which condemned Huss to death,
sermons were preached more bitterly reproachful of the pride of the
Pontiffs and the corruption of the Church than the words of any of the
men who put themselves beyond its pale, and addressed it as "your
Church," instead of speaking of it as "ours." And while the dignitaries
of that corrupt body dared not lay a finger upon their more pure,
prophetic, and sharply accusing brethren, they made men like Huss and
Jerome of Prague the doubly burdened and tortured victims of their rage.

Much of the interest of these volumes is owing to the prominence given
to Wycliffe, and his contemporaneous work in England. It is strange,
indeed, that in those early days, before Europe was crossed with its
net-works, not of railways, but of post-roads even, the land which
inclosed the fountains that fed the Elbe, eight hundred miles above
Hamburg, was closely bound to that distant island, four hundred miles
beyond Hamburg, on the western side of the German Ocean. But a royal
marriage in England had united that kingdom to Bohemia, and Wycliffe's
name was a household word in the lecture-rooms of Prague, and Wycliffe's
books were well worn in its libraries. The great work of preparation,
the preliminary stirring-up of men's minds, by both of these great
reformers, is hardly realized by us. But words had been spoken which
could not die in a hundred years, and the public temper had been thrown
into a glow which could not cool in a century. The "Morning Star of the
Reformation" found its twin lighting up the dark ravines of Bohemia, and
when they twain arose the day had begun to break. The Reformation did
not begin with Luther. The elements had been made plastic to his touch;
all was ready for his skilful hand to mould them into the symmetry of
the Great Reformation. The armies of the Lord had enlisted man by man
before he came; it was for his clarion blast to marshal them in
companies and battalions, and lead them to the battle. We must again
thank Mr. Gillett for his timely, serviceable book. It is never
unprofitable to look back and see who have kept the sacred fire of
Christianity burning when it seemed in danger of extinguishment. And in
that fifteenth century its flames certainly burned low. Whenever the
Church is on the side of aristocratic power, whenever it is a
conservative and not a radical and progressive force in an evil age,
when the forces of Satan are in power, the men are truly worthy of
immortalit