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of Lollards suffered about this time: thirty-nine of them, after the escape of Cobham from the Tower, were hanged as traitors for an insurrectionary movement, and their bodies afterwards burned as heretics. Sir Roger Acton, a friend of Cobham's, was among them.

Archbishop Chicheley's

Constitutions.

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22. Persecuting principles extended themselves greatly

in the reign of Henry V., so much so indeed that in the year 1414 the University of Oxford, in certain "Articles concerning the Reformation of the Church," proposed "that any bishop who should be remiss in purging his diocese of heretics should be deposed." A bishop was therefore reduced to the alternative of either persecuting to the death, or being himself denounced. In accordance with the spirit of the above proposal the constitutions which bear the name of Archbishop Chicheley were framed in the year 1416. By these, bishops were required to make enquiry for heretics twice a-year in every rural deanery; and it was ordered that in parishes suspected of heresy, certain persons should be sworn to denounce those who read suspicious books or held private meetings, those denounced being liable to perpetual imprisonment, or a choice between recantation and the stake.

A.D. 1416.

Reginald Peacock.}

23. A hateful system of private information was the consequence; but there were not wanting instances of persons in high

22. What was the conduct of the University of Oxford in the reign of Henry V.? Give an account of Archbishop Chicheley's Constitutions.

23. When did Reginald Peacock live? Give an account of his writings?

places who were opposed to the persecuting spirit that prevailed. Of these perhaps Reginald Peacock, or Pococke, is the most remarkable. He was born in 1390, and through the influence of his friend, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, obtained the bishopric of St. Asaph in 1444, from which he was translated to Chichester in 1450. Acting upon his expressed opinion, that "the clergy would be condemned at the last day, if they did not draw men into consent to the true faith, otherwise than by fire and sword or hanging," he exerted himself in various ways, by tracts, and sermons, especially by a book called The Repressor of over-much blaming the Church, to win the Lollards, to many of whose tenets he was decidedly opposed, by argument rather than by persecution. In a work entitled A Treatise of Faith, he admitted that neither pope nor council can add to or change an article of the creed, inasmuch as Holy Scripture is the only ground of faith. This called down upon him the vengeance of the ruling party in the Church. He was expelled from the House of Lords A.D. 1457. in the year 1457, and cited to appear before the primate at Lambeth Palace, where he was accused of maintaining that a belief in our Lord's descent into Hell, in the Holy Spirit, in the Catholic Church, in the infallibility of the universal Church, in the authority of councils, &c., is not required of Christians. He was deposed from his bishopric, and compelled to recant at St. Paul's Cross, A.D. 1457. Having afterwards applied to the pope for a bull of restitution to his see, the

What accusations were brought against him; and what was the result of them?

statute of præmunire was put in force against him, and he was confined for the rest of his life in Thorney Abbey, Cambridgeshire.

The Pragmatic Sanction, and the Concordat.

1431.

24. The attempts that were made about this time to emancipate Christendom from the spiritual tyranny of the popes were not confined to one nation; and as a transaction which occurred in France probably had some influence upon the minds of the English, we may briefly advert to it here. The council of Basle met in the year 1431, pursuant to a decree of A.D. the council of Constance that perpetual general councils should meet every ten years, whether the pope summoned them or not. This council abolished annates or first-fruits;* wrested from the pope elections to vacant bishoprics and benefices, and restored them to chapters and local bishops, with confirmation by the metropolitan; condemned immediate appeals to the pope; and, chief of all, declared the council to be above the pope, that he was bound to submit to it, and that appeals lay to it from him. A contest arose with the pope, Eugenius IV., who summoned a council at Ferrara, in the year 1438, and excommunicated the members of the council of Basle, they in their turn deposing Eugenius from the popedom, and reviving the election of Amadeus,

The profits of one year of every vacant bishopric, claimed by the pope upon a pretence of defending the Christians from the infidels, and paid by every

bishop at his accession, before he could receive his investiture from Rome. First-fruits subsequently became payable by the clergy in general.

24. What is the date of the Council of Basle? What were its decrees? *[Note.] What were first-fruits? Give an account of the occurrrences

Duke of Savoy, under the title of Felix V., A.D. 1439. in the year 1439. The council of Basle addressed themselves for aid to Charles VII., king of France, who called a great assembly of nobility and bishops at Bourges, who disapproved of the deposing of the pope, but reduced the decrees of the council of Basle into an edict, which was called The Pragmatic Sanction.* For many years this law was observed in France, but it was oocasionally suspended, and persevering efforts were made to get it repealed. At length, in the year 1516, Francis I. entered into an agreement called the Concordat, with Pope Leo X., whereby the king was to nominate to bishoprics within six months after a vacancy; if the pope disapproved, the king had three months more; if the king failed again, the pope was to provide one to the see; and all vacancies in the Court of Rome, the pope was to fill up. Several attempts were made to recover the Pragmatic Sanction; but both the popes and the kings of France felt the advantages of the Concordat too sensibly to part with it.

Ecclesiastical
Abuses.

25. A knowledge of the ecclesiastical abuses which tended to bring about the Reformation in England may have been

In Europead history several important treaties are called by this name, which signifies a public and solemn constitution or decree pronounced by a prince. In 1268, Louis IX, of France

resisted papal encroachments by a famous edict known as the Pragmatic Sanction, forbidding the collection of money in France merely to aid the ambitious designs of the papacy.

which resulted from the decrees of the council of Basle. What was "The Pragmatic Sanction ?" [Note.] Give the name, date, and provisions of the Act by which Louis IX. resisted papal encroachments. What was the nature of "The Concordat" between Francis I. and Leo X? Give the date of it.

25. State some of the causes which tended to bring about the Reformation

HENRY VIII.
Warham.
Julius II.

gathered from the foregoing pages; but we will give a summary of them here. They are chiefly as follows:The claims of the papacy to exclusive jurisdiction, interference with the affairs of the kingdom, supremacy over the king, appointment to bishoprics and livings, annates, and the right of taxing the clergy: appeals to Rome: the prerogative of Sanctuary: the luxury, covetousness, profligacy, and ignorance of the monks and clergy: the artifices and impudence of the mendicant friars: the abused doctrine of transubstantiation: the sale of indulgences: the worship of images: pilgrimages: dispensations: and papal interdicts and excommunications.

CHAPTER III.

Accession of
Henry VIII.

A.D. 1509.

THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII.

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26. Henry VIII ascended the throne on the 22nd of April, 1509. At this period, to a careless observer, few events seemed more remote than the violent disruption of those bonds which for ages had

The freedom from arrest and punishment, except ecclesiastical discipline, enjoyed by criminals who fled to certain sacred places.

This protection was extended to those who had committed the most heinous offences.

in England. *[Note.] What was the prerogative of Sanctuary.

26. Give the date of the accession of Henry VIII. Give a summary of

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