its acme.

sovereign in his resistance to the pope's pretensions. The pope found advocates of his claims, however: of these, one in particular, a monk, profound, subtle, and eloquent, put forth a treatise, which produced on the public mind a strong impression against the king. Wickliffe sat down to pen an answer to this work, and, bringing to his task equal talents, with the auxiliaries of common sense and sacred scripture, completely overwhelmed his antagonist. This brought him into more notice, and procured for him the patronage of government. In 1372, he was elected professor of divinity at Oxford, and thus placed on the summit of an eminence, whence, in all directions, he could pour streams of gospel light into the surrounding darkness. The appearance of such a man in such a place was as novel and startling as that of a burning citadel on the brow of a promontory at the hour of midnight, and nearly as astounding and universal was the alarm and excitement produced by it. The glory of the scholastic theology had now reached The schoolmen, infatuated by the perverted philosophy of Aristotle, were busy perplexing truth instead of elucidating it, and pertinaciously pursuing the most frivolous inquiries under the title of learning, to the utter extinction of all piety and all peace. While such themes were the subject of meditation in the cloister, and of prelection in the academic chair, what was to be expected from the pulpit but kindred disquisitions equally impious and useless? These were intermingled with the dreams of the fathers and the traditions of the church, with false miracles and legendary tales, as destitute of truth as repugnant to common sense. The former satisfied the educated and metaphysical; the latter gratified the passion of the wonder-loving multitude; and thus the delusions of Romanism were fostered, and the interests of the monastic orders advanced with the public. In this state of things, if Wickliffe's situation was advantageous, it was also eminently critical; and at the commencement of his career there was need of consummate prudence. Aware that established customs, old feelings, and deeprooted prejudices, were not to be at once assailed and overturned, he was contented at first with frequently treating his audiences to logical and metaphysical disputations, thus accustoming them to hear novelties of doctrine propounded, and ancient opinions controverted. As nothing was admired in the schools but discussions on time, space, substance, identity, and such like themes, Wickliffe at first expatiated only on these ; but with his prelections on such unedifying topics, he gradually inter mixed and pushed as far as was consistent with prudence his new opinions in divinity, sounding as it were the minds of his hearers, till, at length, finding the water of sufficient depth, and hourly increasing, he set every sail, and scudded fearlessly along before the breeze of truth and reason, steering constantly by the compass of revelation. His celebrity soon attracted a vast concourse of students, and his opinions were gradually, though silently, imbibed by a host of pupils. Nor was he less admired in the pulpit than in the schools. He amused not the learned among his auditors with the subtleties of scholastic disputation, nor the vulgar with panegyrics on saints, and accounts of miracles. The doctrines of religion, as far as it was then safe to promulgate them, and the duties of the christian life, he at all times seriously enforced upon his audience: but when fitting opportunity offered, he failed not to denounce the corruptions of the church, the profligacy

of the clergy, and the usurpations of the pope, with a force of argument which flashed conviction on every unprejudiced mind, and with a warmth and vehemence, such as to show that he understood his ground. The result of all this was, that he soon acquired a vast multitude of adherents of all ranks, and stood forth in the public eye the most prominent object of the day for esteem or hatred.

His

In 1374, the crown, mindful of past obligations, not only conferred on Wickliffe a valuable benefice, but employed him on an embassy to the pope concerning the liberties of the church of England. We soon afterwards find him again employed in a diplomatic character, being delegated with several barons to the court of the duke of Milan. intercourse with the authorities of the pontificate supplied him with a more intimate knowledge of its projects and policy, nor was he slow in availing himself of it, for, from this period, in his lectures and pulpit discourses, we find him pouring forth fiery invectives against the abuses of popery. He reproves in the harshest language the profligate lives of the clergy, and impugns with all freedom the unscriptural doctrines which they inculcated; he upbraids them with ignorance, hypocrisy, and cunning selfishness, and even the pope himself fails not to receive his censures. Correction is always grievous to him that forsaketh the way; this holds true, even when the phrase of reproof is most mild and measured; how much more so when censure is conveyed in such acrimonious language, as Wickliffe, in his honest indignation, used towards his opponents. The mingled cries of interest and ignorance and bigotry rent the air, flew across the seas, and entered the ears of his holiness, while malice extracted from his lectures and writings no fewer than nineteen charges of heresy which were immediately exhibited against him. These were: That there is one only universal church, which is the university (or entire member) of the predestinate. Paul was never

a member of the devil, although (before his conversion) he did certain acts like unto the acts of the church malignant. The reprobatc are not parts of the (invisible) church, for that no part of the same finally falleth from her, because the charity (or grace) of predestination, which bindeth the church together, never faileth. The reprobate, although he be sometimes in grace, according to present justice (that is, by a present appearance of outward righteousness) yet is he never a part of the holy church (in reality) and the predestinate is ever a member of the church, although sometimes he fall from grace adventitia, but not from the grace of predestination: even taking the church for the convocation of the predestinate, whether they be in grace or not, according to present justice, (that is, whether they be converted already, or yet remain to be so, the predestinate or elect constitute as such, that invisible church which God the Father hath chosen, and God the Son redeemed). The grace of predestination is the bond wherewith the body of the church, and every member of the same, is indissolubly joined to Christ their head. That the eucharist, after consecration, was not the real body of Christ, but only an emblem or sign of it. That the church of Rome was no more the head of the universal church than any other church, and that St Peter had no greater authority given him than the rest of the apostles. That the pope had no more jurisdiction in the exercise of the keys than any other priest. That if the church misbehaved, it was not only lawful but meritorious to dispossess her of her temporalities

That when a prince, or temporal lord, was convinced that the church made an ill use of her endowments, he was bound, under pain of damnation, to take them away. That the gospel was sufficient to direct a Christian in the conduct of his life. That neither the pope nor any other prelate ought to have prisons for the punishing offenders against the discipline of the church, but that every person ought to be left at his liberty in the conduct of his life.'

The pope, burning with desire to overwhelm so formidable an innovator, issued his mandate to the bishops of London and Canterbury, commanding them to apprehend and imprison Wickliffe until further orders as to his disposal should arrive from Rome. But the king, now advanced in years, having consigned the management of affairs to the duke of Lancaster, that nobleman is supposed to have embraced his religious views, and at all events effectually shielded him from persecution. Many of the nobility and gentry also espoused his party. Among these were Lord Henry Percy, John de Montacute, Sir Lewis Clifford, Sir John Pecke, Sir William Nevyle, Sir Thomas Latimer, Sir Richard Sturie, Sir John Oldcastle, Sir Thomas Trussell, Sir Reginald de Hylton, and the poets Chaucer and Gower. At this time Wickliffe styled himself peculiaris regis clericus,' but had not openly departed from the Roman church. The pope sent his nuncio to Oxford to accuse the university of coldness in the cause of the church; and enjoining that body, under the severest penalties, to deliver up their divinity professor to the bishops of London and Canterbury. But such was the attachment of the university to Wickliffe, that they hesitated about receiving the nuncio at all; and if he was received-which is doubtful-his injunctions were utterly disregarded.

Wickliffe was now cited to appear before the bishops at St Paul's within thirty days. But betwixt the issuing of this summons and the day of appearance, the important question was agitated in parliament, whether or not on any emergency the pecuniary impositions of the pope might be lawfully disobeyed. On this very simple point there were various opinions, and it was at length agreed to refer the matter to Wickliffe who was deemed the best casuist of his time. This was a trying hour. The fires of persecution had begun to rage, and the papal thunders to war around him. Should he decide in favour of government, this would incense the papacy, and heat the furnace of their wrath seven times more than formerly; if again he decided in favour of the pope, this was to incur the displeasure of the throne, and deprive him of the royal protection. In these circumstances Wickliffe might well have paused and hesitated, but he flinched not, and calmly resolved the question in the affirmative, offering to prove it on the principles of the law of Christ. This affair rendered him much more odious to the court of Rome than all his former heresies; but the day was at hand which was expected to seal his doom.

On the day appointed for his appearance before the bishops, Wickliffe, accompanied by the duke of Lancaster, and Lord Percy, earl marshal of England, presented himself at St Paul's. The bishops were confounded at seeing him enter supported by the two greatest personages in the realm; and the metropolitan prelate, losing his temper,

'Ses Middleton's Biog. Evang.

suffered himself to be led into violent altercation with the duke of Lancaster. The trial never came on; for the vast concourse assembled within and without the building joined in the altercation, and the whole became a scene of uproar and confusion.2 At last the meeting dispersed, and Wickliffe was anew suminoned to meet the bishops at Lambeth. Here his enemies were again disappointed, for they had no sooner met, than Sir Lewis Clifford entered the assembly, and, in an authoritative tone commanded them to desist from proceeding to any decision against Wickliffe. The menace of Sir Lewis meant more than met the ear, and Wickliffe was again dismissed with an injunction to broach his heresies no more either in the schools or in the pulpit. He made no promises, however, and that he purposed no obedience was evinced by his future conduct.

Gregory XI. dying in 1378, a new pope was elected, who conducted himself with such insufferable arrogance that he lost the affection of his subjects, and disgusted the cardinals, which led to the election of a rival pope. These two infallibles contended for power with the most indecent violence; they called each other liars, and pronounced against each other the sentence of excommunication. Wickliffe was not asleep the while, but viewed the fight of the holy fathers as an omen for good: and while they were labouring each to prove the other an usurper and impostor, he was doing his best to prove that such was the true character of both. His zeal and talents were alike roused, and he sent forth into the world two tracts entitled 'The Schism of the Roman Pontiffs,' and "The Truth of Scripture.' In the latter of these publications he contended for the translation of the word of God into the vernacular tongues, and insisted on the sufficiency of the Bible as a directory in doctrine and discipline. Soon after this, he was taken very ill, and fears were entertained lest his disease should prove fatal,—a catastrophe anxiously hoped for by the monks, who also cherished an expectation, that in these sorrowful circumstances he might be induced to revoke what he had written against them, and what had brought them into such contempt. To solicit this, a solemn deputation, consisting of a friar from each of the mendicant orders, was sent to him. Being admitted into his presence, they declared their object, and were listened to in silence; he then ordered his attendants to raise him from his pillow, and with a severe countenance indicative of vast energy of purpose, and in a firm tone, though erewhile so feeble, exclaimed, “I shall not die but live, and farther declare the evil deeds of the friars!" The deputation retired in confusion; and Wickliffe, as soon as he recovered, set about the promised work of reformation.

He uniformly acted on a system wisely planned and vigorously pursued. He saw that the want of a version of the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue was a source of the most serious evils, and in order to supply such a desideratum, he had from an early period been labouring to effect a translation. When the Scriptures were first rendered into Latin, it was the universal language of the western world, and as such proved an admirable vehicle of conveyance for religious truth; but in time it ceased to be spoken, and was superseded by a variety of dialects, possessing some more, some less affinity to it. Latic

• Fuller.

was no longer acquired on the breast and in the nursery, but, to be learned, needed to be formally studied. The Bible became thenceforth a sealed book to the multitude, and was understood only by the clergy. to whom the people owed any glimpse which they possessed of its meaning and doctrines, and who might impart, or withhold and gloss and modify at pleasure.

Wickliffe wished to reduce the priests to the capacity of mere expounders of God's law, and to enable the people to judge for themselves. This he deemed the likeliest way to erect an effectual barrier against the progress of that baleful stream, which rolling over the world overwhelmed and destroyed every vestige of Apostolic Christianity both in doctrine and practice. In order to prepare the world for the translation of the divine volume, which he had finished, he expatiated in his writings and sermons on the duty and right of the people to read the Scriptures, and reprimanded their spiritual guardians for shutting up these wells of living water. Having used every means that his bold and prolific genius could suggest, or his restless industry effect, to inspire the nation with a desire to read this inestimable volume, in the year 1380 he published his translation of both Testaments. This was the heaviest calamity-the most dismal omen that had ever befallen the Romish polity; it was the first spark of a conflagration destined to consume the whole citadel of Romish corruption and error. It is generally supposed that Wickliffe's was the first translation of the whole Scriptures, though some maintain that Richard Fitz-Ralph, archbishop of Armagh, and others that John de Trevisa, a Cornish man, both of whom lived in the reign of Edward III., had already achieved this noble undertaking. It is at least certain that they had commenced to do so, and had in part performed the task. A Saxon version of the Psalms had also been executed by our great Alfred, and the venerable Bede is supposed to have rendered the entire Scriptures into that language. But, however this may have been, the version of Wickliffe superseded that of his predecessors, and was the only one in use until the invention of printing and the revival of letters, when Tindale prepared and published that edition in the English language which cost him his life at the stake. Wickliffe executed his version from the vulgate, not that he regarded it as of equal authority with the Hebrew and Greek copies of the Scriptures, but because he did not understand these languages well enough to translate from them.3

The sword of Wickliffe was now drawn, he had burst the toils of priestcraft, and, rushing into the arena of combat, summoned the world to attend the decision. The forces of the court of Rome were also put in motion. The thunders of the pontiff shook the seven hills, and extended their hoarse murmurs to the British shores; but the reformer was no longer to be dismayed by the vain anathemas of Rome, though these erewhile and even then had made thrones totter and monarchs

Of this translation several manuscript copies are extant in our public libraries. Wickliffe's New Testament was published in folio, in 1731, by the Rev. John Lewis. It has also been republished by Mr Baber of the British Museum. The following three verses of the 8th chapter of the Romans may serve as a specimen of this version: "And we witen, that to men that louen God alle thing is worchen to gidre into good to hem that aftir purpose been clepid seyntis. For thilk that he knew bifore, he bifore ordeynede bi grace to be mand lyk to the ymage of his Sone, that he, be the firste bigeten among manve britheren. And thilke that he bifore ordeynede to blisse, hem he clipede, and whiche he clipede hem he justifiede and which he justifiede, and hem he glorifiede."