LORD BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH, AND CHICHESTER, IN THE REIGN OF KING HENRY VI. FAITHFULLY COLLECTED FROM RECORDS AND MSS. BEING A SEQUEL OF THE LIFE OF DR. JOHN WICLIF, IN ORDER TO AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE THE PREFACE. 1995 THE most learned and reverend Archbishop Usher ob- 66 Notis Eccles. c. 5. tend, that either our Church was no where at all, or was Bellarm. de 466 compelled to serve strange gods, to adore idols, and "communicate with the sacrilegious." This the Archbishop undertook to confute, and for that purpose wrote an historical explication of the most important question of the continual succession of the Christian Churches, especially in the Western parts, from the Apostles' times to that in which he lived. But they being times of danger and trouble, and his Grace being robbed in Wales of the MSS. which he had purchased for that purpose, he executed this good design no farther than the times of our famous Dr. John Wiclif. To continue this history therefore, I wrote the Life of Doctor Wiclif, and gave as particular an account as I could of his opinions. It was, I found, no difficult matter to do this, and to shew their opposi a |