ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



in 1397 the king wrote to Robert Reade, who had just been made bishop of 

 Chichester, ordering him to arrest and punish all Lollards and other heretics 

 who preached either openly or in secret in his diocese. 113 Although no record 

 is found of any proceedings taken in consequence of this order Reade was 

 probably not idle, as he was one of the bishops who assisted at the condemna- 

 tion of John Badby, the Evesham tailor, who was the first to suffer death 

 under the statute of I4O2. 1U His successor Stephen Patrington, who was 

 appointed to Chichester in 1417, but died before institution, was one of the 

 most vigorous opponents of the Wycliffites, 118 and Richard Praty, who became 

 bishop in 1438, zealously performed the commission given him in 1440 by 

 the bishop of Winchester to suppress heresy, especially amongst the country 

 people, who had taken to reading pernicious books in the English tongue. 116 

 In accordance with this commission Bishop Praty caused the arrest of one 

 John Boreham, formerly priest of Selhurst in Surrey, on a charge of heresy. 117 

 Boreham confessed to having used exorcism to expel demons from people, 

 having made charms and incantations for the cure of fevers, and possessing the 

 four Gospels in English, and some books of magic, but denied consorting 

 with heretics and disparaging the sacrament of confession. Upon swearing 

 to cease from these and all other errors contrary to the Church's teaching he 

 was absolved. The only person in this county who was put to death for his 

 religious opinions seems to have been Thomas Bageley, clerk, who was burnt 

 as a Lollard in I432. 118 



Heresy reached its highest point in Sussex in 1457 wnen Reginald 

 Pecocke, bishop of Chichester, the brilliant but erratic writer olThe Represser 

 of Overmuch Blaming of the Clergy r , and other English theological treatises of 

 daring but inconsistent originality, was arraigned as a heretic. Being con- 

 demned on the evidence of his own writings he was offered the choice of a 

 public abjuration of his errors or death by fire. Choosing the former alterna- 

 tive he was brought to St. Paul's Cross on Sunday, 27 November, and there 

 before the primate and other clergy, and a vast concourse of spectators, made 

 a public and humble confession of heresy, and then, ' in the prechynge tyme 

 were many bokes of eryses of hys makynge, that cost moche goodes, damnyd 

 and brent before hys face.' 119 For the remainder of his life the deposed bishop 

 dwelt, a secluded prisoner, in the abbey of Thorney, cut off from the society 

 of men and books. 



The ever-increasing cost of living during the fifteenth century, together 

 with the poverty and diminished numbers of the populace, told heavily upon 

 the clergy, both monastic and secular, and the lists of religious houses and 

 benefices exempted from taxation on the score of poverty grew yearly 

 longer, while many churches are noted as unserved because of the smallness 

 of their income. 120 Attempts to remedy this state of affairs were sometimes 

 made by the uniting two adjacent parishes ; thus in 1528 the decayed and 

 depopulated parish of Exceit was united with Westdean 131 ; in 1439 the 

 churches of Compton and Up Marden, with the chapel of West Marden, 

 having few parishioners and small endowments, were united, Compton being 



111 Trevelyan, The Peasants'' Rising and the Lollards, S3- "' Stephens, See of Cbichester, 1 34. 



" Ibid. 135-6. "' Chich. Epis. Reg. Praty, fol. 45. 



17 Ibid. fol. 46, summarized in Stephens, See of Cbichester, 141-2. 

 118 Inq. p. m. 10 Hen. VI, No. z6 ; he held property in Midhurst and Chichester. 

 "' Man. Francisc. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 175. m Chich. Epis. Reg. passim. "' Suit. Arch. Coll. iv. 46. 



