Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/126

 PAYNE, PETER (d. 1455), lollard and Taborite, was born at Hough-on-the-Hill, near Grantham, Lincolnshire, where a family of the name survived till the middle of the eighteenth century, when by the marriage of Ethelred, daughter and heiress of Thomas Payne, the property passed to Sir [q. v.] (, pp. 32–3). [q. v.] expressly states that Payne was the son of a Frenchman by an English wife (Loci e Libro Veritatum, pp. 5–6, 186–7). Payne must have been born about 1380, and was educated at Oxford, where he was a contemporary of [q. v.], by whom he was first introduced to the doctrines of Wiclif; Partridge alleged that he in vain urged Payne to abandon heresies which, even if true, would be an obstacle to his advancement in preaching and teaching (, p. 344). Payne had graduated as a master of arts before 5 Oct. 1406. Under this date a letter purporting to be issued by the congregation of the university was addressed to the Bohemian reformers, declaring that all England was on the side of Wiclif, except for some false mendicant friars. Gascoigne roundly asserts that Payne had stolen the seal of the university and affixed it to this document (Loci e Libro Veritatum, p. 20). The letter was quoted by John Huss, and in the convocation at St. Paul's in 1411 reference was made to the seal having been secretly affixed to some lying letters in support of heresy (, Concilia, iii. 336); allusion was also made to the letter at the council of Constance (, Conc. Constantiense, iv. 326), and it was probably in reference to this incident that in 1426 the university took precautions to prevent an improper use of the seal. Mr. Maxwell Lyte (Hist. of the University of Oxford, p. 279) has suggested that the letter was passed by a snatch vote of congregation during the long vacation. In 1410 Payne became principal of St. Edmund Hall, and retained this position till 1414; he was also principal of the adjoining White Hall (, Colleges and Halls, ed. Gutch, p. 663). During his tenure of the office he was involved in a quarrel with the mendicant orders. According to or Walden [q. v.], Payne was chosen by a certain noble (perhaps Sir John Oldcastle) to dispute with William Bewfu, a Carmelite, and so became involved in a controversy with Netter himself. Netter alleges that Payne, ‘suffocatus vecordia,’ withdrew from the controversy before they had come to close quarters (Doctrinale Fidei Ecclesiæ, i. 7–8, ed. Blanciotti). Payne himself refers to a quarrel which arose from his refusal to give bread to begging monks at his hall, and from his having said some things of them that they did not like (, p. 344). But elsewhere he admitted that when at Oxford an attempt was made to make him swear not to teach Wiclifite doctrines, and alleged that, on an appeal to the king (Henry V), he obtained protection (, De Reductione Bohemorum, pp. 269–70). Payne would seem to have taught his doctrines at London and elsewhere in England, besides Oxford; Ralph Mungyn, who was tried for heresy in 1428, was his disciple (, Concilia, iii. 498). Afterwards, apparently in 1416, he was diffamed for heresy, and, failing to appear when cited, was excommunicated; Payne pleaded that he had already left England at the time of the citation, but Partridge declared that he met him on the very day (, p. 343). Partridge also alleged that Oldcastle had been led into a course of treason through Payne's influence, and there appears to have been some charge of treason against Payne himself; this Payne vehemently denied, though admitting that he left England to escape martyrdom (ib. pp. 334, 343–4). Payne may have known Jerome of Prague at Oxford, but he says he never saw Huss (, p. 276). He was, however, clearly on friendly terms with the Bohemian reformers, and on his flight from England took refuge at Prague, where he was received among the masters of the university on 13 Feb. 1417 Author:František Palacký, Geschichte von Böhmen, bk. vii. p. 184). According to Gascoigne (Loci e Libro Veritatum, p. 10), Payne took with him to Bohemia many of Wiclif's writings, and the statement is confirmed by other writers (cf. , Wiclif and Huss, English transl. p. 72).

In Bohemia Payne obtained the protection of Elizabeth, widow of King Wenceslaus, and soon acquired a prominent position. According to Dlugosz (Historia Polonica, i. 432), he was one of the Bohemian envoys sent to offer the crown to Wladyslaw of Poland in August 1420; but there is some doubt as to the accuracy of this statement (cf., vii. 154 n.) He may, however, as stated by Dlugosz (Hist. Pol. i. 436), have formed one of the embassy which for the second time unsuccessfully offered the crown to Wladyslaw on 2 Feb. 1421. In the previous autumn he had been instrumental in inducing the ‘Old Town’ of Prague to agree with the propositions of the Taborites relative to the fourth of the Prague articles, and in November 1421 he again appears as mediating between John the Priest and the nobles at