Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/375

 Waldeby of Toulouse; four Franciscans—Karlelle and Bernevvell of Oxford, Folvyle and Frysby of Cambridge; and the Benedictine monk John Wells of Ramsey. There were also eleven doctors of law, two bachelors of law, and seven bachelors of theology, including Bloxham, custos of Merton, Humbleton and two other Dominicans, two Carmelites, and a Franciscan.

This was not the full number summoned by Courtenay. Rygge, the Chancellor of Oxford, was not present, nor did Wyclif himself put in an appearance, being very possibly out of health. Dr. James asserts in his Apology that Wyclif "voluntarily absented himself, because he knew that the bishops had plotted his death by the way, devising the means and encouraging men thereunto." This is not at all likely, though the suspicion may have been entertained. It is more than probable that the Reformer's friends dissuaded him from going to London, through fear that his death might follow on his condemnation. It would be impossible, in the light of subsequent events, to admit that such fears were groundless. Or it may have been that Wyclif had good cause to know that he would at least be arrested if he left Oxford in 1382. Parliament as well as the bishops was now against him, and for the moment Oxford was perhaps the only place in the country where he could be free from the danger of arrest. In his absence the Synod discussed the conclusions which had been attributed to him, and condemned ten of them as distinct heresies and fourteen more as erroneous.