of devotion, wish to have; but having any of these books translated into the vulgar tongue, we strictly forbid.16

In the face of all this, and far more than can now be explained, must Wickliffe commence his heartfelt task; and so he did, with his eyes open to the prejudices of a world. His translation, which was finished in the year 1380, is supposed to have occupied him, amidst various interruptions, for many years. Some have imagined that this great work employed the translator for ten years only, but Mr. Baber, with far greater probability, has said, "From an early period of his life he had devoted his various learning, and all the powerful energies of his mind, to effect this, and, at length, by intense application on his own part, and with some assistance from a few of the most learned of his followers, he had the glory to complete a book, which, alone, would have been sufficient (or at least ought) to have procured him the veneration of his own age, and the commendations of posterity."

In accounting for such a movement as this, it has been but too common to inquire after something similar which had happened in the earth, and loosely supposing some connexion between them, as cause and effect, thus leave the extraordinary event, without the slightest reference to the finger of God. Any influential connexion, however, between the Waldenses or Vaudois and Wickliffe has never been clearly proved, and probably never will. At all events, before he could be stimulated by their example, he seems to have taken his ground, as it is only in his latest compositions that a few slight references to them are to be found, as to a people with whose sufferings he sympathized. He was on the Continent, at Bruges, it is true, from 1374 to 1376, but he had commenced, and must have been far advanced in his undertaking, long before then. In short, as far as the term can be applied to any human being, the claims of Wickliffe to originality have now come to be better understood, and every Christian will recognise the "secret mover;" while, in reference to the times following, when tracing the history or influence of Divine Truth throughout Europe, the habit of ascending no higher than Germany is past, or passing away.

Down to the period of about two years before Wickliffe had completed his translation, the only ideas or incidents which had any powerful influence upon mankind generally, were such as stood connected with the Pontiff, and his peculiar system of rule or government; but, in reference to this subject, by the year 1378, among the

16" Prohibemus etiam, ne libros Veteris Testamenti," &c. Labbei Sacro-Sancta Concilia ii., p. 1., p. 430. The profane mixture of human composition with the Divine Word is sufficiently characteristic; and it is of importance to observe that the prohibition expressly referred to the LATIN Bible itself. It seems to have been a step taken to prevent translation.

VOL. I.

d

European nations, there had sprung up a marked difference of opinion. One question engrossed them all, and it was nothing less than this- Who was Pontiff? In the year 1305, through the influence of France, the Court of Rome had been translated into that Kingdom, and there it remained for seventy-four years, to the great damage of Rome as a city, but without any rent or division in the system. Edward the Third had expired on the 21st of June 1377, after a reign of above half a century, and about that very moment Gregory XI. had ordered Wickliffe to be seized and imprisoned, till farther orders. Early in the following year, although our translator of the Scriptures had not only stood high in favour with the late King, but still did so with many in Parliament, and was powerfully protected by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, he was summoned by the Bishops to answer for himself at St. Paul's. Thus did this body of men first come out, appearing as a distinct interest in the kingdom, and thus they will remain for above five generations to come; proving ever and anon, upon all occasions of alarm, that they were the determined opponents of Divine Truth. As a body, they will oppose its being conveyed to the people, and at every successive step of progress. Their malice at this time, however, was overruled, as it will so often and conspicuously be, a century and a half later; but, in the meanwhile, nothing must prevent Wickliffe from finishing his translation.17

The year 1378 was in truth an important one as it regarded our translator's design. On the 27th of March the reigning Pontiff had died; an event which not only put an end to the bulls against Wickliffe, but gave rise to what was called "the great schism ;” so that soon after there were two Pontiffs-one beyond the mountains, as the Italians said, and one at Rome-consigning each other to perdition. Of this state of things Wickliffe did not fail to avail himself. "He saw the head of the body cloven in twain, and the two parts made to fight with each other;" and he immediately sent forth two tracts, one upon "the schism" itself, and the other upon "the truth of Scripture." Every city and state became agitated, and as the question soon divided the nations throughout, it so happened that England and Scotland were of opposite opinions: the former holding fast by Urban VI. of Rome, who had been first chosen; the latter followed Clement VII. of Avignon. England and France indeed became the most ardent supporters of the opposite parties, while such was the extent to which the controversy had

17 The Assembly at St. Paul's having broken up in riot and confusion, there was a second attempt to execute their purpose in a Synod at Lambeth in June, but the Bishops were deterred from coming to any definite sentence by a message from the Queen-Mother by Sir Lewis Clifford.

gone, that some men of the University of Paris had begun to think of a plurality of Pontiffs, and the appointment of one to every kingdom. The idea of one power exercising authority over all nations had seemed to them untenable, if not injurious.

Soon after this, in the year 1379, Wickliffe, as divinity professor, had gone to fulfil his accustomed annual duty at Oxford, but there he was seized with an alarming illness. The friars, imagining that his course was now near an end, contrived to visit him. Four of their ablest men had been selected, or a friar from each of the mendicant orders, and they were admitted to a patient hearing. After reminding him of the great injury he had done to their order—for Wickliffe was a determined enemy to all idleness and all extortionthey exhorted him, as one near to death, that he would now, as a true penitent, bewail and revoke in their presence, whatever he had said to their disparagement. As soon as they had done, Wickliffe calling for his servant, desired to be raised up on his pillow; when collecting all his strength, with a severe and expressive countenance, and in a tone of voice not to be misunderstood, he exclaimed, “I shall not die, but live, to declare the evil deeds of the friars." Confused, if not confounded, little expecting such a reply, they immediately left him; and Wickliffe recovered, to finish in the year following his translation of the entire Bible.

Extraordinary, however, as the character of Wickliffe was,-a man confessedly far above all his contemporaries, it may still be inquired, whether he was qualified for the task of translating the Sacred Volume? The Scriptures had been originally given in Hebrew and Greek; but so far from the nations of the West furnishing men sufficiently acquainted with either, England at least had sunk into greater ignorance even since the days of Grossteste; nay, an hundred and fifty years later, when Tyndale had translated from the original tongues, some of the priests of the day were trying to persuade the people that Greek and Hebrew were languages newly invented. Here, it is true, was Wickliffe, an able and acute, a zealous and determined man, and withal an excellent Latin scholar, but of Greek or Hebrew he knew nothing. Nor was it at all necessary that he should possess such erudition, since a translation from either GREEK OR HEBREW would not have harmonised with the first, or the present, intention of Divine Providence. A reason there was, and one worthy of infinite wisdom, why not only the English translation, but most of the first European versions must be made from the Latin. These nations, including our own, had nothing in common with the Greek community, but for ages they had been overrun by the Latin. This language, long since dead, even in Italy, had been the refuge and stronghold of their oppressor,

from generation to generation; and upon looking back, no spectacle presented to the eye is so remarkable, as that of so many different nations, equally spell-bound by the same expedient. There was a Latin service, and there was a Latin Bible, professedly received, but the possession of even this had been forbidden to the people at large; very much in the same spirit as the Shasters of India are forbidden by the Brahmins to be looked upon, or even heard, by the people. It was the LATIN Bible, therefore, long buried in cloisters, or covered with the dust of ages, which must now be brought forth to view. Confessedly imperfect, it was of importance first to prove that it had all along contained enough for mortal man to know, in order to his eternal salvation; and once translated into any native tongue, not only will the language touch the heart, but the people at last know what that mysterious book was, from which they had been debarred, so wickedly and so long. Although, therefore, the nation was yet an hundred and fifty years distant from the English Bible, properly so called, the present should be regarded as the first preliminary step. An all-disposing foresight, far above that of any human agent, is now distinctly visible in drawing first upon that very language which had been employed for ages as the instrument of mental bondage. It shall now be made to contribute to the emancipation of the human mind. Latin, it is true, had been the conventional language of the priests and students of different countries; but still, so long as this language remained untouched by a translation of the Scriptures into any vernacular tongue, it is a historical canon that no nation was ever greatly moved. This holds true of our own country, in the age of manuscript, but it will become far more emphatically so, even seventy years after the invention of printing, when the Scriptures, once translated from the original tongues, come to be printed in the language then spoken, and spoken still.

At such a period as this the translation of Wickliffe could only be diffused, of course, by the laborious process of transcription; but transcribed it was diligently, both entire and in parts, and as eagerly read. There were those who, at every hazard, sought wisdom from the Book of God, and their number could not be few. A contemporary writer has affirmed that “ a man could not meet two people on the road, but one of them was a disciple of Wickliffe." This was the testimony of an enemy, and not improbably the language of hatred and fear combined, uttered with a wish to damage the cause; it was the testimony of an ecclesiastic, a Canon of Leicester, in reference to an era hailed by the people; and although the Word of Truth had not "free course," there can be no question that it was glorified in the reception given to it by many. "The soldiers," he says, "with

the dukes and earls, were the chief adherents of this sect-they were their most strenuous promoters and boldest combatants—their most powerful defenders and their invincible protectors." A very remarkable admission, as it accounts for the great progress made, in spite of opposition. All this and much more is uttered in the tone of lamentation; and what was the occasion, as expressed by the Canon himself? “This Master John Wickliffe," says he, "hath translated the Gospel out of Latin into English, which Christ had intrusted with the clergy and doctors of the Church, that they might minister it to the laity and weaker sort, according to the state of the times and the wants of men. So that by this means the Gospel is made vulgar, and laid more open to the laity, and even to women who can read, than it used to be to the most learned of the clergy and those of the best understanding! And what was before the chief gift of the clergy and doctors of the Church, is made for ever common to the laity !"18

It was in the same spirit that another contemporary writer urged that "the prelates ought not to suffer that every one at his pleasure should read the Scripture, translated even into Latin; because, as is plain from experience, this has been many ways the occasion of falling into heresies and errors. It is not, therefore, politic that any one, wheresoever and whensoever he will, should give himself to the frequent study of the Scriptures."

These men specially referred to a period which lasted for about twenty years, or from 1380 to 1400, and it was one, though but too short, which distinguished this country from every other in Europe. However transient, or but like an handful of corn for all England, sketch of the times it should never pass unnoticed.

in any

While the nations generally were discussing the respective claims of two rival Pontiffs, amidst all the confusion of the times, and although there were many adversaries, for the last twenty years of the fourteenth century in England, no authoritative stop must be put to the perusal of the Divine record. The Bishops, it is true, with the Primate of Canterbury at their head, may rage and remonstrate, may write to Rome and receive replies, but in vain. The entire Sacred Volume had been translated, the people were transcribing and reading, and the translator had frequently expressed himself in the boldest terms. "The authority of the Holy Scriptures," said he, infinitely surpasses any writing, how authentic soever it may appear, because the authority of Jesus Christ is infinitely above that of all mankind."-" The authority of the Scriptures is independent on any other authority, and is preferable to every other writing, but

18 Henry de Knyghton, "De eventis Angliæ."

19 William Butler, a Franciscan friar.