=Source.=--_An English Chronicle_, edited by Davies, pp. 75-77.
(Camden Society, 1856.)
And this same year, and the year of our Lord 1457, master Reginald
Pecock, bishop of Chichester, a secular doctor of divinity that had
laboured for many years for to translate Holy Scripture into English;
passing the bonds of divinity and of Christian belief, was accused of
certain articles of heresy, of the which he was convicted before the
archbishop of Canterbury and other bishops and clerks, and utterly
abjured, revoked and renounced the said articles openly at [St.] Paul's
Cross in his mother tongue, as followeth hereafter: "In the name of the
Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I, Reginald Pecock, bishop
of Chichester unworthy, of my own power and will, without any manner
of coercion or dread, confess and acknowledge that I here before this
time, presuming of my natural wit, and preferring my judgement and
natural reason before the New and the Old Testament, and the authority
and determination of our Mother, Holy Church, have held, written and
taught otherwise than the holy Roman and universal church teacheth,
preacheth or observeth ... and specially these heresies and errors
following, that is to say:
'In primis, quod non est de necessitate fidei credere quod Dominus
noster Ihesus Christus post mortem descendit ad inferos.
'Item, quod non est de necessitate salutis, credere in sanctorum
communione.
'Item, quod ecclesia universalis potest errare in illis quæ sunt fidei.
'Item, quod non est de necessitate salutis credere et tenere illud
quod consilium generale et universalis ecclesia statuit, approbat, seu
determinat in favorem fidei et ad salutem animarum, est ab universis
Christi fidelibus approbandum, credendum et tenendum.'[17]
[17] "First, that it is not necessary to faith to believe that our Lord
Jesus Christ, after His death, descended into hell.
_Item_, that it is not necessary to salvation to believe in the
communion of saints.
_Item_, that the Church universal can err in matters of faith.
_Item_, that it is not necessary to salvation to believe and to hold
that whatever a general Council of the Church ordains, approves, or
determines in matters of faith and for the salvation of souls, ought to
be approved, believed, and held by all faithful Christians."
"Wherefore I, miserable sinner which here before long time have
walked in darkness, and now by the mercy and infinite goodness of God
reduced into the right way and light of truth, and considering myself
grievously to have sinned and wickedly have informed and infected the
people of God, return and come again to our Mother, Holy Church; and
all heresies and errors written and contained in my said books, works
and writings here solemnly and openly revoke and renounce ... submitting
myself, being now very contrite and penitent sinner, to the correction
of the Church and of my said lord of Canterbury.... And over this
declaration of my conversion and repentance, I here openly assert
that my said books, works and writing, for declaration and cause above
rehearsed, be deputed unto the fire and openly burnt in example and
terror of all other.
'Why wonder that reason not tell can,
How a maid is a mother, and God is man,
Flee reason and follow the wonder,
For belief hath the mastery, and reason is under.'"
This made the said Pecock, as it was said.
And after this he was deprived of his bishopric, having a certain
pension assigned unto him for to live on in an abbey, and soon after he
died.
A SEA FIGHT (+June 1, 1458+).
=Source.=--_Paston Letters_, vol. i., No. 317.
_John Jerningham to Margaret Paston._
... Right worshipful cousin, if it please you for to hear of such
tidings as we have here, the embassy of Burgundy shall come to Calais
the Saturday after Corpus Christi day, as men say five hundred horse
of them. Moreover, on Trinity Sunday in the morning, came tidings unto
my Lord of Warwick that there were twenty-eight sails of Spaniards
on the sea, and whereof there was sixteen great ships of forecastle;
and then my Lord went and manned five ships of forecastle, and three
carvels, and four pinnaces, and on the Monday, on the morning after
Trinity Sunday, we met together afore Calais at four at the clock in
the morning, and fought that gathering till ten at the clock; and there
we took six of their ships, and they slew of our men about four score,
and hurt two hundred of us right sore; and there were slain on their
part about twelve score; and hurt five hundred of them.
And it happed me, at the first aboarding of us, we took a ship of 300
ton, and I was left therein and twenty-three men with me; and they
fought so sore that our men were fain to leave them, and then come they
and boarded the ship that I was in, and there I was taken, and was
prisoner with them six hours, and was delivered again for their men
that were taken before. And as men say, there was not so great a battle
upon the sea this forty winter. And forsooth, we were well and truly
beat; and my Lord hath sent for more ships, and like to fight together
again in haste.
THE EVILS IN THE CHURCH (+Written before+ 1458).
=Source.=--Gascoigne's _Loci e Libro Veritatum_, edited by Rogers.
(Oxford: 1881.)
_Unworthy promotions_ [pp. 13, 14].
It is notorious now in the realm of England that boys, youths and
men dwelling in the courts of the worldly are placed in churches, in
high offices and in prelacies, others being set aside who have long
been occupied in study and preaching and in the guiding of the people
without thought of worldly lucre.... Among others unworthily promoted,
one foolish youth, eighteen years of age, was promoted to twelve
prebends and a great archdeaconry of the value of a hundred pounds, and
to one great rectory, and a certain layman received the rents of all
the said benefices, and spent upon the youth just as much as he, the
layman, pleased, and never rendered an account, and that youth was the
son of a simple knight, and, like an idiot, was drunk almost every day.
_Non-residence_ [pp. 3, 149].
Some never or seldom reside in their cures, and he to whom a church is
appropriated and who is non-resident, comes once a year to his cure,
or sends to the church at the end of the autumn, and having filled
his purse with money and sold his tithes, departs again far away from
his cure to the court where he occupies himself in money-making and
pleasures.... O Lord God! incline the heart of the Pope, Thy vicar, to
remedy the evils which arise through the appropriation of churches, and
by the non-residence of good curates in the same. For now in England a
time draweth nigh when men will say, "Formerly there were rectors in
England, and now there are ruined churches in which cultured men cannot
decently live...."
_Church dues oppressive_ [p. 13].
For Rome, like a singular and principal wild beast, hath laid waste
the vineyards of the church, reserving to herself the elections of
bishops, that none may confer an episcopal church on anyone unless they
first pay the annates or first-fruits and rent of the vacant church.
Also she hath destroyed the vineyard of God's church in many places,
by annulling the elections of all the bishops in England. Also she
destroys the church by promoting wicked men according as the King and
the Pope agree.
_The abuse of the Sacraments_ [pp. 197].
It is now known that many infants die without baptism because the
parish churches have no fonts, and divers abbeys have licence and
custom that everyone of certain parishes should baptise in their
monasteries, and yet they cannot come conveniently by night, or at
other times to the font there.
_Proud Prelates_ [pp. 22, 23].
Bishops were wont, as is manifest in the Life of St. Cuthbert, to
talk humbly and familiarly with their inferiors and every day to
give everyone of their flock an audience if he sought to speak with
his bishop. Recently a poor man came to the servant of a certain
archbishop, the son of a lord, and said "I marvel that the archbishop
does not give audience in his own person to his flock as his
predecessor was wont to do." The servant replied "My lord the present
archbishop was not bred in the same way as his predecessor" (meaning by
this that his lord the archbishop, who was so strange and distant to
his flock, was the son of a lord, and his predecessor was the son of a
poor man); the poor man answered the said servant, "Truly the present
archbishop and his predecessor were bred in different fashions, but it
is manifest that the predecessor was the better man and more useful to
his flock and to their souls and to the whole diocese."