Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

304 THE LOLLARDS.
T
as a lapsed heretic, degraded, condemned, and finally
burnt at the stake.1 Impenitent Wyclimsni was no
loving, soul-stirring cause which made men martyrs.
As I have said, they eliminated Sacrifice and Sacraments,
and the principle of authority, for they
declared that no man in mortal sin could exact
obedience from another. Sir William Sawtrey, and
those of kindred mind, preferred to the eternal priest-
hood of the Bride % the dubious rank of ministers
without orders or jurisdiction, and finally bore out
the Apostle's awful words by giving up their bodies to
be burned, yet not having charity. Foxe asserts that
these penal measures did not produce the desired
effect, and that the Lollard seed fructified not with-
standing. It is certain that an unbroken succession
of dissenters was kept up, but in all probability the
real cause of these defections lies deeper. If the
children of the Church, both clergy and laity, had
set themselves to lead holy lives, the incipient heresy
would have died out without any material fires.
Archbishop Arundel, in sorrow at the Lollard blasphemies
against the most Blessed Sacrament, said
pertinently to Henry IV. that whilst the English
had maintained in its integrity their faith in Tran-
substantiation, the royal throne had stood on a
firmer basis.2
Henry never forgot, or was allowed to forget, on
1 Stevenson, p. 132.
"** *
"Chronica et Annales, Johannis de Trokdowe ct Hen. de Blane-
forde, p. 395.