her governmental
powers. This, in fact, is just what he wished to do, for he went ahead
of almost all his contemporaries in proposing that the judicial powers
of the clergy be transferred to the civil government. Not only, in his
opinion, should the civil ruler be totally independent of the pope, but
even such matters as the regulation of marriage should be left to the
common law.

[Sidenote: Wyclif, 1324-84]

A far stronger impression on his age was made by John Wyclif, the most
significant of the Reformers before Luther. He, too, was an Oxford
professor, a schoolman, and a patriot, but he was animated by a deeper
religious feeling than was Occam. In 1361 he was master of Balliol
College, where he lectured for many years on divinity. At the same
time he held various benefices in turn, the last, the pastorate of
Lutterworth in Leicestershire, from 1374 till his death. He became a
reformer somewhat late in life owing to study of the Bible and of the
bad condition of the English church. [Sidenote: 1374] At the peace
congress at Bruges as a commissioner to negotiate with papal
ambassadors for the relief of crying abuses, he became disillusioned in
his hope for help from that quarter. He then turned to the civil
government, urging it to regain the usurped authority of the church.
This plan, set forth in voluminous writings, in lectures at Oxford and
in popular sermons in London, soon brought him before the tribunal
[Sidenote: 1377] of William Courtenay, Bishop of London, and, had he
not been protected by the powerful prince, John of Lancaster, it might
have gone hard with him. Five bulls launched against him by Gregory XI
from Rome only confirmed him in his course, for he {37} appealed from
them to Parliament. Tried at Lambeth he was forbidden to preach or
teach, and he therefore retired for the rest of his life to
Lutterworth. [Sidenote: 1378] He continued his literary labors,
resulting in a vast host of pamphlets.

Examining his writings we are struck by the fact that his program was
far more religious and practical than rational and speculative. Save
transubstantiation, he scrupled at none of the mysteries of
Catholicism. It is also noticeable that social reform left him cold.
When the laborers rose under Wat Tyler, [Sidenote: 1381] Wyclif sided
against them, as he also proposed that confiscated church property be
given rather to the upper classes than to the poor. The real
principles of Wyclif's ref