was the extent of the persecution against Wycliffe. Without any restriction upon his personal liberty, or any restraint upon his labors, except in the University, he was allowed to finish his course. The last two years

were spent in his parish of Lutterworth. Meanwhile his principal adherents, such as Aston, Repyngdon, and Hereford, did not escape so easily. They were pursued with unrelenting vigor, and found no refuge except in recantation or exile.

Wycliffe died on December 31, 1384. He died in fellowship with the Church. Singular immunity! In an age when free thought was branded as treason, the most daring innovator, the man who dealt his powerful blows against the whole framework of the Romish system, passed to his end unscathed. This, however, indicates rather the restraining hand of circumstances, than the pleasure of the hierarchy. What their real pleasure was, they indicated clearly enough in 1415, when, in the great Council of Constance, they condemned a list of Wycliffe's propositions, and commanded his body to be removed from consecrated ground. Thirteen years later, the command was fulfilled. The bones were exhumed and burned, and the ashes cast into the neighboring stream.1

The Council of Constance, which condemned John Huss to the flames, was not at fault in associating Wycliffe's name with his. Huss was in truth a disciple of

1 The little river Swift. "The little river," in the celebrated words of Thomas Fuller, "conveyed Wycliffe's remains into the Avon, Avon into the Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they to the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which is now dispersed all the world over."

Wycliffe. Recent research has made it entirely certain that he drew largely from the writings of the English reformer. Thus the fire which was kindled in England ignited a kindred flame in distant Bohemia. The influence of Wycliffe early started forth upon its farreaching circuit.

Shortly after the death of Wycliffe the name of Lollards, which had been occasionally used before, became the current designation of those who embraced his teachings. The name seems to have been imported from the Netherlands. Some have supposed that it was derived from the Latin lolium, meaning darnel or tares; others connect it with the old German lollen, to hum or whine. On either supposition, the satirical intent with which the term was applied is sufficiently manifest.

For a number of years the Lollard party was of no mean strength. Knighton probably expressed himself in exaggerated terms, when he said that one could scarcely meet two men on the road one of whom would not be found to be a disciple of Wycliffe. Still, the party was numerous, and counted among its adherents. representatives of all the different ranks of society. So great was their confidence and courage in 1395, that they presented to Parliament a document in the interest of reform, wherein their most radical beliefs were stated without reserve.

But the tide soon turned against the Lollards. The revolution by which Richard II. was deposed, and the house of Lancaster in the person of Henry IV. was

1 See Prof. J. Loserth, Wiclif and Huss.

brought to the throne, was one in which the hierarchy took a conspicuous part. A close alliance resulted between the King and the prelates. To repay the latter, and to insure their continued support, Henry IV. readily responded to their request for repressive measures against the Lollards. At the opening of the year 1401 the act De Hæretico Comburendo, the grim provision for the burning of heretics, was entered into the statutebook. This act authorized the bishops, not only to arrest and imprison those suspected of heresy, but also to hand over obstinate and relapsed heretics to the civil officers "to be by them burned on a high place before the people." Scarcely was the law recorded before it was given practical application. In March, 1401, William Sawtree, a London priest, was burned in Smithfield. Some years later, the same place witnessed the burning of John Badby. Others experienced in the hardships of imprisonment a fate scarcely more to be coveted.

The most distinguished victim was Sir John Oldcastle, or Lord Cobham. He was a man of distinction, having served with credit in the French wars. Though he made no secret of his opinions, respect for his character secured him comparative freedom from attack during the reign of Henry IV. But under Henry V. he was adjudged a heretic, and consigned to the tower. Escaping thence, he remained concealed several years. A high price was set upon his head, as he was accused of being the patron and instigator of the insurrectionary movements which took place at this time. Whether there was any truth in this charge or not, it is difficult to determine. Very different verdicts have been ren

dered by historians. In any case, all that we know of the man, whether in life or in the ordeal of martyrdom, favors the conclusion that he was loyal to his conscience, let his attitude toward his King have been what it may. Having been apprehended in 1417, he was brought to London and sentenced to the double punishment of being hanged as a traitor and burned as a heretic. "This sentence was literally carried out. He was placed upon a sledge, as if he had been a traitor of the deepest dye, and thus dragged through the town to St. Giles's Fields. On arriving there he was taken down from the sledge, and, immediately falling on his knees, he began to pray for the forgiveness of his enemies. His prayer ended, he rose, and, addressing the assembled multitude, warned them to obey God's commands written down in the Bible, and always to shun such teaching as they saw to be contrary to the life and example of Christ. He was then suspended between two gallows by chains, and the funeral pile was kindled beneath him, so that he was slowly burned. So long as life remained in him, he continued to praise God, and to commend his soul to His divine keeping."1

After the death of Lord Cobham no conspicuous leader appeared in the ranks of the Lollards. While never wholly exterminated, the party was reduced to a small remnant, which obtained immunity only because of its quietness and obscurity.

1 Lechler, chap. x. § 6.

CHAPTER VI.

JOHN HUSS AND THE HUSSITES.

OHEMIA at the end of the fourteenth century presented perhaps a more favorable theatre for a reform movement than any other country of Europe. The gospel message had come to it in the first instance from the East. Traces of its Greek origin were long apparent in the Bohemian Church. Even down to the beginning of the fourteenth century such customs were prevalent as preaching in the vernacular, marriage of the clergy, and the extension of the eucharistic cup to the laity. In the course of the century, it is true, the bonds with Rome were strengthened, and there was a movement toward a more decided ascendency of the Roman scheme. But the old order of things could not have been wholly forgotten, and whatever stimulus may have come from this source was reinforced by an intellectual awakening. The founding of the University of Prague by Charles IV. in 1348 gave to Bohemia the first great institution of learning which had yet appeared beyond the Rhine. A few years after the opening of its doors, it had gained an attendance and acquired a fame which made it wellnigh a rival of the universities at Paris and Oxford. Such a rapid unfold1 Hagenbach, Kirchengeschichte, Vorlesung xxx.