following remarks of Lord Brougham are both | going to Italy, he studied the best classic authors, forcible and just :

"In contemplating the account given both by Smith and Gibbon of the great university in which both resided without being instructed, the friend of education feels it gratifying to reflect that the picture which both have left, and the latter especially, finds no resemblance in the Alma Mater of the Hollands, the Cannings, the Carlisles, the Wards, and the Peels. The shades of Oxford under the Jacksons, the Wetherells, the Coplestones, (friendly, learned, honored names, which I delight to bring into contrast with the neglectful tutors of Gibbon,) bear no more resemblance to that illustrious seat of learning in his time, than the Cambridge of the Aireys, the Herschells, the Whewells, the Peacocks, the Gaskins, offers to the Cambridge in which Playfair might afterwards, with justice, lament that the Méchanique Céleste could no longer find readers in the haunts where Newton had once taught, and where his name only was since known." (p. 284.)

Italian topography and geography, medals, &c., and went carefully through a long series of archaological writers. In the spring of 1764 he set out for Italy, traversed the principal cities, but remained longest at Rome. The plan of his history first struck him on the 15th of October, while he sat musing in the ruins of the capitol, and barefoot friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter. He then determined to write the noble story of Rome's decay. We own the association of ideas, from its very mournfulness, would have deterred us from the attempt; but it appears to have been differently felt by Gibbon. In Italy he made the acquaintance of his friend, Lord Sheffield. Like Gibbon's other friends, this nobleman retained a great affection for him to the last. In June, 1765, Gibbon returned to England, and became lieutenant-colonel commandant of the militia. His father died about 1770, when Gibbon resigned his commission. He enjoyed, from the misfortunes, in later life of his father, simply ease and At Lausanne he embraced the Protestant faith, comfortable circumstances. His time was wholly influenced by M. Pavilliard. The five years there his own, and it was principally spent in his library spent were of great value to him. French litera- at Buriton, or in the best society in London. Yet ture occupied much of his attention at that period. he deeply regretted the want of a profession. He He was also most sedulous in his classical pur- at this period planned, in conjunction with Deysuits, carefully perusing the whole of the great verdun, the history of Switzerland. The two Latin authors by the aid of their commentators. friends also planned an annual literary review, and He read the whole of Cicero, for example, with published it in 1767 and 1768. Warburton's hythe Variorum notes of the folio edition of Verbur-pothesis on the 6th neis received a caustic reply gius. This curriculum of classic study occupied from Gibbon at this period. We extract the folhim twenty-seven months. Few preparations for lowing description of his restlessness during this distinction have been more ample. Here he be period:came enamored of Mademoiselle Curchod, after- "Thus there was no want of either study or wards the wife of the celebrated Necker. His literary labor to diversify the learned leisure which father, however, objected to this match, and he yet he found so irksome. The contrast is surpassresigned his claim to her hand. The story is ingly remarkable which his description presents to somewhat ludicrous of his declaration of love to the account which D'Alembert has left us, of the this lady inducing the bold experiment of throw calm pleasures enjoyed by him as long as he coning himself at her feet; of his inability to rise, fined himself to geometrical pursuits. Shall we from his bodily weakness, from that position; the ascribe this diversity to the variety of individual lady equally unable to assist him in the dilemma character and tastes; or to the difference in the from his immense weight, added to her own emo- nature of those literary occupations; or, finally, to tins we presume, and that the bell was resorted the peculiarities of French society-affording, as it to as a matter of necessity to summon the servants does, daily occupation too easy to weary, and to all the lovers in their delicate dilemma. At pleasing relaxation too temperate to cloy? PerLausanne he added friendship to love, in the ac-haps partly to each of the three causes, but most quaintance of Deyverdun. He returned to England in 1759.

In 1751 h published his essay "Sur l'Etude de la Littérature." The composition of this work evinces his knowledge of French by composing fluently in that language; but literature" is, as Lord Brougham remarks, somewhat too vague a term, and has not definitiveness enough about it. The production is aimless. About this time, June, 1759, he joined the Hampshire militia, of which his father was major, and for two years and a half was compelled to follow this irksome life to a scholar. He then paused whether he should betake himself to the study of mathematics or classics; but the latter gained the preeminence. He consequently applied himself to Greek, and the work of the father of poetry, which Scaliger had read in twenty-one days, occupied him as many weeks. He read, however, the whole of the "Ilias" twice in one year, with some books of the "Odyssey" and "Longinus." He had frequently meditated an historical work, and at one time contemplated a history of Florence. Before determining the ultimate subject on which he should concentrate his attention, and anterior to

:

of all, to the absorbing nature of the geometrician's studies. It seems certain, however, that no life of mere literary indulgence, of study unmingled with exertions, and with continued, regular exertion, can ever be passed in tolerable contentment; and that if the student has not a regular and, as it were, a professional occupation to fill up the bulk of his time, he must make to himself the only substitute for it, by engaging in some long and laborious work. Gibbon found by experience the necessity of some such resource; and we owe to his sense of it, the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." "

Three years were bestowed upon this work, which was delayed by his return to parliament for Liskeard in 1774. In 1776 the first volume appeared. The style drew down both praise and condemnation. The public voice confirmed the favorable judgment of his friends on its broad merits, and the first edition of 1000 was exhausted in a few days. Bishop Watson appeared among his opponents, and certainly gained the praise of success in his condemnation of the principles embodied in the work. Gibbon published, however, a splendid vindication, of which the Rev. Mr. Milman

says justly, "This single discharge from the pon- | of the Lisbon inquisition, saying, "he would not derous artillery of learning and sarcasm laid pros- at that moment give up any old establishment." trate the whole disorderly squadron of rash and Lord Brougham justly remarks, if he censured feeble volunteers who filled the rank of his ene- Burke at times for his excesses, the chivalric oramies, while the more distinguished theological tor might well have returned the compliment after writers of the country stood aloof." The second this declaration. Gibbon stayed out the chance of volume followed in two years from the publication the revolutionary troubles reaching Switzerland; of the first. In 1779 he accepted the sinecure nor would he have quitted Lausanne, had not his post of a lord of trade. In 1780 he lost his seat; friend, Lord Sheffield, written to him for consolabut Lord North put him into Lymington, a seat he tion and support, in consequence of the death of retained until 1784. The Board of Trade being his wife. Of the truest source of obtaining these, then abolished, he again retired to Lausanne. the brilliant Gibbon was not cognizant; but to do After the publication of the third volume, he hesi-him justice, he was never wanting in human symtated whether or not he should terminate his work pathy. He was a great sufferer from severe indisat that stage. At Lausanne, however, he contin- position. Erysipelas had affected his legs; gout ued it. He also hesitated whether he should fol- also had attacked him, and besides this, he had an low the chronological order of events," or unwieldly rupture, which, singular to say, he had "group the picture by nations," and adopted the not mentioned to any one. Sheffield-house relatter course. He began his work with spirit, ceived him, despite all this, in as short a time as finished the fifth volume in two years, the sixth he could reach it. Immediately on his arrival he and last in thirteen months. We give again his found it necessary to obtain medical aid, for he oft-cited description of the close of his toil. had both hydrocele and hernia. An operation for "It was, he says, on the day, or rather the the first was performed, and four quarts of fluid night of the 27th June, 1787, between the hours removed. The water formed again: a second opof eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of eration was necessary; it was performed. A the last page in the summer-house in my garden. third operation relieved him of six quarts; but he After laying down my pen, I took several walks survived it little more than a week. He never in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias, which believed himself in danger, and spoke of the commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and continuance of his life for many years; and the the mountains. The air was temperate, the sky world is not possessed of Gibbon's last thoughts or was serene, the silver orb of the moon was reflect- words under the contemplation of impending dissoed from the waters, and all nature was silent. Ilution. He was buried in the vault of the Shefwill not," he adds, "dissemble the first emotions field family, at Hitchin, in Sussex, and Dr. Parr of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and perhaps contributed the Latin epitaph to his tomb. It is the establishment of my fame. But my pride was admirably descriptive of the style of the great hissoon humbled and a sober melancholy was spread torian, which, however meretricious at times, we over my mind, by the idea that I had taken an think Lord Brougham rates somewhat too low. everlasting leave of an old and agreeable compan- Copiosum, splendidum, concinnum orbe verboion, and that whatever might be the future date of rum, et summo artificio distinctum orationis genus, my history, the life of the historian must be short recondita exquisitæque sententiæ." and precarious." ("Life," ch. x.)

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In the personal character of Gibbon we have to He returned to England to superintend the pub-remark, that, except in the fearful use of irony, lication of the last two volumes, and was fully which always destroys the amenity of the tone of aware, before he left, that both the indecency and conversation, he was in mode a finished gentleman irreligion of his work would produce numerous op--and in feeling a kind-hearted man. Politely ponents. On his return to Lausanne, Deyverdun patient, he bore-unruffled we dare not say, but was smitten with apoplexy, and died in one year still apparently unmoved the various attacks of after. Gibbon missed his friend severely. Lau- his opponents, and had the candor to honor the sanne, however, was visited by numerous distinguished persons at various intervals-Fox among others who spent two entire days with Gibbon. He describes him thus:

"He seemed to feel and to envy the happiness of my situation, while I admired the powers of a superior man as they are blended in his attractive character with the softness and simplicity of a child. Perhaps no human being was ever more perfectly exempt from the taint of malevolence, vanity, and falsehood."

noblest of them by special mention. It is wonderful that, with his strong conversational powers and research, he never ventured on a speech in the house. How many must have risen in fearful apprehension from his vicinity. His personal appearance must have been almost repulsive. Large head, bad and slender figure when young, and of small stature, ultimately he became a misshapen mass in form and feature. Let us, lastly, look at him as an historian. Here the picture of the inner man changes, for nothing can exceed the finished Lord Brougham suggests the insertion of pride contour that many of his descriptions give to for vanity in this picture, or else the omission of objects. Still we always thought that the title of both substantives. Gibbon, however, felt that the his history was not quite correct. It cannot be recklessness of all morality and decency of Fox considered Roman in its specialty. Its oriental deserved severe censure, and he does not in the portion is the worst part, singular to say, though "Correspondence" spare him. The French rev- the leaning of the writer to every robber Kurd, olution soon filled Lausanne with emigrants, murderous Arab, vile Türkomaun, apostate Chrisamong others, M. Necker. It did not find Gibbon tian, or Muhammedan monster of any kind, made among its advocates; on the contrary, when Burke that portion a labor of love. The crusaders, the attacked it he says of him, "I admire his elo- Christians, and the martyrs, fade under his fearful quence, I approve his politics, I adore his chivalry, pencil. Athanasius alone stands out, despite of and I can almost excuse his reverence for church his historian, in his own bright hues. The orienestablishments." So little did the movement en-tal authorities do not bear out many parts of his list Gibbon's sympathies, that he argued in favor narrative, even in the chronicle of his favorite sub

tions from the marriage vows rendered divorce and even polygamy matters of ordinary occurrence in high life. Unreasonable restrictions led indirectly to unbounded laxity and demoralization. Marriages were forbidden not merely within the limits which Nature prescribes, but as far as the seventh degree of collateral consanguinity; and in addition to this came innumerable degrees of affinity, arising out of the sacraments of baptism and matrimony. Hence "history is full of dissolutions of marriage, obtained by fickle passion or coldhearted ambition, to which the church has not scrupled to pander on some suggestion of relationship."

ject, their own acts. Still is he often fair in judg-| with reference to the Great Charter. Dispensament, especially in summation of the evidence for the destruction of the workmen who attempted to build the temple. Nor does his bitterness lead him to discredit Warburton on Julian, any further than a fair censure on his dogmatism and speculation. His attempt to subdue the force of the unprejudiced evidence of Ammianus Marcellinus, is subject to very different questioning. The sagacity of Gibbon, in the judgment he forms on conflicting accounts, is great; but certainly no one can think that he enters satisfactorily into details. His best efforts always seem to us a sketch of a part, but never a view of the whole. Nothing, for example, can be more unsatisfactory than his brief account of Timur; and Von Hammer supplies innumerable deficiencies even on his favorite subject, the virtues of the Ottoman. To impugn, however, the great extent of his acquirements, would be as unjust as untrue. Still Gibbon does not show much philological acuteness; and although his implicit confidence in the events of early Roman history may be carried to an excess, still, for our parts, we confess we are weak enough yet to credit Livy in preference to Niebuhr. As to the visible prejudice against Christianity, which he scarcely thinks it worth while to conceal, we repeat, that we are ignorant from what source it arose; but certainly Voltaire, Rousseau, and Hume united, did her less harm than the covert attacks of the historian of the "Decline and Fall,"

"The

Not only the appointment of bishops, but, to a great extent, the patronage of inferior benefices, was assumed by the Pope, till, "as in the history of all usurping governments, time changed anomaly into system, and injury into right." Provisions, reserves, taxation of the clergy, enormously swelled the coffers of the Roman court. Gregory IX. preached a crusade against the Emperor Frederick, in a quarrel which only concerned his temporal principality, and the Church of England was taxed by his authority to carry on this holy war. After that, no bounds were set to such exactions. usurers of Cahors and Lombardy, residing in London, took up the trade of agency for the Pope, and in a few years he is said, partly by levies of money, partly by the revenues of benefices, to have plundered the kingdom of no less than fifteen "Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer." million pounds sterling of our money. Pillaged Lord Brougham justly censures the account of on every slight occasion, without law and without Cyprian, and of the persecution of that emperor redress, even the clergy came to regard their that mowed down the church of God, Diocletian, once paternal monarch as an arbitrary oppressor. also the foul indecency of various passages that All writers of the thirteenth and following centuelicited the indignant censure of even one not re- ries complain in terms of the most unmeasured markable for very rigid chastity of expression-indignation, and seem almost ready to reform the Porson. And here we close our remarks on Gibbon. The next lives, in sequence, are Sir Joseph At length the nations began to feel restive under Banks and D'Alembert; the former, we believe, the galling yoke. None had been so heavily burlike Robertson, both the friend and relation of dened as England, "obsequious beyond all other Lord Brougham, who has enjoyed kindred with countries to the arrogance of her hierarchy; espethe noblest of the earth, the men immortalized in cially during the Anglo-Saxon period, when the the undying annals of fame. They may well be nation was sunk in ignorance and effeminate suproud of their descendant, and look on his multi-perstition.' This characteristic she retained for fold acquirements with deep marvel and astonish- ages after the Conquest. ment; for he is not a man of a single speech, or a single subject, or a single book; but one fitted to direct senates, to digest immense materials into succinct form, and to add in each successive year fresh pearls of larger brilliancy and beauty to the chaplet he has already 'strung of the statesmen and men of letters of England.

THE noontide of Papal dominion extends through the thirteenth century. Rome was then once more mistress of the world, and kings were her vassals. "The superiority of ecclesiastical to temporal power, or, at least, the absolute independence of the former, may be considered," says Hallam, "as the key-note which regulates every passage in the canon law." No bond, however sacred, was allowed to stand in the way of this church power. Promissory oaths were frequently annulled, especially when made by sovereigns to their people, as in the case of the English kings,

general abuses of the church."

Excommunication was the lever by which the clergy moved the world. Monarchs were dethroned

dynasties changed-kingdoms given away-and national rights trampled in the dust. Invasions were encouraged, and the banner of conquest was formally and solemnly blessed, as in the memorable cases of William the Conqueror and Henry II. of England, on condition that the Pope should share the spoil; and for this even the ancient national saints and their holiest shrines were desecrated-their names, whether Saxon or Celtic, cast out as evil and profane!

"There is a spell wrought by uninterrupted good fortune, which captivates men's understanding, and persuades them against reasoning and analogy, that violent power is immortal and irresistible. The spell is broken by the first change of success. We have seen the working and the dissipation of this charm with a rapidity to which the events of former times bear as remote a relation as the gradual processes of nature to her deluges and volcanoes. In tracing the Papal empire over mankind, we have no such marked and definite crises of revolution. But slowly, like the retreat of waters, or the stealthy paces of old age, that

extraordinary power over human opinion has been | the zeal, energy, and fidelity of the people, whom subsiding for five centuries."

they always persecuted, unless when some selfish There grew up, by slow degrees, a conviction policy withheld their hand. Such is the great and of "that sacred truth, which superstition and encouraging lesson which this book teaches. sophistry have endeavored to eradicate from the We are not disposed to criticise this important heart of man-that no tyrannical government can work. Ours is the more grateful, though more be founded on a Divine commission. Literature, difficult, task of presenting, as far as possible in so too long the passive handmaid of spiritual despot-brief a sketch, the results of the learned and philism, began to assert her nobler birthright of minis-anthropic author's elaborate investigations, and tering to liberty and truth." And when she came to prepare the way for their joint triumph at the Reformation, the art of printing appeared, to add an hundred fold to her power.

But long before the Reformation, the Papacy had to contend with a foe far mightier and more unrelenting; for literature might be bribed, and learning might be set up against learning. It had to encounter the resistance of conscience, roused and guided by the Word of God.

During many ages of profound ignorance, our forefathers" slept the sleep of orthodoxy," seldom disturbed by the lights of reason, or the sounds of dissent. But from the twelfth century this was no longer the case. "An inundation of heresy broke in that age upon the church, which no persecution was able thoroughly to repress, till it finally overspread half the surface of Europe." This "heresy," so called, was intimately connected with the reading of the vernacular Scriptures. As on this point the testimony of a learned and liberal layman will be accepted by some, more readily than that of an ecclesiastical writer, we shall quote a few more sentences from Mr. Hallam, who deals with religious movements in those times, merely in their relation to the progress of society.

"The ecclesiastical history of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries teems with new sectaries or schismatics, various in their aberrations of opinion, but all concurring in detestation of the Established Church. They endured severe persecution with a sincerity and firmness, which in any cause ought to command respect.

Considered in its effect on manners, the preaching of this new sect (the Lollards) certainly produced an extensive reformation.

Fostered by the general ill-will towards the Church, WYCLIFFE's principles made vast progress in England; and, unlike those of earlier sectaries, were embraced by men of rank and influence. Notwithstanding the check they sustained by the sanguinary law of Henry IV., it is highly probable that multitudes secretly cherished them down to the era of the Reformation."*

thus promoting the object which he has most at heart. We hope, however, that many of our readers may be led to seek for themselves more ample information in Mr. Anderson's own pagès.

In very early times, portions of Scripture had been translated into the Saxon language. But before the thirteenth century nothing effectual was done for the English people in this department. JOHN WYCLIFFE, a native of Yorkshire, was born in 1324, and came into public view as a reformer at the age of thirty-six, maintaining a conspicuous position for twenty-four years, which were devoted to incessant labor in the cause of truth, learning, and godliness, of which he was the brightest example in that age. We have the most satisfactory evidence that his translation of the Bible told powerfully on the community, and was the principal cause of that "extensive reformation" of manners spoken of by Mr. Hallam.

Knighton, a contemporary, complained bitterly that "this Master John Wycliffe translated the Gospel out of Latin into English, and thus laid it more open to the laity, and to women who could read, than it had been formerly even to the most learned of the clergy." The jewel of the church, said he, "is turned into the sport of the people, and what was hitherto the principal gift of the clergy and divines, is made forever common to the laity." Animated by similar feelings, an English council, in 1408, decreed that "the translation of the text of Holy Scripture out of one tongue into another is a dangerous thing." Therefore, translation was forbidden by them "under pain of the greater excommunication."

Notwithstanding such threats, the word of God grew and multiplied. The term "Lollard,” *indeed, was applied to many who did not embrace all the doctrines of Wycliffe, though they echoed his complaints against the hierarchy. In the year 1382, Knighton states that their number had very much increased, and that "every second man in the country was a Lollard," i. e. Protestant. He states, moreover, that their teachers always pretended to have a great respect for "Goddis Law," to which they declared themselves strictly conformed both in their opinions and their conduct. They were also "mighty in words," and both men and women were distinguished by the same modes of speech, and "by a wonderful agreement in the same opinions."

It is to this era chiefly that Mr. Anderson has devoted his investigations in the volumes before us. He has had the rare good fortune to produce a work that was much wanted on a most important subject, and just at the right time. It evinces great learning and industry, and must have cost bim vast labor. It contains an interesting and most instructive portion of English history, never before so fully or so clearly written, casting light on many obscurities, and developing some principles of vital moment in the present day-all going to prove, in a very remarkable manner, that the Book of God is not only the book of truth and salvation, but also, preeminently, the Book of Freedom; and that it has won its victories, not by the power or patronage of princes and prelates, but by

*See Hallam's Europe during the Middle Ages, chap. 7.

It was not by books only that the reformed doctrines were then propagated. There was a body of itinerant preachers called "Poor Priests," who proclaimed the Gospel throughout the land in churches and churchyards, in the midst of fairs and markets, or wherever multitudes were convened. They were denounced by the authorities, and cited to the tribunals, because, " by their subtle and ingenious words, they contrived to draw the people to their sermons, and to maintain them in their errors." Supported in their home mission by the liberality of the faithful, they were free to fly from city to city when persecuted" by the clerks of Antichrist, as Christ biddeth and the Gospel"" com

ing and going after the moving of the Holy Ghost, Rome was then little aware that she was furnishing and not being hindered from doing what is best by the jurisdiction of sinful men." These preaching priests would not take benefices, lest they should thereby countenance the iniquity of patronage, commit the sin of simony, or be tempted to live in idleness, misspending honest folk's money.*

As to the translation of Wycliffe, it is true that he was ignorant of Greek and Hebrew, which some of the priests, 150 years after, regarded as languages newly invented by the Reformers, or by the devil. Such being the utter ignorance, in those ages, of the originals of Scripture, Mr. Anderson thinks that a translation, in the first instance, from Greek and Hebrew, would not have harmonized with the intentions of divine Providence. Latin was the language of learning, of the church, and of the authorized Bible. Against what was manifestly contained in the Vulgate nothing could be said. It was therefore fitting that, as a preliminary step, the translation should be made from that standard version. For this task Wycliffe was eminently qualified.

He did not perform it in vain. The people, even the soldiers, read it with avidity. "Dukes and earls," also, "his powerful defenders and invincible protectors," were busily engaged in transcribing and studying its precious contents. The translator, conscious that he had done a great work, frequently expressed himself in the boldest terms. "The authority of Scripture," said he, "is independent on any other authority, and preferable to every other writing," Among his latest acts," says Dr. Vaughan, was a defence in Parliament of the translation of the Scriptures into English. These he declared to be the property of the people, and one which no party should be allowed to wrest from them."

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to Europe polished weapons for the warfare which was to issue in the destruction of her own power, and which would be first wielded effectually by one of her own most celebrated sons-Erasmus. While Constantinople was being stormed, and while the brief-men" of Italy were busy with their pens transcribing the classics, Gutenberg, the inventor of printing, aided by John Fust, a goldsmith, who advanced the money, finished at Mentz, the first great work of the Press-the Latin Bible. Thus the earliest homage of this art-the parent of so many bloodless revolutions-was paid to the Sacred Volume. This Bible, in 2 vols. folio, consisted of 1282 pages, finely executed, by a process that was a profound secret to all except the artists employed in the work. While the wise men of Paris were ascribing it to the operation of magic and the black art, it found the warmest welcome in the city of the Index Expurgatorius, and its most admiring patron in the Pope. Before the close of the fifteenth century, the different works, published in Rome alone, amounted to 1000. Other cities in Italy and Germany were equally busy. Panzer has reckoned up 198 printers in Venice, and before the close of the century they had put forth 2980 distinct publications, among which were more than twenty editions of the Latin Bible. Thirty years after this glorious invention, there were more than 1000 printing-presses at work in 220 different places throughout Europe.

Such was the state of things when WILLIAM TYNDALE, the first translator of the Bible from the original languages into English, commenced his labors. The parentage of illustrious characters is sometimes involved in an obscurity which baffles all research; and it is amusing to see how biographers puzzle their brains to connect their heroes with It is a singular circumstance that this translation some respectable genealogy. Mr. Anderson, with has never been printed! The New Testament, it all his Christian philosophy, is not free from thisis true, was printed 300 years after it was finished; shall we call it-weakness? And, accordingly, he but the entire Bible, now 464 years old, has never searches diligently and vainly in Gloucestershire been committed to the press. That it was exten- for the paternal mansion of the martyr-Tyndale. sively read, however, is evident from the virulent Tyndale, however, was the name of a good old opposition it excited. "Mere gleams of light, stock; and our translator was probably the son of obtained from the Sacred Word, were sufficient,' "Thomas Tyndale, by Alicia Hunt, of North Nibly says our author, "to bring down the wrath of the oppressor. During the fifteenth century, various cases of abjuration and burning for heresy had occurred. Particular periods are then to be marked | as seasons of persecution."

It is plain, from what has been already stated, that there can be no greater mistake than that so generally committed, of ascribing the British Reformation to continental influences. It sprung from the seeds of truth, sown in the native soil long before Luther was heard of. The written (i. e. manuscript) Word of God in English was the grand instrumentality employed. In this respect, as we shall see hereafter, England and Scotland owed even less to their rulers than to the German reformers.

At the fall of Constantinople, in the middle of the fifteenth century, Europe was seized with a sort of literary mania. Crowds of learned Greeks, bearing with them the classical treasures of antiquity, settled in Italy, which became the chief point of attraction to all the learned of the west. The highest ecclesiastical authorities were so enthusiastic, that the discovery of an unknown manuscript was regarded almost as the conquest of a kingdom.

* Vaughan's Life of Wycliffe, vol. ii., p. 163.

in Gloucestershire, and was born in 1484-5 or 6. He was educated at Oxford, where he was distinguished by his attainments in the classics and his knowledge of the Scriptures, which he labored to inculcate on the minds of his fellow-students. This zeal was offensive to his superiors; and though there is no reason to think he was expelled, yet says Foxe," spying his time, he removed to the University of Cambridge, where he likewise made his abode a certain space." About 1520 he used often to preach in Bristol, and in various towns and villages in the neighborhood of Little Sodbury Manor, where he was a tutor in the family of Sir John Walsh.

There he had debates with abbots and other clergy who frequented the house; for Sir John "kept a good ordinary ;" and the tutor had an opportunity of occasionally discussing "God's matters" with well-beneficed dignitaries. Once Sir John and his lady were at a banquet, given by those great doctors, "where they talked at will and pleasure, uttering their blindness and ignorance without resistance or gain-saying." Their arguments being repeated to Tyndale, he refuted them from Scripture.