Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

REGINALD PECOCK. 317 '
Wycliffe than the great Latin Fathers, and that he
was ready to die for his opinions.1 He was degraded
and burnt at Smithneld, but not until he had shown
hi in self an obdurate
heretic.
The bands of itinerant preachers, who scoured the
country to preach what they called the "pure
Gospel" without the leave or licence of any Ordinary,
a proceeding unknown before Wycliffe, gave
expression to a general, though vague, feeling of insecurity,
which was pervading all classes. " Not a
few in numerous monasteries in these days are
affected by considerable instability," are the words
of the St. Alban's chronicler, writing in the year
1454.
Hitherto the bishops, though they are accused
of inertness, had been preserved from the prevailing
errors. Their orthodoxy was a guarantee that the
holy sacrament of Orders, with the awful power it
confers, would not be unworthily J bestowed. However,
one member of the English hierarchy fell undoubtedly
into heresy, and was dealt with accordingly.}
It is not easy to explain the character of Reinald
cock ; but his seems to have been one of the rar
cases of intellectual errors, pure and simple. H
was born shortly after "Wycliffe's death, and becam
first, Bishop of St. Asaph, and finally Bisho of
Chichester. A man without prudence or judgment
he made enemies and alienated friends. From beinff
1 Stevenson, p. 170.
*Registrum Abbatice Johannis Wliethamstede secundce, p. 147.