170 



rices of the rich, and denounced openly those sins of the priesthood and the 

 church which though but too common at that time were yet too gross to be 

 capable of defence. "He so provoked the women," says Knighton, " that the 

 good and the 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 

 towninto despau-." His preaching certainly made a very great impression on the 

 people, and it was probably in great measure due to Swynderby's eloquence that 

 "the Reformers'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). 



Swynderby seems to have remained in the park at Leicester until John of 

 Gaunt left the country on his Spanish expedition in 1386. In the preface to the 

 edition of the Bible of Wycliffe and his followers, by Forshall and Madden, 

 published at the Oxford University Press in 1830, Swynderby is named as one 

 of the principal associates (with Hereford, Ashton, and Parker) of Purvey in the 

 preparation of the edition of the Bible, which has Purvey's General Prologue. 

 At this time he may have been engaged upon it with these leading Lollards. 



He is next heard of in a mandate issued by the Bishop of Worcester 

 against the preaching of Lollards in his diocese, dated Augiist 10, 1.387. The 

 following are the names of the Lollards given in the mandate, which describes 

 them as leagued together in an unlicensed college :—" Nic. Hereford, Johan 

 Asshton, duo, Joh. Purney, Joh. Parker, et Kob. Swinderly, insania mentis 

 perducti ac sum sahitis immemores sub magnse sanctitatis velamine venenum sub 

 labiis in ore mellifluo habentes, zizaniam pro frumeuto seminantes," &c., &c., 

 (Keg. Wakefield Wigorn, fol. 128 ; Wilkins, iii., p. 202). The best authorities 

 agree in believing that " Robert Swinderly" is a mistake of the Bishop's notary 

 for "William Swynderby." 



On the death of John of Gaunt (1.389) an active persecution of the 

 Lollards was commenced. Richard II. issued a commission against the inha- 

 bitants of Leicester, and Archbishop Arundel made a visitation there, summoned 

 several of the leading inhabitants btfore him, and excommunicated them from 

 the high altar of the Abbey Church. Swynderby, who at this time was again 

 at Leicester, did not escape. On the representations of friar Frisby, an 

 Observant, friar Hinceley, an Augustine, and Thomas Blaxton, a Dominican, he 

 ■was cited to appear before John Bokynham, Bishop of Lincoln, in the cathedral 

 church of that city to answer certain articles drawn up against him. These 

 articles were eleven in number, and were chiefly directed against his attacks on 

 the priests and the church. Swynderby's caution, however, had been so great 

 that his accusers preferred to invent charges against him rather than to bring 

 forward the true ones. " Yis I sey wytnessyng god yt is in hcfen to my wytte 

 & understondyng, yt I neur prychyd, helde, ny tauhte yes conclusiones a articles 

 ye whyche falsly of freres were put upon me . . . to ye bpshoppe of 

 lincoln," writes Swynderby himself to the Bishop of Hereford, " for I was 



