No More Learning

35 (#53) ##############################################

John But
35
Pearson showed pretty conclusively that, if the author was the son
of Stacy de Rokayle (or Rokesle) of Shipton-under-Wychwood, his
name, if resembling Langland at all, would have been Langley.
If this were the case, Willelmus W. might, obviously, mean William
of Wychwood, as Morley suggested, and be merely an alternative
designation of William Langley-a case similar to that of the
Robertus Langelye, alias Robertus Parterick, capellanus, who died
in 19 Richard II, possessed of a messuage and four shops in the
Flesh-shambles, a tenement in the Old Fish-market and an
interest in a tenement in Staining-lane, and who may, con-
ceivably, have had some sort of connection with the poems.
It is possible, of course, that these early notices contain a
genuine, even if confused, record of one or more of the men
concerned in the composition of these poems. One thing, alone,
is clear, that Will is the name given to the figure of the
dreamer by four, and, possibly, all five, of the writers; but it
is not entirely certain that A really meant to give him a name.
Henry Bradley has, in a private letter, called my attention to
certain facts which suggest that Will may have been a conventional
name in alliterative poetry.
If we cannot be entirely certain of the name of any of these
writers except John But, can we determine the social position of
any of them? John But was, doubtless, a scribe, or a minstrel like
the author of Wynnere and Wastoure. B, C and the continuator
of A seem, from their knowledge and theological interests, to
have been clerics, and, from their criticisms of monks and friars,
to have been of the secular clergy. C seems inclined to tone
down criticisms of bishops and the higher clergy, and is a better
scholar than either the continuator of A (who translated non
mecaberis by slay not' and tabescebam by 'I said nothing')
or B (who accepted without comment the former of these errors).
A, as has been shown already, exempts from his satire no order
of society except monks, and may himself have been one; but,
as he exhibits no special theological knowledge or interests, he
may have been a layman.
In one of the MSS of the B-text occurs a fragment of a poem
which is usually associated with Piers the Plowman. It has no
title in the MS and was called by its first editor, Thomas Wright,
A Poem on the Deposition of Richard II; but Skeat, when he
re-edited it in 1873 and 1886, objected to this title as being
3_2


## p. 36 (#54) ##############################################

36 Piers the Plowman and its Sequence
inaccurate, and re-named it Richard the Redeless, from the first
words of passus I. Henry Bradley has recently called attention
to the fact that it was known to Nicholas Brigham in the first
part of the sixteenth century as Mum, Sothsegger (ie. Hush,
Truthteller). There can be no doubt that this was, as Bradley
.
suggests, the ancient title; for it is not such a title as would have
been chosen either by Brigham or by Bale, who records it. The
copy seen by Brigham, as it had a title, cannot have been the
fragmentary copy that is now the only one known to us. Wright
regarded the poem as an imitation of Piers the Plowman ; Skeat
undertook to prove, on the basis of diction, dialect, metre, state-
ments in the text itself, etc. , that it was the work of the same
author. But claims of authorship made in these poems are not
conclusive, as will be seen in the discussion of the Ploughman's
Tale; and the resemblances in external form, in dialect, in versi-
fication, etc. , on which Skeat relies, are not greater than might
be expected of an imitator, while there are such numerous and
striking differences in diction, versification, sentence structure and
processes of thought from every part of Piers the Plowman, that
identity of authorship seems out of the question. The poem, as
has been said, is a fragment; and Skeat thinks that it may have
been left unfinished by the author in consequence of the de-
position of Richard. But the MS in which it is found is not the
original, but a copy; and the prologue seems to imply that the poem
had been completed when the prologue was written. The author
professes to be a loyal subject and friendly adviser of Richard,
but the tone of the poem itself is strongly partisan to Henry
of Lancaster, and, curiously enough, nearly all the remarks in
regard to Richard imply that his rule was entirely at an end.
This latter fact is, of course, not incompatible with Skeat's view
that the poem was written between the capture and the formal
deposition of Richard, i. e. between 18 August and 20 September
1399. As to the form and contents of the poem, it is not a vision,
but consists of a prologue, reciting the circumstances of its com-
position, and three passus and part of a fourth, setting forth the
errors and wrongs of Richard's rule. Passus I is devoted to
the misdeeds of his favourites. Passus II censures the crimes of
his retainers (the White Harts) against the people, and his own
folly in failing to cherish such men as Westmoreland (the Grey-
hound), while Henry of Lancaster (the Eagle) was strengthening
his party. PassUS III relates the unnaturalness of the White
Harts in attacking the Colt, the Horse, the Swan and the Bear,


## p. 37 (#55) ##############################################

Wynnere and Wastoure
37
with the return of the Eagle for vengeance, and then digresses
into an attack upon the luxury and unwisdom of Richard's
youthful counsellors. Passus IV continues the attack upon the
extravagance of the court, and bitterly condemns the corrupt
parliament of 1397 for its venality and cowardice.
The influence of Piers the Plowman was wide-spread and
long-continued. There had been many satires on the abuses of
the time (see Wright's Political Poems and Political Songs and
Poems), some of them far bitterer than any part of these poems,
but none equal in learning, in literary skill and, above all, none
that presented a figure so captivating to the imagination as the
figure of the Ploughman. From the evidence accessible to us it
would seem that this popularity was due, in large measure, to the
B-text, or, at least, dated from the time of its appearance, though,
according to my view, the B-text itself and the continuation
of A were due to the impressiveness of the first two visions of
the A-text.
Before discussing the phenomena certainly due to the influence
of these poems, we must devote a few lines to two interesting but
doubtful cases. In 1897, Gollancz edited for the Roxburghe Club
two important alliterative poems, The Parlement of the Thre
Ages and Wynnere and Wastoure, both of which begin in a manner
suggestive of the beginning of Piers the Plowman, and both of
which contain several lines closely resembling lines in the B-text
of that poem. The lines in question seem, from their better re-
lation to the context, to belong originally to Piers the Plowman
and to have been copied from it by the other poems; if there
were no other evidence, these poems would, doubtless, be placed
among those suggested by it; but there is other evidence. Wynnere
and Wastoure contains two allusions that seem to fix its date at
c. 1350, and The Parlement seems to be by the same author. The
two allusions are to the twenty-fifth year of Edward III (1. 206),
and to William de Shareshull as chief baron of the exchequer
(1 317). The conclusion is, apparently, inevitable that the imita-
tion is on the part of Piers the Plowman. In The Parlement the
author goes into the woods to hunt, kills a deer and hides it.
Then, falling asleep, he sees in a vision three men, Youth, Middle-
Age and Age, clad, respectively, in green, grey and black, who
dispute concerning the advantages and disadvantages of the ages
they represent. Age relates the histories of the Nine Worthies,


## p. 38 (#56) ##############################################

38 Piers the Plowman and its Sequence
and declares that all is vanity. He hears the bugle of Death sum-
moning him, and the author wakes. In Wynnere and Wastoure
the author, a wandering minstrel, after a prologue bewailing the
degeneracy of the times and the small respect paid to the author
of a romance, tells how
Als I went in the weste wandrynge myn one,
Bi a bonke of a bourne bryghte was the sonne.
.
.
I layde myn hede one an hill ane hawthorne besyde.
.
And I was swythe in a sweven sweped belyve;
Methoghte I was in a werlde, I ne wiste in whate ende.
He saw two armies ready to fight; and
At the creste of a cliffe a caban was rered,
1
obtained upon
ornamented with the colours and motto of the order of the
Garter, in which was the king, whose permission to fight was
awaited. The king forbade them to fight and summoned the
leaders before him. There is a brilliant description of the em-
battled hosts. The two leaders are Wynnere and Wastoure, who
accuse each other before the king of having caused the distress
of the kingdom. The end of the poem is missing. Both poems
are of considerable power and interest in themselves, and are
even more significant as suggesting, what is often forgotten, that
the fourteenth century was a period of great and wide-spread
intellectual activity, and that poetical ability was not rare.
Not in the metre of Piers the Plowman, but none the less
significant of the powerful hold which the figure of the Plowman
the English people, are the doggerel letters of the
insurgents of 1381, given by Walsingham and Knighton, and re-
printed by Maurice and Trevelyan. Trevelyan makes a suggestion
which has doubtless occurred independently to many others, that
‘Piers Plowman may perhaps be only one characteristic fragment
of a medieval folk-lore of allegory, which expressed for genera-
tions the faith and aspirations of the English peasant, but of
which Langland's great poem alone has survived. ' One would like
to believe this; but the mention of 'do well and better' in the
same letter with Piers Plowman makes it practically certain
that the writer had in mind the poems known to us and not
merely a traditional allegory; though it may well be that Piers
the Plowman belonged to ancient popular tradition.
Next in order of time was, doubtless, the remarkable poem
called Peres the Ploughmans Crede, which Skeat assigns to 'not
1


## p. 39 (#57) ##############################################

The Crede and the Tale
39
long after the latter part of 1393. The versification is imitated
from Piers the Plowman, and the theme, as well as the title, was
clearly suggested by it. It is, however, not a vision, but an account
of the author's search for some one to teach him his creed. He
visits each of the orders of friars. Each abuses the rest and
praises his own order, urging the inquirer to contribute to it
and trouble himself no more about his creed. But he sees
too much of their worldliness and wickedness, and refuses. At
last, he meets a plain, honest ploughman, who delivers a long
and bitter attack upon friars of all orders, and, finally, teaches
the inquirer the much desired creed. The poem is notable, not
only for the vigour of its satire, but also for the author's re-
markable power of description.
With the Crede is often associated the long poem known as
The Ploughman's Tale. This was first printed, in 1542 or 1535,
in Chaucer's works and assigned to the Ploughman. That it was
not written by Chaucer has long been known, but, until recently,
it has been supposed to be by the author of the Crede. The poem, ,
though containing much alliteration, is not in alliterative verse,
but in rimed stanzas, and is entirely different in style from the
Crede. The differences are such as indicate that it could not
have been written by the author of that poem. It has recently
been proved by Henry Bradley, that very considerable parts of
the poem, including practically all the imitations of the Crede,
were written in the sixteenth century. These passages were also
independently recognised as interpolations by York Powell and this
was communicated privately to Skeat, who now accepts Bradley's
conclusions. Bradley thinks that the poem may contain some
genuine stanzas of a Lollard poem of the fourteenth century, but
that it underwent two successive expansions in the sixteenth
century, both with the object of adapting it to contemporary
controversy. The relation of even the fourteenth century portion
to Piers the Plowman is very remote.
Three pieces belonging to the Wyclifite controversy, which also
bear a more or less remote relation to Piers the Plowman, are
ascribed by their editor, Thomas Wright, to 1401, and by Skeat,
who re-edited the first of them, to 1402. The first of them, called
Jacke Upland, is a violent attack upon the friars by one of the
Wyclifite party. By John Bale, who rejected as wrong the attri-
bution of it to Chaucer, it is, with equal absurdity, attributed to
Wyclif himself. There is some alliteration in the piece, which
made Wright suppose it to have been originally written in


## p. 40 (#58) ##############################################

40
Piers the Plowman and its Sequence
alliterative verse. Skeat denies that it was ever intended as
verse, and he seems to be right in this, though his repudiation of
Wright's suggestion that our copy of the piece is corrupt is hardly
borne out by the evidence. The second piece, The Reply of Friar
Daw Thopias, is a vigorous and rather skilful answer to Jacke
Upland. The author, himself a friar, is not content to remain
on the defensive, but tries to shift the issue by attacking the
Lollards. According to the explicit of the MS the author was
John Walsingham, who is stated by Bale to have been a Carmelite.
This piece is in very rude alliterative verse. The Rejoinder of
Jacke Upland, which is preserved in the same MS with the Reply,
is of the same general character as Jacke Upland, though, perhaps
through the influence of the Reply, it contains a good deal more
alliteration. None of these pieces has any poetical merit, but all
are vigorous and interesting examples of the popular religious
controversy of the day.
Very evidently due to the influence of Piers the Plowman is
a short alliterative poem of 144 lines, addressed, apparently, to
Henry V in 1415, and called by Skeat, its editor, The Crowned
King. In a vision the author looks down into a deep dale, where
he sees a multitude of people and hears a crowned king ask his
commons for a subsidy for his wars; to the king a clerk kneels,
and, having obtained leave to speak, urges him to cherish his
people and beware of evil counsellors and of avarice. The piece
is sensible and well written, but is entirely lacking in special
poetical quality.
Of entirely uncertain date is an interesting allegorical poem
called Death and Liffe, preserved in the Percy Folio MS. Its
relation to Piers the Plowman is obvious and unmistakable. In
a vision, closely modelled on the vision of the prologue, the poet
witnesses a strife between the lovely lady Dame Life and the foul
freke Dame Death, which was clearly suggested by the Vita de
Do-best' of Piers the Plowman. In spite of its large indebted-
ness to the earlier poem, it is a work of no little originality
and power.
In the same priceless MS is preserved another alliterative
poem, which Skeat regards as the work of the author of Death
and Liffe. It is called The Scotish Feilde and is, in the main,
an account of the battle of Flodden. The author, who describes
himself as 'a gentleman, by Jesu' who had his 'bidding place'
'at Bagily' (i. e. at Baggily Hall, Cheshire), was an ardent ad-
herent of the Stanleys and wrote for the specific purpose of
6


## p. 41 (#59) ##############################################

The Fourteenth Century
41
celebrating their glorious exploits at Bosworth Field and at
Flodden. The poem seems to have been written shortly after
Flodden, and, perhaps, rewritten or revised later. That the author
of this poem, spirited chronicle though it be, was capable of the
excellences of Death and Liffe, is hard to believe; the re-
semblances between the poems seem entirely superficial and due
to the fact that they had a common model.
The influence of Piers the Plowman lasted, as we have seen,
well into the sixteenth century; indeed, interest in both the poem
and its central figure was greatly quickened by the supposed
relations between it and Wyclifism. The name or the figure of
the Ploughman appears in innumerable poems and prose writings,
and allusions of all sorts are very common. Skeat has given a list
of the most important of these in the fourth volume of his edition
of Piers Plowman for the Early English Text Society.
We are accustomed to regard the fourteenth century as, on
the whole, a dark epoch in the history of England-an epoch
when the corruptions and injustices and ignorance of the Middle
Ages were piling themselves ever higher and higher; when the
Black Death, having devoured half the population of city and
hamlet, was still hovering visibly like a gaunt and terrible vulture
over the affrighted country; when noblemen and gentry heard in
indignant bewilderment the sullen murmur of peasants awakening
into consciousness through pain, with now and then a shriller cry
for vengeance and a sort of blind justice; an epoch when in-
tellectual life was dead or dying, not only in the universities, but
throughout the land. Against this dark background we seemed
to see only two bright figures, that of Chaucer, strangely kindled
to radiance by momentary contact with the renascence, and that
of Wyclif, no less strange and solitary, striving to light the torch
of reformation, which, hastily muffled by those in authority,
smouldered and sparkled fitfully a hundred years before it burst
into blaze. With them, but farther in the background, scarcely
distinguishable, indeed, from the dark figures among which he
moved, was dimly discerned a gaunt dreamer, clothed in the dull
grey russet of a poor shepherd, now watching with lustreless but
seeing eye the follies and corruptions and oppressions of the great
city, now driven into the wilderness by the passionate protests
of his aching heart, but ever shaping into crude, formless but
powerful visions images of the wrongs and oppressions which he
hated and of the growing hope which, from time to time, was
revealed to his eager eyes.


## p. 42 (#60) ##############################################

42
Piers the Plowman and its Sequence
That the Black Death was a horrible reality the statistics of
its ravages prove only too well; that there was injustice and
misery, ignorance and intellectual and spiritual darkness, is only
too true; but the more intimately we learn to know the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, the more clearly do we see, not only
Grosseteste and Ockham and Richard of Armagh, but a host of
forgotten or nameless men who battled for justice, and kindliness,
and intellectual and spiritual light; and our study of the Piers
the Plowman cluster of poems has shown us that that confused
voice and that mighty vision were the voice and vision, not of
one lonely, despised wanderer, but of many men, who, though of
diverse tempers and gifts, cherished the same enthusiasm for
righteousness and hate for evil.


## p. 43 (#61) ##############################################

CHAPTER II
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN THE FOURTEENTH
CENTURY
RICHARD ROLLE. WYCLIF. THE LOLLARDS
It is often difficult to deal adequately with individual writers
in the Middle Ages. Both the general ideas and the literary
habits of the time tended to hide the traces of individual work.
Schools of thought were more important than their individual
members; at times, therefore, single thinkers or writers received
less than their due recognition because their achievements became
the common property of a school. Hence, we find it not always
easy to assign to any single writer his proper place in literary history,
and the difficulty is increased by medieval methods of composition.
Manuscripts were so widely copied, often with alterations and addi-
tions, that individual ownership was almost lost. Then, when in
later days men sought to trace the work and influence of individuals,
they ran two opposite risks : sometimes, they were likely to
under-estimate the individual's influence; sometimes, they were
likely to ascribe to one man tendencies and works which belonged
rather to his school. It is not surprising, then, that a great
deal still remains to be done in the publication and arrange-
ment of manuscripts before a definite verdict can be given upon
some problems of early literary history. As might be expected,
moreover, this difficulty is most to be felt in some of the matters
nearest to daily life : where the feet of generations passed the
oftenest, traces of their forerunners were easiest lost. Richard
,
Rolle of Hampole and John Wyclif were men very different in
their lives and in their ecclesiastical standpoints, but the lives of
both illustrate these statements, and the same kind of difficulty
arises in respect of each of them. Much has been assigned to
them that was not really theirs : after this first mistake has been
repaired, it becomes possible to judge them more fairly. But, even
then, it cannot be done fully and finally until the materials have
been sifted and arranged.


## p. 44 (#62) ##############################################

44 Religious Movements in the XIV th Century
By the fourteenth century, the north of England had long lost
its former literary leadership, but its impulses had not quite died
away, and the growing connection with Oxford, strengthened by
the foundation of Balliol College (c. 1263), brought even outlying
villages under the influence of great intellectual and religious
movements. When Richard Rolle went up to Oxford, the friars,
with their ideal of poverty, were still a powerful party there,
although, before long, Fitz-Ralph was to attack their view of life;
and contests between realists and nominalists were the chief in-
tellectual interests. The young student's connection with Oxford
did not last long ; but it coloured the whole of his life, and his
first writings were modelled upon academic forms. He must, also,
have gone through much intellectual and spiritual trouble, if we
may judge from the crisis that changed his life. But he took
away with him from Oxford a sufficient knowledge of Latin, an
acquaintance with, and some distaste for, the ordinary philosophical
writers and, above all, a love of the Scriptures. By a regulation
of Grosseteste, the first morning lecture had to be upon the Bible,
which furnished the material for much of the teaching.
Richard Rolle was born, probably about 1300, although the
exact date is unknown, at Thornton-le-Dale, near the old town
of Pickering, if a note in one of the manuscripts concerning him
is to be believed; at Thornton-le-Street, if a modern conjecture,
which places his birth nearer the scenes of his earliest activity, is
to be accepted. When he was nineteen he came home from Oxford,
eager, because he feared disaster to his soul, to follow the life of
a hermit; he asked his sister to meet him near his home and bring
with her two of her frocks, a grey and a white, and, out of these,
along with his father's hood, he made himself a rough and ready
hermit's dress. Thus clad, he visited a church where worshippe
the family of Dalton-two youths of which had known him at
Oxford. On a second visit, he put on a surplice and, with the
leave of the priest, preached an affecting sermon at Mass. The
former undergraduates recognised him and asked him to their
table at home. His father, a man of some substance, was known to
the Daltons, and, struck by Richard's sermon and his earnestness,
they settled him as a hermit upon their estate. Hermits were
a common feature of medieval life: they were under episcopal
control and received episcopal licence; hence, they were often
spoken of by bishops as 'our hermits'; indulgences were often
granted to those who supported them, and they themselves often
did useful service in the repair of roads and keeping up of bridges.


## p. 45 (#63) ##############################################

Rolle's Mysticism
45
After a time-four years at least-he left his first cell for another
at Ainderby, near Northallerton, where a friend of his, Margaret
Kirby, lived in much the same way that he did. Another change
brought him to Hampole, near Doncaster; and here, kindly cher-
ished by Cistercian nuns, he lived for the rest of his days.
The end came 29 September 1349_the year of the Black Death.
So great had been his popularity that the nuns of Hampole
sought his canonisation : an office for his festival—20 January
—was composed (probably about 1381—2), and, later, a collection
of miracles ascribed to his influence was made. Although not
formally canonised, he was regarded as a saint; and his reputation
gave wider currency to his writings.
Rolle was not a priest, although, perhaps, in minor orders. If his
spiritual advice was sought by many–especially by Margaret Kirby,
the recluse of Ainderby, by another recluse at Yedingham and
by nuns at Hampole—it was because of his spiritual insight
rather than his position. He stood equally aloof from academic
thought and general life-ecclesiastical and civil; he wished to
retire from the world and, by contemplation, reach a knowledge
of God and an elevation of soul. Through the mystic stages of
purgation and illumination, he reached, after two and a half years,
the third stage, the contemplation of God through love. Here,
he had an insight into the joys of heaven, and, in this stage, he
passed through the calor, the warmth of divine love, which fired
his being with effects almost physical; then there came into his life
the canor, the spiritual music of the unseen world, the whispering
sound as of heaven itself; and, together with these, he experienced
the dulcor, the sweetness as of the heavenly atmosphere itself. If
he mixed, at times, with the outside world, even with the rich of the
world, if he jested, at times, as he went his way among them, this
was not his true life, which was, henceforth,'hid with Christ in
God. Even the company of his fellows was, at times, distasteful,
for their objects were other than his; yet he sought to win them
over to love “the Author. Contemplative life had drawn him
and set him apart; but it had also given him his mission. He
was to be to others a prophet of the mystic and unseen.
His first impulse had been to win the world to his system through
preaching. There are traces of systematic attempts to gain
influence over others, although not by forming an order or com-
munity; but these ways of influencing others hardly sufficed him, for
1 This is the date usually accepted, on fair evidence, but a manuscript correction by
Henry Bradshaw, in a copy of Forshall and Madden, gives the date as 1348.


## p. 46 (#64) ##############################################

46 Religious Movements in the XIV th Century
be found few like-minded with himself. It seems not improbable
that he even came into collision with ecclesiastical authorities,
for he preached as a free lance and from a particular point of
view. Unrest, and the friction of awkward personal relations (for
he was dependent upon the help of others) worked along with the
difficulty of his general position to drive him from place to place.
At last, his energy found a new outlet and he began to write.
Short ejaculatory poems, then longer and more didactic works,
were the natural expressions of his soul—and thus he found his
true work in life. He describes the impulses which moved him
'if I might be able in some good way to compose or write some-
thing by which the Church of God might grow in divine delight?
Rolle thus deserves a high place among the many poets of the
religious life; and the forms he used, or, at times, elaborated,
have a beauty answering to their thought. Intense personal feeling,
sympathy and simplicity are their chief features, and thus, apart
from their language, they appeal to all ages alike. Beginning with
alliteration only, the author worked into rime. But followers,
such as William Nassyngton, imitated him in poems hard to distin-
guish from Rolle's own; some versified editions of his prose
works-such as that of the Form of Living (or Mending of
Life)—were probably also due to Nassyngton. We thus come to
a cycle of sacred poems, at once mystic and practical, all grouped
around Rolle. At first purely local, they spread beyond south
Yorkshire; copies were made in southern English, 'translated'
(says one MS) 'out of northern tunge into southern, that it schulde
be better be understondyn of men of be selve countreye. ' The
Psalms had been to Rolle himself a source of inspiration and
comfort; he had come to that constant intercourse with God, to
that sense of personal touch with Him, in which even their most
exalted language did not seem unreal or too remote. He could
write: 'grete haboundance of gastly comfort and joy in God
comes in the hertes of thaim at says or synges devotly the
psalmes in lovynge of Jesus Crist. ' His labour at the Psalter had
a wide-reaching influence, and appears in many forms; a Latin com-
mentary upon it is one of his most original works; and, in another
of them, the Latin version is followed by an English translation,
and a commentary; the last has been widely used and highly
praised by pious writers of very different schools, but it is really
a translation of Peter Lombard's commentary, and is, therefore,
devoid of originality and personal touches. This commentary may
not have been his only attempt at translation, as the English
6


## p. 47 (#65) ##############################################

Rolle and Religion
47
version of The Mirror of St Edmund may also be his work. His
own prose is marked by flexibility and tender feeling fittingly
expressed. A metrical Psalter-apparently earlier in date—also
exists, and this, again, was largely copied, but it cannot be
ascribed with absolute certainty to Rolle himself.
From the date of the miracles at Hampole—1381 and there-
abouts—a revival of Rolle's fame seems to have taken place, just
before the great Peasants' Revolt, and just when Lollard" influence
was spreading. To this coincidence is due the reissue of the
commentary upon the Psalter with Lollard interpolations and
additions. From various doctrinal inferences the date of this
reissue has been tentatively fixed as early as 1378, and its authorship
has been sometimes ascribed-although without reason—to Wyclif
himself. Against these Lollard interpolations the writer of some
verses prefixed to one MS complains :
Copied has this Sauter ben of yvel men of Lollardy,
And afterward hit has been sene ymped in with eresy;
They seyden then to lewde foles that it shuld be all enter
A blessyd boke of hur scoles, of Richard Hampole the Sauter.
The writer of this particular MS claims that his copy, on the other
hand, is the same as that kept chained at Hampole itself. The
quarrel raised over Hampole's Psalter, and the use made of it,
illustrates its value. But originality cannot be claimed for it.
Rolle's activity was due to the wish to benefit his fellows, and
hence come a number of plain, practical treatises with religious
ends in view. His commentary upon the Psalms was written for
the edification of the same Margaret of Ainderby for whom he
wrote, in prose, The Form of Living ; his beautiful Ego dormio
i On the continent, the word Lollard was applied to Beghard communities and
men of heretical views in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The name was
soon given to Wyclif's followers (see Fasc. Ziz. pp. 300 and 312 for its use oppro-
briously in 1382): it is then applied to the poor priests. In Wright's Political Songs,
11, 243—4 we have an allusion to Oldcastle
The game is no3t to lolle so hie
Ther fete failen fondement.
:
•
Hit is unkyndly for a knizt,
That shuld a kinges castel kepo
To babble the Bibel day and nizt.
Taken along with the gloss to Walsingham (Hist. Angl. I, 325) hi vocabantur a
vulgo Lollardi incedentes nudis pedibus, vestiti pannis vilibus, scilicet de russeto, the
word seems specially applied to street-preachers, or idlers in streets (lollen, to loll).
But the punning association with lollium, tares, appears in a song of about the year
1382 (Pul. Songs, 1, 232), in humo hujus hortuli . . . . fecit zizania, I quae suffocant virentia, i
velut frumentum lollia,' and Lollardi sunt zizania, | spinae, vepres ac lollia. This
fapoiful derivation became popular.


## p. 48 (#66) ##############################################

48 Religious Movements in the XIV th Century
et cor meum vigilat, a prose work which shows the influence of
those pseudo-Dionysian writings that markedly affected both
Grosseteste and Colet, was written for a nun of Yedingham ;
explanations of the Canticles, the Lord's Prayer and Command-
ments and some prayers in The Layfolk's Massbook, had the same
object. His mysticism still left something practical in his character
-80 much so that, at times, he gave advice which, in spite of his
assured orthodoxy, must have seemed, to some, unusual. Thus, he
speaks of the error of taking too little food, in avoiding too much-
and he never tries to impress upon all others the contemplative
life he sought for himself. He saw that, for most of them, life must
be active; he merely sought to teach them the spirit in which to live.
Of his attitude towards the church little need be said ; he is
a faithful and loyal son, although he keeps some freedom of
speech. In one of his latest works, the lengthy poem Pricke of
Conscience—a popular summary, in 9624 lines, of current medieval
theology borrowed from Grosseteste and others, strong in its sense
of awe and terror of sin, and firm in its application of ecclesiastical
rules to the restraint and the pardon of sins—the abuses he condemns
most strongly are those of individual licence and social life. If he
had any quarrel with the church, it was rather with some of its
theologians who did not share his philosophy than with its
system or its existing development. When he spoke of God's
'loving-kindness in the gates of the daughter of Zion' he in-
terpreted the gates as being the church, under whose shadow he
dwelt.
His doctrine of 'love' was thus not purely mystical or remote
from life: it overflowed into teachings of social righteousness, and
the dignity of labour as a service before God; it made injustice
and offences against love (charity) peculiarly hateful in his eyes.
Yet he had no hatred of the rich or of riches, and, indeed, he had,
at times, been even blamed for his friendship with the rich ; it was
1
merely against the abuse and misuse of riches he protested. Three
things he held needful in daily life: that work should be honest with-
out waste of time, that it should be done in freedom of spirit and
that a man's whole behaviour should be honest and fair. There was
thus in his teaching much that strengthened the democracy of the
times, much that condemned the social and ecclesiastical conditions
of the day. If, on the one hand, his judgment was magna igitur
est vita solitaria si magnifice agatur, on the other hand, he
realised for himself and taught to others the living power of
Christian fellowship. He is as significant in the history of popular
medieval religion as in that of medieval letters.


## p. 49 (#67) ##############################################

Wyclif's Early Life
49
-
Although John Wyclif, like Rolle, was of northern origin, his
life belongs altogether to Oxford and to national affairs. His
northern background not only gave something to his character
but also, probably, determined his career: his family had some
connection with Balliol College, and it was the natural college
for a Yorkshireman. At Oxford he came under the great
influences which shaped himself and his work. But, between
him and Rolle there were resemblances apart from the north
and Oxford; each of them has a special place in the history
of the English Bible as well as of the English tongue, and
Biblical commentaries-probably due to Rolle-have been, at
one time or another, ascribed to Wyclif. In both cases, assump-
tions have been made too readily before the existing works had
been studied and classified: works such as The Last Age of the
Church and An Apology for the Lollards—which could not
possibly have been Wyclif's—have been put down as his. Until
the Wyclif Society began its labours, his Latin works were mainly
in manuscript, and, before they could be studied and compared
with each other, the data for his life and character remained un-
certain. Even now, there remain some points which it is wiser to
leave open, but we know enough to say that certain traditional
views and dates, at any rate, must be cast aside.
John Wyclif was born, according to Leland, at Ipreswel or
Hipswell, near Richmond, in Yorkshire. His family took its origin
from Wycliffe-on-Tees, and he himself is described in a papal
document as of the diocese of York. The date of his birth is
uncertain, but it is generally supposed to have been about 1320,
and certainly not much later. The tradition which says that he
went to Balliol College is probable, for we find him there as
its Master in 1360. The university, which gained through papal
provision some support for its learned sons, petitioned Urban V
to grant Wyclif a canonry with prebend (or parish annexed) in York
Minster. As an answer, he was appointed, by papal provision, to
the prebend of Aust in the collegiate church of Westbury-on-
Trym, in the diocese of Worcester (24 November 1362). And, on
26 December 1373, Gregory XI granted Wyclif leave to hold this
prebend of Aust even after he had received a canonry with prebend
in Lincoln, which he had been previously promised when a vacancy
occurred. In his work De Civili Dominio, Wyclif apparently alludes
to this latter appointment, and speaks, although without bitter-
ness, of his being afterwards passed over for a young foreigner.
Incidentally, it should be noticed that Wyclif was thus, as late as
4
E, L. II
CH. II.


## p. 50 (#68) ##############################################

50 Religious Movements in the XIV th Century
1373, in good repute at the Curia ; and, further, when he mentions
the matter some years later (probably about 1377) he is not
hostile to the pope.
The passage from the ranks of the learners to those of the
teachers was better defined in medieval days than it is now, and it
is important to know, therefore, that the date of Wyclif's doctorate
(S. T. P. , D. D. or S. T. M. ) can now safely be placed about 1372. He
could, after that, lecture upon theology, and, not long after his own
day, this promotion was noted as a turning point in his teaching:
it was then he was held to have taught at least the beginnings of
heresy. Up to this time, his life had been mainly passed at Oxford,
as boy (for undergraduates went up at an early age, and much
elementary teaching, even in grammar, was given in the university),
as pupil and as teacher, in arts before he taught theology. There
is no evidence that he had taken much part in parish work,
although he had held preferments, and the incidental dates that
have come down to us, no less than the Latin writings lately edited,
imply great activity in teaching. He would probably 'determine,'
and take his Bachelor's degree some four years after matriculation;
in three more years he would take his Master's degree and 'incept'
in arts, and, after some thirteen years more, in two stages, he
could take his Doctor's degree and 'incept' in divinity. But,
these periods might, of course, be prolonged in special cases ; all
the Fellows of Balliol, for instance, except six theological Fellows,
were, until 1364, prohibited from graduating in theology; and,
from some cause of this kind, Wyclif was, apparently, delayed in
reaching his Doctor's degree. But his reputation as a lecturer
had been made some years before; Masters of arts lectured to
students specially under their care, while, just before his doctorate,
a Bachelor of divinity could lecture upon 'the sentences.
It is difficult for us to understand, not, indeed, the intellectual
eagerness of the university, but its hold upon the country at large.
From all parts of England, and from foreign countries too, youths
were flocking to Oxford, where a new intellectual world opened
itself to them. The fact that medieval thought and enquiry
followed paths differing greatly from those we tread to-day some
times hides from us the value of their intellectual training. Their
material was, of course, limited, although not so limited as is
sometimes thought: thus, although Wyclif, for instance, knew nothing
of Greek beyond a few names and words, he had studied widely in
natural science, of which Roger Bacon had left a tradition at Oxford.
Their method had been originally formed to train the mind, in which


## p. 51 (#69) ##############################################

Wyclif and Scholasticism
51
it had once succeeded. By Wyclif's day, however, it had become
too technical, and, far from helping thought, the scholastic method
had become a cumbrous routine under which thought was cramped.
The weight of the authorities whom he was expected to know,
the knowledge which he had to accumulate, and the order in which
his thoughts had to be arranged, checked a scholar's originality.
Thus, the first reading of Wyclif's Latin works does not give one
any idea of his mental vigour, for the thought has to be sifted
out from under appeals to authorities and cumbrous apparatus.
When that has been done, it is found, as a rule, that the thought
is strong, tenaciously held and fearlessly applied. But, even then,
we of to-day can hardly feel the power of Wyclif's personality. It
was different in his own time, for these things were the medium
through which minds influenced each other.
It is easy for us to understand the influence of Wyclif's English
writings, and we are even likely to exaggerate it, but not so with
his Latin works. In their case, we have to make the allowances
spoken of above, and to remember, moreover, that, in the four-
teenth century, men were almost ceasing to think in Latin ; with
Wyclif himself, the turn of expression, even in his Latin works, is
English. It was not surprising, then, that even a scholar trained,
as he had been, to regard Latin as the proper vehicle of deeper
thought, should, in the end, turn from it to English; the old
literary commonwealth of the Middle Ages was breaking up, to be
replaced by a number of nations with separate ways of thought and
a literature of their own. Wyclif's free use of English is, therefore,
significant. In his double aspect, as standing at the close of a long
series of Latin writers, and as an English writer early in the file,
he belongs partly to the age that was going out, partly to the age
that was coming in. But it would be a mistake to think that his
democratic, popular impulses, shown by his choice of English and
his appeal to a larger public, came to him solely from the national
side. The modern conception of a scholar standing apart from
the world, of a university professor working within a small circle
and influencing a few select pupils, must be cast aside. For no
place was more democratic than a medieval university : thither
all classes came, and the ideas which were born in a lecture-room
soon passed, as we have seen in the case of Rolle, to the distant
villages of the north. When Wyclif threw himself upon a wider
public than that of the university, he was, after all, only carrying
a little further that desire to popularise knowledge and thought
which was common to all medieval teachers. The habit of thinking
4-2


## p. 52 (#70) ##############################################

52 Religious Movements in the XIV th Century
in Latin, the necessity of writing in Latin, had been almost the
only barriers to hinder any previous thinker from doing what
Wyclif afterwards did. For him, those barriers hardly existed,
and, hence, the passage from his lecture-room to the field of the
nation was not so strange as it seems to us. The same impulses
worked in both phases of his life; the great formative influences
of his life were scholastic and academic, but this does not imply
any isolation or intellectual aristocracy.
There were many great schoolmen whose works were known
to him and to whom he owed his really great learning, but a few
a
had specially influenced him. He belonged, like other great
Englishmen, to the realists, who attributed to general ideas a real
existence, and who were in the closest intellectual sympathy with
the great fathers of the church, St Augustine above all others.
The strife between them and the nominalists was bitter and
prolonged, but, towards the close of the Middle Ages, the latter
were victorious, and became, together with those who, as conceptua-
lists, held their opinions in a slightly modified form, the pre-
valent school. Realism went out of fashion, and realists, Wyclif
among them, were forgotten. To this cause, nearly as much as to
the taint of heresy, he owed the neglect into which he fell. But,
at Oxford, in his day, the realists championed by Wyclif more
than held their own. But for one nominalist, William of Ockham-
the great Franciscan writer and advocate of the rights of the
state-Wyclif had a great regard, and he refused to count him
a heretic. Ockham had been a warm defender of the Franciscan
doctrine of poverty—a doctrine which had a special charm for
Wyclif-and, from it as a basis, had gone on to attack the existing
constitution and power of the church. Wyclif, who, in his later
years, followed the same course and took up the same position,
owed him a certain intellectual debt.
But he owed even
to Grosseteste-'archi-doctor,'
‘Lincolniensis,' as he called him, and to Richard FitzRalph,
'Armaghanus,' archbishop of Armagh (1347—60). With the
former, who had greatly influenced Oxford, Wyclif was in general
philosophical agreement, and from him, possibly, learnt his great
love of the Scriptures. From FitzRalph, who was chancellor of
Oxford (1333), Wyclif drew the doctrine of dominion or lordship,
to which, although carrying it somewhat further, he really added
nothing. FitzRalph had reached his views through the con-
troversy with the mendicants; he had come across them at
Oxford; he knew the charges brought against them of enticing
more
2


## p. 53 (#71) ##############################################

Wyclif's Earlier Writings 53
youngsters to join them; later, on his return from Ireland (1356),
he found the controversy between them and the seculars peculiarly
keen; he preached against them in London, and, afterwards, at
Avignon (1357), he delivered his famous Defensio Curatorum on
behalf of parish priests who suffered much from their encroachments.
His De Pauperie Salvatoris not only dealt with the poverty of
Christ (which, as he pointed out, was not mendicancy) but dis-
cussed 'lordship' and 'use. ' In the end he made all 'lordship’
depend on that of God, to whom all lordship belonged; man had
once received as a loan from God an original lordship for himself;
but this he had lost through sin, and a new relation had begun.
There is, thus, a distinction between the lordship of the ideal state
of innocency, and the conditional lordship found in the actual world.
Only in so far as man serves God does he approach true lordship;
so far as he is sinful, he forfeits his lordship. To use Wyclif's
expression 'dominion is founded in grace,' and, as a consequence,
a man in mortal sin cannot exercise lordship. But Wyclif did not
follow FitzRalph blindly; for, while FitzRalph had gone on to
condemn the poverty of the mendicant friars, Wyclif, until his
last years, sympathised with the Franciscans, whose model bis own
'poor priests' in some ways reproduced.
But this doctrine of dominion, excellently as it enforced respon-
sibility towards God, was capable of much abuse. FitzRalph had
carefully guarded it as an ideal, and his discussion of the civil
state and property had moved in a different plane from that of
his ideal conditions. But, as so often happens between a master
and a scholar, Wyclif the scholar reproduces his master's outline
in deeper colours and without the shades; hence, it was not always
easy to see that his arguments applied merely to an ideal society.
If his teaching was charged with favouring the Peasants' Revolt,
and if, later, Lollards appeared to society as socialists, it was,
largely, owing to Wyclif's unguarded expression of this doctrine
of FitzRalph.
Wyclif's earliest writings are of a purely philosophical nature,
and, of course, academic in origin and style. De Logica, De Ente
Predicamentali, De Materia et Forma, De Benedicta Incarna-
cione and De Composicione Hominis are ordinary university
lectures: in the case of the last it is probable that we have only
the lecture-notes as they were delivered. They may be dated—not,
of course, with certainty-from 1360 to 1370 or thereabouts. They
give us Wyclif's philosophical basis, and show him as a follower
of St Augustine, named after his master, ‘Joannes Augustini. '


## p. 54 (#72) ##############################################

54 Religious Movements in the XIV th Century
Hence, also, came his views on predestination, upon which he had
a friendly controversy with the logician Ralph Strode: his doctrine
of the presciti (foreknown) remained unchanged throughout his
life. Already, too, he denied the possibility of the annihilation
of anything, a view which led him to his later denial of tran-
substantiation. His Latin works show how large a part these
discussions, which both influenced others and gained him a great
reputation in controversy', played in his life, and his chief op-
ponents, with the exception of Wadford or Wodeford (probably
a Franciscan), were monks. The abbot of Chertsey, for instance,
came up to Oxford to draw him into a discussion, and many other
opponents attacked him. Through these controversies, Wyclif's
views, as to the wrongfulness of endowments (to which he ascribed
all the evils of the church), as to the duty of the state and of lay
authorities to enforce reformation by seizing church property,
must have become widely known. But, probably, he had not yet
made his entry into political life, and, certainly, he had not as yet
any controversy with the mendicants. It is probable that Wyclif's
Determinatio, printed by Lewis, containing a supposed account of
a parliamentary debate upon papal taxation, belongs (as Loserth
has pointed out) not to 1366—7 but to a date some ten years later.
At the former date, it stands isolated in Wyclif's life; at the later
date, it finds a fitting place in the controversy recounted in
De Civili Dominio and De Ecclesia; the papal demand made
upon England in 1366 was repeated in 1374, so that we are not
restricted to the earlier date alone. Before 1374, also, great debates
had taken place upon the taxation of the church for national
needs, while the employment of churchmen in high secular offices
had been opposed by a strong court party since 1371. The latter
question caused the main struggle about the time, 1376—7, of the
Good parliament. Wyclif's visit to Bruges (July 1374), as member
of an embassy to discuss papal provisions, might deepen his
interest in these questions.
A new parliament met 27 January 1377 and convocation
assembled a little later (3 February). Wyclif, who had been asked
up to London (22 September 1376) to help John of Gaunt and his
party by his sermons, was now called before convocation to answer
for his views, but what the charges against him were we can only
· Here his somewhat rough humour showed itself, as in the expression DAIM's
castle-for his Carmelite, Augustinian, Jacobite (Dominican) and Minorite opponents ;
and as in his retort, when called a fox, that some of his adversaries were black dogs,
some white, according to the colours of their habits.


## p. 55 (#73) ##############################################

Attack upon Wyclif
55
infer from his writings: they probably arose out of his views as to
ecclesiastical endowments. He appeared in his defence accompanied
by John of Gaunt and Lord Percy, together with four mendicant
friars. A quarrel between Courtenay, bishop of London, and John
of Gaunt broke out, which led to a popular riot against the duke;
and the proceedings against Wyclif were thus interrupted. But
bulls—five in number—were now got from Rome against him : three
were addressed to the archbishop of Canterbury, one to the king
and one to the university of Oxford. Much discussion has arisen
as to the originators of this attack. It was, largely, the result of
the Oxford controversies, and was led by the monks; but some
among the bishops-especially Brunton, bishop of Rochester-may
have worked along with them; political dislikes embittered the
controversy ; and one reason why his enemies raised these con-
troversies against him was, says Wyclif, their wish to get him
deprived of his benefices. Eighteen errors were charged against
him which centred in his views on endowments, but his assertions
that the church in its censures and excommunications should
conform to the law of Christ, and that churchmen should be
subject to civil jurisdiction, were also brought against him. The
complaints were thus concerned with the organisation and outside
relations of the church rather than with its doctrines.
Both the young king Richard II and the parliament seemed to
support him; and he now speaks of himself as peculiaris dericus
of the king; he was consulted as to the action of parliament
(which met 13 October 1377) with regard to the drain of money
to Rome, and he also defended himself in a document addressed
to parliament. Bishop Brunton had spoken in parliament, as early
as February or March, of the expected bulls: they were dated
22 May 1377, but it was not until 18 December 1377 that the
archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London—as com-
missioners appointed by the pope began to move by requesting
the university to enquire into the charges. The university resented
the tone of the pope's bull to them, which had reproved their
laxity in admitting heresy, and it was not thought lawful for the
pope to order the imprisonment of anyone in England. But the
archbishop's request to examine the truth of the charges was
another matter. They made the investigation, during which they
confined Wyclif to his rooms, and their verdict was that the doctrines,
although capable of a bad construction, were not heterodox.
But Wyclif was further summoned before the two prelates
at Lambeth-probably in February or March 1378. He had


## p. 56 (#74) ##############################################

56 Religious Movements in the XIV th Century
drawn up a defence of himself for transmission to the pope, which
,
was sent through the hands of the bishops, and was also widely
circulated in England, doubtless through the 'poor priests. Once
again, the proceedings were interrupted: a message from the
princess of Wales stayed the trial, and the fickle and turbulent
Londoners broke into the hall, this time on the side of Wyclif,
and not on that of their bishop as before. He was, however,
directed not to preach or teach the doctrines charged against
him, which, although not judged erroneous, were likely to cause
trouble. It is possible that the changed attitude of the Londoners
was due to Wyclif's preaching among them, and, as a matter
of fact, he did not obey the command of silence. In more ways
than one, this year (1378) was a turning point in his life, and one
of his larger Latin works, De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae, written
at this very time, gives us unusual insight into his mind and
feelings.
The election of Urban VI (7 April 1378) was followed (Sep-
tember 1378) by that of an anti-pope, Clement VII, and thus the
barely ended sojourn at Avignon gave place to an even more
disastrous schism. England supported Urban, and Wyclif, for a
time, was loyal to him. But the many admitted ecclesiastical
abuses, which others, besides Wyclif, freely pointed out, naturally
grew greater during the schism, and the rivalry of two popes led
to a wider discussion of ecclesiastical questions. The bishop of
Norwich (Henry le Spenser) actually undertook (1382) the leadership
of a crusade in Flanders proclaimed by Urban against Clement;
indulgences were issued to all who shared in it; friars were
specially active in furthering it, and the archbishop of Canterbury
(Courtenay had now succeeded the murdered Sudbury) ordered
prayers and a general collection for the expedition (April 1383).
It is clear, both from Wyclif's Latin works (such as Cruciata)
and from his English tracts, that the crusade, with its mingling of
unchristian warfare, a keen struggle for power, the pursuit of wealth
and the abuses of indulgences, turned him more strongly against
the papacy. Henceforth, there was no reserve in his language, no
moderation in his views: he regarded the pope as anti-Christ.
But, by anti-Christ, Wyclif hardly meant the same that the prophetic
school of later theologians mean. Anything opposed to the law
of Christ was anti-christian, and, so far as he broke the law of
Christ, a man might be anti-Christ; to be anti-Christ was thus,
with Wyclif, a phase of character, and not a personal existence.
Before 1378, he had used the expression of isolated acts and


## p. 57 (#75) ##############################################

The Poor Priests. The Bible
57
>
special deeds, but, after that year, he came to hold the pope con-
sistently and always anti-Christ. He no longer confined himself
to the criticism of abuses; he questioned, at one time or another,
the utility of every part of the church's system : sacraments, holy
orders, everything was unessential. Far as this criticism went, it
is probable that in it, and in the growing stress laid on preaching
as the one essential of religion, lie Wyclif's chief affinities with
later reformers. So strongly did he feel about the Schism and
this crusade that the occurrence or omission of any reference to
either is an accepted test of date for his works.
Wyclif's liking for the friars and their fundamental doctrine
of poverty has already been mentioned. But he had also sympathy
with their popular work, even if he thought it sometimes neglected
or badly done. This feeling led him to institute his 'poor priests,'
who must have begun their work while he was still at Oxford,
probably about 1377, as they are certainly mentioned in works of
1378. Originally, they were priests living in poverty and journeying
about the country, clad in simple russet, preaching as the Dominicans
had done ; later, some, if not most, of them were laymen; gradually,
too, as his quarrel with the church authorities grew and he became
estranged from his university, he demanded less learning from his
poor priests; simple piety, a love of the Scriptures and a readiness
to preach were all he asked from them. One unlearned man
(unus ydiota) might, by God's grace, do more than many graduates
in schools or colleges. There was nothing strange in the original
idea of such a body, and it was only by an accident that Wyclif did
not become the founder of a new order of friars. Before the end
of his life they had spread his doctrines widely, and had met with
great success, especially in the vast diocese of Lincoln, and in those
of Norwich and Worcester. The districts which were centres of
his teaching long remained centres of Lollardy, although the views
of the later Lollards can hardly be held the same as his. For
they changed his views upon property into a socialism discontented
with existing government and the distribution of wealth; his
denunciation of evils, which grew gradually more sweeping and
subversive of ecclesiastical order, became, with them, a hatred of
the whole church ; his love of the Bible, and his appeal to it as
the test of everything, too often became, with them, a disregard of
everything but the Bible; his denial of transubstantiation, based
upon philosophical reasoning, became, with them, a contempt for
the Sacrament itself.
So far, we have seen Wyclif mainly critical and even destructive.
a


## p. 58 (#76) ##############################################

58 Religious Movements in the XIV th Century
But there was also a strongly positive side to his teaching: his
regard for the Scriptures and his frequent use of them in his
writings (common with medieval writers, but very common with
him) is best seen in his work De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae, which
he was writing about 1378. He regarded Scripture as the test of
everything, in comparison with which tradition had no force. It
is impossible to trace fully the development of his views, but the
medieval love of speculation and freedom of thought (which was
not, as a rule, interfered with, unless it led to revolutionary action)
carried him far: there is hardly anything in the constitution or
worship or doctrine of the church which, in some of his latest
works, was not questioned. Nevertheless, after leaving Oxford,
he remained quietly working in his parish, following the ordinary
round of a parish priest. It is to be noted, too, that in his English
sermons he faithfully follows the church's choice of Epistles and
Gospels, not casting it aside as did some later reformers. But the
inconsistency between his life and his words is more apparent
than real ; the habit of hypothesis, of questioning, of making
assumptions, was so ingrained in him that too much weight must not
be assigned to all his statements, as if they expressed a deliberate
and well-formed conviction. The world at large was, however,
different from an academic audience, and many whom his works
reached must have drawn practical inferences from them which
Wyclif himself never drew. Still, as regards the church-
poisoned as he held it to be by the endowments poured into its
system first by Constantine and, since then, by others-his mental
attitude was distinctly sceptical. His positive appeal to Scripture,
however, was another thing; it was directed against the abuses
of the time. But, among his opponents, men like bishop Brunton
of Rochester also had a deep love for the Scriptures; the language
often used as to ignorance or dislike of the Bible at the time is
much exaggerated and mistaken, as the works of Rolle indicate.
Nevertheless, there were some opponents of Wyclif whom he
charged rightly with belittling the Scriptures. These criticisms
were directed against the growing school of nominalists against
whom Wyclif, as one of the latest medieval realists, fought
vigorously, and whose influence had, in the end, the evil effects
of which Wyclif complained.
It was this appeal to the Scriptures that gained Wyclif his
name of Doctor Evangelicus. In the Bible he found a source
of spiritual strength, an inspiration of moral energy as well as
a guide to conduct. For these reasons he wished to spread its


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The Bible in English
59
.
use. He pointed to other nations with translations of it in their
own tongue and asked why England should not have the same:
the faith should be known to all in the language most familiar to
them. The same impulses that led him to found his poor priests
made him wish to spread a knowledge of the Bible in England.
But in De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae, while there are
already complaints that preaching is interfered with, there are
no complaints that the Bible in the vernacular is prohibited :
indeed, the history of the English translations before Wyclif show
that such was not the case. We have already seen in the case
of Rolle how translations were made for dwellers in religious
houses; one of the independent versions-edited by Miss Paues
-has an interesting prologue in which a 'brother' and 'sister'
'lewed and unkunnynge' ask a more learned 'brother' to teach
them : 'I preye you pur charite to techen us lewed men trewlyche
be sobe aftur oure axynge. ' The reply is 'Broper, y knowe wel
þat y am holde by Cristis lawe to parforme þyn axynge: bote
napeles we bep now so fer y-fallen awey from Cristis lawe, þat zif
I wolde answere to þyn axynge I moste in cas underfonge pe dep. '
The translation of the Bible into English was not prohibited, but
the use now made of it was leading to a claim for stricter control.
Much controversy, however, has arisen lately as to the share of
Wyclif in the versions which go by his name. We have express
statements by the chronicler Knighton-nearly contemporary
and also anti-Wyclifite-and Hus-a little later (1411)that
Wyclif had translated the whole Bible into English. Archbishop
Arundel, in a letter to the pope asking for Wyclif's condemnation,
speaks (1412) of Wyclif having filled up the measure of his malice
by the design to render the Scriptures into English; and a general
tradition, the value of which may be much or little, confirms this
statement. There are two 'Wyclifite' versions : one, a little earlier
than the other, stiffer and inferior in style, closely following the
Vulgate, from which both translations were made without the use
of Greek.