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. He was now at the point of
death, and Gaunt was believed to be aiming at the succession, to the
exclusion of the Black Prince's son, and was associated in the popular
mind with the King's mistress, Alice Ferrers, as taking every sort of
mean and wicked advantage of the old man's dotage. Added to this the
Londoners were on the side of their Bishop (Courtenay) in defence,
as they held, of the rights of the City. So on the day of Wyclif's
appearance the cathedral and streets surrounding it were crowded, to
such an extent indeed that Wyclif had much trouble in getting through,
and when Gaunt was seen, accompanied by his large body of retainers, a
wild tumult ensued; the mob attacked Gaunt's noble mansion, the Savoy
Palace, and had not Courtenay intervened, would have burnt it down.
The Black Prince's widow was at her palace at Kennington, with her
son, the future Richard II., and her great influence was able to
pacify the rioters.

Soon came an overwhelming change. The succession of the Black Prince's
son was secured, and then public opinion was directed to the other