In 1356 he put forth a tract on ‘The Last Age of the Church,’ which was the first of his publications, and is on other accounts worthy of mention. It would appear that his mind had been deeply affected by meditation on the various evils which at that period afflicted the world, especially the pestilence which had laid waste, a few years before, so large a portion of it. He was disposed to ascribe them to God’s indignation at the sinfulness of man; and he also believed them to be mysterious announcements of the approaching consummation of all things. Through too much study of the book of the Abbot Joachim, he was infected with the spirit of prophecy; and, not contented to lament past and present visitations, he ventured to predict others which were yet to come. All however were to be included in the fourteenth century, which was to be the last of the world. That Wiclif should have been thus carried away by the prevalent infatuation, so as to contribute his portion to the mass of vain and visionary absurdity, was human and pardonable: but in his manner of treating even this subject, we discover the spirit and the principles of the Reformer. Among the causes of those fearful calamities, among the vices which had awakened to so much fierceness the wrath of the Almighty, he feared not to give the foremost place to the vices of the clergy, the rapacity which _ate up the people as it were bread_, the sensuality which infected the earth with its savour, and “smelt to heaven.” Here was the leaven which perverted and corrupted the community; here the impure source whence future visitations should proceed. “Both vengeance of sword, and mischiefs unknown before, by which men in those days shall be punished, shall befal them, because of the sins of their priests.” Thus it was that in this singular work, of which the foundation may have been laid in superstition, Wiclif developed notwithstanding a free and unprejudiced mind, and one which dared to avow without compromise, what it felt with force and truth.