LATIMER.

"

IN the English Reformation we contemplate a state of things peculiar and unexampled: we do not see, as in Germany, a mighty spiritual movement sweeping for the moment all before it, and headed by one who gives voice and direction and triumph to it; nor yet, as in the Calvinistic Reformation, a great reconstructive organisation of the doctrinal and social elements which had been disturbed and set in motion; but a complicated action of distinctly political as well as religious forces, the former frequently crossing and impeding the latter, rather than contributing with them to one grand result. This characteristic of double action, of the working of political as well as religious influences against the Papacy, goes far back into English history; and the political opposition is, in truth, the earlier and in some respects the more powerful influence. All along from the Conquest, such an opposition marks like a line of light the proud history of England, the grandest, because the richest in diverse historical elements, that the world has ever seen. On from the memorable struggles of the reign of Henry II., when the political and ecclesiastical interests stamped the impress

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of their fierce contention so strongly on the English character, Rome appears as an alien and antagonistic power in the country-as the threatening shadow of a concealed enemy, against which the higher and healthier national life is continually directing itself. With the reign of Edward III. and the rise of Wickliffe, the religious element attains for the first time to clear and impressive prominence, working alongside of, and even outbalancing, the political action.

Wickliffe himself, in the earlier and later phases of his career, represents both sides of the national movement against the Papacy; his primary position as the friend of John of Gaunt being mainly political, and his final position as the Theologian of the Scriptures and Rector of Lutterworth being mainly religious. We find in his words the powerful echo of the feelings then stirring the heart of England; the protesting vehemence of both nobles and people as they raised the cry, "No! England belongs not to the Pope; the Pope is but a man, subject to sin;" the awakening breath of an earnest Christian activity as he bade his followers Go and preach; it is the sublimest work: but imitate not the priests, whom we see after the sermon sitting in the ale-houses, or at the gaming-table, or wasting their time in hunting. After your sermon is ended, do you visit the sick, the aged, the poor, the blind, and the lame, and succour them according to your ability." The same principles which afterwards triumphed in the sixteenth century were now everywhere operating. It is singular, indeed, how even to its extravagances this earlier reform movement in England mirrored the various features of the later and more powerful move

ment-the royal moderation, the parliamentary indignation, the spiritual revival among the lower classes, the communistic exaggerations, into which the plain truth of the Gospel, crudely apprehended, so fastly ran. This latter result, in the comparative swiftness with which it came in the fourteenth century, was a sufficient indication that the time was not yet ripe for a successful insurrection against Popery. The national mind was still too unenlightened, the popular feeling too unsteady for such an event, as the armed tumult of Wat Tyler with his hundred thousand followers proved. The hierarchy, moreover, was as yet very powerful; its intelligence and moral strength outmatched any opposition that could be brought against it.

With the death of Wickliffe in 1384 the moving energy of his principles and teaching very much died out. Their unfortunate association with the anarchy which characterised the earlier years of Richard II.'s weak and disgraceful reign, contributed to lessen and deteriorate their influence, and to provoke against them severe parliamentary penalties.* The spirit, however, which the great proto-reformer had kindled, lived on through the fifteenth century in Lollardism, and various obscure forms of religious life. It penetrated, as a secret and quiet influence, whole districts, binding poor families together by a spiritual bond such as they could no longer find in the corrupt formalism of the Church, and cherished by the private reading and transmission from hand to hand of portions of Wickliffe's translation of the Scriptures. We can trace in

See BURNETT, vol. i. p. 40; and FROUDE, vol. ii. p. 20-Act de Heretico comburendo.

the language of the parliamentary acts directed against "divers false and perverse people of a certain new sect, damnably thinking of the faith of the sacraments of the Church, and of the authority of the same," how widely religious disaffection had spread, and with what unceasing and secret acting-" by holding and exercising schools, by making and writing books"-the Wickliffites sought to keep alive a pure faith hidden in many hearts, long after they had ceased to be a formidable power in the country. They spread into Scotland, carrying with them their precious books, and kindling wherever they went a divine light in the darkness-a peaceful and holy gleam amid the wild contentions and miseries of that unhappy time.

With the dawn of the sixteenth century, and especially as we near the great crisis of 1517, we are met by an awakening religious life in England as elsewhere; and what mainly strikes us is the varied character which it presents. It proceeds from diverse sources, and shows itself in very different classes. There is a comparative complexity in the Anglican Reformation, even on its purely religious side, and altogether apart from the great political agencies at work, which are out of the sphere of our present consideration.

There is first of all a marked Christian revival among the poorer classes, alike among the tradesmen of the metropolis and the peasantry on the banks of the Humber, the "Christian brethren" of London, and the "just men" of Lincolnshire. It seems most natural to connect this revival with the still unextinguished spirit of Lollardism, and to recognise in it