GENERAL DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 99 



success with which they have realized the attempt to sit in 

 judgment on the conduct of princes and governments. Wiklif 

 has perhaps, on the other hand, been unduly exalted by Pro- 

 testant writers, who have made him the precursor of the 

 religious element in the Reformation. 



This reformer's invectives against the dignified and regular 

 clergy were certainly popular. The fourteenth century was 

 undoubtedly the period in which that hostility to ecclesias- 

 tical usurpations and privileges took deep root, and continued 

 steadily growing, till it culminated in the suppression of 

 the monasteries and the political and social degradation 

 of the clergy. Even at this time we read of the discontent of 

 the commons at clerical wealth and immunities. In 1380? the 

 Parliament suggested that since the clergy owned one-third 

 of the land they should pay one-third of the necessary tax- 

 ation. The denunciations of the rector of Lutterworth, who 

 denied the right of all property to the priesthood, must have 

 been grateful and popular with many of his hearers. But 

 I think it probable that his political and social views were 

 acceptable to men whose social rank was much higher than 

 that of .the villains of Blackheath. 



WikliPs principal patron was the Duke of Lancaster. 

 This man was an object of detestation to the rebels. His 

 administration had been unpopular during the later years of 

 his father's life, and he was suspected by the king and his 

 counsellors as well as by the superior clergy. At the time 

 of the insurrection he was negotiating a treaty with the 

 Scots. He was offered the services of a body of Scotch 

 knights when the news of the outbreak came, but he declined 

 the offer. On returning to England he was refused admis- 

 sion into some of the royal fortresses. But Wiklif, up to the 

 time of his death, which happened three years later, was pro- 

 tected by the duke. During the last two years of his life he 

 was incapacitated by paralysis from those active functions 

 which he had previously discharged. 



e Rot. Parl. iii. 73. 

 H 2, 



