When, in 1372, Arnold Garnier, a French Dominican, arrived as papal nuncio and receiver of dues, Wiclif drew up a pamphlet showing precisely how these exactions operated. Again, in October 1377, on the assembling of the first Parliament under Richard II., when the question was raised whether it was right for England, in defiance of the Pope's orders and his threat of ecclesiastical penalties, to restrain the outflow of national treasures to foreign shores, Wiclif supported the affirmative.

Principles.

Meanwhile he had been busy defining for himself and for others the principles upon which his actions were based. These are revealed in a work entitled Summa in Theologia, in which the nature of authority is discussed in all its bearings. Wiclif's conception of the Church, as here presented to us, is simple in the extreme. Like Marsilio, he rejects the hierarchical system as a thing which had been grafted on the plain teaching of the Gospel, and slights the distinction between clerk and layman, between priest and bishop. Also the office of the Pope is accepted with considerable reserves. The idea of papal infallibility was not then in the air, and Wiclif boldly affirms that the Pontiff's decrees are binding only in so far as they harmonise with the laws of Christ. Consistently with this avowal, in all his subsequent course he manifests an everlessening regard for the papacy and an ever-increasing reverence for the Bible. Nor did he shrink from giving, as far as possible, full practical effect to his convictions.

Influenced it may be by the appearance in its complete and final form of Piers Ploughman, Wiclif began to employ the popular speech for

"Pore preestes." sermons, for controversial pamphlets, for

moral and didactic tracts, thus inviting the attention of the laity to points of doctrine hitherto reserved for the clergy. Not content with written addresses, the circulation of which, in that age of ignorance, would have been too limited, he founded an order of itinerant preachers, who travelled from place to place with a staff in their hands, and arrayed in long crimson robes of coarse wool. These persons were commonly known as "pore preestes," but they gradually came to include many who were not ordained. Like the first disciples, they were, for the most part, "unlearned and ignorant men." Wiclif, however, made up for their defects by putting into their hands model discourses, and, often enough, sketches of the sermons they afterwards preached to the multitude. Herein he was probably assisted by a circle of devoted Oxford friends, both old and young, who had been persuaded to adopt his opinions. These deliverances, in their piquant satire, their direct and forcible style, their homely images, are not altogether unlike those of Latimer in the time of the great Reformation.

Even this did not suffice. The "pore preeste," unlettered as he generally was, could never be fully Translation of equipped whilst the Bible remained, to the Bible. so large an extent, a sealed book. The special views Wiclif held as to the unique authority of Scripture and the right of the laity to a richer

participation in the life of the Church, marked him out as, beyond all others, the man best fitted for this difficult, and, in many ways, novel task. In order to ensure its completion he drew to his side a collaborator, Dr Nicholas of Hereford, to whom he entrusted the Englishing of the Old Testament, while he reserved to himself the translation of the New. Wiclif's personal contribution was successfully made, and a similar remark will apply to the Canonical books of the Old Testament. With reference to the Apocrypha, Hereford had arrived at Baruch iii. 20, when, his life being in danger, he suddenly vanished, With this exception Wiclif might claim the proud distinction of being the originator, and in part author, of the first complete version of the Bible in the English tongue. This was a great achievement; but, as might be anticipated in a first attempt, the work was not in all respects satisfactory. Its prime defect, which Wiclif considered perhaps its chief virtue, lay in the circumstance that the translator's hand was too plainly revealed. The grand principle, apparently, which influenced both Wiclif and Hereford, was scrupulous fidelity to the Vulgate, and if greater experience in the composition of English rendered Wiclif's version less awkward and stiff than those of his yoke-fellow, it did not prevent even his style from swarming with Latinisms. His translation, completed about 1380, was revised and much modernised by John Purvey no later than 1388.

Little more can be said as to Wiclif's public proceedings; his permanent breach with the mendicant

orders, on whose iniquities he poured the whole wealth. of his sarcasm; his rejection of the doctrine of transubstantiation; and the odium theologicum these things brought upon him. The general effect of his conduct. was to defeat, or, at least, to postpone, the realisation of his hopes. The authorities were alarmed, and adopted vigorous measures for repressing the new heresy. Wiclif himself was fain to retire to his Leicestershire living, where he spent the remainder of his days, peacefully enough, in ministering to his flock and writing fresh sermons and treatises.1 He died, from a stroke of apoplexy, on St Sylvester's day, 1384.

1 See Select English Works of John Wyclif, ed. T. Arnold, M.A.: Oxford, 1871, with the supplement of F. D. Matthew (E.E.T.S., 1880). A good edition of Wiclif's translation of the Bible is that of J. Forshall and Sir F. Madden (4 vols.: Oxford University Press, 1850), entitled, The Holy Bible in the Earliest English Versions made from the Latin Vulgate, by John Wycliffe and his Followers.

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CHAPTER IX.

CONCLUSION.

ALTHOUGH such a process necessarily involves repetition, it is desirable, before closing the record, to "tabulate" the results obtained in the preceding pages -in other words, to exhibit, without special regard to authors or countries, the qualities characterising the period as a whole. The fourteenth century differs from earlier ages in being a time of great personalities. For centuries there had been no commanding name -no Homer, no Virgil even-to bespeak the homage of contemporaries and successors. Dante, it is true, speaks in high terms of Arnaut Daniel, but such compliments show the nakedness of the land, and Dante, moreover, knew nothing of Walther von der Vogelweide, sweetest and freshest of lyrical poets. Even Walther, however, though he carols charmingly, rises as the lark rises. He does not tower above his fellows by virtue of his own bulk; and, again, while his note is sweet, his plumage is plain. Perchance, in another age, he might have grown to larger proportions and