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PRELIMINARY VIEW OF THE PAPAL SYSTEM, AND OF THE STATE
OF THE PROTESTANT DOCTRINE IN EUROPE, TO THE
COMMENCEMENT OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.

BY

ROBERT VAUGHAN.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

B. J. HOLDSWORTH,

18, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD.

HATCHARD AND SON,

PICCADILLY.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY S. HOLDSWORTH, 13, PATERNOSTER ROW.

PREFACE.

THE name of John de Wycliffe appears in the page of history, as that of the first Englishman, whose views of Christianity were such as to induce a renunciation of the spiritual as well as of the temporal power claimed by the pontiffs; and to his mind, nearly every principle of our general Protestantism may be distinctly traced. To diffuse his doctrine among his countrymen, was the object to which his energies were directed in the face of every danger, with an industry which is almost incredible, and with a success which his enemies describe as a leading cause of the revolution which signalized the reign of Henry the eighth. By that event, though the result of imperfect motives in the sovereign, and defective in many of its prin

ciples, a value was at length conferred on the birthright of the men of this land, which no second change could have imparted. Such, at least, must be the persuasion of every Protestant believer; and he must in consequence feel, that the Life of our patriarch Reformer is the last which should be left to be gathered from the tales of adversaries, who have employed their utmost ingenuity to conceal his virtues, or to convert them into crime. Nor will it be admitted for a moment, by the sincere disciple of the Reformation, that the History, and the Opinions of Wycliffe, may be sufficiently known through the medium of the brief, or the confused notices, which have been hitherto supplied by his friends. To this, indeed, we might submit, as to a sort of destiny, were it certain that the zeal of his opponents had succeeded in consigning the whole of his compositions to the flames. But though their familiar designation, as inquisitors of heretical pravity, was far from being assumed in vain, the Wycliffe manuscripts still extant, are happily sufficient to afford a complete illustration of his character and doctrines.

The only writer who may be said to have attempted a Life of Wycliffe, is Mr. Lewis, a clergy

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