The National Register.
London, England, 1816-06-16 00:00:00

her

No. 1.36.—V0i.. IX.

kunbap Antitcs'ementg.

ANCIENT PULPIT ELOQUENCE.

Na 11.
REIGNS ON EDWARD 111. AND RICHARD 11.

DURING the latter part of the reign of Edward the
Third, and the beginning of that of Richard the Second,
the principal persm who attained any celebrity for his ta-
lents as a preacher, was the well known John Wiclife, or
DeWicliffe, so called from the place of his birth, anobscure
village near the town of Richmond, in Yorkshire.
Endowed with powers of mind infinitely supetior to
those of all his contemporaries, with the most undaunted
courage, and with indetistigable zeal, this wonderful man
was the first who sought to 'teak the chains which au-
perstition, and an hypocritical policy, had imposed upon
the world. Despising all the power of his formidable
antagonists, he boldly attacked them at every assailable
point, and, with such extraordinary success, that the ef-
fects of his preaching were accounted little less than mi-
raculous. Baffled at all points, the Monkish writers
themselves were compelled, even in their own defence, to
express their astonishment at his talents,—to state to the
world, that in philosophy he was second to none ; and
that, in the depths of scholastic reasoning, he was with-
out an equal. Knighton, one of their own historians,
assures us, that, in the course often years, " almostevery
second person in England had become a convert to his
doctrines."

_ .
►ohn Wicliffe rose f:om an humble rank of life, and,
before he was forty years of age, had attained the high-
est distinctions that the University of Oxford, in which
he was educated, could bestow. He had been succes-
sively elected Master of two Colleges, one of which was
under the immediate patronage of the Archbishop of
Canterbury. In his own conduct he is said to have been
distinguished by a peculiar austerity of life and manners;
which operated, in a4dition to his talents, in fixing his

celebrity.
Atter Weelife had opiiNtrffebtred Willie*" the chavt-
pion of reform, the clergy in their alarm appealed to the
Sce of Rome ; and, a short time prior to the death of
Edward the Third, he was cited to appear before the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London, to
account tint his heretical opinions ; but, protected by the
Duke of Lancaster, and by others of the nobility, no cen-
sure was passed upon him, either at this, or at any time
afterwards, durin", his whole life ; and at length, in the
year 184, he died of a paralytic affection, at his rectory
4)1 Luttcrworth, in the county of Leicester.

Of the writings of Wiclifle there are few extant, ex-
cept those which he drew up itgainst the papists, and of
which the principal was on the subject of the sacrament,
and published at Nurenburg, in 1546, under the title of
" A Treatise on the Sacrament," called " WYCKLIFFF:'`z
VYCKETT, tvhich he made ix the Days of Richard II."
He translated the New Testament into English, which
has lately been republished. Amongst the Harlelan
MSS. in the British Museam, No. 1730, there is a quarto
MS. on vellum, of about 196 pages, entitled "
Postik" These consist of a collection of sermons fin.
every Sunday in the year: and, although many works
have erroneously been ascribed to Wickliffe, this MS.
appears to contain internal evidence of its authenticity.
In the same collection, No. 2585, are his notes on the
Pater nester or Lord's prayer ; and sonic other discourses.
We shall insertan extract from the latter.