A HISTORY OF LONDON others occur again in the records of a similar inquiry made in the diocese of London under Bishop Tunstall in 1527—8.°*' The pubHc abjurations at Paul's Cross appear ^°° to have ceased with the beginning of the episcopate of Richard Fitzjames (1506) ; 'a very wise man, a virtuous and a cunning.' ^" Colet had become Dean of St. Paul's in 1505, and it is usual to give him the credit for the revival in 1507 of the divinity lectures there ; "^ but Fitzjames, as Warden of Merton, had shown himself particularly anxious for the better education of the clergy,-" and the language of the ordinance indicates his active share in this reform.'^ Colet's own preaching, however, was of great importance ; he had crowded congregations, including many of the leading citizens (his father had been twice mayor), and adopted the method of giving courses of sermons on some connected subject, instead of taking isolated texts.'" In January 1508, at his expense, a Scottish divine interpreted St. Paul's Epistles in free lectures given twice a day at the Cathedral, which were listened to with great attention and approbation by ' a circle of learned priests.'"* The lead thus given by Fitzjames and Colet perhaps suggested the bequests for sermons to be found in two wills of 1509,'" one of them large enough to endow a readership in divinity at Whittington College, where already, in 1490, the members had founded a fraternity of St. Sophia for the reading of a divinity lecture."* According to Erasmus, Colet was never on good terms with Fitzjames, who cited him before Archbishop Warham for teaching that images ought not to be worshipped, giving a wrong interpretation of St. John xxi, 17, and saying in the pulpit that there were some who preached written sermons — ' the stiff and formal way of many in England' — thus indirectly reflecting on his bishop, who, from his old age, was in the habit of so doing. The archbishop pro- tected instead of judging Colet, and Fitzjames then vainly attempted to excite the court and the king against him."' Perhaps the bishop knew that the dean's sermons were resorted to by Lollards,'*" and suspected him of sympathy with some at least of their views. He may well have been anxious about the disturbing effect of Colet's teaching on his diocese, in which the clergy had become very unpopular. A dispute between the City rectors and their parishioners concerning the payment of offerings had begun before the end of the 15th century. The rectors were said to exact more than they could lawfully claim in lieu "' Harl. MS. 421, fol. i li et seq. For the cases of heresy given by Foxe during this period cf. Gairdner, The Engl. Ch. in the l6th Cent. 50-62.
- " As far as can be inferred from the cessation of notices of them by the author of the Chronicle
in Cott. MS. Vit. A. xvi, printed by Kingsford. Arnold (jCusto s of Land.) and Hills i^ongs, Carols, &c.. Early Engl. Text Soc, App.) never allude to them at all. '" Sir Thomas More, Dialogue, Bk. iii, cap. 15. Tyndale's Amtoer (Parker Soc), 168, practically grants this ; cf. quotations given by Wharton, De Episcopis. "' See article on St. Paul's, ' Religious Houses' ; and Lupton, Life of Colet, 138 et seq. «' Diet. Nat. Biog. ^ Reg. S. PauFi (ed. W. S. Simpson), 413. '" Erasmus (translated by Lupton), Lives ofVitrier and Colet, 25. '" Bern. Andrea, Ann. in Mem. oj Hen. VII (Rolls Sen), 105, 106. '" Sharpe, Cal of Wills, ii, 614, 619. '" Nevvcourt, Repert. i, 492. For other sermons connected with Whittington College, apparently revived in 1509, see ibid. ; cf. Chant. Cert. 34 (96). "' Erasmus, op. cit. 39-43 ; cf. Tyndale, Answer to Sir T. Morels Dialogue (Parker Soc), 168. See Engl. Hist. Rev. xvii, 303 ; Lupton, Life of Colet, 201. "^ Foxe, op. cit. iv, 230. 236
