Early in Henry's reign, the exigencies of the state requiring large supplies, a design was formed of seizing the revenues of the church, and applying them to the public service; and in the parliament held at Coventry in 1404, it was urged, that the wealth of the church might well be spared to the necessities of the state; that the clergy who had accumulated immense revenues, lived in idleness and luxury, and contributed little to the public benefit, while the laity were hazarding both their persons and fortunes in the service of their country; and that, there fore, in a moment of public necessity, it was reasonable to have recourse to this fund. Arundel, who was present, to avert the blow which threatened the church, pleaded that the clergy had always contributed more to the public service than the laity; that though they did not serve the king in person in his wars, yet they did military service by their tenants; and that they were at least as serviceable to the king by their prayers as the laity by their arms. The speaker of the house, Sit John Cheney, observed, that he thought the prayers of the church a very slender supply at best, and that its lands would do the nation much more service; whereupon the archbishop warmly retorted, and concluded by boldly defying the house to invade the rights and possessions of the church. The commons admired the archbishop's resolution, and confessed the impolicy of their expedient. While Arundel thus zealously defended the temporalities of the church, he discovered equal zeal for the preservation of its internal constitution. The Lollards and Wickliffites excited the jealousy of the metropolitan, and he adopted violent and unjustifiable measures for the suppression of these rising sects. Supported by the body of the clergy assembled in convocation at St Paul's, in London, who complained of the strange degeneracy and contumacy of the students in a university hitherto exemplary for its adherence to the Catholic faith, and for its order and correct behaviour, the archbishop sent delegates to the university of Oxford to inquire into the state of opinions among the students, many of whom were suspected of Wickliffitism; and a committee was appointed by the university to sit in inquisition, under the authority of the delegates upon heretical books, particularly those of Wickliffe. and to examine such persons as were suspected of favouring this new heresy. The report of these inquisitors was transmitted to the primate, who confirmed their censures; and the persecution thus raised, was carried by this bigot to an absurd and cruel extremity; he even went so far as to solicit from the pope a bull for digging up Wickliffe's bones, which, nowever, was wisely refused him. Upon the authority of the horrid act for burning heretics, passed in the reign of Henry IV., a Lollard, in the year 1410, was consigned to the stake; and at the commence. ment of the reign of Henry V., Lord Cobham, one of the principal patrons of the sect, was indicted by the primate, convicted of heresy, and sentenced to the flames. He also procured a synodal constitution, which forbade the translation of the scriptures into the vulgar tongue. Soon after pronouncing sentence of excommunication against Cobham. the archbishop was seized with an inflammation in his throat, which speedily terminated his life, on the 20th of February, 1413. The Lol lards, who partook of the superstitious character of the times, imputed this sudden illness and death to the just judgment of God. Bishop Godwin says: "Justo Dei judicio factum ferunt, ut is qui verbum Dei,

animæ pabulum subtraxerat popularibus, clausis per anginam aut morbum aliquem consimilem faucibus, aliquanto ante mortem tempore, nec verbulum potuerit fari, nec cibi vel minimum deglutire, adeoque mutus fameque tandem enectus inedià interierit."

Archbishop Chichele.

BORN A. D. 1362.-died a. d. 1433.

On the death of Arundel, Henry Chichele was elevated to the pri macy. Chichele was born at Higham-Ferrers in Northamptonshire. and educated at Winchester school and New College. Under the patronage of Richard Metford, bishop of Salisbury, he rose rapidly through various ecclesiastical preferments and dignities, until, in the year 1407, he was employed by Henry IV. in three successive embassies to Rome and the court of France. During his residence at the Roman court in 1408, Pope Gregory XII. presented him with the bishopric of St David's; and, in the following year, he was deputed, with Hallum, bishop of Salisbury, and Chillingdon, prior of Canterbury, to represent the Engush church in the council of Pisa. In May, 1410, the renewal of negotiations for a truce betwixt France and England, was chiefly entrusted to Chichele; and on the accession of Henry V., he was sent a third time into France to negotiate a peace.

Chichele obtained the primacy at a critical moment. The king had made demands on the court of France, which promised to end in a rupture with that country, and large supplies were wanted. The parliament urged Henry to seize the revenues of the church, and apply them to the use of the crown. The clergy, alarmed for the whole, wisely resolved to sacrifice a part in the hope of saving the rest, and voluntarily agreed to surrender all the alien priories which depended on capital abbeys in Normandy, and had been bequeathed to these abbeys while that province remained united to England, and Chichele was deputed to lay their offer before parliament, and recommend it to the king's acceptance. The offer was accepted, and the archbishop was the first to inform the French envoys at the English court, that the only terms on which peace could be preserved was the instant and full restoration to his sovereign, of all the territories which had ever been possessed by his predecessors. It is alleged by some historians that Chichele secretly wished to plunge Henry into a war, as the most effectual means of diverting the blow which then threatened the church. But, while it is certain that this prelate was one of the most strenuous advisers of a war with France, it is not less certain that he needed not to create by any artificial or secret policy, the love of foreign warfare in his sovereign's mind; the disposition already existed there in sufficient strength, and in what manner the archbishop could have repressed it, supposing a pacific course to have been clearly the better policy at the time, cannot now be determined without a much more intimate knowledge of the state of parties in England at the time than we possess. During this period, however, besides taking the lead in the affairs of state at home, the archbishop twice accompanied the king in his campaigns in France.

During the minority of Henry Vl., and the regency of the duke of Gloucester, Chichele retired, in a great measure, from public life, and employed himself in visiting the several dioceses in his province. The principles of Wickliffe had now made considerable progress through. out the country, yet it does not appear that the holders of the new doctrines found in this primate quite so bitter and relentless a foe as they had experienced in his predecessor, Arundel. History has done ample justice to the spirit with which he resisted the pretensions of the pope to the disposal of ecclesiastical benefices in England. In this he was supported by a majority of the bishops, as well as by the university of Oxford, and the general feeling of the nation. Martin V. threatened England with excommunication in consequence of this display of sentiment; but the university of Oxford hesitated not to assure his holiness that they regarded Chichele as standing in the sanctuary of God, a firm wall that heresy could not shake, nor simony undermine," and the death of Martin himself soon after relieved the archbishop of further trouble in this matter from Rome.

In

In later life, Chichele, who had always proved himself a munificent patron of the universities, conceived the plan of founding another college at Oxford. Like his predecessor Wykeham, he had amassed considerable wealth, which he determined to expend in promoting the cause of education. The foundation of All Souls' college was the result of these intentions. The whole college was finished in 1444. the first charter, Henry VI. assumed the title of founder at the archbishop's solicitation, who appears to have paid the monarch this compliment with a view to secure his patronage for the institution, but the full exercise of legislative authority was reserved to the prelate himself as co-founder. A few days before his death, the archbishop completed a body of statutes for the regulation of his college, modelled after those of Wykeham. The society was appointed to consist of a warden and twenty fellows, sixteen of whom were to study the civil and canon law, and the rest were to devote themselves to philosophy, the arts, and theology.

In 1442, Chichele applied to Pope Eugenius for permission to resign his office into more able hands, he being now nearly eighty years old, and, as he pathetically urges, "heavy, laden, aged, infirm, and weak beyond measure." He died, however, before the issue of his application could be known, on the 12th of April, 1433, and was interred, with great solemnity, in the cathedral of Canterbury. His character is that of an able statesman, and learned and liberal prelate. In the former character he exerted himself with considerable success in conciliating the parliament and the nation towards the church, and in supporting the dignity of the crown; in the latter, he did much to improve the tone and habits of the clergy, and to repress those abuses which the spirit of the times engendered. His memory, however, is not altogether free of the charge of intolerance. Several persons were committed to the flames during his primacy for the crime of Lollardy; others were condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and a variety of other severe punishments. By one of his constitutions, three of the principal inhabitants of every parish were solemnly sworn to make diligent inquiry and search after all Lollards, and every thing savouring of Lollardy, within their district, and to transmit a report in writing to their arch

deacon twice every year. ford, bishop of Bath.

He was succeeded in the primacy by Staf

Cardinal Beaufort.

DIED A. D. 1447.

HENRY BEAUFORT, bishop of Winchester, and cardinal priest in the Roman church, was the son of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, by his third wife, Catherine Swinford. His studies were conducted partly at both English universities, and partly at Aix-la-Chapelle, at the latter of which places he devoted himself chiefly to the study of the civil and common law.' His connexion with royalty insured him early advancement in the church. In 1397, he was appointed bishop of Lincoln, by Pope Boniface IX.; in 1399, chancellor of the university of Oxford; and in 1404, lord-high-chancellor of England. On the death of Wykeham he was translated to the see of Winchester.

We may form some idea of the wealth which this fortunate prelate commanded, from the circumstance, that when Henry V. was meditating his expedition against France, and his commons had declared themselves unable to grant farther subsidies, Beaufort alone, and unaided, lent his royal nephew the sum of twenty thousand pounds?—a sum which must have appeared quite enormous in those days. Godwin says that this loan was intended to divert the king's attention from the overgrown revenues of the clergy, whose wealth had now arrived at its highest pitch. This transaction occurred in 1417. In the same year Beaufort took a journey to the Holy Land. Whilst passing through Constance in this journey, he attended the general council then sitting in that city, and n aterially contributed by his arguments and influence to the election of Martin III. to the vacant papal chair.

In 1424, Beaufort was appointed, for the fourth time, lord-high-chancellor of England. Henry VI. was at this period in his minority, and Humphrey, duke of Gloucester held the regency. Intrigue, however, prevailed in the cabinet, and the animosity of Beaufort and Gloucester threatened to involve the country in a civil war. "The English Pope," says one historian, "in his magnificence and grandeur seemed so much to outshine the protector himself, though on the throne almost, that he drew his odium and hatred upon him; which was so increased by the haughty spirit of the bishop-who, being the protector's uncle and the pope's legate, carried himself as if he were much above him both in nature and grace—that the protector could not endure his pride, and so an implacable enmity grew between them; and great parties were raised on both sides for each other's defence, the bishop's dependencies, inoney, and church-power, making him able to contend with the protector himself." Holinshed has inserted in his 'Chronicles,' a letter from Beaufort to his nephew the duke of Bedford, then regent of France, soliciting his presence in England to mediate betwixt him and Gloucester:-" For by my troth," adds the prelate, "if you tarry, we shall put this land in jeopardy with a field; such a brother you have Godwin de Præsal. Angl. 'Speed, 803. Complete Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 351.

here. God make him a good man!" Bedford, complying with the bishop's request, arrived in England in December 1425, and immediately convoked an assembly of the nobles, at St Alban's, to hear and determine the matter; but the two parties instantly assumed such a hostile appearance towards each other, that it was deemed prudent to delay the business for a time. On the 25th of March, the peers again met at Leicester, when the duke exhibited six articles of impeachment against his rival the bishop of Winchester. The substance of these articles was as follows:-That the bishop had prevented the protector from obtaining access to the tower; that he had secretly concerted measures for getting the young king removed from Eltham to Windsor; that he had compassed the death of the protector; that he had made an at tempt on the life of the late king, by the hands of a hired assassin; that during the sickness of Henry IV. he had advised his son to assume the government, without waiting for his father's decease; that in his letter to the duke of Bedford he had plainly avowed his intention of stirring up a rebellion in the nation. To these articles the bishop exhibited distinct answers; and a committee having been appointed to examine the respective allegations of the parties, the bishop was pronounced clear of the whole charges preferred against him; whereupon, Speed tells us the duke and the bishop were persuaded to swear friendship in future, the one upon his princehood, and the other upon his priesthood. The duke of Bedford, however, took away the great seal from his uncle. Two years afterwards, the duke returning into France, was accompanied to Calais by the bishop of Winchester, who there received the cardinal's hat sent him by Martin V.

Beaufort's return with increased dignities was by no means acceptable to his late rival who still cherished former animosities, and who anticipated the cardinal's arrival by a proclamation, in the king's name, forbidding the exercise of legantine power within the realm of England, as being incompatible with the "special privilege and custom used and observed from time to time, that a legate from the apostolic see shall enter this land, or any of the king's dominions, without the calling, petition, request, invitation, or desire of the king." In 1427, Cardinal Beaufort was appointed the pope's legate in Germany and general of the crusade then about to be undertaken against the Hussites in Bohemia. Of his success as a military leader, we have conflicting accounts. Polydore Virgil assures us that he put a new face on affairs which looked gloomy on his arrival, and that he returned home after having conducted a most successful campaign; but Aubery declares that he fully participated in the disgrace of the other leaders on the papal side, who were attacked and driven back with great loss by the Hussites; and the account given by the last mentioned author seems to derive confirmation from the fact that he was recalled from Bohemia by the pope, who sent Cardinal Julian in his place with a larger army.

In 1430, the cardinal accompanied King Henry into France, and had the honour to perform the ceremony of crowning the young monarch in the church of Notre Dame at Paris. He was also present with the title of the king's principal counsellor at the conference of Arras, for concluding a peace between the kings of England and France. Meanwhile, the duke of Gloucester, nothing daunted by these obvious

'Chron. p. 591. Fox's Acts and Monuments, p. 649.