by ecclesiastical usurpation. The chancellor, the proctors, and the greater part of the senate, sent to the court a formal commendation of his learning, piety, and orthodoxy; and three of his principal associates, Dr. Hereford, Dr. Rapyngdon, and Mr. Ayshton, nobly appeared before the court to defend their respected friend and beloved brother *. The Archbishop and his party were encouraged to persevere, as well by the refusal of the government to interfere in what was considered a purely theological question, as by the odium which was industriously cast on the Reformers, as if they instigated the late rioters, because there was some resemblance between the democratic sentiments of the insurgents, and the opposition of Wickliffe to ecclesiastical tyranny. This calumny, nearly allied to that raised against the Apostles themselves of turning the world upside down, was sufficiently refuted by the fact that several of Wickliffe's adherents suffered from the desolating fury of the mob. As soon as the formalities of opening the court were over, a large bundle of extracts from the writings of Wickliffe was laid on the table, and the examiners prepared to enter upon business. At * Cave-Lewis. Dr. Nicholas Here ford, Fellow of Queen's, appears to have been a zealous friend of our Reformer, He preached at St. Frides wide's Cross on the 15th of May 1382, so offensive a sermon, as to draw down the censure of convocation, and prevent his bearing a magisterial office, to which he seems to have been appointed. After appearing in behalf of Wickliffe, he set off to Rome, and offered to defend before the Pope the conclusions condemned by the court, for which the Archbishop on his return committed him to prison. The two parties ran bigh in the university, and occasioned frequent changes in the magistracy. Dr. Barton becoming a convert to the new doctrines, was forced to resign the chancellorship; and Dr. Stokes, a Carmelite, was appoint ed to confute Wickliffe.-Wood's Fasti Oxon. sub Ann. 1382. the instant, a violent earthquake shook the walls of the monastery. The affrighted divines threw down their papers and cried out, "The business is displeasing to God!" Courtenay alone maintained his tranquillity. With great presence of mind he gave the circumstance a different turn. "If this earthquake mean any thing, it portends the purging of the kingdom from heresies. For, as there are included in the bowels of the earth noxious vapours, and they are expelled in an earthquake, and so the earth is cleansed, but not without great concussion; so there are many heresies shut up in the hearts of reprobate men, but the kingdom must be purified by their condemnation. This cannot, however, be done without great commotion." By this ready explanation, and intelligence that the earthquake was not confined to the monastery, their fears were quieted. Wickliffe used to call this court afterwards with pardonable pleasantry, "the Council of the Earthquake." Order being restored, they went through the examination of the different articles, and concluded by condemning some as heretical, and censuring others as erroneous. Sentence was then formally pronounced, and John Cunningham, a distinguished opposer of the Professor, mounted the pulpit and addressed the assembly. Neither the conclusion of the court, nor the reasoning of the preacher, however, was sufficient to convince Sir Cornelius Cloune, a plain knight, who had made a point of attending the meeting; so an extraordinary expedient was resorted to, in order to expel his unbelief. Going the next day to the same convent to hear mass, he saw in the hands of the officiating priest three pieces of flesh, instead of the usual appearance of the wafer, with the name of Jesus inscribed on one, which was to be put into the chalice. The simple gentleman was so astonish ed at the sight, that he vowed to ible. He insisted upon the publica fight and die in maintaining the doctrine of the real presence. Who can peruse such an account without calling to mind that awful denunciation in Matt. xviii. 6: "Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea *." The sentence of the court being published in the university by order of the primate, Wickliffe vindicated himself against the condemnation, and showed the scandalous misrepresentation which had been made of his opinions by the art and malice of his accusers. The Archbishop then introduced into Parliament a bill to enable sheriffs, upon proper information from bishops, to imprison preachers of heresy. It passed the Lords; but the Commons, more jealous of the power of the clergy, procured its dismissal. He next applied to his Sovereign for letters patent, which he obtained, addressed to the chancellor and scholars of Oxford, commanding them, within seven days after receipt, to banish Wickliffe and his adherents from the university and seize their papers. The municipality of the city were ordered likewise to assist the academical officers in carrying these writs into execution. The Chancellor, knowing the strong party in favour of Wickliffe, and feeling that he should risk his own life and endanger the peace of the university, modestly excused himself from reading the King's letter in St. Mary's church. So great was the alarm, that many of the collegians carried weapons under their gowns for self-defence, and study was interrupted in every direction. The Archbishop, however, was inflex *Wilkins's Concilia, v. iii.MS. Bodl. 163.-Lewis, c. 6.--Knyghton de Event. Angl. 2651. tion of the obnoxious edict. The university immediately became the scene of tumult. The old animosities between the regulars and the seculars served to increase the flame; and the parties paraded the streets distinguished by appropriate badges. Wickliffe was now approaching his sixtieth year, and had lost that elasticity which in earlier life had fitted him in some measure to bear up against the rude conduct of the more boisterous Papists. He saw, too, men whom he loved daily exposed on his account to insult, and perhaps to violence; while the Archbishop and his agents, unchecked by the less resolute character of the possessor of the throne, seemed determined to push matters to the last extremity. He resolved, therefore, to bid adieu to his favourite seat of learning, and to that professorial chair from whence he had so often addressed a crowded and admiring audience, and retire to his parsonage at Lutterworth; where, it is hoped, the peace of God ruled in his heart with less interruption and more edifying influence. He did not, however, desist from promoting the cause of reformation. The contest between the rival Popes still subsisting, Urban the Sixth took up arms against Clement his opponent, and sent a bull into England, where his claim was recognised, soliciting money and soldiers, with promises of plenary indulgences and pardons to all who abetted his cause either by personal service or pecuniary aid. He also paid England the compliment of appointing the Bishop of Norwich, a man of warlike genius, his general. Such scandalous proceedings grieved the spirit of the venerable pastor, and he devoted part of that leisure afforded by his retirement to expose the iniquity of the war in which the pontiff was engaged. "The seal or banner of Christ on the cross," said he, "that is token of peace, mercy, and charity, is used to slay Christians for their attachment to two false priests who are open Antichrist, to maintain their worldly state, and to oppress Christendom worse than Christ and his Apostles were oppressed by the Jews." Accordingly he adds, Why will not the proud priest of Rome grant full pardon to all men to live and die in peace, and charity, and patience, as he doth to all men to fight and slay Christians *?" chancel of Lutterworth. In the year 1415, a decree passed the Council of Constance, condemning forty-five articles of his doctrines, pronouncing him to have departed an obstinate heretic, and ordering his bones to be dug up and thrown upon a dunghill. This act of impotent malice and indecent outrage against the mortal relics of one who, his enemies themselves being judges, ranked among the brightest luminaries of his day, was however deferred till 1428, when Martin V. sent a peremptory order to the Bishop of Lincoln for its execution. They were then exhumated, burnt, and the ashes cast into the Swift. His record is not engraven on stone, nor can we fix on the precise spot of his interment; on which Fuller observes, that though he had no tomb he had an epitaph, such as it was, which a monk afforded him, and that it was no worse, thank his want not of malice but invention, for not finding out worse expressions." See, reader, what a Popish historian, who in many respects was no contemptible writer, was capable of styling this excellent character: 66 The incensed Pope cited him to appear and answer for this freedom; but the only notice which the reprover took of this citation was to return a letter of excuse, informing Urban, that "Christ had taught him to obey God rather than man; to which he added a plea of infirmity, which incapacitated him from so long a journey. Indeed his constitution was suffering so much from paralytic affection, that the Lord was evidently removing his servant from earthly cares and vexations. On the 28th of December 1384, he was seized with a fresh attack of his disorder while attending divine service, and-"The devil's instrument, church's might almost have been said, like some other good men, to have been translated from an immediate ministration in an earthly to a heavenly sanctuary, as he died the third day after his seizure. He was deprived of the power of speech, and was probably too much shaken to leave any particular testimony of his spiritual feelings. As it was understood he was that day to have preached against the superstitious reverence paid to the memory of Thomas-àBecket, whose martyrdom was about to be celebrated, the Papists declared that he was judicially stricken of God. enemy, people's confusion, heretic's idol, hypocrite's mirror, schism's broacher, hatred's sower, lie's forger, flattery's sink; who at his death despaired like Cain; and stricken by the horrible judgments of God, breathed forth his wicked soul to the dark mansion of the black devil §." To this may be opposed the testimonials of some who were much better qualified to judge of his character, both from unprejudiced feeling and intimate acquaintance. The University of Oxford declared of him, in the year 1406, "That all his conduct through life was sincere and commendable; that his conversation, + Church History, B. IV. p. 171.§ Walsingham, Upodigma Neustriæ, p. 322. from his youth upward to the time of his death, was so praiseworthy and honest, that never at any time was there a particle of suspicion raised against him; and that he vanquished by the force of the Scriptures all such as slandered the religion of Christ. God forbid that our prelates should condemn such a man as a heretic, who has written better than any others in the university on logic, philosophy, divinity, morality, and the speculative arts*" His portrait, by Fielding, hangs over the gallery at the west end of Lutterworth Church; whose hexagonal pulpit, as well as the cloth which covers the communion-table, of purple velvet, have been understood by antiquaries of sound judgment to be the same used by the Doctor himself. His chair and table are still preserved at the parsonage. To the latest ages, it is fondly anticipated, the name of Lutterworth will be pronounced with sentiments of extraordinary interest. In 1820, four hundred and thirty-six years after the death of the zealous proto-reformer, an auxiliary Bible Society was formed in this town; and the intelligence of its institution was officially communicated to the British and Foreign Bible Society in language with which the present memoir may not be improperly concluded. "It cannot but be considered as a remarkable circumstance, that a society for circulating the Holy Scriptures only should be formed in the very town where John Wickliffe, in the year 1387, died +; and whence his bones were dug up, by order of the Council of Constance, in 1428, and the ashes scattered in the river Swift, which flows by the town, for having translated the * Fox, p. 515. + Mosheim and some others place his death in 1387, but the best critics fix it in 1384. There is a curious relation of his Holy Scriptures into English, and maintained the authority of those Scriptures, and their sufficiency for saving instruction. The other memorials of this great Reformer are deservedly cherished; but assuredly no mark of reverence can be more appropriate than that of acting on the main sentiment by which he was distinguished, and which was fully recognised in this country two centuries after his death, as the great principle of the Reformation. The enemies of Wickliffe, says Fuller, thought that by burning his bones and scattering them in the Swift they should destroy his name and doctrine. But no! the Swift carried them into the Avon; the Avon into the Severn; the Severn into the ocean, and the ocean round the world!" In the compilation of this account, it has been endeavoured to unite varied illustration and useful remark with conciseness of narrative. Of Wickliffe's theological and ecclesiastical opinions, the notice has of necessity been limited. It is hoped, however, that the most prominent have been brought under review. It only remains to add some general remarks as to his character. He was of the Supralapsarian school in divinity, holding such high notions with regard to predestination, election, and reprobation, that Toplady declared he could only meet him half-way. And though in the articles of salvation by grace and justification by faith, Melancthon considered him as sometimes speaking obscurely, yet he held that " the merit of Christ is of itself sufficient to redeem every man from hell; that it is to be understood of a sufficiency in itself, without any other concurring cause; that all who follow Christ being justified by his righteousness, shall be saved as his offspring." His prayer was, " Heal us, O Lord, freely!" He considered the Church as visible and in seizure drawn up by one Gascoigne, Cott. visible; observing of the latter, that MS. Otho A. 14. in Mus. Brit. it is threefold; consisting of saints triumphant in heaven; of the faithful militant on earth; and of departed souls in purgatory preparing for celestial joys. He would also have been denominated, in modern phrase, a low church man. He thought baptism might be administered by a layman if a clergyman were not at hand-that confirmation need not be appropriated to the episcopal order-that clerical delinquents might be degraded by the civil power-that large church endowments were inexpedient-that "the principal cause for which tithes and offerings should be paid was, curates teaching their parishes in word and example; and if the priest did not perform these conditions, the laity, in withdrawing tithes and offerings, were not so cursed as the curate for withdrawing of teaching in word, and deed, and example.' In a word, however his lamp might be partially dimmed, it was fed by the genuine oil of Protestantism. He said, "I hope the days will come, when men will be wise enough to shake from their necks the dominion of human ordinances; and disdain submission to any ecclesiastical injunctions, but such as are plainly authorized by the Word of God." "THE WORLD FORGETTING, BY THE WORLD FORGOT." MARCH 1822. BY CHAUNCY HARE TOWNSEND. As one, in days of old, would fly From dread pursuers, threat'ning nigh, Lord, to thy dwelling I repair, Her cherish'd young, O God! And raging winds without endear The world's tempestuous ocean dark But thou art as the happy ark And Peace, who skims that troubled sea, Farewell, thou dark and stormy world; Farewell, thy grief and fear; The port is won, the sails are furl'd, But welcome, peace and rapture, now, N |