Protestantism which smouldered on for more than a century, but never obtained the upper hand, and seems to have been almost extinct before the Reformation came. It witnessed also a vast rise in importance of the common people, and last, not least, the first preaching in England of those very socialistic doctrines, which, after a lapse of five centuries, are again making themselves heard among us in forms as crude and impracticable as when John Ball preached them.
The Statutes of Provisors were passed in the 25th and 27th years of Edward III., yet we find this very king on the death of Archbishop Stratford applying to Pope Clement VI. to supersede the election of Bradwardine to the archbishopric and appoint John de Ufford by provision.[1] On Bradwardine's death, almost immediately afterwards, the Pope inserted in the bull appointing Simon Islip his successor the words, 'Per provisionem apostolicam spretâ electione facta de eo.'[2] This was but a few months before the passing of the first Act of Provisors. On two other occasions at least did Edward III. disregard his own antipapal legislation, viz. first in the case of Stretton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, who was elected at the instance of the Prince of Wales, and rejected by Archbishop Islip as incompetent, when the King and Prince concurred in an appeal to Rome;[3] and again at a later time, when Archbishop Langham was made a cardinal and resided at Avignon, Edward, though compelling him to resign lie archbishopric, yet permitted him .o retain a prebend at York, the deanery of Lincoln, and some other preferments in England.[4]
