Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/132

 Divinity without previously qualifying as "regents in arts," but their claims were firmly resisted by the authorities and the seculars. Wyclif would be associated in this controversy with John Thoresby, afterwards Archbishop of York, with his life-long friend Nicholas Hereford, with Uhtred Bolton, Walter Bryt, Philip Norris, and others.

Meanwhile Wyclif had become Master of Balliol; and here again we are baffled by the extraordinary want of accurate detail by which his life is dogged. It is a mere matter of conjecture in what year, between 1356 and 1361, he was elected to this honourable position. Amongst the deeds preserved by Balliol College there are several notarial documents showing how, as proctor for the college, he went down to Abbotsley on the 8th of April, 1361, together with one of his colleagues and an independent notary public, and formally took possession of the church and rectory on behalf of his college. He duly seized the ring on the church door, smote the bells, touched and handled the "ornaments," received oblations and young pigeons, and freely disposed of the same. The documents are very particular. In one of them Wyclif is described as "Magister Johannes de Wycliff, Magister, sive Custos, Collegii Aulse de Balliolo." In another document the "college of the said hall" of Balliol is represented as being made up of "Master John de Wykclyff, Sir Hugh de Wakfeld" (who was a notary public), "John de Hugat, John de Prestwold, Roger de Gysburgh, Willian Alayn, Thomas de Lincoln, William de