Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/257

 to salvation. The texte of holy Writ ben wordes of everlasting life, and he that kepeth mekenes and charitie hath the trewe understondynge and perfection of all holy Writ. It seemeth open heresy to say that the Gospel with his truth and freedom suffiseth not to salvation of Christen men without kepynge of ceremonies and statutes of sinful men and unkunninge, that ben made in the tyme of Sathanas and Antichriste."

Wyclif, of course, exercised a notable influence on the history of English letters. He had been born into the early renaissance of literature, as well as into the early reformation of religion; and since he was himself, in each of these two domains, a not inconsiderable part of the epoch through which he lived, a brief glance at the literary aspects of his century may help us to appreciate his position as a pioneer of progress in the creation of the language which we speak and write to-day.

In and about the fourteenth century, English, in common with the other languages of modern Europe, made an important advance towards a definite written form. The central and western tongues had gradually developed themselves out of the interfused vocabularies and grammatical types of the Classical, Celtic, Scandinavian, and German stocks. Men of learning and imagination in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and England were only just beginning to find free literary expression in the familiar languages which they had been accustomed to use in their domestic and social intercourse. Latin was for the clergy, for philosophers and students; it could