Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

ARCHBISHOP SCROPE. 305
what uncertain a tenure he held that sceptre so
dearly bought. The' rising of the Percies in York
shire had for its object the restoration of the rightful
heir, the Earl of March, grandson of Lionel, third
son of Edward III. Eichard Scrope, Archbishop of
York, was a devoted follower of the Earl of March,
-
and when questioned on the subject always proclaimed
his rights, and the duty of dethroning Henry.
The Archbishop was
*
involved in the northern rising,
though, as he protested, he had never sought to
harm King Henry. Scrope maintained that the
crown did not belong to Henry, and that he had perjured
himself at Chester by swearing on the Blessed
Sacrament that he would neither rebel nor be a party
to Richard's deposition. Henry acted as if he had
been a lawful despot instead of an usurper, whose
title had been ratified by a too accommodating parliament.
He sent orders to Sir William Gascoyne,
then Chief Justiciary of England, to condemn the
Archbishop as guilty of treason. "Neither you, my
lord king, nor any liege man deputed by you, have it
in your power by the laws of the realm to adjudge a
bishop to death," was Gascoyne's uncompromising
answer. Contrary to law and precedent Henry dispensed
with a judicial sentence. A soldier, one
William Fulthorp, was found to do his bidding, and
pronounce sentence against Scrope in the Archbishop's
court. It was carried out on June 8, 1405,
the feast of St. William of York. The Archbishop
prayed that his death might not be visited on the
20