Langham, Bishop of Ely, was raised to the see of Canterbury. The new archbishop being a monk, those of that order, who had been so lately expelled from Canterbury-hall, let not slip so favourable an opportunity of petitioning to be restored to their former situations. Langham, influenced by his partiality to the order to which he belonged, rather than considering how unjust, and impolitic too, it was to set aside the very act of a founder, deprived Wickliffe and his associates of the posts they occupied. The friends of Wickliffe strenuously advised him to appeal to the court of Rome against so violent a proceeding. Úrban V. at that time sat in the papal chair. Inclined, as he was, to support the interests of the mendicants, to whom the Roman see owed its greatest obligations for the arrogant authority it maintained, and the fatal mastery it exercised, yet, aware of the solid ground on which Wickliffe's appeal was founded, he did not venture to come to an immediate decision for the appearance of justice, therefore, a cardinal was commanded to examine the merits of the case. Whilst the appeal was under deliberation, an event took place that increased the prejudices which the apostolical court had already began to conceive against Wickliffe, and was probably instrumental in bringing his cause to an adverse issue. The circumstance alluded to is this soon after Edward III. had ascended the throne, he had the courage to refuse to pay that homage which the Roman Pontiff demanded of the King of England, ever since its exaction from the cowardly King John. In the year 1336, Pope Urban admonished this prince, that if the accustomary homage was not paid within a time prescribed, he should cite him to his court, there to answer for the default. The intrepid monarch laid the haughty message before the parliament, to which they speedily returned this spirited answer; "That forasmuch as neither King John, or any other king, could bring this realm, a kingdom, in such thraldom and subjection, but by common act of parliament, the which was not done; therefore that which he did, was against his oath at his coronation, besides many other causes. If, therefore, the pope should attempt anything against the king, by process or other matters in deed, the king, with all his subjects, should with all their force and power resist the same."

The pope was not without advocates to defend his claim: but there was one, a monk, who, above all others, had written in support of the church, with so much ingenuity, that his work had made a strong impression upon the minds of those who had perused it. To this Wickliffe published a reply, penned with such superior ability, that he most successfully refuted the arguments of his adversary, and proved, beyond any further dispute, the illegality of the homage required by the pope, from the King of England. This defence spread the fame of its author's talents before the court in general, and procured him the distinguished notice of the Duke of Lancaster in particular. As Wickliffe's name increased in good report and esteem in his own country, his interest in proportion declined at the court of Rome, so that in the year 1670, the cause that he and his associates had then at issue, was terminated against them.

The chair of the Professor of Divinity, falling vacant in the year 1372, Wickliffe was elected by the chancellor and regents of the University to fill this important station. The scholastic theology, which was taught at this period, was a species of divinity which obscured the excellence, and perverted the utility of that sacred science. By the introduction of this jargon of the schoolmen, philo sophical abstraction and subtilty had superseded that unaffected simplicity and

engaging plainness, with which the primitive teachers of Christianity explained the doctrines of salvation. The schoolmen, infatuated by the philosophy of Aristotle, perplexed truth, instead of elucidating it; banished useful knowledge; encouraged a false taste of learning, and, which was still more to be lamented, by pursuing with zeal and pertinacity unprofitable enquiries, and endless cavils, they extinguished by degrees, the spirit of piety towards God, Whilst such a sort of theology was and that of peace amongst each other. taught in the schools, little, which could promote the best interests of mankind, could be expected from the pulpit. The ancient method of preaching was either by postillating or declaring. The postillator conveyed instruction to his audience by taking a large portion of scripture, which he explained sentence by sentence, and, as he proceeded, made such practical inferences from each sentence, as it suggested. The preacher, who adopted the method termed declaring, announced or declared, the subject upon which he was about to discourse, without prefacing his sermon with a text from scripture. Wickliffe being elevated to an office which enabled him to diffuse with authority that refulgent light which had already beamed upon his own mind, and to expose whatever errors his penetration and learning might discover, theology, the queen of sciences, had now much to hope from a professor of his eminent and transcendant qualifications. He began the exercise of his professorship with exceeding great judgment. His good sense taught him that long established customs and deep-rooted principles were not to be removed all at once. At first," to use the words of an ingenious biographer, “he thought it sufficient to lead his adversaries into logical and metaphysical disputations, accustoming them to hear novelties, and to bear contradictions. Nothing passed in the schools but learned arguments on the increase of time, or space, substance, and identity." In these disputations he artfully intermixed, and pushed, as far as he durst, new opinions on divinity; sounding as it were the minds of his hearers. At length, finding he had a great party in the schools, and that he was listened to with attention, he ventured to be more explicit, and by degrees opened himself at large.

"

The professor's lectures attracted by their celebrity a vast concourse of pupils; and the discretion which he used in the detection and exposure of error, worked, though at first with a slow, yet a certain effect upon the reflecting and disinterested part of his audience, and eventually disposed them to embrace the doctrines which he taught. He was no less admired in the pulpit than in the schools. The characteristic of his style, as a preacher, was simple energy: he amused not the more learned part of his congregation with the subtleties of scholastic disputation, nor did he entertain the meaner sort with panegyrics on saints, and delude them with accounts of false miracles. The subject matter of his sermons, was, generally, the Doctrines and Duties of Religion: upon these divine matters, he discoursed with perspicuity, and pressed them weightily upon his hearers: he would, occasionally, descant upon the corruptions of the church, and the profligacy of the clergy, and the usurpations of the pope: upon such themes, though he preached with exceeding warmth and vehemence, yet he argued with a strength of reasoning, which for the most part flashed conviction on the minds of his auditors. His tenets, enforced by a commanding eloquence, and recommended by the unimpeachable integrity of his life, procured him a number of followers, composed of persons in all ranks of life.

Wickliffe's fortune and reputation at this time went hand in hand together,

The services he had rendered the crown, by defending it against the humi liating deinands of the pope, enjoyed their well-merited reward, by his being presented, in 1374, to the valuable living of Lutterworth, in the county of Leicester. In the same year he experienced a further mark of royal favour, by being sent, in conjunction with the Bishop of Bangor and others, upon an embassy to the pope, to treat concerning the liberties of the Church of England. The tyranny of the Roman pontiff was every day becoming so intolerable, that the parliamant were making frequent remonstrances against his accumulating acts of oppression. Among the many grievances under which this country laboured, none seemed to teem with consequences more fatal to the kingdom than the state of the church preferments. Edward was not a prince addicted to the slavery of the see of Rome; keeping, therefore, as he did, a vigilant and a jealous eye over the papal usurpation, he had already decreed several laws against provisors. The pope, however, by one crafty pretence or another, was continually disposing of the ecclesiastical benefices and dignities, without any regard had to the rights of those in whom they were vested, and not only aliens, who knew not the language, and were unacquainted with the habits and customs of those over whom they were appointed spiritual guides and pastors, but even boys, who were themselves under the discipline of pupilage, were presented to their usurped preferments: hence the service of God was neglected, religion began to droop, and the churches with their appurtenances, to dilapidate and to be ruined. The ambassadors sent to treat concerning the liberties of the church, met the pope's Nuncio at Bruges. After a variety of conferences, which, with occasional interruptions, lasted nearly two years, it was concluded, that, for the future, The pope should desist from making use of reservations of benefices, and that the king should no more confer benefices by his writ quare impedit." Whilst the interests of the church were being discussed abroad, Wickliffe was nominated to the prebend of Austa, in the collegiate church of Westbury, in Gloucestershire. He is said to have been again employed in a diplomatic character, being delegated with several barons of this realm to the court of the Duke of Milan. Of the occasion of this embassy, and of the time when he was sent, we are equally ignorant.

During his residence at Bruges, the views of the church of Rome had been gradually developed to the inquisitive and penetrating Wickliffe; and he discovered it to be corrupt in principle, as he had long known it to be depraved in practice. He now threw off the mask which he had worn so long, and thought it unworthy of his character to temporise. The pretended successor of St. Peter himself did not escape his invectives: the papal infallibility, usurpations, pride, avarice, and tyranny, were the frequent topics of his declamation; and the appropriate epithet of Antichrist seems to have been first conferred on him by this great English reformer.

Having sown the seed which he had reason to believe would ripen into a full harvest of shame to the church of Rome, he retired to his living in Leicestershire, in order to avoid the gathering storm. But his privacy and his distance from Oxford, the scene of his honourable labours, gave his enemies fresh spirits. A papal bull was forwarded to Sudbury archbishop of Canterbury, and Courtney Bishop of London, to secure this arch-heretic, and at the same time the king and the University were importuned to favour the prosecution.

Wickliffe being cited to appear before the Bishop of London at St. Paul's

Church on a certain day, found himself obliged to notice the unexpected summons. In this situation he applied to his patron the Duke of Lancaster : who, though he wished to serve him wholly, judged it expedient to sacrifice something to appearance; and only promised to attend him in person to his trial, accompanied by Percy Earl-Marshal of England. When they reached St. Paul's, the court was already convened, and they had some difficulty in procuring admission. The bishop, vexed to see Wickliffe so honourably attended, let fall some peevish expressions; which the high-spirited and indignant Lancaster being unable to brook, he retorted them with great warmth, and even began to threaten. "Sooner," said the duke, in a kind of half-whisper, "than bear such usage from a bishop, I will pull him by the hair of the head out the church." The populace, however, hearing this menace, the whole assembly of was instantly in a ferment. The general cry was, that they would stand by their bishop to the last breath; and the confusion rose to such a height, that the court broke up in disorder, and its proceedings were never resumed.

The tumult, however, did not end here soon. The duke, in the agitation of his passions, immediately proceeded to the house of peers; where he preferred a bill to deprive the city of London of its privileges, and to alter its jurisdiction. In consequence of this, all was uproar and riot; and he was obliged to quit the city in precipitation, till the rage of the populace had subsided.

Wickliffe again sought the retirement of Lutterworth; and to forward the progress of truth, he proceeded in his great work, a translation of the Scriptures, which was the most useful measure he could have devised. The Romish clergy loudly objected to this proceeding; and the following curious specimen shows the manner in which the ecclesiastics of that day reasoned cn this subject." Christ," says one of them, "committed the gospel to the clergy and doctors of the church, that they might minister it to the laity and weaker persons, according as the times and people's wants might require; but this master John Wickliffe translated it out of Latin into English, and by that means laid it more open to the laity, and to women who could read, than it used to be to the most learned of the clergy, and those of them who had the best understanding. And so the gospel pearl is cast abroad, and trodden under swine; and that which used to be precious to both clergy and laity, is made, as it were, the common jest of both; and the jewel of the church is turned into the sport of the laity."

The reader cannot fail to remark the exact similarity between these arguments of the Romish priests in the fourteenth century, and those which are urged by the same class of individuals at the present day. They will rather suppose that they are reading the address of a papal advocate in Ireland in our own time, than the words of Knighton, a learned canon of Leicester, who lived at the same time as Wickliffe, and from whose writings this passage is taken. It is another proof, if proof were wanting, when the fact is admitted on both sides, that the church of Rome has always opposed the circulation of the Scriptures among the people.

Wickliffe became a bold and undaunted opposer of the errors and corruptions of the church of Rome, and has been appropriately called, "The rising sun of the Reformation." The times in which he lived were turbulent, and God was pleased to over-rule the political proceedings of some men of rank and influence in the state, so that they protected him from the malice of the Romish prelates. Wickliffe appears to have met with no more molesta

tion after this, till the death of Edward III; when Richard II., son of Edward the Black Prince, only eleven years of age, ascended the throne of his grandfather.

On this occasion, the Duke of Lancaster, uncle to the young king, aspired to be sole regent; but parliament put the office into commission, and allowed him only a single voice in the executive council. The clergy, who perceived his diminished influence, began their prosecution against Wickliffe anew. Articles of accusation were drawn up; and the pope, by several bulls, ordered his imprisonment, or at least cited him to make his personal appearance at Rome within the space of three months, unless he should retract his heretical opinions.

The bulls were treated with neglect in general, and by parliament with contempt. The Bishop of London alone entered into the spirit of the pope's mandate; but scarcely had he taken the preliminary steps in this business, when he received a peremptory order from the Duke of Lancaster, not to enforce imprisonment for the sake of opinion only, as that was a measure contrary to the laws of England.

The bishop, being intimidated at this interference, contented himself with citing Wickliffe to a provincial synod at Lambeth; where being questioned as to the articles of faith, he gave an ambiguous explanation of them. He was therefore dismissed, with an injunction not to preach any more those doctrines which had been objected to; but his zeal, it appears, was inflamed by this restraint, and he afterwards enforced his tenets with more ardour than before. One of his latest efforts, was to bear his testimony against the unchristian proceedings of the popes of that day, for there were two! Pope Urban VI. took up arms against his opponent Pope Clement, and appointed the Romish Bishop of Norwich to be his general, and sent his bulls, or decrees, into England, promising spiritual indulgencies and pardons for sin, both here and hereafter, to all who would assist him personally, or with money, in this ungodly warfare. "The banner of Christ on the Cross," Wickliffe says, "which is the token of peace, mercy, and charity, is used to slay christians for their attachment to two false priests, who are open antichrist, that they may maintain their worldly state, and oppress Christendom worse than Christ and his apostles were oppressed by the Jews. Why," adds he, "will not the proud priest of Rome grant full pardon to all men, to live and die in peace, and charity, and patience, instead of encouraging all men to fight and slay christians?'''

Wickliffe was commonly styled, "The Gospel Doctor;" and a firm attachment to the truths of the gospel was evidently the leading principle which actuated his conduct.

The Romish prelates, after much consultation, brought a bill into parliament to suppress Wickliffe's translation of the Bible; but it was rejected by a great majority; and for a short time the circulation of his version was permitted; it must, however, have been very limited, as the art of printing was then unknown, and very few persons had means sufficient to purchase a written copy. From the register of Alnwick, Bishop of Norwich, it appears that a Testament of Wickliffe's version, in the year 1429, cost four marks and forty pence, or two pounds sixteen shillings and eight pence-equal to more than twenty pounds of our present money. A large sum in those days, when five pounds was considered sufficient for the annual maintenance of a respectable tradesman, or a yeoman, or one of the inferior clergy.