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Programming: Principles
and Practice Using C++

Third Edition

Bjarne Stroustrup

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$PrintCode
Contents

Preface

0 Notes to the Reader

0.1 The structure of this book
0.2 A philosophy of teaching and learning
0.3 ISO standard C++
0.4 PPP support
0.5 Author biography
0.6 Bibliography

Part I: The Basics

1 Hello, World!
1.1 Programs
1.2 The classic first program
1.3 Compilation
1.4 Linking
1.5 Programming environments

2 Objects, Types, and Values

2.1 Input
2.2 Variables
2.3 Input and type
2.4 Operations and operators
2.5 Assignment and initialization
2.6 Names
 2.7 Types and objects
2.8 Type safety
2.9 Conversions
2.10 Type deduction: auto

3 Computation
3.1 Computation
3.2 Objectives and tools
3.3 Expressions
3.4 Statements
3.5 Functions
3.6 vector
3.7 Language features

4 Errors!
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Sources of errors
4.3 Compile-time errors
4.4 Link-time errors
4.5 Run-time errors
4.6 Exceptions
4.7 Avoiding and finding errors

5 Writing a Program
5.1 A problem
5.2 Thinking about the problem
5.3 Back to the calculator!
5.4 Back to the drawing board
5.5 Turning a grammar into code
5.6 Trying the first version
5.7 Trying the second version
 5.8 Token streams
5.9 Program structure

6 Completing a Program
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Input and output
6.3 Error handling
6.4 Negative numbers
6.5 Remainder: %
6.6 Cleaning up the code
6.7 Recovering from errors
6.8 Variables

7 Technicalities: Functions, etc.

7.1 Technicalities
7.2 Declarations and definitions
7.3 Scope
7.4 Function call and return
7.5 Order of evaluation
7.6 Namespaces
7.7 Modules and headers

8 Technicalities: Classes, etc.

8.1 User-defined types
8.2 Classes and members
8.3 Interface and implementation
8.4 Evolving a class: Date
8.5 Enumerations
8.6 Operator overloading
8.7 Class interfaces
Part II: Input and Output

9 Input and Output Streams

9.1 Input and output
9.2 The I/O stream model
9.3 Files
9.4 I/O error handling
9.5 Reading a single value
9.6 User-defined output operators
9.7 User-defined input operators
9.8 A standard input loop
9.9 Reading a structured file
9.10 Formatting
9.11 String streams

10 A Display Model
10.1 Why graphics?
10.2 A display model
10.3 A first example
10.4 Using a GUI library
10.5 Coordinates
10.6 Shapes
10.7 Using Shape primitives
10.8 Getting the first example to run

11 Graphics Classes
11.1 Overview of graphics classes
11.2 Point and Line
11.3 Lines
11.4 Color
11.5 Line_style
 11.6 Polylines
11.7 Closed shapes
11.8 Text
11.9 Mark
11.10 Image

12 Class Design
12.1 Design principles
12.2 Shape
12.3 Base and derived classes
12.4 Other Shape functions
12.5 Benefits of object-oriented programming

13 Graphing Functions and Data

13.1 Introduction
13.2 Graphing simple functions
13.3 Function
13.4 Axis
13.5 Approximation
13.6 Graphing data

14 Graphical User Interfaces

14.1 User-interface alternatives
14.2 The “Next” button
14.3 A simple window
14.4 Button and other Widgets
14.5 An example: drawing lines
14.6 Simple animation
14.7 Debugging GUI code

Part III: Data and Algorithms

15 Vector and Free Store
15.1 Introduction
15.2 vector basics
15.3 Memory, addresses, and pointers
15.4 Free store and pointers
15.5 Destructors
15.6 Access to elements
15.7 An example: lists
15.8 The this pointer

16 Arrays, Pointers, and References

16.1 Arrays
16.2 Pointers and references
16.3 C-style strings
16.4 Alternatives to pointer use
16.5 An example: palindromes

17 Essential Operations
17.1 Introduction
17.2 Access to elements
17.3 List initialization
17.4 Copying and moving
17.5 Essential operations
17.6 Other useful operations
17.7 Remaining Vector problems
17.8 Changing size
17.9 Our Vector so far

18 Templates and Exceptions

18.1 Templates
 18.2 Generalizing Vector
18.3 Range checking and exceptions
18.4 Resources and exceptions
18.5 Resource-management pointers

19 Containers and Iterators

19.1 Storing and processing data
19.2 Sequences and iterators
19.3 Linked lists
19.4 Generalizing Vector yet again
19.5 An example: a simple text editor
19.6 vector, list, and string

20 Maps and Sets

20.1 Associative containers
20.2 map
20.3 unordered_map
20.4 Timing
20.5 set
20.6 Container overview
20.7 Ranges and iterators

21 Algorithms
21.1 Standard-library algorithms
21.2 Function objects
21.3 Numerical algorithms
21.4 Copying
21.5 Sorting and searching

Index
Preface

Damn the
torpedoes!
Full speed ahead.
– Admiral
Farragut

Programming is the art of expressing solutions to problems

so that a computer can execute those solutions. Much of the
effort in programming is spent finding and refining solutions.
Often, a problem is only fully understood through the
process of programming a solution for it.
This book is for someone who has never programmed
before but is willing to work hard to learn. It helps you
understand the principles and acquire the practical skills of
programming using the C++ programming language. It can
also be used by someone with some programming
knowledge who wants a more thorough grounding in
programming principles and contemporary C++.
Why would you want to program? Our civilization runs on
software. Without understanding software, you are reduced
to believing in “magic” and will be locked out of many of the
most interesting, profitable, and socially useful technical
fields of work. When I talk about programming, I think of the
whole spectrum of computer programs from personal
computer applications with GUIs (graphical user interfaces),
through engineering calculations and embedded systems
control applications (such as digital cameras, cars, and cell
phones), to text manipulation applications as found in many
humanities and business applications. Like mathematics,
programming – when done well – is a valuable intellectual
exercise that sharpens our ability to think. However, thanks
to feedback from the computer, programming is more
concrete than most forms of math and therefore accessible
to more people. It is a way to reach out and change the
world – ideally for the better. Finally, programming can be
great fun.
There are many kinds of programming. This book aims to
serve those who want to write nontrivial programs for the
use of others and to do so responsibly, providing a decent
level of system quality. That is, I assume that you want to
achieve a level of professionalism. Consequently, I chose
the topics for this book to cover what is needed to get
started with real-world programming, not just what is easy
to teach and learn. If you need a technique to get basic
work done right, I describe it, demonstrate concepts and
language facilities needed to support the technique, and
provide exercises for it. If you just want to understand toy
programs or write programs that just call code provided by
others, you can get along with far less than I present. In
such cases, you will probably also be better served by a
language that’s simpler than C++. On the other hand, I
won’t waste your time with material of marginal practical
importance. If an idea is explained here, it’s because you’ll
almost certainly need it.
Programming is learned by writing programs. In this,
programming is similar to other endeavors with a practical
component. You cannot learn to swim, to play a musical
instrument, or to drive a car just from reading a book – you
must practice. Nor can you become a good programmer
without reading and writing lots of code. This book focuses
on code examples closely tied to explanatory text and
diagrams. You need those to understand the ideals,
concepts, and principles of programming and to master the
language constructs used to express them. That’s essential,
but by itself, it will not give you the practical skills of
programming. For that, you need to do the exercises and
get used to the tools for writing, compiling, and running
programs. You need to make your own mistakes and learn to
correct them. There is no substitute for writing code.
Besides, that’s where the fun is!
There is more to programming – much more – than
following a few rules and reading the manual. This book is
not focused on “the syntax of C++.” C++ is used to
illustrate fundamental concepts. Understanding the
fundamental ideals, principles, and techniques is the
essence of a good programmer. Also, “the fundamentals”
are what last: they will still be essential long after today’s
programming languages and tools have evolved or been
replaced.
Code can be beautiful as well as useful. This book is
written to help you to understand what it means for code to
be beautiful, to help you to master the principles of creating
such code, and to build up the practical skills to create it.
Good luck with programming!

Previous Editions
The third edition of Programming: Principles and Practice
Using C++ is about half the size of the second edition.
Students having to carry the book will appreciate the lighter
weight. The reason for the reduced size is simply that more
information about C++ and its standard library is available
on the Web. The essence of the book that is generally used
in a course in programming is in this third edition (“PPP3”),
updated to C++20 plus a bit of C++23. The fourth part of
the previous edition (“PPP2”) was designed to provide extra
information for students to look up when needed and is
available on the Web:

Chapter 1: Computers, People, and Programming

Chapter 11: Customizing Input and Output
Chapter 22: Ideas and History
Chapter 23 Text Manipulation
Chapter 24: Numerics
Chapter 25: Embedded Systems Programming
Chapter 26: Testing
Chapter 27: The C Programming Language
Glossary

Where I felt it useful to reference these chapters, the

references look like this: PPP2.Ch22 or PPP2.§27.1.

Acknowledgments
Special thanks to the people who reviewed drafts of this
book and suggested many improvements: Clovis L. Tondo,
Jose Daniel Garcia Sanchez, J.C. van Winkel, and Ville
Voutilainen. Also, Ville Voutilainen did the non-trivial
mapping of the GUI/Graphics interface library to Qt, making
it portable to an amazing range of systems.
Also, thanks to the many people who contributed to the
first and second editions of this book. Many of their
comments are reflected in this third edition.
0

Notes to the Reader

eiπ + 1
– Leonhard Euler

This chapter is a grab bag of information; it aims to give you an idea of

what to expect from the rest of the book. Please skim through it and
read what you find interesting. Before writing any code, read “PPP
support” (§0.4). A teacher will find most parts immediately useful. If
you are reading this book as a novice, please don’t try to understand
everything. You may want to return and reread this chapter once you
feel comfortable writing and executing small programs.

§0.1 The structure of this book

General approach; Drills, exercises, etc.; What comes after this
book?
§0.2 A philosophy of teaching and learning
A note to students; A note to teachers
§0.3 ISO standard C++
Portability; Guarantees; A brief history of C++
§0.4 PPP support
Web resources
§0.5 Author biography
§0.6 Bibliography
0.1 The structure of this book
This book consists of three parts:

Part I (Chapter 1 to Chapter 8) presents the fundamental concepts and

techniques of programming together with the C++ language and library
facilities needed to get started writing code. This includes the type system,
arithmetic operations, control structures, error handling, and the design,
implementation, and use of functions and user-defined types.
Part II (Chapter 9 to Chapter 14) first describes how to get numeric and
text data from the keyboard and from files, and how to produce
corresponding output to the screen and to files. Then, we show how to
present numeric data, text, and geometric shapes as graphical output, and
how to get input into a program from a graphical user interface (GUI). As
part of that, we introduce the fundamental principles and techniques of
object-oriented programming.
Part III (Chapter 15 to Chapter 21) focuses on the C++ standard library’s
containers and algorithms framework (often referred to as the STL). We
show how containers (such as vector, list, and map) are implemented and
used. In doing so, we introduce low-level facilities such as pointers, arrays,
and dynamic memory. We also show how to handle errors using exceptions
and how to parameterize our classes and functions using templates. As
part of that, we introduce the fundamental principles and techniques of
generic programming. We also demonstrate the design and use of
standard-library algorithms (such as sort, find, and inner_product).

The order of topics is determined by programming techniques, rather than

programming language features.
CC
To ease review and to help you if you miss a key point during a first reading
where you have yet to discover which kind of information is crucial, we place
three kinds of “alert markers” in the margin:

CC: concepts and techniques (this paragraph is an example of that)

AA: advice
XX: warning

The use of CC, AA, and XX, rather than a single token in different colors, is to
help where colors are not easy to distinguish.

0.1.1 General approach

In this book, we address you directly. That is simpler and clearer than the
conventional “professional” indirect form of address, as found in most
scientific papers. By “you” we mean “you, the reader,” and by “we” we mean
“you, the author, and teachers,” working together through a problem, as we
might have done had we been in the same room. I use "I" when I refer to my
own work or personal opinions.
AA
This book is designed to be read chapter by chapter from the beginning to
the end. Often, you’ll want to go back to look at something a second or a third
time. In fact, that’s the only sensible approach, as you’ll always dash past
some details that you don’t yet see the point in. In such cases, you’ll
eventually go back again. Despite the index and the cross-references, this is
not a book that you can open to any page and start reading with any
expectation of success. Each section and each chapter assume understanding
of what came before.
Each chapter is a reasonably self-contained unit, meant to be read in “one
sitting” (logically, if not always feasible on a student’s tight schedule). That’s
one major criterion for separating the text into chapters. Other criteria include
that a chapter is a suitable unit for drills and exercises and that each chapter
presents some specific concept, idea, or technique. This plurality of criteria
has left a few chapters uncomfortably long, so please don’t take “in one
sitting” too literally. In particular, once you have thought about the review
questions, done the drill, and worked on a few exercises, you’ll often find that
you have to go back to reread a few sections.
A common praise for a textbook is “It answered all my questions just as I
thought of them!” That’s an ideal for minor technical questions, and early
readers have observed the phenomenon with this book. However, that cannot
be the whole ideal. We raise questions that a novice would probably not think
of. We aim to ask and answer questions that you need to consider when
writing quality software for the use of others. Learning to ask the right (often
hard) questions is an essential part of learning to think as a programmer.
Asking only the easy and obvious questions would make you feel good, but it
wouldn’t help make you a programmer.
We try to respect your intelligence and to be considerate about your time. In
our presentation, we aim for professionalism rather than cuteness, and we’d
rather understate a point than hype it. We try not to exaggerate the
importance of a programming technique or a language feature, but please
don’t underestimate a simple statement like “This is often useful.” If we quietly
emphasize that something is important, we mean that you’ll sooner or later
waste days if you don’t master it.
Our use of humor is more limited than we would have preferred, but
experience shows that people’s ideas of what is funny differ dramatically and
that a failed attempt at humor can be confusing.
CC
 We do not pretend that our ideas or the tools offered are perfect. No tool,
library, language, or technique is “the solution” to all of the many challenges
facing a programmer. At best, a language can help you to develop and express
your solution. We try hard to avoid “white lies”; that is, we refrain from
oversimplified explanations that are clear and easy to understand, but not true
in the context of real languages and real problems.

0.1.2 Drills, exercises, etc

AA
Programming is not just an intellectual activity, so writing programs is
necessary to master programming skills. We provide three levels of
programming practice:

Drills: A drill is a very simple exercise devised to develop practical, almost

mechanical skills. A drill usually consists of a sequence of modifications of
a single program. You should do every drill. A drill is not asking for deep
understanding, cleverness, or initiative. We consider the drills part of the
basic fabric of the book. If you haven’t done the drills, you have not
“done” the book.
Exercises: Some exercises are trivial, and others are very hard, but most
are intended to leave some scope for initiative and imagination. If you are
serious, you’ll do quite a few exercises. At least do enough to know which
are difficult for you. Then do a few more of those. That’s how you’ll learn
the most. The exercises are meant to be manageable without exceptional
cleverness, rather than to be tricky puzzles. However, we hope that we
have provided exercises that are hard enough to challenge anybody and
enough exercises to exhaust even the best student’s available time. We do
not expect you to do them all, but feel free to try.
Try this: Some people like to put the book aside and try some examples
before reading to the end of a chapter; others prefer to read ahead to the
end before trying to get code to run. To support readers with the former
preference, we provide simple suggestions for practical work labeled Try
this at natural breaks in the text. A Try this is generally in the nature of a
drill but focused narrowly on the topic that precedes it. If you pass a Try
this without trying it out – maybe because you are not near a computer or
you find the text riveting – do return to it when you do the chapter drill; a
Try this either complements the chapter drill or is a part of it.

In addition, at the end of each chapter we offer some help to solidify what’s
learned:

Review: At the end of each chapter, you’ll find a set of review questions.
They are intended to point you to the key ideas explained in the chapter.
One way to look at the review questions is as a complement to the
 exercises: the exercises focus on the practical aspects of programming,
whereas the review questions try to help you articulate the ideas and
concepts. In that, they resemble good interview questions.
Terms: A section at the end of each chapter presents the basic vocabulary
of programming and of C++. If you want to understand what people say
about programming topics and to articulate your own ideas, you should
know what each term means.
Postscript: A paragraph intended to provide some perspective for the
material presented.

In addition, we recommend that you take part in a small project (and more if
time allows for it). A project is intended to produce a complete useful program.
Ideally, a project is done by a small group of people (e.g., three people)
working together (e.g., while progressing through the later chapters of the
book). Most people find such projects the most fun and that they tie
everything together.
CC
Learning involves repetition. Our ideal is to make every important point at
least twice and to reinforce it with exercises.

0.1.3 What comes after this book?

AA
At the end of this book, will you be an expert at programming and at C++? Of
course not! When done well, programming is a subtle, deep, and highly skilled
art building on a variety of technical skills. You should no more expect to
become an expert at programming in four months than you should expect to
become an expert in biology, in math, in a natural language (such as Chinese,
English, or Danish), or at playing the violin in four months – or in half a year, or
a year. What you should hope for, and what you can expect if you approach
this book seriously, is to have a really good start that allows you to write
relatively simple useful programs, to be able to read more complex programs,
and to have a good conceptual and practical background for further work.
The best follow-up to this initial course is to work on a project developing
code to be used by someone else; preferably guided by an experienced
developer. After that, or (even better) in parallel with a project, read either a
professional-level general textbook, a more specialized book relating to the
needs of your project, or a textbook focusing on a particular aspect of C++
(such as algorithms, graphics, scientific computation, finance, or games); see
§0.6.
AA
 Eventually, you should learn another programming language. We don’t
consider it possible to be a professional in the realm of software – even if you
are not primarily a programmer – without knowing more than one language.
Why? No large program is written in a single language. Also, different
languages typically differ in the way code is thought about and programs are
constructed. Design techniques, availability of libraries, and the way programs
are built differ, sometimes dramatically. Even when the syntaxes of two
languages are similar, the similarity is typically only skin deep. Performance,
detection of errors, and constraints on what can be expressed typically differ.
This is similar to the ways natural languages and cultures differ. Knowing only
a single language and a single culture implies the danger of thinking that “the
way we do things” is the only way or the only good way. That way
opportunities are missed, and sub-optimal programs are produced. One of the
best ways to avoid such problems is to know several languages (programming
languages and natural languages).

0.2 A philosophy of teaching and learning

What are we trying to help you learn? And how are we approaching the
process of teaching? We try to present the minimal concepts, techniques, and
tools for you to do effective practical programs, including

Program organization
Debugging and testing
Class design
Computation
Function and algorithm design
Graphics (two-dimensional only)
Graphical user interfaces (GUIs)
Files and stream input and output (I/O)
Memory management
Design and programming ideals
The C++ standard library
Software development strategies

To keep the book lighter than the small laptop on which it is written, some
supplementary topics from the second edition are placed on the Web (§0.4.1):

Computers, People, and Programming (PPP2.Ch1)

Ideals and History (PPP2.Ch22)
Text manipulation (incl. Regular expression matching) (PPP2.Ch23)
 Numerics (PPP2.Ch24)
Embedded systems programming (PPP2.Ch25)
C-language programming techniques (PPP2.Ch27)

Working our way through the chapters, we cover the programming techniques
called procedural programming (as with the C programming language), data
abstraction, object-oriented programming, and generic programming. The
main topic of this book is programming, that is, the ideals, techniques, and
tools of expressing ideas in code. The C++ programming language is our main
tool, so we describe many of C++’s facilities in some detail. But please
remember that C++ is just a tool, rather than the main topic of this book. This
is “programming using C++,” not “C++ with a bit of programming theory.”
Each topic we address serves at least two purposes: it presents a technique,
concept, or principle and also a practical language or library feature. For
example, we use the interface to a two-dimensional graphics system to
illustrate the use of classes and inheritance. This allows us to be economical
with space (and your time) and also to emphasize that programming is more
than simply slinging code together to get a result as quickly as possible. The
C++ standard library is a major source of such “double duty” examples –
many even do triple duty. For example, we introduce the standard-library
vector, use it to illustrate widely useful design techniques, and show many of
the programming techniques used to implement it. One of our aims is to show
you how major library facilities are implemented and how they map to
hardware. We insist that craftsmen must understand their tools, not just
consider them “magical.”
Some topics will be of greater interest to some programmers than to others.
However, we encourage you not to prejudge your needs (how would you know
what you’ll need in the future?) and at least look at every chapter. If you read
this book as part of a course, your teacher will guide your selection.
CC
We characterize our approach as “depth-first.” It is also “concrete-first” and
“concept-based.” First, we quickly (well, relatively quickly, Chapter 1 to
Chapter 9) assemble a set of skills needed for writing small practical programs.
In doing so, we present a lot of tools and techniques in minimal detail. We
focus on simple concrete code examples because people grasp the concrete
faster than the abstract. That’s simply the way most humans learn. At this
initial stage, you should not expect to understand every little detail. In
particular, you’ll find that trying something slightly different from what just
worked can have “mysterious” effects. Do try, though! Please do the drills and
exercises we provide. Just remember that early on you just don’t have the
concepts and skills to accurately estimate what’s simple and what’s
complicated; expect surprises and learn from them.
AA
 We move fast in this initial phase – we want to get you to the point where
you can write interesting programs as fast as possible. Someone will argue,
“We must move slowly and carefully; we must walk before we can run!” But
have you ever watched a baby learning to walk? Babies really do run by
themselves before they learn the finer skills of slow, controlled walking.
Similarly, you will dash ahead, occasionally stumbling, to get a feel of
programming before slowing down to gain the necessary finer control and
understanding. You must run before you can walk!
XX
It is essential that you don’t get stuck in an attempt to learn “everything”
about some language detail or technique. For example, you could memorize all
of C++’s built-in types and all the rules for their use. Of course you could, and
doing so might make you feel knowledgeable. However, it would not make you
a programmer. Skipping details will get you “burned” occasionally for lack of
knowledge, but it is the fastest way to gain the perspective needed to write
good programs. Note that our approach is essentially the one used by children
learning their native language and also the most effective approach used to
learn a foreign language. We encourage you to seek help from teachers,
friends, colleagues, Mentors, etc. on the inevitable occasions when you are
stuck. Be assured that nothing in these early chapters is fundamentally
difficult. However, much will be unfamiliar and might therefore feel difficult at
first.
Later, we build on your initial skills to broaden your base of knowledge. We
use examples and exercises to solidify your understanding, and to provide a
conceptual base for programming.
AA
We place a heavy emphasis on ideals and reasons. You need ideals to guide
you when you look for practical solutions – to know when a solution is good
and principled. You need to understand the reasons behind those ideals to
understand why they should be your ideals, why aiming for them will help you
and the users of your code. Nobody should be satisfied with “because that’s
the way it is” as an explanation. More importantly, an understanding of ideals
and reasons allows you to generalize from what you know to new situations
and to combine ideas and tools in novel ways to address new problems.
Knowing “why” is an essential part of acquiring programming skills.
Conversely, just memorizing lots of poorly understood rules is limiting, a
source of errors, and a massive waste of time. We consider your time precious
and try not to waste it.
Many C++ language-technical details are banished to other sources, mostly
on the Web (§0.4.1). We assume that you have the initiative to search out
information when needed. Use the index and the table of contents. Don’t
forget the online help facilities of your compiler. Remember, though, to
consider every Web resource highly suspect until you have reason to believe
better of it. Many an authoritative-looking Web site is put up by a
programming novice or someone with something to sell. Others are simply
outdated. We provide a collection of links and information on our support Web
site: www.stroustrup.com/programming.xhtml.
Please don’t be too impatient for “realistic” examples. Our ideal example is
the shortest and simplest code that directly illustrates a language facility, a
concept, or a technique. Most real-world examples are far messier than ours,
yet do not consist of more than a combination of what we demonstrate.
Successful commercial programs with hundreds of thousands of lines of code
are based on techniques that we illustrate in a dozen 50-line programs. The
fastest way to understand real-world code is through a good understanding of
the fundamentals.
We do not use “cute examples involving cuddly animals” to illustrate our
points. We assume that you aim to write real programs to be used by real
people, so every example that is not presented as specifically language-
technical is taken from a real-world use. Our basic tone is that of professionals
addressing (future) professionals.
C++ rests on two pillars:

Efficient direct access to machine resources: making C++ effective for

low-level, machine-near, programming as is essential in many application
domains.
Powerful (Zero-overhead) abstraction mechanisms: making it possible to
escape the error-prone low-level programming by providing elegant,
flexible, and type-and-resource-safe, yet efficient facilities needed for
higher-level programming.

This book teaches both levels. We use the implementation of higher-level

abstractions as our primary examples to introduce low-level language features
and programming techniques. The aim is always to write code at the highest
level affordable, but that often requires a foundation built using lower-level
facilities and techniques. We aim for you to master both levels.

0.2.1 A note to students

AA
Many thousands of first-year university students taught using the first two
editions of this book had never before seen a line of code in their lives. Most
succeeded, so you can do it, too.
You don’t have to read this book as part of a course. The book is widely used
for self-study. However, whether you work your way through as part of a
course or independently, try to work with others. Programming has an – unfair
– reputation as a lonely activity. Most people work better and learn faster when
they are part of a group with a common aim. Learning together and discussing
problems with friends is not cheating! It is the most efficient – as well as most
pleasant – way of making progress. If nothing else, working with friends forces
you to articulate your ideas, which is just about the most efficient way of
testing your understanding and making sure you remember. You don’t actually
have to personally discover the answer to every obscure language and
programming environment problem. However, please don’t cheat yourself by
not doing the drills and a fair number of exercises (even if no teacher forces
you to do them). Remember: programming is (among other things) a practical
skill that you must practice to master.
Most students – especially thoughtful good students – face times when they
wonder whether their hard work is worthwhile. When (not if) this happens to
you, take a break, reread this chapter, look at the “Computers, People, and
Programming” and “Ideals and History” chapters posted on the Web (§0.4.1).
There, I try to articulate what I find exciting about programming and why I
consider it a crucial tool for making a positive contribution to the world.
Please don’t be too impatient. Learning any major new and valuable skill
takes time.
The primary aim of this book is to help you to express your ideas in code,
not to teach you how to get those ideas. Along the way, we give many
examples of how we can address a problem, usually through analysis of a
problem followed by gradual refinement of a solution. We consider
programming itself a form of problem solving: only through complete
understanding of a problem and its solution can you express a correct program
for it, and only through constructing and testing a program can you be certain
that your understanding is complete. Thus, programming is inherently part of
an effort to gain understanding. However, we aim to demonstrate this through
examples, rather than through “preaching” or presentation of detailed
prescriptions for problem solving.

0.2.2 A note to teachers

CC
No. This is not a traditional Computer Science 101 course. It is a book about
how to construct working software. As such, it leaves out much of what a
computer science student is traditionally exposed to (Turing completeness,
state machines, discrete math, grammars, etc.). Even hardware is ignored on
the assumption that students have used computers in various ways since
kindergarten. This book does not even try to mention most important CS
topics. It is about programming (or more generally about how to develop
software), and as such it goes into more detail about fewer topics than many
traditional courses. It tries to do just one thing well, and computer science is
not a one-course topic. If this book/course is used as part of a computer
science, computer engineering, electrical engineering (many of our first
students were EE majors), information science, or whatever program, we
expect it to be taught alongside other courses as part of a well-rounded
introduction.
 Many students like to get an idea why subjects are taught and why they are
taught in the way they are. Please try to convey my teaching philosophy,
general approach, etc. to your students along the way. Also, to motivate
students, please present short examples of areas and applications where C++
is used extensively, such as aerospace, medicine, games, animation, cars,
finance, and scientific computation.

0.3 ISO standard C++

C++ is defined by an ISO standard. The first ISO C++ standard was ratified in
1998, so that version of C++ is known as C++98. The code for this edition of
the book uses contemporary C++, C++20 (plus a bit of C++23). If your
compiler does not support C++20 [C++20], get a new compiler. Good, modern
C++ compilers can be downloaded from a variety of suppliers; see
www.stroustrup.com/compilers.xhtml. Learning to program using an earlier and less
supportive version of the language can be unnecessarily hard.
On the other hand, you may be in an environment where you are able to
use only C++14 or C++17. Most of the contents of this book will still apply,
but you’ll have trouble with features introduced in C++20:

modules (§7.7.1). Instead of modules use header files (§7.7.2). In particular,

use #include "PPPheaders.h" to compile our examples and your exercises,
rather than #include "PPP.h" (§0.4).
ranges (§20.7). Use explicit iterators, rather than ranges. For example,
rather than ranges::sort(v). If/when that gets tedious,
sort(v.begin(),v.end())
write your own ranges versions of your favorite algorithms (§21.1).
span (§16.4.1). Fall back on the old “pointer and size” technique. For
example, void f(int* p, int n); rather than void f(span<int> s); and do your own
range checking as needed.
concepts (§18.1.3). Use plain template<typename T> and hope for the best.
The error messages from that for simple mistakes can be horrendous.

0.3.1 Portability
CC
It is common to write C++ to run on a variety of machines. Major C++
applications run on machines we haven’t ever heard of! We consider the use of
C++ on a variety of machine architectures and operating systems most
important. Essentially every example in this book is not only ISO Standard
C++, but also portable. By portable, we mean that we make no assumptions
about the computer, the operating system, and the compiler beyond that an
up-to-date standard-conforming C++ implementation is available. Unless
specifically stated, the code we present should work on every C++
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
The priests of England supported the anathemas pronounced by
their chief. They indulged in a thousand jeers and sarcasms against
John about the charter he had accepted:—"This is the twenty-fifth
king of England—not a king, not even a kingling—but the disgrace of
kings—a king without a kingdom—the fifth wheel of a waggon—the
last of kings, and the disgrace of his people!—I would not give a
straw for him.... Fuisti rex, nunc fex (once a king, but now a clown)."
John, unable to support his disgrace, groaned and gnashed his teeth
and rolled his eyes, tore sticks from the hedges and gnawed them
like a maniac, or dashed them into fragments on the ground.[135]
The barons, unmoved alike by the insolence of the pope and the
despair of the king, replied that they would maintain the charter.
Innocent excommunicated them. "Is it the pope's business to
regulate temporal matters?" asked they. "By what right do vile
usurers and foul simoniacs domineer over our country and
excommunicate the whole world?"
The pope soon triumphed throughout England. His
vassal John having hired some bands of RELIGION OF THE
SENSES.
adventurers from the continent, traversed at their
head the whole country from the Channel to the Forth. These
mercenaries carried desolation in their track: they extorted money,
made prisoners, burnt the barons' castles, laid waste their parks,
and dishonoured their wives and daughters.[136] The king would
sleep in a house, and the next morning set fire to it. Blood-stained
assassins scoured the country during the night, the sword in one
hand and the torch in the other, marking their progress by murder
and conflagration.[137] Such was the enthronization of popery in
England. At this sight the barons, overcome by emotion, denounced
both the king and the pope: "Alas! poor country!" they exclaimed.
"Wretched England!... And thou, O pope, a curse light upon thee!"
[138]

The curse was not long delayed. As the king was returning from
some more than usually successful foray, and as the royal waggons
were crossing the sands of the Wash, the tide rose and all sank in
the abyss.[139] This accident filled John with terror: it seemed to him
that the earth was about to open and swallow him up; he fled to a
convent, where he drank copiously of cider, and died of drunkenness
and fright.[140]
Such was the end of the pope's vassal—of his armed missionary in
Great Britain. Never had so vile a prince been the involuntary
occasion to his people of such great benefits. From his reign England
may date her enthusiasm for liberty and her dread of popery.
During this time a great transformation had been accomplished.
Magnificent churches and the marvels of religious art, with
ceremonies and a multitude of prayers and chantings dazzled the
eyes, charmed the ears, and captivated the senses; but testified also
to the absence of every strong moral and Christian disposition, and
the predominance of worldliness in the church. At the same time the
adoration of images and relics, saints, angels, and Mary the mother
of God, the worships of latria, doulia, and hyperdoulia,[141] the real
Mediator transported from the throne of mercy to the seat of
vengeance, at once indicated and kept up among the people that
ignorance of truth and absence of grace which characterize popery.
All these errors tended to bring about a reaction: and in fact the
march of the Reformation may now be said to begin.
England had been brought low by the papacy: it rose up again by
resisting Rome. Grostête, Bradwardine, and Edward III, prepared the
way for Wickliffe, and Wickliffe for the Reformation.
 CHAPTER VI.
Reaction—Grostete—Principles of Reform—Contest with the
Pope—Sewal—Progress of the Nation—Opposition to the
Papacy—Conversion of Bradwardine—Grace is Supreme—
Edward III—Statutes of Provisors and Præmunire.

In the reign of Henry III, son of John, while the

king was conniving at the usurpations of Rome, REACTION.
and the pope ridiculing the complaints of the
barons, a pious and energetic man, of comprehensive
understanding, was occupied in the study of the Holy Scriptures in
their original languages, and bowing to their sovereign authority.
Robert Grostête (Greathead or Capito) was born of poor parents in
the county of Lincolnshire, and being raised to the see of Lincoln in
1235, when he was sixty years of age, he boldly undertook to reform
his diocese, one of the largest in England. Nor was this all. At the
very time when the Roman pontiff, who had hitherto been content to
be called the vicar of St. Peter, proclaimed himself the vicar of God,
[142] and was ordering the English bishops to find benefices for three

hundred Romans,[143] Grostête was declaring that "to follow a pope

who rebels against the will of Christ, is to separate from Christ and
his body; and if ever the time should come when all men follow an
erring pontiff, then will be the great apostasy. Then will true
Christians refuse to obey, and Rome will be the cause of an
unprecedented schism."[144] Thus did he predict the Reformation.
Disgusted at the avarice of the monks and priests, he visited Rome
to demand a reform. "Brother," said Innocent IV to him with some
irritation, "Is thine eye evil, because I am good?" The English bishop
exclaimed with a sigh: "O money, money! how great is thy power—
especially in this court of Rome!"
A year had scarcely elapsed before Innocent
commanded the bishop to give a canonry in Lincoln CONTEST WITH
THE POPE.
cathedral to his infant nephew. Grostête replied:
"After the sin of Lucifer there is none more opposed to the Gospel
than that which ruins souls by giving them a faithless minister. Bad
pastors are the cause of unbelief, heresy, and disorder. Those who
introduce them into the church are little better than antichrists, and
their culpability is in proportion to their dignity. Although the chief of
the angels should order me to commit such a sin, I would refuse. My
obedience forbids me to obey; and therefore I rebel."[145]
Thus spoke a bishop to his pontiff: his obedience to the word of God
forbade him to obey the pope. This was the principle of the
Reformation. "Who is this old driveller that in his dotage dares to
judge of my conduct?" exclaimed Innocent, whose wrath was
appeased by the intervention of certain cardinals. Grostête on his
dying bed professed still more clearly the principles of the reformers;
he declared that a heresy was "an opinion conceived by carnal
motives, contrary to Scripture, openly taught and obstinately
defended," thus asserting the authority of Scripture instead of the
authority of the church. He died in peace, and the public voice
proclaimed him "a searcher of the Scriptures, an adversary of the
pope, and despiser of the Romans."[146] Innocent, desiring to take
vengeance on his bones, meditated the exhumation of his body,
when one night (says Matthew of Paris) the bishop appeared before
him. Drawing near the pontiff's bed, he struck him with his crosier,
and thus addressed him with terrible voice and threatening look:
[147] "Wretch! the Lord doth not permit thee to have any power over
me. Woe be to thee!" The vision disappeared, and the pope, uttering
a cry as if he had been struck by some sharp weapon, lay senseless
on his couch. Never after did he pass a quiet night, and pursued by
the phantoms of his troubled imagination, he expired while the
palace re-echoed with his lamentable groans.
Grostête was not single in his opposition to the pope. Sewal,
archbishop of York, did the same, and "the more the pope cursed
him, the more the people blessed him."[148]
—"Moderate your tyranny," said the archbishop to OPPOSITION
THE POPE.
TO

the pontiff, "for the Lord said to Peter, Feed my

sheep, and not shear them, flay them, or devour them."[149] The
pope smiled and let the bishop speak, because the king allowed the
pope to act. The power of England, which was constantly increasing,
was soon able to give more force to these protests.
The nation was indeed growing in greatness. The madness of John,
which had caused the English people to lose their continental
possessions, had given them more unity and power. The Norman
kings, being compelled to renounce entirely the country which had
been their cradle, had at length made up their minds to look upon
England as their home. The two races, so long hostile, had melted
one into the other. Free institutions were formed; the laws were
studied; and colleges were founded. The language began to assume
a regular form, and the ships of England were already formidable at
sea. For more than a century the most brilliant victories attended the
British armies. A king of France was brought captive to London: an
English king was crowned at Paris. Even Spain and Italy felt the
valour of these proud islanders. The English people took their station
in the foremost rank. Now the character of a nation is never raised
by halves. When the mighty ones of the earth were seen to fall
before her, England could no longer crawl at the feet of an Italian
priest.
At no period did her laws attack the papacy with so much energy. At
the beginning of the fourteenth century an Englishman having
brought to London one of the pope's bulls—a bull of an entirely
spiritual character, it was an excommunication—was prosecuted as a
traitor to the crown, and would have been hanged, had not the
sentence, at the chancellor's intercession, been changed to
perpetual banishment.[150] The common law was the weapon the
government then opposed to the papal bulls. Shortly afterwards, in
1307, king Edward ordered the sheriffs to resist the arrogant
pretensions of the Romish agents. But it is to two great men in the
fourteenth century equally illustrious, the one in the state, and the
other in the church, that England is indebted for the development of
the protestant element in England.
In 1346, an English army, 34,000 strong, met face
to face at Crecy a French army of 100,000 fighting BRADWARDINE'S
CONVERSION.
men. Two individuals of very different characters
were in the English host. One of them was King Edward III, a brave
and ambitious prince, who, being resolved to recover for the royal
authority all its power, and for England all her glory, had undertaken
the conquest of France. The other was his chaplain Bradwardine, a
man of so humble a character that his meekness was often taken for
stupidity. And thus it was that on his receiving the pallium at
Avignon from the hands of the pope on his elevation to the see of
Canterbury, a jester mounted on an ass rode into the hall and
petitioned the pontiff to make him primate instead of that imbecile
priest.
Bradwardine was one of the most pious men of the age, and to his
prayers his sovereign's victories were ascribed. He was also one of
the greatest geniuses of his time, and occupied the first rank among
astronomers, philosophers, and mathematicians.[151] The pride of
science had at first alienated him from the doctrine of the cross. But
one day while in the house of God and listening to the reading of the
Holy Scriptures, these words struck his ear: It is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. His
ungrateful heart, he tells us, at first rejected this humiliating doctrine
with aversion. Yet the word of God had laid its powerful hold upon
him; he was converted to the truths he had despised, and
immediately began to set forth the doctrines of eternal grace at
Merton College, Oxford. He had drunk so deep at the fountain of
Scripture that the traditions of men concerned him but little, and he
was so absorbed in adoration in spirit and in truth, that he remarked
not outward superstitions. His lectures were eagerly listened to and
circulated through all Europe. The grace of God was their very
essence, as it was of the Reformation. With sorrow Bradwardine
beheld Pelagianism every where substituting a mere religion of
externals for inward Christianity, and on his knees he struggled for
the salvation of the church. "As in the times of old four hundred and
fifty prophets of Baal strove against a single prophet of God; so now,
O Lord," he exclaimed, "the number of those who strive with
Pelagius against thy free grace cannot be counted.[152] They
pretend not to receive grace freely, but to buy it.[153] The will of
men (they say) should precede, and thine should follow: theirs is the
mistress, and thine the servant.[154]... Alas! nearly the whole world
is walking in error in the steps of Pelagius.[155] Arise, O Lord, and
judge thy cause." And the Lord did arise, but not until after the
death of this pious archbishop, in the days of Wickliffe, who, when a
youth, listened to the lectures at Merton College, and especially in
the days of Luther and of Calvin. His contemporaries gave him the
name of the profound doctor.
If Bradwardine walked truthfully in the path of
faith, his illustrious patron Edward advanced STATUTES OF
PROVISORS AND
triumphantly in the field of policy. Pope Clement IV PRÆMUNIRE.
having decreed that the first two vacancies in the
Anglican church should be conferred on two of his cardinals: "France
is becoming English," said the courtiers to the king; "and by way of
compensation, England is becoming Italian." Edward, desirous of
guaranteeing the religious liberties of England, passed with the
consent of parliament in 1350 the statute of provisors, which made
void every ecclesiastical appointment contrary to the rights of the
king, the chapters, or the patrons. Thus the privileges of the
chapters and the liberty of the English Catholics, as well as the
independence of the crown, were protected against the invasion of
foreigners; and imprisonment or banishment for life was denounced
upon all offenders against the law.
This bold step alarmed the pontiff. Accordingly, three years after, the
king having nominated one of his secretaries to the see of Durham—
a man without any of the qualities becoming a bishop—the pope
readily confirmed the appointment. When some one expressed his
astonishment at this, the pope made answer: "If the king of England
had nominated an ass, I would have accepted him." This may
remind us of the ass of Avignon; and it would seem that this humble
animal at that time played a significant part in the elections to the
papacy. But be that as it may, the pope withdrew his pretensions.
"Empires have their term," observes an historian at this place; "when
once they have reached it, they halt, they retrograde, they fall."[156]
The term seemed to be drawing nearer every day. In the reign of
Edward III, between 1343 and 1353, again in 1364, and finally
under Richard II, in 1393, those stringent laws were passed which
interdicted all appeal to the court of Rome, all bulls from the Roman
bishop, all excommunications, etc., in a word, every act infringing on
the rights of the crown; and declared that whoever should bring
such documents into England, or receive, publish, or execute them,
should be put out of the king's protection, deprived of their property,
attached in their persons, and brought before the king in council to
undergo their trial according to the terms of the act. Such was the
statute of Præmunire.[157]
Great was the indignation of the Romans at the news of this law: "If
the statute of mortmain put the pope into a sweat," says Fuller, "this
of præmunire gave him a fit of fever." One pope called it an
"execrable statute,"—"a horrible crime."[158] Such are the terms
applied by the pontiffs to all that thwarts their ambition.
Of the two wars carried on by Edward—the one
against the King of France, and the other against THE TWO WARS.
popery—the latter was the most righteous and
important. The benefits which this prince had hoped to derive from
his brilliant victories at Crecy and Poitiers dwindled away almost
entirely before his death; while his struggles with the papacy,
founded as they were on truth, have exerted even to our own days
an indisputable influence on the destinies of Great Britain. Yet the
prayers and the conquests of Bradwardine, who proclaimed in that
fallen age the doctrine of grace, produced effects still greater, not
only for the salvation of many souls, but for the liberty, moral force,
and greatness of England.
 CHAPTER VII.
The Mendicant Friars—Their Disorders and Popular Indignation
—Wickliffe—His success—Speeches of the Peers against the
Papal Tribute—Agreement of Bruges—Courtenay and
Lancaster—Wickliffe before the Convocation—Altercation
between Lancaster and Courtenay—Riot—Three Briefs
against Wickliffe—Wickliffe at Lambeth—Mission of the Poor
Priests—Their Preachings and Persecutions—Wickliffe and
the Four Regents.

Thus in the first half of the fourteenth century, nearly two hundred
years before the Reformation, England appeared weary of the yoke
of Rome. Bradwardine was no more; but a man who had been his
disciple was about to succeed him, and without attaining to the
highest functions, to exhibit in his person the past and future
tendencies of the church of Christ in Great Britain. The English
Reformation did not begin with Henry VIII: the revival of the
sixteenth century is but a link in the chain commencing with the
apostles and reaching to us.
The resistance of Edward III to the papacy without
had not suppressed the papacy within. The THE BEGGING
FRIARS.
mendicant friars, and particularly the Franciscans,
those fanatical soldiers of the pope, were endeavouring by pious
frauds to monopolize the wealth of the country. "Every year," said
they, "Saint Francis descends from heaven to purgatory, and delivers
the souls of all those who were buried in the dress of his order."
These friars used to kidnap children from their parents and shut
them up in monasteries. They affected to be poor, and with a wallet
on their back, begged with a piteous air from both high and low; but
at the same time they dwelt in palaces, heaped up treasures,
dressed in costly garments, and wasted their time in luxurious
entertainments.[159] The least of them looked upon themselves as
lords, and those who wore the doctor's cap considered themselves
kings. While they diverted themselves, eating and drinking at their
well-spread tables, they used to send ignorant uneducated persons
in their place to preach fables and legends to amuse and plunder the
people.[160] If any rich man talked of giving alms to the poor and
not to the monks, they exclaimed loudly against such impiety, and
declared with threatening voices: "If you do so we will leave the
country, and return accompanied by a legion of glittering helmets."
[161] Public indignation was at its height. "The monks and priests of
Rome," was the cry, "are eating us away like a cancer. God must
deliver us or the people will perish.... Woe be to them! the cup of
wrath will run over. Men of holy church shall be despised as carrion,
as dogs shall they be cast out in open places."[162]
The arrogance of Rome made the cup run over. Pope Urban V,
heedless of the laurels won by the conqueror at Crecy and Poitiers,
summoned Edward III to recognize him as legitimate sovereign of
England, and to pay as feudal tribute the annual rent of one
thousand marcs. In case of refusal the king was to appear before
him at Rome. For thirty-three years the popes had never mentioned
the tribute accorded by John to Innocent III, and which had always
been paid very irregularly. The conqueror of the Valois was irritated
by this insolence on the part of an Italian bishop, and called on God
to avenge England. From Oxford came forth the avenger.
John Wickliffe, born in 1324, in a little village in
Yorkshire, was one of the students who attended JOHN WICKLIFFE.
the lectures of the pious Bradwardine at Merton
College. He was in the flower of his age, and produced a great
sensation in the university. In 1348, a terrible pestilence, which is
said to have carried off half the human race, appeared in England
after successively devastating Asia and the continent of Europe. This
visitation of the Almighty sounded like the trumpet of the judgment-
day in the heart of Wickliffe. Alarmed at the thoughts of eternity, the
young man—for he was then only twenty-four years old—passed
days and nights in his cell groaning and sighing, and calling upon
God to show him the path he ought to follow.[163] He found it in the
Holy Scriptures, and resolved to make it known to others. He
commenced with prudence; but being elected in 1361 warden of
Balliol, and in 1365 warden of Canterbury College also, he began to
set forth the doctrine of faith in a more energetic manner. His biblical
and philosophical studies, his knowledge of theology, his penetrating
mind, the purity of his manners, and his unbending courage,
rendered him the object of general admiration. A profound teacher,
like his master, and an eloquent preacher, he demonstrated to the
learned during the course of the week what he intended to preach,
and on Sunday he preached to the people what he had previously
demonstrated. His disputations gave strength to his sermons, and
his sermons shed light upon his disputations. He accused the clergy
of having banished the Holy Scriptures, and required that the
authority of the word of God should be re-established in the church.
Loud acclamations crowned these discussions, and the crowd of
vulgar minds trembled with indignation when they heard these
shouts of applause.
Wickliffe was forty years old when the papal arrogance stirred
England to its depths. Being at once an able politician and a fervent
Christian, he vigorously defended the rights of the crown against the
Romish aggression, and by his arguments not only enlightened his
fellow-countrymen generally, but stirred up the zeal of several
members of both houses of parliament.
The parliament assembled, and never perhaps had
it been summoned on a question which excited to THE LORDS
AGAINST THE
so high a degree the emotions of England, and PAPAL TRIBUTE.
indeed of Christendom. The debates in the House
of Lords were especially remarkable: all the arguments of Wickliffe
were reproduced. "Feudal tribute is due," said one, "only to him who
can grant feudal protection in return. Now how can the pope wage
war to protect his fiefs?"—"Is it as vassal of the crown or as feudal
superior," asked another, "that the pope demands part of our
property? Urban V will not accept the first of these titles.... Well and
good! but the English people will not acknowledge the second."
"Why," said a third, "was this tribute originally granted? To pay the
pope for absolving John.... His demand, then, is mere simony, a kind
of clerical swindling, which the lords spiritual and temporal should
indignantly oppose."—"No," said another speaker, "England belongs
not to the pope. The pope is but a man, subject to sin; but Christ is
the Lord of lords, and this kingdom is held directly and solely of
Christ alone."[164] Thus spoke the lords inspired by Wickliffe.
Parliament decided unanimously that no prince had the right to
alienate the sovereignty of the kingdom without the consent of the
other two estates, and that if the pontiff should attempt to proceed
against the king of England as his vassal, the nation should rise in a
body to maintain the independence of the crown.
To no purpose did this generous resolution excite the wrath of the
partisans of Rome; to no purpose did they assert that, by the canon
law, the king ought to be deprived of his fief, and, that England now
belonged to the pope: "No," replied Wickliffe, "the canon law has no
force when it is opposed to the word of God." Edward III made
Wickliffe one of his chaplains, and the papacy has ceased from that
hour to lay claim—in explicit terms at least—to the Sovereignty of
England.
When the pope gave up his temporal he was
desirous, at the very least, of keeping up his WICKLIFFE
BEFORE THE
ecclesiastical pretensions, and to procure the CONVOCATION.
repeal of the statutes of Præmunire and Provisors.
It was accordingly resolved to hold a conference at Bruges to treat
of this question, and Wickliffe, who had been created doctor of
theology two years before, proceeded thither with the other
commissioners in April 1374. They came to an arrangement in 1375
that the king should bind himself to repeal the penalties denounced
against the pontifical agents, and that the pope should confirm the
king's ecclesiastical presentations.[165] But the nation was not
pleased with this compromise. "The clerks sent from Rome," said the
Commons, "are more dangerous for the kingdom than Jews or
Saracens: every papal agent resident in England, and every
Englishman living at the court of Rome, should be punished with
death." Such was the language of the Good Parliament. In the
fourteenth century the English nation called a parliament good which
did not yield to the papacy.
Wickliffe, after his return to England, was presented to the rectory of
Lutterworth, and from that time a practical activity was added to his
academic influence. At Oxford he spoke as a master to the young
theologians; in his parish he addressed the people as a preacher and
as a pastor. "The Gospel," said he, "is the only source of religion.
The Roman pontiff is a mere cut-purse,[166] and, far from having the
right to reprimand the whole world, he may be lawfully reproved by
his inferiors, and even by laymen."
The papacy grew alarmed. Courtenay, son of the Earl of Devonshire,
an imperious but grave priest, and full of zeal for what he believed
to be the truth, had recently been appointed to the see of London.
In parliament he had resisted Wickliffe's patron, John of Gaunt, duke
of Lancaster, third son of Edward III., and head of the house of that
name. The bishop, observing that the doctrines of the reformer were
spreading among the people, both high and low, charged him with
heresy, and summoned him to appear before the convocation
assembled in St Paul's Cathedral.
On the 19th February, 1377, an immense crowd,
heated with fanaticism, thronged the approaches COURTENAY AND
LANCASTER.
to the church and filled its aisles, while the citizens
favourable to the reform remained concealed in their houses.
Wickliffe moved forward, preceded by Lord Percy, marshal of
England, and supported by the Duke of Lancaster, who defended
him from purely political motives. He was followed by four bachelors
of divinity, his counsel, and passed through the hostile multitude
who looked upon Lancaster as the enemy of their liberties, and upon
himself as the enemy of the church. "Let not the sight of these
bishops make you shrink a hair's-breadth in your profession of faith,"
said the prince to the doctor. "They are unlearned; and as for this
concourse of people, fear nothing, we are here to defend you."[167]
When the reformer had crossed the threshold of the cathedral, the
crowd within appeared like a solid wall; and, notwithstanding the
efforts of the earl-marshal, Wickliffe and Lancaster could not
advance. The people swayed to and fro, hands were raised in
violence, and loud hootings re-echoed through the building. At
length Percy made an opening in the dense multitude, and Wickliffe
passed on.
The haughty Courtenay, who had been commissioned by the
archbishop to preside over the assembly, watched these strange
movements with anxiety, and beheld with displeasure the learned
doctor accompanied by the two most powerful men in England. He
said nothing to the Duke of Lancaster, who at that time administered
the kingdom, but turning towards Percy observed sharply: "If I had
known, my lord, that you claimed to be master in this church, I
would have taken measures to prevent your entrance." Lancaster
coldly rejoined: "He shall keep such mastery here, though you say
nay." Percy now turned to Wickliffe, who had remained standing and
said: "Sit down and rest yourself." At this Courtenay gave way to his
anger, and exclaimed in a loud tone: "He must not sit down;
criminals stand before their judges." Lancaster, indignant that a
learned doctor of England should be refused a favour to which his
age alone entitled him (for he was between fifty and sixty) made
answer to the bishop: "My lord, you are very arrogant; take care ...
or I may bring down your pride, and not yours only, but that of all
the prelacy in England."[168]—"Do me all the harm you can," was
Courtenay's haughty reply. The prince rejoined with some emotion:
"You are insolent, my lord. You think, no doubt, you can trust on
your family ... but your relations will have trouble enough to protect
themselves." To this the bishop nobly replied: "My confidence is not
in my parents nor in any man; but only in God, in whom I trust, and
by whose assistance I will be bold to speak the truth." Lancaster,
who saw hypocrisy only in these words, turned to one of his
attendants, and whispered in his ear, but so loud as to be heard by
the bystanders: "I would rather pluck the bishop by the hair of his
head out of his chair, than take this at his hands." Every impartial
reader must confess that the prelate spoke with greater dignity than
the prince. Lancaster had hardly uttered these imprudent words
before the bishop's partizans fell upon him and Percy, and even upon
Wickliffe, who alone had remained calm.[169] The two noblemen
resisted, their friends and servants defended them, the uproar
became extreme, and there was no hope of restoring tranquillity.
The two lords escaped with difficulty, and the assembly broke up in
great confusion.
On the following day the earl-marshal having called
upon parliament to apprehend the disturbers of the RIOT.
public peace, the clerical party uniting with the
enemies of Lancaster, filled the streets with their clamour; and while
the duke and the earl escaped by the Thames, the mob collected
before Percy's house, broke down the doors, searched every
chamber, and thrust their swords into every dark corner. When they
found that he had escaped, the rioters, imagining that he was
concealed in Lancaster's palace, rushed to the Savoy, at that time
the most magnificent building in the kingdom. They killed a priest
who endeavoured to stay them, tore down the ducal arms, and hung
them on the gallows like those of a traitor. They would have gone
still farther if the bishop had not very opportunely reminded them
that they were in Lent. As for Wickliffe, he was dismissed with an
injunction against preaching his doctrines.
But this decision of the priests was not ratified by the people of
England. Public opinion declared in favour of Wickliffe. "If he is
guilty," said they, "why is he not punished? If he is innocent, why is
he ordered to be silent? If he is the weakest in power, he is the
strongest in truth!" And so indeed he was, and never had he spoken
with such energy. He openly attacked the pretended apostolical
chair, and declared that the two antipopes who sat at Rome and
Avignon together made one antichrist. Being now in opposition to
the pope, Wickliffe was soon to confess that Christ alone was king of
the church; and that it is not possible for a man to be
excommunicated, unless first and principally he be excommunicated
by himself.[170]
Rome could not close her ears. Wickliffe's enemies sent thither
nineteen propositions which they ascribed to him, and in the month
of June 1377, just as Richard II, son of the Black Prince, a child
eleven years old, was ascending the throne, three letters from
Gregory XI, addressed to the king, the archbishop of Canterbury,
and the university of Oxford, denounced Wickliffe as a heretic, and
called upon them to proceed against him as against a common thief.
The archbishop issued the citation: the crown and the university
were silent.
On the appointed day, Wickliffe, unaccompanied by
either Lancaster or Percy, proceeded to the WICKLIFFE AT
LAMBETH.
archiepiscopal chapel at Lambeth. "Men expected
he should be devoured," says an historian; "being brought into the
lion's den."[171] But the burgesses had taken the prince's place. The
assault of Rome had aroused the friends of liberty and truth in
England. "The pope's briefs," said they, "ought to have no effect in
the realm without the king's consent. Every man is master in his own
house."
The archbishop had scarcely opened the sitting, when Sir Louis
Clifford entered the chapel, and forbade the court, on the part of the
queen-mother, to proceed against the reformer. The bishops were
struck with a panic-fear: "they bent their heads," says a Roman-
catholic historian, "like a reed before the wind."[172] Wickliffe retired
after handing in a protest. "In the first place," said he, "I resolve
with my whole heart, and by the grace of God, to be a sincere
Christian; and, while my life shall last, to profess and defend the law
of Christ so far as I have power."[173] Wickliffe's enemies attacked
this protest, and one of them eagerly maintained that whatever the
pope ordered should be looked upon as right. "What!" answered the
reformer; "the pope may then exclude from the canon of the
scriptures any book that displeases him, and alter the Bible at
pleasure?" Wickliffe thought that Rome, unsettling the grounds of
infallibility, had transferred it from the Scriptures to the pope, and
was desirous of restoring it to its true place, and re-establishing
authority in the church on a truly divine foundation.
A great change was now taking place in the reformer. Busying
himself less about the kingdom of England, he occupied himself
more about the kingdom of Christ. In him the political phasis was
followed by the religious. To carry the glad tidings of the Gospel into
the remotest hamlets, was now the great idea which possessed
Wickliffe. If begging friars (said he) stroll over the country, preaching
the legends of saints and the history of the Trojan war, we must do
for God's glory what they do to fill their wallets, and form a vast
itinerant evangelization to convert souls to Jesus Christ. Turning to
the most pious of his disciples, he said to them: "Go and preach, it is
the sublimest work; but imitate not the priests whom we see after
the sermon sitting in the ale-houses, or at the gaming-table, or
wasting their time in hunting. After your sermon is ended, do you
visit the sick, the aged, the poor, the blind, and the lame, and
succour them according to your ability." Such was the new practical
theology which Wickliffe inaugurated—it was that of Christ himself.
The "poor priests," as they were called, set off
barefoot, a staff in their hands, clothed in a coarse PREACHING AND
PERSECUTION.
robe, living on alms, and satisfied with the plainest
food. They stopped in the fields near some village, in the
churchyards, in the market-places of the towns, and sometimes in
the churches even.[174] The people, among whom they were
favourites, thronged around them, as the men of Northumbria had
done at Aidan's preaching. They spoke with a popular eloquence
that entirely won over those who listened to them. Of these
missionaries none was more beloved than John Ashton. He might be
seen wandering over the country in every direction, or seated at
some cottage hearth, or alone in some retired crossway, preaching
to an attentive crowd. Missions of this kind have constantly revived
in England at the great epochs of the church.
The "poor priests" were not content with mere polemics: they
preached the great mystery of godliness. "An angel could have made
no propitiation for man," one day exclaimed their master Wickliffe;
"for the nature which has sinned is not that of the angels. The
mediator must needs be a man; but every man being indebted to
God for every thing that he is able to do, this man must needs have
infinite merit, and be at the same time God."[175]
The clergy became alarmed, and a law was passed commanding
every king's officer to commit the preachers and their followers to
prison.[176] In consequence of this, as soon as the humble
missionary began to preach, the monks set themselves in motion.
They watched him from the windows of their cells, at the street-
corners, or from behind a hedge, and then hastened off to procure
assistance. But when the constables approached, a body of stout
bold men stood forth, with arms in their hands, who surrounded the
preacher, and zealously protected him against the attacks of the
clergy. Carnal weapons were thus mingled with the preachings of the
word of peace. The poor priests returned to their master: Wickliffe
comforted them, advised with them, and then they departed once
more. Every day this evangelization reached some new spot, and the
light was thus penetrating into every quarter of England, when the
reformer was suddenly stopped in his work.
Wickliffe was at Oxford in the year 1379, busied in
the discharge of his duties as professor of divinity, WICKLIFFE'S
PROPHECY.
when he fell dangerously ill. His was not a strong
constitution; and work, age, and above all persecution had
weakened him. Great was the joy in the monasteries; but for that
joy to be complete, the heretic must recant. Every effort was made
to bring this about in his last moments.
The four regents, who represented the four religious orders,
accompanied by four aldermen, hastened to the bedside of the dying
man, hoping to frighten him by threatening him with the vengeance
of Heaven. They found him calm and serene. "You have death on
your lips," said they; "be touched by your faults, and retract in our
presence all that you have said to our injury." Wickliffe remained
silent, and the monks flattered themselves with an easy victory. But
the nearer the reformer approached eternity, the greater was his
horror of monkery. The consolation he had found in Jesus Christ had
given him fresh energy. He begged his servant to raise him on his
couch. Then feeble and pale, and scarcely able to support himself,
he turned towards the friars, who were waiting for his recantation,
and opening his livid lips, and fixing on them a piercing look, he said
with emphasis: "I shall not die but live; and again declare the evil
deeds of the friars." We might almost picture to ourselves the spirit
of Elijah threatening the priests of Baal. The regents and their
companions looked at each other with astonishment. They left the
room in confusion, and the reformer recovered to put the finishing
touch to the most important of his works against the monks and
against the pope.[177]
 CHAPTER VIII.
The Bible—Wickliffe's Translation—Effects of its Publication—
Opposition of the Clergy—Wickliffe's Fourth Phasis—
Transubstantiation—Excommunication—Wickliffe's Firmness
—Wat Tyler—The Synod—The condemned Propositions—
Wickliffe's Petition—Wickliffe before the Primate at Oxford—
Wickliffe summoned to Rome—His Answer—The Trialogue—
His Death—And Character—His teaching—His Ecclesiastical
Views—A Prophecy.

Wickliffe's ministry had followed a progressive

course. At first he had attacked the papacy; next THE BIBLE.
he preached the gospel to the poor; he could take
one more step and put the people in permanent possession of the
word of God. This was the third phase of his activity.
Scholasticism had banished the Scriptures into a mysterious
obscurity. It is true that Bede had translated the Gospel of St. John;
that the learned men at Alfred's court had translated the four
evangelists; that Elfric in the reign of Ethelred had translated some
books of the Old Testament; that an Anglo-Norman priest had
paraphrased the Gospels and the acts; that Richard Rolle, "the
hermit of Hampole," and some pious clerks in the fourteenth
century, had produced a version of the Psalms, the Gospels, and
Epistles:—but these rare volumes were hidden, like theological
curiosities, in the libraries of a few convents. It was then a maxim
that the reading of the Bible was injurious to the laity; and
accordingly the priests forbade it, just as the Brahmins forbid the
Shasters to the Hindoos. Oral tradition alone preserved among the
people the histories of the Holy Scriptures, mingled with legends of
the saints. The time appeared ripe for the publication of a Bible. The
increase of population, the attention the English were beginning to
devote to their own language, the development which the system of
representative government had received, the awakening of the
human mind:—all these circumstances favoured the reformer's
design.
Wickliffe was ignorant indeed of Greek and Hebrew; but was it
nothing to shake off the dust which for ages had covered the Latin
Bible, and to translate it into English? He was a good Latin scholar,
of sound understanding and great penetration; but above all he
loved the Bible, he understood it, and desired to communicate this
treasure to others. Let us imagine him in his quiet study: on his
table is the Vulgate text, corrected after the best manuscripts; and
lying open around him are the commentaries of the doctors of the
church, especially those of St. Jerome and Nicholas Lyrensis.
Between ten and fifteen years he steadily prosecuted his task;
learned men aided him with their advice, and one of them, Nicholas
Hereford, appears to have translated a few chapters for him. At last
in 1380 it was completed. This was a great event in the religious
history of England, who, outstripping the nations on the continent,
took her station in the foremost rank in the great work of
disseminating the Scriptures.
As soon as the translation was finished, the labour
of the copyists began, and the Bible was erelong OPPOSITION OF
THE CLERGY.
widely circulated either wholly or in portions. The
reception of the work surpassed Wickliffe's expectations. The Holy
Scriptures exercised a reviving influence over men's hearts; minds
were enlightened; souls were converted; the voices of the "poor
priests" had done little in comparison with this voice; something new
had entered into the world. Citizens, soldiers, and the lower classes
welcomed this new era with acclamations; the high-born curiously
examined the unknown book; and even Anne of Luxemburg, wife of
Richard II, having learnt English, began to read the Gospels
diligently. She did more than this: she made them known to Arundel,
archbishop of York and chancellor, and afterwards a persecutor, but
who now, struck at the sight of a foreign lady—of a queen, humbly
devoting her leisure to the study of such virtuous books,[178]
commenced reading them himself, and rebuked the prelates who
neglected this holy pursuit. "You could not meet two persons on the
highway," says a contemporary writer, "but one of them was
Wickliffe's disciple."
Yet all in England did not equally rejoice: the lower clergy opposed
this enthusiasm with complaints and maledictions. "Master John
Wickliffe, by translating the Gospel into English," said the monks,
"has rendered it more acceptable and more intelligible to laymen and
even to women, than it had hitherto been to learned and intelligent
clerks!... The Gospel pearl is every where cast out and trodden
under foot of swine."[179] New contests arose for the reformer.
Wherever he bent his steps, he was violently attacked. "It is heresy,"
cried the monks, "to speak of Holy Scripture in English."[180]—"Since
the church has approved of the four Gospels, she would have been
just as able to reject them and admit others! The church sanctions
and condemns what she pleases.... Learn to believe in the church
rather than in the Gospel." These clamours did not alarm Wickliffe.
"Many nations have had the Bible in their own language. The Bible is
the faith of the church. Though the pope and all his clerks should
disappear from the face of the earth," said he, "our faith would not
fail, for it is founded on Jesus alone, our Master and our God." But
Wickliffe did not stand alone: in the palace as in the cottage, and
even in parliament, the rights of Holy Scripture found defenders. A
motion having been made in the Upper House (1390) to seize all the
copies of the Bible, the Duke of Lancaster exclaimed: "Are we then
the very dregs of humanity, that we cannot possess the laws of our
religion in our own tongue?"[181]
Having given his fellow-countrymen the Bible,
Wickliffe began to reflect on its contents. This was TRANSUBSTANTI
ATION.
a new step in his onward path. There comes a
moment when the Christian, saved by a lively faith, feels the need of
giving an account to himself of this faith, and this originates the
science of theology. This is a natural movement: if the child, who at
first possesses sensations and affections only, feels the want, as he
grows up, of reflection and knowledge, why should it not be the
same with the Christian? Politics—home missions—Holy Scripture—
had engaged Wickliffe in succession; theology had its turn, and this
was the fourth phase of his life. Yet he did not penetrate to the
same degree as the men of the sixteenth century into the depths of
the Christian doctrine; and he attached himself in a more especial
manner to those ecclesiastical dogmas which were more closely
connected with the presumptuous hierarchy and the simoniacal
gains of Rome,—such as transubstantiation. The Anglo-Saxon church
had not professed this doctrine. "The host is the body of Christ, not
bodily but spiritually," said Elfric in the tenth century in a letter
addressed to the archbishop of York; but Lanfranc, the opponent of
Berengarius, had taught England that at the word of a priest God
quitted heaven and descended on the altar. Wickliffe undertook to
overthrow the pedestal on which the pride of the priesthood was
founded. "The eucharist is naturally bread and wine," he taught at
Oxford in 1381; "but by virtue of the sacramental words it contains
in every part the real body and blood of Christ." He did not stop
here. "The consecrated wafer which we see on the altar," said he, "is
not Christ, nor any part of him, but his efficient sign."[182] He
oscillated between these two shades of doctrine; but to the first he
more habitually attached himself. He denied the sacrifice of the mass
offered by the priest, because it was substituted for the sacrifice of
the cross offered up by Jesus Christ; and rejected transubstantiation,
because it nullified the spiritual and living presence of the Lord.
When Wickliffe's enemies heard these propositions,
they appeared horror-stricken, and yet in secret WICKLIFFE'S
FIRMNESS.
they were delighted at the prospect of destroying
him. They met together, examined twelve theses he had published,
and pronounced against him suspension from all teaching,
imprisonment, and the greater excommunication. At the same time
his friends became alarmed, their zeal cooled, and many of them
forsook him. The Duke of Lancaster, in particular, could not follow
him into this new sphere. That prince had no objection to an
ecclesiastical opposition which might aid the political power, and for
that purpose he had tried to enlist the reformer's talents and
courage; but he feared a dogmatic opposition that might
compromise him. The sky was heavy with clouds; Wickliffe was
alone.
The storm soon burst upon him. One day, while seated in his
doctoral chair in the Augustine school, and calmly explaining the
nature of the eucharist, an officer entered the hall, and read the
sentence of condemnation. It was the design of his enemies to
humble the professor in the eyes of his disciples. Lancaster
immediately became alarmed, and hastening to his old friend
begged him—ordered him even—to trouble himself no more about
this matter. Attacked on every side, Wickliffe for a time remained
silent. Shall he sacrifice the truth to save his reputation—his repose
—perhaps his life? Shall expediency get the better of faith,—
Lancaster prevail over Wickliffe? No: his courage was invincible.
"Since the year of our Lord 1000," said he, "all the doctors have
been in error about the sacrament of the altar—except, perhaps, it
may be Berengarius. How canst thou, O priest, who art but a man,
make thy Maker? What! the thing that groweth in the fields—that
ear which thou pluckest to-day, shall be God to-morrow!... As you
cannot make the works which he made, how shall ye make Him who
made the works?[183] Woe to the adulterous generation that
believeth the testimony of Innocent rather than of the Gospel."[184]
Wickliffe called upon his adversaries to refute the opinions they had
condemned, and finding that they threatened him with a civil penalty
(imprisonment), he appealed to the king.
The time was not favourable for such an appeal. A fatal
circumstance increased Wickliffe's danger. Wat Tyler and a dissolute
priest named Ball, taking advantage of the ill-will excited by the
rapacity and brutality of the royal tax-gatherers, had occupied
London with 100,000 men. John Ball kept up the spirits of the
insurgents, not by expositions of the gospel, like Wickliffe's poor
priests, but by fiery comments on the distich they had chosen for
their device:—
When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?
There were many who felt no scruple in ascribing THE CONDEMNED
these disorders to the reformer, who was quite PROPOSITIONS.
innocent of them; and Courtenay, bishop of
London, having been translated to the see of Canterbury, lost no
time in convoking a synod to pronounce on this matter of Wickliffe's.
They met in the middle of May, about two o'clock in the afternoon,
and were proceeding to pronounce sentence when an earthquake,
which shook the city of London and all Britain, so alarmed the
members of the council that they unanimously demanded the
adjournment of a decision which appeared so manifestly rebuked by
God. But the archbishop skilfully turned this strange phenomenon to
his own purposes: "Know you not," said he, "that the noxious
vapours which catch fire in the bosom of the earth, and give rise to
these phenomena which alarm you, loose all their force when they
burst forth? Well, in like manner, by rejecting the wicked from our
community, we shall put an end to the convulsions of the church."
The bishops regained their courage; and one of the primate's
officers read ten propositions, said to be Wickliffe's, but ascribing to
him certain errors of which he was quite innocent. The following
most excited the anger of the priests: "God must obey the devil.[185]
After Urban VI we must receive no one as pope, but live according
to the manner of the Greeks." The ten propositions were condemned
as heretical, and the archbishop enjoined all persons to shun, as
they would a venomous serpent, all who should preach the aforesaid
errors. "If we permit this heretic to appeal continually to the
passions of the people," said the primate to the king, "our
destruction is inevitable. We must silence these lollards—these
psalm-singers."[186] The king gave authority "to confine in the
prisons of the state any who should maintain the condemned
propositions."
Day by day the circle contracted around Wickliffe. The prudent
Repingdon, the learned Hereford, and even the eloquent Ashton, the
firmest of the three, departed from him. The veteran champion of
the truth which had once gathered a whole nation round it, had
reached the days when "strong men shall bow themselves," and
now, when harassed by persecution, he found himself alone. But
boldly he uplifted his hoary head and exclaimed: "The doctrine of
the gospel shall never perish; and if the earth once quaked, it was
because they condemned Jesus Christ."
He did not stop here. In proportion as his physical
strength decreased, his moral strength increased. WICKLIFFE
BEFORE THE
Instead of parrying the blows aimed at him, he PRIMATE.
resolved on dealing more terrible ones still. He
knew that if the king and the nobility were for the priests, the lower
house and the citizens were for liberty and truth. He therefore
presented a bold petition to the Commons in the month of
November 1382. "Since Jesus Christ shed his blood to free his
church, I demand its freedom. I demand that every one may leave
those gloomy walls [the convents], within which a tyrannical law
prevails, and embrace a simple and peaceful life under the open
vault of heaven. I demand that the poor inhabitants of our towns
and villages be not constrained to furnish a worldly priest, often a
vicious man and a heretic, with the means of satisfying his
ostentation, his gluttony, and his licentiousness—of buying a showy
horse, costly saddles, bridles with tinkling bells, rich garments, and
soft furs, while they see their wives, children, and neighbours, dying
of hunger."[187] The House of Commons, recollecting that they had
not given their consent to the persecuting statute drawn up by the
clergy and approved by the king and the lords, demanded its repeal.
Was the Reformation about to begin by the will of the people?
Courtenay, indignant at this intervention of the Commons, and ever
stimulated by a zeal for his church, which would have been better
directed towards the word of God, visited Oxford in November 1382,
and having gathered round him a number of bishops, doctors,
priests, students, and laymen, summoned Wickliffe before him. Forty
years ago the reformer had come up to the university: Oxford had
become his home ... and now it was turning against him! Weakened
by labours, by trials, by that ardent soul which preyed upon his
feeble body, he might have refused to appear. But Wickliffe, who
never feared the face of man, came before them with a good
conscience. We may conjecture that there were among the crowd
some disciples who felt their hearts burn at the sight of their master;
but no outward sign indicated their emotion. The solemn silence of a
court of justice had succeeded the shouts of enthusiastic youths. Yet
Wickliffe did not despair: he raised his venerable head, and turned to
Courtenay with that confident look which had made the regents of
Oxford shrink away. Growing wroth against the priests of Baal, he
reproached them with disseminating error in order to sell their
masses. Then he stopped, and uttered these simple and energetic
words: "The truth shall prevail!"[188] Having thus spoken he
prepared to leave the court: his enemies dared not say a word; and,
like his divine master at Nazareth, he passed through the midst of
them, and no man ventured to stop him. He then withdrew to his
cure at Lutterworth.
He had not yet reached the harbour. He was living
peacefully among his books and his parishioners, WICKLIFFE
SUMMONED TO
and the priests seemed inclined to leave him alone, ROME.
when another blow was aimed at him. A papal brief
summoned him to Rome, to appear before that tribunal which had
so often shed the blood of its adversaries. His bodily infirmities
convinced him that he could not obey this summons. But if Wickliffe
refused to hear Urban, Urban could not choose but hear Wickliffe.
The church was at that time divided between two chiefs: France,
Scotland, Savoy, Lorraine, Castile, and Aragon acknowledged
Clement VII; while Italy, England, Germany, Sweden, Poland, and
Hungary acknowledged Urban VI. Wickliffe shall tell us who is the
true head of the church universal. And while the two popes were
excommunicating and abusing each other, and selling heaven and
earth for their own gain, the reformer was confessing that
incorruptible Word, which establishes real unity in the church. "I
believe," said he, "that the Gospel of Christ is the whole body of
God's law. I believe that Christ, who gave it to us, is very God and
very man, and that this Gospel revelation is, accordingly, superior to
all other parts of Holy Scripture.[189] I believe that the bishop of
Rome is bound more than all other men to submit to it, for the
greatness among Christ's disciples did not consist in worldly dignity
or honours, but in the exact following of Christ in his life and
manners. No faithful man ought to follow the pope, but in such
points as he hath followed Jesus Christ. The pope ought to leave
unto the secular power all temporal dominion and rule; and
thereunto effectually more and more exhort his whole clergy.... If I
could labour according to my desire in mine own person, I would
surely present myself before the bishop of Rome, but the Lord hath
otherwise visited me to the contrary, and hath taught me rather to
obey God than men."[190]
Urban, who at that moment chanced to be very busied in his contest
with Clement, did not think it prudent to begin another with
Wickliffe, and so let the matter rest there. From this time the doctor
passed the remainder of his days in peace in the company of three
personages, two of whom were his particular friends, and the third
his constant adversary: these were Aletheia, Phronesis, and
Pseudes. Aletheia (truth) proposed questions; Pseudes (falsehood)
urged objections; and Phronesis (understanding) laid down the
sound doctrine. These three characters carried on a conversation
(trialogue) in which great truths were boldly professed. The
opposition between the pope and Christ—between the canons of
Romanism and the Bible—was painted in striking colours. This is one
of the primary truths which the church must never forget. "The
church has fallen," said one of the interlocutors in the work in
question, "because she has abandoned the Gospel, and preferred
the laws of the pope. Although there should be a hundred popes in
the world at once, and all the friars living should be transformed into
cardinals, we must withhold our confidence unless so far as they are
founded in Holy Scripture."[191]
These words were the last flicker of the torch.
Wickliffe looked upon his end as near, and DEATH OF
WICKLIFFE.
entertained no idea that it would come in peace. A
dungeon on one of the seven hills, or a burning pile in London, was
all he expected. "Why do you talk of seeking the crown of
martyrdom afar?" asked he. "Preach the Gospel of Christ to haughty
prelates, and martyrdom will not fail you. What! I should live and be
silent? ... never! Let the blow fall, I await its coming."[192]
The stroke was spared him. The war between two wicked priests,
Urban and Clement, left the disciples of our Lord in peace. And
besides, was it worth while cutting short a life that was drawing to a
close? Wickliffe, therefore, continued tranquilly to preach Jesus
Christ; and on the 29th December 1384, as he was in his church at
Lutterworth, in the midst of his flock, at the very moment that he
stood before the altar, and was elevating the host with trembling
hands, he fell upon the pavement struck with paralysis. He was
carried to his house by the affectionate friends around him, and
after lingering forty-eight hours resigned his soul to God on the last
day of the year.
Thus was removed from the church one of the
boldest witnesses to the truth. The seriousness of WICKLIFFE'S
CHARACTER.
his language, the holiness of his life, and the
energy of his faith, had intimidated the popedom. Travellers relate
that if a lion is met in the desert, it is sufficient to look steadily at
him, and the beast turns away roaring from the eye of man.
Wickliffe had fixed the eye of a Christian on the papacy, and the
affrighted papacy had left him in peace. Hunted down unceasingly
while living, he died in quiet, at the very moment when by faith he
was eating the flesh and drinking the blood which give eternal life. A
glorious end to a glorious life.
The Reformation of England had begun.
Wickliffe is the greatest English Reformer: he was in truth the first
reformer of Christendom, and to him, under God, Britain is indebted
for the honour of being the foremost in the attack upon the
theocratic system of Gregory VII. The work of the Waldenses,
excellent as it was, cannot be compared to his. If Luther and Calvin
are the fathers of the Reformation, Wickliffe is its grandfather.
Wickliffe, like most great men, possessed qualities which are not
generally found together. While his understanding was eminently
speculative—his treatise on the Reality of universal Ideas[193] made
a sensation in philosophy—he possessed that practical and active
mind which characterizes the Anglo-Saxon race. As a divine, he was
at once scriptural and spiritual, soundly orthodox, and possessed of
an inward and lively faith. With a boldness that impelled him to rush
into the midst of danger, he combined a logical and consistent mind,
which constantly led him forward in knowledge, and caused him to
maintain with perseverance the truths he had once proclaimed. First
of all, as a Christian, he had devoted his strength to the cause of the
church; but he was at the same time a citizen, and the realm, his
nation, and his king, had also a great share in his unwearied activity.
He was a man complete.
If the man is admirable, his teaching is no less so.
Scripture, which is the rule of truth, should be WICKLIFFE'S
ECCLESIASTICAL
(according to his views) the rule of Reformation, VIEWS.
and we must reject every doctrine and every
precept which does not rest on that foundation.[194] To believe in
the power of man in the work of regeneration is the great heresy of
Rome, and from that error has come the ruin of the church.
Conversion proceeds from the grace of God alone, and the system
which ascribes it partly to man and partly to God is worse than
Pelagianism.[195] Christ is every thing in Christianity; whosoever
abandons that fountain which is ever ready to impart life, and turns
to muddy and stagnant waters, is a madman.[196] Faith is a gift of
God; it puts aside all merit, and should banish all fear from the
mind.[197] The one thing needful in the Christian life and in the
Lord's Supper is not a vain formalism and superstitious rites, but
communion with Christ according to the power of the spiritual life.
[198] Let Christians submit not to the word of a priest but to the
word of God. In the primitive church there were but two orders, the
deacon and the priest: the presbyter and the bishop were one.[199]
The sublimest calling which man can attain on earth is that of
preaching the word of God. The true church is the assembly of the
righteous for whom Christ shed his blood. So long as Christ is in
heaven, in Him the church possesses the best pope. It is possible for
a pope to be condemned at the last day because of his sins. Would
men compel us to recognise as our head "a devil of hell?"[200] Such
were the essential points of Wickliffe's doctrine. It was the echo of
the doctrine of the apostles—the prelude to that of the reformers.
In many respects Wickliffe is the Luther of
England; but the times of revival had not yet come, PROPHECY.
and the English reformer could not gain such
striking victories over Rome as the German reformer. While Luther
was surrounded by an ever-increasing number of scholars and
princes, who confessed the same faith as himself, Wickliffe shone
almost alone in the firmament of the church. The boldness with
which he substituted a living spirituality for a superstitious
formalism, caused those to shrink back in affright who had gone
with him against friars, priests, and popes. Erelong the Roman
pontiff ordered him to be thrown into prison, and the monks
threatened his life;[201] but God protected him, and he remained
calm amidst the machinations of his adversaries. "Antichrist," said
he, "can only kill the body." Having one foot in the grave already, he
foretold that, from the very bosom of monkery, would some day
proceed the regeneration of the church. "If the friars, whom God
condescends to teach, shall be converted to the primitive religion of
Christ," said he, "we shall see them abandoning their unbelief,
returning freely, with or without the permission of Antichrist, to the
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