Gordon Clark: Some English History (The Southern Presbyterian Journal)

1959. Some English History. The Southern Presbyterian Journal. XVIII (17), 9–10. Aug 26.

Some English History

By Gordon  H. Clark

Recently four short articles were published in this Journal relating to the progress of the Gospel in France before the Reformation. Now there will be a few articles on England.

How the Gospel first came to Britain is shrouded in the mists of tradition. There is some evidence that it came from the East at an extremely early date. However, from the year 600 on, the chinch of Rome tried to control ecclesiastical affairs in Britain.

The history of the Papacy is to a large extent a series of political intrigues, of embroilments between popes and emperors, of encroachments on national liberties, of assassinations, sieges, and battles for the purpose of establishing a spiritual despotism over the hearts and consciences of men.

For example, the pope Gregory VII excommunicated Henry IV, emperor of Germany, released his subjects from their oath of allegiance, and forced him to stand in the snow as a penitent before restoring the Empire to him on stringent terms. In the time of Innocent III, King John of England resigned title to England and Ireland in favor of the Pope, acknowledged himself a vassal of Rome, and paid a fine of one thousand marks. In the presence of the chief barons John took the crown from his head, kneeled before the papal legate, Pandulf, and gave him the crown. Pandulf kept the crown five humiliating days before restoring it to the now subjugated vassal.

The first definite attempt to reform religion in England was made during the reign of Edward III, about 1350. Darkness covered the nation and gross darkness the people. The name of Christ lingered on, but the spirit of power of his religion were extinct. Outward formality took the place of spiritual devotion. Hypocrisy and superstition became the substitutes for holiness and faith. The regulation of vestures and ceremonies, the abstaining from meats, pilgrimages and self-inflicted penances superseded judgment, mercy, and faith. Human nature, eluding the barriers appointed by heaven, lapsed into the' creed and conduct of the Pharisees and Sadducees of old.

This and worse was the state of religion when John Wickliffe, the morning star of the Reformation, arose to shed abroad the light of obscured truth. He was a lecturer on theology at Oxford. Being convinced of some items of Scriptural truth, he published his opinions, and as they differed from those of the Romish religion, Pope Gregory XI condemned some of his tenets, commanded the Archbishop of Canter- bury to force Wickliffe to recant, and in case he refused, to summon him to Rome.

The Archbishop was unable to follow the Pope's instructions because Wickliffe had won the ear of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. After an insurrection by the people against the Duke had been quieted, with some damage to the Duke's palace, the Archbishop heard Wickliffe explain his views, but in view of the Duke's attitude, the Archbishop did not dare to use further force.

The position of Rome was weakened at this time by the fact that two men claimed to be Pope, and each excommunicated the other. The division in the Papacy lasted for thirty nine years, and it caused even the common people to stop and consider the papal claims. In such a situation Wickliffe could receive a better hearing.

Wickliffe translated the Bible into English, wrote several treatises that angered the priests, and called the people from their ignorance and immorality, their saints and images, to the pure Word of God. In this Wickliffe was rather successful. Despite some civil disturbances, and notwithstanding the at- tempts of the Archbishop to silence him, Wickliffe spread his Biblical teachings.

The Vice Chancellor of Oxford threatened Wickliffe with excommunication and imprisonment, and finally forced him out of Oxford. But Wickliffe escaped actual persecution and died peacefully on Dec. 31, 1384.

After his death the next Archbishop of Canterbury condemned his doctrines, and in 1413 Pope John XXIII ordered his treatises to be burnt. The principal and most offensive of Wickliffe's doctrines were the following:

The substance of material bread and the substance of material wine remain in  the sacrament of the altar — Christ Himself is not Himself identically and really in His proper corporeal presence in the sacrament; a priest or bishop in mortal sin cannot ordain nor consecrate nor baptize; it cannot be proved from the Gospel that Christ instituted the mass; the Church of Rome is the synagogue of Satan; it is lawful for a priest or a deacon to preach the Word of God without the authority of the Rome court; the election of the Pope by the cardinals is an invention of the devil.

After these articles were condemned, Wickliffe was declared to be, or better to have been, an obstinate heretic; his bones were dug up and burned; and his ashes scattered on the river Swift.

Wickliffe left a number of disciples, called Lollards. About the year 1413 the clergy persuaded the King that the Lollards were plotting an insurrection under the leadership of Sir John Oldcastle, or as he was also called, Lord Cobham. This intelligent gentleman had read the works of Wickliffe and had been persuaded of their truth. He circulated the doctrines and supported Lollard preachers. Henry, at the instigation of the priests, organized a persecution on the ground of conspiracy against the throne. A rumor was spread that Lord Cobham had collected 20,000 men at St. Giles-in-the-Fields. The King went there at midnight and found some eighty persons assembled for worship. Some of these were taken prisoners, some were slaughtered on the spot. Lord Cobham was caught and thrown into the Tower. He managed to escape. But some of his followers, under severe tortures, confessed to conspiracy and accused Cobham of being the ringleader.

Four years later Sir John Oldcastle was caught again. He was suspended to a gallows by chains and was roasted to death by a slow fire.

Not satisfied with his death, the priests persuaded the Parliament to forbid the reading of the Scriptures in English upon pain of death and confiscation of property. If any relapsed after being pardoned, they should be both hanged and burned. These enactments were enforced; some Lollards were burned to death, some escaped from the country, and others abjured rather than suffer the cruel tortures that the Papists had devised.

The situation grew worse. Six men and women were burned to death at Coventry for teaching their children the Apostles Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. The bishops, steeped in ignorance, so ignorant that they often could not preach any kind of sermon, rarely visited their dioceses, except to riot at high festivals; the abbots and monks were notorious for their profligacy; and the inferior clergy were despised and hated for their vices and crimes. A thoroughgoing reformation was needed. The invention of printing, about 1450, helped to revive learning and so emphasized the ignorance of the clergy. Soon the doctrines of Luther began to mingle with the remnants of the Lollard preaching. About this time a new translation of the New Testament by Tyndal began to be circulated. The New Testament enraged the Papists as they saw the effects that the pure Gospel produced. Soon Henry VIII would come into conflict with Rome, and though it was because of a very different reason, he produced the conditions in which the Reformation could progress.