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JOHN WICKLIFF.

JOHN WICKLIFF,

THE MORNING STAR OF THE REFORMATION.

ICKLIFF, the morning star of the Reformation, the noble pioneer of Luther, is now before us, his countenance radiant with truth and benignity, and his brow clothed with majesty and power! In the fourteenth century, when the pope of Rome, the man of sin, had reached the highest pinnacle of his ambition, exalting himself above all that is called God, disposing of crowns and kingdoms at his pleasure, and trampling on the necks of kings with his impious feet; in this period of the great apostasy, when the church was overrun with errors, superstitions, and idolatries, God raised up the English reformer, who, more loud than any before him, sounded the alarm bell of reformation, and made impressions on the minds of men by his doctrines which nothing could efface, and which were propagated to Luther's days.

It was high time for some such burning and shining light to arise and scatter the darkness of ages. The name of Christianity was left, but scarce anything else; the true and lively doctrine of our blessed Lord and Savior was, for the is, for the most part, as unknown to those who were called after his name as to the heathen themselves. The natural depravity of man, the strength and turpitude of sin, the end and use of the law, the office of Christ and the Holy Ghost the Comforter, the nature of faith, and true evangelical repentance, were points not understood or inquired after. The word of God was kept out of view. Learning and divinity was wholly confined to the schools, and there miserably perverted into cobweb notions and wrangling sophistry. Thus forsaking the vivifying power of God's spiritual word, men first became blinded, and then led away with external pomp, dazzling ceremony, and human traditions. Scarce anything else was seen in the churches, heard in sermons, or intended in all their devotions. The people were

taught to worship nothing but what they saw, and they saw nothing that they did not worship. Images, crosses, pictures, relics, shrines, tombs, altars, were the objects of their devotions. Instead of the poverty and purity of Christ, there was pride, superfluity, and every species of licentiousness. Instead of being characterized by their apostolic labors and humility, the priests were distinguished only for their sloth and ambition.

Such was the state of Christendom in the fourteenth century. Did not the world need a Hercules to purge such an Augean stable? Yes, truly. In Wickliff a valiant and efficient champion was found for this difficult and dangerous work. The year of his birth is not recorded, nor is much known respecting his parentage; certain it is he was liberally educated, and became learned beyond the age in which he lived. He was fellow of Merton college, in the reign of Edward III., 1371, and afterward master of Baliol college, in Oxford, where he commenced doctor, and was chosen reader of divinity. In his public lectures he showed himself deeply skilled in dialectics and in scholastic divinity, which in those days were the grand passports to fame. To a man of Wickliff's penetrating genius, "the difficult trifles" soon gave way, and he quickly became a very subtle disputant and reigned in the schools without a competitor. In divinity he drew his tenets from the Scriptures alone, rejecting the glosses of the schoolmen and the dogmas of authority. In his ordinary ministerial labors, he was a faithful pastor of the church, for whose edification he spared no pains, for he translated the whole Bible into the vulgar tongue, a copy thereof, written in his own hand, was, so late as the year 1736, in St. John the Baptist's college, in Oxford. He was beloved of all good men for his holy life, and admired by his adversaries for his learning. Walden, his professed and bitterest enemy, in a letter to Pope Martin V., acknowledges, that "he was wonderfully astonished at his most forcible arguments, the various and pertinent authorities he had gathered, with the vehemence and smartness of his reasonings."

Wickliff gained much light on the subject of the errors and corruptions of popery from reading the works of some of the most renowned schoolmen; but, above all, by a diligent perusal of the Holy Scriptures, God gave him grace and understanding to see the truth of the Gospel, and loathe all superstition. Being thus

enlightened, it is not to be wondered at, that, in his writings and preaching, he should deliver doctrines in direct opposition to the corrupt teachings of an apostate church. But his opposition was chiefly directed against the several orders of begging friars, and the usurped dominion of the pope. His defence of the university against the mendicant friars, acquired for him the reputation of a man of profound learning and abilities; and in return, at the instance of the primate Langton, a zealous patron of the monkish orders, a sentence of expulsion from Baliol hall was passed upon him and his associates.

The pope becoming greatly alarmed at the progress of the new doctrines of Wickliff, soon bestirred himself to get him silenced; but such was the esteem he had obtained by his learning and virtues, that when, in the year 1378, Gregory XI. sent his bull to the university of Oxford, expostulating with them for suffering him to spread his tenets, Walsingham, the historian, tells us, "that the heads of the university were long in suspense, whether they should honor the pope's bull, or reject it with contempt." At length they were prevailed upon to receive the bull with respect; but they did nothing effectually against him. Three times he was summoned to appear before the archbishop of Canterbury, and twice was actually convened before him and other bishops. The first time he escaped by means of the protection and favor of the duke of Lancaster. The second time he was saved by the interference of the queen. The third time he prudently absented himself, having had intelligence that the bishops had plotted to take his life on the way. In his absence, the bishops, with a rabble of friars, took it upon them to examine and censure his works; and while prosecuting this business a terrible earthquake happened, which terrified them exceedingly.

Wickliff remained firm and constant in the midst of his heavy trials, and continued to propagate the gospel, both by preaching and writing, in the parish of Sutterworth, where he died in peace, in the year 1387, God having wonderfully preserved him out of the hands of his enemies. Nor was his doctrine confined to England, but gave light to regions far remote. And now, being in his grave, one would have thought he was beyond the reach of the most inveterate malice; but such is the nature of papal cruelty, that its rage extends even into the next world, and, with a barbari

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SAINT ANTHONY'S DAY.

ty more than heathenish, violates sepulchres. By order of the reigning pope, and in pursuance of the decree of the council of Constance, forty-one years after Wickliff's death, his bones were taken up and burnt, and the ashes thrown into the river.

Such was the life and end of John Wickliff, a man who may justly be regarded as one of the brightest ornaments of his country, and as one of those luminaries which Providence raises up to enlighten and bless mankind. To this intuitive genius, Christendom is probably more indebted than to any single name in the list of reformers. In the language of another: "He opened the gates of darkness, and let in, not a feeble, glimmering ray, but such an effulgence of light as was never after obscured. He not only loosened prejudices, but advanced such clear, incontestable truths, which, having once obtained foothold, still kept their ground, and even in an age of reformation wanted but small amendment."

SAINT ANTHONY'S DAY.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM A FATHER TO HIS CHILDREN.

The

THE sprinkling of water by means of a brush, at the commencement of celebrating mass, was a part of heathen observances. form of the sprinkling brush, which is much the same as that now used by priests, may be seen in ancient coins and basreliefs, wherever the emblems of a pagan priesthood appear. One use of this instrument is too remarkable to be overlooked. There is a yearly festival at Rome especially devoted to the blessing or purifying of horses, asses, and other animals; and on the appointed day in the month of January, the inhabitants of the city and neighborhood send theirs, decked with ribands, to the convent of St. Anthony, near the church of St. Mary the Great, to pass through this ceremony. At the church door the priest appears, and with his brush sprinkles each animal as it is presented to him, whether a horse, mule, ass, ox, cow, sheep, goat, or dog, dipping his brush from time to time in a huge bucket of holy water that stands near, taking off his skull-cap, and muttering in Latin that these animals are freed from evil through the intercession of the blessed St. Anthony, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost!