clear, and was maintained with ability. In this respect he was the doctrinal precursor of the more illustrious man of the same college who laid the foundation of the future English Church, John de Wycliffe. Both were Augustinians, deriving their cast of thought from the writings of the great Bishop of Hippo; but, better even than this, both were thorough practical Christians. Merton College, as it now exists, is one of the few places in England where we can trace an unbroken connexion of association, between the present and the remote past. Bradwardine and Wycliffe both trod the same cloistered passages we now see there, then marvellous in freshness of elaborate architecture, now dark and worn by the action of five centuries. In 1356, when London was ringing with the tidings of the victory of Poictiers and the exploits of the Black Prince, one of the favourite ecclesiastics of Edward the Third was preaching there the doctrines of grace. This was Richard Fitz-Ralph, who was made, first, Dean of Lichfield; then, in 1333, Chancellor of Oxford; and, afterwards, Archbishop of Armagh. He died in 1360, having, as he confessed, been led from Aristotle to Christ. We have only a fragment of one of his prayers left to us, but it is decisive as to the ground of his hope of salvation :- "Holiest and sweetest Jesus! to thee be praise, and glory, and thanksgiving! Thou, who hast said, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life!'-way without a turning, truth without a shadow, life without an end!-Thou hast shown me the way, taught me the truth, promised me the life!" So has it ever been. The ancient promise has been fulfilled in the happy experience of God's children, in spite of surrounding darkness and peril. They have rejoiced in the fulfilment of the prediction-" For the Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody."* Intellectual and social activity had now somewhat suddenly recovered from the collapse of the Conquest. Society was astir, from the throne of the prelate to the hut of the bondman. In some minds the new zeal took the form of protest against the fiscal or political exactions of the Papacy, or against the vices of the monastic order, or the ignorance of the secular clergy; but, we hope not a few, sought and obtained new life in Christ Jesus. Dr. Hamilton characterizes this period with his usual felicity of language:"Sometimes in February, or early in March, there comes through all the land a prophecy of spring. The atmosphere is strangely mild; primroses peep through, and the redbreast grows bold and warbles a regular roundelay. But the wind shifts, the snows return, and the whole precocious summer, buds, blossoms, music, and all, are buried in the frosty sepulchre. Such an anticipatory flush of spiritual life passed over Europe towards the close of the fourteenth century. Tauler in Germany, Conrad of Waldhausen, and Matthias of Janow, and, a little later, Huss and * Isaiah li. 3. It was a little reviving' Jerome of Prague, Marsilius of Padua, our own William Occam, the University of Paris, all spoke out against Papal usurpation, or gave utterance to sentiments so free, so scriptural, so spirit-rousing, that it seemed as if the Heavenly Bridegroom were saying to His Church, 'Rise up and come away: for, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.' And, doubtless, the spirit of God was in the movement. towards the close of the long medieval winter; but the Council of Constance followed, with the burning of heretics, and of the Book which had made them heretics; and another century was to pass before that general resurrection of buried truth, and that grand outburst of life and freedom, which we call the Reformation." From the nature of the case, we are best acquainted with the political aspect of the great protest which now universally began to be made against the ecclesiastical system. Hallam says, "The greater part of the literature of the middle ages, at least from the twelfth century, may be considered as artillery directed against the clergy, I do not say against the Church, which might imply a doctrinal opposition by no means universal." We may obtain a full insight into the religious activity of the period from the remarkable series of allegories written, probably in 1362, by Langland, a monk of Malvern, called "Piers Plowman's Vision." This contains a spirited survey of the then ecclesiastical world, History of Literature," vol. i., p. 138. 66 accompanied by indications of a desire for a healthy theology and for Church reform. It will probably surprise many persons to find, that in those days, the writer presumed his readers, of all classes, to possess perfect familiarity with the letter of Scripture. Little account is made of the intercession of saints, or even of the Virgin; right apprehensions are shown of the saving work of Christ, and of the renewing efficacy of the Holy Spirit, the force of the law as a rule of life, and the inefficacy of nominalism of any kind. We may fain hope, from the popularity of this lively, clever production, that there was then considerable sympathy not only with the opposition to Roman supremacy, but with saving truth, even amongst those who, like Piers, despised the "Lolleres," classing them with vagrants and vagabonds. One of their names of reproach, "Biblemen," doubtless marks the popular estimate of a Lollard. The early multiplication of plain non-illuminated copies of the MSS. of this work, many of which are still preserved, proves that it was the book of all who could read, or get it read to them. The leading idea is produced over and over again in other publications in succeeding years, showing the hold which it obtained on the popular mind. The mingled light and darkness of medieval days, (occasionally affording enough of the former to lead an earnest soul to Christ,) is characteristically displayed in the monk's address to Mother Church. "Thanne I courbed on my knees, And preid hire piteously Prey for my sinnes, And also kenne [make me to know] kyndly On Christ to bi-leve, That I might werchen his wille That wrought me to man. Teche me no tresor [Tell me no fable], But tell me this ilke [same], How I may save my soule !— Thou that seint are y-holden" [accounted]. * Two other passages may be paraphrased in some of the obscure parts. And so "There are none sooner saved, Nor of truer faith, Than ploughmen and hinds, And labourers common. And other ignorant folk, The palace of heaven. They pass purgatory penance-less, When going from hence, Into bliss of paradise ; For their simple faith, Though imperfectly, they knew, And obscurely they lived." Theology has held me Tenscore times: * "Vision," p. 17. |