foresee whither it would lead him. He did not set himself deliberately in
opposition to Rome. But devotion to truth could not but bring him in
conflict with falsehood. The more clearly he discerned the errors of the
papacy, the more earnestly he presented the teaching of the Bible. He saw
that Rome had forsaken the word of God for human tradition; he fearlessly
accused the priesthood of having banished the Scriptures, and demanded
that the Bible be restored to the people, and that its authority be again
established in the church. He was an able and earnest teacher, and an
eloquent preacher, and his daily life was a demonstration of the truths he
preached. His knowledge of the Scriptures, the force of his reasoning, the
purity of his life, and his unbending courage and integrity, won for him
general esteem and confidence. Many of the people had become dissatisfied
with their former faith, as they saw the iniquity that prevailed in the
Roman Church, and they hailed with unconcealed joy the truths brought to
view by Wycliffe; but the papal leaders were filled with rage when they
perceived that this Reformer was gaining an influence greater than their
own.
Wycliffe was a keen detector of error, and he struck fearlessly against
many of the abuses sanctioned by the authority of Rome. While acting as
chaplain for the king, he took a bold stand against the payment of tribute
claimed by the pope from the English monarch, and showed that the papal
assumption of authority over secular rulers was contrary to both reason
and revelation. The demands of the pope had excited great indignation, and
Wycliffe’s teachings exerted an influence upon the leading minds of the
nation. The king and the nobles united in denying the pontiff’s claim to
temporal authority, and in refusing the payment of the tribute. Thus an
effectual blow was struck against the papal supremacy in England.
Another evil against which the Reformer waged long and resolute battle,
was the institution of the orders of mendicant friars. These friars
swarmed in England, casting a blight upon the greatness and prosperity of
the nation. Industry, education, morals, all felt the withering influence.
The monks’ life of idleness and beggary was not only a heavy drain upon
the resources of the people, but it brought useful labor into contempt.
The youth were demoralized and corrupted. By the influence of the friars
many were induced to enter a cloister and devote themselves to a monastic
life, and this not only without the consent of their parents, but even
without their knowledge, and contrary to their commands. One of the early
Fathers of the Roman Church, urging the claims of monasticism above the
obligations of filial love and duty, had declared: “Though thy father
should lie before thy door, weeping and lamenting, and thy mother should
show the body that bore thee and the breasts that nursed thee, see that
thou trample them under foot, and go onward straightway to Christ.” By
this “monstrous inhumanity,” as Luther afterward styled it, “savoring more
of the wolf and the tyrant than of the Christian and the man,” were the
hearts of children steeled against their parents.(111) Thus did the papal
leaders, like the Pharisees of old, make the commandment of God of none
effect by their tradition. Thus homes were made desolate, and parents were
deprived of the society of their sons and daughters.
Even the students in the universities were deceived by the false
representations of the monks, and induced to join their orders. Many
afterward repented this step, seeing that they had blighted their own
lives, and had brought sorrow upon their parents; but once fast in the
snare, it was impossible for them to obtain their freedom. Many parents,
fearing the influence of the monks, refused to send their sons to the
universities. There was a marked falling off in the number of students in
attendance at the great centers of learning. The schools languished, and
ignorance prevailed.
The pope had bestowed on these monks the power to hear confessions and to
grant pardon. This became a source of great evil. Bent on enhancing their
gains, the friars were so ready to grant absolution that criminals of all
descriptions resorted to them, and as a result, the worst vices rapidly
increased. The sick and the poor were left to suffer, while the gifts that
should have relieved their wants went to the monks, who with threats
demanded the alms of the people, denouncing the impiety of those who
should withhold gifts from their orders. Notwithstanding their profession
of poverty, the wealth of the friars was constantly increasing, and their
magnificent edifices and luxurious tables made more apparent the growing
poverty of the nation. And while spending their time in luxury and
pleasure, they sent out in their stead ignorant men, who could only
recount marvelous tales, legends, and jests to amuse the people, and make
them still more completely the dupes of the monks. Yet the friars
continued to maintain their hold on the superstitious multitudes, and led
them to believe that all religious duty was comprised in acknowledging the
supremacy of the pope, adoring the saints, and making gifts to the monks,
and that this was sufficient to secure them a place in heaven.
Men of learning and piety had labored in vain to bring about a reform in
these monastic orders; but Wycliffe, with clearer insight, struck at the
root of the evil, declaring that the system itself was false, and that it
should be abolished. Discussion and inquiry were awakening. As the monks
traversed the country, vending the pope’s pardons, many were led to doubt
the possibility of purchasing forgiveness with money, and they questioned
whether they should not seek pardon from God rather than from the pontiff
of Rome.(112) Not a few were alarmed at the rapacity of the friars, whose
greed seemed never to be satisfied. “The monks and priests of Rome,” said
they, “are eating us away like a cancer. God must deliver us, or the
people will perish.”(113) To cover their avarice, these begging monks
claimed that they were following the Saviour’s example, declaring that
Jesus and His disciples had been supported by the charities of the people.
This claim resulted in injury to their cause, for it led many to the Bible
to learn the truth for themselves,—a result which of all others was least
desired by Rome. The minds of men were directed to the Source of truth,
which it was her object to conceal.
Wycliffe began to write and publish tracts against the friars, not,
however, seeking so much to enter into dispute with them as to call the
minds of the people to the teachings of the Bible and its Author. He
declared that the power of pardon or of excommunication is possessed by
the pope in no greater degree than by common priests, and that no man can
be truly excommunicated unless he has first brought upon himself the
condemnation of God. In no more effectual way could he have undertaken the
overthrow of that mammoth fabric of spiritual and temporal dominion which
the pope had erected, and in which the souls and bodies of millions were
held captive.
Again Wycliffe was called to defend the rights of the English crown
against the encroachments of Rome; and being appointed a royal ambassador,
he spent two years in the Netherlands, in conference with the
commissioners of the pope. Here he was brought into communication with
ecclesiastics from France, Italy, and Spain, and he had an opportunity to
look behind the scenes, and gain a knowledge of many things which would
have remained hidden from him in England. He learned much that was to give
point to his after-labors. In these representatives from the papal court
he read the true character and aims of the hierarchy. He returned to
England to repeat his former teachings more openly and with greater zeal,
declaring that covetousness, pride, and deception were the gods of Rome.
In one of his tracts he said, speaking of the pope and his collectors:
“They draw out of our land poor men’s livelihood, and many thousand marks,
by the year, of the king’s money, for sacraments and spiritual things,
that is cursed heresy of simony, and maketh all Christendom assent and
maintain this heresy. And certes though our realm had a huge hill of gold,
and never other man took thereof but only this proud worldly priest’s
collector, by process of time this hill must be spended; for he taketh
ever money out of our land, and sendeth naught again but God’s curse for
his simony.”(114)
Soon after his return to England, Wycliffe received from the king the
appointment to the rectory of Lutterworth. This was an assurance that the
monarch at least had not been displeased by his plain speaking. Wycliffe’s
influence was felt in shaping the action of the court, as well as in
moulding the belief of the nation.
The papal thunders were soon hurled against him. Three bulls were
dispatched to England,—to the university, to the king, and to the
prelates,—all commanding immediate and decisive measures to silence the
teacher of heresy.(115) Before the arrival of the bulls, however, the
bishops, in their zeal, had summoned Wycliffe before them for trial. But
two of the most powerful princes in the kingdom accompanied him to the
tribunal; and the people, surrounding the building and rushing in, so
intimidated the judges that the proceedings were for the time suspended,
and he was allowed to go his way in peace. A little later, Edward III.,
whom in his old age the prelates were seeking to influence against the
Reformer, died, and Wycliffe’s former protector became regent of the
kingdom.
But the arrival of the papal bulls laid upon all England a peremptory
command for the arrest and imprisonment of the heretic. These measures
pointed directly to the stake. It appeared certain that Wycliffe must soon
fall a prey to the vengeance of Rome. But He who declared to one of old,
“Fear not: I am thy shield,”(116) again stretched out His hand to protect
His servant. Death came, not to the Reformer, but to the pontiff who had
decreed his destruction. Gregory XI. died, and the ecclesiastics who had
assembled for Wycliffe’s trial, dispersed.
God’s providence still further overruled events to give opportunity for
the growth of the Reformation. The death of Gregory was followed by the
election of two rival popes. Two conflicting powers, each professedly
infallible, now claimed obedience.(117) Each called upon the faithful to
assist him in making war upon the other, enforcing his demands by terrible
anathemas against his adversaries, and promises of rewards in heaven to
his supporters. This occurrence greatly weakened the power of the papacy.
The rival factions had all they could do to attack each other, and
Wycliffe for a time had rest. Anathemas and recriminations were flying
from pope to pope, and torrents of blood were poured out to support their
conflicting claims. Crimes and scandals flooded the church. Meanwhile the
Reformer, in the quiet retirement of his parish of Lutterworth, was
laboring diligently to point men from the contending popes to Jesus, the
Prince of Peace.
The schism, with all the strife and corruption which it caused, prepared
the way for the Reformation, by enabling the people to see what the papacy
really was. In a tract which he published, “On the Schism of the Popes,”
Wycliffe called upon the people to consider whether these two priests were
not speaking the truth in condemning each other as the antichrist. “God,”
said he, “would no longer suffer the fiend to reign in only one such
priest, but ... made division among two, so that men, in Christ’s name,
may the more easily overcome them both.”(118)
Wycliffe, like his Master, preached the gospel to the poor. Not content
with spreading the light in their humble homes in his own parish of
Lutterworth, he determined that it should be carried to every part of
England. To accomplish this he organized a body of preachers, simple,
devout men, who loved the truth and desired nothing so much as to extend
it. These men went everywhere, teaching in the market-places, in the
streets of the great cities, and in the country lanes. They sought out the
aged, the sick, and the poor, and opened to them the glad tidings of the
grace of God.
As a professor of theology at Oxford, Wycliffe preached the word of God in
the halls of the university. So faithfully did he present the truth to the
students under his instruction, that he received the title of “The Gospel
Doctor.” But the greatest work of his life was to be the translation of
the Scriptures into the English language. In a work, “On the Truth and
Meaning of Scripture,” he expressed his intention to translate the Bible,
so that every man in England might read, in the language in which he was
born, the wonderful works of God.
But suddenly his labors were stopped. Though not yet sixty years of age,
unceasing toil, study, and the assaults of his enemies, had told upon his
strength, and made him prematurely old. He was attacked by a dangerous
illness. The tidings brought great joy to the friars. Now they thought he
would bitterly repent the evil he had done the church, and they hurried to
his chamber to listen to his confession. Representatives from the four
religious orders, with four civil officers, gathered about the supposed
dying man. “You have death on your lips,” they said; “be touched by your
faults, and retract in our presence all that you have said to our injury.”
The Reformer listened in silence; then he bade his attendant raise him in
his bed, and gazing steadily upon them as they stood waiting for his
recantation, he said, in the firm, strong voice which had so often caused
them to tremble, “I shall not die, but live, and again declare the evil
deeds of the friars.”(119) Astonished and abashed, the monks hurried from
the room.
Wycliffe’s words were fulfilled. He lived to place in the hands of his
countrymen the most powerful of all weapons against Rome,—to give them the
Bible, the Heaven-appointed agent to liberate, enlighten, and evangelize
the people. There were many and great obstacles to surmount in the
accomplishment of this work. Wycliffe was weighed down with infirmities;
he knew that only a few years for labor remained for him; he saw the
opposition which he must meet; but, encouraged by the promises of God’s
word, he went forward nothing daunted. In the full vigor of his
intellectual powers, rich in experience, he had been preserved and
prepared by God’s special providence for this, the greatest of his labors.
While all Christendom was filled with tumult, the Reformer in his rectory
at Lutterworth, unheeding the storm that raged without, applied himself to
his chosen task.
At last the work was completed,—the first English translation of the Bible
ever made. The word of God was opened to England. The Reformer feared not
now the prison or the stake. He had placed in the hands of the English
people a light which should never be extinguished. In giving the Bible to
his countrymen, he had done more to break the fetters of ignorance and
vice, more to liberate and elevate his country, than was ever achieved by
the most brilliant victories on fields of battle.
The art of printing being still unknown, it was only by slow and wearisome
labor that copies of the Bible could be multiplied. So great was the
interest to obtain the book, that many willingly engaged in the work of
transcribing it, but it was with difficulty that the copyists could supply
the demand. Some of the more wealthy purchasers desired the whole Bible.
Others bought only a portion. In many cases, several families united to
purchase a copy. Thus Wycliffe’s Bible soon found its way to the homes of
the people.
The appeal to men’s reason aroused them from their passive submission to
papal dogmas. Wycliffe now taught the distinctive doctrines of
Protestantism,—salvation through faith in Christ, and the sole
infallibility of the Scriptures. The preachers whom he had sent out
circulated the Bible, together with the Reformer’s writings, and with such
success that the new faith was accepted by nearly one half of the people
of England.
The appearance of the Scriptures brought dismay to the authorities of the
church. They had now to meet an agency more powerful than Wycliffe,—an
agency against which their weapons would avail little. There was at this
time no law in England prohibiting the Bible, for it had never before been
published in the language of the people. Such laws were afterward enacted
and rigorously enforced. Meanwhile, notwithstanding the efforts of the
priests, there was for a season opportunity for the circulation of the
word of God.
Again the papal leaders plotted to silence the Reformer’s voice. Before
three tribunals he was successively summoned for trial, but without avail.
First a synod of bishops declared his writings heretical, and winning the
young king, Richard II., to their side, they obtained a royal decree
consigning to prison all who should hold the condemned doctrines.
Wycliffe appealed from the synod to Parliament; he fearlessly arraigned
the hierarchy before the national council, and demanded a reform of the
enormous abuses sanctioned by the church. With convincing power he
portrayed the usurpations and corruptions of the papal see. His enemies
were brought to confusion. The friends and supporters of Wycliffe had been
forced to yield, and it had been confidently expected that the Reformer
himself, in his old age, alone and friendless, would bow to the combined
authority of the crown and the mitre. But instead of this the papists saw
themselves defeated. Parliament, roused by the stirring appeals of
Wycliffe, repealed the persecuting edict, and the Reformer was again at
liberty.
A third time he was brought to trial, and now before the highest
ecclesiastical tribunal in the kingdom. Here no favor would be shown to
heresy. Here at last Rome would triumph, and the Reformer’s work would be
stopped. So thought the papists. If they could but accomplish their
purpose, Wycliffe would be forced to abjure his doctrines, or would leave
the court only for the flames.
But Wycliffe did not retract; he would not dissemble. He fearlessly
maintained his teachings, and repelled the accusations of his persecutors.
Losing sight of himself, of his position, of the occasion, he summoned his
hearers before the divine tribunal, and weighed their sophistries and
deceptions in the balances of eternal truth. The power of the Holy Spirit
was felt in the council-room. A spell from God was upon the hearers. They
seemed to have no power to leave the place. As arrows from the Lord’s
quiver, the Reformer’s words pierced their hearts. The charge of heresy,
which they had brought against him, he with convincing power threw back
upon themselves. Why, he demanded, did they dare to spread their errors?
For the sake of gain, to make merchandise of the grace of God.
“With whom, think you,” he finally said, “are ye contending? with an old
man on the brink of the grave? No! with Truth,—Truth which is stronger
than you, and will overcome you.”(120) So saying, he withdrew from the
assembly, and not one of his adversaries attempted to prevent him.
Wycliffe’s work was almost done; the banner of truth which he had so long
borne was soon to fall from his hand; but once more he was to bear witness
for the gospel. The truth was to be proclaimed from the very stronghold of
the kingdom of error. Wycliffe was summoned for trial before the papal
tribunal at Rome, which had so often shed the blood of the saints. He was
not blind to the danger that threatened him, yet he would have obeyed the
summons had not a shock of palsy made it impossible for him to perform the
journey. But though his voice was not to be heard at Rome, he could speak
by letter, and this he determined to do. From his rectory the Reformer
wrote to the pope a letter, which, while respectful in tone and Christian
in spirit, was a keen rebuke to the pomp and pride of the papal see.
“Verily I do rejoice,” he said, “to open and declare unto every man the
faith which I do hold, and especially unto the bishop of Rome: which,
forasmuch as I do suppose to be sound and true, he will most willingly
confirm my said faith, or if it be erroneous, amend the same.
“First, I suppose that the gospel of Christ is the whole body of God’s
law.... I do give and hold the bishop of Rome, forasmuch as he is the
vicar of Christ here on earth, to be most bound, of all other men, unto
that law of the gospel. For the greatness among Christ’s disciples did not
consist in worldly dignity or honors, but in the near and exact following
of Christ in His life and manners.... Christ, for the time of His
pilgrimage here, was a most poor man, abjecting and casting off all
worldly rule and honor....
“No faithful man ought to follow either the pope himself or any of the
holy men, but in such points as he hath followed the Lord Jesus Christ;
for Peter and the sons of Zebedee, by desiring worldly honor, contrary to
the following of Christ’s steps, did offend, and therefore in those errors
they are not to be followed....
“The pope ought to leave unto the secular power all temporal dominion and
rule, and thereunto effectually to move and exhort his whole clergy; for
so did Christ, and especially by His apostles. Wherefore, if I have erred
in any of these points, I will most humbly submit myself unto correction,
even by death, if necessity so require; and if I could labor according to
my will or desire in mine own person, I would surely present myself before
the bishop of Rome; but the Lord hath otherwise visited me to the
contrary, and hath taught me rather to obey God than men.”
In closing he said: “Let us pray unto our God, that He will so stir up our
pope Urban VI., as he began, that he with his clergy may follow the Lord
Jesus Christ in life and manners; and that they may teach the people
effectually, and that they, likewise, may faithfully follow them in the
same.”(121)
Thus Wycliffe presented to the pope and his cardinals the meekness and
humility of Christ, exhibiting not only to themselves but to all
Christendom the contrast between them and the Master whose representatives
they professed to be.
Wycliffe fully expected that his life would be the price of his fidelity.
The king, the pope, and the bishops were united to accomplish his ruin,
and it seemed certain that a few months at most would bring him to the
stake. But his courage was unshaken. “Why do you talk of seeking the crown
of martyrdom afar?” he said. “Preach the gospel of Christ to haughty
prelates, and martyrdom will not fail you. What! I should live and be
silent?... Never! Let the blow fall, I await its coming.”(122)
But God’s providence still shielded His servant. The man who for a whole
lifetime had stood boldly in defense of the truth, in daily peril of his
life, was not to fall a victim to the hatred of its foes. Wycliffe had
never sought to shield himself, but the Lord had been his protector; and
now, when his enemies felt sure of their prey, God’s hand removed him
beyond their reach. In his church at Lutterworth, as he was about to
dispense the communion, he fell, stricken with palsy, and in a short time
yielded up his life.
God had appointed to Wycliffe his work. He had put the word of truth in
his mouth, and He set a guard about him that this word might come to the
people. His life was protected, and his labors were prolonged, until a
foundation was laid for the great work of the Reformation.
Wycliffe came from the obscurity of the Dark Ages. There were none who
went before him from whose work he could shape his system of reform.
Raised up like John the Baptist to accomplish a special mission, he was
the herald of a new era. Yet in the system of truth which he presented
there was a unity and completeness which Reformers who followed him did
not exceed, and which some did not reach, even a hundred years later. So
broad and deep was laid the foundation, so firm and true was the
framework, that it needed not to be reconstructed by those who came after
him.