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character, even by the confession of his enemies, were above censure; his disinterestedness and sincerity never have been questioned, and the traditions of his residence in Lutterworth are all connected with his display of indefatigable zeal, shining charity, and utmost meekness of deportment. His adversaries, therefore, fasten their fangs upon his works, and from the first series of propositions, submitted at an early period to Pope Urban, to the present time, Papal artifice has been employed in misrepresenting the opinions of this great man, which they could the more easily do, as far the greater part of works remained in manuscript. We feel grateful to Mr. Vaughan, who has given us most copious extracts from these works, and bestowed no small pains upon a condensed view of Wycliffe's opinions.

The general accusation against him is, that he maintained the doctrine that "dominion was founded on grace,” -an opinion esteemed hostile to every social institution, and which has been fastened on the reformer with all the ingenuity and zeal by which true Popish spirit is distinguished, passing down from the Fathers of the Council of Constance to Cardinal Bellarmine and Dr. Lingard. We subjoin Mr. Vaughan's just and conclusive remarks:

"With the consistency which usually attends the defence of a bad cause, the enemies of the reformer have been no less forward on other occasions, in charging him with making the most flattering appeals to the secular authorities, in hope of arraying them against the power and possessions of the priesthood. If this was his design, and he has scarcely a foe who does not impute it to him, it is needless to enquire whether he could, for a moment, have regarded it as expedient to become the abettor of any doctrine unfriendly to the influence of the civil power.....There are also other facts, which warrant a suspicion as to the fidelity, or the correct information, of the persons who dwell with such marked interest on the evils of the delinquency alleged. The authorities cited by Wycliffe, in support of this tenet, whatever it was, are St. Augustine and St. Bernard, names which have not often commended themselves to the agents of political discord. And it is no less remarkable, that amid the voluminous works of the reformer, one only has been cited as really containing this alarming dogma. In his vernacular compositions—which were by far the greater number, and which were alone addressed to the people-it is not in more than two or three instances, that the remotest indication of it occurs. The reader will accordingly judge, of the force of that prejudice with which the memory of this good man has been assailed, when reminded, that from the period of his death, to the present hour, this obnoxious speculation has been described as his favorite maxim.'"+

* The Constitutions of Arundel accuse the heretics of concealing the evil of their purposes under the mask of regard for truth and sanctity; a confession of harmlessness on the part of the Lollards, not unlike that which is forced by the Waldenses from their enemies. The mention of the Waldenses reminds us of the indignation with which we perused the account of that most injured people, given by Godwin, in his Life of Chaucer, who, without enquiry or research, retails and adds to all the mistakes, errors, and calumnies of Mosheim, in his most uncandid account of them.-And Godwin professes to write history in a philosophical spirit! t "Such is Dr. Lingard's description of it. (Hist. iv.) The doctor also refers to

"Were it needful, it would not be difficult to collect a volume of extracts from his writings, to demonstrate that no doctrine was ever embraced by him, in the least degree affecting the legal possession of property. He knew that many things may be lawful, as done by the Supreme Judge, which would be flagrant injustice, as performed by man, except in obedience to a mandate from above; and to illustrate his meaning, he appeals to the case of the Israelites and the nations of Canaan. This distinction, however, which was never absent from the reformer's mind, appears to have wholly escaped the discernment of his accusers. It is true, the churchman convicted of mortal sin, he viewed as having forfeited his office. In every such case, the office so degraded with its jurisdiction and its revenue, he would have transferred to other and more worthy hands; aud this maxim it was, which brought upon him the reproach of favoring a disruption of the social system. To save themselves from the consequences of this projected discipline, the clergy employed every conceivable device, to make it appear that the opinions of their assailant were revolutionary novelties, which must apply to civil, no less than to ecclesiastical offices, and prove as perilous to the possessions of the laity, as to those of the church." Vol, ii. pp. 269–272.

In addition to these observations, Mr. Vaughan brings forward complaints on the part of the reformer, that he and his friends are

the seventeenth chapter in the fourth book of the Trialogus, as containing this tenet. The passage in that chapter, which relates to it, is given below; and it will not perhaps occur to the reader as being very deeply charged either with theological or political heresy. Titulo autem originalis justicia habuit christus omnia bona mundi, ut sepæ declarat Augusti, illo titulo, vel titulo gratiæ justorum sunt omnia, sed longe ab illo titulo civilis possessio. Unde Christus et sui Apostoli spreta dominatione civili, fuerunt de habitione pure. Secundum illum titulum contentati. Ideo regula Christi est, que nullus morum discipulorum presumat pro temporalibus suis contendere. Ut patet Mat. vi. qui aufert quæ tua sunt ne repetas. Sed longe sunt leges civiles et consuetudo dominantium seculariter ab ista sententia. Et hæc ratio quare leges ista mundanæ et executio furiosa illarum, sunt tam culpabiliter etiam inter clericos introductæ. Et patet que conclusio quam infers est concedenda, sed habitio distinguenda. Nam habere civiliter cum necessitat ad solicitudinem circa temporalia et leges hominum observandus, debet omnino clericis interdici. Et quantum ad Silvestrum et alios est mihi probabile, quæ in recipiendo taliter dotationem graviter peccaverunt. Sed possumus supponere que de hoc fructuose posterius pænitebant. Et sic concedo tibi que licet clericis habere temporalia, sed titulo et modo habendi quem deus instituit.' p. 129. From this passage it would appear that such was the faith of Wycliffe with regard to the mediation of Christ, that he considered every man as indebted to the grace of the Redeemer for the benefits of this world, no less than for the hope of a better; and that accordingly he viewed the sin which incurred the forfeiture of beaven, as separating the offender at the same monient from all claim, with respect to God, on the honors or possessions of the earth. Such is the theology of the Scriptures..... And though it was not his manner to blend the retributions of a future world with the arrangements peculiar to the present, he might deem it important to admonish the worldly and the powerful as to the ground on which the adjustments of that great crisis will take place; assuring them, that the delay of those fearful decisions which will then be announced, arose less from any legal impediment, than from the long-suffering of God. The only notices, however, of this doctrine which I have met with in the reformer's writings, are in his answer to the question of Richard's first parliament, (i. c. iv.) in one of his homilies, (Bib. Reg. 97,) and in his treatise on the Seven Deadly Sins. In the first instance it is applied to the office and possessions of the clergy only; in the second it is merely a passing observation; and in the last it will be remembered as introduced to discountenance, and not to encourage an invasion of the rights of others."

calumniated by having such imputations fastened on, them, and gives quotations, in which the duty of subjects, servants, and lords, is clearly pointed out-such as

"Yet some men who are out of charity, slander poor priests with this error, nemely, that servants or tenants may lawfully withhold rents and services from their lords, when lords are openly wicked in their living. And they invent this treacherous falsehood against poor priests, to make lords to hate them; and not to maintain that truth of God, which they teach openly for his honor, for the profit of the realm, for the establishing of the king's power, and the destroying of sin,"

"If thou art a labourer live in meekness, and truly and cheerfully do thy labour, that if thy lord or thy master be a heathen man, he, by thy meekness, and cheerful and true service, may have nought to grudge against thee, nor to slander thy God nor Christendom. And to a Christian lord serve not with grudging, nor only in his presence, but truly and cheerfully and in his absence. And not only for worldly dread, or worldly reward, but for the fear of God and conscience, and a reward in heaven. For that God who appointeth thee to such service, knoweth which state is best for thee, and will reward thee more than all other lords may do if thou doest thy service truly and cheerfully for the sake of his ordinance." MS. A Short Rule of Life, &c.

Wycliffe did, indeed, perceive that reciprocal obligation was implied by the relation subsisting between the governed and governing body; but while he spared no strength of admonition as to the important duty resting upon each, he never dares to define the limits at which forbearance terminates, and the right of resistance commences in every thing Wycliffe seems to have anticipated the mode of thinking of another age; and assuredly they who use such liberty in canvassing the conduct and motives of their rulers, shew but little consistency in censuring Wycliffe's sentiments. With regard to the Church, the reformer discarded, as absurd and unfounded, the claim of Papal supremacy; he considers the clergy as subject to the magistrate in every thing connected with social order -their property is the property of the state, and to be subject to all legal impositions-their power should be but spiritual, and all attempts on the property or purses of others he condemns in the strongest manner :

"Nor is there room to charge him with claiming a freedom in this particular, which it would have been uncongenial with his principles to have conceded to others. His invectives, indeed, are often violent; but when recommending the most severe chastisement of the men who had done most to destroy the purity of the christian faith, the clause "sparing their persons," is of very frequent occurrence. On this point, as on many others, his opinions belong not to the age in which he lived....The extent of the reformation proposed by him was, "that none of the clergy be hindered from keeping truly and freely the gospel of Christ in devout living and true teaching, on account of any feigned privilege or tradition," and also that the revenues of that order should be limited to the means of a decent maintenance, and to such persons among them as were free from the vices by which the sanctity of their profession had been so commonly degraded." Vol. 11. pp. 280, 281. VOL. VIII.

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And he deemed the magistrate competent to enforce this reformation, limiting his interference most strictly to temporal concerns, and vindicating the right of patronage equally from the state and the court of Rome. The divine origin of tithes he disputed, and condemned the custom of exacting them by law, concluding that the clergy should be content with voluntary offerings,* and that, if they fulfilled their duties, such would be abundant. That the reformer had no intention of compromising the clerical character, is manifest from the general strain of his recorded opinions of the priestly office-such as,

reason.

"Good priests, who live well, in purity of thought, and speech, and deed, and in good example to the people, who teach the law of God up to their knowledge, and labour fast, night and day, to learn it better, and teach it openly and constantly, these are very prophets of God, and holy angels of God, and the spiritual lights of the world! Thus saith God by his prophets, and Jesus Christ in his gospel, and saints declare it well, by authority and Think then ye priests on this noble office, and honor it, and do it cheerfully, 7, according to your knowledge, and your power!'" Vol. 1. p. 293. The spiritual supremacy of the Pope he denied-asserted that Bishops and Presbyters were but one order†—and while he never questioned the propriety of spiritual censures, as a branch of Christian discipline, he saw too clearly the awful and dangerous consequences of their abuse, not to openly condemn and deny the power of the keys, as understood in Rome, the privilege of absolution, and the necessity of excommunication;-though he seems not to have suspected the existence of such a place as purgatory, he censures severely the mercenary use made of that doctrine, appears to think that intercessory prayer for its inhabitants can be of little use, and as, in one of his later homilies, describing John the Baptist, he speaks of his being in purgatory, he would seem to have denied it to be at all a state of suffering. Invocation of saints and image. worship he discountenanced as idolatrous; confession might be useful, but neither necessary‡ nor limited to a priest. Indulgences

• Mr. Vaughan remarks very justly, that novel as these opinions may seem, they could not be consistently denounced as erroneous or heretical by the Church of Rome, which, by conferring such a character on the monastic and mendicant orders, had partially adopted them; Wycliffe obviously put them forward as a means of shewing that these orders were not necessary, for that the secular clergy might supply their place, with "a poverty less equivocal than the one, and a spirituality less suspicious than the other"-and neither inconsistent with their own duty. Mr. Vaughan might have remarked that this very view, while it accounts for the reformer's opinions, shews their inapplicability in other times, and under other circumstances.

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"Trialogus, iv. c. 15. Touching holy orders, he held that there were but two, viz. of deacons and priests, so do we.' Dr. James's Apology for John Wycliffe, p. 31. The doctor probably refers to the following passage in the Institution of a Christian Man,' a work which was intended to express the doctrine of the Church of England under Henry VIII. The trouthe is, that in the Newe Testa mente there is no mention made of any degrees or distinctions in orders, but only of deacons or ministers, and of priests or bishops. Nor is there any word spoken of any other ceremony used in the conferring of this sacrament, but only of prayer and of the imposition of the bishop's hand.' c. 42. Lewis, c. viii." Vol, 11. p. 310.

"Seeing that many men often confess themselves to their confessors in vain ;

he condemned with a vehemence equal to that of the German reformer; and while he, surpassing Luther in prudence, did not himself become a married Priest, he yet uses such language as the following, when speaking of clerical celibacy :

"Since fornication is so perilous, and priests are so frail, God ordained in the old law, that priests should have wives; and in the new law, never forbid it, neither by Christ, nor by his apostles; but rather approved it." Vol. II. p. 339.

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"Baptism with water' (he observes) is significant of baptism with the Spirit.' In the latter, God 'christeneth the souls of men, that is to say, washeth their souls from the uncleanness of all sin.' In one of his parochial discourses he observes, bodily baptising is a figure shewing, how man's soul should be baptized from sin. For the wisdom of Christ would not suffer us to keep this figure, except for some good reason. Bodily washing of a child is not the end of baptizing; but baptizing is a token of the washing of the soul from sin both original and actual, by virtue taken of Christ's death."

On the other sacrament his sentiments, opposed in every form equally to transubstantiation and inpanation, partake somewhat of that hesitation that will perhaps be felt by many devout Christians, on this great mystery of religion, while clearly asserting a presence of the Saviour in connexion with the elements, and therefore widely removed from Zuinglius, but beyond that neither granting, nor denying, nor doubting :

"If prelates oppose me inquiring what the sacrament of the altar is in its kind, I would say, it is bread, the same that is was before, since the gospel thus teaches if we will believe." Vol. 1. p. 345.

The sufficiency of the Scriptures and the right of private judgment are corner-stones-in Wycliffe's theological structure, and on both of these points he speaks with a soberness and a soundness that are admirable. We refer with pleasure to Mr. Vaughan's work (Vol. II. 348, 349,) for the judicious and discriminating views of the reformer on both, particularly the latter, which, with all judicious Protestants, he connects with patient enquiry, fervent prayer, and devout dispositions. The doctrines of grace Wycliffe held in all their force original sin, man's dependence on the obedience and death of Christ for remission of transgression, justification by faith, and sanctification by the agency of the Spirit, are prominent and connected doctrines in his writings:

"The doctrine of Wycliffe, therefore was, that the men who are saved from the power of their natnral depravity as well as from the burden of their guilt, are thus saved simply according to the grace of God; and yet that the mysterious arrangements of heaven are such, that wherever final ruin happens, the lost will be found to have been the agents of their own destruction. To the difficulties of this creed the reformer could not have been insensible, but it was evidently regarded as that of the scriptures, and as exposed to less objection than any other which might be proposed in its room." Vol. 11. pp. 358, 359.

confess thyself to God with constancy, and contrition, and he may not fail, he will absolve thee.'" Vol 11. p. 333.

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