Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/156

 the feeling against the excessive endowments of the Church.

Lancaster and his friends came to open issue with the Church party almost as soon as the Duke began to take an interest in public affairs. William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, and a prince of pluralists, was President of the King's Council in 1370, and he was regarded with not a little jealousy in various quarters. He was very naturally obnoxious to the anti-clericals in the two Houses, who did not see why the clergy, having their own Convocation, and a potent voice amongst the Lords, should also hold the presidency of the Council and the principal posts under the Crown. The discontent on this ground came to a head in the year just named, when Parliament sent a petition to the King requesting" that it will please our said lord the King that the laymen of the said kingdom who are sufficient and able of estate may be chosen for this (the task of government), and that no other person be hereafter made Chancellor, Treasurer, Clerk of the Privy Seal, Baron of the Exchequer, Chamberlain of the Exchequer, Controller, and all other great officers and governors of the said kingdom."

This demand was followed at once by the removal of the Bishops of Winchester and Exeter from the Council, and by the appointment in their place of Robert Thorpe as Chancellor and Richard le Scrope as Treasurer. The Duke for a few years to come had the reins of power in his hands, and it seemed as if the opportunity had arrived for striking his decisive blow.