U1 



The greatest consternation prevailed among the clergy 

 upon the news of this outrage being carried through the 

 country, and for several weeks secret deliberations were 

 carried on for the purpose of devising some good plan 

 for restoring the visibly decreasing prestige of the clerical 

 party. 



At last the three bulls arrived from Rome, but were, 

 as we have seen, too late in the field ; for not only had 

 the trial of Wicliffe turned out a failure, but the King 

 had in the meantime died, and the Oxford doctors had 

 almost all sided with the reformer. Still, the Church 

 determined to punish Wicliffe, who was summoned to 

 appear before Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 

 Lambeth Chapel, to answer charges of heresy and insu- 

 bordination ; but this trial proved as unfortunate for the 

 clergy as the former one, for another angry mob besieged 

 the chapel and demanded the release of the reformer, 

 in addition to which Sir Lewis Clifford arrived in haste 

 from the Queen to forbid the bishops passing any sen- 

 tence upon Wicliffe. This was indeed a surprise for 

 their reverences, who precipitately left the chapel and 

 reached their homes in the best way they could. All 

 this had a great effect upon the minds of the people 

 both in England and on the Continent ; for the Pope 

 and his satellites had not only been attacked, but, what 

 was more amazing, they had suffered an unparalleled 

 defeat ; and the probability was that the discontented 

 of France and Italy would follow the example of the 

 English reformer and attempt to put into practice the 

 theories of Arnold and Abelard. The times certainly 

 looked black for the Church ; but an event happened 

 shortly afterwards which added still more to the general 

 dismay of the clericals, and was near being the end of 

 the Papacy. 



.Pope Gregory XL died on March 27th, 1378, at the 

 Vatican, where he had arrived shortly before from his 

 beautiful residence at Avignon ; and the Italian clergy, 

 fearing that the next pope would also take up his resi- 

 dence in France, determined to exert every effort to 

 place upon the vacant chair of St. Peter an Italian who 

 would be likely to remain at the Vatican. At this time 

 the sacred college consisted of twenty-two cardinals, 



