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Untitled Article
appears to have been of a political rather than a religious or theological character ; relating to the despotic pretensions and mercenary spoliations of the court of Rome , rather than to its doctrines or the authority of the church in matters of faith , which none of them appear to have questioned before the time of Wycliffe .
"It appears then , " our author observes , " as the result of the facts adduced in these introductory chapters , that the papal system exhibits so great a corruption of the Christian worship , polity , and doctrine , as to render the traces of their original purity , discoverable in Europe during the middle ages , but so many exceptions to the faith and customs which every where prevailed . It is conceded that the hostilities directed against that vast usurpation may not always have originated in Christian motives , nor have
been always sustained by Christian feeling ; but that such was their general character is certain . It has also appeared that the means employed to crush such movements were in general truly worthy of the causes which had led to so gross a perversion of the highest good conferred on man ; being chiefly remarkable for their contempt of honour , justice , and humanity ! In England , the most serious costs and the worst disgrace imposed on the nations by the papacy , were too long submitted to , and if the horrors of the
Albigensian massacres were not reacted in her cities , it was perhaps , chiefly , because , amid her various opposition to that lawless power , there was little , till toward the close of the fourteenth century , that could be branded with the name of heresy . We have also seen that through nearly two centuries , prior to the appearance of Wycliffe , the crime of heresy had become so connected with the loathing or the terror of the popular mind , that amidst commercial enterprise , the partial revival of letters , and some advances in the
science of government , the signs of a religious reformation which had illumined a portion of the continent , to the dawn of the twelfth century , were no more perceived . The power of the church had been wielded to intimidate ; and through nearly two hundred years , its evil purpose had appeared to be nearly achieved , hut in the inind of Wycliffe , the opinions which
persecution had consigned to the most cautious secrecy , were generously embraced . Even his labours may be described as premature , but the shadowy interval between his decease and the appearance of the great German reformer , passes away like those mists which frequently linger for a while on the morning horizon , as if to heighten the contrast between the twilight and the day . " I . pp . 213 , 214 .
Of the earlier part of Wycliffe ' s life little is known , except that it was spent entirely or chiefly at Oxford , and occupied , doubtless , in a great measure , by the then prevalent pursuits and studies of the place . In these there is every reason to believe that he became no mean proficient ; but it is impossible to suppose that they entirely engrossed his attention . We have not , indeed , in his works , any record of his devotion to other more important inquiries which can be referred to this period , but the rich display of theological and
practical wisdom which distinguished his later years , and the rapid profusion with which these treasures were poured forth , cannot be accounted for except on the presumption that he had long been engaged in their accumulation , and that in secret he had long formed and matured those views , not only of the usurpation , but of the antichristian faith of the Romish church , which waited for a more favourable combination of events to bring them to light ,
' ^ Whfle , however , it would have been indeed surprising if Wycliffe had not inibifoed' the sentiment of the age , respecting the importance of this philosophy / it'was almost impossible that such a mind should have become so comp letely versed id Ha jmucipleB , without some misgivings as to the justice of ite vast pretensions . . »•
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& 1 O Review . —Life and Opinions of John de Wydiffe , D . JK
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1828, page 610, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2564/page/26/
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