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could to their daily lives, John Wiclif, the first who, after the Conquest, was to give the Bible itself to the people, was ripening for the great work of his life. John Wiclif was born about the year 1324, of a family that derived its name from the small village of Wycliffe, which is about six miles from Barnard Castle, in Yorkshire. He was born, probably, at the village of Hipswell, near Richmond. He was educated at the University of Oxford, and became eminent for his acquirements in theology and in philosophy. A contemporary, William Knighton, who was his opponent, says that he was "most eminent' as a teacher of theology, in philosophy "second to none," and "incomparable in scholastic studies." In 1356 Wiclif produced a tract on the "Last Age of the Church," suggested by the desolating plague of 1348-9, which occurred when he was

received from that College the rectory of Fylingham, in Lincolnshire.

Langland, Gower, and Chaucer were also during these years advancing to the fulness of their power, and among other religious literature three books were produced "The Ayenbite of Inwit," the "Cursor Mundi," and the Hermit of Hampole's "Prick of Conscience," of a kind that has been already illustrated.

The Ayenbite (Again-bite, Re-morse) of Inwit (Con-science) was a version by Dan (which means Dominus or Master) Michel, of Northgate, Kent, from a French treatise called "La Somme des Vices et des Vertues," composed in 1279 for Philip II. of France by a French Dominican, Friar Laurence. It is a work of the type illustrated by Robert of Brunne's "Handlyng Synne"" from the French of

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about twenty-four years old. Thomas Bradwardine, newly become Archbishop of Canterbury, and the author of the most acute theological book of his time, the "Summa Theologiæ," died of that plague. Wiclif thought that the plagues which scourged the nations indicated that the second coming of Christ was near, and that the fourteenth century would be the Last Age of the World. Among signs of the end were the corruptions of the Church. "Both vengeance of sword," he said, "and mischiefs unknown before, by which men in those days shall be punished, shall befall them, because of the sins of the priests. Hence men shall fall upon them and cast them out of their fat benefices, and shall say, 'He came into his benefice by his kindred; and this by a covenant made before. He, for his worldly service, came into the church; and this for money.' Then every such priest shall cry, Alas, alas, that no good spirit dwelt with me at my coming into the Church of God."" In 1360 Wiclif was energetic in resistance to the undue influence acquired in Universities by the Dominicans and the Franciscans. This added to his reputation at Oxford, and in the following year, 1361, he was made Warden of Baliol College, and

an Englishman, but it is in prose, and it is not made lively with illustrative tales. The heads of its dissertation are the Ten Commandments, the twelve articles of the Creed, the Seven Deadly Sins, Learning to Die, Knowledge of Good and Evil, the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, the four Cardinal Virtues, each elaborated with subdivisions, Penance, Almsgiving, Seven Steps and Seven Boughs of Chastity, the Seven Steps of Sobriety, and so forth.

TheCursor Mundi," or Course of the World, is a long and important poem in Northumbrian English, which begins by setting forth the delight men take in romances of Alexander, Cæsar, and King Arthur. But

"The wise man will of wisdom hear,
The fool him draws to folly near."

Delight in the false love of the world leads to a
bitter end, and soft begun will end in smart.
love of the Virgin Mary there is trust:-

"For though I sometime be untrue,
Her love is ever alike new."

1 See pages 58-63.

In the

In her honour, the poet says, he writes.

"In her worship begin would I

A work that should be lastingly For to do men know her kin

That much worship did us win."

He will tell of that in the Old Testament story which points chiefly to Christ's coming, and then he will tell of the salvation of the world by Christ who died for it, of Antichrist, and of the Day of Judgment; he will do it, not in French rhymes, which are of no use to the Englishman ignorant of French, but in their own tongue to the English, and especially to those who need the knowledge most, and who go most astray.

"Now of this prologue will I blin,1
In Christés name my book begin;
'Cursor of the World' I will it call,
For almost it overrunnys all.
Take we our beginning than

Of Him that all this world began."

Then the poet begins with Creation, commenting and moralising; tells of the three orders of angels, and how Michael fought against Lucifer. Of the distance that Lucifer fell from heaven to hell, none can tell:

"But Bede said fro Earth to Heaven

Is seven thousand year and hundreds seven;
By journeys whoso go it may
Forty mile everyché day."

Man was made of the four elements, and has seven holes in his head, just as there are seven master stars in heaven. The poet dilates thus on the structure of man, and on the union of soul and body. Then he turns to Adam in Paradise, still blending touches of legend and speculation with his sketch of the Fall of Man. The story goes on through the lives of Cain and Abel to the Flood, and dwells on the history of Noah. Then he comes to the division of the world among Noah's sons, and looks to the different quarters of the world and its races of men. From the Tower of Babel he passes to the third age of the world, with the history of Abraham, and proceeds at length through the lives of the patriarchs to Joseph in Egypt. Jacob's reason for sending to Egypt in the time of famine is thus given :

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Whethen it comes can I not rede, But down it fleteth full good speed. If it be comen fro far land,

Look which of you will take on hand For us all do this travail,

Thereof is good we take counsail, Again the flum to follow the chaff,

Corn there shall we find to haf.'"

The poem goes on in like manner, often suggesting figures of Christ's coming, through the Exodus, and the histories of Moses and Joshua, to the Land of Promise; tells the histories of Samson, of Saul, David, and Solomon at length, is brought through the later history of the Jews to the chief prophecies of Christ, and then proceeds to a full dwelling on the life of Christ.

He

The Hermit of Hampole's "Prick of Conscience " is also a Northumbrian poem. Its author, Richard Rolle, was born at Thornton, in Yorkshire, about the year 1290, and educated at Oxford. When he was but nineteen years old he was seized with religious enthusiasm for the life of a hermit, and obtained from Sir John de Dalton a cell, with daily sustenance, at Hampole, about four miles from Doncaster. There he lived until his death in 1349, and he was one of the busiest religious writers of his day. translated, as we shall presently see, the Psalms into English prose. He wrote many prose treatises, and he produced this poem of "The Prick" (that is, the Goad) "of Conscience" ("Stimulus Conscientiæ "). Its seven parts tell-1. Of the Beginning of Man's Life; 2. Of the Unstableness of this World; 3. Of Death, and why it is to be dreaded; 4. Of Purgatory; 5. Of Doomsday; 6. Of the Pains of Hell; 7. Of the Joys of Heaven. Medieval fancies blend with the teaching. Thus the feebleness of man at birth is associated with memories of our first parents :

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"For unnethes? es a child born fully
That it ne bygynnes to youle and cry;
And by that cry men knaw than 10
Whether it be man or weman.
For when it es born it cryes swa:
If it be man it says, 'A, a!'
That the first letter es of the nam
Of our forme-fader Adam.
And if the child a woman be,
When it is born it says, 'E, e!'

E es the first letter and the hede
Of the name of Eve that bygan our dede.
Tharfor a clerk made on this manere
This vers of metre that es wroten here :
Dicentes E vel ▲ quotquot nascuntur ab Eva.
'Alle thas,' he says, 'that comes of Eve

(That es all men that here byhoves leve 12),

7 Whethen, whence; formed like hethen, hence.

Again the flum, against the course of the river.

Unnethes, scarcely. First-English "eathe," easily; "uneathe," uneasily, with difficulty, scarcely.

10 Than (First-English "thanne "), then.

11 Swa, so, thus. The First-English form of the word.

12 Byhoves leve, have to live. First-English "behofian," to behove,

be fit, have need of. In impersonal form, the meaning is fit or necessary.

When thai er born what-swa thai be,

Thai say outher A, a! or E, e!'"

Church, Canterbury. Simon of Islip removed the four monks, including the Warden, in 1365; and he put Wiclif and three other secular clergy in their.

This is Richard Rolle's reason for the title he place. In 1366 Islip died, and his successor entergives to his book:

:

"Therefore this treatise draw I would
In English tongue that may be called
'Prick of Conscience,' as men may feel,
For if a man it read and understand wele
And the matters therein to heart will take,
It may his conscience tender make;
And to right way of rule bring it belive1
And his heart to dread and meekness drive,
And to love, and yearning of heaven's bliss,
And to amend ali that he has done amiss."

CHAPTER III.

WICLIF, LANGLAND, AND OTHERS.-A. D. 1360 TO A. D. 1400.

IN the year 1360 the Psalter was the only book of Scripture of which there was a translation into English of a date later than the Conquest. Within twenty-five years from that date John Wiclif had secured by his own work and that of true-hearted companions a translation of the whole Bible into English, including the Apocrypha. In the year 1365, Simon of Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury, made

JOHN WICLIF.

From the Portrait in the Rectory at Wycliffe.

John Wiclif Warden of Canterbury Hall at Oxford, which stood where there is now the Canterbury Quadrangle of Christchurch. Canterbary Hall had on its foundation a Warden and eleven Scholars, of whom eight were to be secular clergy, but the other three and the Warden were to be monks of Christ

1 Belive, quickly. First-English "bi life," with life.

tained an appeal against his dealing in the case of Canterbury Hall. The new Archbishop pronounced Wiclif's election void. Wiclif resisted, and appealed to Rome. After three or four years of uncertainty, the Pope supported the monks, and confirmed Wiclif's ejection. It was in 1365, the year of Wiclif's'appointment to the Warden's office at Canterbury College, that the Pope revived a claim on England for homage and tribute which had remained unpaid for the last three-and-thirty years. In 1366, Edward III. laid the demand before Parliament, which answered that, forasmuch as neither King John, nor any other king, could bring this realm into such thraldom but by common consent of Parliament, which was not given; therefore what John did was against his oath at his coronation. The Pope had threatened that if Edward III. failed to pay tribute and arrears, he should be cited by process to appear at Rome, and answer for himself before his civil and spiritual sovereign. The English Parliament replied that if the Pope should attempt anything against the king by process or otherwise, the king with all his subjects should resist with all their might. A monk then wrote in vindication of the Papal claims, and challenged Wiclif, by name, to reply to them, and justify the decision of the English Parliament. Wiclif at once replied with a defence of the king and Parliament, in a Latin tract or "Determination" on Dominion, "De Dominio." The king had made Wiclif one of his chaplains, and his argument against the claims of Papal sovereignty procured him friends at court. In 1372, when he was about forty-eight years old, John Wiclif became Professor of Divinity at Oxford. Many were drawn to his lectures and sermons, and we also may now hear Dr. Wiclif preach :-

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THE HEALING OF THE NOBLEMAN'S SON.2

Erat quidem regulus. Joh. iv. [46].
There was a certain [little king] nobleman.

This Gospel telleth how a king, that some men say was a heathen man, believed in Christ and deserved to have a miracle of his son. The story saith, how in Galilee was dwelling a little king, in the city of Capernaum, that had a son full sick of the fever. And when he heard tell that Jesus came from Judæa to Galilee, he came and met him on the way,

2 This sermon is one of those published in "Select English Works of John Wycliff, edited from original MSS. by Thomas Arnold, M.A., of University College, Oxford. In three volumes. Published for the University of Oxford by the Clarendon Press in 1869 and 1871." This issue was undertaken by the Delegates of the University Press at the suggestion of Canon Shirley, who had devoted many years to the study of Wiclif, and issued in 1865 a "Catalogue of the Original Works of John Wycliff," as an aid to study of the Reformer. Very many of his works remained unprinted. Dr. Shirley did not live to enrich these volumes with the full Introduction he proposed to write, but they were carefully produced by an editor of his own choice, and have helped greatly to remove the discredit of a neglect of Wiclif's English writings under which England had lain for many years. Mr. Arnold has taken much pains to distinguish Wiclif's work from that of his followers.

and prayed him come down and heal his son, for he was in point of death. And Christ said to this king, to amend his belief, Ye believe not in Jesus but if ye see signs and wonders; as this man believed not in the Godhead of Christ, for if he had, he should have trowed that Christ might have sayed his son if he had not bodily come to this sick man and touched him. But this king had more heart of health of his son than he had to be healed of untruth that he was in, and therefore he told not hereby but asked eft Christ to heal his son; and in this form of words, in which he shewed his untruth, "Lord," he said, "come down before that my son die." But Jesus as wise Lord and merciful healed his son in such manner that he might wite that he was both God and man; "Go," he said, "thy son liveth." And therewith Christ taught his soul both of his manhood and Godhead, and else had not this king trowed; but this Gospel saith that he trowed and all his house. And upon this truth "he went homeward and met his men upon the way, that tolden him that his son should live, for he is covered of his evil. And he asked when his son fared better, and they saiden that yesterday the seventh hour the fevers forsook the child. And the father knew, by his mind, that it was the same hour that Christ said, "Thy son liveth," and herefore believed he and all his house in Jesus Christ. And therefore Jesus said sooth that he and men like to him trowen not but if they see both signs and wonders. It was a sign of the sick child that he did works of an whole man, but it was a great wonder that by virtue of the word of Christ a man so far should ben whole, for so Christ shewed that he is virtue of Godhead, that is everywhere; and this virtue must be God, that did thus this miracle.

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This story saith us this second wit' that God giveth to holy writ, that this little king betokeneth a man's wit by sin slidden from God, that is but a little king in regard of his Maker; and his son was sick on the fevers, as weren these heathen folk and their affections that comen of their souls; but they hadden a kindly will to wite the truth and stand therein. This king came from Capernaum, that is, a field of fatness; for man fatted and alarded wendeth away from God. This man's wit when he heard that Jesus came to heathen men, and that betokeneth Galilee, that is transmigration, met with Jesus in plain way, and left his heathen possession, and prayed God to heal his folk that weren sick by ghostly fever. But Christ sharped these men's belief, for faith is first needful to men, but understanding of man prayed Christ come down by grace before man's affections die about earthly goods. But, for men troweden the Godhead of Christ, they weren whole of this fever when they forsoken this world and put their hope in heavenly goods. These servants ben low virtues of the soul, which, working joyfully, tellen man's wit and his will that this son is whole of fever. This fever betokeneth shaking of man by unkindly distemper of abundance of worldly goods, that ben unstable as the water; and herefore saith St. James that he that doubteth in belief is like to a flood of the sea that with wind is borne about. That these servants tolden this king that in the seventh hour fever forsook this child, betokeneth a great wit as Robert of Lincoln sheweth. First it betokeneth that this fever goeth away from man's kind by seven gifts of the Holy Ghost that ben understonden by these hours. And this clerk divideth the day in two halves by six hours, so that all the day

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betokeneth light of grace that man is in. The first six hours betokenen joy that man hath of worldly thing, and this is before spiritual joy, as utter man is before spiritual. But in the first hour of the second half leaveth ghostly fever man, for whosoever have worldly joy, if he have grace on some manner, yet he trembleth in some fever about goods of the world; but anon in the seventh hour, that is the first of the second half, when will of worldly things is left, and spiritual things beginnen to be loved, then this shaking passeth from man, and ghostly health cometh to the spirit. And so shadows of light of sun from the seventh hour in to the night ever waxen more and more, and that betokeneth ghostly, that vanity of this world seemeth aye more to man's spirit till he come to the end of this life, to life that aye shall last.

And

so this man troweth in God, both with understanding and will, with all the maynés of his house, when all his wits and all his strength ben obeshing to reason, when this fever is thus passed. Of this understanding men may take moral wit how men shall live, and large the matter as them liketh.

This little fancy drawn from Grosseteste of the healing of the fever in the seventh hour is a pleasant example of that allegorical method of interpreting the Bible, that finding of what Wiclif here calls the "second wit" of a passage, that spread chiefly from the example of the Greek Fathers of the Church. Such a second meaning, or mystical reading, was often added by interpreters of any passage from the Bible to what was held to be the doctrinal truth it contained, the essential truth first to be expounded. Wiclif's preaching shows that while his first care was to deal with what appeared to him the plain doctrines and duties set forth by the Gospel, he delighted in the exercise of wit for the development of spiritual under-senses in this way of parable. Thus, for example, in a sermon on the fifth chapter of Luke's Gospel, which tells how Christ in Simon Peter's boat bade him cast his net again into the sea, Wiclif spoke thus of

THE TWO FISHINGS OF PETER.

Two fishings that Peter fished betokeneth two takings of men unto Christ's religion, and from the fiend to God. In this first fishing was the net broken, to token that many men ben converted, and after breaken Christ's religion; but at the second fishing, after the resurrection, when the net was full of many great fishes, was not the net broken, as the Gospel saith; for that betokeneth saints that God chooseth to heaven. And so these nets that fishers fishen with betokeneth God's Law, in which virtues and truths ben knitted; and other properties of nets tellen properties of God's Law; and void places between knots betokeneth life of kind,10 that men have beside virtues. And four cardinal virtues ben figured by knitting of the net. The net is broad in the beginning, and after strait in end, to teach that men, when they ben turned first, liven a broad worldly life; but afterward when they ben deeped in God's Law, they keepen hem straitlier from sins. These fishers of God shulden wash their nets in this river, for Christ's preachers shulden clearly tellen God's Law, and not meddle with man's law, that is troubly

8 Mayné (French "mesnie "), originally the people upon the establishment of a manse, which was a home with as much ground about it as two oxen could till.

9 Obeshing (French "obeissant "), obedient. 10 Kind, nature.

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water; for man's law containeth sharp stones and trees, by which the net of God is broken and fishes wenden out to the world. And this betokeneth Gennesareth, that is, a wonderful birth, for the birth by which a man is born of water and of the Holy Ghost is much more wonderful than man's kindly birth. Some nets ben rotten, some han holes, and some ben unclean for default of washing; and thus on three manners faileth the word of preaching. And matter of this net and breaking thereof given men great matter to speak God's word, for virtues and vices and truths of the Gospel ben matter enow to preach to the people.

All Wiclif's preaching was true to this definition of what ought to be the matter of the preacher, "virtues and vices, and truths of the Gospel;" but among vices that most hindered religion were those of the professed teachers of religion, and an essential part of Wiclif's service to the people was his labour to check the corruptions of the Church. His chief service was the giving of the Bible itself to common Englishmen. He was at work upon this in 1374 when an inquiry into the number and value of English benefices given to Italians and Frenchmen caused a commission, of which Wiclif was a member, to be appointed for negotiation at Bruges with the Court of Rome. In November, 1375, Wiclif was presented to the prebend of Aust, in the collegiate church of Westbury, in the diocese of Worcester, and not long afterwards he was appointed by the Crown to the rectory of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire. In 1376, a Parliament, called by the people "the Good Parliament," which opposed usurpations and tyrannies both of the Pope and of the King-expelling and imprisoning some of John of Gaunt's adherents-presented a remonstrance to the Crown upon the extortions of the Court of Rome. In this it urged that the tax paid to the Pope of Rome for ecclesiastical dignities doth amount to five-fold as much as the tax of all the profits that appertain to the king, by the year, of this whole realm; and for some one bishopric or other dignity the Pope, by way of translation and death, hath three, four, or five several taxes: that the brokers of that sinful city for money promote many caitiffs, being altogether unlearned and unworthy, to a thousand marks living yearly; whereas the learned and worthy can hardly obtain twenty marks; whereby learning decayeth. That aliens, enemies to this land, who never saw, nor care to see,

their parishioners, have those livings, whereby they despise God's service and convey away the treasure of the realm. There was much more that explicitly set forth evils of Church corruption. It was in June of the same year that the death of the Black Prince deprived England of a popular heir to the throne. In the next year, 1377, when the protest of Parliament was continued, the Pope's collector, resident in London, a Frenchman in the time of English wars with France, who sent annually 20,000 marks to the Pope, was gathering first-fruits throughout England. The Parliament advised that no such collector or proctor for the Pope be suffered to remain in England, upon pain of life or limb; and that, on the like pain, no Englishman become any such collector or proctor,

1 Kindly, according to nature.

or remain at the Court of Rome. While this was the political side of the reform movement, Wiclif for the he support gave it on spiritual grounds was cited to appear before Convocation at St. Paul's, on the 19th of February, 1377. The Court, then in full heat of political conflict with the Pope, supported Wiclif, and he was escorted to St. Paul's by John of Gaunt himself and Lord Henry Percy, the EarlMarshal. The result was a brawl in the church, and a brawl following it in the town. The people confounded the cause of Wiclif with the character of John of Gaunt, whom they had no reason to count among their friends, and judging by his companions the pure spiritual reformer who was the best friend they had, they took part, naturally, with the bishop whose authority the overbearing courtiers had in their own fashion defied. Four months afterwards -on the 21st of June, 1377-Edward III. died, and his grandson Richard, son of the Black Prince, became king, at the age of eleven, as Richard II. Wiclif was then past fifty, and his work on the translation of the Bible was within two or three years of completion.

The

England was then suffering much by war. French and Spaniards committed unchecked ravages upon our coast, destroyed the town of Rye, burnt Hastings, Poole, Portsmouth, and other places. Sore need of the means of self-defence quickened desire to check the Pope's drain on the treasures of the king dom. The Pope, upon change of reign, revived the claim of Peter's pence which Edward III. had resisted. Wiclif was asked as to the lawfulness of withholding payments to the Pope, and justified it by the law of nature, self-preservation, which God has imposed on nations as on individuals. He justified it also by the Gospel, since the Pope could claim English money only under the name of alms, and consequently under the title of works of mercy, according to the rules of charity; but, he said, it would be madness, not charity, while pressed by taxation at home and facing the prospect of ruin, to give our goods to foreigners already wallowing in luxury. Bulls against Dr. John Wiclif, Professor of Divinity and Rector of Lutterworth, had been issued by the Pope before the death of Edward III. They were addressed to the King, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and the University of Oxford. Private inquiry was first to be made as to Wiclif's heresies, and if this showed them to be as represented, he was to be imprisoned, and dealt with according to the instructions of his Holiness. Early in the year 1378, Wiclif appeared before a Synod of Papal Commissioners, held in the Archbishop's Chapel at Lambeth Palace. But the Londoners were now with the Reformer, a crowd broke into the chapel to protect him, and the commissioners were daunted also by a message from the widow of the Black Prince, forbidding them to pass any sentence against Wiclif. He was dismissed with an admonition.

It was at this time that the increasing movement for reform was aided by the schism in the Papacy. The removal of the Papal see to Avignon, early in the fourteenth century, by making the Pope dependent on the King of France, whose interests were held to be opposite to those of the King of

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