were condemned by the fecond council of Paris in the year 1209. They might poffibly hold fome heterodox opinions; but their great offenfe was their denying the change of the fubftance of the bread and wine in the eucharift, their oppofing the worship of faints images and relics, and their affirming that the pope was Antichrist, that Rome was Babylon, and that the prelates were the members and minifters of Antichrift: fo that these differed little from the Waldenfes and Albigenfes. William of St. Amour, a doctor of the Sorbonne, (2) wrote a treatise of the perils of the last times, wherein he applied that prophecy of St. Paul, (2 Tim. III. 1.) This know alfo that in the last days perilous times fhall come, to the mendicant orders and preachers of his time; and it was fo fevere a fatir upon the Dominicans, that pope Alexander IV condemned it, as containing perverfe fentiments, contrary to the power and authority of the Roman pontiff and of the other bishops, and in fine as a book capable of caufing great fcandals and troubles in the church. Robert Grofthead or Greathead,

bishop

ner. &c.

(2) Hift. Ecclefiaft. Magde- Balæum. Dupin. Cave. Tanburg. Cent. XIII. Cap. 10. p. 588. Edit. Bafil. 1624. Dupin. ibid. Chap. 7. Spanhem. ibid. Cap. 9. Sect. 1.

(3) Vide Cent. Magdeburg.

(4) Matt. Paris ad Ann. 1253. p. 874. Edit. Wats. 1646. (5) Matt. Paris. ibid. Papæ redargutor,

bishop of Lincoln, (3) in his speeches and writings
inveighed bitterly against the corruption and
fuperftition, the lewdnefs and wickednefs of the
clergy in general, and the rapacity and avarice,
the tyranny and antichriftianifm of pope Inno- '
cent IV in particular. He was also no less a
friend to (4) civil than to religious liberty, and
ordered all the violators of Magna Charta, who-
foever and wherefoever they were within his
diocefe, to be excommunicated. Matthew Paris,
a contemporary historian, hath (5) related the
fubftance of his dying discourses, wherein he
proved the pope to be an heretic, and defervedly
to be called Antichrift: and concludes with giv-
ing him the character of refuter of the pope,
reprover of prelates, corrector of monks, di-
rector of priests, inftructor of the clergy, and
in fhort the hammer to beat down the Romans
and to bring them into contempt.' It is no
marvel that fuch a man was excommunicated;
but he (6) little regarded the cenfure, and ap-
pealed from the court of Innocent to the tribunal
of Chrift. Not to mention others, Matthew
Paris

<

C

(6) Excommunicatus appellavit a curia Innocentii ad tribunal Chrifti. Henr. de Knyghton. Lib. 2. inter Scriptores X. p. 2436. N 3

(7) Span.

redargutor, prælatorum correp-
tor, monachorum corrector, pref-
byterorum director, clericorum
inftructor-Romanorum mal-
leus et contemptor. p. 876,

Paris himself hath painted in the most lively colors the corruptions and abominations of the fee of Rome, the tyranny, fuperftition, fimony, and wickednefs of the popes and clergy. A proteftant hiftorian could not more freely lafh and expofe the vices of the times, than he did who was a monk of St. Albans.

As they are not all Ifrael which are of Ifrael, fo neither have all the members of the Romish church believed all her doctrins. Dante and Petrarch, the former of whom died, and the latter was born as well as died, in the fourteenth century, were (7) fevere fatirifts upon the times, and wrote freely against the temporal dominion of the pope, and the corruptions of the clergy, treating Rome as Babylon, and the Pope as Antichrift: and they probably did more hurt to the court and church of Rome by their wit and raillery, than others by invective and declamation. Peter Fitz Caffiodor, whether a fictitious or a real perfon, (8) addreffed a remonftrance to the church of England against the tyranny, avarice, and exactions of the court of Rome, advising and exhorting the English to shake off the Roman yoke from their necks. Michael

Cæfenas

(7) Spanhemii Hift. Chriftian. Sæc.XIV.Cap.5. Sect. 8. et 9. Robertus Gerius et Henricus Wharton in Appendice ad Cave

4

Hift. Litt. p. 9 & 50.

(8) Appendix ad Cave. p. 10. Collier's Ecclefiaft. Hift. B. 5. p. 501, &c.

(9) H.

Cafenas and William Occam (9) exposed the

various errors and herefies of John XXII to the number of 77; and fecure in the protection of the emperor, they fet at nought the thunder of the pope's excommunications. Marfilius, a famous lawyer of Padua, (1) wrote a treatise intitled the defender of peace, wherein he advanced the power of the emperor above that of the pope in things fpiritual as well as temporal; painted in the ftrongest colors the pride, ambition, and luxury of the court of Rome; and abundantly proved that the pope had not by divine right the leaft authority or præeminence over other bishops. It is no wonder that the author and his book were condemned together. But there were other and better witneffes than these in this age. It was fhown before from Thuanus, that the Waldenfes and Albigenfes being perfecuted in their own.country, fled for refuge into foreign nations, fome into Germany, and fome into Britain. In Germany they grew and multiplied so fast, notwithstanding the rage and violence of croifaders and inquifitors, that at the beginning of this Century (2) it is computed, that there were eighty thoufand of them in Bohemia, Auftria, and 27. Dupin. ibid. Chap. 5 & 8.

(2) Bzovius ad Ann. 1315. Spanhem. ibid. Cap. 6. Sect. 1. Dupin. ibid. Chap. 8. N 4 (3) Dupin.

(9) H. Wharton in Append.
ad Cave. p. 20 & 28. Dupin.
XIV Siecle. Chap. 5.
(1) Wharton, ibid. p. 26,

and the neighbouring territories; and they pertinaciously defended their doctrins even unto death. Among a variety of other names they were called Lollards from (3) one Walter Lollard, who preached in Germany about the year 1315 against the authority of the pope, the interceffion of faints, the mafs, extreme unction, and other ceremonies and fuperftitions of the church of Rome; and was burned alive, at Cologn in the year 1322. In England alfo they were denominated Lollards, tho' there was a man more worthy to have given name to the fect, the defervedly famous John Wickliff, the honor of his own, and the admiration of all fucceeding times. Rector only of Lutterworth, he (4) filled all England, and almost all Europe with his doctrin. He began to grow famous about the year 1360 by preaching and writing against the fuperftitions of the age, the tyranny of the pope,. the erroneous doctrins and vicious lives of the monks and the clergy; and efpecially by defending the royal and ecclefiaftical jurisdiction against the ufurpations of the popes and mendicant friers. The more he opposed, the more reafon he found for oppofition. He tranflated the canonical fcriptures into the English language, and

1,

(3) Dupin. ibid. Hoffmanni Lex. Spelman. Skinner. &c.

(4) H. Wharton in Append. ad Cave. p. 60, &c. Spanhem.