Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/429

 Lollardy was, in fact, the keystone of the arch whereon the newer liberties of Englishmen are supported. In the reign of Richard II. the followers of Wyclif were virtually under royal protection; they were respectfully listened to by Parliament and King; their patron, Salisbury, was potent at Court; and not even Courtenay or Arundel was able to take any effective measures against them. For a time, in spite of all that the Church could do, they steadily increased in number and strength, and for the remainder of the fourteenth century they enjoyed comparative immunity. But the instability of the King ruined both himself and all who depended on him. Richard had thoroughly alienated the Church. His quarrel with and banishment of Archbishop Arundel, which may have been to some extent justified by the intrigues of Arundel and his brother, hastened his own deposition and death. The head of the English clergy and the head of the House of Lancaster were exiles at the same moment, and it was at the invitation of Arundel, representing a powerful party in London, that the son of John of Gaunt returned to England and usurped the Crown. Henry IV. never forgot how much he owed to the Church; and indeed the three Lancastrian Kings continued for the next sixty years to rely upon the clergy and to play into their hands.

The persecution of the Lollards now began in earnest, and Arundel devoted the rest of his life to an unwearying effort to destroy both them and their teaching. In Oxford the memory of Wyclif was still affectionately and courageously preserved. The