CHAP. XIV. Refuses the ways," "Tithes," or "Husband and Wife," we must look to the titles "Chemin," "Dismes," and "Baron & Feme."* Edington might have been raised to the primacy if he had pleased, — but he refused the preferment, saying, "That in- primacy. deed the rack of Canterbury was higher, but the manger of Winchester was larger." When Lord Treasurer, in 1350, he had incurred great odium by debasing the coin; but he seems to have passed through the office of Chancellor without reproach. He concurred in passing several very salutary statutes for correcting the oppressive abuses of purveyance, whereby it was enacted, that "if any man that feeleth himself aggrieved contrary to any thing contained in these statutes will come into the Chancery, and thereof make his complaint, he shall there have remedy." The process, no doubt, was by petition, on which the Chancellor, in a summary manner, inquired and gave judgment. He resigned the Great Seal in February 1363, and died at Winchester on the 8th of October, 1366. He acquired great The law, having spoken French in her infancy, had great difficulty in changing her dialect. It is curious that acts of parliament long continued to be framed in French, and that French is still employed by the different branches of the legislature in their intercourse with each other. Not only is the royal assent given to bills by the words "La Reigne le voet," but when either House passes a bill there is an indorsement written upon it, "Soit bailé aux Seigneurs," or "aux Communes;" and at the beginning of every parliament the Lords make an entry in their journals, in French, of the appointment of the Receivers and Triers of petitions, not only for England, but for Gascony. E. g. Extract from Lords Journals, 24th August, 1841: "Les Recevours des Petitions de Gascoigne et des autres terres et pays de par la mer et des isles. "Le Baron Abinger, Chief Baron de l'Exchequer de la Reyne. "Messire John Edmund Dowdeswell, Ecuyer. "Et ceux qui veulent delivre leur Petitions les baillent dedans six jours procheinment ensuivant. "Les Triours des Petitions de Gascoigne et des autres terres et pays de par la mer et des isles. "Le Duc de Somerset. "Le Marquis d'Anglesey. "Le Viscount Torrington. "Tout eux ensemble, ou quatre des seigneurs avant-ditz, appellant aux eux les Serjeants de la Reyne, quant sera besoigne, tiendront leur place en la chambre du Chambellan. “Recevours et Triours des Petitions de la Grande Bretagne et d'Ireland," were appointed the same day. Resigna- tion of Chancellor Edington. CHAP. Feb. 19. 1363. SIMON DE reputation for piety by the monastic institution which he he founded in his native place; but perhaps his best claim to the gratitude of posterity was, his patronage of William of Wickham, the architect of Windsor Castle, his successor in the see of Winchester, - twice Lord Chancellor, -- and founder of Winchester School and New College, Oxford. The next Chancellor was SIMON LANGHAM, Bishop of Ely.* I cannot find out the origin of this ambitious and unamiable LANGHAM, man. He first appears as a monk in the Abbey of Westfrom being minster; but under his cowl he concealed unbounded am Chancellor, a monk. His rise. Translated to Canter bury. bition and very considerable talents. He is one of the few instances of the regular clergy attaining to great eminence in England. He was always rising in the world. From a great reputation for piety he was much resorted to as a Confessor, and he acquired much influence over his penitents, which he turned skilfully to his own account. He could adapt his manners to all classes and characters, and the monk who recommended himself to some by fasting and penance gained the favour of Edward III. by his courtly manners, and the aptitude he displayed for civil business. Though generally somewhat stern, and rather unpopular with those who depended upon him, he courted his superiors so assiduously and so successfully, that he was successively Treasurer of Wells, Archdeacon of Taunton, Prior and Abbot of Westminster, Bishop of Ely, and Treasurer of England. He had been elected Bishop of London; but Ely falling vacant before his consecration, he preferred it as being richer, though inferior in rank. Being now Chancellor he was, in 1366, translated to the see of Canterbury, uniting in his own person the two offices of highest civil and ecclesiastical dignity. But if we may credit a waggish distich which was then penned upon him, this translation caused equal joy in one quarter and consternation in another: "Lætantur cœli,-quia Simon transit ab Ely, Cujus in adventum-flent in Kent millia centum." Among those with whom he quarrelled at Canterbury was Rot. Cl. 37 Ed. 3. m. 39. CHAP. XIV. the famous John Wickliff, then a student at the College there erected by Islip his predecessor. This ardent youth being unjustly expelled, and finding no redress for the wrong he Quarrels suffered, turned his mind to clerical usurpation and oppression, with Wickand prepared the way for that reformation in religion which blessed an after age. Langham was installed in his office of Chancellor with extraordinary pomp and magnificence. Being appointed on Sunday, 19th February, the record says that on Tuesday next following, taking the Great Seal with him to Westminster, "et in sede marmorea, ubi Cancellarii sedere sunt assueti, sedens, &c., literas patentes, &c., consignari fecit."* liffe. with dis course from All the parliaments called in his time were opened by an Custom of Chancellor oration from him. We may give as a specimen his performopening ance on the 4th of December, 1364. He set the example, parliament long followed on such occasions, of beginning with a text from the Holy Scriptures as a theme. He now took the saying text in of the Royal Prophet --"Faithful judgment doth adorn the Scripture. King's seat;" whence he took occasion to extol the great valour of the King, his master, and the many victories which, by God's assistance, he had gained in his youth; not forgetting the constant and dutiful goodwill and ready concurrence of the King's loyal subjects towards the furtherance of those his important undertakings. "For all which, as the King did now by him return them his hearty thanks, so he let them know that for his part he was resolved to seek the common peace and tranquillity of all his people, especially by enforcing a due observance of all good and wholsesome laws, and amending such of them as should be thought defective; as also by establishing new ones as necessity should require." Notwithstanding these smooth words, there were heavy Langham complaints against the Chancellor for increasing the fines in aims at the Popedom. Chancery payable to the King, and the Commons prayed that these fines should not be higher than they were in the time of the King's father, or at the King's first coronation. It would appear that the new practice was agreeable as well as profit Rot. Cl. 37 Ed. 3. m. 39. See Dugd. Or. Jur. 37. He adds that the marble chair remained to his day, being fixed in the wall over against the middle of the marble table. CHAP. He retires to Avignon. able to the King, who was determined to continue it by returning this answer: "The King wills that fines be reasonable to the ease and quiet of his people." In the beginning of 1367 Langham's ambition was further gratified, as he was made a Cardinal by Pope Urban V.; and there being nothing further in England which he could covet, he aspired to the triple crown itself. It was probably with this view, that he soon after resigned the office of Chancellor, and went to Avignon to intrigue among the Cardinals. There he lived eight years in great credit and splendour. In 1371 he came to London as a legate from the Pope to negotiate a peace between France and England. But while speculating at Avignon about a vacancy in the papacy, all his ambitious schemes were for ever terminated by an attack of palsy, of His death. which he immediately died. He is celebrated more for his liberality to the abbey and monks of Westminster, than for his just administration of the law or any improvements in legislation. CHAPTER XV. CHANCELLORS AND KEEPERS OF THE GREAT SEAL FROM THE APPOINTMENT OF WILLIAM OF WICKHAM TILL THE DEATH OF THE successor of Langham was a man whose memory is still regarded with high respect by the English nation, the famous WILLIAM OF WICKHAM. * CHAP. XV. Sept. 17. OF WICK This distinguished man, who was twice Lord Chancellor, 1967. was born in the year 1324, at the village in Hampshire from WILLIAM which he took his name, of poor but honest parents, being HAM. the son of John Long and Sibyl his wife. He probably His origin. never would have been known to the world had he not, when almost quite a child, attracted the notice of Nicholas Uvedale, Lord of the Manor of Wickham, and governor of Winchester, who put him to school in that city. He is likewise said to Education. have been sent to study at Oxford; but there is great reason to doubt whether he ever was at any university, and his splendid foundations for the education of youth probably proceeded less from gratitude, than from a desire to rescue others from the disadvantages under which he had himself laboured, for he never possessed scholastic learning, and he owed his advancement to the native fervour of his genius and the energy which enabled him to surmount all difficulties. While still a youth, he became private secretary to his It has been lately asserted that Wickham, or Wykeham, was his family name, because it is said to have belonged to several relations born elsewhere; but all the earliest accounts of him concur in the statement I have adopted. For example: — VOL. I. "Qua capit australes comitatu Hamptona Britannos, Hanc habuit patriam GULIELMUS et hosce parentes Longus enim ut longo duraret tempore, caute S Ortus et Vita Gul, de Wicham. |