.not written until many centuries after the death of 

 Tacitus. 



To find out who was the real author of these " Annals," 

 and how they became associated with the name of 

 Tacitus, it will be necessary to glance at the condition 

 of the Christian Church during the period referred to 

 above ; and in doing so none but authors of the highest 

 repute will be consulted. 



For some time after the establishment of the Inquisi- 

 tion in 1243 the Church had been able to suppress, to a 

 very large extent, the growing tendency of the age 

 towards the acquirement of knowledge : by the rack, the 

 stake, and the gibbet, by torture, by fire, and by the 

 knife, she had relentlessly pursued her horrid and dia- 

 bolical career, hoping by these means to preserve the 

 faith and silence her 'enemies. To a large extent it is 

 admitted she was successful ; but in remote places the 

 spirit of inquiry lived and grew in spite of her : Abelard, 

 the first Freethinker, had well sown his seeds in France ; 

 Arnold of Brescia had left to his brethren in Italy a 

 scheme of reform which was destined to take practical 

 shape in the autumn of 1870 ; and Wicliffe had preached 

 from his chair at Oxford doctrines which could not fail 

 ere long to have their effect upon the intellect of Eng- 

 land. This bold Yorkshireman did not scruple to 

 publicly declare that the mendicant friars who were 

 commissioned by the Pope to travel over England and 

 grant absolution and indulgences to the people were a 

 pack of thieves and sensualists, that the clergy were 

 indulging in open wickedness, that the indulgences of 

 the Pope were a manifest blasphemy, and that the 

 priesthood had no right to deprive the people of the 

 right to search the Bible. He even went so far as to 

 speak of the Pope as " Antichrist, the proud worldly 

 priest of Rome, and the most cursed of clippers and 

 purse-kervers." From the pulpit of his little church at 

 Lutterworth he openly preached against the authority of 

 the Pope in England, and declared that Christ had given 

 no temporal lordship to the popes and no supremacy 

 over kings. The Pope and the Sacred College very 

 naturally resented this behaviour, and ordered copies of 

 Wicliffe's works to be sent forthwith to Rome for 



