New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-12
SONS OF OXFORD.

SONS OF OAfOhD.
TIE THREE RELIGIOUS LEADERS or OXFORD
AND THEIR MOVEMENTS JOHN MfCbiff ".
JOHN WESLEY. JOHN HENRY N ~ VA. e y
8 rarkes Cadman. sfo ~ WI 0'V' INV ''
milan Company.
Such periods of renovation in the re-
ligious life OF England as are brought
under revisal in the studies before US
amply illustrate the way in which the
national welfare has been involved IN
the spiritual fortunes of Oxford. Not
that the university has always proved
n genial mother to her reforming sons;
for she has not infrequently eXiied
them In life and afterward has MADE
some sepulchral reparation to thelr
memory. Yet there have been the sea
sons Of prophetic insights and OF
dreamings on things TO come, wheh
what Oxford has said on one day Eng
land has said on tardy morrow ~ Is
n pleasant inspiration that brings "
Cadman 10 recount the achievements
Of three Oxford scholars who were re-
forming churchmen in their time In
attempting an evaluation of the move
ments linked with these shining names
the viewpoint, being modern, is neces-
sarilv that of the freedom Of faith,
and il is we'll beyond any sacerdotai
sectarianism
Although Wycliffe was one OF the
last of the schoolmen and flourished
four centuries before Wesley, the IN
terval between the two leaders is les
sened when one takes into account the
fact that in more than one matter
Wycliffe served as forerunner rather
than as initiator of n new era. A four
teenth-century Master Of Ballot VINO
was capable of imagining a state OF
society in which the Church should
consist solely of the laity could ofer'
as DR.. Cadman suggests, an eXhilarat-
ing spectacle of moral intrepldlty.
christian men should know" said wy
clifFe, chat vhosoever liveth best pray
eth best. and that the simple paternos-
ter of a ploughman, who hath charlty:
Is better than thousand masses OF
covetous prelates and vain religious.
II his logic leaped TO conclusions where
life would not always follow, 1t IS NOT
10 be questioned that he accomplishing
substantial results in the direction OF
an English nationalism. Moreover, the
assurance that Wycliffe and his asso-
ciates translated the Bible into Eng
lish. and that their translation was the
first complete version thus made, is
"too well attested to be easily dis
turbed." By his own life and through
the evangeizing zeal of his poor
preachers Wycliffe gave a witness,
sorely needed, in behalf of the Gospel
SIMPLICITY and Of the primitive and
2postolic devotion that spends itself
that il NAV bless mankind. "He was,
saws DR.. Cadman. enough of the as
celtic to despise the lures of the world;
of the man of affairs to know the de-
ceptions of political strife; Of the SAINT
TO regard that which he held as truth
as more important than place or
power"
The fame Of John Wesley has been
emancipated from the disabilities OF
Methodist adulation and Anglican pat
ronage, so that neither Southey nor
Tverman among the biographers are
felt TO give the note of fnallty IN es-
timating this Oxford churchman's work
in the world. Owing TO the reports OF
Edward Fitzgerald and of later book
men like Mr.. Thomas Seccombe and Slr
William Robertson Nicoll, the journal
Of John Wesley is coming TO recoghl-
tion as a work of literary power
"There is hardly any book like it." says
Sir william. Its shrewdness, its wit
its wisdom, its knowledge. are Dor
dered with a pale edge of fre-the
spiritual passion Of the great apostles
soul" In the Journal, as nowhere else:
one learns something of the scope OF
Weslev's intellectual energy. When MS
oxford days are done, and he is Jour
neying about England on horsebacK!
chiefly and to the tune of i've thousand
miles a year, he continues his reading
In religion ard theology you would ex-
pect him to be a persistent reader BUT
he makes analyses Of books old ana
new in philosophy, in esthetics, MS
tories Of antiquity and of the most re-
cent rebellions, works in physics; au-
thors like Macchiavelli and Mandeyille;
Rousseau's Emile" Voltaire's ZEN ZEN
riade" and Memoirs; the Medltatlo1s
of Marcus Aurelius, Ariosto's Orlando
Furioso," Tasso's Jerusalem De-