CHAP. 70 see. : INGLORIOUS BISHOPS OF LONDON. Yet Bishop RALPH DE BALDOCK (1304-1313) was Lord Chancellor he was a man of letters too, the second in the He had been Dean of S. Paul's, and in that office accursed at Paul's Cross all who had searched, or consented to the digging, for treasure in the church of S. Martin's-le-Grand. Ralph Baldock wrote a history of Great Britain from the earliest times to his own day. This work had been seen by Leland, but, I fear, is now irrecoverably lost. He also wrote a book on the Statutes and Customs of the Church of S. Paul.2 İn 1307 a petition was presented by the Dean and Canons of S. Paul's, for the canonization of Robert Grostete, Bishop of Lincoln.3 In 1309 a Provincial Council concerning the Templars met in S. Paul's. Ralph Baldock sat in judgment on the Templars, but not, as appears, in the Cathedral.4 GILBERT DE SEGRAVE sat from 1313 to 1317. He was also an author, of theological lectures and quodlibets, said to have been preserved in some one of the libraries at Oxford. There let them sleep. Some may regret Baldock's history; few the theology of Segrave. RICHARD DE NEWPORT sat but a year, 1317-1318. STEPHEN DE GRAVESEND, 1319-1338. He was nephew of Bishop Richard, the third instance of a nephew following his uncle in the see of London. Stephen de Gravesend contested the right of the Archbishop of Canterbury to visit S. Paul's, but in a more peaceful way than his predecessor was compelled to contest against Archbishop Boniface. He appealed to Rome, but was worsted in his appeal. It is no wonder that Bishop Stephen was restive, if we consider the amount which was paid to Walter the 2 Fabyan, p. 400. Wilkins, vol. ii. p. 237. proceedings against the English Templars, see Latin Christianity, vol. vii. p. 251 et seqq. MURDER OF BISHOP OF EXETER. 71 Archbishop, by the hands of Almeric, Earl of Pembroke, the Bishop's seneschal, for procurations on his consecration :-a vast quantity of linen, and of tapers and candles, 200 loaves, 6 larger barrels of wine, 36 smaller, 1 ox, 1 hog, 4 calves, 24 rabbits, 36 chickens and capons, 50 cercel et beket? 200 larks, hay for 160 horses for two nights, and other provender. The Bishop had assigned 20 marks sterling, to be distributed among the Primate's servants. But these were not paid! 5 CHAP. In the sad days of Edward II.'s reign, S. Paul's witnessed more than one terrible scene, no less than, the murder of a bishop, almost within its walls. The King had committed the custody of the city of London to Walter Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, the Lord High Treasurer. A letter from the Queen was affixed to the A.D. 1326. Cross in Cheapside, imploring the citizens in pathetic words to rise in the common cause for the defence of their country. The Bishop demanded the keys of the city from the Lord Mayor in the King's name. The citizens seized the Lord Mayor, and compelled him solemnly to swear to obey their orders. A cry rose, 'Death to the Queen's 'enemies!' They fell on one Marshall, a servant of the younger Despenser, and cut off his head. Thence to the Bishop of Exeter's palace, burst the gates, and plundered the jewels, plate, and household goods. The Bishop had been taking a quiet ride in the fields. He endeavoured to find sanctuary in the church of S. Paul's. He reached the north door, was torn from his horse, dragged into Cheapside, proclaimed a traitor, and beheaded, and with him two of his servants. The rioters then dragged the body to the foot of a tower, which he was building near the Thames, and threw him into the river." ♪ Wharton, in vitâ, gives the measure of the linen and the number of candles larger 36, lesser 288. 6 Walsingham. Maitland's London, p. 118. CHAP. III. The Bishop of London himself, Stephen, was involved in a perilous affair. On the deposition of Edward II. he refused to admit the justice or legality of the sentence, and was ill-treated by the populace for his fidelity to the fallen King. After the death of Edward II. (Sept. 21, 1327), Edmond Earl of Kent, William Archbishop of York, and Stephen Bishop of London are accused of conspiring to disseminate rumours that Edward was still alive. The Earl of Kent lost his head for the offence. The Prelates were convicted of high treason, but were pardoned by Act of Parliament in 1336.7 RICHARD DE BINTWORTH, or de Wentworth, was Bishop, 1338, 1339; RALPH DE STRATFORD, 1340-1354. There are several curious mandates addressed by Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury, to Ralph Bishop of London, on the exorbitant salaries demanded by chaplains for the cure of souls (sinecures were in the order of the day); on certain priests imprisoned for civil offences, some of whom, it seems, were so overfed and pleasantly lodged as to encourage offences and a convocation was summoned to be held in S. Paul's. MICHAEL DE NORTHBERG was Bishop, 13541361.8 On the death of Bishop Michael, the temporalities of the see were entrusted to the Dean and Chapter of S. Paul's, paying to the King annually 1000l., or pro re ratá. : SIMON SUDBURY, who became Bishop of London, a.d. 1362, had spent many years in the Papal Court at Avignon, at a time when that court, under the best and greatest of the Avignonese Pontiffs, Innocent VI., had been at the height of its splendour, and had thrown off, for a time at least, its evil fame for unequalled profligacy. Sudbury had been domestic chaplain to the Pope, and rose to the Wilkins, vol. iii. Bishop Michael was the first founder of the Charterhouse, but that noble institution, I am informed on the best authority, never received the full fruits of his munificence. distinction of being of the Rota. This is the more extraordinary, if there be truth in the report of a speech attributed to him when Bishop of London. At that time he can hardly have had vision of the primacy, to which London was now beginning to be a stepping-stone. It is said that, in the midst of a vast multitude of pilgrims wending their way, in profound devotion, to the shrine of S. Thomas in Canterbury, the Bishop reproved them for their superstitious folly, and told them that their hopes of the promised plenary indulgence were vain and idle." Yet the tone of that speech is singularly accordant with the reproach heaped upon Sudbury by the High Church party, that his ignominious death was a just judgement for his lenity to the Wycliffites, now beginning to be obnoxious. But it was not as Bishop of London, nor indeed as Archbishop of Canterbury, that Simon Sudbury met his miserable fate. He was beheaded by the insurgent rabble on Tower Hill, as chancellor, an office especially odious. That insurrection was against the Lawyers, not against the Clergy. 'Pull down the Inns of Court' was the cry: it does not seem that they approached or treated the Cathedral otherwise than with respect. Sudbury, indeed, was incautious in his language: he had called the rebels, 'shoeless ribalds.' His last words (we trust truly reported) were more in the spirit of his Divine Master. He died imploring the mercy of God upon his murderers. Did he learn the lesson at Avignon, or from the English Bible, now beginning to fly abroad? 9 Wharton, from William Chartham, a monk of Canterbury, perhaps a suspicious authority. CHAP. III. CHAP. IV. CHAPTER IV. S. PAUL'S, WYCLIFFE AND THE WYCLIFFITES. THE successor of Simon Sudbury in the see of London was a prelate of a very different character, WILLIAM DE COURTENAY, of that noble, even imperial house (he was son of the Earl of Devon); a churchman of the loftiest and boldest views, and of the most inflexible temper. The first act of Courtenay displayed the dauntless bravery of the man. He was translated from Hereford, Sept. 12, 1375. In the next year the King (Edward III.), who was declining in age and authority (as Gray wrote, 'And sorrow's faded form, and solitude behind'), demanded a subsidy from the Clergy for the expense of his wars. Courtenay, in the full convocation at S. Paul's, protested against the grant, till the grievances of the Clergy and certain wrongs against himself and the Bishop of Winchester should be redressed. The Clergy, encouraged by Courtenay, refused the grant. But, before the end of the year, the King had his revenge. The Pope, Gregory XI., had launched an anathema against the Florentines. The Bull was distributed throughout Christendom. The Florentines, the great merchants of the world in every kingdom of Europe, being under the ban of outlawry, might be plundered with impunity. Bishop Courtenay, without permission from the Crown, caused the Bull to be publicly read at Paul's Cross. This was not only |