§ 41. WYCLIP'S TEACHINGS. 327
II. As A Patriot. — In this role the Oxford teacher took an attitude the very reverse of the attitude assumed by Ansehn and Thomas a Becket, who made the English Church a servant to the pope's will in all things. For loyalty to the Hildebrandian theocracy, Anselm was willing to suffer banishment and a Becket suffered death. In Wyclif, the mutterings of the nation, which had been heard against the foreign regime from the days of William the Conqueror, and especially since King John's reign, found a stanch and uncompromising mouthpiece. Against the whole system of foreign jurisdiction he raised his voice, as also against the Church's claim to hold lands, except as it acknowledged the rights of the state. He also opposed the tenure of secular offices by the clergy and, when Archbishop Sudbury was murdered, declared that he died in sin because he was holding the office of chancellor.
Wyclif 's views on government in Church and state are chiefly set forth in the works on Civil and Divine Lordship — De dominio divino, and De dominio civili — and in his Dialogus.^ The JHvine Lordship discusses the title by which men hold property and exercise government, and sets forth the distinction between sovereignty and stewardship. Lordship Js^not45ro4Dedy ^proprietary. It is stewardship. Christ did not desire to rule as a tenant with absolute rights, but in the way of communicating to others. 2 As to his manhood, he was the most perfect of servants.
The Civil Lordship opens by declaring that no one in mortal sin has a right to lordship, and that every one in the state of ^race has a real lordship over the whole universe. All Christians are reciprocally lords and servants. The pope, or an eo^ clesiastical body abusing the property committed to them, ma.}^ be deprived of it by the state. Proprietary right is limited by proper use. Tithes are an expedient to enable theprie.stliond
1 The De dom. civ. and the De dom. div., ed. for the Wyclif Soc. by R. L. Poole, London, 1885, 1890. See Poole's Prefaces and his essay on Wyclif's Doctrine of Lordship in his Illustrations, etc., pp. 282-311. The Dialogus, sive speculum ecclesice militantis, ed. by A. W. Pollard, 1886.
2 Salvator noster noluit esse proprietarie dominans, sed communicative, p. 204.
328 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
to perform its mission. The New Testament does not make them a rule.
From the last portion of the first book of the Civil Lordship, Gregory XI. drew most of the articles for which Wyclif had to stand trial. Here is found the basis for the charge ascribing to him the famous statement that God ought to obey the devil. By this was meant nothing more than that the jurisdiction of every lawful proprietor should be recognized.
III. As A ;£reacher. — Whether we regard Wyclif's constant activity in the pulpit, or the impression his sermons made, he must be pronounced by far the most notable of English preachers prior to the Reformation.^ 294 of his English sermons and 22-4 of his Latin sermons have been preserved. To these discourses must be added his English expositions of the Lord's prayer, the songs of the Bible, the seven deadly sins and other subjects. With rare exceptions, the sermons are based upon passages of the New Testament.
The style of tlie English discourses is simple and direct. No more plainly did Luther preach against ecclesiastical abuses than did the English Reformer. On every page are joined with practical religious exposition stirring passages rebuking the pope and worldly prelates. They are denounced as anti-christ and the servants of the devil — the fiend — as they turn away from the true work of pasturing Christ's flock for worldly gain and enjoyment. The preacher condemna^the false teachings which are nowhere taught iix-the Scriptures,
sg^b^o pij-gfimages and indulgences. Sometimes Wyclif seemst?r-be-rnconsistent with himself, now making light o^ fasting, now asserting that the Apostles commended it ; now disparaging prayers for the dead, now affirming purgatory. With special severity do his sermons strike at the friars who preach out of avarice and neglect to expose the sins of their hearers. No one is more idle tlian the rich friars, who have nothing but contempt for the poor. Again and again in these sermons, as in his other works, lie urges that the goods of the
1 Loserth, Introd. to Lat. sermones, II., p. xx, pronounces their effect extraordinary. The Engl, sermons have been ed. by Arnold, Select Engl. Wo7'ks, vols. I, II, and the Lat. sermons by Loserth, in 4 vols.