Considering that the Latin Vulgate has ever been held in supreme veneration by the Catholic Church in all ages and countries, by popes, bishops, abbots, and schoolmen; that no jealousy existed as to the reading of it by the clergy generally; that in fact it was not a sealed book to the learned classes, and was regarded universally as the highest authority in matters of faith and morals,—­it seems strange that so violent an opposition should have been made to its translation into vernacular tongues, and to its circulation among the people.  Wyclif’s translation was regarded as an act of sacrilege, worthy of condemnation and punishment.  So furious was the outcry against him, as an audacious violator who dared to touch the sacred ark with unconsecrated hands, that even a bill was brought into the House of Lords forbidding the perusal of the Bible by the laity, and it would have been passed but for John of Gaunt.  At a convocation of bishops and clerical dignitaries held in St. Paul’s, in 1408, it was decreed as heresy to read the Bible in English,—­to be punished by excommunication.  The version of Wyclif and all other translations into English were utterly prohibited under the severest penalties.  Fines, imprisonment, and martyrdom were inflicted on those who were guilty of so foul a crime as the reading or possession of the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue.  This is one of the gravest charges ever made against the Catholic Church.  This absurd and cruel persecution alone made the Reformation a necessity, even as the translation of the Bible prepared the way for the Reformation.  The translation of the Scriptures and the Reformation are indissolubly linked together.  Nobody doubts that the whole influence of the Catholic hierarchy has ever been, and still continues to be, hostile to the perusal of the Scriptures by the people in the vulgar tongue; and it was this translation by Wyclif which made him more obnoxious to the Pope than all his tirades against the vices of the monks and the other evils which disgraced the Church.  We cannot call this translation a reform, but it led to reforms:  it arrayed the people against the usurpations of the Pope and the corruptions of the Church as an institution.  Yea, more, it was the main cause of that memorable religious movement which followed the death of Wyclif:  there would have been no Lollards had there been no translation of the Bible.  It led also to the affirmation of that private judgment which was the foundation pillar of Protestantism, and which existed among the Lollards long before Luther delivered his message.

And yet it is not strange that the Catholic hierarchy (I say Catholic rather than Roman, because in the fourteenth century there was but one Church, although in that Church considerable difference of opinion existed both as to matters of faith and government) should have bitterly opposed the translation of the Scriptures into vernacular tongues, since it opened the door to private judgment.  If there is anything