Nicholas Hereford (Or Herford)
Nicholas Hereford (Or Herford) [1]
Hereford (or Herford), Nicholas
an English confessor of the 14th century, was educated doctor of divinity at Oxford, became a secular. priest, declared against some practices and principles of the reigning religion, maintaining (1) that in the eucharist, after the consecration of the elements, bread and wine still remained; (2) that bishops and all clergymen ought to be subject to their respective princes; (3) that monks and friars ought to maintain themselves by their own labor; (4) that priests ought to rule their lives, not by the pope's decrees, but by the word of God. From these positions many heretical opinions were drawn by his enemies. From Oxford he was brought to London, and there, with Philip Repington, was made to recant his opinions publicly at St. Paul's Cross in 1382. Repington became a violent renegade, persecuted his party, for which he was rewarded first with the bishopric of Lincoln, then with a cardinal's cap. Hereford's recantation did not much avail him; as archbishop Arundel's jealousy kept him a prisoner all his life. We know not the date of his death. Hereford by his protest anticipated the Reformation, but he probably had not the stut to make a Wycliffe or Tvndal. See Fuller, Worthies of Lngland (ed. Nuttall), 3:491; Fox, Acts and,Monuments, 3:26.
