On 30 May Archbishop Courtenay wrote to Rygge rebuking him for his favour to Hereford and opposition to Stokes. But the chancellor nevertheless continued his former course of action, because Stokes's conduct was contrary to the privileges of the university. He even assembled armed men for the intimidation of his opponents, and appointed Repington to preach the university sermon at the feast of Corpus Christi (5 June). Stokes had presented the archbishop's letter on 4 June, but Rygge did not publish it till two days later; and Stokes, on reporting the matter to the archbishop, announced that he dare not for his life proceed any further. Rygge himself went to London immediately, and was present in the council at Blackfriars on 12 June. He was severely rebuked for his conduct, but nevertheless signed the decrees of the council. A fresh mandate was at the same time issued, forbidding him to molest the archbishop's supporters, or to permit any further teaching of false doctrine. Rygge declared that he dared not publish this order at Oxford, but under pressure from the royal council published it, amid great excitement, on 15 June. However, he still held out so far as to suspend Henry Crump [q. v.] for attacking the lollards, and was in consequence summoned once more to London. A royal writ dated 13 July ordered Rygge to proceed against Wiclif's followers, and send all the writings of Wiclif and Hereford to the archbishop. A second writ on the same day cancelled the suspension of Crump, and directed Rygge to abstain from molesting Crump, Stokes, or Stephen Patrington [q. v.] Rygge after this gave way, and abandoned the Wiclifites. When in November the convocation of Canterbury met at Oxford, Rygge, as chancellor, preached at St. Frideswide's on the text ‘Congregati sunt in valle benedictionis.’ On 25 Nov., acting no doubt in defence of university privileges, he accused Crump and Stokes before the convocation of heresy. But they declared that what they had done was ‘causa exercitii et doctrinæ’ in the schools, and with some difficulty they were reconciled to the university (Wilkins, Concilia, iii. 172).
In 1384 Rygge obtained the exemption of the colleges from the payment of tenths. In 1386 he was one of the commissioners for settling the dispute at Oriel College about the election of a provost. In the same year he expelled Robert Lytham of Merton College from the university for disturbing the peace of the town (Rogers, History of Prices, ii. 667). He had been ordered in 1385 to prohibit the quarrels of north and south, and in 1388 was deposed from his office as chancellor by authority of parliament for having failed to preserve the peace (Wood, Hist. and Antiq. i. 516, 519; Adam of Usk, p. 7; Lyte, p. 308). Nevertheless he was again chancellor in 1391, but held the office only one year. On 16 Feb. 1395 he was appointed canon of Exeter and archdeacon of Barnstaple. He was one of the doctors appointed in 1398 to consider the letter of the university of Paris on the schism. In 1400 he resigned his archdeaconry, and on 30 Jan. was appointed chancellor of Exeter Cathedral. He was vicar-general for Edmund de Stafford, bishop of Exeter, on 27 Sept. 1400, and in April 1404 was the bishop's proctor in convocation. He died in the spring of 1410 before 10 April, which was the date when his successor at Exeter was collated. Previously to 1392 Rygge had endowed a chest for loans to poor scholars at Exeter College, and at his death bequeathed some books to the college (Boase, p. 11).
[Fasciculi Zizaniorum (Rolls Ser.); Knighton ap. Scriptores Decem, col. 2705; Brodrick's Memorials of Merton; Boase's Register of Exeter College (these two in Oxf. Hist. Soc.); Register of Bishop Stafford, ed. Hingeston Randolph, pp. 166, 311; Maxwell-Lyte's Hist. Univ. Oxford; Wood's History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford, i. 492, 499, 504, 510, 516, 519, 534, and Fasti, pp. 30–3; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. i. 406, 418.]
RYLAND, HERMAN WITSIUS (1760–1838), Canadian statesman, born at Northampton in 1760, was younger son of John Collett Ryland [q. v.] and brother of John Ryland (1753–1825) [q. v.] He was educated for the army, and in 1781 was assistant deputy-paymaster-general to the forces under Burgoyne and Cornwallis in America, rendering important service at New York prior to its final evacuation in 1782. He returned to England with Sir Guy Carleton (afterwards first Lord Dorchester) [q. v.], who had negotiated the peace. In 1793 Lord Dorchester, being appointed governor-in-chief of British North America, took Ryland with him to Canada as his civil secretary; and thenceforward for many years Ryland's influence on the administration of affairs in Lower Canada was paramount. He was continued as secretary by Dorchester's successor, General Robert Prescott [q. v.], in 1797, and again (after serving with Sir Robert Miles, the lieutenant-governor) by Sir James Craig on 22 Oct. 1807. To Craig he seems to have been chiefly attached. He became also clerk of the executive council, clerk of the crown in chancery, and treasurer for the jesuits' estates; and he received a
