V.

The English will thus be sole rulers in their island. They must also be sole keepers of their consciences, and for that Wyclif is to teach them free investigation. All, then, must understand him; and he begins to write in English. His English works are numerous; sermons, treatises, translations; they fill volumes.[725]

Before all the Book of truth was to be placed in the hands of everybody, so that none need accept without check the interpretations of others. With the help of a few disciples, Wyclif began to translate the Bible into English. To translate the Scriptures was not forbidden. The Church only required that the versions should be submitted to her for approval. There already existed several, complete or partial, in various languages; a complete one in French, written in the thirteenth century,[726] and several partial ones in English. Wyclif's version includes the whole of the canonical books, and even the apocryphal ones; the Gospels appear to have been translated by himself, the Old Testament chiefly by his disciple, Nicholas of Hereford. The task was an immense one, the need pressing; the work suffered from the rapidity with which it was performed. A revision of the work of Nicholas was begun under Wyclif's direction, but only finished after his death.[727]

No attempt at elegance is found in this translation; the language is rugged, and on that account the better adapted to the uncouthness of the holy Word. Harsh though it be we feel, however, that it is tending towards improvement; the meaning of the words becomes more precise, owing to the necessity of giving to the sacred phrases their exact signification; the effort is not always successful, but it is a continued one, and it is an effort in the right direction. It was soon perceived to what need the undertaking answered. Copies of the work multiplied in astonishing fashion. In spite of the wholesale destruction which was ordered, there remain a hundred and seventy manuscripts, more or less complete, of Wyclif's Bible. For some time, it is true, the copying of it had not been opposed by the ecclesiastical authority, and the version was only condemned twenty-four years after the death of the author, by the Council of Oxford.[728] In the England of the Plantagenets could be foreseen the England of the Tudors, under whom three hundred and twenty-six editions of the Bible were printed in less than a century, from 1525 to 1600.

But Wyclif's greatest influence on the development of prose was exercised by means of his sermons and treatises. In these, the reformer gives himself full scope; he alters his tone at need, employs all means, from the most impassioned eloquence down to the most trivial pleasantry, meant to delight men of the lower class. Put to such varied uses, prose could not but become a more workable instrument. True it is that Wyclif never seeks after artistic effect in his English, any more than in his Latin. His sermons regularly begin by: "This gospel tellith.... This gospel techith alle men that ..." and he continues his arguments in a clear and measured style, until he comes to one of those burning questions about which he is battling; then his irony bursts forth, he uses scathing similes; he thunders against those "emperoure bishopis," taken up with worldly cares; his speech is short and haughty; he knows how to condense his whole theory in one brief, clear-cut phrase, easy to remember, that every one will know by heart, and which it will not be easy to answer. Why are the people preached to in a foreign tongue? Christ, when he was with his apostles, "taughte hem oute this prayer, bot be thou syker, nother in Latyn nother in Frensche, bot in the langage that they usede to speke."[729] How should popes be above kings? "Thus shulden popis be suget to kynges, for thus weren bothe Crist and Petre."[730] How believe in indulgences sold publicly by pardoners on the market-places, and in that inexhaustible "treasury" of merits laid up in heaven that the depositaries of papal favour are able to distribute at their pleasure among men for money? Each merit is rewarded by God, and consequently the benefit of it cannot be applicable to any one who pays: "As Peter held his pees in grauntinge of siche thingis, so shulden thei holden ther pees, sith thei ben lasse worth than Petir."[731]

Next to these brief arguments are familiar jests, gravely uttered, with scarcely any perceptible change in the expression of the lips, jests that Englishmen have been fond of in all times. If he is asked of what use are the "letters of fraternity," sold by the friars to their customers, to give them a share in the superabundant merits of the whole order, Wyclif replies with a serious air: "Bi siche resouns thinken many men that this lettris mai do good for to covere mostard pottis."[732]

It is difficult to follow him in all the places where he would fain lead us. He terrified the century by the boldness of his touch; when he was seen to shake the frail holy thing with a ruthless hand, all eyes turned away, and his former protectors withdrew from him.[733] He did not, however, carry his doubt to the extreme end; according to his doctrine the _substance_ of the host, the particle of matter, is not the matter itself, the living flesh of the body that Jesus Christ had on earth; this substance is bread; only by a miracle which is the effect of consecration, the body of Christ is present sacramentally; that is to say, all the benefits, advantages, and virtues which emanate from it are attached to the host as closely as the soul of men is united to their body.[734]

The other sacraments,[735] ecclesiastical hierarchy, the tithes collected by the clergy, are not more respectfully treated by him. These criticisms and teachings had all the more weight owing to the fact that they were delivered from a pulpit and fell from the lips of an authorised master, whose learning was acknowledged even by his adversaries: "A very eminent doctor, a peerless and incomparable one,"[736] says Knighton. Still better than Langland's verses, his forcible speech, by reason of his station, prepared the way for the great reforms of the sixteenth century. He already demands the confiscation of the estates of the monasteries, accomplished later by Henry VIII.; he appeals at every page of his treatises to the secular arm, hoping by its means to bring back humility by force into the heart of prelates.

But he is so far removed from its realisation that his dream dazzles him, and urges him on to defend chimerical schemes. He wishes the wealth of the clergy to be taken from them and bestowed upon poor, honest, brave, trustworthy gentlemen, who will defend the country; and he does not perceive that these riches would have fallen principally into the hands of turbulent and grasping courtiers, as happened in the sixteenth century.[737] He is carried away by his own reasonings, so that the Utopian or paradoxical character of his statements escape him. Wanting to minimise the power of the popes, he protests against the rules followed for their election, and goes on to say concerning the vote by ballot: "Sith ther ben fewe wise men, and foolis ben without noumbre, assent of more part of men makith evydence that it were foli."[738]

His disciples, _Lollards_ as they were usually called, a name the origin of which has been much discussed, survived him, and his simple priests continued, for a time, to propagate his doctrines. The master's principal propositions were even found one day in 1395, posted up on the door of St. Paul's Cathedral, in the heart of London. Among them figure declarations that, at a distance of three centuries, seem a foreshadowing of the theories of the Puritans; one for instance, affirming "that the multitude of useless arts allowed in the kingdom are the cause of sins without number." Among the forbidden arts are included that of the goldsmiths, and another art of which, however, the Puritans were to make a somewhat notorious use, that of the armorers.[739]

At the University, the followers of Wyclif were numerous; in the country they continued to increase until the end of the fourteenth century. Energetic measures were adopted in the beginning of the fifteenth; the statute "De haeretico comburendo" was promulgated in 1401 (but rarely applied at this period); the master's books were condemned and prohibited; from that time Wyclifism declined, and traces of its survival can hardly be found at the period when the Reformation was introduced into England.

By a strange fate Wyclif's posterity continued to flourish out of the kingdom. Bohemia had just given a queen to England, and used to send students every year from its University of Prague to study at Paris and Oxford. In that country the Wyclifite tenets found a multitude of adepts; the Latin works of the thinker were transcribed by Czech students, and carried back to their own land; several writings of Wyclif exist only in Czech copies. His most illustrious disciple, John Hus, rector of the University of Prague, was burnt at the stake, by order of the Council of Constance, on the 6th of July, 1415. But the doctrine survived; it was adopted with modifications by the Taborites and the Moravian Brethren, and borrowed from them by the Waldenses[740]; the same Moravian Brethren who, owing to equally singular vicissitudes, were to become an important factor in the English religious movement of the eighteenth century: the Wesleyan movement. In spite of differences in their doctrines, the Moravian Brethren and the Hussites stand as a connecting link between Wesley and Wyclif.[741]

FOOTNOTES:

[666] "Historia Anglicana," vol. i. pp. 453 ff. By the same: "Gesta abbatum monasterii Sancti Albani," 3 vols., "Ypodigma Neustriae," 1 vol. ed. Riley, Rolls, 1863, 1876.

[667] _Ibid._, vol. ii. p. 27. See above, p. 201.

[668] "Chronicon Angliae," 1328-88, Rolls, ed. Maunde Thompson, 1874, 8vo. Mr. Thompson has proved that, contrary to the prevalent opinion, Walsingham has been copied by this chronicler instead of copying him himself; but the book is an important one on account of the passages referring to John of Gaunt, which are not found elsewhere.

[669] "Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden ... with the English translation of John Trevisa," ed. Babington and Lumby, Rolls, 1865, 8 vols. 8vo.

[670] See above, p. 195.

[671] "The buke of John Maundeuill, being the travels of Sir John Mandeville, Knight, 1322-56, a hitherto unpublished English version from the unique copy (Eg. MS. 1982) in the British Museum, edited together with the French text," by G. F. Warner; Westminster, Roxburghe Club, 1889, fol. In the introduction will be found the series of proofs establishing the fact that Mandeville never existed; the chain seems now complete, owing to a succession of discoveries, those especially of Mr. E. B. Nicholson, of the Bodleian, Oxford (_Cf._ an article of H. Cordier in the _Revue Critique_ of Oct. 26, 1891). A critical edition of the French text is being prepared by the Societe des Anciens Textes. The English translation was made after 1377, and twice revised in the beginning of the fifteenth century. On the passages borrowed from "Mandeville" by Christine de Pisan, in her "Chemin de long Estude," see in "Romania," vol. xxi. p. 229, an article by Mr. Toynbee.

[672] The church and its dependencies were sold and demolished in 1798: "Adjuges le 12 nivose an vi., a la citoyenne epouse, J. J. Fabry, pour 46,000 francs." Warner, _ibid._, p. xxxiii.

[673] Warner, _ibid._, p. v.

[674] "Et sachies que je eusse cest livret mis en latin pour plus briefment deviser, mais pour ce que plusieurs entendent miex roumant que latin, j'e l'ay mis en roumant par quoy que chascun l'entende, et que les seigneurs et les chevalers et les autres nobles hommes qui ne scevent point de latin ou pou, qui ont este oultre mer sachent et entendent se je dis voir ou non at se je erre en devisant pour non souvenance ou autrement que il le puissent adrecier et amender, car choses de lonc temps passees par la veue tournent en oubli et memoire d'omme ne puet tout mie retenir ne comprendre." MS. fr. 5637 in the National Library, Paris, fol. 4, fourteenth century.

[675] On Odoric and Mandeville, see H. Cordier, "Odoric de Pordenone," Paris, 1891, Introduction.

[676] A part of it was even put into verse: "The Commonyng of Ser John Mandeville and the gret Souden;" in "Remains of the early popular Poetry of England," ed. Hazlitt, London, 1864, 4 vols. 8vo, vol. i. p. 153.

[677] Here is a specimen of this style; it is the melancholy end of the work, in which the weary traveller resigns himself, like Robinson Crusoe, to rest at last: "And I John Maundeville, knyghte aboveseyd (alle thoughe I ben unworthi) that departed from oure contrees and passed the see the year of grace 1322, that have passed many londes and many isles and contrees, and cerched manye fulle straunge places, and have ben in many a fulle gode honourable companye and at many a faire dede of armes (alle beit that I dide none my self, for myn unable insuffisance) now I am comen hom (mawgre my self) to reste; for gowtes artetykes, that me distreynen, tho diffynen the ende of my labour, agenst my wille (God knowethe). And thus takynge solace in my wrecced reste, recordynge the tyme passed, I have fulfilled theise thinges and putte hem wryten in this boke, as it wolde come in to my mynde, the year of grace 1356 in the 34 yeer that I departede from oure contrees. Werfore I preye to alle the rederes and hereres of this boke, yif it plese hem that thei wolde preyen to God for me, and I schalle preye for hem." Ed. Halliwell, London, 1866, 8vo, p. 315.

[678] See above, p. 216.

[679] "Boethius," in "Complete Works," vol. ii. p. 6.

[680] "Troilus," II. 100. See above, p. 306. _Cf._ Boece's "De Consolatione," Metrum III.

[681] "Et ut patesceret totius regni communitati eos non respectu avaritiae quicquam facere, proclamari fecerunt sub poena decollationis, ne quis praesumeret aliquid vel aliqua ibidem reperta ad proprios usus servanda contingere, sed ut vasa aurea et argentea, quae ibi copiosa habebantur, cum securibus minutatim confringerent et in Tamisiam vel in cloacas projicerent, pannos aureos et holosericos dilacerarent.... Et factum est ita." Walsingham, "Historia Anglicana," vol. i. p. 457 (Rolls).

[682] "Ad le Blakeheth, ubi ducenta millia communium fuere simul congregata hujuscemodi sermonem est exorsus:

Whann Adam dalfe and Eve span Who was thanne a gentil man?

Continuansque sermonem inceptum, nitebatur, per verba proverbii quod pro themate sumpserat, introducere et probare, ab initio omnes pares creatos a natura, servitutem per injustam oppressionem nequam hominum introductam, contra voluntatem Dei; quia si Deo placiusset servos creasse utique in principio mundi constituisset quis servus, quisve dominus futurus fuisset." Let them therefore destroy nobles and lawyers, as the good husbandman tears up the weeds in his field; thus shall liberty and equality reign: "Sic demum ... esset inter eos aequa libertas, par dignitas, similisque potestas." "Chronicon Angliae," ed. Maunde Thompson (Rolls), 1874, 8vo, p. 321; Walsingham, vol. ii. p. 32.

[683] "Rotuli Parliamentorum, ut et petitiones et placita in Parliamento." London, 7 vols. fol. (one volume contains the index).

[684] Richard restored it entirely, and employed English master masons, "Richard Washbourn" and "Johan Swalwe." The indenture is of March 18, 1395; the text of it is in Rymer, 1705, vol. vii. p. 794.

[685] "Rotuli Parliamentorum," vol. ii. p. 103.

[686] Ex. 13 Ed. III., 17 Ed. III., "Rotuli Parliamentorum," vol. ii. pp. 107, 135.

[687] "Rotuli Parliamentorum," vol. ii. p. 361.

[688] "Seigneurs et Sires, ces paroles qe j'ay dist sont tant a due en Franceys, vostre Roi vient a toy." _Ibid._, vol. iii. p. 3. A speech of the same kind adorned with puns was made by Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, to open the first Parliament of Henry IV.: "Cest honorable roialme d'Angleterre q'est le plus habundant Angle de richesse parmy tout le monde, avait estee par longe temps mesnez, reulez et governez par enfantz et conseil de vefves...." 1399, _Ibid._, p. 415.

[689] "Rotuli Parliamentorum." Speech of Knyvet, vol. ii. p. 316; of Wykeham, vol. ii. p. 303. This same Knyvet opens the Good Parliament of 1376 by a speech equally forcible. He belonged to the magistracy, and was greatly respected; he died in 1381.

[690] Ex: "Item, meisme le jour (that is to say the day on which the general proclamation was read) fut fait une crie qe chescun qi vodra mettre petition a nostre seigneur le Roi et a son conseil, les mette entre cy et le lundy prochein a venir.... Et serront assignez de receivre les petitions ... les sousescritz." _Ibid._, vol. ii. p. 135.

[691] _Ibid._, vol. ii. pp. 136, 163. "Fut dit a les ditz Communes de par le Roy, q'ils se retraiassent par soi a lour aunciene place en la maison du chapitre de l'abbeye de Westm', et y tretassent et conseillassent entre eux meismes."

[692] Vol. ii. p. 107, second Parliament of 1339.

[693] "Ils treterent longement," _Ibid._, ii. p. 104.

[694] "Sur quele demonstrance il respoundrent q'il voleient parler ensemble et treter sur cest bosoigne.... Sur quel bosoigne ceux de la Commune demorerent de lour respons doner tant qe a Samedi, le XIX. jour de Feverer." A.D. 1339, "Rotuli Parliamentorum," vol. ii. p. 107.

[695] "Ils n'osoront assentir tant qu'ils eussent conseillez et avysez les Communes de lour pais." They promise to do their best to persuade their constituents. A.D. 1339; "Rotuli Parliamentorum," vol. ii. p. 104.

[696] "Et les nuncia auxi la cause de la longe demore quele il avoit faite es dites parties saunz chivaucher sur ses enemys; et coment il le covendra faire pur defaute d'avoir." "Rotuli Parliamentorum," vol. ii. p. 103, first Parliament of 1339.

[697] 51 Ed. III., "Rotuli Parliamentorum," ii. p. 374.

[698] "Rotuli Parliamentorum," vol. ii. p. 323. This speech created a great stir; another analysis of it exists in the "Chronicon Angliae" (written by a monk of St. Albans, the abbot of which, Thomas de la Mare, sat in Parliament): "Quae omnia ferret aequanimeter [plebs communis] si dominus rex noster sive regnum istud exinde aliquid commodi vel emolumenti sumpsisse videretur; etiam plebi tolerabile, si in expediendis rebus bellicis, quamvis gestis minus prospere, tanta pecunia fuisset expensa. Sed palam est, nec regem commodum, nec regnum ex hac fructum aliquem percepisse.... Non enim est credible regem carere infinita thesauri quantitate si fideles fuerint qui ministrant ei" (p. 73). The drift of the speech is, as may be seen, exactly the same as in the Rolls of Parliament. Another specimen of pithy eloquence will be found in the apostrophe addressed to the Earl of Stafford by John Philpot, a mercer of London, after his naval feat of 1378. _Ibid._, p. 200.

[699] "Rotuli Parliamentorum," ii. pp. 337 ff.

[700] June 25, 1376.

[701] The speech of this year was made "en Engleis," by Simon, bishop of Ely; but the Rolls give only a French version of it: "Le prophet David dit que ..." &c., vol. ii. p. 283.

[702] "Sires, I thank God, and yowe Spirituel and Temporal and alle the Astates of the lond; and do yowe to wyte, it es noght my will that no man thynk yt be waye of conquest I wold disherit any man of his heritage, franches, or other ryghtes that hym aght to have, no put hym out of that that he has and has had by the gude lawes and custumes of the Rewme: Except thos persons that has ben agan the gude purpose and the commune profyt of the Rewme." "Rotuli Parliamentorum," vol. iii. p. 423. In the fifteenth century the Parliamentary documents are written sometimes in French, sometimes in English; French predominates in the first half of the century, and English in the second.

[703] On Wyclif's family, see "The Birth and Parentage of Wyclif," by L. Sergeant, _Athenaeum_, March 12 and 26, 1892. This spelling of his name is the one which appears oftenest in contemporary documents. (Note by F. D. Matthew, _Academy_, June 7, 1884.)

[704] "Determinatio quedam magistri Johannis Wyclyff de Dominio contra unum monachum." The object of this treatise is to show "quod Rex potest juste dominari regno Anglic negando tributum Romano pontifici." The text will be found in John Lewis: "A history of the life and sufferings of ... John Wiclif," 1720, reprinted Oxford, 1820, 8vo, p. 349.

[705] "Ambassatores, nuncios et procuratores nostros speciales." Lewis, _ibid._, p. 304.

[706] All these details are found in the "Chronicon Angliae," 1328-88, ed. Maunde Thompson, Rolls, 1874, 8vo, p. 123, one of the rare chronicles the MS. of which was not expurgated, in what relates to John of Gaunt, at the accession of the Lancasters. (See above, p. 406.)

[707] This extreme leniency caused an indignation of which an echo is found in Walsingham: "Oxoniense studium generale," he exclaims, "quam gravi lapsu a sapientiae et scientiae culmine decidisti!... Pudet recordationis tantae impudentiae, et ideo supersedeo in husjusmodi materia immorari, ne materna videar ubera decerpere dentibus, quae dare lac, potum scientiae, consuevere." "Historia Anglicana," Rolls, vol. i. p. 345, year 1378.

[708] See in the "Fasciculi Zizaniorum magistri Johannis Wyclif cum tritico," ed. Shirley, Rolls, 1858, 8vo, p. 258: "Responsio magistri Johannis Wycclifi ad dubium infra scriptum, quaesitum ab eo, per dominum regem Angliae Ricardum secundum et magnum suum consilium anno regni sui primo." The point to be elucidated was the following: "Dubium est utrum regnum Angliae possit legitime, imminente necessitate suae defensionis, thesaurum regni detinere, ne deferatur ad exteros, etiam domino papa sub poena censurarum et virtute obedientiae hoc petente."

[709] "Statutes of the Realm," 5 Rich. II., st. 2, chap. 5. Walsingham thus describes them; "Congregavit ... comites ... talaribes indutos vestibus de russeto in signum perfectionis amplioris, incedentes nudis pedibus, qui suos errores in populo ventilarent, et palam ac publice in suis sermonibus praedicarent." "Historia Anglicana," _sub anno_ 1377, Rolls, vol. i. p. 324. A similar description is found (they present themselves, "sub magnae sanctitatis velamine," and preach errors "tam in ecclesiis quam in plateis et aliis locis profanis") in the letter of the archbishop of Canterbury, of May 28, 1382, "Fasciculi," p. 275.

[710] "Select English Works," ed. T. Arnold, Oxford, 1869, vol. i. p. 176.

[711] "Historia Anglicana," Rolls, vol. ii. p. 119. Elsewhere, in another series of unflattering epithets ("old hypocrite," "angel of Satan," &c.), the chronicler had allowed himself the pleasure of making a little pun upon Wyclif's name: "Non nominandus Joannes Wicliffe, vel potius Wykbeleve." Year 1381 vol. i. p. 450.

[712] L. Sergeant, "The Birth and Parentage of Wyclif," in the _Athenaeum_ of March 12, 1892.

[713] The Wyclif Society, founded in London by Dr. Furnivall, has published a great part of the Latin works of Wyclif: "Polemical Works in Latin," ed. Buddensieg, 1883, 8vo; "Joannis Wyclif, de compositione Hominis," ed. R. Beer, 1884; "Tractatus de civili Dominio ... from the unique MS. at Vienna," ed. R. Lane Poole, 1885 ff.; "Tractatus de Ecclesia," ed. Loserth, 1886; "Dialogus, sive speculum Ecclesie militantis," ed. A. W. Pollard, 1886; "Tractatus de benedicta Incarnatione," ed. Harris, 1886; "Sermones," ed. Loserth and Matthew, 1887; "Tractatus de officio Regis;" ed. Pollard and Sayle, 1887; "De Dominio divino libri tres, to which are added the first four books of the treatise 'De pauperie Salvatoris,' by Richard Fitzralph, archbishop of Armagh," ed. R. L. Poole, 1890; "De Ente praedicamentali," ed. R. Beer, 1891; "De Eucharistia tractatus maior; accedit tractatus de Eucharistia et Poenitentia," ed. Loserth and Matthew, 1892. Many others are in preparation.

Among the Latin works published outside of the Society, see "Tractatus de officio pastorali," ed. Lechler, Leipzig, 1863, 8vo; "Trialogus cum supplemento Trialogi," ed. Lechler, Oxford, 1869, 8vo; "De Christo et suo Adversario Antichristo," ed. R. Buddensieg, Gotha, 1880, 4to. Many documents by or concerning Wyclif are to be found in the "Fasciculi Zizaniorum magistri Joannis Wyclif cum tritico," ed. Shirley, Rolls, 1858, 8vo (compiled by Thomas Netter, fifteenth century). See also Shirley, "A Catalogue of the Original Works of John Wyclif," Oxford, 1865, 8vo, and Maunde Thompson, "Wycliffe Exhibition in the King's Library," London, 1884, 8vo.

[714] R. Lane Poole, "Wycliffe and Movements for Reform," London, 1889, 8vo, p. 85.

[715] On this treatise, and on the use made of it by Wyclif, see: "Johannis Wycliffe De Dominio divino libri tres. To which are added the first four books of the treatise 'De pauperie Salvatoris,' by Richard Fitzralph," ed. R. Lane Poole, 1890. The "De Dominio divino," of Wyclif, seems to have been written about 1366; his "De Dominio Civili," about 1372.

[716] "Quilibet existens in gratia gratificante, finaliter nedum habet jus, sed in re habet omnia bona Dei." "De Dominio Civili," chap. i. p. 1.

[717] "De Dominio Civili," chap. xiv. p. 96, chap. xvii. pp. 118-120.

[718] "Vel esset lex superaddita in lege evangelica implicata, vel impertinens, vel repugnans." "De Dominio Civili," chap. xvii.

[719] The worst is the ecclesiastical form: "Pessimum omnium est quod prelati ecclesie secundum tradiciones suas immisceant se negociis et solicitudinibus civilis dominii." Chap. xxvii. p. 195.

[720] Chap. xxx. p. 212.

[721] Chap. xxxv. p. 250.

[722] Chap. xxxvii. p. 266.

[723] A conclusion pointed out as heretical by the archbishop of Canterbury in his letter of 1382. "Fasciculi," p. 278.

[724] "Kingis and lordis schulden wite that thei ben mynystris and vikeris of God, to venge synne and ponysche mysdoeris." "Select English Works," ed. Arnold, vol. iii. p. 214.

[725] The principal ones will be found in: T. Arnold, "Select English Works of John Wyclif," Oxford, 1869-71, 3 vols. 8vo; F. D. Matthew, "The English Works of Wyclif, hitherto unprinted," London, Early English Text Society, 1880, 8vo. (Many of the pieces in this last collection are not by Wyclif, but are the work of his followers. In the first, too, the authenticity of some of the pieces is doubtful.) See also: "Wyclyffe's Wycket, which he made in Kyng Richard's days the Second" (a famous sermon on the Eucharist), Nuremberg, 1546, 4to; Oxford, ed. T. P. Pantin, 1828.

[726] S. Berger, "La Bible francaise au moyen age," Paris, 1884, p. 120. This version was circulated in England, and was recopied by English scribes; a copy (incomplete) by an English hand is preserved in the University Library at Cambridge; P. Meyer, "MSS. francais de Cambridge," in "Romania," 1886, p. 265.

[727] "The Holy Bible ... made from the Latin of the Vulgate, by John Wycliffe and his followers," ed. by J. Forshall and Sir Fred. Madden, Oxford, 1850, 2 vols. 4to. On the share of Wyclif, Hereford, &c., in the work, see pp. vi, xvi, xvii, xx, xxiv. _Cf._ Maunde Thompson, "Wycliffe Exhibition," London, 1884, p. xviii. The first version was probably finished in 1382, the second in 1388 (by the care of John Purvey, a disciple and friend of Wyclif).

[728] Labbe, "Sacrorum Conciliorum ... Collectio," vol. xxvi. col. 1038.

[729] "Select English Works," vol. iii. p. 100.

[730] "Select English Works," vol. ii. p. 296.

[731] _Ibid._, i. p. 189.

[732] _Ibid._, i. p. 381.

[733] His adversaries, perhaps exaggerating his sayings, attribute to him declarations like the following: "Quod sacramentum illud visibile est infinitum abjectius in natura, quam sit panis equinus, vel panis ratonis; immo, quod verecundum est dicere vel audire, quod stercus ratonis." "Fasciculi Zizaniorum," p. 108.

[734] "Ille panis est bene miraculose, vere el realiter, spiritualiter, virtualiter et sacramentaliter corpus Christi. Sed grossi non contentantur de istis modis, sed exigunt quod panis ille, vel saltem per ipsum, sit substantialiter et corporaliter corpus Christi; sic enim volunt, zelo blasphemorum, Christum comedere, sed non possunt.... Ponimus venerabile sacramentum altaris esse naturaliter panem et vinum, sed sacramentaliter corpus Christi et sanguinem." "Fasciculi," pp. 122, 125; Wyclif's statement of his beliefs after his condemnation by the University in 1381. Again, in his sermons: "Thes ben to rude heretikes that seien thei eten Crist bodili, and seien thei parten ech membre of him, nekke, bac, heed and foot.... This oost is breed in his kynde as ben other oostes unsacrid, and sacramentaliche Goddis bodi." "Select English Works," vol. ii. p. 169. This is very nearly the theory adopted later by Latimer, who declares "that there is none other presence of Christ required than a spiritual presence; and that presence is sufficient for a Christian man;" there remains in the host the substance of bread. "Works," Parker Society, Cambridge, 1844, vol. ii. p. 250.

[735] Auricular confession, that "rowninge in preestis eere," is not the true one, according to Wyclif; the true one is that made to God. "Select English Works," vol. i. p. 196.

[736] "Doctor in theologia eminentissimus in diebus illis, in philosophia nulli reputabatur secundus, in scolasticis disciplinis incomparabilis." "Chronica de eventibus Angliae," _sub anno_ 1382, in Twysden, "Decem Scriptores," col. 2644.

[737] "Select English Works," vol. iii. pp 216, 217.

[738] _Ibid._, ii. p. 414.

[739] Conclusion No. 12. "Henrici de Blandeforde ... Annales," ed. Riley, Rolls, 1866, p. 174.

[740] "The old belief that the Waldenses (or Vaudois) represent a current of tradition continuous from the assumed evangelical simplicity of the primitive church has lost credit.... The imagined primitive Christianity of these Alpine congregations can only be deduced from works which have been shown to be translations or adaptations of the Hussite manuals or treatises." "Wycliffe," by Reginald Lane Poole, 1889, p. 174. _Cf._ J. Loserth, "Hus und Wiclif," Leipzig, 1884.

[741] The great crisis in Wesley's religious life, what he terms his "conversion," took place on the 24th of February, 1738, under the influence of the Moravian Peter Boehler, who had convinced him, he says in his Journal, "of the want of that faith whereby we are saved."

## CHAPTER VI.

_THE STAGE._