30 
known as ‘‘ William the Hermit.” He continued, however, constantly to preach 
the Gospel, ‘‘running sometimes into the town and sometimes going into the 
country.” 
Swynderby was gifted with a good voice and great natural eloquence. He 
was simple and unaffected in manner, earnest and persuasive. He knew by heart 
much of the Bible in the vulgar tongue, and was very ready in quoting it. He 
was withal so strict and austere in his own life as to bear out his teaching, and 
quickly gain for himself considerable influence. Wherever he preached crowds 
flocked to hear him, whether in the street or in the market place, like the men- 
dicant friars of that period ; or in the churches of Leicester, and the neighbour- 
ing towns which seem at this time to have been open to him. ‘‘ By his preaching,” 
says Knighton (fol. 2667), ‘‘he so captivated the affections of the people, that 
“they said they had never seen nor heard any one who so well explained the 
“*Truth to them ; and so they reverenced him as another God.” 
Swynderby preached simply with great boldness and simplicity, and yet 
with a considerable amount of tact and caution. Avoiding the more dangerous 
topics, he preached against the vanity and pride of the people, against the luxuries 
and vices of the rich, and denounced openly those sins of the priesthood and the 
church, which, though but too common at the time, were yet too gross to be 
capable of defence. ‘‘He so provoked the women,” says Knighton, ‘‘ that the 
“‘sood and grave women, as well as the bad, proposed to stone him out of the 
“‘place ; and but for the Divine clemency he had driven some honest men of the 
‘‘town into despair.” His preaching certainly made a very great impression on 
the people, and it was probably due, in great measure, to Swynderby’s eloquence 
that ‘‘the Reformer’s sect,” as the chronicle states ‘‘ was held in the highest 
‘honour in those days, and was become so numerous that you could scarcely see 
‘*two persons in the highway, but one of them was a disciple of Wycliffe.” 
—Knighton, fol. 2665. 
In the preface to the edition of The Bible of Wycliffe and his Followers, by 
Forshall and Maddus, published at the Oxford University Press, in 1850, Swyn- 
derby is named as one of the principal associates (with Hereford, Ashton, and 
Parker) of Purvey in the preparations of the edition of the Bible, which has Pur- 
vey’s General Prologue; and it was probably during his residence in the park at 
Leicester, that Swynderby was engaged upon it. 
He is next heard of in a mandate issued by the Bishop of Worcester (Wake- 
field) against the preaching of Lollards in his diocese, dated August 10th, 1387. 
The mandate also names Hereford, Ashton, duo, Purvey, Parker, and Swynderby, 
as leagued together in an unlicensed college, ‘‘insanid mentis perducti, ac sue 
“‘salutis immemores, sub magne sanctitatis velamine, venenum sub labris, in ore 
‘*mellifluo habentes, zizanium pro frumento seminantes,” &e., &c. (Reg. Wake- 
field Wigorn, fol. 128; Wilkins III., p. 202.) 
On the death of John of Gaunt in 1389, an active persecution of the Lollards 
was at once commenced. Richard II. issued a commission against the inhabitants 
of Leicester, and Archbishop Arundel made a visitation there, summoned some 
of the leading inhabitants before him, and excommunicated them from the high 
