CONTAINING BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE REFORMERS. No. I. WICKLIFFE (John), the first divine who had the courage to attempt a reformation of religion, and who is on that account called the morning star of the reformation, was born about the year 1324, in the parish of Wycliff, near Richmond, in Yorkshire. Educated at Oxford, first in Queen's, and afterwards in Merton College, he became a Probationer Fellow of the latter. Having acquired the reputation of considerable learning, he was, in 1361, chosen Master of Baliol-hall, and in 1365, constituted Warden of Canterbury College, by Simon de Islip, its founder; from which situation he was, however, ejected by the regulars, together with three Secular Fellows. Conceiving their proceedings arbitrary, he appealed to the pope, who, instead of affording him redress, confirmed the ejectment. Previously disgusted at the enormities of the See of Rome, his enmity thus became confirmed. His credit in the university, however, still continued, and having taken the degree of Doctor in Divinity, he gave public lectures, in which he exposed with severity, the abuses of the Mendicant orders. It was about this time that he published a defence of Edward III. against the pope, who had claimed the homage to which King John had so meanly submitted. On this account, Wickliffe was introduced at court, and appointed one of the ambassadors to Bruges, in 1374, where they met the pope's nuncios, with a view to settle various ecclesiastical affairs, relative to the authority of the Roman pontiff. The king in the mean time presented Wickliffe to the rectory of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, and in 1375, he obtained a prebendary in the church of Westbury, in Gloucestershire. Hitherto Wickliffe continued to expose the corruptions of the church of Rome unmolested, but in 1377, a bull' was dispatched to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and to Courtney, Bishop of London, requiring them to secure the heretic, and to lay him in irons; the pope at the same time wrote to the king, to interest him in the prosecution, and to the university of Oxford he sent a bull, commanding them to deliver him up. Happily before the arrival of these bulls, Edward III. being dead, Wickliffe, protected by John, Duke of Lancaster, uncle to Richard II. as well as by the queen-mother, and supported by the citizens of London, eluded the persecution of Gregory IX. who died in 1378. Uninjured by the attempts, and undismayed by the threats of his enemies, this intrepid reformer presented to parliament, in the year following, a paper against the tyranny of Rome; and published a book On the Truth of the Scriptures, intended to prepare the public mind for an English translation of them, in which he had made considerable progress. In the year 1381, he published Sixteen Conclusions, in the first of which he attacked the absurdity of transubstantiation. At his living of Lutterworth, he finished his translation of the Bible. This version is a literal translation from the Latin vulgate. In 1383, he was struck with the palsy; a repetition of which terminated his life in December 1384. His body was interred in his own church, where it rested in peace, till the year 1428, when by an order from the pope, his bones were taken up and burnt. In addition to a great variety of published works, he left behind him a prodigious number of manuscripts; a list of which may be seen in Bishop Tanner's Bibliotheca Britanico Hibernica. Some of them are in the Bodleian library, others in the British Museum, &c. Considering the times in which Wickliffe lived, he must be considered a very extraordinary man. Struck with the absurdities of the church of Rome, he had the honesty and courage to make an open avowal of his convictions. Nor does it appear that he was at all intimidated by the strength and malice of his inveterate enemies. Well aware that the prosperity of the Latin church must ever bear à proportion to the ignorance of the multitude, and that a knowledge of the scriptures would most effectually expose the villanies of priestcraft, he bestowed upon his countrymen the most patriotic gift-the Bible in their own tongue. A little more support would, probably, have enabled him to establish his opinions, which were evidently the foundation of the reformation.* * See Biog. Brit. Art. Wickliffe. No. II. Huss (John) was born in Bohemia, in the year 1376, and educated at Prague, where he entered into orders, became rector of the university, and confessor to the queen. Meeting with some of Wickliffe's writings, in which the errors of popery were exposed, he entered warmly into the views of that great reformer, and commenced a reformation in the university of Prague, in which he was vigorously opposed by the archbishop, who issued two decrees, the effect of which was, the more abundant spreading of the new doctrines. The archbishop's measure having entirely failed, the pope granted a bull for the suppression of the new heresy; cited Huss to appear personally at Rome, and excommunicated him for disobedience. Huss, however, continued in the highest reputation, both on account of his extensive erudition and his powerful eloquence; a reputation which was farther supported by the blameless sanctity of his manners, and the purity of his doctrine. Undismayed by persecution, he continued to declaim with vehemence against the vices of the clergy, in which he was supported by the wise and good, who were disgusted with the en U |