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others, of Alsatia, to be burned in one day, for holding that it was at all times lawful to eat meat, if done in moderation; and that the rule of priestly celibacy was unscriptural. These martyrs witnessed against two marks of the great apostasy: "forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats."

Henry III. succeeding at a very tender age to the English crown, inherited with it no small portion of his father's troubles. Papal exactions were carried to an unprecedented height; and civil wars between the king and his barons distracted the country. Towards the close of his long and unquiet reign, a noble protest was made by Robert Grosthead, bishop of Lincoln, against the antichristian spirit of popery, on occasion of Innocent appointing his son Frederick, a mere youth, to an important spiritual charge in the English church. Grosthead firmly, and on scriptural principles, resisted the nomination; leaving, on his deathbed, such a testimony against the apostate church, as proved that he was by God's grace prepared, had his life been prolonged, to stand forth, a powerful champion of the faith. William de Amore, holding chief rule in the Parisian university, had shortly before published a book so pregnant with unwelcome truths, that it was condemned to be burned.

Edward I. on coming to the throne, was fully bent on the conquest of Scotland, and boldly maintained his supposed right thereto, in the face of the pope's injunction to refrain from that enterprise. But Philip of France proceeded to much greater lengths against the reigning pontiff-the notorious Boniface VIII., who, issuing a brief and severe bull against Philip, received an answer in so rude and ludicrous a style of travestie, breathing such a spirit of careless defiance, that it seemed to rouse the clergy of France into somewhat of a similar manifestation of inde. pendence. Public protestations against the arrogant assumptions of Boniface, ended at last in a hostile expedition against his person, wherein he was taken captive, plundered of his treasures, and finally died of grief and vexation. These proceedings being however, rather levelled at the pope than at the papacy, availed not to shake the latter, which increased in power, wealth, arrogance, and tyranny. Nowhere was the yoke more severely felt than in England. Boniface had fulminated a bull, whereby, in virtue of his high prerogative, he absolved subjects from payment of tribute to their rightful kings; and under such sanction the

English clergy were never found backward in thwarting, vexing, and insulting their monarch. Edward, experiencing much of this trouble at the hands of Pecham and Winchelsey, who successively filled the metropolitan see, withstood the impositions with considerable nerve; but puissant as he was in arms, he lacked power to contend successfully with this antichristian foe, who was then in the height of his pride, extolling himself above all princes and potentates in the world.

The miserable reign of Edward II. was marked by no event of much ecclesiastical importance in England, excepting his resistance of that papal exaction called Peter-pence; but abroad, John XXII. commenced a most iniquitous, rancorous, and uprovoked persecution against the good and gentle emperor Lewis, surpassing in bitterness and unrelenting cruelty that which had harrassed Frederic II. in the reign of our third Henry. This persecution, which was continued for the space of twenty-four years, under Benedict XII. and Clement VI. terminated only with the life of Lewis, who was murdered, after having resigned the imperial dignity; and whom Fox numbers among the innocent and blessed martyrs of Christ. The end of this German tragedy occurred in the time of Edward III. who to the warlike character of his grandfather added a like determination of resistance against the temporal encroachments of the Romish see; prosecuting also, in spite of pope Clement's remonstrance, his military enterprise in France. Many contentions this king had with the proud prelate of Rome; but far more to be dreaded than any king's opposition were the writings that now, from time to time, appeared-the work of pious witnesses, whom God had gifted with a measure of spiritual discernment, to see in somewhat of its real deformity the idol, heretofore beheld only through the dazzling medium of blind adoration. The unprincipled persecution of the emperor Lewis gave rise to some important treatises from the pen of Marsilius; one maintaining the fundamental doctrine of justification by faith alone; which the pope, of course, lost no time in condemning: while in another were exposed the manifold antiscriptural errors of the papacy. William Ockam, an Englishman, wrote in the same spirit, and several others followed in their steps. A friar, named Roctaylada, or Hayabulus, boldly testifying of the Romish see that it was the very Harlot and Babylon of the Apocalypse, suffered

PRAYER OF THE PLOUGHMAN.

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death. And now that precious seed, the blood of the martyrs, began evidently to strike out its roots, and to shoot forth in the sight of man; giving promise of a renovated church, that should blossom and bud, and fill the world with fruit.

In the year 1360,-Edward III. still reigning in England, appeared a work, the author of which was never discovered, entitled "The Prayer and Complaint of the Ploughman." It is an admirable exposure of the foul corruptions staining the apostate church: and concludes with the following apostrophe "Therefore we simple men pray Thee that thou wouldest send us shepherds of thine own, that will feed thy flock, and go before themselves; and so write thy law in our hearts, that from the least to the greatest all may know thee. And, Lord, give our king and his nobles heart to defend thy true shepherds and thy sheep from the wolves' mouths, and grace to know thee, who art the true Christ, the Son of thy heavenly Father, from the Antichrist that is the son of pride. And, Lord, give us, thy poor sheep, patience and strength to suffer, for thy law, the cruelty of the mischievous wolves. And, Lord, as thou hast promised, shorten these days. Lord, we ask this now, for more need was there never,"

The publishing of such sentiments, in the solemn form of a prayer to the Most High, marks an era of revival, from whence we may clearly trace the progress of divine light among the people. Shortly afterwards appeared Richard Fitz-Ralph, primate of Ireland, as a champion on behalf of the parochial clergy, against the encroachments of the mendicant orders or their privileges. It seems to have been the order of God's providence to prepare men's minds, by exercising them in controversial matters of small moment, for the searching out and examining of far weightier things. The spirit of inquiry once awakened-though it were but to investigate the respective claims of two opposing orders in the false church- —was not to be again lulled. It became more enterprising; and having proved the rottennesss of the branch, proceeded to analyze the trunk which bore, and the root which nourished, so corrupt a member, until the whole mystery of iniquity was explored and held up to public view in the light of HOLY SCRIP TURE-itself rescued from the obscurity into which it had been thrust by those who dreaded the revelations of its truth-telling page.

CHAPTER II.

WICKLIFF-SAUTRE-BADBY-EX-OFFICIO STATUTE-LORD COBHAM.

We now arrive at the first bright star in our English galaxy, JOHN WICKLIFF. He appeared about the year 1371, and 44th of Edward III. when darkness covered the earth, and gross ignorance of God's truth prevailed among the people: when the great doctrines of faith, consolation, the use of the law, the person and office of Christ, and of the Holy Ghost, human corruption, the strength of sin, and impotency of man in resisting it, free grace, justification by faith, and Christian liberty, were scarcely ever spoken of among nominal Christians: their hope being exclusively fixed on outward ceremonies, their faith resting on human traditions, and on the supposed omnipotence of the church. The people then, in the strong language of Fox, "were taught to worship no other thing but that which they did see; and did see almost nothing which they did not worship." Christian faith was held to consist in a knowledge that Christ once suffered on the cross; which the devils also knew and Christian zeal was devoted to no other end than recovering the city of Jerusalem from the Turks; because that wooden cross on which the Lord suffered, was absurdly believed to be there; and was still more absurdly considered a meet object for all Christendom to worship. Without the possession of the material cross, the faith and hope of the gospel were counted for nothing. When the pope wished to separate a refractory king or emperor from his subjects, he had only to command him forth at the head of an army, to retake the holy cross and sepulchre; and this, as the Turk was too powerful and resolute to be easily vanquished, was so sure a way of crippling the strength, and draining the revenues of a state, that Rome had little to fear from occasional bursts of indignation among her crowned vassals. Her greedy church, with all its spurious and contentious spawn of monkish orders, securely ate the fat, and clad itself in the wool of the unresisting flocks which, though perhaps agreeing in no other thing, these ecclesiastics were always of one mind to scatter and to destroy.

Wickliff had long secretly mourned over these evils

clearly revealed to him of God, but for which he could discern no present remedy. However, availing himself of his place, as divinity professor in Oxford, he commenced a series of preparatory exercises for the great battle wherein he was minded, though alone, to stand forth. He first proposed questions logical and metaphysical, assailing his op. ponents on matters indifferent, until by subtle advances he approached the main doctrines, and touched them on the tender point of transubstantiation. This roused the monks and mendicant friars, the latter of whom were peculiarly the objects of Wickliff's just indignation. After them, he was attacked by the priests, and then deprived by the archbishop; but, to encourage him, he had evidently the favour of the king, who, though now fast sinking under the infir mities of age, had lost nothing of his inclination to bridle the rampant power of the pope. The duke of Lancaster also, and lord H. Percy, earl marshal, countenanced Wickliff so openly as to embroil them with the bishop and citizens of London: and on the accession of Richard II. still a child, the duke of Lancaster holding the regency of England, it was plainly seen that the Lord had in him raised up a friend equally able as willing to support the champion of His truth. The bishops lost no time in drawing up articles collected from Wickliff's writings, and referring them to Rome, where they were forthwith condemned by Gregory XI., who soon after the death of Henry had fulminated an angry bull, addressed to the University of Oxford, another to the archbishop, and a third to the king, all levelled against the parson of Lutterworth. It was, however, ordained that no weapon formed against him should prosper and before Gregory's designs could be carried into effect, he died, leaving the papal chair to be contested by two rival popes, whose sanguinary domestic wars, of thirty-nine years' duration, marked by acts of appalling barbarity, left them no leisure for the work of foreign persecution. Meanwhile, William Courtney, archbishop of Canterbury, with his prelates, ceased not to disquiet and pursue whosoever was suspected of leaning towards Wickliff's doctrines. They wrought on the youthful king, in the sixth year of his reign, to promulgate a statute, empowering the clergy instantly to proceed against heretics, or those under suspicion; a privilege that the church had never exercised but as derived from the usurping tyranny of Rome. The sword of persecution was now placed in their hands by

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