Critical Apparatus for this Page
Commentary on the Text
Names and Places on this Page
Unavailable for this Edition
619 [619]

K. Richard. 2. The Examination and Submission of Walter Brute. Actes and Mon. of the church.

MarginaliaNicholas Herford, there also present.was the foresaid Walter apposed of his writings aforesayd, and the contentes therein. MarginaliaThe writinges of Walter Brute examined.Earnest were they in pykyng out of those writings, his heresies, and in showing his schismes, sundry errours and diuers other thynges. Now after that they had continued all that day and the ij. dayes folowyng (that is Friday, Saterday, and Sonday) in theyr informations & examinations agaynst the same Walter Brute The same Walter Brute submitted him selfe to the determination of the Churche and to the correction of the sayd Iohn, Byshop, as it appeareth word for word in a scrole written in the English toung, The tenor of whiche scrole, is as foloweth.

[Back to Top]

MarginaliaThe tenor of the submission of Walt. Brute.¶ I Walter Brute, submit my selfe principally to the Euangely of Iesus Christe, and to the determination of holy kyrke, and to the generall Councels of holy kyrke. And to the sentence and determination of the foure doctours of holy wryght, that is Austen, Ambrose, Ierome, and Gregorie. And I meekly submit me to your correction, as a subiect ought to his Bishop.

[Back to Top]

MarginaliaThe submissiō of Walter Brute openly red at Herford.Whiche scrole as afore is recited in the English toūg, the foresayd Walter Brute read, with a loude and intelligible voyce, at the Crosse in the Churchyard on Monday that is to say the 6. day of the sayd moneth of October, before the sermon made vnto the people in presence of the sayd Bishop of Herford and other aboue written, as also other Barons, knightes, and noble men & clergie and also a great multitude of people. After which reading of the scrole, the foresayd Thomas Crawlaie bachiler of diuinitie, made the sermon vnto the people, and toke for his theme the wordes of the Apostle to the Romaines the xj. chapter, that is as foloweth. Be not ouerwyse in your own conceites but stand in feare, &c.

[Back to Top]

☞ Out of these declarations and writinges of Walter Brute, the Byshop with the Monkes and Doctors aboue rehearsed, dyd gather and drawe out certayne articles, to the number of 37. which they sent to the Vniuersitie of Cambrige to be confuted  

Commentary   *   Close

Summaries of answers to Brut's writings appear in Trefnant's register; they were written by John Neuton, the chancellor of Cambridge University and William Colvyll, one of his predecessors. (See Registrum Johannis Trefnant; Episcopis Herefordensis, Canterbury and York Society [London, 1916], pp. 368-76 and 376-94). But Neuton and Colvyll almost certainly attended Brut's trial rather than, as Foxe states, Brut's writings were sent to them in Cambridge.

[Back to Top]
, vnto two learned men, Maister Colwyll, and Master Newton, Bachilers of diuinitie. Which M. Colwyll, and Newton dyd both labour in the matter, to the vttermost of their cunning, in replieng and aunswering to the sayd xxxvij articles.

[Back to Top]

Besides them also, W. Woodforde a Fryer (who wrote likewyse agaynst the articles of Wickleffe) labouring in the same cause, made a solemne and a longe tractation  

Commentary   *   Close

Woodford did write against Brut, but it is not mentioned in Trefnant's register. Foxe must have picked this up from Ortwin Gratius's pronting of Woodford's list of articles against Wiclif, where Woodford mentions his writings against Brut. (See Ortwin Gratius, Fasciculis rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum [Cologne, 1535], fo. 95v). Foxe printed Woodford's list - copying Gratius - in 1570, p.551; 1576, pp. 444-5 and 1583, p. 450.

[Back to Top]
, compiling the articles of the sayd Brute, to the number of xxix. All which treatises, as I wyshe to come to the readers hand, that the slendernes of them myght be knowen: so it may happen percase, that the same being in my hands may hereafter be further published, with other lyke tractations moe, as conuenient time for the prolixitie therof may hereafter, better serue then now.

[Back to Top]

What after this became to this Walter Brute, or what end he had, I fynde it not regestred: but like it is, that he for this time escaped. Certaine other  

Commentary   *   Close
Archbishop Courteney's persecution of Lollards

In the 1570 edition, Foxe introduced further material from the register of John Tefnant, bishop of Hereford: a letter denouncing the former Lollard Nicholas Hereford, another letter purportedly written by Satan to the English clergy, two bulls from Boniface IX and two letters of Richard II. Foxe also added to this edition: documents related to Archbishop William Courtenay's visitation of Leicester in 1389 (taken from Courtenay's register) an account of Peter Pateshull's attack on the friars (which Foxe took from College of Arms MS Arundel 7) and a summary of Archbishop Thomas Arundel's funeral sermon for Richard II's queen Anne of Bohemia (which Foxe took from a MS in the Durham Cathedral Library). All of these documents added to the picture Foxe wished to create of the ubiquity of Lollard beliefs and the savage persecution they encountered.

[Back to Top]

Thomas S. Freeman
University of Sheffield

writinges I finde moreouer, which albeit they beare no name of this Walter, nor of any certaine author: yet because they are in the same Register adioyned to the historye of him. I thought therefore moste fitte here to be inserted. Of the whiche the one was a letter sent to Nicholas Herford, a litle aboue specifyed: who being at the first a great follower of Iohn Wickleffe, as appeareth before pag. 542. was nowe in the number of them which satte vpon thys Walter, as is in þe next page aboue recorded. The copie of this letter, bearing no name of any speciall author, but only as sent by a certaine lollarde (as the register doth terme him) is writtē in maner and forme as followeth.  
Commentary   *   Close

As we have seen, Nicholas Hereford was one of Wiclif's earliest disciples at Oxford. He had been forced to recant and apparently he was one of the scholars Bishop Trefnant summoned to examine Walter Brut. This anonymous letter, however, appears to have been written, not only to upbraid Hereford for backsliding, but to defend William Swinderby's teachings; possibly Hereford had publicly attacked those. Foxe copied the letter from Trefnant's register; see Registrum Johannis Trefnant, Episcopi Herefordensis, ed. W. W. Capes, Canterbury and York Society (London, 1916), pp. 394-6.

[Back to Top]

[Back to Top]
¶ Here foloweth the Copy of a letter sent to maister Nicholas Herford, by a Lolard as in the Register it is sayd.

FOr as much as no man that putteth his hande to the plough and looketh backe, is meete for the kingdomeof God, as our sauiour Christ sayth: What maruell is it, although maister Nicholas Herford, Whiche at the fyrst (by the visitation of the spirite of God paraduenture) put his hande, that is, gaue his diligēce, vnto the plough, that is, to the sowing of the word of God and holy scripture, aswell in preachyng as in doyng good woorkes: is nowe so blinde and vnskilful to expound the Scripture, that he knoweth not what is vnderstood by the kyngdome of heauen. Truly it is no maruell, MarginaliaNicohtās.O thou that art maister of the Nicholitanes, whiche lyke Nicholas the most false deacon, hast left or forsaken the infallible knowledge of the holy Scripture. For the true knowledge of the Theologicall veritie is shut vp as well from thee as from all the other Nicholitans folowyng thy conditiōs, for as much as thou goest not in by the doore to expoūde the same Euāgelicall veritie. Therfore, whē thou diddest recite this other day, first, the pharisaicall and hipocriticall woe (nothyng at all to any purpose) thou shouldest haue sayd iustly in this sorte, both of thy selfe, and others thy folowers and religious Antichristes: Wo be vnto vs Scribes and Pharisies, whiche shut vp the kingdome of heauen, that is to say, the true knowledge of the holye Scripture, before men by our false gloses and crooked similitudes: and neither we our selues enter into the same kyngdome or knowledge, nor suffer other to enter into it. Wherfore, it semeth vnto the faithfull sort, that wrongfully, falsly, and without any reuerence, ye haue expounded that text of Gregorie. 1. q. 1. that is to saye, Marginalia11. q. 1. ca. quicunque stndet.Quicunque studet. &c For this is the true vnderstanding of the same. Knowing first that there be some priests after the thing, and name onelye, and doth shewe that this is true: that whosoeuer studieth to receaue the holye order by giuing of money, He is not a priest secundum rem, et nomen But to saye the truthe, he desireth to bee called a prieste, that is to bee a prieste Secundum nomen tantum. And suche a prieste whiche is a priest in name onely, is no priest. No more then S. Marie paynted is S. Marie: Nor a false doctour a doctour, but no doctour: And a man painted is not a man, but no mā. And thus such a priest in name only, is not a priest. Because that all faithfull men do firmely beleue with S. Gregorie, that no man byeng the holy orders, may then be called a priest, as he saith. 1. q. 1. They that bye or sell holy orders canne be no priestes. Wherupon is written. Anathema dandi, et Anathema accipiendi That is Simoniacall heresie. And it foloweth, how therfore, if they be acursed and not blessed, cā they make others blessed? And when that they be not in the body of Christ, how can they either receaue or deliuer the body of Christ? He that is acursed, how cā he blesse? as though he would say. It is impossible. As pope Vrbanus sayth. 1.q. 1. Marginalia1. q. 1. Si qui a Simoniacis.Si qui a Simoniacis. &c. Where he sayth thus. They that willyngly know and suffer them selues to be cōsecrated, nay rather execrated of those that are infected with Simonie: wee iudge that their consecration is altogether voyde. Also Pope Leo in ij q. 1 sayth in this wise. MarginaliaEx leone papa 2. q. 2Grace, if it bee not frely giuen or receaued, is not grace. Spirituall vsurers do not receaue frely, Therfore, they receaue not the spirituall grace, whiche specially worketh in the ecclesiasticall orders. If they receaue it not, they haue it not: if they haue it not frely, they cannot giue it frely. And by this it is more clearer then the light. That they whiche knowe so much and receaue orders by spirituall vsurie or symonie: Are neither priests nor deacons, neither after the maner, nor character. For if such character or marke were otherwise giuen in gyuyng orders, it were requisite always that there should be a certain grace imprinted in þe mā: But there is no such grace giuē or imprinted as afore is manifest. Therfore there is no such Character to be fayned. Therfore, such Character or marke, abydeth not in him, for as much as he neuer had nor hath the same. And yet farthermore in the same place. What then do the simoniacall prelates giue? And he maketh aunswere truly euē that which they haue, as the spirite of lyeng. How proue we this? Bycause that if it be the spirite of veritie, as the same veritie doth testifie from whom it cōmeth, it is frelye receaued. And it foloweth for the hole purpose no doubt: It is conuicted to be the spirit of lyeng, whiche is not frely receaued.

[Back to Top]

By thys it appeareth manifestly to the faythfull sorte: that those whych weetinglye an simoniacallye are made priestes, for as muche as they receaue not the Character of the Lorde, but onely the spirite of lying, and the marke of Simon Magus & of Iudas the traytor: that they be not priestes, neyther according to the marke nor maners. Nor such do no more make the sacramentes of

[Back to Top]
the