"Hitherto," says Dr. Mosheim, "the opinions of the Christian doctors, concerning the manner in which the body and blood of Christ were present in the eucharist, were extremely different; nor had the church determined, by any clear and positive decree, the sentiment that was to be embraced in relation to that important matter. It was reserved for Innocent to put an end to the liberty, which every Christian had hitherto enjoyed, of interpreting this presence in the manner he thought most agreeable to the declarations of Scripture, and to decide in favour of the most monstrous doctrine that the frenzy of superstition was capable of inventing. This audacious pontiff pronounced the opinion that is embraced at this day in the church of Rome relating to that point, to be the only true and orthodox account of the matter; and he had the honour of introducing and establishing the use of the term Transubstantiation, which was hitherto absolutely unknown *.”

Dr. Southey remarks, "Of all the corruptions of Christianity, there was none which the popes so long hesitated to sanction as the prodigious doctrine of Transubstantiation. Nevertheless it prevailed, and was finally declared, by Innocent III, at the fourth Lateran council, as a tenet necessary to salvation. Strange as it may appear, the doctrine had become popular with the people, for its very extravagance,with the clergy, because they grounded upon it their loftiest pretensions. For if there were in the sacrament this actual and entire presence, which they denoted by the term of transubstantiation, it followed that divine worship was something more than a service of prayer and thanksgiving, an actual sacrifice was performed in it, wherein they affirmed the Saviour was again offered up, in the same body which had suffered on the cross, by their hands. The priest, when he performed this stupendous function of his ministry, had before his eyes, and held in his hands, the Maker of heaven and earth; and the inference which they deduced from so blasphemous an assumption was, that the clergy were not to be subject to any secular authority, seeing that they could create

* Eccles. Hist. vol. iii, p. 243.

God their Creator! Let it not be supposed that the statement is in the slightest part exaggerated; it is delivered faithfully in their own words *."

Priestcraft having arisen to a height so enormous, no one can wonder at any other blasphemies or iniquities recorded in history.

BOOK IV.

FROM THE BIRTH OF WYCLIFFE TO THE REIGN OF HENRY VII, A. D. 1509.

CHAPTER I.

LIFE OF WYCLIFFE.

Popery in the time of Wycliffe - Friars, Franciscans, and Dominicans - Oxford University Early History of Wycliffe - His Offices and Writings — Complaints by the Parliament - His Embassy to the Pope-Declares the Pope to be Antichrist-Translates the Bible- Cited before the Bishops - His illness — Cited before Archbishop Sudbury Cited by the Pope - Death of Wycliffe - His Doctrines His Opinions of the Clerical Orders - His Character by Vaughan — By Dr. Southey.

FEARFUL darkness, which might indeed be felt, overspread the nation, when there arose a glorious luminary in England. John Wycliffe is justly called "The Morning Star of the Reformation." The period at which he appeared has been denominated the most gloomy in the history of the church; but his character and talents were extraordinary, admirably fitted for his work, by the wise ordination of Providence.

Popery had now gained its highestel evation. “According to the Canons, the pope was as far above all kings as the sun is greater than the moon. He was King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, though he subscribed himself Servant of Servants. As supreme king, he might impose taxes upon all Christians; and the popes declared it was to be held as a point necessary to salvation, that every human creature is subject to the Roman pontiff. That he might lawfully depose kings, was

* Book of the Church, vol. i, p. 315, 316.

averred to be so certain a doctrine, that it could be denied only by madmen, or through the instigation of the devil. The Spouse of the Church was Vice-god: men were commanded to bow at his name, as at the name of Christ; the proudest sovereigns waited on him as menials, led his horse by the bridle, and held up his stirrup while he alighted; and there were ambassadors who prostrated themselves before him, saying, 'O thou, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us!' - The advocates of the papal power proclaimed that he could change the nature of things, and make injustice, justice. Nor was it possible that he should be amenable to any secular power; for he had been called God by Constantine, and God was not to be judged by man: under God, the salvation of all the faithful depended on him; and the Commentators even gave him the blasphemous appellation of Our Lord God, the Pope * !'”

Infallibility was pretended as essential to the church; but the corrupt lives of the clergy provoked inquiry into their doctrines. Reformers arose on the Continent, under the denomination of Waldenses, and various other titles. "Indignation against spiritual tyranny and imposture, uncompromising sincerity, and intrepid zeal, made them formidable to the hierarchy." Their numbers rapidly increased; and by the purity of their lives, the simplicity of their principles, and their indefatigable zeal, the papal church was seriously endangered. But Europe was not yet ripe for a scriptural revolution. The spirit of enthusiasm now fell upon Francesco, who founded a new order of monks, called Franciscans, after their canonized founder, St. Francis. Entirely devoted to the pope, and ardently adoring the Virgin Mary, “the great goddess of the Romish faith," these new monks increased prodigiously. "In less than ten years, the delegates alone to its general chapter exceeded five thousand in number; and by an enumeration, in the early part of the eighteenth century, when the Reformation must have diminished their amount at least one-third, it was found that even then there were twenty-eight thousand Franciscan nuns in

* Ibid. vol. i, p. 322.

nine hundred nunneries, and one hundred and fifteen thousand Franciscan friars in seven thousand convents; besides very many nunneries, which, being under the immediate jurisdiction of the ordinary, and not of the order, were not inIcluded in the return *."

The rival order of St. Dominic was instituted nearly at the same time, for the same purpose, and upon the same principle. The temper of its founder engaged it in the bloody service of extirpating the Albigenses by fire and sword. In this work both co-operated; and though they soon began cordially to hate each other, they were both equally zealous in serving the papal church, and in persecuting its enemies t."

Dark as was this age, it was the period in which the universities received their chief endowments. The students at Oxford, especially, were exceedingly numerous. But the friars, forcing themselves everywhere by their assiduity and boldness, interfered with the rights of the universities, augmenting their numbers by inveigling the youth. Parents, on this account, became afraid to trust their sons at Oxford; and the number of students is said, by Chancellor Fizraf, to have been diminished, in consequence, from thirty thousand, to a fifth of that number t. The friars, therefore, were regarded with an evil eye by the members of that university, from the duties of which they endeavoured to exempt themselves, as they obtained an exemption from its jurisdiction. And when there appeared a man bold enough to attack them upon the principle of their institution, and the errors which they taught, and skilful enough in disputation to baffle them at their own weapons, he was encouraged by the persons in authority there.

"This man was John Wycliffe, whom the Roman church has stigmatized as a heretic of the first class, but whom England and the Protestant world, while there is any virtue, and while there is any praise, will regard with veneration and gratitude §.”

Wycliffe was born in a village bearing his family name, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, A. D. 1324. At the age of seventeen he was a commoner at Queen's College, Oxford; when he was removed to Merton College, the most celebrated in the University, and where Bradwardine had recently been professor of divinity. Wycliffe devoted himself to the study of the Holy Scriptures; and, shocked with the ecclesiastical corruptions, in the thirty-second year of his age, A. D. 1356, he published his treatise, entitled, "The Last Age of the Church." Three years later, he became distinguished at Oxford as the object of the enmity of the friars, on account of his publishing his censures on their delinquencies. "To the disputes which followed, much of his subsequent decision in the work of reformation is to be attributed. The controversy was one conducted against some of the most powerful minds of that generation, involving principles of the highest importance, and leading to results the inost momentous in the history of religion, since the age of inspired teachers. Irritated by the reasonings of their opponent, the mendicants fled to the protection of the papacy; and before the pontifical tribunal, the complaints of auxiliaries so devoted to its cause would not be preferred in vain. The favour, however, which was thence obtained, disclosed an exercise of power so palpably irreligious and unjust, as to prepare the way for an easy abandonment of various matters, deriving the whole of their support from so doubtful an authority *."

Wycliffe was greatly honoured by the University, for his services in their cause; and the society of Baliol College presented him, A. D. 1361, to the living of Fillingham, in the diocese of Lincoln. By the same community, and within the same period, he was called to the dignity of warden. 66 Four years later, we find him occupying the same office, in connection with Canterbury Hall; and for this honour he was indebted to the enlightened friendship of Simon Islep, then archbishop of Canterbury.

Vaughan's Life of Wycliffe, vol. i, p. 262.