(Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vol. iv. pt. 2, No. 4390, Denham's confession), caused Bilney and Arthur to be arrested. They were confined in the Tower, where the society of a fellow-sufferer for his religion somewhat consoled Bilney. On 27 Nov. 1527 Wolsey, after solemn mass and sermon in the abbey, held a great court in the chapter house at Westminster. The Archbishop of Canterbury, yielding precedence to the legate a latere, the bishops of London, Norwich, and several other bishops, with a large number of theologians and jurists, were present. Bilney and Arthur were brought before them. Bilney was asked by the cardinal whether he had not, contrary to his oath, again taught the doctrines of Luther. He replied 'not wittingly,' and willingly swore to answer plainly the articles brought against him. In the afternoon witnesses were heard. Next day (28 Nov.) the court met at the house of Richard Nix, bishop of Norwich, who, with the bishops of the London, Ely, and Rochester, heard the case as the legate's deputies. On 2 Dec. another meeting was held at the same place, and elaborate articles and interrogatories were laid before the two prisoners. In his answers Bilney, while assenting altogether to the majority of the articles, while admitting that Luther was 'a wicked and detestable heretic,' and accepting power of the pope, expressed a desire that at least some part of the scriptures should be in the vulgar tongue, and that pardons should be restrained, and, by his qualified and elaborate answers to other points, seemed not to be fully in agreement with his interrogators. Accordingly, when on 4 Dec. the court met again in the chapter house of Westminster, Tunstal, who had now taken the chief place in it, exhorted Bilney to recant and abjure. He replied, 'Fiat justitia et judicium in nomine Domini.' Then the bishop solemnly declared him convicted of heresy, but deferred sentence to the next day. Tunstal seems to have acted with much moderation and forbearance to Bilney, if, indeed, the very unsubstantial character of his heresies did not almost require his acquittal. On 5 Dec. Bilney was again brought up, and again refused to recant. Tunstal exhorted him to retire again and consult with his friends; but in the afternoon Bilney returned with a request that his witnesses might be heard, and said that if they could prove that he was guilty he would willingly yield himself. But the bishops resolved that it was irregular for him to renew the trial, and again pressed his abjuration. He refused point-blank, though petitioning again for more time. After some reluctance Tunstal gave him two days more, which he employed in consulting with his friends Farmer and Dancaster. On Saturday, 7 Dec, the court met finally, and in answer to the stereotyped request to abjure, Bilney said that by Dancaster's advice he was resolved to abjure, and trusts they would deal lightly with him. He then formally read and subscribed his abjuration, and the bishop, after absolving him, imposed as penance that he should the next day (Sunday) go before the procession at St. Paul's bareheaded with a faggot on his shoulder, that he should stand before the preacher at Paul's Cross all sermon time, and that he should remain in a prison appointed by the cardinal as long as the latter thought fit.
Bilney seems to have been kept in the Tower for more than a year. In 1529 he was released, and went back to Cambridge. Perhaps the influence of Latimer, which had been actively used to help him all through proceedings, may have led to his release. But freedom brought no relief to Bilney. His sensitive temperament and scrupulous conscience were tormented with remorse for his apostasy. His friends did their best to console him, but to no purpose.
'The comfortable places of scripture,' says Latimer, 'to bring them unto him, it was as though a man should run him through the heart with a sword, for he thought the whole scriptures sounded to his condemnation.' Into such despondency did he fall, that his friends were afraid to leave him day or night. He endured this life of misery for more than two years. At last he resolved to go out again and preach the truth which he had denied. Late one night he took leave of his friends in Trinity Hall, and said 'that he would go to Jerusalem.' Forthwith he set out for Norfolk. At first he taught privately but growing bolder he preached publicly in the fields, for, his license to preach having been withdrawn, the churches were no longer open to him. Ultimately he went to Norwich, where he gave 'the anchoress of Norwich' a copy of Tyndale's Testament. Soon after he was apprehended by the officers of the bishop.
Convocation was now assembled in London, and on 3 March it drew up articles against Bilney, Latimer, and Crome. Court favour made it easier for the latter two to escape, but Bilney's case as a relapsed heretic was now desperate. He seems to have taken up a bolder line in the last short period of field preaching in Norfolk, and even Latimer disavowed any sympathy with him if he were a heretic (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, v. 607). Arraigned before Dr. Pellis, chancellor of the bishop, Bilney was degraded
