NUMENT OF SIR JOHN BEAUCHAMP, POPULARLY KNOWN AS DUKE
HUMPHREY'S. _After W. Hollar._]

[Illustration: BRASS OF BISHOP BRAYBROOKE.]

[Illustration: BRASS OF JOHN MOLINS.]

[Illustration: BRASS OF RALPH DE HENGHAM.]

[Illustration: CHURCH OF ST. FAITH IN THE CRYPT OF ST. PAUL'S. _After
W. Hollar._]

We return to the religious history, in which we left off with the name
of Wyclif. The Norman despotism of the Crown was crumbling away, so
was the Latin despotism of the Church. On both sides there was evident
change at hand, and Wiclif gave form to the new movement. He was born
about 1324, educated at Oxford, where he won high distinction, not
only by his learning, but by his holiness of life. The unparalleled
ravages of the plague known as the "black death," not only in England
but on the Continent, affected him so deeply that he was possessed by
the absolute conviction that the wrath of God was upon the land for
the sins of the nation at large, and especially of the Church, and he
began his work as a preacher against the abuses. His first assault was
upon the Mendicant Friars, whom he held up, as did his contemporary,
Chaucer, to the scorn of the world. Then he passed on to the luxury
in which some of the prelates were living, and to their overweening
influence in the Councils of State. Edward III., after a reign of
great splendour, had sunk into dotage. John of Gaunt had been striving
for mastery against the Black Prince, but the latter was dying, July,
1376, and Gaunt was now supreme. He hated good William of Wykeham, who
had possessed enormous influence with the old king, and he was bent
generally on curbing the power of the higher clergy. At this juncture
Wyclif was summoned to appear at St. Paul's to answer for certain
opinions which he had uttered. It is not clear what these opinions
were, further than that they were mainly against clerical powers and
assumptions; questions of doctrine had not yet shaped themselves. He
appeared before the tribunal, but not alone. Gaunt stood by his side.
And here, for a while, the position of parties becomes somewhat
complicated. Gaunt was at this moment very unpopular. The Black Prince
was the favourite hero of the multitude, an unworthy one indeed, as
Dean Kitchin has abundantly shown, but he had won great victories, and
had been handsome and gracious in manners. He was now at the point of
death, and Gaunt was believed to be aiming at the succession, to the
exclusion of the