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Heresy and Factionalism at Merton College in the Early Fifteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

Maureen Jurkowski
Maureen Jurkowski
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34 Bisenden Road, Croydon, Surrey CRO 6UN
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Extract

In his biography of Archbishop William Courtenay published in 1966, Joseph Dahmus wrote that ‘until documented evidence to the contrary is provided, one may assume that the connection between Wycliffitism at Oxford and Lollardy was hardly more than accidental. Although the work of Anne Hudson and Michael Wilks has since shown that the link was anything but accidental, Dahmus’ scepticism is I am grateful to the participants in the three seminars at which this paper was read for their comments, and especially to Dr J. R. L. Highfield and Dr Paul Brand, both of whom offered helpful suggestions for its improvement. All remaining errors are my own. I thank also the Warden and fellows of Merton College, for allowing me access to their splendid archive, and Mr John Burgass, former assistant librarian, his successor Mrs Fiona Wilkes, Dr S. J. Gunn, and Dr Sarah Bendall for their assistance.

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Articles
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The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , October 1997 , pp. 658 - 681
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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References

1 Dahmus, J., William Courtenay, archbishop of Canterbury 1381–13$, Pennsylvania 1966, 322nGoogle Scholar.

2 Professor Hudson has found that many Lollard texts betray an academic origin, particularly the glossed gospels, to the composition of which she has assigned a terminus ante quern of 1407: Hudson, A., The premature Reformation, Oxford 1988, 248–9Google Scholar, and ‘Wycliffism in Oxford 1381–1411’, in Kenny, A. (ed.), Wyclif in his time, Oxford 1986, 79–83Google Scholar. For Wyclifs intention that an army of itinerant poor priests would popularise his message see Wilks, M., ‘Royal priesthood: the origins of Lollardy’, in The Church in a changing society: proceedings of the CIHEC conference, 1977, Uppsala 1978, 63–70Google Scholar, and ‘“Reformatio regni”: Wyclif and Hus as leaders of religious protest movements’, in Baker, Derek (ed.), Schism, heresy and religious protest (Studies in Church History ix, 1972), 109–30Google Scholar.

3 By 1407 Lollard book production is thought to have moved outside the university: Hudson, A., ‘Lollard book production’, in Griffiths, j. and Pearsall, D. (eds), Book production and publishing in Britain 1375–1475, Cambridge 1989, 129Google Scholar.

4 BRUO, 2103.

5 Ibid. 67. He is likely to have continued his preaching activities on leaving the college. The Lollard William Thorpe declared in 1407 that Aston stood by his opinions ‘right perfectly unto his life's end’: Two Wycliffite texts, ed. Hudson, A. (Early English Text Society ccci, 1993), 41Google Scholar.

6 On the dealings of all these fellows with Archbishop Courtenay in 1382 see McFarlane, K. B., John Wycliffe and the beginnings of English non-conformity, London 1952, 91–9Google Scholar; Dahmus, , William Courtenay, 85–93, 97–106Google Scholar.

7 Hudson, , ‘Wycliffism in Oxford’, 75Google Scholar; cf Fasciculi Zizaniorum, ed. Shirley, W. W. (Rolls Series, 1858), 307Google Scholar.

8 The story is repeated in Hudson, , ‘Wycliffism in Oxford’, 75Google Scholar; cf. Netter, Thomas of Walden, , Doctrinale antiquitatum fidei Ecclesiae Catholicae, ed. Blanciotti, B., Venice 1757–1759Google Scholar, repr. Famborough 1967, ii. 177–8.

9 BRUO, 1012–3; MCA 3737.

10 Rygge (fellow from 1361) and Brightwell (fellow from 1364) had given up their fellowships at Merton in 1380 and 1382, respectively. Brightwell became dean of Newark College, Leicester, in 1388 and died in November 1390. Rygge lived another twenty years and may have remained in Oxford for many of those years. Hulman died in 1385 (see below). Whelpington is first mentioned as a fellow in 1386, Gamylgay, in 1390 and Lucas in 1391: BRUO, 267, 741, 1170, 2032Google Scholar.

11 Evans, T. A. R. and Faith, R. J., ‘College estates and University finances 1350–1500’, in Catto, and Evans, , Hist. Univ. Oxford, ii. 635Google Scholar.

12 Aston, T. H., ‘The external administration and resources of Merton College to circa 1348’, in Catto, , Hist. Univ. Oxford, i. 342Google Scholar.

13 Ibid. 321–3; Evans, and Faith, , ‘ College estates’, 672–3Google Scholar. The administration of several of Merton's manors has been studied in detail: Lowry, E. C., ‘The administration of the estates of Merton College in the fourteenth century with special reference to the Black Death and the problem of labour’, unpubl. DPhil diss. Oxford 1936Google Scholar; Harvey, P. D. A., A medieval Oxfordshire village: Cuxham 1240–1400, Oxford 1965Google Scholar; Hilton, R. H., ‘Kibworth Harcourt: a Merton College manor in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries’, TLAS xxiv (1949), 17–40Google Scholar; Howell, C., Land, family and inheritance in transition: Kibworth Harcourt 1280–1700, Cambridge 1983Google Scholar; Evans, R., ‘Merton College's control of its tenants at Thorncroft, 1270–1349’, in Razi, Z. and Smith, R. (eds), Medieval society and the manor court, Oxford 1996, 199–259CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 In addition to those discussed below, James visited Farleigh in Surrey in 1392–3: MCA 4872. If the survival rate of the bailiffs' accounts for the individual manors was higher, one could expect that other visits of these fellows would come to light.

15 The former was farmer (or supervisor) of Holywell, Oxfordshire, in 1393–4, and the latter of Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire, in 1390–91: ibid. 4534, 5421.

16 It was apparently normal practice for some fellows to frequent certain estates: Aston, , ‘External administration’, 333Google Scholar.

17 Ibid. 336.

18 The origins of this peculiar system probably lay in the college's earlier preference for direct exploitation of these estates, and as a result of protracted legal battles with the bishop of Durham and local residents over the rectories of Embleton and Ponteland. For these disputes see Aston, T. H. and Faith, R., ‘The endowments of the University and colleges to circa 1348’, in Catto, , Hist. Univ. Oxford, i. 298–9Google Scholar; Bateson, E. and others (eds), A history of Northumberland, Newcastle upon Tyne–London 1893–1940, ii. 49–65 (Embleton); xii. 409–19Google Scholar (Ponteland).

19 MCA 6090. The normal length of stay was between one and eight weeks, most often four to six or so: Aston, , ‘External administration’, 340Google Scholar.

20 MCA 3718–19, 4186b, 6089–91, 6093–5.

21 Ibid. 3720, 6278–80.

22 Ibid. 5611. For Lucas's receipt of money at Cheddington see below.

23 CPR 1391–6, 586; Aston, M., ‘Lollardy and sedition, 1381–1431’, in her Lollards and reformers, images and literacy in late medieval religion, London 1984, 22–3Google Scholar (first publ. in Past and Present xvii [1960], 1–44).

24 MCA 6281, 6586 (‘absque auctorite collegii receperunt et furtive abstulerunt’). The amounts taken were £8 and £4. 16s. 8d. respectively.

25 See below.

26 The posting of the Twelve Conclusions on the doors of Westminster Hall while parliament was in session had caused a sensation and appears to have instigated a major crackdown on Lollards. The London skinner, John Claydon, burned as a heretic in 1415, was arrested and examined by the king's council in May 1395 and in early July he was also transported to isolated captivity in Wales – in Conway Castle: Aston, , ‘Lollardy and sedition’, 22Google Scholar.

27 CCR 1392–6, 344; CPR 1391–6, 591; PRO, Exchequer of Receipt, Issue Rolls, E403/551, m. 13; Aston, , ‘Lollardy and sedition’, 22–3Google Scholar.

28 CPR 1391–6, 586, 651; CCR 1392–6, 434; CPR 1399–1401, 75; Aston, , ‘Lollardy and sedition’, 23Google Scholar.

29 Crondale was a fellow from 1383 until 1397, when he was presented to the vicarage of Diddington, Hunts. In autumn 1390 he had travelled to the northern manors with Whelpington and Robert Stonham (see below), and was subwarden in 1391–2: MCA 3718, 4186b, 6089, 4113; BRUO, 521. Burgate is not on the college's official list of fellows, but was clearly affiliated with the college in some capacity. In 1399 or 1400 he went on college business to Cambridge with the fellow Vincent Wyking and to Woodstock with the bursar William Mothirby. He witnessed a conveyance of land to the college in Holywell in 1401: MCA 3724, 2684.

30 For the provision made for the ‘portionists’ by Master John Wylliot, in continuance of a similar arrangement begun by Merton, Walter de see The early rolls of Merton College Oxford, ed. Highfield, J. R. L. (OHS xviii, 1964), 72–4Google Scholar; Garrod, H. W., ‘Merton College’, VCH, Oxon, iii. 103–5Google Scholar.

31 MCA 4563, 4564. Anne was a portionist from 1388 to 1395: ibid. 3974e, 4110, 4112, 4113, 4186; BRUO, 38.

32 Against Gamylgay: PRO, Court of Common Pleas, Plea Rolls, CP40/542, rot. 345; CP40/543, rot. 424d; CP40/544, rot. 33; CP40/551, rot. 387d; against James: CP40/542, rot. 17gd, and see below. The bailiff of Kibworth Harcourt's account for the year 1398–9 also records a payment of 6s. 8d. made to the steward of the manor ‘for the sheriff in the common plea between the college and Jamys and Gammelgay’: MCA 6285.

33 The suit was begun in Trinity term 1396, and had reached the fourth return of writ by Hilary term 1397, after which it proceeded to the first stage of outlawry: PRO, CP40/542, rot. 28d; CP40/544, rot. 404. They allegedly perpetrated the theft ‘with force and arms’, but the use of this phrase was no doubt a legal fiction which allowed the plaintiff to purchase the more efficient writ of trespass.

34 According to established procedure, the addressee (in this case the constable of Beaumaris Castle) would have been obliged to return the writ with an endorsement indicating whether he had Gamylgay in his custody and why. He would then have been instructed to bring Gamylgay to Westminster to face the charges made against him: Hastings, M., The Court of Common Pleas in the fifteenth century, Ithaca 1947, 180–1Google Scholar.

35 PRO, CP40/543, rot. 424d. Alternatively, it is possible that Gamylgay was no longer in custody and was successfully summoned to appear by the sheriff of Leicestershire. If this scenario is to be believed, however, some degree of willingness to be summoned must be presumed on the part of Gamylgay. Sheriffs were not normally sufficiently motivated to secure the appearance of the defendant at the first summons.

36 Ibid. CP40/542, rot. 345.

37 The jury was in respite still in Trinity 1399: ibid. CP40/544, rot. 33; CP40/551, rot. 387d; CP40/554, rot. 253d.

38 Ibid. CP40/542, rot. 179d.

39 He was later pardoned for non-appearance before the justices of the Common Pleas: see below. It is possible that he had simply never had the chance to account for these funds. Accounting for spring receipts (with the second bursar) took place around 1 Aug., whereas Whelpington was arrested between 26 May and 2 July: Aston, , ‘External administration’, 331Google Scholar.

40 CPR 1399–1401, 75. Robert Lychlade, another Oxford scholar expelled from the university for his heretical views by order of Richard II, was also reinstated by the new king: ibid. 84. For Lychlade's expulsion see CCR 1332–6, 434; Hudson, , Premature reformation, 89Google Scholar. John Claydon (see n. 26) was also released at that time: Aston, , ‘Lollardy and sedition’, 23Google Scholar.

41 PRO, CP40/542, rot. 179d.

42 CPR 1339–1401, 166.

43 James's suit against Wendover was a nearly identical counterpart to that which the latter had filed against him and John Gamylgay in Oxfordshire (except that the value of the goods taken was doubled – at £40). In Hilary term 1400, both James and Whelpington must also have informed the justices of the Common Pleas that Wendover had abandoned his pleas of account against them, for he was put in mercy for ceasing to prosecute the two suits: PRO, CP40/556, rots 59d, 136d.

44 Probably Egham, Surrey.

45 Prosecution of Gamylgay's suit was discontinued after Easter 1400, and James ceased to prosecute his after the following term: ibid. CP40/556, rots 133, 195; CP40/557, rots 55d, 96; CP40/558, rot. 432.

46 One payment was of 3s. 4d. for what may have been a welcoming party; the meaning of this much-abbreviated phrase is somewhat obscure. The second payment of 6s. 8d. was stated to be for the first week of his readmission to the college: MCA 3724. The same account notes that James, Whelpington and Lucas were paid for their commons as fellows that year, and that James's chamber was repaired.

47 A fifteenth-century hand has noted beside his name in the college's official list of fellows (Catalogus vetus) that he was expelled: MCA 416, fo. 14. His return is attested by two payments noted in the bursar's account for Mar.–Aug. 1400 to ‘John Gamelgay’ of 3s. 4d;. and 6s 8d. – the latter ‘for his labour’: MCA 3723.

48 He sued three men for trespass in that county in 1402 (the case had reached the stage of jury summons by Hilary term 1403): PRO, CP40/568, rot. 323d.

49 Ibid. CP40/583, rot. 414d, and see below. Neweman had been a fellow since 1382, and is said to have bequeathed a new missal to the college and £6 towards the building of the church: MCA 416, fo. 14; Memorials of Merton College, ed. Brodrick, G. C. (OHS iv, 1885), 224Google Scholar. In 1404 Neweman had acted as a guarantor of Gamylgay in the Court of King's Bench: PRO, Court of King's Bench, Coram Rege Rolls, KB27/574, rot. 1 fines.

50 PRO, CP40/559, rot. 441; CP40/568, rot. 246; CP40/585, rot. 405d.

51 It is possible that Gamylgay was the same ‘John Gamelgay, B.A.’ who was ordained into th e priesthood in Lincoln diocese in 1417: Register of Philip Repingdon 1405–19, ed. Archer, M. (Lincoln Record Society lxxiv, 1982), iii. 93Google Scholar.

52 MCA 3723, 3727, 6119, 6123, 6126–8, 6135, 6143, 6154.

53 Ibid. 3730. James was allowed 10d. of expenditure for wine in his meeting with the abbess. A lease was agreed in 1407 whereby the abbess let an estate to the college for a term of 80 years: ibid. 224–5.

54 Ibid. 3723, 3730.

55 In 1375 Merton College possessed the right of patronage of sixteen livings: McHardy, A. K., ‘The dissemination of Wyclif's ideas’, in Hudson, A. and Wilks, M. (eds), From Ockham to Wyclif (Studies in Church History, Subsidia v, 1987), 361–8Google Scholar.

56 Coryngham was investigated by Bishop Buckingham of Lincoln diocese in 1384 for preaching unorthodox views on the sacrament, the legality of unlicensed preachers, papal authority and other subjects: ibid. 364; McHardy, A. K., ‘Bishop Buckingham and the Lollards of Lincoln diocese’, in Baker, , Schism, heresy and religious protest, 131–3, 143Google Scholar.

57 McHardy, , ‘Dissemination’, 363–4Google Scholar. Hulman was also active in the administration of the college: at Easter 1383, just months after his abjuration, he was sent to the northern manors and in the same year travelled to London and Cambridge on legal matters: MCA 3712. He was also in London on college legal business in 1386–7: ibid. 3715.

58 PRO, Court of King's Bench, Ancient Indictments, KB9/204/1, m. 63; KB27/614, rot. 45d rex. In July of that year he was given shelter at Littleover, a village near Derby, by Henry Bothe, a lawyer and member of the local gentry, who was himself said to have preached heresy. For Bothe see Rawcliffe, C., ‘Henry Booth’, in Roskell, J. S., Clark, L. and Rawcliffe, C. (eds), The history of parliament: the House of Commons 1386–1421, Stroud 1993, i. 288–91Google Scholar; Jurkowski, M., ‘Lawyers and Lollardy in the early fifteenth century’, in Aston, M. and Richmond, C. (eds), Lollardy and the gentry in the later Middle Ages, Stroud 1997 159–61Google Scholar.

59 PRO, KB9/204/1, mm. 132, 134; KB9/206/1, m. 32; KB27/614, rot. Id rex; CCR 1413–16, 56–7. Most of the other members of the group were later pardoned. Henry Valentyn and Simon Poll (alias Carter), both of Kibworth Harcourt, obtained their pardons in the following June and July respectively, while John Scryvener (alias Togode alias Baroun) of Shankton received his in May: CPR 1413–16, 262. The fates of John Blakwell of Kibworth Harcourt (alias John Taillour of Lancashire) and John Upton (or Oppeton), a labourer of Smeeton, are unknown.

60 MCA 6276, 6277, 6280.

61 He had ceased to hold this office by 1409: ibid. 6408, 6413–14, 6417. For the office see Howell, , Land, family, 28, 31Google Scholar.

62 MCA 6285, 6410, 6413–14, 6417, 6419, 6420. In 1425 Carter was elected as subbailiff or beadle: Howell, , Land, family, 53Google Scholar.

63 See Crompton, J., ‘Leicestershire Lollards', TLAS xliv (1968–1869), 11–44Google Scholar, for a general discussion of the subject.

64 K. B. McFarlane pointed to the sermons of William Swinderby at Market Harborough and the influence of the Lollard knight, Sir Thomas Latimer, who owned the nearby manor of Smeeton Westerby, as factors in the heresy's spread to this village, as well as the patronage of a gentleman, Thomas Noveray of lllston, who joined the revolt on the same day as the Kibworth Harcourt rebels: McFarlane, , John Wycliffe, 157–8Google Scholar. Latimer's sponsorship was also endorsed by Charles Kightly, who mistakenly stated him to have been lord of the manor of Kibworth Harcourt: Kightly, C., The early Lollards: a survey of popular Lollard activity in England, 1382–1428’, unpubl. DPhil diss. York 1975, 34Google Scholar.

65 For Wyche's, career and heretical views see BRUO, 2101Google Scholar; Hudson, , Premature Reformation, 126, 160–1, 172, 190, 221–2, 244, 274, 276, 284, 295n, 317n 325, 341, 345, 357, 370, 373, 376, 378–9, 385, 449Google Scholar.

66 The letter survives only in a Bohemian-made copy, now in Prague University Library (MS 536, fos 89b–99b), and has been printed in Matthew, F. D., ‘The trial of Richard Wyche’, EHR v (1890), 530–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Snape, M. G., ‘Some evidence of Lollard activity in the diocese of Durham in the early fifteenth century’, Archaeologia Aeliana 4th ser. xxxix (1961), 355–61Google Scholar; Kightly, , ‘Early Lollards’, 12–21Google Scholar.

67 Hudson, , Premature Reformation, 90Google Scholar; BRUO, 2101.

68 Kightly, , ‘Early Lollards’, 232Google Scholar; Lambeth Palace, Reg. Arundel (Cantuar), i. fo. 99v.

69 Cheyne's association with the heresy probably dates from at least 1404, when he was elected to the Coventry parliament during which proposals were put forward for the appropriation of the temporalities of the Church. He was a cousin of Sir John Cheyne, one of McFarlane's Lollard knights: Woodger, L. S., ‘Roger Cheyne’; Roskell and others, History of parliament, i. 555–7Google Scholar; McFarlane, K. B., Lancastrian kings and Lollard knights, Oxford 1972, 163–4Google Scholar. Drayton's goods were confiscated and granted to a member of the king's household: PRO, Exchequer, King's Remembrancer, Escheators' Files, E153/483; PRO, Chancery, Warrants, C81/660, m. 293.

70 Drayton went from Drayton Beauchamp to Holy Trinity, Bristol, where he was cited before the bishop for heresy. In Feb. 1422 he exchanged that living for Staines (Middlesex), and in Dec. of the same year he moved to the rectory of Snave, near Tenterden in Kent, where he was again brought before the bishop. He later transferred to Herne (Kent): Hudson, , Premature Reformation, 125–6Google Scholar.

71 Both James and Lucas were paid for their commons in 1400 and 1406; additional payments were made to Lucas in 1405, and James in 1410 and 1411: MCA 3723, 3724, 3730, 3732, 3735, 3737 James also received 2s. for the cost of repairing his chamber in 1404–5: ibid. 3730.

72 A note on the dorse of an account of the northern manors states that Whelpington died on the feast of the Purification of the Virgin (2 Feb.) in 1407. All other dates contained in this note can be shown by other extant documents to be out by one year (which may be why this list of the dates of fellows' visits is crossed through). Adjusting the date given for Whelpington's death accordingly, he seems likely to have died in Feb. 1406: MCA 6143.

73 ‘Nicholas Herford, clerk’ was pardoned of outlawry in May 1413 for not appearing to answer the charge: CPR 1413–16, 78. For Hereford see Dahmus, , William Courtenay, 85–6, 89–101, 105–6Google Scholar.

74 Register of Henry Chichele, archbishop of Canterbury, 1414–1443 (Canterbury and York Society, 1943–1947), iii. 56–7Google Scholar; iv, 203–4; BRUO, 1012–13.

75 Ibid. 1170.

76 Whether Wendover, who had held the post since 1387, had resigned or been removed is not clear, but he may have left the college to reside at his rectory of Bradninch in Devon around that time, after the bishop of Exeter had sequestered his income for non-residence: ibid. 2014.

77 Arundel was replaced as archbishop by Roger Walden, a favourite of Richard 11: Steel, A., Richard II, Cambridge 1941, 218, 235, 269–70Google Scholar.

78 Both of these cases were temporarily settled in 1410, and the bursar's account for the period w–Nov. records the hefty amounts required to pay legal experts, and secure the favour of such officials as sheriffs and clerks connected with the court: MCA 3735. Considerable sums were also expended in the Ditchford case in 1404–5: ibid. 3730. For its conduct before the ecclesiastical courts see Swanson, R. N., ‘Parochialism and particularism: the dispute over the status of Ditchford Frary, Warwickshire in the early fifteenth century’, in Franklin, M. J. and Harper-Bill, C. (eds), Medieval ecclesiastical studies in honour of Dorothy M. Owen, Woodbridge 1995, 241–57Google Scholar, and for proceedings at common law PRO, CP40/567, rots 560d, 590d; CP40/579, rot. 607d; KB9/188, m. 25.

79 John More had been a fellow from 1374 to 1387, was first bursar from 1382 to 1384 and subwarden in c. 1382: BRUO, 1303. The amount of the alleged debt was £26: PRO, CP40/564, rot. 349.

80 Neweman is first listed as a fellow in 1382; at his death, he apparently gave the college a ‘fair new missal’ and £6 towards ‘building the church’: Memorials of Merton College, 224.

81 PRO, CP40/579, rot. 349. In Michaelmas term 1406, Neweman appeared in court to answer this charge and claimed that he had fully accounted before the warden's auditors at London in February 1404 for the £85 collected as the warden's receiver in 1401–2 from the prior of St Guthlac, Hereford. The issue was then put to a jury, but the case was still in respite in Trinity 1409: PRO, CP40/583, rot. 414d; CP40/587, rot. 231; CP40/589, rot. 197; CP40/590, rot. 200; CP40/594, rot. 259.

82 Ibid. CP40/603, rots 199d, 409d. Issue was joined on the question of whether or not Neweman had given the bill while imprisoned, but no trial seems to have taken place, for in Michaelmas 1412 Bekynham re-filed the same suit: CP40/607, rot. 83d.

83 Ibid. CP40/611, rot. 302d; CP40/612, rot. 333; CP40/613, rot. 365d.

84 He had been a fellow since 1390: BRUO, 2114. A group of Oxfordshire attorneys guaranteed his appearance to answer the suit in February 1414, but to no avail. Wyking probably went to France with the bishop of Worcester in July of that year and avoided further prosecution.

85 Wyking's, complaint was that the college refused to compensate him for houses which it had pulled down in his parish. He took his case to the pope, who made an order against the college for payment of the lost oblations during the Council of Constance: Memorials of Merton College, 225–6Google Scholar.

86 PRO, CP40/611, rot. 539d; CP40/612, rot. 189; KB27/622, rot. 74. He had been a fellow from 1398, a bursar in the years 1402–3 and 1403–4, subwarden in 1407–8, and the lessee of all the college's Hertfordshire properties from 1399–1409. At Easter 1406 he had travelled to the northern manors with the fellow Warde, William: BRUO, 20Google Scholar; MCA 3732, 6143, 2793, 6144.

87 Mothirby had also journeyed to the northern manors at Easter 1400: BRUO, 1324. For his lease of Cuxham see MCA 3727.

88 Mothirby ceased to account as farmer of the manor in June 1410; by June 1411 Thomas Mychel had taken over the lease: MCA 5888.

89 PRO, CP40/585, rot. 489d; CP40/616, rot. 301d. If this defendant was the same man as the former fellow of Merton, it should be noted that he moved rather quickly into county administration in Oxfordshire. In 12 1417 Mothirby, William, ‘lord of Bryghtwell’Google Scholar, was appointed to collect taxes, and at the time of his death in the following year was serving as the county's coroner: CFR 1413–22, 221; CCR 1413–19, 476.

90 PRO, CP40/579, rot. 50; CP40/585, rot. 489d; CP40/590, rot. 326d.

91 BRUO, 1582–3.

92 MCA 23, 2769. The provision had been to the benefice of East Deeping, Lincolnshire. By Feb. of the following year, Rodebourne was able to exchange this living for another: BRUO, 1582.

93 MCA 2396 (copy of the king's order of 15 May to the justices of the peace in Oxford giving them powers of arrest of any armed persons attempting to enter the college); VCH, , Oxon, 105Google Scholar. This assault, in which certain armed malefactors entered and carried away goods, was not mentioned at the inquiry into the north–south conflict held in Sept. 1411: ‘An Inquisition at Oriel’, in Snappe's formulary, ed. Salter, H. E. (OHS lxxx, 1924), 194–215Google Scholar.

94 Catto, J. I., ‘Wyclif and Wycliffism at Oxford 1356–1430’, in Catto, and Evans, , Hist. Univ. Oxford, ii. 246–8Google Scholar.

95 He accompanied Henry v, moreover, on his invasion of Normandy in 1415, and was granted a licence to hear confessions in the king's army in Nov. 1417: BRUO, 1582–3. On Netter's relationship with Henry v see Dubois, D. J., ‘Thomas Netter of Walden, OC (c. 1372–1430)’, unpubl. BLitt diss. Oxford 1978, 20–2Google Scholar.

96 By the beginning of that year, the committee of twelve appointed to scrutinise Wyclif's writings for errors had finished its work; in the previous year many books had been burnt at Carfax. Monthly examinations of the views of fellows had been ordered to take place, censorship measures had been instituted and in June 1411 commissioners were appointed by the archbishop to administer anti-Lollard oaths to all university members: Catto, , ‘Wyclif and Wycliffism’, 244–53Google Scholar; ‘Faustina C.VII, 1409–11’, in Snappe's formulary, 99–100, 115–37.

97 The affair is discussed fully in Catto, , ‘Wyclif and Wycliffism’, 248–52Google Scholar. The relevant documents are printed in ‘Faustina C.VII’, 144–80.

98 In October 1411, Bekynham and others were charged with supplying the king with the names of those who had disobeyed his injunction prohibiting the re-election of either Courtenay or his two proctors to their posts. As acting chancellor, Bekynham may have been responsible for meting out the punishment to those who had prevented the archbishop's visitation. So much was assumed by Garrod, : VCH, Oxon, iii. 105Google Scholar. That formal disciplinary action was taken was reported to the king by the university: ‘Faustina C. VII’, 170–3.

99 Stonham died while in Pisa that same year: Harvey, M., Solutions to the schism, a study of some English attitudes 1378 to 1409, St Ottilien 1983, 154–5Google Scholar. By his will of the same year, he bequeathed £20 for a large gilt cross to be made for the college: Reg. Repingdon, i. 170–2. For a list of the works which Stonham had brought with him see John Wiclif's polemical works in Latin, ed. Buddensieg, R. (Wyclif Society, 1883), i. pp. xxix–xxxiGoogle Scholar.

100 Strode was a logician of international repute. He embarked upon a career as a common lawyer after leaving Merton, and was appointed a common pleader for the city of London in 1373. He became a friend of Geoffrey Chaucer, who dedicated Troilus and Criseyde to him. The Catalogus vetus records that he also wrote poetry: BRUO, 1807–8. For his correspondence with Wyclif, in which he questioned the latter's theory of dominion, see Thomson, W. R., The Latin writings of John Wyclif, Toronto 1983, 234–8Google Scholar; Johannis Wyclif Opera minora, ed. Loserth, J. (Wyclif Society, 1913), 10–11, 175–200, 258–312, 398–404Google Scholar.

101 MCA 3718, 3719, 3720, 4186b, 6089, 6090, 6278, 6279, 6280; BRUO, 1789–90.

102 MCA 3719; BRUO, 267.

103 MCA 416, fo. 13V.

103 MCA 416, fo. 13V.

104 Among these books were ‘concordances’, a gloss on the Old Testament and Augustine on the Sermon on the Mount: Powicke, F. M., The medieval books of Merton College Oxford 1931, 73, 188Google Scholar.

105 The defendants were William Duffield, Walter Luggardyn, Robert Briggeman and Richard Hervy: PRO, CP40/596, rot. 109d. Duffield and Luggardyn would later be among those who appealed with Rodebourne to Archbishop Arundel in 1411 against the election of new fellows: see above.

106 For what follows see ibid. CP40/599, rot. 220d.

107 The enrolments made of these three suits in Michaelmas term 1413 indicate that all of them must have been initiated in the previous term: ibid. CP40/611, rots 158, 173, 199, 443. 55ld, 601.

108 For the pleading of this suit, which occurred in Trinity term 1414 see ibid. CP40/614, rot. 483d. Bekynham was probably telling the truth about these receipts, but it is impossible to verify it, as the account of William Erne for the year 1395 does not survive, and the livery is not recorded in Erne's account for 1394: MCA 5612. No liveries to Lucas appear in any of the Leicestershire accounts.

109 PRO, CP40/614, rot. 396.

110 These were ‘unum librum tabularum Sancti Gregorii et aliorum doctorum’ (Tables of Gregory the Great), ‘unum librum magistri sentenciarum’ (Peter Lombard's Sentences), ‘unum librum de veritate Sancti Thome contra gentiles' (Thomas Aquinas's De veritate and Contra gentiles).

111 PRO, KB27/610, rot. 39; KB27/622, rot. 62, and, for the death of Bekynham, rot. 74.

112 CCR 1409–13, 321; PRO, CP40/598, rot. 42; CP40/612, rot. 130; CCR 1413–19, 376; PRO, KB27/619, rot. 1 fines; KB27/62I, rot. 21; KB27/631, rot. 16d rex; KB27/637, rots 44d, 55d, 2 fines; rot. 11d rex; KB27/641, rots 1d, 2 fines; KB27/642, rot. 1 fines.

113 Ibid. KB27/609, rot. 1d attorneys; KB27/610, rots 1–1d; CP40/646, rots 1d, 3d attorneys.

114 See below. On pleading, and the Serjeant's monopoly in the Common Pleas see Baker, J. H., An introduction to English legal history, London 1990, 3rd edn, 90–4, 179–82Google Scholar.

115 Aston, , ‘Lollardy and sedition’, 26–7Google Scholar.

116 PRO, Exchequer, King's Remembrancer, Escheators' Accounts, E136/108/13. Hanged for treason in Sept. 1416, Wolman was described in one source as a Lollard and had also been implicated in the revolt of 1414: Powell, E., Kingship, law, and society: criminal justice in the reign of Henry V, Oxford 1989, 253–4Google Scholar; Aston, , ‘Lollardy and sedition’, 27–8Google Scholar. He had twice been indicted for plotting against Henry IV on behalf of the Ricardian impostor – in 1407 and 1409: PRO, KB9/196/1, m. 13; KB27/595, rot. 3 rex.

117 Handbills also appeared in St Albans, Northampton and Reading: Thomson, J. A. F., The later Lollards 1414–1520, London 1965, 16–17Google Scholar.

118 The fact that the indictment was made in Southwark may mean that a presenting jury could not be found in Westminster: PRO, Court of King's Bench, Recorda, KB 145/5/5/1. It was perhaps the involvement of Wolman or of Lucas's other co-conspirator, John Whitlok, that had brought the case before the court of the steward and marshal; Wolman had been under-marshal of the king's marshalsea and Whitlok was likewise a member of the king's household, as he had been under both Richard II and Henry iv: Aston, , ‘Lollardy and sedition’, 27Google Scholar; PRO, Exchequer, Accounts Various, E101/404/21, fo. 45V; Duchy of Lancaster, Accounts Various, DL 28/4/3, fo. 7v; E101/406/21, fo. 30.

119 PRO, KB27/624, rot. 9 rex.

120 Ibid. KB27/626, rots 1–2 attorneys; KB27/627, rot. id attorneys; KB27/629, rot. Id attorneys; KB27/635, rots 24–24d; KB27/636, rot. 1 attorneys; KB27/637, rots 44, 1 attorneys; KB27/638, rots 1—Id attorneys; KB27/639, rot. 1 attorneys; KB27/640, rot. 1 attorneys; KB27/641, rots 1—Id attorneys; KB27/642, rot. 1 attorneys; KB27/643, rots 5, 1 attorneys; KB27/644, rot. 1 attorneys; KB27/645, rots 1–Id attorneys; KB27/646, rots 5 rex, 1 attorneys.

121 PRO, Chancery, Special Bail Pardons, C237/37, m. 120. These Lollards were John Angret, parson of the church of Islehampstead Latimer, Richard Norton of High Wycombe and Richard Freman of Rickmansworth, Herts. Angret was a protégé of the Cheyne family; some of his confiscated goods in 1414 came into the possession of John Cheyne: PRO, E153/483; E401/675 (18 Jan.).

122 The defendants were John Preest and Thomas Maydeford of Northampton, and Thomas Gylour of Briworth: ibid. KB27/616, rot. 1 rex.

123 Ibid. KB27/629, rot. 17d rex; KB145/5/6. The other five detained had been: John Clement, a tailor of London; John Barnaby, a gentleman of York; William Coston, a chaplain of Baddesley Clinton, Warws.; Henry Parmonter, a bottlemaker of Worcester; and John Grene, a labourer of Chaddesden, Derbs.

124 The action was for trespass: ibid. KB27/629, rot. Id attorneys. Cringleford, then a tenant of St Bartholomew's Hospital, was among the Londoners arrested in 1414 for participation in the Oldcastle revolt, after which his goods (including £66 3S. 4d. in cash) and property were confiscated by the London escheator. He was pardoned in October 1414: Kightly, , ‘Early Lollards’, 507Google Scholar; PRO, Pipe Office, Escheators' Accounts, E357/24, m. 49; E153/2340.

125 Lucas and William Felton paid a fine in the King's Bench for Wille who had been convicted of a trespass in Oxon. against Alice Stone: PRO, KB27/642, rot. fines. John Wille was rector of St Lawrence's church, Bristol, and an associate of the Lollard priest, Thomas Drayton. Together with John Mybbe, principal of St Cuthbert's Hall and a Lollard rebel in 1414, Wille was a compurgator for Drayton, who was accused of heresy in Bristol, along with William Taillour, in 1420. Wille, Mybbe, Drayton and William Felton then held adjoining benefices in Bristol: Kightly, , ‘ Early Lollards’, 250–7Google Scholar; Hudson, , Premature Reformation, 125–6Google Scholar; Barrett, W., The history and antiquities of the city of Bristol, Bristol 1789, 481Google Scholar.

126 Crompe was accused of having stolen money four years earlier from John Banbury of Warwickshire, as alleged by the latter's executors: PRO, KB27/643, rots 5, 1 attorneys. He had previously been condemned by Archbishop Arundel for both supporting Oldcastle and for heresy; Archbishop, Chichele pardoned him of these crimes in 05 1416: Reg. Chichele, iv. 151Google Scholar.

127 He had possessed an estate at Andover since at least 1406 and probably came originally from this town: PRO, CP40/636, rot. 419; CP40/632, rot. 330. A John Lucas was a bailiff of the town in 1339: Hampshire Record Office, 8/ED/24; Winchester College Muniments, 2546.

128 He sometimes gave London as his residence when posting bonds as a mainpernor: PRO, KB27/621, rot. 21; KB27/637, rot. 44d; KB27/638, rot. 87.

129 Ibid. KB27/621, rot. 21; KB27/622, rot. 10.

130 See above.

131 PRO, KB27/634, rots 73–73d.

132 BRUO, 379–80. Chace was also selected by Bishop Philip Repingdon to preach in his diocese of Lincoln: Catto, , ‘Wyclif and Wycliffism’, 255Google Scholar.

133 He had very recently, however, been presented to the living of StJewry, Lawrence in London: BRUO, 466Google Scholar.

134 These were the trials of the friar William Russell, at which he was an assessor in 1425–7, and of Ralph Mungyn in 1428: ibid.

135 PRO, KB27/634, rot. 38; KB27/635, rot. 15; KB27/636, rot. 15.

136 According to Thomas Gascoigne, Kymer left his wife for promotion to the higher orders of the clergy. He was described as ‘clerk’ in this lawsuit, and must therefore have already dispensed with his wife. In 1420 he was presented to his first benefice of Lutterworth: BRUO, 1068–1069; cf. Gascoigne, T., Loci e libra veritatum, ed. Rogers, J. T., Oxford 1881, 43Google Scholar.

137 BRUO, 1068–9.

138 PRO KB27/635, rots 24–24d.

139 Legh was also a chantry chaplain at All Saints, Oxford: BRUO, 1127.

140 PRO, KB27/637, rot. 44.

141 BRUO, 1328; MCA 416, fo. 17. The other Oxford clerks involved were John Bere, Henry Medeford, Robert Locke, William Locke and Thomas Jope: PRO, KB27/630, rot. 12. For Jope, Thomas (or Job) see BRUO, 1016Google Scholar.

142 A record of the following proceedings is enrolled at PRO, KB27/642, rot. 57.

143 BRUO, 1981.

144 He was bursar in 1408–9 and in 1416. His other journeys to the northern manors took place in the autumns of 1402 and 1405, and at Easter in 1406: ibid.; MCA 3723, 3732, 6119. 6123. 6143; 6144.

145 Bell, H. E., ‘The price of books in medieval England’, The Library, 4th ser. xviii (1937), 329Google Scholar.

146 Powell, , ‘Kingship’, 164Google Scholar; Kightly, , ‘Early Lollards’, 20, 295–6Google Scholar; PRO, KB9/209, mm. 52, 62; KB27/644, rot. I I rex; £136/174, rot. 14.

147 Devon, F., Issues of the Exchequer, London 1837, 352–3Google Scholar.

148 So much is suggested in Nolcken, C. Von, ‘Richard Wyche, a certain knight, and the beginning of the end’, in Aston, and Richmond, , Lollardy and the gentry, 143, 153nGoogle Scholar; McFarlane, , John Wycliffe, 159Google Scholar. Brown had been indicted for sheltering three key figures in the revolt–John Purvey, Robert Harley and Richard Morley: PRO, KB9/991, m. 4; Jurkowski, M., ‘New light on John Purvey’, EHR cxi (1995), 1182Google Scholar.

149 He may, however, have been the ‘Richard Wyche, preest’ of Meon, East, Hampshire, , accused in 1418 of having assaulted and wounded one ‘Alice Peecok“ in the town of Westminster in 04 1413Google Scholar: PRO, KB9/994, m. 48.

150 Reg. Chichele, iii. 56–7; CCR 1419–22, 82.

151 On the declining number of Oxford graduates able to obtain clerical preferment see Aston, T. H., ‘Oxford medieval alumni’ Past and Present lxxiv (1977), 27–34Google Scholar.

152 Specifically, Thomas Rodebourne and Robert Gilbert. For the latter see BRUO, 766–7; Catto, , ‘Wyclif and Wycliffism’, 253Google Scholar.

153 For Taillour and Payne see Emden, A. B., An Oxford Hall in medieval times, Oxford 1927, 125–61Google Scholar. For Mybbe see above, and for Master Thomas Turk, Principal of Hart Hall from 1399 to 1400, who was cited by the bishop of Salisbury, for heresy in 1411 see BRUO, 1917Google Scholar.