payment of the expenses of the war. The
anti-clerical party was still strong enough to send up denunciations of
papal assumptions, and the anxiety to adjust the relations between the
papacy and the crown led to some abortive negotiations with the legates
of Gregory XI at Bruges in 1374, which were mainly memorable for the
appearance of John Wycliffe as one of the royal commissioners. Disgust
at the attitude of the commons may well have postponed the next
parliament for nearly three years. But the truce of Bruges made
frequent parliaments less necessary.

The truce brought John of Gaunt back to England, and the rivalry
between him and his elder brother, which had begun during their last
joint campaigns in France, crystallised into definite parties the
discordant tendencies that had been well marked since the crisis of
1371. The old king was a mere pawn in the game. His health had been
broken by the debauchery and frivolity to which he had abandoned
himself after the death of Queen Philippa. He was now entirely under
the influence of Alice Perrers, a Hertfordshire squire's daughter,
whose venality, greed, and shamelessness made her the fit tool for the
self-seeking ring of courtiers. John of Gaunt sought her support as the
best means of withdrawing the old king from the influence of the Prince
of Wales, and the lay ministers were glad to maintain themselves in
their tottering power by means of such powerful allies. Prominent among
their party were courtier nobles--such as the chamberlain, Lord
Latimer, and the steward of the household, Lord Neville of Raby,--and
rich London financiers, chief among whom was Richard Lyons, men who
made exorbitant profits out of the necessities of the administration.
Faction sought to appear more respectable by professions of zeal for
reform. The cry against papal encroachments was extended to a
denunciation of the wealth and power of the clergy. John Wycliffe was
called from his Oxford classrooms to expound the close connexion
between dominion and grace, and to teach from London pulpits that the
ungodly bishop or priest has no right to the temporal possessions given
him on trust for the discharge of his high mission.[1]

[1] Until recently all historians have dated the beginning of
Wycliffe's political career from 1366, but J. Loserth has
proved that 1374, the date of the last demand for the Roman
tribute, to be the right year. See his _Studien zur
Kirchen-politik Eng