Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/114

 (assuming that Hipswell was once Ipreswell) any the more natural. If John Wyclif's Brith at that place was remembered more than two centuries later, one would imagine that it must have been on account of a continued residence of his parents there, and not on the strength of a casual visit of his mother at the time of his birth. There is a difficulty in reconciling the Hipswell theory with with the summaries which I shall presently venture to make in respect of the parentage of Wycliff—and mainly for the reason just stated. If Stow;s transcript of Leland be regarded as finally establishing the form "Ipswell" all that can be said is that we have one reason the fewer to hesitate over Leland's statement.

The Statment is not very definite in itself, and it is introduced with a couple of words which almost imply that Leland did not attach great weight to it—not so much weight, for instance, as he attached to his independent statment about the village of Wycliffe. "They say"—these are his words—"that John Wiclif Haereticus was borne at Spreswel [Ipreswel], a poore village a good myle from Richemont."If we accept the Ipsrewell and the "good myle," there is still room for doubt in the "Haereticus" and the introductory words. Leland merely repeats a rumour which he had not verified; and the fact of his stating it as a rumour implies that he thought it needed verification. His doubt may well have been the same as our own; it must have appeared strange to him that a Wycliffe of Wycliffe should have been born at Ipreswell; and, again, he would be quite alive to the possibility that any Wycliffe, or even