Pecock

Pecock, Reginald (circa 1390-1460), probably a Welshman by birth, was elected fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, in 1417. In 1444 he was appointed Bishop of St. Asaph, whence hewas translated to Chichester in 1450. His Represser of Overmuch Blaming of the Clergy (1449) was a defence of the doctrines and ritual of the Church against the attacks of the Lollards. His views on the relation of natural and revealed religion and other points bear a striking resemblance to those of Hooker. In a later work, the Treatise on Faith, his position frequently approaches that of the Lollards themselves; thus he disputes the infallibility of the Church, and accepts probability as a ground of faith. In consequence of an attack on his writings made in a council at Westminster in 1457, he was cited before Archbishop Bourchier, and forced to recant. The intervention of the Pope, to whom he appealed, failed to avert the loss of his see, and his closing years were spent in retirement at Thorney, in Cambridgeshire.