the greater excommunication. Only one secular doctor of theology and only two secular canonists took part in this proceeding. The sentence was pronounced in Wycliffe's presence in the school of the Austin friars. Against this decision Wycliffe at once appealed—characteristically and of course uncanonically—to the king. But the Duke of Lancaster enjoined silence upon him, an injunction which did not prevent Wycliffe immediately putting forth a ‘confession’ in which the old doctrine is reasserted and defended, though perhaps in somewhat more guarded language (ib. pp. 113 sq.; Wilkins, iii. 170).
The Oxford condemnation must have taken place in the summer of 1381, just before the beginning of the peasant revolt. After its suppression the murdered archbishop, the apathetic, moderate, and rather Lancastrian Sudbury, was succeeded by the zealous and energetic Courtenay, the old enemy of the now less powerful duke. As soon as he had received the pallium from Rome, the new primate lost no time in availing himself of the spirit of ecclesiastical reaction which, since the late disorders, had taken possession of king and parliament. Yet Wycliffe's place in public opinion was still so strong that the prelates judged it expedient to begin by attacking the doctrines, and then afterwards to invoke the aid of the state in suppressing the persons. In point of form there was no personal attack on Wycliffe himself. Still, an enumeration of the theological positions now assailed will be a sufficient indication of the progress of Wycliffe's mind and of the Wycliffite movement since 1377.
On 17 or 21 May 1382 there met at the archbishop's summons a court or council consisting of ten bishops, sixteen doctors and eight bachelors of theology, thirteen doctors of canon and civil law, and two bachelors of law. This assembly has sometimes been described as a synod of the southern province, but that it certainly was not; there is no evidence that all the southern bishops were cited, while among those who were present were the bishop of Durham and a foreign bishop (‘Nanatensis’). The bishops and doctors were simply the arbitrarily and perhaps judiciously selected assessors of the archbishop. All the theological doctors were friars except one who was a monk; the warden of Merton was the only secular bachelor, or rather licentiate, of theology. The session took place in the hall of the Blackfriars' convent, just outside the walls of London. It so happened that an earthquake—of unusual violence for England—took place during the meeting. There were those who urged that after such an omen the proceedings should be abandoned; but Courtenay was disposed to put another interpretation on the event: as the earth was purging itself of its foul winds, so the kingdom would be purged, though not without great trouble and agitation, of the heresies which afflicted it (Fasc. Ziz. p. 272). The council became known as the ‘earthquake council.’ Before such an assembly the condemnation of Wycliffism was a foregone conclusion, and on 28 May 1382 the archbishop issued his mandate addressed to the Carmelite friar, Dr. Peter Stokes [q. v.], requiring him to publish the condemnation of Wycliffe's theses in Oxford. In Walden's account of the council's proceedings (ib. pp. 272–91) there follows a list of the doctors present at its second, third, fourth, and fifth sessions, and now begin to appear the names of a few secular theologians; but these sittings took place after the condemnation, and some of the doctors now summoned were probably suspects who were required to subscribe by way of purging themselves from complicity in error, among them Robert Rygge [q. v.], the notoriously Wycliffite chancellor of Oxford. Wycliffe's strenuous disciples, Nicholas Hereford, Philip Repington [q. v.], and John Aston [q. v.], were likewise cited, but refused to sign, and were cited to appear as accused persons. Aston was condemned as a heretic, and Hereford and Repington excommunicated as contumacious for non-appearance.
The propositions condemned were as follows (Chron. Angl. p. 342; Fasc. Ziz. p. 277; Wilkins, iii. 157, the official account from the Archbishop's Register): (1) That the substance of the material bread and wine remains after consecration in the sacrament of the altar. (2) That the accidents do not remain without a subject [or substance] after consecration in the same sacrament. (3) That Christ is not in the sacrament of the altar identically, truly and really in his proper corporal presence. (4) That if a bishop or priest be in mortal sin, he does not ordain, consecrate (‘conficit’), or baptise. (5) That if a man be duly contrite, all exterior confession is for him superfluous or useless. (6) Pertinaciously to assert that the proposition that Christ ordained the mass is not founded in the gospel. (7) That God ought to obey the devil. [By this Wycliffe meant that since God has permitted evil to exist in the world, He must have regard to the existence of such evil in his government thereof. Elsewhere, by a disciple, the doctrine is explained to mean that
