Chap. I. The IISTORY of the PURITAN . fhire, about the year 1324. and was educated in Queen's College, Oxford, where he was divinity profeffor, and afterwards parfon of Lutterworth, inLeicejlerfhire. He flourifhed in the latter end of the reign of King Ed- ward III. and the beginning of Richard II. about one hundred and thir- ty years before the reformation of Luther. The univerfity gave this tef- timonial of him after his death, " That from his youth to the time of " his death, his converfation was fo praife-worthy, that there was never " any fpot, or fufpicion noifed of him; that in his reading and preach- " ing he behaved like a flout and valiant champion of the faith ; and " that he had written in logick, philofophy, divinity, morality, and the Fox's " fpeculative arts, without an equal." While hewas divinity profeffor at P YCe rol. Oxford he publifhed certain conclufions, againft tranfubjiantiation, and pindlcation, againft the infallibility of the Pope; that the church of Rome was not the p..3, q. head of all other churches; nor had St. Peter the power of the keys, any more than the roll of the apoftles; that the new teftament, or gofpel, is a per- feét rule of life and manners; and ought to be readby the people. He main- tained further, moll of thofe points by which the PURITANS were af- terwards ditlinguilhed ; as, that in the facrament of orders there ought to be only twodegrees, preJbyters or bifhops, and deacons; that all human tra- ditions are fuperfluous and finful; that we mutt praâife, and teach only, the laws of Chrift ; that myflical and fignificant ceremonies in religious worfhip are unlawful ; and, that to reflrain men to a prefcribed form of prayer, is contrary to the liberty granted them by God. Thefe, with force other of Wickliffes doctrines, againft the temporal grandeur of the prelates, and their ufurped authority, were fent toRome, and condemned by Pope Gregory XI. in a confiftory of twenty three cardinals, in the year I378. but the Pope dying foon after put a flop to the procefs. Urban, his fucceffor, wrote to young King Richard II. and to the Archbifhop of Canterbury, and univerfity of Oxford, to put a flop to the progrefs of Wickliffin ; accordingly, Wicklfé was cited before the archbithop of Canterbury, and his brethren the prelates, feveral times, but was always difmiffed, either by the intereft of the citizens of London, or the power- ful interpofitionof force great lords at court, or force other uncommon providence, which terrified the bifhops frompalling a peremptory fentence againfl him for a confiderable time ; till at length his new doftrines (as they were called) were condemned in a convocation of bithops, do fors and batchelors, held at London by the command of the Archbifhop- of Canterbury 1382. and he was deprived of his profefforfhip, his books and writings being ordered to be burned, and himfelf to be imprifoned : but he kept out of the way, and in the time of his retirement writ a con- feffion of his faith to the Pope, in which he declares hitnfelf willing to B z maintain 3
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=