At last the three bulls arrived from Rome, but were, as we have seen, too late in the field; for not only had the trial of Wicliffe turned out a failure, but the King had in the meantime died, and the Oxford doctors had almost all sided with the reformer. Still, the Church determined to punish Wicliffe, who was summoned to appear before Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, in Lambeth Chapel, to answer charges of heresy and insubordination; but this trial proved as unfortunate for the clergy as the former one, for another angry mob besieged the chapel and demanded the release of the reformer, in addition to which Sir Lewis Clifford arrived in haste from the Queen to forbid the bishops passing any sentence upon Wicliffe. This was indeed a surprise for their reverences, who precipitately left the chapel and reached their homes in the best way they could. All this had a great effect upon the minds of the people both in England and on the Continent; for the Pope and his satellites had not only been attacked, but, what was more amazing, they had suffered an unparalleled defeat; and the probability was that the discontented of France and Italy would follow the example of the English reformer and attempt to put into practice the theories of Arnold and Abelard. The times certainly looked black for the Church; but an event happened shortly afterwards which added still more to the general dismay of the clericals, and was near being the end of the Papacy. Pope Gregory XI. died on March 27th, 1378, at the Vatican, where he had arrived shortly before from his beautiful residence at Avignon; and the Italian clergy, fearing that the next pope would also take up his residence in France, determined to exert every effort to place upon the vacant chair of St. Peter an Italian who would be likely to remain at the Vatican. At this time the sacred college consisted of twenty-two cardinals, twelve of whom were French, so that it would have been an easy matter for the French majority to elect a French pope; but the clamour, not only of the clergy, but of the laity of Rome, was so great that the majority did not avail themselves of their opportunity, and allowed the Archbishop of Bari, a Neapolitan, to be nominated and unanimously elected to the vacant see, under the title of Urban VI. Not many weeks passed away before the French majority began to repent their haste, and ended by publicly excommunicating Pope Urban VI., calling him apostate and antichrist, and electing in his stead, on September 21st, Robert of Geneva, under the title of Clement VII. The Italian bishops and clergy stood by the Pope of their choice, who resided at the Vatican, while the French bishops and clergy bowed allegiance only to their Pope, who took up his residence at the old papal palace at Avignon; and thus it happened that for the first time in the history of the Church there were two popes at the same time, each pouring forth his anathemas at the other, and each declaring himself to be