More than forty years after Wycliffe’s death (1384), a decree of the Church council of Constance[1] ordered the reformer’s body to be dug up and burned (1428).  But his influence had not only permeated England, but had passed to the Continent, and was preparing the way for that greater movement which Luther was to inaugurate in the sixteenth century.

[1] Constance, in southern Germany.  This council (1415) sentenced John Huss and Jerome of Prague, both of whom may be considered Wycliffites, to the stake.

Tradition says that the ashes of his corpse were thrown into the brook flowing near the parsonage of Lutterworth, the object being to utterly destroy and obliterate the remains of the arch-heretic.  Fuller says:  “This brook did conveeey his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow sea, and that into the wide ocean.  And so the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which is now dispersed all the world over."[2]

[2] Thomas Fuller’s “Church History of Britain.”  Compare also
Wordsworth’s “Sonnet to Wycliffe,” and the lines, attributed to an
unknown writer of Wycliffe’s time: 
        “The Avon to the Severn runs,
         The Severn to the sea;
         And Wycliffe’s dust shall spread abroad,
         Wide as the waters be.”

256.  Richard’s Misgovernment; the “Merciless Parliament.”

Richard had the spirit of a tyrant.  He declared “that he alone could change and frame the laws of the kingdom."[3] His reign was unpopular with all classes.  The people hated him for his extravagance; the clergy, for failing to put down the Wycliffites (SS254, 255), with the doctrines of whose founder he was believed to sympathize; while the nobles disliked his injustice and favoritism.

[3] W. Stubb’s “Constitutional History of England,” II, 505.

In the “Merciless Parliament” (1388) the “Lords Appellant,” that is, the noblemen who accused Richard’s counselors of treason, put to death all of the King’s ministers that they could lay hands on.  Later, that Parliament attempted some political reforms, which were partially successful.  But the King soon regained his power, and took summary vengeance (1397) on the “Lords Appellant.”  Two influential men were left, Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, and Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, whom he had found no opportunity to punish.  After a time they openly quarreled, and accused each other of treason.

A challenge passed between them, and they prepared to fight the matter out in the King’s presence; but when the day arrived, the King banished both of them from England (1398).  Shortly after they had left the country Bolingbroke’s father, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, died.  Contrary to all law, Richard now seized and appropriated the estate, which belonged by right to the banished nobleman.

257.  Richard deposed and murdered. (1399).

When Bolingbroke, now by his father’s death Duke of Lancaster, heard of the outrage, he raised a small force and returned to England, demanding the restitution of his lands.