Page:The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe Volume 3.djvu/84

60 gathered at Constance; proceeding, first, in condemning his books, then his articles, afterwards burning his bones. The copy of the sentence driven against him by that council.

The most holy and sacred council of Constance, making and representing the catholic church, for the extirpation of this present schism, and of all other errors and heresies springing and growing under the shadow and pretence of the same, and for the reformation and amendment of the church, being lawfully congregated and gathered together in the Holy Ghost, for the perpetual memory of the time to come:

We are taught by the acts and histories of the holy fathers, that the catholic faith, without which, as the holy apostle St. Paul saith, it is impossible to please God, hath been always defended by the faithful and spiritual soldiers of the church, by the shield of faith, against the false worshippers of the same faith, or rather perverse impugners; who, through their proud curiosity, will seem to know more, and to be wiser than they ought to be, and for the desire of the glory of the world, have gone about oftentimes to overthrow the same. These kinds of wars and battles have been prefigured to us before in those carnal wars of the Israelites against the idolatrous people. For in those spiritual wars the holy catholic church, through the virtue and power of faith, being illustrated with the beams of the heavenly light by the providence of God, and being holpen by the help and defence of the saints and holy men, hath always continued immaculate, and, the darkness of errors, as her most cruel enemies, being put to flight, she hath most gloriously triumphed over all. But in these our days, the old and unclean enemy hath raised up new contentions and strifes, that the elect of this world might be known, whose prince and captain in time past was one John Wickliff, a false christian; who, during his lifetime, taught and sowed very obstinately many articles contrary to and against the christian religion, and the catholic faith. And the same John Wickliff wrote certain books which he called a Dialogue, and a Trialogue, besides many other treatises and works, which he both wrote and taught, in which he wrote the aforesaid, and many other damnable and execrable articles; which his books for the publication and advancement of his perverse doctrine, he did set forth openly for every man to read, whereby, besides many offences, great hurt and damage of soul hath ensued in divers regions and countries, but, especially in the kingdoms of England and Bohemia. Against whom the masters and doctors of the universities of Oxford and Prague, rising up in the truth and verity of God, according to the order of the schools, within a while after did reprove and condemn the said articles.

Moreover, the most reverend fathers, the archbishops and bishops, at that time present, of Canterbury, York, and Prague, legates of the apostolic see, in the kingdoms of England and Bohemia, did condemn the books of the said Wickliff to be burnt. And the said archbishop of Prague, commissary of the apostolic see, did, likewise, in this behalf, determine and judge. And, moreover, he did forbid that any of those books, which did remain unburned, should be hereafter any more read. And again, those things being brought to the knowledge and understanding of the apostolic see, and in the general coimcil, the bishop of Rome, in his last council, condemned the said books, treatises, and volumes, commanding them to be openly burned: most straitly forbidding that any men who should bear the name of Christ should be so hardy either to keep, read, or expound any of the said books or treatises, volumes, or works, or by any means to use or occupy them; or else to allege them openly or privily but to their reproof and infamy. And, to the intent that this most dangerous and filthy doctrine should be utterly wiped away out of the church, he gave commandment throughout all places, that the ordinaries should diligently inquire and seek out, by the apostolic authority and ecclesiastical censure, for all such books, treatises, volumes, and works; and the same so being found, to burn and consume them with fire; providing withal, that if there be any such found