ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY by the execution in 141 6 of two citizens, one the parchment-maker who had concealed Oldcastle, and the other a 'great Lollard' who had plotted in favour of the pretender Thomas Trumpington.'^* But some of the accusa- tions of LoUardy ^" were due to personal spite,^^" and were afterwards acknowledged to be false. Possibly the revelation of Oldcastle's wild designs destroyed the interest felt by some of the better-educated citizens in Wycliffite teaching, and the popularity of Henry V counteracted the influence of the Lollard leaders over the London mob ; whatever the reason, little sympathy seems to have been shown with Oldcastle on his execution in 1417,^^^ and after about 1414 the City does not seem to have been regarded as a stronghold of LoUardy. Sometimes, however, the civic authorities imprisoned heretics without handing them over to the bishop, for in 1422 it was ordered at the request of the House of Commons that this should be done in all cases. '^^ Four priests of the diocese of London were brought before Convocation for heresy in 1428,^" One of these, Ralph Mungyn, had been suspected for many years ; he was said to have distributed Wycliffe's books in London, and had been suspended by Bishop Clifford for a sermon which he had preached in the City.* Bishop Gray (1426-31) had vainly tried to persuade him to abjure. On 4 December he was condemned by the arch- bishop to perpetual imprisonment and penance, and next day two of the other priests abjured at Paul's Cross. '^^ On 7 December the Court of Common Council decreed that no one in the City should take into his service any one who had been convicted of heresy, whether he had abjured or not, on pain of imprisonment and payment of a fine equal to the salary of the person employed.'^' During the next twelve years five persons were burnt for heresy, the first being a wool-packer named Hundcn or Hovcden, ' which was of so large conscience that he would cat flesh on Fridays.' In 143 1 the Archbishop of Canterbury and ten bishops excommunicated the Lollards and their supporters at Paul's Cross.'" The same year Jack Sharp and his followers distributed papers in London and other large towns attacking the wealth of the bishops, abbots, and priors. One chronicler suggests that Sharp ' would have made a rising in the City,' and after his execution at Oxford his head was placed on London Bridge. '^^ Of all the pre-Reformation '" Riley, Mem. 638, 640, 64.1-3 ; Capjrave, Ciron. of Engl. (Rolls Ser.), 316 ; Walsingham, op. cit. ii, 317 ; Chron. of Lond. (ed. Nicolas), 104. A barber strongly suspected of LoUardy was supposed to be con- nected with a similar plot in 1420 ; Sharpc, Lond. and the Kingdom, i, 248. '" Rec. Corp. Journ. i, fol. 33 ; Riley, op. cit. 658, 666, 676 ; Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 17, no. 305, 306. "» Cf. Rymer, Foedera, ix, 1 19. ^^^ Engl. Hist. Rev. xx, 656; Ckron. of Lond. {ed. Kingsford), 72, 270; Add. MS. 35295, fol. 266. Reference kindly supplied by Dr. Wylie. "' Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), iv, 174 ; cf. 292. "' For the case of a priest of the diocese of Worcester burnt at Smithfield in 1423 see Wilkins, Cone, iii, 404 et seq. ; Fasc. Z(Z. (Rolls Ser.), 412 ; Chron. of Lond. (ed. Nicolas), III; His'. Coll. of a Lond. Citizen (Camden Soc), 149 ; Ckron. of Lond. (ed. Kingsford), 75, 128, 272 ; Foie, op. cit. iii, 581-4. Foxe also mentions a London heretic of this period ; op. cit. 537. '"In 1419 he had been one of the assistant priests at St. Stephen Walbrook (Add. MS. 35096); but in 1428 he seems to have been connected with the church of St. Michael Bassishaw. '" Wilkins, Cone, iii, 494 et seq. (cf Foxe, op. cit. iii, 538-40) ; Hist. Coll. of a Lond. Citizen (Camden Soc), 163 ; cf John Amundesham, Anntles, &c. (Rolls Ser.), i, 24. '•" Rec. Corp. Journ. ii, fol. 127^. '" Chron. of Lond. (ed. N'colas), 118, 169 ; Hist. Coll. of a Lond. Citizen (Camden Soc), 171 ; Chron. of Lond. (ed. Kingsford), 133-4, 3°^ > J°hn Amundesham, Annales, &c. (Rolls Ser.), i, 46, 59. An old priest belonging to Essex was burnt in this year ; ibid. 61 ; Wilkins, Cone, iii, 515. "' Rec Corp. Letter Bk. K, fol. 93^ ; Chron. of Lond. (ed. Nicolas), l 18-I9 ; Hist. Coll. ut sup. 172 ; John Amundesham, Annales, &c. i, 63, 453 ; Chron. of Lond. (ed. Kingsford), 97, 134, 300. For the case of a man burnt in 1438 ' for ... he wiped his mouth with a foul cloth and laid the Host therein,' see Hist. Coll. ut sup. 180. 221
