The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 59

The European Union in Prophecy
To cover their avarice, these begging monks claimed that they were following
the Saviour's example, declaring that Jesus and His disciples had been supported by
the charities of the people. This claim resulted in injury to their cause, for it led many
to the Bible to learn the truth for themselves--a result which of all others was least
desired by Rome. The minds of men were directed to the Source of truth, which it was
her object to conceal. Wycliffe began to write and publish tracts against the friars,
not, however, seeking so much to enter into dispute with them as to call the minds of
the people to the teachings of the Bible and its Author. He declared that the power of
pardon or of excommunication is possessed by the pope in no greater degree than by
common priests, and that no man can be truly excommunicated unless he has first
brought upon himself the condemnation of God. In no more effectual way could he
have undertaken the overthrow of that mammoth fabric of spiritual and temporal
dominion which the pope had erected and in which the souls and bodies of millions
were held captive.
Again Wycliffe was called to defend the rights of the English crown against the
encroachments of Rome; and being appointed a royal ambassador, he spent two years
in the Netherlands, in conference with the commissioners of the pope. Here he was
brought into communication with ecclesiastics from France, Italy, and Spain, and he
had an opportunity to look behind the scenes and gain a knowledge of many things
which would have remained hidden from him in England. He learned much that was
to give point to his after labors. In these representatives from the papal court he read
the true character and aims of the hierarchy. He returned to England to repeat his
former teachings more openly and with greater zeal, declaring that covetousness,
pride, and deception were the gods of Rome.
In one of his tracts he said, speaking of the pope and his collectors: "They draw
out of our land poor men's livelihood, and many thousand marks, by the year, of the
king's money, for sacraments and spiritual things, that is cursed heresy of simony,
and maketh all Christendom assent and maintain this heresy. And certes though our
realm had a huge hill of gold, and never other man took thereof but only this proud
worldly priest's collector, by process of time this hill must be spended; for he taketh
ever money out of our land, and sendeth nought again but God's curse for his simony."
-John Lewis, History of the Life and Sufferings of J. Wiclif, page 37. Soon after his
return to England, Wycliffe received from the king the appointment to the rectory of
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