en condemned as reckless enemies to truth, and order, and
peace; by the other they are exalted into self-devoted confessors and
martyrs; in soundness of faith, integrity of life, and constancy unto
death for the truth's sake, equalling those servants and soldiers of
Christ who in the first ages sealed their belief with their blood. The
truth lies between these extremes: their enemies were bigoted (p. 353)
or self-interested persecutors; but many among themselves, as a body,
in their language, their actions, and their professed principles, were
very far removed from that quiet, patient, peaceable demeanour which
becomes the disciples of the Cross. Doubtless there were numbers at
that time in England possessing their souls in patience, bewailing the
gloom and superstition and tyranny which through that long night of
error overspread their country, and anxiously but resignedly expecting
the dawn of a holier and brighter day. It is, however, impossible to
read the documents of the time without being convinced, not only that
the temporal establishment of the Church was threatened, but that the
civil government had good grounds for watching with a jealous eye, and
repressing with a strong hand, the violent though ill-digested schemes
of change then prevailing in England. Undoubtedly the hierarchy set
all the engines in motion for the extirpation of Lollardism, as the
principles of the rising sect were called. They felt that their
dominion over the minds of men must cease as soon as the right of
private judgment was generally acknowledged; and they resolved, at
whatever cost of charity and of blood, to maintain the hold over the
consciences, the minds, and the property of their fellow-creatures,
which the Church had devoted so many years of steady, unwearied,
undeviating policy to secure. The real question, the point on (p. 354)
which every other question between the Protestant communions and the
Church of Rome must depend, is this: "Have individual Christians a
right to test the doctrines of the Church by the written word of God;
or must they receive with implicit credence whatever the church in
communion with the See of Rome, the only authorized and infallible
guardian and propagator of Gospel truth, decrees and propounds?" All
the other differences, however important in themselves, and
practically essential, must follow the fate of this question. The
Romanists are still aware of this, and are as much alive to it as