But as he had been excommunicated in 1366, when Wycliffe was still orthodox, he must have
arrived independently at his opinions. Wycliffe's communistic opinions, though no doubt the
"poor priests" disseminated them, were, by him, only stated in Latin, so that at first hand they were
inaccessible to peasants.
It is surprising that Wycliffe did not suffer more than he did for his opinions and his democratic
activities. The University of Oxford defended him against the bishops as long as possible. When
the House of Lords condemned his itinerant preachers, the House of Commons refused to concur.
No doubt trouble would have accumulated if he had lived longer, but when he died in 1384 he had
not yet been formally condemned. He was buried at Lutterworth, where he died, and his bones
were left in peace until the Council of Constance had them dug up and burnt.
His followers in England, the Lollards, were severely persecuted and practically stamped out. But
owing to the fact that Richard II's wife was a Bohemian, his doctrines became known in Bohemia,
where Huss was his disciple; and in Bohemia, in spite of persecution, they survived until the
Reformation. In England, although driven underground, the revolt against the papacy remained in
men's thoughts, and prepared the soil for Protestantism.
During the fifteenth century, various other causes were added to the decline of the papacy to
produce a very rapid change, both political and cultural. Gunpowder strengthened central
governments at the expense of the feudal nobility. In France and England, Louis XI and Edward
IV allied themselves with the rich middle class, who helped them to quell aristocratic anarchy.
Italy, until the last years of the century, was fairly free from Northern armies, and advanced
rapidly both in wealth and culture. The new culture was essentially pagan, admiring Greece and
Rome, and despising the Middle Ages. Architecture and literary style were adapted to ancient
models. When Constantinople, the last survival of antiquity, was captured by the Turks, Greek
refugees in Italy were welcomed by humanists. Vasco da Gama and Columbus enlarged the world,
and Copernicus enlarged the heavens. The Donation of Constantine was rejected as a fable, and
overwhelmed with scholarly derision. By the help of the Byzantines, Plato came to be known, not
only in Neoplatonic and Augustinian versions, but at first hand. This sublunary sphere appeared
no
-486-longer as a vale of tears, a place of painful pilgrimage to another world, but as affording
opportunity for pagan delights, for fame and beauty and adventure. The long centuries of
asceticism were forgotten in a riot of art and poetry and pleasure. Even in Italy, it is true, the
Middle Ages did not die without a struggle; Savonarola and Leonardo were born in the same year.
But in the main the old terrors had ceased to be terrifying, and the new liberty of the spirit was
found intoxicating. The intoxication could not last, but for the moment it shut out fear. In this
moment of joyful liberation the modern world was born.
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