Fox's Book of Martyrs
Chapter VII
Among
these, Great Britain has the honor of taking the lead, and
first maintaining that freedom in religious controversy which astonished
Europe, and demonstrated that political and religious liberty are equally the
growth of that favored island. Among the earliest of these eminent persons was
The
first thing which drew him into public notice, was his
defence of the university against the begging friars, who about this time, from
their settlement in Oxford in 1230, had been
troublesome neighbors to the university. Feuds were
continually fomented; the friars appealing to the pope, the scholars to
the civil power; and sometimes one party, and sometimes, the other, prevailed.
The friars became very fond of a notion that Christ was a common beggar; that
his disciples were beggars also; and that begging was of Gospel institution.
This doctrine they urged from the pulpit and wherever they had access.
Wickliffe
had long held these religious friars in contempt for the laziness of their lives, and had now a fair
opportunity of exposing them. He published a treatise against able beggary, in
which he lashed the friars, and proved that they were not only a reproach to
religion, but also to human society. The university began to consider him one
of their first champions, and he was soon promoted to
the mastership of Baliol College.
About
this time, Archbishop Islip founded Canterbury Hall, in Oxford, where he
established a warden and eleven scholars. To this wardenship Wickliffe was elected by the archbishop, but upon his demise, he was displaced by his successor, Stephen Langham, bishop of
Ely. As there was a degree of flagrant injustice in the affair, Wickliffe
appealed to the pope, who subsequently gave it against him from the following
cause: Edward III, then king of England, had withdrawn the tribune, which from
the time of King John had been paid to the pope. The
pope menaced; Edward called a parliament. The parliament resolved that King
John had done an illegal thing, and given up the rights of the nation, and
advised the king not to submit, whatever consequences might follow.
The
clergy now began to write in favor of the pope, and a learned monk published a
spirited and plausible treatise, which had many
advocates. Wickliffe, irritated at seeing so bad a cause so well defended,
opposed the monk, and did it in so masterly a way that he was
considered no longer as unanswerable. His suit at Rome was immediately
determined against him; and nobody doubted but his opposition to the pope, at
so critical a period, was the true cause of his being non-suited at Rome.
Wickliffe
was afterward elected to the chair of the divinity
professor:
and
now fully convinced of the errors of the Romish Church, and the vileness of its
monastic agents, he determined to expose them. In public lectures he lashed
their vices and opposed their follies. He unfolded a variety of abuses covered
by the darkness of superstition. At first he began to
loosen the prejudices of the vulgar, and proceeded by
slow advances; with the metaphysical disquisitions of the age, he mingled
opinions in divinity apparently novel. The usurpations
of the court of Rome was a favorite topic. On these he expatiated with all the
keenness of argument, joined to logical reasoning. This soon procured him the
clamor of the clergy, who, with the archbishop of Canterbury, deprived him of
his office.
At
this time the administration of affairs was in the
hands of the duke of Lancaster, well known by the name of John of Gaunt. This
prince had very free notions of religion, and was at
enmity with the clergy. The exactions of the court of Rome having become very
burdensome, he determined to send the bishop of Bangor and Wickliffe to
remonstrate against these abuses, and it was agreed
that the pope should no longer dispose of any benefices belonging to the Church
of England. In this embassy, Wickliffe's observant mind penetrated
into the constitution and policy of Rome, and he returned more strongly
than ever determined to expose its avarice and ambition.
Having
recovered his former situation, he inveighed, in his lectures, against the
pope-his usurpation-his infallibility-his pride-his avarice- and his tyranny.
He was the first who termed the pope Antichrist. From the pope, he would turn
to the pomp, the luxury, and trappings of the bishops, and compared them with
the simplicity of primitive bishops. Their superstitions and deceptions were
topics that he urged with energy of mind and logical precision.
From
the patronage of the duke of Lancaster, Wickliffe received a good benefice; but
he was no sooner settled in his parish, than his
enemies and the bishops began to persecute him with renewed vigor. The duke of
Lancaster was his friend in this persecution, and by his presence and that of
Lord Percy, earl marshal of England, he so overawed the trial, that the whole
ended in disorder.
After
the death of Edward III his grandson Richard II succeeded, in the eleventh year
of his age. The duke of Lancaster not obtaining to be the sole regent, as he expected, his power
began to decline, and the enemies of Wickliffe, taking advantage of the
circumstance, renewed their articles of accusation against him. Five bulls were
despatched in consequence by the pope to the king and certain bishops, but the
regency and the people manifested a spirit of contempt at the haughty
proceedings of the pontiff, and the former at that time wanting money to oppose
an expected invasion of the French, proposed to apply a large sum, collected
for the use of the pope, to that purpose. The question was
submitted to the decision of Wickliffe. The bishops, however, supported
by the papal authority, insisted upon bringing Wickliffe to trial, and he was
actually undergoing examination at Lambeth, when, from the riotous behavior of
the populace without, and awed by the command of Sir Lewis Clifford, a
gentleman of the court, that they should not proceed to any definitive
sentence, they terminated the whole affair in a prohibition to Wickliffe, not
to preach those doctrines which were obnoxious to the pope; but this was
laughed at by our reformer, who, going about barefoot, and in a long frieze
gown, preached more vehemently than before.
In
the year 1378, a contest arose between two popes, Urban VI and Clement VII
which was the lawful pope, and true vicegerent of God. This was a favorable
period for the exertion of Wicliffe's talents: he soon produced a tract against
popery, which was eagerly read by all sorts of people.
About the
end of the year, Wickliffe was seized with a violent
disorder, which it was feared might prove fatal. The
begging friars, accompanied by four of the most eminent citizens of Oxford,
gained admittance to his bed chamber, and begged of
him to retract, for his soul's sake, the unjust things he had asserted of their
order. Wickliffe, surprised at the solemn message, raised himself in his bed,
and with a stern countenance replied, "I shall not die, but live to
declare the evil deeds of the friars."
When
Wickliffe recovered, he set about a most important work, the translation of the
Bible into English. Before this work appeared, he published a tract, wherein he
showed the necessity of it. The zeal of the bishops to suppress the Scriptures greatly promoted its sale, and they who were
not able to purchase copies, procured transcripts of particular
Gospels or Epistles. Afterward, when Lollardy increased, and the flames
kindled, it was a common practice to fasten about the
neck of the condemned heretic such of these scraps of Scripture as were found in his possession, which generally
shared his fate.
Immediately
after this transaction, Wickliffe ventured a step further,
and affected the doctrine of transubstantiation. This strange opinion was invented by Paschade Radbert, and
asserted with amazing boldness. Wickliffe, in his lecture before the University
of Oxford, 1381, attacked this doctrine, and published a treatise on the
subject. Dr. Barton, at this time vice-chancellor of Oxford, calling together
the heads of the university, condemned Wickliffe's doctrines as heretical, and
threatened their author with excommunication. Wickliffe could now derive no
support from the duke of Lancaster, and being cited to
appear before his former adversary, William Courteney, now made archbishop of
Canterbury, he sheltered himself under the plea, that, as a member of the
university, he was exempt from episcopal jurisdiction.
This plea was admitted, as the university were
determined to support their member.
The
court met at the appointed time, determined, at least to sit in judgment upon
his opinions, and some they condemned as erroneous,
others as heretical. The publication on this subject was immediately answered
by Wickliffe, who had become a subject of the archbishop's determined malice.
The king, solicited by the archbishop, granted a license to imprison the
teacher of heresy, but the commons made the king revoke this act
as illegal. The primate, however, obtained letters from the king,
directing the head of the University of Oxford to search for all heresies and
books published by Wickliffe; in consequence of which order, the university
became a scene of tumult. Wickliffe is supposed to have retired from the storm,
into an obscure part of the kingdom. The seeds, however, were
scattered, and Wickliffe's opinions were so prevalent that it was said if you met two persons upon the road, you might be
sure that one was a Lollard. At this period, the
disputes between the two popes continued. Urban published a bull, in which he
earnestly called upon all who had any regard for religion, to exert themselves
in its cause; and to take up arms against Clement and
his adherents in defence of the holy see.
A
war, in which the name of religion was so vilely prostituted, roused
Wickliffe's inclination, even in his declining years. He took
up his pen once more, and wrote against it with
the greatest acrimony. He expostulated with the pope in a very free manner, and
asks him boldly: 'How he durst make the token of Christ on the cross (which is
the token of peace, mercy and charity) a banner to lead us to slay Christian
men, for the love of two false priests, and to oppress Christiandom worse than
Christ and his apostles were oppressed by the Jews? 'When,' said he, 'will the
proud priest of Rome grant indulgences to mankind to live in peace and charity,
as he now does to fight and slay one another?'
This
severe piece drew upon him the resentment of Urban, and
was likely to have involved him in greater troubles than he had before
experienced, but providentially he was delivered out
of their hands. He was struck with the palsy, and
though he lived some time, yet
it was in such a way that his enemies considered him as a person below their
resentment.
Wickliffe
returning within short space, either from his banishment, or from some other
place where he was secretly kept, repaired to his parish of Lutterworth, where
he was parson; and there, quietly departing this mortal life, slept in peace in
the Lord, in the end of the year 1384, upon Silvester's day. It
appeared that he was well aged before he departed, "and that the
same thing pleased him in his old age, which did please him being young."
Wickliffe
had some cause to give them thanks, that they would at least spare him until he
was dead, and also give him so long respite after his death, forty-one years to
rest in his sepulchre before they ungraved him, and turned him from earth to
ashes; which ashes they also took and threw into the river. And so was he
resolved into three elements, earth, fire, and water, thinking thereby utterly
to extinguish and abolish both the name and doctrine of Wickliffe forever. Not
much unlike the example of the old Pharisees and sepulchre knights, who, when
they had brought the Lord unto the grave, thought to make him sure never to
rise again. But these and all others must know that, as there is no counsel
against the Lord, so there is no keeping down of verity, but it will spring up
and come out of dust and ashes, as appeared right well in this man; for though
they dug up his body, burned his bones, and drowned his ashes, yet the Word of
God and the truth of his doctrine, with the fruit and success thereof, they could
not burn.
Chapter 8 - Persecutions in Bohemia Under the Papacy