Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/178

 is what the enemies of Rome and Avignon thought they were doing all along.

For what had already happened in respect of the papal assumptions? After Edward came of age, no further tribute was paid to the Pope. In 1340 the chancellorship had for the first time been given to a layman, as though to make the subsequent steps more easy of accomplishment. In 1343 a petition was presented by Parliament to the King, condemning the provisions and reservations of the popes. In 1351, effect was given to this petition by a statute declaring that the Pope had no authority to provide a benefice with an incumbent before the vacancy had occurred. Then followed the statute of Praemunire in 1353, forbidding appeals from the King's courts in courts beyond the seas, on pain of outlawry, forfeiture, and imprisonment. Ten years later it was forbidden under the same penalties to introduce bulls or other instruments of the Pope into England; and the statute of Provisors was more strictly interpreted, so as to forbid the patronage of the Pope altogether. In 1366, John's tribute having been formally demanded by Urban V., was formally and precisely refused. In 1370 ecclesiastics were removed from the principal offices of State.

Thus for nearly forty years the effort had been continuous, and the aim was to all appearance consistent. Strange that the sudden arrest of the movement, the partial and temporary reversal of progress already achieved, should follow directly upon the attainment of power by those who had only craved an opportunity of carrying the matter to a definite