was independent of the civil government, and had authority to oppress the people, in various ways, without limit or redress.

To remedy these evils, the famous statute, whose provisions are commonly referred to by the title of Premunire, was passed in the reign of Richard II. "That if any did purchase translations, benefices, processes, sentences of excommunications, bulls, or any other instruments from the court of Rome, against the king or his crown; or whoever brought them into England, or did receive or execute them, they were declared to be out of the king's protection, and should forfeit their goods and chattels, besides enduring further processes and penalties, at the discretion of the king and council."

By such enactments the kingdom was in a measure relieved from the extraordinary impositions laid upon it under the hands of William the Conqueror, and king John. In other respects, the iron hand of the Papacy still lay heavy upon England. Ignorance and superstition reigned. Though parts of the Scripture had been translated into Anglo-Saxon, a few rare copies of which might be in existence among the rubbish of the monasteries; no Englishman had as yet possessed the Bible in his native tongue. Few even of the clergy were able to expound the prayers and forms of divine service, which were all in Latin; few were even able to read. Yet their power over the superstitious fears of the people was almost without limit. Under the dominion of ignorance and superstition, oppressed and plundered by a rapacious and debauched priesthood, subject to a government just emerging from the barbarous feudal system, with no knowledge of their rights, the people enjoyed not the least degree of freedom of conscience, and scarcely knew anything of the security of just and equal laws.

It was in the midst of this darkness that WICKLIFFE arose, the morning star of the Reformation.

II.

WICKLIFFE AND HIS TIMES.

His early Life and Writings. Negotiation with Rome. His Principles: Contrast between these and modern Puseyism. Persecution of his followers for a succeeding century.

WICKLIFFE was a child, three years old, when Edward III. ascended the throne, A. D. 1327. He lived, therefore, a century and a half before Luther; and died A. D. 1384, or 108 years before the discovery of America by Columbus.

At an early age he entered the University at Oxford, where he earned the name of a hard student and a profound scholar. One of his bitterest enemies described him as 66 second to none in philosophy, and in scholastic discipline altogether incomparable." But most of all he was distinguished for his early and profound acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures; so that by the common consent of his cotemporary scholars he was styled "the Evangelical Doctor;" a rare distinction in those days; and one which, if conferred on a man of inferior genius and attainments, would have been a token of equivocal praise, or even of contempt. Who can doubt that it was the Bible that lighted up his genius, and that gave a distinctness and vigor to the productions of his pen, which rendered them the wonder of that age?

Drinking the waters of Christianity at their fountain, the Word of God, Wickliffe saw even while a student, the gross superstition and corruption of the prevailing religion. What he saw he dared to speak, and to write: nor did he hesitate to adapt his writings to the capacity of the common people ;-setting forth the way of holiness, and pointing out the worldliness, the corruptions, and the errors of those, who by their office ought to be guides and ensamples to the people, in the way of life.

Next, he set himself to resist the imposition of the "Black Friar Mendicants;" who had spread themselves over the kingdom, absolving the sins of the vilest wretches for money,usurping the offices of the regular clergy,-drawing away the youth of the universities to their monasteries; and who thus, says an early historian,-" By their numerous arts and efforts of lying and begging, and confessing; by frightening the ignorant,

and flattering the rich, succeeded,-in twenty-four years from their establishment in England,-in piling up their mansions to a royal altitude."

These efforts secured for Wickliffe the admiration of the learned, and the gratitude of his country. He was raised to the wardership of Baliol College; and afterwards to that of Canterbury Hall. But, continuing to proclaim the Gospel by every possible exertion of his voice and his pen, he was soon hurled from this station by the mandate of the Archbishop. Yet he ceased not to preach the Gospel, and to inveigh against the prevailing superstitions and vices of the clergy.

His vigorous writings were the dawn of independence as well as of light to England. To these it was owing, that the public mind had become so far disabused with regard to the ghostly power of the Pope, that the king and parliament ventured to inquire how far the Pope might bind them, under penalty of perdition, to yield to his enormous exactions. Wickliffe was now summoned by name, to declare whether the king and nation might not refuse to pay the odious tribute extorted from the superstitious and imbecile King John. If the people could not be so far enlightened as not to fear the interdicts and excommunications of the Pope, the king and parliament could not venture to withhold the tribute, without certain ruin. Wickliffe obeyed the summons. His arguments and eloquence prevailed. The tribute was withheld.

If to the vigorous and politic Edward III. the praise is due of beginning to wrest the kingdom from the grasp of papal power; the laws by which this was effected owed their existence and efficiency not less to Wickliffe than to the king. Edward's sword' and sceptre would have been impotent in this matter, without the pen of Wickliffe; nor is it probable that, without this, the project of such laws would ever have been conceived. THE BIBLE EVEN THEN, CHAINED AND IMPRISONED AS IT WAS, WAS ENGLAND'S BEST FRIEND: nor is it possible that the Pope should ever cease to consider it his deadliest foe.

Wickliffe was now raised to the chair of Theology in Oxford; where he shone equally the learned professor, and,—to borrow a phrase of his own, the diligent teacher "of simple men and women" in the " way to heaven." From this station he was called into the public service of his country, and sent by the King on an embassy to procure from the Roman Court a redress of grievances. Bruges was the appointed place of meeting. A negotiation with the Commissioners of the Holy See opened the eyes of Wickliffe to a clearer perception of the deep iniquities and incurable corruptions of the whole scheme of popery. He returned a Reformer in earnest. He denied the

Pope's supremacy. He denied his infallibility. He denied the doctrine of transubstantiation. He denied that the Pope, or any other prelate, ought to have prisons for the punishment of offenders against the discipline of the Church. The Pope himself he denounced as "Antichrist,-the proud worldly priest of Rome, -the most cursed of all clippers and purse-cutters."

Was this to be endured? The monks drew up charges of heresies, extracted from his writings, and sent them to Rome. The Pope issued his bulls to the Archbishop of Canterbury,-to the King,-to the University,-calling for Wickliffe's blood. All was in commotion. I need not detail the means by which Divine Providence defended the life of the Reformer: till hunted, harassed, and still continuing his labors for many years,he came at last, in spite of all his enemies, to a peaceful end. After his return from Rome, Wickliffe descended from public life into the retiracy of a country parson; and in this work which, above all others, his soul loved, he spent the remainder of his days.

The secret of Wickliffe's power lay in his appeals to the Bible. Mighty as he was in his powers of logic and his stores of learning, he still found that " The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God." This was his theme; this was his authority; this was his argument. He translated it into the English tongue and after all other claims have been discussed, it is now conceded, that Wickliffe's version was the first English copy of the entire Word of God. Men saw now not only the corruptions of popery, but of their own hearts. It was not long before Wickliffe had many of like faith and spirit whom he sent forth "with their staff in their hands, and the Word of God in their bosoms," that they might make known everywhere the way of life, and preach every where that men should repent. Such was their success, that the "ancient chronicles inform us, that one half the kingdom in a short time became Lollards, or Wickliffites."*

It is not consistent with the work in hand to pursue the personal history of Wickliffe to any considerable extent. Our business is with his principles, and with the result of his labors, as bearing upon the history and principles of the Puritans. It is sufficient to say, that Wickliffe appears to have been a very devout and holy man ;-ardent, bold,-living in dark and dangerous times, and but a man. It is not wonderful, therefore, if he was not always so moderate and discreet as would be required if he were to be judged according to the standard of more peaceful and polished times. With less boldness and fire, he could not have done the work of a reformer. Self-denying, humble, prayerful, full of love for souls, and faithful to the cause of Christ,

*Punchard.

he unquestionably was. Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry, who had been the friend and fellow student of Wickliffe, has drawn his picture, and paid a tribute to his memory in the following description of a parish priest:

"A good man there was of religion,

He was a poor parson of a town,

But rich he was of holy thought and werk,

He was also a learned man, a clerk,

That Christe's Gospel trewely wolde preche;
His parishens devoutly wolde tech,

Benign he was, and wonder diligent,
And in adversitie full patient.

*

"Wide was his parish and houses far asunder,
But he ne left nought for no rain ne thunder,

In sickness and in mischeefe to visite,

The ferest in his parish, moche and lite,

Upon his fete, and in his hand a staff.

But if were any person obstinat,

What so he were of high or low estat,

Him would he snibben sharply for the nones."

Wickliffe was, in the true sense, a Reformer. He traced corruptions to their sources: he pursued abuses back to the principle from which they sprung. He aimed not at lopping off now and then a branch, but at tearing up the tree of evil by the roots. He aimed at laying down such principles, and at basing his reform upon such grounds, that when these principles were once established and brought into successful operation, other things would follow of course, and the work of reform be done. Of his work it might be said as of that of John the Baptist; "And now the axe is laid at the foot of the tree." The plan of Wickliffe resembled that of Luther, rather than that of Erasmus. Both these men were learned; both saw the abuses of popery; both aimed at reformation. But Erasmus looked not beyond the present abuses; he saw not the principle from which they sprung. Hence he began to wield his shafts of resistless satire against the superstitions of the people, and the vices of the monks. Did he accomplish anything? Certainly he did: these vices and superstitions received a momentary check. But the sources remained; and the stream of evil flowed on. Like an unskilful physician, he mistook the symptoms for the disease; and applying his remedies to the symptoms, he allowed the disease to fasten itself irrecoverably upon the constitution. Luther's plan was different. He saw the vices and superstitions that prevailed, in all their enormity. But he saw also the source from which these disorders sprung. He struck at the source. Justification by faith alone; no purchased indulgences; no priestly interventions and absolutions; no reliance on works of merit or of penance :this was with him "THE ARTICLE OF A STANDING OR FALLING CHURCH;" and this doctrine shakes the very pillars of popery.