[292] See Lingard, iv. ch. 3, where he gives several examples of Wickliffe’s system of non-natural interpretation of his own words.
[293] William Lyndwood, LL.D., was Bishop of St. David’s, and a learned canonist. He was the author of a collection of constitutions of the English Primates, entitled, Provinciale, seu Constitutiones Angliæ, which were printed by Caxton.
[294] Strype’s Cranmer, app. 242. We may compare this admission of the Protestant archbishop with the statute of his royal master (33 Henry VIII. c. 12), whereby it was enacted that “no women not of gentle birth, nor journeymen, artificers’ apprentices, should read the Bible in English, either to themselves or others;” whilst another Act of the same monarch forbade the public reading of the Scriptures.
[295] A field of battle is perhaps the last place where one would expect to find a Bible; yet in the British Museum is still preserved the copy of the Scriptures found in the tent of King John of France after the battle of Poictiers. It may be remarked, that versions of the Scriptures seem to have appeared in all languages as soon as the vernacular idiom of any country assumed a literary form. Thus we see Queen Anne had her Bohemian Catholic translation; and in 1399 the Polish translation was made by command of the learned queen St. Hedwiges.
[296] The Lollard heresy had been imported from the University of Oxford into that of Prague by some Bohemian gentlemen, who had come over to England in the suite of Queen Anne during the height of the controversy. Prague University at that time numbered as many as 60,000 scholars, and was divided into several nations, and presided over by sixty deans. Only twelve of the deans were Bohemians, and the rest Germans. John Huss, the rector of the university, who eagerly embraced the new opinions, endeavoured to destroy the German influence; and putting himself at the head of a national party obtained that in future the Bohemians should have two votes in all questions affecting the university and all the other nations united but one. In consequence of this change, which took place in 1409, the German students forsook the university, which from that time fell into decay. This national spirit, which was so largely mixed up with the origin and progress of the Hussite heresy, must be taken into account when studying the history of those social revolutions which followed in the track of the new Apostles.
[297] For an account of these foundations see The Three Chancellors. (Burns, 1860.)
[298] The present revenues amount to something like £4000 a year, and still afford relief to about 140 poor persons. But the beautiful collegiate church, the carved and gilded roof of which is still visible, is now converted to domestic purposes. The choir is occupied by the women’s wards, and the nave by those of the men. This, however, is better than the fate which has awaited St. Paul’s Hospital in the same city, which has been transformed into a Bridewell. Few English cities can have been richer in these charitable houses than Norwich, which contained, besides its great College, seventeen hospitals for the poor and the sick, by means of which it is probable that very sufficient relief was given to all in distress. For, in most cases, while only a limited number were received into the house, outdoor relief was very extensively granted, and at St. Giles’ Hospital it was customary on the Feast of the Annunciation to distribute alms to 130 necessitous persons.
[299] i.e. bread and milk.
[300] Fadeth.
[301] Pierced.