all would be regarded as immediate agents of the Evil Potentate-all would appear to be revelling, as it were, in that carnival of wickedness and delusion, which was to precede the final consummation of all things.

Something of this sort of half-fanatical excitement occasionally betrays itself in the writings and the labours of the Reformer. It may possibly be this which helped to reconcile him to those hazardous speculations, which were thought to menace the rights of property, and to hold up all wicked men to public hatred, not merely as unworthy members of society, but as little better than robbers and usurpers. It is this too, we may reasonably presume, which often prompted him to describe the whole hierarchy of that day as clerks of Anti-Christ, and servants of the Fiend; and to represent the Mendicant Orders as the "tail of the dragon, which drew a third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them on the earth." And though he is always for sparing the persons of clerical delinquents, he frequently speaks like one who is prepared for a sweeping destruction of their whole apparatus of iniquity. The extreme danger of such feelings and opinions may now, of course, be easily discerned but even they who most cordially disapprove them, must, at least, be prepared to allow, that they assisted to swell the torrent which was destined to cleanse away the Augean accumulation of ages.

CHAPTER X.

Wiclif's Poor Priests-Wiclif's tract, Why Poor Priests have no Benefices," viz. 1. Their dread of simony-2. Their fear of mis-spending the goods of poor men—3. That Priests are obliged to preach, whether beneficed or not-John Aston-John Purney —William Swinderby-William Thorpe-Nicolas HerefordPhilip Repingdon-Richard Fleming-Knighton's representation of Wiclif's followers-The fanatic John Balli, not a Disciple of Wiclif-The Insurrection of the Peasantry falsely ascribed to Wiclif and his followers-Attributed by the Commons to the oppression of the Peasantry-Encouragement afforded to Wiclif by the great-Edward III.-Johanna, Queen Dowager John of Gaunt-Anne, Queen of Richard II.—Richard II. Various Noblemen and Knights-Lord Cobham.

Wiclif's Poor
Priests.

Ir has already been intimated, that the doctrines and principles of Wiclif were disseminated almost throughout the realm by the exertions of certain travelling preachers, whom he denominates" Poor Priests;" and whose activity and usefulness is occasionally celebrated by him in the course of his later writings. A brief account of this class of persons may, therefore, properly find a place in this work. There can be little doubt that these are the individuals alluded to in the preamble to that unconstitutional ordinance which was obtained by archbishop Courtney in 1382; in which we have seen them described as persons affecting peculiar sanctity B b

and simplicity of manners, and making the fairs and markets through the kingdom, as well as the churches and church-yards, the scene of their irregular ministrations. Most irregular they unquestionably were; for they were performed in open disregard of ecclesiastical authority. None of these zealous men ever thought it necessary to obtain the sanction of a licence from his ordinary; and, with all of them, itinerancy was the very life and soul of their vocation. By their itinerant labours, it will be recollected, the Mendicant Orders had, for a time, achieved wonders in reviving the torpid faith of Europe, or, at least, in rekindling her fidelity to the visible head of the Church upon earth. It might, therefore, very naturally occur to a reformer, that the instrument, which accomplished so much for the cause of superstition, might very profitably be employed in the service of reformation. Accordingly, towards the latter part of his life, the kingdom was traversed, nearly from one end of it to the other, by a multitude of preachers, under the sanction and encouragement of Wiclif. They imitated the Friars in their vagrant mode of life, in their incessant activity, and in their professed renunciation of all worldly pomp and superfluity; and, though they did not solicit contributions from house to house, they, undoubtedly, relied for their support on the voluntary bounty of their hearers.

Wiclif's tract, "Why Poor

Priests have no benefices."

A full exposition of the habits and the principles of these effective auxiliaries is given us by Wiclif himself in his treatise, "Why Poor Priests have no benefices,” and, consequently, why they have no fixed or stationary duties. In this tract, three principal reasons

are assigned for their adopting this mode of advancing the cause of scriptural truth. Of these 1. Their dread of reasons, the first is, their dread of si- simony. mony. No man, it is alleged, could, in those days, obtain a benefice, without making certain payments, or submitting to certain conditions, which, as they imagined, gave a most unholy and mercenary character to the appointment. The prelate had his demand for first-fruits; and his officers had their demand for fees and gratuities; and to acquiesce in such extortions, as a condition of being allowed to exercise their ministry, was conceived to be, in spirit, grossly simoniacal. The exactions of the lay-patron, it seems, would often be of a still more degrading nature for the nominee, on accepting his benefice, would be expected to violate his sacred character by descending to the performance of some worldly office, for the gratification or the profit of his benefactor. To pay for their preferment by such a desecration of themselves, they regarded as simony of the very deepest die. All who were unmolested by these scruples, whatever might be the profligacy of their lives, found but little difficulty in obtaining benefices involving the care of many thousand souls; while they who manifested nothing but a desire to live righteously and soberly, and to teach truly the law of God, had little to expect but slander and persecution. They were stigmatized as hypocrites, as teachers of novelties, or, to comprehend all enormities in a single word, as heretics. Against them, therefore, the door of promotion was hopelessly closed up. The laity, indeed, as Wiclif further informs us, would occasionally abstain from the exaction of pecuniary pay

ments, in the exercise of their patronage; but then they hoped to disguise the simoniacal character of the transaction, by accepting nothing but "a kerchief for the lady, or a palfry, or a tun of wine:” and, even if the lord himself were desirous of presenting a man purely for his worth, the lady would frequently interfere, and contrive that "a dancer should be presented, or a tripper on tapits, or a hunter, or a hawker, or a wild player of summer gambols." All these practices are loudly condemned by Wiclif, as treasonable to the majesty and holiness of God; and as involving in the most odious guilt of simony the patron who presents, the prelate who institutes, the curate who accepts the benefice, and, finally, the confessor who fails to reprobate such proceedings, whenever they fall within his knowledge. The poor priests, therefore, finding the path to preferment so fearfully beset by sin, felt themselves constrained by conscience, to the exercise of an irregular and unlicensed ministry 1.

2. Their fear of "mis-spending the goods of poor men."

Another of their scruples arose from their extreme apprehension of "misspending the goods of poor men." Every portion of clerical emolument that might remain, after supplying the most moderate exigencies of nature, was regarded by them as the rightful patrimony of the indigent; whereas, the usages of those days, as they affirmed, compelled the clergy to waste this sacred residue on the rich, the worthless, and the idle. The rapacity of patrons and prelates, and ecclesiastical functionaries, together with the custom

1 Vaughan, vol. iii. p. 164–166.