Champions of the Truth - Short Lives of Christian Leaders in Thought and Action #252172

Europe. The life of Wyclif included the long and eventful reign of Edward the Third (1327 in which, more than in any preceding age, the English nation became consolidated into unity and power. The Parliament, which was now definitely divided into Lords and Commons, proved itself the true protector Of the national interests and honour. The feudal system was gradually decaying; there were stirrings of life and thought among the masses, which were yet to lead to disastrous conflicts before the establishment of popular rights and individual freedom. A national literature began to be developed, although it was a hundred years before the invention of printing. Sir John Mandeville, the father of English prose, wrote his Travels in 1356, and Chaucer, the father of English poetry, published his earliest poems about ten years later. The English language was ordered by a statute of I 362 to be employed in the pleadings of the courts of law, because the French tongue is much unknown. In the rivalry of nations, England had never been so formidable. Cressy had been won in 1346, Poitiers ten years afterwards. A little later, at the celebration of King Edward's fiftieth birthday, three kings offered their homage at his court — John of France, still in honourable captivity; David Bruce of Scotland, pleading for a mitigation of the terms on which he had been restored to his throne; and the king of Cyprus, to invoke the aid of England against Saracen aggression.