The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 85

Men of learning and piety had labored in vain to bring about a reform
in these monastic orders; but Wycliffe, with clearer insight, struck at the
root of the evil, declaring that the system itself was false and that it
should be abolished. Discussion and inquiry were awakening. As the
monks traversed the country, vending the pope’s pardons, many were
led to doubt the possibility of purchasing forgiveness with money, and
they questioned whether they should not seek pardon from God rather
than from the pontiff of Rome. (See Appendix note for page 59.) Not
a few were alarmed at the rapacity of the friars, whose greed seemed
never to be satisfied. “The monks and priests of Rome,” said they,
“are eating us away like a cancer. God must deliver us, or the people
will perish.”—D’Aubigne, b. 17, ch. 7. 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

84