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that entirely to pieces. Upon this victory, the common people began to shout, and call out, "Thank God, he has conquered." But the Mogul said, smiling to this, " Conqueror, thou art a brave warrior, and hast fought admirably! But did I not command thee to fight honourably, only with shield and sword? But, like a thief, thou hast stolen the life of the lion with thy dagger."

And immediately he ordered two men to rip up his belly, and to place him upon an elephant, and, as an example to others, to lead him about, which was done on the spot.

Soon after, a tiger was let loose, against which a tall powerful man advanced, with an air of defiance, as if he would cut the tiger up. The tiger, however, was far too sagacious and active, for in the first attack, he seized the combatant by the neck, tore his throat, and then his whole body in pieces. This enraged another good fellow, but little and of mean appearance, from whom one would not have expected it. He rushed forward like one mad, and the tiger, on his part, undauntedly flew at his enemy; but the man, at his first attack, cut off his two forepaws, so that he fell, and the man cut his body to pieces. Upon this, the king cried, "What is your name?" He answered, "My

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name is Geyby." Soon after, one of the king's servants came and brought him a piece of gold brocade, and said, "Geyby, receive the robe of honour with which the Mogul presents you.' He took the garment with great reverence, kissed it three times, pressing it each time to his eyes and breast, then held it up, and in silence put up a prayer for the health of the Mogul, and when he had concluded it he cried, May God let him become as great as Tamerlane, from whom he is descended. May he live seven hundred years, and his house continue to eternity!" Upon this, he, was summoned by a chamberlain to go from the garden up to the king, and when he came to the entrance, he was received by two chans, who conducted him between them to kiss the Mogul's feet. As he was going to retire, the king said to him, "Praised be thou, Geyby Chan, for thy valiant deeds, and this name shalt thou keep to eternity. I am your gracious master, and thou art my slave."

This account of combats with wild beasts will serve to throw light upon 1 Cor. xv. 32: " If after the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, etc."--ANDERSEN'S TRAVELLER.

Besides a bowl of milk, and a basket of figs, raisins or dates, which on our arrival were presented to us, to stay our

appetites, the master with whom we lodged fetched us from his flock, according to the number of our company, a kid, or a goat, a lamb or sheep; half of which was immediately seethed by his wife, and sewed up with cuscasoe; the rest was made kal-ab, i. e. cut in pieces and roasted, which we reserved for our breakfast or dinner next day. This affords a perfect commentary to the passsge in Judges, vi. 19: "And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour; the flesh he put into a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it.”

PARSON'S TRAVELS IN ASIA.

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF ENGLISH VERSIONS
OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

CHAP. III.-WICLIF AND HIS VERSION.

In order to understand the causes which led Wiclif to undertake his Version, we must know something of his previous history; a short biography, therefore, of this extraordinary man, will form a suitable introduction to his labours.

Its

John Wiclif is supposed to have been born 1324, at a village in Yorkshire. In 1340 he was one of the original students in Merton College, Oxford. In 1356 he wrote his first treatise, under the title of "The last age of the Chirche." It was occasioned by the manner in which England and other countries had been visited with a dreadful pestilence a little previous. contents shew a conscience deeply troubled by the evil and corruption which on every side prevailed in the Church, and by the prospect of the calamities which he fully believed these corruptions would entail. It is important to notice this publication, because in it is to be traced the first germ of what was so fully developed in his after life and writings. He saw corruption among every class of Christians, and especially those of eminent station in the Church, and looked for nothing but the most devastating judgments. The key to the understanding of this tract is to be found in the wretchedness of the times. Money seemed to be the one object of life to all classes, and everything pertaining to spiritual life and godliness was at the lowest ebb. It was in 1360, four years after this Tract, that Wiclif became

known at Oxford as the opponent of the mendicant friars, a body of men whose character and conduct had led to many of his previous reflections on the state of the Church. They were also much opposed by Fitzralph, then chancellor of Oxford.

In 1361, Wiclif was presented to the Rectory of Fillingham, and chosen Warden of Baliol College. In December 1365, he was made Warden of Canterbury Hall; this preferment involved him in great qurrrels with the Romish Court. In a dispute concerning a certain course which Wiclif had seen fit to pursue, he appealed to the Pope, who after much delay decided against him. At this time Wiclif did not question the Ecclesiastical authority of the Pope, though he was busily engaged in controverting his temporal power.

In 1368, while the decision was yet pending, Wiclif exchanged the living of Fillingham for that of Ludgershall in the Diocese of Lincoln. In 1372, he took his D.D., and became theological lecturer at Oxford; a position of no small importance when held by such a man-in which he both had and used the opportunity of expounding Scripture to his auditors, which not only produced important results in many of them, but likewise imbued the mind of Wiclif himself more and more with the truth of God, as set forth in Holy Scripture.

In the documents which have come down to us as portions of the theological lectures of Wiclif, it is interesting to see how earnestly the person and work of Jesus Christ are pressed upon his auditors; and though there is much that cannot be called other than extravagance, there is still a remarkable preeminence given to the leading doctrines of the Gospel, and a determined opposition to the more flagrant corruptions of the Papal see.

Such then was the manner in which Wiclif gave his instructions as Divinity Lecturer at Oxford; and that too, be it remembered, in the midst of Papal abuse, and not merely displaying the deformity of error, but opening out in copious streams the fountain of eternal truth: a work which not only fitted him for the subsequent task of translating the word of God, but appears actually to have led him on to that task.

Two years after he became Professor, he was sent, as such, by Edward, together with the Bishop of Bangor and others, on a mission to Pope Gregory XI. respecting certain taxes upon benefices which his holiness had been trying to exact. The place at which the negociations were to be carried on was Bruges. The

proceedings were lengthened out, and Wiclif does not appear to have returned till 1376. This protracted stay was not a wasted period of his life. We have seen him at Oxford, bringing out the clear light of the Gospel, and making it bear upon the superstition of some, but we now see him in the very midst of Papal corruption, in immediate personal contact with the venality of the Roman Bishop.

Seven months after his return, his unwelcome doctrines had obtained such a notoriety, that he was summoned to appear before the convocation; this assembly met on the 3rd Feb., 1377, and he was summoned for the 19th. What these charges were, is not at all clear; but they probably resembled those which a short time after, the Pope himself exhibited.

When Wiclif appeared to the Citation of St. Paul's, he was accompanied by John of Gaunt and Lord Percy. The former of these was the king's eldest surviving son, and the most important person belonging to the royal family. St. Paul's was crowded with persons, so that it was with difficulty Wiclif and his companions could make their way to the place where the Bishops were assembled. This occasioned some tumult, which ended in a violent quarrel between Lord Percy, the Duke of Lancaster, and Courtney. The uproar was most disgraceful, and terminated in each person escaping as best he might from the building.

Some months passed away before any incident occurred in the life of Wiclif of any importance: but his adversaries were not idle. Four Bulls were sent forth by Pope Gregory XI. dated May 22nd, 1377; three of them were addressed to Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Courtney, Bishop of London, authorising them to cite, restrain, and imprison John Wiclif on certain charges. They were to ascertain his opinions, and transmit them to Avignon for judgment. The fourth was addressed to the University of Oxford, in the fear lest Wiclif and his doctrines found support there.

No public notice appears to have been taken in England of the Papal Bulls, until about a month after this time. At length Archbishop Sudbury wrote to the chancellor of Oxford, requiring him to cite Wiclif to appear at St. Paul's, on the 18th of December, 1377. Wiclif's actual attendance was at Lambeth, but nothing was decided against him. After the Lambeth citation Wiclif published some remarks upon the articles of his accusation, in which he speaks in strong terms against the Papacy;

one sentence has an especial importance, when the after labours of Wiclif are borne in mind :

"Let the Pope not be ashamed to perform the ministry of the Church, since he is, or at least ought to be the servant of the servants of God. But a prohibition of reading the Sacred Scriptures, and a vanity of secular dominion, would seem to partake too much of a disposition towards the blasphemous advancement of Antichrist, especially while the truths of a scriptural faith are reputed tares."

Wiclif meanwhile was at liberty: the prelates were hindered from using the Papal authority with which they were commissioned, to touch his person, and they were restricted by the Bulls themselves from passing judgement upon his doctrine. This freedom, however, would probably not have lasted much longer, but for the death of the Pope Gregory XI. A.D. 1378. Immediately after which there was a warm contention for the Papal chair, between Urban VI. and Clement VII.; and this rupture left Wiclif still more at liberty. Nor was this time lost upon him, for he employed it not only to write against the claim of infallibility set up by these rival popes, but also to execute his great work, the English Translation of the Scriptures. About this time he had a severe illness at Oxford. As he lay in bed many of his old enemies the Friars came to exhort him to repent of his testimony against them. He was supposed to be near his end, but suddenly raising himself in his bed, he exclaimed, “I shall not die, but live, and again declare the evil deeds of the Friars." And this indeed he did when he published his Version of the English Bible.

Such then were the circumstances which led to the first publication of the Scriptures in English. A priest whose heart God had opened to receive successively many portions of the truth, who was so thrown into contact with the papal intrigues as to see the full working of the giant evils of that atrocious system, and who had before his eyes the deeds of the Friars, so that he found corruption to pervade the whole Church from the highest to the lowest,-stood forth as a witness for the truth, in the midst of the corruption, and pressed home upon the consciences of men their responsibility of individual allegiance to God; his voice was heard far and wide; many were induced to question the Papal authority, and ceased to rely upon the

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