Page 15 - 05 John Wycliffe

learn the truth for themselves—a result

which of all others was least desired by

Rome. The minds of men were directed to the

Source of truth, which it was her object to

conceal.

Wycliffe began to write and publish tracts

against the friars, not, however, seeking so

much to enter into dispute with them as to

call the minds of the people to the teachings

of the Bible and its Author. He declared that

the power of pardon or of excommunication

is possessed by the pope in no greater degree

than by common priests, and that no man can

be truly excommunicated unless he has first

brought upon himself the condemnation of

God. In no more effectual way could he have

undertaken the overthrow of that mammoth

fabric of spiritual and temporal dominion

which the pope had erected and in which the