"pion of the faith; and that he had written in logic, phi"losophy, divinity, morality, and the speculative arts, with"out an equal." While he was Divinity Professor at Oxford, he published certain conclusions against transubstantiation, and against the infallibility of the Pope; that the Church of Rome was not the head of all other Churches; nor had Št. Peter the power of the keys, any more than the rest of the Apostles; that the New Testament, or Gospel, is a perfect rule of life and manners, and ought to be read by the people. He maintained, further, most of those points by which the PURITANS were afterwards distinguished; as, that in the sacrament of orders there ought to be but two degrees, Presbyters, or Bishops, and Deacons ; that all human traditions are superfluous and sinful; that we must practise, and teach only the laws of Christ; that mystical and significant ceremonies in religious worship are unlawful; and that to restrain men to a prescribed form of prayer is contrary to the liberty granted them by God. These, with some other of Wickliffe's doctrines, against the temporal grandeur of the prelates and their usurped authority, were sent to Rome, and condemned by Pope Gregory XI. in a consistory of twenty-three Cardinals, in the year 1378. But the Pope dying soon after put a stop to the process. Urban, his successor, writ to young King Richard II. and to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the University of Oxford, to put a stop to the progress of Wickliffism; accordingly, Wickliffe was cited before the Archbishop of Canterbury, and his brethren the Prelates, several times, but was always dismissed, either by the interest of the citizens of London, or the powerful interposition of some great Lords at court, or some other uncommon providence, which terrified the Bish. ops from passing a peremptory sentence against him for a considerable time; but at length his new doctrines (as they were called) were condemned in a convocation of Bishops, Doctors, and Batchelors, held at London by the commandment of the Archbishop of Canterbury, 1382, and he was deprived of his professorship, his books and writings were ordered to be burned, and himself to be imprisoned; but

Fox's Martyrol. Pierce's Vindicat. p. 1. 5.

he kept out of the way, and in the time of his retirement writ a confession of his faith to the Pope, in which he declares himself willing to maintain his opinions at Rome, if God had not otherwise visited him with sickness, and other infirmities: But it was well for this good man that there were two Anti-Popes at this time at war with each other, one at Rome, and the other at Avignon. In England also there was a minority, which was favorable to Wickliffe, insomuch that he ventured out of his retirement, and returned to his parish at Lutterworth, where he quietly departed this life in the year 1384. This Wickliffe was a wonderful man for the times in which he lived, which were overspread with the thickest darkness of Antichristian idolatry; he was the first that translated the New Testament into English; but the art of printing not being then found out, it hardly escaped the inquisition of the Prelates, at least it was very scarce when Tyndal translated it a second time in 1527. He preached and published the very same doctrines for substance that afterwards obtained at the Reformation; he writ near two hundred volumes, all which were called in, condemned, and ordered to be burned, together with his bones, by the council of Constance, in the year 1425, forty-one years after his death; but his doctrine remained, and the number of his disciples who were distinguished by the name of Lollards increased after his decease, which gave occasion to the making sundry other severe laws against heretics.

The clergy made their advantage of the contentions between the houses of York and Lancaster; both parties courting their assistance, which they did not fail to make use of for the support of the Catholic faith (as they called it) and the advancement of their spiritual tyranny over the consciences of men. In the primitive times there were no capital proceedings against heretics, the weapons of the Church being only spiritual; but when it was found that ecclesiastical censures were not sufficient to keep men in a blind subjection to the Pope, a decree was obtained in the fourth council of Lateran, A.D. 1215, " That all heretics should be de"livered over to the civil magistrate to be burned." Here was the spring of that Antichristian tyranny and oppression of the consciences of men, which has since been attended

with a sea of Christian blood: The Papists learned it from the Heathen Emperors; and the most zealous Protestants of all nations have taken it up from them. Conscience cannot be convinced by fines and imprisonments, or by fire and faggot; all attempts of this kind serve only to make men hypocrites, and are deservedly branded with the name of persecution. There was no occasion for putting these sanguinary laws in execution among us till the latter end of the fourteenth century; but when the Lollards, or followers of Wickliffe, threatened the Papal power, the clergy brought this Italian drug from Rome, and planted it in the Church of England.

In the 5th year of Richard II. it was enacted, "That all "that preached without licence against the Catholic faith, 66 or against the laws of the land, should be arrested, and "kept in prison, till they justified themselves according to "the law and reason of Holy Church. Their commitment "was to be by writ from the Chancellor, who was to issue "forth commissions to the Sheriffs, and other the King's "ministers, after the Bishops had returned the names of the "delinquents into the court of Chancery."

When Richard II. was deposed, and the crown usurped by Henry IV. in order to gain the good will of the Clergy, it was further enacted, in the second year of his reign, "That "if any persons were suspected of heresy, the ordinary might "detain them in prison till they were canonically purged, or "did abjure their errors; provided always, That the pro"ceedings against them were publicly and judicially ended

within three months. If they were convicted, the diocesan, "or his commissary, might imprison and fine them at discre❝tion. Those that refused to abjure their errors, or after "abjuration relapsed, were to be delivered over to the secu"lar power, and the mayors, sheriff's, or bailiffs, were to be 66 present, (if required) when the bishop, or his commissary "passed sentence, and after sentence they were to receive "them, and in some high place burn them to death before the "people." By this law the King's subjects were put from under his protection, and left to the mercy of the bishops in their spiritual courts, and might, upon suspicion of heresy, be imprisoned and put to death, without presentment, or

trial by a jury, as is the practice in all other criminal

cases.

In the beginning of the reign of Henry V. who was a martial prince, a new law passed against the Lollards or Wickliffites, "That they should forfeit all the lands they “had in fee-simple, and all their goods and chattels to the "King. All state officers, at their entrance into office, were "sworn to use their best endeavors to discover them; and

to assist the ordinaries in prosecuting and convicting "them." I find no mention in any of these acts, of a writ or warrant from the King, de hæretico comburendo; the sheriff might proceed to the burning of heretics without it; but it seems the King's learned council advised him to issue out a writ of this kind to the sheriff, by which his Majesty took them, in some sort, under his protection again; but it was not as yet necessary by law, nor are there any of them to be found in the rolls, before the reign of King Henry VIII.

By virtue of these statutes the clergy, according to the genius of the Popish religion, exercised numberless cruelties upon the people. If any man denied them any degree of respect, or any of those profits they pretended was their due, he was immediately suspected of heresy, imprisoned, and it may be put to death; of which some hundreds of examples are upon record.†

*It marks the profaneness, as well as cruelty of the aet, here quoted by Mr. Neal, that it was not directed merely against the avowed followers of Wickliffe as such, but against the perusal of the Scriptures in English: For it enacted, "That whatsoever they were that should read "the Scriptures in the mother tongue, (which was then called WIC“LEUE's Learning) they should forfeit land, catel, lif, and godes from "theyr heyres for ever, and so be condempned for heretykes to God, ene"mies to the crowne, and most errant traitors to the lande." Emlyn's, Complete Collection of State Trials, p. 48, as quoted in Dr. Fleming's Palladium, p. 30, note.

So great an alarm did the doctrine of Wickliffe raise, and so high did the fear of its spread rise, that by the statute of 5 Rich. II. and 2 Hen. IV. c. 15, it was enacted as part of the sheriff's oath, "That he should "seek to repress all errors and heresies, commonly called Lollards.” And it is a striking instance of the permanent footing, which error and absurdity, and even iniquity, gain, when once established by law, that this clause was preserved in the oath long after the Reformation, even to the 1st of Charles I. when Sir Edward Coke, on being appointed sheriff of the county of Buckingham, objected to it; and ever since it has been left out. The Compleat Sheriff, p. 17. EDITOR.

Thus stood the laws with respect to religion, when King Henry VIII. second son of King Henry VII. came to the crown; he was born in the year 1491, and bred a scholar: He understood the purity of the Latin tongue, and was well acquainted with school divinity. No sort of flattery pleased him better than to have his wisdom and learning commended. In the beginning of his reign he was a most obedient son of the Papacy,and employed his talents in writing against Luther in defence of the seven sacraments of the Church. This book was magnified by the clergy as the most learned performance of the age; and upon presenting it to the Pope, his Holiness conferred upon the King of England, and his successors, the glorious title of DEFENDER OF THE FAITH: It was voted in full consistory, and signed by twenty-seven cardinals, in the year 1521.*

At the same time Cardinal Woolsey, the King's favourite, exercised a sovereign power over the whole clergy and people of England in spiritual matters; he was made legate in the year 1519, and accepted of a bull from the Pope, contrary to the statute of Præmunire, empowering him to superintend and correct what he thought amiss in both the provinces of Canterbury and York; and to appoint all officers in the spiritual courts. The King also granted him a full power of disposing of all ecclesiastical

†Thus, in the reign of Edward IV. John Keyser was committed to gaol, by Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, on the suspicion of heresy, because, having been excommunicated, he said, "That notwithstand"ing the Archbishop or his commissary had excommunicated him, yet, "before God, he was not excommunicated, for his corn yielded as well as his neighbors." Thus also, in the reign of Henry VII. Hilary Warner was arrested on the charge of heresy: because he said, "That he was not bound to pay tithes to the curate of the parish where he lived.” Coke's Institutes, 3 inst. p. 42, quoted in a treatise on heresy as cognizable in the spiritual courts. p. 22, 23. EDITOR.

*The extravagant praises which he received for this performance," observes Dr. Warner, " meeting with so much pride and conceit"eduess in his nature, made him from this time impatient of all contradiction on religious subjects, and to set up himself for the standard "of truth, by which his people were to regulate their belief." Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 228. We are surprised, in the event, to see this Prince, who was now "the pride of Popery, become its scourge." Such are the fluctuations in human characters and affairs, and so unsearchable are the ways of Providence! EDITOR.

Burnet's Hist. Ref. vol. i. p. 8.