. A history of mediaeval and modern Europe for secondary schools. France, and was involved in wars wherein she had very slightinterest. Again, this severance from her richer and morecivilized neighbor stunted her peaceful growth, and condemnedher to isolation, weak government, and many bloody wars andfeuds. Yet, notwithstanding these misfortunes, the successfuldefense made by the Scots against national absorption by theirgreat rival must stand as one of the most creditable pages inthe story of the nations. 99. Wiclif and Richard II. A large part of the history ofEngland for the nextcentury and
. A history of mediaeval and modern Europe for secondary schools. France, and was involved in wars wherein she had very slightinterest. Again, this severance from her richer and morecivilized neighbor stunted her peaceful growth, and condemnedher to isolation, weak government, and many bloody wars andfeuds. Yet, notwithstanding these misfortunes, the successfuldefense made by the Scots against national absorption by theirgreat rival must stand as one of the most creditable pages inthe story of the nations. 99. Wiclif and Richard II. A large part of the history ofEngland for the nextcentury and moreis that of the Hun-dred Years Warwith Butthe achievementsof Englishmen werenot merely those ofwarriors. The four-teenth century wasthe age of GeoffreyChaucer, the firstgreat poet in thenoble array of writ-ers in the develop-ing English tongue:it was also the ageof a religious innovator, who launched a movement whichcaused no small trouble to the Church, and was a forewarningof the greater commotions of the Protestant Reformation. 1 See chapter A GROUP OF CANTERBURY PILGRIMSAs described in Chaucers Canterbury Tales. {FromCutiss Parish Priests) 184 HISTORY OF EUROPE John Wiclif l (about 1320-84) was an English priest and aprofessor of the University of Oxford, who presently developedinto a most daring theologian. He made use of the current dis-cussion of the worldly doings of politically minded Popes andprelates to subject the whole Church system to a criticism suchas it had never faced before in the Middle Ages. The moreorthodox churchmen of the day shuddered at his blasphe-mies — his denial of the miracle of transubstantiation;2 hisaffirmation that regularly ordained priests were not necessaryfor a layman who wished to approach God; his stress upon thefree interpretation of the Bible, even by the unlearned. Wiclif,however, was a man of organizing ability and personal magnet-ism, as well as a learned theologian. High noblemen protectedhim in his lifetime. Hi
Size: 1636px × 1527px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherbostonnewyorketcho
