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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

NOTE I. p. 1.

THAT Huss received the works of Wycliffe from England there can be no doubt. This subject is treated fully in L'Enfant's Council of Constance, i. 25 et seqq. The proceedings of that Council on Wycliffe and Huss tend to the same conclusion of connecting together these reformers. Sir Thomas More, Dial. iii. 14, also traces Huss's proceedings to Wycliffe. Huss himself never denied that Wycliffe was his forerunner, and always defended him against the charge of heresy, and of teaching anything against Scripture, though his books had been burnt by the Council in 1412, and forty-five of his tenets condemned (L'Enfant, Concil. Const., i. 25, 240).

That Wycliffe manor was an ancient seat of the Wycliffes we find asserted as well known by Camden (Brit. iii. 340). The strange mistake of Baker (Chron. 130) may be noted. He says that Wycliffe went into voluntary banishment to Bohemia, where his doctrine took root after his death, which he seems to say happened in that country.

NOTE II. p. 3.

T. Walsingham's silence on the subject of Wycliffe's talents and character, when contrasted with the bitterness of his invectives against his heresies, is sufficiently expressive: "Hypocrita, Angelus Sathanæ, antichristi prœambulus, non nominandus, Joannes Wycklif, vel potius Wick-beleve, hæreticus, sua deliramenta," &c. (Hist. Ang. 256). So in relating his death

"Organum diabolicum, hostis ecclesiæ" (not felt as an anticlimax, probably) "confusio vulgi, hypocritarum speculum" (ib. 338); and the good monk then describes with infinite exultation his apoplectic seizure, with its dreadful effects upon his features. In the Ypodigma Neust. 142, he dispatches him to hell," Malitiosum efflavit spiritum ad sedes luce carentes." But H. Knighton, who represents everything as much as possible against him, though in language more measured, is obliged to admit that he was "Doctor in Theologiâ eminentissimus," adding "in philosophiâ nulli reputabatur secundus, in Scholasticis disputationibus incomparabilis" (De Ev. Ang. 2644).

Walden, his bitter enemy, says (Epistle to Martin V.) that he" was wonderfully astonished at Wycliffe's most strong arguments with the places of authority which he had gathered, and with the vehemency and force of his reasons."

After his death the Vice-Chancellor and Senate of Oxford bore a formal and solemn testimony to his character:-" All his conditions and doings throughout his whole life were most sincere and commendable. His honest manners and conditions, profoundness of learning and most redolent fame, we deem the more worthy to be notified and known unto all faithful, for that we understand the maturity and ripeness of his gifts; his diligent labour and travels solid to praise God and profit the Church." They describe him as "so preeminently honest from his youth upward that never at any time was there any spot of imposition noised of him." They speak of him as "the champion of the faith, vanquishing by force of Scriptures all such as by their wilful beggary blasphemed and slandered Christ's religion; neither (they add) was this doctor convict of any heresy -neither were burnt any of his works after his burial." To his talents the amplest testimony is borne: "In logicalibus, philosophicis, theologicis, et moralibus scripserat inter omnes nostræ universitatis ut credimus sine pari." This document bears date 1st October, 1406 (Concil. Magn. Brit., iii. 302). But some have doubted its authenticity, and supposed the University seal to have been used by fraud.

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"Bothe vengaunce of swerde," saith he, "and myscheife unknowne bifore, bi whiche men thes daise schulde be punysched, schule falle for synne of prestis. Men schal fall on hem, and cast hem out of her fatte benefices, and thei schal seie, he came into his benefice by his brynrede, thes by covenant maad bifore; he for his servyse, and thes for moneye, came into Goddis Chirche.' Thane schal eche suche prest crye, Alas! alas! that no good spirit dwellid with me at my comynge into Goddis Chirche" (Last Age of the Church, p. xxxiv., Todd's edition). The date of this work is proved to be 1356, as in the text I have given it, for in one passage the author expressly says, "Fro Crist we now are therten hundred yeirs, fifty and sixe yeirs."

'The Last Age of the Church' began thus: "Alas forsorwe (for sorrow) grete prestis sittinge in derkenessis and in schadowes of deeth, noght havynge him that openly crieth Al this I wille give gif you avaunce me." Then he inveighs against reservations, dymes (i. e. tithes of clerical incomes due to Rome), first fruits, and other payments. He also describes as one of the four tribulations of the Church, "chafferers walkynge in derkenessis, the heresy of Symonysms."

NOTE IV. p. 4.

Dr. Lingard, with his wonted zeal against reformers, states this suspicion of the purity of Wycliffe's motives, and only says that the charge has been brought, "perhaps rashly" (Ling. Ed. III., ch. ii. vol. iv. p. 215). Now as Dr. Lingard cites Lewis, who gives the dates fully, there should have been no doubt expressed, for these dates are decisive against the charge. In 1356 the 'Last Age of the Church' was published, as is shown in Note III.; and it accuses the Romish see of simoniacal practices (see that note). About the same time, certainly not later

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