Then he passed on to the luxury
in which some of the prelates were living, and to their overweening
influence in the Councils of State. Edward III., after a reign of
great splendour, had sunk into dotage. John of Gaunt had been striving
for mastery against the Black Prince, but the latter was dying, July,
1376, and Gaunt was now supreme. He hated good William of Wykeham, who
had possessed enormous influence with the old king, and he was bent
generally on curbing the power of the higher clergy. At this juncture
Wyclif was summoned to appear at St. Paul's to answer for certain
opinions which he had uttered. It is not clear what these opinions
were, further than that they were mainly against clerical powers and
assumptions; questions of doctrine had not yet shaped themselves. He
appeared before the tribunal, but not alone. Gaunt stood by his side.
And here, for a while, the position of parties becomes somewhat
complicated. Gaunt was at this moment very unpopular. The Black Prince
was the favourite hero of the multitude, an unworthy one indeed, as
Dean Kitchin has abundantly shown, but he had won great victories, and
had been handsome and gracious in manners.
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