A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



the sacrament in her chapel;' the letter of the prior of Bromholm dated 

 31 January, H^^'" which speaks of 'the Commission that the Bishop of 

 Norwich sent us on Thursday last past to gather the dimes, a shrewd labour 

 for us, a great cost, and a shrew jeopardy ; ' or John Paston's indignant 

 repudiation ' of the rumour reported to him by James Gloys, a priest and 

 dependant of his, that he has procured one Sir John Tartyssale, parson of the 

 the East church of Warham, and chaplain of the prior of Walsingham, to 

 put into Parliament a bill of divers treasons done by my lord of Norwich, 

 from which last it appears that the bishop also ran a risk of being attainted at 

 the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses. 



Bishop Goldwell was raised to the vacant see by the pope, and 

 consecrated at Rome, 4 October, 1472, his temporahties being restored to 

 him 25 February, 1473, on his return from the papal court, where he had 

 been sent on a mission to Pope Sixtus IV by Edward IV, and had held the 

 office of king's proctor. He had filled many important posts, and had been 

 employed on missions to France as well as Rome, but after the death of 

 Edward IV, he seems wholly to have retired from political life, and to have 

 spent his remaining years in pious works and in the adornment of his palace 

 and the cathedral. He died 15 February, 1498-9. 



Thomas Janne or Jane was promoted to the see in 1499, being 

 consecrated in October. But he died September, 1500, and was buried 

 in the cathedral. There is nothing to tell of his episcopate, but that he 

 paid the pope 7,300 golden florins for his appointment. Foxe says that in 

 July, 1499, one Brabram, a heretic, was burnt at Norwich. 



Bishop Nix, who succeeded Janne, was appointed in March, 1500-1, and 

 was a consistent opponent of the reforming party which was steadily gaining 

 ground in his diocese. His record as a persecutor has made his name the sub- 

 ject of execration, but it must be remembered that he faithfully adhered to the 

 older religious views when it would have been to his advantage to modify 

 them. The letters in which he writes of the efforts he had made to buy up 

 all copies of the New Testament and other reforming works circulating in 

 his diocese, show also that he was aware it was the king's wish, at certain 

 periods in the ever-varying policy of Henry in the matter, that these should 

 not be interfered with.* Cardinal Wolsey was in Norwich in 15 17 and 

 again in 1520,^ for the purpose of making a final settlement of the dispute 

 between the prior and the city, and his award was published in 1520.* Bishop 

 Nix's sympathies were evidently with the archbishop,^ and he did not conceal 

 his animus against Wolsey. He wrote grudgingly of the appointment 

 of Wolsey's kinsman, Wynter, as archdeacon of Norfolk,* and he was soon 



' Nos. 712, 755, and 751, in which last, she writes 29 Jan. 1475 : ' I wold ye shuld spekyn with my 

 Lord of Norwych, and a say to get a lysen ol hym to that I may have the sacrament her in the chapell, 

 because yt ys far to the chyrche, and I am sekly, and the parson ys often owt. For aU maner of caswelties of 

 me and myn, I wold havyt grauntyd, yf I myth.' 



' No. 368, i, 542. 



' No. 255, i, 348, 25 July, 1455. 'I suppose ye know I have not usid to meddel with Lordes maters 

 meche forther than me nedeth.' 



* Cal. L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv, pt. iii, 6,385. Another letter (ibid, ii, 3176, 14 June, 1527) shows 

 that as well as making every effort to get rid of these heretical works in his own diocese, he contributed to 

 help Archbishop Warham to buy up all copies of the New Testament for the purpose of destroying them. 



' Ibid. pt. i, 1 1 1 3 (note). 



* The award (ibid. pt. i, 407, No. 1 1 1 3) determines the respective jurisdictions and customs of the parties. 

 ' Cal. L. and P. Hen. VIII, iii, pt. i, 77. ** Ibid, iv, pt. iii, 4659. 



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