Later English Reformers
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him idle, I warrant you.... Where the devil is resident, ... there away
with books, and up with candles; away with Bibles, and up with beads;
away with the light of the gospel, and up with the light of candles, yea,
at noondays; ... down with Christ’s cross, up with purgatory pickpurse;
... away with clothing the naked, the poor, and impotent, up with
decking of images and gay garnishing of stocks and stones; up with
man’s traditions and his laws, down with God’s traditions and His
most holy word.... O that our prelates would be as diligent to sow the
corn of good doctrine, as Satan is to sow cockle and darnel!”—Ibid.,
“Sermon of the Plough.”
[249]
The grand principle maintained by these Reformers—the same
that had been held by the Waldenses, by Wycliffe, by John Huss, by
Luther, Zwingli, and those who united with them—was the infallible
authority of the Holy Scriptures as a rule of faith and practice. They
denied the right of popes, councils, Fathers, and kings, to control the
conscience in matters of religion. The Bible was their authority, and
by its teaching they tested all doctrines and all claims. Faith in God
and His word sustained these holy men as they yielded up their lives
at the stake. “Be of good comfort,” exclaimed Latimer to his fellow
martyr as the flames were about to silence their voices, “we shall this
day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall
never be put out.”—Works of Hugh Latimer 1:8.
In Scotland the seeds of truth scattered by Columba and his cola-
borers had never been wholly destroyed. For hundreds of years after
the churches of England submitted to Rome, those of Scotland main-
tained their freedom. In the twelfth century, however, popery became
established here, and in no country did it exercise a more absolute
sway. Nowhere was the darkness deeper. Still there came rays of light
to pierce the gloom and give promise of the coming day. The Lollards,
coming from England with the Bible and the teachings of Wycliffe,
did much to preserve the knowledge of the gospel, and every century
had its witnesses and martyrs.
With the opening of the Great Reformation came the writings of
Luther, and then Tyndale’s English New Testament. Unnoticed by
the hierarchy, these messengers silently traversed the mountains and
valleys, kindling into new life the torch of truth so nearly extinguished
in Scotland, and undoing the work which Rome for four centuries of
oppression had done.