John Wycliffe

“ The intellectual head of this party at the time was John Wycliffe, a famous Oxford Wycliffe. teacher, and for some time master of Balliol College. In his lectures and sermons he was always laying stress on the unsatisfactory state of the national church and the infamous corruption of the papacy. The doctrine which first made him famous, and commended him to all members of the anti-clerical faction, was that unworthy holders of spiritual endowments ought to be dispossessed of them, because “dominion” should depend on “grace.” ”

“ Shut in by woods and hills here, as some writers show, is the birthplace of John Wycliffe, to whom freedom of conscience is perhaps more indebted than to Luther. One may believe that Nature herself desires to preserve from desecration the cradle of him who opened men’s hearts and eyes to see and understand the truth in its purity ”

“ True; but let us not miss the significance of the fact that no John Wycliffe at all is shown in the genealogy, as preserved in the family records. The close catalogue, which would not be in the keeping of the Wycliffes, retains the name of John as patron of the living of Wycliffe, with the strong presumption that he was lord of the manor during the widowhood of Dame Catherine. The genealogy, which is full and uninterrupted from the middle of the fifteenth century, makes not the slightest reference to him. ”

“ According to the genealogy, it should have been William Wycliffe who appointed his namesake of Balliol after the death of his father. If he was alive in 1363, John must surely have been his elder brother. If he was dead, John may have been his next brother, or conceivably his uncle; for it is possible (though clearly improbable) that 13 19 is the date of Roger's birth. As a matter of fact, John "Haereticus" refers in one of his Determinations to a brother "olim mortuum" In any case John Wycliffe was an important member of the family, and he ought to be shown on the family tree. Why is he not? ”

“ Intimidated by the result of their first assault on the anti-clerical doctor, Wycliffe's enemies—among whom the monks were probably the most active—determined to adopt a different method of procedure. Shortly before Christmas a batch of bulls arrived from Rome directed against Wycliffe and his teaching. A bull addressed to the chancellor and university of Oxford accuses Wycliffe of teaching the condemned doctrines of Marsilius of Padua and John of Jandun, and orders the university to arrest the heresiarch and hand him over to the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London. ”

“ This work was undertaken and prosecuted with no little labor and critical ability by Professor Shirley; but death at an early time arrested the progress of the work which he had projected—the editing and publishing of “Select Works of Wycliffe.” Men die, but the work dies not. To the third volume of “Select English Works of John Wycliffe,” 1871, edited by Thomas Arnold, there is prefixed a “List of MSS. of the Miscellaneous Works,” and a “Complete Catalogue of the English Works ascribed to Wycliffe, based on that prepared by Dr. ”

“ Hugh is no evil fawtor. How can I help but rede (attend to) his sayings? He is one of my fellows. And ’tis but what he hath from his father. Master Calverley is a squire of the Queen’s Grace, and one of Sir John de Wycliffe’s following.”
“Who is Sir John de Wycliffe?” said Maude.
“One of the Lord Pope his Cardinals,” laughed Bertram. “Get thee to thine herbs and pans, little Maude; and burden not thy head with Sir John de Wycliffe nor John de Northampton neither. Fare thee well, my maid. I must after my master for the hawking.” ”

“ The Editor, however, leaves this Question to be decided by future Research, and by Judges more competent than himself. It is not impossible that the whole Passage [86] in which the Date of “thrittene hundrid yere and sixe and fifty” has been given, may prove to be a Quotation from the Book referred to under the Title of “Joachim in the Book of the Seedis of Profetis,” and if so, the Tract before us must of course be the Production of a later Period. ”

“ But Wycliffe, who seemed at the point of death, seized with a sudden energy, started up in his bed, and, shaking his clenched hand at these astonished men, exclaimed, "I shall not die, but live many years to expose the absurdities, the falsities, and the crimes of the mendicant friars." ”

“ Dr Rashdall, on the other hand, following Shirley, brings evidence to show that the Wycliffe of Canterbury Hall could not have been the reformer, but was the same person as the fellow of Merton, this being the strongest argument against the identification of the latter with the reformer. The confusion is increased by the appearance of yet another “John Wyclif” or “Wiclif” on the books of Queen's College, as paying rent for rooms as a “pensioner” or “commoner” for the years 1371-1372, 1374-1375 and 1380-1381. ”

“ Wycliffe’s writings were copied and circulated{72} among studious inquirers after the Gospel in several nations; and, as the sister of Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, had become the queen of Richard II., learned Bohemians frequented England. One of these, Jerome of Prague, on his return from study at Oxford, A.D. 1400, carried with him some of Wycliffe’s books, which became the means of enlightening John Huss, a famous divine of Prague university. He laboured to promote a reformation, opposing the false miracles, and impostures, and evil lives of the priests. ”

“ And in these Dayes was Deth without Sorowe, Weddynges without Frendshyp, wylful Penaunce, and Derth without Scarsete, and Fleynge wtout Refute or Sucour, for many fledde from Place to Place bycause of the Pestylence, but they were infected, and might not escape ye Deth, after yt ye Prophete Isaie sayth, Who that fleeth fro the Face of Drede, he shall fall into the Dyche. ”

“ Now that the great and eternal principles of political justice as well as saving faith contained in the Gospel were once known, they never could be again taken away; they became the heritage of the people. The Wat Tyler insurrection was put down, but that which produced it never could be put down anymore. The powerful eloquence and holy lives of the preachers of Wycliffe were universally confessed. Men of all ranks, from the royal Duke of Lancaster to the peasant, joined them, and acquired the name of Lollards. The inhabitants of London were especially warm adherents of these doctrines. ”

“ Hist. iii. 345) makes him (about 1377) greatly commend the religion of the friars minors, saying that they were the dearest to God (so Chron. Angl. p. 116) . He speaks more doubtfully in the ‘Dialogus’ (about 1379) , and from that time his hostility is ever on the increase. Though he felt that in the existing state of things it was necessary that his followers should (like John Wesley) take the whole world for their parish, his poor priests were seculars. This is a point which differentiates Wycliffe from previous assailants of mediæval abuses and preachers of practical religion. ”

“ Þat þis tribulacioun is nyȝe/ and whanne it schal come/ bi hem þat tretiþ þis matir is/ whanne men schulle wante teeþ/ and comynly alle children/ boren siþþen þe first pestylence/ ben such þat wanten eiȝte [xxxiii] grete teeþ. Herwiþ acordiþ Merlyn Ambrose [36] / þat such angusche is nyȝe/ for as by hem/ in þe tyme of þe myscheif of þe kok/ þat we clepe fraunce/ þat schal be distroyed by þe sixte of irlond/ þe witt is our kyng wiþ his children. Sibille [37] acordiþ herto/ þat suche tribulacioun is nyȝe/ in þes verse ”

“ Capitulum IX. And he seide to hem, Treuly I seie to ȝou, for þer ben summe of men stondinge here, þe whiche schulen not taste deeþ, til þei sen þe rewme of God comynge in vertu. And aftir sixe dayes Jhesus took Petre, and James, and John, and lediþ hem by hem selue aloone in to an hiȝ hil; and he is transfigurid byfore hem. And his cloþis ben maad schynynge and white ful moche as snow, and which maner cloþis a fullere, or walkere of cloþ, may not make white on erþe. And Helye wiþ Moyses apperide to hem, and þei weren spekynge wiþ Jhesu. ”

“ Forsoþe Jhesus answeringe seiþ to hem, And I schal axe ȝou o word, and answere ȝe to me, and I schal seie to ȝou, in what power I do þes þingis. Wheþer was þe baptym of John of heuene, or of men? answere ȝe to me. And þei þouȝten wiþ inne hem selue, seiynge, If we schulen seie of heuene, he schal seie to vs, Whi þerfore bileuen ȝe not to him; if we schulen seie of men, we dreden þe peple; for alle men hadden John, for he was verily a prophete. And þei answeringe seyen to Jhesu, We witen neuere. And Jhesu answeringe seiþ to hem, Neiþer I seie to ȝou, in what power I do þes þingis. ”

“ Soþli a questioun, or axyng, is maad of Johnis disciplis wiþ þe Jewis, of þe purificacioun, or clensing. And þei camen to John, and seyde to him, Rabi, or maistir, he þat was wiþ þee ouer Jordan, to whom þou hast born witnessinge, lo! he baptyseþ, and alle men comen to him. John answeride, and seyde, A man may not take ony þing, no but it be ȝouun to him fro heuene. Ȝe ȝou silf beren witnessing to me, þat I seyde, I am not Crist, but for I am sent bifore him. He þat haþ a spousesse, or wyf, is þe spouse, or hosebonde ”

“ Men schal falle on hem/ & caste hem out of her fatte beneficis/ and þei schule seye/ he cam in to his benefice by his kynrede/ þes bi couenant maad bifore/ he for his seruyse/ & þes for moneye/ cam into Goddis Chirche. Þanne schal eche suche prest crye/ Alas/ Alas/ þat no good spiryt dwellid wiþ me at my comynge into Goddis Chirche. Þe wordis of Josue 2. co. þe þridde. I seide þat Crist entrede into hooly þingis/ þat is holy Chirche/ by holy lyuynge & holy techinge/ preynge þe Fadir for vs. ”

“ The Editor has not had Access to any of the Remains of Peter John’s Writings, but he is informed by a learned [liii] Friend, in whose Accuracy he has the fullest Confidence, that Peter John, in his Tractatus de Antichristo [56] , has fixed upon the Year 1356, as the Year of the Revelation, not the Destruction, of Antichrist, by adding 96, the supposed Date of the Apocalypse, to 1260. ”

“ Ffro þe bygynnynge of Latyn lettris to Crist Ihū/ were seuene hundrid ȝeer/ and fro Crist til now/ [xxxi] þrittene hundrid ȝeer and sixe & fyfty [31] / so þat þere ben to come of our abece but foure & fourty ȝeer/ & bi þis of þe hundrid ȝeere of .x. beþ passid sixe & fifty ȝeere. Þe synnes bi cause of whiche suche persecucioun schal be in Goddis Chirche our tyme ben þes/ for Goddis Chirche is foundid in kynrade of prelatis. ”

“ They must feel that the Value of these Documents as Compositions, is but a secondary Object in their Publication; the great End must be the Discovery of Truth, and the Preservation of the Remains of an illustrious Character in our History. What nobler, what more imperishable Monument could the Gratitude of England raise to her first [xi] Reformer, than a complete and uniform Edition of his extant Writings?
The Editor is fully sensible that the Tract which is now for the first Time given to the public, is very far from being a favorable Specimen of the Works of Wyclyffe. ”

“ The Parliament, viewing the Matter as Politicians, denounced the Papal Claims on the Grounds that large Sums of Money were annually sent out of England, and Aliens advanced to spiritual Livings in the Church; Wyclyffe taking up the Question as a Theologian, censures these Exactions as Simoniacal, and refers to them as symptomatic of the Approach of Antichrist. ”

“ This, at least, will make Sense; for, the Author’s Argument is, that if there were nothing of a Simoniacal Nature in the Reservation of Benefices, the small Benefices would be as often made the Subjects of the Papal Provisions and Reservations, as the “fatte” or more valuable Livings; but the contrary being the Case, it follows that the Income of the Benefice [xlix] is the real Object, and, therefore, that all these Exactions of the Court of Rome are Simoniacal in their Origin. ”

“ The same Story with the very same mystical Application of it which is made by our Author, is given by Peter Berchorius in his Reductorium morale, who quotes from Gervase of Tilbury. This latter Writer, as we learn from Berchorius, took the Story from Peter Comestor, and being an Englishman, was most probably the immediate Source from which the Author of the Tract before us derived it, especially as Gervase wrote upwards of a Century before Berchorius, who died in 1362. ”

“ Also for goodis of holy Chirche þat prelatis wiþ holdeþ to hem/ as pensiouns/ firste frutis/ fermes/ prouendris/ þe whiche may wel be clepid collibiste/ þes synnes and oþere suche ben marchaundise walkynge in derkenessis. Þe manere of tribulacioun schal be such as Joachim [33] seiþ in þe book of þe charge of profetis. Men of holy [xxxii] Chirche schal be seyd in a manere of careyne/ þei schal be cast out as dogge in myddis placis. ”

“ Accordingly, Benaiah, Son of Jehoiada, was sent with a Chain on which the Name of God was inscribed, to bind Aschmedai, and bring him before Solomon. It took some Time to capture Aschmedai, and a long Account is given of the Difficulties of the Undertaking. At Length, on the third Day, he is brought to Solomon, who asks him for the Schamir. Aschmedai answers, It is not in my Keeping; but Sara-Dima (the Angel that presides over the Sea) has it, and he will entrust it only to the Wild-Hen (תרנגולא) , [c] from whom he exacts an Oath for its safe Return. ”