pope Martin the fift, saith that "he was wonderfully astonished at his most strong arguments, with the places of authoritie which he had gathered, and with the vehemencie and force of his reasons It appeareth by such as have observed the order and course of times, that this Wickliffe flourished about the yeare of our Lord 1371, Edward the third raigning in England: for thus we do find in the chronicles of Caxton: " In the yeare of our Lord 1371, Edward the third, king of England, in his parliament, was against the pope's clergie. He willingly harkened and gave eare to the voices and tales of heretikes, with certaine of his counsell, conceiving and following sinister opinions against the clergie. Wherefore, afterward, he tasted and suffered much adversity and trouble. And not long after, in the yeare of our Lord 1372, he wrote unto the bishop of Rome, that he should not by any meanes intermeddle any more within his kingdome, as touching the reserva 5 Martin the fift.] Thomas Netter, called Waldenus from his native place in Essex, who dedicated to Martin V. his work, called Doctrinale Antiquitatum Fidei Ecclesiæ Catholicæ. It has been printed at Paris, in 1521-3, and 1532; at Salamanca, in 1556; and at Venice, in 1571. Of his reasons.] The following extract I borrow from a short Life of Wickliffe, subjoined to James's Apology for John Wickliffe, shewing his conformity with the now Church of England. 1608. 4to. : "He was beloved of all good men for his good life, and greatly admired of his greatest adversaries, for his learning and knowledge, both in divinity and humanity. He writ so many large volumes in both, as it is almost incredible. He seemed to follow, in the whole course of his studies, the method of the schoolmen and amongst them he was a professed follower of Ocham; by reading of whose learned books, and sundry others which lived about the same time, or not long before; such as were Bradwardine, Marsilius, Guido de Sancto Amore, Abelardus, Armachanus, and that true great clerk Robert Grosthead, God gave him grace to see the truth of his gospel, and by seeing of it to loathe all superstition and popery. Of Ocham and Marsilius he was informed of the pope's intrusions and usurpations upon kings, their crowns and dignities of G. de S. Amore and Armachanus he learned the sundry abuses of monks and friers in upholding this usurped power: by Abelard and others he was grounded in the right faith of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper: by Bradwardine, in the nature of a true soul-justifying faith against merit-mongers and pardoners: finally, by reading Grosthead's works, in whom he seemed to be most conversant, he descried the pope to be open antichrist, by letting the gospel to be preached, and by placing unable and unfit men in the church of God. He passed through all degrees in this famous university very commendably." tion, or distribution of benefices' and that all such bishops as were under his dominion, should injoy their former and ancient libertie, and be confirmed of their metropolitanes, as hath been accustomed in times past." Thus much writeth Caxton in chap. ccxxxvi. of the Cronicles of England, printed in 1480. But as touching the just number of the yeare and time, we will not be very curious or carefull about it at this present. This is out of all doubt, that at what time all the world was in most desperate and vile estate, and that the lamentable ignorance and darknesse of God's truth had overshadowed the whole earth; this man, Wickliffe, stepped forth like a valiant champion, unto whom it may justly be applied that is spoken in the booke called Ecclesiasticus, of one Simon the sonne of Onias: "Even as the morning star being in the middest of a cloud, and as the moone being full in her course, and as the bright beames of the sunne; so doth he shine and glister in the temple and church of God.” 7 The reservation... of benefices.] This refers to a power gradually usurped by the popes to a very great extent; whereby, before any ecclesiastical promotion became vacant, the see of Rome reserved the future nomination to itself, provided a successor to the bishopric or benefice, and declared that if any presentation was made, it should be null and void. In one of these letters of the king and his parliament to pope Clement VI. they thus solemnly expostulate against this grievous evil. "We have thought meet to signifie unto your holiness, that divers reservations, provisions, and collations, by your predecessours apostolike of Rome, and by you, most holy father, in your time have been granted (and that more largely than they have beene accustomed to be) unto divers persons, as wel strangers and of sundry nations, as unto some such as are our enemies; having no understanding at all of the tongue and conditions of them, of whom they have the government and cure: whereby a great number of soules are in perill, a great many of their parishioners in danger, the service of God destroyed, the almes and devotion of all men diminished, the hospitals perished, the churches with their appurtenances decayed, charitie withdrawne, the good and honest persons of our realme unadvanced, the charge and government of soules not regarded, the devotion of the people restrained, many poore scholars unpreferred, and the treasure of the realme carried out, against the minds and intents of the founders. All which errors, defaults, and slanders, most holy father, wee neither can nor ought to suffer or endure." Fox's Acts, p. 353. Edit. 1610. This was in the year 1343. An act was passed in parliament the year following to annul these reservations; but the effect produced was slight. The dispute was several times revived. About the year 1376, they were, on agreement, relinquished formally by the pope: but even this seems not to have been effectual. Wilkins's Concilia, vol. iii. p. 97. 8 Called Ecclesiasticus.] Chap. 1. ver. 6. Thus doth almighty God continually succor and help, when all things are in despaire: being alwaies (according to the prophecie of the psalme") "a helper in time of need."The which thing never more plainly appeared, than in these latter daies and extreame age of the church; when the whole state and condition, not only of worldly things, but also of religion, was so depraved and corrupted, that like as the disease named lethargus among the physitions, even so the state of religion amongst the divines, was past all man's remedie. The onely name of Christ remained amongst Christians, but his true and lively doctrine was as farre unknowne unto the most part, as his name was common unto all men. As touching faith, consolation, the end and use of the law, the office of Christ, of our impotencie and weakenesse, of the Holy Ghost, of the greatnesse and strength of sinne, of true works, of grace and free justification by faith, of libertie of a Christian man, things wherein consisteth and resteth the summe and matter of our profession; there was no mention, nor any word almost spoken. Scripture-learning and divinitie was knowne but unto a few, and that in the scholes onely, and there also turned and converted almost all into sophistry. In stead of Peter and Paul, men occupied their time in studying Aquinas and Scotus, and the Master of the Sentences. The world forsaking the lively power of God's spirituall word and doctrine, was altogether led and blinded with outward ceremonies and human traditions, wherein the whole scope, in a manner, of all Christian perfection did consist and depend. In these was all the hope of obtaining salvation fullie fixed; hereunto all things were attributed. Insomuch, that scarcely any other thing was seene in the temples or churches, taught or spoken of in sermons, or finallie intended or gone about in their whole life, but only heaping up of certaine shadowed ceremonies upon ceremonies; neither was there any end of their heaping. The people were taught to worship no other thing but that 9 The Psalme.] Psalme ix. v. 9, &c. 1 In time of need.] On the Causes and Necessity of the Reformation, see Hermanni von der Hardt Historia Literaria Reformationis, Parts i-iv. A.D. 1717; Hottingeri Historia Ecclesiastica, vol. v-vii.; Gibson's Preservative against Popery, tit. i. p. 1–132; Casaubon's Dedication to King James I. of his Exercitations against Baronius. 2 of the Sentences.] Peter Lombard. which they did see, and did see almost nothing which they did not worship. The church being degenerated from the true apostolicke institution above all measure, (reserving only the name of the apostolicke church, but far from the truth thereof in very deed) did fall into all kind of extreame tyrannie: whereas the povertie and simplicitie of Christ was changed into crueltie and abomination of life. In stead of the apostolicke gifts, and their continuall labors and travels, slothfulnes and ambition was crept in amongst the priests. Besides all this, there arose and sprung up a thousand sorts and fashions of strange religions, being the onely roote and 3 Sorts and fashions of strange religions.] That is, the various sects and orders of monks and friars. Amid so many corruptions, it is not to be wondered that the contagion spread from the heart and from manners, and invaded the popular language. Of this very baneful species of degeneracy, the instances are by no means infrequent. We have an example before us in the use of this term religion; a word, to the participation of which, with its corresponding epithet religious, the laity seem to have been allowed to make hardly any pretension. They were almost exclusively appropriated to the clergy, and especially to one division of them, the several orders of monks and friars. Thus we read, in the Complaint and Prayer of the Ploughman, the work of a professed reformer: "The pope clepith (calleth) himselfe father of fathers, and maketh many religions. But whether is love and charity encreased by these fathers and by their religions, or else ymade lesse? For a frier ne loveth not a monke, ne a secular man neither; nor yet one frier another that is not of the order. Ah Lord! me thinketh that there is little perfection in these religions! The service that thou desirest is keeping of thine hests (commandments); and then a lewd man (lay-man) may serve God, as well as a man of religion; though that the ploughman he may not have so much silver for his prayer, as men of religion."-Fox, p. 368. Whytford's Pype of Perfection, printed A.D. 1532, is an elaborate apology for monachism. This curious book furnishes us with many examples of the same abuse of the term religion. "Religyon is made and standeth principally in the three essencial vowes, obedience, wilfull povertie, and chastitie. For these thre ben the substanciall partes of religyon.” Fol. 2.-"The great heretyke Luther, with all his discyples, done deprave and utterly condempne all maner of religyons, except onely (as they call hit) the religyon of Christe. Wherefore I thought necessarye (unto the comforte of all suche persones as have or done purpose or intende to entre religyon) somewhat, after my poore understanding, to speke thereof." Fol. 3.-" A state appertaynynge unto monkes and solitarie persones, whiche state is now called onely religyon. And suche persones as ben bounden unto that state, and done lyve in religion bene alone called religious persones, and none other persones ben so named communly, but onely they." Fol. 232 The first quotation well-head of all superstition. How great abuses and depravations were crept into the sacraments, at what time men were compelled to worship similitudes and signes of things, for the very things themselves; and to adore such things as were instituted and ordained only for memorials! Finally, what thing was there, in the whole state of Christian religion so sincere, so sound and pure, which was not defiled and spotted with some kind of superstition? Besides this, with how many bonds and snares of dailie new fangled ceremonies were the sillie consciences of men, redeemed by Christ to liberty, snared and snarled! Insomuch, that there could be no great difference almost perceived betweene Christianitie and Jewishnesse, save only the name of Christ: so that the state and condition of the Jewes, might seeme somewhat more tolerable then ours. The Christian people were wholly carried away as it were by the noses, with meere decrees and constitutions of men, even whither it pleased the bishops to lead them, and not as Christ's will did direct them. All the whole world was filled and overwhelmed with errors and darkenesse. And no great marvell; for why, the simple and unlearned people being farre from all knowledge of the holy scripture, thought it sufficient for them, to know onlie these things which were delivered them by their pastors and shepheards; and they on the other part taught in a maner nothing else, but such things as came forth of the court of Rome: whereof the most part in this note supplies another apt instance of the corruption which we are remarking upon, in the use of the word lewd; which, as it should appear, denoting in its primitive signification, in the Anglo-Saxon, ignorant, was about the age of Wickliffe, perpetually used simply for layman, without being designed to convey any particular reproach; and at other times, in a worse sense, to which it is now exclusively appropriated. Under this example, the presumptuous revilings of the Pharisee can hardly fail of recurring to the mind of my readers. "This people who knoweth not the law, are cursed." John vii. 49. The only remaining instance of a corruption in language, which I shall adduce, is one nearly allied to those above referred to-the use of the term Holy Church. "When men speken of holy churche (says Wickliffe), they understonden anoon prelates and priests, monks, cannons and freres, and all men that have crowns (the tonsure), tho they liven never so cursedly agenst God's law; and clepen not ne holden secular men of holy church, tho they liven never so duly after God's law, and enden in perfect charity."—Lewis's History, p. 126. Compare Tindall's Works, p. 249, A.D. 1571. * Pastors and shepheards.] Of whom, according to Wickliffe, were maney that kunnen not the ten commandements, ne read their Sauter, ne understond a verse of it."-Great Sentence of Curse expounded; Lewis's Life, &c. p. 40. |