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.
[Back to Top]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
Foxe is refering to a description of Repingdon's abjuration in Lambeth Palace Library, Courtenay Register, fo. 32v.
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.
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 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.
[Back to Top]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.
[Back to Top]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.
Philip Repingdon's abjuration is copied from Lambeth Palace Library, Courtenay Register, fo. 34v.
After the abiuration of this Repington, immediately was brought in Iohn Ayshton,. student of Diuinitie
Foxe is drawing his account of John Aston's refusal to plead or abjure from Lambeth Palace Library, Courtenay Register, fo. 32v.
This is Robert Rygge, it is just that he is misidentified in Courtenay's register.
MarginaliaI. Aisheton. Of this Iohn Ayshton we read, that afterwarde by Tho. Arundell Archb. of Cant. he was cited and condemned,
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..
[Back to Top]MarginaliaNi. Herford would not appeare. As touching Nicholas Herford during the time of this conuocation, he did not appeare:
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.
[Back to Top]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.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe cruell letter of the Archb. against Nic. Herford to the kyng
This letter is copied from Lambeth Palace Library, Courtenay Register, fol. 69r.