1576 Edition | Book 5 | Page 445 
in very deede) did fall into all kynde of extreme tyranny: Where as the pouerty and simplicity of Christ was chaunged into cruelty and abhomination of lyfe. In stede of the Apostolicke giftes and continuall labours and trauailles, slouthfulnes & ambition was crept in amongest the priests. Besides all this, there arose and sprōg vp a thousand sortes and fashions of straunge religiōs, beyng the onely roote and well head of all superstition. Howe great abuses and deprauations were crept into the Sacramentes, at what tyme they were compelled to worshyp similitudes and signes of thynges, for the very thynges themselues: and to adore such thynges as were instituted and ordeind onely for memorials?MarginaliaAll good thinges defiled & spoted with superstition. Finally what thyng was there, in the whole state of Christen religion so sincere, so sounde and pure, which was not defiled & spotted with some kynde of superstition? Besides this, with how many bondes and snares of dayly new fangled ceremonies, the sely consciences of men redemed by Christ to libertie, were snared & snarled? In somuch, that there could be no great difference almost perceaued betwene Christianite and Iuishnes, saue onely that the state & condition of the Iewes, might seeme somwhat more tolerable, then ours. There was nothyng sought for out of the true fountaines, but out of the dirty pudles of the Philistians. The christiā people were wholy caried away as it were by the noses, with mere decrees & cōstitutions of mē, euē whether as pleased the byshops to leade them, & not as Christes will dyd direct them. All the whole world was filled and ouerwhelmed with errours and darknes. And no great maruell, for why the simple and vnlearned people beyng farre from all knowledge of the holy Scripture: thought it sufficient inough for them, to know onely these thynges which were deliuered them by their pastors and shepheardes, and they on the other part taught in a maner nothyng els, but such thynges as came forth of the court of Rome. Wherof the most part tended to the profite of their order more then to the glory of Christ.
[Back to Top]The Christian fayth was estemed or counted none other thyng thē, but that euery mā should know that Christ once suffred, that is to say, that all men should know & vnderstād that thyng which the deuils themselues also knew. Hypocrisie was counted for wonderfull holynes. All men were so addict vnto outward shewes, that euen they themselues which professed the most absolute & singular knowledge of the Scriptures, scarsly did vnderst?d or know any other thing.MarginaliaThe captaines of the church seduced as well as the inferiour sort. And this euidently did appeare, not onely in the common sort of Doctours and teachers, but also in the very heades and captaines of the Church: whose whole Religion and holynes, consisted in a maner in the obseruyng of dayes, meates, and garmentes, and such lyke rethoricall circumstaunces, as of place, tyme, person. &c. Hereof sprang so many sortes and fashions of vestures and garments: so many differences of colors and meates: with so many pilgrimages to seuerall places, as though S. Iames at Compostella could do that, which Christ could not doo at Cāterbury: Or els that God were not of like power and strength in euery place, or could not be founde but beyng sought for by runnyng and gaddyng hither and thether. Thus the holynes of the whole yeare was transported and put of vnto the Lent season.MarginaliaPalestina denied holy for Christes walking there. No coūtrey or land was counted holy, but onely Palestina, where Christ had walked himselfe with his corporall feete. Such was the blindnes of þe tyme, men dyd striue and fight for the crosse at Hierusalem, as it had bene for the chief and onely force and strength of our fayth. It is a wonder to read the monumentes of the foremore tymes, to see and vnderstand what great troubles and calamities this crosse hath caused almost in euery Christian common wealth. For the Romish champions neuer ceased, by writyng, admonishyng, and counsailyng, yea and by quarellyng: to moue and styrre vp Princes myndes to warre and battaile, euen as though the fayth & belefe of the Gospell, were of small force or litle effect without that wood? crosse.MarginaliaRichard K. of England. This was the cause of the expedition of the most noble Prince K. Richard vnto Hierusalem. Who beyng taken in the same iourney, and deliuered vnto the Emperour: could scarsly be raunsomed home agayne, for thirty M. markes. pag. 251.MarginaliaFredericke the emperor of Rome. In the same enterprise or iourney, Fridericus the Emperour of Rome a man of most excellēt vertue, was much endamaged, in the same iorney. an. 1179. MarginaliaPhillip K. Fraunce. And also Philip the kyng of Fraunce, scarsly returned home agayne in safety not without great losses: so much dyd they esteme the recouery of the holy citie and crosse.
[Back to Top]Vpon this alone, all mens eyes, myndes, and deuotions, were so set and bent: as though either there were no other crosse but that, or that the crosse of Christ were in no other place but onely at Hierusalē. Such was the blyndnes and superstitiō of those dayes, which vnderstoode or knew nothing but such as were outwardly sene: where as þe profession of our religiō standeth in much other higher matters and greater mysteries.MarginaliaPope Vrbane. What was the cause why that Vrbanus dyd so vexe and torment hymselfe? Because that Antioche with the holy crosse, was lost out of the handes of the Christians. For so we do finde it in the Chronicles, at what tyme as Ierusalem with kyng Guido, and the crosse of our lord was taken, and vnder the power of Sultan: Vrbanus toke the matter so greuously, that for very sorow he died.MarginaliaLambert Pope. In whose place succeded Lambertus which was called Gregory the 8. by whose motion it was decreed by the Cardinals, that (settyng apart all riches and voluptuousnes) they should preach the crosse of Christ, and by theyr pouerty and humility first of all should take the crosse vpon them, and go before others into the land of Ierusal?. These are the wordes of the history. Wherby it is euident vnto the vigilant reader, vnto what grosenes the true knowledge of the spirituall doctrine of the Gospell was degenerate and growen vnto in those dayes:MarginaliaThe knowledge of the Gospell grosely expounded by the Romanistes. How great blindnes & darkenes was in those dayes, euen in the first primacy, and supremacy of the bishop of Rome: as thoughe the outward succession of Peter and the Apostles, had bene of great force or effect to that matter. What doth it force in what place Peter did rule or not rule? It is much more to be regarded that euery man should labour and study with all their endeuour to follow the lyfe and confession of Peter: And that mā seemeth vnto me to be þe true sucessour of Peter, against whom the gates of hell shall not preuayle. For if that Peter in the Gospell do beare the type and figure of the christian Church (as all men in a maner do affirme) what more foolish or vayne thyng can there be: then thorough priuate vsurpation, to restrayne and to bynde that vnto one man, which by the appoyntment of the Lord, is of it self free and open to so many?
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe rising vp of Wickliffe in a troublous tyme. Thus in these
CloseIn the first edition of the Acts and Monuments, Foxe's account of the genesis of Wiclif's clashes with the Church consisted of a few nuggets of biographical data - Kenningham's attack on Wiclif, for example - and a great deal of assertion about the nobility of Wiclif and the base motives of his opponents. In the second edition, this was complemented by a detailed, if somewhat tendentious, account of Wiclif's position in the politics of the last days of Edward III's reign. Foxe derived all of this new material from BL, Harley MS 3634, a version of Thomas Walsingham's Chronica majora, which covered the years 1376-82. Foxe did not know that his source was written by Walsingham, but only that it was written by a monk of St. Alban's monastery and that is how he cites it. There were numerous versions of the Chronica majora and often Foxe would rely on the more detailed account in another manuscript version of Walsingham's chronicle - that contained in College of Arms MS 7. (Also Foxe seems to have owned Arundel MS 7, making it easier for him to access than BL MS Harley 3634, which he stated that he borrowed from Matthew Parker). The reason why MS Harley 3634 appealed to Foxe was that its bias worked in the martyrologist's polemical interest. When Walsingham began writing his chronicle, he was bitterly hostile to John of Gaunt, but his feelings toward the duke changed during the 1380s and later portions of his work portray him in a favourable light. Walsingham's animus towards Gaunt was of use to Foxe because it led the chronicler to emphasize the support Gaunt gave to Wiclif (whom Walsingham regarded as a detestable heretic). To Walsingham, this association was a powerful indication of Gaunt's corruption, but to Foxe it was valuable evidence that, from its beginnings, Lollardy had aristocratic, and even royal, support. This helped Foxe to remove any taint of subversiveness from Lollardy and also fit Foxe's theme that good princes opposed the Papacy and protected its critics. Chronicon Angliae, ab anno Domini 1328 usque ad annum 1388, ed. E. M. Thompson, Rolls Series 64 (London, 1874) contains a reliable edition of MS Harley 3634.
[Back to Top]Thomas S. Freeman
University of Sheffield
MarginaliaWickliffe a deuine in Oxford Which Wickliffe after he had now by a long tyme professed deuinitie in the Vniuersitie of Oxford, and perceauing the true doctrine of Christes Gospell to be adulterate and defiled with so many filthy inuentions of Bishops, sectes of monkes, and darke errours: And that he after long debatyng and deliberatyng with hymselfe (with many secret sighes and bewayling in hys mynde the generall ignorance of the whole world) could no longer suffer or abide the same but that he at the last, determined with hymselfe to helpe and to remedy such things as he saw to be wyde and out of the way. But for so much as he saw that this daungerous medlyng, could not be attempted or stirred without great trouble, neyther that these thinges which had bene so long tyme with vse and custome rooted and grafted in mens myndes, could not be sodenly plucked vp or taken away, he thought with him selfe þt this matter should be done by litle & litle. Wherfore he taking his originall at smale occasions, therby opened himselfe a way or meane to greater matters. And first he assayled his aduersaries in logical & metaphisical questions, disputing wt them of the first forme and fashiō of thinges, of the increase of time, and of the intelligible substāce of a creature, wt other such like sophemes of no great effect: but yet notwithstanding did not a litle helpe and furnish him, which minded to dispute of greater matters. So in these matters, first began Kegningham (a Carmelite) to dispute and argue agaynst Iohn Wickliffe.
CloseWiclif's debates with John Kenningham, a Carmelite friar at Oxford, took place sometime around 1372-3. Foxe knew about the debates from the partial record of them in Bodley MS e Museo 86, fos. 8v-34r and from Bale, Catalogus, pp. The description of Wiclif going on to attack the Sacrament is from Bodley MS e Museo 86, fo. 35v.
[Back to Top]By these originals, the way was made vnto greater poyntes, so that at the length he came to touch the matters of the sacramentes, and other abuses of the Church. Touchyng which thinges this holy man tooke great paynes, protestyng (as they sayd) openly in the scholes, that it was hys chiefe and principall purpose and intent: to reuoke and call backe the Church from her idolatry to some better amendment, especially in the matter of the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ. But this byle or sore could not be touched without the great griefe and payne of the whole worlde. For first of all, the whole glut of Monkes and begging Friers were set on a rage or madnes, which (euen as Hornets with their sharpe stinges) did assayle this good man on euery side: fighting (as is sayd) for their aultars, paunches and bellies. After them the priestes, and then after them the Archb. toke the matter in hand beyng then S. Sudbury: who for the same cause depriued him of
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