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relling Chieftains. Gradually the Norman French worked its way into the Anglo-Saxon as fat kneads with flour. A softness, a richness, a cohesion accrued to the language. The great English tongue became articulate, became shaped and ready for the mighty work it had to do, for the part it was to take in world leadership and redemption.

For time was moving with a swifter tide, and the years were approaching when oral teaching was to give place to the written word of God, and the Bible, the great treasure of Christendom, was to be brought out of the grave of a dead language into the light and activity of a living tongue. Its cradle was to be England; its voice was to be the English language, and its guardians and protectors were to be Englishmen.

From this time forward English history is the history of the Bible. To the Sons of the Saxons was this sacred trust delivered; for this end were they given the rule of the oceans, the mighty ships, the seaports of the world, that the Gospel might be proclaimed from pole to pole. But this destiny has not been fulfilled without a mighty struggle. Jesus Christ said: "Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" and they have not, but shine more gloriously today than ever before.

It was about 1380 that John de Wycliffe made the first complete translation of the Scriptures into the English tongue. From the preceding pages one could but be led to expect that John de Wycliffe was a remarkable character, living in remarkable times; but how momentous were the times and just how great was this majestic Englishman, this heroic translator, one is much surprised to learn. He was so great that the Church of Rome set itself to blot out every record of his life and writings with such vigour that it was not until 1720 that the world had a biography

of Wycliffe from the pen of the Rev. John Lewis, a minister of Margate; mark the time, 1384 to 1720! and it was actually not till 1828 that more of his writings were investigated and brought to light by Dr. Robert Vaughan. Hence, in inquiring into the thoughts and doings of this early reformer, we are entering a shrine of liberty and light, which has remained concealed for hundreds of years. This discovery does not lead us into a tomb of death, to the contemplation of material forms and silent dust, but to the reception of vivifying ideas, to an awakening to clarion calls of freedom, and to that spiritual understanding which could and which did become the channel for transmitting the word of Life to the ages and nations to come.

But first let us review briefly the history of England at that time, for Wycliffe lived under the reign of two Plantagenet Kings, Edward III and Richard II. They were years teeming with events of importance both at home and abroad. A great king was Edward III, chiefly because he had for his Queen-consort Philippa the Good, who of all English Queens stands out a shining example of mercy, charity, sweetness, strength and high enterprise. So long as she lived Edward never failed to succeed in the many wars and the many problems in which he was involved. He flung his whole resources into a war with France, in order to uphold the right of feminine succession, claiming the throne of France himself through his mother Isabella. In French law this ruling could not hold, for it recognised no right of women either to reign or pass on the succession, but to Edward it seemed a vital matter that women's rights should be respected. Thus the war began, and it lasted altogether, one hundred years! Naturally, as time went on, the original cause of the contention became greatly obscured, and the nobles fought chiefly

because they liked fighting. It was an age of chivalry and the youth of both countries loved nothing better than to excel in martial exercises and win their spurs on some field of glory.

It was at Crecy, 1346, that Edward, Prince of Wales, called the Black Prince, distinguished himself by his bravery, and at Poitiers, in 1356, that he defeated 60,000 French with only 12,000 men by his fine generalship and daring courage. The nation was so proud of him, that for a while it was willing to pay the taxes which a costly army involved. He adopted the three feathers and the motto "Ich dien," (I serve), and was adored by high and low alike throughout the Kingdom. Indirectly the peasantry were benefitting at first by the war, for the Knights and Barons were so much in need of money for their expensive armour and general magnificence abroad, that they were willing to let their manors and smaller houses for long terms, receiving rents called "feorm" in return. These leases were the beginning of the farm and the farmer, and the independent yeoman class which in the years to come was to have such tremendous influence in public life. They were also willing to allow their serfs to buy their freedom. With the flower of the aristocracy abroad, those who were left in England were free to develop interests of their own, and industry began to take possession of the public mind. Edward had brought over numbers of Flemish weavers who settled in the eastern counties and cloth-weaving soon became an important trade. Any serf who could escape to a town and dwell there for a year and a day was free, and many took advantage of this custom and began to earn a free livelihood. Besides this there was the fish and timber trade with Normandy, and the wool trade with Flanders, and the wine and salt trade with Gascony.

Gold coins were brought into use for money, and a new class of free, self-supporting traders came into being, men who began to think for themselves and be conscious of rights and necessities which they had never felt before. Parliament grew in strength and more than ever controlled national finance.

But in 1348 came the terrible plague, the Black Death, which swept over the continent into England. The small, crowded houses in the newly thronged towns and the hovels of the peasants in the country could offer no resistance to the scourge. In the end more than one-third of the population perished, and this without counting the numbers killed in the war, and when the country staggered to its feet again, conditions were changed. The labourers who were left asked higher wages, the landowners tried to bind them down to working on their own estates, even branding those who ran away with an F (fugitive) on their foreheads. But the serfs had tasted the sweets of trade and freedom and chafed under such harsh measures. And what of the Church all this time? What part had it been playing in the country's need? The Church had become entirely dominated by Rome. Wealthy Cardinals and Abbots had preyed upon the resources of this little island, fished her pools and streams, and garnered her cereals and fruits into their own treasury. Moreover, tribes of wandering friars infested the country, who, in the name of religion, pillaged and spoiled all that the higher ecclesiastics had left. These mendicant orders, founded originally by such saintly men as Francis of Assisi, had ceased to fulfil the purpose for which they were created, and, instead of being a means of ministry to the sick and needy, had become hotbeds of espionage and intrigue. An especial danger lay in their being answerable to Rome alone, and entirely

immune from the civil law of England. Their means of robbery and mischief therefore was incalculable.

The Church at this crisis in national affairs was giving the people no help. But they found a voice among themselves, the first labour-poet, a man called Langland who wrote a strange, wild poem, "The Vision of Piers Plowman." This revealed how, while Knights and courtiers and wealthy Abbots and Monks were holding tournaments and banquets, the people were sick and starving, and restless with discontent. Ten more years passed. Good Queen Philippa was dead. The King was growing old and falling under evil influences. The war in France was going ill, and the Black Prince, the nation's idol, was a dying man who could never live to reach the throne. John of Gaunt, the King's third son, usurped authority and caused a cruel poll tax to be levied which pressed heavily on the people already burdened beyond endurance. Edward III passed away, leaving little Richard, the son of the Black Prince, a child of eleven, heir to the throne.

The discontent among the people smouldered on, as live fire under the heavy beams of established custom; then in 1381 it flamed out in one menacing flare of rebellion. Yorkshire, Lancashire, Devon, Suffolk, Essex and Kent rose. The men of Essex, Kent and Hertfordshire, armed with clubs, and rusty swords, and bows, a hundred thousand strong, marched to London, and the mob within opened the gates to them. They ransacked the prisons. (terrible places in those days), burnt the Savoy Palace, the New Inn at the Temple, and some of the Flemish houses. Then they camped around London for the night, orderly, controlled by their leaders, law-abiding Saxons, free-thinking Israelites, but desperate men, poor, hungry, overworked, super-taxed, foreign-exploited, neglected sons

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