the monks at the end of 1365, and the appointment of one John Wyclif, a secular priest, as Warden—have generally been connected with the biography of the Reformer, with which they have probably nothing to do. It seems to have been the Vicar of Mayfield, not the Rector of Fillingham, who was Warden of Canterbury Hall in 1365, was removed by Archbishop Langham, appealed unsuccessfully to the Pope, and lost his case in the King's Court in 1372. The considerations which identify the warden with Wyclif of Mayfield are in themselves almost strong enough to be conclusive; but, when we remember what Wyclif the Reformer was doing between 1365 and 1372, it is difficult to imagine that the old Master of Balliol was occupied during seven years in fighting for this additional honour and emolument.[1]
Simon Langham, who succeeded Islip in 1366, was a Benedictine monk, who had been successively prior, abbot, treasurer, Bishop of Ely, and chancellor in what we may call for convenience the ministries of 1363-1366, when Wykeham was Keeper of the Seal. He was naturally a wealthy man, and had had time
- ↑ One of the biographers of Wyclif, maintaining that the Canterbury Hall story must refer to him, is convinced that it could not refer to John Wycliffe of Mayfield because the latter held his living continuously from before 1365 until after 1372. He apparently forgot that the Reformer also was beneficed during the whole of that time. The notion of Wyclif as a pugnacious and baffled pluralist is too absurd to be accepted. It is impossible to think of him resigning the mastership of Balliol for a poor country living, then fighting for Canterbury Hall, and then again refusing the prebend of Aust, all within thirteen or fourteen years. Dr. Shirley has a note on "The Two John Wyclifs," in the Appendix to his edition of the Fasciculi.
