Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/204

 France than from England, King Edward was induced to agree to an arrangement whereby the Duke went to Avignon, secured the nomination of Wykeham for Winchester, and so "earned his deliverance." By this transaction the King netted twenty thousand francs, and the pluralist became a bishop.

The story may have reached us in a distorted shape, and it must be accepted for what it may be worth. But Wyclif knew what he was talking about when he spoke of the heaping of benefices on rich men, whilst the poor clerks starved—or stole. And it may be mentioned, by the way, that Courtenay himself was a confirmed pluralist.