^{page 160 note 1} Colet's opening sermon: Lupton, J. H., A Life of John Colet, London 1887, 293–304Google Scholar.

^{page 160 note 2} For references see Sturge, C., Cuthbert Tunstal, London 1938, 19Google Scholar.

^{page 160 note 3} Foxe, J., Acts and Monuments, London 1843–9Google Scholar (referred to henceforth as Foxe), iv. 173–81.

^{page 160 note 4} Foxe, iv. 123–4. He gives the date as 1506, but the significavit resulting from this prosecution is dated 18 August 1511 (P.R.O. c. 85/115/10).

^{page 160 note 5} It is of some interest to note that Blythe was also concerned in a more academic attempt to rebut heresy. The Lollard Prologue of the Wyclif Bible (Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS. 147) has been heavily annotated by Blythe, according to a note in a Parkerian hand on fol. 15a. For a discussion of this see A. Ogle, The Tragedy of the Lollards’ Tower, Oxford 1949, 117–31; also see J. Forshall and F. Madden, The Holy Bible in the Earliest English Versions, lv, for a copy of Blythe's most extensive comment. Note also the Commission to inquire into ‘insurrections, rebellions, Lollards, &c.’ in the West Country, dated 3 July 1512, in which Blythe is named first (Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, ed. J. S. Brewer (2nd. ed.) i. no. 3289).

^{page 161 note 1} Now classified as Lichfield Episcopal Archives MS. B.C. 13.

^{page 161 note 2} The only other complete example is bishop Alnwick's Register of heresy trials in his diocese of Norwich in the period 1423–30 (Westminster Cathedral Archives MS. B.2.8. A transcript is in preparation). Foxe made a collection of original processes for heresy, the earliest being sheets from Tunstal's Court Book for the period 1527–8, the rest, from seven dioceses, being mostly of the Marian period (B.M. Harl. MS. 421). Archbishop Ussher copied sections from Alnwick's Court Book (mentioned above) and from two other Heresy Court Books not now extant, those of Fitzjames and Longland (Foxe also took material from the latter, see his account: Foxe, iv. 221–46). Ussher's note-book is now in the library of Trinity College, Dublin (MS. 775 (D.3.4)). For further discussion of some of the material it contains, see the author's article, ‘The post-mortem condemnation for heresy of Richard Hunne’, in the English Historical Review, lxxviii (1963), 528–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

^{page 162 note 1} Lichfield Court Book, fol. 25b.

^{page 162 note 2} Ibid., fols. i, 22. Maxstoke was a residence of the bishop, some eight miles northwest of Coventry.

^{page 162 note 3} Note the case of John Jonson (Court Book, fol. 2b) where the age is given in the previously prepared heading as about 40, but during the examination he was asked his correct age, which is given as 37.

^{page 162 note 4} Coventry and Lichfield Episcopal Register 14, Geoffrey Blythe (referred to henceforth as Register Blythe) fol. 99a.

^{page 162 note 5} 1 baker; i bedder; 2 cappers; 1 carpet-maker; 6 cobblers; 1 cooper; 2 curriers; 2 cutlers; 1 fuller; 1 girdler; 1 glover; 2 hosiers; 1 mercer; 1 merchant; 3 painters; 1 physician; 2 pursers; 1 servant; 2 shearmen; 2 skinners; i smith; 1 spicer; 2 tailors; 3 weavers; 3 wiredrawers.

^{page 162 note 6} Gill, C., Studies in Midland History, Oxford 1930, 38, 44.Google Scholar

^{page 162 note 7} Court Book, 13a (Blumstone) and 8a (Brown). Lichfield Episcopal Registers 12 (Hales), fol. 166a and b. Note the appearance of John Phip, physician, before Longland on a charge of heresy in 1521 (Foxe, iv. 225).

^{page 163 note 1} Court Book, 18b. For information on the families see A. Hamilton Thompson, Visitations in the Diocese of Lincoln, 1517–31, i. (Lincoln Record Society, xxxiii (1940)), xxx, xci, 12.

^{page 163 note 2} Court Book, fol. 7a.

^{page 163 note 3} Ibid., fol. 2a. See Appendix I for Master William Kent.

^{page 163 note 4} Ibid., 5a.

^{page 163 note 5} Ibid., 2b.

^{page 163 note 6} Dickens, A. G., Lollards and Protestants in the Diocese of York, Oxford 1959, 48Google Scholar.

^{page 164 note 1} Register Blythe, fol. 100.

^{page 164 note 2} Court Book, fol. 16a.

^{page 164 note 3} Ibid., 16b.

^{page 164 note 4} Ibid., 8b.

^{page 164 note 5} Ibid., 3a, 21a. See also fol. 11b for Silkeby taking books to Richard Bradeley.

^{page 164 note 6} Ibid., 4a. and 11b. Note also that she sent a friend a book of the Passion of Christ, and herself received from Alice Rowley a treatise against images when sick in bed (ibid., 4a).

^{page 164 note 7} Ibid., 5b. John Spon also refers to a book ‘de veteri iuri in Anglice traductus’ (ibid., 7b).

^{page 164 note 8} Ibid., 6b—perhaps in the Lollard interpolated version of the English Psalter ascribed to Richard Rolle—see Allen, H. E., Writings Ascribed to Richard Rolle, New York/London 1927, 170–7, 187–92Google Scholar.

^{page 164 note 9} Court Book, 5b, 16b. Note that Purvey, in his General Prologue to the Wyclif Bible, had strongly advocated the reading of the book of Tobias for its teaching of patience in adversity: Forshall and Madden, op. cit., 35.

^{page 164 note 10} Court Book, 5a, 5b, 6b, 8a, 8b, 21a. Note that Foxe, in his account of the second persecution, gives the charge as the reading of English versions of the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, etc. (iv. 557). It would be foolish to attempt an ascription for this work without further evidence, but there seem to be three possibilities: the Wycliffite version of the Ten Commandments in MS. Bodley 789 (Wells, J. E., A Manual of the writings in Middle English, New Haven 1926, 471)Google Scholar; a part of the Wycliffite version of the Lay Folks' Catechism (ed. T. F. Simmons and H. E. Nolloth, E.E.T.S., Original Series 118); or the orthodox and very popular Dives and Pauper (on which see Notes and Queries, xith series, iv. 321–3 and The Library, xiv. 299 ff., xv. 31 ff.).

^{page 165 note 1} Court Book, 8a, 21b, 25b, 5b, 8b, 6a.

^{page 165 note 2} Ibid., 5b, 21b, 5b, 7b, 25b.

^{page 165 note 3} Ibid., 5b, 8b. Wells mentions glossed versions which might conceivably fit, but the evidence is too scanty (Wells, op. cit, 407).

^{page 165 note 4} Ibid., 8b, 20a. See Wells, op. cit., 409 for a possible version.

^{page 165 note 5} Though some few of the heretics could read, it should be noted that only one or two could sign their abjurations in full.

^{page 165 note 6} Court Book, 11b. Note that Agnes Young brought her daughter to readings by Alice Rowley (3b).

^{page 165 note 7} Ibid., 14b.

^{page 166 note 1} E.g., ibid., 6b.

^{page 166 note 2} Ibid., 4a, 5b.

^{page 166 note 3} Ibid., 2a, 5a, 1b.

^{page 166 note 4} Ibid., 5b.

^{page 166 note 5} See Foxe, v. 252 for comparison.

^{page 166 note 6} It is interesting to note that the image of the virgin in the Carmelite Convent at Coventry was still the chief object of attack, as in 1486 (see Register Hales, fob. 166–7b). Robert Hachet is reported as saying to one going to offer oblation to that image: ‘A god help the thow arte a foole’ (Court Book, fol. 12b).

^{page 166 note 7} Foxe, iv. 558.

^{page 166 note 8} The phrase used in Court Book, 6b.

^{page 166 note 9} Court Book, 2a. This was a common aphorism among the Lollards: in 1488 Margery Goyte had said that the priests deceived the people by saying that they can make the body of Christ out of one wafer, and they buy them at sixty a farthing (Register Hales, fol. 168b).

^{page 167 note 1} Dickens, op. cit., 36.

^{page 167 note 2} Court Book, 4a. Note that this is an exact repetition of a statement of Silkeby's (fol. 2a). It is quite common for Lollards to repeat such aphorisms, presumably learnt off by heart at readings.

^{page 167 note 3} Ibid., 7b, 10a, 21b. This last is yet another of the aphorisms referred to above. Compare the abjuration of Thomas Hygons in 1509: ‘saiing that a carpinter cowde make a howse but that the hows could not make the carpinter…’: Registrum Ricardi Mayew Episcopi Herefordensis, ed. A. T. Bannister (Canterbury and York Society, 1921) 109.

^{page 167 note 4} Foxe, iv. 558 and Court Book, 9a.

^{page 167 note 5} Court Book, 2b, 10a.

^{page 168 note 1} See J., and Venn, J. A., Alumni Cantabrigiensis, Part 1, Cambridge 1922.Google Scholar

^{page 168 note 2} Ibid. Note that he was at King's Hall at the same time as John Blythe (see below), and that Geoffrey Blythe was provost of King's Hall before his accession to the see of Coventry and Lichfield.

^{page 168 note 3} Le Neve, J., Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, ed. Hardy, T. Duffus, Oxford 1854, i. 629Google Scholar.

^{page 168 note 4} Ibid., i. 585.

^{page 168 note 5} Court Book, 25b. For almost identical lists see fols. 23a, 24b.

^{page 168 note 6} Ibid., 11b, 26a, 26b.

^{page 169 note 1} Register Blythe, fol. 100a; Court Book, 9a. For Fitzherbert see Venn, op. cit., and Le Neve, op. cit., i. 580.

^{page 169 note 2} Examples of Interrogatories—Register Blythe, fols. 98a, b; Court Book, 22b, 23b. The last mentioned is interesting in that it has no replies written in by the articles, but is followed by a note in a different hand saying that it had been put to eight heretics and each had confessed to every article.

^{page 169 note 3} Ibid., 14a.

^{page 169 note 4} Ibid., 24a, 5a.

^{page 169 note 5} See Appendix I.

^{page 169 note 6} Given in Appendix I. Note that in Foxe's long account of bishop Longland's Buckinghamshire persecution of 1521, the only two non-heretical offences recorded are defamation and necromantic divination (Foxe, iv. 232–3). Hyde's abjuration is excellent proof of the failure of the visitation system at this time, when it was needed most (see A. Hamilton Thompson, op. cit., i. xxiv, and Woodcock, B. L., Mediaeval Ecclesiastical Courts in the Diocese of Canterbury, Oxford 1952, 60Google Scholar).

^{page 170 note 1} Court Book, 14b. St. Thomas's parish was a notorious centre of heresy: see The Register of Nicholas Bubwith, Bishop of Bath and Wells, ed. T. S. Holmes (Somerset Record Society, 1915), i. lxiv, lxix.

^{page 170 note 2} See Appendix I.

^{page 170 note 3} Register Blythe, fol. 100a. For an example of a request for a search of registers to find a previous abjuration, see The Registers of Oliver King and Hadrian de Castello, ed. Maxwell-Lyte, H. C. (Somerset Record Society, 1939), 36.Google Scholar

^{page 170 note 4} See Appendix I.

^{page 170 note 5} For examples of penances see Register Blythe, fols. 98a, b.

^{page 171 note 1} See Appendix II.

^{page 171 note 2} Foxe, iv. 558. The author wishes to express his thanks to the Diocesan Registrar for his permission to print excerpts from the Court Book, the Archivist and his assistants at the Stafford County Record Office, and Dr. J. A. F. Thomson of the University of Glasgow for his criticisms and advice.