John Wycliffe and His English Precursors (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from John Wycliffe and His English Precursors When I compare the two groups of Sources which serve to elucidate the personality and the entire his torical position of Wiclif, I come in sight Of the fact that the English sermons and tracts most recently printed belong, almost without exception, to the four last years Of his life (1381 They serve, there fore, to throw upon his latest convictions and efforts however comparatively well known these were before - a still clearer and fuller documentary light. The Latin works, on the other hand, so far as they only exist in ms, were for the most part written at earlier dates, some of them indeed going back as far as the year 1370. These latter, therefore, have a specially high value, because we learn from them the thoughts and doings Of Wiclif during an earlier stadium of his life; and, what is most important of all, they open up to us 'a View of his gradual development - Of the progress of his mind in insight and enlightenment. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.