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A HISTORY OF NORFOLK the sacrament in her chapel;' the letter of the prior of Bromholm dated 31 January, H^^'" which speaks of 'the Commission that the Bishop of Norwich sent us on Thursday last past to gather the dimes, a shrewd labour for us, a great cost, and a shrew jeopardy ; ' or John Paston's indignant repudiation ' of the rumour reported to him by James Gloys, a priest and dependant of his, that he has procured one Sir John Tartyssale, parson of the the East church of Warham, and chaplain of the prior of Walsingham, to put into Parliament a bill of divers treasons done by my lord of Norwich, from which last it appears that the bishop also ran a risk of being attainted at the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses. Bishop Goldwell was raised to the vacant see by the pope, and consecrated at Rome, 4 October, 1472, his temporahties being restored to him 25 February, 1473, on his return from the papal court, where he had been sent on a mission to Pope Sixtus IV by Edward IV, and had held the office of king's proctor. He had filled many important posts, and had been employed on missions to France as well as Rome, but after the death of Edward IV, he seems wholly to have retired from political life, and to have spent his remaining years in pious works and in the adornment of his palace and the cathedral. He died 15 February, 1498-9. Thomas Janne or Jane was promoted to the see in 1499, being consecrated in October. But he died September, 1500, and was buried in the cathedral. There is nothing to tell of his episcopate, but that he paid the pope 7,300 golden florins for his appointment. Foxe says that in July, 1499, one Brabram, a heretic, was burnt at Norwich. Bishop Nix, who succeeded Janne, was appointed in March, 1500-1, and was a consistent opponent of the reforming party which was steadily gaining ground in his diocese. His record as a persecutor has made his name the sub- ject of execration, but it must be remembered that he faithfully adhered to the older religious views when it would have been to his advantage to modify them. The letters in which he writes of the efforts he had made to buy up all copies of the New Testament and other reforming works circulating in his diocese, show also that he was aware it was the king's wish, at certain periods in the ever-varying policy of Henry in the matter, that these should not be interfered with.* Cardinal Wolsey was in Norwich in 15 17 and again in 1520,^ for the purpose of making a final settlement of the dispute between the prior and the city, and his award was published in 1520.* Bishop Nix's sympathies were evidently with the archbishop,^ and he did not conceal his animus against Wolsey. He wrote grudgingly of the appointment of Wolsey's kinsman, Wynter, as archdeacon of Norfolk,* and he was soon ' Nos. 712, 755, and 751, in which last, she writes 29 Jan. 1475 : ' I wold ye shuld spekyn with my Lord of Norwych, and a say to get a lysen ol hym to that I may have the sacrament her in the chapell, because yt ys far to the chyrche, and I am sekly, and the parson ys often owt. For aU maner of caswelties of me and myn, I wold havyt grauntyd, yf I myth.' ' No. 368, i, 542. ' No. 255, i, 348, 25 July, 1455. 'I suppose ye know I have not usid to meddel with Lordes maters meche forther than me nedeth.'

  • Cal. L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv, pt. iii, 6,385. Another letter (ibid, ii, 3176, 14 June, 1527) shows

that as well as making every effort to get rid of these heretical works in his own diocese, he contributed to help Archbishop Warham to buy up all copies of the New Testament for the purpose of destroying them. ' Ibid. pt. i, 1 1 1 3 (note).

  • The award (ibid. pt. i, 407, No. 1 1 1 3) determines the respective jurisdictions and customs of the parties.

' Cal. L. and P. Hen. VIII, iii, pt. i, 77. ** Ibid, iv, pt. iii, 4659. 252