History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume V Part 8

[143] Ut trecentis Romanis in primis beneficiis vacantibus providerent. Matth. Paris, ann. 1240.

[144] Absit et quod.....haec sedes et in ea praesidentes causa sint schismatis apparentis. Ortinnus Gratius, ed. Brown, fol. 251.

[Sidenote: CONTEST WITH THE POPE.]

A year had scarcely elapsed before Innocent commanded the bishop to give a canonry in Lincoln cathedral to his infant nephew. Grostete replied: "After the sin of Lucifer there is none more opposed to the Gospel than that which ruins souls by giving them a faithless minister. Bad pastors are the cause of unbelief, heresy, and disorder. Those who introduce them into the church are little better than antichrists, and their culpability is in proportion to their dignity. Although the chief of the angels should order me to commit such a sin, I would refuse. My obedience forbids me to obey; and therefore I rebel."[145]

[145] Obedienter non obedio sed contradico et rebello. Matth. Paris, ad. ann. 1252.

Thus spoke a bishop to his pontiff: his obedience to the word of G.o.d forbade him to obey the pope. This was the principle of the Reformation. "Who is this old driveller that in his dotage dares to judge of my conduct?" exclaimed Innocent, whose wrath was appeased by the intervention of certain cardinals. Grostete on his dying bed professed still more clearly the principles of the reformers; he declared that a heresy was "an opinion conceived by carnal motives, _contrary to Scripture_, openly taught and obstinately defended," thus a.s.serting the authority of Scripture instead of the authority of the church. He died in peace, and the public voice proclaimed him "a searcher of the Scriptures, an adversary of the pope, and despiser of the Romans."[146] Innocent, desiring to take vengeance on his bones, meditated the exhumation of his body, when one night (says Matthew of Paris) the bishop appeared before him. Drawing near the pontiff's bed, he struck him with his crosier, and thus addressed him with terrible voice and threatening look:[147] "Wretch! the Lord doth not permit thee to have any power over me. Woe be to thee!" The vision disappeared, and the pope, uttering a cry as if he had been struck by some sharp weapon, lay senseless on his couch. Never after did he pa.s.s a quiet night, and pursued by the phantoms of his troubled imagination, he expired while the palace re-echoed with his lamentable groans.

[146] Scripturarum sedulus perscrutator diversarum, Romanorum malleus et contemptor. (Matth. Paris, vol. ii, p. 876, fol. Lond. 1640.) A thorough searcher of the various Scriptures, a hammer to and a despiser of the Romans. Sixteen of his writings (Sermones et epistolae) will be found in _Brown_, _app. ad Fasciculum_.

[147] Nocte apparuit ei episcopos vultu severo, intuitu austero, ac voce terribili. Ibid. 883.

[Sidenote: OPPOSITION TO THE POPE.]

Grostete was not single in his opposition to the pope. Sewal, archbishop of York, did the same, and "the more the pope cursed him, the more the people blessed him."[148]--"Moderate your tyranny," said the archbishop to the pontiff, "for the Lord said to Peter, _Feed_ my sheep, and not _shear them_, _flay them_, or _devour them_."[149] The pope smiled and let the bishop speak, because the king allowed the pope to act. The power of England, which was constantly increasing, was soon able to give more force to these protests.

[148] Quanto magis a papa maledicebatur, tanto plus a populo benedicebatur. Ibid. ad ann. 1257.

[149] _Pasce_ oves meas, non _tonde_, non _excoria_, non _eviscera_, vel devorando _consume_. Ibid. ad ann. 1258.

The nation was indeed growing in greatness. The madness of John, which had caused the English people to lose their continental possessions, had given them more unity and power. The Norman kings, being compelled to renounce entirely the country which had been their cradle, had at length made up their minds to look upon England as their home. The two races, so long hostile, had melted one into the other. Free inst.i.tutions were formed; the laws were studied; and colleges were founded. The language began to a.s.sume a regular form, and the s.h.i.+ps of England were already formidable at sea. For more than a century the most brilliant victories attended the British armies. A king of France was brought captive to London: an English king was crowned at Paris.

Even Spain and Italy felt the valour of these proud islanders. The English people took their station in the foremost rank. Now the character of a nation is never raised by halves. When the mighty ones of the earth were seen to fall before her, England could no longer crawl at the feet of an Italian priest.

At no period did her laws attack the papacy with so much energy. At the beginning of the fourteenth century an Englishman having brought to London one of the pope's bulls--a bull of an entirely spiritual character, it was an excommunication--was prosecuted as a traitor to the crown, and would have been hanged, had not the sentence, at the chancellor's intercession, been changed to perpetual banishment.[150]

The _common law_ was the weapon the government then opposed to the papal bulls. Shortly afterwards, in 1307, king Edward ordered the sheriffs to resist the arrogant pretensions of the Romish agents. But it is to two great men in the fourteenth century equally ill.u.s.trious, the one in the state, and the other in the church, that England is indebted for the development of the protestant element in England.

[150] Fuller's Church History, cent. xiv, p. 90, fol. Lond. 1655.

[Sidenote: BRADWARDINE'S CONVERSION.]

In 1346, an English army, 34,000 strong, met face to face at Crecy a French army of 100,000 fighting men. Two individuals of very different characters were in the English host. One of them was King Edward III, a brave and ambitious prince, who, being resolved to recover for the royal authority all its power, and for England all her glory, had undertaken the conquest of France. The other was his chaplain Bradwardine, a man of so humble a character that his meekness was often taken for stupidity. And thus it was that on his receiving the pallium at Avignon from the hands of the pope on his elevation to the see of Canterbury, a jester mounted on an a.s.s rode into the hall and pet.i.tioned the pontiff to make him _primate_ instead of that imbecile priest.

Bradwardine was one of the most pious men of the age, and to his prayers his sovereign's victories were ascribed. He was also one of the greatest geniuses of his time, and occupied the first rank among astronomers, philosophers, and mathematicians.[151] The pride of science had at first alienated him from the doctrine of the cross. But one day while in the house of G.o.d and listening to the reading of the Holy Scriptures, these words struck his ear: _It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of G.o.d that showeth mercy_. His ungrateful heart, he tells us, at first rejected this humiliating doctrine with aversion. Yet the word of G.o.d had laid its powerful hold upon him; he was converted to the truths he had despised, and immediately began to set forth the doctrines of eternal grace at Merton College, Oxford. He had drunk so deep at the fountain of Scripture that the traditions of men concerned him but little, and he was so absorbed in adoration in spirit and in truth, that he remarked not outward superst.i.tions. His lectures were eagerly listened to and circulated through all Europe. The grace of G.o.d was their very essence, as it was of the Reformation. With sorrow Bradwardine beheld Pelagianism every where subst.i.tuting a mere religion of externals for inward Christianity, and on his knees he struggled for the salvation of the church. "As in the times of old four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal strove against a single prophet of G.o.d; so now, O Lord," he exclaimed, "the number of those who strive with Pelagius against thy free grace cannot be counted.[152] They pretend not to receive grace freely, but to buy it.[153] The will of men (they say) should precede, and thine should follow: theirs is the mistress, and thine the servant.[154]... Alas! nearly the whole world is walking in error in the steps of Pelagius.[155] Arise, O Lord, and judge thy cause." And the Lord did arise, but not until after the death of this pious archbishop, in the days of Wickliffe, who, when a youth, listened to the lectures at Merton College, and especially in the days of Luther and of Calvin. His contemporaries gave him the name of the _profound doctor_.

[151] His Arithmetic and Geometry have been published; but I am not aware if that is the case with his Astronomical Tables.

[152] Quot, Domine, hodie c.u.m Pelagio pro libero arbitrio contra gratuitam gratiam tuam pugnant? De causa Dei adversus Pelagium, libri tres, Lond. 1618.

[153] Nequaquam gratuita sed vendita. Ibid.

[154] Suam voluntatem praeire ut dominam, tuam subsequi ut ancillam.

Ibid.

[155] Totus paene mundus post Pelagium abiit in errorem. Ibid.

[Sidenote: STATUTES OF PROVISORS AND PRaeMUNIRE.]

If Bradwardine walked truthfully in the path of faith, his ill.u.s.trious patron Edward advanced triumphantly in the field of policy. Pope Clement IV having decreed that the first two vacancies in the Anglican church should be conferred on two of his cardinals: "France is becoming _English_," said the courtiers to the king; "and by way of compensation, England is becoming _Italian_." Edward, desirous of guaranteeing the religious liberties of England, pa.s.sed with the consent of parliament in 1350 the statute of _provisors_, which made void every ecclesiastical appointment contrary to the rights of the king, the chapters, or the patrons. Thus the privileges of the chapters and the liberty of the English Catholics, as well as the independence of the crown, were protected against the invasion of foreigners; and imprisonment or banishment for life was denounced upon all offenders against the law.

This bold step alarmed the pontiff. Accordingly, three years after, the king having nominated one of his secretaries to the see of Durham--a man without any of the qualities becoming a bishop--the pope readily confirmed the appointment. When some one expressed his astonishment at this, the pope made answer: "If the king of England had nominated _an a.s.s_, I would have accepted him." This may remind us of the _a.s.s_ of Avignon; and it would seem that this humble animal at that time played a significant part in the elections to the papacy.

But be that as it may, the pope withdrew his pretensions. "Empires have their term," observes an historian at this place; "when once they have reached it, they halt, they retrograde, they fall."[156]

[156] Habent imperia suos terminos; huc c.u.m venerint, sistunt, retrocedunt, ruunt. Fuller's Hist. cent. xiv, p. 116.

The term seemed to be drawing nearer every day. In the reign of Edward III, between 1343 and 1353, again in 1364, and finally under Richard II, in 1393, those stringent laws were pa.s.sed which interdicted all appeal to the court of Rome, all bulls from the Roman bishop, all excommunications, etc., in a word, every act infringing on the rights of the crown; and declared that whoever should bring such doc.u.ments into England, or receive, publish, or execute them, should be put out of the king's protection, deprived of their property, attached in their persons, and brought before the king in council to undergo their trial according to the terms of the act. Such was the statute of _Praemunire_.[157]

[157] The most natural meaning of the word _praemunire_ (given more particularly to the act of 1393) seems to be that suggested by Fuller, cent. xiv, (p. 148): to fence and fortify the regal power from foreign a.s.sault. See the whole bill, _Ibid._ p. 145-147.

Great was the indignation of the Romans at the news of this law: "If the statute of _mortmain_ put the pope into a sweat," says Fuller, "this of _praemunire_ gave him a fit of fever." One pope called it an "execrable statute,"--"a horrible crime."[158] Such are the terms applied by the pontiffs to all that thwarts their ambition.

[158] Execrabile statutum....fdum et turpe facinus. Martin V to the Duke of Bedford, Fuller, cent. xiv. p. 148.

[Sidenote: THE TWO WARS.]

Of the two wars carried on by Edward--the one against the King of France, and the other against popery--the latter was the most righteous and important. The benefits which this prince had hoped to derive from his brilliant victories at Crecy and Poitiers dwindled away almost entirely before his death; while his struggles with the papacy, founded as they were on truth, have exerted even to our own days an indisputable influence on the destinies of Great Britain. Yet the prayers and the conquests of Bradwardine, who proclaimed in that fallen age the doctrine of grace, produced effects still greater, not only for the salvation of many souls, but for the liberty, moral force, and greatness of England.

CHAPTER VII.

The Mendicant Friars--Their Disorders and Popular Indignation--Wickliffe--His success--Speeches of the Peers against the Papal Tribute--Agreement of Bruges--Courtenay and Lancaster--Wickliffe before the Convocation--Altercation between Lancaster and Courtenay--Riot--Three Briefs against Wickliffe--Wickliffe at Lambeth--Mission of the _Poor Priests_--Their Preachings and Persecutions--Wickliffe and the Four Regents.

Thus in the first half of the fourteenth century, nearly two hundred years before the Reformation, England appeared weary of the yoke of Rome. Bradwardine was no more; but a man who had been his disciple was about to succeed him, and without attaining to the highest functions, to exhibit in his person the past and future tendencies of the church of Christ in Great Britain. The English Reformation did not begin with Henry VIII: the revival of the sixteenth century is but a link in the chain commencing with the apostles and reaching to us.

[Sidenote: THE BEGGING FRIARS.]

The resistance of Edward III to the papacy _without_ had not suppressed the papacy _within_. The mendicant friars, and particularly the Franciscans, those fanatical soldiers of the pope, were endeavouring by pious frauds to monopolize the wealth of the country.

"Every year," said they, "Saint Francis descends from heaven to purgatory, and delivers the souls of all those who were buried in the dress of his order." These friars used to kidnap children from their parents and shut them up in monasteries. They affected to be poor, and with a wallet on their back, begged with a piteous air from both high and low; but at the same time they dwelt in palaces, heaped up treasures, dressed in costly garments, and wasted their time in luxurious entertainments.[159] The least of them looked upon themselves as _lords_, and those who wore the doctor's cap considered themselves _kings_. While they diverted themselves, eating and drinking at their well-spread tables, they used to send ignorant uneducated persons in their place to preach fables and legends to amuse and plunder the people.[160] If any rich man talked of giving alms to the poor and not to the monks, they exclaimed loudly against such impiety, and declared with threatening voices: "If you do so we will leave the country, and return accompanied by a legion of glittering helmets."[161] Public indignation was at its height. "The monks and priests of Rome," was the cry, "are eating us away like a cancer. G.o.d must deliver us or the people will perish.... Woe be to them! the cup of wrath will run over. Men of holy church shall be despised as carrion, as dogs shall they be cast out in open places."[162]

[159] When they have overmuch riches, both in great waste houses and precious clothes, in great feasts and many jewels and treasures.

Wickliffe's Tracts and Treatises, edited by the Wickliffe Society, p.

224.

[160] Ibid, 240.

[161] Come again with bright heads. Ibid.

[162] Wickliffe, The Last Age of the Church.

The arrogance of Rome made the cup run over. Pope Urban V, heedless of the laurels won by the conqueror at Crecy and Poitiers, summoned Edward III to recognize him as legitimate sovereign of England, and to pay as feudal tribute the annual rent of one thousand marcs. In case of refusal the king was to appear before him at Rome. For thirty-three years the popes had never mentioned the tribute accorded by John to Innocent III, and which had always been paid very irregularly. The conqueror of the Valois was irritated by this insolence on the part of an Italian bishop, and called on G.o.d to avenge England. From Oxford came forth the avenger.

[Sidenote: JOHN WICKLIFFE.]