IV. wholly futile, though its immediate result was CHAP. trivial when compared with its design. The degree of success, however, which attended this claim on the secular power, served as a precedent and a motive in the series of measures, which were ere long to involve both the church and the state, in all the odious consequences which have in general arisen from a coercive warfare with religious opinion. Wycliffe marked this tendency of events, and by his benevolent genius the progress of intolerance was for awhile impeded. His declining health, or the fear, perhaps, of encountering the political influence of Lancaster, proved the security of the reformer during the late prosecution of his friends. It is stated, indeed, that Hereford and Reppington, when falling before the strength of their antagonists, solicited the protection of John of Gaunt, and that the reply of that nobleman consisted of instructions respecting the duty of submitting, in all such matters, to the decision of their ordinaries. That such an appeal was made, and that such was its result is perhaps true, but that it did not include the name of Wycliffe, may be safely inferred from his marked reference to the "noble duke," in the petition which he presented immediately afterwards to the king and the parliament. devotional the evils It appears, also, from a discourse composed by Wycliffe's the rector of Lutterworth about this period, that allusion to he was not ignorant of the artifice and corruption of the day. to which his adversaries had resorted, in the hope of opposing the force of the civil government, to the intended reformation of religion. Commenting on the entombment of Christ, and on the vain IV. CHAP. effort of the priests and the soldiers to prevent his resurrection, the preacher adverts to the measures recently adopted, both by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of his country, with a view to consign the gospel to a ceaseless oblivion. "Thus," he observes, "do our high-priests and our new religious fear them, lest God's law, after "all they have done, should be quickened. There"fore make they statutes stable as a rock, and 6.6 they obtain grace of knights to confirm them, "and this they well mark with the witness of "lords; and all lest the truth of God's law hid "in the sepulchre, should break out to the know ing of the common people. Oh! Christ, thy "law is hidden thus, when wilt thou send thine "angel to remove the stone, and shew thy truth "unto thy flock? Well I know that knights have “taken gold in this case, to help that thy law "may be thus hid, and thine ordinances con"sumed. But well I know that at the day of doom “it shall be manifest, and even before when thou "arisest against all thine enemies."1 While such was the policy of the leading members of the hierarchy, it was obvious to Wycliffe that nothing remained but to submit to their despotism, or to attempt a counteraction of their efforts in relation to the court and the senate. Nearly sixty winters had now passed over the head of our reformer, and sickness had made a serious inroad on his physical strength-that im-portant auxiliary of intellectual vigour and prowess. But his furrowed brow, and whitened hairs, were MS. Hom. Bib. Reg. IV. still allied to an energy, which could ill submit CHAP. to a tame surrendering of the fortress of equity, and truth, and godliness. Each step in the progress of the late persecutions, was seen as facilitating the meditated blow against himself. Should it be his lot to disappear beneath the fangs of the rising tyranny, it was his resolve that his countrymen should be distinctly informed of the opinions for which he suffered. In conformity with this determination, and with his message to the chancellor of Oxford some months previously, he presented a summary of the more important of his tenets in the form of a petition, to Richard and the english parliament. The assembly to which this appeal was addressed, was summoned on the fifteenth of October, and met on the nineteenth of November, and in this document it is supposed to be already convened. It appears also to have been known that in this meeting of "the great men of the realm, both seculars and men "of holy-church," the articles included in this appeal, would become the matters of discussion. The doctrine thus submitted to their judgment, is said to be "proved both by authority and reason," and this that the "christian religion may "be increased, maintained, and made stable, since "our Lord Jesus Christ, very God and very man, "is head and prelate of this religion, and shed "his precious heart's blood and water out of his side, on the cross, to make this religion perfect "and stable, and clean without error." 66 66 2 Fox. Acts, &c. 2 3 MS. Ad regem et parliamentum. C. C. Cambridge, and in the Cotton Library. It will be remembered as one of the two works printed by Dr. James in 1608. CHAP. Summary of Wycliffe's "Complaint." 66 The articles thus introduced, are four in number. The first relates to the vows of the religious as a device of man, and of no obligation: the second asserts that "secular lords may lawfully, and meritoriously, in many cases, take away temporal goods given to men of the church." In the third it is affirmed that even tythes, and other voluntary offerings, should be withdrawn " from prelates "or other priests whoever they be," on their yielding to "great sins, as pride, simony, and man"slaying-gluttony, drunkenness, and lechery." In the last, the reformer prays that the doctrine of the eucharist, "which is plainly taught by "Christ and his apostles in the gospels and epistles, might be also openly taught in the churches." Nearly half the document is occupied, in demonstrating the first of these positions; and to discern the propriety of this, it should be remembered that the archbishop found the most efficient auxiliaries of his arbitrary power, in the begging fraternities and the monks. On the ground of their alleged seclusion from the world, and contempt of its distinctions and indulgencies, their claims to the credit of an unusual sanctity were often but too successfully urged. It has appeared that the sentence which excluded every teacher of Wycliffe's doctrine on the eucharist from the university, was the effect of their influence; and in the synod which had since prosecuted his known admirers with all possible severity, the same species of authority prevailed. It became important, therefore, in the judgment of the reformer, to shew distinctly that so far from meriting the pre-eminence conceded to them, the vows which gave to these persons their distinction were a human invention; one also of comparatively recent date; and in various ways injurious to religion, and the interests of society. 66 In this memorable appeal, these points are fully proved. The writer especially adverts to the practice of the religious in forsaking one rule, deemed less perfect, to embrace another regarded as of higher sanctity. The rule of Christ, it is contended, must of necessity be the most complete, and it is thence inferred that all men should be held free from any painful consequences in relinquishing any private sect," sect," the contrivance of “sinful men," for the rule of the gospel. This, it is justly observed, should be the more readily admitted by the parties alluded to, as they were not slow to forget their vows of poverty and seclusion, when the attractions of a mitre were allowed to descend upon them. The change, also, which followed in such cases, is described as savoring less of an increased separation from the world, than of an actual return to it. If to all this, it should be replied, that the customs of the religious are not at variance with the institute of the Saviour and of his apostles, but rather parts of it; the persons so reasoning, are called upon to name the portion of holy writ, containing the articles of discipline peculiar to canons, and monks, and mendicants; and to expose the failure which must be attendant on the effort, various of the regulations adopted by these communities are specified. Respecting this moiety of the work, in which that momentous doctrine, the sufficiency of scripture, is maintained |