A truly sincere and honest Englishman then appeared on the scene. John Wickliffe, rector of Lutterworth, who died A.D. 1384, preached the same views about tithes as the friars did. He strongly asserted that tithes were only alms, and may be given for any religious use, or retained, according to the will of the donor. The Church, of course, considered his statement rank heresy, and a council of ecclesiastics condemned his opinions as heretical. The cry, “the Church in danger,” was then heard as loudly as in our own times whenever any salutary changes for her improvement have been suggested, or when scandals and abuses are attempted to be removed. The most important and latest example occurred in 1840, when the so-called Cathedral Act was passed.[268] Oxford and Cambridge Universities petitioned Parliament against this Act. Oxford took the lead and strongly protested against all church reforms and improvements originating within the Church (which our leading statesmen then advocated) by means of a better and an equal distribution of church revenues. Oxford urged in 1840 that a large State grant should be made to the Church in order to supply the existing deficiencies of religious instruction. This was simply an impertinent application for State aid when the revenues of the Church were wasted in a disgraceful manner by her own officers. The twenty-six archbishops and bishops appointed before 1836, had received five and a half millions of money from their _episcopal_ revenues alone. Counsel were actually engaged, who appeared at the bar of the House of Lords to oppose the Cathedral Act of 1840, which has turned out one of the most beneficial acts for the amelioration of the Church which our leading statesmen could then devise. Sir R. Inglis, M.P. for Oxford, called the Bishops Act of 1836 and the Cathedral Act of 1840, “Confiscations which were leading to the utter destruction of the Church of England.” Let us compare this statement with that made in Parliament in 1882 by Sir John Mowbray, who now represents the same constituency. “The Ecclesiastical Commissioners,” said Sir John, “augmented the value of livings in upwards of 4,700 out of 15,000 parishes into which England and Wales are divided. From 1836 to 1882 they added £19,000,000 to the property of the Church, besides eliciting £4,000,000 from private sources in the shape of contributions, making a total of £23,000,000, which represents an annual income of £690,000.”[269]