No . 134
The Trusty Servant
Wykeham and the Heretics
Nick Townson ( Co Ro 16- ) on the track of an unorthodox early Fellow :
On 14 July 1402 , Dame Anne Latimer made her will . One of a number of ‘ Lollard ’ wills from the beginning of the fifteenth century , it comprises a checklist of familiar details , such as Anne ’ s concern for the poor , her contempt for her physical body , and rejection of excessive pomp . She ended by offering God ‘ so poor a present as my wretched soul ’. She died shortly afterwards .
Anne was the widow of Sir Thomas Latimer of Braybrooke , who had been in the service of the Black Prince and John of Gaunt . Thomas died a year earlier and used his will to express near-identical concerns . He was , according to Anne Hudson , ‘ the Lollard knight whose credentials as a Wycliffite are least open to challenge ’. The overseers of Anne ’ s will included Sir Lewis Clifford , Robert Hoke , and Philip Repingdon . Among her executors was an Oxford-trained preacher named Robert Lechlade . At one time or another , the Church had regarded all as heretics .
Five years later , two Czech theologians , Mikuláš Faulfiš and Jiří Kněhnic , visited Hoke at Braybrooke and Lechlade at Kemerton , returning to Bohemia with fresh copies of John Wyclif ’ s De Dominio Divino , De Veritate Sacre Scripture , and De Ecclesia . The manors at Braybrooke and Kemerton were apparently used as ‘ safe houses ’, where controversial books could be read and copied without attracting unwanted attention . Lechlade also collaborated with Peter Payne , an outspoken Wycliffite who later fled to Prague and became a prominent advocate for the Hussites . Payne had given Faulfiš and Kněhnic a letter attesting that John Wyclif was of upright life , pre-eminent in the knowledge and exposition of scripture , and had never been condemned for heresy .
These traces suggest two places where heresy took root and how a group of preachers succeeded in disseminating Wyclif ’ s ideas beyond Oxford , despite the coordinated efforts of ecclesiastical and civil authorities . After Wyclif ’ s condemnation , adherents had to conceal their unorthodox activities . The show trial and burning of John Badby in 1410 , an Evesham tailor who lived eight miles from Lechlade ’ s Kemerton , illustrated the dangers involved for those without connections , and showed how the Lancastrian dynasty actively concerned itself with the forceful repression of religious dissent .
It is interesting to find Robert Lechlade in the 1390s listed as one of the earliest fellows of Winchester College . Wykeham had been one of the first bishops to take action against Wycliffite preaching . After an expedition of Oxford preachers to Odiham in Hampshire , he issued an edict against Nicholas Hereford , John Aston , Robert Alyngton , and Laurence Bedeman in 1382 . His edict accuses the men of spreading errors about the Eucharist and other sacraments , while also alleging they held other meetings ( conventicula ) in private houses . In the same year , Wyclif was expelled from Oxford and twenty-four of his opinions were condemned at the Blackfriars Council .
Heresy was seen as a growing threat to political and ecclesiastical authority . This anxiety was reflected in a controversy at Oxford in the mid-1390s . On 18 July 1395 , Richard II issued a royal directive to the chancellor of Oxford , expressing concern over heretical activity at the university and ordering the expulsion of all ‘ Lollards ’. The only scholar identified by name was Robert Lechlade , who was expelled from his living at Merton College , before being reinstated in 1399 after the accession of Henry IV . These dates fit neatly with Lechlade ’ s admission as a fellow at Winchester . He was one of the bursars listed for 1397 / 8 , and an account roll of extraordinary expenses paid for by Wykeham records the purchase of a new gradual of Lechlade in 1399 .
Richard II ’ s mandate had accused Lechlade of publishing and teaching ‘ nefarious opinions and conclusions as well as detestable allegations ’; those suspected of heretical depravity , ‘ especially the aforementioned Robert ’, had to be expelled before they polluted the university , just as a diseased sheep infects the flock . Wykeham ’ s new foundation was intended to train men to serve the Church . How did Lechlade find a position so soon after his banishment ?
There are clues in an Arras manuscript of sermons and preachable materials , which may once have belonged to a Franciscan friar at Oxford . The manuscript contains the text of the Lechlade ’ s only extant sermon , which is followed by a colophon that says it was preached and written by Sir Robert Lychelade , bachelor of arts at Oxford , and that it was the reason why he had been banished on 1 October 1395 . One
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