deserted  his  friends  and  accepted  preferment 
in  the  Church.  The  spread  of  heresy  in  the  West  was  not 
confined  to  the  dioceses  of  Hereford  and  Worcester.  There 
were  Lollards  in  Beading  and  Salisbury,  and  the  Bishop  of 
that  diocese,  whose  spiritual  rule  extended  over  all  Berkshire 
and  Wiltshire,  had  to  deal  with  the  most  daring  phase  of 
the  revolt.  It  was  here  that  the  Poor  Priests  first  made  the 
audacious  experiment  of  creating  their  own  successors.  Pious 
Catholics  were  scandalised  to  learn  that  hedge-priests,  ordained 
by  their  equals,  were  celebrating  masses  and  administering 
the  Sacraments.  It  does  not  seem  that  this  form  of  rebellion 
against  Episcopacy  went  very  far,  for  most  of  the  Lollard 
priests  in  the  next  generation  had  been  regularly  ordained  by 

1  The  Pope  is  'Dux   Cleri.'     D  =  500;    V  =  5;   X  =  10;    C  =  100;    L  =  50; 
E,  K  =  0;  1  =  1  .-,  Dux  Cleri  =  666. 

-  Foxe,  iii.  131-87,  196-7 ;  Bot.  Pat.,  17  E.  II.  m.  27  d. 


1382-99  LOLLAEDEY  IN  THE   CAPITAL  327 

Bishops.     But   the  attempt,  at  least,   shows  that  advanced 
Wycliffism  was  strong  in  those  parts.^ 


London  was  another  focus  of  heresy.  The  citizens  of 
the  capital  had  applauded  Aston  at  his  trial,  and  had  followed 
their  favourite  Mayor,  John  of  Northampton,  in  his  raid 
across  the  river.  In  1387  Walter  Patteshull,  a  Lollard  priest 
who  had  once  been  a  friar,  raised  a  riot  against  his  former 
associates  by  posting  on  St.  Paul's  door,  specific  charges  of 
murder  and  other  horrible  crimes,  which,  he  avowed,  had  been 
committed  in  his  old  convent.  The  rioters,  who  are  described 
as  '  nearly  a  hundred  of  the  Lollards,'  assaulted  several  friars 
with  impunity,  as  the  authorities  of  the  city  thought  fit  only 
to  expostulate  with  them.^  This  insolence  on  the  part  of  the 
heretics  took  place  in  the  year  when  the  persecuting  King  was 
fully  engaged  in  a  contest  with  his  political  enemies.  His 
nominee,  the  grocer  Nicolas  Brembre,  was  beginning  to  feel 
his  artificial  supremacy  in  London  extremely  insecure.  In 
ordinary  times  Eichard  took  care  that  the  Wycliffites  of  the 
capital,  though  staunch  and  numerous,  should  not  molest  their 
enemies  or  even  carry  on  their  services  in  public.^ 

The  Lollardry  of  London  was  more  immediately  affected 
by  political  and  parliamentary  life  than  the  Lollardry  of  the 
country  districts.  Many  of  the  Parliamentary  leaders  had 
hostels  in  the  city,  and  all  came  up  to  the  capital  once  or  twice 
a  year  on  the  business  of  the  nation.  In  1395  certain  Lollard 
members  of  the  Privy  Council,  finding  themselves  unable  to 
influence  their  royal  master  in  favour  of  their  co-religionists, 
took  advantage  of  Eichard's  absence  in  Ireland  to  lay  their 
opinions  before  Parliament.  The  movers  in  this  affair  were 
Sir  Eichard  Stury  and  Sir  Lewis  Clifford,  Privy  Councillors, 
Thomas  Latimer  the  powerful  Northamptonshire  landlord  who 
had  helped  the  Wycliffites  on  his  own  estates,  and  Lord  John 
Montagu,  brother  of  the  Earl  of  Salisbury.  Montagu  was  a 
man  of  sincere  conviction,  who  had  removed  all  images  from 

'  Wals.,  ii.  188  ;   Rot.  Glaus.,  20  Eic.  II.  245,  m.  28  ;   Ibid.  13  E.  II.  pt.  1, 
m.  31. 

2  Wals.,  ii.  157-9.  '  C.  B.  R.,  15  E.  U.  (no.  240),  m.  18. 


328     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE   LOLLAEDS 

the  private  chapel  attached  to  his  fine  manor-house  of  Shenley 
in  Hertfordshire.  His  estates  and  influence  lay  in  the  counties 
bordering  on  London.  Such  were  the  men  who  brought  before 
Parliament  a  paper  setting  out  the  most  advanced  tenets  of 
Lollardry.  The  status  of  the  proposers  was  in  itself  a  suffi- 
cient safeguard  against  views  subversive  of  property,  which 
had  no  place  in  the  Lollard  programme.  As  an  official  state- 
ment by  the  leaders  of  the  party,  the  articles  are  valuable 
evidence  of  its  tendencies.  They  correspond  exactly  to  the 
doctrine  preached  by  individual  heretics.  They  show  that 
there  was  general  agreement  withm  the  sect  on  those  ques- 
tions which  had  been  brought  forward  by  missionaries  such 
as  Swynderby,  Aston  and  Purvey.  There  are  the  usual 
attacks  on  Transubstantiation,  image-worship,  pilgrimage, 
prayers  for  the  dead,  the  riches  and  secular  employments  of 
the  clergy.  The  necessity  of  auricular  confession  is  denounced 
for  the  reason  that  it  '  exalts  the  pride  of  the  clergy '  and 
gives  opportunity  of  undue  influence.  Exorcisms  and  blessings 
continually  performed  on  inanimate  objects,  as  wine,  bread, 
water,  oil,  salt,  incense,  the  walls  and  al^r  of  the  church,  the 
chalice,  the  mitre  and  the  cross,  are  styled  '  rather  practices 
of  necromancy  than  of  true  theology.'  We  find  also — an  im- 
portant and  novel  point — a  strong  objection  to  vows  of  celibacy. 
Vows  of  this  nature  were  very  commonly  taken  even  by  men 
and  women  who  remained  in  ordinary  life  without  entering 
a  convent.^  Great  virtue  was  supposed  to  attach  to  this,  in 
accordance^with  the  well-known  theory  of  the  Church.  Even 
Wycliffe  had  the  mediaeval  admiration  for  the  state  of  virginity, 
but  his  followers  shook  it  off.  The  Lollards  considered  it 
superstition,  and  preferred  the  state  of  marriage.  Another 
article  denounces  superfluous  arts  ministering  to  the  luxury 
of  the  age,  and  calls  for  sumptuarj^  laws ;  men  ought  to  live 
like  the  apostles,  contented  with  simple  food  and  dress.  The 
Quaker's  objection  to  all  war  as  unchristian  also  appears  as 
part  of  the  Lollard  creed.  The  cause  of  this  somewhat  im- 
practicable theory  was  the  disgust  engendered  b}^  the  de- 
vastating campaigns  in  France,  crowned,  when  peace  seemed 

'  See  the  Ely  Episcopal  Eeeords,   Calendar,  Gibbons,  passim;    Bev.  W. 
Hunt's  Diocesan  History  of  Bath  and  Wells,  138. 


1396  LOLLAEDEY  IN  HIGH  PLACES  329 

in  sight,  by  the  Papal  Crusades.  The  poet  Gower,  though 
opposed  to  Lollardry,  gave  voice  to  the  same  feeling  against 
perpetual  war,  and  the  efforts  of  the  clergy  to  keep  it  alive. 

And  now  to  look  on  every  side 
A  man  may  see  the  world  divide, 
The  wars  are  so  general 
Among  the  Christians  above  all, 
That  every  man  seeketh  reche  (revenge). 
And  yet  these  clergy  all  day  preach, 
And  sayen,  good  deed  may  none  be 
"Which  stands  not  upon  charity. 
I  know  not  how  charity  may  stand 
Where  deadly  war  is  taken  on  hand. 

"When  clergy  to  the  war  intend 
I  know  not  how  they  should  amend 
The  woful  world  in  other  things 
To  make  peace  betwen  the  Kings.^ 

These  articles  of  Lollard  belief  were  drawn  up  by  Stury, 
Montagu  and  their  friends,  and  solemnly  presented  to  Parlia- 
ment, while  other  copies  were  nailed  to  the  door  of  St.  Paul's 
for  the  benefit  of  the  citizens.  It  was  the  high-water  mark  of 
Lollardry.  The  Bishops,  finding  that  the  two  Houses  of 
Parliament  refused  to  suppress  their  enemies,  and  knowing 
that  they  themselves  were  powerless  to  act  alone,  sent  off  the 
Archbishop  of  York  and  the  Bishop  of  London  in  hot  haste  to 
fetch  the  King.  They  found  him  with  his  great  army  flounder- 
ing about  bogs  and  wildernesses  after  swift-footed  Irish  kernes, 
and  receiving  the  homage  of  recalcitrant  kings,  whose  subjects 
were  supposed,  by  the  English  knights,  to  eat  human  hearts 
as  a  delicacy.  The  Bishops  easily  persuaded  Eichard  to  give 
over  chasing  the  wild  Irish,  and  return  to  the  more  practic- 
able task  of  suppressing  heresy  at  home.  He  was  deeply 
moved  at  the  bad  news.  He  came  back  in  one  of  his  passions, 
vowing  to  hang  all  Lollards.  There  was  an  end  of  the  heretica-l 
proceedings  in  Parliament,  and  Sir  Eichard  Stury,  the  Privy 
Councillor,  was  compelled  to  forswear  his  opinions  on  pain  of 
death.    '  And  I  swear  to  you,'  said  the  King,  '  that,  if  you  ever 

'  Gower,  Conf.  Am.,  Prologue,  12  and  34  ;  see  also  Vox  Clam.,  bk.  iii.  cap.  9. 


330     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

break  your  oath,  I  will  slay  you  by  the  foulest  death  that  may 
be.'i 

From  the  day  when  Eichard  thus  swooped  down  upon 
the  parliamentary  heretics,  to  the  day  when  his  pride  and 
power  and  the  right  line  of  Plantagenet  passed  away  with 
the  passing  century,  no  important  change  took  place  in  the 
position  of  the  Lollards.  Although  occasional  arrests  were 
made,  and  although  in  some  centres  of  population,  like 
Leicester,  secrecy  was  prudent,  and  perhaps  necessary,  per- 
secution was  not  consistently  applied.  The  Poor  Priests 
patrolled  those  districts  where  their  protectors  were  strong, 
almost  as  safely  as  the  friars  themselves.  This  state  of 
things  was  in  no  way  the  result  of  any  favour  shown  to 
heresy  by  Eichard.  The  Church  could  not  have  wished  for 
a  more  orthodox  King.  When  the  University  bade  fair  to 
defy  the  authority  of  the  Bishops,  he  had  reduced  the  school- 
men to  obedience  by  the  royal  authority.  He  had  passed  an 
ordinance  against  the  Poor  Priests  which  the  Commons  had 
insisted  on  repealing.  He  had  again  and  again  issued 
special  mandates  bidding  his  officers  arrest  Lollards  who 
escaped  or  defied  the  Bishop's  Summoners.^  He  had  issued 
general  orders  for  the  seizure  of  Wycliffe's  works,  and  lastly, 
he  had  come  back  across  St.  George's  Channel  in  order 
to  crush  at  Westminster  the  heretics'  parliamentary  designs. 
Bound  the  magnificent  tomb  which  he  himself  adorned  in 
memory  of  his  dead  wife,  and  against  the  day  of  his  own 
death,  runs  an  inscription  which  the  visitor  to  Westminster 
Abbey  can  still  read.  It  contains  the  proud  boast  that  '  He 
overthrew  the  heretics  and  laid  their  friends  low.'  ^ 

It  was  not  any  liberality  in  the  King  that  made  Eichard's 
reign  a  time  to  which  later  Lollards  looked  back  with  regret. 
Persecution  had  been  partial  and  irregular  for  other  reasons  ; 
because  public  opinion  both  in  the  country  and  in  the  House 
of  Commons  had  been  against  interference,  because  powerful 
men   had   befriended   the   heretics   on   their  estates  and  in 

•  John  de  Trokelov/e  (E.  S.),  174-83 ;  Proiss.,  iv.  cap.  Ixxxiv. ;  Wals.,  ii. 
216-7  ;  Fasc.  Z.,  360-9  ;  Stubbs,  ii.  494,  note  2  ;  Post  Mortem  Ing^uisitiones 
Calendar,  iii.  259-60,  and  Wals.,  ii.  159  for  John  Montagu. 

^  Rot.  Glaus,  and  Rot.  Pat.  MSS.,  passim. 

*  Stanley's  Westinmster  Abbey,  ed.  2,  148-9. 


ICHABOD  331 

Parliament,  because  the  Bishops  had  not  ventured  to  face  all 
this  opposition  for  the  sake  of  weeding  the  Church.  It  is  not 
unlikely  that,  if  severe  persecution  had  been  applied  in  all 
parts  of  England  at  a  time  when  the  heretics  were  still  so 
uncertain  of  their  position  that  they  dared  not  face  martyrdom, 
the  movement  might  have  been  crushed  outright.  But  it 
was  allowed  to  take  root  and  to  produce  men  of  sterner  stuff. 
The  chronicler  of  St.  Albans  bitterly  laments  the  apathy  of 
the  Bishops  in  allowing  the  Poor  Priests  to  roam  their  dioceses 
at  pleasure,  and  declares  that  the  only  one  who  did  his  duty 
was  fighting  Bishop  Spencer.  That  vigorous  prelate  swore 
he  would  burn  any  such  preacher  who  came  within  his 
jurisdiction,  with  the  result  that  there  was  not  a  single 
Lollard  heard  of  in  Norwich  diocese.^  If  his  threat  really 
produced  this  result,  it  is  the  more  remarkable  inasmuch  as 
Norfolk  and  Suffolk  afterwards  became  the  hotbed  of  the  sect. 
But  when  Henry  the  Fourth  ascended  the  throne,  the  centres 
of  Lollardry  were  found  where  the  milder  Bishops  held  sway 
— in  the  shires  of  Leicester,  Northampton  and  Nottingham,  in 
London  and  its  neighbourhood,  in  Sussex,^  Berks  and  Wilts, 
in  Herefordshire  and  Gloucestershire.     {See  map,  p.  352.) 


Here  ends  the  history  of  the  first  generation  of  Lollards. 
We  have  reached,  if  we  have  not  already  outstepped,  the 
furthest  limit  that  can  be  set  to  the  'Age  of  Wycliffe.'  In 
this  calamitous  epoch  we  have  seen  the  noble  institutions  of 
early  England  sink,  not  without  noise  of  falling,  to  their 
grave.  We  are  pervaded  and  oppressed  by  a  sense  that  true 
revival  cannot  come  except  with  the  triumph  of  new  ideas  and 
the  erection  of  new  machinery.  The  political  victories  of  the 
Commons  are  unstable  and  of  little  worth  as  long  as  society 
is  rent  asunder  by  the  insolence  of  the  great  lords  and  their 
military  servants.  Neither  can  the  mediaeval  monarchy 
revive  under  conditions  so  altered,  without  first  altering 
itself.  The  old-fashioned  management  of  the  navy  can  no 
longer  maintain  maritime  supremacy.     The  military  system 

>  Wals.,  ii.  188-9.      ^  For  Sussex,  see  Bot  Glaus.,  21  R.  II.  no.  247,  m.  17. 


332     THE  EAELY  HISTOEY  OP  THE  LOLLAEDS 

is  not  only  useless  abroad  but  fatal  at  home.  The  change 
from  feudal  to  modern  methods  of  land-tenure  and  field 
labour,  more  advanced  than  any  other  of  the  many  changes 
in  process,  convulses  society,  and  in  one  short  but  terrible 
crisis  almost  wrecks  the  State.  In  religion,  the  inadequacy 
of  the  Mediaeval  Church  to  English  needs  is  apparent  in  a 
hundred  ways,  and  a  great  attempt  is  made  to  answer  the 
call  for  something  new.  In  the  succeeding  century  all  the 
movements  for  change  were  stopped,  except  as  to  land  and 
labour,  where  the  process  went  on  silently  but  steadily. 
Henry  the  Fifth  galvanised  medisevalism  into  life.  He 
maintained  for  a  short  while  the  old  constitutional  monarchy 
and  the  rights  of  the  Commons  against  the  nobles ;  he  re- 
conquered France ;  he  aided  the  Church  to  crush  Lollardry. 
Little  did  all  his  efforts  avail.  Woful  indeed,  and  barren  of 
things  good,  were  the  reigns  of  his  successors.  The  history 
of  the  fifteenth  century  in  England  brings  to  mind  the  words 
of  Carlyle.  '  How  often,  in  former  ages,  by  eternal  Creeds, 
eternal  Forms  of  Government  and  the  like,  has  it  been 
attempted,  fiercely  enough,  and  with  destructive  violence,  to 
chain  the  Future  under  the  Past ;  and  say  to  the  Providence 
whose  ways  are  mysterious  and  through  the  great  deep : 
Hitherto  shalt  thou  come,  but  no  farther  !  A  wholly  insane 
attempt ;  and  for  man  himself,  could  it  prosper,  the  fright- 
fullest  of  all  enchantments,  a  very  Life-^-Death.'  ^  In  the 
end  the  enchantment  was  broken,  and  the  Age  of  Wycliffe 
found  the  answer  to  its  questions  in  the  Tudor  Monarchy  and 
the  English  Eeformation.  y*" 

•  Miscellaneous  Works,  iv.  33. 


333 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE  LATEB  HISTORY  OF  THE  LOLLARDS,  UOO-1520 

THE    LOLLARDS   IN    THE    FIFTEENTH    CENTUEY.        THEIR   INFLUENCE 
ON    THE    REFORMATION 

Though  we  have  now  come  to  tlie  end  of  the  Age  of  Wycliffe, 
the  reader  would  perhaps  be  sceptical  as  to  its  important 
effects  on  the  course  of  English  history,  unless  he  had  infor- 
mation about  the  later  influence  and  ultimate  destiny  of 
the  Lollard  movement.  The  present  chapter  is  designed  to 
partially  supply  the  need. 

Although  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Fourth  was  signalised 
by  the  increased  bitterness  of  both  parties  and  the  commence- 
ment of  internecine  war,  there  was  no  turn  in  the  tide  of 
heresy.  On  two  occasions  the  representatives  of  the  shires, 
assuming  as  usual  the  leadership  of  the  Lower  House,  pro- 
posed that  the  King  should  seize  the  temporalities  of  the 
Church  and  apply  them  to  relieve  taxation,  to  aid  the  poor, 
and  to  endow  new  lords  and  knights.^  This  was  a  sign  of  in- 
creased Lollard  influence  over  the  gentry,  for  they  had  never 
advanced  any  such  proposal  in  the  days  when  John  of  Gaunt 
attempted  to  stir  Parliament  against  Church  property  with  a 
view  to  his  own  tortuous  plans.  It  must  have  been  a  genuine 
expression  of  opinion,  for  such  motions  were  no  longer  insti- 
gated by  any  party  in  the  Lords,  and  they  were  actually  dis- 
couraged by  the  Court.  In  retaliation  for  these  proposals  the 
Church  party,  by  the  aid  of  the  royal  family,  passed  statutes 
for  the  suppression  of  heresy.  The  consent,  or  at  least  the 
acquiescence,  of  the  Commons  was  twice   secured  for   such 

'  Wals.,  ii.  263 ;   Ammles  Henrici  (R.  S.  John  of  Trokelow),  393  ;  Wals., 
ii.  282-3. 


334       THE  LATEE  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

measures/  although  in  another  Parliament,  in  which  the 
heretics  had  the  upper  hand,  the  knights  petitioned  for  the 
relaxation  of  the  persecuting  laws ;  ^  the  Lollardry  of  the 
House  of  Commons  was  a  fluctuating  quantity.  The  famous 
statute  of  1401,  'De  Hasretico  Comburendo,'  was  directed 
against  the  progress  of  doctrinal  heresy,  on  the  complaint  of 
the  Bishops  that  their  own  officers  without  State  help  were 
unable  to  restrain  Lollardry.^  The  statute  afforded  means 
for  the  burning  of  heretics  which  legally  existed  before,  but 
were  now  recapitulated  and  approved  with  a  view  to  energetic 
use.  "" 

It  has  been  already  pointed  out  that  the  original  founders 
of  the  sect,  either  from  uncertainty  of  their  position  or  from 
lack  of  physical  courage,  made  little  resistance  when  brought 
before  the  authorities  of  the  Church.  Even  the  last  of  that 
generation,  John  Purvey,  the  companion  of  Wycliffe's  later 
years,  when  brought  up  for  trial  in  his  old  age  in  March  1401, 
could  not  find  the  strength  to  die  by  torture  for  the  opinions 
which  he  had  held  so  long.  But  a  new  class  of  men  had  al- 
ready arisen.  Three  days  before  Purvey  read  his  recantation 
at  St.  Paul's  Cross,  William  Sawtrey  had  been  burned  for 
teaching  that  '  after  the  consecration  by  the  priest  there 
remaineth  true  material  bread.'  He  suffered  in  the  cattle 
market,  where  twenty  years  before  young  Eichard  had  faced 
the  rebels,  and  where  such  executions  were  to  take  place  for 
many  and  many  a  year  to  come.  '  Acts  of  faith  '  they  may 
well  be  called,  for  it  needed  firm  faith  to  roast  a  human  being 
alive  for  opinions  such  as  those  of  Sawtrey.  The  Middle 
Ages  had  given  birth  to  such  a  '  faith,'  that  there  was  no  hope 
for  liberty  of  speculation  until  by  rival  '  faiths  '  belief  in  the 
infallible  Church  had  been  undermined.* 

During  the  next  few  years  a  certain  number  of  prosecutions 
for  heresy  took  place ;  all  those  of  which  we  have  record  re- 
sulted in  recantation.'^  But  no  vigorous  assault  was  yet  made 
on  the  Lollard  party,  for  the  lords  and  gentlemen  who  ad- 
hered to  it  were  left  untouched.     Though  Archbishop  Arundel 

1  See  Ap.  -  Wals.,  ii.  283  ;  Hot.  Pari.,  iii.  623  ;  St.,  iii.  65. 

3  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  466.  *  Fasc.  Z.,  408-11  ;  Wilkin,  iii.  255-60. 

^  Ecclesiastical  Courts,  Blue  Book,  1883,  pp.  58-9. 


1410  MAETYEDOM  OF  BADBY  335 

was  in  earnest,  though  the  King  and  his  son  were  only 
too  eager  to  help,  they  were  probably  not  a  little  afraid  of 
the  knights  of  the  shires,  and  other  powerful  supporters  of  the 
heretics.  In  1410  an  artisan,  whom  they  ventured  to  call 
to  account,  had  the  courage  of  his  opinions  and  went  to  the 
stake.  His  name  was  John  Badby  ;  he  was  one  of  the  West- 
country  Lollards,  a  tailor  of  Evesham,  in  the  diocese  of 
Worcester.  Snatched  away  from  his  humble  trade  in  the 
market  town  on  Avon  banks,  he  was  confronted  in  London 
with  the  whole  majesty  of  Church  and  State,  two  Archbishops, 
eight  Bishops,  the  Duke  of  York,  and  the  Chancellor  of 
England.  Yet  he  did  not  swerve  from  his  opinion  that 
'  Christ  sitting  at  supper  could  not  give  his  disciples  his  living 
body  to  eat.'  A  more  severe  trial  was  still  before  him.  In 
Smithfield  Market  he  found  the  faggots  piled  up  round  the 
stake,  and  the  heir  to  the  throne  standing  by  them.  Young 
Prince  Henry,  although  he  indulged  in  wild  and  frivolous 
revels,  was  at  the  same  time  deeply  engaged  in  politics,  and 
acted  as  leader  of  the  Church  party.  A  genuine  but  simple 
piety  of  the  medieval  type  fitted  him  well  to  play  the  part  of 
the  last  King  of  Chivalry.  Though  he  thought  it  his  duty  to 
persecute,  he  was  not  cruel,  and  could  not  unmoved  see  Badby 
go  to  his  fate.  He  argued  with  him  long  and  earnestly, 
making  him  promises  of  life  and  money  if  only  he  would 
recant.  It  was  a  remarkable  and  significant  scene.  The  hope 
and  pride  of  England  had  come  in  person  to  implore  a  tailor 
to  accept  life,  but  he  had  come  in  vain.  At  last  the  pile  was 
lit.  The  man's  agonies  and  contortions  were  taken  for  signals 
of  submission.  Henry  ordered  the  faggots  to  be  pulled  away, 
and  renewed  his  offers  and  entreaties,  but  again  to  no  eifect. 
The  flames  were  set  a  second  time,  and  the  body  disappeared 
in  them  for  ever.  Henry  the  Fifth  could  beat  the  French  at 
Agincourt,  but  there  was  something  here  beyond  his  under- 
standing and  beyond  his  power,  something  before  which  Kings 
and  Bishops  would  one  day  learn  to  bow.^ 

As  soon  as  old  Henry  was  dead,  and  young  Henry  seated 
on  the  throne,  a  step  was  taken  which  showed  that  the  new 
King  intended  to  crush  Lollardry  once  and  for  all.     A  man 

•  Wals.,  ii.  282  ;  Wilkin,  iii.  325-8  ;  Eamsay,  i.  125-7. 


336       THE  LATEE  HISTOEY  OP  THE  LOLLAEDS 

was  selected  as  victim,  whose  fall  would  prove  that  rank, 
wealth,  honour,  long  public  service,  and  even  the  King's 
personal  friendship,  would  no  longer  suffice  to  protect  the 
heretic  from  the  flames.  Sir  John  Oldcastle  was  a  knight  of 
good  family  and  estate  in  West  Herefordshire,  that  outlying 
district  of  England  where  Swynderby  and  Brute  had  so 
successfully  established  a  Lollard  party  in  the  teeth  of  Bishop 
Trevenant.  In  the  early  years  of  Henry  the  Fourth's  reign, 
Sir  John  had  earned  the  gratitude  of  the  new  dynasty  by  his 
activity  in  maintaining  order  as  Eoyal  Commissioner  on  the 
disturbed  and  rebellious  Welsh  Border.  In  1409  he  married 
his  third  wife,  Joan,  heiress  of  Lord  Cobham  of  Kent,  and 
thereby  came  into  possession  of  estates  and  castles  round 
Cooling  and  Hoo,  on  the  shores  of  the  Thames  and  Medway. 
In  this  district,  exposed  to  the  eye  of  the  world  far  more  than 
in  his  ancestral  home  among  the  western  mountains,  he 
nevertheless  offered  the  same  open  protection  to  Lollardry, 
and  made  his  new  domain  another  nest  of  heretics.  He  was 
himself  a  man  of  genuine  religious  conviction  and  piety,  and 
by  no  means  a  mere  priest-hater.  Satirists  expressed  their 
dislike  of  his  sanctimonious  habits  : — 

It  is  unkindly  for  a  knight, 

That  should  a  kinge's  castle  keep, 
To  babble  the  Bible  day  and  night 

In  resting  time  when  he  should  sleep  ; 
And  carefully  away  to  creep 

Fro'  aU  the  chief  of  chivalry. 
Well  o^ight  him  to  wail  and  weep, 

That  such  lust  hath  of  Lollardry. 

As  soon  as  Henry  the  Fifth  had  ascended  the  throne,  the 
Bishops  were  given  leave  and  encouragement  to  attack  him, 
although  the  King  first  tried  whether  personal  exhortation  and 
argument  could  not  move  his  old  friend  to  repentance.  But 
Henry  was  no  more  successful  with  the  knight  than  he  had 
been  with  the  tailor,  and  the  interview  only  added  bitterness 
to  estrangement.  The  Bishops'  turn  had  come,  and  the  heretic 
was  cited  to  appear  in  the  spiritual  court.  On  receiving 
this  summons  Oldcastle  adopted  the  theoretical  position,  that 
the  Church  had  no  jurisdiction  over  him,  a  plea  clearly  illegal 


Jan.  1414  OLDCASTLE'S  EEBELLION  337 

in  that  age,  though  prophetic  of  the  future.  He  shut  himself 
up  at  Cooling  Castle  and  refused  to  obey,  until  the  King's  writ 
for  his  arrest  arrived.  Then  he  surrendered.  The  royal 
officers  produced  him  before  the  Bishops  in  St.  Paul's  Chapter 
House,  the  scene  of  Wycliffe's  trial  in  1377.  Oldcastle  made 
a  bold  confession  of  faith,  denounced  the  misuse  of  images  and 
pilgrimages,  and  rejected  both  Transubstantiation  and  the 
necessity  of  auricular  confession.  On  these  grounds  he  was 
proclaimed  a  heretic  and  handed  over  to  the  secular  arm. 
The  King,  with  whom  lay  the  duty  of  burning  the  condemned 
man,  gave  Oldcastle  forty  days'  respite,  an  interval  which  he 
used  to  escape  from  the  Tower  and  call  his  co-religionists  to 
arms  in  defence  of  conscience.  The  Lollards  thought  that  the 
situation  required  violent  measures.  Although  they  had  long 
been  subjected  to  persecution,  they  had  hitherto  possessed 
strongholds  in  the  houses  of  powerful  sympathisers  ;  but  if 
once  they  lost  such  guardians  as  Oldcastle,  woods  and  caves 
would  be  their  sole  refuge.  Their  decision  to  rise  in  arms  was 
unwise  and  wrong,  not  because  they  owed  particular  loyalty 
to  a  line  which  had  usurped  the  throne  only  thirteen  years 
before,  but  because,  with  small  resources  and  few  supporters, 
they  could  never  hope  to  establish  a  government,  or  do  any- 
thing more  than  throw  the  kingdom  into  confusion.  But  it 
is  idle  for  armchair  philosophers,  living  in  the  nineteenth 
century  with  the  old-established  privilege  of  believing  or  dis- 
believing in  any  religion  as  they  choose,  to  condemn  as  fools 
and  knaves  men  who  dared  to  stake  their  lives  and  fortunes 
on  one  desperate  throw  for  freedom  of  conscience.  They  cared 
intensely  for  the  mission  that  they  had  undertaken,  they 
believed  (and  with  reason)  that  little  good  would  come  until 
it  had  succeeded,  they  saw  that  the  existing  government  was 
determined  to  crush  it,  so  they  determined  to  be  beforehand 
and  to  crush  the  government. 

The  attempt  proved  a  fiasco,  though  it  demonstrated  the 
numbers  and  zeal  of  the  Lollard  party  in  the  Home  Counties. 
A  plot  to  seize  the  King  at  Eltham  was  discovered.  It  was 
planned  to  effect  a  coup  d'etat  by  the  junction  ^  of  bands  of 
Lollards  from  town  and  country  on  St.  Giles'  Fields  between 
London   and   Westminster.       This   also   was   frustrated   by 


338     THE  LATEE  HISTOEY  OP  THE  LOLLAEDS 

guarding  the  gates  so  that  the  Londoners  could  not  leave  the 
city,  while  the  meeting  ground  itself  was  occupied  by  the 
King's  troops.  As  fast  as  the  bodies  of  rebels  came  up  from 
the  villages,  they  were  seized  or  dispersed.  Before  dawn  all 
was  over  save  the  hanging.  Sir  John  Oldcastle  himself 
escaped,  and  took  refuge  in  his  native  district  and  the  Welsh 
mountains  beyond,  where  he  lurked  for  three  years  longer  in 
/  perpetual  conspiracy,  until  he  was  j&nally  captured,  hanged  as  a 
traitor  and  burnt  as  a  heretic.  '  Oldcastle,'  says  Shakespeare, 
'  died  a  martyr,'  and  though  he  also  died  a  traitor,  there  are 
few  who  will  deny  him  a  claim  to  the  honourable  as  well  as  to 
the  odious  title, ^ 

The  affair  of  St.  Giles'  Fields  bears  a  certain  resemblance 
to  the  Chartist  Demonstration  of  1848.  In  both  cases  there 
was  unnecessary  alarm,  caused  by  a  movement  which  was 
not  really  strong  enough  to  be  dangerous  ;  in  both  cases  the 
previous  occupation  of  the  ground  where  the  rioters  were  to 
meet  prevented  any  serious  gathering,  and  in  both  cases 
most  of  the  demands,  which  the  insurgents  failed  to  secure  by 
physical  force,  were  brought  about  by  the  working  of  time. 
But  here  the  resemblance  ceases,  for  no  evidence  has  come 
to  hand  of  any  other  motive  save  religion  for  the  rising  of 
January  1414.  The  rebels  were  not  in  league  either  with 
lords  of  the  Mortimer  and  Plantagenet  factions,  or  with  social 
agitators.^ 

Only  one  knight,  besides  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  and  no  person 
of  higher  rank,  was  implicated  in  the  abortive  rising,  a  fact 
the  more  remarkable  since  up  till  that  time  lords  and  knights 
had  been  considered  the  strength  of  Lollardry.  Although 
many  of  the  upper  classes  had  been  influenced  by  the  doc- 
trines of  the  sect,  and  although  many  continued  to  nurse 
dislike  of  the  wealth,  the  insolence  and  the  overgrown  privi- 
leges of  the  clergy,  until  these  feelings  broke  out  in  the  time 
of  Henry  the  Eighth,  there  were  found  but  few  gentle- 
men ready  to  share  during  the  fifteenth  century  the  lot  of 
a    proscribed   and   rebel  party.     The  'sudden  insurrection,' 

'  Diet,  of  Nat.   Biog. ;   Fasc.  Z.,  433-50 ;   Pol.  Poems,  ii.  244 ;   Eamsay, 
i.  chap.  xiii.  and  pp.  253-4  ;  Wals.,  ii.  291-7,  806-7,  327-8. 
^  See  Ap. 


1414-1520  PATEONAGB   OF  GENTEY  WITHDEAWN      339 

as  the  churchmen  boasted,  had  incurred  the  disapproval  of 
'  knighthood '  and  '  turned  to  confusion  the  sorry  sect  of 
Lollardry.'  ^ 

The  defection  of  wealthy  patrons  is  also  to  be  partly 
attributed  to  the  characteristic  poverty  which  marked  all 
the  priests  of  Wycliffe's  sect,  in  accordance  with  his  sweeping 
denunciation  of  Church  possessions.  Although  the  Poor 
Priests  did  not  incite  the  lower  classes  against  their  more 
fortunate  neighbours,  they  were  themselves,  as  their  name 
portends,  men  of  no  position  and  no  property.  The  ideal 
which  Wycliffe  had  prescribed  for  his  missionaries  was  that 
of  the  seventy  disciples  whom  Jesus  sent  out.  They  were 
not  allowed  to  take  money  with  them  on  their  journeys,  but 
were  to  depend  on  friends  for  food  and  lodging  ;  they  were  not, 
like  the  friars,  to  take  a  bag  with  them  in  which  to  carry  off 
alms  either  in  kind  or  money ;  they  were  merely  to  accept  the 
necessaries  of  life  as  each  day  required.  In  how  many  cases 
these  precepts  were  strictly  followed  it  is  hard  to  say,  but  they 
were  practised  at  least  to  some  extent,  and  such  a  life  had  few 
attractions  to  priests  of  any  save  the  poorest  class.  The 
choice  of  Lollard  missionaries  must  thereby  have  been  limited, 
and  limited  to  that  part  of  the  clergy  which  was  on  the  whole 
the  least  learned  and  the  least  trained.  The  first  preachers 
of  the  sect,  Hereford,  Purvey,  Aston  and  Brute,  had  been 
scholars  and  theologians  ;  but  more  and  more  as  time  went  on 
the  priests  were  simple,  poor  men,  and  no  great  Lollard  divine 
succeeded  Wycliffe.  The  religion  became  almost  exclusively 
one  for  the  lower  classes  of  the  country  and  the  tradesmen  of 
the  towns.  The  lords,  courtiers  and  knights  gradually  with- 
drew their  patronage,  partly  because  they  so  seldom  found, 
among  the  ministers  of  the  sect,  any  one  who  was  socially 
their  equal  or  educationally  their  superior. 

Yet  in  spite  of  these  tendencies  Lollardry  had  no  con- 
nection with  socialism  or  even  with  social  revolt.  If,  at  the 
time  of  the  Peasants'  Eising,  any  of  the  Lollard  preachers, 
misrepresenting  or  disregarding  Wycliffe's  opinions,  had 
attacked  lay  property  and  the  rights  of  the  manor  lords,  they 
soon  ceased  to  do  so.    We  possess  reports  of  the  proceedings 

1  Pol.  Poems,  ii.  247. 


340       THE  LATEE  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

against  scores  of  Lollards,  the  items  of  indictment  mount  up 
to  many  hundreds,  yet  I  have  been  able  to  find,  between  the 
years  1382  and  1520,  only  one  case  of  a  Lollard  accused  of 
holding  communistic  theories,  and  not  a  single  case  of  a 
Lollard  charged  with  stirring  up  the  peasantry  to  right  their 
social  wrongs.^ 

The  year  after  the  unfortunate  rebellion  which  had  brought 
seven  and  thirty  heretics  to  the  gallows  as  traitors,  two  men, 
a  baker  and  a  skinner  of  London,  were  burnt  by  the  Church 
for  obstinate  belief.  During  the  following  ten  years  a 
vigorous  persecution  was  directed  against  the  priests  and 
chaplains  belonging  to  the  party,  the  most  effective  means  of 
stopping  the  spread  of  the  new  doctrine.  Out  of  twenty-five 
heretics  of  whose  trials  we  have  record  during  these  ten  years, 
eleven  were  in  Holy  Orders,  but  only  one,  a  priest  called 
William  Tailour,  had  the  resolution  to  go  to  the  stake.  The 
more  determined  Lollards,  knowing  that  no  alternative  was 
now  offered  in  the  spiritual  courts  save  recantation  or  death, 
took  greater  care  than  ever  to  avoid  capture,  while  those  whose 
convictions  were  less  profound  remained  at  their  homes  and 
were  brought  up  before  the  Bishops  to  recant.  We  read  of 
fifteen  men  of  Kent  who,  with  their  priest,  William  White, 
took  to  the  woods  to  avoid  arrest  by  the  Archbishop's  officers, 
preferring  outlawry  to  capture.  The  priest  himself,  who  was 
taken  in  Norfolk  in  1428,  showed  himself  worthy  of  the  spirit 
he  had  infused  into  his  congregation,  and  perished  at  the 
stake.  He  had  marked  his  contempt  for  Canon  Law  by 
openly  marrying  a  wife." 

Not  only  in  the  Home  Counties,  but  in  the  East  and  West 
of  England,  free  opinion  struggled  against  authority.  Lol- 
lard influence  was  spreading  through  Somerset  from  the 
local  centre  of  Bristol.  As  the  West  of  England  had  its  own 
great  pilgrimage-shrines,  Salisbury,  Bath,  and  above  all 
Glastonbury  (where  the  monks  showed  a  complete  set  of  St. 
Dunstan's  bones  in  rivalry  to  the  set  at  Canterbury),  it  is  not 
surprising  to  find  that  the  Lollards  of  these  parts  laid  great 

'  See  Ap. 

2  Fasc.  Z.,  420 ;  Ecclesiastical  Courts,  Blue  Book,  1883,  60-5  ;  Poxe,  iii.  581- 
91,  and  Wilkin,  iii.  passim,  1515-1528. 


1420-30    LOLLAEDEY  SPEEADS  TO  EAST  ANGLIA     341 

stress  on  the  absurdity  of  pilgrimage  to  relics.  In  1431  the 
Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells  proclaimed  through  Somerset 
that  he  would  excommunicate  any  who  should  translate  the 
Bible  into  English  or  copy  any  such  translation.  The  spirit 
of  rebellion  against  the  Church  was  strong  in  some  parts  of 
this  county,  as  at  Langport,  where,  in  1447,  the  tenantry  of 
the  Earl  of  Somerset  drove  their  priest  from  his  office, 
stopped  all  his  services,  buried  their  dead  for  themselves, 
refused  to  do  penance,  beat  the  Bishops'  officers  when  they 
interfered,  and  rid  themselves  of  all  ecclesiastical  influence 
and  jurisdiction.  These  were  tenantry  of  the  greatest  lord  of 
the  Bed  Eose,  acting  under  cover  of  their  master's  name  and 
the  license  of  the  times.^      {See  map,  p.  352.) 

In  East  Anglia  LoUardry  was  at  least  as  widely  spread  as 
in  the  West,  and  was  far  more  vigorously  persecuted.  In 
the  reign  of  Eichard  the  Second,  Bishop  Spencer  had  by  timely 
threats  kept  the  Poor  Priests  out  of  his  diocese,  or  had  at  least 
forced  them  to  act  in  such  secrecy  that  Norfolk  and  Suffolk 
remained  in  outward  appearance  the  most  Catholic  part  of 
England.^  But  when  he  passed  away,  and  more  careless 
shepherds  took  charge  of  his  flock,  the  wolves  came  leaping 
over  the  fence,  and  his  preserve  was  soon  one  of  the  parts 
most  infested  by  Lollards.  In  the  neighbourhood  of  Beccles, 
on  the  borders  of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  great  congregations 
were  formed,  Lollard  schools  started,  and  arrangements  made 
with  a  certain  parchment-maker  for  smuggling  in  the  latest 
heretical  tracts  from  the  capital.  This  was  about  the  time  Of 
the  accession  of  Henry  the  Sixth.-^  All  was  done  without  the 
protection  or  patronage  of  any  powerful  landowner,  simply 
by  the  initiative  of  the  middle  classes  of  the  district,  searching 
for  a  religion  suitable  to  themselves.  In  1428  Bishop  Alne- 
wick  of  Norwich  determined  to  break  up  these  congregations, 
and  instituted  proceedings  for  heresy  against  more  than  a 
hundred  persons.  It  was  natural  that  in  a  large  commmiity 
of  men  and  women,  to  most  of  whom  religion  was  only 
one  among  the  duties  and  considerations  of  life,  by  far  the 

1  Mr.  Hunt's  Bath  and  Wells,  Diocesan  History  Series,  pp.  140-6  ;  Corre- 
spondence of  Bishop  Bekyngton  (R.  S.),  ii.  340. 

2  Wals.,  ii.  189.  ^  Foxe,  iii.  585. 


342       THE  LATEE  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

greater  part  should  choose  to  recant  and  live ;  but  several, 
including  three  priests,  preferred  to  be  burnt  to  death,^ 

The  depositions  on  which  these  heretics  were  convicted 
have  fortunately  come  down  to  us,  preserving  a  curious 
picture  of  nonconformist  life  in  the  fifteenth  century. 
'  Item  Nicolas  Belward  is  one  of  the  same  sect  and  hath  a 
New  Testament  which  he  bought  at  London  for  four  marks 
and  forty  pence,  and  taught  the  said  William  Wright  and 
Margery  his  wife  and  wrought  with  them  the  space  of  one 
year  and  studied  diligently  upon  the  said  New  Testament.' 
This  being  one  of  the  charges  brought  as  condemnatory 
evidence  into  the  Bishop's  Court,  it  does  not  seem  that  the 
Church  authorities  were  as  tolerant  of  Bible  study  as  is 
sometimes  asserted.  '  Item  John  Pert,  late  servant  of 
Thomas  Moon,  is  one  of  the  same  sect  and  can  read  well, 
and  did  read  in  the  presence  of  William  White.'  These 
passages  show  not  only  that  the  Bishop  of  Norwich  persecuted 
for  Bible-reading,^  but  .that  the  Lollards  had  further  diffi- 
culties to  contend  with  in  searching  the  Scriptures.  '  Four 
marks  and  forty  pence '  would  have  been  a  prohibitive  sum 
for  many,  and  not  onl}'-  was  the  Book  a  rare  treasure,  but  the 
man  who  could  '  read  well '  was  rare  treasure  also.  Some 
other  charges  are  worth  noting.  Suspicion  was  aroused 
against  Margery  Backster  and  her  husband  by  the  horrible 
discovery  of  '  a  brass  pot  standing  over  the  fire  with  a  piece 
of  bacon  and  oatmeal  seething  in  it '  during  the  season  of 
Lent.  She  spoke  her  mind  on  the  subject  with  more  valour 
than  discretion,  declaring  '  that  every  faithful  woman  is  not 
bound  to  fast  in  Lent,'  and  that  '  it  were  better  to  eat  the 
fragments  left  upon  Thursday  at  night  on  the  fasting  days 
than  to  go  to  the  market  to  bring  themselves  in  debt  to  buy 
fish.'  Margery  had  even  invited  the  informer  to  come  '  with 
Joan  her  maid,'  '  secretly  in  the  night  to  her  chamber  and 
there  she  should  hear  her  husband  read  the  law  of  Christ 
unto  them,  which  law  was  written  in  a  book  her  husband  was 
wont  to  read  to  her  by  night.'  She  also  declared  her  intention 
of  not  bemg  ruled  by  any  priest,  of  not  going  on  pilgrimage 
to  our  Lady  of  Walsingham  or  any  other  shrine,  and  her 

'  Foxe,  iii.  587-8,  599.  ^  See  Ap. 


1428-31  PEESECUTION  AND  MAETYEDOM  343 

opinion  that  Thomas  of  Canterbury  was  a  false  traitor  and 
damned  in  hell.  There  are  innumerable  other  charges  of  a 
like  nature  against  various  men  and  women  of  East  Norfolk 
and  Suffolk.  One  of  their  beliefs,  at  any  rate,  was  not  very 
far  from  the  truth  :  '  William  Wright  deposeth  that  it  is  read 
in  the  prophecies  of  the  Lollards,  that  the  sect  of  the  Lollards 
shall  be  in  a  manner  destroyed ;  notwithstanding  at  length 
the  Lollards  shall  prevail  and  have  the  victory  against  all 
their  enemies. '  ^ 

Heresy  was  strong  not  only  in  Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  but 
in  Essex,  especially  in  Colchester.  The  Bishop  of  London, 
who  had  jurisdiction  here,  supported  the  noble  efforts  of 
his  brother  of  Norwich,  by  burning  the  parish  priest  of 
Manuden,  in  Essex,  and  a  woolwinder  of  London  city.  The 
Lollardry  of  the  Eastern  Counties  had  suffered  a  severe 
blow,  for  not  only  had  the  leaders  been  burnt,  but  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  congregations  had  been  forced  to  recant  by  the 
score,  and  each  of  them  knew  that  if  he  resumed  his  old 
courses  he  would  be  burnt  as  a  relapsed  heretic  without  the 
opportunity  of  recantation.  Nevertheless,  as  appeared  in  the 
sequel,  the  religion  did  not  die  out  in  those  parts. ^ 

One  effect  of  these  persecutions  was  to  bring  Lollard 
conspiracy  again  to  a  head.  In  May  and  June  1431,  im- 
mediately after  the  persecution  in  East  Anglia,  a  series 
of  pamphlets  was  widely  distributed  through  the  towns  of 
England,  calling  for  the  disendowment  of  the  Church.  It 
was  proposed  to  apply  the  confiscated  property,  partly  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  poor,  and  partly,  as  the  Commons  had 
suggested  in  1410,  to  the  endowment  of  more  landed  nobility 
and  gentry.  It  is  unnecessary  to  point  out  that  on  the  very 
eve  of  the  Wars  of  the  Eoses  it  was  preposterous  to  suggest 
an  increase  in  the  numbers  and  wealth  of  those  who  kept 
retainers  and  practised  maintenance.  There  could  be  no 
serious  question  of  such  a  use  for  Church  property  until  the 
first  Tudors  had  crushed  the  harmful  power  of  the  nobles. 
Several  persons  were  hanged  for  connection  with  the  pamphlets 
before  any  actual  disorder  had  taken  place.     However  willing 

1  Foxe,  iii.  594-7. 
2  Ibid.  iii.  584-600;  Blue  Book,  1883,  Ecclesiastical  Courts,  64-6;  see  A.p. 


344       THE  LATEE  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

they  may  have  been,  the  Lollards  were  not  able  to  make  the 
least  show  of  rebellion.^ 

During  the  next  quarter  of  a  century  more  trials  took 
place,  at  least  two  of  which  resulted  in  burning,  but  we  have 
no  record  of  any  more  attacks  on  whole  congregations  at  once. 
The  Lollards  as  a  sect  were  probably  going  down  in  numbers, 
and  were  certainly  in  most  places  forced  to  act  with  greater 
secrecy  under  the  pressure  of  such  terrible  laws,  although 
it  may  well  be  that  in  some  few  districts  besides  Langport, 
the  dependents  of  one  or  other  of  the  Lords  of  the  Eoses 
defied  Church  authority.  An  important  light  is  thrown  upon 
the  state  of  religious  parties  at  this  time,  by  the  story  of 
Eeginald  Pecock,  Bishop  of  Chichester,  which  although  it 
concerns  only  the  fate  of  an  isolated  and  friendless  individual, 
has  deservedly  taken  a  place  in  the  history  of  England. 

More  than  one  large  volume  of  theology  written  to  confute 
Wycliffism  has  survived  to  our  own  day.  The  chief  work  of 
Henry  the  Fifth's  time,  written  by  Thomas  Waldensis,^  is  of 
interest  only  because  it  shows  on  what  points  Lollardry  was 
repugnant  to  the  orthodox  of  that  generation  ;  but  the  argu- 
ments used  by  Eeginald  Pecock,  writing  to  confute  the  same 
heresies  about  the  year  1450,  are  in  themselves  worthy  of 
consideration.  In  his  book,  called  '  The  Eepressor  of  Over- 
much blaming  of  the  Clergy,'  he  so  far  adopted  Wycliffe's 
methods  as  to  write,  not  in  the  learned  Latin  and  for  the 
clergy  alone,  but  in  English,  to  appeal  to  the  reason  of 
laymen.  He  assumes  throughout  his  book  that  there  exists 
a  frankly  outspoken  prejudice  against  the  Church  and  against 
her  doctrines.  Such  phrases  as  this  occur  :  '  Full  oft  have  I 
heard  men  and  women  unwisely  judge  and  defame  full  sharply 
well  nigh  all  Christian  men  to  be  idolaters,  and  all  for  the 
having  and  using  of  images.'  To  describe  his  opponents 
Pecock  uses  such  words  as  the  '  lay  party,'  '  some  of  the  lay 
people,'  or  '  many  of  the  lay  party.'  His  language  implies 
that  he  was  not  speaking  merely  of  a  small  sect  despised  and 
rejected  of  men,  but  of  an  attitude  of  mind  which  a  clergyman 
might  expect  to  find  prevailing  to  a  greater  or  less  degree 

*  Eamsay,  i.  436-7 ;  Privy  Council,  Nicolas,  89,  99, 107 ;  Gregory's  Chronicle, 
Camden  Society,  1876,  new  series,  xvii.  172.  ^  Waldensis,  ed.  1523. 


1457  BISHOP  PECOCK  345 

wherever  he  went.  Even  in  the  darkest  days  Lollardry  was 
leavening  society  and  causing  great  uneasiness  to  its  tri- 
umphant enemies. 

As  his  book  is  addressed  to  the  layman,  Pecock  refrains 
from  brandishing  Church  authorities,  as  all  previous  defenders 
of  orthodoxy  had  done,  and  adopts  the  tone,  not  of  a  Pope 
speaking  '  ex  cathedra,'  but  of  a  man  taking  his  readers  into 
his  confidence.      He  gives  this  style  of  argument  a  name. 
He  calls  it  '  reason.'     Eeason,  he  says,  is  above  Scripture ; 
the  meaning  of  Scripture  can  only  be  discovered  by  reason, 
and  if  the  apparent  meaning  of  Scripture  and  the  obvious 
dictates  of  reason  conflict,  he  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  we 
must  abide  by  reason.     The  object  of  his  book  is  to  overturn 
by  reason  the  scriptural  basis  on  which  the  '  lay  party '  too 
confidently  rested.     They  held  that   no   ordinance  is  to   be 
esteemed  a  law  of  God  which  is  not  founded  on  the  Bible ; 
that  every  humble  Christian  shall  arrive  at  the  true  sense  of 
Scripture  ;  and  that  when  the  true  sense  has  been  discovered, 
all  human  arguments  which  oppose  it  are  to  be  discarded. 
Having  shown  by  appeals  to  reason  that  these  propositions 
are  not  true,  Pecock  goes  on  to  confute  the  particular  applica- 
tions of   Bible-texts  which  the  '  lay  party  '  had  used  upon 
such  topics  as  images,  pilgrimages,  episcopal  authority  and 
ecclesiastical   endowment.      He  was  undoubtedly   assaulting 
Wycliffe's  stronghold  by  the  practicable  breach.     The  inter- 
pretations of  Scripture,  by  which  the  '  lay  party '  thought  they 
proved  their  doctrines,  were  often  clumsy  and  strained,  the 
efforts   of  men   at   once   ill-educated   and   pedantic.     Pecock 
points  out  the  flaws  in  these  misinterpretations  with  great 
success,  by  the  process   of   reason  or   common    sense.     But 
having  done  this   he   considers   that  he  has  done  all,  and 
refrains  from  inquiring  whether  faith  in  the  invocation  of 
Saints  and  the  sacredness  of   images  and  relics  might  not 
be  overturned  by  that  very  '  reason '  with  which  he  has  been 
exposing   his  opponents'  fallacies.      He  proves,  to  his  own 
satisfaction  at  least,  that  Scripture  did  not  concern  itself  with 
forbidding  the  practices  of  the  Eoman  Church,  but  he  never 
really  attempts  to  prove  that  reason  has  ordained  them.     The 
effective  part  of  his  argument  is  purely  negative,  and  when  he 


346       THE  LATBE  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

attempts  to  justify  by  reason  the  friars'  hypocritical  practice 
of  touching  money  only  with  a  stick,  we  feel  that  he  had 
cause  to  fear  his  own  weapons. 

Such  a  fear,  at  any  rate,  was  entertained  by  the  Church 
authorities,  who  soon  gave  their  champion  to  understand  that 
they  had  no  wish  to  be  defended  by  methods  that  might  be 
fatal  to  their  own  position  in  the  end.  Bishop  Pecock  was 
brought  to  trial  for  heresy  in  1457.  He  was  accused  of 
having  '  rejected  the  authority  of  the  old  doctors,'  '  saying 
that  neither  their  writings  nor  those  of  any  others  were  to  be 
received,  except  in  so  far  as  they  were  agreeable  to  reason. 
When  passages  from  their  works  had  been  produced  against 
him,  he  had  been  known  to  say — "  Pooh,  Pooh  !  "  '  He  was 
condemned  and  offered  the  alternative  of  recantation  or  death 
by  fire.  He  had  not,  like  the  Lollard  martyrs,  a  vigorous 
faith  of  his  own  to  pit  against  this  tyranny,  and  he  believed 
too  much  in  the  Catholic  Church  to  feel  the  fierce  indignation 
against  his  persecutors  that  might  have  carried  a  high-spirited 
man  through  the  ordeal.  He  recanted  and  read  a  public  abjura- 
tion at  St.  Paul's  Cross,  was  deprived  of  his  bishopric,  and 
ended  his  days  in  confinement  at  Thorney  Abbey  in  the  fens  of 
Cambridgeshire.  The  Archbishop  gave  orders  to  the  Abbot 
that  '  he  was  to  have  nothing  to  write  with  and  no  stuff  to 
write  upon.'  It  is  pitiable  to  think  of  this  seeker  after  God, 
fallen  on  an  age  that  did  not  understand  him,  shut  up  like  a 
child  in  disgrace  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  the  scorn  of  stupid 
monks.  Both  on  him  and  on  the  Lollards  the  obscurantist 
forces,  which  then  ruled  Christendom,  had  descended  with 
crushing  weight.  Before  Q,nj  good  thing  could  happen  in  the 
intellectual  life  of  England  it  was  necessary  to  break  the  ter- 
rible power  thus  madly  wielded  by  the  Bishops.  They  blocked 
the  way  to  all  who  sought  for  truth  in  whatever  direction.^ 

From  the  trial  of  Pecock  to  the  end  of  the  Wars  of  the 
Eoses  the  prosecutions  on  record  are  few,  though  there  may 
have  been  many  of  which  evidence  has  not  survived.  The 
political  troubles  probably  made  the  Bishops  less  active  than 
they  otherwise  might  have  been,  and  previous  persecution  had 
taught  the  Lollards  as  a  sect  to  lie  very  quiet.     In   1466, 

-  Pecock's  Repressor  (B.  S.),  Introduction  and  text. 


1490-1520      '  ON  THE   PACE   OF  THE  WATEES '  347 

however,  '  an  heretic  was  ybrende  [burnt]  at  the  Tower  Hill,' 
to  use  the  words  of  a  contemporary  chronicler,  '  for  he 
despised  the  sacrament  of  the  altar ;  his  name  was  "William 
Barlowe,  and  he  dwelled  at  Walden  (Essex).  And  he  and  his 
wife  were  abjured  long  time  before.  And  my  Lord  of  Londgn 
kept  him  in  prison  long  time,  and  he  would  not  make  no 
confession  to  no  priest  but  only  unto  God,  and  said  that  no 
priest  had  no  more  power  to  hear  confession  than  Jack  Hare.'  ^ 
Eight  years  later  another  Lollard  named  John  Goos  was 
burnt,  also  on  Tower  Hill.  '  In  a  slippery  and  faithless  age,' 
says  the  historian  of  that  unhappy  period,  '  it  is  refreshing  to 
jQnd  one  man  who  could  die  for  his  convictions.  Staunch  to 
the  last,  he  asked  to  be  allowed  to  dine  before  going  to 
execution.  He  said,  "  I  ete  nowe  a  good  and  competent  dyner, 
for  I  shall  passe  a  lytell  sharpe  shower  or  I  go  to  souper." '  ^ 

In  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Seventh  a  spirit  seemed  to  be 
moving  on  the  face  of  the  waters.  An  ever-increasing  number 
of  men  burnt  for  Lollardry  was  only  one  of  the  signs  of  the 
times,  but  it  is  the  one  that  most  concerns  us  here,  for  the 
history  of  these  martyrdoms  affords  ample  proof  that  a 
revival  of  Wycliffism  had  set  on  foot  a  serious  movement  for 
reformation  in  England,  before  the  good  news  came  from 
Germany.  The  evidence  set  down  against  these  men  in  the 
records  of  the  spiritual  courts  shows  that  the  sect  had  under- 
gone some  change  in  the  course  of  a  hundred  years.  The 
Lollards  had  become  more  than  ever  what  it  was  their  boast 
to  be — '  simple  men  ; '  their  religion  was  a  religion  of  common- 
sense  rather  than  of  learning.  This  resulted  from  two 
causes,  their  long  separation  from  the  wealthier  and  better 
educated  classes,  and  the  destruction  by  the  authorities  of 
Wycliffe's  theological  writings.  His  Latin  books  and  the  bulk 
of  his  English  pamphlets  had  been  exterminated  in  Eng- 
land. His  '  Wicket,'  a  popular  tract  against  Transubstantia- 
tion,  seems  alone  to  have  remained  to  his  followers  in  the 
sixteenth  century.  That  work,  and  translations  of  parts  of 
the  Bible,  formed  the  literature  of  Protestant  communities 
in  this  period.  They  had  had  a  system  of  theology  in  the 
works  of  their  founder — those  works  had  been  hunted  out  and 

'  Gregory's  Chronicle,  p.  233,  Caraden,  new  series,  xvii.      ^  Eamsay,  ii.  455. 


348       THE  LATEE  HISTOEY  OP  THE  LOLLAEDS 

burnt ;  they  had  founded  schools  ' — those  schools  had  been 
broken  up.  Even  to  study  the  Bible  was  for  them  a  dan- 
gerous offence,  though  they  braved  that  danger.  Persecution 
had  forced  them  to  become  an  unlearned  body.  It  is  not  for 
the  Catholic  Church  which  deprived  them  of  their  literature 
to  scoff  at  the  Lollards  as  illiterate. 

For  the  rest,  we  find  that  the  opinions  of  the  sect  have 
become  on  the  whole  more  violent  and  harsh  than  those  of 
the  early  Wycliffites.  This  was  the  inevitable  result  of  the 
prolonged  death-struggle  with  the  pitiless  organisation  of 
Catholicism,  whose  every  aspect  was  becoming  more  and 
more  odious  to  its  victims.  Many,  if  not  most,  of  these  later 
Lollards  had  passed  beyond  the  limited  heresy  of  Consub- 
stantiation,  which  had  satisfied  their  predecessors,  and  spoke 
with  increasing  scorn  and  disgust  of  the  rites  which  then  con- 
stituted religion.- 

The  strength  of  revived  Lollardry  is  displayed  in  the 
Eegisters  of  the  persecuting  Bishops,  which  afford  us  evi- 
dence of  various  Lollard  congregations  between  1490  and 
1521,  each  as  large  as  that  which  the  Bishop  of  Norwich  had 
broken  up  at  Beccles  in  1431,  congregations  who  studied 
Wycliffe's  '  Wicket,'  and  who  could  trace  back  their  founda- 
tion to  the  beginning  or  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century.  At 
Newbury  in  Berkshire  and  Amersham  in  Buckinghamshire 
there  had  been  such  societies  in  continuous  existence  for 
sixty  or  seventy  years.  A  preacher  of  that  district  named 
Thomas  Man,  before  going  to  the  stake  in  1518,  told  his 
judges  that  he  believed  he  had  converted  seven  hundred 
persons  in  the  course  of  his  life.  Uxbridge  and  Henley  had 
heretic  congregations,  in  close  communication  with  those  of 
Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  several  years  before  Luther  appeared  on 
the  stage.  Li  1521  a  great  attack  was  made  on  the  Buck- 
inghamshire and  Berkshire  Lollards  by  the  Bishop  of 
Lincoln,  and  on  those  of  Essex  and  Middlesex  by  the  Bishop 
of  London.  Accusations  were  heard  against  hundreds  of 
persons,  scores  were  forced  to  recant,  and  at  least  six  were 
burned.  But  even  at  this  advanced  date  the  English  Bible 
and    Wycliffe's    'Wicket'   were   the   only   literature   of   the 

'  Rot.  Pari.,  iii.  466  ;  Foxe,  iii.  585.     -  See  Foxe,  iv.  221-46,  passim. 


1520-3     LOLLAEDEY  BECOMES  LUTHEEANISM         349 

accused :  we  hear  nothing  of  German  or  Lutheran  influence, 
which  indeed  had  not  time  to  spread  into  the  little  villages 
and  country  towns  which  the  Bishops  attacked.^ 

During  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Seventh  there  were  re- 
newed persecutions  in  such  old  Lollard  centres  as  Bristol, 
Salisbury,  and  Coventry,  and  one  or  two  persons  were  burnt 
in  Norfolk  and  Kent,  But  we  hear  of  no  heresy  outside  the 
old  range  of  Lollard  influence.^  In  London,  between  1500 
and  1518,  men  were  forced  to  recant  by  the  score,  while  four 
or  five  were  burnt.  The  capital  had  always  contained 
Wycliffites,  and  the  connexion  between  the  London  Protes- 
tants of  this  period  and  their  predecessors  of  the  fifteenth 
century  is  confirmed,  if  it  needs  confirmation,  by  the  express 
statements  of  their  persecutors.  In  1514  Eichard  Hun,  who 
soon  afterwards  died  in  prison  in  the  Lollards'  Tower  under 
suspicious  circumstances,  was  accused  of  '  having  in  his  keep- 
ing divers  works  prohibited  and  damned  by  the  law,  as  the 
xApocalypse  in  English,  the  Epistles  and  Gospels  in  English, 
and  Wycliffe's  damnable  works.'  ^  Another  man  had  '  divers 
times  read  the  said  book  called  Wycliffe's  Wicket,'  which  had 
been  introduced  to  him  many  years  before  by  an  old  Lollard 
who  was  burnt  at  Salisbury  in  1503.^  Still  more  impor- 
tant is  the  opinion  of  Tunstall,  Bishop  of  London,  on  the 
effect  of  Lutheranism  in  England,  which  he  expresses  in  a 
private  letter  to  Erasmus  in  the  year  1523.  '  It  is  no 
question,'  he  writes,  '  of  some  pernicious  novelty ;  it  is  only 
that  new  arms  are  being  added  to  the  great  band  of  Wycliffite 
heretics  '  ■'  Erasmus  himself,  writing  the  same  year  to  Pope 
Adrian  the  Sixth,  to  urge  on  the  new  Pontiff  the  remarkable 
doctrine  of  the  uselessness  of  persecution,  confesses  that  '  once 
the  party  of  the  Wycliffites  was  overcome  by  the  power  of  the 
Kings ;  but,'  he  adds,  '  it  was  only  overcome  and  not  ex- 
tinguished.' ^ 

The  Bishop  of  London  was  right  when  he  said  that 
Lutheranism  was  adding  new  arms  to  the  Wycliffites.     Al- 

'  Foxe,  iv.  123-4,  213-4,  221-46. 

-  Seyer's  Memoirs  of  Bristol,  ed.  1823,  213;  Foxe,  iv.  126-8;  Norfolk, 
Foxe,  iv.  8  ;  Salisbury,  Foxe,  iv.  126-8  and  207  ;  Kent,  Foxe,  iv.  7  ;  Coventry, 
Foxe,  iv.  133.  a  j^oxe,  iv.  184. 

*  Ibid.  iv.  207-8,  iii.  %.  «  Erasmus,  1159.  «  Ibid.  787. 


350      THE  LATEE  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

though  in  the  country  districts,  East  Anglia,  Berks,  and 
Bucks,  the  old  Lollard  congregations  were  in  1521  still 
untouched  by  German  influence,  Lutheran  books  were  in  that 
very  year  introduced  into  Oxford,  with  the  result  that  '  divers 
of  that  University  were  infected  with  the  heresies '  of  the 
German.^  Although  the  new  doctrines  scarcely  differed  at 
all  in  essentials  from  Lollardry,  they  appealed  better  to  the 
politician  and  the  man  of  learning.  The  orthodox  instantly 
took  alarm.  King  Henry  wrote  his  famous  Defence  of  the 
Paith,  and  Cardinal  Wolsey  in  that  same  year  issued  orders 
to  seize  all  Lutheran  books.  Here,  then,  ends  the  history  of 
Lollardry  proper,  not  because  iIlLs"exnnguisEedn5uFl3F^ 
is  merged  in  another  party.  The  societies  of  poor  men,  who 
met  to  read  the  Gospel  and  Wycliffe's  '  Wicket '  by  night, 
suddenly  finding  Europe  convulsed  by  their  ideas,  seeing  their 
belief  s  adopted  by  the  learned  and  the  powerful,  joyfully  surren- 
dered themselves  to  the  great  new  movement,  for  which 
they  had  been  waiting  in  the  dark  years  so  faithfully  and 
so  long. 

But  the  importance  of  Lollardry  cannot  be  estimated 
merely  by  the  number  of  ready  recruits  for  the  battle  of  the 
Eeformation  which  it  supplied  from  its  own  ranks.  The 
effect  produced  on  ordinary  men  who  were  no  Lollards  cannot, 
unfortunately,  be  determined  by  historical  analysis.  But  a 
consideration  of  human  nature,  and  more  especially  of  the 
English  nature,  would  lead  to  the  supposition  that  through- 
out this  long  period  there  were  many  impressed  without 
being  convinced,  or  convinced  without  being  ready  to  act  on 
their  conviction.  Between  the  Lollard  and  the  high  Catholic 
position,  between  the  exhortations  of  the  heretic  pulpit  and 
the  directions  of  the  orthodox  confessional,  there  were  many 
shades  of  opinion  and  many  houses  of  rest,  in  which  our 
ancestors'  minds  must  have  loved  to  lodge,  if  they  at  all 
resembled  our  own.  Although  the  Church  authorities  in  the 
fifteenth  century  grew  more  rather  than  less  intolerant  by 
force  of  revulsion  from  Lollardry,  the  ordinary  layman  began 
to  see  that  there  were  two  sides  to  the  religious  question.    Lay- 

1  Letter  of  Archbishop  Warham  to  Cardinal  Wolsey,  see  p.  4,  LutJieran 
Movement  in  England,  Jacobs. 


1380-1520   SEEVICE   OF  LOLLAEDEY   TO   ENGLAND    351 

men  who  were  not  Lollards  wrote  satires  against  the  Bishops 
about  the  sale  of  pardons  and  of  absolution,  against  the  friars 
for  their  immorality,  and  against  the  clergy  generally  for  the 
simony  and  hypocrisy  of  '  pope-holy  priests  full  of  presump- 
tion.' These  and  other  signs  were  already  alarming  the 
lovers  of  the  Church,  who  saw  symptoms  of  a  lay  revolt. 
We  find  a  churchman  appealing  to  Henry  the  Sixth  to  defend 
the  clergy  against  the  ill-will  of  the  lords  and  knights,  who 
were  certainly  not  Lollards  at  that  time.^  The  great  mass  of 
Englishmen,  who  were  still  hostile  or  indifferent  to  the  new 
doctrine,  were  compelled  to  realise  that  there  existed  other 
forms  of  religion  besides  the  regular  mediaeval  Christianity, 
a  truth  horrible  and  appalling  until  it  became  customary. 
Thus  the  ideas  of  Luther  and  Latimer  did  not  come  to 
Englishmen  in  all  the  shocking  violence  of  novelty,  since 
here  the  doctrines  of  Lollardry  had  been  common  talk  ever 
since  1380.  The  doctrinal  and  ritual  reformation  of  religion 
in  England  was  not  a  work  of  the  sixteenth  century  alone. 
The  difference  between  the  religious  beliefs  of  an  average 
layman  at  the  time  of  the  Gunpowder  Plot  and  those  of  his 
ancestor  in  the  age  of  Crecy,  was  so  profound  that  the  change 
cannot  have  been  wrought  in  a  generation,  still  less  by  a 
Court  intrigue.  The  English  mind  moves  slowly,  cautiously, 
and  often  silently.  The  movement  in  regard  to  forms  o^ 
religion  began  with  Wycliffe,  if  it  began  no  earlier,  and 
reached  its  full  height  perhaps  not  a  hundred  years  ago. 
England  was  not  converted  from  Germany ;  she  changed 
her  own  opinion,  and  had  begun  that  process  long  before 
Wittenberg  or  Geneva  became  famous  in  theological  contro/ 
versy.  If  we  take  a  general  view  of  our  religious  history,  we 
must  hold  that  English  Protestantism  had  a  gradual  and 
mainly  regular  growth. 

Apart  from  questions  of  doctrine  and  ritual,  the  importance 
of  Lollardry  was  great  in  formulating  the  rebellion  of  the 
laity.  That  rebellion  was  directed  against  the  attempt  of  the 
Church  to  keep  men  in  subordination  to  the  priest,  after  the 
time  when  higher  developments  had  become  possible.  If 
Wycliffe  began  the  doctrinal  and  ritual  revolution,  even  he 

'  Pol.  Poems,  ii.  237  and  248-51. 


352       THE  LATEE  HISTOEY  OF  THE  LOLLAEDS 

did  not  begin  this  wider  movement.     L  was  but  one 

of  the  many  channels  along  which  flowed  the  tide  of  lay 
revolt.  Chaucer,  Langland,  Gower,  John  of  Gaunt,  the 
rebels  of  1381,  the  townsmen  rioting  against  monasteries,  the 
Parliament  men  who  demanded  the  confiscation  of  Church 
property,  those  who  would  not  do  penance,  those  who  refused 
to  appear  in  the  Church  courts,  those  who  would  not  pay  tithe, 
were  all  striving  in  the  same  direction,  Lollardry  offered  a 
new  religious  basis  to  all.  Under  Henry  the  Eighth  all  these 
forces  rose  together  and  swept  away  the  mediaeval  system. 
The  King  did  it,  the  nobles  took  the  spoils,  but  the  nation 
reaped  the  advantage.  The  Northern  counties,  which  had  not 
shared  in  Lollardry  or  in  any  of  the  kindred  movements,  rose 
to  protest  in  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace ;  but  the  South  of  Eng- 
land, which  then  meant  the  strength  of  England,  stood  by  the 
King.  In  the  reign  of  Eichard  the  Second  many  laymen  had 
thought  the  existing  power,  property  and  privileges  of  the 
Church  to  be  an  evil,  but  a  sacred  evil.  The  Lollards  asserted 
that  ecclesiastical  evils  were  not  necessarily  sacred.  The 
triumph  of  that  view  was  the  downfall  of  the  governing 
Church,  and  it  preceded  by  thirty  years  the  Elizabethan 
adjustment  of  doctrine  and  ritual. 

In  England  we  have  slowly  but  surely  won  the  right  of 
the  individual  to  form  and  express  a  private  judgment  on 
speculative  questions.  During  the  last  three  centuries  the 
battle  of  liberty  has  been  fought  against  the  State  or  against 
public  opinion.  But  before  the  changes  effected  by  Henry  the 
Eighth,  the  struggle  was  against  a  power  more  impervious  to 
reason  and  less  subject  to  change — the  power  of  the  Mediaeval 
Church  in  all  the  prestige  of  a  thousand  years'  prescriptive 
right  over  man's  mind.  The  martyrs  who  bore  the  first  brunt 
of  that  terrific  combat  may  be  lightly  esteemed  to-day  by 
priestly  censure.  But  those  who  still  believe  that  liberty  of 
thought  has  proved  not  a  curse  but  a  blessing  to  England 
and  to  the  peoples  that  have  sprung  from  her,  will  regard  with 
thankfulness  and  pride  the  work  which  the  speculations  of 
Wycliffe  set  on  foot  and  the  valour  of  his  devoted  successors 
accomplished. 


^ 


353 


NOTE 

As  this  work  is  strictly  a  history  of  England  and  not  of 
Wyclif&sm,  I  have  felt  no  call  to  enter  into  the  second  half 
of  Wycliffe's  work — his  influence  on  continental  affairs.  In 
some  sense  this  is  an  omission  even  from  the  point  of  view  of 
English  history,  for  his  doctrines  were  adopted  by  the  Hussites, 
the  Hussites  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  affected  Lutheranism,  and 
Lutheranism  reacted  on  England.  In  a  Bohemian  psalter  of 
1572  appears  a  symbolical  picture  representing  Wycliffe  striking 
the  spark,  Huss  kindling  the  coals,  and  Luther  brandishing  the 
lighted  torch.  ^  To  some  extent  this  truly  represents  the  case ;  for 
it  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  the  works  of  Huss  were  repe- 
titions or  paraphrases  of  Wycliffe's  writings.^  The  degree  to  which 
the  Hussite  movement  hastened  or  affected  the  German  Eeforma- 
tion  is  a  question  which  is  best  left  to  the  Germans  themselves. 

Besides  England  and  Bohemia,  LoUardry  found  a  hazardous 
home  in  a  country  which  in  institutions  and  society  at  that  time 
differed  from  England  almost  as  much  as  from  Bohemia,  although 
in  the  race  and  character  of  the  inhabitants  the  kinship  with 
the  English  was  very  close.  As  far  back  as  1407  an  English 
Wycliffite  named  John  Eeseby,  flying  from  the  persecutors  in  his 
own  land,  had  taken  refuge  in  Scotland,  probably  the  first  Presby- 
terian to  set  foot  on  that  kindly  soil.  Whether  his  eyes  were 
delighted  with  angehc  visions  of  future  Kirk  Assemblies,  it  is 
for  poets  to  say ;  but  in  any  case  the  Pope  had  the  better  of  it  for 
the  time,  and  the  Scotch  Bishops  burned  the  intruder  at  the  stake.^ 
Either  Eeseby,  or  other  such  English  fugitives,  brought  over 
the  Border  writings  of  Wycliffe,  which  were  read  and  treasured  by 
Scotch  Lollards  in  great  fear  and  secrecy  during  the  early  years  of 
the   fifteenth  century.^     In  1425  the  sect  was  large   enough  to 

'  John  Wiclif,  Patriot  and  Reformer,  Buddensieg,  p.  9. 

^  Wyclif  and  Hus,  Loserth,  bk.  ii.  181-280  in  Evans's  translation. 

^  Spottiswood,  bk.  ii.,  gives  the  date  1407  ;  Bower's  Continuation  of  Fordun 
makes  it  1408.     In  any  case  it  is  not  1422,  as  one  might  think  from  Knox. 

*  Walter    Bower's    Continuation    of    Fordun;    see    Burton's    History  of 
Scotland,  ed.  1867,  iii.  92. 

A  A 


354  NOTE 

attract  the  attention  of  the  Scotch  Parliament,  which  directed  the 
Bishops  to  suppress  it;  and  in  1431  a  Bohemian,  who  denied 
Transubstantiation  and  administered  the  Sacrament  in  both  kinds 
to  his  congregation  after  the  fashion  of  his  Hussite  fellow- 
countrymen,  was  burnt  at  St,  Andrews.  After  that  we  hear  no 
more  of  Scotch  heretics  for  some  time.  They  seem  to  have  kept 
the  candle  alight,  though  under  a  bushel,  for  three  generations 
later  we  come  upon  their  successors,  known  in  history  as  '  the 
Lollards  of  Kyle.'  Their  home  was  Ayrshire,  and  they  numbered 
in  their  congregation  several  lords  and  ladies  of  good  family.  In 
1494  the  Archbishop  of  Glasgow  condemned  thirty  of  them  in  his 
spiritual  court,  on  articles  which  prove  them  to  have  been  genuine 
Lollards ;  but  he  could  not  induce  the  secular  arm  to  bring  any  of 
them  to  the  stake. ^  Although  the  lasting  effect  of  Wycliffism  in 
England  is  beyond  a  doubt,  it  would  perhaps  be  harder  to  show 
that  the  Scotch  Lollards  took  any  great  part  in  preparing  their 
country  for  the  later  conquest  by  Calvinism.  But  perhaps  this 
question  is  better  left  to  the  Scotch. 

^  Knox,  History  of  the  Reformation  in  Scotland,  bk.  i.  He  says  the 
districts  they  came  from  were  Cunningham,  King's  Kyle,  and  Kyle  Stewart. 
In  the  neighbouring  county  of  Kirkcudbright,  local  tradition  points  to  Earlston 
Castle,  that  stands  on  wooded  heights  overlooking  the  valley  of  the  Water  of 
Ken,  a  few  miles  north  of  St.  John's  Town  of  Dairy,  as  the  home  of  a  Lollard 
lord.  This  makes  it  likely  that  they  had  some  places  of  refuge  in  Kircud- 
brightshire,  the  mountainous  district  where  the  Cameronians  held  out  to  the 
death  against  Claverhouse  and  his  dragoons. 


APPENDIX 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTEE  I 

Note  3,  p.  5 
The  Chancellor  Thorpe  had  held  the  post  of  Master  of  Pembroke 
College,  Cambridge,  a  foundation  of  the  Pembroke  family  (Moberly's  Life 
of  WyTceJiam,  ed.  1893,  p.  94).  The  Treasurer  Scrope  was  the  Duke  of 
Lancaster's  right-hand  man.  See  Foss,  Judges  of  England,  sub  loc. ; 
St.,  ii.  442  and  489.  The  proofs  of  Scrope's  attendance  on  John  of  Gaunt 
in  the  expeditions  to  France  of  1359,  1366,  1369,  and  1373,  appear  in  the 
deposition  in  the  Scrope  and  Grosvenor  case,  S.  and  G.  Boll,  Nicolas,  ii. 
19-22. 

Note  1,^,  10 

In  1365  and  136&  similar  grants  for  two  years  had  been  made,  but  the 
King's  ministers  had  not  considered  this  liberality  an  excuse  for  omitting 
to  hold  parliament.  During  the  whole  of  this  long  reign  there  had  been 
no  abeyance  of  parliament  for  two  years  together,  except  during  the  Great 
Plague.  On  five  other  occasions  parliament  had  been  omitted  for  one 
year.  But  the  strongest  evidence  that  the  omission  was  resented  in  the 
present  case  is  the  petition  of  the  Commons  of  1376,  that  parliaments  be 
held  once  a  year.    Bot.  Pari.,  ii.  355. 


NOTES  TO   CHAPTEE  II 


Note  1,  p.  15 

E.g.  Chronicon  Anglice,  68,  70,  72,  74 ;  Wals.,  i.  348,  ii.  84.  Thus 
the  Chronicon  Anglice,  p.  112,  mentions  that  John  of  Gaunt  used  unfair 
influence  in  the  county  elections,  but  does  not  think  it  worth  while 
to  speak  of  the  returns  for  the  towns.  The  words  of  the  chronicler  are 
so  clear  on  this  point  that  they  are  worth  quoting : — '  Milites  vero  de 
comitatibus  quos  dux  pro  arbitrio  sm-rogaverat  (nam  omnes  qui  in  ultimo 
Parliamento  viriliter  pro  communitate  steterant,  procuravit  pro  viribus 
amoveri ;  ita  quod  non  fuerunt  ex  illis  in  hoc  Parliamento  prseter  duo- 

aa2 


356  APPENDIX 

decim,  quos  dux  amovere  non  potuit,  eo  quod  comitatus,  de  quibus  electi 
fuerant,  alios  eligere  noluerunt).'  See  also  Bot.  Pari.,  ii.  355,  where  the 
complaint  is  only  of  forced  election  in  the  counties  and  not  in  the  towns. 

Further  contemporary  evidence  is  not  lacking  that  the  knights  of  the 
shire  were  alone  considered  important  from  a  political  point  of  view. 
Thus  when  Richard  the  Second  packed  his  Parliament  of  1397,  through 
the  agency  of  the  Sheriffs,  he  only  concerned  himself  about  the  county, 
and  not  the  town  members.  Langland  {Bieh.  Bedeless,  passus  iv.  627, 
Skeat)  :— 

(The  King)  '  sente  side  sondis  (wide  messages)  to  schreuys  aboute, 

To  chese  swich  cheuaUeries  as  the  charge  wold. 

To  sehewe  ffor  the  schire  in  company  with  the  grete. 

And  whanne  it  drowe  to  the  day  of  the  dede-doynge, 

That  sovereignes  were  sembHd  and  the  schire-knytis  ; 

Than,  as  her  (their)  fforme  is,  ffrist  they  beginne  to  declare 

The  cause  of  her  comynge  and  than  the  kyngis  will.' 

It  is  only  some  lines  later  that  the  town  members  are  mentioned,  and 
then  as  quite  a  distinct  body  from  the  knights. 

'  A  morwe  thai  must,  affore  meti  to-gedir. 
The  knytis  of  the  comunete  and  carpe  of  the  maters 
With  citiseyne  of  shiris  ysent  ffor  the  same.' 

Stubbs,  ii.  540,  supports  this  view.  Though  he  does  not  refer  in  the 
footnote  to  the  original  authorities  from  which  he  formed  the  conclusion, 
it  is  clearly  the  result  of  all  his  enormous  research  work  in  the  authorities 
that  concern  the  later  Middle  Ages. 

My  contention  is,  not  that  the  burghers  took  no  part  in  the  business  of 
Parliament,  for  they  sent  up  such  petitions  as  concerned  themselves,  but 
that  they  took  no  important  share  in  the  pohcy  of  attacking  ministers, 
appointing  councils  of  state,  &c.,  which  the  Commons  carried  out  in  the 
next  ten  years. 

Note  3,  p.  15 

We  may  indeed  be  led  slightly  to  exaggerate  the  unanimity  of  the 
Commons,  owing  to  the  omission  of  all  minority-protests  from  the  Rolls 
of  Parhament,  but  the  opposition  to  the  general  sense  of  the  House  must 
have  been  very  small,  seeing  that  it  has  not  found  its  way  into  the 
chronicles,  or  any  other  unofficial  records  of  the  time. 

The  only  record  of  a  minority-protest  against  the  general  sense  of  the 
House  is  in  Ghron.  Aug.,  112,  where  the  protest  is  made  in  favour  of  the 
policy  of  the  Good  Parhament  and  of  most  other  parliaments,  against  the 
unusual  policy  of  that  particular  Parhament  of  1377,  which  assembly 
John  of  Gaunt  had  packed.  This,  therefore,  is  the  exception  that  proves 
the  rule. 

Note  4,  p.  29 

Ghron.  Aug.,  98-100 ;  Gesta  Abbatum  S.  Alb.,  iii.  230-2  ;  Bot.  Pari., 
ii.  329  ;  Bishop  Stubbs  (ii.  452)  says  : — '  Under  a  general  ordinance  against 


APPENDIX  357 

allowing  women  to  practise  in  the  courts  of  law,  they  obtained  an  award 
of  banishment  and  forfeiture  '  against  Alice  Ferrers.  If  this  means  that 
her  goods  were  at  this  time  forfeited,  it  is  incorrect.  It  was  only  pro- 
vided that  her  goods  should  be  forfeited  and  herself  banished  the  king- 
dom if  she  afterwards  returned  to  Court.  She  did  return  to  Court 
and  the  sentence  was  consequently  executed  by  the  Parliament  of  October 
1377,  but  not  by  the  Good  Parliament,  as  Bishop  Stubbs  might  lead 
people  to  suppose. 

Note  2,  _p.  30 

I  agree  with  Bishop  Stubbs  (ii.  452,  note  6)  that  although  the  KoUs  of 
Parliament  put  the  sections  referrring  to  the  formation  of  this  Council 
before  the  sections  referring  to  the  impeachments,  it  is  probable  that  the 
distinct  statement  of  the  Chronicon  Anglice  is  to  be  preferred.  That 
chronicle,  which  gives  a  very  detailed  account  of  every  step  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  this  Parliament,  says,  after  describing  the  affair  of  Alice 
Perrers,  '  His  ita  se  habentibus,  cum  jam  finis  Parhamenti  instaret, 
milites  petierunt  ut  duodecim  domini  regis  consiliis  assiderent,'  &c.  The 
EoUs  of  Parliament  are,  it  must  be  remembered,  no  evidence  of  chrono- 
logical order,  for  they  arrange  their  matter  in  order  of  class  of  subject, 
not  in  order  of  time.  Thus  they  record  the  grant  of  money,  which  was 
in  this  Parliament  carefully  deferred  to  the  end  of  all,  before  any  other 
business,  even  before  the  first  refusal  of  the  Commons  to  make  the  grant. 

It  is  true  that  an  MS.  from  Stowe's  collection,  printed  at  the 
beginning  of  Chron.  Ang.  (R.S.)  p.  Isxi,  puts  the  election  of  the  Council  at 
the  beginning  of  Parliament,  and  makes  the  new  councillors  the  judges 
of  the  impeached  peers.  But  the  MS.  is  without  date  or  parentage,  a 
mere  scrap  without  beginning  or  ending,  and  cannot  be  put  up  against 
the  detailed  account  of  the  Good  Parliament,  given  by  such  an  authority 
as  the  Chronicon  Anglice.  Besides,  the  Eolls  of  Parliament  make  it 
clear  that  the  impeached  were  not  tried  before  a  select  committee.  The 
other  MS.  of  a  similar  character,  printed  at  the  beginning  of  Chron.  Aug., 
p.  Ixviii,  gives  the  names  of  the  councillors,  but  does  not  clearly  state  at 
what  period  of  Parhament  they  were  elected. 

Note  2,  p.  38 

Wals.,  i.  325,  states  that  the  Pope  issued  bulls  for  Wychffe's  arrest  before 
this  trial,  but  this  statement  is  incorrect.  The  bulls  are  dated  May  31, 
1377.  Walsingham's  account  of  the  matter  is  palpably  worthless,  e.g.  he 
gives  the  Eucharist  heresy  as  one  of  Wycliffe's  shortcoixiings  at  the  time 
of  this  first  trial.  Wals.,  i.  324.  His  statement  that  the  Archbishop  then 
enjoined  silence  on  Wycliffe  is  as  valueless  as  the  rest. 

Note  2,  p.  50 

'  The  Chron.  Ang.  states  that  the  immaculate  Bishop  obtained  this 
concession  by  making  friends  with  the  Mammon  of  unrighteousness  in 
the  pleasing  shape  of  Alice  Perrers,   and  that  the  Duke  was  angry  with 


358  APPENDIX 

her  for  exerting  her  influence  in  favour  of  his  enemy.  Although  this 
chronicler  would  be  unlikely  to  wilfully  record  untrue  scandal  about  his 
favourite  hero,  the  Bishop  of  Winchester,  there  is  yet  some  ground  to  doubt 
the  truth  of  this  story.  Three  days  before  the  King's  death,  when  all 
knew  the  end  nuist  soon  come,  was  not  a  likely  season  for  Wykeham  to 
go  out  of  his  way  to  seek  the  friendsliip  of  Edward's  ixiistress.  Some 
change  in  the  State  was  a  certainty  directly  the  new  King  succeeded,  and 
it  would  be  the  Bishop's  part  to  wait  for  Edward's  death.  A  likelier  ex- 
planation of  the  restoration  of  the  temporalities  is  this :  John  of  Gaunt,  if 
he  knew  the  Khig  was  dying,  would  wish  to  conciliate  such  enemies  as 
Wykeham  with  a  view  to  the  commg  revolution.  The  fact  that  the 
restoration  of  the  Bishop's  lands  is  signed  '  per  concilium '  also  points  to 
the  fact  that  the  Duke  took  part  in  this  act  of  concession.  Further,  it  is 
natural  to  suppose  that  Edward  would,  at  the  near  approach  of  death, 
remember  of  his  own  accord  the  past  services  of  his  faithful  friend 
William  of  W^ykeham. 

However,  in  the  face  of  the  clearly  unprejudiced  statement  of  the 
Chronicle,  the  matter  must  remain  doubtful. 


NOTES   TO   CHAPTEE  III 


Note  l,_p.  54 

Sir  H.  Nicolas'  History  of  the  Navy,  passim  ;  Bat.  Pari.,  ii.  307,  311, 
820;  Feed.,  iv.  16;  Social  England,  ii.  42-7  and  182-94.  Out  of  a 
fighting  navy  of  700,  the  quota  of  Eoyal  ships  was  about  25.  The  rest 
were  merchantmen,  &c.  from  the  different  towns ;  see  Nicolas,  Boyal 
Navy,  ii.  507-10. 

Note  1,  p.  59 

Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  122,  sec.  8 ;  St.,  iii.  550 ;  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  118,  sec.  98. 
The  best  proof  of  the  general  adoption  of  this  system  is  found  in  the  MS. 
Calendar  of  the  Exchequer  documents,  Eecord  Office,  entitled  'Army,  &c.' 
See  latter  part  of  Edward  the  Third's  reign,  government  contracts  vidth 
various  private  persons  for  their  troops.  The  first  document  of  Eichard  the 
Second's  reign  referred  to  in  this  Calendar  is  an  '  indenture  dated  March  9, 
E.  II.,  made  between  the  King  and  Thomas  Tryvet,  chivaler,  witnessing  the 
agreement  of  the  latter  to  serve  the  Bang  for  a  year  with  eighty  men  and 
eighty  archers.'  These  are  examples  of  the  system,  which  it  is  clear  from 
this  Calendar  was  the  basis  of  our  armies  in  France.  See  also  the  Scrope 
and  Grosvenor  EoU,  Nicolas,  ii.  20,  for  a  similar  engagement  of  John  of 
Gaunt  in  1359,  to  serve  with  300  men-at-arms,  500  archers,  216  squires, 
80  knights  and  3  bannerets.  The  King  paid  the  Duke  for  serving  with  so 
many  men,  and  the  Duke  raised  the  required  force  by  sub-contracts  with 
smaller  nobles,  such  as  that  with  Lord  Neville  (Dugdale,  p.  296). 

The  only  mention  of  any  standing  army  or  royal  troops  is  a  passage 


APPENDIX  359 

in  Chron.  Ang,,  154,  which  speaks  of  '  Alemanni  Eegis  stipendiarii,'  in 
the  coronation  procession  of  Eichard  the  Second.  They  could  have  been 
nothing  but  a  small  body,  for  they  are  mentioned  nowhere  else,  and  took 
no  part  that  we  hear  of  in  suppressing  the  Rising  of  1381,  when  the  Kmg 
depended  on  the  Londoners  and  on  Knolles'  retainers  for  the  immediate 
suppression  of  Tyler's  bands,  and  on  the  forces  that  came  in  from  the 
country  under  the  lords  for  reconquest  of  the  disturbed  districts. 

Note  1,  p.  91 

Feed.,  iv.  51 ;  Bp.  Stubbs  (ii.  467,  note  4)  implies  that  the  reason  of 
Houghton's  resignation  was  the  Pope's  inquiry  into  his  conduct  with 
regard  to  certain  clergymen  whom  he  had  ill-treated ;  see  Fosd.,  iv.  51.  But 
the  King's  description  of  Houghton  {Foed.,  iv.  55)  states  that  he  was  a 
strong  churchman  in  politics,  '  fuit  namque  semper  et  est  inter  ceteros 
prelatos  regni  nostri  totius  status  ecclesiastici  fortissimus  defensator.' 
Unless  this  is  a  downright  lie,  Houghton's  position  in  a  government  that 
was  at  open  quarrel  with  the  Church  over  the  Westminster  Sanctuary 
question,  would  have  been  simply  impossible.  This  I  believe  to  have 
been  the  reason  of  his  resignation. 

Note  %  p.  92 

That  this  difficulty  in  the  working  of  the  law  actually  took  place  is 
shown  by  Henry  the  Eighth's  statute  modifying  the  law  of  Sanctuary;  it 
orders  that  the  abjurer  be  branded  on  the  hand  with  the  letter  A,  '  that 
he  may  be  better  known  among  the  King's  subjects.'     Stats,  of  Bealm, 

21  H.  VIII.  2.  There  was  no  such  provision  in  the  reign  of  Eichard  the 
Second. 

For  the  laws  of  sanctuary,  see  Bevue  Historique,  vol.  50,  '  Abjuratio 
regni,'  and  all  the  cases  of  sanctuary  that  occur  in  Gross. 

Note  1,  p.  94 

The  great  part  played  by  the  privilege  of  Sanctuary  in  thwarting 
criminal  justice  may  be  seen  by  studying  Gross'  Select  Coroners'  Eolls, 
Selden  Society,  where  frequent  cases  occiu*. 

See  also  the  preamble  to  Henry  the  Eighth's  great  statute  of  1540, 
which  shows  at  least  what  had  been  the  experience  of  the  generations 
succeeding  Wycliffe.  '  Evil-disposed  persons  within  this  realm  and  other 
his  grace's  dominions,  nothing  regarding  the  fear  of  God  nor  the  punish- 
ment of  the  King's  laws,  heretofore  have  done  and  do  daily  commit  and 
perpetrate  wilfully,  as  well  great,  sundry  and  detestable  murders, 
robberies  and  also  great  and  heinous  offences,  whereunto  such  malefactors 
are  partly  instigated  and  moved  by  certain  licentious  privileges,  and  other 
liberties  granted  to  diverse  places  and  territories  within  the  realm, 
commonly  called  Sanctuaries,  to  which  such  wilful  offenders  heretofore 
.have  had  refuge  and  tuition  of  their  lives  and  bodies  after  the  said  mis- 
chievous offence.'     Stats,  of  Bealm,  32  H.  VIII.  12;   21  H.  VIII.  2; 

22  H.  VIII.  14. 


360  APPENDIX 

NOTES  TO  CHAPTEE  IV 

Note  1,  jp.  114 

See  the  legate  Otho's  ordinance  in  1237,  and  the  acceptance  of  the 
principle  by  the  Church  in  1268 ;  Gibson's  Codex,  ii.  1090-1,  misprinted 
as  pp.  1080-1  in  edition  of  1713.  Taking  money  for  penance  is  there 
absolutely  prohibited  as  being  an  encouragement  to  sin. 

In  1342  Archbishop  Stratford  decrees  that  money  shall  not  be  received 
for  notorious  offences  the  second  time,  and  that  commutations  be  '  made 
moderately,  so  that  the  receiver  be  not  judged  rapacious  ;  '  Gibson's 
Codex,  ii.  1091.  This  is  a  very  different  thing  from  the  absolute  prohibi- 
tion of  1237  and  1268. 

Note  2,  p.  116 

Although  Chaucer  puts  the  story  into  the  mouth  of  the  Summoner's 
professional  enemy  the  Friar,  he  means  the  portrait  for  a  real  one,  for  he 
describes  the  practices  of  the  Summoner  in  the  same  way  in  the  Prologue ; 
and  for  the  characters  in  the  Prologue  he  himself  is  responsible. 

Note  2,  p.  118 

E.g.  in  1381  he  confirmed  a  Cardinal  (Tibercinensis)  as  Precentor  of 
York.  In  1384  he  confirmed  another  Cardinal  as  Archdeacon  of  Wilts  ; 
See  Neve's  Fasti,  sub.  loc.  These  licenses  are  referred  to  at  the  end  of 
the  Statute  against  Aliens,  7  E.  II.,  11. 

Note  3,  p.  119 

I  found  in  the  Lambeth  Library  an  order  (MS.  144  b,  Lambeth  Reg., 
Sudbury)  to  the  Archbishop  to  certify  to  the  Barons  of  the  Exchequer 
the  number  of  secular  foreign  clergy  holding  benefices  in  his  diocese 
Dec.  12,  1377.  On  applying  at  the  Eecord  Office  I  found  not  only  his  return, 
but  the  returns  made  by  a  dozen  other  Bishops  on  receipt  of  a  similar 
order  (MSS.  Clerical  Subsidies).  While  some  of  the  Bishops  have  closely 
followed  the  words  of  the  writ,  and  made  a  return  only  of  secular  alien 
clergy  in  their  diocese,  some  have  also  returned  the  names  of  the  alien 
Abbots  and  Priors  holding  appropriated  churches  in  the  diocese.  I  have 
had  these  lists  copied  out,  and  they  are  my  authority  for  the  statements 
in  the  text  as  to  foreign  rectors. 

Note  1,  p.  123 

The  Primate's  leave  was  sometimes  necessary  to  complete  the  transac- 
tion, and  Sudbury  gave  licenses  for  nine  appropriations  of  different 
rectories  during  his  short  term  of  office,  1375-81.  In  1383  his  successor 
Courtenay  made  over  three  parish  churches  to  the  Carthusians.  See 
Lambeth  Register,  Lambeth  Library,  MS.  Index.  For  appropriations 
allowed  by  the  Bishop  of  Ely  in  1395,  1400  and  1401,  see  Ely  Register, 
fs.  215-7  and  174. 


APPENDIX  361 

Note  2,  p.  130 

The  controversy  between  Dr.  Gasquet  and  Mr.  Matthew  over  the 
authorship  of  this  translation  cannot  be  said  to  be  yet  settled  by  agree- 
ment, and  I  have  not  yet  gone  into  the  evidence  deeply  enough  to  hazard 
a  private  judgment. 

Knighton,  ii.  152,  states  that  Wycliffe  made  translations  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. I  am  prepared  to  contradict  Dr.  Gasquet's  statement  on  p.  113  Old 
English  Bible  that  Wycliffe  never  in  any  of  his  undoubted  writings  advo- 
cated having  the  Scriptures  in  the  vernacular.  The  passage  quoted  above 
from  the  De  Officio  Pastorali  is  undoubtedly  his,  and  no  doubt  has  ever 
been  thrown  on  the  three  similar  passages  quoted  by  Mr.  Matthew  in  the 
Historical  Beview,  x.  93.  Besides,  how  could  he  have  expected  it  to  become 
the  daily  guide  and  law  for  all  men  if  it  was  in  an  unknown  tongue  ? 
I  do  not  suppose  that  Dr.  Gasquet  would  dispute  that  he  wished  it  to 
become  the  daily  guide  of  all. 

Wycliffe's  statements  of  friars'  activity  against  the  Bible  are  expHcit, 
and  the  statements  of  his  followers  are  of  equal  value,  or  of  more  value, 
as  bringing  so  many  more  witnesses  to  the  fact.  See  S.  E.  W.,  iii.  393, 
405  ;  Matt.,  10,  255,  429-30 ;  the  LoUard  poem  in  Pol.  Poems,  ii.  32. 

There  is  also  a  valuable  piece  of  confirmative  evidence  as  to  the  atti- 
tude  of  the   friars  in   Chaucer's   Sommoner's    Tale.     The   Friar  there 

'  I  seyd  a  sermon  after  my  simple  wit, 
Nat  al  after  the  text  of  holy  writ ; 
For  it  is  hard  for  yow  as  I  suppose, 
And  therefore  wiU  I  teche  you  aU  the  glose  : 
For  lettre  sleeth,  so  as  we  clerkes  seyn.' 

This  is  exactly  of  what  the  Lollards  complained  (see  Opus  Evangelicv/m, 
158,  and  Matt.,  89),  that  their  enemies  said  the  Bible  was  '  false  to  the 
letter,'  and  preferred  their  own  traditions ;  see  also  Fasc.  Z.,  175,  last 
paragraph. 

The  English  Bible  was  often  in  the  fifteenth  century  left  in  wills  and 
bequests  registered  by  the  Church,  and  therefore,  Dr.  Gasquet  argues 
(0.  E.  B.,  140-5),  they  probably  were  possessed  with  the  consent  of  the 
Chiirch.  But  among  the  laity  only  rich  men  leave  them  in  their  wills, 
and  there  is  no  proof  of  their  authorised  possession  by  the  vulgar. 

Nothing  can  be  more  damning  than  the  licenses  to  particular  people 
to  have  Enghsh  Bibles,  for  they  distinctly  show  that  without  such  licenses 
it  was  thought  wrong  to  have  them  ;  e.g.  Mirour  of  Our  Lady  {circa 
1450,  E.  E.  T.  S.,  p.  3),  where  the  writer  remarks  that  the  nuns  can  read 
the  Psalms  in  Enghsh  '  out  of  Enghsh  Bibles  if  ye  have  hcense  thereto.' 

Note  1,  p.  134 

E.  E.  T.  S.,  Political  and  Religious  Poems  ;  see  Introd.  xxxiv.  for  the 
date,  which  is  thought  to  be  about  1440.  See  also  Pope's  Bull  on  same 
subject,  about  the  same  date  ;  Memorials  of  Bijjon,  i.  300-1. 


362  APPENDIX 

Note  2,  p.  137 

Wilkin,  iii.  226.  Waltham  Abbey  Church  was  also  restored  by  money 
obtained  in  the  same  way;  see  MS.  University  Library,  Cambridge, 
Dd.,  iii.  53,  p.  37,  no.  78 ;  Catalogue,  i.  114.  So  was  Eipon  Church  ; 
Memorials  of  Bipon,  i.  116  (a.d.  1375). 

Note  2,  p.  138 

Indulgences  were  (in  some  cases)  nominally  the  remission  of  penance 
on  this  earth  for  money  received,  but  they  came  to  be  regarded  as  remis- 
sion of  penance  in  the  next.  The  step  was  very  natural  and  easy,  for 
penance  in  the  next  world  was  supposed  to  be  commuted  by  penance  in 
this.  It  is  clear  that  mdulgences  were  by  many  regarded  as  affecting 
the  next  world,  for 

(i)  It  is  so  stated  by  contemporaries,  not  merely  by  Lollards,  but  by 
orthodox  reformers. 

(ii)  If  indulgences  were  only  regarded  as  remitting  penance  in  this 
life,  why  were  pardons  advertised  for  several  thousand  years,  since  no  one 
could  expect  to  hve  so  long  ? 

(iii)  In  the  pardon  printed  in  Wals.,  ii.  79-80,  the  Pope  actually 
promises  '  retributionem  justorum  ac  salutis  seternse  augmentum,'  in 
retm-n  for  money  to  help  the  crusade. 

(iv)  Knighton  (ii.  198-9)  says  people  gave  money  to  the  crusade 
'  ut  sic  tam  amici  eorum  defuncti  quam  ipsi  a  suis  delictis  absolverentur.' 
And  again :  '  Habuit  namque  prasdictus  episcopus  indulgentias  mirabiles 
cum  absolutione  a  poena  et  a  culpa  pro  dicta  cruciata  a  Papa  Urbano  sexto 
ei  concessas,  cujus  auctoritate  tam  mortuos  quam  vivos  .  .  .  absolvebat.' 

Note  1,  jp.  151 

In  the  days  of  Wycliffe's  friendship  with  the  orders,  he  speaks  of 
'  fratribus  et  aliis  viris  evangehcis ; '  De  Dom.  Civ.,  325.  This  refers 
no  doubt  to  their  doctrine  of  poverty,  based  on  the  '  evangelical '  ground  of 
the  Gospel,  but  the  expression  always  implies  a  certain  admiration  when 
used  by  Wycliffe.  Cont.  Eulog.,  345,  tells  how  he  said  the  friars  '  were 
very  dear  to  Grod.'  I  do  not  believe  this  praise  was  mere  thoughtless 
eulogy  of  allies ;  for  after  his  quarrel  with  the  orders  he  contmued  to 
speak  with  respect  and  friendship  of  individuals  in  their  body,  and  to 
invite  them  to  leave  the  order  as  unworthy  of  their  adherence ;  e.g.  De 
Apostasia,  42  and  44;  8.  E.  W.,  i.  147;  Matt.,  51;  S.  E.  W.,  iii. 
368-70. 

Note  1,  p.  152 

As  to  the  date  of  Wycliffe's  quarrel  with  the  friars,  it  is  mentioned 
in  a  work  as  early  as  the  De  Officio  Pastorali,  English  ed.,  Matt., 
429.  Now  I  think  it  is  practically  certain  that  the  De  Officio  Pastorali 
is  of  early  date,  and  not  after  1380  ;  for  neither  in  it  nor  in  the  parallel 
Latin  version  (edit,  by  Lechler)  is  there  anv  mention  of  the  Eucharist  con- 


APPENDIX  363 

troversy,  either  in  the  attack  on  the  friars  (Matt.,  429-44)  or  in  the 
attack  on  University  teaching  (Matt.,  427-8).  (a)  Now  in  the  very 
similar  attack  on  University  teaching  in  the  Dialogue,  p.  54,  cap.  26,  he 
complains  of  the  teaching  of  heresy  on  this  point,  (b)  Wycliffe  scholars 
have  long  agreed  that  the  omission  of  mention  of  the  Eucharist  in  passages 
dealing  with  the  friars  is  strong  evidence  of  an  early  date.  Dr.  Lechler 
and  Mr.  Matthew  both  put  the  De  Officio  Pastorali  earlier  than  1380. 

There  seems  to  be  no  longer  any  doubt  that  there  were  '  Poor  Priests  ' 
perambulating  the  country  before  1380,  though  the  degree  of  their  con- 
nection with  Wycliffe  and  WycUifism  differed  in  different  cases. 

(a)  They  were  accused  of  playing  a  part  in  the  organisation  of  the 
Eising  of  1381  (Wright's  Pol.  Poems,  E.S.,  235-6,  and  Bot.  Pari.,  iii. 
124-5).  They  must  have  been  working  some  time  and  have  obtained 
some  influence  in  order  to  incur  the  charge.  There  is  no  proof  that 
WycHffe  himself  commissioned  or  sent  out  any  of  his  own  Mends  before 
1381,  but  some  of  his  doctruies  were  being  preached  by  irresponsible 
individuals,  e.g.  John  Ball  was  accused  of  preaching  against  Transubstan- 
tiation  in  1380. 

(b)  In  the  De  Officio  Pastorali  (Matt.  444),  whose  date  we  have 
discussed  just  above,  Wycliffe  speaks  of  the  friars  getting  true  preachers 
stopped  and  arrested  by  lords  and  bishops.  It  would  seem,  therefore, 
that  the  rivalry  of  the  friars  and  of  Wycliffe's  allies  was  already  breaking 
into  open  hostility  on  the  field  of  their  labours. 

Wycliffe  himself  says  that  the  hostility  shown  by  the  Church  to  his 
doctrine  of  the  Eucharist  was  reaUy  due  to  antipathy  aroused  by  his  two 
former  doctrines  of  the  uselessness  of  rehgious  vows  and  the  wickedness 
of  ecclesiastical  endowments  {De  Blasphemia,  cap.  xviii.,  286-7).  That 
is  to  say,  he  alleges  that  he  had  incurred  the  hostility  of  the  friars  by 
denouncing  the  special  vows  of  '  religious  '  orders  that  cut  themselves  off 
from  the  world,  in  the  same  way  as  he  had  offended  the  rest  of  the 
Church  on  the  question  of  endowments,  before  the  Eucharist  heresy 
farther  complicated  matters. 

Note  8,  p.  155 

In  the  De  Officio  Begis  (1379),  cap.  ii.  29-30,  he  called  it  straining  at 
a  gnat  and  swallowmg  a  camel  to  object  to  clerical  marriage  while  allow- 
ing priests  to  hold  secular  office.  In  the  De  Papa  (probably  1380),  how- 
ever, he  speaks  with  respect  of  the  rule  of  cehbacy  (Matt.,  474)  as  if  he 
approved  of  it.  But  in  Sermon  no.  cv.  {8.  B.  TF.,  .  364),  he  distinctly 
condemns  it.  These  sermons  are  probably  of  a  ater  date  than  the  De 
Papa  of  1380  (see  reference  to  crusade  of  1383  in  no.  xlvii.  136). 
There  are  also  some  other  passages  in  English  works  sometimes 
attributed  to  him,  which  condemn  celibacy  {8.  E.  W.,  iii.  189-90 ;  Matt., 
7,  top  of  page),  but  these  may  have  been  written  by  some  other 
Lollard.  The  strong  attitude  of  the  Lollards  on  the  question  can  be 
seen  m  Fasc.  Z.,  361,  in  their  petition  to  Parliament  of  1395.  Wal- 
densis  in  his  Doctrinale  represents  Wycliffe  as  defending  clerical  marriage 


364  APPENDIX 

(Waldensis,  ed.  1523,  caps.  66-67),  on  the  ground  that  Christ  never  forbad 
His  apostles  to  marry. 

Note  1,  2>-  167 

We  have  no  means  of  calculating  statistically  the  proportion  the  wealth 
of  the  Church  bore  to  the  wealth  of  the  kingdom. 

We  have  no  calculation  either  of  ecclesiastical  or  lay  wealth  at  this 
period.  We  have  only  (I)  a  calculation  of  Church  wealth  in  1291,  and 
(II)  a  calculation  of  Church  wealth  at  the  time  of  the  Eeformation. 

(I)  The  pages  of  the  Ecclesiastica  Taxatio  of  1291  (printed  by 
command  of  his  Majesty  in  1802)  have  been  summed  up  by  Bishop 
Stubbs,  the  result  being  210,644Z.  9s.  Qd.  (see  St.  ii.  580) ;  a  similar  calcu- 
lation of  Canon  Dixon's  gives  218,802L  as  the  yearly  income. 

(II)  The  Valor  Ecclesiasticus  and  Speed's  calculations  from  it 
give  the  result  of  320,280Z.  as  the  yearly  income  at  the  time  of  the 
Eeformation.  We  may  safely  suppose  that  the  ecclesiastical  incorae  in 
Eiehard  the  Second's  reign  lay  somewhere  between  these  two  sums,  say 
at  about  270,000L  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  this  is  exclusive  of 
several  very  large  sources  of  wealth  enjoyed  by  the  clergy  : 

(i)  Of  the  incomes  enjoyed  for  secular  employments  by  prelates  in 

office  under  the  King,  and  clerks  engaged  by  business  men. 
(ii)  Money  collected  from  laity  by  way  of  ahns,  by  sale  of  indulgences 

and  all  exceptional  ways, 
(iii)  The  large  fines,  fees,  and  blackmail  collected  by  the  spiritual 
coxarbs. 
Such  items  as  these  it  is  impossible  to  estimate,  and  it  is  therefore  im- 
possible to  estimate  the  annual  income  of  the  Church  with  any  approxi- 
mation to  correctness.  But  even  if  we  could,  it  would  be  of  little  use,  for 
it  is  quite  impossible  to  calculate  the  income  of  the  laity  and  of  the  king- 
dom as  a  whole,  and  therefore  the  real  proportion  that  Church  wealth 
bore  to  the  whole  cannot  be  calculated  either.  Canon  Dixon  {Church 
History,  ed.  1878,  i.  250)  chooses  to  estimate  the  revenue  of  the  laity  at 
about  a  mUhon  when  the  Church  assessment  of  1291  was  taken.  But  he 
quotes  no  authority.  When  economic  historians  are  uncertain  whether 
the  population  was  one  and  a  half  or  three  millions,  how  shall  we  attempi 
to  estimate  the  national  wealth,  about  which  we  know  even  less  ?  Canon 
Dixon's  comparison  of  lay  and  clerical  wealth  is  in  fact  without  any  value. 
I  am  as  little  inclined  to  trust  the  word  of  contemporary  LoUards  that 
the  Church  possessed  '  the  more  part '  of  the  temporaUties  of  the  kingdom 
besides  the  spiritualities  and  treasure.  Mr.  Wakeman  thinks  that  the 
monasteries  alone  possessed  '  about  a  third  of  the  land  of  England,' 
apparently  before  the  fourteenth  century  {Hist,  of  the  Church  of  England, 
2nd  ed.,  p.  177).  I  do  not  know  on  what  calculation  he  bases  this.  In 
1291  monastic  wealth  was  51,000Z.  a  year,  not  counting  appropriated 
benefices,  which  might  double,  and  would  certainly  greatly  increase,  this 
sum  (Canon  Dixon's  Church  History,  i.  250). 

It  is  worth  remarking  that  the  clerical  tenth  paid  on  the  basis  of  the 


APPENDIX  365 

calculation  of  1291  was  in  the  fourteenth  century  20,000Z.,  the  tenth  paid 
by  the  laity  on  their  property  being  30,000^.  (see  Sir  J.  Eamsay,  in  the 
Antiquary,  iv.  208).  But  I  do  not  wish  to  say  that  this  represents  the 
real  proportion  of  clerical  to  lay  wealth.  The  Commons  declared  that 
the  Church  possessed  more  than  a  third  of  the  wealth  of  the  land  {Bot. 
Pari.,  ii.  337). 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  VI 

Note  1,  f.  186 

Page,  23-4.  Professor  Ashley  confirms  Mr.  Page's  idea  that  the 
services  of  herding  and  ploughing  were  the  first  to  be  commuted,  by  his 
list  of  permanent  servants  on  the  manor  (i.  1,  32),  where  all  are  herdsmen 
or  ploughmen  except  a  messor,  the  technical  name  for  the  superintendent 
of  the  villein-reapers.  He  also  says  (i.  1,  10)  that  the  demesne  ploughs 
were  heavier  than  the  villeins'  ploughs. 

Note  3,  p.  192 

Page,  36-7,  shows  that  the  movement  for  converting  arable  into 
pasture  was  afoot  before  1381.  Dr.  Cunningham  and  Professor  Ashley 
have  treated  at  greater  length  its  cause  and  increase  in  the  fifteenth 
century. 

Note  2,  p.  194 

Page,  39-40,  gives  us  the  statistics  of  the  state  of  things  on  the 
seventy-three  manors  he  has  studied,  in  the  year  1381. 

On  thirty-two  of  them  the  change  to  hired  labour  had  been  fully 
carried  out  on  the  demesne. 

On  twenty -two  the  villeins  performed  only  a  very  small  number  of 
feudal  services. 

On  fifteen  there  was  perhaps  half  of  the  hand  lahour  necessary  for 
the  demesne  done  by  villeins  (the  ploughing  and  warding  being  done 
by  hired  labour). 

On  fourteen  the  services  of  viUeins  were  alone  sufficient  for  the 
demesne. 

In  these  cases  the  reduction  of  the  amoimt  of  demesne  land  imder 
cultivation  about  corresponded  to  the  reduction  of  the  number  of  villeins 
since  1349. 

Note  1,  p.  199 

Be  Dominio  Civili,  42-3,  96,  101-2,  199  201,  218 ;  p.  87  gives  his 
distinction  between  '  dominium  '  and  '  usus,'  which  is  his  philosophical 
way  out  of  the  difficulty.  Mr.  Poole  {Illustrations  of  Medimval  Thought, 
ch.  X.)  holds  this  view  of  the  duplicate  nature  of  the  argument  in  the  De 
Dominio  CiviU. 


366  APPENDIX 

Note  3,  p.  211 

They  are  so  called  in  an  English  chronicle,  early  fifteenth  century 
liandwritiag,  MS.,  Ee.,  iv.  32,  no.  2,  University  Library,  Cambridge,  p.  174 
pencil  pagination,  p.  171  ink.  This  chronicle  is  related  to  the  chronicle 
of  Brute.     See  also  p.  495,  Lambarde's  Kent,  ed.  1656. 

Note  5,  p.  219 

The  disappointment  of  these  hopes  when  Richard  revoked  the  charters 
of  pardon  and  of  manumission  brought  on  a  bitter  reaction  against  him, 
and  a  corresponding  change  of  feeling  in  favour  of  John  of  Gaunt,  who 
had  been  absent  in  Scotland  during  the  whole  Eising.  But  this  was  not 
till  the  very  end  of  September  {G.  B.  R.  482,  Res  1,  Cote's  confession), 
so  that  Powell  (p.  60)  and  Stubbs  (ii.  472)  have  no  real  reason  for  sup- 
posing that  Cote's  confession  has  any  relation  to  the  rebellion  in  Jxme. 
It  only  refers  to  a  second  rising  of  desperate  and  disappointed  men,  in 
the  autumn.  Mr.  Powell  has  another  argument,  on  p.  60,  '  that  certain 
reports  were  current  with  reference  to  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  having 
some  connection  with  the  movement  is  evidenced  by  the  King's  contradic- 
tion of  them  given  in  Rymer.'  This  I  believe  to  be  equally  fallacious. 
The  passages  in  question,  Foed.,  iv.  126  and  128,  say  that  the  rebels 
accused  him  of  disloyalty  to  the  King,  and  made  it  an  excuse  for  attacking 
his  property  in  the  King's  name.  The  passages  are,  in  fact,  a  very  strong 
confirmation  of  all  other  accounts  of  the  hostility  of  the  rebels  to  the  Duke 
and  the  loyalty  to  the  King  which  they  showed  in  June.  The  charges 
of  disloyalty  from  which  the  King  clears  his  uncle  are  those  which  had 
been  mentioned  in  Parliament  four  years  back  {Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  5),  and 
which  appeared  again  in  1384. 

See  also  Cont.  Eulog.  (R.  S.),  iii.  353,  lines  27-30,  where  the  King  is 
represented  as  summoning  the  rebels  to  Smithfield,  on  the  ground  that 
he  wishes  them  to  defend  him  against  John  of  Gaunt,  who  is  advancing 
from  Scotland  with  an  army  of  Scotchmen.  I  do  not  believe  the  story 
that  the  King  made  such  a  proclamation,  but  such  a  rumour  bears 
out  the  hostility  of  the  rebels  to  Jolm  of  Gaunt's  designs  against  Richard. 

Note  2,  p.  223 

With  regard  to  the  counties  and  districts  marked  blue  on  the  map 
of  the  Rising,  p.  254,  no  difficulty  exists.  I  am  indebted  to  Mons. 
Eeville's  researches  for  the  proof  of  risings  in  Lincolnshire  and  North 
Leicestershire.  The  specific  acts  of  rebellion  in  the  other  counties  and 
districts  in  this  category,  I  abeady  knew  of  from  MSS.  in  the  P.  R.  O.,  or 
from  printed  matter.  I  have  put  the  city  of  Oxford  in  this  category 
because  it  sent  a  detachment  to  London  to  coerce  the  King ;  see 
Calendar  Pat.  Bolls,  1381,  p.  16. 

As  to  the  counties  in  the  other  category,  red,  I  refer  to  Reville, 
285-7.  Also  to  the  fact  that  the  King  visited  Berkshire  in  July  to  August, 
immediately  after  the  assize  at  St.  Albans,  presumably  for  inquisitorial 


APPENDIX  367 

purposes.     The  places  to  which  Keepers  of  the  Peace  were  sent,  Eev., 
289-90,  are  not,  I  think,  necessarily  disturbed ;  e.g.  Cumberland. 

Although  I  have  given  references  to  an  English  edition  of  Froissart, 
as  being  perhaps  the  commonest  edition  in  England,  I  have  studied  his 
account  of  the  rebeUion  in  various  French  editions.  It  appears  to  me 
that  many  of  the  place-names  in  his  account  of  the  rebellion  are  so 
corrupt  that  no  reliance  can  be  placed  on  them  as  evidence. 

Note  3,  p.  229 
The  St.  Albans  and  Barnet  men  reached  London  on  the  14th, 
Friday  ;  see  Wals.,  i.  458  and  467.  In  the  nature  of  the  case  people  from 
different  parts  of  the  country  aroused  at  different  times  would  arrive  on 
different  days,  See  also  Froiss.,  ii.  475  for  the  expectation  that  more 
would  arrive  even  after  Saturday. 

Note  3,  p.  241 
So  much  is  his  identity  in  doubt  that  Knighton   (ii.  137)   says  of  this 
Smithfield  leader :  '  Watte  Tyler,  sed  jam  nomine  mutato  vocatus  est 
Jakke  Strawe.'     See  St.,  ii.  478,  note  1,  on  the  various  Tylers. 

Note  3,  p.  248 
I  have  made  out  the  King's  itinerary,  from  the  places  where  the 
Patent  EoUs  and  Privy  Seal  documents  were  signed.  These  signatures 
especially  the  latter  kind,  are  some  presumptive  evidence  as  to  the 
whereabouts  of  the  King.  A  signature  at  Westminster  or  London  does 
not  prove  the  Bang  was  there,  but  a  signature  at  some  more  unusual 
place  creates  a  great  likelihood  that  the  Court  was  there  about  that  time. 
What  other  sources  of  evidence  we  have,  confirm  the  places  and  dates 
given  by  these  signatures.  The  general  direction  of  his  itinerary  in 
putting  down  the  Eising  cannot,  I  think,  be  doubted — first  through  Essex 
then  Herts  and  Bucks  to  Berks,  and  thence,  at  the  end  of  August,  to 
Kent. 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTEE  VII 
Note  1,  p.  260 

Hot.  Pari.,  iii.  100-1.  Scrope  is  spoken  of  as  '  nouvellement  crees  ' 
November  18, 1381.  The  petition  on  p.  101,  sec.  20,  for  a  better  chancellor 
was  evidently  made  before  Scrope's  appointment,  for  the  paragraphs  of 
Bot.  Pari,  are  not  arranged  in  chronological  order,  and  Wals.  (ii.  68)  says 
that  Scrope  was  elected  '  per  regni  communitatem  et  assensum 
dominorum.'  I  see  no  reason  to  favour  Bishop  Stubbs'  suggestion  that 
Courtenay  may  have  resigned  out  of  sympathy  with  the  claims  of  the 
serfs  to  emancipation.  He  had  been  Chancellor  when  the  King  repealed 
the  charters  of  manumission.     Scrope  was  put  in  his  place  because  he 


368  APPENDIX 

was  known  to  be  a  good  minister,  while  Courtenay's  abilities  were  a 
more  unknown  quantity. 

Note  1,  p.  274 

The  Court  expenditure  on  favourites  was  the  principal  complaint 
against  Richard.  Now  I  do  not  believe  that  these  favourites  were  Pole, 
Vere,  Tressilian,  and  Brenibre ;  Wals.  (ii.  68-9)  speaks  of  those  who 
devoured  the  King's  substance  as  being  '  tarn  milites  quam  armigeri,  et 
inferioris  gradus  famuU,'  phrases  which  could  not  apply  to  any  of  the 
above-named  persons.  He  also  speaks,  p.  126,  of  '  juvenes.'  Now  Vere 
was  the  only  '  juvenis  '  among  the  favourites  of  whom  we  hear  by  name, 
so  there  must  have  been  others.    For  M.  de  la  Pole  see  Diet,  of  Nat.  Biog. 

Note  2,  :p.  274 

See  proceedings  of  ParHament  of  1386,  when  the  grievances  were 
fully  set  out.  It  appears  that  until  1389  Eichard's  '  household '  expenses 
were  about  on  a  level  with  those  of  Edward  the  Third,  which  had  caused 
such  dissatisfaction.  After  that  year  they  rose  still  further.  Sir  J.  H. 
Eamsay,  Antiquary,  iv.  209. 

Note  1,  i^  211 

Higden,  ix.  33-40 ;  Mon.  Eve.,  50-1  ;  Wals.,  ii.  112-4.  Among  the 
torturers  of  the  friar  the  chronicler  names  another,  '  P.  Courtenay ;  '  this 
probably  refers  to  one  of  the  sons  of  Earl  of  Devon,  Philip  and  Peter,  who 
were  no  friends  to  Lancaster.  Simon  Burley  is  asserted  to  have  been 
another  of  the  torturers,  and  he  afterwards  suffered  death  as  a  partisan  of 
Eichard. 

Note  1,  p.  286 

Froiss.,  iii.  chaps.  14,  15,  16  ;  Wals.,  ii.  131-2 ;  Mon.  Eve.,  61-63  ; 
Higden,  ix.  65.  The  other  chronicles  all  suppose  the  Dvike's  intention 
was  to  cross  the  Firth  of  Forth  and  continue  the  campaign  in  Scotland, 
but  Froissart  is  more  detailed  and  explicit,  and  is,  besides,  a  better 
authority  on  military  affairs.  He  asserts  that  the  design  was  to  carry 
the  war  into  Cumberland. 


NOTES  TO   CHAPTBE  VIII 


Note  1,  p.  297 

A  student  of  the  period  could  have  lived  (1)  alone,  lodging  with  a 
tradesman's  family  in  the  town,  like  Nicolas  in  Chaucer's  Miller's  Tale ; 
(2)  in  one  of  the  inns  of  the  town  ;  (3)  in  a  private  house  rented  by  a 
society  of  students ;  (4)  in  a  college,  or  some  endowed  and  disciplined 
institution. 


APPENDIX  369 

Note  1,  p.  298 

For  this  description  of  Oxford  my  chief  authorities  are  Mr.  Rashdall's 
UniversUies  of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages,  vol.  ii.  pt.  ii ;  Sir  H.  C. 
Maxwell  Lyte's  History  of  Oxford;  The  Oxford  Historical  Series, 
especially  The  Grey  Friars  in  Oxford  and  Collectanea,  ii.  193-275 ; 
Armaohanus,  Brown's  Fascimclus,  ii.  468  et  seq. ;  Chaucer's  Canterbury 
Tales,  Prologue  and  Miller's  Tale,  for  Oxford ;  and,  lastly,  the  Reeve's 
Tale,  about  the  students  of  the  sister  University. 

Note  1,  p.  307 

I  have  not  mentioned  in  the  text  Knighton's  assertions  that  WycHffe 
appeared  :  (1)  before  the  Council  of  Blackfriars  ;  Knighton,  ii.  156-8 ;  (2) 
before  the  Convocation  at  Oxford,  p.  160-2.  The  assertions  have  been 
rightly  rejected  by  all  Wycliffe  scholars.  If  these  remarkable  occurrences 
were  true,  they  could  not  have  been  omitted  from  the  official  accounts  (in 
Oourtenay's  Lambeth  Register)  of  the  business  of  these  two  assemblies. 
Kjiighton  asserts  that  at  the  Council  of  Blackfriars  Wycliffe  recanted,  and 
then  gives  us  the  form  of  his  recantation,  which  turns  out  to  be  a  re- 
statement of  his  views.  Knighton  gives  us  also  the  form  of  his  supposed 
answer  to  the  convocation  of  Oxford.  Both  these  supposed  replies  are 
popular  tracts  in  Wycliffe's  English,  and  not  careful  statements  in  Latin 
such  as  he  would  have  given  in  to  the  Bishops,  if  on  his  defence.  But 
the  Leicester  monk  was  romancing.  No  other  chronicler  and  no  official 
report  mentions  the  striking  event  of  Wycliffe's  third  and  fourth  trials. 

Note  1,2).  314 

Knighton,  ii.  151-2,  says  that  Wycliffe  translated  the  Scriptures, 
and  this  is  borne  out  by  the  fact  that  there  were  Lollard  translations 
extant  at  this  time  which  were  denoimced  by  the  Church.  This  quite 
leaves  open  the  question,  discussed  between  Mr.  Matthew  and  Doctor 
Gasquet,  whether  the  so-called '  Wycliffite  Bible '  is  by  Wycliffe. 


NOTES   TO   CHAPTER  IX 


Note  1,  p.  334 

The  Commons  definitely  petitioned  for  an  Act  '  de  heretico  combu- 
rendo  '  in  1401.     See  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  473-4. 

The  Act  of  1406  was  initiated  by  the  House  of  Lords  and  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  but  the  Commons'  Speaker  presented  the  Bill  in  the  name  of  the 
Lower  House.    Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  583. 

Note  %  p.  338 

The  satire  against  Oldcastle  and  the  Lollards  {Pol.  Poems,  ii.  243-7) 
describes  the  Rising  as  "  rearing  riot  for  to  ride  against  the  King  and  his 

B  B 


370  APPENDIX 

Clergy,'  and  there  is  no  mention  of  any  design  against  society  or  property, 
which  would  certainly  have  been  mentioned  in  this  long  satire  if  there 
had  been  the  least  ground  for  it.  The  Lollards  are  described  as  people  who 
read  the  Bible  and  loathe  images  and  pilgrimages. 

Some  Lollards  had  been  spreading  stories  that  Eichard  was  alive,  as 
far  back  as  1406  (see  Bot.  Pari.,  iii.  583-4),  but  only  as  a  lever  for  their 
own  agitation  against  their  Lancastrian  persecutors.  They  had  no 
support  from  the  Eemnant  of  the  Plantagenet  party.  Oldeastle  had  been 
a  stout  Lancastrian  at  the  time  of  the  change  of  dynasty. 

Note  1,  p.  340 

Further,  the  preambles  of  the  Lancastrian  Statutes  directed  against 
the  LoUards,  which  represent  the  worst  the  State  had  to  say  against  them, 
are  confined  to  complaints  of  religious  heresies  and  of  the  pohtical  designs 
to  which  the  persecuted  sect  was  driven  in  order  to  secure  rehgious 
liberty.  There  is  no  word  m  these  statutes  of  attacks  on  property,  except 
in  the  petition  for  legislation  against  Lollards,  in  Hot.  Pari.,  iii.  583-4, 
which  accuses  the  Lollards  of  demanding  the  seizure  of  Church  property, 
and  adds  that  the  petitioners  suppose  that  the  Lollards  will  next  proceed 
to  attack  lay  property.  This  statement  implies  that  the  Lollards  were  not 
at  the  time  actually  attacking  lay  property,  but  were  expected  to  do  so 
by  hostile  critics.  If  the  Conservative  party  issued  a  pamphlet,  saying 
'  The  Liberal  party  is  attacking  the  House  of  Lords,  and  you  may  be  sure 
it  will  soon  attack  the  Crown,'  such  a  statement  would  prove  to  the 
historian  of  a  later  age  that  the  Liberal  party  was  not  then  attacking  the 
Crown. 

Note  %  p.  342 

A  Lollard  writer  of  the  fifteenth  century  complains  in  general  terms, 
'  Our  bishops  damn  and  burn  God's  law  because  it  is  drawn  into  the 
mother  tongue.'  (Arber's  English  Beprints,  p.  172  of  vol.  for  Sept. 
1871.) 

The  burning  of  translations  possessed  by  poor  heretics  is  quite  com- 
patible with  permitting  the  orthodox  among  the  rich  to  have  English 
Bibles. 

Note  2,  p.  343 

When  Foxe  is  quoting  from  Bishops'  Registers  he  is  trustworthy,  but 
I  have  not  adopted  the  stories  that  he  tells  on  hearsay  of  old  inhabitants. 


INDEX 


Abbey  of  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  162 

Abbey  of  St.  Albans,  161,  162 

Absenteeism  in  the  Church,  119,  125 

Absolution,  114,  139,  146 

Acts  of  Provisors,  117 

Adrian  VI.,  and  religious  persecution, 

349 
Alfred,  King,  cited,  53 
Aliens  Act,  118 

Alnewick,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  his  per- 
secution of  LoUardry,  341 
Alsatia,  sanctuary  in,  97 
"v  Anne  of  Bohemia,  married  to  Eichard 
II.,  260 
Appropriation,  121,  122,  125,  126 
Aquitaine,  under  English  occupation, 

3  ;  lost  to  the  EngUsh,  7 
Archdeacon,  Chaucer's,  112,  115,  116 
Arundel,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  19 
Arundel,  Earl  of,  17,  81,  276 
Arundel,  Sir  John,  lost  at  sea  on  the 

Brittany  expedition,  100 
Artevelde,  Jacob  van,  264,  265 
Artevelde,  Philip  van,  at  Ghent,  101, 
163,  261  ;  defeats  the  Earl  of  Flan- 
ders, 264;  seeks  English  aid,  265, 266 ; 
defeated,  and  killed,  at  Eosbec,  267 
Aston,  John  (Lollard),  banished  from 
Oxford,   304 ;   zeal   as  a  Wyclifiite 
preacher,   307  ;  recants  at  Oxford, 
307,  308  ;  again  preaches  Wycliffite 
doctrines,   310 ;    against    Transub- 
stantiation,  at  Leicester,   315 ;  de- 
nounces the  Flemish  Crusade,  322  ; 
cited,  305,  339 
Aston,  Sir  Eobert,  succeeds  Serope  as 

Treasurer,  12,  48 
Ave  Maiia,  Wycliffe's  treatise,  178 
Avignon,  the  Papacy  at,  76,  77,  118, 
120,  139,  168,  181,  268 


Backstee,  Mary  (Lollard),  342 
Badby,    John     (Lollard),     burnt     in 
Smithfield,  335 


Ball,  John,  196 ;  message  of,  203 ; 
spiritual  power  in  England,  220  ; 
preaching  to  the  rioters  on  Black- 
heath,  224 ;  as  instigator  of  the 
rebellion,   237  ;  executed,  248 

Bampton,  Thomas  (poll-tax  collector), 
207,  208 

Barlowe,  William  (Lollard),  burnt,  347 

Battle,  Abbot  of,  in  arms  against 
foreign  invasion,  56 

Becherel,  a  French  stronghold,  24 

Belward,  Nicolas  (Lollard),  342 

Benedictines,  the,  297 

Benefit  of  clergy,  166 

Berton,  Chancellor,  298 

Beryngton,  John  (a  Pardoner),  137 

Bible,  the  teaching  of  the,  128,  129  ; 
translations  from  the  Latin,  130 ; 
and  in  the  vernacular,  361 

Bishops,  the,  19 ;  standing  and  envi- 
ronment of,  38, 106, 107, 108, 110, 329 

Bishops'  courts,  morality  of  officials- 
of,  116,  117 

Black  Death,  the,  124,  186,  191,  192 

Bodiham  Castle,  61 

Bolingbroke,  Henry  (son  of  the  Earl 
of  Buckingham),  288 

Boniface  VIII.,  76,  133,  168 

Bordeaux,  in  English  occupation,  7 

Brantingham,  Thomas  (Bishop  of 
Exeter),  Treasurer,  4 

Braybrook,  Bishop  (Chancellor),  275 

Brembre,  Sir  Nicholas  (Mayor  of 
London),  49,  238,  274,  278,  281, 
327  ;  executed,  282 

Brest,  in  English  occupation,  7 

Bretigny,  Treaty  of,  2,  55 

Brittany,  Duke  of,  aided  by  the 
English,  7,  100 ;  abandons  the 
English  alliance,  101 

Bruges,  at  war  with  Ghent,  263,  264 

Brunton,  Bishop  of  Eochester,  20; 
eulogises  the  Black  Prince,  27  ;  on 
the  escape  of  criminals  from  justice, 
93  ;  cited,  106,  119 

B  B  2 


372 


INDEX 


Brute,  Walter  (Lollard),  scope  of  his 
belief,  325 ;  his  submission  and  re- 
cantation, 326 ;  cited,  339 

Bryan,  Lord,  45 

Buckingham,  Earl  of  (Thomas  of 
Woodstock,  Eichardll.'s  uncle),  43, 
70  ;  in  command  of  expedition  to 
Brittany,  101 ;  cited,  232,  245,  246, 
277,283;  made  Duke  of  Gloucester, 
288 

Burley,  Simon  de,  claims  his  serf,  at 
Gravesend,  209 

Bury  (merchant),  26 

Buxhall,  Sir  Alan  (Governor  of  the 
Tower),  89 


C^SAEEAN  clergy,  110,  111,  172 

Calais,  in  English  occupation,  7,  10 

Cambridge,  Earl  of,  4 

Canterbury,  134 ;  under  rebel  rule,  211, 
216 

Canterbury  College,  297 

Carlyll,  Adam  (Alderman  of  London), 
227  ;  tried  for  aiding  rebels,  and 
acquitted,  280 

Cavendish,  Sir  John  (Chief  Justice), 
murdered  by  rioters,  217 

Celibacy,  decreed  to  priests,  126 ;   328 

Chantries,  foundation  of,  132 

Chantry  priests,  153 

Charity,  conception  of,  160 

Charles  V.  of  France,  seizes  English 
possessions  in  France,  3 ;  cited,  100, 
101, 260 

Charles  VI.  of  France,  101 

Chaucer,  quoted,  55,  66,  112 ;  his 
Archdeacon,  115 ;  his  Summoner, 
116  ;  on  tithes,  126  ;  on  pilgrimages, 
133 ;  his  hatred  of  Pardoners,  135, 
136,  137  ;  his  dislike  of  friars,  143  ; 
his  '  Summoner's  Tale,'  147 ;  on 
idolatry,  179 

Cheapside,  John  of  Gaunt's  arms  re- 
versed in,  47,  49 

Cheshire,  60 

Chicheley,  Archbishop,  124 

Church  courts,  113, 114 

Church  endowments,  curtailed,  6 

Clement  V.,  76 

Clement  VI.,  77 

Clement  VII.,  118,  268 

Clementists  at  feud  with  Urbanites,  271 

Clergy,  the,  143  et  seq. 

Clerks  in  holy  orders,  153 

Clifford,  Sir  Lewis  (Lollard),  85,  327 

Colchester,  protection  to  debtors  in  its 
abbey,  96 

Colleyn  (Lollard  preacher),  318 


Communism,  197,  198, 199 

Confessional,  the,  115,  138,  140 

Consubstantiation,  175,  293,  312,  326, 
348 

Convocation,  at  St.  Paul's,  37  ;  refuse 
supplies,  38  ;  summon  William  of 
Wykeham,  38  ;  Wycliffe  summoned 
before,  43  ;  rights  vested  in,  167 

Cornwall,  the  complaint  of,  56 

Cote,  John  (approver),  250 

Courtenay  (Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury), cited,  19,  21,  30,  38,  43,  44, 
71,  79,  85 ;  supports  the  Papacy, 
78 ;  issues  Gregory  XL's  bull 
against  the  Florentines,  79  ;  recalls 
it,  80 ;  attacks  Wycliffe,  80  ;  action 
on    the     murder     of    Haule,    90; 

V  [resigns  the  chancellorship,  260; 
■*  quarrels  with  Eichard,  283  ;  inarms 
against  heresy,  292 ;  firmness  in 
dealing  with  Wycliffism,  294 ;  at 
Oxford,  301,  302,  303,  307  ;  repress- 
ing Lollardry  at  Leicester,  320 

Courts  Christian,  112 

Cr6cy,  16 

Criminous  clerks,  167 

Crumpe,  Henry  (monk),  308,  304 


Daltngeuge,  Sie  Edward,  61 
Danes,  their  invasions  of  England,  53 
De  Dominio  Civili,  Wyeliffe's,  42 
De  Hasretico  Comburendo,  Statute  of, 

334 
De  Officio  Eegis,  Wyeliffe's,  97,  98 
Debtors,  and  Sanctuary,  94,  96 
Denia,  Count   of   (Spanish  grandee), 
captured  by  two  English  knights, 
87  ;  his  son  his  hostage,  87 
Devon,  Earl  of,  17 
Du  Guesclin,  100 
Durham,  134 
Durham  College,  297 


Edwaed  the  Black  Prince,  governor 
of  Aquitaine,  3 ;  difficulties  with 
his  soldiers,  3,  4 ;  dying,  4,  9,  17 ; 
hostility  to  John  of  Gaunt,  18 ; 
rejects  Lyons'  bribe,  24  ;  death,  26  ; 
burial  place,  27  ;  character,  27 

Edward  the  Third,  in  his  last  years, 
4  ;  influenced  strongly  by  John  of 
Gaunt,  9 ;  liaison  with  Alice  Fer- 
rers, 28,  29,  32  ;  dissolves  the  Com- 
mons' Council,  31 ;  cancels  the 
Acts  passed  by  the  Good  Parlia- 
ment, 33 ;  disliked  by  the  people, 
35  ;  promises  to  respect  the  liberties 


INDEX 


373 


of  the  Londoners,  47  ;  in  agreement 
with  Eome  on  Church  appoint- 
ments, 107  ;  his  death,  50  ;  public 
mourning  thereon,  70 

Eltham,  royal  manor  of,  30,  337 

Elys  (merchant),  26 

England,  exhausted  by  the  French 
and  Spanish  war,  8 ;  its  coast  de- 
fences, 56 

English  Bibles,  130 

Erasmus,  on  the  persecution  of  the 
Wycliffites,  349 

Erghum,  Ealph,  Bishop  of  Salisbury, 
20 

Essex,  Eising  of  the  peasants  in,  208  ; 
suppression  of  the  rebellion,  246 

Eucharist,  the  doctrine  of  the,  175, 
293,  298,  808,  363 

Exeter,  its  citizens  in  conflict  with 
Church  authorities,  163 


Fbeeeks,  Sib  Ealph,  claims  the  cus- 
tody of  the  Count  of  Denia's  son, 
88  ;  arrests  Shakell,  89 

Fitz-Ealph,  Bishop  of  Armagh,  on  the 
friars'  powers  of  absolution,  139 ; 
his  dislike  of  the  friars,  143  ;  his 
doctrine  of  Dominion,  172 

Fitzwalter,  Lord,  45 

Flanders,  Earl  of,  261,  263 

Flanders,  the  revolt  in,  262 

Flemings,  massacred  in  London  in 
the  Eising,  237,  238  ;  their  massacre 
avenged,  248 

Florentines,  excommunicated  by  Gre- 
gory XL,  79 

Fox,  John  (mayor  of  Northampton), 
favours  Lollardry,  318 

France,  her  fleet  occupies  the  Isle  of 
Wight  and  Sussex,  72 

Francis  of  Assisi,  156 

Franciscans,  the,  298 

Frandon,  Thomas,  281 

Franklin,  the,  of  the  Canterbury  Pil- 
grimage, 66 

French  translation  of  the  Bible,  130 

Fresh,  John  (alderman),  227 

Friars,  the,  status  of,  106;  consider 
confession  and  absolution  methods 
of  earning  money,  115;  oppose  the 
spread  of  Scripture  knowledge,  130  ; 
as  paid  confessors,  138,  189,  140 ; 
the  four  orders,  143 ;  mendicant, 
143,  144  ;  education  and  mode  of 
.  life,  144  ;  influence,  145  ;  rivalries, 
145  ;  art  of  preaching,  146 ;  powers 
of  absolution,  146 ;  sway  over 
women,  146,  147,  148  ;  relations  to 


the  secular  government,  149  ;  agents 
of  the  Pope,  149  ;  tenet  of  poverty, 
150;  distrust  of  Wycliffe,  152; 
accused  of  mercenary  motives  for 
preaching,  177  ;  accused  of  preach- 
ing communism,  198  ;  on  the  side 
of  Urban,  268  ;  proselytism,  297 ; 
their  strength  at  Oxford,  297 ;  ac- 
cused of  inciting  the  poor  against 
the  rich,  300 ;  seek  John  of  Gaunt's 
protection,  300 ;  Courtenay's  inter- 
position in  behalf  of,  301 ;  charged 
with  heresy,  308  ;  prosecute  Swyn- 
derby,  315  ;  various  means  of  influ- 
ence at  disposal,  313 ;  against  the 
use  of  the  Bible,  361,  368 

Froissart,  on  English  arrogance  in 
France,  2  ;  status  as  a  chronicler, 
159  ;  on  John  Ball,  197 ;  on  the 
Jacquerie,  214  ;  on  the  Eising,  215, 
220,  229,  289;  on  the  Flemish 
revolt,  263,  267,  268 

Frompton  (vicar  of  Bridgewater),  222 

Gaunt,  John  of.     See  John  of  Gaunt 
Ghent,  under  Artevelde,  at  war  with 
the  Earl   of    Flanders,   263,    264, 
267  ;  at  the  end  of  the  war  accepts 
his  suzerainty,  273 
Gilbert,  Bishop  John,  323 
Glastonbury,    pilgrimage    shrine    at, 

134,  340 
Gloucester  College,  297 
Gloucester,  Lollardry  at,  322 
Good   Parliament,    the,    constitution 
of,  13-16  ;  devise  the  bringing  great 
offenders  to  the  bar  of  the  Lords, 
22  ;  against  women  pleading  causes, 
29  ;  tries  to  check  John  of  Gaunt's 
schemes,  30 ;  visits  Edward  III.  at 
Eltham,  30 ;  its   Council  to  guide 
him  dissolved,  31;   declared  to  be 
no   parliament,  33  ;   petitions  pre- 
sented,  57 ;    on   lawless   retainers, 
60  ;  against  aliens  holding  benefices, 
117 ;  on  the  Statute  of  Labourers, 
189.     See  also  House  of  Commons 
Goos,  John  (Lollard),  burnt,  847 
Gower  (poet),   on   the  Bishops,  111 ; 
alarmed  at  ecclesiastical  greediness, 
168  ;  on  the  Peasants'  Eising,  214, 
282 ;  against  war,  829 
Gravesend,  the  people   of,    interpose 

between  Burley  and  his  serf,  209 
'  Great  Society,'  the,  203,  209,  219 
Gregory  XL,   77 ;  bull   against   Wy- 
cliffei,78;  bull  against  Florentines, 
79;, cited,  80,  118,  152,  181 
Grosset^e,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  172 


374 


INDEX 


Halderby,  Waltee,  indicted  for  in- 
citing peasants,  188 

Hales,  Eobert  (Treasurer),  property 
destroyed  by  rioters,  231 ;  killed  by 
them,  235 

Haselden,  Thomas  (John  of  Gaunt's 
valet),  216 

Haule  (English  knight),  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Shakell,  captures  the 
Count  of  Denia,  87  ;  refuses  to  give 
up  the  Count's  hostage  son,  88 ; 
imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  89  ;  in 
sanctuary  at  Westminster  Abbey, 
89  ;  killed  there,  90,  94,  95 

Henry  H.,  58 

Henry  IV.,  33,  333 

Henry  V.,  tries  to  dissuade  the  Lollard 
Badby  from  martyrdom,  335  ;  seeks 
to  influence  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  336  ; 
plot  to  seize  him,  337 

Henry  VII..  347 

Henry  VIII.,  his  attack  on  the  monas- 
teries, 160  ;  cited,  165,  350 

Henry  of  Castile,  King,  3 

Hereford,  Nicolas  (Wycliffite), 
preaches  against  friars  and  monks, 
300 ;  suspended,  303 ;  banished 
from  Oxford,  304 ;  excommunicated, 
305  ;  goes  to  Eome  on  appeal,  305  ; 
imprisoned  there  by  the  Pope,  310  ; 
released,  joins  Aston,  310  ;  returns 
to  orthodoxy,  319  ;  cited,  323,  339 

Hildebrand,  126 

Holland,  Sir  John,  his  conduct  in  the 
Peasants'  Eising,  234 ;  tortures  a 
friar,  277 ;  murders  Sir  Ealph 
Stafford,  284 

Horn,  John  (alderman),  intrigues  with 
rioters,  227,  228,  243 

Houghton,  Adam,  Bishop  of  St. 
David's,  resigns  chancellorship,  91 

House  of  Commons,  hostile  to  bishop 
ministers,  5 ;  constitution  of  the, 
14,  16  ;  dealing  with  Supplies,  21 ; 
impeaches  privy  councillors,  22 ; 
refuses  Supplies  until  national 
grievances  are  remedied,  23 ; 
impeaches     Lyons     and    Latimer, 

•)('  24;  ensures  Eichard's  succession, 
28 ;  bill  to  transfer  government  of 
London  to  King's  Marshal,  43,  45  ; 
aims  of,  52 ;  petitions  for  yearly 
removal  of  Sheriffs,  57 ;  seeks  to 
repress  disorder,  64 ;  strength  in 
1377,  73  ;  necessity  for  experienced 
parliamentary  leaders,  73;  reforms, 
74 ;  Act  restricting  rights  of  frau- 
dulent debtors  to  sanctuary,  98 ; 
action   on  failure  of   Brittany    ex- 


pedition. 101 ;  asks  for  John  of 
Gaunt's  aid  as  one  of  the  associated 
lords,  252  ;  in  favour  of  Spencer 
and  the  Flanders  expedition,  270 ; 
refuses  to  sanction  persecution  of 
Lollards,  311,  313 ;  proposition  to 
seize  Church  temporalities,  333. 
See  Good  Parliament 

House  of  Lords,  constitution  of  the, 
16 ;  confiscates  the  property  of 
Alice  Perrers,  74 

Hun,  Ei chard  (Lollard),  349 

Hundred  Years'  War,  the,  255 

Hungerford,    Sir     Thomas,     elected 

j    Speaker,  37 

TBuntingdon,     Earl    of,    created     by 
Eichard  II.,  70 

Hussite  movement,  the,  262 

Imwoeth,  Eichaed  (Warden  of  the 
Marshalsea),  beheaded  by  the  mob, 
240 

Indulgences,  137,  138,  362 

Inquisition,  the,  311 

Islip,  Archbishop,  124 

Jacqueeie,  the,  214 

John  de  la  Mare  (member  for  Wilt- 
shire), 29 

John  of  Gaunt  (Duke  of  Lancaster), 
4 ;  in  command  of  the  English 
army  in  France,  5,  7,  9  ;  influence 
over  Edward  III.,  9,  31 ;  his  sup- 
porters, 10,  11 ;  enemies,  17,  18 ; 
shrinks  from  conflict  with  the 
Commons,  24 ;  condemns  Latimer 
for  fraud  and  treachery,  25  ;  endea- 
vours to  secure  succession  to  the 
Crown,  28 ;  in  disfavour  with 
Londoners,  35  ;  politic  concessions 
to  curry  popular  favour,  36 ;  tam- 
pers with  elections,  39  ;  tries  to 
stifle  Commons  minority,  37 ;  sup- 
ports confiscation  of  Church  pro- 
perty, 39,  41 ;  urges  Wyeliffe  to 
preach  disendowment,  42 ;  his 
bill  to  secure  government  of  Lon- 
don, 43  ;  aids  Wyeliffe  at  St.  Paul's, 
44 ;  attacked  by  mob,  is  sheltered 
by  Black  Prince's  widow,  46 ; 
procures  the  excommunication 
of  his  lampooners,  48 ;  granted 
the  Jura  Eegalia,  49  ;  his  castles, 
61,  62  ;  effect  of  Edward's  death 
on  his  career,  68 ;  supports  the  \ 
succession  of  Eichard  11. ,  69,  70 ;  ** 
retires  to  private  life,  71 ;  deprived 
of  Hertford   Castle,   71 ;  at  Kenil- 


INDEX 


375 


V 


worth,  72  ;  at  head  of  expedition  to 
St.  Malo,  75  ;  claim   to  throne    of 
Spain,    88 ;     forbids     Wyeliffe    to 
speak  on  Transubstantiation,  174 
position  in  the  Rising,  216  ;  destruc 

/tion  of  his  palaces  by  rioters,  220 
at  feud  with  Percy,  249,  258;  ex- 
onerated by  Richard  from  charge 
of  disloyalty,  250  ;  made  king  by  a 
section  of  the  rebels,  251 ;  disliked 
by  Richard,  257  ;  proposes  an  in- 

^vasion   of   Spain,   266 ;    intervenes 

'between  Richard  and  Arundel,  276  ; 

VRichard's  plot   against   him,   283 ; 

^with  the  King  on  the  invasion  of 
Scotland,  284,  286  ;  in  Spain,  288  ; 
rejects  Wyeliffe' s  theory  of  the 
Eucharist,  293,  298 ;  neutral  in 
Oxford  divisions,  300 ;  breaks  with 
Wyeliffe,  299  ;  intercedes  for  the 
Lollard  Swynderby,  315 
John  of  Northampton  (Mayor  of 
London),  278 ;  rules  London 
through  a  clique,  279 ;  attacks  the 
'  stews  '  of  Southwark,  280  ;  elected 
Mayor  of  London  for  the  second 
time,  280 ;  imprisoned  for  con- 
spiracy, 281 ;  restored  to  his  estate, 

John  XXII.,  77 

Jura  Regalia  of  the  County  Palatine, 

49 
Juries,  217 
Jurors,  113 

Kateington,  Thomas  de  (governor  of 

St.  Sauveur),  25 
Kenilworth  Castle,  61 
Kent,  Earl  of,  234,  245,  250 
Kent,  the  Peasants'  Rising  in,  209 
Kentwood,  John  (member  for  Berks), 

29 
Ket's  rising,  215 
Knighton,  on  the  crusade  against  the 

Clementists,  268 
Knights  of  the  Shire,  14,  36,  57,  67, 

811 
KnoUes,  Sir  Robert,  243 
Knox,  John,  cited,  40 
Knyvet  (Chancellor)  12,  20,  111 


Lambeth  Palace,  228 

Lampoons  against  John  of  Gaunt,  48 

Lancashire,  60 

Lancaster,  Duchess  (wife  of  John  of 

Gaunt),  223 
Lancaster,    Duke    of.    See    John    of 

Gaunt 


V 


Langland,  WiUiam  (author  of  '  Piers 
Plowman'),  quoted,  35,  39,  124; 
exposes  the  corruption  of  lawyers 
and  jurors,  113  ;  on  penance  and 
absolution,  115 ;  on  pilgrimages, 
135  ;  his '  Pardoner,'  136 ;  jealous 
of  the  friars,  143 ;  on  the  lower 
clergy,  154,  and  monastic  life, 
159 ;  censures  idolatry,  179 ;  on 
friars'  preaching  communism,  198  ; 
on  the  King's  and  the  nobles'  re- 
tainers, 289 ;  on  the  loose  discussion 
of  religious  matters,  312 

Latimer,  Hugh,  cited,  128 

Latimer,  Lord,  9,  10,  11, 17,  24-26,  80, 
31,  71,  74 ;  claims  the  custody  of 
the  son  of  the  Count  of  Denia,  18 ; 
arrests  Shakell,  89 

Latimer,  Sir  Thomas  (Lollard),  317, 
320,  327 

Latin,  in  the  pulpit,  127,  128 

Lawyers,  113 

Leg,  John  (poll-tax  collector),  and  his 
commission  of  Trailbaston,  209, 
210;  takes  refuge  in  the  Tower, 
232  ;  murdered  there  by  the  rioters, 
236 

Leicester,  a  seat  of  LoUardry,  313, 
320 

Limoges,  the  massacre  at,  27 

Littlehaw,  tenants  of,  refuse  services 
to  lord  of  the  manor,  254 

Lollards,  the,  purpose  to  abolish  im- 
prisonment for  debt,  94  ;  persecuted 
for  reading  the  Bible,  131 ;  depre- 
ciate the  value  of  Church  sacra- 
ments and  ceremonies,  175  ;  preach- 
ing their  chief  aid  in  conversion, 
177 ;  animus  against  saint  and 
image  worship,  179,  316 ;  accuse 
the  friars  of  setting  class  against 
class,  198 ;  have  no  share  in  the 
Rising,  200  ;  banned  by  the  Church, 
293;  Wyeliffe' s  princip^al  tenets 
condemned  by  the  Council,  293, 294, 
300 ;  class  furnishing  their  preachers, 
306  ;  banished  from  Oxford,  309  ;  /^ 
the  Commons  get  Richard's  edict 
against  them  revoked,  310 ;  their 
chief  centres,  313 ;  new  views  on 
Transubstantiation,  315 ;  dress, 
speech,  and  demeanour,  317 ; 
favourable  reception  throughout 
England,  318 ;  indisposition  to 
martyrdom,  319 ;  attack  friars  in 
London,  327 ;  views  placed  before 
Parliament,  327,  328;  in  arms 
against  oppression,  337 ;  meeting 
in  St.  Giles'  Fields,  338  ;  character 


376 


INDEX 


of  the  Poor  Priests,  339  ;  uncon- 
nected with  Sociahsm,  339  ;  in  the 
West  of  England  and  in  East  Anglia, 
340,  341,  343  ;  schools  and  religious 
tracts,  341,  343;  increase  of 
martyrdom  among,  347;  renewed 
strength  and  renewed  persecution, 
348  ;  aided  by  Lutheranism,  350  ; 
in  Scotland,  353,  354 

London,  standing  of  its  merchant 
princes,  15 ;  scheme  for  the  trans- 
ference of  its  government,  46  ;  Lord 
Percy's  assumption  of  its  magis- 
tracy, 46  ;  outbreak  of  citizens,  46  ; 
its  hberties  guaranteed  by  Edward, 
48 ;  Mayor  and  Sheriffs  charged 
with  rioting.  48  ;  and  deprived  of 
their  posts,  49  ;  apprentices,  49  ;  in 
occupation  of  the  rioters,  229-248  ; 
trade  rivalries  in,  278,  279 ;  a  focus 
of  Lollardry,  327 

London  Bridge,  227 

Lutheranism,  in  aid  of  WycUffism, 
349 

Lutterworth  Church,  313 

Lynn,  resents  ecclesiastical  inter- 
ference, 163 

Lyons,  John,  beheaded  by  rioters, 
238  ^i 

Lyons,  Ki chard  (London  merchant), 
10  ;  doubtful  speculations,  11  ; 
punished  for  fraud,  24,  30 


Maintenance,  58,  59,  60,  278 
Man,  Thomas  (Lollard),  burnt,  348 
Manuden,  parish  priest  of  (Lollard), 

burnt,  343 
March,  Earl  of,  17,  22,  28,  30,  32,  69, 

71 ;  resigns  the  Marshalship,  32,  33  ; 

his  castles,  62  ;  death,  276 
Mare,  de  la.     See  Peter  de  la  Mare 
Marshalsea  prison,  228 
Marsiglio  of  Padua,  172 
Mass,  the,  174 
Masses  for  the  dead,  132 
Melrose    Abbey     destroyed    by    the 

English,  285 
Merchant-sailors,  54 
/  Michael  de  la  Pole.     See  Pole 
\(  Mile   End,   meeting   of  Eichard  and 

rioters  at,  235 
Military  service,  conditions  of,  65 
Monasteries,  absorb  tithes  and  church 

dues,   122;   life   in,  divorced  from 

national  life,  157 ;  status  of,  161 ; 

manorial  system   on  their  estates, 

161 ;  attacked  by  local  serfs,  161 ; 

avenged,  162  ;  destruction  of,  164 


Monks,  defy  the  government,  91 ;  of 
the  regular  clergy,  106  ;  displace 
the  priest,  122;  status  of,  144; 
cloistral  life,  157;  teaching,  157; 
copying  MSS.  and  illumination, 
158  ;  chronicles,  158  ;  morality,  159  ; 
uselessness  of  their  life,  159 ;  duties 
to  the  poor,  160;  tenacious  of 
manorial  rights,  161 ;  at  Oxford, 
297 

Montagu,  Lord  John  (Lollard),  327,  329 

Morley,  Lord  Thomas,  246 


Navy,  the,  character  of,   in  Edward 

III.'s  reign,  52-54  ;  decay  of,  55 
Neville,  Archbishop  of  York,  19 
Neville,    Lord     (son-in-law   of    Lord 

Latimer),   10 ;   commercial    immo- 

rahty,    11  ;     removed    from    Privy 

Council  Board,  26,  64 
Newton,     Sir     John     (Governor     of 

Eochester  Castle),  211 
Norfolk,  pilgrimage  places  in,  134 
Northampton,    Parliament    meet    at, 

102  ;  a  Lollard  centre,  319 
Northumberland,  60 
Norwich,  134 
Nottingham,     Earl    of     (created    by 

Eichard  II.),  70 
Nottingham,  Lollardry  at,  321 
Nottingham  Castle,  32,  35 


Occam,  religious  tenets  of,  172 
Oldcastle,  Sir  John,  an  ardent  Lollard, 
336  ;  confined  in,  and  escapes  from, 
the  Tower,  337 ;  caught  and  hanged, 
338 
Oxford,  Eobert  Vere,  Earl  of,  274,  283 
Oxford   University,  influence  of  Wy- 
cliffe  at,  42  ;  an  intellectual  centre, 
199  ;  its  place  in  the  nation,  295  ; 
divisions  in,  296;  character  of  its 
students,  296,  297  ;  influence  of  the 
friars  at,  297 ;  Wycliffe's  doctrines 
paramount  at,  298 ;   Lollards  ban- 
ished from,  309  ;  its  literary  work 
checked,  309 


Papacy,  the,  in  1377,  75 

Paraphrase  of   Genesis   and  Exodus, 

quoted,  129 
Pardoners,  135,  136,  137,  138 
Parish  priests,  effects  of  the  Black 

Death  on,  124 ;  marriage  of,  126 ; 

their  teaching,  127 ;  status  of,  144 


INDEX 


377 


Parishes,  number  of,  in  England, 
6 

Parker  (Lollard  preacher),  323 

Parliament,  of  1371,  4  ;  of  1373-1376, 
9  ;  the  Good,  13  ;  at  Northampton, 
102.     See  House  of  Commons 

PatteshuU,  Walter  (Lollard  priest), 
his  charge  against  the  friars,  327 

Pattison,  Mark,  quoted  on  satire,  106 
note 

Peachy  (merchant),  26 

Peasants'  Rising,  of  1381,  causes  of, 
183  ;  tenure  of  villeins  or  serfs,  184  ; 
forced  service  commuted  for  money 
payment,  186 ;  effects  of  Black 
Death  on  labour  conditions,  186  ; 
Statute  of  Labourers,  187  ;  free  la- 
bourers driven  into  outlawry,  189  ; 
fluctuations  in  labourers'  prosperity, 
190 ;  significance  of  the  flight  of 
villeins,  191,  193 ;  the  villeins' 
struggle  for  freedom,  193 ;  their 
obligations  to  their  lords,  194  ;  John 
Ball's  agitation,  196  ;  the  Rising  not 
a  Lollard  movement,  200 ;  upper 
classes  preached  against,  201 ; 
fomenters  of  revolt,  202  ;  formation 
of  the  Great  Society,  203  ;  the  poll- 
tax,  205  ;  beginning  of  disturbance, 
206,  207  ;  outbreaks  in  Essex  and 
Kent,  208,  209  ;  union  of  peasants 
of  those  two  counties,  210 ;  uprising 
in  Somerset  and  Yorkshire,  212 ; 
poor  armament  of  the  rioters,  213  ; 
early  outrages,  214  ;  popular  hatred 
of  John  of  Gaunt,  216,  219  ;  dislike 
of  lawyers,  217,  218 ;  belief  in 
charters,  218 ;  direct  aims  of  the 
rebels,  219 ,  trust  in  Richard,  219, 
220 ;  attitude  towards  ecclesiastics, 
220 ;  religious  houses  attacked,  221, 
222;  districts  chiefly  affected,  221, 
222,  223 ;  rebels  at  Blackheath,  223, 
225,  226 ;  invite  the  King  to  their 
camp,  226 ;  enter  London,  229 ; 
destroy  palaces  and  prisons,  231; 
besiege  the  Tower,  232 ;  terms  ob- 
tained from  Richard  at  Mile  End, 
234 ;  murders  in  the  Tower,  236  ; 
most  of  the  rebels  quit  London  with 
their  charters,  237;  Wat  Tyler 
killed  in  Smithfield,  241 ;  surrender 
of  rioters  in  Clerkenwell  Fields,  243  ; 
Rising  quelled  in  the  provinces,  244 ; 
Bloody  Assize  in  Essex,  246 ;  exe- 
cutions in  London,  248 ;  Act  of 
Pardon  passed,  with  exceptions, 
251 ;  failure  of  Rising,  253  ;  results, 
254,  255 


Peeock,  Reginald,  Bishop  of  Chichester, 
his  writings  in  defence  of  the  Church, 
344-346 ;  discredited  and  deprived 
of  see,  346 

Pedro  the  Cruel,  87 

Pembroke,  Earl  of,  4,  5 ;  defeated  by 
the  French,  7 

Penance,  131,  132 

Percy,  Earl  of  Northumberland  (father 
of  Hotspur),  17 ;  character  and 
career,  21  ;  joins  John  of  Gaunt 's 
party,  32 ;  made  Marshal  of  Eng- 
land, 32  ;  interferes  on  behalf 
of  Peter  de  la  Mare,  32  ;  his  castles, 
62  ;  at  Richard's  Coronation,  70  ; 
made  Earl,  71 ;  resigns  Earl  Mar- 
shalship,  72 ;  in  antagonism  to 
John  of  Gaunt,  249,  258 ;  interest  in 
Border  affairs,  287  ;  cited,  30,  36,  37, 
41, 42,  43,  46 

Perrers,  Alice  (Edward  HI.'s  mistress), 
in  alliance  with  John  of  Gaunt,  9, 
29 ;  relations  with  Edward,  28  ;  ac- 
cused of  being  married  and  of 
wizardry,  29  ;  banished  the  King, 
29 ;  returns  to  him,  32  ;  property 
confiscated,  74 

Pert,  John  (Lollard),  342 

Peter   de  la   Mare   (Speaker    of    the 
House  of  Commons),  23  ;  in  prison 
at    Nottingham    Castle,    32,     37 
on    the     mercantile    marine,    56 
seneschal  to  the  Earl  of  March,  66 
reception  on  discharge  from  Notting- 
ham Castle,  70  ;  parliamentary  ex- 
perience, 73 

Philip  the  Fair,  75,  76 

Philpot,  John  (Alderman),  appointed 
receiver  of  taxes,  74,  91,  279 

Piers  Gaveston,  274 

'  Piers  Plowman,'  35,  65,  113,  204 

Pilgrimage,  132,  133,  134,  135 

Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  352 

Plurality  of  cures,  119 

Poitiers,  16 

Poitou,  lost  to  the  English,  7 

Pole,  Michael  de  la,  257,  274 ;  chan- 
cellor, 275  ;  intercedes  for  Courte- 
nay,  283  ;  counsel  on  the  invasion 
of  Scotland,  286 

Poll-tax,  amount  raised  by,  99,  100, 
101,  102,  205 

Ponthieu,  seized  by  the  French,  3 

Poor  Priests  (Wycliffe's),  their  charac- 
ter and  mission,  177,  199,  200,  301, 
322,  326,  330,  331,  339,  341,  363 

Pope,  the,  restrictions  on  his  influence 
in  England,  107,  117,  118.  See 
individual  Popes  under  names 


378 


INDEX 


Prior  of  Bury  St.  Edraunds,  murdered 
by  his  own  serfs,  216,  217 

Priory  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem,  de- 
stroyed, 231 

Pulpit,  influence  of  the,  127,  128 

Purvey,  John  (Lollard  preacher),  315, 
339 ;  denounces  the  celebration  of 
the  Mass,  323  ;  recants,  834 

Purveyance,  259 

V    Queen-mother  (mother  of  Eichard  II.) , 
226,  237,  244,  283 


Eansom,  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
87 

Eeading,  Church  claims  to  appoint 
municipality,  163 

Eegulars,  106,'  122,  297,  308 

Eepyngton  (Wycliffite),  his  sermons, 
301,  303;  banished  from  Oxford, 
304  ;  excommunicated,  305  ;  recants 
and  is  restored,  307 

Eeseby,  John  (Lollard),  burnt,  353 

Eetainers,  58,  59,  60,  61,  64,  68 

Eichard  II.,  luxury  in  his  reign,  63  ; 
accession  to  throne  and  coronation, 
69,  70  ;  indebtedness,  102  ;  in  agree- 
ment with  the  Pope  on  Church 
appointments,  107,  118 ;  action  at 
St.  Albans,  162,  248;  the  idol  of 
the  people,  219  ;  his  commission  of 
Trailbaston,  225 ;  at  the  Eising 
seeks  safety  in  the  Tower,  332 ; 
makes  terms  with  the  rioters  at  Mile 
End,  234 ;  at  worship  with  his  nobles 
at  Westminster  Abbey,  24^3  ;  meets 
rioters  in  Smichfield,  241 ;  heroic 
behaviour,  242  ;  operations  against 
rebels,  245 ;  absolves  John  of  Gaunt 
from  charge  of  disloyalty,  250 ; 
hatred  and  jealousy  of  John  of 
Gaunt,  257,  281,  283  ;  endeavours  at 
personal  government,  259  ;  marries 
Anne  of  Bohemia,  260,  261 ;  fluctu- 
ating character,  273  ;  favourites  and 
spendthrift  Court,  274,  368  ;  deprives 
Scrope  and  Braybrook  of  chancellor- 
ship and  bestows  it  on  Pole,  275 ; 
at  enmity  with  the  peers,  276  ;  plot 
against  him,  276 ;  rage  at  the  friar's 
murder,  277  ;  upbraided  by  Buck- 
ingham, 277  ;  his  partisans,  278  ;  at 
the  trial  of  John  of  Northampton, 
281 ;  quarrel  with  Courtenay,  283  ; 
invasion  of  Scotland,  284  ;  tactics 
on  the  return  from  Scotland,  286  ; 
treatment  of    the   Commons,   287, 


288;  restores  Crumpe  at  Oxford, 
304 ;  compels  Chancellor  of  Oxford 
University  to  proclaim  Wycliffe's 
errors,  308 

Eochelle,  naval  fight  off,  7,  8 

Eochester  Castle,  fall  of,  in  the  Eising, 
211 

Eome,  77,  78 

Eosbec,  battle  of,  267 

Bygge,  Eobert,  elected  Chancellor  of 
Oxford  University,  299  ;  champions 
Wycliffism,  299,  300  ;  publishes  con- 
demnation of  Wycliffe's  theses,  302 ; 
asks  pardon  of  the  council,  302  ;  re- 
cants, 307 ;  accuses  the  friars  of 
heresy,  308 


St.  Albans,  the  rising  at,  162,  218, 
248 

St.  Augustine,  quoted,  176 

St.  Dominic,  order  of,  144 

St.  Edmundsbury,  124,  134,  162,  164 

St.  Francis,  order  of,  144 

St.  Giles'  Fields,  Lollard  meeting  at, 
338 

St.  Malo,  75 

St.  Paul's  Cross,  90 

St.  Peter's,  Gloucester,  91 

St.  Sauveur,  24 

Salisbury,  Bishop  of,  71 

Salisbury,  Earl  of,  232  ;  opposed  to 
attacking  the  rioters  in  London, 
233,  245,  250 

Salisbury,  Parliament  of  1384  held  at, 
276 

Sanctuary,  89,  90,  91,  94,  95  ;  right  of, 
questioned,  92  :  legislation  concern- 
ing, 96 ;  modified  and  abolished, 
97 

Savoy,  destruction  of  the,  46,  231 

Sawtrey,  William,  burnt,  334 

Scotland,  invasion  of,  by  Eichard  II., 
284  ;  Lollardry  in,  353,  354 

Scrope,  Lord,  made  Chancellor,  91, 
260 ;  acknowledges  financial  deficit, 
98,  101 ;  vacates  chancellorship,  r/ 
101,  275  ;  protests  against  Eichard's 
expenditure  on  his  courtiers,  275 ; 
cited,  11,  367 

Seculars,  106,  122,  296,  297,  298,  308 

Shakell  (English  knight),  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Haule,  captures  the  Count 
of  Denia,  87  ;  refuses  to  give  up 
Denia's  hostage  son,  88 ;  confined 
in  the  Tower,  89 ;  seeks  sanctuary 
in  Westminster  Abbey,  89  ;  arrested, 
89  ;  released  and  indemnified,  97 

Sheriffs,  36,  57,  58 


c°^ 


-J^ 


INDEX 


379 


Shipman,  Chaucer's,  55 

Simon  de  Montfort,  62 

Simony,  120 

Sluys,  battle  of,  8,  53,  55 
,  Smith,  William  (Lollard),  recants  and 
does  penance,  320 

Smithfield,  meeting  between  Eichard 
and  rioters  at,  241 

Somerset,  Earl  of,  attitude  of  his 
tenantry  to  the  Church,  341 

Southwark,  the  '  stews  '  of,  280 

Spain  in  league  with  France,  3 ; 
French  and  Spanish  fleets  ravage 
south  coast  of  England,  79 

Spencer,  Henry,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 
21 ;  warlike  tendencies,  109 ;  subdues 
the  Eising  in  East  Anglia,  245, 
246  ;  undertakes  the  crusade  against 
the  French  and  Flemings,  268,  270  ; 
his  dilemma  between  Urbanists  and 
Clementists,  271 ;  disastrous  cam- 
paign in  Flanders,  271 ;  impeached 
and  condemned,  272 

Stafford,  Earl  of,  17,  22,  31,  37 ;  his 
castles,  62 ;  demands  retribution 
for  his  son's  murder,  284 

Stafford,  Sir  Ealph,  murdered  by  Sir 
John  Holland,  284 

Stanley,  Dean,  quoted  on  sanctuary, 
94 

'  Stations  of  Eome,'  quoted  onpardons, 
133 

Statistics,  in  the  middle  ages,  6 

Statute  of  Labourers,  the,  187,  189, 
190,  217,  253 

Statute  of  Provisors,  107 

Stephen,  King,  59 

Stokes  (friar),  appointed  to  condemn 
Wycliffism  at  Oxford,  301 ;  flies  to 
London,  302 

Stow,  cited,  210 

Stubbs,  Bishop,  quoted,  154 

Stury,  Sir  Eichard,  9  ;  disgraced,  26 ; 
interview  with  the  dying  Black 
Prince,  27 ;  with  Edward  HI.,  33, 
(Lollard),  327,  329 

Sudbtiry,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
20,  30,  38,  43,  44,  85 ;  conduct  on 
murder  of  Haule  in  sanctuary,  90 ; 
as  chancellor,  101,  102  ;  his  ecclesi- 
astical advancement,  109 ;  on  epi- 
scopal non-residence,123 ;  denounced 
by  the  rebels,  211 ;  takes  refuge  in 
the  Tower,  232  ;  resigns  the  Great 
Seal,  234 ;  beheaded  by  rioters  on 
Tower  Hill,  221,  235;  his  weak- 
ness regarding  Lollardry,  292 

Suffolk,  Earl  of,  22 

Summoners,  136, 138,  280 


Sussex,  56  ;   coast  invaded  by  French 

and  Spanish  fleet,  72,  74 
Swynderby,William  (Lollard  preacher) , 

314 ;     condemned    to    the     stake, 

but    recants,    315 ;    tenor    of    his 

preaching,    323 ;     his    submission, 

326 
Sybyle,  Walter  (Alderman  of  Bridge), 

228  ;  favours  the  rioters,  229,  243  ; 

acquitted  on  charge  of  aiding  rebels, 

280 

Tailoue,    William    (Lollard),   burnt, 

340 
Templars,  the,  168 
Temple,  the,  sacked  by  the  mob,  231 
Thames,  the,  measure  for  its  protec- 
tion, 56 
Thomas   of  Woodstock    (brother   'of 

John  of  Gaunt),  43  ;  created  Earl  of 

Buckingham,  70 
Tickhill  Castle,  62 
Tithes,  112,  122,  123,  125 
Tower  of  London,  episodes  concerning, 

in  the  Eising,  232-235 
Towns,  growth  of,  163,  164 
Trailbaston,  208,  210,  225 
Transubstantiation,  173, 174, 298,  304, 

305,  337 
Treasurers  of  War,  287 
Treaty  of  Bretigny,  2,  55 
Tressilian,  Eobert,  245  ;  his  cruelty  as 

Chief  Justice,  246,   247,  248,  274 ; 

sentences    John    of  Northampton, 

281 
Trevenant,  Bishop  John,  his  action 

against  the  Lollards,  324,  326 
Trueman,  William  (brewer),  238] 
Trussel,  John,  favours  Lollards,  317, 

320 
Tunstall,  Bishop  of  London,  on  the 

effects  of  Lutheranism,  349 
Twyford  (candidate  for  the  mayoralty 

of  London),  282 
Tyler,  John,  210 
Tyler,  Wat,  the  alleged  insult  to  his 

daughter,  210  ;  at  the  head  of  the 

rioters  in  Smithfield,  241  ;  struck 

down  by  Walworth,  242;  executed 

in  Smithfield,  244 ;  cited,  228,  229, 

239,  367 

Ubban  VIL,  181,  262,  268 

Waldensis,  Thomas,   confuting  Wy- 

clifiiam,  344 
Walsingham,   quoted,   134,  159,  209, 

213 


380 


INDEX 


Walworth,  William,  appointed  receiver 
of  taxes,  74  ;  Mayor  of  London,  91 ; 
attitude  towards  the  rebels,  227 ; 
admits  rioters  into  London  on 
terms,  229 ;  at  refuge  in  the  Tower, 
233  ;  strikes  down  Wat  Tyler  in 
Smithfield,  242  ;  arrays  the  citizens 
in  aid  of  the  King,  243 ;  executes 
Tyler,  244  ;  his  cruelty  in  London, 
248 ;  his  rents  from  the  '  stews  '  of 
Southwark,  280 
Wars  of  the  Eoses,  52,  68 
Warwick,   Earl   of,   17,   22,   37;    his 

castles,  62 
Wenceslaus,  King   of  Bohemia,  260, 

261 
Westminster  Abbey,  89 
Westminster  Hall,  on  Richard's  coro- 
nation day,  70 
Westminster,  sanctuary  at,  89,  90,  91, 

92,  94,  95,  96,  134 
White,  William  (Lollard),  burnt,  340 
Wight,  Isle   of,  occupied  by  French 

and  Spaniards,  72 
William  of  Wykeham  (Bishop  of 
Winchester),  Chancellor,  4,  6,  19, 
30,  69  ;  accused  of  peculation,  34  ; 
popular  sympathy  with,  35  ;  sum- 
moned to  Convocation,  38 ;  tem- 
poralities of  his  see  returned  to 
him,  50 ;  the  type  of  an  average 
bishop,  108 ;  his  property  in  the 
'  stews  '  of  Southwark,  280 
Winfarthing,  the  sword  of,  134 
Wolsey,  Cardinal,  350 
Wright,  William  and  Margery  (Lol- 
lards), 342,  343 
Wycliffe,  John,  birth  and  education, 
169  ;  at  Oxford  and  at  Lutterworth, 
170 ;  advocates  return  of  Church 
endowments  and  distribution  of 
ecclesiastical  property  among  poor 
laymen,  39,  40,  202 ;  his  poUtical 
power  and  patrons,  42 ;  argument 
of  his  '  De  Dominio  Civili,'  42 ; 
preaches  in  London,  and  summoned 
before  Convocation,  43 ;  supported 
by  John  of  Gaunt,  44,  45 ;  on  the 
trains  of  the  nobility,  62 ;  his 
teaching  attacked  by  Gregory  XL 
and  by  Courtenay,  78, 80  ;  his  theory 
of  communism,  81 ;  before  the  House 
of  Commons,  81 ;  pamphlet  on 
Papal  claims,  82,  83  <  84  ;  on  sanc- 
tuary, 95 ;  his  '  De  Officio  Regis,' 
97  ;  views  on  Transubstantiation,  98, 


173 ;  outspokenness   in   matters  of 
belief,  105 ;  denounces  the  prelacy, 
110;   on  the  murder  of   Sudbury, 
111 ;    censures    the   corruption   of 
lawyers,      113 ;     dislikes     Church 
jurisdiction  over  sin,  113  ;  advocates 
abolishment  of  Papacy,  hierarchy, 
and  monasteries,  121 ;  attacks  ap- 
propriation,   123  ;    on  tithes,    125  ; 
considers  the  pulpit  the  best  aid  in 
reformation,  128 ;  rests  his  doctrine 
on  the  Bible,  128,  129,  131,  181 ; 
translates  the  Bible,  130 ;  his  itine- 
rant priests,  130  ; "  against  the  me- 
thods  of  atonement   for  sin,  131, 
185 ;    on  forgiveness    of   sins   and 
confession,  140 ;  denies  the  Pope's 
power    to    bind    and    loose,    141 ; 
believes  in  purgatory,  142  ;  antago- 
nistic to  friars,  143,  145,  179 ;  his 
doctrine  of  evangelical  poverty,  151 ; 
distrusts  the  mendicant  orders,  152 ; 
against   employment   of  clerics   in 
secular   affairs,   155  ;  impugns  the 
so-called  devotional  life,  156  ;  ad- 
vocates an  active  religious  life,  159  ; 
on   ecclesiastical  cursing,   165;  re- 
ligious   theories,     170,    171,    172 ; 
breaks    with    John    of    Gaunt    on 
Transubstantiation,   174,   298 ;    on 
the  other  sacraments,  175  ;  opposes 
elaborate    Church    services,     176 ; 
advocates  preaching,  177  ;  on  saint 
and  image  worship,  177,  178,  179  ; 
on  ordination  and  apostolic  succes- 
sion, 180 ;  abjures  the  Papal  head- 
ship, 181 ;  his  writings,  182,  314  ; 
on   '  dominion,'  198,  200  ;  upholds 
the  authority  of  the  King  against 
the   Church,   199 ;   on  master  and 
servant,  200 ;  withstands  levelling 
ideas,   201 ;    sympathy  with   serfs, 
201 ;   on  juries,   217 ;    opposed   to 
the    English  crusade    against    the 
Clementists,  269  ;  his  theory  on  the 
Eucharist,  291,   292 ;    favoured  by 
Rygge,   299  ;    suspended,    303  ;  es- 
teems  scholarship   less   than  mis- 
sionary zeal,  306 ;  life   at  Lutter- 
worth, 314  ;  death,  316 ;  destruction 
of  his  writings  by  Church  authori- 
ties, 347 ;  his  own  reasons  for  the 
opposition  to  his   doctrine   of  the 
Eucharist,  363 

York,  134 


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Rev.  W.  K.  R.  Bedford,  J.  Balfour  Paul, 
and  L.  W.  Maxson.  With  numerous 
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9 


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CARLYLE'S   ESSAY   ON    BURNS. 

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J.  With  Portrait  of  Burns.  (Longmans' 
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CARMICHAEL.  Poems  by  Jennings 
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II 


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COPLESTON.  Buddhism,  Primitive 
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Edwy  the  Fair.        Brian  Fitz-Count. 
The  Rival  Heirs.     The  House  of  Waldeme. 
Alfgar  the  Dane. 

CRAWFORD.  South  American 
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CREIGHTON.     Works  by  the  Rt.    Rev. 
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The  English  Church  in  other  Lands. 

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the  Rev.  Alfred  Plummer,  D.D. 

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The  University  of  Cambridge.  By  J. 
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"  If  we  do  not  greatly  mistake,  this  History  of 
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and  hackneyed  ones  to  be  found  in  most  so-called 
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An  Atlas  of  English  History.     Edited 
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***  This  Atlas  is  intended  to  serve  as  a  com- 
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GILKES.  Kallistratus  ;  an  Autobiog- 
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GLEIG.  The  Life  of  Arthur,  Duke  of 
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22 


Works  in  General  Literature 


GOLDSMITH.  The  Vicar  of  Wake- 
field. By  Oliver  Goldsmith.  With  32 
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ready's  illustrations.  The  title-page  of  the  pres- 
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lish in  Smith  College.  With  Portrait  of  Gold- 
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GOMME.      The    King's    Story    Book. 

Being  Historical  Stories  Collected  out  of 
English  Romantic  Literature  in  Illustration 
of  the  Reigns  of  English  Monarchs  from 
the  Conquest  to  William  IV.  Edited,  with 
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The  Queen's  Story  Book.  Being 
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ited, with  an  Introduction,  by  George 
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GORE-BOOTH.  Poems.  By  Eva  Gore- 
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GOSPEL  (THE)  ACCORDING  TO 
PETER.  A  Study.  By  the  Author  of 
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GOULD.     See  Baring-Gould. 


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The  Red  Scaur:  A  Story  of  Rustic 
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the    University  of  Oxford.     Edited  by  R,     j 
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Vols.  I.  and  II.  Philosophical  Works. 
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The  Witness  of  God  and  Faith  :  Two 
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tory Notice,  by  the  late  Arnold  Toynbee, 
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GREENE.     See    Harvard     Historical 

Studies. 
GREVILLE.      The  Greville  Memoirs. 

A  Journal  of  the  Reigns  of  King  George 
IV.,  King  William  IV.,  and  Queen  Vic- 
toria. By  the  late  Charles  C.  F  -Greville, 
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eigns. Edited  by  Henry  Reeve,  CB., 
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stitute of  France.  A  New  Edition.  (Silver 
Library.)     Crown  8vo,  eight  volumes. 

Each,  $1.25 
GRIFFITHS.     Wellington,  His  Com- 
rades and  Contemporaries.     See  Wel- 
lington. 

GULLIVER'S  TRAVELS.  Travels 
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World.  In  Four  Parts.  By  Lemuel 
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GURDON.  Suffolk  Tales  and  Other 
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cellaneous Articles.  By  the  late  Lady 
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GWATKIN,     The  Arian  Controversy. 

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GWILT.  An  Encyclopaedia  of  Archi- 
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Published  by   Longmans,   Green,  &  Co. 


23 


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HAMLIN. 

Art. 

HARDING. 

Studies. 


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See  Harvard    Historical 


HARDY.  Christianity  and  the  Roman 
Government.  A  Study  in  Imperial  Ad- 
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24 


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HART.  Works  by  Albert  Bushnell 
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HARTWIG.  Works  by  Dr.  G.  Hart- 
wig  : 

The    Sea    and    its   Living  Wonders. 

With  12  Plates  and  303  Wood-cuts.  8vo, 
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The  Tropical  World.  With  8  Plates 
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The  Polar  World  :  A  Description  of  Man 
and  Nature  in  the  Arctic  and  Antarctic  Re- 
gions of  the  Globe.  With  3  Maps,  8  Plates, 
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Wonders    of   the    Tropical    Forests. 

Fully  Illustrated.  Crown  8vo,  cloth  extra, 
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Workers  under  the  Ground  ;  or.  Mines 
and    Mining.       Fully   Illustrated.       Crown 
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Marvels  over  our  Heads.  Fully  Illus- 
trated.    Crown  8vo,  cloth  extra,  gilt  edges. 

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HARVARD  HISTORICAL  STUD- 
IES. Published  under  the  direction  of 
the  Department  of  History  and  Govern- 
ment from  the  income  of  the  Henry  War- 
ren Torrey  Fund. 

I.  The  Suppression  of  the  African 
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America,  1638-1870.  By  W.  E.  B.  Du 
Bois,  Ph.D.,  Professor  in  Wilberforce  Uni- 
versity.     8vo.  Net,  $1.50 

II.  The  Contest  over  the  Ratification 
of  the  Federal  Constitution  in  Massa- 
chusetts. By  S.  B.  Harding,  A.M., 
Assistant  Professor  of  History  in  Indiana 

University.     8vo.  Net,  $1.25 

III.  A  Critical  Study  of  Nullification 
in  South  Carolina.  By  D.  F.  Houston, 
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University  of  Texas.     8vo.  Net,  $1.25 

IV.  Nominations  for  Elective  Office  in 
the  United  States.  By  Frederick  W. 
Dallinger,  A.m.,  Member  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Senate.     8vo.  Net,  $1.50 

V.  A  Bibliography  of  British  Munici- 
pal History.  Including  Gilds  and  Parlia- 
mentary Representation.  By  Charles 
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tory in  Harvard  University.  8vo.  Net,  $2.50 

VI.  The  Liberty  and  Free  Soil  Parties 
in  the  Northwest.  (Toppan  Prize  Essay 
of  1896.)  By  Theodore  Clarke  Smith, 
Ph.D.,  sometime  Qzias  Goodwin  Memo- 
rial Fellow  of  Harvard  University,  Instruc- 
tor in  the  University  of  Michigan.     8vo. 

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By  Evarts  Boutell  Greene.  Professor  of 
History  in  the  University  of  Illinois.     8vo. 

Net,  $1. 50 

HASSALL.  The  Narrative  of  a  Busy 
Life.  An  Autobiography.  By  Arthur 
Hill  Hassall,  M.D.     8vo.  $1.75 

HAWEIS.      Works   by   the   Rev.    H.   R. 

Haweis,  M.A. 

Music  and  Morals.  Crown  8vo.  With 
Portrait.     Seventeenth  Edition.  $2.50 

My  Musical  Life.  Crown  8vo.  With  Por- 
trait of  Wagner.     Fourth  Edition.       $2.50 

Old  Violins.  {Collector  Series.)  With 
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Published  by  Longmans,  Green,  df  Co. 


25 


HAWTREY.  Outline  History  of  Ger- 
many.   By  Mrs.  H.  C.  Hawtrey.     i6mo. 

$1.25 

HAYWARD.  Bird  Notes.  By  the  late 
Jane  Mary  Hayward.  Edited  by 
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HEARN.     The  Aryan   Household :    its 

•Structure  and  its  Development.  An  Intro- 
'  duction  to  Comparative  Jurisprudence.  By 
William  Edward  Hearn,  LL.D.,  Q.C, 
late  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Mel- 
bourne.    8vo.  $5 -751 

HELMHOLTZ.  On  the  Sensations  of 
Tone  as  a  Physiological  Basis  for  the 
Theory  of  Music.  By  Professor  H.  M.  L. 
Helmholtz.  Translated  by  A.  J.  Ellis, 
F.R.S.     Royal  8vo.  $9.50! 

HENDERSON.  The  Life  of  Stone- 
wall Jackson.     See  Jackson. 

HENDERSON. 

Henderson  : 


Works  by  William  J. 


The  Story  of  Music.  i2mo,  cloth,  gilt 
top.  $1.00 

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HERBERT.  The  Defence  of  Plevna, 
1877.  Written  by  One  Who  Took  Part  in 
It.  By  William  V.  Herbert.  With 
a  Portrait  of  Osman  Pasha  (from  a  sketch 
taken  by  the  author  on  December  g,  1877), 
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ing Expedition  in  Eastern  Equatorial  Africa 
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W.  Howr,  M.A.,  Fellow  and  Lecturer  of 
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Ford  Madox  Brovrn.    See 


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HUTH.     The   Marriage   of  Near  Kin. 

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JAMES.     The  Long  White  Mountain  ; 

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29 


JOYCE.     Works  by. — Continued. 

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KING.  Anglican  Hymnology.  Being 
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Crown  8vo.  $2.00 

KITCHIN.  Winchester.  By  G.  W. 
Kitchin,  D.D.,  F.S.A.  (Historic 
Towns.)     i2mo.  $1.25 

KNIGHT.  Works  by  E.  F.  Knight, 
Author  of  "  The  Cruise  of  the  Falcon,"  etc. 
The  Cruise  of  the  Alerte  :  The  Narra- 
tive of  the  Search  for  Treasure  on  the  Des- 
ert Island  of  Trinidad.  With  18  Plates,  5 
Wood-cuts  in  the  Text,  and  2  Maps.  i2mo. 
(Silver  Library.)  $1.25 

The  "  Falcon"  on  the  Baltic.  A  Coast- 
ing Voyage  from  Hammersmith  to  Copen- 
hagen in  a  Three-ton  Yacht.  With  Map,  and 
Illustrations  by  Arthur  Shephard.  New  Edi- 
tion.    i2mo.     (Silver  Library.)     $1.25 

Where  Three  Empires  Meet :  A  Nar- 
rative of  Recent  Travel  in  Kashmir,  West- 
ern Thibet,  etc.  With  Map  and  54  Illustra- 
tions. Crown  8vo.  (Silver  Library.)  $1.25 

Rhodesia  of  To-Day  :  A  Description  of 
the  Present  Condition  and  the  Prospects  of 
Matabeleland  and  Mashonaland.     i2mo. 

$1.00 

Madagascar    in    War    Time.        The 

"Times"  Special  Correspondent's  Expe- 
riences among  the  Hovas  during  the  French 
Invasion  of  1895.  With  a  Map  and  Illus- 
trations.    8vo,  gilt  top.  $4.00 


30 


Works  in  General  Literature 


L. 


LAMENNAIS.     See  Gibson. 


LANG.     Works  by  Andrew  Lang,  M.A.  : 

The  Arabian  Nights  Entertainments. 

Selected  and  Edited  by  Andrew  Lang. 
With  66  Illustrations  by  H.  J.  Ford. 
Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges.  $2.00 

Essays  on  the  Politics  of  Aristotle. 

(From  BoUand  &  Lang's  "  Politics.") 
Crown  8vo.  So.gof 

Angling  Sketches.  With  Illustrations 
by  W.  S.  Burn-Murdoch.  Square  crown 
8vo.  $1.25 

"  It  is  difficult  to  say  too  much  in  praise  of  this 
book,  full  as  it  is  of  fishing  wisdom,  which  all  true 
fishers  will  at  once  take  to  heart,  of  delightful 
sketches  of  sky,  brook,  tree,  bird,  flower,  mountain, 
and  fish  themselves  ;  of  wit  and  humor  of  the  most 
pleasant  and  amusing  kind  ;  of  tales  both  grave  and 
gay  told  without  a  word  to  spare,  and  of  that  sort  of 
English,  lucid,  terse,  and  native,  which  one  may  be 
permitted  to  hope  will  be  the  English  of  the  fut- 
ure."— Saturday  Review. 

Ballads  of  Books.  Edited  by  Andrew 
Lang  and  Brander  Matthews.  i6mo. 
Gilt  top.  $2.00 

Ban  and  Arriere  Ban  :  A  Rally  of  Fugi- 
tive Rhymes.  With  Frontispiece.  i6mo. 
Cloth,  gilt  top.  $1.50 

"The  whole  collection  is  eminently  charming, 
and  we  doubt  whether  there  is  any  living  Httira- 
teur  who  could  have  produced  a  volume  exhibiting 
in  so  narrow  a  compass  such  versatility,  grace,  and 
high  literary  quality." — The  Churchman. 


The   Book    of    Dreams   and   Ghosts. 

Crown  8vo,  gilt  top.  $2.00 

*f*  Previous  works  on  this  subject  have  been  re- 
markably lax  in  the  matter  of  evidence.  In  this  book 
original  sources  are  always  investigated,  and  some 
manuscripts  have  been  discovered  and  made  use  of. 
Thus,  one  celebrated  Australian  story  of  "  Fisher's 
Ghost"  is  here  told  from  the  judge's  notes  at  the 
trial  and  from  the  newspaper  report  of  the  day.  A 
manuscript  by  Mr.  Wyndham,  who  knew  the  seer 
of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham's  father's  ghost,  and 
was  in  his  society  at  the  time,  is  reproduced.  All 
contemporary  evidence  for  Lord  Lyttelton's  ghost 
is  analyzed,  and  Williams's  dream  of  Mr.  Perce- 
val's murder  is  given  in  the  dreamer's  own  words. 
The  Ricketts  and  Wesley  Ghosts  are  similarly 
treated.  A  number  of  modern  stories  at  first-hand 
are  produced,  some  by  the  permission  of  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research.  Icelandic,  Chinese,  and 
Highland  Ghosts  are  criticised. 


Books  and  Bookmen.     With  2  Colored 
Plates  and  17  Illustrations.    Cr.  8vo.    $1.00 

Grass  of  Parnassus.      First  and    Last 
Rhymes.     Crown  8vo.  $1.00 


LANG.     Works  by. — Continued. 

Border  Ballads.  With  an  Introductory 
Essay  by  Andrew  Lang  and  12  Etchings 
by  C.  O.  Murray.     4to,  gilt  top.       $7.00 

Contents. — Thomas  the  Rhymer  —  Tamlane  — 
The  Wife  of  Usher's  Well— Clerk  Saunders— Sir 
Roland — The  Demon  Lover — Love  Gregor,  or  the 
Lass  of  Lochroyan — The  Twa  Sisters  o'  Binnone 
— Helen  of  Kirkconnel — The  Twa  Corbies — Edorn 
o'  Gordon — The  Douglas  Tragedy — Glossary. 

i^750  copies  of  this  book  have  been  printed,  of 
which  200  have  been  secured  for  the  United  States.) 

Cock   Lane  and   Common   Sense :   A 

Series  of  Papers.  By  Andrew  Lang. 
Crown  8vo.     (Silver  Library.)        $1.25 

Contents. — Introduction — Savage  Spiritualism — 
Ancient  Spiritualism — Comparative  Psychical  Re- 
search— Haunted  Houses — Cock  Lane  and  Common 
Sense — Apparitions,  Ghosts,  and  Hallucinations- 
Scrying  or  Crystal-gazing — The  Second  Sight — 
Ghosts  before  the  Law — A  Modern  Trial  for  Witch- 
craft— Presbyterian  Ghost-hunters^The  Logic  of 
Table-turning — The  Ghost  Theory  of  the  Origin 
of  Religion. 

Homer  and  the  Epic.  Crown  8vo.   $2.50 

"Mr.  Lang  offers  here  the  most  complete  and 
masterly  discussion  of  the  literary  evidence  in  the 
case  that  has  yet  been  presented." — N.  Y.  Nation. 

Letters  on  Literature.     Crown  8vo. 

$1.00 

"  Personal  talk  about  books  and  men  is  sure  to 
charm  and  entertain  when  Mr.  Lang  is,  as  in  these 
'  Letters,'  in  his  freest  and  most  airy  mood." — 
Saturday  Review. 

Old  Friends  :  Essays  in  Epistolary  Parody. 
Crown  8vo.  $1.00 

"  It  is  little  short  of  a  marvel  that  he  could  flash 
such  brilliant  and  satisfying  wit,  human  and  whole- 
some philosophy  through  so  many  and  such  widely 
different  epistles." — Independent. 

"  The  idea  itself  is  certainly  a  stroke  of  genius, 
and  Mr.  Lang's  imitation  of  different  styles  is  what 
the  eighteenth  century  people  imitated  would  have 
called  monstrous  clever.   — Boston  Post. 

Lost  Leaders.  Reprinted  Essays.  Cr. 
8vo.  $1.50 

"  The  '  Lost  Leaders  '  to  which  Mr.  Lang's  title 
refers  are  editorials  written  by  himself  in  years 
gone  by  for  the  London  Daily  News,  and  now  col- 
lected for  the  first  time.  No  other  volume  of  Mr. 
Lang's  shows  in  so  great  a  degree  his  wonderful 
versatility." —^«ff?-f«. 

A  History  of  St.  Andrews.  With  Illus- 
trations by  J.  Hodge.     8vo.  $5.00 

"  Mr.  Lang  has  entered  thoroughly  into  the  spirit 
of  his  task,  and  the  result  is  a  charming  narration 
of  the  annals  of  the  University  and  many  of  the 
famous  men  who  trod  its  halls  as  professors  and 
students."- — Mail  and  Express. 

The  Making  of  Religion.  8vo.  $4.00 
A  Monk  of  Fife :  A  Romance  of  the 
Days  of  Jeanne  D'Arc.  Done  into 
English  from  the  manuscript  in  the  Scots 
College  of  Ratisbon.  With  Frontispiece. 
Crown  8vo.  $1.25 


Published  by  Longmans,   Greeri,   &"   Co. 


31 


LANG.     Works  by. — Continued. 

Modern  Mythology.     8vo.  $3.00 

Contents. — Introduction — 1.  Recent  Mythology 
—  II.  Story  of  Daphne — III.  The  Question  of 
-Allies— IV.  Mannhardt  — V.  Philology  and  De- 
meter  Erinnys— VI.  Totemism— VII.  The  Valid- 
ity of  Anthropological  Evidence — VIII.  The  Phil- 
ological Method  in  Anthropology — IX.  Criticism 
of  Fetishism  — X.  The  Riddle  Theory— XI.  Ar- 
temis—XII.  The  Fire-Walk— XIII.  The  Origin 
of  Death — XIV.   Conclusion — Appendices,  Index. 

Pickle  the  Spy,  or  the   Incognito  of 
Prince  Charles.    With  6  Portraits.     8vo. 


*:^*  This  book  is  not  a  novel,  though  it  contains 
the  materials  of  romance.  The  subject  is  the 
mysterious  disappearance  of  Prince  Charles  from 
February  28,  1749,  practically  till  his  father's  death 
in  1766.  These  years,  especially  1749-1756,  were 
occupied  in  European  hide-and-seek.  The  Ambas- 
sadors and  Courts  of  Europe,  and  the  spies  of  Eng- 
land, were  helpless,  till  in  1750  a  Highland  chief  of 
the  highest  rank  sold  himself  to  the  English  Gov- 
ernment. The  book  contains  his  unpublished  let- 
ters and  information,  with  those  of  another  spy, 
James  Mohr  Macgregor,  Rob  Roy's  son.  These, 
combined  with  the  Stuart  Papers  in  Her  Majesty's 
Library  at  Windsor,  the  Letters  from  English  Am- 
bassadors in  the  State  Papers,  the  Political  Corre- 
spondence of  Frederick  the  Great,  and  the  French 
Archives,  illuminate  a  chapter  in  Secret  History. 
The  singular  story  of  Macallester  the  spy  also 
yields  some  facts,  and  the  whole  exhibits  the  last 
romance  of  the  Stuarts,  and  the  extremes  of  loyalty 
and  treason. 

The  Companions  of  Pickle  :  Being  a 
Sequel  to  ' '  Pickle  the  Spy.  With  Por- 
traits.    8vo.  $5.00 

***  Certain  criticisms  on  the  theory  that  "  Pickle 
the  Spy  "  was  Glengarry,  induced  the  author  to 
look  further  into  the  Jacobite  documents  at  Wind- 
sor Castle  and  elsewhere.  The  result  is  this  vol- 
ume on  "  The  Companions  of  Pickle,"  a  set  of 
eighteenth-century  portraits.  Among  these  is  a 
biography,  from  MS.  and  other  sources,  of  the  last 
Earl  of  Marischal,  the  brother  of  Field-Marshal 
Keith,  and  friend  of  Frederick  the  Great.  The 
other  studies  are  on  Murray  of  Broughton,  the 
traitor  ;  the  traitor  Barisdale,  the  treasure  of 
Cluny,  the  Troubles  of  the  C  amerons  (1749-1755), 
the  Persecution  of  Fassifairn,  the  Adventures  of 
John  Macdonell  of  Scotus,  the  Last  Days  of 
Glengarry,  and  on  Mile.  Luci,  the  mysterious  lady 
minister  of  Prince  Charles.  The  volume  concludes 
with  a  statement  of  the  case  against  Glengarry, 
from  hitherto  unpublished  documents,  including 
his  private  letters,  and  with  a  view  of  the  state  of 
the  Highlands  between  the  Rising  of  1745  and  the 
great  migrations  to  America.  Portraits  of  the 
Earl  Marischal,  Prince  Charles,  and  others  are 
given  in  photogravure. 


Selections  from  the  Poets.     Edited  by 
Andrew  Lang. 

***  While  many  students  of  British  Verse  find 
leisure  to  read  the  complete  works  of  those  authors 
who  have  attained  celebrity,  there  is  a  much  more 
numerous  class  who,  not  being  professed  students 
of  literature,  can  only  afford  the  time  to  make 
themselves  acquainted  with  the  best  work  of  our 
great  poets.  For  the  benefit  of  these  readers  Mr. 
Lang  has  consented  to  edit  a  series  of  volumes, 
each  of  which  will  contain  that  portion  of  the  works 
of  the  writer  which  in  critical  opinion  most  deserves 
immortality. 


LANG.     Works  by.  —  Continued. 

I.  Wordsworth.  With  Photogravure 
Frontispiece  of  Rydal  Mount,  16  Illustra- 
tions and  numerous  Initial  Letters  by  Al- 
fred Parsons,  A.R.A.  Crown  8vo,  full 
gilt,  gilt  edges.  $1.50 

n.  Coleridge.  With  Frontispiece  and  1 6 
Full-page  Illustrations  by  Fatten  Wil- 
son. Crown  8vo  ( ),  gilt  edges.  $1.25 

The  Blue  Fairy  Book.  Edited  by  An- 
drew Lang.  With  136  Illustrations  by  H. 
J.  Ford  and  G.  P.  Jacomb  Hood.  Crown 
8vo,  gilt  edges.  $2.00 

The  Red  Fairy  Book.  Edited  by  An- 
drew Lang.  With  4  Plates  and  96  Illus- 
trations in  the  Text  by  H.  J.  Ford  and 
Lancelot  Speed.     Crown    8vo,    gilt   edges. 

$2.00 

The  Green  Fairy  Book.  Edited  by  An- 
drew Lang.  With  numerous  Illustrations 
by  H.  J.  Ford.     Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges. 

$2.00 

The  Pink  Fairy  Book.  Edited  by 
Andrew  Lang.  With  34  Plates  and  35 
Illustrations  in  the  Text  by  H.  J.  Ford. 
Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges.  $2.00 

The  Yellow  Fairy  Book.  Edited  by 
Andrew  Lang.  With  22  Plates  and  82 
Illustrations  in  the  Text  by  H.  J.  Ford. 
Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges.  $2.00  ■ 

The  Animal  Story  Book.  Edited  by 
Andrew  Lang.  With  66  Plates  and  other 
Illustrations  by  H.  J.  Ford.  Crown  8vo, 
gilt  edges.  $2.00 

The  True  Story  Book.  Edited  by  An- 
drew Lang.  With  12  Plates  and  many 
Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges.  $2.00 

The  Blue  True  Story  Book.  Edited  by 
Andrew  Lang.  Adapted  for  School  Use. 
With  22  Illustrations.      i2mo.  $0.50* 

The  Red  True  Story  Book,  Edited  by 
Andrew  Lang.  With  19  Plates  and  81 
other  Illustrations  by  H.  J.  Ford.  Crown 
8vo,  gilt  edges.  $2.00 

The  Red  True  Story  Book.  Edited  by 
Andrew  Lang.  Adapted  for  School  Use. 
With  41  Illustrations  by  H.  J.  Ford. 
i2mo.  $0.50* 

The  Blue  Poetry  Book.  Edited  by  An- 
drew Lang.  With  numerous  Illustrations 
by  H.  J.  Ford  and  Lancelot  Speed.  Crown 
8vo,  gilt  edges.  $2.00 

Without  Illustrations.     Printed  on 

India  Paper.     i6mo.  $2.00 

*j^  And  see  Catalogue  of  Educational  Works. 


32 


Works  in  General  Literature 


LANG.     Works  by. — Continued. 

My  Own  Fairy  Book.  With  many  Il- 
lustrations by  Gordon  Browne,  T.  Scott 
and  E.  A.  Lemann.    Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges. 

$2.00 
***  Contents  :  Prince  Prigio — Prince  Ricardo 
— The  Gold  of  Fairnilee. 

"  Prince  Ricardo  of  Pantouflia :  Being 
the  Adventures  of  Prince  Prigio's  Son.  A 
Fairy  Story.  Illustrated  by  Gordon  Browne. 
Crown  8vo,  cloth.  $1.25 

LANG  (Mrs.)     See  Tyszkiewicz. 

LAUGHTON.     See  Nelson,  Reeve. 

LAVIGERIE.  Cardinal  Lavigerie  and 
the  African  Slave  Trade.  Edited  by 
Richard  F.  Clarke,  S.J.,  Trinity  College, 
Oxford.     8vo.  $4. 50 

LAURIE.  Historical  Survey  of  Pre- 
Christian  Education.  By  S.  S.  Laurie, 
A.M.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  the  Institutes 
and  History  of  Education  in  the  University 
of  Edinburgh  ;  Author  of  "  Institutes  of 
Education,"  "Language  and  Linguistic 
Method  in  the  School,"  etc.     8vo.       $3-50 

LAVISSE.  General  View  of  the  Po- 
litical History  of  Europe.  By  Er- 
nest Lavisse,  Professor  at  the  Sorbonne. 
Translated,  with  the  Author's  sanction,  by 
Charles  Gross,  Ph.D.,  Instructor  in  History, 
Harvard  University.  i2mo,  200  pages. 
With  Index.  $1.25 

LAYARD.      Songs    in    Many    Moods. 

By  Nina  F.  La  yard.  Together  with  the 
"  Wandering  Albatross,"  and  Other  Poems 
by  Annie  Corder.     i2mo.  $1.75 

LEAF.  A  Modern  Priestess  of  Isis 
(Madame  Blavatsky).  Abridged  and 
Translated  on  Behalf  of  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research  from  the  Russian  of 
Vsevolod  Sergyeevich  Solovyoff.  By 
Walter  Leaf,  Litt.D.  With  Appen- 
dices.    Crown  8vo.  $2.00 


LEAR.  Here  and  There.  Quaint  Quo- 
tations. A  Book  of  Wit  selected  by  H. 
L.  Sidney  Lear.     i2mo.  $1-75 

LECKY.     Works  by  W.  E.  H.  Lecky. 

Democracy  and  Liberty.  2  vols.  Crown 
8vo.  $5.00 

The  Empire:  its  Value  and  its  Growth. 

An  Inaugural  Address  delivered  at  the  Im- 
perial Institute,  November  20,  1893,  under 
the  Presidency  of  H.  R.  H.  the  Prince  of 
Wales.  i2mo.  $0.50  | 


LEE.  Mrs.  Quillinan's  Journal  of  a 
Few  Months'  Residence  in  Portugal. 

See  Quillinan. 

LEES  and  CLUTTERBUCK.  B.  C. 
1887  :  A  Ramble  in  British  Columbia. 

By  J.  A.  Lees  and  W.  J.  Clutterbuck. 
With  Maps  and  75  Illustrations.  Crown 
8vo.     (Silver  Library.)  $1.25 

LEIGHTON.  Addresses  Delivered  to 
the  Students  of  the  Royal  Academy. 

By  the  late  Lord  Leighton,  Sometime 
President.     With  Portrait.     8vo.         $2.50 

/ 
LEJEUNE.  The  Memoirs  of  Baroii^ 
Lejeune,  Alde-de-Camp  to  Marshals  Ber- 
thier,  Davout,  and  Oudinot.  Translated 
from  the  original  French  by  Mrs.  Arthur 
Bell  (N.  D'Anvers).  With  a  Preface  by 
Major-General  Maurice,  C.B.  2  vols.  8vo. 

$6.00 

*:((*  These  memoirs  relate  the  experiences  of 
Lejeune,  one  of  the  few  officers  who  survived  to  tell 
the  tale  of  their  experiences  during  the  First  Em- 
pire. They  were  originally  printed  during  the 
lifetime  of  their  author  for  private  circulation,  but 
of  the  twenty  copies  issued  all  were  lost  or  destroyed 
except  the  one  from  which  the  French  edition  has 
just  been  printed. 

LEMON.  Matthew  Furth:  A  Story 
of  London  Life.  By  Ida  Lemon,  Au- 
thor of  "  A  Pair  of  Lovers."     T2mo. 

$1.25 

LEONARD.  The  Camel :  its  Uses  and 
Management.  By  Major  Arthur  Glyn 
Leonard.     Large  8vo.    344  pages.   $7.oo'|' 

LESTER.     See  Harper. 

LEVETT  -  YEATS.  The  Chevalier 
d'Auriac:  A  Romance.  By  S.  Levett- 
Yeats,  Author  of  "  The  Honor  of  SavelH," 
etc.     Crown  8vo.  $1.25 

LEWES.     The  History  of  Philosophy, 

from  Thales  to  Comte.  By  George  Henry 
Lewes.     2  vols.     8vo.  $9.00 

LEWIS.  Works  by  the  late  Henry  Car- 
viLL  Lewis,  M.A.,  F.G.S.,  Professor  of 
Mineralogy  in  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sci- 
ences, Philadelphia,  and  Professor  of  Geol- 
ogy in  Haver  ford  College,  U.S.A. 

Papers  and  Notes  on  the  Glacial  Ge- 
ology of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

Edited  from  his  unpublished  MSS.  with  an 
Introduction  by  Henry  W.  Crosskey, 
LL.D. ,  F.G.S.  With  83  Illustrations  in  the 
Text  and  10  Maps.     8vo.  $7.00 


Published  by  Longmans^  Green,  &   Co. 


33 


LEWIS.     Works  \y^ .—Continued. 

Papers  and  Notes  on  the  Genesis 
and  Matrix  of  the  Diamond.  Edited 
from  his  Unpublished  MSS.  by  Professor 
T.  G.  BONNEY,  D.Sc,  LL.D.,  F.R.S. 
8vo.  $2.50 

LIDDON.  Life  of  Edward  Bouverie 
Pusey.     See  Pusey. 

LIGHT  IN  THE  DWELLING  ;  or,  A 
Harmony  of  the  Four  Gospels.  With 
Short  Remarks  adapted  to  reading  at  Family 
Prayers  for  every  day  in  the  year.  By  the 
Author  of  "  Peep  of  Day."  31st  Thousand. 
Large  crown  8 vo.     758  pages.  $1.50 

LILLIE.  Croquet :  Its  History  and 
Secrets.  By  Arthur  Lillie  (Champion 
Grand  National  Croquet  Club,  1872  ;  Win- 
ner of  the  "  All-comer's  Championship," 
Maidstone,  1896).  With  4  Full-Page  Illus- 
trations by  LuciEN  Davis,  15  Illustrations 
in  the  Text,  and  27  Diagrams.     Crown  8vo. 

$1.50 

LINDSAY.  The  Flower  Seller  and 
Other  Poems.  By  Lady  Lindsay. 
Crown  8vo.  $i-5o 

LITTLE.  Sketches  in  Sunshine  and 
Storm  :  A  Collection  of  Miscellaneous 
Essays  and  Notes  of  Travel.     By  W. 

J.  Knox  Little,  M.A.,  Canon  Residenti- 
ary of  Worcester,  and  Vicar  of  Hoar  Cross, 
Staffordshire.     Crown  8vo.  $1-75 

LODGE.  Boston.  By  Henry  Cabot 
Lodge,  Author  of  "Life  of  Alexander 
Hamilton,"  "Daniel  Webster,"  "George 
Washington,"  "  A  Short  History  of  the 
Enghsh  Colonies  in  America,"  etc.  (His- 
toric Towns.)  Second  Edition.  With 
Two  Maps.     i2mo.  $1.25 

LOFTIE.  London  By  Rev.  W.  J. 
LoFTiE.       (Historic    Towns.)      i2mo. 

$1.25 

LONGMAN.  Works  by  Frederick  W. 
Longman,  Balliol  College,  Oxon  : 

Chess  Openings.     i6mo.  $o.go 

Frederick  the  Great  and  the  Seven 
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35 


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late  Canon  and  Chancellor  of  St.  Paul's. 
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48 


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Q. 


QUEEN'S  STORY  BOOK  (THE). 
Being  Historical  Stories  Collected 
out  of  English  Romantic  Literature, 
in  Illustration  of  the  Reigns  of  English 
Monarchs  from  the  Conquest  to  Queen 
Victoria.  Edited,  with  an  Introduction, 
by  George  Laurence  Gomme.  With  nu- 
merous Illustrations.     Crown  8vo,  gilt  top, 

$2.00 

QUILL.  The  History  of  P.  Cornelius 
Tacitus,  Translated  into  English,  with 
an  Introduction  and  Notes.  By  Albert 
"William  Quill,  M.A.,  T.C.D.,  in  2  vol- 
umes.   8vo.    Vol.  I.,  $2.50;  Vol.  II.,  $4.50 


QUILLINAN.  Journal  of  a  Few 
Months'  Residence  in  Portugal,  and 
Glimpses  of  the  South  of  Spain.     By 

Mrs.  QuiLLiNAN  (Dora  Wordsworth). 
New  Edition.  Edited,  with  Memoir,  by 
Edmund  Lee,  Author  of  ' '  Dorothy  Words- 
worth," etc.     With  Portrait.     Crown  8vo, 

$2.00 

QUI  NT  AN  A.     See  Gill. 


R. 


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RAM.     The  Little  Sisters  of  the  Poor. 

by  Mrs.  Abel  Ram,  Author  of  "  The 
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RAND.  Legends  of  the  Micmacs.  By 
the  Re-/.  Silas  Tertius  Rand,  D.D. 
With  Introduction  by  Helen  L.  Webster, 
Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Comparative  Philology 
in  Wellesley  College.  (Wellesley  Philologi- 
cal PubUcations.)     8vo.  $3.50 

RANSOME.  The  Rise  of  Constitu- 
tional Government  in  England:  Being  a 
Series  of  Twenty  Lectures  on  The  History 
of  the  English  Constitution  delivered  to  a 
Popular  Audience.  By  Cyril  Ransome, 
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Francis  Raphael,  O.S.D.  (Augusta 
Theodosia  Drane),  sometime  Prioress 
Provincial  of  the  Congregation  of  Domini- 
can Sisters  of  S.  Catherine  of  Siena,  Stone. 
With  some  of  her  Spiritual  Notes  and  Let- 
ters. Edited  by  the  Rev.  Father  Bertrand 
Wilberforce,  O.P.  With  Portrait. 
Crown  Bvo.  $2.50 

RAUSCHENBUSCH-CLOUGH.  A 
Study  of  Mary  WoUstonecraft,  and 
the  Rights  of  Woman.   By  Emma  Rau- 

schenbusch-Clough,  Ph.D.    8vo.    $2.50 

RAWLINSON.     History  of  Phoenicia. 

By  George  Rawlinson,  M.A.,  Camden 
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son, Bart.,  K.C.B.,  F.R.S.,  D.C.L. , 
etc.  By  George  Rawlinson,  M.A. , 
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Lancelot  Speed.     Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges. 

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Ford.     Crown  8vo,  gilt  edges.  $2.00 

REES.     The    Muhammadans ;    or,    The 

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ulating Act  (1774).  By  J.  D.  Rees,  CLE., 
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respondence of  Henry  Reeve,  C.B., 
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view," and  Registrar  of  the  Privy 
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REEVES.  Life  of  the  Rt.  Rev.  Will- 
iam Reeves,  Lord  Bishop  of  Down, 
Connor,  and  Dromore.  By  Lady  Fer- 
guson.    8vo.  $2.00 

REYNOLDS.  The  Supernatural  in 
Nature.  A  Verification  by  Free  Use  of 
Science.  ByJ.  W.  Reynolds,  M.A.,  Pre- 
bendary of  St.  Paul's.  New  and  Cheaper 
Edition,  Revised.     Crown  8vo.  $1.25 

*#*  See  also  Catalogue  of  Theological  Works. 


Published  by  Longmans,   Green,   &  Co. 


49 


RHOADES.      The    ^neid   of   Vergil. 

Translated  into  English  Verse    by  James 
Rhoades. 

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COMYL : 

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RICH.  A  Dictionary  of  Roman  and 
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RICHMOND,  Boyhood.  A  Plea  for 
Continuity  in  Education.  By  Ennis 
Richmond.     Crown  8vo.  $1.50 

RIDLEY  (Edward).     See  Lucan. 

RIDLEY.      Frances   Mary   Buss.     See 

Buss. 


RILEY.  Athos  ;  or,  The  Mountain  of 
the  Monks.  By  Athelstan  Riley, 
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ROBERTS.    Forty-one  Years  in  India. 

From  Subaltern  to  Commander-in-Chief. 
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ROBERTS.  Rare  Books  and  Their 
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tery, Porcelain,  and  Postage  Stamps.  By 
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ROBERTS.  Songs  of  the  Common 
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By  Alexander  Robertson.     Crown  Svo. 

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ROBERTSON  (David).  See  Gall  and 
Robertson. 

ROBINSON.  The  Connoisseur:  Essays 
on  the  Romantic  and  Picturesque 
Aesociations  of  Art  and  Artists.     By 

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50 


Works  in  General  Literature 


ROGERS.  Men  and  Movements  in  the 
English  Church.  By  the  Rev.  Arthur 
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Crown  8vo,  gilt  top.  $1.50 

ROGET.  Thesaurus  of  English  Words 
and  Phrases.  By  Peter  M.  Roget, 
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ROMANES.  Works  by  the  late  George 
John  Romanes,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S., 
Honorary  Fellow  of  Gonville  and  Caius  Col- 
lege, Cambridge  : 

Mind  and  Motion  and  Monism.  Crown 
8vo.  $1.25 

Contents. — Mind  and  Motion — Monism — Intro- 
duction— I .  Spiritualism — 1 1 .  Materialism  —  III. 
Monism — IV.  The  World  as  an  Eject— V.  The 
Will  in  Relation  to  Materialism  and  Spiritualism 
—VI.  The  Will  in  Relation  to  Monism. 

Essays.  Edited  by  C.  Lloyd  Morgan, 
Principal  of  the  University  College,  Bristol. 
Crown  8vo.  $i-75 

A  Selection  from  the  Poems  of  George 
John  Romanes.  With  an  Introduction 
by  T.  Herbert  Warren,  President  of 
Magdalen  College,  Oxford.      Crown  Svo. 

$1.50 

ROMANES.  The  Life  and  Letters  of 
George  John  Romanes,  M.A.,  LL.D.. 
F.R.S.  Written  and  Edited  by  his  Wife. 
With  Portrait.   Crown  Svo.    New  Edition. 

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RONALDS.  The  Fly-Fisher's  Ento- 
mology. By  Alfred  Ronalds.  With 
20  Colored  Plates.     Svo.  $5-00 


ROOSEVELT.  New  York.  By  Theo- 
dore  Roosevelt.  With  3  Maps.  (His- 
toric Towns.)  New  Edition.  With 
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ROSSETTL      A   Shadow    of    Dante. 

Being  an  Essay  towards  Studying  Himself, 
his  World,  and  his  Pilgrimage.  By  Maria 
Francesca  Rossetti.  Crown  Svo.  (Sil- 
ver Library.)  $1.25 

ROUND.  Geoffrey  de  Mandeville:  A 
Study    of    the    Anarchy.       By    J.    H. 

Round,  M.A.,  Author  of  "The  Early  Life 
of  Anne  Boieyn  :  A  Critical  Essay."  With 
Fac-simile  of  Charter  Creating  Geoffrey  de 
Mandeville  Earl  of  Essex.     Svo,  gilt  top. 

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ROWTON.  The  Debater;  or,  A  New 
Theory  of  the  Art  of  Public  Speaking  :  be- 
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of  Debates,  and  Questions  for  Discussion, 
with  Ample  References  to  the  Best  Sources 
of  Information.  By  Frederic  Rowton. 
i6mo.  $2.00 

RUSSELL  (BERTRAND).  ^-^^  Studies 
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RUSSELL.  A  Life  of  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell (Earl  Russell,  K.G.).  By  Spencer 
Walpole.    With  2  Portraits.    2  vols.    Svo. 

$12.00 
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SANKEY.  The  Spartan  and  Theban 
Supremacies.  By  Charles  Sankey, 
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SAVILE.     See  Halifax. 

SCHREINER.  The  Angora  Goat  (pub- 
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and  a  paper  on  the  Ostrich  (reprinted  from 
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Cronwright  Schreiner.  With  Illustra- 
tions,    Svo.  $3.00 

SCOTT'S  IVANHOE.  Edited,  with  In- 
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Criticism  in  Princeton  University.  With 
Portrait  of  Sir  Walter  Scott.  i2mo.  (Long- 
mans' English  Classics.)  $1.00 


SCOTT'S  MARMION.  Edited,  with 
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lish in  the  University  of  Chicago.  With 
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SCOTT'S  WOODSTOCK.  Edited,  with 
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SEEBOHM. 

bohm: 


Works  by  Frederick  See- 


The  Oxford  Reformers  —  John  Colet, 
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PublisJied  by  Longmans,   Green,  &  Co. 


51 


SEEBOHM.     Works  hy.— Continued. 
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amined in  its  Relations  to  the  Manorial  and 
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Part  of  an  Inquiry  into  the  Structure  and 
Methods  of  Tribal  Society.  With  3  Maps. 
8vo.  $4.00 

SELIGMAN.  See  American  Citizen 
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SELOUS  and  BRYDEN.  Travel  and 
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SEWELL.  Outline  History  of  Italy, 
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By  Elizabeth  M.  Sewell.  With  Pref- 
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SHAKESPEARE'S  TRUE  LIFE.    By 

James  Walter.  With  500  Illustrations, 
chiefly  made  in  the  Shakespeare  country  by 
Gerald  E.  Moira.     Imp.  8vo.  $6.00 

SHAKSPERE'S   HOLINSHED.      See 

Boswell-Stone. 

SHAKSPERE'S  AS  YOU  LIKE  IT. 

With  an  Introduction  by  Barrett  Wen- 
dell, A.B.,  Assistant  Professor  of  English 
in  Harvard  University,  and  Notes  by  Will- 
iam Lyon  Phelps,  Ph.D.,  Instructor  in 
English  Literature  in  Yale  University.  With 
Portrait  of  Shakspere.  (Longmans'  En- 
glish Classics.)     i2mo.  $0.60 

SHAKSPERE'S  MACBETH.  Edited, 
with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  John 
Matthews  Manly,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of 
English  in  the  University  of  Chicago. 
(Longmans'  English  Classics.)  With 
Portrait  of  Shakspere.     i2mo.  $0.60 

SHAKSPERE'S  MERCHANT  OF 
VENICE.  Edited,  with  Introduction  and 
Notes,  by  Francis  B.  Gummere,  Ph.D., 
Professor  of  English  in  Haverford  College  ; 
Member  of  the  Conference  on  English  of  the 
National  Committee  of  Ten.  With  Portrait 
of  Shakspere  from  the  bust  on  his  tomb 
at  Stratford-on-Avon.     i2mo.  $0.60 


SHAKSPERE'S  A  MIDSUMMER 
NIGHT'S  DREAM.  Edited,  with  In- 
troduction and  Notes,  by  George  Pierce 
Baker,  A.B.,  Assistant  Professor  0/  Eng- 
lish in  Harvard  University.  With  Frontis- 
piece —  the  imitation  of  an  Elizabethan 
Stage  used  in  the  revival  of  Ben  Jonson's 
The  Silent  Woman,  at  Harvard  College, 
March,  1895.  (Longmans'  English  Clas- 
sics.)    i2mo.  $0.60 

SHAKESPEARE  STUDIES,  and 
other  Essays.  By  Thomas  Spencer 
Baynes,  LL.D.,  late  Professor  of  Logic, 
Metaphysics,  and  English  Literature  in  the 
University  of  St.  Andrews,  and  Editor  of 
the  Ninth  Edition  of  the  ' '  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica."  With  a  Biographical  Preface 
by  Professor  Lewis  Campbell.  Crown 
8vo.  $2.50 

Contents.  —  Shakespeare  —  What  Shakespeare 
Learnt  at  School — Shakespearian  Glossaries — New 
Shakespearian  Interpretation  —  English  Diction 
aries. 

And  see  "  Warner." 

SHARPE.      London  and  the  Kingdom : 

A  History  derived  mainly  from  the  Archives 
at  Guildhall  in  the  custody  of  the  Corpora- 
tion of  the  City  of  London.  By  Reginald 
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Office  of  the  Town  Clerk  of  the  City  of 
London.     3  vols.     8vo.     Each  Vol.    $3.50 

SHEPPARD.  Memorials  of  St.  James's 
Palace.  By  Edgar  Sheppard,  M.A., 
Sub-Dean  of  the  Chapels  Royal,  Hon. 
Chaplain  to  the  Queen  and  H.R.H.  the 
Duke  of  Cambridge,  etc.  With  41  Full-page 
Plates  (8  Photo-Intaglios)  and  32  Illustra- 
tions in  the  Text.  2  vols.   Large  8 vo.  $10. 50 

SHERBROOKE.  Life  and  Letters  of 
the  Right  Hon.  Robert  Lowe,  Vis- 
count Sherbrooke,  G.C.B.,  together  with 
a  Memoir  of  his  Kinsman,  Sir  John  Coape 
Sherbrooke,  G.C.B.  By  A.  Patchett 
Martin.     With  5  Portraits.     2  vols.     8vo. 

$10.50 

SHIRRES.  An  Analysis  of  the  Ideas 
of  Economics.  By  L.  P.  Shirres,  B.A., 
some  time  Finance  Under-Secretary  of  the 
Government  of  Bengal.    Crown  8vo.    $2.00 

SIDGWICK. 

SiDGWICK  : 


Works  by  Charlotte  S. 


The  Story  of  Denmark.     With  Map  and 
6  Illustrations.     i2mo.  $1.25 

The  Story  of  Norway.     With  Map  and 

3  Illustrations.     i2mo.  $1.25 

SIDGWICK.  Distinction  and  the  Crit- 
icism of  Beliefs,  By  Alfred  Sidgwick, 
Author  of  "  Fallacies."     Crown  8vo. 

$i-75t 


52 


Works  in  General  Literature 


SILVER  LIBRARY  (The)  of  Stand- 
ard and  Popular  Books.  Well  printed  and 
uniformly  bound  in  cloth.  i2mo.  Price 
per  volume,  $1.25 

Baker's  Eight  Years  in  Ceylon. 
Baker's  Rifle  and  Hound  in  Ceylon. 
Bagehot's  Biographical  Studies. 

Economic  Studies. 

Literary  Studies.     3  vols. 

Becker's  Charicles. 

Gallus. 

Bent's  Mashonaland. 
Clodd's  Story  of  Creation. 

Conybeare  and  Howson's  Life  of  St. 
Paul. 

Gould's  Curious  Myths  of  the  Middle 

Ages. 

Gould's   Origin  and   Development   of 

Religious  Belief.     2  vols. 

Greville  Memoirs.     8  vols. 
Havelock's  Memoir.     By  Marshman. 
Howitt's  Visits  to  Remarkable  Places. 
Jefferies'  Field  and  HedgeroAW. 

Red  Deer. 

Story  of  My  Heart. 

Wood  Magic. 

Kaye  and  Malleson's  History  of  the 
Indian  Mutiny.     6  vols. 
Knight's  Cruise  of  the  Alerte. 

The  "  Falcon  "  on  the  Baltic. 

Where  Three  Empires  Meet. 

Lang's  Angling  Sketches. 

Cock  Lane  and  Common  Sense. 

Macaulay's  Essays  and  Lays  of  An- 
cient Rome. 

Macleod's  Elements  of  Banking. 
Merivale's  History  of  the  Romans.     8 
vols. 

Mill's    (John     Stuart)     Elements    of 
Political  Economy. 

A  System  of  Logic. 

Milner's  Country  Pleasures. 
Proctor's  Expanse  of  Heaven. 
Myths    and     Marvels    of   As- 
tronomy. 

Nature  Studies. 

Orbs  Around  Us. 

Other  Suns  than  Ours. 

Other  Worlds  than  Ours. 

Our  Place  among  Infinities. 

Pleasant  Ways  in  Science. 

Rough  Ways  Made  Smooth. 

—  Rossetti's  A  Shadow  of  Dante. 


SILVER  LIBRARY  {1\i€).— Continued. 

Smith's  Carthage  and  the  Carthagin- 
ians. 

Stanley's  History  of  Birds. 

Wellington's  Life.     By  Gleig. 

Wood's  Out  of  Doors. 

Petland  Revisited. 

Strange  Dwellings. 

Wolley's  Snap, 

SIR  ROGER  DE  COVERLEY  PA- 
PERS FROM  THE  SPECTATOR 

(THE).  Edited,  with  Introduction  and 
Notes,  by  D.  O.  S.  Lowell,  A.M.,  Rox- 
bury  Latin  School,  Roxbury,  Mass.  With 
Portrait  of  Addison.  (Longmans'  Eng- 
lish Classics.)     i2mo.  $0.60 

SISMONDI.  History  ot  Italian  Re- 
publics. $1.00 

SITWELL.  Growth  of  the  English 
Colonies.  By  Sidney  Mary  Sitwell. 
(Highways  of  History.)  $0.60 

SMITH.     Liberty  and  Liberalism.     By 

•  Bruce  Smith,  of  the  Inner  Temple,  Bar- 
rister-at-Law.     Crown  8vo.  $2.25 

SMITH.  Works  by  R.  Bosworth  Smith, 
M.A.  : 

Carthage     and     the     Carthaginians. 

Maps,  Plans,  etc.  Crown  8vo.  (Silver 
Library.)  $1.25 

Rome  and  Carthage,  the  Punic  Wars. 

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SMITH.  The  Wit  and  Wisdom  of  the 
Rev.  Sydney  Smith.    Crown  8vo.    $0.60 

SMITH.  History  of  the  English  Insti- 
tutions. By  Philip  Vernon  Smith, 
M.A.     i2mo.  $1.25 

SMITH.  Climbing  in  the  British  Isles. 
By  W.  P.  Haskett  Smith,  Member  of 
the  Alpine  Club.  Vol.  I.,  "  England." 
With  23  Illustrations  by  Ellis  Carr,  Mem- 
ber of  the  Alpine  Club,  and  5  Plans. 
i6mo.  $1.25 

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Member  of  the  Alpine  Club.  With  31  Il- 
lustrations by  Ellis  Carr  and  others,  and 
9  Plans.     i6mo.  $1.25 


Published  by  Longmans,  Green,  S^    Co. 


53 


SOULSBY.  Works  by  Lucy  H.  M. 
SouLSBY,  Head  Mistress  of  Oxford  High 
School  : 

Stray  Thoughts  for  Girls.  New  Edi- 
tion. i8mo.  $0.60 
Stray  Thoughts  for  Invalids.  Original 
and  Selected.  i6mo.  $0.75 
Stray  Thoughts  for  Mothers  and 
Teachers.  i6mo.  $1.00 
Stray  Thoughts    on  Reading.     i6mo. 

$i.oo 

*^;*  And  see  Work  and  Play  in  Girl 's  Schools. 

SOUTHEY'S    LIFE    OF    NELSON. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by 
Edwin  L.  Miller,  A.M.,  of  the  Engle- 
wood  High  School,  Illinois.  With  Portrait 
of  Lord  Nelson.  (Longmans'  English 
Classics.)  $0.75 

SPECTATOR  (The).  An  entirely  new 
Edition,  edited,  with  Introduction  and 
Notes,  by  George  A.  Aitken,  Author  of 
"  The  Life  of  Richard  Steele,"  etc.  With 
numerous  Portraits  and  Vignettes.  In 
Eight  Volumes.  Large  Crown  8vo.  buck- 
ram, gilt  top.  Each  $2.00 
***  Subscribers'  names  for  the  eight  volumes  only- 
accepted. 

SPRIGGE.     Life  of  Thomas  Wakley. 

See  Wakley. 

STANLEY.  A  Familiar  History  of 
Birds.  By  E.  Stanley,  D.D.  Revised 
and  Enlarged.  With  160  Wood-cuts.  (Sil- 
ver Library.)     Crov/n  8vo.  $1.25 

STAPYLTON.  The  Stapeltons  of 
Yorkshire  :  Being  the  History  of  an  Eng- 
lish Family  from  Very  Early  Times.  By 
H.  E.  Chetwynd-Stapylton,  Author  of 
"  The  Chetwynds  of  Ingestre."  With  Illus- 
trations by  the  Author.     8vo.  $5.00 

STARKEY.  Verse  Translations  from 
Classic  Authors.  By  Cyril  E.  F. 
Starkey,  M.A.     Crown  8vo.  $i-75 

STEPHEN.  The  Playground  of  Eu- 
rope. By  Leslie  Stephen.  New  Edi- 
tion (1894).  With  4  Illustrations.  Crown 
8vo.  $2.00 

STEPHENS.  Madoc:  An  Essay  on 
the  Discovery  of  America  by  Madoc 
ap  Ovren  Gwynedd  in  the  Twelfth 
Century.  By  Thomas  Stephens,  Author 
of  "  The  Literature  of  the  Kymry."    Edited 

■  by  Llywarch  Reynolds,  B.A.  (Oxon.). 
8yo.  $2.50 

STEPHENS.  Hildebrand  and  His 
Times.  By  W.  R.  W.  Stephens,  M.A. 
(Epochs  of  Church  History.)     ismo. 

$0.80 


STEPHENS.  The  Life  and  Writings 
of  Turgot,  Comptroller  -  General  of 
France,  1774-1776.     See  Turcot. 

STERNE.     The  Sentimental  Journey. 

By  Laurence  Sterne.  With  88  new  Il- 
lustrations by  T.  H.  Robinson  and  a  Pho- 
gravure  Portrait  of  Laurence  Sterne. 
Crown  8vo,  gilt  top.  $1.00 

*,(;*  This  edition  is  an  exact  reprint  of  the 
first  (1768,  2  vols.,  i2mo).  The  only  alterations 
consist  in  a  very  few  corrections  of  obvious  printer's 
errors. 

STOCK.  Lectures  in  the  Lyceum,  or 
Aristotle's  Ethics  for  English  Readers. 

Edited  by  St.  George  Stock.  Crown 
8vo.  $2.50 

VSTONEHENGE."  The  Dog  in 
Health  and  Disease.  By  "  Stone- 
henge."  With  78  Wood  Engravings, 
Square  8vo.  $2.50 

STRONG.  Paul's  Principles  of  the 
History  of  Language.  Translated  from 
the  Second  Edition  of  the  Original.  By 
H.  A.  Strong,  M.A.,  LL.D.     New  and 

Revised  Edition  (i8go).     8vo.  $3.50 

STRONG,  LOGEMAN,  and  WHEEL- 
ER. Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the 
History   of  Language.      By   Herbert 

A.  Strong,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of 
Latin,  University  College,  Liverpool ; 
William  S.  Logeman,  Newton  School, 
Rockferry,  Birkenhead  ;  and  Benjamin  Ide 
Wheeler,  Professor  of  Greek  in  Cornell 
University.     8vo.  $3- 50 

STRONG.  Christian  Ethics.  Eight 
Lectures  Preached  before  the  University 
of  Oxford  in  the  Year  1895  on  the  Founda- 
tion of  the  Late  Rev.  JohnBampton,  M.A. , 
Canon  of  Salisbury,  by  the  Rev.  Thomas 

B.  Strong,  M.A. ,  Student  of  Christ 
Church,  Oxford.     Demy  8vo.  $2.50 

STUBBS.     The    Early    Plantagenets. 

By  the  Right  Rev.  W.  Stubbs,  D.D. 
(Epochs  of  Modern  History.)     i6mo. 

$1.00 

STUDIES  IN  ECONOMICS  AND 
POLITICAL  SCIENCE.  Issued 
Under  the  Auspices  of  the  London  School 
of  Economics  and  Political  Science.  Crown 
8vo. 

1.  The  History  of  Local  Rates  in  Eng- 
land. By  Edwin  CAnnan,  M.A.,  Balliol 
College,  Oxford.  $0.75* 

2.  The    Referendum   in   Svv^itzerland. 

By  Simon  Deploige,  University  of  Lou- 
rain.  Translated,  with  Introduction  and 
Notes,  by  C.  P.  Trevelyan,  M.A.,  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge.  $2.25* 


54 


Works  in  General  Literature 


STUDIES  IN  ECONOMICS  AND 
POLITICAL   SCIENCE.— C^«/V. 

3.  Select  Documents  Illustrating  the 
History  of  Trade  Unionism,     i.  The 

Tailoring  Trade.  Edited,  with  an  Intro- 
duction, by  F.  W.  Galton.  With  a  Pref- 
ace by  Sidney  Webb,  LL.B  $1.50* 

4.  Select  Documents  Illustrating  the 
State  Regulation  of  Wages.  Edited, 
with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  W.  A.  S. 
Hewins,  M.A.,  Pembroke  College,  Ox- 
ford :  Director  of  the  London  School  of 
Economics  and  Political  Science. 

[/;?  Preparation. 

5.  Hungarian  Guild  Records.  Edited 
by  Dr.  Julius  Mandello,  of  Budapest. 

\_I71  Preparation. 

6.  The  Relations  Between  England 
and  the  Hanseatic  League.  By  Miss 
E.  A.  MacArthur,  Vice-Mistress  of  Gir- 
ton  College,  Cambridge.    \In  Preparation. 

7.  German    Social    Democracy.       Six 

Lectures  by  Bertrand  Russell,  B.A. 
With  an  Appendix  on  Social  Democracy 
and  the  Woman  Question  in  Germany  by 
Alys  Russell,  B.A.  $1.00* 

STURGIS.     Works  by  Julian  Sturgis  : 

After  Twenty  Years,  and  other  Sto- 
ries.    Crown  8vo.  $1.00 

A  Book  of  Song.     Poems.     Crown  8vo. 

$1.75 

STUTFIELD.  The  Brethren  of  Mount 
Atlas :  Being  the  First  Part  of  an 
African  Theosophical  Story.  By  Hugh 
E.  M.  Stutfield,  F.R.G.S.,  Author  of 
"El  Maghreb;  1,200  Miles' Ride  through 
Morocco."     Crown  8vo.  $1.50 


SULLIVAN.  Here  They  Are  !  More 
Stories.  By  James  F.  Sullivan,  Author 
of  "  The  Flame  Flower,"  etc.  With  near- 
ly 100  Illustrations  by  the  Author.  Crown 
8vo.  $1.50 

"SUPERNATURAL      RELIGION." 

Works  by  the  Author  of  : 

Supernatural  Religion :  An  Inquiry 
into  the  Reality  of  Divine  Revelation. 

Complete  Edition.  Carefully  Revised.  3 
vols.    8vo.  $12.00 

The   Gospel   according  to  Peter.     A 

Study.     8vo.  $2.00 

SUTHERLAND.  The  History  of  Aus- 
tralia and  New  Zealand,  from  1606  to 
1890.  By  Alexander  Sutherland, 
M.A.,  and  George  Sutherland,  M.A. 
With  52  Illustrations.  New  Edition. 
Crown  8vo.  $0.90 

The  Origin  and  Growth  of  the  Moral 
Instinct.  By  Alexander  Sutherland, 
M.A.     In  2  vols.     8vo.  $8.00 

And  see  Turner  and  Sutherland. 

SUTTNER.    "Lay  Down  Your  Arms." 

The  Autobiography  of  Martha  von  Tilling. 
By  Bertha  von  Suttner.  Translated  by 
T.  Holmes.  New  and  Cheaper  Edition. 
Crown  8vo.  $0.75 

SYMES.  Prelude  to  Modern  History: 
Being  a  Brief  Sketch  of  the  World's 
History  from  the  Third  to  the  Ninth 
Century.  By  J.  E.  Symes,  M.A.,  Uni- 
versity College,  Nottingham.  With  5  Maps. 
Crown  8vo.  $0.80 


Pub  lis  J  led  by  Longmans,    Green,  &  Co. 


55 


T. 


TACITUS.     See  Quill. 

TAUNTON-  The  English  Black 
Monks  of  St.  Benedict :  A  Sketch  of 
their  History  from  the  Coming  of  St.  Au- 
gustine to  the  Present  Day.  By  the  Rev. 
Ethelred  L.  Taunton,     In  2  vols.     8vo. 

$7.50 

TELEKI  (Count).     See  Hohnel. 

TENNYSON'S  THE   PRINCESS. 

Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by 
George  Edward  Woodberry,  A.B., 
Professor  of  Literature  in  Columbia  Uni- 
versity. With  Portrait  of  Tennyson.  i2mo. 
*  (Longmans' English  Classics.)        $0.60 

THOMPSON.  Works  by  Daniel  Green- 
leaf  Thompson  : 

Social  Progress  :  An  Essay.  8vo.  $2.00 
Politics  in  a  Democracy  :  An  Essay. 
i2mo.  $1.25 

The  Philosophy  of  Fiction  in  Litera- 
ture :  An  Essay.  i2mo.  $1.50 
A  System  of  Psychology.     2  vols.    8vo. 

$7.50 
The  Problem  of  Evil :  An  Introduction 
to  the  Practical  Sciences.  Svo.  $2.50 
The  Religious  Sentiments  of  the  Hu- 
man Mind.  Svo.  $2.50 
Woman's  New  Opportunity.  An  Ad- 
dress Delivered  at  the  Closing  Exercises 
(Fourth  Year)  of  the  Woman's  Law  Class 
of  the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
April  5,  1894.     Crov/n  8vo,  paper  cover. 

$0.25 
THOMPSON.  A  Moral  Dilemma  :  A 
Novel.     By  Annie  Thompson.     i2mo. 

$1.00 
Paper.  .  50 

THOMPSON  AND  CANNAN.  Hand- 
in-Hand  Figure  Skating.  By  Nor- 
CLiFFE  G.  Thompson  and  F.  Laura 
Cannan.      With  Introduction  by  Captain 

,  J.  H.  Thomson,  R.A.,  Member  of  the 
Figure  Committee  of  the  National  Skating 
Association,  The  Wimbledon  Skating  Club, 
etc.     With  Numerous  Illustrations.     i6mo. 

$1.50 

THOMSON.  An  Outline  of  the  Neces- 
sary La-ws  of  Thought :  A  Treatise  on 
Pure  and  Applied  Logic.  By  W.  Thom- 
son, D.D.,  Archbishop  of  York.  Crown 
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THURSFIELD.    England  and  Ireland. 

By  Emily  Thursfield.     (Highways  of 
History.)     i2mo.  $0.60 

THWAITES.  The  Colonies,  1492- 
1750.  By  Reuben  Gold  Thwaites, 
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Wisconsin,  Author  of  "Historic  Water- 
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TIREBUCK.     Sweetheart    Gwen :    A 

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Paper.  .  50 

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TOLLEMACHE.  Talks  with  Mr. Glad- 
stone. By  the  Hon.  Lionel  A.  Tolle- 
mache.  Author  of  "Benjamin  Jowett," 
"Safe  Studies,"  etc.  With  Portrait. 
i2mo.  $1.25 

TOYNBEE.  Lectures  on  the  Industrial 
Revolution  of  the  Eighteenth  Century 
in  England.  Popular  Addresses,  Notes, 
and  other  Fragments.  By  the  late  Arnold 
Toynbee,  Tutor  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford. 
Together  with  a  short  Memoir  by  B. 
Jowett,  sometime  Master  of  Balliol  College. 
Fourth  Edition.     With  Appendix.     Svo. 

$3.50 

TOZER.  The  Church  and  the  Eastern 
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TozER,  M.A.  (Epochs  of  Church  His- 
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TROLLOPE. 

LOPE  : 

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The  Warden.     Crown  Svo. 


Novels  by  Anthony  Trol- 

).6o 
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TRUE  STORY-BOOK  (The).  Edited 
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merous Illustrations  in  the  Text.  i2mo. 
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TUCKER.  The  English  Church  in 
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of  England.  By  the  Rev.  H.  W.  Tucker, 
M.A.  (Epochs  of  Church  History.) 
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56 


Works  in  General  Literature 


TUPPER.     Our   Indian   Protectorate  : 

An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Rela- 
tions between  the  British  Government  and  its 
Indian  Feudatories.  By  Charles  Lewis 
TuppER,  Indian  Civil  Service.     Large  8vo. 

$5. cot 

TUPPER.  Poems.  By  John  Lucas  TuP- 
PER.  Selected  and  Edited  by  William 
Michael  Rossetti.     Crown  8vo.      $1.50 

*#*  The  author  of  these  poems  was  a  sculptor  and 
afterward  Art  Instructor  in  Rugby  School.  He  died 
in  1879,  having  been  a  very  close  associate  of  the 
Pre-Raphaelite  Brotherhood,  and  contributing  in 
verse  and  prose  to  their  magazine,  the  Germ,  in 
1850.  He  left  behind  him  a  good  deal  of  poetry — 
reflective,  descriptive,  and  sometimes  humorous — as 
yet  unpublished.  The  volume  now  announced  is  a 
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TURCOT.  The  Life  and  Writings  of 
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u. 


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V. 


VAN    DYKE. 

of  Art. 


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S7 


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58 


Works  in   General  Literature 


WALPOLE.      Works  by  Spencer   Wal- 

POLE  : 

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WALTER.  Shakespeare's  True  Life. 
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WARD.  The  Life  and  Times  of  Car- 
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WARNER.  English  History  in 
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Beverley  E.  Warner.  Crown  8vo.    $1.75 

WATSON.  Racing  and  'Chasing:  A 
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Badmititon  Magazine.  With  16  Plates  and 
36  Illustrations  in  the  Text  by  G.  H.  Jal- 
LAND,  C.  E.  Brock,  H.  M.  Brock,  Har- 
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WEBB.  The  First  Part  of  the  Trag- 
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WEBB.  Works  by  Sidney  and  Beatrice 
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WEBB.     Works  hy.— Continued. 

Industrial  Democracy:  a  Study  in 
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***  This  work  is  an  exhaustive  analysis  of  Trade 
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Problems  of  Modern  Industry  :  Essays. 
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Contents:  The  Diary  of  an  Investigator.  By 
Beatrice  Webb — The  Jews  of  East  London.  By 
Beatrice  Webb — Women's  Wages.  By  Sidney 
Webb — Women  and  the  Factory  Arts.  By  Beat- 
rice Webb — The  Regulation  of  the  Hours  of  Labor. 
By  Sidney  Webb — How  to  do  Away  with  the  Sweat- 
ing System.  By  Beatrice  Webb — The  Reform  of 
the  Poor  Law.  By  Sidney  Webb— The  Relation- 
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ties of  Individualism. — By  Sidney  Webb — Social- 
ism: True  and  False.     By  Sidney  Webb — Index. 

WEBSTER'S  FIRST  BUNKER 
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man  : 


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59 


WEYMAN.     Works  hy.— Continued. 

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WHITE.  An  Examination  of  the 
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ton College,  Author  of  "  Congressional 
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ford, M.A.,  Head-master  of  Westminster 
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With  53  Plates,  14  Illustrations  in  the  Text, 
and  Portrait.     8vo,  gilt  top.  $7.00 

WOLFF.     Works  by  Henry  W.  Wolff  : 

Rambles  in  the  Black  Forest.     Crown 

8vo.  $2.50 

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ters intended  to  Fill  some  Blanks.     8vo. 

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WOLSELEY.  The  Life  of  John 
Churchill,    Duke   of  Marlborough,   to 

the  Accession  of  Queen  Anne.  By  Gen- 
eral Viscount  WoLSELEY.  With  10  Plates 
(8  Portraits),  11  Plans,  and  Illustrations 
and  Index.     2  vols.     Demy  8vo.        $10.00 

WOOD.  Works  by  Rev.  J.  G.  Wood  :  ' 
Homes  without  Hands.  A  Description 
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and  Colored  Frontispiece.     8vo,  gilt  top. 

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Insects  Abroad.  A  Popular  Account  of 
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and  Transformations.  Illustrated  with 
about  600  Engraved  Figures  and  20  full- 
page  Plates.     8vo,  gilt  top.  $3.00 

Shrewsbury  :  A  Romance  of  the  time  of 
William  and  Mary.  With  24  Illustrations 
by  Claude  A.  Shepperson.    i2mo.  $1.50 


6o 


Works  in  General  Literature 


WOOD.     Works  hy. —Continued. 

Bible  Animals.  A  Description  of  every 
Living  Creature  mentioned  in  tlie  Scriptures. 
With  112  Vignettes.  Illustrated  v^rith  24 
full-page  Plates  and  about  100  Engraved 
Figures.     8vo,  gilt  top.  $3.00 

Strange  Dwellings.  A  Description  of 
the  Habitations  of  Animals,  abridged  from 
"  Homes  v^ithout  Hands."  With  Frontis- 
piece and  60  Wood-cuts.    Crown  8vo.    $1.25 

Out  of  Doors.  A  Selection  of  Original 
Articles  on  Practical  Natural  History.  With 
6  Illustrations.     Crown  8vo.  $1.25 

Petland  Revisited.  With  33  Illustra- 
tions.    Crown  8vo.  $1.25 

The  following  books  are  extracted  from 
the  foregoing  works  by  the  Rev.  J.  G. 
Wood  : 

Social  Habitations  and  Parasitic 
Nests.  Fully  Illustrated.  Crown  8vo. 
Cloth  extra,  gilt  edges.  $0.75 

The  Branch  Builders.  Fully  Illustrated. 
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Wild  Animals  of  the  Bible.  Fully  Il- 
lustrated. Crown  8vo,  cloth  extra,  gilt 
edges.  $1.25 

Domestic  Animals  of  the  Bible.  Fully 
Illustrated.  Crown  8vo,  cloth  extra,  gilt 
edges.  $1.25 

Birds  of  the  Bible.  Fully  Illustrated. 
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Wonderful    Nests.       Fully    Illustrated. 

Crown  8vo,  cloth  extra,  gilt  edges.       $1.25 

Homes  Underground.  Fully  Illustrated. 
Crown  8vo,  cloth  extra,  gilt  edges.       $1.25 

WOOD.  The  Story  of  a  Saintly  Bish- 
op's Life  :  Lancelot  Andrews,  Bishop 
of  Winchester,  1555-1626.  By  Lady 
Mary  Wood.     Crown  8vo.  $0.50 


WOOD-MARTIN.  Pagan  Ireland  :  An 
Archaeological  Sketch.  A  Hand-book 
of  Irish  Pre-christian  Antiquities.  By  W. 
G.  Wood-Martin,  M.R.I.A.,  Author  of 
"  The  Lake  Dwellings  of  Ireland,"  etc. 
With  412  Illustrations.     Large  crown  8vo. 


WOODS.  Weeping  Ferry  and  Other 
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thor of  "  A  Village  Tragedy,"  etc.  Crown 
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WORDSWORTH.  Annals  of  my 
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Annals  of  my  Life,  1 847-1 856.      8vo. 

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WRIGHT,   ^ifd' American  Citizen  Series. 

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4  vols. 

Vol.      I.  1399-1404.  Crown  8vo.  $3.50 

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Vol.  IV.  1411-1413.  Crown  8vo.  7.00 


Published  by  Longmans,   Green,  &  Co. 


6i 


Y. 


YEATS.     See  Levett-Yeats. 

YOUATT.  Works  by  William  Youatt  : 
The  Horse.  Revised  and  Enlarged  by 
W.  Watson,  M.R.C.V.S.  Wood-cuts. 
8vo.  $2.25 

The  Dog.  Revised  and  Enlarged.  Wood- 
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YELLOW  FAIRY  BOOK  (The). 
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and  82  Illustrations  in  the  Text  by  H.  J. 
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YOUNGER  SISTER  (A).  A  Tale. 
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With  61  Illustrations.  Crown  8vo,  gilt 
top.  $2.00 

Contents  :  A  Fighting  Mermaid.  By  Kirk 
Munroe — The  Venture  of  the  "Bertha"  Whaler. 
By  Henry  Frith — A  Frenchman's  Gratitude.  By 
Lieut.- Col.  Percy-Groves — The  Badge  of  the 
Fourth  Foot.  By  Kobert  Leighton — A  Dangerous 
Game.  By  G.  Manville  Fenn— By  Default  of  the 
Engineer.  By  Franklin  Fox — The  King  of  Spain's 
Will.  By  John  BIoundelle-Burton — A  New  Eng- 
land Raid.  By  E.  F.  Pollard  — Sir  Richard's 
Squires.  By  Charles  W.  Whistler — The  Slaver's 
Revenge.  By  Harry  Collingwood — On  a  Mexican 
Ranche.     By  G.  A.  Henty. 


z. 


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The  Stoics,  Epicureans,  and  Sceptics. 

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ZELLER.     Works  by. — Continued. 

Plato  and  the  Older  Academy.  Trans- 
lated by  Sarah  F.  Alleyne  and  Alfred 
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The  Pre-Socratic  Schools.  A  History 
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Period  to  the  Time  of  Socrates.  Translated 
by  Sarah  F.  Alleyne.  2  vols.  Crown 
8vo.  $10.00 

Aristotle  and  the  Earlier  Peripatetics. 

Translated  by  B.  F.  C.  CosTELLOE,  M.A., 
and   J.    H.    Muirhead,    M.A.       2    vol 
Crown,  8vo.  $7.00 


A   PARTIAL  SUBJECT  CLASSIFLCATLON 
UNDER  AUTHORS'   NAMES. 

history,  politics,  polity,  and  political  memoirs. 

Acland  and  Ransome — '  'American  Citizen  Series" — Annual  Register — Airy — Arnold 
— Armitage  —  Baden-Powell  —  Bagwell  —  Besant — Bright — Brookings — Browning 

—  Buckle  —  "  Builders  of  Greater  Britain  "  Burghley  —  Burke  —  Caroe  —  Chesney 
— Child  — Churchill  —  Corbett  —  Cox  —  Creighton  —  Cuningham  —  Curteis^  Dal- 
linger  —  DeTocqueville  —  Dewey  —  Dubois — Edersheim — ''Epochs  " — Ewald — Fol- 
lett — Freeman  —  Gardiner  —  Graham  —  Granville  —  Greville  —  Gross  — Gwatkin 

—  Halifax — Harding — Hardy —  Hart  — '  'Harvard  Historical  Studies  " — Hawtrey — 
Hearn — Herbert — Higginson  and  Channing — Higginson — "Highways" —  "Historic 
Towns  " — "  Historical  Biographies  " — Houston  —  How —  Howorth — Hunt — Hunter — 
HuTTON — Jackson — Jeffreys — Joyce — Kaye — Kayserling — Lang — Laurie — Lavisse 
— Leigh — Lejeune — Macaulay — MacColl — Mackinnon — Malleson — May — Meade — 
Merivale  —  Montague  —  Montalembert  —  Moore  —  Morse  —  Mullinger  —  Oman  — 
Overton  —  Paget  —  Pitt  —  Ransome — Rawlinson — Richman — Ringwalt — Rogers — 
Round  —  Seebohm  —  Sewell  —  Sharpe — Sheppard  —  Sismondi  —  Sitwell  —  Smith  — 
Symes — Taunton — Thompson — Thursfield  — Thwaites  —  Todd — Tupper — Turcot — 
Vivian — Wakeman — Walpole — Warner — Webb — Wilson — Wylie. 


62  Works  in  General  Literature  Published  by  Longmans,  Green,  &  Co. 
A    PARTIAL   CLASSIFICATION.— Continued. 

BIOGRAPHY,  PERSONAL  MEMOIRS,  &C. 

"■A.  K.  H.  B." — Bacon — Bagehot — Blackwell — Brown — Burns — Buss — Cannon 

—  Church —  Clark — Derby — Digby — Duncan — ' '  Eminent  Actors  " — Falklands — Fer- 
RAR — Halford — Halifax — Harper — Hassall — Haweis — Holroyd — Hooper — Jack- 
son —  Jefferies — Jewsbury —  Kettlewell — Lamennais  —  Leaf — Liddon — Maples — 
Marbot — Marlborough — Marshman — "  Masters  of  Medicine" — ^''Memoirs  of  a  High- 
land Lady  " — Moore — MoRTON — Nansen  —  Nelson  —  Newdegate  —  Newman  —  Nich- 
olas Ferrar — O'Connell — Oxenden — Place  —  Polk  —  Praeger — Pusey — Quillinan 

—  Raphael — Rawlinson — Reeve — Reeves — Richardson — Roberts — Romanes— Rus- 
sell —  Shakespeare  —  Sherbrooke  —  Stapylton — Tollemache — Verney — Wakley — 
Wellington — Wills — Wiseman — Wolf — Wordsworth. 

TRAVEL  AND   ADVENTURE— SPORT,  &C. 

Arnold — Badminton  —  Baker  —  Ball — Battye — Bent — Bickerdyke — Bicknell  — 
Boothby —  Brassey  —  Browning  —  Bryden  —  Crawford — Curzon  —  Dubois — Ellis — 
Falkener  —  Ford  —  Francis  — ' '  Fur  and  Feather  "  —  Gallwey  —  Graham  —  Gibson — 
HoHNEL — Hopkins — Howard  —  James — Jones  —  Knight  —  Lees  —  Lillie — Little — 
Macdonald  —  Madden  —  Meyer  —  Muller  —  Murdoch — Nansen  —  Oliver — Park — 
Pratt — Pole — Ribblesdale — Riley — Robinson  Crusoe — ''Robinson  Crusoe" — Ronalds 
— Selous — Smith — "  Stonehenge" — ''Swiss  Family  Robinson" — Thompson — Whishaw — 
Wilcocks — Wolff — Youatt. 

mental,  moral,  and  political  philosophy, 

Bacon —  Barnett — Crozier — Green — Hale —  Hearn — Hodgson — Hume — James — 
Justinian — Lewes — Mill — Mosso — Mulhall — Muller — Reynolds — Romanes — Sidg- 
wick — Stock — Sutherland — Thompson — Vivekananda — Zeller. 

POLITICAL  ECONOMY  AND  ECONOMICS. 

"  A?nerican  Citizeti  Series" — Babington — Bagehot — Barnett — Brassey — Brookings 
— Cannan — Channing — Jordan — Macleod — Mill — Ringwalt — Seligman — Shirres — 
"  Sttidies  in  Economics  " — Toynbee — Vincent — Wright. 

CLASSICAL  LITERATURE. 

Abbott  —  Arnold  —  Baker  — Becker  —  Butler — Campbell  —  Clerke  —  Coutts — 
Diderot — "Dublin  University  Press  Series" — Farnell — Lang — LucAN — Lutoslawski 
— MacKail — Rich — "  Spectator  " — Starkey — Tacitus — Virgil. 

ART— POETRY— DRAMA. 

AcwoRTH  —  Barraud  — Barrow — Beesly — Bell — Bjornson — Bradshaw — Christie 
— Dante — "English  School  Classics " — Foster — Frothingham — Hamlin — Higginson — 
Kendall — Kennedy — Lang — Layard  —  Leighton  — Lindsay — Lytton  (Owen  Mere- 
dith)— Macaulay —  Marquand — Moon — Morris — Murray — Nesbit— ;  Peek — Piatt — 
Riley —  Roberts  —  Robinson  —  Romanes — Russell — Sturgis — Tupper — Tyszkiewicz 
Van  Dyke — Webb — Wedmore — Willard — Wolf — Wordsworth. 

WORKS  OF  FICTION,  HUMOUR,  &C. 

Alden — Allingham — Andre  —  Anstey  —  Barrow  —  Beaconsfield — Black — BouL- 
ton  — Buckland — Crake — Crump —  De  Forest — Dobree — Dougall  —  Doyle — Dumas 

—  EaSTWICK — FARRAR — FORSTER — FOWLER — GaSKELL — GiLKES — GOLDSMITH — GRAHAM 

—  Gurdon  —  Haggard  —  Higginson  —  Hornung  —  Hyne  —  Jessop —  Lang —  Lemon — 
Levett-Yeats  — ' '  Library  of  Historical  Novels  " — Lyall — Magruder  —  Matthews  — 
Meade  —  Melville  —  Merriman  —  Montgomery  —  Morris  —  O'Brien  —  Oliphant  — 
O'Reilly —Parr — Payn — Peek — Rhoscomyl — Rokeby— Sterne — Sturgis — Sullivan 

—  Suttner  —  Taylor  —  Thompson  —  Tirebuck  —  Trollope  —  Walford  —  Watson  — 
West — Weyman — Whishaw — Whiteing — Wolley — Woods — And  see  Longmans. 

POPULAR  SCIENCE,  &C. 

Bona  VIA  —  Butler  —  Clerke  —  Clodd  —  De  Salis  —  FurneauX  —  Gall  —  Gibson — 
Hartwig — Hayward — Hazlitt — Herschel — Hudson — Jefferies — Paul — Proctor — 
Robertson — Schreiner — Tyndall — Unwin — Walker — Wood. 

BOOKS  FOR  YOUNG  PEOPLE, 

Bell  —  Clodd  —  Crake —  "Fairy  Tale  Books"  —  Fowler — Furneaux — Garrison — 
Gomme — Graham — Gulliver's  Travels — Hartwig — Hayward — Higginson — Howitt 
— Hudson — Jefferies — Lang — (Fairy  and  Story  Books) — Meade — Molesworth — "Peep 

of  Day" — Praeger Soulsby — Stanley — Stevenson — Upton — Vicar  of  Wakefield 

— Wood — Wordsworth — "  Yule  Logs" 


APR  -4  !9'i5