ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY But in spite of the unyielding severity with which he administered his diocese, the Wyckhffite doctrines took firm root/ and the first victim of the notorious statute de Hceretico Comburendo was William de Sawtre, who, as chaplain of the parish of St. Margaret's, Lynn, was cited before the bishop for heresy I May, 1399,' and pubUcly recanted at Lynn, 26 May following, but after- wards recovered courage on removal to London, and continued to preach his heretical opinions at St. Osyth's, Walbrook. He was condemned as a relapsed heretic'* and burned 26 February, 1401. The bishop himself incurred the serious displeasure of the pope by certain steps he took during his long dispute with his successor, Alexander de Totington, the prior of Norwich, who had denied his right of inquiry into various excesses committed by Thomas de Tutishallis, chamberlain, John Kyrkeley, infirmarer, John Dancer, succentor, and Thomas Lenne, rector of ' Norman's Hospital,' dedicated to St. Paul, and an exempt jurisdiction of the prior, as also his absolution of Richard de Bilney, monk, against whom the prior had issued sentence of excommunication for disobedience and othe/ offences.* The pope called all the causes to himself, and ordered the archbishop and bishop to make an amicable composition, and if they could not do so, then in two years, to transmit the causes and parties concerned to the papal see. This typically long and vexatious suit after many delays' came to an end in 1402, when the pope confirmed the arbitration of the archbishop. During its course the bishop was also engaged in another with the prior of Walsingham,^ who was forced to submit in 1398. The bishop was no friend of the regulars, and in 1380 embroiled himself with the abbey of St. Albans, by claiming authority over the prior of Wymondham, but the abbey gained the day. The monks chose their prior, Alexander de Totington, with whom the bishop had been so long in conflict, to succeed him. But Alexander was imprisoned for a year before he was allowed to take possession of his see, because the election took place without the nomination of the crown.^ The king refused to accept the chapter's presentation until more than a year had elapsed,* when at last, at the earnest entreaty of Dr. Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, and several nobles, and after the city of Norwich had sent letters to the king and the pope, requesting the confirmation of his election, Alexander de Totington was received into favour after publicly resigning all right in the bishopric by virtue of Pope Gregory's bull of pro- vision. His temporalities were restored to him 23 October, 1407,^ and he ' It is interesting to note that in 1 401 in the petition in the Ca/. Papal Petitions v, ^j^-$, (or the union and consolidation of the two churches of St. Margaret's and St. Andrew's, Norton, in the deanery of Rockland, the parishioners and the patron, Robert de Brome, gave the malice of the times, as well as the late pestilence and the ruin of the buildings of St. Margaret's (in whose churchyard St. Andrew was situated, and whose roof and walls daily threatened to fall), as one of the reasons for their action. ' Wilkins, Conci/. iii, 256. ' Ibid. * Ca/. Papal Letters, iv, 525. » Ibid. V, II, 273, 318, 380, 586-7. • Ibid. 157, 159, l6o. ' Stephens, Hist, of the Eng. Ch. iii, 161. ' The archbishop caused a visitation of the diocese to be made in this interval in October, 1406 (Lambeth Reg. Arundel, fol. 524, &c.), and cases of non-residence and leasing of benefices were strictly investig.ited, the ofi'enders being warned by mandate to desist and their fruits sequestrated. Among them were Bartholomew Brown, rector of the church of St. Lawrence, of South Walsham, who had not resided for three years and dwelt at Norwich ; John, rector of Bokenham, who had not resided for two years and it was not known where he abode ; John Athewald, rector of the church of Kerdeston, who had leased his church to Thomas Dallyng and John Peynton of Refham ; and Walter Fowl, dean of Norwich, with Taverham, who resided, but leased his deanery to John Catton, his kinsman. ° Rymer, Foedero. 245
