IN the earlier part of Wiclifs life, his energies were directed chiefly towards attacking the evils of the religious world of his day, and in gaining freedom for his country from ecclesiastical thraldom. In the latter portion of his life, he was chiefly intent on giving the people of England the truth of God, which should save their souls, and make them free indeed.
We saw last month Wiclif as a mighty power, in Oxford, but in London also he was well known, as we may judge from this description of him by one of his enemies: — “Many great lords of the realm, or, more rightly, I should call them devils, embraced his mad doctrines he drew after him many citizens of London into the bottomless pit of error. He was an eloquent man, and pretended to look down on worldly possessions as things transitory and fleeting, in comparison with the things of eternity. He ever ran from church to church, and scattered his mad lies in the ears of very many.”
No wonder that the rich and luxurious bishops and abbots hated him! Wiclifs teaching cast bitter reproach upon the splendor of their plate, their fine apparel, their prancing horses, and their following of dandies. In the year 1377 they began in good earnest to try to put him down by force, and the houses of convocation summoned him to appear before a council, to be held in St. Paul’s Church, London.
Wiclif was no doubt popular with many of the citizens of London, for it is ever the case that a faithful preacher of Christ gathers adherents about him for the truth’s sake; certainly he had among the greatest people of the land strong political supporters, chief amongst these being the Duke of Lancaster, and Lord Henry Percy, who was marshal of England. A vast concourse of people had assembled around St. Paul’s, to see Wiclif and his judges; and Our Lady’s Chapel, situated at the eastern end of the church, where the trial was to be held, was thronged with dukes and barons, archbishops and bishops. The marshal went first, making way through the crowd, and encouraged Wiclif not to fear the concourse of people, nor the great personages who composed his tribunal. Such was the greatness of the excited crowd that it was no easy matter to force a way through the people.
The church was packed, and through it Wiclif must needs go in order to reach Our Lady’s Chapel. Lord Percy, being lord marshal, took command, and made his way up the nave, and that not in a mild manner. Seeing the secular arm controlling in the church, Courtenay, the Bishop of London, became furious and exclaimed to Lord Percy that, had he known what command he would have kept in the church, he would have prevented his coming there at all. To this Lord Percy angrily retorted that come he would, even should the bishop say nay to him.
High words, between the leaders of the ecclesiastical and the secular powers had thus already begun, before Wiclif had reached the place where he was to be tried. As he stood before the tribunal, to hear what charges should be advanced against him, Lord Percy took upon himself to bid him be seated, saying as he had so many things to answer to, he had need to repose on a soft seat. This, the Bishop of London declared he should not do, for neither was it law nor custom that any one cited to appear before his ordinary should be seated during the time of his trial. Thereon, the lord marshal and the bishop began wrangling, the Duke of Lancaster joining in. But the bishop’s tongue prevailed, so that the duke from railing took to threatening, declaring he would bring down the bishop’s pride, and that of all the prelacy in England also. “Thou,” said he, “bearest thyself so brag upon thy parents” —these were the Earl and Countess of Devonshire— “who shall not be able to help thee: they shall have enough to do to help themselves.”
“My confidence is not in my parents, nor in man, but in God, and in God only,” replied the bishop.
This mild answer so nettled the duke, that he whispered to the one next him, but in a whisper meant to be overheard by many, “I would rather pluck the bishop by the hair of his head out of the church, than take this at his hand.”
Here was a signal fora general uproar. The Londoners present shouted they would lose their lives sooner than see their bishop dragged out by the hair; the sitting broke up in tumult, and so Wiclif escaped out of the hands of the bishops! Riots and bloodshed succeeded the day’s proceedings.
The enormous amount of labor Wiclif underwent, together with the strain he had to endure by reason of the assaults of his enemies, brought upon him an attack of paralysis. His sickness was seized upon as an opportunity by his foes for trying to induce him to recant, and accordingly four doctors, selected from the four orders of friars, which he had so vigorously assailed, were deputed to wait upon him.
Wiclif lay upon his bed and heard all the doctors had to say. They informed him death was very near, and that he should call back anything he had said against their learned and holy brotherhoods. He then beckoned his servants to raise him in his bed, and fixing his eyes on the visitors, exclaimed in the words of the 118th Psalm, “I shall not die, but live,” adding, “and shall again declare the evil deeds of the friars.”
They retreated in dismay.
In the early portion of Wiclifs career England was great and strong, but in the latter part of his life the country lost power, failed in war, and its old glory departed. The court was in a corrupt state, and the king being old and feeble, was led by bad persons. However, the spirit for freedom from the thrall of popes and prelates was as strong as ever. When the old king died, he was succeeded by his grandson, Richard II a boy of some eleven years of age, and then the Pope began to try his strength against Wiclif and his party. Bulls and letters, issued from Rome, while councils sat and sent out their commands, till countless kinds of opposition assailed Wiclif. Every day the battle became more and more hot; the religious powers bearing down upon the few brave men, who were bent upon giving their countrymen the word of God.
It is comparatively easy to fight for a country’s liberty, and for freedom from the thrall of a body of priests, and in such a struggle there will be many ardent patriots to flock to the standard, but it is not easy to fight for the truth of God, to contend earnestly for the faith once declared to the saints. In such a conflict the soldier of Christ very often has to stand almost alone, and of God only can he obtain the strength to continue the strife. While it was England or Rome, Wiclif had many an Englishman on his side; but when it came to be a question of Rome or the Bible, he had but few to stand by him. Both the Duke of Lancaster and Lord Percy commanded him to obey the Pope’s orders as to doctrine, and the proctors and masters of Oxford stood questioning whether they should obey the papal bull or protect Wiclif. The bull commanded them upon privation of the Pope’s favor, and the indulgences and privileges granted to them and their university, to apprehend Wiclif, and any other in the university corrupted with his doctrine. In the end Oxford turned against him, and issued an edict threatening any man who should associate with him with the “greater excommunication,” and then once more the Duke of Lancaster, his powerful friend, bade Wiclif submit himself on the doctrinal question.
But Wiclif had been studying the Scriptures for years; his soul had gradually become released from very much of the current Romish teaching—he knew himself as one of God’s freed men; and “if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” How could he submit to man, and reject the authority of God’s word? His eyes were open to the blasphemy, that the priest has the power to turn the bread of the sacrament into the very body of Christ; and against this stronghold of Rome, which really rejects the Bible truth respecting the one sacrifice of our Lord once offered, he would speak in his vigorous and unmistakable English. No less openly was he determined to speak of the evil of keeping the Bible from the people, notwithstanding all papal bulls, councils, bishops, and all human powers.
“Those that call it heresy,” said he, “to speak of the Holy Scriptures in English, must be prepared to condemn the Holy Ghost, who gave it in tongues to the apostles of Christ to speak the word of God in all languages that were ordained of God under heaven... We are not to believe the words or discourses of prelates any further than they are founded on Scripture... Since, according to the faith, which the apostle teaches, all Christians must stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and be answerable to Him for all the goods with which He has entrusted them, it is necessary that all the faithful should know these goods, and the use of them, for an answer by a prelate or attorney will not then avail, but every one must then answer in his own person.”
In reply to the common argument that none but the priestly class should have the word of God in their hands, lest bad use should be made of it, he says, “What sort of Anti-Christ is this, who, to the sorrow of Christian man, is so bold as to prohibit the laity from learning this holy lesson which is so earnestly commanded by God? Every man is bound to learn it, that he may be saved, but every layman who shall be saved is a very priest of God’s own making, and every man is bound to be a very priest.”
Bible truth made its way in the country through his incessant labors, and by the work of the “poor priests” and the issuing of tracts, and thus, notwithstanding all the bulls of the Pope and all the councils of the bishops, Wiclifs followers increased in numbers.
He went on with his work, toiling at Lutterworth, his parish, with most marvelous energy, preaching and translating, and there he remained, protected by some of the greatest men of the land, and shielded by God’s almighty hand.
The powers adverse to the Bible were not going to leave Wiclif and his followers to do their list. Five years after the failure of the trial in St. Paul’s Church, a council was held in London, under the headship of Courtenay, who had become Archbishop of Canterbury, and consisting of bishops, theologians, and ecclesiastical lawyers, having for its object the suppression of heretics, and Wiclif books. It has been called the “Synod of the Earthquake,” because just as it was commenced an earthquake shook London. Some stood in doubt whether to go on with their business, but others took the earthquake as a sign that they should proceed.
1382 is a memorable date, because from this synod issued the English Inquisition, whose bloody history extends over nearly two hundred years. The bishop styled himself “chief inquisitor,” and each bishop was to be an inquisitor in his own diocese; preachers, and their maintainers and abettors, were to be arrested and held in “strong prison,” and generally the faith of men in God was to be commanded by the religious authorities of the country.
Wiclif appealed to Parliament against the powers of this council, but his friends were persecuted—some gave up the struggle—some were imprisoned—yet he was left in comparative quiet. He continued his great work of evangelizing, and devoted himself to this work with more and more intense zeal as the end of his course approached. Evangelizing is giving out the truth of God’s gospel to men, the length and breadth of which can only be found in the Scriptures of truth. Let us hear how he valued the Scriptures. Speaking of the seed being the word of God, he exclaims: “O marvelous power of the divine seed, which overpowers strong men in arms, softens hard hearts, and renews and changes into divine men, men who had been brutalized by sins, and who had departed infinitely far from God. Obviously, such a high morality could never be worked by a priest, if the Spirit of Life and the Eternal Word did not above all things else work it.” And the following words may well be laid to heart by preachers of this day: “It is to speak lightly to say that God might, of His mere power, forgive this sin without the atonement which was made for it, since the justice of God would not suffer this.... God may not accept a person, to forgive him his sin without an atonement, else He must give free license to sin both in angels and in men, and then sin were no sin, and God were no God.”
Thus he continued ceaselessly with his glorious work, until one December day, as he was hearing mass in his church at Lutterworth, he was seized with paralysis, and sank to the ground. He was carried to the parsonage, and breathed his last on the last day of 134. Thus ended his career; he had lifted up the banner in England for freedom from the popes, and had greatly succeeded. He had labored for the people, giving them the word of God in their own tongue, and none had been able to stay his hand.
By Wiclifs direction and partly by his own hand, the whole of the Scriptures were in circulation among the people. “This Master John Wiclif,” laments a chronicler of the period, “has translated into English the gospel which Christ gave to the clergy and doctors of the church, to be by them communicated to the weaker sort, and the laity according to their needs” —the chronicler does not seem to have found in what part of the Bible Christ is said to have given the gospel to the clergy and doctors for them to use at their list!— “and has thus made it more accessible to the laity, and to women who are able to read, than it was to the well-educated and intelligent clergy.” Another complained of Wiclif, as “completing his malice by devising a translation of the Scriptures into the mother tongue.”
Wiclifs translation was made from the Latin, and is therefore not so exact as our own, but his and that of Purvey, which followed it, were soon most highly valued. The whole of the New Testament was an exceedingly costly work, and stood at the value of half a year’s income for a substantial farmer, but so esteemed did the Bible become, that it was not an uncommon thing for a farmer to exchange a load of hay for a few of its chapters, and small portions of the book would be hidden on the person, or under the floors of houses, or in secret places where the possessors could find them, and read alone the wonderful words of life. The highest in the land had copies of the sacred book, and the Bible and its teachings were firmly planted in the land. A voice arises to us in our day from this old love for the Bible in our country, where the whole of the New Testament now may be bought for one penny, and where no law exists to hinder its perusal by the simplest and the poorest.
For some twenty-five years Wiclifs books and teaching were permitted to circulate in the country, but in 1410 there was a great burning of them in Oxford, and also on the continent many of them were similarly destroyed. Forty-one years after his death Rome held a “sacred synod,” which gave sentence that “John Wiclif was a notorious, obstinate heretic, and that he died in his heresy,” and it cursed and condemned “him and his memory.”
“This synod,” so runs its decree, “also decreeth and ordaineth that the body and bones of the said John Wiclif, if it might be discerned and known from the bodies of other faithful people, should be taken out of the ground, and thrown away far from the burial of any church.”
So his body was dug up from its quiet grave and burned, and the ashes were cast into the river Swift, and were borne away to the sea. Such was the foolish malice of Rome against the bones of the man who gave first to England God’s word in our mother-tongue, but the words of the Scriptures which he gave forth none could destroy, no, neither by sword nor fire; they lived in many hearts to the glory of God.