--

WE can begin this chapter with no more famous name than that of

WICKLIFFE,

who has been fondly and happily designated 'The Morning Star of the English Reformation.' He was born in Yorkshire about 1324.

In some degree pioneered by Roger Bacon and other emancipators of the human mind, Providence raised up this valiant man at an opportune conjuncture. Backed by his Parliament and his people, the hero of Cressy was resisting the pretensions of the Roman Pontiff to

the sovereignty of the realm; but at that period, before any churchman would take the field against Peter's successor, he needed to possess a chivalry equal to Edward's own. Such chivalry was found in the Oxford scholar, whose tracts and disputations, as well as his racy, rousing sermons, soon shook the whole of England for twenty years together; and when he died, on the last day of 1384, the cords were very feeble which continued to hold England and Rome together.

Wickliffe, though the object of the bitterest hatred, even in his own day, awed his most violent antagonists into some

thing approaching to admiration. His austere, exemplary life has defied even calumny; his vigorous incessant efforts to reduce the whole clergy to primitive poverty have provoked no retort as to his own pride, self-interest, indulgence, inconsistent with his earnest severity.

His industry, even in those laborious days, was astonishing. The number of his books mostly, indeed, brief tractsbaffles calculation. Two hundred are said to have been burned in Bohemia.

He was acknowledged to be a consummate master in the dialectics of the schools; he was the pride as well as the terror of Oxford. 'He was second to none,' so writes a monk, 'in philosophy; in the discipline of the schools incomparable.' In this, indeed, appear at once his strength and the source of the apparent contradictions in the style and manner of his writings.

HUGH LATIMER.

One of the first reformers of the Church of England was Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, who was born about 1490. He embraced the Reformed faith when about thirty years of age. Augustine Bernher, Latimer's Swiss servant and faithful friend, writing from Southam, on the 2d of October 1562, his dedication to the Duchess of Suffolk of his collection of Latimer's sermons on the Lord's Prayer,

'How manifold ways was he troubled, tossed, and turmoiled from post to pillar by the Popish bishops, whose hands he could not have escaped if God had not moved the King's Majesty's heart (that then was) [Henry VIII.] to assist him, by whose absolute power divers times he was delivered from the cruel lions. And although it did please God in process of time to suffer the King's Majesty to be deluded and circumvented by the subtle persuasions of those Popish bishops to establish by law six ungodly articles, yet this faithful servant of Christ would rather put his own life in danger than forsake and depart from that, the which afore most faithfully he had taught out of God's word. Wherefore he was contented rather to be cast into the Tower, and there to look daily for death, than to be found a wavering reed, or to deceive his prince. For they, said he, that do allow anything disagreeing from God's word, in respect to fulfil the appetites of princes, are betrayers and murderers of their princes, because they provoke the wrath of God to destroy such princes; and these flatterers become guilty of the blood of their princes, and are the chief causes of their destructions. Wherefore this faithful man of God, knowing his prince to be deluded by the false priests, and being assured the things that were allowed to be

contrary to God's word, was ready thus to adventure his life: at the which time God mercifully delivered him, to the great comfort of all godly hearts, and singular commodity of His Church.

'Now, when he was thus delivered, did he give himself up to the pleasures of the world, to delicateness or idleness? No assuredly, but even then most of all he began to set forth his plough, and to till the ground of the faithful messenger of God, being afraid of no man, telling all degrees their duties faithfully and truly, without respect of persons or any kind of flattery. In the which his painful travails he continued all King Edward's time, preaching for the most part every Sunday two sermons, to the great shame, confusion, and damnation of a great number of our fat-bellied, unpreaching prelates. For he, being a sore - bruised man, and above threescore and seven years of age, took notwithstanding all these pains in preaching, and also every morning, ordinarily, winter and summer, about two of the clock in the morning, he was at his book most diligently. And besides this, how careful he was for the preservation of the Church of God, and for the good success of the gospel, they can bear record which at that time were in authority, whom continually by his letters he admonished of their duties, and assisted with his godly counsel.'

This is evidently the testimony of an eye-witness-of one who, from his position, would have had every opportunity of knowing the exact truth as to Latimer's character; and of one, moreover, writing within fourteen years of Latimer's resumption of public life, after his release from the Tower on the accession of Edward VI. We may therefore accept it as a true picture, and as such it must suffice here for general impressions.

During the first three years of the succeeding reign of Edward vI., Latimer preached the Lent sermons before his Majesty; and such were the crowds which then resorted to hear him, that Heylin tells us the pulpit was removed out of the royal chapel into the privy garden.

His style of preaching is said to have been extremely captivating, simple, and familiar, often enlivened with anecdote, irony, and humour, and still oftener swelling into strains of the most impassioned and awakening eloquence. Of the earnestness of his manner we have the following striking specimen in one of his sermons delivered at court against the corruptions of the age:-"Take heed, and beware of covetousness; take heed, and beware of covetousness; take heed, and beware of covetousness; and what if I should say nothing else these three or four hours but these words? Great complaints there are of it, and

GEORGE WISHART.

George Wishart, usually called the Martyr, the friend of John Knox, was originally a Scotch schoolmaster. Having received the doctrines of the Reformation, he began to preach them, probably about 1536. He afterwards took refuge in England, where he also preached, but was induced by persecution to recant. In 1543 he returned to his native land, where he distinguished himself as one of the boldest and most vehement promoters of the Reformation. Riotsand destruction of churches sometimes followed his stirring discourses. He was burnt for heresy at St. Andrews, on the 28th of March 1546.

When Wishart was at one time in the neighbourhood of Ayr, he received intelligence that a contagious distemper had proved very fatal in Dundee. He immediately went thither, that he might administer consolation to the sufferers. He

em

the warmest gratitude; and the feelings with which he was now almost universally regarded, gave an energy to his instructions which alike impressed the understanding and affected the heart. His enemies, afraid to have recourse to open violence, attempted to assassinate him. A priest, impelled either by his own gloomy bigotry, or ployed-as has, though without any sufficient authority, been surmised-by Cardinal Beaton, resolved to accomplish his destruction. For that purpose the priest placed himself, one day that Wishart was preaching at the foot of the pulpit, with a dagger concealed under his robe. Either the agitation of his countenance, or the peculiarity of his appearance, happily fixed the attention of Wishart; and as he descended the steps of the pulpit, he with much presence of mind seized the hand which grasped the weapon intended for his destruction. The criminal, dismayed at this intrepidity, fell at his feet and acknowledged his guilt. The multitude, agitated and inflamed by such depravity

would at once have sacrificed the wretch to their resentment, had not Wishart restrained their violence. He clasped the culprit in his arms, that he might ensure his protection, and, calling out to the people, declared that since he had escaped injury, he ought to feel grateful for an incident which showed him what he had to fear from the inveterate animosity of his persecutors.

JOHN KNOX.

John Knox, the great champion of the Scottish Reformation, was born in 1505. Early in life he became a zealous preacher of the new doctrines. After a varied and exciting career, we find him in Switzerland, taking part with the English exiles who opposed the use of the liturgy.

After a residence of a considerable time at Geneva, in the quiet exercise of his duties and the enjoyment of much agreeable and improving society, John Knox received a letter, dated March 16, 1557, subscribed by the Earls of Glencairn, Erskine, Argyll, and Moray, which induced him to return to Scotland.

He arrived in his native land on the 2d of May 1559, being then fifty-four years of age. He preached first at Dundee, and afterwards at Perth, with great

success.

About this time, says the author of the Scots Worthies, the Queen put some preachers to the horn, prohibiting all, upon

pain of rebellion, to comfort, relieve, or assist them ; which, with other things, so much enraged the multitude which attended Knox at Perth, that they would be restrained neither by the preachers nor magistrates from pulling down the images and other monuments of idolatry. This being told to the Queen, so incensed her, that she vowed to destroy man, woman, and child in that town, and burn it to the ground.

In execution of this threat, she caused her French army to march towards it; but being informed that multitudes from the neighbouring country were assembling for its defence, her impetuosity was checked, and she resolved to use stratagem where force could not avail her.

Accordingly, she sent the Earls of Argyll and Moray to learn what was their design in such commotions.

Knox in the name of the rest made answer, 'that they whom she thus persecuted were the servants of God, and faithful and obedient subjects of the realm; that the religion which she would maintain by fire and sword was not of Jesus Christ, but a superstitious device of man, and that her enterprise should not succeed in the end, for that she fought not against man only, but against the Almighty God.'

Argyll and Moray delivered this message; and in return she promised that the Reformers should be permitted to leave the town in peace. Knox preached