The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe/Volume 3/Matters articulated against William Swinderby
Matters articulated against William Swinderby.
Denunciation of the promoters, to the bishop of Hereford. that notwithstanding the misbelief of very many Lollards, who have too long a time sprung up here in your diocese, there is newly come a certain child of of wickedness, named William Swinderby; who, by his horrible persuasions and their own mischievous endeavours, and also by his open preachings and private teachings, doth pervert, as much as in him is, the whole ecclesiastical state, and stirreth up, with all his possible power, schism between the clergy and the people. And that your reverend fatherhood may be the more fully informed, who and what manner of man the same William Swinderby is, there be proposed and exhibited hereafter to the same your fatherhood, on the behalf of the same faithful people of Christ, against the same William Swinderby, cases and articles; which if the same William shall deny, then shall the same cases and articles most evidently be proved against him by credible witness worthy of belief, and by other lawful proof and evidences, to the end that those being proved, the same fatherhood of yours may do and ordain therein, as to your pastoral office belongeth.
Imprimis, the same William Swinderby, pretending himself priest, was openly and publicly convicted of certain articles and conclusions being erroneous, schismatical, and heretical, preached by him at divers places and times, before a multitude of faithful christian people. And the same articles and conclusions did he by force of law revoke and abjure, some as heretical, and some as erroneous and false; avouching and believing them for such, as that from thenceforth he would never preach, teach, or affirm, openly or privily, any of the same conclusions: and if, by preaching or avouching, he should presume to do the contrary, that then he should be subject to the severity of the canons, accordingly as he did take a corporal oath, judicially, upon the holy gospels.
II. Also the conclusions, which by the same William were first openly taught and preached, and afterwards abjured and revoked, as is aforesaid, are contained before in the process of the bishop of Lincoln, even as they be there written Word by word. And for the cases and articles, they were consequently exhibited by the beforenamed faithful christian people against the said William Swinderby, together with the conclusions before said, and hereafter written; of which cases and articles the tenor here ensueth.
III. Item, The said William, contrary to the former revocation and abjuration, not converting to repentance, but perverted from ill to worse, and given up to a reprobate sense, came into your diocese; where, running about in simdry places, he hath presumed to preach, or rather to pervert and to teach, of his own rashness, many heretical, erroneous, blasphemous, and other slanderous things contrary and repugnant to the sacred canons, and the determination of the holy catholic church. What those things were, at what place and what time, shall hereafter more particularly be declared.
IV. Item, The same William, notwithstanding your commandments and admonitions sealed with your seal, and to all the curates of your diocese directed, containing amongst other things that no person of what state, degree, or condition soever he were, should presume to preach or to teach, or expound the holy Scripture to the people, either in hallowed or profane places within your diocese, without sufficient authority, by any manner or pretence that could be sought, as in the same your letters monitoiy and of inhibition, the tenor whereof hereafter ensueth, is more largely contained; which letters the same William did receive into his hands, and did read them word by word in the town of Monmouth of your diocese, in the year of our Lord 1390, so that these your letters, and the contents thereof, came to the true and undoubted knowledge of the same William; yet, notwithstanding, hath the same William presumed in divers places and times to preach within the same your diocese, after and against your commandment aforesaid.
The tenor of the same Letters before mentioned followeth, and is this:
The letter monitory of the bishop of Hereford, inhibiting to preach without his license.John, by the sufferance of God bishop of Hereford, to the dean and chapter of our church of Hereford, and to all and singular abbots, priors, provosts, deans rural, parsons and vicars of monasteries, priories, churches, colleges, and parishes, and to others having cure of souls within the city and diocese of Hereford, and to all and every other being witliin the same city and diocese, greeting, grace, and blessing. Forasmuch as the golden laurel of teaching doctoral is not from above indifferently every man's gift; neither is the office of preaching granted save to such as are called, and especially by the church admitted thereunto: we do admonish and require you, all and singular clerks aforesaid, and do straitly enjoin you all, in the virtue of holy obedience, that neither you nor any of you do admit any man to preach or to teach the catholic faith, saving such as the same office of preaching shall, by the authority apostolical, or else yoiu- bishop, be specially committed unto; but that as much as in you shall lie, you do by word and deed labour to let those that would attempt the contrary. And you, lords, ladies, knights, barons, esquires, and all, and singular persons, of what estate, degree, pre-eminence, or condition soever ye be, remaining within the city and diocese of Hereford, we do beseech and exhort in our Lord, that, following the words of our Saviour, you beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
Would God both they and all men did beware of that leaven.Item, According to the saying of the apostle, "Be not ye carried away with divers and strange doctrines;" and that in the meanwhile, as saith the apostle, you be not removed from the sense of the holy ancient fathers, lest that any man by any means should seduce you; but you, agreeing together in one mind, see that you honour God with one mouth. But if any men to whom that thing is not specially, as is aforesaid, committed, shall attempt to instruct, or in this your life to direct you into the catholic faith, do ye deny to give them audience, and refuse you to be present at their assemblies, and shun ye their teachings, because they be wicked and perverse. And as for us, we will not omit to proceed, according to the sacred canons and precepts of the holy fathers, against such as do the contrary.
Dated at London, in the house of our habitation, under our seal, the last day save one of December, in the year of our Lord 1389, and, of our consecration, the first.
V. Item, The same William, in his preaching to the people on Monday the first of August, in the year of our Lord 1390, in the parish of Whitney of your diocese, did hold and affirm, that no prelate of the world, of what estate, preeminence or degree soever he were, having cure and charge of souls, he being in deadly sin, and hearing the confession of any under his hand, in giving him absolution, doth nothing:On of Wickliff's blemishes. as who neither doth loose him from his sin, nor in correcting or excommunicating him for his demerits, doth bind him by his sentence, except the prelate shall be free himself from deadly sin, as St. Peter was, to whom our Lord gave power to bind and loose.
VI. Item, The same William in many places said and affirmed, in the presence of many faithful christian people, that after the sacramental words uttered by the priest having the purpose to consecrate, there is not made the very body of Christ in the sacrament of the altar.
'Bread; he meaneth, in substance.VII. Item, That accidents cannot be in the sacrament of the altar without a subject; and that there remaineth material bread there to such as be partakers communicant with the body of Christ in the same sacrament.
VIII. Item, That a priest being in deadly sin, cannot be able by the strength of the sacramental words to make the body of Christ, or bring to perfection any other sacrament of the church, neither yet to minister it to the members of the church.
IX. Item, That all priests are of like power in all tilings, notwithstanding that some of them in this world are of higher and greater honour, degree, or pre-eminence.
X. Item, That only contrition putteth away sin, if so be that a man shall be duly contrite; and that all auricular and outward confession is superfluous, and not requisite of necessity to salvation.
XI. Item, Inferior curates have not their power of binding and loosing immediately from the pope or bishop, but immediately from Christ: and therefore neither the pope nor bishop can revoke to themselves such kind of power, when they see time and place at their lust and pleasure.
XII. Item, That the pope cannot grant such kind of annual and yearly pardons, because there shall not be so many years to the day of judgment, as are in the pope's bulls or pardons contained: whereby it followeth that the pardons are not of such like value as they speak of, and are praised to be.
XIII. Item, It is not in the pope's power to grant to any person penitent, forgiveness of the punishment or of the fault.
XIV. Item, That person that giveth his alms to any, who in his judgment is not in necessity, doth sin in so giving it.
XV. Item, That it stands not in the power of any prelate, of what religion soever he be, privately to give letters for the benefit of his order, neither doth such benefit granted, profit them, to the salvation of their soul, to whom they be granted.
XVI. Item, That the same William, unmindful of his own salvation, hath, many and oftentimes, come into a certain desert wood, called Dervallwood, of your diocese, and there, in a certain chapel not hallowed, or rather in a profane cottage, hath, in contempt of the keys, presumed of his own rashness to celebrate, nay rather to profanate.
XVII. Item, the same William hath also presumed to do such things in a certain profane chapel, being situate in the park of Newton, nigh to the town of Leintwarden, of the same your diocese.
Upon Friday, being the last of the month of June, in the year above said, about six of the clock, in the said parish church of Bodenham, hath the said William Swinderby personally appeared before us. And he, willing to satisfy the term to him assigned, as before specified, hath read out word by word before all the multitude of faithful christian people, many answers made and placed by the same William (in a certain paper-book of the sheet folded into four parts) to the said articles, and the same answers for sufficient hath he to us exhibited, avouching them to be agreeable to the law of Christ. Which thing being done, the same William (without any more with him) did depart from our presence, because that we, at the instance of certain noble personages, had promised to the same William free access; that is, to wit, on that day for the exhibiting of those answers, and also free departing without prefixing of any term, or without citation, or else any other offence or harm in body or in goods.
As for the tenor of the same answers, exhibited unto them by the same William, as is before specified, we have hereunder annexed it word for word, and in the same old language used at that time, when it was exhibited. And it followeth in these words.