work of that faith or polity on which his own. partialities have been conferred, is certainly one with whom the Author can have no sympathy.

It will be seen that in the extracts introduced from Wycliffe's English pieces, the orthography and a few obsolete terms have been discarded, and that the taste of the modern reader has been in some farther degree consulted. This liberty with the Reformer's language has been taken from a persuasion that without it the passages inserted would fail to receive the attention which they deserve, and which is necessary to the design of the present publication. It may be questioned also, whether it is just to Wycliffe himself, that he should be obliged to deliver his sentiments at considerable length, in the very letter of a dialect, to most readers so unintelligible and repulsive as that of our ancestors in the fourteenth century. There is a danger of mistaking the imperfections of expression for those of perception and sentiment. But though such reasons may perhaps have justified a greater liberty with the Reformer's phraseology, I wish it to be borne distinctly in mind, that in the portion of his compositions included in these volumes, the substance of his language has been in every instance carefully preserved; and with it, every, even the minutest shade of his meaning. Nine-tenths of his terms are still current among us, and his sentences are in consequence more

obsolete from their structure and orthography, than in their materials.

To persons connected with both our Universities, and to others, members of the Protestant College in the capital of the Sister Island, I might express my obligations. But these are no where more serious, than as conferred by the kindness of the Venerable the Archdeacon of Richmond, who, as Rector of Wycliffe, has afforded me every encouragement in prosecuting my object, and has rendered me an important service by the loan of the valuable picture, from which the engraving prefixed to this volume is taken. Dr. Zouch, a former Rector, bequeathed this painting to his successors, with the following notice appended to it: "Thomas Zouch, A. M. formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Rector of Wycliffe, gives this original picture of the great John Wycliffe, a "native of this parish, to his successors, the Rectors "of Wycliffe, who are requested to preserve it as "an heirloom to the Rectory House." Sir Antonio More was in England during the reign of Philip and Mary. Dr. Zouch possessed considerable information respecting the history of this painting, but a glance is sufficient to place its claims beyond doubt.

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In leaving the result of my obscure industry with the reader, it is not without feeling that I have much depending on his candour. But it was a

conviction that the labours of Wycliffe were more nearly connected with our religious independence, and with the benefits attending it, than is generally supposed; and particularly, that many of the reproaches cast upon his name were unmerited, which led me to make his character the subject of investigation. Every step in my inquiries has served to convince me that on these points my impressions were correct. Compared with the most illustrious of the men who during the sixteenth century adopted so much of his creed, he will be found to be the equal of the greatest, and the superior of most. Had his career been far less efficient, it will be remembered that the struggle at Thermopylæ does not affect us less because it was a failure. And if many of the questions which occur very frequently in his writings, are now in a great measure obsolete; the man who can be indifferent to the steps by which his liberties were acquired, has scarcely learnt to value them as he ought.

PREFACE

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

THE notices bestowed on the present Work from the periodical press, have been quite as numerous, and much more favourable than I had ventured to anticipate. In preparing this edition for publication, the various criticisms passed upon the former have been carefully weighed, and whether proceeding from friendly intention or otherwise, I have been concerned to profit by them. A studious revision has been extended to the whole work. Considerable pains have been taken to prevent a repetition of the typographical errors, by which the preceding edition, from a concurrence of unfavourable circumstances, was disfigured. Some collateral matters, in the second volume, have been removed from the second and fourth chapters, to the Appendix; and to facilitate a reference to the contents