with a delicate frame, he could find time and strength to discuss exhaustively so many varied subjects; to elucidate passages in the Bible and catechism; to write treatises, sometimes in a didactic, sometimes in a polemical, form; to treat of dogmatic and moral questions relating to the church and church reform, worship and the sacrament of the altar, Pope and prelates, parsons and the "poor priests"-and all these discussed by turns in Latin or in English.

How little his mental vigor had abated was shown by a new conflict on which he entered. A formal crusade was going to be started against Clement VII., the rival of Pope Urban II. By employing all ecclesiastical and non-ecclesiastical powers, an expedition was actually got ready in England under the command of Henry le Spencer, the warlike bishop of Norwich. Wyclif exposed with cutting severity the unchristian character of this enterprise, and the ways and means of getting men and money for it. He condemned the effort with such energy and convincing force that the papal thunder itself could not have sounded louder. And though the reformer was not able to prevent the crusade, he had at least the melancholy satisfaction of seeing how, after some slight advantages, it came to a disgraceful end.

About this time Pope Urban is said to have summoned the incorrigible agitator to appear before his judgment seat at Rome. But however this may be, death soon called the indefatigable warrior before another, an impartial, judge. Wyclif died from a stroke of apoplexy on St. Sylvester's Day, December 31, 1384.

The world lost in him one of the most sturdy heroes that the fruitful soil of England ever bore. The reformer of the fourteenth century does not belie his origin; we see it in that practical tendency which, with all his idealism, pulsates through his veins; in that measured boldness which marks all his doings. The great reformers of the sixteenth century throw his figure somewhat into the shade. [Wyclif does not possess the genial vein of a Luther, nor the stern greatness of a Calvin. He does not rouse our enthusiasm like the former, nor impress us with fearful admiration like the latter. But

he is, perhaps, better balanced than either, and unites many of their excellences, though he possesses these excellences in a less degree; the impression he produces is therefore weaker and less direct. On his contemporaries his personality exercised an irresistible fascination; but it is only, as it were, indirectly and by reflection that we can appreciate Wyclif to-day, while the names of Luther and Calvin arouse our imagination at once.

In commendation of his character it is sufficient to say that he was one of the most moral, active, and courageous men that ever lived. There are many men who can be brave under command, many who reveal a restless activity in some special line. John Wyclif, however, was one of the few who venture to take the initiative and accept the responsibility, and who, remaining true to their ideals, look the unknown boldly in the face, and extend the sphere of their activities ever further and deeper.

The immediate practical result of his life was in a great measure thwarted by the conditions of the times, and especially by the violent reaction of the period that followed. His was essentially the office of a forerunner, a preparer of the way. The identity of the civilization of the European nations is seen in the fact that the people of other nationalities took up and continued the work begun by the great Englishman.

English literature owes an incalculable debt to the reformer. He gave to it, indeed, no single work of art; but he gave new ideas and a multitude of stimulating influences.

Wyclif was a great thinker, not a great literary artist. His Latin is hard to digest; his English is, indeed, clear and nervous, but rather stiff. Like Hampole, he was too much filled with his subject to care greatly about the form; but, in contrast to Hampole, he seldom allows himself to be carried away by his imagination, and is almost always guided by his intellect. He is satisfied with one short characteristic phrase for the thought as it occurs. To give diversity and color to his diction by the unexpected use of a striking word in the right place, to heighten the effect by a wise economy in the arrangement and expression-such ideas never entered his head.

He has no idea of the art of introducing a new subject, of preparing the reader or rousing his expectation; he usually enters at once in medias res. But on the other hand he possesses in so much higher degree the art of educing unexpected reflections and consequences from a Bible text. He is indifferent to the proper rounding off and fullness of his periods, and to the natural transition from one sentence to another. He frequently interrupts the logical sequence by digressions, and, on a smaller scale, the symmetry of his sentences by the insertion of parentheses. He is not afraid of repeating the same thought in the same form in different works, and even often in the same work, nor does he avoid the frequent repetition of one and the same word. A series of chapters, paragraphs, phrases, are often introduced in the most fatiguing manner by the same formula, and are rather strung on to each other than joined together. The effect of his composition, therefore, depends mainly on its intellectual contents; it is only by accident that the impression is deepened by the phraseology. Occasionally he hits upon the most suitable expression. Words of heart-stirring power frequently escape from him, when his feelings are really warmed up. But a biting sarcasm or a quiet humor is more common in his writings, especially when he is attacking the mendicant friars; and there is then no lack of drastic touches which impress themselves on the memory. Such touches, in conjunction with many plain and often blunt illustrations and allusions, tended much to the success of his discourses.

Wyclif's literary importance lies in the fact that he extended the domain of English prose and enhanced its powers of expression. He accustomed it to terse reasoning, and perfected it as an instrument for expressing rigorous logical thought and argument; he brought it into the service of great ideas and questions of the day, and made it the medium of polemics and satire. And above all he raised it to the dignity of the national language of the Bible.

The example set by Wyclif was imitated by many even in his lifetime. The works of his followers, however different in worth and importance, are not only written

in the spirit of the master, but also generally show the same excellences and the same defects as his own productions. It would be useless here to give the titles of a number of books in proof of this comparison; and to give an individual characterization of the different writers of his school is still impossible in the present position of research.

But among all those who promoted or continued the work of the reformer, next to Nicolas of Hereford, John Purvey has the greatest claim to the gratitude of posterity. It was he who-presumably under Wyclif's inspiration and at first with his assistance-undertook a revision of the Bible translation, and completed it four years after the master's death. This revision is really a new work, wherein not only part of the errors of the original version are corrected, but the Latinisms throughout were replaced by good English.* In this new form, which was multiplied by numerous copies, the Bible of Wyclif penetrated among all classes of the people, and even during the periods of the bloody persecution of the Wyclifites it continued its quiet work without interruption.

Purvey's language agreed on the whole, in its dialect. and coloring, with that of his master. Wyclif's Northumbrian birth exercised no great influence on his idiom, at least in its written form; his many years of residence in Oxford, and to a certain extent his life at Lutterworth, left a much greater mark on his language. The Midland dialect with a strong Eastern coloring forms the basis of his idiom; but this idiom, owing to the geographical position of Oxford, is in many respects tinged with that of the southern counties. The language of Nicolas of Hereford is much more marked by southern, or rather western, elements. But the English of Wyclif and Purvey grew up in harmony with the spirit of progress which gradually raised the written language of the

* I give a few illustrations from the Gospel by Matthew, Chap. II. v. 8. Wyclif: "And he, sendynge hem in to Bethlem, saide."--Purvey: "And he sente hem in to Bethleem, and seide." In another place, Wyclif writes: that and y cummynge wirshipe hym."-Purvey: "that y also come, and worshipe hym." v. 9. Wyclif: "The whiche, when thei hadden herde the kyng, wenten awey."-Purvey: "And whanne thei hadden herd the kyng, thei wenten forth."

period far above the level of dialects, and by their com mon work that progress was guided and advanced.

V.

The Renaissance, now beginning to dawn, had even a still greater effect in fixing the future uniformity of the language than the prelude to the Reformation, whose first champion occupied our attention so exclusively in the last chapter. This new impulse also originated on the banks of the Thames, but more to the east, where the reaction between the mighty, heaving river and the sea begins. London, Westminster, and Windsor are the centres from which first radiated all over England the sentiment for a higher form of beauty and a freer progress towards a nobler standard of humanity.

At the time when the conflict between church and state was most violent, and when Wyclif was beginning to draw upon himself the eyes of patriots, there was considerable talk at the English court about a young man named Geoffrey Chaucer, who belonged to the king's household, and who both by his personality and his connections enjoyed the favor of the royal family. He was of a pleasant and attractive disposition, remarkable by the thoughtful, dreamy expession of his face, by a certain tendency to stoutness, which did not, however develop till later years, and by his susceptibility to love; he was, besides, a pleasant companion, obliging and modest, happy and good-tempered, but frequently too taciturn; occasionally, however, he could show roguishness, and create astonishment by his superior humor. He was a passionate friend of books, and often passed half the night reading in bed. On many occasions, even thus early, he had appeared as a miracle of learning to those about him-he read Latin as easily as French; he spoke a more select English than others; and it was known that he had composed, or, as the expression then was, made, many beautiful English verses.

a

The young poet belonged to a well-to-do middleclass family who had many far-reaching connections, and

D