In the time of Edward IV. troubles sore oppressed the diocese. Bishop Anthony, who was of a violent and imperious spirit, rendered himself very obnoxious to the monks, and was poisoned by his servants, and six years later the Black Death is said to have carried off 50,000 inhabitants. This was in the time of Bishop Bateman, buried at Avignon, a mighty prelate who compelled the powerful Lord Morley to do penance in the Cathedral for killing the bishop's deer.
The lofty spire was blown down by a fierce hurricane in 1361, and rebuilt by Bishop Percy, who rebuilt also the clerestory. His successor, Henry de Despencer, was a very warlike prelate, who ruled with an iron hand. He crushed the revolting peasants in 1381, and fought in the Netherlands for Pope Urban VI. against the adherents of his rival, Clement. The vicissitudes of prelates were great in those days; both he and his successor, Totington, were imprisoned by the king. Bishop Alnwick (1426-1449) began to alter the west front, and Bishop Lyhart put in the large west window and built the rood-screen and vaulted the nave. During the rule of Bishop Browne (1436-1445) the quarrel between the burghers and the monks again broke out, and the former besieged the monastery, for which conduct the king deprived them of their rights and liberties. A fire occurred in 1463, caused by lightning striking the spire, and did much damage to the presbytery, which was restored by Bishop Goldwell (1472-1499), who also finished the spire. Fire again did much damage in 1509 during the rule of Bishop Nykke or Nix (1501-1536), whose reputation was not so unblemished as his name (_snow_). The transept roof was destroyed, which Nykke rebuilt in stone. The dissolution of monasteries soon followed in 1538, and Norwich shared the fate of the rest. The Cathedral foundation was renewed, the last prior being made the first dean. The church suffered from the usual acts of spoliation and desecration at the hands of the Commissioners of Edward VI. and the Puritans. Dean Gardiner (1573-1589) destroyed the chapter-house and the beautiful Lady Chapel. Bishop Hall (1641-1656) thus alludes to the misdeeds of the Puritans:--
"It is tragical to relate the furious sacrilege committed under the authority of Lindsey, Tofts the sheriff, and Greenwood; what clattering of glasses, what beating down of walls, what tearing down of monuments, what pulling down of seats, and wresting out of irons and brass from the windows and graves; what defacing of arms, what demolishing of curious stone-work, that had not any representation in the world but the cost of the founder and the skill of the mason; what piping on the destroyed organ pipes; vestments, both copes and surplices, together with the leaden cross, which had been newly sawn down from over the green yard pulpit, and the singing books and service books were carried to the fire in the public market place; a lewd wretch walking before the train, in his cope, trailing in the dirt, with a service book in his hand, imitating in an impious scorn the tune, and usurping the words of the Litany; the ordnance being discharged on the guild day, the cathedral was filled with musketeers, drinking and tobaccoing, as freely as if it had turned ale-house."