CLAYDON. CHAPTER III. し 47 CLAYDON-TAYLOR-PERSECUTIONS-INVENTION OF PRINTING-VARIOUS THE first sufferer under the hand of Chichesley was an humble artisan, a currier, of London, JOHN CLAYDON. He had been suspected in the former reign, and suffered three years' imprisonment, after which he renounced and abjured the doctrines of the gospel. Subsequently to this, he caused several godly treatises in the English language, to be written out and bound at his expense; which, as he could not read, he employed others to read to him; and had, by frequent hearing, committed a part of the contents to memory. These books being seized by the mayor of London, were found to contain truths most pointedly opposed to popery, and as Claydon avowed his belief that such truths were both profitable, good, and healthful to his soul, he was condemned as a relapsed heretic, his books burned, and himself also committed to the flames in Smithfield. The case of this poor man illustrates the manner in which the truth, as set forth in Wickliff's writings, and scriptural works, was promulgated. The art of printing being still undiscovered, books were only to be copied by laborious penmanship; and, from the heavy expense attending it, they were rarely to be found, save in the libraries of the learned and the wealthy. Here, however, we see a man in the humbler walks of life, himself unable to read, devoting the fruits of his daily labour to the acquisition of a spiritual store, although unable to peruse the pages he had accumulated. Truth was thus brought before the eyes, and frequently, no doubt, found entrance into the hearts, not only of those who, by God's providence, were engaged to transcribe, but also of those who were prevailed on to read the sacred hoard, for the benefit of others less capable than themselves. Considering that no less than certain death was the consequence of a discovery, unless by open abjuration and heavy penance the offenders saved themselves, that thirst after the word of God must have been strong and divinely implanted, which led men to brave such perils for its gratification. A great number were seized, and com pelled outwardly to abjure their opinions; while others, avoiding their persecutors, were forced into exile. Examples of constancy like that of the poor currier, were still comparatively rare; but whatever effect they might produce in terrifying the timid into a seeming recantation, it cannot be doubted that they wrought extensively for good, by exhibiting in its more sanguinary colour the cruel persecuting system of Rome. The case of WILLIAM TAYLOR, a priest, who suffered in the first year of Henry VI., shows upon how slender a pretext of dissent from popery, the life of any man might be taken. He had been charged with heresy, under Arundel, and abjured; but was again summoned before Chichesley, and again recanted, with due penance enjoined. The sole charge that could be brought, when once more he was indicted, was that of holding that prayer should be directed to God alone, creature-worship being idolatrous. Even on this point, he appeared to differ but little from the Romish doctrine, admitting much of their subtle distinctions; but being adjudged a heretic by four orders of friars, to whom the case was referred, he was first degraded, and then burned in Smithfield; evincing a courage and constancy that affords ground to hope he had received a broader revelation of the truth, before he so cheerfully laid down his life on its behalf. In the diocese of Norwich, the good leaven seems to have worked extensively at this time; but the greater number of those who were cited for heresy were forced into an external abjuration; enduring great barbarities, under the name of penance. Among these was William White, a priest, who had taken a wife, and maintained doctrines utterly opposed to popery: he was overcome, like others, for a time, and renounced them; but repenting his apostasy, he made a bolder stand than before, and was burned at Norwich, A. D. 1424; his widow suffering much trouble and persecution, at the hands of the bishop. The penances inflicted on those who recanted were most severe : public exposure, scourging, and long imprisonment-sometimes for seven years, sometimes for life, were the terms on which the Romish church re-admitted her penitents. By such means was her dominion upheld, even against the preached word of gospel verity, occasionally heard: her eyes were too vigilant, her subtilty too deep, and her power too despotic to fail of detecting and silencing God's wit nesses. Well might she then sit as a queen, saying, I shall see no sorrow: but a blow was about to be struck that she could neither foresee nor parry; for it pleased the Lord, in the year 1450, to guide the mind of a German artisan to the glorious invention of printing-a gift worthy to be compared with that of tongues, being, indeed, of the same nature, in that it makes known to myriads those saving truths which otherwise they could not hear. Men were hereby brought to see the Scriptures, to examine the ancient writings of learned men, to compare times, to discern truth, and detect falsehood. The pope, through his might had lately stopped the mouths of John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, that they might not preach against his kingdom: but instead of these, God opened the press to preach, whose voice the pope could not silence, with all the puissance of his triple crown. For, by this printing, as a singular organ of the Holy Ghost, the doctrine of the gospel sounds to all nations and countries under the heaven; what God reveals to one man, is dispersed to many; and what is known to one nation, is opened to all. The press was the forerunner of the reformation: by its means the pens of Luther, Erasmus, and their fellows, had such free course, that the bishop of Rome might understand the counsel and purpose of the Lord was to work against him, every printing-press in the world being as a battering-ram planted before his high fortress: and the triple crown thereby set so awry upon his head, that all the powers of earth, with Satan combined, have been unable to right it again. In 1457, REYNOLD PECOCK, bishop of Chichester, was cited for heresy, before Bursehere, archbishop of Canterbury; and compelled to a public abjuration of the gospel, which he preached: notwithstanding which he was after. wards committed to prison, where there is every reason to conclude that he was privily murdered. In 1461 king Henry, having been defeated in battle, by the house of York, was compelled to relinquish the crown to Edward IV., who again losing it, and once more recovering, rendered the kingdom a scene of civil war and bloodshed to the end of his reign and life, in 1483. Ten years before his death, a godly man, named John Goose, endured the flames of martyrdom on Tower-hill, for the faith of Christ; displaying a cheerful alacrity, that bespoke not only the peace but the joy that he had in believing. After the nominal reign of Edward V., and the usurpation of Richard III., the kingdom once more became tranquil, under Henry VII., who ascended the throne a. D. 1485. At this time, the host of Christ's people, which had been greatly augmented in Germany, began to multiply in England, arousing, of course, the spirit of persecution into vigorous action. A very aged gentlewoman, named Joan Boughton, was burnt in Smithfield, 1494, after so stoutly maintaining eight out of Wickliff's ten opinions, that all the doctors in London were unable to shake her on any one of them. She suffered with great heroism, and her ashes were eagerly gathered up, as precious relics, by the many who loved that faith in which she died. A priest at Canterbury withstood all the arguments of the popish di vines; but the king personally communing with him, persuaded him to recant, and then, immediately, caused him to be burned. Among the martyrdoms that took place in this reign, one is remarkable, for the signal jugdment attending it. A faithful woman, whose name is not on record, was burned at Sudbury, under the personal superintendency of her persecutor, Dr. Whittington, chancellor of the diocese. The cruel spectacle being ended, as the people were returning from the spot, a bull just escaped from the uplifted axe of the butcher, and maddened by pain, made towards them. The multitude divided, forming a sort of lane, through which the infuriated animal passed at full speed, offering no injury to any one; until coming to where the chancellor was lingering with the hindmost, as loth to quit the scene of his wolvish feast on a poor weak lamb of Christ's fold, the bull made at him, goring him through and through, and galloping away from the mangled carcase, with the entrails on his horns, through the streets of the town. Henry VIII. ascended the throne of England in 1509, in which year also began a most absurd and impious controversy between the two great orders of mendicant friars, Franciscan and Dominican, of whom the former propounded, as a new article of faith, that the Virgin Mary was, alike in her conception and nature, perfectly free from all taint of sin. In support of this blasphemous fable they distinctly asserted that she suffered the griefs and adversities of life, not as a consequence of original sin, but in voluntary conformity to the pattern of Christ: that she had no need of remission of sins: that whereas her body was subject to death, and died, it was not for any penalty due to sin, but either in imitation of Christ, or else because her body was elemental, like that of our first parents; who, if they had not tasted the forbidden fruit, would have been preserved from death, not by nature, but by grace and strength of other fruits and meats in paradise; which meats, because Mary had not, but did eat our common meats, therefore she died that she was exempted from the general proposition of St. Paul, that God hath concluded all under sin: that she was not justified by Christ, but just from her beginning, by preservation:-that Christ was no otherwise her Saviour, but as sustaining her from falling: that her thanksgivings unto God, were not for pardon of sins, but for conservation from sinning: that neither did she pray to God for remission of her sins, but for the sins of others she prayed oft, and counted them for her's:-finally, that had she died before her Son, God would have reposed her soul neither with the patriarchs nor the just, but in the same most pleasant part of paradise where Adam and Eve were before they transgressed. This raving nonsense was solemnly recognized by the pope, as most orthodox doctrine; set forth in a confirmatory bull; and appointed to be celebrated by feasts, indulgences, and an additional clause to the "ave." The Dominicans, however, stoutly resisted this new article of catholic belief; and forasmuch as that unhappy church must needs turn the very truths which they hold into a lie, the opposers, instead of combatting with the fair weapons of reason and Scripture, contrived an image of the virgin, so managed by internal machinery, as to move, to weep, groan, complain, and give audible answers to those who addressed it. This, with a bleeding host, and other like inventions, wrought so effectually on the people's minds, that in the city of Berne, where it took place, the Franciscan doctrine, and the pope's bull, were set at nought, in virtue of the virgin's miraculous attestations against them; until, the Dominican contrivers being detected, they were burnt for heresy, leaving the church to enjoy its newly-discovered article of faith. This dispute was the occasion of bitter hostility and much bloodshed; and it is worthy of being recorded, as furnishing, among many other things, a proof how little claim the church of Rome can advance to that boasted unity which she ranks among the chiefest marks of her infallible truth. |