WYCLIFFE, made his translation from the Latin Bible. Though a good scholar, he did not know Hebrew or Greek, those languages not being studied in his time. Long before, a learned monk called Jerome had translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew into Latin, and from his translation, which is named the Vulgate, our first English Bible was made. Wycliffe began by translating the New Testament— first the Revelation, and then the Gospels; and as he knew Latin well, and loved God's word and sought to give its meaning faithfully, his translation was far better than any which had been attempted before his time. It is said that he worked from ten to fifteen years at his great task; and it is interesting to remember that it was in the year 1380, just five hundred years before the year in which the latest English version of the scriptures has seen the light, that Wycliffe's appeared.
Then the labor of the copyists began. In an incredibly short time, and in spite of all opposition, portions of the precious manuscript were in circulation everywhere. Those who could not obtain more would buy a little book containing perhaps part of a Gospel, and wear it, in place of a relic, around their necks lest it should be taken from them.
Wycliffe died four years after his work was completed, but he lived long enough to know that his desire was fulfilled. He had indeed given to the people a treasure which no man could take from them— the word of God in their own tongue, and that word bore fruit in their hearts.
A writer of this time, bearing unconscious witness to the fact how mightily the word of God grew and prevailed, exclaimed, with vexation, "You could not meet two persons on the highway, but one of them was Wycliffe's disciple!”
“Master John Wycliffe," said the monks, “by translating the gospel into English, hath rendered it more acceptable and more intelligible to laymen and to women than it hath hitherto been to learned and intelligent clerks! The gospel pearl is everywhere cast out and trodden under foot of swine. It is heresy to speak of Holy Scripture in English. Let the people learn to believe in the church rather than the gospel.”
“Many nations," replied the dauntless old man, "have had the Bible in their own language. The Bible is the faith of the church. Though the pope and all his clerks should disappear from the face of the earth, our faith would not fail, for it is founded upon Jesus alone, our Master and our God.”
Defenders of the new Bible were found where they were least expected, "Are we, then, the very dregs of humanity?" asked a powerful nobleman, when it was proposed in the House of Lords that every copy of the new book should be seized, "Are we the dregs of humanity, that we cannot possess the laws of our religion in our own tongue?"
Wycliffe died in peace, but within twenty years after his death it had been made a grievous crime in the eyes of the law for any man to translate any part of the scripture, or to read or possess one of his Bibles. It was an Archbishop of York who brought about the passing of this law. Thus did the ministers of that church which had first sent Christianity to Britain when she was in the darkness of heathenism seek to quench the light of truth, and plunge her people into a deeper, sadder gloom than before.
As time went on and this law was enforced the prisons were filled with quiet, humble men, whose only offense was having possessed, perhaps, but a torn fragment of a manuscript containing words which had been the bread of life to their souls!
Those were times when a few plain words cost a man his life. "Nay; I adore not the cross, but Him who suffered upon it," said one. And for his free speech he was burnt to death.
Although many were sent to prison and to death for reading the word of life, the people began to hold meetings in secret places, as the early Christians had done, and many of them, in the fiery trial which tried them, proved faithful, in all these things being more than conquerors through Him that loved them.
But it was not only the poor who were counted worthy to suffer for the faith of Christ and the love of His word. We read of a nobleman who said of the scriptures that they had taught him "to abstain from sin." He had also dared to say that the pope had no authority to teach what was contrary to scripture. When called upon to confess to the archbishop the impious words he had used, he fell upon his knees before the assembled crowd of churchmen, and cried aloud, "I confess to Thee, O God." He bewailed the sins of his youth, his pride, anger, intemperance; then rising, with his face wet with tears, he turned to the archbishop, and said, "I ask not your absolution; it is God's only that I need.”
As the day wore away, the clergy tried by threats and entreaties to induce him to retract his bold words, but in vain. Then the archbishop rose up, and all the priests and people stood with him, bareheaded, while he read the sentence of death.
“It is well," said Sir John Oldcastle, as the tones of the primate's voice ceased; "though you condemn my body, you can do no harm to my soul, by the grace of my eternal God.”
Dear children, through God's mercy to our land, His word is as free to us now as the very air we breathe and the sunshine which gladdens our hearts. Let us ask God to make it precious in our eyes, because it is His word to us, that we may hold it dear and sacred, with something of the reverence and love of those who suffered so much for it in the times of which we have been speaking.
It is better for us to dwell upon their faith and courage, and their humble obedience, than upon the terrible pride and wickedness of their persecutors; only let us remember that these men themselves were led captive by one more powerful than they were, and were so deluded by Satan that many of them thought, in their blindness, that they were saving the word of God from dishonor by treating it as a thing too sacred for common use. "The church alone can interpret Holy Scripture," they said, for they did not know that God, by His Holy Spirit, is the interpreter of His word, and that human wisdom avails nothing in the things of God. C. P.