[23] Milton's tracts on 'Church Government,' 'Removing Hirelings from the Church,' &c., might have been written by Wiclif if he had lived in that day. Their views were very similar in these matters, and there is an approximation in Wiclif to Milton's opinions on Divorce. The men were greatly alike in character--stern, uncompromising, each gave himself up with his whole heart to the promotion of the objects he had in view, and both measuring other men by their own lofty standard, dealt out the harshest censure on such as fell short of it.--Milton, by the way, obliquely defends the violence of his own language by the example of Wiclif. The genius of the two was so different as obviously to prohibit comparison--it is in their inflexibility of purpose, their moral and religious severity of character, that the resemblance consists. [24] Courtney said it was a symbol of the need there was of purifying the church from the pestiferous vapours that hung over it; Wiclif, that the earth trembled because they were about to put a heresy upon Christ, as it before trembled when they put his body to death. [25] Dr. Lingard is hard to please: he sneers at Wiclif for _not_ seeking the martyr's crown, yet when one of his followers, a few years later, obtains it, he coolly says, "The enthusiast aspired to the crown of martyrdom, and had the satisfaction to fall a victim to his own folly!"--'Hist. of England,' iv. 188 and 332. [26] Chaucer, perhaps to avoid letting the poems appear to the public too strict a narration of actual facts, calls them here, and in various other places, the king and queen. [27] Pleased. [28] That which. [29] Blanche. (See previous note.) [30] Trust. [31] War. [32] Little. [33] Little. [34] Birds. [35] Crowd. [36] Truth. [37] Taste. [38] Counsel. [39] Nail. [40] That which. [41] Obedience, patience. [42] Spirit, or inward monitor. ERRATA: Pg. 111 - Typo corrected: entiled changed to entitled Pg. 113 - Typo corrected: attribute changed to attributed Pg. 114 - Typo corrected: doctines changed to doctrines Pg. 115 - Typo corrected: adjudicaiton changed to adjudication Pg. 148 - Removed an extra 'other'. END OF VOL. I. LONDON: WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET