66 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS, 



sioii in England infected this subject. There was hope that by 

 coupHng- Chaucer's name with the Ploughman's Tale he would 

 be deemed friendly to Wycliffe's followers and opposed to their 

 foes. Wycliffe, a proficient in scholastic disputation, also han- 

 dled vigorously most of the popular cpiestions of that day. 

 This he did at first in an academic theoretic manner, in the 

 Latin tongue ; but after a time his poor parsons in their long, 

 coarse, russet-brown woollen raiment, wandering barefoot with 

 pilgrims' staves from place to place, became efficient propagand- 

 ists of his doctrine. Some of these parsons were blamed over 

 the peasants' revolt ; and John Ball, one of the leaders, claimed 

 AVvcliffe for his teacher. But that was said under sentence, 

 and cannot be received without resei've, as Ball was excommun- 

 icated before Wycliffe's time. The chance to associate Chaucer's 

 name with this obnoxious tale seemed favorable. His ^^atron, 

 John of Gaunt, was Wycliffe's friend ; and Chaucer's artist 

 instinct saw a good side in Wycliffe's followers to which most 

 of their enemies were blind. But proof is lacking that Chaucer 

 sided Avith Wycliffe in his religious contest. Like the great 

 Italian writers of that time, he satirized the vices of the clergv, 

 as ditl his conteuiporary Langland ; but in both instances the 

 lash was in the hand of a friend, and not an enemy. 



As a pioneer of modern English literature, Chaucer influ- 

 enced the mother tongue more than anv of his successors did. 

 Lydgate, the ]Monk of Burv, a competent authoritv, who knew 

 Chaucer well, called him : 



" The first in anj' age 

 / That amended our language." 



Some of these amendments have been deemed corruptions ; 

 still time, the great arbiter, has stamped them with approval. 

 But Chaucer had no set plan to change the English language, 

 lie wrote the East Midland dialect of his time, just as Luther 

 wrote in the current dialect of the Chancery of Saxony ; and 

 as both writers were more widely read than othei's, thev exer- 

 cised paramount influence over the written language of their 

 respective countries. The linguistic changes of his age, which 



