and she directed him to a church where he would hear the glad tidings from a faithful minister. Next Sabbath several of the children were at her Sabbath school, and told her that that day their family had been at church. Since that day they have been hearers of the Word. How many souls are perishing in Edinburgh and other towns, "because though all things are now ready, NOBODY EVER souls be required at the hand of those who profess to ASKED THEM TO COME!" Will not the blood of their have tasted of a Saviour's love, and yet make not one effort to pluck branks out of the fire?-Scottish Sahbath School Teachers' Magazine.

THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY.

289

JOHN WICLIFFE.

SECOND ARTICLE.

BY THE REV. THOMAS M'CRIE, EDINBURGH.

charge is founded on a mistaken view of the progress which he had reached in his religious convictions, which afterwards became much clearer and more decided than they were at this stage of history.*

Thus did Wicliffe again escape from the machinations of his enemies. The fatigue, however, and the excitement produced by attending on this trial, threw him, on his return home, into a dangerous fit of illness, during which his life was despaired of. It was on this occasion that his old antagonists, the mendicant friars, sent a solemn deputation to him, exhorting him, ere he died, to recant his errors, and more especially those which he had propagated to their prejudice; when, raising himself on his pillow, he exclaimed, "I shall not die, but live, and declare the evil deeds of the friars." The deputies retired in confusion, and the Reformer recovered to make good his promise. He devoted himself more earnestly than ever to the work of preaching; an office to which he attached a very high degree of im

Our last article concluded with an account of the singular manner in which Wicliffe escaped from the fangs of his enemies, in consequence of a tumult excited in the Assembly by the Duke of Lancaster. The Reformer was equally fortunate in the following year, 1378, when another bull, issued by his implacable foe, Pope Gregory XI., occasioned a second summons for his trial before the Papal delegates at Lambeth. Formerly, he had been indebted for his preservation to the patronage of the great; but on this occasion, as if Providence had designed to show that it was not dependent on any particular class of instruments, he owed his deliverance to an entirely different combination of causes. Lancaster no longer ruled in the Cabinet; but the doctrine of Wicliffe had begun to tell on the public mind. The people of London, who were formerly so hostile to him that they had sacked the palace of his patron, were now alarmed for his safety, surrounded the place of meeting, and forced their way into the chapel, proclaiming their attachment to the person and opinions of the Rector of Lutter-portance, and which he laboured, in opposition worth. Hardly had the clergy recovered from the panic thus created, when Sir Lewis Clifford, bursting unceremoniously into the conclave, forbade them, in the name of the queen-mother, from proceeding to any definite sentence on the doctrine or conduct of John Wicliffe. The delegates were confounded at the message; and their own historian, Walsingham, indignant at their subserviency, has recorded that, "Shaken as a reed with the wind, their speech became as soft as oil, to the public loss of their own dignity, and the damage of the whole Church." Such an interference with an ecclesiastical tribunal might, under other circumstances, be indefensible; but in the present case, the secular arm merely interposed its shield to protect an innocent man from those who would have lifted its sword to punish him. It has been alleged by some, that at this meeting Wicliffe gave in a paper in which his views were considerably modified; but the whole circumstances of the case to which we have adverted, show that the Reformer had no occasion for manifesting such timidity; and it has been proved that the No. 25.*

to the abuses of it practised by the friars, to purify and to elevate, by making it subservient to its great ends-the conversion of sinners and the consolation of believers. Travelling from place to place, " bare-footed, and in a long frieze gown," the venerable Wicliffe might often be seen in the village pulpit, surrounded by his rustic auditory, or in the lowest hovels of the poor, ministering at the bed-side of the sick and the dying. It is remarkable that, notwithstanding the efforts made by his enemies to burn everything that had proceeded from his pen, copies of nearly three hundred of his sermons have been preserved; bearing evidence to his abundant labours as a preacher, and to the zeal with which he delivered the great truths of the" Gospel. The death of his bitter enemy, Pope Gregory XI., in 1378, gave our Reformer some rest from persecution; and "the great schism" which ensued, on the election of two rival popes, with the unseemly contentions to which it gave rise, afforded him a fair occasion to ex

See this proved at great length in Vaughan's "Life of

Wycliffe," vol. i., pp. 378-402.

pose the pretensions of the Roman See, which The books of the Apocrypha were carefully dishe did not fail to improve.

But the great work, which did more to advance his opinions than all his other writings, and with which his name is, and will be, mainly associated, was without doubt his translation of the Bible into the English language--a work which he accomplished, it would appear, almost single-handed. This translation, which was finished in 1380, is supposed to have occupied him for many years. The magnitude of the achievement can only be rightly appreciated by taking into view the circumstances in which it was undertaken. Previous to the time of Wicliffe, small portions of Scripture had been translated into the vernacular language; but these were regarded as curiosities of literature," which seldom went beyond the precincts of the monastery, and never came into the hands of the people.* Wicliffe's was the first | attempt to translate the whole Bible into English. What assistance our Reformer received in the labour of translation cannot now be ascertained, but that he had the chief hand in preparing it would appear from the testimony of his adversaries. That of Knighton affords a specimen of the language of his brethren, and the light in which they regarded this good work. "Christ," says he, "intrusted his Gospel to the clergy and doctors of the Church, to minister to the laity and weaker sort, according to their exigencies and occasions. But this Master John Wicliffe translated it out of Latin into English, and thus laid it more open to the laity and to women who could read, than it had formerly been to the most learned of the clergy. And in this way the Gospel pearl is cast abroad, and trodden under foot of swine." Wicliffe's translation was, indeed, from the Latin Bible; but though Hebrew and Greek, the original languages of Scripture, were then so little known that neither he nor his coadjutors could be much acquainted with them, they appear to have so well availed themselves of glosses and commentaries as to give the sense of Scripture very nearly according to the original text.+

*The possession of the sacred books by the laity in any form, but especially in a translation, was indeed strictly prohibited. The Council of Toulouse, in 1229, enacted as follows: "We forbid the laity to possess any of the books of the Old or New Testament, except perhaps the Psalter or Breviary for the Divine Offices, or the Hours of the Blessed Virgin, which some, out of devotion, wish to have; but having any of these books translated into the vulgar tongue, we strictly forbid."

We have often been surprised to see Tyndale spoken of as "the first translator of the Bible into English." No doubt, he was the first that translated it directly from the

tinguished from those that are canonical, and the translation was in good old English, though, from the change which has taken place in the language, now almost unintelligible to a modern reader.*

The Holy Scriptures, to which Wicliffe always appealed in behalf of the truth of his doctrines, and as the only rule of faith and practice, being now in the hands of the people (as far at least as it could extend in the form of manuscript, for the art of printing had not ye. been discovered), the progress of the new opinions became still more alarming to the clergy; and various were the means employed to silence! the faithful preacher. In 1382, his zealous oponent, Courtney, formerly bishop of London, hav ing succeeded Sudbury as archbishop of Canterbury, summoned him to appear before a synod at Greyfriars, London. The Reformer, apprized of some design of personal violence against him. declined attendance; and the synod, in his al sence, declared fourteen of his conclusions to be heretical. On this occasion, as if the ele ments had conspired against the enemies of the truth, an earthquake shook the city, and greatl alarmed the members of the synod-some of whom looked on it as a warning to desist from their unlallowed course, while the primate bent on his wickedness, interpreted it as as omen for good. Thus assailed, our intrepid Reformer only amused himself with ridiculing the proceedings of the meeting, which he tera ed" the Earthquake Synod," and, "the Counci of Friars in London with the heredene," or hurricane. Having obtained the condemnation of Wicliffe's tenets as heretical, Courtney's next object was to procure a bill from Parlia ment, to empower the sheriffs of counties, a the requisition of the bishops," to apprehend the preachers of heresy and their abetters, and to hold them in strong prison till they shoul! be justified according to the law and reason of Holy Church." This bill did not pass the Hous of Commons. It is sufficiently remarkable, however, that in spite of the remonstrance of j

original languages, and the first whose translation was printed. But why speak as if Wicliffe's translation had existed, or had been no translation at all? Mr. Anders says that "the nation was yet a hundred and fifty year distant from the English Bible properly so called."(Annals of the English Bible, Int. 40.) Is this becaus Wicliffe's Bible was not English, properly so called? or w it because, as stated before, "of Greek or Hebrew he knew nothing ?"

* Some of the phrases employed, though very expressive sound uncouth in modern ears; thus Paul is called “the knave (servant) of the Lord Jesus Christ."

is, sacramentally, the body and blood of Christ."

66

Such was the high esteem in which Wicliffe was held among the people, and the fame which he had acquired in foreign parts, that the convocation, however willing, durst not proceed to extremities against him, and contented themselves with banishing him from Oxford, the scene of his labours and his triumphs. He retired to his parsonage at Lutterworth, where he prosecuted with redoubled energy his warfare against the corruptions of the Church. Among other tracts written at this time, one is entitled, "The Great Sentence of Excommunication Explained," in which he vindicated many of his articles which had been condemned; and in particular, denounced the crusade which Urban V. had published against the adherents of the rival Pope Clement VII. They set up the standard of Jesus Christ," he said, "the sovereign teacher of peace, mercy, and charity, in order to murder Christians for the sake of two knavish priests, who are manifestly Antichrist. When shall we see the proud priest of Rome grant plenary indulgence to engage men to live in peace, charity, and forbearance, as he does to animate Christians to cut one another's throats?" Having at this time received a citation from the pope to appear before him at Rome, he sent him a letter of excuse, in which he says, that "Christ taught him more obeishe (obedi ence) to God than to man." But the time was drawing near when he was to be relieved from all further citation or disturbance from earthly tribunals. In 1384, he had a stroke of paralysis, and on the last day of December that year, as he was officiating at the communion in his own church, he had a second attack of the same disorder, by which he was struck speechless to the ground, and soon after expired, in the sixtieth year of his age. "Admirable !" exclaims honest Fuller, "that a hare so often hunted with so many packs of dogs, should die at last quietly sitting in his form."

the Commons against the fraud, it was entered | he added, " is, naturally, bread and wine; but as law upon the records; and, if not lately repealed, it remains in the statute-book to the present day. In virtue of this spurious act, Courtney, after a solemn procession, intended to strike a mysterious awe into the minds of the people, summoned our Reformer to answer for his opinions before a large convocation of bishops, doctors, and clergy of all kinds, assembled at Oxford, on the 19th of November 1382. | Before this imposing array stood the Rector of Lutterworth, now alone and unsupported. Lancaster had now deserted him. Though only in his fifty-eighth year, he was already grey with premature age, and bending under many infirmities; still, in the midst of circumstances calculated to daunt even the strongest mind, his firmness remained unshaken. His defence was such as to extort praise even from his adversaries. It has been alleged, indeed, chiefly on the authority of one of these writers, that on this occasion Wicliffe made some concession, or something like a recantation, on the subject of the eucharist; and Hume, after remarking with a sneer that the English Reformers then “seem not to have been actuated by ❘ the spirit of martyrdom," has volunteered a vindication of their supposed timidity, which, as might be expected, only gives a deeper stab to their reputation. He seems to have forgotten that heresy had not yet been made punishable with death, and that it was not till some time after the death of Wicliffe that the act De Heretico Comburendo, or the burning of heretics, was passed. But in point of fact, it is a gross mistake to suppose that Wicliffe made any concession. Walsingham felt himself obliged to acknowledge that his confession at Oxford was a re-assertion instead of a renunciation of his old doctrine. On comparing them together, they are found to be identical. And neither his previous character, nor his subsequent conduct afford the smallest verisimilitude to the charge of vacillation. On the contrary, he defends his doctrine on the subject of the eucharist, declares his determination to support it with his blood, and boldly denounces the heresy of his opponents. "Let the spirit of the faithful wake itself," he said, " and diligently inquire as to the nature of this sacrament, whether it be not indeed bread, as the Gospel, the senses, and Lason assure us. Certain I am, that the idolaers who make to themselves gods, are not gnorant of the nature of these gods, though hey pretend that there is something of deity within them." "This venerable sacrament,"

It would occupy too much of our space to attempt an exposition of the theological views of Wicliffe. In its leading features, his system was that of the New Testament and of the Reformation. Its distinctive character appears to have been a simple and supreme deference to the authority of Scripture. Hence the frequency with which he expressed his readiness on all occasions to hear reason, to be convinced of heresy, and to retract if convinced; which has led some to the false conclusion that he vacillated in his creed, and shrunk from ad