As I’ve mentioned, while studying the U. S. Constitution, feeling that voices of the past were speaking to me, now I receive from an unknown The Great Controversy, voices of the past. Today I read about John Wycliffe. He arose in England, the “morning star of the Reformation.”
“Men of learning and piety had labored in vain to bring about a reform in these monastic orders; but Wycliffe, with clearer insight, struck at the root of the evil, declaring that the system itself was false and that it should be abolished. Discussion and inquiry were awakening. As the monks traversed the country (England), vending the pope’s pardons, many were led to doubt the possibility of purchasing forgiveness with money, and they questioned whether they should not seek pardon from God rather than from the pontiff of Rome.”
“Wycliffe was called to defend the rights of the English crown against the encroachments of Rome. . . But the arrival of the papal bulls laid upon all England a peremptory command for the arrest and imprisonment of the heretic. These measures pointed directly to the stake. It appeared certain that Wycliffe must soon fall a prey to the vengeance of Rome.”
“The death of Gregory was followed by the election of two rival popes. Two conflicting powers, each professedly infallible, now claimed obedience. Each called upon the faithful to assist him in making war upon the other, enforcing his demands by terrible anathemas against his adversaries, and promises of reward in heaven to his supporters. This occurrence greatly weakened the power of the papacy.”
“The schism, with all the strife and corruption, which it caused, prepared the way for the Reformation by enabling the people see what the papacy really was. . . Wycliffe called upon the people to consider whether these two priests were not speaking the truth in condemning each other as the anti-Christ.”
“Wycliffe came from the obscurity of the Dark Ages. There were none who went before him from whose work he could shape his system of reform. Raised up like John the Baptist to accomplish a special mission, he was the herald of a new era.”
However—the English monarchs, “eager to strengthen their power by securing the support of Rome, did not hesitate to sacrifice the Reformers. . . Hunted as foes of the church and traitors to the realm, they continued to preach in secret places, finding shelter as best they could in the humble homes of the poor, and often hiding away even in dens and caves.”
The pope’s vassals failed to burn Wycliffe at the stake during his life, “and their hatred could not be satisfied while his body rested quietly in the grave. By the decree of the Council of Constance, more than forty years after his death, his bones were exhumed and publicly burned, and the ashes were thrown into a neighboring brook.”
This sorry spectacle of historical fact took place in Christ’s name. Give people power and they become animals. Speaking for voices of the past, follow your conscience or become a slave of the powerful.
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