it has no authority. He is steadily advancing on the path of the principles to which study, reflection, public service have brought him, without looking back. He has won, already, a high place in England, and he uses his power for freedom and truth with an unreserved outlay of strength which recalls the Saxon times and blood. It will evidently not do to leave him alone. At this point, therefore, breaks upon him the first onset of that Papal assault which was never afterward to cease to pursue him till his books had been prohibited and his bones had been burned.

In February, A. D. 1377, he was summoned to appear before the Convocation, obviously on account of the stand which he had taken against prelatical and Papal aggression. When the Convocation assembled at St. Paul's, the Duke of Lancaster, and Percy, the Grand Marshal of England, with armed retainers, appeared with him, as friends and defenders; together with several personal friends, and some theologians who had come as his advocates. An altercation instantly arose, between the Marshal, with the Duke, on the one hand, and the imperious Bishop of London; the result of which was that Wycliffe was withdrawn from the tribunal without having had occasion to open his lips. Whatever purpose had been cherished against him, for the time at least had utterly failed, and he went out as free as before. Immediately, however, the English bishops, or some of them, collected propositions affirmed to be his, forwarded them to Rome, and sought the Papal interposition. Of the nineteen propositions so presented, five referred to legal matters, as the rights of property and inheritance; four concerned the right of rulers to withdraw

from the Church its temporal endowments, if these should be abused; nine related to the power of church discipline, with its necessary limits; and the closing one maintained that the Pontiff himself, being in error, may be challenged by laymen, and overruled. The "power of the keys," according to this clearsighted witness, is only effective when used under the law of the Gospel; and no man can really be excommunicated unless by himself-unless, that is, he has given for it sufficient occasion.

On the basis of these articles Gregory XI, in May, A. D. 1377, issued five bulls against their author. Three of them were addressed to the Archbishop, with the Bishop of London, commanding them to ascertain if such propositions had been in fact affirmed by Wycliffe, in "a detestable insanity," and if so, to imprison him until further instructions; commanding them also to cite him publicly, lest he should seek to escape by flight; and requiring them to bring the obnoxious articles to the notice of the king. Another bull was addressed to the king, informing him of the commission, and requiring his aid; and still another to the Chancellor and University of Oxford, enjoining them, on pain of loss of all their privileges, to commit Wycliffe and his disciples to custody, and deliver them to the authorized commission.

The death of Edward III, with the accession of Richard II, which presently occurred, and the spirit opposed to the Papal court which appeared vividly in the following Parliament, made it expedient to delay taking action under these instruments; and it was not until the end of the year, after Parliament was prorogued, that proceedings commenced. Mean

time, Wycliffe had drawn up an opinion, for the king and council, on the right of the kingdom to restrain its treasure from being carried to foreign parts, in defiance of Papal censure. With utmost emphasis he, of course, affirms this right: on the several grounds of the law of nature, the law of the Gospel, the law of conscience; and it is not likely that this opinion rendered any less fierce the hostility to him which was already intense at Rome.

A week before Christmas, the bull addressed to the university was sent to the Chancellor, with the demand that he ascertain if Wycliffe had propounded the alleged theses, and if so, to cite him to appear in London before the commission. The marked difference between this mandate and the sharper terms of the Papal bull shows a doubt of the temper which might prevail in the university, with a fear of probable popular sympathy with the accused. The heads of the university seem to have taken no action whatever on the Papal bull, but to have so far responded to the commission as to serve upon Wycliffe the required citation. Early, therefore, in a. D. 1378, the vigorous and undaunted theologian appeared before the archbishop and bishop, and made written answer for the theses. But he did not come in his own strength alone. He was now recognized as the faithful representative of a wide English feeling. The widow of the Black Prince, now Queen-Mother, sent an officer to the commission, charging the prelates to pronounce on him no sentence. The people of London forced their way into Lambeth Chapel, and showed their purpose to defend him. The result of the proceeding bore, therefore, no proportion to its threatening commencement; for,

though he was forbidden to teach the specified theseson the ground that they would give offense to the laity he left the court, for the open air of streets and fields, with his freedom unfettered, with his prominence and power only increased, by the futile assault. The successive attacks of those who hated him had given him a distinction which he never seems to have sought for himself.

At just this time began that long Western Schism, in which Urban VI was acknowledged by England, Clement VII by France; in which, subsequently, there were three Popes at once, almost equally detestable, with equal violence anathematizing each other; and which was not closed till thirty years after Wycliffe's death. An immense impression was made upon him by this event; and from that time, not ceasing to be a diligent scholar, a patriotic counselor, a devout theologian, he more and more came to the front as a radical and devoted Church reformer. The thin, tall figure, the sharply-cut features, the penetrating eye, the firm-set lips and flowing beard, which his portraits present, the thoughtful, earnest, dignified presence, of which all men took note, were thenceforth to be found in the perilous van of the long English battle for a liberated Church and a Scriptural faith.

In this supreme period of his life, a marked and even a rapid progress is to be observed in his judgments of truth, leading him toward, if not wholly to, the ultimate ground of the Protestant Reformation. The Lutheran doctrine of Justification by faith alone, he never reached; but his mind detached itself rapidly

1 "Turning now to the other side of faith, Wiclif evidently assumes that the kernel of faith is a state of feeling, a moral activity, when, in

and surely from many entangling previous opinions; it sought for truth on every side, with eager care and fruitful fervor; and as fast as he reached any certain conclusion he flung the most strenuous energy of his soul into the work of conveying it to others. His time was short; his work was noble and prolific.

A skilful, acute and practised logician, a realist in philosophy, yet a theologian largely made by the heart, he took Reason and Authority as the sources of all religious knowledge: "Reason" representing the intuitive and instructive mind and conscience; "Authority" representing the Divine Scripture. To the claim of the latter on human submission he admits no limit. It is superior to all traditions and decrees; the fundamental charter and law of the Church. It is a book for every man; to be interpreted by the Christian for himself, with prayerfulness and humility, with a reasonable regard for the general Christian judgment of its contents, and especially for that of the great Church-Fathers, but with an implicit personal reliance on the present aid of the Holy Ghost to make evident its meaning, as Christ had opened it to his disciples. He was himself a profound and constant student of the Scriptures, quoting from them freely, showing comparison of part with part, and so saturating his

accord with the theology of his age, and agreeably to Aristotelian metaphysics, he lays particular stress upon the fides formata, and defines faith to be a steadfast cleaving to God or to Christ in love (per amorem caritatis perpetuo adhærere). For this reason, we

can hardly expect beforehand to find Wiclif doing homage to the Pauline Reformation-truth of the justification of the sinner by faith alone." -Lechler, "John Wiclif," etc., Vol. II, page 79.