Lewis Sergeant

“ Wyclif saw in this war of popes for temporal authority and possessions a striking instance and confirmation of all that he had said about the corruptions of the Roman pontiffs in the second millennium. The majority of the friars, also, were enthusiastic about the crusade, and this was a fact which certainly would not tend to qualify the indignation of the old Reformer whom they had so persistently and successfully attacked. The tract on the Schism is largely occupied with a reasoned condemnation of the offer of indulgences for the special purpose and advantage of Pope Urban ”

“ They stir up nations to war, and peaceable men to lawsuits; they cause many divorces and many marriages without love, by the falsehoods which they tell, and by privileges of the court. I will not speak of the fighting that they do in one land or another, and of other bodily harms which are too many for the tongue to tell. ”

“ The English friars, who had not for a moment ceased to rail and write against Wyclif, took the tracts of the impenitent heretic very much to heart, and the disgraceful failure of the Flanders crusade would doubtless exasperate their bitter animosity. They seem now to have sent fresh allegations of heresy to Rome, and Urban replied, after no long delay, by citing Wyclif to appear before his court. ”

“ But the most direct and credible testimony which has reached us concerning the death of Wyclif is that presented by Dr. Thomas Gascoigne, who wrote down in 1441 the sworn evidence of an eye-witness. The paper is not long, and it is of sufficient importance to be quoted in full.
"Master John Wycliff, an English priest, was excommunicated after his death by Thomas Arundell, the lord bishop (sic) of Canterbury, and subsequently he was disinterred by a doctor of theology of Oxford, by name Master Richard Flemmyng, of the diocese of York, and now bishop of Lincoln ”

“ Written as it was towards the close of Wyclif 's life, it embodies most of his deliberate conclusions, and has consequently been a happy hunting-ground for the orthodox in search of heresies. The gist of what Wyclif has to say on every point is practically this: that where the Church and the Bible do not agree, we must prefer the Bible; that where authority and conscience appear to be rival guides, we shall be much safer in following conscience; that where the letter and the spirit seem to be in conflict, the spirit is above the letter. ”

“ Amongst the charges brought against Wyclif on the strength of the Trialogus was that he made light of the sacrament of marriage; and this merely because he wrote that "I will take this woman" is a stronger pledge than "I take this woman." He only meant that the intention was of greater importance than the act which displayed the intention; but his enemies twisted the saying into something very serious. ↑ "Caim's Castles." This was Wyclif 's name for the houses of the friars, made up of the initials of the Carmelites, Augustinians, Jacobites (Dominicans) , and Minorites. ”

“ An individual mind, familiar with the unquestioned works of Wyclif, might set apart to its own satisfaction the unsigned, undated, and generally untitled tracts which belong to the master, and not to any of his disciples. ”

“ In The Church and Her Members, Wyclif devotes one or two chapters to the misdeeds of the friars, and to the special injuries which they had brought upon the Church of Christ. "They despoil the people in many ways by hypocrisies and other falsehoods, and with the spoils they build Caym's castles, [2] to the damage of the countries where they build them. They steal poor men's children, which is worse than stealing an ox ”

“ And lit seems to some men that clerks who continue to abide in this error against the law of God, and cease to follow Christ in this, are open heretics, and such as support them are partners in their sin. ”

“ The disastrous expedition lasted from May till September, 1383, and there would thus be nearly a year during which the subject was one of present interest in the minds of Englishmen, as well as a rock of offence to vast numbers of pious Churchmen. ”