A HISTORY OF LONDON who seems to have maintained his position as rector, although three more persons claimed the living under almost simultaneous papal provisions.^* The City records throw some light upon other relations between Londoners and the papacy at this period. In 1350 the mayor and aldermen wrote to the pope that the citizens could not visit the Holy See in person on account of the war, and therefore asked that plenary powers of absolution should be granted to John de Worthin, a Dominican friar. He is described as of high birth, ' of approved life, manners and learning,' and it is stated that he alone ' strengthens us with the word of Christ.' The citizens employed one Nicholas Hethe to manage this transaction, being told by John de Worthin that he was on more intimate terms with the pope than any other English- man at Avignon, and one of them gave him ^^40 to purchase the desired bulls. Ten months later, however, the bulls had not arrived, and the mayor and aldermen wrote that if they could not be procured at once, the money must be returned ; otherwise the pope should be informed of the deceit practised upon him, and steps should be taken to punish Hethe.^^ In other cases individual friars are mentioned with favour in the City records.'" But the relations between the friars and the parochial clergy were as bad as they had been fifty years before;" in 1356—7 Archbishop Fitzralph of Armagh took part in a controversy then going on in London about Christ's example and doctrine with regard to begging, and asserted in his sermons that it was better for men to be shriven in their parish churches than in the churches of the friars.'^ Bishop Simon of Sudbury (1362—75) was also appointed by papal pro- vision." In 1364 the mayor and commonalty besought the pope not to remove him from London, where he was much beloved, to the less honourable, if more valuable, see of Worcester." An obscure case of heresy occurred during his episcopate, Nicholas de Drayton, possibly rector of St. Martin Vintry, being convicted of publishing erroneous statements and imprisoned by the king's licence till he should revoke his error. '^ In 1371 Sudbury was ordered to reform the many abuses then rife in St. Paul's ; not only was its property misapplied, but divine service was languishing.'* Sudbury became archbishop in 1375. His successor, William Courtenay, son of the Earl of Devon, seems to have been one of the most popular of all the Bishops of London, although no great activity in spiritual affairs is " Cal. of Papal Letters, , ^c) ; Cal. of Papal Pet. 1,241, 243- Cf. the equally complicated case of St. Swithin's (Cal. of Papal Pet. i, 317, 322, 324, 367, 378, 383, 384), and see Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Islip, fol. 283J, for a dispute in 1359 over St. Mary Bothaw. " Riley, Mem. of Lond. 251-3 ; Sharpe, Cal. of Letters, 8. Hethe was arrested ; Rymer, Foedera, iii, 255. For pilgrimages at this period cf. Sharpe, Cal. Letter Bk. F, 201, 222 ; CaL of Letters, 26 ; Cal. Pat. 1348-50, p. 560 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 21. '° Sharpe, Cal. of Letters, 64, ill; cf 72. One City rector is mentioned unfavourably in these rolls, 65. " Supra, pp. 199-201. " The leaders seem to have been Richard Kylmington, Dean of St. Paul's, and a Franciscan named Roger Conway ; Diet. Nat. Biog. See also Fitzralph, Defensorium Curatorum ; De Dominio (Wyclif Soc), 261-2 ; Monum. Frandse. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 276. Cf Wilkins, Concilia, iii, 64. " Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Islip, fol. 23713 ; Rymer, Foedera, iii, 628. " Sharpe, Cal. of Letters, 97. For Sudbury's diocesan activity see V.C.H. Essex, ii, 1 7. " Rymer, fo^raVra, iii, 889. Cf ibid. 716, o(i Cal.Pat. 1350-4, p. 190; Cal. of Papal Pet. , i%-j, 7,<)^, 443, 547 ; Cal. of Papal Letters, iii, 548 ; Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, ii, 191 ; Hennessy, Novum Repertorium. '• Rymer, Foedera, iii, 908. Cf St. Paul's in ' Religious Houses.' The dean and chapter accused Sudbury of encroaching on their jurisdiction over the nunnery of St. Helen's ; Lond. Epis. Reg. Sudbury, fol. 139. 210
