Wicliffe and His Times - James Aitken Wylie

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the vices of the age had touched him; as a pastor he was loving and faithful, and as a patriot he was enlightened, incorruptible, and courageous. His friends fell away, but the Reformer never hesitated, never wavered. His views continued to grow, and his magnanimity and zeal grew with them. Had he sought fame, or wealth, or promotion, he could not but have seen that he had taken the wrong road: privation and continual sacrifice only could he expect in the path he had chosen. He acted on the maxim which he taught to others, that "if we look for an earthly reward our hope of eternal life perisheth." His sermons afford us a glimpse into his study at Lutterworth, and show us how his hours there were passed, even in meditation on God's Word, and communion with its Author. These are remarkable productions, expressed in vigorous rudimentary English, with no mystic haze in their thinking, disencumbered from the phraseology of the schools, simple and clear as the opening day, and fragrant as the breath of morning. They burst suddenly upon us like a ray of pure light from the 222
very heart of the darkness, telling us that God's Word in all ages is Light, and that the Holy Spirit has ever been present in the Church to discharge His office of leading "into all truth" those who are willing to submit their minds to His guidance. "If we look from Wicliffe," says Lechler, "backwards, in order to compare him with the men before him, and arrive at a scale of measurement for his own power, the fact is brought before us that Wicliffe concentratedly represented that movement towards reform of the foregoing centuries, which the degeneracy of the Church, arising from its secular possessions and simonies, rendered necessary. That which, in Gregory VII.'s time, Arnold of Brescia, and the community of the Waldenses, Francis of Assisi, and the begging orders of the Minorites strove after, what the holy Bernard of Clairvaux longed for, the return of the Church to apostolic order, that filled Wicliffe's soul specially at the beginning of his public career... In the collective history of the Church of Christ Wicliffe makes an epoch, in so far as he is the first reforming personality. Before him arose, it is true, 223
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WICLIFFE AND HIS TIMES James A. Wyl
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ival. It built for itself gorgeous
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child, who was named John. Here his
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humility was rewarded by his findin
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authority" with which they were for
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a single chapter of the Bible, for
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Alps it entered Northern Europe, le
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and Calvin. Wicliffe had been a wit
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"and inhabit everlasting burnings."
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een a person of noble aspect and co
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delay, in 1370, the cause was given
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all. The king had appealed to the P
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ceased to be rung; the crosses and
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they should instantly, except upon
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the independence of their country a
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contending against the evangelical
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demand the more conspicuous, was th
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ulls, and briefs were so many drain
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ishop, or other, any bull, or any o
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to benefices it was not so easy to
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These were a sort of double breast-
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A military baron is the first to ri
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should hold our land directly and a
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did was against his oath at his cor
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with so resolute a patriotism. The
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peculiar clerk," from which we infe
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would bring such an accession of pr
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Chapter 4 Wicliffe's Battle with th
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original at small occasions, thereb
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monastery came the halt, the blind,
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in society, not in solitude, that w
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week except Friday. They run here a
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devoured after plate, and such natu
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view in the constitution of the new
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to be. Being joined by seven discip
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again were kings and suppliant prin
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his conclave the idea of Francis ap
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of Rome, but did not attest with eq
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order of monks were recluses. They
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oth as individuals and as a body, w
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hoards increased every day. How cam
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established in England, where, from
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though they would, to the great gri
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Pope; they had been created by him,
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it; and therefore, not content, as
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controversy was no mere quarrel bet
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"There is no greater heresy than fo
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false dogma on which it was founded
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abuses which these laws were meant
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conveyed away, which they cannot be
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never tied his hands by promise or
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Wicliffe was appointed to the recto
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year he had taken the first-fruits
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against the royal prerogative. The
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took the matter in hand, being then
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These doctrines were found to be of
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erroneous conclusions, and most wic
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first to make his way into the Chap
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citation, like a dangerous spell wh
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fourteenth century found it encompa
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all the temporalities, of all the s
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Chapter 8 Hierarchical Persecution
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the archbishop's chapel at Lambeth.
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than courtly, their adherence to th
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Would it have been better that Engl
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power of the keys," as it has been
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as a single acre from her domains o
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"Prelates and priests," says he, "c
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who becomes immoral and fails to fu
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Moses. But that enactment, the Refo
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was the plan Wicliffe laid before t
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whole face of England would be chan
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land to aliens and enemies; and man
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Nor even to the men of his own time
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comprehensiveness, the courage, and
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celebrate in songs the Exodus of ea
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Chapter 10 The Translation of the S
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against the Reformer, died also, an
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with the first-elected Pope, who to
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helped to reveal to him yet more cl
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eyes upon them, he said with a loud
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whom were Alfric and Alfred the Gre
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end their authors sought. They were
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which bound the souls of his countr
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eason have later philologists assig
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Page 175 and 176: In short, a great clamor was raised
Page 177 and 178: Wielding the sword of the Spirit, w
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Page 185 and 186: they show us the inner condition of
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Page 191 and 192: stage. This prince stood stoutly by
Page 193 and 194: Chapter 12 Wicliffe's Appeal to Par
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Page 199 and 200: Chapter 13 Wicliffe Before Convocat
Page 201 and 202: after the manner of that scholastic
Page 203 and 204: laid an arrest upon him. He had had
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Page 207 and 208: was left at liberty. "He that lovet
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Page 211 and 212: deeply he saw into the constitution
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Page 215 and 216: taught also that every man had a ri
Page 217 and 218: and very man; His substitution in t
Page 219 and 220: among its ministers, gradation of r
Page 221: teachings of prophets and apostles,
Page 225: generations." Wicliffe, had he live
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Wicliffe and His Times - James Aitken Wylie

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