The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-06-05

h.
TO the main ocean. and Tins 'Cney
the emblem Of his doctrine .: are
now Is u dispersed all the world over VEIL u
Wycllffe's writings had great iT inf,
ence abroad, aud We're the mais
cause of the revolt of John T HUI
and Jerome Of Prague against nau uSS
domination, for which both T We
burnt at the stake. AT home IL
created an undying thirst for the nc
/ Bible in the common tonpue ny
: suit which came soon after the wo1
oerIul invention of printing. Al
tehPts at suppression were made
notably IN 14OS, when it was decreed
GlldC no SchOolmaSter should here
aIler NIX religious Instructions with
the teachings of youth. nor hermit
discussion about the sacraments nor
Ine reaolng Of the Scriptures in
English; that books of this sort
written by John Wycliffe and Others
Of his time should be baDishad froI, .
the schools, halls and all nIacns
whatsoever; that no man hereaffeT
should translate any part of the
Scriptures into English on his own
authority, and that all persons con-
vlcted of making or using such
tranSlatiOns should be punished as
favOrerS of error and heresy." Seven
years later. while the right of sane
tuary was given to robbers and
dererS, it was by an act of parlia.
ment denied to those who read the
Scriptures in English. Such was
the reception, by the ruling powers
of both church and state, of the first
English Bible-and that Bible soon
became the central point in English
history.
CONDITION OF RULERS AND PEOPLE.
Taine gives graphic picture of
the state of affairs in England in
these days. He says: at must be
admitted that the reformation en-
tered England by a side door, but it
is enough that it came in, whatever
the manner; for great revolutions
are not introduced by court in
trigues and official cleverness, but
by social conditions and popular in
stincts. When five millions of men
are converted it is because five mil
lions of men wish to be converted.
Let us, therefore, leave on one side
the .intrigues in high places, the
tempers and passions of HenryVIII.,
the pliability and pIauslbility of
era inner. the vacillatiOnS and base
ne SIS of Parliament. the oscillation
and hardness of the reformation,
begun, then arrested, then pushed
forward. then violently pushed back,
then spread over the whole nation,
and hedged in by legal establish
ment built up from diScOrdant ma
CerialS, but yet solid and durable.
Every great change has its root in
the soil, and we have only to look
close into this deep soil to discover
the national inclinatiOnS and the
secular irritations from which Pro-
testantiSm has issued. A hundred
and fifty years before it had been on
the point of bursting forth; Wycliffe
had appeared; the Lollards had
sprung up; the Bible bad been
translated; the Commons had pro-
posed the confscatiOn of all ecclesi-
astical property; then, under the
pressure Of the church, royalty and
aristOcracy combined; the growing
reformation, being crushed, disap-
.peared underground only to reappear
at distant intervals by the sufferings
of its martyrs. The bishops had re-
ceived the right of imprisoning
without trial laymen suspected of
heresy; they had burned. Lord Cob
ham alive; the kings chose their
ministers from the Episcopal
church; settled in authority and
pOmp, they made the nobility and
people bend under the secular sword
which had been intruSted to them
and in their hands the stern net
work Of the law, which. from the
conquest, had compressed the nation
In its iron meSheS, had become still
more stringent and more offensive,
Venial acts had been construed into
crimes, and the judicial repression,
extending to sins as well as to
crimes, had changed the police into
an inquiSition. Offences against
chastity, hereSy, Or matters apper-
tanning thereto, Witchcraft, drunken
ness, scandal, defamation, impatient
words, broken promises, untruth
absence from church. speaking evil
of saints, nOn-payment of offerings,
complaints against the constitution
OF courts themselves-all these
transgressiOns, imputed or suspected,
brought forth before the ecclesiasti-
cal tribunals, at enormous expense,
from great distances, at long relays,
under captiOus procedure resulting
IN heavy fines, strict imprisOnments,
humiliating Objurgations, public
penances, and the menace, often
fulfilled, of torture and the stake.
Judge from single fact; Inc
Earl OF Surry, relative Of the hlng,
was accused before one OF these
tribunals, Of having neglected a
fast. Imagine, if you can, the
and incessant oppressive
ness Of such a cOde-hoW far the
whole Of human life, visible acuonS
and invisible thoughts, was sur
rounded and held down by 1t; how,
by enforced accusations 1t pefe-
tfated to every hearth and into every
conscience; with what shameless
ness it was transformed into a
vehicle for extOrtiOnS: what secret