wer to the Lollards of his time contains passages well worthy of
Hooker, both for weight of matter and dignity of style, setting forth
the necessity and importance of "the moral law of kinde, or moral
philosophie," in opposition to those who derive all morality from
revelation.

This great man fell afterwards under the displeasure of the church for
propositions, not indeed heretical, but repugnant to her scheme of
spiritual power. He asserted, indirectly, the right of private judgment,
and wrote on theological subjects in English, which gave much offence.
In fact, Pecock seems to have hoped that his acute reasoning would
convince the people, without requiring an implicit faith. But he greatly
misunderstood the principle of an infallible church. Lewis's Life of
Pecock does justice to his character, which, I need not say, is unfairly
represented by such historians as Collier, and such antiquaries as
Thomas Hearne.

[756] Lewis's Life of Wicliffe, p. 115; Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de
Constance, t. i. p. 213.

[757] Huss does not appear to have rejected any of the peculiar tenets
of popery. Lenfant, p. 414. He embraced, like Wicliffe, the
predestinarian system of Augustin, without pausing at any of those
inferences, apparently deducible from it, which, in the heads of
enthusiasts, may produce such extensive mischief. These were maintained
by Huss (id. p. 328), though not perhaps so crudely as by Luther.
Everything relative to the history and doctrine of Huss and his
followers will be found in Lenfant's three works on the councils of
Pisa, Constance, and Basle.

[758] Lenfant, Hist. de la Guerre des Hussites et du Concile de Basle;
Schmidt, Hist. des Allemands, t. v.

[759] Nihil neque publicae neque privatae rei nisi armati agunt. Sed arma
sumere non ante cuiquam moris, quam civitas suffecturum probaverit. Tum
in ipso concilio, vel principum aliquis, vel pater, vel propinquus,
scuto frameaque juvenem ornant; haec apud eos toga, hic primus juventae
honos; ante hoc domus pars videntur, mox reipublicae. De Moribus German.
c. 13.

[760] William of Malmsbury says that Alfred conferred knighthood on
Athelstan, donatum chlamyde coccinea, gemmato balteo, ense Saxonico cum
vagina aurea. 1. ii. c. 6. St. Palaye (Memoires sur la Chevalerie, p. 2)
mentions other instances; which may also be found in Du Cange's
Glossary, v. Arma, and in his 22nd dissertation on Joinville.

[761] Comites et vassalli nostri qui beneficia habere n