Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/35

 tries to besmirch the good repute of such as he cannot devour on the ground of open wickedness, that he may destroy them in this way by the blame of evil tongues. I, then, being ignorant of any open crime laid to my charge, will patiently endure reproach, seeing that the Apostle says, 'It is a small thing to be judged of you, or of any man's judgment.' Thirdly, whilst I defend myself against their reproaches, I will entreat that the spite and vengeance of my detractors may not add yet another torment to the wounds which I had before."

The vein of satire is manifest under the calm dignity of this passage. If Wyclif ever sacrificed his dignity it was by allowing his satire to run to excess, and losing the measure of invective whilst denouncing that which had excited his indignation. Yet it is thoroughly true, as observed by Dr. Shirley—who more than any one man has put this generation on the track of exact knowledge in regard to the life and character of the Reformer—that Wyclif "possessed as few ever did the qualities which give men power over their fellows. His enemies," Dr. Shirley adds, "ascribed this power to the magic of an ascetic habit; the fact remains engraven upon every line of his life."

Yet on this question of asceticism, and on the charge of his enemies that he employed it for purposes of display, Wyclif himself deserves to be heard. "It is far from being true," he says in the book already quoted, "that in the company of my followers I obtrude on the eyes of simple men an excessively abject and penitential air, together with a