PECOCK, REGINALD. - Theologian, born in Wales about 1395, died at Thorney about 1460. He was bishop of St. Asaph (1444) and of Chichester (1450), and one of the most notable prose writers of fifteenth-century England.
A famous controversialist, he owes his reputation to The Repressor of overmuch Blaming of the Clergy (1455), Lollards (v.). His tendency to justify orthodoxy and authority with arguments that were at times paradoxical earned him the accusation of treating authority with too little respect and of making reason the criterion of religious faith. Forced to recant his works, he spent the rest of his life in Thorney Abbey.
His importance as a stylist and prose writer WYCLIF, JOHN (v.). Whereas the latter had used chiefly Latin in his early theological works, P. used the vernacular and sought to adapt it to the requirements of precise prose. His vocabulary is more technical and at times more archaic than Chaucer’s, with a strong predominance of Saxon and vernacular forms over Latin ones. His experiment remained unique in the English language, owing to the classicizing reaction of the Renaissance. Among his works, The Book of Faith (1456) should also be mentioned.