Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/404

 making his appeal to the great majority of the English Church, just as in his earlier life he had been addressing reasonable men and scholars throughout the various parts of Christendom. To the latter he had spoken directly, in the tongue common to learned men of all nations. Long since he had felt a compunction on behalf of the unlearned men of his own country, who had only been reached at second hand through the language of the schools and the Latin treatises. Now, when God had given him rest and seclusion, and had "laid his constraint upon him" (as he presently told Pope Urban), he was more than ever spurred to talk to his countrymen in a tongue which they could understand, and to use great plainness of speech, before the seal was set upon his lips, and the long night closed over him.

We have seen already that a large number of English tracts were written by members of the Wycliffite and Lollard school of thought, many of which were afterwards attributed to Wyclif himself; and it has been pointed out that it would be difficult, if not absolutely impossible, to establish a canon of authenticity in regard to them. An individual mind, familiar with the unquestioned works of Wyclif, might set apart to its own satisfaction the unsigned, undated, and generally untitled tracts which belong to the master, and not to any of his disciples. But at best it would be largely a matter of conjecture, and the result could never be definitive. The internal evidence derived from the language alone is of comparatively little value. We might get so far as to say with confidence "This text is northern,"