high favour, and by whom he was sent on more than one important mission. He married the sister of Lady Catherine Swynford, subsequently the third wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and thus became, in time, more closely attached to his patron and friend the Duke of Lancaster. He was appointed Comptroller of the Customs. He allied himself with the Wickliffites in their attempt, in opposition to the clergy, to elect one of their party Mayor of London. The serious disturbance that ensued induced the court, otherwise not unfavourable to Wickliffe and his followers, to side with the clerical party. The clergy and their partisans, who hated all Wickliffites-and Chaucer in particular, as the known and intimate friend of Wickliffe-by their persecution forced him to seek safety at Hainault. His salary, though not stopped, was, owing to the dishonesty of his agents, not duly remitted. He made a secret journey to England, was arrested and deprived of his office. He obtained his liberty, much to his discredit, by disclosing the plans of his party. Covered with obloquy and depressed by poverty, he sought alleviation from his misery in the composition of his "Testament of Love." Fortune, in time, once more smiled upon him. His old patron, the Duke, married the Lady Catherine Swynford, and Chaucer, thus becoming nearly allied to royal blood, was restored to his former office.

After the Duke's death he retired to Donnington Castle, where he wrote his ever famous " Canterbury Tales.”

HUSS, JOHN-1373-1415.

John was born at Hussinez, in Bohemia; whence he acquired the name of Huss, or John of Hussinez. Sent by his feudal lord and some others who had been attracted by his native ability, to the University of Prague, he made rapid advances both in learning and the good-will of his superiors. In 1402 he was appointed Bohemian preacher in the Bethlehem

chapel at Prague, and was soon after appointed confessor to Queen Sophia. The writings of Wickliffe attracted his attention. He believed in the justice of that reformer's attack upon the papacy, and became the boldest advocate of reform of his time. He took an active part in the disputes between the German 'Nominalists' and the Bohemian academicians'Realists.' He sided with the latter and weaker party, and met with powerful enemies. The schism, which resulted in the migration of some 5,000 foreign professors and students from Prague to other universities, was sensibly felt by Huss, then a rector. It exposed the weakness of the priesthood. After 1409, Bohemia refused to recognise Benedict XIII., and subsequently Gregory XII. Nobility and people resented the arbitrary decrees of the papacy. The government of Wenceslaus favoured the anti-papal spirit. Huss publicly censured the lax morality of the priests. He denounced the sale of papal indulgences. He declared masses for the dead, image worship, monastic life, auricular confession, fasts, and the withholding of the cup at the Lord's Supper, to be unscriptural, and pure inventions of spiritual despotism.

The Church was up in arms. Alexander V. summoned Huss to Rome. He did not obey. The Archbishop of Prague commenced his persecution, and prohibited his preaching at the Bethlehem. He preached, nevertheless, and many listened.

John XXIII. caused a crusade to be preached against Ladislaus in Naples; Huss opposed it in Bohemia; his friend Jerome expressed himself upon the subject in violent language. The Pope attributed it to Huss, and excommunicated him. Distrustful of the king of Bohemia, Huss retired to his native home, where he wrote his books entitled respectively "The Six Errors" and "The Church," in which he attacked the doctrines of transubstantiation, belief in the pope and saints, the efficacy of the absolution of a vicious priest, unconditional obedience to earthly rulers, and simony. He declared the Holy Scriptures to be the only rule in matters of religion.

The Council of Constance summoned him to defend his opinions before it. He was no way loath to go. The Emperor Sigismund gave him letters of safe conduct, Wenceslaus gave him three men of rank as his escort. He appeared before the

Council and the Emperor on the 5th, 7th, and 8th of June, and on the 6th of July. He defended his doctrines, was required to recant, refused to do so, was condemned to death, and was burnt alive on the 6th July, 1415.

The flames of the auto da fé were all that was needed to consummate the villany of the emperor and the clergy, to demonstrate the fact that reason was their abomination, and that life under the rule of such tyrants was not worth the having. The souls of men were filled with hatred against the oppressors. Believers and non-believers in the doctrines of Huss united against the common foe; a bloody vengeance was taken, churches, monasteries, and convents were sacked and burned, priests and monks were slaughtered. The horrors of civil war made thrones and palaces tremble. Nor did the anger kindled by the martyr's fire subside till the Council of Basle was forced to come to terms with the so-called heretics. The compact of Prague was concluded on the 20th November, 1433.

This was not all-Hussites and other sects of independent thinkers were established facts.

PRINTING.

GUTENBERG-1400-1468. CAXTON-1410-1491.

Of all human inventions typography is that which has rendered the greatest service to humanity. It, as it were by magic, infused the blood of the healthy few into the sickly many, and converted the straggling knights-errant of liberty into formidable hosts. As the rising sun breaks through the darkness of night and exposes to man's physical eye the beauties and

dangers that surround him, so the art of printing revealed to waking nations beauties of which they had not even dreamed, and dangers, before unseen, that beset them on every hand. The fragments of the wisdom of past ages that had escaped the storms of human fury, and which lay buried beneath the dust of ages on the shelves of some of the religious houses, were by this mighty art brought to light and multiplied; and tens of thousands became the possessors of the knowledge that for ages had been confined to the bosoms of solitary individuals.

It is perhaps well that the honour of the grand discovery cannot with certainty be accredited to any one man. Englishmen are justly proud of their Caxton, for though he was certainly not the inventor, he introduced the art to a people who were not slow to appreciate and avail themselves of it. Mentz is justly proud of its Gutenberg, usually regarded as the inventor of printing with movable types. The credit has, however, been claimed for Lawrens Koster, the vintner of Haerlem, and also for others.

It is admitted by Christian writers that the art of printing was fully established in China early in the tenth century, that is to say, nearly 500 years before its introduction into Europe. The Chinese themselves claim to have known the art long before the commencement of the Christian era.

The Chinese method of printing is this:-The work intended to be printed is transcribed upon thin transparent paper, each written sheet is glued with its face downwards upon a smooth block of wood; the engraver cuts the wood away in all those parts upon which he finds nothing traced, and thus leaves the transcribed parts ready for printing. Thus, there must be as many blocks as there are pages of the book. The blocks are necessarily not of the least use in the printing of any other work. The system, however, has one advantage in common with stereotype. Impressions of a work may be thrown off as and when required.

Block printing in Europe with single pieces of wood can be traced back as far as the thirteenth century. The introduction of playing cards early in the fourteenth century is supposed to have given an impetus to the art of wood engraving. From simple figures, the professors of the art came to engrave historical or biblical subjects, some with, others without, a text or explanation subjoined. These "Books of Images," as they were called, may be regarded as the earliest attempts at book printing in Europe. The great discovery was yet to be made that was to emancipate the art from its thraldom-the discovery of the practicability and utility of movable types.

JOHN GUTTENBERG, more properly Gutenberg, was born at Metz about the year 1400. In 1436, when living at Strasburg, he entered into a contract with one Andrew Dryzchn (Dritzchn) and others, binding himself to teach them all his secret and wonderful arts, and to employ them for their common advantage. Dryzchn died. George, the brother of the deceased, instituted a lawsuit against Gutenberg, in which he succeeded.

When and where the first attempts were made at printing cannot be determined, for Gutenberg never attached either name or date to the works he printed. This, however, is certain, that about 1438 Gutenberg made use of movable types of wood. In 1450 Gutenberg entered into partnership with one John Faust, or Fust, a wealthy goldsmith of Mentz, who furnished the money to establish the press in which the Latin Bible was first printed. This partnership was dissolved, and Gutenberg was involved in a second lawsuit. As Gutenberg could not, or would not return the money advanced by Faust, he, Faust, was allowed to retain the press, which he improved and continued to use in conjunction with one Peter Schoeffer. By the patronage of Conrad Hummer, a counsellor of Mentz, Gutenberg was again enabled to establish a press in the following year, and to print several books. In 1457 the Psalter was