A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



were adopted for their suppression. It is noticeable, however, that the more 

 reUgious side of the movement never died out, and that the places where 

 Lollardism mostly prevailed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were 

 permeated with Puritanism in the two centuries that followed. Of no place 

 in England, as will presently be seen, is this more true than of Northampton. 



From 1405 to 141 9 the diocese was ruled by a bishop who had 

 himself been formerly a Lollard, and even a leading exponent of Lollard 

 opinions. The career of Bishop Philip Repington was not free from faults, 

 but he was at least a strict disciplinarian. Towards the end of his rule he 

 issued severe warnings against laymen presuming to sit in the chancels of 

 churches. One of his special injunctions in this respect was against Joan, the 

 wife of Lawrence Mortymer, of Towcester, in this county, who took her 

 seat in the chancel after knowing that the penalty of greater excommunication 

 would be pronounced against such offenders.' A later instance of Lollardism 

 in Northamptonshire during this century is afforded by the case of John 

 Frankes, rector of Yardley Hastings, who had to make a formal abjuration 

 before his diocesan of erroneous opinions publicly preached. He had 

 preached against pilgrimages and the adoration of images.^ 



The Assize of Arms of 1 1 8 1 bound every holder of land to produce one 

 or more men fully equipped and capable of fighting in national defence. For 

 more than four centuries, the providing for and the assembling of the local 

 militia (though the scale of arms was revised in 1285) continued on the basis 

 laid down by Henry II. Though the clergy, both secular and religious, 

 were, of course, exempt from any personal service in arms, they were liable 

 for their proportionate share of the local force in all cases where their income 

 was derived from a charge on land or from the land itself. In times of 

 emergency special attention was given to the due proportions of the Assize of 

 Arms so far as it affected the clergy. The bishops were held responsible for 

 the apportioning of the number and quality of men-at-arms due from the 

 clergy of their diocese in proportion to the income of those clergy, and 

 obtained their returns through their rural deans. Such an emergency arose 

 in 141 8, when the king was absent in France and a Scotch invasion not 

 improbable ; and details of the clerical array for the deaneries of Peterborough, 

 Oundle, and Weldon will be found in a register of the abbey of Peterborough. 

 This array, one of a class of which there are few examples for that period, 

 is unfortunately too long and intricate for full discussion here. It is valuable 

 as giving a kind of clergy-list (though not a complete one) for a large portion 

 of the county, and much interest attaches to many of the particulars it 

 contains as to the peculiar liabilities, with regard to national defence, of 

 various classes of ecclesiastics and of several religious communities — the 

 colleges of Cotterstock and Fotheringhay, the priory of Fineshade, and the 

 abbeys of Peterborough and Pipewell. The document containing this array 

 is now preserved in the British Museum.' 



The deaneries mentioned in the document had to provide eighteen 

 ' armed men,' eight of whom fell to the share of the wealthy abbey of 

 Peterborough. From the terms of other arrays it is clear that this expression 

 meant mounted yeomen, as when in 1285 anyone possessed of ^^15 in lands 



' Line. Epis. Reg. Repington, fols. 144, 147, 1 50. ' Ibid. Chedworth, fol. 46. 



' Add. MS. 25,288, fols. 81^-83. 



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