Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

."290 WYCLIFFE AND
as there - """ were '** readers. Truth is one. r-ii The portion -L
of - " Scripture -L prepared
_L J_ the Church for the daily
use of her children is contained in the Missal. Now
it is the one Horn an Missal, excepting the slight
variations of particular calendars. Then it was the
Missal according to one of the English Uses, but
always duly authorised. Wycliffe's attempt was
restricted to the New Testament, and even that is
not certain. He can claim novelty only in so far as
he was the exponent of a heretical view, which disseminates
an unauthorised translation, and then bids
every man follow his own interpretation of it. The
Council of Trent^prohibited any such attempt by
pronouncing anathema on its author. i
The theories of Wycliffe served to ignite the combustible
matter which was contained in the Peasant
Revolt. The Statute of Labourers had been enacted
after the plague. I A further ordinance * sought to
bind the labourer to the soil, to brand the runaway
labourer, and to check the process of emancipation
between the landowner and the villain.
.
The Hun-
dred Years' War was proceeding ignominiously for
England o in misfortune and defeat, Under these
circumstances a subsidy could not fail to be unpopular.
It took the obnoxious form of a Poll Tax
levied on every person in the realm without distinction
(1378). The poor man had to contribute as
much as the rich, but it caused the full cup of peasant
grievances to overflow. Three ringleaders of the
1 Canones et Decreta Concilii Tridentini, Sessio IV.