d by
forcing the thoughts of death and judgment on ungodly or careless
people. But after a time they commonly took the line of throwing
contempt on the clergy and on the sacraments and other usual means of
grace. And when the stir caused by them was over, the good which they
had appeared to do proved not to be lasting.

CHAPTER XX.

JOHN WYCLIF.

(BORN ABOUT 1324. DIED 1384.)

At this time arose a reformer of a different kind from any of those who
had gone before him. He was a Yorkshireman, named John Wyclif, who had
been educated at Oxford, and had become famous there as a teacher of
philosophy before he began to show any difference of opinions from those
which were common in the Church. Ever since the time when King John
disgusted his people by his shameful submission to the pope,[87] there
had been a strong feeling against the papacy in England; and it had been
provoked more and more, partly because the popes were always drawing
money from this country, and thrusting foreigners into the richer
places of the English Church. These foreigners squeezed all that they
could out of their parishes or offices in England; but they never went
near them, and would have been unable to do much good if they had gone,
because they did not understand the English language. And another
complaint was, that, while the popes lived at Avignon, they were so much
in the hands of their neighbours, the kings of France, that the English
had no chance of fair play if any question arose between the two
nations, and the pope could make himself the judge. And thus the English
had been made ready enough to give a hearing to any one who might teach
them that the popes had no right to the power which they claimed.

[87] Page 219.

There had always been a great unwillingness to pay the tribute which
King John had promised to the Roman see. If the king was weak, he paid
it; if he was strong, he was more likely to refuse it. And thus it was
that the money had been refused by Edward I., paid by Edward II., and
again refused by Edward III., whom Pope Urban V., in 1366, asked to pay
up for thirty-three years at once. In this case, Wyclif took the side of
his king, and maintained that the tribute was not rightly due to the
pope. And from this he went on to attack the corruptions of the Church
in general. He set himself against the begging friars, who had come to
great power, worming themselves in everywhere, so that they had brought
most of t