MarginaliaCold weather graciously considered. cold wether that now is, least the foresayd penitentes might peraduenture take some bodely hurt standing so long naked (beyng myndefull to moderat partly the sayd our rigour) we giue leaue: That after their entraunce into the Churches aboue sayd, whilest they shalbe in hearyng the foresayd Masses: that they may put on necessary garments to keepe them from cold, so that their heades and feete notwithstandyng, be bare and vncouered. We therefore will and commaunde you together and a part, that you denounce the sayd William, Roger, and Alice, to be absolued and restored agayne to the vnitie of our holy mother the church, and that you call them forth to do their penaunce in maner and forme aforesayd. Giuen at Dorchester, the xvij. day of Nouember in the yeare of our Lord God. 1389. and the ix. yeare of our translation.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaPeter Pateshull against the friers. Vnto the narration of these aboue sayd, we will adioyne the story of one Peter Pateshul an Austen Frier
Foxe's account of Peter Pateshull's attack on the friars is taken from College of Arms MS Arundel 7; see Historia Anglicana, ed. H. T. Riley, Rolls Series 28 (London, 1863-4), II, pp. 157-9.
Pateshull had been an Augustinian friar; he purchased an appointment as papal chaplain from Disse; this post released Pateshull from his order.
Walsingham identified the rioters as Lollards; Foxe identifies them as Londoners. The former is implying that Pateshull's supporters were heretics, the latter that they were an outraged citizenry.
Thus it may appeare by this and other aboue recited, how the Gospell of Christ preached by Iohn Wickleffe and others, began to spread and fructifie abroad in London, and other places of the Realme: and more would haue done no doubt had not William Courtney, the archbyshop and other Prelates with the kyng, set them so forceably with might and mayne, to gaynstand the course therof.MarginaliaFew or none burned in king Richardes time. Albeit as is sayd before, I find none which yet were put to death therfore, duryng the raigne of this kyng Richard the second. Wherby it is to be thought of this kyng, that although he can not be vtterly excused for molesting the godly and innocent preachers of that tyme, (as by his breues and letters afore mentioned may appeare) yet neither was he so cruell agaynst them, as other that came after him: And that which he did seemed to procede by the instigation of the Pope and other Byshops, rather then either by the consent of his Parliament, or aduise of his counsaile about him, or els by his own nature. For as the decrees of the Parliamēt in all his time, were constant in stopping out the Popes prouisions, and in bridlyng his authoritie as we shall see (Christ willyng) anone:MarginaliaKinges many tymes brought into much feare of the pope. so the nature of the king was not altogether so fiercely set, if that he folowyng the guidyng therof, had not stand so much in feare of the Byshop of Rome and his Prelates, by whose importune letters and callyng on, he was continually vrged, to be contrary to that, which both right required, & will perhaps in him desired. But how soeuer the doynges MarginaliaCommendation of Queene Anne wife to kyng Richard. of this kyng are to be excused, or not, vndoubted it is the Queene Anne his wife most rightly deserueth singular cōmendatiō: who at the same tyme liuyng with the kyng had the Gospels of Christ in English, with iiij. Doctours vpō the same. This Anne was a Bohemian borne, and sister to Wincelaus kyng of Boheme before:Marginalia1394.
The mariage of Queene Anne to K. Richard. who was maried to kyng Richard about the v. (some say, the vj.) yeare of his reigne, and cōtinued with him the space of xi. yeares.MarginaliaThe occasiō how the doctrine of Wickliffe came to Bohemia. By the occasion wherof it may seeme not vnprobable, that the Bohemians commyng in with her, or resortyng into this Realme after her, perused & receaued here the bookes of Iohn Wickleffe, which afterward they conueyed into Bohemia, wherof partly mention is made before, pag. 446.
MarginaliaThe death of Quene Anne The sayd vertuous Queene Anne, after she had lyued with kyng Richard about xj. yeares, in the xvij. yeare of his reigne chaunged this mortall lyfe, and was buryed at Westminster. At whose funerall, Thomas Arundell then Archbyshop of Yorke, & Lord Chauncelour, made the Sermon.
As Foxe declares, he obtained this sermon from a manuscript in Durham cathedral library, which he obtained from Matthew Parker.
MarginaliaTho. Arundell & the B. of London, go to Irelād to the kyng to complain of the fauourers of gods worde. For shortly after the death of Queene Anne, þe same yere (the kyng beyng then in Ireland) this Thomas Arundell Archbyshop of Yorke, & Byshop of London, Robert Braybrocke (whether sent by the Archbyshop of Canterbury, & the Clergy, or whether goyng of their owne accorde) crossed the Seas to Ireland, to desire the king in all spedy wise to returne and helpe the fayth & Church of Christ, agaynst such as holding of Wickleffes teaching, went about (as they sayd) to subuert all their procedynges, and to destroy the canonicall sanctions of their holy mother Church. At whose complaint the kyng hearing the one part speake, and not aduising the other, was in such sort incensed: that incontinent leauyng all his affaires incomplet, he sped his returne toward England.MarginaliaEx histor. D. Albani. Where he kept his Christmas at Dublyne, in the which meane tyme,Marginalia1395. in the begynning of the next yeare folowyng, which was an. 1395. a Parliament was called at Westminster, by the commaundement of the kyng.MarginaliaCōclusions offered vp in the parliament house. In which Parliament, certaine Articles or Conclusions were put vp by them of þe Gospell side, to the nūber of 12.
The 'book of Conclusions' or The Twelve Conclusions, as they are more generally known, were posted to the doors of Westminster Hall and also St. Paul's in London during the session of Parliament in the first months of 1395. Foxe's source for the background to these events was the brief account in College of Arms MS Arundel 7 (a version of Thomas of Walsingham's Chronica majora - see Thomas of Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, ed. H. T. Riley, 2 vols., Rolls Series 28 [London, 1863-4], II, P. 216). Foxe drew on the Latin version of this text in the Fasciculi Zizanniorum (see Bodley MS e Musaeo 86, fos. 87r-89r), which was reprinted exactly in the Commentarii (fos. 108-115v) and the Rerum (pp. 76-9). The points contained in The Twelve Conclusions - attacks on clerical wealth, compulsory clerical celibacy, the 'feigned miracle' of transubstantiation, prayers for the dead, pilgrimages and auricular confession - caused Foxe no discomfort and, as a result, his versions of the text follow this close quite closely, apart from minor deletions to the last conclusion. The conclusions were translated in the 1563 edition. In the 1570 edition, Foxe collated this version with a version of one of the copies of Roger Dymmock's Liber contra duodecim errores et hereses Lollardorum. The 1570 version of the twelve articles was reprinted, without change, in 1576 and 1583.
[Back to Top]Thomas S. Freeman
University of Sheffield