Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/173

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1377]
The Conference at Bruges.
127

theology; John Guter, Dean of Sechow; Simon de Multon, doctor of laws; William de Berton, Robert Bealknap, and John de Henyngton. The Pope was represented by three nuncios—Bernard, Bishop of Pampeluna; Ladulph, Bishop of Senigaglia, and Sancho, Provincial of Valenza.

The position of Wyclif in connection with this special embassy may be denned with greater clearness than would otherwise be possible by means of an extract from the Exchequer accounts of the year 1375. The entry supplies "details of the settlement of Master John Wyclyff, professor of theology, in respect of his travelling and other expenses on a royal embassy in the parts of Flanders, for the transaction of the King's business therein, during the forty-eighth year of the reign."Wyclif" accounts for 60 l. received personally from the exchequer on 31 July"—possibly at the port of embarkation. "From 27 July, in the year 48, on which day he set out from London for Flanders, to 4 September, when he returned, namely 50 days at 20s. a day—50 l .; and for crossing and re-crossing the sea, 42s. 3d. Expended, 52 1. 2s. 3d. Credit, 7 1. 17s. 9d."

Other entries in the same accounts show that John of Gaunt, on an embassy to Flanders in 1364, received one hundred shillings a day; Sir Henry le Scrope, on another mission, had an allowance of forty shillings; and Reginald Newport, despatched on the King's business in the jubilee year, was paid at the rate of thirteen shillings and fourpence a day. Wyclif's treatment, therefore, seems to have been fairly liberal, but it can hardly be regarded as exceptionally hand-