A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



statements were pronounced heretical and fourteen more erroneous. The 

 announcement of the formal condemnation of these views, with the 

 threat of excommunication against any one teaching them or permitting 

 them to be taught, was not drawn up by the archbishop and issued to the 

 province until 30 May, so that Wykeham's action on 21 May showed 

 great determination and vigour on his part. In his mandate to the vicar 

 of Odiham the bishop stated that it was a matter of common notoriety 

 that those named had been recently preaching in his church, so that it is 

 evident that that corner of Hampshire had been selected by the Wycliffite 

 leaders for some special effort. Hereford, Ashton and Bedeman were the 

 Oxford leaders of the movement, and next in importance to Wycliffe 

 himself; Hereford had preached before the university on 16 May. Not- 

 withstanding the patronage of the Chancellor of Oxford, the archbishop 

 and bishops were strong enough to secure the suspension of Hereford, 

 Ashton and Repingdon (who is not mentioned here), and their eventual 

 condemnation as heretics by the end of June. 1 They all recanted ; 

 Repingdon became Bishop of Lincoln and a cardinal, and Hereford died 

 a Carthusian monk. Bedeman gave way directly he was suspended, 

 being formally restored to his functions in the following October, and 

 ended his days as a Devonshire rector. 2 If Robert Alynton is the same, 

 which is probably the case, as Robert Alyngton of C^ueen's College, who 

 was Chancellor of Oxford in 1394, he afterwards became a writer 

 against Wycliffe. 3 



The mandate against John, vicar of Odiham, is followed in Wyke- 

 ham's register by the entry in full, under date of 30 May, of the 

 twenty-four doctrines condemned by the Blackfriars' synod and by the 

 archbishop's circular denouncing excommunication against Hereford 

 and Repingdon. 4 Wykeham's conscientious determination of judgment 

 is shown by his decision with regard to Bedeman, dated at Southwark, 

 22 October, 1382, when he formally dismissed the charges of heresy. 

 The bishop frankly admits that he had vehemently suspected Lawrence 

 Bedeman, alias Stephen, of preaching in his diocese various heretical and 

 erroneous doctrines contrary to the decision of the Church ; but that 

 when summoned before him and certain doctors of law and divinity as 

 assessors, they found him a true Catholic. Bedeman swore that he had 

 never held, taught, or preached the errors with which he was charged, 

 wherefore the court granted him full absolution and discharge. 6 



The elaborate and carefully kept registers of Wykeham afford much 

 information on the subject of special prayers. The parish priest of 

 England of those days was frequently called upon by his diocesan to use 

 spiritual intercession for the affairs of state. The bishop took action 

 in three ways : most frequently he received a privy seal from the 

 Crown directing his conduct ; occasionally the order reached him from 



1 Walden's Fasciculi Zizaniorum, pp. 273-5, 309-11. 



2 Fox the martyrologist blunders in naming Bedeman as one who ' suffered a most cruel death.' 

 Bedeman's name seems really to have been Stevine (Boase's Reg. of Exeter Coll. p. 17, ed. 1894). 



* Wood's Fasti, p. 34 ; Bale, cent. i. 519. 



' Winton. Epis. Reg., Wykeham, iii. ff. 196, 197. Ibid. 



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