V. CANON FbN.-wI^GrOlS, M.A. 
 
^ PRINCETON, N. J or 
 
 BX 5203 .P7 1884 
 Pennington, Arthur Robert 
 
 1814-1899. 
 John Wiclif 
 
JOHN WICLIF: 
 
 His Life, Times, and Teaching. 
 
 Rev. ARTHUR ROBERT PENNINGTON, M.A. 
 
 CANON NON-RESIDENTIARY OF LINCOLN ; 
 
 RECTOR OF UTTERBV, LINCOLNSHIRE. 
 AUTHOR OF "the LIFE OF ERASMUS"; "EPOCHS OF THE rAPACY," 
 
 PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 
 NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, W.C. ; 
 
 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.; 
 
 26, ST. George's place, hyde park corner, s.w. 
 
 BRIGHTON ; 135, north street. 
 New York: E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO 
 1884. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 etc. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 " To the memory of one of the greatest of English- 
 men, his country has been singularly and painfully 
 ungrateful. On most of us the dim image looks 
 down, like the portrait of the first of a long line of 
 kings, without personality or expression — he is the 
 first of the Reformers." ^ 
 
 These were the words of the late Professor Shirley, 
 who laboured to impress his fellow-countrymen with 
 a deep conviction of the debt of gratitude which 
 they owe to John Wiclif He has indeed conferred 
 the greatest benefits upon them. He first translated 
 the whole Bible into the language of the English 
 people, and distributed it by means of his " Poor 
 Priests " among all classes. He was, as we shall see, 
 the writer of numberless books and tracts, connected 
 with the most important religious questions of the 
 day, which were designed to aid in the Reformation 
 of the Church and the spiritual and moral regenera- 
 tion of his fellow-countrymen. Through his English 
 works, he became the father of our English prose. While 
 we admit the important part played by the character 
 of Henry VHI., we ought to see that a gradual 
 
 ' " Fasciculi Ziznnionim,'' Introduction, p. xlvi. 
 A 2 
 
iv 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 education of the English people for the Reformation 
 had been advancing beneath the surface of society 
 since Wiclif's time, to which he was instrumental. 
 By means of his works, the principles of the Re- 
 formation were conveyed through Bohemia to 
 Germany, where they assisted Luther in effecting 
 the Reformation associated with him. 
 
 These subjects will be brought forward in the 
 following work. The wonder is that the illustrious 
 man on whom Dr. Shirley pronounced his glowing 
 eulogium should have been comparatively forgotten. 
 Many men are now remembered and honoured by 
 their fellow-countrymen whose services, when com- 
 pared with those of Wiclif, sink into utter insig- 
 nificance. I'he causes have been well stated by 
 Professor Montagu Burrows, of Oxford, in an 
 admirable work, " Wiclif's Place in History," recently 
 pubhshed.^ One of those causes must be looked for 
 in the persistent efforts of jhe janreformed Church to 
 place his opinions under ban and anathema, and to 
 destroy every trace of his work. The members of 
 that Church felt that, if he were successful, their 
 ecclesiastical and doctrinal system must utterly perish. 
 They were only too successful also in identifying the 
 Reformer with the extreme socialistic and revolu- 
 tionary dogmas which, as we shall see in the following 
 work, he would have utterly repudiated. This is 
 only one case out of many in which the followers of 
 a great leader depart from or go beyond the teaching 
 
 ' " Wiclif's Place in History," pp. 8-22. 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 V 
 
 of one to whom they owed their origin. Another 
 cause has been the expression of his opinions in the 
 language of the Scholastic Philosophy, well understood 
 in his day, but obscure in the present day, from 
 which those who do not understand it have obtained 
 matter of accusation against him. 
 
 But the principal causes of the prejudice in the 
 minds of some against him are, that they have formed 
 their estimate of him from the works of his opponents, 
 or from works incorrectly attributed to him ; that 
 they have had at their service only very small portions 
 of his own works ; and that they have judged him 
 by articles unfairly taken from his writings by Synods 
 which were determined to procure his condemnation. 
 Other causes have been the uncertain date of his 
 writings, and the neglect, as we shall see in the 
 following work, to attend to his progressive develop- 
 ment. Dr. Shirley, writing in 1858, states— "Of his 
 original English works, nothing beyond one or two 
 short tracts has seen the light." ^ Of the great mass of 
 Wiclifs Latin works, only one treatise of importance, 
 the "Trialogus," has, up to this year, been printed. 
 This work, published abroad in 1525, eighty years 
 after the invention of printing, and again in 1753, 
 was edited by Dr. Lechler, in 1869, for the Oxford 
 University Press. Many of his other Latin works 
 are buried in manuscript at Vienna. One of the 
 most important of these is his great work, the " Summa 
 in Theologia," containing his celebrated Theory of 
 
 ' "Fasciculi Zizaniorum," p. xlvi. 
 
VI 
 
 JOHN WICI.IF 
 
 Dominion, without which we cannot fully understand 
 his position. Professor Montagu Burrows has insti- 
 tuted a comparison between this work and Hooker's 
 " Ecclesiastical Polity." i After the death of Anne of 
 Bohemia, the wife of Richard II., the works were 
 carried by her attendants to that country for safety. 
 They were also taken to Bohemia by others. Bohemian 
 hands were employed at the beginning of the 
 fifteenth century, when the spirit of Wiclif took a 
 strong hold of the inhabitants of Bohemia, in 
 multiplying copies of them. The Imperial Library 
 at Vienna possesses about forty volumes, consisting 
 chiefly of unprinted Latin works of Wiclif, of which, 
 in some instances, not a copy is to be found in 
 England. They were removed to Vienna on the 
 dissolution of the monasteries in the last centur}' by 
 the Emperor Joseph II. But, without these, it is 
 impossible to form a correct opinion of him as a 
 Reformer. The importance of the contents too, in 
 the case of the Latin works, is far superior to that of 
 the English. Dr. Lechler writes thus:- "Scientifically 
 considered, it is only the Latin works which are of 
 value. Wiclifs philosophical and theological position 
 can only be learned from them with certainty and 
 thoroughness ; while his English writings are chiefly 
 valuable, in part for the history of the English 
 language and literature, and in part for our knowledge 
 of the influence of Wiclif upon the English people." 
 We must not, therefore, be surprised to find that, 
 
 ' "Wiclifs Place in Histoo'," pp. 62-6S. 
 
 '- Lorimer's translation of Lechler's " Life," vol. ii., p. 325. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 vii 
 
 from the operation of these causes, many have formed 
 an erroneous or indistinct conception of the illus- 
 trious Reformer. He is still " without personality or 
 expression." Many admit that he influenced men of 
 his own age and [succeeding generations ; but few 
 understand the nature of that influence. The truth 
 of some'of the preceding observations may be illus- 
 trated by a reference to his bi()graphers. Professor 
 Burrows has given an excellent sketch of them.^ Foxe, 
 in his " Acts and Monuments," while he explained 
 the full nature of the reforms which Wiclif was anxious 
 to promote, gives us generally an incorrect impres- 
 sion of him, because he had only a slight knowledge 
 of his works, which he confuses with those of his 
 followers. He omits, too, all reference to the trans- 
 lation of the Bible. Dr. James wrote a learned 
 "Apology" for Wiclif in 1608, and Lewis his admirable 
 history of " Wiclif's Life and Sufferings" in 1720, 
 both which works may be used with advantage in 
 the present day. We have, however, since they wrote, 
 obtained additional information about Wiclif, so that 
 parts of their works are inaccurate. They do not 
 seem to have been aware of his progressive develop- 
 ment. Dr. James was intensely disgusted with the 
 "garbling" of the Reformer's opinions which had 
 been carried on for many years by his enemies. 
 Wood, in his " History and Antiquities of Oxford," 
 and Jeremy[Collier, the Non-juror, whose " Ecclesias- 
 tical History," published in Queen Anne's reign, has 
 always been a standard authority, have ascribed to 
 ' "Wiclif's Place in History," pp. 2.; -38. 
 
viii 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 him opinions and motives which they have borrowed 
 from the works of his opponents. Lingard not only 
 studiously endeavours to represent Wiclif in an un- 
 favourable point of view, but also quotes his opinions 
 from works which may not have been written by him, 
 and has grossly misrepresented his opinions on the 
 Sacraments. 
 
 We now come to more modern times. Dr. Vaughan 
 deserves the greatest credit for his painstaking works 
 on the " Life of Wiclif" They have been the chief 
 means of bringing his work before the English people. 
 But, since he wrote, additional information as to 
 Wiclif has been obtained, which renders some of his 
 statements inaccurate. Le Bas' " Life " is no longer 
 trustworthy, because it was written before Lechler 
 and others had carefully examined Wiclifite literature. 
 He seems, too, to have wanted that critical spirit 
 which might have enabled him to discover oft-repeated 
 fallacies ; but he has given, on the whole, a fair repre- 
 sentation of the opinions of Wiclif Dean Hook, 
 to whom as a Church historian we are generally so 
 much indebted, as we shall see in the following work, 
 has brought charges against Wiclif which a more 
 careful examination of his writings would have con- 
 vinced him could not be sustained. He has erred 
 in following the Church historian, Milner. The 
 author cannot agree with him in thinking that Milner 
 has written the " Life of Wiclif" with " singular dis- 
 cretion and impartiality." ^ On the contrary, he often 
 
 ' "Lives of the Archbibhops," vol. iii., p. 84. 
 
PKEFACE. 
 
 IX 
 
 allows his prejudice against Wiclif to warp his judg- 
 ment. He also erred, as we shall see, because he 
 was ignorant of his development and of the dates of 
 Wiclif's works. Thus he thought that Wiclif was 
 receding from the position which he once occupied — 
 an entire mistake. Chancellor Massingberd's able 
 account of AViclif, and Milman's excellent sketch, may 
 be criticised because they want information. The 
 former has quoted as Wiclif's, works which he did not 
 write. He would have written a better account of him 
 if he had seen that we must compare statements made 
 in some of his works with those made in others, in 
 order that we may form a correct judgment respecting 
 them. Dean Milman has erred, as the following work 
 will show, in saying that Wiclif " did not offer a new 
 system of doctrine to the religious necessities oi 
 man," and that " from Wiclifism it would be difficult, 
 perhaps impossible, to frame Articles like those of the 
 Church of England."^ They would both have been 
 gainers if the opportunity had been given to them ol 
 exploring the spacious field of Wiclifite literature 
 which is now being gradually unfolded to our view. 
 
 The author does not, then, think that on any 
 one life, or sketch of his life, for the reasons just 
 given, full reliance can be placed. As a large majority 
 have gained their knowledge of him from those works, 
 they have often formed an impression of him in some 
 respects erroneous. But the darkness which sur- 
 rounded him is now passing away. The late Walter 
 
 "Lntin Christianity," vol. vii'., p. 203. 
 
X 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 Waddington Shirley, Regius Professor of Ecclesias- 
 tical History at Oxford, laboured to dispel it. He 
 is chiefly known by a Catalogue of the works of 
 Wiclif which he has ascertained to be genuine, with 
 the dates of the years when they were written, as 
 well as by an admirable preface to the "Fasciculi 
 Zizaniorum," or "John Wiclif's Tares," a collection 
 of documents, the work of T. Netter of Walden, the 
 great opponent of Wiclif. It includes also other 
 matter which makes that title inaccurate. Dr. Bud- 
 densieg, in his able Preface to the Polemical Works, 
 recently published, observes: " Shirley ranks far above 
 all his predecessors in the minuteness of his research 
 and his penetrating judgment, and has left indispen- 
 sable aid to his successors in the province of Wiclif 
 research."" Others have followed in the same depart- 
 ment of research. We thus know very well his genuine 
 works, and the dates of many of them. The " Select 
 English Works" have been printed in accordance with 
 Dr. Shirley's wish, by the University Press at Oxford, 
 and have been edited by Mr. T. Arnold ; and other 
 English works, omitted by Arnold, have been pub- 
 lished by Mr. F. Matthew for the early English 
 Text Society. But, as we shall see in the following 
 work, the greatest credit is due to a foreigner. Dr. 
 Lechler, who has given us an admirable life, the 
 result of the examination of the works of Dr. Shirley 
 and others, and of the unpublished Latin Manuscripts 
 at Vienna. Through the publication of this " Life," 
 
 Page iv. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xi 
 
 we are able to correct some errors in regard to his 
 career. This work has been well translated and 
 edited by Dr. Lorimer.' The Wiclif Society, too, 
 has been founded for the purpose of removing from 
 England the disgrace of having left in manuscript 
 the most important works of her great early Reformer. 
 Among these may be mentioned especially the Latin 
 Manuscripts at Vienna. Other works will follow the 
 Polemical Works just referred to. We cannot expect 
 to add to the information which may thus be obtained 
 any from the archives at Rome, the examination of 
 which is now allowed by the Pope. Dr. Lorimer 
 informs us that they have been examined by com- 
 petent persons, and that they add nothing to our 
 previous knowledge of Wiclif.- 
 
 We shall, therefore, now soon be in a position to 
 do full justice to Wiclif. We shall be able to gaze 
 on his living and breathing image as it is brought 
 before us in his works ; we shall not see the disfigured 
 and distorted lineaments exhibited to us in works 
 not his own, and in those of his opponents. We 
 shall also be able, to use the words of Dr. Buddensieg 
 in the preface to the Polemical Works, " to trace the 
 growth and development of a great nation in the 
 person of its greatest representative." ^ The author 
 hopes that the following work may contribute to the 
 knowledge of Wiclif. He has consulted all the 
 
 ' When there are references in the following work to Lechler's 
 " Life," they are made to the English translation. 
 - Lechler's "Life," vol. ii., p. 320 ; note by Lorimer. 
 ^ Page vi. 
 
xii 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 available sources of information, including the 
 Polemical Works, and has endeavoured to form a 
 just estimate of his character, opinions, and work. 
 Professor Burrows has kindly aided him by examining 
 the proof-sheets. He has taken the place of the 
 late Professor Shirley at Oxford in his efforts to excite 
 an interest in the subject. He can only express 
 his earnest hope that the result of a more careful 
 examination of Wiclif's work this year, when pro- 
 minence will be given to him through the celebration 
 of the Quincentenary of his death, will be a deeper 
 conviction that he was largely instrumental to the 
 Reformation, not only in England but also on the 
 continent of Europe. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Preface, page iii., line \o,Jor "He," read "the latter." 
 Preface, page xii., line 5, /or " He," read "the former." 
 
 Ibid. Vine 7, /or "He," recui " the author." 
 
 •'age 3, lines 14, 15, /or "the imputed righteousness ol 
 
 Christ," read " of the sinner's justification by faith in the 
 
 righteousness of Christ." 
 Page 18, line 5, 7-ead " as we gather." 
 Page 22, line I, /or " in," read " from." 
 
 Page 30, line 9 from end, /or "Arminians," read 
 " Armenians." 
 
 Page 31, line 15 from end, /or "Arminians," read 
 " Armenians." 
 
 Page 33, last line, '/^a(/ "and Haureau, Histoiie de la Philo- 
 sophic Scholastique." 
 
 Page 38, line 10, /or " back," read " reverse." 
 
 Page 46, line 8 from end, read " thought that, as we have 
 said," 
 
 Page 52, last line, for " contest," reat/ " contests." 
 Page 59, line ll, wri/e "saying that." 
 
 Page 64, line 5, /or "John of (ianduno," read "John de 
 • Ganduno." 
 
 Page 98, line 10 from end, /or " had rolled," read "rode." 
 Page 98, line 9 from end, /or "in his triumphal car," read 
 
 " on a little black horse." 
 Page 124, line 13 from end, read "other." ^ 
 Page 129, line 13 from end, /or "John of Ganduno," read 
 
 "John de Ganduno." 
 Page 132, line 7, /or "most," read " must." 
 Page 133, last line, read "* Fascic. ^ Ibid." 
 Page 195, line 15, /or "great doctrine," read "doctrine." 
 Page 195, line 16, for " imputed righteousness," read 
 
 "righteousness." 
 Page 199, line 10 from end, /or " Butt his," read "But this." 
 Page 2Q2, last line, read " Vol. U. p. 455." 
 Page 204, line 6 from end, /or " soon," read " seen." 
 Page 247, line 12, /or " But we have no doubt," read " We 
 
 think, however." 
 Page 304, line I, "obscurity," read "obscurity." 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 xiii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WICLIF IN HIS NATIVE PLACE. 
 
 Difficulty in obtaining information about Wiclif. — His native place. — 
 His family. — Date of his birth. — Probable influence of the scenery 
 of Wycliffe, and the associations connected with the neighbour- 
 hood, upon him. — The Universities the only avenue to distinction 
 open to men of the middle and lower classes. — The number of 
 students at Oxford great.— Wiclif probably educated near his own 
 home. — Sent by his parents to Oxford 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WICLIF IN OXFORD. 
 
 Oxford in the fourteenth centur>\— Wiclif 's probable College.— His 
 studies before the degree of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts. — 
 He was distinguished in logic and dialectics. — His ignorance of 
 Greek. — He applied himself to science. — Oxford distinguished as 
 a school of science in this century. — This distinction probably 
 owing to the disciples of Roger Bacon. — Description of the latter. 
 — Archbishops Bradwardine and Fitz Ralph, and their influence 
 on Wiclif.— His theological studies. — He acquires the title of " the 
 Evangelical Doctor." — His mastery of the Scholastic Philosophy. 
 — Description and influence of it.— He was probably a Fellow of 
 Merton. — Antagonism between Northern and Southern nations. — 
 He did not leave Balliol on account of the poverty of the College. 
 — His work at Oxford.— Appointed Master of Balliol, and after- 
 wards Rector of Fillingham. — His daily life unknown.— Descrip- 
 tion of the Great Plague. — Its probable influence on Wiclif and 
 his work.— Oxford a scene of warfare.— Great conflict on St. 
 Scholastica's Day.— Probable influence of that conflict, of the 
 contests between the nations, and of other feuds, upon Wiclif. — 
 Wiclif proved to have been Warden of Canterbury Hall. — He 
 takes his degree of Doctor in Theology. — His ejection from Canter- 
 bury Hall an era in his life 
 
xiv 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 WicUf becomes a politician. — His knowledge of English history. — 
 Circumstances which led him to bring forward his theory of 
 Dominion founded in grace. — Explanation of it. — Part of the reign 
 of Edward III. very glorious. — The Pope revives the claim of 
 homage and tribute from England. — Edward lays it before Parlia- 
 ment, which resolves that it ought to be resisted.— Wiclif challenged 
 to defend the resolution. — His reply. — Observations upon it. — 
 Wiclif not a Member of Parliament. — Decline of the prosperity of 
 England. — Taxation of clergy.— Wiclif approves of it.— Proposal 
 to exclude ecclesiastics from offices of State. — Wiclif 's paper against 
 the papal collector in England. — Wiclif a Commissioner at Bruges. 
 — Explanation of the religious and political complications of this 
 period. — The Good Parliament. — Wiclif summoned by John of 
 Gaunt to London. — Cited by Bishop Courtenay to appear before 
 the Archbishop at St. Paul's.— His popularity as a preacher in 
 London. — Protected by John of Gaunt. — His appearance at 
 St. Paul's, and the tumult which followed.— The interest in the 
 matter partly political.- The Pope issues Bulls against Wiclif — 
 Delay in the publication of them. — Question, whether the treasure 
 of the kingdom might not be detained, referred to Wiclif. — His 
 answer.— Bulls at length issued.— The Bull received with anger at 
 Oxford. — Wiclif appears at Lambeth before the papal delegates.— 
 Is dismissed. — His conduct considered. — His views on endow- 
 ments.— The trial at Lambeth an era in his life.— End of political 
 period 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 wiclif's "poor priests." 
 
 Other aspects of Wiclif's life during the preceding period.— Rector o» 
 Ludgarshall. — Prebendary of Aust.— Rector of Lutterwortb. — 
 Residence at Oxford.— The latter and Ludgarshall the probable 
 cradle of the Institution of " Poor Priests."— W. Thorpe's testi- 
 mony as to its origin. — Not designed to oppose the parochial 
 clergy, but to supply their deficiencies. — The Mendicants had the 
 same object.— Causes of their failures in it. — Wiclif did not bind 
 the "poor priests" by vows, and was not the founder of a new 
 Order. — These preachers were ordained. — Wiclif's description of 
 the scandalous lives of the clergy. — The plague in 1349 prepared 
 the way for the Institution. — Their position in regard to preferment 
 explained in tract " Why Poor Priests have no Benefice."— Wiclif 
 helped them in their work afterwards by sermons and tracts. — Their 
 actual work. — The nature of their preaching. — Their success. — Oppo- 
 sition to them. — Comparison between them and the early Methodists 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V, 
 wiclif's translation of the bible. 
 
 Wiclif's views as to the paramount authority of the Bible, as to the 
 consent of the Fathers, tradition, and the interpretation of Scrip- 
 ture.— Extracts from his works showing the importance of giving 
 the Scriptures to the people in their own language.— Wiclif proved 
 to have been the first translator of the whole Bible into English. — 
 Forshall and Madden's edition of the Wicllfite versions. — The 
 time when he formed the design of translation. — His preparation 
 for it.— Wiclif translated the New Testament and Hereford the 
 Old Testament.— Date of translation. — John Purvey's new version. 
 — Mistaken for some time for Wiclif 's.— Eagerly sought after. — 
 Wiclif's Bible helped to form our language.— This translation pre- 
 pared the way for the Reformation 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Wiclif's progressive development should be remembered. — He becomes 
 a reformer in doctrine.— His change of views in regard to the 
 Papacy. — His conflict with the Mendicant Orders.— He attacks 
 Transubstantiation at Oxford. — Comparison between him and 
 Luther at Wittenberg. — He is forbidden to expound his views at 
 Oxford.— He appeals to the King. — He publishes his " Wicket." — 
 Insurrection of the peasantry. — His views are proved not to have 
 led to it. — Courtenay is appointed to the primacy. — He summons a 
 council to condemn Wiclif at Blackfriars. — The assembly was dis- 
 turbed by an earthquake. — Theses drawn from Wiclif's writings 
 condemned at it. — A royal ordinance, called a statute, against the 
 preachers was obtained by Courtenay in a surreptitious manner. — 
 The Archbishop attacks Wiclif's followers at Oxford. — Opposition 
 to him. — He obtains a royal warrant against the Wiclifites at 
 Oxford, which was successful. — Consequences of his success. — The 
 preachers were also silenced. — Wiclif was summoned before a synod 
 at Oxford. — No sentence was passed. — Addresses his " Complaint" 
 to the Parliament . 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 WICLIF IN LUTTERWORTH. 
 The interest connected with Lutterworth. — His herculean labours in 
 it, including the writing of a large number of tracts and works 
 against Rome. — The English of the tracts is remarkable. — The 
 transcription of his works. • He was a diligent parish priest at 
 Lutterworth.— His views on the importance of preaching.— His 
 
xvi 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 sermons at Oxford. — His sermons at Lutterworth.— Probably 
 described by Chaucer in his " Good Parson." — Bishop Spencer's 
 crusade was strongly condemned by Wiclif.— He often thought 
 that his life was in danger.— His citation to Rome. — His death. — 
 His character and work 
 
 CHAPTER Vlir. 
 wiclif's opinions. 
 
 A knowledge of the gradual formation of his opinions is indispensable 
 to a just estimate of him.— His views on the following subjects : — 
 Transubstantiation. — The Seven Sacraments. - Baptism. — Con- 
 firmation.— Penance and Absolution. — Confession. — Matrimony. — 
 Celibacy of the clergy.— Ordination.— Extreme Unction. — The 
 person and work of Christ. — Justification by faith.— Works before 
 Justification. — Pelagianism.— Man's moral inability to turn to God. 
 — Invocation of saints. — Worship of the Virgin Mary — Indulgences. 
 — Works of supererogation. — Image worship. — The sacrifice of the 
 Mass.— Purgatory. — Predestination. — Episcopacy.— The Church. — 
 Estimate of his position as a reformer in doctrine. — His mode of 
 opposing error. — Comparison between Wiclif as a Reformer and his 
 predecessors, as well as his successors in the sixteenth century. — 
 Grandeur of his position as a Reformer.— The debt of gratitude 
 which we owe to him.— Burning of his bones and reflections 
 upon it 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 wiclif's influence on the reformation. 
 
 The number of Wiclif's followers.— His influence is proved to have 
 been permanent (i) From the continued circulation of his Bible; 
 
 (2) From the persecutions in the first half of the fifteenth century ; 
 
 (3) From Pecock's " Repressor," a description of which is given; 
 
 (4) From the continued reading of his books at Oxford ; (5) From 
 the statement of Leland in his work " De Scriptoribus Britannicis," 
 corroborated by the circulation of his sermons ; (6) From extracts 
 given by Foxe in his "Acts and Monuments" from episcopal 
 registers as to persecutions in the early part of the sixteenth 
 century.— Wiclif's books in Bohemia.— Description of John Huss 
 as a Reformer.— The connexion between their teaching and the 
 Reformation in Germany. — Gradual education of the people of 
 England for the Reformation 
 
JOHN WICLIF: 
 
 HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND TEACHING. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WICLIF IN HIS NATIVE PLACE. 
 
 Difficulty in obtaining information about Wiclif. — His native 
 place. — His family. — Date of his birth. — Probable influence 
 of the scenery of Wycliffe, and the associations connected 
 with the neighbourhood, upon him. — The Universities the 
 only avenue to distinction open to men of the middle and 
 lower class. — The number of students at Oxford great. — 
 Wiclif probably educated near his own home. — Sent by 
 his parents to Oxford. 
 
 The illustrious Wiclif comes before us only in- 
 distinctly through the mists of ages.} Many facts 
 relating to him are, as we shall see, involved in 
 obscurity, and are still subjects of controversy. 
 Learned men, who have groped painfully in the dark, 
 have, after much labour and patient investigation, 
 
 ' With regard to the orthography of the name Wiclif, there 
 was, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a great variety of 
 ways of spelling it. Vaughan states that the name was written 
 in twenty different forms. As Dr. Lechler observes (vol. i., 
 p. 14"), the question should be settled by documents nearest in 
 date to his own age. Now the oldest document, of an official 
 character, is the Royal Commission of July 26, 1374, nominating 
 him as one of the Commissioners at Bruges, in which he is called 
 " Magister Johannes de Wiclif, Sacrx Theologiae Professor." 
 
 1 
 
2 
 
 JOHN WICMF. 
 
 arrived at a conjecture respecting some details of his 
 personal history, which may be said to be almost a 
 certainty. Even when he comes forward prominently 
 on the world's high stage, the notices of the scenes in 
 which he acted are so meagre and unsatisfactory, that 
 they convey to us only an indistinct impression of his 
 form and features as he moves amid the mighty 
 throng of ecclesiastics, and statesmen, and warriors. 
 We are not admitted to the inner chamber — we can- 
 not trace every step of the process by which this man, 
 with " strength surpassing nature's law," was gradu- 
 ally trained for the great work committed to his 
 charge. We must depend upon his works for much 
 of our information respecting him. We cannot realise 
 him in the intercourse of daily life. There is no 
 record of his friendships, of his enmities, of his con- 
 versations, of the tone of his mind, of his deportment 
 among his companions, of the habitual complexion 
 of his temper, of all those particulars which impart a 
 great charm to biography, and enable us to have a 
 distinct conception of the individual thus brought 
 before us. 
 
 The case is entirely different v.ith such men 
 as Erasmus and Luther. We can follow them 
 from their cradles to their graves. AVe can see the 
 fabrication, the polishing, and the sharpening of the 
 weapon which was to mow down the principalities 
 and powers of darkness. AVe can observe them amid 
 the interesting scenes and occupations of public and 
 private life. We see Erasmus from his earliest years 
 toiling on painfully, amid difficulties which would 
 
wici.ir i\ ins XATivF. place. 3 
 
 have daunted the most determined courage, until he 
 became, by his transcendent abilities, the greatest 
 scholar, and, in some respects, the greatest divine on 
 this side of the Alps. We can see the influences 
 concurring to the formation of that character of in- 
 decision Avhich has tarnished the fame of services 
 rendered to the cause of the Reformation in the early 
 part of his career. In his celebrated letters, the 
 springs of his actions, which would otherwise have 
 been hidden, his hopes and his fears, his faults, his 
 follies, and his virtues, are unveiled to us. We can 
 trace Luther through his severe struggles, in his cell 
 in the Augustinian Prior)', until he obtained a firm 
 grasp of the truth of the imputed righteousness of 
 Christ, and was brought into the " liberty wherewith 
 Christ hath made us free." We can follow him also 
 in those four volumes containing the records of his 
 conversations with his friends, full of " thoughts that 
 breathe, and words that burn," which show us how 
 it was that he obtained his wonderful reputation, and 
 that he was able to emancipate the nations of Europe 
 from the power of their spiritual oppressor. We can 
 trace both of them in their connexion with wise men, 
 and princes, and potentates, some of whom fill a large 
 space in the anxials of England and other European 
 countries. We are thus enabled to form a distinct 
 conception of their character amid the interesting 
 scenes and occupations of active and of private life. 
 But Wiclif comes before us as a kind of impalpable 
 agency. We cannot, therefore, group him with any 
 of those illustrious men who have come down to suc- 
 R 2 
 
 1 
 
4 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 ceeding generations. He stands like a rock, in the 
 desert waste of ocean, in a grand and mysterious 
 loneliness. We trust, however, that we can obtain 
 sufficient information respecting him to show that 
 we owe him a vast debt of gratitude, and to convince 
 us that he was the most illustrious of the Reformers 
 \/ before the Reformation. 
 
 The only information which we have as to the 
 birthplace of Wiclif is given by the celebrated anti- 
 quary, Leland, who, writing 150 years after Wiclif s 
 death, in his notes on the district in Yorkshire in 
 which the parish of Wycliffe is situated, refers to it as 
 the place " from which Wiclif, the heretic, derived his 
 origin."^ He has, however, in his " Itinerary," written 
 as follows : — " It is reported that John Wiclif, the 
 heretic, was born at Spresswell, a small village, a good 
 mile off from Richmond."- The great difficulties in 
 connexion with this statement are that no place 
 bearing that name at that distance from it has been 
 discovered, and that Richmond, too, is ten miles from 
 Wycliffe. Dr. Vaughan fancied that he had succeeded 
 in overcoming them. ^ By inquiry on the spot he 
 seemed to have ascertained that originally the town 
 of Richmond occupied a very different position, 
 " three miles below Wycliffe," and that "close to the 
 river Tees, half a mile from Wyclit^'e," stood a small 
 village or hamlet, called Spresswell. But the place 
 to which he refers as Old Richmond is the ruined 
 
 ' " Collectanea," ii., p. 322; "Fasciculi Zizarioruni,"x., note4. 
 " " Itinerary," v., fol. 114 ; " Fascic. Zizan.," x., 4. 
 ' Athen:rum, 1861, 20th April, p. 529. 
 
WICLIK IN HIS NATIVE PLACL. 
 
 5 
 
 village of Barford, nearly five miles from Wycliffe, 
 evidently more than "a good mile "from the sup- 
 posed site of Spresswell. Such a town as Old Rich- 
 mond has never been known. Traces of the village to 
 which Dr. Vaughan refers, half a mile from the church 
 at ^V'ycliffe, are plainly visible. But though the exact 
 spot may slill be doubtful, it may be stated as a fact 
 that it must have been close by and among the 
 places named, and that the Wycliffes of Wycliffe were 
 the collateral descendants of the illustrious Reformer. 
 
 This family had been settled in the parish, as lords 
 of the manor, from the Norman Conquest till the 
 beginning of the seventeenth century. Afterwards, the 
 property passed, through marriage, to the family of 
 Tunstall. Another branch of the family carried on the 
 name. The great difficulty in the way of associating 
 him with this family is that no notice of him has been 
 found in their records. AVe shall not, however, be 
 surprised that this should be the case, when we 
 remember that they would be anxious to obliterate 
 all trace of their connexion with one who involved 
 his family in deep disgrace by assailing the religion 
 of his forefathers. Perhaps we may trace to their 
 connexion with him their bigoted attachment to the 
 dogmas of Romanism, which, as we learn from old 
 documents, they displayed up to the time of their ex- 
 tinction. Half of the parish joined them in refusing 
 to separate from the Church of Rome, even after the 
 Reformation. ^ This division exists to the present 
 
 ' Lechler, vol. i,, p. 126. 
 
6 
 
 JOHN WICLIK. 
 
 day. The estate is still in the possession of Roman 
 Catholics, who have erected a chapel in place of the 
 private one which they used at the hall. Perhaps 
 they became the more determined to make this dis- 
 play of their devoted and dutiful allegiance to the 
 Church of Rome, in order that they might shield 
 themselves from the vengeance which, if they had 
 been less decided, might have descended on the 
 family of one who had endeavoured to dismantle its 
 towers, and tear up its bulwarks. 
 
 We have some difficulty in settling the date of 
 AViclif's birth. The great majority of writers, follow- 
 ing John Lewis, to whom we are so much indebted 
 for the collection of documents relating to the 
 Reformer, have, without producing any evidence of 
 the truth of the assertion, fixed on the year 1324.^ 
 They have thought that he might have been sixty at 
 the time of his death in 1384, of which last date we 
 have undoubted evidence. But he is constantly 
 using expressions in his writings which show that he 
 may have been of a greater age than Lewis here 
 assigns to him. ^yhen he states in the preface to his 
 sermons, written in 1382, that he had collected them 
 at " the end of his life," he must have been of a 
 greater age than fifty-eight, judging from the natural 
 import of the words, which is that he was nearer the 
 three-score years and ten, the allotted period of 
 human existence. He could not have used them, 
 because paralysis had now laid its hand upon him, 
 
 Lewis, p. i. ; I3aber, p. ii. 
 
WICLIF IN HIS NATlVt, i'LACK. 
 
 7 
 
 and warned him of his approaching departure ; for 
 he shows by his extraordinary literary activity during 
 the months immediately following the publication, 
 that " his eye was not dim, nor his natural strength 
 abated." ' 
 
 The youth of ^^'iclif was passed in a region in the 
 northern district of Yorkshire, consecrated by poetry 
 and song. Sir ^Va]ter Scott has well described, in 
 his poem of •' Rokeby," the beautiful and romantic 
 scenery; the river foaming and flowing 
 
 " Like a steed in frantic fit, 
 That flings the froth from curb and bit ; " 
 
 its tributary streams, which wind like silver threads 
 through the landscape ; the stately woods which fringe 
 their banks ; the shivered cliffs, from which the village 
 of Wycliffe derives its name, all splintered and 
 uneven, and swathed with ivy, 
 
 " That rear their haughty head 
 High o'er the rivers darksome bed ; " ' 
 
 and the deep romantic dale, which the superstition 
 of the neighbourhood has peopled at dead of night 
 with sights and sounds of terror. These scenes, amid 
 which Wiclif wandered and mused in his early boy- 
 hood, may have aided in developing that love of 
 liberty and independence which animated him in 
 
 ' " Fasciculi Zizaniorum," p. .\ii. vSliirley refers here to 
 MS. in the Imperial Library at Vienna. He also states that 
 Dr. Gascoigne says that Wiclif suffered from paralysis during 
 the last two years of his life. — "Theological Dictionary," 
 quoted by Lewis, p. 336. 
 
 ' "Rokeby," canto ii., s. 8. 
 
8 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 mature life to aid his fellow-countrymen in breaking 
 the bonds of their spiritual oppressor. We find 
 many proofs in his writings that the historic traditions 
 relating to stirring events in his native land, which 
 lived in the memory of the population, had produced 
 a deep impression on the susceptible imagination of 
 the boy, and had been the means of animating him 
 with patriotic ardour.^ The stately and magnificent 
 fortress of Barnard Castle, with its massive towers, 
 still majestic even in ruin, overhanging the Tees near 
 Wycliffe, erected by Barnard Balliol, the ancestor ot 
 the short and unfortunate dynasty of that name which 
 succeeded to the crown of Scotland under the patron- 
 age of Edward I. and Edward III., would be con- 
 nected in his mind with the heroic deeds of AVallace 
 and of Bruce, who, unlike their fellow-countrymen, had 
 animated the inhabitants of Scotland to shake off the 
 yoke of the oppressor. Sir Walter Scott has paid a just 
 tribute to the beauty of the scenery, when he says, — 
 
 " Who in that dim wood-glen hath stray'd 
 Yet long'd for Roslin's magic glade? 
 Who, wandering there, hath sought to change 
 Even for that vale so stern and strange, 
 Where Cartland's crags, fantastic rent, 
 Through her green copse like spires are sent ? " 
 
 But, after all, he gives the preference to his native 
 land, because those scenes are associated with the 
 achievements of the heroic Wallace — 
 
 " Vet, Albin, yet the praise be thine, 
 Thy scenes and story to combine ! 
 
 ' Lechler, vol. i., p. i:8. 
 
WICLIF IN HIS NATIVE PLACE. 
 
 9 
 
 Thou bid'st him, who by Roslin strays, 
 List to the deeds of other days ; 
 '.Mid Cartland's crags thou show'st the cave, 
 The refuge of thy champion brave ; 
 Giving each rock its storied tale. 
 Pouring a lay for every dale, 
 Knitting, as with a moral band. 
 Thy native legends with thy land." ' 
 
 Scott was not aware that here also our hearts ought 
 to throb with greater emotion, because here we are 
 reminded of one who laboured to accompHsh a far 
 more glorious deliverance than that of his native land, 
 — of one who strove to emancipate the mind from its 
 thraldom, and to burst the bands of spiritual despotism. 
 
 Wiclif's parents, no doubt, anxious that their son 
 should achieve distinction, decided on sending him 
 to the University. In fact, this was almost the 
 only avenue to it which was open to the middle 
 and lower classes. The aspirants to martial fame 
 were found among the aristocracy. The supply 
 of soldiers was very limited. F"oot soldiers were 
 enlisted for a short and hasty campaign ; but 
 no sooner had they performed the particular ser- 
 vice required of them, than they were disbanded. 
 Even mercenary bands formed a very small part 
 of the population. The monastic establishments, 
 and the various orders of friars, as well as the 
 secular clergy, constantly needed recruits to fill up 
 the gaps which death had made in their ranks. The 
 demand for them was inexhaustible. We must 
 remember, too, that lawyers, physicians, and states- 
 
 ' " Rokeby," canto ii., s. 3. 
 
10 
 
 JOHN' WICLIK. 
 
 men were to be obtained from tlie ranks of the clergy. 
 Many, also, took orders, because they hoped that, 
 though born in a humble position, they might rise, as 
 ecclesiastics, to the pinnacle of worldly greatness, and 
 be remembered long after the generation of mortals 
 around them had passed away. We need not, there- 
 fore, be surprised to hear that young men of the 
 lower class flocked to the Universities, and that the 
 number of students at Oxford, under Henry III., 
 amounted to 30,000, "an exaggeration which," as 
 Hallam observes, "seems to imply that the real 
 number was very great." ^ " But among these," says 
 Anthony Wood, " a company of varlets, who pre- 
 tended to be scholars, shuffled themselves in, and did 
 act much villany in the University by thieving and 
 quarrelling. They lived under no discipline, neither 
 had they tutors ; but only for fashion's sake would 
 sometimes thrust themselves into the schools at 
 ordinary lectures, and when they went to perform any 
 mischief, then would they be accounted scholars, that 
 so they might free themselves from the jurisdiction of 
 the burghers." - " If we allow three varlets to one 
 scholar," as Hallam observes on this passage, " the 
 University will still have been very fully frequented 
 by the latter."' ^ Barbers, too, copyists, writers, and 
 other serving persons in those days were matriculated, 
 and some took part in scholastic exercises. * 
 
 ' Hallam's " Middle Ages," vol. iii., p. 423. 
 
 ^ Wood's "Hist, nnd Antiquities^of 0.\foid," vol. i., p. 206. 
 
 ' Hallam's " Middle Ages," vol. iii., p. 424 (note). 
 
 * Huber's "English Universities," vol. i. , p. 66. 
 
WICLIF IN HIS NATIVE I'LACE. 
 
 Oxford was the University selected by his parents. 
 If we suppose, with Lechler, that 1320 was the date 
 of his birth, we may fix 1335 as the year of his ad- 
 mission to the University.^ We know that in those 
 days boys of an earher age than fifteen went to 
 Oxford and Cambridge. In fact, among the youth 
 who are described as scholars in the middle ages, 
 there was a large number of mere children. AVe find 
 Richard FitzRalph, Archbishop of Armagh, complain- 
 ing that boys under fourteen were admitted to Oxford. 
 They would help to account for the large number of 
 students just referred to. We learn that the Prince of 
 Wales, afterwards Edward V., and his brother, the 
 Duke of York, are described as studying at Oxford at 
 the early age of ten. Tliesc pupils were received into 
 schools, which Wood has called the nurseries of 
 grammarians, till capable of ascending to the higher 
 arts.- We might then suppose that Wiclif went to the 
 University as a boy. But such a supposition is very 
 improbable. His home was in the north of England, 
 a long distance from the University. We cannot 
 suppose, when we take into account the danger and 
 difficulty of travelling in those days, that Wiclif can 
 have been sent to Oxford till he was fifteen or six- 
 teen years of age.-^ We may reflect with gratitude 
 that we do not live in times when travellers were 
 
 ' Lechlei's "Life," vol. i., p. 130. 
 
 - Vaughan's " Life of AViclif," vol. i., p. 217 (note). 
 
 ' Lechler's " Life," vol. i., p. 131 ; and Vaughan, "John de 
 Wyclifife," p. 42, where travelling in England in the fourteenth 
 century is well described. 
 
12 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 stopped and plundered by marauders in the face of 
 day, and that those great roads have been formed 
 which not only facilitate the interchange of the 
 various productions of nature and art, but also re- 
 move national and provincial antipathies, and bind 
 together all the members of the human family. 
 AVhen, therefore, his parents sent him to the Uni- 
 versity, they might naturally suppose that they bade 
 farewell to him for life. In fact, we cannot find any 
 intimation in his works that he ever again visited the 
 home of his fathers, or the scenes associated with the 
 recollections of his childhood. They would, there- 
 fore, if they were prudent and conscientious, wait till 
 his character was formed, and until they had pre- 
 pared him by diligent training to withstand the temp- 
 tations which he was soon to encounter. The barque 
 would otherwise have been launched on a stormy sea 
 in a condition little fitted to withstand the fury of the 
 elements. The consequence would have been that it 
 would soon have been shattered by the violence of 
 the tempest, and would at length have sunk beneath 
 the raging billows. Besides, Wiclif might have 
 gained the rudiments of knowledge at a far less 
 distance from home than the University of Oxford. 
 We know that England was at this time a land of 
 schools. Five hundred religious houses had risen in 
 England during the interval between the Conquest 
 and the reign of John, to which schools were gener- 
 ally annexed. It is evident that, so early as 1138, 
 the school system, as distinguished from the monastic 
 establishments, had extended itself from towns to 
 
WICLIF IN HIS NATIVE PLACE. 
 
 villages. Edward III. speaks of an establishment in 
 the border districts in which two hundred young 
 clerics in his time were gaining the rudiments of 
 knowledge. In some such establishment the northern 
 students generally made so much progress as to 
 appear at the Universities fully qualified to enter on 
 the studies more peculiar to those celebrated seats of 
 learning.^ We may then suppose that Wiclif, having 
 been trained at one of these schools, where his love 
 for learning, and his desire for distinction had been 
 awakened, repaired to Oxford, anxious to slake within 
 its walls the thirst of knowledge and of early 
 ambition. 
 
 ' Robertson's "View of Society," s. i. ; Wood's "Annals," 
 vol. i., pp. 105-107 ; Collier's " Ecclesiastical History," vol. i., 
 P- 497. 
 
JOHN wici.ir, 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WICI.ir IN OXFORD. — 1335-1367. 
 
 Omoi J in the fourteenth centurj'. — Wiclif's probable College. — 
 His studies before the degree of Bachelor of Arts and 
 Master of Arts. — He was distinguished in logic and 
 dialectics. — His ignorance of Greek. — He applied him- 
 self to science. — Oxford distinguished as a school of science 
 in this century.— This distinction probably owing to the 
 disciples of Roger Bacon. — Description of the latter. — 
 Archbishops Bradwardine and FitzRalph, and their influence 
 on Wiciif. — His theological studies. — He acquires the title 
 of "the Evangelical Doctor." — His mastery of the Scho- 
 lastic Philosophy. — Description and influence of it. — He 
 was probably a Fellow of Merton. — Antagonism between 
 Northern and Southern nations. — He did not leave Balliol 
 on account of the poverty of the College. — His work at 
 Oxford. — Appointed Master of Balliol, and afterwards 
 Kector of Fillingham. — His daily life unknown. — Descrip- 
 tion of the Great Plague. — Its probable influence on Wiciif 
 and his work. — Oxford a scene of warfare. — Great conflict 
 on St. Scholastica's Day. — Probable influence of that con- 
 flict, of the contests between the nations, and of other 
 feuds, upon Wiciif. — Wiciif proved to have been ^^'arden 
 of Canterbury Hall. — He takes his degree of Doctor in 
 Theology. — His ejection from Canterbury Hall an era in 
 his life. 
 
 Oxford was not in those days a city of grand build- 
 ings and spacious streets. It was a small town. The 
 only colleges in existence at the time when Wiciif 
 
wicLiF IN oxroun. 
 
 15 
 
 entered the University were Merton, founded in 
 1274; Balliol, 1260-82; Exeter, 1314; Oriel, 1324; 
 and University College in 1332. Instead of the 
 famdus High Street was a narrow road, which served 
 at once for carriages and foot-passengers. On 
 each side of it were high buildings of wood and 
 ])laster, from the doors and windows of which the 
 smoke issued, in the absence of chimneys. Scattered 
 about the town were Halls, in the thirteenth century 
 amounting to 300, every one of which served for the 
 accommodation of 100 boarders.^ We can easily see, 
 therefore, that for this reason the number of students 
 might have been very great. Many poor students 
 herded in those Halls very much like cattle, or lived 
 in holes and corners, now inhabited by the most 
 degraded class of the poor. Mingling with these 
 students, supported on daily alms, or with Anthony 
 AVood's "varlets," was to be seen the gay young 
 noble, with his train of feudal retainers. In one part 
 of the town, in a gloomy apartment, which served as 
 a hall of learning, might be seen, on a rude platform, 
 a learned professor, a Wiclif, or an Ockham, or a 
 Roger Bacon, who was leading the students, in the 
 Ch'.irch Latin of the day, through a maze of scholastic 
 subtleties, before whom were assembled, often in 
 mean attire, the students, on rude benches — an 
 Edmund, who, at the age of twelve, had begged his 
 way from Abingdon, and a Thomas Bradwardine, the 
 Profound Doctor — the former of whom became a 
 
 , ' Ilubei's " English Universities," vol. i., p. 55, 
 
i6 
 
 JOHN' WICLIF. 
 
 Saint of the Church, and both of \Yhom ascended the 
 Archiepiscopal throne of Canterbury. In another 
 part of the town were to be heard the loud shouts 
 of combatants, the clashing of swords, the sound of 
 riven helmets, as the students fought, hand to hand, 
 in the streets. A wild, tumultuous scene it was which 
 O.xford at that time presented to the view. We must 
 admit that there is another side of the picture. This 
 was the golden age of intellectual activity at Oxford. 
 The vast numbers assembled in the University show 
 an ardent desire for learning in the nation.^ But 
 still the sights and sounds just described would, so 
 far as Oxford is concerned, disenchant the most 
 ardent admirer of mediaevalism. Gay cavalcades, 
 pomp and pageantry, were indeed sometimes seen 
 in the streets. But still the splendour which they 
 exhibited was like an occasional gleam of sunshine 
 over the landscape on a dark and stormy day. 
 
 The common idea hitherto has been that Wiclif 
 went first to Queen's College ; that afterwards he was 
 admitted to Merton ; that from Merton he passed to 
 Balliol, where he became Master in 136 1, and that 
 then he became Warden of Canterbury Hall. But 
 the fact of his connexion with three of these 
 colleges has been disputed. The only point on which 
 all parties are agreed is that he was Master of Balliol. 
 If he went to O.xford in 1335, he could not at that 
 time have been a member of Queen's ; for it was not 
 founded till 1340. In fact, we can find no trace in 
 
 ' Huber's " English Universities," vol. i., p. 67. 
 
WICLIF IN OXFORD. 
 
 17 
 
 the bursars' rolls of his residence at Queen's till 1363, 
 when he occupied rooms in the college. We shall see 
 that he continued to do so in various years from 1363 
 to 1380. The question, however, arises, whether it 
 is necessary to suppose him, when he first came to 
 Oxford, to have been a member of any college, 
 and whether we are not guilty of an anachronism in 
 making the members of the University members of 
 colleges. Very few of the large number of students 
 referred to could have obtained admission to a 
 college. Many of them must have been admitted to 
 the 300 halls, hostels, or inns, which were then open 
 for their reception ; and some, we are told, had no 
 lodging but the town wall.i If, however, we are to 
 say that Wiclif was a member of any college, we 
 should certainly give the preference to Balliol- Some 
 connexion must have existed between his family and 
 the college ; for two members of Balliol, the Master, 
 John Hugate, and William Wycliffe, a fellow, held 
 the living of ^Vycliffe in the patronage of his family. 
 Besides, Barnard Castle on the Tees, just described, 
 erected by the ancestor of Sir John de Balliol, the 
 founder of Balliol College, the father of the unfortu- 
 nate king whom Edward I. dethroned, was, as we have 
 seen, in the immediate neighbourhood of Wycliffe. 
 
 We should like very much to know the influences 
 at Oxford which concurred to mould his character, 
 and to develop his abilities. We can, however, only 
 
 ' Church Quarterly Review, for October, 1877, p. 128. 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. i., p. 132 ; and " Fasciculi Zizani- 
 orum," p, 516. 
 
 C 
 
JOHX WICLIF. 
 
 faintly trace them. Mr. Anstey, in his work, 
 " Munimenta Academica," enables us, to a certain 
 extent, to follow him in his daily prosecution of those 
 studies whicli have rendered his name illustrious. To 
 these, we gather from his works, and from other 
 testimony, he devoted all his energies. He must at 
 first have dispensed with books, for they were a costly 
 luxury.^ Besides, as the lectures which he must have 
 attended were chiefly oral, the use of them was not in- 
 dispensable. After he had heard long enough, he was 
 required to repeat what he had learned. We find that 
 occasionally the lecturer might be interrupted by the 
 entrance of the bedel, who has come to summon a 
 scholar before the Chancellor, because he has carried 
 off beer from a taverner, or because he has been one 
 of a party who assaulted a rival hall, or because he 
 has shot at the proctor when he was walking the streets 
 at night. The person against whom this last charge 
 was brought has often been fined for wearing a 
 dagger, and been more than once excommunicated 
 for the grossest outrages. A large body of the 
 students immediately arise, and accompany him to 
 the Chancellor's Commissary, some of whom seem at 
 first determined to effect his liberation. The idea is, 
 however, afterwards abandoned. The air of deter- 
 mination which they wear, the hilts of the daggers in 
 the girdle of the Chancellor's Commissary and the 
 proctors, show that they are quite prepared for the 
 worst, and that they are determined to assert the 
 
 Ansley, Part i. , p. l\xvii. 
 
WICLIK IN OXFORD. 
 
 19 
 
 majesty of the law. The end, however, is that the 
 culprit is convicted, and is banished for ever from 
 the University.^ 
 
 The scholar was obliged to pass four years in the 
 studies which were to precede his Bachelor's degree. 
 These were logic, rhetoric, grammar, and arithmetic. 
 He might be examined in responsions not before one 
 year at the least from the date of his admission to the 
 University.- We are unable to say exactly what were 
 the subjects required for that examination. Pro- 
 bably the student was examined in the elementary 
 parts of the subjects just referred to. ^ He would, 
 after the morning lecture, attend in the schools for the 
 purpose of taking part in public disputations. Then, 
 at the end of four years, came the determination, or 
 the examination for the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 
 No doubt the name "determination" took its rise from 
 the supreme importance attached to the science of 
 logic, the candidate being expected to determine 
 certain questions which were submitted to him. At 
 nine o'clock, on the morning of Ash-Wednesday, the 
 great bell of St. Mary's began to sound, summoning 
 the candidate to come to his determination on that 
 day, or on some day between it and the following 
 Tuesday. The thirty-two schools in School Street 
 are occupied by their several masters, who sit there, 
 
 ' Anstey, Part i., p. Ixxx. 
 - Ibid., Parti., p. Ixxviii. 
 
 ' The word " responsions" derives its name from " w/(j«<3'^>!: 
 f «<?rf/(7«?," an expression which refers to the oral instruction 
 given in the schools. 
 
 * Anstey, Part i., \\ Ixxxii. 
 
 C 2 
 
20 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 awaiting the arrival of the candidates. Six Masters 
 of Arts were required to certify on oath in the con- 
 gregation the fitness of the candidates in knowledge, 
 morals, age, and even stature and personal appear- 
 ance. Four Regent masters were chosen to decide 
 the fitness of their testimony. The scholars and the 
 masters appeared for this purpose before them. If 
 their testimony was accepted, the scholars made oath 
 that they had completed their studies, and had re- 
 sponded in due form. When these preliminaries 
 were completed, the candidates were admitted to 
 determine. There was nothing in those days cor- 
 responding to pluddijg." The chance of failure 
 consisted in the inability to give the required testi- 
 mony, or to take the oath as to past studies. Each 
 candidate was required to stand up before the master 
 whom he had selected for disputation during nine days, 
 from nine o'clock to twelve, and from one to five. 
 The master exerted every effort to pose him. We need 
 hardly say that the whole proceedings were viva voce, 
 written examinations being impossible in those days, 
 from the paucity of writing materials. The only 
 stimulus to exertion would be the disgrace which 
 would attend the student or the applause which 
 would resound through the school, if he were cast 
 down or were successful in the intellectual en- 
 counter.i 
 
 The studies required for the degree of Master of 
 Arts, which might be taken in three years from the 
 
 ' Anstey, Pari i., pp. l-xxxiii.-lxxxvi., and p. 34. 
 
WICLIF IN OXFORD. 
 
 2: 
 
 degree of Bachelor of Arts, were geometry, astronomy, 
 music, and natural, moral, and metaphysicalphilosophy. 
 Then, after seven years' work, the student became a 
 Master of Arts, and might lecture. We see, then, 
 that the course of studies in Mediaeval Oxford, con- 
 sisting to a great extent in disputation and in the 
 display of logical acumen up to the degree of Master 
 of Arts, was calculated not for the cultivation of 
 scholarship, or the formation of a taste for polite 
 letters, but to prepare the student for the higher 
 faculties of law, medicine, and theology, in which he 
 might hope to achieve distinction, when, having 
 finished his preparation, he departed from the Uni- 
 versity, and commenced in right earnest the business 
 of life.i 
 
 We know, not only from his own writings produced 
 in mature life, but also from the testimony of others, 
 that Wiclif greatly distinguished himself in logical and 
 dialectical studies. His contemporary opponent, 
 Knighton, was obliged to confess that " he came 
 to be reckoned inferior to none of his time in 
 philosophy, and incomparable in the performance of 
 school exercises, a man of profound wit, and very 
 strong and powerful in disputations, and who was by 
 the common sort of divines esteemed little less than 
 a god." - We may also ascertain generally the nature 
 of his other studies. We know from his writings that 
 he was ignorant of Greek. We come to this con- 
 clusion not only from the frequent mistakes made in 
 
 ' Anstey, pp. Ixxxvi., Ixxxvii. 
 ' - Knighton " De Eventibus Anglice," Col. 2,644. 
 
JOHN WICLTF. 
 
 the writing of Greek words, but also in the absurd 
 attempts at etymology often to be found in his 
 works.^ The fact was that he and other scholars 
 made use of the Latin tongue as their scientific organ, 
 and obtained tlieir knowledge of Christian and 
 classical literature in Greek only through the medium 
 of Latin translations. As early, indeed, as the 
 thirteenth century the sun of Greek literature had 
 risen above the horizon, and was illumining with a 
 ruddy glow the summit of the western hills ; for the 
 illustrious Emperor, Frederick IL, established uni- 
 versities, which, if they had continued to flourish, 
 might have hastened on the glorious era of Italian art 
 and literature." Greek was spoken in many parts of 
 his kingdom. If he had lived and prospered, the 
 revival of the study of the Greek language might 
 have taken place in the thirteenth century. But 
 afterwards we learn that in Italy, even Petrarch, " the 
 Italian songster of Laura and of love," knew com- 
 paratively little of it. We find him complaining that 
 the barbarians, i.e., the French and the Germans, 
 had not heard the name of Homer, the immortal 
 bard of antiquity. We find that not before the end 
 of the fourteenth century, the sun, never again to 
 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. i., pp. 135 and 14S. We have, for 
 instance, the mis-written word apocrisus,'" instead of " a/>c- 
 cryphus." He supposes "j" to have been written for "y." 
 It is then remarked that the word comes from " apo" de") 
 and "crish" (" Scxre/it/zi because the subject is the secrets of 
 the Church. " De Veritate," &c., c. ii. 
 
 ^ Smyth's "Lectures on Modern History," c. ix. ; and my 
 •'Life of Erasmus," pp. 7, 9. 
 
WICMF IN OXFORD. 
 
 23 
 
 be eclipsed, began to pour a flood of light over the 
 nations of Europe. A multitude of scholars, when 
 they saw the Turks surrounding Constantinople, 
 afraid of the horrors impending over the city, 
 snatched some manuscripts from the Byzantine 
 libraries, and hastened over the sea to a country 
 where they might devote all their energies to the 
 prosecution of their studies. The pupils of these 
 men in Italy were soon capable of transferring to 
 England and other countries the knowledge which 
 they had acquired for themselves. At the end of the 
 fifteenth century Greek began to be really studied 
 at Oxford. W. Grocyn, Latimer, Linacre, and 
 Erasmus, formed a little band who, having gained in 
 the manner just referred to a knowledge of Greek, 
 were labouring to kindle in the minds of their fellow- 
 countrymen an enthusiasm for those authors who 
 have shed an undying glory upon the land of their 
 birth.^ 
 
 We see then that Wiclif could not, from the want 
 of instructors at Oxford, have applied himself to the 
 study of Greek literature. Perhaps he would have 
 had no love for that department of polite learning. 
 We come to this conclusion, because, as has been 
 well said, he refers to science "with evident predi- 
 lection. At one time it is arithmetic or geometry 
 which must do him service in illustrating certain 
 truths and relations ; at another time it is physical 
 and chemical laws, or facts of optics, or acoustics, 
 
 Sec niy " Life of Krasmus," p. 34, 
 
24 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 which he applies to illuminate moral and religious 
 truths." ^ Thus, in the " Trialogus," he gives an 
 account of the Ptolemaic system of the universe. In 
 a sermon he illustrates and explains the text of St. 
 James i. 23, by speaking of " perspective," or sight. 
 "There are three manners of bodily sight — the first 
 sight is even sight, as a man seeth a thing that is 
 before him ; the second sight is reflected when it is 
 turned again by a mirror ; the third sight is reflexed 
 {i.e., refracted), when it cometh by diverse means. 
 Thus, men see a penny in a dish by pouring in of 
 water, and else not ; and by this sight men can see 
 a very little thing at a great distance." - 
 
 We have a proof, not only in the case of Wiclif, 
 but also in the case of Thomas Bradwardine, of whom 
 I shall speak directly, distinguished as a mathema- 
 tician and astronomer ; of John Estwood, famous as 
 an astronomer ; and William Rede, afterwards Bishop 
 of Chichester, a celebrated mathematician, both, about 
 1360, members of Merton College, that Oxford was, 
 during the first half of the fourteenth century, dis- 
 tinguished for its zeal for the study of mathematical, 
 astronomical, and physical science. We may con- 
 jecture that some disciples of Roger Bacon, who 
 lived for some time in Oxford, and died in 1292, 
 gave this impulse to the studies of Wiclif and his con- 
 
 ' Lechlei's "Life," vol. i., p. 138. 
 
 * "Select English Works," Arnold, vol. ii., pp. 299, 300 
 see also the references given by Lechler, vol. i., pp. 148, 149, 
 to the Vienna MS. 
 
 ^ Lewi?, " Life of Wiclif," p. 2. 
 
WICLIF IN OXFORD. 
 
 25 
 
 temporaries.^ This distinguished man was remark- 
 able for his zeal in mathematical and physical studies. 
 He knew every branch of physical science — 
 astronomy, optics, mechanics, and chemistry. At 
 Paris his great abilities procured for him the title of 
 the Wonderful Doctor. He had, in an unguarded 
 moment, yielded to the solicitations of the celebrated 
 Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, and had become a 
 member of the Franciscan body. The Franciscans 
 were closely watched by their rivals, the Dominicans. 
 Feeling sure that the latter would triumph in the 
 heresy of one who, both parties were persuaded, had 
 a compact with the devil, because they imagined that 
 from him alone he could have obtained his amazing 
 knowledge and power to perform his wonderful works, 
 and that they might bring him before the Inquisition, 
 of which they were masters, they arraigned him 
 before the General of their Order. The result was 
 that he was cast into a dungeon for fifteen years, and 
 was liberated from it only one year before his death. 
 Such was the fate of a man who had anticipated some 
 of the discoveries of a later age ; who had detected 
 the error in the Julian year ; who, three centuries 
 before the time, had proposed to correct the calendar 
 by Papal authority ; who had discovered the prin- 
 ciple of the telescope, the refraction of light, and the 
 cause of the rainbow ; who had nearly invented gun- 
 powder ; who had sought the philosopher's stone, 
 and had endeavoured to transmute the baser metals 
 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. i., p. 139. 
 
26 
 
 JOHN' WICIJF. 
 
 into gold ; who had delivered wonderful predictions 
 about mounting in the air without wings, and had 
 spoken about wonderful carriages, travelling at an 
 enormous speed without the aid of horses. The 
 charge has been brought against his illustrious name- 
 sake, Lord Bacon, founded on a coincidence of 
 thought and expression in the writings of both of 
 them, that he had borrowed from him the principles 
 of that science which has rendered his name illus- 
 trious. We are persuaded that this apparent 
 plagiarism was no more than the sympathy of minds 
 cast in the same mould, and working on the same 
 subjects. We may certainly indulge the pleasing 
 fancy that, through his disciples, he trained, by means 
 of mathematical science, those wonderful powers of 
 reasoning which not only in Wiclif's sermons, but 
 also in his works, elaborated arguments, serving to 
 show the unfounded claims of the Church of Rome 
 on the undivided allegiance of Christendom. ^ 
 
 Wiclif passed on from science to theology. We 
 are satisfied that he devoted himself with ardour to 
 the study of it, not because he hoped, by means of it, 
 to rise to the highest dignities in Church or State, 
 but because, as we learn occasionally from his writings, 
 he wished to apply the whole force of his mind to the 
 examination of the most important questions which 
 can occupy the attention of a rational and immortal 
 
 ' Hallam's " Middle Ages," vol. iii., p. 432 (note) ; Hallam's 
 "Introduction to the Literature of Europe," vol. i., p. 155 ; 
 and Milman's " Historj' of Latin Christianity," vol. ix., 
 pp. IS3-I59- 
 
WICLIF INT OXFORD. 
 
 being. We have no certain evidence as to his 
 teachers at Oxford. We cannot suppose that he 
 attended the theological lectures delivered at Merton 
 College by the celebrated Thomas Bradwardine, after- 
 wards Archbishop of Canterbury ; for about the time 
 when Wiclif came to Oxford Bradwardine must have 
 left the University to take up his abode in London in 
 the princely residence of Richard de Bury, Bishop of 
 Durham, and Chancellor to Edward III., who was a 
 great lover of books and patron of learned men, and 
 who wished to have his assistance in the arrangement 
 of his library. We may, however, believe that his 
 teaching had considerable influence upon Wiclif; for 
 we find that though he could not accept all his dog- 
 matic views, yet that he always speaks of him in 
 terms of the highest commendation.^ He had 
 read, we may suppose, that remarkable work of 
 Bradwardine against Pelagius, a folio of more 
 than 900 pages, the result of his lectures at Oxford, 
 which was received with unbounded applause by 
 learned men throughout Christendom, and pro- 
 cured for him the title of Doctor Profundus. He 
 must have learned from this work the great truth of 
 the free grace of God as the only source of human 
 salvation, which, as we shall sec, he afterwards main- 
 tained, as well as the doctrine of predestination. 
 We have in it the first intimation that, in addition to 
 erroneous practice, of which the shameless profligacy 
 of the Court of Avignon was at that time a witness 
 to the nations, the Popes had been guilty of erroneous 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. i., p. 89; and vol. ii., p. 60. 
 
28 
 
 John wiclif. 
 
 doctrine, and that they had corrupted the faith once 
 delivered unto the saints. He labours to show that it 
 is utterly impossible that the performance of any 
 good actions can render it meet and equitable that 
 God should bestow upon us saving grace, and that our 
 works cannot prove our passport to glory, honour, and 
 immortality. His mathematical skill enabled him to 
 establish this posiuon by an elaborate train of argu- 
 ment in which he was led to express strong views on 
 the subject of predestination. He has always been a 
 great favourite with deep thinkers, and especially 
 with the Calvinistic divines of our Church. His viev/s 
 on the principal subject of his learned book are the 
 same as those expressed in the thirteenth Article of 
 our Church, that " works done before the grace of 
 Christ, and the Inspiration of his Spirit, are not 
 pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith 
 in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to 
 receive grace, or (as the school-authors say) deserve 
 grace of congruity ; yea rather, for that they are not 
 done as God hath willed and commanded them to be 
 done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin."i 
 Wiclif would also esteem Bradwardine on account 
 of those saintly virtues for which he was pre- 
 eminendy distinguished. He would admire him on 
 account of that union of contemplation and of 
 action which was a distinguishing feature in his 
 character. He would see him at the call of duty, 
 leaving his beloved studies when he was employing 
 
 ' Dean Hook's "Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbur)-," 
 vol. iv., pp. 87-91. 
 
WICLIF IN OXFORD. 
 
 29 
 
 his transcendent abilities in the examination of some 
 abstruse question, in order that he might minister to 
 the wants of the distressed and the perishing, or 
 through active work promote the divine glory in 
 the salvation of his ignorant and perishing fellow- 
 creatures.^ He might have had that noble example 
 before him, when afterwards, during the last years ot 
 his life he was writing, one after another, those 
 works which bear the impress of his genius, 
 while he was engaged in the active discharge of 
 his duties as a parish priest at Ludgarshall and 
 Lutterworth, and was organising and sending forth 
 that band of " poor priests," that holy brotherhood, 
 whose object was to make the moral wilderness 
 around them rejoice and blossom as the rose. He^ 
 would also have traced his career through France, 
 when Bradwardine accompanied Edward III. as his 
 chaplain, from the naval victory of Sluys to the glorious 
 field of Crecy; and he would have admired and sought 
 to imitate that courage blended with gentleness, 
 affection, and firmness, which led him to rebuke 
 Edward for that vice which has left a dark stain upon 
 his character, to allay the fierceness of his anger, and 
 to moderate his transports when he was flushed with 
 victory ; and that saintliness which gave him so 
 much influence with the army that it was generally 
 said that it was owing as much to the prayers of the 
 churchman as to the genius of the king that they had 
 gained that victory which has shed an imperishable 
 glory on the arms of our country. He would have 
 ' Dean Hook's " Lives of the Archbishops," vol. iv., p. 92. 
 
30 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 admired also that Christian heroism, which led him, 
 obedient to the call of duty, immediately after his con- 
 secration to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, to hasten 
 to England, then stricken with the plague, that he might 
 show the clergy by his own example, that they ought to 
 minister to the sick and dying around them, and Hft up 
 before the sufferers the symbol of their redemption ; 
 and he would, with the nation, have been deeply grieved 
 when he heard that the wise, the learned, the good, the 
 gentle archbishop, v.hose archiepiscopate would, he 
 might have hoped, have been fruitful in blessings to 
 the Church, monarch, and people, had fallen a victim 
 to the plague, and had been consigned to his last 
 resting-place in the Cathedral Church of Canterbury.^ 
 As Bradwardine died in 1349, we may believe that 
 these influences were at work upon the mind of 
 AViclif during his career as a student at Oxford. V\'e 
 may also suppose that he attended the lectures of the 
 celebrated Richard Fitz Ralph, the Chancellor of the 
 University, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, who 
 was lecturing on theology at Oxford, about 1340. 
 He cites very frequently the work which he wrote 
 against the errors of the Arminians.- We find that 
 he followed the course prescribed by the University, 
 attending, first of all, lectures on the Bible, and after- 
 wards lectures on the scholastic philosophy. He 
 ^^^added to this knowledge an acquaintance with the 
 civil and the canon law, which always in those days 
 
 ' Dean Hook's "Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbur)-," 
 vol. iv., pp. 97-110. 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. i,, p. 76. 
 
WICLIK IN OXFORD. 
 
 31 
 
 formed a very important part of the education of a 
 scholar and divine, as well as the municipal laws and 
 customs of his country. He also carefully read 
 the primitive Christian writers, and chiefly four of 
 the most distinguished fathers of the Church, St. 
 Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, and St. Gregory.^ 
 But to the scholastic philosophy he devoted himself 
 with intense application. So great was his diligence, 
 that he committed to memory many of the more 
 intricate portions of Aristotle, of whom in connexion 
 with this philosophy I shall speak directly." He 
 must have obtained a knowledge of the philosophy 
 from the works at that time chiefly read at Oxford, 
 the " Summa " of Thomas Aquinas, the writings of 
 Bishop Robert Grosseteste, of Lincoln, and the works 
 of Archbishop FitzRalph (Armacanus) against the 
 errors of the Arminians.' So great was the impor- 
 tance attached to this philosophy, that bachelors of 
 theology of the lowest degree were allowed to give 
 lectures on the Bible; whereas bachelors of the 
 middle and highest degree, and doctors of Theology 
 only were allowed to give lectures on the Sentences of 
 Peter the Lombard. The latter would have thought 
 it beneath their dignity to give lectures on Holy 
 Scripture. "The graduate," says Roger Bacon, 
 " who reads (or lectures on) the text of Scripture is 
 compelled to give way to the reader of the Sentences, 
 who everywhere enjoys honour or precedence. He 
 who reads the Sentences has the choice of his 
 
 ' Lewis's " Life of Wiclif," pp. 2, 3. ' Ibid,, p. 2, 
 
 Lcchlci's " Life,'" vol. i., p. 14J. 
 
32 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 hour, and ample entertainment among the religious 
 orders. He who reads the Bible is destitute of 
 those advantages, and sues, like a mendicant, to 
 the reader of the Sentences, for the use of such 
 hour as it may please him to grant. He who reads 
 the Sums of Divinity, is everywhere allowed to hold 
 disputations, and is venerated as master ; he who 
 only reads the text is not permitted to dispute at all, 
 which is absurd." ^ Such is the language of Friar 
 Bacon in the thirteenth century. That of John of 
 Salisbury in the twelfth century is still stronger. He 
 tells us that the scriptural teachers were not only 
 rejected as philosophers, but unwillingly endured as 
 clergymen — nay, were scarcely acknowledged to be 
 men. They became objects of derision, and were 
 termed the bullocks of Abraham or the asses of 
 Balaam."^ AViclif, however, had the courage to 
 \^ disregard the prevailing disesteem in which the 
 Scriptures were held, and associated the study of them 
 so closely with the ardent pursuit of the scholastic 
 philosophy, that he was distinguished among his 
 contemporaries by the high and honourable title of 
 the Evangelical Doctor. 
 
 He was the last giant among those schoolmen who 
 have left the impress of their amazing genius on the 
 theology of the age in which they lived. The tomes 
 of scholastic philosophy have been well compared to 
 the pyramids which excite the amazement of the 
 
 ' Mosheim's " Eccl. Hist.," Cent, xii., Part ii. c. 3, n. 9. 
 Le Bas' "Life of Wiclif," p. 96, quoted from Turner's 
 "History of England," vol. i., p. 50S. 
 
WICLIF IN OXrOKD. 
 
 33 
 
 traveller, as their gigantic and massive forms rise 
 before him from the sands of Egypt, when he thinks 
 that they have been made for no conceivable purpose, 
 and observes the enormous waste of power employed 
 in the construction of them. The schoolmen, 
 Albertus, Aquinas, Bonaventura, Ockham, have long 
 since been consigned to oblivion. The dust on 
 their ponderous tomes reminds us of grass growing 
 in lonely and desolate courts in ruined cities, which 
 once echoed the voice of pleasure. They bring 
 before us a time when they were " the observed of all 
 observers," and when multitudes at our Universities 
 engaged in heated discussions on the questions 
 brought forward in their pages, partly from the love 
 of contention implanted in the human breast, partly 
 from their desire of pushing their inquiries into 
 mysterious questions of metaphysics or theology 
 which surpass the comprehension of our limited 
 faculties. We should study their works if we take 
 pleasure in pugilistic exercises of reasoning, or the 
 efforts of men of gigantic intellect. ^ 
 
 We must, however, admit with Dr. Shirley that 
 " they give evidence of a precision of thought and 
 subtlety of analysis which may challenge comparison 
 with the best works of the best ages of antiquity." 
 They were constantly engaged in discussions on such 
 
 ' For an account of the Scholastic Philosophy, see Dean 
 Milnian's "Latin Christianity," vol. ix.,pp. 118-152; liallam's 
 " Middle Ages," vol. iii., pp. 426-432; and ".Scholasticism," 
 an e.xcellent lecture before the University of Oxford, by the late 
 Professor Shirley. 
 
 P 
 
34 
 
 JOHN WICIJ!- 
 
 questions as the distinction between the Eternal and 
 the Temporal, the Infinite and the Finite. They 
 endeavoured to prove that, while there is nothing 
 intermediate between the higher intelligence of men 
 and the intelligence of God, there is an eternal dis- 
 tinction between them ; and that the former cannot 
 be said to be divine, though it issues from the latter. 
 They are constantly producing the same eternal 
 problems. They would separate the immaterial part 
 of man from humanity and unite him with the (Jod- 
 head ; they would then bring down the Godhead into 
 the world till the distinction disappears. They arc 
 constantly converting thoughts into things and things 
 into thoughts ; and deluding themselves with the 
 imagination that the Finite can grasp Infinity. Un- 
 like the Latin Fathers, from whom they borrowed 
 their premises, as we may see on referring to the 
 lectures of Peter the Lombard, the great scholastic 
 manual at Oxford in the time of Wiclif, they did not 
 dwell on the facts of faith, but on the mode of the 
 Divine operations. For this reason Scholastic The- 
 ology would be a more correct expression than 
 Scholastic Philosophy. The schoolmen availed 
 themselves of the logic of Aristotle in the prosecu- 
 tion of their inquiries. AVhen they adopted his 
 philosophy also, a loud cry was raised by the cham- 
 pions of Orthodoxy, not because they had taken a 
 heathen as their ally, but because they had obtained 
 information about his views from the Arabian com- 
 mentaries upon them, ^^■hen, before the close of the 
 thirteenth century, the genuine Aristotle was made 
 
WICI-Il- IN OXIORD. 
 
 35 
 
 known through the Byzantine exiles, the Popes with- 
 drew their opposition to the illustrious Grecian 
 philosopher. They had gathered also from the works 
 of the Fathers much j^hilosophy marked with Pla- 
 tonic influences. 
 
 The wonder is that the age of chivalry, the age 
 which produced our cathedrals, remarkable for their 
 elaborate adornment, and the chaste beauty of their 
 architecture, the age also of romance writers of 
 poetry and song, should have been fertile also in 
 men who took delight in the dry and abstract dis- 
 ([uisitions which have just come before our notice. 
 Our woixder is increased when we see them busy 
 with a religion not taught by authority, and em- 
 jtloying the aid of a heathen in their philosophical 
 investigations. England is doubtless an instance 
 of the truth of the assertion that all nations must 
 pass through a philosophical training before they 
 can obtain a high place in the republic of letters. 
 These mental exercises were the cloud, small as a 
 man's hand, the forerunner of the storm which was 
 to shatter the imposing structure of Romanism. 
 This prodigious Avaste of labour on subjects purely 
 speculative was a sign that the mind was beginning 
 to emancipate itself from its thraldom. It would 
 not, indeed, altogether cast off its fetters ; it set 
 bounds to its investigations. Those gigantic intel- 
 lects probably engaged in these useless disquisitions 
 because they would not lay themselves open to the 
 charge of heresy, or come into collision with the 
 authority of the dominant Church. 'We can, how- 
 u 2 
 
36 
 
 JOHN WICLU". 
 
 e\ er, see that this labour was not in vain ; for it 
 served to keep alive, even in servitude itself, the 
 desire for a more exalted freedom. 
 
 ^Ve have thus seen the course of preparation for his 
 future work through which Wiclif must have passed 
 during his career as a student at Oxford. He was, as 
 I have already observed, the last distinguished man 
 from that University whom the system brought to the 
 front ; the worthy representative of such men as 
 Duns Scotus, Ockham, and Grosseteste, who have 
 shed a glory on the annals of scholasticism. AVe can 
 easily see the disadvantage to which this training ex- 
 posed him. His meaning is often enveloped in a 
 cloud of metaphysical language, intelligible in his day, 
 which it is now very difficult to penetrate. Thus he 
 has become open to misconstruction and misrepre- 
 sentation. This was, however, an evil of little im- 
 portance when compared with the great advantages 
 conferred by this system of training. We can see 
 that as the foremost wrestler in the intellectual arena, 
 the most distinguished champion of that scholastic 
 ])hilosophy which, at this time, reigned supreme in 
 Oxford, he would have great influence with his con- 
 temporaries, when, first of all, he came forward to 
 oppose the abuses and corruptions of the Papacy, and 
 afterwards, when he laboured to show that the 
 dogmas of the Church of Rome were condemned 
 alike by reason and revelation. 
 
 Enough has already been said to show that this 
 system would, by developing his intellectual powers, 
 prepare him directly for his work as a Reformer. We 
 
WICLIF IX OXFORD. 
 
 37 
 
 must remember, too, that the disputations between the 
 professor and the candidate in the scholastic philo- 
 sophy, already described, would bring into play those 
 faculties of readiness, memorj-, and invention which 
 are invaluable to the preacher or the public orator. 
 As Professor Brewer observes ^ : — " Out of the ranks 
 of the schoolmen came forth the most popular 
 preachers, the most unceasing opponents of the 
 Papacy. Under their training were educated the 
 precursors of the Reformation, as well as the ablest-of 
 the Reformers themselves. The very men who, in later 
 times, were launching the severest sarcasms against 
 the schoolmen, had been trained to their new freedom 
 and vigour of mind by men they had learned to 
 despise. The unreservedness with which the school- 
 men ranged through every region of divinity and 
 metaphysics, led in turn to equal freedom of dis- 
 cussion, equal unreservedness in political discussion." 
 Thus, then, the scholastic philosophy ruled for two 
 centuries the intellect of those restless times, con-' 
 stantly improving its system, extending its influence, 
 and drawing into its service some of the highest 
 minds, including Wiclifs, which Christendom has 
 ever produced. He was, however, before the end of 
 his days, impressed with the conviction, generally 
 fixed in men's minds in the following century, that 
 other modes of thought must be adopted, for disputes 
 had hitherto turned on points involving absurdity and 
 contradiction, inscrutable by human comprehension. 
 
 • Preface to the "Monumenta Franciscana," or " Memorials 
 of the Franciscans in England," in the Rolls Series, p. lix. 
 
38 
 
 jonx wici.ir. 
 
 The schoolmen had not solved one problem, or added 
 one truth to the domain of philosophy. 
 
 We might suppose that Wiclif's residence at Balliol 
 had been continuous, if we had not been confronted 
 with the entry on the Compotus of the Bursar in 
 1356, that John Wiclif was steward of the week at 
 Merton, whicli implies, as Professor Shirley observes, 
 that he was a Fellow of considerable standing.^ A 
 catalogue of the Fellows of Merton, written by one 
 T. Roberts, who died in 1446, on the back side of anti- 
 quated parchment rolls, has been discovered, from 
 which it appears that Wiclif was a Fellow in the 
 thirty-third year of Edward III.-' Professor Shirley, 
 imagining that it was most unlikely. that the Fellows 
 of Balliol would elect a Fellow of another college to 
 the Mastership, has attempted to prove that the refer- 
 ence here is to another John Wiclif.'' Presumptive 
 evidence against that view would be that Middle- 
 worth, who, it appears from the rolls, was with him at 
 Merton, was afterwards with him at Queen's, and 
 that Aston, Brightwell, James, and Rugge, also given 
 in them, were leaders of the Lollard movement, and 
 followers of Wiclif. Dr. Lorimer also thinks that Wiclif 
 was always a member of Balliol.^ The reason given 
 is the feud between the northern and southern 
 " nations " in the University. It is a well-known fact 
 that the universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, 
 
 ' " Fascic. Zizan.," p. 514. 
 
 Church Quarterly Review iox Ociohex, 1877, p. 127. 
 ^ "Fascic. Zizan.," pp. 513-528. 
 * Lorimer's note on Lechler, vol. i., pp. 185-190. 
 
WICI.TF IX OXFORD. 
 
 39 
 
 divided themselves into nations, according to the 
 countries to which their different members belonged. 
 In Oxford, however, there were only two such nations, 
 the northern and southern {Boreah's et Aiistrales). 
 I'he first included the Scots, the second the Irish and 
 the ^Velsh. Each nation had its President, with the 
 title of Procurator, from wliich tlie word Proctor 
 derives its origin.^ So fierce was tlie antagonism 
 between these two parties, that they occasionally dis- 
 turbed the public peace by their unseemly violence. 
 Wood informs us that on one occasion, on the elec- 
 tion of a Chancellor, the southern party forced their 
 way into St. Mary's Church, kicking, and cudgelling, 
 and severely wounding those of the northern party 
 opposed to the Chancellor, from Merton College, 
 whom the former had selected.-- Merton and Balliol 
 were the headquarters of these two great antagonistic 
 factions during the fourteenth century. We have a 
 singular collateral confirmation of the claim of Balliol 
 to be considered the headquarters of the northern 
 interest in tlie University, in the fact that the Warden 
 of Durham College, Oxford, appointed by the Prior 
 of the monastery of Durham, had an effective voice in 
 tlie confirmation of the election or removal of the 
 Master of Balliol, and in the confirmation of all Fellows 
 who were elected to certain theological fellowships. 
 Durham college was founded by Edward III., in fulfil- 
 ment of a vow made on the eve of his battle with 
 the Scots at Halidon Hill, near Berwick. He 
 
 ' Iluber's "English Universities," vol. i., pp. 78, 79. 
 
 - Wood's " History and Antiquities of Oxford," vol. i., p. 44.S, 
 
40 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 acted under the advice of his former tutor, Richard 
 de Bury, Bishop of Durham, and Chancellor of the 
 Kingdom, whose object was to strengthen the 
 interest of north-country scholars in the University. 
 The consent of Balliol College to this unusual 
 arrangement, apparently very objectionable, designed 
 to give a prestige to the younger institution, affords 
 evidence of the claim above referred to, and of the 
 zeal of that ancient House in behalf of the north- 
 country interest in the University. 
 
 Dr. Lorimer has argued that, on account of this 
 antagonism, it was most unlikely that a Balliol man 
 could obtain admission to Merton College.' We 
 must, however, remember that some very eminent 
 men, including Ockham and Bradwardine," who were 
 distinguished for their knowledge of scholastic philo- 
 sophy, had been members of Merton. v Ockham was 
 called Doctor Singularis, and had an Euicpean re- 
 ])utation. Now Wiclif, after a residence of some time 
 in the University, had displayed that love of learning, 
 that pre-eminent ability, and that dialectic skill, which 
 have rendered his name illustrious. We have seen 
 the ardour with which the study of the Scholastic 
 Philosophy was prosecuted. Great honours were 
 conferred on the schoolmen. A general returning, 
 crowned with laurels, from some well-fought battle- 
 field, was not received with greater acclamations than 
 the man who had often come off victori ^'s from the 
 combats in the schools, that mimic battle-gi :nd. We 
 
 ' Lechler's " Life," note by Lorimer, vol. i., pp. 189, 190, 
 Lewis, p. 2. 
 
WICLIF IN OXFORD. 
 
 41 
 
 can easily understand, therefore, that the Fellows ot 
 Merton would be glad to add Wiclif to the list of 
 their distinguished members, even though he belonged 
 to a rival and opposed college, and that the Fellows 
 of Balliol would be glad to elect him to a fellowship 
 if they had not elected him before he left them for 
 Merton, in order that, in accordance with the require- 
 ments not only of the original statutes of Devorguilla, 
 the widow of Sir John de Balliol, passed in 1282, but 
 also of Sir Philip de Somerville, added in 1340 to 
 those of Devorguilla, they might elect him to the 
 Mastership.^ The election of such a man would shed 
 a lustre on the respective colleges. We find, in fact, 
 from Anthony Wood that, even in the case of far 
 less distinguished men than AViclif, the Fellows of 
 Balliol did not confine themselves to their own 
 college. Of the thirty-three Masters from 1282 to 
 1637, only two are stated to have been members of 
 Balliol. Seven were of other colleges, and twenty- 
 four have no college appended to their names. We 
 may assert that, as Wood gives all ascertainable in- 
 formation, they were members of no college. - 
 
 We cannot indeed suppose with Dr. Lechler that 
 Wiclif had been obliged to leave Balliol for Merton, 
 
 ' Lechler, v. i., p. 186, Loiimer's note. The statutes of 
 De Somerville provided that nothing was to be done contrary 
 to the provisions of the former statutes. AYe find, indeed, in 
 the new statutes no restriction as to the choice of a Master. 
 The reason, however, was that this provision had been clearly 
 made in the fundamental statutes. 
 
 ^ Wood's " History of the Antiquities of the Colleges and 
 Halls in Oxford," pp. 81-84. 
 
42 
 
 JOHN WICI.IF. 
 
 because, on account of the poverty of the college, 
 which prevented the students from prosecuting their 
 studies, and obliged them to have recourse to trade 
 for the sake of a living, a rule had been made that 
 cvtrry one belonging to the foundation should leave 
 as soon as he had obtained his Arts Degree ; for we 
 learn that Sir W. Felton's benefaction of the church 
 at Abbotsley became available in 1341, and not in 
 1361, as Lechler supposes, and that Sir Philij) de 
 Somerviile had, in the same year, when W'iclif must 
 have been in the middle of his career as a student, 
 given to the master and fellows the church of Mikle- 
 benton.^ The design of these endowments was to 
 provide that, in future, the members of the college 
 might live in the college as before, and prosecute 
 their studies after they had become masters and 
 doctors. The new joint endowments increased the 
 number of scholars or fellows from sixteen to twenty- 
 two, and added a half to the weekly allowances. 
 AVhile we differ from Lechler on this point, we must 
 maintain that, for some unknown reason, which we 
 may conjecture to have been that it was the most 
 distinguished academical institution of the day, and 
 the home, as we have seen, of Ockham and 
 Bradwardine, Wiclif sought admission to Merton, thus 
 conferring as well upon that college as upon Balliol, 
 the honour of a connexion with the illustrious 
 leader of the noble bahd of Reformers before the 
 Reformation, 
 
 Wiclif, after the completion of his academical 
 ' I.eclilei', V. i,, p. 156, and T.onmer's note, p. 190, 
 
WICI.IF IM OXFORD. 
 
 43 
 
 course, must have remained at Oxford, engaged in 
 the unostentatious discharge of his University duties ; 
 for we cannot discover from any public record that 
 he came forward prominently on the world's highway. 
 I'"rom several passages in his writings wo may gather 
 that, as a Regent Master of Arts, lie gave courses of 
 lectures with zeal and success on logic and philo- 
 sophy. This was jjractically the chief value of the 
 degree, that it conferred the right of lecturing, and 
 therefore of receiving money for lectures at Oxford.' 
 He would also h.ave shown that administrative ability 
 as Fellow of Merton, which must have led to his 
 appointment to the Mastership of Balliol at least as 
 early as 1360. The year assigned hitherto has been 
 1 361, for three documents, dated 7th, 8th, and 9th of 
 April in that year, state that Wiclif, as Master, takes 
 possession of the incumbency of Abbotsley, in the 
 county of Huntingdon, which had been incorporated 
 with the foundation ; - but we learn from Mr. Rileys' 
 report to the royal commission on historical manu- 
 scripts, in 1874, that Wiclif's name, as Master of the 
 Hall, occurs in a Latin memorandum among the 
 archives, having reference to a suit brought against 
 the college in the matter of some house property in 
 London, in the thirty-fourth year of the reign of King 
 Edward HI. — i.e., in the year 1360.^ He could not 
 have been appointed long before that time, for two 
 Masters are mentioned between 1356 and the date 
 
 ' Anstey's "Munimenta Academica," Part i., p. lx\xi\. 
 
 Lechler's "Life," vol. i., p. 158. 
 * Lorimer's note t" T.echler, vol. i., p. 186. 
 
44 
 
 JOHN WICLIF, 
 
 just referred to. He must have resigned this Master- 
 ship in 1361 on his appointment by the college to 
 the living of Fillingham in Lincolnshire, nine miles 
 north-north-west of Lincoln, for we find from the 
 account-books of Queen's College that, in 1363-1365, 
 he paid rent for apartments in the college. We have 
 no record of his pastoral work in connexion with this 
 parish. We may, however, come to the conclusion that 
 he did not reside continuously in it, and that his work 
 at the University was not materially interrupted ; for 
 we ascertain from an entry in the episcopal register 
 at Lincoln in 1368, that the bishop gave him leave of 
 absence from his parish for two years that he might 
 devote himself to his studies at Oxford.^ This leave 
 would probably have been given in former years. 
 Perhaps a part of that work was the preparation of his 
 Philosophical Treatises. 'J'hese, which have not yet 
 been printed, had, as we know, an influence on the 
 Bohemian movement.- We know also that, as Bachelor 
 of Theology of the lower degree, he would, as I have 
 stated, deliver lectures on Holy Scripture. He would 
 afterwards, as Bachelor of Theology- of the higher 
 degree, be able to lecture on the Sentences. We may 
 gather from his subsequent writings that he must 
 have been engaged at Oxford in a laborious examina- 
 tion of the records of heavenly truth, and we may 
 
 ' Lechler, p. 182, n. 7. In his Tract, "Why Poor Priests 
 have no Benefice" (Matthew, p. 244, 250), he states that a 
 curate cannot get leave of absence to study God's law without 
 payment. Perhaps, as Mr. Matthew says, he had been obliged 
 to buy leave of absence from Fillingham. 
 
 ^ Wratislaw's "John Hus," S.RC.K., p. 87. 
 
WICLIF IN OXrORD. 
 
 45 
 
 conclude that he must have been impressed with a 
 deeper conviction that others Hke himself ought to 
 have the opportunity given to them of knowing ex- 
 perimentally the life-giving power of those words of 
 wisdom which are able to make all instructed in them 
 " wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 AVe could have wished that we had more to say 
 about this portion of his life ; that we could enliven 
 our narrative with a few anecdotes ; that we could 
 speak of the trials which he endured and the diffi- 
 culties which he encountered ; that we could exhibit 
 him in the daily intercourse of life in the streets and 
 colleges of Oxford. But over these matters time has 
 drawn an impenetrable veil. A few dates, and the 
 inferences drawn from them, the result of a painful 
 examination of parchment rolls, constitute all the 
 information which we can obtain respecting him. 
 Possibly we may know more about this and the 
 early part of his life, when all his Latin works are 
 examined. But as far as we know at present, his 
 writings contain many allusions to his public life, but 
 very few to his private life. We must, therefore, 
 endeavour in another way, through conjecture, to 
 obtain our information about him during this portion 
 of his career. 
 
 A careful examination of the history of Oxford 
 will enable us to discover certain events and in- 
 fluences which may have aided in the formation of 
 his character, and in the development of his principles. 
 We shall employ the same method of investigation as 
 
.[6 JOHN AVICI, II. 
 
 in the case of his studies. One of those events is 
 that terrible pestilence called the Black Death, which, 
 having pursued its desolating march over Asia, ex- 
 tended its ravages to England. Wrapped in putrid 
 vapours it walked silently through the length and 
 breadth of the lands which it visited, leaving sad 
 memorials of its destructive progress behind it in the 
 lifeless forms of thousands of their miserable in- 
 habitants. It was so contagious that the breath, the 
 clothes of the sick, and every spot M-hich they 
 touched were means of propagating the disease. The 
 angel of destruction was supposed to have gone forth 
 to prepare men for the second coming of Christ. A 
 calculation has been made that it swept awa\- one- 
 fourth of the population of Europe, and one-half of 
 the population of England. 
 
 It made its first appearance in England at Dor- 
 chester in August, 1348, and came to Oxford in 
 1349. So great was the mortality that, as Wood 
 informs us, sixteen bodies in a day were carried to 
 one churchyard.' We cannot doubt that this visita- 
 tion produced a deep impression on the mind of 
 Wiclif ; that he may have thought that the angel of 
 destruction liad gone forth on his mission of ven- 
 geance in order to prepare tlie world for tlie second 
 coming of the Lord Jesus Christ ; and that it led 
 him to resolve to devote all his powers to his 
 Redeemer's service. We cannot, however, come to 
 this conclusion from a little work called the " Last 
 Age of the Church," formerly attributed to him, the 
 ' Wood's " History of Oxford," vol. i., p. 448, 
 
WICl.U' IN OXtURl'. 
 
 47 
 
 writer of which, whose mind had been solemnized by 
 the plague, anticipated the immediate appearance of 
 Christ to execute judgment ; for, to use the words of 
 Professor Shirley, " The frequent quotations from 
 the prophecies, real or spurious, of the Abbot 
 Joachim, and the fact that the abuses referred to in 
 the tract are exclusively those of the endowed clergy, 
 seem to point to a Franciscan monk as the probable 
 author. To print it," the writer adds, "was to 
 condemn it."i The work is, in fact, so feeble that it 
 could not have been the production 'of the master- 
 mind in the University of Oxford. We can have no 
 doubt, also, as to the effect which the plague pro- 
 duced upon others ; that it induced, in many cases, 
 a habit of serious reflection ; and thus aided Wiclif 
 in the schemes which had for their object the regene- 
 ration of human society. 
 
 We believe, also, with Dean Hook,- that it became 
 the means of supplying him with that agency which, 
 as we shall see hereafter, he employed to propagate 
 his opinions through the length and breadth of the 
 land. Men had stood by the bedside of the partner 
 of their cares and their sorrows ; they had seen the 
 black spot appearing on a countenance which once 
 beamed with beauty and intelligence ; and they had 
 afterwards bent in speechless anguish over the form 
 of the departed one, and almost wished themselves 
 at the end of their journey through the wilderness. 
 But when the loved form had been buried out of their 
 
 ' " Fasciculi Zizanioium," p. xiii., n. 4. 
 
 - "Lives of the Archbishops," vol. iv., pp. 128, 129. 
 
48 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 sight, their affliction produced a beneficial effect, and 
 they resolved as priests to devote themselves to the 
 more immediate service of their Maker. The bishops 
 were very wilUng to ordain them that they might fill 
 up the gaps which death had made in the ranks of 
 the clergy. They were entirely destitute of learning, 
 and could not, therefore, expect to rise in the 
 Church ; they were full of Christian zeal ; they had 
 a great sympathy with the poor ; and were just able 
 to read what Wiclif had written, to the destitute and 
 afflicted around them. They were thus " a body 
 prepared to receive in due time the teaching of Wiclif 
 and his followers," and to convey the message of 
 eternal life to the guilty and rebellious inhabitants of 
 this district of God's empire. 
 
 But other events and influences at Oxford must 
 have aided in preparing the way for his work, and in 
 developing his character. Oxford lived in a din of 
 perpetual warfare. Storms, occasional elsewhere, 
 were here the perpetual atmosphere.' There was 
 first of all the strife of centuries between the Univer- 
 sity and City of Oxford, which culminated in Wiclif "s 
 time in the "great conflict" on St. Scholastica's Day, 
 February loth, 1355. The assault of the town upon 
 the University was evidently premeditated. The 
 citizens thought that they should have the members 
 at a disadvantage, as the plague had greatly reduced 
 the number of the students. They were led on by 
 the mayor, John de Bereford, one of those turbulent 
 men whom the wars of Edward III. had converted 
 ' Huber's "English Universities," vol. !., p. 71. 
 
WICLIF IN OXFORD. 
 
 49 
 
 into skilled soldiers. As we read the account in the 
 graphic pages of \Vood,i we seem to have before us 
 that terrible massacre of Cawnpore, which sent a 
 thrill of horror through the minds of the inhabitants 
 of England. 
 
 A quarrel arose between some scholars and the 
 host of a tavern which belonged to Bereford. The 
 scholars pronounced the wine to be bad ; and as the 
 host only gave them a sharp answer, they threw the 
 wine and flask at his head. He complained bitterly 
 to John Bereford and others, who told him that he 
 ought not to submit to the affront. Speedily the 
 town-bell rang from St. Martin's church ; armed 
 citizens assembled, and fell on the scholars, who were 
 walking unarmed through the streets. The Chan- 
 cellor endeavoured in vain to persuade the citizens to 
 keep the peace. At last, seeing the danger to which 
 the scholars were exposed, he directed the bell of St. 
 Mary's to sound the alarm, and call the scholars to 
 arms. They had withdrawn from the fray, in the 
 first instance, in obedience to the command of the 
 Chancellor ; but they now returned, and offered so 
 stout an opposition as to keep their adversaries in 
 check till the evening. In the morning, the Chan- 
 cellor's efforts at pacification were frustrated by the 
 determined hostility of the town. The scholars 
 were, therefore, obliged to stand on their defence. 
 They seized the gates of the town to prevent the 
 entrance of the country people, and fought bravely 
 
 ' Wood's "History," vol. i., pp. 456-469. 
 E 
 
5° 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 throughout the day. But towards evening about 
 2,000 armed countrymen burned down the west gate, 
 and forced their way in, headed by a black banner, 
 with loud shouts of murder and plunder. The 
 scholars, borne down by this torrent, fled into the 
 open country or into their private rooms. But the 
 mob, having lost all control over themselves, and 
 hurried away by their own evil passions, with hideous 
 .shouts, stormed most of the colleges and halls, forcing 
 them open with iron bars. Those who could not 
 escape were killed, wounded, thrown into the sinks 
 and sewers, or dragged away to prison. Crucifixes 
 and church ornaments were demolished; students, 
 shaven as monks, were treated with savage cruelty ; 
 the scalp was torn off the head of some of them. 
 The rioters attacked and slaughtered several who had 
 fled for refuge to the sacred elements which the priests 
 were carrying in solemn procession through the town 
 in the hope of calming the angry passions of the 
 multitude. The townsmen now remained masters of 
 the field. Forty scholars are mentioned by name as 
 having been killed in the fray ; but these, no doubt, 
 are only a small portion of those who suffered. Such 
 was the end of that terrible conflict which, though 
 at first disastrous to the University, at length ended in 
 the establishment of it as a preponderating authority, 
 for the Chancellor was invested with control over the 
 town police, and all the jurisdiction, civil or military, 
 connected with it.^ We may suppose that Wiclif 
 
 ' Huber's "English Universities," p. 145. The oath to 
 respect the privileges of the University was taken by the in- 
 
WICLIF IX OXFORD. 
 
 was one of those who, as we are told by Wood, 
 locked within Merton College, the only college from 
 which the students had not fled, passed the night in 
 prayer for these outcasts, and for deliverance from the 
 dangers by which he was surrounded. As the frantic 
 yells of those monsters in human shape, mingled 
 with the groans of the dying, fell on his ear, there 
 would be awakened in his mind an earnest desire to 
 terminate this fratricidal contest, and to heal the 
 bleeding wounds of human society. 
 
 I have already spoken of the contests between the 
 northern and southern factions in the University. 
 The bloody fights in the streets do not represent 
 mere frays, or disputes of young men after a carouse, 
 but important religious or political principles. They 
 are the continued vibration of powerful springs, else- 
 where set in motion.^ We have in Wood a very 
 significant monkish verse : — 
 
 " Thus old story says, 
 From our Oxford frays, 
 After few months and days, 
 All England's in a blaze." 
 
 The northern party, in Henry III.'s reign, had 
 supported the barons and people in their struggle 
 with him for popular rights, and for deliverance from 
 
 coming mayor from 1355 till a few years ago. The mayor, up 
 to the middle of this century, presented to the Vice-Chancellor 
 at .St. Mary's 63 silver pennies in memory of the number, pro- 
 bably greater, slain in this fr.iy. The town-and-gown fights 
 arose from these conflicts. 
 
 ' Huber's " English Universities," vol. !., p. 85 ; and Wood, 
 vol. i., p. 258. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 the extortions of the Papacy ; while the southern 
 party arrayed themselves beneath the banner of the 
 Sovereign.^ The former had in the civil war migrated 
 to Northampton, leaving Oxford to the southern 
 party, and distinguished themselves so much by their 
 bravery, that the king, on the capture of the city, 
 was with difficulty dissuaded from putting them 
 to death." We find that generally the resistance 
 to the Papacy came from the northern jjarty, in- 
 cluding the Scotch ; while the southern English, with 
 the Welsh and Irish, were its supporters. The north- 
 ern party had, at the present time, identified itself 
 with that party which was overthrown when Simon de 
 Montfort, extolled as a hero, saint, and martyr, as the 
 man who had shown more bravery than his fellows 
 in behalf of the civil and religious immunities ot 
 the English people, fell on the field ot Evesham. 
 Wiclif, as a northernman, had made common cause 
 with the northern party, which had become, in his 
 time, as Wood says, the weakest in the University ; 
 and had thus become animated with that spirit which 
 led him to stand forward afterwards in defence of 
 civil and religious liberty and independence.^ 
 
 I must glance at other parties which were adding 
 to the turmoil in Oxford. The contest between the 
 
 ' Iluber's "English Universities," vol. i., . 87, 99, 102. 
 - //'/(/., vol. i., p. 96. 
 
 •■' Thomas Walsingham, the Chronicler of St. Aiban's, thus 
 speaks of Wiclif in 1377 : — "About this time there rose at 
 Oxford a certain man of thenorlhern nation, called Master John 
 Wiclif." 
 
WICI.IK IN OXFORD. 
 
 53 
 
 Nominalists and Realists rose to their full vigour 
 in the first half of the fourteenth century. Wood 
 speaks of them as " clashing controversies in dispu- 
 tations and writing." He informs us that those of the 
 north held with Scotus, and those of the south with 
 Ockham, and adds that " their disputations were so 
 violent, that the peace of the University was not a 
 little disturbed." ^ AViclif was a north countryman, 
 and a Realist. At this time Realism and the Reforma- 
 tion found favour chiefly with the northern party. 
 We find also the officers of the University struggling 
 with those of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the 
 bishop of the diocese. Faculty was arrayed against 
 Faculty, as Law against Medicine; the Seculars against 
 the Regulars, and especially against the Friars, with 
 whom for a century after their introduction there 
 was a constant struggle. This wild tumultuous life 
 was not without its advantages. These contests 
 would serve to impress the students with the 
 conviction that they had rights and privileges to 
 guard, and would teach them to do battle for prin- 
 ciples. L:ubtless, Wiclif, as he wrangled in the 
 Schools with the renowned teachers of theology and 
 philosophy, would find in the contest a stimulus to 
 perseverance in the examination of the most impor- 
 tant questions which can occupy the attention of a 
 being preparing for immortality. 
 
 We now come to the question of Wiclif's appoint- 
 ment to the Wardenship of Canterbury Hall. The 
 
 ' Wood, A.D. J343; Huber's "English Universities," vol. i., 
 p. 85. 
 
54 
 
 JUH.N WICLIK 
 
 following was, up to the year 1841, universally con- 
 sidered to be the correct version of the circumstances 
 relating to the matter. Simon Islip, Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, founded a Hall which- was to bear the 
 name of the Archiepiscopal See. He was not a man 
 of great ability, and has not left his mark on the age ; 
 but he evinced by this establishment an anxious 
 desire to train those who would be instrumental in 
 removing the abuses of the ecclesiastical system. 
 In an application which he made to Edward IH. for 
 his consent to the establishment of the Hall, and to 
 the alienation of the living of Pageham, in Sussex, 
 to the support of the institution, he showed that he 
 designed that monks and secular clergy should be 
 members of the foundation. In a royal edict dated 
 20th October, 1361, Edward III. gave his consent to 
 the proposal.! In April, 1363, we have the charter 
 of foundation, and the gift of the manor of ^Voodford. 
 The Hall was to be for twelve students. In March, 
 1364; Islip appointed Woodhall to be the A\'arden, 
 one of the three, whom, as it appears ''rom the deed 
 of nomination, he asked the prior and church of 
 Canterbury to recommend to him for that office. It 
 does not, however, appear that in the statutes framed 
 after the application to Edward, he designed that 
 three monks should be members of the foundation ; - 
 for in the gift of the manor of Woodford, he does 
 not say that some of the places were to be filled by 
 
 ' Lewis's "Life," No. i, p. 2S5, 
 
 • //'/./., No. 4, p. 290. 
 
WICLIF IN OXFORD. 
 
 55 
 
 them. But, as a matter of fact, three were appointed 
 from the Benedictine monastery of Canterbury. 
 
 The consequence of this association of Seculars and 
 Regulars might have been foreseen. A strife between 
 the two parties began immediately. This, in fact, was 
 one of the incidents in that long contention which, 
 beginning with the celebrated Dunstan, has left its 
 impress on the history of the middle ages. Woodhall, 
 who was a man of violent temper, aggravated the 
 strife. Islip, seeing that the contention was injuring 
 his institution, dismissed Woodhall and the three 
 Canterbury monks, and appointed in December, 
 1365, in his place, Wiclif as Warden, and Middleworth, 
 Benger, and Selby as Fellows. He had evidently, 
 under the power which he had reserved to himself, 
 framed new statutes since his first application to 
 Edward 1 11.^ Islip died five months after this 
 appointment ; and was succeeded by Simon Langham. 
 The latter having been a monk, and cherishing a 
 strong monastic spirit, after he was enthroned in 
 March, 1367, dismissed Wiclif, with the secular 
 members, and appointed Redingate as Warden. He 
 was succeeded in three weeks by Woodhall. - 
 
 Wiclif immediately appealed to the Pope, Urban V. 
 This suit seems to have lingered, as suits always do. 
 The Pope appointed Cardinal Adrian in July, 1369, 
 to settle the matter. He had power to remove, 
 
 ' Wiclif ("De Ecclesia," 16) writes that Islip had appointed 
 that secular clerics alone should study in the college. He refers 
 lo the altered statutes. 
 
 - Lewis, No. 8, p. 298. 
 
56 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 if he thought fit, the secular clerks, and to make the 
 college one of seculars or monks exclusively. As Simon 
 I.angham had, before this time, resigned the See of 
 Canterbury, having become a Cardinal, and was now 
 settled at Avignon, there could be no doubt as to the 
 result. He would bring all his influence to bear to 
 secure a judgment in favour of the monks. Accord- 
 ingly we find that Adrian's judgment in May, 1370, 
 was that the seculars should be dismissed, and that 
 the monks should be settled in the college. The 
 Pope confirmed the judgment. Edward III., on the 
 payment of 200 marks by the Prior and Convent of 
 Canterbury, assented to the decree, thus confirming, 
 in the fullest manner, Wiclif's charge that simony 
 had a part in the matter. We gather, however, from 
 the king's decree of April 8, 1372, that it was clearly 
 his idea that, on the whole, Wiclif was in the right, 
 and the monks in the wrong ; for the last reconstitu- 
 tion is declared to be in direct opposition to our 
 licence, whereas the first is described as being 
 beyond or in excess of our licence.^ 
 
 The distinguished predecessor of the Reformers 
 has been supposed for many centuries to have been 
 the prominent person in these transactions. But in 
 1841, Mr. Courthope made the discovery that a 
 John AV^yclyve was the vicar of Mayfield, in Sussex, 
 from 1 36 1 to 1380." Now, as it was quite certain 
 that the Reformer was never vicar of Mayfield, and 
 that the vicar of Mayfield was never Master of 
 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. i., p. 178. 
 yee the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1841, 
 
WICLIF IN OXFORD. 
 
 57 
 
 Balliol, the inquiry became natural wliether there 
 might not have been a confusion between the two 
 men, and whether the vicar might not have been the 
 Fellow of Merton and the Warden of Canterbury 
 Hall. A controversy on the subject, in which great 
 learning and research have been shown, has been 
 carried on for some time, with an utter absence of 
 that bitterness of spirit, often a distinguishing feature 
 in controversies of this description. I have already 
 given reasons for the conclusion that our Wiclif was 
 Fellow of Merton. With regard to Canterbury Hall, 
 it seems that, even before the evidence, to be referred 
 to directly, was discovered, which seems to set the 
 question at rest for ever. Professor Shirley and 
 others might have seen that there was no reason for 
 disturbing the ancient belief^ The argument that 
 the name of the Reformer is spelt in a different 
 manner from that of the parish priest and of the 
 Warden, ought not to have been used in the matter, 
 on account of the great uncertainty of medireval 
 orthography. There are twenty-eight varieties of 
 spelling the great Reformer's name. Prebendary 
 Wilkinson, in an admirable article in the " Church 
 Quarterly Review," on the two John Wiclifs, has used 
 the same argument to show that our Wiclif must have 
 been Warden of the Hall.^ Again, Islip's appointment 
 of John Wyclyve to the living of Mayfield, and the 
 knowledge of him gained during his residence at 
 
 ' Dr. Shirley has written a long note on the two John Wiclifs 
 in "Fasciculi Zizaniorum," pp. 513-528. 
 
 Church Qiiarlerly Review Octohtx, 1877, pp. 121-123, 
 
58 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 his favourite palace at Mayfield, should have been 
 taken in close connexion with the laudatory terms in 
 which he speaks of the person whom he appointed to 
 be Warden. He not only speaks of his " praiseworthy 
 life, and honourable conversation," but healso describes 
 him as "super-eminent in literary acquirements." i Now 
 this language might apply to the most distinguished 
 schoolman at Oxford since the days of Ockham ; but 
 it could hardly have been used in regard to the 
 vicar of Mayfield, who would probably have remained 
 in obscurity, with other undistinguished men in the 
 Canterbury registers, if he had not been rescued from 
 it by the coincidence of an apparent confusion with 
 the great predecessor of the Reformers. We may 
 observe also that Islip may well be supposed to have 
 had an intimate knowledge of him as well as of the 
 ])arish priest of Mayfield, because he had been a 
 member of Merton College, and because, as we shall 
 see in the next chapter, his fame had at this time 
 travelled beyond the University. 
 
 The first evidence against the assertion that our 
 A\ iclif was not Warden of Canterbury Hall, is that of 
 A\'odeford, who in a course of theological lectures, 
 entitled, " Seventy-two Questions on the Sacrament 
 of the Altar," says, — " This madness of his (Wiclif's) 
 against the religious was bred of depravity. For 
 before his expulsion by the endowed and dignified 
 religious from the Hall of the monks of Canter- 
 bury, he made no attack of any consequence 
 
 ' Wood'.^ " History and Anti(|uitics of Oxford," vol. i., p. 1S4 ; 
 Lewis's " Life," p. 290. 
 
WICLIl' IX OXKOKU. 
 
 59 
 
 againbt the endowed religious." ' I'he date given by 
 Professor Shirley for these lectures is 1 381, on the 
 ground that they were written shortly after Wiclif's 
 confession on the sacrament of the altar (May 10, 
 1381), of which I shall speak in Chapter VIII., and 
 before the condemnation of his conclusions in 1382.- 
 This evidence ought to have great weight because 
 it is incidental. ^Vodeford refers to it as a well 
 known fact, designed to show the connexion between 
 it and Wiclif's opposition to the religious. Dr. 
 Shirley has attempted to weaken its force by saying 
 Wodeford could not have had personal knowledge of 
 him ; for as his earliest work was written in 1390, 
 and his latest in 1433, he must have been a mere 
 boy, >vhen, 61 years before, the dispute about Can 
 terbury Hall was closed."* The fact, however, is 
 that, as Prebendary Wilkinson has shown in the 
 article above referred to, he is here confusing 
 Wodeford with another person.' Besides, it is 
 evident from what Wielif says of him in the " I)e 
 Civili Dominio," written between 1378 and 1383, 
 that Wodeford was not likely to forget anything 
 relating to him, as he was in habits of intimacy with 
 him. "I have learned," he writes, "in different 
 degrees and acts of the schools, from Doctor Master 
 William Wodeford's temperate exercise, many note- 
 worthy truths." ' 
 
 ' " Fasciculi Zizanioi uni," p. 517. 
 
 - Ibid., p. 517, n. 3. ^ Hid., pp. 523, 524. 
 
 ' Church Qtiarterly Rcvieui iox OcioXitx, 1877, pp. 137, ij.S. 
 
 ' Lechkr's "Life," vol. i., p. 183, n, ij. 
 
6o 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 But the most important evidence is that which is 
 derived from the " Chronicon Anghse," printed in the 
 series brought out under the direction of the Master 
 of the Rolls, from a manuscript of the Harleian 
 Collection, which has hitherto escaped the notice of 
 historians. This was only partially known from the 
 fragment of a translation of it, made in the sixteenth 
 century, published in the " Archaeologia," (xxii. p. 
 253). " It contains," says its discoverer and editor, 
 Mr. Thompson, of the British Museum, "an impor- 
 tant detailed history of the close of Edward III.'s, 
 and the beginning of Richard II. 's reign, which is 
 now printed in its original shape for the first time, 
 and has hitherto been considered lost. The former 
 existence of a Latin original for the translation used 
 by John Stow in his chronicle of England (the 
 translation just referred to) has been generallyadmitted 
 by historians. The only person who has thrown any 
 doubt upon it is the late Professor Shirley, in his 
 edition of the ' Fasciculi Zizaniorum.' Mr. Shirley 
 rejects its testimony on the ground of its being a 
 compilation of the sixteenth century, while admitting, 
 however, that the author had before him one, or 
 perhaps two, contemporary authorities, which he has 
 indolently interwoven into his narrative, without 
 changing one even of those expressions which most 
 clearly reflect the image of passing events." ^ But if 
 he were alive he must admit the authority of the 
 original Latin text of the " Chronicon Angliae," which 
 
 ' "Fasciculi Zizaniorum," pp. 521, 522; Note by Lorimer 
 in Lechler's "Life," vol. i., pp. 191, 192. 
 
WICLIF IN OXFORD. 
 
 6i 
 
 is Undoubtedly the work of a contemporary historian. 
 His testimony to the Reformer's connexion with 
 Canterbury Hall is the following : — " The Duke 
 (referring to John of Gaunt) had taken to his party 
 a certain false theologian, a real fighter against God, 
 who for many years in the Schools, in all his acts, had 
 opposed the Church, because he was justly deprived 
 by the Archbishop of Canterbury of a certain benefice 
 in the University of Oxford, of which he was um'ustly 
 the incumbent." ^ 
 
 The opinion against which I have been arguing 
 may, therefore, be rejected as contrary to evidence. 
 I have been particular in explaining the matter, 
 because that opinion has been supported by dis- 
 tinguished authority. " Canterbury Hall," writes 
 Dean Hook, "has a place in history, from its 
 supposed connexion with the great Reformer, John 
 Wiclif, a notion which is now exploded." He adds 
 in a note, " I assume it as a fact naw admitted by all 
 who have examined the subject, that the Warden of 
 Canterbury Hall is a person distinct from the great 
 Reformer." The venerable author was glad that he 
 could, as he thought, disprove the charge against 
 him, by means of Dr. Shirley's note on the two John 
 ^^'iclifs. " It frees," he writes, " the Reformer from 
 the suspicion that his violence against Rome origi- 
 nated in personal feelings." - This charge has been 
 often made by his adversaries from the fourteenth 
 century. Lingard, who was full of animosity against 
 ' " Chronicon Anglice," p. 115. 
 
 - Hook's "Lives of the .\rclibishops," vol. iv., p. 158. 
 
r,2 
 
 .TOII\ WICLIF. 
 
 him, and who always perverts history so far as he is 
 concerned, ascribes to this ejection " those feelings 
 of resentment, and those bitter and envenomed 
 invectives with which he afterwards assailed the 
 Court of Rome as well as the monastic orders." I 
 think that far too much importance has been attached 
 to this charge. We shall find in the following history 
 that his changes of opinion were the result of honest 
 and conscientious conviction. The light which had 
 dawned upon his mind continued slowly and steadily 
 increasing in brightness. Prebendary AVilkinson, in 
 the article just referred to, has made some just 
 observations on this point. '• It is no discredit to a 
 man," he says, " that he finds out slowly, by personal 
 experience, the defects of the system under which he 
 lives, and as he finds them out, sets himself to amend 
 them. Such conduct is not a proof of small personal 
 resentment, but rather of the truest political wisdom. 
 If his actions are wise and moderate, and his teaching 
 reasonable, serious, and straightforward, the charge 
 of personal motives, and personal bitterness falls 
 harmless to the ground." ^ 
 
 Wiclif's ejection from Canterbury Hall marks a 
 distinct era in his life. He had already, as we learn 
 from the rolls, commenced the practice of residing 
 in hired rooms at Queen's College, in 1363, 1364 
 and 1364, 1365.^ In 1365-1367, he would have 
 resided at Canterbury Hall. We cannot tell whether 
 or not, in the last period just referred to, he took his 
 
 ' Church Quarterly Review for October, 1877, p. 126. 
 - " Fascic. Zizan.," p. 515. 
 
WICI.IF IN' OXFORD. 
 
 63 
 
 highest degree, that of Doctor in the Theological 
 Faculty. Professor Shirley, indeed, thinks that he 
 can make it probable that he took the degree in 
 1363.1 Dr. Lechler, however, has adduced evidence 
 to show that we can only say that some time between 
 1365 and 1374 AViclif became Doctor of Theology.^ 
 He thus became Professor of Theology, by which title 
 we are not to understand that he was appointed to a 
 Professor's chair. This statement would be an 
 anachronism, as no Professor, in the modern sense 
 of the word, was appointed in any University till 1430. 
 The title of Professor of Theology given to him, 
 simply denoted that he might, if he pleased, open a 
 hall, and give lectures to as many as chose to become 
 his pupils. As Professor in this sense, he influenced 
 the religious views of the students at Oxford, and gave 
 those lectures contained in his " Trialogus," including 
 those on Transubstantiation, which, as we shal see 
 in a future chapter, may be said to have been the 
 beginning of the doctrinal Reformation in England. 
 
 We cannot find that he was at Queen's more than 
 twice after 1367 — in 1375 and 1380. We do not indeed 
 say that he was not at Oxford, because Ave cannot 
 trace him at this college. He was there, as we shall 
 see, in 1381 and 1382. We may say, however, that 
 he was not so much there as before, because he was 
 employed on national matters of some importance, 
 which rendered necessary long periods of absence 
 from the University. After his ejection he became a 
 
 ' " Fascic. Zizan.," pp. xvi., xvii. 
 " Lechler's " Life," vol, i., p. 181. 
 
64 
 
 JOHN WICLIF, 
 
 \^ citizen of the world. ^ He had made a reputation 
 in the Schools second to none of his contemporaries. 
 But if he had confined his attention to subjects of 
 this kind, he would have been as little remembered 
 as Marsilius of Padua, or John of Ganduno, and other 
 men of the same class, distinguished in their day, 
 whose names have long since been consigned to 
 oblivion. But Wiclif did not wish to lay up his 
 talent in a napkin, nor bury it in the earth. He had 
 sharpened his weapons at Oxford, and had become 
 skilled in the use of them. He had undergone a 
 long preparation at Oxford for that great enterprise 
 which, as events showed, was committed to his charge. 
 He heard a voice summoning him to go forth on the 
 world's highway, and work for God in the midst of 
 a sinful generation. The next ten or twelve years 
 may be called the political period of his life. It was, 
 however, a stepping-stone to that high stage of his 
 work in the last six years of his life, during which he 
 endeavoured to reform the dogmas of tlie Papacy, 
 and so to prepare the way for that Reformation which 
 has been a source of blessing to many generations of 
 our fellow-countrymen. 
 
 ' " WicliCs Place in History," by Professor Montagu 
 Burrows, pp. 157, 15S. 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 65 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 I366-1378. 
 
 Wiclif becomes a politician. — His knowledge of English 
 history. — Circumstances which led him to bring forward 
 his theory of Dominion founded in grace. — Explanation of 
 it. — Part of the reign of Edward III. very glorious. — The 
 Pope revives the claim of homage and tribute from 
 England. — Edward lays it before Parliament, which 
 resolves that it ought to be resisted. — Wiclif challenged 
 to defend the resolution. — His reply. — Observations upon 
 it. — Vv'iclif not a Member of Parliament.— Decline of the 
 prosperity of England. — Taxation of clergy. — Wiclil 
 approves of it. — Proposal to exclude ecclesiastics from 
 offices of State. — Wiclif s paper against the papal collector 
 in England. — Wiclif a Commissioner at Bruges. — Explana- 
 tion of the religious and political complications of this 
 period. — The Good Parliament. — Wiclif summoned by 
 John of Gaunt to London. — Cited by Bishop Courtenay to 
 appear before the Archbishop at St. Paul's. — His popularity 
 as a preacher in London. — Protected by John of Gaunt. — 
 His appearance at St. Paul's, and the tumult which followed. 
 — The interest in the matter partly political. — The Pope 
 issues Bulls against Wiclif. — Delay in the publication of 
 them. — Question, whether the treasure of the kingdom 
 might not be detained, referred to Wiclif. — His answer. — 
 Bulls at length issued. — The Bull received with anger at 
 Oxford. — Wiclif appears at Lambeth before the papal 
 delegates.— Is dismissed. — His conduct considered. — His 
 views on endowments. — The trial at Lambeth an era in his 
 life. — End of political period. 
 
 It has been a common idea, until the present time, 
 that, as Minerva issued forth armed from the head 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 of Jupiter, so Wiclif stands before us, throughout his 
 public life, a finished man, armed at all points for 
 his conflict with the Papacy. An examination of his 
 "Trialogus," but especially of his unpublished writings, 
 will enable us to see that this is a great misconception, 
 and that he must have passed through differentchanges 
 of opinion during his memorable career. We are 
 now surprised to see the quiet student of Oxford, 
 on a sudden, embarking on the stormy sea of 
 politics. A Church historian has blamed him for 
 taking this course when he says, "Politics was the 
 rock on which he split." ^ But, as we shall see, this 
 Ijvas only one step in his progressive development. 
 Afterwards he concentrated his energies on an attack 
 upon the doctrines of the Church of Rome. Besides, 
 he was perfectly justified in taking this course. He 
 was not busying himself with matters belonging to 
 the domain of worldly politics. His object was to 
 deliver his native country from the exactions and 
 tyranny of her great spiritual oppressor. 
 
 If we are right in our assertion that the party 
 fights at Oxford between the northern and southern 
 nations, had a deeper meaning than the world com- 
 monly suppose, we should say that here we have 
 I he germ of the patriotic ardour, nourished by them, 
 which led him, in 1366, to come forward and to do 
 Ijattle with the satellites of Rome. That ardour 
 i)reathes and burns in many passages of his unpub- 
 lished works among the Vienna manuscripts, espe- 
 
 ' Milncr's "Church History,"' voh iv., p. 122. 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 67 
 
 cially in his works " De Civili Dominio " and " De 
 Ecclesia." We shall be able fully to illustrate the 
 truth of that assertion, when we have them and 
 his other great works, still unprinted, before us; 
 meanwhile, we fully accept Dr. Lechler's statement on 
 the subject.^ We learn, also, from that author's " Ijfe 
 of Wiclif," that he often recalls important events in 
 English history ; that he was quite familiar with the 
 different invasions of England by " Britons, Saxons, 
 and Normans;" that he often speaks of Augustine, 
 the " Apostle of the English," as he calls him in one 
 place ; that he touches on our kings also, as Edward 
 the Confessor and John ; that he refers to the later 
 archbishops of Canterbury, especially to Thomas a 
 Becket ; and that he often mentions Magna Charta 
 as the palladium of our liberties, to which monarch 
 and nobles must render absolute obedience. We 
 shall find many proofs that Lewis was quite right 
 when he stated that Wiclif had made not only the 
 Canon and Roman law, but, also, the laws of England' 
 the subject of his special study.- We shall see, also, 
 that he does not take the interest of a mere student 
 in these subjects, but of one who was full of zeal for 
 the crown, as well as for the civil, and, above all, 
 the religious liberties of his fellow-countrymen ; who 
 must have witnessed with much pleasure the estab- 
 lishment of the rights of Parliament in the reign of 
 Edward III., to be referred to in this chapter, which 
 have aided in developing our wonderful Constitution 
 
 ' Lechler's " Life," vol. i., pp. 195, 196. 
 ^ Lewis, p. 2. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 • JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 of Queen, Lords, and Commons, and in making 
 England the greatest nation in the annals of the 
 world. 
 
 We shall, however, be better able to understand 
 his position in regard to this part of our subject, 
 when we have considered his celebrated theory of 
 Dominion, fully worked out in the treatise " Da 
 Dominio Divino," published in 1367, which has 
 never been printed, and is to be found only 
 among the Vienna Manuscripts. ^ It is, for that 
 reason, little known in this country. We may gather 
 from indirect hints, and from the history of Europe 
 in this century, the circumstances which led him at 
 this time to make Dominion the foundation of his 
 teaching. 
 
 The claims of the Papacy had been growing ever 
 since, on Christmas Day, 800, while the Emperor 
 Charlemagne was kneeling before the high altar in a 
 stately temple, — where now, surmounted by its " vast 
 and wondrous dome," rises " Christ's mighty shrine '"' 
 above the supposed tomb of St. Peter, — Pope Leo III. 
 placed on his brow the imperial diadem.- He thought 
 that this revival of the Roman Empire, in the person 
 of a valiant and powerful monarch, would furnish 
 him with the means of defence from the foes by 
 whom he was surrounded. The barbarians, regarding 
 everything Roman with awe and admiration, would 
 be ready to render obedience to Charlemagne, as the 
 successor of Augustus. The design of this recon- 
 
 ' Lechler's " Life," vol. ii., p. 50. 
 
 ^ See my " Epochs of the Pap.icy," p. 26. 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 69 
 
 stituted empire was to wage war with heretics and 
 unbeHevers, and to defend the Pope from his enemies. 
 At first he was the lawful subject of the Emperor; 
 but afterwards he asserted, that since his defence 
 was the chief function imposed upon the latter, it 
 was his bounden duty to see that the Emperor was 
 properly qualified for the imperial dignity, and to 
 depose him if he did not rightly execute the duties 
 of the high and holy office committed to his charge. 
 
 Pope Gregory VII. alleged this as his reason for 
 absolving the subjects of the Emperor Henry IV. 
 from their allegiance. The Archbishops of Cologne 
 and Mentz had consigned him to a degrading cap- 
 tivity, and afforded him every means of vicious 
 indulgence, in order that they might administer in 
 his name the government of the empire.^ They 
 were thus only too successful in corrupting a noble 
 and generous nature. Very soon he was guilty of 
 crimes, and plunged into excesses, which seemed to 
 cry aloud to heaven for vengeance. Thus, then, 
 Gregory was supplied with an excuse for interfering 
 between him and his subjects. The Pope also wished 
 to prohibit Henry IV. from investing the hierarchy 
 with the ring and crosier, because they thus became 
 the creatures of the Emperor's will, and he was 
 unable to establish the superiority of the spiritual over 
 the temporal jurisdiction. The popes who contended 
 with Frederic Barbarossa and Frederic II. strove to 
 prevent the one from imposing on the empire and Italy 
 
 ' Milman's "Latin Christianity," vol. iii., p. 73. 
 
7° 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 the iron yoke of slavery, and the other from threat- 
 ening them on the south, as well as on the north, 
 through the occupation of the kingdoms of Naples and 
 Sicily.^ But in the contest with the Emperor Lewis of 
 Bavaria, in the time of Wiclif, which lasted for thirty 
 years, and was only terminated by his death in 1347, 
 no Papal interest can be said to have been involved. - 
 The popes engaged in this protracted contest, simply 
 from the desire of asserting the power and majesty 
 of the Holy See. They had not the same excuse as 
 in the case of Henry IV. Lewis was impressed with 
 a deep sense of religion, was willing to make any 
 concessions so that he might live on good terms 
 with the Pope, and was far too weak to be formid- 
 able to him. Nay, even when Clement VL had ful- 
 minated against him two anathemas, breathing curses 
 hitherto unequalled in papal manifestoes, simply be- 
 cause he maintained his just rights as an emperor, 
 he endeavoured to purchase a reconciliation with the 
 Holy See at the price of degrading terms which, 
 when the Papacy was far more powerful than in the 
 age in which he lived, Henry IV. would have refused 
 with great indignation. 
 
 The emperors were quite willing to allow supremacy 
 to the popes in spiritual matters, insisting only on their 
 subordination to them as temporal princes, because 
 they were the successors of those Caesars to whom 
 the first Christians had rendered absolute obedience ; 
 but the popes were determined to reign supreme 
 
 ' See my "Epochs of the Papacy," pp. 190, 191. 
 * Milman's " Latin Christianity," book xi., c. 7. 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 71 
 
 over the bodies as well as souls of their iellow- 
 creatures. The might of intellect was at this time 
 displayed in contending for the supremacy of the Em- 
 peror in the temporal department. Thus the immortal 
 Dante, in his treatise, " De Monarchia," maintains 
 that " the Roman Emperor has no maker nor master 
 but God," and asserts that the Church is not the 
 cause of the vigour of the empire, nor, consequently, 
 of its authority, since the empire was in all its vigour 
 when the Church had no being.^ He also displays 
 his enthusiasm on behalf of the empire when he 
 represents Brutus and Cassius, the murderers of 
 Julius Caesar, as suffering excruciating agony while 
 they are bruised, along with Judas, as with a pon- 
 derous engine, beneath the teeth in the three mouths 
 of the monarch of hell;^ or when he throws the 
 souls of the righteous into the form of the imperial 
 eagle, inlaid with glittering gems, with whom he 
 holds converse as he wanders with Beatrice through 
 their everlasting dwelling-place.-^ William of Ockham, 
 Marsilius of Padua, and others, like Dante, displayed 
 their vigorous eloquence in asserting the supremacy 
 of the empire in temporal matters over the Papacy. 
 
 The publicists maintained also that, according to 
 the theory of the Holy Roman empire, the monarchs 
 of Europe were subject to the jurisdiction of the 
 Emperor, and that to him belonged those powers 
 which they endeavoured to wrest from the hands of 
 
 ' See my " Epochs of the Papacy," p. 77. 
 - " Inferno," xxxiv., 64. 
 ' " Paradise," xviii., xix. 
 
72 
 
 JOHN V.-ICLIF-. 
 
 the Papacy. But he was ill-fitted to bear the honour 
 thus thrust upon him. He possessed only a nominal 
 sovereignty in Europe, especially since the day when 
 the Emperor Frederick II. was beaten down in the 
 conflict with Innocent IV'., and his grandson Conradin 
 was executed, like a traitor and a felon, upon a public 
 scaffold. But some one must occupy his place as the 
 chief lord from whom all property and authority must 
 be held, both in England and the other countries ot 
 urope. Wiclif, following Fitz Ralph, asserted that God 
 the lord from whom every man holds his possessions • 
 that He alone really has dominion ; that He assigns 
 it, or rather power, in various portions to men, which 
 they forfeit if they fall into mortal sin, and that they 
 are bound to render to Him dutiful service.' We 
 see then that he settles the old dispute between the 
 Pope and the Emperor by abolishing both as the 
 fountain of secular jurisdiction. 
 
 This, then, is that celebrated theory of Dominion 
 founded in grace, which is still very nearly as much 
 misunderstood as it was in the days of the Reformer, 
 when it was constantly exhibited as an article of 
 charge against him. It has, indeed, been applied 
 to other uses, which are brought before us in the 
 work "De Dominio Divino." "In the repeated perusal 
 i.^ of these books," writes Dr. Lechler, " I have received 
 the impression that we have here, lying marked out 
 before us, the path of transition by which Wiclif 
 passed over from the philosophical to the properly 
 
 ' " Select Eiiglisli Worl<s," Malthew, pp. xxxiii., xxxiv. 
 
WICI.II' AS A POLITICIAN'. 
 
 73 
 
 theological period of his life and authoiship."^ We 
 must, however, remember that the primary object 
 of those who framed tliis theory was to defend 
 the authority of the Emperor against the Pope. I 
 have been particular in the historical survey of the 
 circumstances which gradually led to the conflict of 
 jurisdiction between the Pope and the Emperor, in 
 order that we may have a distinct idea of the object 
 of those to whom it owes its development. Men of 
 thoughtful minds were becoming at that time more 
 and more impressed with the conviction that a great 
 principle was at stake ; that the question before them 
 was whether or not the Papacy was to become a world- 
 wide monarchy, and to have dominion in the different 
 States constituting the great European commonwealth. 
 
 Dr. Shirley expresses his decided opinion, that, 
 " from a careful study of this subject, more is to 
 be hoped than from any other source towards under- 
 standing the connexion between the schoolman and 
 the reformer." He adds : " The theory of dominion, 
 involving the relation of Church and State, ought never, 
 in justice to its author, to be published without his 
 own declaration that it was put forth as an ideal, and 
 v.'ith the full admission that it was incompatible, in 
 many of its results, with the existing state of society."- 
 It occurs very seldom in his English works, designed 
 for popular use, but more frequently in his Latin 
 works. He could not, therefore, have intended to 
 bring it prominently before the people. It is thus 
 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. ii., p. 50. 
 ^ "Fascic. Zizan.," p. Ixii. 
 
74 
 
 JOHN WJCLll'. 
 
 . Stated in one of the former : — " God is," he says, 
 ^ "and has dominion over all. Each man, in his 
 degree, is bounden to serve God, and if he does 
 not render this service he is no lord of goods of 
 true title, for he that standeth in grace is the true 
 lord of things, and whoever faileth, by default of 
 grace, he faileth short of the right title of that which 
 he occupieth, and makes himself unfit to have the 
 gifts of God."^ We know that many in former times 
 have asserted that he used this theory to incite the 
 populace to riot and insurrection ; and that there 
 are some in the present day who bring the same 
 accusation against him. We ask, however, whether 
 it is at all likely that a man honoured by royalty, 
 and by an association with John of Gaunt, the 
 wealthiest man in the country, having, too, as we 
 have seen, a veneration for the Constitution of Eng- 
 land, would have been guilty of propagating wild and 
 revolutionary dogmas? That it was only a theory 
 is evident from the fact that he distinctly asserts that 
 we cannot tell when a man is living in mortal sin, 
 and that, therefore, we cannot decide when he has 
 forfeited his dominion. A man cannot tell his own 
 state, much less that of others. " If the Pope asked 
 me," he says, " whether I Avere ordained to be saved, 
 or predestinate, I would say that I hoped so, but I 
 would not swear it, nor affirm it without condition, 
 though he greatly punished me j nor deny it, nor 
 doubt it, would I no way."- 
 
 ' " Select English Works," by Arnold, vol. iii., p. 88. 
 - "Select English Works," Arnold, vol. iii., p. 426. 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 75 
 
 We might easily bring forward passage after passage 
 from his writings, showing that no doctrine embraced 
 by him in the least degree affected the legal posses- 
 sion of property, and that he asserts the duty of 
 obedience even to wicked rulers. He has expressed 
 that duty in the apparently irreverent phrase, " God 
 ought to obey the devil," which was brought against 
 him as a heresy in the Council of London. He is 
 using the exaggerated language of the schools, and 
 is asserting that, as Christ ministered to Judas 
 Iscariot when Satan had taken possession of him, 
 as He submitted himself to Satan when He stood 
 before him on the mount of temptation, so we must 
 obey those rulers on whose moral conduct we must 
 pronounce the strongest condemnation. He asserts 
 the same duties as to property and obedience in the 
 following passage : ^ " Some men slander poor priests 
 with this error, that servants or tenants may lawfully 
 withhold rents or service from their lords when their 
 lords are openly wicked in their living. And they 
 invent this falsehood upon poor priests to make their 
 lords to hate them." In answer, it is stated that 
 " Men are charged of God by Peter and Paul to be 
 thus subject to wicked lords, and that Christ and his 
 Apostles paid tribute even to heathen emperors." 
 And, again, he says : " Moreover it were to wit, how 
 common men should flee this sin, and serve God 
 and man. By the law of God, they should serve 
 meekly God and their lords, and do true service to 
 
 ' ."Of Servants and Lords," the English Works of Wiclif, 
 Matthew, p. 229. 
 
76 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 God and their masters. . . By the law of Christ, 
 if the lord be an untrue man and tyrant to his sub- 
 jects, they should yet serve him. I have not read in 
 God's law that subjects should fight with their 
 worldly sovereigns ; but Christ taught us by patience 
 to vanquish our enemies, and win the bliss of heaven, 
 but not with other striving." ^ And again : " St. Peter 
 commandeth, in God's name. Christian men to be 
 subject to every ordinance of men, either the king — 
 as higher than any other — or to governors as sent by 
 him, for the punishment of mis-doers or for the 
 praise of good men. Also St. Paul commandeth, by 
 authority of God, that every soul be subject to 
 higher powers, for there is no power but of 
 God. . . . Through need, be ye subject not 
 only for wrath, but for conscience. Pay to all men 
 debts, both tribute, and custom, and fear, and 
 honour, and love. Our Saviour Jesus Christ suffered 
 meekly a painful death from Pilate ; and St. Paul 
 said that he was ready to suffer death, by doom of 
 the Emperor's justice, if he deserved to die." - 
 
 We think, then, that it must be abundantly evident 
 that there was no fear that Wiclif Avould use this 
 theory for the disintegration of society. On the 
 contrary, in proposing it, he was influenced by the 
 
 ' Treatise on " Seven Deadly .Sins," Select English Works, 
 edited by Arnold, vol. iii., p. 147. See also Tract " De 
 Sex Jugis," in Lecliler, vol. ii., p. 366, expressed in nearly the 
 same language as the above extract. This should be particularly 
 noticed because it is a tract for the instruction of " poorpriests." 
 
 ^ "Great Sentence of Curse Expounded," Select English 
 Works, Arnold, c. xi., v. iii., p. 297. 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 7 7 
 
 highest and the purest patriotism. His object was 
 to remove the foundation of a false and dangerous 
 theory. He wished that England should add to her 
 manifold titles of glory in the reign of Edward III., 
 — of which I shall speak directly — this, the noblest 
 and purest of all — that she opposed as strongly as 
 possible the claim of the Pope to exercise supreme 
 control in the body politic. The explanation of this 
 theory of Dominion will enable us the better to under- 
 stand the position which he assumed when, as we 
 shall see directly, he asserted that the badge of a 
 degrading vassalage should not again be imposed 
 on England; that no Italian priest should " tithe l--^ 
 and toll in our dominions and when, advancing 
 farther than the Hohenstaufens and Lewis, the 
 Bavarian — who contended only for the autonomy of 
 the State in purely civil affairs — he maintained that 
 she had a perfect right to interfere in the internal 
 affairs of the Church when she can render her more 
 subservient to the high and holy purpose for which 
 she was originally established. 
 
 We must remember that Wiclif was born a few 
 years before the commencement of the reign ot 
 Edward III., and that he died seven years after its 
 close. During many years of this reign England was 
 at the zenith of her glory. While we may deplore the 
 struggle between the rival monarchs, and the bitter- 
 ness which made it a " Hundred Years' War," we must 
 admit that the battles of Crecy and Poictiers, and the 
 exploits of the Black Prince, have shed an imperish- 
 able glory on the land of our birth. This, too, was 
 
78 
 
 JOHN WICUF. 
 
 the age of great men : of Wiclif ; of Chaucer, the 
 morning star of English poetry, in whose verse we 
 seem to see spread before us a carpet of perpetual 
 verdure, adorned with beautiful flowers, and to hear 
 the song of the lark and the nightingale ringing out 
 from field and thicket ; of Sir John Maundeville, the 
 author of the " Travels," the earliest known work in 
 English prose ; of William of Wykeham, celebrated 
 as a statesman, and as the founder of one of the 
 greatest of our public schools, and of one of the most 
 distinguished of our colleges at Oxford. Parliament, 
 too, in this reign asserted its right to give its voice 
 in questions of peace and war, to control the national 
 expenditure, and to regulate the whole course of the 
 civil administration. Commerce, also, released from 
 the restrictions imposed upon it, poured into the lap 
 of England the products of foreign lands. This 
 splendid reign, too, witnessed the recognition by law 
 of the EngUsh language, when it was in danger of 
 being displaced by the French, and the rise of that 
 national literature which is one of the glories of the 
 land of our birth. Such, too, was the general pro- 
 sperity after the victories in France that, as Walsing- 
 ham informs us,i " it seemed as if a new sun had 
 arisen, on account of the abundance of peace, the 
 plenty and the glory of victories." He adds : "There 
 was no woman who had not got garments, furs, 
 feather-beds, and utensils from the spoils of Calais 
 and other foreign cities. Then began the English 
 
 Walsingham, edit. 1863, p. 272. 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAX. 
 
 79 
 
 matrons to glorify themselves in the dresses of the 
 matrons of Celtic Gaul." England too, at this time 
 entered her indignant protest against the corruptions 
 and exactions of the Papacy. This reign also is for 
 ever memorable as the time when Wiclif began that 
 work which, carried on, as we shall see hereafter, 
 beneath the surface of society, issued in the deliver- 
 ance of England from the yoke of an intolerable 
 bondage. Chivalrv, too, shed a parting gleam upon 
 our native land. AVe have from the hands of 
 Chaucer, its great poet, the beautiful portrait of the 
 true gentle knight, in the prologue to the " Canter- 
 bury Tales" : — 
 
 " That from the time that he first began 
 To riden out, he loved chyvalrie, 
 Trouthe and honour, fredom and curtesie ; 
 As well in Cristendom as in hethenesse. 
 At mortal battailes hadde he ben fiftene, 
 And foughlen for our faith at Tramissene. 
 And though that he was worthy, he was wise, 
 And of his port as meke as is a mayde, 
 He never yet no vileinye ne sayde 
 In all his lyf unto no manere wight. 
 He was a verray parfit gentil knight." 
 
 The establishment, also, of the Order of the Garter, 
 and the warlike spirit called into action by the 
 French wars, led to those tournaments where dis- 
 tinguished knights contended with one another for 
 the chaplet with which the Queen of Beauty and of 
 Love encircled the brows of the conqueror in the 
 mimic battle-ground. 
 
8o 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 The year 1363, observed as a jubilee in honour 
 of the completion of the king's fiftieth year, saw, 
 as Professor Shirley states, in eloquent language, 
 three suppliant kings gathered round the Court of 
 Edward and his yet more illustrious son. ^ John, 
 king of France, the captive of Poictiers, was living in 
 London, at the palace of the Savoy, waiting till his 
 ransom could be paid. King David of Scotland, 
 himself not long since a captive in Edward's hands, 
 was now pleading for a reduction of his ransom ; 
 and from the farthest east of Christendom, the king 
 of Cyprus had come to ask for aid from the first of 
 Christian knights against the encroaching power of 
 the infidel, who was adding the kingdoms of the 
 Crusaders, one after another, to his dominions, and 
 was advancing westward with rapid strides. But there 
 were signs that this splendour would soon vanish 
 away. In consequence of the treaty of Bretigny, 
 concluded in 1360, after a war of twenty-two years, 
 one-third of the kingdom of France had been ceded 
 ' to England. The existence of this kingdom within 
 a kingdom was very galling to the pride of the 
 French. It was evident that the king of France 
 would endeavour very soon to recover the Provinces 
 which had been wrested from him, and to eject the 
 hated foreigner from the territory of France. The 
 public burdens might soon be increased ; the wheels 
 of the great machine of legislation might be clogged 
 and impeded ; the wings of enterprise might be 
 
 ' " Fascic. Zizan.," p. xviii. 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN'. 8 1 
 
 clipped ; commerce might be paralyzed ; and many, 
 once nursed in the lap of luxury and ease, might 
 become dependent for the means of support on the 
 precarious charity of strangers. 
 
 The king of France, anxious to wound the national 
 pride of England, induced the Pope, who resided at 
 Avignon, and was a mere tool in his hands, to make 
 application for the annual payment of the tribute of 
 I, coo marks, to which King John had subjected the 
 country, when he knelt, in abject submission, at the 
 feet of the imperious Pandulph, and received back 
 his crown in token of his subjection to his authority. 
 The Pope was very willing to comply with his request 
 on the declaration of war with France in 1365. The 
 payment had been made from the first with the 
 greatest irregularity. Edward III. had never allowed 
 it to be paid since he attained his majority. The 
 Pope now demanded the payment of the arrears. 
 Edward very wisely summoned his Parliament in 
 \ 1366, and placed the matter before it. 
 
 We may readily imagine the result of this appeal. 
 It was not at all likely that the nation would submit 
 to this disgraceful thraldom when they had seen, as 
 I have said, the extension of their liberties, and when 
 their hearts were glowing with lofty emotions on 
 account of the victories of their armies. They acted 
 in the spirit of those illustrious men who had wrested 
 Magna Charta from an arbitrary monarch. The 
 prelates at first seemed to shrink from opposition to 
 the Pope ; for they requested a day to consider the 
 matter by themselves. But the next day they, with 
 
82 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 the " other dukes, earls, barons, and great men," 
 answered that " neither King John, nor anybody 
 else, could put himself, nor his kingdom, nor his 
 people, under subjection without their accord and 
 consent." The Commons answered in the same 
 spirited manner. An ordinance was made in accord- 
 ance with that answer, to which there was the follow- 
 ing addition : " That it appeared, by many evidences, 
 that it (John's submission) was done without their 
 assent and against the coronation oath."i The 
 result was that the Pope, awed by this spirited 
 address, withdrew from this attempt to coerce the 
 free people of England ; and that only once since, in 
 1374, when Gregory XL repeated the demand, have 
 the popes attempted to impose upon England this 
 badge of an ignominious bondage. ^ 
 / This occasion was important not only on its own 
 
 account, but also because it was the means of bring- 
 ing forward Wiclif on the political stage. His fame 
 must at this time have spread beyond Oxford, for it 
 appears that he was in favour with the king, and 
 was, perhaps — as we gather from a paper printed by 
 Lewis'' — one of the royal chaplains. An unknown 
 doctor of theology had challenged Wiclif to show 
 that the king had not forfeited the kingdom of 
 England,_because he had not fulfilled the condition 
 on which he held it in fief, that he should pay 700 
 marks a year to the Papal Court. He had also main- 
 
 ' "Rot. Pari.," vol. ii., p. 290. 
 
 = " English Works of Wiclif," by F. D. Matthew, p. vi., n. 2. 
 3 Lewis's "Life, p. 349." 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 83 
 
 tained that temporal lords must never, under any 
 pretext, withdraw their possessions from churchmen. 
 Wiclif, in his reply, printed by Lewis,^ mentions 
 three reasons, suggested by others, for which, much 
 to his surprise, he had been singled out for attack by 
 this writer, whom he designates as viixthii theologus, 
 " the medley doctor," as Dr. Shirley translates it,- — 
 (i) That he may be compromised with the Roman 
 Court and deprived of his benefices; (2) That his 
 opponent, with his connexions, might obtain the 
 favour of that Court ; (3) That, as an effect of 
 a more unHmited dominion of the Pope over 
 England, the abbeys may obtain more plentifully 
 civil possessions without the hindrance of fraternal 
 rebuke. We find that he does not give an opinion 
 on the subject, but directs his opponent to the 
 opinion which had been given in the Council of 
 Temporal I>ords. The first peer said : " Our 
 ancestors obtained possession of this kingdom of 
 England, and held it against all by the sword. I>et 
 the Pope come and wrest it by force from us ; I am 
 ready to resist him." The fourth says: "The Pope 
 claims to be the sovereign of all the estates held by 
 the Church. Now those estates held in mortmain 
 amount to one-third of the realm. There cannot be 
 two sovereigns. The Pope has not done homage for 
 these estates, for which he is plainly the king's 
 vassal. He is liable to a forfeiture of them." The 
 fifth is more skilful in his argument: "On what 
 
 ' Lewis's " Life,'" p. 340. 
 "Fa'cic. Zizan.,"p. xx>ii. 
 0 2 
 
84 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 ground was this impost granted by King John ? AVas 
 it for the benefit of personal absokition granted to 
 himself, or for the removal of the interdict laid on 
 the kingdom, or for any forfeiture incurred by the 
 monarch ? If for either of the two former reasons, 
 the transaction was basely simoniacal and iniquitous ; 
 but if for the last reason, the Pope would be the liege 
 lord of our King. He might, for any pretended for- 
 feiture, pluck the crown from the head of our 
 SDvereign. And who," adds the speaker, "is to 
 resist the beginnings of such encroachments, if 7tv 
 do not?" The seventh boldly denied the right of 
 John to surrender the realm. " He could not, in 
 his folly, give it away. The whole, the Royal 
 Charter, signature, and seal is absolutely void." 
 
 Dr. Lechler and Dr. Shirley accept the substance 
 of the speeches of the seven lords given in the tract, 
 as an e.xact representation of the arguments on the 
 occasion, and Dr. Shirley calls it " the earliest 
 instance of a report of a Parliamentary debate." ' 
 I have reserved the answers of three of these lords, 
 that by means of them I may refute that assertion. 
 I cannot suppose that the English peers 500 years 
 ago would have displayed the same eloquence and 
 the same argumentative powers for which the House 
 of Lords in the present day is pre-eminently distin- 
 guished. AVe observe, too, that the speeches contain 
 /AA'iclif s theory of Dominion, founded in grace, already 
 referred to ; and his opinion, afterwards distinctly 
 
 ' " Fascic, Zizan.," p. xix. 
 
WICLIF AS A rOLITICIAX. 
 
 85 
 
 expressed, that the Pope may fall into sin, which 
 only men of the boldest minds had as yet entertained. 
 Thus, the sixth lord says that " Christ himself is the 
 Lord Paramount, and the Pope is a fallible man, 
 who, in the event of his falling into mortal sin, loses 
 his lordship, in the judgment of theologians, and, 
 therefore, cannot make good any right to the pos- 
 session of England. It is enough, therefore, that we 
 hold our kingdom directly from Christ in fief, 
 because He is the Lord Paramount, who alone, and 
 by himself, authorises every right of property allowed 
 to created beings." We see, too, that the third lord 
 attacks the Pope in a manner which Wiclif, speaking 
 in his own name, would hardly have had the bold- 
 ness to assume in the early part of his career. He 
 says that " the servant of the servants of God should 
 take no tribute from Christ, except for services ren- 
 dered, and we know by experience well enough that 
 the Pope and cardinals leave us without help, either 
 in body or soul." We observe, too, in the germ his 
 view that voluntary poverty is incumbent on the 
 clergy, of which I shall hereafter give such an expla- 
 nation as will serve to rescue him from those who 
 advocate the same view in the times in which we 
 live. The second lord says, " It is the duty of the 
 Pope to be a prominent follower of Christ ; but 
 Chriht refused to be a possessor of worldly dominion. 
 The Pope, therefore, is bound to make the same 
 refusal." We see then the use of this tract in 
 enabling us to obtain an insight into his progressive 
 development. We observe, too, that every speaker 
 
86 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 pOnfines himself to one distinct argument in support 
 of the same general view as the other speakers, a fact 
 which can only be explained on the supposition that 
 Ihey are the production of the same person. While, 
 therefore, I do not wish to deny that some speeches 
 may have formed the groundwork of this tract, I 
 must at the same time maintain that Wiclif made 
 them the vehicle of opinions which he did not wish 
 directly in his own person to exp ress. 
 
 I cannot deny that, at first view, there is some 
 colour for the assertion of Dr. Lech ler, that Wiclif 
 heard these speeches as a Member of Parliament.' 
 In the same tract, which contains the speeches of the 
 lords, he is represented as saying, " If such things 
 had been asserted by me against my king, they 
 would have been inquired into befo re now in the 
 Parliament of the English lords." - Dr. Lechler 
 imagines that if they had only been published in 
 writing, they could not have been made the subject 
 of inquiry in Parliament. If, however, he had uttered 
 such sentiments in Parliament, the patriotic ardour 
 of the members would have ensured his immediate 
 condemnation. Again, Lechler supposes that the 
 words, " Peculiaris regis clericus," do not refer, as is 
 commonly supposed, to the fact that Wiclif was a 
 royal chaplain, but that they must be understood as 
 intimating that he was one of the six masters sum- 
 moned by the king as a " clerical expert," or, in 
 modern phrase, as a " Government commissioner," 
 
 ' Lorimer's "Lechler," v. i., pp. 211-214. 
 - Lewis's " Life." p. 350. 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 87 
 
 to the Parliament of 1366. In one of the Vienna 
 manuscripts, as yet unprinted, he remarks that 
 the Bishop of Rochester (this, without doubt, was 
 Thomas Trillek) had told him under great ex- 
 citement, in open sitting of Parliament, that the 
 propositions which he had set forth in controversy 
 had been condemned by the Papal Court." He here 
 refers to a Parliament held in 1376 ; but if he were a 
 member of this Parliament, as Dr. Lechler argues, 
 he may very well have been a Member of the Parlia- 
 ment of 1366. The fact that his name does not 
 occur in the list of Magistri" summoned to any 
 Parliament during this period, seems to settle the 
 point of actual membership. He may, however, have 
 been summoned to attend the King's Council in 
 1376, when the Bishop of Rochester made this 
 attack upon him.^ It is also quite possible that he 
 may have attended Parliament on special occasions. 
 But though all may not agree as to his membership,, 
 and as to the speeches, yet we must all allow that in 
 this, his first appearance in public life, he interfered 
 powerfully in the settlement of a question which 
 involved the honour of the crown, the independence 
 and welfare of his native country, and her deliverance 
 from the yoke of an ignominious bondage. 
 
 We shall find that we are not able to follow, as we 
 could wish, during the next six or seven years, the 
 progress of Wiclifs development. We only twice 
 catch a glimpse of him amid the stirring events of 
 
 ' "Wiclifs Place in History," by Professor M. Buirows, 
 pp. 60, 61. 
 
88 
 
 JOHN -WICLIF. 
 
 which England and France were the theatre. We 
 witness during this period, and the remainder of 
 Edward's reign, the gradual decline of that prosperity 
 and glory for which the preceding part of it was dis- 
 tinguished. This decline is coincident with the 
 public life of Wiclif. The Castilians had, in 1366, 
 risen in insurrection against their King, Don Pedro, 
 on account of his tyranny and crimes, and had dis- 
 possessed him of his kingdom, which they conferred 
 upon his bastard brother, Henry of Trastamare. The 
 Prince of Wales, having regard to the treaty of 
 alliance which once existed between Castile and 
 England, determined to effect his restoration to the 
 throne of his ancestors. His nobility in vain 
 remonstrated with him against the expedition, repre- 
 senting to him that he ought not to take up arms in 
 behalf of one who was a monster in human shape. 
 But he would not abandon his purpose. The result 
 was the brilliant victory of Navarrete, which shed a 
 parting gleam on the arms of Great Britain. 
 
 But now disaster after disaster came upon England. 
 The Black Prince, having been unable to obtain from 
 Pedro any assistance towards defraying the expenses 
 of the expedition, was obliged to impose a tax upon 
 Aquitaine. The result was that the inhabitants were 
 alienated from the English, and that they did not 
 display any enthusiasm for their cause in the war 
 which followed with the king of France. The cam- 
 paign in Spain had planted the seeds of a disease in 
 the constitution of the Black Prince, which weakened 
 his energies and damped his military ardour. The 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 89 
 
 pressure of danger in France seemed for a time to 
 re-animate him. A short and terrible campaign, like 
 the desolating course of the simoom over the deserts 
 of Arabia, ended with the awful massacre of Limoges, 
 where his soldiers, in obedience to his commands, 
 —because he wished to punish the inhabitants for the 
 treachery of the bishop in giving up the city to the 
 French, amid piteous cries of " Mercy, mercy, gentle 
 Sire "' ! — bathed their swords in the blood of 3,000 un- 
 offending men, women, and helpless children.^ But 
 this was only the flickering of the lamp before it 
 expired. He was obliged to return to England, 
 leaving his brother, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lan- 
 caster, to occupy his place. A terrible calamity now 
 befel the navy of England. She reaped another 
 bitter fruit of the invasion of Castile. The gigantic 
 ships of the king of Castile, bearing down on an 
 English fleet, conveying troops and treasure to 
 Rochelle, captured, defeated, or sank every vessel of 
 the squadron. A magnificent English army, under 
 the command of John of Gaunt, after a marauding 
 march through France without a decisive engagement) 
 which the French had orders to avoid, perished from 
 famine on the bleak and desolate mountains of 
 Auvergne. Thus Aquitaine was lost to the English. 
 At length Edward, enslaved by a debasing passion for 
 Alice Ferrers, one of the ladies-in-waiting on his 
 former queen, sank into a dishonoured grave, pre- 
 ceded by only one year by his son the Black Prince, 
 
 ' Buchon's "Froissart," vol. i., p. 620. 
 
9° 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 and leaving, through mis-government, a heritage of 
 woe to his successor. 
 
 This decHne in the grandeur and prosperity of 
 England pressed heavily on the spirits of the nation 
 Formerly, as we have seen, after the French victories, 
 the wealth of France had flowed in a golden tide 
 through the country. In 137 1, the people had 
 reached the utmost limit of taxation. The demands 
 of the war, which required greater exertions than ever, 
 pressed upon a greatly diminished population. Under 
 these circumstances, the eyes of all turned to the 
 Church, ever becoming richer in the midst of the 
 general distress. It was, therefore, determined to 
 deal with the property of the clergy and of the 
 religious houses.^ The former had laid themselves 
 open to attack, because they had, in direct violation 
 of the statutes of mortmain, passed in the reigns of 
 Henry III., Edward I., and Edward III., received 
 lands without the king's licence. The proposal 
 excited great indignation among the clergy. All 
 ecclesiastical property had hitherto been regarded as 
 sacred. The Primate Whittlesea ascended the pulpit 
 of St. Paul's Cathedral, and was proceeding to argue 
 that the clergy are free from all taxation but what is 
 self-imposed, when he found the effort too great for 
 his exhausted nature, and sank down in a fainting fit. 
 The clergy saw in these proceedings an aggression on 
 their rights. The result, however, was that the tenth 
 voted by the clergy in Convocation was laid on all the 
 
 Hook's "Lives of the Archbishops," v. iv., p. 235. 
 
WICMF AS A POLITICIAN. 9 1 
 
 smaller livings, -which had hitherto been exempt, and 
 that a heavy tax was laid on all lands which had 
 passed into mortmain since the twentieth year of 
 Edward I. 
 
 A\'iclif, in a passage in the " De Dominio Civili," 
 which Dr. Shirley assigns to 1371, enables us to see 
 the passing feeling of the hour. He is replying to a 
 sermon preached before the University.^ He was 
 probably the only one of the clergy who approved of 
 the course taken by Parliament. "The preacher 
 seemed to be desiring to urge on you that none of 
 the religious orders (the monks) in England ought to 
 pay tenths or fifteenths or any tax, however much 
 they may have been endowed with temporal goods, or 
 however difficult or threatening may be the case of 
 the king. I have heard that the religious orders 
 made this claim in a Parliament in London, and a 
 jjeer who was cleverer than the rest made answer in 
 the form of this fable. I have heard, he said, that 
 once upon a time the small birds were gathered 
 together, and among them was an owl without 
 l)lumage ; pretending that he was half dead, and 
 shivering with cold, he plaintively besought the other 
 birds to give him feathers. Moved by compassion, 
 they added feather after feather till the owl had lost 
 his former shape beneath the load of feathers belong- 
 ing to other birds. But then a hawk suddenly 
 appeared, and the birds, to repel the hawk's attack 
 by defending themselves, or to escape his swoop by 
 
 ' Lechler's "Life," v. i., p. 21S; and " Fascic. Zizan.," 
 p. xxi. 
 
92 
 
 JOHN WICIJF. 
 
 flight, demanded back from the owl the feathers that 
 belonged to them. He refused, and then each bird 
 forcibly took its own feathers. Thus they escaped 
 the danger, but the owl was left more wretchedly 
 featherless than before. In like manner, said our 
 peer, since war has gathered upon us, we ought to 
 take back the temporal goods of the orders, as be- 
 longing to us and the realm, and so, with our own 
 goods, wisely defend our realm." 
 
 A proposal was also made to the king, in the same 
 Parliament, that ecclesiastics should be excluded 
 from offices of State. The conviction had been 
 growing in the country that they ought to form a 
 distinct profession, and that they ought to confine 
 themselves to the discharge of the duties of their high 
 and heavenly calling. Langland, in his " Vision of 
 Piers Plowman," is strong on this grievance : — 
 
 " Some sei'ven the kinge, and his selver tellen, 
 
 In the Checkkere and the Chauncelrie, chalengynge his dettes 
 Of Wardes and of Waidemotes, wayves andstrayes." 
 
 They had hitherto as statesmen swayed the destinies 
 of the country, or as lawyers had presided in our 
 courts of justice, or in some other secular capacity 
 had occupied a conspicuous place in public affairs. 
 The ignorant heroes of the middle ages, who made 
 war their pastime, looked down with contempt on 
 that learning which could alone qualify them to hold 
 high offices of State. Of .his class Lord Douglas, 
 in " Marmion," was a specimen : — 
 
 " Thanks to St. Bothan, son of mine, 
 Save Gawain, ne'er could pen a line." 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 93 
 
 But now men were coming forward who, having been 
 better educated than their forefathers, did not wish 
 to languish in obscurity, but desired to devote their 
 energies to the service of their country. 
 
 John of Gaunt promoted this movement, because 
 he was, for some unknown reason, the bitter enemy 
 of the Chancellor, William of Wykeham, the cele- 
 brated Bishop of Winchester. Through the influence 
 of the infamous Alice Ferrers, with whom he had 
 entered into a close alliance, the king was pleased to 
 grant the prayer of a petition presented to him by 
 Parliament, and to dismiss the ecclesiastics. Sir 
 Robert Thorpe was appointed Chancellor instead or 
 the Bishop of Winchester, and Lord Scrope of Bolton 
 took the place of the Bishop of Exeter. We are 
 unable to say what share Wiclif had in this move- 
 ment. Probably he aided it, as we find strong 
 passages against the employment of ecclesiastics in 
 his works, the date of which is doubtful, and, as we 
 know, he had influence in high quarters. " Neither 
 prelates nor doctors," he writes, " priests nor deacons, 
 should hold secular offices — that is those of chancery, 
 treasury, privy-seal, and other such temporal offices 
 in the exchequer." In another place he makes an 
 allusion to the former offices of Wykeham. The 
 reference is to the office which he held in the 
 royal household, and to the additions which, as 
 architect, he made to Windsor Castle. " Benefices, 
 instead of being bestowed on poor clerks, are heaped 
 on a kitchen clerk, or one wise in building castles 
 
94 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 or in worldly business." ^ The movement was, how- 
 ever, premature. In five years the Duke of Lancaster 
 suggested the appointment of a clerical chancellor 
 in the person of the Bishop of St. David's. A long 
 time must elapse before a sufficient income could be 
 obtained from these high offices of State to enable 
 those who held them to dispense with the extraneous 
 assistance from the emoluments of the Church. The 
 practice continued till the middle of the seventeenth 
 century, when Bishop Williams of Lincoln was the 
 last clerical chancellor. 
 
 One object of this exclusion was to place the 
 country in an attitude of decided opposition to the 
 exactions of the Papacy. These last were now 
 intensified to a degree beyond the possibility of 
 endurance. We learn from a paper lately discovered 
 at Vienna, that Arnald Garnier, the Papal agent, had, 
 in 1372 and in following years, been travelling about 
 England in great state, engaged in the collection of 
 dues for the apostolic chamber. The object of 
 Wiclif was to show that he could not keep the oath 
 which he had been compelled to take on his appoint- 
 ment to this office, that he would do nothing pre- 
 judicial to the interests of England, and that he had, 
 in fact, broken it when he had poured large sums of 
 money, collected in this country, into the Papal 
 coffers. We have in this remarkable paper the 
 manifestation of the spirit of the Christian patriot, 
 anxious for the promotion of the best interests of his 
 
 ' Vaughan's "Life of Wiclif," vol. i., p. 314; and Hook's 
 "Lives," vu!. iv., ] p. -31 233. 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 95 
 
 native country. It was not written till 1377 ; but 
 we may consider it now, because it refers to events 
 which had taken place during an intervening period. 
 He recognises the authority of Parliament, the 
 increase in whose power during his life-time gave him 
 the assurance that England would now enjoy more 
 than heretofore the blessings of liberty and inde- 
 pendence. He wishes also that she may not be 
 crippled in her resources, lest she should be unable 
 to triumph as before on well-fought battle-fields. He 
 shows that the Church in this country is robbed of 
 her endowments ; that the poor are deprived of the 
 alms intended for their support ; that the services of 
 the Church cannot be carried on as heretofore ; and 
 that the king is deprived of the money which he 
 wants for the payment of his army. He boldly 
 declares, again, that the Pope may commit sin ; he 
 exposes those mental reservations which deprive an 
 oath of its binding force, and asserts that Holy 
 Scripture must be our guide in all matters relating to 
 our best and everlasting interests. Here, as Lechler 
 says, we " have the earliest germs of his later strivings 
 for the good of the Church."^ 
 
 Wiclif's appointment, in the year 1374, to the 
 office of commissioner at Bruges, shows the confidence ' 
 reposed in him as a man of ability, integrity, and 
 courage, and a firm opponent of the Papal claims. 
 The Papacy was still — notwithstanding the Statute of 
 Provisors, passed in the reign of Edward I., which 
 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. i., pp. 220-225. 
 
96 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 was re-enacted in 1351, 1353, and 1363, with 
 penalties rising one above another in severity — con- 
 ferring benefices in England on its creatures, the 
 revenues of which they spent in luxurious living in 
 foreign countries. The Statute of Praemunire forbade 
 all appeals in cases of property from the English to 
 the Papal Court. An abortive embassy to Avignon, 
 on the subject, in the year 1373, was followed by 
 another to Bruges in 1374, where John of Gaunt, with 
 other distinguished persons, was engaged in endea- 
 vouring to conclude a treaty of peace with France. 
 The Bishop of Bangor was the first, and Wiclif 
 was the second, on the commission. They had 
 power to conclude a treaty with the Papal nuncios on 
 the disputed points. The Duke of Lancaster had 
 probably been instrumental in his appointment. He 
 may have known him for some years, and must have 
 felt that he was likely to promote his own political 
 objects, one of the most important of which was the 
 exclusion of ecclesiastics from all share in the 
 administration of public affairs. At all events, his 
 personal knowledge of Wiclif must have increased 
 during his residence at Bruges. may imagine 
 
 them in some ancient apartment of that ancient town, 
 after the day's proceedings were concluded, engaged 
 in discussing those questions regarding the relations 
 of Church and State by which the minds of men 
 were so much agitated. Wiclif showed his zeal in the 
 matter by embarking in London on the 27 th of July, 
 1374, the day after the commission had been issued. 
 The Congress sat till September, 1375. The result 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 97 
 
 of this Commission was most unsatisfactory. The 
 Pope revoked, by six Bulls, issued in September, 
 1375, all the reservations of Urban which had not 
 taken effect ; he confirmed the nomination of those 
 presented by the king without first fruits, and put an 
 end to all the causes in his Court on the subject of 
 Provisors. But these concessions related only to the 
 past. For the future he did not abate one iota of his 
 claims. He did, indeed, afterwards abandon his 
 claim to the reservation of English benefices, but 
 only on a condition which might hereafter furnish 
 him with a reason for recovering what he had seemed 
 to surrender, that the king should abstain from con- 
 ferring benefices' by royal command. Respecting 
 the independence of Chapters on Papal confirmation, 
 a most important matter, nothing is said in the treaty. 
 
 This celebrated Conference had an important effect 
 on Wiclif himself. We could have wished, indeed, 
 that as Luther went to Rome, so Wiclif could have 
 gone to Avignon, that he might have witnessed the 
 corruptions of the Papacy at their fountain-head. 
 He saw, however, enough in the conduct of the 
 subordinate agents of the Papacy to satisfy him that 
 venality, intrigue, and corruption were the moving 
 springs of the Papal Court. This visit to Bruges was, 
 therefore, a most important means of his education. 
 He returned with a firmer determination to exert everv 
 effort to cleanse the Augajan stable. This determina- 
 tion was strengthened by the chicanery of the Papal 
 Court, which defeated the end of the lengthened Con- 
 ference. In Bruges, too, the emporium of Europe, 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 JOHN' WICI.IF. 
 
 the head of the celebrated Hanseatic League, 
 formed for the protection of commerce from the 
 feudal tyrants by whom it was surrounded, he would 
 be reminded that he ought to offer a firm resistance 
 to the exactions of the civil or ecclesiastical oppressor. 
 
 We find in the history of the last two years of 
 Edward III, a great confusion of religious and political 
 interests. The Parliament opposes John of Gaunt, who 
 agrees with it in condemning the corruptions and usur- 
 pations of the Papacy, and fills the council of the king 
 with high Churchmen, including William of Wykeham, 
 the celebrated Bishop of "Winchester, while it pre- 
 sents petitions against the abuse of the Papal power, 
 which might have been prepared by Wiclif himself. 
 We must endeavour to find the clue to guide us 
 through the intricate labyrinth. - AVe believe, with 
 Dean Milman, that it may be found partly in the 
 devoted attachment of the nation to the Prince of 
 Wales.' He had gratified the passion of the nation 
 for military glory. The people had rent the air with 
 acclamations, as, leading a king captive, he had rolled 
 in his triumphal car through the streets of London. 
 He was remarkable for his affability and courtesy. 
 He was the model of chivalry. The only stain on 
 his character was the massacre at Limoges. They 
 felt, from the progress of his disorder, that they 
 should be soon called upon to bend in anguish over 
 his tomb ; but they knew that, if the line of succes- 
 sion were not broken, his son would succeed to the 
 
 ' Milman's " Latin Christianity," vol. viii., pp. 171, 172. 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 99 
 
 throne of his ancestors. Now John of Gaunt was 
 credited with the design of depriving him of his 
 paternal inheritance. This, then, was the first cause 
 of his unpopularity. 
 
 Another cause is to be found in the decline of the 
 prosperity and glory which have come before us.* 
 The nation did not murmur at the great expenditure 
 occasioned by the war when they saw their warriors 
 returning, crowned with laurels, from well-fought 
 battle-fields. But the dissatisfaction was great when 
 England was no longer mistress of the seas, when her 
 navy was annihilated, when her shores were at the 
 mercy of every pirate, and when, through the military 
 incapacity of John of Gaunt, the most magnificent 
 army which she had sent forth had perished from 
 starvation, and all her conquests in France, excepting 
 Calais, had been wrested from her. The dissatisfac- 
 tion arising from this cause was increased by the 
 profuse expenditure of the Court, the usurious loans 
 obtained by the king from private persons, and other 
 scandalous financial transactions.'- The infamous 
 Alice Ferrers, too, was amassing enormous wealth. 
 She sat on the bench with the judges, and "defended 
 false causes everywhere, by unlawful means, to get 
 possessions for her own use, and if in any place she 
 was resisted, then she went to the king, by whose 
 power she was presently helped." ^ Now, John of 
 
 ' " WicliPs Place in History," by Professor M. Burrows, 
 p. 74 ; and Longman's " Life of Edward III.," vol. ii., p. 246. 
 ' Stubbs' "Constitutional History," vol. ii., p. 467. 
 ^ Longmans "Edward HL," vol. ii., p. 253. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 JOHN WICLIF 
 
 Gaunt, in order that he might hold the reins of power 
 through her influence with the king, had given his 
 sanction to this corruption and profuse expenditure. 
 We see then other causes of his unpopularity. 
 
 The people and their representatives could not, 
 therefore, associate themselves with him. The Prince 
 of Wales shared their alarm as to his ambitious 
 designs. He was also anxious that a check should 
 be placed on the profuse expenditure of the Court. 
 He, therefore, used his influence with his father to 
 break up the government of the Duke of Lancaster. 
 He called to his councils William of Wykeham. The 
 Bishop of St. David's became Chancellor. In the 
 latter end of April, 1376, the "Good Parliament" 
 sat at Westminster. The members had, indeed, 
 strongly objected to the employment of ecclesiastics 
 as Ministers of State. But they now associated them- 
 selves with them because they saw that this was the 
 only means of removing the abuses which prevailed 
 in the Court and Government. This Parliament 
 deserves the name of " Good " on account of its 
 vigorous attempt to repress corruption and mal- 
 administration. Sir Peter de la Mare was elected 
 Speaker. The members then proceeded to declare 
 Lord Latimer, and Lyons, the king's agent with the 
 merchants, guilty of gigantic financial frauds, and 
 sentenced them to imprisonment during the king's 
 pleasure ; and obtained against Alice Perrers an 
 award of banishment and forfeiture.^ They also 
 
 ' Stubbii' "Constitutional History," vol. ii., p. 468. 
 
WICI.IF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 lOI 
 
 proposed that a body of lords — ten or twelve — should 
 be appointed as an administrative council, without 
 whose consent no business should be undertaken. 
 The king acceded to the proposal. A petition was 
 also presented, from which it appeared that the taxes 
 paid to the Church of Rome amounted to five times 
 as much as those which appertain to the king ; that 
 aliens, who never came to see their parishioners, held 
 the livings ; that the Pope's revenue from England 
 alone was greater than that of any prince in Christen- 
 dom ; and that various cardinals at Rome held many 
 deaneries and archdeaconries, receiving from them 
 as much as 20,000 marcs every year. They insisted 
 upon the immediate discharge of those dangerous 
 strangers. The exactions of the Papal collector, Arnold 
 (jarnier, were also made a subject of complaint. 
 
 We find that very soon there was a change of 
 measures and of men. Immediately after the death 
 of the Prince of Wales, in June, 1376, the Duke of 
 Lancaster was restored to power, and Alice Perrers 
 regained her ascendency at Court. Sir Peter de la 
 Mare was thrown into prison. The Bishop of Win- 
 chester's temporalities were confiscated, and he was 
 ordered not to come within twenty miles of the Court. 
 No writ was issued to him to appear in the next 
 Parliament. He was, however, summoned to Convo- 
 cation ; but he did not at first appear at the meeting in 
 February, 1377, because he respected the order of the 
 king that he should not come too near to the Court. 
 The Convocation assembled under feelings of strong 
 indignation against the Government. Headed by 
 
I02 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 Courtenay, Bishop of London, they refused to give a 
 subsidy till the Bishop of Winchester was restored to 
 his rights. Very soon the Bishop came and took his 
 seat amid great applause. The temporalities were 
 restored by Edward III. just before his death.^ 
 
 In the middle of these stirring events Wiclif 
 appeared on the scene. We find that on the 22nd of 
 ^ September, 1376, Alan of Barley was sent with a 
 writ to Oxford to summon John Wiclif to appear 
 before the king's council.^ He may have exercised 
 some influence on the Good Parliament, as on other 
 parliaments during this period. We may see it in the 
 complaint made by the members against the pro- 
 ceedings of Arnold Garnier, the Papal collector, and 
 in the petition in which it is stated that the usurpations 
 of the Pope are the cause of the plagues, murrains, 
 famines, and poverty of the realm."' But he could 
 not heartily sympathise with the Parliament in its 
 anxiety to remove abuses. He could not associate 
 with the bishops because he had always condemned 
 their wealth, pomp, and luxury — the table piled with 
 costly viands, the jewelled mitre, and the gorgeous 
 robe — and had advocated their exclusion from all 
 share in the administration of public affairs. He 
 would gladly have secured economy and reform in 
 the State ; but he could not forsake John of Gaunt, 
 who was his only hope of a permanent reform in the 
 
 ' Stubbs' " Constitutional History," vol. ii., p. 476. 
 ' Devon, " Issues of the Exchequer," p. 200, quoted by 
 Stubbs, "Constitutional History," vol. ii., p. 474. 
 * Lechler's "Life," vol. !., p. 240. 
 
WICMF AS A POLITICIAN IO3 
 
 Church. The latter must have marked at Bruges 
 that he was strongly opposed to the worldly spirit of 
 the Pope's supporters. He, therefore, now called him 
 to London to aid him at an important crisis. John 
 of Gaunt was most anxious that Parliament should 
 make him a liberal grant of money.' But he could 
 not hope to overcome the strong opposition of the 
 clergy, who had taken umbrage at the high-handed 
 manner in which he had treated William of Wykeham. 
 He may have hoped that Wiclif, who was a born 
 leader of men, would aid him greatly with Parliament, 
 many members of which were known, like himself, to 
 be opposed to the Papal claims, and to the temporal 
 aggrandizement of the clergy. But it must be 
 remembered that this was merely a political alliance. 
 A man of unblemished character, like Wiclif, 
 anxious for the spiritual improvement of mankind, 
 could not work heartily M-ith one who was quite 
 governed by the corrupt passions and propensities of 
 his nature. But he saw that he was a strong man, 
 and that he could aid him greatly in his desperate 
 struggle with the powerful bands of Papal adversaries 
 who were confederate against him. He may, indeed, 
 have allowed himself to be too freely used by an 
 unscrupulous politician who was anxious, by his 
 means, to humble the clergy and the proud prelates 
 who were arrayed against him ; but still he made 
 common cause with him, because he knew that he ^ 
 agreed with him in opposing the temporal ascendency 
 
 ' Stubbs, vol. ii., p. 47|. 
 
104 
 
 JOHN WlCl.ll 
 
 of the clergy. He thus hoped that he would aid 
 him in his schemes for the regeneration of human 
 society. 
 
 Courtenay, Bishop of London, a member of the 
 family of the Courtenays, Earls of Devon, on whose 
 fortunes Gibbon has given a splendid digression at 
 the end of his sixty-first chapter, was an enthusiastic 
 supporter of AVilliam of A\'ykeham. He was, to use 
 the words of his biographer. Dean Hook, " vehement 
 and impetuous, with generous impulses and a high 
 spirit, popular in his manners and energetic in all 
 that he undertook." - 
 
 His courtesy had endeared him to the citizens ot 
 London. He took the opposite side in politics to 
 John of Gaunt, and was strongly opposed to him 
 because he wished to exclude ecclesiastics from offices 
 of State. He saw his opportunity and was deter- 
 mined to have his revenge. He would attack him 
 through his champion, Wiclif. He would bring a 
 charge of heresy against him, and so disqualify him 
 from taking part in public affairs. The contemporary 
 authority, already referred to, the monk of St. 
 Albans, the writer of the Chronicon Anglice, informs 
 us that he had great difficulty in moving Archbishop 
 Sudbury to take part in the prosecution. He writes ~, 
 " Too late, the bishops roused their father, the Arch- 
 bishop, as one from a deep sleep, as a lord stupefied 
 with wine, or rather as a hireling drunk with the 
 poison of avarice, to recall the wandering sheep fronii 
 
 ' Hook's "Lives of the Archbishops," vol. iv., p. 320. 
 ' rage 115. 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. I05 
 
 feeding on his food of perdition, to give him to the 
 keeper of the fold for cure, or, if need be, that the 
 knife should be used. The Archbishop, though he 
 had planned to spend his days in good things, and to 
 keep no watch over his flock, whereby the sheep of 
 the Lord were exposed to the wolf and the hireling, 
 who were of one accord, still, not liking to be 
 publicly known as one who had abandoned the 
 sheep-folds, sent to invite this prodigal son to answer 
 the charges made against him." 1 
 
 Courtenay cited AViclif to appear before the Arch- 
 bishop in St. Paul's Cathedral, on the 19th of 
 February, 1377. He was subject to his jurisdiction 
 because he was residing in the duke's palace in the 
 Savoy. Dr. Shirley observes, " How entirely the 
 meaning of the prosecution was political may be 
 gathered from the total omission in the articles of 
 accusation of all matters not bearing on the question 
 
 of the hour The object of the 
 
 prosecution was to proclaim to the world that society 
 was endangered by the political principles which 
 John of Gaunt was putting in practice against the 
 Church." 2 
 
 This e.xplanation is, to some extent, correct. It 
 does not, however, appear to contain the whole truth. 
 The monk of St. Albans enables us to see that, in 
 defending John of Gaunt, he may have expressed 
 certain opinions which, by a subtle casuistry, the 
 bishops may have tortured into heresy. He calls 
 
 ' " Chronicon Anglire," p. 1 16. 
 * " Fasciculi Zizaniorum," p. xxvii. 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 Wiclif "a false theologian, but true fighter against 
 God ! named John indeed, but wrongly so named, 
 for John is 'grace of God,' and he had long since 
 cast away God's grace." He tells us that Wiclit 
 " denounced the Papal power of excommunication ; 
 and asserted that no king or secular lord could give 
 anything in perpetuity to the Church." He mentions 
 some curious facts which are new to history. We 
 learn from him that AViclifwas occasionally a preacher 
 in the pulpits in London, and that he must have 
 spoken out as boldly in the capital of the kingdom 
 as in the disputations in the University. He admits 
 that he has many admirers, and he does so in the 
 following words : — " Many great lords of the realm, 
 or, more rightly, I should call them devils, embraced 
 his mad doctrines, and they hardened him in his 
 effort to blunt the sword of St. Peter, and protected 
 him with the secular arm lest that same sword should 
 cut him off. He drew after him many citizens of 
 London into the bottomless pit of error. He was 
 an eloquent man, and pretended to look down on 
 worldly possessions as things transitory and fleeting, 
 in comparison with the things of eternity. He ever 
 ran from church to church, and scattered his mad 
 lies in the ears of very many." ' We learn then 
 here, for the first time, that the bishops were also 
 induced to take public action against Wiclif, not so 
 much on account of his quiet teaching at Oxford, or 
 his judgments given to the king and Parliament, as 
 by his eloquent sermons against the Church in the 
 ' " Chronicon Anglirc," p. ii6. 
 
WICLir AS A POLITICIAX. 
 
 107 
 
 pulpits of the metropolis. This is distinctly stated 
 as their reason for being urgent with the Archbishop 
 on the subject. 
 
 John of Gaunt, as Wiclif was suffering partly in 
 his cause, determined to accompany him to the 
 Cathedral, and to interpose on his behalf. At 
 an early hour the Lady-Chapel was full of dukes 
 and barons, who had assembled cn Courtenay's 
 side. While they were engaged in transacting some 
 previous business^ a loud shouting Avas heard outside. 
 A crowd, too, was soon pouring in through the side 
 doors, wild with excitement. On inquiry it was found 
 that AViclif had arrived, accompanied by John of 
 Gaunt and Lord Percy, the Earl Marshal. So large 
 a concourse occupied the nave, that the Duke 
 advanced with difficulty. Lancaster ordered his 
 men to force a passage through them. Courtenay 
 remonstrated, and told him that if he had known 
 what his conduct would be, he would have refused 
 him admission to the Cathedral. They at length 
 arrived in the Lady-Chapel, where Courtenay was 
 surrounded by the prelates and nobility. 
 
 AViclif now stood in front of the conclave, attended 
 by four friars who were to help him in his defence. 
 Lord Henry Percy, taking upon himself to give orders 
 in an ecclesiastical assembly, directed him to be 
 seated. " He had need of so soft a seat since he 
 had so many things to answer." Courtenay, not un- 
 reasonabl)^ insisted that he should stand while his 
 cause was being tried. Fierce words passed between 
 the Duke and the Bishop. He declared that he would 
 
io8 
 
 JOHN WICLIK. 
 
 chastise not only the Bishop of London, but all the 
 Bishops in the kingdom, for arrogance. Addressing 
 himself to Courtenay, he said, " You talk boastfully 
 of your family, but they are not able to help you ; 
 they will have enough to do to help themselves." 
 The Bishop gave a proper and dignified answer : — 
 " My confidence is not in my parents, nor in man, 
 but in God, and in God only. By His assistance I 
 shall be able to speak as I ought to speak, and to 
 maintain the truth." 
 
 The calmness of Courtenay only increased the rage 
 of his opponent. The Duke was heard to mutter to 
 some one who stood near him, that rather than 
 tolerate such words from the Bishop, he would drag 
 him out of church by the hair of his head. This 
 threat so incensed the assembled citizens that they 
 cried out that they would rather lose their lives than 
 see their Bishop shamefully handled. The assembly 
 broke up in confusion, and the Bishop retired before 
 nine to his own house. He had triumphed as a 
 politician ; he had not been compelled to substan- 
 tiate his charges against ^^'iclif. The intemperate 
 conduct of Lancaster had caused his party to suffer 
 an ignominious defeat. In the midst of this confusion 
 Wiclif disappears for a time from the scene of tumul- 
 tuous politics. 
 
 The Duke and Lord Henry Percy, bursting with 
 rage, at once proceeded to Parliament, where they in- 
 troduced a bill, praying the King that the city should 
 no longer be left in the hands of the mayor, but 
 handed over to a royal commissioner, Lord Latimer. 
 
WILLI K AS A POLITICIAN. I09 
 
 The populace had no sooner heard tlie intelhgence 
 than they proceeded to acts of violence. They 
 attacked Lord Percy's house, and rescued a Londoner 
 whom he had imprisoned. Hearing that the Duke, 
 with Lord Percy, was at a feast given by a London 
 citizen, they proceeded to attack the house. The 
 Duke was in the act of swallowing an oyster to give 
 him an appetite for dinner, when the mob broke 
 through the gates.' In his anxiety to escape, he 
 tumbled over the forms in his way and hurt 
 both his legs. He fled to Kennington, where the 
 Princess of \\'ales resided with her son. The mob 
 supposed that he had escaped to his palace in the 
 Savoy, and to it they immediately rushed. Again 
 they were disappointed of their intended pre)-. 
 They wreaked their vengeance partly on a priest 
 whom they murdered, for upholding the Duke, and 
 partly on the armorial coat of the Duke, which the\- 
 hung up in a public place in token that he was a 
 traitor. They were prevented from demolishing the 
 palace only by the interference of Courtenay. The 
 end was that a reconciliation was effected, and that 
 the Duke consented that the Bishop of Winchester 
 and Peter de la Mare, the former speaker of the 
 House of Commons, should be brought to trial before 
 their peers. 
 
 Enough has been said to show us that the interest 
 connected with these celebrated scenes is parti)- 
 political. The two parties in the State seem to have 
 
 ^ Hook's " Lives of the Archbishops," vol. iv., [i. 335. 
 
no 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 made use of Wiclif for their own purposes. We may 
 easily imagine, that as the sounds of strife — becoming 
 ever louder and louder — fell upon his ear, and he felt 
 himself utterly unable to still the angry tumult, he 
 might have received a significant warning not to mix 
 himself up with the strife of party politics. Thus 
 this visit to St. Paul's might have become a step in 
 his progressive development. The historian Alilner 
 has, indeed, said that he might have "protested 
 against the disorderly and insolent behaviour of his 
 patrons."^ But he well knew that any interference 
 on his part would only have aggravated the irritation 
 of his friends, and have increased the tumult which 
 was raging around him. The violence with which 
 the citizens opposed John of Gaunt must not be 
 supposed to indicate that they had, with the pro- 
 verbial fickleness of the multitude, ceased to espouse 
 the cause of Wiclif, or to aid him, as we have seen, 
 in opposing the corruptions and usurpations of the 
 Papacy. But instinct told them that he was now on 
 the wrong side in politics that he ought not to be 
 fighting under the banner of one who was trampling 
 on their municipal privileges ; who sought to promote 
 the reign of corruption in the palace, and so to add 
 to the burdens of the country. 
 
 • Wiclif had escaped unscathed from St. Paul's. But 
 this dangerous enemy must not be left to himself. He 
 was, however, so strongly supported by the nobility 
 and by the citizens of London, that it was evident 
 
 ' " Church History,"' vol. iv., p. 115. 
 
WICLU' AS A I'OI.UICIAX. 
 
 I I I 
 
 tliat only the highest authority in the Church could 
 arrest him in his career. The Bishops, therefore, 
 asked Gregory XI. to give them his powerful assist- 
 ance. He complied with their request, and on 
 May 22nd, 1377, shortly after his removal from 
 Avignon to Italy, issued a series of Bulls against him, 
 from the magnificent church of St. Maria Maggiore, 
 at Rome. 
 
 Three of these Bulls were addressed to the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London. 
 One enjoined them to ascertain by private inquiry 
 whether certain propositions, in a schedule appended 
 to the Bull, had been held by John Wiclif ; and if this 
 should be the case, to secure him at once, and to 
 imprison him till they had received further instruc- 
 tions from the Pope. In order to quicken them in 
 the work, he reminds them of their remissness.' " The 
 glorious kingdom of England, illustrious for its 
 wealth and grandeur, once produced men who pos- 
 sessed a sound knowledge of Scripture, and were 
 devoted champions of the orthodox faith ; watchmen 
 ever standing on their watch-tower, and taking heed 
 that no error should arise around them ; who, when 
 tares were sown among the wheat, were the first to 
 pluck them up. But now, to our grief, in this very 
 kingdom, the watchmen, negligent and slothful, have 
 allowed the enemy to enter the city, and to carry oft 
 the very precious treasure of souls. To complete 
 the affliction and shame, the evil had been felt at 
 
 ' Lewis, p. 310. 
 
I I 2 
 
 JOHN- WICLlf. 
 
 Rome before it had been resisted in Britain.'' He 
 tells them that he had been credibly informed that 
 " John Wiclif, Rector of Lutterworth, and professor 
 of the Sacred Page (it were well if he were not a 
 master of errors !) had broken forth into a detestable 
 insanity, and had dared to assert and spread abroad 
 opinions utterly subversive of the Church, and savour- 
 ing of the perversity and ignorance of Marsilius of 
 Padua and John of Ganduno, both of accursed 
 memory." Another Bull appointed the course which 
 should be taken in case Wiclif should save himself 
 by flight from impending imprisonment.' Another 
 Bull enjoined them to warn the King and his nobles 
 against Wiclif's errors.'- They are to remind them 
 that they are subversive of all civil and ecclesiastical 
 government. Another was addressed to the King, in 
 which he appeals to his sense of honour, and urges 
 him to show the same piety and soundness in the 
 faith as his illustrious ancestors ; and requests him to 
 extend his gracious support to the proceedings of the 
 prelates, as he values his good name on earth, his 
 bliss in heaven, and the benediction of the Hoi)- 
 See.^ Another was addressed to the University ot 
 Oxford.'* The Pope expressed his astonishment and 
 grief that, notwithstanding the privileges granted to 
 them by the See of Rome, the members had, through 
 sloth and negligence, allowed tares to spring among the 
 pure wheat sown in that glorious field, their university. 
 He then commands them, on pain of forfeiting their 
 
 ' Lewis, p. 314. 
 3 Ibid., p. 312. 
 
 - Ibid., ]x 307. 
 ^ Ibid, p. 305. 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 "5 
 
 privileges, to seize the person of Wiclif himself, and 
 to deliver it to the custody of the Archbishop and his- 
 colleague. 
 
 The alleged errors of Wiclif were contained in 
 nineteen articles.' 
 
 Wiclifs proposition in the first five articles is stated 
 to be that all the rights of property are not to be 
 considered as absolute, but as dependent upon God's 
 grace. In 6 and 7 he lays down the proposition,, 
 that temporal lords can, in a legal and moral manner, 
 take away the goods of fortune from a delinquent 
 church. The theses 8-15 are designed to guard 
 against the abuse of the keys in binding and loosing, 
 so far as excommunication is used to secure certain 
 revenues to the Church. In 15 he says we ought to 
 believe that then only doth the Pope bind or loose, 
 when he conformeth himself to the law of Christ. In 
 numbers 10, 12, and 13 he asserts that only in 
 spiritual matters, and not in those which relate to 
 temporal revenues, ought the power of excommunica- 
 tion to be used. In 16 he says that every priest 
 rightly ordained can administer any of the Sacraments,, 
 and absolve any contrite person. In the 19th he 
 says that an ecclesiastic, even the Roman Pontift 
 himself, may lawfully be rebuked by subjects and 
 laics, and even impleaded. 
 
 The meshes of the net had thus been so strongly 
 and skilfully made, that it seemed quite impossible 
 that when cast over the victim he could ever escape. 
 
 ' Lechler's " Life," vol. i., ]-p. 265-267. 
 I 
 
114 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 An act of wisdom it was to place Wiclifs opinions 
 as to property in the forefront of the theses, because he 
 thus seemed to nobles and statesmen to be engaged 
 in a wild crusade against the rights of property. The 
 threatenings and the appeals were also well calcu- 
 lated to stimulate to action. The Bulls were not, 
 however, immediately published. The probability is 
 that the delay was owing partly to the death of the 
 king, by which the Bull addressed to him became 
 void, and the coronation of Richard II., with the 
 festivities consequent upon it; partly also to the 
 hostile spirit to the Papacy, manifested by the first 
 Parliament in his reign. In consequence of the 
 financial embarrassment, occasioned by the war, the 
 question arose whether the Pope ought to violate by 
 Provisions the Convention of 1374, and whether 
 severe penalties should not be enacted upon all 
 persons who obtained by Provision any ecclesiastical 
 preferment. A proposal was also made that all 
 foreign priests should leave the country during the 
 war, and that their lands and properties should be 
 applied to war purposes. Wiclif was asked by the 
 king and the great council to give his opinion on the 
 subject. He readily complied in a long document,' 
 the date of which cannot be later than September, 
 1377. He knew that the storm-cloud was travelling 
 towards him, about to discharge the bolts of death 
 on his devoted head. But he surveys the prospect 
 with undaunted courage. So far from retracting or 
 
 ' "Fasciculi Zizaniorum," pp. xxxi., 258. 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 "5 
 
 ex!>laining his statements, he denounces in louder 
 tones the corruptions and usurpations of the Papacy. 
 'I'rue, he was followed by the populace, supported by 
 tlie Court, protected by the University. But we cannot 
 find that he looked anywhere for protection. "The 
 Tope," he says, "cannot claim the treasure, except by 
 the title of alms, and consequently under the title of 
 works of mercy, according to the rules of charity ; " 
 and by those " it would be no work of charity, but 
 mere madness to waste our resources on foreigners, 
 when the kingdom is in danger of falling into ruin.' 
 Again, " our fathers endowed the English Church for 
 the living or support of the clergy." He embraces 
 the opportunity of entering his protest against the 
 worldliness and avarice of the Pope.' "The affirma- 
 tive of this question," he says, " appears also by this, 
 that Christ, the Head of the Church, whom all 
 Christians ought to follow, lived by the alms of 
 
 devout women St. Bernard, declaring in his 
 
 second book to Eugenius, that he could not challenge 
 any secular dominion by right of succession, as being 
 the vicar of St. Peter, writes thus : " If St. John 
 were to speak to the Pope himself (as Bernard doth 
 to Eugenius), were it to be thought that he would 
 take it patiently ? But let it be so that you challenge 
 it by any other ways and means ; but truly by any 
 right or title apostolical you cannot do so. For how 
 could he give you that which he had not himself? 
 That which he had he gave you ; that is to say, care 
 
 ' "Fasciculi Zizaniorum." pp. 259-261. 
 
 I 2 
 
JOHN WICLIP'. 
 
 over the Church ; but did he give you lordship and 
 rule? Hark what he saith, ^Not bearing rule, as lords 
 over the clergy, but beliavitig yourselves as exaf?iples to 
 the flock.' .... Here lordship and dominion are 
 plainly forbidden to the Apostles, and darest thou, 
 then, usurp the same ? If thou wilt be a lord, thou 
 shalt lose thine apostleship, or if thou wilt be an 
 apostle, thou shalt lose thy lordship ; for truly thou 
 shalt depart from one of them. If thou wilt have 
 
 both, thou shalt lose both And would to God 
 
 that the same proud and greedy desire of rule and 
 lordship, which this seat doth challenge with it, were 
 not a preatnble to prepare the way for Antichrist. For 
 it is evident in the Gospel that Christ, through his 
 poverty, and suffering, and humility, got unto him the 
 children of his kingdom, and, moreover, so far as I 
 remember, the same blessed man, Bernard, in his 
 third book, writeth also unto Eugenius : ' I fear no 
 other greater poison to happen unto thee than greedy 
 desire of rule and dominion.' " 
 
 The Commissioners, who had been alarmed by the 
 proceedings in Parliament, at length summoned up 
 the courage to proceed. On the i8th of December, 
 nearly seven months after the Bull was issued, Edward 
 Stafford was sent with it to Oxford. Anticipating 
 opposition, they had altered the instructions of the 
 Pope that Wiclif should be imprisoned if it were 
 ascertained that he held certain doctrines, into a 
 direction in their mandate that he should appear at 
 their bar, and await what should follow. But even 
 with this precaution they aroused a strong feeling in 
 
WICLII'- AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 the University. Immediately after the arrival of the 
 messenger there was wrath at Oxford. Here, they 
 thought, was a plain infringement of the privileges of 
 the University. AViclif, too, was the most learned, 
 the most famous of her sons. So degenerate had 
 they become, that, as the chronicler, Walsingham, 
 informs us, they deliberated for some time whether 
 they should receive the Bull or reject it altogether.' 
 The delay was not at Oxford only. As the Monk of 
 St. Alban's says : " With how little spirit, with what 
 sluggishness, the bishops fulfilled the mandate en- 
 trusted to them, it is better to be silent than to tell." 
 However, at length the University, on the receipt of a 
 letter from the primate that the Archbishop would not 
 violate the law, or lay violent hands upon Wiclif, but 
 that simply an inquiry was intended, consented to 
 co-operate with him.- 
 
 The Commissioners wished to conduct the inquiry 
 as privately as possible. They did not venture to 
 summon Wiclif to St. Paul's, as the mandate to the 
 Chancellor directed. They .sa*^ in the Archbishop's 
 chapel at Lambeth, probably n March, 1378. Wiclif 
 did not appear before them as a prisoner. The Bull 
 directed that the examination of Wiclif and all the 
 proceedings should be transmitted under seal to 
 Rome, to await the further direction of the Pope. 
 He put in a written answer, showing the point of 
 view from which he had proceeded in these theses, 
 
 ' Walsingham, " Hist. Angl.," vol. i., p. 356. 
 
 - Hook's "Lives of the Archbishops," vol. iv., p. 276. 
 
ii8 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 and justifying the sense of them one by one. But 
 their proceedings were rudely interrupted. Great 
 indignation had been excited in the minds of the 
 citizens of London when they heard of the arrival of 
 the Papal Bull, and found that the Pope was again 
 interfering in political affairs. They forced their \\ ay 
 into the chapel, and with loud threats took part with' 
 their honoured and beloved patriot. They saw that 
 he was now on the right side. Sir Henry Clifford, 
 too, an officer in the court of the Princess of Wales, 
 appeared, and commanded them to suspend their 
 proceedings. The result is described in the scornful 
 words of the chronicler. The Bishops became "as 
 the reeds shaken with the wind. Their words were 
 softer than oil : they made public shipwreck of their 
 own dignity. They who had sworn that they would 
 yield no obedience to the princes and nobles of the 
 realm, until they had chastised the excesses of the 
 heresiarch, were smitten with such terror at the 
 appearance of an obscure retainer of the princess, 
 that you would have thought that their horns were 
 gone, and that they had become as a man that heareth 
 not."i They could not withstand this double inti- 
 midation. They dismissed Wiclif with the injunction 
 that he should never again advocate from the pulpit 
 or the professorial chair the obnoxious dogmas. But 
 no promise was given by him to that effect. On the 
 contrary, as the chronicler tells us, he scattered con- 
 clusions still more pernicious. He was thus allowed 
 
 ' Walsingham, i., 356, 
 
VVICLIF AS A rOLlTItlAN. JI9 
 
 to depart from the tribunal as freely as he came to it, 
 in direct opposition to the instructions given to the 
 Commissioners. 
 
 Wiclif put forth three papers in his defence. One 
 was delivered to the papal delegates at Lambeth.^ 
 The second, if the title may be trusted, was presented 
 to Parliament." These two have the same general 
 form, have the same introduction, and use much the 
 same arguments. The third was an angry reply to 
 an anonymous assailant, whom he calls the " motley 
 doctor," in which he makes a fierce onslaught on the 
 Papacy, of which the follov»ang is a specimen.'' In 
 speaking of the power of binding and loosing claimed 
 by the Pope, he says, — " Whether the judges or 
 delegates, by the Pope's permission, proceed to con- 
 demn my conclusions, or the lord Pope himself, the 
 faithful are unanimously to make opposition to this 
 blasphemous opinion." Considerable discussion has 
 arisen as to the exact order of these papers. Dr. 
 Lingard, in his " History of England," places first the 
 reply to the " motley doctor," asserting that it was 
 from fear that he softened it down into the com- 
 paratively moderate apology which he presented to 
 the Papal delegates at Lambeth.'' Dr. Vaughan and 
 Mr. Le Bas, in order to defend him from this charge, 
 express their opinion that his reply to the " motley 
 doctor" was written subsequently to his appearance 
 
 ' Lewis, pp. 59-67. 
 ^ "Fascic Zizan.," p. 245. 
 '■' /6iJ., p. 481. 
 Lingard's " England," vol. iv., pp. 256, 257. 
 
120 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 at Lambeth.' Dean Hook writes, — "There can 
 be no doubt that Wichf, also alarmed, explained 
 away some of the most objectionable of his state- 
 ments." ^ 
 
 This method of defence and attack can, however, 
 hardly be adopted, for there is no decisive evidence 
 to show the order in which the papers were written. 
 The matter, indeed, does not seem to be of any 
 importance. Proper attention has not been paid to 
 the essential distinction between the two documents. 
 The one was a polemical tract directed against an 
 opponent, the other was a calm and deliberate reply 
 to charges brought against him before a public 
 tribunal. Of course it would be more carefully pre- 
 pared than a document addressed to the multitude. 
 After careful consideration, I can see no reason for 
 charging him with timidity or evasion. If the paper 
 be only carefully examined, it will be found that he 
 was as unwavering in his tone as in his reply to the 
 " motley doctor." Let this document be considered 
 as a whole, and I assert that it will be found to 
 contain a fearless expression of his opinions. We 
 must remember that he is explaining the sense in 
 which he holds or rejects the opinions attributed to 
 him by his opponents. In the first five articles of 
 his defence he is obscure, because he is answering in 
 a scholastic manner those who had attacked him with 
 the weapons of the schoolmen. But in the following 
 
 ' Vaiighan's "Life," vol. i., p. 406., n. 18 ; Le Bas' "Life," 
 pp. 178, 181. 
 
 " Lives of the Archbishops," vol. iv. , p. 277. 
 
WICLIF AS A POI.ITICIAX. 
 
 12 1 
 
 articles his meaning is manifest enough. He asserts, 
 in the eighteenth article, that the Popes may, on some 
 accounts, be corrected by their subjects, and for the 
 benefit of the Church be impleaded by both clergy 
 and laity. In support of this doctrine he asserts that 
 the Pope is " capable of sinning," and thence infers 
 that "he is subject to the law of brotherly reproof" 
 " When, therefore," he adds, " it is plain that the 
 whole college of cardinals is remiss in correcting him 
 for the benefit of the Church, it is evident that the 
 rest of the body which, as it may chance, may chiefly 
 be made up of the laity, may medicinally reprove 
 him and implead him, and induce him to live a better 
 life." He asserts also in the sixth, sixteenth, and 
 seventeenth articles, that temporal lords may deter- 
 mine when the clergy rightly use or when they abuse 
 the temporalities of the Church, and may say when 
 they hold them by a just title, and when they ought 
 to be deprived of them. He would likewise have the 
 laity reform the clergy when they fail to reform them- 
 selves. In the articles from the seventh to the fif- 
 teenth, he denounces emphatically the pretended 
 authority of the priesthood over the unseen world, 
 asserting that their spiritual powers of censure, ex- 
 communication, and absolution are not unconditional, 
 but are valid only if uttered in accordance with the 
 will of God ; and that men may disregard them unless 
 their conscience tells them that they are ratified by 
 Him. AVhen he states, in the eighth article, that the 
 benediction and anathema of the clergy only make a 
 man what he has already made himself by his own 
 
122 
 
 JOHN WILLI F. 
 
 acts, he shows that he disregards the whole system 
 of absolution and excommunication. He says also 
 that he is willing to defend these opinions even unto 
 death, and adds, with characteristic firmness, " God 
 forbid that truth should be condemned by the Church 
 of Christ, because it sounds unpleasantly in the 
 ears of the guilty or ignorant, for then the entire 
 faith of the Scriptures would be exposed to con- 
 demnation." 
 
 This is the substance of a celebrated document. 
 Surely here the trumpet gives no uncertain sound. 
 J^'^ AViclif speaks with no hesitating utterance. We 
 must remember throughout his progressive develoi> 
 ment, or else we shall not form a just estimate of his 
 character and conduct. We shall find that before 
 long he lifts up his voice in louder and sterner con- 
 demnation of the abuses and corruptions of the 
 Papacy. Surely if, as Dr. Lingard says, the judges 
 could receive these statements as orthodox, their 
 nerves must have been shaken by the message 
 from the mother of the king, or by the shouts 
 of the London mob which were ringing in their 
 ears. If we remember that at the very 
 time when he declared his determination to be 
 faithful unto death to his convictions, his fate 
 was not decided at Rome, we ought to admire his 
 courage and his heroism, because he exposed himself 
 to the full indignation of the Pope, which would have 
 descended upon him if the right arm of his strength 
 had not been paralysed by that tremendous schism, 
 which, during forty years, convulsed and excited the 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 125 
 
 anger of the nations of Europe. So far from attempt- 
 ing to depreciate him, we ought to honour him for 
 beginning, in the face of the greatest perils, that 
 pubHc testimony against the Papacy which, continued 
 by Luther, led to the deliverance of England and 
 many countries of Europe, from the yoke of an 
 intolerable bondage. 
 
 Wiclif expressed in these conclusions an opinion 
 often found in his works, to which I have already 
 referred in the alleged speeches of the Lords before 
 Parliament, that, in certain cases, the Church may 
 be deprived of her endowments. "It is lawful," 
 he says, "for kings, in cases limited by law, to 
 take away the temporalities from churchmen who 
 
 habitually abuse them If the Pope, or 
 
 temporal lords, or any others, shall have endowed the 
 Church with temporalities, it is lawful for them to 
 take them away in certain cases, namely, when the 
 doing so is by way of medicine to cure or prevent 
 sins, since their donations were not given but with a 
 
 condition implied God forbid that, by 
 
 these words, occasion should be given to temporal 
 lords to take away the goods of fortune to the detri- 
 ment of the Church." 
 
 The expressions " in cases limited by law," the 
 assertion that they should be " taken away from 
 churchmen who habitually abuse them," and not " to 
 the detriment of the Church," show us very plainly 
 that he does not advocate, as some have supposed, 
 an indiscriminate confiscation. We could hardly 
 suppose that he could do so when he had himself 
 
i24 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 held three livings and a prebendal stall. " Kings, 
 or temporal lords," by which word we are to under- 
 stand not only lords, but the constituted authorities 
 of the country, may, in strict conformity with the law, 
 withdraw these endowments." He has expressed the 
 same opinion elsewhere : — •" It is the business of 
 kings and of others to reform the eleemosynary gifts 
 of their ancestors.'' ^ We have an explanation of the 
 words, " those who abuse them," in the third section 
 of the "Complaint," his petition to the King and Par- 
 liament, referred to in Chapter VI., where it is dis- 
 tinctly stated that " tithes should be withdrawn from 
 prelates, or other priests, whoever they be, who are 
 known to have fallen into great sins, such as pride, 
 simony, manslaying, gluttony, drunkenness, and 
 lechery." - At the same time it is said that they 
 should "freely and willingly contribute reasonable 
 livelihood to good Priests, and this were much better 
 and easier for Priests and Commons for this world 
 and the other." 
 
 Wiclif, too, would impose another check on the 
 exercise of this power. " No priest or cleric should 
 be deprived of his endowment, except by the 
 authority of the Church." " The king should call a 
 Synod that the matter may be duly considered."* 
 
 ' " De Veritate Sacnx Scriptuire," p. 466; James's "Apo- 
 logy," c. ix., obj. 5. 
 
 = " Select English Works," vol. iii., p. 518. 
 
 ' " Sentence of Curse Expounded," c. xviii., S. E. W., 
 vol. iii., p. 313. 
 
 * " De Civili Uominio," ii., 8; and iii., 22, quoted by Lechlcr, 
 vol. ii., pp. 161, 162. 
 
WICLIF AS A I'OLITICIAN. 
 
 Wc liave another limitation still in the object to 
 which these endowments, when taken away, are to be 
 appropriated. They should be employed in feeding 
 the hungry, in clothing the naked, or in those efforts 
 which have for their object the extension of the. 
 boundaries of Christ's kingdom.^ We see, then, that! 
 W'iclif is not the wild revolutionary spirit which some 
 people have represented him, but that he merely 
 sought such a re-adjustment of the Church's re- 
 venues, in strict accordance with law, as took place, 
 with far too much violence and misappropriation, 
 at the time of the Reformation, or such as still 
 takes place in the case of those Commissions, the 
 design of which is to regulate those funds, those 
 public trusts, which, from lapse of time, or some 
 other cause, are not fulfilling the designs of the 
 founders.- 
 
 While, however, we affirm that Wiclif was anxious 
 for such a re-adjustment of the revenues of the 
 Church as would prevent their misappropriation 
 to those who had abused them, we see that he 
 would have been better pleased to find the clergy 
 following the model of Apostolic poverty, and 
 depending, to some extent, for support on the 
 successful prosecution of their work. Thus, in 
 his "Complaint to the King," &c., he writes: — 
 " Not only simple priests and curates, but also 
 sovereign curates, as bishops, should not, by con- 
 
 ' " De Civili Dominio," iii. , 22, quoted by Lechler, vol. ii., 
 p. i6i. 
 
 - " Wiclif's Place in History," by rrofessor Burrows, p. i6. 
 
126 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 straining, ask their subjects for more than liveU- 
 hood and clothing. Christ and his Apostles lived a 
 most poor life, as is known by all the process of the 
 Gospel, challenging nothing by exactions or con- 
 straining, but lived simjily and scarcely enough, on 
 alms freely and voluntarily given. Wherefore, they 
 who pretend to be principal followers of Christ's 
 steps should walk like Christ." ^ And again, he cites 
 St. Bernard, who says, " Whatever thou takest to 
 thee of tithes and offerings, besides simple livelihood 
 and clothing, it is not thine ; it is theft, rapine, and 
 sacrilege." He has expressed this view in other 
 places. In fact, he thinks that the laity, who ought 
 not to have conferred these endowments on the 
 Church, should withdraw them by wise and gradual 
 means. His scheme, which provides some pro- 
 tection for vested interests, is to be found in the 
 "Trialogus," written about a year before his death. 
 A little consideration will enable us to see that in this 
 matter Wiclif greatly deceived himself This secu- 
 larisation of the Church's endowments would not 
 have had the effect of carrying back the Church to 
 the days of apostolic holiness and simplicity, when 
 Christianity, however slenderly attended, walked 
 forth in all her native loveliness, surrounded by her 
 family of love. Besides, by the calling in of the 
 Church's property, the avarice and evil passions of 
 men would have been called into action, and a 
 sacrilegious hand would have been laid on those 
 
 ' " Select English Works," vol. iii., p. 518. 
 "Trialogus," Lechler's edition, c. xix., p. 313. 
 
WlCr.ir AS A POLITICIAN. 
 
 127 
 
 endowments which have been bequeathed to us by 
 tlic piety and wisdom of our forefathers. 
 
 We shall better understand Wiclif's position in the 
 whole of this matter when we remember that he 
 thought that there is a solemn responsibility con- 
 nected with these endowments ; that he was con- 
 stantly calling the attention of the world to their 
 origin ; that he laboured to show that they were held 
 in trust for the spiritual and everlasting interests of 
 the human family. They are liable, he thought, to 
 forfeiture by such an abandonment of duties as would 
 defeat the end for which they were given ; but he 
 could not look abroad into the world without seeing 
 that the obligations connected with this trust had not 
 been fulfilled. His spirit was stirred within him 
 when he saw that the endowments of the Church 
 went to enrich ecclesiastics dwelling in their palaces on 
 the banks of the Tiber ; that the Popes openly sold at 
 Rome the bishoprics and benefices of England to the 
 highest bidder ; that simony, worldliness, immorality, 
 and the sale of pardons, of which Chaucer gives us 
 a graphic description in his " Pardoner," prevailed 
 throughout the Church ; that the clergy possessed half 
 the landed property in the country, many of whom 
 were of the character described in his " Complaint," 
 " ignorant, living in pomp and pride, covetousness 
 and envy, gluttony and drunkenness, and lechery, in 
 simony and heresy, with fat horse and jolly and gay 
 saddles and bridles, ringing by the way, and arrayed 
 in costly clothes and furs."' We do not understand 
 ' " Select English Works," vol. iii., p. 520. 
 
J28 
 
 JOHN WICLIK. 
 
 Wiclif's position, because we find it difficult to realise 
 the evils of the age in which he lived ; because we do 
 not see that the body ecclesiastical was a mass of cor- 
 ruption, " full of wounds and bruises and putrefying 
 sores " ; that, to use the words of a Roman Catholic 
 writer quoted by Dean Hook, " the epoch (the four- 
 teenth and fifteenth centuries) of which we speak 
 was an eclipse, — a very Egyptian darkness, worse 
 than Chaos or Erebus ; black as the thick preter- 
 natural night, under cover of which our Lord was 
 crucified.'" 
 
 We see, therefore, how it was that a man of his 
 fervid temperament was led to address vehement 
 and incessant appeals to the ruling powers to cleanse 
 the polluted sanctuary. Those who attack him 
 should not employ an ex post facto standard borrowed 
 from this century to try a public man who lived five 
 centuries ago. They should remember that they sin 
 against historical perspective when they require 
 religious reformers to answer to an ideal perfection 
 and purity towards which their lives and doctrines 
 were only the first stage. In all probability, if he had 
 lived in our day, lie would, if we may judge from the 
 passages in which he speaks of the advantages of 
 a division of the counties into parishes, have sup- 
 ported our time-honoured system of endowments, 
 because, as the clergy are not dependent on their 
 hearers for a livelihood, they have no temptation to 
 suit their preaching to their passions and prejudices ; 
 
 ' Hook's "Lives of the Archbishops," vol. iii., p. 58. 
 
WICLIF AS A POLITICIAN. 129- 
 
 and because, without it, as man has naturally no desire 
 to supply his spiritual wants, a great number of our 
 countrymen would be without schools, without 
 Christian Sacraments, without religious instruction, 
 knowing nothing and caring nothing about the God 
 who made them and the Saviour who redeemed them 
 at the price of His most precious blood. 
 
 The trial at Lambeth is admitted to have formed 
 an era in Wiclif's life. We may conjecture that it 
 took place in February, 1378, or in March of that 
 year at the latest, because we learn from Walsingham 
 that Gregory XI. was still alive at the time of his 
 examination. But he died on March 27th, 1378. 
 His death was followed in a few months by that 
 tremendous schism which exercised a most important 
 influence on the development of Wiclif. He was 
 not charged at Lambeth with departing from the 
 doctrines of the Church. He merely occupied the 
 position of Marsilius of Padua, John of Ganduno, 
 and others, who had lifted up their voices in defence 
 of the temporal monarchy, or who had denounced 
 the usurpations and corruptions of the Papacy. If he 
 liad died at this time he would not have rendered 
 those vast services which give him an overpowering 
 claim on the gratitude of his fellow-countrymen. 
 But he was now to concentrate his attention on the 
 dogmas of the Church of Rome. The last note of 
 the political period was heard in that document in 
 which he tosses to the winds all human authorities, 
 and appeals to the divine law in support of his 
 assertion that the treasure ought not to be sent out 
 
 K 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 to the Poj^e when the exigencies of the kingdom 
 required it. We have an intimation of the coming 
 change in the document as to the Papal collector ; 
 and in that defence at Lambeth in which he appealed 
 to Holy Scripture in defence of his opinions, assailed 
 the whole system of absolution and excommunication, 
 and called on the laity to exercise their private judg- 
 ment in regard to the pretensions of their spiritual 
 guides. We know that before 1378 he had begun to 
 discard the traditions of the Church, and had care- 
 fully studied Holy Scripture for the solution of his 
 difficulties. We thus see the germ of his doctrinal 
 development. He was now to make an appeal 
 against the doctrines of the Church of Rome which 
 would be heard by the whole civilised world. For 
 that appeal his education at Oxford and his political 
 struggles had gradually prepared him. He had 
 hitherto been dwelling in the outer courts of the 
 temple ; he was now to pass into the innermost 
 parts of the sanctuar)'. Through the prayerful study 
 of the Scriptures the errors of the Church of Rome 
 were unfolded, one after another, to his view. He 
 now, as we shall see, led the way to that attack on 
 them on the issue of which were suspended the 
 everlasting destinies of many millions of his fellow- 
 countrymen. 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WICI.IF's " POOR PRIESTS." 
 
 Other aspects of Wiclif's life during the preceding period. — 
 Rector of Ludgarshall. — Prebendary of Aust. — Rector of 
 Lutterworth. — Residence at Oxford. — The latter and 
 Ludgarshall, the probable cradle of the Institution of "Poor 
 Priests." — W. Thorpe's testimony as to its origin. — Not 
 designed to oppose the parochial clergy, but to supply their 
 deficiencies.— The Mendicants had the same object.— 
 Causes of their failures in it. — Wiclif did not bind the " poor 
 priests " by vows , and was not the founder of a new order. — 
 These preachers were ordained. — Wiclif's description of the 
 scandalous lives of the clergy. — The plague in 1349 prepared 
 the way for the Institution. — Their position in regard to 
 preferment explained in tract "Why Poor Priests have no 
 Benefice." — Wiclif helped them in their work afterwards 
 by sermons and tracts. — Their actual work.— The nature of 
 their preaching. — Their success. — Opposition to them, — 
 Comparison between them and the early Methodists. 
 
 Before we proceed with the history of the important 
 part of Wiclif's life to which we have now come, we 
 must look back and consider other aspects of it 
 during the period which has come before us in the 
 last two chapters. We have seen that he had been 
 presented by his college, in 136 1, to the living of 
 Fillingham in Lincolnshire. He appears to have 
 resigned it, in 1368, for the living of Ludgarshall, 
 in a picturesque part of Buckinghamshire, to which 
 he was presented by Sir John Paveley, prior of the 
 
132 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 Knights Hospitallers of St. John. His reason was 
 that he might be nearer to the University of Oxford, 
 from which it is not more than twelve miles. The 
 church retains many of the features which it must 
 have possessed in Wiclif's time.^ This parish has not 
 been sufficiently noticed in connexion with him. It 
 most have been a centre of the missionary work to be 
 described in this chapter. As he must have passed 
 most of his time here when he was not at Oxford, we 
 must regard his residence at Ludgarshall as well as 
 the latter, as the seed-time of his Herculean labours 
 at Lutterworth. The parish ought, therefore, to have 
 a great interest for us. He entered on his pastoral 
 charge on November 12th, 1368. 
 
 In 1375 he obtained a prebend of the Collegiate 
 Church of Westbury at Aust, a place romantically 
 ''situated on the bank of the Severn, which, how- 
 ever, he seems to have resigned almost immediately.- 
 In April, 1374, he received a mark of the royal 
 favour. He was appointed by the Crown to the 
 rectory of Lutterworth in Leicestershire. The living 
 was really in the patronage of the noble family of 
 
 ' Over the porch was a room which may have been used by 
 Wiclif for the prosecution of his studies. 
 
 ^ ' ' On the 6th of November he was confirmed by the Crown in 
 it. There is no evidence to show the date of his appointment, 
 nor from whom lie received it." — (Wiclifite Versions of the 
 Bible, p. vii.). Tradition, our only means of information, as all 
 the documents belonging to the Westbury foundation were 
 destroyed by Prince Rupert in 1643, when he set fire to the 
 Collegiate Buildings, lest they should be occupied by the 
 Republicans, sr.ys that he lived a short time there, to be out of 
 sight, and occupied the old priest's house, now destroyed. 
 
WICLIFS "poor priests." 133 
 
 Ferrars of Groby; the king, however, presented to 
 the hving, because the patron, Lord Henry Ferrars, 
 was a minor. It is important to remark that, unlike 
 several of his contemporaries, he did not continue to 
 hold the two livings together. He constantly cen- 
 sures this abuse in the strongest terms. AVe may 
 also observe, that surely it is an answer to accusa- 
 tions which have been made against him, that no 
 one saw any inconsistency between his tenure of 
 those preferments and his call upon the laity to 
 reform the Church. As we shall see directly, he 
 upheld the parochial system. He only required that 
 the revenues of the Church should be re-adjusted 
 with a view to its efficiency. During the same period, 
 it appears from entries relating to rent which he paid 
 for rooms at Queen's College in 1363-5 and 1374-5, 
 as well as from references to disputations " in the 
 schools or elsewhere," and especially his sermons, 
 that he continued to be an irregular resident at the 
 University of Oxford.' 
 
 "To this period of his life," as Dr. Shirley ob- 
 serves, " belongs a remarkable attempt at a practical 
 reform of the Church, which has attracted far less 
 than it ought of the attention of his biographers."- 
 At the end of May, 1382, William Courtenay, Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, in a mandate addressed to the 
 Bishop of London, states that he has heard, with 
 great grief, a general report that certain preachers, 
 who have not obtained any episcopal or papal autho- 
 risation, under the cloak of great holiness, set forth 
 " Fascic. Zizan.," p. xxxix. Ibid., p. xl. 
 
134 
 
 JOHX WILLI r. 
 
 false, erroneous, and heretical propositions and con- 
 clusions, formerly condemned by the Church, which 
 tend to its subversion, and which threaten the public 
 tranquillity, not only in churches but also in public 
 squares and other profane places within the province 
 of Canterbury. He adds, " they poison the minds of 
 the faitliful in Christ, and to our great grief draw 
 them away from the Catholic faith."' 
 
 It is evident that the body of men referred to can- 
 not at this time have started into existence. On the 
 contrary, we see from the description here given of 
 them that the institution stood before the world in a 
 form which can only have been the result of gradual 
 development. The probability is that this plan of 
 Church reform, having long occupied his mind, was 
 carried into active operation after the time of his 
 appointment to the living of Ludgarshall. This 
 supposition would seem to be converted into a 
 certainty by the evidence of William Thorpe, one 
 of the preachers, given before Archbishop Arundel in 
 1407. We find that conscientious scruples prevented 
 him from fulfilling the Avish of his parents, and under- 
 taking the duties and responsibilities of the sacred 
 office. When, however, he found that the alternative 
 was to be driven from his home and reduced to 
 absolute beggary, he asked them if they would allow 
 him, before he came to any decision, to go to certain 
 men who were considered wise and virtuous priests, 
 that he might receive instruction in the office of the 
 priestliood. As my father and mother," he con- 
 ' " Fascic. Zizan.," p. 275. 
 
135 
 
 tinued, '* gave their willing and hearty consent, I 
 betook myself to those priests of whom I had heard 
 that they bore the best names, and led the holiest 
 lives — the most learned, too, and the wisest in point 
 of heavenly wisdom." When the Archbishop asked 
 him who they were, he said, " Master John Wiclif 
 was held by many for tlie greatest clerk of that day ; 
 he was spoken of at the time as a man of strict 
 religious principles, and holy in his living." Having 
 continued, as he states, for some time in intercourse 
 with Wiclif and other men, among whom Nicholas 
 Hereford, Philip Repyngdon (at this time, as we shall 
 see, connected with Oxford), John Aston, John Purvey, 
 and many more are mentioned; and having received, 
 as he says, instruction from them, "but from Wiclif 
 himself, most of all," he determined to associate him- 
 self with them.^ Now, as we cannot suppose that 
 Wiclif can have had intercourse with all these men 
 at the same time at any other places than Oxford and 
 Ludgarshall, we may naturally suppose that they were 
 the cradle of this institution. 
 
 The next question which comes before us is its 
 development and actual design. Now, some have 
 asserted that his design was that it should carry on a 
 .systematic opposition to the parochial clergy. But 
 this appears to be a very great misconception. He 
 has altogether disavowed that design in various places, 
 but especially in the tract on the ({uestion, " AVhy 
 Poor Priests have no Benefices," which I shall describe 
 
 • ' Wordsworth's "Ecclesiastical Biography,'" vol. i., pp. 276- 
 280; Lechler's "Life," vol. i., p. 303. 
 
136 
 
 JOHN WICLir. 
 
 directly. After giving reasons for the system of 
 itinerancy, he says, — "Nevertheless they condemn 
 not curates who do well their office and dwell where 
 they shall most profit, and teach truly and stably the 
 law of God against false prophets and the accursed 
 deceptions of the fiend." ^ They were accused 
 of promoting socialism, of encouraging rebellion 
 against the constituted authorities in Church and 
 State, and of rejecting the fundamental doctrines of 
 Romanism ; but we cannot find that their opponents 
 ever charged them with the design of superseding the 
 parochial clergy. In his httle book, "Of the Pas- 
 toral Office," Wiclif stands up boldly for the parish 
 priests who discharge their duties faithfully and con- 
 scientiously. He says, for instance, that " the aj)- 
 propriations of cathedrals deprive the parishes of 
 the lawful preachers of God's word.- One plain proof 
 that they did not oppose the parochial clergy as a 
 body, is, that they were at first employed, " under 
 episcopal sanction through what was then the immense 
 diocese of Lincoln, and 'probably in others also."" 
 The fact was, that it appears from several passages in 
 his works, that he attaches very great importance to 
 the parochial system, because it provides that none 
 through the length and breadth of the land should 
 be left in the deplorable condition of sheep having 
 no shepherd. He wished, wherever the heaven- 
 
 ' "Select English Works," Matthew, p. 253. 
 - "De Officio Pastorali," ii., c. 5 ; and Lechler's "Life," 
 vol.i.,p. 305. 
 
 * "Fascic. Zizan.," p. xl. 
 
wici.ir's "poor priests.'' 137 
 
 directed spire met the gaze, or the melody of the 
 Sabbath-bell burst on the ear, to be able to associate 
 with that sight and that sound the idea of a good and 
 watchful shepherd labouring to feed the whole flock 
 committed to his charge. 
 
 Wiclif shall himself describe the nature of this 
 institution. His design in creating it was, as he in- 
 forms us, to send forth good priests, following the 
 example of Christ himself, not endowed, moving 
 from place to place, living on alms in moderation as 
 long as they behave well, anxious to attend to the 
 works which are suited to priests, such as, especially, 
 preaching, prayer, and the study of God's law, but 
 abstaining entirely from employments such as the 
 shop, hunting, or the serving of tables.^ There is 
 also much in the fourth book of the " Trialogus " 
 which illustrates its constitution. His object was, 
 in fact, to supply the deficiencies of those priests 
 who, after having said mass, utterly neglected the 
 preaching of God's word and the spiritual instruction 
 of their parishioners. The Franciscans and Domini- 
 cans had laboured in that work : they had stood on 
 the world's highway and addressed to those around 
 them the words of exhortation and remonstrance. 
 They had visited, too, the very dens of vice and 
 infamy ; they had endeavoured to snatch the outcasts 
 of society from the hell which was opening its mouth 
 to receive them ; they had spoken words of peace to 
 the agonised sufferer, lifting up before him the symbol 
 
 ' " Fascic. Zizan.," p. xli. Dr. Shirley has given here an 
 extract from one of the Vienna manuscripts. 
 
JOHN WICIJF. 
 
 of redemption ; they ^vould go, too, among the sons 
 of violence and crime ; fixing on them a flashing eye, 
 and addressing them in a voice of thunder, they 
 would scare them from their purpose, reminding them 
 of the time when all their deeds should pass in 
 terrific array before them. The multitudes, too, had 
 hung spell-bound on the lips of the preacher, fancy- 
 ing, as they gazed on that form, wasted with fastings 
 and mortifications, or as they listened to the fervid 
 eloquence which rushed like a mighty torrent from 
 his lips, that they were gazing on and listening to an 
 inspired messenger of Jehovah. We cannot wonder, 
 therefore, that, persevering in the discharge of the 
 duties which the secular clergy neglected, they should 
 have won the affections of those among whom the 
 latter were appointed to minister ; or that they should 
 have confirmed the wavering multitude in their alle- 
 giance to their spiritual mother. 
 
 I need not describe the causes of the degeneracy 
 which disqualified them for their work. We shall 
 find them in the writings of Wiclif, and in the 
 political songs and satires of the age. Wiclif was 
 anxious to accomplish the work in which they had 
 signally failed. Dr. Shirley, however, seems to be 
 mistaken when he says that " Wiclif was the founder 
 of a new order, and that if he had died before his 
 denial of Tra'nsubstantiation, his name might have 
 come down to us in another form, and miracles 
 have been wrought at the tomb of their founder by 
 the brother-preachers of St. John Wycliff."^ He 
 ' " Fascic. Zizan.," pp. xl., xli. 
 
WICLIF'S '■ POOK PKlKbTb/' I39 
 
 could not bind them by a perpetual vow when he 
 saw that the Mendicants had, in direct violation of 
 the obligation imposed on them by St. Francis 
 of Assisi, erected stately mansions furnished with the 
 appliances of luxury, which surpassed in magnificence 
 the abode of royalty itself. He knew that the con- 
 sequence of the adoption of a rule of life higher and 
 holier than that of others, fortified by vows and other 
 safeguards, would have been that he would have had 
 a number of followers, who, like the Mendicants, 
 would have been constantly endeavouring to adapt 
 that rule to their requirements, and would not have 
 laboured conscientiously to fulfil their solemn 
 obligations. There is much wisdom in his words, — 
 " This is a great deceit of the fiend under colour of 
 perfection and chastity. For he stirreth men to 
 exalted points of perfection when he knoweth or 
 supposeth them unable." ^ Besides, to bind them by 
 vows would have been directly contrary to that 
 freedom of the Gospel which Wiclif enforced in his 
 exhortations and instructions. His design, in fact, 
 was, that, unfettered by vows, " poor without mendi- 
 cancy," they should constantly mingle amongst the 
 lower orders, and labour to promote their temporal 
 and everlasting interests. 
 
 We know from the description given of them in 
 several passages of his Latin writings, and in his 
 English sermons and tracts, in which he applies to 
 them the name of priests, that they had been set 
 
 ' "Select English Works," Arnold, v. iii., p. 190. See also 
 Ibid., Matthew, p. xvii. 
 
I40 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 apart by imposition of Iiands for the high and holy 
 office committed to their charge.^ We know, indeed, 
 that they were laymen afterwards ; but it would seem 
 to be exceedingly doubtful whether \\'iclif ever in- 
 tended them to be so. Both he and they could not 
 be ignorant, when he sent them forth into the high- 
 ways and hedges, that there was indeed ample scope 
 for their energies. I do not deny that there were 
 men anxious for the spiritual and moral regeneration 
 of those to whom they were appointed to minister, 
 who, like Chaucer's " good parson," to be described 
 in a future chapter, devoted all their energies to the 
 duties of their high and heavenly calling. But still 
 we know from AViclif's description of them in his 
 tract on the " Order of Priesthood," that many 
 committed simony in using influence and bribes for 
 their ordination ; that they haunted taverns and other 
 places of the same kind, and lived idle and luxurious 
 lives ; that they were so ignorant that they could not 
 read the service properly ; that they took rash vows 
 of chastity and did not keep them ; that they sought 
 their own gain more than the good of immortal souls ; 
 that they carried on business as maltsters and cattle- 
 dealers ; that they led men to trust in their prayers 
 more than in a good life ; that they became priests 
 because the life was an easy one ; and that they were 
 guilty of the odious sin of covetousness." - In fact, 
 he gives such a description of them that it appears 
 
 ' "Select English Works," Arnold, vol. i., p. 176, and 
 vol. ii., pp. 173, 182 ; Lechler's "Life," vol. i., p. 307. 
 ' "Select English Works," Matthew, pp. 164-179. 
 
WICLIF'S " POOR PRIESTS." I4I 
 
 that they were as virulent ulcers, the painful throb- 
 bing of which was not only felt to the extremity of 
 the diseased member, but threatened to extend to 
 vital parts, and to infect the very source and centre 
 of life. 
 
 AVe see, then, the nature of the work in which they 
 were engaged. Wiclif's great object was to enlist the 
 energies of all who came under his influence, and to 
 send them to the help of the Lord against the 
 mighty. I have already described the effect of the 
 plague in preparing the way for this grand assault on 
 the strongholds of ignorance, error, and superstition. 
 Men, whom the loss of the objects of their heart's 
 best love inspired with solemn feeUngs, determined 
 to consecrate their energies to ministerial work ; and 
 having been ordained by the bishop to fill up the 
 gaps which death had made in the ranks of the 
 clergy, were " prepared to receive in due time the 
 teaching of Wiclif and his followers." ^ We do not 
 find that at first it was a rule that they should not 
 accept a pastoral charge. Afterwards, when, as I 
 have stated, in consequence of " their coarseness 
 and ignorance " which, as Dr. Shirley informs us, 
 "moved the laughter or wrath of their contempo- 
 raries," 2 they, as well as the new recruits first referred 
 to, could not obtain preferment, they accepted the 
 necessity thus imposed upon them, and made a rule 
 that if it should be offered to them it should be 
 unhesitatingly declined. 
 
 ' Pages 47, 48. 
 
 ^ " Fascic. Zizan.," p. \1. 
 
JOHX WICLIF. 
 
 We shall better understand their position when we 
 have examined his tract, "Why Poor Priests have no 
 Benefice?"^ Their first reason for declining it is 
 their dread rf simony. No man in those days codld 
 obtain a benefice without certain payments which 
 were of a amoniacal character. The prelate had his 
 demand for fi rslftu its : and his officers for their fees 
 '.nd gratuities. To comply with these demands the 
 " poor priest ~ considCTed to be essentially simoniacaL 
 The demands of the patron also involved him in this 
 oiilt. Often he had to undertake some worldly 
 ' 'ffice for the gratification or profit of his benefactor, 
 ft is obsored that "some lords, to conceal their 
 imony, will not take for themselves, but kerchiefs 
 •'yr their lady, or a palfiy, or a tun of wine. And 
 -rfaen some lords would present a good man, then 
 <oine ladies are the means of having a dancer pre- 
 seatedfOg a tripper on tapits, or a hunter, orahawker, 
 wild player of summer gambols.'' All these 
 7.ractices are denomiced as treason against God ; and 
 as involvii^ in the gmh of simony the patron who 
 presents, the prelate who institutes, and the ctirate 
 who accepts die preferment ; and, finally, confessors 
 who £ul to censure these evils lest they should give 
 offence, and thereby lose their mendship and gifts. 
 
 Another of their scruples was, lest they should 
 mis-spend the goods of poor men. The rapacity of 
 ^latxcna and prelates, and the custom of prodigal 
 entertainments and luxnrioas living, swallowed up 
 the resources of charity; but the last reason seems 
 " Sdect Eaglbh WoHcv'' Mauhew, pp. 244-252. 
 
WICUF's "POOR PRIESTS." I45 
 
 to have been that to which the greatest iaiponxnce 
 was attached. It is that by accepting benefices they 
 w ould " be hindered from better occupation, and from 
 more profiting of holy Church." The charge which 
 they had received trom above is declared to have 
 respect to men in general, and to be binding where- 
 ever they may help their brethren heavenward, 
 whether by teaching, praying, or example-giving." 
 Their mission is conceived to require " a genaal 
 cure of charity, as had Christ and his apostles^ 
 .... By this they must surely sa\-e themsel^-es 
 and help their brethren ; and they are free to fly 
 from one cit\- to another, when they are j^frsecuted 
 by the clerks of Antichrist, as Christ biddeih in the 
 gospel. And thus they may best, without challenging 
 of men, go and dwell where they shall most profit. 
 And for such time as might be conveni^t. a/trr a!v 
 •".yrinj: iif fAf/ZtXYG^iXif. .... Also, they follo^^ Christ 
 .ind his apostles more in taking \-oluntar3i- .ilms of the 
 l>eople whom they teach, than in taking dymes and 
 t>fferings." Then follows the passage .already gi\-en 
 that they would not interfere with those who dis- 
 charged their duties faithtully and conscientiously.^ 
 
 We may then suppose that these " poor priests," 
 h.wing been trained, were sent forth in accord- 
 .\nce with the relations which ha\-e just come 
 under our notice. Wiclif did not, however, when he 
 was separatovl from them, leave them without his 
 jwwerful aid to carry on the work committed to 
 their oh.irge. He issued various tracts, defending 
 ' r.\ge 155. 
 
144 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 the itinerancy, and explaining its objects, which were 
 designed to assist them with their opponents.^ Of 
 this class is the tract which has just come before us. 
 He also endeavoured, by publishing sermons for their 
 use, to impress his own mind on the movement. We 
 find, at the end of several sermons on the Sunday 
 gospels, in the " Select English Works," directions to 
 the preachers how to enlarge on the portion previously 
 explained.- We know also that the tract of " The 
 Six Yokes " was designed by AViclif for the instruc- 
 tion of the " poor priests " ; for it begins thus : — " In 
 order that unlearned and simple preachers, who are 
 burning with zeal for souls, may have material for 
 preaching,"'' etc. At first they must have carried on 
 their work from Oxford and from Ludgarshall. After- 
 wards, when he retired to Lutterworth, situated in 
 Leicestershire, the town of Leicester berime the 
 centre of this system of itinerancy. 
 
 We may figure to ourselves these preachers, " bare- 
 foot," with a staff in their hands, and clad in a " long 
 russet gown reaching down to their heels," travelling 
 over the land from town to town, and from village to 
 village, on their errand of love to those who were 
 perishing in their iniquity.^ One of them, John 
 Aston, is described as having nearly shaken off the 
 incumbrances of the flesh. He scarcely ever allowed 
 the need of rest to interfere with the prosecution of 
 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. i., p. 313. 
 
 " Select English Works," vol. i., pp. 3, 6, 9, 12. 
 ' Lechler's " Life," vol. i., p. 314. 
 * Walsingham, col. 2,657. 
 
\vict.ii-'s "poor priests." 145 
 
 his labours. He is compared by the chronicler 
 Knighion to a bee perpetually on the wing ; or to a 
 hound constantly ready to start up from his repose, 
 and to bark at the slightest sound. The same de- 
 scription may also be applied to John Purvey and 
 others. We seem to sec them as they daily stand, 
 the centre of a large assemblage, to u.se the words of 
 the royal ordinance against them, to be referred to in 
 Chapter VI., which biings their work vividly before 
 us, " preaching daily, not only in churches and 
 churchyards, but also in markets, fairs, and other 
 open places," which they deemed suitable to their 
 purpose.^ The nobleman gave up the excitement of 
 the chase ; the pale student laid aside the manuscript 
 which he was examining with all the eagerness of one 
 who has dug up from the bowels of the earth a long- 
 buried treasure ; the merchant ceased to count the 
 glittering heaps piled up around him ; the labourer 
 suffered the plough to stand in the furrow ; the smith 
 allowed the glowing iron to become cool on the 
 anvil, and listened to one of Wiclif 's "poor priests," 
 as he endeavoured to minister to them sound 
 nourishment out of " God's word," and to apply 
 " God's law " to the hearts and consciences of 
 his hearers. At first, following the direction of 
 their great master, they addressed their hearers 
 in simple language. Afterwards, glowing with de- 
 voted zeal in declaring the testimony of the Lord, 
 they reminded them, in strong language, that this li.'e 
 is as nothing, less than nothing, when compared with 
 ' Foxe's "Acts and Monument's," iii., 38. 
 L 
 
146 
 
 JOHN WrCLIF. 
 
 the coming eternity ; or lifted up their voices in stern 
 condemnation of the hypocrisy, sensuality, or am- 
 bition of the clergy, or the gross open sins of the 
 laity, or the erroneous teaching of the Papal Anti- 
 christ and his followers on the power of granting 
 Indulgences, or on Confession to a priest, or the 
 Invocation of saints, or on the Worship of images, 
 which they declared to be idolatry or addressing 
 them in the winning accents of persuasion, urged 
 them to live in Christian brotherhood and peace, and 
 warned them, even with tears, to make haste and 
 escape from the coming condemnation. ^ 
 
 We learn that their efforts were very successful, 
 from Archbishop Courtenay's mandate, already 
 referred to, from the royal ordinance in which 
 it is stated that, " by their subtle and ingenious 
 words, they do draw the people to hear their 
 sermons, and do maintain them in their error 3 and 
 from a letter to the Archbishop from members of the 
 
 ' Vaughan ("Monograph," p. 274) states that these errors 
 were alleged to be condemned by them in a petition against 
 them presented by the clergy to the king and court in 1382. 
 In this petition they are called Lollards. 
 
 ■* " De Officio Pastorali," ii., c. 3, p. 34: — "The preacher 
 ought to preach plainly evange'ical truth." Their discourses 
 were chiefly of an ethical character. Knighton (col. 2,660) 
 tells us that their favourite expression was "God's Law." We 
 come to the same conclusion from the tract, " Of Good Preching 
 Prestis." Lewis (p. 200) gives the commencement, which 
 shows its substance. The subjects of the sermons, given above, 
 are taken from it, and from the " De Officio Pastorali," .See 
 also Lechler's "Life," vol. i., p. 311. 
 
 ' Foxe's " Acts and Monuments," iii., 38. 
 
WICLIf's " POOR PRIESTS." 
 
 University of Oxford, which mentions the great 
 number of Wiclifs adherents, in a way to suggest 
 that, by the preaching of the itinerants, his views on the 
 Reformation were widely propagated. ^ We know also 
 from Knighton that many distinguished men, whose 
 names are given, openly favoured their opinions. ^ They 
 gave notice when a preacher was coming into the 
 neighbourhood, and afterwards stood armed around 
 him, prepared to defend him from those whom the 
 vehement partisans of the old opinions stirred up 
 against them. This was sometimes the case during 
 the reaction in 1382, after the insurrection of 
 the peasantry. Then flashing swords, and the 
 loud shouts of the combatants, showed only too 
 plainly that the struggle was not altogether carried on 
 with weapons drawn from the armoury of heaven.' 
 
 Amid the crowd assembled around the preachers 
 might often be seen the scowling countenances of 
 prelates and abbots, mendicants and monks, rectors 
 and curates. Inflamed with anger, they left the 
 meeting, and propagated slanderous reports against 
 them. I select a passage which contains the most 
 important of them : — " Prelates slander poor priests, 
 and other Christian men, saying that they will not 
 obey their sovereign, nor fear the curse, nor dread, 
 nor keep the law, but despise all things that are 
 against their liking." On this ground these "poor 
 priests and Christian men" are denounced as 
 
 ' Wilkin's "Concilia Magnco Britannia," vo). iii., fol. 171, 
 
 *'De Evenlibus," 2,660, 2,661. 
 ' " Fascic. Zizan.,-" p. 272. 
 
 L 2 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 " worse than Jews and pagans," and it is taught 
 that " all lords and prelates and mighty men should 
 destroy them, for else they will destroy holy Church, 
 and make each man to live as him liketh." In 
 answer to which charge it is said : — " Poor priests and 
 .true men say, they would meekly and willingly obey 
 God and holy Church, and each man in earth, in so 
 far as he tcacheth truly God's cojumandvients and 
 
 profitable truth for their souls Why should 
 
 Christian men be constrained by Antichrist's clerks 
 to do after their commandments, when they do no 
 works of God, but works of the fiend ? " ' 
 
 This defence was substantially just. The " poor 
 priests" were instituted to carry on their work within 
 the Church. The charge that they opposed con- 
 stituted authority, or bishops as such, was utterly 
 unfounded. In this respect they resembled the 
 ^arly Methodists. John Wiclif and Wesley deter- 
 mined to remain within the Church, and to exert 
 every effort to purify it from its abuses. They both 
 made their appeal to the Bible and the primitive 
 Church against the corruptions which disfigured the 
 ecclesiastical system. Wiclif was unquestionably the 
 Wesley of his day. He gave his consent to a regular 
 system of itinerancy and field preaching, employing 
 his own agents, who, after he was removed, were 
 subject only to the supposed direction of the Holy 
 Spirit. On the manifold dangers of such a system, 
 
 ' " How Men ought to obey Prelates?" Matthew, S. E. W., 
 p. 29. See also, for other charges, Matthew, pp. 27 and 78 ; 
 and Arnold, S. E. W. vol. iii., pp. 231, 272, 293, 321. 
 
WICLIf's " POOR PRIESTS." 1 49 
 
 without more provision for future guidance than 
 he had time during the short remainder of his 
 life to establish, I need not enlarge. He supposed 
 that he had sufficiently guarded against them 
 by the declaration that he did not intend to 
 supersede the ministry of the faithful clergy. We 
 must consider the circumstances in which he A\as 
 placed if we would form a just estimate of his con- 
 duct at this crisis. The spiritual and temporal 
 authorities were exerting every effort to prevent a 
 reformation from being conducted to a successful 
 issue. He must inoculate the minds of the people 
 with the truths of Scripture, and give them a just 
 perception of the abuses of the system, in order that, 
 notwithstanding their efforts, he might secure the 
 moral and spiritual regeneration of his native country. 
 This agency, which has just come before us, seemed 
 at the time the only one available for the purpose. 
 He sent forth his " poor priests " on their work of 
 faith and labour of love, cheered with the hope that, 
 though he should not live to hear it, they might 
 prepare the way for the coming of a time when a 
 song of triumph should ascend from every part of an 
 emancipated land. 
 
JOHN' wici.ir. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 WlCLIf's TRANSLATION OF THE BIRLE. 
 
 Wiclif 's views as to the paramount authority of the Bible, as to 
 the consent of the Fathers, tradition, and the interpreta- 
 tion of Scripture. — Extracts from his works showing the 
 importance of giving the Scriptures to the people in their 
 own language. — Wiclif proved to have been the first 
 translator of the whole Bible into English. — Forshall and 
 Madden's edition of the Wiclifite versions. — The time 
 when he formed the design of translation. — His prepara- 
 tion for it. — Wiclif translated the New Testament and 
 Hereford the Old Testament. — Date of translation. — John 
 Purvey's new version. — Mistaken for some time for Wiclif 's. 
 — Eagerly sought after. — Wiclif 's Bible helped to form our 
 language. — This translation prepared the way for the 
 Reformation. 
 
 We have seen that WicHf directed his " poor priests " 
 to appeal to Holy Scripture in all their exhortations 
 and instructions. In fact he considered its divine 
 ^ and paramount authority, in all matters of faith and 
 practice, as an essential and fundamental principle of 
 Christianity. Hehadgraduallycome to this conclusion. 
 In his " Trialogus " he ^\Tites : — " We do not sincerely 
 believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or we should abide 
 by the authority of His word, especially that of tlie 
 evangelists, as of infinitely greater weight than any 
 other. Inasmuch as it is the will of the Holy Spirit 
 that our attention should not be dispersed over a 
 
wiclif's translation of the bible. 151 
 
 large number of objects, but concentrated on one 
 sufficient source of instruction, it is his pleasure that 
 the books of the old and new law should be read 
 and studied, and that men should not be taken up 
 with other books, which, true as they may be, and 
 containing Scripture truth as they may, by implication, 
 are not to be confided in without caution or limi- 
 tation. Hence, Augustine often enjoins it on his 
 hearers not to place any faith in his word or writings, 
 except in so far as they have their foundation in 
 Scripture, wherein, as he often says, is contained all 
 truth either directly or by implication. And again, 
 " it is impossible that any word or any deed of the 
 Christian should be of equal authority with Holy 
 Scripture." - When, therefore, the Pope asserts that 
 his decrees in matters of faith have the same authority 
 as the Gospel, he is, in Wiclif's opinion, guilty of 
 blasphemy, because he arrogates to himself the 
 attributes and prerogatives of Deit)-. 
 
 While, however, in his later j^ears, he utterly rejected 
 the unscriptural dogma that the traditional interpreta- 
 tion of the Church is the authorised guide, still, more 
 than once, he attaches some importance to the con- 
 sent of the Fathers in the interpretation of Scripture.'' 
 But he accompanies this opinion with a declaration, 
 that if we seek diligently for wisdom, God will soon 
 answer our petitions for divine illumination.* Wc 
 shall, if we approach the study with true humility of 
 
 ' "Trialogus," lib. iii., cap. xxxi., pp. 239, 240. 
 - "De Veiitate Sacrx Scripturoe," c. 15. 
 » Ibid.,c. 15. * ll'id., c. 6. 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 spirit, see flashes of light breaking forth from what 
 were before dark sayings ; and shall know the life- 
 giving power of those words of wisdom which 
 *' are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith 
 which is in Christ Jesus." From its divine and 
 absolute authority he infers that, to use the words of 
 the sixth Article of our Church, with which he exactly 
 agrees, — " Holy Scripture containeth all things 
 necessary to salvation." As the Magna Charta, too, is 
 the palladium of our liberties, so the Bible is the 
 charter of our freedom, securing to us the liberty with 
 which Christ makes his people free.^ We see, then, 
 that Wiclif fully deserved the high and honourable 
 title of the Evangelical Doctor which was conferred 
 upon him by his contemporaries. An examination of 
 ^ his works will serve to show us that he had an 
 amazing knowledge of Holy Scripture. Sometimes, 
 indeed, acting on the common persuasion in those 
 days that Scripture has a fourfold sense, he gives a 
 forced and fanciful interpretation of pas.sages ; but 
 he always starts from the literal sense, to which he 
 attaches the greatest importance.- He took the 
 different parts of Scripture in close connexion ; he 
 made it its own interpreter, comparing spiritual things 
 with spiritual.^ He dug deep into the vast mine of 
 Scriptural truth, being fully assured that, if he laboured 
 prayerfully in the work, its treasures would be more 
 and more unfolded to his astonished and delighted 
 view. 
 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. ii., p. 22. '■ Jiiii., p. 31. 
 ' " De Veritate .Sacrse Scriptiir?e," r. 19. 
 
wiclif's translation of the bible. 153 
 
 The deep veneration which he felt for Holy 
 Scripture, and the supreme importance which he 
 attached to it, would naturally lead him to the con- 
 clusion that the people ought to be allowed to read 
 in their own tongues the wonderful works of God. 
 He has expressed that view in the " Wicket," to be 
 referred to in the next chapter, published at the 
 beginning of the eucharistic controversy. "Those 
 who call it heresy to speak of the Holy Scriptures in 
 English, must be prepared," he says, "to condemn 
 the Holy Ghost, who gave it in tongues to the 
 Apostles of Christ, to speak the word of God in all 
 languages that were ordained of God under heaven." 
 And again, in the "Mirror for Temporal Lords," — 
 " Those heretics are not to be heard who fancy that 
 secular men ought not to know the law of God ; 
 but that it is enough for them to know what priests (_^-^ 
 and prelates tell them by word of mouth ; for 
 Scripture is the faith of the Church, and the more it 
 is known in an orthodox sense the better. There- 
 fore, as secular men ought to know the faith, so it is 
 to be taught them in whatever language is best known 
 to them. . . . We are not to believe the words or 
 discourses of prelates any further than they are 
 founded on Scripture, since, according to the constant 
 doctrine of Augustine, the Scripture is all the truth. 
 Therefore this translation of the Scriptures would 
 do this good, that it would render priests and 
 prelates unsuspected as to the words which they 
 explain."^ Further, "prelates, as the Pope and 
 
 ' "The Mirror for Temporal Lords," quoted liy Lewis, p. 86. 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 friars, and other means, may prove defective. 
 Accordingly, Christ and his Apostles converted the 
 greater portion of the world by making known the 
 Scriptures to the people in their own language. To 
 this end did the Holy Spirit endow them with the 
 knowledge of tongues. Why, then, should not the 
 disciples of Christ, at the present day, take fragments 
 from the same book, and, like them, open the 
 Scriptures to the people that they may know them ? 
 . . . Besides, since, according to the faith which the 
 Apostle teaches, all Christians must sta7id before ihe 
 judgment seat of Christ, and be answerable to Him for 
 all the goods with which He has entrusted them ; it 
 is necessary that all the faithful should know those 
 goods and the use of them; for an answer by a 
 prelate or attorney will 7iot then avail, but every one must 
 then anstver in his own person. Since God, therefore, 
 has given to both clergy and laity the knowledge of 
 the faith, to this end that they may teach it the more 
 plainly, and may faithtully work by it, it is plain that 
 God, in the day of judgment, will require a true 
 account of the use of those goods, how they have 
 been put out to usury." i He felt, too, that, as patriots, 
 they should all desire the distribution of the Scriptures 
 with a view to the regeneration of their native country. 
 The Bible, the whole unmutilated Bible, the Bible 
 distributed in a tongue understood by the people, the 
 Bible uncorrupted by the false glosses of that Church 
 which claims for itself an exclusive right to interpret 
 
 ' "Doctrina Chii^'innn," lib. ii., aJ fin., cited by Lewis, 
 p. 87. 
 
VVlCLlt 'S TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. 1 55 
 
 the Scriptures, was to be the moral lever by which his 
 country was to be raised from her present state of 
 degradation. 
 
 The assertion has, however, been made that Wiclif 
 was not the first translator of the whole Bible. Sir 
 Thomas More, in the reign of Henry VIII., anxious 
 to disprove the charge brought against the hierarchy 
 that they had opposed the circulation of the Scrip- 
 tures among the laity during the middle ages, asserted 
 that he had seen copies of a translation before the 
 time of Wiclif, made with the full consent of the 
 bishops.^ Thomas James, too, the first librarian of 
 the Bodleian Library at Oxford, an acute, learned, 
 and indefatigable writer, who, in 1608, published a 
 most successful vindication of Wiclif from the charges 
 brought against him by the celebrated Father Parsons, 
 said that he had seen a Bible in the English tongue 
 much older than the time of Wiclif.- Archbishop 
 Usher, who followed James, made the same assertion. 
 Henry Wharton thought that the author of the sup- 
 posed translation was John of Trevisa, a priest in 
 Cornwall. He afterwards discovered and corrected 
 his error. It is evident, however, that the copies 
 seen by Sir Thomas More and Dr. James were really 
 copies of Wiclifs translation, many of which can be 
 proved to have been in the hands of Roman Catholic 
 prelates at the time of the Reformation."' One, now 
 
 ' More, "Dyalogue.s," fol. cviii., cxi., cxiv. 
 ■-' Forshall and Madden's edition of the Wiclifite versions of 
 the Bible, preface, p. xxi. 
 ' Ibid., note G., and p. ivii. 
 
JOHN WICLIF 
 
 at Lambeth, belonged to Bishop Bonner, and a 
 second, now at Magdalen College, Cambridge, to 
 William Weston, prior of St. John's, Clerkenwell. 
 Besides, Wiclif and his followers, when they encoun- 
 tered formidable opposition, would not have failed 
 to refer to a previous translation in justification of 
 their translation ; but we cannot find a single 
 syllable in their writings which shows that they were 
 aware of an earlier translation. 
 
 The result of a careful examination will be to show 
 ^/ us that no translation of the whole Bible had been 
 made before the days of AViclif. Partial translations 
 had been made in Anglo-Saxon times, by Csedmon, 
 in the seventh century, who produced a rhyming 
 version of events in Old Testament history; by 
 Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne, and the monk Guth- 
 lac, in the next century, who produced Anglo-Saxon 
 versions of the Psalms ; by the Venerable Bede, who 
 completed a translation of St. John's Gospel ; and by 
 Alfred the Great, who, " at the head of his laws set 
 in Anglo-Saxon the Ten Commandments, with such 
 of the Mosaic injunctions in the three following 
 chapters of Exodus as were most to his purpose. 
 AVhat other parts of the Bible he translated it is 
 difficult to determine." ^ To the ninth century must 
 be attributed the Anglo-Saxon version of the Gospels, 
 published by Archbishop Parker in 157 1, by Dr. 
 Marshall, Rector of Lincoln College, in 1665, and by 
 Mr. Benjamin Thorpe in 1842. Towards the end of 
 
 ' Forshall and Madden's preface to the Wiclifite versions, 
 p. ii. 
 
\VICL[F"s TRAXSr-.VriON OF THE BIBLE. 1 57 
 
 the tenth century the monk ^21fric had the extra- 
 ordinary merit of translating the Pentateuch ; the 
 books of Joshua and Judges ; those of Esther, Job, 
 and Judith ; also the two books of the Maccabees, 
 with a part of the first and second book of Kings. We 
 may, in fact, conclude, from the existing remains, 
 that the Anglo-Saxons must have possessed a large 
 portion of sacred literature, when we remember that 
 much must have perished in the incursions of the 
 Danes and in the subsequent Norman invasion. 
 
 We find that the Normans, before the year 1200, 
 had a translation in prose of the Psalter and Canticles 
 of the Church; and before the year 1250 not only a 
 history of the Old Testament in verse, down to the 
 Babylonish captivity, but also a prose translation of 
 the whole Bible. We must remember, however, that 
 these were in the Norman-French, which was under- 
 stood only by the upper classes, and that they v/ere 
 of no use to the middle and lower classes ; for the 
 Anglo-Saxon lived on among them. The Anglo- 
 Saxon versions of the Gospels and other portions of 
 Scripture seem to have remained partially in use 
 during this period. The first attempt after the Con- 
 quest to place any portion of the Scriptures before 
 the English people in their own language, was the 
 Ormulum, a rhyming paraphrase on the Gospels and 
 the Acts of the Apostles, made about the beginning of 
 the thirteenth century. It does not appear, however, 
 to have gone beyond the first copy of the author, 
 and was, therefore, of little or no use in religious 
 teaching. I-ater in the thirteenth century appeared 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 a poem reciting tlie principal events in Genesis and 
 Exodus, and about the end of it a translation in verse 
 of the whole of the Psalter. The earliest version in 
 English prose of any entire book of Scripture was a 
 translation of the Psalter into Latin and English, 
 made about the time when Edward III. ascended 
 the throne in 1327, by William de Schorham, vicar 
 of Chart-Sutton, near Leeds in Kent. This was fol- 
 lowed almost immediately by another version, the 
 work of Richard de Rolle, chantry priest of Ham- 
 pole, near Doncaster, who died in 1349. He after- 
 wards annexed to it a devotional commentary. A 
 third translation of the Psalter, in a manuscript of the 
 fourteenth century, has been attributed to a certain 
 John Hyde, because his name has been given as the 
 owner of the book ; but it appears to be nothing 
 more than a revision of the translation of Shorehani. 
 
 The learned editors of the Wiclifite versions of 
 the Holy Scriptures, the Rev. Josiah Forshall and Sir 
 Frederick Madden, have furnished us in their preface 
 with the materials for the preceding outline.^ They 
 were engaged on the work for two-and-twenty years. 
 They deserve our thanks for the laborious care with 
 which they have collated and examined the manu- 
 scripts. They have subjoined to the text copious 
 emendations and readings. " Down to the year 
 1360," write the editors, "the Psalter appears to be 
 the only book which had been entirely rendered into 
 English. Within less than twenty-five years from 
 
 Trcfact'. vol. i.. pp. i.-v. 
 
WICLIF'S translation of IHE BIBLE. 15y 
 
 that date a prose version of the whole Bible, in- 
 cluding as well the apocr)'phal as the canonical 
 books, had been completed, and was in circulation 
 among the people. For this invaluable gift England 
 is indebted to John Wiclif. It may be impossible 
 to determine with certainty the exact share which his 
 own pen had in the translation, but there can be no 
 doubt that he took a part in the labour of preparing 
 it, and that the accomplishment of the work must be 
 attributed mainly to liis zeal, encouragement, and 
 direction. 
 
 Early authorities concur in attributing this trans- 
 lation to Wiclif. Knighton, a chronicler of the period, 
 laments that Wiclif should have thus made the 
 gospel known to the laity. "This Master John 
 Wiclif has translated into the English the gospel 
 which Christ gave to the clergy and doctors of tlie 
 Church, to be by them communicated to the weaker 
 sort, and the laity according to their need, and has 
 thus made it more accessible to the laity, and to 
 women who are able to read, than it was to the well- 
 educated and intelligent clergy." And again. Arch- 
 bishop Arundel, in a letter to John XXII., asking 
 him to condemn the heresy of Wiclif and his fol- 
 lowers, after severe vituperation, writes : — " He has 
 completed his malice by devising a translation of the 
 Scriptures into the mother tongue." - 
 
 It is a most important question when Wiclif 
 formed the design of this translation, and began to 
 
 ' Forshall and Madden's prefnce, p. vt. 
 ' Ibid., p. vi., note \. 
 
JOHN- WICLIK. 
 
 carry it into effect. On this point our statement 
 must be, to some extent, conjectural. P'orshall and 
 Madden enable us to settle other matters in relation 
 to this translation, but on this matter they are unable 
 to furnish us with any information. He could not 
 have been known to have thought of translating the 
 Bible before his appearance at Lambeth, in 1378, or 
 else most certainly the malignity of his opponents 
 would have led them to exhibit this design as an 
 article of charge against him. He could not have 
 given it to the world before the famous Synod of the 
 earthquake, in 1382 — to be described in the next 
 chapter — or else the matter would have occupied a 
 prominent place among the heresies and errors which 
 the assembled prelates and clergy were invited to 
 condemn. The probability is that he formed the 
 design after his banishment from Oxford, in 1381 — 
 as we shall see in the next chapter — when he 
 expressed his views on the question of Transub- 
 stantiation. He could no longer, by the agency ot 
 the students, who hung upon his lips at Oxford, 
 diffuse his views of Scriptural truth through the 
 length and breadth of the country. His conscience, 
 better instructed, would not allow him to put himself 
 prominently forward, as before, as a gladiator on the 
 political arena. The hierarchy were opposed to him, 
 because he wanted to effect a reformation in the Church. 
 The nobility, terrified by the loud voice of ecclesias- 
 tical authority, were unwilling to come forward, and 
 range themselves on his side. He, therefore, stood 
 in a position of comparative isolation. He would 
 
wiclif's translation of the bible. i6i 
 
 retire to Lutterworth, and from his parish make his 
 appeal to the middle and lower orders of his fellow- 
 countrymen. We shall see, in the last chapter, that 
 tract after tract issued from his parish, and circulated 
 rapidly through the country. The circumstances 
 which led him to issue them may have disposed him 
 to carry into effect an idea which he had been 
 for some time previously revolving in his mind, and 
 to resolve to appeal to the middle and lower classes 
 not only through his " poor priests," but also through 
 his translation of the Bible. The fact that he does 
 not mention the matter definitely before 1381, but 
 that afterwards he often refers to it in his writings, 
 may be considered as strong corroborative evidence 
 of the truth of our assertion.^ 
 
 This was a sublime conception for the age in which 
 he lived. Difficulties, apparently insurmountable, 
 stood in the way of the design, which embraced not 
 only the literal translation of the Bible, but also its 
 circulation among all ranks and orders of his fellow- 
 countrymen. Many would have shrunk back terrified 
 by the prospect of the formidable opposition and 
 persecution which they might expect to be called on 
 to encounter. Bishops and priests, and many of the 
 laity, might have been expected to be banded 
 together in a dark confederacy against them. Fear 
 of this hostility is often expressed in tracts published 
 at this time, and every effort is exerted to disarm it 
 by a powerful statement of the strong arguments 
 
 ' "John de Wycliffe, a Monograph," by Vauglian, p. 352. 
 M 
 
l62 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 for circulating the sacred Scriptures in a tongue 
 understood by the people.^ The consequence is that 
 the persons of the translators are -wrapped in obscurity. 
 Luther often in letters refers to the work of transla- 
 tion, by which he was beguiling the tedium of his 
 banishment to the gloomy recesses of the forest of 
 Thuringia. But we scarcely find in Wiclif's writings 
 any references to the progress of his work. The fact 
 was, that he and those who aided him were afraid 
 that, if they blazed abroad the matter, the powerful 
 hand of authority would prevent them from con- 
 tinuing the translation, and would inflict severe perse- 
 cution upon them. The consequence is that we are 
 ignorant of the different stages of a work which, 
 as we shall see, prepared the way for the Reforma- 
 tion, and affected the spiritual destinies of millions 
 then unborn. 
 
 We can, however, trace him indistinctly in the 
 preparation for his work. The probability is that he 
 prepared himself slowly and gradually by previous 
 attempts at translation. The evidence, indeed, which 
 bears on the point is scanty, and only sufficient, it 
 should be remembered, to afford to the conclusions 
 which it suggests a presumption of their truth.^ Dr. 
 Lechler seems to be correct when he states that the 
 learned editors of Wiclif's Bible have wrongly attri- 
 buted to him commentaries on the book of the Reve- 
 lation of St. John, and on the Gospels of St. Matthew, 
 
 ' Fcrshall and Madden's preface, pp. xiii., xiv. 
 ^ Wiclifite Versions, p. vi. 
 
wiclif's translation of the bible. 163 
 
 St. Luke, and St. John.* We seem, however, to have 
 more reason for regarding as his work a translation of 
 the Latin Harmony of the Gospels, by Prior Clement, 
 of Lanthony in Monmouthshire, who lived in the 
 middle of the twelfth century.- An appendix, con- 
 taining portions of the Catholic Epistles and extracts 
 from other parts of the Bible, was added, as a substi- 
 tute for a complete Bible version. The reasons for 
 attributing it to Wiclif are that it has been from the 
 time of Bale uniformly regarded as his work, and that 
 it has a very close agreement with his version of the 
 Gospels. The preface is one of the tracts above 
 referred to, by which he endeavoured to disarm hos- 
 tility, and to prepare the way for his translation. 
 There is a genuine Wiclifite ring in the sentences : 
 " Pleasure-loving, learned men of the world reply and 
 say, laymen may easily fall into error, and therefore 
 they ought not to dispute upon questions of Christian 
 faith. Alas ! alas ! what cruelty it is to rob a whole 
 kingdom of bodily food, because a few fools may be 
 gluttonous, and may do themselves and others 
 mischief by their immoderate use of such food. . . . 
 When a child makes a slip in his first day's lesson, 
 would there be any sense in making that a reason for 
 never allowing a child to come to lessons at all ? 
 Who, then, in this way of it would ever become a 
 scholar What sort of antichrist is this, who, to the 
 sorrow of Christian men, is so bold as to prohibit the 
 
 ' Lechler's " Life," vol. i., pp; 334-340 ; Wiclifite Versions, 
 pp. viii.-x. 
 
 - Wiclifite Version?, preface, pp. x.-xii. 
 
 M 2 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 laity from learning this holy lesson, which is so 
 earnestly commanded by God ? Every man is bound 
 to learn it, that he may be saved, but every layman 
 who shall be saved is a very priest of God's own 
 making, and every man is bound to be a very 
 priest."' 
 
 The New Testament was probably translated by 
 AViclif. 'We come to this conclusion, because the 
 same st3'le is observable throughout it. Wiclif was, 
 however, ignorant of Greek. The translation was, 
 therefore, made from the Latin Vulgate. The conse- 
 quence is that it does not always faithfully represent 
 the original Greek or Hebrew. Thus, there are two 
 remarkable passages in the Epistles of St. Peter, which 
 stand thus in AViclif's Bible, and the authorised 
 version, respectively : — 
 
 I Peter, c. iii., v. 22. 
 
 Wiclif. Authorised Version. 
 
 That is in the righthalf of Who is gone into heaven, 
 
 God, he nvolewiu^'e deeth, or and is on the right hand of 
 
 destrinynge, tliat 7c'j shuldc be God ; angels and authorities 
 
 maad tyres of etierlastinge Ujf ; and powers being made subject 
 
 he gon vnto heuen, aungels, unto him. 
 and powers, and vertues, maad 
 sugettes to him. 
 
 Again, 2 Peter, i., v. 10: 
 
 Wherfore, britheren, more Wherefore, the rather, 
 
 bisye ye, that /'/ goode iverkis brethren, give diligence to 
 
 ye make youre clepynge and make your calling and election 
 
 chesynge certeyn. sure. 
 
 ' Wiclifite A'ersions of the Bible, vol. i., p. xv., col. i. 
 
wiclif's translation of the bible. 165 
 
 The interpolated words (printed in italics) are in 
 the Vulgate: "Swallowing death, that we might be 
 made heirs of eternal life," and " by good works." 
 The translation of the Old Testament was taken in 
 hand at the same time with the translation of the 
 New, or within a short time of its completion. We 
 learn, from a remark on a copy of the original 
 manuscript, added not long after it was made, that 
 the translation was executed by Nicholas of Hereford. 
 The original, and the copy, which have been pre- 
 served in the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, end 
 abruptly in the middle of a sentence in the book of 
 Baruch, chap. iii. v. 20.^ This fact seems to indicate 
 that the translator was suddenly interrupted in his 
 work. Now, we learn that Nicholas Hereford was 
 cited, in May, 1382 — as we shall see in the next 
 chapter — to appear before a provincial synod, in 
 London, to answer for a sermon preached on 
 Ascension Day before the University, and that 
 he was excommunicated on July i.- He afterwards 
 went to Rome to appeal against the sentence. He 
 was here thrown into prison, where he remained for 
 some years, but was afterwards released by the 
 populace during an insurrection, and returned to 
 England. The translation, thus interrupted, was 
 probably completed by Wiclif. The style is difi;rent 
 from Hereford's translation. The date thus obtained 
 enables us to conjecture the time of the completion 
 
 ' Wiclifite Versions, preface, p. xvii. 
 ' " Fascic. Zizan.," p. 250. 
 
i66 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 of the New Testament. This must have been finished 
 in June, 1382, if the translator of the Old Testament 
 had advanced so far as the Book of Baruch.^ We 
 must add, that prefaces were attached to the Old and 
 New Testament. They were translations of the same 
 prologues which preceded the different books in the 
 manuscripts of the Vulgate in the fourteenth century. 
 In the case of the Old Testament, they consist of 
 letters and other pieces of St. Jerome. 
 
 " The translation of the whole Bible being thus com- 
 pleted the next care was to render it as useful as, 
 possible. With this view, a table of the portions of 
 Scripture read as the Epistles and Gospels of the 
 Church service on the Sundays, feasts, and fasts of the 
 year was framed. This table was inserted in certain 
 copies of the newly-translated Bibles, and the pas- 
 sages were marked in the text by letters placed in 
 the margin, over and against the beginning and end 
 of the several portions; or sometimes the margin 
 contained a rubric stating at length the service for 
 which the lesson was appointed. To some copies of 
 the New Testament such portions of the Old were 
 annexed as were used in the Church service instead 
 of the Epistles. In order also to render those parts 
 of Scripture in most frequent use accessible at less 
 cost, books were written containing nothing more 
 than the Gospels and Epistles read in the service of 
 the Mass."^ 
 
 The version thus completed was not altogether 
 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. i., p. 343. 
 '- Wiclifite Versions, preface, p. xix. 
 
wiclif's translation of the bible. 167 
 
 satisfactory. " The part translated by Hereford," it 
 is said, " differed in style from the rest. It was 
 extremely literal, occasionally obscure, and sometimes 
 incorrect; and there were other blemishes throughout, 
 incident to a first essay of this magnitude, undertaken 
 under very unfavourable circumstances, by different 
 persons and at different times, upon no agreed or 
 well-defined principle." ^ himself may, there- 
 
 fore, have suggested, and perhaps commenced, a new 
 version. The learned editors of the Wiclifite Ver- 
 sions have concluded, for sufficient reasons, that 
 John Purvey was the translator.- They have satisfied 
 themselves, after careful examination, that he was 
 " the author of the General Prologue, and conse- 
 quently of the later version to which it belongs." 
 He appears to have lived with Wiclif in his later 
 years, and after his death to have preached at Bristol.^ 
 It seems impossible now to ascertain to whom 
 Purvey, in the Prologue, alludes as having aided 
 him in the preparation of his work.* The version 
 thus translated — originally supposed to have been 
 published in 1395 — appears, on better evidence, to 
 have been published in 1388. The General Prologue 
 was designed ai a preface to the Old Testament, and 
 not to the New.'' The books of the New Testament 
 have prologues which are generally those ef the 
 earlier version, with alterations and additions. The 
 
 ' Wiclifite Versions, preface, p. xx. 
 
 * Ibid., pp. xxiv.-xxviii. 
 ' Ibid., p. xxiv., note U. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 57, and preface, p. xxviii. * Ibid., p. xxviii. 
 
i68 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 version is everywhere founded on the previous trans- 
 lation, and was intended to render it more correct, 
 intelligible, and popular. The volumes, edited by 
 Forshall and Madden, give the two versions, column 
 by column, in the same pages. Those qualified to 
 speak on the subject assure us that there are certain 
 criteria by which the earlier date of the one, and the 
 later date of the other, may be easily distinguished. 
 But so little attention has been paid to those differ- 
 ences, that the New Testament printed by Mr. Lewis, 
 more than a century ago, does not give us the earlier 
 translation by Wiclif, but the revised translation by 
 Purvey. No part of Wiclif's translation — with the 
 exception of the Song of Solomon, given by Dr. 
 Adam Clarke in his commentary on the Bible — had 
 ever been printed when Forshall and Madden began 
 their great edition about 1828.^ The evidence given 
 by them is absolutely decisive.- " Dr. Waterland," it 
 is said, " who greatly assisted Lewis in obtaining 
 information for his history of the English translations 
 of the Bible, was at first inclined to think that both 
 versions were the work of Wiclif, but afterwards 
 concluded that the later version and the General 
 Prologue were by John Purvey. Unfortunately, 
 having but little leisure for the investigation, he was 
 induced, by a comparison of the style and language 
 employed in the versions, to take for the earlier of 
 the two that which was, in fact, the later. Lewis 
 
 ' Preface, vol. i., p. i., note A. Mr. I,. Wilson, from a 
 MS. in his own possession, printed the New Testament in 1848. 
 * Wiclifite Versions, preface, p. xxii. 
 
wiclif's translation of the bible. 169 
 
 adopted the opinions of Dr. AVaterland, and, inter- 
 weaving in his narrative the information supplied to 
 him much as it came to his hands, has compiled an 
 account which is not only confused, but sometimes 
 inconsistent with itself. Mr. Baber, when he re- 
 printed Lewis's edition of the New Testament, 
 repeated this mistake."' The discovery of it was 
 one of the great services rendered by Forshall and 
 Madden to the students of Wiclifite literature. 
 
 Wiclif did not live long enough to see the com- 
 pletion of Purvey's version, but he saw the completion 
 of the Bible with which he is particularly identified. 
 We come to this conclusion because, in the General 
 Prologue, published, as we have seen, in the year 
 1388, a reference is made to it as " the Bible of late 
 translated." Now, a less time than four years could 
 hardly have intervened between the completion of 
 the first version and the careful preparation of the 
 second. Besides, tradition tells us that he lived to 
 see the fulfilment of his wishes.- No doubt he would 
 rejoice with such joy as a noble and Christian spirit 
 would feel when he saw the manuscript, in the pre- 
 paration of which he had watched, and laboured, and 
 prayed, lying completed before him ; and he would 
 bless God because he had been allowed to finish a 
 work which, he fondly hoped, would prove the instru- 
 mental cause of the moral and spiritual regeneration 
 of his native country. Purvey's version had very 
 soon cast the work of that master-mind into the shade. 
 
 ' Wiclifite Versions, preface, pp. xxi. 
 
 ' Vaughan, "John de WyclifTe, a Monograph," p. 353. 
 
170 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 But, if his glorified spirit was conscious of what is 
 transacted upon earth, he would have rejoiced because 
 Purvey had made it more intelligible and popular 
 than his own version, and had thus insured its rapid 
 circulation among all ranks and orders of his fellow- 
 countrymen. 
 
 We are informed that the book was eagerly sought 
 after and read. The king and the princes of the 
 blood royal did not disdain to possess copies. We 
 may form some idea of the value attached to it by 
 the rich, when we hear that costly copies on vellum 
 were executed for them by experienced scribes, who 
 would have to be paid in proportion to the skill which 
 they had attained in the art of transcription. 1 Our 
 sense of the value attached to the Wiclif Bible is 
 increased when we hear that the cost of a Testament 
 of Wiclif 's version was about equal to ^40 of our 
 present money, a sum considerably more than half 
 the income then required for the maintenance of a 
 substantial English farmer. We may form, too, some 
 idea of the eagerness with which it was read when 
 we hear that nearly 150 manuscripts, containing the 
 whole or parts of Purvey's Bible, most of them written 
 within forty years from its completion, were found 
 when the edition of Forshall and Madden was pub- 
 lished in 1850, and remember that the most powerful 
 and active measures were taken to suppress the 
 version ; that they were burnt or destroyed as pro- 
 ductions of heretical depravity ; that all who pos- 
 
 ' Wiclifite Versions, preface, p. xxxii. 
 
WICLIf's TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. 171 
 
 sessed copies were exposed to severe persecution ; 
 and that in the course of four or five centuries many 
 more manuscripts have been destroyed through acci- 
 dent or negligence.^ We may, then, safely come to 
 the conclusion that we have now only a very small 
 portion of those which were originally in circulation. 
 We are told also, that so great was the eagerness to 
 possess the Bible, that those who could not procure 
 the volume of the book would give a load of hay for 
 a few favourite chapters, and that many such scraps 
 were consumed upon the persons of martyrs at the 
 stake. They would hide the forbidden treasure under 
 the _^floors of the houses, and expose their lives to 
 danger rather than surrender the book ; they would 
 sit up all the night, their doors being shut for fear of 
 surprise, reading or hearing others read the Word 
 of God ; they would bury themselves in the woods, 
 and there converse with it in silence and solitude ; 
 they would, while tending their flocks in the field, 
 still steal an hour for drinking in the good tidings of 
 grace and salvation.^ 
 
 But, while we speak of the eagerness with which 
 multitudes read the sacred volume and dwelt upon 
 truths which fill the angels with wonder and delight, 
 we must not omit to notice a secondary benefit which 
 Wiclifs Bible has conferred in the formation of the 
 English language. This observation is true also witli 
 reference to our own authorised version. Truly did 
 ' Wiclifite Versions, preface, p. xxxiii. 
 
 ' Wordsworth's "Eccl. Biog.," i., pp. 418, 419, where Foxe 
 and others attest these things. 
 
172 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 Coleridge say that " intense study of the Bible will 
 keep any writer from being vulgar in point of style ; " 
 and an eloquent living divine has asked, " Who can 
 estimate the grandeur, the depth, the expansive power 
 which our language has derived from the national 
 liturgical offices, as well as from the national trans- 
 lation of the Scriptures ?" We have no doubt that our 
 great Reformer's Bible conferred the same benefit on 
 the Anglo-Norman dialect in the age in which he 
 lived.* It marks an important epoch in the develop- 
 ment of the English language. Chaucer has indeed 
 been represented as the father of modern English 
 literature. He is superior to Wiclif in his command 
 of language, which he has made in a remarkable 
 manner to express strength of thought, variety of 
 feeling, and delicate shades of meaning ; in the wit 
 and humour in the tales with which the pilgrims 
 beguiled their journey to the tomb of the Sainted 
 Martyr of Canterbury ; or in the beauty of his 
 descriptions, as when he speaks of the silver dew- 
 drops hanging on the leaves in the early morning, or 
 when he represents the lark, the messenger of day, 
 saluting in her song the grey morning, and soaring 
 continually higher and higher until she is lost in the 
 blue firmament. But Chaucer addressed himself to 
 the courtiers and nobles who surrounded Edward III. 
 The case was, however, entirely different with Wiclif. 
 In his translation of the Bible he has enshrined, in 
 language at once simple, perspicuous, beautiful, and 
 
 ' Lechler's " Life," vol. i., pp. 347, 348- 
 
wiclif's translation of the bible. 173 
 
 nervous, the motives to action, the duties, the con- 
 solations, the hopes, and the destinies of the whole 
 human family. Thus, while Chaucer was labouring 
 to fix the English tongue among the higher classes, 
 "W'iclif established it yet more permanently by con- 
 necting it with the immortal hopes of all his fellow- 
 countrymen. Though it contains many words which 
 have passed out of use, it can scarcely yet be called 
 obsolete, and may easily be understood in the present 
 day. Among those words we may mention " clepe," 
 "to call," Matt. ii. 7; "teen or tind," "to kindle," 
 Matt. V. 15 ; "helthe" for "salvation," Philip, ii. 12 ; 
 "assoil " for ' ' determine," Acts xix. 39;" sothe " (sooth), 
 "true," Phil. iv. 8 ; and "unspekende childer and souk- 
 ende" for " babes and sucklings," Ps. viii. 2. In his 
 other works, both Latin and English, he is so rapid in 
 his composition, and occasionally so carried away by his 
 impetuosity, that he pays little attention to lucid order 
 or elegance of language. But, as Mr. Turner observes, 
 " in his version of the Scriptures, the unrivalled 
 combination of force, simplicity, dignity, and feeling 
 in the original compel his old English, as they seem 
 to compel every other language into which it is trans- 
 lated, to be clear, interesting, and energetic." ' 
 
 We must, however, never forget that the trans- 
 lation of the Scriptures into his own mother tongue 
 was of transcendent importance, because it was the 
 great work by which he hastened on the Reformation 
 in England. He had now cast into the soil a seed, 
 
 ' Turner's " History of England during the Middle Ages," 
 vol. v., p- 'iSi. 
 
174 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 which, after lying dormant for a time, would spring 
 up, and flourish, and grow into a mighty tree, " the 
 leaves of which should be for the healing of the 
 nations," long after he who had planted it was silent 
 in the grave. The followers of Wiclif remembered 
 the words of their great master, that the Scripture 
 
 1/ alone is the faith of the Church ; and that " an answer 
 by prelate or attorney at the judgment-seat of Christ 
 will not avail, but every one must answer in his own 
 person." ^ They would, therefore, follow his advice, 
 and persevere in the prayerful study of the records of 
 heavenly truth. The words just referred to filled the 
 hierarchy and clergy with terror and indignation. 
 They thought that their occupation was gone if all 
 
 ^ might, without the intervention of the priesthood, 
 consult the sacred oracles. Heiice the fury of the 
 persecutor awoke against the followers of Wiclif. 
 Archbishop Arundel and Convocation issued the fol- 
 lowing stringent prohibition in 1408 : — " That no un- 
 authorised person should hereafter translate any por- 
 tion of Holy Scripture into English, or any other 
 language, by way of book, little book, or tract ; and 
 that no such book or tract should be read, either in 
 whole or in part, publicly or privately, that was com- 
 posed lately in the time of John Wiclif, or since, under 
 the penalty of the greater excommunication, till 
 the said translation shall be approved either by the 
 Bishop of the diocese, or, if necessary, by a Provincial 
 Council." - 
 
 ' Page 154. 
 
 ^ Wilkins's "Concilia," vol. iii., p. 317. 
 
wiclif's translation of the bible. 175 
 
 Happily this decree was not issued for several years 
 after the completion of the translation. Otherwise, 
 perhaps, it would never have been put into circu- 
 lation. But abundant use had been made of the 
 interval.^ Through the efforts of Wiclif's " poor 
 priests" and others, the Scriptures had been circulated, 
 and their pages opened to the delighted view of 
 many thousands of our fellow-countrymen. Thus 
 they were led to see that the Church of Rome 
 had corrupted the faith once delivered to the saints, 
 and to cast off the superstitions of their forefathers. 
 We shall see in the last chapter, in which Wiclif's 
 work in this country will be connected directly with 
 our Reformation, that the study of his Bible and of 
 Wiclif literature, carried on in silence and solitude, 
 was gradually preparing his fellow-countrymen to 
 escape from the yoke of the oppressor. Thus, then, 
 the good pleasure of the Lord prospered in his hand. 
 We have seen indeed that there were some unavoid- 
 able imperfections in his translation. But still we can 
 have no hesitation in saying that it is a monument to 
 him more durable than brass or marble. If we would 
 have a full sense of the benefit which he conferred 
 upon his country, we must remember the great 
 hindrances to the successful prosecution of the 
 work. In the sixteenth century. Bibles, sermons, 
 commentaries, hymns, and catechisms were con- 
 stantly flying on the wings of the press over 
 Europe. But, when Wiclif resolved that all his 
 
 > "Wiclif's Place in History," by Prof. Burrows, p. 20. 
 
176 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 fellow-countrymen should possess a copy of the 
 Bible, we must remember the slow process of 
 transcription by which copies were produced, and 
 the enormous cost of each copy, already referred 
 to, demanding a sacrifice far greater than that 
 which is required for the most elegant and sump- 
 tuous curiosities of literature in the age in which 
 we live. Thus, then, his difficulties would be far 
 greater than those of the noble army of Reformers, 
 and of their great leader, in the sixteenth century. 
 He must expect also that the sword of the persecu- 
 tor would be unsheathed against him. But he per- 
 severed in his self-allotted task. Trial did not 
 daunt, difficulty did not discourage him. We have 
 seen that, notwithstanding this labour, his work has 
 been superseded by the version of one who was far 
 inferior to him, and that it has, in this later age, been 
 consigned to comparative oblivion through the neglect 
 of certain criteria by which it might have been 
 easily distinguished. We are now, however, able to 
 do him full justice. While we admit that Purvey's 
 version is better suited, in point of language, than 
 his own, for general reading, we must never allow 
 ourselves to forget that to him pre-eminently our 
 gratitude is due, because he originated the idea of a 
 work of surpassing grandeur, by his steady perse- 
 verance and patient industry conquered difficulties 
 which an ordinary man would have deemed insur- 
 mountable, and at length, carrying it to a successful 
 issue, secured by means of it the spiritual emanci- 
 pation of many thousands of his fellow-countrymen. 
 
JOHN WICI.IF. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 
 I378-1382. 
 
 Wiclif's progressive development should be remembered. — He 
 becomes a reformer in doctrine. — His change of views in 
 regard to the Papacy. — His conflict with the Mendicant 
 Orders. — He attacks Transubstantiation at Oxford. — Com- 
 parison between him and Luther at Wittenberg. — He is 
 forbidden to expound his views at Oxford. — He appeals to 
 the King.- — He publishes his " Wicket." — Insurrection of 
 the peasantry. — His views are proved not to have led to 
 it. — Courtenay is appointed to the Primacy. — He summons 
 a council to condemn Wiclif at Blackfriars. — The assembly 
 was disturbed by an earthquake. — Theses drawn from 
 Wiclif 's writings condemned at it. — A royal ordinance, 
 called a statute, against the preachers, was obtained by 
 Courtenay in a surreptitious manner. — The Archbishop 
 attacks Wiclif's followers at Oxford. — Opposition to him.- — 
 He obtains a royal warrant against the Wiclifites at 
 Oxford, which was successful. — Consequences of his success. 
 — The preachers were also silenced. — Wiclif was summoned 
 before a synod at Oxford. — No sentence was passed. — 
 Addresses his " Complaint " to the Parliament. 
 
 We have now come to an important crisis in the life 
 of Wiclif. I have already said that if we would form 
 a just estimate of his character we must remember 
 his gradual development throughout his illustrious 
 career. His different changes of opinion are brought 
 before us especially in his unpublished writings. 
 Thus, in one of the latter he says, other statements 
 N 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 which at one time appeared strange to me now appear 
 to be sound and true, and I defend them ; for, in 
 the words of St. Taul (r Corinth, xiii. ii), "When I 
 was a child in the knowledge of the faith I spake as 
 a child, I understood as a child ; but when, in God's 
 strength, I became a man, I put away, by His grace, 
 childish thoughts." ^ We cannot fail to see that, 
 during the first twelve years of his public life, he had 
 been engaged in lopping off the branches instead 
 of striking at the root of that upas-tree which was 
 shedding a deadly blight over the nations of Europe. 
 He attacked the usurpations of the Church of Roroe 
 ^ on the rights of the Crown, and her spoliation of the 
 country for the benefit of those who were living in 
 luxurious ease in their palaces at Rome, and sought 
 by legislative measures to reform those abuses ; 
 whereas he ought to have directed his attention to 
 her errors in doctrine, and to have shown that she 
 had corrupted the simplicity of the truth as it is 
 in Jesus. But even during this period it is manifest 
 that the light which had dawned on the darkness of 
 his soul was slowly and steadily increasing in bright- 
 ness. In the years before 1378 he recognised the 
 sufficiency "of the Word of God as the source of 
 human knowledge, and condemned those who had 
 intruded into its place the traditions of the Church.^ 
 We have also seen that at Lambeth he asserted the 
 right of the laity to bring instruction to the test of 
 Holy Scripture, and to exercise their private judgment 
 
 Lecliler's "Life," vol. ii., p. 2. 
 
 Ibi(',, p 19. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 
 
 179 
 
 as to the pretensions of their spiritual guides. He 
 also, about 1378, wrote in the " De Civili Dominio,"i 
 "The Holy Ghost teaches us the right understanding 
 of Scripture, as Christ opened the Scripture to the 
 Apostles." He asserted, with the greatest decision, 
 in his later years, these fundamental articles of 
 Christianity. 
 
 After 1378 the energies of Wiclif were concentrated 
 on a reformation in doctrine. No doubt this develop- 
 ment is due to the prayerful study of the records ot 
 heavenly truth. But the schism in the Papacy was the 
 means of directing his thoughts to this all-important 
 subject. He had hitherto not only attacked the Papacy 
 in the manner just described, but had also asserted In 
 the parliamentary speeches, in his paper as to Gamier, 
 and at Lambeth,- that the Pope might fall into mortal 
 sin, that he might err in judgment, that his office is 
 not necessary for the ends of salvation, and that he 
 held Jure humano and not Jure divino? But still he 
 would not attack the Papacy as such in its essence. 
 He would only resist it in its attacks on the State in 
 matters of finance or of civil jurisdiction. He would 
 not impugn the prerogatives of the Church. He was 
 very far from casting off his allegiance to the Papacy. ' 
 On the contrary we find, from one of the hitherto 
 unpublished Vienna manuscripts, that, on the eleva- 
 tion of Urban VI. to the Papal throne in 1378, he 
 expressed his joy in the following language : — 
 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. ii., p. 29. ' Pages 85, 94-95, 121. 
 
 ' See the "De Veritate Sacrce Scripturce," and the " De 
 Civili Dominio," quoted by Lechler, vol. ii., p. 156. 
 
 N 2 
 
i8o 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 " Blessed be the Lord, who has given to His Church 
 in these days in Urban VI. a Cathohc head, an 
 evangelical man, a man who, in the work of re- 
 forming the Church that it may live conformably to 
 the law of Christ, follows the due order by beginning 
 with himself and the members of his household. 
 From his works, therefore, it behoves us to believe 
 that he is the head of our Church."^ Urban was 
 elected directly after the termination of the seventy 
 years' " Babylonian captivity" at Avignon. 
 
 But the bright vision soon vanished away. Finding, 
 when it was too late, that they had placed over them- 
 selves a Pope who rendered himself obnoxious to 
 them by his harsh and imperious manner, and by his 
 reforming zeal, the French cardinals, anxious to retain 
 the Pontifical Court in their own land, withdrew from 
 him their allegiance, and elected an anti-Pope, Robert 
 of Geneva, who assumed the name of Clement VII. 
 They alleged, as their justification for this act, that 
 they were under restraint when they elected 
 Urban VI. We must observe, however, that they 
 would have remained quiescent under the dominion 
 of Urban if he had not provoked them by haughtiness 
 an I rudeness. But though we may differ in opinion 
 as to the legitimacy of Urban or Clement, we must 
 agree as to the enduring effects which the schism 
 produced on the Papacy. The world could not fail 
 to regard the Popes and their ofifice with well-merited 
 contempt, when they saw them wandering about 
 
 Lechler's "Life,'" vol. ii., p. 134. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. l8l 
 
 Europe blackening each other's character, exerting 
 every effort to enlist the princes of Europe in their 
 cause, and hurling at each other their spiritual 
 thunderbolts. Thus men became more determined 
 to oppose the Papacy ; thus the cup of public indig- 
 nation became full to the very brim ; thus an earnest 
 desire was awakened in the minds of the inhabitants 
 of Europe for the cleansing of that Augaean stable 
 of corruption. 
 
 These Popes shared the allegiance of Europe in 
 nearly equal proportions. Wiclif, with the rest of 
 England, at first recognised Urban VI., but when the 
 latter began to excommunicate his rival, he cast off 
 his allegiance to him, and decided on remaining in a 
 position of neutrality. He very soon, however, found 
 that to do so was an impossibility, and that he must 
 altogether break away from the Papacy. In this, the 
 third stage of his development, we must not be sur- 
 prised to find, from the nature of the case, that he 
 is more decided in his language, and that he becomes 
 a more fearless antagonist of the Papacy. He shows 
 that the Vicar of Christ on earth is the very reverse 
 of Him whose Vicar he claimed to be. When he was 
 attacked, as we shall see directly, by the Papal par- 
 tisans, the Mendicants, on the dogma of Transub- 
 stantiation, he attacks the Papacy in the very strongest 
 terms as a God-blaspheming institution. In one of 
 his sermons in one of the Vienna manuscripts, he 
 says that the Papal office itself is of the wicked one, 
 seeing that no divine warrant existed for more than 
 the pastoral care of souls and an exemplary walk in 
 
l82 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 humility and sanctity, along with faithful contendings 
 in the spiritual conflict, but never at all for any 
 worldly greatness and glory.^ In his " Trialogus " 
 he recognises, by implication, Urban VI., but in the 
 " Supplement " he regards both " as monsters," as 
 " incarnate devils."- Now Antichrist is the motto 
 emblazoned on the banner which he carries with him 
 into the thick of the battle. In the " Supplement " 
 he says that " the Pope is the fountain and origin of 
 all the wickedness in the Church, and that he is very 
 Antichrist."^ The idea of Antichrist now becomes 
 so common to him that he uses it as synonymous 
 with the Pope. He speaks, for instance.'of the Papal 
 legates as sent from the side of Antichrist.* 
 
 The climax of opposition just described becomes 
 intelligible when we consider the different stages by 
 which he has gradually ascended to it. The violent 
 outbursts, the vituperative epithets, collected from 
 different parts of his writings, appear at first sight not 
 to have a logical connexion with the subject, but to 
 be the outpourings of a mind impressed with a deep 
 sense of the iniquities, corruptions, and abuses of 
 the Papal system. Accordingly, some of his enemies 
 have not failed to attack him as one of those reckless 
 fanatics who, without weighing well their words, enter 
 on a fierce crusade against existing institutions.^ In 
 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. ii., p. 139. 
 
 ' " Supplementum Trialogi,'' edit. Lechler, p. 423. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 425. 
 
 * " Polemical Works," p. xx. 
 
 ' Walsingham, "Hist. Ang.,"' i., 430, 451. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 1 83 
 
 order to have a full idea of the mode of his opposi- 
 tion to the Papacy, we must consider the " Polemical 
 Works," especially the tract, " De Christo et suo 
 Adversario Antichristo," recently published from the 
 Vienna manuscripts by the Wiclif Society, not ex- 
 pressed in the language of fanaticism, but full of a 
 noble pathos which deeply touches us as we read 
 them.^ He gives scriptural proof that Peter cannot 
 be the Vicar of Christ, in respect of having a special 
 prerogative above the other disciples. He does not, 
 without modification, identify the Pope with Anti- 
 christ or the devil, but lays down certain criteria 
 by which Antichrist may be distinguished, and leaves 
 the reader to infer that the Pope must be totally 
 antagonistic to Christ, because he deceives in his 
 words, works, and writings ; because he displays 
 worldly magnificence ; because he is inflated with 
 arrogance, and sends forth his armies, as we shall 
 see in Chapter VH., to ravage and destroy ; because, 
 unlike Christ, who despised secular power, the Pope 
 claims dominion over all earthly kingdoms; and 
 because, while Christ was without pomp and ready 
 to serve, the Pope has a magnificent Court, and 
 demands homage even from the Emperor. Thus, 
 then, he brings a heavy bill of indictment against 
 the Papacy. Thus, in calm, decided, and persuasive 
 language, he leads the reader irresistibly to the con- 
 clusion that the Pope is Antichrist, who arrogates to 
 himself the attributes and prerogatives of Deity. 
 
 ' Vol. i., pp. xviii.-xxii., and vol. ii., pp. 635-692. 
 
i84 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 AVe have thus seen Wiclif's two methods of attack. 
 Never before had so loud a trumpet-blast been heard, 
 summoning the nation to war with the Papal Antichrist. 
 In variety of method, intensity of purpose, and burning 
 zeal, he far surpassed those illustrious predecessors, 
 William Ockham, Robert Grosseteste, Richard, Arch- 
 bishop of Armagh, and others, who had begun the 
 struggle with the Papacy. When he saw rival Popes 
 anathematising each other, and sending forth their 
 satellites to kindle the flames of war, we cannot 
 wonder that, overmastered by his righteous indigna- 
 tion, he should have risen from one bold invective 
 to another, and that he should have used more and 
 more of the language of reproach and defiance. This 
 now becomes with him an all-absorbing subject. In 
 scientific works, in lectures intended for the learned, 
 in sermons before the University or in his own parish 
 of Lutterworth, he continued, during the last six 
 years of his life, to lift up his voice against them, till 
 he finished his testimony and entered his glorious 
 rest. 
 
 We must now consider Wiclif's celebrated conflict 
 with the Mendicant Orders. We shall see directly 
 that there are good reasons for introducing it in con- 
 nexion with this part of our subject. The idea of 
 St. Francis of Assisi, and of St. Dominic who followed 
 him, in binding their followers by a vow of poverty, 
 was that they would recover for the Church of Rome 
 the influence which she had lost through the avarice 
 and opulence of the monks, and that, armed by their 
 vow of poverty, they would not be seduced from 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 185 
 
 their allegiance by the promises or frowns of this 
 world's potentates. 
 
 We have seen the vast influence gained by these 
 Orders, and have just glanced at the loss of it and 
 their subsequent degeneracy.^ The temptation to 
 violate the fundamental law of their founder became 
 very soon so strong as to be absolutely irresistible. 
 The feudal tyrant, to whose conscience they had 
 administered an opiate which he was unwilling to 
 receive at the hands of the secular clergy, requited 
 them by tempting that cupidity which governs the 
 conduct of the common herd of mankind. He 
 would force upon a brotherhood, only too glad of an 
 excuse for their forgetfulness of their vow of volun- 
 tary poverty, the advowson of some living, or a large 
 estate rich in golden cornfields, or fertile meadows, 
 or orchards bending beneath the weight of fruitage. 
 Thus tempted themselves to abjure their vow, they 
 soon began to tempt those who had possessions at 
 their disposal to bestow upon them a portion of their 
 wealth. Summoned to stand by the bedside of the 
 noble who was dying in an agony of remorse,- they 
 would, just as his eye was fixing itself upon vacancy, 
 extort from him, as the price of his absolution, his 
 consent to a deed disinheriting his lawful heirs, and 
 conferring upon them a large estate which had 
 descended to him through a long line of illustrious 
 
 ' Pages 137, 138. 
 
 ^ " They beset the dying bed of the noble and wealthy in order 
 to extort secret bequests from the fears of guilt or superstition." 
 Matthew Paris, p. 541, ed. 1684. 
 
i86 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 ancestors. Thus we find that these holy beggars, 
 who, like their Divine Master, had not, at first, where 
 to lay their head, rivalled, nay, eclipsed the secular 
 clergy in their sumptuous style of living, in their 
 gorgeous vestments, in their richly-caparisoned pal- 
 freys, in the decorations of their palaces, and in the 
 pomp and state with which they were surrounded.^ 
 
 We find that the Pontiffs, being fully aware of 
 the assistance which, in consequence of their in- 
 fluence with all classes, they were able to give them, 
 had placed on their brows the episcopal mitre, 
 conferred upon th'ern their richest livings, employed 
 them in difficult negotiations, and consulted them in 
 all matters relating to the best interests of the Church. 
 They had also the privilege of hearing confession 
 and giving absolution without the licence of the 
 episcopal Order ; and they had also at their dis- 
 posal an ample store of Indulgences with which the 
 Pope had enriched them. Innocent IV. had 
 granted to them a relaxation of the rule that they 
 should not possess property, which was confirmed 
 by Nicholas III. In consequence of these privi- 
 leges, multitudes pressed forward, anxious to be en- 
 rolled in the fraternity. In fact, the Mendicant 
 Orders had so enormously increased that Gregory X. 
 found it necessary at the Council of Lyons, in 1272, 
 to repress these extravagant swarms of holy beggars, 
 and to confine the institution of Mendicants to the 
 
 ' "Within the twenty-four years of their establishment in 
 England, these friars have piled up their palaces to a royal 
 altitude." — Matthew Paris, p. 541. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 1 87 
 
 four orders of Francisans (or Minorites), Dominicans 
 (or Jacobites), Carmelites, and Hermits of St. 
 Augustine. 
 
 We cannot wonder, therefore, that the hierarchy 
 and secular clergy, whose province they had invaded, 
 and whose hatred as well as envy they had excited 
 by the privileges which had been conferred upon 
 them, should have attacked them on account of their 
 shameless abandonment of the fundamental prin- 
 ciple of their founder. The dissensions between the 
 two parties produced the most dreadful disturbances 
 in Europe. This, however, was not the only charge 
 against them. Fitz Ralph, Archbishop of Armagh 
 (Armacanus), thus complains of them : — "I have 
 in my diocese of Armagh about two thousand 
 persons, who stand condemned for censures of the 
 Church pronounced every year against murderers, 
 thieves, and such like malefactors, of which number 
 scarcely fourteen have applied to me or my clergy for 
 absolution ; yet they all receive the sacraments as 
 others do, because they are absolved, or pretend to be 
 absolved, by friars." ^ Their letters of fraternity, to 
 which I shall refer directly, were another abuse which 
 excited the anger of their opponents. They were 
 covered with sarsnet, and written on fine vellum, 
 illuminated ; and they conveyed to the faithful pur- 
 chaser an assurance of participation during life, and 
 after death in the masses, vigils, and other religious 
 
 ' "Discourse of Armacanus," in Foxe, "Acts and Mon.," 
 i., 536-541. 
 
i88 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 exercises of the fraternity. They encouraged the in- 
 habitants of the parishes into which they came to 
 come to them for confession, asserting that from their 
 superior knowledge of the human heart, and their 
 superior skill in unravelling difficult questions of 
 theology, they would prove better guides to them in 
 their discharge of their duty than the parochial clergy. 
 The consequence was a fearful increase of licentious- 
 ness, for th eople were no longer obliged to blush 
 before their ministers. For thus did they whisper 
 one to another : — " Let us follow our own pleasure. 
 Some one of the preaching brothers will soon travel 
 this way, one whom we never saw before, and shall 
 never see again ; so that, when we have had our will, 
 we can confess without trouble and annoyance." In 
 the reigns of Edward I., Edward II., and Edward III., 
 they quite overran England, and created such distur- 
 bances that it was often necessary to issue warrants 
 for their arrest. 
 
 They had succeeded in establishing themselves at 
 Oxford. There they had become, as we shall see 
 directly, very successful as the educators of youth. 
 But the time of their popularity had now passed 
 away. Richard Fitz Ralph, Archbishop of Armagh 
 (Armacanus), who had been carrying on a conflict 
 with them for many years, had arraigned them before 
 the Pope, and had mentioned, among other causes of 
 complaint, that their attempts to allure into their 
 Order the youth of our Universities, had created so 
 much alarm, that the number of students had been 
 reduced from 30,000 to 6,000. The general opinion 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. l8f) 
 
 hitherto has been that Wiclif continued this conflict 
 of Fitz Ralph with the Mendicants. "Nothing," 
 writes Mr. Le Bas, in his " Life of Wiclif," " seems 
 better ascertained than the fact that, about the year 
 1360, he was notorious for standing foremost in that 
 warfare which had for some time been carried on 
 vigorously against the Mendicant Orders ; and that 
 his activity in the conflict first elevated him to that 
 commanding rank in the public estimation which he 
 never afterwards lost." ^ This opinion seems to have 
 owed its origin to Anthony Wood and Lewis." Dr. 
 Shirley was the first to discover that this must have 
 been an error. Referring to the statement of William 
 Wodeford, one of Wiclif's contemporaries, that 
 " before he was assailed publicly by the Mendicants 
 as to the Sacrament of the altar, he had never inter- 
 fered with them, but had often since made them the 
 object of his attack," he observes : — " Of the story 
 which connects him with the controversies of 1360 
 we are unable to trace the growth ; it is implicitly 
 coptradicted by contemporary authority, and receives, 
 to say the least, no sanction whatever from the 
 acknowledged writings of the reformer."-^ He was, 
 however, unable, from the want of information, to do 
 more than prove a direct negative to the tradition 
 which had been transmitted to us. 
 
 A careful examination of the Vienna manuscripts 
 has enabled Dr. Lechler to discover the missing 
 
 ' Le Bas' "Life," p. 104. 
 Wood, " Antiquitates Oxonienses " ; Lewiss "Life," 
 pp. 6-9. '■' " P'ascic. Ziz:in ," p. xiv. 
 
190 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 link in the chain of evidence. This is one of the 
 great services which he has rendered to students of 
 Wichf literature. He shows us that, so far from 
 opposing the Mendicants, he entertained, at first, a 
 favourable opinion of them.^ He made a great 
 distinction, on account of tfieir theory of poverty, 
 between them and the " monks-possessioners," who 
 had excited his indignation because they had surrounded 
 themselves with piles of wealth. Thus we find in his 
 treatise, " De Civili Dominio," quoted by Dr. Lechler, 
 that " he even places St. Francis of Assisi with his 
 mendicancy side by side with St. Peter and St. Paul, 
 with their hand-labour, in opposition to the worldly 
 possessions and honours of the clergy of his time.^ 
 And in another place he says that he considers that 
 the Holy Spirit had inspired St. Francis and St. 
 Dominic with the idea of establishing their Orders in 
 order that, by means of them, they might effect a 
 reformation in the Church. This view is corroborated 
 by the Monk of St. Albans in the " Chronicon Angliae," 
 the contemporary authority already referred to. He 
 writes, " From the love of eternal things he pretended 
 that he despised things temporal, as fleeting and 
 unstable, and therefore he would have nothing to 
 do with the monks-possessioners, but that he might 
 the more easily deceive the minds of the people, 
 clave to the orders of the Mendicants, approving 
 their poverty, and extolling their perfection." ^ He 
 saw, indeed, at Oxford, the signs of their degeneracy, 
 
 ' Lechler's " Life," vol. ii., pp. 140-144, ' Ibid., p. 143. 
 ' "Chronicon \n^lite," p. 116. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 191 
 
 described in the petition of Armacanus to the Pope ; 
 but still he clung to them, because they were in some 
 respects men of a kindred spirit, and because they 
 had achieved distinction in theology and in the work 
 of education. " From early times," writes Professor 
 Brewer, " the P'ranciscan found it necessary to devote 
 himself to learning and the study of theology. He 
 might have hoped to win the masses by descending 
 to their social condition, by the services in hospitals. 
 But his work was only half done. He found it 
 necessary to enter into their moral and intellectual 
 difficulties." ^ Thus it came to pass that those who 
 had begun in poverty and opposition to learning, 
 ended by having amongst their members some of the 
 most subtle intellects of the age, who not only from 
 the council board swayed the destinies of states and 
 empires, but also in the University of Oxford became 
 distinguished as schoolmen, and trained most suc- 
 cessfully the students in the pursuit of knowledge 
 and the investigation of truth. 
 
 A\'e see then that for a time Wiclif might make 
 common cause with the Mendicant Orders. But at L> 
 length he came forward as their uncompromising 
 antagonist. Lechler, however, does not seem to be 
 quite right when, following Wodeford, he writes that 
 he did not begin to attack till he was in the thick of 
 the conflict as to the Sacrament of the altar. On the 
 contrary, we find that he makes a fierce onslaught on 
 the friars in the tract, " De Officio Pastorali," the 
 
 ■ Brewer's preface to the " Monumenta Franciscana," in the 
 Rolls Series, p. xlviii. 
 
192 
 
 JOHN WICI.IF. 
 
 date of which cannot be later than 1378.^ But there 
 can be no doubt, — when we find him in the "Trialogus" 
 placing " their blasphemous heresy " on the Sacrament 
 of the altar in the forefront of his accusations 
 against them,- and asserting in the tract on the 
 " Loosing of Satan," in the " Polemical Works," that 
 " they themselves must be accused of heresy, especially 
 in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper,"'' — that the 
 Eucharistic controversy had greatly exasperated him 
 against them. AVe imagine, however, that the Papal 
 schism was the chief cause of his indignation. They 
 were the men to whom had been entrusted the 
 administration of the funds for the crusade, to be 
 described in the next chapter, the most effective 
 instruments of the absolutism of the Papacy. He 
 attacks them, for these among many other reasons, 
 because they steal from parents those who ought to 
 contribute to their support, exerting every effort to 
 obtain lawfully or unlawfully as many members as 
 possible; because they sell sermons and letters of 
 fraternity, in which the devil teaches them to traffic 
 with the faithful in order that they may add to their 
 unlawful gains ; because they assert that their prayers 
 are of more avail than the prayers of our Lord ; and 
 that any one dying in their habit shall never come 
 into condemnation. He makes a very strong attack 
 upon them in his tract, " De Diabolo et Membris 
 
 ' Matthew's preface to "Select English Works," p. xliii., 
 VP- 429. 444. 445- 
 
 - " Trialogus," Lechler's edition, hb. iv., c. 34, p. 366. 
 ^ "Polemical \\'orks," p. 308. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. I93 
 
 suis," " Concerning the Devil and his Members," in 
 which he asserts that they are really " devils incar- 
 nate," because their so-called poverty is nothing else 
 but a diabolical lie. It is based on sin, on greediness 
 for wealth and robberies, and is an inspiration of the 
 devil. Their pretension, too, that their begging is 
 after the example and by the command of Christ, is 
 another diabolical sin ; for in strong contrast to this 
 command of Christ is their longing for beautiful 
 houses and churches.^ But by promoting the cru- 
 sade on behalf of Urban VI. in Flanders, to be 
 described in the next chapter, they had quite filled 
 up the measure of their iniquities. Thus he 
 reaches in the "Polemical Works"- the point 
 of anger with which we have long been familiar 
 in the "Trialogus." This burning indignation 
 against them on all these grounds seems to be 
 concentrated in the somewhat fanciful epithet 
 " Caim," written for " Cain," the first murderer, 
 which he now constantly applies to them. The 
 word is formed from the initial letters of the four 
 orders, the Carmelites, Augustinians, Jacobites, and 
 Minorites already referred to.'' They are called 
 Cainitae, and their cloisters are called " Caini's 
 Castles," which they erect and fill with the plunder 
 which they have wrung from their fellow-country- 
 
 ' "Polemical Works," pp. 139, 222, 252, 366. 
 
 ^ "Polemical Works," pp. 18, 19, 396. Indifferent places 
 Wiclif makes this a particular reproach to them. See Matthew, 
 "S. E. W.,"p. 495. 
 
 ' " Trialogus," iv., c. 33, p. 362. 
 
 O 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 men.^ The idea seems to be that as the blood of 
 Abel cried against Cain fronl the ground, so the blood 
 of the souls which they have murdered is constantly 
 bearing witness against them before the throne of 
 Eternal Justice. I shall have some observations to 
 make hereafter on the violence of his language. 
 Meanwhile, I may observe that the constant appeal 
 to Scripture against them, even when he forces it 
 into an application to their heresies and sins, of 
 which we have many instances in the " Polemical 
 Works " and elsewhere, undoubtedly served to prepare 
 the way for the Reformation, because it familiarised 
 the minds of the people with the great truth that 
 Holy Scripture is the arbiter of controversies.^ 
 
 But they were not to be an unmitigated curse. 
 They would hereafter be obliged to make some atone- 
 ment for the wrongs which they had inflicted on the 
 nations. *' Rapt into future times," he writes, " I 
 suppose that some brothers, whom God will be 
 pleased to instruct, will return with all devotion to 
 the primitive religion of Christ, and laying aside their 
 unfaithfulness, and having obtained the consent of 
 Antichrist, offered or solicited, will freely return to 
 primitive truth, and will then build up the Church 
 like the Apostle Paul." ^ He seems here to be looking 
 forward to Savonarola, the Dominican, who laboured 
 
 ' "Supplementum Trialogi," c. 6, p. 437, and c. 8, p. 444 ; 
 "Select Works," Arnold, iii., p. 348. 
 
 ' See especially " Polemical Works," pp. 29-70. 
 
 ' " Trialogus," iv., 30, p. 349; Lechler's "Life," vol. ii., 
 pp. I4S, 146. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 195 
 
 to cleanse the sanctuary of the Lord, above all to 
 Martin Luther, the Augustinian, and his noble 
 band of brothers of other Mendicant Orders, who, 
 in the sixteenth century, shook to its foundation the 
 usurped dominion of Romanism. Many parts of 
 this remarkable passage are exactly applicable to 
 Luther. "God was pleased to instruct him." We 
 cannot read his history without seeing that God — 
 gradually enlightened his mind with the knowledge 
 of heavenly truth, and thus quahfied him to conduct 
 the reformation of the Church to a successful issue. 
 He appealed also to primitive truth in all his exhor- 
 tations and instructions. He built up the Church 
 like Paul, for he brought forward prominently the 
 great doctrine of a sinner's justification by faith in 
 the imputed righteousness of Christ. Thus, " out 
 of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong 
 came forth sweetness." ^ Dr. Lechler thinks that 
 Wiclif, in fulfilment of our Lord's promise, " He will 
 show you things to come,"- was controlled and 
 directed by the Spirit of truth, when he wrote this 
 remarkable passage. It is true, indeed, that this 
 prediction was not fulfilled exactly in the sense 
 present to the mind of Wiclif. But whether we 
 agree with Dr. Lechler or not, we must surely regard 
 it as a remarkable fact that one of the bitterest 
 enemies of the Mendicant Orders should have had 
 the prophetic presentiment that out of their ranks 
 
 ' Judges, xiv., 14. 
 ' John, xvi., 13. 
 
 O 2 
 
196 
 
 JOHN WICLIF 
 
 should come forth those who were to be most effective 
 instruments in the reformation of the Church. 
 
 Wiclif now came forward as a reformer in doctrine. 
 His denial of Transubstantiation was the commence- 
 ment of that great religious revolt which, to some 
 extent suppressed, broke out again in the sixteenth 
 century, and robbed the Pope of one province after 
 another of his spiritual empire. The sagacity which 
 / led him, in the first instance, to make it the object of 
 his attack, is manifest from the fact that when perse- 
 cution came, at the Reformation, it raged around this 
 dogma, as forming, by the consent of both parties, 
 the foundation stone of the fabric of Romanism. 
 With the aid of Scripture he had carefully studied 
 the subject for a long time, especially since the papal 
 schism which gave him freedom of action, and at 
 last had come to the conclusion that it is condemned 
 alike by reason and by revelation. In the summer 
 of 1 38 1 he published twelve short theses at Oxford, 
 fand challenged the members of the University to a 
 / public discussion on the subject. The following is 
 ! the substance of them.^ He asserts that the conse- 
 I crated host which we see upon the altar is no part of 
 i Christ but a sign of Him ; that we cannot see Christ 
 i in it by the bodily eye, but by faith ; that it is in its 
 I own nature bread and wine, having, by virtue of the 
 ' sacramental words, the true body and blood of Christ 
 
 ' Only one manuscript of these conclusions is known to exist 
 in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. A copy may be seen in 
 Lewis, p. 318, and in " Fascic. Zizan.," p. 105. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 197 
 
 at every point of it ; that it is only in a figure the 
 body and blood of Christ ; and that the terms 
 Transubstantiation, Identification, and Impanation, 
 cannot be shown to have any foundation in the Word 
 of God. 
 
 The publication of these theses produced an 
 immense sensation at Oxford. It has been compared 
 to the nailing up of Luther's 95 theses against In- 
 dulgences to the church door at Wittenberg. But 
 Wiclif at this time occupied a much more difficult 
 position than Luther. Frederick of Saxony was a 
 very different protector from John of Gaunt. The 
 former, when Luther made his celebrated attack, 
 came forward without the least hesitation as his 
 champion. He possessed, too, full power to defend 
 him, because, in accordance with the provisions of 
 the German constitution, the affairs of the Empire 
 were administered by the Elector of Saxony during 
 the vacancy occasioned by the death of the Emperor 
 Maximilian. We know, also, that he carried him off 
 from the enemies who were thirsting for his blood, 
 and concealed him in the Wartburg amid the forests 
 of Thuringia. But the case was very different with 
 John of Gaunt. He was very willing to defend 
 Wiclif when he made his bold attack on the wealth, 
 pomp, and luxury of the clergy. But, as we shall see 
 directly, he would not aid him when he came forward 
 in opposition to the dogmas of the Church of Rome. 
 The papal yoke, too, had pressed more heavily for 
 some time before Luther's age on Germany than on 
 any other part of the great European commonwealth. 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 The Popes had launched their spiritual thunderbolts 
 against emperors and kings, because they refused to 
 obey their arbitrary mandates. They had excited the 
 subjects and even the kindred of the former to raise 
 against them the standard of revolt. By the countless 
 artifices, too, of the Roman Chancery they had drawn 
 away more of its wealth from Germany than from any 
 other country, which served to enrich ecclesiastics 
 dwelling in ignoble ease in their marble palaces on 
 the banks of the Tiber. But events showed that a 
 large part of the hostility manifested to the Papacy 
 was due to the residence of the Popes at Avignon. 
 The nation was indignant because it imagined that 
 the wealth which the Popes drained from this country 
 was employed in aiding the efforts of her enemies 
 against herself, and because, while coming forward 
 as mediators, they were really the tools of France, for 
 the advancement of her interests in every negotiation 
 with England. But now, when these causes of enmity 
 were removed, the people were quite inclined to bow 
 down before the shrine, and to worship the idol with 
 their old superstitious reverence. We must remember, 
 too, that a gradual preparation had been made in 
 Germany through the ages for the attack on the 
 dogmas of the Church of Rome. We shall see here- 
 after that Luther was altogether incorrect when he 
 asserted that Wiclif attacked the life and not the 
 doctrine of the Church, and that he was himself 
 indebted to him. From father to son the sacred 
 flame, kindled by Tauler in the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, had been transmitted. Men trained in his 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. igg 
 
 school had prepared the way for the Reformation by 
 leading men from a reliance on outward observances 
 to an inward and spiritual life ; by declaring that his 
 own works make not a man holy, much less those of 
 others ; and by asserting that the intercession of the 
 Virgin and saints is of no avail to the unrepentant 
 sinner. Erasmus, too, prepared the way for Luther 
 by an improved version of the Greek Testament, and 
 by a better translation into Latin, by pouring the 
 envenomed shafts of ridicule on the monks and the 
 clergy, and by attacking the dogmas of the Papacy 
 in his graver works, which were borne in large 
 numbers on the wings of the press over Europe. 
 The study of the ancient authors, too, invigorated 
 the intellect, and led men to push their inquiries 
 into that system of error which the Roman Catholic 
 Church had imposed upon Christendom. In Luther's 
 time many were to be found in all lands who lifted 
 up their voices against the corruptions of the Papacy. 
 The result was that, very soon after October 31,1517, 
 many in Germany crowded around the banner un- 
 furled by the Reformer. Butt his preparation was 
 wanting in the case of Wiclif. He occupied at this 
 time a position of surpassing grandeur. It is true 
 that, from the days of Paschasius Radbert, the author 
 of the dogma of Transubstantiation in its present 
 form, Bertram, Johannes Scotus, Berengarius, and 
 others, had opposed it. But Wiclif was in a different 
 position from them, as the dogma had been accepted 
 gs a dogma of the Western Church, by a Lateran 
 Council, in the time of Innocent III. When he 
 
200 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 first made his attack upon it, and afterwards, as we 
 shall see, in quick succession, upon the other dogmas 
 of the Papacy, he may be said to have stood alone 
 against England in arms. The people would not 
 follow their former favourite in his present attack 
 upon the Papacy, for they were, as we have seen, 
 reconciled to it, and shrank from doctrinal innova- 
 tion. The clergy, too, would offer to him a deter- 
 mined opposition, because he denied them the power 
 of working a miracle, which raised them above the 
 highest and mightiest of this world's potentates. 
 
 The opposition just referred to was very soon 
 manifested in Oxford. The Chancellor, William de 
 Berton, called together a number of doctors of 
 theology and law, to consider what should be done, 
 because he felt that the Catholic faith was endan- 
 gered, and that the honour of the University was 
 compromised by the promulgation of these new 
 dogmas.^ The result was that two of the theses 
 were selected, and declared to be erroneous, and 
 that a mandate was issued directing that they should 
 not be taught in the University of Oxford." 
 
 This mandate was served upon Wiclif when he was 
 engaged in propounding his views in one of the 
 lecture-rooms of the beautiful Augustinian monastery 
 at Oxford. Wadham College stands on the site of 
 the building which was the scene of this memorable 
 event. Wiclif seems to have been taken by surprise, 
 but yet he at once declared that neither the Chancellor 
 
 ' "Fascic. Zizan.," p. 109. ' Ibid., p. no. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 20I 
 
 nor his colleagues could refute his propositions. 
 " Afterwards," said the Chancellor, " to give the 
 plainer proof of his heresy, he publicly appealed 
 from the condemnation of the Chancellor, and from 
 the aforesaid judgment, not to the Pope, bishop, or 
 ecclesiastical ordinary, but, like a heretic, leaning on 
 the secular power for the defence of his error and 
 lieresy, to King Richard." ' John of Gaunt at once 
 came down to the University, and enjoined silence 
 upon him. He was told that the king could not 
 listen to his appeal. But he showed, by coming 
 himself at this time to Oxford, that he considered 
 the appeal reasonable. The Duke's object was to 
 propitiate the clergy, for they had contributed largely 
 to that celebrated poll-tax which led to the insurrec- 
 tion of the peasantry. Wiclif, however, presented an 
 undaunted front to the adversary. He could no 
 longer speak on this subject in the University, but 
 he could educate the public. He published at once 
 a tract called the " Wicket," written in strong, nervous 
 English, and his celebrated confession, the " De 
 Sacramento Altaris."- From the former we shall see 
 when, in a future chapter, we consider his opinions, 
 that we may obtain a good view of his teaching on 
 the Eucharist. He avows his opinions with unabated 
 courage. In the first, he prays that God would 
 strengthen him with the grace of His Holy Spirit, 
 that he may enter the straight gate, like Christ and 
 His followers, and suffer persecution, even to the 
 
 ' " Fascic. Zizan.," pp. 113. 114. - Ibid., pp. 115-132. 
 
202 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 death, in defence of his opinions ; and he proudly 
 ends the last with these memorable words : " I believe 
 that, in the end, the truth will conquer." 
 : Soon after these memorable events occurred that 
 terrible insurrection of the peasantry, perhaps one of 
 the most portentous phenomena in our history. His 
 adversaries would have been more than human if, 
 when they were in conflict with him on the question 
 of Transubstantiation,they had neglected to attribute it 
 to the revolutionary principles which he was supposed 
 to have propagated. The accusation was brought 
 against him by one John Ball, of whom I shall speak 
 directly when I vindicate him from the charge. There 
 were two pretexts for this revolt. One of the griev- 
 ances was villenage and villein service. The villein 
 had become free — free to cultivate his land, free to 
 find the best market for his labour. On this hopeful 
 state of things the great pestilence descended like a 
 blight. It made labour scarce ; but there was no 
 prospect of better wages, as the Statute of Labourers 
 enacted that- he shall take the wages which were 
 accustomed to be taken in the neighbourhood two 
 years before the plague began. Now, corn had risen 
 so much that a day's labour at the old wages would 
 not have purchased wheat enough for a man's sup- 
 port. The villeins ignored the statute, and the land- 
 lords fell back on their old rights over them.^ John 
 Ball, "the mad priest of Kent," as Froissart calls 
 him, had, for twenty years before this time, been 
 
 ' Stubbs' "Constitutional Histon," vol. ii. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 203 
 
 engaged in inciting them to rebellion. He was th'e 
 first who declaimed eloquently on the rights of man : — 
 " Our lords have leisure and fine houses ; we have 
 pain and labour, the rain aiid wind in the fields. 
 They- have wine and spices, and fine bread ; and we, 
 oat-cake and straw, and water to drink. And yet it 
 is of us and of our toil that these men hold their 
 state." He expressed the concentrated essence of 
 rebellion in those well-known words : — 
 
 " When Adam delved and Eve span, 
 Who was then the gentleman ? " ' 
 
 Thus this popular demagogue strove to fan the 
 embers into a flame. Upon the minds of men, thus 
 prepared for rebellion, the unfortunate poll-tax levied 
 by Government acted like a spark upon the withered 
 grass. Thus the misdoings of the Court and the 
 mismanagement of the war were brought prominently 
 before the people. The great grievance connected 
 with this tax was, that the poorest man had to pay as 
 much as the richest nobleman. Acts of resistance to 
 overbearing tax-collectors were quite enough to lead 
 to a rebellion. The immediate causes were the re- 
 sistance made to a collector by a baker at Fobbing, 
 in Essex, and the insult offered by another collector 
 to the daughter of a tile-burner at Dartford, whoni' 
 the angry father slew with one of his tools. Crowds 
 of peasants, armed with clubs, rusty swords, and 
 
 ' Green's " History of the English People," pp. 237-247; 
 and M. Wallon's "Richard II.," the best modern work on his 
 reign. 
 
204 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 bows, assembled in the eastern counties. A party of 
 them crossed the Thames under Jack Straw, and 
 summoned Kent to arms. The insurgents entered 
 Canterbury, which flung wide its gates to receive 
 them, plundered the Archbishop's palace, and released 
 John Ball from his prison. One hundred thousand 
 Kentish men gathered around Wat Tyler, who was 
 soon recognised as the head ; mingled with them were 
 those who held the doctrines of social and religious 
 anarchy. Jack Sti-aw was, probably, one of the Fra- 
 ticelli. He looked forward to the glorious time when 
 the Mendicants should possess the whole earth. ^ 
 The rebellion spread like a conflagration among the 
 trees of the forest. Norfolk and Suff"olk, Cambridge- 
 shire and Hertfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, and Hamp- 
 shire rose in arms. Meanwhile the Kentish men 
 were marching on London. The young king, then 
 sixteen, addressed them from a boat on the river. 
 On the refusal of Archbishop Sudbury and the 
 Council to allow him to land, they rushed on to 
 London. Very soon the palace of John of Gaunt in the 
 Savoy, and the new Inn of the lawyers in the Temple, 
 were soon lying a blackened mass of ruins on the 
 ground. The insurgents, on the next day, forced 
 their way into the Tower, and in the face of the terror- 
 stricken knights, who did not offer the least resistance, 
 dragged Archbishop Sudbury from the sanctuary and 
 beheaded him on Tower Hill. The king met the 
 
 ' See Petition of the four Mendicant Orders to John of Gaunt, 
 •'Fascic. Zizan," p. 292. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 205 
 
 mass of the peasants the next day at Mile-end. " I 
 am your king and lord," he exclaimed, with that fear- 
 lessness which marked his conduct throughout the 
 crisis ; " what will ye ? " " We will that you free us 
 for ever," shouted the multitude, "us and our lands, 
 and that we never be named nor held for serfs." " I 
 grant it," said Richard ; and he bade them go home, 
 promising them charters of freedom. The king, the 
 next day, met accidentally, in Smithfield, a party of 
 the insurgents, who were waiting to be sure of the ful- 
 filment of the royal promise. Walworth, the mayor 
 of London, thinking that Wat Tyler meditated vio- 
 lence as he advanced towards Richard, struck him 
 with a dagger and killed him. The death of Tyler 
 gave courage to the nobles, and robbed the action of 
 the people of concert and decision. The knights 
 and burghers were soon able to scatter in ignominious 
 flight the remainder of the undisciplined rabble 
 arrayed against them. Parliament afterwards declared 
 that the king's letters patent were null and void with- 
 out their consent. "And this consent," they ended, 
 " we never have given, and never will give, were we 
 all to die in one day." 
 
 We must now notice the charge brought against 
 Wiclif by John Ball, that he had instigated the 
 peasants to revolt. Ball made a confession before 
 his execution to his judges, that he had been for two 
 years a disciple of Wiclif, from whom he had learnt 
 the doctrines which he taught, especially on the sub- 
 ject of the Lord's Supper, and that his itinerant 
 preachers had promised not to desist from their work 
 
206 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 till they had propagated his doctrines through the 
 country.! Now this document was not drawn up till 
 forty years after his death. Besides, he had begun 
 his career as a political agitator, as we have seen, at 
 least twenty years before this time, while Wiclif was 
 living in comparative obscurity at Oxford. He could 
 not, besides, have learnt the doctrine on the Sacra- 
 ment of the altar from Wiclif; for when he began to 
 teach it he was in the prison from which the insur- 
 gents delivered him. We notice, also, an absence 
 of the accusation from the articles charged against 
 Wiclif. We cannot, too, believe that Wiclif, the 
 deadly enemy of the Mendicant Friars, would have 
 sanctioned a movement, one of the designs of which 
 was, according to the statement of one of its promi- 
 nent leaders— Jack Straw — " to exterminate all land- 
 holders, bishops, landed monks, and parish priests." 
 " Only the Begging Friars," he adds, " would have 
 remained in the land, and these would have been 
 sufficient to keep up divine service."" We may, 
 therefore, believe Wiclif when he calls it a " lament- 
 able conflict," and defends his followers from the 
 charge of disseminating a spirit of anarchy ; ^ and 
 must attribute the rebellion to the determination of 
 the people, if possible, to shake off the yoke of the 
 oppressor, and to obtain that liberty which is their 
 inalienable birth-right. 
 
 William Courtenay, Bishop of London, had 
 
 ' "Fascic. Zizan.," p. 274. 
 
 " Lechler's " Life," v, i., p. 229. 
 
 » "De Blasphemia." 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 207 
 
 ascended the archiepiscopal throne over the headless 
 trunk of Archbishop Sudbury. He had a strong 
 •disUke to WicHf, as we have seen, on account of his 
 supposed revolutionary dogmas, of which he fancied 
 that he saw an exemplification in the recent insur- 
 rection. To these were now added his doctrinal 
 errors. Still we may accept Dr. Shirley's opinion,^ — 
 •" Whatever share old party feeling may have had in 
 stirring Courtenay's theological zeal, no Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, even if inclined, could safely have 
 neglected to proceed against the author of opinions 
 so profoundly at variance with the ecclesiastical, 
 even more than with the theological principles of the 
 day." 
 
 Courtenay had been nominated to the see of Can- 
 terbury in October, 1381, but he delayed action till 
 he had received the pallium from Rome on May 6th, 
 1382. He now took a wise course for the attainment 
 of his end. He summoned a Council, or rather a 
 Committee of divines, on which all parties in the 
 Church were represented, to consider the obnoxious 
 tenets. The first assembly was held on the 21st of 
 May, 1382, in the Chapter House of the Dominican 
 monastery at Blackfriars. The office of the Times 
 newsi)aper stands upon its site. They had no sooner 
 taken their seats than the building was shaken by an 
 earthquake, the shock of which was felt through the 
 country. The Archbishop, observing the conster- 
 nation which prevailed, with ready wit turned it to 
 
 ' "Fascic. Zizan.," p. xliii. 
 
208 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 their own advantage. He said, in a solemn tone, 
 " Brethren, the living God is arousing you to bestir 
 yourselves in the cause of the Church. By a mighty 
 effort the earth is purging itself of noxious vapours, 
 foreshowing that this realm must purge itself of 
 heresy, though it will not be without struggle and 
 commotion."! 
 
 This earthquake seems to have excited universal 
 consternation in the nation. Men thought that God 
 had come out of his secret place to punish the in- 
 habitants of the earth for their iniquity. This feeling 
 is very strongly expressed in one of the political 
 songs of the day : ^ — 
 
 " For sothe this was a Lord to drede, 
 
 So sodeynly made mon agast ; 
 Of gold and selver thei tok non hede. 
 
 But out of ther houses ful sone thei past. 
 
 Chaumbres, chymeneys, al to-barst, 
 Chirches and castelles foule gon fare ; 
 
 Pinacles, steples, to grounde hit cast ; 
 And al was for warnyng to be ware." 
 
 Courtenay took advantage of the feeling, and pro- 
 claimed a solemn procession. On May 30th, high 
 and low, rich and poor, arranged according to their 
 condition of life, walked barefoot through the streets 
 of London. He intended this demonstration as an 
 act of penitence for the lukewarmness of the Bishops 
 in banishing heresy from the realm. They were met 
 at the gates of St. Paul's by the Bishop of London 
 
 ' " Fascic. Zizan.,"p. 272. 
 
 " Wright's "Political Poems," vol. i., p. 251. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 209 
 
 and the cathedral clergy. Dr. John Cunningham then 
 ascended the pulpit at Paul's Cross, and spoke with 
 great solemnity against the errors of Wiclif. He said 
 that the Council had pronounced nine of the theses 
 submitted to it to be heretical and fifteen to be 
 erroneous. The heretical propositions were stated to 
 be that there is no change in the substance of bread 
 and wine ; that priests and bishops forfeit their power 
 by deadly sin ; that auricular confession is unneces- 
 sary ; that clerical endowments are unlawful ; and 
 that God ought to obey the Devil. On the last pro- 
 position some observations have already been made.^ 
 The other heretical propositions were that it hath no 
 foundation in the Gospel that Christ did ordain the 
 mass ; that if the Pope be an evil man he has no 
 power over the faithful in Christ; that after Urban VI. 
 none is to be received as Pope j and that it is against 
 Scripture that ecclesiastical persons should have tem- 
 poral possessions. The erroneous propositions which 
 he brought before them had reference to the external 
 order of the Church. They related to excommuni- 
 cation, the office of teaching. Church property, and 
 monastic orders, and prayers offered by prelates for 
 particular persons. At the conclusion of his sermon, 
 in solemn tones, he denounced as heretical all those 
 who should defend these errors both now or hereafter.- 
 The policy of Courtenay bad been to procure a 
 formal condemnation of his errors, and afterwards a 
 condemnation of those who would not renounce 
 them. He found, however, that he must rely on the 
 ' Page 75. ' John Foxe, "Acts," &-c., iii., 37. 
 
 P 
 
2IO 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 arm of the State to give effect to the decrees of the 
 Council. To him belongs the disgrace of having 
 begun the attempt to make legal that persecution for 
 conscience sake, the history of which may be seen 
 traced in characters of blood in our national annals. 
 He induced the House of Lords to consent to an 
 ordinance on May 26th, the end of which is thus 
 expressed : — " It is ordained and assented in this 
 present Parliament that the king's commissions be 
 made and directed to the Sheriffs and other ministers 
 of our sovereign lord the king, or other sufficient 
 persons learned, .... to arrest all such preachers, 
 and also their fautors, maintainers, and abettors, and 
 to hold them in arrest and strong prison till they will 
 justify them according to the law and reason of holy 
 Church."! 
 
 This so-called statute was obtained in a surreptitious 
 manner, without the consent of the House of Com- 
 mons, which in fact protested against it, and procured 
 its repeal in November, 1382. The Archbishop, 
 however, probably foreseeing that a remonstrance 
 would be made, had procured a royal patent, dated 
 June 26th, enabling the bishops, by the hands of 
 their own officers, to imprison those who dared to 
 think for themselves in the most important matters 
 which can occupy the attention of a rational and 
 immortal being. It is directed especially against the 
 
 ' Some excellent observations on these proceedings, and on 
 this commencement of the Inquisition in England," may be 
 seen in "Wiclif's Place in History," by Professor Burrow;:, 
 pp. 115, 118. Gibson's " Codex," i., 399. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 211 
 
 "poor priests," and conveys to the Archbishop and 
 his suffragans special plenary power to imprison the 
 preachers and defenders of the condemned theses, 
 and to detain them either in their own or other 
 prisons, at their pleasure, and until they give proofs 
 of repentance and make recantation. 
 
 Armed with this authority, Courtenay proceeded to 
 action. He issued a mandate on May 30th to the 
 Bishop of London, and through him to the Bishop 
 of Lincoln, in whose diocese Lutterworth was at that 
 time situated, and to the other bishops, to the effect 
 that they shall prohibit every one from teaching or 
 preaching the theses on which the Council had pro- 
 nounced a distinct condemnation.^ The University of 
 Oxford must now be compelled to submit to the 
 authority of the Archbishop. Wiclif was at this time 
 residing at Lutterworth. He had, however, many 
 friends in Oxford, who were engaged in propagating his 
 opinions. The fear of interference from without had 
 produced a reaction at Oxford favourable to him. The 
 result had been the election of a Chancellor, Robert 
 Rugge, who, if not favourable to Wiclif, was a zealous 
 guardian of the privileges of the University. He was 
 supported by Dr. Nicolas Hereford, and by Dr. 
 Philip Repyngdon, who had made common cause 
 with Wiclif, and had boldly defended him in sermons. 
 Archbishop Courtenay, having been informed that 
 Repyngdon was to preach at the cemetery of St. 
 Frideswide on the Feast of Corpus Christi, and that 
 the fear was entertained that he would allude to 
 ' Wilkins's "Concilia," iii., 158, f. . 
 P 2 
 
212 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 Wiclif 's dogma, issued a commission to Peter Stokes, 
 the Carmelite, who more than any one else had 
 opposed the Wiclifites at Oxford, to publish before 
 the sermon the sentence of condemnation of 
 Wiclif's views passed at the Synod of the Earth- 
 quake.^ He also directed the Chancellor, in two 
 successive letters, to assist him. Rugge at first 
 determined to resist this arbitrary mandate, but at 
 length he gave way, as he found that Courtenay 
 was supported by the authority of the Crown. But 
 he adopted an effectual way of defeating his object. 
 He knew that Stokes was a timid man, and he played 
 upon his fears. He paraded the streets with a 
 hundred men in complete armour. They openly 
 declared that they would kill the Carmelite, or at least 
 compel him to leave the town. He afterwards was 
 present with the Proctors and the other University 
 authorities at the cemetery of St. Frideswide, where 
 Repyngdon was appointed to preach. His sermon 
 was so violent that it was quite evident that his object 
 was to intimidate Stokes. After the sermon, the 
 Chancellor entered the church of St. Frideswide, 
 accompanied by twenty men, having arms concealed 
 beneath their gowns. Stokes, apprised of their pre- 
 sence by the clanking of their armour, did not venture 
 to leave the sacred edifice, and no publication took 
 place that day." Afterwards, he told the Archbishop, 
 that he saw Repyngdon and the Chancellor, on 
 leaving the Church, smiling at the success of what 
 they considered a good practical joke, 
 
 ' " Fascic. Zizan.," p. 297. ' Ibid., pp. 299, 300. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 213 
 
 The Chancellor, however, kept up the appearance 
 of deference to the mandate of the Archbishop. He 
 fixed a day on which Repyngdon and Stokes should 
 dispute in the Schools. On the day when Repyngdon 
 disputed, the proceedings were conducted with perfect 
 order. But when Stokes was preparing to defend 
 the existing order of things, he looked up and saw 
 before him twelve men arrayed in armour. He was 
 panic-stricken, and thought that he should have been 
 slain before he left the place. ^ The armour was 
 covered with a gown, but was not, on this occasion, 
 intended to be concealed. The result was that Stokes 
 was so terrified that he stole out of Oxford, unper- 
 ceived, on June 12th, reached London the same night, 
 and told the Archbishop that he did not dare to 
 execute his commission." The Archbishop had seen 
 through the whole manoeuvre, and on the morning 
 of that day had sent letters summoning him to 
 Lambeth. 
 
 The Chancellor, apprehensive of the consequences, 
 followed him to Lambeth. Evidence was given to 
 show that he had favoured the Wiclif party. He 
 was condemned for contumacy, and asked pardon on 
 his knees, which was given to him on the intercession 
 of William of Wykeham.^ He was then required to 
 publish other mandates of the Archbishop in the Uni- 
 versity. He told the Archbishop that he would publish 
 the first mandate, which required him not to permit any 
 one hereafter to teach or hold these doctrines in the 
 
 ' "Fascic. Zizan.," p. 302. 
 
 ' Ibid.^ p. 304. = Ihid., p. 308. 
 
214 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 University. But wlien another mandate was giv^-n 
 to him, requiring him not only to publish the con- 
 demnation of the conclusions, but also to search the 
 colleges and halls for suspected persons, and to 
 compel them to abjure, he said that he could only 
 do so at the risk of his life. " Then," said the 
 Archbishop, " the University also fosters heresy, for 
 it win not allow the publication of Catholic truth.'" 
 
 Rugge was strongly censured, on his return to the 
 University, by the party with which he had hitherto 
 acted. In order to regain their favour, he suspended 
 one Henry Crump from academic functions, because 
 he called tlie Wiclifites " heretical Lollards."^ This 
 name, of uncertain origin, began now to be apphed 
 to them. Crump lodged a complaint against him 
 with the Archbishop. The latter immediately pro- 
 cured a royal warrant, under the great seal, to the 
 Chancellor and Proctors, directing them not to molest 
 Henry Crump, and ordering them to make an inqui- 
 sition through the University for the disciples of 
 Wiclif, and for the books of Wiclif and Hereford.'' 
 The members did not resist this invasion of their 
 privileges. They were afraid of identifying themselves 
 with those who were supposed to be connected with 
 the late insurrection. They might, too, stand out 
 against an Archbishop. But they bowed down in 
 solemn adoration before the " divinity " which " doth 
 hedge a king." A reaction took place. The University 
 suspended Hereford and Repyngdon. They appealed 
 
 ' "Fascic. Zizan.," pp. 310, 311. 
 
 » Ibid., p. 312. 3 Ibid., pp. 312-317. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 215 
 
 to the Duke of Lancaster. He told them to abjure 
 their heretical opinions. They were then obliged to 
 humble themselves so far as to appeal to the Arch- 
 bishop. He ordered them to prepare a statement of 
 their opinions, and to submit it to himself, to ten 
 bishops, and to many doctors of law and divinity, 
 on Friday, June 20th, at the Dominican monastery 
 at Blackfriars.^ Their answers were pronounced to 
 be evasive and heretical. Their sentence was, how- 
 ever, postponed for a week. When they failed to 
 appear at the appointed place, they were laid under 
 the ban of excommunication. Other persons were 
 also brought before the Archbishop and other Bishops. 
 The Bishops of London and of Lincoln, Robert 
 Braybrook and John Buckingham, distinguished them- 
 selves by their zeal in the work of persecution. The 
 end, however, was that all of them recanted, with 
 the single exception of Nicolas Hereford. He was 
 cited to Rome, and was imprisoned. Repyngdon 
 afterwards opposed the Wiclifites as strongly as he 
 had supported them, and was rewarded for his apos- 
 tacy with the bishopric of Lincoln. 
 
 Thus, then, armed with these extraordinary powers, 
 Courtenay was completely successful in his crusade 
 against Wiclifism in Oxford. But his triumph was 
 gained at the expense of the intellectual life of the 
 University. The Wiclifite party had studied the pre- 
 cious remains of ancient genius, not on account of 
 the " thoughts that breathe and words that burn," 
 to be found in the works of those masters of poetry, 
 ' " Fascic. Zizan.," pp. 319-329. 
 
2l6 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 eloquence, and song, who have shed an undying 
 glory on the age and country in which they lived ; 
 but that they might strengthen their intellectual 
 powers, and be better enabled to persevere in the 
 investigation of truth. The victorious party might 
 have made use of the same materials for the same 
 purpose ; but they would not do so on account of 
 their association with those whom they had crushed. 
 The result was intellectual imbecility throughout the 
 University. In the thirteenth century, Oxford had 
 sent forth sons who had attracted the regard of 
 admiring Europe ; but in the great Councils of the 
 Church in the fifteenth century, she was nowhere 
 to be found. Wood gives the evidence of an 
 O.xford contemporary : — " The University of Paris 
 has laboured to find a remedy for the poisonous 
 disease of schism ; but in her labours she has borne 
 all alone the burden and heat of the day. Well 
 might she complain of her sister (our mother) to 
 the King of England, saying, ' Speak unto my sister, 
 that she may labour with me. Let it not be said 
 to our reproach, how long will ye hold your peace?'" 
 Thus, then, Oxford suffered at the hands of Courtenay 
 and his party, until at length, at the time of the 
 Reformation, she broke her fetters, and once more 
 stood in the A'an of the great movement against 
 ignorance, error, and superstition.^ 
 
 But now the great heretic himself must be called 
 to account. He liad been suspended from academic 
 functions by a mandate from Archbishop Courtenay. 
 
 ' Huber's " English Universities," vol. i., pp. 155-158. 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 21 7 
 
 He now, in obedience to a summons, appeared before 
 a Provincial Synod in St. Frideswide's Church, at 
 Oxford, on November i8th, 1382, which was after- 
 wards adjourned to the 24th. The fact of his appear- 
 ance has been called in question, for it really rests 
 only on the authority of the chronicler, Knighton, 
 from whom Wood, who also mentions it, has evidently 
 obtained his information. But still Knighton is so 
 minute in his details, that it does not appear that 
 any doubt can be entertained on the subject.^ The 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of London, 
 Lincoln, Norwich, Winchester, Salisbury, and Here- 
 ford, constituted the tribunal. Around them was 
 assembled a large number of clergy and laity. Be- 
 fore this imposing array stood the great Reformer. 
 Nearly fifty years had passed away since he came, 
 an unknown boy, to Oxford, anxious to devote the 
 powers with which God had gifted him to the pur- 
 suit of knowledge, and to the investigation of truth. 
 On that brow, time, or, rather, intense study, had 
 marked deep furrows. He would be sustained, as 
 he stood before his judges, by the assurance that 
 his great object, during those years of toil, had been 
 to serve God faithfully, and to do good in his day 
 and generation. He v/ould remember how he had 
 come under the spell of the holier influences exer- 
 cised upon hirn by the plague, and by the teaching 
 and character of Archbishops Bradwardine and 
 Fitz Ralph. He might have recalled, too, those party 
 fights at Oxford, in which he had been trained for 
 ' Lechler, vol. ii., p. 272. 
 
2l8 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 his assault first of all on the corruptions of the 
 Papacy, and afterwards on that vast system of error 
 which, through ages, it had laboured to impose 
 upon Christendom. Just after he had obeyed the 
 voice which summoned him to the latter conflict, 
 adverse influences had hindered him in his work. 
 That terrible insurrection of the peasants had broken 
 out, which had created a strong prejudice against 
 him. The people were told, and they believed, that 
 Heaven had declared its judgment in that earthquake 
 which had sent a thrill of terror through the hearts 
 of the inhabitants of England. Thus, then, the 
 noble army of the Reformers had been compelled to 
 retire before the fierce onset of the sons of darkness. 
 Thus, too, it came to pass that there was little mani- 
 festation of sympathy with him in that numerous 
 assemblage. He would wander back in thought to 
 the time when the schools had resounded to the 
 applause of admiring followers, who had hailed him 
 as a victor in his intellectual combats. But perse- 
 cution had robbed him of their sympathy. As he 
 stood there alone, he had now to mourn over the 
 apostacy of those who, he fondly hoped, would be 
 faithful to their conscientious convictions. But, when 
 gloom and doubt would have beset an ordinary mind, 
 his courage remained unshaken. We know, indeed, 
 that some, who ought not to have brought the charge 
 against him, have asserted, with Knighton, that the 
 English confession, which, Knighton says, that he 
 delivered to the judges, is a retractation. But 
 it is an undoubted historical fact, that no sen- 
 
WICLIF AS A REFORMER IN DOCTRINE. 2 I Q 
 
 teiice was passed upon him requiring that retracta- 
 tion. The silence of his adversaries as to the issue 
 is evidence of it. When they pretended that he 
 had made it, they were obliged -to put forth that 
 English confession to be referred to in Chap- 
 ter VIII., in which he reiterates, in unmistakable lan- 
 guage, his rejection of the dogma, while affirming, 
 as we shall see, a real spiritual presence of Christ 
 in the sacred elements.' He afterwards becomes 
 more decided in his opposition to Transubstantia- 
 tion and to the Papacy. The note of defiance 
 to his adversaries rings out loudly in his 
 public utterances, and in his works, to the end of 
 his days, especially in his celebrated " Trialogus," 
 written in the year before his death : — " Oh, that all 
 could see how Antichrist and his instruments con- 
 demn sons of the Church, and persecute them even 
 to the death, because they maintain the truth as taught 
 in the Gospel ! Truly aware am I that the doctrine 
 of the Gospel may for a season be trampled under 
 foot ; that it may be overpowered in high places, and 
 even suppressed by the threatenings of Antichrist ; 
 but I am sure that it will never be extinguished, for 
 ' heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word 
 shall not pass away.' " ' 
 
 He went forth unscathed from that formidable 
 tribunal. The men who were thirsting for his de- 
 struction had not the courage to seize him. The 
 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. ii., p. 268. See also " Select English 
 Works," Arnold, vol. iii., pp. 501-503. 
 ' " Trialogus," lib. iv., 7. 
 
220 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 truth was that they trembled before a superior 
 tribunal. They were conscious that they had made 
 the House of Commons their enemy by the high- 
 handed manner in which they had endeavoured to 
 dispense with its consent to a statute of the realm. 
 His celebrated " Complaint," a petition which he 
 now addressed to Parliament, served still more to 
 enlist their sympathies in his cause.* He asserts 
 that Parliament ought to release members of religious 
 bodies, when they wish, from the fetters of monastic 
 vows ; and that the king has a perfect right to deal 
 with the endowments of the Church when they have 
 been abused. He also presented, in a short summary, 
 the objections to Transubstantiation. This docu- 
 ment, in which he claimed his right to hold these 
 views, and asserted for others the liberty which he 
 asked for himself, was well fitted to find acceptance 
 with the representatives of the country. He appealed 
 to the love of liberty which was strong within their 
 breasts. He had not miscalculated the effect which 
 that document was likely to produce on the legis- 
 lature. He saved himself from imprisonment, that 
 he might persevere in his exhausting studies and 
 labours. A plainer proof was thus given, through 
 his growth in knowledge, that he had prepared the 
 way for the Reformation by opposing not only the 
 corruptions but also the dogmas of Romanism. In 
 short, we may say, that the work of those last two 
 years has most powerfully aided in the deliverance 
 of England from her spiritual bondage. 
 
 ' Arnold's " Select English Writings," vol. iii., pp. 507-23. 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 221 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WICLIF IN LUTTERWORTH. 
 
 The interest connected with Lutterworth. — His Herculean 
 labours in it, including the writing of a large number 
 of tracts and works against Rome. — The English 
 of the tracts is remarkable. — The transcription of his 
 works. He was a diligent parish priest at Lutterworth. — 
 His views on the importance of preaching.— His sermons 
 at Oxford. - — His sermons at Lutterworth. — Probably 
 described by Chaucer in his "Good Parson." — Bishop 
 Spencer's crusade was strongly condemned by Wiclif. — He 
 often thought that his life was in danger. — His citation to 
 Rome. — His death. — His character and work. 
 
 We have seen that Wiclif was appointed to the 
 living of Lutterworth in 1374. He resided in the parish 
 from the summer of 1381 to the time of his death. 
 During the first six or seven years after his appoint- 
 ment, he divided his time between Lutterworth and 
 Oxford. Afterwards his only absence from it was 
 when he was summoned to appear before the Convo- 
 cation at Oxford in 1382. 
 
 This town will always be an object of interest to 
 those who have been taught to appreciate Wiclif, 
 because his incumbency was signalised by that higher 
 development, and by those services which have 
 rendered him pre-eminently the benefactor of his 
 native land. I have shown in Chapter IL that 
 Archbishop Bradwardine may have been to him the 
 
222 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 model of that union of study and contemplation with 
 a life of action which he displayed during the latter 
 part of his memorable career. Lutterworth was for 
 nearly four years the only scene of those Herculean 
 labours which may be said to have begun in 1378. 
 / He acted in conformity with his own words, that "as 
 priests have the highest state of all, so God asks of 
 \ them more perfect service ; and idleness in priests is 
 \more to be condemned than in other men."i We are 
 disposed at first to be incredulous when we hear of 
 work which seems beyond the limits of human 
 ability. But all modern research has served to con- 
 firm the accuracy of this statement. Dr. Shirley's 
 catalogue contains a list of ninety-six Latin works and 
 sixty-five English works of a theological, devotional, 
 and philosophical character. Of those important 
 w-ritings, forming a large number in that list, in which 
 he assailed the corruptions of Romish doctrine, 
 the largest part issued from his parsonage at 
 Lutterworth. Most of his tracts, written in terse 
 English, varying in size from three or four pages to 
 four sheets, designed for the instruction of the 
 English people after he withdrew from Oxford, belong 
 to these latest years of his life. " It is not," Pro- 
 fessor Shirley says, " by his translation of the Bible, 
 remarkable as that work is, that Wicliff" can be judged 
 as a writer. It is in his original tracts that the 
 exquisite pathos, the keen delicate irony, the manly 
 passion of his short, nervous sentences, fairly over- 
 
 ' "On the Seven Deadly .Sins," Select English Works, 
 Arnold, vol. iii., p. 143. 
 
WICLIF IN LUTTERWORTH. 
 
 223 
 
 masters the weakness of the unformed language, 
 and gives us English which cannot be read without a 
 feeling of its beauty to this hour."i The gigantic 
 labour of translating the Bible would have been, we 
 should have thought, enough to task his energies in 
 his quiet parsonage. But we are full of amazement 
 when we see, in addition to it, tract after tract, work 
 after work coming forth from it, in which he inveighs 
 against the vices and crimes of the bishops and 
 clergy ; or aids his poor priests in their work by 
 explaining their objects and by defending them from 
 the calumnies of their enemies; or discusses the 
 duties which men owe to God or to each other ; or 
 assails the doctrines of Romanism as one after 
 another he discovers them ; or lashes with his thrice- 
 knotted scourge the mendicant brothers ; or, as 
 increasing in vituperative energy, in the last year of 
 his life, he directs his most powerful artillery against 
 the Papacy, and assails the Pope as " The Master 
 Antichrist." - 
 
 We cannot doubt that he had laid in materials for 
 these works during the former part of his life. But 
 still we reflect with wonder on the intense energy, 
 extraordinary power, and resolute will of one who 
 could thus labour for the spiritual and temporal 
 interests of his fellow-creatures. We see him wearied 
 in spirit and worn down by toil, not availing himself 
 of the excuse of perils which he had only narrowly 
 
 ' " Fascic. Zizan.," p. xlvi. 
 
 ^ "Polemical Works," published by the Wiclif Society, 
 p. 396. 
 
224 
 
 JOHN WICLIK. 
 
 escaped for relaxing in his exertions, but disproving 
 the charge of timidity and evasion which has been 
 brought against him by braving again the fury of the 
 persecutor, and showing a constantly increasing zeal 
 in his opposition to the Papacy. He knew that the 
 shadows of evening had fallen upon his path. " The 
 night was soon coming for him when no man can 
 work." He saw that his energies might have been 
 better directed in former years of his life. Now, 
 when he was better informed, and was on the right 
 track, he was determined to make up for lost time. 
 His labours, therefore, increase with advancing years. 
 He lifted up his voice in louder tones against the 
 corruptions of the dominant Church. His heart was 
 throbbing with deep anxiety for his fellow-countrymen, 
 whom he saw perishing in their iniquity. He re- 
 solved to labour with increasing energy for their 
 salvation, and to bring back the Church to that 
 primitive faith from which she had departed, ani- 
 mated by the prospect of the crown of righteousness 
 which should be placed on his brow on that day, 
 when " they that are wise shall shine as the brightness 
 of the firmament, and they that turn many to right- 
 eousness, as the stars for ever and ever." 
 
 AViclif was aided by skilful transcribers. They must 
 have been available at Lutterworth, or else we cannot 
 suppose that his works would have found their way 
 so quickly through the length and breadth of the 
 land. Through these men, who often worked will- 
 ingly for him, because they were in sympathy with 
 him, a voice issued from Lutterworth, which shook 
 
WICLIF IN LUTTERWORTH. 225 
 
 not only England, but many countries of Europe. 
 In the palace of the king, among the silken band of 
 courtiers, " in the perfumed chambers of the great,'' 
 in the mansion of the knight, in the apartment of the 
 tradesman or the merchant, in the rude hovels of the 
 peasantry, Wiclif was present by his books, instruct- 
 ing the ignorant in the great truths of the Gospel, 
 rekindling decaying zeal, fixing wavering resolutions, 
 recovering those who had apostatised, and adding 
 fresh soldiers to the ranks of his army. 
 
 But Wiclif, as I have said, combined with study 
 and contemplation active exertions for the promotion 
 of the best interests of the immortal beings around 
 him. We know that, though he never became an 
 itinerant preacher himself, yet he constantly super- 
 intended the movements of that band of poor priests 
 who were at this time, as we have seen, active!) 
 engaged throughout the county of Leicester. Tra- 
 dition, too, informs us that every morning, after he 
 had been engaged in this exhausting work, clad 
 probably, like his preachers, in his russet gown, with 
 sandals on his feet, this man, who shook the pillars 
 of the Papacy, on whom the eyes of the king, the 
 Pope, statesmen, prelates, and priests were fixed, 
 might be seen in Lutterworth, in the active discharge 
 of his duties as a parish priest. He enters those 
 rude dwellings and engages in friendly conversation 
 with the inmates. If they are notorious offenders, 
 he addresses to them words of warning or of exhort- 
 ation. If they are suffering from sickness or sorrow, 
 he pours the oil and wine of heavenly consolation 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 into the wounded spirit. If their spirits are about to 
 quit their earthly tabernacle, he speaks to them words 
 of peace and consolation, holding up before the 
 agonised sufferer the symbol of redemption. He 
 preached also to his flock by the silent eloquence of 
 a holy life, remembering his own words, that they 
 who live well, in purity of thought, and speech, and 
 deed, and in good example to the people, who teach 
 the law of God up to their knowledge, and labour to 
 learn it better and to teach it openly and constantly, 
 these are very prophets of God, and holy angels of 
 God, and the spiritual lights of the world." ^ 
 
 But we must visit the church at Lutterworth, the 
 same in which he officiated. We must stand in front 
 of that pulpit, parts of which belong to the pulpit 
 which the Reformer occupied. We must then carry 
 back our minds to those days and fancy that we see 
 the flock whom he has visited during the week, 
 listening with eager attention to those sermons pre- 
 served probably by Purvey, extracts from which have 
 been published by Vaughan, or in full by Mr. Arnold 
 in the select works of Wiclif These are very 
 numerous. They are his written preparations for the 
 pulpit, or consist of notes taken from his lips as a 
 preacher. We shall not expect to find him following 
 the example of those who, in their sermons, make use 
 of jokes and drolleries, act the part of buffoons, tell 
 scandalous stories, preach fables instead of the 
 
 ' "For the Order of the Priesthood," cited by Vaughan, 
 vol. ii., p. 295. 
 
WICLIF IN LUTTERWORTH. 
 
 227 
 
 Gospel, and even draw the materials of their sermons 
 from the mythology of the heathen deities. He 
 has strongly censured these men in various passages 
 of his works. ^ But, as the following passages 
 will show, he considered the preaching of the pure ^ 
 word of God, in a style free from ornament, to be the 
 great means, by God's blessing, of the salvation of 
 the soul ; and to it he attaches paramount importance. 
 " The right preaching of God's word is the most 
 
 wort-liy work that priests do here among men 
 
 Also the goodness of works is measured by the fruit 
 that Cometh of them ; but more fruit cometh of good 
 preaching than of any other work. And, therefore, 
 such good preaching is the best work that a priest 
 doeth ; for by this work a priest begets children to 
 God, and maketh them to come to heaven. Hence 
 St. Paul saith, ' In Christ Jesus I have begotten you 
 through the Gospel.' " ~ In reflecting on the truth, 
 " The seed is the word of God ' " (Luke viii. 1 1), he is 
 filled with wonder and exclaims, " O marvellous 
 power of the Divine seed ! which overpowers strong 
 men in arms, softens hard hearts, and renews and 
 changes into divine men, men who had been brut- 
 alised by sins, and who had departed infinitely far 
 from God. Obviously such a high morality could 
 never be worked by a priest, if the Spirit of Life, 
 
 ' "Trialogus," p. 436; "Polemical Works," p. 372; 
 "Select English Works," Matthew, pp. 16, 26, 50, 59. 
 
 ' "De Officio Pastoral!," in English Works, edited by 
 Matthew, p. 441. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 and the Eternal word did not, above all things else, 
 work with it." i 
 
 Under the influence of these convictions, he had 
 often addressed himself in Latin sermons, in a 
 learned style, to men of culture and scholastic 
 knowledge probably from the pulpit of St. Mary's,^ in 
 the University of Oxford. Many of these are to be 
 found at Vienna. He had laboured in that sphere of 
 duty to develop and foster the spiritual life of his 
 hearers, to suggest remedies for the evils which 
 afflicted the Church, and so to prepare many of his 
 hearers who would probably go everywhere preaching 
 the word to promote the spiritual and temporal 
 interests of those who should be committed to their 
 charge.^ 
 
 Now he speaks in earnest, simple, forcible, and 
 energetic language to his rustic congregation at 
 Lutterworth. His opinion was, that " the ornamental 
 speech on which men so pride themselves, is so little 
 in keeping with the subject of God's word, that the 
 latter is corrupted by it, and its power paralysed for 
 the conversion and regeneration of souls.""* We may 
 here observe that he anticipated the Reformers of 
 the sixteenth century, and prepared the way for them 
 by asserting that the preaching of God's Word is the 
 
 ' This is an extract from a Latin sermon on Ltike viii. 4-15, 
 the Gospel for Sexagesima Sunday, given by Lechler in vol. ii., 
 PP- 347-357- 
 
 ^ Nicholas Hereford ("Fascic. Zizan.," 305) is described as 
 having preached in Latin from that pulpit. 
 
 ^ Lechler's "Life," vol. i., pp. 283, 284. * Ibid., p. 290. 
 
WICLIF IN LUTTERWORTH. 
 
 229 
 
 great instrument of the moral and spiritual regenera- 
 tion of Christendom. A careful examination of his 
 sermons will serve to show us that his great motives 
 are the love of Christ, and an ardent desire for the 
 promotion of God's glory in the salvation of his 
 ignorant and perisliing fellow-creatures. He would 
 at one time assail, as we shall see in the next chapter, 
 the fundamental doctrines of Romanism, priestly 
 absolution, Indulgences, prayers to Saints, or similar 
 forms of error. He would then tell his hearers that 
 " We should know that faith is a gijt of God, and 
 that it may not be given to men except it be graciotisly. 
 Thus, indeed, all the good which men have is of 
 God, and accordingly, when God rewardeth a good 
 work of man, he croicfieth his own gift. This, then, 
 is also of grace, even as all things are of grace that 
 men have according to the will of God." ^ Again he 
 would insist upon the importance of the atonement, in a 
 sermon preached by him on a Christmas Day, and on 
 the passage in Isaiah ix. 6, beginning with the words 
 " Unto us a child is born." "// is to speak lightly io 
 say that God might, of his mere power, forgive this sin 
 without the atonement which was made for it, since the 
 justice of God would not suffer this, which requires 
 that every trespass be punished either on earth or in 
 hell. God may not accept a person, to forgive him his 
 sin without an atonement, else lie must give free licence 
 to sin, both in angels and men, and then sin were no 
 sin, and our God were no God." - He would in other 
 
 ' "John de Wycliffe, a Monograph," by Vaughan, p. 399. 
 ' /^ii/., p. 395- 
 
230 
 
 JOHN WICLIK. 
 
 sermons not confine himself to subjects immediately 
 connected with his own flock, but would take a wider 
 range. He would dilate on such subjects as the rights 
 of property, he would assail in his usual strong lan- 
 guage the Mendicant Orders, or he would dwell on any 
 other public event of so much importance as to have 
 penetrated to that remote parish in Leicestershire. 
 But in these, as well as in more important matters, we 
 find that the Word of God is the supreme authority 
 by which he is guided to a correct and certain 
 conclusion. 
 
 But some of his most solemn and heart-searching 
 appeals are connected with the day of judgment. In 
 a sermon on the Second Sunday in Advent, an 
 extract from which is given by Dr. Lechler, he thus 
 addresses his congregation : ^ "Faith in earnest in 
 this third coming of Christ ought to draw away men 
 from sin and attract them to virtue. For if they had 
 to appear to-morrow morning before an earthly judge, 
 and might either win or lose great revenues as the 
 result, they would surely prepare themselves with all 
 diligence for the trial. How much more so if they 
 were to win or to lose their life itself ! Lord, as we 
 are certain of this, that the day of the Lord will come, 
 and we know not how soon, and as judgment will 
 then pass upon us, to adjudge us either to life in 
 heaven, or to everlasting death in hell, how diligent 
 do we behove to be to make ready for the event ! " 
 
 In making these appeals, he would have been 
 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. i., y. 297. 
 
WICLIF IN LUTTERWORTH. 23 1 
 
 aided by a remarkable fresco over the chancel arch 
 of Lutterworth Church, representing the Day of 
 Judgment. The Saviour is seen seated on a rainbow 
 in the centre, having two angels with trumpets on 
 either side of him. The ground is covered with 
 bones and skulls, the mournful relics of mortality, 
 designed to represent those who have not received 
 Christian burial. All grades of life, from the king to 
 the rude peasant, are seen emerging from their graves, 
 the particles of dust having been, at the sound of the 
 trumpet, just knit together in the very same bodies in 
 which they lived and moved, it may be, several 
 thousand years before. Fire is seen bursting from 
 some of the coffins, which are gradually pouring 
 forth their occupants. We may imagine that he 
 endeavoured to give to his hearers his own realising 
 sense of the solemnities of that day, expressed in 
 those words, " Whether I eat or drink, I think that 
 the angel's trumpet sounds in mine ears, and bids me 
 rise to judgment," ^ as, directing their attention to 
 that fresco, he asks them whether they can be vain, 
 and gay, and dissipated, and worldly-minded, when 
 they have heard the trumpet which wakes the dead, 
 and changes the living, sounding through creation, 
 and seen the quickened myriads of mankind standing 
 before the judgment-seat. 
 
 We cannot conclude this description of the work at 
 Lutterworth without those lines of the poet Chaucer, 
 in which it is commonly supposed to be repre- 
 sented : — 
 
 ' "Select English Works," Arnold, vol. iii., p. 173. 
 
232 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 " But rich he was of holy thought and work. 
 He was also a learned man — a clerk, 
 That Christes gospel truely would preach, 
 His parishens devoutly would he teach ; 
 Benign he was, and wondrous diligent. 
 And in adversite full patient. 
 And such he was yproved ofte sithes (times). 
 Full loth were him to cursen for his tithes. 
 But rather would he given out of doubt, 
 Unto his poor parishiens about 
 Of his ofifering, and eke of his substance, 
 He could in little things have suffisance. 
 Wide was his parish, and houses far asonder, 
 But he ne lefte nought for rain ne thunder ; 
 In sickness nor in mischief, to visit 
 The farthest in his parish, much and lit (great and small) 
 Upon his feet, and in his hand a staff 
 This noble ensample to his sheep he yaf (gave), 
 That first he wrought, and afterwards he taught." 
 
 If we suppose Chaucer to be fixing his thoughts on 
 Wiclif as a parish priest, and not as a man of might, 
 who could grasp and hurl the thunder, we have in 
 this portrait several features which may be found in 
 his character. We have his learning, his faithful 
 preaching of the Gospel, his holy life, which was a 
 sermon to his parishioners, his faithfulness in the dis- 
 charge of his parochial duties, even when the thunder 
 was pealing above him, his humility, his patience in 
 adversity, his unselfishness, and his compassionate 
 love which led him to minister to the wants, both 
 temporal and spiritual, of the destitute and afflicted 
 around him. Chaucer, though he showed that he 
 was the reverse of Wiclif, by extracting amusement 
 from licentious themes, yet could not fail to appre- 
 
WICLIF IN LUTTERWORTH. 
 
 ciate his virtues and excellences. He could agree, 
 too, with him in opposing the corruptions of the 
 Papacy ; for he has lashed the Mendicant Friars, 
 has satirised the Pardoner who trafficked in spiritual 
 wares, and has a mocking laugh for the vices of 
 the clergy, which he exposes in all their naked 
 deformity. But, by speaking with reverence in his 
 later works of Confession and Transubstantiation, he 
 showed that he had no sympathy with that higher 
 development of Wiclif which led him to wage a 
 ceaseless warfare with the doctrinal system of the 
 Papacy. 
 
 In the midst of his parochial and public cares, 
 the sadness of his noble spirit was deepened by 
 finding that as yet his efforts on their behalf had 
 not produced much impression on the large body 
 of his fellow-countrymen. Bulls had gone forth 
 from Rome, directing an expedition to be organised 
 in England against Clement VII. and his supporters 
 on the continent of Europe, but especially in 
 France. A mitred prelate, Henry Spencer, the 
 youthful Bishop of Norwich, was appointed to the 
 command of the army. He had distinguished him- 
 self in the insurrection of the peasants, when, as 
 the chronicler informs us, " grasping his lance in his 
 right hand, burying his spurs in the flanks of his 
 horse, rushing with the fury of the wild boar into 
 the midst of the crowd," this mail-clad ambassador 
 of the Prince of Peace had spread confusion and 
 islaughter around him.i The Pope had placed an 
 ' Walshingliam, pp. 278, 279. 
 
234 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 ample store of Indulgences at the disposal of the 
 bishop ; and the archbishop had issued letters 
 directing that prayers should be offered up for the 
 success of the Crusade, and that contributions, to 
 which was annexed the promise of absolution from 
 the guilt and punishment of sin, should be invited 
 towards an enterprise which had for its object the 
 extermination of the heretics. The result was that 
 gold, silver, jewels, ornaments, rings, silver spoons, 
 and dishes, contributed especially by ladies of high 
 rank, were poured into the war-chest of the Crusaders. 
 It would be foreign to my purpose to give a detailed 
 account of this expedition. Suffice it to say that the 
 warlike prelate proved a very unskilful general. The 
 Crusaders invaded Flanders, captured several towns, 
 and, far surpassing the ordinary inhumanity of the 
 times, cut to pieces the inhabitants of two of them 
 in one vast massacre. The bishop, elated by this 
 success, thought that he would measure his strength 
 with the King of France and the Duke of Burgundy, 
 who were advancing against him. But he retired 
 ignominiously before them, and, having lost all his 
 acquisitions, embarked for England, where he was 
 received with a universal shout of execration. 
 
 Wiclif was inflamed with a holy indignation when 
 he was informed of this unhallowed enterprise. 
 He complains in " The Great Sentence of the Curse 
 Expounded," " that the proud Priest of Rome brings 
 the seal or banner of Christ on the cross, — that is the 
 token of peace, mercy, and charity, — lor to slay all 
 Christian men for love of two false priests that be 
 
WICLIF IN LUTTERWORTH. 
 
 open Antichrists, for to maintain their worldly state 
 to oppress Christendom worse than the Jews were, 
 against Holy Writ and the life of Christ and his 
 Apostles."^ The matter so agitated his mind that 
 he often returns to it. He says, for instance, in the 
 treatise on the " Seven Deadly Sins," " The Pope, 
 who is the stirrer up of this strife, sins more than the 
 fighters ;" and asks, indignantly, " Why, is he not a 
 fiend ? The priests that fight in his cause sin foully 
 in homicide ; for, if man-slaying in secular men be 
 odious to God, much more in priests, that should be 
 Christ's vicars." - 
 
 Wiclif had fully counted the cost, and weighed the 
 consequences, of this bold invective against the 
 Papacy. He was, in the latest years of his life, con- 
 stantly haunted with the impression that his life was 
 in danger. He says, for instance, in " The Tri- 
 alogus," " We have no need to go among the heathen 
 in order to die a martyr's death. We have only to 
 preach persistently the law of Christ in the hearing of 
 Caesar's prelates, and instantly we shall have a 
 flourishing martyrdom, if we hold out in faith and 
 patience." ^ 
 
 Dr. Lechler regards as groundless Wiclif's alleged 
 citation to Rome by Pope Urban VI., because he can 
 discover no evidence of it in the chroniclers of the 
 period, and because it rests, he says, entirely on an 
 alleged letter to the Pope in answer to the summons. 
 
 ' " Select English Works," Arnold, vol. iii., p. 308. 
 ■ Ibid., p. 141. 
 
 ^ "Trialogus," lib. iii., c. 15, p. 181. 
 
236 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 He has been successful in showing that this is not a 
 letter, and that it is not addressed to the Pope ; but 
 he is mistaken in supposing that he was not cited to 
 Rome.i We have a distinct assertion in one of the 
 Polemical works, " De Citationibus Frivolis," recently 
 published by the Wiclif Society, that he was sum- 
 moned to appear before the Pope. He mentions, 
 among other matters connected with citations, three 
 reasons for disregarding them, which are necessary 
 obstacles, illness, and the command of the king; and 
 lays claim to all these for himself His words are : 
 " Thus says a certain lame and infirm man, cited to 
 this court, that the royal command prevents him from 
 going to Rome, that the King of Kings plainly decrees 
 that he should not go." ^ Thus, then, the fact of the 
 citation is established beyond the possibility of a 
 doubt. Internal evidence, gathered from this tract, 
 shows that he was cited about the end of 1383. 
 
 Perhaps, if Wiclif had gone to Rome, and had died 
 in one of the Papal dungeons, his fame as a martyr 
 might have done something for him with posterity. 
 An effort might then have been made to answer the 
 accusations of his ^adversaries, and to free his views 
 from the perplexity in which they have been involved, 
 partly because incorrect dates have been assigned to 
 some of his works, and partly because works have 
 been assigned to him which he never wrote, so that 
 the charge, stated in the preface, could not have been 
 brought against his native country, that " it has 
 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. ii., pp. 284, 285. 
 ^ " Polemical Works," pp. 555, 556. 
 
WICLIF IN LUTTERWORTH. 
 
 been singularly and painfully ungrateful to his 
 memory." But it was not so to be. "Admirable it 
 was," says Fuller, " that a hare so often hunted, with 
 so many packs of dogs, should die at last, quietly 
 sitting in his form." ' His infirmities had compelled 
 him, for two years before his death, to employ the 
 services of a curate, John Horn. John Purvey was 
 also his constant attendant, and aided him in his 
 work. John Horn informs us that he was struck 
 with paralysis two years before his death. Perhaps 
 his enemies had adopted a timid policy towards him, 
 because they saw that death had set its seal on that 
 wasted frame, and would soon release them from his 
 hostility. At length the end came. His curate, John 
 Horn, has given us a full account of the circum- 
 stances connected with his death. ^ On Innocents' 
 Day, December 28th, 1384, as he was hearing mass 
 in his church at Lutterworth, at the time of the ele- 
 vation of the host, he was struck with paralysis, and 
 sank immediately to the ground. In the old chancel, 
 which has lately been replaced by one built on the 
 
 ' Fuller, p. 142. 
 
 - When Horn was eighty years of age, in the year 144 1, he 
 made a solemn asseveration to the effect here stated, to Thomas 
 Gascoigne, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, which the 
 latter wrote out with his own hand. The MS. is in the British 
 Museum. Lewis (p. 336) gives a copy of it. Another testimony 
 is found in the following entry in the Episcopal Register of 
 Lincoln, in connexion with an inquiry in 1385 as to the right of 
 presentation to the living. " This church of Lutterworth became 
 vacant on the last day of the past year (1384) by the death of 
 John Wycliff, the last rector." — Lewis, c. v. 
 
238 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 same lines, his last illness came upon him. He was 
 carried in the chair, still standing in it, to the 
 parsonage-house, where, soothed by the kind offices 
 of surrounding friends, he breathed his last on 
 December 31st, 1384. He may have been conscious 
 during that interval, and may have looked forward 
 with joy to the prospect of his appearance in the 
 presence of his Saviour. The tongue, however, 
 which might have expressed a well-grounded hope of 
 a happy eternity, and might have conveyed his thanks 
 to his friends for their assiduous attention, had been, 
 from the time of his seizure, silenced for ever. After- 
 wards his body was borne back to that old church in 
 which he had so often stood, the teacher of his rustic 
 parishioners, and was placed in a vault within the 
 chancel, where it remained till, as we shall see, some 
 years afterwards, the sanctity and repose of the grave 
 were violated by the malice of his enemies, and his 
 bones were rudely torn from their resting-place. 
 
 Thus ended the career of one who has been justly 
 described by Dean Hook as " one of the greatest men 
 that our country has produced ; as one of the very 
 few who have left the impress* of their minds, not 
 only on their own age, but on all time." ^ His inde- 
 fatigable energy, a distinguishing feature of his 
 character had gradually worn out the material 
 tabernacle. No friend has left us a record of his 
 life. We have only some scanty but significant 
 fragments as to his appearance and influence. We 
 
 ' " Lives of the Archbishops," vol. iii., p. 76. 
 
WICLIF IN LUTTERWORTH. 
 
 learn that he had a " spare, frail, and emaciated 
 frame, and ' a conversation most innocent/ the 
 charm of every rank."i He must have been 
 singularly attractive in his manner, or he could 
 never have secured the regard of the king, of the 
 turbulent nobility of the Court of Edward III., or 
 of that band of faithful friends , and disciples who 
 were most zealous in propagating his opinions. We 
 know, also, that, as a man of intellect and learning, 
 he was, like Homer's hero, taller by head and shoul- 
 ders than the most gigantic of his civil and eccle- 
 siastical contemporaries. Archbishop Arundel admits 
 him to have been " a mighty clerk." We have already 
 seen that he must have possessed great scientific 
 knowledge,^ and that to his command of the weapons 
 of scholastic discussion he owed that influence with 
 his contemporaries which aided him very much in his 
 efforts for the reformation of the Church. " Duns 
 Scotus, Ockham, Bradwardine, and Wiclif were the 
 four great Schoolmen of the fourteenth century."'^ 
 
 We know, also, that his personal character was 
 unimpeachable. His nobility of spirit, his sanctity of 
 life, his superiority to the sordid and debasing pur- 
 suits and pleasures of the world inspired the respect 
 of his contemporaries. His enemies have, indeed, 
 assailed him with vituperative epithets. But they 
 have not uttered a syllable against his personal cha- 
 racter. They have called him " the organ of the 
 devil, the enemy of the Church, the mirror of hypo- 
 
 ' " Fascic. Zizan.," p. xlv. ' Pap;e 23. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. li. 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 crites, the fabricator of lies," "John Wyke-bileve 
 (wicked belief)," "Wiclyffe, of wicked life, of memory 
 thrice condemned." ^ They have charged him, also, 
 with cowardice and evasion. The charge has been 
 repeated by some who profess to appreciate him. 
 Those who have read carefully this life of him will 
 .say that it ought not to have been made. We ought 
 to admire his courage at Oxford, for reasons already 
 given, when, on the question of Transubstantiation, 
 he flung down the gauntlet, and challenged the eccle- 
 siastical body to mortal combat.- He has been 
 vindicated from the charges brought against him at 
 Lambeth and Oxford.^ We may observe, in further 
 defence of him, that the Scholastic Philosophy which, 
 as we have seen, aided in training his intellect, may, 
 through its metaphysical jargon, have created an 
 obscurity in the meaning of the documents presented 
 at both those places. If we remember, also, that at 
 the close of his life, when many of his friends had re- 
 tracted, and he had no party in the country to support 
 him ; at a time, too, when the sword of persecution, 
 suspended by a thread, was hanging over him, he 
 came forward and opposed, with constantly-increasing 
 energy, the Pope, and the hierarchy, and the clergy in 
 arms ; — we shall say that, so far from being charged 
 with cowardice, he ought to be held up to admiration 
 for that Christian heroism, springing from love to 
 
 ' Walsingham, p. 338 ; " Chronicon Angliae," p. 281 ; 
 "Loci e Libro Verilatum," Gascoigne's, edited by J. T. Rogers, 
 p. 141. 
 
 ' Pages 197-200. ' Pages 119-122, 219. 
 
WICLIF IN LUTTERWORTH. 
 
 241 
 
 Christ, and an ardent desire for the salvation of souls, 
 which led him to resolve to encounter misrepresenta- 
 tion, opposition, death itself, in the service of his 
 Divine Master. 
 
 The qualities and qualifications just described are 
 expressed in portraits of him which, in the main, 
 agree.^ He appears as a tall, thin figure, covered 
 with a long black gown, surrounded by a girdle. The 
 features are keen and sharply chiselled. The clear 
 eye seems to look into the depths of the souls of 
 those who are before him. The whole man wears an 
 aspect of dignity and determination, and seems to be 
 one born to command his fellow-creatures. Some 
 people doubt, indeed, whether these are genuine 
 portraits of the great spiritual hero whom we are 
 anxious to have vividly before us. But there can be 
 no doubt that we have the portraiture of his mind 
 and character in his works. We may, by the careful 
 examination of them, as far as they are at present 
 before us, be led to emulate his example, to seek those 
 graces and virtues for which he was conspicuous, and 
 "to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered 
 unto the saints." 
 
 We observe in his works an earnestness vvhicli 
 comes up from the very ground of his heart, and an 
 intellectual energy which carries him fearlessly onward 
 
 ' The only known genuine portraits are one in the possession 
 of Lord Denbigh ; another at Mr. Turville's, of Husband's 
 Bosworth Hall ; another at Queen's College, Cambridge ; 
 another at the Rectory of Wycliffe, in Yorkshire ; and another 
 in the collection at Knowle. 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 in the investigation of truth. He seems, with one 
 glance, to penetrate to the centre of long- established 
 abuses, and speaks as if he thought that not to expose 
 them would be an act of treason to the Almighty 
 King of Heaven. We observe, also, in his sermons, 
 expressions showing a deep sense of his responsibility 
 as a Christian minister, — as, for instance, " No man 
 should take prelacy or care of souls but in great 
 dread " ; ^ and indicating that he is looking forward 
 to the time when he shall have to give an account of 
 his ministry at the judgment-seat of Christ. All his 
 actions and sayings bear the impress of truth and 
 sincerity. So great was his joy when he had been 
 emancipated from his bondage to some error, that 
 in the midst of a learned discussion he would 
 break forth into expressions like the following : " I 
 thank God that I have been delivered from these 
 subtleties." - He earnestly asks God to preserve him 
 from the sin of presumption in the treatment of 
 doubtful questions, and implores His grace to enable 
 him to persevere in a bold declaration of his belief in 
 the great truths of the Gospel.^ He never conceals 
 any change of opinion from his congregations, so 
 that a careful examination of his sermons will disclose 
 his progress throughout his memorable career. He 
 shows that he loves not the praise of men when he 
 tells us, on one occasion, that vindictiveness had 
 
 ' " Select English Works," Arnold, vol. i., p. 264. 
 ^ The "De Veritate Sacrre Scriptur»," quoted by Lechler, 
 p. 319, n. 190. 
 
 = //'/(/., p. 319, n. 192. 
 
WICLIF IN LUTTERWORTH. 
 
 245 
 
 mingled with his righteous indignation, and that he 
 will pray earnestly to God for grace to enable him to 
 conquer this sin which did so easily beset him ^ ; or 
 when he says, on another occasion, " I confess that 
 in my own case I have often, from a motive of vain 
 ambition, departed from the doctrine of Scripture 
 both in my reasonings and replies, while my aim was 
 to attain the show of fame among the people, and at 
 the same time to strip off the pretensions of ambitious 
 sophists."- A sadness constantly brooded over his 
 spirit when he reflected on his terrible warfare with 
 the powers of evil, against which he was obliged 
 constantly to strive. Occasionally it affected his 
 judgment, as, for instance, when, in answer to an 
 argument for instrumental music that it prepares us 
 for the worship and services of the heavenly sanc- 
 tuary, he sorrowfully said that heaven is, indeed, the 
 place of praise ; but that " we are in perilous battle 
 and in the valley of weeping."'^ But then occasionally 
 his sportive wit would shed a gleam of light over the 
 dark clouds which had gathered around him.'* 
 
 We see, then generally the character of this re- 
 markable man. Our description of him would not 
 be complete if we neglected to say that all his studies, 
 all his intellectual achievements, were only considered 
 
 ' See a passage from the " De Veritate," quoted by Shirley ; 
 " Fascic. Zizan.," p. xlv. 
 ' Lechler, vol. ii., p. 312. 
 
 ^ "Of Feigned Contemplative Life," Matthew, " S. E. \V.," 
 p. 192. 
 
 * Lechler (vol. ii.,'p. 308-311) gives several instances of his 
 wit and humour. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 by him as important so far as they ministered to the 
 promotion of the divine glory. He writes : " That 
 fault which causes us to look to the leaves rather than 
 to the fruit makes our services of no account in the 
 sight of God." ^ In comparison of the object just 
 stated, every pursuit, however, in the judgment of the 
 world, important, or however exalted, appeared to sink 
 into utter insignificance. He could give this solemn 
 assurance : " Let God be my witness, that, before 
 everything, I have God's glory in my eye, and the 
 good of the Church, which springs out of reverence 
 of Holy Scripture, and following the law of Christ.'' - 
 Thus, then, as we shall see in the next two chapters, 
 in which we shall consider the nature of his opinions 
 and the success of his work, he laboured in the spirit of 
 self-sacrifice, being fully assured that, though for a time 
 it might be retarded, it would issue in the spiritual 
 regeneration of his native country. 
 
 ' " De Veiitate Sacrce Scripturae," c. 12. 
 ^ Ibid., quoted by Lechler, p. 312. 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 245 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 wiclif's opinions. 
 
 A knowledge of the gradual formation of his opinions is indis- 
 pensable to a just estimate of him. — His views on the 
 following subjects: — Transubstantiation. — The Seven Sacra- 
 ments. — Baptism. — Confirmation. — Penance and Absolu- 
 tion. — Confession. — Matrimony. — Celibacy of the clergy. — 
 Ordination. — Extreme Unction. — The person and work of 
 Christ — Justification by faith. — Works beforejustification.- — 
 Pelagianism. — Man's moral inability to turn to God. — Invo- 
 cation ofsaints. — Worship of the Virgin Mary. — Indulgences. 
 — Works of Supererogation. — Image worship. — The sacrifice 
 of the Mass. — Purgatory. — Predestination. — Episcopacy. — 
 The Church. — Estimate of his position as a Reformer in 
 doctrine. — Mis mode of opposing error. — Comparison be- 
 tween Wiclif as a Reformer and his predecessors, as well as 
 his successors in the sixteenth century. — Grandeur of hift 
 position as a Reformer. — The debt of gratitude which we 
 owe to him. — Burning of his bones, and reflections upon it. 
 
 We must remember Wiclif's development, if we are 
 to form a just estimate of him as a thinker and 
 writer. But this is a matter to which, as Dr. Lechler 
 shows, his biographers have not paid proper atten- 
 tion.^ He refers especially to his earliest biographer, 
 John Lewis. We may add to him Mr. Milner, the 
 author of the " History of the Church." He accuses 
 
 ' Lechler's " Life," vol. ii., p. i. 
 
246 
 
 JOHN WICLIK. 
 
 Wiclif of having kept his opinions in conceahnent, 
 from fear of persecution, because he does not, as on 
 other occasions, call the Pope the proud priest of 
 Rome, or Antichrist, in the document presented to 
 the Papal commissioners. I need not repeat the vin- 
 dication of him from this charge. Mr. Milner does 
 not seem to have been aware of his development, or 
 of the dates of some of his works. The " Trialo- 
 gus," the " Sentence of the Curse Expounded," and 
 other works in which he made a fierce onslaught on 
 the Papacy, were written during the last two or three 
 years of his life; whereas Mr. Milner and others 
 have supposed them to be written previously to his 
 appearance at I.ambeth. The fact was, that the 
 Reformer did not express himself before 1378 as 
 we know that he expressed himself after 1381, and 
 that he had not, in the former year, arrived at that 
 stage of development in which he could show, by 
 his language, his great indignation against the 
 Papacy. 
 
 Dr. Shirley and others have, by fixing the dates 
 of his works, rendered a very great service to the 
 memory of Wiclif We are thus able, to some 
 extent, to trace his progress. We can watch him 
 J as he bursts one fetter after another, and at length 
 emerges from his dungeon into the land of life, and 
 light, and liberty. An examination of his " Trialogus," 
 the first of his works which was published, ought to 
 have enabled us to discover his gradual emancipation. 
 For he tells us that, on philosophical questions, "he 
 had defended opinions the very reverse of those 
 
wiclif's opinions. 
 
 247 
 
 which he afterwards maintained," and that " he was 
 sunk in the depths of the sea, and had stammered 
 out many things which he was unable to estabUsh."' 
 Dr. Lechler has shown us that he expresses himself 
 still more strongly in his unprinted writings.^ We 
 have no doubt that his emancipation from the 
 Papacy, by delivering him from control, gave him 
 that freedom of action which enabled him to dig 
 deep into the vast mine of Christian truth, and to 
 bring up one gem of sound doctrine after another, 
 which he exhibited to the world in all its beauty 
 and brilliancy. But we have no doubt that an 
 examination of the manuscripts of his works at 
 Vienna, not yet published, many of which are as old 
 as 1370, would enable us to discover the germ of 
 many of the opinions which he afterwards main- 
 tained on the great truths of Christianity, and on 
 the power and prerogatives of the Papacy. A com- 
 parison of these with the English works, which 
 belong, almost without exception, to the last four 
 years of his life, would enable us to see that he had 
 observed that law of slow, orderly, and healthy pro- 
 gress which is one of the best tests of the reality of 
 our Christianity. We should see that, just as the 
 light of day slowly increases in brightness from the 
 hour when a few streaks appear in the horizon, and 
 tinge with a ruddy glow the summit of the eastern 
 1 hills, to the time when the golden beams of day bathe, 
 ^ in a flood of glory, forest, and mountain, and river, so 
 
 ' "Trialogus," lib. i., c. 10, p. 69, and lib.- iii., c. 8, p. 155. 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. ii., p. 2. 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 the light of divine truth, which had dawned on the 
 darkness of his soul, shone more and more unto the 
 perfect day. We shall now, we trust, be able to 
 discover his gradual emancipation from his bondage 
 to error, which we can trace without difficulty in the 
 case of Luther, because he lived in the full blaze of 
 day. We should, indeed, have been surprised if we 
 had not been able to discover this progress. We 
 should naturally suppose that a man of gigantic 
 intellect, eager in the investigation of truth, anxious 
 to devote all his powers to the promotion of the 
 divine glory, would not occupy the same position as 
 a teacher at the end of his life as at the beginning of 
 his career. We should rather expect to see him 
 toiling painfully up the steep ascent, animated with 
 the firm determination to persevere till he had scaled 
 those peaks which he saw only indistinctly through 
 the mists which encompassed them at the commence- 
 ment of his progress. I shall, therefore, now explain 
 his principal theological opinions, tracing, as far as 
 possible, the formation and growth of some of 
 them. 
 
 The first subject which comes before us is the 
 controversy as to Transubstantiation. We have 
 already seen that Wiclif gave a proof of his sagacity 
 y by making this dogma the first object of his attack at 
 Oxford, because it forms the keystone to the whole 
 system of mediaeval corruption. Dr. Lechler has 
 shown from the " De Civili Dominio," which, he says, 
 could not have been written later than 1378, that in 
 that year he thought that the " priest makes the body 
 
wiclif's opinions. 249 
 
 of Christ."' Mr. Matthew, however, on the other 
 hand, in his admirable preface to his edition of the 
 Select English Works, has shown us that he uses 
 language, as far back _as 1367, in a sermon among the 
 manuscripts at Lambeth, which we may regard as the 
 beginning of his opposition to the dogma. He 
 writes : " It seems enough for the Christian to 
 believe that the body of Christ is, in some spiritual 
 and sacramental manner, at every point of the con- 
 secrated host ; and that, next after God, honour is to 
 be chiefly rendered to that body ; and, in the third 
 place, to that sensible Sacrament, as to an image or 
 tomb of Christ." - This language is, as Mr. Matthew 
 observes, not incompatible with a belief in the dogma, 
 but it shows "a disposition to dwell upon the spiritual 
 side in preference to the logical or dogmatic account 
 of the Sacrament." We can trace imperfectly subse- 
 quent stages of his advance. One of his views was, 
 that it is not in accordance with God's nature to 
 annihilate anything. But he saw that annihilation 
 was daily taking place in the Sacrament of the altar, 
 because the substance of the bread ceased to be at 
 consecration, and that it was heresy to deny the 
 change. He at first satisfied himself with the 
 explanation that the substance of the bread was not 
 annihilated, as its accidents — whiteness, roundness, 
 and length — remained. At length he saw that this 
 explanation was not satisfactory, and was thus led, 
 according to his adversary Wodeford, to deny Tran- 
 
 ' Lechler's " Life," vol. ii., p. 174. 
 ' Matthew, Preface, p. xxii. 
 
250 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 substantiation.^ He confesses, too, in a controversial 
 piece which belongs to the year 1381, that he had for 
 a long time suffered himself to be deceived by the 
 doctrine of " accident without substance." " 
 
 But though we can only trace very indistinctly 
 before, and especially after, 1378, the steps which 
 led to this change, we can have no doubt that in 
 and after the year 1381 he opposed the dogma 
 as strongly as Dr. Lechler says that he formerly sup- 
 ported it. He deals with the subject in every 
 possible way, addressing to the learned, and espe- 
 cially to the friars, in the " Trialogus," the arguments 
 which he had already given, in a popular form, in 
 nervous English, to the people in the " Wicket." 
 He gives, in the following passages in the " Tria- 
 I logus," his reasons for assigning this prominence to 
 i' his attacks on the dogma. " Of all the heresies," he 
 '/ writes, "which have ever sprung up in the Church, 
 there was never one which was more cunningly 
 brought in by hypocrites, or which cheats the 
 people in more ways than this ; for it robs the 
 people, it makes them commit idolatry, it denies 
 the faith of Scripture, and consequently, by unbelief, 
 provokes the Truth in many ways to anger." ^ And 
 again he sho\ys that this dogma is the keystone to the 
 whole fabric of imposture. " It is," he says, " as if 
 the Devil had been scheming to this effect, saying, 
 
 ' Matthew, Preface, pp. xxiii., xxiv. See also " Fascic. 
 Zizan.," pp. xxvii., Ivii. 
 
 ° Lechler's "Life," vol. ii., p. 174. 
 ' "Trial.," iv., 2, p. 248. 
 
wiclif's opinions. 
 
 ' If I can, by my vicar, Antichrist, so far seduce 
 believers as to lead them to deny that this Sacrament 
 is bread, and to believe in it as a contemptible 
 quality, I may, in the same manner, lead them to 
 believe afterwards whatever I may wish, since the 
 opposite is taught by Scripture and by the very 
 senses of mankind.' " ^ We see that one of his 
 reasons is the robbery practised on the people by 
 means of the masses. But his indignation was 
 chiefly excited by the idolatry w^hich springs from 
 it. The conviction that this is the case causes him 
 to represent throughout his " Wicket " the conse- 
 crated host as " the abomination of desolation " 
 spoken of by Daniel the prophet which should 
 afterwards stand in the holy place ; and which leads 
 him to exclaim, in a transport of holy zeal, " Where 
 find ye that ever Christ, or any of His disciples or 
 apostles, taught any man to worship it ? " ^ He also 
 endeavours to bring down the priests from the fancied 
 pre-eminence which this power confers upon them : 
 " And thou, then," he writes, " that art an earthly 
 man, by what reason mayest thou say that thou 
 raakest thy Maker ? by what reason, say ye, that be 
 sinners, that ye make God ? " ^ 
 
 The doctrine of the Schoolmen was,^that the Sacra- 
 ment was an accident without the substance ; or that 
 the whiteness or roundness might remain after the 
 bread had ceased to exist. He opposes this dogma 
 
 ' " Trial ogus," iv., S, 26S. 
 
 2 " Wicket," ed. Oxford, 182S, p. vi. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. vi. 
 
252 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 first of all with weapons drawn from the armoury of 
 Scripture. "Christ, who cannot lie, said that the 
 bread wliich He took into His hands was really His 
 body."^ Again, " St. Paul would have been guilty 
 of gross negligence towards the Church, the bride of 
 Christ, if, knowing that this Sacrament is not bread, 
 but an accident without a subject, he had so fre- 
 quently called it bread, and never by its true name, 
 when he knew prophetically that so many heresies on 
 this subject would arise in future times."- Again, in 
 a very hippy manner, he illustrates the subject by a 
 reference to the co-existence of the divine and human 
 natures in the person of Christ. In the profession 
 of faith concerning the Eucharist, already referred to, 
 written, as Mr. Arnold supposes, between June, 1382, 
 and his death in December, 1384, he writes : " Right 
 so, as the person of Christ is very God and man — 
 very Godhead and very manhood — right so, the same 
 Sacrament is very God's body and very bread. He 
 then produces seven witnesses, Ignatius, Cyprian, 
 Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, the Roman Church 
 itself in a Decretal under Nicholas II., and the 
 Canon of the Mass to show that the doctrine was 
 unknown in former ages,* adding, in another place, 
 that it was altogether unknown till " the time of the 
 loosing of Satan," i.e., from the year 1,000, thus 
 showing that he considered that the prediction of St. 
 
 ' " Trialogus," iv., 2, 250. 
 = Ibid., iv., 4, 257. 
 
 ' "Select English Works," vol. iii., p. 502. 
 * " Fascic. Zizan.," pp. 126-128. 
 
wiclif's opinions. 
 
 253 
 
 John, in Revelation xx. 7, had been at that time ful- 
 filled, and besides that this dogma was the cause of 
 the gross corruption which, since the year 1,000, had 
 pervaded the Church. 1 He employs the following 
 illustration to make his meaning intelligible : " Do 
 we believe that John the Baptist, when made, by the 
 word of Christ, to be Elias, ceased to be John, or 
 ceased to be anything that he was in substance 
 before ? In the same manner the bread, while 
 becoming, through the virtue of Christ's words, the 
 body of Christ, does not cease to be bread, for, when//'' 
 it has come to be sacravientally the body of Christ, it 
 is still bread substantially. He employs against 
 the Schoolmen the weapons of ridicule and sarcasm : 
 " Mice know that the substance of bread is retained. 
 But then unbelievers have not even such knowledge. 
 They never know what bread or what wine has been 
 consecrated except they see it consecrated."^ 
 
 We see, then, that Wiclif asserted that there are 
 true bread and wine, but, at the same time, the body 
 and blood of Christ, in the Sacrament. The question 
 then arises as to the mode of the presence. He 
 plainly rejects the idea that the bread is only in a 
 figure the body of Christ, for he writes : " Just as it 
 is admitted, on Scripture grounds, that this Sacrament 
 is the body of Christ, and not merely a sacramental 
 figure of His body, so it must be fully conceded, upon 
 the same authority, that the bread which is this 
 Sacrament, is, in very truth, the body of Christ." ^ 
 
 ' "Trialogus," iv., 2, 249. ' Ibid., iv., 4, 256. 
 
 ' Ibid., iv., 5, 260. * Ibid., iv., 4, 255. 
 
254 
 
 JOHN WICLIK. 
 
 But the body is not present in a corporeal manner, 
 " for we must not suppose that the body of Christ 
 descends out of heaven to that host which is con- 
 secrated anywhere in a church ; but it remains above 
 in heaven, fixed and immovable. Only in a spiritual 
 manner is it present in the host, and it has not 
 dimensions and other accidents which are only to be 
 found in heaven."^ " We see not that presence," as 
 Dr. Lechler writes, quoting from the " De Eucha- 
 ristia," "with the bodily eye, but with the spiritual 
 eye, i.e., with the eye of faith. Wiclif also tells us 
 that " only to worthy communicants is the Sacrament 
 a blessing."^ In a sermon among the Vienna Manu- 
 scripts, he says, " that those who are not elect do not 
 partake of Christ's body and blood; that they partake 
 of it as little as the man who has partaken of in- 
 digestible food' can be said to have really consumed 
 it."* Thus, then, we find that Wiclif is on this point 
 in exact accord with the Church of England ; for we 
 are told in the Church Catechism that " the inward 
 part or thing signified is the body and blood of Christ, 
 which are verily and indeed taken and received by 
 the faithful in the Lord's Supper" ; and in the twenty- 
 eighth Article, " The body of Christ is given, taken, 
 and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavenly and 
 spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the body 
 of Christ is received and eaten in the supper is Faith." 
 
 ' "Trialogus," iv., 8, 272. 
 
 ' Lechler's " Life," vol. ii., p. 190. 
 
 ' " De Veritate Sacrse Scripturae," c. 12. 
 
 * Lechler's "Life," vol. ii,, p. 206. 
 
wiclif's opinions. 
 
 255 
 
 And again in the twenty-ninth Article, "The wicked . 
 . . to their condemnation, do eat and drink the sign 
 or Sacrament of so great a thing." He holds also with 
 the Church of England in her twenty-sixth Article, 
 that the unworthiness of the ministers hinders not 
 the effect of the Sacrament, for he writes, " Anti- 
 christ's sophisters should know well that a cursed 
 man doeth fully the Sacraments, though it be to 
 his damnation." 1 The Lutheran Church, evidently 
 taking as its guide the decree of the Council of 
 Constance, incorrectly attributes to him the contrary 
 opinion. 
 
 We see, then, that Wiclif in this matter occupies a 
 more Scriptural position than Luther, for the latter held, 
 not only that the body of Christ is present throughout 
 the world, but that the worthy and the unworthy 
 alike partake" of it, — the first to their salvation, the 
 second to their condemnation. We cannot fail to be 
 impressed with a strong sense of admiration when we 
 see the conscientiousness with which he devoted 
 himself to the study, — when we find him, during the 
 last four years of his life, applying the whole force of 
 his mind to the solution of an important problem, 
 and persevering till he had obtained a firm hold upon 
 the truth. He set the example of appealing to Holy 
 Scripture as the one test of truth and the infallible 
 arbiter of controversies. He knew, indeed, that he 
 should have to contend almost single-handed with 
 the legions of his foes. When he was harassed by 
 
 ' "Select English Works," vol. iii., p. 227. 
 
256 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 that opposition, when he was suffering from " that 
 weariness of the flesh" which springs from excessive 
 study, he used those touching words : " I trust, in the 
 mercy of God, that, after this short and miserable 
 life, I shall be abundantly rewarded by the Lord for 
 this just controversy.^ He was full of melancholy 
 forebodings when he looked forward to the imme- 
 diate result of his labours. " I am certain," he said, 
 that " the publication of the truth in our streets may 
 for a time be a little prevented by the threats of Anti- 
 christ " ; but then he could add immediately, in the 
 full confidence of faith, casting a prophetic glance 
 towards future times, " I know that it can never be 
 destroyed, for the truth itself declares, ' Heaven and 
 earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass 
 away.' 
 
 With regard to the "Seven ' Sacraments, Wiclif 
 holds that the number is too large if tried by the 
 Scriptural standard. He had not, however, altogether 
 escaped from his bondage to the Romish system, for 
 he still speaks of the number " Seven " ; but he 
 places the Lord's Supper and Baptism in the 
 front rank, and hints that the others are no more 
 Sacraments than the ordinance of preaching.^ He 
 says that, " without doubt, infants who have rightly 
 received water baptism are partakers of baptismal 
 grace, and are baptised with the Holy Ghost." * He is 
 here generally in agreement with the twenty-seventh 
 Article and the answer in the Church Catechism relating 
 
 ' "Trialogus," iv., 6, 262. - Ibid., iv., 4, 258. 
 
 ' Ibid., iv., pp. 281-333. * ^^'''^-t 12, 286. 
 
WICLIk's OPINION'S. 
 
 to the same subject. It must be admitted, how- 
 ever, that his strong feeling against the bishops 
 of the day, and the frivolous vanities with which 
 Confirmation was loaded, led him to speak in 
 a disparaging tone of it, to assert that the 
 Holy Ghost is not given by all bishops in this 
 apostolical ordinance, and that its importance has 
 been much exaggerated to the depreciation of the 
 Sacraments of Baptism and the Supper of the Lord.^ 
 With regard to Penance and Absolution, he holds 
 the view of the Church of England, that the office of 
 the priest is declaratory, asserting that " priests are 
 vicars or messengers to witness to the people that 
 God assoileth for contrition," and that, "in shrift, 
 though we tell our sins to a priest, and he put us on 
 penance, we are assoiled never the rather, unless 
 God, who is the Priest of souls, see that we sorrow 
 with all our hearts for our sins, and that we be in full 
 purpose and will to leave them for ever after." 2 He 
 holds that " confession made to true priests, and 
 learned in God's law, does much good to sinful men, 
 so that contrition for sins before done, come there- 
 with, and good life, and keeping of God's law, and 
 works of mercy to poor men follow after." ^ His 
 opinion however, is, that if this " Sacrament is 
 needful to sinful men, it is not so needful as is con- 
 fession made to God, for that is ever needful, if God 
 
 ' "Sentence of Curse," c, vi., " S. E. W.," iii., 285; 
 "Trialogus," iv., 15, 294. 
 ' Lewis, p. 168. 
 
 ^ " Sentence of Curse," (Sic, " S. E. W.," iii., 284; 
 S 
 
JOHN WJCLIF, 
 
 shall pardon men.''^ And again, "We should 
 believe that the grace of God is so great and 
 plenteous, that if a man sin never so much nor so 
 long in his life, if he will ask of God mercy, and be 
 contrite for his sin, God will forgive him, without 
 such devices feigned of priests." - With regard to 
 matrimony he expresses the unnatural and unscrip- 
 tural opinion that marriages within the closest degrees 
 of relationship are condemned only by human maxims 
 and institutions.'^ These words must, however, have 
 been written in haste, as this is the only passage in 
 which the opinion is found. He condemns, in the 
 strongest terms the compulsory celibacy of the clergy, 
 asserting that it is unscriptural and morally pernicious. 
 He held that Ordination is a sacramental ordinance, 
 but doubts whether it impresses an indelible character,'' 
 praying that God would be pleased to confer on the 
 clergy some further grace ; and that extreme unction 
 has too weak a foundation in that passage of Scripture 
 (James v. 14) on which it is commonly rested." 
 
 The prayerful study of Holy Scripture led him 
 also to the discovery of other fundamental doctrines 
 of our most holy faith. He delights especially to 
 bring forward Christ as our Mediator, our Leader, 
 our Divine and Adorable Redeemer. This was the 
 distinguishing principle of his theology, and it con- 
 
 ' " On the Schism of theTopes," c. v., Arnold, " S. E. W.," 
 vol. iii., p. 256. 
 
 " Of Confession," M.itthew, " S. E. W.," p. 339. 
 ^ " Trialogus," iv., 20, 317. * Matthew, ".S. E. W.," p. 170. 
 ' " Trialogus," iv., 15, 296. ^ Ibid., iv., 9<5^ 334. 
 
 P 
 
wiclik's opinions. 
 
 259 
 
 nected him especially with the Reformers in the 
 sixteenth century. He calls Christ " The Prior of 
 our Order," or " The Common Abbot," " The 
 Highest Abbot of our Order." i This is the great truth 
 asserted in the eighteenth Article of our Church, 
 •' Of obtaining eternal salvation only by the name of 
 Christ." We are not, therefore, surprised to find him 
 declaring, " I do not believe that even the smallest 
 sin committed against the Lord can be blotted out 
 by any merit, unless it were done away in the 
 main or principally by the merit of this man (the 
 Redeemer)."- And, again, we find him saying in 
 the " De Veritate Sacrte Scripturae " and his 
 " Exposition of the Decalogue : " " We are justified 
 by His justice, and made righteous by a participation 
 in His righteousness." And, again, " How, I ask, 
 can any man deserve happiness by living and acting 
 according to the will of God, unless God of His great 
 mercy should accept the service ? " ' He seems here 
 in agreement Avith our eleventh Article, " We are 
 accounted righteous before God only for the merit of 
 our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by Faith, and 
 not for our own works or deservings." Again, his 
 doctrine is in exact accordance with that contained 
 in our thirteenth Article : " Works done before the 
 grace of Christ and the inspiration of the Spirit are 
 
 ' Lechler's "Life," vol. ii., p. 70. 
 - //>iW., ii., p. 87. 
 
 ' James's "Apology for Wiclif," c. v. 
 * " Trialogus," iii., 2, 132. 
 
 S 2 
 
26o 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of 
 faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet 
 to receive grace, or deserve grace of congruity," i.e. 
 they do not render it meet and equitable that God 
 should confer on us saving grace ; for he says, " It is 
 altogether a vain imagination that man can by his 
 moral behaviour induce God to give him the grace of 
 the Holy Spirit needful for conversion." ^ His views 
 on this subject agree with those of Bradwardine, from 
 whom he may have learnt them.^ We think, there- 
 fore, that Melancthon was altogether incorrect in his 
 assertion that Wiclif knew nothing of the doctrine of 
 justification by faith, and that he often stated that our 
 good works were the meritorious cause of our pardon 
 and acceptance. Equally unfounded is the charge of 
 Pelagianism which has been brought against him : 
 for he writes, " We are all sinners in our mother's 
 womb;"" "All men are originally sinners as Adam 
 and in Adam ; " the doctrine asserted in the ninth 
 Article of our Church. He agrees also with the tenth 
 Article that " man cannot turn and prepare himself 
 by his own natural strength and good works to faith 
 and calling on God " ; for he writes, " that we cannot 
 think a good thought unless Jesus the angel of great 
 counsel send it, or perform a good work, unless it be 
 properly His good work;"* "It is impossible that 
 
 ' " Trialogus," lit., 7, 153. - Page 27. 
 
 ' James's " Apology," c. v., quoted from ihe "Exposition 
 of the Decalogue " and " De Veritate." 
 
 * James's " Apology," c. vi. He quotes from the "Cot.- 
 mentary on the Psalms." 
 
WICUI-'S OPINIONS. 
 
 261 
 
 these four virtues, or any moral virtue, can be found 
 in man without the assistance of God's grace." ^ 
 
 We might naturally suppose that, when Wiclif 
 brings forward prominently the pre-eminent dignity 
 of our Divine Redeemer, he would be opposed to 
 the Invocation of saints, and to pilgrimages, the 
 veneration of relics, and other superstitious observ- 
 ances which follow in its train. We shall accordingly 
 find that he gradually cast off these superstitions, and 
 acknowledged the One Mediator through whom alone 
 we have access to the Fatiier. AVe can trace the 
 development of his views on this doctrine better than 
 on any other doctrine which has come before us. 
 AA'hereas in former years, he said, " there is no sex 
 or age, no rank or position, of any one in the whole 
 human race which has no need to call for the help of 
 the H oly Virgin," ^ in a later year, in a tract on the 
 Ave Maria, he says nothing about invoking the help 
 of the Virgin, but only speaks of the imitation of 
 her example,-' and recommends, in the last year of 
 his life, that the festivals of the saints should be 
 discontinued and only the festival of Christ observed. 
 He expresses also an opinion that a devotion or a 
 festival offered to any saint is only of value in so far 
 as it is fitted to heighten the feeling of pious devotion 
 towards the Saviour Himself, and that the consequence 
 of the multiplication of the festivals of the saints is 
 that the attention of the soul is withdrawn from the 
 
 ' "Trialogus," iii., 2, 132. 
 ■■^ Lechler, vol. ii., p. 114. 
 ^ "Select English Works," Matthew, p. 203. 
 
262 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 One Mediator.' Whereas, in the "De Doniinio Civili," 
 written not later than 1378, he maintains only the 
 possibility that the Church may deceive herself and 
 others in the canonisation of saints ; - in the " Tria- 
 logus," written in 1383, he puts into the mouths of 
 others the assertion that "the Curia is guilty of a 
 blasphemous presumption, when, without a special 
 revelation, it so plainly takes no account of the 
 holiness of the departed, about which it knows as 
 little as the priest John in Asia or as the Sultan." " 
 He seems to be emancipated from this error, when 
 he expresses an opinion that God and the Church 
 triumphant regard the worshipping of corporeal relics 
 with no approbation ; that the ornaments so foolishly 
 lavished on the graves of the saints should be divided 
 among the poor; and that it would be better for 
 Christian people to remain at home than to make 
 pilgrimages to the shrines of the saints. ' 
 
 Wiclif anticipated Luther in his opposition to Indul- 
 gences. He attacks them with the same vehemence 
 in one of his English tracts."' He proclaims aloud 
 that "prelates foully deceive Christian men by feigned 
 indulgences, and rob them cursedly of their money ; 
 and that they are a subtle merchandise of Antichrist's 
 clerks, to magnify their feigned power and to get 
 worldly goods, and to cause men not to dread sin,, 
 but to wallow therein like hogs." With regard to 
 the pretext that the payment was for the seal, lie 
 
 ' " Ti-ialogus," iii., 30, 235. " Lcchler, ii., p. 1 14. 
 
 " Trialogus," iii., 30, 237. ■* Lechler, pp. ii", 118. 
 
 "Of Prelates," MaUliew, pp. 80-82. 
 
■wiclif's opinions. 
 
 263 
 
 exclaims sarcastically, "Certes, a little dead lead 
 costs many thousand pounds a year to our poor 
 land !" and he adds, that the deception is the same 
 " as if they sold a fatted goose for little or nothing, 
 while the garlic costs many shillings." He scorned, 
 as a fiction, the doctrine of saints' merits laid up with 
 the Pope, condemned in our fourteenth Article, " Of 
 Works of Supererogation;" for he writes: ''This 
 feigned fancy of spiritual treasure in heaven, of which 
 each Pope is made dispenser at his own will, is a 
 lying word, dreamed without ground."^ He says in 
 another place, "As to the holy merits of saints, 
 that they did more than was needful for their own 
 bliss, Christ never taught this in all His Gospel, nor 
 Peter, nor Paul, nor any other Apostle."- With regard 
 to image-worship, he condemned the waste of money 
 in decorating " dead stocks";^ but thought that images 
 might be useful as the wedding-ring which the wife 
 keeps as a symbol of her love to her husband.^ 
 They might be used " to wake up the mind and 
 heart of a man to attend to heavenly things ; but, 
 wlien this effect has been produced, the sooner the 
 imagination of the man drops all attention to the 
 qualities of the image so much the better, for in the 
 continued dwelling of the imagination on these 
 
 ' " De Pontificum Romanorum Schismate," " Select English 
 Works," Arnold, vol. iii., p. 262. 
 "Of Prelates," Matthew, p. 81. 
 ^ "How Satan and his Children," &c., ibid., p. 210. 
 ^ Lewis, p. 175. 
 
264 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 qualities lies the venom of idolatry." ^ He, in some 
 sense, retained the doctrine of Purgatory. In a 
 treatise, " The Sentence of the Curse Expounded," 
 written only a year before his death, he allows that 
 " saying of mass, with cleanness of holy life and 
 burning devotion, is most pleasing to God Almighty, 
 and profitable to Christian souls in Purgatory."- 
 While, however, it thus appears that he does not 
 join Luther in his strong opposition to the sacrifice 
 of the Mass, and thinks that foundations may be of 
 some use to the departed, he affirms that the most 
 trifling good work, done by the man during his life- 
 time, was of far more use to him than the spending of 
 thousands of pounds after his death for the repose 
 of his soul. The sacrifice is not one of atonement, 
 but of thanksgiving.^ In a work written in the early 
 part of 1381, he divides the Church into three por- 
 tions : the militant in the world ; the Church of the 
 faithful dead who are waiting in purgatory for the 
 consummation of their happiness; and the Church 
 of the blessed saints in the heavenly mansions. With 
 regard to the souls in Purgatory, he writes, " Since 
 the souls to be saved are to be purified from many 
 earthly affections, it is evident that they now rest in 
 a place which God has chosen, before they attain the 
 blessedness of heaven. It seems probable to many 
 that they will not attain the completion of their happi- 
 ness till the day of judgment; but, since they are 
 
 ' "Liber Mandatorum," quoted by Lechler, vol. ii., p. 112. 
 
 " .Select English Works," Arnold, vol. iii., p. 2S8. 
 '■' Vienna MS., quoted by Lechler, ii., 118, 123, 1S4, 202. 
 
wiclif's opinions. 
 
 265 
 
 secure of their happiness, they are happier after death 
 than they were during their pilgrimage. We must 
 see that his doctrine on this subject is unsatisfactory. 
 With reference, however, to it, we may observe, in 
 the words of Dr. James, the first Librarian of the 
 Bodleian at Oxford, in his " Apology of Wiclif," 
 published in 1608, "it thrusts the Popish Purgatory 
 clean out of doors; for there is little rest and less 
 sleeping there if we believe them who have come 
 from thence : and by this reason, if the fire ot Pur- 
 gatory be clean put out, the smoke of it — that is, 
 prayers for the dead — must needs, in a very short 
 time, vanish away."- 
 
 We see, then, that Wiclif is opposed to all the 
 Romish doctrines condemned in the twenty-second 
 Article of the Church of England, with the single 
 exception of Purgatory, on which he sjoeaks with a 
 very hesitating utterance, ^^'e must glance at his 
 views respecting Episcopacy and the Church. With 
 regard to Episcopacy, it is evident that his opinions 
 were in a fluctuating state. Some have argued from 
 his assertion that two orders were sufficient in the 
 primitive church, — priests and deacons, — and that by 
 the institution of Christ priests and bishops were all 
 one, that he was decidedly opposed to Episcopacy.-' 
 But this is unquestionably a hasty conclusion ; for 
 we find that he writes in the " Polemical AVorks," " I 
 
 ' " Polemical Works," pp. 147, 148. 
 
 James's "Apology," c. viii., 24, 25. 
 ^ " Tiialogus," lib. iv., c. 15 ; '-On the Seven Deadly Sins," 
 c. 9; Avnokl, "S. E. W.," vol. iii., p. 131. 
 
266 
 
 JOHN wicl; 
 
 grant, however, that it is God's will that there should 
 be gradations among the clergy, because it is His 
 will that one priest should be superior, and bishop 
 over a number of others ; but it is not His will that 
 this should be a superiority of worldly grandeur or 
 riches, but that its superiority should consist in its 
 being a humble grade of ministerial service according 
 fo the law of Christ.'" His mind was evidently at 
 times thrown off its balance by the sight of the vice 
 and worldliness of many of the bishops around him, 
 and their total neglect of their sacred duties. With 
 regard to the Church, he held that only the 
 elect, those who are " predestinated to obtain divine 
 acceptance, and to become holy," form the true 
 body of Christ. But, though we find him asserting, 
 in his "Trialogus," his abstruse scholastic lucubra 
 tion, very rigorously, this grace of predestination 
 "which," he says, "can by no means fail," we discovei 
 scarcely any reference to it in his practical discourses. 
 He also speaks of Holy Church as a congregation of 
 just men for whom Jesus Christ shed His blood. "'- 
 Speaking of worldly bishops, he says: — "That they are, 
 indisputably, no members of the Holy Church, but 
 members of Satan, disciples of Antichrist."* But it is 
 evident that he wavered in his views on the subject ; 
 for he speaks of the " mixed Church, which compre- 
 hends men chosen to bliss, and hypocrites that should 
 
 ' " Polemical Works," p. loi. 
 
 '- "Great Sentence of Curse," &c., " S. E. W.," iii., 273. 
 ^ "Saints' Days Sermons at Vienna," in Lechler, ii., 104. 
 See also "Trialogus," iv., 32, 325. 
 
WICLIF's OPINION: 
 
 267 
 
 be damned.'" It is evident that, holding this view, 
 he must strongly condemn that very prevalent error 
 in his day, involving serious consequences, against 
 which Luther also entered his protest, that the clergy 
 constitute the Church. ^ In fact, he has often re- 
 minded us of a truth which many, in these days of 
 brighter light, have failed to discover, that the 
 "visible Church of Christ," "the congregation of 
 faithful men," referred to in our nineteenth Article, 
 which, we see, expresses Wiclif's opinion, consists of 
 clergy and laity, possessing the same privileges and 
 invested with the same responsibilities, who should 
 form a holy brotherhood, associated for the purpose 
 of causing the moral wilderness to rejoice and blossom 
 as the rose, of demolishing the strongholds of sin and 
 Satan, and of putting to flight "the armies of the 
 aliens." 
 
 We have now followed Wiclif through the suc- 
 cessive stages of his career. The last six years of 
 his life will be for ever memorable, because they 
 witnessed the gradual adoption of all the opinions 
 just described, which directly connect him with the 
 doctrinal reformation of the Church in the sixteenth 
 century. Even with our present materials the 
 main points of his teaching are, as we have seen, 
 perfectly intelligible. We cannot, however, settle 
 many details until more of his Latin works are 
 published. We see, then, that Luther was altogether 
 
 Lewis, p. 152. 
 
 - See especially his tract, " Eiglit Sources of Deception for 
 simple Christians." — Arnold, " S, E. W.,"iii., 447. 
 
268 
 
 JOHN WICLIK. 
 
 incorrect when he asserted that WicUf attacked, not 
 the doctrine, but the hfe of the Church ; and that 
 Dean Mihiian has not correctly stated that "\\'iclif did 
 not construct for the Church a system of doctrine.^ 
 Some have supposed that he borrowed his reHgious 
 principles from the Waldenses, who have retained 
 the truth in its purity in the valleys of Piedmont 
 from the days of primitive Christianity. But we 
 cannot discover in his writings any proof of the 
 truth of that assertion. We believe that he owed 
 them to the prayerful study of the Holy Scriptures, 
 and of the writings of the best of the early Fathers of 
 the Church, especially St. Augustine. 
 
 Enough has now been said to enable us to form a 
 just estimate of his position as a Reformer. We have 
 seen that he had not altogether disentangled himself 
 fron,i the superstitious doctrines of Romanism. The 
 wonder is, when wc consider the short time during 
 which he had been really engaged in the work, that 
 he should have made so much progress in the investi- 
 gation of truth. But surely all members of the Church 
 of England ought to venerate him, because he held 
 nearly all the doctrines embodied in those Articles 
 and forniularies of our Church Avhich are hallowed 
 by a thousand sacred associations. 
 
 ^^'e trust that he has been sufficiently vindicated 
 from the charge of propagating revolutionary prin- 
 <:iples, to which, we are sorry to say. Dean Hook has 
 
 ' "Latin Chiistianily," vol. viii., p. 202 ; " Wiclif's I'Lice 
 in History," by Professor Burrows, pp. 37, 38. 
 
wiclif's opinions. 
 
 269 
 
 to some extent, given his sanction. ^ We have fully 
 examined his views as to endowments, and have 
 shown that it is wrong to judge a man of the four- 
 teenth by the standard of the nineteenth century.- 
 The charge of coarse invective has also been brought 
 against him. But in this respect he was not nearly 
 so bad as liis opponents. We find that railing and 
 vituperation were prevailing characteristics of the 
 fourteenth century and of the times which followed 
 the Reformation. " Paradoxical as it may seem," 
 writes Mr. Matthew, in his admirable preface to 
 " Select English AVorks," " I venture to say that one 
 of Wiclif's most marked characteristics is his essential 
 moderation." ^ It is true, indeed, that he often ap- 
 plies abusive epithets to his opponents. But surely 
 there was enough in the conduct of such men as 
 Bishop Spencer, of Norwich, to excite his vehement 
 indignation. If, however, we look carefully into the 
 matter, we shall find that there is no fanaticism, no 
 wildness in his statements. We shall see that he 
 establishes his conclusions by a calm and logical 
 process of reasoning. We have seen that he not 
 only, as we must admit, assails the Papacy with un- 
 mitigated violence, but that he shows in a quiet 
 manner, by convincing arguments, that the Pope is 
 the Antichrist, the man of sin, who sits " as God in 
 the temple of God." * 
 
 ' Hook's " Lives of the Archbishops," vol. iii., p. 84, and 
 vol. iv., p. 344. Pages 73-76. 
 
 - Pages 123-129. 
 
 ^ " Select English Works," p. xl. 
 
 * Pages 182, 183. 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 Let us hear what he says of himself, and we shall 
 perceive that he was no rash speaker, that his heart was 
 in the right place, and that he endeavoured carefully 
 to consider every subject which came before him : 
 " Lest this controversy should be too barren, I have 
 set firmly before myself, as a threefold rule of life, 
 from Scripture, first, to keep myself clear from sin in 
 this matter, by taking diligent care in the matter of 
 the fault with which I am charged, that I too often 
 mingle an unfair zeal for punishment with whatever 
 good intention I have. . . . Hence I will strive more 
 carefully, wearying my God with prayers concerning 
 
 spiritual faults Secondly, though I am not 
 
 conscious of the fault openly charged against me, I 
 will patiently suffer insult. Thirdly, when I defend 
 myself from false accusations, I will pray for those 
 who falsely accuse me, lest any malice or zeal for 
 punishment should add a pain to those wounds which 
 I have already received." i 
 
 We see, then, the secret of Wiclif's success as a 
 Reformer in doctrine. He earnestly prayed that God 
 would give him the mastery over a temper which, if 
 uncontrolled, would cloud his judgment, and prevent 
 him from applying the whole force of his mind to 
 the investigation of truth. Surely a man who could 
 offer that prayer, who could exert that eftbrt to 
 conquer himself, who could thus elaborate such a 
 system of doctrine, does not deserve the charge 
 brought against him by Dean Hook, that " he was 
 
 ' " Fascic. Zizan.," xlv., quoted by Dr. Shirley from the 
 "De Veritate Sacrre Scripturre." 
 
wiclif's opinions. 
 
 utterly void of judgment." ^ Wiclif, in regard to 
 originality, occupied an undoubted pre-eminence '-^ 
 above the Reformers of the sixteenth centur)\ I 
 have just referred to the AValdenses, a foreign Church ; 
 but I may state also that he found no assistance in a 
 doctrinal Reformation from members of the Roman 
 Catholic Church, with the exception of Bradwardine. 
 The study of the works of that holy man, whose case 
 shows that the plant of Scriptural religion may grow 
 up even in the tainted atmosphere of Romanism, had 
 led him, as we have seen, to oppose the meritorious- 
 ness of good works, and to accept the doctrine of 
 Predestination.- Bernard of Clairvaux, Arnold of 
 Brescia, William of Ockham, Richard Fitz Ralph, 
 Archbishop of Armagh, had indeed lifted up their 
 voices either against the Mendicant brothers, or one 
 or more of the following abuses and corruptions : the 
 temporal power of the Popes, the simony, the usury, 
 the venality, the worldliness, the vices and crimes of 
 the Church and Court of Rome. But they did not 
 openly assail the doctrinal system of the Papacy. 
 Our own illustrious Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln 
 from 1235 to 1253, opposed all the evils connected 
 with the ecclesiastical system, as well as the Mendi- 
 cant brothers ; for, though at first he made use of 
 them to supply the scandalous deficiencies of the 
 parochial clergy, yet he afterwards opposed them as 
 strongly as he once supported them, calling them in 
 one of his works, as Wiclif informs us more than 
 
 ' "Lives of the Archbishops," vol. iii., p. 87. 
 - Page 27. 
 
JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 once, " a dead body, which has emerged from the 
 sepulchre, wrapped in funeral clothes, and driven by 
 the Devil among men." ^ 
 
 We cannot fail to admire Grosseteste when we see 
 him standing up boldly before the Pope at Lyons, 
 and charging the Court of Rome with having, by its 
 " provisions and collations, appointed to the pastoral 
 care not pastors, but destroyers of men," or when, in 
 his celebrated letter to Innocent IV., in which he 
 refuses to collate the Pope's nephew, Frederick de 
 Lavagna, to a Canonry in the Cathedral of Lincoln, 
 referring to the evil of non-residence, he writes : 
 " The non-administration of pastoral offices is, by the 
 testimony of Scripture, the slaying and destruction of 
 the sheep ; and those who introduce into the Church 
 of God such slayers of the divine image and handi- 
 work in the sheep of Christ are worse than the mur- 
 
 ' This was one of Wiclif 's favourite quotations. We do not 
 know from which of Grosseteste's works it is taken. We find it 
 in the "Polemical Tracts against the .Sects," p. 15, and in 
 Arnold, "Select English Works," vol. iii., p. 60. He wrote 
 an English tract on these words against the Friars, because by 
 their means his poor priests were imprisoned in 13S2. — Arnold, 
 " Select English Works," vol. iii., p. 230. He also makes 
 observations on these words with reference to them in the 
 "Trialogus," iv., 26, 336, and in " Supp. Trial.," 434. See 
 also note to " Polemical Tracts," p. 15. The idea is that their 
 souls are dead, that they have come forth from their sepulchre, 
 their cloisters, wrapped in the funeral robes of hypocrisy, and 
 that they are driven by the Devil among men to work mischief. 
 Dante has a similar idea ("Inferno," c. xx.xiii., 122-147). The 
 soul of the Friar Alberigo, possessed by the Devil, is below, 
 while the body is in the upper regions. 
 
wicuf's opinions. 
 
 273 
 
 derers themselves, and are nearer to Lucifer and 
 Antichrist." 1 But he merely denounced the indi- 
 vidual Pope. He had that intense reverence for the 
 Papal office which prevailed during the thirteenth 
 century. He did not impugn any of the doctrines of 
 Romanism. But still all right-minded men will hold 
 this illustrious Bishop in great veneration, because he 
 had the courage to brave the wrath of the most 
 powerful Pope who ever wore the tiara ; because he 
 was a man of high integrity, of approved faithfulness, 
 of energetic will, and of glowing zeal for God's glory ; 
 and because he was anxious to save not only his own 
 soul, but the souls of those committed to him by 
 virtue of his office as a Bishop, whom he saw perishing 
 in their iniquity. When we see that he showed his _ 
 great reverence for Scripture, which he describes as 
 " the star guiding the vessel of the Church to the 
 haven of salvation ; " - and when we reflect that he 
 nnds the highest wisdom to stand in this, — " to know 
 Jesus Christ and Him crucified,",^ — we may well 
 believe that the seeds of Protestantism were planted 
 in his breast, that he was a harbinger of the Reforma- 
 tion, a venerable witness for God's truth in the midst 
 of an evil generation. In all probability, if his life 
 had been prolonged, he might, like Wiclif, have 
 assailed the Papal office itself, and miglit have 
 repudiated the whole doctrinal system of the Papacy. 
 
 We see, then, that Wiclif did not derive from 
 Grosseteste his knowledge of the doctrines enume- 
 
 ' Canon Perry's " Life of Grosseteste," pp. 213, 268. 
 ' "Epistolre," 115, p. 336. = //;/</., 269, p. 85. 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 JOHN WICLIl- 
 
 rated in this chapter. This noble-minded bishop 
 had, however, laid, in the manner just described, a 
 deep foundation for his work. Wichf had evidently 
 a great veneration for him. He often quotes him, as 
 an authority, not only in matters of theology, but 
 also in scholastic philosophy, metaphysics, and 
 astronomy.^ He showed his admiration of his 
 saintly qualities by giving him, without canonisation 
 — which was often refused— the title of a saint, 
 conferred upon him by enthusiastic admirers among 
 his fellow-countrymen from the time of his death till 
 the sixteenth century.^ Wiclif showed in this manner 
 that he wished to catch the reflection of the bright- 
 ness of his character, and to shine with a pure and 
 holy radiance like its own. When we have before 
 us the " De Civili Dominio," among the Vienna 
 Manuscripts — which has never been printed — we 
 shall see that he especially calls him a saint in a 
 part of the work where he has given the Bishop's 
 letter refusing to collate Frederick de Lavagna to 
 the Canonry, with a commentary upon it, justifying 
 its contents, thus showing that, like the rest of his 
 fellow-countrymen through the ages, he admired 
 him chiefly on account of the heroism which he 
 displayed in braving the anger of a powerful Pope, 
 when he resisted his arbitrary mandate.^ Grosseteste's 
 example thus aided him in his work. He made success- 
 
 ' "Trialogus," pp. 68, 84, 97, 113, 125, 166, 265. 
 - Lechler, vol. i., p. 53. 
 
 ' Ihid., vol. i., p. III. He quotes from the Vienna Manu- 
 script. 
 
wiclif's opinions. 
 
 275 
 
 ful resistance less difficult hereafter. Wiclif, by quoting 
 and commenting on that letter, showed that he was 
 fired with the holy ambition of imitating that zeal for 
 which the Bishop was pre-eminently distinguished. 
 He undoubtedly, however, occupied a grander 
 position than Grosseteste, or any of his predecessors, 
 because he not only assailed every one of the abuses 
 and corruptions already mentioned, but also, with 
 the sacred Scriptures in his hands, pushed his 
 inquiries into every part of her doctrinal system, 
 and showed that she had corrupted and mutilated 
 "the faith once delivered unto the saints." 
 
 AViclif laboured under greater disadvantages than 
 Luther. He and his followers, as I have already 
 stated,^ had been aided in their work by the revival of 
 learning, by Tauler and his followers through the 
 preceding century, by Erasmus, by John Weissel and 
 others, all of whom had attacked the doctrinal system 
 of the Papacy, and even by Wiclif himself; for, as 
 we shall see in the next chapter, if Wiclif had not 
 preceded him, he would not have accomplished so 
 quickly that doctrinal reformation for which he has 
 a lasting claim on our gratitude. 
 
 Wiclif was in this respect superior to Luther, that 
 the latter seems to have been, during the last part of 
 his life, retrogressive in doctrine, whereas Wiclif was 
 constantly advancing, and, if his Reformation work 
 had extended over as long a period as that of 
 Luther, would, it may fairly be thought, have 
 ceased to hold every one of the dogmas of 
 ' Pages 198, 199. 
 T 2 
 
276 
 
 JOHN WICUF. 
 
 Romanism. Wiclif may not have brought forward 
 so prominently as Luther the great doctrine of a 
 sinner's justification by faith in the righteousness of 
 Christ, — which we think that there can be no doubt 
 that he made the foundation of his hopes of salva- 
 tion, — but, on the other hand, Luther held the 
 doctrine of Consubstantiation — differing little from 
 Transubstantiation^ — the key, in Wiclif's opinion, of 
 the Roman position, which he assailed with all the 
 fiery energy of his nature. Wiclif also showed that 
 he was before his age by assailing the corruption of 
 the Roman Court, Indulgences, pilgrimages, and 
 prayers to saints, which the Reformers in the 
 sixteenth century made the first objects of their 
 attack. If, while surpassing all in his own and in 
 the following century in the vehemence and the wide 
 range of his attack as a controversialist, he was not 
 equal to Luther in the burning indignation which he 
 expressed on account of the pollution of the sanc- 
 tuary, it was because he had not witnessed the abortive 
 attempts of the Councils to heal the sores of the 
 ecclesiastical body, or witnessed the enormous vices 
 and crimes which have consigned to eternal infamy 
 many of the Popes of the fifteenth century. 
 
 We thus see the relative position which these two 
 distinguished men occupied as Reformers. They 
 were both raised up for the regeneration of the Church. 
 Hereafter those words will be true in regard to them, 
 — " He that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice 
 together." We may admit that we cannot defend 
 Wiclif's opinions on every point, and must make 
 
wicltf's opinions. 
 
 277 
 
 allowance for the exasperation produced by the in- 
 iquity which he saw on all sides of him. Again we say 
 that we must remember that he lived in the four- 
 teenth, and not in the nineteenth century, when the 
 Church is fully awake to its duties and responsi- 
 bilities, and when every effort is exerted for the re- 
 generation of society. Herculean strength was 
 required to loosen the stones of that fabric of cor- 
 ruption and superstition, which at the time seemed 
 built on a foundation firmer than that of the heavens 
 and the earth. We owe a debt of gratitude to Wiclif 
 because his mighty energies were employed for the 
 accomplishment of that object, and because he thus 
 prepared the way for that noble army of Reformers 
 who shook to its foundation the usurped dominion of 
 Romanism. 
 
 The Church of Rome, at the time of the Council 
 of Constance, was fully aware that AViclif had inflicted 
 a great injury upon it. His treatises had been, as 
 we shall see, carried to Bohemia, and were eagerly 
 read by all classes of the community. If he had 
 been alive, the statute " de Haeretico Comburendo " 
 would have enabled her at once to inflict summary 
 vengeance upon him. As he was now beyond her 
 grasp, she determined to wreak her impotent fury 
 upon his bones. Accordingly, in 141 5 a decree was 
 passed, branding a long list of his opinions with the 
 mark of heresy, and directing that "his body and bones, 
 if they might be discerned and known from the bodies 
 of other faithful people, should be taken from the 
 ground and thrown away from the burial of the 
 
278 
 
 JOHN WICLIK. 
 
 Church, according to the canon laws and decrees." 
 This decree was not executed till 1428, forty -four 
 years after his death. As we stand in Lutterworth 
 Church, we wander back in imagination to that dis- 
 tant age. Around that grave, in the chancel, m'c 
 see Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop 
 Fleming, of Lincoln, once a devoted follower of 
 AViclif, and other dignitaries and clergy, anxious to 
 display their enmity to one who had denounced the 
 corruptions of their Church, and had warned the 
 nations to escape from their spiritual bondage. Tlie 
 Church is crowded with the officials and the towns- 
 people, who are attracted by the novelty of the 
 spectacle. The sound of the pick-axe falls on the 
 ear. Slowly rising through the opening thus made 
 is seen the coffin of the great heretic. Placed on the 
 shoulders of men, it is carried through that door in the 
 chancel still standing, down that winding road to the 
 river Swift, which glides along tranquilly at the foot of 
 the hill. A fire is kindled on the bridge ; the bones of 
 Wiclif are taken out of the coffin, and are flung into 
 it. They were thus slowly reduced to ashes, which 
 were afterwards cast into the river. Many in that 
 crowd would doubtless behold with tears the in- 
 dignities there offered to the remains of one to whom 
 they had listened spell-bound as he spoke to them 
 of the love of the Saviour, or warned them to pre- 
 pare for death, judgment, and eternity; of one who 
 had often visited them in their homes, and spoken to 
 them in the time of sickness and sorrow, pouring the 
 oil and wine of heavenly consolation into the wounded 
 
wiclif's opinions. 279 
 
 spirit. But they would have been sustained and 
 comforted if they could have looked forward, 
 and realised the idea which the scattering of 
 those ashes on the river suggested to old Fuller : 
 "The brook did convey his ashes into Avon; Avon 
 into Severn ; Severn into the narrow seas ; they into 
 the main ocean; and thus the ashes of Wiclif are the 
 emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all 
 the world over.'" The doctrines of Wiclif did not 
 perish like those ashes. They became, as we shall 
 see, a living and abiding influence in the hearts and 
 lives of many thousands of his fellow-countrymen. 
 
 ' " Church History," p. 171. 
 
28o 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 wiclif's influence on the reformation. 
 
 The number of Wiclif's followers. — His influence is proved to 
 have been permanent (l) From the continued circulation of 
 his Bible ; {2) From the persecutions in the first half of the 
 fifteenth century; (3) From Pecock's "Repressor," a 
 description of which is given ; (4) From the continued 
 reading of his books at Oxford ; (5) From the statement of 
 Leland in his work " De Scriptoribus Britannicis," 
 corroborated by the circulation of his sermons ; (6) From 
 extracts given by Foxe in his " Acts and Monuments" from 
 episcopal registers as to persecutions in the early part of 
 the sixteenth century. — Wiclif's books in Bohemia. — 
 Description of John Huss as a Reformer. — The connexion 
 between their teaching and the Reformation in Germany. — 
 Gradual education of the people of England for the 
 Reformation. 
 
 We can have no doubt that Wichf's opinions, or 
 many of them, had been fixed as articles of behef 
 in the minds of large multitudes in his native land. 
 Under the name of Lollards, the origin of which 
 seems uncertain, they were scattered all over the 
 country. Knighton affirms that " by the labours of 
 Wiclif's poor priests his principles were disseminated, 
 like suckers from the roots of a tree, so that two 
 out of three people were his followers." The plant 
 flourished and expanded amid the sickly and tainted 
 atmosphere of a Court. The pious Anne of Bohemia, 
 
INFLUENCE ON THE REFORMATION. 28 1 
 
 the wife of Richard II., not only studied the Scrip- 
 tures, but protected the followers of Wiclif Many of 
 the leading nobility, too, cast in their lot with them. 
 
 The assertion has, however, been made that his 
 popularity rapidly declined after his death, and that 
 he exercised no influence on the course of events in 
 succeeding generations. From one point of view, it 
 would indeed seem as if his influence had not been 
 great during his lifetime, and that after his death it 
 quickly vanished away. We cannot understand the 
 statement of the contemporary writer just referred to, 
 that Wiclif had a large number of followers, unless 
 we understand by Lollard one who opposed the 
 extortions of the Papacy. The numbers would be 
 found to be small, if we understand those who took * 
 the Word of God for their guide, and were anxious 
 for a reformation in doctrine. The Act "de Hgeretico 
 Comburendo," passed in 1400, with the full authority 
 of Parliament, shows that the English shrank from 
 doctrinal innovation. We know, too, that many of 
 the Lollards had degenerated from the principles of 
 the great Reformer, and that with them were asso- 
 ciated men, calling themselves also Lollards, holding 
 wild, revolutionary opinions, which Wiclif would have 
 utterly repudiated. We may admit that this state- 
 ment is, to a certain extent, correct, and that no 
 great party perpetuated the name of the Reformer. 
 This admission, however, goes a very small way 
 towards proving that his influence had perished with 
 him. AVe should indeed be surprised if a movement 
 once so widespread as Lollardy, had left no per- 
 
282 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 manent results in the minds of the large body of the 
 people. Thus it would constitute an exception to the 
 movements which have occupied a prominent place in 
 the history of the world. We believe, on the contrary, 
 that Wiclif and his followers sowed the seed which, 
 at the time of the Reformation, yielded an abundant 
 harvest ; that his principles had been disseminated 
 through Bohemia ; that they were thus transmitted to 
 Germany; and that they thus prepared the way for 
 that great religious revolution which Luther was 
 enabled to accomplish. We shall now endeavour to 
 prove and illustrate the truth of this assertion. 
 
 Now, we hesitate not to affirm that, chiefly through 
 the translation of the Bible, Wiclif prepared the way 
 for the Reformation in England. It proved a blessing, 
 not only to his own, but to all succeeding generations. 
 We may form some idea of the eagerness with which 
 it was cherished, when, as we have said, nearly 150 
 manuscripts, most of them written within forty years 
 of its publication, were discovered at the time of the 
 preparation of the Oxford edition in 1850, and remem- 
 ber the search instituted for Wiclif's writings, the 
 burning of them when they were discovered, as well 
 as the great destruction of ancient manuscripts. The 
 progress of divine truth, howevei', encountered serious 
 hindrances. These were chiefly the extravagances of 
 many of the Lollardites, and the civil wars which 
 desolated the country in the fifteenth century. Every 
 one, too, who possessed a copy of the Bible, or, in- 
 deed, of any of Wiclif's writings, might be consigned 
 to the dungeon, or cast into the midst of the burning 
 
INFLUENCE ON THE REFORMATION. 2S3 
 
 fiery furnace. But, to use the words of Messrs. 
 Forshall and Madden, " Notwithstanding these 
 obstructions, the truth maintained its own course. 
 The versions of Wiclif and his followers continued 
 to be read and circulated. They contributed largely 
 to the religious knowledge which prevailed at the 
 commencement of the Reformation ; and at that 
 time they supplied an example and model to those 
 excellent men, who, in like manner, at the hazard of 
 their lives, devoted themselves to the translation of 
 Scripture, and its publication among the people of 
 the land." ^ Thus, like the fabled river of old, the 
 stream rolled on, as it were, in a subterraneous 
 course, until at length, it burst forth into the full 
 light of day, and poured its fertilising tide over a 
 parched and barren soil, so as to clothe it with rich 
 vegetation. " Then was the sacred Bible sought out 
 from dusty corners ; the schools were opened ; divine 
 and human learning raked out of the embers of for- 
 gotten tongues; princes and cities trooped apace to 
 the newly-erected banner of salvation; martyrs, with 
 the unresistible might of weakness, shook the powers 
 of darkness, and scorned the fiery rage of the Old 
 Red Dragon." - 
 
 We have other distinct evidence that some time 
 after the death of Wiclif his teaching had not been 
 forgotten, and that men, animated by his spirit, were 
 labouring for the spiritual regeneration of their native 
 country. We see, occasionally, the funeral pyres 
 
 ' W'iclifite Versions, preface, p. xxxiv. 
 Milton on Reformation in England. 
 
284 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 blazing up amid the surrounding darkness. Thus, in 
 1427, William White, who had travelled about the 
 country, disseminating the Gospeller's creed, chiefly 
 in eastern England, was burnt at Norwich because he 
 held that men should " seek for forgiveness from God 
 only, that we ought not to worship images, nor idola- 
 trous paintings, nor holy men that are dead." * He was 
 not the only victim that year. We have other evi- 
 dence in the " Repressor," the work of Reginald 
 Pecock, first, Bishop of St. Asaph, and afterwards, 
 Bishop of Chichester, which was written about the 
 year 1449. This work, which had been buried in 
 manuscript, was published in i860 by order of the 
 Master of the Rolls, under the editorship of Mr 
 Churchill Babington. The design of it was to repress 
 excessive blaming of the clergy, and to defend them 
 from the charges brought against them by the 
 Lollards. The great historical value of this book 
 consists in the fact that it preserves to us the best 
 arguments of the Lollards against existing practices, 
 and that it enables us to prove that the influence of 
 Wiclif's teaching had not ceased in the middle of the 
 fifteenth century. We may fully rely upon it as a 
 just exposition of their teaching, because it is evident 
 from various passages that Pecock had mixed much 
 with them, and had ascertained their opinions. We 
 learn from it that the Holy Scriptures must have been 
 largely circulated among them. Pecock informs us 
 
 ' Foxe's "Acts and Monuments," vol. i., p. 752. See also 
 preface to "Loci e Libro Veritatum," Gascoigne ; edited by 
 J. E, T. Rogers, p. Ixxii. 
 
INFLUENXE ON THE REFORMATION. 285 
 
 that they held that any Christian man or woman, 
 meek, and willing to understand the Scriptures, can, 
 without fail, discover the meaning of any passage 
 which he or she may discover, even in the Apo- 
 calypse ; ^ that when any man has thus gained a know- 
 ledge of the meaning of Scripture, he should listen 
 to no argument to the contrary which clerks might 
 bring against it from reason or Scripture;- and that 
 every ecclesiastical usage should rest on Scriptural 
 grounds.-' In arguing against this last opinion he may 
 be considered as the forerunner of Hooker. As Mr. 
 Babington observes : " It is not too much to say, with 
 the lamented Hallam, that this portion of Pecock's 
 work contains passages well worthy of Hooker, both 
 for weight of matter and dignity of style." * At the 
 same time, we observe that in arguing against the 
 Lollards Pecock expresses the erroneous opinion that, 
 if any conflict should arise between Scripture and 
 reason in matters relating to the moral virtues, Scrip- 
 ture must be brought into accordance with reason.'' 
 We learn also from the " Repressor," that the 
 Lollards objected on Scriptural grounds to the law- 
 fulness of images and pilgrimages;" to ecclesiastical 
 laws made by Papal or ecclesiastical authority ;7 to 
 the Invocation of saints, and to prayers offered by the 
 
 ' " Repressor," vol. i., p. 6. 
 
 " Ibid., vol. i., p. 7. 
 
 ^ //)/(/., vol. i., p. 5. 
 
 * Ihid., preface, p. xxix. 
 
 » Ibid., vol. i., pp. 25, 45, &c. 
 
 « Ibid., vol. i., pp. 136-255. 
 
 " Ibid., vol. ii., p. 452. 
 
286 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 priests for particular persons;^ to human traditions;- 
 to the government of the Church by archbishops, 
 bishops, and the Pope, holding that there were only 
 two orders, priests and deacons f and that some of 
 them opposed the Sacraments of the Church, and 
 especially the Sacrament of the altar.* 
 
 "We gather from Pecock's work," to use the 
 words of the editor, "a fact which is exceedingly 
 important to be borne in mind, that what may be 
 called the discontented portion of the Church of the 
 fifteenth century in England embraced persons of 
 very various views. The more moderate portion of 
 that party may fairly be considered as the precursors 
 of the Refonned Church of the age of Elizabeth, 
 while the more extreme portion (to whom the name of 
 Lollards is perhaps now more usually limited) were 
 developed into the Puritanical party of the same 
 period." ^ 
 
 We trace, in fact, in this work, the origin and 
 development of that same Puritanism, opposed both 
 by Pecock and Hooker, which many suppose to have 
 been due to the great religious movement in the 
 sixteenth century.^ Both parties despised human 
 learning, scorned ecclesiastical authority, and asserted 
 that Scripture is our guide even in matters of eccle- 
 siastical usage. We can have no doubt that this 
 
 ' "Repressor," vol. ii., p. 561. - Ihid., p. 463. 
 
 3 Ihid., vol. ii., pp. 416-4.22. * Ilnd., vol. ii., p. 563. 
 
 '•" Page XXV. 
 
 '' Gairdner and Spedding's " Studies in English History," 
 p. 5t. 
 
INFLUENCE ON THE REFORM ATIOX. 
 
 2S7 
 
 "Repressor" is a most important link in that chain of 
 evidence by which we establish the continuance of 
 Wiclif's work during the fifteenth century, and 
 connect it with the great rupture with Rome in the 
 reign of Henry VIII. 
 
 We find that, notwithstanding Archbishop 
 Courtenay's efforts to extirpate Wiclifism at Oxford, 
 described in a former chapter, it was still in exist- 
 ence in that University during the fifteenth century. 
 " Not many years after the foundation of New 
 College," writes Professor Montagu Burrows,^ " the 
 new doctrines found their way into it, and we find 
 the courtiers reproaching the venerable founder with 
 having raised up a ' seminary of heresy.' In the 
 reign of Henry VI. we find the same Bishop 
 (Fleming) who, at the command of the Pope, ex- 
 humed and burnt the body of Wiclif, and scattered 
 the ashes into the little river Swift, founding Lincoln 
 College for the express purpose of counteracting the 
 doctrines which were not so easily mingled with the 
 elements. The violence of the feeling against the 
 Reformer's memory in the middle of the century 
 entertained by one of the few men able at that time 
 to measure his influence, Gascoigne, the Chancellor 
 of Oxford, betrays its importance: "Ideo vocatur 
 ■\Vyclyffe, nequam vita, memorias ter dam.pnatse" (with 
 allusion to the three condemnations in London, 
 Oxford, and Constance)." ~ 
 
 ' " Wiclif's Place in History," p. 124. 
 
 - "Loci e Libro Veritatum," Gascoigne; edited by J. E. T. 
 Rogers, M.P., p. 141. This book consists of passages selected 
 
288 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 We have many other proofs that the coercion 
 exercised did not extirpate heresy at Oxford. Wood, 
 writing in 141 1, says, — " The more the doctrines and 
 disciples of Wiclif were trodden on, the more they 
 did increase, not only to the scandal, as by the 
 generality it was accounted, but also to the distinction 
 of the University." ^ " Peter Payne, alias Clerk, 
 alias Freyne, alias Inglis, was so eager in Wiclif's 
 cause, that he stole the seal which he set to an alleged 
 letter from the University, and induced the Bohemians 
 in 1406 to believe that all Oxford was of Wiclif's 
 way of thinking."- "In 1410," writes Mr. Thorold 
 Rogers in the preface to the work, " Loci e Li- 
 bro Veritatum," "the authorities condemned Wiclif, 
 and burnt his books at Carfax. But in 1452, as I 
 have noted in the sheets of my forthcoming volume 
 on Prices, a book of Wiclif, and other books bearing 
 on the controversy which he raised, were bought in 
 Oxford at a cost of 53s." ^ 
 
 In the year 1476, as Wood informs us,* Edward IV., 
 understanding that certain scholars were corrupted 
 with the heresies and doctrines of John Wiclif and 
 Reynold Pecock, sent a letter to the University 
 commanding the members to make a search after the 
 
 from Gascoigne's " Theological Dictionary," illustrating the con- 
 dition of Church and State, 1403-1458. The manuscript 
 belongs to Lincoln College, Oxford. 
 ' Wood's "History," vol. i., p. 547. 
 
 ' Wood's "History"; Wratislaw's "John Huss," p. 93; 
 and " Loci e Libro Veritatum," p. 187. 
 ' Ibid., p. Ixxxvi. 
 * Wood's "History," v. i., p. 630, 
 
INFLUENCE ON THE REFORMATION. 289 
 
 books which were in the colleges, and to punish their 
 followers. Soon afterwards this letter was read 
 publicly in an assembly of Regents and non-Regents, 
 and an answer was returned to the following effect. 
 They informed the king that by the direction of the 
 Chancellor they had made diligent search for all 
 the books and tracts of John Wiclif and Reynold 
 Pecock, which were discovered, as it were, deserted 
 and unknown, lying concealed in certain places ; and 
 that, in order that simple men, who are always prone 
 to evil might not be deceived and brought to ruin, 
 they had collected them, and that, following the very 
 wise advice which he had given them, they had 
 unanimously resolved that they should be committed 
 to the flames. They add that this resolution had 
 been carried into effect in the presence of all of them 
 in a public place, and that, if any works of either of 
 them should hereafter be discovered, they should 
 share the same fate. Wood further informs us that 
 those who were found to uphold their doctrines were 
 ejected, or excommunicated, or otherwise punished. 
 " One among them," he adds, was " T. Smyth, who, 
 being notably suspected of heresy, was at length 
 purged of it before the king." 
 
 We think that we may say that the effects of 
 Wiclif's work were manifest at the close of the 
 fifteenth century, and that the same ardent love of 
 Scriptural knowledge which had been nourished, as 
 we have seen, by his writings, during that period, was 
 still at that time in existence at Oxford. John Colet, 
 the son of Sir Henry Colet, a wealthy London 
 U 
 
290 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 merchant, who had been twice Lord Mayor of 
 London, had willingly sacrificed the wealth which he 
 might have accumulated if he had followed his 
 father's occupation, as well as the prospect of dis- 
 tinction in the service of the State, which, through 
 his father's influence, presented itself to him ; he had 
 forsaken those temples in the great metropolis where 
 pleasure erected her throne, and assembled constantly 
 crowds of her worshippers, that he might devote him- 
 self at Oxford to the study of the Scriptures and to 
 the propagation of the results of that study among 
 all who came within reach of his influence. 
 
 In the year 1496 he began to deliver at Oxford a 
 course of lectures on the Epistles of St. Paul. He 
 had just returned from Italy, to which country he 
 had gone that he might acquire the new learning. 
 When he was in Italy he no longer devoted himself 
 to the works of Plato, but, as his friend Erasmus 
 informs us, "to the study of the Holy Scriptures."^ 
 In his lectures at Oxford he entered his decided 
 protest against the system of the Schoolmen. They 
 fixed attention on single verses, to which they attached 
 different senses, and employed them to carry on un- 
 profitable discussions. Colet, on the other hand, 
 looked on Scripture as a whole, and not as a carefully 
 prepared collection of texts. He endeavoured to 
 ascertain the drift of the apostle's argument. In 
 this respect he exactly followed the rule for the in- 
 terpretation of Scripture given, as we have seen, by 
 
 •'Eras. Opera," torn, iii., p. 456, B., edit. Lugd. 
 
INFLUENCE ON THE REFORMATION. 291 
 
 ■Wiclif. He compared St. Paul's statements of divine 
 truth with those of St. John, in order that he might 
 show the harmony existing between them ; he proved 
 that the Epistles were a series of letters addressed to 
 living men, and " designed to be profitable for cor- 
 rection and instruction in righteousness." 
 
 These expositions of divine truth produced a won- 
 derful impression at Oxford. Multitudes flocked to 
 hear him. As Erasmus says,^ " He had not taken 
 any degree in theology (the qualification required by 
 the statutes for lecturing on the Bible), yet there was 
 no doctor of the law or divinity, no abbot or dig- 
 nitary, who did not come to hear him." As we are 
 informed that they " came again and again, and 
 brought even their note-books," we may reasonably 
 conclude that they came because they were convinced 
 that he was bringing before them the fundamental 
 truths of Christianity. Now we may affirm that this 
 extraordinary interest proves that the spirit excited 
 by Wiclif had been perpetuated at Oxford ; and that 
 all classes came in large numbers to the lectures 
 because they had been prepared by his teaching, con- 
 veyed to them through the Scriptures, and through 
 his books, to slake their thirst for divine knowledge 
 in the fountain of living waters. 
 
 We have proof also that the interest in Wiclif's 
 books was not confined to Oxford, but that it was 
 manifested in this and the following century in all 
 parts of the country. Leland, in an article " Wico- 
 
 ' " Eras. Opera," torn, iii., p. 456, C. 
 U 2 
 
292 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 clivus," in his work on the authors of Great Britain, 
 written about 150 years after the death of Wiclif, 
 thus writes of him :^ — " No one can be ignorant that 
 the Roman Pontiffs have fulminated their anathemas 
 against all his lucubrations. Still there were those 
 who with the greatest boldness retained his books, 
 and took care to have many copies of them made. 
 Thus it has come to pass that they are even now read 
 not only in Britain but also in Germany. I myself 
 happen to have seen a few of the large number which 
 he wrote. I have seen three books, ' De Rebus 
 Sophisticis,' a little work ' De Mandatis,' others, ' De 
 Legibus,' ' De Paupertate Christi,' and ' De Coena 
 Domini,' speaking of which work some maintained 
 that he had fallen into the error of a certain Ambro- 
 sius Aubertus. I remember also that I have met 
 with his ' Trialogus,' and his book ' De Realibus 
 Universalibus,' of which last work ^neas Silvius 
 makes mention in the thirty-fifth chapter of his ' His- 
 tory of Bohemia.' He is said besides to have written 
 many other works both in Latin and English, which 
 even in our time are religiously preserved and read 
 by some, especially those written in English for the 
 instruction of the people." Among the works which 
 are here described as being read in Leland's time, 
 may be especially mentioned his sermons. Mr. 
 Arnold states that they do not mention him as the 
 author, but that they have come down to us accom- 
 panied with the constant tradition of his authorship ; 
 and he shows from internal evidence that they have 
 ' " De Scriptoribus Britannicis," Oxonii, ijcg, p. 380, 
 
INFLUENCE ON THE REFORMATION. 293 
 
 been justly ascribed to him.^ The great number of 
 copies attests their great popularity in the time before 
 the invention of printing, and quite corroborates Le- 
 land's statement. The large circulation of these works, 
 expressed in manly, nervous English, contributed, 
 no doubt, greatly to the formation of our language, 
 one of the great benefits which, as we have seen, he 
 conferred on his native country. Through those 
 works he, being dead, spoke to many generations of 
 his fellow-countrymen. He contributed largely to 
 shape their spiritual destinies. He developed the 
 life of the soul, and inoculated their minds with a 
 knowledge of those great truths which are the delight 
 of angels and the triumph of the spirits of the just. 
 By the burning words in them he nerved the arms of 
 many warriors of the Cross, and animated them to do 
 valiantly in the service of their great spiritual Leader. 
 While they were reading those works, that venerable 
 form would seem, too, to be present with them in 
 the chamber of sickness and sorrow, soothing mental 
 and bodily anguish, directing their thoughts to the 
 Great Sufferer, and sustaining them with a hope full 
 of immortality. To their continued use in connexion 
 with the gradual preparation for the Reformation, 
 reference will be made at the end of this chaptef. 
 Thus many will rise up hereafter and call him 
 blessed to whose spiritual well-being he was not 
 aware that he had been instrumental. They will 
 acknowledge him as their spiritual father, and greet 
 him with feelings the intensity of which can find no 
 ' " Select English Works," vol. i., pp. xiv., xv. 
 
294 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 parallel here below. "They shall be his joy and 
 crown of rejoicing in the presence of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ at his coming." 
 
 We have distinct evidence in Foxe's "Acts and 
 Monuments," from the persecutions which were carried 
 on in the dioceses of London and Lincoln, that the 
 influence of Wiclif had been perpetuated through 
 the fifteenth century. He gives instances of perse- 
 cution, with the causes, carefully extracted from the 
 episcopal registers of London and Lincoln in the 
 years 1509-1511, 1518, and 1520, 1521. We are 
 informed that the fury of the persecutor was directed 
 against the inhabitants of Buckinghamshire, Amersham, 
 Uxbridge, Henley, Newbury, Colchester (in Essex), 
 Suffolk, and Norfolk.^ He adds : — " And this was 
 before the name of Luther was heard of in these 
 countries among the people." The offences with 
 which they were charged were the reading of the 
 sacred Scriptures, opposition to pilgrimages and 
 adoration of saints, and the denial of the carnal 
 presence of Christ's body and blood in the Sacra- 
 ment. Instances given by Foxe directly connect some 
 of the sufferers with the teaching of Wiclif One of 
 the witnesses against Thomas Man gives evidence, 
 extracted from the register of Fitz-James, Bishop of 
 London, in the year 15 18, which enables us to dis- 
 cover the prevalence of Wiclifs opinions on Transub- 
 stantiation in the fifteenth century.- His evidence 
 was that in many places and counties, especially as 
 Man went westward, he found a large number who 
 ' Foxe, vol. ii., p. 23, edit. MDCLXXXIV. ^ Ibid., p. 21. 
 
INFLUENCE ON THE EEFORMATION. 295 
 
 were of the same opinion on the Sacrament of the 
 Lord's Supper with himself, particularly at Newbury, 
 where he found several, who, having been associated 
 for fifteen years in opposition to Transubstantiation, 
 when the hand of the persecutor was raised against 
 them, had either recanted, or been committed to the 
 flames ; and that in Amersham he had heard of a 
 large number who, seventy years before 15 18, had 
 been found to have continued for twenty-three years 
 in the profession of the same belief. Instances 
 given by Foxe connect others of the sufferers with 
 the teaching of Wiclif. We find, from the London 
 registers in 15 18, that several people were charged 
 with having read and used certain books against the 
 faith of the Romish Church, as the " Four Evange- 
 lists," Wiclif s " Wicket," a " Book of the Ten Com- 
 mandments," the " Revelation of St. John," and the 
 Epistles of St. Paul and St. James.^ John Stilman, 
 in 1518, was charged with having condemned image 
 worship, with having denied Transubstantiation, and 
 with having commended John Wiclif and his book 
 called " The Wicket," and he was afterwards burned.^ 
 Others, in 1520, were charged with speaking against 
 the worship of the saints and of the Virgin Mary, 
 and against pilgrimages, with opposition to Transub- 
 stantiation, and with having in their possession the 
 Epistles of St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. John, and 
 Wiclif s "Wicket."^ John Collins was charged in 
 1521 with possessing copies of Wiclif s "Wicket," 
 the Gospel of St. John, the Epistles of St. Paul, 
 ' Foxe, vol. ii., p. 5. Ibid., p. 18. ^ Ibid., p. 18. 
 
zg6 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 James, and Peter in English, and an exposition of 
 the Apocalypse.^ We find that some of these 
 abjured, but that others went joyfully to the dungeon 
 and the stake, and witnessed a good confession before 
 many witnesses. We gather from these registers that 
 so anxious were they not to be deprived of Wiclif's 
 books that they would conceal them in such places 
 as the hollow of an oak,- and that they would go 
 from one to the other, and " win and turn their minds 
 to that whereon they desired to persuade them, 
 touching the truth of God's word and Sacraments." ^ 
 Doubtless, when the flames were playing around 
 them, they would remember the debt of gratitude 
 which they owed to the great Reformer, and they 
 would bless God that they had been enabled to 
 remain faithful unto death to their divine and 
 adorable Redeemer. 
 
 We must now consider the influence of Wiclif on 
 the Reformation in Bohemia and Germany. Gas- 
 coigne and Leland inform us that students came 
 from Bohemia, sat at the feet of Wiclif, and carried 
 back his books to their native country.* We know, 
 also, that other books were carried to Bohemia for 
 safety by the followers of Anne, the wife of 
 Richard II., after the death of their mistress. We 
 find, however, that up to 1403 his philosophical works 
 chiefly were in use in Bohemia ; ^ but that after- 
 
 ' Foxe, vol. ii., p. 35. " /h\/., p. 18. = //W., p, 23. 
 * "Loci e Libre Veritatuni," pp. 9, 202; Leland's "De 
 Scriptoribus Britannicis," p. 380. 
 ^ Wratislaw's "John Huss," p. 87. 
 
INFLUENCE ON THE REFORMATION. 297 
 
 wards all of them were carefully studied. John Huss 
 was a great admirer of Wiclif He saw in his 
 writings the same energetic zeal for Church reform 
 with which he himself was animated. He therefore 
 soon began to draw from this fountain. So convinced 
 was he of their excellence, that once he is reported 
 to have said that he hoped that his soul would soon 
 be in heaven along with that of Master John Wiclif. ^ 
 Huss wanted something more than a reformation in 
 the patronage, discipline, and ceremonies of the 
 Church. He had probed a deeper wound in the 
 ecclesiastical body. Like Wiclif, with unflinching 
 boldness he had declared that wicked Popes, car- 
 dinals, and prelates are utterly without authority ; that 
 Christ is the Head of the Church, that the Pope is His 
 Vicar if he walks in His steps ; but, if not, he is the 
 Vicar of Judas Iscariot j and that excommunications, 
 unjustly pronounced, must be disregarded. Huss 
 also, like Wiclif, opposed Indulgences, and asserted, 
 like "the master of deep thoughts" — as he often 
 calls him — that it is impossible for the priest to 
 remit the sins of any unless they are first remitted 
 by Christ. ^ In opposing the assertion of the 
 Romanists that the Pope and Cardinals are the 
 Church, he asserted with Wiclif that " the Church 
 is the collective body of those who are predestinated 
 
 ' Wratislaw's "John Huss," p. 93. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 352. Loserth's " Wiclif and Huss," pp. 207, 212, 
 236-246, 289. The references here are to the English trans- 
 lation. 
 
JOHN WICI.ll-. 
 
 to salvation."! He also agreed with Wiclif in thinking 
 that the superabundant endowments of_ spiritual 
 persons should be taken away from them. But he 
 only imperfectly followed him ; for, while with him 
 he had an utter horror of the corruptions of the 
 Church, he would not diverge from her teaching 
 through a search into holy Scripture ; and he did 
 not give up his belief in some of those dogmas — 
 Transubstantiation, the Communion in one kind, the 
 worship of the Saints, and the Virgin Mary — 
 which Rome had added to the faith. In fact, 
 the fundamental difference between him and his 
 opponents was in regard to the limits to be affixed 
 to the power and authority of the Pope. ^ Huss 
 became a martyr at Constance, because, like Wiclif, 
 he opposed the supreme ecclesiastical dominion which 
 had so long governed the mind. The monstrous 
 injustice shown by the Council in condemning him 
 for refusing to recant those doctrines of Wiclif, and 
 other doctrines which he never held, and his friend, 
 Jerome of Prague, for refusing to acknowledge that 
 the burning of Huss was just;'* the perfidy^which the 
 assembled Fathers manifested when they declared that 
 neither faith nor promise was to be observed to the 
 detriment of the Catholic Church ; and their cruelty 
 unsurpassed by any in the history of the Papacy, 
 have given the Council of Constance an unenviable 
 place in the annals of the world. 
 
 ' Wratislaw's "John Huss," pp. 209-21 1. Loserlh's "Wiclif 
 and Huss," pp. 195-200, 205, 206. ^ Loseith, pp. 224-234. 
 3 Wratislaw, p. 209. ■* IhiJ., p. 407. 
 
INFLUENCE ON THE REFORMATION. 299 
 
 The opinions of Wiclif had been propagated in 
 Bohemia through the study of Widif's books and 
 the preaching and works of John Huss. Burning 
 with an indignation which was felt by the whole 
 nation, John Ziska swore to avenge the death of Huss 
 on the perpetrators of the crime. Selecting one out 
 of the numerous grievances of which they complained, 
 the Bohemians alleged, as their reason for taking up 
 arms, that they had been deprived by the Council 
 of Constance of the Communion in both kinds, and 
 displayed the Eucharistic cup on their banners.^ The 
 war was carried on with a barbarity perhaps unpar- 
 alleled in the history of the world. Assuming the name 
 of Taborites — from the Avord tabor, signifying tents, 
 in which they encamped on a hill near Aust — they 
 designated their neighbours as Idumeans, or Moabites, 
 or Philistines, and, inspired with the spirit of the old 
 dispensation, gave no quarter to their enemies, but 
 bathed their swords in blood till they were weary of 
 destroying. Ziska is said to have burnt priests and 
 monks in pitch. He was one of those remarkable 
 men who have never been trained in any school 
 which could have given him a knowledge of the art 
 of war, and who are indebted to their own marvellous 
 skill for the victories over the foes confederate against 
 them. The sight of the clubs and flails, which he 
 taught the Hussites to arm with iron, and to make 
 instruments of tremendous power, and of the carts 
 which he showed them how to range in the battle- 
 
 ' See my "Epochs of the Papacy," pp. 232-236. 
 
300 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 field, and to connect so as to become an impregnable 
 fortress, often struck so much terror into the bravest 
 of the chivalry of Europe that they fled ignominiously 
 before them. After the death of Ziska, Procopius 
 led on their armies to victory. The Council of 
 Basle finding, in 1433, that it was utterly in vain to 
 subdue them by force of arms, proposed a discussion 
 on the points at issue between the two parties. The 
 Bohemian deputies proposed four conditions of recon- 
 ciliation, called the Articles of Prague, which were : 
 the free preaching of the ^Vord of God in the 
 Bohemian language ; the abolition of the endowments 
 of the Church ; Communion in both kinds ; and the 
 punishment of clerical offenders by the civil tribunals. 
 The Hussites came to no agreement with the Council, 
 but the moderate section of them, called Calixtines, 
 from "calix," the "chalice," to which they attached 
 the greatest importance, were induced by deputies 
 from Basle, who followed them to Prague, to consent 
 to certain amendments in three of the articles, which 
 served effectually to alter their meaning, and to be 
 satisfied provided the Communion in both kinds were 
 restored to the Church. The Taborites, or the 
 extreme party, however, who, unlike the other 
 sections, had views beyond the articles, and were 
 opposed also to Purgatory, image-worship, prayers 
 for the dead, saint-worship, and Transubstantiation, 
 refused their consent to this compromise ; went to 
 war with the united hosts of Roman Catholics and 
 Calixtines, and were defeated in a battle at Lepan, 
 on May 30, 1434, in which Procopius was slain, and 
 
INFLUENCE ON THE REFORMATION. 
 
 301 
 
 the spell of Bohemian invincibility was broken for 
 ever. 
 
 But the Hussite Church had not altogether perished. 
 We no longer, indeed, find on the page of history the 
 offensive names of Taborite or Calixtine. The latter 
 party, after having, like the Taborites, for years dis- 
 played a savage ferocity in defence of their principles 
 which we cannot too strongly condemn, had been 
 satisfied, as we have just seen, with a compromise, 
 and were now contending for their former opponents 
 with the same enthusiasm which they once exhibited 
 in fighting against them. But no concession would 
 satisfy the Taborites. Unsubdued by persecution, 
 they continued to be the unceasing opponents of the 
 dogmas and corruptions of Romanism. In the year 
 1457 they formed an association, called the "United 
 Brethren of Bohemia " ; and, having made applica- 
 tion to the Waldenses, in order that they might receive 
 from them the true episcopal ordination, they obtained 
 through them their first Bishop, Matthew, who was 
 consecrated by Stephen, a Bishop of that ancient 
 body of Christians. We find that, purified by suffer- 
 ing, they no longer fought the battles of the Lord 
 with carnal weapons ; and that they were distinguished 
 for a sanctity and an elevation of character which 
 could not be found in them when they mustered 
 armies for the battle, and delighted in war. ' When 
 Luther came forward to do battle with the Church 
 
 ' Hardwick, in his " Church History of the Middle Ages " 
 .(p. 410), says nothing about doctrinal deficiencies of the 
 " United Brethren." 
 
302 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 of Rome, he was welcomed by a numerous body, the 
 spiritual descendants of John Wiclif and John Hubs, 
 who must have prepared the way for him by renounc- 
 ing, like their ancestors, the sacrifice of the Mass, 
 Purgatory, Transubstantiation, prayers for the dead, and 
 the adoration of images, and by propagating their 
 views, not only in their own neighbourhood, but even 
 in the most distant parts of Germany, perhaps through 
 some of those books of Wiclif which Leland, in the 
 extract given above, states that he saw in that 
 country.^ 
 
 We have said enough to suggest the impor- 
 tance of Wiclifs influence upon the Reformation 
 in Germany, and to prove the continuation of 
 his work in England from the time of his death 
 to the Reformation under Henry VIII. His 
 followers continued in an unbroken line to ponder 
 prayerfully the records of heavenly truth, and to lift 
 up their voices against the unscriptural dogmas of 
 Romanism. Strong predispositions in favour of a 
 Reformation must have been excited by their preach- 
 ing and works. The despised Wiclif literature which, 
 as we have seen from Leland, had proved its vitality 
 by its circulation even in his day, was planting seeds 
 ci truth in the minds of the people. We know that 
 he assailed in these works all the doctrines of the 
 Church of Rome, condemned in the Articles of the 
 Church of England, Transubstantiation, image-worship, 
 
 ' The learned Dr. Buddensieg, of Dresden, is preparing a 
 work, the object of which is to show the connexion between 
 Wiclif and Luther. 
 
INFLUENCE ON THE REFORMATION. 303 
 
 the Invocation of saints, Indulgences, and works 
 of supererogation. Thus then we connect him 
 directly with the preparations for the Reformation in 
 this country. Henry VIII. himself furnishes us with 
 evidence of the continuance of Wiclif's influence in 
 England. In 1530, when the question of his divorce 
 was before him, he asked the University of Oxford to 
 send to him the "Articles of Wiclif condemned at 
 Oxford and London in 1410, and at Constance in 
 14 1 4." Wood informs us that the king, having 
 thanked it for sending them, " after due consideration 
 of the said articles (wherein, as 'tis said he found that 
 the Pope's power was not found, nor founded on 
 God's word), took occasion thence to vex the Pope, 
 who hindered his design for being divorced from his 
 brother's wife, by promoting Wycleave's doctrine and 
 ejecting papacy out of his kingdom.'" Milton, with 
 far less knowledge than ourselves, saw at once the 
 conclusion to which the preceding facts and state- 
 ments should lead us. He writes : — " Had it not 
 been for the obstinate perverseness of our prelates 
 against the divine and admirable Wicklef, to suppress 
 him as a schismatic and innovator, perhaps neither 
 the Bohemian Huss and Jerome, no nor the name of 
 Luther or of Calvin had been ever known. The 
 glory of reforming all our neighbours had been com- 
 pletely ours."" 
 The work, in consequence of the fear of the per- 
 
 ' Professor Buirows's " Wiclif's Place in History." See also 
 Wood's " History," 1530, pp. 126, 127. 
 " Areopagitica." 
 
304 
 
 JOHN WICLIF. 
 
 secutor, was carried on in silence and obscurity, 
 Wiclif s followers must have eaten the bread of life 
 in secret, and with carefulness, and must have drunk 
 the waters of life with astonishment and trembling of 
 heart. Occasionally, after the martyrdoms above 
 referred to, they were carried to the dungeon 
 and to the stake. The flames flicker in Foxe's 
 martyrology from 1455 to 1485, when the ecclesias- 
 tical fires paled before the broad glare of the civil 
 conflagration. But in the reign of Henry VII. men 
 were again called upon to yield up their lives for 
 Christ's sake and the Gospel's. ^Ve can thus trace 
 only indistinctly the education of the English people 
 in the great truths brought forward at the Reforma- 
 tion, because, from fear of persecution, it was carried 
 on in the secret chamber, or in the lonely valley 
 among the hills, or around the pale watch-fire in the 
 bosom of some large forest. We do not think that 
 we make too strong an assertion when we say that to 
 this gradual education, for which we are indebted to 
 our great Reformer, we owe our preservation from 
 those errors and extravagances which elsewhere marred 
 the work of the Reformers, when they swept away the 
 abuses and superstitions of ages, and obtained " the 
 liberty wherewith Christ made them free." 
 
 THE END. 
 
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