38

VII.

1384. Many good men have prayed to be called CHAP. to their rest, while occupied in such services. We know not that it was so with Wycliffe: but we know that he was taken "from the evil to come." It is not the province of the biographer to supply the deficiencies in his materials from the stores of his imagination, or we might dwell on the probabilities of the spectacle exhibited, in the death chamber, and the burial scene of such a man! We leave his enemies to indulge their feeling of triumph; and his followers to mourn a loss, which no second man was to supply. Some farther observations on the character of this much-injured confessor; and on the influence of his doctrine, with respect to the reformation of the sixteenth century, will be found in a subsequent chapter of this volume. But before proceeding to those topics, it will be proper to take a more complete, and a more connected view, of the opinions which he laboured to propagate.

38 See the extract from the Bokyngham Register, Vol. I. 346, and Walsingham, Hypod. Neust. From Walsingham, and from the Teignmouth Chronicle, it appears that the attack of palsy took place on the 29th of the month- the festival of Thomas-àBecket, and his death on the 31st, the day consecrated to the memory of

Silvester; and it is observed by Wal-
singham, that against both of these
saints the reformer often directed his
blasphemies. Of Silvester, however,
he frequently spoke with respect; but
the saintship of Becket he treated with
contempt. Lewis, c. vii. Trial. iv.
c. 17. Hom. Bib. Reg.

VOL. II.

CHAPTER VIII.

On the Opinions of John Wycliffe, D. D.

DESIGN OF THE CHAPTER. THE DOCTRINE OF WYCLIFFE RESPECTING THE
POPE'S TEMPORAL POWER. THE SECULAR EXEMPTIONS OF THE CLERGY.
THE GENERAL AUTHORITY OF THE MAGISTRATE. THE LIMITS OF
THAT AUTHORITY. THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE MAGISTRATE WITH RESPECT
TO THE CHURCH. THE CUSTOMS OF PATRONAGE.TITHES AND ECCLESI-
ASTICAL ENDOWMENTS. THE PRINCIPLES OF THE REFORMER'S THEORY
DERIVED IN PART FROM THE EXISTING SYSTEM. HIS REVERENCE FOR THE
PRIESTLY OFFICE.HIS JUDGMENT OF THE CONTEMPORARY PRIESTHOOD.
A SUMMARY OF HIS DOCTRINE RELATING TO THE CIVIL ESTABLISHMENT
OF CHRISTIANITY AND CLERICAL REVENUE. HIS OPINIONS RELATING TO
SIMONY.THE SPIRITUAL POWER OF THE POPE.--THE HIERARCHY.
THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.--THE NATURE OF A CHRISTIAN CHURCH.--
THE POWER OF THE KEYS.PURGATORY AND MASSES FOR THE DEAD.—
THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. THE WORSHIP OF IMAGES.-CONFESSION.
THE DOCTRINE OF INDULGENCES.THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY.
THE SACRAMENTS, TRANSUBSTANTIATION. PUBLIC WORSHIP.
——SUFFICIENCY OF THE SCRIPTURES, AND THE RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDG-
MENTA SUMMARY OF HIS THEOLOGICAL DOCTRINE,

CHAP.

Design of

MANY of the doctrines which distinguished the VIII. creed of Wycliffe, have been introduced in the the chapter, preceding chapters, and in the order in which they appear in his writings. But in some instances, they have obtained a passing notice only; and in every case, they admit of a more complete illustration from the Wycliffe manuscripts, and of a more advantageous exhibition as connected with the reformer's general doctrine. There are

VIII.

opinions, also, relating both to doctrine and dis- CHAP. cipline, which he laboured to disseminate, but which have not obtained any place in our narrative.

Wycliffe on

temporal

During the middle ages, the parties who were Doctrine of most offended by the false doctrines, or by the the pope's political usurpations of the papacy, and whose power. efforts were to issue in so great a diminution of its opulence and power, are found, in general, directing their first and most vigorous attacks against its latest corruptions. These could not be readily shielded by the plea of ancient custom. Forming also, as they did, the more recent measures of a power, which had long dispensed with the restraints of modesty in prosecuting its system of encroachment, they were commonly matters in which the want of reason was quite as obvious as the want of antiquity. Among the assumptions of this class, the doctrine of the pope's temporal power will claim our first attention. It is not surprising, that the modern catholic, whose creed has been so materially affected by the progress of society, should regret the prominence conferred by protestant historians on this tenet, as interwoven with the story of his church. The facts, however, with which it is connected, afford those illustrations of human character, and of the necessary tendencies of the system which produced them, that are too instructive to be wholly forgotten. The avowed successors of the Galilean fisherman, have gravely assumed an authority over all worlds; disposing at pleasure of the crowns and kingdoms of the present, and of the weal or woe of the future!

CHAP. To prevent the return of any similar tyranny, it
VIII. is important that this scheme of successful am-

bition should be frequently depicted in its native
colours, and viewed in connexion with the prin-
ciples which form its true source.
In a sameness
of circumstances, man has ever shown himself
the same.

That every political government is, and ought
to be, subject to the dominion of the spiritual
church, is taught by Baronius as a verity that
should never have been questioned. Nor is there
any real difference between this opinion, and that
expressed by Bellarmine, as the general doctrine
of catholics in his day.' From Wycliffe's de-
fence of the English parliament, in abolishing the
census which had been extorted from king John,
it appears, that previous to the year 1366, he had
learnt to discard this preposterous claim as novel,
fraudulent, and impious. It was in consequence
of the pontiff's political interferences, founded on
this doctrine, that he became, in the language
of our reformer, "the evil man - slayer, poi-
soner," and burner of the servants of Christ."
Wycliffe complains indignantly of the men who
profess to regard "this root of all the misgovern-
"ance in the church, as the head of holy church-
"and as the most holy father, who may not sin."
With equal regret he observes, "that if men
foolishly make a vow to go to Rome, Jerusalem,
"or Canterbury, or on any other pilgrimage, that
they will value more than the great vow to keep
"God's commandments, and to forsake the fiend
"and all his works, which was made at their

66

Apologia, c. 13. Barrow on the Pope's Supremacy, p. 6.

VIII.

christening. And if a man break the highest CHAP. "commands of God, the rudest parish priest "shall absolve him anon; but of the vows made "from our own head, though many times against "the will of God, no man shall absolve, except "a great worldly bishop, or the most worldly priest of Rome! the master of the emperor! "the fellow of God! the Deity on earth!" While the monarch of that worldly kingdom which had been introduced into the church was thus resisted and rebuked; it is in the following language, that the reformer adverts to the conduct of the men who were concerned, more or less, to perpetuate this degrading usurpation. "Commonly, the new "laws which the clergy have made, are cunningly "devised to bring down the power of lords

66

and kings which God ordained, and to make "themselves lords, and to have all things at their "doom. Certainly it seemeth, that these worldly prelates would more completely destroy the power of kings and lords, which God ordained "for the government of christian men, than God destroyeth the power even of the fiend. For God, in setting a term which Satan may do, "and no more, still suffereth his power to last, "for the profit of christian men, and the just punishment of evil doers. But these worldly clerks would never cease, if unchecked, until they had destroyed kings and lords with their regalia and power.'

66

66

972

secular ex

It was not unusual, however, in the ages before on the Luther, for ecclesiastics who denied the authority emptions of of the popes as extending over the kingdoms of

2 MS. Sentence of the Curse Expounded, c. 3, 6, 11. See also Vol. I. Chap. ii.

the clergy.