pope's mandate was universally neglected, and the bishop remained in quiet possession of his dignity.

But this venerable prelate was now fast advancing towards the end of his labours, and in the year 1253, he died (Oct. 9th) at his palace at Buckden. When the pope heard of his death, he exultingly exclaimed, "I rejoice, and let every true son of the church of Rome rejoice with me, that my great enemy is removed." He ordered a letter to be written to the king of England, requiring him to cause the bishop's body to be taken up, cast out of the church, and burned. The Cardinals, however, resisted his project; and the letter, though written, was never sent, owing, probably, to the declining state of the pontiff's health, for he died in the following year.

Matthew Paris, the monk of Saint Albans, though superstitiously attached to the See of Rome, and not a little prejudiced against the Bishop of Lincoln, on account of the severity with which he treated the monastic orders, has furnished a character of Greathead so honourable, that it deserves to be recorded.

"The holy bishop Robert," says he, "departed this world, which he never loved, and which was always to him as a place of banishment. He was the open reprover of my my lord the pope, and of the king, as well as of the prelates. He was the corrector of monks, the director of priests, the instructor of the clergy, the patron of scholars, a preacher to the laity, the punisher of incontinence, the diligent investigator of various writings, and the scourge of lazy and selfish Romanists, whom he heartily despised. In regard to temporal concerns, he was liberal, copious, polite, cheerful, and affable-in spiritual things he was devout, humble, and contrite-in the execution of his episcopal office he was diligent, venerable, indefatigable.” *

Matthew Paris, p. 876. See also Pegge's Life of Greathead.

Greathead's doctrinal sentiments, considering the darkness of the age in which his lot was cast, appear to have been remarkable for their purity and simplicity. The following is his view of the important article of

DIVINE GRACE.

"Grace," says he, "is that good pleasure of God, whereby he is pleased to bestow upon us what we have not deserved, and the gift is for our advantage and not his. Hence it is very clear, that all the good we possess, whether it be natural, or freely conferred afterwards, proceeds from the grace of God; because there is no good thing, the existence of which he does not will; and for God to will any thing is to do it; therefore there can be no good of which he is not the author. He turns the human will from evil, and converts it to good, causing it to persevere in the same."

Several of his manuscript sermons, it seems, are still extant in the cathedral church of York. One of them is founded upon Luke vi. 20. Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. In discussing the subject, be undertakes to describe the poverty recommended in the text; which, by comparing the words with the parallel place in Matt. v. 3. he finds to be poverty of spirit. This poverty, he tells us, is wrought in the heart of the elect, by the Holy Spirit-its foundation is laid in real humility; which disposes a man to feel that he has nothing but what he has received from above. But that is not all-for, as he observes, humility in this view belonged to Adam before he fell-the humility of a sinner hath a still deeper root. The humble man not only sees that he has nothing in himself, but he is stripped of all desire to possess in himself the springs of self-exaltation. Self-condemned and corrupt before God, he despairs of help from his own powers, and finds all he wants in HIM, who is the true life, wisdom, and health, and indeed

his all in all, even the incarnate Son of God, who condescended to come into our vale of sin and misery, that he might raise us from their depths. By leaning on him alone, every real Christian rises into true life and peace and joy. He lives in his life-sees light in his light-is invigorated with his warmth-grows in his strength-and caning upon the Beloved, his soul ascends upwards. The lower he sinks in humility, the higher he rises towards God. He is sensible that he not only is nothing in himself, but that he also has lost what he had gratuitously received, has precipitated himself into misery, and so subjected himself to the slavery of the devil; and lastly, that he has no internal resources for recovery. Thus he is induced to place his whole dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ, to abhor himself, and always to prefer others as better than himself. This leads him "to take the lowest seat," as his own proper place.

He then calls upon the man who professes to be the subject of humility, earnestly to examine himself, how far he demonstrates in his temper and conduct, this fruit of the Spirit; and even should he find some evidences of it in his soul, to beware that he be not inflated with the discovery, because he ought to know that it is only of God that he is what he is-and that he ought no more to boast of himself, than the refulgent colours of the prism should glory in that splendour which they derive wholly from the solar rays. He observes, that the temptations to self-complacency are the effect of Satanic injections-and that it behoves him who would not be deceiving himself to see whether he has the genuine marks of humility in his practice-whether, for instance, he can bear to be rebuked by an inferior-whether he is not rendered insolent by honours--whether he is not inflated by praise -whether among equals he is the first to labour, and the last to exalt himself-whether he can recompense bless

ings for curses and good for evil. By such methods of self-examination he is to check the ebullitions of vain glory, with which the tempter is apt to inspire those who seem to have made some proficiency in the divine life. If that proficiency be real, let them take care never to conceive of it as something separate from Christ. HE alone, dwelling in them by his Spirit, produces all that is good, and to Him alone the praise belongs.

SECTION VIII.

A view of the state of Religion in England and Bohemia during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with sketches of the history of Wickliff, the Lollards, John Huss, and Jerome of Prague; including a concise account of the "Unitas Fratrum," or United Bohemian Brethren, till the times of Luther.

Ax attentive reader of the preceding pages will have observed that when the governments of France and Spain lent their aid to second the views of the court of Rome in expelling the Waldenses and Albigenses from their respective countries, the persecuted followers of Jesus Christ found an assylum in Bohemia, where their principles took deep root, and their numbers multiplied exceedingly. As it is intended in this section to notice a little more particularly the progress of these principles, both in that kingdom and in our owr country, at this in

See page 21, 45 and 46 of this vol, and the note from Thuanus, page 166.

teresting period, I must trespass upon the reader's patience by laying before him a short extract from the impartial Thuanus, which, while it serves to refresh his memory by a recapitulation of what has already been related, will also furnish an introduction to what is to follow.

"PETER WALDO, a rich citizen of Lyons, about the year of Christ 1170, gave name to the Vaudois or Waldenses. This man (as has been recorded by Guy de Perpignan, bishop of Elna, who exercised the office of inquisitor against the Waldenses) leaving his house and estate, had entirely devoted himself to the profession of the Gospel, and had procured the writings of the Prophets and Apostles to be translated into the language of the country, together with several testimonies from the primitive fathers; all which having well fixed in his mind, and trusting to his natural parts, he took up the office of preaching, and interpreted the Gospel to the common people in the streets. And when in a short time, he had got about him a good number of followers, he sent them out into all parts, as disciples, to propagate the Gospel. They, as being generally unlearned, having easily fallen into various errors, were cited by the archbishop of Lyons; and though they were, as he reports, convicted, yet they fortified themselves with mere obstinacy, saying, that in religious affairs, God, and not man, was to be obeyed. Being for this cut off from the church, and appealing to the pope, they were, in the council immediately preceding that of Lateran, condemned as altogether pertinacious and schismatical: from whence, becoming hated and execrated by all men, they wandered about without a home, and spread themselves up and down in Languedoc, Lombardy, and especially amongst the Alps, where they lay concealed and secure for many years. They were charged with these tenets-that the