CHAP. "formation of several very worthy to be credited, that John IV. "Wiclif, Rector of Lutterworth in the diocese of Lin"coln, and Professor of Divinity, he wished he was not a "master of errors, had rashly proceeded to that detesta" ble degree of madness, as not to be afraid to assert, dog"matize, and publicly to preach such propositions as are " erroneous and false, contrary to the faith, and threaten"ing to subvert and weaken the estate of the whole "Church. He therefore requires them privately to inform "themselves whether or no he did teach such conclusions "as were in the schedule he had sent them inclosed in his "Bull; and if they found that he did so, that they should "cause the said John Wiclif to be apprehended by his "authority, and laid in gaol; and that they should endea

Coll. No.14.

Coll. No.13.

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vour to get his confession concerning the said proposi"tions and conclusions; and the confession, and whatever "the said John shall say or write by way of induction or " proof of the same propositions, and whatsoever else they " should do in the premises, they should transmit to him " by a faithful messenger, sealed with their own seals, and " disclosed to nobody; and that they should keep the said "John in sure custody, until they received his further "commands touching this matter."

In a second Bull to the same venerable persons, the Pope orders them, that " in case they cannot apprehend the said "John Wiclif, and put him in prison, they should fix a " citation in such public places as were most likely to con"vey the knowledge of it to the said Wiclif, for his per"sonally appearing before the Pope within three months, " to be reckoned from the day of the date of the citation."

In a third Bull of the same date, to the same persons, the Pope commands them " to cause King Edward, and the " sons and kindred of the said King, the Princess of Aqui"tain and Wales, and others of the English nobility, and the "King's counsellors, to be fully instructed by themselves "and other Doctors, and men skilled in the sacred letters "who are not defiled with these errors, but are sincere and

IV.

"fervent in the faith; and that it be shewn to them that CHAP. "these conclusions are not only erroneous with respect " to the faith, but that they infer an utter destruction of all " polity or government; and that they straitly require them, "that for the extirpation of so great errors they would " effectually contribute their favour and assistance."

The Pope likewise wrote to the * King himself to desire * K. Edw. he would afford the patronage of his favour and assistance III. to the aforesaid Bishops in the prosecution of Wiclif. "He begins with commending the kingdom over which Coll. No.16. "his Majesty ruled, as glorious in power and riches, but " more illustrious for the piety of its faith, and for its using

coruscum

" to shine with the brightness of the sacred page: then he Sacræ pagi" tells his Majesty, that with great bitterness of heart he næ claritate "had understood by the intimation of men worthy of cre-consuevit. "dit, that John de Wiclif, Rector of the Church of Lutter"worth, in the diocese of Lincoln, Professor of Divinity, "had broached opinions full of errors, and containing mani"fest heresy, some of which seemed to be the same with "those of Marcillus de Padua, of condemned memory, and "John de Gandun, who stands condemned by Pope John "XXII. of happy memory: and that therefore he being " willing not to overlook so great an evil, had commission"ed his venerable brethren the Archbishop of Canterbury, " &c. to prosecute the said John Wiclif: and since in such a "prosecution they would need the favour and assistance of "his Highness, he therefore earnestly prays him, that for "the reverence he bore to God, to the faith, and to the "Apostolic see, he would grant them his favour and protec

"tion."

The two persons here mentioned, Marsilius de Padua, and John de Gandun, or Jandun, (whose opinions the Pope, in his several Bulls to the King, the Archbishop, and Universities, says Dr. Wiclif seems to have broached,) Bellarmin. stand condemned in an Extravagant of Pope John XXII. for Chronol. holding, that St. Peter, and consequently his successors, p. 111. was not the Head of the Church. John de Ganduno, or of Dupin, EcGaunt, or, according to others, de Laon, was a lawyer who clesiast.

IV.

CHAP. flourished about 1330 or 1338, and wrote a treatise a Of the Power of the Church, which is now lost. Dupin observes of him, that in opposing the false pretensions of the Pope, he ran into the opposite extreme, and attributed to princes too much, and debased the authority of the Prelates. Marsilius was a very celebrated lawyer, and counsellor to his Imperial Majesty A. D. 1324. At which time, not enduring that the Emperor's dignity should be so trampled on, as it then was, by the papal tyranny, he wrote and pub

lished a book entitled, A Defender of the Peace, or of the Fasciculus Imperial and Pontificial State, against the usurped JurisdicRerum, &c. tion of the Pope of Rome. In this book he shewed, "that

66

so far was the Emperor from being a subject of the Pope's, "that the Pope ought to submit to him, and that not only in "temporals, but also in spirituals, as to the outward govern"ment or discipline of the Church." He likewise proved very largely, that "by divine right the Popes of Rome have "not the least prerogative of power or preeminence above " other Bishops." This put Pope John, who was then in the chair, into a very great rage, and therefore three years after he published the decree above mentioned, wherein he declares John of Gaunt and Marsilius to be heretics, and devotes them to eternal destruction.

By this we may see what Dr. Wiclif's great crime was, viz. his opposing the papal supremacy and ecclesiastical liberty, as it was called, a pretence not so much as once thought of in the Church's purer times, but now carried to that extravagant height, as that the Pope claimed not only to be a successor of the prince of the Apostles, but even to be the sovereign lord of kings, and the arbitrary disposer of kingdoms. But to return.

At the same time that the Pope sent these four Bulls, a Bull of the very same date with them was dispatched to the University of Oxford, and sent by a particular messenger, one Edmund Stafford; in which the Pope tells them, that

IV.

"he is obliged to admire and lament that through a sort CHAP. " of sloth and laziness they permit tares to spring up " among the pure wheat of the glorious field of their Uni"versity, and, which is more pernicious, even to grow ripe, " without applying any care to broot them out: that he was "the more sensibly tormented, for that the increase of these "tares was perceived at Rome before it was taken any no" tice of in England, where yet the remedy ought to be ap"plied: that he had been informed that John de Wiclif, " &c. had broken out into that detestable madness, as even "in the kingdom of England, glorious for its power and "wealth, but more glorious for its illustrious faith and "piety, &c. to dogmatize and preach publicly some propo"sitions that are erroneous and false, and savouring of he"retical pravity, and which also tend to subvert the state " of the whole Church, and even the civil government: he "therefore strictly commands the University, in virtue of " their obedience to the holy See, and under the penalty of " being deprived of all graces, indulgences, and privileges "granted to them and the University by the said see, "that for the future they suffer none to teach any of the " said conclusions: and that they take or cause to be taken " by his (the Pope's) authority, the said John Wiclif, and de"liver him up in safe custody to the Archbishop of Canter"bury and Bishop of London, or either of them, and that "they should take the same course with those that op"posed the execution of this Bull, or who were defiled "with these errors."

This Bull, it seems, was far enough from being any way Walsingacceptable to the University. When they first heard of the ham, Hist. reason of the coming of the Pope's Nuncio, who brought 205, 209. this Bull to them a few days before Christmas, the Heads continued for some time uncertain whether they should

IV.

CHAP. receive the Bull with honour, or wholly reject it with disgrace. And accordingly when they had received it, the commands contained in it were obeyed very coldly, and with very little devotion.

June 21, 1377.

Before these Bulls reached England, which they seem * He died not to have done till November this year, 1377, *King Edward was dead: however, the Archbishop and Bishop of London proceeded to execute the Pope's Bulls; and not being able to get Dr. Wiclif delivered up to them by the University of Oxford, who plainly favoured and proColl. No.17. tected him, they issued out their mandate to the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and diocese of Lincoln, in Le Neve's which Wiclif was beneficed, who at this time was Adam Fasti, de Toneworth, or his deputy; in which they recited the p. 441. tenor of the Pope's Bull mentioned before, of which they sent him a copy, and " enjoined him in all things to exe"cute it diligently and faithfully. They likewise com"manded him to call to his assistance such divines as were " skilful and orthodox, to inform himself privately of the "asserting the conclusions sent to them by the Pope, of "which they gave him a copy, and to certify to them in "their letters sealed with the University seal, what they " found and thought of them. Moreover, they commanded "him to cite or cause to be cited peremptorily John Wic"lif to appear personally before them in the church of "St. Paul's, London, the thirtieth court-day after the date " of this citation, which was Thursday, the 19th of Fe"bruary."

Cotton's A

Before this day came, King Richard the Second's first Parbridg.p.154. liament met at Westminster on the 13th of October. DurMS. in Hyperoo Bodi. ing the reign of King Edward III. the Popes keeping their Sir Roger residence at Avignon, and being many of them Frenchmen, Twisden, their partiality to their own country, and the many victo

No. 163.

Hist. Vind. p. 76.

ries obtained by the English over the French, occasioned the following proverb: Ore est Pape devenu François, et le su devenu Anglois, &c. About which time, our historians observe, that Prince commanded that no Peter-pence should be gathered or paid to the Popes, which prohibition conti