Wiclif discarded the power of the Pope; denounced the Roman Pontiff as Antichrist; and denied that the bread and wine in the Sacrament were turned into the real body and blood of Christ. He declared that the gospel is a sufficient rule of life for every man; and taught, that if a man be truly penitent towards God, it is sufficient without making confession to the priests; that Friars are bound to get their living by the labour of their hands, and not by begging; that greatness among Christ's disciples does not consist in worldly dignity or honours, but in the exact imitation of their Saviour; and that Christ never meant that his truth should be locked up in a learned language which the poor cannot understand.

Those doctrines Wiclif preached at Oxford with apostolic boldness. Many rapidly embraced them; and the Prelates, Monks and Priests became prodigiously alarmed. A violent outcry was raised against Wiclif; and the Inquisitors cited him to appear before them in synod, to answer for his conduct. Wiclif, accompanied by the Duke of Lancaster and Percy the Earl Marshal, attended. Just as the trial was commencing a high altercation arose between the Duke of Lancaster and the Popish prelates, whether Wiclif should be allowed to sit. The Duke so threatened the Inquisitors with punishment, that the synod was dissolved in great confusion.

The Pope, however, becoming alarmed at the progress of the evangelical doctrines which Wiclif

and his disciples proclaimed in every direction; for they travelled constantly about England preaching the gospel; sent a bull to the university of Oxford sharply rebuking them for not having destroyed Wiclif's errors; and also commanded the prelates to have Wiclif apprehended and imprisoned. At the second meeting of the prelates, Wiclif boldly avowed his sentiments in contradiction to the papistical tenets; but so many persons were converted to his opinions, and he was so powerfully protected; that his persecutors were afraid to proceed; and like the Jewish Sanhedrim with the apostles Peter and John, they "straitly threatened him, and commanded him not to speak at all nor preach in the name of Jesus."

Wiclif, paying less regard to the injunctions of the bishops than to his duty to God, continued to promulgate his doctrines, and gradually to unveil the truth to the eyes of men. He translated the Bible into English, which was as the sun breaking forth in a dark night. To the Bible he prefixed a bold preface, and reflected on the immoralities of the clergy, and condemned the worship of saints, images, and the corporal presence of Christ in the sacrament. But the greatest offence to the priests was, his exhorting all people to read the scriptures.

Some time after, the enemies of Wiclif prevailed, and a law was passed to imprison him and his followers. That was the beginning of a furious persecution, which was carried on against him without mercy.

Wiclif was appointed rector of Canterbury col lege; but notwithstanding his unbounded popu larity, and the universal approbation with which he executed the duties of his office, he was displaced by order of the Pope. He then became minister at Lutterworth. During his residence there, he was obliged, for a short period, to conceal himself from the fury of his priestly persecutors. But by the providence of God, the storm passed away, and he returned to his pastoral charge at Lutterworth. There he remained unmolested until his death; enjoying his latter days in external quietude, with christian serenity and peace.

Forty-one years after Wiclif had slept in Jesus, his bones were disinterred and publicly burnt; and the ashes cast into the river by order of the Council of Constance.

Wiclif's doctrines did not die with him. All the efforts of his enemies could not crush his followers in England. Some they burnt, others they imprisoned or barbarously tortured, yet still they boldly bore testimony to the truth, and with such success, that "two men could not be found together, and one not a Lollard or Wiclifite."

But not only in England were Wiclif's doctrines spread abroad. Many of his treatises were dispersed in Germany and Bohemia, where they were read eagerly; which prepared the minds of men for that great and glorious reformation of Religion that was afterwards effected by the instrumentality of Martin Luther.

In the year 1406, the University of Oxford pub. lished a testimony concerning the great learning and holy life of Wiclif, in which it is declared: "From his youth upwards unto the time of his death, his conversation was so praiseworthy and honest, that never at any time was there any spot of suspicion noised of him. In his answering, reading and preaching, he behaved himself laudably; and as a stout and valiant champion of the faith. By the force of the scriptures he vanquished all those who blasphemed and slandered Christ's religion.

John Wiclif exchanged the conflicts of the church militant for the triumphs of the "crown of glory that fadeth not away," on the thirty-first day of December, 1384.

JOHN HUSS was born in the village of Hussinetz, Bohemia, in 1373; and when twenty years of age was appointed Professor in the University of Prague; and in the year 1400 was the stationed preacher of the principal congregations in that city. He was equally distinguished for his erudition, zeal, eloquence, and holiness; universally beloved by the people; and perfectly execrated by: the Roman Ecclesiastics.

Peter Payne of Oxford having been obliged to fly from England for his opposition to the Friars, the mass, pilgrimages, the worship of images and & relics, and the other papal heresies, took refuge in. Prague. He carried with him a large number of Wiclif's writings, whose doctrines were received by Huss; and in 1407, he began openly to denounce the antichristian corruptions then universally predominant. The Archbishop of Prague seized and burnt two hundred splendid volumes of Wiclif's works, which occasioned a dispute between that prelate and Huss, who complained that the Archbishop's procedure was an infringement of their collegiate privileges, and appealed from that Hierarch's mandate to Pope Gregory XII. The affair was finally transferred to Pope John XXIII.; who pronounced him contumacious, and excommunicated him. Notwithstanding that sentence, having retired from Prague to Hussinetz, he continued to