To execute a work on the life and times of the celebrated Antereformer, whose character and exertions do so much honour to the land of his birth, has been no easy task. The remote period to which John De Wycliffe (for thus Mr. Vaughan shows his name ought to be written) belonged, approaching nearly to five hundred years, necessarily involves many interesting facts in great obscurity, and throws an entire oblivion over a multitude of others. Much of the information which exists, is locked up in the barbarous latinity of the period, or in the still less intelligible vernacular of the country; while both are to be found only in masses of manuscripts, often badly written, partially eaten by moths, or greatly defaced and injured by time. Even these documents are of difficult access. They are to be found only in the great public libraries of Great Britain and Ireland, from which they are not allowed to escape, even for a day; so that a prolonged and diversified residence at the several seats of learning seems required, in order to the execution of an undertaking which embraces

some of the most interesting events that preceded the Reformation, both in England and Continental Europe. That Mr. Vaughan has contrived to surmount most of these difficulties, is evident from his work; how he bas done so, is to us matter of considerable surprise. His diligence must have been indefatigable, and his labour immense, before he could bring into a manageable shape, the valuable materials which he has wrought up in so interesting a manner in the volumes before us. It is true, a life of Wycliffe, by Lewis, had appeared a hundred years ago; and Mr. Baber had prefixed to his edition of the Reformers' New Testament, a Memoir of his Life and Writings, compiled with considerable care. But both these works left many facts unexplored, and many views of Wycliffe, and his times, in the same obscurity in which they had long been concealed. Till now, ao work worthy of being called a Life of Wycliffe had appeared. Whether this reflects honour on the country our readers may determine. Whether it is to the credit of the Church that it has been executed by a Dissenter, is for the

Church to consider. That Cambridge and Oxford should have allowed the honour to be wrested from them by a Dissenting minister, would appear surprising, if we had not known that Edinburgh, and Glasgow, and St. Andrew's, and Aberdeen allowed themselves to be shorn in the same way, by the historian of Knox and Melville. We are not the less grateful for the boon, that it has come to us from an untitled and unpatronized individual, who owes nothing to those Institutions, which are supposed to be the bulwarks and rewards of literature and religion; but the preservation of documents which the thousands on whom their wealth and honours are lavished, are too indolent, or too indifferent, to use.

To estimate the character of Wycliffe, and the nature and value of his extraordinary exertions, it is necessary to take into consideration the state of religion, the state of society, and the state of civil and religious liberty, or rather civil and religious despotism, which characterized not only the period to which he belonged, but the preceding ages. The intellectual and moral darkness which had long enveloped the world, had, about the period when Wycliffe was born, become absolutely palpable; and every species of religious absurdity had acquired the influence of established habit and universal suffrage. Law sanctioned and guaranteed the grossest abuses, and civil authority, armed with intolerance and arbitrary power, was ready to crush any attempt to stem the progress of superstition and immorality, or to create a better order of society. To prepare the reader, by enlightened and general views of these subjects, Mr. Vaughan has prefixed to his Memoir an introduction of two hundred pages, re

plete with valuable and most interesting discussion. It forms, indeed, an admirable epitome of church history, embracing a very full view of the rise and character of the Papal Power; the State of the Protestant Doctrine in Europe, to the commencement of the Fourteenth Century; and the Ecclesiastical Establishment and State of Society in England, previous to the age of Wycliffe.

We

This part of his work has impressed upon us the conviction, that if the author of these volumes would devote a few years of his life, and the same diligence which he has hitherto discovered, to the production of an Ecclesiastical History, he would render an invaluable service to the cause of truth. He seems to us quite the man for such an undertaking; and the studies in which he has already engaged, and the maturity of his information on many topics, would greatly facilitate his execution of the work. We know nothing, in the present state of literature, which is more wanted, or which would more amply repay a liberal and candid investigator. mean not to reflect on the works already existing; but none of them are entirely to our taste. Mosheim is too secular, Milneris too churchyfied, Haweis is superficial. All our church historians were connected with secular establishments of Christianity, and mix up more or less of their views and feelings, as churchmen, with their representations of primitive practices, or the progress of antichristian error. The mind of a dissenter, we admit, would probably give a tinge or colouring to his representations also. But then we should have both sides of the subject, and might have a book to put into the hands of dissenters, which would not be filled with terms and phraseology calculated perpetu

"The year 1324, has been uniformly named by the biographers of John de Wycliffe, as the most probable period of his birth. His appearance in Oxford as a student in the year 1340, would seem to preclude the mention of any later period, and is equally opposed to the adoption of an earlier date. Seventeen years had then passed, since the accession of Edward the Second, to the throne of England. The interval of three years, which closed the reign of that unfortunate prince, transferred his sceptre to the hand of his elder son, and the bearer of

his name.

"The county of Durham, which, in the venerable Bede, produced the father of English learning, has been viewed as the birth place of the man to whose character and efforts we are so greatly indebted for the English reformation. But on better authority, a humble village in a northern district of Yorkshire, has the honour of Wycliffe's nativity. Judging from modern usages, we should readily suppose that the surname of Wycliffe was received from his parents; but our forefathers, until the Norman conquest, if not altogether unacquainted with such appellations, rarely adopted them. After that event, and to the beginning of the fourteenth century, they were frequently attached to families, and in numerous instances, were obviously derived from the place of their residence. In such cases,. the parties were called by their baptismal name, and commonly said to be of the place, the designation of which is subsequently found inseparable from their signatures, as Simon de Montfort, and John de Wycliffe. The name of Wycliffe is certainly a local one. But in England, the only locality which has ever been so described, is a village about six miles from the town of Richmond, in Yorkshire; and, that this spot which still retains its ancient designation was the home of Wycliffe's ancestors, is a conclusion supported by the strongest probable evidence. From the conquest, to the year 1606, it was the residence of a family of the name of Wycliffe, who were lords of the manor of Wycliffe, and patrons of its rectory. At the latter period, the possessor of this ancient property lost his only son, and by the marriage of his daughter, his inheri tance was transferred to a family of another name, but which has continued to be

How the first days of this distinguished man were spent, it does ceived the elements of education not now appear; but that he rein his youth, is evident from his being sent to a University to prepare him for the church.

"Having passed through his probationary discipline, it remained for Wycliffe, or his connexions, to determine whether Oxford or Cambridge should be the place of his future studies. The former was preferred. In that University, Wycliffe is first known as a commoner in Queen's College; a seminary founded in the year 1340, and which has numbered our reformer with its earliest members. The establishment in which he thus commenced the maturer discipline of his capacities, had risen in part, from the munificence of Phillipa, the queen of Edward the Third; but still more from the laudable zeal of Sir Robert Eglesfield, her chaplain. This clergyman was a native of Cumberland, and the college formed by his influence, was intended chiefly for the benefit of students from the northern counties, a circumstance which may account for its being chosen by a youth from the borders of Westmoreland and Durham. But the infancy of such institutions is inseparable from many disadvantages, and such as must be deeply felt by a mind, ardent in its pursuit of knowledge. Wycliffe had not yet passed the seventeenth year of his age, but it is fair to suppose that this feature was already conspicuous in his character, and his dissatisfaction may be read in his speedy removal to Merton, a college in the same university, but founded in the preceding century. At this period the society of Merton was the most distinguished in Oxford. It had produced some of the most scientific scholars of the age: had supplied the English church with three metropolitans: its divinity chair had been recently filled by the celebrated Bradwardine: and within its walls,