firmation of the papal sentence, on paying 200 marks, which was equivalent to 800 pounds of our money.

While the dispute was carried on about the right to Canterbury-hall, king Edward had notice from Pope Urban, that he intended to cite him to his court at Avignon, to answer for his default in not performing the homage which king John acknowledged to the see of Rome; and for refusing to pay the tribute of 700 marks a year, which that prince granted to the pope. The king laid this before his parliament, in 1366; who were determined to assist him with all their power against such arbitrary attempts from the pope. The firmness of the parliament caused the pope to stop short, and prevented his successors from ever after troubling the kings of England on that account. However, one of the monks ventured to defend the claim made by the pope; to which Wickliffe replied, and proved, that the resignation of the crown, and promise of a tribute made by king John, ought not to prejudice the kingdom, or oblige the present king, as it was done without consent of parliament. No wonder, then, that Wickliffe should incur the resentment of the pope, who was impatient of contradiction, and could not bear any opposition to his pretensions: But Wickliffe thereby made himself known to the court, and particularly to the duke of Lancaster, who took him under his patronage. At this time Wickliffe stiled himself peculiaris regis clericus, or the king's own clerk or chaplain: But he professed himself an obedient son of the Roman church, to avoid the personal injury intended him by his adversaries.

However, this deprivation was no injury to the reputation which Wickliffe had acquired. Every body saw it was a party business; and that it was not so much against his person that the monks had a prejudice, as against all the seculars that were members of the college. Shortly after, Wickliffe was presented, by the favour of the duke of Lancaster, to the living of Lutterworth, in the diocese of Lincoln; and then it was that he published, in his writings and sermons, certain opinions which appeared to be novel, because contrary to the received doctrine of those days. As he did not declare his sentiments till after he had lost his rectorship, his enemies have taken occasion, from thence, to accuse him of acting out of a spirit of revenge, by reason of the injury that had been done him. I shall not, says Rapin, undertake to clear him from this charge. As there is none but God alone that sees into the hearts of men, it is rashness to accuse or excuse ⚫ them,

them with regard to the sacred motives of their actions. I shall only take notice, that Wickliffe's bitterest enemies have never taxed him with any immoralities.'

Wickliffe was turned out of his rectorship by the court of Rome; and a man must be possessed of a very disinterested way of thinking, not to resent such usage; especially as Wickliffe was irreproachable in his morals. The spirit of the times was no little encouragement to his resentment. I must however,' says Mr Guthrie, do Wickliffe the justice, which has not been done him before, of observing, that he seems to have maintained his re• forming opinions even before he was turned out of his <rectorship.' This is to his honour, and removes one of the strongest objections against the motives of Wickliffe's Reformation, as we have it from an author unfavourable to his memory. This opinion is also farther confirmed by the ingenious Mr Gilpin.

But Wickliffe began more early to attempt the Reformation of those disorders and corruptions which he saw in men of his own profession; and particularly the exactions and usurpations of the pope. This is evident from his tract, "Of the last Age of the Church," which he published in the year 1356, fourteen years before he lost the rectorship.

Wickliffe, in 1372, took his degree as doctor of divinity, which he publicly professed, and read lectures in it with very great applause; for he had such authority in the schools, that his opinion was received as an oracle, instead of being disregarded after his ejectment. In these lectures, he more strongly exposed the follies and superstitions of the friars: He charged them with holding fifty heresies and errors: He shewed their corruptions, and detected their practices. This was striking at the root of all the abuses which had crept into the church; at a time when the greater and more necessary articles of faith, and all genuine and rational knowledge of religion, had generally given place to fabulous legends, and romantic stories, fables which, in this respect, only differed from those of the ancient heathen poets, that they were more incredible, and less elegant.

The pope disregarded the statute of provisors, by still continuing to dispose of ecclesiastical benefices and dignities as he thought fit. These were enjoyed by Italians, Frenchmen, and other aliens, who had the revenues of them remitted abroad. The parliament frequently complained to the king and the pope of this intolerable griev

ance,

ance, by representing its fatal inconveniences to the church, and pernicious consequences to the kingdom.

This oppression was so insupportable, in 1873, that the king sent the bishop of Bangor, and three other ambassadors, to the pope, to require of him that he would not interfere with the reservation of benefices: But this embassy was ineffectual; for though the pope entered into a concordate about that matter, it was only a temporal concession; and the parliament renewed their request, that remedy should be provided against the provisions of the pope, whereby he reaped the first fruits of ecclesiastical dignities. It has always been the policy of the court of Rome to play fast and loose with temporal princes in its transactions with them, waiting diligently for advantageous seasons, and pressing them closely whenever they occurred: But, when it met with dangerous oppositions, it dexterously waved the contest without renouncing its claims, and temporized, and soothed, and flattered, and lay by, for a more convenient opportunity.

The king, in 1374, issued out a commission for taking an exact survey of all the ecclesiastical dignities and benefices, throughout his dominions, which were in the hands of aliens. The number and value of them astonished the king, who then appointed seven ambassadors to treat with the pope upon the business of the former embassy. Doctor Wickliffe was the second person mentioned in this commission; and the ambassadors were met at Bruges by the pope's nuncio, two bishops, and a provost, to treat concerning the liberties of the church of England. The treaty continued two years, when it was concluded, that the pope should desist from making use of reservations of benefices. But all treaties with that corrupt court were of no signification; and the parliament, the very next year, complained the treaty was infracted. A long bill was brought into parliament against the papal usurpations, as the cause of all the plagues, injuries, famine, and poverty of the realm: They remonstrated that the tax paid to the pope amounted to five times as much as the tax paid to the king; and that God had given his sheep to the pope to be pastured, not fleeced. Doctor Wickliffe was now made more sensible of the pride, avarice, ambition, and tyranny of the pope, whom he boldly exposed in his public lectures, and private conversation. He called him "Antichrist, "the proud worldly priest of Rome, and the most cursed "of clippers and purse-kervers." He also very freely reproved the corruptions which prevailed among the pre

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lates and inferior clergy, observing, "that the abomi"nation of desolation had its beginning from a perverse "clergy, as comfort arose from a converted clergy." Of prelates, he says, "Oh Lord, what token of mekeness, "and forsaking of worldly riches is this? A prelate, as "an abbot or priour that is dead to the world, and pride "and vanity thereof, to ride with fourscore horse, with "harness of silver and gold: and to spend with earls and "barons, and their poor tenants, both thousand marcs "and pounds, to meyntene a false plea of the world, and "forbare men of their right." But Wickliffe sufficiently experienced the hatred and persecution of those, whom he endeavoured to reform. The monks complained to the pope that Wickliffe opposed the papal powers, and defend. ed the royal supremacy; on which account, in 1376, they drew up nineteen articles against him, extracted from his public lectures and sermons. These articles were sent to the pope, and were principally as follow:

"That there is one only universal church, which is the "university" [or entire number] "of the predestinate. "Paul was never a member of the devil, although" [before his conversion] " he did certain acts like unto the

acts of the church malignant. The reprobate are not "parts of the" [invisible]" church; for that no part of "the same finally falleth from her; because the charity" Eor grace]" of predestination, which bindeth the church "together, never faileth."

"The reprobate, although he be sometime in grace, "according to present justice," [i. e. by a present appearance of outward righteousnes,] " yet is he never a part "of the holy church" [in reality :]" and the predesti"nate is ever a member of the church, although sometime "he fall from grace adventitiâ, but not from the grace of "predestination: ever taking the church for the convo"cation of the predestinate, whether they be in grace or "not, according to present justice," i. e. whether they be converted already, or yet remain to be so, the predestinate, or elect, constitute, as such, that invisible church, which God the Father hath chosen, and God the Son redeemed.

"The grace of predestination is the band, wherewith "the body of the church, and every member of the same, " is indissolubly joined to Christ their head."

"That the eucharist, after consecration, was not the real body of Christ, but only an emblem or sign of it. "That the church of Rome was no more the head of the

"universal

« universal church than any other church; and that St "Peter had no greater authority given him than the rest "of the apostles. That the pope had no more jurisdic❝tion in the exercise of the keys, than any other priest. "That if the church misbehaved, it was not only lawful, "but meritorious, to dispossess her of her temporalities. "That when a prince, or temporal lord, was convinced "that the church made an ill use of her endowments, he "was bound, under pain of damnation, to take them away. That the gospel was sufficient to direct a Chris"tian in the conduct of his life. That neither the pope, "nor any other prelate, ought to have prisons for the "punishing offenders against the discipline of the church; "but that every person ought to be left at his liberty in "the conduct of his life."

This was opposing the rights, which the popes had long asserted, of a superiority over temporal princes, and of depriving them of their kingdoms, whenever they thought proper. It was justifying the regal, in opposition to the papal, pretensions of an ecclesiastical liberty, or an exemption of the persons of the clergy, and the goods of the church, from the civil powers. It was denying the power that the pope maintained of remitting, or retaining, the sins of individuals absolutely: It was shewing the abuse of ecclesiastical censures, and rejecting the opinion of papal indulgences.

Such are the tenets with which this famous reformer is charged And it is rather wonderful that he should have the courage to proceed so far, than extraordinary, that he did not go farther, considering the prejudices of education, which the wisest and best of men, without a particular effort of divine grace, seldom or never subdue.

The followers of Wickliffe went greater lengths than he intended: But all the opinions which they had fathered upon the Wickliffites are not to be regarded; any more than the censures which were afterwards thrown upon Luther for the subsequent heterodoxies of the Lutherans, the Anabaptists, and other sects in Germany, which he opposed himself while living, and to which his writings are a standing contradiction.

Wickliffe had opened the eyes of the people; and they began to think, the moment they could see; to which they were the more incited by the example set them by the duke of Lancaster, and the lord Henry Percy, earl-marshal, who took Wickliffe under their patronage and protection. This alarmed the court of Rome; and pope Gregory XI. sent

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