At the head of his disciples must be placed the itinerant preachers, who had been instructed by the Reformer, and sent forth to proclaim his doctrines, in every part of the kingdom. These he called by the humble and familiar name of" Poor Priests." Some of them were persons of education, and talents, and eloquence; others were more distinguished for their humble piety, and fervent zeal in the cause of truth, than for their literary acquisitions. Whatever their pretensions to education, and however different their former habits of living, they all adopted the same methods for propagating the doctrines of their instructor. Furnished with a portion of the Sacred Text, and perhaps a few of the popular tracts of the Reformer, they took their staves and went forth, preaching everywhere the truths of the Gospel and the principles of the Reformation. In those days, as in earlier times, the common people heard the Gospel most gladly,—and some of the priests, too, were obedient unto the faith. Even some of "Caesar's household" received the truth in the love of it. The Romanists tell us, that the people were flattered by being made judges of the truth; the poor priests always appealing to the Scriptures, for proof of what they taught. A precious confession this. It forcibly reminds us of what took place some fourteen hundred years before John Wickliffe's time; when certain poor priests were sent forth to preach a new doctrine to a corrupt hierarchy; which, singer-a Lullenhard, or Lollard, was one much engaged in singing. And when applied to a religionist, it was equivalent to one much employed in religious worship-much engaged in singing God's praises. When applied to heretics, as a nickname, it was equivalent to hypocrite, or one who made great pretensions to piety; just as the term "praying-ones" or "godly-ones," is used to this day. See a long note on this subject in Mosheim, Cent. XIV. P. II. Chap. 2, note 68.

when the people heard, and doubted, they "Searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so." The result in both cases was the same- 66 Therefore, many of of them believed;"-Acts 17: 11, 12. The prevalence of these "revolutionary principles" alarmed the pope and his bishops, and their clergy. And well they might be alarmed; for, we are told: If you met two persons in the high-way, one of them, you might be sure was a Lollard. Nor were these opinions confined to the vulgar; Oxford, if we may believe the archbishop of Canterbury, "was tainted with novel and damnable Lollardism, to the intol erable and notorious scandal of the University."

To suppress this growing heresy, the clergy, after employing in vain, the bulls of the pope and the mandatories of the bishops, surreptitiously obtained an act of parliament, "requiring sheriffs to apprehend the preachers of heresy and their abettors."* The Commons protested against this act, as fraudulently obtained, without their consent or knowledge. The clergy, nevertheless, had art and power sufficient to prevent the repeal of the act, "which remains this day upon the statute book;"+ and is memorable in English history as the first act by which the secular arm was made the instrument of clerical persecution. This law was made as early as 1381, in the life time of Wickliffe. It was, however, so unpopular with the Commons, and withal, so fraudulently obtained, that the bishops were too politic to press its immediate application. They were hoping for better days; and such days were near at hand.

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In 1388, commissioners were appointed in different counties, to hunt up and seize all "the little books of Wickliffe. And a royal proclamation was made, forbid

* Hume's Richard II. Chap. 17. Neal's Hist. Pur, Vol. I. p. 54. + Hume.

ding all persons to use these "pernicious writings," or to maintain the "scandalous opinions which they contained."*

Still the Lollards multiplied; and about the year 1394, pope Boniface IX, thought it necessary to address an urgent request to the king and the church of England, "to root out and destroy the maintainers of doctrines, subversive of the state, both civil and ecclesiastical."

In the year 1399 the incompetent Richard II. was dethroned and murdered by the ambitious and powerful duke of Lancaster, the son of Wickliffe's patron and protector, who usurped the throne, under the title of Henry.IV.

Coming to the throne by violence, and destitute of any just title, Henry thought it necessary to court the favor of the clergy by giving them their heart's desire, in the form of a law against heretics. By this law the bishops were empowered to try, imprison, and fine at discretion, all heretical persons. "Those that refused to abjure their errors, or after abjuration relapsed, were to be delivered over to the secular power, and the mayors, sheriffs, or bailiffs were to be 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.”+

This was the first penal enactment against heretics, which disgraced the English statute book. It was aimed against the Lollards; and opened that bloody campaign which, for centuries, continued to destroy such as endeavored to conform to the apostolic model in their faith and worship.

This law was made in 1401; and its fiery penalty was soon inflicted on one of the disciples of the illustrious Reformer.

* Le Bas, p. 360, 361.

t Neal's Puritans, Vol. I. p. 54; Hume's Henry IV.

That the reader may have at one view all the machinery of persecution, before the details of its operations are considered, I will, for the present, pass over the short and turbulent reign of Henry IV, to that of his son and successor, the warlike Henry V.

“The Lollards,” says Hume in his account of this reign, "were every day increasing in the kingdom, and were become a formed party, which appeared extremely dangerous to the church, and even formidable to the civil authority." If the Lollards were formidable and dangerous, it was simply because they were opposed to the usurpations and lyranny of both church and state. To ward off these formidable dangers, the reigning powers of the realm thought it necessary to give additional edge to the laws against the lovers of scriptural truths. Accordingly, in the beginning of Henry's reign—i. e. about the year 1413-a new law was 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 [i. e. the judges of the bishop's court] in prosecuting and convicting them."

The peculiar violence of this law appears from the fact, that it was levelled against all who should presume to read the Scriptures in the English tongue; which was then termed "Wicleue's Learning." It was enacted: "That whatsoever they were that should read the Scriptures in the mother tongue, they should forfeit land, catel, lif, godes, from theyr heyres forever, and so be condempned for heretykes to God, enemies to the crowne, and most errant trai. tors to the lande."+

t See Neal's Pur. Vol. I. p. 55 and note; Hume's Hen. V.

But, bitter as was the cup of persecution already forced upon the miserable Lollard, there were new ingredients to be added by the hand of the infamous Chicheley, archbishop of Canterbury. In 1416, this "firebrand of the age" drew up and promulgated an ecclesiastical law, requiring "all suffragans and archdeacons, with their officials and commissaries, to make inquisition, twice in every year, after persons suspected of heresy. Wherever reputed heretics were reported to dwell, three or more of the parish were compelled to take an oath that they would certify to the suffragans, or their officers, what persons were heretics, who kept private conventicles, who differed in life and manners from the common conversation of the faithful, who had suspected books in the vulgar tongue, or were conversant with persons suspected of error. On such information, process was to issue against the accused, who were to be delivered over to the secular court, or imprisoned till the next convocation."*

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By this accursed ordinance," says Le Bas, "the horfors of the writ for burning heretics were completed. It set up an inquisition in every parish. It sent terror and distrust into every family. Every dwelling was haunted by discord and suspicion: so that a man's bitterest foes were often those of his own household and blood. And the fruits of this flagitious system were, that multitudes were consigned to the dungeon or the stake, by the treachery, or the weakness of their nearest kindred, or their dearest connections."

Such were the merciless laws under which the Wickliff. ites groaned for more than a hundred years; or to the time of the Reformation, in the days of Henry VIII.

In addition to the encouragement given the clergy to per

Wilkins's Concilia, Vol. III. p. 378, quoted by Le Bas, p. 369.