was finished Old St. Paul's, the most
magnificent church in England, meet to be the cathedral of the
capital, which London had now become.

[Illustration: MONUMENT OF JOHN OF GAUNT, DUKE OF LANCASTER.
_After Hollar._]

=Wycliffe and Gaunt.=--The Primate Sudbury and Bishop Courtenay tried
John Wycliffe at the cathedral on a charge of heresy (February 13,
1377). This was in the days of rival popes at Rome and Avignon, and
one or other or both had been described by the accused as "Antichrist,
the proud, worldly priest of Rome, and the most cursed of clippers
and purse-kervers."[13] By an alliance almost as strange as that
between John and Innocent, Wycliffe found himself supported by John of
Gaunt, with whom was the Earl Marshal, Percy, Earl of Northumberland.
Wycliffe and the Duke of Lancaster had this much in common, they both
wished to confine the clergy to their strictly clerical duties, the
latter through jealousy, the former for higher reasons. An immense
concourse filled the cathedral. Courtenay was popular with the
citizens, Gaunt was not; and Percy was strongly suspected of a wish to
abolish the mayoralty, and as Earl Marshal to appoint a captain of his
own instead. During an angry altercation Gaunt whispered loudly to a
neighbour, "Rather than I will take those words at his [Courtenay's]
hands, I would pluck the bishop by the hair out of the church." In the
tumult that followed this insult Gaunt and Percy with difficulty
escaped; the former fled across the river to Kennington, and his
palace at the Savoy was sacked. Yet, in spite of all this, Gaunt was
the only royal prince after the Conquest buried at St. Paul's. His
tomb under the arch on the north side of the high altar, enriched by a
noble canopy to which his spear, shield, and insignia were attached,
contained effigies of himself and of his second wife, Constance of
Castile. He had also a chantry.

=Bishop Robert de Braybroke.=--On Courtenay's translation to
Canterbury, Braybroke became bishop (1382-1404). A thoroughly
practical reformer, he held out the threat of the greater
excommunication because "in our Cathedral not only men but women also,
not on common days alone but especially on Festivals, expose their
wares as it were in a public market, and buy and sell without
reverence for the holy place.... Others play at ball or other unseemly
games, both within and without the church, breaking the beautiful and
costly painted windows, to the amazeme