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THE WORLD'S EPOCH-MAKERS 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 OLIPHANT SMEATON 
 
 Wycliffe and 
 
 The Lollards 
 
 By J. C. Carrick 
 
Reproduced by permission of the Clarendon Press 
 from H. E. Winn's Wyclif Selections. 
 
 Victorious Sun of Righteousness, 
 
 At whose supreme command 
 Thy Morning Star flamed forth 
 afar 
 
 O'er England's darkened land, 
 We praise Thee for that man of fire 
 
 Who, called and sent by Thee, 
 Flashed through the night the 
 living light 
 
 Of truth and liberty. 
 
 We, heirs of Wycliffe's glorious name, 
 
 Light-bearers fain would be, 
 Till Christ shall shine o'er palm and 
 pine, 
 
 O'er continent and sea. 
 Mid clouds and darkness forward go, 
 
 Glad heralds of the Lord — 
 Come gain or loss, our pride the Cross, 
 
 Our boast, God's conquering 
 Word. 
 
 From the Wycliffe College Song by Canon C. Venn Pitcher, Toronto. 
 
THE WORLD'S EPOCH-MAKERS 
 
 Wycliffe and 
 
 The Lollards 
 
 By 
 
 T. C. Carrick 
 
 Author of " The Abbey of S. Mary, Nervbottle ' 
 
 " The Story of the Burning Bush " 
 
 ■ The Story of John Knox and his Land " 
 
 " S. Cuthbert and S. Cuthbert's " etc. etc. 
 
 New York Charles Scribner's Sons 
 1908 
 
CL3 
 
 HISTORY f 
 
 ?-aoffi 
 
^ 
 
 Dedicated to the 
 
 Rev. Professor M. C. Taylor, D.D., Edinburgh 
 
 Chaplain to the King 
 
 With the grateful and affectionate respect 
 of his old pupil 
 
 250683 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 In addition to Professor Taylor, I cannot refrain from 
 expressing my sense of gratitude to and admiration of 
 Wycliffe's successor in the Mastership of Balliol, Mr. 
 Edward Caird, to whom I owe so much ; and also to 
 the chief librarians of the British Museum, the Bodleian 
 and Lincoln College Libraries, Oxford, all of whom per- 
 sonally and ungrudgingly aided me in my researches 
 among Wycliffe MSS. in London and Oxford ; and also 
 to the late librarians of the Signet Library, Edin- 
 burgh, Dr. Law and Mr. Edmond, who spared no pains 
 to help me. To these more especially, but to many 
 others as well, I am indebted more than words can 
 tell for guidance, encouragement, and practical help. 
 
 J. C. CARRICK. 
 
 vii 
 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 
 JOHN WYCLIFFE 
 
 I. Reformers before the Reformation 
 II. Wycliffe's Earlt Surroundings . 
 
 III. Wycliffe's Student Life 
 
 IV. Tiara and Crown 
 
 V. Wycliffe's Mission to Bruges 
 VI. Rector of Lutterworth 
 VI T. The Papal Ban against Wycliffe 
 VIII. The Friars and the Papacy 
 IX. Wycliffe's Lollards, Bible and Tracts 
 X. Wycliffe's Death 
 X I. Wycliffe and the English Bible . 
 XII. Wycliffe's "Poor Preachers" 
 xiii. Wiaumt t<:: 01 . 
 
 XIV. THl CHARACTF.ii Off Wye!!! 
 
 ix 
 
 1 
 
 36 
 
 52 
 
 69 
 
 94 
 
 99 
 105 
 113 
 
 132 ^ 
 144 
 147 
 166 
 177 
 191 
 
x CONTENTS 
 
 PART II 
 
 THE LOLLARDS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. Lollardi8M in England . . . .199 
 
 II. LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND .... 253 
 
 III. LOLLARDISM ON THE CONTINENT . . . 283 
 
 PART III 
 
 RESULTS OF WYCLIFFE'S TEACHING WITHIN 
 
 THE ROMAN CHURCH . . .301 
 
WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 PART I 
 JOHN WYCLIFFE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Reformers before the Reformation 
 
 Great movements do not come as a rule unheralded. 
 Long before the tempest bursts upon us in all its rage 
 and fury, the fierce drift of the torn clouds and the 
 heavy roll and swell of the ocean billows, as they 
 fumble in shorewards, have given us notice and 
 warning. There are beautiful spring days in February, 
 when the sky is blue and clear and the air is soft and 
 balmy, — weeks before the advent of spring, but of 
 which they are the earnest and the promise. As Dean 
 Alford puts it : 
 
 spring should be dressed in emblem quaint and shy ; 
 A troop of rosy girls escaped from bed, 
 For very wantonness of play, should tread 
 The garden paths ; one tucks her night-robe high 
 The dewy freshness of the lawn to try; 
 Some have been bolder, and unclothed and bright 
 The group is seen in the moon's mellow light; 
 Some, scattered, gaze upon the treefl and sky. 
 i 
 
WWLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 But there should be that turn with hurried glance 
 Beckoning their playmates, where by a side path 
 Between the shrubs, is seen to half-advance 
 The moody widow -lodger, who in wrath 
 Is sure to scatter all their stealthy play, 
 And they will rue it ere the break of day." 
 
 Mr. Swinburne's " Vision of Spring in Winter " has 
 the same foundation-idea — "the sweet desire of day 
 before the dawn " ; " the morning-song before the stars 
 have fled " : and nature and life alike tell their story 
 of early promise, hope and aspiration, long long before 
 the morning of fulfilment has arrived. 
 
 Long before an invention has been completed or 
 a great discovery made, there have been hints and 
 premonitions of what is coming. Job's "war-horse" 
 has been cited as the dim promise of the steam-engine ; 
 Pantagruel's " frozen words " in Rabelais, of the phono- 
 graph ; and the " roads that travel " in the same volume, 
 of the "moving platforms" of the Paris Exhibition. 
 Friar Roger Bacon the physicist, before physics became 
 a science, foretold the day when carriages would move 
 without horses and ships traverse the sea without sails. 
 China gave its prophecies and semi-fulfilments of many 
 modern improvements and inventions in the infancy of 
 the human race. 
 
 The achievements of modern industry embody the 
 prophetic imaginings and anticipations of the " juventus 
 mundi." Chaucer's "horse of Brass," the Niebelungen 
 Lied's "shoes of swiftness," Jack the giant-killer's 
 "seven-league boots," are foreshadowings of the iron 
 horae, the railway train and the thin iron line of civili- 
 sation ; Aladdin's ring, by rubbing which lie could 
 instantaneously communicate with genii at the ends 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 3 
 
 of the earth, contains in germ the electric telegraph ; 
 the " magic mirror," in which was portrayed the faces 
 and actions of distant friends, is the parent-idea of the 
 reflecting telescope. Science has realised these early 
 dreams. These weird tales were told half in fun, half 
 in earnest. Hidden beneath their grotesque exterior 
 were the sincere anticipations of gifted souls, — whose 
 far-sighted gaze caught the dim outline of the future 
 time. 
 
 And so great social, political, and religious move- 
 ments are generally preceded by lesser movements, of 
 feebler energy, but in the same general direction. The 
 great European Reformation of the sixteenth century 
 did not come upon Christendom like a thunder-clap 
 in a clear sky : there was many a premonitory roll of 
 the thunder, many a big raindrop falling and sheet of 
 wild-fire flashing before the first crash of the storm 
 fell upon Europe. In the Early Church there were 
 those who protested against the attempted supremacy 
 of St. Peter and the Christian community associated 
 with his name and principles. And long after the 
 Roman See had firmly established its hold over Western 
 Christendom — for the East was finally separated 
 and distinct — there were within its borders those who 
 protested against its corruptions, assumptions, and 
 attempted supremacy. Amongst the Reformers before 
 the Reformation may be noted the names of Aerius, 
 Jovinian, Vigilantius, Claude of Turin, Agobarct* of 
 Lyons, Beringar of Tours, Abelard, Henry of Clugny, 
 Arnold of Brescia, Peter Waldo, Wycliffe, Savonarola, 
 John Huss, and others. In one sense the Franciscan 
 and Dominican friars were reformers, and also several 
 reformed orders of monks, but only in a sense. These 
 
4 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 others were all distinct reforming voices heard inside 
 the Church long before the Reformation. In the face 
 of a strong and powerful majority each spoke out 
 for liberty and Scripture truth, and the avoidance of 
 superstition and human inventions. As early, indeed, 
 as the fourth century, when the Western Church was 
 gradually placing human beliefs and ceremonies upon 
 the same level as Scripture truth, Aerius of Pontus 
 lifted up his voice against prayers for the dead, the 
 necessity of fasting, and of Easter celebrations as 
 obligatory, and the supremacy of bishops over pres- 
 byters. Anathematised by the Bishop of Constantia, 
 he was still living in the year a.d. 374, and may be 
 regarded as the father of a scriptural reformation ; and 
 though accused of being a heretic and of having, as 
 Epiphanius declared, " a foul air spirit," all he fought 
 for was adherence to Scripture and the avoidance of 
 " the commandments of men." 
 
 Jovinian, a Roman ascetic (circa 390), attacked the 
 monastic life, which many declared to be the life of 
 angels, the superiority of celibacy over the married 
 state, fasting, and righteousness through human works 
 as opposed to Christ's atonement and merits. And yet, 
 though a severe critic of the much-praised life of monk 
 and nun with all their asceticism and self -mortification, 
 he died himself from the personal austerities which he 
 practised. 
 
 Vigilantius (circa 400 A.D.), the son of an innkeeper 
 at Calagorris at the base of the Pyrenees, said that the 
 monastic system consisted in fleeing from the world 
 instead of bravely fighting it, and that in shutting 
 oneself in behind a cloister wall a man does not 
 necessarily shut out the world, — nay, he shuts a part 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 5 
 
 of the world in with himself. While the best way of 
 dealing with temptation may be " not fight but flight," 
 Vigilantius held that it was a cowardly thing to retreat 
 from the "good fight of faith" to which Providence 
 had called us. His other reforming views were a 
 condemnation of relics with their supposed miraculous 
 powers, and of prayers for the dead, and generally the 
 mechanical and superstitious forms and acts which 
 were gradually finding a home in the Church of Christ. 
 There is a deep silence of four hundred years, during 
 which few if any voices are heard lifted up against 
 mechanical and superstitious Christianity, but in the 
 first half of the eighth century, Claude, bishop of 
 Turin, rises up and repeats the views of Vigilantius 
 (circa 839 A.D.). Formalism had during these four 
 hundred years of interval made broad strides within 
 the Church. The Eastern or Greek Church had 
 separated from Rome partly on the grounds of opposi- 
 tion to image- worship, although it still held to " icons," 
 — constituting a distinction almost as distinct as thj> 
 Quakers' objection to " Christian men wearing weapons 
 and serving in the wars," while at the same time 
 permitting the use of clubs which would break every 
 bone in a man's body: while the natural jealousy 
 between the Patriarch of Constantinople and the chief 
 Shepherd of Rome, who even then was claiming to be 
 Head of the Church as St. Peter's successor and Vicar, 
 was responsible for the bulk of the quarrel which 
 divided and divides Christendom into East and West. 
 It may be true that the greatest friend of Truth is 
 Time, her greatest enemy Prejudice, and her constant 
 companion Humility; but history does not throw a 
 \. ry happy light on the humility of either the Eastern 
 
6 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 or the Western Patriarchs. " I am sick," cries Gregory 
 of Nazianzen, one of the brightest stars of Eastern 
 Christendom — " of struggling against the jealousies of 
 holy bishops who make harmony impossible, and make 
 light of the interests of the faith in the pursuit of 
 their own quarrels. For this reason I have resolved 
 (as the saying is) to try a new tack, and to gather 
 myself up, as they say the nautilus does when it feels 
 the storm : to gaze from afar at others buffeted and 
 buffeting, intent myself on the peace of heaven" 
 (Epistle 55), — a sentiment almost identical with that 
 of Leighton amid the kindred troubles and con- 
 troversies of the seventeenth century in Scotland. 
 
 The rapidly-growing mechanicalism of the Church 
 raised the protest of one of the prelates of the Church 
 itself, and, as in later ages, the reforming spirit came 
 from within. Claude of Turin lifted up his voice 
 against the adoration of images and crucifixes, which 
 from being in an early age regarded as pictorial lessons 
 in the faith, came to be the objects of worship, the 
 supposed sources of miraculous powers, and, in general, 
 symbolic veils of and obstructions to the full view of 
 Christ Jesus the world's Redeemer. The Frankish 
 Church protested against the growing practice, now 
 in the Roman Church run to its full length; but in 
 spite of all opposition the decision of the Council of 
 Nice of A.D. 783, which allowed " a relative worship " to 
 images of the Saviour and the saints, became the voice 
 of Western Christendom, and the parting of the ways 
 for the Greek Church. An examination of the canons 
 of the seventh oecumenic Synod of Nicsea, with its 
 three hundred and sixty-seven. Fathers and twenty-two 
 canons, proves conclusively that a strong party existed 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 7 
 
 inside the united Church opposed to image-worship 
 and formalism generally. Besides earnestly inculcating 
 the singing of psalms regularly, and simplicity of life 
 in the clergy, together with care as to their amusements 
 and social life generally, while requiring the careful 
 conservation of relics, the Council had a strong minority 
 opposed to the veneration of images and the mechanical 
 use of the crucifix. Along with Claude, Agobard, 
 bishop of Lyons, seems to have contended against 
 image-worship, and in an almost puritanical spirit 
 declaimed against artificial Church music and a 
 mechanical liturgy. 
 
 In the north of France in the early years of the same 
 century {circa 831), Paschasius Radbertus, abbot of 
 Corbey, finally formulated the doctrine of transubstan- 
 tiation, although Lanfranc is also claimed as the 
 Schoolman who put the latent tendencies of the 
 Church's belief into definite form. The new dogma 
 was vigorously assailed, notably by Ratramnus, one of 
 the Corbey monks, who, at the request of Charles the 
 Bald, wrote a treatise in opposition to Radbert's dogma. 
 The new dogma was, however, generally accepted by 
 the Western Church, although sporadic objectors 
 appeared for two centuries. Chief among these was 
 Bermg&r of Tours (circa 1025), whose belief was, not 
 transubstantiation, but a form of consubstantiation. In 
 addition to his opposition to the transubstantiation 
 dogma, Beringar declared against formalism and 
 materialism, and appealed to reason and common sense 
 and Scripture, — thus constituting himself a reformer 
 before the Reformation. 
 
 To the same class, although in a milder degree, 
 belongs Abelard, whose strange life -tragedy still 
 
8 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 commands undying interest. He was an intellectualist, 
 and was before the Reformation what Erasmus was 
 after it. He claimed freedom for the use of his reason, 
 apart from any external authority however supreme. 
 Early in the eleventh century he asserted himself as 
 an independent thinker; and though Anselm was his 
 teacher, and as thorough an apologist for Church dogma 
 and tradition and method as ever lived, his pupil did 
 not follow him, but used his new logical methods to 
 criticise Church doctrine and discipline. Bernard of 
 Clairvaux, whose long dreary poem on the evils of the 
 age, extending to six thousand lines, of which the three 
 well-known hymns, "Jerusalem the Golden," "Brief 
 Life is here our Portion," " The World is very evil," are 
 almost the only portions worth remembering, — who 
 railed against the vices and corruptions of his age in 
 a manner worthy of Carlyle, — was, strange to say, 
 Abelard's keenest opponent, and at the Synod of Sens 
 in 1140 challenged him to open debate. The Council 
 condemned Abelard, and ordered his imprisonment. 
 Having, however, submitted to the ecclesiastical 
 authorities, he escaped confinement and spent the rest 
 of his life as a scholarly recluse. St. Anselm, Abelard's 
 teacher, was the author of Cur Deus Homo, — a treatise 
 on the incarnation and atonement of Christ which 
 might have been penned by Luther, so free is it from 
 Roman idiosyncrasies, and often quoted to show the 
 continuity of the atonement doctrine even in the 
 darkest ages of superstition. One special passage is 
 often quoted as an unequivocal testimony to Anselm's 
 belief in justification by faith in Christ alone without 
 works. And yet by a strange irony of fate the prelate 
 who so strongly declared himself as an advocate of 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 9 
 
 this distinctively Protestant doctrine, and the poet- 
 monk who wailed beside the wall of a ruined Zion 
 over her abuses and wickedness, were the two chief 
 opponents of the man who sought, by a return to 
 reason and simplicity, to restore primitive faith and a 
 pure life. Abelard was, however, a man more of the 
 intellect than of the soul, and the Church was evidently 
 afraid that the right of private judgment and 
 individual opinion would lead to disintegration, 
 disunion, dispeace, and trouble, and above all to dis- 
 obedience to the fiat of the Vicar of Christ, who even 
 then claimed semi-infallibility. A man of profound 
 religious faith, he was misunderstood and misrepresented. 
 He himself had also sat at the feet of Roscelinus, who 
 opposed the realists and maintained Nominalism, and 
 owed his intellectual position mainly to him. In turn 
 he created quite a school of his own, training indeed, 
 as Guizot has pointed out, no less than one Pope, 
 nineteen cardinals, and more than fifty bishops, French, 
 English, and German, besides a very much larger 
 number of men who, like Arnold of Brescia and others, 
 continued Abelard's fight for intellectual liberty. 
 
 I The most romantic and at the same time probably 
 the most persistent of the reformers before the Reforma- 
 tion was notably the body known as the Waldenses, 
 which had as its crest a lighted candle surrounded by 
 darkness, and the motto " Lux in tenebris." ( In all 
 probability the Waldenses and the Albigenses were the 
 same religious communion with different names arising 
 from their different geographical locations.^ Whether 
 or not the " Israel of the Alps " can date their origin 
 to apostolic days is a sorely vexed subject, but Roman 
 controversialists declare that the movement began with 
 
io WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Peter Waldo (fl. 1160-1170), and in all probability it 
 was he who founded the body and gave it his own name, 
 although a strong argument can be urged on behalf 
 of the derivation of the name from the Alpine " Val." 
 ' It is in connection with the Waldenses that' the 
 Church of Rome comes out prominently as inimical to 
 popular translations of Scripture ; for though they had 
 no desire to quarrel with the Church, and only objected 
 to some of its abuses, more particularly in connection 
 with saints and relics/ the Roman See vigorously 
 endeavoured to check Scripture reading and its con- 
 sequences, with the result that the Swiss prisons of the 
 fourteenth century — the very period when Wycliffe 
 and Wycliffism began to spread and flourish in England 
 — could not contain the multitudes of prisoners, and new 
 dungeons had everywhere to be added/ which wanted 
 everything save what was necessary to cause suffering 
 to the captives. In the caverns of Val Louise, hundreds 
 were suffocated by fire: the hillsides and valleys 
 echoed with the groans of those of whom the world 
 was not worthy, and through the ages the Alps were 
 the happy hunting-ground of merciless Popes and their 
 emissaries, until John Milton cried aloud to Europe and 
 to God — " Avenge, Lord, Thy slaughtered saints," and 
 Oliver Cromwell gathered his army to defend the 
 remnant ; and since then the land has had rest. 
 1 The Albigenses of France, or " Cathari " as they were 
 called, were practically a portion of the same family 
 of what might be called Scripture-Christians who were 
 still within the fold of, and favourably disposed to, 
 the Church. Their supposed Manichsean origin is a 
 fable of Rome. f In all probability their original home 
 was in Macedonia and Bulgaria, ■ and certainly their 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION n 
 
 vulgar-tongue translation of the Bible was from the 
 Greek text. ( In the twelfth century they had fairly 
 settled down in Southern France, and made their 
 presence felt. Their beliefs as to Church abuses, relics, 
 saints, Purgatory, prayers for the dead, the " perfecti," 
 their threefold cord of ministry, were almost identical 
 with those" of their Waldensian neighbours with whom 
 they shared so many persecutions.'' The Cathari — the 
 name (xccOccpol) points to a Greek and Eastern origin 
 — held firmly by the principle of Scripture being the 
 rule of faith and morals, but not " the only rule," as in 
 The Seven Articles of the Faith and other authorita- 
 tive Albigensian treatises, the authority of the Fathers 
 is granted. The fundamental principle of the Reforma- 
 tion was present, both with Waldensians and Albigenses, 
 but there was no idea of separation from the Church, 
 but only a desire to check abuses and remove supersti- 
 tions. There is no doubt whatever that the Columban 
 missionaries proclaimed the simple gospel of Iona and 
 Lindisfarne in the Alpine Valleys early in the seventh 
 century, and the name of one of them survives still in 
 the nomenclature of one Swiss Canton, — St. Gall, — with 
 its lofty Scheibe, Grisons, and Glarus, the homes of 
 perpetual snow. St. Gall left stormy Iona, and after 
 travelling all over Western Europe finally settled on the 
 banks of the Steinach, then a dense forest full of 
 wolves and bears, and founding an abbey, civilised and 
 christianised all that lofty Alpine district. The fine 
 old cathedral of St. Gall commemorates a Scotsman, 
 and its library contains MSS. of priceless value. It is 
 curious that a missionary from the land of Wycliffe 
 should have preached in the vales of the Waldenses. 
 Whether the Val faith goes back to the days of 
 
12 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Imperial persecution, when Christians fled to the hills 
 to escape the fate of their brothers and sisters in the 
 bloody circus on which St. Peter's in Rome now stands, 
 on ground consecrated by the blood of countless saints 
 or whether to St. Gall and the Celtic Culdees; or 
 whether to Peter Waldo alone, will probably never 
 be known, but a very distinct apostolic and primitive 
 testimony has always come from the Church amid the 
 Alpine snows. 
 
 The three great Vaudois strongholds, Val Lucerna, 
 Val Angrogna, and Val Martino are famous in the 
 annals of the struggle for civil and religious liberty. 
 The Pra del Tor, reached only from Angrogna by a 
 wild and almost impassable defile, was the seat of the 
 college where aged pastors instructed candidates for 
 the ministry, and in dark days of persecution was 
 made the refuge of the sick. "The strength of the 
 Hills" was a well-understood Scripture sentence by 
 these Alpine confessors. Although the early Waldensian 
 belief was that the body was the offspring of Waldo, 
 still its apostolic origin has been strenuously claimed, 
 the argument being that during the Imperial persecu- 
 tions of Rome, refugee Christians betook themselves to 
 the Alps ; and thus not only is the Waldensian Church 
 claimed to be the direct descendant of the apostles, but 
 the Roman Church is thereby branded as the original 
 seceder. Certainly the strong spirit of the early 
 Christians has always for centuries characterised this 
 strange people of the hills who have suffered all kinds 
 of martyrdom and abuse, but whose burning bush, like 
 that of Scotland, " was yet not consumed." Their chief 
 divergences from the ordinary teaching of the Roman 
 See were their rejection of image and relic worship, of 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 13 
 
 the doctrine of Purgatory, of the validity of sacraments 
 even though performed by an immoral priest, of 
 making oaths, and, curiously, of capital punishment. 
 They had their " perfecti " or vowed celibates, who 
 were considered higher in spiritual position than either 
 the " virgins," male and female, or the married, — a class 
 who devoted their lives to contemplation and prayer, 
 not unlike the "men" in the Highlands of Scotland. 
 The chief and outstanding contention, however, of these 
 people as against Rome, was their Scripture reading. 
 The whole or nearly all of the Old and New Testaments 
 was translated into the Provencal or Romaunt, and 
 read by them daily, privately and in families. In 
 1229 the Pope banned their translation, and did his 
 best to stamp it out as the source of all their heresies ; 
 but these simple people hid the word in their heart, 
 where no pontiff could reach it and no spoiler take it 
 out ; and societies were formed of young persons who 
 each took a verse to remember perpetually. When it 
 is remembered that the monks calculated that a fair 
 copy of the Bible was for them — with all their literary 
 and artistic appliances — a year's labour, and quick work 
 at that, it seems a marvel how a comparatively un- 
 lettered Alpine tribe should have succeeded in trans- 
 lating and disseminating the Bible so widely as they 
 did. 
 
 The severities used by the Holy See against 
 Waldenses and Albigenses alike are matters of surest 
 history, and indeed Innocent in. preached a crusade 
 against them, and exhorted the crusaders to use more 
 rigour towards them than towards the Saracens 
 themselves. A full indulgence and exemption from 
 Purgatory were additional attractions to crusaders to 
 
14 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 join the ranks of the persecutor. Much of this has 
 been denied by modern Roman controversialists, but 
 apart altogether from facts and historical incidents 
 there can be no mistake as to what Cardinal 
 Bellarmine (De Laicis, iii. 22) teaches — 
 
 "Heretics are to be destroyed root and branch, if 
 that can possibly be done. But if Catholics are so 
 few that they cannot conveniently, with safely, 
 attempt such a thing, then it is best to be quiet, lest, 
 upon opposition made by the heretics, the Catholics 
 should be worsted." 
 
 Paul v. issued the infamous Bull, In Coend Domini, 
 the first article of which anathematises heretics of all 
 sorts, and all who favour them or read their books 
 without permission. Bellarmine proves, at great 
 length, the propriety of putting heretics to death ; 
 while another canonist, Van Espen, whose authority 
 stands among the very highest in the Church of 
 Rome, says, in his observations on the canons of the 
 Fourth Lateran Council : " Formerly, indeed, heretics 
 were very rarely punished with death, and Augustine 
 disavowed in his time that this punishment was 
 decreed against heretics. But in later years it every- 
 where prevailed that obstinate heretics were to be 
 punished with death, nay ! and to be burned alive by 
 fire; which kind of punishment signally began in 
 the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ; and, afterwards, 
 it more and more prevailed when the Inquisition was 
 established, in which, to this day, this rigour of 
 punishment is still retained." 
 
 Other Roman doctors declare that " heretics are like 
 weeds: they are quickly to be plucked up — they are 
 quickly to be burned." Heretics can be condemned 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 15 
 
 by the Church to temporal punishments, and even 
 be punished with death." "Heretics may be justly 
 excommunicated, and therefore may be put to death." 
 ( Notwithstanding much persecution, however, the 
 reforming movements represented by the Albigenses 
 and Waldenses spread rapidly over Europe during 
 the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the 
 vigour of their growth was stimulated by the per- 
 secuting attitude and action of the Roman Church. ; 
 These persecutions were deplored by multitudes 
 within the Church, whose hearts bled to see the 
 Alpine snows reddened and the fair fields of Southern 
 France soaked with faithful blood. Wurtz's pictures 
 in the Brussels gallery are tame in comparison with 
 the real scenes which took place among families and 
 communities suspected of heresy. But, like the 
 flowers of their own rocks and fields, they were made 
 hardy by storms ; dangers only increased their energy ; 
 and as the winds bear the fragrance of flowers far 
 away, so the hurricanes of persecution propagated the 
 faith and spread reforming ideas abroad. The 
 Beghards and the Beguines, the Brethren of the Free 
 Spirit, and many other kindred communities, spread 
 their ideas and handed on the torch of apostolic 
 faith. The decision of the Fourth Lateran Council of 
 1215 to stamp out such divergences of opinion only 
 hastened on the reforming movements, and hurt the 
 Church's credit with the mass of humane people, who 
 daily felt their sympathy with the persecutor waning. 
 Farther, the rapid increase of new doctrines, rules, 
 and riles within the Church — developments according 
 to J. II. Newman — made vast masses of people all 
 over Europe quiescent Protestants, believing as they 
 
16 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 did that the triumphant and increasing mechanicalism 
 of the Church meant death to true spiritual religion. 
 That their opinion was correct has been proved up 
 to the hilt by the development of Roman dogma 
 since the Reformation, in spite of many improvements 
 in other ways, and a vastly increased activity in the 
 Roman organisation and an enviable distinction for 
 missionary inspiration and success. So calm and 
 forbearing an authority as the late Dr. Littledale, 
 who was far from being an ultra- Protestant, sums up 
 very succinctly the net result of these mechanical 
 forces, against which the long succession of reformers 
 before and after "the great Rebellion" protested 
 either quietly or with trumpet-sound. 
 
 "One peculiarity of popular Romanism is, that it 
 is fast ceasing to be a faith, and is degenerating into 
 a mere superstition. This word does not mean, as 
 people commonly fancy, over-readiness to swallow 
 marvels. That is credulity, about which we are not 
 now concerned. But " superstition " means that form 
 of religion in which fear is stronger than love and 
 trust. Its leading characteristic is the belief that 
 the powers above man are unfriendly, jealous, and 
 vindictive, or at best stern and relentless ; and that 
 they must be baffled by mechanical amulets and 
 magical charms, or bought off by being gratified with 
 the sight of those sufferings which they delight to 
 inflict. That is the sentiment which is at the root of 
 African Fetishism and of Hindoo Fakirism alike. 
 And now it has got almost entire possession of 
 Romanism. Already it has been shown how the 
 Father and Christ are avoided and shrunk from as 
 stern and pitiless judges, and Mary turned to as the 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 17 
 
 one merciful hope of sinners; and also how God is 
 supposed to pursue with hideous tortures the souls of 
 even the holy dead. These ghastly distortions of 
 Christianity are not to be found in the Missal at all, 
 and scarcely a trace of them in the Breviary, but they 
 form a very large part, often the larger part, of the 
 popular creed in Roman Catholic countries now." 
 
 "Modern Romanism has this in common with 
 atheistic secularism, that they are both impatient of 
 the unseen and spiritual, and crave after the visible 
 and material. Hence Romans must have human 
 objects of worship instead of God, and must have 
 images of even these ; must have amulets instead of 
 belief in providence ; must have a regular tally 
 account with heaven instead of trust in God's love, 
 mercy, and justice. All this not only is not faith, 
 but directly contradicts faith, which is 'the evidence 
 of things not seen' (Heb. xi. 1)." 
 
 ( To a very considerable extent the rise of the 
 Dominican and Franciscan orders was a struggle 
 after a freer and less mechanical religion than 
 mediaeval Rome allowed to her children. Over and 
 over again the rise of various monastic orders was a 
 reform movement within the Church itself, — such 
 orders as the white- robed Cistercians, and the 
 
 Bernardines, both offshoots of the Benedictines, as 
 well as the fresh orders of the Carthusians and 
 Carmelites, all of which arose as reform movements 
 towards the close of the eleventh and the commence- 
 ment of the twelfth centuries. * It was a case of the 
 old tree asserting its inner life in fresh expressions of 
 
 faith, life, worship and service, and new developments 
 
 of spiritual energy. In 1215 so many such reforming 
 
iS WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 orders had arisen, that the Pope, Innocent in., fearing 
 so many diversities of practices, forbade any more 
 orders to be created. 
 
 The expression of the Church's inner spiritual life 
 could not, however, be kept in, and a new set of 
 orders came into being, — not monastic at all, but free 
 and untrammelled, living on the charity of the 
 people, possessed of no worldly goods, dwelling in 
 the midst of the world and in the very thick of its 
 life, which they shared and moulded, taking no 
 thought for the morrow, observing rules of even 
 stricter personal piety and self-denial than the 
 monastic orders, and bound by the most solemn vows 
 which human beings could take upon them, to plant 
 Christian truth and destroy error, to evangelise the 
 neglected masses in towns and cities, and generally 
 to revive in the world the apostolic life. 
 
 The Dominicans — the disciples of that fiery burn- 
 ing spirit which first saw light in Spain in 1170, and 
 which spent itself in severe toils for the Faith — were 
 pre-eminently the defenders of that Faith and the 
 watch-dogs of the Holy See, seeking out and uprooting 
 heresy, so sedulously indeed that the memory of their 
 later Inquisitions is indelibly stained in scarlet in the 
 world's heart. The Franciscans — the followers of 
 that wonderful mystic and spiritual enthusiast St. 
 Francis of Assisi, who was born there, the son of a 
 dealer, in 1182 — made their life-aim to give a living 
 manifestation to the world of Christ's poor and 
 suffering life on earth as a rebuke to its pomps 
 and vanities, and so they acted the part of gentle, 
 humble missionaries of the Cross in spreading abroad 
 the knowledge of the Thorn-crowned Cross-bearer. 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 19 
 
 Both orders in their early career were an invigoration 
 to the spiritual life of Europe, and were very popular, 
 reaching, as they did, through the freedom of their 
 rule of life, the masses of the people, and influencing 
 the neglected communities in town and country in a 
 way which neither the regular clergy nor the monks 
 could accomplish, — a success which eventually raised 
 the bitter jealousy of both of these. 
 ' They were absolutely independent of bishops and 
 clergy, and were the Pope's direct servants and 
 missionaries, whose throne and claims they defended 
 in the most exclusive and arbitrary manner. Their 
 very success was the secret of their future decay: 
 becoming wealthy as corporations, they at last 
 became more corrupt even than the monastic orders, 
 and a scandal to Christendom. > By his Bull of 1279, 
 " Exiit qui seminat," Pope Nicholas in. enforced on 
 the Franciscans absolute poverty; but having been 
 inserted by Boniface vin. in the sixth book of his 
 Decretals, and thus made the established law of the 
 Church, it gradually was interpreted to mean — "a 
 moderate use of this world's goods." When this 
 reading of the decretal became general and was acted 
 on, the Franciscan order became at once divided into 
 two camps, — the free-and-easy party, who were 
 content with a moderate or inmoderate use of wealth 
 and goods ; and the ascetic, strict, and almost hermit- 
 like party, who insisted on absolute poverty as the 
 first element of a Franciscan friar's life. 
 
 Thus the original Franciscan reformation again 
 itself required to be reformed, and the spiritual men 
 of the order raised the cry — "Back to evangelical 
 poverty if our strength and usefulness are to remain 
 
20 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 with us." Peter Johannis Olivi, who died in 1298, was 
 the leader of this stricter school of Franciscan friars, 
 many of whom had adopted the hermit-rule of the 
 order of hermits founded by Pope Celestine v. — an 
 order which, though suppressed by Pope Boniface, 
 infused its spirit of evangelical poverty into the 
 Franciscans. The Popes looked with little favour 
 upon men who by their ascetic, spiritual life were 
 a living reproof to the Papal Court with its worldly 
 pomp, licentious and prodigal life, easy-going faith, 
 and dimmed vision of heaven. Olivi's opinions were 
 condemned to a great extent by the Council of Vienne 
 in 1311, and Pope Clement's easy-going interpretation 
 as to the property and use of the Franciscan wealth 
 was reasserted. John xxn. still further oppressed 
 the spiritual Franciscans, and the Dominicans helped 
 him, and brought their Inquisition into action in 
 various districts of France, being backed up by the 
 worldly branch of the Franciscans as well, headed 
 by the general Michael of Cesena. The spirituals 
 declared that there were two Churches — one carnal 
 and worldly, of which the Pope and his cardinals were 
 the head; and the other spiritual and evangelical, 
 which they, the extreme Franciscan friars and others 
 leading a similar life, represented. Thus within the 
 one order of St. Francis there continued to live 
 together under one government two distinct and 
 clearly-marked parties, the strict and the moderate, 
 and these during the latter half of the fourteenth 
 century were called respectively "Observants" and 
 " Conventuals." 
 
 The Observants were condemned on 23rd January 
 1316 by the Bull " Gloriosam Ecclesiam," and in 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 21 
 
 1321 a fresh turn was given to the Franciscan con- 
 troversy by the raising of a question of Christian 
 doctrine — quite a new and distinct controversy from 
 the former one with the spirituals — as to whether 
 Christ and the apostles ever held property of any 
 kind. The question previously agitated between 
 Conventuals and Observants was whether the Friars 
 minor or Franciscans ought to have and use wealth 
 and property; the new question, which made a new 
 and fresh cleavage in the order, was this definite 
 theological thesis. Some declared that the Nazarene 
 Carpenter, whose throne was built by Galilaean 
 fishermen, had nothing, and that His apostles left 
 all and followed Him: therefore, they concluded, 
 evangelical poverty must be the law of the Church. 
 At Perugia the whole Franciscan order assembled in 
 1322, and the dogma of evangelical poverty was 
 formally accepted, the general Michael Cesena adher- 
 ing to this doctrinal declaration as formerly he had 
 opposed its practical application to the members of 
 the order. Seeing the Franciscans so united as to 
 this doctrine, the Pope accused them of heresy, and 
 the University of Paris and the Dominicans supported 
 the Holy See. 
 
 The Franciscans, however, remained firm, aided by 
 William of Ockham, the great English Schoolman. 
 The Pope, however, asserted that "use" and "pro- 
 prietorship" were inseparable, and annulled Nicholas 
 m.'s Bull. After accusing the Pope of heresy, the 
 Franciscans at last expressed their allegiance to the 
 Pope, except the Fraticelli, who threw in their lot, 
 along with other Franciscans, with Lewis of Bavaria, 
 the German King, and strove for a freer and a better 
 
22 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 life. Lewis had in 1324 been excommunicated by 
 the Pope, but the German people remained true to 
 their King, and accordingly an expedition was formed 
 to Rome, and Lewis was crowned by two ex- 
 communicated bishops. Lewis' chief friend in these 
 negotiations was Marsiglio dei Raimondini, a teacher 
 in the University of Paris, and he and his Franciscan 
 allies pressed Lewis forward in his attack on John 
 xxii. At the same time, an Anti-pope, Friar Peter of 
 Corvare, was chosen, and Marsiglio was made Papal- 
 vicar of Rome. But Lewis could not continue and 
 his enterprise collapsed, he himself retiring to Pisa 
 along with William of Ockham and Michael of 
 Cesena. The Anti-pope submitted in 1330, and Lewis 
 was in Bavaria in the spring of the year a defeated 
 man. Lewis was excommunicated; and though he 
 often made offers of humiliation and obedience, he 
 remained excommunicated by Pope Clement VI. until 
 his death in 1347. 
 
 Lewis' two helpers were the two masters of Paris, 
 Marsiglio of Padua and William Ockham, and their 
 writings show the trend of liberal thought in the 
 Church. The "Defensor Pacis," written by Marsiglio 
 while at the University of Paris, in 1324, arrived at a 
 peace between the spiritual and the civil powers. 
 Dante, in his De Monarchia a few years later, 
 sought to obtain universal peace by making a universal 
 State under one ruler. Marsiglio sought to make 
 peace by having a temporal and spiritual estate clearly 
 defined, — the King and the spiritual ruler having 
 their distinct functions and spheres. Marsiglio defined 
 the Church as the whole body of Christian men, laymen 
 and clerks alike, — " the whole community of the 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 23 
 
 Faithful." Religious toleration was part of his 
 principle, and temporal pains and penalties do not 
 belong to the gospel. Heresy is to be punished in 
 the world to come, not in this. 
 
 " Bishop " and " priest," according to Marsiglio, are 
 synonymous, and the office of the Pope is a historical 
 one, arising out of the position of Rome as capital of 
 the Empire. The supreme power of the Church is in 
 the Church itself, and the Pope has no power of supreme 
 judgment in either spiritual or temporal things. 
 Excommunication is the right of the community of 
 Christians alone, not of the Pope. The sole power and 
 privilege of the clergy is in their spiritual character, 
 and temporal power is theirs only in as much as they 
 deserve to wield it. Marsiglio was an ally of the 
 Fraticelli, and declared that the ministers of the Church 
 should be supported by the people, but no priest is 
 entitled to tithes ; and if he requires more than is given 
 him, he should, like the apostles, support himself with 
 the work of his own hands. The clergy are a spiritual 
 order, and " evangelical poverty " is a mark of their 
 office. William of Ockham, a Franciscan friar born in 
 England, but who spent most of his life on the 
 Continent, was the other speculative intellect who 
 united with Marsiglio in the reforming work. * He 
 denied that the Pope was a spiritual autocrat, and 
 indeed asserted that in some respects the Emperor — 
 the State — was his judge. Popes are fallible, he 
 declared, and so are general councils, and the assembly 
 of the faithful should be constituted both of clergy 
 and laity, men and women. He seems to go to 
 Scripture as his final authority; but the Pope is the 
 exponent of the whole Church, though appeal is always 
 
24 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 open to the Church, the whole society of Christian 
 believers. Marsiglio is certain as to this final arbiter, 
 while Ockham hesitates. 
 
 f William of Ockham was a thorough scholasticist, and 
 was the real father of Wycliffe. He advocated an im- 
 mediate return to evangelical poverty, and both he and 
 Marsiglio were in essence Socialists. When Gregory XL, 
 in taking his first cognisance of the views of John 
 Wycliffe, declared that they contained the doctrine of 
 "Defensor Pads," " doctrinam indoctam damnatae 
 memorise Marsilii de Padua," he only stated what was 
 the fact, that Marsiglio de Padua, along with John of 
 Jandun his collaborateur, and William of Ockham, were 
 the orginators of that doctrine which found its expression 
 in Wycliffe, and finally its triumphant assertion in the 
 Reformation of Europe. ' 
 
 Previous to Wycliffe's reforming movement, there 
 had been in England several strong efforts, both civil 
 and religious, in the same direction. From the hour 
 that King John made over England as the property of 
 the Pope, the national spirit — of nobles and people 
 alike — became changed. In Magna Charta, which laid 
 down a clear statement of the liberty of the nation 
 and of the subject, the papal claim to England is 
 ignored : and King John himself in his letter to the 
 Pope declares that the revolt of the earls and barons 
 was caused by his own act of submission to the Holy 
 See. From the start of the thirteenth century, besides, 
 the Saxon element in the nation began to assert 
 itself as against the Norman influence, and English 
 national feeling became every day more consolidated. 
 In 1231 there was even a secret alliance between 
 nobles and priests which demanded that the chapters 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 25 
 
 of cathedrals and abbeys should refuse to pay taxes 
 to Rome. Not only priests, but a prelate, even a 
 cardinal — the papal legate Otho, were menaced for 
 doing so. It was in 1240 that Cardinal Otho had to 
 face an insurrection of Oxford students who evinced 
 strong feeling against Roman imposts; while in a 
 letter to Gregory ix. the nobles protested against the 
 violation of their rights of ecclesiastical patronage, 
 and prelates at various times complained to papal 
 legates, and even directly to the Pope, against the 
 usurpations and oppressions of the Holy See. 
 
 Of those who, inside the Church, made this anti- 
 papal stand, Robert Grossetete, bishop of Lincoln, was 
 one of the most outstanding. Wycliffe reverenced 
 his name, not only as a scholar " who was in possession 
 of all the sciences," as a saint who never took a step 
 save after an arduous wrestle with his conscience, but 
 as a patriot who desired England's well-being and 
 peace. He introduced many measures of reform, — 
 the better observance of Sundays, holy days and 
 festivals, personal visitation of monasteries, and the 
 improvement of cathedral Chapters. His whole life 
 was a series of conflicts with wrong-doing and wrong- 
 doers, and his great aim was to preserve in all things 
 a good conscience. He preached regularly in his 
 diocesan visitations to the clergy, and urged them to do 
 the same to their parishioners. He earnestly laboured 
 for the moral and religious elevation of the pastoral 
 office, and exercised much discrimination in selecting 
 and preparing them for the holy ministry. 
 
 He favoured the friars, who were then filled with 
 the zeal and enthusiasm of a first love, and often 
 declared that the glory of God and the salvation of 
 
26 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 souls was the great end which the ministry, whether 
 parochial or mendicant, ought to have in view. 
 
 In a personal audience he submitted to the Pope at 
 Lyons a Memorial regarding the appropriation of 
 Church lands by monasteries, knightly orders, and 
 others, thus impoverishing the local livings of the 
 clergy, with the result that in many cases priests were 
 unable financially to reside amongst their people, the 
 charge being attended to by some outsider, priest or 
 monk, commissioned and paid by monastery or knight 
 commander. Through his influence all such appoint- 
 ments were declared null and void. By a system of 
 exemptions, however, obtained directly from the corrupt 
 Court at Rome, the reform did not come off" to any 
 considerable extent. Though well-stricken in years, 
 Grossetete, not to be outwitted, hastened to Lyons, 
 where Innocent in. was still residing in 1250, and, 
 though coolly received, pressed his reforms. This 
 appeal to the head of the Church is a frank statement 
 of what the Lincoln prelate believed to be the causes 
 of the Church's decadence, — evil-living priests who do 
 not preach the gospel, pride and avarice in Churchmen, 
 and a poor example set generally by those in authority. 
 The root-cause of all these evils lies, said the intrepid 
 bishop, in the Curia itself. "He who commits the 
 care of a flock to a man in order that the latter may 
 get the milk and wool while he is unable or unwilling 
 to guide, to feed and protect the flock, such an one 
 gives over the flock itself to death as a prey." The 
 making over of parish churches to monasteries and 
 other bodies, he insisted, could only result in the 
 neglect of the flock ; for " the cure of souls consists not 
 only in the dispensation of the sacraments, in singing 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 27 
 
 of ' hours ' and reading of Masses, but in the true 
 teaching of the word of life, in rebuking and correcting 
 vice ; and besides all this, in feeding the hungry, giving 
 drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, lodging the 
 strangers, visiting the sick and the prisoners, — especially 
 among the parish priest's own parishioners, — in order, 
 by such deeds of charity, to instruct the people in the 
 holy exercises of active life : and to do such deeds is 
 not at all in the power of these middlemen, for they 
 get so small a portion of the Church's goods that they 
 have scarcely enough to live upon." 
 
 This plain speaking was by no means acceptable at 
 the papal Court, and Grossetete was so downcast at 
 the result of his advocacy of reform that he meditated 
 resigning his See. But reviving, he recommenced his 
 practical episcopate, endeavouring to revive religious 
 life in the priesthood and the people of his diocese. 
 
 In 1252, he, after frequently addressing Parliament, 
 addressed a letter to the nobility and people of 
 England, complaining of the encroachments of the 
 Roman Curia, which resulted in the land being drained 
 of its wealth. The very year of his death witnessed 
 him engaged in a direct conflict with the Pope on 
 this very subject. Innocent iv. gave his grandson, 
 Frederick of Lavagna, a canonry in Lincoln Cathedral. 
 Instantly Grossetete resented the intrusion of a 
 foreigner into an English cathedral Chapter, even 
 though a nephew of Christ's Vicar. The Pope in 
 making the appointment had ignored the bishop and 
 addressed the Dean and Magister Innocent, the papal 
 agent in England; accordingly Grossetete addressed 
 them and not the Pope, and declared the appointment 
 to be a sin against God. The installation was delayed : 
 
28 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Pope Innocent was in a frenzy of passion ; but the 
 cardinals rather favoured Grossetete, declaring that he 
 was in the right, and was, besides, a man of such 
 personal piety and weight that opposition might be 
 dangerous. Matthew Paris in his History of Great 
 Britain gives a glowing account of the panegyrics 
 which were spoken on Grossetete by the cardinals. 
 He was annoyed no more, and remained at Lincoln till 
 his death, shepherding the priests and the people with 
 anxious care. He died on 9th October 1253, and was 
 buried in his beautiful minster, with its three great 
 majestic towers rising above him as guardian angels. 
 It was even said that on the night he died strange 
 beautiful music was heard being wafted across the 
 sweet fen lands with their autumn tints and soft- 
 flowing streams. Fifty years after his death, so 
 reverenced was his memory, that a proposal was 
 made for his canonisation by the King, the University 
 of Oxford, and the Chapter of St. Paul's ; but Grossetete 
 had been too frank and free in his addresses to the 
 Vicar of Christ to be thus honoured. All England, 
 however, regarded him as a saint, and no one reverenced 
 his saintly character and zeal for the gospel more 
 than Wycliffe. The common people spoke of him as 
 " St. Robert," and his influence as a reforming force 
 inside the Church never really died out. At the 
 Council of Constance in 1415, which ordered Wycliffe's 
 body to be exhumed and burned, Henry Abendon, 
 the Oxford divine, referred to him often as a great 
 Christian force in England. From the cloisters of 
 Lincoln Cathedral, overlooking the flat rich lands 
 watered by the Trent, the Witham, the Welland, and 
 the Ancholme, came forth an influence which purified 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 29 
 
 and ennobled all the diocese, and was wafted like a 
 sweet incense over England, to its spiritual refreshment 
 and growth in grace, — an influence which, as at 
 Bedford with Bunyan, is still felt, and has drawn forth 
 into the fulness of life many great and saintly bishops 
 and scholars, none more so than Bishop Wordsworth 
 and Bishop King, whose scholarship, devotion, and 
 piety have kept up the old tradition, while the latter 's 
 noble and intrepid stand for spiritual independence 
 raised him to a great position in the estimation of 
 all who have a respect for Christian consistency 
 and courage. Even in old age the flourish is there 
 still. 
 
 Henry Bracton, the first English lawyer in the 
 Middle Ages, was another reforming spirit in England 
 who sought to define the rights of the Church, more 
 especially in the matter of patronage. Grossetete had 
 only been dead a few years, when questions arose be- 
 tween the barons and the Church as to property, 
 patronage, and ministry. The Pope professed to be 
 the head of the Scottish Church, and declined to allow 
 Edward 1. to interfere with his rights there. In 1301 
 the English nobles replied to Boniface vni. that the 
 kingdom of Scotland was not a fief of the Pope but 
 of the English Crown, and declined to allow the Pope 
 to intervene in the struggle between England and 
 Scotland. Edward addressed a long letter to Boniface 
 claiming the Scottish crown, and refusing and protest- 
 ing against the Pope's power to interfere. In all these 
 struggles against the presumption and pretensions of 
 1 he Roman Curia, Henry Bracton had a large place, and 
 served the national cause ably and well. 
 
 Meanwhile English national and patriotic feeling 
 
30 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 was steadily growing. The Pope's "Provisions" for 
 foreign clergy in England were persistently barred. 
 Clement VI. gave to his two new cardinals " provisions " 
 to wealthy English dignities, and in 1343 Parliament 
 addressed the Pope and declared them null and void. 
 Both the statutes of " Provisors " and of " Praemunire " 
 struck at the arrogant papal claims. 
 
 But there was one strong personality who, not only 
 from his character but from his position, had some 
 influence in the national and reforming life of England 
 — Archbishop Richard of Armagh, Primate of Ireland, 
 to whom as to Grossetete Wycliffe frequently refers. 
 Richard Fitzralph studied in Oxford, and was a strong 
 opponent of the Mendicant orders. After being 
 Chancellor of Oxford University, he became Arch- 
 bishop of Armagh in 1347. He was a learned divine 
 and a strenuous controversialist, and in some English 
 sermons preached in St. Paul's Cathedral in London he 
 declared against mendicancy, and urged the duty of 
 confessing not to wandering friars and monks, but to 
 the parish priest. He blames the insidious and under- 
 mining efforts of the friars, and urges them to return 
 to primitive simplicity. Since the days of Grossetete, 
 who had favoured the preaching friars, the Franciscan 
 and Dominican orders had been pampered by the 
 Church, and had grown rich, idle, avaricious, and 
 corrupt. Hence Fitzralph's tirade against them. 
 Fitzralph's discourse produced a reply from Roger 
 Conway, an Oxford Franciscan doctor, who on grounds 
 of Church law and scholastic reasoning defends his 
 order to little purpose. In 1356, Fitzralph published 
 his Last Age of the Church, in which he declaims 
 against the sins of the clergy and the simony which 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 31 
 
 was so universal. Fitzralph, however, was a narrow 
 beholder of his age, and being attached to that portion 
 of the Franciscan order known as Joachimists and to 
 the Apocalyptic views of the " Eternal Gospel," he only 
 attacked what was suitable to himself, and did not take 
 a large and full view of the state of the Church. His 
 reforming sentiments touched only a very small sphere, 
 and had comparatively little effect. 
 
 Thomas Bradwardine — " Doctor Profundus " as his 
 age loved to call him — had a very different influence 
 both as to extent and power, and undoubtedly his 
 teachings had a direct influence upon Wycliffe. While 
 a student at Merton College he professed to undergo 
 a spiritual awakening, and, like Luther, found in the 
 Epistle to the Romans guidance to his soul in the 
 matter of peace with God. He believed and taught 
 that only the grace of God received by and working in 
 the heart can produce the fruits of the Spirit. He 
 accompanied Edward ill. into France as war-chaplain 
 and confessor, and exercised a great influence both 
 upon the Sovereign and the army, so much so that the 
 English victories were ascribed more to Bradwardine's 
 prayers than to Edward's valour. 
 
 In 1348 he was nominated Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury by the Chapter, but the King would not suffer him 
 to leave his person. In the following year he was 
 again nominated and the King consented, and Thomas 
 de Bradwardine was consecrated in Avignon on July 
 1349, being nominated archbishop by both King and 
 Pope. A week or two later, on 26th August 1349, he 
 passed away, at Lambeth.*Palace. His great systematic 
 work, Causa Dei, or " The Cause of God," has as its 
 main feature the discomfiture of Pelagianism and the 
 
32 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 glorification of God's free grace in the salvation of 
 sinners. In a deep philosophical spirit he proves the 
 sovereign power of God's free grace, supported by 
 Scripture and the early Fathers. There is no such thing 
 as merit : salvation is of God's grace alone. He clung 
 tenaciously to the doctrines of the Church, but threw 
 himself upon God to defend him in the position he had 
 taken up, founded on St. Paul's words, " By grace are 
 ye saved through faith : and that not of yourselves, it 
 is the gift of God." 
 
 The same cry for the free grace of God which found 
 its doctrinal and philosophical expression and exposi- 
 tion in Bradwardine's writings had popular voice given 
 to it in the famous " Vision of Piers Plowman," a great 
 popular poem which gathers up the hopes and aspira- 
 tions of the age. It appeared twelve years after the 
 archbishop's death ; and while written evidently by a 
 man of learning, he appeals to the heart and soul of 
 the English people. The Bible is frequently quoted 
 in its Vulgate form, as well as the classics and the 
 Fathers'; and tradition ascribes the poem to a monk 
 named Richard Longland of the Benedictine Priory of 
 Great Malvern, Worcestershire. The verses reflect the 
 scenery of the Malvern hills, and the life of the 
 simple agriculturists of the district. At once, as if by 
 magic, Piers Plowman became the type to the district, 
 and finally to all England, of a simple soul searching 
 for the light, anxious to be free of superstitions and 
 abuses, and with a spirit on fire for higher things. In 
 the homely language of the people he passes from 
 vision to vision, and like Bunyan dreams his dreams. 
 The vices of the Church,, the deadness of the ministry, 
 are all brought to light. Reason and conscience preach 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 33 
 
 their sermons, and in striking allegory the beauty of 
 holiness is portrayed. With bitter satire the worldli- 
 ness of the clergy is described, and the day of reform 
 and amendment hailed with joy. These ten visions 
 throw more light on the state of religion in England, 
 and on the aspirations of niany in the land who were 
 not hopelessly benighted or ecclesiastically tongue-tied, 
 than any other written documents of the period. The 
 aspiration of England is represented to be that of the 
 dying Gothe — " More light, more light." 
 
 It was long before the reforming movement took a 
 distinct form : for centuries there were only mutter- 
 ings and murmurings and mild protests. The idea 
 of separation from the Church was abhorrent, but the 
 abuses inside the Church vexed all good and pious 
 souls. The same hesitation has characterised many 
 in our own time, who, admiring the Roman Church for 
 many things, deplore, like Pere Hyacinth and the Old 
 Catholics, the wrong-doings of the mother : and many 
 a pious soul, driven by the Euroclydon of contending 
 sects and beliefs on to the Italian shore, has found there 
 on the beach plenty of stinking fish and unsavoury 
 carcases. The blue-eyed neophyte of the famous 
 picture either leaves the house to remain religious, or 
 degenerates into one of the fat, red-nosed, worldly 
 schemers who occupy the stalls beside him. 
 
 The danger of the position has all along lain in the 
 infallible claims and exclusive and solitary position 
 demanded by the Roman See. " Religious liberty," wrote 
 a leading Roman Catholic theologian in the Rambler 
 (Sept. 1851) — "in the sense of a liberty possessed by 
 every man to choose his own religion, is one of the most 
 wicked delusions ever foisted on this age by the father 
 3 
 
34 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 of deceit. The very name of liberty — except in the 
 sense of a permission to do certain definite acts — ought to 
 be banished from the domain of religion. It is neither 
 more nor less than a falsehood. No man has a right 
 to choose his religion. None but an atheist can up- 
 hold the principles of religious liberty. Shall I there- 
 fore fall in with this abominable delusion ? Shall I 
 foster that damnable doctrine that Socinianism and 
 Calvinism and Anglicanism and Judaism are not every 
 one of them mortal sins like murder and adultery ? 
 Shall I hold out hopes to my erring Protestant 
 brother that I shall not meddle with his creed if he 
 will not meddle with mine ? Shall I tempt him to 
 forget that he has no more right to his religious views 
 than he has to my purse or to my house or my life- 
 blood ? No ! Catholicism is the most intolerant of 
 creeds. It is intolerance itself, for it is the truth 
 itself." 
 
 Multitudes of official utterances from the Roman 
 chair might be given in proof of the claim advanced 
 by Roman Catholics that " Rome has spoken, therefore 
 it is," — "Ubi Petrus est ibi Christus." Manning's 
 favourite maxim was — " To the ' vox populi ' of the 
 day we reply with the 'vox Petri.'" But Pius vn. 
 put the matter for once and for all very clearly when 
 he wrote his encyclical of 5th February 1808 : 
 
 " It is proposed that all religious persons should be 
 free, and their worship publicly exercised ; but we have 
 rejected this article as contrary to the Canons, to the 
 Councils, to the Catholic Religion, and to the tran- 
 quillity of human life. 
 
 " Out of the Catholic Church there is no salvation. 
 The French system of indifference or equality with 
 
REFORMERS BEFORE REFORMATION 35 
 
 regard to all religions is utterly opposite to the Catholic 
 Faith, which, being the only one of divine institution, 
 cannot form any alliance with any other any more 
 than Christ can league with Belial. It is false that the 
 Concordat has recognised and established the independ- 
 ence of the Church of France, or that it has given a 
 sanction to"the toleration of other modes of worship." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Wycliffe's Early Surroundings 
 
 Although the Roman system had in Wycliffe's boyhood 
 
 overspread all England and Scotland too, the memory 
 
 of the earlier ecclesiastical rule had by no means 
 
 died out. Aidan, Cuthbert, Bede, Ninian, Columba, 
 
 Kentigern, — these were the names associated in the 
 
 minds of the people generally with the Faith of Christ 
 
 and its diffusion over the land. 
 
 That early Columban Church which lit a fire on 
 
 each side of the island, one at Iona and the other at 
 
 Lindisfarne, as if in token that the intervening lands 
 
 were theirs for Christ, was indeed a magnificent 
 
 example of obedience to the Master's " marching-orders." 
 
 St. Columba among the Picts of Scotland did what his 
 
 predecessors had accomplished in Ireland. Columbanus 
 
 — an ardent, earnest apostolic soul, went forth to France 
 
 and Switzerland along with his friend St. Gall, the 
 
 latter of whom spread the gospel among the Alps, and 
 
 was possibly the originator of that primitive form of 
 
 Christianity of which the Waldenses were the later 
 
 exponents. Columbanus having settled schools and 
 
 churches in the Vosges, advanced to Lombardy. 
 
 Amongst the Apennines, Agilulf declared his message 
 
 almost within sight of Rome, to which he owed no 
 
 allegiance, and founded the convent of Bobbio. In 
 
 u 
 
WYCLIFFE'S EARLY SURROUNDINGS 37 
 
 Bavaria, Clement with his disciples Sampson and 
 Yirgilius spread the Columban gospel; the latter 
 penetrated even into Carinthia, and eventually became 
 bishop of Salzburg. John Scotus Erigena succeeded 
 these great evangelists, and settled at Charles the Bald's 
 Court. Claude Clement, known as Claude of Turin, was 
 also of the same missionary army, labouring all around 
 the city which has given him its name, afterwards 
 founding the University of Paris, as John Scott, 
 surnamed Albinus, founded the University of Pavia. 
 In North Italy these Culdee missionaries had another 
 representative in Sedulius, afterwards Bishop of Oreta 
 in Spain, as Donatus similarly became bishop of the 
 Italian Fiesole. The Cisalpine valleys were the home 
 of the Culdee missionaries, who did much to give them 
 that primitive faith from which all-powerful Rome 
 could never shake them. 
 
 Penetrating even to Iceland and Greenland, St. 
 Brendan and St. Cormac planted the Cross, while 
 St. Aidan and St. Cuthbert from Lindisfarne set 
 themselves to conquer Northumbria for the Cross. 
 
 That Columban or Culdee Christianity was what the 
 Roman Church displaced, and it was what Wycliffe 
 wished revived again. A few words regarding the 
 methods of these primitive Culdees who preceded the 
 Roman clergy in Scotland and North England seem 
 necessary. 
 
 The abbot of each Culdee establishment exercised 
 episcopal superintendence not only over his own 
 monks, but over the whole district stretching for so 
 many miles like a girth round their church. It is, 
 however, quite an anachronism to project the modern 
 bishop into Culdee times, for Church polity was then 
 
38 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 crude and unformed. The one aim of these men was 
 not to elaborate a perfect system of Church government, 
 but to gather in something to govern. All other 
 questions were secondary to this — how to bring entire 
 Scotland in touch with the Cross. Towards the close 
 of this period the brethren of a community formally 
 elected a bishop for themselves and their district, 
 until the Crown, influenced by Rome, stepped in and 
 deprived them of this privilege. 
 
 The day of a Culdee missionary opened and closed 
 before the altar of heaven. The ancient ritual of Iona, 
 which the Culdees clung to with loving tenacity, pretty 
 much as England clung to the " Sarum use " for long 
 after Rome had become dominant, — consisted of 
 prayers, praise, and short extracts from the Gospels: 
 the Roman writers speak of their "barbarous rites" 
 and " special use," — pointing at the simplicity of their 
 rites. Very probably the " Hymn of St. Columba " — 
 which the Celtic clergy loved so much, that they said 
 their Master had it handed down to him from heaven by 
 one of the white-robed — formed a frequent act in their 
 common worship. It begins with praise of God and His 
 works : it then describes the angelic world, the material 
 creation, the stars and their motions, and then with a 
 sublime beauty passes to the description of the future 
 state — the glories of heaven, and the Paradise of God ; 
 concluding with an impressive picture of the Last Day 
 which will bear some comparison with the " Dies Irse." 
 
 The worship done, and the solemn blessing over, — 
 given by the grey-haired abbot to the kneeling 
 brethren, — the Culdee Fathers sallied forth in twos to 
 preach and teach the people around them. In misty 
 moor and gloomy Caledonian glen, — in the little 
 
WYCLIFFE'S EARLY SURROUNDINGS 39 
 
 Pictish towns and by the shore of the restless sea — 
 these heralds of Christ were to be seen and heard. 
 They were not unlike the old Druidical priests either 
 in appearance or in their solitary manner of life : their 
 hermit spirits roamed and dwelt apart. Their language 
 would glow with Celtic fervour as they discoursed to 
 the little circle of Picts gathered round them, of death, 
 judgment, heaven, hell, God's power, and Christ's 
 salvation. There is a very strong resemblance between 
 Ossian's poetry and St. Columba's hymn. Doubtless 
 the same picturesque glowing imagery characterised 
 their preaching. Strong in their convictions, brave 
 in their endeavours, constant in their aim, unflinching 
 in their self-denial, they cared not to whom they 
 spoke of Christ and the Cross. They preached even 
 in the Court, and brought kings not only to worship 
 at the feet of the King of kings, like the wise men of 
 the East, but like them to offer gifts. 
 
 Indeed, the North of England and Scotland went 
 hand in hand in religious matters, were converted and 
 christianised mainly by the same missionaries, and as 
 a matter of fact were for long, even after the Roman 
 rule triumphed, ecclesiastically one. The bishops of 
 Scotland were until the year 1472 under the primacy 
 of the Archbishop of York, which explains very 
 vividly the uneven division of England into the two 
 Archdioceses of Canterbury and York, — the latter 
 having been shorn of half its domain by the erection 
 of St. Andrews in 1472 into a metropolitan See 
 independent of York, thus finally severing the Scottish 
 Church from the English. Hence to-day the Canterbury 
 prelate is "primate of all England," whereas the 
 distinguished Scotsman who to-day adorns the See of 
 
40 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Eboracum is only "primate of England" — a title 
 pointing to the loss of his pristine designation sub- 
 joined to his Anglican honours — " primate of Scotland." 
 In a word, the island was formerly ecclesiastically 
 halved between the two English archbishops. It is 
 true Pope Clement ill. made the ten Scottish Sees 
 immediately dependent on the Pope. " Scotland was 
 from earliest times," said Leo xni. in his Encyclical 
 re-establishing the Roman hierarchy in Scotland (in 
 shadow and in name, at any rate), " the special daughter 
 of the Roman See." Pope Gregory had allotted twelve 
 suffragans to the northern Church under the supremacy 
 of the See of York. Hungus in vain designed St. 
 Andrews to be the mother Church and See of Pictland, 
 — the home of St. Rule and the resting-place of St. 
 Andrew's bones. In 1125 the bishop sought the 
 pallium from Rome, and devised the complete severance 
 of the Scottish Church from any dependence upon 
 York ; but the jealousies of the other Scottish bishops 
 destroyed the scheme, and deferred the erection of St. 
 Andrews into the metropolitan See of Scotland until 
 the year 1472, when, on the petition of James III. and 
 the representative of Bishop Patrick Graham, that 
 owing to the wars around the borders and the dangers 
 attending a journey through the warlike tribes on 
 both sides of the Cheviots to the south, Scottish clergy 
 could not appeal in person to the Archbishop of York ; 
 accordingly Pope Sixtus IV., on 25th August 1472, in 
 the teeth of the entreaties and protests of the Arch- 
 bishops of York and Drontheim and the bribe of 10,000 
 marks to the King if he would abandon the scheme, 
 raised the See of St. Andrews into an archbishopric and 
 its occupant metropolitan of all Scotland, — a position 
 
WYCLIFFE'S EARLY SURROUNDINGS 41 
 
 which was enjoyed by hiin until Glasgow asked the 
 same honour and privilege, which were acquired only 
 after a very stiff fight lasting more than a generation. 
 The intervention of the Archbishop of Drontheim was 
 due to the fact that the Orkney and Shetland Islands 
 were ecclesiastically under the Norwegian Church, not 
 under the Scottish or the English. 
 
 The primitive Christianity and Christian Church of 
 Scotland and northern England were ousted by Rome 
 only after prolonged struggle and sustained opposition. 
 The Whitby conference of A.D. 664<, to settle the dis- 
 pute between the English and Scottish clergy as to the 
 date of Easter and the form of the tonsure, when 
 St. Colman and his friends, following the Columban 
 methods, were opposed by Wilfred and King Oswi, 
 terminated the discussion by declaring that he pre- 
 ferred St. Peter to St. Columba and Rome to Iona, and 
 when St. Chad, bishop of the East Saxons, fell in with 
 the Roman rule, that conference did not close the 
 debate. It was more than a debate : it was a cleavage 
 between two separate forms of Christianity — the 
 Roman and the primitive Columban or British.. 
 In 669, Theodore of Tarsus was appointed to the See 
 of Canterbury on the recommendation of Vitalian, 
 bishop of Rome, and all the Saxon prelates accepted 
 him and the Roman rules and discipline. Bede says 
 he was the first archbishop whom all the English 
 Church obeyed. Through the efforts of Theodore and 
 Adrian, the learned African who accompanied him from 
 Rome, and whom William of Malmesbury described as 
 " a fountain of letters and a river of arts," all England, 
 with its seventeen dioceses of Canterbury, Rochester, 
 London, Dummock (East Angles), Helmer (ditto), 
 
42 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Winchester, Sherburn (West Angles), Lichfield, 
 Leicester, Lindsey, Worcester and Hereford (Mercia), 
 Selsey (South Saxon), York, Lindisfarne, Hexham, 
 and Whithorn (Northumbria), became Roman, and 
 the British Church was to be found scattered over 
 England in fragments, sporadic cases of persons and 
 communities who preferred the Columban rites to the 
 intruded Roman ones. Wales remained non-Roman 
 so long as she held her national independence. In 
 755, Elford, bishop of Bangor, adopted the Roman 
 Easter use, but the Bishop of South Wales declined to 
 comply. In the middle of the ninth century, as is 
 narrated in a Greek Life of St. Chrysostom, quoted 
 by Usher in his Discourse of the Religion of the 
 Irish and British, "certain clergymen who dwelt in 
 the isles of the ocean repaired to Constantinople to 
 inquire of certain ecclesiastical traditions and the perfect 
 and exact computation of Easter," thus proving that 
 the Easter dispute had not been laid to rest even in 
 the ninth century. At last Wales was conquered by 
 Henry I., and Bernard a Norman was made suffragan 
 and bishop of St. David's, and the entire Cambrian 
 Church came under the jurisdiction of Canterbury as 
 Canterbury had come under that of Rome. The 
 Scottish Church did not succumb to Roman influence 
 until the eleventh century, when the Princess Margaret, 
 who married Malcolm Canmore, king of Scots, brought 
 Roman clergy and practices with her which in time,- 
 through royal influences and the lethargy of the 
 Culdee Church, triumphed over the native Columban 
 establishment. 
 
 Not, indeed, that the voice of the protestor was 
 silenced by that triumph either in England, Wales, or 
 
WYCLIFFE'S EARLY SURROUNDINGS 43 
 
 Scotland. All the old British and Columban practices 
 were gradually ousted in favour of Roman plain- 
 chants and ritual and practices. So late as 1240 a 
 protest was made by iElfred (Spec. Char. ii. 20) against 
 ritualism and ceremonialism, and this although he 
 was a dutiful minister of religion. Simon Taylor, a 
 Dominican friar of Dunblane educated in France, 
 returned to Scotland and reformed the entire musical 
 service, vocal and instrumental, of the Church of his 
 native land. Organs were gradually introduced, even 
 though the opposition in Scotland against the " kist 
 o' whistles " was as marked then as in a post-Reforma- 
 tion era. Alfred, looking out upon the rapidly- 
 advancing tide of innovation, cries out in distress : 
 " Since all types and figures are now ceased, why so 
 many organs and cymbals in our churches ? why, I 
 say, that terrible blowing of bellows that rather 
 imitates the frightsomeness of thunder than the sweet 
 harmony of the voice ? One restrains his breath, 
 another breathes his breath, and a third unaccount- 
 ably dilates his voice, and sometimes, which I am 
 ashamed to say, they fall a-quivering like the neighing 
 of horses. Then they lay down their manly vigour, 
 and with their voices endeavour to imitate the softness 
 of women; then by an artificial circumvolution they 
 have a variety of outrunnings. Sometimes you shall 
 see them with open mouths and their breath restrained 
 as if they were expiring and not singing; and by a 
 ridiculous interruption of their breath seem as if they 
 were altogether silent. At other times they appear 
 like persons in the agonies of death; then with a 
 variety of gestures they personate comedians, — their 
 lips are contracted, their eyes roll, their shoulders are 
 
44 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 moved upwards and downwards, their fingers move 
 and dance to every motion : and this ridiculous 
 behaviour is called religion; and where these things 
 are most frequently done there God is said to be more 
 honourably worshipped." 
 
 This protest against an increasing and arrogant 
 ceremonialism was made only about three-quarters of 
 a century before WyclifFe's birth. There were many, 
 both in England, Scotland, and Wales, who quietly 
 protested against much of the new Roman way, but 
 the protests became feebler and fewer until the era 
 of the Renaissance and Reformation began to dawn. 
 ( And doubtless the sacred memories and associations 
 of the great Northumbrian Church, — holy Lindisfarne 
 with its missionary fires, — sacred Jarrow with its 
 discovered and disclosed gospel, — Durham with its 
 memories of St. Cuthbert, who led the North like a 
 little child to the Cross, and who lies beneath the 
 altar of the cathedral as Bede lies underneath the 
 galilee,} — one at the east and one at the west of 
 the stately minster as if to show that the Scripture 
 and the altar are both needed to a complete life and 
 being, — all these and many more were the atmosphere 
 breathed by young Wycliffe at Spresswell and 
 Egglestone. ) 
 
 In 1827, in order to satisfy a general and natural 
 interest and curiosity, St. Cuthbert's tomb in Durham 
 Cathedral was opened and the coffin-lid removed, 
 when his remains were found in a wonderful state of 
 preservation. A small Greek cross on his breast was 
 taken out, and, along with an ivory comb and some 
 embroidered vestments, were placed in the library of 
 the Cathedral by the Dean and Chapter. What 
 
WYCLIFFE'S EARLY SURROUNDINGS 45 
 
 happened to his body happened likewise to his spirit 
 and influence, which lived on through the years, and 
 was quick and powerful in the North in WyclifTe's 
 day : and what Wycliffe did was spiritually very much 
 what was done five hundred years later by the Durham 
 Chapter literally, — he took the cross out of its hiding 
 and brought it out into the light, from out of the 
 graveclothes of ceremonialism and the decay of a 
 human system. At any rate,' he is the direct successor 
 of those who rejected the mechanicalism of Rome and 
 thirsted for a pure, primitive, and active Church, with 
 an open Scripture as Bede gave it, and a simple but 
 beautiful gospel as Cuthbert preached it. > The Roman 
 Church after its conquest over the British and 
 Columban Church ostentatiously declared that it alone 
 enjoyed an unbroken descent from Christ's apostles; 
 to which the acid writer of to-day replies : " Yes, it is 
 a descent from them, and a very great one." The 
 Evangelical succession, however, never failed, though 
 it may have remained very quiescent and unexpressed 
 for two hundred years. It could not be otherwise 
 but that John Wycliffe was inspired by the memories 
 of the great heroes of the Northumbrian Church who 
 preached Christ in His fulness, power, and presence, 
 and changed the heathen tribes of the North into 
 civilisation and piety. ( In a word, John WyclirYe 
 may be claimed as the resurrection of an older faith 
 than Rome,— a resurrection which in time proved 
 triumphantly victorious ; and after all the old system 
 triumphed, though after many days and manifold 
 vicissitudes. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the earliest Reformers 
 within the Church directed their attacks not so much 
 
46 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 against any of the Church's doctrines, as against the 
 abuses and corruptions which had grown up within 
 the great organisation in which they had been reared. 
 The later Reformers, such as Luther, Calvin, and Knox, 
 assailed the entire papal system root and branch, but 
 the earlier reformers attacked only the corruptions of 
 a system which they naturally accepted as right and 
 true. 
 
 By way of contrast between the earlier and later 
 reformers, take the Scottish Reformation of 1549-1560, 
 as contrasted with the earlier movements towards 
 reform. 
 
 For several centuries after the introduction of the 
 Roman rule which ousted the Culdee, the Church of 
 Scotland was vigorous, active, and useful. And then 
 decay set in, as all over Europe. The philosophy of 
 the Schoolmen, with its mechanical modes of thinking, 
 crippled intelligence and checked inquiry ; superstitions 
 and unscriptural articles were added to the Church's 
 creed ; the religious orders and the parish priests, with 
 notable exceptions, became worldly, careless, and un- 
 spiritual. The abbacies and other lucrative posts in 
 the Church were presented often to Court favourites, 
 non-ordained persons who had had no religious training 
 or qualifications. Sometimes even a child was made 
 abbot to draw the revenues : the people associated the 
 Church with greed, deceit, and even with gross vice in 
 its highest places ; the Church itself acknowledged its 
 degradation, but confessed to its powerlessness to reform 
 matters ; and, finally, the crash, long foreseen, came, and 
 another Reformation was seen to be a necessity. As 
 the Roman ousted the Culdee Church, so now the 
 Roman Church was to be ousted by the Reformed, and 
 
WYCLIFFE'S EARLY SURROUNDINGS 47 
 
 the chief instrument in this great national movement 
 was John Knox, who shares with Sir Walter Scott and 
 Robert Burns the honour of being included in the 
 trinity of the three greatest Scotsmen. 
 
 The good and able men within the Church knew 
 and deplored the countless evils which were condoned ; 
 but the ecclesiastical body was tied hand and foot. On 
 the eve of the Reformation a council was held — in 1549 
 — for the purpose of reforming abuses; but, as Lord 
 Hailes says, " when a house is in flames it is vain to 
 draw up regulations for the bridling of joists or the 
 sweeping of chimneys." The canons of this council 
 recommended that a reader in theology should be in 
 every cathedral, church, and monastery ; that students 
 should be more carefully educated: that marriage 
 registers should be instituted in every parish ; and that 
 such regulations should be made as would remove the 
 suspicion that at death the estates of many persons 
 fall unjustly into the hands of the clergy. In 1551, 
 Archbishop Hamilton published a Catechism, in the 
 vulgar tongue, for the instruction of the people, and 
 other means were used to stem the tide of inevitable 
 Reformation. But it was too late, and the hand pointed 
 to the hour and the clock struck. The Scottish 
 Reformation came mainly from within the Church 
 itself, — from priests and people who were weary of 
 the mechanicalism, and worse, of the Church's methods, 
 and who sighed after a brighter day of spiritual liberty, 
 aspiration, and hope. The reforming movement was 
 strengthened by the blindness of the Roman Church 
 itself, which foolishly sought by persecution and death 
 to crush the upward movement. But the hour had 
 come, and a new development of religion in Scotland 
 
48 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 was clearly a necessity : the soul of the nation cried 
 out for a more spiritual religion, a purer Church, and 
 an intellectual awakening. 
 
 The spirit of Scotland on the eve of the Reformation 
 is well represented by Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, 
 who in his Satires dwelt upon the state of religion in 
 the land. In " Kitties Confession " he sums up the 
 teaching of the average priest of the day, — a summary 
 contrived by one who was within the Church, and 
 whose Satyre of the Three Estates was performed at 
 Linlithgow Palace in presence of the King, the Queen, 
 and the Court, of many nobles, bishops, and dignitaries, 
 and a multitude of commoners, — a remarkable fact 
 considering the severity of the reflections on the vices 
 of the time, and especially of the clergj^. The average 
 priest, according to Lindsay, summed up his theology 
 thus: 
 
 " He bade me not to Christ be kind, — 
 
 To keep the law with heart and mind, 
 
 And love and thank His great mercie 
 
 From sin and hell that saved me, 
 
 And love my neighbour as mysel, 
 
 Of this no thing he could me tell, 
 
 But gave me penance, ilk ane day [every day] 
 
 And Ave Marie for to say, 
 
 And Fridays five no fish to eat, 
 
 But butter and eggs are better meat, 
 
 And with ane plack to buy ane messe [mass] 
 
 From drunken Sir John Latinless. 
 
 Friars swear by their profession 
 
 None can be safe without confession, 
 
 And causes all men understand 
 
 That it is goddis own command ; 
 
 Yet it is nought but men's own dream 
 
 The people to confound and shame. 
 
 It is nought else but man's own law 
 
WYCLIFFE'S EARLY SURROUNDINGS 49 
 
 Wherewith they assail them as they will, 
 And makes the law conform there till. 
 Sitting is mennis conscience 
 Above Goddis magnificence, 
 And does the people teach and tyste 
 To serve the Pope, the Antichrist. 
 To the great God omnipotent 
 Confess thy sin and sore repent, 
 And trust in Christ, as writis Paul, 
 Who shed His blood to save thy soul ; 
 For none can thee absolve but He, 
 Nor take away thy sin from thee." 
 
 " He me absolvit from ane plack, 
 Though he no price with me would mak : 
 And mickle Latin he did mummle 
 I heard no thing but hummill-bummill. 
 He showed me nought of Goddis word 
 Whilk sharper is than any sword, 
 And deep into our heart does prent 
 Our sin wherethrough we do repent. 
 He put me no thing into fear 
 Wherethrough I should my sin forbear : 
 He shaw me not the malediction 
 Of God for sin, nor the affliction, 
 And in this life the great mischief 
 Ordained to punish whore and thief : 
 Nor shaw he me of hellis pain 
 That I might fear, and vice refrain. 
 He counselled me not to abstene 
 And lead a holy life and clean. 
 Of Christis blood nothing he knew 
 Nor of His promises full true, 
 That savis all that will believe 
 That Satan shall us never grieve." 
 
 In " The Monarchie," addressed by Lindsay — 
 
 " To faithful prudent pastors spiritual, 
 To noble earls and lordis temporal," 
 4 
 
50 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 he further sets forth his views on the need of reforma- 
 tion, and in " The Complaint of the King's Papingo " 
 [Peacock] he bitterly satirises the corruptions of the 
 Church, especially in the matter of the treatment by 
 the clergy of the dying. 
 
 The average parson of Lindsay's day is thus 
 pictured : 
 
 " The proud parson I think truly 
 He leads his life right lustily : 
 Forwhy he has none other tyne [trouble] 
 But tak his tiend and spend it syne [afterwards] 
 But he is oblyote [obliged] by reeson 
 To preach until his perrochion [parishioners], 
 Though they want preaching seventeen year 
 He will not want ane boll of beir." 
 
 This was not the opinion nor the outcry of an enemy 
 of the Church, but of a friend, who saw the Church's 
 danger and desired an awakening. Looking abroad on 
 the superstitions, pilgrimages, immoralities, and un- 
 spirituality of the age, he cries : 
 
 " Set up ! Thou sleepest all too long, Lord ! 
 And mak ane hastie reformation 
 On them whilk tramp doun Thy gracious word 
 And has ane deadly indignation 
 At them whilk maketh true narration 
 Of Thy Gospel, showing the verity. 
 Lord ! I make Thee supplication, 
 Support our Faith, our Hope and Charity." 
 
 The Reformation both in Scotland and England was 
 a wholesale attack upon the Church's abuses, life, 
 position, doctrine, and practices. It and the European 
 Reformation generally was- the outcome of these 
 centuries of muttering and murmuring against growing 
 
WYCLIFFE'S EARLY SURROUNDINGS 51 
 
 corruptions and new superstitions. The earlier Re- 
 formers never thought of leaving, much less of injuring 
 or destroying, the ecclesiastical fabric in society and life, 
 but struggled inside the Church to reform its abuses 
 and right its wrongs. In a word, the contrast between 
 the two classes of earlier and later Reformers is that 
 men like Wycliffe and the Lollards strove to bring 
 about a reformation from within and at the Church's 
 own instigation ; while the Reformation of the six- 
 teenth century was a general attack on the whole 
 system with a view to reconstruction on a more 
 scriptural and apostolic basis. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Wycliffe's Student Life 
 
 From where it rises amid the rocky picturesque corries 
 of Cross Fell in Cumberland, down through the fair 
 valley between Barnard Castle and Old Richmond, and 
 thence dividing Yorkshire from Durham until it pours 
 itself into the North Sea in an estuary of very con- 
 siderable extent, there are few rivers in England more 
 charming and beautiful than the Tees. Cross Fell, 
 where the stream has its source, is one of the finest of 
 the Cumberland hills, and the scenery of the valleys 
 around is indescribably beautiful, — with rugged 
 precipice and green valley and distant far-off view of 
 the mountain mists and lakes, which drew forth the 
 aspirations and eulogies of Wordsworth, Southey, 
 Arnold, and Ruskin, — a land of mountain and of flood 
 very like Caledonia, itself indeed only a rough, rude 
 continuation into England of the piled-up Scottish 
 Cheviots, thus throwing a great mountain barrier 
 across the land from Lindisfarne to Morecambe Bay. 
 The barrier of nature was not deemed ample enough 
 by the Roman legions, who inch by inch fought their 
 way northwards, driving the rude tribes in front of 
 them. These Cumberland bens and fells became the 
 refuge of many of them, while others fled to the 
 Cheviots and northwards. Hadrian's Wall, seven feet 
 
 52 
 
WYCLIFFE'S STUDENT LIFE 53 
 
 thick, built of regularly dressed stone, can still be 
 traced a little north of Cross Fell, stretching across the 
 entire breadth of Cumberland and Northumberland 
 like a great stone barrier to keep off the wild incursions 
 of the North. At Hexham and Newcastle the Roman 
 remains are numerous and valuable, the ditch, stone 
 wall and stations, castles and turrets being traceable 
 all along the line of route, while at Borcovicus one of 
 the fortresses still survives in very perfect preservation. 
 The second and the sixth legions built this gigantic 
 barrier, which occupies three thousand acres, and took 
 several years to build by the twelve thousand soldiers 
 employed. A curious and unique passage in Procopius 
 describes the Roman legionaries' impressions of the 
 land beyond the wall and the southern parts below the 
 Tees : " Moreover, in this isle of Brittia, men of ancient 
 time built a long wall, cutting off a great portion of 
 it : for the soil, and the men, and all other things are 
 not alike on both sides. For on the eastern (southern) 
 side of the wall there is a wholesomeness of air in 
 conformity with the seasons, moderately warm in 
 summer and cool in winter. Many men inhabit here 
 living much as other men. The trees with their 
 appropriate fruits flourish in season, and their corn- 
 lands are as productive as others; and the district 
 appears sufficiently fertilised by streams. But on the 
 western (northern) side all is different, insomuch, 
 indeed, that it would be impossible for a man to live 
 the^3 even half an hour. Vipers and serpents in- 
 numerable, with all other kinds of wild beasts, infest 
 that place; and what is most strange, the natives 
 affirm that if any one passing that wall should proceed 
 to the other side, he would die immediately, — unable 
 
54 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 to endure the unwholesome ness of the atmosphere, 
 death also attacking such beasts as go thither, destroys 
 them. They say that the souls of men departed are 
 always conducted to this place ; but in what manner 
 I will explain immediately, having frequently heard it 
 from men of that region, relating it most seriously, 
 although I would rather ascribe their asseverations to 
 a certain dreamy faculty which possesses them." 
 
 Written in the sixth century soon after the Roman 
 legions had abandoned Britain in order to return to 
 the defence of the Eternal City, the Byzantine historian 
 gathers up the fearful stories and terrible tales of the 
 Britain beyond Hadrian's Wall, which to him was the 
 " ultima Thule " of being. Strange that he should 
 describe the Roman legionary peering into the mist 
 and darkness beyond the wall with superstitious and 
 supernatural curiosity, when the Emperor whose name 
 is borne by the gigantic barrier did something similar 
 in the spiritual world, addressing his soul at his life's 
 close as "animula, blandula, vagula," and wondering 
 how possibly the " vital spark of heavenly flame " could 
 live in the darkness and dimness and mystery of the 
 unseen. Hobbes' dying speech — " Now for a jump 
 into the great Perhaps," and Newman's Dream of 
 Gerontius, conjure up the vision from the wall of the 
 half-Christian Emperor and the never-ceasing gaze of 
 Humanity into the great Unknown Land. 
 
 To Wycliffe another view besides that presented 
 itself, — the vision of the unfulfilled spiritual aspirations 
 of his island-nation. Like Dante and the other 
 Renaissance spirits, his eyes were strained in peering 
 into the good time coming and the long-hoped for 
 Golden Age and reign of Truth and Love. Clouds and 
 
WYCLJFFE'S STUDENT LIFE 55 
 
 darkness rolled blackly in front of him, as black as the 
 dank mists beyond the wall he must have known so 
 well ; but, as " the morning star of the Reformation," 
 he led the way into the dimness of an unpropitious 
 future, and himself was the first to break into the 
 blackness and proclaim the new era of intellectual, 
 spiritual, and moral liberty. 
 
 The northern part of England, however, with which 
 Wycliffe's name is associated, has other elements of 
 interest connected with it as bearing on the early 
 reformer's boyhood and training. The scenery of the 
 Tees valley, with the background of the massive 
 Western mountain systems, and the rich verdure of the 
 pastures clothing the river on either side, has not lost 
 its attraction and charm even to-day, when a few hours 
 suffice to land one at the foot of the great St. Bernard 
 and five days to cross to the New World. Barnard 
 Castle is to-day in ruins, standing at the north ex- 
 tremity of Barnard town and the river ; but even in 
 decay it rises a majestic object of historic interest and 
 an imposing Warden of the Tees valley. In W T ycliffe's 
 day the Castle was the greatest and most powerful 
 after Durham, where the prince-bishop held his court 
 and wielded both crozier and sceptre. The ruins 
 to-day cover nearly seven acres ; and looking out from 
 the summit of the gigantic fortification which towers 
 up seventy feet from the bed of the Tees and com- 
 mands a view of the entire vale, it is not difficult to 
 reanimate the old scene of feudal strength and 
 baronial magnificence. It was in the year 1178 that 
 Barnard Balliol, grandfather of John Balliol, king of 
 Scotland, raised the huge pile; and it is not without 
 interest to remember that these early associations of 
 
56 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Wycliffe with that powerful family were continued at 
 Oxford, when at Balliol College he made his mark and 
 won his fame, and finally became its Master. 
 ^ The village of Wycliffe or "water-cliff" in Yorkshire 
 (made famous by Marmion), stands between Barnard 
 Castle and Old Richmond ; and the chief family of the 
 place bore the hamlet's name, and had borne it ever 
 since the Norman Conquest. The manor-house of 
 Wycliffe in very few generations wanted a Wycliffe as 
 its occupant. J The village to-day is a trifling one, with 
 some two hundred inhabitants, a beautiful parish 
 church and valuable rectory, Sir C. Constable being 
 the patron. ( It was not exactly in the village bearing 
 his parents' name that the Reformer was born, but at 
 Spresswell, a tiny hamlet. The village stood about 
 midway between Barnard Castle and Old Richmond^ 
 which is not far distant from the present prosperous 
 town of Richmond on the Swale, with its huge castle, 
 one of the most majestic ruins in England, its great 
 keep, a hundred feet high, one of the most perfect 
 specimens extant of Norman baronial architecture. 
 ( Wycliffe was born ) not only r in a land where feudal 
 castles lifted their towers every few miles, as at 
 Barnard, Richmond, Durham, Alnwick, and royal 
 Bamborough,^but in an age when the Norman feudalism 
 and spirit were rampant. The Norman Conquest was 
 a matter of only two and a half centuries previous, and 
 the life reflected in Percy's Reliques was the life of 
 northern England at Wycliffe's birth. 
 
 Two members of a family of this name were con- 
 spicuous in the wars with Scotland. During the early 
 part of the reign of Edward the Third, Robert de 
 Wyclif (who is described as of the wapentake of 
 
WYCLIFFE'S STUDENT LIFE 57 
 
 Gilling) was commissioned by the King to raise troops 
 to repel Robert Bruce. In 1334 and during the 
 following ten years, writs to the same effect were 
 frequently addressed to Roger de Wyclif, who is 
 described as of the same locality. We find this 
 individual associated with the Vavassors, Maulevrers, 
 Markenfields, Fairfaxes, Scropes, and Darrells of York- 
 shire. (See Rot Scot i. 222, 287, 303, 369, 528, 653.) 
 In 1604 the Wyclif s of Wyclif ranked as gentlemen, 
 and were returned as recusants. (See Peacock's List 
 of Roman Catholics in the County of York, p. 80.) 
 In 1635, Simon Birkbeck, "minister of God's Word at 
 Gilling in Richmondshire," writes thus : " John Wyclif 
 was born in the north, where there is (near this place 
 where I live) an ancient worshipful house bearing the 
 name of Wyclif of Wyclif " {The Protestant's Evidence, 
 ii. 71, ed. 1635). In all probability, then/ the future 
 Reformer came of a family of considerable antiquity, 
 which at the time of his birth was something more 
 than respectable. 
 
 The date of his birth is indeed very uncertain. He 
 died in 1384, and could not then have been younger 
 than sixty ; and accordingly a date somewhere about 
 1324 or a little earlier is usually accepted as a con- 
 venient and probable year for the rise in Teesdale of 
 the morning star of the Reformation. Probably he 
 was baptized in the old parish church of Wycliffe : his 
 father was a scion of the house of Wycliffe, although 
 nothing can be traced of his rank and profession in 
 life. The family records contain no reference to the 
 Reformer, and the family all through were staunch 
 adherents of the Roman faith. A similar dimness 
 surrounds the Reformer's early training and education. 
 
58 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Probably he received his earliest instructions at the 
 Abbey of Egglestone, a few miles up the valley from 
 Spresswell, near Rokeby^ where the Tees and the 
 Greta unite, and wiiere, amid scenery of surpassing 
 loveliness, rises the old castle, which only ten years 
 before Wycliffe's birth was demolished by an army of 
 Scots who, encouraged by the victory of Bannockburn, 
 ravaged North England and devastated castle and 
 hamlet, — an incident made for ever celebrated in Sir 
 Walter Scott's novel. 
 
 ( Egglestone Abbey, though now only a perpetual 
 curacy, was in Wycliffe's youth a great and powerful 
 monastic establishment; and probably within its 
 cloisters he received his first impressions of life and 
 truth. ' The religious associations of the neighbour- 
 hood were very rich and precious. It is the land 
 consecrated for ever by the memories of St. Aidan and 
 the Holy Island of the East Coast, where even yet 
 St. Cuthbert's sea-stone beads and white, wild, ocean- 
 washed ducks, making their home at Lindisfarne and 
 the other isles off Bamborough, rendered illustrious 
 either by missionary saint or modern heroine, speak of 
 the sacred influences early at work in Northumbria. 
 St. Cuthbert's mighty influence was far from being 
 dead even in Wycliffe's day, for Durham Cathedral 
 with its three stately towers and wonderful beauty of 
 situation, bore and bears the name of the great Scottish 
 saint who lies buried beneath the altar, and whose 
 influence was a powerful factor for centuries after his 
 death, so much so, indeed, that at so late a date as 
 at the battle of Flodden in 1513 the English carried 
 in front of them an altar cloth used by him. St. 
 Cuthbert's Cathedral, Durham, one of two English 
 
WYCLIFFE'S STUDENT LIFE 59 
 
 cathedrals dedicated to Scottish missionaries, — the 
 other being St. Asaph's in Wales, is a very worthy 
 monument to one who first saw the heavenly vision 
 in the Tweed valley and was not disobedient to it, 
 and who from the day the fair young.-ehild under the 
 shadow of the Eildons bade him leave' his vain sports 
 and follow the Lord, was " modest' in the virtue of 
 patience and affable to all who came* to him for comfort." 
 The Melrose shepherd became the world - famed 
 missionary-saint. Not so generous in disposition and 
 gentle in bearing was St. Aidan, whom St. Cuthbert 
 his disciple saw Elijah-like ascending to heaven, but 
 who was the pioneer of Christianity in North England. 
 But in the annals of the Christianity of North England 
 Aidan and Cuthbert shine forth with a radiance all 
 their own; and in Wycliffe's day, when the Roman 
 Church had mastered the British for only some three 
 hundred years, the influence of these non-Roman 
 saints was still fresh and living and powerful. 
 
 If the purity and simplicity of the Faith proclaimed 
 by Columba from Iona and by Aidan and Cuthbert 
 from Lindisfarne, the holy isles on the east and west 
 of the mainland, drew the youthful student of 
 Egglestone Abbey to them and the Columban Church 
 rather than to Rome, there was another name and 
 influence in northern England which must have 
 appealed to him with even more irresistible force. 
 The Venerable Bede of Jarrow by the Tyne was the 
 first to give his native land the gospel in the native 
 Anglo-Saxon tongue. Csedmon of Whitby at the 
 • of the sixth century sang the "Creation," and 
 included much scripture and scriptural language and 
 thought into the evangelical oratorio which he prepared 
 
6o WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 in obedience to the angelic answer to his question as 
 to what he should sing, — " Sing the Creation ! " 
 Aldhelm, abbot of Malmesbury, who died a.d. 709, 
 translated the Psalms into the people's vernacular. 
 There were other " portions " of the Bible floating in 
 fragments amongst the people in written vellums and 
 dearly-cherished scrolls But it was Bede who, in the 
 last year of his life (a.d. 735), translated St. John's 
 Gospel into Anglo-Saxon. The scene of his passing in 
 the monastery at Jarrow, his urgent efforts to complete 
 the closing verses of the evangel even though the 
 death-sweat was on his brow and the death-dimness 
 on his eyes, has been made for ever famous by the 
 description of it by his amanuensis, who was none 
 other than St. Cuthbert himself. The last sentence 
 was in danger of being lost in the swellings of Jordan, 
 but it was finished, and with a " gloria in excelsis " the 
 first translator of the Gospel into Anglo-Saxon passed 
 into the land of everlasting song. " Thus died," says 
 Fuller, " this light in a dark place, and thus was com- 
 pleted the first English translation of St. John's Gospel." 
 ( Probably about the age of sixteen or seventeen 
 Wycliffe left Teesdale, and evidently, through the 
 powerful influence of the Balliols of Barnard Castle 
 near his native village, he entered Balliol College, 
 Oxford, and began that life of studious repose which 
 was to prepare him for his great work of reform. The 
 close connection between Wycliffe and Balliol College, 
 of which he was finally Master, was undoubtedly due 
 to the fact that John Balliol, father of the King of 
 Scotland, John de Balliol, was the lord of Barnard 
 Castle, and he himself founded the college by the Isis 
 for poor Durham scholars, as an alternative to receiving 
 
WYCLIFFE'S STUDENT LIFE 61 
 
 a flagellation at the doors of Durham Cathedral, about 
 the year 1265, thus adding a third to the already- 
 existing Merton College (1264) and St. Edmund Hall 
 (1233), the earliest of all the foundations. John Balliol 
 joined the standard of Simon de Montfort and the rebel 
 barons against Henry in., and died in exile in France 
 in 1269. His widow, Devorgilla, brought back his heart 
 to Scotland, and raised up over it the charming Abbey 
 of Sweetheart or Newabbey, some seven miles from 
 Dumfries. The embalmed heart, shrined in silver and 
 ivory, was carried about by her while she lived, on her 
 person, and at her death in 1289 placed in an aumbry 
 near the altar of the beautiful abbey which was the 
 outward token of her affection. The other monu- 
 ment to John Balliol's memory is Balliol College, the 
 statutes of the foundation of which were not compiled 
 until 1282, thirteen years after the Founder's death, 
 and which, still carefully preserved, bear the seal of 
 the devoted Devorgilla. No college in Oxford is so rich 
 in historic and scholarly memories as this, which has 
 given to England, Ireland, and the Colonies, bishops and 
 archbishops innumerable. It has been the school of 
 Stanley, Jowett, Adam Smith, Hamilton, Southey, 
 Arnold, Swinburne, and hosts of celebrated thinkers 
 and poets ; it is still the special home of students from 
 northern England and Scotland, as in Wycliffe's day ; 
 but it has no finer tradition — if, indeed, exception be 
 made of Cranmer, Kidley, and Latimer, who were 
 burned in front of it — than the pure-hearted, earnest- 
 souled student who with many privations journeyed 
 from its Founder's home beside the Tees to fight a 
 good fight, and both as student and as Master bring 
 lustre to the name of Balliol. 
 
62 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 So few details have been handed down as to his 
 early Oxford days, that it is extremely difficult to deter- 
 mine with any approach to accuracy what his exact 
 course was. Some early biographers declare he entered 
 as a commoner at Queen's, founded in 1340 by Robert 
 de Egglesfielcl, chaplain to Queen Philippa, Edward iii.'s 
 consort, who was a Cumberland man ; and the seventy 
 poor scholars who were to commemorate the seventy 
 disciples and twelve apostles of the Lord, were prefer- 
 ably to come from the North. Wycliffe was almost 
 certainly educated at Egglestone Abbey in the Eggles 
 domain, and it is quite natural to connect Queen's 
 College with the education of the Egglestone scholar. 
 There can be no doubt that Wycliffe resided at Queen's 
 at a later period in his university career ; but there is 
 little, if anything, to show that he had any early 
 connection with the House of the Boar's Head, though 
 it is undoubted that his later student days were spent 
 there. Merton has claimed Wycliffe as her own, — a 
 college famous for its ecclesiastical controversialists, 
 — Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, and Thomas 
 Bradwardine, who afterwards was elevated to the See 
 of Canterbury. Whether the last-named and Wycliffe 
 ever met is doubtful; but when at Oxford, Wycliffe 
 came under the strong influence of the writings, teach- 
 ings, and spirit of one of the greatest and most enlight- 
 ened of mediaeval prelates. * Whether it was Balliol, 
 Merton, or Queen's College which housed Wycliffe's 
 student life, at any rate he so distinguished himself 
 that Knighton, canon of Leicester, his bitter foe, said of 
 him — " As a doctor in theology, Wycliffe was the most 
 eminent in those days ; in philosophy, second to none ; 
 and in scholastic learning, incomparable. He made it 
 
WYCLIFFE'S STUDENT LIFE 63 
 
 his great aim, with the subtilty of his learning and by 
 the profundity of his own genius, to surpass the genius 
 of other men, and to vary from their opinions." ; From 
 his earliest days Wycliffe seems like the Scottish 
 Church (according to Wynton), " to have loved a way 
 of his own," — to have been an original, independent, and 
 fresh thinker, bringing into the arena of ecclesiastical 
 life a free spirit and a bold intellect. 
 
 Wycliffe seems to have been an earnest thinker and 
 a diligent student, imbibing the principles of Aristo- 
 telianism, the first system of the age ; and in his after 
 life he wielded with wonderful power the weapons of 
 logic and analysis with which his early training so 
 abundantly supplied him. He was also a careful 
 student of civil and canon law, and to some extent of 
 mathematics and natural philosophy. But his guiding 
 principle all through was the authority of Scripture ; 
 and even from this early period of his career he was 
 regarded as the "gospel doctor," bringing everything 
 to the bar of Scripture and revelation, as against alike 
 the teachings of the Fathers and the logic and meta- 
 physics of the schools. 
 
 In the year 1345 a remarkable event took place 
 which had a definite and direct effect upon the mind of 
 Wycliffe. A terrible plague broke out in Tartary, and 
 after ravaging Asia and Lower Egypt passed to the 
 isles of Greece, the Mediterranean, and Italy. It spread 
 even beyond the Alps, and every European nation 
 suffered from its terrible ravages. For two years it 
 wrought its havoc, and this was followed all over 
 Europe by a series of earthquakes ; and from June to 
 December of 1345, England was drenched with tremen- 
 dous rains. In August the plague was discovered at 
 

 64 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Dorchester and then at London, and, spreading, claimed 
 thousands as its tribute. Wycliffe was twenty-three 
 years old, and his youthful mind was impressed with 
 the tremendous epidemic, which not only cleared 
 villages and cities of their inhabitants, but even spared 
 not the beasts of the field. The whole national life 
 suffered, and even grave level-headed men declared 
 that the world had lost half its population. Over and 
 over again, directly and indirectly in his works, he 
 refers to this time of visitation and tremendous trial. 
 The physical troubles led to moral ones, and the whole 
 national character and morale became deteriorated, — 
 husbands being deserted by wives, children by parents, 
 and the people by the clergy. Rapine, lust, theft, 
 wickedness of every kind became rampant. In 1348 
 the scourge abated, but the effects of it remained with 
 Wycliffe, who ever after took a grim and despairing 
 view of the future of the human race, which is abund- 
 antly exhibited in his earliest work, published in 1356 
 — eight years later — entitled, The last Age of the Church, 
 in which in both a literal and an allegorical manner he 
 pictures what he believed to be the terrors of the 
 " last times," of " the pestilence that walketh in dark- 
 ness," and " the arrow that flieth by day." He pictures 
 these disasters as acts of providential vengeance on the 
 evils of the day and the defections of the Church. 
 The strong early impression of these national disasters 
 went with Wycliffe all through his life, as the death of 
 his bosom-friend did with Luther and Tennyson, and 
 as inversely the prospects of the arrival of the mil- 
 lennial year A.D. 1000 did with the divines of that 
 period. 
 
 The terror of the past and the fear of the future 
 
WYCLIFFE'S STUDENT LIFE 65 
 
 have ever been dominant forces in moulding individual 
 and national moral and religious life; and while the 
 approaching close of the first millennium stimulated 
 Christendom to repentance, reform, and service, — 
 witness the vast number of church foundations and 
 restorations which date from A.D. 950 to 1000, — on the 
 other hand "the dismal and harrowing experiences of 
 the past have often brought about the same purifying 
 and stimulating movements. Without a doubt the 
 terrors of the night and of the day through which 
 Wycliffe passed in the time of the plague and the earth- 
 quake and the flood, quickened his earnestness and 
 deepened his purpose. On the other hand, they also 
 filled him with more or less of an apocalyptic spirit, 
 somewhat akin to that of St. Cyprian, who in his 
 dream saw the vast amphitheatre crowded with 
 spectators, and Satan appeared on the arena, and, 
 waving his hand around the great belt of humanity, 
 cried aloud — " All these are mine ! " Wycliffe dreamed 
 a similar dream at this period, with similar effects, — 
 the uprising of a fresh spirit, and the resurrection of a 
 new hope, desire, inspiration, and purpose. And yet 
 there is a strong tinge of despair and apprehension in 
 The Last Age of the Church strongly reminiscent of 
 St. Bernard of Clugny's " De Contemptu Mundi," that 
 weird and wonderful poem of 3000 lines in which he 
 inveighs with bitterness on the corruptions of the age, 
 the decadence of civilisation, and the degradation of 
 the Church, the only speck of brightness in a great 
 smoky fog-land of invective being the charming verses 
 beginning " Jerusalem the Golden." So Wycliffe's view, 
 a century and a half later than that when the soul of 
 the Cluniac monk mourned over the sins of the age, 
 
66 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 and longed for the second advent of the Restorer of all 
 things, is that all is wrong, and that only the personal 
 return of Christ to purify His House will rectify the 
 age. In both of these Jeremiahs there is the comming- 
 ling of the voice from the cross with the voice from 
 the skies, — " consummatum est," and h rovrcu vma<;, — 
 despair as to man, and yet hope as to God. 
 i K In 1360 or 1361, Wycliffe became Master of Balliol 
 l Hall, 7 after wards Balliol College, founded by the Balliols 
 ; of Barnard Castle near his old home. * Ordained a priest, 
 I he was presented to the rectory of Fillingham in 
 I Lincolnshire, and resigned his position at Balliol, which 
 he held for only a short time. 
 
 But though the rector of the quiet country parish 
 of Fillingham, he was a frequent visitor at Oxford, 
 residing at Queen's College and prosecuting his theo- 
 logical studies. In 1368 he obtained from his bishop 
 leave of absence for two years to study at Oxford. 
 Later on he exchanged Fillingham for Ludgarshall in 
 Buckinghamshire, in order to be within nearer reach 
 of the seat of learning. } 
 
 While at Oxford he studied strenuously, and was an 
 active member of the University governing body. As 
 a Bachelor of Theology he gave lectures on Holy 
 Scripture, and even then declared that this was the 
 final standard of appeal in all cases of controversy. 
 
 In 1365, Wycliffe was appointed by Simon Islip, 
 archbishop of Canterbury, who has left his name so 
 indelibly associated with the city by the Isis/ Warden 
 of Canterbury Hall, a new college just founded by 
 him and absorbed later on in Christ Church. ) Islip's 
 intention in founding this college was to provide a 
 home of theological training for monks and secular 
 
WYCLIFFE'S STUDENT LIFE 67 
 
 clergy alike, and he gave Wycliffe the appointment in 
 recognition of "his practical qualifications of fidelity, 
 circumspection, and diligence, as well as for his learn- 
 ing and estimable life." Wycliffe had been a fellow- 
 student of Islip. "John Wicclyve" appears as the 
 Warden of 1365, his predecessor, Woodhall, a monk, 
 having been deposed. Though considerable dispute 
 has been waged as to whether this " John Wicclyve " 
 was the Reformer, the balance of proof seems to rest 
 in favour of the idea, though a John de Whyteclyve 
 or Whytcliff was at Oxford at the same time, was 
 patronised by Archbishop Islip, and presented by him 
 to the living of May field. It may have been that this 
 was the Warden of Merton and not the other ; but on 
 the whole there seems more evidence in favour of the 
 other view, which would make out that he who was 
 afterwards the Reformer was student and Master of 
 Balliol, Warden of Canterbury Hall, and afterwards 
 a resident at Queen's College. 
 
 { After the death of Archbishop Islip, whose name 
 still lingers round Oxford and the Isis like the breath 
 of the sweet-briar in the Magdalen court/ Simon 
 Langham, who succeeded him, removed Wycliffe and 
 the secular teachers from Canterbury Hall and gave 
 it back again to the monastic brethren, Wycliffe 
 retiring to Queen's College, where he remained very 
 constantly for several years, taking his degree of 
 Doctor of Divinity, and distinguishing himself by his 
 glowing and vigorous preaching. He went by the 
 name of " Doctor Evangelicus (the Evangelical doctor), 
 just as other scholastic divines were styled " Subtle," 
 " Angelic," " Irrefragable," " Seraphic," " Profound," etc. 
 Though Bteeped in scholastic philosophy, and drawing 
 
68 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 out his logical and metaphysical subtleties in his tracts 
 and pamphlets with wearisome exactitude and all the 
 deadly conclusiveness of the old Deductive Philosophy, 
 when he climbed the pulpit he seems to have rid himself 
 of Aristotelian mists and the brain-webs of the mediaeval 
 Schoolmen, and to have declared the divine word and the 
 holy gospel with a magnificent freshness and a simple 
 clearness and directness which were irresistible. In an 
 age when, through the pulpit excesses and absurdities 
 of the friars, preaching had degenerated into either 
 drivel or buffoonery, the Evangelical doctor refreshed 
 the heart of students and people alike by a fresh dis- 
 closure of the Person of Christ and His sufficiency for 
 the needs of the soul of man...--¥iras from his earliest 
 days as a student, Wycliffe seems to have aimed at 
 the restoration of a plain and simple evangel, ardently 
 proclaimed by direct and homely sermons, while at the 
 same time cultivating in his own life and habit the 
 most scholarly and laborious methods. Great as a 
 preacher of the evangel in nervous English and with 
 impassioned power, he was even greater as a subtle 
 doctor of the Church and a learned exponent of the 
 Faith. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Tiara and Crown 
 
 By the close of the thirteenth century the position of 
 the Roman See was finally established. Protest after 
 protest had been raised against the assumptions of the 
 Bishop of Rome. The Greek Church had long since 
 established its independent and rival organisation in 
 the East, and raised a vast ecclesiastical edifice which 
 denied the Pontiff entrance and recognition. Minor 
 protests came from France and Germany and even 
 from Italy. But the logical movement had to develop. 
 Having established the position of the Roman Pontiff 
 as St. Peter's direct and only representative and Vicar, 
 and claimed for him a special divine voice, the subse- 
 quent developments were almost a necessity ; and the 
 latter-day development of doctrine as explained by 
 Cardinal Newman left no other course open than 
 finally to announce the decree of papal infallibility 
 as declared in the famous announcement from the 
 Pope in 1870 : " We, firmly adhering to the tradition 
 received from the commencement of the Christian re- 
 ligion to the glory of God our Saviour, the exaltation 
 of the Christian religion, and the salvation of Christian 
 people, with the approval of the Sacred Council, teach 
 and define it as a doctrine revealed of God that the 
 Roman Pontiff when he speaks ex cathedra, or when 
 
 69 
 
70 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 in the exercise of the office of pastor and teacher of 
 all Christians, he defines by his supreme apostolic 
 authority any doctrine of faith or manners, ought to 
 be considered by the whole Church as possessing, 
 through the divine assistance promised to him in the 
 blessed Peter, that infallibility which the Divine 
 Redeemer chose to furnish to the Church when 
 defining any doctrine of faith or manners, and that 
 such definitions are of themselves unchangeable. If 
 anyone, which may the Lord forbid, should dare to 
 contradict this our definition : let him be anathema." 
 
 After such a definition, not only of papal supremacy 
 but of papal infallibility, one can well understand and 
 appreciate the mild protest of the Greek bishops who 
 republished the canons of the first seven oecumenic 
 Synods, — the seven councils before the great schism 
 between East and West, — when they declared in the 
 preface to the Book of Canons that " considering the 
 long period which has elapsed and the great alteration 
 of circumstances which has taken place in the West 
 since the schism, we need a line of demarcation between 
 those rules which it is now possible to enforce in or- 
 thodox Western Churches and those, however venerable, 
 which it is expedient not to insist upon. It would be 
 arbitrary to trace this line of demarcation anywhere, 
 except where the Holy Spirit through the Catholic 
 Church has already traced it, that is, between the 
 canons of the seven oecumenic councils and all other 
 regulations." 
 
 Papal pretension, exclusiveness, and pride were at 
 the root of the great schism, .and it was against the 
 same evils that the early Reformers struck. Pope 
 Gregory vii. carried these pretensions to a height 
 
TIARA AND CROWN 71 
 
 when he kept Henry iv. of Germany outside in the 
 snow at Canossa till he had been thoroughly humiliated. 
 " Germany," said Prince Bismarck in one of his famous 
 sentences in the Reichstag, "is not going back to 
 Canossa either bodily or spiritually" (Jack's Life of 
 Bismarck, p. 386), and followed up Pius ix.'s slight to 
 the German Parliament in refusing to accept Cardinal 
 Prince Hohenlohe as German Ambassador at Rome, by 
 expelling the Jesuits, limiting the Church's powers of 
 punishment and discipline and organisation, — the four 
 " May Laws " which amazed the world and brought to 
 an end all thought of the Pope overshadowing the 
 King in Germany at any rate. In England, Henry 11., 
 powerful and able King as he was, had to submit to 
 humiliating discipline at Canterbury Cathedral before 
 the shrine of Thomas a Becket. These two well- 
 punished Henrys are not the only instances in which 
 the papal rod was applied to royal persons on dis- 
 obedience to the Vatican decrees. The theory had 
 come to be accepted as correct and right that the 
 great Soul-Father at Rome was above all kings, and 
 sovereign of sovereigns. 
 
 The epoch of Boniface vm. (1294-1304) marks the 
 decline of papal ascendancy. Germany during the 
 period of interregnum after the death of Frederic 
 11. in 1250, refused the interference of the papacy, 
 and its claim to have a divine right over sovereigns. 
 France under Philip the Fair took an independent 
 national stand, and England under Edward I. did the 
 ie. The latter was in a position of exceptional 
 difficulty, for the tribute which a hundred and fifty 
 years before King John had promised the Pope in 
 token of the vassalage of England to the Roman See 
 
72 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 was still being paid. It is an easy thing to pass an 
 Act of Oblivion when it proves suitable and politic, 
 and to declare that properties diverted at the Reforma- 
 tion from sacred to secular purposes shall be allowed 
 to remain in their present tenants' hands under the 
 circumstances of the present day, and that the Roman 
 See no longer makes claim to England; but every 
 Roman canonist knows full well that by Canon Law 
 England is the property of the Roman See. But even 
 although King John had given his little rocky island 
 in the north-west of Europe to the Pope in a present, 
 there was enough national feeling left to face several 
 papal abuses. When Boniface by his Bull " Clericis 
 laicos" forbade the exaction of national taxes and 
 revenues from the Church revenues, Edward's plucky 
 and vigorous refusal to submit to Italian dictation 
 showed the growth of independent national feeling. 
 Even the papal tribute was usually very tardily paid 
 and always in arrear ; and Wycliffe wrote a State paper 
 about it ; and finally the English Parliament repudiated 
 it, and the Pope got no more. 
 
 In France the light between Crown and Tiara was, 
 however, on a larger and more important scale. The 
 same demand had been made by the Pope as in England, 
 and the Bull required that the Church and clergy should 
 be free of national taxation. Philip the Fair openly 
 refused to exempt the Church, and carried the French 
 people with him ; and, in addition, expelled the clergy 
 from all posts connected with the administration of the 
 country's laws, and appointed secular lawyers in their 
 places. The Faculty of Law was then in amazing power 
 in France, and was in opposition to the Pope, and edu- 
 cated the French people on national law and patriotism, 
 
TIARA AND CROWN 73 
 
 One difference, however, between the English and 
 the French clergy lay in this, that whereas the former 
 were generally blindly loyal and obedient to the 
 Roman See, the Gallican priests prided themselves, as 
 from yore they did and even yet to some small extent 
 still do, on their independence and national privileges, 
 and consequently the mass of them sided with Philip 
 the Fair as against the Pope. In 1301, Boniface 
 declared to Philip in a Bull that he had France from 
 his hand and during his pleasure, just as a previous 
 Pope had done to the English King John, and required 
 Philip to appear in Rome before a council. At Paris 
 the Bull was burned publicly, and in April 1302 the 
 King and Estates General met and drew up a remon- 
 strance to the Pope and cardinals. The Pope replied 
 by his famous Bull " Unam Sanctam," which declared 
 the supremacy of the Pope over all Christian kings. 
 The Bull "Clericis Laicos" merely asked immunity 
 from taxation for his Church ; " Unam Sanctam " put 
 the papal See into a position of authority over all 
 crowns, which the Bull " Venerabilem " of Innocent in. 
 confirmed, — the claim being made that "all things 
 are put under him," as representing the Founder of 
 Christianity. A friendly conference between Rome 
 and France was tried but without avail ; and, not to be 
 outdone in greatness by the Fisherman's successor, 
 Philip, who seems to have been fair not only in 
 appearance but also in his judgment as well as not 
 behind in the fighting qualities indicated by his name, 
 summoned His Holiness to Paris, and before the Estates 
 General threatened to have a general council gathered 
 in Paris to depose Boniface from his See. Seven 
 hundred of the university bishops, clergy, friars signed 
 
74 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 the appeal. French emissaries were sent to Rome, 
 and at Anagni, where Boniface was residing, hiring 
 soldiers from the rival town of Ferentino, they attacked 
 the Pope and cardinals. For some days His Holiness 
 was imprisoned, rescued only by an army from Rome ; 
 but the shock was too great for an aged Pontiff of 
 eighty-six, and one of the oldest in the long line of 
 "bridge-makers," and he died of fever or madness. 
 The Roman Chair was, however, thoroughly humili- 
 ated, and France was victorious ; and, finally, after 
 Benedict xi.'s short reign, through its influence and 
 power a French Pope, Clement v., was elected, and to 
 please France moved the Holy See from Rome to 
 Avignon, where, during the period described by Roman 
 historians as the " Babylonian Captivity," it remained 
 for more than seventy years — until 1736. The palace 
 of the Popes at Avignon still stands, grey and gloomy, 
 overlooking one of the most fertile districts of France, 
 and surmounted by a colossal gold statue of the Virgin ; 
 just as at Marseilles, a little farther south, on the 
 summit of the lofty Church of Notre Dame de la 
 Garde, overlooking the Mediterranean, there gleams 
 the great gilded Virgin holding in her arms a 
 colossal child-Christ, who lifts up His hands in bless- 
 ing over the blue sea and the moving fleets of the 
 world. 
 
 The Pope at Avignon became, however, for the most 
 part only a creature of the French Court, and the 
 jealousy of Germany, England, and other nations was 
 excited by the position of the Pontiff. When the 
 great schism took place, and there was a Pope at 
 Avignon and one at Rome, and even a third, it became 
 a national question as to which nation was to be the 
 
TIARA AND CROWN 75 
 
 nominator and guardian of the head of the Church. 
 The schism came to an end, but the religious feelings 
 of Christendom were outraged to see the head of the 
 Church divided. The great and magnificent idea of 
 one supreme spiritual head for the world was shattered, 
 and shattered for ever, by the divided papacy. 
 
 The assumptions and claims of the Popes prior to 
 the great schism were indeed many and great. As 
 Vicar of Christ, the Pope claimed the right of summon- 
 ing general councils alone, whereas formerly Pope and 
 Emperor did so conjointly. He alone had in his 
 hands to present the pallium woven of the lambs'- wool 
 shorn off by the Roman sisters on S t. Agn es Eve : for 
 this the Roman See received the most important part 
 of its revenue, and frequent changes meant heavier 
 sums for the papal exchequer. John xxii. was a 
 master of finance in this way. The Churches of 
 Christendom had been supposed to have freedom of 
 election of their own prelates, but this freedom degener- 
 ated into a farce. Appeals from various parts of 
 Christendom were more and more encouraged, and the 
 Papal Curia came to be regarded as the supreme 
 judgment-seat of the world; but, unfortunately, the 
 Roman Court was universally suspected of partiality and 
 corruption. The Pope's universal power of absolution 
 and dispensation — the " plenitudo potestatios," made of 
 no account all other decisions sacred and secular. The 
 right of the Roman See to exact taxation from all the 
 Churches of Christendom was oppressively carried out. 
 For two and a half centuries papal legates were sent 
 to various countries to exercise all kinds of commis- 
 sions, overriding all local authority. The Canon Law 
 had also been gradually summarised and codified, and 
 
76 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 the Isidorian Decretals were accepted, although well 
 known to be a forgery. And apart from the serene 
 and absolute authority of the Roman See, every prelate, 
 whether a native of the country or a foreigner, was 
 subjected to entire obedience to Rome, and he in turn 
 was obliged to take the oath of absolute and blind 
 allegiance to the Holy See. 
 
 In a word, the whole of Christendom had gradually 
 become bound hand and foot, heart and head, in a gigantic 
 organisation, every part of which was supposed to move 
 in entire obedience to the head of the Church whose 
 home was at Tiber-side. After Boniface vm. the 
 whole system broke down ; but the plan of a gigantic 
 Rome government had almost finally triumphed, had 
 it not been for the failure of the central figure. The 
 Roman idea of universal spiritual rule in succession to 
 the old imperial secular idea accounts for the vigour of 
 Milton's description of the Roman power, which, he says, 
 " is a double thing to deal with, and claims a twofold 
 power, ecclesiastical and political, both usurped, and 
 the one supporting the other." Well may Adam 
 Smith, in speaking of the Church of Rome, say it " is 
 the most formidable combination that ever was 
 formed against the authority and security of civil 
 government, as well as against the liberty, reason, 
 and happiness of mankind." The late John Angel 
 James truly said that its nature was " but a mixture 
 of the craft of the serpent with the ferocity of the 
 tiger." " How often, says he, " does it conceal a 
 demon's malignity under a seraph's smile." 
 
 If, indeed, the claim of the Pope of Rome is that his 
 descent from the apostles is exclusive, direct, and un- 
 doubted, then, judging from the characters of many of 
 
TIARA AND CROWN 77 
 
 the occupants of the See, it must in all faithfulness be 
 admitted that the descent is very great. Since St. Peter 
 there have been 297 Popes, of whom 24 were anti- 
 Popes, and one — Pope Joan — was probably a woman. 
 Nineteen Popes abandoned Rome, and 35 reigned 
 abroad. Eight Popes only reigned a month or less, 
 40 reigned a year, 22 for two years, 54 for five 
 years, 51 for fifteen years, 18 for twenty years, and 
 9 for a longer period. Of all this long line of " Vicars 
 of Christ," 31 were officially declared to be heretics 
 or usurpers ; and of the 266 remaining Pontiffs, 64 
 came to a violent end, 18 by poison and 4 by strangu- 
 lation. Apart altogether from the Popes who spoke 
 the infallible voice from Avignon, 26 others were 
 deposed, expelled from Rome, and banished. Six of 
 the Holy Fathers, in spite of their vows had children ; 
 while John viil, the successor of Leo iv., was, on the 
 direct testimony of Roman Catholic writers, a woman, 
 though absolute certainty is unattainable. She is 
 said to have been of English descent though born at 
 Mentz, and obtained the See by sinister arts, pre- 
 tending she was a man. The Nuremberg Chronicle 
 of 1493, written by Roman Catholics twenty-four years 
 before Luther's Reformation began, tells the entire tale ; 
 while Roman Catholic wits like the Carmelite friar 
 Mantuaw, made epigrams and witticisms regarding the 
 unfortunate slip in the moral way — "a very little 
 one " — which " Pope Joan " made, and in the ending of 
 which she died : 
 
 "Papa pater patrum peperit papissa papellum." 
 
 Urban v. confessed his fallibility, and allowed 
 himself to be censured by a council; while both 
 
78 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Victor in. and Adrian VI. publicly acknowledged that 
 they had sinned. One Holy Father declared himself 
 an atheist, and denied the immortality of the soul. 
 Ranke's History of tJw Popes, and even the records 
 of Roman Catholic historians themselves, like Lingard 
 and Platina, bear abundant testimony to exceedingly 
 frequent and sometimes most alarming absences of the 
 Holy Spirit from the papal chair. The history of the 
 Popes is the story of throned and crowned humanity 
 with a spiritual aureole round its head, and glorified 
 above ordinary earthly sovereigns with the halos of 
 another world ; and yet this is all that it amounts to 
 and all that it could accomplish. The world and the 
 Church generally have been thankful if they have 
 been fairly decent in their characters and moderately 
 just in their dealings; no more was expected, and glad 
 have they been even for such small mercies. 
 
 After his return from Rome in January 1875, the 
 late Cardinal Manning preached in Kensington Pro- 
 Cathedral from the text — " Mine eyes have seen the 
 King in His beauty," and somewhat profanely applied 
 the text to himself as having just returned from a 
 sight of and a visit to worthy old Pio Nono. "At 
 this moment," he declared, " the throne of the Vicar of 
 Christ is surrounded by his most inveterate enemies. 
 Humanly-speaking, the glory of the apostolic throne 
 has departed, and its majesty and power have been 
 overthrown by the world. At such a moment we are 
 reminded of the words of the text ; — we shall see the 
 glory of the Vicar of Christ yet again with all its 
 prerogatives." If the reference was merely to the 
 material glory and glitter of the Papal Court and 
 States, which Victor Emmanuel and the Italian people 
 
TIARA AND CROWN 79 
 
 saw fit to reduce, and which Garibaldi's sword sent to 
 the four winds, one can agree with the preacher or 
 not according to the measure of prophecy given to us. 
 But if his reference was to the moral and spiritual 
 power of the occupants of the Roman See in past ages, 
 one can only smile gently at the thought of some of 
 the " beauties " who have adorned the Chair in genera- 
 tions past. 
 
 The oath taken by bishop and priest of allegiance to 
 the Holy See is suggestive : 
 
 " I, N. Elect of the Church of N., will from this hour 
 forth be faithful and obedient to the blessed Apostle 
 Peter, to the holy Roman Church, and to our Lord, Lord 
 N. Pope N. and to his successors canonically entering. 
 I will not be of any counsel, by consent or deed, to 
 deprive them of life or limb, or to ensnare them by 
 any deceit or fraud, or to lay violent hands upon them 
 in any way whatever; or to offer them any injury 
 under any pretence whatever. Moreover, any counsel 
 which they may entrust to me, either in their own 
 persons or by their messengers or letters, I will disclose 
 to no one, knowingly, to their hurt. 
 
 " The Roman Popedom and the royalties of St. Peter, 
 I shall help them to retain and defend, saving my own 
 order, against every man. The legate of the Apostolic 
 See, in passing and repassing, I shall honourably 
 entertain, and assist in his necessities. The rights, 
 honours, privileges, and authority of the holy Roman 
 • rch, of our Lord the Pope, and his successors 
 aforesaid, I slicdl give all diligence to preserve, defend, 
 advance, and promote. Nor will I be of any counsel, 
 undertaking, or management whereby anything 
 sinister may itrived against our said Lord, or 
 
80 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 the said Roman Church, or whereby anything pre- 
 judicial to their person s. rights, honour, state, or power 
 may be plotted. And if I shall discover that such 
 be done by others, whosoever they be, or by their 
 procurement, I shall hinder the same to the utmost of 
 my power ; and as soon as possible signify it to our 
 said Lord, or to some other who shall inform him 
 thereof. 
 
 " The rules of the Holy Fathers, the Apostolic decrees 
 and ordinances or appointments, reservations, provisions, 
 and mandates, I will observe with all my might, and 
 cause to be observed by others. Heretics, schismatics, 
 and rebels against the same our Lord and his suc- 
 cessors, I WILL PERSECUTE AND IMPUGN TO THE UTMOST 
 of my power. When summoned to Synod I will obey, 
 unless prevented by some canonical impediment. I 
 will visit the thresholds of the Apostles every third 
 year, in my own person, and render to our said Lord, 
 and his successors, an account of my whole pastoral 
 office, and of every particular in any way whatever 
 relating to the state of my church, to the discipline of 
 my clergy and people, and, in short, to the salvation 
 of the souls committed to my charge: and I will 
 humbly receive and execute, with the utmost diligence, 
 the Apostolic mandates given in reply to the same. 
 But if I shall be hindered by any legitimate impedi- 
 ment from doing so in person, I will discharge all the 
 aforesaid duties by a trusty messenger, selected from 
 the bosom of my own chapter, and commissioned for 
 this special purpose, or by some other church dignitary, 
 or otherwise exalted person; or, these failing me, by 
 a diocesan priest; or, a clergy altogether failing me, 
 by some other presbyter, secular or regular, of known 
 
TIARA AND CROWN 81 
 
 probity and religion, and fully instructed in all the 
 aforesaid particulars. But of such impediment I will 
 give certificates by lawful proofs, to be transmitted by 
 the same messenger, to the holy Roman Church's 
 Cardinal President of the Congregation of Sacred 
 Synod: moreover, the possessions belonging to my 
 mense I shall neither sell, nor bestow, nor mortgage, 
 nor hurt in any way." 
 
 The theory of the Church of Rome, which had now 
 overspread the whole of Europe, ousted the native and 
 aboriginal branches of the Catholic Church, and imposed 
 her ritual and priesthood on all the lands of European 
 Christendom, not indeed without long and severe yet 
 unsuccessful struggle on their part, — her theory was 
 that kings and queens should be the Christian's servants, 
 and should do the bidding of the Church's head, 
 St. Peter's successor, Christ's Vicar, the Roman Pontiff, 
 whose Bulls and briefs, thundered from the Chair of 
 Peter's at Rome, were theoretically infallible and 
 practically omnipotent to the ends of the earth. 
 
 The dawn of Christianity found the Church a weak- 
 ling, hardly able to bear up under the fire of persecu- 
 tion and the blight of obloquy ; but years brought her 
 strength, and having lived through and lived down three 
 centuries of such persecution as has never been equalled 
 in any age and in any country, she at last by sheer 
 importunity and longlivedness won the approving word 
 of the Roman Emperor, and Constantine put the cross 
 upon his crown, and was proud to be called a servant 
 of the Crucified. Tables were now turned ; and, con- 
 ns of growing influence, the Church began to assume 
 powers and privileges which she never even dreamt 
 of claiming before. The fourth century found her 
 6 
 
82 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 dominant, and her prelates taking rank before the very- 
 princes of the blood : the splendour of episcopal robes 
 and retinues and residence eclipsed those of kings 
 and emperors. In the fourth century we find St. 
 Ambrose excommunicating a Eoman Emperor, and by 
 the power of the keys refusing him admission to the 
 sacred rites of Holy Communion. A century or two later, 
 and Pope Hildebrand asserts the absolute supremacy of 
 the Roman See over all others, and formulates that 
 High Ultramontane doctrine — that principle of the 
 perfect independence and sovereignty of the Church, — 
 of its right to direct and guide the State, — and of the 
 latter's obligation to protect and defend and aggrandise 
 her — which is to-day the strength and the weakness 
 of the Church of Rome, and which every day sees her 
 asserting more strongly and more dogmatically. 
 
 During the dark and Middle Ages, all cases of dispute 
 in whatever part of Christendom — whether between 
 nation and nation, prince and prince, king and subject, 
 the Church and the world — were referred to Rome as 
 to a final court of appeal, and her decisions were uni- 
 versally accepted, — her voice was the last in every dis- 
 cussion, — her judgment carried the day and closed the 
 case. History tells us of one Pope actually compelling 
 a certain King to recall his Queen whom he had divorced 
 and outlawed; and everyone knows how a century or 
 two later, at Canossa, the Roman Pontiff, having excom- 
 municated the whole of Germany for disobeying his 
 orders, kept the Emperor standing barefooted in the 
 snow, without a single attendant, clad in nothing save 
 a sackcloth robe, for three whole days, — till it pleased 
 His Holiness to grant him an audience ; and, having 
 chastised him with a scourge of knotted cords, to 
 
TIARA AND CROWN 83 
 
 release him and his Empire from the ban under which 
 they had been placed. The story of that humiliating 
 insult to Imperial Majesty has not died away even yet, 
 for nothing pleased Prince Bismarck better than to 
 retaliate by oppressing the Roman Catholic prelates of 
 Germany by the " Falk Laws," and to declare in their 
 teeth that " Germany is not going back to Canossa." 
 
 We can afford at this time of day to smile at the high- 
 flown assumption of authority and importance which 
 characterises the occupants of the Roman See : to-day 
 we need not care very much whether the Pope bans us 
 or blesses us : he may do either according to his own 
 sweet will: we shall not be much the better for the 
 one or much the worse for the other. But it was very 
 different in mediaeval times: the excommunication of 
 an individual meant isolation, detestation, neglect, 
 perhaps even death : the excommunication of a country 
 meant that for months or years no religious services 
 were held, no church bells were ever rung, no church 
 doors ever opened, no priests ever seen : the life and 
 the soul of the nation seemed utterly gone; — so 
 dependent was society on the presence and assistance 
 of Holy Church. 
 
 The papal ban in the Middle Ages was no light affair, 
 whether applied to the individual, the family, or the 
 nation. For a nation to be excommunicated was the 
 mast dreadful of calamities, as both Germany and 
 England had good cause to know. During the excom- 
 munication of King John and his kingdom for rebellion 
 against the Pope, no church bell rang, no church door 
 was opened, infants were unbaptized, the dead buried 
 in holes without a prayer, the statues and pictures of 
 the saints were veiled in black, and their relics laid in 
 
84 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 penitential ashes on the altar slabs. The year of the 
 papal interdict in England — a.d. 1208, followed by a 
 Bull of excommunication, was a memorable one for 
 England. The form of the Pope's most dreadful curse 
 which John brought down upon himself can still be 
 seen in the ledger-book of Rochester Cathedral, in the 
 custody of the Dean and Chapter, written out by 
 Bishop Ernulphus : 
 
 " By the authority of God Almighty, the Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost, and of the holy canons, and of the 
 undefiled Virgin Mary, the mother and patroness of 
 our Saviour, and of all the celestial virtues, angels, 
 archangels, throngs, dominions, powers, cherubims and 
 seraphims, and of the holy patriarchs, prophets, and 
 of all the apostles and evangelists, and of the holy 
 innocents, who in the sight of the Lamb are found 
 worthy to sing the new song, of the holy martyrs and 
 holy confessors and of the holy virgins, and of all the 
 saints, and together with the holy and elect of God : 
 we excommunicate and anathematise him or them, 
 malefactor or malefactors, and from the threshold of 
 the holy Church of God Almighty we sequester them 
 that he or they may be tormented, disposed and delivered 
 over with Dathan and Abiram, and with those who say 
 unto the Lord God, ' Depart from us, we desire not to 
 know Thy ways/ and as fire is quenched with water, so 
 let the light of him or them be put out for evermore, 
 unless it shall repent him or them and they make 
 satisfaction. Amen. 
 
 " May the Father who created man, curse him or them. 
 May the Son who suffered for, us, curse him or them. 
 May the Holy Ghost who was given to us in baptism, 
 curse him or them. May the Holy and Eternal Virgin 
 
TIARA AND CROWN 85 
 
 Mary, mother of God, curse him or them. May St. 
 Michael the advocate of holy souls, curse him or them. 
 May all the angels and archangels, principalities and 
 powers, and all the heavenly host, curse him or them. 
 May the band or the members of the patriarchs 
 and prophets, curse him or them. May St. John the 
 chief forerunner and baptist of Christ, curse him or 
 them. May St. Peter and St. Paul and St. Andrew and 
 all others Christ's apostles, together with the rest of the 
 disciples and four evangelists, who by their preaching 
 converted the universal world, curse him or them. 
 May the holy and wonderful company of martyrs and 
 confessors, who by their holy works are found pleasing 
 to God Almighty, curse him or them. May the holy 
 choir of the Holy Virgins, who for the honour of 
 Christ has despised the things of the world, curse him 
 or them. May all the saints, who from the beginning 
 of the world to everlasting ages are found to be the 
 beloved of God, curse him or them. May he or they 
 be cursed wherever he or they be, whether in their 
 house or in their field, or in the highway or in the path, 
 or in the wood or in the water, or in the church. May 
 he or they be cursed in living, in dying, in eating, in 
 drinking, in being hungry, in being thirsty, in fasting 
 IB sleeping, in slumbering, in waking, in walking, in 
 standing, in sitting, in lying, in working, in resting, in 
 
 p , in s , in blood-letting. May he or they 
 
 be cursed in all the faculties of their body. May he or 
 they bo cursed inwardly and outwardly. May he or 
 they be cursed in the hair of his or their head. May 
 lie or they be cursed in his or their brain, and may he or 
 they be cursed in the top of his or their head ; in their 
 temples, in their foreheads, in their ears, in their eye- 
 
86 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 brows, in their cheeks, in their jawbones, in their 
 nostrils, in their fore teeth or grinders, in their lips, in 
 their throat, in their shoulders, in their wrists, in their 
 arms, in their hands, in their fingers, in their breast, in 
 their heart, and in all the interior parts to the very 
 stomach : in their veins, in the groins, in the thighs, in 
 the genitals, in the hips, in the knees, in the legs, in the 
 feet, in the joints, and in the nails. May he or they be 
 cursed in all their joints from the top of the head to 
 the sole of the foot. May there not be any sound- 
 ness in him or them. May the Son of the living God 
 with all the glory of His majesty, curse him or them : 
 and may heaven, with all the powers which move therein, 
 all rise against him or them, to damn him or them, 
 unless it shall repent him or them, and that he or they 
 shall make satisfaction. Amen. Amen. So be it." 
 
 In addition to the greater excommunication, Pope 
 Innocent in. declared the English throne vacant, and 
 promised Philip of France a free pardon if he would 
 invade England and oust King John. The fear of the 
 French fleet and armies, and his distrust of the loyalty 
 of his own barons and people, whom he had so cruelly 
 alienated, brought him to his knees, and in Dover 
 Cathedral, at the feet of Cardinal Pandulph, the papal 
 legate, he submitted to his castigation, laying down his 
 much-soiled crown, swearing to be the Pope's faithful 
 vassal, and promising to pay as an indemnity 700 merks 
 of silver for England and 300 for Ireland, — some 
 £12,000 sterling, a much larger sum than the income 
 of the King himself. 
 
 Here then the old dispute of King versus Pope meets 
 us in a most accentuated form. It was an absolute and 
 unconditional surrender of everything to the spiritual 
 
TIARA AND CROWN 87 
 
 power at Rome. The question which was at the root 
 of the three years' excommunication was really whether 
 the Pope or the King was to have the chief say in the ap- 
 pointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury, — whether 
 Stephen Langton or John de Gray was to be installed. 
 
 The question has long ago been finally settled by the 
 Roman Church, which on more than one occasion has 
 through its officials and official organs declared that 
 England was papal property in jure. No one was 
 ever more careful or distinct in declaring the supremacy 
 of the Church over Kings and Emperors than the late 
 Cardinal Manning. In 1874 he foretold a great 
 European war, and hailed it as an occasion of re- 
 establishing the supremacy of the Roman See over all 
 civil States : 
 
 " The excited antagonism of the nations is founded 
 on a fact full of consolations. Instead of being alarmed 
 or scared or discouraged by the great sharpening of 
 animosity, and the great massing together of 
 antagonists, I look upon it as the most beautiful sign. 
 . . . Now, when the nations of Europe have revolted 
 and dethroned the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and when 
 they have made the usurpation of the Holy City a 
 part of international law, there is only one solution of 
 the difficulty, — a solution, I fear, impending, — and that 
 is the terrible scourge of a Continental war, a war 
 which will exceed the horrors of any of the wars of 
 the First Empire. I do not see how this can be averted." 
 These sentiments are substantially repeated in a 
 sermon on the Allocution, delivered by Cardinal 
 Manning, in which he stated: "I have no desire to 
 be a prophet of evil. For twelve months we have 
 hi! all the torches of war kindling in the East. 
 
88 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Whatever war is kindled will involve the whole of 
 Europe, and whatever war involves the whole of 
 Europe will involve, as it always has, in Christian 
 history, Italy and Rome. The world, at this moment, 
 under the sway of the Revolution, is being moved 
 to and fro. On the one side are the powers of anarchy 
 and usurpation, and they are all united in desiring 
 that Rome shall continue as it is. On the other side 
 are the people of the Christian and the Catholic world, 
 and the powers of order who believe in God. These 
 two arrays are marshalling and approaching nearer to 
 each other ; their collision some day is inevitable." 
 
 And again, in a sermon on the same subject, Cardinal 
 Manning remarked : " I must affirm my profound 
 belief that never will Europe return from the watch 
 and ward of an armed camp in which it is seen to-day, 
 with some ten millions of men ready to destroy each 
 other, until it has recognised the superiority of the 
 moral order over material power. And in the day 
 in which the superiority of that moral power is 
 recognised, the Vicar of Jesus Christ will sit once 
 more upon that pacific throne from which he and his 
 predecessors have created and sustained the Christian 
 civilisation of the world. ... I therefore sum up the 
 whole in these few words : Rome belongs to the 
 Pontiffs because God gave that city to them. Rome 
 belongs to you because you are Catholics, and it is 
 the head of the whole Catholic world. And it is the 
 duty of Christendom to protect that which is the 
 heirloom of the Christian Church, especially in this 
 time of trial, which will surely end in triumph." 
 
 The encyclicals and Bulls of Pius ix. in 1873, after 
 the temporal power of the Pope had been curtailed and 
 
TIARA AND CROWN 89 
 
 the Holy Father reduced to a state of " imprisonment " 
 in the Vatican, are full of the self -same spirit which 
 chastised King John in Dover Cathedral, and triumphed 
 over England until Wycliffe arose and challenged, 
 confuted, and to a considerable extent destroyed it. 
 
 In the old statute known as the statute " Circumspecte 
 Agatis," certain things are enumerated which are 
 declared to be " meer spiritual," as to which the King's 
 prohibition doth not lie. These are (1) penance enjoined 
 by prelates for deadly sin ; (2) also if prelates do 
 punish for leaving the church unclosed, or for that the 
 church is uncovered, or not conveniently decked, in 
 which cases none other penance can be enjoined but 
 pecuniary; (3) item, if a parson demand of his 
 parishioners oblations or tithes due and accustomed; 
 or if any parson do sue against another parson for 
 tithes greater or smaller, so that the fourth part of the 
 value of the benefice be not demanded ; (4) item, if a 
 parson demand mortuaries, in places where a mortuary 
 hath been used to be given ; (5) item, if a prelate of a 
 church or of a patron demand of a parson a pension 
 due to him — all such demands are to be made in a 
 spiritual court. And likewise for breaking an oath. 
 In all these cases the spiritual power is declared to 
 have power to take knowledge, notwithstanding the 
 King's prohibition. To certain articles in the shape of 
 interrogatories on this subject, the King answers : That 
 in tithes, oblations, obventions, and mortuaries, when 
 they be pleaded as before is said, the King's prohibi- 
 tion doth not lie. And if a clerk or a person religious 
 do sell his corn being in his barn or otherwise to anj T 
 man for money, if the price thereof be demanded before 
 i ritual judge, the King's prohibition doth lie; for, 
 
90 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 by the sale the spiritual are become temporal, and so 
 tithes pass into chattels. And if debate hang in a 
 spiritual court for the right of tithes, having his 
 original from the right of the patronage, and the 
 quantity of the same tithes do pass the fourth part of 
 the value of the benefice, a prohibition shall lie. Also, 
 if a prelate enjoin penance pecuniary to any man for 
 his sin, if the money be demanded before prelates, a 
 prohibition shall lie. 
 
 ( In 1213, King John of England, after his kingdom 
 had been under this excommunication for three years, 
 pledged himself, if the ban were removed, to make 
 over the realm of England to the Pope, to hold it 
 in vassalage to the Popedom, and in token of this 
 to pay annually £12,000 as rent, — a much larger sum 
 than the income of the King himself. For more than 
 a hundred years this rent was irregularly paid; but 
 in 1366, when Wycliffe steps on the scene, it had not 
 been transmitted for thirty-three years. ' The seat 
 of the Pope had been removed from Rome to Avignon 
 so as to be under French protection, the reigning Pope 
 being a Frenchman. England having been at war 
 with France, and having beaten her at Cressy and 
 Poitiers, was therefore very loth to owe allegiance to 
 a French Pontiff', much less to forward the annual 
 remittance. Pope Urban v., however, had the effrontery 
 to apply to Edward in. not only for that year's tribute, 
 but for all the arrears. c The King's Council discussed 
 the matter: Wycliffe, who as royal chaplain had a 
 place in that council, and who in.a tract records the dis- 
 cussion, objected to the payment of anything whatever, 
 on the ground that King John had no right to subject the 
 country to that tax without the consent of Parliament, 
 
TIARA AND CROWN 91 
 
 and denied the papal claim that Church property was 
 inalienable. The result was that the Council resolved 
 to support the King and to reject the Pope's claim. 
 
 Wycliffe wrote a tractate giving an elaborate account 
 of the discussion in the King's Council, — the first 
 existing report of a debate in the Parliament of 
 England, though, of course, not an unbiassed and im- 
 partial minute of the transactions, — when seven barons 
 stated reasons against the payment of the tribute. 
 The first, a military baron, appealed to force. " Our 
 ancestors won this realm, and held it against all foes 
 by the sword. Let the Pope come and take his tribute 
 by force, if he can ; I am ready to stand up and resist 
 him." The second reasoned on the grounds of true 
 spiritual lordship : " It has nothing to do with feudal 
 supremacy. Christ refused all secular authority ; the 
 foxes had holes, the birds of the air had nests, but He had 
 not where to lay His head. Let us bid the Pope to follow 
 his Master, and steadfastly oppose his claims to civil 
 power." The third appealed to the conditions of such 
 a subsidy for service done, and virtually said that the 
 subsidy was not earned by the Roman See : " The 
 Pope calls himself Servant of the servants of the Most 
 High ; but what is his service to this realm ? Not 
 spiritual edification, but the absorption of our treasure 
 to enrich himself and his Court, while he shows favour 
 and counsel to our enemies." The fourth reasoned 
 from the idea of suzerainty : " The Church estates 
 amount to one-third of this realm; the Pope for these 
 estates is the King's vassal, and ought to do homage 
 to him." The fifth argued that "to demand money 
 as tl of John's absolution was flagrant simony; 
 
 to grant it, therefore, was an irreligious act, especially 
 
92 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 at the cost of the poor of the realm." The sixth 
 boldly denounced the bargain as infamous : " If the 
 kingdom were the Pope's, what right had he to alienate 
 it, and that for not a fifth part of the value ? More- 
 over, Christ alone is Suzerain : the Pope, being fallible, 
 may be in mortal sin. Like the kings of old, let 
 Edward hold the realm immediately of Christ." The 
 last took his stand upon the incompetence of John to 
 surrender the realm : " He could not grant it away 
 in his folly ; the whole transaction was null and void." 
 These views of Wycliffe regarding the right of the 
 Pope to levy the subsidy have a double interest, as 
 showing the opposition of a section of Englishmen to 
 Rome as a political and financial machine while loyally 
 upholding her faith and doctrine. The question of 
 doctrine had not yet taken such a hold of Wycliffe's 
 mind: all he fought for at present was the justice of 
 his nation's case and position against the greed of 
 Urban v. The result of the discussion before Edward 
 in. was that ( the English barons sided with Wycliffe, 
 and the Commons uniting with them, refused point- 
 blank to pay the tribute of 1000 marks annually, 
 declaring unanimously that neither King John nor 
 any other sovereign had power thus to subject the 
 realm of England without consent of Parliament , that 
 such consent had not been obtained ; and that, passing 
 over other difficulties, the whole transaction on the 
 part of the King was a violation of the oath which he 
 had taken on receiving his crown." The Parliament 
 further resolved that, " should the Pope commence his 
 threatened process against the King of England as 
 his vassal, all possible aid should be rendered, that such 
 usurpation might be effectually resisted." 
 

 TIARA AND CROWN 93 
 
 It was a remarkably bold step, and had all been 
 right and united at the Vatican, the consequences 
 might have been serious for England. But there was 
 a divided papacy, and a bankrupt sat in the Chair at 
 Rome. Further, England was rapidly becoming con- 
 solidated as a nation, and Normans and Saxons were 
 commingling as they had never done before, and the 
 English nation was gradually arising out of the 
 struggles and chaos and darkness of the Middle Ages. 
 England as a great united nation makes its appearance, 
 looking more to the King than to the Pope, and loyal 
 to the national throne rather than to the chairman of) 
 an Italian religious syndicate. 
 
 Wycliffe's triumph in 1366 in carrying King, barons, 
 
 Commons, and nation with him, and refusing to pay 
 
 either in whole or in part any of the tribute which 
 
 King John had meanly agreed to, without the consent 
 
 of his barons or people, was the beginning of his 
 
 unique career as a, persona ingrata to Rome. He lost 
 
 papal favour, but he gained the affection of the English 
 
 it and people, who thereafter looked upon him as 
 
 the advocate of their national rights and privileges, 
 
 and the religious spokesman of the nation's feelings, 
 
 hopes, and aspirations. 'John of Gaunt, duke of 
 
 •aster, the King's third son, became ever after his 
 
 m, defender, and friend, and stood by him as 
 
 Charles v. stood by Luther. Wycliffe took his place 
 
 as the exponent of the English people's independent 
 
 national wishes and desires: in a word, the contest 
 
 in the nationalisation of England, and the 
 
 beatification of Wycliti".' as the nation's wise guide 
 
 and independent Bpokesman. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Wycliffe's Mission to Bruges 
 
 This high-handed, lofty attitude and act of the Church 
 towards kings and kingdoms — the abject position in 
 which Rome placed all monarchs — " the King," as the 
 common people said, " being nobody but the Pope's 
 man" — opened the eyes of a few thoughtful men to 
 the existence of other abuses ; amongst others, to the 
 intrusion of the clergy into all high offices of State — 
 such as Lords Chancellor, Treasurer, Keeper of the 
 Privy Seal, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Master of the 
 Rolls: where the Church could work a finger in, it 
 got it in ; and the hand followed the finger, and the 
 whole body the hand : the Church required always to 
 have its arm in; and thus it was that almost every 
 State office was in the hands of Churchmen — a state of 
 matters declared by Wycliffe to be unfair and dangerous : 
 — " One priest was Treasurer for Ireland, and an- 
 other for the Marshes of Calais ; and while the parson 
 of Oundle is employed as surveyor of the King's 
 buildings, the parson of Harwich is called to the 
 superintendence of the royal wardrobe." Wycliffe 
 said : " Neither prelates nor doctors, priests nor 
 deacons should hold secular offices; that is, those of 
 Chancery, Treasury, Privy Seal, and other such secular 
 offices in the Exchequer ; neither be stewards of lands, 
 
WYCLIFFE'S MISSION TO BRUGES 95 
 
 nor stewards of the hall, nor clerks of the kitchen, nor 
 clerks of accounts; neither be occupied in any secular 
 office in lords' courts, more especially while secular 
 men are sufficient to do such offices." 
 
 In the course of time this qucestio vexata came 
 before Parliament. William Wykeham, bishop of 
 Winchester, gave up the Chancellorship, and all great 
 offices of State were emptied of their ecclesiastical 
 occupants, and laymen put in their place. The same 
 grievance reappears on the eve of the Reformation 
 in Scotland. The Scottish Parliament consisted not of 
 two houses as in England, but commoners and lords, 
 sacred and secular, sat together very much after the 
 manner of the General Assembly of the Scottish 
 National Church to-day. The Court of Session founded 
 by James v. consisted of fifteen judges, seven of them 
 being clergy and seven laymen, while the Lord 
 President was almost always a bishop or an abbot. 
 In the Scottish Privy Council — the officers of State 
 in immediate attendance on the Crown, the Lord 
 Chancellor from 1123-1515 was almost invariably a 
 cleric; while the Lord Chamberlain was generally a 
 layman, but a devoted Churchman. The Lord High 
 Treasurer was sometimes lay, sometimes clerical. But 
 all the chief, the honourable and lucrative offices were 
 held by Churchmen, while in the Scottish Parliament 
 all the bishops and most of the abbots in the land 
 had seats. James v. of Scotland employed clergy 
 in pre fer ence to nobility, partly from personal bias 
 and taste, but mainly because he found them better 
 educated than the rough earls and knights of the 
 ii, who were more at home on the battlefield than 
 in the council -chamber. 
 
96 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 The same fight took place in England in Wycliffe's 
 day, and the result was a temporary defeat of the 
 cleoicaJMioldej^_pJL_high offices of State in 1371. 
 Parliament took the matter up and finally removed 
 ecclesiastics from these offices, while the renowned 
 Bishop of Winchester, William of Wykeham, volun- 
 tarily gave up the Chancellorship of England. 
 
 Further, foreigners were.- intruded into English 
 
 benefices — men who spoke another tongue, did not 
 understand that of their flocks, and, if ^resident in 
 their parishes at all, were so for only a few weeks of 
 the year. 
 
 Another gross abuse was that every bishop on 
 being appointed or translated was obliged to transmit 
 his first year's emoluments to Rome; and by one of 
 those clever subtle tricks of which the Church of Rome 
 has so large and varied an assortment, the Pope con- 
 trived, on every episcopal vacancy occurring, to translate 
 a large number of the other bishops, if not all of them, 
 from one See to another ; and thus he got all their 
 salaries for a whole twelvemonth instead of one salary 
 only. The Pope contrived to get the chief say in all 
 ecclesiastical appointments of importance, and that 
 meant that his friends got the honour, he got the 
 money, and the King got nothing. 
 
 In 1350 the Statute of Provisors denied the Pope's 
 claim to dispose of English livings, and in 1353 the 
 "Praemunire" statute made an end of papal Bulls 
 and briefs being carried out without the sanction of 
 the State. The laws were there, but the execution 
 was defective. When, in J 341, Clement iv. had 
 claimed his " right to appoint by provision two of his 
 cardinals to livings in England over 2000 merks per 
 
WYCLIFFE'S MISSION TO BRUGES 97 
 
 .lum, it was felt that such laws were a necessity, 
 and they did good. But still complaints came that 
 papal interferences and exactions were rife. At last, 
 ( in 1373, a Commission was appointed to put the com- 
 plaint of the King, nobles, Parliament, and realm of 
 England before the Pope, — Gregory IX., demanding 
 that "the Pontiff should desist in future from the 
 reservation of benefices in the Anglican Church ; that 
 the clergy should henceforth freely enjoy their election 
 to episcopal dignities ; and that in the case of electing 
 a bishop, it should be enough that his appointment 
 should be confirmed by his metropolitan, as was the 
 ancient custom." Many admirable promises were made 
 by the Pope, but the evils continued, and at last another 
 Commission was appointed, consisting of Gilbert, bishop 
 of Bangor, and Wycliffe was appointed to come to 
 terms with the Pope. 
 
 The place appointed for the conference was Bruges, 
 the chief city of Flanders, with its hoary Cathedral 
 of the Holy Saviour and its world-renowned belfry 
 and chimes. The sovereign Counts of Flanders, the 
 Dukes of Burgundy, had their chief home in the " city 
 of bridges," as its name signifies. The reason why 
 Bruges was chosen as the meeting-place between the 
 representatives of England and of the Vatican was that 
 a greater conference was already in progress there, 
 between France and Edward iii.'s ambassadors, headed 
 by John of Gaunt, regarding the conclusion of peace 
 between France and England. Consequently, the city 
 was crowded with papal, English, and French 
 dignitaries, and it was a favourable opportunity for 
 a conference on this matter of the intrusion of 
 foreigners into English benefices. 
 7 
 
98 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 ^A conference was held at Bruges between France 
 representing the Pope, and England represented by 
 Wycliffe, and Gilbert, bishop of Bangor. The result 
 was that the Pope gave way a little in the matter 
 of benefices, but his claim to be Proprietor and Owner 
 of England (the King being only his tenant and 
 vassal) remained unabated, as it does to this day. 
 Wycliffe was disgusted,' and returned from Bruges 
 and the Roman conclave as nauseated as did Luther 
 one hundred and fifty years later from Rome, where 
 he had expected to find peace, love, eternity, — and 
 found in reality strife, hatred, lies, and worldliness. 
 
 Though the Bruges Conference was attended by 
 the greatest and wisest, with John of Gaunt and the 
 English ambassadors and the chief continental and 
 Papal dignitaries taking part, the only practical result 
 was a series of letters between the Pope and the 
 English Edward in which some points were yielded, 
 but the papal principle remained unchanged. ( Wycliffe 
 gained something by the conference, for he and John 
 of Gaunt were even more closely welded together, 
 and with the ageing sovereign and the poor health 
 of the Black Prince this meant a great deal. Above 
 all, Wycliffe's horizon was enlarged, and he learned 
 what Roman methods of argument really were, and 
 what the Holy See really claimed as its divine right. 
 Bruges was to Wycliffe what Rome was to Luther, a 
 place of revelation, and his visit resulted in a firmer 
 conviction of the bold pretensions and far-reaching 
 claims of the papacy, and of its claim of right to 
 do what it liked with lands and hands, souls and 
 bodies. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Rector of Lutterworth 
 
 In recognition of his services at Bruges in defending 
 English national rights and privileges as against 
 Roman claims, the King presented him to the prebend 
 of Aust in the collegiate Church of Westbury, in 
 Worcester diocese. A further honour was conferred 
 upon him when he was appointed rector of the sweet 
 parish of Lutterworth, on the borders of leafy 
 Warwickshire and hilly Northamptonshire, — an office 
 which he held for nine years, until his death in 1385.' 
 Lutterworth was the quiet forge where were prepared 
 those weapons of ecclesiastical and theological war- 
 fare which finally won the day for reformation in 
 England and largely in Europe. Both in his parish 
 and in Oxford he was perpetually lecturing and 
 preaching, his views becoming every day more con- 
 solidated and pronounced against various abuses of 
 the Church. His boldness, indeed, considering the 
 fact that in his distinctive religious views he stood 
 pretty much like Athanasius of old, " against the 
 m >rld," was wonderful, and he " began to scatter forth 
 hifl bhisph i-mies," as a contemporary adversary says 
 of him, with all the more vigour after receiving his 
 degree of doctor from Oxford. 
 
 \\lii ; i L-iiis to be the foundation doctrine of 
 
 N 
 
ioo WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Wycliffe, so far as the relations of civil and 
 ecclesiastical rights were concerned, was what he 
 called " Dominion founded in grace," by which he 
 meant that God was Snip Pmpri^f ,nr of all things 
 and the original Fountain of all authority ; and this 
 authority is delegated by Him to earthly stewards on 
 condition that they obey His commands,— the feudal 
 idea of " suzerain," " tenure." and " fief." ( On this 
 principle both Pope and King are, each in his own 
 sphere, stewards of God, and every Christian is the 
 custodian at any rate of one talent. The Pope is not, 
 therefore, the supreme authority, but God alone, — the 
 first^rinciple of the Reformation. 
 
 In 1376 the "good Parliament" was sitting, and 
 possibly Wycliffe may have been a member of it, at 
 any rate Wycliffe's views found abundant expression 
 from its members. Representations were made that 
 the country was groaning under the taxation of 
 Rome, the sum paid to Rome amounting to five times 
 that paid in taxes to the Crown. As to ecclesiastical 
 offices, it was pointed out that unworthy men were 
 promoted, while the pious and dutiful were left in 
 semi-starvation. The introduction of foreigners into 
 Church offices was also laid stress upon, foreign 
 cardinals being made deans and archdeacons in order 
 to draw English revenues, — these revenues going 
 abroad to Roman coffers. 
 
 Twenty thousand pounds a year was stated as the 
 sum which the Roman agent received of Peter's Pence 
 in the London office and sent to Rome, he himself re- 
 siding in the capital in affluence. Every new incum- 
 bent had to pay first-fruits to this official, who lived 
 in London in an office "like the Custom-house of a 
 
RECTOR OF LUTTERWORTH icj 
 
 priest." What was true of the common priest was 
 also true of the bishop, who had to hand over to the 
 Pope the first year's revenue of his See, and thus by 
 an evident trick it was easy to translate several bishops 
 in the course of a year and thus secure the first-fruits 
 of each See to Rome ; while the scandal of money- 
 raising actually reached the height of fleecing the 
 English clergy of money with which to procure the 
 ransom of soldiers taken prisoner in the French wars. 
 All of these abuses and scandals Wycliffe exposed and 
 scourged, declaring that "God entrusted the flock to 
 the Holy Father to feed and not to fleece." ' Whether 
 there be truth or not in the modern description of the 
 methods of the Vatican as " the Pope's shop," it seems 
 pretty clear that England was regarded by the Holy 
 See very much as a harvest-field from which, by^ 
 hook or by crook, to gather in revenues for itself, 
 Without any consideration of the benefits given by or 
 the results springing from such a policy. 
 
 Edward in., the conqueror of Cressy and Poitiers, 
 was now old and feeble, and unable to face these 
 weighty matters; but' the Church authorities felt that 
 a crisis had arrived in the history of religion in 
 England, and feeling that Wycliffe was the originator 
 of all these reform movements, they finally summoned 
 him to the Convocation of Canterbury in 1377, to be 
 held in St. Paul's Cathedral,^-the old St. Paul's, the 
 foundations of which are still traceable around the 
 dome which to-day marks the central spot of 
 the Anglican Church. 
 
 Wycliffe was summoned to appear in the Lady 
 Chapel of the Cathedral on the 19th February 1377, 
 and 1 John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, the 
 
:i02 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Reformer's trusty friend, resolved to accompany him 
 and see justice done. Lord Percy, the Earl Marshal 
 of England, also attended as a friend of Wycliffe ; while 
 many of the nobility of England were present, 
 interested in the brave fight which was being made 
 for the independence and liberties of the nation. } 
 Very curiously, in addition to a small company of 
 armed men who accompanied the Duke for the pro- 
 tection of the Reformer, there were also five friars 
 of the mendicant order. An enormous crowd 
 surrounded the doors of the Lady Chapel, and 
 encouraged Wycliffe with such greetings as — "Fear 
 not the bishops, for they are all unlearned in respect 
 of you." Lord Percy and his retinue struggled 
 through the crowd, and when they gained access to 
 the place of meeting, Courtenay, the Bishop of London, 
 turned testily to him and exclaimed, " Lord Percy, if I 
 had known beforehand what masteries you would have 
 kept in the Church I would have stopped you from 
 coming hither " ; to which John of Gaunt retorted, " I 
 shall keep such masteries here though you say Nay ! " 
 
 The trial of Wycliffe took place before Simon 
 Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, Courtenay, 
 bishop of London, a member of the house of Devon, 
 and the other bishops of England; and Lechler 
 describes his personal appearance in these words: 
 " A tall thin figure, covered with a long light gown of 
 black colour, with a girdle about his body; the head 
 adorned with a full flowing beard, exhibiting features 
 keen and sharply cut ; the eye clear and penetrating ; 
 the lips firmly closed in token of resolution, — the 
 whole man wearing an aspect of lofty earnestness, 
 and replete with dignity and character." 
 
RECTOR OF LUTTERWORTH 103 
 
 Lord Percy with great boldness told Wycliffe to 
 take a seat, " for you have many things to answer to, 
 and you need to repose on a soft seat"; to which 
 Bishop Courtenay retorted, "It is unmeet that one 
 cited before his ordinary should sit down during his 
 answer; he must and shall stand." As usual, the 
 redoubtable John of Gaunt, who had so often stood 
 by the Reformer in perilous times, more especially at 
 Bruges, took Percy's side, and declared, "The Lord 
 Percy's motion for Wycliffe is but reasonable ; and as 
 for you, my lord bishop, who are grown so proud 
 and arrogant, I will bring down the pride not of you 
 alone, but of all the prelacy in England." " Do your 
 worst, sir," said Courtenay. Heated and angry, John 
 of Gaunt continued, "Thou bearest thyself so brag 
 upon thy family, who shall not be able to help thee : 
 they shall have enough to do to help themselves." 
 "My confidence," replied Courtenay, "is not in my 
 family nor in any man else, but only God, in whom 
 I trust, by whose assistance I will be bold to speak 
 the truth." John of Gaunt's muttered retort was, 
 " Rather than I will take these words at his hands, I 
 will pluck the bishop by the hair out of the Church," 
 — a veiled threat which the crowd overheard, and 
 Courtenay being a general favourite with the 
 populace, resented, the assemblage at once becoming 
 menacing and riotous, and** a general brawl took place 
 and the proceedings broke up in confusion. ; Fresh 
 i'u <\ was added to the fire later in the day — for these 
 lively proceedings took place before nine in the 
 morning — when in Parliament the municipality of 
 London was threatened with humiliation; and fresh 
 a broke out in the city, during which the houses 
 
104 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 both of Percy and of Lancaster were assailed, their 
 arms removed, and a priest was killed at the m€lde. 
 
 f The practical result of the day's doings was nothing 
 at all, as Wycliffe neither heard the charges made 
 against him nor had an opportunity of speaking for 
 his cause; the fierce riot which raged, and which 
 might have gone further had not the bishop reminded 
 them it was Lent, but which very nearly ended in 
 disaster both to Percy and to Lancaster, utterly 
 destroyed all procedure, and all that was done was to 
 dismiss Wycliffe with an injunction not to preach his 
 peculiar doctrines any more. Accordingly he retired 
 to peaceful Lutterworth and resumed his ordinary 
 pastoral care and his studies at Oxford for the great 
 cause which he had espoused. But while Wycliffe 
 went to retirement, his views, principles, and position 
 became more and more popular, and it was generally 
 felt an injustice that he should be looked on with 
 suspicion and dislike if truth was on his side. But so 
 strong was Wycliffe in his character and belief, that 
 while St. Athanasius could write his treatise Contra 
 Mwndum, the English defender of the primitive faith 
 of Christ could face both earth and the principalities 
 and powers of the unseen with equanimity and con- 
 tent, carrying with him the beautiful sentiment to 
 which he gave utterance in his tract, Be Diabolo et 
 Membris, — " Christian men should know that whoso- 
 ever liveth best prayeth best; and that the simple 
 paternoster of a ploughman who hath charity is better 
 than a thousand Masses of covetous prelates and vain 
 religious." Luther in his boast about the tiles of 
 Worms and his hymn of battle against the forces of 
 Antichrist was only Wycliffe revived ! 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Papal Ban against Wycliffe 
 
 On the 17th of January 1377, the "seventy years' 
 captivity" of the Popes at Avignon came to an end, 
 and Pope Gregory xi. entered the city of Rome in 
 royal state. Now that the divisions and controversies 
 seemed to be coming to a conclusion, the enemies of 
 Wycliffe thought it a good opportunity to prosecute 
 him with renewed zeal, and the English bishops made 
 a strong representation to the Vatican of the harm 
 which the new doctrines were doing, and the necessity 
 for drastic action. Accordingly, five papal Bulls were 
 promulgated on the 22nd of May — declaring in full 
 in nineteen articles the doctrines of Wycliffe, and 
 addressed to the bishops, the University of Oxford, 
 and the King. The bishops are required to make the 
 fullest and most searching inquiry into the matter, 
 and to warn all in authority to use their influence in 
 purging the land of heresy, while in the interval 
 Wycliffe is to be imprisoned during the papal pleasure ; 
 
 ; if he should escape by flight he is to be summoned 
 to appear at Rome to answer for his errors. * The end 
 of the " Babylonish Exile," as the Italians in derision 
 called the long papal sojourn at Avignon, was now to 
 be celebrated by a great auto da f4 in which Wycliffe 
 
 - to be the scapegoat, carrying into the wilderness 
 
 105 
 
106 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 the knocks and blows which would otherwise have 
 been expended by contending ecclesiastical dignitaries 
 upon one another. 
 
 When Edward in. of England received his copy of 
 the papal Bull against his notorious subject, he was 
 nearing his end, and a month after receiving it, on 
 21st of June 1377, he passed away after his long reign 
 of fifty years, with its rich memories of Halidon Hill, 
 Crecy, Neville's Cross, Calais, Poitiers, and Bretigny. 
 The Black Prince's son, Edward iii.'s grandson, who 
 became Richard n., was twelve years of age, and under 
 the care and tutelage of his widowed mother, the 
 dowager Princess of Wales, a woman of spirit and 
 ability, and rather favourable to Wycliffe's views. 
 The Duke of Lancaster was on the field as well, and 
 no one knew what might take place in the social and 
 ecclesiastical upheavals of the time, and what measure 
 of support the crafty and bold rival might receive 
 from the people. 
 
 In October the boy King held his first Parliament, 
 two months after his accession, a Parliament the chief 
 note of which was its patriotism and antagonism to 
 Roman claims. Wycliffe was summoned to its counsels 
 as one who had before upheld the national cause and 
 been the commissioner of princes and the adviser of 
 Parliament. The prolonged war with France occupied 
 much of the attention of this Parliament, especially 
 as a new war with the land of the fleur-de-lys seemed 
 imminent ; while the oppressive ecclesiastical taxation 
 formed also a main item in the deliberations. It was 
 actually proposed that all foreign ecclesiastics, whether 
 monks or seculars, should be called upon to leave the 
 kingdom, and that their lands and revenues should be 
 
THE PAPAL BAN AGAINST WYCLIFFE 107 
 
 applied to the war against France. This was a 
 national answer to the claims and doings both of 
 France and the Pope, for up till now, and for a con- 
 siderable time previously, the Popes had been French- 
 men; and naturally all their sympathies being with 
 France, they pressed for the payment by England of 
 the papal tribute and dues, which went to help France 
 to carry on the war against England. The source 
 from which these revenues came, thus became the 
 target of attack by those who received them, — a strange 
 and almost unendurable position. 
 
 Wycliffe was asked this question by the Parliament 
 — " Whether the kingdom of England in case of need, 
 for the purpose of self-defence, is not competent in law 
 to restrain the treasure of the land from being carried 
 off to foreign parts, although the Pope should demand 
 this export of gold in virtue of the obedience due to 
 him and under the threat of Church censures." 
 Wycliffe, at the request of the boy King and his Council, 
 drew up the exhaustive and well-reasoned reply, that 
 national treasure may be lawfully retained for the 
 nation's use, as could easily be proved from natural 
 reason, conscience, and Scripture. Gifts to the Roman 
 See were only alms, and alms were only bestowed 
 properly when given to the necessitous, which the 
 Roman See could not reasonably claim to be, as it was 
 far richer than England. Granting that the Pope had 
 e tributes as a moral right, and that England would 
 Buffer an interdict such as she had suffered before for 
 opposing and refusing them, how could England's 
 action be justified ? " The Holy Father," answered 
 Wycliffe, " would not thus treat his children, especially 
 idering the piety of England: but if he should, it 
 
108 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 is one comfort to know that such censures carry no 
 divine authority; and another, that God does not 
 desert those who trust in Him and who, keeping His 
 law, fear God rather than man." 
 
 " What claim," asked Wycliffe, " has the Pope to 
 temporal supremacy ? It may indeed be claimed by 
 you," he added, " in virtue of some plea, but assuredly 
 by no right or title derived from the apostles. For 
 how could an apostle give unto you that which he did 
 not himself possess ? " Wycliffe's strong resistance to 
 the Pope's temporal power influenced Parliament so 
 greatly, that he really led it not only to question the 
 temporal, but even the spiritual authority of the Holy 
 See ; but the definite result was that Parliament was 
 prorogued without any definite action being determined 
 upon. 
 
 The papal Bull presented to Oxford University had 
 little effect. Wycliffe stood too high in the estimation 
 of Oxford to be in danger there, and the University 
 authorities asked time for consideration ; but no action 
 followed. ; The Bull sent to King Edward in. found 
 him in his grave. The only remaining hope, therefore, 
 of the Pope was in his own prelates in England ; and 
 in the Bull addressed to them the supreme Pontifex 
 said that " information had been received from persons 
 truly worthy of credit, that John Wycliffe, rector of 
 Lutterworth in the diocese of Lincoln, and professor of 
 divinity, with a fearlessness the offspring of a detest- 
 able insanity, had ventured to dogmatise and preacli 
 in favour of opinions wholly subversive of the Church. 
 For this cause the parties addressed are required to 
 seize the person of the offender in the name of the 
 Pope; to commit him to prison; to obtain complete 
 
THE PAPAL BAN AGAINST WYCLIFFE 109 
 
 information as to his tenets; and transmitting such 
 information to Rome by a trusty messenger, they are 
 to retain the arch-heretic as their prisoner until further 
 instructions should be received concerning him." The 
 new Primate of England, Sudbury, archbishop of 
 Canterbury, summoned Wycliffe to appear before him 
 in the Archbishop's Chapel at Lambeth in April 
 1378, the special papal commissioners being himself 
 and the Bishop of London. * In his defence, Wycliffe 
 went to the palace opposite Westminster Abbey 
 without the guardianship either of Lancaster or Percy, 
 while a great crowd, much more friendly to him than 
 that which had previously crowded the doors of St. 
 Paul's, gathered and forced their way into the chapel, 
 declaring that "papal briefs should have no force in 
 this country without the Roj^al consent, for in England 
 not the Pope, but the King is master of the house." 
 In his Church History, Andrew Fuller declares that 
 men expected he should be devoured, being brought 
 into the lions' den." 
 
 Wycliffe produced a written defence, carefully 
 reasoned out and scholastically argued, vindicating his 
 doctrines point by point. " In the first place," he says, 
 " I protest publicly, as I have often done, that I resolve 
 with my whole heart and by the grace of God to be 
 a sincere Christian ; and while life shall last, to profess 
 and to defend the law of Christ so far as I have power. 
 If through ignorance or from any other cause I shall 
 fail in this determination, I ask forgiveness of God, 
 and retracting the errors submit with humility to the 
 correction of the Church. And since the notions of 
 children and of weak persons, concerning what I have 
 /tit are conveyed by others, who are more than 
 
no WYTLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 children, beyond the seas, even to the Court of Rome, 
 I am willing to commit my opinions to writing. In 
 my conclusions I have followed the sacred Scriptures 
 and the holy doctors, both in their meaning and in 
 their modes of expression ; this I am willing to show : 
 but should it be proved that such conclusions are 
 opposed to the Faith, I am prepared very willingly to 
 retract them." 
 
 The nineteen articles of heresy are then reviewed 
 in detail by him. The Pope has no political dominion : 
 his spiritual power is absolute, God only being his 
 judge: — he has no supremacy over the temporal be- 
 longings of the clergy or religious houses ; the priest's 
 power of binding and loosing — the power of the keys — 
 is only ministerial, and no absolution is worth anything 
 unless it comes from God ; neither will excommunication 
 hurt a man unless he has first excommunicated himself 
 before God, for " it is not Church censure but sin that 
 hurts a man," and "neither the Pope nor any other 
 Christian can absolutely bind or loose, but only as he 
 obeys the law of Christ " ; and " it seems to me that he 
 who usurps this power must be the Man of Sin." In 
 all probability, however, the boldest thesis of all was 
 that in which he declared that the Pope was not above 
 the Church, but was the servant of, and subject to, the 
 Church. "An ecclesiastic or Churchman," he boldly 
 declared, "even the Pope of Rome may lawfully be 
 corrected for the benefit of the Church, and be accused 
 by the clergy as well as by the laity ; for the Church 
 is above the Pontiff; and if the whole college of 
 cardinals is remiss in correcting him for the necessary 
 welfare of the Church, it is evident that the rest of 
 the body, which may chance to be chiefly made up of 
 
THE PAPAL BAN AGAINST WYCLIFFE 1 1 1 
 
 the laity, may medicinally reprove him and induce him 
 to live a better life." 
 
 Calm and unconcerned, Wycliffe faced the assembly 
 and made his spoken and written defence; and the 
 crowd assembled seemed favourable to him, even 
 though there was no Duke of Lancaster and no Lord 
 Percy to stand by him. ( Once more the people showed 
 themselves in favour of the cause of reform, and to the 
 dismay of the bishops a tumult was again threatened, 
 when at the supreme moment of difficulty, Sir Lewis 
 Clifford, an officer in the Queen-mother's Court, rushed 
 in and demanded in his mistress' name that no final 
 judgment should at present be given. Sudbury 
 acquiesced, and only warned Wycliffe to cease from 
 spreading his views, and the whole bench of bishops 
 (according to Walsingham) "at the wind of a reed 
 shaken, their speech became as soft as oil, to the public 
 loss of their own dignity and the damage of the whole 
 Church. They were struck with such fear that you 
 would think them to be as a man who hears not, or 
 one in whose mouth are no reproofs." 
 
 No cne dared to touch the brave rector of Lutterworth, 
 and he quietly retired unhurt and uncondemned by 
 the Church's highest tribunal in England; and even 
 the promise which the prelates endeavoured to extract 
 from him to abstain from future teaching of his views 
 
 not made by him, and accordingly he continued 
 to preach and to teach as formerly. 
 
 While the Lambeth Conference was in progress, a 
 
 i and more momentous Congress was proceeding 
 in Rome. The death of Gregory XI. removed a part 
 ol tie BCMMidal of a divided papacy. The conclave 
 assembled to elect his successor was met by a rabble 
 
Ii2 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 who demanded a Roman and no more French Pontiffs. 
 The influence of France was strong, and at last in the 
 usual method of compromise an Italian was elected, 
 thus in a measure satisfying both French and Romans 
 by abjuring the representatives of each. Urban vi. 
 began well, and promised to unite Christendom again ; 
 but he was a man of strict ascetic character, and wished 
 moral reform all round. He desired a complete reform 
 of the Vatican, and the removal of the sneering taunt 
 that of the Popes it could not be said, "Silver and 
 gold have I none " ; and still less the power to say, 
 " Arise and walk " ; and the artist's scoff who painted 
 the apostles' faces in the "Last Supper" very red, 
 as "blushing at the lives of their successors." The 
 result was opposition, and every cardinal save one 
 abandoned this papal " man of morals " and established 
 the Avignon papacy, electing a Holy Father from among 
 themselves, who took the name of Clement VII. The 
 great schism of forty years began, and Christendom 
 regarded it in amazement. Wycliffe's observation 
 was, "Now is the Head of Antichrist cloven in 
 twain, and one part contendeth against the other." 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Friars and the Papacy 
 
 The strength and independence of the Roman See was 
 so enormously enlarged by the rise of the independent 
 Franciscan and Dominican friars — the special agents, 
 defenders, and builders of the Roman throne, who by 
 their preaching brought about a reformation within 
 the Church itself, that something more than a mere 
 incidental notice of them seems necessary, especially 
 as one of the great conflicts of Wycliffe's life was with 
 these free, untrammelled servants of the Pope, who 
 raised the spite and ill-will of the regular bishops and 
 clergy, but by their popular gifts and vigorous free- 
 and-easy style of preaching gradually weakened the 
 position of the latter and impoverished their revenues. 
 In the Dark Ages — i.e. for four hundred years 
 after the middle of the fourth century — the practice 
 of preaching from Scripture gradually decayed, 
 and, instead, the Ethics of Aristotle, or some other 
 philosopher's moral treatises, were read. In the 
 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, however, preaching 
 revived through the influence of the two great orders 
 of monks — the Franciscans and Dominicans, founded 
 respectively by St. Francis of Assisium and St. 
 Dominic. Once when in Rome, St. Francis heard a 
 06, saying, " Francis, repair My Church which falleth 
 8 
 
H4 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 to ruin " ; thereupon he abjured all prospects of worldly- 
 advancement, and took upon himself the great task 
 of reviving the Church. "Henceforth," he said, "I 
 recognise no father but Him who is in heaven." This 
 great orator preached without studying, relying upon 
 God ; his advice to all his disciples was, " Be short, — 
 for even mediocrity will be forgiven if brevity goes 
 along with it." In this he imitated St. Augustine, 
 some of whose sermons are not more than four to eight 
 minutes long. But though St. Francis did not read 
 many books, he did what was a great deal better, and 
 what a great many bookworms never do, he thought 
 a great deal, and meditated on the works of nature 
 around him, which preached to him first, and whose 
 message, given in a whisper, he gave to the world with 
 full voice and clear utterance and nervous power. He 
 called the earth his mother, and the moon his sister, 
 and said he was related to the winds and the waters, 
 the flowers and the stars ; indeed, so intimate was his 
 relation with the objects of nature, that he came 
 actually to believe that they had souls like man ; and 
 if the hundred legends about this saint be correct, he 
 even preached to the birds, as St. Antony of Padua, at 
 a later day, did to the fishes, which lifted up their 
 heads out of the water to hear what he had to say. 
 
 One or two of these legends may not be wholly 
 uninteresting: — Once drawing nigh to Bevagno, he 
 came to a certain place where birds of different kinds 
 were all gathered together ; when the man of God saw 
 them he ran hastily to the spot and saluted them, as if 
 they had been his fellows in reason (while they all 
 turned their heads to him in attentive expectation), 
 and said, "Brother birds, greatly are ye bound to 
 
THE FRIARS AND THE PAPACY 115 
 
 praise the Creator who clotheth you with feathers, and 
 giveth you wings to fly with, and a pure air to breath, 
 and who careth for you who have so little care for 
 yourselves." The little birds, marvellously commoved, 
 began to spread their wings, stretch forth their necks, 
 and open their beaks, attentively gazing on him ; he, 
 glowing in spirit, passed through the midst of them, 
 and even touched them with his robe; yet not one 
 stirred from its place until the man of God gave them 
 leave, when with his blessing and the sign of the cross 
 they all flew away. 
 
 When he rejoined his brethren, the simple and pure- 
 minded man began greatly to blame himself for never 
 having preached to the birds before, especially as 
 Scripture said, " Preach the gospel to every creature." 
 He made thereafter, like the author of "The Happy 
 Land," a practice of feeding birds every day, and got 
 to be so well known of them and other animals that 
 they would all come to him when he made his appear- 
 ance. 
 
 On his return from Syria, passing through Venice, 
 vast numbers of birds were singing at the top of their 
 voices ; said he to his companion, " Our sisters, the 
 birds, are praising the Creator, let us sing with them." 
 So he began the sacred service ; and no sooner did he 
 begin than the birds struck up in opposition, as birds 
 and men will do. Said St. Francis, " Be silent till we 
 also have praised God " ; and legend says that at once 
 they ceased their trilling, and did not resume till 
 the saint gave them leave. 
 
 Preaching at Aleriano, he could not make himself 
 heard for the chirping of sparrows, which were then 
 bniMing their nests. Pausing in his sermon, he said, 
 
n6 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 "Sisters, you have talked enough; it is time that I 
 should have my turn. Be silent, and listen to the 
 Word of God"; at which rebuke they ceased, and 
 observed a respectful silence. 
 
 Once sitting with his disciple Leo, the song of a 
 nightingale greatly delighted him ; he asked Leo to 
 join the bird in singing, but he excused himself for his 
 bad voice, much in the same way as modern artistes 
 plead a sore throat or a tightness in the chest. 
 St. Francis took up the chorus himself, and when he 
 stopped the bird took it up, and so they sang praise 
 until night was far advanced and the saint's voice 
 failed. Then he confessed that a little bird had 
 vanquished him in singing divine praise, and so 
 calling the bird to him, he thanked it for its song, 
 give it the rest of his bread, and, having blessed it, gave 
 it permission to fly away. 
 
 Similarly we read of him listening for hours to a 
 grasshopper's song; of his pet lamb, which followed 
 him everywhere, even through the streets of Rome and 
 in the piazza of the Vatican ; of his care never to 
 trample on an insect or worm. His love of nature 
 gave a fire to his sermons, which had about them, as 
 all acknowledge, a systematised eloquence which none 
 could resist. Though little read, and no great scholar, 
 the most learned theologian remained silent in his 
 presence. His sermons were always very short ; as he 
 said, Christ's discourses were always so, and, besides, 
 "we are not heard for our much speaking either by 
 God or man." 
 
 The other great founder of the preaching order was St. 
 Dominic, who when a boy had a vision of St. Peter and 
 St. Paul, the former of whom gave him a staff and the 
 
THE FRIARS AND THE PAPACY 117 
 
 latter a volume of the Gospel, with the command, " Go, 
 preach the Word of God, for He hath chosen thee for 
 that ministry." These two great preachers had great 
 followers; among the Franciscan preachers of fame 
 are Cardinal Bonaventure and St. Bernardino (1444) 
 of Sienna/ whose preaching made enemies rise and 
 embrace each other, caused gamblers to throw away 
 their dice, and women to cast their jewels at his feet. 
 The Dominican order (the name Dominican coming 
 from Domini canes, or Dogs of the Lord — from their 
 watchfulness over the Church's interests) boasts the 
 names of Luis de Granada, one of the most powerful 
 orators of any age, whose discourses on Judgment and 
 the Last Day are even at this time thrilling and awe- 
 inspiring; and St. Vincent of Ferraris (1357), a 
 Spaniard like the former, and in temper and style 
 very like the modern Whitfield. 
 
 It is part of the philosophy of history that every 
 reformation movement in course of time requires 
 itself to be reformed. The early British and Culdee 
 Churches were superseded by the Roman, having 
 become corrupt; the Roman Church in England and 
 Scotland was superseded by the Reformed, having 
 become corrupt; and so the process of development 
 goes on. The friars were Reformers before the 
 Reformation, not so much in the way of doctrine as of 
 siastical life, energy, and influence. But for 
 ; iy a generation before Wycliffe both Franciscans 
 and Dominicans had become depraved and decayed. 
 The well-known picture of "The Neophyte," in which 
 tin youthful monk stands in his stall singing his 
 canticle with eyes lifted up to heaven, while beside 
 him stand big fat friars with gross faces and sensual 
 
n8 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 expression, is a description in paint of the beginning 
 and the ending of the friars — the roseate hues 
 of early dawn followed by the mist and dimness and 
 fog of a decadent day. The friars of these days were 
 a set of ignorant, self-sufficient knaves, whose aim in 
 preaching was not edification but self-glorification. 
 The mechanical nature of their performances in the 
 pulpit may be judged of from the numerous notes on 
 MS. sermons of that day which have come down to 
 us. On the margin one finds such directions as these 
 for conduct in the pulpit, in monkish handwriting, 
 " Here, sit down " ; " Stand up " ; " Mop yourself " ; 
 " Here, roll your eyes " ; " Now, shriek like a devil " ; 
 " Shake the crucifix " ; " Hammer the pulpit like Satan 
 himself." It was a common practice amongst them on 
 mounting the pulpit to cast a contemptuous glance all 
 round, to show the little esteem in which the orator held 
 his audience, and to make them feel in turn that they 
 were as children in the presence of Omniscience. Very 
 often a boy was concealed in the pulpit to prompt the 
 preacher if he stuck for a word, the pulpit in Roman 
 Catholic cathedrals not being the miserable little 
 barrels in which many have to declaim, the pulpit in 
 the Cathedral of Pisa being capable of holding more 
 than thirty people with the greatest ease. Their 
 sermons bristled with classical and patristic quotations ; 
 contained generally a story or two, in which Satan, as 
 a rule, played a prominent part, being in those days 
 a much more distinct personality than he is in the 
 twentieth century. The discourse was divided into 
 heads, and after a point in theology and another in 
 civil law had been raised and laid, the friar descended 
 from the rostrum beaming with self-satisfaction and 
 
THE FRIARS AND THE PAPACY 119 
 
 self-complacency. These friars were generally men of 
 little education and considerable assurance — who 
 pleased the mob, and certainly pleased themselves. 
 Not to speak of their frequent irreverence and even 
 indecency, the absurdity of some of their sermons 
 strikes us -nowadays as intolerable; for example, one 
 of them preaching on the "Book sealed" in the 
 Revelation, began his sermon with a general disquisition 
 on books in general, in which he passed in review 
 almost every book that had ever been written, and 
 then, having wandered from his subject as far as he 
 could, he caught the thread of connection by saying 
 that "these books were not in the least like the book 
 that was sealed," and so on, till at the close of the 
 discourse the audience had heard all, — everything in 
 heaven and earth, except the sealed book which the 
 preacher had proposed for his homily. 
 
 The Dominicans and Franciscans swore by their 
 vows to perpetual poverty; but by the same quibble 
 which forbids the Quaker to serve in the wars, but at 
 the same time does not prevent him from giving an 
 antagonist " a friendly fall " which might break every 
 bone in his body, these orders, while individually the 
 brethren could possess nothing, might as corporations 
 hold as much gear as they liked, — lands, houses, forests, 
 hunting-grounds, fisheries, orchards, cattle, wool, cloth. 
 In course of time they became the wealthiest of the 
 wealthy, their lives the most luxurious, and their 
 monastic establishments the most magnificent. The 
 Franciscan order of preachers, who were also known as 
 " Cordeliers," " Grey Friars," or " Minorites " (hence the 
 iuories" in London), arrived in England about the 
 I 2:i0, and wore at first a grey, but afterwards a 
 
120 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 brown habit, girded with a knotted rope and a black 
 hood, — a habit not unlike that of the Great St. Bernard 
 brothers of to-day in the Alps. The rule required 
 bare feet; but some used sandals, just as the St. 
 Bernard monks wear heavy leather boots. After 1329, 
 Scotland had a separate director-general of the order 
 from England. One of the greatest poets Scotland has 
 ever produced — William Dunbar (c. 14G5) — was a 
 native of Saltoun, quite near Haddington, and a 
 member of the order of the Grey Friars. The first idea 
 of the Franciscans or Grey Friars was to go to the 
 poorest and most neglected parts of the country and 
 town and infuse Christian ideas. At first their 
 churches were small and plain, and their convents 
 were mere cells of mud and wood, with a ditch round 
 about. By the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 
 however, their churches had become rich and grand, 
 and their monasteries luxurious. Pocock, in his 
 Repressor, says (xii. 543): "Some of the lay party 
 blame and hold that religious monasteries, namely, of 
 the Begging Religious, have within their gates and 
 close, great, large, wide, high, and stately mansions for 
 lords and ladies therein to rest, abide, and dwell, and 
 this, that they have large and wide churches, like 
 somewhat to cathedral and mother churches of dioceses." 
 The Franciscans defended themselves for erecting stately 
 churches by urging "so that there be not over great 
 curiosity, greatness, preciousness, or costliness, the 
 more multitude may be received together for to hear 
 therein preaching to be made in rainy days, and be 
 eased in their devotions made to God, while they stand, 
 or sit, or kneel, room for each from other." The 
 argument used in favour of their ample hospitalities 
 
THE FRIARS AND THE PAPACY 121 
 
 was that there was " mutual benefit to host and guest " 
 by intercourse and helpfulness, whilst the alms and 
 the interest of travellers and passers-by, especially if 
 they were of distinction, were increased by such visits 
 and visitors. 
 
 In course^ of time a reformed branch of the Franciscan 
 order arose under the title of "Conventuals" or 
 ■ Recollects," and these reformed Franciscans had houses 
 at Berwick, Dumfries, Dundee, Inverkeithing, Rox- 
 burgh, Douglas, and Haddington. The Franciscans by a 
 variety of pious frauds endeavoured to absorb the wealth 
 of the land. One original device was to induce people 
 to get buried at death in the habit of the order, as St. 
 Francis once a year descends from heaven to purgatory 
 and delivers the souls of all those who wear the favoured 
 uniform. The result was that multitudes acted on the 
 recommendation, to the great profit of the order. 
 
 Another practice was characteristic of the Fran- 
 ins, — the kidnapping of children and the shutting 
 of them up in monasteries in order to fill the ranks of 
 the brotherhood, and also provide workers whose labour 
 became highly profitable to the various houses, though 
 at the same time it destroyed the ordinary trade of the 
 neighbourhoods by underselling and cutting of rates. 
 
 The Dominicans arrived in England in 1321, and 
 finally succeeded in establishing forty-three houses. 
 Their black cloak and hood gave rise to their popular 
 name, which still is traceable in almost every large 
 D in England and Scotland — "Black Friars." 
 There were two sections of the Dominicans — one went 
 forward to convert heretics, and the other by the 
 NT of the Inquisition to slay them. These two 
 bands, the Pope's special defenders and assistants, 
 
122 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 formed a powerful army which menaced the liberties 
 of the people both negatively and positively — sucking 
 up the richness and substance out of the lands on 
 which they settled, and actively attacking any 
 adversary of the Holy See and bringing him to a 
 strict account. After the advent of the Dominicans, 
 the novelty of their preaching excited widespread 
 interest and gave them great influence, and ultimately 
 enormous wealth. Their noble London minster is 
 described in The Vision of Piers Plowman — "with 
 pillars ypaint and polished full clene and queyntly 
 corven with curious knottes, and shining windows 
 wel ywrought wyde up alofte, and in the arches fairly 
 carved, and crochettes in corners with knottes of 
 gold." He describes the great cross, the private 
 posterns, the orchards and arbours, and then the 
 cloisters, etc. : 
 
 " Then came to that cloister and gaped abouten 
 How it was pillared and paint and pourtrayed well clean 
 All y-heled [covered] with lead low to the stones, 
 And y-paved with peyntil [tiles] each point after other, 
 With conduits of clean tin, closed all about 
 With lavers of latten lovely y-greithed [adorned]. 
 
 Then was the chapter-house wrought as a great church 
 Carven and covered and quaintly entailed 
 With seemly cielure y-set on loft 
 
 As a parliament house [the chapter-house of Westminster] 
 y-painted about. 
 
 Then fared into Frater, and found there another 
 An hall for an high king, an household to holden, 
 With broad boards abouten, y-benched well clean 
 With window- of glaaa wrought as a church. 
 Then walked further and went all-abouten, 
 
THE FRIARS AND THE PAPACY 123 
 
 And saw halls full high and houses full noble, 
 Chambers with chemneys and chapels gay, 
 And kitchens for an high king in castles to holden. 
 And their dortor y-dight [provided] with doors full strong, 
 Firmary and Frater with fele [many] mo[re] houses, 
 And all strong stone wall stern [level] upon height 
 With gay garret and great, and each hole y-glazed, 
 And other houses even to harbour the queen." 
 
 [Wright, ii. 309 ; Wharton, ii. 138.] 
 
 The great Black Friars monastery thus elaborately 
 described must have been a magnificent structure, 
 although nowadays the district is associated with a 
 Thames Bridge, a London street, and a metropolitan 
 railway station with its sounds and smells. 
 
 The Dominicans were early introduced into Scotland 
 by King Alexander 11., who, when in Paris, saw St. 
 Dominic, and begged him to send some of his preachers 
 to Scotland to teach the people. It is said the King 
 founded eight houses for these Black or Preaching 
 Friars, who wore a thick black worsted cope over a 
 kirtle of clean white linen, a black, afterwards a brown 
 hood, a white scapular, and boots. Bishop Clement 
 of Dunblane received the kirtle from St. Dominic 
 himself. Traces of their presence can be found all 
 over Great Britain in the Blackfriars streets and 
 places and districts, if, indeed, parts of the fine old 
 buildings are not still standing. Only a century 
 ago or so the beautiful gardens and gilded arbour or 
 Monk's Tower, richly painted with the seasons and 
 the Virtues and Vices, from which King Robert viewed 
 the combo! of the thirty rival clan-champions, were 
 in evidence at Perth, where a splendid minster was 
 raised by the Dominicans, who also had fine hoi 
 
I2 4 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 at St. Ninians [Stirling], St. Monance, Wigtoun, 
 Montrose, Linlithgow, Dysart, Elgin, Glasgow, Edin- 
 burgh, Haddington, Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Ayr, 
 Berwick, Cupar-Fife, and elsewhere. In England their 
 houses were extraordinarily numerous, and latterly 
 magnificently equipped and extravagantly conducted. 
 
 Events favourable to the spread of Wycliffe's 
 influence in the country followed each other with 
 rapid succession. The stormy Lambeth Synod had 
 ended in smoke, and the people were, on the whole, 
 favourable to the earnest, brave rector who first 
 thought out his religious, ecclesiastical, and social 
 theories on the sweet banks of the Swift, from which, 
 lower down, in leafy Warwickshire at Stratford-on- 
 Avon, the great world-voice of Humanity's dramatist 
 spoke two hundred years later, and then in the busy 
 haunts of scholars and politicians and warriors, spoke 
 them out with no uncertain sound. But the state of 
 affairs at Rome — at the very headquarters of the 
 papacy, was such as to enfeeble and lower the entire 
 life and vigour of the Church. It was bad enough 
 in a conflict between France and Italy as to which 
 nation should have the honour of providing Christendom 
 with a Holy Father, to have the Chair of St. Peter 
 moved from Rome to Avignon, and to have the Head 
 of Christendom passing a seventy years' Babylonish 
 captivity there; but it was infinitely worse to have 
 a Pope at each place, and this was actually the case 
 when Wycliffe in 1378 renewed his reforming efforts, 
 and attacked the Church's ill-gotten and ill-administered 
 treasure, and the vices, follies, and luxury of the Black 
 and White Friars. 
 
 Gregory xi. died on 27th March 1378, and the 
 
THE FRIARS AND THE PAPACY 125 
 
 cardinals assembled to elect his successor. The angry 
 Roman rabble demanded an Italian Pope and no 
 Frenchman, and the cardinals elected an Italian — the 
 Archbishop of Barri, who took the name of Urban VI. 
 The Roman populace demanded a Roman, and French 
 interest was also strong in the sacred college ; but the 
 compromise by which neither a Roman nor a French- 
 man but an Italian received the tiara, seemed likely 
 to give general satisfaction. Urban was, however, an 
 ascetic, severe in his rule and methods, intolerably 
 haughty, and infinitely vain. It was not long till his 
 cardinals turned against him, and finally, with one 
 exception, they declared his election null and void, 
 having been made under intimidation ; and fore- 
 gathering at Fondi, one of the endless townships 
 which fringe the most beautiful bay in the world, 
 they elected at Naples another Pontiff, who was pro- 
 claimed Clement vii., and established his Court at the 
 old Babylonish retreat of Avignon. 
 
 The extraordinary vision was thus presented to 
 Christendom of a divided papacy, of two Vicars of 
 Christ, one at Rome and one at Avignon. For half 
 a century this dreadful schism lasted, to the scandal 
 of the Christian world. " Now," said Wycliffe, " is 
 Head of Antichrist cloven in twain, and one part 
 a i nst the other." 
 
 The event was a catastrophe for the Church — the 
 greatest since the final separation between East and 
 West, and gave a shock to the religious sentiment of 
 Europe. Endless contentions and wars between the 
 partisans of the rival Popes took place, and under 
 the strain, and with the example before them in the 
 highest places, the ordinary clergy sank into depravity 
 
126 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 and corruption, and in their hopelessness, as with the 
 lepers in the Holy Land, consoled themselves with 
 sin upon sin. The people followed next, and were 
 either overwhelmed with doubt as to their relation- 
 ship to the Head of the Church, or degenerated into 
 unbelief and indifference. History — " that Mississippi 
 of falsehoood" as it has been called — is very silent 
 as to the spiritual and social horrors of that age, but 
 the silence is eloquent, as eloquent as the silence of 
 the monastic records during times of long-protracted 
 peace. Wycliffe at this crisis, which deeply affected 
 him, delivered his soul on the subject in his tract 
 On the Schism of the Popes, and pointed out how 
 the hierarchy being divided against itself could only 
 have the result of upsetting all good order among 
 clergy and people. "Emperors and Kings," he says, 
 "should help in this cause to maintain God's law, to 
 recover the heritage of the Church, and to destroy 
 the foul sins of clerks, saving their persons. Thus 
 shall peace be established and simony destroyed." 
 
 While these momentous events were happening on 
 the Continent, Wycliffe was sowing beside the peaceful 
 waters which ripple past Lutterworth on their way 
 to the far-off sea. Busy as a pastor, he preached 
 constantly — sometimes in Latin, but to his own 
 parishioners in homely English. Nearly three hundred 
 of his village sermons remain. Besides visiting the 
 sick, the aged, and the dying, whether freeman or 
 slave, with all the devotion of Chaucer's good priest, 
 his pen was busy with his translation of the Bible 
 into homely English, — the great work of his life 
 spreading over several years, — with which he hoped 
 amid the many discordant voices of the age to sound 
 
THE FRIARS AND THE PAPACY 127 
 
 forth over England the true note of the gospel- 
 trumpet. If ecclesiastical powers fail and disappoint, 
 a glory still gilds the sacred page, and that to him 
 was enough. He issued at this time his work on 
 The Truth and Meaning of Scripture, and main- 
 tained the- supreme authority of Scripture, the right 
 of private judgment, and the sufficiency of Christ's 
 Law to rule Christ's Church without any Vicar of 
 Christ or infallible Pontiff to interpret it. 
 
 But his attack on the friars is the most outstanding 
 event in his public life at this time, and he entered 
 into it with characteristic zest and spirit, declaring 
 that the split in the papacy had taken place "in 
 order that in Christ's name, they may the more easily 
 overcome them both." In these circumstances * he 
 vigorously assailed the Black and Grey Friars, who, 
 he declared, were sucking the country of its wealth 
 and resources. * 
 
 The dislocation of papal rule was favourable to the 
 spread of Wyclift'e's views and doctrines, for the death 
 of Gregory XI. made his Bulls invalid unless his 
 successor renewed them, and Pope Urban had too 
 much to do in the way of conserving the rights of 
 Rome as against Avignon to think very much of 
 anything else. Wycliffe accordingly recommenced 
 his crusade, and for three years he prosecuted his 
 work unmolested and with increasing knowledge and 
 deepened convictions. The Church's property received 
 i his attention and criticism, and he proposed to 
 King and Parliament a scheme for the complete reform 
 of the entire ecclesiastical estate. The treasure of the 
 Church was, according to Canon Law, inalienable, and 
 to deprive her of anything in kind or money was 
 
128 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 sacrilege. The Church property was free of all taxes 
 and public burdens; and while a voluntary subsidy 
 might in time of emergency be given by the Church, 
 no taxes or legal burdens rested on her. The Church's 
 very wealth became her snare, and Wycliffe complained 
 of the pride, indolence, and luxury of Churchmen. 
 His doctrine, which created an enormous flutter in 
 ecclesiastical circles, was that as the Church's treasure 
 had come to her neither by purchase nor conquest, but 
 by gift and free-will offering for specific religious 
 purposes, so she was really only the administrator of 
 a great and a sacred trust, and the nation, King, and 
 Parliament were bound to see that she fulfilled the 
 conditions under which that treasure had been given. 
 Evil conduct cancelled the use of these gifts either 
 in individuals or in the Church generally. If the 
 Church failed to do her duty, she then failed to deserve 
 the benefits which pious forefathers had secured for 
 her. 
 
 In this connection more especially he attacked the 
 wealthy Franciscan and Dominican Friars, and as on 
 former occasions showed up their greed, luxury, 
 indolence, and even vice. The " voluntary humility " 
 of these orders he declared was a farce. > These evils 
 had already been complained of by loyal and leading 
 Churchmen themselves, notably by Grossetete the 
 bishop of Lincoln, and Fitzralph the archbishop of 
 Armagh, while in the Canterbury Tales — notably in 
 the " Pardoner," Geoffrey Chaucer held up to mockery 
 the wandering friars who went from county to county 
 and parish to parish, ignoring . the parish priests, and 
 not only doing their work, but absorbing their emolu- 
 ments, to the enormous loss of the latter, whose com- 
 
THE FRIARS AND THE PAPACY 129 
 
 plaints were neither few nor feeble. The " mendicant 
 orders," including not only the Black and Grey 
 Friars, but the Carmelites or White Friars and the 
 Augustinians or Austin Friars, could celebrate Mass 
 anywhere, preach, hear confessions, grant pardons, and, 
 in fact, were serious rivals to the stated, placed, 
 parochial clergy. As a result, their original methods 
 and brazen boldness realised their ends, and wealth 
 flowed into their coffers. Not only were the parochial 
 priests thus deprived of functions and emoluments, 
 but the universities themselves suffered greatly, as 
 the valuable posts were one by one seized by the 
 friars, who became also lecturers ; and young men in 
 large numbers were induced to forsake their employ- 
 ments and take the vows of St. Francis or St. Dominic. 
 Following this, parents would not send their sons to 
 Oxford or Cambridge lest they should be led away ; 
 and the number of students diminished alarmingly, 
 notwithstanding University Statutes of all kinds 
 enacted against the friars' incursion. 
 
 The early Franciscans and Dominicans were men 
 of holy fire and divine enthusiasm, and produced a 
 reformation inside the Church second only to that of 
 Luther. At first, in token of humility they begged 
 their bread — an act, especially for men of pride and 
 birth, of extreme self-crucifixion ; in later times they 
 begged with vigour, not to crucify, but to enrich 
 thru 1 selves. And thus it was that a poor penniless 
 order, owning nothing in the wide world but a habit, 
 a staff, and a pair of boots, became enormously wealthy, 
 founded religious houses which for dignity and wealth 
 those of the monastic orders, ousted the 
 regular clergy from their places, absorbing their 
 9 
 
130 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 functions, especially the profitable ones of pardoning 
 and absolving, and ended by completely superseding 
 them in all rich and valuable posts in the universities. 
 Finally, they obtained so much power and influence in 
 the country, that from being nothing and possessing 
 nothing, they became dangerously rich, alarmingly 
 powerful, and hopelessly lazy. 
 
 Had they even given any substantial return to the 
 community, however trifling, for the vast sums of 
 money they absorbed, — for the broad lands they 
 monopolised, — the burden would perhaps have been 
 tolerable ; but, unlike the monkish orders who, though 
 not without their faults, made their religious houses 
 the schools, the asylums, the hospitals, the poorhouses 
 of the country — making the care of the destitute their 
 special business, and who, when that debased monarch 
 Henry vni. scattered them and greedily grasped at 
 their revenues, were sadly missed by the thousands and 
 thousands of poor miserables turned adrift without a 
 friend in the world. On the other hand, the Black 
 and Grey Friars took everything and gave nothing : 
 they had even given up their preaching to a great 
 extent, for which they had from the Pope a roving 
 commission; and were simply a dead weight on the 
 country. So that, what with the Pope's annual 
 tribute for himself and the friars' wholesale greed 
 and grasping within, the country ran a great risk 
 of being utterly impoverished and rendered hope- 
 lessly bankrupt. 
 ^ Wycliflfe was at this time living partly at Lutter- 
 worth and partly at Oxford: severe illness brought 
 on by trial and hard work came upon him. The friars 
 venturing to his beside, on one occasion, adjured him 
 
THE FRIARS AND THE PAPACY 131 
 
 to revoke his errors. Wycliffe listened to them 
 quietly till they had their breath quite out. Then, 
 beckoning to a servant to help him to sit up in bed, 
 he looked steadily at his cowled and sandalled visitors, 
 and then suddenly scared them out of reason, so that 
 they were thankful to beat a hasty retreat, by crying 
 out at the top of his voice — " I shall not die but live, 
 and declare the evil deeds of the friars." ** 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Wycliffe's Lollards, Bible and Tracts 
 
 With a view to counteract the influence of the friars, 
 Wycliffe next resolved upon a positive movement, and 
 instituted an order of " poor preachers " — whose vows 
 were not in name but in reality those of poverj^, 
 chastity, and obedience. These were chiefly Oxford 
 graduates trained by Wycliffe himself, and sent by 
 him all over the land to preach a plain and simple 
 Christian faith. Their commission was to preach 
 the gospel ; not to dispense pardons or celebrate Masses 
 for the living or the dead, but simply clothed with 
 russet cloak, barefooted, and staff in hand, to tell the 
 message of the Cross in the towns and villages of 
 Britain. They came afterwards to be called Lollards, 
 and their influence stretched all over England and 
 even to the lowlands of Scotland;' and their simple 
 preaching was eagerly listened to by the people, to 
 whom the preaching of a simple gospel was a novelty. 
 The preaching friars gave as their discourses a hash of 
 ecclesiastical, legendary, and classical lore not unmixed 
 with unseemly if not profane jocularities, and always 
 ending with a strong appeal for filthy lucre — a kind 
 of discourse which in time became monotonous and 
 stale. f The simple Lollards, 'on the other hand, versed 
 in the simple life of Christ, and profoundly impressed 
 
 132 
 
WYCLIFFE'S BIBLE AND TRACTS 133 
 
 with a sense of His love for sinners and of the suitability 
 of the gospel of love and peace for the world/ went 
 from town to town and from village to village preach- 
 ing to the populace. If forbidden the use of the 
 parish churches, as they generally were, they went 
 to the churchyards ; one of them on one occasion 
 making a pulpit of two millstones in the High Street 
 of Leicester, and there preached to an immense multitude, 
 in defiance of the bishop. A favourite place for their 
 services was under the old oak-trees ; which from the 
 remotest times have been characteristic of the peaceful 
 village greens of Old England, some of these old oak 
 monarchs still surviving, though much decayed, and 
 called to this day " Gospel Oaks." " Go and preach," said 
 WycKffe often to his disciples, "it is the sublimest 
 work. After your sermon is ended, do you visit the 
 sick, the aged, the poor, the blind, and the lame, and 
 succour them according to your ability." 
 
 These russet-robed preachers,' who received the name 
 of Lollards either from the low singing tones in which 
 they spoke, or because they were " heretical tares," 
 ^survived for more than a century and a half in 
 England : they spread to the North, and were to be 
 seen at times in the High Street of Edinburgh: they 
 \\ • re found even on the Continent, and had at last a 
 lement in Bohemia, where they survived for many 
 years, and finally joined themselves to the followers 
 of John Hus, the famous Bohemian Reformer. ! 
 
 Dora of active life and strenuous 
 
 \\ v< I'ti \va< in his quiet hours steadily pro- 
 ceeding with hi )i Bible, regarding which a 
 fuller account will !»•' given later on. Other works 
 of divinity belong to this period, — works which were 
 
134 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 no doubt in the main the summaries of his lectures 
 in Oxford University. His Summa Theologice, or 
 general body of divinity, is probably the gist of his 
 theological teaching in Oxford. But probably the 
 most remarkable and characteristic work of this time 
 was his Trialogiis, — a series of discussions between 
 the three advocates — Truth, Falsehood, and Wisdom. 
 It is a dialectic treatise on the central Roman dogma 
 of Transubstantiation, which he absolutely and finally 
 rejects. In his other divinity works of this period he 
 is seen gradually drifting towards this final refusal to 
 accept the dogma, more especially in { his lectures 
 delivered in 1381, which were regarded as a challenge 
 to the Church, and evoked from the Chancellor and 
 twelve doctors of Oxford University a counter-appeal 
 in which Wycliffe's errors are thus summed up: 
 " 1. That in the sacrament of the altar the substance 
 of material bread and wine do remain the same after 
 consecration that they were before. 2. That in that 
 venerable sacrament the body and blood of Christ 
 are not essentially nor substantially nor even bodily, 
 but figuratively or topically, so that Christ is not 
 there truly or verily in His own proper Person." The 
 Church's counter-statement concludes with a strongly- 
 worded admonition to the faithful to avoid these 
 heresies : — "The Chancellor admonishes and very 
 strictly inhibits that no one for the future, of any 
 degree, state, or condition, do publicly maintain, teach, 
 or defend the two aforesaid erroneous assertions, or 
 either of them, in the schools or out of them, in this 
 University, on pain of imprisonment and suspension 
 from all scholastic exercises, and also on pain of the 
 greater excommunication." ) 
 
WYCLIFFE'S BIBLE AND TRACTS 135 
 
 Wycliffe, like Luther, posted up in Oxford twelve 
 theses denying transubstantiation, and challenged the 
 world to prove its truth. " The consecrated Host," he 
 says in one of them, " which we see upon the altar 
 is neither Christ nor any part of Christ, but an 
 efficacious -sign of Him." The Chancellor of Oxford 
 University, William Barton, was assisted in his defence 
 of the Church's doctrine by four secular doctors and 
 eight monks, and finally 'an officer was despatched to 
 the School of the Augustinians in which Wycliffe was 
 lecturing to his students on the Eucharist, and read to 
 him the sentence of condemnation. 
 
 For the moment he was taken aback by the 
 suddenness of the summons, and then recovering his 
 composure, he said — " You ought first to have shown 
 me to be in error," and thereupon he challenged the 
 authors of the counterblast to refute his published 
 opinions. He was then told that there were only 
 two alternatives for him, — either to be silent or to 
 be imprisoned, — to which he replied — " Then I appeal 
 to the King and the Parliament." He rose from his 
 professor's chair, which he was never to occupy 
 again, and quietly withdrew to his beloved Lutter- 
 worth. ■ 
 
 A great political crisis came to England in 1381, in 
 which the people, oppressed by long and heavy 
 taxation, led by Wat Tyler, rose up and marched 
 upon London. John Ball, who had been preaching 
 for twenty years before the institution of Wycliffe's 
 "poor priests," associated himself with the rising, 
 himself a priest of dissolute habits and poor reputa- 
 holding strong communistic views; and a 
 <l<t.nnined attempt was made by the Chuvotf" 
 
136 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 authorities to associate him with Wyclift'e and the 
 Lollard teaching. Arrived in London, this great 
 socialistic crowd was joined by the scum of the city, 
 and there were angry threatenings of revolution, 
 " red ruin, and the breaking up of laws." The Duke 
 of Lancaster's great palace in the Savoy was burned 
 down, and Archbishop Sudbury, the Primate, who also 
 held the office of Lord Chancellor of the kingdom, was 
 beheaded in the Tower. Stern repressive measures 
 were taken by the Government, and Wat Tyler's com- 
 munistic rising was quelled and the leaders were 
 with hundreds of followers executed. 
 
 At once Wycliffe's name was mentioned in connec- 
 tion with the rising, though the insurrectionists had 
 all along expressed their sympathy with the mendicant 
 friars who were his enemies. But the ecclesiastical 
 authorities thought it a great opportunity to crush 
 Lollardism through associating it with the base and 
 revolutionary movement of Tyler and Ball, and 
 accordingly the new archbishop, Courtenay, bishop 
 of London, who succeeded the murdered Sudbury, at 
 once instituted proceedings against the Reformer. 
 Courtenay was translated to Canterbury by a Bull 
 of Urban vi., the Roman Pope, and being thus pro- 
 moted for his attachment to the Roman claimant to 
 the Vicarage of Christ, he was particularly anxious 
 to prove his devotion to his benefactor by stamping 
 out the new heresy. 
 
 In the spring of 1382, Wyclift'e presented his 
 appeal from the Chancellor of Oxford University to 
 the King in Council and to Parliament. Lancaster, 
 foreseeing evil to his old friend, advised him to refrain 
 from attacking the doctrine of the Church. So long 
 
WYCLIFFE'S BIBLE AND TRACTS 137 
 
 as Wycliffe attacked abuses and lowered the pride 
 and diminished the wealth of the Church, Lancaster 
 was with him, but he would not follow him into an 
 attack on the Church's creed. But it was of no 
 avail. Wycliffe declared his disbelief in transub- 
 stantiation and other Roman dogmas, and stated it 
 as his belief that a third of the clergy of England 
 were with him. As for himself, he was prepared to 
 die rather than recant. In The Wicket, a simple 
 explanation in plain English of the Lord's Supper, he 
 violently repudiated the literal interpretation of 
 Christ's words — " This is My body." Other tracts 
 and books followed in quick succession from the 
 busy study at Lutterworth. He argued after the 
 manner of the mediaeval Schoolmen at one time, and 
 at another stated his convictions in clear, direct, 
 incisive language which he that ran could read. 
 Nothing would make him alter his convictions nor 
 lessen his attachment to the Scriptures in their plain 
 an«l natural meaning. 
 
 ( The famous trial then came. Courtenay was 
 installed into the chair of St. Augustine at Canter- 
 bury on 6th May 1382. On the 17th of the same 
 montli the Primate summoned a council of prelates 
 and divines at the Blackfriars' monastery in London, 
 the memory of which still lingers in the place-names 
 of the district, — a council which from the extra- 
 ordinary event which broke in upon its deliberations 
 t^ver since received the name of the " Earthquake 
 Synod/ 1 KM.t prelates, fourteen doctors, si x bachelors 
 of divinity, fifteen mendicant friars, and four monks 
 w.i.; gathered in the gr ea t hall of the monastery, and 
 
 \\. re just about to proceed to WyclihVs trial, when 
 
138 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 an earthquake shook London, to the terror of the 
 assembled divines, who began to take it as an omen 
 of the divine displeasure. * But the Primate, who was 
 in deadly earnest to have Wycliffe condemned, turned 
 the incident to another account, and, improving the 
 occasion said — " Know you not that the noxious 
 vapours which catch fire in the bosom of the earth 
 and give rise to these phenomena which alarm you, 
 lose all their force when burst forth ? In like manner, 
 by rejecting the wicked from our community we 
 shall put an end to the convulsions of the Church." 
 
 Accepting gratefully the archhishop's interpretation 
 of the earthquake incident, the members of the court 
 proceeded to the trial, though Wycliffe naturally 
 regarded the earth tremors as portents of God's 
 anger at the prevailing errors, and it was he who 
 ever afterwards spoke of the assembly as the 
 " Earthquake Council." 
 
 ( A court officer read out the twenty -four heretical 
 propositions from Wycliffe's writings, and after 
 deliberations extending over three days the council 
 condemned ten of them as heretical and the rest as 
 erroneous. The first three propositions related to 
 the Lords Supper and the denial of the Real 
 Presence, — Wycliffe doctrines which had already 
 been banned. The conclusions of the council were 
 publicly declared with great show of ceremony. A 
 procession of clergy and laity marched from Black- 
 friars up Ludgate Hill to St. Paul's Cathedral, where 
 John Cunningham, a Carmelite monk, preached a 
 sermon against the Lollard doctrines, and concluded by 
 reading the twenty-four condemned articles of belief, 
 and called for instant judgment and punishment 
 
WYCLIFFE'S BIBLE AND TRACTS 139 
 
 upon all who preached, taught, or believed these 
 heresies. ; 
 
 The council's sentence was served upon the Bishop 
 of London, a diocese almost as much infected with 
 the new views as Oxford itself, to all the bishops, 
 and more " particularly to the Bishop of Lincoln, in 
 whose diocese Lutterworth was situated. Another 
 copy was sent to Oxford, and Crown and Parliament 
 were called upon to take action. 
 
 ' Archbishop Courtenay's commissioner at Oxford 
 delivered the message to the University, which at 
 heart was always favourable to its distinguished son, 
 with the result that nothing was done. Richard 11., 
 the youthful King,' was told by Courtenay — " If we 
 permit this heretic to appeal continually to the 
 passions of the people, our destruction is inevitable: 
 we must silence these Lollards." ''Anxious to pro- 
 pitiate the Church, mainly for financial ends, the 
 King gave orders " to confine in the prisons of the 
 State any who should maintain the condemned 
 propositions." ' The House of Lords approved of this 
 action, not so the House of Commons; and yet in 
 spite of the motion having never received the 
 authority of the Commons, through Courtenay's great 
 influence and subtle diplomacy the condemnatory 
 ordinance was placed upon the Statute Book on 26th 
 v 1382. 
 ( Courtenay attained his end, and now prepared to 
 crash Wycliffe and his followers. Lancaster faltered 
 and failed, and many who had supported the Reformer 
 in his crusade against the friars and the corruptions 
 of the Church shrank from committing themselves so 
 far as to deny the Real Presence. On 19th November 
 
140 VVYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 1382, Parliament reassembled, and Wycliffe, who knew 
 his life was in hourly danger, appealed to it and 
 to the King. He reiterated four grievances which 
 
 V called loudly for reform, — the monastic orders, which 
 ought to be abolished, — the lawfulness and righteous- 
 ness of secular lords taking away Church property 
 which was abused, — the withdrawing of revenues 
 from evil-living clerics, — and the teaching of the 
 scriptural doctrine of the Eucharist as against Tran- 
 substantiation, in the churches of the land. 
 
 The Commons looked favourably on the appeal, and 
 asked the King to disannul the persecuting mandate 
 
 i which Courtenay had obtained, and further declared 
 with great boldness that the papal prelates would no 
 more override and overrule their wishes than in the 
 
 , days of King John. With great wisdom the King 
 withdrew the mandate and repealed it. 
 
 In angry despair the Primate turned to Oxford, 
 where both Parliament and Convocation were 
 assembled, and with great astuteness mixed up the 
 Crown's clamant want of money and Wycliffe's 
 heresies. " Our business," he said, addressing Con- 
 vocation, "is to grant a subsidy to the Crown and 
 to remedy certain disorders which have too long 
 disgraced the University, and are rapidly extending 
 to the whole community of whose spiritual safety we 
 are the properly constituted guardians." The meeting 
 of Convocation to which Wycliffe was summoned was 
 attended by all the dignitaries and students and 
 public of the city by the Isis, besides six prelates and 
 a host of titled divines. 
 
 ( Oxford had always been loyal to the earnest scholar 
 who forty years before had begun his studies in its 
 
WYCLIFFE'S BIBLE AND TRACTS 141 
 
 halls, and now he was arraigned and put on trial for 
 heresy before his very friends and patrons. Lancaster, 
 afraid of further mischief, advised him to submit; 
 but Wycliffe turned to Courtenay, and after boldly 
 reproaching him for allowing priests to sell their 
 Masses and thus disseminate error, added — "The 
 Truth shall prevail ! " He passed out from the great 
 gathering, none daring to touch him, and leaving 
 Oxford hastened to peaceful Lutterworth once more ; 
 and till his death he never suffered any more trouble 
 nor was brought to any fresh trial. ' 
 
 As on previous occasions, however, when the 
 dangerous man haoWlisappeared the judges had their 
 harmless revenge and bootless wrath and clamour. 
 ( Wycliffe and his adherents, notably Nicholas Here- 
 ford who assisted him in the translation of the Bible, 
 were deprived of all university functions and expelled 
 from university and city. The very persecution 
 seemed to spread the Wycliffe movement/ so much 
 so that a Roman Catholic writer declared in the 
 oft-quoted sentence — " A man could not meet two 
 people on the road, but one of them was a disciple of 
 Wycliffe." The persecution which ensued drove some 
 back to their former views ; ( but Wycliffe resumed his 
 studies on the shore of the Swift, and prepared for 
 the completion of the greatest work of his life/ upon 
 which he had already spent many years of toil and 
 his whole heart 's-blood — the translation of the whole 
 Bible into English. * 
 
 Wycliffe was the author not only of a Sum of 
 Theology ^Three Treatises against the Friars, The Wicket 
 (a tract on the Lord's Supper), The Poor Caitiff (a book 
 on practical personal piety), but also of many contro- 
 
142 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 versial treatises on the more objectionable documents 
 of the Church of Rome, in which she had departed 
 from the universal teachings and beliefs of the Catholic 
 Church of God. When all these have been forgotten, 
 however,- as in time they will ftnd musk be, — when the 
 Reformer's influence and doings shall have dropped 
 behind the horizon of time into the deep ocean of 
 oblivion, — the one great masterpiece of his life will 
 remain and perpetuate his memory as long as time 
 shall last. That work is his translation of the Bible 
 into English, — the first translation of the Scripture 
 into the people's tongue that had ever been made in 
 this land. 
 
 The only Bibles in existence were the hand- written 
 scrolls of the Latin Vulgate, a copy of which was a 
 fortune in itself, a large flock of sheep being oftentimes 
 given in exchange for a single page : to transcribe 
 copies of the Vulgate was considered a work of the 
 greatest merit, and sure to secure an entrance into 
 glory. Of course, these Latin Bibles were quite out 
 of the reach of the people, and were to be found only 
 in the possession of the parish priest, who alone could 
 understand the language. There were, it is true, small 
 portions of the New Testament in English: even so 
 early as the sixth century the Venerable Bede rendered 
 the Gospel of St. John into Anglo-Saxon ; but WyclifFe 
 was the first to give the English people the complete 
 copy of Holy Scripture in the native tongue, and to 
 let the common people read with their own eyes the 
 priceless words of everlasting life. 
 f The New Testament was the work of Wycliffe alone : 
 the Old Testament was translated by his friend 
 Nicholas Hereford and his Lutterworth curate, John 
 
WYCLIFFE'S BIBLE AND TRACTS 143 
 
 Purvey. The translation is not from the original 
 Hebrew and Greek, but only from the Latin Vulgate, 
 and is thus only a translation of a translation. It is, 
 however, fairly accurate; and not only did it give 
 ordinary people the Bible into their own hands, but 
 it fixed the English language, and gave it a firmness 
 and consistency which it had never possessed before. ) 
 That Bible became the standard of pure and correct 
 English writing and speaking, and was thus not only 
 a potent religious teacher, but a splendid popular 
 educator. 
 
 c To multiply copies, Wyclifte got his Oxford students 
 and friends to co-operate with him, and thus in time 
 they were scattered through the whole land,— to so 
 great an extent, indeed, that ( in 1850, when a census 
 was taken of the number of written copies in existence, 
 no less than a hundred and fifty MSS. were found to 
 have survived the wreck of centuries. 
 
 Afc-ihia- time of day we can hardly estimate tke 
 difficulties of such an undertaking as this : there was 
 the heavy opposition of the Church to the popularising 
 and vulgarising of the priests' sacred book : there was 
 the entire absence of printer's press and printer's ink, 
 and the like, — only the human hand and the slowly 
 moving pen: these and a hundred other difficulties 
 the brave spirit of John Wycliffe faced and overcame ; 
 and thus he was the forerunner of all the later trans- 
 lators — the great progenitor of the English Bible of 
 to-day, the great treasure of the British people. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Wycliffe's Death 
 
 But the sword was too sharp for the scabbard; the 
 spirit was too active for the frail tabernacle : Wycliffe 
 had worked, now Wycliffe must rest. { On 28th December 
 1384 — five hundred and twenty-three years ago, while 
 conducting service in his own beautiful church at Lutter- 
 worth, he was struck down with paralysis and never 
 spoke again, passing peacefully away to the other world 
 on New Year's eve, just as the old year was a-dying. 
 Eeverently his parishioners laid his wearied bones 
 to rest in the quiet churchyard ; but thirty years later, 
 by command of the Council of Constance, they were 
 exhumed, burned to ashes, and the dust tossed into 
 the river Swift, — a quickly running stream which 
 surges past the old parish church ; and thus, as " old 
 Fuller " says, " This brook did convey his ashes into 
 the Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the 
 narrow sea, and this into the wide ocean. And so 
 the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, 
 which is now dispersed all the world over." 
 
 The bones of Columbus have been shifted all over 
 the New World and the Old. And poor Mary's ashes 
 had a fate like her own life : the cruel tragedy of her 
 life ended by the fatal stroke at Fotheringay, her 
 remains were first interred in Peterborough Cathedral, 
 
 144 
 
WYCLIFFE'S DEATH 145 
 
 and thence brought by James 1. with great solemnity 
 to Westminster Abbey, where she lies to-day with a 
 marble effigy above her, hands folded in prayer, and 
 at her feet the Scottish lion crowned. Truly in re- 
 viewing such a life of mingled sunshine and shadow, 
 grey and gold, one is constrained to cry out like the 
 great French preacher over the bier of Louis xiv., 
 " There is nothing great but God ! " 
 
 The fine old church dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, 
 where Wycliffe ministered so long, is still used as the 
 parish church to-day, — a fine Gothic tower having 
 been erected in place of the ancient spire, which had 
 fallen to decay. The glorious nave and chancel, with 
 their rich, rare old carvings and groinings, the dense 
 masses of wood and forest, the bright green flowery 
 meadows, and the sparkling happy river Swift with its 
 pebbly beach, are all there to-day just as he left 
 them five hundred years ago. In the vestry there 
 are still shown his old chair, a bit of his gown, and a 
 considerable portion of the original pulpit. The in- 
 scription on the Memorial Tablet says : " He found 
 an abundant reward in the blessings of his countrymen 
 of every rank and age, to whom be unfolded the words 
 of eternal life." 
 
 The Rev. F. C. ^Jitoson, rector of Lutterworth 
 and canon of Peterborough, kindly writes as to the 
 present memorials to Wycliffe in Lutterworth : 
 
 " The Relics in the Church consist of a portion of 
 Wiclif's cope that I think is probably a true relic, 
 unless it is a portion of the Altar cloth, as some say. 
 Then there are his candlesticks, which probably 
 
 re those put into the Church by the order of Arch- 
 bishop Laud, but they are called ' Wiclif's Candlesticks.' 
 10 
 
146 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 " Then there is the copy of his portrait, which is not 
 probably of him. 
 
 "Then there is his chair, on which he is said to 
 have died, but I cannot myself certify this. 
 
 " And, lastly, there is his pulpit, some of the wood- 
 work being undoubtedly of his time. 
 
 " But I think, though the Church has been restored, 
 that the arcade of the Nave was probably built about 
 his time, and there are two Frescoes, one of the 
 Judgment Day, and the other of three persons, 
 probably Richard n., Anne of Bohemia, and John 
 of Gaunt, that I assume were in the Church in Wiclif 's 
 time. Some of the Church is older than Wiclif, and 
 some part of it is later. 
 
 " There are two modern monuments, one inside the 
 Church — Wiclif sending out his preachers, and there 
 is a large obelisk at the entry of the town." 
 
 Alas, since this was written Canon Alderson has 
 passed to his rest ! 
 
 Mr. Edward Caird, until recently Master of Balliol, 
 kindly informs me that the only " trace " of import- 
 ance of Wycliffe's presence at the famous college for 
 northmen is " a portrait of questionable authenticity." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Wycliffe and the English Bible * 
 
 The beauty of many of the magnificently illuminated 
 Gospels of early and mediaeval British Christianity 
 raises the envy and wonder of the modern artist and 
 scribe. In Durham Cathedral and in the British 
 Museum wonderful examples of the labours in the 
 scriptorium of the Lindisfarne fathers are to be seen. 
 The " Durham Manuscript " in the British Museum 
 (Nero. D., 4), intimately described by Selden, Mares- 
 chall, Smith, Wanley, and Astle, is a copy of the four 
 Gospels written by Eadfrith or Egfrid, bishop of 
 Lindisfarne. The Vulgate is there beautifully tran- 
 scribed and bound in gold and jewels. A note at the 
 end of St. Matthew says Egfrid wrote it, and Ethelwald 
 hfe successor did the brilliant and wondrous illumina- 
 tions. iElfrid put it in a cover of gold and silver with 
 rich stones, and after a time Aldred added an interlinear 
 Dano-Saxon version with notes on the margin. That 
 priceless volume was the treasure of the island-college 
 of Lindisfarne until the Danes pillaged the place as 
 they pillaged the sister Iona, and the fathers fled, 
 carrying their sacred gospel-book with them, — a volume 
 riceless and wonderful to them as was the " Crystal 
 book" of Columba to the Iona missionaries. During 
 their flight the book fell into the sea, and it is said one 
 
 1 See note on p. 321. 
 147 
 
148 IWYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 of the fathers had a vision of it thrown up unhurt on 
 the rocky coast. After due search it was found where 
 the dream indicated. At last it was laid in Durham, 
 where it remained until Lindisfarne was rebuilt and 
 safe, and was then carried back thither, where it re- 
 mained until the dissolution of the house, and now it is 
 preserved in the British Museum. 
 
 That interlinear Dano- Saxon translation was one 
 of the earliest versions in the vulgar tongue of the four 
 Gospels. But it was exclusively for the priesthood, like 
 the other gorgeous volumes which lay in the treasuries 
 and on the altars of British churches in that age. 
 
 There can be little doubt, however, that the people 
 of England were more or less familiar with the facts 
 of Scripture through homely fragments of translation 
 scattered abroad from a very early time. The Saxon 
 Caedmon who sang the " Creation," told in familiar 
 phrase, according to the Venerable Bede, the chief inci- 
 dents in the Old and New Testaments. The birth of the 
 world, the fall of man, the story of Israel, the life of the 
 Lord, the descent of the Spirit, and the lives of the apostles 
 were all included in his " Paraphrase," which was little 
 else than a homely and popular versification of the 
 Scripture adapted to the needs of the people. To say 
 that popular renderings of Scripture incidents were 
 unknown or even scarce in England before Wyclifte is 
 historically and absurdly inaccurate. In the far North 
 the Ruthwell Cross — still preserved after many vicissi- 
 tudes in the parish church of that beautiful Dumfries- 
 shire district — has carved around it in Runic letters 
 the story of the Cross, and the central spaces are filled 
 up with pictorial representations of the various Gospel 
 incidents in the life of the Saviour. 
 
WYCLIFFE AND THE ENGLISH BIBLE 149 
 
 The deciphering of what has now become famous 
 as "The Ruth well Cross" is a marvellous story, and 
 one of the greatest triumphs of scholarship in modern 
 times. The stone is all covered with sculptures of 
 Scripture scenes, most of them from the life of our 
 Lord ; but round the edge of the arms of the cross are 
 long lines of inscription in Runic letters, and the in- 
 terpretation of these has been at last arrived at in the 
 following extraordinary manner. In the year 1823 a 
 German scholar was making a literary pilgrimage 
 through Northern Italy, and in the old conventual 
 library of Vercelli he by accident came upon an ancient 
 yellow parchment, on which, among other things, was 
 written, in the Anglo-Saxon language, a short poem 
 entitled "The Dream of the Holy Rood." He felt 
 deeply interested in discovering this scrap of old 
 English sacred minstrelsy in a land so far away and 
 in so unlikely a quarter ; and, after rendering it care- 
 fully into modern English, he saw to his infinite 
 surprise that it was almost identical with the hypo- 
 thetical translation of the Runic letters on the old 
 stone in the Dumfriesshire church. After a great deal 
 of elaborate research, it has been finally settled that 
 the Runic writing on the Ruth well Cross is a copy of 
 an ancient English poem, composed probably by 
 Caedmon, and was carved about the year A.D. 655. 
 Indeed, on the top of the cross the words are written — 
 "Caedmon made me." It was therefore about the 
 close of the seventh century of our Christian era that 
 religious poem — which seems to have been quite 
 current and popular in England and the south of 
 Scotland — was put into a more durable form on this 
 stone cross. It is the " Story of the Cross " as told by 
 
150 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 a British Christian of the seventh century, in simple 
 language and with genuine feeling. 
 
 Here is the Ruthwell inscription put into modern 
 English. The idea is that a Christian falls asleep, and 
 sees the Cross, in a vision, surrounded by angels ; and 
 the Cross breaks forth into a soliloquy, and tells the 
 story of what happened to it and to its Divine Bearer 
 on the ever-memorable Crucifixion Day — the darkest 
 day in history : 
 
 "'Twas many a year ago, 
 I yet remember it, 
 That I was hewn down 
 At the wood's end. 
 
 Then men bare me upon their shoulders 
 Until they set me down upon a hill. 
 Then saw I tremble 
 The whole extent of earth. 
 He mounted me ; 
 
 I trembled when He embraced me ; 
 Yet dared I not to bow earthwards. 
 I raised the powerful King 
 The Lord of the Heavens. 
 They pierced me with dark nails. 
 They reviled us both together. 
 I was all stained with Blood, 
 Poured from His Side. 
 The shadow went forth 
 Pale under the welkin. 
 All creation wept, 
 They mourned the fall of their King." 
 
 This is the " testimony of the rocks " to the Faith of 
 Christ — a sermon in stone, preached twelve hundred 
 years ago ; but still its voice is heard proclaiming that 
 faith wherein we stand, the faith of the Church of Britain 
 of to-day, as it was in that early Christian age. It is 
 
WYCLIFFE AND THE ENGLISH BIBLE 151 
 
 the same old gospel to-day as it was yesterday, and as 
 it will be for ever. " Jesus Christ is always Himself." 
 
 The Venerable Bede gave England a translation of 
 the Lord's Prayer and of St. John's Gospel, and the 
 story of its completion is one of the classics of ecclesi- 
 astical history. Asser, King Alfred's biographer, de- 
 clares that the most necessary parts of Scripture were 
 accessible to Englishmen, while it was the good King's 
 desire to make the scheme of popularising the Scripture 
 perfectly complete, but was unable to do much. 
 
 There was no more diligent student of the Bible than 
 Alfred, who kept a " handboc " in which he wrote down 
 extracts from Scripture, especially the Psalms, of some of 
 which he made original translations. He used earnestty 
 to persuade all his subjects to read the Scriptures ; and 
 as Edward VI. rebuked that courtier who stood on the 
 holy book to reach down something from a height, and 
 kissed the volume by way of reparation, so Alfred 
 enshrined the gospel in the heart of his people, and, like 
 Victoria the Good, whom both these kings so greatly 
 resembled, pointed to the sacred volume (whether the 
 incident be true or not matters little, for the spirit 
 was there) as " the secret of England's greatness." 
 
 The book of Psalms and the four Gospels were 
 translated into vulgar Saxon at a very early stage, the 
 edition of the Anglo-Saxon and Early English Psalter 
 reprinted in 1844 by the Surtees Society from MSS. in 
 the British Museum being conclusive proof that popular 
 versions of Scripture were quite common in the Saxon 
 Church. Mr. Forshall, in his preface to the Wycliffe 
 translation of the Bible (4 vols., Oxford, 1850), declares 
 in his preface that "the writings which are still extant 
 show that the Anglo-Saxon Church must have had in 
 
152 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 its own tongue a considerable amount of scriptural 
 instruction." 
 
 The Lord's Prayer seems to have been of the special 
 pieces of sacred writ used in the vulgar tongue by the 
 English people. Bishop ^Elfric in A.D. 700 gives it in 
 Anglo-Saxon roughly thus : " Uren Fader thic arth 
 in heofnas, sic gehalgud thin noma, so cymeth thin ric. 
 Sic thin willa sue is heofnas and in eortho." In A.D. 
 900 the same prayer that teaches to pray appears thus : 
 " Thu ure Fader the eart on heofnum, si thin nama 
 gehalgod : cume thin rice, si thin willa on eorthen sue 
 sue on heofenum." In A.D. 1160 a metrical version of 
 the Paternoster composed by Pope Adrian — the only 
 Englishman who ever filled the papal chair — was sent 
 broadcast over England : 
 
 " Ure Fader in heaven rich 
 Thy Name be hayled ever lich. 
 Thou bring us thy mickell blisse 
 Ais hit in heaven y-doe 
 Evar in yearth beene it also." 
 
 About Wycliffe's age the ordinary version ran thus : 
 
 " O oure Father which arte in heven 
 Halowed be Thy name. 
 
 Let Thy kingdom come, Thy will be fulfilled 
 As well in erthe as it is in heven. 
 Give us this daye ure daylybred." 
 
 Besides Bede's "St. John," the four Evangelists 
 translated by the learned men of Alfred's court, and 
 some books of the Old Testament translated by ^Elfric 
 in King Ethelred's reign, in a. later age a Norman 
 priest paraphrased the Gospels and Acts, while Richard 
 Rolle, '■ the hermit of Hampole," who sang so sweetly of 
 
WYCLIFFE AND THE ENGLISH BIBLE 153 
 
 the Celestial Country after the manner of St. Bernard, 
 aided by a few learned priests of his neighbourhood, 
 produced a version of the Psalms, Gospels, and Epistles. 
 The Psalter was the only Scripture book which was 
 translated into all the three languages of England — 
 Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, and Old English. 
 
 During the period of English Church history sub- 
 sequent to the Norman Conquest, Scripture translations 
 were frequent. In the thirteenth century the entire 
 Psalter was translated into French and English for the 
 benefit of the mixed populations of England at the 
 time, — a rendering at once simple, strenuous, and fairly 
 accurate and literal. During the reigns of the first 
 three Edwards many popular translations of Scripture 
 portions appeared and had wide circulation, chiefly 
 poetical paraph rases of incidents, events, and teachings in 
 the two Testaments. Archbishop Usher in his treatise, 
 Be scripturis et sacris vernacidis (London, 1690), even 
 goes the length of declaring that long before Wycliffe, 
 England was in possession of the entire Bible in the 
 vernacular, — an assertion which Dr. James, the famous 
 author of the Apology for John Wickcliffe (Oxford, 
 1608), the keeper of the Bodleian and Cottonian 
 Libraries, and a devoted admirer of the Reformer, 
 upholds and defends. This important assertion, how- 
 ever, cannot in the face of recent researches and exami- 
 nations be upheld and defended, and the editors of 
 Wycliffe's Bible refuse to accept it as in any sense 
 accurate. 
 
 1378-1384, — long prior to the invention of printing, ^ 
 may be taken as the date of the publication of Wycliffe's ' 
 completed Bible. Transcripts were necessarily - 
 treinely costly, and in Wycliffe's own day the value 
 
154 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 of one of his New Testaments was about £45 of our 
 money. A most beautiful copy of the entire Bible was 
 in the possession of His Royal Highness the late Duke 
 of Sussex, and it is calculated by the Wycliffe Society, 
 which has done so much to preserve copies not only 
 of the entire work, and of smaller detached Gospels, 
 Epistles, etc., but also of the Reformer's tracts and works 
 generally, that altogether there are still extant some 
 one hundred and fifty hand-written copies of Wycliffe's 
 immortal work. 
 
 Wycliffe's English Bible is practically a translation 
 of the existing Latin Vulgate copies. Hebrew was 
 wholly unknown to, and even despised by, Christendom 
 as the language of those who had crucified the Lord, 
 forgetful of the fact that it was practically the language 
 which flowed from the lips of Him who spake as never 
 man spake. The Vulgate used by the father of the 
 English Bible for his great work calls for a brief 
 reference. 
 
 Prior to St. Jerome's great translation of the whole 
 Bible, there were current many Latin versions of the 
 Old Testament as well as of the New. One of the 
 Fathers says, " Among the Latins there are as many 
 different Bibles as copies of the Bible, for every man 
 has added or subtracted, according to his own caprice, 
 as he saw fit." 
 
 Jerome, seeing this, made a translation of the Old 
 Testament directly from the Hebrew somewhere 
 between a.d. 390 and 400. Now, we are not aware 
 whether St. Jerome was quite competent for this great 
 work. He is said to have been a good Hebrew scholar, 
 but we do not know that he was. But even granting 
 that he could render Hebrew idioms and figures into 
 
WYCLIFFE AND THE ENGLISH BIBLE 155 
 
 corresponding Latin forms of expression with a very 
 considerable amount of discretion, his task was not 
 then over. 
 
 Even so early as then, Hebrew manuscripts were in 
 a state of the very utmost corruption, as is testified by 
 many of the Fathers, among whom may be mentioned 
 Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Clemens Romanus, Origen, 
 Eusebius, and Epiphanius. St. Jerome had, therefore, 
 to use a certain amount of critical judgment, which he 
 may or may not have possessed, if his work was to be 
 really valuable. Now, we know that the Fathers, 
 though pious and in many cases learned, were, except- 
 ing Jerome and Origen, no critics. The science of 
 criticism was then almost unknown, and certainly 
 unformed. St. Jerome's translation was therefore, in 
 all probability, not wanting in bad readings, got from 
 inferior manuscripts, or perhaps even from the 
 Septuagint, which he may have consulted. For this 
 great undertaking he was much censured by his con- 
 tempories, who contended that he had disturbed the all 
 but universal reverence for the Septuagint. 
 
 In 605 this translation was adopted by Pope 
 Gregory, but with it he incorporated the Old Italic 
 Version. But still these steps did not ensure uniform- 
 ity of reading throughout the Catholic world. In the 
 ninth century Alcuin, and in the eleventh Lanfranc, 
 made numerous emendations. In the Middle Ages the 
 Latin text was in a state of the greatest corruption — 
 so much so, that we find Roger Bacon remarking that 
 in his day " every reader altered to suit his own whim." 
 In this state the Latin Version continued, till Stephens 
 revised it, and made a new text. About the same time 
 Clariu8 submitted to the Tridentine Council a schedule 
 
156 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 of eighty thousand mistakes, which had crept in in the 
 course of ages. Pope Sixtus v. undertook to be proof- 
 reader, and accordingly, in 1589, a new version of the 
 Vulgate issued from his Vatican, in which " eaque res 
 quo magis incorrupti perficeretur, nostra nos ipsi manu 
 correximus." 
 
 In 1591, in the pontificate of Clement vil, a standard 
 copy was issued, and pronounced " perfect." This text 
 has ever since been held to be the standard Latin 
 Vulgate. But we are not told according to what prin- 
 ciples his Sixtine version was arrived at. The prob- 
 ability is that a compromise was made amongst all the 
 current versions, and thus general satisfaction was given. 
 
 The common Vulgate of the Church in England, used 
 by the priests, together with the fragments of English 
 Scripture portions and hymns, was the groundwork of 
 Wycliffe's Bible. Even had he been a Hebrew scholar 
 and had Hebrew been known in England in the four- 
 teenth century, manuscripts were not to the hand. Even 
 when the forty-seven translators of King James vi.'s 
 Bible translated their work, it was almost impossible to 
 get a reliable Hebrew MS., and as a matter of fact the 
 present " Authorised Version " dedicated to " the most 
 High and Mighty Prince James " is little else than the 
 older English Bibles revised and compared with the 
 Vulgate and Septuagint. 
 
 Accordingly Wycliffe's Bible steps into a position of 
 even greater importance than at first sight appears, for it 
 was the parent of our present Authorised Version of all 
 the various English Bibles which intervene between the 
 two with the exception of the Roman Catholic English 
 Bible of Rheims, which was a fresh translation from 
 Greek and Latin. 
 
WYCLIFFE AND THE ENGLISH BIBLE 157 
 
 A brief survey of the succession of the English Bible 
 in its various forms from WyclinVs parent masterpiece 
 reveals some interesting movements and features: 
 WyclinVs Bible was only a translation of translations, 
 and the English Bibles which succeeded — Tyndale's 
 (1530), Coverdale's (1535), Cranmer's "Great Bible" 
 (1540), the Genevan Version (1557), the Bishops' 
 Bible (1568), the Rhemish New Testament (1582), 
 and the Authorised Version (1607) — were all more 
 or less translations from the Vulgate also, though the 
 Rhemish Translation of the New Testament professed 
 to include also a " diligent comparison with the Greek 
 and other editions in divers languages." " We have 
 presumed," say the fathers of the Roman College of 
 Rheims, " not in hard places to mollify the speech or 
 phrases, but religiously keep them word for word and 
 point for point, for fear of missing or restraining the 
 sense of the Holy Ghost to our phantasy." WyclinVs 
 was the first complete translation of the whole Bible 
 into English, and all or almost all the subsequent 
 versions were indebted to it and were guided by it. 
 
 Taking a broad survey of the whole subject of the 
 succession of our English Bibles, WyclinVs stands out 
 as the mother of them all ; and while itself only a 
 homely translation of existing Vulgate versions, vary- 
 ing, defective, and even contradictory, forms the basis 
 and foundation of that great book which has done 
 more than any other to form, settle, and guide the 
 iisli language and character. 
 
 It is noticeable in the ecclesiastical histories of 
 
 England and Scotland of this period, that all who were 
 
 mined for heresy appealed directly to the Scriptures, 
 
 ring the infli bioh they began to exert over 
 
158 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 the minds of men generally. A second edition of 
 Wycliffe's Bible was issued in 1390, ten years after the 
 first, revised by a man named Purvey, so that men 
 here and there were by'that time laying hands on the 
 charter of their liberties. It only remains to be re- 
 stated that this of Wycliffe was the first complete 
 written Bible in English ; and it is a curious fact that 
 the whole work was never printed till about sixty 
 years ago (1845). 
 
 Still more striking, however, than even the fact that 
 our English Bible had its birth at Lutterworth, is the 
 stupendous thought that through this, the Bible has been 
 given to the world, for the three hundred translations or 
 so of the Bible into all the languages of the earth have 
 nearly all been made from the English Bible. Neither 
 the Roman nor the Greek branches of the Church have 
 ever given any people the Scripture in the vulgar 
 tongue of that people or tribe. The spreading abroad 
 of Bible translations into Turkish, Arabic, Chinese, 
 Hindustani, and all the chief tongues of man, not to 
 speak of the scores of minor languages on Indian hills, 
 beside Equatorial African lakes, in Australasian islands, 
 and amid Esquimaux snows, has been the almost 
 exclusive work, triumph, glory, and crown of the great 
 Bible Societies of Britain. And thus Wycliffe's Bible 
 becomes the parent-Bible of all the Bibles of the world, 
 and his voice has gone through all the earth, and his 
 words unto the end of the world. Fuller's account of 
 his ashes being carried to every shore is not an image 
 but a fact, for the millions of every clime and colour 
 who to-day, in earth's multitudinous tongues, read man's 
 best guide-book to heaven, and catch the gleam, through 
 its printed letters, of another and a brighter land, owe 
 
WYCLIFFE AND THE ENGLISH BIBLE 159 
 
 their book to the rector of Lutterworth, who first took 
 the clasps off the holy volume aud opened it freely to 
 the world. If Chaucer is the "Father of English 
 Poetry," Wycliffe is undoubtedly the " Father " not only 
 of the English Bible, but through it of the Bibles of the 
 world. 
 
 We cannot determine when Wyclitfe's translation of 
 the Bible was really begun, and in his many writings 
 he very curiously makes hardly any allusion to the 
 great work and masterpiece of his life ; but the colossal 
 task was completed during the last few years of his 
 life in the calm peace of his Lutterworth study. The 
 New Testament translation which appeared first was 
 Wycliffe's own personal work, while Dr. Nicholas 
 Hereford of Oxford, his trusty friend and helper, was 
 probably responsible for the greater part of the Old 
 Testament, while another loyal adherent, John Purvey, 
 Wycliffe's curate at Lutterworth, helped in both, 
 revising and re-editing the whole. 
 
 The great work of translation having been finished, 
 the next problem was how to get reproductions of the 
 volume so as to scatter Scripture truth abroad over the 
 land ; for in his treatise on The Truth and Meaning of 
 Scripture, Wycliffe rests his faith absolutely on the 
 pture for doctrine, discipline, and daily conduct. 
 "A Christian man," he says, "well understanding it, 
 may gather sufficient knowledge during his pilgrimage 
 upon earth : all truth js contained in Scripture, and we 
 should admit of no conclusion not approved there. 
 There is no court beside the Court of Heaven ; though 
 there were an hundred Popes and all the friars in the 
 world was turned into cardinals, yet should we learn 
 more from the gospel than we should from all that 
 
160 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 multitude : true sons will in no wise go about to 
 infringe the will and testament of their heavenly- 
 Father." At a later period he wrote : " As the Faith 
 of the Church is contained in the Scriptures, the more 
 these are known in an orthodox sense the better." 
 
 Wycliffe had done his great work with great 
 obstacles. Apart from the positive and strenuous 
 opposition of the Church, his health was broken down 
 with work, worry, and persecution, and above all, in 
 addition, lie had little knowledge either of Hebrew or of 
 Greek, and had to rely mainly on the ordinary Vulgate 
 of the priesthood. 
 
 The work was finished in 1382, and with character- 
 istic energy Wycliffe got scores of willing workers to 
 copy the Bible out. The demand was so great that 
 with hundreds of expert hands busy at work, the 
 demand could not be met. Some of the wealthy had 
 copies made for themselves, while those who were 
 poorer had to content themselves with portions of the 
 Bible, — a Gospel or the Psalms or an Epistle. The 
 catalogue of the Wycliffe Bible MSS. in the British 
 Museum shows how this is historically correct, some of 
 the entries showing a whole Bible, others a New 
 Testament, others a portion of Old or New Scripture. 
 Through the kindness of the librarian the following 
 complete list of all Wycliffe's Bible MSS. in the 
 Museum library is given : 
 
 WYCLIFFE BIBLES 
 
 (Hiis list does not include all lilunjical fragments and psalters.) 
 Later Version. Earlier Version. 
 
 Royal 1 A iv. % * Royal 1 B vi. N.T. 
 
 „ 1 A x. i X.T. „ 1 B ix. St. Join 
 
 1 A xii. 
 
WYCLIFFE AND THE ENGLISH BIBLE 161 
 
 
 Later Version. Earlier Version. 
 
 Royal 1 C viii. 
 
 Eg. 617, 618 (Prov.-Macc. 
 
 „ 1 C ix. and Harl. 5017. and N.T.). 
 
 Cotton. Cland. E. 
 
 ii. Add. 15580 (Prov.-Macc. 
 
 Harley 
 
 272. 
 
 N.T. and N.T.). 
 
 » 
 
 327. 
 
 Acts, Epp. etc. 
 
 >> 
 
 940. 
 
 ii 
 
 » 
 
 984. 
 
 St. Matth. 
 
 » 
 
 1212. 
 
 N.T. 
 
 n 
 
 1896. 
 
 Psalter. 
 
 ii 
 
 2249. 
 
 Joshua-Ps. 
 
 ii 
 
 2309. 
 
 Gosp. 
 
 ii 
 
 3903. 
 
 Job and Tobit. 
 
 ii 
 
 4027. 
 
 N.T. 
 
 » 
 
 4890. 
 
 N.T. 
 
 ii 
 
 5017. 
 
 Mace, and N.T. 
 
 ii 
 
 5767. 
 
 St. Luke and St. John. 
 
 ii 
 
 5768. 
 
 Cath. Epis. and Apocalypse. 
 
 J> 
 
 6333. 
 
 Acts, Epistles, etc. 
 
 Lansdowne 407. 
 
 N.T. 
 
 ii 
 
 455. 
 
 N.T. Lessons, etc. 
 
 Arundel 
 
 104. 
 
 N.T. 
 
 11 
 
 254. 
 
 Cath. Epis., Lessons, etc. 
 
 Barney 
 
 30. 
 
 St. John and Hebrews. 
 
 Egerton 
 
 1165. 
 
 N.T. 
 
 ii 
 
 1171. 
 
 N.T., Lessons, etc. 
 
 Add. 
 
 5890-5902. (18th cent, copy.) 
 
 ii 
 
 10046. 
 
 (Psalms, etc.) 
 
 ii 
 
 10047. 
 
 ii 
 
 ii 
 
 10596. 
 
 (Tobit, Susanna, etc.) 
 
 ii 
 
 11858. 
 
 (N.T.) same hand as Harl. 2249. 
 
 ii 
 
 15517. 
 
 (Gospels.) 
 
 For the above see ForsJudl and Madden's edition. 
 
 28256. (Apoc.) 
 31044. (Pb m Prov. etc.) 
 
1 62 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 From the register of Alnwick, bishop of Norwich, 
 it appears that in 1429 a Wycliffe Testament cost four 
 marks and forty pence or £2, 16s. 8d., a sum equal to 
 more than twenty pounds of our money, which was a 
 fabulous sum to pay for such a work, considering the 
 fact that £5 a year was considered in those days a 
 sufficient income annually for a cleric, yeoman, or 
 tradesman. 
 
 So numerous were these copies, that when in 1850 
 Sir F. Madden and Mr. Forshall edited the standard 
 edition of Wycliffe's Bible, they were able to consult 
 some 150 MSS., and of these most of them were 
 written by scribes within forty years of the Reformer's 
 death. Handed about secretly from house to house, 
 placed in churches and libraries where it was possible, 
 the leaven thus spread till all England w r as touched. 
 " To Wycliffe," as Prof. Montague Burrows says, " we 
 owe more than to any one person who can be mentioned, 
 our English language, our English Bible, and our 
 Reformed religion. How easily the words slip from 
 the tongue ! But is not this almost the very atmo- 
 sphere we breathe ? " At last came the invention of 
 printing, and the yellow, well-worn heirlooms were laid 
 aside for the cleaner and more readable and infinitely 
 more numerous Bibles from the Press. 
 
 Naturally the wonderful popularity of the trans- 
 lation roused renewed ire in ecclesiastical circles. That 
 uncompromising opponent of the Reformer, Knighton, 
 the learned canon of Leicester, declared : " Christ 
 delivered His gospel to the clergy and doctors of the 
 Church, that they might administer to the laity and to 
 weaker persons, according to the state of the times 
 and the wants of men. But this Master John Wycliffe 
 
VVYCLIFFE AND THE ENGLISH BIBLE 163 
 
 translated it out of Latin into the tongue Anglican — 
 not Angelic! Thus it became of itself vulgar, more 
 open to the laity and to women who could read than 
 it usually is to the clergy, even the most learned and 
 intelligent. In this way the gospel-pearl is cast 
 abroad and trodden underfoot of swine : and that 
 which was before precious both to clergy and laity is 
 rendered, as it were, the common jest of both." 
 
 Not content with mere grumbling, however, the 
 Synod of 1408 held by Archbishop Arundel, hence 
 called the Arundel Synod, passed the resolution : " We 
 enact and ordain that no one henceforth do by his 
 own authority translate any text of Holy Scripture 
 into the English tongue or into any other by way of 
 book or treatise: nor let any book or treatise now 
 lately composed in the time of John Wycliffe or since 
 or hereafter to be composed, be read in whole or in 
 part, in public or in private, under pain of the greater 
 excommunication. A Bill was brought into Parliament 
 to suppress the translation, but was rejected by a vast 
 majority, showing the continued and increasing aspira- 
 tion of the laity for spiritual freedom and release from 
 the encroaching power of Rome. 
 
 The Lollard preachers naturally spread the trans- 
 lation in whole or in parts and read and preached from 
 the written parchments whicli they carried with them, 
 one of them more particularly having left his mark on 
 English life, John Ashton, who in market-places, at 
 lairs, in churchyards, under the roadside trees, or in 
 lowly cottages, read and preached from the newly- 
 published gospel to the wondering awe of the people 
 moid the message came with all the freshness of a 
 new revelation and a resurrection of Truth from the 
 
1 64 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 dead. The same Knighton, scholar and divine though 
 he was, was bitter, not only about the circulation of 
 the Scripture in the vulgar tongue, but also about the 
 homely men, who, in their russet habits, gathered the 
 people around them and gave them their Scripture 
 message. In 1382 he wrote : " Their number is in- 
 creased, and starting like saplings from the root of a 
 tree, they are multiplied, and fill every place within the 
 compass of the land." 
 
 It was a homely translation for the homes of 
 England, and Wycliffe's rendering of St. John xiv. 1-4, 
 a passage read to himself, at his passing, may be quoted 
 as an example of the style and forcible homeliness of 
 the whole work : 
 
 " Be not youre herte afraid, ne drede it ; ye bileuen in 
 God, and bileue ye in me. In the hous of my fadir 
 ben many dwellyngis ; if ony thing lesse, Y hadde seid 
 to you, for Y go to make redi to you a place. And if 
 Y go, and make redi to you a place, eftsoones Y come 
 and Y schal take you to my silf, that where Y am, ye 
 be. And whidur Y go ye witen, and ye witen the 
 weie." 
 
 As showing the value set nowadays on Wycliffe's 
 Bible and Gospels, the case may be cited of the sale 
 a year or two ago at Sotheby's of a valuable and 
 interesting MS. of Wycliffe's New Testament, with 
 calendar, etc., on 341 leaves octavo, dating from 
 circa 1425. It is finely written, 27 of the pages 
 have very choicely illuminated borders of flower 
 decorations connected with a beautiful ornamental 
 initial, and there are many other separate initials with 
 short marginal decorations. The pedigree of the 
 volume goes back to the time of Queen Elizabeth, for 
 
WYCLIFFE AND THE ENGLISH BIBLE 165 
 
 in July 1591 it was presented by Ralph Rokeby, 
 Master of the Old Foundation of St. Katherine's 
 Hospital, to William Lambarde, the well-known 
 Kentish historian; in 1773 the MS. was in the posses- 
 sion of William Herbert, the historian of English 
 topography, and afterwards in that of Charles Mayo, 
 M.A., F.R.S. (1767-1858), first Rawlinson Professor of 
 Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, and was inherited by the 
 vendor. It was lately purchased by Mr. Quaritch 
 for £550. There are several early MSS. of Wycliffe's 
 translation of the Bible in existence, and during the 
 last few years two very remarkable versions of the 
 complete Bible have appeared at Sotheby's; one was 
 in the sale of a portion of the Appendix MSS. of Lord 
 Ashburnham, sold at Sotheby's on 1st May 1899, on 
 404 leaves folio, and this realised £1750; and another, 
 written circa 1410, on 269 leaves folio, sold for £1200 
 on 16th May 1901. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Wycliffe's "Poor Preachers" 
 
 Ix the age of John Wycliffe, as has already been 
 indicated, the preaching of the faith of Christ had 
 practically disappeared, and though the friars were 
 preachers, their preaching was not the declaration of 
 the truths and doctrines of the faith, but general 
 harangues on whatever took their fancy, and their 
 great aim was to attract the attention and sustain the 
 interest of their hearers by any means. The result 
 was that their preaching often descended into vulgar 
 jesting and buffoonery. But the Church had other 
 means of reaching the masses of the people, namely, 
 spectacular displays of sacred themes, — chiefly the life 
 of Christ, the Four Last Things; and some slight 
 account of this theatrical method of keeping the 
 common people in touch with the main facts of the 
 Christian religion seems to be called for, as the Church 
 in this as in many other matters took a leaf out of the 
 book of Paganism and pasted it inside the book of the 
 Gospels. 
 
 It is needless here to allude to the place and power 
 of the Greek drama. It was from the Athenian stage 
 that Greece got her tone; the orator and the actor 
 were the instructors of the people. Greek philosophy 
 might suffice for the few ; the Greek drama was for 
 
 106 
 
WYCLIFFE'S "POOR PREACHERS" 167 
 
 all. The Athenian actor stood before the assembled 
 city, and could appeal to the open sky above and the 
 earth around ; with living earnestness he could point 
 to objects dear to the Athenian heart — to the blue 
 iEgean and the gleaming Parthenon. It was then 
 that truths, otherwise abstract and unpractical, were 
 held up to universal admiration. It is easy to imagine 
 how it must have affected the vast audience when, in 
 Euripides, the actor, pointing to the blue sky overhead, 
 exclaimed : 
 
 "See'st thou th' abyss of sky that hangs above thee, 
 And clasps the earth around in moist embrace ? 
 This to be Jove believe, this serve as God." 
 
 The early Christians denounced dramatic exhibitions 
 in no measured terms; and, not content with words, 
 they refused baptism to those in any way connected 
 with a theatre. Like many of the Reformers, they 
 confused things essential and non-essential ; seeking to 
 avoid Paganism, they became, in many cases, fanatics. 
 
 The Christian Fathers, of whom a more moderate 
 spirit might have been expected, loudly denounced all 
 plays of whatever kind. " It is a shame," says one 
 Father, "that anyone should listen to a comedian 
 with the same ears as he hears an evangelical 
 preacher." And Tertullian, the prince of polemical 
 divines, says of the high heels worn by tragedians: 
 ■ The devil sets them upon their high pantofles to give 
 Christ the lie, who said, 'Nobody can add one cubit 
 to his stature.' " 
 
 Nearly two centuries pass away, and looking once 
 more at the Christian Church, we find it altered not 
 only in opinion but in practice. Many things at first 
 
1 68 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 considered immoral or irreligious are now openly 
 approved. The Church discovers that the drama is 
 not only harmless, but that it has an almost infinite 
 power for good : it was seen that lessons in religion 
 could be taught with greater effect from the stage 
 than from the pulpit. The performance of religious 
 plays dates from about the fourth century of the 
 Christian era. One of the earliest authors of such 
 compositions was Gregory of Nazianzen, the master 
 of Saint Jerome, and Patriarch of Constantinople. 
 He wrote a large number of dramas from the Old and 
 New Testaments, and these he caused to be acted 
 instead of the plays of Euripides and Sophocles 
 throughout his diocese. Christ's Passion is the 
 only one extant which is known certainly to be of his 
 authorship; all the others are lost. A German nun, 
 of the name of Roswitha, is said to have assisted him 
 in some of these works. Several other ecclesiastical 
 dignitaries engaged themselves similarly, but few of 
 their plays are extant. 
 
 For several centuries religious plays ceased to be 
 performed ; but after the Crusades, towards the close of 
 the fourteenth century, they were revived by pilgrims 
 who had returned from the Holy Land. The right of 
 way for Christians to the Holy Sepulchre was then 
 newly acquired ; yet it seems strange that the revival 
 of religious dramas should originate from the pilgrims. 
 A conjectural explanation may be offered. At the 
 present day, during Eastertide, the material circum- 
 stances of our Saviour's Passion are represented by the 
 monks of the Sepulchre at Jerusalem. 
 
 This practice is known to be of long standing, 
 although it is not certain that it was in existence 
 
WYCLIFFE'S "POOR PREACHERS" 169 
 
 during crusading times. It is very probable, however, 
 that the returned pilgrims from Palestine, remembering 
 the telling effect of the representation witnessed at 
 Jerusalem, were anxious to afford the common* people 
 frequent opportunities of witnessing such exhibitions, 
 and hence -revived the passion-plays. Certain it is 
 that in 1390, a number of sandal-shod pilgrims 
 appeared in Paris, and, assisted by some of the more 
 influential inhabitants, erected a stage on which they 
 acted The Passion of Christ. The Parisians were 
 much affected by the spectacle, and from that day the 
 popularity of the passion-plays rapidly increased. 
 The pilgrims formed themselves into a " Fraternity 
 of the Passion," and through their influence the 
 representation of these religious plays flew speedily 
 over Europe, and at last reached the shores of 
 England. 
 
 Prior to the Reformation the representation of 
 mysteries was one of the chief instruments in the 
 religious education of the people; and nowhere were 
 they more frequently performed than in England. 
 The Chester mysteries vied with those of Coventry 
 in richness and splendour. England was considered 
 particularly well favoured in this respect. It was the 
 boast of Henry 11. that " London, instead of common 
 interludes belonging to the theatre, had plays of a 
 more holy subject; representations of those miracles 
 which the holy confessors wrought, and of the 
 sufferings wherein the glorious constancy of the 
 martyrs did appear." 
 
 The Temptation of Christ in the Wilderness, the 
 Descent into Hades, the Last Supper, the Resurrection, 
 Ascension, and the Day of Judgment — these were the 
 
170 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 subjects of the old mysteries. Round the rude stage, 
 erected in front of the Cathedral Church, crowded 
 the rough burly Saxons of the olden time, while young 
 and old gazed with mute admiration on the solemn 
 scenes enacted before their eyes. 
 
 "The common waies with bowes are strawde, 
 
 And every streete beside, 
 And to the walles and windowes all 
 
 Are bowes and branches tied. 
 The monkes in every place do roame, 
 
 The nonnes abrode are sent. 
 The priestes and schoolmen loud do rore, 
 
 Some use the instrument." 
 
 These were frequent scenes in Old England both 
 before and after the Reformation. Not only in 
 England, however, but all over Europe, these sacred 
 plays were acted. Even the grave fathers who 
 composed the Council of Constance did not think it 
 beneath their dignity to become actors for the 
 nonce, and play The Massacre of the Innocents. In 
 A.D. 1313, Philip the Fair gave a splendid banquet at 
 Paris, during which the people were entertained with 
 a miracle play, which bore the odd title, The Glory 
 of the Blessed, and the Torments of the Damned. 
 Monks, bishops, and cardinals not only countenanced 
 such performances, but also took part in them. Had 
 it not been for these plays, the common people would 
 have been utterly ignorant of religion and the gospel : 
 and although frequently there were incidents more 
 fitted to provoke laughter than devout feeling, still it 
 is undeniable that much benefit was derived from 
 them by the lower orders. 
 
 The Chester and Coventry mysteries, the religious 
 
WYCLIFFE'S "POOR PREACHERS" 171 
 
 dramas which were wont to draw vast crowds all over 
 Europe, are now dead and forgotten; there is one 
 solitary survivor of the miracle-plays still in existence, 
 the famous Passion-play of Oberammergau, begun so 
 late as 1633, when a terrible plague raged in the 
 Ammer valley, and threatened to devastate the whole 
 district, whereupon the villagers of Ammergau made 
 a solemn vow that if God would spare them, they 
 would represent every ten years, " for thankful 
 remembrance and edifying contemplation, by the help 
 of the Almighty, the sufferings of Jesus, the Saviour 
 of the world." This vow has been religiously per- 
 formed, and regularly as the years glide by the old 
 drama is revived and the old interest reawakened. 
 
 It probably is of a much finer type and tone than 
 the ordinary mysteries of Wycliffe's time, against 
 which the Reformer spoke so warmly. It is really as 
 scriptural as anything of the kind could be, and some 
 years ago was gone through in the Alpine valley with 
 as much reverence and devout feeling as of old. The 
 play consists of eighteen acts, each scene being pre- 
 ceded by at least one tableau. The tableaux are very 
 vivid and striking, and form a background to the 
 scene in the Passion of Christ, which is being acted in 
 the front of the stage. Thus, the first scene is the 
 " Triumphal Entry of Christ into Jerusalem " ; the 
 tableaux representing the " Expulsion from Eden," and 
 a cross surrounded by children kneeling as in prayer. 
 Again, in the fifteenth act, the scene is "Christ 
 bearing His crass to Calvary," the tableaux behind 
 representing Isaac carrying wood up Mount Moriah, 
 and Moses erecting the brazen serpent. Thus every 
 scene has a background. The performers, in 
 
172 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 number about five hundred, include a large proportion 
 of the villagers : men and women of all ages are proud 
 to take part in the solemn drama : children form the 
 tableaux, whilst adults take part in the scenes. The 
 village organist is the author of the music sung to the 
 hymns which occur at intervals in the performance. 
 The tunes are very appropriate; often low and sad, 
 as when the dead Christ is being laid in Joseph's new 
 tomb ; but again light and joyful, as when the stone 
 rolls away from the sepulchre, and the Resurrection is 
 accomplished. The preface to the Hymn Book, with 
 which we shall conclude these remarks, shows the 
 devout and reverent spirit of the simple-minded 
 villagers : " May all who come to see how the divine 
 man trod this path of sorrows, to suffer as a sacrifice 
 for sinful humanity, well consider that it is not 
 sufficient to contemplate and admire the divine 
 original; that we ought rather to make this divine 
 spectacle an occasion for converting ourselves into 
 His likeness, as once the saints of the Old Testament 
 were His fitting foreshadowers. May the outward 
 representation of His sublime virtues rouse us to the 
 holy resolution to follow Him in humility, patience, 
 gentleness, and love. 
 
 "If that which we have seen in a figure becomes 
 to us life and reality, then the vow of our pious 
 ancestors will have received its best fulfilment, and 
 then will that blessing not fail to us with which God 
 rewarded the faith and the trust of our fathers." 
 
 The mysteries and miracle-plays which constituted 
 the drama in the Middle Ages were no doubt edifying 
 to mediaeval taste, and to its sense of the fitness of 
 things. Whether they would be so now may be 
 
WYCLIFFE'S "POOR PREACHERS" 173 
 
 guessed by running over a few of the items in some 
 accounts for expenses. "In Mysteries enacted at 
 Coventry," says Dr. Draper, "are such entries as 
 ' paid for a pair of gloves for God,' ' paid for gilding 
 God's coat/ 'dyvers necessaries for the trymmynge 
 of the Father in Heaven.' In the play of the 
 Shepherds there is provision for green cheese and 
 Halton ale, a suitable recruitment after their long 
 journey to the birthplace of our Saviour. 'Paid to 
 the players for rehearsal: imprimis, to God, iis. v'riid. ; 
 to Pilate his wife, iis. ; item, for keeping fyer at hell's 
 mouth, Hid.*" Mr. Spencer quotes the following: 
 " We have frequently such entries as these : ' Item, 
 payd for the spret (spirit) God's cote, ijs.' We learn 
 from these entries that God's coat was of leather, 
 painted and gilt, and that He had a wig of false hair, 
 also gilt." Other entries are, " Paid for setting the 
 world on fire, 5d"; "Paid for mending hell-mouth"; 
 " Cheverel (peruke) for God." Ludicrous anachronisms 
 are common. Thus, says Dr. Draper: "Noah's wife, 
 who, it appears, was a termagant, swears by the Virgin 
 Mary that she will not go into the ark, and, indeed, 
 is only constrained to do so by a sound cudgelling, 
 administered by the patriarch." "In the play of 
 77" Fall of Man, Adam and Eve appear entirely 
 naked, one of the chief incidents being the adjustment 
 of the fig-leaves." 
 
 Sharp's Dissertation on the Coventry Mysteries is 
 a revelation of the state of the religious stage in 
 England in mediaeval times. The grossest and most 
 ludicrous ideas were staged, and the most sacred 
 scenes and names treated with professional lightness 
 a ii<l flippancy. The Harrowiwj of Hell, one of the 
 
174 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 most popular of the Chester mysteries — The Drapers 
 Play, the subject of which was the creation, in whicli 
 a highly humorous representation was given of the 
 extraction of Eve out of Adam's side; Every Man, 
 The Mystery of Candlemas Day, Hycke-Scorner, The 
 Shepherds of Bethlehem, The Modyr of Mercy were 
 the favourite sacred dramas of that age. 
 
 The Reformers were at a loss how to regard these 
 highly popular methods of amusing and instructing 
 the people — methods which to some extent have been 
 revived during Lent and Eastertide in France and 
 Spain, though England some years ago gave a pro- 
 posed introduction of a passion-play in London, a 
 very plain and unceremonious expression. To some 
 extent in Jerusalem during Holy Week sacred dramatic 
 performances are to be seen to-day. The dramatic 
 sentiment in human nature is difficult to eradicate, 
 even if it were desirable. 
 
 Wycliffe vigorously and consistently denounced 
 these exhibitions and representations of Bible scenes 
 and persons; while Luther declared that "such spec- 
 tacles often do more good and produce more impression 
 than sermons." Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, 
 whose satires on the Church assisted to bring about 
 the Scottish Reformation, witli which he entirely and 
 cordially sided, not only approved of these sacred 
 and moral dramatic exhibitions, but himself wrote 
 several "moralities" which were frequently repre- 
 sented, — some of them dealing severely with the vices 
 of the clergy, at the time being performed in presence 
 of the King and the bishops. • The position of Wycliffe 
 was that the pictorial and spectacular teaching of 
 the Church should be superseded by the simple 
 
WYCLIFFE'S "POOR PREACHERS " 17s 
 
 preaching of the simple gospel, and that an end 
 should be made of theatrical instruction. It is a 
 very large question how far forms and ceremonies 
 may aid religious instruction, but WyclifFe's position 
 was a clear, distinct, and firm one, namely, that the 
 plain and simple preaching of the gospel was the 
 best means of reaching the hearts and consciences of 
 men and women. Accordingly, his "poor preachers" 
 were sent forth russet-clad to preach in market-places, 
 village-greens, at roadsides and crosses, wherever a 
 congregation could be gathered. It is remarkable 
 that the Roman Church in a later age should have 
 taken a leaf out of Wycliffe's book, for this was the 
 very method adopted by St. Francis de Sales, bishop 
 and prince of Geneva, when he founded the Oratorians, 
 the distinctive character of whose ministry was — since 
 the Reformation had so alienated the masses of the 
 people from the Church — to win them back by 
 preaching at street-corners, in markets, and anywhere 
 outside or inside where people gathered, the stilted 
 ceremonial and usages of the ordinary clergy being 
 abandoned for a more free-and-easy commerce with 
 the people — exactly Wycliffe's idea and method. In 
 course of time they built beautiful churches, but even 
 yet — witness the sumptuous Brompton Oratory in 
 London to-day, the home of Newman, who gave the 
 world " Lead, kindly Light," and of Faber, who sang 
 the sweet devotional reverie, " O Paradise, Paradise " 
 — there are no pulpits, only a chair with a cross beside 
 it, where, seated, the Oratorian brother talks familiarly 
 and conversationally to his congregation. It is 
 ftliffe'fl idea, borrowed from his "poor preachers" 
 with their simple talk and hearty message. 
 
176 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 When Victor Hugo said, "Give to the people who 
 toil and suffer, for whom this world is hard and bad, 
 the belief that there is a better made for them ; scatter 
 Gospels among the villages — a Bible in every cottage," 
 he was only echoing Wycliffe's ideas as to a free 
 and open Bible and Gospel. Some twenty years ago 
 a cheap translation of the Gospel sold in thousands 
 in Paris, the novelty of the work was so great. It 
 was a wonderful step for the Church of Rome to 
 take even to authorise at all this popular edition of 
 the Gospel. It was a pity that the imprimatur was 
 withdrawn and that other things happened besides, 
 which are quite familiar to those who have followed 
 this interesting train of events; but that does not 
 make it less a fact that for once the Church of Rome 
 opened its doors to the simple Scripture, even though 
 it closes them soon after. The reference I made was 
 merely a reference, and as such it was impossible to 
 go into details, which, besides, were pretty generally 
 familiar. I still hold that it showed an advance when 
 such a step as this granting of the imprimatur was 
 ever for a moment entertained, just as the vast sale 
 of the New Testament Scriptures in Russia of late 
 among the Jews — quite as striking a movement as 
 the French one — proved a certain shaking of the 
 dry bones amongst a religious community which has 
 hitherto been supposed to be quite as bitterly opposed 
 to the circulation of the New Testament as the Roman 
 Church has hitherto been supposed to be to the circula- 
 tion of the entire Bible. The mere thought of the 
 thing, apart altogether from the execution, much more 
 apart from any other circumstances, adverse or other- 
 wise, proved a spirit of advance. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Wycliffe's Theology 
 
 By far the most outstanding feature of Wycliffe's life 
 and work is the claim he makes for the absolute 
 supremacy, sufficiency, and infallibility of the Scrip- 
 ture ; and his work, Of the Truth of Holy Scripture, 
 in Latin, develops his views in a most clear and 
 explicit manner. Christ is the author of the Scripture, 
 and as the Word of God, it should be in the hands 
 and heart of everyone, cleric and lay — a right denied 
 by the Church of Rome. Father Stevenson in his 
 Truth about Wycliffe denies that the Roman Church 
 forbade the Bible to the people, and quotes passages 
 from the early Christian Fathers in proof of this ; but 
 his quotations from the Fathers of the first six 
 centuries regarding the free use and sole infallibility 
 of the Bible only bring into contrast the position of 
 the later Roman Church of the Middle Ages, after 
 the process of "development" described by Newman 
 had resulted in the denial to the laity both of the 
 Book and of the Cup. The question is so important 
 a one in the Wycliffe controversy, as showing that the 
 Reformer's desire was to get back to the primitive 
 position of the Church as to a free and open Bible, 
 that any extracts from the Fathers will at once 
 establish Wycliffe's position, and refute the arguments 
 12 
 
178 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 of Father Stevenson and the advocates of the " Catholic 
 Truth Society." 
 
 Twenty years ago the publication of the four Gospels, 
 translated by Henri Lasserre into popular and homely 
 French, received episcopal sanction. The story of that 
 popular issue of the Gospels, and the sensation made 
 in France by the practical rediscovery of the Evangel, 
 is, however, so typical of Roman methods of treating 
 Bible-reading, that no apology is made for retelling 
 the incident as recorded in the Contemporary Review 
 at the time, for the modern incident throws a flood 
 of light on the Church's relation to Scripture in 
 WyclinVs age, and explains the vigour and force of 
 the Reformer's contention to give back again the 
 Bible to the people, — a triumph accomplished by 
 Wycliffe (notwithstanding the denial that he did so 
 by Father Stevenson and others), and which places 
 him for ever in the roll-call of history as an " epoch- 
 maker." 
 
 M. Henri Lasserre was a French barrister and literary 
 man, who on a happy day discovered the four Gospels. 
 He felt the spell of the simple but profound narratives 
 which reveal Jesus of Nazareth; saw that the four- 
 fold story was the book the French needed ; believed 
 that the Gospels would be received with joy by his 
 countrymen; and resolved to prepare for them a 
 version worthy of their acceptance. The result was 
 a living translation. Every page said, " Read me." 
 The arbitrary divisions of chapters and verses dis- 
 appeared. The narrative fell into natural clauses 
 and paragraphs. The Gospel of the Kingdom was 
 made as attractive to the reader as a novel. The 
 most charming book in the world was printed in such 
 
WYCLIFFE'S THEOLOGY 179 
 
 a charming form that all might read, understand, 
 enjoy, and love it, without the help of anyone. 
 
 In a few passages there are traces of the author's 
 religious bias, but in questions of larger importance 
 he breaks away from the traditional renderings of 
 the papal -Church. With splendid courage he trans- 
 lates the Greek word "repent" by "be converted," 
 instead of by " do penance." The translation is made 
 from the Greek, and the translator has not only 
 consulted the commentators of his own Church and 
 the Fathers, but has not neglected Protestant sources 
 of information. The result is a free, fearless, and 
 faithful rendering, remarkable for its intrinsic excel- 
 lence, but still more remarkable as the work of a 
 devout Catholic. 
 
 In a remarkable preface he indicts the Church of 
 Rome for withholding the Gospels from the people. 
 He deplores the "notorious fact that the Gospels are 
 scarcely ever read by those who profess to be fervent 
 Catholics, and never by the multitude of the faithful." 
 Of "a hundred persons who practise the Sacraments 
 there is seldom one who has ever opened the Gospels.' 
 'The Gospel — the most illustrious book in the world 
 — is become an unknown book." 
 
 He declares that the Bible was not always so 
 neglected; that all the Fathers urged the people to 
 read both the Old and New Testaments, which were 
 intended for all lands, races, and times. He blames 
 the Protestants for their free handling of the Bible, 
 which led the Council of Trent to decree that every 
 translation should have episcopal sanction and ex- 
 planatory notes; and then falls with tremendous 
 severity on the modern Roman system which deprives 
 
180 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 the people of the Bible, and sends forth his version 
 of the Gospels with the following brave words : 
 
 " We must lead back the faithful to the great fountain of living 
 water which flows from the inspired book. We must make 
 them hear, taste, and relish the direct lessons of the Saviour — 
 the words full of grace and truth which fell from His lips. We 
 must put before them those teachings which have been given 
 for all ages by the perfect Life— the life, perfectly human and 
 perfectly Divine, of Him whom no sincere intelligence can con- 
 template without bending the knee ; whom no true soul can hear 
 and see without loving, without being seized with the desire to 
 follow Him, and the will to serve Him. We must put the world 
 again face to face with Jesus Christ." 
 
 The book was published in the closing days of 
 1886, or early in 1887, with the imprimatur of the 
 Archbishop of Paris and the approval and benediction 
 of the Pope. The imprimatur placed Lasserre's version 
 regularly in the hands of the French people. The 
 Pope's letter placed the stamp of authority, not only 
 on the translation of the Gospels, but on the terrible 
 preface. Within the space of twelve months twenty- 
 five editions were published. It seemed as if Roman 
 Catholic France was eagerly accepting the living 
 Gospel of the living God. 
 
 When the book had reached the twenty -fifth 
 edition, a splendid edition was issued " at the request 
 of a great number of bishops and priests." A month 
 after the first letter from Rome, His Excellence the 
 Cardinal Vicar of His Holiness, the illustrious Cardinal 
 Parocchi, wrote a second letter, also dated from the 
 Vatican. He declares: "The famous author of the 
 History of Notre Dame de Lourdes has just published 
 a French translation of the Holy Gospels which is 
 
WYCLIFFE'S THEOLOGY 181 
 
 an illumination of genius ... as faithful to the text 
 as to the purest French." Approved by the clergy 
 and the press, the book became the Family Bible of 
 France. In the words of the Bishop of Rodez — 
 " Under the blessing of God the book goes more and 
 more into ull Christian homes." 
 
 At this point the Sacred Congregation by a decree, 
 dated December 19, 1887, condemned and proscribed 
 the version as a book of degraded doctrine, which no 
 one was to read or possess. The immediate result 
 was the complete withdrawal of Lasserre's version 
 from circulation. 
 
 Does this decree place the Pope in the Index ? How 
 does the infallibility stand in the transaction ? Can 
 the Congregation of the Index annul the imprimatur 
 of the Archbishop of Paris ? One thing is certain : 
 there is a power behind the Pope, the bishops, the 
 press, and the people, still strong enough to strike the 
 Gospels from the hands of those who would read them. 
 Another thing is certain : the Gospels have a power to 
 charm both priests and people if they were permitted 
 to read them. At the time a well-known writer said : 
 — " What is not certain is how this matter will end. 
 Will the Pope, the cardinals, the bishops, the French 
 s, and the French people submit to be treated as 
 children incapable of judging for themselves? What 
 of the French people who have bought the twenty- 
 five editions of the book, and who have heard in their 
 own tongue their Saviour's voice, which is still ringing 
 in their ears? And what of Henri Lasserre, on whom 
 the Divine eyes have looked down from the Cross ? Of 
 one tiling I can assure him, he has the sympathy of 
 all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. And 
 
1 82 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 I think I can also promise that the people for whom 
 his version was intended shall not be left to perish 
 for lack of the Bread of Life." 
 
 This strange effort of the Roman Church to give the 
 liberty of Scripture reading to the people and yet to 
 circumscribe it, has another exemplification in the 
 "Society of St. Jerome for the diffusion of the Holy 
 Gospels," of which Cardinal Mocenni is president, and 
 Mercati, the Vatican librarian, secretary. In 1902 
 it was founded to supply Italian Gospels to the 
 people, and for less than twopence a little volume has 
 been going through an immense sale, containing the 
 four Gospels and the " Acts," printed in paragraphs, 
 and for the most part a rendering of the Vulgate with 
 footnotes. In the Preface reference is made to the 
 work of the English Bible Societies, and " our separated 
 Protestant Brethren " are kindly spoken of, only it is 
 stated with regret that the British Testaments set up 
 "the Gospel for the Church, and invite readers to 
 draw from it directly and exclusively the dogmas of 
 their faith and the rules of their life," whereas the 
 Society of St. Jerome seeks to combine the two 
 authorities of the Bible and the Church. 
 
 The spirit of the Roman Church to-day, greatly 
 narrowed and accentuated and accompanied with 
 stronger temporal power and physical force, was the 
 spirit which Wycliffe in 1380 had to fight against. 
 Wycliffe boldly announced his belief in the sufficiency, 
 authority, and infallibility of the Scripture apart from 
 any human institution or person, and that the de- 
 parture from the " evangelical law," " God's Law," and 
 " Christ's Law," as he calls the Bible, and the mixture of 
 human traditions, at first slight but gradually increasing 
 
WYCLIFFE'S THEOLOGY 183 
 
 till wholesale corruption was the rule, was the cause of 
 all the Church's evils. Wycliffe's sentiment as to Scrip- 
 ture was identical with Lord Chillingworth's, and is 
 the root-principle of Protestantism — "The Bible, and 
 the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants." In one 
 passage in the Trialogus he says : 
 
 " If Christ had gone, in the least degree, more into 
 detail, the rule of His religion would have become to 
 a certain extent imperfect ; but as it now stands, lay- 
 man and cleric, married man and monk, servant and 
 master, men in every position of life, may live in one 
 and the same service, under Christ's rule. The evan- 
 gelical law, moreover, contains no special ceremonies 
 whereby the universal observance of it would have 
 been made impossible; and therefore the Christian 
 rule and religion, according to the form of it handed 
 down to us in the gospel, is of all religions the most 
 perfect, and the only one which is in and by itself 
 good." 
 
 In Wycliffe's original contention for the supremacy 
 of Scripture as the only rule of faith and life, there 
 lies the formal principle of Protestantism, and the 
 germ of the Reformation. Accordingly, Father 
 Stevenson justly declares that Wycliffe's " horrible 
 heresies " were the fons et origo of all the later Refor- 
 mation troubles and revolutions. While through the 
 Middle Ages an occasional protest was heard against 
 ■some individual doctrine or practice of the Church, 
 there was no organised attack made on the unscriptural 
 institutions until Wycliffe called men back to Scripture, 
 pointing to it and to the state of the Church, 
 bade them look on this picture and on that. 
 
 Stevenson, indeed, declares that Wycliffe's teacher 
 
1 84 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 in heresy was William Hughes, in the following 
 passage : 
 
 " Whence did Wyclif derive these uncatholic 
 opinions ? Apparently from one single author. He 
 never refers to any such source, nor has any such been 
 pointed out by those who have studied his writings. 
 The question has been asked more than once, and has 
 never been answered. Yet Walden has quoted, and 
 that more than once, the name of a certain William 
 Hughes, or Hayes, the person from whom Wyclif 
 derived many of his errors. To him he was indebted 
 for the opinion that St. Peter was never at Rome, 
 consequently never was bishop there; an honour 
 which he was willing rather to yield to St. Paul. 
 Several other of his errors are mentioned by Walden. 
 That this individual did actually hold doctrines con- 
 trary to the orthodox faith is unquestionable, and it is 
 equally beyond a doubt that he was Wyclif's teacher. 
 Further inquiry reveals additional facts which place 
 the character of this personage before us in a dis- 
 creditable light. He was one of the insurgents who 
 took a prominent part in the disturbances which broke 
 out in Oxford on the election of the Chancellor in the 
 year 1349. During these ' grave and enormous dis- 
 sensions,' as they are described in the official document 
 which was issued for their suppression, some persons 
 were wounded and some were killed. The rioters 
 interrupted the Masses which were being said in St. 
 Mary's Church for deceased benefactors, and drove the 
 officiating priest out of the sacred building. William 
 Hayes (or Hughes) was one of those who was charged 
 by name with having broken open the common chest 
 of the University, and carried off the seal, the money, 
 
WYCLIFFE'S THEOLOGY 185 
 
 the books, and the other property which they found 
 therein ; and these they were ordered by the Govern- 
 ment to restore, under severe penalties. The history of 
 this remarkable outbreak is instructive, marked though 
 it be by sacrilege, plunder, and violence, for it solves 
 what hitherto has been a difficulty. It shows us what 
 manner of man he was to whom the future Reformer 
 was indebted for his principles ; and we now recognise 
 the source whence John Wyclif derived the two lead- 
 ing peculiarities of his character, his craving after 
 heresy, and his contempt for constituted authority." 
 
 Stevenson, however, and other Roman apologists freely 
 make two admissions, — first, that the origin of all the 
 troubles which came to the Church of Rome, and finally 
 culminated in the great rebellion of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, lies at the door of John Wycliffe, the originator 
 of the Protestant spirit; and, second, that the secret 
 of his heresy and the origin of his evil doctrines was 
 in an unguarded, ignorant, and unguided use of the 
 Bible, which can only rightly be read under the 
 guidance of the Church and in obedience to the " vox 
 Petri," which is the " Vox Dei." 
 
 Hence it is that Wycliffe is designated " Doctor 
 Evangelicus" by the centuries, as other lights in 
 theology were described as "angelicus," " seraphicus," 
 " profundus," " subtilis," " irref ragabilis," " resolutis- 
 simus," etc His perpetual appeal was to Scripture as 
 against tradition or authority, and he called loudly for 
 a return to the primitive Church as represented by the 
 early Fathers to whom Scripture was everything, and 
 whose brightest wish was its universal diffusion. 
 
 " Hear the Church," cried the occupant of the sacred 
 chair at Tiberside, — " vox Petri, vox Dei " ; but 
 
1 86 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Wycliffe answered, " It is impossible that any word or 
 any deed of the Christian should be of equal authority 
 with Holy Scripture." Papal authority, therefore, came 
 only second to that of the Scripture, — an admission 
 which struck at the root of the entire papal system. 
 
 In his works, Wycliffe shows a wonderful knowledge 
 of all Scripture. The Trialogus and all his works are 
 brimful of quotations and references. He acknowledges 
 the Bible as the source of all his teachings. The 
 Waldenses appealed from Church law to Scripture 
 truth, and thus pointed to a higher tribunal than the 
 Italian chair ; but they did not fully grasp the doctrine, 
 so amply exhibited and illustrated by the rector of 
 Lutterworth, of the absolute and infallible and sole 
 authority of the book. 
 
 Tertullian might say, " Adoro plenitudinem scrip- 
 turarum " ; but Wycliffe said, " Adoro auctoritatem 
 solam scripturarum." 
 
 As to the interpretation of Scripture, in his earlier 
 years the Reformer claimed two guides — reason and 
 the Church, but in his later years he rejected the latter, 
 and declared that " no created being has power to re- 
 verse the sense of the Christian faith, — the holy doctors 
 put us in no difficulty, but rather teach us to abstain 
 from the love of novelties, and to be sober-minded." 
 But the chief thought which he opposes to this view is 
 that " the Holy Ghost teaches us the meaning of Scrip- 
 ture, as Christ opened the Scriptures to the apostles." 
 
 The Spirit of Christ teaches the reader if he reads 
 with devoutness and humility, and to every honest 
 "disciple of Scripture," Scripture is self-interpreting. 
 True, reason must be brought along with faith, for 
 the "letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Dean 
 
WYCLIFFE'S THEOLOGY 187 
 
 Stanley took up the same position when, preaching in 
 Westminster Abbey on the completion of the Revised 
 Bible, he declared that " for the first time an attempt 
 had been made, imperfect though it was, to reach the 
 original meaning of the sacred words. The version of 
 the sacred text now presented to us, enforces upon us 
 a lesson which we were always apt to forget — namely, 
 the truth that the Scripture teaches that inspiration 
 consists not in the letter, but in the spirit, not in a 
 particular passage, but in the general tendency and 
 drift of the complete words." Wycliffe's method of 
 scriptural interpretation recalls to a considerable extent 
 the advice given by Charles Dickens to his children in 
 his last will and testament — "I commit my soul to 
 the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 I exhort my dear children to try and guide themselves 
 by the teaching of the New Testament in its broad 
 spirit, and to put no faith in any man's narrow con- 
 struction of its letter here or there." 
 
 Locke, too, is of the same mind when he says : 
 " I read the Word of God without prepossession or 
 bias, and come to it with a resolution to take my sense 
 from it, and not with a design to bring it to the sense 
 of my system." Lord Bacon says : " Certainly, as 
 wines which at first pressing run gently, yield a more 
 pleasant taste than those where the wine-press is 
 hard-wrought, because these somewhat relish of the 
 stone and skin of the grape ; so those observations are 
 most wholesome and pleasant which flow from Scrip- 
 tures gently expressed and naturally expounded, and 
 are not wrested or drawn aside to commonplaces or 
 controversies : such a treatise we will name ' the 
 inations of Scripture.' " Against the interpretation 
 
188 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 of Scripture by an outside infallible authority — the 
 position of the Roman Church in the matter, Luther 
 declared that "the sacred Scriptures are not to be 
 understood but by that spirit with which they were 
 written, which spirit is never felt to be more powerful 
 and energetic than when He attends the serious perusal 
 of the writings which He Himself dictated. Setting 
 aside an implicit dependence on all human writings, 
 let us strenuously adhere to the Scriptures alone." 
 
 Wycliffe's doctrine of the Holy Communion was 
 practically the same as that of the interesting Scottish 
 Reformer John Craig, once prior of Bologna, who, having 
 been condemned to be burned on 19th April 1559, 
 escaped through the remarkable circumstance that on 
 that very day the Pope died, and in the tumult of the 
 Roman populace he got deliverance. A Reformer 
 within the Roman Church, he had an almost mira- 
 culous pilgrimage back to his native Scotland, being 
 delivered from destitution through a dog laying a 
 purse of money at his feet as he lay in despondency 
 on the roadside. After reaching his native land he 
 found he had forgotten his native tongue, and con- 
 sequently was employed by the Reformers in Edinburgh 
 to preach in Latin to the learned in the Magdalene 
 Chapel in the Cowgate, which still stands. Thereafter 
 he became Knox's colleague in St. Giles', and his 
 " Catechism " sums up the conclusions of the Reformers 
 of 1560, more especially as regards the sacrament. 
 These views are practically the same as were pro- 
 pounded by his great English predecessor : 
 
 "(J. Is Christ's body and blood in the bread and 
 wine? A. No; but His body and blood is only in 
 heaven. Q. How then are the elements called His 
 
WYCLIFFE'S THEOLOGY 189 
 
 body and blood ? A. Because they are sure seals of 
 His body and blood given to us. Q. Then we receive 
 only the tokens, and not His body ? A. We receive His 
 very substantial body and blood. Q. How can that be 
 proved ? A. By the truth of His words and sacrament. 
 Q. Declare that by the sacrament. A. As that natural 
 substance of the elements is given, even so the natural 
 substance of Christ's body. Q. But His natural body 
 is in heaven. A. No doubt, but yet we receive it on 
 earth. Q. How can that be ? A. By the wonderful 
 working of the Holy Spirit." 
 
 It must be carefully noticed that with the first 
 Reformers the doctrine of a real presence was clearly 
 and distinctly taught, — not transubstantiation, nor 
 Luther's consubstantiation, but a real spiritual 
 presence. The Zwinglian dogma of a simple memorial 
 and symbol was in direct opposition to Calvin's 
 Institutes and Knox's Confession of Faith, and the 
 doctrine of the two Reformed Churches of England 
 and Scotland in the Thirty-nine Articles and the 
 Confession of Faith is identical with that enunciated 
 by Wycliffe with such distinctness and persistency. 
 In opposition to Roman transubstantiation and the 
 cold symbol and memorial of the rationalist, Wycliffe 
 held forth the scriptural dogma of Christ's real 
 spiritual presence in the elements, so clearly enunciated 
 by John Craig in his popular Scottish Catechism. 
 
 As to the Virgin Mary, he declared that it was not 
 necessary to salvation to believe her to have been 
 without original sin, nor that her Assumption was 
 a bodily one. Christ is the great High Priest and 
 not man, and Christ is above all earthly kings, whose 
 vassals they are. 
 
190 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 His views of conversion and repentance are identical 
 with those of the Reformation, and saving faith in 
 Christ is indispensable to salvation. To all intents 
 and purposes he held by Luther's doctrine of justifica- 
 tion by faith in Christ alone. The basis of all virtue 
 is humility, and love is the first Christian virtue ; as 
 Christ is our great example, and the Face of the Thorn- 
 crowned, the most beautiful in the Album of Heaven. 
 Grace is the source of goodness, and no works or merits 
 can earn it, but only faith in Christ. The Church is 
 the body of the elect, — those predestinated to eternal 
 life. Preaching, not ceremonial, is God's chief instrument 
 in the conversion of sinners. Images, saint and Virgin 
 worship are unnecessary, though all intercede for and 
 help us, and we ought to ask their aid. " It seems to 
 me to be impossible," he once said, "that we should 
 obtain the reward without the help of Mary." Wycliffe 
 seems to have been a pessimist, and to have believed 
 that the world was growing daily more corrupt ; just 
 as St. Bernard of Clugny in his great poem declared : 
 " The world is very evil, the times are waxing late, 
 Be sober and keep vigil, the Judge is at the gate." 
 
 He believed in the universal priesthood of all believers, 
 the fallibility of the Pope, the original equality of 
 bishop and presbyter, and the necessity for all Chris- 
 tian priests of a simple, humble life. In a word, for 
 Christian priest and layman the chief consideration 
 was humbly to follow " in His steps " and to ask " what 
 would Jesus do ? " 
 
 His political views tended to communism, or, at any 
 rate, to Christian socialism, and his enemies declared 
 him a revolutionary and an anarchist. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 The Character of Wycliffe 
 
 Of modern Roman Catholics few have stood in a more 
 
 unique position than the late Marquis of Bute, whose 
 
 translation of the Breviary into English absorbed so 
 
 great a part of his life, time, and energy, who, as George 
 
 Eliot said of her translation of Strauss, "began it 
 
 young and finished it old." His liberality of mind 
 
 manifested itself in his study of Coptic and his 
 
 admirable and scholarly translation of the Coptic 
 
 Liturgy, — the liturgy of a non-Roman Communion. 
 
 Bifl ^ifts to secular universities made him not always 
 
 popular with the officials of his Church in England, 
 
 who would have preferred a more sectarian convert. 
 
 The very fact of his translation of the Breviary showed 
 
 lesire to popularise the best of Christian biography, 
 
 and the following passage in a hitherto unpublished 
 
 letter to the writer, ten years ago, shows that the spirit 
 
 of manly criticism and inquiry was by no means 
 
 stifled : — " I am sorry in one way that my translation 
 
 of the Roman Breviary is out of print ; on the other 
 
 hand, it is, of course, gratifying to me that the work 
 
 should have met with so much acceptance. I have 
 
 been deterred from undertaking a new edition partly 
 
 by the desire to be able to add a new appendix of the 
 
 national offices for Scotland, which although, I believe, 
 
 101 
 
192 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 now quite finished, have not, so far as I am aware, as 
 yet received the sanction of the Holy See, and have 
 certainly not yet been published for use. But still 
 more by the fact that the present Pope has been 
 constantly making alterations in the Breviary, to such 
 an extent, indeed, that I do not think that there now 
 exists any edition, however new, which has fully kept 
 pace with the number of his changes. These changes 
 have in one respect been gratifying to me, — namely, 
 that he has ordered the omission of stories such as 
 1 Constantine-and-the-bath-of-babies'-blood,' of which 
 I have ventured respectfully to impugn the exactitude." 
 The charming way in which the scholarly and beloved 
 Scotsman (whose heart now lies in the Mount of Olives, 
 opposite the Holy City), in the closing sentence 
 descriptive of the tales of the Breviary, softens 
 down what the old Adam would doubtless have 
 described in Tom Fielding language, and which 
 would have been included in the preliminary pre- 
 supposition without which it was declared to have 
 been impossible to proceed in any conversation with 
 the late Lord Melbourne, is characteristic of the man, 
 who ever desired to learn even from Wycliffe, and 
 was a subscriber to the publication of the Reformer's 
 works. An Ultramontane wasp charged him for doing 
 this, and for the dissemination of heresy, regarding 
 which Lord Bute wrote as follows to a friend : 
 
 " No one was more surprised than I myself to see 
 in the papers that I had subscribed to the fund for 
 publishing Wiclif's works. But it occurs to me that 
 there exists an historico-literary society called the 
 Wicliff Society, as it dedicates itself to printing his 
 and other contemporary English works. If it exists, 
 
THE CHARACTER OF WYCLIFFE 193 
 
 it is not unlikely that I may be a subscriber to it, as 
 I am to other societies which print mediaeval things. 
 Publications of this sort go straight into the hands 
 of my librarian, and as the centre of the library is in 
 our house in London, which never was furnished, and 
 which my father's executors rented just to keep his 
 books and pictures in, I seldom come across them, 
 unless I specially ask for them. This I have never 
 done as regards Wiclif, for I have been content with 
 Lechler's Life, which contains copious extracts from 
 his works, MS. as well as printed. His works are 
 certainly of much historical interest; and if people 
 would only read them before they talk about him, 
 we should not hear as much nonsense about him and 
 his acts and opinions as we do. If we are to abstain 
 from printing matter of literary and historical interest 
 because we do not agree with the sentiments expressed, 
 philological and historical science would finish. I 
 should subscribe without scruple to publish a critical 
 text of Arius's Thalia if anybody could find a codex. 
 Wiclif is in the same case with Luther, John Knox, 
 Savonarola, and others — people never read their works 
 or even look at them before they talk about them. 
 As to Wiclif, he no doubt fell into errors, but I believe 
 that he intended and believed himself to be a perfectly 
 orthodox and devout Catholic priest, and that he was 
 very little more of a Protestant than you or I.' " 
 
 If Lord Bute's verdict be correct as to Wycliffe, then 
 the world could do with more such Roman Catholics. 
 But unfortunately such is not the verdict of the 
 Church of which the Marquis was so distinguished 
 an ornament. 
 
 It was in 1884 that the five hundredth centenary 
 *3 
 
194 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 of Wycliffe's death was held, and occasion was taken 
 of the celebration by the well-known Jesuit Father, 
 Joseph Stevenson, to write his large and important 
 volume, entitled The Truth about John Wyclif, his 
 Life, Writings, and Opinions, chiefly from the Evidence 
 of his Contemporaries (London : Burns & Oates, 1885). 
 He selects two verdicts from well-known mediaeval 
 authorities who are supposed to have had not so much 
 the ecclesiastical as the historic vision. 
 
 Adam of Usk writes thus: "England, and above 
 all London and Bristol, stood corrupted, being infected 
 by the seeds which one Master John Wyclif sowed, 
 polluting as it were the faith with the tares of his 
 baleful teaching. And the followers of this Master 
 John, like Mahomet, by preaching things pleasing to 
 the powerful and the rich, — namely, that the with- 
 holding of tithes and even of offerings, and the reaving 
 of temporal things from the clergy, were praiseworthy ; 
 and to the young that self-indulgence was a virtue, — 
 most wickedly did cast abroad murder, snares, strifes, 
 variance and discords, which last to this day, and 
 which I fear will last even to the undoing of the 
 kingdom." 1 Walsingham's language is still more 
 emphatic. According to his estimate, Wycliffe was " an 
 organ of the devil, the enemy of the Church, the con- 
 fusion of the people, the idol of the heretics, the mirror 
 of the hypocrites, a promoter of schism, the sower of 
 hatred, and the manufacturer of falsehood." 
 
 Father Stevenson has hardly a word to say in praise 
 
 of anything which Wycliffe did or said or was, — which 
 
 is not wonderful. He dismisses Lechler's " masterly 
 
 production " and Montagu Barrows' " vague and 
 
 1 Chronicle, p. 102. 
 
THE CHARACTER OF WYCLIFFE 195 
 
 declamatory " lectures on " Wyclif 's place in History " 
 with scant courtesy, and concludes his reference to 
 the cheaper forms of Wycliffe literature with the 
 words : 
 
 Nothing need be said of the flood of sixpenny 
 literature which has been issued by various Protestant 
 societies and by private enterprise. They aim at one 
 object only ; and that is to keep alive, to foster, and 
 if possible to embitter, the dislike and contempt which 
 are too generally felt for the Catholic faith; and to 
 represent John Wyclif as a benefactor to whom all 
 owe a debt of gratitude, because he exerted himself 
 through a long life in labouring to accomplish its 
 overthrow." 
 
 After tracing his heretical tendencies to William 
 Hughes, whom Walden terms "paedagogus nostri 
 Wycliffi" and casting a whinstone at his memory 
 as a communist and insurgent, Stevenson claims that 
 Wycliffe was not the instigator of the vernacular 
 English Bible, but that the Scripture incidents were 
 common property long before his day, and that even 
 the so-called " Wycliffe Bible " was the work of other 
 people. The influence of this " morning star of the 
 Reformation " was, in Stevenson's view, which is the 
 view generally of the " Catholic Truth Society " and 
 of the Italian Church in Britain generally, altogether 
 malign and deadly. " Of Wycliffe personally we have 
 been unable to form any exalted estimate. Intellectu- 
 ally there is little to admire about him. He was a 
 voluminous author, and has left behind him a large 
 mass of writings upon various subjects, thus supplying 
 us with ample materials on which to form an estimate 
 as to his mental capacity. These writings are remark- 
 
196 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 able only as embodying numerous blasphemies, heresies, 
 errors, and absurdities expressed in obscure language. 
 
 " Morally, he does not command our respect. He 
 attacked the Church of which he was a priest, and 
 in which he continued to minister long after he had 
 denounced it as the synagogue of Satan. He rebelled 
 against that ecclesiastical discipline which he had 
 pledged himself to maintain and enforce. During 
 many years he drew the revenues of his benefice, 
 availing himself of an authority which he declared 
 to be illegal and ungodly ; and until the last day of 
 his life he administered to others, and he himself 
 received the Sacrament of the Eucharist according to 
 a ritual which he denounced as false and blasphemous. 
 His life must have been a daily lie, and he died as he 
 was about to perpetrate an act of habitual mockery 
 of the great Sacrifice of Calvary. 
 
 " The religious system which he succeeded in intro- 
 ducing among his countrymen proves upon examination 
 to be a collection of errors and heresies, each of which 
 had previously been condemned by the common voice 
 of the Catholic Church. They were gleaned by him 
 from that stock of falsehood against which believers 
 had been warned by our Lord from the beginning; 
 but, disregarding the caution, he picked them up, made 
 them his own, and bequeathed this inheritance of evil 
 to his native country. England accepted the legacy 
 without knowing what it would cost her; but the 
 knowlege has at last come. It is only after centuries 
 of suffering and sin, of ignorance and rebellion, of 
 heresy and schism, that our bitter experience enables 
 us to 'estimate at its true value the work done by John 
 Wyclif." 
 
THE CHARACTER OF WYCLIFFE 197 
 
 The estimates of Wycliffe by such Roman contro- 
 versialists must be put opposite those of the Reformed 
 Churches. It has been said that in Britain there is 
 the Church most affected by the Reformation — the 
 Scottish, and the Church least affected by the Reforma- 
 tion — the Anglican. The statement is a very erroneous 
 one, and based on wrong facts. As a matter of fact, 
 the two national Churches at the Reformation went 
 hand in hand, and their articles are about equally 
 plain in their statements as to Roman errors and 
 papal supremacy. But even accepting the statement 
 that the English Church has a cooler sympathy with 
 the Reformers than her other Reformation sisters in 
 Germany, Holland, Scotland, and elsewhere, it is 
 remarkable that inside Lutterworth Church since 
 1833 the following inscription has stood on Wycliffe's 
 monument : 
 
 "sacked to the memory op 
 JOHN WICLIF, 
 
 THE EARLIEST CHAMPION OF ECCLESIASTICAL REFORMATION 
 IN ENGLAND. 
 HE WAS BORN IN YORKSHIRE IN THE YEAR 1324. 
 □I THE YEAR 1375 HE WAS PRESENTED TO THE RECTORY OF LUTTER- 
 WORTH : WHERE HE DIED ON THE 318T OF DECEMBER 1384. 
 AT OXFORD "HE ACQUIRED NOT ONLY THE RENOWN OF A CONSUMMATE 
 SCHOOLMAN, BUT THE FAR MORE GLORIOUS TITLE OF THE EVANGELIC 
 DOCTOR. 
 HIS WHOLE LIFE WA8 ONE PERPETUAL STRUGGLE AGAINST THE 
 CORRUPTIONS AND ENCROACHMENTS OF THE PAPAL COURT, 
 AND THE IMPOSTURES OF ITS DEVOTED AUXILIARIES, THE 
 MENDICANT FRATERNITIES. 
 ■II LABOURS IN THE CAUSE OF SCRIPTURAL TRUTH WERE CROWNED 
 BY ONE IMMORTAL ACHIEVEMENT, HI8 TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE 
 K) THE ENGLISH TONGUE. 
 mi -Ml' .HIV WORK DREW ON HIM, INDEED, THE BITTER 
 HATRED OF ALL WHO WERE MAKIN<; Ml l:< IIANDISE OF THE 
 POPULAR CREDULITY AND IGNORANCE, 
 
198 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 BUT HE FOUND AN ABUNDANT REWAIiD IN THE BLESSINGS OF HIS 
 
 COUNTRYMEN OF EVERY RANK AND AGE, TO WHOM HE 
 
 UNFOLDED THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE. 
 
 HIS MORTAL REMAINS WERE INTERRED NEAR THIS STOT ; BUT THEY 
 
 WERE NOT ALLOWED TO REST IN PEACE. AFTER THE LAPSE OF 
 
 MANY YEARS, HIS BONES WERE DRAGGED FROM THE GRAVE, AND 
 
 CONSIGNED TO THE FLAMES J AND HIS ASHES WERE CAST INTO THE 
 
 WATERS OF THE ADJOINING STREAM." 
 
 And the majestic obelisk, thirty feet high, in the 
 town, near the church erected in 1897 to commemorate 
 the fifth centenary of the Reformer, bears the following 
 inscription : 
 
 "JOHN WYCLIFFE, 
 
 BORN 1324. DIED 1384. 
 
 rector of lutterworth from 1374 to 1384. 
 
 the morning star of the reformation. 
 
 the first translator of the bible into the 
 
 english language. 
 
 'search the scriptures.' 'the entrance of thy words 
 
 giveth light.' 
 
 'be followers of them who thro' faith and patience 
 
 inherit the promises.' 
 
 'be thou faithful unto death.' 
 
 erected in the 60th year of the reign of her most 
 
 gracious majesty queen victoria." 
 
 June, 1897. 
 
 It has been beautifully suggested that neither of 
 these memorials is so truly redolent or suggestive 
 of his memory as " the steep and pebbly path, down 
 which the remains of Wycliffe were carried to the 
 water and the rapid little stream (as we saw it eddying 
 and sparkling in the sunlight of a spring morning), 
 constitute, to thoughtful minds, the most expressive 
 memorial of the earliest — and probably the greatest — 
 of Ecclesiastical Reformers ! " 
 
PART II 
 THE LOLLARDS ^ ^ 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 
 
 While the Lollards were said to have got their name 
 from a German word meaning " tares " — from their 
 heretical position and views — it is said with greater 
 appearance of truth that the disciples of Wycliffe 
 were called " Lollards " from their singing in a low or 
 hushed voice — from the German " lollen " — psalm- 
 singers, or from Walter Lollardus, who on the 
 Continent taught his principles. The Lollard 
 preachers went about England in couples, clad in 
 t gowns, preaching at fairs, in market-places 
 an<l churches and houses, teaching the simple truths 
 of primitive Christianity with zeal and simplicity. 
 
 At any rate, the influence and principles of Wycliffe 
 were not allowed to die, but, on the contrary, spread 
 with raefa imiiuring vitality that it became a proverb 
 that every second man you met in England was a 
 Lollard. About a fourth of the nation was supposed 
 to be in sympathy with Wycliffe views by the close 
 of tl enth century. } At any rate, there seems to 
 
 have been a general feeling that reform in some way 
 
200 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 or another was a necessity: the luxury and excesses 
 of the friars, the persecutions of the hierarchy and 
 the scandal of a divided papacy, shocked all right- 
 thinking people, and produced a movement towards 
 reform. Lechler declares that the name of Lollard 
 was not generally given to Wycliffe's followers until 
 1385, the year after the Reformer's death, and that 
 it came from the Netherlands, having been first 
 applied to the " Brothers of St. Alexius " or " fratres 
 Cellitss," whose works of love and ministries of 
 kindness were famous. The name, at any rate, 
 whether derived from the mythical Walter Lollard, 
 from the "frates Cellitae," from the "tares," or the 
 "singing," became in course of time the universal 
 title of a sect which had gradually grown into great 
 power and importance. 
 
 1 Wycliffe's " poor preachers " or " poor priests " 
 appear on the scene somewhere about 1382, when 
 Courtenay, archbishop of Canterbury, in a mandate 
 to the Bishop of London, refers to "certain un- 
 authorised itinerant preachers, who, as he had 
 happily been compelled to learn, set forth erroneous, 
 yea, heretical assertions in public sermons ; and they 
 do this under guise of great holiness, but without 
 having obtained any episcopal or papal authorisation." 
 In several tracts of this period Wycliffe defends his 
 itinerants. The headquarters of the order seems to 
 have been at Oxford. i Thorpe, who was tried by 
 Archbishop Arundel, said in his evidence that 
 "Maister John Wycliffe was holden of full many 
 men the greatest clerk that - they knew then living, 
 and therewith he was named a passing ruly man 
 and innocent in his living." Thorpe adds the names 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 201 
 
 of several whom he also admired — John Aston, 
 Nicholas Hereford, John Purvey, and others, with 
 whom he had been on terms of close intimacy and 
 personal friendship. This intimacy was enjoyed 
 probably at Oxford and not at Lutterworth. In his 
 books on- The Pastoral Office, and Why Poor 
 Priests have no Benefices, Wycliffe defends his 
 wandering preachers as preferable to parish priests 
 who do not preach, but at the same time he defends 
 the parish priests who do so. 
 
 Thorpe was a priest himself, and declares: "By 
 the authority of the word of God and also of many 
 saints and doctors, I have been brought to the con- 
 viction that it is the office and duty of every priest 
 faithfully, freely, and truly to preach God's Word. 
 Without doubt it behoves every priest in determining 
 to take orders, to do so chiefly with the object of 
 preaching the Word of God to the people to the best 
 of his ability. We are accordingly bound by Christ's 
 command and holy example, and also by the testimony 
 of His holy apostles and prophets, under heavy 
 penalties, to exercise ourselves in such wise as to 
 fulfil this duty of the priesthood to the best of our 
 knowledge and powers. We believe that every priest 
 is commanded by the Word of God to make God's 
 will known to the people by faithful labour, and to 
 publish it to them in the spirit of love, to the best of 
 our ability, where, when, and to whomsoever we may." 
 tliffe's preachers were both priests and laymen. 
 In his Speculum Ecclesia Militantis he boldly 
 declares that a single unlearned preacher with grace 
 in his heart and the fire of the divine spirit on his 
 lips can often effect more than those who have the 
 
202 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 hall-mark of the universities and the colleges. In 
 coarse red or russet woollen cloth, staff in hand as 
 became pilgrims, they wandered over the land, 
 preaching a simple gospel and diligently explaining 
 the Scriptures to the people. In forcible language 
 they rebuked the sins of lofty and lowly, and lifted 
 up before the eyes of the people the Perfect Life. 
 Several of Wycliffe's tracts on these itinerant preachers 
 are very suggestive, notably — Of Good Preaching 
 Priests, Why Poor Priests have no Benefices, Of 
 Feigned Contemplative Life, Of Obedience to 
 Prelates, The Mirror of Antichrist, and The 
 Six Yokes, a little book prepared for the preachers 
 themselves, and a guide to them as to how and what 
 to preach. In his Saints' Day Sermons he gives 
 outlines of discourses evidently intended as skeletons 
 to be filled in by the individual speakers themselves 
 with matter suitable to the time, place, and people. 
 "The itinerant preacher" movement had its chief 
 activity from 1370-1382, and in the districts im- 
 mediately around Oxford and Lutterworth its 
 strongest hold. 
 
 Some of these notable preachers call for attention. 
 The , nucleus of the party consisted of Nicholas of 
 Hereford, John Aston, John Purvey, John Parker, 
 William Swinderby, William Smith, and Richard 
 Waytstathe. Philip Repyngdon, once a warm 
 supporter of the Reformer, recanted and turned 
 against the Lollards, being afterwards made, 
 strange to say — as if to befool the See w hich once 
 was held by Grossetete — Bishop of Lincoiri^in 1405, 
 and finally died as a cardinal. 
 
 Nicholas of Hereford, the learned doctor of theology 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 203 
 
 who assisted Wycliffe in the translation more 
 especially of the Old Testament, became after the 
 Reformer's death the leader of the movement. John 
 Aston, like Repyngdon, deserted the Lollard ranks, 
 but repented and became one of the most outstanding 
 of the preachers. Wycliffe's old curate at Lutter- 
 worth, John Purvey, who also actively assisted him 
 in his Bible translation and revised the whole book, 
 finishing the final revision in 1388, is named by 
 Knighton as one of " the four arch-heretics " — a plain 
 homely man with sound common-sense, great force 
 of character, and warm zeal in preaching the gospel. 
 
 John l\irkrr ifl referred to by the Bishop of 
 Worcester in his letter of 1387. William Smith was 
 an ordinary citizen, who, it is said, having been 
 disappointed in love, threw himself with zeal and 
 energy into the ascetic life. William Swinderby 
 was originally a hermit, and coming to Leicester 
 preached against the luxury of the age, the deteriora- 
 tion of the priesthood, and the general decadence of 
 the world. ^ From his pulpit of two millstones in the 
 High Street of Leicester he addressed crowds of 
 anxious souls, and finally was cited to appear before 
 the Bishop of Lincoln to answer for heresies, " for 
 which," it was said to him, " you deserve to be made 
 fuel for fire." * Removed to Coventry, he preached with 
 ii greater vigour; and the multitude prevented 
 any action being taken by the Church against him. 
 Next he retired to Herefordshire, where the bishop 
 of that diocese instituted proceedings against him 
 in 1391. 
 
 William th. Il.-rmit" had associated with him 
 "Richard the Chaplain," or Richard Waytstath<', who 
 
204 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 formerly was of the Augustinian Church in Leicester, 
 and these two ardently preached the Lollard faith 
 both in Leicester and elsewhere. 
 
 While these "poor preachers" had little of this 
 world's goods, and answer to the description given 
 by the Roman historian Reinerus in the thirteenth 
 century of the heretics of that age, "They admit of 
 no pride of dress ; riches they seek not to multiply, 
 but they are content with things necessary ; they are 
 always engaged either in working or in learning or 
 in teaching," — on the other hand/ their adherents 
 included many men and families of weight, worth, 
 and distinction in England. The Earl of Salisbury, 
 Sir Thomas Latimer in Northamptonshire, Sir John 
 Russell in Staffordshire, Sir Lewis Clifford, Durham 
 (who intervened at the Lambert Council in 1378), 
 Sir Richard Story, Sir Reginald Hilton (Durham), 
 Sir William Neville, third son of Lord Neville, besides 
 large numbers of persons in middle life possessed of 
 means and influence, all stood by and aided the 
 itinerant preachers. ) 
 
 By preaching and by disseminating the Scriptures 
 in whole or in parts, the cause was spread and the 
 Lollard influence daily strengthened. For Forshall 
 and Madden's Wyclijffite Versions a hundred and fifty 
 MSS. were consulted, and twelve of these were of a 
 date earlier than 1400. They are of all kinds, some 
 costly, some bare and poor, but all well worn and 
 well used. These MSS. gave the preachers their 
 theme ; and even Roman bishops acknowledged the 
 good and power of their sermons, though Lingard says 
 they were only controversial. The Roman Chronicler 
 Knighton describes their method of procedure : — 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 205 
 
 " "When an itinerant preacher arrived at the residence 
 of some knight, the latter immediately with great 
 willingness set about calling together the country- 
 people to some appointed place or church in order 
 to hear the sermon ; even if they did not care about 
 going, they did not dare to stay away or to object. 
 For the knight was always at the preacher's side, 
 armed with sword and shield, ready to protect him 
 should anyone dare to oppose in any way his person 
 or his doctrine. Their teaching was at the beginning 
 full of sweetness and devotion; but towards the end 
 it broke into jealousy and calumny. Nobody, they 
 said, was upright and pleasing to God who did not 
 hold the Word of God as they preached it, for thus 
 in all their preaching did they hold up God's Law." 
 
 Preaching in the open air or wherever they could 
 obtain a hearing, the Bible was also read with per- 
 haps a tract by Wycliffe or Hereford expounding its 
 meaning, and thus people learned how to hear and read 
 the Scripture, until, finally, it became quite familiar 
 to the common people, who heard and read it gladly. 
 
 Richard II. was at this time King of England, and 
 frowned upon the Lollards; but though persecution 
 was used to stamp out the movement, the death- 
 sentence for heresy had not yet made its appearance ; 
 and this was due doubtless to the influence of the 
 Duke of Lancaster, the great patron of Wycliffe, and 
 of Richard's queen, Anne of Bohemia and sister of 
 the King of Bohemia, who strongly favoured the 
 new movement, read the Scripture in English, and 
 through her strong personal influence introduced 
 Lol lardy into Bohemia, where it had a striking 
 career, as we shall see by and by. 
 
206 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 In 1387 Peter Pateshull, an Augustinian friar, left 
 the cloister and became a Lollard, preaching against 
 the monastic life, which he declared was in every way 
 inferior morally and spiritually to the life of a good 
 citizen. At last his old associates, the Augustinians, 
 waxed furious at his revelations of their life by one 
 who knew it, and a party of twelve of them interrupted 
 the preacher, with the result that the Lollards rose 
 and drove them off, even threatening to burn their 
 monastery. Pateshull wrote his charges down and 
 affixed the document to St. Paul's Cathedral, as 
 Luther did with his theses. 
 
 In 1391 Walter Brute had pled the Lollard cause 
 before the Bishop of Hereford, arguing very much 
 against the same points. In Chaucer's " Plowman's 
 Tale," a picture is given of Church and Lollard ways 
 of thinking and acting which agrees with these 
 petitions ; while in " Piers Plowman's Creed " the 
 seeker after truth is repelled by the pride and vices 
 of the clerical orders, and at last takes his gospel from 
 the lips of a simple son of the soil. 
 
 In 1395 the Lollards petitioned Parliament, declaring 
 their doctrines and asking for reforms, but received 
 scant consideration. Their chief conclusions were, — 
 that the Church's great temporalities had killed 
 religion ; that the present priesthood comes not from 
 Christ but from Rome ; that priestly celibacy, auricular 
 confession, transubstantiation, exorcisms, prayers for 
 the dead, pilgrimages, perpetual vows, are all wrong 
 and unscriptural. 
 
 In 1396 Archbishop Courtehay died, and Thomas 
 Arundel was changed from York to Canterbury ; and 
 one of his earliest acts was to convene a council 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 207 
 
 (February 1397) to deal with the Lollard heresies as 
 more particularly laid down in Wycliffe's Trialogus. 
 Eighteen articles were condemned, referring mainly to 
 Church properties, worldly priests and government, and 
 doctrine. An old enemy of Wycliffe was commissioned 
 to write a tract against the Lollard heresies, which he 
 did in a scholastic manner : this was William Woodford, 
 a learned Franciscan, whose Tractate against the Errors 
 of Wycliffe in the Trialogus was the result. But no 
 drastic action was taken against Lollards as yet. Not 
 until 1396 was persecution resorted to, when in that 
 year four men from Nottingham recanted before the 
 King's Court of Justice. } Changes of a revolutionary 
 character were in the air : in 1397 Archbishop Arundel 
 was banished for conspiracy and treason in complicity 
 with his brother the Earl of Arundel, and was 
 succeeded as Primate by Roger of Walden. ( The year 
 1399 saw the deposition of Richard II., and the Duke of 
 Lancaster, son of John of Gaunt, ascended the throne 
 as Henry iv. The banished Archbishop Arundel was 
 reinstated, and through political circumstances the 
 King, who owed his position to the hierarchy, felt called 
 upon to repay the debt by persecuting the Church's 
 old enemies. A violent persecution of the Lollards, 
 i^ated by archbishop and King, began, and for the 
 first time in history England beheld the spectacle of 
 martyrs being burned alive for their religious beliefs. 
 Act " De haeretico comburendo " was placed on the 
 Statute Book of England, and power was given to 
 bishops to arrest suspects, and, if necessary, to hand 
 them over to the civil power, " to be by them burned 
 on an high place before the people." ; It was in this 
 case as in many others that men were more zealous to 
 
208 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 persecute others for their faith than to make sacrifices 
 to prove their own ; but as well might they wring the 
 neck of the crowing cock and think that day would 
 never come, as imagine that the mowing down of the 
 grass would not prevent its more rapid growth, for the 
 blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. 
 ^ The first Lollard to suffer death for his beliefs was 
 William Sawtree, priest of St. Osyth's, London. He 
 had previously, when priest of St. Margaret's, Lynn, 
 recanted before the Bishop of Norwich ; but in London 
 he again openly avowed his faith, and on 12th 
 February 1401 was summoned to appear before the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. ' The chief charges against 
 him were that "he would not worship the cross on 
 which Christ suffered, but only Christ who suffered on 
 the cross ; that every priest and deacon is more bound 
 to preach the Word of God than to say particular 
 services at the canonical hours; and that after the 
 pronouncing of the sacramental words of the body of 
 Christ, the bread remaineth of the same nature that it 
 was before, neither doth it cease to be bread." After 
 two days' discussion with him on the nature of the 
 Eucharist, he was declared a heretic, on 24th February 
 brought to St. Paul's Cathedral and publicly stripped of 
 his sacerdotal robes and handed over to the High 
 Constable and Marshal of England to be dealt with. 
 * Early in March, Sawtree was burned at Smithfield — the 
 first of the Lollard martyrs, } as Henry iv. was the first 
 King who allowed punishment by death to be given 
 for religious beliefs. The Continent had for several 
 centuries known what this meant: as early as 1017 
 several canons of Orleans Cathedral in France suffered 
 death by burning for heresy, and the Dominicans in 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 209 
 
 the thirteenth century received strong inquisitorial 
 powers from the Holy Office to destroy heretics by 
 fire. But until 1401 the thing was unknown in the 
 British Isles. 
 
 ( The destruction of Sawtree made a terrible impression 
 upon John~ Purvey, Wycliffe's old curate, whose heart 
 at last failed him for fear, and on 5th March 1401 he 
 recanted before the archbishop's commissioners, and 
 publicly read his recantation at St. Paul's Cross on 
 Sunday, 6th March, to the great grief of his old friends. 
 He seems to have returned to Lollard principles again, 
 for in 1421 Archbishop Chichely proceeded against him 
 again for heresy. 
 
 ( The effort to exterminate Wycliffe ideas was 
 earnestly undertaken by the ecclesiastical powers in 
 England, and more particularly in London, Rochester, 
 Oxford, Nottingham, Norwich, Bristol, and Worcester. 
 John Badby, an Evesham tailor in the last-named 
 diocese, was in 1409 arraigned before Archbishop 
 Arundel and the rest of the ecclesiastical court for 
 denying the doctrine of transubstantiation ; and as if 
 to bring supernatural aid to his assistance, Arundel 
 declared to Badby that if he would only be true to the 
 Church's doctrine, he would himself pledge his soul for 
 him at the Judgment-day. But Badby declared that 
 the bread was only the symbol, not the corporeal 
 presence of Christ, "and that if every host being 
 consecrated at the altar were the Lord's body, then 
 there would be twenty thousand gods in England." On 
 16th March 'he was called before his judges, declared 
 a heretic, passed on to the civil authorites, and led to 
 Smithfield to be burned. The Prince of Wales, after- 
 wards Henry v., was present, and urged Badby to 
 1 I 
 
210 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 recant. Bound with iron chains to a stake with piles 
 of dry wood and an oil-cask around him, the Prior of 
 St. Bartholomew's, Smith field, with a retinue passed 
 the stake, carrying lighted torches and in the midst the 
 host. Asked what he believed that host to be, Badby 
 said he "knew well it was hallowed bread and not 
 God's body." The fire was kindled, and the blaze 
 began, when the Prince of Wales, thinking that the 
 singe would do its work, ordered the fire to be ex- 
 tinguished, which was done, and once more begged 
 Badby to recant, offering also money and favours, but 
 to no purpose. The fire was rekindled, and England's 
 second religious martyr met his doom with courage 
 and constancy. 
 
 Still pursuing a policy of the utmost rigour, Arch- 
 bishop Arundel managed to shake the constancy of 
 some. Some recanted, others died in prison, while 
 others met their fiery death, one of them— John Resby, 
 a Wycliffite from England, being put to death in 
 Scotland in 1407, — the first person who suffered death 
 in that country for heresy. J Arundel formulated an 
 order of proceedings by which for the first offence the 
 heretic was excommunicated, and for the second 
 condemned to burning. He also forbade the reading of 
 the Scriptures in English or in any other language, or 
 of books of religion unless permission were first had of 
 the ordinary, adding that it was " a dangerous thing 
 to translate the text of Holy Scripture out of one 
 tongue into another." 
 
 (William Thorpe was an outstanding victim of 
 Arundel's persecuting zeal, chiefly owing to his emi- 
 nence and abilities as a priest. 
 
 For twenty years he had been an itinerant preacher 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 211 
 
 in Northern England, when in 1397 he was seized in 
 London, but liberated on Arundel's banishment. In 
 1407 he was again seized, and imprisoned in Salt wood 
 Castle in Kent. The archbishop interrogated him, and 
 advised him to recant. ' Tyndale nearly two centuries 
 later published the account of these interrogations, 
 which the reforming party greatly valued, — a work 
 prohibited by royal proclamation in 1530, but preserved 
 by Foxe in his Acts and Monuments. Regarding 
 transubstantiation Thorpe referred to Scripture. As to 
 the worship of images, he declared that not only that 
 practice, but confession, pilgrimages, and other eccle- 
 siastical uses were wholly unscriptural. After his 
 condemnation he declared — "To witness to the truth 
 of my convictions I am ready in humility and in joy 
 to suffer my poor body to be persecuted where God 
 wills, and by whom and when and for how long a time, 
 and to endure whatever punishment and death that He 
 sees fit to the honour of His Name and to the building 
 up of the Church." c The registers do not state that he 
 was burned, but he was probably done to death or died 
 of sickness in prison. John Ashton had previously 
 c- line to a similar end for his Lollard heresies as to the 
 sacrament of the altar. * 
 
 About this time Archbishop Arundel sent a mandate 
 to the Bishop of London requiring men to say prayers 
 to the Virgin at the sound of the curfew bell. He 
 declares — " We truly ; as servants of her own inherit- 
 ance, and such as are written of to be her peculiar dower, 
 ought more watchfully than others to show our 
 «1. votinn in praising her, who being hitherto merciful 
 to us (yea, being even cowards) would that our power, 
 being spread through all the coasts of the world, 
 
212 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 should, with a victorious arm, fear all foreign nations. 
 That our power being on all sides so defended with 
 the buckler of her protection, did subdue unto our 
 victorious standards, and made subject unto us, nations 
 both near at hand and far off. We grant by these 
 presents to all and every man who shall say the Lord's 
 Prayer and the Salutation of the Angel five times at 
 the morning peal, with a devout mind, forty days' 
 pardon." Archbishop Arundel's capricious arrange- 
 ments were almost unbearable. In one city he forbade 
 the organs to be used in church because the bells were 
 not rung one morning as he unexpectedly passed 
 through. He was a thoroughgoing believer in the 
 unique power of the Vicar of Christ — " the key-bearer 
 and porter of eternal life and death, bearing the place 
 and person not of a mere man, but of true God here 
 upon earth." And this at a time when there were 
 rival Popes, — at one time three of them, who excom- 
 municated each other, and were finally all declared 
 heretics and deposed by general councils. 
 
 On 6th October 1406 the University of Oxford put 
 forth a document regarding Wycliffe and his teachings, 
 which owed its origin to the report which widely 
 circulated in Bohemia and the Continent generally, that 
 the English bishops had declared him a heretic, and 
 had ordered his bones to be dug up and burned. The 
 genuineness of the document has been challenged, but 
 it seems to have been issued in the name of the 
 chancellor and regents of the university, and was 
 sealed with the common seal, and copies transmitted 
 to Bohemia and elsewhere. 
 
 This testimony of Oxford University to Wycliffe 
 says: " The conduct of Wycliffe even from tender 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 213 
 
 years to the time of his death, was so praiseworthy 
 and honourable, that never at any time was there any 
 offence given by him, nor was he aspersed with any 
 note of infamy or sinister suspicion : but in answering, 
 reading, preaching, determining, he behaved himself 
 laudably : and as a valiant champion of the truth, he 
 vanquished by proofs from Holy Scripture and 
 according to the Catholic Faith those who by wilful 
 beggary blasphemed the religion of Christ. Never 
 was this doctor convicted of heretical depravity, nor 
 was he delivered by our prelates to be burned after his 
 burial. For, God forbid that our bishops should have 
 condemned so good and upright a man as a heretic, 
 who in all the university had not his equal, as they 
 believed, in his writings on logic, philosophy, theology, 
 ethics, and the speculative sciences." In 1411 the 
 Convocation of the province of Canterbury stigmatised 
 this testimony as " a letter of falsehood " ; but this 
 evidently refers to the false doctrine of Wycliffe, not 
 to the forgery of the letter. The letter certainly 
 expresses the feeling of Oxford at the time it was 
 written, and even Convocation itself complained of 
 heresies and errors prevalent, Arundel himself in 1408 
 declaring that where once the vine grew, there were 
 now only thistles. In that visitation of the colleges 
 Archbishop Arundel arranged that every month the 
 inmates be examined by the heads regarding their 
 soundness in the Church's faith, and if heresy were 
 found there was to be first warning and then expulsion 
 and excommunication. Arundel in 1411 revisited 
 Oxford to insist on these reforms as he thought them. 
 In 1414 the reactionary spirit had triumphed in the 
 university, and after Henry v. ascended the throne the 
 
2 14 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 college heads presented to His Majesty a memorial in 
 which they promised to do all they could to crush 
 Lollardism. Wycliffe had been dead thirty years, and 
 the severe measures taken by Arundel and the bishops 
 to stamp out Lollardism from Oxford University seem 
 to have triumphed, and the reactionary movement 
 again was in the ascendancy to the destruction of 
 Wycliffism. Oxford thereafter began to decline: the 
 papal scholasticism killed original thinking, and for 
 more than a hundred years the university was dead so 
 far as things of the mind and soul were concerned. 
 The old, fresh, original vitality, scholarship and 
 character infused into the beautiful homes by the 
 Isis by the saintly scholar and his associates were 
 dried up, and the university life for a century was 
 destitute of originality, force, freshness, and moral 
 power. The Church was not everywhere destitute of 
 life and aspiration. The Renaissance spirit was abroad, 
 and Dante and Petrarch and Fra Angelico had been 
 dreaming their dreams and bidding Europe arise and 
 shine. It was in the very year of Arundel's second 
 visit to Oxford that the University of St. Andrews was 
 founded (1411), and James I. of Scotland gave to the 
 world the King's Quair only a few years later. 
 Intellectual and soul-life were struggling after a wider 
 freedom, which eventually was given ; but the reaction- 
 ary spirit again gripped the centre of England's 
 intellectual life, and Oxford relapsed into the dead 
 mechanicalism which existed before the freshness of 
 Wycliffe's spirit bade the dry bones live. The spirit of 
 Chaucer, who died in 1400, interpreted the aspira- 
 tions of the people, it is true, but the ecclesiastical 
 authorities set their faces as a whole against any 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 215 
 
 slackening of the swaddling-clothes of mediaeval 
 scholasticism. 
 
 ( Henry I v. died in 1413, and his son Henry v. 
 succeeded him. Archbishop Arundel died the follow- 
 ing year — the memorable year in which the Council 
 of Constance held its first sittings. Henry Chichely 
 was anointed Archbishop of Canterbury, and renewed 
 Arundel's onslaught on Lollardism with fresh zeal. 
 At Arundel's synod in St. Paul's, held in 1413 to 
 combat the spreading Wycliffe heresy, an outstanding 
 offender often referred to was Sir John Oldcastle, Lord 
 Cobham, who was a warm friend of the Lollards, 
 spread Wycliffe's Scriptures and writings vigorously 
 abroad, and generally supported the much-needed 
 reform of the Church. ; When Henry v. heard read to 
 him one of Wycliffe's writings found in the possession 
 of Lord Cobham, he declared that he had never heard 
 such heresy, but bade them pause in proceeding 
 against him until he himself had had an opportunity of 
 conversing with him and convincing him of his errors. 
 When the King had urged upon him the duty of 
 obeying Holy Church, Cobham replied : " As touching 
 the Pope and his spirituality, I owe them neither suit 
 nor service, as I know him by the Scriptures to be the 
 great Antichrist, the Son of Perdition, the open 
 adversary of God, and the abomination standing in 
 the holy place." At last Arundel sent his chief 
 summoner to Cowling Castle in Kent, the seat of Lord 
 Cobham, and demanded his submission. Availing 
 himself, however, of the special privileges of an English 
 noble, Cobham declined, and continued entertaining 
 the Lollard preachers and pressing forward the 
 Lollard cause. The archbishop then caused his 
 
216 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 citation to be posted at the gates of Rochester 
 Cathedral, and passed sentence of excommunication 
 upon " the good Lord Cobham," as he was affectionately 
 styled by the common people, and called upon the 
 civil power to deal with him. 
 
 To clear himself, Lord Cobham prepared a paper 
 summing up his imdividual confession of faith ; and, 
 obtaining an audience of the King, presented his paper 
 and begged His Majesty to read it over and judge for 
 himself how far he was right or wrong. Under 
 Arundel's strong influence, however, the King refused 
 to read it, but ordered that it should be handed over 
 to the archbishop. The archbishop's summons was 
 read over to Cobham in the royal presence. Cobham 
 appealed to the Pope ; but the King would not suffer 
 it, and ordered his immediate arrest, which was done 
 in the King's presence, whence he was taken to the 
 Tower of London, a portion of which is still called to 
 this day the "Cobham Tower." On 23rd September 
 1413 he was brought before the prelates in the chapter- 
 house of St. Paul's. Arundel told him of his summons 
 and sentence of excommunication ; but, standing in 
 wholesome dread of the people, with whom Cobham 
 was exceedingly popular, he offered to give him 
 absolution if he submitted. In answer, Cobham read 
 his defence, or more accurately the statement of his 
 views, namely: "1. That the sacrament of the altar 
 is Christ's body in the form of bread. 2. As to 
 penance, it is needful for every man that shall be 
 saved, to forsake sin and to do penance for former 
 sins, with true confession, real contrition, and due 
 satisfaction, as God's law teaches. 3. That images 
 were permitted by the Church to represent to ignorant 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 217 
 
 men the death and sufferings of Christ, and that who- 
 soever worshipped them became an idolater. 4. As to 
 pilgrimages, every man was a pilgrim to bliss or woe, 
 and that he who knew not God and kept not His 
 commandments would be damned although he went 
 on all the pilgrimages in the world ; while those who 
 knew the will of God and kept it would be saved, 
 though they never went on any pilgrimage as men 
 go to Canterbury or Rome or other places." 
 
 Archbishop Arundel in his suave manner declared 
 that Cobham's paper contained many good things, but 
 said he wished to inquire further to his views upon 
 the sacraments and confession. Cobham said he stood 
 by his confession in writing; and after a few more 
 days in prison, and on being brought up again, he 
 was asked " whether there remained material bread 
 in the sacrament after the words of consecration or 
 not." Arundel promised to send him in writing the 
 determinations of the Church on the various disputed 
 points, which he did, summing up the Church's faith 
 under four heads: 1. A clear statement of transub- 
 stantiation — the bread and wine disappearing as such 
 after consecration. 2. The duty of confession by every 
 Christian. 3. Christ gave His power to St. Peter, and 
 through him to all his successors in the Holy See, who 
 ought therefore to be implicitly obeyed as Christ's 
 Vicars. 4. Pilgrimages are meritorious, and the 
 worship of images and relics of the saints and 
 martyrs is a duty. 
 
 I )u the Monday his trial was resumed at the 
 Dominican Convent, Ludgate. Exposed to the taunts 
 and insults of a crowd of monks and friars, he was 
 again offered absolution, but declined. Kneeling down 
 
2i8 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 on the pavement, he raised his hands to heaven and 
 said : " I confess myself here unto Thee, my eternal 
 living God, that in my frail youth I offended Thee, 
 O Lord, most grievously by pride, wrath, covetousness, 
 lust, intemperance. Many men have I injured in mine 
 anger and done other horrible sins : good Lord, I ask 
 Thee mercy ! " Standing up with tears in his eyes, 
 he exclaimed loudly : " Lo, good people, lo, for breaking 
 of God's law, and His great commandments, these men 
 never yet cursed me; but for their own laws and 
 traditions most cruelly do they handle me and other 
 men. Therefore, both they and their laws, according 
 to the promise of God, shall be utterly destroyed." 
 There was a great scene of confusion among the clerics 
 and friars and monks at this appeal from St. Peter to 
 the people of England, and only after a time was the 
 archbishop able to resume his examination. Asked as 
 to his belief, Cobham said : " I believe fully and 
 faithfully in the laws of God. I believe that all is 
 true which is contained in the sacred Scriptures of the 
 Bible. Finally, I believe all that my Lord God would 
 have me believe." Asked as to his views on the real 
 presence on the altar, he gave as his final decision : 
 " The Scriptures make no mention of material bread. 
 In the sacrament there is both Christ's body and the 
 bread : the bread is the thing that we see with our 
 eyes ; but the body of Christ is hid, and only seen by 
 faith." At once all present cried out that it was 
 heresy. With perfect calmness Cobham went through 
 further examination. Friar Palmer asked him if he 
 would worship the cross on ■ which Christ died ; and 
 Cobham said that it was not the cross which should be 
 worshipped, but Him who suffered and died upon it. 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 219 
 
 Cobham was then condemned: declared a heretic in 
 the matter of the real presence, penance, papal power, 
 and pilgrimages, and the sentence of condemnation 
 concluded with the statement that the judges had 
 imitated Christ, "who willeth nor the death of a 
 sinner, but "rather that he might be converted and 
 live." This was after Arundel's most unctuous style ; 
 for his practice was to cover his malignity with 
 a seraphic smile, and veil his judgments with suavity 
 and sweetness. The registers at Lambeth Palace state 
 that "he made use of the most sweet and gentle terms 
 in addressing the prisoner: and that when he found 
 his endeavours to reclaim him in vain, he was compelled 
 to pronounce sentence, and he did so with the bitterest 
 sorrow." After hearing his sentence, with perfect 
 composure and cheerfulness Cobham addressed the 
 judges thus: "Though ye judge my body, which is 
 but a wretched thing, yet I am certain and sure ye 
 can do no harm to my soul, any more than Satan did 
 to the soul of Job. He that created it will of His 
 infinite mercy and according to His promise save it. 
 Of this I have no manner of doubt : and as concerning 
 the articles of my belief, by the grace of the eternal 
 God I will stand to them even to the very death." 
 Turning to the people, he said: "Good Christian 
 people, for God's love be well aware of these men, else 
 they will beguile you and lead you blindfold into hell 
 with themselves." Falling on his knees, with hands 
 and eyes towards heaven, he prayed : " Lord God 
 eternal, I beseech Thee of Thy great mercy's sake to 
 forgi\« my persecutors, if it be Thy blessed will." 
 He was then removed to the Tower awaiting his death 
 warrant ; but serene in that virtue which is bold and 
 
220 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 that goodness which is never fearful, and contemplating 
 not so much the number or quality of the opponents 
 as the equity of the cause in the eyes of the Eternal 
 Judge. For himself, he was of the stuff of which 
 martyrs are made ; and in his view good lives were like 
 sea-water, never perfectly sweet till drawn upwards to 
 heaven. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful, 
 and the best hearts are the bravest. 
 
 ( Cobham, however, had many friends : indeed, had 
 this not been the case quicker work would have been 
 made of him by the ecclesiastical authorities. " A man 
 of integrity, dearly beloved by the King," as the 
 historian describes him, all eyes were fastened on his 
 fate. False rumours declared he had recanted, and 
 Cobham contradicted them. Delay after delay took 
 place in the carrying out of the sentence ; and, availing 
 himself of a dark night, he escaped from the Tower 
 and fled into Wales, where he remained concealed for 
 a time. ' 
 
 ( The screw of persecution received another twist, 
 and the Lollard folk were forbidden to assemble, — an 
 injunction which they, like the faithful in the cata- 
 combs and the soldier-harried on the Scottish moors, 
 disobeyed, meeting in small groups often at dead of 
 night. On the 7th of January 1414 a company of 
 them gathered in St. Giles' Fields, then a country copse 
 with thickets and brushwood, * though now covered 
 with a network of busy streets, where the bird-stuffer, 
 the saddler, and the antiquary have their special home, 
 in the midst of which stands Wren's Church, where 
 the dreamer of Paradise Lost and Regained takes 
 his last sleep. 
 
 The impression was abroad that Cobham would be 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 221 
 
 there. The enemies of the Lollards tried to use this 
 incident to stir up the King's dislike against them by- 
 insinuating that it was the beginning of a rebellion. 
 The King, who was at Eltham, was informed that Lord 
 Cobham was at St. Giles' Fields at the head of 20,000 
 Lollards, who intended to seize the King's person, 
 destroy Cobham's persecutors, and place him on the 
 throne of England. At once Henry v. assembled his 
 nearest troops and marched to the place, where only 
 a few poor Lollards were assembled, probably for 
 praise and prayer. The city gates were closed. It 
 was thought that the London Lollards and the country 
 ones intended on that night to combine. { Arrived at 
 the scene, Henry and his bijou army attacked the 
 meeting : twenty were killed and sixty taken prisoners : 
 he advanced farther, thinking to meet the real Lollard 
 army, having routed the advanced guard; but the 
 army was non-existent. In the end, thirty-nine 
 Lollards were condemned and burned or hanged in 
 St. Giles' Fields, on the ground of having conspired 
 against the King and devised not only his death, but 
 the destruction of the royal princes and many civil 
 and spiritual dignitaries. Lord Cobham does not seem 
 to have been there, but advantage was taken of the 
 incident to pass a bill of attainder against him, and to 
 offer a reward of 1000 merks for his arrest, and a 
 boon of perpetual exemption from taxes to the town 
 whose inhabitants should first secure him. ( Among 
 the thirty-nine Lollard victims were Sir George Acton, 
 Beverley a preacher, Browne a knight, and William 
 Murle a wealthy brewer of Dunstaple. ' 
 
 Agincourt was fought in 1415, and Henry V. 
 returned to England flushed with his victories. In 
 
222 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 the fall of the year 1417 Cobham was arrested in 
 Wales by Lord Powis and brought to London, and 
 indicted on the charge of instigating rebellion in 
 January 1414. Cobham knew he was doomed, and 
 being asked for his defence he replied : " With me it 
 is a small matter that I should be judged of you or of 
 man's judgment," after which he was sentenced to be 
 hanged as a traitor and burned as a heretic. He was 
 dragged upon a hurdle with every barbarity and 
 insult to St. Giles' Fields, hung alive on chains between 
 two gallows, a fire kindled below him, and so slowly 
 roasted to death. He had before his execution exhorted 
 the Lollards to stand firm in the Scriptures, and to 
 have nothing to do with false teachers. As long as life 
 lasted he continued praising God and blessing His Holy 
 Name. It was a cruel fate, nothing short of murder, 
 for his hands were clean of conspiracy or treason in 
 any form against his sovereign and government. 
 
 Lord Cobham was undoubtedly the most illustrious 
 victim in the Lollard cause up till now, and after his 
 death Lollardism seemed to decline, mainly through 
 the stern measures taken to repress it. Their political 
 aspect disappeared for the most part, and henceforth 
 they were persecuted as religious heretics. In 1415 
 John Claydona, furrier, was accused before Archbishop 
 Chichely of heresy, there having been found in his 
 possession a booklet called The Lanthom of Light, 
 which pointed out various Roman errors ; and though 
 this man could neither read nor write it was written 
 out at his expense, and he declared that " many things 
 he had heard from this look which were profitable, 
 good, and healthful to his soul." Along with a baker, 
 Richard Turning, lie was burned at Smithfield 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 223 
 
 In 1416 Chichely, following Arundel's policy of 
 extirpation, issued a mandate requiring that in every 
 parish, twice every year, three persons should be 
 examined on oath and required to give information 
 as to any persons within the bounds who had suspected 
 books, held conventicles, or encouraged Lollardism in 
 any way. If such suspects were discovered, they were 
 to be burned or imprisoned until the next convocation 
 of the clergy. 
 
 ( In 1422 Henry v. died in his very prime of life and 
 vigour, and the infant Henry vi. succeeded, his Regents 
 being John of Bedford and Humphrey of Gloucester. 
 These latter showed little desire to prosecute the 
 Lollards, though in the first year of the regency a 
 priest in the diocese of Canterbury, William Taylor, 
 was burned at Bristol for heresy. ; He stated that 
 only God is to be worshipped and not the saints, and 
 that " to pray to any creature is to commit idolatry." 
 After examination by the friars he was degraded from 
 his priesthood; cup and paten, gospel and tunicle, 
 epistles and cruet, candlestick and key, surplice and 
 tonsure were in turn removed from him, and finally 
 he was burned. 
 
 In 1424 a plain turner residing in Norfolk, John 
 Florence, was charged with heresy as to the Pope's 
 authority and the worship of images. Brought before 
 the chancellor of the diocese, he submitted and did 
 penance for three Sundays in Norwich Cathedral, and 
 for other three in his own parish church at Shelton, 
 bein. lined with a rod before all the people, 
 
 cloth»<l in canvas shirt and breeches, and carrying a 
 lighted taper in liis hand. ( In the diocese of Norwich 
 the meaenree taken against the Lollards at this time 
 
224 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 were specially severe, and altogether a hundred and 
 twenty names are recorded of those who in this 
 district were burned or punished in some way between 
 1424 and 1431 ; and the striking thing about them all is 
 the practical unanimity of their beliefs and principles. 
 
 In 1424 a priest of the name of William White, a 
 learned and upright clerk, who, having imbibed the 
 Lollard faith, gave up his orders, and, having married, 
 continued his ministry in preaching, teaching, and 
 writing. The same views characterised him as his 
 predecessors, — God, not man, can forgive sins ; image- 
 worship is unscriptural, and the Pope is not the friend, 
 but the enemy of God's truth. Greatly reverenced by 
 the people, he was, however, tried and condemned, and 
 burned at Norwich in September 1424. In the bishop's 
 register mention is made of John Baker who was 
 charged with having in his possession a book in 
 English containing the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and 
 Hail Mary. Margaret Backster was charged with 
 cooking bacon in Lent and with denying the efficacy 
 of crucifix-worship. The spirit of the Crusades was 
 in the air, and the cross was on every breast ; while 
 as if to emphasise the efficacy of the holy symbol the 
 following addition to the bidding prayer before sermon 
 was regularly used : " Ye shall pray for the Holy Land 
 and for the Holy Cross that Jesus Christ died upon, 
 for the redemption of men's souls, that it may come 
 into the power of Christian men to be honoured by 
 our prayers." 
 
 The possession of heretical books was a punishable 
 offence. Nicholas Belward bought in London a New 
 Testament for which he paid £2, 16s. 8d. (about £20 
 to-day), and was charged with heresy. The registers of 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 225 
 
 Norwich are full of similar cases at this period, and in 
 Wilkins' Concilia the form of many of these accusa- 
 tions is preserved, the " mad opinions " of the sectaries 
 being often referred to. But while isolated cases of 
 persecution ^were to be met with all over England 
 during the first quarter of the fifteenth century, it was 
 not really until 1428 that the most vigorous attack 
 came. Wycliffe died peacefully in 1384, and was 
 buried in the chancel of Lutterworth Church. ' In 1415 
 the Council of Constance passed a decree condemning 
 forty-five articles of Wycliffism, and ordered that as an 
 obstinate heretic his bones should be dug up, burned, 
 and thrown upon a dunghill ; much in the same manner 
 as the Portuguese sailors castigate the effigy of Judas 
 Iscariot on Good Friday, or as a little child beats 
 the chair or table which has given it hurt and annoy- 
 ance. < Year after year passed, and this childish decree 
 was never carried out. In 1428, however, acting 
 evidently on local knowledge, the Pope, Clement vin., 
 gave orders that this decree should be executed, probably 
 as a warning to England and Bohemia, which had also 
 through royal relationship become impregnated w T ith 
 Lollard ideas. Fleming was then Bishop of Lincoln, 
 and at Lutterworth his officers saw Wycliffe's ashes 
 unearthed and thrown into the Swift close by, and 
 thence carried, according to the almost proverbial 
 expression, into the river and the sea and the ocean, 
 and so round the world — like Wycliffe's doctrines. 
 
 Not content, however, with dishonouring the bones 
 
 of the founder of the Lollards, Bishop Fleming took 
 
 active measures in counteracting the Lollard teaching, 
 
 in 1426 founded Lincoln College in Oxford, with 
 
 a view of training men specially to counteract the 
 
 '5 
 
226 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Wycliffe teachings. Fleming was born at Crof ton near 
 Wakefield in Yorkshire, and matriculated at University 
 College. At first he zealously espoused the Wycliffe 
 doctrines, but subsequently revoked, and became as 
 zealous and more so in the other direction. To dispel 
 the "pernicious doctrines "of Wycliffe was the object 
 of his foundation at Oxford — "The College of the 
 Blessed Virgin and of All Saints in the University of 
 Oxford." It was a poor institution to begin with, — 
 a rector and seven fellows, but became wealthy and 
 vigorous, holding several rectories in Oxfordshire and 
 Buckinghamshire. In later years Lincoln College was 
 the alma mater of Bishop Sanderson (1660), who mainly 
 wrote the prefaces to the English Prayer-Book; of 
 Nathaniel Lord Crewe, bishop of Oxford, the princely 
 prelate of Bamburgh Castle ; of Fuller the Church 
 historian, John Wesley the founder of Methodism, 
 Hervey of the Meditation amongst the Tombs, Brett 
 and Kilbye the Bible translators, Tindal the deist, 
 Mark Pattison of the Essays and Reviews, and Bishop 
 Fraser, the many-sided prelate of Manchester. The 
 library includes a copy of Wycliffe's Bible in MS. 
 Several Lollards, according to Froude, were imprisoned 
 in the Treasury ; while Thomas Garrett of Magdalene, 
 an early Reformer in Oxford, escaped from the rector's 
 lodgings while the rector was at service in the chapel J 
 Bishop Fleming, who caused Wycliffe's ashes to be thus 
 burned and dispersed, acted as the Pope's direct agent ; 
 and the action was intended as a lesson not to England 
 only, but to the Continent as well. The Lollard 
 doctrines were vigorous in Bohemia, mainly through 
 the fact of Queen Anne, the wife of Richard n. of 
 England, having been a sister of the King of Bohemia, 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 227 
 
 and a zealous follower of Wycliffe. She eagerly read 
 Wycliffe's Bible and works in English, encouraged 
 students from Bohemia to come to Oxford for instruc- 
 tion and spiritual light and guidance, and thus 
 Lollard ism was brought to Bohemia, where it 
 flourished so vigorously that the Church took alarm, 
 and thought it necessary to make a public exhibition 
 of its abhorrence of the Wycliffe doctrines by scatter- 
 ing Wycliffe's ashes. The same Council of Constance 
 which gave the order to do this, also withdrew the 
 cup from the laity in the sacrament of the Supper, 
 and condemned John Huss and Jerome of Prague, the 
 Bohemian representatives of Lollardism, to the flames. 
 In 1428 the Bishop of Winchester, Henry of Beaufort, 
 a legitimised son of the famous John of Gaunt, who 
 was therefore grand-uncle to the child King, was 
 created a cardinal by the Pope, and solemnly ordered 
 to institute a crusade against the Lollards in Bohemia. 
 The Lollards were strong in that country, so strong, 
 indeed, that the papal nuncio referred, in his charge to 
 the English bishops, to the " oppression of the orthodox 
 by the heretics" there. The crusade turned out a 
 fiasco, as did some of the other crusades of that decadent 
 crusading age. The great inspiration of the original 
 Crusades (1095-1270) was away and gone, but the 
 ecclesiastical powers were still using the name and the 
 idea for their own ends, and hoped for a recrudescence 
 of the old enthusiasm, but in vain. When after years 
 of hesitation the bones of Wycliffe were burned and 
 scattered on the Swift, the ecclesiastical powers felt 
 that their hour had conic, and the Archbishop of 
 terbury at a meeting of the Provincial Convocation 
 ordered strong measuree to be taken against the 
 
228 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Lollards, who were daily growing in numbers and 
 influence. A fresh attack was therefore made upon 
 the reforming sect, and many were imprisoned and 
 burned. ' In 1431, however, the English King had 
 severe reverses in France, — the year in which Joan of 
 Arc was put to death: the throne was weakly held, 
 and the struggle between York and Lancaster became 
 acute. The Lollard persecution practically ceased, 
 though the influence was still living, active, and 
 vigorous. > It was a wonderful age for dissension and 
 unrest: Popes and general councils were at variance, 
 and both politically and religiously Europe was in the 
 throes of revolution. Still every now and then in the 
 story of these troubled years there appears some 
 earnest, obscure Lollard who continues the testimony 
 that Scripture is the final court of appeal, and that the 
 preaching of the gospel is the principal duty of the 
 Church. 
 
 Not until the year 1457 does Lollardism reappear 
 associated with any but humble, obscure, and unknown 
 men. In that year, however, a sensation was caused in 
 England by the open advocacy of reforming views by 
 the Bishop of Chichester, Reynold Pecock, who suffered 
 imprisonment for the position he took up. He was not 
 a thoroughgoing Lollard, and in some respects, indeed, 
 opposed their teachings. But he would have no 
 persecution of them, and openly approved of the 
 reading of the Bible, though not in English, besides 
 opposing heartily the papal usurpations of the time. 
 His citation declared that he " held conclusions contrary 
 to the true faith," and that he had at St. Paul's Cross 
 openly preached that " the office of a Christian prelate, 
 above all things, is to preach the Word of God : that 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 229 
 
 man's reason is not to be preferred before the Scriptures, 
 and that Scripture is only to be taken in its proper 
 sense." Archbishop Burscher, who was now Primate of 
 Canterbury, examined him, and induced him to recant. 
 The fear of a fiery death seems to have shaken him, 
 for he confessed that he had promulgated false 
 doctrines, though it would seem that he never 
 thoroughly relinquished his opinions. He was 
 deprived of his bishopric, imprisoned at Thorney 
 Abbey for the rest of his life, and, it is declared by 
 some, at last was done to death. His prayer for the 
 Church of Christ has been preserved : " thou Lord 
 Jesu, God and man, Head of Thy Christian Church 
 and teacher of Christian belief, I beseech Thy mercy, 
 Thy pity, Thy charity. Far be this peril [belief in the 
 infallibility of the Pope] from the Christian Church 
 and from each person therein contained. And shield 
 Thou so that this venom be never brought into Thy 
 Church ; and if Thou suffer it to be brought in for any 
 while, I beseech Thee that it be soon again cast out. 
 But suffer Thou, ordain and do, that the law and faith 
 which Thy Church at any time keepeth, be brought 
 under examination whether it be the very same faith 
 which Thou and Thine apostles taught or no, and 
 whether it hath sufficient evidences to prove whether 
 it is the real faith or not." Thus from beneath the 
 shadow of the cathedral of Chichester, with its tall 
 and graceful spire, — the finest almost in England, and 
 surrounded by the lofty elm trees which are still a 
 feature of the interesting old Sussex cathedral city, 
 came an unlooked-for but stiking testimony to 
 ptural and apostolical doctrine. The two names 
 t intimately associated with the city are of Collins 
 
230 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 the ill-starred poet, who was born and died in Chichester, 
 and of Reginald Pecock, who centuries before dared to 
 think and speak for himself. 
 
 In 1466 Neville, archbishop of York, decreed several 
 canons, in which he required every parish priest to preach 
 four times every year, either personally or by substitute, 
 to the parishioners, and to explain to them " without 
 any fantastical subtilties," the fourteen articles of faith 
 of the Roman Church, the Ten Commandments, the two 
 precepts of the gospel, the seven works of mercy, the 
 seven deadly sins, the seven cardinal virtues, and the 
 seven sacraments. It would have required the brevity 
 of a Dean Swift on a proverbial occasion to have con- 
 densed so much matter into four village sermons. The 
 archbishop provided, however, brief commentaries on 
 these subjects ; and it is remarkable that in the homily 
 on the Ten Commandments the second is omitted, while 
 the tenth is divided into two. The fifth is interpreted 
 as referring mainly to obedience to the bishop of the 
 diocese and Holy Mother Church. The first half of the 
 tenth commandment forbids coveting our neighbour's 
 immoveable property, while the second half refers to 
 moveables. The same rearrangement of the precepts 
 of Sinai is adopted in present-day Roman catechisms 
 and manuals. 
 
 t Edward IV. was now on the English throne (1461-83), 
 and found it a most uncomfortable seat. The civil 
 wars between the houses of York and Lancaster brought 
 their horrors and distresses, but these very civil 
 upheavals seem to have diverted the Church's mind 
 from the Lollard hunt. To ingratiate himself with the 
 clergy, Edward passed a statute which made them 
 almost independent of the civilgovernment, by abolish- 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 231 
 
 ing the "statute of premunive" which had checked 
 Rome's temporal authority in England, and which, 
 though Popes had striven to have it abrogated, was 
 still sanctioned by the House of Commons. This 
 charter of King Edward's made it impossible for 
 ecclesiastics to be prosecuted by the civil power, and 
 the direct result was that many laymen on being 
 charged with criminal offences took ecclesiastical orders 
 after the charge had been made, and thus escaped civil 
 punishment. 
 
 c The strife around the throne, however, served the 
 Lollards a good purpose, giving them to some extent 
 a shelter in the storm and a lull in their persecutions. 
 In 1473, however, John Goose suffered on Tower Hill. 
 The sheriff, Robert Belisdon, strove beforehand to turn 
 him from his beliefs, but to no purpose ; and as a closing 
 scene in the tragedy, Goose asked if as a last favour 
 he might before his execution be supplied with a good 
 niciil, as he was hungry. The same almost humorous 
 request was made by James Guthrie, the Covenanter, 
 the night before his execution in Edinburgh, when he 
 " called for cheese," — an article of diet which under 
 ordinary circumstances, owing to his delicate digestion, 
 he could never venture upon, but of which he partook 
 heartily on this occasion, knowing that he could not 
 suffer from his chronic dyspepsia on the morn. So 
 Goose had his last supper, saying, " I eat now a good 
 and sufficient dinner, as I have a sharp but short 
 shower to pass through after supper." After he had 
 dined he gave thanks, and passed out to his death. 
 
 The Tudor Henry vn. ascended the throne in 1485 
 and reigned until 1509. Several Lollard martyrdoms 
 appear on the roll-call of his reign, notably the first 
 
232 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 female martyr ever put to death by burning in 
 England, — an aged woman of over eighty years 
 named Joan Boughton, mother of Lady Young, who 
 also suffered for her Lollardism. * She was urged by 
 severe examination and threats of burning to recant, 
 but declined, and was accordingly burned. Others, 
 notably an aged Lollard, met the same fate about this 
 time. 'But the most barbarous case was that of 
 William Tylsworth, who, charged with heresy, was 
 burned at Amersham in Buckinghamshire in 1506. 
 His only daughter, Joan Clerk, was compelled to light 
 her father's funeral pyre, and her husband along with 
 some sixty other sympathisers had to do penance, some 
 being branded on the cheek, others flogged or 
 imprisoned. Following up this auto-da-fd, the follow- 
 ing day at Buckingham a plain miller, Roberts of 
 Missenden, was burned, while twelve people had to carry 
 faggots and do penance at the same time. Amongst 
 others who suffered at this period was Father Rogers, 
 who was imprisoned for fourteen weeks in the bishop's 
 prison, 11 and emerged from his confinement so much 
 crippled with the irons and with cold and hunger that 
 his back was actually bent. He and others were then 
 branded. 
 
 Fox, Strype, Fuller, and other chroniclers of the 
 period tell their story consistently and clearly, and the 
 first of these had his information in many cases direct 
 from eye-witnesses. c Thomas Chase of Amersham was 
 strangled in jail after severe tortures. It was given 
 out that he had hanged himself in prison, and he was 
 buried in Norland wood, between Woburn and Little 
 Marlow ; but a woman heard his voice calling upon God 
 to receive his spirit as he was being done to death. 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 233 
 
 Laurence Ghest was another who suffered about 
 this time at Salisbury for denying transubstantiation ; 
 and while at the stake his wife and children were 
 brought to see him, but he remained unmoved, and 
 endured to the end This was the very age in which 
 Columbus was opening up the vision of the New 
 World : the Old World was engaged in closing up the 
 vision of liberty and light of which Wycliffe and 
 his followers had caught a glimpse. Vasco di Gama 
 was piercing his way into new seas and fresh countries, 
 but the spiritual and intellectual pioneers of Europe 
 were checked in their presumptuous endeavours after 
 a wider life and understanding. 
 
 Proud of its success in quelling rebellion, the Church 
 even went further in its claims and contentions. The 
 system of Indulgences became popular. To build St. 
 Peter's the system was so boldly practised that at 
 last the Reformation broke out. St. Peter's is the 
 monument of Michelangelo's genius, and the great 
 starting-point of liberalised thought. Tetzel was the 
 cause of Luther. The pure spirituality of men like 
 Albert Diirer, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and 
 Michelangelo — the artistic lights of the Renaissance, 
 was overshadowed by the greedy deceit of ecclesiastical 
 schemers, who scrupled at no device to raise the wind 
 when money was necessary. Religion was made a 
 stalking-horse to policy, and, as Sir Walter Scott says, 
 a trading copartnery was formed to do the devil's 
 business without mentioning his name in the firm. 
 And yet in the very St. Peter's at Rome, for the 
 building of which Indulgences were so ostentatiously 
 used, contains a fine representation of a woman — 
 probably one of Michelangelo's efforts — evidently 
 
234 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 rising from the dead, with the graveclothes loosely 
 dropping from her body, and with her hands she is 
 endeavouring to remove the swathing - bands from 
 her eyes that she may see the great vision of a new 
 life. It seems to be a picture of the age struggling 
 with death-bands to behold the new light. A similar 
 idea is embodied in the monument to Dr. Donne, the 
 Dean of St. Paul's, poet and thinker — one of the few 
 monuments preserved from Old St. Paul's after the 
 fire, along with the sculptured stone on which is 
 inscribed the word " resurgam," which was interpreted 
 as a prophecy of the rebuilding of the minster, but 
 was also a prediction of a future age of enlightenment 
 and inspiration. The figure of the poet-dean is 
 represented risen out of the funeral urn, and the 
 death-bands are slackened round the head, and the 
 awakened eyes are turned towards the east and 
 the " light that shone when hope was born." 
 
 The system of Indulgences, which was the direct 
 occasion of Luther's rebellion against the Holy See, 
 spread to England, and the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 received power from the Pope to dispense them. 
 About the middle of Henry vn.'s reign the bridge of 
 Rochester was out of repair, and there were difficulties 
 in the way of getting anyone to undertake the 
 responsibility of putting it right, and the Bishop of 
 Rochester was thus inconvenienced in his journeys 
 from Canterbury to London. Accordingly an In- 
 dulgence was issued, granting release from purgatory 
 for forty days to every one who would render assist- 
 ance, and so the bridge was speedily completed. 
 
 The mechanicalism and ceremonialism of the Church 
 in the early years of the sixteenth century stiffened 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 235 
 
 more and more. Not Indulgences only, but the with- 
 drawal of the cup from the laity, the introduction of 
 new festivals, pilgrimages, confessionals, images, and 
 the like, became pronounced features of a mechanical 
 age. The Archbishop of York, George Neville, 
 enumerated thirty-seven sins which only a bishop or 
 a Pope could pardon, and the greatest of these was 
 heresy. The introduction of printing helped the 
 reforming cause, and the Church for long banned the 
 Press. 
 
 *" In 1509 Henry vm. became King; and though 
 during his reign England at last threw off allegiance 
 to the Holy See, the early part of his reign was 
 characterised by many acts of persecution against 
 Lollards and other like-minded people. In the registry 
 of Archbishop Warham there are many such records. 
 On 2nd May 1511 eight men and four women, chiefly 
 inhabitants of Tenterden, were summoned before the 
 archbishop and accused of denying transubstantiation, 
 confession, priestly power, and other current beliefs, 
 such as pilgrimages, image-worship, prayers to saints, 
 extreme unction, and the like. They were made to 
 abjure their doctrines, and to carry a faggot on their 
 shoulders in processions in Canterbury Cathedral and 
 in their own parish churches, to show they acknow- 
 ledged that they deserved death by burning. During 
 that summer the archbishop sat at Lambeth Palace 
 many times, trying others who were similarly charged 
 and similarly punished. 
 
 William Carder of Tenterden, on the 29th of April 
 1511, was charged with Lollard heresy, and said he 
 was willing to retract all he had said except that 
 " it was enough to pray to Almighty God alone, and 
 
236 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 that we do not need to pray to the saints." Agnes 
 Grevill, Robert Harrison, John Brown, and Edward 
 Walker were also condemned on the 2nd and 19th 
 of May. 
 
 The John Brown referred to got into trouble first 
 of all by questioning the power of a priest, who had 
 journeyed with him on board a barge on the Thames, 
 to deliver a soul from purgatory. He was informed 
 against by the priest, and brought before Archbishop 
 Warham. He was taken to Canterbury and kept 
 in prison for forty days. The archbishop and Fisher, 
 bishop of Rochester, had him tortured, his bare feet 
 being set upon burning coals. On the Friday before 
 Whitsunday 1517 he was sent to his native town of 
 Ashford to be burned. His wife and children were 
 present, and at the stake he exhorted them to be 
 faithful, constant, and true ; and so commending himself 
 to God, he passed away. 
 
 Agnes Grevill or Grebil was cited before Archbishop 
 Warham, and her own husband and children, who had 
 abjured the Lollard views, were brought as witnesses 
 against her. Her husband stated that his wife became 
 a Lollard in the reign of Edward IV. through the 
 influence of John Ive, and added that he had also 
 instructed his sons in the same beliefs. These two 
 sons, aged nineteen and twenty-two, gave evidence 
 against their mother ; and the mother, destitute of all 
 friends, burst out with the exclamation that she 
 deeply "regretted the time that ever she bare these 
 children." The archbishop " having called upon the 
 name of Christ, and having God alone before his 
 eyes," delivered both father and mother over to the 
 secular power to be dealt with as heretics, 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 237 
 
 Dean Colet, who founded St. Paul's School in 
 London, narrowly escaped destruction about this time 
 for his partial sympathy with Lollardism. The Bishop 
 of London, Fitzjames, accused him of heresy to 
 Archbishop Warham, one head of the charge being 
 that he had translated the Paternoster into English. 
 Warham, however, valued Colet for his personal 
 character, gifts, and learning, and stayed the pro- 
 ceedings against him. Colet was a remarkable man ; 
 he was the eldest son of Sir Henry Colet, who had 
 been twice Lord Mayor, and having been educated at 
 Magdalen College, Oxford, he travelled to France and 
 Italy and met Erasmus, Budaeus, and other scholars, 
 and from them obtained an enthusiasm not only for 
 Greek, which was then little known in England, but 
 for intellectual and spiritual independence. Returning 
 to England, he read lectures in Oxford on St. Paul's 
 Epistles. He possessed a large estate, and being 
 without near relatives, he devoted his wealth to found 
 St. Paul's School in London, making the Company of 
 Mercers trustees, and the learned Lilly the first Master 
 in 1512. At the age of fifty-three Dr. Colet died, 
 and was buried in the choir of Old St. Paul's, of 
 which he was first canon and then dean, besides 
 being chaplain and preacher-in-ordinary to Henry viii. 
 He wrote a book on grammar, besides works on prayer, 
 " daily devotions," and letters to Erasmus, all of which 
 show him to have been a learned, devout, and spiritually- 
 minded ecclesiastic. 
 
 The registers of Fitzjames contain particulars of the 
 accusations brought against several persons between 
 9 and 1517 charged with heresy, — chiefly for deny- 
 ing mm mi Instantiation. Joan Baker was accused of 
 
238 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 denying the efficacy of a crucifix herself, and of 
 urging a dying friend not to trust in that symbol, 
 but only in God. Other five were accused of reading 
 heretical books, chiefly English versions of the Evan- 
 gelists. William Sweeting and John Brewster were 
 other two notable Lollards who had formerly abjured, 
 and on doing penance were pardoned. They returned, 
 however, to the Wycliffe views, and were condemned 
 and burned. One accusation against them was that 
 they had left off wearing the faggot -badge which 
 was enjoined on all who had been accused of heresy, 
 — a kind of Cain-mark or broad arrow which would 
 ensure subsequent identification. Sweeting had left 
 off" his, because, searching for a livelihood which he 
 could not obtain at home, he had wandered to 
 Colchester and been engaged as holy-water clerk by 
 the priest of St. Mary Magdalene, who insisted on 
 him leaving off the badge of heresy ; while Brewster 
 had left off his, because the Earl of Oxford, who 
 employed him as a servant, would not suffer him to 
 wear it. Badge or no badge, at any rate, these 
 Lollards were hopelessly driven to their fate; and 
 though it is said they recanted and were pardoned, 
 all the weight of evidence goes to prove that they 
 met their doom at the stake. 
 
 The beginning of the sixteenth century was a time 
 of transition. Disputes between the Franciscans and 
 Dominicans as to the Virgin Mary were rife, more 
 especially as to her immaculate conception, and, 
 finally, the Holy See has decreed the doctrine of the 
 immaculate conception of the Virgin, a decree glorified 
 in the Church of St. Maria Maggiore in Rome. A 
 more practical question, however, arose regarding the 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 239 
 
 immunity of ecclesiastical persons from punishment 
 when convicted of crime. In 1512 an Act of Parliament 
 was passed, which, while it exempted bishops, priests, 
 and deacons from the power of the civil courts, even 
 in cases of murder and robbery, subjected inferior 
 clergy to the civil law. All the pulpits of England 
 were up in arms against the decree. The Abbot of 
 Winchelcomb declared that all persons who assented 
 to the decree were heretics. Parliament protested 
 and appealed to the King. The abbot was opposed 
 before the King by Dr. Standish, a friar, and one of 
 the King's spiritual counsel, who urged that ecclesiastics 
 should be subject to civil punishment for crimes. The 
 abbot was supported by the bishops, who declared 
 that he advanced their own opinion and that of the 
 Church. 
 
 Another circumstance arose about this time which 
 caused friction between the clergy and the laity. A 
 merchant tailor in London, Richard Hunne, had a 
 child at nurse at Whitechapel which died at the age 
 of five weeks. The priest claimed a mortuary or fee 
 from the father, which the father refused. Thereupon 
 the priest sued the father before the legate's court, 
 and the father sued the priest, resting on the old 
 statute which rendered him liable to punishment for 
 citing anyone before a foreign court. To prevent 
 Hunne from prosecuting the priest, he was charged 
 of heresy by the Bishop of London, and accused on 
 2nd December 1514, at the instance of Dr. Horsey, 
 the bishop's chancellor, with heresy, namely — (1) that 
 he objected to paying tithes ; (2) that he said bishops 
 and priests arc like the Pharisees who condemns I 
 t to death; and (3) that bishops and clergy were 
 
240 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 teachers but not doers of Christ's law: also that he 
 had in his possession Wycliffe's Epistles, Gospels, and 
 works. He was condemned for heresy and committed 
 to the Lollards' Tower. On 4th December a boy 
 carrying him provisions found him dead, hanging by 
 a silk girdle. It was given out by the Church that 
 he had hanged himself; but investigation followed, 
 and it was proved that Hunne's neck had been broken 
 by an iron chain, and that he had been otherwise 
 ill-treated in such wise as he could not have done 
 himself. 
 
 The bishop and clergy determined to carry the 
 matter through with a high hand. Though dead, 
 Hunne was condemned for heresy — " Hunne defendeth 
 the translation of the Bible and the Holy Scripture 
 into the English tongue, which is prohibited by the 
 laws of our Mother Holy Church." These articles 
 were read at St. Paul's Cross on the Sunday after, 
 and on 16th December the bishops and clergy 
 summoned all who wished to defend Hunne or his 
 opinions to appear. No one came, and sentence was 
 pronounced against his dead body, — evidently reflecting 
 the procedure with Wycliffe, — and he was committed 
 to the secular power to be burned for heresy on the 
 20th December 1514. He was burned in presence of 
 the people, who had "great grief and disdain," and 
 the result was a warm feeling of indignation against 
 the Church. 
 
 A strict inquest was held into the whole matter 
 before the King and Privy Councillors, and it was 
 judged that Dr. Horsey the chancellor, and Charles 
 the sumner, and Spalding the bell-ringer, were guilty 
 of murder. It is said that before Hunne's death the 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 241 
 
 chancellor came to the Lollards' Tower and begged 
 God's pardon for his action. On 5th February 1515, 
 Parliament met and ordered that Hunne's property, 
 which, as he was a heretic, had been confiscated, 
 should be given to his children, and this was done to 
 the amount of £1500. On 3rd April the House of 
 Commons demanded that his murderers should be 
 brought to justice ; but the Bill was thrown out through 
 strong clerical iufluence, the Bishop of London violently 
 declaring that Hunne had made away with himself, 
 that the coroner and jury had been poisoned, and that 
 if the Bill were passed, he himself would not be safe. 
 The prosecution was continued and driven home 
 against Dr. Standish, who claimed the King's pro- 
 tection. Henry vili. in his perplexity summoned 
 Dr. Veysey, the Dean of the Chapel Royal, and he 
 declared that he thought Standish was right. Much 
 debate was held in Council, Parliament, and Convoca- 
 tion, and at last it was arranged that the archbishop 
 should surrender Horsey, who was in hiding at Lambeth, 
 who on being submitted to trial was to declare himself 
 not guilty, and be dismissed without a trial. This was 
 done, and thus Horsey escaped, the King's authority 
 was asserted, while the mass of the people were dis- 
 satisfied. Horsey, afraid of the popular tumult, retired 
 to Exeter, London being too dangerous a residence for 
 him. Many of the documents referring to this moment- 
 ous trial — momentous in the sense that it settled the 
 question whether the clergy were subject to civil 
 jurisdiction in criminal cases — were destroyed in the 
 Great Fire, but as many of them escaped that ordeal 
 as to prove that this murder was not what has been 
 designated " The Legend of Hunne." 
 16 
 
242 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 The hour of the German Reformation had now come, 
 and Luther's writings were circulated all over Europe, 
 many of them being translated into English. Between 
 the doctrines of Luther and those of Wycliffe there is 
 a narrow boundary. To all intents and purposes both 
 are the rebellion of the spirit and soul against mechani- 
 calism and superstition. The succession of the Lollards 
 in England still remained, as is proved by the registers 
 of Fitzjames, which are full of confessions, convictions, 
 abjurations, and restitutions. 
 
 Elizabeth Stamford had been taught by Beel, resid- 
 ing at Henley, the doctrine of the spiritual reception 
 of Christ in the sacrament — the same as laid down 
 by John Craig, Knox's colleague in his Catechism, 
 " This is not received by chewing of teeth, but by 
 hearing of ears, and understanding with your soul, and 
 wisely working thereafter." Beel taught her that 
 " confession to a priest was of no avail, and that papal 
 pardons and Indulgences were worth nothing." 
 ( Between 1517 and 1520 many persons were cited 
 before the bishops for heresy. J John Stillman was 
 examined by the Bishop of Salisbury, and it was dis- 
 covered that he had not given up some Wycliffe writ- 
 ings which at his former examination had been found 
 in his possession, but had concealed them in an old 
 oak tree, and brought them subsequently to London. 
 He was burned for it in 1518. In the same year 
 Thomas Mann met his death at the stake. } Previously, 
 before the Bishop of Lincoln, he had been charged 
 with not believing in the "Sacrament of Extreme 
 Unction," and was ordered to wear the faggot-badge 
 and remain in St. Frideswide's Monastery in Oxford. 
 He managed to escape, and was found in London 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 243 
 
 badgeless, and proceeded against as a heretic. With 
 their three fingers on the holy Gospels, the witnesses 
 against him had to swear the truth, the thumb and 
 little finger put downwards under the book as if to 
 show that condemnation was theirs if they told false- 
 hoods. The bishop's chancellor, Dr. Hed, was his 
 counsel, but inveigled him into confirming a witness 
 on the other side. The jail-keeper declared that Mann 
 had said that " the laws of the Church were grounded 
 upon Pilate and Caiaphas." On 29th March he was 
 delivered by Dr. Hed to the Sheriff of London with 
 the admonition — "We desire in the bowels of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ that thy punishment on this account 
 may be so moderate, that there be no rigour nor want 
 of mildness, but that all may be done for the salvation 
 and welfare of thy soul." In Paternoster Row the 
 sheriff had Mann delivered to him at the back-door 
 of the bishop's house, the chancellor declaring that he 
 could not put him to death. But the sheriff knew 
 what was meant, and had him brought to Smithfield 
 and burned. f Mann seems to have acted as an itinerant 
 Lollard preacher sometimes in Norfolk, Suffolk, Middle- 
 sex, Berks, and Buckinghamshire. A secret congrega- 
 tion of Lollards at Newbury, which had met for fifteen 
 years, was betrayed, and some of them were burned, 
 and all of them punished in one way or another. 
 Having escaped his fate at Newbury, he joined the 
 Amersham congregation, and after its dispersal he was 
 arrested in 1518 and burned, the episcopal register 
 iring that he confessed to having "turned seven 
 hundred people to his religion, for which he thanks 
 God." > 
 
 1 11 the registers of Longland, bishop of Lincoln, the 
 
244 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 burning is recorded of John Cosin, who taught a 
 woman that she might as well drink before Mass on 
 Sundays as on any other day. Christopher Shoomaker 
 was burned at Newbury for reading out of the Gospels 
 and denying transubstantiation. Coventry was famous 
 for its burnings. In 1519, seven were destroyed in one 
 fire — four shoemakers, Hatches, Archer, Bond and 
 Hawkins, a glover called Wrigsham, a hosier named 
 Landale, and a widow called Smith. For having 
 taught their children the Ten Commandments, Creed, 
 and Lord's Prayer in English, they were all burned 
 in the Little Park; and their children, who were 
 examined as to their parents' teaching by the warden 
 of Maxtock Abbey, and informed that they might save 
 their parents from death, were left destitute. There 
 was a great wave of discontent over this event, and 
 finally to assuage it the bishop declared that it was not 
 for having these articles in English, but for eating 
 meat on Fridays and other fast days that they were 
 punished. One of their companions, Robert Selker, 
 made good his escape, but two years later was burned 
 at Coventry (1521). 
 
 During 1520-21 the registers of Lincoln diocese 
 reveal a busy term of prosecution. ) Lollardism had 
 spread its influence far and wide. Though public 
 meetings of the sect were prohibited, the Scriptures 
 and WyclifFe's tracts passed from hand to hand, even 
 as much as a load of hay being given for a few 
 chapters of St. Paul's Epistles. The charges made 
 against them were not for any immoral or irreligious 
 conduct, but uniformly for denying the characteristic 
 doctrines of the Roman Church. Lonofland, then 
 Bishop of Lincoln, was a stern opponent of the new 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 245 
 
 views, and cross-questioned suspected persons widely 
 and vigorously, entangling them, and getting them 
 to expose and accuse one another of heresy. For the 
 year 1521 -his register contains a hundred names of 
 persons tried for heresy. ; Richard White of Beacons- 
 Held was one of those who, referring to Longland's 
 predecessor, was overheard to remark that he was a 
 good man, and that if his successor were "a blessed 
 man" he would leave the Lollards alone. But White 
 found to his cost that new bishops make new laws. 
 Some of the names of these Lincoln Lollards may be 
 given : — James Morden, who was informed against by 
 his sister for teaching her the Lord's Prayer, etc., in 
 English ; John Barnet, for having recited St. James' 
 Epistle in his family without book ; Agnes Ward, for 
 declaring that in her danger it was better to go to God 
 than to Our Lady and the saints ; Robert Drury, vicar 
 of Windrish, for advising his servant to eat bread and 
 se on a fast day ; Isabel Morwen, for questioning 
 the doctrine of purgatory at her father's deathbed ; 
 John Teacher, for having taught a friend the beati- 
 tudes and other verses in English; Richard Vulford, 
 and Thomas Geffrey, for denying transubstantiation, 
 and declaring that he knew of two priests who put a 
 mouse into the pyx as an experiment, and the mouse 
 ate the wafer, — an experiment which cost one of these 
 Essex pi s life; John and Richard Bernard, 
 
 Vulford, Thomas Philip, Laurence Taylor, and 
 r reading the Scriptures in English; a youth 
 John Collins of Burford actually informed 
 against hif own father because he had taught him the 
 i English, and not to worship the sacra- 
 of the altar as God : Iknry Phtlp was accused 
 
246 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 by his own father for denying the validity of pilgrim- 
 ages and images ; while John Scrivener's own children 
 were compelled to light his pyre. 
 
 Wycliffe's two books, The Wicket and The Shepherd's 
 Calendar, were at this time widely circulated in 
 England; and in these the doctrine of the Lord's 
 Supper was distinctly explained as against transub- 
 stantiation. "Men speak much of the sacrament of 
 the altar, but this will I abide by, that Christ brake 
 bread to His disciples and bade them eat it, saying 
 that it was His flesh and blood; and then He went 
 from them and suffered, and then rose from death to 
 life and ascended into heaven, and there sitteth on the 
 right hand of the Father : and there He is to remain 
 unto the day of doom, when He shall judge both quick 
 and dead, and, therefore, how He should be here in the 
 form of bread, I cannot see." Bishop Longland could 
 not controvert the plain Scripture teaching of the 
 Lollards, and so called in the civil power to assist 
 him in discovering and punishing the Wycliffite 
 dissentients. 
 
 Many Lollards submitted, and, having abjured their 
 opinions, had penance given them, and were sent to 
 some monastery or abbey as prisoners. There is still 
 extant a letter from the bishop to the Abbot of Ensham, 
 carried by a Lollard penitent to the monastery, which 
 is as follows : 
 
 " My loving brother, I recommend me heartily unto 
 you. And whereas I have according to the law put 
 the bearer R. T. to perpetual penance within your 
 monastery of Ensham, there to live as a penitent and 
 not otherwise, I pray you and command you to 
 receive him. As for his lodging, he will bring it with 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 247 
 
 him ; and as for his meat and drink, he may have such 
 as you give of your alms. And if he can so order 
 himself by his labour within your house, in your 
 business, whereby he may deserve his meat and drink, 
 you may order him as ye see convenient to his 
 deserts, so that he pass not the precincts of your 
 monasteryj' 
 
 Those who were not destined to participate in the 
 "riotous living" outlined in the bishop's epistle, 
 were in a more lenient spirit condemned to carry a 
 wood-faggot in market or church, to fast at certain 
 seasons, and to repeat the Lady psalter on Sundays and 
 Fridays throughout the year. They were also for- 
 bidden to hide their brands in any way, to suffer their 
 beards to grow more than fourteen days, or to be 
 found with any suspected persons in private houses. 
 These vows they were obliged to take with their hand 
 on the holy Gospels, and with the sign of the cross 
 declaring that they detested and forsook their heresies 
 for themselves and for others for ever. 
 
 These oppressive measures, however, at last raised 
 the strong cry of discontent and disapproval; and 
 what with the admitted unsatisfactory state of the 
 clergy, the oppression of the people by the Church, and 
 D the yoke under which he himself was obliged to 
 rule, Henry vm. at last began to waver. He had 
 been a devoted son of the Church, and had written 
 famous treatise against Luther on the "seven 
 Sacraments," a copy of which was presented to the 
 Pope in 1521 and was received with the most unctuous 
 eulogies, His Holiness declaring that the book would 
 be placed alongside of Augustine and Jerome and the 
 rest. To crown all, since Henry could not receive 
 
248 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 the fateful Golden Rose, the Pope made him " Defender 
 of the Faith," a title still enjoyed by the Sovereigns 
 of Great Britain, though in their Coronation Oath 
 abjuring the faith referred to. 
 
 Not content with placing Henry's treatise on a 
 level with the holy Fathers, the Pope granted an 
 indulgence for ten years to all who read it ; and this 
 included permission to eat ffesh in Lent. Luther 
 vigorously replied to Henry, and at the same time 
 allowed Cardinal Wolsey to feel some of the hearty 
 knocks which the little monk who shook Europe 
 could give. To get at Luther was impossible ; but 
 King and cardinal united to suppress his books, and 
 required all those in possession of any of the writings 
 of "that pestilent heretic Martin Luther" to deliver 
 them to their ordinaries within fifteen days on pain 
 of being treated as heretics. Cardinal Wolsey was 
 papal legate, and as such ordered a notice to be affixed 
 to the door of every church summing up the forty- 
 two propositions extracted from Luther's works which 
 had been condemned by the Holy See. Notwith- 
 standing all Wolsey's stern measures of repression the 
 Lollard cause advanced, and Luther's works were 
 translated and read all over England. Wolsey over- 
 stepped the limits of his commission as papal legate, 
 and summoned in his own name a council " to reform 
 the manners of the clergy." Fox, bishop of Winchester, 
 had suggested this to him in a long letter in which 
 he says that " by this means of a reformation of the 
 clergy he thought the common people would be 
 pacified, that were always crying out against them." 
 Wolsey's whole device was as futile in its results as 
 it was questionable in its real motive, the real state 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 249 
 
 of affairs being that he wished to put his foot on the 
 neck of the English clergy and bishops and aggrandise 
 himself, while his own private life had more need of 
 reformation than anything else. 
 
 Worse than any vices in the eyes of Wolsey and 
 the bishops was the reading of the English Scriptures 
 and the writings of Wycliffe and Luther, and the 
 denial of transubstantiation, image- worship, purgatory, 
 etc. Nevertheless the " Brethren in Christ," these 
 early Reformers who gathered in groups in London, 
 Colchester, and in various parts of Essex, survived. 
 Many were arrested and brought face to face with 
 Cuthbert Tunstall, bishop of London, and his chancellor, 
 Dr. Wharton. Tunstall was a pious and learned man, 
 and actually in 1541 along with Nicholas Heath, 
 bishop of Rochester, revised a new edition of the 
 English Bible. The Psalms still preserved in the 
 Anglican Prayer-Book are Tunstall's, and are fine 
 examples of forceful, nervous, vigorous English. His 
 lenity towards Protestants frequently got him into 
 trouble, and he even spent some time in the Tower. 
 
 In 1527 Tunstall held a visitation of his diocese, 
 and the original registers record several cases of 
 arrest and examination for heresy. For example, 
 John Pykas of Colchester, a baker, swore regarding 
 Richard Best that he had heard him repeat St. 
 James Epistle in English by heart; regarding John 
 ing, thai conversing with him regarding prayer, 
 he declared that only the Father of Lights was the 
 proper object of devotion and adoration ; regarding 
 Thomas Raylond, that conversing with him he had 
 quoted in English the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and 
 of James and John, and regarded baptism as 
 
250 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 only a sign of remission. Pykas also witnessed 
 against Marian Matthew for repeating off by heart 
 in English, parts of the Epistles and Gospels, and 
 speaking against pilgrimages, as well as witnessing 
 against four other females and Thomas Parker. In 
 turn, Raylond, just referred to, was examined as to 
 Pykas and others, with the effect that this inquisi- 
 torial procedure resulted in hundreds of secret 
 Lollards being discovered and brought before the 
 bishop and chancellor, one notable person thus un- 
 earthed being Robert Forman, rector of a London 
 city parish, and other clergy. Tunstall's method was 
 to endeavour to persuade the prisoners to relinquish 
 their views, or at any rate to dissemble them in order 
 that there might be no further difficulties for him 
 or for them. 
 
 Another name comes into evidence about this time, 
 that of John Tyball, the chief charge against whom 
 was that he possessed several copies and portions of 
 the New Testament in English. He openly confessed 
 that the study of a chapter in St. Paul's Epistles to 
 the Corinthians led him to his beliefs, and also brought 
 Richard Fox, curate of Bumstead in Essex, to the 
 same views. One who confessed to Fox in Lent, of the 
 name of Robert Hempstead, was asked by him as to 
 his beliefs regarding the sacrament of the altar, and 
 replied that he believed it to be the very body and 
 blood of Christ. Fox replied to him : " Nay, thou 
 must not do so; for this is not the best way: but 
 believe thou in the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Ghost, and not in the sacrament of the altar." 
 Hempstead replied, suspecting duplicity: "I fear you 
 go about to bring me into the same situation as the 
 
LOLLARDISM IN ENGLAND 251 
 
 men of Colchester"; and Fox replied: "Why, man, 
 art thou afraid ? Be not afraid, for they serve a 
 better Master than ever thou didst serve." 
 
 In all these cases of prosecution for heresy, as 
 recorded by Strype, Fox, and others, they quote from 
 the episcopal registers of the time, and not from 
 mere hearsay or rumour. Of course, the chief authority 
 for these cases of heresy in the sixteenth century 
 and earlier is Fox's Acts and Monuments of the 
 Church, a work in which he was assisted by Bishop 
 Grindal, then an exile, and many others at home and 
 abroad. Fox began his Book of Martyrs in 1552, and 
 took eleven years to finish the compilation, the first 
 edition appearing in 1563 ; and the simple, homely 
 record, complied entirely from the episcopal registers 
 and the evidence and recollections of witnesses, had a 
 most potent influence in helping on the cause of 
 Reform in England. In time the wave, long gathering, 
 finally broke, and Henry VIII. at last renounced the 
 papal authority and assumed the title of Head of 
 the Church of England. During the latter half of 
 bifl reign he showed as much zeal in persecuting the 
 defenders of the Roman faith as he had previously 
 done in crushing the reforming party. At last he 
 was excommunicated by Pope Clement ; and it would 
 almost seem that these temporal and spiritual 
 sovereigns were about equally defective in the moral 
 1 in*-, for the papal historian Guicciardini, while calling 
 dement a good Pope, adds: "I mean not goodness 
 apostolical, for in those days he was esteemed a good 
 Pope that did not exceed the worst of men in wicked- 
 I :'lale printed the first edition of his New 
 Testament at Cologne or Wittemberg in 1525, and 
 
252 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 copies of the new version rapidly overspread England, 
 so much so that Tunstall, bishop of London, proscribed 
 them, and made a bonfire of many of them in 
 Cheapside. His action was, however, of little use, for 
 the invention of printing was now an accomplished 
 fact, and the Dutch printers produced multitudes of 
 fresh copies. Strange to say, Sir Thomas More was 
 one of those who frowned upon Tyndale's Testament, 
 and strictly examined those who had to do with any 
 heretics connected with Antwerp. Ridley and Latimer 
 followed, and in course of time Henry and England 
 finally broke with Rome ; and though the Pope asked 
 the nation and nobles to rebel against him, and 
 forbade them to obey him who once was the " Defender 
 of the Faith," it was of no use : the hour had come : 
 the hand pointed to the hour of final reformation, and 
 the clock at last struck. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND 
 
 Christianity in Scotland began with St. Ninian, St. 
 Columba, and St. Mungo. These were the real fathers 
 of the Faith of Christ in Caledonia. The Columban 
 Church, which was the real Church of Scotland, differed 
 in many respects from the Roman Church as expounded 
 by St. Augustine the great Roman missionary, and 
 first prelate of Canterbury. The differences were not 
 very great after all. In early times the Scottish 
 Church was concerned with hair-cutting; in later 
 times, with hair-splitting. The Culdees kept Easter 
 upon the fourteenth day of the moon, without reference 
 to the day of the week, instead of the Sunday follow- 
 ing. The Paschal controversy, as well as the matter 
 of the tonsure, just referred to, — the method in which 
 the Christian missionaries should cut their hair, were 
 the main issues at stake in an age which had to do 
 with trifles. Behind these minor controversies and 
 disputes there was, however, the deeper question of 
 whether the Church of Scotland was to be held subject 
 to Rome and its decisions and dogmas. Wyntoun 
 iares that the Church of Scotland always loved 
 "a way of its own," and this is abundantly true. 
 When Abbot Bernard of Arbroath held his assembly 
 of the Scottish barons and nobles in Arbroath Abbey 
 
254 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 in 1318, he announced in the remarkable declaration 
 which has come down, that rather than be subject to 
 England he would go against the Holy See, a remark- 
 able declaration of patriotism as against ecclesiasticism. 
 Robert the Bruce was made King in 1306, and Abbot 
 Bernard held the Great Seal until his death in 1327, — 
 at all times and in all things a true Scottish patriot. 
 Pope John xxn., in his Bull for anointing Robert Bruce 
 king of Scotland, complained of the large number of 
 heretics in Scotland. Alcuin and others were against 
 the doctrine of transubstantiation in an earlier age 
 in the North of England, and his followers in Yorkshire, 
 together with the Culdees, kept up the independence 
 of the Northern Church against Roman oppression. 
 In the eleventh century, however, Queen Margaret, 
 who was made a saint, practically suppressed the 
 Culdee faith. The remonstrance, therefore, of Abbot 
 Bernard of Arbroath and of the Churchmen who fought 
 at Bannockburn was mainly political and patriotic, 
 and was the voice of Northern Britain declaring for 
 freedom, political and ecclesiastical. Scotland wished 
 to be free and independent of England ; and some of 
 the noblest defenders of Scottish liberties were 
 prominent Churchmen, who thus became antagonistic 
 to Rome, which rather favoured England. 
 
 Of all these the greatest and most outstanding 
 Scottish patriot was the great Abbot of Arbroath, 
 Robert the Bruce's first chancellor after his elevation 
 to the throne in 1306, and the keeper of the Great 
 Seal of Scotland until 1327— the year of his death. 
 The memorable assembly of nobles and prelates held 
 in Arbroath Abbey, with its great round windows, 
 far-stretching nave, and charming minstrels' gallery, 
 
LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND 255 
 
 was instigated by this great and public-spirited Scots- 
 man, who is believed to have drawn up that spirited 
 declaration in favour of Scottish independence addressed 
 to the Pope, which practically declared that rather 
 than part with their independence, the Scottish people 
 would break with the Church. The date of that 
 remarkable manifesto is 6th April 1320, and was 
 the expression of the feelings of the entire Scottish 
 people against the aggressions of England. England 
 tried to bring papal influence to bear upon the Holy 
 See to favour its scheme of aggression, which had 
 suffered so great a shock at Bannockburn in 1314, 
 when the mailed Churchman took his place on the 
 field of battle alongside of the baron and the knight, 
 and fought for freedom's noble cause. 
 
 This was, however, more a political than a religious 
 rebellion against Rome ; for ever since Queen Margaret, 
 Malcolm Canmore's pious consort, managed to oust 
 the Culdees and substitute for them the more active 
 and missionary clergy of the Roman Church, Scotland 
 had become daily more thoroughly a dependency of 
 the Holy See. The saintly Queen who thus, coming 
 to Scotland, succeeded in ousting the original Church 
 and ways of the land of her adoption, was beatified 
 by Rome for her service to the Vicar of Christ. 
 Culdeeism died hard, however, and for more than a 
 century continued to live, though only in scattered 
 places and in decreasing numbers, and finally dis- 
 appeared altogether, and the Roman Church entirely 
 supplanted the ancient Church of St. Columba. The 
 s and practices of Rome, however, were often 
 questioned in Scotland even after that conspicuous 
 triumph, by those who remembered the earlier teach- 
 
256 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 ing and the more primitive faith. In various Roman 
 Catholic histories of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and 
 fifteenth centuries, reference is made to isolated 
 individuals who held the doctrines of the Waldenses 
 and of the English Lollards. 
 
 Wycliffe was Master of Balliol College, — the vener- 
 able school of learning, the third oldest foundation in 
 Oxford, founded by John Balliol, the father of John 
 de Balliol, king of Scotland, in 1361. The founder 
 was to have been flagellated at the church doors of 
 Durham Cathedral, but escaped by founding in 1260 
 this college for poor scholars. In the Rotuli Scotice 
 there are to be found many Scotch names in this 
 College founded by the Scottish King, and still the 
 most Scottish bit of Oxford University. From 1357- 
 1389 there seems to have been quite a stream of young 
 Scotsmen going to Oxford under the safe-conducts of 
 the King of England. These passports, so to speak, 
 enabled young Scottish students to go to Oxford, 
 Cambridge, Durham, and elsewhere; but from 1364- 
 1379 every one of them almost seems to have gravitated 
 towards Oxford, where Wycliffe was in the height of 
 his power and influence, Oxford at the height of its 
 intellectual and spiritual glory, and Lollardism in the 
 full strength of a new enthusiasm. In 1365 safe- 
 conducts were given to eight of our Scottish students 
 to go to Oxford, proving that the powerful hand of 
 Wycliffe had reached as far as Caledonia. These 
 returned students brought with them to Scotland, as 
 the Bohemian students did to their home-land, the 
 powerful influences and the glowing enthusiasm of 
 the Master of Balliol. 
 
 In 1405 the presence of Lollard influences in Scotland 
 
LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND 257 
 
 WBfl the occasion of public attention. Robert, duke 
 of Albany, had been made Governor of Scotland, and 
 Wyntoun says of him in his Chronicle : 
 
 " He was a constant Catholike, 
 AH Lollard he hatyt and heretike." 
 
 It was somewhere about 1405 or thereabouts that 
 the first movement was made in Scotland to extinguish 
 the Lollard influence. 
 
 Moved by the Church, the civil power threatened 
 the holders of the new views, and an inquisitorial 
 court was formed, presided over by Lawrence of 
 Lindores, who afterwards became Abbot of Scone, 
 first Professor of Law in St. Andrews, and the author 
 of Examen Hcereticorum Lollardorwm quos toto regno 
 exegit. Notwithstanding these repressive measures, 
 the voice of the Lollard was heard in the land. In 
 St. Andrews the movement must have been unusually 
 strong from 1405 onwards, for in 1416 it was enacted 
 that all Masters of Arts should as part of their gradua- 
 tion oath solemnly abjure Iiollardism. 
 
 A striking figure in Scotland about this time was 
 Patrick Graham, Archbishop of St. Andrews, who, after 
 ing as prelate of Brechin, went to Rome to have 
 his election as Bishop of St. Andrews confirmed. The 
 controversy between England and Scotland as to 
 whether the Scottish Church was independent or 
 subject to the Archbishop of York reached an acute 
 stage in 1471, when Graham so convinced the Pope of 
 the reasonableness of the claims of the Church of 
 Scotland, which, as Wyntoun says, " always loved a way 
 of its own," that he gained independence for it, broke 
 the rule of York, and had his own See erected into an 
 
258 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 archbishopric to which the twelve Scottish bishops 
 were to be subject. He was appointed also papal 
 legate to Scotland for three years. Archbishop 
 Graham's strong action in Rome was not acceptable 
 to the Scottish sovereign, to the nobility generally, 
 who feared that the scandalous sale of Church livings 
 would be stopped, and to many of the clergy, whose 
 envy he excited. After his return to Scotland he was 
 charged with having exceeded his powers in carding 
 on negotiations with the Pope without the King's 
 consent; and Sheviz, the archdeacon of St. Andrews, 
 who was the King's favourite for his skill in astrology, 
 moved by clerical jealousy, brought other accusations 
 against him as to his doctrines, though it does not seem 
 clear that his leanings were towards Lollardism, but 
 only in favour of ecclesiastical reforms. He was 
 suspended as archbishop and papal legate meanwhile. 
 Next, the rector of the university picked a quarrel 
 with him, and brought the unfortunate prelate to court, 
 and had him excommunicated. Graham, whether his 
 beliefs savoured of Lollardism or not, and both sides 
 have been plausibly argued, conducted himself like the 
 noblest of the Wycliffe confessors. Always a man of 
 primitive simplicity, apostolic zeal, and holy life, his 
 trials purified him, and made him even greater. His 
 meekness and fortitude in the face of the jealous abuse 
 of Sheviz, who had wished the See of St. Andrews 
 himself, excited the admiration even of his enemies. 
 At last, however, his nerve and staying power gave 
 way, and he became utterly distracted; and, taking 
 advantage of his overstrung nerves, Sheviz managed 
 to have him declared insane, and got the custody of 
 his person. At first he was confined in the ancient 
 
LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND 259 
 
 Culdee house in Inchcolm island on the Forth, and 
 afterwards in Lochleven Castle, where a century later 
 the beautiful Mary languished. Overwhelmed with 
 his sorrows and the irksomeness of the close island 
 prison, he died there in 1478. Whether he sympathised 
 with Lollardism or not is an open question, but he 
 certainly was the enemy of all abuses in the Church, 
 and strove to have them removed c Like Abbot 
 Bernard of Arbroath in Bruce's age, so Archbishop 
 Graham in the fifteenth century was a great Scottish 
 patriot, and one of the founders of the independence 
 of the country and its Church. An earnest seeker 
 after God, and withal a well persecuted one, he was, 
 Lollard or no Lollard, a strong reforming influence in 
 the Scotland of his day. 
 
 Knox in his History traces several of these protests 
 and protesters against the domination and dogmas of 
 Rome in Scotland. In the records of Glasgow, for 
 instance, which, like other registers, he examined 
 carefully, he found mention of John Risby, an English 
 Lollard, who, being accused by Lawrence Linders for 
 declaring that the Pope was not indeed the Vicar of 
 Christ, was burned in 1422. A good deal of intercourse 
 must have taken place between the Continent and 
 Scotland, and the Bohemian influence seems to have 
 told upon the latter. Lollardism began to appear in 
 the Acts of the Scottish Parliament. James I. held a 
 Parliament at Perth (March 1424), at which it was 
 ordained that all bishops should, through their 
 inquisitorial courts, search out all Lollard heretics and 
 invoke the aid of civil courts to extirpate them, — Acts 
 which were frequently repeated in subsequent years. 
 In 1 I'll a Bohemian of the name of Paul Craw was 
 
260 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 arrested at St. Andrews for holding the views of 
 Wycliffe and Huss and denying the transubstantiation 
 view of the sacrament, prayers to the saints, confession 
 to priests, and other beliefs. He declared that he 
 would resist to the last against these views, and 
 accordingly he was handed over to the civil power 
 and burned ; and Knox declares that a brass ball was 
 put in his mouth to prevent him speaking at the 
 stake. Craw was a Bohemian doctor, and, like other 
 brethren of the Common Life, used his profession to 
 advance the cause of Lollardism. The Hussite leaders 
 in Prague sent missionaries in this way all over Europe, 
 these leaders in Craw's time being Procopius and John 
 of Rokycana. The one testimony borne against all the 
 Lollards everywhere was borne against Craw in the 
 records of the inquisitorial court — familiar acquaint- 
 ance with the vernacular Scripture; and this charge 
 being amply substantiated against Craw, he met his 
 doom, and thus brought credit to the Scottish inquisitor 
 for unearthing so dangerous and subtle a heretic. But 
 the most striking and remarkable testimony given for 
 the Lollard doctrines in the fifteenth century was in 
 the year 1494, when the " Lollards of Kyle " in Ayrshire, 
 to the number of thirty, were accused by the Arch- 
 bishop of Glasgow, Blackader, before the King and 
 his council, for the Wycliffe heresies. The list includes 
 the names of Campbell of Cesnock, Schaw of Pollamac, 
 Reid of Barskynning, Helen Chamber, Lady Polkellie, 
 Isabel Chamber, and the Lady Stair. In the register 
 of Glasgow the charges against them are carefully 
 enumerated, — that they refused to worship images 
 and relics, denied the Vicarship of Christ to the Pope, 
 while admitting the special powers given to St. Peter 
 
LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND 261 
 
 and the apostles, and declared that at the altar the 
 bread and wine were not turned into the corporeal 
 body and blood of Christ. These Kyle Lollards seem 
 to have expressed themselves pretty freely, if not 
 sarcastically-; for in declaring that the Pope is not 
 St. Peter's successor they added that he is only such in 
 so far as Christ said to that apostle — " Get thee behind 
 me, Satan," and that all manner of deceit is practised 
 by the Holy See in Indulgences, Bulls, and the like, 
 exalting himself against Christ. They further declared 
 that no Pope can remit the pains of purgatory or 
 sanction miracles; and that prayer should be offered 
 not to the Virgin or saints, but to God alone, " since He 
 alone hears us and answers us." Knox in his account 
 of these Kyle Lollards says that it is wonderful how 
 God in His providence had preserved the record of 
 their testimony in the registers of the bishops them- 
 selves ; and this testimony is the more astonishing when 
 it is remembered that copies of the Bible in Scotland 
 were extraordinarily scarce. The Archbishop of 
 Glasgow, who led the accusation before the King, was 
 a man of remarkable power and gifts. Sprung from 
 the old Berwickshire family of Blackader who 
 distinguished themselves so much in the Border feuds 
 in the middle of the fifteenth century, he was sent to 
 Rome in 1480 by James in., and on that monarch's 
 recommendation was created by the Pope, Sixtus iv., 
 op of Aberdeen. From Aberdeen he was translated 
 to the See of Glasgow, and had so much influence with 
 the Roman Pontiff that he managed to get his See 
 created into an Archbishopric, and thus brought to a 
 satisfactory conclusion a long-standing feud with 
 St. Andrews. It was he who, in company with the 
 
262 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Earl of Bothwell and Andrew Forman, prior of Pitten- 
 weem, negotiated the marriage between James iv., whom 
 he induced to become a canon of his cathedral, and 
 Henry vn.'s daughter Margaret, thus laying the foun- 
 dations of the union between England and Scotland. 
 Along with Bothwell he was godfather to the royal 
 prince born of that marriage, who did not survive long ; 
 and after a life full of strenuous action and laborious 
 toils for the Church, he died in 1508 while on a journey 
 to the Holy Land. The matchless crypt in Glasgow 
 Cathedral and some other portions bearing his name, 
 — the beautiful minster which raises its lofty spire 
 above the place where Columba and Mungo met and 
 together sang the praises of God, bear testimony to 
 his zeal as a church-builder and adorner. 
 
 This first Archbishop of Glasgow was a zealous son 
 of the Church, and brought the Kyle Lollards before 
 the King whose marriage he had arranged, and the 
 council over which he had strong influence, and pressed 
 for a prosecution. King James iv. was, however, a 
 man of amiable and generous character, brave and 
 courageous, though fond of magnificence and pomp. 
 His wise and salutary laws won for him the country's 
 whole-hearted affection. By his marriage treaty, peace 
 was concluded with England, — a peace which lasted 
 nine years, to the immense benefit of Scotland, which 
 never had enjoyed such tranquillity and prosperity as 
 under his beneficent rule. Well would it have been 
 had he kept his warlike, chivalrous, and impetuous 
 disposition better in check in later years, for it was due 
 to some comparatively small acts of hostility on the 
 part of his brother-in-law Henry viil, soon after his 
 accession to the English throne, that that beneficent 
 
LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND 263 
 
 peace was broken, Flodden fought, and Scotland robbed 
 of the " flowers of the Forest," the King and his best 
 nobility being among the slain. 
 
 The accusations against the Lollards in 1494 are 
 thirty-four -in number, as taken from the diocesan 
 register, and these really show us what the orthodox 
 Roman clergy of the day believed to be the Lollard 
 opinions. Quintin Kennedy has a poem " In Prais of 
 Aige," in which he refers to the spread of the Lollard 
 faith in Scotland : 
 
 "The schip of faith, tempestuous wind and rane 
 Dryvis in the See of Lollerdry that blaws." 
 
 And in his poem " Flyting," Kennedy calls his opponent, 
 William Dunbar, " Lampas Lollardorum," and a judas, 
 a juggler, a pagan, and what-not. 
 
 At the Lollard trial, James rather favoured the 
 accused, some of whom were close personal friends, and, 
 like Lady Stair, of high station. Encouraged by this, 
 the Lollards became bolder, and argued vigorously with 
 their accusers, and finally were allowed to return home 
 with the admonition to beware of new doctrines, and to 
 rest content with the teaching of Holy Church in all 
 tilings. Shortly after, while pilgrimaging to the Hcly 
 Land, — a sacred and meritorious act in days when 
 such an enterprise took sometimes years to accomplish, 
 and was accompanied with horrible risks of all kinds, — 
 Archbishop Blackader died, and for thirty years after 
 the Kyle Lollards enjoyed a respite. After Flodden, 
 and during the minority of James v., we hear of no 
 persecution of the Lollards; but as the reforming 
 movement advanced abroad and in England, it seems 
 almost certain that Scottish sympathisers with reform 
 
264 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 would be subjected to surveillance, and be the objects of 
 suspicion and hatred. It is interesting to note that the 
 Lady Stair whose name appears in the list of those 
 accused before the King, — the wife of William 
 Dalrymple, had as her grandson John Dalrymple 
 of Stair, who was among the very first of the Scottish 
 gentry to make open profession of the Reformed 
 doctrines, joining the Earls of Glencairn and Lennox 
 when they appeared in arms, in 1544, at Glasgow Muir 
 against the Earl of Arran, the Governor of Scotland, 
 while his son again, James, took a leading part in the 
 Scottish Reformation of 1560. 1 
 
 Portions of Wycliffe's Bible and writings must have 
 been carried north early in the fifteenth century, and 
 the seed thus sown seems never to have been destroyed ; 
 but it is still more interesting to know that a MS. 
 translation of Wycliffe's New Testament into the 
 current Scots language of the day was in circulation in 
 Scotland about the year 1520. 2 This written volume, 
 which was the magazine for the reforming spirits of 
 that age, was Purvey 's Revision of Wycliffe's New 
 Testament, and was translated into Scots by Murdoch 
 Nisbet of Hardhill in the Ayrshire parish of Loudon, 
 associated in recent times with Robert Burns and 
 Norman Macleod. Murdoch Nisbet some years before 
 1500 came to profess openly his adherence to the 
 Lollard doctrines, and rejected the specialties of Roman 
 superstition, and with some others had to flee for safety 
 out of the country. While in exile he translated 
 Wycliffe's New Testament into .Scots, very much in the 
 
 1 Knox's Reformation ; Pinkerton's History of Scotland, ii. 418 ; 
 John Murray Graham's Annals and Correspondence of the Viscount and 
 the first and second Earls of Stair, i. 4. 2 See note on page 325. 
 
LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND 265 
 
 same way as Knox prepared his Confession and Creed 
 sitting at the galley-oar, and Bunyan wrote his spiritual 
 dream in Bedford jail. 
 
 Purvey's second transcription of Wycliffe's New 
 Testament, published in 1388, four years after Wycliffe's 
 death, was Nisbet's original ; and Dr. Law, who edits 
 the translation from the copy in possession of Lord 
 Amherst of Hackney, dates it at 1520. At a later 
 date Nisbet prefixed an address copied from Luther's 
 preface to his German New Testament (1522), and later 
 still added Tindale's prologue to the Epistle to the 
 Romans (1525). This Scots translation of Wycliffe- 
 Purvey's New Testament had many vicissitudes. 
 Nisbet built finally, after his return to Scotland, a 
 vault below his house at Hardhill, where he remained 
 concealed till James v.'s death, instructing all who 
 came to him, and at last the MS. was given over to his 
 descendants as a precious legacy. After the manner 
 of the vicissitudes of manuscripts, Nisbet's MS. fell 
 into an ordinary bookseller's hands, and was bought 
 by Sir Alexander Boswell, in whose collection of 
 Auchinleck Papers it remained until 1893, when it 
 passed into the possession of Lord Amherst of 
 Hackney, who allowed the Scottish Text Society to 
 publish it. 1 
 
 Murdoch Nisbet of Loudon was, so to speak, the fore- 
 runner of the reforming and covenanting folks of 
 Ayrshire in later times: his great-grandson, John 
 Nisbet, was one of Gustavus Adolphus' Scottish officers, 
 
 1 The New Testament in Scots, being Purvey's revision of Wycliffe's 
 version turned into Scots by Murdoch Nisbet, c. 1520 : edited from the 
 unique MS. in the possession of Lord Amherst of Hackney by T. 0. Law, 
 LL.D., vol. i. 1901, vol. ii. 1903. Blackwood, Edinburgh. 
 
266 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 and as a keen Covenanter commanded a troop of horse 
 at the battle of Bothwell Brig, and was finally executed 
 in 1684 at the Edinburgh Grassmarket. 
 
 It was in 1901 that the late learned and beloved 
 Dr. Law of the Signet Library, Edinburgh, published 
 for the Scottish Text Society this interesting MS. — 
 the only version of the New Testament in the Scots 
 language before the Reformation, the only literary 
 relic of the Lollards in Scotland, and an interesting 
 link with continental reforming movements, having 
 been translated from the English Wycliffe's English 
 translation of the Vulgate, and carried through during 
 Nisbet's exile abroad. There can be little or no doubt 
 that the mediaeval Church in Scotland, as elsewhere, 
 discountenanced translations of the Scripture into the 
 vulgar language of the people. Service-books in the 
 vernacular with portions of Scripture in them were 
 tolerated, but not encouraged more than was necessary. 
 The spread of the Renaissance spirit in the fifteenth 
 century created a desire in Germany and the Low 
 Countries for the Scripture in the vernacular, and the 
 Brethren of the Common Life fostered this desire. 
 A version in German of the Old Testament only, and 
 incomplete, still existing, is as old as 1400, and the 
 earliest French vernacular Scripture is later, while the 
 earliest Bohemian one dates from 1417. Older versions 
 in the Romana and Teutonic languages existed, as is 
 proved by the records of Church councils. Rellach of 
 Constance, for example, made a translation of the whole 
 Bible into German (1450-70) although he was a 
 thoroughgoing Roman Catholic ; yet lie felt that the 
 power needed by the world was the Scripture. Other 
 versions, both written and printed, were produced by 
 
LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND 267 
 
 men who were friends and defenders of the Church, 
 though none ever came from convent printing-presses. 
 The Brethren of the Common Life, the Waldensians, 
 the German and Bohemian reforming parties, had all 
 their vernacular translations, which were used both 
 by the friends and foes of the Church until finally 
 supplanted by Luther's great Bible to a large extent. 
 
 1520 is given as the probable date of Murdoch 
 Nisbet's Scots translation of Wycliffe's New Testament. 
 Where he made it is uncertain, possibly in England, 
 possibly in Germany or the Low Countries, his refer- 
 ence to Luther's prologue to the Bible rather favouring 
 his exile in Germany, where he would find many 
 sympathisers and Lollard friends. After Nisbet there 
 appears another prominent Lollard, John Andrew 
 Duncan of Airdree in Fifeshire and of Maynar in 
 Stirlingshire. Taken prisoner at Flodden, he was 
 brought to Yorkshire, and lodged with one Burnet, 
 a relative of his mother, a strong Lollard. Burnet 
 adopted his Lollard views, and returned to Scotland, 
 where, after a second exile, he settled, and at his own 
 residence promulgated Lollard views, and it is said 
 found many sympathisers in Fifeshire, owing to the 
 fact that English Lollards and German Hussites were 
 students at St. Andrews in the fifteenth century, and 
 thus spread and continued the Wycliffe tradition. 1 
 
 If any Scotsman helped by his writings to advance 
 the cause of religious reform in the land, it was Sir 
 David Lindsay of the Mount, who in his plays and 
 satires prepared the way for the events of 1560. 
 
 His Testament and Complaynt of the Papyngo are 
 
 1 Principal Lindsay's " Literary Relic of Scottish Lollartly " in Scottish 
 Historical Bevitw. i. 270. 
 
268 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 a direct echo of Lollard opinions, mingled, no doubt, 
 with the Lutheran ideas which, through the spread 
 of Luther's works in Scotland, had become common 
 property. Lindsay carries forward the Lollard spirit 
 and links it with the Reformation. 
 
 Another Lollard link is indicated by Wodrow in 
 his History of the Sufferings of the Church of 
 Scotland, where he relates how the Gordons of 
 Earlston " used to entertain the disciples of Wycliffe, 
 and had a New Testament in the vulgar tongue, 
 which they used in reading at meetings in the woods 
 about Earlstoun House." 
 
 And so link by link the Lollard influence in Scot- 
 land can be traced back to the very days of Wycliffe 
 himself, when Scottish students flocked to Balliol to 
 see and hear the man who became known afterwards 
 as " the morning star of the Reformation." 
 
 On the eve of the Reformation, Scotland was ready, 
 indeed, for a cleansing of the temple. The highest 
 ecclesiastical offices were often given to laymen and 
 even to children, as in the case of the Archbishopric 
 of St. Andrews, the highest spiritual office in the land, 
 — the primacy of the kingdom, — which, in 1503, was 
 bestowed on the King's natural son, a boy of eight 
 years of age. A letter is still extant in which the 
 King thanks the Pope for confirming this nomination. 
 The wealthiest offices in the Church were thus dis- 
 posed of, with the result that discipline, order, and 
 government were relaxed, and the people looked with 
 scorn on the disorderly state . of the House of God. 
 The aspiration after reform made itself heard over 
 and over again. Patrick Hamilton, a youth of royal 
 descent, appointed Abbot of Fearn at the age of 
 
LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND 269 
 
 twenty-three, who, going abroad, met with Luther, 
 Melanchthon, Lambert, and other Reformers, gave forth 
 his work on gospel belief which bears the name of 
 Patrick's Places — simply a repetition of the old Lollard 
 teaching. - 
 
 On 28th February 1528 he was arraigned before 
 the bishops and clergy in St. Andrews, accused of 
 holding Luther's views, and finally burned before the 
 Old College. For doing this the University of St. 
 Andrews was praised by the University of Louvain, 
 and exhorted to continue its good work of extirpating 
 heresy, and more especially of destroying books con- 
 taining these doctrines. Burning books and burning 
 people was a childish course to adopt; for, as with 
 the heather on the Scottish mountain-side, the burning 
 only made the growth stronger, richer, and fuller. 
 This was abundantly the case in Scotland as the 
 ^result of Hamilton's martyrdom, for more converts to 
 the cause of reform was the result. When the burning 
 of other individuals was suggested, one John Lindsay, 
 who knew the prelate well, and was a bystander 
 at the martyr's pyre, said to Archbishop Beaton — 
 " My lord, if ye burn any more, except ye follow my 
 counsel ye will utterly destroy yourselves. If ye 
 will burn them, let them be burned in cellars, for the 
 smoke of Master Patrick Hamilton hath infected as 
 many as it blew upon." 
 
 It was a somewhat remarkable fact that not only 
 did Patrick Hamilton's burning cause people generally 
 in Scotland to inquire into the nature of the opinions 
 which so drastic a remedy was necessary, but that 
 even the King's private confessor became a convert 
 to the Lollard ideas. During the Lent following the 
 
270 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 burning, Alexander Seaton, the royal confessor, preached 
 a course of sermons in which he laid stress on the 
 necessity of faith in Christ, very much after the style 
 of St. Anselm's " Cur Deus Homo," the need of personal 
 holiness and repentance, while the staple doctrines of 
 the Roman Church — pilgrimages, purgatory, saint- 
 worship, and the like, were absent from his discourses. 
 Suspected of heresy, he became the object of Arch- 
 bishop Beaton's enmity. That prelate, however, could 
 not proceed against him without the King's assent, 
 and Seaton had reproved King James faithfully for 
 his dissolute and irregular life, admonitions which 
 that Sovereign resented. Feeling instinctively that 
 the King would follow the archbishop's advice, Seaton 
 made good his escape to Berwick, and wrote from 
 thence offering to return if a fair trial were promised 
 him. No answer came, and he fled to London, and 
 was admitted into the Duke of Suffolk's family. 
 
 The Reformation was now fairly under weigh in 
 England, the Act of Supremacy being finally passed 
 in 1534, this being followed by the suppression of the 
 monasteries in 1535. Latimer's influence was at its 
 height, while Tyndale's New Testament (1526) and 
 Coverdale's Bible (1535) were spreading the know- 
 ledge of Scripture all over the South. Scotland was 
 troubled with civil commotions, and these diverted 
 the attention of the Roman prelates to a considerable 
 extent from the work of suppressing Lollard ism. 
 Still, from Hamilton's burning onwards, for ten years 
 the work of crushing the new views went on spas- 
 modically and sporadically, several being put to death, 
 while many had to flee to foreign lands. Henry 
 Forrest, one of the inferior clergy, was suspected of 
 
LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND 271 
 
 Lollard sympathies, and a friar called Laing was 
 appointed to hear his confession, which practically 
 resulted in his declaration that he thought Patrick 
 Hamilton's destruction was wrong, as he was a good 
 man. Laing broke the seal of confession, since Forrest 
 had confessed himself a heretic, and thereupon the 
 latter was tried, condemned, and burned at the north 
 side of St. Andrews' Abbey Church, one of the chief 
 counts against him being that he had an English 
 New Testament in his possession. 
 
 Many others were imprisoned, fined, and forced to 
 recant, among them a Leith woman who, in the labours 
 of childbirth, instead of asking the Virgin's help 
 called upon Christ to come to her aid. In August 
 1534, Norman Gourlay and David Stratton were 
 charged with denying purgatory, papal supremacy, 
 and other views. Gourlay was tried before the King, 
 who took a merciful view of the case ; but the prelates 
 dissuaded him from granting pardon, declaring that 
 it was outside his powers to do so. Stratton's offence 
 was in regard to the payment of tithe; when the 
 vicar came to take his tithe out of Stratton's fishing- 
 wherry, the latter said that the tithe ought to be 
 taken where the stock grew, and accordingly he 
 threw the fish into the sea and bade the vicar find 
 his tithes there. These two men were publicly burned 
 on ground between Edinburgh and Leith, in 1534, 
 the intention being to strike awe into the Fifeshire 
 people, many of whom were suspected of reforming 
 leanings. 
 
 The Archbishop of St. Andrews, James Beaton, died 
 in 1539, and the Pope, who viewed with alarm the 
 triumph of the Reformation in England, and dreaded 
 
272 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 a repetition of the same disaster in Scotland, which 
 for long had been " the special daughter of the Roman 
 See," appointed David Beaton, the previous arch- 
 bishop's nephew, to succeed him in St. Andrews as 
 primate of Scotland. He was a cool, deliberate, cruel 
 character, and the hope of the Pope was that by direct 
 acts of oppression the movement would be killed. One 
 of the first to be brought to the new prelate's tribunal 
 was Sir John Borthwick, who was charged with 
 holding Lollard and Gospeller views, and with having 
 in his possession an English New Testament. Borthwick 
 managed to get into hiding and reached England at 
 last, his views being publicly condemned at St. 
 Andrews, and his effigy burned, since the original 
 was off to the South. Strange to say, his relative 
 John, the fifth Lord Borthwick, opposed the Reforma- 
 tion in 1560, and was Queen Mary's friend and helper, 
 shielding her and Bothwell in his beautiful twin- 
 towered Borthwick Castle by the sweetly - flowing 
 Tyne, and surrounded by the green, undulating 
 Moorfoot Hills. Though he was a staunch supporter 
 of the "ancient religion," his servants, who seem to 
 have had sympathies in the opposite direction, seized 
 the person of William Langlands, a macer from St. 
 Andrews, who arrived with letters of excommunica- 
 tion of Lord Borthwick on account of the contumacy 
 of certain witnesses of his in a lawsuit. The unhappy 
 bacularius arrived while the Castle folks were 
 celebrating the sport of the Abbot of Unreason, and 
 the primate's officer was twice ducked in the river; 
 and then, having been sufficiently bathed, had refresh- 
 ments given him after his cold bath, the letters of 
 excommunication being torn to pieces, steeped in a 
 
LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND 273 
 
 bowl of wine, and forced upon the unwilling apparitor, 
 who had to eat and drink the nauseous preparation, 
 to which a stimulating touch was added by the Abbot 
 of Unreason informing him that if any more such 
 letters arrived they should " a' gang the same gait." 
 
 Sir John Borthwick's escape caused the new Beaton 
 considerable indignation, and he proceeded with even 
 greater firmness against other suspects. Dean Thomas 
 Forrest, vicar of Dollar and a canon of St. Colomb, 
 was one of the first to be brought to book, and mainly 
 because he preached every Sunday to the people from 
 the Gospel or Epistle for the day. It must be remem- 
 bered that the parish priests and even bishops had 
 given up preaching almost entirely, and confined 
 themselves to the celebration of the Church's rites 
 and ceremonies — the pictorial teaching of the Church. 
 The only preachers were the friars ; and their addresses, 
 as already indicated, were strange medleys of sacred 
 and secular lore, amusing legends and stories, and 
 jokes intended to amuse the people and tickle the 
 mob. Mr. Baring -Gould has in his Post - mediceval 
 Preachers furnished many laughable examples of the 
 rs' discourses. In preaching the simple gospel 
 to his flock, gathered together at Dollar under the 
 shadow of the rolling Ochil Hills, and close by Castle 
 :pbell or Castle Gloom, with the two streams Care 
 and Sorrow rippling past it, Dean Forrest declared 
 the riches of Christ's gospel in simple language and 
 with telling effect. Summoned by his bishop (Dunkeld), 
 li. was asked why he persisted in preaching Sunday 
 by Sunday. The Bishop of Dunkeld thus addressed 
 him — ' My joy [beloved] dean Thomas, I am informed 
 ich the epistle or the gospel every Sunday 
 18 
 
274 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 to your parishioners, and that you take not the best 
 cow nor the uppermost cloth from your parishioners, 
 which is very prejudicial to other Churchmen. There- 
 fore, my joy dean Thomas, I would you took your cow 
 and your uppermost cloth as other Churchmen do. 
 Also it is too much to preach every Sunday: for in 
 so doing you may make the people think that we 
 should preach likewise. It is enough for you when 
 you find any good epistle or any good gospel that 
 setteth forth the liberty [privileges] of the holy 
 Church, to preach on that and let the rest be." Dean 
 Forrest replied, — "That with respect to the cow and 
 the cloth, himself and his parishioners were agreed : 
 and as for preaching every Sunday, he could wish 
 that his lordship did the like." The bishop replied — 
 " Nay, nay, dean Thomas, let that be, for we are not 
 ordained to preach." Forrest answered — "Your lord- 
 ship biddeth me preach when I find any good Epistle 
 or good Gospel : truly, my lord, I have read the New 
 Testament and the Old and all the Epistles and 
 Gospels, and among them all I could never find an 
 evil Epistle or an evil Gospel: but if your lordship 
 will show me one that is evil, I will shun it." To 
 which the bishop gave the famous retort — "I thank 
 God that I never knew what Old and New Testaments 
 were. I will know nothing but my portass and my 
 pontifical. Go your way and let alone these fantasies 
 or you will repent it." Forrest said — "I trust my 
 cause is Just in the presence of God, and therefore I 
 am not anxious as to consequences." Soon after, he 
 was summoned before Cardinal Beaton, condemned, 
 and burned on the Castle Hill of Edinburgh along 
 with two friars named Kelow and Bevarage, a priest 
 
LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND 275 
 
 of Stirling named Sympson, and a Stirling gentleman 
 named Foster, all of whom made profession of their 
 adherence to the Lollard beliefs. 
 
 About the same time the Archbishop of Glasgow 
 condemned two others to death, Russel and Kennedy. 
 Kennedy was a youth of eighteen, and was about 
 to recant when he saw the preparations for his exe- 
 cution being made; but he was not allowed to do 
 so. His last words were — "0 Eternal God, how 
 wonderful is that love and mercy which Thou bearest 
 to mankind, and to me, the most miserable wretch 
 above all others. For even now, when I would have 
 denied Thee and Thy Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, my only Saviour, and so have cast myself into 
 everlasting damnation, Thou by Thine own hand hast 
 pulled me from the very bottom of hell, and made me 
 to feel that heavenly comfort which takes from me 
 that ungodly fear wherewith before I was oppressed. 
 Now I defy death : do what ye please : I praise my 
 God I am ready!" The inquisitors disputed with 
 Russel, and made mockery of his beliefs ; to which he 
 replied — "This is your hour and the power of dark- 
 - : now you sit as judges, and we stand wrongfully 
 condemned ; but the day cometh which will show our 
 innocence, and you shall see your own blindness, to 
 your everlasting confusion: go forward, and fulfil the 
 measure of your iniquity." 
 
 Hearing so bold a confession from one who feared 
 God and knew no other fear, a fear which strengthens 
 as the fear of man weakens, the archbishop declared 
 that he thought these persecutions did more harm 
 than good, and seemed disposed to pardon these two 
 men; bat lie was threatened by his clergy, that if he 
 
276 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 allowed them to escape he would be reported to 
 Cardinal Beaton ; and accordingly they were executed, 
 Russel encouraging Kennedy, and saying — "Brother, 
 fear not; more mighty is He that is in us than he 
 that is in the world. The pain we shall suffer will 
 be short and light; but our joy and consolation will 
 never end. Let us strive to enter in unto our Master 
 and Saviour by the same strait way that He hath 
 taken before us. Death cannot destroy us; for it 
 is destroyed already by Him for whose sake we 
 suffer." 
 
 The King, situated as he was between France and 
 England, within a circle of traditional policy, in deal- 
 ing with each could take but one course in the Re- 
 formation struggle, and that entire submission to 
 the lead of Cardinal Beaton and the Queen. The 
 Lollard persecution is hinted at in the item — " deliverit 
 to twa pure wemen for ij ky the tyme that the 
 man was byrnt in Cowpar ; to messenger to pas and 
 serche thair gudis quhilkis war obiurit and declirt 
 heretikis in Edinburgh and Stirling." Two Lollards 
 also were burned at the west end of Glasgow 
 Cathedral. 
 
 Following upon this, Beaton received authority 
 from the King to proceed still more rigorously, and 
 a list of suspected persons, numbering three hundred 
 and sixty, including many prominent nobles and 
 gentlemen, and notably the Earl of Arran, the pre- 
 sumptive heir to James v.'s crown, was drawn up 
 with a view to their trial for heresy. Political com- 
 plications, however, deferred further drastic action, as 
 the ambitious and high-handed policy of Beaton 
 brought about that disastrous war with England, the 
 
LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND 277 
 
 end of which was the death of the King. His Queen, 
 Mary of Guise, had just given birth to her who after- 
 wards became Mary Queen of Scots, and the sorely 
 troubled and bitterly disappointed Sovereign passed 
 away. Solway Moss broke his heart; and when he 
 heard of his daughter's birth, he took a melancholy 
 view of the future, declaring of his crown that " It 
 came with a lass, and it will go with a lass." " The 
 King of the Poor," as his humbler subjects styled him 
 — "The Gudeman of Ballangeich," as he was called 
 from his disguised wanderings through his realm, 
 James V. was the victim of circumstances, and a prey 
 to misfortune. 
 
 After the death-scene at Falkland Palace, Cardinal 
 Beaton strove for political supremacy, but he was un- 
 successful, and the Earl of Arran was made Regent, 
 who brought persecution to a standstill, and eventually 
 gave permission to " every man to read the translation 
 of the Old and New Testaments." For a moment 
 fortune favoured the cause of Reform, and many pro- 
 fessed to have possessed and read the Scripture in 
 secret for years, with a view to being favourably 
 regarded by Arran. The Regent, however, lacked 
 courage, firmness, and constancy, and Beaton again 
 became the chief power in Scotland, Arran consenting 
 to his measures. A great increase of heresy was 
 complained of, and in January 1544, Cardinal Beaton, 
 the Earl of Arran, and others arrived at Perth and 
 began another heresy-hunt. Robert Lambe, William 
 Anderson, ami fewo others were charged with false 
 doctrine and practices, the only apparent fault with 
 them netting to have been that thoy regaled them- 
 selves with a goose on Halloween; and yet they 
 
278 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 were executed as heretics ; while the wife of a Perth 
 burgess, who at childbirth invoked Christ and not 
 the Virgin, and who also broke her fast like the pre- 
 ceding, was condemned. She wished to die with her 
 husband, but this last consideration was refused ; and 
 though she was nursing her newborn infant, she was 
 taken down to the water and ruthlessly drowned. 
 " I will not " she said to her husband, " bid you good- 
 night, for we shall suddenly meet with joy in the 
 kingdom of heaven." 
 
 But the most outstanding victim of the persecuting 
 movement of this period was George Wishart, a learned 
 and pious scholar, who in 1540 was ordered by the 
 Bishop of Brechin to leave Scotland for teaching 
 the Greek Testament in Montrose. He escaped first 
 to Germany, and then found refuge in Ben'et College 
 in Cambridge, where he was known, according to 
 Tylney, a scholar there, as " a man, modest, temperate, 
 fearing God, hating covetousness, for his charity never 
 had end : he forebore one meal in three, and one day 
 in four for the most part. He lay hard, upon a puff 
 of straw, and coarse new canvas sheets, which, when 
 he changed, he gave away. He loved me tenderly, 
 and I him for my age, effectually. Oh, that the Lord 
 had left him to me, his poor boy, that he might have 
 finished that he had begun." There was at this 
 period in Cambridge an earnest band of students who 
 took life earnestly, rising daily at four or five and 
 reading the Scriptures and praying till six, their 
 dinner consisting of "a parmy piece of beef among 
 four, a little pottage made of the broth, with salt and 
 oatmeal, and nothing else." After several hours of 
 study they had an ascetic supper, and then from six 
 
LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND 279 
 
 till ten resumed their studies, " and being without fire, 
 would walk or run up and down half an hour to get 
 their feet warm, when they went to bed." Wishart 
 was in his element in such society and loved it, but 
 in 1544 he saw his way clear to return to Scotland, 
 where he began to preach against Roman corruptions 
 and abuses, drawing large crowds and making a deep 
 impression. Cardinal Beaton was enraged at his 
 boldness, and resolved on his annihilation. Dundee 
 was visited by the plague, and Wishart stood by the 
 people, visiting the sick and comforting the sorrowful. 
 Assassination was attempted, a friar with a dagger 
 under his habit even threatening him as he came 
 down from the pulpit. He next visited Montrose and 
 Edinburgh, and was at last arrested at Ormiston and 
 brought to St. Andrews a prisoner, 
 
 Cardinal Beaton and the Archbishop of Glasgow had 
 been at variance for some time, chiefly owing to the 
 old-standing and deep-seated jealousy between the two 
 Sees, but over Wishart they struck hands in friendly 
 agreement. On 1st February 1545, Wishart was 
 brought to the Church of St. Andrews, where the sub- 
 prior of the Abbey preached on the wheat and the 
 tares (St. Matt. xiii. 24), and urged the destruction of 
 heretical tares. Wishart was then placed in the pulpit, 
 and a list of charges against him was read. He knelt 
 down and asked help from Heaven, and then rose and 
 asked to be allowed to declare his beliefs; but this 
 the prelates declined to allow. The accusations were 
 again read over, but as soon as Wishart attempted to 
 reply he was insolently silenced. He then declared 
 that he had only exhorted men to follow Christ the 
 only Mediator, and challenged his accusers to prove 
 
280 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 the doctrine of purgatory. Beaton then ordered the 
 fire to be prepared, and Wishart was sent to the 
 Castle till all was ready. The sub-prior had a con- 
 ference with him there, and, bursting into tears, asked 
 if he would receive the Communion, which Wishart 
 said he would be glad to do in both kinds. The sub- 
 prior then went to Beaton and declared Wishart to 
 be an innocent man, and asked whether he might 
 receive the sacrament, but this was refused. At 
 breakfast, Wishart, whom the captain of the Castle 
 had invited to join in, spoke about the death and 
 sufferings of Christ, and exhorted them all to love 
 and good works. Thereafter two executioners arrived, 
 fastened bags of powder about him, and bound his 
 hands. The stake was erected at the west gate of the 
 Castle near the priory, and the windows of the Castle 
 overlooked the tragic scene. The cardinal and other 
 prelates sat at the windows, which were richly 
 decorated ; and the Castle guns were charged, lest the 
 people should attempt a rescue. Two friars urged 
 him to pray to the Virgin, but Wishart only called 
 upon God for His benediction ; and, having prayed for 
 his accusers, the executioner begged his forgiveness 
 and lit the pyre. " This fire," he said, " torments my 
 body, but no wise abates my spirit. He who in such 
 state from that high place feedeth his eyes with my 
 torments, within a few days shall be hanged out at 
 the same window with as much ignominy as he now 
 leaneth there with pride." 
 
 Beaton thought this terrible example would check 
 the Reform movement; but popular disgust was the 
 result, and Beaton was put to death, and his body 
 hung out of the Castle window as Wishart had pro- 
 
LOLLARDISM IN SCOTLAND 281 
 
 phesied. The Reform movement received an immense 
 impetus : political considerations and a growing desire 
 for liberty added additional force to a tendency already 
 strong and determined, and finally Knox appeared as 
 its champion and leader. Knox was the child of 
 Wishart, and carried forward the movement for civil 
 and religious liberty to triumphant success. The per- 
 secuting section of the Roman Church thought that by 
 wringing the neck of the cock they would prevent 
 the dawning of the day ; but the day came in spite of 
 all the attempts to keep the sky black and the clock 
 at midnight. 
 
 When a Pope dies, his chamberlain, in presence of 
 the College of Cardinals, taps his head thrice with a 
 small hammer of ivory and gold. The act is performed 
 to make sure that he is really dead. When Luther 
 with his hammer drove the nails into the church door 
 of W T urtemberg, it was to waken the Church from its 
 deadly sleep ; and that hammer was originally forged 
 at Lutterworth, and the reverberations and echoes of 
 its strokes have gone round the earth. From the 
 turretted steeple of Lutterworth came the gentle yet 
 strong voice which found its echo of alarm under the 
 dome of St. Peter's. The ashes which were sent igno- 
 miniously down the Swift, in the course of their world- 
 wide dissemination floated up the Tiber, and were 
 washed on to the shore at the Castle of St. Angelo. 
 Between Wycliffe and Luther there is the relations) dp 
 of ancestor and offspring, and the spirit of the two 
 . so different in many respects, and separated by 
 generations, was wonderfully similar in its courage, 
 faith, and hope; for while Wycliffe in his hour of 
 ness could say — " I shall not die, but live, and 
 
282 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 declare the evil works of the friars," Luther's deter- 
 mined fortitude was not behind it when he declared 
 that he would pursue his course of reform though 
 there were as many devils arrayed against him as 
 there were tiles on the roofs of Worms. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 LOLLARDISM ON THE CONTINENT 
 
 Curious as was the spread of Lollardism in Scotland 
 the diffusion of the Wycliffe opinions on the Continent, 
 and more particularly in Bohemia, was even more 
 remarkable. Practically the same diffusive forces 
 were at work in both places, namely, students from 
 both countries studying at Oxford, the headquarters 
 of Wyclifnsm, and carrying home with them the fresh 
 inspirations of the university whose motto was and 
 still is — "Dominus illuminatio mea," along with the 
 enlightened religious faith which found its choicest 
 nursery by the Isis. In 1382, to revert to the initial 
 links between England and Bohemia, Richard II., king 
 of England, married Princess Anne of Bohemia, who, 
 coming to England, embraced the Lollard doctrines 
 with devout and whole-hearted enthusiasm. Her life 
 as Queen of England only lasted twelve short years, for 
 she passed away in 1394, leaving behind her a fragrant 
 memory. She had been the daughter of the Emperor 
 Charles IV., and was the sister of the "good King 
 Wenceslaus " of Bohemia, whose Christmas-tide charity 
 and compassion are celebrated in the Yule-tide carol 
 still sung amid the holly -covered pillars of our churches, 
 when the snow is on the ground and " the Christmas 
 bells from hill to hill answer each other in the mi 
 
 283 
 
284 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Richard buried her in Westminster Abbey, for his 
 own heart was in Westminster. His coronation had 
 taken place in the Abbey with unsurpassed splendour, 
 and was distinguished by the creation of the " Knights 
 of the Bath," ever since associated with coronations. 
 It was he who took Edward the Confessor as his 
 patron saint, and rebuilt the great northern entrance 
 of the Abbey for ever associated with St. Edward's 
 shrine, besides building Westminster Hall. Richard's 
 affection for his Bohemian bride was such that when 
 she died at the Palace of Sheen, he not only abandoned 
 and cursed the place, but actually pulled it down to 
 the ground. Her funeral was a pageant of mournful 
 magnificence, and Froissart tells us that abundance 
 of wax was brought from Flanders to make torches, and 
 that the illumination was so great as to be dazzling. 
 The tomb now pointed out in the Abbey as that of 
 Richard and Queen Anne is a coarse copy of Edward 
 iii.'s, and fills up the whole large end bay in that 
 royal chapel where the suns of empire rise and set. 
 The names of all the artificers — all citizens of London 
 — have been preserved, and the cost of the erection 
 was £10,000, and the date of its completion 1397. 
 The King and Queen are represented in a recumbent 
 position ; and orginally their right hands were tenderly 
 clasped, but both arms have been stolen. The effigies 
 are of mixed metal richly gilded, and are certainly 
 portraits of the loving royal pair. 
 
 Among the other badges and patterns stamped over 
 the tomb are the two-headed eagle and the lion of 
 Bohemia, while on the inside of the wooden canopy 
 over the tomb are painted pictures of the Trinity, the 
 Virgin's Coronation, and Queen Anne's coat of arms. 
 
LOLLARDISM ON THE CONTINENT 285 
 
 A Latin rhyming inscription is carved round the edge, 
 like that on the tomb of Edward in. 
 
 This was the woman who brought England and 
 Bohemia into such close contact, and was the instrument 
 of carrying "Lollardism into the land of her birth, and 
 thereby inoculated Eastern Europe with the reforming 
 views. Three hundred years before, the English 
 Princess Margaret, by marrying Malcolm Canmore, 
 king of Scots, did exactly the reverse for the Scottish 
 Church, by her powerful influence gradually supplanted 
 the ancient Culdee clergy by the more vigorous and 
 missionary Roman priests from her native England. 
 Princess Anne of Bohemia, however, reversed that 
 procedure as regards her native land, and encouraged 
 Bohemian students to come to Oxford. She had many 
 of her countrymen at her Court, and these knew what 
 Lollardism meant very well from their mistress' words 
 and actions. She herself, according to Wycliffe, had 
 the Scriptures in the Latin Vulgate and also in 
 English and Bohemian. The students from Prague 
 University, whom she induced to study at Oxford and 
 imbibe the reforming views, took home with them to 
 Bohemia Wycliffe's tracts and Scriptures, and thus the 
 influence spread abroad. Jerome of Prague was one 
 of the most distinguished of these Bohemian students 
 at Oxford ; but there must have been many much 
 tier, for John Huss, who was the powerful national 
 outcome of the Oxford influence, declares in his Treatise 
 against Stokes (1411) that Wycliffe's works had been 
 familiar to him for twenty years. Students seem 
 to have com*' Eron Prague to Oxford pretty Rteadily 
 for something like twenty years, the last recorded 
 namm being Nicholas Faulfisch and George of 
 
286 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Knienitz, who revised Wycliffe's Truth of Scripture 
 in 1407. 
 
 The reforming influence which thus filtered from 
 Oxford into Bohemia had eventually its most striking 
 issue in John Huss, who graduated at Prague University 
 in 1393 and became Master of Arts in 1396. No city 
 in Germany surpassed it in grandeur of appearance, 
 and the University or Carolinum of the capital of 
 Bohemia was the first great institution of the kind 
 planted among the German peoples, while the grave 
 of the world-famed astronomer Tycho Brahe is within 
 the beautiful Theinkirche, and adds to the historical 
 charm of a wonderfully historical city to-day. 
 
 The great festival days of Prague have always been 
 that of St, Wenceslaus, the old patron Saint of Bohemia, 
 celebrated in the Christmas carol, and that of St. John 
 Nepomuk, whom the same King Wenceslaus threw 
 from the bridge of Prague because he refused to reveal 
 what his Queen had told him under seal of confession. 
 But the name of John Huss and his influence are the 
 striking notes of the beautiful city. Even yet his life 
 was all along identified with the university of which 
 he became a lecturer in 1398 and the rector in 1402, 
 a post which he held until April 1403. The subjects 
 of his lectures seem to have been the text-books of 
 Prague, Paris, and Oxford. At Stockholm there is 
 preserved a translation of Wycliffe's Five Philosophical 
 Treatises, made in 1398, which seems to show that 
 these treatises formed the subject of some of his earlier 
 prelections. 
 
 In 1402 John of Mullheim presented Huss to the 
 post of select preacher or curate to the Bethlehem 
 Chapel in Prague, where he was bound to preach in 
 
LOLLARDISM ON THE CONTINENT 287 
 
 Bohemian, and his preparations for the pulpit led him 
 to careful study of Scripture and of Wycliffe's writings, 
 which were by this time fairly well known in the 
 city on the Moldau. The spirit of Reform had caught 
 hold of hiifl, and he strove to inflame others with it, 
 including the chief ecclesiastics of the place. On 
 28th May 1403 a series of disputations was begun in 
 the university on the Wycliffe views, with the result 
 that the twenty-four theses condemned at the Black- 
 friars Synod in 1382, along with twenty-one others, 
 were proscribed, and the teaching of them forbidden. 
 Wycliffe's independent spirit, however, had its resurrec- 
 tion in Huss, who continued his lectures and defence 
 of the forty-five condemned theses. Huss' boldness 
 brought about the passing of a statute forbidding 
 bachelors to lecture on Wycliffe's Ti-ialogus and De 
 Eucliaristia or any other of the Lutterworth rector's 
 writings, which seemed to have become quite the rage 
 in Prague. Whatever was the motive, Sbynjek, 
 archbishop of Prague (1403), made Huss preacher to 
 the Synod, — an opportunity which he used vigorously 
 in pressing his reforming views upon the crowds who 
 flocked to Bethlehem Chapel to hear him, until at 
 last his utterances became so bluntly bold that the 
 archbishop in 1408 withdrew his favour from him, and 
 joined those both in Church and State who desired 
 the arrest of the Lollard and reforming movement. 
 
 The rivalries between Bohemia and Germany 
 accentuated matters. Wenceslaus, ambitious to become 
 Emperor, was afraid that Wycliffe's doctrines might 
 hinder his designs. The question of the rival Popes 
 divided the university, Germans and Bohemians taking 
 opposite sides, until finally the German influence 
 
288 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 triumphed and the Bohemians seceded and founded 
 the University of Leipsic, of which Huss was in 1409 
 elected rector. At last strong measures were taken 
 against the bold apostle of Reform, who had succeeded 
 in impregnating his views on the University of Prague 
 so successfully among the multitude of students who 
 resorted to it from all quarters, and which is said to 
 have had at one time the almost incredible number of 
 forty thousand. The spirit of free inquiry brought 
 its fruit, and, under the zealous teaching of Huss, 
 Jerome, and others, the corruptions of the Church were 
 exposed and the seeds of reform sown. The archbishop 
 who had befriended him reported the dangerous 
 tendencies to Rome, and Pope Alexander n. issued 
 several Bulls denouncing the Lollard views, one of 
 these, dated 9th March 1409, authorising four doctors of 
 theology and four of canonical law to examine into 
 the matter and take steps for the suppression of 
 Wycliffe's heresy, so successfully imported from Eng- 
 land. Inquiry was made as to the extent to which 
 Wycliffe's writings were in circulation ; and Huss along 
 with others loyally brought his Wycliffe books before 
 the Commission, and these were publicly burned on 
 the 16th July 1409, Huss and all his followers 
 being excommunicated. This was as unpopular a step 
 in Bohemia as the condemnation of Wycliffe was in 
 England. Both men were the expressions and 
 exponents of the popular religious aspirations of the 
 age, of the longing of the world for a glimpse of the 
 angels and a vision of the Eternal. Not that that 
 vision was non-existent in the Church: far from it; 
 but ceremonialism, mechanicalism, formalism, and 
 materialism had dimmed its beauty and marred its 
 
LOLLARDISM ON THE CONTINENT 289 
 
 glory. Undeterred by his excommunication, by his 
 surrender of Wycliffe's treatises, which really con- 
 stituted his spiritual armoury, or the prohibition on 
 preaching in unconsecrated buildings of which 
 Bethlehem Chapel, where Huss held forth, was the 
 main one in question, — Huss still continued to preach 
 and to teach in the chapel with a fresh earnestness 
 and zeal. 
 
 Pope Alexander died in 1410, and his successor, John 
 xxii 1., renewed proceedings against Huss and the 
 Lollards. Papal envoys came to Prague and argued 
 in favour of proceedings against Wycliffe's disciples; 
 but the King, Queen, and nobles deplored these, and 
 asked that the Pope's sentence should be reversed. 
 Tl lis was to no purpose, and Huss and his followers 
 were again proceeded against, thus making a deeper 
 cleavage between the Bohemian Court and the Pope. 
 In 1411 the archbishop died, and proceedings were 
 stayed. To support the papal claim of urgency, the 
 Carthusian prior of Dolau near Olmlitz published a 
 book, entitled, The Marrow of Wheat, or anti- Wiclif, 
 in which he described how Wycliffe's doctrines had 
 spread all over Bohemia, and attacked Wj^cliffe in no 
 moderate manner. In addition to this, Huss at this 
 appealed to the Bohemian people in regard to 
 the crusade proclaimed against King Ladislas of 
 Naples, who was the strong supporter of Gregory xii. 
 the anti-Pope. The people of Prague, ever loyal to 
 Huss, answered the appeal and burned the Bulls relat- 
 ing to the crusade ; while three young men, who were 
 martyred because of the part they had taken in the 
 matter, were buried in the Bethlehem Chapel as saints 
 and martyrs. 
 19 
 
290 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 The University of Prague, instigated by Rome, re- 
 newed its attack on Huss, and again condemned 
 Wycliffe's forty-five heresies, adding six of Huss' 
 heresies, and appealed to the King to stay the spread 
 of Wycliffism, and to forbid Huss to preach. King 
 Wenceslaus agreed to stop the flow of Lollardism, but 
 refused to forbid Huss to exercise his preaching gifts. 
 Pope John xxiii. was appealed to, and Peter of St. 
 Angelo, a cardinal-deacon, was sent to deal with Huss. 
 Huss was allowed twenty-one days in which to recant, 
 and in the event of his refusal he was to be excom- 
 municated and his Bethlehem Chapel razed to the 
 ground. An immense tumult was the result, and 
 even the King begged Huss to retire. In December 
 1412 he went into voluntary exile, after publishing 
 his appeal to Christ as the supreme Judge. A synod 
 was held at Prague to settle all the disputed points, 
 but it resulted in nothing, while Huss continued 
 boldly to preach Wycliffe's doctrines. Pope John xxiii. 
 summoned a council at Rome to establish his position 
 against the rival Pope; but while no practical issue 
 came of it, Wycliffe's Dialogus, Trialogus, and other 
 writings were condemned, and bishops were required 
 to search out and burn his books, and anyone under- 
 taking to defend Wycliffe's memory was ordered to 
 appear before the Pope within nine months. All these 
 smaller ecclesiastical movements were, however, eclipsed 
 by the Council of Constance, which Pope John xxiii. 
 called at the instance of Sigismund, king of Hungary, 
 and Rome, the object of which was to unite the Roman 
 Church under one head and break the power of schism 
 and heresy. 
 
 It was a remarkable gathering of the spiritual forces 
 
LOLLARDISM ON THE CONTINENT 291 
 
 of Europe, and John xxni., the Vicar of Christ, who 
 had against him two anti-Popes, Benedict xin. at 
 Avignon and Gregory xn. at Rimini, was charged with 
 profaneness and impiety, and fled to Schaffhausen, 
 though his abdication did not take place till a year 
 later. After this the council proceeded in its delibera- 
 tions without a Pope, and asserted its own supreme 
 authority in conformity with earlier tradition, which 
 placed the Pope under the authority of general councils. 
 The King, Sigismund, managed to persuade Huss to 
 attend this general council of the Catholic Church, 
 promising him safe-conduct and fair play, in the hope 
 that Huss would prove himself a loyal son of the 
 Church. 
 
 The Council of Constance was one of the most 
 remarkable assemblies of the Christian Church in the 
 whole world's history. It aimed at reform and unity, 
 and yet it would have no patience with the reforming 
 spirit, which even then was abroad among the people 
 of many lands. The Wy cliff e doctrines formed an 
 early topic of discussion in that memorable Council, 
 and once more the forty-five articles were condemned 
 as heresies, while two hundred and sixty other heretical 
 doctrines gathered out of WyclifFe's works were laid 
 before the fathers, who, however, had not patience 
 enough to hear them. At last, on 4th May 1415, the 
 council pronounced Wycliffe " the leader of heresy in 
 that age," and a disseminator of false Christianity. 
 Wycliffe's works were ordered to be burned and his 
 bones to be disinterred from Lutterworth churchyard, 
 
 if tiny can be distinguished from the bones of the 
 l.iithful, an«l burned also." After this act of denuncia- 
 afthedead tin- council proceeded against the li\ 
 
292 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 and Huss, who had been kept in prison until then, 
 was summoned to the council on the 5th of June, his 
 trial lasting for three days. Against him thirty-nine 
 articles were tabled, twenty-six from his book on the 
 Church, seven from his controversy with Dr. Palecz, 
 and six from his reply to Stanislaus, these latter two 
 divines being the leading doctors of the University of 
 Prague, who in 1413 had been appointed to expose the 
 Hussite errors. In his defence John Huss gave ex- 
 planations of many points in which he had been mis- 
 understood, and also defended his own religious beliefs. 
 "The Church," he declared, "was governed infinitely 
 better in the time of the apostles than now. What can 
 hinder Jesus Christ from governing it by His true 
 disciples ? Though I say the Church has no head at 
 present, yet Jesus Christ ceaseth not to govern it." 
 
 Huss was asked to recant the whole of his heresies, 
 but he begged the council in God's name not to charge 
 him with views never held by him, more especially 
 in regard to the sacrament, in which he believed the 
 elements after consecration were no longer material 
 bread and wine, but the body and blood of Christ. 
 For his other views he said he was prepared to vindicate 
 himself. He was then charged with having publicly 
 read the letter from Oxford University in favour of 
 Wycliffe (6th October 1406), which he acknowledged to 
 have done, as it bore the seal of the university. 
 Another letter from Oxford University was then 
 handed in by the English delegates to the Council, 
 summing up two hundred heresies in WyclifFe's 
 writings, and asking them to be condemned. It seemed 
 as if the sins of Wycliffe were to be visited on Huss 
 with double vengeance. Sigismund's safe-conduct was 
 
LOLLARDISM ON THE CONTINENT 293 
 
 urged in Huss' favour, but in vain, and on 24th June 
 his writings were burned, and on 6th July he himself 
 was burned to death. Even his enemies declared the 
 sentence unjust, as he had never denied transubstantia- 
 tion, though this was often urged against him. 
 
 Huss claimed to be an orthodox Christian confessor, 
 and in a letter declares — " To justify myself I recall 
 to my memory the great number of holy men, of the 
 old and new covenant, who have undergone martyrdom 
 rather than transgress the law : and I who for so many 
 - have preached up patience and constancy under 
 trials, — I, to fall into perjury — I, so shamefully to 
 scandalise the people of God ! Far, far from me be 
 the thought. The Lord Jesus will be my succour and 
 my recompense." To his disciple, the priest Martin, he 
 wrote — " Fear not to die if thou desirest to live with 
 Christ : for He has Himself said — ' Fear not them that 
 kill the body but who cannot kill the soul.' Should 
 they seek after thee, on account of thy adhesion to my 
 doctrines, make them this reply, ' I believe that my 
 master was a good Christian ; but as to what regards 
 his writings and his instructions, I have neither read 
 all nor comprehend all.' " 
 
 Huss seems to have remained full of courage to the 
 very close, for in a late letter he says — " And I also, 
 wretched that I am, if that could contribute to His 
 glory, to the advantage of believers and my own good, 
 could be also delivered by the Lord from chains and 
 death. The power of Him who freed from prison by 
 an angel St. Peter when ready to die at Jerusalem, and 
 \\\\<) caused the chains to fall from his hands, is not 
 diminished. But the will of the Lord be done ! may it 
 be accomplished in me for His glory and for my sins." 
 
294 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Huss was only forty -five when, with his habit 
 around him, he was burned to death. In an old 
 manuscript copy of his works the following words 
 are written : — " As long as John Huss merely declaimed 
 against the vices of the seculars, everyone said that he 
 was inspired with the spirit of God ; but as soon as 
 he proceeded against ecclesiastics, he became an object 
 of odium, for he then really laid his finger on the sore." 
 He was a thorough Roman Catholic, believing in 
 transubstantiation, confession, the intercession of the 
 saints, the adoration of images, works, purgatory, and 
 tradition. Even through an unworthy priest, he held, 
 God works spiritually. Huss was no enemy of Roman 
 doctrines, but only opposed their abuse and extremer 
 consequences. The real causes of the severity of the 
 sentence against Huss were that he saw in the riches 
 of the clergy the source of their spiritual decline and 
 ineptitude ; and, secondly, that while he professed 
 himself obedient to the voice of the Church's council, 
 he attached to this the condition that his own conscience 
 approved, and that the Scripture was obeyed. This, 
 of course, was the foundation-principle of reformation, 
 the recognition of Scripture interpreted by private 
 judgment as an authority superior to Church 
 decisions. 
 
 The day after Huss' execution a notice was affixed 
 to the doors of all the churches in Constance in these 
 words: — "The Holy Ghost to the believers of 
 Constance, greeting : Pay attention to your affairs : 
 as to Us, being occupied elsewhere, we cannot remain 
 any longer in the midst of you. Adieu." The charm- 
 ing old city of Baden, stretching along the shore of 
 the Lake of Constance, will for ever be memorable as 
 
LOLLARDISM ON THE CONTINENT 295 
 
 the scene of the deliberations of a council professedly 
 guided by the Holy Spirit but wofully lacking in His 
 fruits, as that church-door notice grimly indicated. 
 In the fine old cathedral, dating back to 1052, with 
 it- majestic- nave supported by sixteen pillars, each 
 one a single block of stone, there is a brass plate on 
 the floor marking the spot where Huss stood when 
 he received his death-sentence there in 1415. To-day, 
 Constance has many Hussite memorials : his first 
 prison, the Franciscan convent, is in ruins ; his second 
 prison, the Dominican monastery, is now a cotton 
 factory; the house where he resided before his im- 
 prisonment is still standing ; and the guides point out 
 the place in a field outside the town where his stake 
 was raised. The famous council met in the merchants' 
 hall or Kauf-haus, built in 1388, and sat from 1414-18, 
 committing Huss and Jerome of Prague to the flames 
 as a proof of their earnestness in defending the truth, 
 though some of its decisions were lamentably lacking 
 in evidence of spiritual guidance. One of these stands 
 out in lurid colours. The question was submitted to 
 
 fathers in Council as to the justification of the 
 murder of the Duke of Orleans by the Duke of 
 Burgundy. There had been a long feud between the 
 Orleans and the Burgundy factions, and in 1412 the 
 triumphant Orleans party got the University of Paris 
 to condemn seven propositions extracted by its 
 chancellor, the famous Gerson, to whom some have 
 attributed the Imitation of Christ, from the pleadings 
 of John Petit, who had made an apology for and 
 
 rice of the murder. Petit had argued at length 
 
 that it was lawful to kill any tyrant who hatched evil 
 
 g, and that the slayer should receive 
 
296 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 royal rewards, just as Michael the archangel was re- 
 warded for turning Lucifer out of Paradise and 
 Phinehas for cutting off Zimri. These and other 
 sentiments as to the validity of oaths were condemned 
 at the famous " Council of the Faith " held in 1413, 
 and the King ordered the Parliaments of the kingdom 
 to inscribe the sentence in their registers. The Duke 
 of Burgundy appealed to the Pope, John xxiii., who 
 appointed the cardinals of Florence, Aquileia, and Des 
 Ursius to examine into the matter. The Bishop of 
 Paris, who had condemned the doctrines, had his 
 sentence quashed by them, and accordingly Charles 
 VI. appealed to the Constance Council, sending as his 
 own representatives and pleaders two bishops and 
 several doctors, of whom the most brilliant was Gerson, 
 the chancellor of the University of Paris. At the 
 council, Gerson denounced Petit's doctrines with the 
 utmost warmth, declaring that the apology for the 
 murder was more dangerous than the murder itself. 
 And yet Gerson and Huss had much in common, and 
 were both good and great men ; and in the matter of 
 Petit, Gerson strove to clear his soul and conscience 
 of all evil. As a Christian, Gerson's beautiful treatise, 
 De parvwlis ad Christum trahendis, is tender, placid, 
 and generous ; but when the theological rancour was 
 on him he became fierce, bitter, and relentless ; and in 
 his opposition to Petit's views he was strongly 
 seconded by Peter D'Ailly, the cardinal of Cambray, his 
 friend and former master. Altogether Gerson engaged 
 in twenty -two discussions on Petit's theses, and finally 
 he himself with D'Ailly was accused of heresy. The 
 chief charges against Gerson were that he prevented 
 Christians from obeying the Pope, holding that there 
 
LOLLARDISM ON THE CONTINENT 297 
 
 was a higher law and tribunal, and hinting that if 
 John Huss had had certain advocates, he would not 
 have been condemned. Gerson clung to his belief in 
 the power of general councils, and placed their decisions 
 above those ^of Rome. 
 
 The Council of Constance was an enormous and 
 phenomenal gathering of an international character. 
 The main object of the gathering was to settle the 
 peace of the Church. The Council of Pisa had nomin- 
 ally secured unity, and yet Benedict XIII. was still 
 vigorous in Spain and Gregory xii. had a standing in 
 Italy. The Council of Pisa had declared for Pope 
 John, but the acceptance of him was by no means 
 universal. The Council of Constance divided itself 
 into four nations, — Italian, German, French, and 
 English, and each nation deliberated on the question 
 of the Popedom separately. The result was that all 
 the nations except the Italian urged that John xxin. 
 should abdicate, and finally he undertook to do so if 
 Gregory and Benedict would do the same. The 
 disputes between Sigismund and the French became 
 accentuated. John took an independent attitude, and 
 ied from Constance on 20th March, establishing 
 himself at Schaffhausen. The council declared its 
 independence of the Pope, and went on with it 
 business. Ere March closed John retired to Laufen- 
 borg, lower down on the Rhine, and protested against 
 tip council's validity. On 30th March, at its fourth 
 session, the council declared itself independent of the 
 Holy See, and even superior to it. 
 
 In the meantime the cardinals, seeing the reform- 
 
 Jfririt in the council, became alarmed, and, Fearing 
 
 that their interests might be hurt, began to consider 
 
298 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 the position. John xxiil. was charged with a long 
 list of crimes, and on 29th May was deposed by the 
 council, which also agreed that none of the other 
 papal candidates should be recognised, and that no 
 new election should take place without its sanction. 
 The Council of Pisa had set aside two Popes, and 
 recommended John xxiil. ; now the Council of Con- 
 stance deposed him. What a shock to Christendom 
 it must have been to see the warrings over the 
 vicarage of Christ, over the person of him who 
 claimed to be the supreme judge and director of the 
 consciences of men, — of the peasant that tills the 
 field, of the prince that sits on the throne ; of the 
 household that lives in the shade of privacy, and the 
 Legislature that makes laws for kingdoms, who claims 
 to be the sole, last, supreme judge of what is right 
 and wrong. 
 
 The Council of Constance was a reforming council. 
 It deposed John xxiii. ; a few weeks later Gregory xii. 
 abdicated, and Benedict xiii. held a nominal position as 
 Pope in Spain. To eradicate heresy, it burned John 
 Huss, and then proceeded to destroy Jerome of Prague, 
 his most ardent disciple. Wenceslaus, king of 
 Bohemia, and his nobles were incensed at Huss' 
 treatment and the threats against Jerome, and a 
 letter was addressed t# the council, in which, while 
 expressing their devotion to the Roman Church, they 
 declared their intention to allow God's word to be 
 freely preached, and their hope that a worthy Pope 
 might soon be elected. It was the old Wycliffe 
 difficulty over again, — the desire to remain within 
 the Roman Church and yet their thirst for evangelical 
 preaching, teaching, and living. Jerome was at this 
 
LOLLARDISM ON THE CONTINENT 299 
 
 time in irons in the tower of St. Paul's cemetery. 
 The council was irritated at the Bohemian nobles' 
 menacing letter, and, while anxious to put down 
 heresy, hesitated to destroy Jerome for fear of 
 vengeance. -Jerome was pressed to abjure, and, being 
 weak and depressed, like Cranmer he retracted and 
 submitted to the Council. But while he retracted 
 in a way, he still declared his adhesion to the holy 
 truths taught by Wycliffe and John Huss. The 
 Council was dissatisfied. The Cardinal of Cambray 
 and others urged that lie, arguing on realist grounds, 
 had obeyed the council ; but Nason, strong in his 
 orthodoxy, lectured the favourable cardinals, saying, 
 " We are much astonished to find you interceding for 
 this pestiferous heretic, from whom we have received 
 so much injury in Bohemia, and who could very 
 easily cause as much to yourselves. Is it possible 
 that you have been gained over by bribes from the 
 King of Bohemia or from the heretics? Can they 
 have purchased from you the liberty of this man ? " 
 At this the cardinals demanded to be freed from 
 their position as commissioners against Jerome, and 
 new one* were elected, — John de Rocha, Gerson's fierce 
 adversary, and the Patriarch of Constantinople, John 
 Huss' ardent persecutor. Huss saw that his hour 
 had come, and, indignant a&. the injustice of the 
 charges made against him, he courageously declared — 
 to me, I am only a feeble mortal, — my life is of 
 but little importance: and when I exhort you not to 
 deliver an unjust sentence, I speak less for myself 
 than tot you." After having been given several diets 
 to plead his cause, he was condemned, and crowned 
 with a high paper crown on which were painted 
 
3co WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 demons in flames. "Jesus Christ," cried Jerome, in 
 the very same memorable and historical words 
 which Huss had used, and which had become proverbial 
 among the reforming spirits, — "who died for me a 
 sinner, wore a crown of thorns. I will willingly 
 wear this for Him." At the very place where Huss 
 had suffered he was burned, repeating the Apostles' 
 Creed, the Litanies, and a Hymn to the Virgin. " This 
 creed," he said, addressing the crowd, " which I have 
 just sung is my real profession of faith : I die, there- 
 fore, only for not having consented to acknowledge 
 that John Huss was justly condemned. I declare 
 that I have always beheld in him a true preacher of 
 the gospel." The ashes of his body, clothes, and 
 belongings were gathered and thrown into the Rhine, 
 to destroy all memory of him ; but the very ground 
 where his stake was placed was hollowed out, and 
 the earth carried into Bohemia and guarded like 
 earth from the Holy Land with loving care. With 
 childish pique the same council, more than a quarter 
 of a century after his death, ordained that Wycliffe's 
 ashes should get the same treatment, and so his 
 body was exhumed and burned, and the ashes thrown 
 into the Swift; but the Swift bore them into the 
 Wye; and the Wye carried them, as old Fuller says 
 in an oft-quoted passage, into the Severn, and the 
 Severn into the sea — and the sea into the ocean, 
 typical of the way in which the Wyclifie doctrines 
 have been carried all over the world. 
 
PART III 
 
 RESULTS OF WYCLIFFE'S TEACH- 
 ING WITHIN THE ROMAN 
 CHURCH 
 
 The opinions of Wycliffe were destined to have an 
 infinitely wider and deeper influence than either his 
 enemies imagined or he himself ever dreamt. To 
 begin with, his attacks on Church abuses aroused the 
 Church to set her house in order. The action of the 
 Church in first burning and scattering the Reformer's 
 bones and then acting on his opinions and adopting 
 many of his suggestions as to ecclesiastical reform, is 
 strongly suggestive of the Hindu tale, in which an 
 elephant-tamer was hopelessly at a loss what to do 
 with one of his animals which refused to do his 
 bidding. At last he gave the truncated quadruped 
 a severe beating. Some hours later his heart was 
 touched, softened, and melted, when, looking out of 
 verandah, he saw the whipped animal on his 
 hindlegs endeavouring to go through the tricks and 
 perform the steps which he obstinately refused to do 
 before. The Roman Church, like the Oriental 
 quadruped of wisdom, profited by WyclifiVs lash, and 
 qtlietly tried the steps h< i had indicated in the way 
 of reform. The reforming Councils of Constance, 
 
302 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Pisa, and the rest were the first results of Wycliffe's 
 attacks and teachings. 
 
 The Council of Pisa for the first time in history 
 put a definite limitation on the Pope. Hitherto an 
 immoral or wicked Pontiff' could remain in power 
 unchecked and unrestained, unless, indeed, a French 
 King or a German Emperor took in hand to terrorise 
 him. It was not, however, very creditable to the 
 Church, that she had to be regulated and kept right 
 in those eternal principles of righteousness and 
 morality which it was her special vocation and 
 mission to proclaim and extend, by worldly 
 threateners and secular powers. The cardinals, 
 however, at the Council of Pisa took action as to 
 the rival Popes and the scandalous schism caused 
 by Clement vn.'s election. The practical result of 
 the rival papacy was that the belief in Christendom 
 as to a visible and infallible Vicar of Christ was 
 rudely shaken, and the Wycliffe idea spread abroad 
 that " the head of the Church is Christ, and the unity 
 of the Church consists in union with Him and not in 
 union with any particular Pope." The ecclesiastical 
 views propounded at the Council of Pisa by D'Ailly 
 bore the strongest resemblance to Wycliffe's doctrines, 
 and virtually restored to the clergy and laity the 
 rights of which the Pope had robbed them. He held 
 that a general council could be summoned by the 
 cardinals, or even by a company of the faithful, and 
 might call upon the supreme Pontiff for an account of 
 his stewardship. 
 
 On Lady Day, 1409, the council met in the cathedral 
 of Pisa, with twenty-two cardinals and some four 
 hundred prelates and abbots and representatives of 
 
RESULTS OF WYCLIFFE'S TEACHING 303 
 
 the Courts of Europe, excepting Spain, altogether about 
 a thousand members.. Baldassare Cossa was president, 
 — himself afterwards to be made Pope, and to disgrace 
 the tiara. The rival Popes were summoned to appear, 
 but refused; and on 25th May, Gregory and Benedict 
 were pronounced by this council of prelates con- 
 tumacious, and on 5th June they were deposed. The 
 King of Arragon and Benedict's ambassadors begged to 
 be heard, but the council was firm, and proceeded to 
 elect a successor. The president of the council, 
 Baldassare Cossa, was naturally suggested; but he 
 begged to be passed, and the lot fell on Peter Philargi, 
 a learned Greek over seventy years of age, who took 
 as his title Alexander v. Other reforms were con- 
 sidered, and the council dissolved on 7th August 1412, 
 happy in the thought that unity had been restored to 
 Christendom. 
 
 It was, however, only a dream. The cardinals had 
 not reckoned with Benedict and Gregory and their 
 friends, and the result was only to add another claimant 
 to the papal See. Alexander lived less than a year, and 
 favoured the Franciscans, of whom he had been one, 
 to such a violent extent that the University of Paris 
 rose in arms. Cossa, his legate in Italy, fought his 
 claims so strenuously that finally Rome was captured 
 for his side. Baldassare Cossa began life as a pirate ; 
 and, while a man of enormous energy and pushfulness, 
 was absolutely devoid of moral principle and honour- 
 able ideas ; and even Italy stood aghast at his profli- 
 gacies. Naples was, however, menacing Rome, and 
 Cossa was the only man fit to stand in the breach and 
 p the Eternal City for the Pope, and accordingly 
 Alexander^! death he was elected under the title of 
 
304 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 John xxui. Victory was not, however, to be his: 
 Naples grew in strength, and Ladislas, though defeated, 
 was powerfully arrogant, and in June 1411 the Pope 
 had to give way so far as to admit Ladislas to be 
 King of the Sicilies in return for a promise that he 
 would bring about the abdication of Gregory xn. 
 
 The prorogued Pisan Council promised for 1412 took 
 place in Rome in 1413, and began its memorable pro- 
 ceedings by publicly burning WyclinVs writings on 
 the steps of St. Peter's on the 13th of February, and 
 publishing a strong condemnation of his views, — the 
 very views which at Pisa they had so largely adopted 
 and acted on. Strangely, an owl settled on the Pope's 
 head at vespers in the Sistine chapel on the eve of the 
 council's proceedings ; and the ill omen was true, for the 
 council was a failure, did nothing, and informally 
 broke up. John announced another one for December 
 1413, but in the meantime the King of Naples took 
 Rome, the Pope fled, and finally at Cremona put 
 himself under the protection of the German King 
 Sigismund, and Pope and King unitedly fixed a general 
 council to be held at Constance for November 1414, to 
 which Sigismund summoned Gregory and Benedict 
 and the Kings of France and Arragon. 
 
 Ladislas died in the autumn of 1414, and Rome was 
 now safely in John xxiii.'s hands. His political 
 alliance with Sigismund, however, had to be carried 
 out, for the German sovereign was bent on restoring 
 peace, harmony, and unity to Christendom, and 
 accordingly very unwillingly on John's part the 
 Council of Constance began on 5th November 1414. 
 The Council of Pisa thought it had restored unity to 
 Christendom by electing a Pope who owned that 
 
RESULTS OF WYCLIFFE'S TEACHING. 305 
 
 councils were above Popes, and his acceptance of this 
 fundamental position was the reason why he got the 
 popular following which he did. Had he claimed, as 
 Gregory and Benedict each still did, that the Pope had 
 the sole and only voice, his contract would have 
 ceased, and his position would have been forfeited. 
 But even yet Benedict xm. had the support of Spain, 
 and even in Italy many clung to Gregory XII. The 
 position of affairs seemed hopeless. 
 
 The Council of Constance was attended at the close 
 by 5000 members and 100,000 visitors, and set its face 
 vigorously in the direction of Church reform. Firstly, 
 it was urged that the decrees of the Council of Pisa 
 should be recognised, and that for the future, in order 
 to keep the Pope in his right position relative to the 
 cardinals and people generally, as only sharing in the 
 plenitudo potestatis and not absorbing it altogether 
 to the exclusion of everyone else, as the Popes had 
 been doing, — a general council should be held every 
 ten years. D'Ailly desired to acknowledge the Pisan 
 decrees, but deprecated the stringent measures taken 
 towards the Popes, and urged that while Popes have 
 erred, so have councils, and that the councils' decisions 
 ■ only of value as they represented the views of 
 universal Christendom. Sigismund espoused D'Ailly 's 
 \, and declared for reform as the essential pre- 
 liminary to reunion. The ambassadors of Gregory and 
 Benedict were received ; the council divided itself into 
 nations, — Italian, German, French, and English, who 
 debated separately and then held a united conference. 
 The result was known by the 16th of February. The 
 German, French, and English nations voted that 
 John xx m. should .'indicate, while the Italian nation 
 20 
 
306 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 stood by him. At last, on 1st March, he agreed to 
 abdicate on condition that Gregory and Benedict did 
 likewise; on 20th March, however, he suddenly fled 
 from Constance and took refuge at Schaffhausen. 
 The council, though bereft of its papal head, went on, 
 and finally declared that it was not only independent 
 of, but superior to the Pope. John protested against 
 the validity of the council : the cardinals, fearing that 
 Sigismund's proposed reforms would be detrimental to 
 their interests, adopted a Fabian policy, and started a 
 series of discussions which, with other negotiations, 
 kept the council. The end of the matter was, however, 
 that John xxm. was deposed, and a few weeks later 
 Gregory XII. abdicated, while Benedict XIII. retained 
 only a feeble following in Spain. Huss and Jerome 
 of Prague, the troublesome Bohemian Reformers, were 
 burned, Wycliffe's ashes were, at the childish bidding 
 of the council, sent down the Swift to season the 
 whole world, and the council was now face to face with 
 the positive reform and reconstruction of the Holy See 
 and of the Christian faith. The council practically 
 declared itself above the Pope, and there was a strong 
 rush for liberty and reform, — the direct results of 
 Wycliffe's quiet thinkings in Oxford and Lutterworth. 
 There was to be reform, but churchmanship as well. 
 Sigismund took upon himself the role of pacificator, and 
 endeavoured te unite all Europe against the menacing 
 Turks. After countless negotiations, it was agreed to 
 elect a Pope who should reform the Church in the 
 matter of eighteen heads, and this before the council 
 was dissolved. On 11th November the Roman cardinal 
 Oddo Colonna, a poor man of illustrious family and 
 fine character, was elected under the title of Martin V. 
 
RESULTS OF WYCLIFFE'S TEACHING 307 
 
 The Council of Constance had sat for three years, 
 and the several thousand delegates were wearied out. 
 Everyone was anxious to be off, and hopeful of better 
 and brighter days to come. The new Pope began by 
 condemning the heresies of Wycliffe and Huss, and 
 many reforms were passed ; and it was agreed that the 
 eighteen articles of reform should be dealt with by 
 concordats or committees with the different nations. 
 Very little came of sending these matters down to 
 committee, and the next council was to complete the 
 reforming work. On 2 2nd April 1418 the Council of 
 Constance was dissolved. The Council of Pavia in 
 I 128 succeeded it, meeting afterwards at Sienna ; but it 
 was not representative, and the conciliar movement for 
 Church reform would have died out but for its revival 
 in the Council of Basle in 1431, — a council called 
 mainly because Bohemia was in arms. 
 
 Pope Martin v. very soon became universally accepted 
 by a Church which was sick to death of ecclesiastical 
 
 ! actions. John xxm. submitted in 1419 and was 
 rewarded with a cardinal's hat, which he only wore for 
 a short time, when he died. Benedict's cause in Spain 
 gradually vanished. When he died in 1424, three of 
 his cardinals elected his successor Clement vin., and 
 one chose a Pope for himself — Benedict xiv. In 1429 
 
 uent gave in and was made Bishop of Majorca, 
 while in 1432 Benedict was sent to Pope Martin and 
 imprisoned. 
 
 There was now one Pope over Europe, and so far the 
 Council of Constance accomplished the unity of the 
 Church. But Bohemia could not forget Huss and 
 
 •me, and on Wenzel's death in 1419 Sigismund 
 ■ I and found the country in revolution. The 
 
 
308 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Bohemians rose in arms, ruined their churches, destroyed 
 everything that bore the mark of German art or 
 Catholic allegiance. The old Slavonic spirit was 
 re-awakened, and joined hands with the Hussite 
 Puritanism and defied the Pope and the Roman Church. 
 In time this patriotic Hussite party split into Calixtins 
 or those who allowed the cup to the laity in the 
 Supper, and radical reformers of various kinds who took 
 up Wycliffe's socialistic ideas. Chief among the latter 
 was John Zizka, who was an earnest Hussite and an 
 admirable military organiser, and at his camp at 
 Tabor formed a rallying point for the Taborites, finally 
 crushed at the battle of Lipau in 1434. Previous to 
 this the Council of Basle had striven, through Cardinal 
 Giulano Cesarini, legate in Germany and president of 
 the council, to make peace with Bohemia on very 
 generous terms. But the C^ech or radical religious 
 movement could not be crushed, and spread from 
 Bohemia into Germany and beyond, — the extreme 
 reforming party being known as the " Unitas Fratrum," 
 or Bohemian Brethren or Moravians. It was to this 
 impulse that the Waldensian communities in Dauphine 
 and Piedmont owed their chief features. The Council 
 of Basle was summoned mainly to settle the Bohemian 
 difficulty ; but after doing its best in that direction it 
 tried to institute a perpetual control over the Pope, and 
 introduced many reforming ideas regarding clerical 
 life and conduct, freedom of election in churches, 
 reductions in the number of cardinals, and above all 
 the abolition of the right to levy dues on appointments 
 to a benefice, — one of the special reforms demanded 
 at an earlier day by Wycliffe. Charles vn. of France, 
 in 1438, by the "Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges," 
 
RESULTS OF WYCLIFFE'S TEACHING 309 
 
 recognised the council and placed its decrees, especially 
 the matter of papal dues, on a legal footing in France. 
 Afi with Wycliffe, he did not wish to see the money 
 going out of the country into papal cofters with no 
 visible return. 
 
 In 1438 the Diet of Mentz published a similar 
 approval for Germany., 
 
 And then the Holy See took alarm. Martin v. died 
 in 1431 and Eugenius IV. succeeded him, and, fearing 
 further reforms, dissolved the council, which the fathers 
 not only refused to do, but pronounced him disobedient 
 to their will and worthy of suspension. Eugenius 
 defied the general council, and held an independent 
 council of his own at Ferrara and afterwards at 
 Florence, and by these means seemed, at any rate, to 
 score a success by reuniting the Greek Church with 
 the Roman See, — a success which was very short lived, 
 as the old cleavage again appeared with increased 
 emphasis. It was now a war between council and 
 Pope, and the council deposed Eugenius and chose an 
 anti-Pope Felix v. Eugenius, however, gained the day ; 
 1 abdicated : the Council of Basle died of exhaus- 
 tion in 1448, and it was proved to the satisfaction of 
 Christendom that the conciliar and papal supremacy 
 v absolutely incompatible. A reaction came all 
 over Christendom in favour of the papal as against the 
 conciliar idea. In 1448 the Mentz decrees were 
 abolished. iEneas Sylvius Piccolomini, afterwards 
 Pope Pius 11., a clever Italian, engineered the matter 
 and restored harmonious relations between council and 
 Pope, although at the same time serving his own ends 
 and grinding his own axe/ 
 
 Pope Eugenius died on 27th February 1447, within 
 
3io WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 sight of the triumphs of the Vicar of Christ which his 
 successors were to behold. The Pope arose out of all 
 these contests with councils and kings a greater political 
 and social force and power than ever. Nicholas v. suc- 
 ceeded him in 1447, and was becoming the patron of 
 Humanism when the Turks knocked at the door of 
 Christendom once more, and the Pope was called upon to 
 become chief defender of the Faith. In 1444 Cardinal 
 Cesarini led a Hungarian army against the infidel and 
 was defeated. Panic seized all Christendom. Nicholas 
 proclaimed a crusade, but Germany was weak and 
 divided. In 1456 Callixtus in. became Pope, and led 
 the crusading cause. The Turks were beaten back at 
 Belgrade. In 1458 Pius n. succeeded, and again 
 initiated crusades, although regarded as the model of 
 the secular man of letters of his time. He knew what 
 was expected of him and he did it, and organised the 
 last crusade. The Popes up till then were the 
 champions of Christendom and the leaders of the 
 crusades against the infidels: from this date this 
 aspect of their life and character waned, and they con- 
 fined themselves chiefly to Italy, — the sovereigns of 
 the Papal States in the first place, and the Vicars of 
 Christ for the world in the second. 
 
 The claim of the Pope to be the supreme judge 
 and director of the consciences of men, of the 
 peasant that tills the field, of the prince that sits on 
 the throne, of the household that lives in the shadow 
 of privacy, and the legislature that makes laws for 
 kingdoms, the sole, last, supreme judge of what is right 
 and wrong, was still adhered to; but as a matter of 
 historical fact the special end and aim of the Holy See 
 from this time forward and for several generations 
 
RESULTS OF WYCLIFFE'S TEACHING 311 
 
 was the conservation of the Pope's temporal dominions 
 and his status as a European prince, with his own 
 territories, court, and army, and thus he came to live 
 in an exclusively Italian world, content that, if this 
 were secure, his spiritual sovereignty over the earth 
 would generally be acknowledged and accepted. 
 
 The spirit of reform, however, was abroad all over 
 Europe, — the first reform movement initiated by the 
 Lutterworth rector. The Council of Basle came to a 
 somewhat ignominious ending, but the desire was 
 widely expressed all over Christendom that another 
 council should be convened to settle the disputes and 
 difficulties which beset the Church on every side. 
 France and Germany especially were loud in their 
 demands for a new council, while England remained 
 for the most part silent. Except among those who 
 were immediately around the Pope, the feeling was 
 general that if the Church was to be a living spiritual 
 power in the world, a better religious and moral 
 example must be set by its head, and the general 
 demoralisation of the Church and its courts rectified. 
 The same feeling was over the Roman Church as in the 
 post- Reformation epoch, — a feeling of despair and hope- 
 11 ess and distrust, from which the latter was saved 
 only by the joyful news of the triumph of Christian 
 missions in the Far East, where St. Francis Xavier and 
 hifl companions won fresh triumphs for Christ's Cross. 
 
 Spain began the work of ecclesiastical reform with 
 great zeal and much promise. The long crusade of 
 Christians against the menacing Moors kept alive the 
 zeal for Catholicism. Ferdinand of Arragon and 
 Isabella of Castile, when they united the two crowns, 
 carried on the reforming work inside the Church, 
 
312 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 curtailing the Pope's patronage and coming to terms 
 with the Pope, so that Sixtus I v. undertook that onJy 
 Spaniards approved by the Crown should be appointed 
 to the high offices of the Church. Papal Bulls, having 
 to do with the legal rights of private persons, were to 
 be held invalid unless approved by the civil courts. 
 The Church and its spiritual revenues were to be 
 taxed as in other secular cases. Cardinal Ximenes 
 introduced reforms regarding Church discipline by 
 which only men of high moral and spiritual attainments 
 could hold ecclesiastical offices, and, himself a friar of 
 the most ascetic order, reproved monastic irregularities, 
 deposed ill-doing Churchmen from their offices, and so 
 used the royal patronage that only learned and pious 
 men were made prelates. 
 
 Observing the miserable educational standard of the 
 rank and tile of the clergy, he founded colleges and 
 seminaries, which in course of time turned out scores 
 of eminent divines and scholars. Spanish Christianity, 
 from its close association with Moorish Mohammedan- 
 ism, was now largely militant ; and not only were the 
 Moors gradually driven out of the country, leaving 
 behind them stately memorials of their presence in the 
 Alhambra and other Oriental structures, but the Jews 
 were next taken in hand and subjected to fierce 
 persecution. In Rome at the present day the buildings 
 of the Inquisition are entirely closed ; and perhaps itjia 
 as well, for the memory of its doings is far from being 
 fragrant ; but it was not really in Italy but in Spain 
 that the Holy Office had its first beginning. It was 
 Pope Sixtus iv. who in 1480 founded the Inquisition, 
 originally an ecclesiastical court to deal with heresies 
 and to punish offenders with spiritual penalties, and if 
 
RESULTS OF WYCLIFFE'S TEACHING 313 
 
 necessary to hand them over to the civil powers for 
 physical treatment. The civil and ecclesiastical powers 
 worked hand in hand to suppress heresy and disorder. 
 But the reforming movements inside the Church were 
 not confined to the suppression of error and heresy ; 
 the humanist movement took a curious phase, not as 
 in Italy in drawing away men's minds from religion 
 and theology, but in deepening and enlarging faith. 
 Cardinal Ximenes brought out the first polyglot Bible, 
 — the fruit of the revival of Greek and the Renaissance 
 spirit, of which Dante was the leading prophet. 
 
 The real cause of the attraction Dante has had for 
 six centuries, and still has for those who read him, lies 
 in the vast comprehensiveness of his intellectual view, 
 combined with the deepest and tenderest human 
 feeling. Dante still shows us, as no other writer 
 does, how he took the fruit of knowledge for his food ; 
 how he lived through life and overcame it, till his 
 spirit moved in the realm of moral freedom, which is 
 the earthly paradise to every toiling man. 
 
 The reforming spirit within the Church appeared 
 even in Italy, but it became more of an intellectual 
 than a religious movement, indeed to some extent 
 it developed into rationalism and even infidelity. 
 Florence was to a great extent the centre of this 
 wonderful influence, which had as its object the restora- 
 tion of Greek forms of thought and reasoning, and the 
 substitution of Plato for the long-worshipped Aristotle. 
 Marsiglio Ficino and his pupil Giovanni Pico della 
 Mirandola were the leading spirits of this Florentine 
 school of thought, which, echoing the Alexandrian 
 Neo-Platonists, tried to fuse Platonic thought with 
 Hebrew and Christian ideas, — an effort which very 
 
314 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 nearly brought Pico to be excommunicated by the 
 Holy See. But the leading reforming spirit in Italy in 
 the middle of the fifteenth century was Girolamo 
 Savonarola, an ascetical Dominican friar in St. Mark's, 
 Florence, who threw himself enthusiastically against 
 the cold religious indifference of his age, and with 
 tongues of fire warned Florence of its coming doom. 
 His pure and blameless life, his purity of faith and 
 doctrine, made him a marvellous power as a preacher 
 of righteousness, to whom sin was sin whether in the 
 Vatican or in the noble house of the Medici. He came 
 to believe himself to be the God-sent saviour of Italy ; 
 and when, after scourging the sins of the Medici, he 
 declared in apocalyptic style that the scourge of God 
 would come, unfortunately, when Charles viii. and the 
 French invaded Italy, he regarded them as the messengers 
 of Heaven to chasten Italy. The embassy sent out to 
 meet Charles included Savonarola himself, and when 
 the Medici were driven from power, Savonarola and 
 his party became all-powerful. And then the tide 
 turned, and after a year the French beat an ignoble 
 retreat, leaving Savonarola and his party to face the 
 wrath of the Pope. The intrepid friar was first for- 
 bidden to preach, to which he replied by denouncing 
 the Roman See ; for which he was excommunicated on 
 13th May 1497. Still Florence was with him, and the 
 magistrates asked him to resume preaching in the 
 cathedral. The Pope was distinguished for few virtues, 
 and a general desire was abroad for a general council 
 to reform the Church, — a movement naturally favoured 
 by Charles viii. for political reasons, and by the fiery 
 monk from a pure desire to see the Augsean stable 
 cleansed. A reaction set in in Florence against 
 
RESULTS OF WYCLIFFE'S TEACHING 315 
 
 Savonarola, and he was taken prisoner on 8th April 
 1498 and brought to his trial. Under the severest 
 torture he admitted his heresy like Cranmer, and even 
 declared himself, through a heated examination, to be 
 a prophet of lies ; whereupon the Pope sent commis- 
 sioners to Florence, and after a strict trial he and two 
 of his disciples were declared heretics, and on the 23rd 
 of May were hanged on a gallows in the old Florentine 
 palace and burned to death. Savonarola's only offence 
 was that he desired the ecclesiastical reforms initiated 
 by the Council of Constance to be carried through ; but 
 insensibly the religious and ecclesiastical questions in- 
 volved glided into the sphere of politics ; and though his 
 only desire as a Reformer was to put into practice the 
 proposals of Gerson and D'Ailly, and himself considered 
 that he was a religious martyr, he was only the scape- 
 goat of political expediency, and was in every sense of 
 the word the subject, like the Nazarene Himself, of a 
 judicial murder. Not religion, but ecclesiastical 
 politics, organised from the Vatican, sent Savonarola to 
 the stake. In reality his voice was only the continua- 
 tion of the protest raised by the Council of Constance 
 and by individual Churchmen against the abuses of the 
 Holy See and the corruptions of the Vatican and of 
 the Church generally. 
 
 The reforming movement which was felt in Spain 
 and Italy spread to Germany, where, long before the 
 Reformation set in, there was heard the voice of " an 
 infant crying for the light," — the desire of great and 
 good men to have the Church made more worthy of 
 her high calling, and more truly real in the practice 
 of that faith which she professed. Among those 
 ier Reformers in Germany whose thoughts never 
 
316 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 drifted towards separation but only towards purifica- 
 tion and betterment, were the various Mystics, the 
 Friends of God, the Brethren of the Common Life, and 
 others, some of them moderate, others extravagant in 
 their spiritual views and aspirations. One of the 
 earliest of these, Master Eckhart, in the fourteenth 
 century, was an earnest disciple of St. Thomas Aquinas, 
 and, like Wycliffe, spread the gospel of Christ among 
 the common people by popular preaching and preachers ; 
 and he with Taulcr and others stirred up a fresh desire 
 for the reform of abuses in the Church, though never 
 in the direction of revolutionary and separatist 
 measures. The Mystics were the spiritually and 
 devotionally-minded men within the Church, and all 
 they asked was that the Bride of Christ should be 
 reasonably worthy of her great Head, and that by 
 personal piety and a deepened spiritual life she should 
 prove herself Christ's Angel upon earth, crowned with 
 stars and clothed with the sun. Their aspirations in 
 the direction of a deeper realisation of religious ideals 
 have been often revived not only in the Roman but 
 in the Reformed Churches, and even in the Churches 
 of the present day, when mechanicalism, formalism, 
 and indifference have become paramount. The 
 Brethren of the Common Life, who had their origin 
 in the house founded by Gerard Groot at De venter, 
 were very much on the same lines; and leaving 
 ecclesiastical reforms as dealt with by councils to 
 Providence, set themselves about cultivating personal 
 piety and family devotion. Whether the Imitation of 
 Christ was written by Thomas a Kempis, and came 
 from their inner circle, or was the work of Gerson, 
 will probably never be settled : it will in all probability 
 
RESULTS OF WYCLIFFE'S TEACHING 317 
 
 for ever remain a riddle, like the Casket Letters, the 
 Bruce-Logan poems, the Epics of Ossian, and the other 
 mysteries of literature. At any rate, the Common Life 
 Brethren knew and loved the Imitatio, and had no 
 small hand in giving and revealing to a Christendom 
 which had lost its first love and early fire, and to a 
 world which was growing old and weary at heart, a 
 soul-manual which is acceptable to every Christ- 
 follower and nourishing to every earth -pilgrim. If 
 the Pilgrim's Progress gives the list of Christian 
 enemies and struggles, the Imitation tells the story 
 of Christian peace and communion with the Lord, and 
 both manuals together form an incomparable guide- 
 book to heaven. In addition to the cultivation of 
 devotion, however, the Common Life Brethren through 
 personal and individual influence strove to purify 
 the monastic life and elevate the tone of German 
 ( lnistianity, the chief mover in this direction, strange 
 to say, being the papal legate himself (1451), Nicolas 
 
 hs of Cues, commonly styled Cusanus, who had 
 been educated at Deventer and attended the Council 
 <>t Basle, following in the main the general policy of 
 ^Eneas Sylvius. The Renaissance spirit which was 
 bringing fresh intellectual life to Italy gradually 
 spread to Germany through the influx of the young 
 men of the Fatherland, who imbibed the sentiments of 
 a high intellectualism and a serene morality, which, 
 coining home, they diffused all over the country of 
 
 i birth. From having only five universities in 
 
 the fourteenth century, Germany in the early yearn 
 
 of tli- tilt-filth increase. I them to seventeen. The 
 
 it seized the country through this strong 
 
 Italian influence aii'l I lunianism became the rage. 
 
318 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Nor was it entirely a secular movement, for the spirit 
 of revival touched the sphere of German theology, and 
 such men as Agricola and Reuchlin strove to bring 
 fresh ideas and thoughts into what had hitherto been 
 a dry mediaeval study ; and in this reinvigorated 
 theology its pioneers were enormously assisted by the 
 newly discovered art of printing, which became the 
 special handmaid of knowledge both secular and 
 sacred. 
 
 It must be clearly understood that in this revival 
 movement there was no disloyalty to the Catholic 
 faith. Christian worship was never more reverently 
 attended to, the Virgin never more affectionately 
 invoked, while miracles, relics, pilgrimages, and the 
 things generally against which the Lutheran Reforma- 
 tion set its face were never more assiduously believed 
 in. It was a reforming movement from within, 
 instigated by earnest devotional spirits who wished 
 the Church to return to its first love. The pale-faced, 
 gentle neophyte, who in the historic picture is 
 represented standing in the monastery stall with 
 coarse, red-faced, sensual, spitting monks beside and 
 opposite him, represents very faithfully the attitude 
 and position of these spiritually - minded men who 
 sighed after heaven and God. What must they have 
 thought and felt towards the unspiritual wire-pullers 
 who in Rome and Germany were managing the house- 
 hold of faith ? The news of papal corruptions, of 
 course, reached their ears, and cooled their ardour in 
 giving and their loyalty in defending the institution ; 
 but still the spirit of opposition tarried in making its 
 appearance. Even Indulgences were accepted by them, 
 until, seeing the gross abuse of this form of spiritual 
 
RESULTS OF WYCLIFFE'S TEACHING 319 
 
 shopkeeping, John of Wesel, a theological teacher in 
 the University of Erfurt, attacked the practice, only 
 to be silenced by an ominous threat from the hierarchy. 
 Another John Wessel of Groningen, trained by the 
 Common Life Brethren, preached and taught what was 
 on one side practically Wycliffism in the matter of 
 being guided solely by the Bible, and Lutheranism in 
 the matter of justification by faith in Christ alone. 
 In addition, he wished a return, — one of the foundation 
 ideas of the system in which he had been trained, to 
 the primitive life of the early Christians. A beautiful 
 and simple life like his disarmed all opposition, and 
 he neither attacked the Church nor suffered for his 
 opinions. In addition, the Bohemian brethren were 
 leavening Germany with their principles and ideas, — 
 some of them as to Church and State being revolu- 
 tionary and extreme, but the national antagonism 
 between Germany and Bohemia prevented any general 
 acceptance of their ultra-reforming notions. The 
 spirit of the reforming portion of the German people 
 not revolutionary : only reforms of gross abuses 
 were called for, and the study of Scripture, the 
 Renaissance spirit, the thirst of the land for a spiritual 
 Church and for spiritual Churchmen, brought about 
 rations which gradually deepened into criticisms 
 of the existing state of affairs, and finally culminated 
 in the German Reformation, led by a homely Teuton, a 
 miner's son, who gathered up the feelings of his country, 
 and so spoke them and acted them that finally he 
 shook the world. 
 
 In England practically the same movement took the 
 
 form of development The Humanist movement 
 
 led a number of earnest Churchmen like John Colet, 
 
320 WYCLJFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Dean of St. Paul's, whose disciple Erasmus was, to 
 live more earnest Christian lives after Bible patterns. 
 The spirit of Wycliffe was mingled with the spirit of 
 the Renaissance. But, as in Germany, in course of 
 development, aspiration became criticism, and criticism 
 led to opposition, and opposition to revolution and 
 reformation. The English Reformation was a mixed 
 movement, partly the culminating of the old Wycliffe 
 influences, partly the result of Henry's rupture with 
 the Pope, but chiefly through the infusion of the 
 German reforming spirit, with the little monk of 
 Erfurt at its head. 
 
 Reforming Churchmen all over Europe still hoped 
 for another general council, which would continue the 
 work of the Council of Basle, and at last, after many 
 hopes deferred and struggles protracted, Pope Julius II., 
 the successor of Alexander II., so exasperated his 
 cardinals that they summoned the famous Council of 
 Pisa, held in the cathedral of the leaning tower and 
 Galileo's swinging lamp. Both of these objects were 
 typical of the state of mind of these cardinals, for 
 uncertainty was in the air as to everything. This 
 council (1511) was afterwards moved to Milan. In 
 counterblast to these councils, Pope Julius summoned 
 a council in 1512 in the Lateran Palace ; the cardinals 
 suspended the Vicar of Christ for not obeying their 
 orders to appear at Milan, to which the Pope replied 
 by declaring their council void and themselves guilty 
 of schism. Partly owing to the state of Italy and to 
 the fact that the council which had a Pope at its head 
 was more acceptable than a rabble of rebellious 
 cardinals, Julius triumphed, though he died before his 
 council finished. Leo x., who succeeded him, continued 
 
RESULTS OF WYCLIFFE'S TEACHING 321 
 
 his predecessor's policy, and reassembled the Lateran 
 Council, the cardinals moved their council from Milan 
 to Lyons, and finally submitted, uniting in the Lateran 
 Council with their head in the great work of restoring 
 the faith and practice of the Church. The spread of 
 Humanism must have been enormous, when the council 
 found it necessary to pronounce a decree declaring the 
 immortality and individuality of the soul, and for- 
 bidding the clergy to spend more than five years in 
 secular studies, — evidently the newly discovered Greek 
 works set free by the fall of Constantinople, which 
 were changing the intellectual and moral temper of 
 Europe, and even leavening the Church and the Holy 
 See itself, — unless theology and canon law were added 
 to these studies. The council then discussed the 
 reform of the Vatican and of the monastic orders ; but 
 procrastination was the predominant spirit. In 1515 
 some small decrees were passed. In 1516, when the 
 council re-assembled, Pope Leo felt strong enough in 
 his position to take definite action. The council 
 warned preachers to avoid dangerous and scandalous 
 topics, annulled the Pragmatic Sanction which gave 
 the Gallican Church special liberties, resulting in a 
 practical gain to Francis L, enlarged the powers of 
 
 >ps and priests, and dissolved on 16th March 1517. 
 
 only important result of the Lateran Council was 
 that the French Church was humiliated, while reforms, 
 over which the members were hopelessly divided, were 
 practically passed by on the other side. The Courts 
 of Europe, saving France, took no notice of a council 
 which practically showed its imbecility and power- 
 lessness to act in the eyes of the world so marvellously, 
 that the popular feeling over a large portion of 
 21 
 
322 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 Christendom was that if the Church and its officers 
 could not cleanse the Temple, it was high time that 
 someone else came in with his scourge, not of small 
 but of thick cords, to drive out the weaklings who 
 posed as the Church's heads. That someone else 
 came, in the person of Martin Luther, who threw his 
 ink-bottle at the devil and his theses at the Pope. 
 From the quiet rectory of Lutterworth, with its earnest 
 seeker after truth, to the church door of Wiirtemberg, 
 and Luther hammering up his written charges against 
 the Pope, is a far cry ; but the one scene is the parent 
 of the other, and Wycliffe was in the largest sense 
 the Morning Star of the Reformation. 
 
 The saintly, simple, and well-beloved Guiseppe Sarto- 
 Joseph Taylor, Patriarch of Venice, was crowned Pope 
 of Rome, Pius x., in August 1903. The venerable Leo 
 xiii. on his deathbed was encouraged as he passed 
 through the valley of the shadow by his cardinals' 
 assurance — " Our prayers will help you " ; to which he 
 whispered in reply, " I am going to eternity." Sarto's 
 election was a compromise ; and when he heard the news 
 he fainted, and little wonder, at the thought of the 
 awful responsibilities laid upon one frail human being. 
 He went forth from the city of St. Mark, with its canals, 
 amid the tears and laments of everybody. He often 
 pawned his episcopal ring to raise money for the 
 destitute ; and when he was elected Sovereign Pontiff 
 the fish-seal was out. All Venice followed him out 
 in sorrowful farewell. I was present at his coronation 
 
RESULTS OF WYCLIFFE'S TEACHING 323 
 
 in St. Peter's. The vanishing nature of all earthly- 
 crowns was illustrated to him, as of old, by the melting 
 of a waxen toy edifice in a golden bowl. " Sic transit 
 gloria mundi." On the day following, wandering 
 through the endless and glorious arcades and galleries 
 of the Vatican, I saw a little crowd gathered round 
 one of the innumerable glass cases in these miles of 
 treasure-halls. An aged, gentle, saintly-looking divine 
 in black cassock and bands, with his comely youthful 
 cha plain beside him, was on the outside fringe. It 
 turned out that he was a canon of Rouen Cathedral, 
 down for the coronation. I asked him respectfully 
 what was the object of interest, to which query he 
 courteously replied : " It is the Codex Vaticanus — Codex 
 B " ; and, turning again round to me, added — " It is 
 the greatest treasure of the Vatican, and the most 
 precious thing in the world." I was glad to hear him 
 say so, — that the Holy Scripture was the greatest thing 
 in the world. It was exactly what John Wycliffe said 
 five and a half centuries before. It is what the Roman 
 rch will yet come to see, and is coming to see every 
 day, in spite of trammelling superstition and deadening 
 mechanical ism. It is what the world will yet see, for 
 Dean Stanley's favourite text carved round his monu- 
 ment in Westminster Abbey sums the whole matter 
 up — " I have seen an end of all perfection, but Thy 
 commandment is exceeding broad." 
 
324 WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS 
 
 NOTE TO PAGE 147 
 
 Sir E. M. Thompson, director and librarian of the British 
 Museum, in his little volume prepared for the Exhibition of 
 Wycliffe MSS. and relics in 1884, has enumerated the MSS., and 
 commented on them with great fulness, as also the pre-Wycliffite 
 translations of the Bible and service-books in English. These 
 latter he summarises as follows : — 
 
 1. The " Lindisfarue Gospels" or "Durham Book," written about 
 
 709 A.D. by Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarue, in honour of his pre- 
 decessor S. Cuthbert. It is a magnificently illuminated volume, 
 containing the Vulgate Gospels, with interlinear translations and 
 glorious illuminations, and is now one of the treasures of the 
 British Museum. 
 
 2. The Four Gospels in Anglo-Saxon — ix century. 
 
 3. The Four Gospels in Anglo-Saxon — xii century. 
 
 4. Pentateuch and Joshua in Anglo-Saxon, by Alfric, Archbishop of 
 
 Canterbury (1006). 
 
 5. Psalter and canticles, prayers and hymns— 700 A.D. 
 
 6. Psalter with canticles, creeds, etc. — x century. 
 
 7. Psalter with canticles, creeds and hymns — xi century. 
 
 8. Psalter — metrical translation in northern dialect — xiv century. 
 
 9. Psalter — metrical translation — xiv century. 
 
 10. Psalter — metrical translation— xiv century. 
 
 11. Psalter in Latin and English — xiv century. 
 
 12. Psalter in Latin and English, with English commentary— xiv century. 
 
 13. Psalter in Latin and English, with English commentary by Richard 
 
 Rolle— 1400 A.D. 
 
 14. Ditto, revised by a Lollard, 1450. 
 
 15. Treatise in dialogue form between two people embodying Bible his- 
 
 tory— c. 1390. 
 
 16. The Lay Folks' Mass-book in English, with devotions for the people— 
 
 1170-5. 
 
 17. Prymer or prayer-book, containing psalms and prayers— c. 1420. 
 
 18. Ditto, revised, with a calendar. Opposite May 21, 1382, is the entry, 
 
 " Here was the earthquake," — the event which made Wycliffe's 
 11 Earthquake Synod " famous. 
 
 The learned and courteous chief-librarian of the British Museum 
 has kindly allowed me to make these extracts from his valuable 
 book, besides personally showing me the more valuable MSS. in 
 the Museum under his care. 
 
NOTES 325 
 
 NOTE TO PAGE 264 
 
 The Rev. Professor Cooper, D.D., Glasgow University, kindly- 
 gives the following note : 
 
 " The only Wickliffite MS. we have in the Hunterian is a MS. 
 copy of his Bible in the original boards : a small thick quarto. It 
 presents no peculiarity, and its provenance is not known : it came 
 to us as part of Dr. William Hunter's collection. Still it is inter- 
 esting that a copy of the work remains in the city where the 
 Lollards of Kyle so narrowly escaped— it is said by one Scottish 
 king's graciousness — the fate which so many of their brethren 
 underwent at the hands of the cruel— if glorious— Plantagenets. 
 Henry v. was one of their bitterest persecutors. 
 
 " The Stuarts had their faults ; and one would not like to have 
 been obliged to trust the tender mercies of Charles 11. and 
 James vn. ; and even James 1., our poet-king, brought cruel 
 notions of severity from his English prison. But naturally the 
 Stuarts were gentle." 
 
 92 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abelard, 7. 
 Alfred, 43. 
 JErius, 3. 
 Agnes' Eve, 75. 
 Agobard, 3. 
 Albigenses, 10. 
 Alderson, 145. 
 Alexander n., 123. 
 Alfred, 151. 
 Ambrose, 82. 
 Anne of Bohemia, 283. 
 Anselm, 7. 
 Arundel, 163, 206. 
 Aston, John, 201. 
 Athanasius, 104. 
 Avignon, 74, 105, 121. 
 
 Babylonish Captivity, 74. 
 
 Ball, John, 135. 
 
 Balliol College, 60, 66. 
 
 Barnard Castle, 35. 
 
 Beaton, Cardinal, 270. 
 
 Bede, 151. 
 
 Beghards, 15. 
 
 Beguines, 
 
 Bernard of Clugny, 65. 
 
 Black Friars, 121. 
 
 Bohemian Brethren, 308, 319. 
 
 I in., 71. 
 Bracton, 2'.k 
 
 Bradwardine, 31. 
 Bruges, 74, 97. 
 Burscher, Archbishop, 229. 
 Bute, Marquis of, 191. 
 
 Csedmon, 59, 148. 
 
 Caitiff, Poor, 141. 
 
 Canossa, 82. 
 
 Canterbury Convocation, 101. 
 
 Chichely, 223. 
 
 Claude of Turin, 5. 
 
 Clement v., 74. 
 
 Clement vn., 112, 156. 
 
 Cobham, Lord, 216. 
 
 Colet, Dean, 237. 
 
 Columba, 36. 
 
 Constance, Council of, 225, 291. 
 
 Courtenay, 102, 137. 
 
 Craig, John, 188. 
 
 Culdees, 37, 253. 
 
 Cuthbert, 44. 
 
 Dante, 313. 
 Dominic, 116. 
 Dominicans, 17. 
 Durham MS., 147. 
 
 K .11 thquake Council, 138. 
 Bokhart, 816, 
 Egglestoue, 58. 
 
 Ml 
 
328 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Fitzralph, 30. 
 Forshall, 151. 
 Fox, 251. 
 Francis, 114. 
 Franciscans, 17, 113. 
 Friars, 113, 128. 
 
 Gaunt, John of, 103. 
 Gospel Oaks, 133. 
 Gregory xi., 111. 
 Grossetete, 25. 
 
 Henry viii., 247. 
 
 Hereford, Nicholas, 141, 159. 
 
 Heretics, 80. 
 
 Hughes, William, 184, 195. 
 
 Humanists, 319. 
 
 Hunne, Richard, 239. 
 
 Huss, John, 290. 
 
 Indulgences, 253. 
 Innocent in., 86. 
 Inquisition, 312. 
 Isidorian Decretals, 76. 
 Islip, Simon, 66. 
 
 James I., 214. 
 Jerome, 155. 
 Jerome of Prague, 298. 
 JohD, King, 24, 71, 90. 
 John of Gaunt, 93. 
 Jovinian, 4. 
 
 Kennedy, 275. 
 Knighton, 164. 
 Knox, 259. 
 Kyle Lollards, 262. 
 
 Lambeth, 109. 
 Lancaster, Duke of, 101. 
 Lasserre, Henri, 178. 
 Lincoln College, 225. 
 
 Lindisfanie, 147. 
 Lindsay, Sir David, 48, 174. 
 Lollards, 132, 199. 
 Luther, 135, 322. 
 Lutterworth, 99, 157. 
 
 Manning, 34, 87. 
 Marsiglio, 22. 
 Martin v., 307. 
 Merton, 62. 
 Miracle Plays, 166. 
 Moors, 312. 
 "Mysteries," 170. 
 Mystics, 316. 
 
 Neville, Archbishop, 230. 
 
 Nicholas in., 19. 
 
 Nicholas v., 310. 
 
 Nisbet's Scots Testament, 265. 
 
 Oaths, 79. 
 Observants, 20. 
 Ockhani, William of, 21. 
 Offices of State, 94. 
 Olivi, 20. 
 Oxford, 108, 212. 
 
 Parker, John, 203. 
 Parliament, "Good," 100. 
 Pecock, Bishop, 228. 
 Percy, Lord, 103. 
 Peter's Pence, 100. 
 Philip the Fair, 72. 
 Piers Plowman, 32, 122. 
 Pisa, 302. 
 Pius ix., 88. 
 
 " Poor Preachers," 166, 200. 
 Pope's Curse, 84. 
 Popes of Rome, 77. 
 Praemunire, 96, 231. 
 Prague, 285. 
 | Purvey, John, 143. 
 
INDEX 
 
 329 
 
 Quintin, Kennedy, 263. 
 
 Radbert, 7. 
 Ratramnus, 7. 
 Resby, John, 210. 
 Richard 11., 106. 
 Richard of Armagh, 30. 
 Russel, 275. 
 Ruth well Cross, 149. 
 
 Sarto, Guiseppe, 322. 
 Savonarola, 314. 
 Sawtree, William, 208. 
 Shepherd's Calendar, 246. 
 Spresswell, 56. 
 Stanley, Dean, 187, 323. 
 Stevenson, Father, 177, 194. 
 Sudbury, Archbishop, 111. 
 Sum of Theology, 141. 
 Swift, 144. 
 
 Thorpe, William, 210. 
 Trialogus, 134. 
 Tunstall, 249. 
 
 Tyball, 250. 
 Tyler, Wat, 135. 
 
 Urban vi., 112. 
 
 Vaticanus, Codex, 323. 
 Vigilantius, 4. 
 Vulgate, 142. 
 
 Walden, 184. 
 Waldenses, 9. 
 Wenceslaus, 283. 
 Wicket, 137. 
 Wishart, 278. 
 Wycliffe Bible MSS., 160. 
 Wye, 300. 
 Wykeham, 95. 
 
 Xavier, 311. 
 Ximenes, 312. 
 
 Young Movements, 2. 
 
 2i2ka, John, 308. 
 
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