§ 41. wyclif's teachings. 325
members, such as Gerson and D'Ailly, we might have expected tolerant treatment, formally condemned his memory and ordered his bones exhumed from their resting-place and " cast at a distance from the sepulchre of the church." The holy synod, so ran the decree, "declares said John Wyclif to have beenanotoriousheretic, and excommunicateshim and condemns his memory as one who died an obstinate heretic." ^ In 1429, at the summons of Martin IV., the decree was carried out by^ Flemmyng, bishop of Lincoln.
The words of Fuller, describing the execution of the decree ^ of ConstancP!, havp. pngra vpn themselves on the page of English histor^Y- " They burnt his bones to ashes and cast them into Swift, a neighboring brook running hard by. Thus this brook hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wicliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed the world over."
In the popular judgment of the English people, John Wyclif, in company with John Latimer and John Wesley, probably represents more fully than any other English religious leader, independence of thought, devotion to conscience, solid religious common sense, and the sound exposition of the Gospel. In the history of the intellectual and moral progress of his people, he was the leading Englishman of the Middle Ages.^
§ 41. Wyclif's Teachings.
Wyclif's teachings lie plainly upon the surface of his many writings. In each one of the eminent roles he played, as school-
1 A part of the sentence runs, Sancta synodns dedarat diffinit et sententiat eumdem J. Wicleff fuisse notorium hoereticum pertinacem et in hoeresi decessisse , . . ordinat corpus et ejus ossa, si ab aliis fidelibus corporibus discerni possint^ exhumari etprocxd ab ecclesiae sepultura jactari. Mansi, XXVII. 635.
2 Green, in his Hist, of the Engl. People, passes a notable encomium on the "first Reformer," and the late Prof. Bigg, Wayside Sketches, p. 131, asserts " that his beliefs are in the main those of the great majority of Englishmen to-day, and this is a high proof of the justice, the clearness and the sincerity of his thoughts." The Catholic historian of England, Lingard, IV, 192, after speaking of Wyclif's intellectual perversion, refers to him, " as that extraordinary man who, exemplary in his morals, declaimed against vice with the freedom and severity of an Apostle."
326 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
man, political reformer, preacher, innovator in theology and translator of the Bible, he wrote extensively. His views shgw p rogr ess in the direction oi jopppsition to the niediaevaLBrrorsand abuses. Driven by attacks, he detected errors which, at the outset, he did not clearly discern. But, above all^^ his study of the Scriptures forced upon him a system which was in contraciiction to the dis"trn^veiy..,n3iidirByail-system of iheologyl His language in controversy was so vigorous that it requires an unusual effort to suppress the impulse to quote at great length.
Clear as Wyclifs statements always are, some of his works are drawn out by much repetition. Nor does he always move in a straight line, but digresses to this side and to that, taking occasion to discuss at length subjects cognate to the main matter he has in hand. This habit often makes the reading of his larger works a wearisome task. Nevertheless, the author always brings the reader back from his digression or, to use a modern expression, never leaves him sidetracked.
I, As A Schoolman. — Wyclif was beyond dispute the most eminent scholar who taught for any length of time at Oxford since Grosseteste, whom he often quotes. ^ He was read in Chrysostom, Augustine, Jerome and other Latin Fathers, as well as in the mediaeval theologians from Anselm to Duns Scotus, Bradwardine, Fitzralph and Henry of Ghent. His quotations are many, but with increasing emphasis, as the years went on, he made his final appeal to the Scriptures. He •was ajoooderate realist and ascribed to nominalism all theological error. He seems to have endeavored to shun the determinism of Bradwardine, and declared that the doctrine of necessity does not do away with the freedom of the will, which is so free that it cannot be compelled. Necessity compels the creature to will, that is, to exercise his freedom, but at that point he is left free to choose.^
1 Op. evang., p. 17, etc., De dom. div., p. 215, etc., De dom. cjy.,384 sqq., where the case of Frederick of Lavagna is related at length.
2 Hergenrother, II. 881, speaks of Wyclifs system as pantheistic realism arid fatalism, D. Lehrsystem des Widif ist krasser, pantheistischer liealismus, PrUalismus u. Pi-edestianismns.