that He is "the way, the truth, and the life.' The cottages and hamlets of his neighbourhood witnessed the evangelic exertions of this predecessor of the lay preachers. His elaborate manifesto of belief, given by Foxe, reflects the confused condition of theology in those times of transition; but there is also displayed the pure light which directed him to "the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world."

The most notable of the immediate successors of Wycliffe was Master William Thorpe, whose history, recorded by his own hand, was freely circulated in MS., and ultimately printed by Tyndale. This document affords internal evidence that he had many friends and sympathisers. His examination or trial took place on the 3rd of July, 1407.* On his part he displayed ample accurate Scripture knowledge, combined with manly, sound sense, ready wit, and deep piety. He held fully the whole scheme of evangelical doctrine. For twenty years he had diligently taught it as an itinerant. speaks of many men and women of his acquaintance who "stand in the truth, and are in the way of salvation." We are thus introduced into the secrets of old Lollardism. It was not a political creed, or even social reformation, but something far higher and better in its nature.

He

The conclusion of Thorpe's account shows the workings of his inner life. "And so then I was led forth and brought into a foul unhonest prison, where I came never before. But, thanked be God, when all men were gone forth then from me, and had barred fast the door after * "State Trials," folio ed., vol. i.

them, by and by after, I, therein by myself, busied me to think on God, and to thank him for His goodness. And I was then greatly comforted in all my wits, not only for that I was then delivered for a time from the sight, from the hearing, from the presence, from the scorning, and from the menacing of mine enemies; but much more I rejoiced in the Lord, because that through His grace He kept me so, both among the flattering specially, and among the menacing of mine adversaries, that without heaviness and anguish of conscience I passed away from them. For as a tree laid upon another tree, athwart or across wise, so was the archbishop and his three clerks always contrary to me, and I to them. Now, good God! for Thine holy name, and to the praising of Thy most blessed name, make us one together, if it be Thy will (by authority of Thy Word, that is true perfect love), and else not. And that it may thus be, all that this writing read or hear pray heartily to the Lord God, that He for His great goodness, that cannot be with tongue expressed, grant to us, and to all other which in the same wise, and for the same cause specially, or for any other cause, be at distance, to be knit and made one in true faith, in stedfast hope, and in perfect charity. Amen."*

Of him may be said, in the beautiful words of Lord Macaulay, "While the multitude below saw only the flat, sterile desert in which they had so long wandered, bounded on every side by a near horizon, or diversified only by some deceitful mirage, he was gazing from a far higher stand, on a far lovelier country, following with his eye "State Trials,” vol. i.

the long course of fertilizing rivers, through ample pastures, and under the bridges of great capitals, measuring the distances of marts and barns, and portioning out all those wealthy regions from Dan to Beersheba.”*

Henceforth we have to plunge into the actual shock of the battle between light and darkness, in search of the votaries of truth. The history of religion is not a tale of peace, but of terrible war. Evil in its most hateful form is manifested in strenuous opposition to the good. We are shocked and distressed at the dreadful character of the scenes, in some of which the Tempter has apparently triumphed. The "agony and bloody sweat" of the Man of Sorrows was symbolical of the baptism wherewith His Church was prepared for final, but long-delayed, triumph.

No sooner do we open the annals of persecution, than we are struck with the fortitude and patience of the sufferers. A cheerful tone pervades their confessions. They learnt to direct upwards to heaven the energy of affection which might not expand on earth. We find in their sayings, no morbid reflections on their sad destiny, no bitter accusations against their enemies, but, on the contrary, exulting joy in God their Saviour, and firm hope in the future. They "endured as seeing Him who is invisible," and comforted one another with thoughts kindled at the same source as Luther's Hymn :

For traces of the higher life in man we must often search amidst the lower forms of man's social condition, and there find them under terrible outward disadvantage.

The fearful statute "De Heretico Comburendo," 2 Hen. IV., c. 15, (1401,) tells us by what means the truth, which it arrogantly aimed to burn out of the land, was being promulgated. It states, that "divers false and perverse people of a new sect. . . . usurping the office of preaching, do perversely and maliciously, in divers places within the said realm, under the colour of dissembled holiness, preach and teach these days openly and privily divers new doctrines and wicked heretical and erroneous opinions, contrary to the same faith and blessed determinations of the Holy Church; and of such sect and wicked doctrine and opinions they make unlawful conventicles and confederacies, they hold and exercise schools, and make and write books; they do wickedly instruct and inform people."

This terrible engine of cruelty was not allowed to become rusty. The second sufferer under its enactments was an artisan of Worcester, John Badby.

Early in the morning of the 15th of March, 1409, the city of London was in an unusual ferment. An august tribunal was assembled in conclave at St. Paul's. The Duke of York, the Earl of Westmoreland, the Chancellor Beaufort, the archbishops, and numerous other dignitaries of church and state, were there. The occasion of the gathering was merely that Badby had expressed himself to be of opinion contrary to the dominant creed on the subject of the real presence, and held the doctrines

of Wycliffe. He was the first of the working class in England prosecuted for heresy, the predecessor and type of a great number of the same class who afterwards dared to suffer and die in testimony of their personal religious convictions of evangelical truth. After his condemnation in the early morning, a brief respite was allowed him until noon; the king's writ obtained, the terrible preparations in Smithfield made, and then at mid-day, in the presence of Prince Hal (who vainly attempted to snatch him from the actual fire by promises of worldly advantage if he would reeant), in the face of a crowd of the best and wisest people of the realm, this devoted man was "done to death," calling upon the

Lord.

Henceforth there was no cessation of activity for the Gospel on the one hand, and against it on the other. The laws indicate that the truth was being promulgated under fearful difficulties by the time-honoured methods common among faithful men from the first.

The most illustrious in rank of the Lollards, and one of the bravest of English martyrs, was Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham. This nobleman was a mirror of knighthood. Born in the palmy days of chivalry, trained in courts and camps, living whilst the tournament was a fashion of the times, he became obnoxious to the frightful charge of heresy, and after trial, imprisonment, escape, and betrayal, was ultimately cruelly put to death at St. Giles's Cross. His whole demeanour was worthy of the heroic age. On learning that he had been accused, he manfully wrote, signed, and sealed a declaration of his