JOHN WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS AND PERSECUTIONS FROM 1350

JOHN WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS

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Updated March 17, 2000 (first published December 30, 1999) (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The following article is from the book ROME AND THE BIBLE: TRACING THE HISTORY OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND ITS PERSECUTION OF THE BIBLE AND OF BIBLE BELIEVERS. To our knowledge, this is the first history ever published that details the relationship of the Roman Catholic Church to the Bible through the centuries. It covers the Roman Catholic Inquisition from the 11th to the 19th centuries, particularly the role played by the Inquisition to keep translations of the Bible out of the hands of the common people. It contains the history of ancient separated Christians, including the Waldensians and the Lollards. The book could also be titled "The Bible Through the Centuries." It gives the history of the English Bible from John Wycliffe to William Tyndale, and the history of the Spanish, German, French, and Italian Bibles. It contains amazing biographies of royal queens who loved the Bible. It gives the decade-by-decade details of papal condemnations of 19th-century Bible societies and of Roman Catholic persecution in the 19th century. It describes the 20th-century phenomenon of Rome changing tactics and joining hands with the Bible societies. It answers the question: Has the Roman Catholic Church changed? The book contains 74 illustrations, many of which are from rare out-of-print books. 200 pages, 8.5X11, perfect bound $19.95 + $4 S/H. Way of Life Literature, 1701 Harns Rd., Oak Harbor, WA 98277. 360-675-8311 (voice), fbns@wayoflife.org (e-mail).

JOHN WYCLIFFE AND THE FIRST ENGLISH BIBLE
By David W. Cloud
Copyright 1996, Way of Life Literature, 1701 Harns Rd., Oak Harbor, WA 98277. 360-675-8311 (voice), fbns@wayoflife.org (e-mail)

The Roman Catholic Church kept Europe in the Dark Ages by hindering vernacular translations from being made and distributed, by bitterly persecuting any Christians who attempted to do this, by shrouding the Bible with its own traditions, and by placing its priesthood between the Bible and the people. Rome’s implacable hatred of the truth is evident in its treatment of translator JOHN WYCLIFFE (1324-1384). This man gave the English-speaking people the first Bible in their own tongue. There had been portions of Scripture distributed in the older Anglo-Saxon tongue prior to Wycliffe, and possibly there were some Scripture portions made into English contemporary with Wycliffe. An example of Anglo-Saxon translation was the work by Bede of Jarrow, who lived less than seven centuries after the Apostles and died in the year 735. He might have translated other portions of Scripture, but the record is certain that he completed the Gospel of John in Saxon, a precursor to the English language. Bede completed this translation of John with his dying breath, according to one of his helpers who left the record of this, and it will be fascinating one day to learn of those who were saved in that long ago day through the witness of this Saxon Gospel. It is the Gospel of John, of course, which was written "that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name" (John 20:31). Amen! There is no evidence, though, that there had existed an entire Bible or New Testament in English before Wycliffe. H.G. Herklots, in How Our Bible Came to Us, tells us that the Scripture portions most commonly found among the English people prior to Wycliffe were Anglo Saxon and French (p. 58).

One Catholic writer (Gasquet, in 1894) denied that Wycliffe actually translated the Scriptures, but many faithful historians have proven that this theory was in error. Though Wycliffe did have help, and though his translation was perfected after his death by a close friend, John Purvey, there is no doubt that Wycliffe himself did much of the translation. The great theme of Wycliffe’s life was summed up in his glorious statement, "The sacred Scriptures be the property of the people, and one which no party should be allowed to wrest from them."

The generation of Wycliffe was one of tremendous upheaval and trouble. The popes had put a heavy hand upon England in the form of taxes and monkery, and from the common man to the throne, the people were tired of this usurpation. In 1376, the English Parliament noted that the taxes paid in England to Rome amounted to five times as much as those levied by the king (Hassell, History of the Church of God, 1886, p. 457). "The age of Wycliffe was one of great excitement; and the papal supremacy as a foreign usurpation had begun to encounter stout resistance. … The Black Death or pestilence, which had appeared first at Dorchester in 1348, and swept over the country during the next year and a half, had returned in 1361, 1369, and 1375. The first outbreak of the epidemic had carried off half of the population, two millions and a half out of five millions…" (Eadie, History of the English Bible, I, 1876, pp. 45,49). It is estimated that this Black Death killed fifty million in England and Europe between 1348 to 1351. One reply to the oppressions and troubles of the time was the revolt headed by Wat Tyler in 1380. "Struggling for freedom, these rebels blundered into communism, and advocated the abolition of social ranks and distinctions, so that those above them should be cast down by force to their own low level" (Eadie, I, p. 50). This revolt was put down with great violence, and an estimated 1,500 men were executed for their alleged part in the insurrection.

Wycliffe, though, did not support violent revolution. "There is no proof that Wycliffe’s teaching, or his Bible, was connected with the tumult, though the accusation has been often made against him" (Eadie, I, p. 51). Wycliffe taught that people should obey the existing civil authorities, even if they were sinful and unjust. He fought his battles along a spiritual line, believing that the greatest gift which could be given to his troubled people was the Bible in the common tongue and sound teaching therefrom. If the Scriptures could be understood and believed, the people would be delivered from priest craft and God’s blessings would descend upon the land. Though Rome, through its councils and popes, had forbidden the Scriptures to the people and had proclaimed its own dogmas and traditions equal in authority to the Scriptures, Wycliffe was of a different mind. Consider some of Wycliffe’s statements about the Bible:

"The authority of the Holy Scriptures infinitely surpasses any writing, how authentic soever it may appear, because the authority of Jesus Christ is infinitely above that of all mankind."

"The authority of the Scriptures is independent on any other authority, and is preferable to every other writing, but especially to the books of the Church of Rome."

"I am certain, indeed, from the Scriptures, that neither Antichrist, nor all his disciples, nay, nor all fiends, may really impugn any part of that volume as it regards the excellence of its doctrine. But in all these things it appears to me that the believing man should use this rule—If he soundly understands the Sacred Scripture, let him bless God; if he be deficient in such perception, let him labour for soundness of mind. Let him also dwell as a grammarian upon the letter, but be fully aware of imposing a sense upon Scripture which he doubts the Holy Spirit does not demand."

"We ought to believe in the authority of no man unless he say the Word of God. It is impossible that any word or any deed of man should be of equal authority with Holy Scriptures. … For the laws made by prelates are not to be received as matters of faith, nor are we to confide in their public instructions, nor in any of their words, but as they are founded in Holy Writ, since the Scriptures contain the whole truth."

"That the New Testament is of full authority, and open to understanding of simple men, as to the points that are most needful to salvation. … That men ought to desire only the truth and freedom of the holy Gospel, and to accept man’s law and ordinances only in as much as they are grounded in Holy Scripture… That if any man in earth, either angel of heaven teacheth us the contrary of holy Writ, or any thing against reason and charity, we should flee from him in that as from the foul fiend of hell, and hold us steadfastly to, life and death, the truth and freedom of the holy Gospel of Jesus Christ, and take us meekly men’s sayings and laws, only in as much as they accord with holy Writ and good consciences, and no further, for life neither for death."

"[Wycliffe] was a pupil, a graduate, a master, a doctor, and a professor in Oxford University, an institution second to none in Europe, except the University of Paris, and in Oxford Wycliffe stood without a rival. He was a man of slender frame, genial disposition, immense energy, immovable conviction, and of austere plainness and purity of life" (Hassell, History of the Church of God, p. 457).

Wycliffe began to preach against various Roman Catholic doctrines and practices when he was in his mid to late thirties, and he gradually grew in his understanding of the errors of Rome. About the year 1360 he began opposing the begging Friars and other Catholic clergy in his very powerful, plainspoken fashion. "The life of Wycliffe was one of conflict. … It is an evidence both of his ability and courage, that, single-handed, he dared to attack a Monastic order of such power and authority in the Romish Church. Two of these orders, the Dominican and Franciscan, ruled the Roman Catholic Church throughout Europe for nearly three centuries, with an absolute sway. … Day by day Wycliffe used greater plainness of speech in portraying the scandalous conduct of the friars" (Condit, The History of the English Bible, 1881, pp. 55,58). This is what Wycliffe said:

"Friars draw children from Christ’s religion into their private Order by hypocrisy, lies and stealing. … And so they steal children from father and mother … sometime such as should sustain their father and mother by the commandment of God; and thus they are blasphemers taken upon full counsel in doubtful things that are not expressly commanded nor forbidden in holy writ; since such counsel is appropriated to the Holy Ghost, and thus they are therefore cursed of God as the Pharisees were of Christ…

"Friars shew not to the people their great sins firmly as God biddeth, and namely to mighty men of the world; but flatter them or nourish them in sin.

"Also, Friars are thieves … For without authority of God they make new religions of errors of sinful men" (John Lewis, The Life of Dr. John Wiclif, pp. 7,24,27).

In the years prior to and following the completion of his translation of the Bible, Wycliffe issued a vast number of writings which explained the Scriptures in contrast to Roman Catholic doctrine, and these writings included his translation of various relevant Scripture passages. "The literary works of Wycliffe—the longer ones in Latin which spoke to the educated mind of Europe, and the shorter ones in English-—are very numerous; and Professor Shirley’s catalogue, of more than sixty octavo pages [each sheet folded eight times, about 6 X 9 inches per page], does not contain nearly the whole of them" (Eadie, I, pp. 41,42). In these writings Wycliffe exposed the errors of transubstantiation, sacramentalism, tradition being equal in authority with the Scriptures, indulgences, the papacy (which he labeled the antichrist), baptismal regeneration, and many other dogmas of Rome. He said that the Catholic practice of establishing universities and granting masterships and doctorates had been inherited from the heathen, and "are altogether of as much use to the church as the devil" (Martyrs Mirror, p. 324). He also taught that men had the right to interpret Scripture. "Believers should ascertain for themselves what are the true matters of their faith, by having the Scriptures in a language which all may understand." Wycliffe taught that the apostolic churches had only elders and deacons, "and declared his conviction that all orders above these had been introduced by Caesarean pride" (Shelton, II, p. 415). Wycliffe was very bold against the pope, contending that "it is blasphemy to call any head of the church, save Christ alone" (Thomas Crosby, History of the English Baptists, I, 1740, p. 7). Consider some other statements by Wycliffe on the subject of the papacy:

"It is supposed, and with much probability, that the Roman pontiff is the great Antichrist."

"How than shall any sinful wretch, who knows not whether he be damned or saved, constrain men to believe that he is head of holy Church? Certainly, in such a case they must sometimes constrain men to believe that a devil of hell is head of holy Church, when the Bishop of Rome shall be a man damned for his sins" (Shelton, II, p. 415).

"Antichrist puts many thousand lives in danger for his own wretched life. Why, is he not a fiend stained foul with homicide who, though a priest, fights in such a cause?" (Eadie, History of the English Bible, I, pp. 46,47).

There is a lot that we do not know about Wycliffe. Many of his writings were destroyed by the Catholic authorities. Crosby notes, "As to his opinions, it is very difficult now to have a certain account of them; because they who took so much care to burn his bones, did not neglect to destroy his books, which of the two were like to do them the most hurt" (Crosby, History of the English Baptists, I, p. 7). Some of his writings which we do have were written many years before the end of his life, and there is evidence that he changed some of his views later on. Some Catholic authorities of that day charged Wycliffe with denying infant baptism, which would mean that he might have progressed all the way to an apostolic and Anabaptist position even in regard to the ordinances. (It is certain that many of his Lollard followers did just that.) Thomas Crosby, who published the first of the four volumes of his diligently researched history of the English Baptists in 1738, notes that Catholic authorities Thomas Walden and Joseph Vicecomes claimed that Wycliffe rejected infant baptism and they charged him with Anabaptist views. Walden. who wrote against the Wycliffites or Hussites in the early part of the 1400s, called Wycliffe "one of the seven heads that came out of the bottomless pit, for denying infant baptism, that heresie of the Lollards, of whom he was so great a ringleader" (Danver’s Treatise, p. 2, 287, cited by Joseph Ivimey, History of the English Baptists, 1811, I, p. 72). Another Catholic authority, Walsingham, identified Wycliffe with the "cursed opinions of Berengarius" and said that "his followers did deny baptism to infants" (Ivimey, I, p. 72). Berengarius lived in France in the 11th century and was charged by the Catholic authorities with such "heresies" as denying transubstantiation and infant baptism. The Berengarians practiced believers baptism and were charged with being anabaptists. The council held at Blackfriars in June 1382 to condemn Wycliffe brought many articles of accusation, including the charge "that the children of believers might be saved without baptism" (Ivimey, I, p. 73). The Martyrs Mirror, first published in Dutch in 1660, also states that in 1370 Wycliffe issued an article "declared to militate against infant baptism" (p. 322). Jacob Mehrning, in his History of Baptism, said that Wycliffe "taught, among other things, that baptism is not necessary to the forgiveness of original sin; thereby sufficiently opposing, or, as H. Montanus says, rejecting, infant baptism, which is founded upon the forgiveness of original sin. On this account, forty-one years after his death, his bones, by order of the pope, were exhumed, burnt, and the ashes thrown into the water" (Mehrning, pp. 737,38). Thus it is obvious that John Wycliffe in the 14th century went much farther in his rejection of Catholic heresies than the Protestant Reformers of the 16th century.

"Another prominent and remarkable feature of the life of Wycliffe was the progressive development of his views of Scripture truth; in his daily study and spiritual understanding of the Scriptures he discovered more and more of the unscripturalness of Romanism, and ‘he was thus carried along from one step to another in his progress as a reformer.’ His progress was not only in the Protestant but in the Baptist direction; and I am persuaded that, if he had lived longer, and additional Divine light had been given him, he would have been a thorough-going Bible Baptist. No man perfectly understands the Scriptures; we all now see through a glass darkly; it is only at the time and to the extent that the Holy Spirit opens our understandings that we discern spiritual things. Wycliffe first denounced the corrupt practices and then the corrupt doctrines of Romanism leading to those practices" (Hassell, History of the Church of God, p. 457).

It is also important to understand that there were Waldensian, or separatist Anabaptist Christians, in England during the days of Wycliffe. The Martyrs Mirror describes the persecution of 443 Waldenses in 1391. At least one of these told the inquisitors that he had been a Waldensian for 30 years. That takes us back to 1361, when Wycliffe was only 37 years old and when he first began preaching against Catholic errors. "From this it appears, writes a certain author, that the Saxon countries were full of Waldenses, that is, orthodox Christians … before the time of Huss. For it can easily be computed, that when the 443 Waldenses were examined at once, there must have been an incomparably greater number who were not examined in regard to their faith, but concealed themselves, or took to flight, in order to escape the danger. And, truly, those who are noticed in the book, as having been examined, frequently mentioned very many others of their faith, who were not present" (Martyrs Mirror, p. 325).

Anglican historian Joseph Milner notes the possible connection between the Waldensians and John Wycliffe: "The connection between France and England, during the whole reign of Edward III, was so great, that it is by no means improbable, that Wickliffe himself derived his first impressions of religion from [Raynard] Lollard [a Bible-believing Waldensian leader who was burned at the stake at Cologne]" (Milner, The History of the Church of Christ, 1819, III, p. 509). Baptist historian William Jones adds the following observations: "Thomas Walden, who wrote against Wickliff, says, that the doctrine of Peter Waldo was conveyed from France into England--and that among others Wickliff received it. In this opinion he is joined by Alphonsus de Castro, who says that Wickliff only brought to light again the errors of the Waldenses. Cardinal Bellarmine, also, is pleased to say that ‘Wickliff could add nothing to the heresy of the Waldenses’" (Jones, A History of the Christian Church, II, p. 91).

Joshua Thomas, in his History of the Welsh Baptists, gives the account of Baptists who lived in the 14th century in Olchon in Herefordshire, and he believes Wycliffe "received much of his light in the gospel" from these separatist believers (Ivimey, I, pp. 65-67).

Thus it is likely that Wycliffe was powerfully influenced, even directly instructed, in his Bible-believing views by separatist Baptist Christians then living in and about England.

The men who are noted in church histories as key contenders for the faith in various eras did not live in a vacuum. They were influenced by faithful Bible-believing Christians who proceeded them and as well as by those who lived as their contemporaries.

In an earlier book titled Dialogus, which is cited by many historians, Wycliffe at least loosely accepted errors such as purgatory, adoration of angels, and the authority of the Roman church—all of which he later plainly denied. There is no doubt that Wycliffe rejected the error of baptismal regeneration, saying "that baptism doth not confer, but only signify grace, which was given before." Crosby makes this conclusion: "But whether he denied infant-baptism, or not, it is certain he was the first reformer of any note, that spread those tenets among the English which tend to overthrow the practice of baptizing infants. And if he did not pursue the consequence of his own doctrines so far, yet many of his followers did, and were made Baptists by it. He taught, that no rule or ceremony ought to be received in the church, which is not plainly confirmed by the word of God: and therefore said, ‘That wise men leave that as impertinent, which is not plainly expressed in Scripture.’ … Amongst the followers of this great man, both in Bohemia and England, we find many Baptists. … As to the opinions that were held by these Lollards, or disciples of Wickliff, in England, ‘tis agreed by all, that they denied the pope’s supremacy, the worshipping of images, praying for the dead, and the like popish doctrines. Whether they rejected the baptism of infants or not, has been doubted by some; but that they generally did so, is more than probable, from what is left upon record concerning them" (Crosby, History of the English Baptists, I, pp. 11,12,13,23).

In a letter dated October 10, 1519, Erasmus gave this description of the Lollards in Bohemia: "… they own no other authority than the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament; they believe or own little or nothing of the sacraments of the church; such as come over to their sect, must every one be baptized anew in mere water…" (Crosby, I, pp. 14,15). Erasmus described the Lollards as Anabaptists. This was almost 100 years before the insurrection at Munster, which many modern historians erroneously point out as the origin of the Anabaptist movement. Frederick Nolan, who diligently pursued the history of the transmission of the biblical text, says that the Lollards were disciples of the Waldenses (Nolan, Inquiry into the Integrity of the Received Text, 1815, p. xix, footnote 1).

"Wycliffe’s work as a translator brought upon him special hostility, for the idea of an English Bible filled the clergy with alarm and indignation. He knew, as he tells us, that THE PRIESTS DECLARED IT TO BE ‘HERESY TO SPEAK OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES IN ENGLISH,’ and he adds in his Wicket that ‘such a charge is a condemnation of the Holy Ghost, who first gave the Scriptures in tongues to the Apostles of Christ, to speak that word in all languages that were ordained of God under heaven’" (Eadie, History of the English Bible, I, p. 81). One of Wycliffe’s enemies, Knyghton, a canon of Leicester, complained that in translating the Scriptures into English and thus laying it "open to the laity and to women who could read" Wycliffe was casting the Gospel pearl under the feet of swine. This was Rome’s view of providing the common man with the Word of God.

For his translation efforts and his biblical views, Wycliffe was hounded mercilessly by the Roman authorities. By Wycliffe’s day, "it had become a crime for those who could read the Scriptures in their mother tongue to do so" (Armitage, A History of the Baptists, 1890, I, p. 314).

Wycliffe was forced to appear before the Catholic bishops in the first half of the year 1377, to whom he was to give an account of his doctrine. Wycliffe had declared the Scriptures "to be the property of the people, and one which no party should be allowed to wrest from them" (Anderson, Annals of the English Bible, I, p. xlii). Wycliffe was protected from the wrath of the bishops at that time by the intervention of the Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt. "Failing in this attempt, the bishops now solicited the aid of the pope, Gregory XI. The desired aid was given in generous measure. In May, 1377, five bulls were issued, designed to weave the coils so effectually about Wycliffe that escape would be impossible, and calling upon the King, the royal princes, the Privy Council, the chief of the nobility, and the University of Oxford, to render their pious assistance in bringing the disturber to justice. … Wycliffe indeed appeared before the pope’s commissioners and commenced to explain and to justify his teachings. He had not proceeded far, however, when the conference was cut short by the interference of the government and the London populace in his behalf" (Henry Shelton, History of the Christian Church, II, 1895, pp. 409,10).

Wycliffe has left a record of what he thought of these papal bulls by which he was labeled a heretic for translating the Word of God into English: "You say it is heresy to speak of the Holy Scriptures in English. You call me a heretic because I have translated the Bible into the common tongue of the people. Do you know whom you blaspheme? Did not the Holy Ghost give the Word of God at first in the mother-tongue of the nations to whom it was addressed? Why do you speak against the Holy Ghost? You say that the Church of God is in danger from this book. How can that be? Is it not from the Bible only that we learn that God has set up such a society as a Church on the earth? Is it not the Bible that gives all her authority to the Church? Is it not from the Bible that we learn who is the Builder and Sovereign of the Church, what are the laws by which she is to be governed, and the rights and privileges of her members? Without the Bible, what charter has the Church to show for all these? It is you who place the Church in jeopardy by hiding the Divine warrant, the missive royal of her King, for the authority she wields and the faith she enjoins" (Fountain, John Wycliffe, pp. 45-47).

It is interesting to note, too, that old Wycliffe believed the Bible to be the Word of God without error from beginning to end. He testified, "It is impossible for any part of the Holy Scriptures to be wrong. In Holy Scripture is all the truth; one part of Scripture explains another" (Fountain, p. 48).

Wycliffe would have been cut off by the Roman Catholic authorities had he not, by divine intervention, been protected by certain powerful individuals. One of these was the Duke of Lancaster, mentioned earlier, who "continued to be his shield for years," but abandoned him in the end. Also, in 1378 Pope Gregory XI died, who had cast many papal bulls against Wycliffe, and the Great Schism began, during which there were two popes, and these were too busy hurling curses at one another to worry much about Wycliffe in England!

It is even more fascinating to consider the role of two of the queens of England as protectors of Wycliffe. QUEEN JOAN (1328-85), the wife of Edward III (1360-76), also known as the Black Prince (so named because of his black armor), stopped persecution against Wycliffe on at least one occasion (Anderson, Annals of the English Bible, I, p. xlii). This was in 1378, and Joan was a widow. She was mother of the reigning king, Richard II. The enemies of Wycliffe had once again called him to stand before a tribunal of bishops. This one was held in Lambeth Palace at St. Paul’s. Wycliffe was accused of spreading heresies, but the bishops were frustrated in carrying out any sentence. "…Sir Richard Clifford entered with a message from the Queen Mother, the widow of the Black Prince, forbidding them to pass sentence upon Wycliffe" (Fountain, John Wycliffe, p. 33). The trial ceased.

The next queen to sit on the English throne was Queen Ann, the wife of Richard II (1367-1400), daughter to the Roman emperor Charles IV and sister of Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia. Ann was only a teenager when she was brought to England to wed Richard, but it appears that she was a lover of the Word of God and a defender of God’s people until her untimely death. "This lady already acquainted with three languages, Bohemian, German, and Latin, soon acquired that of this country [England], and for years was distinguished for her diligent perusal of the Scriptures in English. This much was testified of her by a very notable [and hypocritical] witness—the Lord Chancellor Arundel, then Archbishop of York, when he came to preach at her interment. ‘Although she was a stranger,’ he said, ‘yet she constantly studied the four gospels in English; and in the study of these, and reading of godly books, she was more diligent than the prelates, though their office and business require this of them.’ … The Queen, says Rapin, was a great favourer of Wickliffe’s doctrine, and had she lived longer would have saved his followers…" (Anderson, Annals of the English Bible, I, p. xliii). The queen assisted in the progress of truth and the proclamation of the gospel by sending copies of books by Wycliffe into Bohemia by her attendants (Ivimey, I, p. 69). The godly queen died in June 1394, at the age of twenty-seven.

In 1381, Wycliffe boldly proclaimed that the Roman doctrine of transubstantiation was false. He taught that the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper do not change substance and are merely symbolical of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wycliffe’s former protector, John Gaunt, refused to accept Wycliffe’s denial of Rome’s lynch pin doctrine. He warned Wycliffe to be silent about this, but Wycliffe refused, though he knew by his stand he would probably lose his protection from an earthly perspective. Gaunt did withdrew his guardianship because of this. Wycliffe was expelled from his teaching position at Oxford at that time and was forced into exile, withdrawing to his parish of Lutterworth where he lived until his death. That same year the Chancellor "issued a mandate forbidding some of Wycliffe’s theses on the Lord’s Supper to be taught in the University as being plainly heterodox. At the middle of the next year the archbishop sent orders to the University prohibiting attendance upon the preaching of Wycliffe" (Shelton, History of the Christian Church, II, p. 422). In 1381 "the English Parliament passed the first English statute against heresy, enjoining the arrest, trial and imprisonment of heretics" (Hassell, History of the Church of God, p. 459).

In May 1382, Wycliffe was called before yet another synod of ecclesiastical authorities. This is called the Blackfriars’ Synod, because it was held in the monastery of Blackfriars in London. When the 47 bishops and monks and religious doctors took their seats, a powerful earthquake shook the city. Huge stones fell out of castle walls and pinnacles toppled. "Wycliffe called it a judgment of God and afterwards described the gathering as the ‘Earthquake Council’" (Fountain, John Wycliffe, p. 39). The synod condemned Wycliffe, charging him specifically with 10 heresies and 16 errors. His writings were forbidden to be read in the land. The king gave authority to imprison those who believed the condemned doctrines.

Wycliffe died on December 31, 1384, and John Purvey, a friend who had lived with Wycliffe and been taught by him, completed a careful revision of the Wycliffe Bible in the years immediately following his death.

Another man who helped with the translation of the Wycliffe Bible was Nicholas de Hereford. Like Wycliffe, Hereford was denounced as a heretic by the Catholic Church. In May 1382, he was summoned to stand trial in London before the Synod of Preaching Friars, and in July he was excommunicated. He was afterward imprisoned in Rome, and later, imprisoned again in England. Unlike Wycliffe, Hereford did not remain faithful to the truth for which he was persecuted. He recanted.

Wycliffe had established a group of men who went through the land distributing the Scriptures and preaching the Word of God to the people. These were called "poor priests" and "Bible men" and Wycliffites and other terms, and eventually were also called Lollards. It is important to understand, though, that the term Lollard predated Wycliffe. "The name ‘Lollard,’ in use both in England and Germany long before the time of the Wycliffites, is involved in obscurity; variously derived, from the Dutch lollaerd, a mumbler (of prayers and hymns), first applied to a sect in Brabant; from Walter Lolhardus, a German; from Walter Lollardus, an Englishman burnt for heresy in Cologne; ingeniously, but not very credibly, from lolium, cockle, because ‘these sectaries sowed tares among the wheat’" (Canton, The Bible and the Anglo-Saxon People, 1914, p. 42).

Like the terms Waldenses and Paulicians, the term Lollard came to be used by Roman authorities to malign various groups of separatist Christians. (At times it was also used to describe men who were motivated more by political purposes than spiritual.) There can be no doubt, however, that John Wycliffe and his Scripture translation and teachings had a wide influence and did launch a Bible-believing movement which had a wide influence both in England and in other lands, particularly Bohemia. It is important to note that these Bible believers were not following a man, nor were they organized into any kind of broad association. Many histories approach these Bible-believing "sects" of bygone times as if they were slavishly dependent upon certain key leaders. That is not true. The churches and groups which have maintained the New Testament faith through the centuries from the time of the Apostles were helped oftentimes by strong leaders raised up by God, but they were not entirely dependent upon these men. The faith of the true Christian has always leaned exclusively upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word. The Bible-believing Christian follows men only insofar as those men follow the Scriptures. The keynote of John Wycliffe’s message had been the sufficiency of Scripture in doctrine, and those who were influenced by him held this position, though they applied the Scripture variously, some being more thoroughly "reformed" and separated from Romanism than others. The Scriptures, in fragments and via expensive full manuscripts, were multiplied widely among the people. One of the enemies of the Truth, testifying of the character of those who were influenced by Wycliffe, said "they all expressed profound respect for God’s law." That is an honorable testimony!

Wycliffe’s translation was taken from the Latin, but it was to have a powerful influence upon the English language and people. Condit speaks of "the excellencies of Wycliffe as a translator" in these words: "There is a marked simplicity in his phraseology which has been peculiar ever since to English versions of the Scriptures" (Condit, History of the English Bible, p. 67). "There is an important relation existing between Vernacular versions of the Scriptures and the languages into which they are translated. So marked is this influence where such translation is made, that it constitutes an epoch in the literary and in the religious history of the people. … It was a bold stroke on the part of Wycliffe to set forth the Scriptures in the language of the people, but the results far exceeded his fondest expectations. In all simplicity he thought to give the word of God to his own age, but in fact he laid the foundation for the Reformation in England, and for the permanence and excellence of the English language" (Condit, pp. 79,80).

Many phrases from our English Bible of 1611 can be traced back to Wycliffe, including "straight is the gate and narrow the way," "born again," "worship the father in spirit and truth," "the spirit of adoption of sons," "a living sacrifice," "the deep things of God," "the cup of blessing which we bless," "what fellowship hath light with darkness," "we make known to you the grace of God," "and upbraideth not," "whited sepulchres," "revelation of the mystery," "be it far from thee," "despise ye the Church of God," "the world and all that dwell therein is the Lord’s," "who is this King of glory?" "he taught them in parables."

Though Wycliffe himself was protected by the hand of God and the Catholic authorities were never allowed to kill him, his writings were condemned and his followers were excommunicated and some were put to death. Portions of the Wycliffe Bible were multiplied rapidly and enjoyed a wide circulation, not only in England, but also in neighboring countries. "By reference to the Bishop’s Registers it will appear that these little books were numerous, as they are often specified as being found upon the persons of those accused. Sometimes the Gospels are spoken of either separately, or together; or it is the book of Acts, or the Epistle of James, or the Apocalypse that is specified. It appears also from these Registers, that many of those who possessed these little volumes were either servants or tradesmen" (Condit, History of the English Bible, p. 75).

"This Bible provoked bitter opposition, and it became necessary for the people to meet in secret to read it, as they often did. Persecution did not begin at once, but it finally became widespread and bitter. Many suffered and it has been said that some, for daring to read the Bible, WERE BURNED WITH COPIES OF IT ABOUT THEIR NECKS" (Simms, The Bible from the Beginning, p. 161). Blackburn tells of a martyr of that day who was burned because he "kept counsel in huyding [hiding] of Lollard’s books" (Blackburn, History of the Christian Church, p. 345).

Wycliffe’s writings and Scriptures which were distributed into other countries met the same fate at the hands of Catholic authorities. In 1375, for example, the Archbishop of Prague issued orders for Wycliffe’s books to be burned, and "consequently two hundred volumes of them, finely written, and adorned with costly covers and gold borders, were committed to the flames" (Orchard, A Concise History of Baptists, p. 237).

In March and April of 1388 "commissions were issued to seize the writings of Wycliffe and Hereford, and they were repeated several times in that and the following year. In 1391 a bill was written into Parliament to forbid the circulation of the English Scriptures; but it was rejected through the influence of the Duke of Lancaster" (Eadie, History of the English Bible, I, p. 83). In 1392 a man named William Smith was persecuted for copying the Gospels and the Epistles in English.

Persecutions were poured out upon the followers of Wycliffe and upon other Bible-believing Christians from the time of Henry IV, who reigned from 1399 to 1413. (Interestingly, Henry IV was the son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the man who protected Wycliffe some two decades prior to Henry’s ascension to the throne.) From the time of Henry, "Their blood flowed in a stream for nearly two centuries with slight respite" (Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists, I, p. 323). In 1401 an Act was passed under Henry IV which condemned "divers false and perverse people of a new sect; they make unlawful conventicles, they hold and exercise schools, and make and write books." "By this Act, the lives of the subjects were put under the control of the bishops, who got power to fine and imprison all heretics, and all possessors of heretical books, while obstinate and lapsed heretics were handed over to the sheriff, to be burned at once, ‘in a high place before the people, that they might take salutary warning.’ The Act bears the title—‘The Orthodoxy of the Faith of the Church of England asserted, and provision made against oppugners of the same, with the punishment of hereticks.’ … Though such penalties may have been inflicted on heretics at an early time, the punishment was only occasional, and the civil law intervened; but, now, a simple decree of a bishop sufficed to send a man to the stake, and the accusation of heresy became sufficiently elastic to bring within it a considerable variety of offenders" (Eadie, History of the English Bible, I, pp. 84,85). In 1400 or 1401, the second or third year of Henry IV, a man named William Sawtree (Sautre) was burned at the stake, and in 1409 a tailor named Bradbe was roasted alive in a barrel (Eadie, I, p. 87; Hassell, pp. 465,66).

The prison in London called the Lollard’s Tower was so named because of the great number of these Bible-believing people who were tormented behinds its walls. "The Lollards’ tower still stands a monument of their miseries, and of the cruelty of their implacable enemies. This tower is at Lambeth palace, and was fitted up for this purpose by Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, who came to his see in 1414. It is said that he expended two hundred and eighty pounds to make this prison for the Lollards. The vast staples and rings to which they were fastened, before they were brought out to the stake, are still to be seen in a large lumber-room at the top of the palace, and ought to make protestants look back with gratitude upon the hour which terminated so bloody a period" (Ivimey, History of the English Baptists, pp. 71,72).

In 1408 Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, at the Synod of Oxford, made a constitution which rendered it illegal to read any of Wycliffe’s writings or translations within the province of Canterbury. "Detected copies of the Bible, or of any of its component books, would consequently be destroyed" (H.W. Hoare, Our English Bible: The Story of Its Origin and Growth, 1901, p. 100). The Constitutions of Thomas Arundel made this brash demand: "WE THEREFORE DECREE AND ORDAIN THAT NO MAN SHALL, HEREAFTER, BY HIS OWN AUTHORITY, TRANSLATE ANY TEXT OF THE SCRIPTURE INTO ENGLISH, OR ANY OTHER TONGUE, by way of a book, libel, or treatise, now lately set forth in the time of John Wyckliff, or since, or hereafter to be set forth, in part of in whole, privily or apertly, upon pain of greater excommunication, until the said translation be allowed by the ordinary of the place, or, if the case so require, by the council provincial" (Eadie, I, p. 89). This was the first English statute for the burning of heretics (though Bible-believing Christians had been burned before this), and it was not repealed until 1677, or 276 years later. This is Arundel’s estimation of the Bible translator: "This pestilential and most wretched John Wycliffe of damnable memory, a child of the old devil, and himself a child or pupil of Anti-Christ, who while he lived, walking in the vanity of his mind … crowned his wickedness by translating the Scriptures into the mother tongue" (Fountain, John Wycliffe, p. 45).

"Thirty of the more prominent Lollards were put to death at various times, and without mercy." Eadie tells us that "there were other executions under this disgraceful Act, of which little record has come down to us" (I, p. 88). Some were forced to wear a depiction of a fiery torch on their clothes during the rest of their lives as a reminder "that they deserved burning" and as a continual warning to others of the potential price of standing upon the Bible and rejecting Roman Catholic authority. "… such was the craft and diligence of the clergy, that they found out means to discover many of them, and by virtue of the statute exofficio, which they had now obtained, persecuted them with great cruelty, so that the prisons were full of them, many were forced to abjure, and those that refused were used without mercy" (Crosby, History of the English Baptists, I, p. 22). In 1410 about 200 copies of Wycliffe’s writings were publicly burned at Oxford.

"Entire copies of the Bible, when they could only be multiplied by means of amanuenses [requiring as much as a year to produce a single copy], were too costly to be within the reach of very many readers; but those who could not procure ‘the volume of the book’ would give a load of hay for a few favorite chapters [Foxe says the load of hay was given in exchange for the use of a manuscript for a single day], and many such scraps were consumed upon the persons of the martyrs at the stake. They would hide the forbidden treasure under the floors of their houses, and put their lives in peril rather than forego the book they desired; they would sit up at night, sometimes all night long, their doors being shut for fear of surprise, reading or hearing others read the word of God; they would bury themselves in the woods, and there converse with it in solitude; they would tend their herds in the fields, and still steal an hour for drinking in the good tidings of great joy" (J.J. Blunt, cited by Hassell, pp. 459,60).

During the reign of Henry V (1413-22), an Act (passed earlier under Richard II but never sent to the house of Commons) was confirmed by which the "English sheriffs were forced to take an oath to persecute the Lollards, and the justices must deliver a relapsed heretic to be burned within ten days of his accusation. . . . No mercy was shown under any circumstances" (Armitage, A History of the Baptists, 1890, I, pp. 323,325).

In 1414 the legislature under Henry V joined in asking for harder measures against the Lollards. "After a suspected rising of the Lollards, a law was passed, declaring that ALL WHO READ THE SCRIPTURES IN THE MOTHER TONGUE SHOULD ‘FORFEIT LAND, CATEL, LIF, AND GOODS, FROM THEYR HEYRES [THEIR HEIRS] FOR EVER’" (Eadie, History of the English Bible, I, p. 89). In 1416 Archbishop Chichele at Oxford enjoined "upon the clergy a thorough search in every parish twice a year, for all persons that ‘hold any either heresies or errors, or have any suspected books in the English tongue,’ or harbor any heretics" (Blackburn, History of the Christian Church from Its Origin to the Present Time, 1880, p. 346). At Christmas time in 1417, Sir John Oldcastle (Lord Cobham) was barbarously martyred for his faith in the Word of God and his rejection of Rome’s authority. He had caused numerous copies of Wycliffe’s Bible to be made and distributed among the people. He loved the preaching of the Lollards and protected them from persecution. Cobham was a favorite of King Henry IV, and was shielded by the king until his death in 1413. The enemies of the Word of God wasted no time after this. That same year Cobham was arrested and sentenced to die. He escaped and fled to Wales, but he was recaptured in December 1417. Brought to the place of punishment, he warned the people "to obey God’s commands written down in the Bible, and always to shun such teaching as they saw to be contrary to the life and example of Christ" (Shelton, History of the Christian Church, II, p. 426). This man who had loved the Word of God and had caused it to be distributed among the people, was then hung in chains and burned alive, suspended over the fire.

Other Christians were also burned, while still others were punished by other nefarious means. Some were branded on the cheeks. "Their necks were tied fast to a post with towels, and their hands holden, that they might not stir; and so the hot iron was put to their cheeks. It is not certain whether branded with L for Lollard, or H for heretic, or whether it was only a formless print of iron" (Fuller, Church History, p. 164).

"Multitudes were thus driven into exile, fleeing into Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, and the wilds of Scotland, Wales and Ireland; of course they carried with them the Scriptures and the love of the truth, and the glad tidings of God’s salvation were thus disseminated in many countries" (Hassell, History of the Church of God, p. 466).

Wycliffe’s writings were destroyed in other lands, as well. In 1408, the same year Arundel’s Constitutions were passed, John Resby was arrested in Scotland, tried and convicted of "heresies," and burned at Perth. "Archbishop Zbinco burned Wickliff’s writings in Prague . . . and their final condemnation was pronounced by the Council of Rome in 1413" (Lea, Inquisition of the Middle Ages, abridged by Nicholson, p. 872). "His writings were burned in large numbers, so that today only fifteen MSS. of his Old Testament and eighteen of the New remain" (Simms, The Bible from the Beginning, p. 164). There also exist numerous smaller fragments. In 1431 Paul Craws was convicted and burned at St. Andrews. That the Lollards had increased dramatically in Scotland is testified by the passing of the Act of Heretics and Lollards, in March 1424. In 1411 the first inquisitor had been appointed in Scotland, named Laurence of Lindores, for the persecution of Bible believers.

In 1421 John Purvey, who took up Wycliffe’s mantle upon his death, was arrested a second time for his persistence in preaching against Rome’s errors the distribution of Scriptures (it is said that during his first arrest in 1400 he recanted). It is probable that he died in prison in miserable straits for his faith in the Word of God sometime during or after 1427. We are told he "endured great suffering in Saltwood Castle" (Eadie, History of the English Bible, I, p. 65).

One Catholic leader of Wycliffe’s day complained in writing about Wycliffe’s translation with these words: "This Master John Wickliffe hath translated the Gospel out of Latin into English, which Christ had intrusted with the clergy and doctors of the Church, that they might minister it to the laity and weaker sort, according to the state of the times and the wants of men. So that by this means the Gospel is made vulgar, and laid more open to the laity, and even to women who can read, than it used to be to the most learned of the clergy and those of the best understanding! And what was before the chief gift of the clergy and doctors of the Church, is made for ever common to the laity" (Anderson, Annals of the English Bible, I, p. xli). Another Catholic writer said: "The prelates ought not to suffer that every one at his pleasure should read the Scripture, translated even into Latin; because, as is plain from experience, this has been many ways the occasion of falling into heresies and errors. It is not, therefore, politic that any one, wheresoever and whensoever he will, should give himself to the frequent study of the Scriptures" (Ibid.). These poor blinded men expressed the attitude toward distribution of Scripture which was common in that day among Catholic leaders.

Of the Catholic bishops in England from the days of Wycliffe [14th century] until the separation of the nation from Rome in the mid-16th century, historian Christopher Anderson, who looked into the history of the English nation during this era very diligently, observes: "Thus did this body of men first come out [to oppose Wycliffe], appearing as a distinct interest in the kingdom, and thus they will remain for above five generations to come; proving ever and anon, upon all occasions of alarm, that they were the determined opponents of Divine Truth. As a body, they will oppose its being conveyed to the people, and at every successive step of progress" (Anderson, Annals of the English Bible, I, p. xxxviii).

The persecutions poured out upon the English Scriptures and those who loved them did not quench the Light, and it is fascinating to recall the situation then existing among those who would read the Bible for themselves. It is good that this present generation, which can obtain a copy of the Bible for a pittance, not forget the great value of the same. The Bible was worth more than life itself to many of these ancient Christians, and so it is today to those who understand its true value. "The forbidden book was often read by night, and those who had not been themselves educated listened with eagerness to the reading of others; but to read it, and to hear it read, were alike forbidden. Copies of the New Testament were also borrowed from hand to hand through a wide circle, and poor people gathered their pennies and formed copartneries for the purchase of the sacred volume. Those who could afford it gave five marks for the coveted manuscript (a very large amount of money in that day), and others in their penury gave gladly for a few leaves of St. Peter and St. Paul a load of hay. … Some committed portions to memory, that they might recite them to relatives and friends. Thus Alice Colins was commonly sent for to the meetings, ‘to recite unto them the Ten Commandments and the Epistles of Peter and James.’ … In 1429 Margery Backster was indicted because she asked her maid Joan to ‘come and hear her husband read the law of Christ out of a book he was wont to read by night.’ … The means employed to discover the readers and possessors of Scripture were truly execrable in character. Friends and relations were put on oath, and bound to say what they knew of their own kindred. The privacy of the household was violated through this espionage; and husband and wife, parent and child, were sworn against one another. The ties of blood were wronged, and the confidence of friendship was turned into a snare in this secret service. Universal suspicion must have been created; no one could tell who his accuser might be, for the friend to whom he had read of Christ’s betrayal might soon be tempted to act the part of Judas towards himself, and for some paltry consideration sell his life to the ecclesiastical powers" (Eadie, History of the English Bible, I, pp. 91,92,93).

"In about three years from 1428, to 1431, one hundred and twenty persons were committed to prison for Lollardy; some of them recanted, others did penance, and several of them were burnt alive" (Benedict, A General History, I, p. 194).

The groups of Christians who founded their faith and practice upon the Wycliffe Bible continued to exist and continued to be persecuted until the time of Tyndale. "On some unknown account, conjectured to be either the weariness of the persecutors or the suppression of the public worship of the Lollards, the burnings for heresy ceased in England about 1435, but were revived from 1485… In spite of the opposition, however, Lollardy made the Bible familiar to the people of England in their mother tongue" (Hassell, History of the Church of God, p. 466).

"The knowledge of divine truth, received by the reading of the Scriptures, was transmitted by a succession of pious men for more than a century after Wycliffe’s death. … Readers of the manuscript Bible were numerous in London, where they had several places of meeting; and they abounded also in the counties of Lincoln, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Buckingham, and Hereford. … These Bible readers called themselves ‘brothers’ or ‘sisters’ in Christ, and at an early period they took the name of ‘just-fast men,’ or ‘known men,’ and ‘known women’" (Eadie, History of the English Bible, I, pp. 94,95). This latter name referred to the conviction among these Christians that if a person did not know the New Testament he was not known or recognized of God. "During the early years of the reign of King Henry VI (1422-61, 1470-71), the Lollards were persecuted in London and the eastern counties, and some members of the sect were burned at the stake" (Microsoft Encarta 95). In 1494 an old woman was burned at the stake for her faith in Christ. In 1496 and 1498 many were forced to abjure their "heresies" and "to wear the fashion of a faggot, wrought in thread or painted, on their left sleeves, all the days of their lives: it being death to put on their cloaks without that cognizance. And, indeed, to poor people it was true,—put it off, and be burned; keep it on, and be starved: seeing none generally would set them on work that carried that badge about them" (Evans, Early English Baptists, I, p. 23, f1). In 1506 William Tylsworth was burned for his faith in the Word of God, and his own daughter was forced to ignite the cruel fire. There was persecution in 1511 under Warham of Canterbury and Smith of Lincoln. James Brewster was burned at the stake that year, and one of his "crimes" was "having a certain little book of Scripture in English of an old writing almost worn for age, whose name is not there expressed" (Condit, History of the English Bible, p. 80). William Sweting, who was burned with Brewster, was charged with "having confidence in a book which was called Matthew." From 1509 to 1517 there was persecution under Fitzjames, Bishop of London (Eadie, History of the English Bible, I, p. 94). In 1514, Richard Hun, committed to the Lollard’s Tower in London, "was found dead in his cell, there being strong suspicions that he had been murdered. His indictment before his death bore that he ‘had in his keeping divers English books prohibited and damned by the law, as the Apocalypse in English, and Epistles and Gospels in English.’ One of the ‘new articles’ brought against him after his death was ‘that he defendeth the translation of the Bible and of the Holy Scripture into English" (Eadie, I, p. 92). In 1519, six men and a woman were burned "for teaching their children the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments in English" (Eadie, I, p. 91). "About 1520 and 1521, more than five hundred men and women were arrested in the one diocese of Lincoln, under Bishop Longhand" (Eadie, I, p. 94). A.F. Pollard, in his biography of Thomas Cranmer, identifies these persecuted brethren as "Lollards" (Pollard, p. 91).

"The influence of Wycliffe had not ceased when that of Tyndale began, for in 1529, and in the fierce proclamation of that year against heretical books—Tyndale’s Testament occupying the first place on the list—all civil officers are enjoined at the same time to ‘destroy all heresies and errors commonly called Lollardies.’ Wycliffe’s followers were therefore still of such note and influence as to obtain a place in this royal document" (Eadie, I, p. 95). Christopher Anderson speaks of seasons of persecution which occurred periodically throughout the 15th and early 16th centuries. He gives incontrovertible proof that the New Testament in manuscript was being read during the reign of James IV in Scotland (1488-1513). One of these was the example of John Campbell, who was arrested prior to 1513 because he possessed an English New Testament. The details of this case had not been published prior to the printing of Anderson’s book in 1845 (Anderson, Annals of the English Bible, II, pp. 400-401). In fact, Wycliffe’s writings were still being mentioned in government documents even after Tyndale’s death. In 1546 a proclamation was by the English authorities again expressly forbidding the possession of Scriptures or books by Tyndale and many other Bible-believing men. Wycliffe was mentioned in the list, which tells us that some of his Scriptures and/or books were still in circulation.

Christopher Anderson, who meditated deeply upon God’s sovereignty in history, gives an interesting thought on why it was the Latin Vulgate that was first translated into the English language. "It was the Latin Bible, therefore, long buried in cloisters, or covered with the dust of ages, which must now be brought forth to view. Confessedly imperfect, it was of importance first to prove that it had all along contained enough for mortal man to know, in order to his eternal salvation; and once translated into any native tongue, not only will the language touch the heart, but the people at last know what that mysterious book was, from which they had been debarred, so wickedly and so long. Although, therefore, the nation was yet an hundred and fifty years distant from the English Bible, properly so called, the present should be regarded as the first preliminary step. An all-disposing foresight, far above that of any human agent, is now distinctly visible in drawing first upon that very language which had been employed for ages as the instrument of mental bondage. It shall now be made to contribute to the emancipation of the human mind" (Anderson, I, p. xl).

John Eadie (The English Bible, 1876) adds this comment in regard to the Latin forming the foundation for the first English Bible: "Any attempt to translate from a Greek original at that period, had it been practicable, might have led to confusion and misunderstanding; for ignorance would have branded such a book as heretical and misleading, if it was found to differ in any way from the ecclesiastical text. The common people could not have appreciated these variations, and such prejudices would have been created against the new version as the priesthood could easily foster and spread. Yet the translation of the Latin Scriptures had been a first step to something higher, an intermediate gift to the nation. The effect had been like the first touch of the Blessed Hand upon its vision—‘it saw men as trees walking;’ and when at length the second touch passed over it, it looked up, and then it ‘saw every man clearly’" (Eadie, I, p. 101).

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