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Wyclif and the Lollards
Wyclif and the Lollards; Part 5

Wyclif and the Lollards; Part 5

In 1376 the clerics rallied under the leadership of the Black Prince, and the "Good Parliament" seriously tried to mend things. Two of John of Gaunt's friends were impeached and dismissed, and some of the lesser rogues punished. But the work of the Good Parliament fell when the Black Prince died. No man ever had a more bitter end. The greatest general of the age, the type of chivalry, respected and loved by all who knew him, he saw all going wrong, and was himself powerless to set it right. Broken down by a long and painful sickness, he died; his father, grown senile and decrepit, soon followed him to the grave. So faded the glory of the later Plantagenets.

Wyclif proved a ready weapon in John of Gaunt's hand, and John of Gaunt sheltered him from the rage of the clerical party. When Wyclif was summoned to St. Paul's to be tried for what he had written, the Duke stood beside him to defend him; when Courtenay, Bishop of London, declared that Wyclif was little better than a heretic, the Duke threatened to drag Courtenay from the church by the hair of his head. A riot began; the citizens of London rushed in to defend their bishop; and Wyclif nearly lost his life. Brawling and abuse would not mend matters. Wyclif himself took no part in it. Indeed he had no sympathy with John of Gaunt, but as a scholar and reformer he tried to spread his ideas by practical means. He founded an order of preachers, "the Poor Priests", to teach his ideas among the people. He also directly appealed to the people himself by his tracts, which he wrote, not in Latin, the language hitherto used for all religious discussion, but in homeiy, plain, forcible English, which all could understand. We shall find Luther also discarding the priestly Latin in favour of his native German when he too begins his quarrel with the Roman Church. Finally, Wyclif anticipated Luther by causing the whole Bible to be translated from the Latin into English, so that it should no longer be the property of scholars, but open to all to read for themselves, or aloud to their friends who were too ignorant to read.

Some of this work might seem offensive at Rome, but it was applauded in England. Wyclif, however, could not rest here. From attacking the practice of the churchmen, he went on to search deeper. His teaching, in his phrase, " Dominion is founded on grace ", was taken to mean that it was lawful to withdraw obedience from those who were sinful, and especially from the unworthy popes; and when he went still further and attacked the Roman doctrine of transubstantiation, he began to lose the support that had hitherto been given him. John of Gaunt hurried to Oxford to bid him be silent. The University itself, till then proud of him, found itself forced to abandon him. The party of the friars, backed by the king and Archbishop Courtenay, and aided by the Pope, proved too strong. Wyclif had to leave Oxford; but even so, though his opinions were declared heretical, his enemies dared not make him a martyr. He died peacefully in his parish at Lutterworth.

Wyclif and the Lollards; Part 5

Chronology