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468 [444]

K. Richard. 2. I. Wickliffe. Phillip Repington. I. Aishton. N. Herford.

postolique see, Rob. Rigges professour of diuinitie, and Vicechancellor of the vniuersitie of Oxforde, greeting with due honour. Your letters bearing the date of the 14. of Iuly I have receaued: By the authoritie wherof, I haue denounced and caused to be denounced effectually, the foresayd Nicholas and Phillip, to haue bene and to be excommunicate publikely and solemnly in the Church of S. Mary: and in the schooles, and to be cited also personally, if by any meanes they might be apprehended, according as you commaunded. But after dilligent search layd for them of my part to haue them personally cited and apprehended, I coulde not finde neyther the sayd M. Nicholas, nor M. Phillip: who haue hyd or conuayed themsleues, vnknowing to me, as here is well knowne. Whereof I thought here to geue signification to your Fatherhoode. Sealed and testified with the seale of mine office. From Oxford the 25. of Iuly.MarginaliaThe 25. day of Iuly. an. 1382.

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MarginaliaHerford & Repington repulsed from the Duke of Lancaster. In þe meane time Nicholas Herford, and Repington being repulsed of the Duke, and destitute (as was sayde) of his supportation, whether they were sent, or of theyr owne accorde went to the archbish. it is uncertayne. This I finde in a letter of the foresayd archbishop, contayned in his register: that Repington the the 23. day of October the same yeare 1382. MarginaliaThe 23. day of October. Repington released by the Archb.was reconciled agayne to the Archbishop and also by his generall letter was released and admitted to his scholasticall actes in the vniuersitie. MarginaliaI. Aisheton reconciled by the Archbishop.And so was also Iohn Ashton, of whom (Christ willing) more shall follow hereafter  

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Foxe is refering to a description of Repingdon's abjuration in Lambeth Palace Library, Courtenay Register, fo. 32v.

. Of Nicholas Herford all this while I finde no speciall relation.

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MarginaliaA parliament summoned. In the meane time, about the 23. of the month of September the sayd yeare, the king sent his mandate to the Archbishop for collecting of a subsidie and to haue a conuocation of the clergie sommoned, against the next parliament, which should begin the 18. day of Nouember.  

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Foxe is drawing on Archbishop Courtenay's register for his account of what transpired in the Convocation of 1382; see Lambeth Palace Library, Courtenay Register, fos. 33r-34r.

MarginaliaThe 15. of October. 1382.The Archb. likewise on the 15. day of October, directed his letters monitorie (as the maner is) to Robert Braybroke bishop of London, to geue the same admonition to al his suffraganes and other of the Clergie within his prouince for the assembling of the conuocatiō aforesayd. MarginaliaThe conuocation of S. Frideswide in Oxford. The 18. day of Nouemb.All which done and executed, the parliamēt begon being holden at Oxford the 18. day of Nouember, where the conuocation was kept in the Monastery of Frideswide in Oxforde. In the which conuocation, the Archbishop with the other bishops there sitting in their Pontificalibus, declared two causes of that their present assembly, whereby (sayth he) to represse heresies, which began newly in the realme to spring, and for correcting other excesses in the Churche. The other cause (sayd he) was to ayde and support the king with some necessary subsidie of mony to be gathered, whiche thus declared, the conuocation was continued till the day following which was the 19 of Nouember.

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MarginaliaThe 19 day of Nouemb. anno. 1382. At the sayd day and place, the Archbishop with the other Prelates assembling themselues as before: the archbishop after the vsed solemnitie, willed the procuratoures of the clergy appoynted for euery dioces, to consult within themselues, in some conuenient seuerall place, what they thought for theyr partes touching þe redresse of thinges, to be notified and declared to him and to his brethren. &c.

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Furthermore, forsomuch (sayth he) as it is no noysed through all the realme, that there were certayn in the vniuersitie of Oxford, which did hold and mayntayne conclusions (as he called them) heretical and erroneous condemned by him, and by other lawyers and doctours of Diuinitie. He therfore assigned the bishops of Saram, Herford and Rochester, MarginaliaRob. Rigge displaced from Vicechauncellorship. with William Rugge then Vicechauncellour of the Vniuersitie of Oxford (for belike Robert Rigge was then displaced) as also William Berton, and Iohn Midleton Doctors: MarginaliaInquisitiō made at Oxford.geuing them hys full authoritie wyth cursing and banning, to compell them to search and to enquire with all diligence and wayes possible, ouer all & singular whatsoeuer, eyther Doctors, Bachellers, or schollers of the sayd vniuersitie, which did hold, teache, mayntaine and defend, in schooles or out of schooles, the sayd cōclusions heretical (as he called them) or erroneous, and afterward to geue certificat truely and playnly touching the premisses. And thus for that day the assembly brake vp to the next, and so to the next, and the third being monday, the 24. day of Nouember. Ex. Regist. W. Courtney.MarginaliaThe 24. day of Nouēber. an. 1382.

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On the which day, in the presence of the Prelates and the clergy in the chapter house of Saint Frideswide, came in Phillip Repington (otherwise called of the brethren afterward Rampington) who their abiured the conclusions and assertions aforesayd, in this forme of wordes as followeth.

MarginaliaThe abiueration of Philip Repington. In Dei nomine Amen.  

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Philip Repingdon's abjuration is copied from Lambeth Palace Library, Courtenay Register, fo. 34v.

I Phillip Repington, Canon of the house of Leicester, acknowledging one catholique and Apostolick fayth do curse and also abiure all heresie, name-ly these heresies and errours vnder written, condemned & reproued by the decrees canonicall, and by you most reuerend father, touching which hitherto I haue ben diffamed: condemning moreouer & reprouing both them and the authors of them, & doe confesse the same to be catholically cōdemned. And sweare also by these holy Euangelies, which here I hold in my hand, and do promise, neuer by any perswasions of men, nor by anye way hereafter, to defend or hold as true, anye of the sayd conclusions vnder written: but do & will stand and adhere in all thinges, to the determination of the holy Catholicke Church, and to yours, in this behalfe. Ouer and besides, all suche as stand contrary to this fayth, I doe pronounce them with their doctrine & followers worthy of euerlasting curse. And if I my selfe shall presume at any time to hold or preach any thing contrary to the premisses. I shall be content to abide the seueritie of the Canons. Subscribed with mine owne hand, & with mine own accord. Phillip Repington. And thus the sayd Rampington was discharged, who afterward was made Byshop of Lincolne, and became at length the most bitter and extreme persecutor of this side, of al the other bishops wtin the realm, as in proces hereafter may appeare.MarginaliaPhilip Repington after his abiuration became a terrible persecutor.

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After the abiuration of this Repington, immediately was brought in Iohn Ayshton,. student of Diuinitie  

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Foxe is drawing his account of John Aston's refusal to plead or abjure from Lambeth Palace Library, Courtenay Register, fo. 32v.

: who being examined of those conclusions, and willed to say hys mynde, aunswered: that he was to simple and ignoraunt, and therefore would not, and could not aunswere any thing clearely or distincktly to those conclusions. Wherupon, the Archb, assigned to him Doctor W.  
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This is Robert Rygge, it is just that he is misidentified in Courtenay's register.

MarginaliaA short time my Lord, for a mā in one forenoone to learne a faith against his cōscience. Rugge the Vicechauncellour, and other deuines such as he required himselfe to be instructed in the mistery of those conclusions against the after noone: who then appearing again after dinner before the archbishop and the Prelates, did in like sort and forme of wordes abiure as did Repington before.MarginaliaThe abiuration of Iohn Aisheton. Ex chron. Monast. D. Albani.

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MarginaliaI. Aisheton. Of this Iohn Ayshton we read, that afterwarde by Tho. Arundell Archb. of Cant. he was cited and condemned,  

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This expression of uncertainty about John Aston's fate comes from a British Library, Harley MS 3634, a version of Thomas Walsingham's Chronica majora which Foxe obtained from Matthew Parker. This manuscript is printed as Chronicon Angliae, ed. E. M. Thompson, Rolls Series 64 (London, 1874); this material is on p. 350. This replaces Foxe's earlier account of Aston (on 1563, p. 102), which based largely on Bale's notes in the Fasciculi Zizaniorum (Bodley Library MS Musaeo e 86, fos. 80v-81r). For the record, Aston abjured in November 1382, but soon withdrew his recantation and resumed a career as a Lollard preacher. He died by 1407..

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but whether he dyed in prisō, or was burned, we haue yet not certainty to shewe. This is certayne by the playne wordes of the chronicle of S. Albans, that when the arch. with his doctors and fryers sate in examination vpon this sayd Iohn Ashton, in London: the Londiners brake open the dore of the conclaue, MarginaliaThe Londiners open the dore where the Archb. sate against Ioh. Aishton.ipsumq; Archiepiscopum in ciuitate sedentem impediuerunt, cum processum fecissit contra Iohannē Ashton. &c. That is and did let the Archbishop himselfe sitting in the Citty of London, when he would: haue made processe agaynst Iohn Asheton. an. 1382. And thus muche of Iohn Asheton.

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MarginaliaNi. Herford would not appeare. As touching Nicholas Herford during the time of this conuocation, he did not appeare:  

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Actually Nicholas Hereford appealed his case to Rome, and, evading arrest, journeyed there in person. Urban VI had him imprisoned, but Hereford escaped in 1385. He returned to England and was imprisoned in January 1387, but he was free by the summer. He remained an important disseminator of Lollard ideas, but he made his peace with the authorities. He held various offices in the Church, including a stint as chancellor of St. Paul's cathedral and as chancellor of the diocese of Hereford.

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and therefore had the sentence of excommunication. Agaynst which he put hys appeale from the archb. to the king and his Counsaile. MarginaliaN. Herforde appealed from the Archb.The Archb. would not admit it, but finding stayes and stoppes caused him to be apprehended and enclosed in prison. MarginaliaNi. Herford cast in prison.Notwithstanding through the will of God, MarginaliaHerford escapeth out of prison.and good meanes he escaped out of the prison returning agayn to his former exercise, and preaching as he did before, albeit in as couert and secret maner as he could. Whereupon the Archbishop thundring out his boltes of excōmunication agaynst him, sendeth to al pastors and ministers, willing thē in al churches, and all festiuall dayes, to diuulge the sayd his his excommunicatiou against him, to al men. Writeth moreouer and sendeth speciall charge to al and singular of the laity, to beware that theyr simplicity be not deceaued by his doctrine, but that they like Catholicke children will auoyd him, and cause him of all other to be auoyded.

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Furthermore, not contented with this, addresseth also his letters vnto the king, requiring also the ayde of his tēporall sword to chop of hys neck, whō he had already cast down. See and note reader, the seraphicall charitie of these priestly prelates towardes þe poore redemed flock of Christ And yet these be they whiche washing theyr handes wyth Pylate, say and pretend: Nobis non licet interficere quenquā. It is not our partes to kill any man. The copye of the letter written to the king, is this.

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The letter of the Archbishop to the king.

MarginaliaThe cruell letter of the Archb. against Nic. Herford to the kyng  

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This letter is copied from Lambeth Palace Library, Courtenay Register, fol. 69r.

. TO the most excellent prince in Christ. &c. William &c. greeting in him by whom kinges do reigne, & princes beare rule. Vnto your kingly celsitude by the tenour of these presentes we intimate, that one M Nich. Herford D. of diuintie, for his manifest contumacie and offēce in not appearing before vs being called at the day and place assigned, therefore is inwrapped in the sentence of the greater curse, publiquely by our ordinary authoritie. And in the same sentence hath continued now forty dayes, & yet still continueth with indurate hart, wickedly contemning

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the