Wicliffe and His Times - James Aitken Wylie

Chapter 10
The Translation of the
Scriptures
WHILE Wicliffe was struggling to break first
of all his own fetters, and next the fetters of an
enslaved nation, God was working in the high
places of the earth for his preservation. Every day
the number of his enemies increased. The shield of
John of Gaunt no longer covered his head. Soon
not a friend would there be by his side, and he
would be left naked and defenseless to the rage of
his foes. But He who said to the patriarch of old,
"Fear not, I am thy shield," protected his own
chosen champion. Wicliffe had ,offered inexpiable
affront to Gregory; he had plucked England as a
prey out of his very teeth; he had driven away his
taxgatherers, who continually hovered like a flock
of cormorants round the land. But not content with
clipping the talons of the Papacy and checking her
rapacity in time to come, he was even now
meditating how he might make her reckon for the
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