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Untitled Article
are referred to the later years of his life after the interference of the papal authority had succeeded in procuring his exclusion from the university . These writings appear to have been eagerly sought after , and circulated as extensively as the limited means which could be employed for that purpose , before the invention of printing , would permit ; as indeed we might infer from the number of copies of many of them which are still in existence , notwithstanding the diligence which was afterwards employed , during the persecution of his followers , to search out and destroy them .
There is good reason to believe that the writings of Wycliffe had a considerable influence on the doctrine afterwards maintained by the reformers of Bohemia . He himself , however , did not probably derive his opinions either from the Waldenses or any of those who had gone before him in protesting against the prevalent usurpations and corruptions . The writings of the most eminent of the fathers and the pages of inspiration were familiar to him at an early period , and to the end of his career these , as for as can be discerned , were almost exclusively his guides . Hence , in opposing
the spiritual power of the popes , and certain doctrinal corruptions of the hierarchy , the reformer evidently regards himself as associated with the devout men of very remote ages , but as standing almost alone in later times . The zeal , fervour , and eloquence , of his invectives against the corruptions of the Romish church , are not inferior to those of Luther himself , and indicate , if possible , a still more highly-toned courage , inasmuch as he did not enjoy , like the German reformer , a protection from the civil power which
secured the latter , for the most part , from personal danger . Indeed , on reading the open and undisguised avowals of doctrines stigmatized by the church as heretical , and the indignant exposures of the multiplied enormities of the pope , the clergy , and the friars , which abound in all his writings , one is apt to wonder by what combination of circumstances it happened that he did not undergo the same fate to which the bloody and vindictive spirit of an irritated priesthood , not long afterwards , doomed the most
illustrious of his disciples . Some have even insinuated that he escaped , on one occasion at least , by a temporizing policy , playing the hero while the danger was distant , and a less reputable character when it came near . But this charge appears to be quite unfounded . It is true that his confession on the subject of the eucharist , as p resented to the papal delegates , contains several strong expressions which go considerably further than any sect of Protestants , unless it be the Lutherans , could follow him ; it also abounds
in scholastic expressions , and what appear to us minute and frivolous distinctions ; at the same time he decidedly denies the actual change of the substance of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ , which is the distinguishing feature of the Romish doctrine . And we need not be told that the odium theologicum is not unfrequently in the inverse ratio of the importance of the points of difference . We must look for other causes of the comparative immunity which
Wycliffe was permitted to enjoy , in the powerful personal influence he exercised at Oxford , in his popularity with the citizens ,- in the protection of John of Gaunt , and , above all , in the papal schism which commenced at this critical period , and so unpleasantly occupied the attention of the church . These causes probably arrested , from time to time , the arm of vengeance , till its destined victim had finished his appointed work , and was removed beyond its reach . But many passages are quoted by Mr . V . which evidently indicate a mind fulj y nerved to meet the last conflict , and prepared to encounter opposition and persecution in their most formidable
Untitled Article
612 Review . —Life and Opinions of John de frycliffe , D . D .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1828, page 612, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2564/page/28/
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