III. 66 66 CHAP. " divers evil persons within the realm going from county to county, and from town to town, in "certain habits, under dissimulation of great holiness, and without the licence of the ordinaries of the places, or other sufficient authority, preaching daily, not only in churches, and churchyards, but also in markets, fairs, and "other open places, where a great congregation "of people is, divers sermons, containing heresies, "and notorious errors, to the great blemishing "of the christian faith, and destruction of the "laws and estate of holy-church, to the great 66 66 66 peril of the souls of the people, and of all the "realm of England, (as more plainly is found, "and sufficiently proved, before the reverend "father in God, the archbishop of Canterbury, "and the bishops and other prelates, masters of divinity, and doctors of canon and of civil law, "and a great part of the clergy of the same realm especially assembled for this cause,) which per"sons do also preach divers matters of slander, to "engender discord and dissension between divers "estates of the said realm, as well spiritual as "temporal, in exciting of the people to the great 66 66 66 peril of all the realm; which preachers being "cited or summoned before the ordinaries of the "places, there to answer to that whereof they be impeached, they will not obey to their summons "and commandments, nor care for their monitions, nor for the censures of holy-church, but expressly despise them; and moreover, by "their subtle and ingenious words do draw the people to hear their sermons, and do maintain "them in their errors, by strong hand, and by 66 66 III. 66 great routs. It is therefore ordained and as- CHAP. "sented in this present parliament, that the king's commissions be made and directed to the sheriffs, and other ministers of our sovereign lord "the king, or other sufficient persons learned, and according to the certifications of the prelates thereof, to be made in the chancery from time "to time, to arrest all such preachers, and also "their fautors, maintainers, and abettors, and to "hold them in arrest and strong prison, till they "will justify themselves according to the law and "reason of holy-church. And the king willeth "and commandeth, that the chancellor make "such commissions at all times, that he, by the prelates, or any of them, shall be certified, and "thereof required, as is aforesaid."" Court By this document, invalid as it was in point of law, much was done toward rendering the magistracy through the kingdom, the passive instruments of that "holy office" which the scheme was meant to establish in every diocese. ney felt no delicacy in describing himself, as "chief inquisitor of heretical pravity for the pro"vince of Canterbury ;" and to him, the success of such a plan would, of course, have been singularly grateful. That the suspected through the nation, might be placed under immediate "arrest, "and in strong prison," the force at the command of the sheriffs, was to be subject, in every place, and at every season, to the bidding of the prelates; and no process instituted was to terminate, 21 This document, and those from which the remaining facts of this chapter are mostly derived, may be VOL. II. seen in, Fox, 575–580. See also G III. CHAP except as the parties accused should " "justify themselves according to the law, and the reason, "of holy-church." And if it be remembered, that our statute book had not hitherto included the remotest provision for correcting religious opinions, the matured form in which this oppressive policy was introduced must be viewed as bespeaking no mean confidence of strength on the part of the ruling clergy. The facts adverted to, are also widely at issue with the theory which transfers the odium of the atrocious persecutions so frequent in ancient Christendom to the temper of the magistrate, or to the maxims which had become incorporated with the policy of princes before the diffusion of the gospel. In the annals of our own country, it is plain that the laity were indebted to the clergy for their first attempt to enforce the doctrines of their religion by the terrors of the dungeon and the stake; and it is not less certain, that the zeal which first taught them to prize the scent of blood, propelled them in the chase. The attention of the primate, on thus obtaining the aid of the magistrate, was first directed to 1382. Oxford. The synod which had separated on the twenty-first of May, was convened again, in the chamber of the preaching friars, on the twelfth of June; and Robert Rigge, the chancellor of the university, and William Brightwell, a doctor of divinity, appeared at the place of meeting, to answer respecting their late conduct in favour of Hereford and Rippington; and, also, as to their opinion concerning the "aforesaid "articles." Rigge was a zealous advocate of III. the university, as an establishment which should CHAP. be less subject to the control of the ecclesiastical than of the civil power; and hence was strongly opposed to the religious orders, who were concerned that it should be subject to the authority of the primate, as legate of the apostolic see. Our reformer had distinguished himself in the same cause. But while the chancellor certainly admired the character of Wycliffe, it is probable that his admiration did not extend to every tenet which the reformer was known to advocate. Before the synod, indeed, he declared his assent to the judgment passed on the twenty-four articles in the previous meeting; and Brightwell, after some hesitation, was induced to follow his example. As the prospect of successful resistance began to disappear, the courage of both may have been so far subdued as to admit the partial concealment of their opinions. It is certain that a letter was now delivered by the archbishop to "his well be"loved son in Christ, the chancellor of Oxford," requiring him to publish the proscribed articles, in the schools and churches, at the hours of lecturing and preaching; and to give the greater efficacy to this proclamation, it was to be made in Latin, and in the vulgar tongue. In the document containing these instructions, the names of John Wycliffe, Nicholas Hereford, Philip Rippington, John Ashton, and Lawrence Redman, occur as those of persons notoriously suspected of heresy; and adverting to these, and such as should in any way favour their persons or their doctrine, the primate writes, "we suspend the "same suspected persons from all scholastic III. 66 66 CHAP." exercises, until such time as they shall have purified themselves before us; and we require "that you publicly denounce the same to have "been, and to be, by us suspended; and that you diligently and faithfully search after all their patrons and adherents, and cause inquiry to "be made respecting them through every hall in "the said university; and that obtaining intelli66 gence of their names and persons, you do compel "all and each of them to abjure their errors by ecclesiastical censures, and by any canonical penalties whatsoever, under pain of the greater "anathema, the which we now denounce against "all and each who shall not be obedient; "and the absolving of such, as may incur the "sentence of the instrument, we reserve wholly "to ourselves." But the chancellor had scarcely left the place of meeting when the suspicions of the primate appear to have been renewed. In a letter, dated on the same day with the above, and from the same place, he informs Robert Rigge, that he had learnt from credible information, and partly from experience, his disposition to favour "the aforesaid damnable conclusions," and his intention to molest by his authority, the persons who should oppose them in the schools of the university. In consequence of this information, the archbishop thus writes, "We admonish thee, "master Robert, chancellor as before named, "the first, second, and third time, and peremp 66 torily, that thou dost not grieve, hinder, nor "molest judicially, nor extra-judicially, publicly "nor privately, nor cause to be grieved, hindered "or molested, nor procure indirectly by thyself, |