Sentences
and restera-
tions.
The statute
against the
IjOllards,
yz Constitutional TIislory. [chap.
The lords were otherwise employed, partly in the work of
Jiacification, partly in the work of retribution. The conspiracy
of the earls had ruined many and endangered more. Sentence
of forfeiture was declared against the earls of Kent, Hunting-
don, and Salisbury, and the lords Lumley and le Despenser.
Rutland and Fitzwalter agreed to refer their quarrel to the
king’s decision; the earls of Rutland and Somerset were, on
the petition of the commons, declared loyal. The king’s
clemency looked even farther back; the heirs of the judges
Holt and Burgh were restored; the bishop of Norwich, the
valiant Henry le Despenser, the only man who had ventured in
arms to oppose Henry’s march in 1399, was reconciled to the
king ; the proceedings against Sir Simon BurIey were reversed.
All these were wise and politic measures, although they were
too late to heal the evils caused by the exceptional misgovern-
ment of the late reign ’.
The mark however by which the parliament of 1401 is
chiefly known in history is the action taken against the Lollards.
Tliis was prompted no doubt by archbishop Arundel, who
throughout his career was their unflinching enemy. He
had a double opportunity. The popular hatred of Richard’s
court and courtiers was still strong ; and among Richard’s
courtiers the chief protectors of the Lollards had been found.
The earl of Salisbury had been a noted and powerful heretic,
closely connected with Thomas Latimer, Lewis Clifford, William
Neville, the Cheynes, and the Clanvowes, who were the leaders
of the party. Advantage might be taken of the unpopularity
of the old court to destroy the Lollards. Henry again was
fervently orthodox, all the more so perhaps for the dislike that
as an honest man he must have felt at his father’s intrigues
with the Wycliffites ; he had made very weighty promises to
the clergy, and Arundel might well demand that those promises
should be now fulfilled : a calumny had been breathed against
Henry himself; this would be the easiest way of repelling it.
The clergy had shown a dislike to contribute money, and had
Hot. Parl. iii. 456, 459, 4$°> 4^1> 4fH∙
Armdel,β Polley.
33
χvi∏∙]
ιnadθ no grant since the reign began ; they might be inclined Petitionof
t0 be more liberal if they saw themselves secured against their in 1401.
enemies. With this intention Arundel had called together the
clergy ɑn January 26th, and told them that the great object of
their meeting was to put down the Lollards ɪ. The royal com-
missioners, Northumberland, Erpingham, and Northbury1 pro-
mised the king’s aid, and prayed for some decisive measure ;
even during the session of parliament there was, we are told,
an alarm of a Lollard rising2. The result was a long and
bitter petition3, and the immediate initiation of proceedings
against William Sawtre, a Lollard priest. The petition was Petition
granted by the king with the assent of the lords ; and a petition commons,
of the commons, conceived in shorter terms but in the same
sense, conveyed the assent of the lower house 4. It was then statute of
framed into a clause of the statute of the year, and by it the l4°1'
impenitent heretic, convicted before the spiritual court, was to
be delivered over to the officers of the secular law to be burned;
all heretical books were to be destroyed 5. The exact date of
the petition is not given. Sawtre's trial, however, lasted from Sawtre
the 12th to the 24th of February8; on the 26th the royal writ
for his execution was issued 7. On the nth of March the con-
vocation granted a tenth and a half-tenth to supplement the
contribution of the laity8. The whole proceeding, grievous as
it is to the reputation of all persons concerned in it, seems to
show that there was already in the country, as in the court,
a strong reaction against the Wycliffites. Doubtless it was in
1 Wilkins, Cone. iii. 254.
2 Adam of Usk, p. 4.
3 Rot. Part. iii. 466, 467 ; Wilkins, Cone. iii. 252.
4 Rot. Parl. iii. 473:1 Item priount les Communes qe qant ascun homme
ou femme, de quel estât ou condition qu’il soit, soit pris et emprisone pur
Lollerie, que maintenant soit mesne en respons, et eit tel juggement corne
ɪl ad desservie, en ensample d’autres de tiel male secte, pur Iegerement
cesser lour malveis predications et Iour tenir a foy CristienJ
J 2 Hen. IV. c. 15 ; Statutes, ii. 123 ; Chr. Giles, p.¾ι ; Wilkins, Gone.
ni. 328. See below, ch. xix. pp. 370 sq.
6 Ann. Henr. pp. 336, 337 ; Eulog. iü. 388; Chr. Giles, p. 22 ; Adam of
ʊsk, P- 57 > Wilkins, Conc. iii. 254.
7 Rymer, viii. 178; Rot. Pari. iii. 459.
8 Wilk. Conc. iii. 262 ; Adam of Usk, p. 59. The clergy of York granted.
a tenth, July 26; Wilk. Cone. iii. 267.
VOL. III. P