17. No other country in all Europe was so well prepared for the Sixteenth Century revolution as England. A century and a half before either Luther or Zwingle were heard of, John Wycliffe proclaimed against the corruption and abuses of the Catholic church, denounced the pope as anti-Christ,[45] and preached against the doctrine of transubstantiation. He also {260} translated the Scriptures and circulated them among the common people. Two years before his death, however, he was summoned before a church council by which, notwithstanding he defended himself with great ability, many of his doctrines were condemned, and he himself was restricted in his ministry to the parish of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, where he died. [See note 7, end of section.] His teachings, however, had made a deep impression upon his countrymen, and he left many followers, who were called by their opponents Lollards. The Lollards were a proscribed sect in England, and as they avoided persecution, but little was heard of them. Still they cherished the doctrines of their leader, and transmitted them to their children, so that when Luther and the other continental reformers began their work, there were many in England who sympathized with them; and when Henry VIII considered it to his interests to revolt against the authority of the pope, he found large numbers of his people not only ready to support him in casting off that authority, but anxious to go much farther in that revolt than the king desired. [See note 6, end of section.] They had viewed the rupture between the king and the pope with deep satisfaction; but they were soon to learn that the defection of the monarch was not to bring religious liberty to England, or establish there the doctrines of Wycliffe or Luther. It was but a change of masters that had taken place, and the king was as despotic as the pope. [See note 9, end of section.] Although Henry had thrown off the authority of the pontiff, he would tolerate but few changes in the forms and ceremonies of religion. More changes were introduced in the reign of Edward VI, the son of Henry VIII by Jane Seymore; and still more in the reign of Elizabeth, his daughter by Anne Boleyn. 18. The Puritans.--But these changes came far short of satisfying the English Protestants, who were called Puritans. They demanded almost a complete abolition of the rites and {261} ceremonies of the Roman Church, which they denounced as idolatrous. The most of them favored the Presbyterian form of church government, or a still simpler method which would recognize each congregation as a complete church within itself. Those who contended for this more simple form of church government were called Independents. The puritans were frequently rude and clamorous in their demands for further reformation; and on their part the adherents of the established religion were intolerant, and persecuted to imprisonment, exile or death the Puritans. [See note 10, end of section.]