Part Tractates Reprinted from Former Editions
I.—A TREATISE OF JOHN WYCLIFFE AGAINST ORDERS OF Friars. — 217
[D III. A man once professed to their religion may never leave it.. 222]
[IV. No preaching without licence of their sovereign how bad soever. 222]
[VI. Friars draw alms from poor and needy men to the maintenance _]
[VII. Traditions of Friars preferred before Christ’s commandments.. 225]
[z IX. Their stealing of children and enticing of them to their order.. 226]
[X. Curates defrauded of their dues by means of Friars… 227]
[XI. Friars come in under the name of saints, and forsake the rule. 227]
[XVIII. Friars teaching the Vow of Obedience contrary to God’s Law.. 233]
[XIX. How they forsake the perfection of their order for worldly respects 234]
[XX. Their rotten habit esteemed above Christ’s body… 285]
[XXI. Friars beg without need, when the poor want, without remorse. 285]
[XXV. Judas’s children selling Christ, and all for money… 289]
[XXVIL Friars most impatient of all men living in bearing reproof.. 240]
[“XXVIIL The holy Scriptures accused by these unholy men of falsehood. 241]
Part and Observations Concerning Life of Wycliffe
Facts and Observations Concerning the Life of Wycliffe
THE biographers of Wycliffe all mention the year 1324 as that of his birth.” The place of his nativity still bears his name—a village about six miles from the town of Richmond in Yorkshire. The name of Wycliffe, like that of William of Wykeham, is evidently a local one, being written John of Wycliffe; and in England there is no locality bearing the name of Wycliffe beside the place above mentioned. From the time of the Norman Conquest the parish of Wycliffe had been the residence of a family bearing that name, who were lords of the manor of Wycliffe, and patrons of its rectory. During the lifetime of our Reformer there were two rectors of the parish who bore this name: Robert Wycliffe, presented to the living by Catherine, relict of Roger Wycliffe; and William Wycliffe, presented by John de Wycliffe. In 1606 the possessor of this ancient property lost his only son, and by the marriage of his daughter, his patrimony passed to a family of another name.
Dr. Zouch, rector of Wycliffe in the last century, in the insoription attached to the portrait of Wycliffe, by Sir Antonio More, now an heirloom to the holders of that living, speaks of the
[Tanner, Bibliotheca Brit. 767. Lewis, chap. i. Baber ii. Life and Opinions of Wycliffe, i. 229—324. Appendix i.]
ii FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS Reformer without hesitancy—as a native of this parish.” Birk-beck, a clergyman, who officiated in an adjoining parish during the reign of Charles I. speaks no less decidedly on this point in a work intitled the “ Protestant Evidence.” But our best authority is that of Leland, who wrote his Collectanea” about a hundred and fifty years after the decease of Wycliffe, and mentioning the parish of Wycliffe, describes it as the place where Wycliffe the heretic was born.”
It is true Leland himself has elsewhere given & somewhat different account. In his “Itinerary,” he makes mention of Spresswell, “a poor village, a good mile from Richmond,” as the place where the Reformer was born.^ But no trace of such a name can be found anywhere in the neighbourhood of Richmond. Leland travelled for much of his information, but it is manifest, from his errors in respect to Richmondshire, that he could not have visited that county more than very partially. Indeed, an author who could describe the rise of the Tees as being in a meadow near Caldwell, at least fifty miles from its real source, must be supposed liable to mistake on a point of this nature.
Spresswell may have been the name of the family mansion of the Wycliffes, or of some property belonging to them in the neighbourhood; but we are more disposed to trust in the account given by Leland in his Collectanea,” than in that found in the “Itinerary,” and to connect the birth of Wycliffe with the spot which was certainly the home of his family, and from which, beyond all reasonable doubt, he derived his name.