they ventured not to
demand any exorbitant concessions, or such as were incompatible
with regal and sovereign power: the weakness of Richard tempted the
parliament to extort a commission, which, in a manner, dethroned the
prince, and transferred the sceptre into the hands of the nobility. The
events of these encroachments were also suitable to the character of
each. Edward had no sooner gotten the supply, than he departed from the
engagements which had induced the parliament to grant it; he openly told
his people, that he had but dissembled with them when he seemed to
make them these concessions; and he resumed and retained all his
prerogatives. But Richard, because he was detected in consulting
and deliberating with the judges on the lawfulness of restoring the
constitution, found his barons immediately in arms against him; was
deprived of his liberty; saw his favorites, his ministers, his tutor,
butchered before his face, or banished and attainted; and was obliged
to give way to all this violence. There cannot be a more remarkable
contrast between the fortunes of two princes: it were happy for society,
did this contrast always depend on the justice or injustice of the
measures which men embrace; and not rather on the different degrees of
prudence and vigor with which those measures are supported.

There was a sensible decay of ecclesiastical authority during this
period. The disgust which the laity had received from the numerous
usurpations both of the court of Rome and of their own clergy, had very
much weaned the kingdom from superstition; and strong symptoms appeared,
from time to time, of a general desire to shake off the bondage of the
Romish church. In the committee of eighteen, to whom Richard's last
parliament delegated their whole power, there is not the name of one
ecclesiastic to be found; a neglect which is almost without example,
while the Catholic religion subsisted in England.[**] [17]

* Peruse, in this view, the Abridgment of the Records, by
Sir Robert Cotton, during these two reigns.

** See note Q, at the end of the volume.

The aversion entertained against the established church soon found
principles, and tenets, and reasonings, by which it could justify and
support itself. John Wickliffe, a secular priest, educated at Oxford,
began in the latter end of Edward III. to spread the doctrine of
reformation by his discourses, sermons, and writings; and he made many
disciples among me