Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/620

 564 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE: doctrine of purgatory. He not only denied to tHie pope and clergy any political power and held that the State was as directly founded and authorized by God as was the Church. He not only declared that the clergy were entitled to their privileges and property only so long as they lived and taught in a way to deserve them. He also argued that their spiritual power depended upon their personal faith and conduct. Even a pope who did not live a Christlike life was no head of the Church, but an antichrist. Salvation, Wyclif taught, depends not upon obedience to pope or priest, but upon divine grace and predestination and upon the faith of the individual believer. Wyclif, in fine, proclaimed "the uni- versal priesthood of believers" and denied the special sac- ramental power of the clergy. Some of the seven sacraments, like confirmation and extreme unction, he rejected entirely, and he even dared to attack the theory of transubstantia- tion in the mass. He denied any material change in the bread and wine or any priestly miracle, and taught that in the sacrament one does not actually partake of the body of Christ, but sees Him through faith and communes with Him in spirit. The pope had tried to call Wyclif to account in 1377 be- fore he had done much more than to attack the political Persecution power and worldly possessions of the clergy, but ancfhis llf the support of John of Gaunt and of the populace followers saved him. After this he went on to more and more radical utterances, until in 1381 his denial of tran- substantiation lost him the favor of John of Gaunt and his position at Oxford. The Peasants' Revolt, for which many held him responsible, further injured his popularity. But the House of Commons declined to cooperate with the Archbishop of Canterbury in persecuting him, and while he retired to his parish in Lutterworth, he continued to pro- duce pamphlets until his death in 1384. His followers, known as "Lollards," l continued through the reign of 1 The origin of the word "Lollards," a term of reproach applied to the fol- lowers of Wyclif by their enemies, has been disputed. But the word "loller" often occurs in The Vision of Piers the Ploughman, and evidently means one who lolls about and reclines at his ease; in other words, an idler, loafer, vaga-