ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY open penance in the cathedral of Norwich. Most of the Norfolk heretics were of the working classes, but the number of unbeneficed clergy brought up also is considerable. Bishop Alnwick was translated in 1436 to the richer see of Lincoln as a mark of royal favour. Thomas Brown, bishop of Rochester, and previously bishop of Chichester, was then translated by Pope Eugenius to Norwich, his services at the Council of Basle having brought him into favourable notice, but it was only after declining to stand upon the pope's bull, and making his submission to the crown, that the temporalities were allowed to pass into his hands.^ The choice of the bishops had gradually become a matter of arrangement between the king and the pope, and since the Statute of Provisors, the papal choice, which had been the ruling factor in the fourteenth century, had now given place to the will of the crown ; but the opportunity for re-assertion afforded by the king's youth was not likely to be passed over by the pope. During Bishop Brown's episcopacy the disputes between the prior and the city of Norwich broke out again. A composition which was made in 1429 was extremely distasteful to the citizens, and the prior, William Worsted, who at one time treated the bishop with extreme disrespect, and refused to carry the crucifix before him in the cathedral, seems to have been a fomenter of disturbance. Bishop Lyhart was preferred by papal bull of 24 January, 1446, and was consecrated at Lambeth 27 February. By his intervention, Pope Felix was persuaded to resign, and thus the schism in the papacy caused by the rival claims of Felix V and Nicholas V was healed.' He himself had superseded John Stanbury, first provost of Eton College, appointed to the bishopric by King Henry VI, to whom he had been confessor. His administration of his diocese showed much sympathy with the secular clergy, who had suffered during the preceding two centuries by the frequent appropriation of their tithes for the benefit of the religious houses. He had been first fellow and then provost of Oriel, and incurred much danger and some persecution by his friendship with Bishop Pecock, also a fellow of Oriel. His munificence as a builder was unbounded. He died at Hoxne, 24 May 1472. During his episco- pacy John Moreton, archdeacon of Norwich, was attainted of high treason.* The habits of the age show a curious medley of irreverence and violence on one hand, honour and love on the other, in the attitude of the people with respect to their churches. Not only did gifts of money, plate, and embroideries flow freely into the parish churches, but the famous shrines of which Norfolk possessed so many, with Walsingham, only second in popu- larity to Canterbury, at their head, accumulated vast stores of treasure. Gilds for industrial and commercial purposes, which acted also as provi- dent societies, and relieved the sick and needy among their members, had long been in existence, and the returns as to the ordinances, properties, &c., ' Rymer, Foedera ; Syll. ofRymer's Foed. 666. ' Blomefield, iii, 143. The prior had all his exempt liberty for himself and his tenants in Spitellond, Holmstrete and Ratonrowe confirmed. ^ Wharton, Angl. Sar. i, 418. The king sent the bishop to Pope Felix to persuade him to this course in 1449.
- Pat. 7 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 15, July 17, 1467. Grant to Lionel Wideville, clerk, brother of the queen,
of all issues of the archdeaconry of Norwich belonging to the king by reason of the attaint of John Moreton, archdeacon of Norwich, by authority of Parliament at Westminster 4 Nov. I Edw. IV. 2 249 32
