the figures of rhetoric to a given subject; or to collect all the topics or commonplaces that are applicable to it. After this came a summary of the former day's lesson, and then the lecture of the day, on one of Cicero's speeches, was read, and the boys were examined upon it. The composition was to be on a given pattern. First, he was to explain his text, and to discriminate the various interpretations of it. Next, he was to elucidate the writer's art, and to display his tricks of composition, invention, disposition and style; the reasons of his dignity, his persuasiveness, or his power, and the rules of verisimilitude and illustration which he followed. Thirdly, the professor had to produce parallel or illustrative passages from other authors. Fourthly, he was to confirm the author's facts or sentiments by other testimony, or by the saws of the wise. Fifthly, he was to illustrate the passage in any other way he could think of. Each lecture did not necessarily include all these points; but such was the range and the order prescribed for the points that were adopted.

CHAPTER XII

THE REVOLT AGAINST AUTHORITY

THE few Readings contained in this chapter have been selected to illustrate first, the demands for church reform and the necessity for evolution to avoid revolution, and second, in case the reforms were refused, the natural consequences both to the reformer and to the Church.

One marked effect of the Revival of Learning in northern lands was the deepening of an impulse, already under way, for moral and religious reform. In France, England, and in German lands there had been many before Luther who objected to the practices of the Church. One of the earliest and most influential of these was John Wycliffe, in England. A hundred and fifty years before the Protestant Revolt broke in Germany he had attacked the methods of the Church in no uncertain terms. For this Pope Gregory XI had addressed Bulls to the King of England and to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and in 1377 had ordered the Chancellor of the University of Oxford to arrest Wycliffe and deliver him for trial. Selection 147 is illustrative of Wycliffe's attacks, attacks which found much sympathy among the English people. That the Pope was aware of this is evident from the closing injunction of his Bull to the Chancellor, where he says:

Besides, if there should be, which God forbid, in your university, subject to your jurisdiction, opponents stained with these [Wycliffe's] errors, and if they should obstinately persist in them, proceed vigorously and earnestly to a similar arrest and removal of them, and otherwise as shall seem good to you. Be vigilant to repair your negligence which you have hitherto shown in the premises, and so obtain our gratitude and favor.

Gregory's successor, Pope Urban VI, continued unsuccessfully to try to stop Wycliffe. Shortly after Wycliffe's death (1384) his followers replied to the charges against him, stating that they regarded Pope Urban as Antichrist and as bearing no resemblance to "Seint Petur in erthe," and attacked his life and doctrines. In particular they condemned the church theory of "indulgences,” as may be seen from selection 148. Wycliffe's work was deeply influential in England, and through court influences was carried

to Bohemia, where it led to the martyrdom of John Huss, in 1415. By the beginning of the fifteenth century the demand for church reform had become general. From 1378 to 1417 there were two Popes, one at Rome and one at Avignon, in France, each claiming to be the rightful successor, and the contest which took place between the two injured the Papacy greatly throughout Christendom. In 1414 a Council of the Church met at Constance, in Switzerland, to heal the breach, and, among other things, drew up a list of eighteen important reforms in church practices and procedure which it demanded, but unsuccessfully. These are enumerated in selection 149. Princes, legislative assemblies, citizens, priests, and sometimes even bishops protested in vain. Extracts from the protests of the Cathedral preacher at Strassburg, and his prediction of a religious revolt if matters were not remedied, are contained in selection 150, as typical of many of the time. Selection 151 reproduces fourteen of the ninety-five theses of Luther, as illustrating his point of view and the nature of the academic protests he at first made.

Gradually led from protest to open revolt, Luther was finally excommunicated from the Church, in 1520, and the Diet of Worms, in 1521, ordered him arrested and confined, his writings burned, and his sympathizers treated as he was to be. We can understand this attitude better if we remember that the heretic was the anarchist of the Middle Ages, and was virtually guilty of treason to the State. The selection from Saint Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica (152) will serve to make clearer the dangerous position of Luther and his followers, as viewed by the Church. The final selection (153) reproduces the English Act of Supremacy, which severed England from the Church of Rome and erected the King as head of the English Church and the defender of the faith in England.

147. Wycliffe on the Enemies of Christ

(Arnold, Thomas, Select English Works of John Wycliffe, vol. 1, p. 208.
Oxford, 1869)

John Wycliffe (1320?-84), a popular English preacher and Oxford divinity graduate, was led by a study of the Bible to attack many of the claims and practices of the Church. His revolt against authority was as direct and vigorous as the later revolt of Luther, but he lacked the printing-press which Luther had to

give effectiveness to his challenge. His attacks, however, deep

ened the English feeling of unrest. The following selection is a sample of his attacks, this being against the head of the Church in England for his opposition to the translation of the Bible into English, and naming the Pope and cardinals, bad bishops and rulers, and the mendicant friars as the three chief enemies of Christ. Wycliffe was only one of many who attacked the practices of the Church and the lives of its representatives in the days before Luther.

And herfore to greet Bishop Engelond, as men seien, is yvel paied (pleased) that Goddis lawe is writun in Englis, to lewide men (laymen); and he pursueth a preest, for that he writith to men this Englishe, and somonith him and traveilith him, that it is hard to him to rowte. And thus he pursueth another preest by the helpe of Phariseis, for he prechide Cristis gospel freeli withouten fadlis.

O men that ben on Cristis half, helpe ye now agens Anticrist! for the perilous tyme is comen that Crist and Poul telden bifore. Butt oo confort is of knygttis, that thei savoren myche the gospel and han wille to rede in Englishe the gospel of Cristis liif. For aftirward, if God wole, this lordship shal be taken from preestis; and so the staaff that makith hem hardi agens Crist and his lawe. The firste is the pope and cardinals, bi fals lawe that thei han made; the secounde is emperours (and) bishopis, whiche dispisen Cristis lawe; the thridde is thes Pharisees possessioners and beggeris. Alle thes three, Goddis enemyes, traveilen in ypocrisie, and in worldi coveitise, and idilnesse in Goddis lawe. Crist helpe his Chirche from these fendis, for thei figten perilously.

148. Wycliffe's Followers attack the Pope and the Practice of Indulgences

(Arnold, Thomas, Select English Works of John Wycliffe, vol. II, pp. 457-58. Oxford, 1870)

Wycliffe died in 1384, and shortly after his death his followers issued a defense, in which they charged the then Pope, Urban VI,

as being the Antichrist, and attacked, one hundred and thirtythree years before Luther's theses, the church theory as to indulgences. They said, in part:

Furste, that this pope Urban tho sixte beres not strength of Seint Petur in erthe, but thai affermen hym to be the son of Anticriste, and that no verrey pope was sith tho tyme of Silvester (I) pope.

Here Cristen men seyne pleynly, that whatever pope or other preste, in maner of lyvynge or techynge or lawis-makynge, contrarius Crist, is verrey Anticrist, adversary of Jesus Crist, and of his apostlis, ande of alle Cristen pepul. . . .

Tho secunde tyme, See ye Cristen pepl, tho willeful poverte of Jesus Crist, how he hade nougt by worldly lordschipe one howse where he mygt reste his heved, but lyved by temporale almes of Mary Mawdeleyne ande other holy wymmen, as tho gospel sais. Ande see ye wisely, whether oure popis, makyng stronge palayces with pore mennes lyvelodis, with al ther glorie of richesses and jewelis, acordem with this. poreness of Crist.

Tho thrid tyme, See, yee Cristen pepul, tho charitabul lyif of Crist, ande like whether oure popis contrarien hym. Where he was moste bisye in spirituale occupacione, these popis bene moste bisy in delynge of beneficis to him that moste muck brynggen or worldly favour.... Where Criste mekely travelid with grete penaunce upon his fete to preche tho gospel, these popes, more then emperoures, resten in palaycis chargid with pretious in ther feete and in al ther stynkynge carione, ande prechen not tho gospel to Cristen men, but crien ever aftur glorye and riches, and make newe lawes for to magnify ther worldly state, that Crist and his apostlis durste never do.

Where Crist gafe his precious blode and lyif for to make pes and charite, these popis maken ande mayntenys werre thoroweout Cristendame, for to hold ther worldly state, moste contrarie ageyne Crist and his apostlis, ande herto spenden tho almes of kyngis, and appressen Cristen rewenes by newe subsidies.

And, that is werst, thai senden indulgencis, foundid as thai faynen on Cristis charite and his dethe, to sle alle men contrarie to theire lustis. Certis this semes contrarious to Crist and his lovers. Seynt Robert Grosthede (Bishop of Lincoln) sais that this court is cause, welle, and begynnynge of destruccione of Cristendame, and loser of al tho worlde. Ande trewly, if thai be thus contrary to Crist in lyvynge and techyng, as ther open dedis and tho world crien, thai ben cursid heretikis, manquellars bodily and gostly, Anticrist, and Sathanas transfigurid into aungelis (of) ligt. Ande, as this worthi clerk Grosthede proves, ande certis no man is verrey pope but in als myche as he sewis Crist; and in so myche Cristen men wole do aftur hym, ande no more, for alle bulles and censuris, for no creature of God.