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176 YORK.
council. For political reasons he was desirous of
humiliating the Church and abridging the temporal
power of the prelates. Wycliffe's views were adverse
to the wealth, the grandeur, the worldly influence of
the ecclesiastical body, but those views were based
not upon a political but a religious foundation.
Ecclesiastical abuses were the objects of his unsparing
attack. Accusations drawn from statements
made in his lectures and writings were brought
against him, and he was summoned to answer the
charges before a convocation held at St. Paul's
Cathedral, for the purpose of granting a subsidy, on
3rd February, 1377. His teaching, as represented
by his enemies, was startling enough to those who
regarded the pope as the head of Christendom, for
he was charged with denying any exclusive power or
pre-eminence as attaching to the Church of Rome,
and with the bold statement that the gospel was
sufficient as a rule of life to all Christians. John of
Gaunt supported him when he appeared before convocation,
and in his zeal for the reformer applied
insulting words to the Bishop of London, which
were so distasteful to the citizens, with whom John
of Gaunt was utterly unpopular, that no conclusion
was come to and the convocation broke up. The
real object of citing Wycliffe before convocation w-as
to fasten odium upon John of Gaunt, a result which
was fully gained.
But his enemies were persevering in their attacks.
Papal bulls were procured, enjoining the bishops and
the University of Oxford to renew the proceedings
against Wycliffe, which was unwillingly done. He