The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 68

The European Union in Prophecy
The papists had failed to work their will with Wycliffe during his life, and their
hatred could not be satisfied while his body rested quietly in the grave. By the decree
of the Council of Constance, more than forty years after his death his bones were
exhumed and publicly burned, and the ashes were thrown into a neighboring brook.
"This brook," says an old writer, "hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn,
Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wycliffe
are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over."-- T. Fuller,
Church History of Britain, b. 4, sec. 2, par. 54. Little did his enemies realize the
significance of their malicious act. It was through the writings of Wycliffe that John
Huss, of Bohemia, was led to renounce many of the errors of Romanism and to enter
upon the work of reform. Thus in these two countries, so widely separated, the seed
of truth was sown. From Bohemia the work extended to other lands. The minds of
men were directed to the long-forgotten word of God. A divine hand was preparing the
way for the Great Reformation.
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