THE REFORMATION IN EUROPE 331

ment was void and not binding upon the English people.
This soon developed into a general attack upon the Pope
and the interference of a foreign Church which had become
the butt of much criticism. One of the good things Wycliffe
did was to have the Bible translated into English. By this
he earned the name of " father of English prose" as no
good English prose works existed before his time. His
followers, called the "simple priests," were denounced as
the Lollards and charged with inciting discontent which led
to disorders known as the Peasants' Revolt. Wycliffe himself
was excommunicated by the Pope and he died in 1384. He
is remembered as the first distinguished scholar and re-
former to repudiate the supremacy of the Pope and such
practices of the Church as called forth the more violent at-
tacks of Luther a hundred and fifty years later in Germany.

The See of St. Peter had come into disrepute owing to
the evil life of some who filled that high office. With the
emergence of strong monarchies out of the feudal chaos the
old quarrel between Church and State, we noticed in an
earlier chapter, reappeared in a more acute form. The
Church had amassed great wealth. Who was to appoint its
officials? Were the Church lands to be taxed like ordinary
estates or not? By whom and in what courts were offenders
connected with the Church to be tried and punished? Were
they to be subject to Canon (Church) Law or the ordinary
law of the land? Had the Pope any right to interfere with
the monarchs and their subjects? These were some of the
questions about which opposite views were held by the
Church and secular authorities. A quarrel between Pope
Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair, King of France, regard-
ing such matters led to very serious consequences,

In 1296, Boniface issued a Bull (order) known as Clericis
laicos, forbidding the clergy and monks to pay, without his