[h] The application of the visions of the Apocalypse to the corruptions of Rome has commonly been said to have been first made by the Franciscan seceders. But it may be traced higher, and is remarkably pointed out by Dante.
Di voi pastor s' accorse 'l Vangelista,
Quando colei, chi siede sovra l'acque,
Puttaneggiar co' regi a lui fu vista.
Inferno, cant. xix.
[] Walsingham, p. 238; Lewis's Life of Pecock, p. 65. Bishop Pecock's answer to the Lollards of his time contains passages well worthy of Hooker, both for weight of matter and dignity of style, setting forth the necessity and importance of "the moral law of kinde, or moral philosophie," in opposition to those who derive all morality from revelation.
This great man fell afterwards under the displeasure of the church for propositions, not indeed heretical, but repugnant to her scheme of spiritual power. He asserted, indirectly, the right of private judgment, and wrote on theological subjects in English, which gave much offence. In fact, Pecock seems to have hoped that his acute reasoning would convince the people, without requiring an implicit faith. But he greatly misunderstood the principle of an infallible church. Lewis's Life of Pecock does justice to his character, which, I need not say, is unfairly represented by such historians as Collier, and such antiquaries as Thomas Hearne.
[k] Lewis's Life of Wicliffe, p. 115; Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance, t. i. p. 213.
[m] Huss does not appear to have rejected any of the peculiar tenets of popery. Lenfant, p. 414. He embraced, like Wicliffe, the predestinarian system of Augustin, without pausing at any of those inferences, apparently deducible from it, which, in the heads of enthusiasts, may produce such extensive mischief. These were maintained by Huss (id. p. 328), though not perhaps so crudely as by Luther. Everything relative to the history and doctrine of Huss and his followers will be found in Lenfant's three works on the councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basle.
[n] Lenfant, Hist. de la Guerre des Hussites et du Concile de Basle; Schmidt, Hist. des Allemands, t. v.
[o] Nihil neque publicæ neque privatæ rei nisi armati agunt. Sed arma sumere non ante cuiquam moris, quàm civitas suffecturum probaverit. Tum in ipso concilio, vel principum aliquis, vel pater, vel propinquus, scuto frameâque juvenem ornant; hæc apud eos toga, hic primus juventæ honos; ante hoc domûs pars videntur, mox reipublicæ. De Moribus German. c. 13.
[p] William of Malmsbury says that Alfred conferred knighthood on Athelstan, donatum chlamyde coccineâ, gemmato balteo, ense Saxonico cum vaginâ aureâ. 1. ii. c. 6. St. Palaye (Mémoires sur la Chevalerie, p. 2) mentions other instances; which may also be found in Du Cange's Glossary, v. Arma, and in his 22nd dissertation on Joinville.
[q] Comites et vassalli nostri qui beneficia habere noscuntur, et caballarii omnes ad placitum nostrum veniant bene preparati. Capitularia, A.D. 807, in Baluze, t. i. p. 460.