ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



But in spite of the unyielding severity with which he administered his diocese, 

 the Wyckhffite doctrines took firm root/ and the first victim of the notorious 

 statute de Hceretico Comburendo was William de Sawtre, who, as chaplain of 

 the parish of St. Margaret's, Lynn, was cited before the bishop for heresy 

 I May, 1399,' and pubUcly recanted at Lynn, 26 May following, but after- 

 wards recovered courage on removal to London, and continued to preach his 

 heretical opinions at St. Osyth's, Walbrook. He was condemned as a relapsed 

 heretic'* and burned 26 February, 1401. 



The bishop himself incurred the serious displeasure of the pope by 

 certain steps he took during his long dispute with his successor, Alexander 

 de Totington, the prior of Norwich, who had denied his right of inquiry 

 into various excesses committed by Thomas de Tutishallis, chamberlain, 

 John Kyrkeley, infirmarer, John Dancer, succentor, and Thomas Lenne, 

 rector of ' Norman's Hospital,' dedicated to St. Paul, and an exempt 

 jurisdiction of the prior, as also his absolution of Richard de Bilney, monk, 

 against whom the prior had issued sentence of excommunication for 

 disobedience and othe/ offences.* The pope called all the causes to himself, 

 and ordered the archbishop and bishop to make an amicable composition, 

 and if they could not do so, then in two years, to transmit the causes and 

 parties concerned to the papal see. This typically long and vexatious suit 

 after many delays' came to an end in 1402, when the pope confirmed the 

 arbitration of the archbishop. During its course the bishop was also engaged 

 in another with the prior of Walsingham,^ who was forced to submit in 

 1398. The bishop was no friend of the regulars, and in 1380 embroiled 

 himself with the abbey of St. Albans, by claiming authority over the prior of 

 Wymondham, but the abbey gained the day. 



The monks chose their prior, Alexander de Totington, with whom the 

 bishop had been so long in conflict, to succeed him. But Alexander was 

 imprisoned for a year before he was allowed to take possession of his see, 

 because the election took place without the nomination of the crown.^ The 

 king refused to accept the chapter's presentation until more than a year 

 had elapsed,* when at last, at the earnest entreaty of Dr. Thomas Arundel, 

 archbishop of Canterbury, and several nobles, and after the city of Norwich 

 had sent letters to the king and the pope, requesting the confirmation of his 

 election, Alexander de Totington was received into favour after publicly 

 resigning all right in the bishopric by virtue of Pope Gregory's bull of pro- 

 vision. His temporalities were restored to him 23 October, 1407,^ and he 



' It is interesting to note that in 1 401 in the petition in the Ca/. Papal Petitions v, ^j^-$, (or the union and 

 consolidation of the two churches of St. Margaret's and St. Andrew's, Norton, in the deanery of Rockland, 

 the parishioners and the patron, Robert de Brome, gave the malice of the times, as well as the late pestilence 

 and the ruin of the buildings of St. Margaret's (in whose churchyard St. Andrew was situated, and whose roof 

 and walls daily threatened to fall), as one of the reasons for their action. 



' Wilkins, Conci/. iii, 256. ' Ibid. * Ca/. Papal Letters, iv, 525. 



» Ibid. V, II, 273, 318, 380, 586-7. 



• Ibid. 157, 159, l6o. ' Stephens, Hist, of the Eng. Ch. iii, 161. 



' The archbishop caused a visitation of the diocese to be made in this interval in October, 1406 (Lambeth 

 Reg. Arundel, fol. 524, &c.), and cases of non-residence and leasing of benefices were strictly investig.ited, the 

 ofi'enders being warned by mandate to desist and their fruits sequestrated. Among them were Bartholomew 

 Brown, rector of the church of St. Lawrence, of South Walsham, who had not resided for three years and 

 dwelt at Norwich ; John, rector of Bokenham, who had not resided for two years and it was not known where 

 he abode ; John Athewald, rector of the church of Kerdeston, who had leased his church to Thomas Dallyng 

 and John Peynton of Refham ; and Walter Fowl, dean of Norwich, with Taverham, who resided, but leased 

 his deanery to John Catton, his kinsman. ° Rymer, Foedero. 



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