of Lancaster for his protection, without success. At a third council, held on 18 June, they were called on to answer plainly to the conclusions formulated against them, and, failing to do so, were remanded for a final answer two days later. The answers then handed in were adjudged unsatisfactory, and they were ordered to appear again at Otford on 27 June. The matter was then once more postponed till 1 July, when the accused, failing to appear, were condemned and excommunicated. Knighton (col. 2657) says that Hereford escaped death only by the help of John of Lancaster and the subtlety of his own arguments. In the poem on the council, in Wright's ‘Political Songs’ (i. 253–6, Rolls Ser.), Hereford's answer on 20 June is said to have confounded his opponents, one of the chief of whom was John Wellys, monk of Ramsey.
Hereford at once appealed to the pope, and set out for Rome. In the meantime a royal letter was issued on 13 July, ordering the destruction of any of his writings that might be found at Oxford. In answer to another letter from the archbishop, the chancellor replied on 25 July that search had been made at Oxford, but that Hereford could not be found. On reaching Rome, Hereford propounded his conclusions, which had been condemned at Blackfriars, before the pope and cardinals. They were once more condemned, and Hereford only escaped death through the friendship of Pope Urban VI for the English. He was ordered to be confined for life, and, despite the remonstrances of some of the nobles, was kept a prisoner till, when the pope on his way to Naples was besieged in a certain castle, he obtained his release through a popular rising (Knighton, col. 2657). This would appear to refer to the siege of Urban at Nocera, by Charles of Durazzo, in June 1385. After his escape Hereford made his way back to England; according to Knighton he was imprisoned for some years by the Archbishop of Canterbury, but at length made his submission. On 15 Jan. 1386 the archbishop made a request that a writ might be issued for Hereford's capture. But on 10 Aug. 1387 Hereford was still at large, for on that date the Bishop of Worcester inhibited him and other lollards from preaching in his diocese. Walsingham (Historia Anglicana, ii. 159) describes Hereford at the time as the chief leader of the lollards after Wiclif's death (see also Vita Ricardi, p. 83). Between 30 March 1388 and 16 Dec. 1389 numerous commissions were issued by the king ordering the writings of Wiclif and of various of his followers, including Hereford, to be seized (Forshall and Madden, i. xxiv; Knighton, col. 2709). Hereford's English captivity is probably to be referred to these years. According to Foxe, Thomas Netter [q. v.], in his ‘De Sacramentis,’ says that Hereford and John Purvey [q. v.] were grievously tormented in the castle of Saltwood, Kent, and at length recanted at Paul's Cross, Thomas Arundel being then archbishop (Acts and Monuments, iii. 285). This would put the recantation at least as late as 1396, but more probably it was in 1391, for on 12 Dec. of the latter year Hereford received the royal protection. On 8 Oct. 1393 he was present at the examination of Walter Brit or Brute [q. v.] for heresy at Hereford; a letter of reproach for his apostasy, which was addressed to him on this occasion, is given by Foxe (ib. iii. 188–9). Hereford is mentioned in 1401 as a stout opponent of his old associates (cf. Wylie, Hist. Henry IV, i. 301). At the examination of William Thorpe [q. v.], in 1407, Hereford was referred to as a great clerk, who had seen his error, and is alleged to have declared that since he forsook lollard opinions he had more favour and delight to hold against them than ever he had to hold with them (Acts and Monuments, iii. 279). On 12 Dec. 1391 Hereford was appointed chancellor of Hereford Cathedral, which post he still held on 10 Feb. 1394, but resigned it before 1399. On 20 March 1397 he became treasurer of Hereford, and held the office till 1417, when he resigned both the treasurership and the prebend of Pratum Minus, which he had received some time after 1410. It is probably also the ex-lollard who was made chancellor of St. Paul's on 1 July 1395, and held that post till the next year (Le Neve, Fasti Eccl. Angl. i. 489, 491, 524, ii. 359; Newcourt, Repertorium, i. 113). In his old age, probably in 1417, Hereford became a Carthusian monk at St. Anne's, Coventry, and lived there till his death, the date of which is not recorded (Bodleian MS. 117, f. 32 b).
The notarial record of Hereford's sermon of 15 May 1382, made at the time in Latin, is preserved in Bodleian MS. 240 (see Academy, 3 June 1882; Fasciculi Zizaniorum, p. 296). The answers made by Hereford and Repington on 20 June to the conclusions previously condemned by the council at Blackfriars are printed in Wilkins's ‘Concilia,’ iii. 161, and ‘Fasciculi Zizaniorum,’ pp. 319–25. Knighton (col. 2655) gives what purports to be Hereford's confession in English made in June 1382. Its tenor on the doctrine of the corporeal presence, when compared with Hereford's later career, shows that this ascription is impossible. Lewis and Vaughan
