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Wicliffe and His Times - James Aitken Wylie

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mystic meanings of earthquakes, <strong>and</strong> bade them be<br />

of good courage <strong>and</strong> go on. "This earthquake," said<br />

he, "portends the purging of the kingdom from<br />

heresies. For as there are shut up in the bowels of<br />

the earth many noxious spirits, which are expelled<br />

in an earthquake, <strong>and</strong> so the earth is cleansed, but<br />

not without great violence: so there are many<br />

heresies shut up in the hearts of reprobate men, but<br />

by the condemnation of them the kingdom is to be<br />

cleansed, but not without irksomeness <strong>and</strong> great<br />

commotion." The court accepting, on the<br />

archbishop's authority, the earthquake as a good<br />

omen, went on with the trial of <strong>Wicliffe</strong>.<br />

An officer of the court read out twenty-six<br />

propositions selected from the writings of the<br />

Reformer. The court sat three days in "good<br />

deliberation" over them. It unanimously<br />

condemned ten of them as heretical, <strong>and</strong> the<br />

remainder as erroneous. Among those specially<br />

br<strong>and</strong>ed as heresies, were the propositions relating<br />

to transubstantiation, the temporal emoluments of<br />

the hierarchy, <strong>and</strong> the supremacy of the Pope,<br />

which last <strong>Wicliffe</strong> admitted might be deduced<br />

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