Stoics and Saints - College of Stoic Philosophers

JOHN WYCLIF.
The truth previously indicated, that the friars were a living
link of
connection between the Middle Age and the preachers
of the Reformation, is further established by the fact, that
Wyclif orgaiiised_and_brained bands_ of poor priests,! who
went about barefoot, staff in hand, everywhere preaching
common people heard them gladly
it
always does hear
such preachers gladly and their words stirred a great hope
in the heart of the starving and wretched poor. Their
teaching, though they were no preachers of rebellion, added
inevitably to the popular excitement. They were not back
ward God grant that the vanguard of the Church may
never be backward in maintaining the cause of the afflicted,
and the right of the poor To the minds of men in high,
and men in safe places, their purely __ din sHan teachingseemed
to be in somj 3 fiimV^ ^nririfotion yn t.h tVip popular
discontent, and so for a time a cloud gathered round -the
Reformer^ and his_work. 4JThe University silenced him in
1382. A synod was held by the Archbishop of Canterbury
in which his tenets were formally condemned. Still, none
dared to touch his person, and he retired unharmed to
Lutterworth, where the last and the best part of his life s
work was done. It is a noble testimony to the temper
of England in those days, that he was able to continue
this glorious work in peace at his country living, and that
he died there peacefully in his bed in 1384.
A final word on his last and most honourable achieve
ment, his _translation
of the Bible into the English tongue.
A word will be sufficient, as it is the best known and
the most valued of all the noble gifts which he bestowed
upon the world. Though silenced at Oxford, he continued
at Lutterworth to pour forth a copious
stream of treatises
on every manner of subject connected with the religious
instruction and welfare of the people. Incomparably his