“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” (1 Timothy 4:1)
–Vicariousity Of The Clergy–
See how unlike Christ was to His successors, though all will have it that they are His vicars. I fear that in truth very many of them have been in too serious a sense His vicars, for a vicar represents a prince who is absent. Now if a pontiff rules while Christ is absent and does not dwell in his heart, what else is he but a vicar of Christ? And then what is that Church but a multitude without Christ? What indeed is such a vicar but antichrist and an idol? How much more rightly did the Apostles speak, who call themselves servants of a present Christ, not the vicars of an absent one! —Martin Luther the reformer (1483-1546)—
–Absolute Sovereignty Of The King And Pope–
“Every Christian holds ‘dominion’ of God, and the final, irreversible appeal is, therefore, to the court, not of Rome, but of Heaven.” —John Wycliffe (before 1330-1384).
–Transubstantiation–
Against the doctrine transubstantiation a matyr before his death said “when Christ sat at supper with the disciples He had not His body in His hand to distribute.” and he said, moreover, “that if every host being consecrated at the altar were the Lord’s body, then there be twenty thousand Gods in England.”
If in the sacrament a priest made bread into God, he made a God that can be eaten by rats and mice.—Thomas Bagley (before 1430 – 1431)—
–The Wealth And Lordship Of The Clergy–
Archbishop Arundel: We must believe what the holy church of Rome
teaches.
Lord Cobham: I could not believe in what was opposite to Scripture!
Concerning the popish church and the Pope, Cobham denounces the wealth of the church to Archbishop Arundel as venom (1413).
Archbishop Arundel: What do you mean by venom?
Lord Cobham: Your possessions and lordships.
–Bowing To The Cross–
Dominican friar: Sir, will you worship the cross of Christ that He died upon?
Lord Cobham: Where is it?
Dominican friar: I put you the case, sir, that it were here, even now before you.
Lord Cobham: A wise man, to put me an earnest question of a thing, yet he himself knoweth not where the thing itself is!
[Lord Cobham was cruelly burnt alive shortly after his conversation with Archbishop Arundel]
–Confession To Priests–
When asked whether she confessed her sins to a priest, Margery Baxter the Lollard replied she had never offended any priest.
